"everything is temporary, everything will slide! love will never die, die, die. i know that ooh~ birds fly in diff-"

Sans' distracted half-mumbling, half-singing was interrupted by the creak of the basement door. He looked up from the machine he was actively working on and smiled a truly lazy smile at the monsters walking down the stairs. Alphys and Papyrus were coming down the steps with milk crates full of scraps in their arms. Alphys had one crate of electronic components. Papyrus had three full of scrap metal and bits of wiring. Sans quickly lept over and took the wobbling crate on the top of the stack out of his brother's arms and carried it over to the lab bench.

"thanks, guys," Sans chuckled, "it'd take me hours to find all this stuff. it's been a while since i did any tinkering, so i've got no idea where the dump is up here. i'm nowhere near as good at machines as you are, alph, but i thought i'd give this a shot."

Alphys set her loaded box on the table next to the one Sans had set there and shoved her glasses up the bridge of her nose with her finger. "I d-d-don't know if I would say that, S-s-sans. your ideas for the heating coils in the hot fridge were genius! I, um, would never have thought about running electricity through ionized air like that."

Sans blew out a huff of air. It wasn't a sigh; it was more like an expression of fond exasperation.

"i didn't come up with that one, alph, the humans did. i…"

He hesitated. How exactly did he learn about that? He couldn't remember ever actually reading about it. He could vaguely recall someone telling him about it, someone tall that he looked up to, even if they were eccentric. He usually had a pretty good memory, but this one was slipping away from him. Apparently his memory wasn't good enough to transcend timelines. That had hurt a little bit to learn, especially when he found out that the plant could remember where he couldn't. It was hardly going to stroke someone's ego to find out a plant had a better memory than they did… What was he thinking about again?

Sans blinked at the two monsters who were blinking back at him. He was pretty sure that, by the expressions on their faces, Alphys and Papyrus had no idea what he was talking about, either.

"uh… sorry about that. i'll just get back to my project."

Alphys' face flushed with an expression Sans could only name as bravery and determination. She stepped forward and said, "I-I-I'm going to help, Sans. I want to be able to remember when Frisk LOADs, too. That's what your machine is for, um, right? To help everyone remember?"

Sans nodded, too surprised to respond properly. How had she known that?

"I'LL HELP, TOO! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SPENT ENOUGH TIME WORKING ON THE PUZZLES IN SNOWDIN TO BE OF GREAT USE!"

Sans looked between the two of them until he got dizzy. Then he shook the cobwebs out of his head. If they wanted to help that was fine by him! "go ahead, guys. paps, do you think you can take apart the scrap with me? i can't- no, we can't do anything until we have more parts. and alph, maybe you can take a look at my code? i keep getting a stack overflow error that i can't track down. there has to be an infinite loop somewhere, i just can't find it."

Both Alphys and Papyrus nodded their heads and grabbed the right tools for their respective jobs. Sans smiled. This machine was going to be finished in a snap!

The living room was full of silence as the council of war got underway. Toriel and Asgore were sitting on either side of Frisk on the couch. Flowey was leaning in a window on the wall to their right. Undyne was pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace, her boots squeaking as she did so. Gerson was sitting in one of the overstuffed chairs that flanked the couch and faced the fireplace. Finally, Grillby was leaning against the other chair. His arms were crossed and his face was unreadable.

Grillby was the first person to break the silence. "... We must do something about….. those awful people. They have done….. too much to hurt my boys and as….. Frisk has said, they are not above killing others. What should….. we do?"

Toriel broke the thoughtful quiet that followed his words. "The police would be the best option, would they not? They are trained and paid to do this kind of work."

"NO!" Two voices and one set of arms objected. Frisk had signed as emphatically as they could. Asgore looked absolutely horrified, and Grillby was resigned. Toriel tilted her head in confusion, and Asgore answered her with an explanation.

"The police are not very nice, Toriel. They are one of the biggest groups of anti-monster people around. They are also very… bribeable. The parents of our datemate and his brother are quite rich. They would easily be able to pay their way out of this. The police would be more likely to arrest us than them."

Frisk nodded vigorously and signed, [There's a reason I made sure no monster joined the force. They hurt Undyne really bad a few times before I figured out it was them. That's the reason her arm doesn't go above her head anymore. They pulled it out of its socket completely.]

Toriel looked shocked. She protested, "But, they are supposed to protect and serve!"

Grillby shook his head. "... There is nothing in their oaths about that. They….. are supposed to enforce the laws and….. protect the ruling class. They are notorious for….. bending the truth and attacking minorities like us….. humans of color….. and disabled people of every sort."

Toriel's face grew a layer of determination that had Frisk worrying about her health. Monsters weren't really built to handle it… but, then again, Toriel was a Boss Monster. Maybe the rules were different for them. She said firmly, "Fine then, no police. But when we do go after them, none of us are going alone. And neither of the boys must be involved."

Gerson agreed, "That'd be a bad idea. Who knows what they would do if they got their hands on them? And Frisk already said that they attack us if we go on our own."

Frisk nodded. [It took me 19 LOADs to realise it wouldn't work. I don't want to do any more.]

Asgore, Toriel, and Grillby all shuddered as they thought about how much pain that must have caused Frisk. The others nodded in agreement. Flowey said, "I doubt we'll get away with this without a few more, Frisk. But there's definitely a few tricks that can make you have to do less. For one thing, you need to avoid a fight screen. They're both crazy powerful and they cheat, just like Sans. They also aren't above using attack magic outside of a fight screen, so be ready for that. Finally, don't go after them together. They're way more powerful as a team.]

Undyne narrowed her one eye. "You seem to know an awful lot about them for someone I've never met before, flower."

Flowey shrugged. "I had the power to LOAD and RESET long before Frisk did. I've done everything under the sun in the name of boredom. Frisk is a goody two shoes by comparison. They hardly killed anyone their first time, and they didn't kill anyone at all in this timeline. Not even Jerry."

Undyne frowned. "Don't think you'll get away with saying that because of this, but you're right. It's always better to divide your enemies' forces. It's just good tactics."

Toriel nodded. "Then it is decided. No police, no going alone, and divide them up to make them weaker. Now, how will we accomplish this? Should we split into two teams and go after them at the same time, or should we concentrate our forces on one or the other?"

Gerson coughed and motioned to Flowey. "If the plant's right about their power then I'd say we go after one at a time. That way there are more people to back each other up in a fight."

Frisk signed, [Roman spends most of his time at the house, so we should go after him there. The only problem is the servants. They'll probably side with Roman. After all, he's the one who's paying them."

A devious smile crossed Undyne's face. "Not if someone else doesn't pay them more. I bet they only put up with those parent creatures because of the money. We could send them an offer to work for better wages somewhere else."

Asgore frowned. "But who could we convince to pay them like that? Normally it takes quite a while for a servant to be hired. There are interviews and paperwork galore!"

Undyne's smile only grew. "The university, of course. They're putting together a training college for home aids. I'm sure they'd love to get all of their positions filled by people who have actually worked in the industry. And if you suggest it, I'm doubly sure they'll be on board."

Toriel nodded while Asgore sat there, stunned. "That is a most agreeable plan. We'll make the appropriate calls as soon as we decide what to do about Coursiva."

Grillby spoke up. "Perhaps we can….. go and retrieve her from her….. workplace. What is it she does again?"

Flowey answered, "She works for one of those think tank places. It's one of the ones that goes after disabled people, especially autistic people. She hates them so much it's ridiculous. That think tank is behind the stupid fad for not vaccinating your children. There's a reason those things exist!"

Everyone in the room nodded. That whole idea tree was stupid as heck.

"Then, the plan is this: We go after Roman in his home while his wife is at work, then we track down Coursiva at her workplace and bring both to the Embassy for… further investigation. If we can prove that they have done what we think they have done then we can banish them to the Underground, can we not? That seems like a fitting punishment to me," Toriel said decisively.

Gerson nodded. "We can put them in room 3b. That's the most secure room in the Embassy. I'd challenge anyone to break out of that."

Asgore, Undyne, and Frisk all nodded. They knew the room in question. Toriel, who was less familiar with the Embassy, asked, "We should test that, should we not? I do not want either of them to escape. Who knows what they would do once they are aware that their cover is blown?"