A left turn a good number of minutes later had him running into one of the creatures from outside – literally. His momentum shoved them both forward and the thing liquefied when he landed on top of it. The other creatures were quick to take notice of his presence and leap at him. He didn't even have time to flinch as each one lost its form as teal spears pinned them to the ground. The spears vanished with a shout of his name from somewhere beyond his head. He pushed himself onto an elbow ignoring the black substance sticking to his clothing and skin and found a hand offered to him. He looked up to find Undyne grinning at him and despite his lack of memory about her, he gladly took hold of her proffered hand and the aiding pull to his feet. Her grip was nearly painful on his arms as he slipped about in the goop.
"Oh thank g-goodness," Alphys stuttered, rushing over from where there were others huddled near some room. The pain in his chest flared. "You g-gave us quite the f-fright th-there, Alex."
The world suddenly spun and he wasn't sure if his legs were holding him up or if the touches that burned were dragging him down. He tried to scream, to shout, but he couldn't even breathe as his world erupted in pain.
Something was screaming, like an emergency alarm of some kind.
It was a while before he came back to reality, the pain slowly losing potency in his chest but not going away. He rubbed at his sweaty face with a shaking hand that weighed far more than it should. He slowed his breathing, determined to get it back under control. It took longer than he would have liked.
His heart wasn't slowing down and the pain hadn't gone away.
He opened his eyes.
"A-Alex?"
Alex lulled his head towards the voice and Alphys's face swam into view. He frowned at her before forcing himself upright despite the way his muscles screamed. Hands hovered near him but didn't touch. Alex swallowed, finding his throat dry. "Wha…" He coughed, the word hoarse and weak. "What happened?"
Had he been screaming?
"You collapsed," Undyne stated, taking a small step back. Alex took his glasses from Alphys's shaking hand. "Alphys?"
"Are y-you still in p-pain?" the yellow monster asked Alex in lieu of answering Undyne.
"Yes," Alex croaked. He rubbed at his throat trying to swallow again. "My heart won't seem to slow down either."
Alphys's expression hardened and had his heart not already been in his throat, it would have dropped to his stomach. "I'm sorry, Alex. The best I can give you is t-two hours. Maybe four."
Alex felt a strange numbness settle over him, changing his expression as the meaning behind her words dawned on him.
"Wait, what?" Undyne asked, not understanding. "Alphys, what–"
Her words cut off but the rest of her question was obvious. Alphys took her glasses off and twirled them in a nervous gesture, watching as the frame and glass caught the light. Alex found himself equally transfixed by the nervous gesture, hyperaware of his bare wrist. "Alex suffered a...a heart attack of sorts. Half of his heart will not f-function properly anymore. I-It's only a matter of time before it s-stops completely."
"There's nothing you can do?" Undyne asked, sounding strained. Alphys looked up at her with tears in her eyes but it was Alex who responded.
"I had a heart attack this morning and have pushed my body too hard. I'm not surprised my borrowed time has finally caught up with me." He slid off the bed. His eyes were hard behind his glasses as he met Undyne's gaze. "I was a dead man walking when I was born and there has been nothing anyone could have done for me for just as long. But now that I have a definitive amount of time left, I'm going to make the most of it."
He stepped around them both. Undyne's hand snapped out, wrapping around his wrist. His steady gaze settled on her and she lost the ferocity she had been about to use. Instead, she softly asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Protect what family I have left." He slipped his wrist from her grip. "All of it; including the parts that I can't remember."
He turned and ran out before anyone else could stop him. He had to make sure Sans and Papyrus made it out of this situation alive before he succumbed to his own limitations. And if he happened to help those that were trapped in the lab get out, then he would die with no regrets.
No regrets, beyond leaving behind his family like this.
He climbed up to the same floor where the catwalks for all the labs were and used the catwalks to scour the lab for the brothers. He knew the fighting had entered through the main lab entrance so he figured it was best to start there.
He burst through a door onto a catwalk slamming into the rail opposite the door. He leaned over the railing with the momentum, looking down as the sound of something breaking filled the room.
To his utter surprise, Sans and Papyrus were on the first floor, doing what they could to stay alive against something that made Alex's entire being revolt against staying there. Terror adhered his feet to the walkway.
The ink blob of sludge that was attacking the brothers seemed impervious to the brothers' attacks and it took all he had to look away and take in the lab they were fighting in.
It was his and Sans's lab. Surprise shot through Alex as his quick mind started forming a plan and then some. Despite the terror that froze his feet, his mind was still as sharp as ever and whether it was intentional or not, the brothers were leading Gaster towards the pair of twin turbine generators. Or, more specifically, between them.
Conventional or not, he and Sans used the two generators to blend the atmosphere and their test sample. It was all gaseous anyways and it wasn't like it was harming the equipment anyways. That all could be cleaned and replaced as needed; which brought an idea to mind. It was risky but if the brothers could keep Gaster's attention, it could work.
He ran to the nearest service ladder secured to the wall and slid down it as a plan formed around his idea, steps outlining themselves before his feet hit the bottom. It was a foolish plan, one that would cost him and Sans a great deal in their research but it could save so many lives.
He started slamming buttons and flipping switches, inputting commands and starting sequences as he got things turned on and running. There was a low rumble as one set of turbine, then the next started up, picking up speed and increasing in pitch and volume as the rest of the machine came to life. The ink blob of goop either didn't give it any heed or didn't care as the whine of other machines joined in.
Sans did.
For the briefest of moments, Alex caught Sans's gaze and grinned at him, giving him a thumbs up that was surprisingly steady, what with how much adrenaline was coursing through his veins. Sans gave him a frantic look before the inky blob of goop got in the way. Alex hurried off to the last station as he started up their last experiment. It was the only way he could guarantee that the system did not jam from what he was about to do.
The power levels started to stabilize as he gathered an assortment of tools. As he shoved the last one in his pocket, the last level turned green and the system was ready to receive the test compound. All he needed to do now was get the compound in the machine. Alex moved away from the terminal and to the nearest lever. He caught a glimpse of the brothers in between the two generators losing ground as they were pushed back towards the main machine. He could make out the panic on their faces and it made his chest clench in a panic. He pulled with all his might on the first lever.
One of two panels on the turbine unit slid open, the air rushing passed him as one part of the twin turbine was exposed to the area the brothers and goop were in. He jammed one of the tools into it, forcing it to stay open despite the spring and anti-locking fail safes.
He dodged a wayward tendril and rolled sloppily to the other turbine. He scrambled to his feet and pulled at the lever there.
One of two panels on the second turbine unit slid open and the amount of air rushing passed increased, whipping at him as if to tempt him towards the center. He dragged himself away from the torrent of moving air only to stumble into the still air on the backside of the turbine unit. He took off running. A glance towards the goop mass revealed that the entity didn't seem to care about the sudden pull of air.
He couldn't breathe but it didn't matter. He had to make sure that his sacrifice and the sacrifice of all that he and Sans had worked so hard on would rid the world of Gaster without taking one of the brothers at the same time.
Just two more levers, two more and they would be free.
He came to the first of the final levers. Sans and Papyrus were briefly parallel to the lever till a well aimed tendril forced them to retreat even more. Except there was nowhere to retreat to and Alex's voice died in his throat as another attack assaulted the brothers.
Papyrus took a sharpened tendril through the shoulder and through the hip where the plate armor had been ripped away from earlier attacks, slicing through the sudden bone defense he had erected like it had been nothing more than paper.
It had been enough to keep Sans from taking any damage from the barrage.
Sans took the brunt of Papyrus's weight as the lankier skeleton collapsed, the tear in Sans's shirt becoming prominent as it gaped open in his attempt to keep his brother from hitting the floor.
Alex yanked at the lever.
The handle snapped.
He cussed. Whatever colorful language he had used was lost to the sound of rushing air and static as he stumbled backwards, broken lever in hand. Nothing on his person was strong enough to replace the lever handle.
In the end, it didn't matter.
A resounding thud and a pair of pained cries jerked his attention to the right. He watched the brothers collapse to the floor, a sizable dent in the heavy plating of the machine itself. Sans seemed to be fighting to keep some form of coherency but from where Alex stood, it looked like Papyrus had been knocked unconscious. He was proven wrong when the lanky skeleton shook himself as Sans tried to get them both to their feet as the mass recoiled.
The tendril that had slammed them into the machine reshaped into a point as the brothers shifted about and it was very clear what was going to happen next.
Alex moved without thinking.
His feet ate up the short distance between him and the brothers. His shoes skidded on the smooth floor as he threw his arms out to either side facing the creature head on as that very same tendril shot towards them.
It was a war they knew they couldn't win. Gaster was far stronger than them both combined and they had known that going into this but Sans had never once fathomed that he would ever have a glimmer of hope of actually beating the monster that had caused him and his family such pain until Alex grinned at him.
At first, panic had filled him at seeing Alex so close to danger, but when it seemed Gaster didn't care for what Alex was doing, Sans did.
And it was brilliant.
It took nothing to keep Gaster focused on him and Papyrus. The blob seemed far too interested in them to care that machines were coming to life, that the panels were moving to expose the spinning turbines.
Despite the good intentions of keeping Gaster's attention, Sans found himself getting overwhelmed, Papyrus barely a step ahead of him. A well placed slap of a tendril and Sans was seeing stars, sinking to the floor with his back against the body of the machine. He tried to fight the darkness that was tearing at him, tried to get Papyrus to move but the tendril was sharpening to a deadly point and Sans knew they were out of time.
A sickening squelching filled the air as his left cheek started to sting.
Blood splattered to the floor pooling rapidly at Alex's feet as the human curled forward on the tendril burrowed through his chest as thick as the man's thigh when it stopped. Sans stared in horror with sockets void of eyelights as the razor sharp tip ghosted against Sans's face beneath his left eye. Warm blood slowly dripped from the tendril to Sans's face and shoulder for the breath that it hovered by his face.
The tendril jerked back and retracted, dropping Alex in the pool of blood.
There was a strange disconnect in Sans's brain as he stared at the gapping hole in Alex's chest where a heart should be. His breath rattled through him as he felt Papyrus grab at his shirt, a ringing in his skull that faintly reminded him of screaming. Papyrus yanked him back and Sans suddenly found it easy to tear his gaze away from the body as a chuckle low and distorted echoed through his skull, drowning out the ringing. Gaster had reared back and up into his full height, grinning. "PitY tHe HumAN DiED. SuCH a waISt Of An iNTeRestINg ExPEriMEnT."
Wrath surged through him so hot, he almost mistook it for the magic that poured through him in the same instance. Blinded by it all, he pushed his magic out to the sides. It slammed into the two remaining levers and wrapped securely around both despite one missing most of its handle. Papyrus's magic pooled with his. With a shared scream, they shoved the levers down.
The paneling on the generators snapped open.
Sans reached for Alex's body as the air was suddenly sucked towards the set of turbines but he had no magic left to gap the distance between him and the body being dragged away. Papyrus was there in his stead, long arm reaching beyond him to carefully protrude bones out of the ground between Alex and Gaster. Alex's body bumped up against them but moved no more.
Gaster screamed as he was pulled in two directions, seeming to keep from being sucked in till the turbines gained a purchase on his physical matter. The moment that happened, it was like someone had pressed fast forward and Gaster was swallowed by the machine in a matter of seconds regardless of how hard the creature struggled.
The panels snapped closed.
Gaster was gone.
It felt like he was in a daze just staring at the point where Gaster had been. There was movement along his peripheral but he couldn't bring himself to care.
Someone stepped into his line of sight and it wasn't till they squatted that he realized it was Undyne. She looked terrible.
"Hey," she spoke softly. "I need to get you two out of here."
"No," slipped out before he could even register her statement and it broke something in him. A choked sob shook his body as the tears suddenly sprung forward, falling heavily from his sockets. He pressed a hand to his mouth, his other hand clenching desperately at the tear in his shirt as despair tried to drown him.
He couldn't breathe – couldn't think as he was swallowed up and tossed around by the grief that was quickly overtaking him. With no magic left to his name, he prayed to whatever was listening that he shattered into dust then and there, to never have to feel this again.
The arms that wrapped around him were too tight, too stiff, and too familiar, but he couldn't do anything to push his brother away. The only thing that seemed to cut through any of it was a series of beeps and chimes that drew his attention from a trained response of years of repeated process.
"The experiment," he croaked, finally pushing away from Papyrus. He stumbled as he stood up but he brushed away the hands that reached out for him.
It took everything he had not to glance towards where Alex's body should have been. Even as out of it as he was, he could hear the moving of bodies in that general area and he didn't want to know who was tending to the mess.
Instead, he marched over to the terminal currently chiming away at him as Alphys came hurrying over from somewhere. He glanced her way and a faint part of him prayed she hadn't seen any of the aftermath.
He mentally flinched from the sudden clear memory of Alex's body and ruefully pushed it away.
"Hey, Alphys," he spoke, his voice still raw. "Do me a solid and hop on that other terminal, would ya? I need a second set of eyes for this next part."
She nodded and hurried over to the other chair.
He went about inputting a few commands, watching as her terminal came to life and started to chime too. It took very little brain power to utilize the practiced motions of keeping the process going, getting the elements added together and blended in a way that could be made into a gas that would blend with the final sample of atmosphere.
He made certain the compound that had been Gaster was properly isolated and only a small portion was removed for testing just in case they had to replicate anything should there be any significant readings.
"Compounds ready for injection," Alphys announced.
Sans pushed himself away from the terminal and walked over to the lonely canister resting beside the proper front of the machine. He flicked open the canister port and locked the last canister in place. For a moment he stared at the canister of toxic Overworld atmosphere lost in a bewildered thought that they were wasting this because the only way they could defeat Gaster was to use the equipment. He bitterly hoped there were some decent results.
He walked over to the isolated terminal and pressed a button. A hiss sounded from the canister as the machine withdrew the air. The chair squeaked as he sat on the edge of it. A few clicks and a live video feed between him and Alphys appeared in the upper left. She looked at him as he started initializing sequences. "Let's begin the purification test," he spoke, pressing another set of buttons. "Transferring atmosphere to the trial tank."
There was a breath.
"Trial tank full," Alphys confirmed as he received the alert.
"Starting purification sequence with .0001 parts per 1000." He pressed a button. Despite the toxic atmosphere of the Overworld and the vaporized solution having no color, he couldn't help but look at the trial tank, hoping to see something.
Alphys's voice cut through his thoughts and he focused back on the computer terminal before him. "Solution vapor fully integrated." He started typing. "Saturation period has begun. Sample removal to be initiated in twenty seconds."
A small countdown appeared in the upper right of his computer screen as he typed a few more keys before leaning back. Alphys turned away on her end of the video chat, talking with some of the lab workers that were coming back in to check on experiments. There was a low hum that joined the sounds of the lab. Sans glanced towards the other wall. The generators were being brought back online and systems that had relied on them were returning. Case in point, the amount of light in the room suddenly increased and there were a number of cheers from around the room.
"Sample removal initiated. Analysis process has begun."
He sagged into the back of the chair as a progress bar appeared on his screen. He rubbed at his face before pushing forward again. Stopping would be bad. Stopping would let his mind wander. "Isolating and containing remaining substance. Prepping for next test."
He tapped away, inputting commands here and there in different windows as the progress bar continued to fill at the top of his screen. A boney hand softly touched his shoulder and he glanced up at Papyrus briefly. "We've got about a minute before we start getting the results. It'll be about three before the final results come in."
The grip on his shoulder tightened but Papyrus offered no words.
Sans kept working, kept himself busy as the progress bar kept moving. If he stopped, if he gave himself a chance to be still, he didn't think he would survive a second dance with the emotional turmoil rolling at the edge of his consciousness.
There was a chime that echoed from Alphys's computer. His gaze flickered to her video feed as she came back into view. "Preliminary results are coming in. Two minutes until final results are in."
"Thank you," he responded on rote, clicking the pop-up.
It was a wall of text, letters and numbers blending in a way that an untrained eye wouldn't understand. Having stared at these results for years, he knew what he was looking for, what numbers he needed before delving further. He felt Papyrus lean forward over his shoulder and a small part of him wondered if Papyrus understood any of it after so many years of watching him work.
The more he read, the larger his frown got. "That…can't be right."
He started typing in commands, opening new windows and closing others. Three more video feeds popped up on his screen as he caught sight of Alphys leaning out of frame. He could hear her calling to a few of the scientists milling about from across the lab and through the feed. He focused on the video feeds he had brought up. "Hey, I'm sending you guys the latest preliminary results from our current experiment. I need you guys to look it over and tell me I'm not going crazy."
Each one wore some variation of confusion – and even one tried to get a word in edge wise – as they all affirmed their willingness in some fashion but Papyrus was drawing his attention from them.
"Sans? What's going on?"
"I'm don't-give me a few minutes to see, Pap." He started typing again. "Extracting three samples. I'm rerunning our test but Kyle, Nien, can you two run diagnostic tests on a sample for me."
They confirmed for him. A lab tech appeared at his side, young, anxious, and looking ready to bolt. The machine hissed in front of them as two small vials extended out of the machine. He nodded to the tech. They darted forward, hands carefully but securely wrapping around the two vials. The machine gave another sound and released the vials. The tech took off, faster than Sans had been anticipating. He turned back to the video feeds. "Samples on their way. Second analysis started."
A new pop-up appeared on his screen as Alphys announced, "First analysis complete. Full report now available."
"Tior, I'm sending you the full report to have another set of eyes on it." His own eyes flickered to the first page but he forced himself to wait. "Take a look at it and then compare it to the results from the others. I need to know if there are any discrepancies that could be caused by a malfunction."
The third nodded and he finally gave into reading the results. Already the noise coming from Alphys's feed was increasing and it was hard to not just ask. He sped through the jargon of numbers and letters down to the field he desperately wanted to read.
Final Results: 100% of Toxins Neutralized
Cheering kicked up from the other side of the lab but something bitter swam through him and he barked, "Do not celebrate yet. We still have three other tests that need to be completed before we trust what we're seeing."
That cut through a lot of the joy. He found it difficult to feel guilty. He half watched Alphys agree with him. She was still grinning, though. Stars above he prayed that this wasn't a false reading. He wasn't sure he could watch everyone lose that kind of hope.
"Sans."
His gaze flickered to Kyle. The human was as white as a sheet. "Sans, this…" The man ran a hand through his graying hair. "We got the same results. As far as our systems can tell, it's fresh, pure air."
"We're getting the same results over here, too," Nien spoke out. Unlike Kyle, the cat monster was grinning from ear to ear, whispers spread wide in excitement. "What did you use?"
"Tior?" he asked instead.
The stone monster came back into view, adjusting the petite glasses on his face. "I just got the results from the others. Unfortunately, I can't view them on the screen so I've printed them out to compare."
Sans shook his head. "Take your time and go through it all with a fine tooth comb. I know that'll take a few hours but as long as you've got all of our results, that's all I needed to hear."
The stone monster settled into screen fully, taking those petite glasses off to give him a hard look. "Sans, why are you being so adamant about checking these results? You've never had anything come close to this kind of purification before."
Sans rubbed his face. "Because this will only be the first hurtle."
He got confused looks and even he didn't really understand his own words till he thought about them. He noticed that there were quite a number of people watching him through Alphys's feed.
"The compound we used as the neutralizing agent is very limited and I don't currently know if we can even replicate it, let alone if it will be enough. Just because it can purify the Overworld air doesn't mean we have access to the surface again. Because it's such a finite resource, we will have to be careful with transportation and dispersal, not to mention everyone having to change gears and start working on how we're going to go about that and letting the other Undergrounds know."
Kyle shifted forward. "Approximately how much of the compound do you have?"
Sans shook his head. "Hopefully enough. We'll have to crunch numbers and run a few more tests to see how far this stuff goes before we start celebrating anything. As of right now, preliminary results would state we need 530 billion particle weight but we'll see just how much we have and how potent it is."
"Preliminary results for the second test are coming in. Two minutes until final results are in," Alphys chimed.
He started typing again. "Sending these to you guys."
He brought it up himself, situating it alongside the first set of preliminary results. He skimmed both documents, sight seeking out specific lines and the more he read and compared, the more he found there to be no discrepancies. It was nearly an identical report and it was hard for him to even get mad at the excitement he could hear coming from Alphys's end of the lab.
He leaned back in his chair, rubbing at his face.
"Are they the same?" Papyrus asked, drawing his attention.
Sans gave him a tight smile. "Yeah, Pap. They're the same. We may have found a cure for the Overworld."
"Full report now complete," Alphys's quickly uttered over the video feed.
Sans was quick to send it out before going right to the field of text he wanted to read.
Final Results: 100% of Toxins Neutralized
The excitement from the other side of the lab turned into a cheer. It rose and rose till even the noises of the machines were drowned out by the sound. He could hear others coming in, word of the project's success must have spread as fast as gossip did in the halls. Soon the lab was swarming with technicians and scientists till it seemed the whole of the Lab was in that one room. The bonus was now he suddenly had extra hands jumping in ready to work and he let himself be swept up by the bodies, taking charge and directing eager hands to work as they started to crunch numbers and celebrate even as groups of people were now pouring over the data sheets making sure these weren't somehow false reports. From there they started crunching the numbers to figure out how much they needed, how much they had, and how potent it was.
He didn't make it back to the house. By the time Asgore came through and ushered people to either home or bed, it was almost four in the morning. He wasn't sure when Papyrus had left but a brief stop at his brother's room found that the lankier skeleton had remained at the lab as well. The room was dark and empty but the dishes on the desk were still wet from whatever meal Papyrus had enjoyed before going off to train or work.
His own room was dark. Flicking the light on only made it appear sad and empty. He was tempted to just go about things in the dark so he couldn't see the stark, barren space full of things.
He frowned. Odd. He hadn't ever had an issue before. He dug through the dresser and picked at random. It wasn't like it mattered overly much. He'd be up in a few hours anyways to get back to work. Maybe he could ask Alex-
He crashed to his knees, one arm on his bed out of a weak attempt to keep himself upright as the other pressed to his mouth. Bitter emotions rolled through him like violent magic and he choked; whether it was on a sob or the urge to vomit, he couldn't tell. His entire body shook from the force of his grief and overwhelm as he gripped at the sheets on his bed, wails of despair barely muffled by the hand gripping at his face.
They had found it. They had found a way to neutralize the toxic atmosphere of the Overworld and all it cost them was Alex.
It had cost him Alex.
Rage and grief burned through him, churning his magic and forcing it to manifest around him. That burned more than anything and he fought against the pain in his chest as his magic crackled in the air and damaged nothing but himself.
And it hurt. It hurt so much, but it was barely a whisper of wind against his bones compared to the hole in his soul that grew larger with every involuntary repeat of Alex's death. His own mind would not let him see anything else beyond that memory over and over again. With each time his partner, his friend, his family was impaled, it felt like he was being impaled too and he desperately, ruefully wished he could do it all over again and die in Alex's place because he wasn't sure he could live with the hole in his soul that Alex had left.
He wanted Alex back, to see the triumphant grin at finally finding the answer, to bury his hands in the other's hair as he helped Alex through another fit, be there when Alex came out of surgery with a stronger heart, to grow old together.
He wanted Alex back.
He woke an hour later slumped against the side of his bed half dressed. His face felt raw and his bones felt heavy. His soul was strangely numb while his magic still burned but that was probably because he had spent what little he had regained while he had grieved.
Those emotions still sharp and ready to bite were only held back by the numbness in his soul. He forced himself up and changed back into work clothes - he did pick a new shirt out, at least. He wasn't going to sleep so he might as well get to work. A glance at the clock informed him that it would be late enough for people to assume he had slept.
It was pushing it but a nap counted as 'slept', right? Besides, it wasn't like there wasn't a reason for his restlessness. They finally had a way to return to the Overworld.
He paused at his door and glanced back, sockets heavy with exhaustion and a pain he could not articulate.
He shook his head sharply to dislodge thoughts that threatened to drown him and stormed out of his room. Thinking about anything except the work that had to be done was only going to get in his way and cause him trouble. Best to just hunker down and get swept up in the work to come.
He had countless lives resting on his shoulders.