So, here you go.

RRRP:

RealEdgeQuarter (FF): Neither did I.

James Birdsong (FF): Yes.

MarkOfThree (FF): True Lab is actually pretty short. So… have at you.

Swordmouse (AO3): I agree!

DaveTheAssassin (AO3): It's more of a dreamscape than anything else, so 'hallucination' is probably the closest. It's really supposed to be Link's inner psyche juxtaposed by Link's inner psyche- the one that needs Navi and the one that doesn't. It's kind of meant to be left ambiguous, so that the reader can come to their own conclusions. Mostly it's just an excuse for me to go ham with metaphors in a way that doesn't compromise the story.

Chapter 17

The laboratory was empty. Link knew it wasn't because Alphys was still running, because that had been a few hours ago. The lights were on; she'd had to have come back at some point. What Link had once thought was a bathroom was gaping open, to reveal an unadorned room in its place. Just outside of the gaping entryway sat a note, scrawled in handwriting that the Hero could only assume to be Alphys's. Gingerly, he picked it up.

"Hey," he read. "Thanks for your help back there. You guys… your support really means a lot to me. But as difficult as it is to say this, you guys alone can't magically make 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 have to be able to face my own mistakes."

He nodded to himself as he continued. "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 ever hear from me again… if you want to know 'the truth', enter the door to the north of this note. You all at least deserve to know what I did."

This was the one place he hadn't gone to yet. This must contain the secret to freeing the monsters, somehow. It was in that room, which on closer inspection was revealed to be an elevator. Mustering his courage, Link stepped into the room, before realizing that he had no idea how to operate it. Curse this infernally advanced monster technology… how did he operate this? Maybe… oh, of course. It was the wall of buttons on the wall of the elevator. There were only two buttons: one for this floor and another that was unmarked. Curious, Link pressed the unlabeled button, and the elevator doors closed before the whole apparatus moved downwards. He should have probably been more confused by this, but he'd operated a less technological version of this device in the Forest Temple, of all places.

After what felt like an eternity, they reopened, revealing a dank, slate blue environment. This was the true laboratory. This was where all the real science happened. The Hero of Time slinked out of the elevator as it closed behind him. There was something very… wrong with this place. The shadows clung to his shadows, and the staticky sounds in the distance whispered his name. As he strolled by, he read the entries etched into the screens that littered the walls, presumably written by Doctor Alphys. Apparently, she was toying with the force of 'Determination', which allowed human souls to persist after death. She'd injected it into monsters who were about to die, but they suddenly didn't…

Before Link left this particular area, something drew his attention to the line of sinks lining the walls. Upon further inspection, he noticed that there was a key stuck in one of the faucets. He tried to reach it, but his childish fingers simply couldn't reach it. He turned on the sink, and a pool of white goop oozed forth, filling the basin. It then grew a face.

Link jumped, less startled then he probably should have been. He wasn't even sure what to call these… things… that were now trying to murder him. They looked like a bunch of severed heads fused together with a spiral tail. Even the dialogue box didn't know what to make of it; it just put a blank in the place of their names. Strangely enough, the fight was interrupted by Link's cell phone going off. Tense, he answered the call. All it said was "Come join the fun…"

It must have been those… things… hijacking his telephone. Link didn't have much of an ability to think about this because he was currently being assailed by several small balls that morphed into disturbingly face-shaped explosions.

"I-I-I think I'm g-good," the Hylian stammered, trying to reject the Memoryhead's advances. Huh. The dialog box suddenly knew what they were called. Fortunately, with the knowledge of their names came a reluctance to fight them and they slinked off into the darkness. The Hylian pocketed the red key left in their wake and backtracked to the so-called Power Room, but there was no place to slot it. The ex-Kokiri sighed, returned to the area where he'd found the red key, and entered a small chamber, where there was a red-key sized slot. It fit perfectly. He then backtracked back the other way, where the eastmost entrance was now unlocked.

A dank hallway led Link to a musty chamber full of cushy-looking beds. These must have been where those aberrant forms… slept. Goddesses, that was… oddly nauseating.

The Hylian traveled north and took a left, reading the signs along the way. Predictably, everything went wrong. The monsters had probably shapeshifted into those… creatures. Poor things.

The next room was mostly empty save a massive… apparatus hooked up to the wall by a dizzying maze of tubing and technological machinery. It was eerily reminiscent of Flowey's lower mouth, now that he really looked at it. There was a small walkway in front of the thing, which was blocked by a Save Point. He didn't really need it, but he might as well use it.

!0*0!

Then it grew a face.

The Hero stumbled backwards in surprise as the Save Point morphed into a ghostly silhouette, framed by the smoke and mist pouring out of a nearby doorway. He vaguely wondered if he'd ever be free of his battle instincts as the undead monster dragged him into the Combat Plane. It reeked of lemons On closer inspection, it almost looked like a Shyren with Aaron arms and a head made of several crushed Moldsmals. Were these things several monsters bound together? How did that explain the Memoryheads?

His Act options were several things that Link didn't care enough to look at. He opted to Flex, figuring he could appeal to whatever part of this abomination that was still an Aaron. The swordsman could see the arm visibly shake, but he was not permitted reprieve. The Battle Box grew nine serrated teeth before it bore down on his Soul, crushing it between its sharp edges. Link merely tanked the blow. He had a whopping five hundred and forty eight HP, he couldn't care less. Wait, when did he get that? Would it stay there? He hoped so.

He tried humming Epona's Song. It seemed like the right thing to do. Evidently, the being known as Lemon Bread agreed, as it promptly slunk away into the void of the laboratory. Link cleverly opted not to follow. Instead, he headed north into a small chamber with a TV, which he ignored. On his way out, he glanced at a scrawled note of disheveled text on the floor. He could only make out the words 'under' and 'sheets'. Oh well.

The only place to go was backwards, until he dealt with the fog. Returning to the hallway revealed a northwards auxiliary hall, which ended in what appeared to be a bath. There was something oddly cylindrical waving about behind a thin curtain, ever faster as Link approached. Would it be considered mercy to kill these monsters? They had to be in pain, what with being fused together and all that. And they were supposed to be dead, before that 'Determination' juice resurrected them. He drew his blade, slowly approached the curtain, and yanked it open before realizing that there was nothing there. His sword wouldn't help at all during this particular dungeon. Was this a dungeon? Definitely.

He took the key languishing in the tub before returning to the end of the hallway. He was greeted by a room full of fans. Would this clear the fog at the other end of the hallway? Evidently yes.

This also caused the flecks of paper suspended in air to fall to the ground. The shards coalesced into a single form, which then exploded outwards into a mammalian multi-legged… creature. It slowly approached Link, who realized that he was stuck at the end of the corridor with no route of egress. The Amalgamate proceeded to drag him into the Combat Plane. Now that he could get a good look at it, the ex-Kokiri noticed that the negative space between its six legs were nearly identical to the silhouettes of five dogs. Or cats. One of the two. The Act menu appeared to confirm this, as the options mirrored what Link had to go through back in Snowdin, with the dog brigade. He correctly assumed that a similar strategy would apply here as it did there. With his in mind, he beckoned the amalgamate to come closer to him. It enthusiastically bounded forwards, oozing some sort of liquid from its singular facial orifice. Meanwhile in the Battle Box, a single white dog with no face assailed Link's orange soul with what appeared to be thumbtack projectiles.

What to do now… He didn't have anything worthy of a fetch quest on his person at the moment… he could use his sword. Yes, that would do. Maybe he could distract the beast enough for it to let him go? He slowly and carefully withdrew his blade, scabbard and all, before lobbing it as far as he could down the hallway. The Amalgamate immediately scampered off after it, moving at a speed that belied its size. Wasting no time, Link tried to dash out of the cramped hallway and into the adjoining bed room, but he was too slow. He was promptly tackled by the monsters as his sword was dropped on his chest, slick with what he hoped was dog slobber. More questionable white liquid dribbled onto his face out of the dog. This wasn't good. His only option now was to pet it; since it was sitting on top of him and he couldn't move. More froth cascaded over his body. Nauseated, Link reminded himself to wash it off in that bath immediately afterwards. But it was working, so he pet again. Immediately, the Amalgamate- no, the Endogeny was contented, and allowed him to escape.

!0*0!

After scrubbing all of the fluid out of his skin, Link returned to the room full of beds. He could have tackled the fog room, but this way would cause less backtracking. Plus, he had to grab one of those things that was 'under sheets'. A quick check revealed it- a yellow key. And there was a yellow receptacle in the TV room! He ran back to it and fitted it in the slot. Now that he was back here, he might as well return to the formerly fog room. So he did. It was full of fridges, one of which turned into a different amalgamate. It was similar to the Snowdrake back in Snowdin, a fact accentuated by the freezing temperatures, so Link told disgustingly bad snow puns until it completely calmed down and left. It dropped a blue key, which Link took before taking the green key and inserting it into the slow at the end of the freezer corridor. Now he really had to go back to the bed room…

The final hallway was littered with mirrors and suspiciously golden flowers. Like Flowey. Was Flowey an Amalgamate? Now that he thought about it, it kind of made sense if he didn't think about it too much. He was interrupted by one final amalgamate, which seemed to be some kind of avian body with an Astigmatism for a head. Through a sequence of events that mystified both Link and the Reaper Bird and had the Hylian pray for both his own sanity and the bird's, it let him go. He inserted the blue key, the final key, in the awaiting slot. That was everything, right? All that he had left was the door back at the beginning of the Lab. With a suspicious spring in his step, the Hero marched back and opened it up. He was led to an elevator, but none of the buttons worked. Seeing no other options, Link detoured down an empty maintenance tunnel to the left, stepping over aged, cold tiles into a dead end with a button on it. A label next to it revealed that it was… actually, Link had no idea. Something about 'reboot'? Nevertheless, he pushed it. Something rumbled, somewhere behind him. It was probably the elevator.

He turned around, and was greeted by dozens of accursed amalgamations. Somehow, they'd cornered him here. Panicking, Link drew his blade and pointed it at the monsters, hoping that they would reconsider for their own sake. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to care. One of them latched onto his sword, causing a hideous creaking sound that grated at his eardrums. When it finally let go, he was holding nothing but a hilt, without a sign of the blade that had once accompanied it. The offending amalgamate immediately grew several sharp edges out of its skin, each a perfect replica of the blade he'd lost. They drew closer, hungrily. The Hero of Time curled his hands into fists, knowing that he was at a severe disadvantage in the coming storm. He was off-balance, cornered, and weaponless. He squeezed his eyes shut, silently praying that the onslaught of blows would at least kill him quickly. He hated it. He couldn't die now- not when he'd finally moved on- but he had no choice but to perish. All he could do was scream in his mind. He reared back to throw a punch, and they fell on him.

!0*0!

"Hey! Stop!"

The amalgamates immediately crawled off of Link's prone form, which was freshly covered in questionable white fluid. Interestingly, he hadn't been so much as scratched by the undead monsters, but his pack had been freshly cleared of any food he may have possessed. He'd spent good money on that!

Alphys was there, for some reason. Where had she been this whole time? "I got you guys some food, okay?"

The monsters slunk off into the darkness, Link's pack forgotten.

"Sorry about that," the Lizalfos sighed. "They get kind of sassy when they don't get fed on time. I think they smelled the food you had, and… anyway, the power went out, and I've been trying to turn it back on. But it looks like you were one step ahead of me. This was probably just a big inconvenience for you… b-but I appreciate that you came here to back me up! As I said, I was afraid I might, um, not come back… but that's not because of these guys or anything! I was just worried I'd be too terrified… to tell the truth, or that I might run away, or do something, er… cowardly."

Any long-standing malcontent towards Alphys that still festered in the core of Link's being evaporated. She was like him, searching for that spark of something that let them keep going. For the ex-swordsman, it was Navi.

"Uh, I-I suppose I owe you an explanation," Alphys confessed. "Asgore asked me to study the nature of Souls. During that research, I isolated a power I called 'Determination'. I injected it into dying monsters so that their Souls would last after death. But… everything went so wrong so quickly. See, unlike humans, monsters don't have enough, ah, physical matter to take those concentrations of determination. Their bodies started to melt, and they lost whatever physicality they once had. Pretty soon, all of the test subjects had melted together into… those. Seeing them like this, I knew I couldn't tell their families about it. Or anyone. No matter how much anyone was asking me. And I was too afraid to do more work, knowing, well, everything I'd done so far had been such a horrific failure.

"But… but now, I've changed my mind about all this. I'm going to tell everyone what I've done. It's, er, going to be hard. Being honest, believing in myself… I know there'll be times where I struggle. I know there'll be times where I screw up again. But knowing that I have friends to fall back on makes it a lot easier to stand on my own."

Link nodded solemnly. He knew how it hadn't had anyone for a long time, and now… well, he had more than before. It was hard to go anywhere but up when he started from the literal bottom of the barrel.

The amalgamates were waiting patiently in the back of the room. "Come on, guys," Alphys beckoned. "It's time to take you all home."

And then they were gone. Something clicked in the back of the Hylian's mind. He'd done everything he could. He'd combed every last inch of the Underground. It was time for him to go home too.

Welp, next chapter is the last chapter. And no, I'm not going to pull a TOM on you and psych you out.

Review Please!