Core Issues

by Nicolle

Disclaimer: Undertale is copyright to Toby Fox. Gaster!Sans is the creation of Borurou. Underfell is a community creation. Fase is from Technotale. The story is copyright to me.

Special Disclaimers!: (1)The Frisk, Sans, and Papyrus we meet in this episode are not part of an official AU but are based on the fanart of 22o22. This artist's work is phenomenal! (2) Though Underswap does not make an appearance in this series, part of the basic idea will appear here, so credit for that goes to the Underswap creator Morty.

1. Remember to review! I don't know how I'm doing if you don't tell me!

2. This story is rated T for language, suggestive jokes/themes, and violence. Red's in this, so expect a ton of foul language and over the top insults.

3. To avoid confusion right out, White is our narrator for this episode.

Ep. 8: Red Vs. Who?

Bored.

Bored.

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

I checked the clock. It would be hours before Papyrus came home, days before I'd see Frisk again (the little punk just had to take that job over seas), and months before I saw results on isolating the Frisk trapped in my badge and possibly getting them out. I didn't want to watch MTT do whatever he was doing today on tv. I didn't want to re-read the latest issue of Annalen de Physik. I didn't want to go to the Lab and harass Alphys. I didn't even want to go to Grillby's.

I grabbed a restaurant sized bag of nacho cheese from the fridge and heated it in the microwave. When it was done, I squished it around a bit to distribute the heat. Falling backwards over the back of the couch, I laid upside down, head hanging off the front. I opened the bag of cheese and let it drip into my mouth. If Papyrus came home early and saw me like this, he'd chew me out big time. And I wouldn't be bored anymore.

"*tibia-honest, i didn't think he'd be this bored."

I looked up and saw two pairs of tibia and fibula under black shorts. One white striped and one yellow striped.

"*we've all done this at least once right? fuckin' riot watchin' white do it though."

I refused to get up. "What's up?"

Blue shrugged. "*i got a job for the two of you."

"The two of us? As in me and him?" I indicated Red with the business end of my cheese bag. "As in two people joined together in mission related partnership?" I sat up. "What, in the name of all that is good and right with the multi-verse, do you need me and him to do that you can't handle on your own?"

Blue smiled and looked to the left. "*welp. i tried recruiting several times from one particular timeline but i always get sent packin.' now fase has detected an anomaly there and i know they aren't asking for help. i'd go, but i doubt it'd do any good, so i'm sending you two. fix the problem and recruit that world's papyrus."

"Papyrus?" I looked at Red and he nodded. "A swap world? I haven't actually been to one of those." I was instantly not bored. "What else you got?"

"*it's also a human timeline. a plague hit the human population and reduced it to almost nothing. the monsters didn't want to kill the remaining humans so they shipped them off to a tropical archipelago in the pacific surrounded by a barrier. the human population is now resistant to the plague but not completely immune. they only recently found a cure."

"Wait." I looked at him suspiciously. "Why aren't you sending Bones and his Frisk?"

"*because you two are best suited for this job. and, uh, well, i wouldn't be able to budge them right now."

Red picked up where Blue left off, "*a hot sauce convention running in the same city as a muscle car show, physics symposium, sci-fi fest, vintage swap meet, and sewing retreat."

"Woah."

"*yeah. the planets really aligned there," Blue said. He rocked back on his heels, hands in his pockets. "*you up for this?"

I stood. "Yeah. Will I be susceptible to their plague?"

"*fase says no."

"Let me pack a bag." I hopped out the door to the shed to grab my equipment bag. When I came back in, Blue was gone and Red was lounging on the couch.

"*ready, pretty boy?"

"Cocksucker."

"*assclown."

"Dickhole."

"*cheesedick."

"Weaksauce."

He pointed at me with a big, shit-eating grin. "*hey! i like that one! i'm stealing it. papy will hate it!" He held out a hand and I took it. As we traveled through the void a hapless person floated by us, spinning slowly.

"*was that a vampire?"

"Maybe? He was saying something about the Illuminati."

We landed on a beach. The sun was rising over soft sand and beautiful waves. There were humans in the water, waiting in a line on surfboards for a good wave to come in. I pulled my hood up to shield my face. Sitting near us was a strange, black furred monster that was a weird cross between a rabbit and a cat with a thick flat tail. Flowey was wrapped around it's shoulder, sleeping peacefully in the sun.

"Well, we found Frisk."

At the mention of it's name, the monster looked at us. Squealing excitedly, it ran over and jumped into Red's arms.

"A monster Sans!" a feminine voice squeaked. "Look at that gold tooth!" She tapped it with one claw and Red laughed.

"*aren't you a little cutie!" he chortled. "*careful now. the teeth are sharp."

Frisk giggled, hiding her mouth behind her paws. She jumped into my arms. "You're a Sans too! Why are you so weird-pale? And so skinny?"

"When any animal lives underground for enough generations they lose skin pigment. And I'm just skinny like my dad," I answered. "Can you tell us where your Papyrus might be?"

"He's probably still in bed. I came out with Sans to watch him surf." She pointed, indicating a man in a red and black, short sleeved rash guard and long black trunks, waiting in the line for a wave to come along. The hair on the top of his head was bleached out in a stripe and pulled back in a short, bushy pony tail. It appeared to be a common style. Most of the men in the water sported a similar look. The bone mask he wore over his face contrasted heavily with the tan of his skin.

Frisk waved excitedly to him, shouting, "Sans! Sans! We have visitors!"

He waved back in acknowledgement and rode the next wave straight toward the shore, jumping and pulling his board up while in the waist deep. He held out a wet hand covered in henna designs to shake. "Off worlders, huh? Man, Papy's not gonna be happy to see you."

Red took his hand first. "*sans, but everyone calls me red."

"The Red? The very first variation? Wowie!"

Red shrugged. "*as far as any of us know."

Frisk sneezed and it was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen.

Sans reached for me and I took his hand. "White."

"Nice to meet another human, but, man, look at this skin! Are you going to be okay in this sun?"

I smiled. "It's why the hood's up."

Sans waved us along. "I need to rinse my board. After that, I'll take you over to the house. Papy never gets out of bed at anything like a decent time on a Saturday."

Frisk jumped over to his shoulder, Flowey still perfectly asleep. "Can I help?"

He scratched the top of her head. "Always."

We followed him into the shade.

"*mighty peaceful place you got here," Red commented.

Sans carefully set his board on a rack while Frisk grabbed a hose. "It is now. It wasn't always that way. Before Frisk and Flowey washed up on the beach, we'd all completely given up. Papy kept researching until I was hit. After that, he was just done."

He took the hose from Frisk and sprayed down the board. "Frisk was the watershed moment." He scratched Frisk behind the ears, and she mewed happily before sneezing. "Papy found her on the beach and just fell in love with her. He couldn't bear to have her infected. Turns out that she carries anti-bodies that fight the infection. It didn't take long to isolate and test vaccines. We're all cured now, but we still bear the scars." He reached behind his head and undid the clasp on the bone mask. It came away to reveal significant scarring around his mouth. He hosed off the inside of the mask and his face before drying both with a towel and clasping the mask back into place.

"You guys good with grilled chicken for lunch?" he asked.

"Sure," I said. "But you don't have to feed us."

"Nah. Mom will love the company."

Ooh. My mouth started watering. I had yet to meet a Toriel who wasn't also an awesome cook. We followed Sans and Frisk (Flowey still asleep) down a shaded trail to a little town. The sign said 'Welcome to Sunrise.' Grillby's was a stand here, the seating completely outside under a grouping of large umbrellas for shade. The sweet smell of grilled pineapple filled the air. Sans stopped to wash the sand from his feet at a spigot on the side of the house, before welcoming us inside.

The smell that hit my nose, however, wasn't the sweet, sugary smell of Toriel's cooking, or the slightly stale smell of a bachelor pad.

It was rosemary and blackberries.

It was the smell of a long lost home and a long lost mother.

I looked at Red and he looked just as stunned as me. I could see a woman in the kitchen. An exact copy of the form that even hundreds of years had not managed to erase from my memory.

God dammit, Blue! There was no way he hadn't known about this!

Lucida Gaster turned to look at us with a smile. I clenched my fists and my jaw, refusing to move. If I didn't, I would hug her and refuse to let go.

"*fuckin' blue. i'm gonna kill him the next time I see him," Red muttered.

"Two more Sans-es?" Her smile fell. "I'm long gone for both of you, aren't I?" She walked over to us just as graceful and perfect as I remembered. The scarring on her arms, neck, and jaw did nothing to detract from the beauty. She hugged us both and I grabbed her around the waist, burying my face against her shoulder, shaking.

"More?" I could hear the sneer in the voice. I looked up at a sharp faced man with barely concealed malice in his eyes. He was shirtless, baring a toned body covered in black tattoo work including a gaster blaster on each bicep. I imagine that if Red's brother had skin, this is what he'd look like. The bone mask over his tan skin was vicious looking to say the least.

Lucida let go of us and stepped back to regard her son. "You will not be rude to our guests, Papyrus."

Papyrus looked away. "Fine." He came down the stairs and scooped up Frisk possessively, petting the top of her head. She sneezed and rubbed at her nose, before rubbing her head against his chest.

Red watched him like a snake coolly regarding its prey. Papyrus returned the look.

"Hey!" Sans said. "Lunch is ready out back. Come on."

Red turned away first, turning his back. A very calculated show of contempt. Papyrus took it for the slight it was meant to be, but didn't return it, suddenly unsure how to deal with someone he'd been previously sure was here to recruit him.

Sometimes, I forget that Red really is a magnificent bastard.

I gestured for Papyrus to go ahead of me and he scowled. I smiled, not the least bit intimidated, and went first.

The backyard was prepped for a picnic. I sat down at the table while Sans brought over a massive platter filled with chicken legs, grilled and slathered with BBQ sauce, steaming corn on the cob, and grilled melon. Instead of plates, banana leaves were laid out on the table. Papyrus pulled out a bottle of banana ketchup and drank it while Frisk hopped from his shoulder to sit at the table. Both brother's took off the bone masks to eat, Papyrus revealing significant scaring around his mouth.

"Thank you for having us on such short notice," I said.

Lucida smiled. "It's no trouble."

Oh God. That smile! Oh how I missed that smile.

"*so how did you end up here, little lady?"

Frisk giggled. "I fell off a boat. Poor Flowey tried to save me and I only ended up pulling him in with me. We washed up on the beach and Papyrus found me." She wiped at her whiskers. "What are your Frisk's like? Can I see pictures?"

"Sure," I said and pulled out my phone. I swiped to unlock, revealing a picture of myself, Paps, and Frisk at the kid's graduation. Alphys had taken that particular picture.

"A boy!" she giggled. "He's cute!"

"He's a punk," I said.

She took a bite of chicken, licking the sauce from her face with a tiny pink tongue. "And you?" she asked Red.

Red fished out his phone and held up a picture of his kiddo and Bone's girl in matching tank top pajamas, hamming it up for the camera. "*the kiddo's my frisk. she's a little genius and she knows it."

I sighed. "Okay, how do you rate a pic of her? And one with cleavage showing?! Not fair."

Red smiled at me, big and mean. "*i've got a nice one of her in a bathing suit too."

"Yeah. Keep pouring lemon juice on that wound. I'm sure it'll work out for you."

"*suck it, white." He poured a long string of mustard on his pierced tongue, managing to make the act both lewd and insulting.

Lucida swatted his arm. And he gave her a smile I imagined he'd given his mother once upon a time: a charming devil.

Frisk carefully took the phone and held it up to Papyrus. "Do you think I'd look like that if I were human?" She pointed to Red's kiddo.

He petted her head, not looking away from the photo. "Maybe." The look on his face had softened. "Who's Frisk is this?"

Red shot me a look, eyes glowing wickedly. "Sugar plum there is Bone's Frisk. Slide left two pics."

Papyrus moved the pictures along to one of Bones and his Frisk in their uniform bomber jackets. His eyebrow twitched and the real reason Blue had sent us hit me. He and Bones might have either come off as best buds or hated rivals real fast. Papyrus rubbed the scaring on his jaw while looking at the skeleton monster. He flipped back to the first picture, eyes still on Bone's Frisk.

"*she surfs." Red took a long drink of mustard to hide his smile. Devious bastard.

"Oh?" Sans looked excited, smiling wide. "Long or short board?"

There was that eyebrow twitch again.

"*long."

"What happened to her arms?" Papyrus asked.

"*you caught that, huh? she went through a window fighting an off-worlder who was trying to kidnap my frisk the night before the pic was taken. she's one tough sugar cookie."

Papyrus handed the phone back and started eating with the practiced grace of someone who wished to keep clean despite the failings of the flesh. Frisk sneezed again.

"Poor woman!" Lucida said. "Is she really okay?"

"*yeah. it's nothin' she can't handle. dad and i had her to rights pretty quick."

Lucida raised a curious eyebrow at the mention of 'dad.' Come to think of it. I hadn't seen a Wing Dings or a mention of him. Something nagged at me and I replayed coming into the house in my memory. There hadn't been any photos in the living room, just a book shelf filled with books on botany... and a small, but lovely urn. A pair of wedding rings on a cord lovingly tied to the lid. Crap.

"Why are you here?" Papyrus asked.

I took a page from Red's book of misdirection. "Fase detected an anomaly. Since you're reluctant to even pick up the phone, we stopped by to let you know."

"So you've let me know," he said.

I waited for the follow up where he kicked us out. I didn't come. Hot damn! Did we really have his number on a photo of someone he'd never met? I wonder if Red had an inkling that this might happen or if he was rolling with the info as he got it. Whatever it was, it was at least distracting me from Lucida's nearness. Flowey was still asleep on Frisk's shoulder.

I pointed at him. "Shouldn't he be up?"

Frisk lifted one of Flowey's petals with a paw and let it drop. "He won't get up until mid-afternoon. The sun is too nice today for him to do anything other than photosynthesis." She sneezed again.

Papyrus finished his meal and looked at Red and I. "Any idea what this anomaly might be?"

"*there's a group going around, destroying timelines. they call themselves 'midnight collapse.' we figure it's them trying to pull something. and they're clever about it too. doing things that would leave a timeline defenseless to attack."

"They are careful to hit the weakest links in the chain. The most recent timeline they destroyed involved tricking a Sans who was desperate to open the barrier into finding someone else's Frisk to do it since her's left through the barrier and didn't come back. They wrecked house while she was gone and no one was able to stand in their way."

The assembled frowned.

Papyrus looked thoughtful for a moment. "The weakest link here is Frisk. She's small, portable, and likes to get into trouble." He petted her head absently, and she leaned into it.

Sans snorted. "Frisk isn't a weak link." He pointed at his brother with a chicken bone. "You're the one who becomes a mess if she's even the slightest bit out of sorts."

Papyrus gave his brother a look but didn't argue the point. Frisk sneezed again, rubbing her nose and eyes. He turned her face up toward him. "When did the sneezing start?"

She squeezed her eyes shut a couple times like they hurt. "Yesterday." She rubbed her nose.

He put a hand to the back of her neck and held it there for a little bit. "You feel like you're running a fever. Let's go check that out." He put her up on his shoulder and headed back into the house. Red stood and followed him.

"I'm sorry my brother is such a killjoy," Sans said. "He just hopes that if he ignores a problem hard enough it will go away."

"And everyone of us learns the hard way that life doesn't work like that," I said, staring after them. "Thank you very much for lunch."

Lucida nodded as I stood and headed after them. Inside, Frisk was wrapped in a blanket shaking feverishly, and gasping for air.

Papyrus held her close. "This onset is too fast. I won't be able to figure out what's wrong with her before she dies." His voice was even but panic touched his eyes.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"*to fix this we're going to have to make a metaphorical deal with the devil. and by metaphorical I mean put on a shirt."

"Will this timeline be secure without you?"

Papyrus smiled with a dark kind of pride. "Sans can handle it on his own, but if push comes to shove, no one can handle what Mom dishes out."

Red grabbed Papyrus' arm and I grabbed Red's jacket. We landed in a laboratory lit with only the barest essential lighting.

"Oh no," I breathed and face palmed. I honestly should have seen this coming.

A pair of ephemeral, soot gray arms wrapped around my neck and sickly yellow eyes smiled up at me. "Hello, White. I do so love it when you visit." His voice slithered from him like a happy snake fat on a recent meal.

"And I hate you."

"*this is an emergency, black."

Black floated away from me to stand on the other side of table, putting space between himself and Red, a sign that he was going to ask for something particularly vile. He threw his hands in the air dramatically. "Then let us begin the negotiations!" His ephemeral fists slammed on the table with a reverberating bang, made momentarily solid with the force of his will. "I want her."

"*seriously? sugar blossom is having a good time this weekend. don't ruin it."

"You have a phone." He smiled wide and nasty. "Call."

"*you have her number, asswipe. you call her."

He pouted. "She won't take my calls."

"*and whose fuckin' fault is that, dickweed?"

Frisk weezed loudly from Papyrus' arms.

Red sneered and pulled out his phone.

"Oh do put it on speaker!"

"*fuckin' twat." Red put the phone down on the table and selected Bone's Frisk from the contacts list.

"Hey, Sans! What's up?"

"*an emergency. and we don't have much in the way of time. we've got a frisk who is very ill and black's bein' a jackass."

Black leaned over the table. "Hello, my darling!"

There was an exasperated sigh on the other end. "Hello, Sans. What do you want?"

"Oh darling! So formal! You know you can call me 'sweetie.'"

"I don't call anyone 'sweetie.' What do you want?"

He made as if he was checking under non-existent fingernails. "The same as last time."

She groaned. "Last time I was so nauseous I was fetal for hours and had nightmares for weeks." She sighed. "Fine. But you have to come to me. I'm not dragging Bones into this just to travel to you."

Black giggled. "Deal." He was suddenly floating in front of Papyrus, looking over Frisk. "Well, aren't you a cutie-patootie!"

She mewled sadly.

"Let's start with an antibiotic while I figure out what you've been infected with." He waved a hand. A cabinet opened and a syringe with a clear liquid flew to Frisk. It impaled her arm and injected it's contents. She shuddered but did not cry out. He pointed to a medical surgical bed. "Please lay her down there."

Papyrus watched him suspiciously while laying Frisk down. "Don't you have a Frisk?"

Those sickly yellow eyes rolled up to look at Papyrus. "Of course! I keep her soul in a jar on my desk."

"Liar."

Black frowned. "Party pooper. You're supposed to freak out." He sighed. "Speaking of my Frisk..." A control panel on the wall lit up. "Papy? Could you loan me Frisk? I need her hands."

The door at the top of the stairs opened and a young woman the color of burnt sienna, in blue dress and lab coat came down, leaping the last couple steps. She hurried over, securing a messy bun on her head with a pen. "What do you need?"

His tone changed, suddenly all business. "Nurse duty to start and then help with identification."

She carefully checked Frisk's vitals, writing them directly on the bed sheet with a marker. "When did symptoms start?"

"Yesterday according to her," Papyrus said.

"Does she have a habit of hiding illness or injury?"

"No." He gave her a confused look. "That's a very odd question."

She looked up at him. "I've met a lot of me's. The majority of Frisks are very good at faking health and happiness for the sake of those around them." She pulled a package of sterile needles and vials from a cabinet. "Would you give me a hand, Red?"

"*sure, angel." He took the package and started on blood samples.

She lifted one of Flowey's leaf arms and let it drop. He was still asleep. She shrugged and worked around him. "Symptoms?"

"It started with sneezing for a day and then escalated to fever, chills, shaking, and wheezing within a few minutes," Papyrus said.

"Papyrus? You're a medical researcher, aren't you?" Black asked as he set up a microscope on the table.

"Yes."

"Help me prep the samples please."

Papyrus petted Frisk's head gently for a moment before heading over to the table to be Black's hands.

Black floated over to his Frisk, who had a stethoscope to the furry chest under her hand. "What does it sound like?"

"From the vitals, symptoms, and what I'm hearing right now, the A09 grouping."

Black grimaced. He looked down at the Frisk on the bed. "White, would you use that voodoo of yours on her?"

"Voodoo?"

He waved me toward her. "That thing you do that calms Frisks down."

I pulled a chair over. "It doesn't work on all of them." I took Frisk's little paw in my hand and let my magic sooth her through her chills and put her into a deep sleep.

He smiled at me in an oh so knowing way. "Oh yes it does."

"*stop bein' a cockbite, black." Red finished with the samples.

Black's Frisk went over to a cabinet filled with binders and pulled one off. It was exceptionally thin.

"Will that binder really have the answer?" I asked.

She looked up at me. "A09 is a very small grouping," she said. She looked at the binder in her hand. "A very small, very lethal grouping."

Red handed Papyrus the samples and he prepped them while Black's Frisk propped the binder up for Black's use. Papyrus loaded samples while Black looked through the microscope. Frisk flipped the pages in the binder for him while he looked back and forth comparing. He stopped her at one page, checking back and forth three times. He motioned Frisk over to look. He didn't bother to move and she stepped into his ghostly form to look in the microscope. She nodded.

His eyes started to glow. "This is A0935. Good old, A0935! Killed off ten timelines all by itself with no help from anyone else." He smiled gleefully. "Killed off twenty more with a little help."

"Do you have a cure for it?"

His entire demeanor changed, becoming serious and a little insulted. "Of course I do." He looked to his Frisk. "Please set up an IV drip and oxygen."

Frisk nodded and set to work.

Those sickly yellow eyes turned on Papyrus. "There are a large number of unusual anti-bodies in her blood. Do you know what they counter act?"

He nodded. "The plague that nearly wiped out humanity in my timeline."

"Tell me about it."

"Children have a natural immunity to it until after the onset of puberty, contracting it between eighteen and twenty years of age. If it doesn't kill you within the first month of infection it rots out the flesh around your mouth and causes significant scaring on the neck, chest, and arms. " He undid the clasp on his mask to reveal his face.

Black nodded in a detached way. "Sounds like A0742." He waved a hand and a binder few to him from the case. He flipped it over to the necessary page and handed it to Papyrus. "Tell me if this is it."

Papyrus looked over the data on the page. "This is it." He looked at Black. "Does this mean you have a cure? That one was already here?"

Black shook his head. "A07's are hard to cure. I've only ever managed a vaccine for one of them and it's only effective for children." He looked over at Frisk, working away on the Frisk in the bed. "I'm interested in a trade. Copies of your notes and samples of the anti-bodies in exchange for whatever supplies you might need for your work or copies of my work and samples to accompany them."

Papyrus blinked. "I'll take that deal in exchange for the copies of your work and samples." He came over to the bed, and took Frisk's little paw from my hand.

"Excellent." His smile changed, returning to wicked. "Now all you have to worry about is every other monster in your timeline."

"Don't be mean, Sans," Frisk said as she set up the IV. "A0935 only has two modes of infection. You have to be injected with it or bitten by someone who has had full onset of the disease. She doesn't have any bite marks, but she does have one nice little red mark underneath her arm." She inserted the IV and placed a tiny oxygen mask over that cute little snout. "When we're done here, I'll help you hunt down the Frisk who did this. They're likely still hanging around in your timeline to watch the inevitable meltdown and clean up with an attack."

"*you're givin' yourself away there, angel."

Black frowned viciously. "Are you itching that badly for a fight, Frisk? I thought we'd settled this years ago."

Frisk frowned. "I didn't mean it like that. Midnight Collapse's attacks have become increasingly sophisticated, matching the right kind of talent to each job. I know I can figure out where this little shit is hiding in their universe and ferret them out." She looked at her feet. "I have no desire to fight anymore. The rest of you can handle that."

"*you're saying you think it's a version of you." Red grinned. "*your husband would not be happy to see you put yourself in danger, angel."

"What's going on?" Papyrus whispered.

"She attempted to kill everyone on her first run in the underground," I answered quietly. "It's why Red calls her angel. It's short for 'Angel of Death.'"

"Interesting." He regarded her with a smile I'd seen before... on Red's brother. Was he a Fell variation given flesh? "I appreciate your offer of help and I accept it. While Frisk is recovering here and relatively safe, we'll head back and find the culprit."

"Papy is going to chew me out hard core," Black whined. "Hurry up and leave before I have a chance to stop you." He floated over to his patient.

Papyrus gently petted his Frisk's sleeping head before heading over to Red. Red gave Black's Frisk a lewd smile and wrapped an arm around her. She gave him the same smile and eye roll that I'd seen a hundred times on Bones' Frisk and put a hand on his shoulder. Papyrus and I grabbed his jacket and we were back at the beach.

"*you're up, angel."

"I've got this," Frisk said. She headed straight for Grillby's and the bar. "Hey!" She waved and a man with hair dyed red, orange, and yellow came over. "I'm visiting and lost track of my sister. Have you seen someone who looks a lot like me?"

Grillby nodded. "She was here for lunch and then headed toward the Library."

"Thank you!" She leaned over the bar to kiss his cheek and he blushed bright red. She headed over to us. "It is a version of me. She'll wait to strike when she knows Frisk is dead and then pick off everyone in the house one by one."

"So fake that Frisk is there and dead? We can handle that," I said.

"Where you guys even semi-publicly visible together at any point?" she asked.

"We had lunch together in the back yard," Papyrus answered.

"Then expect her to have called for back up." She pulled the pen from her hair and drew a crude map of town on her arm. "I would arrange my back up behind the house in the brush and let them head in as fodder. They would keep you busy while she went after Frisk's body." She put three dots on her arm behind the house.

"*why would she want the body?"

She took a deep breath. "How would this place react if someone threw your Frisk's dead body down in the middle of Grillby's crowd?"

Papyrus frowned, a red glow behind his eyes.

Red grinned maniacally. "*the same thing that would happen in my universe! it'd kick off a blood bath."

Frisk nodded. "Despite the tropical setting, this is a Fell variation." She put her hair back up with the pen. "I'll be at Grillby's. Please don't let the fight go there. I..." She looked away for a minute. "I don't want to relapse." She ran off.

Red looked at me. "*sneak around the back and wait for us to make a ruckus inside."

I nodded and waited.

"*ass monkey."

"Dick licker."

"*numbnuts."

"Mattress back."

Red nodded appreciatively. "*that one's not even particularly dirty. but it demonstrates that you know me far too well."

Papyrus stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, but couldn't hide his smile. "If you two are done romancing each other, I'd like to finish this business."

Red and I laughed. I snapped my fingers, pointed at Papyrus with a wink, and fell backwards into a portal. I stepped out in the brush behind the house and almost on top of three Frisks. I froze and waited. I didn't wait long. Papyrus let out a long, loud bellow of deep anguish. All three moved toward the house.

I snapped my fingers and the familiar shing of magic turned their souls blue. I lifted them up and slammed them into the ground as Red, Papyrus, and Sans came out of the house. I lifted them for another slam and was struck in the back. I let go of the three in the air and turned on my attacker. It was a girl very similar in look to Black's Frisk. I blocked her next attack with a bone in front of my chest.

She attacked again and I dodged to the side, letting her hit the ground. She was completely off balance.

"What's wrong? Expecting someone else?"

She scrambled to her feet and ran straight for Papyrus while one of the three I had dropped came right for me. He looked like a red eyed version of my little brother.

They had planned for us. I wonder if they know we train especially for them?

I punched him in the throat as he pulled out a gun causing him to throw it instead. I caught it and turned, slamming him in the head with the butt to knock him out. As he fell, he hit a rock at the wrong angle to be good. I felt a coldness sweep over me and shook it off. I popped the magazine out of the gun and shoved it in one pocket of my hoodie and the gun in the other.

Sans slid into the Chara in front of him, knocking him down and Red called a bone strike from the ground, ripping through the red eyed freak. Papyrus kicked the Chara in front of him hard enough to lift him into the and hit him with a large bone hard enough to crack his skull.

Where was the Frisk that had gone after me? There was a scream from inside the house and we all rushed inside. The leader lay on the floor at Lucida's feet, coughing blood. There were several large puncture wounds in her chest. The kind I'd seen on someone after being taken down by Red's father.

"Go ahead. Kill me." She coughed. "It won't bring your Frisk back. She won't even be able to reset with her soul being so fragile."

Papyrus set the massive bone he'd summoned on his shoulder. "My Frisk is absolutely fine."

"Impossible!" She coughed, spitting up blood. "There's no cure for what I injected her with!"

"About that," I started, "How did you manage to infect her?"

Her eyes rolled up toward me. "She was napping on the beach. It wasn't that hard."

There was a red gleam in Papyrus' eyes. "Do we need her for anything?"

"*nope."

His swing was swift and brutal.

Lucida sighed. "My poor kitchen floor."

Sans put an arm around her. "No worries! I'll help you clean!" He looked at us. "Is Frisk all right?"

I nodded. "We'll head back to pick her up."

"Good." He smiled and there was a red glow to his eyes I recognized as being distinct to Red. "We'll clean up here."

"They'll all be wearing green and black badges. Grab those off of the bodies."

Lucida and Sans nodded. We headed over to Grillby's. Frisk was sipping a drink out of a coconut at a table near the road. "Any injuries?"

I shook my head.

"Good. I'm probably too tipsy to work anyway. Was I right?"

Papyrus nodded. "Your double tried to go after my mother."

"Seriously? This is a Swap timeline as well as a Fell one. That would make your mother Dr. Gaster and the other me a complete idiot for not thinking of that."

Papyrus nodded.

"What's her specialty?" Frisk asked.

"Botany."

She nodded. "Good one to have in a place like this. Lots of bio-diversity." She stood. "Let's go check on your Frisk. She should be well on her way to recovery."

Red put an arm around her, and Papyrus and I grabbed his jacket, before he took us back to Black's laboratory. A human Papyrus was changing Frisk's IV fluids while Black fussed over the petri dishes in his incubator. They both turned when we appeared.

Black's Papyrus grabbed his Frisk by shoulders and she put her hands on his chest.

"I'm all right! I didn't get involved in the fighting. I swear."

"I know." He held her steady and kissed her. A blush spread across her cheeks and she covered her face with her hands when he pulled back. He lifted her and carried her back up the stairs.

Papyrus leaned against his Frisk's bed, one hand absently petting her stomach. "So how did you get her to go from being bent on genocide to saving all monsters?"

Black closed the incubator's door and came over.

"It's a Sans..." He looked at Papyrus. "And in some cases, a Papyrus's job to protect and care for their Frisk. I had no idea what I was supposed to do for mine. She was broken in a way that I had no idea how to fix. There was nothing I could say or do that would get her to stop, even for a moment.

"And I thought, if I couldn't fix her, I would have to give her to someone who could."

Black 'sat' on the table. "I explained to her that there was no way she was going to be able to beat me without magic. I'd just kill her over and over again. So I made her an offer. I'd spare her and in exchange she had to do two things. First, she had to reset and get here without having hurt anyone. And second, as a way of apology to my brother for killing him, she had to go on a date with him and make good on it. And I was very clear that I wanted her to be so loud in bed that all of Snowdin would know what a freak she was."

The look on his face softened. "My Papy's not that kind of guy. Unlike other Papyrus-es, he'd fallen for Frisk and was heart broken by her actions. Even when she killed him, Papy still just wanted her to be happy. To be better. He'd never let her make a whore of herself. I spent her reset reminding her of the deal she made and she spent that reset going back and forth to Snowdin to see Papy.

"And, little by little, she got better. Her fake smile disappeared and a genuine one replaced it. She made real friends, helped monsters in need. And somewhere along the way, she started returning my brother's love.

"So now I have a sister in law and many nieces and nephews!" He looked at a photo on the wall over his desk of a pile of children making funny faces for the camera. "Sometimes, you have to let others help you. No one is meant to go it alone."

Red cracked a mean smile. "*so snowdin didn't get to hear her love cries?"

Black cackled. "Oh she made good on the deal. On their wedding night you could hear her over the noise at Grillbys!" He giggled. "I was so proud!"

Red looked at Papyrus. "*so, are you going to join us or what?" He gestured at Black's lab. "*you'll have access to research and materials far beyond what you can manage with the limited resources in your own timeline. and you'll have help when you need it. no one's going to expect you to not be yourself and there's no schedule or tally of contribution. we just ask that when you're uniquely suited to help us, that you do."

"What's the pay?"

"*rubbish."

He chuckled lightly, still petting Frisk while she slept. "All right."

Flowey yawned and sat up on Frisk's shoulder. "Hey everyone!" He looked around, a little confused. "What'd I miss?"

xxx

Author's Note: Black does not come from any established AU that I am aware of (and I trawl the AU site everyday). There is enough info there to make an AU, but I'm currently too lazy to do that.