AUTHORS NOTE
This chapter in the tale contains spoilers to a previous AU I've worked on, Underfire. To those that are curious, this story is also available to read on FF. To those that are sensitive to spoilers, I advise reading that story first.
Happy reading!
The coffee mug fell to the counter with a clatter, nearly spilling its contents, but that didn't matter. All his eyes could see was the newspaper headline, which they scanned again and again. Alerted by the noise, his wife entered.
"Frederick, what is it?"
He slowly looked up, growing pale. "It's...It's Carson. They…" he gulped. "They just found him...and his family. Shallow graves, Amelie...the police are saying they were shot."
Amelie covered her mouth. "Oh my god...Frederick...I'm sorry, we need to shut this down. If whoever's doing this is willing to go that far? That's not a risk I'm willing to take."
Frederick shook his head, throwing the paper down on the table. "That's not something I'm willing to do. Amelie, this is our life's work. We're so close, and you just want to throw it all away?!"
"Dammit, Frederick, look around you! How many bodies does that make?! Yvonne, Alexandre, and now not just Carson, but his family! You're willing to put your work ahead of your own family?!"
"You really think they'll stop if we do?! If the people that did this went to all this trouble, I know for a fact that they're going to take our research and use it against us. What's to keep them from just taking us and forcing us to start over even if we stop?! I'm sorry...but we have to see this through to the end. If not for our sakes, then for the sake of fulfilling the legacy our friends should have gotten to share."
Amelie leaned against the fridge, folding her arms. "What about our family though?"
Frederick placed one hand on his wife's shoulder. "Trust me...nobody wants our family to be safe more than me. But as long as we're here, none of us will be safe. I think we should take the maiden voyage."
"And never come back?" Amelie finished the thought. "Honey, you know we can't do that. Wilfred's still too weak, he'd never survive the journey!"
"I know. I know. Listen, just hear me out. I talked with an old friend of yours. The one that...helped you all that time ago? He said there's a small town. Nice and remote. It's called Ebott. There's a perfect little orphanage there-"
"No! Absolutely not! How could you even suggest such a thing?!"
"I'm trying to keep us all safe!"
Amelie slapped his hand away. "You are asking me to abandon our son! He's not even a year old!"
"You don't think I know that?!" Frederick shouted back. "But you have to listen! As long as we're with him, he'll never be safe! I know this is hard. I'd die to stay with him. I know you would too! But...I'm not willing to die if he's going to follow suit just a few seconds later. We have to do this for his own good! He won't have to know what happened. All he'll know is how to be happy. He'll have friends. They won't find him. They won't have a need to. Amelie...you need to trust me. Alright?"
Her vision blurred. Quickly she turned away, unwilling to let her husband see her tears. She knew he was right. As long as they stayed, they were a threat to their son's life.
"When?"
"Tonight. I've already made the plans. He said he'd get in touch with you to finalize transportation. Maybe...Maybe when it's safe we can come back. But not before. Please Amelie...for our son…"
She nodded, leaning against him. He held her in an embrace, chin on her head as she started to weep.
"UPH-" Frisk grunted as the Comet shot out of the void, throwing him forward against the belts. An alarm started blaring from the console as the Comet shook.
"ah hell, they shot one of the engines, we need to put her down, now! frisk, activate the emergency retro-rockets, that panel over there! hurry!" Sans pointed at one of the panels on the dash near the edge. Frisk, still wheezing, leaned forward, setting to work. Sans jerked hard on the controls, just trying to keep the Comet in the air.
A loud chunk rang out, and all at once the Comet started tilting down and right.
"What was that?!" Frisk yelled over the din, pausing in his work.
"just lost the stabilizers, frisk, i need those rockets up pronto or we're not going to be around much longer!"
Frisk nodded, and jerked the lever towards himself. Almost immediately the ship began to even out, but it was still rapidly heading for the trees. Sans slammed one of the buttons next to the controls. The Comet lurched as it slowed dramatically, but by now it was clear: the crash was inevitable.
"brace yourselves!" Sans called back, still fighting with the wheel. Branches went flying as the wings clipped the thin trees. Frisk closed his eyes. Then, impact! All the ship shuddered as the belly of the Comet struck the ground, sliding for several meters before coming to a rest. Next the rest of the Comet powered down slowly, the alarm still whining from the dash. From one of the exterior cameras, Frisk saw smoke. Sans pushed another button, and fans started clearing out the smoke. He huffed.
"everyone alright?"
Frisk nodded. Alphys grunted, still holding one hand to her bloody shoulder. Flowey wrestled his buckles loose, before lashing out.
"What kinda landing was that?!"
"what do you want me to do?! ain't my fault we were getting shot at!" he snapped back.
Frisk stood. "HEY! In case you haven't noticed, we aren't exactly out of the woods yet."
Flowey's eye twitched. Instantly Frisk realized what he said. "Pun not intended. Look, the point is we're still in trouble. Now instead of fighting with each other, let's get the hell out of here and start worrying about helping Alphys. Alright?!"
He walked to his friend, helping her out of the seat. He supported her as Flowey and Sans glanced at each other, somewhat begrudgingly, then wandered to the door. Sans opened one of the panels near the hatch, pushing a red emergency button. The hatch groaned as it forced itself open.
The skeleton led the way, hopping down from the Comet, Flowey close behind. Frisk and Alphys followed, as Sans stopped to help Alphys down. The Comet had crashed into a gulley, with woods all around. Rushing water was audible close by. Sans looked to the wreckage, while Frisk helped Alphys sit down against one of the gulley walls.
"Y...Y-You don't have to w-worry about me F-Frisk. I'm f-fine."
"No you're not," Flowey said, kneeling with Frisk close by. "You guys have a first-aid kit in there?"
"Y-Yeah. To the r-right of the hatch."
Flowey grunted, going to retrieve it. As he climbed back inside, Alphys looked over to Frisk.
"You've...seen him like this m-more than I have...when...when will the prince c-come back?"
Frisk sighed. "I don't know. Could be a few minutes, could be a couple hours, maybe even a day or two. He'll come back when he's ready." Flowey re-emerged from the Comet, carrying the black bag with a red cross on the front of it. He tossed it to Frisk, who quickly unzipped it. Then he began bandaging the wound. Alphys winced.
"Th-That won't d-do anything to c-cure it, only p-prolong infection."
"Hey, that's something right?" Frisk grinned, trying to look confident. Sans sighed.
"well, she's in bad shape. they shot one of the engines just before we jumped away. it's fixable, but it'll take time. the damage to the engine spread to our stabilizers which are completely gone, we'll need about another week for me to fix those. at least the airbrake did its job, prevented too much damage on impact. the next biggest question then'll be how much damage was done to the structure when we hit the ground. all in all, i'd predict an easy month or two of repairs before we're up and running again.
Frisk walked over, muttering quietly to Sans. "Alphys might not have that long. You and I both know that we aren't equipped to deal with wounds like that. That kit is only going to do so much."
Sans glanced over. "i know. just...trying to think this through one thing at a time. one or two of us should go, see if there's anyone close by that can help. there's also the issue of our little friends. if they can follow us to one world, then no doubt they can follow us to another. we're on the clock, so i suggest that we start by-"
Nearby the distinct sound of a cocked gun rang out. They froze.
"Hands up. All of you!"
Gradually, the trio followed the order. Frisk turned, and on top of the gulley stood a young man, definitely human. In fact, he didn't look too much older than Frisk himself. In his hands was a hunting rifle...the barrel pointed straight down at Alphys. The man glared over the group.
"You have exactly ten seconds to give me a good reason why I shouldn't shoot you all right now."