TW: Mention of a gun being pointed at someone, Ink rambling, and an AU I made just for this fic

A city stretched before Ink. The city was made of grey stone and was sticking out of the side of Mt. Ebbot. Lights lit the city up, and Ink could see monsters and humans alike walking throughout the streets. A chill of excitement went down his spine. A new AU! The creators were super excited about showing me this one. Said that I'd like to meet the Alphys of this world. Ink strapped Broomie into its place on his back and started down into the town.

Ink marveled at the city. Shops lined the street advertising "New, more potent ES!" I wonder what the ES stands for. Maybe I can ask this Alphys when I meet her. Suddenly, Ink felt a pull on his sleeve. He turned to see a small child with a slightly blue skin tone and hair that was a dark grey. The purple and blue stripped sweater was a dead giveaway, this was Frisk. "Who are you? Why do you look so much like Sans?"

"I'll explain that once I meet your Sans. It's easiest for Classic to explain anyways, he'll probably do it. Or maybe I can tell Alphys? Yeah, that would probably make the most sense. She could tell you guys and save us all some trouble. Also, I love your hair! Never seen a Frisk with grey hair before! I think... no, Core has grey hair, never mind. It still looks super cool though!" Ink looked back at Frisk and realized that he had been rambling. He quickly glanced down at note on his scarf and set back to talking. "Anyways, I need to talk to Alphys. Know where I can find her? Or them? Him? Every AU is different, so I don't want to assume…"

"Alphys is in the City Lab. In the middle of Thomas street. You can't miss it." A grin broke out on Inks face

"Thanks so much, Frisk! I promise that someone will explain this soon! Try not to reset until then, or even afterwards!" Before Frisk could question how this strange man knew about resets, he vanished.

Ink wandered around until he found Thomas street. The lab was a tall building with large glass doors. Ink walked inside and marveled at the grand reception room.

"Name?" A tired receptionist called out.

"Oh, I'm I- Sans." It felt weird calling himself Sans, "I need to see Alphys." The receptionist stood up, and led Ink back to

"Dr. Alphys? Sans is here to see you." Alphys looked up from her report.

"S-send him in! I n-needed to ask him about s-something regarding Frisk." The receptionist left Ink in the room with Alphys.

"S-so S-sans, what can I-" Alphys stoped taking when she saw Ink. Before Ink could introduce himself, Alphys has a stun gun, or what looked like one, to his forehead.

"I-i'll give you f-five s-seconds to explain who y-you are." Her voice had a tone that was dead serious and extremely odd to hear from an Alphys.

"OH! Um, okay, where to start… so, you've sturdied AUs, right Alternate Universes? Most Alphys have… Well, they're real and I'm from one. Well, I'm not really? We're still figuring that out… BUT I'm not here to hurt you! I just want to- crap I'm rambling, aren't I? Anyways, please don't shoot me!"

"H-how can I know that you're t-telling the t-truth?" Alphys pressed the gun harder up against Ink's head.

"Have you ever seen a monster without a soul before?" Normally, this worked like a charm. The monster would see that he was soulless and believe him because they had never seen someone like that before. However, this Alphys was clearly different.

"Of c-course. E-everyone is born without a s-soul. W-what your p-point?" Now that stopped Ink in his tracks.

"What? Really!? This is a new one… so, do you guys not have souls? At all? Or do they develop over time? How does that work?" Alphys slowly lowered the gun.

"W-well, u-us m-monsters used to n-not have souls at all, b-but a few y-years ago a s-scientist created t-the first artificial s-soul." Ink's eyes widened. Wait… if they have artificial souls… then-

"Give me a soul."

"W-what do y-you mean?"

"Give me a soul! I don't have one, and I have to drink paint to give myself emotions, but I've always wanted to have one and-" Alphys put her hand over the artist's mouth.

"Y-you get e-emotions from p-paint? T-that's f-fascinating! I'll g-give you a soul, b-but you'll have t-to take e-emotion supplements every few w-weeks."

"OH! Is that what all the stores were selling? ES? Cool! Why do you need to take it though? Like, you have a soul, right? Is it something like batteries? Or- "

"S-stop! T-the ES give the a-artificial soul k-kind a c-crutch to l-lean on. So, t-that it's n-not over w-working itself." Alphys shuffled over to her desk while talking and rummaged around in the drawers. "I-I can give you the s-soul tomorrow. The o-operation is fairly simple a-and it's p-painless, so you d-don't have to t-take any m-medication afterwards."

"Oh, thank you!" Ink rushed over and launched himself at Alphys. She sidestepped right before he could topple into her, and Ink hit his head on the wall.

"I-if you're d-done, I-I'll start the p-preparations." Ink sat up and sheepishly rubbed his head.

"Heh, thanks." Suddenly, Ink perked up "Hey, what should I call you? If you're going to be interacting in the multiverse, you're going to need another name besides 'Alphys' because there are, like, a bajillion different version of you. What about… Glare? Stubborn? Uh, Emily?"

"Y-you can call m-me Dr. A, j-just f-follow me. W-we have a l-lot of w-work to d-do."