Frisk knew enough about of the Surface to remember one rule when it came to running away.
And that was to stay low and shut up.
Luckily the silence factor was never a hard issue for Frisk. Their vocal chords had been damaged long before any of the events in the underground so talking in general was a rare thing.
Instead it was the fact that a small child having an anxiety attack while running down busy street tended to gain a lot of attention.
And a lot of concerned looks.
But Frisk wanted none of the passerby's' worry.
They only wanted the feeling of tightness in their chest to stop. For their head to stop pounding as though it was breaking through their skull. For their hands and weary legs to stop shaking.
Frisk just wanted for something to make the pain stop.
But then again why should it?
Didn't the small human deserve the pain? They had done far worse to every one of the monsters that dared to consider them "a friend".
That right there was what the human supposed was making them sick the most. The guilt. The horrible mind numbing guilt that had been pressing their former sins onto their back since the first flashback.
They knew they deserved to perish after the genocide. They needed something to even the score. And yet an upset stomach and a rapid heartbeat seemed like nothing compared to murder.
Frisk felt like they were struggling to breathe...but at the same time wishing to drown.
Suddenly no longer able to handle the stares from the people around them, the small human hurried onto an unfamiliar bus.
They didn't care where it was heading so long as it was away from home.
Thankfully the small human was graced with empty seats and a less than kind driver. The second their dollar was inside the meter the man had turned his face away from the crying child's.
With a plop, Frisk sat and leaned their head against the window.
Who had they ever been trying to fool? Themselves? Maybe...but somewhere deep in their human soul they had felt everything.
Ever last moment of pain and laughter.
And Frisk had known from the start that the things they'd seen were anything but lies. But they had denied it and allowed their mental state to take a critical hit.
Now...now there was no chance of ever facing any of their family ever again.
A kind woman, perhaps Toriel's age in human years, suddenly asked why they were crying so much.
When had she gotten on the bus?
They couldn't recall, but Frisk cued in a few gestures through sign language. Nothing actually legible just "Flower pie spear flower jump".
Most people tended to back off a little when they thought the human was deaf. Probably not wanting to struggle with the language barrier.
But unfortunately enough this woman seemed more than willing to continue trying. She pulled out a small pen and a napkin from her purse, making gentle gestures for Frisk to write.
As if Chara gerself had suddenly possessed them again, Frisk felt the urge to scream at the kind stranger.
They just wanted to be alone. Why wouldn't she leave them alone!
A sudden thought though crept into the human's mind as they hastily scribbled something down.
"Got lost, taking bus to go home. Miss my family is all."
A lie. A blatant and pitiful lie.
Luckily though it was enough to please the older woman, who smiled in understanding and wrote back a quick "Im glad! Be careful!", before standing and going to find her own seat away from Frisk.
Possible catastrophe averted. But now the human felt guilty for a whole new reason.
Lying to a woman who reminded them of Toriel. The lie in general really made their conscious buckle.
It wasn't the complete truth, but it wasn't any kind of comfort either.
They did miss their family...but...
They had hurt their family.
They had KILLED their family.
They didn't deserve their family...
Frisk didn't raise their trembling head even when the bus stopped to let the older woman off.
A voice deep back in the human's mind was laughing. Laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing laughing-
Frisk slammed their hands against their head.
Stop. They knew Chara was gone. They knew they had freed her last time. There was no Chara. There was only Frisk.
Somehow the fact alone made them feel even sicker.
A moving flash of the announcement board caught their eye.
Next stop, Northern pass. Last station.
They knew that name. Northern pass.
It was the last usable road that lead to Mt. Ebott's base.
By the time Alphys and Undyne had gotten word to the rest that Frisk had disappeared, chaos had broken out amongst the small family.
Everyone had dropped what they had been doing and all but sprinted to Toriel's, where the goat mother was panicking.
Full. Blown. Panicking.
"Yes they are small, tan, last seen wearing a blue and purple stripped sweater. They are on the news occasionally? Yes the ambassador for monsters that's right. Its spel K. Frisk Dreemurr. Age? About...what?...No they prefer neither...NEITHER. WELL I DON'T CARE WHAT THE PAPERWORK SAYS IM TELLING YOU THAT THEY DO NOT DEFINE AS EITHER AND YOU CAN CHECK MARK A THIRD OPTION-"
The hysterical monster looked to be about two seconds away from setting the phone in her hand ablaze.
Sans could just barely hear the 911 operator's shaking tone.
"Mam please calm down I'm sorry I just-"
"I WILL CALM DOWN WHEN YOU FIND MY CHILD."
Asgore hastily rushed over and took the phone from Toriel after seeing the faintest traces of smoke beginning to sizzle against the edges of the metal device.
Sans quickly rushed to the goat mother's side and nodded to Asgore.
"you talk with the police. Tori why don't ya go online and send a mass email out to the school and the rest of the parents? i'll go talk to the neighbors again."
Brushing away her tears, the older monster bent down to hug the smaller brother tightly.
"W-where have they gone Sans...w-who has taken my child?"
Sans hated it when Toriel cried. He felt the flame in his left eye socket begin to burn brightly.
"...we'll find em Tori...we'll find Frisk and we will find whoever did this."
Without another word, Sans teleported out of the house.
"TORIEL! WHERE DID SANS JUST GO?"
Turning around, the goat monster found herself face to face with a worried looking Papyrus.
"He's on his way out to go talk with the neighbors again. D-did you or Undyne have any luck?"
Straightening up, the taller skeleton saluted quickly.
"IM SORRY TO SAY WE HAVE NOT YOUR MAJESTY! UNDYNE IS STILL SEARCHING. I HAVE COME BACK TO TELL YOU ALL THAT WE...THAT WE...STILL ARE HOPEFUL...AND..."
The usual jovial brother could feel his entire face crumbling slowly.
"WE HAVE FOUND NOTHING..."
He truthfully had come back because the fact that he had lost track of his beloved friend was hurting him more as every hour began to tick by.
6 hours to be exact.
Papyrus though knew everyone was counting on each other now more than ever. This was no time for him to cry.
And yet the thought of anything happening to Frisk..
"I FAILED YOU TODAY MS. TORIEL..."
Papyrus's voice wavered and fell to a rare whisper.
"I failed you and Frisk today your majesty. I am so...sorry..."
Toriel felt more tears pricking at her eyes, but still laid a comforting hand on Papyrus's shoulder.
"You of all people know how important it is to stay hopeful. We will find them soon Papyrus. They always find their way back to us."
Both just needed a good cry at this point. So that is what they did. The two monster's simply clung to each other and allowed their tears to flow.
Overcome with endless "what if"s.
"Toriel darling!"
Mettaton came rushing in to the kitchen with his phone pressed against his ear. Typing into his pager with impossibly quick hand movements.
The robot and Nabstablook had been both been contacting their studios to send out amber alerts, but a text from their reptilian scientist had caused Mettaton to hurry back home.
"Alphys says her tracker will be up and running again soon! She just needs to relocate the satellite she had used the first time and we will have Frisk's location within the hour!"
The motion tracker would be able to locate the smaller human's phone in minutes! All they needed to do now was regroup with everyone.
Toriel and Asgore practically sprinted towards the unfinished lab next door. Forgetting completely about any plans to contact the military or CIA.
Papyrus hastily sent a recall text to Undyne and Sans. Then, without missing a beat, the tall skeleton pecked his metal boyfriend on the cheek.
"WELL DONE METTATON!"
"Darling I really didn't do anything-"
"NONSENSE! YOU MADE HER MAJESTY HOPEFUL AGAIN! THAT ALONE IS WORTHY OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS'S PRAISE!"
Before the robot could even think to blush, the tall skeleton was literally dragging him out the door.
"HURRY LET US SEE WHERE THE HUMAN HAS GONE!"
It took 20 minutes for everyone to return and gather around the dark screen. It took another 20 minutes for an frantic looking Alphys to announce she was done with the configuring the satellite's firewall.
She made a note to remind NASA they needed a better password other than SP CE!234.
"I-if Im right, their image w-wont show up like l-last time. H-however we will get a-an immediate signal of w-where Frisk is."
"Whatever you have done is more than enough Alphys. Please just hurry!"
Toriel along with everyone else was content with a location alone.
It was as good as they would get on such short notice.
With a hiss and sizzle of smoke, the yellow lizard monster placed on the final touches. Trying not to panic more over the fact that everyone was counting on this device to work.
"O-okay. The satellite s-should be done loading-"
Suddenly an entire blue tinted graph appeared on the large screen. It was the geographic landscape of the town they were all in.
For a second nothing moved.
And then a faint beeping could be heard through the tense air.
The group breath was collectively released.
Alphys quickly typed in a few new data codes and watched along with the family as the location zoomed in once.
Twice.
Three times.
The beeping got louder.
"There! Over by that darker zone."
Undyne saw the blinking light first. It was in the shape of a red heart.
They all felt their spirits leap when they saw it was moving about.
Frisk was moving. Or at least their phone was moving despite being turned off.
Whether or not the child was still with it or even moving on their own free will remained to be seen.
Zooming in even more, Alphys punched in a series of numbers and symbols. The image was getting closer and closer. In a second she'd be able to pinpoint-
Suddenly the typing stopped as Alphys's hands froze. Stiff as a board.
Her eyes were locked on what she saw.
Sans rushed besides the monitor and peered over her shoulder.
"i dont get it? what's wrong! its just a dark blob and the big spike going up?"
The reptilian monster turned to face the skeleton with wide eyes. Her voice suddenly not stuttering, but instead filled with fear.
"The blob means below sea level...And the spike is Mt. Ebott...Frisk is back in the underground."