Feel free to vote for any one of these titles below! Since nobody's told me otherwise, voting for the series title will close in… four chapters now. Yeah, that sounds about right.
The Magic of Souls (1)
Tales of Monsters, Humans, and Fairies (1)
Fairies and Monsters Gone Fowl (6)
Stories About Fairies, Monsters, and Two Bizarre Humans
Fairytales (13)
Temporal Dynamics for the Magically Inclined (9)
Okay Flowey, Stop Traumatizing the Fairies (6)
Underground Fairies
A Fairy Strange Crossover
(Thank you for voting!)
Frisk could count on one hand the number of times they'd felt the same overwhelming relief they were feeling now.
The first time had been when, after dozens of timelines of only seeing black after "escaping" from the Underground without the monsters, they'd finally freed the monsters and been able to see the sun they'd once taken for granted. That relief had been a joyful one – standing under the sky in that glorious moment had felt so final , like every last problem in the world had been solved just like that.
It had only taken three months after that for a Reset to bring them crashing back down to Earth, and make them realize that getting to the surface was only the beginning of their problems, but the relief they'd felt before then was still genuine.
The second time had been a far less joyous occasion – it had been relief tempered with guilt, and horror, and a general feeling of why did I do that, when they'd woken up in the timeline following on the heels of their first Genocide Run, and realized that while yes, they'd done all those horrible things to the monsters and filled the Underground with their dust, now the monsters were alive again, every last one. They'd never been as thankful for the Resets as they were in that moment, no matter the guilt and visceral horror that had accompanied the gratitude.
The third time had been the first time Frisk had taken a bullet for a monster on the surface after the Genocide Run. The moment it registered that the metal slug had torn through their lung, and not through the head of the monster behind them, Frisk had felt wildly, hysterically thankful that it was them dying on the ground, and not the monster, even if their death meant time rewinding again. It was worth it because that meant they didn't have to see another monster turn to dust.
The hysterical gratefulness mobbing their thoughts now, as they were freed from their bonds by the green-winged fairy, was almost so intense as to rival every last one of those moments.
I'm getting out of here. Someone came to get me out. A fairy came to get me out.
The fairies aren't the enemy here, and I don't think they ever were.
It was a stupidly idealistic thought to have, considering that they had no idea why the fairy was breaking them out – well, no idea save for her comment of we can't let humans like these know about us. But despite this, well, Frisk felt that just this once, they could afford to be idealistic, because they could think of several, less risky ways the fairies could've chosen to make them keep quiet about them – they could have tried to use that hypnotic power of theirs to make them forget, or simply killed them, to name a couple.
But instead, they were risking themselves to get Frisk out of here. Not killing them. Not erasing their memories. They had mounted a rescue.
*Oi, come down from Cloud Nine, Frisk. We're not out of the woods yet. And get some of that rope!
Chara's right. Mind still whirling, Frisk numbly obeyed Chara's command, picking up the longest length of rope that had fallen around them when the fairy had cut them free and tying it around their waist before following the fairy out of their cell. Can't afford to be distracted now… there are so many ways this could go wrong.
And they'd never been in a violent situation where a length of rope wouldn't have been handy. Worst case scenario – and this was very much a worst-case scenario – they could use the rope to strangle themselves. It wouldn't be the first time they'd had to kill themselves in order to LOAD.
They nearly had a heart attack when they stepped out of the cell, and found themselves between two guards still very much on their feet, and staring at the wall in front of them.
Crap, crap, crap, they're gonna see me -!
"Hey, kid relax." The fairy's voiced was pitched low, so as not to carry in the empty hallway. "They can't see you, and even if they could, they won't be moving for a while yet."
Frisk gulped and turned to look at the tiny woman. "W-what did you…?"
"P-paralytic patches," a new voice said softly, and Frisk let out a little squeak of shock as another fairy – apparently male and with mechanical wings, this time – appeared from thin air next to them, and pushed past them to close their cell door and begin fiddling with the lock using an odd tool and trembling fingers.
"Standard Recon equipment since a couple of years ago," the first fairy confirmed quietly and gestured for them to come closer. "Slap them on any exposed skin, and the human's dead to the world for at least a few minutes." She produced what looked like some sort of fabric sheet from a pouch on her belt – a sheet which promptly crackled with unseen electricity and turned the same colors as the floors and walls, much to Frisk's (and Chara's, if the startled noise was any indication) shock. "Under here, quickly! We need to get out of here before they come to again."
Despite the shock of seeing what amounted to a real-life invisibility cloak , Frisk didn't hesitate, ducking under the sheet. It was just barely big enough to cover them completely, and somewhat see-through on the inside – the same way that those one-way veils you saw on Halloween costumes were see-through.
The second fairy finished locking the cell door again with a resounding click and then disappeared again as the woman pulled a cord off of her belt, and held it out to Frisk.
"Clip this onto anything you can," she ordered. "You might lose track of me without it."
They took the cord in one hand. "Lose track of -?
The woman vanished. One moment she was there, and the next there was nothing but empty air, and bone-jarring vibrations were humming down the length of the cord from where the other end had to be. With a yelp, Frisk quickly clipped the cord to one of their belt loops before they dropped and lost it.
"G-got it!" They managed.
" Good." The fairy's voice sounded like it was coming through a fan – a really powerful, intense fan. Considering the strength of the vibrations rolling up and down the cable, it was a shock they could understand her at all. "Follow me."
There was a tug from the other end of the cord, and, wrapping their concealing fabric more securely around them, Frisk followed it.
"Hey, would you look at that, a Mud Kid with sense. T-took long enough to find one. "
Crane's eyes narrowed inside her helmet, and she glanced back at where the Ambassador was trailing behind her before reaching up and switching off her microphone so that the human wouldn't hear her response. "Private, now is not the time for racism. Or sarcasm. Eyes forward and ears open."
"C-come on, Lieutenant, you know how I am by now." The Private's voice wheedled – despite his words, however, which were obviously intended to be nonchalant, his voice was trembling with repressed nerves. "I have to take a jab at something , otherwise I'm going to lose my n-nerves and fly out the nearest window."
"Well, take a jab at something else! The kid doesn't deserve any of your flak, even if they can't hear it. So you'd better shut your damn mouth and scout ahead like you're supposed to, otherwise I'm stuffing you into a cell filled with goblins when we head back underground!"
The other officer squeaked and went blissfully silent. Thank Frond. She had a hard time dealing with idiots on her best days, and considering that she wanted desperately to break protocol and hunt down a certain human Bastard but wasn't able to without endangering the mission, and therefore the Ambassador… no, this wasn't one of her good days.
"Got a couple of guards coming around the corner soon," one of the techies on the other communication channels said, sounding almost sympathetic. "Better warn the kid."
Crane made sure to take several deep breaths to calm down before she un-muted her exterior microphone again.
"We got a couple guards nearby," she whispered. "Stay quiet, okay?"
There was the faintest of rustling behind them, suggesting that the human had nodded, but other than that they were eerily silent.
No kid should be this quiet.
Kids were supposed to be noisy. Running around, breaking things, flying on new wingsets, yelling and screaming as they played or picked fights with one another. Even the quieter kids still made noise, if you knew what to listen for, even if it was only humming or walking off to find a calmer place to read or draw or do whatever else they wanted to do on their own.
But the Ambassador? Their footsteps were dead silent. If Crane hadn't been able to tell by the tension of the cable on her belt that the kid was following her, she would've thought she'd left them standing back at the cell door.
I don't think I want to know why they're so good at being quiet. If I did know, I'd probably just want to break The Bastard's face even more.
Not that The Bastard was necessarily to blame, but still, how she longed to take out her anger on something . Hell, even a rock to melt with her Neutrino would be better than nothing!
Now there's a thought – find a convenient boulder, pretend it's The Bastard's face, and turn it to rubble.
The Private hissed a warning from up ahead, and Crane quickly stepped back, grabbed the Ambassador's arm, and drew them with her to press up against the wall, trying as hard as she could to ignore the kid's flinch when her hand had made contact, and failing miserably.
And maybe after that boulder is rubble, I can have a dwarf eat what's left* so I can pretend that the Bastard's getting chewed into little bitty pieces, she mused, more to distract herself than anything else. Yes, that sounds like a good idea.
"You doing okay, kid?" She whispered when the guards had passed them by.
"I'm f-fine…"
Translation – I just about died from fright. "Uh-huh," Crane said, making her skepticism clear. "You're being rescued from a kidnapping and you're in the middle of your kidnapper's lair, and you're fine?"
"I've d-dealt with worse..." D'Arvit, that was utter conviction behind that stutter , like they actually believed that. But getting shot with a bullet and dealing with politicians was nothing like sneaking out from a heavily guarded terrorists' base.
"Well, worse case scenario, kid, I can always shoot the guards."
"No!"
The word came out as a startled yelp, and Crane stiffened, scanning her surroundings for anyone that might've heard, before turning back to look at the kid, never mind that they couldn't see her looking. "What?"
"No," they repeated, more softly this time. "They don't deserve that. They might be terrorists, but these are people that still have families to go home to…" They took a deep breath. "And killing someone would only make things worse ."
Little kids shouldn't know how bad a death can make things.
But that, at least, she could put down to the kid being an Ambassador, instead of it being The Bastard's fault again.
"I said shoot , not kill," she muttered, and dragged the human down the hallway again.
Several minutes passed by in relative silence after that. No more guards came – if their read on the patrols was right, there shouldn't be any more guards passing by for at least another ten minutes, and that was more than enough time to get to the room marked on her schematics of the building as where they'd make their escape from.
Well, presuming that dwarf actually dug an escape tunnel like he'd said he would. Or was ready to. Frond-damn it all, he'd better be ready, and she hoped fervently that she had enough good karma to warrant getting out of this without any more trouble –
Her coms suddenly blared to life, and the Private's panicked voice pierced her eardrums. "Lieutenant! The human from earlier is coming down the hall, and he looks pissed!"
D'Arvit. "Calm down, Private," she said. "Where is he?"
"I just said he's - !" He yelped, suddenly, and went silent.
A feeling of dread began to curdle in her gut.
"Private?"
Her only response was panicked breathing, and the dread worsened.
Oh no. No, no, no, please let my instincts be wrong for once, and let nothing have actually happened and he just bumped into a wall or something, please…
No such luck, because the other fairy's next words sent chills running down her spine.
" Lieutenant, he saw me!"
"What?!"
"He saw me! My shield flickered when he got close, it was like my magic got drained out of me for a second, I couldn't move and he saw me and he stole my magic, Lieutenant, there's blue sparks all over him!"
For once, Crane didn't scold him for his panic. This time, it was completely warranted.
He stole my magic. Most fairies would say that was impossible. Most fairies had obviously never read any of the case files on Artemis Fowl and the Hybras incident**.
If he said that his magic was drained by a human, then it probably was. There's no way to mistake something like that. "D'Arvit! Kid, move, we gotta move, now!"
The kid could run impossibly fast, too, she noted as they threw stealth aside in favor of speed, and tried very hard not to think about why.
As y'all can probably tell, I'm having a lot of fun writing Crane. She's rapidly turning into a Momma Bear character, and it's GREAT.
* "I can have a dwarf eat what's left:" Dwarves eat rocks. And no, to those of you calling bullshit right now, I am not kidding. AF series dwarves dig their tunnels by literally eating through dirt, stone, and anything else in their way. They do have some limits – they can't eat stuff like asphalt, which seals up their insides, or diamond, because it's too hard and cuts up their insides – but other than that? Put anything remotely rocklike in front of them, and they can chew right through it.
**"The Hybras Incident": The main plot point of Book 5 was that the demons (No. 1's species) were isolated on their island of Hybras, which a team of warlocks had lifted out of the timestream during the events of the war between fairies and humans in Ireland ten thousand years ago – however, because the warlock team was killed afterwards, the spell they used was slowly degenerating, which meant that a) the island would eventually begin to fall apart and send demons flying all over space and time, and b) demons were already being sent flying through space and time and popping up at random intervals across history. Artemis, Holly, No. 1 and Qwan ended up using the spell's proclivity for snatching up demons and sending them flying across the timestream to get to Hybras to save the demons, and on the way there, Artemis managed to steal magic from the fairies in the time tunnel with him. Good thing he did, too, otherwise the demons might not have ever made it back to Earth.
And now, what I promised last chapter: The Techno Crash. The Techno Crash was caused by Opal Koboi causing a literal time paradox by killing her younger self that had traveled into the future (yes I am being 100% serious here). Since her younger self had directly influenced all modern Koboi tech on the market at the time, and had illegally sold tons of obsolete fairy tech to human companies, this meant that all that tech ceased to exist – but instead of simply "ceasing to exist" in the way that you usually think when you think "time paradox," everything Young Opal contributed to exploded. Including, technically, the older Opal herself, though she managed to turn that to her advantage by using said explosion of time-paradox magic to literally re-make herself, giving herself more magical power than any other living fairy at the time. (And again, being 100% serious here. This literally happened. Koboi was ridiculous. Thank God she's dead, she would make things so much worse if she wasn't.)
Jack54311 asked me if Frisk and Chara have experienced any Undertale AUs during the various timelines, and my answer to that was a hearty NO. Though the different AUs do exist in the same MULTIverse as M est P (I'm a sucker for UT multiverse shenanigans, haha, have to leave that option open at least!), they exist in their own separate universes, and not as timelines in this 'verse. Also, nobody in the M est P 'verse is currently aware that the various AUs exist – they have no means of knowing, as the extent of time/space shenanigans in their universe has mostly been limited to time loops, time travel, and Sans's shortcuts (the whole Hybras thing was pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime event.) That being said, what with all the magic and monster tech being thrown around, it's possible for the M est P folks to find out about other universes eventually… but that's something that probably won't be addressed in this series, or if it is, it won't be in the main storyline... hmm, maybe I can make that into a short story or something, them finding out about AUs...
(Jack also asked about Core Frisk. Since Core Frisk is very much an AU character, the M est P folks aren't aware of them either. That being said, Core is DEFINITELY aware of them, since they're, you know, aware of everything.)
