"Friend." The man rolled the unfamiliar word on his tongue,"Yes. I suppose. Now, why are you here?"

     "Um, you set a check in today. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

     "No, Tucker. Well? Get on with it."

     "Right. Look, I created this map of the city, highlighting the points you specified," Tucker rolled out a crumpled sheet of paper,"as you can tell. We-"

     "Stop. It's too dark in here, I can't see this map."

     "Fine." Tucker frowned and flicked his wrist. A moment passed without anything happening. Suddenly, his hand was enveloped in a light purple flame.

     The other man scowled then grinned tauntingly,"Losing your touch, eh?"

     Tucker's eyes widened,"S-sir. No, i-it's not that. I-I just-"

     "Excuses. You know the rules."

     "Sir, I'm sorry-"

     "Sorry is not enough! Our whole plan relies on this select group of people retaining the magic we have! If even one of the group falls behind, the whole thing is jeopardized! You know the punishment, correct?"

     "Y-yes, sir."

     "Good."

     The man snapped his fingers, and the faint purple light was extinguished, leaving a puff of smoke that quickly dissipated into the darkness.

"This was a test, Tucker. A test, and you failed."

---

     Frisk stared out the window. The rain drizzled on, unrelenting despite the sunny patches in the sky. She yawned and stretched, glancing at the clock.

     4:09. A miserable time of day in November. It'll get dark before you can do anything, but it's too early to sleep.

     "Chara!" Frisk called,"It's too boring here!"

The girl appeared at the door,"What do you expect me to do? Take you somewhere?"

"Please?"

"Sorry, love. I'm not one for driving in the rain. I do have an idea, though."

"Well?"

Chara took a breath,"I was thinking that we could ask about Tami. Remember, that statue we found? It's been on my mind for a while."

"Yeah. I've kinda been wondering about her as well. Do you think she's related to mom and them?"

"I can't see any other explanation. The plaque called her a Princess, so unless there was a different royal family, she has to be related."

"I guess the only way to know is to ask."

"I know. I just don't want to hurt mom. There's no flower that preserved the spirit of this monster. There'd be no way to bring her back. I don't want you to feel useless-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there. I won't feel useless, because I know that there's no way. Perhaps talking about Tami will help mom a bit. You've noticed that she's been a bit down lately, right?"

"She's probably worrying about you. Or she might be thinking that you might not need her anymore, with a kid of your own."

"Really?" Frisk scoffed,"I'll need her more than ever with this kid!"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Welp. Let's go ask."

Chara nodded and headed downstairs. Frisk followed, lingering a bit on the bottom step. Chara turned back and looked at her,"You good?"

Frisk nodded,"Nervous, that's all. Mom has lost so many children, you know? I hope we don't hurt her."

Chara took her hand and they walked into the living room, where Toriel was knitting and watching the twins.

"Oh, hello, my children. Do you need something?"

"We, uh, we wanted to ask you a question."

"Very well. What is it?"

"Well, a while back Asriel told us about this lake in the woods. Before we got to the lake, we found this monument thing. It had a plaque that told about the War, and there was a statue of a monster. The plaque called her Tami. Do you know anything about her?"

     Toriel stiffened and closed her eyes, breathing deeply,"Tami. Yes. I remember Tami. She was impossible to forget." Toriel smiled sadly up at them, tears shining in her eyes,"Tami was my first child. She was born when we still lived on the Surface. She had the enormous potential to be great, and great she was. One time, when she was four, she set Asgore's cape on fire. It was quite funny, honestly. But she died in the War. She sacrificed herself for us, so we could flee into the mountain. If she hadn't done what she did, countless more monsters would have died. She would have loved the two of you."

     "I'm sure we would have loved her as well."

     "Um, mom, did you ever tell Asriel about Tami?"

     "We did not. We didn't want him to fear humans anymore than he had to."

     "I wonder why he didn't mention the place to us."

     "Perhaps he took a different route to the lake, and he didn't see it. Anyway, thanks for telling us about her."

     "It was no trouble. Would you mind taking the twins out for a bit? The rain has stopped, and they've been cooped up all day. I'd do it, but I have a roast in the oven."

     "Yummy." Chara said,"Sure, we'll take them outside. Come here, T."

     Frisk smiled,"And other T, come here."

     Terri giggled, jumping into Frisk's arms. Frisk spun around, opening the door. The air outside was damp and heavy, and everything smelled of rain. Frisk poked Terri's nose and set her down, laughing as she sneezed and fell on the grass. The two small monsters ran around, their laughs ringing sharply in the silent day. Chara slipped to Frisk's side and wrapped her arm around her waist.

     "Soon, it'll be our baby running around out here."

     Frisk's breath caught in her throat,"You don't care?" her voice was barely a whisper,"You don't care they have a-a different f-f-father?"

     Chara's gaze was dark,"This child does not and never will have a father. It will have two mothers and a large family that will love them very much. They will never be lonely, and they will never have to worry about anything."

     "Oh, Chara. I hope that you're right."

OwO how'd you like that new POV? Who do you think it is, and what's their plan? Also, on a more serious note, I'm gonna have to slow updates. Normally, I'd have two or three more chapters planned, but I'm drawing blank for what to do next. I need to get a grip on what's going to happen in the future chapters. Though the updates will slow for a while, once I have a plan written out, I should be able to write faster. Until next time, my beautiful people!