The yellow and white sparks from a blowtorch created a dim light among the profuse darkness in the occult lab; the shine of the flame directed onto the metal highlighted in the dark like an Icecap wandering around in Hotland.

Alone and with nothing and no one to bother, the scientist worked day and night, and little to no attention was given to her absence, but it wasn't like she cared too much. She was never one to hang out all the time or even once a week, to start with, making her certainly unpopular.

Her new project had been taking a lot of her time, and foreseeing the length of her work, she had told her closest friends that she would not be able to be around for a few months, just to make sure they wouldn't be worried sick about her. The task was complicated, and it needed absolutely all of her attention. Alphys few times had been so focused on something.

The only other place she had gone to aside from the True Lab was her other lab, but merely for the purpose of two things: to grab and put back tools, and to make sure Mettaton didn't make the lab into his personal paradise during her nonattendance.

Her research was not done yet. All her previous attempts at studying the nature of souls had failed miserably. More than failed, according to her own words, and the melting, horrifying creatures lurking in the dark laboratory were clear proof of it. There had to be a chance for her to make things right, and she had come across a solution. It scared her at first, and that feeling of uneasiness was still around her as she worked hard on it, but it had to be done.

It could be a failure yet again, but what if it was not? The matter was far too important to her, and everyone, to let it slide away just because she thought it could be wrong. But it wasn't the result what scared her the most, no. It was certain someone's reaction to it.

With a muffled sigh under her welding mask, she put the blowtorch away and stopped for a moment. It was almost done. She just needed to reinforce a few pieces to make sure they wouldn't fall off, add stable batteries – a certain kind she made herself; they could not drain, and her calculations drove her to think that they could last for about a year – and add the necessary tools into her machine.

She lifted up the mask, and a small smile pulled at her lips. She liked what she was seeing.

The deactivated robot lied on the cold and rusted metal bed, absolutely motionless, with all sorts of cables sticking out and screws scattered around it. It was similar to Mettaton's initial box form – Alphys had taken inspiration from him to make it –, but with a more rounded appearance, and a shape a tad more humanoid.

The head was round, lacking any facial features, such as hair, a mouth, ears, or a nose; its face was a rectangular black screen, where the eyes would turn on after it was awakened. The body was simple, square at the top, and ending on a more slender shape towards the end, blue, red and green decorative buttons and a few rivets here and there placed as adornments. Two short arms, shaped like an oval, with four thin, somewhat sharp fingers were pressed against the body. The machine had no legs or wheels to stand on; it would be able to float, like a ghost. The whole thing was a light blue in color, with darker shades around the head and arms.

Alphys had thought of adding wheels as well so it could both go through earth and air, but she never listened to that idea. She was afraid she could mess something up by adding more features at the last minute, and it would take her too much time, more than it already had. Besides, it was perfect enough. She did not feel like it was necessary to add anything else; it wasn't like she was a perfectionist.

The greatest idea that had ever popped up on her mind had finally appeared, and Alphys loved it right away. If she could not success by herself, she could get help of something fully programmed to study what she had failed at. With its help, Alphys would finally be able to perhaps even clone stable monster souls. The robot was made to profusely study their nature, and find ways to make them persevere out of a monster's body. It was perfect.

However, as she looked at it, her mind split in two. One part wanted to finally finish it and show it to her friends, and especially the King, who was the only one who knew what she was building. She would get praise, and could finally success at what she had been trying to do for so long. The other side wanted to wait longer, thinking that the monsters' reaction would be bad, and that the creation would fail, just like everything else did. But the reptilian knew which side to listen to, and started adding the retouches.

She could not wait to show her creation off.

"Well? Don't keep me waiting, darling! It was about time you showed your face through here!"

Mettaton let out a small laugh. He had not complained much about Alphys being gone for such a long time and, strangely enough, hadn't caused too much trouble during the scientist's absence, thing she appreciated, but he was still eager to see her and to know what she had been working on.

She felt the uneasiness around her again, and tried to brush it away before she lost her confidence. After all, she had built another robot and had only told the King. She was anything but sure Mettaton would accept his new… 'sibling', per say. No one could deny he was really egocentric, and perhaps having another machine wandering around wouldn't be the best idea. The only thing that could differentiate those two was the soul – Mettaton had one, but the new robot did not, and it was a highly witted AI that could learn through mistakes and successes and quickly process information.

Alphys felt drops of sweat on her forehead and her breathing getting funny for a moment as she left a screwdriver and some unused, cut off cables on her messy desk, but she had to brush her nervousness off. If she showed Mettaton that she was afraid of his reaction, there were more chances that he would not accept the new robot.

She gulped before bringing herself to speak under the thrilled robot's fuchsia gaze. "W-well, don't take this as anything… w-wrong, okay? I've… I've been working… on…" She slapped herself mentally over and over again. She could not fight against her nerves, even if she tried – and she was trying. She couldn't understand why it was so hard for her to just let it out.

The fact that Mettaton had a dubious look on his face replacing his eager one just made things worse, and Alphys tried her best not to look at him. "The thing is- I- I was… I worked on- it's…" She shook her head. Just say it!, she screamed in her mind. She had to get rid of the crushing weight on her shoulders. She had to say it and get it over with. Whatever had to happen, she will let it happen.

"I built another robot."

Her heart skipped a beat. She had not been expecting her words to blurt out so abruptly, and she felt like the sudden silence between robot and lizard was threatening to kill her. The dubious face had turned skeptical, and Alphys did not like that. She had never seen Mettaton with that expression, ever.

"Another… robot?" he repeated in a low voice, slowly, almost wanting to see if Alphys had said it wrong and would correct herself.

She did not.

For a few moments, the robotic monster couldn't believe what he heard, and he didn't want to believe it when the words made effect. The first thought he had was that Alphys was replacing him, but he dismissed that as a stupid idea. She already had him, what was the need for another robot? Mettaton was an excellent performer, a great helper when he felt like it, and an astounding fighter – he surprised himself as he fought against the human child and almost won. What else did she need? Mettaton was the perfect machine.

Wasn't he?

The scientist couldn't find her voice for a split second. "Y-y… yes, I… I did build… a- another robot…" Her biggest fear was actually happening. Mettaton was not content on the slightest. His joy had completely disappeared, and he looked both saddened and mad. She had thought that having another robot would be great news for him.

But it was not. And the reveal wasn't something Alphys could hide, like her previous failures.

"Ah. Right. That's- that's beautiful, darling." was all the robot said before silently falling into thought. His voice was always eager, joyful, happy, and just full of life, like his overall persona. But after Alphys told him that she built another one, all that faded away. He sounded… devastated, in comparison of how he always talked.

For once, Mettaton felt like trash. Felt like an old, broken toy no one needed anymore. He knew what was going to happen next. Alphys would soon grow attached to the new robot, and forget about him. She wouldn't care so much about repairing him, or helping him prepare for the next show. With that new invention around, his life would go downhill. Because it was the 'new one', and 'new ones' always got all the attention.

"Well, so, where is this new robot?"

Alphys' eyes widened a little, but she knew Mettaton was acting as if he was fine, putting up a half-content voice. He always did that; the robot wasn't a fan of showing sadness, pain, fear, or similar emotions to anyone, be it a friend or his entire audience. He always acted as if he was all right, not caring when he was hurt, or smiling when he was sad, and sometimes it could be hard to tell if he was hiding his emotional state or not; but that time, it was clear he was upset. His monotone voice blew the whistle.

The yellow lizard looked down for a second before turning around, eyeing the moving stairs that led the way out of her room, and Mettaton followed her gaze. She realized she couldn't bring herself to speak, as if guilt was trying to keep her silent. "CRAI, come." she said, rather calmly, as if she had to use a certain tone to call the robot.

And she did, that was the downside. CRAI had to learn more words and actions before Alphys could stop using commands.

The blue machine floated down the stairs, a barely audible buzzing noise coming from it. The movements were so off and feeling-less. Its eyes, a deep green, showed no emotion at all. They were circular, with no pupils. The device didn't impress Mettaton.

CRAI stopped swiftly next to Alphys. Still emotionless.

"Mettaton, this- this is CRAI. It s-stands for Combat and Research Artificial Intelligence."

Mettaton not only felt like utter garbage after that, but felt insulted. Not only had Alphys created a new robot, but she had given it an AI. No soul, or even a brain, nothing resembling that. It was merely an AI.

He eyed the robot. He was unsure if it was eyeing him back, or just staring at nothing in particular. It didn't even blink, just standing in the air like a statue, rocking up and down ever so slightly. It was insulting for him that it looked like his original box form.

"S- so? What… what do you t- think about it?" Alphys asked shyly, voice weakened, expecting Mettaton to yell at her angrily. She suddenly started to regret her creation, but it had took too much of her time, and it was going to be helpful for the entire Underground. There was no chance to go back on everything she had worked up to.

Even if Alphys was his friend, and he owed her a lot of things, he wasn't going to lie by saying he liked CRAI. In his point of view, the design was too simple and cheesy, it didn't have a single emotion, the movements were too mechanical for something built by Alphys, and it didn't have any sort of visible weaponry. He did like the decorative buttons, though, but he felt like the rivets were copies of his.

Still, Alphys had put a huge amount of work into it, and it deserved a bit of praise. Mettaton did not want to hurt her feelings by straightly saying that he hated her newest creation. He had to be subtle.

"It looks… fine," the word sounded like he was holding it back. "for me. Nothing too impressive, but I still like how you took inspiration from me to make it." Alphys gave CRAI a sideways glance. She started to think that its resemblances to Mettaton's original form were too obvious. In fact, if anything, it looked like a mixture between both the box form and the EX form. "What can it do?"

Her nervousness was increasing each second that went by. It was the machine's first time wandering around, and Alphys had no idea if it would respond correctly to its commands. So far, it could start learning words and find their significance through its extensive database, scan objects and monsters in search for 'anomalies' of any sort, and respond to a few orders.

Not only that, but it was also capable of fighting. CRAI had hidden compartments on its forehead, wrists and chest – they had lasers, electricity beams, and a scanner, respectively. The robot was programmed to fight at the cue of sudden, aggressive movements near it and attack attempts, and it could also sense anger and tension in its surroundings and find the source.

"Since t- this is a work in progress, it's, um, b- better if I try its- its functions later. It can a… attack if necessary, and s-scan its surroundings."

Mettaton crossed his arms, distrustful. When one of the reptilian's creations was a work in progress, something was bound to go wrong. When they first tested his EX body to make sure everything was functioning properly, the shell kept not responding to its host's commands, and sometimes sparks would fly out and cause him to deactivate momentarily. Mettaton didn't want that thing to attack with no previous warning due to being a work in progress.

After hearing the word 'scan', CRAI began to float around the lab with no other action whatsoever. It was one of the code words to which it was programmed to respond to. Its systems would allow it to detect the size of the zone it was in and start scanning it without getting out; Alphys was glad it worked. To scan, CRAI used an electrophoresis holo-pad that emitted rays of blue light. Anything the light touched was sent to the robot's database as it searched for soul-related materials.

Its arms merely swaying with the movement of its body, the shiny light scanned the fridge from top to bottom. It triggered no reaction from the machine as it turned and scanned the computer.

"It's so loud and cheerful, huh?" Mettaton said sarcastically, startling Alphys a bit, as she was focused on her robot scanning the lab.

"Y- yeah, well, CRAI is supposed to- to help me out, it's not made to b- be a TV host like you are."

Since CRAI was merely there to help her with her research, she did not feel the need to make it expressive and flamboyant like Mettaton was, it could have been a disturbance for her work – plus, it wasn't that easy. Having a soul, Mettaton was fully capable of emoting at will with no need of codecs or programs. Being an artificial intelligence, it would be hard to get CRAI to emote on the slightest.

And it just did not need to have emotions. It was not going to be seen by the monsters in the Underground all the time, nor did it need to act for them and keep people entertained; CRAI was not Mettaton. She wanted CRAI to do what she wanted it to do, not the robot to scream at her waiting for an order and to prance around in delight.

They both flinched back a bit when CRAI suddenly hovered in front of Mettaton, and scanned him as well; he squinted at the bright light in his face. Instead of just floating away to scan the rest of the lab, a small beep noise was heard from the robot as it stopped, and just stood there without doing anything.

"Alphys, darling, what does that mean…?" Mettaton asked warily, taking a step back and realizing how CRAI moved forth a bit along with him, staying at the same distance. "And why is this thing following me now?"

"Oh, it- it must've scanned your soul as an anomaly, since it- since the body didn't originally h- have one." the scientist explained as best as she could. As soon as it found something, it was designed to follow the anomaly wherever it went until Alphys told it to either take action or do nothing. "It's supposed to… to advise me that it f- found something strange."

"Please don't tell me it's going to follow me everywhere."

"No, no, it- it won't. I just need to, uh- CRAI, abort."

The robot instantly moved back to her side.

There was a pause between them; Mettaton looked at CRAI as if it were a threat. "So… that's what it does?" he finally questioned, and Alphys only nodded timidly. It didn't look too impressive for someone like him, but that was because Mettaton was not interested in anything related to science.

CRAI would do a great favor to that place.

But still, Mettaton knew one thing: he did not like that new robot.

So… I've had this idea in mind for a while and it just wouldn't leave me alone, so here we are!

I want to note a few little things, to avoid any confusion:

If any of you readers have watched the movie Wall-E, you will notice that CRAI bears a resemblance to EVE. And, surprise surprise! They're based off of her – and, yes, CRAI will be a they. I've got a liking for gender-neutral/genderless characters.

This story takes place after the Family ending, which is the Neutral ending you get if you don't kill anyone but still don't achieve the Pacifist.

Mettaton is also always going to be in his EX form in this story, for two reasons: one, he stays that way in this ending (I believe), and two, I just like EX more than our favorite rectangle. Legs over wheels, baby! :3

And so, that's all. I hope you enjoy this silly little idea that may or may not turn into a long story. Toodles!