Ahhhh for those of you who have been following the story since square one, thank you guys so much for reading it! I'm honored that you like it so much! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I've been quite bust all this week .u. Also I felt the need to point out that I've been getting a few reviews that don't make much sense or seem kind of... pushy...? I don't know how I'd describe it. But anyway, if your review is kind of "out there" then I'm not going to include it. Like, don't question every detail I write about okay? Just enjoy the story, that's what it's here for. Now if I make a teensy mistake in one chapter that contradicts what I wrote in a previous chapter, then please politely tell me and I'll fix it :3 I'm just a human being, I don't remember every little detail I write about.
As for every chapter title being a number, I just like to keep a common theme with my chapters. and I kind of thought using numbers would be somewhat unique. So without further ado, here is chapter 10!
Sans woke up to silence. Flowey was gone again, probably doing something mischievous elsewhere. But who was Sans to babysit him every second of the day? He couldn't expect the tiny plant to sit there watching him. Sans could just picture the annoyed boredom on his face if he would have been forced to stay rooted to the spot for several hours while Sans rested.
Almost completely rejuvenated, Sans got to his feet, stretching and smoothing out the creases in his jacket. Sticking his hands in his pockets his typical way, he strolled leisurely to the door and creaked it open to take a peek out into the hallway. It was just as empty and drab looking as when he first arrived. Yawning, the grin plastered to his face faltering a little, he suddenly became interested in whatever food Alphys had sought to bring him. He silently wished she had some stray ketchup sitting in her fridge. A tiny voice inside his skull sighed, wishing he could be this relaxed about life again all the time: wondering when his next meal smothered in condiments at Grillby's was or having trouble choosing the appropriate and most comfortable place to take a nap. That had basically been what his day had consisted of back in the desirable timeline.
Sans took the elevator up to the top floor where he'd entered from, and first decided to root through the fridge. His patience was rewarded when he found a half full plastic bottle on a shelf located on the door. Looking up from his precious find, he discovered that the whole place was more dimly lit than usual. This struck him as a tad bit odd, but this factor didn't stop him from calling out Alphys' name after he pocketed the ketchup and shut the fridge door. He craned his head to a shuffling sound upstairs, and proceeded to the escalator to try and find Alphys. Upon reaching the dimly lit upper floor, he passed a row of bookshelves, lightly swiping his phalanges along their spines. Even at such a faint gesture, dust kicked up from the barely touched books making him cough. Sans finally stopped his coughing fit after a few seconds and blinked at steam rising from a plastic cup perched on a table littered with blueprints. He couldn't help but curiously inspect it.
The top of the cup was sealed with shiny packaging that had a bunch of punctured holes in it to let the steam out and it read in bold letters "Instant Noodles". Underneath the English spelling was a Japanese spelling of the food, and different anime style symbols were littered all over the sides of the cup including a weird looking interpretation of a human girl with cat ears. Sans didn't think twice about claiming the meal after his nonexistent stomach demanded it with a growl. Maybe the notion of the already obtained ketchup wasn't enough for it.
He hungrily clutched the cup of noodles getting ready to tear the plastic film off the top when he paused. A funky noise had drifted over to him from the far side of the room, the sounds louder than the constant drip-drip of the hose machine situated next to the cluttered table.
"alphys? that you buddo? i'm gonna get goin' soon, if that's okay with you-"
"That's not Alphys!"
Sans quickly raised his guard when Flowey's voice echoed off the walls, inlaid with panic. In a flash, the cup of instant noodles was substituted for the knife in the pocket of his fluffy coat, right next to the ketchup. Weird, he couldn't see Flowey but definitely heard him. As if the creature that wasn't Alphys sensed Sans had drawn a knife, it clawed its way forward, limping and dragging its lumbering body across the floor with every step.
It was a Vulkin. And an ugly one at that. Much bigger than an average Vulkin, it had four muscular legs all ending with horrendous looking claws that could probably slice through steel with ease. One of its back legs was limping badly due to a thick stray wire coiled tightly around it, oozing more black goop than the rest of it like makeshift blood. Small but noticeable spikes poked out of the sides of its volcano-like body, some ending in corkscrew points. Its face, with a gaping maw dripping slime, looked almost pained and sad. It released a gutteral cry from deep within its throat that jostled the second floor, causing Sans to clap his hands to his skull to control an oncoming migraine.
Where had it come from? How did it get in? Flustered questions whirled around Sans' head in a desperate attempt to solve how it got past Alphys, especially something this gigantic. He backed up a few steps, gritting his teeth and once again forcing his smile instead of letting it come easily. He brandished his knife at the foul creature, but that action only made it go into the defensive. It leapt at full speed in a wild charge. Its injured leg gave it no disadvantage, that was for sure. Sans had to duck and roll like a helpless sack of potatoes in order to avoid getting squished into a bony pancake. Vulkin did havea few feet on him, and that wasn't exactly something to genuinely smile about, in Sans' case.
While Vulkin slowly dislodged itself from the wall it had plowed into, acting like a confused triceratops, Sans slid down the railing of the escalator back to the bottom floor where the elevator door to lower floors opened and there stood Alphys, her facial features depicting a tornado of panic and sweatiness.
Chest heaving, trying not to hyperventilate, she bit her bottom lip. She seemed to know exactly what was going on when her flustered eyes locked with Sans' sockets. "I… it came from the ceiling…!"
Sans instinctively looked up. A ceiling tile, some patches of it soaked in black sludge, was loose in the ceiling creating a hole to the pipework above and most likely the roof. Well done, Alphys. She really knew how to make a building monster proof, now didn't she? He had to give her some credit at least. How did a lumbering creature with a brain the size of a peanut even work its way to the roof in the first place?
Sans' oncoming anger blew out of him however when he almost got smashed into again by the charging Vulkin. Apparently, it had either rolled stupidly or jumped from the top floor, but either way was too heavy because it crash landed on its side down onto the first level, smashing the tiles underneath it to bits and making Sans and Alphys jump into the air as a result of the mini earthquake.
Good thing this Vulkin was a slow creature that didn't figure things out too fast, because it couldn't get up. Its legs just floundered about trying to reach a foothold. This made for the perfect time for Sans to sprint over and grab Alphys' arm in a near death grip in an effort to get her out of this mess. "come on, alphys. it's been fun playing tag with a killer death machine, but we gotta go."
To Sans' utter shock and bewilderment, Alphys stood her ground and yanked her arm away from him with more force than the awkward and jittery Alphys Sans had always known. Some unseen light glistened in her eyes like fire as she heartily stared at Sans. "No. You go, you need to get to the Core. I'll just weigh you down. Listen, it may be near impossible, but I know you can beat that human. You of all monsters can find a way. It's a sacrifice that must be made, or Vulkin will call more of those things and give you more trouble than you need. I can distract it for you long enough so you can escape."
"alphys-!"
But she was already scurrying over to the opposite side of the lab to the front entrance where Sans had first arrived through, waving her arms like a hooligan to get the Vulkin's attention. She looked ridiculous, but now wasn't the time, he knew. She was right, as unfortunately she would be of no use to Sans if he really was to make it to Chara. He didn't want them to, but his legs locked up powerlessly, like part of him wanted to stay and really fight alongside Alphys. But if he did, he'd be wasting more precious time in getting to his destination and he'd be risking getting killed himself. In every aspect, it was better this way. Damn it, why did his mind have to rationalize things so well?
While the recovered Vulkin now on its feet had Alphys cornered against the wall scraping its claws along the floor to charge and ultimately end her, Flowey was suddenly there next to Sans like he'd been there the whole time and Sans just didn't notice. Thankfully, his yelling snapped Sans out of the trance that was his frightened inner turmoil.
"Come on, bone bag, let's move it! Before that thing comes after us next! I don't fancy being a golden flower salad for a blundering minion of Chara's, thanks!" the tiny plant barked. Sans focused back on reality and rushed in the opposite way, out towards the back entrance of the lab. This was the pathway that led to the rest of the lava filled world known as Hotland. Sans flinched as the sound of the Vulkin colliding with the wall was too loud to ignore.
When outside the lab, Sans scrambled to slide the door shut, and involuntarily fell against it. His knee caps felt like jello, but most terrible of all, he'd just let a friend fall to Chara's clutches. It was brave of Alphys to have a change of heart and to sacrifice herself in order for him to escape unscathed, but he should've at least tried something to rescue her. That would've been more hero-like, right? Although, it was partly because of Flowey's urging that he'd decided to flee. As much as he really wanted to turn back time, he couldn't save Alphys now. And getting dreadfully pissed at a flower wouldn't help his case much either. All that was left for them now was to press on, and unfortunately they'd have to do it the only route possible at this time: traverse Hotland the old fashioned way like Frisk first did.
Silently sitting there though made Sans think about the real reason Alphys did such a thing- she wanted to redeem herself for the "sins" she'd committed. He understood how hard it must've been to keep those… amalgamates were they?… trapped in the depths of her lab without allowing the melded forms to see their families. Sans would never forgive himself either. But she had succeeded in her attempts at redemption, at least in his opinion. She fought valiantly for a good cause and even gave herself up to do so, putting her world and her close friends above herself.
While Sans sat there with clouded eye sockets lost in thought, Flowey growled beside him, his petals bristling. "What do you think you're doing just sitting there and feeling woe for yourself? You know you couldn't have stopped her. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was damn determined, if that makes you feel any better." While it was true that he was trying to give Sans a semi pep talk, his tone was not at all reassuring or friendly. "Come on, move it! We're losing time, idiot!"
Sans thought Flowey was rather lucky, because if he had any emotional energy left, the scrawny plant would've been tossed into a lava pool by now. But instead he stood up and just walked without a word.
The fast paced trek through Hotland was traveled in silence from that moment on, Sans taking the lead and Flowey following closely behind. He was very fidgety, but that was only to be expected from such a hot, burning place. It was kind of funny though whenever he jumped in paranoia at exploding magma spouts bubbling up from beside the path like he was worried the heat would burn his petals right off. Not that Sans would object.
When Sans' mind wasn't wallowing in the fact that he couldn't save Alphys and the dreadful thought of challenging Chara, he had a bit of time to appreciate his surroundings. He'd always secretly thought of the Hotland as beautiful, with the gears turning in unison along the glowing walls and the molten lava rippling below with the fiery colors melting and mixing into each other. Now it looked kind of dull with the gray hues instead of popping color, but the skeleton recalled what it had looked like before this whole mess. Too bad Flowey was too much of a soulless little runt to appreciate it too, but that was his loss.
After trying not to fall over on bunches of speeding conveyor belts and solving numerous puzzles, Flowey finally spoke. "Why would you do that?"
He had a disgusted sneer across his face as he paused to watch Sans open the cup of instant noodles and glob mountains of ketchup on top. Sans blinked at his sour companion and shrugged pretending to be oblivious. "do what?"
Flowey went as far as scrunching up his face and sticking out his tongue to properly show high levels of loathing. He actually looked kind of adorable when he wasn't trying to kill somebody. Of course, if anyone told him that, he'd most likely snap their neck in a heartbeat.
"That! Having that much… red stuff… on a particular food is utterly repulsive. No wonder your're such a distasteful bone bag. Everything you do is weird and gross."
Sans purposefully stumbled aiming to "accidentally" step on Flowey, but the flower was fast, and resurfaced farther away with a furious facial expression. Before he could reprimand the skeleton with a colorful array of choice words, Sans shrugged biting back laughter and casually said, "whoops, i must've slipped. sorry 'bout that."
"The only thing keeping me from tearing you apart right now is the fact that I need you to help me defeat Chara. Otherwise, I'd have tortured you something fierce a long time ago!" Flowey replied with a bitter tone. All Sans could do was mockingly laugh and keep walking.
When the two reached the elevator, Sans stepped inside and attempted to press the button that would take them to the right side of the third floor that would empty them out near the MTT Resort. But regardless of pressing the button multiple times, the elevator remained unmoving.
Sans' heart sunk. "don't tell me it's out of order…"
"What?!" Flowey bellowed, his rage shooting through the roof. "What the heck are we supposed to do now without a working elevator?!"
"calm down, maybe the other ones work." Sans tried the button labeled L3, and the mechanisms whirred to life and began to move the elevator to the far side of the third floor.
"Great… Just great… Now it'll take us even longer to get there!"
Sans gave his travel buddy a stern glare. The stupid weed never stopped complaining did he? Figures, his life was probably handed to him with a silver spoon.
The doors finally cranked open on the left end of the third floor, giving way to a sales counter not too far off and cobwebs strung across the walls and floors like a spider den. Getting out and glancing up at the ceiling, Sans approached the counter eying the giant, perfectly crafted spider web looming above him with an impressive circumference. The light was kind of dim, so he couldn't even see the web in its place gave him unsettling vibes, and that was a fact.
He swiped his hand along the counter and took a peek behind it to a welcome sight. There were bunches of boxes stacked on top of each other full of jugs of delicious, sweet cider. Sans opened the other boxes and beamed at the health items galore. Spider donuts in neat arrays in every box by the dozen! The generous stash of health items would be a great energy giver before the battle with Chara. Sans might have only had one HP, but the donuts weren't just useful for restoring health. Monster goods also had a reputation for motivating one's mindset and giving bursts of energy and speed.
Sans quickly found a pile of napkins and raced to bundle up the gooey treats and shove them in his pockets for later. While he had almost snagged a whole box worth of stuff in his pockets, he suddenly found himself bound with vines from behind, constricting his limbs and wrapping around his face to keep him shut up. He was so tightened up by the army of vines around him that it worked like a makeshift cocoon and prevented any sort of movement.
This was Flowey's doing, no doubt. That weed! He'd betrayed Sans when his guard was down and now he was going to take care of Sans himself much to Chara's glee. He expected something like this, betrayal so Chara wouldn't have to get their hands dirty. Furious anger boiled deep in the skeleton and he seriously considered summoning sharp bone attacks to cut the vines loose when Flowey popped up beside his skull. His face was not one of revenge and excitement for catching the enemy off guard, but one that read "keep quiet or we're dead."
Flowey's vines slackened and released Sans, but immediately after pointed silently upwards to the web. Sans' skull whirled up, wanting a pretty damn good reason as to why Flowey would assault him like this, otherwise the little plant really would get tossed into a magma pool.
…Aaaaaand there it was. Flowey had wanted Sans to be quiet so as not to wake the spider-cupcake hybrid napping peacefully in the center of the web above them.