Previously: Frisk, Flowey and Deos participate in Mettaton's cooking show (much to the annoyance of two of them) and after answering Cali's question as to why he didn't do all that he could to avoid it, they continued their journey through Hotland, while looking at the CORE from a distance...

(Hotland)

Frisk, Flowey, Deos and Toriel (in her astral form) exit the elevator and find Sans at his Hotland guard post with what appears to be hot dogs with Vulkin and a bird-like monster. Deos look at the undead guard, at least Sans was more tolerable... "Not much surprises me here, least of all you being here."

"No beans here, although these dogs sure are hot" Sans said, this makes Toriel laugh, thankfully only those that know her can hear her.

"Right..." Deos said with some mild annoyance, Frisk pulls his leg slightly, this prompts Deos "Ah yes, two hot dogs please." Deos hands Sans 60G.

Thanks, here's your 'dogs" Sans said and hands him two hot dogs, Deos hands one to Frisk and they eat it, he has some initial suspicion, but then he keeps eating.

"I don't know how you made this edible, but at least you have competition to motivate you into doing something." Deos said "I know where we'll next be meeting you, I won't say it this time, It'll spoil the surprise."

"Well, whatever floats your goat." Sans said, Toriel would've woken the dead with her laugh, if she wasn't in her astral form.

"...and I thought this was going to boil over..." Deos said, then realising what he said, after Toriel laughed louder "Let's just move on..." they did so and around a side path, while Frisk was about to accept a friend request from Napstablook (which rejected itself) a Stained Apron was found, Toriel was disturbed with this.

"This was his apron, this was probably where he was killed." Toriel said, barely containing the heartache, caused by her losses and the fact that she could've prevented most of them.

"Frisk, I'll need that Burnt Pan please." Deos said, Frisk removed it from the dimensional box that Dr. Alphys installed on their phone and handed it to Deos, who also picked up the Stained Apron and then recieved a vision of the Green Soul child's life up until his death.

(Vision)

He sees that he was indeed filled with Kindness, he was the textbook definition of selfless, even helping out in the homeless shelter during his spare time, something that his father didn't appreciate, who was everything that his son was not, as for his mother...she either left them or was dead.

Either way, he was left at a particularly bad summer camp near Mt. Ebott, where some of the staff there were as devoid of kindness as he was full of it, which didn't help some of the others who were left there, it carried on until he decided to run away and hide, hoping that neither the staff of that summer camp or the father that left him there will find him, this lead him to fall into the underground...right above Toriel as she was checking the spot that he was falling from, she took him to her home and found that he was quite the culinary prodigy for one so young, although after a time, he left the ruins as he thought that he could convince Asgore to stop what he's doing.

He was able to knock many monsters unconscious with his frying pan, although he still felt bad for causing harm to them, he got all the way to Hotland, where he was faced with a dead end and a Pyrope, where blocking the fire he was generating made his frying pan too hot to handle and he dropped it and decided to run away from anything that could kill him...until he found a dead end, where a Vulkin hugged him, which resulted in...

(Hotland)

Deos decided to stop there..."He naively thought that he could persuade Asgore to stop this insanity, he was able to knock monsters out with his frying pan, we know that heat caused him to drop it earlier, but a Vulkin...not necessarily the one we passed by hugged him and..." he stopped, it was too gruesome to speak of. The others get the idea, Frisk was saddened by this, despite knowing that they were all dead, it was just the knowledge of how that was new, Flowey didn't think this was worth his attention and Toriel looked deep in thought.

"I thought him a coward for not wanting to kill one child and then crossing the barrier and taking six more, but now I realise that it would be more cowardly for him to kill children and he knows it, that's why he didn't do it...he would rather wait as long as possible to give the Royal Scientist, first Dr. W.D. Gaster and then Dr. Alphys, time to find another way to break the barrier, they weren't successful, but at least he had someone try." Toriel said, she then collapsed on the ground in her astral form and started crying "...and what did I do, I ran away and hide myself from the underground's problems, I didn't even try and stop him! I didn't even protect the first child that fell down her since..."

"That's enough, Toriel! I get it, you feel that you're just as bad as him for leaving him and the underground to deal with its problems and letting each child before Frisk get killed in different parts of the underground, he forgave you long ago, this is based on the 'best case scenario' that I've seen, where you stopped the fight between Frisk and Asgore before it started, he was so glad to see you that he lost all desire to fight Frisk...he was also crying because..." Deos said, he was then interrupted by Toriel.

"Yes...if I didn't know any better, I would've been too hard on him, I won't be this time...certainly not after I find out how the last one died. He might've forgiven me long ago, but he hasn't forgiven himself for giving that order...after looking back at my actions, I don't know if I can forgive myself either." Toriel said, with her voice deep with regret.

"You'll both have a chance to rebuild, but to do that, we need to get to the Capital and we've still got much of Hotland to get through before that is possible." Deos said.

"Yes..." Toriel said, in a subdued tone, they proceeded along the correct way to go as their ultimate destination grows ever closer...

(Deos' Apartment / Lab)

Cali had just found out that Deos had found out how the Green Soul child died and was able to get an idea as to what Toriel was talking about from Deos' side of the conversion "It might not be a good thing to think about, but it should make things easier when they get to Asgore."

"Y-Yeah, she was p-probably the one who was r-really in charge, it was l-long before my time." Dr. Alphys said.

"Ugh...why am I thinking about that, bad thought! Not now!" Cali shouted.

"You were thinking of Deos in a naughty way, weren't you?..." Dr. Alphys said in an unusual mischievous way.

"Was that that obvious?..." Cali said, groaning.

"Yeah, last time I thought of Undyne like that was when she was in dress uniform, she thought it was dorky and ridiculous..." Dr. Alphys breaths faster, this excites her.

"She obviously didn't know you that well, you love that kind of thing." Cali said.

"Y-Yeah, what were you t-thinking of...or is it t-too embarrassing?" Dr. Alphys

"I've imagined myself dressed completely differently to how I usually do, a dress with a pleated lower half, not too short, something that I can take off easily, I surprised Deos here and when he's least suspecting it, I..." Cali said.

"Cali! Don't say anymore!" Dr. Alphys said with an unusual assertiveness.

"He he, Well, someone here is being Doctor Assertive today!" Cali said. in a friendly tone.

"Really? I guess my soul is feeling a lot lighter." Dr. Alphys said, then she switched to a more nervous tone "I n-need your advice, d-do you think that I s-should talk like that to Undyne?..."

"DEFINATELY, she might be the more dominant of the two of you, but that doesn't mean that should be completely submissive to her, she sounds like someone who would like that. Is there something that is irritating about her that you'd wish she'd stop? Try recreating the feeling that you get from watching Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2..." Cali said, with a smile on her face."

"Yeah! I don't like it when she goes too far with some things, last time I went to her house and wanted to get something, she threw a spear at the table to keep my seated, who does that?! What if she was a little off? It can happen because she doesn't have good depth perception, she could've killed me! I know that she can be impulsive sometimes, I like that about her, but when it's dangerous to others that don't deserve that, that's when I want to..." Dr. Alphys said, with a confidence that stunned Cali into silence.

"You've got the idea, Alphys, the real test is being like that to her in person." Cali said with a smile on her face, this made Dr. Alphys nervous.

What else will stand in their way? What else will Cali and Dr. Alphys talk about and where IS Mettaton anyway? Find out in Chapter 23: Steamy Interaction