It took Frisk even more determination to press the doorbell than it did to SAVE, even knowing they could just undo it.

"Oh, look who it is," their not-father said on opening the door. "Have you decided to come back to us, chimera?" Asriel blinked in surprise. That was how their not-father greeted them?

"No," Frisk replied. "I've come to tell you that you're wasting your time." Their not-father stared at them in anger. "Listen, I know you're not big on believing me, but believe me now. You can't win. It doesn't matter what you do. It's a royal family, don't you think we can win a legal battle?" It was all lost on him. "Okay, fine, don't believe me. Can you at least stop pretending to be my parents, and get out of my life?!" Their not-mother had turned the corner and was staring at them with a look of fury, then looking at Asriel with horror.

"Chimera, have you forgotten what I'll do to you if you don't show me respect?" their not-father asked, starting to take off his belt.

Frisk laughed with no joy. "What you'll do to me?!" Their not-father took a step forward, and Asriel felt the white-hot rage bubbling up from within Frisk's SOUL, and then he was not little Azzy anymore but ASRIEL DREEMURR, PRINCE OF MONSTERS, and in half an eyeblink he slammed Frisk's not-parents' heads together so hard that-

==LOAD==

Asriel's shocked face showed that he remembered it.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that could even happen," Frisk blurted quickly. The adrenaline, reverted out of their system, was quickly starting to come back.

"Even Chara couldn't do that." That's all he said, and that's all he needed to say, and it hurt. It doesn't matter if I unhappened it. I possessed him into killing people. Why didn't someone warn me I could do that?! Will he ever look at me the same way again? We were right- this was not a good idea!

"I told you I could be mean. I just really don't want to. Not to you, Azzy, never to you," Frisk said, voice and body shaking. Asriel was wiping away tears, and Frisk started doing the same. "You can forgive me if you want, but if you don't, I understand." Uncomfortable silence. "Let's try this again, okay? It's up to you."

"We have to," Asriel replied, and Frisk rang the doorbell for the first time again, wiping away the last few tears but knowing that their face showed extensive signs of crying.

Their not-father opened the door. "Oh, look who it is. Have you decided to come back to us, chimera?"

"Why would I? Didn't you always say that I should try to get ahead in life despite my 'condition'?" Frisk asked, wanting to steer the conversation far from the way it had originally gone. Their not-father scowled. "I'm a member of a royal family. The guy I call my father now is the king of another dimension. Why would you want to take me from that?"

"Those aren't your accomplishments," their not-father replied, and Frisk unconsciously clenched their fist. You have no idea what I accomplished. "And if they were, why didn't you share them with your family?"

"Why do you think?! Can you think of any reason, just one, why I might not want to come back here?" Their not-father almost reached for his belt but stopped- there was something very wrong with the way Frisk was looking at him, and then there was that monster kid to deal with, too. He mentally reaffirmed his decision to win in court.

"Why did you let that demon in our house?!" their not-mother screamed as soon as she saw who was there. "Get it out! GET IT OUT!" Asriel took an unconscious step back. That had given birth to his sibling?

Their not-father walked to their mother, equally angered with her. "Grelod, stop it. Stop it right now."

"Richard! We cannot have that thing in our house! It defies the laws of God!"

"Asriel's my brother now," Frisk said, quietly. "Don't you ever call him a demon."

"Your brother? You call that your brother?! Lord, give me strength! You've always been a trial, Frisk. A trial like the trials of Job."

"Yeah, you've told me that before, so why do you want me back?!"

"Because I'm your mother!"

"Not anymore," Frisk said. "You've lost your kid to monsters, Grelod. And you drove them to it, so you have nobody else to blame. Neither of you do." Frisk's not-father turned to them in rage.

"I promise you, you little brat," she said, seething, "we're going to send you to a very special school, oh yes. You'll learn respect, and decorum, and you will stop worshipping abominations unto God!" she screamed, pointing at Frisk's brother, and Frisk's self-control made a cheap excuse and defenestrated itself.

"Would you like to see a GOD?! HERE I AM!" boomed ASRIEL DREEMURR, GOD OF HYPERDEATH.

This time, the other half of her head went-

==LOAD==

Asriel looked down at his fuzzy, soft hands, his eyes wide. From his perspective, they had been neither a second ago.

How many LOADs is this going to take until I find the exact right words? How many more times is Azzy going to have to turn into that thing? "Okay, no, we're not doing this! We're not going in there at all. I'm so sorry, Azzy. I just... I can't do it. Not without that happening. They deserve it, but you don't." Asriel dumbly nodded, looking at Frisk like they were something from another planet, and that hurt more than anything he could possibly have said. "C'mon, let's.. let's go around the side, so he'll come out without seeing us," they said, gently pushing their brother, who did not resist. And so I won't see him. "Oh, God, Azzy. I really hurt you, didn't I?"

"It didn't hurt," Asriel said. "It felt good. I felt like I was achieving something, like I was the hammer of maximum righteous hyperdeath justice. Both times. Why should it feel good to hurt people?"

"It shouldn't. Even if they have it coming. Even if there really is no other way. And there is one. We're definitely going to court, so we need evidence, and clues, and that stuff."

Asriel nodded. "Maybe we can get Rebecca to help. Whoever that is."

Frisk shook their head. "I never even told you, did I? They had another child, a girl, five years before me."

"You had a sis-"

"Don't say sister. She won't call herself that, those two won't call her that, I won't call her that. To her I was always just this thing my parents had to deal with. She-"

Asriel put his finger over his lips. Frisk instantly shut up and heard their not-father leaving the house, trudging to his car, and driving away. Even Frisk could hear the irritation in the way he closed doors. They never loved each other, either.

"So yeah. I didn't even talk to her, at all. If I tried to go into her room she'd pick me up and throw me out. I couldn't even get her old clothes, my not-mom would give them away, said I shouldn't have stuff for boys or girls. I used to dream I had a sister or a brother. Then I'd wake up, and there'd only be my not-parents. And her." One time, Frisk had watched an old, popular Internet video in which the narrator had talked about how his far older brother had helped him play primitive role-playing games. They'd cried sporadically for days after watching it. "I used to draw pictures of siblings I didn't have." They looked at Asriel. "Oh, no, I could never have imagined you. Anyway, my not-mom must have found my notebook, because one day it was just gone. She wouldn't like something for some stupid religious reason, and when I was away at school it'd just disappear, and she wouldn't tell me anything. So I stopped collecting anything."

Asriel was staring at them. "I wondered why you would ever climb a mountain like that. Now I guess I know."

"I wasn't trying to kill myself or anything like that," Frisk said. "I just wanted to get away. To live and explore somewhere else." They smiled. "I did, but... I wound up dragging the Prince of Monsters into my problems."

"Hey, your problems are my problems. And the other way around." He held up his arms, showing his bracelets, smiling a bit. "Still inseparable."

"Those have enough range for me to ask you to do something," Frisk said, and Asriel perked up. "She's home alone and she very rarely leaves her room. You can hear her coming and you have next to no footsteps. Sneak in and take pictures, but don't steal anything. Unless it's from the trash can, so you should visit that. If you get caught, just yell and I'll LOAD again. Only if you want to. Always only if you want to."

Asriel shook his head. "No, I have to. This is clues and evidence that we need, right? If I don't spy, we'll be right back here."

"So, how do you want to get in? Maybe if I throw you to a second-floor window, you can grab on..."

"The front door," Asriel said, smiling widely. "To us, a lock is just a polite way of saying not to come in, unless it's sealed with magic. I do your teeth every morning, remember?" Knowing that no one was coming, Asriel grasped the knob, pushed the tumblers into place without needing to touch them, and silently opened the door.

It took all of Frisk's patience to sit at the side of the house, unseen, staring at their bracelets for color changes, needing to do nothing but trust their brother and wait. They didn't have Asriel's ears; they couldn't hear a thing as they huddled against the side of the house, their one shirt not enough against the cold. Five minutes? Ten? Their not-mother couldn't have stopped Asriel from shouting, surely? Or did they just not hear it? Oh, they did hear something: a very quiet front door.

"First try," Asriel said. Not wanting to alert their parents that someone had been inside, Frisk opened the door, locked it, and re-closed it. "I got some mail and receipts from the trash and took a lot of pictures. That closet was actually your room?" Frisk nodded slowly and Asriel sucked air between his teeth. It had everything but a lock on the outside. If it had that, I'd have gone to Hogwarts instead of the Underground. "I tried to take pictures of your family photographs, I mean I did get pictures... but you weren't in any of them. Why would they take them down when you ran away?" Frisk just looked at him. "Frisk... they wouldn't even take pictures of you?" Frisk nodded and stared at their feet all the way back to the car, which was nicely heated.

"so. why didn't you go in and talk to them?" Sans asked, checking his phone for directions to Grillby's, which was in the neighborhood.

"Sans, please stop pretending you don't remember," Frisk said. "I wasn't going to do that a third time."

"that didn't seem much like talking to me, unless you were speaking loud-crack-ese and those flashes of light were sign language. which'd be a pretty neat way to communicate."

"I tried to talk to them. But it didn't work, and I got mad," Frisk said.

"Don't make Frisk angry," Asriel added. "You wouldn't like me when they're angry."

"Sans, I had no idea I could do that," Frisk continued. "I really didn't."

"well, that's on you," Sans said. "you knew a monster with a human SOUL was dangerous, didn't ya? and it's not just any SOUL. it's yours, time traveller." Silence for a while, as Sans expertly navigated roads and traffic like he'd been driving for years. "so, why'd you LOAD?"

"What- you mean to stop him from having killed them?! I'm not going to turn my brother into a killer if I can help it! Besides, it'd be pretty obvious who did it! Or maybe they'd blame Dad! Sans, I've gotten this far without killing anyone. I don't plan on starting! Especially not by mind controlling my brother!"

"there's a reason you didn't give."

"Sans, just stop," Asriel said. "They're crazy and evil. I couldn't even grasp the true form of their meanness."

Sans parked the car near the front door with a single, expert turn. Grillby's had bought out a failing human business; it wasn't yet well-known that the old building was run by monsters. "so it's ok if they die, just not if you kill them?"

"Sans, if you're saying what I think you're saying... I can't patella you what to do, right?" Frisk asked. "Just don't take their SOULs. They're full of hate and misery. They'd probably do the opposite of what the souls in Flowey did."

"and miss the trial? naw." Sans turned around in the driver's seat with a downcast expression. "is this really the frisk i know?"

"It's weird, right? I don't want to hate anyone, and I never hated any monsters. Even when you were all trying to kill me, I never really felt threatened. Maybe it's because it was kinda easy, maybe because I could just LOAD, but... you didn't hate me, either. You all had your reasons. Sans, if you want to give me a bad time for wanting my not-parents dead, I'll take several bad times over one more minute with those two."

"that's your parents' job, not mine."

"We can't tell them!" Frisk shouted. "I'm not worried about getting in trouble! They'd be afraid of me!"

"still have a tough time giving people credit, don't ya? if they were gonna be afraid of you, they'd already be. same with your brother. asriel, are you afraid of frisk?"

At least you asked that while the doors were still closed! Asriel thought, blindsided by the question and deciding to answer honestly. "Once in a while. But not that they'll open their SOUL and turn me into a vengeful murdergod again." Frisk knew exactly where this was going and, mortified and upset, had to fight back the urge to LOAD to stop him from finishing it. "Sometimes I'm worried that they'll just get bored of me, or I'll do something annoying, and they'll close it. People get mad. People change. Mom and Dad did." Asriel had meant to tell Frisk that sometime, preferably in private, but kept putting it off.

"Sans, I think I know what you meant by giving people credit," Frisk said, struggling with their voice. They turned to their brother. "Asriel. Never. That's a promise. Not unless I'm dead and can't reverse it." That ninety years was looking shorter and shorter. "Haven't we cried enough for one day?" they asked, unbuckling their seatbelt and opening the door, and Asriel was glad to be able to exit through the door on his side without suffering, feeling a bit ashamed and more than a little childish. Yeah, Alphys probably deserved her old job back, and Frisk deserved credit. A lot of credit.

Grillby's really was the kind of place where everyone knows your name, but then again everyone knew Frisk and Asriel's names, including the few human patrons, who were the only ones not to loudly greet the three of them as they came in. Grillby hadn't yet hired more people; he was up front, talking and serving and doing everything himself.

Sans reached into his tracksuit pocket for the usual gold coins, and Grillby held out a hand to stop him when they clinked in his pocket. "Your money's no good here."

"oh, geez. thanks, grillby."

"I mean, your money is literally no good here," Grillby said. "We're an American business now, we use dollars." Sans reached into another pocket. "You qualify for the 100 percent discount, anyway." With no eyebrows to raise, Sans looked at his long-time friend. "The being with the kid who got us out of the Underground discount. What'll it be, the usual? Our menu's a little bit bigger, but we haven't printed it yet."

"Yeah, the usual. For old time's sake."

"Frisk?" Frisk heard both the professional bartender and the underlying voice, which had elements of 'Frisk, our savior' and 'Your Highness' in it.

"Well, it's Grillby's, so, can you grill chicken?" Frisk asked. "And a side of fries."

"One of our most popular items. Asriel?"

"Never had grilled chicken, I'll have some and fries too," Asriel said.

"If you want a booth, please seat yourself," Grillby said, handing each of them a glass of ice water. "Your food will be right out." The three of them decided 'booth' at once. They had the habit of talking about things they didn't want people to overhear. Frisk checked carefully for whoopee cushions before sitting down.

"frisk, i was afraid of you, too," Sans said in a serious voice, sitting on the other side of Asriel and Frisk, sipping his water. "afraid you'd reset everything, that we'd be in again as soon as we got out."

"Why would I ever do that, Sans?!" Frisk tried to keep their voice low. "I'm up here, with my brother and you and your brother and Mom and Dad, why would you ever think I'd want to send everyone back down there? What kind of sense would that even make?" Asriel looked embarrassed and Frisk remembered why.

"i dunno. some people would. because they can't ever be happy."

"I want to be happy," Frisk said, remembering credit. "I deserve to. And so does Azzy, and you, and everyone else in this place. Especially Grillby, who's doing almost everything himself. I think we can be. I mean, we can't lose this trial, Mom's going to make a good school, Trump's farming monsters instead of hunting them, and- what?" Sans was giving them the stink eye, which was orange instead of blue.

"farming, frisk?"

"Well, yeah. But if he's just growing what he kills, it's not that bad, is it?"

"They're Vegetoids," Asriel explained. "Isn't being farmed what they want?"

"that might be so," Sans said, "i never really talked to one. but that ain't the problem. problem is, how do you think they grow?" Grillby came by with their food just then, and it looked and smelled delicious. Sans picked up one of his fries, which was thickly cut and very unlike a fast-food fry. "see this? this used to be a potato. now, a potato grows in soil. you plant it, you grow it, and it don't cost nothin'. those chickens? same thing, a bird grows up and gets its neck cut. cycle of nature. but a vegetoid, asriel, you know where monsters come from, right?"

"Yeah, I told Frisk. We come from dreams," Asriel said. Frisk took a big bite of chicken, which was heavenly and a little bit spicy, and took another bite soon afterwards.

"that's right. every monster comes from a different dream, represents something. boss monsters are a little different, but same concept. now tell me, what do you think vegetoids represent?"

Asriel was too busy eating to reply. "Well, food," Frisk said, eating a bite of fries.

"mm-hmm. and who dreams of food?" Frisk almost choked on their fries and managed to swallow the bite instead of LOADing. Asriel didn't get it at first, and then he did, his eyes widening. He altered the food in his own throat to keep from choking on his chicken.

"So, what, does he keep, like a warehouse of hungry people..." Frisk wondered.

"naw, he probably just sends people to the hungry places in the world to collect 'em. easier. there's no way to get EXP without someone, somewhere, suffering. can't be done. sorry, kid."

"Well, then, what are we going to do about it?" Frisk asked.

"kid, i like you. i really do. soon as you realize there's a problem, next thing out of your mouth is what you're going to do about it. sometimes, you can handle stuff. other times, give people credit." Sans pulled his phone out of his pocket and explained the situation to their father, with a promise to call back later, as the kids savored their meals, feeling lucky that they had them. "this'll end. thanks for saying something." Sans never even asked how they knew, which both Frisk and Asriel found weird. "and remember. just because other people aren't happy doesn't mean you shouldn't be." He pulled two packets of hot sauce out of the usual wire container with salt, pepper, and sugar packets. "here. both of ya, try some hot sauce on your fries." It said 'Habanero', which the kids thought was a brand.

"This isn't one of your pranks, is it?" Asriel asked, and Frisk clearly shared the sentiment.

"no prank. just hot sauce."

They tried some, and lo and behold, it was really, burning spicy hot and both of them went for their water while Sans chuckled. He hadn't lied. It was just hot sauce. Before they could yell at him, his phone started ringing.

Even Frisk could hear Undyne's voice on the other end: "Sans, where are you?"

"grillby's."

"Did you forget something?!"

"eh. probably."

"Something blue? And with gills? And with a spear for your bony head?!"

"eh. can't say for sure."

"Well, come back and get me, or I'll make sure you remember!"

"ok." Undyne hung up first, and Sans finished his ketchup-laden fries in a few rapid handfuls while the kids finished their meals and water.

They were in the car before Asriel remembered what Frisk had said in the French restaurant. "Did you leave Grillby a tip?"

"oh yeah," Sans said. "i tipped twenty percent." Frisk and Asriel sighed as Sans started to pull away.

They found Undyne at the donut stall, another sale going to the ASPCS. The look on her face was doom for skeletons, and she opened the passenger door with venom clearly on her lips.

"No, Undyne," Asriel said before she could lay into him. "Frisk and I really don't want to listen to people yell at each other today."

"Did something happen?" she asked. "You didn't hear me and Alphys, did you?"

"It's not what happened, it's what unhappened," Frisk said. "Just... try to be happy."

"Oh, I was." She didn't explain, and nobody was dumb enough to ask her to. "So, off to another playground?"

"I just want to relax," Asriel said. "Let's just go back to the pool and float around. Yes, Undyne, the one with the fake water." She shuddered.

"You have the best ideas," Frisk agreed. Sans dropped the three of them off at the hotel before leaving to parts unknown.

They had to go up and down the elevator to get their swimming trunks this time, but it was just more time to relax. The pool wasn't very crowded, and they picked a double tube that would keep them together, leisurely floating as Undyne sat on a pool chair, kids played on the slides, and a few adults looked in their direction, quietly curious about the bracelets the kids wore. Alphys knew her business; they were, in fact, waterproof. Even fake waterproof. Please, let the novelty wear off, Frisk silently begged, noticing the looks. Please, let the media go back to talking about the Cardassians or whatever they're called and maybe Undyne won't feel the need to actually be around guarding us.

They did go down the slides a bunch of times (not needing to stick out their arms on the speed slides), just to do something, but mostly they just leisurely floated on the double tube, shoulders together.

"Maybe we should practice," Frisk quietly said, after having thought it over for too long and waiting until nobody could hear. "You transforming. Except without the whole vengeful murdergod thing. If you want."

"I was going to ask you," Asriel replied. "But I thought you wouldn't want me using up too much of your SOUL."

"My energy comes from potatoes and chickens. You're not using my SOUL up. There's only so much energy at a time, but it's not just mine. It's your SOUL too, we're sharing. And I need to practice controlling it, or that's going to happen again."

"Tomorrow," Asriel suggested. "While Mom and Dad aren't home. I think they really would be worried if they saw that."

"You do have the best ideas," Frisk agreed, smiling. They relaxed for a while longer; minutes and hours flowed together.

"Frisk, your phone," Undyne called, although Asriel's hearing meant she didn't need to. "Asriel, yours too." They reluctantly got out of the pool to answer. It was their parents, Mom calling Frisk and Dad calling Asriel, letting them know that they were upstairs and dinner was ready. Already? They had been relaxing a while, and they'd needed it. They went through the walk-in blow-dryer, and Frisk smoothed down Asriel's copious fluff again before they went up. Frisk took a deep breath, not wanting to admit things, trying to make themself remember that these were their parents and not their not-parents.

"Frisk? Is something wrong?" Toriel asked as soon as the elevator door opened, picking up on their shame immediately.

"I did something bad today," Frisk admitted.

"You didn't hurt Asriel, did you?" their father asked, and his disappointment almost broke Frisk's heart.

"No. I got mad, and I turned him into a vengeful murdergod and made him slaughter my not-parents. Twice."

"It was an accident, they didn't mean to," Asriel blurted. "And they LOADed, so it didn't really happen."

"That was still a very naughty thing to do, Frisk," Toriel admonished them. "Apologize."

"I already did..."

"Apologize again." Her voice was firm.

"Azzy, I'm sorry I turned you into a vengeful murdergod." Toriel was staring at them. "And made you slaughter my not-parents. And I'm sorry I did it twice."

"Do you accept their apology, Asriel?" his father asked.

"I forgive you, Frisk." Frisk smiled in response.

"That's good enough," Asgore rumbled, his disappointment lightening.

"We shall have no talk of this at the dinner table, my children," Toriel said. "We have company coming over, so get changed." The kids had matching button-down shirts and pants waiting for them, with yet another pair of fuzzy socks for Frisk.

"There is something I do need to talk about," Frisk said, sitting down at the table next to their brother. "About that Vegetoid farm. Dad, if you want me to help, I'm here. You don't need me to come along or anything like that. Just call me and tell me when to SAVE, LOAD, and remember stuff, and I'll do it. You get infinite tries, almost the same way I do."

"Sans called me back and said he would handle it," Asgore said. Frisk immediately reached for their phone as Asriel perked up. Frisk started calling, but the phone kept ringing. Asriel started laughing a little bit, and Frisk just looked at him, confused, until the elevator door opened and Sans' ringtone (doodoo-DIT-dah, doo-day-DAHH-doodahday...) came out of it until Frisk hung up, mystified.

"Sans, what'd you do?!" Frisk shouted to him.

"just a little impromptu gardening. put some parsniks in the vegetoid patch," he said, coming into the dining room with his brother, who was wearing a professionally tailored blue suit. Questions flooded Frisk's mind as they stared at Sans: How'd he even find the place? How'd he sneak in? How'd he get there and back so fast, it couldn't have been that close, could it? Why didn't he ask me for help? "most of the harvesters wound up buying the farm. heh." Frisk just nodded, awed, wondering at the real extent of Sans' abilities.

"Good evening, your majesties, your highnesses," Papyrus said in a voice that was distinctly not Papyrus. "DO YOU APPROVE? IT'S MY NEW LAWYER VOICE! SANS SAID I SHOULD USE IT. AND I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO CONSUME A LAWYER'S SOUL TO GET IT!"

"i didn't know they had those," Sans said before anyone else could.

"It is wonderful, Papyrus," Toriel said. "I am certain your courtroom performance will be excellent."

"Oh, that reminds me," Asriel said, digging in his pockets, "I got a whole bunch of evidence to use for the trial." Papyrus was holding out his bony hand to accept it. "Well, you can take a look, but we'll have to give it... to..." His eyes went wide.

"Our lawyer," Frisk finished for him. "Papyrus, you're OUR lawyer?!"

"NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH!"

"you didn't pick up on the hints?" Sans asked, and it wasn't clear who he was talking to.