The creatures were closing in on Frisk. Their distorted bodies slowly writhing toward the frightened child, making squishy noises as their forms slithered across the darkness of the laboratory. Frisk searched for a hole in the creatures' wall of pale, goopy flesh, but to no avail. Just as they had accepted their untimely demise, a familiar voice started to make it's way down the hall.

"Hey! Stop!"

As soon as the voice made itself noticed, the amalgamates parted from Frisk's shivering form. The owner of said voice was not surprising to them, as there was only one other person who knew how to access the location that they were in. It was Dr. Alphys, accidental creator of the eldritch abominations that once threatened to harm them.

"I've got you guys some food, okay?"

The doctor nervously sputtered as she threw tiny dark pellets at the monsters. With appendages oozing a whitish goop, the amalgamates scooped the pellets up and started to consume them by absorbing the pellets into their bodies. The scent of dog food began to waft around the room. Contented with their meal, the melting creatures left the room, gurgling with satisfaction.

"Sorry about that... They get kind of sassy when they don't get fed on time. I think they smelled the potato chips you had and..."

As if on cue, an empty Popato Chisps bag fell out of Frisk's pocket, making a small crinkling noise as it landed on the floor. Alphys stared at the chips, muttering a few words, but quickly corrected herself.

"Anyway! The power went out and I've been trying to turn it back on! But it seems like you were one step ahead of me."

With that, Frisk nodded gently and motioned for Alphys to go on.

"This was probably a big inconvenience for you... B-but I appreciate that you came here to back me up! As I said, I was afraid you'd..."

The doctor paused for a moment with a worried expression on her face. She looked scared for a moment.

"Not come back..."

Silence filled the room as Frisk and Alphys stared at eachother. However, it was broken once again by the doctor.

"But that's not because of these guys or anything! I was just worried I'd be too afraid... To tell the truth... That I might run away, or do something..."

Frisk is hit with the sudden realization of what Alphys's "do something" could mean.

"Cowardly."

And then, just as fast as it had arrived, the tense mood left the room for a while, but not the thoughts of the child. Frisk had known something was wrong about the doctor for quite a while, mainly because of her incessant stuttering and low morale, always plotting with Metta and putting them in precarious situations only to "save" them when things got extreme. Sure, Mettaton's transformation wasn't exactly a part of Alphys's plan, but for the most part, every encounter with the robot had been planned out. Alphys spoke up again.

"Uh... Uh, I suppose I owe you an explanation. As you already knew, ASGORE asked me to study the nature of SOULs. During my research, I isolated a power called 'determination'. I injected it into dying monsters so their SOULs would last after death. But the experiment failed. You see, unlike humans', monsters' bodies don't have enough... Physical matter to take those concentrations of 'determination'. Their bodies started to melt, and lost what physicality they had. Pretty soon, all of the test subjects had melted together into... Those. Seeing them like this, I knew... I couldn't tell their families about it. I couldn't tell anyone about it. No matter how much everyone was asking me. And I was too afraid to do any more work, knowing... everything I'd done so far was a horrific failure... But now. Now, I've changed my mind about all this. I'm going to tell everyone what I'd done..."

This was quite a bold move for Alphys, Frisk thought. Especially since she had a raging lying streak. But, then again, she DID confess quite a few things to Undyne while ago, including her secret crush on her.

"It's going to be hard. Being honest... Believing in myself... I'm sure there will be times where I will struggle. I'm sure there will be times where I screw up again. But knowing, deep down, that I have friends to fall back on... I know it'll be a lot easier to stand on my own. Thank you."

The amalgamates' white bodies slithered into the room again and stood at Alphys's side, awaiting orders.

"Come on, guys. It's time to go home"

The doctor left the room with the creatures, leaving Frisk alone.

END OF PART I

Frisk was