This was a good idea when I started. I promise.
Didn't mean to finish a really sad story on my mom's birthday, but that's alright I guess. Happy birthday, Mom. This one doesn't go out to her though, she deserves much happier stories than this.
I do have plans to write more Undertale stories, and some of them are gonna have multiple chapters and more than a few words. I might keep doing the asterisks for shorter stories, but for anything with more than one chapter I'm probably going to stop using asterisks. They're really hard to look at after awhile, it's easier for the eyes on me when I stare at my words for hours.
A month had passed since the human first came underground. They killed everyone in their path at first, and many had started to believe that they were the Angel of the prophecy, here to empty the Underground. But those monsters were wrong. The killings stopped for awhile once they reached Hotland, much to everyone's surprise. A few monsters in the Core died, and Mettaton was taken out, but a small part of the population survived.
When they left the Ruins, Alphys hadn't been sure what to think of them at first. She monitored them throughout the rest of their journey, and it became clearer with each killed monster that they needed to be stopped. She knew it but did nothing as she watched each member of the Canine Unit die. She watched as they got closer to Hotland, and almost began to hope... Maybe the human would end her long nightmare.
It took a call from Undyne, just as the human reached Waterfall, to snap her out of it. Undyne planned to fight and stop them (of course she did) to avenge her friends and save everyone else. But she was also aware she could fail. And if they defeated her, then Alphys would take everyone left somewhere safe. She didn't want to watch Undyne die, but this was all bigger than just her. If Undyne could put her life on the line, she could have the courage to do something, too. So she kept watching. But at least she didn't watch alone this time, since Mettaton wanted to keep an eye on the human. If they kept this up and got past Undyne, he planned to fight as well.
It helped to have someone there when the human left Waterfall.
There was one place the human couldn't get to, one place they'd all be safe. That's where Alphys sent everyone. She made her rounds through Hotland after the fight ended. Some, of course, refused to go, and others ran into the human on their way and met their ends. But most of them successfully fled to her lab, going farther into it than she'd ever let anyone else go. She turned back when she reached the hotel and went to hide herself.
(She almost wanted the human to find her on the way. Put an end to the nightmare. It'd be better than the coward's way out, but she never saw them.)
Sending everyone into the lab meant that she had to come clean, of course. She didn't want to, and it was hard after keeping secrets for so long, but somehow she did it. And the thing was, no one seemed to blame her. They weren't happy, but it went over better than she expected. Everything began looking up with that off her chest; some monsters the human ran into were even spared. Alphys kept monitoring them as long as she could, and everyone left the lab when the human went through the barrier.
Asgore had died in the aftermath, and just about anyone who could take his place was gone as well. The monsters left wanted her to be the new leader. They all talked about how brave she was, bringing everyone to safety and admitting to her own mistakes, but she knew better. She wasn't some hero, she wouldn't have done anything at all if it weren't for her friends. Now they were gone, and she wasn't sure she could live up to their expectations without them.
But it wasn't all bad. Sans came to the lab to visit for the first time in a long time, and he did his best to help her run things. He'd changed since the last time Alphys had seen him...but then, she probably had, too. They'd been coworkers once and partnered up on different science experiments, but then he suddenly just...gave it all up. He still had a job in Hotland after that, but she wasn't sure when she'd see her old friend again. She was glad he was there now, but... not under these circumstances. Not like this.
He helped a lot with ruling what was left of the kingdom of monsters, and strangely their friendship now was just as strong as it used to be. Outside of taking care of the kingdom, he also hung around with her a lot in the lab. Sans would mostly lie around on the sofa and take naps, and sometimes Alphys joined him. They'd watch anime and old tv shows together instead of working on experiments, since neither were really in the mood anymore. But they didn't need science to keep being friends.
Alphys often worried about him though, especially how much he hung around. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy his company; on the contrary, it was nice having him around. It almost felt to her like that he thought he had to stay, though. He never objected to it, but there was no reason he had to hang around her all the time. Unless he really wanted to. But her curiosity grew as he stayed around, so she worked up the courage to ask. She just wanted to be sure.
"*H-hey, um, Sans... I really appreciate everything you've been d-doing... I don't think I could do any of it myself. But you, uh... you don't have to stay here all the time. I-If you don't want to, I mean."
"*well, i'll leave if ya want me to, alph." Sans threw a grin her way and turned his attention away from the tv (which was playing Mew Mew Kissy Cutie). "*i didn't think you'd want to be bone-ly, though. not at first, anyway. *and i, uh, didn't really want to be, either."
Alphys frowned, her eyes still focused on the tv, but not really paying attention. "*That's true, I'd... r-rather not be by myself. *But y-you don't have to stay here for my sake. *You probably have somewhere you...you want to go, o-or something you want to do. I don't mind if you do."
"*heh... your hypotheses aren't usually that far off." His smile faded, still there like always, but much less genuine. "*you watched the human, didn't you?"
"*I-I did, but I really didn't, uh, pay much attention until they got to Waterfall. Before that, I was just...just... *waiting for them to find me. *But you, uh, met them, right? In Snowdin?"
He laughed. "*yeah, me 'n paps. that's where we lived, had a nice big house and everything. he took care of me, and i wasn't the best brother to him, but we were happy. *now the whole place's empty. even the survivors just stayed here. *don't really want to spend my time in a deserted town, you know? wouldn't feel right."
"*What about your job?" She didn't mean to sound like she was trying to push him out (even though it did seem like it). She was mostly just curious. Making sure that he wasn't neglecting something he needed to do or somewhere he needed to go. That, and that he did want to be there. "*You haven't left in awhile... You're not w-worried about losing it, are you?"
"*i had several. no one's around most of 'em, so there's no point. *but i do have one in the middle of hotland. *can't lose it now since my employer's gone, but i sold hot dogs there on the side. *i could keep doing that, but... feels kinda pointless now. why slack off on the job when you don't even have one anymore? might as well not even go."
"*That makes sense," Alphys agreed. She looked down, twiddling her thumbs before going on. "I just want to make sure. *I don't w-want you to feel like you have to stay, or a-anything like that."
"*like i said, i'll leave if you want. there's just nowhere to go, nothing to do. *having my own place isn't the same without papyrus. i'm too lazy to even go to grillby's now." Sans sighed and slouched over, deep in thought. "might as well stay somewhere i can be sorta useful, right? *and besides... no point in either of us being alone. *almost everyone i care about's gone."
"*You're the only friend I have left," she muttered, half to herself. "*Undyne, Mettaton, Asgore... th-th rest are all...dead. I can barely believe it still, even after a whole month. And I haven't even been...u-upset or anything, not even once, I still just feel empty. *They should've just finished u-us all off, it'd better than...this."
"*i should've done something when i had the chance." He looked over at her, his white pupils flickering in and out. "*i could've stopped them, you know. i should've. *papyrus...he wanted to give them a second chance. i let him. *i wanted him to be right, i hoped he was, but...it was a mistake. *i could've stopped them and prevented this, alphys, i'm...i'm sorry."
She smiled at him, tears in her eyes. "*It's not your fault, Sans. I should've done something, too. *E-everyone here calls me a hero, but... Undyne's the only reason I helped anyone at all. *She was so determined to save everyone, and I... I would've just waited for the e-end if she hadn't called, if we didn't make a plan. Even after that, I just watched and hid. *At least you did s-something, I could've at least tried. *I could've stopped them."
"*this is what happens when monsters like us just standby and do nothing, huh?" he asked.
"*I'll never forgive them. If they were here right now, I'd..." she trailed off.
Sans frowned. "*i can't go back and bring them here or anything, but... *we can call them, if you wanna at least talk."
"*C-call them? Do you even know their number?"
"*i would if paps were here. he probably would've gotten it from 'em, he wanted to be friends. *but i saw them use it in snowdin, the phone came from down here. *someone must've given it to them. i'm sure we can figure it out."
"*It must be from the Ruins. I watched them after they left, no one gave them a phone after that. *It shouldn't be too hard to find it."
With the list narrowed down, it only took the two of them somewhere around a week to find the right number. In the end they had it down to two possibilities. The first number went straight to voicemail, the message just a dog barking nonstop. Neither of them figured that was right, so they tried the other. It went to voicemail as well. But the message was different, and there was no denying this was the human's phone.
After dialing the number and listening to the message, Sans' pupils disappeared for a moment. He lowered it from where his ear would be and slowly handed it to Alphys.
"*...alright. i've got the number."
Sorry about that