Together

by EdgeEmpress

The underground can be a dangerous place for humans, but maybe three friends can survive by relying on each other. [A story featuring characters that represent myself and two of my best friends] [Yes, it's gonna be cheesy] [AU- Underfell]

10. The Lab

They stayed up trying to brainstorm, trying to think of anything that could get them out of this mess. But nothing they thought of worked.

Their chains were too short to really allow them the mobility needed to chip away at their holdings. Renee had the brilliant idea of having Millie try to phase through the shackles like she had with the fireballs during the fight with Toriel. It took them long enough to figure out how the hell to make their souls appear at will. (It turned out that they just needed to make themselves feel threatened, which was beyond easy in the situation they were in). But it seemed like whatever Millie was able to do only worked during fights.

There was also the faint wish as the day went on that Flowey might come to help them, but as time passed that possibility seemed less and less likely.

So, after awhile, they gave up only slightly, hoping that a better opportunity to escape would come up.

And all of them had things that they wanted to discuss with each other. Thinks to yell at each other. Things they wanted to explain. But they knew that the cell wasn't a private space, and the skeletons could show back up at any moment. They had already felt anxious enough when Boss dropped in for a second to glance at them.

So they made small talk. How the hell magic weather worked underground. More stories of how Renee's last year of high school had gone. What color Eliza was going to dye her hair next.

Some of the discussions surrounding the straight-up weirdness of the underground got Renee thinking, mind wandering as the other two discussed something in the background. How did time work down here? How long had they been down here? It was like, one day at Toriel's- sleep for a night (?). And then more time at Toriel's and then meeting Sans and then passing out for maybe a night (?). And then meeting Boss and dealing with that and they'd been hanging out for most of a day (?). And Boss said that they would be going to a lab 'tommorrow'? So they had already been there for like, three days? A little less? Anyway. It was too long.

It got to a point where there wasn't anything to do and nothing that any of them could say and at some point they must have all drifted off via boredom. It wasn't that they noticed falling asleep particularly, they just definitely noticed waking up.

CRASH! The door swung open. "HUMANS! IT IS TIME TO GO. SANS. RELEASE THEM FROM THEIR CHAINS!"

There was no rubbing the sleep out of their eyes or slow half-awake movements, the three of them immediately at full attention. Their eyes traced Sans' movements as he opened the cell door and he and Papyrus walked in. Why did he stop in the middle of the cell? Wasn't he going to undo the chains? What was going on?

With a snap of his fingers their bonds fell loose, and within less of a second they were in a group hug.

"Are you okay, darling?" Eliza pulled the others away from her to look over them both, focusing first on Renee. The youngest was barely able to nod before Eliza turned her attention to Millie, "And you, dear? Sh*t!" She grabbed Millie's hands before she could complain, examining the marks that had formed where the shackles had sat.

Millie tugged her hands away, grabbing Eliza by the shoulders. "They really will be fine. I barely feel it. How about you and that awful bruise on your neck?"

Hand flying up reflexively, Eliza flinched as she touched sensitive skin. "Didn't even notice it."

"ya shouldn't have been pulling. green over there was a good girl, an' cause of that she didn't get all marked up." Sans chuckled as Renee paused midway looking at the bruises on her friends.

"I… wasn't 'good'." she whispered, concern spreading over her face, "Was I? Did I just go along with everything too easily?"

"No, no, no, darling." Eliza assured her, "You did what made sense. Clearly Millie and I getting hurt didn't do any good, now, did it?"

"You leave her alone!" Millie turned angry to the small skeleton.

Sans shrugged. "i was praisin' her, wasn't i?"

There was a heavy pause, the tension in the room thick enough to cut with a knife, before Papyrus decided that he was done with that.

"WELL THEN," Boss gave a sharp nod and folded his hands behind his back, "We must get to the lab at once. Sans, when you are ready."

Sans started at his name, looking confusedly at Boss before realization dawned on him. "ya want me to teleport all of ya? i-i'm not sure-"

"YOU FREQUENTLY BOAST OF YOUR MAGICAL PROWESS AT THAT GREASE PIT GRILLBY'S. I'M SURE YOU ABLE TO TELEPORT THE FIVE OF US TO HOTLAND. OR ARE YOU NOT STRONG ENOUGH? ARE YOU JUST A WEAK MONSTER THAT HIDES BEHIND THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS LIKE MOST OF THE GUARD SAYS?" There was a slight curl of his smile, somewhere between a smirk and sneer.

Gaze hardening, Sans let out a snarl. "they have no idea what they're talkin' about. i could dust all of 'em."

"THEN YOU SHOULD BE MORE THAN CAPABLE OF THIS."

"fine," Sans was clearly stubborn to prove himself, "everyone get over here."

The three girls hesitantly approached, trying to keep some distance between them and the skeleton. He was having none of that.

"come'ere," his arm snapped out much faster than any of the girls would have guessed possible, hand latching to Eliza's wrist and jerking her to his side. "i'm not losin' ya before i get the chance to see ya hurtin'."

Eliza winced. "You're already on the right track. That's my bad wrist, could you not?"

Shoot. She shouldn't have said that. It just popped out because of the habit of reminding her forgetful brother when he would start roughhousing.

"bad wrist? oh, really now?" His eye lights brightened, looking for a reaction as he tightened his grip.

Eliza wouldn't give him the pleasure. She fought mentally against the shooting pains, barely managing to keep a straight face. He watched for a few seconds before realizing that it was a lost cause and turned toward the others with a sigh. (He still didn't loosen his skeletal fingers digging into Eliza's skin, however, much to her dismay.)

"the rest of ya get over here, now. grab a hold of my arm and hang on tight- unless ya particularly want to get lost in the nothin' fallin' through black until the end of time." He gestured toward the arm holding Eliza, and the others obliged, the thought (or threat) of that fate enough to temper their fear for the moment.

Sans then offered his other hand to Papyrus. "let's go then. boss?"

"Quite. We shouldn't waste time." He ignored the outstretched appendage, instead resting his hand on Sans' shoulder. He curled his fingers, and from Sans' startled wince the girls could guess that Papyrus had grabbed his collarbone through his shirt, and that it was less than comfortable.

"alright," his coughed, playing off the pain and dropping the ignored arm, "five to hotland."

They were falling. It was less than a second, but it was filled with the most indescribable terror. It felt like the dark was trying to pull them all apart, and the girls, panicked, dragged themselves closer to the solid center.

And, just like that, it was over.

The ground hit their feet hard, and the disorienting white of their surroundings also threatened their balance. Blinking, they all continued to cling to whoever they had grabbed onto in the void.

"there," the shape next to them rumbled, "the royal scientist's lab."

They realized with mortification as their vision cleared that they all had latched to Sans the best they could.

"look," the skeleton turned toward the mass of humans on his side, "as flattering this is, get off of me."

Snapped out of their shock, the three scrambled away only for Sans to falter almost immediately. As he started to fall he was stopped only by Papyrus' hand, still wrapped around his collarbone.

Sans was exhausted from the trip, they realized, and probably would have fallen over the second they arrived if they hadn't been propping him up.

Papyrus, meanwhile, looked entirely unfazed by the trip through terror itself, still standing tall and proud. With a tug, he kept Sans upright. "Snap out of it, you lazybones. Don't give the scientist another excuse to ask for you as a test subject."

Sans' face flashed with fear for a moment before he settled into a veil of mirth. "i-i'm okay, boss. no bones about it." He laughed before flinching again, "i'm sorry! i know we talked about the jokes. i'm sorry."

Papyrus narrowed his eyes. "Indeed we have. Try to pull yourself together." Finally releasing his hold on Sans, he let out a call into the large, white laboratory they had appeared in. "DOCTOR ALPHYS, WE HAVE ARRIVED."

There was only a brief pause before a squeal echoed to them, followed by the distant sound of something being dropped.

The skeletons looked unperturbed by this, while the three humans shared confused looks.

There was faint shuffling as a spot of yellow made its way out of an adjacent hallway and skittered across the long room. It only stopped once it was in front of them. "Vice Captain P-Papyrus! I must ap-pologize. I didn't think you'd be arriving until much later."

Eliza, Millie, and Renee all looked down at this small yellow dinosaur with nervous hands, and had no idea what to make of her. This was the horrible scientist that they had been warned about? A little lizard who's only 'edgy' gear was crazy spiral goggles, and who spoke with a stutter?

"WELL, THAT DOESN'T MATTER. WE ARE HERE NOW."

"I'm j-just surprised you got here so quickly. Did you-" she stopped and reached a clawed hand toward the girls, mouth agape as she noticed them. "A-are those my t-test subjects? Oh my stars. Three adult humans? The things we c-could learn…"

It wasn't that what she said was particularly menacing, but it was still laced with just enough suggestion to make the girls wary.

"PLEASE REFRAIN FROM GOING OFF ON ONE OF YOUR EXPERIMENTAL RAMPAGES, DOCTOR ALPHYS. JUST DO THE TESTS YOU PROMISED THE KING." Papyrus suddenly pushed the three humans in her direction.

"Yes, s-sir!" she nodded sharply before turning her full attention to the humans.

"H-here," she offered a hand to Renee, who had stumbled and fallen when Papyrus shoved her.

Renee hesitantly accepted, and Alphys helped her up. "Thank you," the youngest human murmured.

Eliza and Mille were concerned for a moment, ready to jump to Renee's aid, before stopping as Alphys just stood there, gently holding their friend's hand.

"If you would p-please follow me," she started walking Renee toward the hall she had come from.

They followed her, everything silent for a moment other than the click of her clawed feet on the tile floor. Then she excitedly started talking a mile a minute.

"So it's r-really great to have you three here. I'm so g-glad that you fell. I m-mean, it's awful for you, but like I said, there is so much we c-could learn from studying adult humans! The other six that fell before you were all k-kids, so there isn't much that we have recorded on full grown humans. Think about it! When we were first t-trapped down here many things were recorded before they c-could be forgotten, but human souls and biology? There isn't much! It wasn't important. B-but I think that it's just fascinating. It's too bad that remembering and recording science was so disregarded. I m-mean, they were focused on just surviving, but that doesn't mean you d-don't let some people die to preserve knowledge, right? Oh! Th-through this door here, now."

She stopped and wandered into a medium sized room, motioning for them to go over to a corner with an examining table, before darting over to another corner to grab some materials.

Millie's eyes were immediately flying around the room, looking for something she could attack the thick scaled doctor with. They were far enough away from the skeletons that maybe they could make some sort of attempted escape if they took out Alphys. There had to be something she could use to knock out the seemingly weaker, albeit slightly unbalanced monster.

There was nothing of use next to them. Alphys was standing directly next to any medical tools that might have been usable. There was a large computer sitting in the room, but not as large as one she had seen in the first part of the lab. The walls were lined with papers covered in nearly indistinct scrawl. Most of it was nonsense she couldn't quite make out about souls, but a page or two seemed to be about a mew-mew something? It didn't matter, Millie shook her head, look for some sort of weapon. What else was there? There was some sort of tube filled with something in the corner next to them. It was filled with something that hard to make out, a form of some sort, and it was turning slightly; maybe she could get a better look-

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, feeling bile start to rise in her throat as she realized what she was looking at.

"What's wrong, Millie?" Renee rushed over, and her gaze followed Millie's shaking pointed arm.

There, in the tube, floated what little remained of a human corpse, if it could still be called that. Both legs were missing, and the torn flesh around the wounds seemed to still be decaying and trying to float away from the body. A large hole was a dark mess in the middle of its chest. The skin of the head was only half there, what looked like burns marking the crisp edges. But even the side of its face that still had skin wasn't unmarked; it matched the other side with an empty socket, blankly looking in their direction.

And Renee too felt sick, not only because of the horror of the gore in front of them, but also because the body was unmistakably a toddler.

Alphys scurried back over to their side of the room, arms filled with a few tools. "I-is something wrong? I heard one of you c-call out."

Millie was frozen for a moment, stuck in her abject horror, before snapping herself out of it with a snarl. "You're disgusting."

"Oh," she slumped, "I d-don't really know what I did to make you f-feel that way. B-but you're free t-to feel that way about me."

"It…" Erika paused, trying to collect herself, "They were a child." She directed Alphys' attention to the body.

Alphys made a small hm, fingers tapping slightly on the items in her hands. "That was one of the humans that fell. I d-didn't manage to take a look at him while he was alive, he managed to get through the underground at a r-rather spectacular rate. It d-didn't matter though. Asgore did a r-real number on him. I w-was lucky that the king let me h-have the body for study."

Eliza shrugged, placing a comforting hand on each of her friend's shoulders. The science major thought that it was terrible, but understood where the doctor was coming from. Plus, standing around and talking about it wasn't going to make anyone feel better. "So what exactly are these tests going to be like, doctor? I won't exactly take kindly to you hurting my friends."

Alphys was glad that Eliza had changed the subject, and gave an excited grin. "The t-tests shouldn't take very long! Most of the processing is done by the computer anyway. I created this great algorithm that can analyze the properties of a soul in just a few minutes…" She rambled a bit more while leading them over to the examination table and had them sit on it.

"Look, that is all very neat," Renee interrupted politely, having only half understood the nerdy dinosaur's scientific ramblings, "but you didn't explain whether they would hurt."

Alphys stopped, and sheepishly looked down at one of the tools in her hand. "W-well. The first part, from what I've seen, can be r-rather painful. B-but it's for the overall good of science! It j-just hurts forcing a human's soul to form outside of their body without there being a fight, but this is the only m-method I've found so far."

She suddenly pressed a button on the underside of the table, and to the girls' terror, they found they couldn't move from where they were sitting.

"So p-please just sit still. It'll be over in a moment." Alphys raised an odd-looking device, pointing it at the middle of Millie's chest.

"Wait!" Eliza yelled, leaning the best she could to block the device. "You don't need to use that."

Alphys paused, lowering the device only slightly. "Y-you're the yellow soul they warned me about, aren't you? L-look, I'm sorry. I d-don't want to hurt your friends, but I h-have to for the testing."

Eliza didn't move, still sitting at the awkward slant. "No, I mean you don't have to use that thing. I'm going to be a scientist, I get that you just want to complete your experiments. But I also know that you'd like to do them with the least amount of outside variables, like the pain of using that thing." Eliza nodded at it. "We know how to make our souls form without there being a fight. No need for that."

Alphys dropped the tool, delight lighting up her face. "Y-you do! How? Th-that's fascinating, show me!"

Eliza sighed, sat back up, and used the method they discovered before to let her soul form above her head.

"Incredible! A-and you two can do it too?"

Renee and Millie followed suit.

"That's g-great! It c-cuts the time of the experiment and potential problems by more than half!" She used the other tool in her hand to scan their souls before they could object, and ran over to plug data into the computer.

She was back over to them holding a pad and pen before they could say anything. "N-now. Tell me how you did that. D-don't hold back on any details!"

They explained the simple process for a bit, Alphys asking each of them their personal opinion on it, before they heard an ugly noise from the computer. A hole in the side started to spit out a long sheet of paper covered in numbers.

Alphys made a squeak and dropped everything immediately to go check it, ripping off the paper and running back over to them. "Y-you probably have an interest in this too, right?"

That paper potentially had their death sentence on it. But, yes, it would be cool to potentially hear what it had to say. They all made sounds of agreement.

Alphys buried her head in the writing. "All of you are relatively high in your main attributes. But, actually, perseverance is a major trait in all of you as well. It's almost equal to all of your main traits."

She stopped looking at the page, going off on a tangent. "You know, that s-specimen there was a perseverance soul." She gestured toward the floating body. "I speculate that it's part of the r-reason he made it through the Underground so fast. His soul allowed him to take health from the monsters that fought him. It c-could have been really bad for the Sans if you three had been perseverance instead." She gave small off-balance laugh before going back to the paper.

"But as for y-your determination levels," she searched the page, becoming crestfallen as she found the numbers, "You three have the lowest levels of determination I have ever seen. There's no way we c-could use it to make an artificial soul." The paper crinkled in her grip. "I h-have to go report this to Papyrus. Let's go back to the main l-lab."

She pressed the button under the table again, releasing them from the strange magic. "Off y-you go." She had them walk through the door back toward the lab first. Maybe she had noticed Millie eyeing some of the knives. Either way, there was no way they could grab anything.

Sans and Papyrus stood immediately as they saw her coming.

"DOCTOR," Papyrus greeted. "SO, WHAT DID THE RESULTS SAY?"

Alphys shook her head, turning the page to show him, "I went through the normal process, but according to the r-results, I j-just don't think we can-"

The lab door suddenly opened, and a vibrant figure stepped through. Bright blue skin and red hair stood out against the (irrationally) tight black armor that showed off the muscles underneath. Her dangerous appearance was only furthered by a black eye patch resting over one eye. There probably would have been a moment to appreciate just the power of this figure, if she hadn't immediately interrupted in a voice almost as loud as Papyrus.

"Alphys! The king sent me to check how everything was going." She strode in, stopping in front of them with her hands folded behind her back.

"CAPTAIN UNDYNE!" Papyrus stood at some kind of attention before the fish-lady nodded at him.

"Uh… uh... U-undyne. I was j-just starting to g-give my r-results to Papyrus. F-from what I-I'm s-seeing…"

"Well, Doctor? Will we finally be able to escape, finally face the cowardly humans that trapped us here?" Undyne's stance was calm, but her eye glowed with passion.

"Y-you see, t-that's what I-I was t-trying to tell…"

"It was terrible to hear that none of the humans had the correct soul, but then King Asgore said you had an idea, and I just knew that everything would turn out right." The girls couldn't tell whether Undyne really noticed she was interrupting Alphys or not.

"B-but the t-thing is…"

"That's why we have such an excellent royal scientist-"

"T-THEY D-DON'T HAVE ENOUGH D-DETERMINATION!" Alphys exploded, before hiding bright pink behind the paper.

As everyone stayed quiet, she started to speak softly again. "I-In order for the artificial soul to be stable enough, I-I would need enough d-determination to make it almost one-hundred percent d-determination. P-put together, these three wouldn't be able to g-give me even thirty percent. T-they're useless."

"so no gettin' past the barrier, huh?" Sans shuffled his feet.

"NOT AT THIS POINT, SANS." Papyrus crossed his arms, a scowl on his face.

Undyne took a deep breath. "We can't help it when useless humans fall. It isn't your fault, doctor."

The entire group of monsters looked heartbroken. Renee almost felt sorry. Eliza wondered if the monsters had been violent when they were trapped Underground, or if they were more like what she saw in that moment. Millie saw an opportunity to try and escape.

The monsters' attention were on each other, and Millie grabbed her friends' hands and started to inch her way toward the door, the others understanding and following.

"SO AT THIS POINT WE HAVE TO ASK, WHAT DO WE DO WITH USELESS HUMANS?"

"Asgore said they should be put into the care of monsters that can keep them captive, and preferably," Undyne had a cold laugh, "to some sort of use."

"I-I would appreciate b-being able to keep at least one of t-them for study." Alphys piped up.

Undyne nodded. "The green shouldn't cause you that much trouble and the lab is secure. I can take the other two then. Their soul types have proven to be tough. They would probably work better for training than that worthless dummy."

"IF I MAY, UNDYNE, I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST THAT MY BROTHER AND I KEEP THE YELLOW SOUL. SHE HAS MADE HERSELF A NUISANCE IN PARTICULAR, AND I FEEL WOULD WORK WELL AS A TEST SUBJECT FOR TORTURE METHODS." Papyrus interjected.

"Quite twisted, Vice Captain. But I will allow it. So I guess that is how it will be." Undyne kept a precision about her. Her stance sharp.

There was a moment of silence before that broke.

"So that's really it? That's all we can do? Split up the humans like some prizes amongst us and move on? Just go back to waiting?" Undyne looked physically disgusted.

"Y-yes, unfortunately. Like I said, there just isn't enough determination here." Alphys cast her head down, ashamed. "But!" she popped back up, "Keep them alive! Even if a human with determination doesn't fall, we might eventually gather enough humans to make the false soul!"

The three friends were almost to the door, and it seemed like the monsters' conversation was coming to a close. Screw stealth, they had to move. Millie made the final dash toward the exit, dragging the others with her. They were almost there, about to slam through the door, until a familiar red stopped them in their tracks.

"where didja think ya were going?" a sharp tug dragged them back into the center of the lab, half throwing them against the wall and some machinery.

"Be c-careful with my experiements!" Alphys huffed.

"Yeah, watch it, skeleboy!" Undyne echoed the small lizard.

Sans rolled his eyes, and repeated his question, "so, where?"

"Away?" Millie stared at him like he was an idiot. "I think it was away. Away sounds good, right guys?"

Eliza and Renee made humming noises of agreement.

"Look, I think the worms make a good point. It's time to leave. Sans, release them." Undyne directed the smaller skeleton, and waited a moment before he dropped them from where they had been stuck to the wall. "Orangey, you're coming with me."

Millie responded to the nickname by sticking out her tongue and backing further against the wall.

"that'd be our cue to take ya away too, yellow." Sans motioned for Eliza to walk over to him and Papyrus.

"INDEED. I MUST BE GETTING BACK TO MY OTHER GUARD DUTIES."

"How about no?" Eliza joined Millie with her back to the wall. "That's a laugh if you think we're going to let you separate us."

"the laugh is you thinking ya have a choice."

Glancing around, Millie looked for something- anything. She finally noticed a lone pipe sitting next to an unfinished machine. With a lunge, it was in her hands and she was at ready to attack. "There are always options."

The atmosphere instantly changed, and Sans started to chuckle, starting to raise his glowing hand again. "really, kid? heh heh he-"

"Outta the way, runt!" Undyne shoved the sinister skeleton roughly aside, squaring up to Millie.

"what do you think you're-" he let out a growl.

"Shut it, Sans. They want a fight, I'm the one to give it to them!"

Three souls appeared above their heads, and Millie charged Undyne with the pipe.

A magical glowing spear appearing in each of Undyne's hands, and she immediately threw both at Millie.

Renee started to let a shield form in front of her running friend, but Undyne had thrown two spears right after at Eliza as well. The green shield jumped without her thinking, blocking only the second spear as it reached Eliza.

The first half of the attack had phased through Millie, and she ignored the spear that grazed her side as she hit Undyne with all her might.

"Eliza, Millie! Are you okay?" Renee asked her two friends, allowing her shield to form around Millie as she retreated slightly back toward the wall.

"I'm fine," Eliza disregarded the gash on her leg. She had managed to dodge the attack fairly well.

"Never better," Millie breathed, pressing a hand against the wound in her side.

Undyne let out a laugh as she threw another bout of spears, the three humans scrambling to dodge them the best they could. Meanwhile, Renee's shield moved back and forth between her two friends, blocking a few spears here and there.

"Don't you see? I've fought your kind before. I know what your souls do, and I know how to make their powers useless!" Another chain of spears thrown at just Eliza and Millie.

Millie made another charge, letting the first spear phase through her and dodging the others the best she could, landing another blow on Undyne.

Eliza managed to find a large scapel on a nearby table, and made a move to attack as well, only for Undyne to side-step her when she got close.

Renee had stopped moving altogether, trying to focus on where her shield should be at which time. Undyne wasn't throwing any spears at her?

"Precious green can't decide which friend to protect, meaning that neither of them are free of damage," Undyne sidestepped Eliza again, the knife only grazing her, "And yellow has no extreme damage because I'm playing fair. It isn't like I'm attacking the defenseless green."

Undyne stabbed at Millie as she came close, managing to hit her shoulder. "And any series of attacks is enough to damage an orange soul."

The lab was beginning to look like a warzone, glowing spears sticking out of the wall behind them.

Eliza and Millie's souls were starting to dim from taking all of the little attacks, and they pulled back toward Renee, standing in front of her.

Renee rested the shield in front of Millie, who had been taking the brunt of the attacks, and was pleased to find that as long as they stood together the shield covered most of them.

"Undyne is barely showing any damage," Renee whispered to her friends.

The fish monster stood still and smiling, waiting for them to make their next move.

"No," Millie panted, "She's hurting more than she's showing. Look in her eye."

"I'm not sure. Her strategy has proven rather effective so far. I'm not sure how much longer we can last." Eliza could see the slight pain Undyne was trying to hide, but she felt that it was nowhere near where she and Millie were.

"We still have to try. Renee, can you cover me as I go in for another attack? I'm gonna try and smash that stupid smug look in." Millie tightened her grip on the pipe.

"Of course she can. I'll just dodge anything Undyne sends my way. Go get her." Eliza took a step back.

Millie started to dash toward the enemy, shield strong in front of her, while Undyne summoned a spear. Eliza readied herself to dodge, only to watch as the spear turned in its path, hitting Millie in the back.

It was the last blow. Millie collapsed unconscious, her faint soul fading out of view.

Eliza and Renee couldn't believe it, Renee letting out a small gasp, and Eliza chucking her scapel at Undyne, who just laughed and dodged.

"How dare you hurt my friend. Is it that much to ask to stay together? You- you-" Eliza let out a yell as she pulled a glowing spear out of the wall and chucked it at Undyne.

Undyne stood her ground, laughing, fully intending to take the full damage. "You can't kill me, yellow! I can handle your attack." she shouted in response as the spear flew.

"N-no!" a different voice interjected into the fight, and out of nowhere a metal barricade flew up and stopped the spear in its tracks.

The pace of the battle was broken, and the monsters on the outside were remembered.

Eliza let out a growl, while Alphys sputtered at the still grinning Undyne. "J-just finish this already. It's stupid to l-let yourself get hurt. And even though you told off Sans earlier, you're destroying my lab!"

Giving a sigh that suggested that she was sorry the fight was ending, Undyne looked at the two girls still standing. "Are you ready to give up yet? We'd all like to leave."

"I won't let you take her willingly. I won't let anyone take either of them away from me," Eliza had grabbed Millie's unconscious form, pulling it back closer to Renee and her. Renee's shield glowed around Eliza, and as she stood in front of the others, she blocked any attacks from the front.

"Fine then." She gave a disappointed look to Alphys. "No more spears in the lab?"

"No m-more spears in the lab. A-and I'm not using the lab's defense protocol again if you put yourself in d-danger." Alphys crossed her arms.

"Ugh. Sans. Knock out the yellow. I won't get past green's shield quick enough for the Doctor's liking." Undyne reluctantly ordered the small skeleton, and with a wave of her hand the spears around the lab disappeared.

He looked unbelievably smug as he walked back toward the fight. "oh, now ya ask for my help. ya know, this would've been done and over with if ya had just let me-"

"Shut up, runt. I wanted to train some against multiple humans. Now do as I ordered," Undyne snapped.

Eliza was paused in front of Renee and Millie, trying to think of something to do. She wasn't near any weapons. If she moved to get anything and attack Sans or Undyne, the shield would move with her and leave her friends open to attack. Gods damn it. Why couldn't Renee just put the shield around herself? Then she wouldn't have to worry about her.

She took a breath. If she didn't move, she was going to get injured and leave Renee by herself in this fight anyway. It was better to try something now than to stay still.

"Hey Sans!" she called as he started to lift his arm.

"what is it now, huh? what're ya on about?" he stopped momentarily, humoring her.

"Why're you even listening to these guys? They clearly don't respect your power at all." Eliza casually stepped to the closest table, messing with some of the objects sitting on it.

"why do ya always try stunts like this? ya think you're so smart, but you're just postponin' the inevitable."

"STOP PLAYING WITH THE HUMAN AND FOLLOW YOUR ORDERS, SANS," Papyrus interjected, growing bored of everyone's nonsense.

"I don't know, maybe I am." Eliza stepped back to Renee, pulling her into a tight hug. "It'll be okay, darling." She told her loudly, before disguising a barely audible whisper as a kiss on her cheek. Eliza relaxed when Renee gave a murmur of acknowledgement.

Then, she swiftly turned around, making a mad dash at the two monsters, armed with a syringe in hand.

In less than a second she was slammed against the table, out cold immediately.

Alphys cried out as materials slid off of the surface, smashing on the ground. "M-must you k-keep destroying my work?!"

"sorry, doc. i'll be less destructive when i knock out green." Sans lifted his hand, and Renee felt the heavy weight of the red magic on her soul.

"N-no! That will d-damage my test subject. She won't be an issue. You all j-just leave. I have to start c-cleaning up this disaster." She seemed tired.

Sans shrugged. "that's alright by me. i've got what i wanted." Renee felt the magic loosen on her soul, and watched as instead he used it to float Eliza over to himself and Papyrus. "let's go, boss."

"Don't take her!" Renee strengthened the shield around Eliza, but it seemed to do no good against Sans' strange gravity powers.

She was so focused on the leaving skeletons that she didn't even register Undyne until she was pulling Millie away. "Don't take them!" Renee tried to hold onto Millie, but her strength was nothing compared to Undyne. Millie quickly left her grip and was thrown over the fish woman's shoulder.

"I'm heading out too. Hope clean-up isn't too bad, Alphys." She joined Sans and Papyrus in their walk toward the door.

Renee looked around for something she could do, chasing them, pulling at them, trying to stop them somehow, some way. When that didn't faze them, she took to grabbing things that she found on the ground along the way and throwing them at the captors.

"look," an irritated sans grumbled as he blocked another flying book, "your friends here are at such a low hp that if ya accidentally hit them instead of one of us, ya could really hurt them. so why don't ya just stop. ya lost."

Renee froze with another object in hand, unsure whether he was lying or not. It wasn't worth the risk. She dropped it and watched helplessly as they continued forward.

They were at the door. They were leaving, moving away from her. First Papyrus and Sans with Eliza, then Undyne with Millie. She could see them getting smaller.

And, in a pure moment of fear and irrationality, she started to run after them, "No." she whispered to herself, reaching after her friends, "You can't. You can't do this to us. We have to stay-"

The door out of the lab shut in her face with a clang.

A/N: Hello, darlings. I am alive. I wasn't kidding when I said my update schedule was horrible. My stories aren't abandoned, my energy is just sporadic. So please enjoy, and I'll try to update faster than a few months this time. (Sorry)