"So, darlings, how come none of you have said anything?"
Undyne's forehead pressed against the cool window, her yellow eyes watching the trees pass by. On her left, she could feel the weight of her wife pressing against her side, the two stationed in the back seat.
After they had helped out Noelle, she gave the three a location to where they could meet her, along with her phone number. They were going home to get rid of all of their electronics instead of their phones, and Mettaton had been the one to pick them up.
It was weird, riding with Mettaton. To be honest, Undyne didn't like or dislike him, she barely knew him. Sure, he did a lot of shows and was close friends with Alphys, but they never really talked one on one. He was alright, she guessed, but she didn't really know him. He just offered to pick them up since he was on tour and in the area.
"A lot has b-b-been happening," Undyne muttered.
"A LOT," Papyrus agreed.
The robot sighed, looking back at them through the car mirror. Undyne had honestly expected a limo to pull up when Mettaton said he was going to pick them up, but she was honestly surprised to find a more normal looking car. Mettaton explained to her in her confusion that he actually had multiple cars, and this was the car he would use for Alphys, since she didn't like standing out. It was actually pretty considerate of him to purchase and entire car just for when he would be driving with Alphys, Mettaton did actually care for her. He even used the car for his cousin, too, which Undyne could understand. Napstablook didn't like fancy things either.
"What exactly happened? Why were you three called by the government?" Mettaton asked.
Undyne shook her head, returning her gaze once again towards the outside world she had fought hard to see. They had learned a few things from that experience, some good, some bad. One great thing was that Sans was still alive! That was good, they wanted him to be. They knew his password, too, which wouldn't really serve them well, but they knew his preferred password anyway.
They also learned that Undyne was right. Sans obviously wasn't kidnapped, the photos proved it.
Entering his phone, the group had found his background was actually a picture of him and Sally, and some dog with a really creepy face. Probably another CreepyPasta, but it still looked normal enough to possibly just be a normal dog. Papyrus was quick to point out it didn't share the normal features of dogs, as he was very experienced with dogs. There were too many teeth, it's mouth and smile was too wide to be normal, and those pupils weren't normal pupils on a dog. It looked unsettling, and looking at the pictures Noelle had, they noticed they could see parts of his body in certain pictures. The crowd of people really blocked out Sans and Flowey, they couldn't see most of his body. So if they couldn't see the rest of his body, they couldn't see the dog, either. Only in pictures with gaps could the group see flashes of his fur, even an ear, but that was it.
Noelle wrote down notes constantly and decided to investigate further, using the three as witnesses for them to tell her if they recognized anything familiar on the phone. Phone numbers, people in pictures, apps, anything that they remembered from their days with Sans.
They had went to the contacts first, the detective copying down each number onto a piece of paper with the names next to them. The names weren't very helpful, though, as they had no specific realistic names and were all instead nicknames, a typical Sans move. 'Smile bro', 'Fluffy', 'Scared of rain', 'Gayer than me', 'Tallness #1', 'Tallness #2', 'Tallness #3', 'Tallness #4', and 'NO ROSES' were all names on his contacts. They clicked on each contact and scrolled through, but there was no impending evidence anywhere.
Each one was just a casual conversation, jokes being spit back and forth, pictures of Sans doing things sent. The most recent one was with Fluffy, where he had sent a picture of him in a wig to Fluffy and told him how they now matched. It had sparked a conversation about the wig and where Sans got it, but it all was casual. No mentions of CreepyPasta or murder, nothing suspicious.
A lot of conversations contained flirting, which was odd, mostly from the other party. There was the most from the contact NO ROSES, where they sent flirty things and Sans would shoot them down every single time. It was impressive just how often this person texted him, but they did have some actual normal conversations about things.
Noelle was understandably confused, having believed that Sans was being held hostage. The text messages were dated up until two days ago, probably when he had lost his phone, so obviously he was still texting people normally even with them. There was no proof that the people he was texting were or weren't CreepyPasta, all of their profile pictures were memes and they never sent any photos except for screenshots of more memes.
The apps, too, were all normal apps. There was some game apps, a few meme apps, but no social media apps. There was no profiles or emails connected to the phone, either, they couldn't trace it back to Sans at all other than the pictures.
The pictures.
They all looked so normal it was worrying. If his password was 'dead' in numbers, shouldn't he have more creepier and kill-y things on his phone? The dog was one thing, but it wasn't enough information to pinpoint anything. This was so confusing it made Undyne's head spin. It felt like just a normal phone of a normal guy with a little girl and a dog. There were no other people present in any of the photos, it was just of them three. Sometimes it would just be Sally, sometimes it would just be the dog, but sometimes it would have Sans included.
There was one of Sally in a swimsuit, grinning widely at the camera as she held a pool noodle in her hands. There was a picture of the dog sleeping on a bed, a normal looking bed. There was one of all three of them posing with popcorn in Sally's hands and a T.V in the corner of the image, with Steven Universe flashing up on the screen. Probably a movie marathon or finale, something unrelated to killing. If it was someone else, it would just look like a normal Dad with his kid and dog, raising her and being proud of her.
But it wasn't anyone else, it was Sans. The person who went missing awhile ago, the person who wished them all dead, the person who told a serial killer to go to town on them.
The person who looked so happy in these pictures that it kind of hurt.
Undyne wasn't extremely close to Sans, but they did hang out from time to time. Papyrus was often the topic of their conversations, since both cared about him, as Sans would sometimes tag along for his trainings and talk to Undyne about how he was doing. Sans didn't just talk about his brother, though, he asked how she was doing and talked to her about Alphys. He was actually a really nice guy when he wasn't spitting out puns constantly and being lazy, but even then he had no ill intentions.
It was just that Undyne always had considered him as a tag along more than a close friend. She didn't know him personally, they were never as close as Papyrus was to Sans. Maybe that was the problem, Undyne just assumed that Sans had other friends close enough to hang out with. Everyone did when they reached the surface. Recently having talked to the monsters that Sans played poker with at Grillby's before, she had discovered his believed friends were never that close to Sans. He just played with them whenever they invited him.
"So I'm guessing you guys have no lead on Sans?" Mettaton asked.
Of course he knew about it all, Mettaton helped Alphys with problems and knew to keep an eye out for Sans. It was hard to hide from him, Frisk was his friend too, there was a reason why they were sent to the hospital and he deserved to know.
"Noelle doesn't even know what to think of it, we didn't tell her about the rest of the story," Undyne said, "We still don't know everything, it's not our place."
"Sorry to hear, darling," Mettaton said, "But Noelle is trying to save lives, you should help her where you can."
That's what Undyne wanted to do. She was the head of the Royal Guard, it was her job to protect people. But at the same time, she had to protect Sans from being arrested or possibly even killed. It was a balance of good and evil that she wasn't used to, standing right on the thin string above the pit of failure. Her morals were all thrown about, as if her mind and soul itself was constantly in a blender.
She didn't know what to do.
Noelle was doing what Undyne should be, but this was personal. Undyne knew Sans, she knew he was doing this because of their mistakes. Not to mention how Undyne didn't know the entire story, she couldn't make a good decision without knowing all of the pieces. For all she knew, Sans could have known one of them for years, maybe he was even related to one of them somehow. Sans himself was a complete mystery, no one knew anything about his past.
"Understand why Sans left, and remember that he's found a life he'd rather be than yours," Mettaton said, looking back at the fish monster. "Try to help with the murders, but don't try to invade in on his life."
"That's actually kind of helpful," Undyne muttered, closing her eyes as she rested against the window. "Focus on my job, not my wants."
"At least Sans is okay..." Papyrus whispered to himself.