I haven't been feeling great lately and life's been busy. After a long wait, here is the next chapter, which takes place in the past.
"Aw, man! I love Alphys's lab. Plus, she's the last one to say goodbye to before we go home!" Ethan pumped his fist into the air. His eyes glittered with excitement at the thought of seeing the sun again. Harmony agreed, nodding her head in agreement. Tessa sighed to herself, biting her lip.
"Agreed." Ivan smiled as he knocked on the door. He waited for a reply, but nothing...
"Maybe she's out?" Emily suggested, trying to make an explanation they could simply settle on.
"Hey, the door's unlocked." Aiden noticed when twisting the knob. He pushed into the door, which seemed a little bit stuck, but it opened with only a bit of strain.
"Oh, come on, you don't just open a person's door-" Harmony began to complain before looking inside. All the lights were on, but the room was silent. Papers were still scrawled out across the whole lab. On her desk, on the floor... it seemed like it would've been unusual to leave your house like such.
"Unless... she wants us to be here?" Ivan rose an eyebrow, murmuring his own theory.
"You're delusional, Iv." Aiden sighed, he stepped in further, even stepping on a note labeled to them.
"Hey, wait, maybe she did want us to." Aiden agreed, "Guys, get a look at this."
"It's illegible." Tessa sighed.
"If it's illegible, I can read it. Give me that." Ethan declared before snatching the note from Aiden, who just said "okay."
"Hey. Thanks for your help back there. You guys and your support- it really means a lot to me. As difficult as it is to say this, the seven of you can't magically make all my problems go away. I want to be a better person. I don't want to be afraid anymore. And for that to happen, I must face my own mistakes. I'm going to start doing that now. I want to be clear... this isn't anyone else's problem but mine. But if you don't hear from me ever again... if you want to know 'the truth'... enter the bathroom door." Ethan read, flipping the note to see if there was writing on the back. He supposed that was all there was that she had to say.
"She could be in serious danger..." Emily murmured, looking towards the door, "I want to help her. Please...?"
"'Course we will," Aiden responded, "Why wouldn't we?"
"I dunno... you tend to be very... opinionated on things."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing! Erm... Nevermind."
"Let's just go and end this very awkward interaction," Ethan suggested, entering the elevator with Harmony behind him. The others entered as well and Frisk stood in the middle of the elevator.
The doors closed and the lights flickered off; all of a sudden, they began to drop.
Everyone shot into panic, whether it be screaming or crying hysterically.
"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Emily screamed. Ethan and Harmony held onto each other. Aiden laid on the floor and spread himself out. Ivan, although he hated falling whilst in an elevator, deadpanned, "What are you doing?"
"Those five minutes videos actually will come in handy! I'm less likely to die!" Aiden explained, "When an elevator shaft is falling, you should just lay on the floor!"
All of a sudden, they stopped.
"Hey! I'm not dead!"
"Neither are we." Tessa whispered, "I think we're all alive."
Harmony and Ethan blushed awkwardly and inched away to opposite sides of the elevator as the door opened.
Tessa was (cautiously) the first to step out into the room. The floor was covered in pale green tiles. Or, that's how it appeared to be. None of the kids could tell with the dim lighting. They began to walk down the hall, which gave Tessa shivers for some reason. It gave her too much of an eerie feeling.
Entry 1: This is it. Time to do what the King has asked me to do. I will create the power to free us all. I will unleash the power of the soul.
"I don't like it here," Tessa finally admitted, although she didn't need to verbally confirm it for them to tell she hated it, "It's so creepy... I... don't like being here." She hugged herself.
Entry 2: The barrier is locked by SOUL power. Unfortunately, this power can not be recreated artificially. SOUL power can only be derived from what was once living. So, to create more, we must use what we have now...
The SOULS of monsters.
"Tess, no worries. We won't be down here long. Just find Alphys, help her, and get the hell out of here. We're going to be in and out," He reassured, although none of that was a fact.
Entry 3: But extracting a SOUL from a living monster would require incredible power...
Besides being impractically, doing so would instantly result in destroying the SOUL's host.
And, unlike the persistent SOULS of humans, the SOULS of most monsters disappear almost immediately after death. If only I could find a way to make them last...
Entry 5: I've done it. I've extracted it from the human SOUL. I believe it is what gives a human's SOUL the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living... the resolve to solve fate. Let's call this power...
"Determination."
The seven turned the corner. By this point, everyone was on edge and could barely keep themselves from giving into fear. The walls were cracked. The floors and walls were cold. There was barely any light for them to see where they were going.
Entry 6: ASGORE asked everyone around the city for monsters that had "fallen down." Their bodies came in today. They're still comatose... and soon, they'll all turn into dust. But what will happen if I inject determination into them? If their souls persist after they perish, then... freedom may be closer than we originally thought.
Entry 9: things aren't going well. none of the bodies have turned into dust, so i can't get the souls. i told the families i would give the dust back for their funerals. people are starting to ask me what's happening. what do i do?
Emily tried turning on the faucets. Instead of water, something white began to drip out. Ivan pulled her back as the form grew and grew. Harmony couldn't take it and screamed out of pure fear.
"What the hell is that thing?" Aiden whispered, shakily pointing his gun at it as it dispersed into three separate creatures, all looking the exact same.
"Come join the fun..." the distorted voices said through the phones. Tessa felt like crying- she hated creepy things. Even Ethan looked disturbed and even... scared?
As the first attack was upon them, the three all leaped for separate people. Harmony shrieked and dodged. Aiden shot at one. Ivan smacked one with his notebook.
"Stay behind me," Aiden commanded, firing more bullets, "Things seem like they're about to get a hell of a lot creepier." He fended them off before sparing them, picking up the red key in the sink. He stepped into the next room and shoved the key into the slot before twisting it. A red light lit up on the wall.
"Did Aiden just do something intelligent?" Ivan whispered to Emily not so quietly.
"I heard that! But yeah, I did, for your information, Iv."
Entry 12: nothing is happening. i don't know what to do. i'll just keep injecting everything with determination. i want this to work.
Entry 13: one of the bodies opened its eyes.
"Keep looking around, guys. I'm guessing we've got to find a buncha keys or something. Eventually we'll find Alphys and maybe it'll make sense," Aiden told them as they checked under the sheets. Tessa pulled out a yellow key,
"Oh, I wish Frisk was here. Too bad the skeleton brothers needed her help..." Emily's smile turned into a frown, "She's usually an expert on this kinda stuff. And Chara would somewhat help us too."
"Help us? More like misguide us." Aiden scoffed, "I'm still not a big fan of that guy." He folded his arms. Chara... well, he didn't seem that much like he was interested in helping them at all? And Aiden knew that some people were like that, but it didn't make him any less frustrated.
Entry 7: We'll need a vessel to wield the monster souls when the time comes. After all, a monster cannot absorb the souls of other monsters. Just as a human soul cannot absorb a human soul... so what about something that's neither?
Tessa looked at the buttercups, playing with her hair, "Without Flowey's face, they're much more pretty..."
"I agree," Ivan nodded, quickly sketching it out.
Entry 10: experiments on the vessel are a failure. it doesn't seem to be any different from the control cases. whatever. they're a hassle to work with anyways. the seeds just stick to you and won't let go...
Harmony looked at the mirrors, the hairs on her neck sticking up.
"Something seems weird about this..." Emily stared at her reflection. But slowly, it turned into more white goop, and into a monster...
Once again, cue Harmony's shriek. And Ethan's.
"W-what kind of bird is that?" Harmony whispered, taking slow steps backwards as it formed. Aiden, Tessa, and Ivan were behind it, as they had only come over after hearing them scream. Tessa reacted with a squeal.
"I don't know. Be careful," warned Ethan, although sweat was dripping down his forehead. Why was he scared of it? He asked himself. It was just a more extreme monster.
A bit of goop shot out from the amalgamation and onto the floor. A tall, man-like creature with no face appeared before them. Needless to say, everyone was a bit frightened. Or maybe it would be wiser to say they felt a hell of a lot of fear.
Butterflies flew around its head and it grasped its face. The head began to disintegrate and it came upon them, almost running. The butterflies approached as well, zooming past them.
"I'm going to have serious PTSD after this," Aiden muttered, also sweatbeading as the creature approached his three friends. Tessa grasped onto Aiden, still shaky. Ivan looked like he was going to faint.
"This Reaper Bird's attacks are actually terrifying, not even going to lie," Ethan wiped his forehead, punching the goop. A bit of it covered his gloves, but otherwise the creature backed off as Tessa tried to deal with the bird itself. After all, it was the one who had sent the demon at her friends.
The head reformed and replaced the butterflies, a few gloopy heads shooting towards them. They dodged as best as they could, but all of them were knocked down to low health, and to the floor for that matter. Emily held her arms above her head, bracing for the next attack.
Suddenly, the attack stopped. Tessa had spared the amalgamate and it had disappeared.
"Well, I've had enough of this place for a lifetime. We're leaving," Ethan insisted, "We're just going to get hurt if we stay down here. That was too close of a call- even for me."
"But..." Emily began to protest, "What about Alphys? We can't just-"
"She got herself into this mess," He folded his arms.
Tessa fumbled with her sleeves, "We got ourselves underground. She helped us."
"No, she didn't. She caused all of the problems." Ivan pointed out, "We would've gotten through Hotland twenty times faster if she hadn't stopped us with so many puzzles." He nodded to Ethan, seeming to agree.
"She only wanted to be our friend." Harmony reminded them both, although she didn't know how to argue that they were actually safe in the basement.
"We can't leave her by herself- if we do, she could get hurt! And we'd just be terrible for leaving her alone." Emily pushed.
Ethan groaned, knowing she was right.
"Okay, fine. But we should be more careful- we're at the end of this journey and we're not dying now."
A/N: No, the True Lab will not be continued next chapter. I considered it, but you're better off watching the play through if you're that indulged in the plot. I'm pretty sure most people reading this have played/watched someone play the game.
I'm not very interested in writing more amalgamations. Next chapter is close to the finale. Probably the second to last chapter before the epilogue. There will be a rewrite, but I likely will not post it for a while. Will there be a sequel? Yes, but much more modified from the original idea. It will be a bunch of snippets in the future. It won't have a plotline, more like a billion one-offs. The rewrite has a few major modifications to the characters and personalities. The chapters will have much more effort.
Thanks anyways for a read,
-Ninja
