Sorry that this took so long to update, guys! A combination of lackluster inspiration and intensive schoolwork will do that to you, I'm afraid… and since the classes I'm in now have a ton of homework, updates might be a little sporadic for the next several weeks! Just figured I'd let you know!

When it finally came time for them to leave the Fowl estate, Frisk was caught squarely between a sense of disappointment, and a sense of relief.

The disappointment was because, for the first time in this timeline since the monsters had made it to the surface, they'd been able to relax. The Fowls, despite their possible former criminal status, obviously meant the monsters no harm, and neither did their possibly high-LV bodyguard (they'd have to ask Sans what his LV had actually been, now that they thought about it). They had security teams around the place, and no hordes of other guests that could all possibly be hiding a weapon. It had been broad daylight when they'd arrived, so sneaking in probably would've been incredibly difficult. For once, they didn't need to worry about the safety of the monsters accompanying them, and had been able to focus on being an actual kid for once – which they wouldn't be able to do once they left the walled manor grounds.

On the other hand, they were also incredibly relieved, for multiple reasons.

They were unused to being around other human kids, and although they did like Myles and Beckett (enough so to offer them their phone number and private email address, which they didn't do often outside of their ambassadorial duties), it had started to become a little suffocating after a while. The twins were nice enough, but apart from the games of tag and hide and seek, they seemed to cling to them for the entire duration of the visit. It would be nice to have a little privacy when they got back.

Then there was the conversation with Sans – the roses' magical discoloration which, considering the roses had been here before the monsters, meant probable fairy activity on the manor grounds, Myles and that huge bodyguard being suspicious of Flowey, Artemis Fowl's reaction to Sans's check… there was a lot going on here that they didn't understand, and the unknown was dangerous.

And then, of course, there was the final straw – the conversation they'd had with Artemis Fowl, shortly after dinner.

"Ambassador Frisk, would you mind if we spoke in private?"

It had been hard to read his expression, but if they had to guess, they would call it worried – pursed lips, narrowed eyes, a slightly furrowed brow. When they'd followed him to another corner of the room (far enough away not to be overheard, but close enough they were still in view of the monsters – had Myles told him about Frisk's worry about the monsters?), the Irishman had then proceeded to bring what remained of their levity crashing back down to earth.

"Humanity's Resurgence has been very quiet as of late," he'd told them, the furrow in his brow deepening. "Up until recently, they've still been making minor nuisances of themselves when not staging assassination attempts or bombings. However, after their most recent attempt on your life…"

Frisk gulped. "They've been too quiet," they agreed quietly. "You think they're up to something?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Please do be careful out there, Frisk."

Then he had paused, glanced back at the monsters, and then turned back to them with a deceptively curious look on his face.

"Now that the warning is out of the way, I must admit, I'm curious about your… flower friend. I was unaware that there were flower monsters in the Underground, and he seems very… different from your other monster acquaintances. "

"Different?" At this, they'd felt their heart starting to sink. Was Artemis Fowl suspicious of Flowey, too?

"Well, his behavior is very unique, for a monster. He's extraordinarily hostile towards more or less everyone, aggressive, irritable… most other monsters I've met are very friendly, if sometimes shy or uncertain." His eyes had narrowed a fraction. "And his expression during supper, when he threatened your punning skeletal friend… well."

"He is pretty different from the other monsters, but that's just… how he is."

"Is that so? May I ask if you know why he is the way he is?"

Frisk had gulped again, and given him an uncertain smile. "That's, um, private."

Now, sitting in their cart and watching the countryside roll by as they fidgeted, Frisk couldn't help but frown worriedly yet again at the memory.

That makes three people now who were suspicious of Flowey, even though he gave them almost no reason for it. I'll grant that his reaction to Sans's soulless jibe was pretty violent, so that could explain Artemis's suspicion of him, but… he didn't act that way around Myles, right? Or Butler. And yet…

*Hey, we're almost back. Might want to snap out of it, partner.

Frisk blinked, and came out of their reverie as the first of the farms and buildings of Dublin's outskirts began to roll past them. Across from them, Papyrus was still chatting eagerly to both Sans and Flowey (who was looking very, very disgruntled, but, surprisingly, less so than usual) about how he, the Great Papyrus, had made made yet more human friends, and even acquired the phone number of his new small human friends, and more things besides. Sans was paying careful attention to his brother with a fond look on his face, and Toriel…

Their adoptive mother was frowning worriedly at them.

"Frisk, are you alright?" Her question was very soft, so as not to catch the attention of the other monsters.

They gave her as cheery a smile as they could. "Yeah, I'm fine, Mom. Just… thinking about stuff, I guess." When she gave them a slightly more skeptical look – she was getting way too good at reading Frisk's moods nowadays – they grimaced, and quickly threw out the first plausible thing they could think of to explain their worry.

"Artemis Fowl wanted to talk to me before we left. He said to keep an eye out for HuRg – I mean, Humanity's Resurgence –" (at this Toriel raised one brow at the acronym, but being a monster and therefore being familiar with monster acronyms, she didn't question it) "- because they've been too quiet lately, and he thinks they might be up to something."

The monster considered this, then nodded. "Yes, I suppose that would be a reason to worry. But do not fear, Frisk. I will not let anything happen to you."

They pursed their lips.

It's not me I'm worried about, Mom. I'm not the one that turns to dust after only a couple of hits.

That was what they wanted to say, what was on the tip of their tongue, but they swallowed the words before they could escape, and gave her a shaky smile before turning their attention back to their surroundings.

They sat in silence for a while after that, watching the suburbs give way to the more packed, bustling city center. It was dusk, by now, and people were lighting candles and old oil-burning lamps in some of their windows and shops, and others turning on battery-powered lights. There were people doing the same for the streetlamps on the street, as well, or flipping switches to turn them on after a full day of using their little solar panels to charge. There was no sign of panic, no rushing crowds, no hostile expressions aimed at the monsters that were still active and walking on the streets alongside humans.

It was all very peaceful and quiet, and more than a little unnerving, because now they couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of gun-wielding extremists leaping out of the darkening shadows to start mowing people down.

Just keep an eye out, they told themselves. Chara's watching our back for us, and you've SAVEd recently, so if anything happens, you can avoid it next time. You're doing fine.

As it turned out, thinking that was a mistake, because just as their cart was starting to pull up in front of their hotel, Chara suddenly yanked them out of control with a yell.

"I saw someone with a gun!"

No. No no no, where?!

The deafening crack of a gunshot split the air, and a white wall of fire roared up on the left side of the cart. A gap opened in the fire for just a moment, split open by the bullet that had been fired, and then the tiny lump of metal disintegrated in the heat of the flames.

"Are you alright, my child?" Toriel managed, eyes wide. Her hand was outstretched, the glow of monster magic outlining her furry fingers in a pale aura.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Chara looked away quickly, squinting with Frisk's eyes to peer through the wall of magic, desperately hunting for the gunner through the blinding light.

*Where is he? C'mon, he's here, I know he is! Frisk, do you –

There was another deafening crack, and a screech of rage and surprise from Flowey. Chara whipped around, and sucked in a breath as Papyrus lurched – and then turned to dust, his scarf and battle body tumbling to the ground along with Flowey's pot.

Papyrus!

*Shit, shit shit! There's more than one shooter? Where is –

Sans's sockets had turned to dark voids, and with a wave of his hand, white and blue bones dancing in familiar, complicated patterns were racing upwards into the air, towards the distant hunched form of someone on a rooftop opposite the hotel. Small bullets of magic – Flowey's "friendliness pellets" followed quickly in pursuit.

And then they saw the third shooter, aiming a rifle from the second floor of another building, and even Chara didn't have time to react when he pulled the trigger.

LOAD.

Blackness gave way to familiar blurs of green and orange and gold, and with a choking sound, Frisk lurched forward, back on the familiar grounds of the Fowl estate.

"Kid?"

The voice was familiar, but Frisk couldn't concentrate on it for the moment – Chara was cursing up a storm in the back of their head, using all kinds of words that Toriel would've washed out of their mouth with soap if she was able to hear them, and the image of a tall skeleton turning to dust was still imprinted firmly on the inside of their eyelids, and a phantom pain pulsing behind their left eye, where the bullet had gone in, and it was all they could do not to puke –

"Kid."

A whimper escaped from them, but they managed to look up as Sans stopped in front of them, and held out a hand to them.

"Get up kid. C'mon, you can do it."

Get up…?

Oh. They were on their knees. When had that happened? Trembling, and still more than a little queasy, Frisk grabbed the offered hand and pulled themselves back up to their feet.

"Calm down, kiddo. Deep breaths."

They obeyed, sucking in a huge lungful of air, letting it out, then sucking in another and repeating.

When the trembling stopped, Sans's sockets narrowed, and his tone turned sharp. "What happened, Frisk?"

They shivered.

"Assassins," they croaked. "At the hotel, when we go back. One on the ground, two on the roof – shot at us – P-Papyrus - !"

Sans's sockets went dark, and his fingers curled around theirs, which were still clutching his in a death grip.

"Only three?"

"I-I think so… oh stars, Sans, I'm s-so –"

He stopped them, squeezing their hand maybe a little bit harder than necessary in order to catch their attention. "Frisk."

When they looked back at him, his sockets were still dark, though they could've sworn there was flicker of blue in the left one.

"D o n ' n."

Frisk shivered at the dark, unnerving voice, and nodded wildly. Sans relaxed a fraction, his eye-lights flickering back to life, and he let go of their hand and signed a question.

I've already told you what I've found out?

They nodded again, and he tucked his hands back into his pockets, closing his right eye in one of his typical lazy winks.

"In that case… you still up to the game, kiddo?"

Frisk blinked, then remembered. Right. We're playing hide and seek.

"Y-yeah."

"Welp. Better go hide then."

They nodded again, not entirely trusting their voice, and then quickly picked their way around the orange roses and ran for their hiding spot in the manor.

Okay, Sans gets found first, and then Papyrus finds me, right…? A-and he was still carrying Flowey around…

They needed to talk to the flower, and soon.

Their second run in the manor went more or less the same as it had before, save for a few distinct differences. The first was that Flowey had already told Papyrus that he wanted to go with Frisk after they got caught, so Frisk didn't even have to ask Papyrus to hand the flower over.

Flowey waited until the skeleton had run off and Frisk had started "searching" for the twins' hiding spots, before hissing, "Did you already tell the smiley trashbag?" When they nodded, he grinned – it wasn't a nice grin. It was the grin of a furious serial killer.

"Good. I'm gonna kill those shits."

"No!"

"Frisk –"

"No killing, Flowey. If a monster kills a human, even in self-defense -! You know what happened the last time that happened!"

The second difference was that Myles had noticed their odd behavior, and kept glancing at them whenever they were in sight. Frisk tried their best to act like they had before, but they knew that something was off about their behavior, and there was only so much they could do about that. Myles could read them like a book, and unfortunately there was nothing they could do about it. Thankfully, he didn't pry as to what had upset them, and everything played out more or less the way it had before, right up to the questions about monsters and souls during dinner, and the puns that followed soon afterward.

The third difference came right after their conversation with Artemis Fowl. The Irishman suddenly frowned, a look of confusion on his face, as Frisk was turning away.

"I have the strangest sense of deja vu," he murmured, and Frisk barely kept themselves from choking in shock at the words.

*What the hell? Does he remember, or…?

I-I don't think so?

Finally, they were back in the cart, the twins' contact information tucked into a pocket, goodbyes were had, and they were rolling back out into the countryside, towards imminent disaster.

When they reached the edge of Dublin once more, Frisk took a deep breath.

"Mom," they said quietly. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

She glanced at them worriedly as the conversation around them stopped. "About what, my child?"

"I just… I feel like something bad is going to happen, you know?"

The monster frowned but did not question them, and neither did the other monsters. Papyrus looked worried, but otherwise still himself, Sans's sockets had gone black again, and Flowey's beady eyes darted from side to side, looking for the assassins he knew were coming.

This time, when the shots came in front of the hotel, the monsters were ready. As soon as Chara took control once more, and yelled about the gun, Toriel threw up a wall of white fire and, on the other side of the cart, Flowey hissed and immediately aimed a swarm of friendliness pellets at the rooftop shooters. There were distant yells of alarm over the sounds of the crowds running for safety, and the two snipers went down, one tossing aside his smoking, ruined weapon, and the other clutching at his hands. When they turned back to look for the third one, Toriel had surrounded him in a ring of fire, and the gun had been knocked from his hand.

*Oh thank stars.

Frisk would have sagged with relief if they were in control of their own body.

Did we get them all?

*Think so –

There was a sharp crack, and the world went black again.

Frisk gasped, stumbling but managing to stay on their feet this time, staring down at the familiar grass and petals.

There was another shooter? Where were they? Chara, did you -?

*I didn't see them!

The ghost sounded almost panicked, and more than a little angry, and Frisk didn't blame them one bit.

"Kid? What happened?"

They gulped, looking up at Sans.

"A-assassins at the hotel," they whispered. And since we don't know where they are… "We can't go back to the hotel. They're waiting for us!"

This time, as the cart was approaching the last street corner before their hotel and before they were in firing range, Frisk asked the man driving the cart to stop.

"Frisk? What is - "

"I saw someone with a gun!" They said urgently, gesturing in the direction of the hotel. "I only saw it for a moment, but he had a gun, and he was headed towards the hotel!"

Toriel stiffened. "Are you sure there is an armed man there, my child?"

"I'm not sure," they lied. "But –"

"I thought I saw something big moving on the roof!" Flowey piped in, and Frisk made a mental note to let him out of his pot in a nearby park as thanks later.

The monster looked uncertain, glancing at the others. Sans shrugged.

"Probably better safe than sorry, Tori. I mean, that terrorist group's tried to kill Frisk before, right?"

Toriel looked visibly shaken, then steeled herself and nodded. "Yes, that is true..." She turned to the man driving the cart. "Please turn here, and drive us to the police station. It might be a false alarm, but it is better to be cautious rather than risk our lives, yes?"

The man gulped and nodded furiously in agreement.

Frisk didn't relax until the street corner, their hotel, and all the shooters were far, far behind them.

Total Frisk Deaths: 3

Let's hope that Frisk wasn't overheard by the fairies after they LOADed, otherwise their secret might be out really, really quickly! :3

And now for worldbuilding, brought to you by Som and daniel (and inspired by a question from MemorySteel!): Where are all the monsters living now?

As of this moment, the monsters are living in various communities scattered across various countries in the Americas and Europe. I haven't had time to come up with where all of them are living, but here's a few!

Grillby: Still in America. He's managed to set up a new restaurant on the surface in Ebott, and it's pretty popular/

Fuku (that green fire elemental, who is Grillby's daughter in this 'verse): Ireland. She struck out on her own once monsters were able to travel and live overseas, and is currently employed by a small restaurant in Dublin. She's also taking cooking lessons from a human tutor, hoping to open a monster/human restaurant of her own eventually.

Mettaton: He's on tour as of a few months after Frisk and Tori left America, along with Blooky and Shyren. They're in France, right now.

Alphys and Undyne: Ireland, obviously.

Sans and Papyrus: They live in Ebott when they're not traveling around. Sans does various odd-jobs around the place, and Papyrus helps with monster-human relations there (as the monster's amazing mascot should! XD)

Asgore: Currently in the Underground. He agreed to remain there until humans were comfortable with him wandering around on his own. He is allowed on the surface every now and then, though, so he's not entirely trapped down there.

Muffet: Ireland, obviously.

The Temmies: The entirety of Temmie Village (including Bob) lives in a little house in the suburbs of Ebott – as in there's literally like all twenty, thirty of them living in the same house. Most of them work full jobs in various places around the city, so every morning, like clockwork, a swarm of Temmies comes pouring out of the house.

Vulkins, Pyropes, other Hotland monsters: They're scattered across some more tropical climates, including Brazil and Hawaii (and yes that means Vulkins in grass skirts doing the hula dance is a thing. Probably.)

Snowdrake, Ice Cap, and other Snowdin monsters: Most monsters from Snowdin stick to more chilly climates, such as Canada, Greenland (which opened its borders to monsters six months before Frisk arrived in Ireland), Ireland, etc.

Waterfall monsters: The monsters of Waterfall are kind of scattered across the Northern Hemisphere, by now – and not all of them live on land, either. Onion-San, for instance, managed to get to the ocean and was actually hired by a shipping company to escort ships across the ocean in case of extreme weather. And then there's an entire ship whose crew is practically nothing but Waterfall monsters that works for another shipping company…

Gerson: Living in Ebott – he moved his shop from Waterfall up onto the surface, near the base of the mountain. Avid historians of both species who want to know more about the war or monster society before the Barrier will come to talk to him.

Burgerpants: Moved to Canada, and is currently working towards his dream of being an actor. Also, he's praying to never, ever meet Mettaton again.

Froggits, Whinsums, Moldsmals, other Ruin monsters: All still in Ebott. They didn't want to move too far from their old homes.

A few monsters decided they wanted to remain Underground, as well – so long as they are able to access the surface, they're perfectly happy to still live underneath the mountain.