Chapter 14: A moment of rest

An unpleasant shiver shook the child's body. Frisk hugged themself with their arms in a vain try to retain the little corporal heat they managed to save. Their head slowly rose, and they forced their eyes open. They tried to move their arm, but their back hurt too much to allow it, making them give up immediately.

It was dark in the room. Frisk hated the darkness. Too many bad memories. They could barely catch sight of the shelves and brooms in front of them.

"F-Frisk?"

They looked up. Snuggling in Asgore's arms, asleep, Chara noticed their movements. The child extricated themself slowly from their father's grip and got closer. Frisk regretted they couldn't touch them. They were in desperate need of a hug too right now.

Frisk blinked a few times to focus on their friend's face. Dark creases leaked from their eyes. Chara cried recently. Frisk didn't know ghosts could cry.

"Hey." Frisk answered with a little tired voice.

"You scared me. You slept for two days. I thought that…"

Chara took a deep breath and looked away, refusing to finish their sentence. Frisk could guess why. They didn't know a lot about them, but enough to know they lost a sibling along the road.

Asgore had woken up as well and was watching over them, smiling with care. Somehow, he looked even sadder than the first time Frisk met him.

Frisk pushed on their arms to force themself to sit down. They whined doing so, but with determination, managed to get away from the cold wet concrete floor. They rubbed their sore muscles until they could gather an illusion of heat, when the temperature in the room didn't rise above ten celsius degrees.

"I am so sorry, my child." Asgore mumbled. "I wished I could have done more. I ignored such barbaric treatments were still used there. If I knew, I would never have encouraged you to leave the safety of the Underground."

"It's alright, it's not your fault. Nobody knows what's happening here." Frisk answered darkly. "Or they know and they prefer to look away. No one cares. No one ever comes to adopt any of us. No one."

They sniffed, and quickly wiped their face to hide the tears that threatened to flee their eyes. They didn't deserve this. None of them deserve any of this. But nobody ever did anything to defend them, or try to make their lives a little better. They were the broken pieces of a society that had better to do than care about a bunch of stupid orphans.

"What are we going to do now?" Chara asked, worried.

"I'm going to be sent to the asylum." Frisk replied, defeated. "I… I don't want to go there. No one ever comes back from there. They're doing… Things to people. I don't know what, but people never come back."

"That's not a real asylum then." Their friend remarked.

"No. It's more like… I don't know. I heard other people calling it like that because everyone going there ends badly. We see them… In the newspapers. They're found in the woods, the rivers, the wells, mutilated. Dead for the most part."

"Do not think this too much, dear." Asgore intervened. "We'll find what to do when the time comes. One thing at a time."

Footsteps echoed in the corridor. Frisk shivered and crawled away, back to the wall, terrified. The door opened, illuminating a bit the dark wet room. Frisk was circled with cleaning products they couldn't see before. Their fleeing eyes dared to meet the ones of the person who was staring at them, near the entrance.

"Hello, Marian." One of Miss Vonichelle's assistants said. "Did you sleep well?" She asked, sarcastically.

The child refused to answer and hugged their knees against their chest a little closer, scared. They all watched when Miss Vonichelle whipped them. No one moved. They were all guilty.

"You are still punished until tomorrow." She informed them. "I came to announce to you your transfer to the asylum next week. Until then, you will be confined to your room. Enjoy your stay. You will soon see that this place was not that terrible after all."

The woman threw an old piece of bread at their feet. Before the door shut closed again, Frisk clearly saw its greenish color. They wanted to throw up. Chara sat next to them, disgusted by the food, already getting wet because of how moist the room was.

"Give me the control." She asked. "I will eat that."

"No… Please, don't force yourself to. I'm not that hungry anyway…"

"Frisk, you need to eat. Let me help… Please."

The child hesitated, then agreed reluctantly. They exchanged their place with Chara.

The two kids discovered they could do this Underground. A useful skill when they had to escape Undyne's mortal spears as Chara had better endurance, or knew Asgore's weak points better when they lived for so long by his side. They both ignored where that gift came from, just like the strange power coming with their determination, but this was not the strangest thing they saw through their journey.

Frisk waited in a corner of their own mind while Chara ate the stale bread. They could still feel the - horrible - taste of it, but more fainted, like it wasn't their body. The unpleasant part was that Frisk couldn't let Chara control their body for too long, as it was giving them terrible headaches afterward. To both of them, actually. It was an emergency tool only.

Chara gave them back their body, and gave them a nauseous grimace that said a lot about what they thought of this snack. Frisk hid their smirk to not offend them, unlike Asgore who chuckled a bit, both amused and disgusted.

However, Chara was right. After that light dinner, Frisk felt a little better. They still had a long day to enjoy in the darkness, and having the stomach fuller was going to help a lot.

Sans slowly lifted his head, completely lost and confused. He was not in Toriel's home, nor at Grillby's, and despite how hard he tried to, he couldn't remember how he ended there. The mind cloudy, he struggled to focus on his surroundings. Everything reeled around him. The walls, the floor, the furniture. He hated this sensation. It was like he was drunk, but he was pretty sure he didn't drink anything.

"...Rus?"

His own voice made him jump. That didn't sound like a good voice, but more like some dying old crow. He knew he had a deep and languid voice, but not to the point he could soon read Mettaton erotic books like a champ. That would embarrass Papyrus so much. His brother would never admit listening to them, but the walls of their house were not that thick and really, Sans could hear everything, lying in his bed, cringing internally.

Why was he thinking of Mettaton's erotic books again?

Ah yes, his voice was dead. All those intrusive thoughts were not helping.

What could help though were his old scientist instincts. The room was similar to a hospital exam room, except there was no wall to separate him from other monsters… Or other monsters in the room, actually. All he could see was gray and white, everywhere his painful eye sockets landed. He couldn't hear anything either, except for his own breathing, which was good because it meant he was still alive. Or at least he hoped so.

Uncomfortable, he came to the conclusion he had nothing to do here, that he was going home as soon as he could, and pretended like he didn't forget several hours of his life. Hours? Days? He didn't know. Motivated by the idea of leaving this place, he sat up. A wave of pain hit him in the chest. He screamed unwillingly, in pain, then gave up and let himself fall right back on the mattress, out of breath.

"Welp… B plan." He croaked. "I'm 'oin back t'sleep. When I'll wake up, 'vrithing'll be normal again."

"S-Sans?"

He turned his head towards whoever called his name. He had to blink several times so that his eye sockets stopped blurring the familiar face walking closer to him. He frowned deeply, focusing hard on remembering her name.

"...'phys? Where we?"

"Ah, you're f-finally awake!"

She started to busy herself around him, rambling about things Sans could barely understand. Something briefly squeezed his arm, then she put a tablet above his chest, and as he was barely registering she was looking at his soul without his consent, she suddenly palpated the back of his head. She was too fast for him, and he couldn't keep up. He just stayed there, confused, until she flashed a burning light in his eyes, and then he decided he had enough. He growled and tried to push her hand away, annoyed.

"S-sorry. It's just the p-procedure. I'm going t-to ask you a few q-questions, if it's alright? Can you give me y-your name?"

"Sans. I'm twenty-nine years old and we're monday or something." He answered, his voice a little more energetic than before.

"W-wednesd ay actually. You s-slept for two days. D-do you r-remember what happened?"

Sans shook his head negatively. It was worrisome. Doctors usually ask this when something bad happened. He tried to focus on what could have caused his state, without success. His mind was too groggy.

"It's n-normal." The scientist tried to comfort him. "You were in s-shock, it's going t-to take some t-time to come b-back. You got attacked a-at Grillby's, by a g-group of monsters. They injured y-you at the head and to t-the ribs, but before we c-could heal you, you d-disappear… Undyne f-found you again, and we b-brought you to the lab to treat you. You f-fell unconscious on the road to the Hotlands."

Now that she said it, this story sounded vaguely familiar, like someone else lived it. He was still too exhausted to give the recent events any sense, though. Him being still alive was the most important, since it meant it couldn't be worse than the explosion of his Snowdin's house. It was just another problem to add to the pile of everything that wasn't right with the Underground at the moment.

"I w-will let you r-rest." Alphys said. "I'm g-going to call P-Papyrus. He's really worried. I'll examine y-you later, I just came to c-change the bandages."

Sans looked down on his chest, wrapped in bandages like some mummy. He could feel some on his skull as well. Uh. He wasn't getting out of here soon, so he decided to obey. He let Alphys close the curtains to give him some intimacy and closed his eyes. He sank into sleep in seconds.

"Is this the paper?"

"Yes, thanks."

Undyne grabbed the paper Toriel handed to her, and put it inside one of the many ring binders exposed on the table. She then closed it and gave it to Papyrus, who piled it with the other documents of the Royal Guard, before he got back to his own pile of papers.

The three of them were in the middle of a massive sorting in Asgore's office, and mostly in his papers. It seemed the King had trouble organizing himself, and Toriel couldn't bear anymore not to find what she needed for her meetings. She requisitioned Papyrus, happy to help, and Undyne, a lot less enthusiastic, to get this done quickly. As a small revenge, the captain of the royal guard came with a big pile of reports she didn't have time to give to Asgore, too busy these last months to meet her. For three hours now, they were filing the documents and dispatched them in piles, so they could be given to their official counselor and free some space.

Papyrus didn't show it, but he was growing more and more anxious as his pile was one of the biggest ones, despite him having still no idea what exactly would be his role as the social counselor of the Underground. He was glad Toriel trusted him enough to give him such responsibilities, but… He was uncomfortable as everything was really new, and Papyrus hated not having control over things.

Added to that, with Sans still unconscious, he struggled to focus on his tasks. He wanted to be done with this as soon as possible to go back and watch over him. He knew that the cleaning session was just a big mascarade to distract him anyway. It was nice of Toriel to try to cheer him up, but that wasn't really working.

He hoped at least that could help both women to open up a little more with each other to appease the tensions that occurred during that horrible dinner, right before Sans got attacked.

"I don't understand." Toriel growled, exasperated. "Didn't Asgore have any secretary to take care of all of this? I just found a fifty-year-old birth certificate inside a twenty-year-old outdated report from the Royal Guard. Why would he keep all of this?"

"The old man didn't like to throw stuff away." Undyne answered, a bit nostalgic. "He thought he could take care of the papers on his own, and that hiring someone would make them waste their time. That's a part of why I entered the guard. I didn't want him to be alone anymore. He was making me sad. I gave the best I could to become captain as soon as possible and be able to help him."

"For how long have you been captain now?" Toriel asked politely.

"A little more than twenty years. We were four when I got promoted. Now there's only me."

The Queen frowned, worried. Undyne answered her silent question.

"One lost a leg saving a kid from a cave-in, another got killed facing the last human. And the last one… Just gave up one morning. I'm not sure what happened. I found his dust one morning, in his room. No one knows if he fell down, died from an illness, or just… You know… Decided to stop there. These things happen sometimes. We'll see a lot of misery every day in the Royal Guard, and sometimes, it can do weird things to your head."

"I know this quite well…" mumbled Toriel.

"If you say so." The fish lady replied, cold.

"You said you were there when the last human…"

"Shot Papyrus on sight? Yeah. It was only my second day as a captain." She confessed. "I was all alone to handle the situation and it turned out to be a fiasco. Good soldiers died trying to arrest that monster, several civilians got injured. They shot a child. There was so much dust everywhere… They should never have passed the first barricade. And in all this chaos, Sans, who was just a teenager, took them down. It was supposed to be me. I was responsible for their safety."

Papyrus tried his best to ignore their conversation. He felt very uncomfortable and the growing tension didn't help. Why must these two always talk about humans if none of them like the subject? Well, good thing he was here to distract everyone from going on this dangerous path that would only lead to more conflict.

"Well, I'm still alive, so it wasn't that big of a failure! It's past anyway, and our defenses have greatly improved since. I contributed to building most of Snowdin's puzzles and no human has killed any monster since, which must mean I am truly exceptional." He bragged with exaggeration, a hand on the heart.

The Captain and the Queen laughed at his little stunt. Papyrus discreetly sighed, relieved. The tension broke and everyone put their nose in their papers again. The skeleton felt Undyne's eyes on his neck for a few minutes, but didn't turn around.

His phone rang, making him jump slightly. Papyrus juggled with his files until he could reach his pocket, and picked the call up without even looking at the phone number.

"This is the great Papyrus speaking. How can I help you?"

"Hi P-Papyrus, it's Alphys. S-Sans woke up an hour ago. He's a bit c-confused, but he seems fine. He's asking a-after you."

"Really?" He screamed, excited. "I'm coming right away! Thank you so much!"

Papyrus hung up. He turned towards the two ladies in the room who were staring at him, smiling.

"Go see him." Toriel told him. "Don't forget his bag and the pie in the fridge!"

"Yes, miss Asgore!" He answered back, already out of the room.

The main door closed behind him not even a few seconds later. The Queen smiled shyly to Undyne, watching her with attention.

"Is it like a second nature to mother people?" She observed. "You do that. A lot."

"We'll see when you'll be my age." Toriel mocked her. "To me, you're all children."

"You can't be that old. That's like an urban legend."

Toriel smiled, maliciously.

"If you say so."

Papyrus slowed down near Mettaton's resort. Like the last time, a group of monsters waited in front of the doors. The skeleton growled, annoyed. Usually, he tended to avoid little groups at all costs, mainly because some were not so nice to him younger, and he hated them even more when he didn't have any other choice available, like at this precise moment. In Snowdin, he could try to walk around the houses, but here, there were the only doors leading to the lab. And people wondered why he hated the Hotlands.

He puffed his chest, pretending he was not scared at all, and walked with fake self-confidence towards the exit. Maybe he was a bit paranoid after all these events after all. All monsters couldn't hate his brother and him, right? He knew the probabilities, and chances of being attacked twice in a row were low. But not zero, unfortunately.

"Look at that asshole." He heard on his right. "He really has some cheek to show up after what happened to my brother!"

"He's under the protection of the Queen, stay there… We can't do anything."

"She's no queen of mine! My brother died because of this bastard and his stupid brother! We found his dust in the forest. I'm sure he venged this other skeleton before he pretended to be injured. All of this for a little rush. I'm going to show him what I think of this!"

Papyrus felt their magic activating and turned around quickly. He easily deflected the bullets thrown his way with a big bone. The small monster, a creature with blue skin and a big round head, blinked in awe, surprised by how fast the skeleton defended himself. They seemed to reconsider, then gave up the attack.

Papyrus hurried to get out of there, not testing his luck today. That was close. He understood by now that his size could be an advantage in these kinds of situations. He hated intimidating other people, but sometimes, it helped to avoid trouble. Maybe Undyne's training hadn't been so useless after all.

Out of breath, he slowed down once the lab appeared in the distance. He dived into it, glad he finally arrived. Alphys jumped a little at the opening of the door, but relaxed when she saw it was only Sans' brother.

"Are you alright? I s-saw the cameras…"

"I'm fine!" Papyrus shook it off, forcing a smile. "I think they were more scared than me."

The scientist grimaced, as convinced as he was, but signed at him to follow her in the elevator. Papyrus stopped at the entrance, a bit nervous. He was not a big fan of elevators. Or the lower floor lab, for all that matter. He used to bring papers to her with Undyne, and he always hated the place. Maybe this was the reason why Undyne stopped bringing him? Or maybe it had to do with Alphys' weird disappearance for a few months, who knew?

He tried not to think about his brother all alone down there.

The skeleton sighed, then entered the small space.

"I m-must warned you about s-something…" Alphys muttered. "There are o-others monsters down there. I w-will talk about t-them to the Q-Queen soon, I p-promise. They l-look scary but t-they are t-t-totally inoffensive."

Papyrus eyes her, worried. Why did he have the impression he would not like it at all?

He understood what Alphys meant when, after an unending descent, the metal doors opened on a massive shapeless swarming form, which escaped intermittently some gloomy barking. The thing vaguely looks like a dog. Or more exactly a hundred dogs all melted together in some sort of hell oven. Papyrus didn't like dogs much (except when a stick was involved), but this was a whole other level.

Alphys tried to convince him that the creature was really inoffensive by rushing her hand into the white gooey thingy that composed most of its body. The weird dog growled with contentment. Papyrus didn't relax though. He slid on the floor, as close to the wall as possible, to put as much distance as he could with this "monster" he couldn't even look out. He had no idea where its head was. Maybe in that giant hole in the middle of its upper part… which could actually be a mouth as well for all he knew!

"That's En-Endogeny." Alphys explained. "You can p-pet them. They w-won't do anything."

"No, thanks!" The skeleton replied gently but very firmly.

The scientist shrugged, before opening the way to the rest of the lab. Papyrus followed her closely. Here, everything was gray. The floor, covered in dust, the cracked walls, the vibrating machines… The place was rarely used, which explained that catastrophic lack of hygiene.

Other creatures like Endogeny were roaming freely here and there. A huge bird was looking at the sink with fascination. Some floating heads screamed at them in a corridor. Papyrus hated it. He hated everything about this place.

Finally, some light appeared in the distance, coming from a small isolated room. Alphys knocked and opened the door, Papyrus behind her. The skeleton sighed. Finally out of darkness!

Sans turned his head towards them, and smiled shyly at them. Lying in a bed way too big for him and without his blue jacket, he looked even smaller to Papyrus. He still had yellowish bones, and some really dark bags under the sockets. However, he looked better than when Alphys took him down there and asked him to just go home. Colorful wires were visible under his chest bandage, hiding the familiar light of his soul.

Sans put down the book he was reading on the small table next to him, already invaded by half-eaten bags of potato chips, and a ketchup bottle.

"I missed you." Sans affectuously said.

"You too", Papyrus confessed as he hugged him briefly, careful to not touch his ribs.

Alphys touched a monitor for a second, then slipped away to give them some intimacy. Papyrus thanked her and dragged a chair close to his brother's bed.

"Are you alright?" he asked, worried. "You scared us quite good two days ago."

"I know… Al' told me. I… don't remember everything. Apparently, I was too stressed for that."

"Undyne is still searching for who did it. She found one of your assaulters dead in the woods, soon after we took you to the lab. She doesn't know what happened."

Sans's pupils suddenly disappeared from his sockets. Papyrus froze, scared he awoke too recent traumatic memories. His brother clenched his fists. He was shaking, Papyrus noticed.

"Sans?"

"I'm good. It's nothing. I'm just tired, I guess."

Papyrus could tell he was lying but didn't push him more. He preferred to change the subject discreetly to not make Sans more uncomfortable.

"They put Asgore's funeral urn on display yesterday, so people can say goodbye. Undyne stayed there most of her time. Lady Toriel dragged her out of here with me so we could help classify the King's papers. She looks… troubled by all of this."

"Oh is she now?" Sans growled, cold.

"Sans, please… I know that you two are very different. But she's my friend. I would like to be here for her without feeling like I'm in the middle of the war every time Toriel or you are in the room."

"And I think you have way too much faith in her, and that she doesn't deserve it." Sans replied honestly. "You're an adult, Papyrus. Make your own mind about her. If you think she's worth the time you give to her, suit yourself. I prefer to stay away."

"I understand. I wish you could stop taunting each other so much though. This is not helping. I will talk to her, after the farewell ceremony. But for now, she needs support."

Sans looked away. He clenched his fists, then sighed. He slowly stared at his brother, hesitating.

"What?" Papyrus said. "I can tell you want to tell something. Say it, please."

"I know who killed the monster in the forest. But I'm scared you won't believe me. And I don't want to cause more trouble for… That's a bad idea, forget it."

"What you're talking about? Who killed the monster, Sans?"

His brother seemed reluctant, fleeing his eyes. Papyrus grabbed his chin and forced him to look at him. No more secrets. That was what they decided soon after Frisk left the Underground. Sans had to stop overprotecting him and be more honest, just like he had to stop pretending everything was right. It wasn't time to back away from that promise.

"Who, Sans?"

"Her. It's Undyne… I… Listen, it's not all that clear yet in my head, but I remembered seeing her before I fell unconscious in Snowdin. She was holding the guy by the neck and she strangled him. He dusted in front of me. I don't know if… She saw I was there. But I won't call her out, alright? I don't want to add more fuel to the fire, or to complicate things even more between you two… But now you know. Do what you want with this."

Papyrus shook his head. Undyne? Killing someone with cold blood? He struggled to believe it. His friend was hot-headed and troubled by the recent events, but to the point of murdering someone?

However, he knew his brother would never lie about something so serious. If he saw it, it was true.

The skeleton sank in his chair, shocked. He couldn't understand. Undyne was strong enough to arrest someone. Sometimes, she could be a little violent, but she never crossed the line, he was sure of it. How distressed was she to not being able to stop herself? Papyrus felt guilty. He should have been more present for her, that would have never happened!

He didn't recognize his friend anymore. It was like someone else took her place.

"I'm sorry." Sans apologized. "I didn't mean to worry you more."

"Thanks for telling me. I… I will need a moment to digest that. Does Alphys…"

"No, you're the only one who knows. I just remembered it actually. I wanted to warn you in case… She tries to threaten me, or accuse me, or… I don't want you to be on the bad side."

"I believe you, Sans. I know you wouldn't lie about this. I'm sorry you're the one who has to carry this on your shoulders, once again… I'm trying… I'm trying really hard to arrange things with everyone, but whatever I'm doing, things keep getting worse! I'm scared, Sans… I'm scared Undyne will make a big mistake, I'm scared Toriel will make a bad decision that will have consequences on all of us again. I'm even scared to go outside! I just want things to go back the way they were. I can't do this anymore! I can't, I can't, I can't!" He screamed, the voice breaking. "I don't know how to deal with all of this anymore. I can't see how I could help anyone Underground when I can't even help my own family!"

A distressed sob escaped his throat. Sans sat up a bit and pulled him to his chest. Papyrus climbed on the bed and held him close. His brother gently started to pet the back of his skull, to comfort him.

"Papyrus, you don't have to arrange all our problems. I know you want to help. Everyone can see it. But please, don't sacrifice your mental health for this. We're all responsible adults, we can deal with our own mess. Look at you, you're exhausted, little brother. If you don't rest, it will get worse. Give some time to everyone to calm down, things will get better eventually. You shouldn't even be in the middle of all this mess, you did nothing wrong, and trust me, you're doing more than enough for everyone."

The small skeleton moved slightly to give him more place.

"Come on, lay down."

"Why?"

"It's almost night, it's time for your bedtime story."

"It's only the beginning of the afternoon, Sans."

"Whatever you say. Lay down."

Skeptically, Papyrus stared for long seconds before he put down the upper part of his battle body on the floor. He crawled on the bed and laid down next to his brother.

"Try to rest a bit." Sans said. "And when you'll wake up, we'll find a solution to Undyne's problem, alright? Both of us."

"Alright…" Papyrus sighed.

With a raspy voice, Sans tried to narrate by memory Fluffy Bunny's story, to a tired Papyrus who didn't last more than five minutes before falling deep asleep in his big brother's comforting arms.

"My brother loved the shiny crystals on the ceiling of the cave." Chara confessed. "I never understood why. That's just shiny rocks after all. But then he explained that without them, no one would see anything in the Underground. I missed the shiny stupid rocks. I can't even see my own hands despite not being corporeal. Isn't it a thing that we do?"

"Napstablook doesn't glow in the dark." Frisk noticed, amused.

"Napstablook is a ghost, not a spirit. That's not the same thing! Probably."

Frisk chuckled seeing their friend's defeated face, laughing for the first time since they entered the doors of the orphanage. Still locked up in the broom closet, they passed time like they could, alternating between talking with Chara and sleeping. They had no idea what time it was anymore. Maybe more than a day now.

It was confirmed soon as footsteps echoed in the corridor and stopped in front of the door. The child stopped talking and stuck to the wall, scared. The key turned in the lock.

"Get out of here", barked Miss Vonichelle's unpleasant voice. "Don't force me to come fetch you."

Frisk didn't answer. They hugged their knees to make themselves as little as they could. They had no desire to follow the old cow. However, they didn't have a choice for much longer. In an exaggerated sigh, the woman entered the room. She grabbed a broom and hit them several times in the ribs with it.

"Stand up!" she yelled.

Unable to protect themself, the child obeyed, the knees shaking with fear. The old woman grabbed their wrist and dragged them out. Frisk whimpered and slowed down to force her to let go, but she didn't. She forced them to cross the entire orphanage to a door they knew all too well: their bedroom.

The decoration had been remade. Added to a few metal bars blocking the window, a chain had been screwed to the wall, long enough to walk inside the room, but not to reach the door. Miss Vonichelle locked a ring to their ankle. They were prisoner, once again.

"You better behave until your transfer to the asylum." She threatened. "If you try something again, Marian, you won't be so lucky. I won't hesitate to throw you in the nearest well and leave you to your fate, you hear me? How long do you think a child can swim in stagnant water before giving up?"

Frisk shivered, and nodded to give her what she wanted. The sooner she would be out of there, the better they would feel. The door soon slammed behind Miss Vonichelle, and they heard her lock it on the way out.

Asgore and Chara didn't take long to appear again on their sides.

"Stupid bitch." Their friend reacted, making Asgore frown with disapproval.

"As you said."

Frisk climbed back on the bed with a sigh. Asgore sat next to them.

"Be brave, my child. All of this will soon be a bad nightmare, I'm sure of it. While we're here, I am sure the others are looking for a way to get out. If Tori knew what's going on here…"

"Mom is going to strangle them all." Chara laughed. "She's going to lecture them for hours. One by one. They're all going to cry."

"Chara, what are those manners?" Asgore smiled, amused. "But yes, my wife has a tenacious character. I regret I couldn't see her again, one last time. Oh well, she would have probably refused to see me. I can't blame her."

"Dad…"

Chara hugged him, as Frisk watched silently. The child lay down in bed, eyes on the ceiling.

"I hope you're both right. Maybe they'll find a way…"