Hello Everyone!

Bold is Interference - no, I won't tell you who yet!

Underlines indicate magic is in use.

I'm not that good at first person, so if y'all have pointers, holler - about anything, really.

I own my chars, everything else belongs to Undertale and its creators.

Thank you for reading, you wonderful things (hey, you might be a cat, for all I know!)

The Girl

There were lace curtains over the bed. Most everything else was standard issue hospital, but someone had decided lace curtains were a good idea. They were not. I wondered who it was, and was coming to the decision that they were a he (or a non-crafty woman who was also colorblind) when it occurred to me to wonder who was me. I thought about it for a moment, then became aware of something alien taped in place on my elbow, in my elbow. It annoyed me. I tried to look over at my arm, but some kind of straps-

Sans

Sans felt the creature wake up - he still hadn't decided what to call them, other than "kid"; the hospital staff had determined on "human girl", but he'd rather wait on the second until the creature could speak for itself, and, as for the first, he couldn't tell what they'd started out as before that madman had started in on them. He cringed, remembering all the scars he'd seen when the kid had collapsed back at the complex. That...wasn't something he'd be forgetting in a hurry. It meant the thing hadn't had a choice in what was done to it.

He heard a whimper, and looked over at the child. His chair screeched back as he reached and held. The kid's eyes were dull - nobody home but a bunch of instincts and traumas. He cursed; why hadn't anyone thought of what would happen when she woke up strapped to a table?

A nurse came flying through the door, and he looked over, grateful and nervous at the same time. Some humans still acted funny when they saw magic being used on another human, but she was walking past him, reaching up to the IV's control panel, "What happened? I heard something wrong, but I need to know what triggered this."

Good, she was one of the sensible ones, "I heard them wake up; I think they might have panicked at the straps. The kid was about to-"

"Go into a fit? I'm former navy, Mister… Skeleton," the hesitation was brief, "I've seen trauma victims before. Why do you think the straps-"

"You heard where she came from? No, guess not. You heard about that cult bust up in North Dakota?" *nod* "She came outta that. The headman was something of a scientist, once. He used the kids there as his test subjects, and from what we could tell, she was his favorite." If he'd had saliva, he'd have spat - lucky for the hospital's cleaning staff, he didn't. He was beginning to feel the kid relax, but clearly it would be a while before they could be left alone.

"Well...if she weren't as bad off as she is, I'd say take them off, but...I know it's a lot to ask, but would you be willing to stay with her for a while?" His eyesocket rose, "She'll be burning that off fast enough, poor thing, and I hate to keep her doped up."

"I'll be here, and if I'm not, someone else who can handle...that kind of reaction will. I don't know if you've met my brother Papyrus…"

"Oh, you're Sans? He's come here quite a bit, over the past few years. I would've called him if you'd said no. Anyone else we should be on the lookout for?"

"Yeah, a couple of others...let me see who's available..."

"That would be great. Thank you. Let me go update her file - you can give the list to whoevers on duty."

Not surprisingly, Papyrus was the first to sign up for the "watch committee". Frisk and Asriel, on break from college and bored stiff, joined in, and Toriel wasn't far behind - he only accepted because he knew she needed a break, and she'd show up anyway if he told her no. Asgore's offer was turned down, since there was a summit he really should be attending in Bosnia. The only real surprise was Undyne, who showed up with the night nurses and glared him into going home for a few hours. He hadn't wanted to until she picked him up and threw him out the door - apparently, training with Pap hadn't all gone one way.

Undyne

I lower myself into the chair, trying hard not to make any noise. It would be wrong of me to interrupt the girl's sleep, and there were other patients on this floor.

It feels odd, sitting here in this quiet place, watching her chest rise and fall. Reminds me a little of that play Alphys took me to see, what was it called again? There was a beautiful song in there - not that I cried or anything - about how a hero must strive, though they're heart was too weary...I feel like the knight sitting vigil in the courtyard - or maybe his lady sitting at his deathbed? Man of La Mancha, that was the name. I will NOT hum that song, I will NOT hum that song.

I remember Sans' little breakdown - who knew he had it in him to worry that much? - and the speech I gave him. It's not the first time I've said that, a lot of young guards go through the same sort of thing. Someone once gave me the same speech, long ago...funny, I can hear his voice, but I can't picture his face for the life of me. That little skelly keeps interrupting my thoughts. His mom moved next door to Alphys and me - our house, anyway, although we're not home that often. I should see if I can get some time off, once this girl's out of the hospital. It's been too long...

This girl'll fit right in, I know it. Sans' probably tying himself in knots, trying to figure out what she is and what she'll do. I know she'll end up with the Queen, though. I don't think he realises how much we talk these days, but she's just as much in charge of the Royal Guard as Asgore, and some things...sometimes...he's still too much of a softie! Toriel turns hard when she gets angry, but he turns into jelly. I know I shouldn't be, but I'm kinda glad this girl killed that...madman, before. I don't think the Queen would have left much of him for us to examine, and after what my people found in his notes, I think the lab goons will be playing around with his body for a while. What he tried out on the girl, he perfected on himself.

Why are my pants buzzing - oh, right, Alphys set the vibrator on my phone earlier. I check...looks like Toriel wants to know how the child's doing...she's still breathing in and out, like before. I'm glad that our emergency monster candy managed to patch up her ribs. Frisk made me listen to their complaints, that one time I got a little too enthusiastic and cracked their ribs. I don't want anyone going through that kind of pain...except maybe the people who did this to her.

Gods! I can't believe how scared I was, when she folded up like that - I barely touched her...how much determination did it take, to fight like that through that kind of pain? I don't think I could do that...maybe once, but not now. She went from protector to...sobbing wreck…so fast. How can they do it? Frisk, this kid...how can they feel...sorry...for killing something like THAT? Has it just been so long that I've forgotten what it felt like, or is it that I never could? No, I know I could, once.

Wait, is she...Oh, no, kid - "NURSE!"

Sans

Sans heard, the next night, about the child's seizure. Apparently, with everything else that had gone wrong, no one had noticed a chip from her skull getting lodged in her brain. The surgeon had gotten it out, but it scared him that something so small could take a human that close to death.

What little of the day shift the kid hadn't been in surgery for was taken by Alphys. He'd asked Alphys to have a look at the creature's SOUL, when she came by, but even the Royal Scientist was at a loss. There was a human SOUL in there somewhere, but the merge was unlike anything she'd seen before. The only thing she could think to compare it to was her Amalgamates, but reversed - instead of bodies being melted together, it was the SOULs. They couldn't begin to speculate on how they'd gotten mixed together without the thing gaining any LV.

Tibia honest, the kid scared him...and made him feel protective all over again, just like Frisk. If he didn't know for certain where Chara had ended up, he might have wondered if this were them, reborn. Asriel had been talking to the monsters a lot about rebirth, and he kinda liked the idea - it seemed to happen, sometimes, with boss monsters especially, that not long after they Fell Down, a new monster would be born who filled the same niche. Anyway, this kid couldn't be Chara, so that wasn't it.

It was probably the determination. He'd never seen Frisk power through those kinds of injuries, but it wouldn't surprise him if they could. There was something else...other than the whole SOUL amalgamation thing, obviously. THAT was scary. He could remember Flowey, although he'd never had the heart to tell Asriel that, especially with Frisk glaring at him. He'd asked them why the others were so hazy about the fight, and they'd made him promise not to mention it to anyone.

This kid...what was the thing's name, anyway? Undyne had said her people were looking through what they'd gotten out of the complex, but nothing with a name on it had shown up, and that was weird. Then again, there was a lot of paper to go through...he texted Undyne, asking her to put some of the papers in the box on his desk. She texted him back.

- WHY? DON'T YOU WANT THEM THERE? -

-nah, I thought they'd enjoy the view-

-SANS!-

-if it'd be faster to bring them here, do it that way-

-IT WILL-

Yeah, it's the author again. I'm not quite sure where Chara is, but Sans knows, so I'll let him decide when to tell us.