"Frisk… Frisk, wake up."
I open my eyes. Darkness, save for the dim green glow of the fungi.
"Frisk."
It's Alphys.
"We need to talk." She whispers.
"Now?" I ask.
"Now." She says. "Don't… don't wake Asriel."
I get up, trying not to disturb him. Alphys pulls me away, into another chamber. I already miss Asriel's warm fur, but I guess Alphys will do for now. Maybe scales are nice, too.
"We need to talk." She says.
"I understand completely." I say. "The answer is yes, but on the condition that I get 15 quality minutes of spooning every night. And you have to teach me how to tickle Undyne's gills."
"Wh-what?"
"But I'm a little sleepy at the moment." I say. "Could we do this tomorrow? And is it okay if Chara gets to…"
She stares at me. Even in the darkness, her blush is obvious.
"Wait. Are we not talking about the same thing?" I ask.
"N-no…"
"What were you talking about?" I ask.
"Uh… wh-what were you t-talking about, Frisk?"
I drag out the silence a bit. I let her wonder what I'm thinking.
"… Frisk?"
"I was talking about cooking." I say. "Like, a mushroom soufflé, with the fluorescent fungi around here. You know, collect them with a big spoon or something. Don't you think a mushroom soufflé would really tickle Undyne's gills?"
She doesn't seem convinced… She looks kinda nervous. Mission accomplished!
"Frisk, I needed to talk to you about the demon." She says.
"Okey-dokey."
"I think I know how to pin down where the demon is." She says. "That message gives us an important clue."
"Who is it?"
"I don't know yet." She says. "But the demon wants to keep us confused about who it's trying to take over, right?"
"Yeah. That way we won't know how to stop it."
"I think the demon wrote that message and let go of Papyrus because it realized we were getting close to figuring out who its real target was." Says Alphys. "It's sending us to the Underground because it wants to keep us distracted and buy time to mess with our heads."
"Okay…"
"Naturally, the demon would want to point us in the wrong direction." She says. "So whichever we're facing in right now must be the right direction… or at least sort of close to it. And from tomorrow on out, we're just going to get more confused, because the demon is going find ways to mess with us."
"So if we guess who the demon's target is now," I say, "we're going to be wrong. But if we guess later, we're going to be wronger. Is that it?"
"Exactly." She says. "As unclear as things are right now, waiting for more information isn't going to help us. We have to make a decision about who we think the demon is targeting, and we have to make that decision now."
"Then who do we think it is?"
"I think it's Sans." She says. "But that's just one opinion. Frisk, I want you to go talk to the others, one by one, in private, and ask them who they think the demon is after. Whoever gets the most votes is the person most likely to be the demon's real target."
"Because the demon thinks we've got the right idea and it needs to change our minds."
"Yes."
"I can do that." I say. "But what if the demon is sending us to the Underground for a completely different reason?"
"I… um… don't really know? I don't have all the answers, Frisk. I just have theories."
"Well, I think they're a big help."
I give her a hug.
"Thanks, Frisk."
"So… can I be the big spoon tonight?"
The next day, we find our way back to the entrance to the cavern and climb our way to the surface. The cars are still out there.
On the way home, I ask everyone in the group who they think the demon is after. Like Alphys suggested, I ask each person in private—which is kind of hard, because we're all in one big group. We all agree I'm the one the demon really wants to take over eventually, but we're not sure which one of them it's going to use as a bridge to get to me.
Undyne thinks the demon is after Sans.
Alphys also thinks it's Sans.
Sans thinks it's Undyne.
Papyrus thinks the demon is after the Great Papyrus. No surprises there.
Asriel thinks it's Sans.
Mom thinks it's Undyne, probably because she knows Sans better.
Dad thinks it's Sans, probably because he knows Undyne better.
Chara thinks it's Sans.
So basically it boils down to Undyne or Sans, but overall, the group thinks it's Sans. And if Alphys is right about the demon sending us to the Underground to buy time to confuse us, that means it probably is Sans, but when we go to the Underground, the demon is going to turn our opinions around and make us think Undyne is the target. I don't really know, but I can at least assume Sans is the target, and the one person the demon is going to take over next.
But now that I assume it's Sans… what am I actually going to do about it?