Toriel's phone rang twenty minutes before it was time for her to leave, not long after she had dismissed the kids in her class. It was an unknown number. Assuming it was likely something to do with the formalisation of treaties between humans and monster, she decided to accept the call and bring the phone to her ear.

"Hello ? Ms Dreemurr?"

It was an adult human male voice, one that she was not familiar with, though.

"Yes ? What is it ?" The boss monster wondered, noticing that her caller sounded rather concerned.

"Its about Frisk. I've found them laying down on the street. They seem to be unconscious. I don't know for how long they have been there..."

Toriel covered her mouth with her hand. "What ? Oh, dear. Are they alright ? I am coming immediately, tell me where they are." Toriel hurried up to take her things and get ready to leave a little early.

"Well... They don't look like they've been badly injured or anything. There's some dried up blood near their nose but it doesn't look like much. Maybe they just fainted from the heat and hit it when they fell ?" He took a wild guess. "They are breathing just fine but they'll catch something bad if they stay. Besides, its dangerous for an unconscious child to stay in a place like this. They are on the Arcas street, near the 31th. You should come pick them up before something bad happens to them." The man explained.

Toriel was on the verge of hyperventilating. How irresponsible of her had it been to let Frisk on their own when they were like this ? The teachers and other students couldn't be around them at all times...

"Thank you very much for telling me. I will be here in a minute." Toriel responded not without some fear in her voice. Frisk must have been here for over an hour... She hoped they were alright. At least they had been found by someone well intentioned, she would rather not think about the possible alternatives.

After excusing herself with some brief explanations, the monster ran a few minutes to the location she had been described to eventually find a men kneeling down next to a passed out Frisk. Toriel knelt down next to them as well and held their hand. It was unresponsive.

"Have you called an ambulance ?" She questioned.

"No." The human responded. "Calling you was the first thing i did after checking their state."

"I see." She closed her eyes. "How did you know my number ?" She suddenly wondered.

"I just called the city hall as i'd know they would have it and asked them to give it to me. Said it was an emergency." He explained. "Well, i think i'll get going on." The human got up again and waved Toriel goodbye.

"Thank you for your help." The queen thanked him. "Oh, how rude of me. I didn't ask for your name !"

"Name's Levi. And no need to worry about it. If anything, i would have blamed myself if i didn't do anything and something bad happened to that kid. Bye !" The human turned around and left with a clean conscience.

Toriel took out her cell phone again and decided to call an ambulance. They were supposed to have to go to a hospital anyway in less than an hour. And while it may not look that bad when looking at them, given that Frisk was patient zero of a new medical issue, this fainting potentially quite worrying.

Frisk woke up lying on something soft. The area around them was quiet, with not even the slightest sound disturbing the silence.

They attempted to open their eyes but were unable to, reminding them of the cruel reality of what had happened to them previously.

'Chara ?' They tried reaching through to their headmate. 'Are you awake ?'

I am. We seem to have woken up simultaneously.

'Can we o-'

Yes Frisk, we can open your eyes. They answered immediately.

After another short countdown, the two managed to open their eyes. Thankfully this was an action simple enough for them to synchronise. Things were already bad enough without them losing sight as well.

The room was entirely white. They were laying on a bed and a couple pieces of machinery seemed to be checking for their heartbeat and other similar metrics. It was easy to identify that they were in some kind of hospital room.

They didn't know how they got here. Actually, they didn't know what time it was either. There was no clock in this room.

There was not much more that they could do besides looking around them and waiting. They were still practically incapable of moving.

It seems we have eventually been found. Chara pointed out. They had passed out for real before somebody came to their aid, but apparently someone did at some point. It may have been Toriel, since she would follow the same path as them when going home. If so was the case, they would rather not imagine how much worry they must have caused her.

Well, in all cases, if they were here then Toriel and possibly more of their friends must at least know of what happened to them.

This made them wonder, as they were meant to come here anyway for a different purpose, had the doctors already started collecting data on them and their condition ? Or were they letting Frisk rest for now before starting with more serious procedures ?

I would imagine the first to be likely.

'You're biased.'

Maybe i am, but i stand by this answer.

Unable to do anything else, they waited for someone to eventually check on them. In order to pass time, the two of them decided to play some games within their mind such as rock-paper-scissors or trying to guess what the other was thinking about. There were a few cases of accidental cheating as they struggled to dissimulate their thoughts from one another. Although, even when this didn't happen, three quarters of their rock-paper-scissors games ended in tie and they always found what the other was thinking of after only very few questions. It was almost too easy...

They didn't know how long did they spend doing this. But it was a pretty long time. Enough for them to play dozens of rounds. Eventually, someone came in. She approached their bed and checked on the readings. In order to attempt to catch her attention, Frisk and Chara blinked repeatedly until they were noticed.

"Oh ! You've awake." She reacted. "How do you feel ?"

After a little pause. They blinked a few more times. They were not in capacity to answer any other way than like this.

"Hum... Do you feel alright ?" She asked again, wondering if perhaps Frisk hadn't heard her. But there was still no proper answer from the child.

"...Can you speak ?" She eventually questioned after Frisk responded to her previous question by blinking multiple times again rather than speaking up.

They did the same again.

"Blink once for yes, twice for no ?" She proposed.

Frisk and Chara blinked twice, making her wince.

"Oh... Well, don't worry, we'll help you." She attempted to reassure them. "Wait a moment, i'll go tell the other you are up. I will be back any second." The doctor hurried out of the room.

The two children felt slightly annoyed at being told to stay put. It wasn't like they were going to go anywhere...

Soon enough, three doctors entered the room. The second doctor, a man who looked a bit older and more experienced than the other two, spoke up.

"Salutations, Frisk. As you can see, you're in the hospital. You've been brought here after you've passed out on the way home. Toriel called an ambulance after a stranger found you and contacted her."

'Don't worry' He added. 'This incident didn't seem to leave any problematic repercussions onyou. However, we will have to keep you here for some time to we can study you to help you with your disease. Is this alright ?' The man asked.

Frisk blinked once. This was more or less what they were expecting to hear.

'That means yes.' The first doctor pointed out, realising she didn't mention to her collegues how did she communicate with them earlier.

The second doctor scratched his small beard before wondering out loud. 'Can't they sign if they cannot speak ? Give a thumbs up or down ?'

Frisk blinked twice. The first doctor reported the response.

'Why not ?' He questioned himself before the thought came to him that Frisk had been staying in the exact same position this whole time, raising a doubt inside him. 'Can… you move ?'

Frisk blinked twice again.

The three medical professonials looked at each other and at them worryingly. 'I'll check on the records.' The third one said before leaving their side to use one of the machines in order to try and understand what was going on with Frisk.

Sean, the second doctor, felt particularly empathetic for them. The reason he had chosen this career path in the first place was because his own younger brother was paralysed for life as a pre-teen following an accident on the road and a medical mistake that ruined any chance of recovery left for him.

Let him be damned if he let the same happen to Frisk under his care. Whatever was going on with them, he would do his best to get them back on their feet. He would never forgive himself if he didn't.

'Don't worry, we're here to help you.' He attempted to reassure them as he could only imagine how scary it must be to be in their situation. 'Toriel will be here soon, she'll be glad to know you're awake.'

Frisk blinked once.

'Hmm…' The first doctor spoke up again. 'Do you want us to try and find a way for you to talk other than with yes or no ?' She proposed. Being restrained this much in their ability to communicate was likely very unconvenient.

The two children quickly blinked once.

'Alright. I'll try to find something for you.' She left the room, presumably to come back soon with a solution.

Just as the door was about to close behind her, the third doctor came back and spoke up. 'There doesn't seem to be anything abnormal with the readings. From what they say, Frisk does not seem like they should be any more unwell than they were a few days ago, there isn't anything that suggests they would have issues with speaking or moving.' He reported.

'Well, clearly they do.' The other doctor responded. 'Let me see…' He went to see for himself.

Only the third doctor was now left with Frisk. While his two collegues were busy, he helped them pass the time and distract themself from the bitter reality by telling a little story about his life.

'They are all being really nice with us.' Frisk mentally pointed out to Chara.

Well, they have to. They need you to be cooperative. The first fallen human mentioned. They likely aren't doing this just for the sake of it.

Frisk made note of the use of the word 'likely'. 'Well i still appreciate kindness when i see it. And i do think it isn't just because of that.' They answered.

Possibly. Chara admitted. Their hatred for humanity seemed to have weakened to some extent.

The first doctor came back with a singular piece of paper. 'Frisk, what do you think of this ?' She approached them and showed it to them. It was a translation paper between the latin alphabet and morse code.

This was an interesting idea, both of them thought at the same time. Using morse code, they could form words or sentences with only blinking. The one issue was that it would take a while for them to spell out anything, but it was a way for them to speak at least.

Frisk and Chara blinked once.

'Do you want me to leave it here so you can learn it ?' She continued with a small smile on her face.

The children blinked once again.

'Great !' She went ahead and left the paper just to their right, angled so that both Frisk and potential visitors could see it and hopefully render communication easier.

Frisk and Chara spent the next hour alternating between daydreaming and trying to memorise morse code. On a couple occasions, someone would come into their room and use some weird sciency-looking gadget on their head, presumably to gather some sort of data on them which could be useful for uh… doctor things ? At some point, a sort of helmet was put onto them. They weren't given details on what it did. They presumed it must be for reading like, brain waves or something ? They didn't know what they were saying, neither of them had a PHD in medicine...

All of these looked like really expensive stuff, they thought. Given their situation, it was likely that quite the budget was made available to study them and help them, Frisk assumed.

They also asked them a few yes or no questions regarding the situation or the order in which certain things happened. For example, that it was the sudden immobilisation that caused them to fall and not the other way around.

"Frisk ? You have some visit." They heard the voice of another person they hadn't seen yet before the door opened to a still sweaty Toriel. She had likely ran to her car the moment she heard the news that they were conscious again to get here as fast as possible.

"My child..." She approached the bed on which they were laying down. "I am sorry, it was irresponsible for me to leave you alone for so long when you were in no condition to." She knelt down next to the bed and held their hand after the doctor in the room confirmed to her that she could.

There were many things that Frisk wanted to tell Toriel. That it wasn't her fault, that they were the one that was sorry, that they were happy that she had come here... But they felt bad for her too, knowing that they were hiding the truth from the very person that cared for them every day.

There was actually a lot they were hiding from everyone. From Chara to their SAVE power passing by many things from their past life or how was the barrier actually broken. They kept everything to themself and to Chara, envelopping themself under a thick layer of secrets and dissimulated truths that separated the honest merciful child people saw them as from the plural traumatised neurodivergent time traveller that they really were.

Today, they felt the weight of the secrets they held over them. Like it was all going to finally explode on them at any moment.

Instead of saying any of these things they had wanted to say, which would have taken a long time to spell out anyway, they just told her one thing. One thing to sum it all up and that came from both of them at once.

I

L-O-V-E

Y-O-U

Toriel began tearing up a little.

Why ? Why did this have to happen ?

The way Frisk was lying there... In that bed... Sick with a disease they didn't know how to cure... Unable to get up... And so suddenly, too...

"Chara..." She whispered, barely loud enough for Frisk to hear. This was all way too similar to the story of how the life of her first human child had ended for the old queen to bear.

The first fallen human felt their heart ache, or rather Frisk's heart. If they still could, Frisk would have given them a mental hug. But alas all they could do was share their anguish. They almost asked Chara again about the question of revealing their existence but they could feel how scared and unready their companion was and that asking would be pointless.'

The door suddenly opened and everyone but Frisk turned towards it.

'Frisk ?' The doctor asked. 'Did you feel something just now ?'

Everyone now turned towards Frisk, who stayed silent for a moment.

'This may be important.' He insisted.

The pair only had a couple instants to decide what to do. An inner debate ensued.

I do not believe anything major happened to you physically just now. Your heart rate did go up a bit and such but that is nothing worth such an intervention. Especially as Toriel is here which would make it normal for you to feel emotional. Either they are wrong or...

'Or they saw something from that helmet thingy. Which would me-'

Which would mean what they saw likely had to do with me. I did just have a significant emotional reaction of my own just now...

'Do you think they noticed that ?'

Well, they noticed something at least. This unfortunately seems like the likeliest option currently... They sounded afraid.

'What do i say ?' Frisk asked, not wanting to make this decision for them in case Chara was right. 'In that case, they must want me to confirm to have felt what they've perceived.'

I... I cannot do this, Frisk.

'If it is what you want, i can lie to them and say that nothing happened. Remember ?' They mentioned.

It is what i want, but i am also afraid of risking your safety with my selfishness. Our condition is quickly getting worse, even if it is what i want, i cannot ask you to lie to those supposed to help us with a clean conscience.

'But it is what you want ?'

...Yes

'Then i won't say it. Thank you for caring about my safety, but don't worry. I always find a way in the end, don't i ?' They snickered in their mind.

"No, nothing out of the ordinary i think." Frisk finally answered.

The doctor bit his lip.

"Anything new ?" Toriel perked up and asked.

"Yes, actually. Some pretty intriguing news..." He sounded a little worried.

The kids got tense while Toriel listened carefully.

"Firstly, the surplus of brain activity has went down slightly. From 1.7 to 1.6. This might be a good sign or the beginning of a natural recovery. However, we do not know what would be causing this change yet." He explained. Toriel nodded.

"The more concerning part is however, that there may be more to these parallel sequences of thought that we initially believed."

Frisk felt a chill run down their spine.

The doctor continued. "Not only is most information from Frisk's senses treated twice, but parallel chains of neurons issued from duplicated sensorial information are often contradictory to each other. Those extra attempts at formulating thoughts are not mere duplicates that waste energy, they go through a full thought process different from Frisk's."

"W-what does this mean ?" Toriel sounded very worried.

"We are not certain. It is definitely different from MPD/DID, but it seems to share some similarities with it. This is a brand new case but we do have some theories about it. As all of this happens within the conscious part of their brain, we believed Frisk should be aware of these extra thoughts to at least some extent. But if they are not aware of it, then the likeliest option would be that these might come from an independent split personality running subconsciously alongside their own, if not an outright separate conscio-"

He continued until a loud beeping sound echoed through the room and made him stop. The doctor hurried to the machine to see what was wrong and saw that Frisk's heart beat had skyrocketed from 80 to almost 190 within the last couple minutes, something that the machine had considered as dangerous.

What was the most intriguing was not the event itself but rather its cause. How could his response warrant so much stress in Frisk ? Unless...

He ran a few scenarios in his head regarding a few different reasons as to why this could have happened, but the conclusion he came to was always the same : Frisk must know something, this was simply not a natural reaction.

Yet, they had just claimed that they didn't notice anything odd recently while data had shown a significant divergence just now. Things just didn't add up.

He approached the child.

"Frisk, this might sounds like a very strange question, but please answer honestly. Do you ever feel like you aren't alone in your head ?"

Author notes :

Nobody is ready for this... Especially not in these circumstances.

Sorry for the chapter being late. I've had lots to deal with IRL.