Chapter 73

Mettaton continued making plans with Inferno while holding Frisk in his arms. He was annoyingly averse to letting Frisk walk on the floor, but the boy in his arms had other things on his mind.

While being held against Mettaton's side, Frisk was texting his friends and praying that any possible solution could come to mind. They were on a large group chat, so many ideas were being bounced around.

"Why don't you drown the bracelet in water?" Papyrus suggested.

"That won't work," Alphys said. "I've designed wearable technology before. It's useful, but if it gets wet, there's a possibility it could short circuit."

"Alphys, is that you?" Undyne asked.

"Yes, Napstablook and I are on the way to the studio now to help Frisk," Alphys replied. "Is that alright? I wouldn't want to steal your grand entrance."

"Of course not," Undyne replied back. "Uh, I forgot what I was going to say."

"You were going to come up with a solution to help Frisk get his bracelet off," Sans said.

"Oh, yeah!" Undyne said. "Why don't you try stabbing it with something sharp?"

Frisk quietly rammed his bracelet against the spike on one of Mettaton's shoulder pads as quickly as he could. All his efforts managed to do was get Mettaton's attention.

"Frisk, darling?" Mettaton asked. "What is the matter? What are you doing?"

"I want you to put me down," Frisk complained. "I'm tired of being carried everywhere. I'm not a baby. I want to walk."

"If that's what you want, dear," Mettaton said pausing and placing Frisk on the floor. "I suppose it is alright. After all, I have the tracker on you now. I don't need to worry about where you are anymore. Just please, do keep up."

After ruffling his hair, Mettaton walked on ahead and continued talking to Inferno while Frisk walked slowly behind them.

When some distance was made, Frisk replied to his texts.

"It didn't work," he said. "All it did was get Mettaton to put me down."

"Well, that's some success," Papyrus said. "Isn't it? Now, you can walk around and find a way to escape."

"I can't escape, Papyrus," Frisk replied. "He has this bracelet on me. The moment I get out of his sight all he has to do is look at that stupid app. I'm his prisoner now."

All the messengers were helpless on the other end of the line. Everyone fell silent. That is, except for one person.

The first message came from Sans who wrote, "Don't be scared, Frisk. When we finish this paperwork, we will shortcut right over there. No matter what that piece-of-shit robot pulls, we won't give up. You'll be back home in no time. Just hang on, kiddo."

Sans' message inspired the others.

"Yeah!" Papyrus said. "Then, we'll officially be a family and we can have a huge party."

"Don't worry, punk," Undyne said. "King Jackass won't know what hit him."

Frisk smiled and sent him a smiley face text message.

Sans sent Frisk a message outside of the group chat that said, "I wasn't there for you before, kiddo. I'm sorry, but I promise to make it up to you. I won't ever abandon you again, Frisk. None of us will. You have nothing to worry about."

Frisk sent another smiley face before he held his phone close to his heart. The love and loyalty of his friends filled his heart with determination. His HP raised by another point.

While Frisk was basking in the love of his new family, he received another message on his phone. Frisk looked at his phone in surprise. This time, it was from Napstablook.

"Frisk, I have been talking to Sans," Napstablook said. "We both agree that you need to put more stock into your plan to make Hapstablook not want you anymore, and I think I know something that could help you with that."

"Ok, what?" Frisk replied.

"Being upset and grumpy won't turn Mettaton away," Napstablook replied. "He has changed a lot since he left, but he has never been scared away by depression. I would know. You have to be angry and uncooperative. He doesn't like dealing with angry people. He's a people pleaser."

"That is really good advice, Napstablook," Frisk said. "Thank you."

On the other end, Napstablook hesitated for a moment, but Alphys put her hand on his shoulder to encourage him. That encouragement was all he needed to keep typing.

"Frisk, there's something I need to know," Napstablook said. "If Mettaton decided to hate you and tried to kill you instead, what would you do?"

Frisk paused in place for a moment allowing his captor to walk ahead of him before he replied, "I don't know. I don't want to kill him."

"You've killed Mettaton before," Napstablook replied. "Haven't you? It's alright. You can tell me the truth."

Frisk paused in place and shook fearfully at the memories. He hesitated as he stared at the message for a few moments. Frisk knew what could happen if Napstablook didn't take the news well.

Nonetheless, Frisk was a different person now. He couldn't hide the truth from his friend.

So, Frisk decided to reply honestly.

"Yes, I did," Frisk replied sadly. "Napstablook, I'm so sorry."

Frisk sent his message, but Napstablook didn't reply. Tears fell at the corners of Frisk's eyes. He just knew that he had lost one of his dearest friends.

"I did it the first time because I was angry, and I thought he was evil," Frisk typed. "All the other times, Mettaton was trying to kill me, so he could take my soul, run away to the surface, and be famous with other humans. I thought that weakening him until I could spare him would make him give up, but it never worked. Mettaton never gave up. He was the only one I could never figure out how to spare."

After Frisk sent that message, Napstablook started typing a message of his own.

When Frisk saw those dots, he typed, "Napstablook, I'm sorry I never told you. I knew the moment I did you would hate me. That's why I never told anyone anything either. I tried to kill myself 3 times, but the Almighty interfered every single time. He brought Sans and Papyrus to me. He didn't give up on me. My new brothers didn't either. I even tried sharing all my memories with them to make them let me die, but they still wouldn't let me go. I tried resetting to before I fell so I could get out of your lives permanently, but the Almighty wouldn't let me. Now, I can't do that stuff anymore, but they have all forgiven me."

Frisk sent that message. It made Napstablook pause for a moment before he finally sent a message of his own.

"Napstablook," Frisk began to type. "If you hate me, I understand…"

A message from Napstablook suddenly came in.

"Frisk, I forgive you for what happened the first time," the message read. "I'm proud of you for repenting. As for those other times, you don't need to be mad at yourself. It was justified."

The last part made Frisk pause, but before he could think of a reply, another message came through from Napstablook.

Frisk continued to read, "If this run was like all the others, Mettaton would have done the same thing to you. It hurts me to think about it. He wanted to kill an innocent human just to get what he wanted. He wanted to leave everyone in the Underground behind, including me, just so he could be rich and famous with humans. He didn't even think about how we felt. The Hapstablook I knew would never do that. He's not the same ghost anymore. He's gone."

Frisk paused. He didn't know how to reply. Before Frisk could think of anything, Napstablook sent another reply.

"Frisk, getting Mettaton to not want you anymore is a good idea, but it could make him want to kill you if you make him angry enough," Napstablook said. "If that happens, I won't be mad if you kill him before he kills you."

Frisk paused in shock silence for a moment. His legs stopped walking as he allowed Mettaton and Inferno to gain even a greater distance. Once they gained enough distance, the hallway was silent. Frisk could hear the air flow through the air conditioning ducts, the buzz of the fluorescent lights, and his own breathing. After another moment in the silence, he finally thought of a comprehensible reply.

"Napstablook, why are you saying this?" Frisk finally replied to him. "I'm a pacifist now. I don't want to kill Mettaton again."

Napstablook's reply was surprisingly fast.

"I don't want you to either," Napstablook said. "I mean I know you can't reset anymore, and you'll try your best not to do it. I appreciate that. But if only one of you is to make it out alive, I'd rather it be you than him, because with you, I know I will never be alone. I'll make sure you don't get lonely either. :')"

Frisk finished reading the message and put the phone back in his pocket. He started rubbing the arms of his sweater again.

"God, this can't happen," Frisk prayed out loud. "I won't let it happen. I can't go back to what I was. Please give me a plan."

"FRISK!" Frisk suddenly heard a flamboyant voice yell from up the hall. "Frisk, darling, what is the matter? Why aren't you moving?"

It wasn't long before Mettaton made his appearance. He strutted over to his child with Inferno following behind him.

"Darling, I said you could walk as long as you kept up with me," Mettaton said squatting to Frisk's eye-level. "If you can't do that, you're going to have to let me carry you…"

Frisk spotted where Mettaton's phone was stored on his waist and immediately came up with another plan. God was good.

"Frisk?" Mettaton asked impatiently. "Frisk, are you listening to me?"

Frisk smiled and bolted past Mettaton before he had time to react. He continued running without looking back until he was past Inferno and out of sight.

Mettaton stood up, sighed, and said, "I'm beginning to think you were right about the coffee thing, after all, Inferno. He has too much energy right now."

"Frisk just needs to run it off," Inferno said reassuringly. "He'll lose that energy after a while."

"I hope so," Mettaton said feeling for his phone on his waist. "'Mr. and Mrs. Skeleton' will be arriving at their next trial in…Where's my phone?"

Mettaton looked down on his waist where his phone would normally be latched on to, but his phone was not there.

"Inferno, you didn't take my phone," Mettaton asked his stage manager. "Did you?"

"No, sir," Inferno replied.

"Then…" Mettaton said to himself while the pieces finally came together. "OH, MY GOD! THAT AWFUL LITTLE BRAT!"

Frisk heard the yelling from down the hall in the janitor's closet where he was hiding. He snickered to himself as he locked the door behind him and placed Mettaton's phone in the large sink. Frisk smiled as determination gave him some energy. Maybe he didn't know the password, but that didn't matter if the phone was destroyed.

Sans was wrong about one thing. Frisk hadn't completely lost his touch as a thief.