*slowly rises out of a trash bin labeled "Hollow Knight," looking very sheepish*
I really should know better than to get involved in new fandoms by now. Sorry, but Hollow Knight is AMAZING, I fell in love with it the instant I saw the first five minutes of a let's play – to the extent that I actually bought it to play it for myself, which I don't normally do. I'll try not to let it distract me again, but no guarantees, haha…
Anyway, on to the chapter!
"Alright, punks, sound off! Everyone accounted for? Anyone bleeding?"
Wrapped up in several layers of shawls that Toriel had dug out of their luggage with Flowey's pot in their lap, Frisk watched numbly as Undyne stomped between the various conscious officers, checking for injuries and squinting suspiciously at everyone's eyes as if to check for the tell-tale dazed look of a mesmerized goon. Considering that nobody had noticed that any officers had been mesmerized up until the moment they'd gone on the attack (how were you supposed to tell if someone was in their right mind or not, if at any moment someone could turn on you on O'Reilly's orders?), the Ambassador didn't have high hopes that looking people in the eyes would tell you whether they were themselves or not.
Nobody died.
The thought had them flinching, and they tugged the shawls tighter around themselves. They were alive. There hadn't been a single death during this attack. Oh, the officers still of sound mind were sporting bruises and various sprains and dislocations from where the hypnotized men and women had gotten in lucky shots, and a couple of them had come close to being shot if some of those grazes were any indication, but they had all survived, and so had all the mind-controlled officers, who'd all been knocked out and tied up. Even the ones on the fire escape had survived, though when Frisk had asked, the fairy that had rescued them had admitted there'd been a couple of close calls.
It wasn't as if they were upset that nobody had died. Oh no, Frisk was incredibly relieved that everyone had made it. It just… after that close call in their room, when only the timely intervention of a fairy had saved them, it just didn't seem real. They'd never come so close to death and escaped before. It felt like a dream. Almost too good to be true.
*Trust me, Frisk, I'd know if this was a dream or not. It's real.
Chara sounded a little shell-shocked themselves, though not to the same extent that Frisk was. They were almost envious of how calm the ghost was managing to stay.
A furry hand settled on Frisk's shoulder, and they blinked numbly at Toriel's concerned face as it came into view.
"Are you alright?" The monster asked gently.
Frisk took in a few deep breaths, forcing themselves back into the mindset of here and now. Unreal or not, we're alive – which means we don't have time to waste. Then they nodded.
"I'm fine." They managed weakly.
Flowey snorted, unknowingly in almost perfect unison with Chara. Neither of them believed a word, and honestly, they weren't sure they believed themselves either. They still felt like their legs would turn to jello if they tried to get up.
"Are you sure, my child?" And apparently Toriel didn't really believe them either. They tried for a shaky smile.
"I'm fine," they repeated, more firmly. "I just…" They took another deep breath and abandoned their former train of thought – I just can't believe we're still alive. "Is… everyone else alright?"
"You bet, punk!" Undyne materialized as if from nowhere next to the monster queen – if it weren't for the countless timelines that had made Frisk absolutely certain they'd seen everything Undyne could do, they might have thought she'd taken a shortcut like Sans and Papyrus could. "These guys would have to be bigger wimps than you if they weren't!"
A few of the officers made sounds of protests. Undyne ignored them easily, giving Frisk her signature toothy grin. "Looks like that O'Reilly punk overstepped himself. Bet he wasn't expecting us to still be on guard for so long!"
Frisk's smile became a little more genuine, though it was still a bit strained. "Yeah. I bet he wasn't."
Though… that's not necessarily a good thing in the long run. We were expecting him. And I got away again. That's just going to make him even madder than he was before. And the madder he gets…
Frisk grimaced and clutched Flowey's pot a little harder.
"We're not safe here anymore," they said, their voice sounding very small. "If O'Reilly knows where we're staying again…"
"Doesn't seem like hotels in general are very safe for you," one of the officers agreed. Frisk glanced up as the man – wasn't that Officer Harrish from the hospital? Yes, that was him – approached, face adorned with a bruise on one cheek, a split lip, and the deepest frown they had yet to see on the man. "I'm starting to think that this… O'Reilly man has a source somewhere in the station. Or, barring that, some sort of information network."
"Or he could be using his mind-control ability to make people tell him where we're staying," Frisk murmured. Harrish grimaced.
"Or that," he grudgingly agreed.
"Damn it, at this rate you guys won't have anywhere to stay!" Undyne exploded, sounding extremely frustrated. "Either you'll get run out of every hotel in the city by these assholes, or the hotels will keep turning you out at the door!"
Frisk nodded slowly. That thought had crossed their mind, though until this moment it hadn't seemed very important. If this was going to become a pattern, then they'd be lucky to even get a cheap motel room in the near future.
Harrish grunted, crossing his arms. "Hopefully we'll be able to get this guy before that happens. Though that's not looking too good at the moment." He gave the various mesmerized officers a grumpy side-eye. "How are we supposed to know who he's come into contact with or not if our own officers might very well be under his control?"
Toriel frowned. Undyne growled. Frisk grimaced and, very slowly, unwrapped their shawl burrito from around them and stood up, tucking Flowey's pot under one arm.
"I guess we'll just have to deal with that as it comes," they said softly. "Is… is there anywhere safe that you know of that we could stay tonight, officer? I…" They shifted and glanced back at their hotel room nervously. "I don't think we'll be safe here tonight. And the quicker we move, the quicker O'Reilly will lose us, for a while at least."
Another officer picked herself up off the ground with a groan. "I guess there's the station," she offered. "It should be safe enough for you and the Queen, Ambassador."
"What am I, chopped liver?" Flowey muttered. He was ignored, mostly – Frisk patted the side of his pot, but other than that no-one reacted.
Toriel sighed. "I suppose that will have to do for now. It will give us time to figure out where to go next if nothing else."
Frisk pursed their lips doubtfully. They studied the female officer, paranoia drawing their eyes to her own, checking for that tell-tale mindless glaze.
Nothing. Which didn't mean anything when there might be what amounted to sleeper agents around. Dang it.
"… do any of these conference rooms have locks?" They asked meekly.
It felt strange, camping out in a conference room inside a police station. Despite the myriad of events they'd experienced over the course of fifteen years of time loops, Frisk had never actually been in a police station at night – they'd never needed to be. Air mattresses too were new, and surprisingly comfortable – you'd think that something made of literally nothing but plastic and air would be uncomfortable.
Frisk knew they were only thinking about that because it was better than panicking. They'd been hyped up to the max on paranoia ever since they'd hopped into the police cart, constantly watching the officers around them for any sign that they'd be turning on them. They weren't the only one, either – Frisk had caught all of the officers giving each other side-eye glances over the course of the ride, and Toriel and Flowey doing much the same as they were. Nobody quite trusted anybody else anymore, for all they weren't letting it get in the way of working together. Even the police chief, who met them at the door when they reached the station, had apparently been infected by the paranoia bug because the first thing he'd done after they'd been shown to what would be their "room" while they stayed at the station was give them a couple of keys.
"The key to the conference room you'll be sleeping in, and the spare," he'd told them gruffly. "Since we don't know when one of us is going to go crazy or not, it's probably best that you be able to lock all of us out."
Having the only keys to this place did make Frisk feel marginally better, but only marginally. They still half expected a fairy to pop out of the shadows at them… or, worse, a goon to break down the door. And… well, there was still something else to consider.
"Mom," Frisk said, tentatively, "if O'Reilly can track us down so easily… do you think Alphys, Undyne, Sans, and Papyrus are safe where they are? What about other monsters?"
The boss monster frowned softly, fishing one of her spare robes out of her duffel bag. "I am… not certain of that, I'm afraid. On the one hand, the gated community where Undyne and Alphys live is very secure, and there are a great number of monsters there, and Sans and Papyrus are sleeping in an entirely different hotel from us at this point. On the other hand…" Her voice trailed off, and Frisk grimaced.
"On the other hand," they muttered, "O'Reilly's already tracked us down twice now, and he's sure to hold a grudge at this point."
Toriel sighed and nodded. "While that certainly seems to be the case, I believe those in the community will be safe, at least for now. After all, we have been very careful about what knowledge of monster souls has been leaked to the public, and without that knowledge even a hateful human such as he would pause at confronting so many monsters at once. Those of us that you call friends, however… we're hardly about to hide when you have need of us."
"Which means that one way or another, you'd end up in danger. He'd come after you." Frisk felt their heart sink. "And if we can't trust the police… if we don't have any way of knowing who's being controlled or not…"
The two of them fell into a worried, thoughtful silence.
"Hmph," Flowey said, scowling at them from where Frisk had set his pot down on the floor. "Why not threa-ask the fairies if there's any way to counteract this mesmer thing they have?"
Frisk shot him a disapproving look at the near slip-up but shook their head. "That wouldn't help with the O'Reilly problem."
"I could kill him!" The flower offered cheerfully.
"Absolutely not," Toriel said firmly before Frisk could. "That would likely only make things worse for monsterkind in the long run."
*Damn. There goes that plan.
Frisk sighed and shook their head. Chara…
*Calm down, I wasn't actually going to kill anyone. I know how you get about that.
"So what should we do?" Frisk wondered. "There has to be something. Somewhere safe we can move people if we need to…"
The room fell silent again as they all tried to think about such a place. Unfortunately, judging by the monsters' expressions, they had thought of just a place as Frisk themselves had – literally nowhere. O'Reilly had found them everywhere they went, either through his mesmerized assassins or personally, and Frisk couldn't think of a single place in Dublin where he might not be able to find them.
There has to be somewhere, but…
The oppressive silence of the room was broken by a familiar ringtone. Frisk started, then quickly fished their cell phone out of their pocket. When they glanced at the caller ID…
Myles. Why was one of the twins calling them now of all times?
They sighed and answered the phone. "Hello."
"Frisk!" That was Beckett, not Myles. "Are you okay? We heard about what happened at the hotel!"
Frisk blinked. "Um… how did you hear about what happened so soon? It hasn't even been on the news yet."
Movement on the other side of the phone – and this time it was Myles speaking. His phone must have been on speaker or something, though, because they could still hear Beckett moving around in the background. "The fairies involved with the incident passed on what happened to the people here."
*Seriously? They let the kids in on that?
Frisk couldn't help but share Chara's skepticism. They honestly weren't too surprised that the twins knew about the fairies - having what probably amounted to an entire fairy SWAT team in the garden wasn't exactly something easy to keep secret, after all. Besides, they were smart and Artemis definitely seemed to respect that sort of thing – he'd never treated Frisk themselves like a kid even before he'd known about the Resets – but the fairies themselves had struck them as more… careful than that. "To everyone at the manor?"
"Well…" Myles began slowly.
"We eavesdropped," Beckett said shamelessly.
Frisk blinked, then groaned. "I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to eavesdrop on people."
"Typically, no," Myles agreed. "But we could hardly let it lie when we heard them talking about you. In trouble. Again."
"Trouble magnet," his brother teased, though he sounded a little stressed. Then his tone turned serious again. "You didn't answer my question. Are you okay?"
"… yeah. Yeah, we're… we're fine. It was a close call, but everyone made it."
"Thank goodness," they could have sworn they heard Myles mutter. Then he was the one speaking through the phone again. "We're glad to hear that. And, well, we have some news as well that I think you and the Queen should hear if you're amenable."
Frisk blinked again as Beckett chided his brother in the background ("Come on, Myles, do we really need to be so formal? It's Frisk!"), and then, carefully, put their phone on speaker. "Okay," they said slowly. "I've… put you on speaker?"
"Thank you," Myles said. "Frisk, Your Majesty? Our brother and the fairies have been debating what to do next, and it sounds like they've been having some difficulties deciding. There aren't enough fairies in on what's going on here to patrol the city looking for O'Reilly, and also not nearly enough to keep a guard on every individual member of your entire group twenty-four-seven, like some of them have been suggesting. You'd need to stay in one group for that to work."
"That would make us a bigger target," Frisk protested.
Toriel frowned. "Have there been any other suggestions on your end, Myles?"
"Not one we've heard of yet," the boy admitted grudgingly. "We left before they started talking about other solutions – our brother was in there and he always knows when we're eavesdropping on him –"
"Believe it or not," a new voice suddenly interjected, sounding vaguely amused, "I wasn't actually aware of you two being outside my study door until you two suddenly bolted. If you'd stayed quiet I wouldn't have realized you were there at all."
Frisk sat up straight. That was Artemis.
"I apologize for interrupting your conversation," Artemis continued calmly and professionally, "but since my brothers already went to the trouble of contacting you, I have an offer for you to hear."
Frisk swallowed, glancing sideways at Toriel. The monster narrowed her eyes at the phone consideringly, tapping her fingers. Then, she nodded to herself. "Very well, Mr. Fowl. I am willing to hear you out."
"Much appreciated." More movement – he was probably picking up the phone if they had to hazard a guess – and then Artemis continued. "While it's true that it would make you a bigger target if you and the rest of your closest acquaintances were to gather while out in public, there is a way to minimize the threat to you if you were to all stay in one place." Tapping from the other end of the line. "My parents have offered you sanctuary at Fowl Manor."
Frisk – and Flowey, shamelessly listening in – choked.
"What?" They croaked.
"Fowl Manor, regardless of your feelings for us at the moment, is still easily one of the safest places for you at present time," Artemis explained in a businesslike tone. "The grounds are walled off from the outside world, as you know, which would make intrusion difficult. The fairies already patrol the grounds here, as squads are frequently assigned here to keep watch over my family and over an old fairy ritual site here on the grounds. They would be able to spot intruders easily, and as such it's not likely that Humanity's Resurgence –" was that a snicker somewhere in the background behind him? It sure sounded like it – "would be able to launch yet another attack on you while here. You would still be vulnerable in public, yes, but you would have a safe place to rest and recuperate."
That was… actually a really tempting offer. Frisk still didn't exactly trust the fairies, or the Fowls, one-hundred percent at this point, but they had to admit that the fairies were a lot less of a threat than HuRg was at this point. Uncertainly, they glanced back at Toriel, not sure of what their next move should be – and saw a similar uncertainty reflected in the monster's red eyes.
"… Can we have some time to think your offer over?" They asked tentatively.
"Of course. Given our history at this point, I cannot blame you for wanting to be cautious."
"We will contact you once we have reached a decision, then," Toriel said firmly. "Good day, Mr. Fowl, Myles, Beckett."
"See you later, Frisk!" Beckett called… and then the line went silent.
Frisk themselves stayed silent for a while as well, staring at their phone and feeling a little shell-shocked again. Then a warm furry hand snapped them out of their reverie, and they looked back up at Toriel.
"We should call the others," they managed to get out.
"We will," Toriel said gently, her eyes softening. "But I think, for now, we should wait until everyone has had a chance to rest. It has, after all, been a very long say for all of us."
Frisk almost protested. Almost. But, in the end, they couldn't bring themselves to.
"Alright," they said quietly. "Alright. We'll… talk about it tomorrow. I'm a bit tired anyway…"
Despite their words, Frisk wouldn't fall asleep for a very long time that night.
Thank god for beta readers/editors. Again. The last bit of the chapter came out a little awkward until daniel somehow managed to locate the exact sentences that needed to be changed to make it all flow a bit better. I'm starting to wonder if he's psychic.
Anyway, things are starting to move forward! Let's hope those same things don't blow up in people's faces somehow.
