Reply to That Speedhunter: I'm glad you've been enjoying the story.. and don't worry, we're keeping ourselves from burning out. As for the story itself, what we have been doing thus far is not intended as filler, but rather building up the story and establishing important things for later on, all laced with fluff. It may not seem that way at first glance, and I will admit it has been a bit of a slow burn, but everything we have done in this story so far has had a purpose behind it. So keep your eyes open, the reasons shall be revealed in time...

Toby Fox owns Undertale and all associated characters. OCs belong to Petalthorn and I.

"Well," Toriel began, taking a sip from the cup of deep red punch she held. "This has gone about as well as can be expected so far…"

The former Queen stood with the otherworlders, as well as her son, off to the side of the spacious room filled with various delegates, officials and guests that had been invited to the meeting. Undyne had wandered off at some point, probably over to the snack table, if Toriel was any judge.

"Frankly, I wouldn't believe us either if I was them," Jeremiah stated. "At least they haven't carted us off for insanity issues."

Michael snickered. "You'd be the only one qualified to go."

Jeremiah sighed. "Someone remind me that he said that when we leave…" Though he was smiling.

William rolled his eyes. "Well, we haven't started an interdimensional war anyhow."

"Well at least your little display of power caught their attention." Frisk sighed and rubbed at his head. "Though of course they brought up Chara." His voice took on a slightly high-pitched mocking tone.

"Ooh! But you used to have magic too, and then you claimed it was someone else entirely! So which is it, Frisk? Which is it? Did you come from another dimension too? Ooh la la!"

Michael snorted his amusement. "This is why I chose to be a protector and not a diplomat."

"You would have burned down the meeting place out of boredom," Jeremiah replied.

"That's a secret."

"From whom?"

"And once again, it is left to the grown-ups to keep things running and wipe everyone's noses clean," Toriel cast an amused glance at William as she spoke.

The albino smirked. "Alas, I had no one to watch them at home."

"Hey!" William's two companions protested.

The teen groaned and rubbed at his face, then looked about the room.

"I'll be glad when this whole thing is over, at least…" He paused, his face lighting up as he saw something.

"I'm… just gonna go over to the snack table for a bit. If anyone asks, I'm not here."

"Frisk?" Toriel asked. "What are you up to?"

The boy pointed over to where Jennifer stood by herself not far from the large table set in the middle of the room.

"There's a pretty girl over there all by herself! This is a travesty that I must fix at once!"

William blinked, and then shook his head. So much for a counterpart-he could never see the fusion acting like that.

Toriel sighed as her son ran off.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. He hasn't had as much time for a social life until recently."

Jeremiah chuckled. "I just hope not too many parents are beating him off with a stick."

"I don't think so," Toriel mused. "I've never heard of anything at least. That boy can have quite the silver tongue when he so chooses."

"He can probably keep himself out of trouble," Michael assured.

A smirk slowly crept across Jeremiah's face. "Says you."

"Oh well," Toriel sighed. "Regardless, it will be a while before the people we spoke to earlier will come up with a decision. Probably a few days… possibly weeks, depending on how important they view it. In the meantime, it is probably best to have as many people on our side as possible."

"In other words," Michael grumbled. "Mingling. Not in my job description."

"You could have waited outside," Toriel pointed out.

"I would, but…"

William rolled his eyes. "And I thought it couldn't get worse," he mused. "I'm not going to drop dead."

"You almost did though, I have to make sure you come back alive. I shall not be written down as 'guard who let Leader die in another dimension' thank you."

"I am sure you will have plenty of other chances for fame," Toriel murmured, casting glances around the place, then making her way towards the clusters of Humans. "Well… shall we?"

"It's for the best," William replied, striding forth, while Michael resisting the urge to sigh, and trudge after them, grabbing Jeremiah's arm as he went past.

"You're not ditching me for a chair just yet."

Jeremiah bit back the urge to laugh.

Monsters and Humans alike mingled with the upper-class for a time, answering questions as best they could, and trying to keep things calm. Fortunately, so far no-one seemed ready to declare war, which was a start, at least.

After nearly an hour, Jacob approached Frisk and William, mopping his brow with a silk handkerchief.

"Well, we've made some progress, I think," he said by way of greeting. "I have some people who are, shall we say, interested in the opportunities this unique situation opens up."

The fusion looked up, a calm, if tired aura coming from them. "At least there's that."

"I don't hear death threats, so I'll take it," William replied. "Anything else we should know?"

Jacob hesitated for a moment.

"Yes, actually. But," he glanced around. "Not here. I have some news you'll want to hear, but there's too many ears around."

William's red eyes moved, analyzing the area. "True," he murmured. "And this is likely delicate information for the time being."

Frisk looked up. "Wouldn't mind a break from everybody…"

The red eye smiled gently and ruffled their hair. "Sorry about the extra meetings."

Jacob managed a smile.

"I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out. For now," he started walking across the room. "Come with me, I've got a place we can talk."

Frisk took William's hand, as they followed after Jacob, with the other souls stirring softly, wondering what would be in store with dealing with the government here. William was probably the fairest Human they would ever get, and doubted that this would ever be as simple.

Jacob made his way around the other Humans gathered, checking every once in awhile that William and Frisk were still following him. He led them to a door on the far side of the room and opened it, heading through.

On the other side of the door was a small hallway, with three other doors directly opposite the one they had come through. Jacob went to the middle one. Upon opening it, it was revealed to be a moderately sized room with a large table in the middle. Wardrobes lined the walls, Frisk counted seven of them.

"This building gets used for all kinds of different meetings," the short Human explained. "But usually, it's the domain of some of the local acting groups. This is one of their dressing rooms. The walls have been sound-proofed, so we shouldn't have to worry too much about eavesdroppers."

"Sounds difficult for you," William replied. "Are political things always so…"

"They are to us," Frisk stated. "You're just seeing it from the 'visiting' perspective, now."

"Well, to be fair, things have been more difficult in the political aspect recently," Jacob said, shutting the door behind them. "I'm afraid the Beasts caused a lot of damage before the Monsters drove them back, which led to certain unsavoury types gaining more power."

"Always another issue for the Monsters, no matter where we are, it would seem," William stated. "We had Beasts attack our cities, but it was smoothed out rather easily…"

"Well, if Beasts are from your side, that makes more sense, yes?" Jacob took a seat and settled into it with a sigh. "A lot of people don't see the distinction between Beasts and Monsters right now. Even with everything they're doing to help."

Frisk bit their lip, not commenting on the matter, while William shook his head. "Have they not seen how big those things can get?"

"To some people, it doesn't matter." Jacob pulled his handkerchief out and mopped his brow again. "It's actually because of people like that I brought you here."

"Oh dear," William muttered. "What are we dealing with?"

There was a sudden, harsh click as the door was locked from the outside, and Jacob gave an apologetic glance to the two otherworlders as men dressed in black clothes and masks jumped out from the wardrobes, already aiming weapons at the two.

"Sorry about this," the short man murmured, as the men fired small darts at the otherworlders.

The two had been leaping up a moment before the click, but their senses hadn't been fast enough. There was no time to react-the attacks were fast-too fast-and Frisk hit the ground, voices dying away in their mind as everything went black...and William hit the floor with a harsh thud.

Jacob winced at the sound of bodies crashing to the floor, then looked over to another man who was just now coming out of the last wardrobe.

"There. I held up my end of the deal." Jacob barely managed to keep his voice steady, and he couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through him at the sight of the other Human.

A scarred face tilted down, three long scars narrowly missing his closed eyes. "Yes…" Crimson orbs opened. "Indeed you have," the voice practically purred as he moved, nudging the fusion with a foot as a smirk slowly crossed his features.

"...and then, no joke, he falls asleep on me!" Frisk said, gesturing with his arms for dramatic effect. "So I spent the next twenty minutes stuck on the top of a tree! Do you have any idea how hard it is to wake that guy up? Dude literally sleeps like the dead!"

Jennifer laughed at that, and the boy smiled, glad to see he'd finally managed to get a laugh out of her. He took a sip of his drink in victory, scratching at his neck and wishing he was allowed to wear his scarf to these things.

"To be fair, you kinda deserved it," the girl mentioned as she smiled, brushing a strand of long hair out of her face.

"Okay, so maybe I went a little overboard," Frisk admitted. "But what was I supposed to do? I had to get some big-brother protectiveness in there, and that's kind of hard when both the guy in question, and Chara, coulda snapped me like a twig!"

There was another flowing laugh.

"The joys of being the underdog, huh?" she finally managed.

"You kidding me? The underdog is so high above me, he might as well be in the clouds! I smack a fly and it just gives me a funny look and then goes off!"

"You are too much," Jennifer giggled, draining the rest of her own drink and setting it on the table.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Frisk looked around the room for a moment, stretching his arms into the air with a tired groan. "You think they'll be letting up anytime soon?"

Jennifer gave a half-hearted shrug in response.

"Hard to say… I don't usually come to these things, but…Dad insisted on it today for some reason."

"Peachy," Frisk looked back to the girl. "Well, they probably don't need us anymore. I'm gonna go out and get a breath of fresh air. You wanna join? It's getting a little stuffy in here."

Jennifer hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"I don't really care about this stuff anyways."

"Ugh, I know, right?" Frisk said, beginning to make his way across the room, with Jennifer following close behind. "These meetings are always so boring. Just a bunch of people droning on and on… I'm gonna be so happy when I don't have to deal with it anymore."

"But, aren't you like, an ambassador or something?" Jennifer questioned, keeping pace behind the teen.

"Only temporarily," Frisk replied, weaving in and out of the crowds as he headed for the door. "I think we might get our old ambassador back soon though, she was just out of commission for a while. Or hey, maybe I can convince these new guys to help with it!"

"The guys 'from another world?'"

"Yeah, crazy, huh? A lot of weird things happening in the past few years."

The teens reached the exit and stepped through. Frisk blinked in surprise.

"Wow… it got really cloudy out here. It definitely wasn't this bad when we were heading over."

Jennifer frowned at the oncoming clouds. "I hope it doesn't rain. That would really mess up my hair."

"Well, we can't have that, now can we?" Frisk grinned then looked around for a moment.

"Hey there's an overhang over there," he pointed to the far end of the building, opposite the street. "If it does rain, we can keep dry under there!"

"As long as it doesn't get windy," Jennifer grumbled, but despite her protests, she followed him over anyways, still warily glancing at the clouds.

"Gonna wish I brought a jacket at this rate," Frisk muttered to himself. "Of all the days to take a walk…"

"Maybe we'll get lucky?"

"Well, I have been on a streak so far," Frisk relented. "Who knows, maybe I'll find the lottery ticket stuck to my shoe."

"Aren't you like, super rich already?" Jennifer asked, tilting her head slightly in confusion.

"Well, technically my parents are, but we don't really use that extra-"

Frisk stopped at the sound of a door slamming open, and both he and Jennifer turned to see a group of black-clad men coming out of the maintenance exit. They were carrying a couple of objects between them, both heavily wrapped, one appearing almost man-sized, while the other was far smaller.

Frisk's instincts suddenly went into into overdrive. Something about them was… wrong.

"Hey," he called out, stepping forward. "What do you think you're-"

Suddenly, strong arms wrapped around him from behind, pulling him backwards. He tried to yelp in surprise but, as he opened his mouth a damp cloth was pressed over it. He tried to struggle, but after a few brief moments, his felt his consciousness slipping away.

The last thing he thought before he passed out, was;

This is the last time I take a girl outside, I swear to god.

"So this horrible person-" Michael started.

"That being me," Jeremiah interjected with a sly grin.

"Decided that he'd be better off sitting here like the laziest thing in existence-instead of covering for me with all the idle chit chat."

"Hey, my leg was hurting."

"It's not the leg that's the issue-it's the fact that you don't have any regrets about this. At all."

"Guilty as charged~"

Muffet giggled tiredly. "How did you two get hired?"

"Hey," they both protested, and then pointed accusingly at one another, though they were grinning.

Grillby shook his head, his fire crackling in amusement. "She does have a point, I think."

"Maybe they were just hired for the entertainment value," Gerson put in. Everyone glanced to him oddly, and he shrugged with a smirk. "What? I'd hire them on that alone."

"Y'hear that?" Undyne called as she sauntered over to the group. "You two just got demoted to court jesters. With those stupid-looking hats with bells on em."

"Only court jester here is the Rookie," Jeremiah assured.

"Oh, where did you get that brilliant idea?"

"From my marvelous mind?"

"Well," Toriel emerged from the group of Humans, which had become much more sparse now as people started meandering their way towards the exit, and janitors emerged to begin cleaning up the place.

"Perhaps your 'marvellous mind' should be brought home. I think we've done all the good we can do, let us not linger around to cause more damage than we can fix, hmmm?"

"You're telling me I have to get up?" he partially joked.

"That's what you get," Michael replied, and then looked around. "Now to just grab Leader…"

Gerson glanced around the room, while Rex stirred from where they had been resting on his lap. "And now to scour the area for wherever the Neck-Warmer hid themselves this time."

"Yo, I'll help," Rex mumbled with a yawn.

"Not to mention our Frisk..." Toriel murmured, casting a glance around. "Though I hope we do not end up… interrupting anything..."

"Did he find a girl here?" Undyne grinned widely. "Gotta hand it to the punk, he's pretty dedicated on finding himself a girl!"

Rex slipped down from Gerson's lap, already looking around. "Friiiiisk!" they called...nothing. "Yo, if you're hiding again…"

Grillby shook his head. "Should put trackers on more people," he muttered.

"Maybe Jacob will know?" Toriel suggested. "He usually leaves late from these meetings, perhaps he wanted to speak with your Leader about something? I have not seen him for a while either, so that could explain it."

"Let's hurry and find someone," Muffet insisted. "We've been here long enough as is…"

"I'll check outside," Undyne called, already striding quickly towards the doors. "Maybe the punk's hiding out there."

The group dispersed, all searching for their missing people, but no matter who they asked or where they looked, no one had seen any sign of any of them in some time.

"What the hell?" Undyne growled, searching through one of the hallways with Gerson and Rex, after a fruitless search of the outside of the building. She flung doors open, getting increasingly frustrated when she didn't find anything. "I could see Frisk up and leaving, especially if he's got a date, but…"

"What's with Neck Warmer and William not showing up?" Gerson muttered, looking around. While Rex tapped their claws worriedly.

"Yo...I don't like this…"

"I don't like it either. Something weird's going on here." Undyne burst into the last room, and growled in frustration on it's stubborn emptiness. "C'mon, let's go back to the big room. Maybe Toriel's got something."

"Better than nothing, hopefully," Gerson muttered, trekking after the younger Monsters.

The three made their way back into the main meeting room, which was now all but empty, and quickly made their way up to where Toriel stood.

"Anything?" The boss Monster asked before they could.

"We were hoping you had something…" Gerson replied.

Michael and Jeremiah gave helpless shrugs, while Muffet pressed close to her husband, biting her lip worriedly. "Something's wrong…"

"We searched the whole place!" Undyne's fists were clenched tight and her yellow eye narrowed in anger "What happened to them?"

"I do not know," Toriel frowned in worry. "I called Asgore, he hasn't heard anything from them, and they didn't go back to the house. Do you have any idea of where your Leader could have gone?"

"Where would he go?" Michael protested. "He knows the place just as much as we do-which is basically not at all. He wouldn't go far without us…He's crazy, not dumb."

"I don't know what happened," Undyne growled, "But I intend to find out. I'm gonna head to the station, and put out a missing persons' thing. I'm not gonna just sit on my hands when something happened to them."

"Do you think… someone…" Toriel managed, fear flashing in her eyes.

"Nothing's for sure yet," Grillby replied. "Let's move forward warily, but not get ahead of ourselves." He spoke calmly, though he was just as concerned.

"Asgore is on his way to pick us up, due to the rain," Toriel murmured. "If they have not shown up by then…"

"Don't worry Tori, I'll make sure everyone knows about this," Undyne promised. "We'll find them as fast as we can."

Gerson looked over. "If we head back quick, maybe we can call in our Napstablook. They've got a keen eye for things like this…"

"Whatever you think will help," Toriel agreed, a trace of agitation in her tone. "I need to know they're safe."

"Then let's wait near the front," Grillby called. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we can start searching."

Author's note: continued reply to That Speedhunter: I believe you mentioned something about an antagonist?