(49)

Grillby ran through the streets at a dead sprint, shoving partying monsters out of his way without looking back to apologize. He didn't have time. He saw one monster who was playing music on the corner stop as he came passed, knocking a good half dozen off their feet, and shouting after him. He barely heard what they said. The magic he had learned in the Guard fueled his limbs, but also worked to heighten his panic. A part of him wanted to scream out to all of them. They had to run, get out of the city. Their lives were in danger.

But he couldn't do it; he kept silent. He couldn't cause a panic, not even for something like this. He would handle it, somehow. His mind raced even as he ran, trying to find the answer while he searched through the crowds.

By the time Jani's magic had worn off in the bar, Grillby had made the only decision he felt he could: try to find Gaster. He was the only one who could help him fix it. He couldn't tell Serena or the Guard, for fear that Teresa and Hannah who had nothing to do with it would get caught in it no matter what he said. That was even if the Guard believed his story. A monster trying to destroy the city? He didn't think he'd ever garter enough trust to get them to buy that. No monster was that crazy.

Except, one was.

Oh god, they were actually going to hurt monsters…

How did it get that bad? he asked himself. Where had his oversight been?

But he knew the answer. It was long in the past, before he even thought to look. He had never bothered to ask Jani about his past. He never thought it was any of his business; if he wanted to share, he'd share.

He'd never really asked what his friends thought about what they were doing either, maybe if he had actually sought after their input more than just with Gaster… He recalled a page from the book on history the queen had given him.

The populous's voice is your voice, first and foremost. You must always remember to listen to what monsters are saying, especially if they are not saying anything.

For the first time he felt like he truly understood the king and queen's perspective on things. He hadn't listened. Instead, he'd kept everyone out, and now this.

No more.

The light set up at the top of the cavern was already dipping past its greatest point, signaling the start of afternoon. Had he really been in his daze for rest of the morning? He shook his head, continuing to push through the crowd. It was too late to worry about that now.

He went to the castle first, pulled aside the first servant he found and ask if Gaster had come at all. Through some spell Toriel had concocted, each servant knew of every presence that entered the castle grounds, regardless of where they were and where one entered. So when the Astigmatism shook her head, he knew he didn't need to go looking for another; Gaster hadn't been there. Where then? The lab? It was the only other place he could think of, and he had no time to search the whole city.

Down he went, through the tunnels that had been carved below the city and out into the massive cave of magma that rested below it. He followed the path high above the on the wall. The last time he had been there had been when all of this began, or so he'd thought.

He should have seen the trap. Jani was right, he took any challenge to his merit with a spiteful ferocity, and so all he saw on that day was whatever was in that box. He'd never even found out. He wondered if Gaster ever did, working at the lab.

Grillby had never seen the metal building before, but he had no doubt it was the place as he came up on it. The sleek, white-metal rectangle with no windows screamed "science," but, more than that, Grillby found his bounty just in front of its door, starting to walk away from it. Gaster caught sight of him as he sprinted it up to him.

The skeleton started to say something, but it was cut off as Grillby grabbed him by the shirt and slammed his back into the wall behind him.

"Why?" he growled at his friend, not even trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

"W-what?" Gaster returned. "Grillby what's going on?"

"Why did you help them?" Grillby elaborated.

Gaster froze in surprise for a moment, and then his own gaze hardened. He knew exactly what he was talking about. At least he wasn't trying to deny it.

"What was I supposed to do?" the skeleton fought back. "You didn't tell me anything about what you were going to do! Did you expect me to just sit on the side for this?"

"Yes!" Grillby shouted back at him.

"Why?!"

"Because that's exactly what I was going to do!" Gaster's next words fled him, in their place was confusion. "Jani's plan would have fallen apart if we didn't get involved," Grillby explained. "He told me as much himself, just now. If he had even tried, he would have been caught by the Guard just like we were. Maybe then… But it's too late now."

The skeleton's anger returned. He swatted Grillby's arms off of him with a strength that surprised the fire monster. "You don't understand anything," he began. "I couldn't wait for something like that. Haven't you ever noticed the way Hannah reacts to Jani? She's afraid of him. And this was before this whole mess started. I don't know what happened between them before we found them, but whatever it is, to cause fear like that… I don't like it one bit."

This time Gaster got in Grillby's face. Both of them liked to say they were the same height, but in reality the skeleton had an inch on the fire monster. And at that moment, to Grillby, it felt like a mile. He had never seen his friend so passionate.

"Ever since we got caught," he went on, "Hannah and I have been closer than ever. And I've seen her smile and let go like I've never seen her before. But always that fear returns. I couldn't stand it anymore Grillby! Jani said if I helped he let her go, so I did."

"Jani's gone crazy," Grillby told him, holding his ground. "He hates us. Do you really think he'd given you what you want?"

Gaster clenched his teeth. "I don't know. I had to try, okay!"

Grillby surprised his friend by embracing him, squeezing him in his arms. "I know," he said. "I didn't leave you with a choice. I kept you out; I kept everyone out. It's all my fault. I'm sorry."

Gaster was a statue in his arms until Grillby pulled away. "You're… you're not mad?" he asked.

"I figured blowing up at you would get you to hold nothing back. It was what I deserved anyway. I had no idea it was that bad for you Gas Man. Well, maybe I did at the end of it. But I'm not mad at you. I would of done the same thing, had I been in your place." Grillby turned serious. "But that's not the end of it."

"What do you mean?" Gaster questioned.

"Jani tricked us both. He came to me and told me everything," Grillby explained. "He lied to you about what the explosives do."

"Lied about…" Gaster echoed.

"They're not light-makers like he led us to believe. They're far worse, and I think he's going to use them to blow up part of the city, tonight."

If the skeleton could have paled any more, he would have. The light of his eyes seemed to dim as his mind processed what his friend had told him. He started to shake as the image formed in his mind. He pressed his hands to his head. "No, no, no! We have to stop them!" He tried to run past Grillby back towards the city, but the fire monster held him back despite his protests. "What are you doing? We don't have time!"

"Gaster!" Grillby shouted, breaking through the other monster's hysteria. "Calm down and think. Jani told me his whole plan, which means he wants us just go running in to stop him. His plan is frame us for this whole thing. He's even kept Teresa and Hannah in the dark so they buy it too. So if we go now, we're probably falling right into his trap. We need to come up with a plan."

Toriel!" Gaster suggested almost immediately, "And the king."

Grillby shook his head. "They're not back in the city yet. And we don't have time to wait for them to get back. When the light goes out, that's it."

"Then at least they'll know we didn't do it!" Gaster protested.

"We have bigger things to worry about than blame right now Gaster! We need to stop this."

"Then the Guard, you can get them!"

Grillby shook his head again. "They won't believe us."

"What do you mean? You're friends with them now right? Of course they'll help you!"

"Gaster this whole story is crazy! A monster trying to destroy the city? In all of our history, nothing even close to that has ever happened. Best case scenario, the Guard laughs at us and then it happens and we get blamed and thought of as turning ourselves in over a guilty conscious."

The skeleton said nothing. He stared at the ground with his hands clenched at his sides, still shaking.

"Face it Gaster, we're on our own again for this one. It's the only chance we have of actually stopping it."

Gaster took a moment to breath, calming himself. Then he looked up at his friend, a fierce determination in his eyes. "Alright, he said, "what do we do?"