Chapter 9

Muffet picked up the phone at the end of the first ring. "Spider Bakery! Made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders. All proceeds go to help real spiders!"

"You're up. Prepare yourself for seventeen hostiles in a heavily decorated, palace environment requiring complete stealth. Meet me at the cabin on Mount Ebott in two hours."

Muffet nodded once. "Yes, Captain."

As soon as Undyne hung up, Muffet leapt to her feet and clapped her hands, her employees gathering around her. "I've been called up, dearies. Take good care of the shop." She looked over her shoulder at the photo of Frisk smiling on the front page of the newspaper sitting on the counter, the details of the kidnapping outlined underneath. "I'll be taking good care of this."

Exiting the counter area for the back, Muffet put her hands on the wall and climbed up to the hole in the ceiling that led into the second floor and her bedroom with its lavish, four poster bed, fluffy, spider silk sheets, and luxurious window dressings, all in shades of purple. Opening a white wardrobe edged in gold leafing, she pushed the clothing aside to reveal a mechanism that opened a false back. Reaching under her blouse, she pulled out an amulet that marked her as a very special member of the royal guard and placed the amulet in the mechanism. The mechanism turned on its own, opening the back of the wardrobe.

Muffet smiled, clapping her hands softly. Within the wardrobe was her favoritest of attire: a specially made, completely white, guard's uniform. She tossed her red and pink bakery uniform aside and quickly donned the white pants, white boots, white shirt, white gloves, and a white, hooded coat. Removing the clothes revealed an arsenal of lethal weapons and Muffet was quick to arm herself with an array of daggers, throwing knives, and a whip wrapped around her waist. Turning once to be sure all was properly hidden on her person, she called for a ride to Mount Ebott.

Dogaressa was the one to pick her up and guard dog eyed Muffet in the rearview. "Well, that escalated quickly. What are the details?"

Muffet leaned against the door, hand holding up her chin as she looked out the window. "The Captain hasn't given me any specific details beyond seventeen hostiles." She blinked, all five eyes closing and opening in succession. "Any word on Frisk?"

"Nothing official."

"Anything unofficial?"

Dogaressa shook her head. "Nothing unofficial either."

Muffet frowned. "Then let's hope that I'm being called in for rescue and not revenge."

LOVE, for Muffet, didn't work the same way it did for other monsters. Spider monsters often killed and consumed each other as a matter of course, so what caused them to gain LOVE had more to do with how they felt about their victim. The indifference of killing for food, killing in self defense, or, as was often the case for Muffet, on orders as a soldier, didn't raise her Level Of ViolencE. Killing in anger would, hence the twinge of worry.

Muffet was very fond of the Everdawn daughter who had once called her 'Boss;' often with a salute, happily wearing the bakery's garish uniform as a teen. Though it was inevitable that Frisk would one day serve the royal family entirely in any capacity deemed necessary at that moment, Muffet still felt the sting of the day Frisk gave notice. Morning light had entered the bakery for a short time and when Frisk left, that hopeful light followed her out the door.

'Ever dawn' indeed.

Dogaressa dropped her at the perimeter being kept by the guard. Showing her badge, Muffet entered and began the climb up to the cabin. The royal guard was all over the mountain, several staked out at a seemingly unimportant cave entrance. Once up at the cabin, she could see the area around the mountain completely and noticed a large grouping of guardsmen, city police, and community workers at the Barrier. And even without seeing him, Muffet knew King Asriel was there.

Muffet entered the cabin and found Undyne standing in the kitchen, rubbing her head. "Are you all right, Captain?"

"Yeah. Just a headache from being knocked out."

Muffet blinked. "Someone… got the drop on you?"

The fish woman shrugged. "It does happen."

"Concussion?"

Undyne shook her head, her red hair swinging. "Thankfully, no." Undyne led Muffet back to the elevator. "As soon as we enter the prison, I want you to go completely into stealth mode and follow me. I will take you to Asgore and Toriel's palace. From there, you will enter the palace grounds and eliminate all members of the royal guard. I want their disappearances to be swift and clean so it looks like defection or betrayal. No piles of dust left behind."

Muffet nodded once.

"There are seventeen members of Asgore's guard, including Captain Brine, a dark green lizard monster with a white face. All wear the same standard uniform: navy pants, navy button down, and a black coat with silver detailing."

Muffet looked up at Undyne, unblinking as a the elevator descended. "Frisk is dead then."

Undyne smiled. "Frisk is alive."

Muffet sighed in relief, eyes closing and her neck bent. She smiled softly. "Is she safe?"

"Yes. Asgore and Toriel have a son named Asriel and an adopted human son named Chara. When Frisk was dropped into the prison, Asriel and Chara were able to safeguard her and have been engaged in an operation designed to hide humans dropped into the prison. You may see her at the palace and if you do, do not engage unless her life is in danger from one of the guard. Keep in mind that she is an Everdawn and very capable at getting herself out of dangerous situations."

Muffet nodded, smiling a little."Removing so many at once is likely to cause quite a bit of chaos."

"That's the idea. When you've finished, you'll find me at the public library just down the street from the palace. Tap my shoulder and I'll bring you back to Watchtower."

Muffet grew silent as they entered Watchtower's control room, ignoring the outright looks of dismay from the four on duty. It did not bother her that other members of the guard found her uncomfortable to be around. What they thought of her was none of her business.

That said, Muffet knew the rumors that swirled about regarding her and her past exploits. She was quite famous and even celebrated in some circles. In others, she was held in fear and loathing. Even among monsters, there was a certain fear of spiders and in the shadows of the Dreemurr empire, she crept with state approved freedom when called to service. And while her service was kept deeply under wraps, a matter of state secrecy, it irked her to no end that her quieter skills meant no member of the guard, save Captain Undyne, would visit the bakery for a doughnut or scone.

She descended Watchtower behind Undyne, noting that some of the rooms going down had humans in them, many of them talking to members of the guard and counselors.

"Are these humans who were previously hidden in the prison?"

Undyne nodded. "A few of them have been here a long time and have married monsters. They have chosen to remain, which is why you were called up. The King wants the Barrier open and to make that happen, the guard, Asgore, and Toriel need to be eliminated."

Muffet thought about that. "Wasn't Wing Dings Gaster also a boss monster? Wouldn't he still be around."

Undyne smiled sadly. "He met his end yesterday."

"Your LOVE has not increased. Perhaps he was not as strong as the history books say."

Undyne shook her head and then grimaced, wishing she hadn't. She massaged her temples. "His sons destroyed him." When Muffet said nothing, Undyne continued. "Someone down here is walking around with a human soul bonded to them. If it's in one of the guard, retrieve the soul and we'll release it from the top of the mountain."

Muffet nodded.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and Muffet's magic suffused her uniform. After a few moments, she was a barely detectable blur against the background, and anyone who noticed that blur would be singularly disturbed, looking to flee rather than be curious. She followed Undyne through the forest to the town of Old Home and the dock on the river. A swift ride had them at New Home quickly and Muffet walked behind Undyne as smoothly as possible to minimize the strange sense of movement her invisibility could garner, and careful not to bump into anyone in the growing crowd. They stopped momentarily in front of the public library, Undyne looking it over with interest, though it was really about indicating to her unseen companion where they would meet when finished.

Muffet frowned when they reached the palace. The crowd of New Home had completely thinned out here to a few monsters who hurried by quickly, no one stopping to admire the beauty beyond the gates. Looking around for guards, she saw none. Muffet touched the gate, feeling through it for magic and found nothing; a sign of long having lived with nothing but monsters who are very unlikely to be duplicitous. Crouching a little, she leaped the gate, landing soundlessly on the other side. She looked back and found that Undyne had disappeared, going back to the library.

Looking back to the palace, Muffet took a moment to catalog the entrances and windows. Several windows on the second floor where open. She walked slowly across the open courtyard to put her hands on the white walls of the palace and climb to an open window on the left. Peeking inside found it empty. Entering the window, she crawled up to the ceiling and exited into the hallway.

Muffet smiled when she found the first guardsman. She followed him from her upside down crawl on the ceiling. He made his way in a circuit of the second floor before heading down the stairs for an office in the servants' hall. Inside the office, he made a report and she waited for him to leave before looking inside. A large, dark green lizard monster with a white face, and missing one eye frowned over the paperwork on his desk. His uniform marked him as Captain Brine.

When Captain Brine looked down, Muffet silently crawled into the office and anchored herself over the desk. Next to the Captain's elbow was the sentry schedule and a layout of the palace marking the routes the guards were to patrol. All of the routes were centered around protecting two rooms: the royal suite and the princes' suite. She studied it while the Captain wrote a report long hand.

A guardsman entered the office. "Prince Asriel and Lord Chara have left for their engagement at Sothos. Lady Frisk has remained behind. She hasn't left the suite."

The Captain nodded.

"There's talk among the men that we should harvest her soul now, while Lord Chara isn't here to protect her."

The Captain threw his pen across the room. It shattered when it hit the dust gray wall, splattering ink. "You idiots! Let's suppose, for half an instant, that her screams wouldn't alert Their Majesties, when Lord Chara returned to find his pet a corpse, we'd all be dust!"

The Captain stood abruptly, his chair crashing to the floor. "Let's get this straight: as things stand, our best ticket out of here isn't to find more human souls but to breed them. Lord Chara and Lady Frisk make a mating pair of humans and that you want to destroy one of them for… what? Exactly what do we gain? Get out of my office!"

As soon as the Captain turned to right his chair, Muffet dashed out of the office after the guard. Following him led her to an austere sitting room with a group of nine guards. She carefully worked her trap above them while they spoke.

"The Captain isn't on board."

"What?! Why not?" A duck monster threw one wing to the air. "We take her now and one of us can go through the Barrier and collect more! We wouldn't even need to wait. We could just blast the thing open from the outside!"

"Oh yes," sneered a cat monster, "like we could trust you to not just run off the moment you were free."

Muffet dropped to the floor, laying almost invisible spider silk around their feet.

"The Captain proposes we wait for her and Lord Chara to breed."

"That's… No." A ferret monster shook his head vehemently. "I won't do that. I'll harvest an adult, but a child? No. Not happening."

"All the more reason to take her now!" a snake monster hissed. "She's unprotected and we aren't left with the prospect of murdering infants."

"And what about Lord Chara?"

"It's not as if he truly cares for her," a dog monster stated.

"I don't know about that. He was in the kitchen in the middle of the night the last two nights making her tea."

"It doesn't matter how he feels about her, we will be killing his pet and even with all ten of us, we don't stand a chance against him."

"No. You don't stand a chance against me." Muffet dropped her trap, coating all ten of the guardsmen in thick webbing from above and lifting them in one movement from the silk below. The thickness of the webbing muffled their cries as she quickly turned all of them to dust. The webbing caught the dust, holding it tight. Muffet gathered the webbing together in one big sack.

After gently closing the door, Muffet dragged the sack to a heavily curtained window. Moving the curtain a bit to reveal the wall, she knelt, and cut open a small hole in the wall, moving aside the plaster. Carefully pulling and twisting the webbing, the sack became a long, wiggly tube, and she fed it into the area between the inner and outer walls, leaving the insulation as the final resting place of the treacherous ten.

"Seven more to go," she whispered as she replaced the plaster, sealing it shut with some sticky silk threads. Standing, she returned the curtain to its original place.

Muffet checked the corridor before leaving the room and crawling up to the ceiling. Remembering the map, she started following the route to the royal suite, picking off guardsmen as she went and hiding their dust in places that would go unnoticed for a very long time, if at all. She was down to two guardsmen when the sound of voices in a small family dining room caught her ear.

Looking inside, she saw Toriel the Reaper sitting at a small dining table eyes on a newspaper. The entire room was entirely too decorated for her liking, and Muffet clung to the wall above the doorway to listen without entering.

Toriel sat with her hand over her mouth, reading the newspaper in her hand. Muffet angled herself to get a better look and found it to be a copy of the Daily Gazette from the surface. The front page a story about the gathering army of royal guard and social workers on the side of the mountain preparing for the imminent opening of the Barrier. An orange rabbit monster poured a cup of tea for Toriel, setting it gently on the table.

"Are you well, Your Majesty?"

Toriel set the paper down, angling it so the rabbit monster did not see the cover story. "Isadora? I want you to gather the staff. Tell them that as soon as their current task is completed, they are to leave the palace and not come back."

"You're sacking us?!"

Toriel sighed. "The staff have long served us and done so with great care and infinite love. You in particular have been a great source of comfort to my sons, serving them in multiple capacities over the years first as a nanny and later as their chambermaid. And while I know that much of your love for them stems from Chara protecting your children from a momentary lapse of reason on the part of a guardsman, I know that you would have given them just as much of yourself had the incident never occurred at all."

Toriel folded the newspaper so as to hide the front page. "Asriel and Chara must soon confront their father. I want none of you to be caught up in that fight." She stood and walked out the door, Isadora following behind. Muffet quickly followed behind, crawling along the ceiling silently.

"Madam! Please wait!"

Toriel shook her head and continued to the throne room, walking through the garden Asgore had made of the otherwise useless room years ago to the hallway beyond. There was no court for which a throne room was necessary. Opening a long unused door, Toriel stepped on the wide path that went up to the Barrier. The way was empty, normal for midday. Come evening, the path would be filled with monsters looking to enjoy the twilight that filtered through the Barrier and covered the area with its own distinct calm. Muffet waited at the door, watching.

Toriel stopped at the edge of the Barrier, looking into the strange, gray hallway that seemed to go on and on into the distance, with a small light coming through. She turned around, looking down at the rabbit monster. "In the parlor off the servants hall are several gifts, each labelled for a member of the staff, their spouses, and their children. Please distribute them." She knelt in front of the rabbit. "I hope that, in the coming days, you will have the freedom you all deserve."

Toriel handed the newspaper to Isadora. The rabbit monster let it fall open in her hands, staring down at the headline.

Toriel turned around, facing the Barrier. She sighed deeply. "Goodbye, Isadora." She stepped through the Barrier and disappeared.

Muffet chilled.

"So you were the one who had the missing human soul. I need to find Prince Asriel and Lord Chara." She shook her head. "No. I need to find Undyne." Isadora looked down at the paper in her hand, eyes on the photo of the gathering on the mountain side. "Then again, you won't escape either."

Isadora rolled up the paper and went back inside the palace, locking the door behind her. She stopped in the throne room, eyes watchful for guardsmen. Not seeing any, she frowned. "Where have they all gone?" Shaking her head, she continued on to the servants' hall and passed the guard's office.

Muffet paused at the voices inside.

"What do you mean you can't find them?" Captain Brine snarled.

The Whimsalot raised both hands, shaking them. "I can't find them anywhere in the palace! I've looked everywhere! I can't find any guards in the palace!"

"Did you check the Princes' suite?"

The Whimsalot backed up, wings fluttering hard. "N-n-n-n-no."

Captain Brine threw the desk out of his way in his rush for the door. As soon as the Whimsalot was alone, Muffet dropped from the ceiling, dispatching him quickly, and caught his dust in a web, carrying it with her as she chased after Brine on foot. The lizard monster ran on all fours through the hall, body undulating in a hypnotic and thoroughly terrifying way. He crashed through the halls for the princes' suit, throwing anyone or thing out of his way, before bowling into the room.

Frisk, dressed in layers of light browns and dark blues, jumped to her feet, her embroidery hitting coffee table. "Captain Brine!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, mouth of sharp teeth hanging open. "Your LOVE…" His lips pulled back into a sneer. "So that useless trash escaped through the Barrier with the other souls, huh?"

Brine stalked forward, throwing the plush chair in his way into the near wall with a crash.

Frisk didn't flinch, staring the lizard monster down with a steady gaze of disdain. "You'd think a monster like yourself would be happy to have revenge for the loss of an eye."

Brine paused and Frisk's arms went up over her head. A glowing, violet ring of magic erupted behind her. She brought her arms down and the ring let off an energy blast around her, striking Brine full in the chest. He hit the wall with a hiss, but landed on his feet, easily dodging Frisk's next blast. Muffet threw webbing at the lizard monster's feet, and he stumbled over the carpet, only just managing to get out of the way of Frisk's next blast. He leaped for Frisk only to be hit mid air with several webs, knocking him off course.

Frisk blinked, looking around. "Muffet?"

"Focus, Dearie!"

Frisk squeaked as Brine rushed up in front of her. Forgetting where she stood, she stepped back and fell onto the couch. Captain Brine hit the couch hard, tipping it over backward, and both combatants rolled across the floor. Muffet threw out a web, grabbing the Captain and muscling him backwards, her camouflage fading out.

"That fire monster wasn't lying was he? You are an Everdawn! With your soul alone, I can break open the Barrier!"

Frisk found her feet, wiping the blood that trickled from her split lip. "And I can make it happen faster with your death."

Brine roared and slashed at the webbing. The tension suddenly gone, Muffet fell backward and Brine pounced Frisk, grabbing her by the neck before she could raise another spell.

"He said he dumped thirty-two humans into this hell hole! Was that true as well? Speak up! You shouldn't die with such a dirty secret burdening your soul!"

Frisk grasped at the lizard's hand, kicking desperately at him as she gasped for air. The lizard monster's smile faltered as he watched Frisk fall, his arm falling away from her throat from where it had been cleanly severed mid-bicep. Brine howled in pain, falling to his knees, before lunging for Frisk, the claws of his other arm striking her chest and digging in, bones crunching. Frisk gasped harshly, only to cough blood. Muffet screeched, her knife coming down again to severe the lizard monster's head from his neck.

"Frisk!"

Asriel and Chara rushed into the room, Chara lifting Frisk to cradle her in his arms. Asriel knelt next to them, his hand lifting and eyes glowing red.

"Stop!" Muffet dropped her knife to grasp Asriel's wrist..

"She's dying! I can't let her-"

Muffet shook her head. "It's all right. It's painful to watch, but…"

There was a flash of light as Frisk's soul appeared, two pieces, severed down the middle. The split pieces fused into a whole as the wound on her chest closed as if nothing had happened. Frisk gasped, body lifting as her eyes flew open. They closed just as quickly and Chara caught her, cradling her against his chest. Her soul returned to her body.

Muffet pushed her hood back. "This is the power of the Everdawns. They cannot die from anything but old age. It's why a monster must never bond with her soul. They'd be unstoppable."

Frisk's eyes opened a little, a tired smile on her lips. "Hey, Boss."

Muffet giggled. "You haven't called me that in forever." One of her six arms reached out, hand gently touching Frisk's cheek. "How do you feel?"

Frisk blinked. "Better than the last time this happened."

Chara's jaw dropped. "The last time?!"

"Will you be safe with these two?"

Frisk nodded. "Yes."

"Good. I need to report to Undyne. I've taken care of the royal guard in total. But that is less important than this: Toriel has sent away the palace staff and has exited the Barrier. She expects her sons to finish Asgore."

Asriel and Chara looked at each other. "She had the missing soul."

Muffet stood, pulling her hood back up and, disappearing, rushed out of the palace by the nearest window. The building was empty but for five souls; the staff gone, the palace guard dead. Muffet found Undyne at the library and tapped her shoulder. Instead of letting the fish woman lead her away, Muffet gently pulled Undyne to a quiet nook, removing her hood.

"Your LOVE increased."

Muffet nodded. "Captain Brine hurt Frisk and I dispatched him with a deep anger." The spider shook her head. "But that lacks importance. Toriel stole the missing human soul. She exited through the Barrier after dismissing the palace staff."

Undyne frowned. "Then the quickest way to her is through Asgore."