Xandre
Weapons hidden, Xandre glanced around him warily as he stole up to the Lab. His caution paid off–rounding the corner were a pair of Royal Guards. He darted behind a pile of rocks and watched them pass by.
"Why does she still send us over here?" the bearishly lumbering guard grumbled. "My armor's heavy and we've been walking out here for ages."
"You know why, RG07," the other replied. This one slithered across the ground beside its companion, the many metal segments of its armor clanking together. It slightly hissed its s sounds, and a forked tongue darted out of its mouth every time it spoke. "Humans!"
"Ooooh, I'm totally scared! 08, shield me."
The snake, RG08, hissed with laughter. "You know what I think?" It jerked its scaly green head toward the Lab. "We shouldn't worry. Royal Scientists don't live long enough to get assassinated!"
{Oof. Sounds painfully accurate.}
[Shut up, Chara.]
RG07 snorted. "Nice one, pal. Anyway, you hear about 01 and 02? They're going out now."
"Long time coming, if you ask me. Those two gave each other the goo-goo eyes way too much at training, and they didn't even know it."
"Mm-hm."
The complaining guards lurched out of view. Xandre was just about to leave his hiding place to figure out how to break into the Lab when another figure loped toward the doors.
Xandre did a double take. No way were he and Chara getting this so easy.
{Undyne.}
[With any luck, this'll be two kills for the price of one.]
The blue-skinned Royal Guard Captain was wearing long dark pants and a leather jacket with silvery accents, red hair in its usual high ponytail at the back of her head. With her knuckle, Undyne rapped on one of the enormous metal doors.
"C'mon, you little punk," she yelled, although her tone was teasing. "I know you're in there. Let me in, won't ya?"
There was a muffled squeak from inside the building. "C-coming!"
"Hurry," Undyne replied, smiling mischievously. "I didn't dress up for nothing."
"Y-you dressed up for me!?" Alphys squealed. The doors slid open just then, revealing the Royal Scientist wearing a black-and-white dress. Her whole face, up to the tips of her spines, was flushed pink. "You d-dressed up," she repeated, wide-eyed. "O-oh… my g-god, Undyne, you're g-g-g-gorgeous!"
"As are you," Undyne replied, a blush beginning to spread across her face as well. For a while, the two of them stood in the doorway ogling one another.
"W-well," Alphys stammered, "l-let's g-go inside. I…" she swallowed hard. "Undyne, I h-have something I w-w-want to show you."
They both turned to go into the building, and Xandre crept as close as he possibly could to stay behind them. He hated the fact that there was no cover this close to the smooth metal wall of the Lab. If one of those guards, or anyone at all, showed up right now, he'd be doomed...
"Show me what? Did you get the second episode of that human history show with the angry blond guy?" Undyne gushed.
"U-uh… n-n-not exactly… and Undyne, it's n-not just about the angry blond guy! It's an anime about the t-tyranny of society and, uh, s-s-science experiments g-gone wrong… uh… h-heh…? Uh, I m-mean! All that d-d-deep dark philosophical stuff b-b-b-because who d-doesn't like thinking about that...? B-but, uh, about the h-human history show, it's n-n-not actually…"
"Dang it! I wanted to know who the mean lady with the boobs is!"
"Yeah… the, uh, the mean l-lady with the boobs is g-g-gonna have to w-wait… I'm so s-sorry…"
"Alphys! Don't be sorry! That one's not my absolute favorite, anyway. Plus, I don't mind waiting a bit longer if I get to spend that time with you."
Both Alphys and Undyne stopped in their tracks, and Xandre quickly pulled away from where he had been peering around the doorframe.
"I c-can't believe you said that!" Alphys squealed. "I m-mean! Like! In a g-g-good way! That was n-nice! Like! I've really w-wanted to spend t-t-time with j-just you too! B-b-but not in a c-creepy way! Because. B-because! I! U-um! I r-really like y… I m-mean… uh… oh g-g-god, I mean, like…" Alphys ran out of breath, and she shifted her weight awkwardly.
Undyne had a stupid smile on her face. "Of course, Alphys. So… so do I."
The two were walking farther into the building now, and Xandre had no choice but to dart behind them inside the Lab before Alphys sealed the doors. Heart racing, he ducked behind a giant monitor. The screen was dark.
He was lucky those two were too absorbed in each other to look back.
"Y-yeah… sorry about the m-m-mess… I've been b-busy…"
"Mess? Alph, you think I'd mind the mess? I like it! I think it gives this place some character!"
"Y-y-you… you like it?"
"It's so you, you know! Analytical, passionate!"
"Y-you think I'm analytical and p-p-passionate?"
"Yeah! I love that about you–no matter what it is, you care so much about it! 100 percent, at maximum power!"
"Y-y-y-you l-love that about m-me?!"
Undyne went quiet. "Yeah, I do. I think you're pretty neat, Alphys." She raised her eyebrow at the trash strewn around the Lab. "Neat as in… cool. Likeable neat."
"I think you're r-r-really n-neat too, Undyne! B-but… the thing is…"
"Yeah? Alphys?"
"I l-lied to you," Alphys burst out. "I'm s-so sorry, Undyne. I l-lied."
"Huh? About what?"
"About… everything. Th-those 'human h-history books' are just d-dorky comic books. Those history movies… those are j-just… anime! It's stuff some h-humans made from our tech after it got washed up on the S-s-surface or something. They used it to t-tell stories. It's not real h-history… And th-that time I t-told you I was busy with work on the phone, I was actually just w-w-watching anime in my p-pajamas! And that time I–"
"Hey. Alphys."
"I… I just wanted to i-impress you! Because I like you w-w-way too much! And you're the Captain of the Royal Guard, and m-maybe if I was a real Royal Scientist you'd think I was s-smart and cool… but I'm not. I'm just some d-dorky loser."
"Alphys. You realize most of what you just said doesn't matter to me, right? That's just some nerdy crap! That's not what I love the most about you! I love you for who you are, Alphys, and I don't want you to have to hide yourself from anybody ever again. Especially not me."
"That's n-n-not all, Undyne," Alphys whispered hoarsely. "I've h-h-h-hurt people."
"What?"
"Th-that day in the Garbage Dump," she sputtered. "The day we met. I wasn't looking at the view, you know. I… I w-w-wanted to kill myself."
"Oh my god, Alphys. Why?"
"Look. I w-want to be a better p-person. And to d-d-do that, I need to f-face up to the biggest m-mistake I've ever made in my life."
"Do… do you want to talk about it?"
"I d-don't think it's best if I did that. I think…" Alphys took in a deep breath, steeling herself. "I think it's f-f-finally time I showed you."
The two were heading toward the door marked with a bathroom sign, and Xandre's eyes widened in recognition. He recognized that door, and it most certainly didn't lead to the bathroom. Underneath the Lab was the main space in which Wing had worked, where he had discovered LV, EXP, and Determination. Even in his time, there'd been things to hide down there. Things to leave undiscovered. Alphys, it seemed, had left even more.
"You're taking me… to the bathroom?"
"It's not really a b-b-bathroom," Alphys explained. "It's an elevator."
"Woah, like a secret passageway! That's kind of cool."
"Y-yeah… a secret p-passageway, I guess you could s-say that. But it's not c-c-cool. At all. W-wait. Before we go, I need to g-g-g-get something."
Alphys turned, and Xandre's heart slammed in his chest. She was heading straight toward him. As silently as he could manage, he slid behind a particularly misshapen stack of papers. If Alphys nudged the stack an inch, she would find him there. He gripped the hilt of his knife.
Thankfully, she didn't come to the workstation. She stopped at the enormous bag of dog food–why does she even have that? She doesn't own any pets–and scooped some of it into a smaller plastic bag to carry.
"Dog food? What's that for?"
"Y-you'll have to s-see." Alphys gulped. "But Undyne, p-p-please p-promise me one th-thing."
"What is it, Alphys?"
"Th-that even after you s-s-see what's d-down there, you won't…" the sentence died in her throat, and the rest of it came out as a strangled whimper. "You won't h-h-hate me."
Nyssa
"Adrian! The spider donut!" Nyssa hissed, suddenly remembering.
"Huh?"
"Remember? All the way back in the Ruins, we got a donut from the Spider Bake Sale. Do we still have it?"
Adrian stared at her. "Nyssa, it's been, like, two weeks. Wouldn't it have gone stale by no–"
"I knew it would be useful. Maybe if we show Muffet, she'll let us off the hook. Adrian, where is it?"
He bit his lip. "Well… the thing is… I kind of ate it."
"What?"
"Hmm? Dearies? So you stole something from the bake sale, did you?" Muffet interrupted.
"N-no!" Nyssa cried. "That's not what we meant!"
"Tsk, tsk. Oh, my pet," Muffet called, "it's time to show them what we do with thieves~"
An enormous monster, even larger than Muffet, clambered down from the shadows. Although its body appeared like a huge pink muffin, it had four pairs of legs and a cavernous mouth. It hissed eagerly when it saw the humans, baring its fangs.
"Oh, don't look so blue, dearie," Muffet crooned, summoning Nyssa's mostly indigo soul in front of her. Her five eyes fixated briefly on the monster third before she shifted her focus to Adrian. "Yes, I think purple is a better look on you both~"
Xandre
"I don't think anything could make me hate you, Alphys." Undyne said quietly, placing her hand on the lizard scientist's shoulder.
Alphys squeezed Undyne's hand tightly in her own.
"Th-thank you, Undyne. You d-don't know just how much that m-m-means to me."
She shakily led the Head of the Royal Guard toward the bathroom door, small bag of dog food clutched in her claws.
[We'll go down after them.]
{Xandre, it's an elevator. How will we know which floor they're on?}
[There's just one other level. I remember.]
The two of them disappeared into the room, its door sliding closed behind them, and Xandre waited until he heard the rumble of machinery from within the building before he dared emerge from his hiding space.
{Wait a second. Upper right corner, above the doors. Alphys has a security camera in here.}
Chara was right.
[Don't worry, I'll take care of that.]
He didn't know how to erase the footage it had already captured, but he might as well keep it from recording even more. It would no longer be able to help Alphys by the time she found it. With a few quick hand gestures, he fired Wingdings symbols at the mechanical eye, and its lens shattered.
[Done.]
{Accurate,} Chara commented appraisingly. {You're pretty good at this.}
[Oh, this?] Xandre replied, stifling a grin as he summoned the Wingdings again. Signing nimbly, he weaved streams of symbols into the most complex patterns he could manage.
Chara let out a small laugh, but there was no question she was impressed. {Okay, Xandre, I get it, you're cool. Now let's get down to business, shall we?}
[Yeah, yeah.] Xandre approached the false bathroom door. The elevator had already returned, and he stepped inside. As Xandre had predicted, there was only one functioning button.
The elevator rattled downward through the building, letting out an occasional mechanical groan of agony.
{Is this safe?}
[Safe enough.]
Despite the jarring ride, Xandre made it to the bottom floor unharmed, and he stepped out tentatively. As the elevator doors slid closed, the rectangle of light from the elevator grew thinner and thinner before vanishing entirely.
He had been taken somewhere dark and musty and stifling, the stench of formaldehyde mingling with mildew in the air. Ventilation sighed from deep within the building, not unlike some enormous creature lurking in the shadows. In fact, every shadow seemed to shift in the corner of Xandre's eye, shifting and melting and changing shape of their own accord.
Something about the clammy air, and the unusual motes of dust that drifted past his nose, made goosebumps prickle all across Xandre's skin.
He guessed that these walls had once been white, the floor green tile, but a layer of grime had settled over every surface like some kind of foul blanket. They closed in on him, threatening to smother the breath from his lungs if he let down his guard.
Although this first room was small, a long hallway extended out into blackness at Xandre's left.
{No lights down here?}
Xandre groped the wall for a light switch, cringing when his nails sank into a patch of wallpaper that had become bloated from moisture. He did locate what felt like a switch, but nothing happened when he flicked it.
[Lights've been busted.]
{Just great.}
