Toriel's house in the ruins was just as cozy and inviting as Frisk remembered it. As she helped her mother put away the groceries and prepare to cook dinner, she felt a pang of regret that she was going to leave far sooner than she would've liked.

I'll sneak out while she's asleep this time, Frisk thought as she smiled at Toriel while the queen tied an apron on her that was far too large for small frame. I'll leave Mom a note explaining things, and I guess I'll see if I can get a cell phone from Alphys later...

"Now then," Toriel said as she straightened up, wearing a matching white apron with a red heart over the chest. "You need to be very careful while we're cooking. Leave all the cutting to me, and you can mix this-"

The rest of Toriel's instructions were swallowed by the not too distant sound of an explosion, and the two staggered from the sudden vibration that shook the floor beneath them. The queen instantly froze, her eyes wide with fear and confusion.

Frisk hesitated for only a second before bolting from the kitchen. When she realized the sound had come from someplace beneath them, she knew exactly where it came from and who had caused it.

"My child, wait!" Toriel shouted, alarmed, and a moment later was chasing after the little human into the basement. "No! Not there! It's too dangerous!"

Frisk ignored her mother's warnings, and her heart lodged itself into her throat as she reached the exit to the ruins. There was no door anymore, nothing for Toriel to threaten to destroy or lock behind her, just a large gaping hole singed at the edges, far too wide for even the queen to conceal any longer. Beyond the door, she thought she saw someone running, but they disappeared a second later before she could be sure of who it was.

As Frisk stood in the same place she always did every time Toriel blocked her path to the exit, the cold wind snaked its way in, biting at her skin where it was exposed. She barely noticed her mother had caught up to her until Toriel let out a cry of shock mingled with horror as the queen saw that the ruins were no longer sealed off from the rest of the underground.

Frisk closed her eyes. She had hoped to at least have at least one day with Toriel, but a few short hours would have to sustain her on the hard road ahead. "I'm sorry, Mom… but I need to leave now."

Toriel snapped her gaze from the destruction to the child in front of her. She reached out to grab Frisk and pull the little girl back, but Frisk walked forward just a second too soon, leaving her grasping at only empty air. "Wait, my child! You cannot go out there! It's far too dangerous!"

Frisk knew what was coming. She could hear it in Toriel's tone. Door or no door, her mother would do anything to save her, even if that meant fighting her. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned sharply on her heel to embrace Toriel as her mother was about to grab her - or worse, attack - startling the queen.

"I love you, Mom," Frisk said, her voice muffled against Toriel's gown and thick with emotion as she clung tightly to her mother for one last hug.

Toriel was taken aback but returned the affectionate gesture, though the little girl's behavior only served to increase her anxiety. "It… it's okay, my child. We can just-"

"I'm sorry," Frisk said, leaning back just enough to keep her words clear, "but I can't stay. I know most monsters want me dead and want to steal my soul, and you want me to stay to protect me, but she's calling me… This is a message that if I don't go now, someone will die." Emotion choked her throat and stung at her eyes. "Just like you almost did."

"Wha… what are you talking about my child?" Toriel asked, her voice wavering with fear as she kept Frisk tightly against her. "Who's calling you? And how-"

"Chara."

Toriel froze at the familiar name and the memory of what happened when she was headed to Chara's grave flashed in her mind, though she still refused to believe that it was anything more than a nightmare. "No… no that can't…"

"I'm sorry," Frisk murmured before she kissed her mother's warm, fuzzy cheek. "Stay safe, and get all the monsters in the ruins to someplace safe. I'll stop her."

Toriel was rigid, her muscles numb as she tried to process the impossibility of everything that was happening. It was only when Frisk took advantage of her confusion to slip out of her grasp that she snapped back to the present to see the child who she had grown so fond of so quickly race through the gaping hole. "Frisk!"

Toriel chased Frisk as fast as her legs could carry her, but was too slow to catch the child before she reached the doorway. At the threshold of the ruins, the queen of all monsters stopped dead in her tracks, the very tips of her toes barely touching the snow outside. A war waged inside her mind, full of chaos, confusion, and heartache as she watched the daughter she had gained for only a few short hours charge headlong into danger she didn't fully understand.

Frisk reached the gated bridge without seeing any sign of Chara or Sans. She could see his guard station up ahead, empty and covered with snow. The oddly out of place yet conveniently shaped lamp was not present, much to her surprise, leaving only snow completely devoid of any footprints but hers as she kept moving.

After rounding the bend near the large storage box and sign, Frisk spotted someone in the same place where Papyrus usually saw her for the first time. Unfortunately, instead of having a pleasant chat, the skeleton brothers seemed to be in a much more dire situation. Papyrus was on the ground, coated in a fine layer of powder that could either have been snow or dust. Frisk feared the latter due to the fear in Sans' eyes as he bent over his taller brother and used magic to heal a nasty wound on Papyrus' neck.

"Papyrus!" Frisk shouted, her friend's name gushing out before she could think better of it. She wanted to be by Papyrus' side, but Sans got between them first. She came to a complete stop just inches from his outstretched hand as she felt his magic take hold of her soul and lifted her body off the ground.

"Hold it right there, human," Sans said, his glowing eye piercing through the human child he held captive above him. The hair and body type were a perfect match to the demon in shadow he saw earlier. Although this one had narrow brown eyes, he was the last person to discount the notion that someone could make their eyes glow different colors. "You're not getting another shot at my brother with me around."

"Nyyeehhhh…," Papyrus groaned before he groggily turned to stare at Sans and Frisk, his expression disoriented and dazed. "S-Sans, what is it...? I-is it a human…?"

Sans feigned a deceptively light tone even though his gaze was murder on Frisk. "Don't worry about it, bro. Just taking care of business. You know, sentry duty and all that. Just finish healing yourself up for me, would ya?"

The last time Frisk had been levitated by Sans magic, it had been a field on the surface during a meteor shower, where he had joked about comparing her to the stars shooting across the moonlit sky. Back then feeling of his magic had been warm and pleasant, but the grip she felt on her soul now was every bit as cold and painful as when he killed her repeatedly for Chara's genocidal rampage. "S-Sans…"

Somehow, Sans' smile managed to grow even more dangerous, though his expression barely changed. "Funny. I don't remember telling you my name, or my bro's." His magic brought Frisk closer until she was staring deep into his pitch black eye sockets. "I think you and me should have a little chat, human."

Though Frisk felt her insides twist, she managed a smile. "You… you did tell me your name, Sans. You just don't remember it. You also told me your super secret codeword: 'I'm a stupid doodoo butt.'"

Sans twitched ever so slightly, dropping Frisk onto the snow none too gently, more to conserve his magic than anything else. "Funny… that's the second time I heard someone call themselves that today." He tucked his hand back into his pocket, his gaze piercing through the child before him. "Seems like being a stupid doodoo butt is popular now. Personally, I don't see the appeal, but maybe you can clue me in on a few things."

Fear sent Frisk's pulse racing. She had never seen Sans act this way towards her right after exiting the ruins, but she also had never seen him around when Papyrus had been attacked either. "You… you also told me your secret, secret triple-secret codeword: 'I'm the legendary fartmaster.'"

"Wow," Sans said. "That's… uh… really childish." For a moment, he seemed almost like his normal self as he gave a casual shrug. "I'll give you points for knowing that secret, secret triple-secret codeword and what I called it, but right now, I'm not in the mood to be too trusting, you understand." The white pinpricks in his eye sockets disappeared as his voice grew grave. "Not when a human who looked exactly like you just tried to kill my brother."

Papyrus wobbly got to his feet, his hands placed a hand over the massive gash in his armor and the exposed ribs underneath. He furrowed his bony brow and glanced between his brother and Frisk, confusion evident on his face. "Sans? What's happening?"

Sans took the chance to glance over at his brother. "Feelin' any better now, bro? Wounds all fixed up?"

"The only thing I'm feeling right now is confused, nyeh heh!" Papyrus retorted before he focused his attention on Frisk. "Do you know this fartmaster person!?"

"Nope," Sans said with a shrug. "Never seen 'em before in my life. Until they tried to kill us and wrecked the ruins I mean."

Frisk knew there was no sense in pretending that she didn't know the skeleton brothers. There was no way to feign innocence or ignorance now, especially not after what Chara did. Her only hope to salvage things was by coming clean about everything, no matter how unbelievable it sounded. "I didn't do that. My name is Frisk. I'm your friend… You just don't remember it because time keeps resetting. The person who must've attacked you was Chara. She… She's a dangerous human who wants to kill everyone."

"Huh," Sans said. "Hear that, bro? There's two humans down here."

"What!?" Papyrus jerked as his eye sockets widened. "You're both a fartmaster and a human!? That's incredible!" The taller skeleton paused before his jaw dropped. "Whaaaaaaaat!? Two humans!?"

Sans felt a little more at ease seeing Papyrus as cheerful as ever and that the wounds had healed, but his guard didn't drop in the slightest. "You know what that means, don't you?"

"Two humans to capture!" Papyrus said, gleefully. "Twice the prestige! Twice the victory! Twice the popularity! There's no way they won't make me a Royal Knight now! Nyeeeh heh heh heh!"

"You got it, bro," Sans said before his eye sockets darkened again. "That is of course… unless the human here is a dirty liar."

"Eh? What!?" Papyrus gasped before he paused. "...About being a fartmaster, or being a human?"

Frisk closed her eyes to avoid the accusing stare and let out a weary sigh. "I know it sounds… crazy. I know I don't have any proof besides knowing things that seem really suspicious… but…" She raised her head in spite of the futility of the situation. "I'm your friend. You, Papyrus… Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, and so many other monsters down here… I've been down here in the underground so many times, trying to save you from Chara… to help all of us escape to the surface."

Papyrus immediately perked up. "Oh! You mean like in that photo!?"

Frisk blinked, confused for a moment before she remembered the group photo in Sans' hidden workshop. "You know about that, Papyrus?"

"So we've done all this before, huh?" Sans said before Papyrus could reply. "So how's it supposed to go now?"

"I…" Frisk faltered. "I don't know. Everything is changing so much from all the other times. Chara, she… she almost killed Mom… Queen Toriel. She tried to kill Papyrus, and I'm afraid she's going to try and kill Undyne next. We have to warn her!"

"What!? Oh no!" Papyrus gasped as he clenched his fists. "This is… terrible! Awful! Bad, even! We've got to let Undyne know right away!"

"Yeah, you get right on that, bro," Sans said. "I'll see what else the human has to tell us, like how the ruins got wrecked or why the human who did it and attacked you look just like them." He paused for a moment, and Frisk could practically feel the temperature getting colder all around them. "I'm pretty curious about this Chara-ter, since the last human to call the queen 'mom' is supposed to be dead."

Frisk felt her stomach churn with the horrible possibilities - none of them good. "I'm not Chara. She pos…" The words died in her throat as she realized that admitting that Chara had possessed her used her body to do terrible things would only make things worse. "She has this… power. She can't die because she can reset the world to a previous point in time. When she does that… no one remembers what happened and what she does."

"So 'Chara' can do time and space shenanigans too!?" Papyrus gawked at Frisk before he frowned. "I hate that!"

Gears turned in Sans' head as he scrutinized the human. He was very good at reading expressions, and it was obvious from Frisk's that she was hiding a lot of things in her explanation. "Funny that. See, if you know those codewords, then you know that we know a thing or two about timelines too. But I don't think you know that we know that according to our charts, only one human ever comes to the underground, and that human might kill some of us, or all of us."

"But they also might become our best friend too, just like this human said!" Papyrus interjected, wiggling his pointer finger at his brother. "Best Friend from the future!"

Frisk couldn't help but smile, as Papyrus' words gave her hope even though Sans' demeanor did not change in the slightest. "That's right. When we get to the surface, we spend practically every day together…" She held her hands together over her heart. "Toriel and Asgore adopted me, and we all got a big house together. It's crowded and loud a lot of the time, but it's always fun and warm and it's… it's home. We're family."

"Well, that sounds really nice," Sans said as he stepped forward. "Hey, Papyrus, why don't you go ahead and go tell Undyne about the psycho human with a knife going around trying to kill her and all everyone else down here. I'll bring this one to Asgore for you and they can help us break down the barrier like they want."

"H-human," Papyrus said, tears flowing down his bony cheeks. He quivered, clenching his fists, before he reached up to wipe at his eyes. "O-of course! Don't you worry, human! I, the great Papyrus, will go and warn Undyne! And then, and then…!"

"Yeah, you should get going before that human gets there, bro," Sans said, his gaze never leaving Frisk. "Why don't you take a shortcut?"

Papyrus jerked before he straightened up. "R-right, right away! You can count on me, nyeeeh heh heh heh heh!" The tall skeleton promptly turned before he hurried off, rushing as fast as his bones could carry him. "Awaaaaay!"

"Heh," Sans chuckled dryly. "My bro's so cool."

Frisk watched Papyrus' retreating back disappear from sight before she looked back at Sans. The stout skeleton was as difficult to read as always. He appeared to be acting like his normal cheerful self, but something about his earlier words left her feeling on edge. "Sans, I-"

"Shh," Sans whispered as he held up his finger. "Let's give my bro another second to get out of earshot."

This was bad, Frisk felt certain of that, but she did as he told her anyway.

Sans closed his eyes and tucked his hands in his pockets, as they stood on the snowy path. For an agonizingly long moment, there was only the sound of the chill wind as it rustled the nearby trees and a bird sang from someplace far away.

"You know," Sans finally said, shattering the silence, "what you said was really nice. When my bro and me found out that a human was coming here and they might kill all of us, well, you could say we were more than a little worried about it. But I've just got two questions for you. How many times have we made it to the surface?"

"I…" Frisk faltered. "I'm… not sure. It's been so long since this began… maybe a dozen times at least?"

Sans eyes opened, showing only blackened pits. "And how many times did you have Papyrus' dust on your hands?"

Frisk flinched.

A breathy laugh with no humor escaped Sans. "That's what I thought. You don't know how it feels to know that your timeline is completely messed up, starting and stopping and jumping around all over the place, not knowing who and how many are going to get killed in it. I can't even see the appeal in getting to the surface knowing that we'll just come back here and go through it all over again with no memory of it."

Frisk grimaced. "Actually, I-"

"You can't know how it feels," Sans said, "to know that the number of timelines where everyone leaves and lives happily ever after is a hell of a lot smaller than the ones where your brother is killed off because he thought he could stop a human from killing everyone."

"But I do!" Frisk shouted, desperation creeping into her voice. "I keep living through this over and over again, trying to save everyone, but-"

Sans held his hand out and Frisk was seized by magic, cutting off her words. "See, human, that's the thing. Maybe you really do believe that, but the fact is my brother just almost died, and judging by the look on your face you had a minute ago, I think you know exactly what it feels like to be the one dishing out the killing blow to my bro." The pained expression on the human's face said it all, confirming his suspicions. "Nothing personal, human, but I don't believe in giving brother killers a second chance at their targets."

"Sa-" Frisk could barely get out the first syllable before she was tossed hard to the ground. Though the snow cushioned much of the fall, she still felt the stones underneath slam into her ribs and arms. She barely had time to cry out before Sans' magic threw her bodily into the trunk of a nearby evergreen, branches snapping against her back as needles scraped her skin.

"Unhand my child!"

Sans' next toss was interrupted, leaving Frisk tumbling into a pile of snow as he barely managed to dodge a line of fireballs that blazed holes in the ground where he had just been standing.

Frisk could barely believe her eyes as she stared up at the person who had attacked Sans. "M… Mom…?"

Toriel strode forward, melting the snow all around her as flames danced around her body. Her face was a mask of pure fury, tinged with pain at the edges of her eyes. "Is this really how little your promise meant?"

The flickering light in Sans' eye winked out as he released his hold on Frisk. He recognized the voice immediately. "Oh, hey… You're her, aren't you, the lady with that great sense of humor, right?" Slowly, he tucked his hands into his pockets. "Wow. Okay… this wasn't how I was expecting our first meeting to be like at all."

Toriel was as rigid as stone. "I had hoped that our first meeting would have been so much better than this as well, but after everything I've heard today…" Her gaze slid to Frisk. "To hurt my child even after they told you they only want to help…"

Frisk felt her eyes prickle with tears. "M-Mom…"

Toriel's gaze softened, but only until she turned back to Sans. "This child saved my life. Frisk did not harm your brother. They were with me all day, and the moment that the door to the ruins was breached, they didn't hesitate to charge headlong into danger to help you. I might not know what's going on with… with Chara…" The name came out as painfully as a freshly reopened wound. "...But I do know that Frisk is not the person who attacked either of us."

For a long moment, Sans could only stare at Toriel. Eventually, he finally leaned back with a shrug. "Heh. How can I argue with that? Anyone who has such good taste in jokes has gotta be a good judge of character, especially when you're so fired up about it."

The corner of Toriel's mouth quirked into what was almost a smile, but she kept her back rigid. "I expect you to apologize to Frisk for your behavior and never try anything like this again." With that she knelt beside Frisk and used her magic to heal the little girl. "Are you alright, my child?"

Frisk nodded as her wounds and even the damage to her clothes were healed in an instant. She wanted to hug her mother tight as emotion swelled within her heart, but instead she just sat up. "Mo…" The word died on her lips, as fear seized her with the notion that referring to Toriel as her mother was suddenly taboo. She had no idea how much the queen had heard, or if Toriel truly understood the full implications yet. "Is… is it still okay for me to call you Mom?"

The timid question left Toriel stunned, but only for a moment before she pulled Frisk into her arms. "Of course it is, my child. Frisk. I might not know everything that's going on like you do, but it sounds to me like you've suffered through more than any child ever should."

Tears stung at Frisk's eyes and she buried her face against Toriel's chest as she held her mother fiercely. "Mom…!"

Though Sans kept his stance indifferent, almost cheerful, the scene before him did nothing to relax his guard. "Sorry about roughing you up a bit, human. Just looking out for my brother, you know?" He shrugged casually. "How about I treat us all to something at Grillby's to make up for it?"

As tempting as the idea was, Frisk feared that spending time relaxing and bonding with her loved ones would only give Chara the time and opportunity to strike again before she could reach her friends. "Not yet. We need to let Alphys know about the danger too so she can alert all the monsters to evacuate to someplace safe. Everyone is in danger."

Sans shrugged and side-stepped from the two. "Hey, if you want to make sure a homicidal human won't kill everybody and end all of existence as we know it, who am I to argue?"

Toriel rose to her feet, taking Frisk's hand comfortably in hers. She looked at Sans as she passed the skeleton by, lowering her voice to a whisper. "We shall have a long chat about this later."

Sans said nothing and merely watched as Frisk led Toriel in the direction of Snowdin. The shadows made his deceptively laidback expression seem far more severe than he wanted to let on, as he kept his eyes on the human who looked even more like the silhouette of the person that attacked him as the child passed under the shade of an evergreen.

Nothing was going like the projections suggested, but Sans knew one thing for certain - this child was dangerous.

"Wooowie, she really went off, didn't she?" a new voice chirped cheerfully beside Sans just after Toriel and Frisk were out of earshot.

Though still tense, Sans slowly turned around to find a small golden flower monster bobbing as it sprouted out of the ground and snow behind him. Immediately he thought of the talking flower Papyrus often gushed about.

Flowey smiled up at Sans, wiggling his petals. "I guess she just can't help acting like a mother - it's only natural~! Even if it's someone who nearly gutted her like a fish."

Sans didn't initially respond, staring down at the flower.

"She didn't see it coming, but IIIIII did," Flowey said, drawing out his words. "I saw how the human lunged at her when she wasn't paying attention and cut her right open. Dust was just gushing ev-ery-where." He paused to tilt his head with wide, almost horrified eyes. "And then the human turned around and acted like a hero, bandaging her up and acting so concerned about her… as if they weren't the ones that did it in the first place! Kinda psychotic, dontcha think?"

"Sounds messed up alright," Sans said, his enigmatic smile in place as always. "Since you saw that much, maybe you have some ideas what the human is after."

"Hard to say," Flowey said with a shrug. "I mean, why would anyone swoop in to 'rescue' someone they just tried to kill? Either they get a kick out of the attention or they're trying to endear themselves to everyone." His eyes widened as he focused his gaze on Sans. "It was so weird, too. She moved so fast… one second she was there, then suddenly she was somewhere else entirely. It was like she could teleport or something!"

Sans' fingers twitched inside his pockets. "You don't say. Kinda hard to see how they were gonna endear themselves to me by showing themselves when they attacked me before they attacked my bro. Any thoughts on that?"

"Nooooo clue," Flowey said, innocently. "Maybe they thought it'd be funny? Maybe they hate you and want to make everyone else hate you? I mean, that lady did ream you out just now. It's not like you knowing actually did any good, did it?"

Sans said nothing.

"'course, it's none of my business," Flowey said, with a shrug of his vines that shifted the snow around him. "She probably wouldn't believe me, even if I told her… and the human would probably just cut me open for trying! There's just no helping some people."

"So the human went after you too, huh?" Sans asked.

"Nope, and I'd like it to stay that way!" Flowey said, cheerfully. "If she's willin' to gut old ladies who're supposed to be her mother, who knows what she'd do to people who actually try and cross her?"

Though Sans' expression didn't change, the question struck a chord with him. "I guess so. By the way, I didn't catch your name."

"The name's Flowey~! Flowey the flower~!" Flowey chirped, brightly. "Pleasure to meet you, I'm sure, and I gotta say… I'm glad she's your problem, not mine! With the ruins now open, I think I'll make like a tree and leaf the rest to you!"

A quiet snicker escaped Sans before he winked at Flowey. "Vine by me. I can respect a plant who isn't a sap and weeds out unnecessary risks so they won't get whacked. Seed you a-ground, bud-dy."

Flowey giggled before he gave Sans a wink, sticking his tongue out. "Just know I'm rooting for you and wishing you the best of luck, 'cuz you're gonna needle it!" The golden flower let out another laugh that tinkled like bells before he suddenly ducked down into the ground, disappearing from view and leaving Sans alone once more.

Sans scrutinized the ground where Flowey had been, finding the snow to be pristine, save for the occasional monster footprint. There had been no sign Flowey had even been there before, which indicated to him that the flower had some sort of magic that allowed him to bloom out of the ground then restore the area to its previous state.

It was just another detail about Flowey that rubbed Sans the wrong way.

However, whatever Flowey's motivations for giving such information, many of the things he said made sense and were tidy explanations for some details that made Sans waver on Frisk's supposed innocence. The flower was too sweet, his presence too convenient for Sans' comfort, but that didn't necessarily mean that Flowey was working alongside the homicidal human, especially not if he was willing to give away so much damning information.

For now, Sans knew there wasn't much more he could do but keep an eye socket on everything, especially Papyrus.

With thoughts of his brother in mind, Sans disappeared in a blink to get to Snowdin long before the others on foot.

From a distance, nestled under the darkness of the forest, Flowey watched Sans disappear, leaving no trace behind. The smiling trashbag was suspicious, he could tell even despite the skeleton's smile, but that hardly mattered; the flower had succeeded in planting the seeds of doubt in Sans.

With a quiet, twisted giggle, Flowey slowly turned his head to peer deeper into the darkened brush, meeting a pair of bright red eyes amidst the shadows. The gaze of his companion were piercing and clear, boring into Flowey with an intensity that almost frightened him, even though all other features of the human were completely obscured by darkness.

Once their eyes locked, Flowey's mouth twisted into a smile full of jagged teeth far too large for such an innocent face as he let out another giggle even more unpleasant than the last. The red eyes remained focused on Flowey as moments passed before a similar, twisted smile appeared in the darkness as a sharp curve of white standing out unnaturally against the black.

Then, in an instant, both eyes and smile were gone.

Flowey continued to grin, his giggling intensifying until he burst out laughing. The flower couldn't help but cackle before he dropped down into the ground, disappearing from view even as his laughter still lingered through the trees.