UnderCorrupt

44 ~ Did You Really Think

Everyone froze, staring at the queen.

Finally, Undyne broke the silence. "Why? Is Frisk missing?"

Toriel nodded. "I can't find them anywhere!"

"Did you try calling them?" Gaster asked.

Again, Toriel nodded. "But it went straight to voice mail."

For a moment, everyone just thought on that.

"That might imply," Gaster said carefully, "that they know you would disapprove of whatever they are doing, and are attempting to avoid confrontation with you about it."

"But what would they be doing?"

"Who cares!" Undyne shouted. "It's obviously something dangerous! We gotta find 'em!"

Gaster immediately turned to Sans, who was sitting with his back to the wall, Papyrus in his lap. "Sans. Where are they?"

Sans frowned. "how should i know?"

"You said you could 'feel' them."

Sans' frown deepened as he remembered the day he had become more Pure because of the human. "it's not like i just know where they are! it's like... sonar. if they happen to be in range, then i pick up on the magic energy they give off. but i can't just reach out and feel them."

"So if we got you close enough, would you be able to find them?"

Sans shrugged. "i mean, probably. i don't see why i wouldn't be able to. but that's still gonna be difficult, because if they're not in the lab, that means we're gonna have to fight through corrupters. a lot of them. which i'm not particularly inclined to do."

Toriel frowned at Sans. "I thought you said you liked them."

Sans shrugged again. "yeah, but not enough to put my family, or myself, at risk."

Toriel just looked shocked.

Sans grinned lazily. "hey. i am still mostly corrupt."

"Sans," Papyrus said quietly, "they almost are like family."

Sans pulled Papyrus into an affectionate hug. "yeah, but you actually are family. not almost family."

Gaster sighed heavily.

"Regardless," Toriel began, "we need to find them."

And the planning took on a desperate show.

~o0o~

Frisk had indeed been trying to avoid Toriel's notice.

They were sitting in the lobby of the True Lab, trying to muster up the courage to step out the door...

They had recognized Chara from Papyrus's description. When they had first fallen into the Underground, when they were first standing up in that bed of golden flowers, Chara had been there.

Except they hadn't seemed... solid. They had seemed like a ghost, sort of see-through, floating.

And they had talked to Frisk, as they ran through the Corrupt Ruins. They had told Frisk to kill the Corrupters.

Wouldn't it be so much easier, they had whispered softly, to get by if there was nothing but a bit of dust in your way?

Frisk had said no.

In response, they said, well, look at it this way. It's either them or you, because they aren't going to stop trying to kill you.