From here the story would move in a direction completely decided by Manuela's imagination. If Francine ever dreamed of this event it never occurred to her to write it down, or bring it up in the pretend interview, or even discuss it in one of their brainstorming sleepovers. Manuela could only hope her friend liked it, wherever she was…

Chapter 23: A Call to Arms

Papyrus had been sleeping, for once unbothered by the nightmares that'd been a recurring theme in his life for what seemed like forever. There were no lasers trapping him in Hotland, as they had That One Time. There were no dark hallways with gray doors at the end which he could never reach, no matter how hard he ran. There were no feelings of abandonment, or echo flowers whispering terrible things. It was the most peaceful rest he'd had in ages.

So, naturally, when his c-phone buzzed under his skull he'd been a little startled. His muffled "nyeh!" of surprise woke up Sans, but Flowey's near panic distracted him from properly apologizing.

As he watched his brother blink out of existence Papyrus struggled to process his emotions. He finally decided he was both confused and somewhat appalled by Sans' abrupt aggression. The iron grip on his carpus had been a bit of a surprise, as well. He didn't realize Sans had kept up his training, although his brother's success as High Judge indicated he wasn't exactly a pushover. It was just so easy to forget whenever he caught Sans boondoggling! And he'd accused Flowey of such awful things!

His contemplation of the peculiar conversation between his brother and friend ended when Flowey started hissing into the c-phone. "Toriel's waking up! Listen, you need to find Frisk and stop her. Don't let your brother do it. He'll hurt her. He might even-"

The call ended. He still didn't know why Flowey insisted upon acting like any other echo flower (which was, to be frank, creepy,) but he couldn't fault his friend for throwing all his skill into the effort. Even if it meant having to hang up on a c-phone call without so much as a "goodbye."

He pondered, weighing his options. Depending on where Frisk thought she was going, and what she intended to do, he may very well need his armor. Her current frame of mind might not be the best, either, given how angry at her uncle she'd been the last time she used the knives. However, armor wasn't very stealthy. He wasn't sure it was wise to alert the entire camp that something was amiss by him running through it at top speed, clanking all along the way.

He would have to make up his mind, soon. Sans just might decide the situation called for a spanking. Not a very hard one, but he'd been quite unsettled the last time Frisk used the red knives. He might go very slightly overboard to snap her out of it. Although it did bring to mind the question of what Flowey thought Sans would do to Frisk, or what Sans thought Flowey was capable of…

It wasn't that Papyrus forgot what happened when everyone gathered at the barrier, just before that flash of light, but he believed Flowey deserved the chance to do better. He needed a chance to make better decisions. Considering that he'd just called because he was worried about Frisk, he had taken a step in the right direction! Not that Flowey could take a real step, because he didn't have feet. It was just a metaphor!

Papyrus shook his head at himself. He was boondoggling just like his brother! He had to get his armor on, and he was grateful it'd been designed to be strapped on by oneself. He didn't need a page or a squire or anything similar. Although having someone looking up to him, someone to mentor, might have been cool…

His thoughts were interrupted when he received a terribly terse text from Sans. It more-or-less said Frisk was on her way to the Underground.

Very good! That simplified matters! He didn't have to run through camp to get back to the Underground! Although he lacked Sans' shortcuts he still had a way to bypass the twisting, turning pathway up the mountain.

The Great Royal Guard Papyrus was sworn to protect his princess from all threats. He would do his duty, even if it meant protecting Frisk from herself.

When Toriel awoke she didn't know why. When she heard hushed speaking she thought Frisk might've been having another nightmare and clawed her way to wakefulness. She saw nothing but Flowey in the corner, bidding goodnight (the last thing it heard) into Frisk's deactivated c-phone. At the sight of her child's empty bedding she had to fight the first bolt of panic to strike her.

*Perhaps she left to use the latrine, she thought to herself. She left her sleeping bag and poked her head outside to have a word with the guards.

They never saw her leave.

She whirled back to the interior of the tent and finally noticed the hole in the back wall. It had been cut with something sharp, and was of a size to allow Frisk to crawl out, if she ducked. Toriel ran outside to inspect the ground, looking for some sign of her daughter, but found little she could identify in the leaf litter. Tracking had never been a part of her skillset and another bolt of panic clawed at her soul.

It was happening again! Another child was slipping through her fingers like sand in an hourglass, with every second lost one step closer to never seeing Frisk alive, again!

She called the first person to come to mind; her best friend. She was very nearly overwhelmed with despair but the calmness of his voice had been a much-needed balm for her nerves. It made the end of the call that much more jarring, making her stare at her c-phone with incomprehension. He had never been so abrupt with her, before! She was almost insulted but soon shook common sense back into herself.

Her feelings would have to wait. Her daughter was missing, Sans found her, and they would be waiting for her in the castle. She gathered up her skirt and started running, the guards following close behind.

As soon as Frisk was safe and sound she was going to ground the overly-precocious girl until her eighteenth birthday!

"For mercy's sake, you need to sleep!"

"I'll get a nap later. You go ahead."

"You know I'm all for passion and giving it your all, but there's a time and place for rest, too! You have gone WAY beyond that. You've gotten hardly any since the barrier came down!"

"I'm fine."

"The hell you are!"

Alphys winced. She saw from the corner of her eye how Undyne clenched her jaw shut tight, looking remorseful for swearing at her. The former Royal Alchemist knew her girlfriend was right, but there was just too much to be done! There was too much to move to the surface, too many instruments to repurpose and calibrate, too many things to invent so they could live comfortably on the surface AND to analyze what was happening inside Frisk. Alphys couldn't sleep if she was going to be of use to anybody!

Even the current discussion (she hesitated to call it an "argument", much less a "disagreement") with Undyne was happening as she sat in a lab a few floors above her bedroom. She was elbow-deep in the guts of the new crystoray imaging machine she was working on and she couldn't stop.

She had to atone for what she did. She had to make things right. The only way she could do that was to put her technological know-how to work.

A strong hand fell on her shoulder as its owner knelt behind her. Undyne was always so gentle with her, even when throwing her into a trash can (which amazingly hadn't hurt at all). Alphys could feel her fingers trembling with the restrained need to grip harder, possibly even shake some sense into her.

"I'm sorry for swearing at you," said Undyne. "It's just… you're falling apart right in front of me and you're not letting me help! I can't let you keep doing this to yourself. It was bad enough back when you were pretending, but at least you were managing to relax back then. Now you're not relaxing at all! You're going to have a breakdown if you keep this up, and I am NOT going to let that happen!"

Alphys extracted her arm from the machine. She appreciated the way Undyne waited until her claws were completely free before whirling her around to meet eye-to-eye. She could see her girlfriend was searching for more words that would make her change her mind, but her lips opened and closed in unusual indecisiveness. She looked so worried, and there was a softness and warmth in that golden gaze for just for Alphys…

Her soul did somersaults as her heart skipped a few beats. Alphys opened her mouth to tell Undyne she'd get a little rest, but she was interrupted by a recorded whoopee cushion going off on the PA system for the floor.

Undyne twitched violently at the sound, shouting "What the FUCK was that?!" She immediately winced, then was sheepish as she apologized for swearing, again.

Alphys pat the hand on her shoulder, sighing. "It's the Sans alarm. Well, it's supposed to be for anyone that inputs the door code, but Sans is the only one that uses it anymore, so… A-anyway, it's supposed to be a chime but he must've changed the sound to, um, that. You know, as a joke. It's certainly a favorite of his. Always has been."

Undyne's eye rolled. "Oh my god that bone bag needs to grow up. I swear Papyrus is more mature than he is!"

"Eheheh! It wouldn't surprise me." Alphys didn't miss the pleased and relieved smile that crossed Undyne's face when she laughed. Had she really been that bad?

She couldn't dwell on it. She led her girlfriend to the stairs, turning off the light in the room as she did. Emergency lighting illuminated the staircase, just enough. Alphys sighed, wishing the elevators were operable, but nighttime was when the Core went to its lowest output settings. That being the case, the Lab barely had enough power to get by. So, down the stairs they went.

Alphys became a little winded about halfway down, but Undyne picked her up and carried her without missing a beat. In fact, she was skipping three or four steps at a time, carrying her like she was a princess from one of her novels all the while. She had to repress a squeal of delight as she thought, *Undyne is so amazing~!

Despite Undyne's efforts, however, there was little sign of Sans when they made it to the ground floor. Only the master console for the scrying eyes was active, with an image of Frisk still on the screen. The expression on her face made Alphys gasp and Undyne swear, again. The alchemist quickly went through the security recordings and came to the same conclusion Sans did. Undyne started running, with Alphys clinging to her back the whole way.

They had a king to wake up.

Sans' destination was the Last Corridor. Without the sunset to color the windows it was just one more darkened hallway, lit dimly by crystals set into the ceiling. They were there so people could see if they decided to take a nighttime stroll to the throne room, for whatever reason. Sans' grandfather once told him he thought Asgore had been too accommodating, if well-meaning, for having them set up. Sans was just grateful to have some light to shed on this mystery.

He grinned at his own absurdity. *…heh. now i KNOW i've been rattled. unintentional puns in my own head.

He shook his head at himself and listened. If his calculations were correct, he would be hearing Frisk's footsteps just about… now, and he wasn't disappointed. He waited until she was a little farther in before stepping away from the pillar he'd been hiding behind. She stopped walking, and the two of them stared at one another for a long moment.

It was almost like the day he judged her, but the wrongness of the situation rankled on Sans' non-existent nerves. Their positions were wrong, the Hall was too dark, Frisk shouldn't be here at all, much less with that smile on her face…

Somehow he kept on grinning and managed to keep his tone of voice light, and only a little admonishing. "kind of late for a walk, don't you think?" Frisk said nothing and her face went back to normal, or so it seemed, but Sans could tell something was off. She was trying too hard to squint, and was trying to hide that she was trying. It was like she couldn't remember how her own face worked.

Everything was wrong, wrong, wrong! It was even worse than the day her magic first manifested. It was getting harder to smile and he felt a trickle of cold sweat sliding between his scapulae. His acting skills were being put to the test and he prayed to any god listening to help him avoid a confrontation with the side of Frisk that enjoyed skewering her uncle.

She tilted her head in that little way that said she was curious about something, but even the angle of that was off. There was also a miniscule difference from her usual expression.

"How did you find me so quickly?" she asked. Her voice sounded flat. It wasn't deadpan or calm or incredulous. It was almost like it'd been purposefully leeched of emotion. Ice crawled up Sans' spine upon hearing it, stopping his shudder through sheer force of will.

Once he was sure he had his own voice under control, he said, "i got a call from tori saying you went missing, so i went to check what the scrying eyes saw. they found you, so i took a shortcut to beat you here." He shrugged with shoulders and hands, hoping Frisk wouldn't notice how much he was leaving out, or how he was fudging the order of events. He hoped that, if things went wrong for whatever reason, Frisk wouldn't know Papyrus had been involved in ratting her out. She might not be happy about that…

Sans didn't care if she crushed Flowey but he didn't want his brother getting caught in the crossfire. So it was better not to mention that particular call in the first place.

He slid his hands into his pockets and relaxed his posture as he winked, but couldn't help closing his right eye when he did. He hoped Frisk wouldn't notice the difference as he said, "why don't we both head back to camp? i'm sure tori's not mad, just worried about you."

"Not yet. There is something I must do."

Ice crawled down San's spine as he asked, "what would that be?"

Frisk- no, the thing wearing her face started smiling, dropping the Frisk-like squint as it said, "Something that should have been done. Long ago."

Sans raised a brow ridge, noting how different Frisk looked with her eyes open. It made her appear older, more calculating and downright sinister when combined with a fake smile. No wonder the poor kid squinted almost all the time.

"if that was a hint to a riddle, it's not a very good one," he said. "do you mind giving me another?"

It did another head-tilt. "…your manner of speech. It is… different. You are not mumbling as you usually do."

He shrugged, keeping his hands in his pockets. "i only started talking that way to annoy my peers. they need to loosen up." He wanted to comment on the thing's speech but decided not to. Toriel was on her way. He had to keep it occupied and buy her time to get here. Although what she could do about it was a mystery… "anyway, what is it that 'should have been done'?"

"If you let me go I will show you."

"and what makes you think i'll let you go anywhere but back to camp?" He let his grin fall as he looked into Frisk's eyes hoping to find the kid, the friend, he'd come to know.

He didn't find her. He only found glowing red irises as the thing inside Frisk said, in that oddly echoed voice, "I have somewhere to be. You are in my way."

He shook his head. "i don't know what you're up to, but i know i can't let you do it. so let's just go back to camp so we can-"

"NO. You will move. Or I will move you. Or you force my hand and I turn you to Dust. What comes to pass matters little to me. But I WILL go to the Prison. That human will never see the light of day again. I am determined to ensure he does not."

"and I am determined to see justice done, properly." Sans clenched his hands in his pockets. So that was what it wanted…

The thing had the nerve to chuckle. "I see... Would it not be poetic for that wretch to die by my hand? He hurt me ever so much…"

"he didn't hurt you, he hurt FRISK!"

Silence fell heavily between them. Sans grit his teeth at his own stupidity as the thing inside Frisk kept smiling.

"Who is to say I am not Frisk?" her voice asked. "I have her body. I have her memories. And…" It paused, Frisk's soul floating before her body, just like in a Fight. The smile became almost cruel as it said, "I have her SOUL."

Sans couldn't stop the sweat from breaking out on his skull. This was bad. If it was that deep inside Frisk, how were they going to get it out?! What the hell was it, anyway!?

The thing gave him a slightly less disturbing smile, leaving Frisk's soul exposed as it said, "Very well. There is no point in continuing to pretend. Listen. I only want the human's life. I do not wish to harm you but I will if I must. Step aside. Do nothing. That is what you prefer after all."

"…heh. you've got me there," Sans shrugged, grinning in spite of himself. "doing nothing IS one of my favorite things. but there's something i like more…" He let his grin evaporate completely as he glared. "taking care of my friends and family, people that you've gone and decided to screw with. i'm willing to let kids off easy on a lot of things, but that's not one of them. so you just return frisk's body, her memories AND her soul, then leave her hell alone."

The thing only smiled wider. "And if I do not?"

"if you don't… buddy, you're not going to like what comes next."

"An empty threat. You would not dare to kill Frisk's body. That would break your promise."

"who said anything about killing?" He saw the brief flash of confusion on Frisk's hijacked face. It made him grin as he said, "haven't you ever heard of spanking? kids don't die from that. sure, frisk's body will suffer the indignity of it all, but i know she'll forgive me when she comes back and i explain the circumstances."

The thing's smile finally faded. "…you cannot be serious."

"take one more step and you'll see just how serious i am."

Frisk's body took a step. The expression forced onto her face was something that combined amusement, combativeness and anticipation. It was a weird thing to see, but Sans just shrugged to himself.

"welp, here we go…"