A lot can happen in three months. Maybe too much.

To start, your aura had taken the shift of colors to a beautiful red. You had the capabilities of even more than you imagined. To sum it up, you had your original powers, plus the ability to manipulate any type of magic yet even now, you were still learning. Clare had taken the steps to teach you how to work with your magic, sometimes by hand-to-hand combat, or in this case, magic-to-magic. She was surprisingly strong, which would explain why she was the head of the all the magicians in the base and a part of the board. To this day, you still couldn't beat her but, she was the only competition at this point.

Your monster friends had also been working to contribute to the security of the base, and helping anyone in need. Papyrus and Undyne had been great at offensive battlefield strategy, making their way easily into the military board. The only difference between the two was that Papyrus had a lower position than Undyne, due to his innocence and overly positive thinking. Alphys had worked her way into the science department, specifically taking up the fields of health, technology creation, and monster and human psychology. She always seemed afraid to talk about some of the "creations" she had made, even though it seemed that everyone but yourself knew, so you left her alone on that subject. Instead, you moved to ask Sans, who said that she had built some monsters known as the "Amalgamates" in the past. You picked up a negative vibe from those words, so you remained silent about the entire subject. Meanwhile, Gaster had made his way into magic studies and health. He had been a great help towards the current scientist towards the functions of a magic spell and other things concerning magic. Asgore and Toriel moved towards the nursing field, which meant that they watched over and cared for children and babies. Toriel would normally take up the role as a cook for lunch and dinner, but lately, she's been a little sluggish due to her growing stomach. Asgore, on the other hand, had grown to become one of the leading role models in the base. Because he was their former king, many monsters still respected him so the humans among the base had him on the board as the monster's representative. Frisk had been able to help by running around to deliver messages and packages around the base. She had become pretty quick and agile due to her actions to dodge the incoming people and to make things even more interesting, the board had predicted that her abilities could match up with any spy by the age of fourteen...which would be two years from today. Flowey tended to stay in Frisk's room and from what you heard, he just stared out the window and sit there. You questioned why he was so dead all of a sudden, but you chose not to worry. Mettaton had treated himself by becoming well known among everyone. Somehow, he was able to motivate everyone to keep having hope, regardless of how dark times got, so he was nicknamed 'Cali's Mascot'. Sans, through his lazy self, had somehow made his way into the spy department, working around to gather information. Sometimes he'd leave to do fieldwork or hack into computers and other technical devices. Now, all bias aside, he was the best. Something had caused him to work faster and more efficiently than anyone else to gather more and more information on all the magicians and the board flourished off of all his findings. And honestly, it was hot to see him work.

"Hey, (y/n)!" Clare called out your name. You blinked, now breaking your stare away from the window.

"Hm?"

She lightly shook her head in disappointment and looked up at you expectantly.

"Do you know how long I've been calling you?" She scolded and pointed to the map on her desk. "This is important!"

"Sorry! Sorry!" You bit your lip and rushed up to her, looking down at the huge map.

"Yeah, yeah. Okay. Whatever." She held her breath and and started to explain the entire situation. "You know how the humans were making a move towards Salt Lake City?"

You nodded.

"They got within the 1000 mile radius limit two days before we expected. The board assumes that they are going to take shelter around here for about a day to wait for the incoming group that was coming from the state of Oregon."

"So, you're saying that we have to fight off a group from Utah and a group from Oregon?"

Clare shook her head, allowing her dark hair to bounce.

"I'm saying that we have those groups, plus the California raid." She moved her finger over to another area, about 300 miles away from the Salt Lake group. "Look. At this very moment, California is bringing supplies over to the Utah group, and then later will supply the Oregon group. If we could find a way to stop these supplies from reaching these groups, then we would have the upper hand from their raid, which should happen two days from now."

"Okay." You bit your lip and started to piece together a way to stop the California's move. There was a light 'beep' that interrupted your thoughts, which soon revealed itself to be Clare's phone.

"Hold up." She muttered and responded. From her single word responses, you figured it was the board. "Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Bye."

Clare then turned to you and scrolled up the map.

"Well, it looks like the board decided to just send troops out there."

"Without us?" You asked, questioning some of the logic behind the board. Clare nodded.

"Yeah. Due to some spy work done by your boyfriend, there were no magicians among the California group." She seemed a bit bitter by the word 'boyfriend', but you pushed it away. She then stuffed the map under the foot of her desk and made her way to the back of the room, inspecting the multiple dog toys. "Because of this, the board is holding all the magicians back to hide the fact that we actually have magicians."

"Oh...okay." You frowned and started to look down at the red orbs on your hands. There were plenty of things that bothered you about this girl...like why does she have random dog toys in the back of the room. Or why she always sat alone during meals or not appear at all. She seemed social enough. It wasn't until now when you realized that you really wanted to ask her and before you knew it, you were sputtering out a question. "Why do you have so many dog toys?"

Good Lord, help me.

Clare turned around, squeezing a blue bone-like toy.

"Thought you never asked." She said as she dropped the rubber into a bag and started digging around for another toy. "I work with the Amalgamates. I'm sure you heard of them."

You looked at her oddly, not exactly catching onto what she was implying. For all you knew, the Amalgamates where creatures that Alphys had made. You didn't know if they could function on their own or not. It was all just another thing that you didn't know.

"Well, they're these monsters that have been created through- never mind." Clare muttered and grabbed two more toys, now stuffing them into the bag. Within seconds, she had the bag zipped up and was now reaching for the huge bag of dog food. "It's a lot of explaining, but to be blunt, these monsters aren't normal monsters. Each single body, consist of multiple monsters and a whole lot of Determination."

You felt your eyes widen at the word. Yes, you were human so you knew that it wouldn't hurt you. But after all of the stories from Sans and the others, you found yourself in the same pool of fear that they swam in.

"And because of their state as a single monster with multiple state of minds, they tend to struggle with working with each other." Clare then stood up and walked towards you, snatching a voice recorder as she did so. "Wanna come? I mean, it would be nice for them to see another face that won't judge them for who they are."

"Well..." You sucked in your cheeks, unsure if whether to take up her offer or not. It was a lazy time of the day for you, mostly because no one but Clare ever made you do anything and normally you would go hang out with Sans. Problem was, he out doing fieldwork in his department, so there was really no going to him right now. Turning to Clare, you found that she was waiting for your response by the door. Her facial expression was unreadable and blank. With a shrug, you accepted her offer. "Sure. Not like Sans is coming anytime soon."

"Cool." She smiled and opened the door. As much as some of her "problems" bothered you, you had found that she was the most trusted human to you. Even though it had only been three months, she was always the one you went to about your own little mishaps. She was the only human that knew about your relationship with a monster and she had been pretty loyal about the whole situation. She knew all of your problems, especially the ones about your little debates with Sans, and somehow always had the right "action" to fix it. Yes, she wasn't the best comforter during these times, but she knew how to fix them by the end of the day, despite how crazy they sounded. The thing was, she always kept to herself and that really bothered you.

"I have a question, Clare." You muttered and looked up at her. She responded with a 'Mm-hmm?' and kept her eyes on the busy halls of the base. "Why are you sometimes gone during meals?"

"Amalgamates. Besides, I always get my food a bit earlier than everyone else."

Okay then. That didn't really open for conversation. Let's get a little deeper, shall we?

"Clare. I just don't understand." You returned your eyes to the hallways. "I can never beat you in magic-to-magic combat. How can I be Number 7 if I can't even beat you? If anything, you should be Number 7."

She was silent for a bit as she turned into a lone hall. Her steps didn't slow for the sudden loss of crowded space.

"It's not that you can't beat me. You can. You just don't know how to use your magic well enough."

"Then how do I keep learning? No offense, but you haven't really taught me anything else for the past week. Just fighting."

She stopped and turned to you.

"I guess, if you think about it like that." She mumbled and pushed away her side bangs. "Here's the thing. We're very different magicians, mostly due to the powers that we both possess. The reason I can beat you is because I can mirror magic abilities, so this would allow me to practically copy you. When I copy, I can mimic the abilities and moves that my opponents can do, just in my magical capacity. On top of that, I can predict a few of my opponent's attacks and look into the immediate future. Here's the difference. You're original and you have a bigger magical capacity than mine. I guess this is giving my secret away, but you have to overpower my capacity."

"Is there anyway you could help me do that?"

"(y/n). You literally perfected everything I can teach you in the past three months. I have nothing left to teach you until I can think of another way to help you. What I'm thinking is that you should go ask your monster friends for help. They've worked with magic all their lives...what can go wrong?" She smiled and entered the room, allowing you to find that an entire wall was filled with crates full of used voice recorders.

"Well, it's not a bad idea...say, what's with all these recorders?" You asked as you walked over to the overflowing pile of recorders. She smiled and filled a small container with dog food.

"Conversations between the Amalgamates and I." She then reached over into a small refrigerator and pulled out a couple lemons. "They can get pretty talkative when you get 'em going."

"Huh...cool." You muttered as Clare began to fish around and eventually pull out a loaf of bread.

"Looks like I got everything. Ready?"

You nodded as she opened another door, leading into a huge room, covered with moss, trees, and flowers. It was a beautiful place, but there weren't any butterflies or bugs to accompany the pretty scenery.

"How did all of this happen?" You asked.

"This used to be an old lab room-"

"...and the scientists...had...a failed experiment..." There was a quiet voice in the cover of the trees. It was quite creepy, considering the deafening atmosphere; it made you question how anything lived here. There was rustling among the bushes, and out swayed a bird-like monster. It was quite sad looking, for half of the figure seemed to have been melting. "...hah...hah...right, Clare...?"

Clare smiled and nodded.

"That's just what happened, Snowflake."

"Is that your actual name?" You asked, now curious. The bird seemed a little lost for an answer, looking desperately at Clare for help.

"Truth it, she doesn't remember. So I stayed with the name, Snowflake, that way we had a name to call her by." The girl said and pulled out a water bottle. "I brought you some water like you asked."

"Oh...thank you...it came a lot....earlier than...I...expected..." The bird smiled and shakily reached out for the bottle, grabbing it and bringing it back to herself and opened it with her beak. Just before she took a sip, she looked up at Clare again. "Is...it possible...if I can...see Snowdrake and my...husband today?"

"Of course! I probably get them here by 5 this evening."

"Five this evening?" There was another voice, only a bit more challenging. Then out emerged a monster with the arms of Aaron and a body similar to Shyren (you had met both these monsters before). The face held extremely large teeth that seemed to have been parts of the Moldsmal or a Moldbygg.

"Yeah. Five this evening." Clare repeated and pulled the lemons she had packed. "Why? Do you want me to call your sister here later?"

"Yes, please." She murmured and turned to you with a flustered expression. She then covered her face in humiliation. "W-who is this?"

"...Clare says...that she's okay..." Snowflake mumbled and drank some of her water. You moved quickly to introduce yourself.

"My name's (y/n). It's nice to meet you."

"Oh...you're not like the others?" The monster tilted her head in consideration as Clare nodded and gestured for her to come sit with the group.

"She's all good. Trust me, after last time, I wouldn't just bring in some random group." Clare muttered, reflecting the disappointment and anger towards the past visitors.

"Lovely...well, the group here calls me Lemon Bread. Odd name, I know..." The Shyren-looking monster had murmured to herself, as if mentally scolding herself for such a wretched name. She then sat herself next to you and begun to make small talk. The rest of the time you spent in that chamber, you had brought yourself to like these monsters. Yeah, they were different, but they were friendly and polite...it almost made you wonder about Clare's remark earlier about how they had difficulty in working together. Eventually it was time to do, so you and Clare bid your goodbyes and made your way back into the room full of voice recorders. As soon as the door was shut, you immediately sputtered out a question.

"Clare. Those monsters are perfectly fine! How is it that they have to be cut off entirely from human-monster society?!" You found your voice more angry than you wanted but it was what it was. She looked at you and sighed. The dog toys and food that she brought out had been no use the entire session, so she proceeded to dump the dog food away.

"It's not my saying in what happens, (y/n). Trust me, I ask the board everyday but they don't understand."

"What do you mean?"

"Some people here are disturbed by- uh...well, the appearance of these monsters. The fact that there are small children and babies here, some actual adults had made complaints that they may scare the children." She then looked up at you sadly. "To make things sound even worse, some monsters had stood against them too, just for the favor of some of the humans. Now, don't get me wrong, these monsters are good too...it's just...hard."

You froze at those words.

"That's just not right. I know. But, we're in war and honestly, nothing's going to be right for a while." Clare muttered hopelessly and lifted up the bag full of squeak toys. "Anyways, Sans should be coming back from fieldwork right...about...now-"

Your phone went off, showing that Sans had just texted you.

"I have to go talk to the board and arrange some appointments so I'll have to leave you. Thanks for coming today and have fun with your skele-boyfriend." She forced a smile, again with that bitter tone. With a wave, she left the room, which meant that you were on your own. Making your way out, you found that she was already gone.

~~~~~~~Time Skip~~~~~~~

"Sans! Stop!" You screeched as you felt those bony fingers attack your back and waist. You just overheard his amused chuckle as he continued his offense.

"Sorry, Sweetheart." Sans laughed. "But this is quite entertaining."

He continued at an uneasy rate, now reaching the five minute mark. You just kept wiggling around, hoping for any chance of escape.

"Sans!" You whined and took another jerk away from him, finding yourself falling off the bed. Had you not had magic, you probably would have injured your head. Your body had taken over instinct and you found yourself facing two inches off the floor. Good Lord.

"Sweetheart?" There was that goodhearted laughter again. You felt his presence come near you and his arm grasp tightly around your waist. With a light grunt, he had pulled you up onto the bed again. You were still a little on end about his tickling, so when you felt his fingers glide along your back, you felt the tension bite at you. Clenching your teeth and preparing for the worst (and the secretly loved), you sunk yourself into the bed.

Another chuckle. "Aw, come on. Stop being so wimpy and relax."

And being the stubborn person you sometimes where, you refused to listen and pushed yourself against the mattress even harder. At this gesture of refusal, a sigh was released out of Sans' mouth as he proceeded to massage your tense shoulders. The pressure was able to chase away the crackling nerves out of your system, causing you to ultimately relax. You both were quiet, enjoying the presence of each other for the next ten minutes or so. The calming atmosphere was enough to drift you off into sleep, but then there was that little nip at your stomach that sent you into a restless sigh.

"Sans?" You had turned your head to face him, but in the position that you were in, you were only successful in spotting his kneecap and his black shorts that draped over the bone.

"Hm?"

"You went out to spy on the Cali group today, right?"

His fingers slowed against your skin, causing an urge to whine at the sudden lack of attention.

"You mean the ones that were to aid the Utah and Oregon group?"

You managed to nod, even though your head was practically stuck to the mattress.

"Yeah, I did. Why?"

"You're sure that there were no magicians in that group?"

"Yeah. It took about three hours of constant observation. Nothing too difficult."

You rolled over and looked up at him. His eyes had been glazed with concern and guilt, as if he was already scolding himself for anything he had done wrong.

"You know how the board sent troops to raid the Cali group for their supplies?"

He nodded, causing you to fumble around with your fingers

"Do you think anyone is going to die today?" You cringed at the childish question. Of course, people will...it's happened before.

Sans looked down at you with a sense of remorse. He knew the answer, and he knew that you knew it too.

"Sweetheart. To be completely honest, some may die today. If I recorded everything correctly, we may lose two men but destroy all of their supplies." He muttered and started to scratch the back of his head.

"Oh." You mumbled and sat up to look at him. "And how about the predicted attack that is to be two days from now?"

"We should win, regardless of what happens. We have the home advantage, along with our main source of ammunition and supplies."

"I hate this." You muttered and nuzzled yourself next to him. "I hate that so much has to happen in order for the monsters to stay. It's just- I hate it."

"Trust me, Sweetheart. I hate it too."