AUTHOR'S WARNING: Heavy swearing, ahead, and not-very-nice things being spoken of, so your filter may be in for a workout. This chapter is more or less the reason I went with an "M" rating for this story.

"There will come a time, after the barrier is broken, where Frisk's determination will be tested. I have some ideas on how, but I want the results to be… magical." -Francine I. Kane, 201X-

Chapter 4: Seeing Red

Frisk reentered the house as Papyrus was coming out of the living room with Flowey. The former prince was sitting somewhat grumpily in the vase that had once sat upon the dining table. The guard hadn't bothered to take the other flowers out…

Frisk praised his thinking. "Good idea, Papyrus! Flowey can hide his face and pretend he's just another flower, just in case something happens."

Papyrus was beaming behind his visor. "YOU SEE, FLOWEY? I TOLD YOU IT WAS A GOOD IDEA!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Flowey focused on Frisk and asked, "Well, what now? Do we keep running?"

Frisk was uncertain. "I… don't know. We should get as many monsters out of here as we can. But at the same time we're all that's standing between him and the monsters in the rest of the Underground."

"I NOTIFIED UNDYNE THAT YOUR UNCLE FELL IN," said Papyrus. "SHE'S COMING, ALONG WITH BACKUP. THEY'LL BE HERE, SOON!"

"Good. Thank you, Papyrus." Even as she nodded to him, she realized that she hadn't checked her phone during their flight. She looked at it now, and saw that she had missed some text messages from Alphys, and her father. Frisk's face paled. "Oh no…"

"PRINCESS? WHAT'S WRONG?"

"I don't like that face, Frisk. What happened?"

Somehow, Frisk spoke around the lump in her throat. "H-he… Alphys' scrying eyes caught my uncle killing two monsters on his way to the hole he fell in. Father's ordered a headcount to make sure he didn't kill anyone else where the eyes can't see… And there's a warrant for his arrest."

Papyrus' expression was stricken before he said, "I-I… I SHOULD STAND OUTSIDE AND KEEP WATCH…" Apropos of nothing, he added, "I'M N-NOT WORRIED ABOUT MY BROTHER BEING ON SENTRY DUTY, AT ALL! I'M SURE HE'S PERFECTLY FINE!" He gave Frisk the vase with Flowey in it as he suggested she contact the king, so he didn't worry.

She agreed to, then said, "Even if you're not worried about your brother, you should try calling him, anyway. To wake him up, because I'm sure he's napping somewhere away from his post."

Papyrus nodded woodenly. "YOU'RE RIGHT! YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! THANK YOU FOR THAT WONDERFUL SUGGESTION, PRINCESS!" His phone was in his hand before he even crossed the threshold of the house.

"Why do you think he lies like that when he's so terrible at it?" Flowey asked once the skeleton had left.

Frisk shrugged as she tried to text her father single-handed. "I'm not sure. He's probably trying to lie to himself, more than anything. I think his brother tends to do that, too, although he's much better at it."

"Yeah, his brother…" At Flowey's tone of voice, Frisk looked down at him. Feeling her gaze, he said, "Chuckles is the main reason I don't really want to go to the surface."

Frisk's brow knitted in confusion. "Why not?"

Flowey smile ruefully. "Oh, no big deal. It's just that, out of everybody in the Underground, His Grace the Honorable Comic Sans Gaster, the Duke of Asterisk, has killed me more times than anyone else down here."

He smiled wryly. "You know what it's like, by now. To have your progress taken from you and starting over from your last recorded memory. I've even reset and started all the way from square one!" He frowned to himself. Despite it all… "Sans always gets this weird look on his face whenever he sees me. Like he hates my guts but can't remember why, and he smiles while he's trying to figure it out."

It was Frisk's turn to frown. "What reason would he have to hate you, Flowey?"

The flower sighed. "I don't think you realize how long I've been the one to mess with time, before you came into the picture. You have no idea how BORING it is, down here, once you've made every single choice and read every single book. I've even burned them all, multiple times, just to see if the smoke patterns are different, or if they're the same." He smiled and chilled his voice, just to scare her. "I've even killed everyone down here, including your precious friends, and brought them aaaall back, just to see if they remembered." They hadn't, except maybe for Sans, but he could never confirm whether or not he did…

"That's a lie," said Frisk with her completely neutral expression. "If you could kill Asgore on your own you would have stolen the human souls and gone to the surface to gather more a long time ago."

Flowey flinched. He hadn't expected her to call him out. "Okay, okay, fine. So I only killed most of the monsters down here." And he still had never been strong enough to kill Asgore with his guard up, or forced him to reveal where he hid the human souls. "But you can believe me when I say that Sir Grins-a-lot out there was usually one of the dusted ones. His brother never liked that. No one in his family did, honestly.

"There was this one timeline where I killed both Sans and Papyrus… Did you know the Phantom family trains all their kids in combat? I guess it's some tradition going back to before the war, so that cousin of theirs is no slouch. Papyrus wouldn't be, either, if he wasn't such a big softie and left himself wide open all the time. But that smiley trashbag… he's especially tough."

Flowey started gesticulating with his leaves as he ranted. "Even though each of his bullets only takes one point off you at a time, he hits you with so many at once that it doesn't matter! He only has one point of HP, but he dodges you so easily you can't hit him to save your life! 'The easiest enemy,' MY ASS! If I didn't need his SOUL in one piece I would have killed him that last time, too!"

Flowey was breathing heavily after his little tirade. That had been eating at him for a long time… Frisk set him on the floor, her message having been sent a while ago. She put her phone away and just looked into his eyes.

It made him uncomfortable. "Uh, Frisk? Why are you staring at me like that?" She said nothing, bringing one hand to cup the petals on one side of his face. He leaned away, at first, then let her caress his cheek. It was sort of nice…

"I'm sorry you've been alone for so long, Asriel," said Frisk. But before Flowey could tell her that wasn't who he was, anymore, she was pinching his cheek! With that damned squinty face she said, "This is for swearing." Her other hand pinched his other cheek as she said, "That's for insulting Sans." She stretched his face out as she said, "That's for killing people." Finally, she squished his face into itself and said, "Bad, Flowey! No more killing monsters, understand?"

"F'ne, f'ne! Jush le'me go, aw-weady!" He shook himself as Frisk released him. "Dammit, Frisk, why'd you do that!?" She reached for his face again and he leaned as far away as he could within the confines of the vase. "Okay, okay, I'M SORRY! Happy, now?" Frisk nodded, and stopped reaching for him. Flowey huffed. "Jeez… It's not like I can mean it, or anything. I'm soulless, remember?"

The princess sighed. "Flowey, if you truly didn't have emotions you wouldn't be so frustrated with Sans. You wouldn't be scared of him, either, and don't pretend you aren't. You also wouldn't be so angry with me for pinching you. And you wouldn't enjoy trying to scare me with your face-morphing tricks."

Flowey could only stare at her. Was she right? Did he actually still have emotions, or was he just fooling himself into thinking he had them because Frisk was convinced he did? He could never tell, when he was around her. But there was one thing he knew for sure.

"I still don't get you, Frisk." Her only response was to smile at him.

A commotion from outside intruded on their little moment. They could hear Papyrus yelling from outside.

"ATTENTION, HUMAN! THE CRIMES YOU HAVE COMMITTED ON THE SURFACE HAVE BEEN RELAYED TO ME, AND THERE IS NOW A WARRANT FOR YOUR ARREST! I, THE GREAT ROYAL GUARD PAPYRUS, MUST NOW ARREST YOU! RESIST AT YOUR PERIL!"

Frisk's blood ran cold as she thought, *How did he get here so fast?! She picked up Flowey and ran outside, finding Papyrus and her uncle standing on the far side of the black tree.

She didn't know why she expected her uncle to look different after less than two weeks, but he still looked the same. He was still middle-aged, but fit. His pale hair was the same, his face… and his eyes, too. Those dead, empty eyes that only lit with enjoyment when he was hurting someone. Hurting her, especially…

He saw her. "There you are, you little SHIT!" he shouted. Frisk flinched, as though from a physical blow. His voice was still the same, too! But he wasn't done. "Do you have any idea how you've ruined me?!" He started walking toward her. "You're paying for it all with your scrawny, worthless ass if it's the last thing I-!"

He was cut off mid-sentence, and mid-stride, by blue bones blocking his way. He had gated off access to Frisk, but this time there was no stepping through the bars. Papyrus then turned the his soul blue and floated him away, back to where he'd been before his advance.

Papyrus' voice was calm, but cold. "I MUST ASK YOU TO REFRAIN FROM SWEARING IN FRONT OF THE PRINCESS."

Frisk's uncle laughed. "You assholes made that little whore your princess? How stupid can you be!? No wonder you freaks lost the war and got shoved down here like so much shit in a hole!"

He kept on laughing. Papyrus clenched a fist and his shoulders shook, unaccustomed to feeling angry with anyone. This uncouth human was being so RUDE! He took a deep breath, trying to control himself, and tried one last time to reason with Frisk's uncle.

"HUMAN, IT IS A PERSONAL BELIEF OF MINE THAT ANYONE CAN BE GOOD, IF THEY ONLY TRY. IT MAY BE HARD TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE, BUT I STILL THINK YOU CAN DO IT. SO I WILL ASK YOU THIS ONCE; PLEASE COME ALONG QUIETLY AND PERHAPS OUR KING WILL GRANT YOU MERCY, DESPITE YOUR CRIMES."

The man said nothing. He only smiled a smile that Frisk was all too familiar with.

"WATCH OUT!"

Although he had been sparing the man, Papyrus had still been on his guard. Undyne was right to warn him of such things during his intensified training. As the human charged at the royal guard with a shard of rock in his hand, Papyrus summoned a special weapon he had never used in combat, before.

It looked like any other bone, at first, but as he grasped one end it was revealed to be a sword. A rapier, to be specific. With perfect form, Papyrus flicked his wrist with speed and precision. He disarmed the human, inflicted damage amounting to exactly one-quarter of the man's maximum HP in a series of shallow cuts, and ended the combo by lightly pressing tip of his sword to the base of the human's throat. The skeleton still didn't want to kill him, but he hoped his display of stupendous skill would make the human reconsider his decision.

However, Frisk's uncle still wasn't feeling reasonable. Before the guard could issue an ultimatum he grasped Papyrus' sword, not caring that its edge could slice his fingers off, and pushed it away from his throat! Before Papyrus could recover the human's left fist came up and punched him in the ribs.

The armor caved in. A bare-fisted punch shouldn't have done anything, but it left an almighty dent in Papyrus' armor, affecting his HP accordingly. That was the strength of his intent to kill… There was no doubt in Frisk's mind that, had Papyrus not been wearing that armor, or had his guard been lowered, he would be dead. But as of right now, he wasn't.

Yet.

Although missing a sizeable chunk of his HP, Papyrus kept on fighting. He turned the human blue again, pushing him away before weighing him down. He sent a complex pattern of bone bullets flying, hoping to weaken the man into giving up. It hurt to breathe, but he couldn't think of that right now! He had to protect his princess. He had to protect their little friend. As the princess' uncle healed himself with something that looked like candy Papyrus finally understood, down in the very depths of his SOUL, that being a royal guard wasn't about popularity or recognition but this. It was about protecting everyone he knew and loved from those that would hurt them. It was a feeling he'd never known before, but he somehow knew he had to hold onto it if he was going to win.

Frisk watched them fight from behind the gate, feeling helpless and berating herself. They should have kept on running. They should have just gone to Snowdin and warned everyone to evacuate the Underground. And now, unless some miracle happened…

"kid!"

The princess turned around, looking back at the house. Sans was already running toward her as relief flooded her body. But it was short-lived…

Papyrus cried out after being punched yet again by her uncle. He'd been hit so hard he flew through the air and hit the black tree, making it tremble and sending fallen leaves flying. He only had the barest sliver of HP left, and he was clearly having a hard time moving. The human was moving in for the final blow…

Sans saw him. His left eye glowed yellow as his other eye blackened. He lifted his left hand and Frisk took a step back as something massive formed in the air above him. It was the gigantic, skeletal, disembodied head of some creature she had never seen! It opened its jaws wide, then fired a beam of pure magic straight at her uncle, forcing him to back away from the fallen guard.

Sans glanced at Frisk, seeing that she was alright (though she was understandably frightened.) He made himself smile, but it wound up looking somewhat rueful.

"sorry, kiddo," he said. "didn't mean to scare ya. just hang tight for a little longer, okay? your old man and undyne will be here, soon enough." His smile faded as he said, "i'll buy us some more time." He took a shortcut to the other side of the bone gate, blinking out of and into existence with a burst of magic to stand between his brother and the human.

"so! you're frisk's uncle?" he asked, sounding almost friendly. "gotta say, bud, she's told us a lot about you."

The human looked confused. "Who the fuck is 'Frisk'?"

Sans wasn't amused. "hey. there's a lady present. clean up the language there, friend."

Frisk's uncle's face flushed puce with fury. "Who the fuck are you calling a lady!? That little bitch cost me everything! Do you have any idea how much money I had tied up in those shitbag horses? How many people were lining up to kiss my ass for them? Then SHE goes and steals them all, after nearly killing me and burning down my fucking stable!"

He was almost foaming at the mouth now. "The little cunt is going to pay for it! Every pervert in a hundred miles is going to pay through the nose for a piece of her ass until the day she fucking DIES!"

Even from where she stood, Frisk could tell Sans was getting angrier by the second, just from how tight his shoulders were getting. "buddy, what did i just say about language? you're pretty much askin' for a bad time."

Frisk's uncle was sneering. "And what are YOU going to do, shorty? Grin me to death?"

Sans shrugged. "nah, just this." He turned the human blue, throwing him up to hit the ceiling before slamming him down on the floor. Bones rose to pierce him briefly before disappearing (they did something to her uncle's HP that Frisk had never seen, before, turning a portion of it a bright, purplish-pink as it slowly fell.) His soul was no longer blue when a wave of bones was sent in his direction. Sans then summoned more disembodied heads, smaller ones this time, surrounding the human and leaving hardly any room to dodge the blasts in. Somehow, he survived the onslaught, though just barely. Sans looked nonplussed.

"huh. normally that pattern does the job. guess i'm madder than i thought i was. it's throwin' off my aim." He just shrugged, again. His smile wasn't friendly at all as he said, "welp, now you've had a taste of what i can do! had your fill, bud? or will another serving be in order?"

Frisk heard Flowey softly say, "He's lying." She made a sound of confusion, and Flowey looked up at her. "Sans is lying. He only misses if you dodge him properly. He's holding back, for whatever reason."

The princess was confused, too, but only for a moment. "If he's a judge, he might not be able to make arrests, himself."

As she spoke, Frisk's uncle went on the offensive. He tried to hit Sans, but missed. The skeleton used to opportunity to turn the human's soul blue, again, pushing him away and dragging him on the floor, then up into the ceiling into more bones. The way Sans used his blue magic was very different from Papyrus, throwing the man around as though he was a ragdoll… Part of Frisk was horrified by the brutality of it. Another felt a savage sort of satisfaction in her uncle's pain. Another part hoped she never angered Sans' to the same degree. But though her friend seemed to have the situation under control, his hesitance to kill the human was becoming evident the longer he fought. Even her dim bulb uncle was picking up on it. All the while, Frisk fought her own feelings.

Helplessness warred with the need to Do Something, but what could she possibly do? She had vowed to the star that she wouldn't be the kind of princess that needed saving, but she didn't have the strength to fight her uncle. Not the kind of strength her friends had. And, deep down inside, she wanted to be the one to cause her uncle pain. It was ugly, that side of her, but it would be foolish to deny she felt that way. She would hide it as much as she could from everyone, but it was there.

Part of her own mind sneered at her. *And so you stand there, helpless.Just like when he beat you to a pulp the first time. That was the day you realized no human would EVER come when you needed help the most.

She remembered laying in the circle of bloodflowers, crying feebly for help. Just plain crying through swollen eyes had been the only thing she could do, after being hurt so badly. The sunset had colored the sky over her uncle's ranch, setting it and Mount Ebott in the distance on fire. Frisk still remembered the feeling that scenery had awoken inside of her. The heat of her hatred had blazed, even as her mind coldly weighed her options. The beginnings of a plan had begun to take shape…

The back of her mind was no longer sneering. It was almost gentle as it said, *That's right. You're not as helpless as you think. You've rewritten your destiny once. You have everything you need to do it again.

*But how? she asked herself. *I have no tools. I could try giving Papyrus something to heal him, but I'd have to get past this gate first. And I don't have anything that would heal him back to fighting shape...

*You don't have to do that. All you have to do is remember.

*…remember what?

Frisk's conversation with herself was interrupted by the fight. Sans had been moved from his position guarding his brother, leaving the fallen guard vulnerable. Her uncle aimed an attack not at Sans, but at Papyrus. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Frisk watched Sans desperately trying to protect his brother from the attack with a bone shield, but it wasn't going to form in time. Even if it had, there was so much intent to kill it wasn't going to matter. Frisk could almost feel the hate from where she stood.

Papyrus was going to die. Kind Papyrus, whose life-long dream had only just come true, was going to die. And it was going to be all her fault.

From the depths of her soul, Frisk cried, "NOOO!"

The world pulsed. Like ripples in a pond, something emanated from Frisk. As the princess caught her breath, she realized that time was truly moving at a crawl. Even Flowey was slowly blinking as a confused expression blossomed on his face.

Frisk's soul was visible. She could feel something pulling on it, stealing her breath away and tiring her. Whatever was going on, it wasn't going to last long. She was moving at a "normal" speed as she set Flowey on the ground and ran through Papyrus' bone gate, not caring that it hurt. She stood between her friend and her uncle's attack, unsure of what to do next. It was probably strong enough to kill her…

Her lungs were on fire. It was spreading everywhere, but it was especially hot in her eyes and hands. Even as the attack got closer, even as she struggled to understand what was happening, she was determined to protect her friends. She was going to protect everyone.

She brought her hands up and something formed a shield in front of her, just as time resumed its normal flow. Frisk's vision turned red as the attack was completely blocked, although she could feel the tremors of it moving through her body. She was breathing heavily as the redness faded from sight. Sans pushed her uncle away with blue magic as she realized what the redness was.

Pencils. She had somehow summoned a barrier of pencils made with red magic to block the attack. There was a pause in the fighting as everyone tried to comprehend what had just happened.

"PRIN… CESS…?"

Frisk glanced over her shoulder, at her injured friend. He was struggling to tell her to run, that she wasn't safe, but she only shook her head. She said nothing, but she felt a new warmth moving from her soul to her right hand. A green pencil formed there, which she used to draw a heart in the air over Papyrus. It started beating, and with each pulse a little more of his HP was restored.

Sans was the next to gain her attention. "kid, what's going on? how'd you get here? have you always been able to use magic?"

The green pencil disappeared from her hand while Frisk shook her head. It was hard enough just to breathe with her soul burning everything, much less speak…

Her uncle roared. He was charging at her, now that she was finally unprotected. She could feel herself smiling, because he was oh SO wrong...

Their immediate surroundings darkened. Frisk's uncle was trapped in a Fight and he ran into the invisible wall with a thud. He launched an attack with his first turn, but she dodged it. For her turn she summoned a little red pencil to her hand and scrawled the air. The red scribbles flew toward her uncle and smacked him in the face, blinding him and shutting his filthy mouth at the same time. He wasted his next turn trying to get the marking off.

Frisk had a thought while he did, and she raised her right hand to make two pencils as tall as herself. They formed point-down upon the floor and she sent them scrawling across the floor to him, leaving a mark in their wake. They were a little unwieldy and went in a wider circle around him than she'd wanted, but it would do. She dismissed the pencils, but the marks were still on the ground…

Her uncle stumbled around until he stepped on one, and she made it burn. The wall of flame surprised her uncle, sending him sprawling onto the other marking. That one burst, as well.

She didn't care that she wasn't doing very much damage. All that mattered was that she was keeping him right where she was. She had the strength to do that. She was finally the one calling the shots, and she decided that playtime was over. Her eyes burned hotter while she smiled and finally spoke.

"About time."