Undertale: The Royal Hunt

by HowManyJays

"The little girl just could not sleep because her thoughts were way too deep, her mind had gone out for a stroll and fallen down the rabbit hole." - A life of fear is not what Frisk ever expected to have. - Warning: this is a dark AU that tackles mature themes and is not recommended for sensitive readers.

23. Snowdin Part 7

Snowdin Part 7

Reginald did not expect to return to Snowdin this soon. Maybe not ever. Only a few hours had passed since the funeral, but as he was heading through Waterfall, he felt great dismay as he realized his book, the one he had bought from the Snowdin Library, was missing. It was one of a kind. One he had in childhood, but no longer published almost anywhere in the underground, or at least not legally.

The book was a story, a supposed true story, regarding the prince and the human child that fell down here, a long time ago, and the eventual demise of both. But it was clear that with this new regime going on, the new law and The Royal Hunt, that any media that depicted humankind in any good light would be either heavily regulated if not outright destroyed in The Capital area. Thankfully, being an ex-member of the Royal Hunt, Reggie was able to have some more leeways in possessing such things, although he lost his copy a long time ago. But since Snowdin wasn't of much interest to the kingdom these days, the library apparently had a single copy that slipped through the cracks. Even then, he still felt pleasantly surprised to see a live, old yet undamaged copy.

Truth be told, he had no idea why this book, in particular, fancied him so as he browsed the library while waiting for the ceremony. Maybe it was just the rarity of it. Or maybe there was something personal about it that he couldn't recall. Something that reminded him of some childhood memory long forgotten. It was also surprisingly cheap, as Lenny the librarian was clearly clueless about its value, so Reggie almost felt like he stole it from it.

Either way, he was reluctantly returning to Snowdin to get it. He had stopped at Grillby's before heading to the funeral, so chances were it was most likely somewhere in there.

Just my luck, he thought.

He tried to hide his face with his jacket hood as he went to town, even though he knew he would stand out either way with his large, muscular build. After everything he's done, he knew he wouldn't be properly welcome there.

But to his surprise, there were no monsters in the streets. The town was quiet and lifeless like everyone had up and vanished. As he looked around, confused, he noticed that there were still signs of people living here, although subtly. There were tools that were scattered, footprints that ran hastily back and forth. Clearly, everyone had left in a hurry. But why?

Then he glanced at some peering eyes coming from behind the windows of some of the houses.

"Yo, what's going on?!" Reggie called towards one window.

The figures inside appeared to tremble in shock and quickly closed the curtains.

"Yo, wait!" the rabbit cried.

It was no use. It was now like the figures were never there.

"Leave us alone," the voice of a frail old man said.

"What?!" Reggie said and turned around.

The voice came from a small round like house with the front door slightly ajar. There were no eyes there, Reggie noticed, but he still noticed a presence in the shadows.

"You think we don't know who you are?" an elderly woman's voice said in a frightful manner from the shadows. "Why have you come here to torment us? We have nothing. Do you hear us? Nothing! Haven't we suffered enough?"

"Y-you misunderstand me!" Reggie began. "I'm not-"

The door proceeded to slam itself shut before Reggie could finish. He looked around the town, and all the glaring eyes had turned hidden as well. He knew he was not gonna get his answers from the townsfolk, although he started to suspect what was going on.

"Oh no they can't be here," he muttered to himself in disbelief. "No. Not here. Not today."

The clues to this mystery came clearer as he neared Grillby's, and heard the commotion inside. At first, he just assumed these were the townsfolk having some sort of surprise feast. But then he saw the shapes in the window. These awfully familiar shapes were of the people he had least expected to see this day, in this town, so surely he was mistaken. Was there a human who came here? Then why would The Hunt be feasting instead of on patrol? Unless they caught the human quickly. But that was improbable as only an hour at most had passed since he was in town, so he figured he would've noticed or at least heard there was a human here recently if that was the case.

Reggie stood thinking in front of the door, undecided if he should venture in. The rabbit was in such surprise and indecision that he didn't even glance twice at the strange silhouette huddled by the side of the building, nor the inaudible whispers that came from them. Was this book really worth the possibility of meeting them again? After all the effort he made to distance himself the past few years? But it was a book he would probably not get anywhere else, and not only that, he knew that something about it stuck with him, and he wanted to read and find out what.

So he ignored his concerns, dismissing them as irrational, and headed inside. He pushed the door open, and immediately realized he shouldn't have dismissed his worries.

A group of uncomfortably familiar faces and shapes were inside there. Besides Grillby and his daughter, alongside some old reddish bird, he recognized the duo Umbla and Vissie, who both sat lonesome by a booth away from the rest, harassing Grillby's daughter. Then there was Willy who sat by the far side of the counter up against the wall, and even Eldur, the one once known as RG02 and the one who Reggie dreaded seeing the most, who stood by the front door, keeping watch like a bouncer. And lastly, there was Mickey, sitting by the bar counter in between Willy on his right, and some unfamiliar new recruit on his left. The mad ape sat facing the exist, half sunk in his seat with his legs lazily spread out, while holding a glass of brown beer in one hand, and a half-lit joint oozing green smoke in his other.

The rabbit could not read the expressions underneath their various masks that were now open for the mouths, but he could tell by their smiles, that The Hunters weren't seeing him as a stranger as he hoped, but rather like an old companion they had not seen for a while. But Reggie did share any of those thoughts back towards his old comrades. So he felt almost like those smiles were mocking him, rubbing it in his face the reality that he wasn't able to escape them forever.

"Fuck…" Reggie muttered.

"Ah-ha, Reginald!" Mickey called to him in a cheerful manner. "What a pleasant surprise! How gracious of you to come to see us, on such a fine morning!"

"Yo, what is-?" Reggie began.

"Come in, come in!" Mickey said in a welcoming tone. "We haven't seen you in a long time! Heh. Far too fucking long in fact."

A few minutes earlier.

It took more than just a moment for Flowey to pick the basement lock. It took several, at the very least. Eventually, after a couple of twists and knobs, an audible click was finally heard from the door.

"Vola," Flowey said and removed his vines. "It's open."

"Finally," Frisk said and stood up.

She slightly cracked her back, which was a bit numb from the sitting, and then she picked up the pink backpack, holding it open in front of Flowey.

"Alright, hop in," she said.

"Nah," Flowey said. "I'm gonna walk-er, crawl on my own now."

"You trust yourself for that?" Frisk asked him.

"Of course," Flowey answered. "Erm… mostly."

"Well, just long as you don't slow us down," Frisk said.

"I won't," Flowey said. "Trust me."

"I do, I do," Frisk answered.

With that, she equipped the mostly empty backpack and went and pushed the basement door open. Once she took a step forward onto the snow, a rush of cold breeze and wind hit her, and the air became fresh with life once more.

"Alrighty," Flowey said, who had crawled ahead of her. "Coast is clear."

Frisk took a few more steps onto the wet snow, and the discomfort of her shoeless foot returned as the dry sock became once again annoyingly wet.

"Aw shit," she muttered.

She looked up towards the house, confirming it was indeed the house of the skeleton brothers, and she saw what looked like their silhouettes in the upper window.

"Still feels bad to leave without saying goodbye or even letting them know," Frisk said.

Her companion was strangely quiet.

"Right Flowey?" she added.

She looked down at the ground and turned quiet. Her friend was gone, and in his place was a strange trail leading further into town. She followed the trail with her eyes, and as she expected, at the end of it, she saw Flowey, quickly crawling away from her.

"Flowey?!" Frisk called after him.

Flowey didn't reply. Just kept crawling away from her like he didn't even hear her.

Frisk began to quickly walk after him. She couldn't believe it. Was this his whole plan? Ditch her as soon as he could walk again? But then, why head deeper into town, where the Royal Hunt was. Unless… he was actually working for-

No, Frisk thought. She refused to believe that. He wasn't working for them, right? But then again, she barely knew him. He said it himself in fact. Maybe she was wrong about him. About everything. Why was she so adamant to trust him in the first place?

Whatever was happening, she demanded to get some answers from him.

Fortunately, Flowey eventually slowed down until he had clear difficulty in pushing through the snow, so it didn't take long before Frisk caught up with him. Once he saw she was close, he tried to hurry in his steps.

"What the hell Flowey?!" Frisk exclaimed.

"You wouldn't understand," Flowey answered with surprising urgency. "I… I have to go there."

"Go where?" Frisk asked. "Are you leaving me?"

"I… it's not like that," Flowey said, still crawling. "I just… I need to do this."

"Do what?" Frisk asked him. "Flowey, what's going on?"

Without answering her question, Flowey proceeded to quickly hurry in his step, so now Frisk had to resort to running to catch up.

"Hey, wait!" she exclaimed.

They both ran for a bit through town, the snow splattering from her footsteps. It was only after they passed the library that Frisk realized where he was going. The flowers seemed intent on heading toward Grillby's, the place she saw all the hunters from before entering. She felt a tinge of fear grasp her heart, and she felt like her fearful suspicions were about to be confirmed. And she couldn't understand any of it.

"What the fuck are you doing Flowey!" Frisk asked, befuddled. "Why the hell are you going closer towards these assholes?!"

"I have to take a look!" Flowey said with urgency. "I… I just have to."

"Why?!" Frisk replied. "Why the fuck do you need to-?!"

Frisk paused in her steps as her companion turned around to face her. His eyes had gone pure black like a void, and his brows had turned angry.

"I just do!" Flowey replied harshly.

Then, almost as abruptly as it came, his angry expression faded just as he turned to look away in shame.

"Sorry," he said. "It's just that…"

"What is it?" Frisk asked calmly.

"They have… something," Flowey answered, looking away.

"They have what?" Frisk asked.

"I… I don't know," Flowey said.

"What?" Frisk replied, confused.

"Let me explain!" Flowey said, sounding irritated. "Sorry. I don't know what it is. But… I can feel it. Something they have I… I don't know how to explain it. I wish I did but… just trust me. I need to see what it is."

He turned back to the bar and continued to crawl towards it.

"Flowey?!" Frisk cried after him. "Oh… screw it."

Her companion reached the side of the bar now, a wall of wooden planks where a convenient crack lay on the sides, freeing out into the snow a soft ray of mellow light. Flowey only proceeded to stop once he was right in front of it, although judging by his weird turn, he seemed to be planning to go all the way around the building before noticing the convenient crack.

Frisk had also stopped her running, resulting in crouching through the snow instead. She reached her companion, who was so invested in whatever was happening inside that he didn't notice her.

"Ok, Flowey," Frisk whispered. "Just tell me. What do they have that's so important?"

Flowey looked up at her with a bewildered expression.

"What are you doing here!" he whispered. "You didn't need to follow me!"

"I know I-" Frisk began.

"Do you know how dangerous this is?!" Flowey interrupted. "If The Hunt sees you, they'll-"

"I don't care!" Frisk interrupted. "Look. I know I'm terrible at being… supportive. I know I've laughed at you here and there. But… I want to help you. Trust me, please. I really do. But I can't help if you don't tell me what it is."

"I told you, I don't know," Flowey answered. "There is just something. Something in there that gives me this pull and… ok, as soon as I see what they have, then we can go out of here, ok? Besides, it's not like you weren't pulling stunts like these at least two times in the forest."

"How is-"

Frisk stopped herself for speaking. She was mildly insulted, yes, but she couldn't find anything to say that could counter it. So instead, she sighed tiredly.

"Alright I'll stay," she said with reluctance.

"Good," Flowey said and went back to spy through the crack.

He stared intently through the crack now, almost like she wasn't even there with him.

Some audible conversations and wicked sounding laughter came from inside the bar, and Frisk once more couldn't resist her morbid curiosity and so joined her companion in peaking through. On the bright side, the crack was wide enough for both of them to peek through simultaneously, although not enough to get a good look at who about half of them were, so most of it came down to a process of elimination.

The first ones Frisk saw were the large warrior lady, Umbla, and the smiling masked goblin, Vissie, both of whom sat down by a booth cluelessly right where the crack was placed, with their masks open for their mouths. Umbla's mouth was thick-lipped with tusks protruding out from the jaws, while Vissie's was like that of a dog's. Another figure stood by their table, one clearly not a member of the hunt, pouring nervously into their large glasses like a service lady. It was another humanoid figure made of fire, similar to Grillby, except this one was green, much shorter and possibly female judging by her feminine shape and clothing. She wore a simple blue dress that was dirty and wrinkled, and she was clearly uneasy by the two ladies she was pouring for, both of whom seemed to have some sort of hold on her like on an invisible leash.

Then Frisk noticed Avy, who she remembered as the old storyteller bird from before, who sat by the small round table at the far end. Strangely enough, he seemed to be completely left alone with his drinks, like no one saw or cared about the civilian amongst them He made the occasional glance from his glass towards the two warrior ladies and green fire girl at the end of the wall, presumably with disgust clear on his ancient beak. Grillby stared at them as well from his place behind the counter. He seemed anxious, helpless even, in a way like he wanted to intervene but knew the awful consequences that would happen if he did, so all he could do was watch.

There was also the drake monster with the dragon mask, Eldur, who stood quietly beside the outside door, standing watch like a bouncer.

But the last three, Frisk couldn't get a good look at from her angle, but through a process of elimination, she could figure out that they were the last three of the group she saw. The mage Willy, the stranger with the bug-eyed mask, and lastly, Mickey.

A green smoke emanated from one of their direction, a smoke very similar to the one that came from Papyrus' room a while back, and any doubts Frisk had about that was gone once she smelled the same odour.

"Ahh," an unfamiliar voice said. "This. Now, this is a good fucking smoke."

That voice immediately grabbed Frisk's attention. The one who spoke sounded a bit deep yet deceptively charming with a clear tinge of a thick Irish accent, the first one she heard speak with one down here, Frisk realized, making whoever he was sound like a complete outsider. This had to be Mickey's voice, she thought.

"Simon, you're surprisingly quiet," the voice continued. "You like this place? I picked specifically for you, you know."

"Erm, I guess so boss," answered the one Frisk guessed was Simon.

It was a youthful male voice, with a surprising gentleness to it.

"Good enough," the boss said. "But this is your day you know? Why not celebrate a bit? Like… you wanna taste the burgers here for example? They're pretty good. Fan-fucking-tastic even. One of the best in the underground."

"Mmm… alright," Simon said shily.

"That's the spirit," his boss said. "Oy Grillby? You heard him. A plate of Snowdin burger right here. Oh, and a bottle of your most expensive rum for me of course."

"R-right away, Lord Mickey," Grillby said anxiously.

It was clear now to Frisk. This was Mickey speaking.

"Please, enough with the formalities, Grillbz," Mickey said to the bartender. "We ain't on patrol today. Just call me Mickey."

"R-right!" Grillby blurted out anxiously. "Sorry lord-, erm… sorry, Mickey."

With that, he rushed towards the back door. Meanwhile, Vissie and Umbla, in their booth, chugged wildly in unison what looked like brown syrupy liquid, while the green fire elemental stood by the table, watching and waiting in either curtesy or fear. Frisk quickly assumed the later to be the case.

"Gah," blurted out Vissie once she had finished chugging. "How dreadful."

Her voice sounded shrill and energetic, to the point where even the utterance of just that one sound was full of intensity. The goblin lady then slammed the beer glass onto the table, almost shattering it, making the green fire elemental almost jump in surprise. Umbla, on the other hand, was still chugging her drink out of what was essentially a beer barrel, and she drank from it greedily and savagely. Once she was done, the slammed the barrel onto the floor beside her and burped loudly. Frisk felt like she almost choked from the stench that came after. The large beast then proceeded to chuckle amusingly in a deep voice that boomed throughout the bar.

"Gods, that drink was practically poison," Vissie muttered. "I've drunk outdated lab chemicals that tasted better than this waste."

"W-why did you finish then?" the green fire elemental standing by asked.

"Why do you care?" Vissie rudely replied.

"I…" the green fire girl began.

"Hey, Fuku wasn't it?" Vissie interrupted.

"Uh… yes…" the green fire girl, Fuku, answered.

"So, I have a request, Fuku," Vissie began. "Can you go back and fetch us two a… umm, several number threes, four of them at least, and erm… two bottles of vodka and a large cinnamon bunny to take home. And for me, I'd like a medium burger and some soda, any type, to wash down that dog piss your dad calls beer. Oh, and make sure my burger has no pickles in it. That's actually really important."

"Erm… I-I'm not a waitress," Fuku replied. "Or a cook for that matter."

"Same diff," Vissie replied. "I've been to this shitpile before. Your daddy always keeps extra stock in the back, just in case of moments like this. Now bring us that shit or my pal Umbla here will literally eat you alive."

"Err…" Fuku said.

"Nah, I'm just fucking with you," Vissie said snarkily. "She doesn't eat people. Or at least not in public."

The large woman chuckled heartily with her deep voice.

"Ok, but… can you run it by me again?" Fuku asked nervously. "What you want I mean."

"Ugh," Vissie muttered, annoyed. "I want four number threes, two bottles of vodka and a large cinnamon bunny for my pal Umbla here, and for me, I want a medium burger with no pickles and a soda. Any type. Got that?"

"I… I think so," Fuku replied nervously.

"Good," Vissie said. "Now come with what I asked for and if you're not back within five minutes, I'll break your fiery kneecaps."

Fuku chuckled awkwardly to that. But once she noticed neither Vissie nor Umbla chuckled as well, she turned more uneasy.

"Y-you were joking right?" Fuku asked.

"You'll see if you don't hurry," Vissie replied with annoyance.

Without even hesitating, the green fire elemental ran to the back of the bar. Vissie then leaned a bit into her seat and lazily placed her armoured legs onto the table, carelessly kicking over a salt cellar and thus spewing a white pile all over the table.

Quickly after she did, Grillby returned from the back, holding a plate of burgers in one hand and a bottle of rum in his other.

"Here you go," he said as he placed the order on the counters.

"Quick as always," Mickey said.

The primate proceeded to grab the rum bottle, bite the cork off and took a quick swig. Immediately, he proceeded to spit it out all over the counter.

"Wooh!" he said. "Fuck me that's strong! I love it!"

"Are you… are you going to pay for it?" Grillby asked nervously.

Mickey stared at him silently for a moment.

"Really?" Mickey then said, sounding almost a bit insulted. "Who do you think we are?"

"Oh… ok then," Grillby said with disappointment and fear.

While Simon proceeded to eat his burger, Mickey turned around till he was facing the exit. Then he sunk down into his chair and lazily spread his leg.

"Ahh," he said. "What about you Willy? How are you doing."

The other figure said nothing.

"Oh right," Mickey said. "You know, Willy, sometimes it feels like I'm talking to a brick wall. No offence, of course, but you gotta open up sometimes. We're having a celebration. You're allowed to have some fun now. Have a drink, go to town and chat with some girl or guys, whatever you fancy."

"I have no desire for any of that," a voice replied.

This voice, the one Frisk assumed was Willy, sounded pretty much like how Frisk expected the cloaked wizard monkey to sound. His voice was quiet and croaky like he had a sore throat, and spoke in an almost emotionless monotone.

"Really now?" Mickey replied to him. "Alright. Then tell me. What do you really desire then? Like… what do you want in life, Willy? What is your wish?"

"My only wish is to serve you, Lord Mickelsen," Willy simply answered.

"Yeah, that… seems to be a problem," Mickey said to him. "But… you're a simple man, Willy. With simple dreams. Maybe there is some value in that."

He then proceeded to presumably give up on his attempt at chatter and proceeded to light a new joint.

"So, any luck finding this… thing?" Frisk asked her companion.

She was starting to grow impatient.

"None at all, so far," Flowey simply answered.

"Let's just get out of here then," Frisk said.

"Just a few more minutes," Flowey said. "I… I think I can spot it."

"Is this thing even worth it?" Frisk asked. "You don't even know what it is. You said it yourself."

"I… I'm sure it's worth it," Flowey said. "Just trust me on this."

"When haven't I so far?" Frisk asked.

Suddenly, she had an insane idea. Normally, it would have been a pretty idiotic idea that would've been nothing more than a fleeting thought, but in this context, she felt that while dangerous and bold, it was a brilliant move.

"Hey, you think I should try going in and taking them all out?" Frisk suggested.

"Heh, and you were suggesting I was the one being irrational," Flowey said and smiled.

"I'm serious Flowey," Frisk whispered.

"Wait, what?" Flowey replied and turned to look up at her with a bewildered expression.

"Didn't you tell me that humans are much stronger than monsters?" Frisk asked. "I mean, you saw how easily in the ruins I… I killed the old guy. You know, before I reset."

"Well, normally that's the case yeah," Flowey answered. "But a monster's strength in combat is determined by their will to fight. The only reason the old hermit died so easily to you is that, deep down, he didn't want to fight you. But the same thing can also apply in reverse. You really think these guys are gonna have any qualms against fighting you?"

"Oh yeah," Frisk replied. "Good point. Didn't think of it that way."

"More of a reasonable point than anything," Flowey said and then continued spying through the crack.

Inside, the bar had turned mostly quiet, with Fuku in the back and Grillby nervously pouring drinks, while the rest were all seemingly drinking and smoking the boredom from their minds. But suddenly, Frisk heard some heavy footsteps nearby. Due to the emptiness of the street, they felt really out of place, and she almost froze for a moment as she feared the worst.

"Y-you hear that?" Frisk asked.

"Yeah," Flowey said.

The duo, slowly and carefully, turned their heads around almost in unison towards the street. There was a large figure there, walking towards the bar they spied at. Fortunately, they didn't seem to notice or care about them both.

It took Frisk a moment to notice who this was, but once she did, she quickly assumed she was mistaken. It was Reggie, the large rabbit from the library and funeral.

"Wait, is that the beefy rabbit guy?" Frisk whispered. "I thought that guy left town."

"Me too," Flowey said, confused but intrigued.

Reggie stood in front of the bar, his face hidden under a mixture of the darkness of the town and from his hoodie. He seemed almost hesitant, but eventually, he proceeded to enter the front door.

The bell on the door caught everyone's attention in the bar. And turned to look at this new visitor, except for Avy who just did a quick careless glance.

The light in the bar was not much, but it was just good enough so that Frisk could see the rabbit's expression, and he seemed to be shocked, nervous and even a bit angry at seeing the inhabitants inside. The same impression Frisk got from the stares of the masked warriors.

"Fuck…" Frisk heard him mutter.

"Ah-ha, Reginald!" Mickey called to him in a cheerful manner. "What a pleasant surprise! How gracious of you to come to see us, on such a fine morning!"

"Yo, what is-?" Reggie began.

"Come in, come in!" Mickey said in a welcoming tone. "We haven't seen you in a long time! Heh. Far too fucking long in fact."

If Frisk didn't know or suspect better, she would've not thought twice about the certain bitterness she felt in his tone.

"Come, sit down with us," Mickey continued. "There is a loose seat here. Right, Willy?"

The old monkey said nothing nor hesitated before he stood up from his stool and moved towards the bent edge of the bar.

Reggie then sighed tiredly before he, seemingly hesitantly, went and sat down beside him. An audible creak came on the stool as the large rabbit sat down.

"So… Reginald," Mickey began. "It's been a while, hasn't it? If we'd know you were still in town, we would've informed you we were coming."

"What are you doing here?" Reggie asked sternly.

"Still bitter, eh?" Mickey replied. " But if you wish to know, have you met Simon here before? Of course not. This is his initiation feast. Initiation into our elite squadron. He's been training for years, the good boy. And I chose this place because… why not?"

He patted Simon on the back who shuddered a bit.

"I see…" Reggie replied.

"Anyways," Mickey began with a tone of sympathy. "So I've heard about what happened to your cousin. Ivan, wasn't it? A shame. A real shame. And his mother? God. I can't imagine it. Outliving your own children. Burying them even. It must be one of the worst fates there is."

"You don't really care, bro," Reggie replied bitterly.

Mickey stared at the rabbit for a while, seemingly expressing insult behind his mask. But before the air was filled with any more tension, Mickey proceeded to lightly chuckle

"You still think so little of me?" he said. "After all we've been through?"

Reggie said nothing. Just kept looking at Mickey with disdain, but that was apparently a good enough answer for the ape.

"Fine," he said. "Have it your way. You're not fun to talk to like this, either way."

"What happened between them?" Frisk asked Flowey.

"Lots of things," Flowey said.

"Guessing you don't remember much of them," Frisk said.

"Actually, I do remember most of them this time," Flowey said. "It's just such a long story that I don't have time to go into it now unless we want to be here all day."

"Oh, well I see," Frisk said.

It was at this moment that Frisk began to wonder why she was still sticking around with his idea. An idea she mostly thought as being akin to suicide. But then she remembered how she was in the forest and ruins, where her morbid and deadly curiosity led her to follow what most would think twice if not thrice before a step towards, even with her ability.

"Man, is this how you felt with me in the forest?" Frisk asked cheekily. "You know? Whenever I decided to run towards strange noises?"

"Maybe," Flowey said without looking away from the crack.

He was clearly not in the mood for such talks, Frisk could tell.

God, maybe I am a hypocrite, she thought.

A moment later, Fuku came wandering from the door at back, trying to hold in both her hands some plates carrying several burgers and food while drinks were hanging from a bag tied in her waist.

She walked a bit wobbly, either due to the weight of her equipment or her fear. Perhaps a bit of both, Frisk thought, but she mostly assumed the latter of the two.

Umbla stared greedily at the approaching food, her blood-red animalistic eyes now somehow visible underneath the eyeholes of her smiling mask. Fuku glanced up at the eyes of the humongous pig-minotaur and gulped slightly.

Finally, after an uncomfortably long walk, she reached the table and placed the plates on the smiling mask duo's table, although a bit clumsily, as some of the plates practically fell down on the table from her hands.

"S-sorry!" Fuku quickly said.

The duo did not say anything, but neither did they seem to care. Fuku then took the bag of drinks from her waist and grinned as she placed the heavy bag onto the table. Before Fuku had even gotten another word out, Umbla had begun her gluttonous feast.

"H-here you go," Fuku then said nervously. "A burger and, erm, soda for you m-miss, and uh… three number fours, two bottles of vodkas and… and a cinnamon bun for the large missus- I MEAN-! "

"Relax, Umbla ain't gonna feel hurt about that," Vissie said. "No amount of insults can get through her thick slobs of flesh. Ain't that right fatty?"

"Mmhmm," Umbla replied, mouth full, in a deep booming yet seemingly amused voice.

"Erm… good to… k-know," Fuku said awkwardly. "Either way I… I hope this is correct."

"Eh, she'll just eat it either way," Vissie said.

"Right…" Fuku said. "Umm… if there is anything else, you can just… just let me know."

Fuku walked slowly away from their table, her head bowing down slightly, while the warrior duo behind her began their feast. But while Umbla was stuffing the food and vodka through an opening in her mask, Vissie, slowly and carefully, removed the top bun of her burger. She looked down at the insides of the burger for a few good moments. Whatever she was saw, she was clearly unhappy.

"Hey, erm… Fuku?" Vissie asked her.

Fuku stopped in her tracks and anxiously turned around back to her.

"Can you come back here a moment?" Vissie asked her calmly. "I… I wanna ask you something. Up close."

Looking confused and nervous, Fuku reluctantly walked back towards the goblin. Once she was at the table, Vissie signalled her to come even closer. Fuku then leaned forward until she was right up in her face.

"W-what is-?" Fuku began.

Before anyone in the bar noticed, Vissie had yanked the girl by her collar, and with a great force, slammed her face onto the table, causing food and drink to spill out of the plates and glasses and all over the floor, ceiling and walls. Before Fuku could even absorb what happened, Vissie yanked her again, raised her in the air, and slammed her harder onto the table, then forcing her face down on it.

"IS THIS A FUCKING JOKE?!" Vissie yelled violently at her. "YOU THINK YOU'RE BEING FUNNY HERE OR SOMETHING?!"

"W-WHAT IS-?" Fuku attempted to speak out with fear and bafflement.

Before she could finish her words, Vissie proceeded once again to slam the green fire elemental face onto the wooden table. This time, it was with such intensity that a crack formed onto the table. Then, Vissie jumped onto the table, squatted and pulled out one of her knives, pointing it at the frightened fire elemental.

"OR ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME HERE, HUH?!" Vissie yelled. "Are you a spy or something?! A rebel?! ANSWER!"

"I don't know, I don't know what you're talking about?!" Fuku cried out. "I… what did I do?!"

"You know what you did, you MURDEROUS BITCH!" Vissie said.

"Yo get your hands off of her!" Reggie yelled.

The large rabbit monster ran up to her, but Umbla stood up from her seat and simply looked down at him, which was enough for the rabbit to stop in his tracks. He looked at the assault from afar, his hands clenched into fists, but then he, clearly reluctantly, loosened them and headed back to his seat.

"Well shit," Mickey said calmly, watching from afar. "Here she goes again."

He casually took another smoke as he watched the assault take place. Grillby meanwhile looked clearly distraught, yet he did not move from the counter. Just stood still and watched helplessly.

"What are you doing?!" he cried out. "Stop?!"

Vissie, unfortunately, did not even react to his words as she proceeded to slam his frightened daughter onto the table once more.

"I told you no pickles!" Vissie yelled into her ear. "I told you, specifically, that I ordered no fucking pickles! And you know what that means?!"

"WHAT?!" Fuku cried out, utterly baffled. "T-t-that's it?!"

"DON'T INTERRUPT ME!" Vissie yelled again. "But no! That's not just it! You're not getting the picture here lady! Have you heard of the chaos theory?! Of course not! You see! Me eating this pickle, on this burger, is theoretically more likely to lead me down a chain of events that results in my fucking demise! Small things lead to big things, so and so so forth! Do you see?! The probability of me dying an early death is maximised by small mistakes like this! The chance of me dying tomorrow is also fucking increased!"

"W-what?!" Fuku muttered, sounding more confused than ever before. "I… I don't-"

"Oh, what's so confusing about that you stupid piece of- GAHHHH!" Vissie yelled.

For a moment, the angry goblin lady had grabbed the fire elementals face, causing her hand to seriously burn, and a small white smoke sizzled from her palm.

"Holy shit," Frisk whispered, watching the assault, stunned. "That girl is fucking crazy."

"You're telling me," Flowey replied, sounding stunned as well.

"Flowey, we… we gotta do something!" Frisk whispered urgently.

"No can do," Flowey said sadly. "Not against all of them at once. They… they are too strong for us."

"But… so what?!" Frisk said with desperation. "I mean it's not like they can kill me or-"

"They're not gonna kill you," Flowey said sternly. "Not humans."

"What?!" Frisk replied.

"The Royal Hunt doesn't kill humans," Flowey said. "They'll take you captive. And trust me, when they have you, they will never give you even a second to kill yourself, even if they'll make you want it."

"So we are just gonna watch this?!" Frisk said, almost loudly enough to break her whisper.

"I… I'm sorry Frisk," Flowey said sympathetically.

"Look at this!" Vissie yelled at Fuku.

She raised her burnt palm in front of the fire elementals face.

"LOOK AT IT!" Vissie repeated while Fuku winced in fear.

"Stop this!" Grillby cried out once more. "S-she made a mistake! Just a simple mistake! She's new here she… she doesn't know any better!"

"Fuck you!" Vissie finally replied to him.

Without looking up, she proceeded to flip him off. The fiery bartender, practically stunned and frozen in place, turned towards Mickey.

"P-please!" he pleaded. "Mickey! Please make her stop!"

"Why?" Mickey answered casually. "What's in it for me?"

"Huh?!" Grillby replied, clearly baffled.

"You want me to make her stop?" Mickey asked back. "What, do you also want me to stop you two from being perpetually on fire as well? Stop snow from being cold? Water from being wet?"

"What are you-?!" Grillby began.

"Oh, I am just making rhetorical questions," Mickey said and took another puff of smoke. "This is just how she is sometimes. Don't worry though. Vissie will calm down on her own, eventually. She always does. The only downside, she might leave behind some… collateral damage."

"Collateral damage?!" Grillby asked in bafflement. "That's my daughter she's hurting!"

"Relax," Mickey said casually. "Chances are she'll live, although she might need to go to a hospital or two."

"Chances?" Grillby repeated as if he did not like that word. "Oh, y-you gotta stop this, please!"

"Fine, but only if you make it worth my while," Mickey answered.

"I'll give you anything!" Grillby said without hesitation.

"Really?" Mickey replied.

There was an unnerving hint of devilish glee in his voice.

"Ok then," he said.

He stood up from his chair and looked towards Vissie, who was still holding Fuku on the table.

"Look at what you fucking did to me!" Vissie yelled. "This is your fault! Now you owe me a new fucking palm you… you… FUCK!"

"Hey, Vissie!" Mickey yelled. "That's enough! Let her go!"

"Why do you care boss?!" the rampaging goblin lady yelled back. "This bitch tried to murder me!"

"That's an order, Vissie!" Mickey added. "Calm down, right this moment!"

"Or what?!" Vissie asked.

"Does the Blood-knuckle ring a bell?" Mickey simply answered.

Vissie immediately stopped what she was doing as soon as Mickey said those last words. Vissie now just stared down at the battered fire elemental on the table, still, while her face hidden under the mask wracked with either anger, terror, or a mix of both.

"Y-you wouldn't dare!" Vissie said in shock.

"Of course I would," Mickey said. "Wanna wait and see?"

Frisk did have some occasional curiosities for the morbid, but whatever this Blood-knuckle was, she didn't want to hear more, since just the mere mention of it shook even this monster.

"Ugh, fuck it," Vissie said. "Girl, you are lucky he was around."

With that, she threw Fuku off the table and onto the floor, her fiery face battered and bruised, and Grillby ran from the counter and up to her with worry.

"Umbla, restrain her!" Mickey added. "Hold her till she calms down."

The massive monster then quickly grasped Vissie, so smoothly as if she had done this before, and held her arms tightly. Meanwhile, Grillby began hugging his daughter, who's tears dissipated into smoke once it touched her cheeks,

"Oh my baby girl," he whispered to her. "It's ok. It's ok."

Mickey gave out a small, mildly mischievous chuckle as he walked to the centre of the room.

"Alright Hunters!" he cheerfully addressed his warriors. "I have some good news. Grillby wants to show some appreciation for our heroic contributions to this town and underground, along with rescuing his daughter and has thus chosen to give us a big reward. From here on out, Grillby's restaurant bar is now officially a subsidiary of The Royal Hunt. That's right, we now own this place now."

A loud cheer from most of the warriors filled the tavern, including from Visse, Umbla, who proceeded to flip the table by the booth, and Simon who clapped his hands in a way like he wasn't sure what was happening. Meanwhile, Grillby and Fuku, still grasping each other on the floor, looked at Mickey with utter incredulity.

"What?!" Grillby exclaimed. "I haven't agreed to that!"

"You said that you would do anything right?" Mickey replied smugly. "Well, this is my request."

"But-" Grillby began.

"A deal's a deal," Mickey said. "Haven't you heard that breaking a promise is frowned upon in polite society? Or should I just allow Vissie to finish her-?"

"NO!" Grillby cried out. "N-no just… you can have anything you want ok? Just don't hurt my baby girl anymore."

"Great," Mickey said. "Glad we could come to a satisfying agreement in the end."

"God, what a piece of shit," Frisk whispered.

"Uh-huh," Flowey agreed.

"We should've helped them," Frisk said.

"Maybe," Flowey simply replied. "But on the bright side, it seems to have solved itself somewhat either way."

"Yeah, I guess…" Frisk simply said.

Umbla and Vissie wasted no time before they ran from their seats towards the back of the counter, rummaging whatever they could find.

"I call ownership of all the good fucking booze here!" Vissie yelled. "Gonna drink till I fucking die!"

Whatever they did not fancy there, the duo proceeded to throw behind them carelessly. Glasses were shattered, various liquids were spilt, while Grillby and his daughter looked on in dismay.

But among those discarded objects was also a strange-looking book, one that clearly got Reggie's attention as he proceeded to quickly go and pick it up, once he noticed it.

As he quickly ran through it, he failed to notice that Mickey had stood from his stool and grasped his shoulder from the back, still holding a lit blunt between his fingers

"Be honest Reggie," Mickey said. "You missed this. Didn't you?"

"Miss what?" Reggie asked without turning. "Do you mean the assaults on innocents? The bullying? Or the tortures?"

Mickey was quiet for a moment, stared at the rabbit, like he was surprised or insulted. But then he proceeded to simply chuckle it away.

"Aye, there is some of that sometimes," Mickey said. "But I meant the control. With the hunt, you were able to control the weak. Sounds pretty awful to most, but still. Someone must. Someone has to take control of others. That is simply the nature of… well, nature. All those things you mentioned, the tortures or blackmails as you called it, are necessary evils. You know that of course?"

"You call this a necessary evil?" Reggie asked. "How?"

"It's simple," Mickey began. "These people wanted help, and I asked for something in return. And now with what I have, they are gonna be extra careful to treat us well, including Vissie. Especially if they want to keep the protections this establishment will now receive from us. That's how the world works. You should have realized when you worked with me that doing things purely for "honour" or "justice" or "because it's the right thing to do" is not… always sustainable. Not in this world, and especially not on the surface with humans. Sometimes, or rather most of the times, you need to be rough, and monsters must know that before we go and take back the surface."

"Yeah, but-" Reggie began.

"You think I enjoy it?" Mickey asked back. "The unfortunate truth is, sometimes you must do the bad to give way to the good. I know. It sucks. But that's life."

"Oh fuck this," Reggie muttered.

The rabbit, without uttering a word, suddenly proceeded to loosen himself from Mickey's hold and proceeded to walk towards the front door

"Hey, hey, where are you going?" Mickey asked after him.

"I'm leaving," Reggie simply replied. "I just came here for my book. I got it, and now there is nothing more for me here."

"Oh don't be like that," Mickey said and walked after him. "You haven't even told us what you've been up to these past few years. Stay a while longer. You're in no rush, right?"

"Right…" Reggie said, starting to sound annoyed.

"So why the hurry?" Mickey asked cheekily.

The rabbit stopped in his steps, just as he was reaching the front door, and Mickey quickly followed suit. Once he was in arms reach. But then Reggie turned around and looked at Mickey with pure annoyance showing on his face.

"Because I am tired, bro," Reggie answered and looked down at him. "I am tired of you, and I'm not gonna bother to sit here any longer and listen to your self-righteous bullshit."

All became silent at the bar as if on command. Besides Mickey, all looked surprised, annoyed or worried at the tall rabbit that stood only slightly taller than Mickey, but in this mood, it was like he had complete dominion over the situation. Over Mickey himself. But there was also a tinge of nervousness in the rabbit, as he seemed to realize he probably went too far.

But before Reggie got to say or do anything else that might've increased Mickey's ire, the ape just proceeded to laugh.

"Brave are you, Reggie?" Mickey asked cheekily.

"Maybe," the rabbit said and shrugged. "Just saying it how it is."

"How it is, eh?" Mickey replied.

"Yeah," Reggie said. "I'm going."

"Hey, just one more thing," Mickey said before he left.

He raised his hand towards the rabbit.

"How about a proper goodbye?" he asked.

"Why?" Reggie asked.

"Why not?" Mickey asked. "Come on. You're not scared of a little handshake? Besides, you know I can't kill you. Won't kill you, rather."

Reggie looked down at the open palm in consideration. Then after a moment of thought, and possibly due to the pressure of all who were still watching, Reggie shrugged and reached for the hand.

"Alright then," he said, sounding reluctant.

But as soon as he grasped Mickey's palm, the ape with a sudden strength and pace pulled the large rabbit towards him before he could react, before grabbing him tightly and leaning up towards one of his ears.

"Ok let me tell you a secret, brave boy!" Mickey spoke harshly into the ear. "Just because you were lucky enough to be one of the few ever pardoned by me, does not mean you have the freedom to say and do anything now beyond repercussions! May I remind you that the only reason you were allowed to quit in the first place is because of your boyfriend over there, who is still useful to me! To us!"

Mickey's with his featureless mask leaned closer towards the rabbit, who tried to keep his stern expression.

"But here's the thing," Mickey added in a whisper. "It's not gonna last. One day, Eldur is either gonna die or fuck up so royally that I have no choice but to dismiss him. Or worse. And when that day comes, and it just might, then oh fucking boy! All of your arrogance, all of your brave acts of defiance you've got away with thanks to your privilege will accumulate and come crashing down and backfire through your current false belief in anarchistic freedom from law and order. Because that's all this actually is. That's all your words are. Privilege. Not bravery or acts of rebellious thoughts or any of that bullshit. Privilege. Because the truth is, your thoughts are not special."

He leaned even closer. Reggie still kept a brave face, although he was beginning to sweat.

"Do you really think I don't know what some monsters outside the warmth of New Home actually think of me?" Mickey continued. "Do you think I'm stupid enough not to notice what's really going on in their heads? Sure there is the false veil of joy and excitement they express at seeing me. But deep down, I see through their eyes of judgement. And it's not just in this shit hole, where people were too afraid to face me, face the unfortunate truths, so they all hid in their holes like mice. Oh no. In fact, everywhere I look, everywhere I go in every shit town I go through, I see all these halfwits, all these mother fuckers, they-"

He stopped himself before he finished. His tone had gotten much angrier. More frustrated, in what seemed almost like a personal way. He took a bit of a breather and then continued.

"They ain't gonna know what hit them," Mickey then added, sounding more calmer.

He finally let go of his hold on the rabbit and took a few steps backwards, looking Reggie in his slightly nervous eyes.

"Do we understand each other?" Mickey asked him. "Don't waste this privilege of yours. Enjoy it while it lasts. 'Cause it's gonna run out. Someday."

He then patted his shoulder and let the rabbit go his way. Reggie then wasted no time and turned back around, heading outside while Mickey went back to sit down in his seat. Before Reggie left, however, he paused in front of Eldur, who still stood quietly by the front door.

"Sup Eldur," Reggie, once known as RG01, said to him.

"Sup," Eldur, once known as RG02, simply replied back.

"Been a while, hasn't it?" RG01 added.

"Indeed," RG02 said.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence where they simply both stared, coldly like they were struggling to recognize one another.

"I'll see you around, bro," Reggie then said.

"Mmhm," Eldur simply answered.

The beefy rabbit turned away from him and walked out the door. Eldur then proceeded to watch the rabbit until he wandered away out of sight. Everyone inside, besides Mickey and Eldur, seemed almost confused, unsure of what to do now that the tension was over.

"You're one soulless sack of shit, Eldur," Mickey said to the drake. "What? Not even gonna go after him?"

Eldur didn't answer. Simply looked at the primate silently. Mickey then chuckled took another swig of his drink

"Who are you calling soulless?" Avy suddenly said to him.

Mickey stopped with his drink halfway up his mouth as if it was hard for him to understand what was said. It seemed to take almost everyone in there, even Frisk herself, a moment to realize who had spoken, as ever since The Hunt had arrived, the old bird had almost become an invisible ghost to them. But now everyone seemed to have remembered the elusive old patron sitting alone, as now all eyes around glared at him, while Avy stared back with visible disgust and hatred towards Mickey, one of the few who seemed to not have forgotten him at all.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Mickey asked him in a mocking tone.

"No, old man, don't do it," Frisk whispered as Avy could hear her.

"You heard me," Avy said sternly in an act of defiance. "Who are you calling soulless, oh great Mickey? Acting like you don't know who you are, hypocrite."

Mickey did not answer. Instead, Willy did by quietly yet slowly raising his arm towards the old bird as if to cast a spell. But before he could finish whatever he was doing, Mickey grabbed the monkeys wrist halfway up.

"Calm down Willy," Mickey said casually. "Calm down. He insulted me. Big deal. It's not a capital offence at this point."

Willy stared at his boss silently, before nodding and raising his hand back down.

Meanwhile, Avy smirked smugly as he watched.

"So what's your name gramps?" Mickey asked him while lightning a new joint.

"Why should I tell you?" Avy asked snarkily.

"Heh, it's just basic courtesy Avy," Mickey replied.

A hint of surprise now grew on the bird's face. Yet, he said nothing.

"That's right," Mickey continued. "Did you really think we wouldn't find out Avy? In fact, what was it you called me again in your tale? Ahh. A demon, am I right? Honestly, I… I kinda dig it."

"How did you hear about it?" Avy asked, slightly confused.

Mickey simply chuckled.

"That's normally a classified secret," he answered almost mockingly. "But, since you asked. I will tell you that my influence reaches far and wide. Further than many think."

"No matter then," Avy said.

"Also," Mickey continued. "Despite being a shithole of a town, at least one monster that listened to your story is able to afford a phone, and also stupid enough to post what you said on what they thought was a private blog. Your story, your bravery, went viral for a good few moments in fact."

"Hmm… so that's the real reason you came to town?," Avy said, thinking. "Couldn't handle someone hurting your image, even if it was the truth?"

"Pfft, no," Mickey said dismissively. "We were already planning on coming here. In fact, it wasn't until we were halfway there that I found out about it. A big coincidence is all."

The old bird appeared unconvinced by his response.

"Oh yeah," he said sarcastically. "You are here for this little guys initiation. You're hiring kinda young, aren't you? Especially for the elite? It's almost like your story is just… just a decoy? An excuse?"

"Well it seems to us like you're the one making excuses," Mickey said calmly. "Projecting your own insecurities onto me. Oh hey, maybe that's why you carelessly revealed such a big secret to the townsfolk here eh? Also, young Simon here is much stronger than he looks."

"Uh-huh," Avy said. "Whatever you say. So are you gonna kill me with boredom or do you just wanna talk?"

"Kill you?" Mickey asked, sounding almost like someone who would never consider that.

Avy did not answer, and for a moment, neither did Mickey. An uncomfortable air of silence grew in the bar like everyone was waiting anxiously for a bomb to go off, except no one knew when it would. Just that a bang could happen at any moment. Frisk joined the anxious onlookers, feeling the hair rise on her neck.

Eventually, Mickey proceeded to stand up from his stool and proceeded to walk slowly, but pridefully, towards the old bird, who still stared with an unmoving expression of disgust.

"Who said I wanted to kill you?" Mickey said as he walked.

He stood in front of him now, towering over the elderly bird. Then out of a sudden, he proceeded to pull an object from a small holster on his back.

"You know what?" Mickey said to as he rummaged through it. "I wanna show you something."

Frisk thought it seemed like a small, cylindrical object at first until she noticed the handle. She could guess what it was, although she found it hard to believe. It was a small semi-automatic pistol of modern design.

Oh, this is not happening, Frisk thought.

"Do you know what this is?" Mickey asked the old bird monster.

He waved the gun around in front of Avy, his finger in the trigger hole. Frisk wasn't sure whether he had no clue or care about proper trigger discipline.

"This is called a gun," Mickey continued. "Something wonderful I picked up from one of my excursions up to the surface."

He chuckled as he looked down upon the gun he now carried in both his palms.

"Gotta say," he continued. "For all the awful shit that humans do, their sense of hatred has some silver lining to it. While monsters were rotting down in caves, evolving through survival and kindness, humans have evolved many ways to kill. And this is… this is the apex of it. Don't need much training whatsoever. Nor any need to even get up close your opponent. Just point it at someone you hate and bam. They are dead on the spot. Or heavily wounded at least. There's not even magic involved, although it sounds like it. Few of them believe in magic, so they found other ways around. It's magnificent ain't it? This… really sums up humanity in general. Evolving their kills. Evolving hate."

"So I'm guessing you're gonna kill me with this tool?" Avy asked snarkily.

Mickey shook his head.

"Not at all," he said. "In fact…"

He handed the gun towards the old bird who looked at it in confusion.

"I want you to have it," Mickey said.

"Huh?" Avy replied, confused. "Why should I accept it?"

"I'm not asking," Mickey said.

Avy, confused but clearly tired, took his pistol. He then examined the foreign object, noting its surprising lightness.

"Alright, I've accepted your gracious gift, oh lord," he replied snarkily. "Now what?"

"Now… I want you to shoot me," Mickey said bluntly. "Shoot me dead."

"WHAT?!" Vissie cried out.

"Are you crazy, boss?!" Eldur asked.

"Huh, losing him might be easier than I thought," Flowey whispered to Frisk.

"Alright, what's your trick?" Avy asked suspiciously.

"There is no trick here," Mickey said. "I just want you to shoot me. Prove to me you're as brave as you act like you are."

Avy turned thoughtful for a few moments, clearly considering it. Then he raised the gun towards Mickey. Yet, he didn't do anything. Just aimed the gun at the mad ape.

"Don't know how to use it do you?" Mickey asked mockingly. "Come on. It's not that hard. You're already pointing. That's about half the work. Now you just need to pull the trigger gramps, that's all there is left to do."

"H-he's bluffing," Fuku said to the old bird.

"I ain't bluffing," Mickey said without looking away.

He removed the mask from his face. Unfortunately, Frisk couldn't see properly underneath from her angle. She did see those hairy tentacles she had heard so much about, now loose and dangling out the hood like dreadlocks. Or were they simply dreadlocks? They really resembled them, now that Frisk was seeing them for the first time.

"No face mask," Mickey continued and raised his arms in the air. "No protection. Just shoot at my face. Kill me instantly. And be known as the one who killed The Great Mickey. With a single bullet."

Avy raised the pistol higher so that the barrel aimed at his face. Yet, he did not shoot.

"Ok, let me give you some more encouragement," Mickey said impatiently.

He rushed in front of the bird, kneeled down and grabbed hold of the gun, then forced the barrel up to his face. Yet, Avy did not shoot.

"Come now," Mickey said mockingly. "What are you waiting for?"

"I bet it's not even loaded," Frisk whispered.

"It's really easy," Mickey continued. "Just pull the fucking trigger, come on."

Avy did nothing. Just stared at him continuously with disgust. Meanwhile, all the onlookers, including Mickey's warriors, stared with worry as Mickey seemed to be growing impatient.

"Come on, you chicken shit!" Mickey said, sounding louder by the word. "Pull the fucking trigger! Shoot me!"

The old bird did still nothing. Mickey tightened his grip on his gun and Avy's feathered hand, seeming to almost break it.

"Shoot me!" Mickey continued. "SHOOT ME!"

Then as if to give up, the old bird let go of his grasp on the pistol before Mickey impatiently ripped it off him.

"Fuck it!" the ape muttered.

The old bird leaned down in his chair, face filled with disgust and unsureness. Mickey then chuckled in amusement once more.

"God, you're such a coward," he said mockingly. "Couldn't even pull a goddam trigger. Where was your brave act of defiance from before, eh? Or have you finally accepted that you're not truly in control?"

Avy did not say anything. Just stared at him silently with disgust.

"Have it your way, gramps," Mickey said and stood back up. "We will meet again though."

Mickey then adjusted his hairy tentacles back into his hood and re-equipped the mask.

"Alright fellas, it's time to go!" Mickey yelled. "Its time to go home to New Home!"

And so raised his gun into the air and fired once. A loud, almost deafening bang came blasting out, followed by an unexpectedly large hole in the ceiling. Frisk almost fell back in surprise while she, seemingly in instinct, placed her palms over her own ears. It was so much louder than she expected a gun to sound.

"Fuck!" she cried uncontrollably.

Immediately afterwards, she realized she had just spoken out loud, and became fearful that she just blew her cover. Luckily, no one seemed to have noticed, as they were all too distracted by the sudden bang.

Fuku and Grillby, like Frisk, had also proceeded to quickly grab over their ears while grimacing in pain and shock. Simon also followed suit, and so did Vissie who immediately let go of all the food and drinks in her hands as she cursed.

"GAH WHAT THE FUCK?!" she cried.

It was clear that most of the people there had either not heard such a loud sound before. At least not in a long time.

"You're telling me it was loaded this entire time?!" Eldur asked his boss, befuddled.

"Yeah," Mickey answered casually. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Holy shit, what a god damn psycho, Frisk thought.

While The Hunters were getting themselves ready to go, she took a deep breather, thankful that they had managed to stay hidden for so long.

"Alright, I think we should head back Flowey," Frisk whispered. "Don't think we found anything."

There was no answer.

"Flowey?" she asked again.

But then she turned towards where her friend supposedly was, and once again, he was missing.

She began to frantically look around until she saw his snow prints. She followed them like last time, and then almost yelled once she saw him again. Or rather, what she assumed was him. The prints lead towards a sunflower that sat on top of a small puff of snow. Except this sunflower had a blank pistil like Flowey did before she "woke him up".

But before she could worry much more, she realized his face hadn't disappeared again. Rather, his eyes and mouth were closed, but his eyelids and mouth had the same texture as the rest of the pistil, so his features camouflaged like a chameleon.

"Flowey?!" she whispered after him. "What are you-?!"

Before she could finish, she heard the door to Grillby's close and the warriors all headed out. It was like time had momentarily slowed at this moment as she desperately tried to look for a new hiding spot. Fortunately, she saw a decently high snow pile close by the place Flowey stood, so she quickly rushed behind it. She grabbed her mouth to hide her anxious breathing. She then peeked out and was relieved to see that neither Mickey nor one of his warriors seemed to have any clue about her and Flowey.

"Gotta say," she heard Mickey say. "Despite everything, this was a pretty swell trip. Wouldn't you guys say?"

There were a few nods and unenthusiastic "yeah" from his warriors.

"How did you know though?" asked Eldur.

"Know what?" Mickey replied.

"That he wouldn't shoot you?" Eldur said.

Mickey chuckled softly.

"Well that's the secret to it," he answered. "I didn't."

"Huh?" Eldur asked in befuddlement.

And with that, the group proceeded to walk down the road to the left, towards the direction of the skeleton brothers' house and further.

Frisk gave out yet another sigh of relief. She was glad this strange and dangerous idea of her friend seemed to be done with now. Speaking of, she was definitely going to ask him about all of this. She thought it was obvious that he wasn't telling her something.

"I'm still angry at that dumb waitress or whatever," Vissie said once they had gone a few steps.

"Because of the pickles?" Eldur asked her snarkily.

"It's not just about the pickles!" Vissie said angrily. "She'll never understand it. Those unscientific morons never do. There is a thing that humans call a butterfly effect, where one small change, or mistake in this case, in a timeline can lead to devastating-"

"Hey stop!" Mickey commanded out of the blue.

He raised his arm and stopped walking, and his group followed in confusion.

"Does anyone else feel that?" Mickey asked.

"F-feel what boss?" the teenager, Simon, asked. "You mean the ringing in the ears? I think that's from the gun."

"No not that, rookie," Mickey said. "But… it's like I'm being called somewhere. Not by words, but by some strange force or… something."

It was clear to the whole group now that something unusual was going on with him.

"W-what is it, boss?" Simon asked.

"There is something here," Mickey said. "Something that feels… familiar? But I cannot place it exactly."

He looked around the snow-covered street as if he desperately looking for something. Then he turned to his left and saw Flowey. He stared at him, his hidden face, as he was completely enamoured by him. Then he slowly, and steadily, walked towards him like he had no idea what a flower was.

Once he closed in, Frisk quickly ducked. For a moment, she thought that he was coming towards her. But then she heard his steps stop, and his shadow lay over the flower. She peaked out, not realizing until later that it was a stupid risk, and saw him standing over Flowey, staring intently.

"What… is this?" he asked.

"I think that's a flower boss," Eldur said cheekily.

"Of course I know that!" Mickey replied harshly. "But…"

"But what boss?" Eldur asked.

Mickey then proceeded to ignore him as he ran his armoured fingers across the pistil while Frisk watched nervously behind the pile, wondering if Flowey was going to be able to keep himself still throughout it all. Mickey then pulled off his armoured glove, revealing a strangely human-like hand underneath, before he then proceeded to stroke the pistil again with his bare fingers.

"But… this feeling," he said with curious awe. "This feeling this flower gives me. I feel like… like it's a part of me. Like I can feel every stem, every leaf and every microscope as if it were my own limb, detached yet still connected to me. But if I just grasp it, absorb it… properly somehow, I would... I would be… what? What the fuck is going on?"

Frisk didn't know what was happening. Did he know that Flowey was a living being, and this was some sort of manipulative way to make him reveal himself? Then again, his warriors seemed confused as well as they stared at his strange ritual. But she could simply be imagining that reaction, as she couldn't actually see what was behind their masks.

Most of all, she wanted to run up to the ape and maybe save her friend. And that feeling grew the more Mickey was slowly examining him.

"What gibberish are you going on about, boss?" Vissie asked.

"Yeah, you're starting to sound like Vissie when she's slightly sane," Eldur said drily.

There came a few chuckles from the group, while Vissie looked up at the dragon, seemingly unamused.

"Oh shut the fuck up!" she hissed.

But Mickey did not react one bit to it Eldur's deadpan delivery, as he normally would.

"Boss…?" Eldur asked, sounding confused and a bit worried.

As Eldur's question was a code word that brought him back to reality, Mickey quickly pulled his hand hastily away and shrugged, before removing the half lint joint from his mouth.

"Maybe it's just this cigar," Mickey said as he examined it. "Messing with my head. Maybe it's defunct or something."

He casually threw it onto the snow and put it out with his feet, while putting the armoured glove back onto his bare, hairless hand.

"Alright guys," he said. "Enough distractions. Let's continue."

With that, he led the group away, all continuing their pace as if nothing had occurred.

"Why is there a sunflower growing in such a cold and snowy place in the first place?" Simon asked.

"Who cares?" Mickey said. "It's not the weirdest shit that happens down here, greenhorn. You'll understand. Soon enough."

As so, Frisk heard them no more. There was just silence in the town now. Silence mixed with a subtle breeze of the wind. But even though they were seemingly gone at least, neither Frisk nor Flowey went out to reveal themselves.

Eventually, Frisk stood up from behind the pile. The street was empty, as she thought, and there was no sign of Mickey nor his warriors. She took a few steps into the street, sighed in relief, before looking back towards Flowey. Once she saw him again, another layer of concern grew within her. His entire body, from root to pistil, was shaking anxiously like someone invisible was trying to uproot him.

"Flowey?" Frisk asked calmly.

Suddenly, Flowey's eyes and mouth burst open. They all seemed wide open in shock, and he panted heavily.

"Oh gods," he muttered in shock. "Oh, my gods. My heart, my… wait, I have a heart? Huh, t-that is… that is something… heh…"

And with that said, he fainted and landed on the snow with an audible thud.

"Flowey!" Frisk cried out.

Papyrus could no longer resist his urge and nervously peeked out the makeshift window. His brother had gone for the moment, looking for Flowey and the human after discovering they had left the basement once he went to check on them. Sans had asked him to stay in his room and not to come out. And so he did. Gladly. For even without his orders, he wouldn't have dared leave if that meant seeing Mickey again.

But so far his brother hadn't returned. He had been alone in the house only for the past few minutes or so, yet for him, it felt like hours had passed. Most of it was spent huddled in the corner, shaking and dreading. More than anything, he wished he had his smokes back, despite the insistence of his brother. He had tried to light some of the dozen used ones scattered about but to no avail. To make matters worse, there was no movement around and no sounds, except for the nervous rustling of his bones. The only light came from the window and from a minimalistic black and white skull flag from the human world above his desk, which covered a boarded-up hole in the wall. He stared at the latter one intently, as he thought it would help his mind to be occupied.

Eventually, the flag and thus the hole seemed to almost call to him. It stood there, silent and unchanging, yet it almost seemed to glow alluringly. The black and white skull almost seemed to be calling to him, smiling as if it was alive to mock him. Papyrus wasn't sure if that was his imagination at play, or whether something was actually summoning him towards it. Whatever the case, it didn't matter to him, and he kept fighting his curious urge. But as times passed, the urge to peek grew further and further until it felt like some emotional torture. He could no longer resist. Not for a minute longer. So with great fear, he stood up and went to have a peek under it. He hoped, desperately, that Mickey would be long gone by now. He hoped to see nothing but the snow-covered streets of Snowdin, maybe with some townsfolk having gone outside to signify that The Hunt has left and peace had returned. Whatever it was, Papyrus felt it didn't matter since he couldn't even change whatever the truth was beyond on the street.

At first, there seemed to be no one outside. The streets were empty of any life whatsoever, besides some strange shadows huddled by Grillby's. But then he saw some figures walking down the street from that place towards the direction of his and his brother's house. He couldn't get a good look at first due to the distance. But then once they got closer, he realized that these figures were all armoured. There could be no more doubt. This was them. And he was in front, leading them.

Despite wanting to desperately glance away, Papyrus kept watching, telling himself to stay brave. They couldn't get him from there. Mickey couldn't get him from there, and thankfully, none of them seemed to even notice him by the boarded up hole watching them.

Then without warning, the leading figure stopped in his tracks just in front of the house. He turned his head slowly towards the house and towards Papyrus' room. The skeleton almost gasped once he recognized him, even covered by his mask. It was Mickey, and he was looking right at him.

All the horrible memories came rushing back to the forefront of his mind. The hanging, the maiming and the tortures. The cries. The yellings. All the atrocities he witnessed, all the cruel things he once couldn't imagine for his life, much less believe that any soul on this earth would be capable of pulling them.

But then Papyrus simply shook his head and realized that Mickey probably didn't notice him. Perhaps he was just looking curiously. Maybe he didn't see him?

But then, the ape nodded, and the skeleton almost gasped in pure horror. He almost froze in fact. But maybe he imagined it. Maybe this was a trick of the light, a mirage that came as a result of his frightened state. But to, unfortunately, quell all his hopeful doubts, Mickey then gave a quick salute to Papyrus'direction before continuing on his way towards Waterfall, his group following after.

Sans teleported back into his house's living room, disappointed. His search, or rather the parts of it he wasn't too lazy to do properly, had proved futile. All gathered was that they escaped the basement through lockpicking, and judging by the prints, they had gone to the direction of Grillby's.

Chances are, they were a lost cause by now, Sans thought, considering they headed towards the direction of Mickey and his group that is. Why they did so, and not go west towards Waterfall, Sans couldn't for the life of him understand. Still, a part of him was certain he would see them again. Humans were pretty determined after all, Sans knew.

He was usually a bit of a cynic, but here, he felt strangely enough mildly optimistic about their chances, though he couldn't tell why. Perhaps he had grown a bit fond of the duo, so it was simply just his mind trying to reconcile. In a way, he was sort of rooting for them. Maybe that was why he chose to help them in the first place.

But either way, Sans turned to the thought that there was not much point in speculating, considering that the results would be the same either way since. If Mickey had them, he wouldn't dare go rescue them either way. Helping them hide is one thing, but going up against Mickey? He knew what he was capable of, and he didn't want to risk his or his brothers' life, no matter how selfish he knew it might sound.

Now thinking about his brother, Sans decided to go back up the stairs and check on him. He felt a bit bad leaving him alone for so long, especially since he didn't expect it to be. But before he took another step, he heard heavy footsteps going down, and turned to see his brother was slowly pulling himself down the steps, sweating and looking strangely exhausted.

"S-Sans?" Papyrus asked nervously. "T-thank the gods."

"Pappy?" Sans asked surprised. "I thought I asked you to stay in your room?"

"I… I did but…" Papyrus muttered.

The tall skeleton almost seemed to lose all energy as he slowly sat down on the bottom of the stairs, bones wetting with sweat and holding his chest as if he had a heart.

"You sound like you ran a marathon," Sans said as he ran up to him. "What happened?"

"I… I saw him…" Papyrus said. "I… I looked out the hole. Behind the flag. I don't know why I did it but I couldn't resist. And I… and I saw him."

"Geez," Sans said in a tone of understanding.

"N-not only that…" Papyrus continued. "B-but… he looked at me! And nodded! And saluted even! He remembers, Sans! He saw me and he remembers me! Oh, gods!"

"Maybe," Sans said. "But he's gone from town. You don't need to worry about him anymore. Not right now at least."

"It's… it's not just that…" Papyrus muttered. "I… I need another cigar. Sans? Where did you-"

The front door suddenly burst open and the skeleton brothers turned to look. Fortunately, it was the human girl Frisk who came rushing in, holding in her hands a faceless sunflower.

"Guys!" she cried. "Help, please!"

"What happened?" Sans asked.

"I… I don't know!" Frisk said, panicking. "He just… he just fell over- fainted and… stopped having a face and I… I don't know what happened! He won't wake up and I-!"

"Calm down kiddo," Sans said. "I'm sure there is a perfectly valid explanation here."

The skeleton took the plain sunflower from her trembling hands and placed it down on the kitchen table. The way it was placed made it look like he was about to dissect it.

"Alright," Sans began. "So first things first, why did you go outside? Why leave the basement?"

"Does that fucking matter now?!" Frisk quickly said.

"Geez kid," Sans said, taken back. "Just asking. It might help me know what happened to your… erm, "friend" here."

"Sorry…" Frisk said, trembling. "I'm just… I just don't know what the fuck is happening anymore."

"Mhhm," Sans said. "That's fair I guess."

Sans began to examine the now faceless flower on the table, while Papyrus, slowly but surely, walked towards his brother and looked down upon his old friend on the table.

"Wh-what happened?" he asked with worry.

"That's what I'm figuring out," Sans said.

"He just… fell," Frisk said. "He was outside and… Mickey touched him."

"He touched him?" Sans asked with slight intrigue. "So you went close enough to him so he could do that? Frankly, that was not the smartest idea kid."

"I… it was his idea," Frisk said.

"He didn't see you did he?" Sans asked and turned towards her. "Mickey I mean."

"I don't… I don't think so," Frisk answered. "If he did, I… I feel he would-"

"Hey, guys?!" Papyrus suddenly said with mild excitement. "Stop your bickering and look! His face! It's back!"

Sans surely did as his brother commanded, and looked down upon the flower.

"Well, that was easy," he joked. "Didn't need to do anything after all."

Frisk now walked slowly towards the table where her friend lay. Indeed, his face was back, although it was hard to notice at first. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be breathing calm deep breaths. It was like he was in a deep yet comfortable sleep.

"See kiddo?" Sans said. "He's back. No reason to worry at all."

"B...but what happened to him in the first place?" Frisk asked.

Then, as if on cue, another strange thing happened. Flowey's mouth had begun to move rhythmically while his eyes appeared moving under his closed lids. It looked as if he was trying to bring some oral message from his dreams towards the land of awakening.

"E-enough…" he mumbled. "Brother… please…"

Brother? Frisk thought.

"What's he s-saying?" Papyrus asked.

"I think he's half-dreaming," Sans said.

"Please wake up…" Flowey mumbled. "I don't like this plan anymore…"

"Flowey?" Frisk asked worryingly. "What are you-"

Suddenly, the eyes of the flower burst open once more.

"STOP, DON'T!" Flowey yelled. "DON'T HURT THESE PEOPLE! I CHANGED MY MIND! I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE CHAR-"

He abruptly stopped in his strange rambling. It was like he was quickly and suddenly pulled back into reality, as part of him was still stuck in the realm of sleep. Flowey looked around the room, seeing the confused faces of Sans, Papyrus and of his new friend, Frisk, who he looked up towards with pleading yet terrified eyes.

"F-Frisk?" he asked. "Is that really you?"

"Yeah, it's me," Frisk confirmed. "Are you alright?"

"I… I think so…" Flowey answered, face starting to sweat.

"What happened?" Frisk pried. "What were you going on about there?"

Flowey looked up at her for a while, panting heavily, before he answered.

"I… I'm tired…" he replied. "I think I'll… I think I'll take that rest now."

Later that day, the two of them were back in Papyrus' room, attempting another round of rest. Papyrus wasn't with them this time, opting instead to sleep in Sans' room while his brother remained here. Still, Frisk did not choose to sleep on his car bed despite the offer, not due to any particular reason she could think of. Besides, the sleeping bag proved to be fine enough.

Flowey once again decided to occupy the same flower pot from before, although this time, he was clearly much less caring of it, not even bothering to make sure it was comfortable before settling in.

"Hey, Frisk?" Flowey began. "Still awake?"

"Yeah," she replied. "What's up?"

"Sorry about tricking you earlier today," Flowey said. "A-and for lashing out at you of course."

"It's alright," Frisk answered. "It's fine now."

"Not sure it actually is," Flowey muttered quietly.

He almost mumbled those words, clearly not attempting or expecting her to hear. But while Frisk did, she decided not to mention it for now. She was mostly bothered by other questions.

"I admit," Flowey continued. "It was stupid of me. Going towards Mickey and his group."

"Don't need to apologize to me," Frisk replied. "Remember? I also pulled similar dumb moves like that twice or thrice in the forest, remember?"

"Heh, yeah," Flowey said and smiled mildly.

"What really happened back there though, Flowey?" Frisk then calmly asked.

Flowey didn't answer as he stared at the floor looking like he was at a loss of words.

"Sorry," Frisk said with a tinge of guilt. "It just… it seems like there is something up with you and Mickey. Some connection or something. But I shouldn't have pried. Or at least not right now."

"No it's fine you asked Frisk," Flowey said. "The truth is… I… I don't know. There was just….some odd feeling. Some strange urge or pull I felt but… I can't explain it."

His voice sounded so low, it was like he was trying to hide his words as if Mickey was just on the other side of the bedroom door waiting for him to slip.

"I see," Frisk said, and turned thoughtful. "I… I think I can relate."

"Y-you do?" Flowey asked, still in his low voice.

"Well not a pulling feeling necessarily," Frisk said. "But I mean that a lot of the times, I also can't explain my own emotions myself."

"Huh," Flowey said and smiled a bit. "Well… that's a relief. Kind of. But that's not all though."

"You don't need to tell me more," Frisk said. "If you don't want to."

"I felt this pull when we first saw him," Flowey continued, ignoring her words. "Back when we were hiding in the basement, and he was just a speck in the distance. There was this… tingling in my vines and stalk. I didn't think much of it back then because… well, I was too traumatized by the sudden rush of horrible memories. But once they were gone and out of sight, that sensation lingered. Even after I calmed down, this pull was still burning inside of me, and I couldn't resist it anymore. I just had to go out and look. Had to get closer towards whatever it was, even while a big part of me kept telling me how stupid it was. And when Mickey touched me that feeling seemed to increase like ten times until… I could no longer think. It was like I was back in that coma, if only briefly. But then, I felt nothing. He was just gone, and the strange sensation with him. Honestly, I had sort of hoped to remember something that would explain everything. But I got… nothing. Even now once this pull is gone I… I don't understand it."

"Hmm," Frisk replied, listening but not knowing what to say.

"I'm… I'm scared Frisk," Flowey suddenly blurted out.

"Flowey…" Frisk replied sympathetically.

"Wait, did I say something?" Flowey said with bafflement and turned to her. "I… I suddenly kinda blanked out there for a moment."

"You…" Frisk began.

She stopped herself. She didn't want to add any more pressure to him.

"Nevermind," Frisk told him.

"No, what did I say?" Flowey pried.

"Nothing," Frisk lied. "Just… nonsense."

Flowey looked at her for a moment, as if he was reading her.

"Hmm," Flowey said and turned away. "Alright. Sleep well then."

"You too," Frisk replied.

With that, she closed her eyes, hoping to finally sleep-away her worries for now.

---

Update: This Chapter has been extended by several new pages that I felt couldn't fit the beginning of the next chapter. This is now the longest chapter so far I think.

Update 2: The author's note. Finally.

So I guess I should finally be writing something here. Frankly, I had almost forgotten about it, and at this point, I'm not sure anyone will notice.

But yeah. So the main reason it took me such a long time to write this chapter is probably that it took me one too many retries. Normally, when I write a chapter, I write a single draft, and then I go over it, fixing errors and things I'm not happy with. Sometimes, I even go as far as rewriting practically everything. In other words, most of the chapters are the 2nd draft, either completely or just for the most part.

This chapter is the first one that's the 3rd or 4th draft. This is perhaps the most rewrite I've ever done so far. Mostly, it concerned Mickey and The Hunt. For the longest time, I was really unhappy with what I had written. I wanted Mickey to feel intimidating, but also be somewhat down to earth so as to not feel like a cartoon villain. Suffice to say, he ended up being like that in the first draft. Of course, I didn't think much of it. I almost always change the first draft. But once I finished the second draft, Mickey and his hunters basically felt like a troupe of clowns. Mickey himself felt less of a warrior with delusion, and more like an edge lord. After that came the third and fourth rewrite... yeah you get the gist.
Frankly, I'm not even sure if I am completely happy with the final result here. But so far, I think it's better than nothing.
I also was kinda stuck at the beginning. Originally, I was gonna open the chapter with Flowey and Frisk leaving the basement, but then I realized I hadn't established that Reggie (RG 01) was back in Snowdin. Then I was gonna open with The Hunt at Grillby's to set up the scenario, but then I felt it to be a bit too unnatural and even clumsy in its exposition. Then after long consideration, I decided to add a short flash-forward in the beginning. I was also just gonna skip straight to him going to the bar, but then I realized I had mostly ignored the townsfolk of Snowdin. How would they react, hiding in their homes? So then that section was added in and... yeah.
I guess that's about it on this semi behind the scenes. I'm sure there are a bunch more trivia I could give, some more delves into my mindset when writing, but this is most of what I could bother to remember.

But on the bright side, The Snowdin arc is almost complete. After that is Waterfall, and then... well you see. It's not Hotland, I'll say.

But as usual, the next chapter might take a while to come out. Sucks, I know. This time, my excuse is that I want to finish another chapter of the Frisk crossover story I took a break from. As for the politics bear story. Yeah, I honestly have no idea when I get back to that one. I want to, but I'm not sure when though.

In the meantime, enjoy this chapter and I hope to see you in the future.
Please leave a comment. Reading your thoughts and theories is one of my favorite parts as a writer. ;)