PLEASE READ BEFORE STARTING THE CHAPTER:

There will be a scene where a trigger warning is needed, due

to self-harm. If you think it's a possibility that you may be

triggered, please do not read the scene. I care about you, and

I don't want anything to happen because of the scene.

Thank you.

Chapter 36: Vanishing Act

What to do.

The next day, Cohen's and Undyne's deaths were on the morning news.

I, of course, was the only one in the compound who knew that Undyne was still alive. And upon hearing my thoughts, Selena gave me a questioning look, which I returned with a thought that told her to meet me outside later. Other than the news that Cohen, one of the Ambassadors for the Humans was dead, there really wasn't anything else that was interesting.

After breakfast of course, Selena and Liam joined me for a 'walk' in the compound gardens. Selena had many questions about all of the thoughts she had heard from me in the past month, and Liam was just there to accompany Selena.

"Frisk, there's been something going on with you during this past month and a half. Liam and I are concerned," Selena said softly.

I looked at the pair, deciding that I'd give them some information, "Well, you guys know what LV is, right?" The pair nodded, Liam's eyes narrowing, "Most people have low levels, averagely ranging anywhere from 1-10. Right now though, my levels have climbed to 29, almost 30." I don't want to tell them much though…. I don't want to drag them into this.

Selena looked at me with shock and horror, while Liam looked at me in suspicion. Liam's guessing that I'm the one who killed Cohen and Undyne.

"You, Liam, are correct on that guess. I did kill Cohen. But Undyne… she's still alive. Traumatized, maybe, but alive. And hopefully, she listened to my warning," I said, deciding that there was no way the pair wasn't going to find out about what I did.

Liam switched places with Selena, now closer to me while Selena was farther, "And just what do you mean by 'hopefully she listened to my warning'? What exactly did you do?"

I looked at Liam, seeing the uneasiness in him, "Well, I attacked Undyne and sent a video of her turning to dust, making Alexandra and everyone else believe that she was dead." Liam looked at me with disgust, but I continued, "Honestly, I understand your repulsion. Looking back at last night, I deeply regret doing that to Undyne, but I didn't see any other way. I can only cast an illusion on someone when they're nearby in person. Anyways, afterward when I had healed her, I gave her a warning. I told her that because of that attack and the video I had taken, the world and the people at the compound would assume that she had turned to dust and died. So I told her to lay low and go into hiding, and that it'd be best to have everyone else go into hiding too."

Liam looked at me with such pity, "Frisk, what are you doing. There are better ways to go about this."

I walked more quickly, my throat burning once again, "Yes, I know there are better ways to do this, thank you for your input Liam. It's just…. I want to scream all the time, because things are spiraling out of my control, and nothing is going as planned at all! Do you know what month it is?"

Selena was hesitant, "July. Why?"

I threw my hands up into the air, "It's July! July 15th is Melody's birthday, and guess what day it is."

"It's the 15th," Liam provided for me.

"Yes, it is the 15th! Which means," there was a lump in my throat. I took a breath, "Which means, that today was supposed to be the day that Melody got her first, proper, amazing birthday party. Before we had ran away, we never got to celebrate our birthdays with parties and friends and happiness. So today was going to be her special day, and she was gonna have as many friends that she wanted to be there, and we were going to spend some quality time together since I had been so busy with work and Ambassador duties. And she was going to have this big surprise where everyone got something for her, and she was going to be the happiest girl in the world."

Before I knew it, I was crying for the first time in over a month. My chest felt heavy and my throat still burned from wanting to scream, and heavy, hot tears were running down my face. Liam and Selena felt horrible about my situation, it was obvious.

Selena spoke up with quiet, gentle words, "What did everyone else plan on getting her?"

My heart ached at the thought, but I had a small smile, "Well, they didn't give me specifics, but I have a sort of idea of what everyone had planned. Toriel was going to bake mini butterscotch cinnamon pies, along with Melody's dream cake. Asgore was going to create a sort of trident like his, that would be unique and specially made for Melody. Asriel was going to make Melody her very own locket which would've been charmed so Melody could hear some comforting words in his voice, since Melody simply adored his locket and found comfort with Asriel's wise words. Chara was probably going to give Melody a knife, and probably would've taught Melody different ways to use the knife. I'm sure Undyne would give Melody her own magic spear to practice with, and would have been the one to train Melody in fighting. Alphys would've revealed Melody's soul type and explain all of that, along with honing any abilities that Melody had because of her soul. Mettaton, well, I'm sure he had something planned where Melody would either join him on stage at a local concert, or where Melody would have front row seats. Papyrus would have helped Melody create her very first intricate puzzle, or he would have had Melody join him in creating some culinary creations. Tabatha probably would have given Melody a few new book series, since Melody loves reading so much. And Sans…. well, that bonehead would've… Never mind." I whirled towards Selena and Liam, "The point is, while I'm in here, I'm missing out on everything that they do. I'm missing out on my life!" But wouldn't they be better off without me? My LV is too high.

Selena tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "Well, we can't really do anything about it, right? I mean, Alexandra has total control here."

I started walking again, a smile on my face, "Actually… I think we can do something about it." We can escape. They're training us to be weapons, why not turn against them?

Selena had read my thoughts immediately, and while I could tell that she disagreed with how I wanted to go about this, she also kind of wanted to hear about what I had to say. "You're insane. Even if there were a way, or a chance of us getting out, Alexandra isn't afraid of two teens and an eighteen year old."

"Actually…" I trailed off. And as I turned to face the pair, I gave Selena a dazzling smile, "She's afraid of me. I'm different, more… sadistic, if you will. Heartless, almost. And she has definitely noticed my change. So, if we turned on her, I'm betting that we'd win."

Liam looked me up and down, before smiling slightly. "While I don't like hurting innocents, turning on the people who have tortured me all my life and getting revenge…. now that sounds fantastic. I'm in, on whatever this plan is."

Selena crossed her arms, looking at Liam in disbelief, "Are you kidding me? This is such a bad idea, you could get hurt, everything could go wrong, Frisk doesn't even know what the plan is yet!"

Liam crossed over to Selena, putting his hands on her shoulders, "C'mon little Blue Bird, don't you want to get out of here?"

Selena shrugged, avoiding his eyes, "I, well, of course. But where would you go? Where would I go? I have no where, everyone I love is…."

Liam looked over to me momentarily, before looking back at Selena, "Frisk always talks so highly of the monsters, so I'm sure the both of us can go and stay with them. Okay? But if we want to do that, and we want to live without the constant terror that we have here, then we need to get out of here."

Selena looked back and forth between Liam and I, before slowly nodding her head, agreeing to the plan.

I clapped my hands, "Okay, good. We can go over the plan later tonight, in mine and Selena's room. Right now though, we need to go train and make sure no one's suspicious of us."

Liam gave me a rare, genuine smile, before taking Selena by the hand and leading her back inside.

I looked up at the stormy grey sky, before following the pair inside.

It was well past midnight, when everyone would be asleep. Well, everyone besides Selena, Liam and I.

Liam had snuck into our room around 12:45, when the power to the compound was usually cut out so no one could escape. But since the power was cut and our room doors are powered by the power, Liam didn't really do any sneaking. it was more like I had to teleport into his room and snatch him up, so I could take him to mine and Selena's room.

When we got all nice and comfy, we began discussing our escape. So far, it had been hours and we were already back to square one. Every time I brought up an idea, Selena or Liam would shoot it down because of safety issues. And when I was relentless on certain ideas, fights would ensue. So essentially, right now, we did not have an escape plan.

I had thrown my hair up into a ponytail, which had now fallen apart, "You guys, I would really love to get out of here, and I'm sure you guys would love to get out too. Thing is, for that, we need a plan. But you guys shoot down all of my ideas!"

Selena's voice was quiet, "They're dangerous. Someone could get hurt. Or in trouble."

"Any plan we come up with will be dangerous! I can't guarantee everyone's safety! But if we want to get out, we need a plan of some sort," I concluded frustratedly.

Liam turned to Selena, "I hate to say it… but I agree with Frisk. Any plan that we come up with is going to be dangerous in some way. So we'll just have to go with the safest plan, okay?"

Selena looked into Liam's eyes, her hazel ones burning into his grey ones, "Can you promise me that you won't get hurt? That we all get out of this with no injuries? That after we leave, that we never do anything dangerous like this, ever again?"

Liam gave Selena a small smile, putting a hand onto one of hers, "I promise. Okay little Blue Bird, happy now?"

I cleared my throat a little, interrupting, "Sorry to interrupt, but are you guys a thing? Or are you guys just best friends?"

Liam looked over at me, cheeks flushed and irritated, "Best friends. It's not like every cliche out there, where the girl and guy who are friends fall in love with each other."

"Okay bucko, just curious. You act sort of lovey dovey sometimes, so I was just clearing things up," I said, my hands raised. I saw something in Selena's eyes when I looked over at her, and I knew something was up, "But uh, I guess me and my best friend were like that a lot. Anyways, we decided on the safest plan, right? So the original plan?"

Liam nodded, "Yep, the one where you and me get most of the action, while Blue here is doing the safer part." Liam rubbed his eyes tiredly, "I'm glad we were able to agree on a plan. We should have done that hours ago though. Anyways, Frisk, can you get me back to my room?"

I nodded, grabbing Liam by the arm and quickly getting him back to his room, so I could chat with Selena.

When I got back, Selena was laying in my bed, facedown. I went over to her and gently put a hand on her shoulder, "I have a suspicion on what's up, but I'm not entirely sure. So should I say what I think is going on, or should I just let you vent?"

Selena rolled over, eyes glassy with tears, "I promised myself that I wasn't gonna do this, because I know how it ends. It always ends the same- with me getting my heart broken. The last time I liked my best friend, we were in a relationship, and she cheated on me with some guy on a youth group trip. And the time before that, I liked my best friend, even though I knew he was gay. And now I've done it again, and I know how it ends." The young girl before me rolled back over before the tears could fall.

I put my hand on her back, rubbing soothing circles, "It'll be okay sweetie. This time could be different y'know. Maybe he likes you back, but just doesn't realize it. Or maybe he does realize, but is denying it."

Selena lifted her head slightly, peeking out at me from behind her hair, "But if he liked me, then why would he deny it?"

I smiled, "Boys are complicated too, even if they say they're not. And maybe, he's just like you. Maybe he doesn't want to get hurt again."

Selena looked up at me, smiling, "You're not heartless."

I raised an eyebrow in confusion at the sudden change in topic, "Huh?"

The girl before me giggled, "You're not heartless, like you said earlier. 'Cause if you were, you wouldn't comfort me, let alone ask me what's wrong. So, you are not heartless."

I felt the corner of my lip lift slightly, "If you say so kiddo. Now, we need to get at least a few hours of sleep, got it?"

Selena agreed, before climbing into her bed, and quickly falling asleep.

When I was satisfied that Selena was deeply asleep, I hopped out of bed, teleporting to Alexandra's office. When I was inside, I held up a hand, letting a soft light shine, while I looked for a pen and piece of paper. When I found what I needed, I wrote a quick note to Alexandra, stating that I had a sudden craving to watch some monsters crumble to dust and lose the light in their eyes. Of course, that wasn't what I was really doing.

But what Alexandra didn't know, wouldn't hurt her.

"Tabatha," I said in a sing-song voice, flipping on the lights. "I need some information."

Tabatha jumped up and out of bed, grabbing the knife on her nightstand, "What'd you do." Tabatha's eyes were filled with tears and her hands shook, "What'd you do to Papyrus? Where is he! I know you killed Undyne, so you tell me where he is, or so help me-"

I approached Tabatha slowly, my voice gentle, "If you haven't seen him, then he's safe." I grabbed Tabatha's wrist, yanking the knife out of her hand, "Undyne must have listened to me and moved everyone to a safe place." I let the knife drop to the floor, grimacing when it hit the ground with a loud clatter, "Now, if you'd be so kind, I need some information."

Tabatha yanked her wrist away, her strength making me raise my brows in surprise, "And how do I know that you're telling the truth? You could be lying." The girl glared at me, her eyes daggers while her brows were furrowed in anger. Tabatha let out a an irritated sigh, before reluctantly asking, "And just what information do you need?"

"It's about LV again," I said, quickly hurrying on when a deadly gleam appeared in Tabatha's eyes. "I'm just curious…. Is it possible to gain LV from hurting yourself?" I asked quickly and nonchalantly.

Tabatha immediately paled, her eyes no longer deadly, but slightly scared and concerned, "I- I don't, I, just… Frisk, just why do you want to know?"

I approached Tabatha quickly, putting a deadly expression on my face, making the girl flinch, "Answer the question, Tabby."

Tabatha looked at me, hesitant to answer, "…If they find out that I'm the one who told you that you can gain LV from self-harm, and you did exactly that… they'll all hate me. I'd be the one to blame, because you're our friend, and I gave you this information."

I backed off of Tabatha, turning to leave, "They won't hate you. They'll just be concerned, and disappointed in me."

I exited the room, teleporting to my room at the compound immediately.

I checked to see if Selena was still fast asleep, before heading over to my bed and sitting down.

(TRIGGER WARNING TIME: I'll make more bold text when it's over.)I looked down at my arms, seeing the faint scars from my past endeavors. Which is better, hurting others, or hurting myself? ….. I turned to my bedside table, opening the drawer and taking my shaving razor out, breaking it just to get to the blade. I held the blade in between my fingers, breath shaky. I was several months clean. I had promised that I would never do this again…. But I need to get my LV up, if I want to get out of here. And I'm done hurting other people in order to attain LV. I looked up at Selena's sleeping figure, before looking back down to the razor blade. I readied my blade, gently pressing it to my skin…. before applying more pressure and pressing down, making one neat, crimson line.

I took a shaky breath, not knowing why this was affecting me so much.

(Okay, the triggering part is over, you may continue reading.)

The next day, I was exhausted, between training and shielding my thoughts from Selena.

Last night I may have… gotten a bit carried away with what I was doing. Everything had hit me all at once, and it was shocking to find out how much self-hate and anger and sadness I had been holding in. But hey, it got my LV up, so it was kind of a good thing that I got carried away.

Anyways, right now I was in Alexandra's office, just sitting while Zach stood nervously in the corner, and while Alexandra stared at me.

I cleared my throat, making the woman jump a bit, "So, you gonna tell me why I'm here and stop wasting my time, or can I leave."

Alexandra hesitantly spoke up, "Oh, yes. The reason I called you here. Well, Zach and I were… curious, let's say."

I examined my fingernails, bored, "Curious about what."

Zach spoke up, looking at his notes, "In one of your earlier sessions from when we first met, you told us about your abilities. One of those abilities was being able to get information about people, 'stats', you would call them. Well we're…. we want to know the current status of your stats. When you first told us of your stats, they were:

HP: 24/24

ATK: 12

DF: 10

LV: 2

EXP: 10

"And now," Zach continued, "Your stats are:" he trailed off, waiting for me to fill them in.

I looked at Alexandra and Zach, before starting to laugh, "Oh my god, okay, I'm sorry, just- just give me a moment!" Zach and Alexandra looked at me anxiously, waiting for me to stop laughing. When I was done, I replied to them with a smile, "You want to know what my stats are? Okay. They are:

HP: 600/600

ATK: 658

DF: 658

LV: 147

"And my EXP is:?" I asked, waiting for the pair to wipe the horrified look off of their faces.

Alexandra took a shaky breath, her breathing a bit fast, "Frisk, can you tell us what your LV was last night?"

I smiled brightly, "Sure! Last night, before my little outing, my LV was, what, 30?"

Alexandra stood up, backing as far away from me as she could. "And- and that means, that means that you increased your LV by 117, in just one night?" She asked, her voice slightly going up in pitch at the end.

"Why so many questions? Oh, wait, don't tell me. Are you… scared of me?" I asked, getting up and approaching Alexandra ever so slowly.

Alexandra tried her best to glare at me, failing, "N-no, where would you get that ridiculous idea from?"

I jumped over Alexandra's desk, getting right up in her face as she flattened herself against the wall. "Oh Alexandra, my sweet, darling mother. You abused me for years, even more so than my father. You hunted me down, kidnapped me, and made me work for you. You almost killed my little sister, whom I just love, oh so much. Hell, you actually killed someone that I was deeply in love with. You punished me by whipping me, and slowly cutting me up into pieces because I was able to reset, when I disobeyed you, after you kidnapped me and brought me to live in this compound permanently. Most importantly…. you went after my family."

Alexandra bit her lip, looking to the side as she refused to look me in the eye, "And?"

I smiled, position my mouth right next to her ear, whispering so only she could hear, "And you're in for a bad time. Because bitches like you…. should be burning in h e l l ."

Alexandra grabbed a nearby vase, smashing it into the side of my face, before bolting out of the room. Luckily for me, the vase did practically nothing to me.

I looked over to see Zach, paralyzed with fear, "Oh don't worry Zach, you haven't done anything to me. So you can walk out of here safely. Or, you could just tag along with me."

Zach closed his eyes tightly, "Tag…. tag along?"

I smiled as Zach slowly opened his eyes, "Yeah, can't you tell? Now that Alexandra is absolutely terrified of me, I'm going to walk out of here with no problem, practically vanish, and go home. And at home, my mom's going to bake me a nice, warm, delicious butterscotch pie. And my friends will embrace me with hugs, and love. And if you came along, you'd be given a safe place to stay. Doesn't that sound nice?" Zach looked apprehensive, but slowly nodded in agreement. "Great! Now, I'll just need to get the other two mages, and we'll be on our way. Oh, and Zach? Wouldn't you be an absolute doll and grab every single file on all of the mages? Thanks! When you have the files, just meet us at the main entrance."

I sprinted out of the room, leaving Zach to do what I told him. Alexandra had apparently sounded the alarm about me, because guards were everywhere and alarms were blaring. It was exhausting to use my magic to restrain the guards to the walls while sprinting at the same time, but I had to get to Selena and Liam as quickly as possible. And if I knew them, they'd be… yep, Liam's room.

I rounded the corner, diving into Liam's room, seeing the pair crouching in a corner. "C'mon you guys, it's time to get out of here. So get up, and follow me," I yelled to the pair over the alarms.

Liam and Selena didn't question it, not now at least, they were too busy sprinting after me as I rocketed through the hallways. My magic was wearing off on the guards, and I still needed time to get out of here. On a whim, I released my magic on the guards, grabbing the other's hands and pushing myself to go faster.

I skidded to a halt in the main lobby area, where Zach was nervously waiting for us. I immediately picked up the pace again, reaching Zach as quickly as possible. Then I made sure everyone had ahold of each other, and began to teleport with the last of my magic.

The last thing I saw as the compound faded from sight, was Alexandra's absolutely livid expression.

I collapsed when we arrived at our location.

Kody's apartment.

Liam and Selena rushed to my side, while Zach stood awkwardly to the side.

I felt Liam's cool hands on my forehead, "She burned up a lot of magic, she'll need a transfer."

"Transfer?" Selena questioned from beside him.

Liam put his hands on my temples, sending magic back into me. "Yeah, transfer. It's a lot like a blood transfer, except with magic, it doesn't matter what type of magic you give, it suffices. Humans burn magic a lot like they burn energy, and if they burn too much magic, it puts them at risk."

Selena's voice had a hint of panic in it, "Risk?"

Liam nodded, still transferring magic, "It puts humans at risk of losing their magic, their soul traits, and if a human is as deeply connected to magic as us mages, it can put them at risk of death." Liam removed his hands from my temples, turning to Selena, "I've given as much magic as I can right now, but Frisk needs more if she wants to keep her abilities. So you'll need to transfer magic now, okay Blue Bird?"

Selena nodded, putting her warm hands on my temples, "Okay. So do I just… imagine sending my magic throughout her body? And then just… send the magic?"

Liam smiled, "Look at that, I didn't even need to tell you how to do it. But yes, that's the gist of it. Start out slow though, with a small stream of magic. And if you think you have enough magic, you can imagine a larger stream of magic flowing from your hands to her."

Selena did as Liam said, starting out slow, and then increasing the amounts of magic. After a few minutes, Liam had stopped Selena, checking my magic levels. Deciding that my levels were high enough, he had Selena help sit me up.

I looked at the pair, grateful, "Thank you, I appreciate the help. Now that we're out of the compound, we need to figure out where to go from here. Alexandra knows that I've visited this apartment before, so this is gonna be one of the first places she checks."

Selena gave me a small smile, "You're welcome. But, Frisk, just what exactly did you do to lower your magic levels that much?"

Liam cut in, "Yeah, you completely threw the plan we had out the window. We weren't even supposed to leave today, we were supposed to figure out where your family was too, since they've vanished to their safe place. Just what did you do, Frisk?"

I shrugged, "I kind of just… winged it." When Liam looked at me in disbelief, I continued, "So I sort of used my magic to like…. make Alexandra reveal her true feelings about me, I guess. I made her say what she was thinking, what she thought of my new change in personality. Everything she said today in that office, was genuine. She was genuinely terrified of me, and now I know that. So, I guess I had some sort of control over her?"

Liam crossed his arms, "So let me guess, this was your first time using magic to do what you did to Alexandra, and that's why your magic burned out so quickly." When I nodded, Liam gave me a dirty look, "Imbecile. What you did was completely idiotic. We were supposed to stick to the plan, take our time, make sure that everything would work out and that nothing too drastic happened. Now we barely have time to figure out what to do, because we're basically on the run. Idiot."

Selena smacked Liam on the arm, "Be nice. She probably went a bit over the edge. Remember what she told us yesterday? The thing about missing out on her own life? She wants to live, she wants to be with her family. While her actions were a bit… reckless, she did it because she wanted to get back to her family."

Liam looked down at Selena, "I know that, but she put us at risk. What if you had gotten hurt? Or killed? Or worse, what if you were taken hostage and tortured unrelentlessly?"

Selena shrugged, "I don't know. But none of that happened, now did it? Really though, we should probably get going. If Alexandra knows how much this apartment means to Frisk, then Alexandra and her lackeys will check here soon." Selena turned to me, her expression seeming calm, but her eyes swimming with worry and concern, "So, Frisk, where do we start looking for your family?"

I smiled, an idea coming to mind.

"I think I know just the place."

Another chapter, whooooooooooooo.

I'm so tired. I stayed up all night writing this for you guys, because a few paragraphs got deleted before I saved, and I forgot what I had written, so I had to rethink the whole chapter again. But hey, I finished the chapter, so yay!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and there are plenty more to come.

Until Next Time~