Connie had sat, entranced, listening to Iram and Undyne tell the story of Monsterkind. It was, after all, a very good story. The way the Monsters had been forced into the Underground, to take root in Home, and then New Home. The story of how humans had to be slain, told with no sugarcoating, for the sake of honesty and posterity, so that Connie could understand that evils had to be committed. It disturbed her, of course, but a student of history such as herself also had to understand that sometimes terrible things had to be done for the greater good, no matter how much everyone hated them. Regardless, as the two continued the story of how, when Frisk fell, they were different, how they were unique, how they were determined, she was filled with wonder at the child's abilities, and also uncannily reminded of Steven. She determined immediately that she wanted to meet him. Finally, they reached the end of the story. The part that neither of them remembered. Undyne told this part.

"So, things are going fine! The Queen had returned, and it looked like everyone was going to go on in peaceful existence, even if it had to be Underground. I didn't care at that point, I had Alphys! Have you not met her? I don't think you have."

"No m'am. I didn't get the opportunity."

"Don't call her that."

"Hey, what right do YOU have to say what she calls me!?"

Undyne and Iram stared at each other for a good 15 seconds. Undyne finally broke the silence.

"Fine. I was absolutely about to tell her not to call me that. My name's Undyne, Connie. I don't have need for anything else."

"Yes m'a- Undyne. Right."

"Now where was I?"

Iram perked up. "You were about to tell her about Flowey."

"OH YEAH! OK, so imagine this. Everything's going great, you just got with the best girl in the world, the King and Queen are in the same place for the first time in WHO KNOWS how long, all your best friends are all in one place, and then WHAM. A big-ass vine just whips on through and grabs all of you. That is, me, Alphys, TORIEL, ASGORE, Sans, and Papyrus. This little freaking FLOWER pops out and stars monologue! I try to attack him, but I can't concentrate well enough to use my magic. It really, really sucks. He was gonna try to take all the Human SOULS! Which would have been bad. He monologues some more, we all intervene to save Frisk, and then all of a sudden everything goes black. I don't remember a second after that. All of a sudden we woke up and Frisk was unconscious on the ground."

She continued, telling the story of how the Barrier fell, and how they moved onto the Surface. How they found humanity to be in a Dark Age after a nuclear war, and how humanity still feared and loathed Monsters. How they had to hide out in a relatively small valley they called New Ebbot, because they had nothing else to call it. How despite human attacks, they stuck to their guns and never killed a soul. How despite Monsters dying, despite the monsters' rage, they stayed pacifistic in Frisk's image.

And how, one day, they stepped into Ebbot and a machine went off and they were in a whole new world. It was pretty weird.

"That's... insane. You must be overwhelmed."

Iram chuckled. "We've got a way of rolling with the punches. Monsters are durable buggers."

Connie finally decided to pop the question that had obviously been on her mind from near the very beginning. She wasn't sure how to word it, but... "Aren't... you a human?"

Iram's eyes darkened. "Yeah. In the technical sense, I am. But I tend to identify more with my comrades in arms. Humans were never my allies. I've known two good humans in my life, and it looks like you might be another. Regardless of that fact, I'm somewhat predisposed to look at myself in the lens of monsters, rather than that of humans. Any other questions?"

He seemed less than cheerful about having to talk about it, and even Undyne clearly wasn't comfortable with how goddamn edgy he was being all of a sudden. On account of that fact, she decided to change the subject suddenly.

"You know how to use that sword of yours?"

Connie grinned, drawing it with a flourish and a spin, before holding it in both hands, pointed toward Undyne and Iram at an angle. "Absolutely."

Iram smiled slightly, flicking the lock on his hilt open, gripping the rapier inside, and drawing it with similar unnecessary style. The upper edge of the blade was engraved with the face of a certain cat-dog-creature thing. Odd.

He pointed the tip of the blade at Connie, holding one arm out behind his back like a maitre d serving a glass of wine. "Shall we?"

Connie grinned, stepping forward and getting into a sword-fighting stance. "I'll take this dance."

Undyne frowned, stepping in between them. "We're not here to fight humans! Besides, if there's gonna be a match, I want a piece of it."

Connie nodded curtly and sheathed her sword, putting on a poker face. "Right. And two-on-one wouldn't be fair, so... alright, I'll talk to Pearl and Steven about it. I AM gonna fight you, though!"

Iram smirked, sheathing his own blade and crossing his arms. "Oh, no way I'm letting you get away before we cross steel. But right now, Undyne's right, we're gonna need to figure things out."

Connie nodded.

Sans was standing in his room, silent, staring at the wall from inches away. He'd taken a few minutes to explain that the box was completely fried, damaged beyond repair to the best of his knowledge, and that Gaster had only gotten it working by happenstance in the first place. In other words, the monsters were effectively stranded in this reality. Beached like dust-flavoured whales. It wasn't a pretty thing to contemplate. Sans had simply left the basement of his old house and walked through the front door, stunned.

He'd failed everyone, and so dramatically. He could never look at any of them the same way again. Mettaton would be out for his head. Everyone would be crushed, and who knows what might happen to the monsters without any of their leaders. As attractive an idea as Queen Muffet sounded, he wasn't entirely sure it would be a good one.

And so there he stood, just staring at the wall. He could hear Peridot and Alphys just outside the room, speaking in hushed tones. He couldn't make out their conversation, something about something about something about a home. Naturally, Alphys was already planning for what they'd do and where they'd live.

He cringed. If he could cry, he would have been sobbing at that moment. Instead his grin just grew as he stared at the wall, lost. A rapping came at his door. "Knock knock?"

"who's there?"

"Lizard."

"lizard who?"

"I turned fifteen monsters into horrible amalgamations once."

Sans chuckled bitterly and invited her in.

"that hardly compares to what i just did."

"Yeah. It does. But Sans, this wasn't your fault."

"no, it is my fault. at the very least i could have told someone."

"You did."

"frisk doesn't count. everyone tells them everything."

"That's true, I suppose. You made mistakes, Sans. Big ones."

"you're not bein' super encouraging."

"No. I'm not. I'm being honest. Sans, you... we... ugh. I just want you to understand that we'll support you. Through everything. No matter what happens, no matter what you've done. You're one of us, Sans, and you know, that really counts for something."

"thanks, alphie."

Sans hadn't removed his gaze from the peeling wallpaper, and Alphys stared at the floor, neither of them willing or able to make eye contact with the other.

"Sans, you and I. We're going to fix this. We're going to fix this piece of garbage machine, and we're going to get back to our people. We lived in a hole in the ground for two thousand years. I think we can handle a different world for... however long it takes."

Sans' smile shrank a bit.

"yeah. yeah, we can do that. but how do ya think we break the news?"

"I can't handle that. I'm sorry, but I cannot handle the stress of being the one to tell everyone that they're stranded here. I'll have your back all the way, but you have to be the one to actually tell everyone. Unless you want ASGORE to drop the news. I'm sure he'd do it with his customary... grace."

She went as far as to crack a tiny smile, considering the irony in her statement. He chuckled a bit too. "y'know, that plan doesn't sound too terrible right now."

"Lesser of a great number of evils."

Mettaton had gotten to the point of excitedly chatting to Amethyst about fusion, and he'd been going on and on for nearly an hour now, question after question, outburst after outburst. He was boiling with excitement. "Wait. You say fusion was originally used only for war. But how could it ever be useful for fighting? Wouldn't two gems fighting apart be just as strong as a fusion, but able to attack from more directions?"

"UUh, no. I'm pretty sure fusions are stronger than the sum of their parts. Like, when you're part of a fusion, you just feel... unstoppable! Like a real brute! It's great!"

"Incredible. And you say for your increase in power, you gain an increase in size as well?"

"Absolutely."

"Oh. My. God. I just realized, I've completely forgotten about why we started this conversation in the first place! Tell me about Sardonyx. Describe her in one word."

"Uuuh... glamorous!"

"OOOOOH YESSS. We're going to get along just fine!"

King ASGORE DREEMURR, Supreme Ruler of all Monsters, the Emperor of Flame and the almighty, unstoppable titan of power that commanded the respect of even warriors like Undyne, had never felt so helpless before in his life.

There was nothing he could do. He could only wait for Sans and his team to complete their mission. And if they failed? He had no clue what he'd do then.