Welcome back, Vitaking, good to have you on board! I see you've wasted no time in getting on the theory train with the others, lets see how that turns out, shall we?

Toby Fox owns Undertale and all associated characters. Vigil is mine.

"You ready?" Chara asked quietly, peering around the corner of the building she stood beside, scanning the old warehouse on the other side of the street.

"Yeah," Kid affirmed, struggling to keep his voice level as he practically vibrated with excitement. Chara cast a fond gaze back at him.

"Keep it together, alright? We have to be careful here. I don't want you getting hurt."

"Remind me to tell you that next time we spar," Kid teased, and though it took visible effort on his part, he managed to still himself. Chara just shook her head at him, then focused back on the large building across from them.

"There's a lot of empty space between those fences and the building itself." She murmured, "And most of the windows are near the top of the building. It'd be really difficult to get in unnoticed."

"Good thing we know the secret way in."

"Yeah. I never thought about it before, but this place looks like it would really make a good base. No wonder Overwatch grabbed it."

She pulled away from the wall, then turned, walking away from the building, Kid trotting after her.

"We've wasted enough time as it is. Let's get this started."

"This is so cool!" Kid enthused quietly. "I never thought I'd get to do anything like this!"

"Glad you're enjoying yourself, babe," Chara replied, checking the street before dashing across. Fortunately, this was a less well-kept area of the city, right next to the slums. There were plenty of close-knit buildings, twisting alleyways, and not a lot of traffic.

It was into one of the alleyways that Chara and Kid slipped into, both of them making a face as the smell of garbage hit them full on. Cans, rotting food and various other items that neither of them even wanted to distinguish littered the area, and they had to tread carefully to avoid stepping in it.

"Still having fun?" Chara asked wryly, stepping over an upended trash can, likely the source of this mess, and pulling it upright so it was out of Kid's way.

"They never show this part in the movies."

"C'mon, would you really pay to see people pick their way through a garbage-ridden alley?"

"Yeah… probably not," Kid admitted, getting past the last of the gross debris and following as Chara began to move again, keeping her eyes peeled for the area Vigil had said the hidden entrance to the warehouse was.

After a few minutes of searching, they came across what appeared to be a makeshift shelter. A couple of wooden pallets made rickety walls, and a tarp draped over the construction. A dirty mattress lay inside, pressing against the wall, and several filthy blankets covered most of the inside.

Chara frowned.

"This… should be where the entrance is, I think." She stepped forward, crouching down and rummaging through the blankets.

"Yo," Kid looked down at her in concern a few steps back. "Should we be going through this? I mean, it looks like someone lives here…."

Chara pulled the blankets to the side, revealing a wooden trap-door underneath.

"If that's the case, we can repay whoever it is later." She frowned. "I don't get it though, why would Overwatch let some homeless guy live on top of a secret entrance to their base?"

"Maybe they don't really use it?" Kid suggested.

"Maybe… or maybe they set this up on purpose to hide it." The girl shrugged. "Doesn't really matter now. You ready?"

Kid nodded.

"Bring it!"

"That's the spirit." Chara chuckled, then pulled open the small square door and peering down below it. There was no ladder, though the drop wasn't too far, maybe about five feet. Unfortunately that meant that it was going to be cramped down there. She took in a breath, then sat on the edge, letting her feet dangle over before dropping in. It was shallow enough that Chara's head was still above ground, until she crouched and moved out of the way for Kid.

The boy was quick to follow suit, though he had some difficulties with his tail. Since it was rigid, it wasn't very flexible, but it was also short enough that he could make his own way down with only minimal discomfort. He landed beside Chara, crouching and grinning at her.

"Shall we?" Chara asked, looking down the long, narrow corridor they found themselves in.

"Yeah, let's do this!"

The corridor was long, straight and narrow, forcing the two teens to walk in single file. What little light that had come into the place from the open trapdoor was soon swallowed up by darkness. Fortunately, between the lights in Chara's eyes, and Kid's visor, a weak red light bathed the passage around them, keeping them from being completely blind.

Not that it would make much difference. The concrete walls of the tunnel around them only went in one direction. There were no offshoots, no changes in the level of the ground. The most hazardous thing down here seemed to be the occasional large, hairy spider, and those appeared to regard their passage with vague disinterest.

"It really doesn't feel like anybody's been down here in a long time, does it?" Chara muttered, brushing a spiderweb out of the way.

"Not unless Muffet's been hanging out down here, haha." Chara barely managed to stifle her own chuckle.

It was hard to tell how long they had been travelling for, but eventually they reached the end of the passageway. Instead of a wall, there was a small wooden door, not unlike the one they had opened to get down here in the first place. Chara breathed deeply, then carefully pushed open the door, just enough for her to peer outside.

Seeing nothing threatening, she pushed it open a little farther, only to jerk back as she spotted a ceiling-mounted camera pointed towards her. After a moment, she cautiously checked again, noting with disappointment that it appeared to be fixed, negating any chance of them getting past undetected.

"Kid?" She asked quietly, not wanting to risk being overheard if the camera had a microphone in it. "Check your visor. How many people are in here?"

Kid moved his head from side to side, his lips moving silently and his eyes narrowing in concentration.

"Uh… seven… no, eighteen of them." He reported. "Six of them are on our level, and the rest are above us. I think there's a second floor or something."

"Are any of the guys on our level close by?"

"Not… really? They're kinda all spread out. None of them are too close, anyways."

"Alright… there's a camera right outside, we won't be able to get past it without it seeing us. I'm gonna try to disable it. We'll have to hurry after that though, if anyone's paying attention, they'll probably realize something's wrong."

"Cool, you can disable cameras? Is that like, one of the things from your robot body or what?"

Chara's right eye emitted a soft glow, and she conjured an orb of red energy just behind her.

"I was just gonna use this…"

"Oh." Kid looked a little sheepish, and attempted to lean back, though he jerked in surprise when one of his head spikes hit the ceiling.

"Shh!" Chara warned. Then she leaned out as far as she could while still being covered by the door. She closed her eyes, mentally picturing where the camera had been. Then she let the orb fly.

There was a cracking sound, and Chara poked her head out to see that the light on the camera had gone out. The lens had broken too, and bits of glass now littered the floor beneath it.

"Alright, let's go." Chara climbed out of the cramped space, realizing at the last moment that they were a short way up from the wall, and barely managing to keep herself from falling. Once she was out and stable, she helped Kid, making sure he was able to safely get down, closing the door behind him.

"Yo, what now? Kid asked quietly. Chara took a quick moment to check their surroundings. As far as she could tell, this bottom floor of the warehouse was just one huge room. Though large crates, barrels and various other containers were stacked high in seemingly random locations, obscuring her vision.

Some ways to the left however, she could make out stairs leading up. She pointed towards those.

"If there's more people on the top floor, then that's probably where all the important stuff is," she guessed. "The guys down here are probably just guards."

"So, we head upstairs then?"

"Yeah. Keep an eye out, let me know if anyone's coming our way. The longer we can keep them from seeing us, the better."

The two began to move, and Chara took a brief moment to congratulate herself for wearing shoes for this. Her metal feet would have made too much noise on the hardwood floors here, and she would have risked alerting the guards if she hadn't thought ahead.

Chara and Kid stuck close to the large obstructions, carefully scanning for guards or more cameras before darting to the next tower of old crates.

"Wonder if any of these still has anything in them," Chara muttered as they closed in on the stairway.

"Uh, Chara?" Kid asked urgently. "I think there's someone-"

Chara's eyes widened and she ducked behind a stack of crates as someone began to descend the staircase. Kid gave a startled squeak and rushed in behind her, pressing his back against the wood. Though they couldn't see him any more, the man's footsteps were heavy and they could hear him grumbling quietly to himself. They both froze as the sounds starting coming in their direction, and a large, heavily built man in jeans and a white t-shirt walked past, a pistol strapped to his side.

"Stupid cameras," he muttered, walking past their cover. If he so much as glanced to the side…

"And who is it they make go fix em? 'Oh, Steve, you've got previous experience, you're obviously the right choice.' Okay, first off…"

His voice faded as he passed them, and Chara and Kid both let out a sigh of relief at narrowly managing to remain undetected. Chara gave her boyfriend a look.

"Maybe a little more warning next time?"

"Sorry! I was kinda focusing on the guys down here."

"C'mon, let's go, before that guy realizes that that thing's not just malfunctioning. Is there anyone else up there near the stairs?"

"Doesn't look like it." Kid replied, quickly scanning the ceiling.

"Alright."

With that, they sprinted towards the stairs, quickly ascending them onto the next level, where they slowed to check their surroundings. There was a long corridor, the walls painted off-white. There were several doors lining it on the left side, none of them with any markings to indicate what lay behind them.

"Doesn't look like there's any cameras up here," Chara noted, looking around quickly. "Guess they didn't expect anyone to make it this far." She turned to Kid. "We need to be quick, before that guy comes back. How many guys are in each room?"

"Uh, looks like.. There's three in each of the middle ones, two on the door way at the end of the hallway, and four in the one closest to us."

"So, that leaves three empty rooms." Chara muttered. "I don't think we'll find what we're looking for in those ones, let's try the one at the end of the hall first."

They had only gone a few steps however, when one of the doors opened, revealing a skinny man, also casually dressed. His eyes widened upon seeing the two, but Chara bolted forward, planting a metal fist in his stomach, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to fold over. A quick swipe at his legs, and he was on the ground, out of breath.

"Well, there goes the sneaky approach," Chara muttered, as the two other Humans in what appeared to be a barely furnished lounge, turned towards her at the disturbance. She started running towards them as they drew weapons, accessing her phone systems as she did so, calling both her mother's phone and Vigil's.

"We got spotted, gonna need your help!" she called, knocking one man's weapon out of his hand and quickly beating him to the ground. She turned to find the other one already aiming his pistol at her, a satisfied smirk on his lips.

"Headbutt tackle!" The unexpected cry threw the man off guard, and he hesitated just long enough for Kid to slam into him, head first, knocking him to the ground. The sudden impact made the gun go off, but the bullet flew harmlessly through the air, imbedding itself in the wall.

"Well, if they didn't know we were here already…" Chara raced back towards the door, kicking the Overwatch grunt she had taken down first back down as he attempted to rise. "Come on! We'll try the next door!"

Chara could make out the sounds of gunfire and panicked shouting from down below, signalling that their backup had already arrived. She didn't have time to dwell on that though, by the time she and Kid had reached the next room, more Overwatch thugs were coming out into the hallway, weapons ready.

She flung open a door and pulled Kid inside before any of the men could fire, slamming the door shut behind them, hoping to buy a few extra seconds. The room they had entered was darker, the only lights coming from various monitors set up around the walls. Several computers were set up along the wall to their left, as well as a few communication panels.

One man was typing frantically on a keyboard, while another was flicking switches on one of the panels. The rooms final occupant was cowering in the corner, hiding his head away behind his knees.

"Oh no you don't!" Chara growled, calling the men's souls from their bodies, halting their work at the unfamiliar sensation. She lept towards them, cracking their skulls together and allowing them both to fall limply to the floor.

"Kid! See if you can hold the door against them for a minute!" The boy nodded and quickly slammed himself against the door, just as it started to open, digging his claws into the floor to give him better grip. The pressure from the other side increased suddenly, and he had to strain against the door to keep it from opening.

Chara was not idle in the meantime, pulling the flash drive from her pocket, then pausing, realizing she didn't know which of the computers she was supposed to go for. She opted for the one that the Human had been typing into, and shoved it into the USB port. Vigil had told her it was set up to immediately begin downloading data without any prompting, and she hoped he was right, for right at that moment, the door burst open, sending Kid stumbling back.

The first man through was dressed casually like the others, apparently Overwatch didn't believe in uniforms. But this one had patches sewn onto his shirt at the shoulders, each one bearing the sigil of a red x through a circle.

The man opened fire, and Chara instinctively grabbed Kid, shoving him out of the way as the bullets flew at her, bouncing off, but each one leaving a dent. Before she could launch her own attack however, Vigil crashed in through the ceiling, dust and debris showering down around him and obscuring her view of the Overwatch officer.

"Vigil! That's the officer!" Chara cried, though there was no sign of the man as the dust began to clear. The other Overwatch thugs had fallen back at Vigil's entrance, shouting in alarm.

Chara jerked back."Where'd he go?" she exclaimed.

"I see him!" Vigil called, launching himself at the Humans before they had a chance to react, pushing them out of the way of the door and towards the stairway. "Go after him, I'll secure the data, then come after you! Hurry!"

Chara was already running, Kid bolting after her. They were just in time to see the man pull open a window on the far side of the hallway and leap through it. Approaching it, it was revealed to lead to a fire escape on the back of the building, and the officer was tearing down the stairs, already nearing the ground. Kid and Chara wasted no time following him, and they hit the ground not long after the officer had done so, chasing after him as he sprinted towards an alleyway not far from they were.

They were unable to catch him before he entered it, and by the time the teens had reached it, there was no sign of him. This was an older part of the city, and the alleyways could twist in on themselves like a maze, if not for Kid's visor, the pursuit would have been futile. As it was…

"Yo, he went that way!" Kid called, pointing to the left side-alley they were fast approaching with his muzzle, his pace never slowing.

"He can't outrun us forever!" Chara growled, turning on an extra boost of speed and skidding into the new alleyway, her feet sending up small clouds of dirt with every impact on the ill-kept concrete.

After a few minutes of chasing him, Kid calling out directions every time they reached an intersection, they realized they were no longer the only ones chasing the man, as Vigil soared past overhead on his teal wings. The two teens turned on another burst of speed sprinting into another windy alleyway.

They quickly slowed to a stop however, seeing their quarry before them, leaning against a wall and panting heavily. Before they could challenge him, however, Vigil landed. The armored Shifter did not hesitate, lashing out with one arm and grabbing the officer by his collar and slamming him into the wall, holding him up enough that his feet dangled just above the ground.

"You know who I am," Vigil growled. "Tell me, where have your people taken the prince?"

Chara and Kid approached slowly, watching as the Human glared down at Vigil with pure hatred in his eyes, before spitting on the man's helmet.

"I would rather die than give you anything, you filth," he sneered.

Vigil was silent for a moment, wiping away the man's saliva with his free hand. Then he lowered him to the ground.

"I believe you," he said quietly.

Before either of the onlookers even had a chance to blink, Vigil's tail lashed out with blinding speed, impaling the Human through the middle of his chest. The man gave a choked gasp, staring down in disbelief at the thick limb now protruding from his body, blood beginning to stain the grey tail. Vigil whipped his tail away, flinging the man's body to the other side of the alleyway, away from Chara and Kid. The Human crashed and sprawled across the ground, unmoving.

Kid's eyes were wide with shock, and his gaze flicked from the corpse, to Vigil's blood-stained tail. He began to shake, and Chara quickly grabbed him, moving herself so she was blocking both the sights that had transfixed him and forcing him to look into her eyes.

"Kid? Kid!" She shook him, finally managing to fully lock his gaze on her own.

"Chara?" He asked, his voice trembling. "I… he..."

"Listen to me. I need you to go back to the warehouse, and check on my parents. Make sure that we've got access to the data. We need that if we're going to get Frisk back. Can you do that?"

Kid slowly blinked, and his vision seemed to clear.

"Uh, right! I'll get on that!"

"Go. Be quick, and don't stop for anything." Chara kissed the tip of his muzzle quickly to bolster him, then stepped back, allowing Kid to turn and bolt away without a backwards glance.

Then Chara turned her attention to Vigil who was watching her silently. She took a step towards him, her red eyes blazing with anger.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she hissed through clenched teeth.

"He was the most influential man in the base. If he would not work with us, then I could not risk-"

"I don't care that you killed him," Chara snapped, cutting Vigil off. "Those bastards deserve everything they get for what they've done. But you killed him right in front of Kid. You could have told us to leave, or let the guy go and take him out after we went back. But you didn't."

"I could not allow-"

"You don't get it, do you? You claim that you fight to protect Monsters, but what I just saw says otherwise. Kid is… everything about Monsters that you should be fighting to protect. Innocent. Trusting. Accepting. Kind-hearted. It's the job of the fighters like you and me to preserve that, as much as it is for us to keep them safe. He's only known you a little while, yet thinks you're cool and so he looks up to you.

"And then you butchered someone right in front of him. How do you think that's going to affect him? How do you think that's going to wound him? You might as well have stabbed him instead. It would have been more merciful."

Vigil was silent under her verbal barrage, and as it ended, he bowed his head.

"You… are correct." His voice was strained, and wavered slightly. "I am sorry." He tightened the hands at his sides into fists. "It seems I have grown too accustomed to fighting on my own. This... is not something I should have lost sight of."

"I'm not the one you need to apologize to," Chara snarled, turning and stalking stiffly away. "Come on," she called, though she did not look to see if Vigil followed. "Let's see if there's anything we can salvage out of this disaster."