"So you're just gonna let them come to our house?" Kaya asked her father. "That easily?"

"yes, to avoid another of your speeches."

"The more you say it like that, the more disbeli- uh," she cut herself off, trying to think of a word the same as disbelieving.

"the more your convinced that i'm lyin' and think they're pretty bad," he said for her as they came out onto the path.

Sans wasn't lying. It really was past noon, the sun already on its decent toward the horizon. "but i can tell ya whole-heartedly that i mean it."

She smiled slightly and said, "Just go easy on them. And have the patience to explain the longest story ever to them." With that she and Skyla went quickly down the path, Kaya arriving much earlier than her red-headed friend.

"You need to lay off on whatever your taking," she said when they regrouped at the bottom. "Whatever it is seems to be affecting you badly."

"Nah," she replied. "One, I can't. And two, it actually seems like a good thing, coming from these nightmares."

"You're powered by nightmares?"

"Yes. A terrible, terrible curse to occur to me," she started off, with a fake, but fitting, act to go with it. "But being unaffected by changes in level is a strange benefit to come out of it," she added curiously.

"Is that what keeps you going each day? The nightmares?"

"Hell no," she sharply said. "Worst thing to look forward to at the end of the day. My family is what keeps me going."

"Are they that bad? The nightmares, I mean."

"If I explained to you, once again, how there are different timelines, then I might loose my skull thinking over the events that could happen in a neutral run, let alone having to explain the genocide run."

"Sorry, I had forgotten. You don't need to remind me if the runs again. But, what usually haunts you during your nightmares?"

"An unknown and relentless killer. Lately I've been dodging all of its attacks, but the strangest thing is that it never changes. Even if I'm far away from the strike zone, the late projectile that always comes after the giant barage goes for the same spot every single time. I'm starting to think I should move out of the entire area and watch it all from afar."

"To get our minds off of this for now, how about we go get your little brother's birthday gift?"

"Sure," Kaya agreed, grabbing Skyla's arm and teleporting them both to the toy store.

"What kinds of things does he like?" her friend asked as they entered.

"Normal young boy stuff, as far as I've seen," she answered.

They looked around at the toys, disagreeing on some things and agreeing on others. Eventually they settled on a couple small packages that had no lable. It seemed quite popular; those were the only two left. Although, they both didn't understand what was so interesting about opening a bag that didn't say or show what was inside. Or what could possibly be inside. She teleported them to her room once they had paid, getting a discount since Kaya was a Dreemurr, and more importantly, the human-monster ambassador's daughter.

"Alright," she said and pointed to the wall right of the door. "In my closet are a couple of bags from my birthday, and some wrapping paper. I can do the wrapping if you don't mind. We don't have that much time, after all."

"Sure," Skyla said, opening the closet and fumbling around for the bags for a bit while Kaya used her magic to wrap the packages when she had the wrapping paper.

"So, strange question, but," her friend started after the presents were placed in the bag.

"Oh boy," Kaya whispered. "What's the question?" she said louder, her tail twitching slightly.

"Why do you have more of Sans' accent when you're speaking to him, yet you don't when you're around other people?"

The question caught her off-guard. She hadn't expected that sort of thing to be brought up, and it took her a moment to come up with an answer.

"Uh... I... uh... hadn't... noticed. Um, influential I guess?" She rubbed the back of her head as she thought more about the question. Why did she only speak like her father when speaking to him?

"Maybe it's another disa-" Skyla started, cutting into her thoughts.

Kaya's eye ignited and she put her hand over her friend's mouth. "Simply speaking is not a disability. Unless a person has trouble speaking from one way or another. Disabilities mean that there's something wrong with a person." She laughed slightly, a small smile on her face, and stared at her free hand, which started glowing and then soon blazing with a light purple, transparent 'fire'. "There's nothing wrong with me. Unless you think so." Her voice sounded distorted, although she could barely hear herself.

Skyla slapped her, and she was thankful for it, despite it stinging really bad. She reeled back, heard a thump from her red-headed friend, and took several deep breaths. Darkness had started clawing at her vision in her 'entranced state', and she had picked up her friend without noticing.

She rubbed her cheek and refused to look at Skyla, afraid to see anger on her face.

Kaya! Lyra shouted in her head.

Y-yes? she answered.

Oh thank goodness. Our connection had been severed and I couldn't reach out to you. A moment passed before she asked, What happened?

I don't know. Some... force seemed to have taken over my body.

These bad thoughts are getting to your head. You need to stay positive so this darkness doesn't grow stronger.

Yeah, I'll try to do that.

"I'm real sorry about that," Kaya said, still not looking at her. "Did I hurt you you?" She turned and looked at Skyla.

She came up and hugged her, Kaya taking a moment of surprise before hugging back.

"No, you didn't hurt me," she said. "I'm just glad that whatever happened is out of you now."

Kind of doubt that, though.

Don't think that! Lyra growled. Don't think that its still inside and can spill over any second. Thinking that only makes it stronger and higher.

It's kind of hard not to!

"So," Skyla asked when they had seperated. "Where's the party being held?"

"At a community park. No place accepted how many were coming to his party, so a park was our best bet."

She teleported them to the local park, named Mount Ebbot Community Park, and found that almost everyone was there already. Only Uncle Papyrus, Uncle Mettaton, Cousin Impact, and Nabstablook weren't there, and Kaya guessed that Mettaton was busy making them look prim and proper.

She placed the bag on the table with the rest of the gifts at the pavilion where everyone was more or less gathered at and heard the familiar sound of Uncle Mettaton's limo. She looked over at the entrance and saw the four of them walk over. They were wearing casual clothes, except for Blooky since he was a ghost.

"bro, why are ya late?" Sans teased. "ya don't even look like a lot of time that was wasted on clothing."

"SORRY BROTHER BUT-" Uncle Papyrus started.

"The GPS broke down and Papy and I forgot where it was," Uncle Mettaton interrupted him. "Luckily our little angel remembered and managed to guide the driver from his phone," he said and patted the top of Impact's head.

"an' why doesn't the driver know his way around the town by now?"

"WE HAD TO GET A SUBSTITUTE FOR HIM. HE CAUGHT A VERY BAD COLD AND IT WAS HER FIRST TIME AROUND OUR SECTION OF TOWN."

"oh."

Kaya looked around and found the five adventurers sitting a little distance from everyone.

That explains how Dad got here so fast despite having the ability to teleport, she thought and went over to them.

"How're you all doing?" she asked them.

"We're fine, despite being one of the few humans here," Ali answered.

"Are you five enjoying yourselves?" Frisk asked, coming up behind her.

"Yeah, thanks, Ms..." Mason said.

"Mrs. Dreemurr," she answered.

"So are you Kaya's aunt or something?" Kade asked.

"She's my mother," Kaya replied, her tail swishing back and forth behind her.

"Oh, well I figured there was some kind connection between you two."

"It's alright. Would you like anything to eat or drink?" her mother offered.

"No thanks," Ali replied. "We brought our own things with us."

"Alright, well I best be going and tend to the others." With that she waved to them and went over to a group of monsters.

"Geeze, you've got one pretty mother," Kade said when she had left. Edward, who was sitting closest to him, slapped the back of his head.

"She's married!" both him and Kaya said. She had turned into her skeletal form, her eye sockets dark, and her tail lashed against the ground.

"Just saying, if the relationship doesn't work out because of your father-"

"Dad's not abusive! He just gets worried, especially because of the recent things that have gone on. That's the only reason he was mad. He was worried. Plus, it was Sarisk's birthday and I have to be here since he's my little brother."

"Never thought anyone else would take a liking to your mom," Skyla said.

"I'm pretty sure someone did, back at Mom's school when she was younger. Before she fell into the Underground."

"Speaking of which," Caitlin said. "How did Mrs. Dreemurr fall? The more important part being why. We've researched legends that said any human that fell down there never appeared again. So why would she?"

"I'm... actually unsure. No one has told me, so it must be a touchy subject for her. Even after all these years."

"Think we could convince her to tell us?" Skyla asked.

"Maybe we shouldn't focus on the past and stick with the present. Besides, it may not be for a good reason."

"But we're all 'bout the past," Mason argued. "Why else would we search an abandoned, ancient cavern?"

"You're sounding more like archaeologists than adventurers."

"Ok, archaeologist-adventurers," Ali replied. "But still, Mason is right. We're all about the past. Soo, finding out why and how your mom fell would help us in some form or another."

"Alright, but go ask her yourselves. I'm not ruining anything by asking her myself."

As she finished, she heard the call for cake and started toward the pavilion.

"So that didn't spark even a little curiosity from you?" Skyla asked on the way there. "Aren't you curious about her past?"

"No," she lied. Although she did want to find out, it was Frisk's own business, and if she was unwilling to share it, that was fine with her.

"Alright."

Cake was passed out to everyone once Sarisk had blown out the candles. Everyone talked to each other - even the archaeologist team was befriending some of the other monsters like the K-9 unit; her father and her grandfather were chatting about science and stuff; everyone else was enjoying themselves. Everything was going well.