"What in Frond's name is that thing doing here?"

"I did not sign up for this! D'Arvit, I'm literally right outside the window, I can see the damn flower from here!"

"Recon Captain Evergreen requesting orders for an immediate retreat from our current location!"

Listening to the panicking voices of various fairies over the new LEP earpiece Holly had given him ("Apparently the Council's decided you're trustworthy enough to hear police broadcasts, what with all the monster trouble," she'd told him, rolling her eyes), Artemis couldn't help but wonder how it was that every fairy catastrophe that he got wind of seemed to make itself known just as he was walking through his own front door.

"Everybody be quiet!" Holly's voice barked over the airwaves, a sharp blade of authority slicing through the storm of words.

The hubbub fell to near radio silence, and, after an irritated huff, she continued. "Finally. Alright, one at a time – Captain Evergreen, there're currently no other Recon officers available to take your team's place – you'll have to wait a few days. In the meantime, stay off the ground."

"But –"

"D'Arvit, are you LEP or not?! Stop whining, it's not as if you're trapped in the room with it! Make sure you're all running hot, stay shielded, and call in every hour. Foaly, any estimate on the flower's sensory range?"

"Uh..." There was a frantic clicking as the centaur began running lightning-quick calculations. "Well, I'd estimate the minimum range being… at least five meters, but it's probably greater than that."

"Right. Evergreen, keep a minimum of five meters away from the monster at all times, preferably further away than that. Got it?"

"Yessir!"

The remaining fearful murmurs went silent as, presumably, fairies rushed to follow her orders rather than keep their minds on the source of their panic.

Once there had been nothing save the slight background hum of ambient noise for at least a minute, and he had settled in his office chair, Artemis said wryly, "Forgive me, Holly, but I do believe that Recon's standards have taken a steep dive since you joined Section Eight."

There was an amused snicker from Foaly. "Well, Holly is pretty exceptional –"

"Exceptional I may be, but we have other things to worry about right now," Holly interrupted. "Artemis, I don't suppose you've somehow managed to unearth this flower monster's biography in the last couple of weeks?"

"No, unfortunately." He had already scoured the Internet for information upon hearing of the incidents involving the Underground Retrieval team. He had found nothing – a novelty, for him – even when taking more questionable routes to obtain said information. So far as the Worldwide Web was concerned, the flower was a rude, childish creature who barely even existed.

Navigating through Frisk's blog on his laptop, Artemis continued, "However, it does appear that the monster ambassador was aware of this monster – according to their official accounts of the Underground, this flower was actually the first monster they met when they fell into the Ruins." His eyes picked out a particular detail in the text, and his nose wrinkled. "And it seems that monsters are truly wretched at naming themselves as well as places. Of all the names he could go by, why Flowey?"

A choking, spluttering sound came from Foaly's channel, and Holly groaned loudly. "You're kidding. That's actually its name?"

"His name, yes."

"And what else is in there? A warning, stay away, murderous plant here?"

"Surprisingly, no." Artemis began scanning through the rest of the blog, looking for other mentions of the monster. "Several comments have been left concerning his personality, but there hasn't been a single mention of an attack, or the possibility of one."

"So we get special treatment." Holly's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Great. What about the two monsters that Flowey arrived with? The skeletons? They wouldn't happen to be murderers as well, would they?"

Another click of the mouse brought up a different page, and several blog entries concerning said skeletons. "It would appear not. Of course, considering that the Ambassador apparently missed the flower's murderous tendencies, appearances can be deceiving." The Internet would not likely be an accurate source of information in this endeavor.

"Right. It's probably best if we just keep a safe distance from all of them. Let us know if you find anything else, alright?"

"Of course."

The communicator fell completely silent, and Artemis carefully pulled the earpiece out of his ear and set it aside.

Well, if the Internet could not supply the necessary data, then he could set aside some time for questioning a reliable source directly, couldn't he?


Frisk bit down a groan, sorely tempted to start beating their head against the table in frustration.

Unfortunately, since the computer's keyboard was there, there was no room to beat their head against the table without breaking something, so instead, they satisfied themselves by drawing angry scribbles in the margins of the notepad resting at their elbow.

*It shouldn't be this damn hard to find one stupid creature!

However much they agreed with Chara's sentiments, though, it was very clear that it really was this hard to find the information they were looking for. Rubbing at their eyes, Frisk glared at the computer screen and the rows upon rows of results from their most recent Internet search.

They'd been at this for a couple of days now. After Sans had admitted he'd found little to no explanation as to how a SAVE point had appeared on the surface ("Best guess at this point is that there's some sort of ambient magic there, or maybe there were some space-time shenanigans goin' on, but I won't know for sure without having a look around, kid."), they'd moved on to something they could actually research themselves. Since their schedule was the most open it had been in weeks, Frisk had taken advantage of it and, under the guise of giving Sans, Papyrus and Flowey tours around their favorite places in Dublin, gone to the local public library in the hopes of finding some mention of whatever creatures had been wandering around the Underground.

They'd originally started off with books, trawling through several sections of mythology, but, as was often the case in areas with large monster populations, many of those books had been checked out in bulk – probably by either historians of both species trying to find stories of possible real-life events, or monsters who felt like giggling at the odd interpretations of monsters that turned up in human folklore.

So they'd turned to the Internet instead, and was finding it woefully… well, lacking wasn't the right word. It would be more accurate to say woefully overwhelming. There were just so many different mythological creatures from so many cultures to sort through.

Blinking furiously (they'd been glaring at the computer too long), Frisk turned back to their written list and started running down it again, just in case they'd missed something.

Sirens: either bird-people or mermaids depending on the source, not humanoid.

Selkie: seals that can turn into people by shedding their seal skin and then can turn back so long as they have their seal skins. Some stories say they can create illusions? Invisibility possibly illusion Flowey said they were vibrating too fast to see, no illusions. Too far from sea?

Kitsune: Fox spirits with lots of tails. Shapeshifters, illusionists, tricksters, can take human forms, can be perfect copy of a person, mentions of controlling fire and lightning people in Underground used guns not fire or lightning. Can kitsunes heal themselves?

Leshy: some sort of forest spirit thing that has a horrible cry and imitates voices to lead people astray. Also shapeshifter, can grow and shrink. Maybe?

Púca: Celtic shape-shifting fairy that can turn into animals like dogs, horses, rabbits, etc. Gives good advice but also likes terrorizing humans. Likes riddles. Creatures of hills and mountains?

Encantado – dolphin-like creature that can change into humans at night, has superior musical abilities (voice?), seductive, attracted to parties. Uses hats to hide protruding foreheads – Flowey said people in UG wore helmets? Uses various mind control techniques

Trow: Small ugly deformed creatures, sometimes invisible to humans. (What about to monsters) Would sneak into houses to warm themselves by fires. Lived underground in ancient mounds called howes. Kidnapped humans, pranksters, made milk and ale spoil and things go missing.

Pixies: tiny fairy pranksters – loved to pull pranks and cause trouble, blamed on tons of minor things like blown-out candles, mysterious taping, getting lost, etc. Probably not

Dokkaebi: Korean goblins created by haunted household items? Tricksters, use powers of persuasion to convince people to do pointless things like wrestling all night (or to make people stop asking questions?), shapeshifters.

Addonexus: something human-like that can control light and shadow, heal people's wounds, control their bones (like that guy from Naruto, Kimi-something?) See people's natural auras, age slowly, difficult to hurt because they heal really fast

"Have you had any luck finding what you're looking for?"

Frisk yelped, nearly leaping out of their seat, and spun around to find one of the librarians hovering over their shoulder.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" The man blustered. "I didn't mean to startle you!"

"It's fine, mister, I just wasn't paying attention." Flushing, and more than a little miffed at Chara for not warning them that someone was coming, Frisk considered their list, then the man.

What the heck, might as well try. "Actually, mister, could you help me?" They put on their most innocent face. "A friend of mine was talking about some sort of mythological creature he knew about, but he couldn't remember what they were called, just that they looked kind of human, and could turn invisible, control people with their voices, and heal themselves really fast. Do you know of anything like that?"

"Hmm..." The librarian tapped his chin thoughtfully, thinking about it. "Can't say I have."

Someone who had been working at the computer opposite Frisk's – a pimply blonde teenager with a round, friendly face – peered up over the top of the monitor. "You mean like those creatures lots of people kept seeing after the Crash?"

*Say what now?

Blinking, Frisk peered at the girl. "After the Crash?"

"Yup." She nodded. "Right after the Crash, there were all these odd little people that popped up. Just appeared out of nowhere, along with a bunch of weird technology that was, like, way more advanced than human stuff should be, then disappeared again."

She turned back to her own computer, and Frisk stared for a couple more seconds in disbelief. They'd never heard about anything like that, but, well, they'd only been maybe four at the time, and their biological parents had probably been too busy in the Crash's aftermath to really care about odd sightings like that.

"I think the library still has some old newspaper clippings from then," the librarian offered. "Hardly anybody ever wants to read them, though. Do you want me to get some for you?"

Frisk didn't hesitate. "Yes please!"

Several minutes later, the man came back with several slightly yellowed newspaper clippings kept safe inside plastic page protectors and handed them over. Frisk only had to flip through a couple before a title leaped out at them.

Strange Creatures Spotted off the Coast of Duncade! Aliens or Something more Magical in Origin?

*What the hell?

A brief scan through the article revealed that it was mostly a debate concerning several strange small, humanoid creatures that had appeared in unidentified submarine-like ships, and whether or not they were actually aliens. There were little details about the creatures themselves, only described as "small and humanoid, with pointed ears," and apparently the beings had disappeared without a trace – and their technology self-destructed – before much could be found out.

*Okay, that's… a little suspicious.

Silently agreeing, Frisk flipped through more articles, no headlines really jumping out at them until one that read Fairy Fort found Near Tara Disappears Overnight, and the sight of that first word sent a thrill up their spine.

Fairies.

They checked their list again. A good number of the creatures on their list so far were fairies – there were goblins and pixies and elf-like creatures, plus beings like the Leshy which could be seen as nature spirits, just the same as fairies sometimes were depicted as, and there were many more besides that shared similar characteristics.

*But those things in the Underground were using technology, and I don't know about fairies healing themselves…? Is that a thing?

Frisk flipped through the articles again.

"Fairy" Sightings near Stonehenge!

Elves or Aliens? Speculative Theories on "Little People" Sightings All Over the World!

What Are They and Where Did They Come From?

Man Looses Memories After Calling in a Fairy Sighting in Canada!

Missing Criminals and AWOLs found in Africa – Possible Supernatural Involvement?

Each article was relatively short – obviously, the Crash and the aftermath of it had been more important to people – but there were still enough constants to ring several alarm bells, and in every article, the descriptions of the creatures were relatively consistent.

Short humanoid creatures with pointed ears, in high-tech-looking suits, some with mechanical wings. Some were injured but healed themselves quickly. They appeared suddenly, as if from nowhere, along with technology that should have been noticed by human technology pre-Crash, but, for whatever reason, wasn't. And that man that lost his memory in Canada said something about dreaming about a voice like a choir of angels…

*Flowey said something about that creature's voice sounding musical, didn't he?

He had – after he'd stopped sulking about being left out of the loop about the SAVE point.

*Which means that if these things are the same ones as the ones that appeared in the Underground…

...then not only can they control people, but they can erase their memories.

The thought sent a chill down Frisk's spine. They'd lost memories before, in previous runs – if a Reset occurred too far into a timeline, then there was a risk of side effects. Losing memories seemed to be the most common side effect –heck, they'd even forgotten about the Resets completely once, and, apart from a sense of deja vu, had no idea they were repeating their journey until they'd regained those memories in the next run.

But it wasn't always memories that got erased.

If they can alter memories, what else can they change? And why would they? Why did they want that person not to know about them?

Frisk handed the articles back to the librarian, thanked him (and the teenager, who was still on her computer), then turned and walked as quickly as they could without looking too urgent towards the mythology section, where they'd last seen Sans.

Things had just gotten a lot more confusing.


If this chapter had a title, it would probably be "the Internet fails everybody." Also, I think this might've been the longest chapter yet. Yay!

Fun fact: I literally typed in several search words into Google, just to see what kind of results Frisk might get if they did the same thing. Those creatures from Frisk's list are things I actually researched, feel free to look them up!

Also, the awesome MemorySteel in the comments of the last chapter pointed out that "People that weren't humans or monsters" from the last two chapters is actually a pun. Geez, Sans was only really here for one chapter, and we're already seeing really bad puns! That one wasn't even done on purpose! (On the other hand, now I can't wait for them to find out about the fairies – the PEOPLE – so that Sans can realize that was a pun and start snickering.)

And now worldbuilding stuff, presented by me and danielxcutter. Today's lesson: Why do the Genocide Runs happen?

The reason why the Genocide runs occurred is actually tied into the Resets. People who've read the Artemis Fowl books know that time travel, or anything similar such as interdimensional travel (*coughcoughlimbocough*), has a risk of adverse side-effects, everything from switching body-parts with another person to losing memories or being de-aged both physically and mentally (all of which has been seen to happen in canon). This is also true for this little universe I've created.

When the Resets occur, or when Frisk LOADs, they're traveling backward in time to either the moment they last SAVED, or the moment they landed in the Underground. For whatever reason, Frisk has yet to experience any physical side-effects – however, MENTAL side-effects have occurred, and the farther back in time Frisk goes, the higher likelihood there is of those occurring. Usually, the effects are something akin to memory loss, but in the case of the Genocide runs, what actually happened is that Frisk lost both their memories of the monsters and their EMPATHY. That combination, combined with the stress they were going through by the time those runs came around (and, in the case of the first Genocide run, Chara sort of encouraging them to keep killing after a while, because they were desperate and also a huge jerk back then) made them go on the genocidal warpath. They stayed on said warpath until being killed too many times by Sans, at which point a Reset occurred again and they regained what they lost.

They still remember what they did during those runs, and the more Resets they go through, the more likely it is they might end up losing their empathy for more than one run in a row. That's why they're so concerned about another Reset happening, especially now – they know that the Genocide timelines both happened after a Reset ending a very long timeline, and this is the longest timeline they've gone through yet. And they REALLY don't want another Genocide timeline – or any other timeline at all, really.