"Even though my Frisk's journey through the Underground won't be all that different from the game, I'd still like to fill in some of the gaps once the journey's over. How do monsters deal with lawbreakers, for example? That's what I want to think about." -Francine I. Kane, 201X-
Chapter 8: Nothing New
"see ya 'round, kiddo!" With a smile and a wave, Sans took a shortcut out of Frisk's hospital room. After arriving at his destination of the Lab's globe room, he let his smile fall with a deep sigh. He didn't have a chance to ask everything he'd wanted to… but maybe that was for the best. Frisk had been through enough for the day, and besides…
*how in the hell do i even start a conversation like that, he asked himself. *do i just go up to her and say, "heya, kiddo! so tell me, how many times have you died? just wondering." or maybe "i wanted to apologize for letting asgore kill you, instead of being your friend and helping you out. sorry! but hey, at least you came back, so it's all good, right?"
Sans brought a hand up to his face and groaned into his metacarpus. So much for keeping his promise. Now that he knew Frisk was causing anomalies, this meant she had died at least twice, or maybe even three times (he wasn't too sure about one of them) before making it to Hotland. She died three more times because of Mettaton and Asgore, then there were the uncountable anomalies that didn't affect the world, after Asgore died…
It was strange, being able to remember different timelines. The hardest thing about it was that he was the only one to remember. Even though Alphys was aware of the anomalies, she couldn't remember the way he could.
For example, a LOT of people had been watching Frisk and Mettaton fight, but there wasn't one single hint of confusion over who had won on Undernet. The recordings of that fight, too, were just of Frisk surviving long enough to "win". The previous timeline might as well not exist. Sans was the only one that remembered anything happening to her. He was the only one that remembered the look on her face as that bomb exploded in it, before she fell like she was boneless onto the stage's floor. The image of her soul splitting in half before it shattered into tiny, fading pieces was burned into the backs of his eye sockets.
He was the only one who remembered… but that was nothing new.
But… if Frisk really was at the center of the latest anomalies, did she remember? One would think so… but she might not be entirely aware of what she was doing. All her deaths might just be a bunch of bad dreams, as far as she knew…
*but i'm not gonna know what's happening 'til i ask her, Sans thought to himself. *which brings me right back to the question of how to start that conversation. ugh…
After rubbing his closed eye sockets for a second, Sans shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at the globe. The remnants of a minor ripple were still bouncing around, but it was nothing like one of Frisk's… "comebacks," for lack of a better term. This one was faint, and barely disturbing anything at all. He remembered that pulse of something that wasn't quite magic, just before Frisk started fighting. Alphys had said "determination" was the power to change fate, and Frisk sure as hell changed Papyrus' fate…
What that it? Was determination causing the ripples? Was it DT that had wrecked Frisk's body, and not magic? Or was her DT reacting to the magic in her body? Now that he knew about the amalgamates, he knew magic and DT didn't really mix. But, since Frisk had plenty of physicality, was that what high amounts of DT did to a human body, instead of melting? Then again, if that was the case, shouldn't the magic in her bones have melted, instead of magicalcifying?
None of the research ever mentioned humans having these problems. What they needed was information about magicians… but Frisk just told him that information might not be unavailable.
Solving this puzzle was going to be a LOT of work. There were too many questions, and not enough answers. But that, too, was nothing new.
He sighed again, then started walking to the record room. He had to get started on reviewing all the research he and Alphys had done on humans, way back when. Back when things sort of made sense. Back when they both had someone to guide them through these sorts of things, even as they helped him to better everyone's lives.
But, that was no longer the case. It hadn't been, in a very long time. One could argue that it had never been the case.
Those thoughts, as well, were nothing new to Sans. All he could do was trudge along, and hope they could at least get a hint on what had happened today. For Frisk's sake, if nothing else.
"This is Mettaton News, live with Mettaton. Good evening, beauties and gentlebeauties. There is breaking news from the castle as word of Princess Frisk's condition is released.
"After becoming involved in an altercation between her bodyguard and an unnamed assailant, Her Highness and her guard have both fully recovered from their injuries. The guard has returned to duty, and the princess will go home with King Asgore within the hour.
"When asked for more information on the assailant, His Majesty declined to give details, stating that the matter was still under investigation. He did say, however, that they have been apprehended, and charges are pending against them. Until then, they have been placed in the maximum security section of the Prison.
"The names of the two monsters dusted by the assailant on the surface have not yet been released. Their families have been notified, but authorities are respecting their wishes and are giving them time to grieve before the names are made public.
"After the headcount King Asgore ordered, it was found that no other monsters were dusted during this incident. However, one rock monster living in the Ruins suffered a minor injury when a piece of their body was chipped off by the assailant outside of a Fight. They were otherwise unharmed, jokingly stating to the press that they, and I quote, 'needed to lose some weight, anyhow.' End quote.
"There will now be two minutes of silence, in honor of the fallen."
The CV set was shut off and the Earl of Sharpe sighed. Even in the temperate comfort of his home office, he could feel a chill running up and down his spine.
*When I said the firebug made things interesting, I wasn't talking about this kind of interesting! he thought to himself. He sighed again, sitting behind his desk and assuming his favorite thinking position; chair tilted back, balanced on its back legs and his tail as he crossed his arms and legs, staring up to the ceiling.
It had been hours since the whole ordeal began, and it was nearly sunset. Dante knew his sister was the princess' physician, but he didn't call to ask how she was doing. Talia could be awful touchy when it came to doctor/patient confidentiality (as she should be.) Still, she wasn't the only person he could get information from.
Pristina visited Papyrus while he was still being treated and got his side of the story while his memory of the event was still fresh. She even got Sans', though she hadn't managed to see the princess before Talia declared her off-limits (to let the poor girl rest, of course). One of the earl's investigators would get statements from them all, soon enough, but being able to get info within an hour of an incident's occurrence was an enormous boon… at least, under normal circumstances.
Papyrus' actions were in accordance with his duties as a royal guard, so he was fine. The princess forming that shield to protect herself and Papyrus was also fine, since self-defense was a no-brainer, legally speaking. The problems started when the princess picked that Fight with her uncle, trapping him in what amounted to a legally-recognized duel.
Being caged like an animal in an over-crowded hole, with barely any hope and no escape within sight didn't really put a monster in a good mood. Sometimes that desperation had to be vented, and a monster just HAD to release their aggression. The "FIGHT" was what allowed that to happen in a relatively safe manner, with heavy emphasis on the word, "relatively."
The turn-taking, the field separating defender and aggressor, and the attack panel allowing the defender's physical attacks to hit their normally out-of-reach opponent were how monsters kept things more-or-less fair. Things could still go wrong, and somebody could still end up dusted, but it was generally agreed that no legal action would be taken against such a victor. Not unless that same person dusted twice more. A "three strikes" rule, one could say. If they went that far, however, they would be apprehended, put to trial, and sentenced.
If the convict wasn't too far gone, they'd be sent to the Prison and would receive mandatory psychiatric counselling. At worst, they'd get a life sentence and would forever remain in a cell. And, if they somehow did even worse than that, they wound up on a once-in-a-lifetime date with The Duke, ending with a kiss goodnight.
So, even if the princess HAD killed her uncle, she would've been covered under the three-strikes rule. The humans on the surface might not see it that way, but the Fight had taken place within the Kingdom of Monsters, so the kingdom's rules were what applied. In fact, Sans had toed the line by doing what he'd done outside of a Fight.
If he'd been able to make a "citizen's arrest," it might not have been so bad, but the High Judge wasn't allowed to do that. Having the power of judge and jury was bad enough without the executioner going around arresting whomever he pleased. Still, Sans hadn't quite broken the law, though it'd been a close thing. If Papyrus hadn't been saved…
Dante shuddered. He and Sans were the same age, and they'd been friends since they were both four years-old. Sans and Papyrus were practically family. Dante could still remember the bittersweet day Papyrus was born… the same day the Gaster brothers lost their mother and Sans became the heir to his grandfather's title. But that never stopped him from loving his brother (no matter how much the big softie tried to deny it.) If Papyrus had died, right in front of him, Sans just might have thrown the book out the window to exact justice on his brother's murderer, right then and there.
Or not. Sans had quite a bit of self-control, more than many gave him credit for. It was hard to say what his friend would've done, but Dante didn't doubt he would've exacted his revenge upon the human, eventually. Sans would've lost his job for it, of course, but he probably wouldn't care very much about that if Papyrus was gone. The man was two, at most three, steps away from falling down as it was…
Dante made a mental note to thank the princess, later. She saved more than just Papyrus' life; she saved Sans', too, no matter how indirectly.
With another sigh, Dante righted his chair. There was work to do, if he was going to help out the firebug. It might not amount to much, but there was a precedent to set. The very first human vs. monster case in hundreds of years…
This was bound to be interesting.
Sans and Alphys sat on the floor of the Lab's records room, surrounded by (and practically buried neck-deep in) old research. As expected, it told them nothing new, and Sans felt like they'd both gone cross-eyed from poring over it all. He had gone cross-eyed, anyway. Judging from the way Alphys kept rubbing her eyes behind her glasses, hers were on their way. Before Sans could suggest giving up Alphys' phone chimed, startling them both. She exclaimed after checking it.
"Oh! Oh, thank god… Frisk is perfectly fine! She's already at home, with Asgore."
"great!" said Sans with a smile. "now, all we need is something to tell the both of them. you know, the something we haven't figured out, yet?"
Alphys glared, just a little. "I know. I was hoping something about all this would jog my memory, o-or we'd find something we skipped over in the past, but…"
Sans sighed heavily. "yeah... i guess i was hopin' for the same thing. too bad." He stared at the documents in his hand for a second, then let himself fall backward, onto a stack of more. It supported him as he made himself comfortable, trying to take a quick nap before talking to Dante. Alphys was used to this behavior, so she wasn't surprised. In fact, she sympathized with her former junior colleague. It had been a long day, for everyone… But just when she thought he was asleep, he asked her a question.
"what d'you think happened to frisk?"
Alphys took her glasses off, cleaning them as she said, "W-well… it's hard to say…"
She could almost hear him rolling his eyes as he said, "just spit it out, al! i'm not gonna think you're stupid. we worked together for too long for me to ever think that. "
Alphys startled a bit. Some of her self-doubts HAD begun to rear their ugly heads, again, making her question whether she was up to this task.
It was almost scary, how perceptive Sans could be. He always had been, since the day they met when he first started working in the Lab as an apprentice. Alphys, herself, had been an assistant at the time. They only got to work together for a few years before the Core Incident ruined everything, yet he'd become a friend.
After the Core Incident, though, he left alchemy to study law. After how he'd been injured and nearly died during the cave-in, Alphys couldn't really blame him for wanting to leave alchemy altogether. He had his younger brother to consider, too. Alchemy research didn't exactly have a nice, defined schedule where you could leave your experiments to see your family.
In Alphys' case, she'd taken a very long sabbatical from alchemy after the Incident. She didn't see very much of Sans during those decades, although they'd still run into each other, every now and then. But after she became the Royal Alchemist and the anomalies started happening, he came back.
Sans just barged right into the Lab, one day, using the old codes for the front door which had never been changed, saying he wanted to look at the globe. She went down there with him, since it'd been a while since she last checked on it, and they found it rippling more than it ever had. That was when they started working together again, trying to figure out what was going on in their copious spare time.
Alphys shook herself, bringing herself back to the present. She thought about his question.
"W-well… to be honest, I don't even want to speculate about what happened, without more data. The most we have is that c-ray image, but that doesn't tell us exactly how much magic is flowing through her body. That requires a tissue sample. From a monster that would mean a clump of fur, a handful of shed scales, a cup of slime…"
Sans sat up, looking toward her as he asked, "what about blood?"
"I… don't know." Alphys started organizing documents, just to give her hands something to do. "We never worked with human tissue, after all. Asgore only let us borrow the souls he had… collected, at the time. The… the rest of them stayed in the castle's basement."
The judge rested his elbow on a stack of old books, resting his chin on his arm as he raised a brow ridge. "remind me, again, why asgore didn't bury those poor kids, sooner?"
It was Alphys' turn to sigh. She straightened her back, and Sans grinned as he recognized her going into lecture mode. "You just read the same research I did. It's because a human's soul does shatter, eventually, if the soul is too far away from the body and they don't become a ghost. The coffins and canisters were magically connected, allowing the souls to persist as souls until the day we had all seven."
"didn't they all disappear afterward?" asked Sans. When she nodded he asked, "where d'you think they went?"
Alphys shrugged. "Who knows? They probably shattered, and who knows where any soul goes when that happens? That's not really an alchemical question."
"yeah… you got a point, there." Sans watched Alphys organize for a second before saying, "but to get back to my original question, blood just might work."
Alphys nodded uncertainly. "It might, but it might not, too. Almost all of our equipment is based around detecting and analyzing magical components of the body. If there's too much physicality it's not going to show up, like how it did with Frisk's crystoray image."
For once, Sans wasn't giving up. "maybe not, but we've gotta start somewhere, al. we need to figure out just how magic frisk is, not just why she became magic, all of a sudden. and we need to figure out if it's truly 'all of a sudden.'" After thinking for a minute, Sans realized something. "hey, if the equipment only detects magic, how'd you find out about determination?"
"Because DT is something like magic. S-sort of, anyway. It operates upon much different principles than what your magic or mine does, so it's almost unrecognizable. But it's still a kind of magic."
Alphys' movements slowed as the memories flooded back. "I think… I think that's why my experiments failed. I was trying to force two disparate types of magic to meld. But since one needs high physicality to wield, I wound up hurting all those people… God, I was so stupid… I just kept injecting and injecting DT, without even speculating about the possible consequences! I should've been more patient. I should've stopped while I was ahead. But no, I had to be the STUPID piece of garbage I am and-!"
Sans interrupted Alphys' tirade against herself, speaking more firmly than he usually did. "you are not garbage, alphys, and you aren't stupid, either. you were just desperate, like a lot of people were, by then. i know, because i'm a member of the king's council, no matter now many of the meetings i try to avoid. everyone was feeling it, back then, and it was showing in the number of people falling down and how crime was on the upswing. i knew how hard you were working to get us out, at least 'til you stopped giving us updates."
He sighed. "i'm sorry… i shoulda checked on ya, sooner. i shoulda dropped by for more than just the anomalies. i just figured that, if it was important, you'd tell the king, and the rest of us. 'til then, everything was on a need-to-know basis, and i didn't feel the need to know."
Sans looked abashed. "i didn't even go down to the lowest levels of the lab. i was just tryin' to stay outta your scales, but maybe if i had…"
Alphys was stunned. "Sans, you have nothing to apologize for! I'm the one that made all those decisions. Of course I have to live with the consequences." She looked away from him, a soft smile tugging on her mouth as she said, "You know, at first I thought it was weird, how a kid like Frisk could be so understanding. But then I learned she knew a thing or two about consequences, herself…"
Clawed hands clenched around old paper, almost tearing it. "That poor girl has already been through so much. I don't want to treat her like another experiment, Sans. She deserves better than that, especially from someone she calls a f-friend. I-I… I c-can't-!" Alphys shut her eyes tight, fighting the tears that burned at the corners of her eyes.
Seeing all that magic in the princess' bones, knowing what high amounts of DT did to magic bodies… She didn't want that for Frisk, not in a million years! Alphys would melt herself with DT before she ever let it happen to Frisk!
Sans moved from his spot, kneeling next to Alphys and placing a hand on her shoulder. "nobody's askin' you to conduct experiments on frisk," he said gently. "we're just helpin' talia figure out what's goin' on inside the kid. some samples to test, maybe a couple more c-rays to see what make her body and soul tick, that's all we'd need."
The skeleton had a thought. "hey, if your equipment still works, this might be a good chance to see if magic and DT can exist in a body, at the same time! but we wouldn't be experimenting on frisk, herself. just on the samples we'd be taking from her with her permission. and her parents', i guess.
"this won't be like last time, al. this time, you'll have me and talia to help you out. we'll keep you on track… but you need to keep us in the loop. no more hiding, even if it seems like we're failing. OK?"
At first, it didn't seem like Alphys heard him. But she eventually took a deep breath, her death grip on the paper easing, before turning her face toward Sans to nod. It was a small one, and it wasn't exactly brimming confidence, but it was better than nothing. The skeleton gave her an encouraging smile.
"chin up, al, there's a mystery afoot!" Sans struggled not to laugh at Alphys' expression as he continued. "of course, that doesn't mean we need to get carpal tunnel-vision. there's no need toe become obsessed with our research. we're not the types to el-bow to pressure from others to produce results. we've got too much backbone! we-!"
"Oh my god, would you just STOP already?!" Even as she exclaimed, and waved the papers in her hand at him, Alphys was laughing.
Her friend, too, was laughing as he dodged her. "you're smiling! i'm countin' it!"
"I don't care! Just… go see Lord Sharpe, already." Even as Sans bid Alphys goodbye and left, she couldn't help but marvel at how some things never changed. It was nice to share a laugh with Sans, again…
It wasn't until later that she realized the sneaky devil left her to clean up the record room, all on her own.
