Asriel wasn't exactly sure what he thought about Falmercia. As Flowey he had seen her as a threat, but now that he had a soul again, it was becoming harder to see her objectively. True, she was still terrifying in a 'she could kill his entire family without trying too hard', but she also had been pretty nice. Also, the fact that she was stressing the way she was right now was a bit of a sign to him that she actually cared about everyone.

She had even given up something that he had never thought the sloth demon would - sleep. They had all been moved to the lab on the surface to stop one of those demons from taking them out individually - everyone was taking off time from work and school even - and everyone had been discussing taking turns to stay up and keep watch. Asriel was surprised by how against the idea of staying up that he was, with his first soul having full permission to stay up all night would have been the dream, but now…. Now he was just too tired to.

Falmercia came to his rescue (and Sans and Frisk's he realized) and said that she didn't trust any of 'the mortals' to stay up, and demanded that she be put in charge of it since demons didn't actually need to sleep. It was odd, Falmercia had mentioned it before many times, but Asriel hard time remembering that fact considering how much Falmercia slept. Turns out the others, especially his mom had too, and Falmercia had to ensure them that she slept all the time more out of true laziness rather than having a sloth stained soul like he or Sans or Frisk.

While the grown-ups were moving stuff and Chara had stolen Frisk away to stars know where Asriel caught Falmercia mumbling to herself.

"Alright, if you're so eager…" Falmercia raised her hand and an orange soul flashed in front of her before shifting into what could only be described as a thinner, less visible form of The Barrier that used to trap them underground.

"What?" Asriel asked, what had Falmercia meant by 'eager'?

Falmercia looked over to Asriel, "I'm creating a miniature barrier with one of the souls, of course it's not going to mean much in the way of protection since a barrier of one soul only needs one soul to break, but anything it will act as an alarm bell to alert me if they try anything when I'm out."

"But won't that trap us in?" The lab was big, but being trapped would definitely make Asriel feel more claustrophobic than he was.

Falmercia smirked and shook her head, "Nope, I have built it so if you mortals want, you can come and go as you please, but only you lot, so if you have any unexpected guests for whatever reason you should send me a memo before someone dusts themselves."

"But how-?" That sounded way more complicated than the old barrier.

"Because I'm not a noob and actually know what I'm doing - I mean, it's basic soul magic."

It took a moment for Asriel to take in what Falmercia had just said, and he burst out laughing.

Falmercia sent him a questioning look.

"Hahaha… it's just… hahaha… noob…pffff!" Asriel got out between laughs.

"Contrary to popular belief, I actually pay attention when you kids talk about your games," Falmercia said snidely, although she was smirking in good nature.

She waved her hands in few oddly complex gestures, twisting and stretching the magic of the barrier. "That should do it. I'll be off now."

Asriel hadn't noticed Sans was standing right next to him until the skeleton spoke up. "off where?"

Falmercia looked back at Sans through the corner of her eye, "I'm going to scout out the playing field. A good tactician never sits idly and allows the pieces to move too long without interfering… even sloth demon tacticians."

Sans narrowed his eye sockets, "alright, if that's all you're planning on."

Falmercia left without saying another word. Why did Asriel not like this?


Papyrus cringed as he searched through the kitchen for ingredients. Noodles, noodles, ketchup, noodles, coffee, ugh- a have eaten spider doughnut, that was it, he was going to the grocery store to retrieve some acceptable ingredients.

And who better to come with him than his friend Falmercia, now where was she? "FALMERCIA?! FALMERCIA?! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS GOING TO THE GROCERY STORE, AND REQUESTS THAT YOU CO-"

"she's gone paps, left over an hour ago," Sans said from a doorway.

"OH?! WHERE DID SHE GO?" Papyrus turned to Sans, who shrugged, much to Papyrus' dismay. "THEN I SUPPOSE THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL HAVE TO GO BY HIMSELF." Papyrus turned to the front door to leave, but Sans shortcut in the way.

"no can do, bro. as falmercia said, it's too dangerous to go out alone." Sans cautioned.

"OH." Papyrus looked down in disappointment. Everyone had been lacking DETERMINATION since they had been visited by Falmercia's siblings, and he really had been hoping that he could cheer them all up by cooking for them, but if he couldn't get ingredients, then that plan was busted.

"i guess i will go with you. falmercia said we'd be going out for supplies in her first plan, so it should be fine." Sans words made Papyrus beam.

"THANKYOU BROTHER." Papyrus new that his brother had been thinking a lot about recent events, and that his brother was concerned about what Falmercia was planning, but Papyrus didn't think that there was anything to worry about.

And no! It wasn't because he was naive like some of the others thought he was, he had good reasons! Falmercia was getting better, he could see it. She even knew it herself- she had told him when she told him to stop calling her demon! He was certain that Falmercia wouldn't actually hurt an innocent like what Queen Toriel thought that she was going to.

When the brothers had finished their shopping and had begun to head back, Papyrus began to feel uncomfortable… something just wasn't right. From what he could tell, Sans also sensed something was off, Sans went to grab Papyrus, but he was interrupted by a human male who pushed him out of the way and kept walking towards Papyrus. Papyrus nervously stepped back, unsure of what to do.

"I'm sorry man, I just can't stop." The human sounded pained, and without looking at what they were doing, pulled out a knife and went to stab at Papyrus.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a black quarterstaff collided with the human's head, causing him to fall to the ground. The staff faded into black mist, and Falmercia stepped into view, frowning. She summoned her staff again in her hand and kept walking towards the human on the ground.

The human got up again, and when to make another jab at Papyrus, but their soul suddenly popped out of their chest and turned blue as Sans sent the human flying against a wall, effectively keeping them pinned.

"falmercia, what's going on?" Sans asked, but Falmercia ignored him.

"You made a deal, didn't you?!" She accused loudly, oh my, she looked angry. Papyrus was beginning to notice she wasn't good at holding her newfound temper.

"Y-yeah?" The human managed to squeak out.

"With who?" She demanded again, now standing right in front of the human, her staff raised.

"I-I don't know." The human said, voice desperate, "Please, I didn't want to hurt anyone, I just couldn't control my-"

Falmercia didn't wait for him to finish his sentence as she stabbed the human with her staff, his soul cracked as his eyes became lifeless and her crumbled to the ground. Falmercia's staff faded into mist as she turned away.

"We need to leave before anyone else gets here."

The two brothers stared at each other eye-sockets wide.

"FALMERCIA, HE DIDN'T MEAN IT, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO KILL HIM?" Papyrus asked, feeling his soul fill with disappointment. No, she didn't just do that, the man was innocent!

"He made a deal, he wouldn't have been able to stop until you were dead Paps." She explained yawning, "I just wish I could take the soul, but that would draw you guys too much attention."

Hurt began to fill Papyrus' chest, Falmercia didn't even care! He, he had believed in her, and she had been completely merciless.

"falmercia, tell me that there was no other way." Sans asked, voice dark. Falmercia hesitated in her steps, but remained silent. The rest of the way back, they walked in a heavy silence.