A/N: I'm not gonna beat around the bush; there's a poop joke in here. I'm sorry. It's not even subtle.

The next two chapters are already written too. Gonna space them out between now and Wednesday. Those chapters don't have poop jokes.

Papyrus marched down the snow-covered pathway, checking on his traps as he went along. When Undyne told him that she would be stepping down from the Royal Guard, he knew this was the perfect opportunity to show the king what he was made of. Who better a candidate to replace Undyne than the Great Papyrus?

Of course, he was unsure as to what exactly he'd do to prove his worth. It was likely that another human would not fall down for a while, and even if they did, Papyrus wasn't sure if he even still wanted to capture humans. After Undyne confided in him, he realized that she didn't want to capture humans anymore either. The dogs' resolve was beginning to change, too. Everyone's was. Once the revelation was made that a human had been living among them for nearly four weeks, and once they found out she was nicer than some of the monsters were, everybody began to have second thoughts about this whole "human hunting" thing.

Town meetings were held in secret. Nobody knew what to do about this. Some of the older monsters adamantly wanted to turn the human over to the king. The younger ones didn't. In the end, several votes were held. It was decided that the human would be allowed to stay in the Underground, so long as she didn't cause trouble.

This, of course, raised the question of what to do about any future visitors. Should they be given the same freedoms? This was a debate that would go on for quite a while. There was no end in sight, which was just fine, as nobody believed that another human would fall down for at least a few more years.

This was a weird month, Papyrus decided. It was then that he noticed a bit of gold on the mostly white ground in front of him. Smiling, he crouched down and greeted his friend. "Flowey! How are you this fine morning?"

Flowey looked startled. He turned around and stared up at Papyrus. "Oh. Howdy, Papyrus." He seemed very low-energy today. "I'm fine, I'm just… thinking about something."

Papyrus sat down in front of the flower. "Thinking about what, might I ask?"

"Everything's changing, Papyrus. Things were the same for so long. Day after day, year after year, nothing changed." He sighed. "I sort of knew what to expect from everyone. I knew what they'd say if I did this. How they'd react if I said this. Now, nothing. I can't predict anything anymore because all of the variables are different." He looked up at Papyrus, who was staring blankly. "You don't understand a word of what I'm saying, do you?"

"Flowey, is change really so bad?"

"No! This is the most interesting that things have been in a while! It's just…" He sighed again. "I'm so used to knowing everything. Now I'm clueless again." Flowey tilted his head. "How do you do it?"

Papyrus was confused. "How do I do what?"

"How do you go on, knowing that you don't know anything?"

Papyrus tried to understand the question. "I know how to cook spaghetti."

"Hardly."

"You know, Flowey, I may not know a lot," Papyrus explained, "but I do know that not knowing a lot is an exciting thing. It means you have more to learn!" He leaned in closer. "For example, did you know that it takes about a year to animate a single 22-minute episode of all of those cartoons that the humans watch?"

"I… did not know that."

"Now you do! Wasn't that fun, learning something new?"

"I don't really have fun."

"No fun? What? That's preposterous!"

"It's kind of hard when you don't feel anything." Flowey's eyes widened as he realized that he just said something that he definitely shouldn't have said. "Uh, what I mean to say is, I don't get to really do fun things that often." How the hell did I slip up that badly? That's never happened before.

"That's a shame. I know! You should come meet my friends—"

"NO!" Flowey snarled, his face involuntarily transforming into something far scarier. He caught himself and tried to make himself appear as innocent as possible. "Uh, golly Papyrus, that's mighty kind of you, but…" He looked for an excuse. A realization began to dawn on him, however. "Have we… Had this conversation before? This all feels familiar."

"Nope!" Papyrus stood up. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to keep checking my traps. You should stop by Snowdin sometime and meet my friends! One of them is a human!"

"I'll be sure to check in."

Papyrus left, and Flowey was left to his own devices.

We definitely had that conversation before, he thought. Chara must have loaded a save. But why wasn't he immediately made aware? It used to be that Flowey could feel resets as they happened, a direct result of his own tampering with the timeline. The implications of not being able to remember a reset were huge. Had… Had the timeline really strayed that far from what it was supposed to be? Was his power so diminished that even he was susceptible to the mind-altering factors of time manipulation?

...the Underground kind of sucks now, Flowey thought. Chara better do something interesting soon.

Speaking of which, Flowey had an old friend to spy on.

Frisk was sitting at a desk which had been set up for her, drawing whatever came to her—or Chara's—mind. Alphys was at her own desk, running some sort of program at her computer and taking notes. Besides the occasional pencil scratch or mouse click, as well as the persistent noise of the escalators, the room was silent.

Hey, Frisk, I have an idea, said Chara.

What's up?

Can I take control of your right hand real quick? I wanna draw something.

Alright. Frisk partially relinquished control of her body to Chara, who moved the pencil from her left hand to her right. Frisk found out early on that, while she was left-handed, Chara was right-handed. Chara began sketching something on the paper. His style was far more cartoony than Frisk's—she liked realism.

I wanted to be an animator when I grew up, explained Chara. I wanted to work at Disney. He continued to draw the figure on the page. Frisk realized he was drawing a person. When he was done, he put the pencil down and gave Frisk her arm back. That's me. It's what I looked like before I died.

Frisk admired the figure in the picture. Even with Chara's cartoony style, she could imagine what he must have looked like. We look pretty similar, she admitted. Sex aside, I think people would have mixed us up if we were around at the same time.

People already mix us up, he chuckled.

They wouldn't if you would stop using my mouth to say something snide.

"I'm Frisk and I like dirty diapers," said Chara out loud, using Frisk's mouth. Alphys glanced over at Frisk.

"Excuse me?"

"Uh, I said I'd like thirty vipers," Frisk explained. "Snakes are cool."

Alphys just stared. "That is not what you said." They stared at each other before Alphys decided to disregard whatever it was Frisk said and returned to her work.

Chara mentally laughed. Hard. That was great.

Go to hell, Frisk said, shaking her head and switching the pencil back to her left hand. In spite of this, she was smiling.

I tried, but they didn't want me so they sent me back.

Frisk heard the door open. She turned to see that Undyne had walked in.

"Sup nerds," she said as coolly as possible.

Alphys smiled. "H-hey Undyne!" she said, slightly more confident than she would have been last month, but still pretty nervous-sounding. "What brings you around here?"

"Are you kidding? Two of my favorite people live here!" she exclaimed. That was something she said anytime she came into the lab, now. Alphys still wasn't used to it. She tried to keep it cool, but Frisk could tell she was internally screaming. "I just wanted to check in, see how you guys… Were…" she drifted off, staring at the bathroom door. "Uh…"

Alphys tilted her head. "Is something wrong?" This drew Frisk's attention. She turned her head and watched Undyne, then stared at the bathroom door. Her eyes widened. She looked back at Alphys, who didn't seem to understand what was going on.

"Uh… Yeah! Everything's… Everything's fine," Undyne said, unsure of herself. "I'm not sure why, I just sort of spaced out for a second there." She glanced over at Frisk. "What are you up to?"

she said, grinning as she marched over. "Hmm. Art. Yeah, I gave that a shot when I was a kid. Now I'm permanently banned from ever entering Snowdin's library again!" She chuckled. "Good times. Good…" she looked back down at Frisk's drawing. "Hey, wait, I thought you were right-handed."

Frisk glanced down at her hands. "Uh, no? Pretty sure I've always been left-handed."

"Hmm…" Undyne shrugged. "I don't know why I thought otherwise." She looked over at Alphys. "What are YOU up to?" she asked as she walked over.

While Alphys explained what she was doing (upgrading Mettaton's firmware to improve his acting skills), Frisk went back to talking to Chara. Chara, did you see the way she looked at the bathroom door? she asked.

Yeah. It was almost like some part of her remembered that there's something else behind there.

Which means…

...crap.

That's just residual stuff from loading so close to her, Frisk assured herself. ...right?

She also was confused on which hand was your dominant.

So?

Frisk, do you remember when we fought her in the last timeline? And you asked me to take over for a few hours because you were so exhausted?

You use your right hand to fight.

Bingo.

Frisk didn't like where this was going. You don't think…

I don't think she actually has any memories of the last timeline, Chara said. ...or if she does, they're very faint and indistinguishable from dreams. A loud laugh came from Undyne at a joke either she or Alphys told. Alphys' laugh was much more nervous sounding. ...regardless, I think we need to be more careful. If those memories are there, we don't want to trigger them before the time is right.

Is there ever a right time to tell somebody you killed her and all of her friends in an alternate universe?

Hey, YOU'RE the one who wanted to tell her everything.

I know! Frisk sighed. It's just… Not right now. Not like this.

Calm down, will you? Everything is going to be fine. She's not going to figure anything out on her own, we have all the time in the world to—

"Say, Alphys, what's in the bathroom?" Undyne asked.

Crap.

"...bathroom stuff?" Alphys responded. "What do you mean?"

Undyne scratched her neck. "Well, I mean, most of our energy is magic? Only humans really use toilets and I saw that the kid has her own somewhere else in the lab."

Alphys chuckled and pushed her glasses in. "Undyne, I eat a LOT of human food. Potato chips, instant noodles, Bart Simpson cereal… is it good for me? No, but I do it anyway." She gestured to the bathroom. "Ergo, I need a human bathroom to deal with the… Aftermath."

Frisk leaned back in her chair. Clever.

Undyne just stared. "But you're on a diet. I've SEEN you on this diet. You're cutting out human foods."

Alphys froze. "I've… been… cheating," she said finally.

Are we really having a discussion about whether or not Alphys shits? Chara asked, already bored with the subject matter.

Undyne stared suspiciously at the bathroom door. "Alright." She was dropping it. This surprised Frisk.

Alright, maybe today won't suck after all—

"Hey, just out of curiosity, what do you guys know about human funerals?" Undyne asked abruptly.

Alphys was caught by surprise. "E-excuse me?"

"Where did that come from?" Frisk asked.

"Well, I've just been thinking," Undyne began. "Humans, like, get buried when they die, right? It's some kind of traditional thing?" She shook her head. "All those humans whose souls got taken, they never received burials."

"Did they not?" Frisk asked.

Alphys shook her head. "Of course they wouldn't have. Asgore has no respect for human customs."

The Asgore I knew did, Chara interjected.

Undyne continued. "So, then I thought, 'you know what would be a great way to make up for the crappy things I did? Putting those kids at peace.' I happen to know that Asgore keeps the humans in coffins in his basement."

Alphys seemed shocked by this statement. "I-in his-?!" She covered her mouth in disgust. "That's terrible. And sick."

"He keeps me WHERE?!" Chara asked out loud in genuine shock. Frisk took back control immediately and smacked her forehead in frustration. "I mean, he was GOING to keep me where?"

Undyne nodded. "Yeah. I doubt they would have appreciated the crappy send-off they were given." She smacked her fist into her open palm and grinned. "Those humans died as warriors, and they deserve a warrior's celebration. I'm gonna give it to them."

Alphys blinked. "How are you going to do that?"

A determined look spread across Undyne's face, which was lowered so that a terrifying shadow was cast by the lights above. This was a look that was always immediately followed by a very bad idea. "We're going on a heist."

Alphys and Frisk just stared at her in disbelief. "You want to break into the castle," Alphys said incredulously.

"Of COURSE not," Undyne said, waving a hand dismissively as if Alphys was the one who just said something completely nonsensical. "The castle is a public place. I want to smuggle six coffins OUT of the castle."

"Seven!" Chara shouted in disbelief. "Ooh, I'm fired up now," he said, pacing around the room in anger. Frisk figured she'd let him have this moment. Everybody needs to vent. "You know, that king's a real asshat!"

Alphys nodded. "I agree… Frisk…" She narrowed her eyes at 'Frisk'. She shook her head. "But Undyne, we can't just steal things from my boss's home!"

"Well, he ain't my boss," Undyne said, marching to the other side of the lab, where the exit was. "You guys can join me or not, I'm doing this either way." She gestured to Alphys and Frisk (who was still under Chara's control, fuming and pacing the room) in an inviting manner.

"Oh, you're damn right I'm joining," Chara said as he marched to the exit.

Man, you're really fired up, huh? Frisk asked. You know what, if you want to borrow my body for the duration of this "heist", by all means. It seems like you've got some business to take care of. She paused. Just be careful with it, please. Try not to alert Undyne to your presence more than you already have. And for god's sake, don't kill anyone.

Oh, this is going to be so cathartic, Chara responded.

I'm sure.

Chara and Undyne stood at the exit. Undyne glanced at Alphys. "Al. You comin'?"

Alphys glanced nervously at them. Conflicted, her eyes darted from side to side as if she were listening to the two sides of her conscience argue as to what she should do. Finally, she sighed and walked over to them. "What's the plan?"

Undyne grinned. "No plan. We're just gonna wing it."

That's my favorite kind of plan! Frisk told Chara.

She marched out of the lab. Chara and Alphys stared incredulously, then looked at each other.

"No plan? None at all? She's going to get us killed," Chara said.

Alphys laughed nervously. "I mean, that's what saves are for, right Frisk?" She continued to laugh nervously as she walked out the door, although she didn't seem to find the situation funny.

Chara was the last one in the lab. He puffed up his chest and assumed a very masculine stance, in spite of the feminine body he now occupied.

Very badass, Frisk said sarcastically. With Chara in control, they stepped out the door.