Asgore never felt so fearful in his life.

Well, that was actually a lie. Asgore fought in the war, he had been more worried then. And while underground, he had been fearful that none of the monsters would ever reach the surface. With every new human that fell came a new spike of fear and grief, as he would be forced to take their souls for the good of monster kind.

But the phone call was deafening to him, Asgore lacking breath with each word spoken by the other party.

"... And we understand that you have control over the boy now, and that you didn't steal the fossil, but a book was also found missing last night..."

That's it, this was all over. Cole stole a book too?

"Do you mean an informational pamphlet?" Asgore inquired, desperately hoping that maybe it was something not worth anything. "It is just a simple book after all, right?"

There was no hesitation from the phone before they corrected him. "That was one of the only six books written by the la Horde de l'Aura, an ancient tribe dedicated to solving what life means; the text is hundreds of years old and still has yet to be translated by historians. It values up to roughly billions of dollars."

Asgore almost choked on his spit. Billions? Billions?

"I made sure to check Cole before we left, he had no other stolen objects on him," Asgore said, breath shallow.

"That's what we thought, which was why we are calling you. Although the camera footage was distorted, the security guards confirmed that they never saw him enter the room with the book on display. We will undergo an investigation, however, and some security did confirm that they saw you enter the room with two other people. We will be calling you three in for questioning, and the human government will get involved."

Oh no. Asgore could feel the stress aging him further, wrinkles pulling at his frown. Toriel, bless her soul, noticed and ran her hand over his to comfort him. He really didn't feel like he deserved her.

There was nothing Asgore could do to stop the human government. If a book with that much net worth was stolen, there was no doubt that they would conduct a full blown investigation on it. They were only calling Asgore before due to his status, if he had been anyone else then they would have shown up onto his door for questioning and investigation. Then they would go to Papyrus', as Papyrus was the one housing Cole.

"King Asgore, we respect you and understand that your status... wait, what?"

The voice became distant as there was a discussion off of the phone, Asgore listening with worry.

"Oh, nevermind," The person said, returning back to their conversation. "This is rather unprofessional of us... but it seems we located the book."

Asgore almost felt like screaming with relief when he heard that. "You found the book?"

"Yes, it was hidden under another... I am very sorry for us accusing you of a robbery, King Asgore, it seems that it was our own mistake for not trying to locate it more thoroughly last night. But I swore it hadn't been... nevermind, I apologize for taking up your time. This is very unprofessional and I swear it won't happen again."

"It-It's fine," Asgore said, silently thanking Toby Fox for this blessing of not having the human government breathing down his back. "Just don't let it happen again, thank you."

With that, Asgore hung up, throat dry from his fear and his hair standing on its ends.

"Are you okay?" Toriel hummed, leaning her head against Asgore's shoulder.

"Now I am, dear," Asgore breathed out, drawing her in for a comforting hug.

~~~~~~

The blood was starting to take its effect. Sans could feel it, just as it had felt before. The sides of his skull started to ache, as did the rest of his bones. Magic started to swell within his soul, refusing to be ignored.

He should have noticed this wasn't really him being sick. It was all Sans could connect it to, not truly understanding his situation. Bones rattled as his face flushed with the color of his magic, it feeling more prominent than ever. Sans wasn't sure if he felt like he could fight off an army, or if he wanted to turn and throw up. It was harder to move his limbs, Sans felt distant from his body.

"You look like sh*t," Chara muttered.

"It's probably because of the soul restriction," Sans answered, leaning back against the chair for support. "My soul is fighting against it... that's why I'm not going all demon-y, as you call it."

Chara snorted. "I like using that word."

"Okay, demon expert, what now?"

It made plenty of sense now, as to why his body reacted this way to blood. His soul had a restriction on a part of his magic, and when that magic was trying to be activated, the restriction fought back against it, activating the rest of his magic and making him feel sick. It was kind of like being sick, his body was technically fighting against something it believed didn't belong there. And theoretically, Sans wasn't demon in the slightest. At least, not yet, as the demon side of him had been restricted. That's why his body rejected the magic, it wasn't his magic and it wasn't his soul.

Well, it made as much sense as it possibly could. The knowledge that his Father was actually a demon had come out of nowhere, and now Sans had to flick dead girl blood onto him just to have a reaction to it. If only Hewey were awake, his comments would have been gold.

"I'm not sure," Chara mumbled, "Do you know how the guy blocked that part of your soul? If you know how he did it, you could reverse it."

"No, if I had known then I-I would have been aware of my origins," Sans said, bone clattering loudly.

"Is there anyway to turn those off?" Chara asked.

"Um, no," Sans answered, looking down at his shaking body.

Chara thought for a moment, her lips pressing together into a thin line. "Does your magic still work?"

"I've tried it before, it does. The problem is just that I accidentally end up using too much magic."

"Okay."

A moment of silence was taken between the two, neither knowing what to say.

"Should we just train with your magic?" Chara asked.

"We could, but like I said, I always end up using more than I intent."

"Just being down here should have helped bring out your demon powers, since hell is focused on demons and everything," Chara muttered to herself, leaning back in the chair she was sitting within. "And since you've already been here for over a month, that soul block should be degrading by now. It explains why you had a faster reaction to the blood, at least."

"That means I should at least get some hints of me being a demon," Sans agreed, "What are some demon traits I should be looking out for?"

"Uh, well, being able to kill people is one, but... you've already got that covered. Horns and tails are pretty common, red glowing eyes is another. Sometimes some of them have void on themselves, like how you're kinda crying void there."

Sans never took notice before someone else did. It was weird, the feeling of the cold void dripping out of his eye socket. Of all the other times this happened, Sans never noticed first. Someone else would be forced to point it out, and only then would the skeleton feel the tar like substance exiting his skull.

"It does that," Sans said, wiping some of it onto his sleeve. "I also dealt with the void during experiments, so I don't think that's demon related."

The two continued their discussion over possible symptoms Sans should be on the lookout for, topics ranging on different things the two had seen over their stay in hell. Horns, tails, ripped wings, claws, basic demon things one would expect. Oddly, crystals and gems were brought up, as Chara said it was a extremely common to see a demon with one.

Sans flicked away something that brushed against his back, the back of his pelvis feeling weirder than normal. So, the man shifted again, trying to find a more comfortable position. Did this chair suddenly get a lump on it?

Red eyes looked behind Sans before those same eyes widened, staring at something behind him.

"Oh... Oh my..." Chara snickered, grin spreading on her face.

"What are you-?"

Looking behind him, Sans lost his train of thought as he saw the object behind him, it shifting slightly with his own movements.

Was that...

Was that a tail?