Core Issues: Season 5
By Nicolle

Episode 11: Obligatory Beach Episode
(C is our narrator!)

Undyne Cichlid came up out of the water, shaking out her lustrous, red hair; the strings of pearls entwined in the strands glistening in the bright, tropical sun. I blinked a bit at seeing her. Undyne Cichlid came from Lyall's world, and was a true merrow, a fey type as opposed to a humanoid fish monster, making her one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. She was certainly the most beautiful Undyne period with her milky, blue skin. She was missing one eye, but you wouldn't know with the perfectly matched, glass one replacing it.

Chara Lyall, a white haired, blue eyed, changeling child of twelve swam behind her in the calm water, a strong swimmer for his age. Frisk Lyall sat under a cabana on the beach next to my sister and our surfer Sans, watching the kids play in tide pools and waiting for the tide to change so they could take their surfboards out on the water.

We'd arrived all of two hours ago, and already a deep relaxation had set in. We'd left behind a blizzard that'd forced the entire city to shut down with a shortcut to Anehura, one of several tropical islands off the coast, to the resort-slash-conference center Asriel had bought some years ago. Speaking of my brother, he sat under the next cabana over with Prince Asriel, both buried in their books. Princess' Toriel sat with them, looking a little perturbed. Despite having been around both of them for months, she was still off put by adult versions of her long dead son. It didn't help that they were nothing like the grown goat monster she'd imagined her son would have been like.

The cabin in Frisk's head, which had been surrounded by snow this morning, was now warm under a heat wave. The Frisk in the blue dress was no longer heavily bundled. She'd started the morning riding a sled down the side of the hill in heavy snowfall. Now she was floating on a boat in the wide ocean in Frisk's head, letting herself bake in the heat. I sat on the dock next to the Viper, watching the boat bob up and down.

"C?"

I popped up on my sister's shoulder. "Yeah, Frisk?"

"Where's Bones?"

I pinged the system core in Bones' bomber jacket, casting my mind there for a moment. Bones and Crow sat together in the parents area of the children's play center in the resort, deep in a discussion of the information Crow had gleaned from following Star into the void. My niece, currently a skeleton monster, sat in a box full of sand, watching a staff member sift it through multiple toys with rapt fascination.

"Bones and Crow are at the play center. Marigold's skeleton is out and she seems to be having a good time."

Frisk smiled. "She's always a skeleton with daddy, huh?"

I chuckled. "Seems to be her thing."

Frisk looked around. "I see the Tarsus Brothers, but I don't see Star. Or Frisk Boneweaver. Or Charlotte. Or Miss Tamanna."

I ticked off her mental list for her. "Or Brass, or Stephen, or Prince Chara. You don't see Michelle and Cross either, but you don't seem too worried about them."

Frisk snorted. "We all know that Michelle is the bad influence in that relationship. Check on Star for me? I'm sure that the rest are with her."

"Making sure she isn't working?"

"She is working. It just doesn't feel like work to her. Which is part of the issue. She enjoys what she does so much, it doesn't occur to her that she needs to switch off. That she isn't supposed to feel so exhausted at the end of each day."

I stretched. "I'll be back in a few minutes then."

I pinged Star's system core and found it in the suite she and Frisk Boneweaver were sharing. Which was something she rarely did. She didn't wear it to bed, but even on her scheduled days off, she always had it attached to her collar. I took that as a good sign and hopped on the wifi, looking around the resort instead.

To say the resort was huge completely undercut it. When Asriel had bought it, it was your standard conference center that tried to use the tropical setting as a draw and was failing miserably from a lack of local hotels to house the people who would attend conferences in the center. Asriel's first order of business was the construction of the resort that took up the entire beach facing side of the conference center while giving the center itself a face lift to match the new addition. It had been an expensive endeavor, but the publicists had the place packed the moment it reopened and ran it at ninety percent capacity since, making back Asriel's investment over a decade.

Instead of checking the restaurants, bars, cafes, and bakeries on premises, I went straight for the shops in the glass atrium that separated the conference center from the resort. The atrium was arranged like a fantasy village with every door leading into a shop or cafe. During the day, it seemed like a heavenly garden of water features, but at night, when the fairy lights came on, it seemed like a mystical forest. That monsters mostly ran the shops and cafes really reinforced it.

I found all of them in a clothing shop, the boys switching out their swim gear for something a bit more timeline appropriate. The girls were in the dressing room helping Miss Tamanna pick out a suit.

Miss Tamanna was in a very conservative, black, one piece, frowning deeply. "I know that Mrs. Gaster is paying for the trip, but I don't have any money for shopping. I couldn't possibly pay for this."

CHARA appeared on the pile of Miss Tamanna's clothing; a blue, feminine body with yellow circuitry appearing and then fading here and there on the 'skin.' "Your compensation issues on the Epiphany have been rectified, including back pay owed. You have quite a bit at your disposal, Frisk. I've already arranged for it to be available to you here."

Miss Tamanna frowned at her Chara. "What do you mean by 'quite a bit?' A hundred or two hundred gold?"

CHARA shook its head, the hair appearing to swing with the movement. "Oh no. We're talking 700,000 gold. And that's just in the first account."

Miss Tamanna's entire expression went blank. "What?" She blinked. "First account?!"

CHARA gave its human a patient smile. "You were doing the work of an entire technical staff on your own: chief artificial intelligence engineer, tech manager, subject expert, developer, and hardware technician. For the back pay to be properly distributed to you, the pay for each position was deposited in a different account."

Miss Tamanna dropped into a chair. "Oh… woah…"

"You are, at current, the second wealthiest person on the ship after His Highness."

Frisk Boneweaver waved a hand in front of Miss Tamanna's face. "I think you broke her, CHARA."

"Oh dear."

Miss Tamanna blinked. "I'm just… I don't know how I feel about that…"

"You feel like you should try on the blue-green suit you spotted when we first came in. The one that matches your scales." Charlotte turned, looking at the green bikini she wore in the mirror. "What do you think?"

Frisk looked up and giggled, hand over her mouth. "That's so revealing!"

Star shrugged. "It still leaves a bit to the imagination."

"But not much!" Her eyes shined. "Do you think it would fit me?"

"I think it might." Charlotte tossed her phone to Star. "Here. Take a pic of me. I want to send it to Frederick."

I dropped out of the wifi and back into Frisk's head. "The girls are picking out swimsuits. The guys are getting new suits too."

Frisk nodded and relaxed. "Thank you."

"Any time." I popped up on her shoulder to sit down and watch the water lap at the shore.

I spotted Michelle and Cross walking along the water's edge until the kids spied them. Brandon grabbed Cross' hand, pulling him away and Michelle came over to the cabana, plopping down next to Frisk with a devious smile.

"Dad wants to know when his favorite wife is coming to visit him."

Frisk groaned, mouth hanging open. "Please tell me he doesn't say that in front of your mother and Kristen."

Michelle sat up and leaned forward. "Oh he does! Mom smacks him and Kristen laughs her butt off!" She giggled and sat back. "Mom wants you to visit soon. She has some things for baby Marigold and Karen wants to go out for tea."

"It'll have to wait until the snow is done."

Michelle shrugged. "Or you could all ski out to Muffet's."

Frisk thought about it. "There is that."

Lyall, all werewolf today, and laying out on his stomach like a wolf, turned his snout toward Michelle. "So how does that work? Your dad being married to two women, specifically. Or is that just a thing here?"

"It's a very common practice in my home country. But my dad and Kristen don't sleep together. It's not that kind of relationship. He'd promised my mom there would only ever be her. And that's the way it was until Kristen showed up at the back door of the house, beaten and bloody."

Michelle's radiant smile disappeared, replaced with an awful expression, like the memory was too much, but she refused to let it silence her. "Kristen's father had been murdered in the streets by thugs from the government, and Kristen only barely escaped death. She's one of my mother's best friends and a distant relation so she knew she could trust my father and begged him to marry her. My mother pulled Kristen inside, said the wedding would happen the next day, and sent dad out to find Kristen's mother. Dad found her before the thugs did, told her to pack whatever she cared to take with her and brought her back to the house."

Sans nodded appreciatively, eyes still on the waves. "That must have been dangerous for your father."

Michelle shook her head. "My father was pretty high up in the government at that point. No one dared go after him and the men who'd touched Kristen were made examples of later, but, it was the incident that convinced him to defect."

Lyall thought about that. "Kristen hasn't asked for a divorce since the defection?"

"Dad's offered. Told her he'd be happy to help her find a husband, but the memory of that night…" Michelle shook her head. "Kristen's happy to have things as they are. There's no expectations on her, she gets to work a job she likes, and loves contributing to the family."

Michelle reached over, gently tapping Sans' bone mask. "Is the bone mask a thing where you come from?"

Sans nodded and reached back, undoing the clasp to reveal the scarring on his face. "It was originally about covering the scarring caused by the plague on my timeline, but it's become an important culture practice since." He looked at the sharp looking teeth carved into the bone. "When a boy hits a certain age, he is taught to carve the bone and will start working on a mask long before the infection. I wonder if, now that everyone a few years younger than me won't have the scarring, if the practice will die out."

He shrugged and clasped the mask back into place, though he was plainly smiling under it. "Your Undyne is a merrow, right? Does that mean her 'skin' is hidden somewhere?"

Lyall nodded. "Of course." He gave Sans a wolfish smile. "I'm not telling where."

"So you're the one keeping her?"

Lyall snorted. "Nah, I protect it so no one else can make off with it and force her to marry them. Like most Undynes, she's not interested in men. She's long been a friend to my family and helped us find Chara when he was kidnapped. It's why my little brother is a changeling and not a werewolf like the rest of us."

Michelle tapped Sans' shoulder. "How did you end up at Epsilon?"

Sans relaxed back in his chair. "I took a few rounds to the chest for Queen Toriel."

Lyall hissed. "Dude."

Sans shrugged. "It was just one of those days. Chara has not been happy since the Queen's pregnancy was officially announced."

Frisk raised an eyebrow. "The Devil is having a baby?"

Sans nodded. "And she's been a very happy, pregnant woman. Trying to kill her is like kicking a hornet's nest."

Frisk shook her head. "Wait. Did you say 'Chara?' I thought your timeline lacked one."

"So did I. In the royal family, you have your public name and your private, family name. The royal line descends matrilineally with Toriel as the queen and her younger sister, Lahaniala, being next in line. Lahaniala's private name is Chara. Which was a huge surprise to me considering how long I've known her. She was instrumental in helping my brother and Asgore protect Frisk while the vaccine was being developed."

Lyall smirked. "So little sister wants the throne?"

Sans shook his head, frowning a little. "Like everything on a fell world, it's far more complicated than that. Lahaniala doesn't want the throne. She wants the royal line to descend from her to assure the health of future generations. Toriel is an albino with several hereditary medical conditions. She is very likely to pass those to her children and the royal line as a whole. So long as things were rocky between Asgore and Toriel, Lahaniala's children would have the throne."

Michelle hummed on that for a moment. "How many times has she attempted to kill Toriel?"

"This would be the third time."

Lyall's jaw dropped. "And she gets away with this how?"

"Chara's a member of the royal family and the only other direct descendant. It would be easier if Tori would announce if she were having a boy or a girl. Since only a female can ascend, a boy is no threat."

Lyall tapped his chin. "So why not kill her sister before now?"

"Chara wasn't willing to step over her sister's dead body to secure the future of the royal family. The pregnancy changed that."

"Are Chara's children healthy?"

Sans snorted. "She doesn't have any children." He chuckled darkly. "I'll amend that. She doesn't have children yet. As a potential heir to the throne, Chara doesn't get a choice as to who she marries. Matches are determined by the current queen. Toriel's marriage to Asgore was decided by her mother, the previous queen. A husband wasn't chosen for Lahaniala because she was still a child."

Frisk chuckled. "I see where this is going. Toriel is going to choose a husband for her sister as punishment for the repeated assassination attempts, right?"

Sans nodded.

Lyall chortled, "Who's the lucky guy?"

"Me."

Everyone went silent, looking at Sans.

Sans took a sip of his water and smiled. "Yeah, there's a story there. On all three assassination attempts, I've been the one in the line of fire. After the second, Toriel told her that the punishment for the next assassination attempt would be to marry the agent who stood between them."

Frisk took a sip of her water. "And how is that going?"

"She calls once a day to tell me how the construction of our future home is going, or to ask me what I prefer for this or that." He pulled out his phone. "It's not too far from the Gaster home and just off the beach of the eastern side of the island to protect it from the storms that roll in from the west."

He passed his phone over to Michelle and Lyall leaned in to have a look at photos of a beautiful house. Several surfboards were mounted on the wall in one room, including one in the process of being painted.

"Nice!" Michelle pointed to the unpainted board. "Your surfboard?"

Sans smiled softly at the photo. "Papyrus told me it's the board she's working on as my wedding present. Lahaniala has a solid reputation as an artist and exhibits in between her regular work as the Secretary of the Interior. Swipe over one more."

Michelle's thumb moved across the screen and a lovely woman with flowers braided into her dark, brown hair appeared. She was working on a mural, paint smeared on her dress, hands, and arms, and seemed unaware of the camera. The heavily stylized mural depicted several men rowing a canoe toward shore, waves lifting over them and dolphins leaping from the water.

"She's really pretty." Michelle pointed to her own face. "She doesn't have the scars."

Sans nodded, taking his phone back. "She was too young to be hit by the plague and was among the first to be vaccinated. Papyrus says she seems to have settled down a bit. That preparing for the wedding has her pretty focused. But he's also keeping her in Sunrise and not letting her leave for the big island. Asgore isn't particularly pleased about the assassinations. I mean, the man can be a big marshmallow, but when he's angry, he's just as scary as The Devil."

Michelle frowned, staring into her drink. "Assuming Toriel has a boy, if Lahaniala gives birth to a daughter, how long do you think it will take Toriel to put a bullet in her sister's head?"

Sans sighed. "She won't. And not because several people would stop her. Rather, Toriel loves her baby sister. If what Chara really wanted was the throne, The Devil would put a bullet in her own head to give it to her." He grew quiet and looked out over the waves.

When the lunch service came around to the cabanas, Star came out with the rest of her crew. Prince Chara and Brass had settled on rash guards and trunks with copious amounts of green despite each choosing different designs. Is that another thing with Charas? That we all like green? I guess I could poll it if I really wanted to know.

The girls weren't in anything super revealing. Or, at least, it didn't seem so. They were all wearing cover ups. Miss Tamanna stopped dead as soon as she saw the water, the mermaid pattern bag in her hand hitting the sand.

Charlotte took her hand. "Are you all right?"

"It's so beautiful. Like a thousand diamonds shining on the water." Miss Tamanna smiled softly, a little sadly, the sunlight making the scales on her face sparkle a pale, misty green. "Dyne would love it." She sat down on the sand, sniffing for a moment, before putting her face in her hands and crying. The rest of the girls gathered around her, holding her through her tears.

Undyne Cichlid and Chara Tarsus both came over, waiting for the tears to subside before each grabbed a hand and pulled Miss Tamanna up.

"Come on, Love." Undyne's arm slipped around Miss Tamanna's waist. "Our kind are meant to be in the water."

"I don't know how too…"

Tarsus helped her keep her feet. "Yes, you do. We'll be right there with you."

Star helped Miss Tamanna out of the cover up, revealing that she'd picked the blue-green one that matched her scales. Asriel put down his book and stood to watch as a wave lapped up at Miss Tamanna's foot. She shivered, but kept walking forward.

Undyne turned, walking backward into the water, her hand still grasping Miss Tamanna's. "That's right, Love. You hear it, don't you? The call. The crash of the water. The bubbling of the foam against the sand."

Tarsus drew Miss Tamanna deeper into the water. "The smell of the air. The taste of the salt in the spray."

Miss Tamanna drew away from them, diving into a wave, and coming up on the other side, wet and blissful. She sighed, laying on her back and floating in the water just beyond the lap of the waves, Undyne and Tarsus floating with her. Star picked up Miss Tamanna's dropped bag and moved it into the shade of a cabana before taking a moment to speak quietly to Asriel.

"So long as you approve it, Charlotte and Frisk are both clear to leave the lab. We'll have to set them up with suites though. The apartments are all taken."

Charlotte sighed. "And I was looking forward to having a kitchen again."

Brass paused and turned on his heel in the sand, "Move them in with Stephen and I."

Stephen and Charlotte looked at him. "What?"

Brass shrugged. "We have two bedrooms and we're only using one of them. It'll be nice to have someone to share the cooking with." He looked to Stephen. "You're rubbish at it."

Stephen huffed and put his nose up in the air. "You didn't hire me to cook for you."

"And thank God for that."

Stephen flicked his sovereign's ear. "Wad." He gave the girls a smile. "He is right, though. We do have the room. If you don't find it too scandalous to share a place with two unrelated men, we'll just need to move beds into the extra room."

Charlotte chuckled. "Hardly scandalous for me. We'll take it."

Sans gestured toward Miss Tamanna lazily. "Has she never seen an ocean before?"

CHARA popped up on top of Miss Tamanna's bag, the system core having been transferred to her after the AI's stability was reestablished. "The Epiphany was not designed to have natural features and even pools for swimming are hard to come by. Only aquatic monsters have access to those and only on a strict schedule. The ship is developing natural areas now thanks to the new on board technical staff. Those areas are proving to be very popular."

"If you weren't growing it, how did you get food on the Epiphany?" Charlotte asked.

"Via replicator." CHARA made a face. "I remember the stuff from when I was alive. It's nutritious, but not real food. I'm glad that Frisk is actually getting real food. Her kind of mer-monster grow long strings of pearls from their head, similar to Ms. Cichlid, but the lack of the appropriate nutrients means that none of them do. Already, Frisk looks more like a mer-monster than any on the Epiphany."

"How did monsters come to be on the Epiphany? Were they forced into the ship or left of their own free will?"

"The Epiphany is a cruiser class, deep space exploration vehicle. It was originally outfitted for humans, aliens, and their families for one to two year stints in deep space. The first monsters on the ship were there as passengers looking to go from one star system to another. Over time, monster kind took over technical positions as humans and aliens went on and off the ship until the crew was mostly monsters with some humans and aliens. Around that time, the Epiphany's purpose changed from exploration to long distance transport, and then to a floating colony in space, which isn't good since it wasn't designed to house the natural features a colony ship needs."

Charlotte looked over at Miss Tamanna, watching her friend float on the water. "How are things on the ship now?"

"Much better. The monsters on the ship really can't tell the difference between the human and alien technical staff on board and themselves, and the advertising campaigns run by Mettaton have really improved the overall opinion on both non-monsters and technical careers. There's been an uptick in enrollment for technical fields on the ship, which is good, because we need it. Several members of the new staff convinced Commander Asriel that natural features were a must on the ship and the new gardens are huge draws."

Charlotte's phone beeped and she checked it.

Frisk Boneweaver sidled up to her. "Is it your Frisk? What did he say about the photo?"

Charlotte chuckled. "He wants a print and a few wallets."

Frisk giggled. "You should have gone with a red one. To match the streak in your hair."

Charlotte chuckled. "I do like the red one, but green is Frisk's favorite color."

"Why do you hide the streak?" Brass asked. "Do you not like it?"

Charlotte put her phone away and sat down under a cabana. "Actually, I love it! It's a sign of Madame Glass' failure. But it's scandalous to have such untraditional color in Agartha. So I braid it and tucknit away." She turned to Frisk. "Thank you for treating us to the resort, Mrs. Gaster."

Frisk smiled. "You're welcome. I figured we could all use a break from the snow." She spotted Cross building a sand castle with the kids. "Well, most of us anyway."

Frisk Boneweaver sat down. "So what amenities does the resort offer?" She took a plate with a sandwich offered to her by one of the resort staff. "Besides being waited on hand and foot."

Sans gestured with both hands to the water. "The ocean is right there. What else do you need?"

My sister chuckled. "Besides the beachfront, everyone has access to the waterpark, saunas, hot tubs, fitness center, golf course, tennis courts, theater, and library. And everyone has a voucher for the paint your own pottery studio and a free spa treatment."

My brother looked over at us. "If you would like to swim with dolphins, go snorkeling at the reef, go fishing, or go on an excursion into town, speak to concierge to arrange it. If I remember correctly, there's a specialty yarn shop in town."

All of the Charas perked up at that, which shouldn't have surprised me. I knitted right up until the very end, trying to finish a sweater for Az even as my hands stopped working properly. I hadn't finished that sweater, and now it wouldn't fit him properly. But Frisk was happy to let me possess her so I could properly knit him a new one.

"We'll go into town tomorrow," Frisk said.

Sophia came up out of the sand pit she'd dug herself looking for shells. "I can go to the spa?"

Frisk raised an eyebrow at her oldest. "Minors must be accompanied by an adult eighteen years of age or older."

"So you and I are going for pedicures, right?"

Frisk nodded and Sophia started dancing in her sand pit.

Princess came up next to Sophia. "Can I get a pedicure too?"

Her Toriel frowned. "I don't…" She looked deeply unsure.

Princess' smile fell, eyes downcast.

My brother turned to her, his tone suddenly clinical. "Why not?"

Toriel sighed, thinking. The last couple months had been rough for the Osseins. She'd been living in their guest room and her relationship with Frisk Ossein the Elder was strained at best. The Ossein's had even opted to stay behind during the trip just to have their apartment to themselves. Toriel and Mrs. Ossein had very different parenting philosophies, and Mrs. Ossein was not afraid to question any of Toriel's decisions, to point out a problem in the way Toriel was going about something. It bothered Toriel immensely that Mrs. Ossein had an outstanding track record as a parent and that Asriel questioned her decisions just as directly.

Toriel was afraid. She'd lost several children already and her fear of losing Princess made her over protective or too permissive on the wrong things. Despite Princess' incredible strides in mental, emotional, and physical health, Toriel couldn't keep up with it. She didn't want too. She wanted her child to need her, even when she should have been teaching Princess to stand on her own.

Toriel sighed deeply. "I suppose it's all right…"

Princess' expression didn't change. She went back to the sandcastle she'd been working with Brandon and MK, her excitement gone.

Star threw her hands up. "Great. Just great. Now she's going to avoid doing something that she enjoys because she doesn't want to upset you."

Toriel gathered herself up, standing tall. "I appreciate that you care for my child, but it is my responsibility to raise her-"

Star whipped around, eyes narrowed as she pointed at Toriel, the heart shaped locket around her neck swinging with it. "You do realize that Princess should be a year ahead of So-So in her studies, right? She was far ahead of her grade level when she left. And when she comes back to visit, she's behind and struggling, just so you don't feel bad about her doing well! She avoids doing anything too physical so you don't 'worry.'" Star emphasized the worry with air quotes. "She's so depressed and physically inactive she's gained enough to be overweight."

Toriel crossed her arms over her chest. "My child is doing just fine."

"Pull your head out of your ass! Years of mental, emotional, and physical therapy are being rolled back by your incompetence!"

Toriel shook, eyes glowing with magic. "I know how best to parent my child!"

Star snorted, not intimidated in the least. "That's bullshit and you know it. All you've ever done for her is burn her to death multiple times and now that you're past that, you burn her spirit to death every chance you get! Get out of the way and let my parents raise my sister properly!"

Toriel's jaw dropped. She lifted a hand and Asriel grabbed her wrist.

His voice was a low and menacing growl. "You lift a hand to her and I'll end you. And I don't care that your child would be watching. The lack of tact aside, Star is not wrong, and the only reason I haven't asserted my authority in this is because I've been looking after multiple patients. When we get home, you are going under a full evaluation. If this comes up again while we are here, I will send you home early."

I felt Bones tapping me and jumped over to him, relieved a little to get away. "Yeah?"

He was bent over Marigold, gathering her up to his chest, her boney fingers curling in his ribs. "Hey, C. Crow and I want to go over what we've discovered with the rest of the team. Get Frisk and Star, we're heading for meeting room two in the resort."

"Got it. See you there."

I went back to Frisk. She was already on her feet and pulling a t-shirt dress over her suit.

"I guess you got that, huh?"

Frisk nodded. "Star? We're needed in meeting room two."

Star nodded and turned to follow. When Brass stood to follow, she waved him down. "Stay with Charlotte in case she needs help getting around."

Charlotte shrugged. "I have been tiring out fast. Besides, Prince Chara is going to need our moral support."

Brass lifted an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Charlotte nodded. "I've seen the bathing suit his fiancee is wearing under her cover up."

"Wow. She really is the bad one, isn't she?"

Charlotte chuckled. "Absolutely terrible."

Prince Chara sighed deeply. "I'm surprised she hasn't shown me yet."

Stephen patted him on the shoulder. "Take heart. It is a sign that she loves you."

Boneweaver gave her fiance a bright smile. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. I looked around and saw Toriel sitting again, watching the beach, expression troubled. Princess remained with MK and Brandon, not looking in her direction. Star followed Frisk into the resort, both stopping to rinse the sand from their feet.

Frisk held the button for water on the spigot for Star. "That wasn't the best timing."

"There's never a good time." Star glanced up. "Having second thoughts about me?"

"Hardly." Frisk pulled her sandals back on. "It's the reason why I chose you. The way you look after your sister is indicative of the way you look after everyone. You are their protection and you fight for them endlessly."

Star nodded and Frisk took her hand, leading her up the stairs to the front deck and the patio beyond. A bar and grill faced the ocean from the patio, a striped awning shading the workers behind the bar. To the right and left were large swimming pools, the left wrapping around to the waterpark and a large kids area, currently filled with screams of delight. They took the stairs up to the patio over the bar, passed a block of sunbathers, and into the resort's two story, ocean facing lobby. A quick ride in the elevator had them at the meeting rooms that existed separately from the conference center.

Meeting room two consisted of a beautiful, dark stained dining table surrounded by twelve, comfortable chairs. A balcony with a plush couch gave you a nice view of the glass enclosed atrium. A projector screen hung from the ceiling with four windows for four cameras. 01 and his Sans waited in one window. Red and Sunshine whispered to each other in another. Blue appeared to be napping in the third window, while White typed away in the fourth.

Bones and Crow both waited at the table, Marigold bouncing gently on her father's knee. She cooed when she saw her mother, perfect, blush skin reappearing. Frisk lifted her youngest, cuddling her close as she sat down next to Bones, Star plopping down next to Crow. Fase's hologram appeared next to me on Frisk's shoulder.

01 immediately sat up, smiling widely. "Hey, Star."

"Hey, Chara."

Bones opened, using magic to demonstrate as he spoke, illustrating his words with a visual. "The timelines are folded and very neatly too. The ends are tucked in making the interior an endless loop. The equations aren't working because the resulting coordinates encompass the entire timeline. The folding alters the timeline coordinates."

01 took a sip of his tea. "Can we unfold it?"

Sunshine sighed. "I think we can, but I've never seen anything like this before. It's utterly brilliant." She smiled. "I honestly can't wait to meet the Frisk who did this."

Blue opened his right eye. "*until we can get the timelines unfolded, do you have a way to get out?"

Star broke in. "Dragoon has been getting around by following the fold until it lets him slip out. Coming out of the fold felt like I was spinning, and I was completely disoriented. But I've been poking it since and found that right at either end of the seam is a space that lets you in and out."

Frisk tapped Star's shoulder. "Big enough to let a vessel through?"

Star caught my sister's drift. "You mean like the Planar Pearl or the Phantasm? Oh yeah."

01 set his tea down. "Any leads on our kidnapped Frisk?"

Frisk frowned. "Yes. And unfortunately I found a bunch of other issues. I switched my search method around, looking for timelines that had more than one Frisk and there are a few Frisks that are not where they are supposed to be. And none of them are agents stuck on the wrong timeline."

Blue, Red, and White sat up straight. "*What?"

01 steepled his fingers in front of his face. "That's a much more serious cause for concern. I have two agents on a Bloodborne style world who reported the appearance of a child Frisk, an adult Chara, and an adult Asriel. Before either agent could talk to them, Chara slit Frisk's throat and the three disappeared."

Star's jaw dropped. "Christ!"

Red's eye began to glow. "*you think someone is using a frisk's ability to load to timeline port?"

01 frowned deeply. "I'm worried that a few people are doing that."

"*fuck."

Star shook off the thought and looked to 01. "Any word from E.C.?"

01 shook his head. "Nothing."

Her shoulders drooped and Crow reached over, gently petting her head.

"E.C. has been around a long time, Star. He just may not be able to contact us." 01 gave her an apologetic smile, before turning back to the rest of the group. "How are the teleportation machines coming together?"

White stepped in. "We can use them to go to a single place, but not back. We've been able to get a few agents who have the skills and materials to build the machines back home that way, but it isn't as useful as we'd hoped it would be."

01 nodded. "How quickly can we get the Planar Pearl and Phantasm into the void?"

Bones shrugged. "As soon as we can figure out how we are going to pinpoint timelines for travel via the ships."

Fase piped up next to me. "I've been reindexing coordinates for timelines as they currently stand. I would be happy to supply that information to you, Father."

Bones nodded. "Now that we know what we're looking at, are there any timelines that haven't been dimensionally folded?"

Fase nodded. "Any timeline that's new since the shutdown has not been folded and one timeline on the far end past Site Beta hasn't been folded at all."

"Really?" 01 leaned in. "What are the details?"

"It's an original variation timeline where monsters were trapped in an intra-dimensional fold."

Frisk smacked the table, eyes lit up. "That's where our missing Frisk is from!"

"There are a lot of timelines that…"

Frisk waved 01 off. "Fase, has that timeline had contact with Seraph?"

"The Sans on timeline has had basic contact, but otherwise, nothing."

Frisk nodded. "That seals it. The Frisk we are looking for can fold dimensions, and I bet she isn't the only one capable of it from her timeline. If she doesn't know about Seraph, it would make sense for her to leave an opening on her home timeline to facilitate a rescue. If she was good enough to hide from her captor that her timeline wasn't going to be blocked, then she's good enough to have left information for someone back home to help her."

Bones looked to Frisk. "We need to get to that timeline."

"We need to get the ships launched," Star said.

Bones nodded. "I'll get on the horn to Steam. "

01 sighed. "Well, that's the most productive meeting I've been to in years. Does anyone have anything to add?"

Star leaned forward. "Hey, White? Could you stay on for a few minutes?"

White smiled knowingly. "Checking on Snow?"

Star nodded, her hair bouncing with it.

Blue leaned forward. "*don't keep us in suspense, bud."

White sighed. "There's progress, but it's weird." He opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, and went with something else. "Snow is Frisk's mother. Her original body is alive thanks to the golden flowers, but in a vegetative state. One of the fallen is the father, and completely glossing over how incredibly disturbing that thought is, Snow has decided she is completely fine with it."

Star blinked. "Wow. Did not see that coming."

01 nodded. "Yeah, I'm with you."

White cackled. "Oh wait! I'm not done! We thought, after the barrier opened, that all the souls Asgore had hidden away had left. It turns out that one of them didn't."

My sister looked up from latching Marigold. "Frisk's father, right?"

"Oh yeah. He was waiting for Snow. They had a long conversation, the details of which neither have discussed with anyone, not even Frisk. After the conversation she asked if Papyrus and I would be fine with her being out of it for a while. When we said that would be fine, she repeated the spell Dragoon used to recreate her body, and now Frisk's father is walking the earth again. "

Red snorted. "*and?"

"And he's taken a wizarding brand to be one of her bodyguards. They get along great."

Star grimaced, unsure of her own response. "So… that's good… I guess? I don't know what to make of that. Anything else?"

White rubbed the inside of his left arm, like it itched. "Yeah. You know how the countries on my timeline are ruled by wizard families? Snow's family, the Ravenbrookes, rule the country we live in and half of them are happy to have her back because her bloodline was lost and the other half are happy because they saw her as a way to dunk on Frisk and his position in the family. The punk is really tight with the current king, Aaron Ravenbrooke, and the next in line, Adiron Ravenbrooke. And several members of the family would dearly love to see that triangle of power broken up."

"*saw. past tense."

"Exactly."

"*what'd she do?"

White rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out his phone. "At the last, big, Ravenbrooke family shindig, people just lined up to challenge her to magical duels. This kind of thing is normal in wizarding families. Some duel for fun, but it is used as a way to jockey for position. Since everyone knew that Chara was pitched down a hole in the ground for her unwillingness to fight, they thought it'd be an easy win. She'd concede and it'd make Frisk look like he came from weak blood."

White plugged his phone into his laptop and selected a video. "The punk filmed the whole show."

White's window went dark for a moment before lighting up again with a video. Chara 'Snow White' Ravenbrooke walked across the room in a very beautiful, silver gown embroidered white flowers. Whatever challenge had been made, she'd accepted it before the video began and the majority of the crowd looked to be shocked. She stopped to stand in a circle laid in the tile of the floor. Her challenger, a dark haired woman in a yellow dress took a circle across the room, looking as shocked as the crowd but determined.

A bell chimed three times and both women lifted their hands, but Snow's spell went off lightning fast, knocking the woman out of her circle. She groaned, grabbing hold of the nearest person to find her feet. Finding her anger, the woman growled and stepped back into the circle only to catch the Snow's glowing, red eyes glowering at her. The woman made a bow and stepped out of the circle. Another took her place. And another after that. Over and over until fifteen bows were made to Snow, who stood inside several floating golden rings of glowing magic.

A gasp went over the crowd as a sixteenth challenger stepped into the circle. The man was tall and youthful despite his long, white hair and dark suit. Whoever this was, everyone appeared to be very put off at his entrance to the challenge.

A voice I didn't recognize carried over the video. "What the hell does he think he's doing?"

Frisk Gaster's voice answered, "Settle down, Aaron. Adiron's just having fun and Mom isn't going to put the hurt on him. It's likely the best challenge he's seen in years."

Three bell rings echoed and two evenly matched spells slammed into each other. And while the other duels hadn't lasted more than a minute or two, this one dragged on, neither one having the upper hand.

Star gasped. "Her eyes! They turned gold! Like Mage Frisk!"

I looked closely and there it was. As soon as her eyes turned gold, Snow's motions loosened.

White's voice carried over the video which began to look less like a duel and more like two people having a lot of fun. "Exactly. So I called Mage Frisk and asked what I was seeing. She said that when she feels pressed, like the magic is a moment of do or die, her eyes will go red instead of gold, a visual representation of her soul's Determination coming through. For Snow, everything leading up to the duel with Adiron was about protecting Frisk and you can see it in her eyes; she's on the attack. But Adiron isn't a threat to Frisk's standing. He's already ahead of Frisk. And her spellwork shows it. She's relaxed, enjoying herself. She doesn't have to beat Adiron. In fact, it's better if she doesn't. He's got the same gold in his eyes as well. They're showing off."

After a full ten minutes, both of them were knocked out of their circles at the same time. Snow regained her feet and Adiron was quick to get to his circle. Adiron lifted his arms, but no magic lifted with it. Snow very swiftly curtsied to him, conceding the duel before he could concede to her. Cheers filled the room as Adiron rushed over, taking her hands in his. The video cut on the two talking excitedly.

White reappeared in his window. "Adiron comes by every other day and the two pour over really old books of magical theory together."

Bones sat back, relaxing. "I take it that your brother's position in the family is secure?"

"Very secure." White chuckled darkly. "Frisk has a new problem. He's now one of the two most eligible bachelors in the family. And Snow is currently the most eligible damoiselle."

Star frowned. "I get it with Frisk. But why Snow?"

White stood, rolling his shoulders. He walked off camera for a moment and came back with a white board. "You have two types of people in wizarding families and two types of dueling. About half of the family will not duel or will have given up dueling at some point in their lives, happy with their current standing. The other half will continue to duel, some for power and some because they enjoy it. Then you have two types of dueling. One is person to person for power, and one is line of descendancy to line of descendancy."

He drew seven lines on the board, labeling them one through seven. "The Ravenbrookes are made up of seven lines of descent; Aaron is from the first line and Adiron is from the second, and so on." At the top of each line, he wrote the name of each line head.

"Only the current head of a line of descent may challenge the person ahead of him or her to move their line closer to the seat of power." He drew an arrow from line four to line three and then drew a large, arcing arrow from line five to line three and put an x on it. "But they can't challenge someone further up until they have challenged and beaten the person ahead of them. So if you are in the 7th line, you can't challenge Aaron for the throne. You have to get the head of your line to fight their way through the other line heads in order for you to have a shot."

"*sounds like a hard sell."

"It is. Most family members will duel to be the head of their line and retire from dueling. It's a way of keeping family power secure."

Star waved her hand. "You said that they can't challenge him for the throne. Can they challenge him just to get a better position in the family in general?"

"Yes, but Aaron is the king for a reason. He's very powerful and can knock an opponent silly really fast. He accepts all challenges and matches what he uses to the person challenging him. If they can hold their own as he escalates, it will earn them some pretty high esteem after he knocks them out of the circle. And because he matches his magic to the challenger, the kids love to challenge him."

"So how does that relate to Frisk and Snow?"

White drew a circle on the board and wrote 'Frisk' in it, using his hands to indicate otherness. "Frisk stood outside of this. No one challenged him to a duel because he didn't have a position in the hierarchy. He was a blood relation and listed as a Gaster."

"Snow's resurrection changed that; Chara being from the lost, eighth line of the house. But her line, being lost, has no established place in the hierarchy. Because of Snow's history, the head of each line treated her as one of the 'retirees' from dueling and let her be. They knew that she had no intention of seeking any kind of power."

White erased the circle and drew a new line on the board between lines two and three. "After accepting and defeating the first nine challenges, the heads of lines two through seven challenged her to establish where her line would sit. Defeating everyone and then bowing to Adiron has made her the third line of descent in eight."

Star thought about that, frowning. "How much does Snow have to deal with in the way of politics?"

White shook his head. "Not much. The other line heads are happy to have her established in the hierarchy rather than in an amorphous place outside of it. And no one is interested in challenging her since Adiron was clearly going to concede to her. Adiron is the most powerful wizard in the family. No one challenges him. To watch someone go fifteen rounds and still keep pace with the best wizard? No one wants that. Instead, she's making a lot of scratch tutoring various Ravenbrooke children."

There was a knock at the door of the conference room and a rabbit monster stuck her head inside. "It's tea time. Would you like it served here?"

Frisk thought about it. "I have one more question, but other than that, I believe we are done."

Star waved to the rabbit. "I'll take it here." She gave 01 a smile. "While I have you on the line, I might as well make the most of it."

The rabbit monster nodded and brought in a cart to set up tea for Star.

Frisk turned back to the screen. "Touching on an earlier note, there's a Bloodborne timeline?"

Bones chuckled. "I knew that one was coming."

I nodded. Frisk liked to play a lot of games, but Bloodborne was, by far, her favorite.

01 raised an eyebrow. "Yes. The hunter Francesca Aberdeen and Lady Chara of the Astral Clocktower."

Frisk sighed happily. "I can't wait to tell Cross."

01 chuckled. "They're two of my best operatives since LOVE means something completely different for them. They can go into violent situations and come out pretty much the same. Word of warning though, when we get our hands on the child murdering Chara, we'll need to keep him far from Francesca. She's seen a lot of horrible things, but was clear that what she'd witnessed topped it, and it was not sliding on her watch."

With that, the meeting adjourned; Star staying behind to spend some time with her fiance while Crow followed Bones.

Frisk stopped in the hall, taking one of Bones' hands in hers. "Coming out to the beach?"

He sighed. "I need to talk to Steam. After that, I'll be out."

Frisk smiled and went up on her toes to kiss his boney jaw. "See you soon then." She returned to the beach, stopping briefly to change Marigold's diaper before leaving the resort. Under the cabana, the kids snacked on an array of cookies and iced teas.

My sister caught sight of Cross and elbowed him. "There's a Bloodborne timeline."

He eyed her suspiciously. "No way."

She nodded. "01 mentioned it during the meeting."

"Woah." He paused for a moment. "Can we go visit?"

"I'll see what I can do to arrange it."

Sans reached over, tugging on the edge of Frisk's cover up. "My boy on the call?"

She sat next to him. "White was on."

"How's he doing?"

"He seems to be okay. A bit put off by circumstances that can't be repeated in front of children."

Sans nodded. "Give me the short and sweet?"

"Did he tell you about Frisk's mother?"

Sans snorted. "We were up all night talking about that."

"All right then. Frisk's father is walking among the living again, and Snow, looking to protect Frisk, duelled her way unintentionally into a seat of power."

Sans nodded once, smile evident behind the mask. "Good for her."

I looked around, getting a bead on everyone, and found Miss Tamanna laying on her stomach at the water's edge, head resting on her arms, letting the waves softly lap at her. When the water pulled away, gossamer fins that had erupted from her legs, back, and arms moved with the water. The scales at her neck had opened, revealing gills. Asriel sat with her, making notes in his pocket journal, occasionally asking her a question. Undyne lay next to Miss Tamanna, sunning herself, while Tarsus sat next to Asriel, watching his brothers jump waves.

Frisk Boneweaver, racy, green bikini revealed, lay back against her fiance under the next cabana over, both of them watching the waves roll in and out.

Brass looked over from the cabana he was sharing with Charlotte. "Where's my Frisk?"

"Having tea with her fiance."

Brass nodded and continued pouring tea for Charlotte and Stephen. "Learn anything new?"

Frisk caught his drift, raising an eyebrow. "You aren't an agent."

Brass turned, head cocked back and to the side so that he was looking down his nose at her. "Says the woman who wants me to be an agent. Stop pretending that I haven't figured it out."

"Oh you have, have you?"

Brass snorted, arms crossed over his chest. "Fine. It isn't just me. It's all of us. Frisk, Stephen, Cephas, Mary, Anne, Merit, and Asriel. And you want our sword and sorcery friends on as well. The shutdown has worked to your advantage, giving you a reason to put those of us here at Star's disposal. You've been watching and you've been scheming. And you're hoping we all go home with enough fire in us to tell our Sanses that we want to join Seraph."

Frisk held up both hands. "Conceded."

Cross elbowed her. "I'd like to know what happened in the meeting."

"What we are dealing with is dimensional folding. The Frisk we've all been dreaming about has literally folded every timeline in half, with a curious exception."

Cross nodded. "Her home."

"Right. The machines aren't working the way we'd hoped. However, Star has figured out how to get back into the void, exploiting holes in the folding. Our next step is to launch the Shipworks ships made to travel the void and use them for transport."

Brass groaned, "And you were playing coy with me why? I'm one of a very few people who can pilot the Pearl and the Phantasm."

Frisk smiled.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, just having fun with me. Fine."

Charlotte chuckled. Brass lifted an eyebrow and then dropped an ice cube on her.

"Eeek!" She quickly flicked it off her chest and into the hot sand. "Jerk! I'll get you for that!"

Brass sat down next to her. "I'm sure you will."

Crow appeared in the sand next to the two. "I am in need of the Steam Chara."

Brass and Charlotte both looked at him. "Yes?"

"The genius engineer."

They looked at each other for a moment before looking back at him. "Yes?"

Crow hummed thoughtfully, tapping his boney chin with one boney finger. "I suppose Bones and I will have need of both of you."