Chapter Twelve
(Frisk is our narrator!)

I stared down at the sketches. I missed drawing. Terribly. I missed sewing and knitting. I missed reading because it was enjoyable and not because I could use it for a specific purpose. I missed a lot of things and the awful truth was that only one of those things was forever beyond my reach. Dad would be so disappointed right now. Wasn't it my mission, now that the war was over, to acclimate back to a civilian life? To be more the girl who left and not the Viper who slithered behind enemy lines?

Sighing, I pushed the files and notebook out of the way for the bag of food Bones handed me. I tried to imagine, for a moment, the man he and Papyrus had once been, eating this sort of food. I had the distinct feeling that it was a guilty pleasure that he'd never admit too. Papyrus was doing his best to pretend that he wasn't relishing every bite confirmed it. Bones simply ate.

Undyne stared down at her cheese fries as she ate. "Do you think that other humans might have fallen and simply lived their lives here in the Undergound without us knowing?"

Papyrus looked up from his meal. "IT IS POSSIBLE."

"I guess I don't get why monsters like Grillby and Gerson would have just let a human live. They saw the war."

"But that's why," I explained. "They saw it and they were long done with it. Eventually, the memories of what life was like before wash out the bad ones. Seeing a human again, for the older monsters, may be a lot like seeing a long lost friend after ages apart."

Undyne looked at me for a moment, considering that. "So are there people like that for you? Friends who became enemies by circumstance alone?""

I thought about friends from school, people I had to say goodbye to because the tensions before the war meant they had to leave or be forcibly deported. "Yeah. I don't know if they're alive or not though."

Bones' phone rang and Alphys voice carried around the room. "Hotlands and the Core are back in order! The elevator from MTT resort to New Home is still out, but that's not really an issue with the Core interior arranged for quick passage back to New Home. And the workmen got the Core elevator working again, so you can use that to go directly to Asgore's place." I heard the nervous tapping of clawed fingers on a desk top. "Uh... So... What's the plan?"

"Have you been following the conversation through your video feed?" Bones asked.

"Y-Yeah. Oh man. We are... We're screwed, aren't we?"

Bones shrugged. "Maybe." His single, white eye slid over to look at me. "Maybe not. Frisk's got an idea. We just need to get to Asgore."

"Have you heard from or seen Mettaton?" I asked.

I could almost see Alphys shaking her scaly head. "No. Nothing."

Frowning, I looked to Bones. He shrugged. "He's after you, so we'll see him again. Are you ready to head out?"

I nodded and stood. "Yeah."

"You can take a break. There isn't a rush."

An image of mom popped up behind my eyes and I shook my head. "There is for me."

Bones shrugged, smiling in a tired way.

I looked to Undyne. "Thanks for fetching the files." I looked to Papyrus. "Thank you for letting me borrow the pencils."

"KEEP THEM. YOU MAY YET NEED THEM."

I smiled and put the package in my backpack before following Bones out the door and down to the ferry.

"Hey." Bones poked my shoulder. "Hold up a minute."

I paused and looked up at him.

"You sure you're all right? You look like you might be feeling better, but..." He gestured with one boney hand, moving it over his face so that he looked through the hole in his palm. "You've got that 'mask,' so it's not that easy to tell."

I put my hands on my hips, head cocked to the side. "Then how do you know that I 'might be feeling better?'"

His hand came away from his face to point at me. "You're putting out some strong body language."

I chuckled a little and reached out, touching his hand. It felt hard, like actual bone. "It feels strange."

His brow raised, which seemed to be completely in contrast to the hardness of the finger bones. "Is that a problem?"

I shook my head. Taking his hand in mine, I turned it over, examining the palm and exploring the edges of the hole with my finger tips. Of all the things he was so guarded about, it was strange that this was something he wasn't. This seemed far more personal than a past he'd long disconnected from. Far more personal...

I let go and stepped back. "I'm sorry. I got carried away."

He smirked. "Carried away? If you'd gone for the ribs, I'd call that carried away." Bones took my hand in his, lifting it up. "Other monsters find it fascinating too, and I refuse to let simple curiosity be a crime." He pressed my fingers to the face of his skull. "Soft here." He lifted my fingers to the top of his skull, running them gently along the top. "Hard up on top and around the back."

"Where did you get the cracks? Since you and your brother both have them, I assume they happened before the separation."

Bones nodded and let go of my hand. "The good doctor took an explosion to the face when making the first of the Core reactors." He gestured to the ferry dock and we stepped on the boat, heading for Hotlands.

"Tra la la. Beware the man who speaks in hands. Tra la la."

Bones threw his arms up in the air. "Hey! I'm standing right here! Don't you know it's rude to talk about someone who's listening?"

There was a soft chuckle from under the River Person's hood as the boat came to rest next to Hotland's dock. Bones grumbled as he stepped off the boat, but wasn't put out enough to forget about me. He reached back to offer me a hand and I took it.

"So what did the River Person mean by 'speaks in hands?'" I asked.

"Remember how I spoke down in the Core..." He trailed off, staring at me, slack jawed. "You understood what I said."

"Yes." I looked to the side for a moment and then back at him. "Is that an issue?"

"Dr. Gaster spoke in a dialect that most monsters don't even recognize. Even Alphys has no idea what Papyrus or I are saying when she's leading us out of the Core." He leaned over, looking at me closely. "But you understood it."

I leaned back a little. "It didn't sound strange."

"C? Were you translating for her?"

C burst to life on my shoulder. "Nope. I'm pretty sure I only understood what you said because Frisk did."

He stood back up, shoulders dropping with a sigh. "Mystery for another time I guess." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Anyway, that's what the River Person meant by speaking in hands. It's a reference to the dialect."

I frowned, wondering what that meant exactly. Thinking back on it, the doctor had seemed surprised that I was talking to him, but I hadn't thought much about it. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary. Well, except that Bones had literally become a completely different person. There was that. Oh and that completely different person was completely aware of his situation.

After taking the elevator through Hotlands, we went through the resort, and I stopped to touch the glowing star crystal by the fountain again. But this time, I stopped and concentrated on it, looking for whatever it was in the crystal that pulled me back from death to this place. A glowing button appeared in front of me: a stylized heart next to the word 'SAVE.'

Bones stood next to me. "What is that?" His voice had lost part of its grounded quality, sounding far more ethereal than before, more like Dr. Gaster.

"I don't..." I blinked. "Maybe it's like a video game and literally saving my progress."

C grimaced. "That's a really disturbing idea."

I shivered.

Bones shook his skull. "You're thinking about it the wrong way. If we were in a video game, you wouldn't have control over your actions. A video game character would not have demanded to go back to Prince Asriel after dying. They would have sallied forth without taking a break. This is different. You have some power that we don't currently understand. That doesn't mean that we never will."

I looked back at the glowing 'SAVE' and touched it. As it disappeared, I felt refreshed and determined to move forward. We hopped in the elevator with several monsters all taking the long way home. The monsters crowded around me suddenly, jostling Bones to the back of the elevator.

"Hey! It's you! The fake human on MTT's new Killer Robot programs!"

"Oh My GOSH! Can I get an autograph!"

"What's it like to work with Mettaton?"

"How are you able to look so human? It's like the best cosplay ever!"

I smiled and signed autographs for those who asked and posed for pictures with others. When the elevator let us out, the crowd pushed me through the door way into the corridor to New Home and the King's residence. An electrical barrier came up, cutting Bones off from the crowd. The floor lifted up to stage height and I planted my feet to keep from falling. Spot lights lit the area and I covered my eyes not to be blinded. Mettaton, in all his rectangular glory, stood in front of me.

"OH YES. THERE YOU ARE, DARLING. IT'S TIME TO HAVE OUR LITTLE SHOW DOWN!" He posed dramatically.

My phone rang and I picked it up, knowing it would annoy him. It was Alphys. "OH MY GOD, Mettaton! Just what do you think you're doing?!"

"MOI? Why, Alphys dearest! I'm saving humanity! This human is the last soul we need to open the barrier! If Asgore takes her soul, then the barrier will open, and Asgore will destroy all of humanity! And I can't have that, now can I? I WANT TO BE THE IDOL OF THE WORLD! I WANT TO BE THE IDOL OF HUMANITY!"

Mettaton pointed at me. "I'M THE ONE WHO HIRED THE ASSASSINS! BUT NOW I KNOW THAT WAS A POOR IDEA! I WILL TAKE THIS HUMAN'S SOUL MYSELF, CROSS THE BARRIER, AND BE THE GREATEST STAR THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN!"

The camera crew came in, surrounding us.

C whistled long and low in my ear. "We've hit Bond Villain now, haven't we?"

I smiled. "Oh. Oh yeah."

"You really like him, don't you?"

I giggled a little. "This is, by far, the most creative way someone has ever tried to kill me. I am highly entertained, C."

"Sorry, folks! The old program has been cancelled, but this new finale will drive you all wild. REAL DRAMA! REAL ACTION! REAL BLOODSHED!"

"Oh damn it all!" Alphys yelled. "Listen closely, Frisk! Mettaton's chassis is unable to be damaged! You can't fight him while he's in that box! On his back is a switch. If you flip it, it will force him out of the box and into his 'show body.' I haven't finished it yet, so you'll be able to dismantle him! So long as you don't remove his head from his torso, he'll be fine. He'll just run out of power and won't be able to attack you!"

"Got it." I hung up the phone and shoved it in a pocket. "Hey Mettaton! You need to look extra good for a human audience! You better check yourself in the mirror behind you!"

"RIGHT, I HAVE TO LOOK PERFECT FOR OUR GRAND FINALE!" He turned around. "WHERE IS IT? I DON'T SEE IT?"

I walked up to him and flipped the massive red switch.

"DID YOU. JUST FLIP. MY SWITCH?"

The rectangular chassis detached from him, the pieces hitting the stage hard enough to send up a cloud of dust from the floor. A humanoid body appeared, shiny, metallic, and with some great Ferrah Fawcett style hair covering one eye. In the blinding lights, I could make out what Alphys meant about the body not being finished. I was pretty sure that under that hair of his, he only had half a face, while the connections of his limbs to the torso weren't strong.

"Oh my. If you flipped my switch, that can only mean one thing. You're desperate for the premiere of my new body. How rude... Lucky for you, I've been aching to show this off for a while now. So, as thanks, I'll give you a handsome reward. I'll make your last living moments... ABSOLUTELY beautiful!"

A massive flat screen tv lowered from the ceiling as Mettaton strutted towards me. The spot lights followed him, before he stopped to pose dramatically. He began dancing and the monsters stuck in the room with us began cheering wildly. I looked back over my shoulder and saw a few monsters giving me thumbs up. I really hope they meant that in the modern sense and not the Ancient Roman one.

The robot stopped dancing to pose again, before launching at me with a kick. I dove to the side only to have to dive roll to the stage to avoid his foot coming at me again. Wow, was he fast! He threw a right straight and I got out of the way just in time to need to flip backwards to avoid another kick. He kept throwing straight punches almost too fast for me to keep up with. A kick caught me in the stomach and sent me rolling across the stage.

C hissed. "Damn it all! Uh... Got it! How about this?"

C pulled something in my head. Like a lock somewhere that I wasn't aware existed. The world felt warmer, more present.

"Okay, this guy is all about the show. Let's start stealing his thunder!"

I nodded. "Got it." I rolled to my feet as Mettaton stood over me, dissing me with the wag of a finger. I posed dramatically. The crowd went completely wild and the ratings shown on the flat screen climbed dramatically.

He turned with a smile and pointed. Several tiny versions of his rectangular body came at me. Whatever C had done in my head, they didn't seem to be moving as fast as they should have. I took the opportunity to ham it up, spinning and pirouetting around the projectiles, before leaping into a back flip, and landing in a pose.

Mettaton came at me again, and I rolled under his kick only to have him grab my sweater and lift me into the air. Before he could toss me, I wrapped my legs around his neck and threw my weight backwards. The robot lost his balance, letting go of my sweater, and I was able to catch the handstand, throwing him backwards like Sonya Blade.

"That was awesome!" C yelled.

I stayed in the handstand long enough to do a split and flipped up from there. "I've always wanted to do that."

The crowd was screaming, fever pitched. Mettaton was still sorting himself out, so I quickly stole the stage. Spinning, I let the muscle memory from years of dancing lessons take over, bringing one leg up in a split, and using the momentum to roll forward. Coming to my feet, I reached out for a partner that wasn't there before leaning far back into a dramatic pose. The ratings on the flat screen spiked again.

"That Tin Can is loving these ratings!" C laughed. "Here he comes!"

Mettaton took my hand, spinning me toward him, before lifting me high. Rather than a full on throw, he gave me a light toss with a spin, and I tucked my arms in to keep from smacking against him. He caught me and set me on my feet only to swiftly grab one of my ankles and left me high again, balancing me easily. Giving a me a much stronger toss this time, I flipped over. Luckily, I landed without spraining an ankle only to dodge as he kicked at me again.

He pointed at me and the glowing heart in his torso pulsed.

"That's it!" C yelled. "That's his power core!"

I pulled out the antique gun and turned, aiming quick for the heart, and hitting it dead center. Mettaton's eyes went blank in shock as his limbs blew off, his torso and head hitting the ground. The crowd erupted in crazy applause.

I sighed, putting the gun back before heading over to him. I knelt down and lifted his head a bit, supporting the neck. "You still with us?"

He smiled, head turning to the flat screen. "Look at these ratings! This is the most viewers I've ever had!"

I looked up, tracking the line. Ten thousand? Were there only that many monsters down here? Weren't there more?

"We've reached the viewer call-in milestone! One lucky viewer will have the chance to talk to me before I leave the Underground forever!"

I looked down at him and his broken body. He wasn't going anywhere, but I didn't feel the need to break him of his delusion. The crowd quieted.

"Let's take our caller! What do you have to say on this, our last show?"

Napstablook's voice filled the air. "Oh. Hi... Mettaton..."

Mettaton's smile fell.

"I really like watching your show... My life is pretty boring... but... watching you on the screen... brought excitement to my life vicariously."

Mettaton's eyes closed, grimacing with a deep sadness.

"I can't tell but... I guess this is the last episode? I'll miss you Mettaton... Oh... I didn't mean to talk for so long... Oh..."

Mettaton's eyes opened wide. "No. Wait! WAIT! Blook-" Mettaton's head dropped as the phone cut to dial tone. "Oh. He hung up." The robot gave me a weak smile. "I'll take another caller!"

"Mettaton! Your show made us so happy!"

"Mettaton! I don't know what I'll do without you!"

"Mettaton! There's a Mettaton shaped hole in my Mettaton shaped heart!"

The robot's smile was gone again. "Ah. I see..." The corners of his mouth curled up again, sadly. "Everyone... Thank you so much..." He looked at me. "Darling, perhaps it might be better if I stay for a while. Humans have their stars and idols, but monsters, they only have me. If I left, the Underground would lose it's spark. I'd leave an aching void that can never be filled. I guess I have to delay my debut. Besides, you've proven to be very strong. Perhaps even strong enough to get past Asgore. I'm sure you'll be able to protect humanity. It's all for the best anyway. This body's energy consumption is... inefficient."

Alphys was suddenly standing over us, fuming. "It is not, you ass! It's simply incomplete and needs to run at double power to make up for the poor connections!"

Mettaton smiled big at her and she knelt down, lifting him up to hug him.

"You idiot!" Alphys sighed. "Frisk will get us out of here. Let her handle it."

The robot chuckled a little before looking to the camera. "And Everyone! Thank You! You've been a great audience!" His eyes went dark, powering down completely.

The crowd applauded as Alphys stood. "I'll get him back together." She smiled at me. "Thanks for stopping him."

Bones climbed up on the stage and offered me a hand up. "You all right?"

I nodded. "I'm really tired."

He smiled. "Why don't we call it an early night?"

I sighed. After all that, I wasn't really ready for whatever the King of All Monsters was going to throw at me. "Okay. Walk me back to Old Home?"

He smirked. "Sure. Still don't trust me?"

I shook my head. "It's not that. It's just... I feel safe around Asriel. Like I did before dad died."

Bones put an arm around me and walked me back to the elevator.