(Four trash cans sit on a curb, labeled "IRL Responsibilities," "Hollow Knight," "BATIM," and "Stardew Valley." They all wobble, and then slowly a head rises from behind them.)

Um. Hi. Sorry for the long wait?

Myles had been prepared for many things when he and Beckett had gone to eavesdrop on Frisk's conversation with their elder brother and the fairies. But there were some things a person just couldn't prepare for... and just about everything that they had overheard and witnessed for themselves was something they were very much unprepared for.

He'd known, from the very beginning, that Frisk was likely keeping secrets about the monsters, and perhaps even from them. Both twins had read up on the Ambassador, downright obsessively to boot, and Myles had easily been able to see that, despite being kind, Frisk was not stupid. Humans were a cynical, greedy race who often turned to violence as their answer to life's problems, and seemed doubly so when compared to the monsters. It was only common sense, then, that they would be hiding secrets about the monsters, especially if the monsters themselves had some unknown weakness that humans could exploit, as some online forums theorized. Considering Frisk still showed some signs of having been neglected and abused by their biological parents, and their apparent panic at the notion of speaking to Artemis about their memories, Myles was certain they had a few darker secrets they were keeping to themselves as well. Though he had been hard-pressed to guess just what those secrets might be.

But even after bouncing theories off of one another last night, Myles knew that neither he nor Beckett could have ever imagined time travel and murder to be among Frisk's secrets. The time loops alone had been surprising to hear about, though not outside the realm of possibility – he knew, after all, that it was indirectly thanks to time travel that the Crash – and whatever magical event had taken place in the gardens right after the Crash – had happened. It would also explain some of the odd behavior he'd seen from Frisk at certain times – moments when they almost seemed to be reciting from a script or were simply waiting for the world to continue around them, as if they'd heard everything before.

But… murder? Cold-blooded, heartless murder at that? Myles hadn't been able to wrap his head around the idea. Frisk was kind to a fault, moral, and most importantly, the most determined person he'd ever met. They would never willingly sink to such depths, he could tell that much. They were the sort of person that held fast to their morals and refused to give an inch, regardless of what the opposition had to say on their philosophies, and hearing about the time loops, how Frisk had apparently died in the midst of them several times, had not changed his impression of them whatsoever.

Not at first. But then Artemis's voice had gone cold, and Frisk had dipped into one of the worst panic attacks he'd ever seen a human being suffer, and suddenly, he was realizing just how much about his new friend he didn't know. And that realization was being reinforced now, as Myles and Beckett both awkwardly let Frisk sob between them.

Severe emotional distress and extreme physical reactions to a reminder of trauma. Self-loathing – no, self-hatred, loathing is not nearly strong enough a word to describe this. Overwhelming guilt and shame. Self-destructive behavior, in the form of self-harm. How in the world did I miss that Frisk has severe post-traumatic stress disorder?

That, however, was unimportant, as was Frisk's confirmation of their elder brother's words. He and Beckett had followed Frisk here to apologize, and considering their own curiosity and concern had been what had caused this in the first place, if indirectly, asking any further questions as to how and why Frisk had killed what was implied to be most if not all of the Underground during one of their time loops was the opposite of the ideal course of action.

So, exchanging a concerned look in which their expressions did most of the speaking for them ("what should we do, Myles?" "Let them calm down.") the twins waited as patiently as they could until, after several long minutes of near-helpless sobbing, Frisk finally, finally seemed to calm down.

"Are… are you okay?" Beckett asked when they finally lifted their head. Myles shot him an incredulous look – did they seem as if they were fine? Honestly – and Frisk blinked uncomprehendingly at the blonde, who winced and had the decency to look sheepish. "Ha, I guess that was kind of a stupid question, huh…"

"No kidding, idiot," Flowey groused. The flower sprouted several vines and began smoothing out crumpled leaves and petals, all while grumbling under his breath. "Just go ahead and squish me, why don't you… it's not like I'm literally stuck in this damn pot or anything… "

Frisk's fingers tightened on the flower's pot.

"… How…" The ambassador's voice came out weak and uncertain – something that did not suit their character at all. "How much did you hear?"

Myles studied them for a moment, and only answered once he'd assured himself that while they were not calm, they would not panic either. "We know you've apparently been living through a time loop that takes place at least partially in the Underground," he said carefully, "which actually makes some sense, in hindsight – it would explain some of your strange behavior in the past. We also know that apparently, you have died in a number of these time loops… and at least once you killed a large number of monsters in apparent cold blood."

The other child genius twitched, their eyes dipping down to the ground and their posture turning… meek. There was none of their usual stubbornness or determination in their stance… just shame.

"Did you… really mean what you said? About…"

About me not being a killer? The words may have been left unsaid, but they were a predictable conclusion to come to.

"While I am still uncertain as to whether or not the… more violent details of your past are true or not…" He was not going to bring up cold-blooded murder, not with Frisk's new pseudo-calm being so fragile. "I do know you Frisk, and need I remind you what one of my doctorates is? Put bluntly, with a personality as kind and self-sacrificial as yours is, there is no feasible way for you to be the cold-blooded killer you seem to want us to believe you are."

And yet, Frisk at the very least seemed to believe that cold-blooded murder was possible for them to achieve. Which made no sense, even when taking into consideration Frisk's apparent past memory loss. Myles had so many questions, but now was not the time for them. Hopefully, if Artemis could get any information from Sans – they had passed him by in the hallway, and the skeleton had definitely had eyes on the office, so he had definitely been heading that way – he'd be willing to share it, despite their presence having messed things up so thoroughly.

His words were met with a strange expression, as if Frisk couldn't decide whether to be comforted or discomfited by them, and seeing this, Beckett quickly jumped in with a distraction.

"How long have you been, er, looping for?" He asked. "If, uh, you don't mind me asking? I mean, it can't have been very long, right?"

Flowey scoffed, and, apparently fed up with the idiocy of human children, folded his petals around his face to block them from view. And Frisk… winced, and looked away.

"… Fifteen years."

Myles almost said a very nasty fairy expletive out loud, though he managed to keep it within the privacy of his own head instead of uttering it. Judging by the look on Beckett's face, his brother was doing exactly the same thing.

"You've been reliving everything for… fifteen years?!" Beckett said slowly. "As in… going through the Underground? And freeing the monsters? Repeatedly? How many times –"

"Two thousand and sixty-seven," Flowey grumbled inside his petals. "Stop asking questions, damn it, they're gonna start crying again if you keep this up."

Two thousand and sixty-seven "Resets." Good god.

"… Holy cow." Beckett's eyes were wide as saucers as he ran the maths through his head. "That's – wow. No wonder you're so good at politics, you've been literally doing it over and over again for over a decade." He grinned slowly. "That's so cool!"

Frisk started, gawping at him. "I – what?"

"You literally know everything you need to worry about before it can happen!" Beckett exclaimed, eyes starting to shine a little due to his realization. "It's like – you can see into the future. You can come up with plans even before you need them! That's so cool!"

… if you ignored the dire implications of the situation, Myles had to admit that these Resets sounded like they could be insanely useful, yes. And assuming Frisk had been keeping tabs on everything during the loops… well, that certainly said impressive things about their memory.

However, Frisk was starting to look even more uncomfortable, so Myles quickly signaled for Beckett to change the subject – clearly, they were not the least bit ready to talk about the time loops in detail and frankly, he thought that was probably for the best. The two of them needed time to steel themselves for the more horrific details, after all.

Beckett, bless him, caught on quickly and awkwardly switched topics. "So um… can I ask you something else? Not, um, to do with the Resets, but – uh, who's Chara?"

Frisk… twitched, their expression going oddly glazed for a moment, as if staring off into space. Flowey, who had previously been at least pretending to ignore the conversation, partially unfurled his petals to peer suspiciously at them.

"Um." The ambassador said, but before they could tack anything onto the end of that bewildered statement Beckett had already begun to babble.

"I mean, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to, but we only heard them mentioned once and you sounded pretty shocked that Artemis knew about whoever they were, and we don't know anybody named Chara so that means they're one of your friends, right? Like, a monster friend, or a human friend –"

"Chara – Chara is, um." Frisk visibly squirmed in discomfort, their eyes going unfocused again for a moment, but before Myles could do more than think about expressing concern – he'd never seen them do that before, and Frisk was still clearly uncertain about speaking – they seemed to steel themselves and squeaked out, "Chara's a, uh, a ghost. As in a human one?"

"… Excuse me?" Myles managed, taken aback. Because – a ghost? As in, a genuine deceased human being?

"They're um, the first fallen human," Frisk mumbled, averting their eyes. "They fell… a few hundred years ago? I think? And when I fell – we, um, have the same color soul. So when I fell on their grave in the underground we sorta… got… connected? I guess? They just kinda hitched a ride? And never left?"

"… So what I'm hearing," Beckett said slowly, in the tone of voice his brother used when he was about to make a joke he was uncertain of the reception of. "Is that you see dead people?"

There was a pause.

Then Frisk suddenly burst out giggling. They were slightly hysterical giggles, only half humor, but they were giggles nonetheless and just like that, some of the tension was gone.

"Uuuuuugh," Flowey groaned. "Why did you have to reference that stupid movie? That thing's dumb, you can't even see human ghosts, how did they get that so wrong –"

Frisk sucked in a breath, trying to calm down. "I can hear dead people?" They offered weakly. "It's not nearly as cool as it sounds, though? Because in the movies the ghosts never make puns? Or swear?" Another giggle slipped out.

Myles blinked at them. "Are they… here right now?" And if so, how long had they been here? "Hitched a ride" implied they'd been there for a long time – how long?

"Yeah," Frisk wheezed. "They're cursing about how they didn't think of making that reference first."

Now it was Beckett's turn to snicker. Myles eyed the two of them as they laughed over the "misfortune" of a literal ghost being unable to make a pop culture reference, then turned his eyes skywards for a moment and wondered if this was a very fast-acting karmic retribution for making Frisk panic. Then he brought his eyes back down to earth again after letting the two immature children giggle for another minute or so.

"As interesting as this is," he managed, trying not to sound too strangled, "I think we should see about getting Frisk's face healed up before one of the other monsters notices their injuries."

That killed the humorous mood quickly, Frisk grimacing and touching one cheek underneath the injuries in question. He felt a touch guilty about making everything serious again, but it was a fair concern – if the time loops and everything that had happened during them were something Frisk wanted to keep a secret, then leaving evidence of self-harm could clue in the monsters that something was going on… and possibly cause the unsteady truce between the monsters and fairies to crumble like wet paper.

Those same points had obviously occurred to Frisk as well because they nodded slowly.

"You… have monster candy?"

Myles nodded. "I do. First things first, we need to know where everyone is in the manor right now –"

"Or," Flowey interrupted crankily, "you could plant me underneath your bedroom window and I could just reach into your damn room."

"That works too," Beckett agreed. "I mean, you keep the door locked when you're not in there Myles, so going through the window would probably be easier as well as faster, and we're only trying to keep this from the monsters anyway, right? Not the fairies?"

"The fairies likely already know what's going on, or at least have an idea," Myles agreed. He hesitated – then, slowly, held out a hand to help Frisk up. He wasn't certain if their help would be wanted at the moment, but – well, they hadn't even gotten to apologize yet. He had to start somewhere, right? Besides, they might still be unsteady on their feet – who knew how many minutes they'd been in that frankly uncomfortable-looking position?

For a moment, it looked like Frisk was going to decline the hand up. Then, however, they seemed to suddenly change their mind, and accepted the help.

"Lead the way?" They asked, sounding strangely small.

Myles didn't like that meek tone of voice one bit. But getting their injuries tended to was important, and so, for now, he simply nodded. Hopefully, they'd have some time to address it before anybody else came looking for them, be it monsters… or their elder brother.

Sans wasn't the kind of monster who got mad easily. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd actually been really, genuinely angry at someone, at least in this timeline – who knew how many other people he'd gotten mad at in others. He just – just didn't see the point of putting in the effort to be more than mildly irritated at people if there was a chance that a Reset, or a LOAD, would erase his memories of whatever had upset him in the first place. What was the point of tiring himself out when he wouldn't remember it anyway?

The first time he remembered being mad as hell was when facing Flowey, knowing the flower monster was responsible for the repeating timelines before Frisk had fallen. The second time had been at Frisk and Chara, after being told everything they'd done over the course of the timelines – though only for a few seconds, because then Frisk had had a panic attack, and that alone told him that they wouldn't be willingly killing anybody any time soon. The third time had been when a real asshole of a bigot had insulted Papyrus's… well, Pap's everything, pretty much.

This was the fourth time, and the first time he'd gotten mad at anyone for years. And oh, was he furious this go around. While he may have kept a healthily wary eye-socket on Frisk, he knew the kiddo had been working hard to make up for all the EXP they had, and they'd managed so much during this timeline. They'd gotten the monsters out from under the mountain, gotten them overseas, had managed to neatly sidestep or eliminate most political problems – heck, they'd even managed to start feeling good enough about themselves that they were willing to mess around with other kids sometimes, which he knew relieved Tori to no end.

And then these assholes had to go and dredge up old memories that should have been left in the past. Not just the normal memories either, oh no, they hadn't done anything by halves – they'd gone for the Genocide memories.

So yeah. Sans was fucking pissed.

"So," he drawled, once the office door had been closed behind him and the footsteps of the twin boys had disappeared down the hall, chasing after Frisk. "Which one of you geniuses was the one that brought up the Genocide Runs?"

There was a moment's pause. Then Fowl folded his hands on his desk, narrowing his eyes at the skeleton warily.

"That would be me," he said. "While we were all involved with the questioning, I was the one that brought up those memories directly." Nods from the fairies confirmed this, the entire group easily giving the floor to the younger human.

Used to being put in charge, huh? "And why did you bring them up?"

One of the fairies – the gargoyle-looking creature on the screen – shifted uncomfortably. The Irishman, however, sniffed. "Would you expect me to simply sit by with that kind of information when there's a child wandering about who has killed in the past, and might kill again if whatever arcane side-effects of their time travel were to repeat? I need to know why they took those actions, the motivations behind them, so I can make certain those conditions are never met again."

Proactive against possible threats. Sans could respect that sort of philosophy under other circumstances since that was how Frisk used the Resets to their advantage right there – know the threats before they turned up, and you could deal with them easily before they ever started causing problems. But he couldn't respect it right now. Not when that same philosophy thrown in their face had sent the kiddo flying off to hide somewhere and try to stop throwing their own lungs up.

"And the way you went about it?"

Fowl crossed his arms, not breaking eye contact. "Frisk has spent, at my current estimations, over a decade of keeping this situation they've found themselves in a secret. I'd hardly expect them to give up their secrets easily, especially secrets of such a murderous nature, even when others have evidence of them."

"So you interrogated them until they ran off crying." No actual tears had been shed yet from what he'd seen, but, well, Sans knew the kiddo well enough that if anything set them off again too soon, there would be. Oh, it made his bones practically rattle in their sockets -

"It was not meant to escalate to that level of emotional distress. I was expecting them to perhaps subtly confirm a few things at most – they likely suspected that I had seen their memories of those… runs, as you called them, and it would have been simple and much less distressing for them had they simply admitted to wrongdoings in the past." Black eyebrows furrowed. "However, they instead tried to avoid the topic entirely, which was not an option I could accept. I need to be absolutely certain that they will not willingly be a threat in the future before I can allow them such liberties."

Gets irritated when things don't go his way. Controlling. "And treating 'em like they're already the enemy is the best way to go about that, is it?"

Fowl narrowed his eyes at him. "I have seen many a catastrophe that could have been averted if someone was willing to act on their suspicions concerning the guilty party, and not simply wait for them to make their catastrophic first move. Waiting for Frisk to suddenly show the colors of an experienced murderer to confirm our speculations would be extraordinarily foolish."

"And bringing up past trauma is a fair price to pay for getting your information, huh?" Sans's magic began to crackle angrily in his marrow. The fairy in the room shifted uncomfortably, the lady captain's hazel eyes narrowing at him, and Fowl stiffened as well – both reacting to his magic? Possible, even likely considering Fowl seemed sensitive to it in the past. "Is that how you usually go about your business, Fowl? At the expense of others?"

"If it means averting disaster? Absolutely. And Frisk was able to tear their way through an entire civilization of magical creatures. If that is not a disaster, then I do not know what is."

Ruthless.

"Not even a shred of sympathy for them, huh?" Sans's magic involuntarily flickered through his eye socket. "Ya' know, I wasn't actually sure about the whole 'former criminal' thing Undyne went on about at first. Sure, you're kinda harsh and ruthless to people that're your opponents or being stupid, but I figured that was just a politician thing, 'cause Frisk can be a bit like that too sometimes, even if they're nicer about it."

This time he let his magic flare on purpose, and if he felt a bit of vindictive satisfaction at watching everyone in the room go stiff as a board? Well, nobody had to know but him. "But now I do think I can see it. Do you even give a damn about anyone that's not the fairies or your family? Because from where I'm standing, it sure as hell doesn't look that way."

The Irishman's fingers tightened on his suit jacket, and while Sans wasn't the best at reading human expressions sometimes… he was pretty sure that was a flash of guilt on the human's face, followed quickly by a poker face that almost put Frisk's to shame. Looked like his words had struck a nerve. Good.

"See me as you will, Sans. The simple fact of the matter is that until I can be certain that Frisk will not be a threat to not only the fairies, but also to humans and you monsters, I cannot let bygones be bygones. And, considering their reaction to our interrogation earlier, I can say for certain that nobody in this office wants to have to ask them about it directly. You came here with an offer for information, in exchange for information. Does that offer still stand?"

Proactive, controlling, ruthless… but apparently not as cruel as he makes himself seem.

He wasn't sure he liked that realization about the human's character, actually. It made him feel a lot less good about railing into the guy. Unfortunately, Fowl had a point. He didn't want to have to see Frisk panic again… and the longer he spent tearing into the Irishman, the riskier it got to answer their questions about the kiddo's past sins.

"Fine." He reeled his magic back in, ignoring the slightly relieved slant to every fairy's expression. "I did say that. And I might be a lazybones, but I keep my word." Sans crossed his arms. "Let's get this outta the way, Fowl. Ask your questions."

To those of you who wondered why the twins weren't scared of Frisk even a little after overhearing that they're a "cold-blooded murderer," there's part of your explanation. Myles is just as smart as his brother, remember, and he's damn good at psychoanalyzing Frisk (mostly thanks to lots of practice. Beckett may have been more open about being starstruck in Frisk's presence before they graduated from "distant celebrity figure" to "new friend," but you can bet that Myles watched every single broadcast and recording of the press conferences, rallies, and public meetings Frisk has been participating in right along with his brother). So, to put it bluntly, Myles has spent a couple of years studying Frisk's personality, and knows more or less how their brain works – and during that time, he's also seen them oppose the use of all kinds of violence, be it by the anti-monster crowds OR the pro-monster ones. The idea of Frisk being violent themselves in any way, let alone via murder, just doesn't compute, because it doesn't mesh with the rest of what he knows of their personality. And Beckett trusts his brother's judgment implicitly.

Of course, it also helps that Myles and Beckett, though aware that there is danger out there, have never personally experienced it, or at least don't remember having experienced it. They have TWO BUTLERS living in the manor with them, most of the time. They haven't been in any real danger for years, so you could consider them sheltered, if more self-aware of being sheltered than most would be.

To those of you that went "Artemis and Co. are getting off lightly," Sans has your back. I could have written more of him railing into Artemis, but honestly, I think it would be a little out of character, so instead you get some very angry, pointed questions, and a good solid jab to get Artemis's guilt going. (And as for the fairies, who like, didn't even talk at all this chapter, wow, that's a first – you bet they're feeling guilty too, they've been feeling guilty pretty much since Sans's first line of dialogue. Artemis is a hell of a lot better at suppressing his own guilt to go over later than they are.) The actual explanations for the Geno Runs and their cause will be happening off-screen, so to speak, but you'll get a summary of what Artemis and company were told later so you don't miss anything!

We'll get a look into how Arty and Co. reacted to Sans and his jabs later, too, don't worry. He might not have acted much on it, but that jab Sans directed at Artemis near the end shook him up a bit.

Also, I hope I got Sans's POV right – not just Sans himself, but also his observations of Artemis's character. It's been a while since I've written anything for MeP, so I'm out of practice – let's hope I didn't mess anything up too badly, haha…