Core Issues: Season 5
by Nicolle

Special Disclaimer: InkTale Sans (who has a mention here) belongs to Comyet. Dragoon Sans is inspired by Cross!Sans by JAKEInimation (Jael Peñaloza). The reason I am not using Cross Sans specifically is because I can't get a bead on the canon. So I'd rather just credit the inspiration and go my own way. This story is copyrighted to me.

Episode 1: Frisk, Interrupted
(Cross is our narrator!)

A Frisk, a child with the fierceness of a lion, was trapped in a rotting castle's cell, screaming rage filled profanities at her captor. Blood soaked clothing hung off her in tatters around obvious torture wounds. I woke briefly, shaking my head to cast off the nightmare, only to have another take its place as soon as I fell back asleep: an adult Frisk, clutching her infant son to her chest, seethed through her tears. She was locked in a room and while danger didn't seem immediate, the ever present dread of a promised pain for her child kept her from attempting escape.

I forced myself awake and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, pinching the bridge of my nose.

I'd been dreaming about these Frisks for a while.

When the nightmares started, I immediately booked myself in for twice the amount of time with the therapist. I just wasn't hard enough or cold enough anymore to simply ignore those kinds of dreams. Of course, if I was dreaming about someone, that meant Church was too. I went through her art journal and found the same Frisks. The child Frisk stood on the surface side of the barrier while Asriel and an adult Chara sat on the Underground side. The girl gazed deeply at the sunset while Asriel and Chara waited, both unsure of the future. The adult Frisk was held in the arms of her Chara. Their children, including a teenage Asriel, cuddled close around them.

I sighed and shifted a little... only to notice the weight on my shoulder and the henna stained arm across my chest.

Oh yeah. I'm totally a big, bad, super, special forces ninja. Look at how well I noticed that Michelle was cuddled up against me!

Why did I agree to share a tent with her again? Because Sans said it was a good idea. I'm not sure who's worse: him or Michelle. At least she hadn't tried to crawl in my sleeping bag with me. The warm light of sunrise peeked through the little window on the tent, lighting her golden face, setting off the lighter tones in her brown curls, and lifting my heart. Craning my neck a little, I kissed her forehead.

I made a point not to compare her to the woman I'd so fervently sought only to later destroy. Despite having the same face, they were completely different people and that difference was both a frustration and a blessing.

Michelle sucked in a deep breath through her nose and let out a contented sigh. "Morning," she yawned without opening her eyes, hugging me tightly for a moment.

"Morning."

Her peridot eyes opened fully, a lazy smile gracing her lips as she watched me. "I could get used to this." Then her smile turned devious. "Nope. Wait. Already used to it. It's too late!"

When I sighed in resignation to my fate, Michelle sat up with a satisfied hum and kissed me on the nose.

She stretched, the green Loch Ness monster shirt she'd stolen from me pulling across her breasts. "I smell bacon!"

I nodded, thankful to be distracted by the mouth watering scent wafting through the tent from the camp fire a few feet away. "If I know Church, breakfast is done already."

She looked down at me, that long curly hair dropping from her shoulder to hit me in the face. "Why don't you call her Frisk?"

Because it's her name and I really don't have a right to use it even when I do. I pushed her hair aside. "Isn't it weird that we both have the same name?"

She shook her head, sending the sweet smell of her coconut perfume directly to my nose and brushing her hair across my face. "There are lots of names that work equally well for a boy or a girl."

I sat up to stretch and Michelle took the opportunity to run her finger across the white, thin line of a scar that ran across my chest. I didn't comment on it. She knew where it came from. We had a long conversation about my past, but it hadn't deterred her. She was going to make a husband of me whether I liked it or not. She leaned into kiss the underside of my chin and turned to crawl out of the tent.

I pulled a shirt on before following Michelle out into the warmth of an early September morning. The trees lining Lake Yons were still a dark, summer green, though you could see some yellowing in the bushes here and there near the waterline. It seemed that autumn was shaping up to be warm, but all the woolly caterpillars we encountered hiking yesterday were any indication, winter was going to be very cold and very snowy this year. I'd have to order all my 'stuck inside for winter' art supplies early. Maybe I'd take a day off and go on a trip to the art supply store with Church while she was on maternity leave.

Speaking of Church, she sat on a felled log next to the campfire, plating some eggs for Princess from the big, cast iron pan she used just for camping. Her chocolate hair had finally grown out to the point where her braid hit her backside, something she was very proud of. Despite being at camp, she was still wearing a long, dark blue dress with little turquoise flowers, which was probably more comfortable than pants for her right now anyway. She put the cast iron pan back on the grate over the fire and rubbed her round stomach as Princess sat down with Sophia and Brandon to eat. Bones sat next to her, drinking a cup of coffee while he watched the lake water lap at the bank. Princess' ghostly Chara hung on her charge like a jacket, red pupil eyes watching the lake with a peaceful expression.

Michelle smiled brightly, leaning over to kiss Church's temple. "You are the cutest pregnant woman ever." She gently tapped the Church's nose piercing, a tiny diamond she only wore when on maternity leave because she feared to lose it during a mission. She never explained its significance to me, but then, I hadn't asked either. I suspected that it was a gift from Bones. She gave her engagement ring the same treatment, and left it behind when on a mission.

Church smiled, only to wince, counting under her breath for a full thirty seconds before sighing in relief. Bones put his hand on the small of her back, massaging boney knuckles against the muscles.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?"

She nodded and gave me a little smile. "Just contractions."

Michelle sat next to her. "Ooooh! Is it time?"

Bones nodded. "Just about. She's only at every 30 minutes so we have a few hours yet until we need to be back home."

Church leaned into her husband. "I've already called Asriel to let him know."

Michelle looked over at the kids. "Are you guys excited?"

Sophia bounced in her seat. "Uncle Az says I get to help! I've been practicing with him for weeks!"

Michelle gave her a bright smile. "You are so ready to be a big sister again."

I flicked Michelle's braid. "Are you ready to be a birth coach?"

She waved me off. "Oh please. This is not my first time at the rodeo." She looked up at me. "Not only have I been Frisk's birth coach for Sophia and Brandon, I've helped out for all of my older sisters. And seriously, Frisk is easy. My sister Daliah?" She shook her head. "I weight trained to help her."

I bit my tongue, but couldn't hold back my smile. Daliah was not a small woman by any stretch of the imagination. No, she wasn't overweight. She just wasn't small. Bones offered me a cup of coffee and I took it as I sat next to him. "Any news about Dragoon Sans?"

Bones nodded. "We found out why he's been attacking timelines. Inky practically bowled Techno over when he teleported on timeline to report in. Which is unusual since Ink has a tendency to forget conversations half way through. This one actually stuck with him. It seems that Dragoon Sans' timeline is gone and he sought out Ink to recreate it. When Ink told him that it didn't work that way Dragoon disappeared."

"And after that, he started attacking other timelines?"

Church nodded. "He's trying to steal analogs of his world from other timelines." She frowned. "I want to know who convinced him that it would work that way."

"Can Fase get his timeline back?" Ravie asked. He stretched as he came out of his blue gray tent before rubbing his cervical vertebrae.

Bones sighed. "Fase needs the core data well and she can't find it, which is a bad sign. The only hope to recreate his world now is to find his Frisk."

"Do you think he'll come here? Or my timeline?" Princess asked, her voice, even after a year of therapy, still had a bit of a tremble to it. But she was happy to have it back.

"I don't know, kiddo. We don't have any idea what his original timeline was like because it went down almost as fast as it appeared. So we don't know what he's looking for."

Michelle stood to let Ravie have the seat next to Church and plopped down next to me. She hugged up against my arm and stole my coffee. After a morning swim, we packed up and Ravie hitched a ride back with Michelle and I to the facility. I'm pretty sure he can teleport, but he always appeared content to take the slow route. Probably because life as a surgeon came at you fast. Once inside, he followed Church and Bones back up to the apartment with the kids and left me all alone with danger.

"Soooooo... What are we going to do today?" Michelle made a habit of invading my personal space and she was doing so now with her hands held behind her back. Which had the effect of pushing her chest up and out as she looked up at me.

I gave her a rather wry smile. "We are on kid duty after you help Church by being the best birth coach ever."

She stepped back with a fake huff, still wet braid swinging. "You are no fun! You don't respond to my teasing at all!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes I do. I just choose not to act on those impulses." I leaned over and tapped my cheek for a peck. When she leaned in, I turned my head and kissed her. She giggled, wrapping her arm around mine and intertwining our fingers. I escorted her down the sun soaked hall of large windows from the second garage, the one Bones hadn't completely taken over. We stopped at the stairs to find Fell Chara and Frisk Ossein talking to a very nervous looking Sans in a Hawaiian shirt.

Fell Chara's dark hair was long again, and pulled back from his face. A sign that neither of his Frisk's had taken the time to cut it recently. He wasn't in uniform, a sign that he'd come by to spend time with Ossein. Ossein, for her part, was in her ice skating gear. And Chara's expression was not the least bit happy as he looked at the Sans in front of him, which pretty much confirmed that a bro-date was going down the drain.

"*uh... i've got a problem. a big one. the sans that keeps trying to steal pieces of everyone else's timelines?"

"Dragoon Sans," Chara supplied. He waved when he saw Michelle and I.

"*yeah. him. he's been making attempts on my timeline and i've been keeping him at bay, but..."

"But?" Ossein prompted.

"*i can't find my frisk and if he finds her first, we are in serious trouble."

Chara shrugged. "So call Fase and ask her for a location. We'll keep Dragoon off your back while you get her secured."

"*i'd like to avoid calling fase."

Chara's eyes narrowed, voice a threatening whisper. "Why?"

Sans cringed. "*she disappeared just after her eighteenth birthday."

I paused before heading up the stairs. "And how long ago was that?"

"*twenty-one years ago."

Ossein's jaw dropped. "Oh my God." She pulled out her phone. "I'm calling Fase."

"*no! please!"

Ossein pointed at him. "Listen. Your Frisk could be dead! Or worse! I've seen enough cases of 'or worse.'"

"*but that's why you can't call! i've heard enough stories of what fase is like when a frisk is put in a bad situation. i don't want to be one of those stories."

Ossein threw up her hands. "Twenty one years is a super cold trail! Even Church would have problems investigating and she's out."

"*she is? what happened?!"

"She's in labor," I informed. "Nothing she hasn't done before."

Chara looked at me. "After Church, you're the next investigator on hand. Your call."

Michelle leaned over from the step above me on the stairs to kiss my cheek. "I'll be with Frisk. When it gets close to time, I'll text you."

I turned my head to give her a quick kiss before she ran up the stairs. I sighed. "We'll go and have a look Sans' way to start. If we end up completely stumped, we call Fase."

The groan in Chara's voice was almost pained as he the pulled his partner along. "Come on. Let's get prepped." He looked at Sans. "Just wait here. We'll be back in a minute."

Heading down the hall to the equipment room, Ossein skipped ahead a bit and turned around to walk backwards in front of me. "You and Michelle are really getting serious, huh?"

I shrugged.

She swatted at me. "Stop that! I want the scoop!"

"What you want is to be nosy," Chara quipped. He smiled and pushed her through the door of the equipment room. "So when are you cutting my hair?"

"Sunshine and I have decided we like it long."

Chara groaned. "Oh hell."

She smiled brightly and turned to the shelf to change into uniform, which for her and Chara consisted of dark green button downs over black cargo pants, both of which covered Alphys' newest armor: a very light and very strong composite made to take physical and magical attacks.

Chara pulled off his long coat with the Fell Delta Rune on it in order to gear up. "You fought Dragoon Sans, right? What's he got going on? Is he a dragoon in the military sense or the video game sense?"

"Military. He has a skeletal horse he rides on and dismounts in order to fight using with a sword that changes size based on what he needs."

Ossein looked over her shoulder at me, her long hair sliding from her shoulder and down her back. "Is the horse a Gaster Blaster?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. It doesn't actively get into combat unless Dragoon is riding on his back. In which case, look out for its hooves."

She mulled that over as Chara stepped up behind her to braid her hair. "Hey, Crow? You ready?"

Her exemplar, in his bulky, black clothed, ninja form appeared, and nodded once before disappearing again to where ever he rested inside of her. After making sure the door to the equipment room locked behind us, we met Sans in the hall.

I thought of something and was afraid to hear the answer. "Have you tried looking for her before?"

Sans nodded. "*yeah, but we've got a problem where frisk is a really common name. every person with the name wasn't a match for her."

Chara frowned. "Then how do you know she isn't dead?"

The skeleton's shoulders dropped and he looked utterly miserable. "*i don't. but if she'd died, wouldn't she have gone back to her last save?"

"Do you know when her last save was?" I asked.

Sans shook his skull. "*i honestly have no idea. she hasn't reset or loaded since leaving."

He held out his hand and we each laid one of ours on his boney arm. Sans took us through the void and landed us in a beautiful, beach front, suburb at the base of Mt. Ebott. I turned around a bit, getting the lay of the land and saw multiple rows of streets filled with the same, cookie cutter houses contractors liked to use for developments. This cookie cutter style involved a ground floor garage with an outdoor staircase up to the second floor living and dining space, with a third floor bed and bath area. The only thing that made any house stand out from the next was the color of the exterior siding, which was a veritable rainbow of colors in the style of American Atlantic beach houses. Bright blues, lime greens, sunny yellows, dark purples, fruity oranges, and neon pinks all framed in clean white trimming as far as the eye could see under a cloudless sky.

Ossein turned around slowly, taking in colors. "Wow! I've never seen houses this bright and colorful before!" She grabbed her partner's sleeve and pulled him toward her, pointing down the road. "Look at that cherry red one!"

I smiled at her enthusiasm as I turned to Sans. "Where was the last place your Frisk was seen?"

"*at tori and gorey's place the night after her high school graduation."

He walked us down the street a little and climbed the steps to the second floor veranda of a three story beach house with bright, sky blue siding, and clean, white trim. He knocked at a decorative glass door. A Toriel in an overly pink dress opened the door with a smile, which fell immediately when she saw Ossein. Both hands came up, reaching out, only to fall back to her sides.

"No. You aren't Frisk. You... You are too young." She covered her eyes and with both hands, shaking.

Sans frowned and patted Toriel's back. "*i'm sorry, tori. she's a frisk. just not our frisk. these are the people from seraph. they're going to help us find our kiddo."

She sniffed and nodded, hands dropping. "Please come inside."

We entered an open area with only a bar to separate the pale green kitchen from the white on white living room. There was only one wall not dominated by windows and a view of the ocean, and it was covered by a large oil painting of the ocean. A white couch next to a white coffee table with a white vase filled with white flowers, faced the windows looking out on the ocean. The wood frames of the glass door cabinets of the kitchen were painted the same pale green as the walls. Even the dishes inside the cabinets were that pale green. I looked around for family photos and saw none. The interior here seemed washed out and staged, as if to be appropriate for photos and not actual use. I tried to imagine being a child in this house and couldn't. I would have had crayon on the walls in an instant just to beat back against the white.

Yes. I was that kind of child.

Toriel directed us to sit at a large, glass topped, table with very comfortable, if over stuffed, pale green chairs. "Thank you for coming. I'm Toriel. Though I suspect that you already knew that."

I held out my hand to shake. "Frisk Cross."

Ossein gave her a bright smile with her hand shake. "Frisk Ossein."

"Chara Dreemurr."

Toriel blinked before smiling wryly. "Well, it seems both my failures are haunting me today." She sat down and the bright pink of her dress made the dullness of the rest of the house even more apparent around her.

I pulled out a notebook and flipped it open while clicking my pen. "Am I correct that the last time you saw Frisk she was eighteen years old?"

Toriel nodded. "Her birthday is May 22nd and she disappeared the night after graduation on the June 5th."

"She never spoke of leaving?"

Toriel opened her mouth to say something and shut it quickly, looking trapped and uncomfortable, squirming just a little in her seat.

Sans suddenly looked angry, despite his smile. His powerful eye glowed a soft turquoise. "*Tell Them, Tori."

We all looked to the goat queen.

Toriel sighed deeply. "Asgore and I had decided that, since eighteen was an adult among humans, Frisk should move out and have her own place and we told her that a week before her birthday. She asked if she could stay with us until her graduation from high school and we agreed. She got a job working at the convenience store on the corner. She also started selling the paintings she'd done over the last few years. And then, after coming home from the graduation ceremony, she went up to her room and that was the last time I saw her."

I sat up a little straighter. "And her room?"

"Stripped. The closet and dresser were empty and cleaned. The walls had been wiped down, the floor swept, and the sheets changed. It looked like a guest room instead of my child's bedroom."

Chara cocked his head to one side. "So, when you told her that she was to move out, did you discuss to where? How it was it going to be arranged and paid for?"

Toriel shook her head. "We held off discussing it with her until later, but she was constantly working after that."

"Did you have a plan?" I asked.

She nodded, and yanked on her ear a little. "Dr. Alphys found a nice apartment walking distance to the university Frisk had been accepted to for the fall after she'd graduated."

Chara frowned like a terrible thought occurred to him. "Did you adopt her out of the foster care system?"

Toriel nodded.

He leaned back. "She probably thought you were kicking her out and spent three weeks working as much as possible to earn enough money to start out on her own."

The goat queen shook her head quickly, causing her long ears to lift a little. "I don't understand. Why would she think that?"

"Because foster kids know they are only worth the amount of money their foster parents receive from the government and that money dries up at eighteen."

A swift sadness touched Toriel's eyes before they glowed with a bright anger. "Are you saying that I would have done away with my child as soon as the trifle the government sent was gone?"

Chara raised an eyebrow, head tilted in such a way as to look down his nose at her, completely unimpressed. His own mother was much more frightening when she was angry. "You know very well that wasn't what I said. I understand that being angry insulates you from the sorrow and guilt you feel over the situation, but it will not serve you. It'll only put me in a position where I won't be happy to help you."

Toriel looked at him, a soft look caught between wonder and recognition on her face. "But you would still find my child anyway."

He shrugged. "It's my job."

"No. You act otherwise, but you truly do care." She blinked a little. "What did your mother do differently that you live while my Chara took her own life?"

Chara frowned. "My story is radically different from yours. It won't give you the answers you seek."

Ossein looked between the two. "Moving along! If we had an idea about how much money she'd managed to save before she disappeared, that would give us an idea of what she could afford to do."

I looked to Tori. "Did she have a bank account?"

"Yes, but she emptied it in cash and closed it the day before she graduated."

"Did you take her to do that?"

Toriel shook her head. "We found out about that after the fact."

"Do you have a bank statement from the time?"

She shook her head.

I tapped the system core sewn into the collar of my jacket. "Hey, C. Can I borrow you for a minute?"

C's voice carried over the comm. "I've got a few. What do you need?"

"Is my system core powerful enough for you to get onto wifi here?"

His hologram burst to life on my shoulder. "Oh yeah. The upgrade lets me do some pretty cool stuff. What do you need?"

Ossein shook both hands at me. "Are you going to ask him for bank records from twenty one years ago? Because that won't work. Bank records in most timelines are destroyed after five years."

I gestured to her. "Suggestions?"

"Look up average convenience store wages for the time."

C turned to her. "How far back am I looking?"

"Twenty one years."

"Give me a min- never mind. Min wage was 5.15 an hour. Evening shifts after 8pm, 6.15 an hour."

"Thanks, C!"

He gave her a smile. "Sure thing."

Ossein waved for the notebook. "Did Frisk work mornings?"

"Frisk worked evenings from six to midnight during school days and noon to 8pm on Saturdays."

Ossein started jotting down the numbers, working through the math. "That's 216 a week. Take off 20 percent for taxes and that gives us 172.80 a week." She looked up at C. "Is my math right?"

The hologram nodded.

"Did she get the job right away or...?"

"*she was working for two weeks."

"Then she earned 345.60 from the job." Ossein stared at the number. "That's not even enough for a deposit on an efficiency apartment let alone the first month's rent. Especially in a beach community where she'd have to prove she made more than three times the rent in salary."

"That means she went somewhere instead," Chara said. He sat up. "And it's enough money to go pretty far by bus. Did she have any friends she could have stayed with in other parts of the country?"

Sans snorted. "*the monster princess? no. friends were hard to come by."

Toriel stared at her feet through the glass table top. "She asked us not to throw her birthday parties after no one showed at the first one."

C sat down on my shoulder. "Not even monsters?"

"*after her journey underground, the monsters began to treat her as if she was something too clean and pure for them to even speak too. even paps and dyne wouldn't speak to her unless she spoke to them first."

C made a face like he was letting all his breath out in a whoosh. Which was funny when you think that he didn't have a physical body to breath with. "Frisk says to look for jobs where you can live where you work. On-site hospitality, human and animal boarding facilities, youth hostels, shelters, etc."

I smiled. "Is Church listening in?"

"No. Just turning over the problem with me. It's helping to distract her from the contractions." He looked up at me. "You still have a couple hours by the way." He looked to the assembled. "She said that a bus ticket is very likely, but passenger manifests would have been destroyed after so long." C looked surprised. Probably because Church told him to ask for something. "Did Frisk have her own phone?"

Do I know Church or what?

Toriel shook her head. "No. My child used the land line connected to the house."

"Bingo! Phone companies need to keep call information file for a long time in case of criminal subpoena." C's hologram blinked for a moment. "Okay. Oh... Um..."

Chara frowned. "Not something you want to say in front of Toriel."

"Absolutely not."

Toriel looked at the hologram. "And why not?!"

C sighed. "When we find Frisk, it will be up to her to tell you. I'm not revealing this information to you without her okay. And if you argue with me about it, I'll withhold the information from my friends and kill the investigation."

I looked at C. It was a bluff. He'd still tell us, but I rolled with it, and nodded like this was something he would do. Chara and Ossein both followed through on the bluff, Ossein giving Toriel big, sad, brown eyes.

Tori covered her face with her hands again before holding them up in surrender. "All right. So then, what next?"

C looked at the rest of us. "You guys have some traveling to do. You'll get more info at the place she was calling."

I nodded and stood. "Thank you, Toriel."

Ossein reached over and patted her hand. "Don't worry. C said that it was up to her to tell you. That means that wherever she went, she's okay. Just give us some time."

She managed a weak smile. "I suppose I'm closer to seeing her again than I've ever been."

As we exited the house, I noticed the painting on the wall was signed 'Frisk.' I stopped for a moment to really look at it. It was good. And made me wonder what the ones she sold looked like. And if that was what she was originally going to school for. I decided against asking, because it wasn't important to moving forward. Going down to street level and far from Toriel's ears, we stopped on the sidewalk.

Sans turned to C. "*out with it."

"She made several calls to-

My 'viper sense' went off and I grabbed Sans, pulling him out of the stroke of a sword swing. Dragoon Sans, in a long, black with gold trim, military coat over black pants, jumped down from his skeletal horse, twirling his sword around boney fingers. A white Delta Rune was embroidered on the upper left of the coat over the front of his shoulder. The horse stamped the ground, neighing loudly, but otherwise stayed in place. Chara summoned his sword as Crow appeared in front of Ossein, bulky and intimidating. Dragoon held his sword out toward us.

"Standing orders are to disable and capture!" C yelled.

One brightly glowing, orange eye looked over Chara closely, the power of his magic leaking out from the eye socket. "Seraph? How did you get here so fast...?" He grinned suddenly. "Oh. That girl you've been protecting is a fake! You don't know where the real Frisk is!"

Chara swung his sword and Dragoon parried, stepping back and forcing Chara to follow. He didn't, letting Crow come around with a massive fist, to slam Dragoon in the side of the skull. The skeleton monster flew to the side, hitting a thick palm tree and bouncing to the ground. He stood and rushed back, viciously angry. I stepped in front of him, knocking his sword out of his hand with one arm while I grabbed his coat with the other and attempted to bring his skull down on my knee to knock him flat.

Attempted being the key word because he turned me blue and flung me backward into Sans. He turned Chara blue as well and flung him into Crow, sending them to the ground before advancing on Ossein. I'm pretty sure he expected her to flinch or to run as he summoned his sword to his hand. He smiled when she stood her ground, a sword in hand.

"Aren't you cute? A little girl who thinks she can fight."

Ossein blinked, and when her eyes opened, the inky darkness of the void filled them. Dragoon's smile fell, suddenly unsure, his sword arm wavering. She slashed at him and he parried instinctively, only to have half his sword fall into the void. When he gasped, she threw a punch, hitting him square in the chest and sending him backwards. His sword regrew and he stuck it in the ground, cutting through the black top of the street to stop his momentum.

A familiar shing filled the air and a Gaster Blaster appeared next to him, letting off a concentrated blast. Ossein opened a rift into the void in front of her and the blast disappeared into nothing. Using that as a distraction, I jumped at him, grabbing his sword arm and pulling it back with a quick snap to break the elbow. As the bone cracked he summoned the sword to his other hand and turned to swing at me. I ducked out of the path of the sword and rolled away at the familiar shing of red magic. A mass of glowing red bones flew at Dragoon and he swung his blade around quickly to block them all.

And doing so made him miss Ossein's kick from behind, which sent him face first to the ground. He groaned.

Ossein put her sword next to his head. "Give up and come with us quietly. I'm a Frisk and I haven't been taking this fight seriously."

He looked up at her, orange eye flickering with exhaustion. "Fuck. You three aren't just standard agents. You're from Epsilon." He saluted from where he lay and disappeared, his horse disappearing as well.

Chara cursed under his breath. "I should have just thrown down containment."

"*why are you trying to capture him?! just put him out of his misery!"

I glared at him. "No. I know what it's like to have completely lost your timeline. There maybe a chance to recover his if we can get him into containment long enough to listen to reason."

"*but he's destroying other timelines!"

I cocked my head to the side. "So how does that make him different from me? I was offered Mercy. He gets it too." I turned to Ossein. "The void work is new."

Chara chuckled while she shrugged. "That's what you get when you let her hang out with the Prime Gaster." He sighed, turning back to the matter at hand. "He's after your Frisk. Why? Is she an analog for his?"

Sans shook his head. "*our chara is his objective and he's attempting to rip her soul out of frisk's." He turned to me, looking at C. "*we'll need to work fast to find her. where was she calling?"

"The Unwritten Night."

Chara's jaw dropped. "Woah!"

"Know the place?" I asked.

Chara grimaced like it was information he wished he didn't know. "It's pretty famous on my timeline. It's a brothel."

Sans cringed. "*the kiddo went to a brothel? why would she do that?"

Ossein sighed, eyes brown again, and looking a little heart broken. "It's a place she could live while she worked." Crow rested a large hand on her shoulder and she patted. "I'm okay." He nodded once and disappeared.

"*but she had college lined up for the next fall!"

"And was expected to move out of the house as soon as she graduated from high school with no idea that there was a plan on how that was going to happen," Chara pointed out. "Listen. Your Frisk came from the foster system. Who knows how many homes she saw before she suddenly had a family again. But when you're a foster kid, you are aware that you are only as valuable as the money your family gets for you. So Toriel and Asgore telling her that she was to move out at eighteen instantly translated to her being worth nothing because that's when you age out of the system. They adopted her, but they never fixed the emotional and mental problems she had to start. That mindset doesn't just disappear like magic when you're adopted. It's a process."

Ossein waved her arms. "Hey! It would have been really suspicious for the monster princess to just suddenly disappear. On other timelines, that would have immediately translated to accusations of abuse or murder."

Sans looked away.

I groaned, head dropping back. "They replaced her, didn't they?"

"*the stand in is paid a lot of money for her silence."

Chara visibly bit down on some comment and forced a smile as he inhaled deeply. "Okay. Let's just move along. We'll go to The Unwritten Night. She likely isn't there, but they would have employee records."

C waved. "I need to head back. Tap me again if you need me." He disappeared from my shoulder.

After a quick shortcut, we stood in front of a very beautiful, two story, plantation era mansion with a veranda that went the entire way around the second floor and was held up by large white columns. The plastered walls of the exterior were painted a pale yellow and gave the place a warm and inviting look. A few people sat in the shade provided by the overhanging roof of the second floor veranda, reading a book or playing a game at a table. An older woman with touches of gray in her caramel hair, wearing in a lovely blue sundress, saw us, and waved from the veranda.

"Give me a minute to come down stairs."

She pushed open the front door as we came up to the porch, and up close she looked very distinguished and not at all what you would expect from a 'woman of the evening.' "Welcome to The Unwritten Night. Business hours do not start until this evening, but you are welcome to join us for tea..." She trailed off, staring at Ossein. "Astra? Oh My God! You don't look like you've aged at all!"

Ossein rolled with it. "Astra? Was that my sister's call name? Mom only told me about Frisk a little while ago. I've been trying to find her. Mom says I look like her."

The woman blinked at Ossein before stepping up to her. She took Ossein's face in her hands. "How old are you?"

"Twenty five."

The woman nodded. "Your mom gave Astra to adoption and kept you."

Ossein nodded. "She'd get pictures but she didn't show them to me until recently. She's trying to put our family back together again."

The woman kept nodding like the story made complete sense. "I'm Emma Jean. Please come inside." She held onto Ossein's hand, leading the way. "We loved having Astra here. She was sweet, kind, and could easily solve even the worst arguments. She was very nervous when she started but she gained a couple regulars very quickly. I'm pretty sure Mr. Ardry only comes every afternoon hoping to find his chess buddy has come back."

Ossein blinked. "Chess buddy? I was of the understanding-"

Emma Jean smiled. "Oh, we do more than that here. I won't lie and say that your sister didn't have a few regulars who were here to visit her bed or pay for her services as an escort on trips and weekend getaways. But we do have a group of customers who are only paying for a few hours of friendship, and she was the best chess player Mr. Ardry could ever hope for."

The grand lobby just inside the doors included a beautiful, dark wood desk to the right as you entered, and a grand staircase spilling into the middle of the room. Sitting behind the desk was a young man who looked to be in the middle of book keeping, and he gave us all a pleasant smile as we passed. We were led behind the grand staircase to a small living room lit by the sunlight streaming through three floor to ceiling windows. On the wall opposite the windows were photo portraits of the men and women who'd worked here in years past. On each portrait frame was a brass plate with the person's 'call name' and their given name underneath. She pointed to one of the portraits.

The woman in the photo had completely bleached out her hair to a strawberry blonde. The brass plate read "Astra" Frisk Damir. She'd changed her name. That's a very useful bit of information.

"Astra got her degree online while working here and since then, a lot of the girls have been doing the same thing. She left us when she went off to grad school."

Ossein stared up at the photo. "Do you know which uni she went too?"

"State for her undergrad in mechanical engineering and Kettering for graduate school. Even though she didn't work here after starting her masters, we still threw Astra a party when she got it and again when she got her doctorate. We're all so proud of her." Emma Jean pulled a photo album from the inside of a china cabinet and opened it up. The photos inside were of a party and the woman in the center of it all smiling like she couldn't be happier.

Ossein touched the photo gently, careful not to leave fingerprints. "Is she still with Kettering?"

Emma Jean shook her head. "No. Last I knew, she was tenured faculty at Cagrana."

"Thank you so much!"

Emma Jean nodded and kissed her forehead. "When you find your sister, let her know we're all thinking of her and miss her terribly."

"I will."

Emma Jean showed us back to the front door and bid us farewell. As we left, I glanced at Sans. He looked physically ill.

"You okay, Sans?"

"*no. no i'm not. the savior of all monsters had to make a whore of herself just to live and eat. what piss poor friends must we have been that she didn't ask any of us for help?"

Chara snorted. "How many times did she die before she got to the barrier?"

Sans glared at him and he laughed.

"And that is exactly why she didn't ask any of you for help."

Sans neck bent in shame.

Ossein pulled on her partner's hair getting a yelp. "Stop being a jerk! I know your mad, but he's obviously contrite." She turned to Sans. "So where is Cagrana University?"

He held out one boney hand and one shortcut later had us in the middle of a university campus filled with very academic looking, white stone and dark brown brick buildings. Fall mums in an array of purples, reds, and oranges filled flower beds and free standing flower pots all over the campus. Flagging down a student Chara got directions to the college of engineering and we hoofed it across campus to a beautiful building of dark brick with steep, blue, slate roof. Just inside the doors was a hallway filled with wood and brass plaques listing the names of various donors. On the wall between the elevator and the stairs was a list of all faculty and their offices.

Chara frowned. "She's not listed."

A woman in a suit was walking by and I turned, giving her my best smile. "Excuse me, is Frisk Damir still a faculty member here?"

The woman stopped. "Oh! I'm sorry, but no." She smiled apologetically. "Frisk left two years ago and I honestly have no idea where she went."

"Thank you very much."

The woman nodded. "HR might know where she's gone since, but that probably falls under privacy, so they also might not tell you if they know." She shrugged like she wished she could help. "Uh... If you find her, let her know we all miss her. I was one of her TAs in grad and she was totally the best."

"Your name?"

"Sue-Ellen Smith."

"If we find her, we'll let her know Ms. Smith. Thank you."

She nodded again and continued down the hall. I pulled out my phone.

"*who you calling?"

"The great Fem-Puter." I dialed.

"*NO!"

I held up a finger, glaring, and Sans huddled in on himself.

Fase's voice of cheery doom flowed from the phone. "Hello, Frisk. How may I assist you?"

"I would like you to scan for this world's Frisk. I don't need a history. Just a current place of residence."

"Certainly. Her current place of residence is the cabin Sans and Papyrus shared in the Underground. She appears to be making dinner."

"Thank you."

"You are very welcome!"

I put my phone away. "She's been living at your place in the Underground."

Sans blinked. "*what?"

Chara sighed. "Just take us on a shortcut to Snowdin already."

Sans frowned, not moving.

Ossein cocked her head to the side. "Sans?"

I frowned. "You know that someone's been living in your old house."

Sans nodded. "*i... uh... i was giving the stand in a tour of the underground with asgore and tori when i found someone in the cabin. she didn't look like frisk or even like the photo back at the..." He shook his skull. "*anyway. she'd been working on the core. putting it back into operation for the monsters who still remained underground and changing out the coolant system so it wouldn't need a feed of ice from snowdin. tori and asgore even commended her for the work. i... i didn't think it was the kiddo."

Chara held out a hand. "Let's go talk to her."

Sans teleported us down to Snowdin. Monsters still lived here and it seemed a few humans besides Frisk had moved into the area. Grillby's was in operation, the windows too steamed up to properly get a look inside. Christmas lights still decorated the tiny hamlet and new LED colored lights had been strung over the cabin's exterior. A middle aged woman with long, premature gray hair, and pale skin from lack of sunlight, was locking the front door of the cabin, which was decorated with a laminated paper skeleton. A flower patterned, covered dish of some sort rested in her other hand as she pocketed her key.

Not seeing us, she turned and walked down the path toward the woods and the Ruins. Sans stared at her for a moment, before he moved to call out to her and I quickly grabbed him, motioning for silence. We followed her through the woods. The path that had once been winding and strewn with puzzles was now a direct road through the cold and snow frosted woods. Up ahead, the doors to the Ruins had a bright light hanging over them and sign asking visitors to ring the bell. On reaching the doors, she turned and leaned back against the door, pushing it open with her backside.

"Asriel! I'm back! I brought dinner!"

An adult goat monster appeared, with a golden head of hair and short yellow beard. "Howdy, Frisk!" He took the dish from her while she kicked the snow off her boots, smiling. He caught sight of us. "Are you lost? Tourists don't typically come out this far."

Ossein stepped forward, "We're looking for Frisk."

Frisk paused, blinking at Ossein. "You. You're me." She stepped toward Ossein and their hands touched, that thing about all us Frisks kicking in. Frisk smiled, touching Ossein's face. "You look like me, but, wow. You're so young."

"Oh please! You aren't exactly old!" They giggled together before leaning toward each other and rubbing noses.

She looked over at the rest of us and saw me next. "You're me too." She reached out toward me.

The Dragoon Sans appeared behind her, locking his arm around her throat and forcing her to bend backwards. "*Thanks for leading me right to her." He lifted his sword over her chest. "*Time to get what I came for!"

Asriel's Chaos Saber struck Dragoon from behind, cutting through his coat and the armor underneath. The skeleton teleported away from Frisk, attempting to put distance between himself and the angry goat prince.

A strange mix of two voices dripped from the goat's mouth, one of his eyes red and the other purple. "How dare you touch her?!"

Dragoon Sans looked to Frisk who picked herself up and brushed the snow away from her pants. "Chara isn't in you."

She shook her head. "She only lived in me for a short time and went back to Asriel after the barrier opened."

Asriel set his sword on his shoulder with the practiced grace of someone who knew how to use the weapon well. Two voices still fell from his mouth. "If you want a show down, we'll be happy to oblige. It's been a long time since we fought Sans, but then, he never faced us as a god. Only as that damnable flower and even that was enough to chill him."

Dragoon disappeared.

Asriel's sword disappeared and he picked up the food container he'd dropped. He turned it over to be sure it wasn't damaged. "Dinner's still in one piece."

Sans took Frisk's face in his hands. "*why? why didn't you say something? your parents and i were right there. we spoke to you about the work on the core."

"Oh hell." She sighed. "Why don't you come inside?"

Frisk motioned for us to follow. The interior of the house was nothing like I remembered it from my timeline. Instead of a table against the far wall and a chair next to the fire place, a kotatsu long enough for six people with legless chairs rested in front of the fireplace. Where the beach house lacked any kind of reminder of family or any color at all, here photos of the Dreemurr family adorned the walls, including ones of Chara and Frisk. Paintings that matched the skill of the one in the beach house broke up the multitude of photos. As Frisk sat down with us, cuddling a little under the kotatsu's blanket, Asriel went into the kitchen and brought out golden flower tea. Frisk stared at her tea for a full minute, frowning.

Asriel sat next to her and petted her hair, that strange, double voice coming out of his mouth. "It's okay. You told us. You can tell him."

She nodded and took a deep breath. "I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure that I was really Frisk." When Sans opened his mouth to speak, she shook her head, shushing him. "When I was at- Do you know where I was?"

Sans nodded. "*emma jean said to tell you that they missed you. ms sue-ellen smith says hello too."

Frisk nodded, lips pressed into a line. "While I was working there, I saw the debut of the 'monster princess' on the news. I read and watched everything I could about her." A small smile tugged at her lips. "The others at the house teased me about being her biggest fan."

She frowned again, staring at her tea. "Watching all the interviews and listening to all the radio shows and podcasts, I started to think that I wasn't really the one who opened the barrier. The only thing I had from home was a small photo album and I started to believe I'd stolen it. That I made a fantasy of my early life to avoid the reality of foster care."

She took a sip of tea. "When I made tenure at Cagrana, the Dreemurrs had come to campus to deliver talks on subjects of diplomacy and human-monster relations. And I saw the way they doted on her and thought that my memories had to be a fantasy because loving parents wouldn't just toss you out when the adoption funds died. So I was determined that I would do something to make up for whatever misdeed I had done against monsters."

"*but you hadn't committed any crime..."

Ossein frowned. "You can't reason with depression, Sans. It doesn't feed on facts." She swallowed her tea quickly. Chara's hand reached out, rubbing her back even as his attention remained on Frisk.

"You moved to the Underground to repair the Core," I prompted.

Frisk nodded. "When mom and dad came with the stand in to give her a tour of the Underground, neither recognized me. And that convinced me of it."

"So what changed your mind?" Chara asked.

Asriel huffed, one eye red and one eye purple. "We did. We know our sister from a fake."

Frisk smiled at Asriel. "I came to the Ruins to make sure the electricity was running properly out here and found Asriel still tending the flowers and helping people who fell into the cavern get to New Home."

He leaned over, both eyes now a vivid violet, and booped Frisk's temple with his nose.

Sans looked at both of them. "*how am I going to tell your parents about this?"

Asriel looked at him, suddenly serious, and very suddenly a prince. "You aren't. Not unless Frisk says she wants to see them."

"*but you are the royal children!"

"I'm dead, Sans. My body was constructed from the power of the human souls monster kind forcibly removed from innocents. And the new lease on my existence comes from Chara's determination. I will remain here with my sisters unless they ask me otherwise." He looked to Frisk. "This is your decision, but do not feel the need to make it this instant."

Frisk booped her nose against his. "I would like to see them, but they can come to us."

My phone vibrated and I checked the message.

Ossein was instantly looking over my shoulder. "Is it time?"

I nodded.

Chara breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh thank God." He bowed his head to Asriel. "Thank you for the tea, Your Highness."

Asriel smiled. "It's a trifle at best. Thank you all for coming. I apologize that Seraph had to dig through my world's dirty laundry." He frowned. "Will we see more of that Sans in the military uniform?"

Ossein thought about it. "I don't know. He's backed off previously when what he was looking for appeared unattainable, and Chara resting in you is pretty unattainable."

One of Asriel's eyes turned red and a female voice came out of his mouth. "Oh good, because I do not plan on leaving."

We stood, giving the prince a bow, before Ossein collared Chara and I, and teleported us back to Site Epsilon's equipment room.

Ossein quickly put her equipment away, changing back into her ice skating gear, which included a shirt that read 'Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is my Axel Jump.' "Okay. Weirdest mission ever."

Chara snorted and he pulled on a Star Wars tee. "That wasn't a mission. It was exactly as Asriel said: going through dirty laundry." He sighed and reached over, hugging her tightly.

She hugged him back with smile. "What's the hug for?"

"I guess, it just reminded me of you. You once felt like you weren't really a Frisk. You once worried about being kicked out when you turned eighteen. And then you walked through darkness for someone you loved and wanted to protect. I'm glad those are just faded memories now, something to look back at with a smile, and not a whimper."

Ossein sank into the hug. "Thank you."

"For?"

"Being my Chara."

There was a banging on the door to the equipment room before Undyne pulled it open. "Hurry up, Punks!"

After making sure the door to the room locked behind us, we rushed down the hall to the lab. A sizable crowd was already waiting in the hall, the curtain drawn so we couldn't see inside.

The goat king's voice carried over the hush of the crowd. "Push! Come on! Come on! Almost there!"

Church let out a pained cry, which was followed by a loud, shrill wail. There was a squeal of delight from Sophia as Asriel quietly talked her through her part.

"It's a girl!" Asriel called.

Hoots and applause filled the hall as Sophia, wearing a surgical apron covered in red, stepped back with a smile as big as her face. Her baby sister, covered in blood and amniotic fluid, squirmed in her arms.

"Gently place her on your mom's belly."

"Okay!" She stepped back behind the curtain.

Asriel leaned back from around the curtain. "Star?"

Ossein pushed through the crowd. "Yes?"

"Go grab something for my sister to eat. You know what she likes."

Ossein saluted. "Yes, Sir! Turkey dinner coming up!"

As she ran down the hall for the cafeteria, Michelle came out from behind the curtain, dodging Grace Church as she hurried in to see her newest grandchild.

Michelle, a sparkle to her skin from the exertion, went up on her toes to rub noses with me. "Just in time, huh?"

"Apparently."

She entwined her fingers with mine as the crowd mingled, everyone waiting to see the newest member of the Gaster family. "We are having so many kids when we're married."

"You know I have to propose first, right?"

She smiled and pulled me into the lab and around the curtain. Church, looking tired but satisfied, hair plastered to the side of her face with sweat, held a tiny little baby against her bare chest.

And for the first time, I didn't flinch when I saw the white scars from the sniper hits.

Bones leaned over her, nuzzling the side of her face. C sat on Asriel's shoulder as the goat king put the bottom of the bed she laid on back together over a floor that would have led you to believe a particularly gruesome murder had just happened. Sophia was pulling her blood soaked apron off with Ravie and Brandon's help.

Grace, her hair now completely gray, reached out for her grandchild. "Hand the little one here."

Church raised an eyebrow at her mother. "Bones first."

Grace huffed and looked to Bones. "I'll give you fifty bucks to let me hold her first."

Bones snorted through his smirk, boney thumbs hooked in the belt of his jeans. "No."

"Fine. I'll give back the keys to the Camaro."

"The keys, but not the Camaro itself, huh? Sorry. No deal." He reached over and took his youngest into his boney arms. "Hey there, kiddo."

The baby's tiny hand curled around one of his boney fingers, looking up at him with big, blue eyes as her skin faded away to reveal a baby skeleton monster.

Bones' smirk turned into a soft smile. "Well, what'd ya know? Taking after me, huh?"

Church chuckled. "I guess this one isn't going to be a late bloomer." She reached over and ruffled Brandon's hair as he and Ravie came around quick to see.

Bones handed the baby to Grace and she giggled a little, booping the child's nasal bone with one finger even as the skin came back and she booped the baby's nose instead.

I went over to the bed and leaned my forehead against Church's as she looked up at me. "Well done." I stood back up. "Do I finally get to hear her name? You've been pretty secretive about it."

"Marigold Chara Gaster."

Chara's hologram was suddenly on Church's shoulder. "You... You're giving her my name?"

Church nodded.

"How did you hide that from me?!" He blinked. "Oh. Right. The Viper just lives here now."