Chapter 21: Lost Night

"So it isn't more history?"

"Afraid not," Frisk said, looking to the kid. Even tired, he was able to quickly put together the spell he wanted. "Sorry Cinna." A white haze surrounded the rabbit's head for a second and caused him to fall asleep on his feet instantly. "But that look in your eyes makes me worried that you'll hurt yourself."

"We can't have that happening," Sans said. When he'd said that he remembered things, Frisk had felt a reaction from his chronograph and the partial one. His search for the golden chronograph was solved, although it was a futile search given that it belonged to Sans. No matter, Frisk didn't want to take it from him now. But maybe he'd help figure out where the last portion of it was.

Right then, Undyne decided to come out of hiding. She didn't have an energy spear active, nor the black armor she often wore. "What are you doing with that kid?" she demanded in a serious tone.

"He's possessed by an emotionally unstable ghost," Frisk said, hoping that the straight truth worked. "We have to keep them calm and watched over as much as possible until we have the proper circumstances for an exorcism."

"Is that really true?" Undyne asked, glancing at Sans. "Seems intriguing, if outlandish."

"Just look at the kid yourself," Sans said. "He doesn't have green eyes out of jealousy. That's the sign of a human soul clinging to his."

It was obvious on his soul too, Frisk thought. Undyne still asked Sans, "And just what are you doing here chatting with the human?"

"I'm only here to get the kid to a safe place his parents approved of, so of course I had to talk to the human first," Sans replied.

"Right, you'd better take him now," Frisk said. "He should keep asleep for, well," he checked on how far his enchantment had taken hold, "six to eight hours. Good, I was worried I'd overdo it when I'm tired like this," he rubbed his head and let himself yawn. It made him feel even more tired himself, but that should help.

"Then I'll be leaving the human to you," Sans said, going over to take Cinna's hand. Even though the rabbit was asleep, he walked automatically when Sans tugged him into a side tunnel to warp away with him.

"You're Undyne, right?" Frisk asked, turning around to sit with his back to the wall. She still looked strong and intimidating, but again, she wasn't as nightmarish as he remembered. No spikes, for one thing. And she was muddy with bits of grass stuck in her red hair. While she must have followed them most of the day, she didn't look a bit tired. "Head of the Royal Guard as I heard."

"Yes, that's me," she said, ready to attack if he made a false move.. "I could see Cinna was having trouble, but if you wanted him looked after, you should've brought him home instead of drug him out here."

He shook his head. "It was more like he drug me out here. I did not expect that keeping up with a kid would be so tiring. Anyhow, he's mad at his sister so he refused to go home, and then the ghost possessing him is terrified of monsters after getting killed by one. She got nervous the moment Sans showed up."

"I'm going to be checking out those stories of yours," Undyne said sternly. She glanced around, then sighed. "Sheesh, this is nothing like what I expected a confrontation with a human to be like. There's no glory in defeating someone tired enough to be yawning."

Relieved that this worked, Frisk smiled. "Ah good, I really didn't want to be fighting you. After all that Alphys has said about you, I have no desire to be doing that even at full strength." Well, more his own memories, but the point still stood.

However, this had the effect of Undyne nearly summoning a spear. She did narrow her eyes down at him. "What do you want with Alphys?" she asked with a dangerous edge to her words.

He had a feeling that any monster who faced that expression might flinch. Frisk just turned serious. "I never meant to deceive her about what I was, although I should've told her sooner. It's just, I heard about what Asgore has been doing and knew I had to be cautious. You know about peer reviews?"

"Yeah, where other fighters watch what you're doing and tell you how you suck in order to know where to improve," she said.

"Something like that," Frisk said. "Among humans, it's important among researchers of all kinds to have someone of a similar knowledge review experiments, papers, and such. To see what might've gone wrong, to point out a missed factor, yeah, where you suck so you know where to improve. Well Alphys happens to be the sole living peer who knows enough about the barrier to check over my methods on how to break the seven locks on it. You know how much power is involved with trying to manipulate the barrier directly? If I don't get a proper peer review, the effort might kill me with the barrier only partially undone. That's why I'm relying on her, and the sooner I can start working with her in person, the better."

While she did lighten up on the death glare, Undyne wasn't happy with this. "Fine, we'll go talk with her. But I will be watching and if you dare hurt her, I will not forgive you even if you can break the barrier." Then she sighed. "And man, I was hoping that the task would require some action and a dramatic duel between us. Not this nerdy method."

"Well if the nerdy method works, nobody will have to get hurt and you'll all be free to leave the underground," he said.

"As long as it works," Undyne said. "Well get up, you're under arrest and all until I'm sure your word is good. And as long as you don't breathe a word about its location, I can get you to a secret elevator that'll get us to the lab. It's only supposed to be used for official business, but since I'm transporting a prisoner, that counts."

"I'll accept that arrest," Frisk said, getting back on his feet. "Especially if it gets me somewhere I can sleep decently."

Undyne wasn't used to people accepting that they were arrested, much less with the gratitude like Frisk showed. Though he was tired, which proved that he probably was a nerd like Alphys since all he'd done was walk down the corridors of Waterfall all day and use some sleep enchantment. This human didn't have physical strength or endurance. She wanted to know if he could use the Delta Rune like the wizard in that one manga series. If Frisk could, that would lead to some epic battles even if he was a nerd.

At the lab, Alphys already had a room prepared with an electrical forcefield. Frisk agreed to go inside, but he wanted to pass over some information first. "The book I told you about was from the city on the surface," he said as they were waiting on the files to transfer to the lab computers. "The files I'm sending you are about the locks themselves as well as their solutions. From the data, I know I can undo the locks but it might not be safe even for me. I was hoping you could check over it for me."

"Sure, we can talk about it tomorrow," Alphys said.

"Couldn't one of us handle the barrier locks?" Undyne said. It didn't feel right to have to leave this task up to the human.

Frisk shrugged. "You'd need me to make the locks appear, but Alphys would know better if any of you could solve them."

Undyne hoped so. While Alphys went back to the main room to start her peer review, she checked around the room Frisk was locked in. They didn't want him escaping. The forcefield covered three of the walls. If he tried busting out the unguarded wall, he'd end up over a drop into lava so that was secure. Undyne could see a way to dismantle the forcefield, but that required someone outside it so that should be fine. There weren't any vent openings large enough in there for him to crawl through. Although, if he could transform himself into a small form, he might be able to get out what vents were there (if he could also get near the ceiling while small).

Since he had come peacefully, they'd let him keep what he had. He brought out some things in order to make himself something to eat. That made Undyne feel hungry, so once she was done inspecting the cell, she headed off to make some sandwiches for her and Alphys. Thankfully, Alphys was keeping a better stock of ingredients so if someone was making a meal around here, it wasn't always instant noodles.

She got into the main area to find Alphys at her computer, one hand scrolling down the pages and the other being used to rest her chin on. "Hey, I got us something to eat," Undyne said, setting down the plate by her keyboard.

"Oh, thanks," she said, glancing over and smiling. But her attention went back to the open file, which looked to be a scan of pages in a huge book. "We are going to need him because it takes a human to activate all this; I've only gotten through reading up on the first lock and it's intriguing."

"What's it like?" Undyne asked. She was pretty sure she wouldn't understand fully, but it was nicer when Alphys was talking to her.

"Well," she took a moment to think it over, taking her chin off her hand so she could trace her fingers through an idea. "The barrier's like a curtain going in, like a wall trying to go out. There was a part more about that, but I wanted to see the locks first. So, it's like, flat, only takes up so much space? But when the lock's summoned out, it changes the space to something bigger. Like, that first lock is sort of a pipe maze where you've got a marble and there's all sorts of buttons in the pipes that have to be activated by running the marble over them. But only a certain combination of buttons will let the lock be undone. Run over the wrong one and the lock will dissolve, becoming unsolvable for the next hour. And the barrier will lash out at you for doing it wrong, so it will hurt to make mistakes."

"Then you'd have to push it through the right path, that sounds simple," she said.

"If you know the right path," Alphys said. "Also, it's in a pipe, so you can't just push it directly. You could summon up little walls to block off wrong paths and then shift the maze itself to get the marble running. But then you'd have to maintain the walls, or be able to put them in place quickly while the marble's running. Simple when you know the unlocking path, but it would still take skill to undo. And see, here?" She pointed out a link to a text document. "The solution wasn't given directly. He had to deduce it from a multistage riddle in the first place, which I do need to double-check for him."

"Why'd they make it so complex?" Undyne said. "I know they didn't want us to get out, but still, if even another human has to put in work and research to figure it all out, that's crazy."

"I saw a reference to there being some actual device to break the barrier without picking all these locks. Frisk probably couldn't find that and had to do what he can." She put her hand down and tapped her claws against the desk. "Making the locks appear will be a drain on his energy. I'll need to check on his magical ability myself to see what kind of effect it'll have. And if he has to solve these locks too, that's even more magic to be handling at once. He's really relying on me."

"From what he told me, he's putting his life in your hands," she said.

Alphys closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Yeah. I hope I can do this right."

Not wanting her to get too anxious, Undyne hugged her before she expected it, making her smile again. "Don't you worry about that, you'll do just fine. Besides, if he's done all the work for you figuring out the riddles to the locks or whatever, you just need to read over his stuff for now."

"I thought you weren't about to trust a human," Alphys said, looking up at her. For a moment, Undyne knew that she was grateful she hadn't hurt Frisk and hoped that she would come to accept him too.

Well, she could give the human a chance, for her sake. "As long as he doesn't hurt anybody, especially not you, I might trust him a little."

It felt astonishing how much he'd gotten done today. Also that Sans felt like some of it was worthwhile. Undyne had reluctantly captured Frisk instead of killing him, but that wasn't a threat to escalating what trouble the boy had. Cinna was somewhere safe with some good people and things were coming together to fix the possession at least. On his rounds of checking up on who he was responsible for as a judge, he found that most were trying, just like Frisk, to better themselves. Only the Mad Dummy didn't seem to care, but they were incapable of doing much and seemed satisfied to have the Royal Guard to fight with. There was still a lurking fear that it could all come undone, but Sans wanted to ignore it and found himself capable of doing so for most of the time.

Tonight, he had to finish up the reports to send to Raime. And tomorrow, he could go over to the lab to see what he could do to help out Alphys and Frisk. Especially on locating the other five souls and anyone they might have possessed. For tonight, though, he could relax some at home, or go see if Toriel wanted company. Either option sounded good.

There was one thing he wanted to check on at home, so Sans walked in to see about that first. A sweet smell wafted out as he did. Vanilla and fruit? And there was a bit of the usual pasta in there too, along with a woman's voice. Well that was just perfect; Toriel was over and it looked like she and Papyrus were busy at something in the kitchen.

"Oh my god, did you just use the front door properly again?!" Papyrus called from there. Toriel laughed at that. "What's going on with you?!"

"Evening Papyrus," Sans called back with a cheeky wave. "Hey Tori. You're looking better."

"Hello Sans," she said cheerfully. "I'm still not quite back to myself yet, but I wanted to do something and your brother asked me about baking. We've just about got dinner done for us."

"Sounds great," he said.

"It will be, but you didn't answer the question!" Papyrus said. Although it was clear from his eyes that he was more happy than worried.

"We need to use it every now and then to make sure it hasn't gone doorment," Sans replied.

"That is a horrible pun, worse than usual," his brother said, shaking his head and going back to the kitchen.

"I don't know, I thought it was a-door-able," Toriel said, making Papyrus groan.

"Well he thinks puns are an a-door-mination," Sans said.

"You two are in-pun-sible," Papyrus said. When they laughed, he hit his skull. "And now you've got me doing it, sheesh."

"Puns aside, do you still have that one labyrinth book you got from the book fair a few years back?" Sans asked. "The one with the mystery author."

He nodded. "Oh yeah, and I've managed to get a few of their other books too! They're up in my room."

"I wanted to check on something, with any of those books," Sans said.

"Sure, I'll go get one," Papyrus said, leaving the kitchen to go up to his room.

"What kind of mystery author are we talking about?" Toriel said curiously. "Someone who keeps to themselves?"

"Sort of," he said, coming over to check on what they had going on in the kitchen. "They use a weird symbol for their name and I think I saw it somewhere aside from those books. Might be something, might not. Anyhow, if I've got you and my brother in the kitchen, I must be the luckiest guy in the underground."

Although a little embarrassed, she laughed and patted his skull. "Well if I am helping you make a positive change in your life, I'm happy for you. What have you been doing today?"

"I got pulled on active duty as a judge," he said, clasping her hand for a moment. Not long, though; it might be amusing to see how long it would take Papyrus to notice, if she hadn't said anything already. "Mostly that, but there was also getting Frisk safely by the current head of the Royal Guard. Undyne's a good woman, but she's relentless and supports Asgore. Then it got complicated when a kid around here ran off from home and followed Frisk through Waterfall."

"How did that go?" Toriel asked, concerned about him.

"Well he got arrested, but overall that's about as safe as we could manage once Undyne got alerted to his presence," Sans told her. "And he's over at the lab with Dr. Alphys, so she'll do what she can to convince Undyne to keep staying her hand."

"He's good friends with the scientist, so he should be okay for now," she said. "I'll have to call him after supper."

"He might call first. So what have you two been up to other than dinner?"

Toriel gestured to a glass trifle dish. "Once we started talking, Papyrus said that he wanted to make a giant cake sometime, something big enough to hide someone in. I had to object to putting someone in, but making a giant cake was an interesting idea. Somehow that got to me telling him how to make a pound cake, and then we made a trifle out of that. He is talented at this, though it's different working with him than with Frisk."

"I'd imagine Frisk is more calculating," Sans said. Especially with him having to reteach himself emotions.

She nodded. "Yes, he's careful and exact with all the steps, so I have to keep encouraging him to put more heart into his work. But Papyrus is all heart. It's enough that his magic can correct small mistakes in his methods. I'd think that anything the two of them worked on would turn out really well; it's unfortunate things didn't work out between them, though Papyrus doesn't seem troubled over it."

"Frisk was doing his best to deal with it last night," he said. "And I think today he was too distracted trying to watch over the kid and watch out for Undyne to really think about it."

Noisy footsteps on the stairs caused them to hold off on their conversation as Papyrus came back with book in hand. "Here you go, I got the labyrinth one. Did you find out something about the writer? I've been wanting to talk to them again, but they show up at random to sell books and then vanish without a trace."

"Just like at the fair, huh," Sans said, checking the cover. And that symbol... yes, that was the one that Frisk had given a partial translation for. "Hmm, then the writer's name is Baphomet."

"Oh right, that's what it was!" Papyrus said, snapping his fingers. "They told me and then I forgot about it a minute later somehow. They also said they were both a man and a woman."

And a demon, possibly once a monster? Sans wondered if that was who owned Frisk's soul. But then tracking a demon down wasn't something he knew how to do. Neither was how to negotiate with one. There was also the question of why a demon would want to spread stories like this through the underground. He'd read it himself and it didn't seem like anything insidious.

Since he didn't have enough information to do anything about this writer, Sans kept it at the back of his mind and focused on enjoying this evening at home.

It was a long walk from the lab in Hotland to the central area of Waterfall where most of its residents lived, and the ferry person was not answering the bell at the port. Since Mettaton didn't like to waste time, he shifted back to his box form. It wasn't half as glamorous as his human form (although quite attractive in its own way), but the box form had rockets. He could blast along the ferry's channel to cut down on the trip immensely. Once at the Waterfall port, it was a good stroll over to where Napstablook still lived.

Their droopy home was dim and nobody answered to a knock. Mettaton went over to the old snail farm in the next cavern over to see if his sibling was over there. And there they were, carefully cleaning up the snail pen. Sometimes, Mettaton thought about telling his fans about the truth of his beginnings. It could make for such a nice drama, rising up from a humble farm ghost into the greatest star to shine underground. But it was a lot of fun to keep them guessing by giving all sorts of origin stories to sort out.

"Heeelllooo Blooky!" he called with a shining grin now that he was back in human form. "How's it going down here?"

"Oh, hello Mettaton," Napstablook said. Their voice had a worried tone in it, but it wasn't as bad as it used to be. "Um, you know, as usual, mostly. There's, um, something."

"What's that something?" he asked.

They put the rake aside and drifted out of the pen. "Listen, um, off that way." They looked over towards one of the cave walls.

While that wall made for a good boundary to keep the snails safe, there were a few small holes in the wall that connected to other parts. The snails didn't make much noise and there were no visitors, so there was only the faint sound of moving water elsewhere. No, not just that today. Mettaton leaned on the fence post, just catching some sorrowful notes from a woman somewhere else in Waterfall.

A familiar voice. "Isn't that Shyren?" Mettaton asked. Her practice area was a good walk from the snail farm, but something about the way the caverns were formed let her music drift all the way down here. "You can barely hear her but she seems really tragic."

"Um, she was sad for a long time, since her sister fell down," Napstablook said. "She's been getting better. I hear her playing her piano sometimes in here. But, not singing so sad, not for a while. It made me cry for a while, but I don't know why she's sad now."

"We should go check on her," he suggested, knowing that his sibling might not go to check on their own even if Blooky was sympathetic. "There was a path up that way I could still take, right?"

"Mmhmm," they replied, then gave a quick look over the farm to make sure there was nothing that could cause trouble. Once that was okay, they led Mettaton to one of the back ways to where Shyren stayed. "Um, sorry, if you were coming by to practice. It's been worrying me."

"No problem, it's better to check this out," Mettaton said. "And actually, I came here on behalf of Alphys. She wants your help with something."

"H-huh, m-me?" Napstablook stammered, going a little slower along the wooden stairway for a moment. This path stretched over the mysterious lake below, lit by boxes with glowing mushrooms. There was something mystical to it all, one of the places that had inspired him years ago.

"Well she said I might be able to help, but you'd do better," he said, wanting to encourage them to do more. He then explained about the kid who was possessed, how musical magic could help, and how it was the human from the Ruins who was the one to suggest them.

"Oh dear, I'm not sure how he thought of me," Napstablook said, considering the matter. "But, it's nice he remembered. So, uh, you soothe this human ghost with a lullaby or something, and, um, then what? How are they gonna separate two spirits?"

"Beats me," Mettaton admitted. "That's up to Alphys and the human. Come on, Blooky, I know you could do this. And it's a kid that's in trouble here, well two kids because the ghost seems like one too. They were both scared and upset, enough that the human had to put them asleep through magic so they could be taken somewhere safe."

"Ooo, that's bad." They looked down while drifting along. "I, um, I guess? I'll give it a try. I never purposely tried something like that. But if they know what they're doing, I'll help how I can."

"That's great!" he said, smiling and clapping his hands.

Not long after that, they arrived at the area where Shyren lived. Her song was strong here, enough to cause shivers in his circuits from how sorrowful she sounded. She was alone today, drifting around with her hair fluttering after her. However, something seemed different about her. Maybe it had been too long since he'd seen her. But that didn't quite explain it, especially not the pale blue afterglow that followed her.

"Uuuh, um, Shyren?" Napstablook asked, drifting over to her.

She turned around and looked at them with watery blue eyes. Wasn't that...? "Hello my dear, it's been years since we've talked," Mettaton said, trying to be charming. But this feeling of sadness and being lost was reaching deep into his soul. "You seem blue."

"I don't know why," Shyren whispered, her voice shaky. "A-am I dead?"

"No, you look fine to me," Napstablook said. "Um, except you do look sad. What's the matter?"

"I can't go home," she said. No, that wasn't her voice.

"You are home?" Napstablook said uncertainly.

"Wait, I think this is something else," Mettaton said. "This is like how the kid I was telling you about was."

"Oh, a ghost has her?" they asked, looking carefully. "Oh no."

"How long have you been feeling like this?" Mettaton asked.

"A long long..." the other voice started to say.

Then Shyren shook herself. "Four days," she whispered. "Maybe. It was, a sad little light in the darkness. I felt sorry for her and tried to sing, but, then all that sadness came into me."

"We should get you to the lab in Hotland too, to fix this along with the kid," Mettaton said. "Although the ferry's still out. Mostly, I don't think they want the monsters with the ghosts to be left alone."

"Too alone," either Shyren or her ghost said.

"Um, well, you can come stay with me, um, if you want," Napstablook said. "It's, um, late, but we can go to Hotland tomorrow."

"You know how to heal her sadness?" Shyren asked, coming closer to them.

"We're not sure, but we know someone who knows," Napstablook explained.

Shyren nodded and followed them back. Well that was another lost soul found, Mettaton thought. Where would the others be? Alphys and Asgore didn't want to alert the crazies about this situation, but with his connections, maybe he could find some clues about the others.

"Stupid stupid Frisk," Flowey muttered, slowly cracking through a rock with his roots. "Stupid boring Frisk. You think you're so good, huh? You think you can absolve your sins, huh? If I had any power anymore, I'd make sure to punish you properly."

"You think power will solve your problems?" someone asked him.

He was frustrated enough that he scowled and threw aside a part of the rock he'd broken off. It made a pitiful little tap against the ground because flowers weren't that strong. "God no! He came back from nothing! He rebuilt himself from a point where he only had his determination going for him! I bet that if you take his chronograph away, he'll still stubbornly push his way forward and get the better of you. And even when I had power, it wouldn't let me do what I really wanted!"

"You mean going back a hundred years to fix things?

"What do you know about that?!" Flowey asked sharply, finally turned to see who was addressing him.

This monster... no, that was no monster. They spoke of this being as a demon. Baphomet seemed partly a goat, albeit mostly shaved to expose dark skin. They had a mix of male and female features, long curling horns, a neatly trimmed beard, a small chest, and curved hips. Currently, they were seated with their feet crossed in front of them. "Something, perhaps," Baphomet said.

"Are you really what they were talking about, a monster that absorbed seven human souls to become a god?" Flowey asked, feeling jealous. If he could figure out the demon's secret, he'd listen.

"That story was from a long time ago," they said.

"Did you have something to do with all this?" Flowey asked.

"Perhaps. I mostly enable people to do things; what happens is of their volition." They set their hands on their knees. "You as well."

"Oh, so it's your fault then?!" He snarled, but what could he do? He wasn't good in a fight like this unless he was the one with the element of surprise.

"No, I just allowed some things to happen," Baphomet said calmly. Perhaps they knew they were in no danger.

"But you still did something. What? Was it something back then, huh?! Did you not want any competition?"

"I've been looking for an apprentice," they said. "You didn't do anything noteworthy."

"Y-you..." Flowey shook in anger, but didn't dare make an attack. Damn it all, why was this happening to him? He already had to keep an eye on one stupidly powerful individual; he didn't need another mucking things up further.

Baphomet gazed down at him calmly. There wasn't a trace of a smug air to them even though they probably had every right to be. "But you still have potential, I think, if you can throw off the cautious fear that's constraining you. Otherwise, you'll continue to be ineffectual. What do you think of Frisk?"

"I hate him," Flowey hissed. "He got rid of Chara and left only her shadow behind. I never got a chance to talk to her then! And then, he's getting away with making everyone think he's good, when he's not. He's evil; he can't be rid of the evil in his heart. And just look at what happened yesterday! I thought I was going to love it all, getting Undyne pissed off at him and all the rewinding he had to do while he was tired. But then he got Undyne of all people to pity him and call off a fight because he was tired, that's all! She brought him exactly where he wanted to be and he acts like this is what he wanted to happen. That is so wrong, I hate it all!"

Finally showing some emotion, Baphomet smirked. "Would you like to make that undone?"

"Howdy! Want to hear something interesting?'

Catclaw's ears and whiskers twitched. Who was that? He hadn't heard anyone approach him, nor smelled them. But there was something chilling to that soul, familiar. This was another killer. Looking down towards the voice, he spotted a tiny yellow flower in a crack in the pavement that hadn't been there before. It even had a smiling face on it.

Releasing his claws, he reached down. It'd be easy to snip off its stem and snatch it up. "What reason do you have to bother me?"

The flower somehow ducked down into the crack so he missed. "Watch it! I could be your pal, right? Who's gonna notice a flower? I can get into all kinds of places, so I hear lots of things. Like, I know your name was B..."

He hissed, making his fur stand on end. "Don't. You. Dare. Say. That!"

"Well I don't blame you, it was pretty embarrassing," the flower said, appearing in another crack. "But you're strong now, huh? Ain't nobody's gonna make fun of you now, or force you to do anything. Unless of course a judge gets to you."

"I've killed two, I could kill another," Catclaw said, exposing his teeth. "I could kill you, smash you into a yellow smear on the ground."

"Y-yeah, but, you'd d-do better to make me an ally," the flower said, its bravado nearly breaking. "Cause I know how you could make yourself stronger. It'd be a real easy-peasy task too, for you."

Listening to flowers was a stupid idea most of the time. But, there was the fact that this one had a higher LOVE than he did, meaning there was more to Flowey than first appeared. Catclaw listened and it was something he hadn't been sure about. It made sense now. Especially now, it would be an easy thing to do. Another human would die. But if it made him(her) much more powerful than s/he was now, it would be worth it.

And this had to be done soon, before the meathead with Snowdrake or the lunatic with Asgore caught on to the chance.

It required sneaking into the lab in Hotland where the Royal Scientist lived. But the door automatically opened as he approached and the lights weren't on. While the place was large, Flowey had given him good directions. There was an electric forcefield that was easily broken from the generator in the hall. No one had stopped him yet; no one stopped him from approaching the captive human.

One of the first things that caught Catclaw's attention was that the boy wore a rosary necklace even though he was fast asleep in bed. There was something about it that reminded him of the judge magic; it made the nerves of his whiskers crawl, reminded him of the pain he inflicted on others. But he had to kill him swiftly and the neck was a vulnerable spot.

It'd be over quick, just do it.

Time rewound.