Underearth/Book 5/Epilogue

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Frisk blinked awake as sunlight poured through the open windows. Curling up again, Frisk flipped over under his heavy covers.

"Don't you dare try going back to sleep." Chara said.

Frisk roused a bit before trying again.

"Frisk." Chara groaned. "Come on, it's been eight hours, get up."

Frisk grunted before repositioning his covers.

*"Frisk*! Come *on*, you promised only eight hours, then you'd get up! It's boring when you're asleep, and watching you do it gets old real fast."

Frisk sat up, dropping the covers from over his body, his eyes still closed. Moving his feet from under the covers, they made contact with the freezing floor, causing him to recoil for a second.

"Just a bit to the left, sleepyhead."

Frisk moved his feet to the left until they came upon something furry. Slipping into the slippers, he got up and went to the bathroom.

With Chara waiting outside the door, Frisk fulfilled his Human hygienic needs, a faculty that Monsters didn't require. Stepping from the room wrapped in a towel, Frisk hurried back to his room and got dressed in the day's clothes. Almost ready for the day, Frisk finally went downstairs, where Toriel was already preparing breakfast.

"Good morning, Frisk." she said, using fire magic to heat up a pan to cook some eggs. "Breakfast should be ready in about five minutes."

"Sounds wonderful. Thank you." Frisk looked around the room. "Where's Asgore?"

Toriel froze for a second before continuing her cooking. "He left early. Had some business with the builders."

"Ah, alright."

Toriel had kept her promise. Though they were still far from friends, Toriel was making an effort to not be as wroth with Asgore as she was normally. She was the one to offer the idea of "housemates" to Asgore, perhaps as an attempt to force herself to follow through with that promise by seeing him every day. There was still a long path to go, yet Frisk had noticed that, over the past week since Emergence Day, Toriel froze in anger for a noticeably shorter amount of time than before.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked.

"Yeah. Well enough, at least."

"Excellent."

Pulling the pan from the stove, Toriel placed the contents on a plate and brought it over to Frisk.

Digging in, a knock on the front door brought everyone's gaze to rest upon it.

"Knock knock." a voice from the other side said.

Toriel approached the door. "Who's there?"

"Dozen."

"Dozen who?"

"Dozen anybody want to let me in?"

Laughing, Toriel opened the door and Sans walked in.

"Heya kiddo." he said, coming over to the table. "Cal sent me to collect you, said he was ready."

Frisk's breathing grew heavy as his pulse hastened. "R... really!?"

"As sure as the sun shines. Hurry and eat, I'll take you there when you're ready."

Frisk quickly shoveled the rest of his breakfast into his mouth and shot up.

"Gotta go." Frisk said. "I'll be back soon."

"Oh, be safe!" Toriel replied.

Stepping out into the nippy morning mid/late-September air, Frisk took a deep breath and looked out over the scene. The Monsters had taken to setting up around Mount Ebott, mostly near the base on the south-east side. Toriel's house was situated near the higher point of the budding city, near where a new palace was being planned. Looking towards the palace grounds, Frisk could see Asgore with Gerson, overlooking the planning process. Beyond, the spiked mountain, Mount Keep as the natives called it, and a towering city, Sparta, could be seen. In the opposite direction was a sprawling, yet still tall city. Athens.

"You ready?" Sans asked, offering his hand.

"Yeah. Let's go." Frisk took Sans's hand.

In an instant, a dark green glow appeared in Sans's eyes, and a feeling of minor nausea fell upon Frisk. A second later, they were standing on a sidewalk near the Athens north-south conduit street, on the west side. Stumbling from the teleportation, Frisk was held tall by Sans.

"Careful, Frisk." Calibri said from behind.

Frisk steadied himself, letting go of Sans.

"Geez," he said, "what's the limit of how far you can teleport?"

"Good question." Sans replied. "So far, I haven't found one."

"That's beside the point." Calibri said. "So, are you ready to begin?"

Frisk looked back at Calibri, thinking. Looking around, Frisk confirmed where he was. "Gimme a second..." he said, heading deeper into the south-west quadrant. Sans and Calibri followed him.

"Where are we going?" Calibri asked after a few minutes.

"To my old alley." Frisk replied. "We're almost there, just around this corner."

They turned the corner ahead. There, in the corner of the alley, stood a makeshift tent of blankets and rugs.

"Geez, kid..." Sans said, looking around at the walls. "don't tell me you used to *live* here."

"Alright, I won't."

Folding up the blanket he used as a door, Frisk looked inside. The place had been pillaged. Not that he had much in the way of belongings in the first place, but the holey black sweatshirt and pants he had were gone.

Folding the flap back down, Frisk turned and left the alley. Silently, Calibri and Sans followed.

Frisk crossed the quadrant back to the north-south conduit street, crossing to the sound-east quadrant. There, he continued on a fixed path, avoiding alleys he wasn't familiar with by habit, until he finally arrived at an alley decorated with many various chalk drawings.

Summoning a shield, Frisk carefully entered the alley. Watching Frisk summon his, Calibri summoned one around himself and Sans. Further in, the three reached a small alcove which was almost completely decorated in bright, colorful drawings. Aside from these, however, there was no life to be found within. Within the right corner of the alley was a large rectangle clear of drawings, where Frisk remembered a mattress once lay. In the other corner was a blackened scorch mark of a fire that once burned carefully to smolder meat.

"Well now, this doesn't look as bleak as your place." Calibri said.

"Yeah. All thanks to a creative six-year-old." Frisk chuckled to himself. *So they really have left. Well, good luck, I say. May you find greater fortune beyond.*

"Alright." Frisk said, turning back to face Calibri. "Let's begin. What've you got?"

Calibri pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. It was a simple map of the entire city.

"Sans," Calibri said, "can you take us here?" he pointed to a spot to the far north-west of the north-western quadrant, a location Frisk recognized to be the warehouse district.

"Sure, no problem." Sans offered his hands to both Frisk and Calibri, teleporting them to the desired location.

Stepping from the daze, Calibri led Frisk and Sans to warehouse #364. Opening the massive sliding metal door, they walked inside.

"Hey asshole!" a voice from within shouted. "Bloody hell, I was wondering if you'd be back. You should know that I have friends. Powerful friends. Let me go now and I'll make sure you'll be left unharmed, for now."

Frisk's hands shook as he walked further in, following Calibri.

"Are you okay?" Chara asked.

"Just fine."

William continued to run his mouth until Calibri finally reached kicking distanced and shoved the tip of his boot into his mouth.

"Shut up. Your barking is giving me a headache." Calibri demanded.

Frisk looked out over William. He was chained to the ground, his wrists and ankles wrapped in shackles that were chained closely together, which led back and looped around a metal support pillar. Two other chains followed the trail William's did, these ones attaching to the two Humans that were always with him.

Calibri pulled his boot from William's mouth, crouched down, and twisted his head up at Frisk.

"Can you tell me who this is?" Calibri asked.

William's eyes widened. "F... Frisk!?" he said. "You alive?"

"Yes, William, I am." Frisk responded. "Did you really think sticking that knife into my throat would do anything in the long-term?"

William's brow curled upward. "What are you talking about?"

Frisk crouched down, pulling the dagger from the pocket given to him by Sans.

"You sank this dagger into my throat, remember?"

"No I didn't. I've never seen that blade before in my life. I kicked you down a pit. What, did the impact break your memory too?"

Calibri pulled Frisk away before he attacked William.

"What's going on?" Frisk hissed.

"I don't know." Calibri said, looking back at William. "Maybe... maybe his memories were wiped in a RESET. The most recent one, perhaps."

"How? He remembered what I did to him before my first RESET. Why wouldn't he remember now?"

"What about Flowey?" Calibri asked. "From what you told me, he seemed shocked by you knowing everything, and even asked you how many times you two had 'first' met."

Frisk looked back at William. "Maybe..." he said. "But that doesn't erase what he did before."

"Are you sure you want to go there, you eidocidal maniac?" Calibri whispered, making sure Sans couldn't hear. "If you want to judge others based on past actions they don't remember even doing from past Runs, then where would you fit in, somebody who does remember doing something *far worse*?"

Frisk didn't answer.

"Besides," Calibri continued, "this isn't within our jurisdiction. I can't allow judgement to be passed on these... things."

Frisk looked back at William.

"Fine." he said. "But make sure they're taken into custody."

"I will." Calibri said, signaling something to Sans. Immediately, Sans pulled out his phone, walking off to a side room.

A few minutes later, Sans returned.

"The police are on their way." he said. "Let's get you two out of here."

Sans teleported both Frisk and Calibri back to Artemis's alley before returning to the warehouse. A few minutes later, Sans returned.

"Watched the prisoners until the cops showed up. Should be in prison soon enough."

"Excellent." Calibri said, reviewing the slip of paper. "The last place is here." Calibri pointed to a location in the center of the north-east quadrant."

Sans teleported them all to the place pointed out. Demolition equipment surrounded the blackened towers of rubble.

"Wait, isn't this—" Frisk started saying.

"—the building that exploded, yeah." Calibri finished.

"Why'd you bring us here?"

"Because it's related to that other thing you asked me to look into."

"A-Aliza?"

Calibri breathed out. "Unfortunately, yes." he pulled a slightly scorched book out from his pocket. "This is the journal-of-sorts of the owner of this building. Turns out that it *was* indeed a skyscraper that screamed 'I'm a criminal mastermind'.

"Some of this I already knew, but the part regarding your sister I did not. When my investigation led me here, I... I didn't want to believe it."

"Why?" Frisk asked. "What's this about?"

"This building was the headquarters of the Underground Hole. A Human trafficking cartel."

Frisk's eyes went wide with horror.

"Apparently, soon after you were separated from your sister, she was... taken by somebody and sold here."

"No..." Frisk gasped out.

"It... somehow gets worse than that... According to this journal, she was soon given the nickname 'Butterfly' due to her 'innocent beauty'." Calibri vomited in his mouth a bit. "Sorry." he flipped through a few pages. "Sometime later, she became a 'popular attraction', receiving many... 'guests' a day." Calibri covered his mouth again, taking a few seconds to recover. "She became infamous throughout the Hole. A tattoo artist within the city actually... oh for fk sake... tattooed a butterfly onto her..."  Calibri looked away, looking like he was going to vomit a bit again. "onto her labia..."

Frisk looked over at Calibri. "Do I... do I even *want* to know what that is?"

"No." Calibri answered immediately. "No, you do not." Looking back at the book, Calibri flipped forward a few pages. "Anyway, whoever blew up this building was clearly somebody who knew about this cartel and *hated* what they did (with good reason). When they made their move to apparently destroy this cartel, they made sure to murder the leadership and destroy *everything* and *everyone* within. Hundreds of bodies have been found, whether some were sex slaves or not, I don't know, but only a fraction of the bodies are even partially identifiable. Trace remains of others managed to survive the purge. It's almost like somebody set off a nuke in there. Anyway, I'm sorry to say, but this is where Aliza's trail ends."

Frisk collapsed to the ground, screaming at the earth at tears fell down his face.

Calibri and Sans stood there, silent, for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, Frisk's cries started to quell.

"I should mention," Calibri said, "that I'm not 100% sure this was Aliza, but... with the picture they provided, I could see some partial resemblance to you, so... I assumed." Calibri crouched down next to Frisk. "I probably should have confirmed it with you first, but... hindsight 20/20, right?" Calibri flipped the journal around, revealing a small picture of a Human chained by their wrists and ankles to a ring in an X-shaped fashion. Calibri's hand covered most of the photo, everything from the Human's neck downward.

Frisk looked at the photo, but doing so only brought more pain. Aliza's brown eyes, once radiant and full of life, were now dark and dead to the world. Frisk forced his eyes away from the picture, his vision once again swallowed up by tears.

"I'm sorry..." Calibri said.

After a few minutes, Frisk stood up.

"Take me home..." he said.

Sans presented his hand. When Frisk took it, they were teleported back to Toriel's house. Sans teleported back as Frisk entered.

"Welcome back." Toriel said. "Do you want anything?"

"No. Thank you." Frisk said, crossing the house and ascending the staircase, walking into his room.

Upon entering, Frisk flopped down onto the bed.

"What will you do now?" Chara asked an hour later.

Frisk sighed, turning his head to face her.

"I've got nothing left from before I fell. Artemis is free, William is behind bars, and Aliza is..." Frisk paused. "I thought I'd stay with the Monsters. Build something new here."

A knock at the door snapped him back to his senses. Sitting up and wiping his face, Frisk faced the door.

"Come in." he croaked.

The door cracked open and Asgore walked through.

"Hey Asgore." Frisk greeted.

"Howdy, young Frisk. Still in bed? It's almost time for lunch."

Frisk glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. Half-past eleven.

"So it is. Guess I lost track of time."

"I think we have a chance for a good life here." Asgore said, closing the door. "Knowing what everyone things of my own naming ability, I thought it would be best if I left it to someone else. So, I've come to you. What would you like to call this new city?"

Frisk chuckled to himself. Looking at the Monster that named the first Monster city in the Underground "Home" and the second major city "New Home", along with possibly the provinces, it was no wonder he came to him. Frisk stood up from his bed and walked over to the window. Despite the seemingly awful names, however, each name was quite descriptive. Home was the home of the Monsters. New Home was the new home of the Monsters. Looking out across the surface home of the Monsters, the perfect name came to him.

"How about calling it 'Surface Home'?" Frisk asked, looking back at the King of the Monsters.

Asgore looked stunned at Frisk, then threw back his head in laughter.

"Truly," Asgore said, "it is as though we are related. Alright, Surface Home it is." Asgore stepped from the room.

"Geez, you're hopeless." Chara said. "You could have gone for *anything*, and you choose 'Surface Home'. I guess Undyne was right to compare you to dad."

"What can I say?" Frisk asked. "It's simple, and straight to the point. Our new home on the surface."

Thank you for reading *Underearth*. If you have a few minutes available, I (Alphasaith) would appreciate it if you would fill out a survey detailing your thoughts on the Underearth series. The form can be found here.