An: Just like in Becoming Whole, this will start serious, and delve into laughs and memes. And this story is shorter than my nromal.

~

When Hornet awoke, she saw void receding and infection shriveling. She turned to see Ghost's shell cracked. In half. There was no way in the Abyss would Hornet let the Little Wanderer just perish like that. That and, Hornet had gotten attached to her silent sibling.

So Hornet walked. Journeying somewhere into the unknown, hoping someone could help.

~

Hornet didn't know how long she had walked. All she knew is that she was DETERMINED. Determined to get Ghost help.

Out of all the things she expected, she didn't expect to see a city. A castle of all things. A sprawling kingdom. It was obvious that this kingdom, whatever it was, did not experience the infection.

But this kingdom, it was not a bug kingdom. It was something...other. A kingdom that had known hope, instead of fear. It was something Hornet wished she could have.

She walked even more, until she ended up at the castle. As she walked up to the entrance, she was met with surprisingly little opposition. She freely walked through the castle.

She had finally found some form of life in this castle. There were seven things. Hornet had no idea how to describe them. All she could do was get their attention. And one by one, they all turned. And one by one they all noticed Ghost's cracked shell in her hands. One of them, a white something, stepped forward. Hornet was expecting growls, but kind words came out instead.

"Why do you carry that around? My child, we are free. You can mourn freely."

Hornet was determined to get her point across.

"My sibling. Is unique. They can come back. Please help."

Hornet felt weak asking for help. Being the Protector of Hallownest, being the progeny of the Pale King, asking for help was a show of weakness. But she still asked for help, and that made her stronger than she could have been. Facing her fear.

All of the things shared a knowing look. But Hornet could see they were all willing to help.

Two of them stepped foward. The white something, and a skeleton? As they stepped closer, Hornet could feel a change in the air. Power. Just as she had felt in Ghost, these two were powerful.

The skeltons eye started to glow, while the white something's hands started to glow with what looked like fire.

Hornet, for once, didn't engage in a battle, she stepped back. Slowly but surely, Ghost's shell started to meld back together. A body formed. Arms. Legs. Horns. Just like always, Ghost came back with cloak and nail fully formed.

And as always, when surrounded by something Ghost lashed out. Thankfully it was just the nail, spells hurt. Hornet had been hit with her fair share.

Thankfully the two had quick reflexed and could dodge out of the way. Ghost kept advancing, so Hornet had to step in.

Throwing her needle so it would arc in a way that it would wrap around Ghost, effectively restraining them. Not to say Ghost still struggled though.

"Ghost."

The wriggling stopped.

"You defeated the infection. But you, your shade, in the process." For one prone to being vague, Hornet was struggling. "Your shell cracked in half. After all of the death, I couldn't bear to have anymore. So I decided to save you-my sibling. If I couldn't save anyone else, I knew you- at least had a possibility of coming back."

No reply. Not that Hornet was expecting one anyways.

"And as for The Hollow Knight, there were no remains of his body."

Nothing.

Through out all of this, the Seven had been watching this with shock.

The fuzzy something spoke. "I have no idea what you have been through, but it seems that we are all now free. My name is Toriel. Let us rest, and decide what we should do."

One by one, the others introduced themselves. The skeleton was Sans. There was also another skeleton- Papyrus. There was another fuzzy something- Asgore. There was a yellow something- Alphys. There was a blue something- Undyne. And there was a something. Introduced as a human. Human Frisk.

Hornet had no idea what a human was, but they couldn't be much worse than the one she had just met.

~

Everyone was sitting at a table. Everyone except Ghost. Who was nail-pogoing off of everyone's heads. Ghost had figured out that since no present took damage from the nail- soul extracting damage that is. Hence the pogoing. And why Hornet was being pogoed off of.

Frisk, the human, watched in amused silence.

You would think that after all Ghost had been through, they would act more adult-like. No. Nail-pogoing.

When Ghost bounced, the monsters, as Hornet as learned, their heads would bow a little bit.

Sans head happened to be the one wacked when Hornet started to speak.

"I am the Protector of Hallownest, Hornet. Before Ghost, there was the Infection. No one knew where it came from. Before civilization collasped, bugs kept getting sick. Until, so many had gotten sick, no one could survive. Almost everyone had been infected. There were a few who weren't. But Ghost is a special type of bug. Ghost is a vessel. No thoughts, no voice, no will. A literal shell. But we are siblings, and it counts to me. Then, the infection grew." The nail-pogoing strikes got harder.

"The infected more dangerous."

Wack. Wack. Wack.

"The final fight. Or so I thought."

Almost everyone had scooted away from the table except Papyrus and Sans. Ghost was now bouncing between them with their full force. Neither of them seemed to be in discomfort.

"And now we are here today."

The only sound was the sound of Ghost's nail.

Sans looked up. His eye glowed. And Ghost floated in the air between Sans amd Papyrus's head.

"Look kid, I get you're traumatized. But you can't take your anger out on us. It is all over. Its done. You won. The Radiance, its not coming back. Plus, that and I'm not sure how much longer anyone could stand the xylophone music you made out of mine and Pap's skulls." Sans said.

At the last line, everyone except for Hornet had laughed. Frisk laughed because she liked the puns and jokes, and Hornet did not laugh because she had no idea what a joke even was. Jokes did not exist in Hallownest.

Ghost, free from Sans hold, just stared on in silence. As did Frisk.

"Now that the introductions and stories have been shared, what would you like to do Frisk?" Toriel asks.

No hesitation. She pointed to Toriel.

"You want to stay? With us?" A nod.

Tension that Hornet hadn't even noticed was in the room, left.

Amd with that, preparations were made. To the surface. And a new world.

An:

-the knowing look was when monsters fall down

-I mean, if Sans can attack, he's bound to be able to heal.

-since when you play Hollow Knight, you come back a but dazed, but fully formed, I thought I would go off of that.

-intead of using her needle to 'Spiderman', Hornet felt guilty, not being able to save Ghost, not worthy enough, if you will to use the needle, that is why she walks. (in the beginning)

-NO HornetxGhost. First of all, thats incest. Second of all I'm writing a wholesone story, I'm not down for that life. Thirdly, sibling relationship. All the wholesome things.

-and I do apologize if I do pronoun shifts randomly, surprisingly I kinda sturggle with that. I know The Hollow Knight and Ghost, as vessels are genderless, but for the sake if story-telling, I will probaly end up making The Hollow Knight a 'he' Frisk a 'she' and probably Ghost a 'she' Or I could just forget and mess up the pronouns anyways. Its fine, I'll figure it out.

-if you hadn't guessed, the fuzzy something is Toriel

-Oh! and the reason Hornet encounters no one to fight in the castle us because she is neither human nor monster. She has a soul, but it is not recognized as a soul to iniaitate a fight. Ghost even more so.

-when Ghost was pogoing, its a different kingdom. Soul manipulation as recognized in Hallownest was different than in The Underground, so they don't take damage, Hornet being from Hallownest, will take damage, hence why she is being avoided.