(Triumphant music starts playing in the background as Som rises out of a trash can labeled "Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons") YUSSSS I GOT THE NEW CHAPTer OUT BEFORE THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE, IT'S A MIRACLE! Sorry I uploaded this later in the day than usual, btw - I slept in late this morning, and since I'm so used to posting stuff from my Macbook (which finally went kaput not too long ago, rest in peace Macbook, you served me well), I honestly forgot that posting things from my windows laptop is indeed possible. Anywho, enjoy the new chapter guys! Now if you'll excuse me - (Climbs into a trash can labeled "Starbound")


Frisk had been reluctant, at first, to leave the barn, and therefore the twins, despite knowing that putting off what needed to be done would do no-one any favors. Sometime between their panic attack in the garden and waking up with horrible nightmares during the night, they realized, they'd come to view Myles and Beckett as a sort of safe-haven; the boys knew one of their biggest, dirtiest secrets, offered their shoulders for them to cry on (literally), and nobody, human, fairy, or monster had tried to bother them since they'd begun spending more and more time with the younger Fowls.

Shattering that peace the twins offered and returning to the real world, where terrorist organizations, mind-wiping fairies, and monster-hating extremists roamed, was harder than they'd thought it would be. For perhaps one of the first times in their life, Frisk had found themselves putting off the necessary talk with Toriel in favor of several more hours of tinkering and throwing ideas back and forth in the barn, and lunch, where they'd forced themselves to down their food despite their nerves.

But they couldn't put something this important off forever. They couldn't keep indulging themselves so selfishly like that when lives were hanging in the balance. And so after the food had been consumed, and a grumbling flower had been retrieved (Artemis's warning of the information he'd offered being "distressing" still ringing in their head - they NEEDED someone who wouldn't be as moved emotionally by whatever they'd find in the flash drive, just in case), Frisk had retrieved their laptop, and, computer and flash drive both in hand, had gone to Toriel with steeled nerves and a soul bristling with weary determination.

As it turned out, though, the elder Fowl's words proved almost prophetic. There was no "may be" about what Artemis and the fairies had unearthed, just distress.

O'Reilly was the father of one of the fallen souls.

That information was like a gut-punch to Frisk, and even worse for Toriel, who had to take a step away from the laptop and take several minutes trying to calm down. They'd suspected that there might be some kind of relation between the wizard and one of the fallen souls after their panic following their kidnapping and "rescue" had died down. Too many of the things he'd said had implied exactly that - the resentment at Frisk surviving when the other fallen souls did not, the sheer hate in his eyes, his refusal to consider the monsters, all monsters, anything but cold-blooded murderers.

They hated to admit to themselves, but hearing that he was the parent of one of the fallen children? It had caught them off guard. Maybe it was because they weren't used to biological parents giving a crap about their kids, maybe it was because as soon as they'd read those words (and Toriel had tearfully confirmed that the last human to fall, the yellow soul, had indeed been a 14-year-old girl named Diana) they hadn't been able to help but draw parallels to Asgore promising revenge on humankind for Asriel's death so long ago, but either way…

O'Reilly was a grieving father, a father who, judging by years upon years of records of therapy visits, had never truly gotten over his daughter's death. He hadn't been able to let go of the past as Asgore had slowly done over the years - instead, Frisk could all but see how that loss had festered until the monsters had emerged from under Mt. Ebott with the bodies of the dead children in tow, and how a wound that had barely begun to scab over had been torn open again, old grief boiling over into fresh, all-encompassing fury.

Frisk had thought they couldn't become more scared for the monsters than they already were, with a terrorist on the loose and after their lives. But O'Reilly's relation to the yellow soul - to Diana - had proved them wrong. And so did the rest of the information that Artemis Fowl had offered.

O'Reilly isn't just a random member of Humanity's Resurgence. He's one of the freaking masterminds.

Not one of the people officially in charge. At least not according to the info in the drive. No, according to what the combined forces of fairy and Fowl had found, O'Reilly may have been relatively high up in HuRg's command structure, but he wasn't technically the one in command.

And yet despite that, the files they'd been given implied that this was no obstacle for the man.

Death threats to the monsters living in Dublin. Thugs paid to rile up the anti-monster crowds. False IDs to buy weapons under multitudes of different names in order to avoid notice. Several cops bribed (Frisk made note of those names automatically and tried not to grimace - thankfully none of the people they were most familiar with in the force were among them, but they did recognize some of those names. Maybe some of those hypnotized officers hadn't been under someone else's control at all) to look the other way as monster-supporting Dublin-dwellers and others in the surrounding countryside were blackmailed into changing their tune or attacked. Break-ins in monster businesses and homes. Riled up mobs of protesters-turned-terrorists in the streets, encouraged by dull-eyed goons. The assassination attempts on Frisk themselves, their kidnapping. The attempt to murder the Winnicks and the Drakes. The bomb threat. All things that the man was suspected of directing behind the scenes…

They'd known the wizard was dangerous. And yet despite everything, Frisk realized that even with the cold dread every thought of the man put into their gut, they'd underestimated him.

Every last attack, every threat, every death - if the fairies and Artemis are right, then he has his fingers in most if not all of the terrorist attacks that HuRg's been behind.

All while keeping his own name clean, until Artemis and Company had dug it up from behind a smokescreen of impressive firewalls and hidden, encrypted files.

This is bad. How did the police that haven't been bribed not notice any of this?

*Guess you can get away with a lot when you've got mind-control powers.

That much was true. But Frisk had a feeling there was more than just mind-control going on behind the scenes here. After all, Frisk had seen first-hand that some of the terrorists were actually… well, maybe not good people, but at least they were people with morals despite their attempts to hurt monsters and monster-supporters. They had a guard being guilty over having been an accomplice in kidnapping a kid as proof of that.

How many of those people did he convince to work under him by telling them why he hated them? How many joined to avenge the fallen souls?

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Toriel murmured, still wrung-out and eyes still red from crying, "but I'm almost glad that Asgore was so cowardly in his attempts for revenge. Seeing what someone truly dedicated can do…"

Frisk nodded numbly. "People with a cause are more dangerous than those without one," they muttered right back. "And… harder to persuade to stop." They took a deep breath and tried not to shiver. "I don't think anyone's convincing O'Reilly to stop any time soon."

I don't think I'm going to be able to stop him.

And that thought? That thought was terrifying. Frisk couldn't even remember the last time they'd thought they wouldn't be able to succeed at something. If the Resets were good at one thing, it was helping them figure out what they needed to do to make things work out.

But Frisk had never had to change the mind of a fanatic before. They'd never had to stop a grieving father out for vengeance before. They'd never had to deal with a human with magic before. And they'd never had to deal with someone who was all three of those things at once.

How am I supposed to fix this? How?!

Thankfully, before Frisk could spiral too far down the rabbit hole of fear trying to swallow them, Flowey lashed out at one of their wrists with a thorny vine, leaving behind some scratches.

"Stay calm, idiot," the flower hissed, near-silently. "Do you want Toriel to notice you panicking?"

No. No, they definitely did not. So Frisk took a deep breath, let it out, took in another, and tried to think.

I can't do anything with what I know now. I can't, it's just not possible. There's - there's gotta be something.

And then, like the sun shining through thunderclouds, a thought presented itself.

I might not know what to do. But… someone here has an idea.

Because if Frisk was a betting kind of person, they'd bet every last scrap of gold they had in their wallet on Artemis and the fairies having a plan in the works for dealing with O'Reilly. After all, he was a threat to them too.

Which means I need to talk to them. And I need to talk to them soon. Great. It's not as if last time went well…

Only… Frisk finally looked back up at Toriel, who had gone back to scanning through the information that the human child had managed to skim all in one go. She looked… well, as close to green as someone with fur could become, eyes still red-rimmed - but now, looking at their adopted mother, Frisk could see the same spine of steel that had helped her take on the responsibilities that Asgore's house arrest underneath the mountain had stripped from him.

I don't think I'll be only having Flowey as backup this time, they realized. And though it was a disconcerting thing to realize… it wasn't unwelcome.

I only hope this doesn't backfire on me. On us.


Sometimes, Toriel wished that she had tried harder to discourage Frisk from taking up the position of Monster Ambassador.

It was a thought that occurred to her with some frequency. While she may have been the Queen, the Boss Monster who had taken up Asgore's position in his stead while he remained under Mount Ebott, she was first and foremost a mother. And Frisk, for all their ability to impress her with their intelligence, insight, and determination, was still a child. No child should have the weight of an entire people resting on their tiny shoulders. No child should expect that weight to fall on them.

No child should have that darkness that Toriel sometimes glimpsed behind Frisk's eyes. The darkness that allowed Frisk to know just what fellow sentient beings could do to one another in the throes of violence, to know just how to manipulate a greedy politician, to know how a fanatic thought and that they could not be easily convinced to deviate from their path. It reminded her of another child, long ago, who had fallen into the mountain with shadows behind the brilliant red of their irises, who had died from horrid sickness, forever lost. It reminded her of so many others that had fallen after them, one after the other, leaving one after the other and falling at Asgore's hands when they tried to leave.

(She had lost count of how many nightmares she'd had seeing those very things before her eyes, child after child perishing beyond her reach, helpless and alone. She'd lost count of how many times she'd seen Frisk die in her dreams, to bullets that hadn't miraculously missed and kidnappers who had wanted far more than information from them. Even the night before, she'd been startled awake by such a vision, and only seeking out her child where they were sleeping, and peering through a crack in the door to see that yes, they were still breathing, they were not bleeding, not screaming in pain, had been able to reassure her.)

(She hadn't been able to help but notice that she wasn't the only one having nightmares. She had seen the tell-tale signs of it the next morning. Frisk was disturbingly good at hiding their fears from her… but they couldn't hide the dark circles under their eyes, nor the haunted look in them when they glanced around at the monsters sitting around them at the table at breakfast.)

But despite everything, Toriel had never quite been able to tell Frisk no. Oh, she had tried, so many times. Before the monsters had surfaced, before the strangeness of that event that broke the barrier (the void, as far as the eye could see, but thousands upon thousands of voices around her, among them voices she thought she recognized, all reaching for the sun), when moments of quiet had descended, she had so often found herself trying to persuade Frisk to step back, to allow her and their friends to protect them when the time came, instead of being the ones needing protection. But that very same determination that she so admired proved an unbreakable obstacle, a hurdle she could never quite leap, for Frisk could never be convinced once their mind had been set upon the path ahead.

It was that same unfortunately familiar determination to proceed that Toriel had seen in her child's eyes when they had mentioned their theory of Artemis Fowl having a plan in development. And now, settling in a seat across from the Irishman, Toriel once more wished that she had been able to convince Frisk that only she needed to be here and that it was perfectly fine for them to retreat back to wherever they and the twins had gone that morning.

No matter how intelligent they are… Frisk should not feel as if they are needed for something like this. Especially not when one of the people involved distressed them so intensely that the darkness still refuses to leave.

"I take it that the two of you have taken in the data that I gave the Ambassador this morning?" Despite his cool words, the young man seemed… almost subdued, compared to what she had seen of him previously, sharp blue eyes studying Frisk in particular for signs of unrest. Signs that were easy to see, if you knew them well enough.

"We have," Toriel confirmed - and if her voice was a little softer than it was the last time she spoke to the UN Representative, well, she couldn't help but feel a little relieved that despite his cold, calculating exterior, this human could still feel some sort of horror at what he had found.

If he did not feel it… well. There's no use dwelling on the subject.

"We have," she confirmed, even more softly in an attempt to comfort herself. "And yet both Frisk and I believe you have far more information than what you gave us." She made eye contact with the young man and raised her brow. "My child believes that you at the very least have a plan in development for dealing with O'Reilly. Are they wrong?"

Blue eyes met her own red with a startling intensity, and Toriel found herself sympathizing with Dublin's mayor. What had he said in their first meeting? "I thought there was only one to a planet?" She wasn't used to seeing the same focus and drive she saw in Frisk in other people.

No. Not quite the same as Frisk. Her child was an optimist at heart, even if they tried to temper it with logic and careful planning - always seeing the best of people before the worst. Artemis Fowl, on the other hand, was almost the exact opposite - a pessimist who saw the worst first, and the best only after every last little flaw had been categorized and marked as "non-threatening."

(In that respect… he was more like Chara, wasn't he?)

"They are not wrong," Artemis Fowl said, bringing Toriel back to the present. If he had noticed her momentary lapse of attention, he did not react, instead remaining professional and clinical. "But considering your people's… opinions of how the fairies resolve their problems with humans, I doubt you'd like how we usually operate when a threat to the People is on the table."

Oh, Toriel could easily imagine how the fairies resolved their problems. They'd all but stated it outright during the initial parley, hadn't they?

"A mind wipe or one of these… bio-bombs, I'd assume." She didn't try to keep the coldness out of her voice - she couldn't, when she felt Frisk twitch next to her at her words.

"And you would be correct in that assumption." The Irishman had clearly seen Frisk's reaction as well, but chose not to call attention to it… or possibly ignored it entirely. "Typically, when a human discovers the fairies, a small team is sent in to scout out their location, and isolate them from other humans. Then, depending on the situation, the fairies may choose to engage the threat or attempt negotiations. Either way, the target is mind-wiped or eliminated entirely depending upon how dangerous they actually are to the fairies at that time." He raised an eyebrow. "Considering who may end up getting involved, we are obviously not going to use the usual protocol."

"Good." Frisk, speaking up finally. And though their voice was still trembling a little at the thought of a mind-wipe, the determination that seemed a very part of their being was still evident. "Because you can't just wipe people's memories or kill them and not expect consequences in the long run." Then their eyes darkened. "There're always consequences."

"And while you and I may know that, Ambassador, most fairies do not." Artemis Fowl did not so much as bat an eye at Frisk's words. "As I believe Lieutenant Crane told you while apologizing for her part in your mind-wipe, most fairies below ground have never actually seen humans the same way that many LEP personnel have. To them, we are still the violent barbarians that drove them underground - they have yet to have a chance to see that they are wrong."

"That is no excuse for their ways," Toriel said firmly, frowning at the young man.

"It is not an excuse for them, Your Majesty." And now Fowl's tone was short and clipped, obviously irritated. "I, of all people, am not going to make excuses for them. I may be their ally, but I am not blind to their flaws. And that is why I am willing to convince the Council to work with the monsters rather than deal with this on their own."

Frisk made a strangled-sounding noise of shock in the back of their throat. Flowey, who had been on the verge of dozing off in his pot, jerked up to attention. And Toriel herself couldn't quite stop the flicker of surprise she felt.

"You plan on telling their Council about our alliance? As far as I know, you were previously keeping it a secret in order to keep the fairies going along with it out of trouble, yes?"

"That was the case, but frankly, there's only so much that even I can do to keep the Council from finding out eventually." Fowl's voice turned a touch sour, with some bitter amusement sprinkled in for flavor. "After all, the only people worse than gossip-mongers when trying to keep an unfavorable secret to yourself are politicians."

And despite the situation, and the man she was facing, Toriel couldn't help but snort, her mouth twitching up into a smile.

"Ain't that the truth?" Frisk muttered. Then they raised their voice. "So how are you going to convince them? Since I'm assuming that none of them have actually been to the surface themselves - unless any of them have?"

"None of the current Council members have, though it's not impossible for people from the Lower Elements Police to be elected," the UN representative confirmed. "That being said, though the current Council is not the most reasonable… I think there would be a way to spin our current situation to our favor and get them to actually listen for once. But it would involve two things."

He raised a finger. "Firstly - I would need your agreement to assist me in composing a message to them. While I could convince them to aid you given enough time, time is something we may not have as of now, depending on how quickly O'Reilly and Humanity's Resurgence begin escalating their attacks. So, instead of simply receiving a message from their mildly intimidating ally…" Pale lips twitched up into a smirk. "They will receive a message from their human ally and the Queen and Ambassador of monsterkind, who have both already agreed to a tentative alliance with the fairies."

"And therefore putting the pressure on them so they have to accept," Frisk said, a note of uncertainty in their voice. "After all… they're still not sure if the monsters are going to try to declare war on them or not after the mind-wipe situation. Right? So if we tell them that we agreed to an alliance with the fairies when we came to confront you about your involvement with them…"

"Then they will take the offer," Artemis Fowl confirmed, still smirking a little. "If only out of fear of what might happen if they do not." His eyes glinted sharply. "If you wish to be particularly intimidating… make your disapproval of their treatment of humans in general evident in the message. Considering how many of them throw around suggestions that include some flavor of mind-wipe or bio-bomb when considering how to deal with humans…"

"It'll make them sweat bullets!" Flowey cackled, finally speaking for the first time during the meeting. "I take back half of all the bad things I've thought about you, that's great -!"

Toriel gave the flower a scathing look, but more out of habit than anything else. She had to admit, there was a kind of vindictive satisfaction to the thought of cornering the fairy Council the way that Fowl had suggested.

Still, the flower monster could at least have the decency to not say such things out loud!

"That, I think, would be doable," she agreed. "However, you mentioned there were two things you might need of us. What is the second?"

The smirk disappeared, turning into a frown that could almost be called pensive, and bringing the brief moment of levity down with it. "The second is something that you might find less palatable, considering that it's not terribly difficult to ascertain that the monsters keep some information about... certain things... hidden."

Oh. Oh, he was right, Toriel most certainly did not approve of how this conversation was going. And while she certainly couldn't pass her thoughts back and forth between another the same way the two humans in the room seemed to be able to, she still knew what the elder Fowl was implying.

"Souls. You wish to know about souls."

Frisk, who had been starting to relax despite everything, stiffened again, not quite able to hide their alarm. And the boss monster herself wasn't much better, because both of them knew exactly why that information had been hidden.

With such delicate souls as ours… if the fairies found out just how easy it would be to kill us… It could end up like the Monster-Human war all over again.

Only this time, the casualties might be on both sides.

Artemis Fowl studied them both with eyes as sharp as razors. "I was right, then. There is a reason other than the backlash from various religions that you have hoarded that information to yourselves."

Toriel squared her shoulders and felt very, very glad that she did not tremble easily under pressure. "There is. A very good reason, I might add, young man. Why do the fairies even want to know what we do in the first place?"

"As I understand it? One of the warlocks below ground has a theory that some of the magic they've been attempting to… reverse engineer, more or less, is connected to the soul somehow. That, and they hope it might help them learn more about their own magic and how it functions - even if they understand how it works, the why of it frequently escapes them."

"That," Frisk said, very quietly, "and it'll let them learn more about the monsters, and figure out a way to deal with them if needed."

"That is undoubtedly another reason," Fowl agreed flatly.

"And you expect us to put ourselves at risk for this?" Toriel demanded.

"No, I most certainly do not, Your Majesty. Or, at least, not for free." The young man steepled his fingers, brows furrowing. "If you two both agree to this… Captain Short, Foaly, No. 1, and I can fill you in on examples of the People's technology and magic that I can guarantee that you have yet to encounter - and that should even the playing field somewhat since both parties will be more fully aware of what the other can do."

"Mutually assured destruction," Frisk realized. "We'll know what they might try, and they'll know the same about us - if either of us tries anything, then the other will act."

"Phrased a touch melodramatically, but yes, that's the general gist of the offer." Fowl nodded, expression grim. "It won't guarantee that the fairies will not act, but it will at least even the playing field for you."

Toriel crossed her arms, eyes narrowing in thought. The offer was risky but tempting - she had no idea what the fairies were capable of, not entirely, save for what they'd already seen from this small, secular group of allies they'd tentatively gained, and learning more about their kind could prove useful in the future. And yet, what they would want in exchange…

It would be putting the whole of monsterkind at risk.

And her child had obviously had the same thought, worry visible on their face and thoughts spinning at hundreds of miles an hour behind their eyes.

(Once more, Toriel mourned the fact that her only living child had to make decisions like this, and that despite her utmost wishes there really was no other way.)

"... Do we have time to think your offer over?"

Fowl inclined his head. "Obviously, the sooner you come to a decision the better. However, we can easily spare several days, unless O'Reilly or Humanity's Resurgence decides to escalate the level of threat they pose to all of us."

"In that case," Toriel said firmly, hiding her relief - she had time, they had time, they didn't need to rush into this yet, "we will need to talk to everyone else here before we come to a decision."

"I would expect no less, considering the situation at hand," Fowl nodded. "In that case… until you have discussed matters with your people, or unless you come up with a new plan that we could use in the stead of my own…"

"We need to go find the others now," Frisk whispered, and their voice - dull and overwhelmed, with a strange tone to it that sent cold worry rippling through Toriel's fur. "We don't have the time to waste."


So, funny story about this chapter. I had it half-finished for ages when my brain was in Minecraft mode, and then, somehow, the same day I finally left Minecraft mode and decided to jump back into freaking Starbound, I GET THE ENTIRE CHAPTER DONE. I really hate the way my muse works sometimes lol

I was initially going to write this whole chapter in Frisk's POV, but it didn't really… feel right when I tried? Then suddenly my brain shoved the idea of a Toriel POV at me and the rest was easy enough to figure out after that (shrugs)

Also, yeah, Frisk may try to hide things from their mom, but Toriel IS a mom. She knows that SOMETHING is bothering her kid, knows that they have nightmares (though not what those nightmares are about), and she's a very perceptive lady - you have to be, to be able to be in her current position as Queen (and technically representative) of monsterkind. She's just… not going to broach the subject yet. At this point, at least, it's mostly 'cause of the whole situation that Frisk and their friends are in with the fairies - even if things are getting better between the two parties, they're still not exactly trustworthy allies to the monsters, plus there's the whole mind-wipe frickery that went down. Toriel has (correctly) guessed that whatever it was that she knows that Frisk has nightmares about was included in their memories - and thus thinks (also correctly) that if she asks then Frisk would evade her questions. So instead, she's doing the best she can as silent support, even if she doesn't always approve of Frisk pushing themselves so hard.

And yeah, Frisk is not the only Dreemurr that has nightmares. Toriel has them too sometimes. Sometimes, like mentioned above in the chapter, the nightmares are of all the previous human children she tried to help dying, or Frisk dying like they did, either underground or on the surface. However, other nightmares originate from far earlier regrets - such as what Toriel thinks happened to Chara (them falling ill and her being unable to heal them enough to keep them alive) and what happened to Asriel (that she knows of). No matter the species, no matter how long ago it was, the death of a mother's child or children WILL leave a mark.