The cool breeze outside hit Cross like a truck, his bones automatically shivering. Alphy's house hadn't given them much protection to the harsh outdoors, but it had given them some, and Cross was already starting to miss that.

He glanced back at Ink, who was using his makeshift crutches to exit the house, Alphys and Flowey behind him. His expression sent a chill down Cross' spine, the blank look that would haunt his dreams.

It was sad, but Cross couldn't do anything except for hope that they got to the castle fast enough so they could get Ink his medications that replicated emotions. 

"You want any help?" Cross offered quietly.

"No, I am capable to using these crutches myself," Ink said, "You just pity my situation, don't you?"

"I-"

"It's fine, many people do. And I don't care if people pity me. Just focus on the task at hand."

The servant watched sadly as Ink turned towards Alphys, who was pulling out a map of the whole Kingdom. Wasn't there any way that Ink could possibly get a soul?

No, they'd need to get a Boss monster's soul, and he didn't know if there were any boss monsters nearby. And even if there were, Cross couldn't go through will killing them, even if it was for Ink. He just wasn't that kind of monster.

"Kinda sucks for Ink then, huh?"

Cross almost jumped when the voice invaded his thoughts, not expecting to hear from Chara so soon. He usually never talked more than once a week, and that was if he was feeling chatty. 

This was weird.

"I didn't expect to hear from you so soon again." Cross said in his mind, zoning out as he spoke to him.

"Well, your own magic is blocked off, so I'll have to stay near in case you need some more help."

"Yeah, where were you when that spider tried to dust me?"

"Sleeping still, I just woke up."

"Well, can you stay awake more? We're in the farthest part of the Kingdom, according to Alphys."

"Cool we're out here again. It's been awhile, huh?"

"Yeah, it has."

"Cross?"

He snapped out of his thoughts when Alphys called out for him, making his pupils look up from the dirt to her. The monster was looking at him in confusion.

"Hm?" He asked.

"You zoned out," Ink said.

"Oh, sorry," Cross said, "What were you saying?"

"I was saying that we'll have to head directly to the castle, we can't risk being out here for too long," Alphys said, "With the vampires, threats of being robbed or raped or attacked, and Ink's emotionless and leg situation, we need to take every shortcut we know, possibly stop at a hospital if we get some gold along the way."

"Oh, you're going on an adventure," Chara said.

"Yeah, adventure," Cross said to his inner human, "Not really."

~~~~~~

Muffet sat up slowly, wincing as she joints ached from pain. Bruises were scattered across her light purple skin, evidence that those two skeletons had indeed attacked her.

"Ugh..." She groaned, brushing a few pieces of hair of her face.

Her head was killing her.

She was lying in the dirt outside, near the edge of the small town where Alphys' house was at. They had probably dumped her body there and ran, taking their treasures with them.

They were gone.

She had no food now.

Muffet sniffled as she ran one of her hands through her dirt filled hair, standing up on her shaking legs slowly. 

She had to get home.

Luckily, she didn't live too far from her house, which had one of it's walls missing. There was a small hatch underneath a worn rug which contained her true living quarters, a small room with her pet inside.

It was a large spider, with light purple fur like her's. It was skinny, due to the lack of food that it needed to be healthy. The pet watched her with hopeful eyes as she approached, then they softened to sadness when it saw her unhappy expression.

"I'm sorry," She said, "No luck again, we're going to have to go without any food again."

The spider whined and walked up to her, rubbing it's head against her stomach in a loving manner. She sighed and patted it's head softly before looking around the room, before she saw an old axe hanging on the wall.

"Well, there is a way that we both can have some food," Muffet said, "I don't need six arms, I only need two."

~~~~~~

"There aren't many leaf growing tree filled forests left in the Kingdom," Alphys said, looking down at her map, "Or forests in general. So we're going to have to find good places to hide during the night and try to travel through unused paths of ally ways."

"Why are you coming with us?" Ink asked Flowey, "You have no purpose to be here. You're getting nothing beneficial out of this journey."

"Well, because I get bored alone when Alphys leaves, and I want to see the castle again," Flowey said, gliding across the ground using his roots.

"You were at the castle before?" Cross questioned Flowey.

"Of course!" Flowey said, "I was created there, after all."

"By me," Alphys explained, "I created him in the lab shortly before I got kicked out. He's... he's actually the reason I got kicked out."

"We're you banned because you were a women?" Ink asked.

"Well, partly," Alphys said, "He was upset that a women had made the creation that I had made, Flowey. He ordered for me to turn all of my research and discoveries to him, and when I objected, he kicked me out. He just didn't expect for me to take my research and burn it."

"Is that why you require more coinage?" Ink asked, "Because you require gold to buy new equipment so you can continue your research?"

"Mainly to have more food," Alphys said, "And enough gold to get myself a stable job."

She pressed up her glasses up her nose nervously, anxiety building up in her when she had lied about why she was fired.

It was true, yes, but not the full truth.

She hadn't told anyone why she had spent days hidden away in her lab, or why sometimes there would be little spots of dust on her lab coat, or why Asgore suddenly started yelling at her one day after she told him what she had done, or how she had nearly saved her life by threatening to destroy the only thing he had cared about.

It was a crazy day, that day, but luckily she had managed to convince the King to only ban her from the Kingdom and not full out kill her.

However, she didn't regret her actions. What he was doing was crazy, and she was just making use of the materials he had. He wasn't coping with the situation right, it wasn't healthy.

She didn't want to see him face to face ever again, she just wanted to get some money so she wouldn't have to keep depending on her girlfriend for it. She wanted to find a stable job, get some gold, and not have to stress too much.

Was that too difficult of a task?

"Hey," Cross said, looking over at her, "Again, thank you for all of this. I have no gold, but when I get back, is there any way I can repay you? Some sort of service I can do?"

"It's fine, I just need gold," Alphys said.

"You shouldn't go offering services out randomly," Ink said, looking over coldly at Cross, "Not to mention with the word 'anything'. If you do that, people can take advantage of you and get you killed."

"Oh, right," Cross said awkwardly.

"I like this new version of Ink," Flowey chuckled darkly.

"I prefer having emotions," Ink said blankly, "And we should continue on quickly onto the next town, before it gets dark, or find a place to retreat for now. I do believe we will need to change my leg bandages before they become infected, which will help none of us."

"Ugh, there goes his fun-ness," Flowey groaned.

"He's right, we'll have to find somewhere to go for the night," Alphys said, "Staying out in the night is never a good idea, especially if someone is injured and you guys have those magic blockers. We'll go through the night if we get those off or if Ink's legs heal."

《》《》《》

Sorry for the short chapter, I just wanted to get this out.

And my poem book is out, if you want to check it out.