A slight shaking jerked Frisk awake, and he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. Cole's voice brought him fully into the waking world.

"Wake up. We're almost there."

Asriel was just starting to stir from the backseat of the sedan. Beside him, Sans was sitting in the same position as the last time Frisk had checked on him. Next, Frisk looked forwards, noticing the taller buildings starting to grow closer together.

"Where are we?"

"Kester. We're about ten minutes out."

Frisk's eyes looked to the sidewalk, falling on two monsters in black fatigues, firearms at their waists.

"Lower your head. The last thing we need is to draw attention to ourselves...Dante's right, patrols have stepped up recently."

Frisk followed Cole's advice, averting his gaze as they passed by the patrol A few blocks down the road he pulled into a parking garage. "We get out here, walk the rest of the way. The place should be just around the corner."

Frisk undid the seatbelt, stepping out of the car. The sound of the car doors closing echoed around the large garage, the sedan blending in nicely with other traffic parked up in the structure. But instead of walking out the front, Cole led the way further into the back, to a door leading out to a back alleyway.

"Through here. We'll take the back roads until we get there. Don't want to risk raising any attention."

The trio followed their guide in silence, slipping out the back into the alleyway. A car honked in the bustle of the city. Cole pulled the hood of his jacket over his head as he walked down to the edge of the alleyway. He glanced cautiously both ways before poking out, quickly blending in with the foot traffic, or what little there was. Frisk and the others quickly joined him.

Frisk made sure to keep his eyes trained on his feet, following Cole's as he led the way down the road. He could practically feel the tension in the air. The city looked so much like Slagos back home, but hostility prickled like a knife to his throat. Even Sans tucked his hands further into his sweater pockets, trying to avoid any unwanted attention. Asriel glanced at one of the larger buildings, before suddenly picking up the pace just a bit to catch up to Frisk. He leaned over, whispering into his ear.

"I think we're being watched…"

Frisk didn't look up. "What makes you think that? You see something?" he muttered back.

"No...something just feels off about this."

Cole surprisingly replied to the comment, "Well, we are walking illegally in a country preparing for war."

Asriel fell back in silence. Cole shrugged. "What? When you're like me, you learn how to pick up a keen ear. This should be the place." He suddenly turned left, walking towards one of the smaller homes on the block. At the door, he paused, and gave the doorbell two rings. A woman's voice called through the door.

"Hello?"

Cole cleared his throat. "I've got a special order here for room 9 and a half."

There was a brief pause, before the woman called back. "Are you sure you don't mean ten and a half?"

"No ma'am, it's the one with extra olives."

Frisk frowned. "I know that voice…"

"what?" Sans replied. The sound of clicking came from the door as it was unlocked, and it swung wide open. Frisk couldn't see around Cole.

"Good to see you made it alright. Come inside, quickly. Now, who're these friends you speak of?" the woman queried as she stood aside, letting them in.

Cole nodded as he walked into the humble home. "Thank you. The monsters are Sans and Asriel. They're both cool, I've been assured. The kid's name is Frisk."

"Fr…" She paused as Frisk walked inside. She closed the door, then her eyes widened. One of her hands covered her mouth when she saw him.

"Frisk?...Frisk Carroway?"

Cole turned around, and Asriel narrowed his eyes. Sans remained unmoving while Frisk tensed up.

"How do you know my name?"

She didn't reply, instead calling into the house. "Frederick?!" Frederick wandered into the room.

"These our guests, Amelie?" Then his own eyes settled on Frisk as he gasped. "As I live and breathe...Wilfred?"

Cole glanced to Frisk incredulously. "You know each other?"

Frisk shook his head. "I sure don't."

Amelie had tears in her eyes. "H-How could you remember? You were s-so young!...Wilfred...we...we're your parents!"

The words hit Frisk like a freight train. He started to stumble, caught only by Asriel. Thoughts started racing through Frisk's head as a bead of sweat formed.

"No...No that isn't possible, my parents are dead! I'm from an orphanage!"

"An orphanage that we sent you to," Frederick tried to explain.

A wave of dizziness washed over Frisk, and he lurched towards the dining room table.

"Wh...Wha…" Asriel grunted, catching him as he nearly fell. "Here buddy, just take a seat…"

Frisk shook Asriel off. "NO!" he shouted, causing Asriel to jump slightly. Frisk huffed. "I...I need some air."

Immediately Frisk stalked to the door, throwing it open and walking out. Cole stood up.

"Frisk, wait!"

Sans grabbed Cole's arm. "Let him go. I...think he needs a moment."

Asriel sighed. "I'll talk to him." He quickly ran out, closing the door after them. Sans turned to his parents.

"I've known that kid for years now. And trust me, he's adamant his parents died, or just up and vanished somewhere. So you need to tell me. Are you really his parents?"

Amelie nodded, looking somewhat distraught. "Cross my heart we are. I...We, never thought we'd ever see him again...he wasn't even a year old...wait, you said you've known him for years...what happened to...well, you know…"

Sans nodded, understanding their curiosity. "Why don't we all take a seat? You've...you've missed a lot."

Asriel broke onto the street curb, spotting Frisk walking back to the alleyway.

"Frisk, wait up!" he called, sprinting after his friend. As he rounded the corner, he found Frisk doubled over, breathing heavily.

"You alright?"

"What do you think?!" Frisk shouted. "For YEARS, my whole LIFE I thought that they were just gone! I told myself I would never know who they were, or where they went, or how they died. Then we just, happen to find them here?! How do you think I feel?! They abandoned me!"

"Frisk, I'm sure they had a good reason for that. I can't imagine parents that'd want to ditch their kid willingly. I mean look at all the dangerous situations we were in throughout the years, maybe they were in one too!"

"And why couldn't they have taken me here with them?!" Frisk countered. Asriel truthfully didn't have an answer. He glanced back to the main road.

"Look, we aren't safe here. Why don't we go back and just...give them a chance to explain themselves? I'm not saying you have to like them, just hear them out. Alright? I'm sure they have a good reason for it." Frisk kept his eyes trained ahead, looking at something past Asriel as he tried to calm his racing heart.

"I feel sick."

Asriel chuckled. "That's just shock, buddy. You'll get over it. C'mon, let's go before someone decides to poke around."

"...and, that's how we ended up here." Sans finished with the story. Frederick closed his eyes, processing everything he had just heard.

"Let me get this straight...our son has the ability to turn back time and basically...get a do-over? And he used this ability to help reverse time to win an unwinnable war?"

"Had," Sans corrected. "But yeah. Like i said, you missed a lot."

Amelie shook her head with disbelief. "I can't believe it...that must have been hard, knowing the fate of the world rests on your shoulders?"

Sans scoffed. "It probably would have helped if his parents could help keep his spirits up."

"Look, what happened was not our fault. We had to do it," Amelie snapped.

At that moment, they all looked to the door as it opened. In walked Frisk, with Asriel just behind.

"Speaking of, why don't you explain this to your son? I'm sure we'd all like to hear this."

Sans pulled out a chair for Frisk, who simply walked over and sat in it without saying a word. Asriel leaned against the wall. Amelie gave a heavy sigh, leaning forward to take Frisk's hand.

"Wilfred-"

"My name's Frisk," Frisk muttered. "Just...please use that instead? It...It'll be easier for me."

She sighed. "Frisk...I know you might find it hard to forgive us...but trust me, we didn't have a choice."

Silence.

She continued, "See...you actually were not the first group within, as I understand it, your universe to discover multiverse travel. Actually, Frederick and I were among the first. Back in the day, we were obsessed with space travel. Colonization of other planets, you name it. But, we accidentally cracked the code for inter-dimensional travel, while trying to figure out light-speed travel.

"Now, obviously we'd have to construct a vessel and a way of navigating. So we created a team of the best minds from around the world, and we got straight to work. Everything was going great! Within a couple years we had our vessel constructed...but in the middle of this project...you were born. That...I remember that being the best day of our lives, was when you made your entrance…"

Frisk felt a single tear welling up, but he managed to fight it back.

"A couple months later, we recorded an anomaly in our atmosphere. As though something had just shot through it...but never hit the ground. That was the first strange thing. Just a couple weeks later, the scientists...our friends, began disappearing. One by one they vanished...until four months later. That's when the police...began finding bodies. One by one our friends were unburied. The final straw came when one of the scientists turned up, along with his family. All of them...had been shot."

Frisk looked up. "Their family?"

Frederick nodded somberly. "The other scientists had their families untouched. The police thought that the family realized what was happening, so they couldn't leave...witnesses. One of those family members was a kid, Frisk. Not even ten years old. Shot in the head. At that point we knew it was only a matter of time before they came for us. We still assume they wanted our research for themselves. We knew that as long as we were around, you wouldn't be safe...but we couldn't...take you with us. You were still too fragile, you never would have survived…"

"So you dropped me in an orphanage to protect me," Frisk finished the story, looking to the floor.

"Frisk...there was not one day that went by that we didn't want to come find you. But we knew you wouldn't be safe if we returned. And after all that...you end up here, hunted by the same people that hunted us."

Cole cut into the conversation. "Look, I love a good family reunion, and I'm sorry to break this up, but we're losing track of time here. Look guys, their ship crashed here after being damaged in a firefight. They need help to get back home. Do you guys have your ship lying around somewhere?"

Frederick shook his head. "'Fraid not, son. But, I do remember how to build it. We could come on down, see what we can do. When do we leave?"

Cole smirked. "How soon can you get packed?"

A black-clad monster walked into the hotel room, nodding at his avian companion before looking to a similarly dressed man at the edge of the room.

"Chapman, sir." The monster tossed him a radio. "Blackhawk's reporting in. They say they have something for you."

Chapman turned the radio on. "Go for Panther." Renae's voice crackled back.

"We found where they're holed up. Some cabin. Remote. Doesn't look like anyone's home. Should we move to secure?"

He narrowed his eyes, spotting his targets slink from the alleyway, and approach one of the small homes across the street. One of the scientists was not among them.

"Negative, Blackhawk. I think there might be one still there. Maintain surveillance, report back if you see anything. Panther out." He turned the radio off.

"Deren, your specs." Deren, the avian monster on the bed, grabbed a pair of binoculars and tossed them to Chapman. He looked through them down at the house, watching the door open. Though he couldn't see who answered the door, he watched the human lead the group inside.

Still, he kept observing, arching an eyebrow when the kid walked out...alone.

"Hello...what's going on here?" He mumbled to himself, watching as the prince chased after him. The kid looked upset. His curiousness grew. As they left his sight, he looked back to the house. He felt his skin grow cold though as he watched a man approach the blinds. Before he pulled them though, Chapman got a very clear look at who it was. Immediately he turned on the radio.

"Panther to Blackhawk."

The radio squawked. "Recieving Panther?"

Chapman set the binoculars down. "We have a problem."