I made sure the container was hidden from prying eyes, and knocked on the door of Alphys' laboratory. I had come all the way here trying to hide the container from any monster I encountered. Miraculously, it took only one try to get all the way here without being seen – if anyone had noticed the soul, I planned to LOAD, I had made a SAVE point once I had exited the Velvet Room with Ciruel's soul.

The look in Alphys' face when she opened the doors and found me holding the container with a human soul was indescribable. I'm pretty sure I heard a yelp and she closed the doors, fretting on the other side for a couple minutes. I can't blame her. Even though she gave me the container, I doubt she ever thought I'd bring a real human soul. She must have thought I'd, I don't know, use it to carry water or something.

"W-W-Where did you get that from?!" she screeched when she opened the doors again. Behind her I saw the television screens with the camera feeds was on, maybe she watched them trying to find out if everything was okay? Only then it dawned on me in that other timeline she would have seen Toriel pursue me with all that anger, and she'd have connected the dots as to why that'd be happening. I had to calm her down.

"A human fell into the Underground, right into the human village. He was too injured, he...he died"

"B-But I watched the camera just now, you had the empty container and then suddenly y-you had a soul..." Oh. Right. She wouldn't have noticed me entering the Velvet Room. To her the soul appeared in the container in the blink of an eye. Not knowing what to say, I just stared at her, hoping she'd drop the topic. "W-What's going on...does that have to do anything w-with the stuff you do with that brooch and the Shadows...?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that's it. I don't know how to even start explaining" Thank you for giving such a convenient explanation, Alphys! Even though I completely contradicted myself, she didn't press any further, she just nodded and gestured for me to give her the container.

"Let me take a look...I had never seen a human soul up-close b-before"

No harm in doing that...for a fleeting moment I thought she'd try to keep it away from me, but if I wanted Alphys' help, I had to trust her. I did trust her, but I had to trust her more than I already did.

Alphys took the container very carefully and eyed the soul inside, examining it with expert eye. The soul pulsed, its purple color was shining. "It looks v-very healthy..."

"Is there something that could be done with it?" She looked up to me. Although her expression showed confusion, something in her eyes told me her mind was already trying to think what to do with the soul. I merely shrugged, playing with the firefly brooch and trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, as if I wasn't trying to lead her in a concrete direction. "You're the scientist here, I thought you'd know if something can be done with it"

"There may be something, but I don't know if I should...Undyne, you and those humans are working to break the Barrier, I wouldn't want to get in your way..."

I hurried to pounce on that chance. "Having another plan's never a bad idea. Who knows, yours may even break the Barrier faster!"

"It's not going to be fast, but it could be a start" she sounded somewhat more certain now, like talking about this gave her some confidence. She proceeded to explain to me a couple possible experiments with human souls, looking for a way to break the barrier by using one. She mentioned how human souls have Determination, and how she had thought about extracting some of that mysterious component to experiment with it. I managed to keep a straight face even though I knew the details "The problem is...we'd need a vessel to contain the monster SOULs, just one to start. We can't use a m-monster, so...the options were humans or something neither human nor monster..."

A shiver ran down my spine. "I really don't think shoving a bunch of monster SOULs into a human is a good idea" Humans couldn't absorb other human souls, but the mere continuous proximity to dozens of human SOULs and all the Determination in them had made a human go insane in the timeline my master had come from. I didn't want to think what directly absorbing hundreds of monster SOULs could do to a human.

"Yes, I agree. I-I hadn't thought much further than that because there w-was no reason to delve into an experiment I wouldn't ever do because I had no human SOUL t-to experiment with, but...now I do so..." she clutched the container, staring grimly at the purple heart inside. Even though she really liked science, I could tell she wasn't enthused at all about doing any of this.

"How about a plant?"

"A plant?"

"Yeah, it's a living thing and it's neither human nor monster. It could be worth a try, right?"

She'd have thought of it, given a little bit of time, but I wanted to ensure what I wanted would happen – the sooner we got the experiments out of the way, the sooner I'd stop feeling like I was the scum of the earth. At least that's what I hoped.

Alphys nodded. "Yes, a plant could work. Perhaps an Echo Flower? Or a strand of ivy from the Ruins? There's also cactus here in Hotland—"

"I have been taking care of a golden flower since I arrived to the Underground" I lied. If I remembered correctly, Alphys had originally chosen the golden flower from the throne room because of its significance, not because it was fitting for the experiment in some way – and indeed, her thoughts had immediately gone for plants that were convenient. I had to force her to use that specific flower no matter what.

"Are you sure? I don't know what'd happen to it, and if you have an attachment to that flower, it could...not end well..." she looked nervously from side to side. Perhaps she felt the worst case scenarios weren't described properly with 'not end well'?

"It's just a flower, it's no big deal"

-ooooo-

Science needs so much preparation! I had never realized it until then.

When I returned, bringing the potted flower with Asriel's dust nurturing it, I found Alphys talking into a recorder about the experiments she wanted to make. In front of her, a small screen flashed several words. I waited until she was done. When I took the flower to her, she lightly touched the petals, examined the stem, until she nodded, satisfied. "It's healthy...I don't know much about botany, but it seems healthy enough for me. You have a green thumb, Syphus"

"So how are we going to do this?"

Alphys dug in a nearby pile of papers, extracting a dozen and passing them to me. Almost everything written in them was illegible, her handwriting left a lot to be desired. "First I'm going to fix the Determination extractor my predecessor left half-done..." she narrowed her eyes, deep in thought "I don't even remember his name...but th-that's what I'll do first. Once that's done, I'll extract D-Determination from the human soul and inject it into the flower. It may take days, weeks, maybe even months to see results"

"Months?!" Can it really take that long?!

"You have to understand this is the first time me or a-anyone will do something like this! I don't know how it'll go!"

She was right, I had to admit. It'd be unreasonable of me to expect quick results. I had no idea how long it'd take, but as long as it was during the next hundred days, it should be fine.

...I just hoped it'd work and Flowey would be created. I didn't want to think what I did could be all for naught.

Alphys and I descended into the laboratory, she talked all the while about what she knew about the Determination extractor, and how it worked. Terminology went through one ear and exited through the other, it felt like my head was filled of sawdust and steam. It was all very specialized – Alphys had an impressive amount of knowledge of engineering!

"...help me?"

"Uh? Sorry, come again?" I looked around. We were in a small room filled with blueprints. When had we gotten here?

"I asked if you knew about engineering enough to help me" she dug through the piles of blueprints "If you and I work together, we could progress through this experiment quicker. Not by much, but if we're in a hurry..."

I rubbed one of my eyes. I wanted to say I knew stuff, if it meant helping her, but if I screwed up something I'd ruin everything. Better be honest. "No. I was into biology, not mechanics or anything like that"

Alphys seemed pleasantly surprised. "Really? I see! That's why you th-thought of a plant!"

"I guess...?" it felt like I was recalling something that had happened an eternity ago. I hadn't thought about biology or my former hopes and dreams for a very long time. "I was just a student, and I dropped out of college for...reasons. It's not like I'm a professional in biology"

"But this is good! If you know about biology you'd be more p-prepared than me to look after the flower once I inject the D-Determination into it" she extended the blueprints, examining the contents with expert eye, and nodded approvingly. When she turned to look at me, there was a spark of life in her eyes I hadn't seen ever before. "I'll need to keep the here for continuous monitoring, and you'll have to come every day to monitor it as well and make sure things are going smoothly enough"

She was serious...she wanted my help in the experiments, even though I wasn't a trained expert like her. Despite her reluctance to work on the human soul and experiment with Determination, when she read the blueprints and talked about the machine it felt like she was the happiest monster in the Underground. She'd be more than capable of handling everything by herself, yet she wanted me to lend a hand.

Alphys trusted me. I felt my bond with her was getting stronger.

-ooooo-

Day 25

We didn't work for long. Most of what we did the day before was the 'preliminary preparation', as Alphys called it. It involved a lot of paperwork, and defining the parameters for the experiment. I tried to keep up with Alphys' astonishingly quick decisions. I think I managed to keep her pace, but it was exhausting.

She decided the first thing we had to do was set up the Determination extractor – surprising? No, not at all. What did surprise me is how heavy the pieces of that machine were. I had supposed I'd need to do some physical effort, but it required much more than I thought it would. The problem was that neither Alphys nor I were...we weren't shining examples of physical prowess. Alphys was lacking a lot of muscle and, although I had been swinging a halberd for two weeks, it hadn't been enough to build any strength. I knew Alphys could set the extractor up by herself, and with my help we'd be able to do it faster, but it'd still take a long time.

We needed someone strong.

Alphys slurped some ramen, she was eating it with chopsticks. We were sitting on the couch, I had an open container of ramen in my hands. To my side Alphys was relaxed, watching the anime with a lot of attention. I still wasn't hooked in that strange show – I suppose I'll never understand anime. "I-I think we have two options" she said.

"Yeah?"

Alphys waved a chopstick around, without even looking away from the screen. "We could ask the king for help. A-Asgore would help us...but I'm not sure about it. He'd want to know where we got a human soul from..."

That'd be difficult to explain. I poked my ramen, biting my tongue for a second. "That'd be tough to explain...let's avoid that. What's the other option?"

"We could ask Undyne..."

I admit I was surprised. In this timeline where she had nothing to hide from Undyne, she was willing to ask for her help...most likely because Undyne knew about the humans. I wasn't happy about having to explain it to Undyne how there was a human soul here, but if I had to choose between showing a human soul to the King of All Monsters or to the friend I was starting to trust, I'd definitely choose the latter. "If there's no more option...I have no idea what I'm going to tell Undyne, though. She'll want all sorts of details, and I don't have time to think an elaborate story"

Alphys finally looked away from the anime. She clicked her claws together, looking as if she was preparing herself to say something she didn't want to say. "...she wouldn't have to know about th-the soul..."

"What do you mean?"

"...I don't want to th-think about it, b-but...uh, one of...the easiest way to lie is to...just n-not say a-anything" her stutter had returned with a vengeance. She sounded like she was already feeling guilty about it. "I hate to abuse of her trust like this, but...we may have to do it"

It was an option. I was confident if we really needed to we'd be able to stay silent about this, but I wished there were other ways other than piling more secrets all over. Unfortunately, we were unable to think any other options that didn't involve not telling Undyne about the human soul. Once we agreed Alphys would hide the soul and I'd be the one to try to convince Undyne to help us build the Determination extractor, I left the laboratory, going to the Royal Guard headquarters.

It wasn't too difficult to convince Undyne to help. I had barely said it was to help Alphys with an experiment Undyne stood up, the deck almost tilting over from how fast she moved. "I'm in"

Working with Undyne and Alphys was nice. My arms ached trying to lift the large metal pieces, Undyne kept lifting them as if they were sheets of paper. Alphys, who didn't lift anything once we started, did most of the work inside the machine, connecting the wires and welding the pieces we placed.

"Over here! Move this plate a bit to the left"

"Where are the screws? Syphus, wh-where did you put them?"

"Can you hold me up there for a moment, Undyne?"

She sounded happy. The mood was light; it didn't feel like we were doing exhausting physical work. Alphys kept moving like a hardworking ant, pointing and giving us careful instructions. She sounded confident, she knew exactly what she was doing and her instructions were concise and easy to follow, even though neither Undyne nor I had experience with this kind of machines.

"Done!" Undyne shook the rust and dust off her hands, stepping back to admire our work. I did the same, a tad puzzled. I already knew how the extractor looked like, but it didn't make it any prettier. What was up with that design?

"It's not a nice s-sight, right?" Alphys smiled sheepishly "I have no idea why my predecessor made it like this"

"It looks like some kinda skull..." Undyne looked at it with a bit of disgust.

"I think he had some sort of bone motif? I don't remember..."

"Whatever. What's important is that it's finished" I said.

Undyne scratched a bit of rust off. "What's this thing for, anyway? Alphys?"

"Oh! Uh...about that..." she looked away "It's for science stuff. It's hard t-to explain, but if you want to sit and—" it was kind of obvious to me she wanted to stall for time to think of a plausible story, but luckily Undyne shook her head.

"I'd love to listen to it but I'm sure most of that would fly right over my head" she waved a hand. I sighed with relief behind her back, glad Alphys didn't have to pile more lies upon the already shaky bunch we had made so far. Alphys hurried to leave the laboratory with the excuse to go bring some soda for all of us, leaving Undyne and me to wait beside the extractor.

I approached the extractor, examining the thick cords. How did this thing work? I hoped the soul wouldn't be damaged at all from whatever this machine would do to it. I was so focused on the machine I didn't notice Undyne had approached me until she put a hand on my shoulder, gently making me turn around. For a moment I thought I had done something wrong just now and she was going to scold me, but when I saw her face I noticed she was happy.

"Hey, Syphus, was any of this your idea?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's the first time I see Alphys make something like this. I know it's her job, but I don't remember the last time she worked in a project with so much enthusiasm"

Oh. Of course. "No, this is her idea. I'm just helping her, it's all her"

Undyne seemed to get even happier when she heard that. She positively glowed with pride for Alphys. "Now this is the Alphys I know, getting fired up about work! It's good to see her like this again – you wouldn't guess, but when I talk with her about stuff she gets passionate about everything! She gets into everything with dedication, one-hundred percent! Lately she was kinda in a slump, but you helped her, right?"

"I didn't do much. She's doing this on her own"

"Come on, don't underestimate yourself. You have been supporting her" she looked towards the hallway that led to the elevator. Was she making sure Alphys wasn't coming back yet? "I know you fought her Shadow. You must have seen stuff about her she wouldn't have shown you otherwise. Alphys is not the kind of person that opens up, if there was something bothering her you wouldn't have known, but her heart forced you to see whatever her Shadow said.

But you kept talking to her. I dunno what you saw, but whatever it was didn't push you away. Even though you saw a side of her she didn't want you to see, you kept supporting her and now look at this! She asked for our help! She's doing her best!"

Was it really that amazing? It was natural to want to befriend Alphys, what I saw in her soul made me want to support her. "It was nothing"

She had an expression of gratitude, so sincere and earnest it warmed my heart. "I just wanted to thank you. You're helping someone who is very important to me. Thanks for taking care of Alphys.

I'm glad you got her back no matter what"

I could feel Undyne's appreciation towards me. It was undeserved...but it was also nice.

Undyne stretched, twisting her back and taking deep breaths. "You know, I have to return the favor. Just like you're helping someone important to me, I'll help someone who is important to you. I know! The other humans, I'll help them. Where's the village?"

"The—ah. I don't think I should..." I started saying before I even realized what I was implying, and Undyne immediately caught onto what was on my mind. She looked resigned.

"Yeah...guess you don't trust me to be among the humans yet"

"That's not what I meant" I said half-heartedly. That was exactly what I thought, but it sounded so callous I didn't know how to soften the blow. After what she did last time she got into the village I just couldn't reveal the location, even if now I was certain she wouldn't take anyone's soul. I just couldn't forget how she and the other guards had pretty much killed all of us.

"No, I get it. I can't blame you, don't worry about that" she said "I have to earn you and the others' trust first, and that's exactly what I'm going to do"

"How?"

"I don't mean to offend you or the others, but you're all a bunch of wimps. Look at yourself, you looked like you were going to drop all those metal pieces on your own feet when we were working. So to make you all a bit less wimpy, I'll see what I can do" she said, crossing her arms. "With some luck they won't be too busy to continue the training, like someone whose name I won't mention"

How subtle of you, Undyne. Thanks for the shade. I agreed to call her when Cohen and Annie would be available. I didn't want to tell her the location of the village without consulting my teammates about it, and this should help them be closer friends. There were no downsides, as far as I could see.

-ooooo-

Day 31

Alphys placed the container with the human soul in front of the extractor and moved to the control panel, pressing the 'on' button. I shuddered a bit when a thick needle emerged from the machine, slowly advancing towards the floating heart. The needle pierced through the top of the container, touching the soul very slightly. "Now we'll proceed with the extraction" Alphys said, reading with attention several numbers on the panel. The eye-like containers on top of the machine had a slight purple glow, drop after drop leaked into the containers so slowly it seemed like it'd take an eternity to fill.

"This looks like the kind of thing you have to be very careful with" I was pretty sure if that needle had been just a millimeter closer to the soul, something bad would have happened. Alphys nodded, focused on her task. Only when the containers looked full enough, she turned off the machine, the needle retracted into the machine. Alphys pressed a couple buttons and received a couple vials filled with a shimmering liquid, she lifted one to look at it through the dim lights of the laboratory.

"It worked. I almost can't believe the machine worked!"

"...you thought it wouldn't?"

"It's not that I thought the extractor had flaws, it's that...I wasn't s-sure I'd be able to complete it" she shook her head "It's the first time in a long while that I have been doing something so complicated. Now that I think about it, this is my first real experiment since I was named Royal Scientist"

"Really? Your first experiment?"

"I did have a few theories I wanted to test, but I never tried them. I always thought if I did I'd screw up"

I felt a pang of discomfort. I better not say a word about that. Alphys and I worked in silence, she had to fill a lot of sheets and information about the Determination she extracted and about the subject she'd be injecting it into – the flower. I examined every inch of the flower, noting anything that looked like there were any imperfections, looking for anything that could be a problem for the experiment. I was extremely careful with that. Even if I thought the odds of the experiment going smoothly were high given the, uh, precedent, I didn't want to take risks.

"Hold it carefully" Alphys instructed. I grabbed the flowerpot with a hand and carefully lifted the flower with the other until it was extended up to full height. Alphys made sure the syringe filled with Determination was ready, and examined the stem of the flower, looking for the best point to aim at. Once she found it, she carefully inserted the needle of the syringe and emptied it inside. I knew the effects wouldn't be immediate, but I kept expecting the flower to turn alive and start writhing in my hand. A few seconds passed, she nodded. "This phase of th-the experiment is over. N-Now we'll have to pay close attention to the flower for some time and watch out for a-any changes"

"How long?"

"Let's give it a month. If nothing changes b-before thirty days, we'll reconsider our stance on this experiment and if we should continue. N-Not that I'll throw away the flower" she started filling out more paperwork. I didn't know science had so much...administrative stuff in them. "I, um, I'm a bit surprised you a-accepted to spend so much time watching th-the flower...are you sure you don't have anything better to do?"

"Nothing at all until we have to rescue someone else"

"That's...a bit sad...not that I can say I have a lot o-of stuff to do other than being here..." she frowned "The number of times I have left the lab during the l-last couple years can be counted in one hand..."

That seemed to me like a weird thing to bring up. I leaned against the table, flicking one of the leave of the flower with a finger. "Why's that?"

Alphys stopped writing, staring at the paper with conflicted expression. She shook her head, trying to clear it. "N-N-Nevermind. Besides, it's not like I have many f-friends...I have never been a gregarious person" she looked up "I g-grew up not too far away from the capital, here in Hotland. Since it's warm i-in here I like it because...you know, cold-blooded monster...anyway, I had only two friends. Do you know Bratty and Catty?"

"Nope. Who are they?"

"Just some old friends. We grew in the same area of Hotland, so we m-met and played together. Th-They used to take me shopping, sometimes I took them to the g-garbage dump to look for neat s-stuff" Alphys smiled nostalgically "I know it sounds weird, b-but it was fun to look for treasure in the trash with them. I th-think they liked it too"

I hid my mouth behind the flower so she wouldn't see the smile I was sure was trying to fill my face. "We should all search for stuff in the garbage dump once this all is over" the silence that followed what I thought was a harmless suggestion indicated me I may have made a faux pas. Had I touched a sore point? I looked up from examining the soil, Alphys was staring blankly at the clipboard she had in her hands. "Oh...sorry, did I—"

"N-No, it's nothing. I just...would like to not see th-them for a while longer" she said quietly. Had something happened between them at some point in the past and I didn't know? I grabbed the flowerpot and moved the subject to the tables in the hall with the mirrors, placing it carefully there. On the ceiling there were many lights, I hoped they'd be enough to keep the flower alive. They should be enough. Right?

"...why do you trust me with this?" Alphys asked out of the blue. When I looked at her inquisitively she pointed at her clipboard where she had a lot of notes about the experiment. "With...this whole th-thing, I mean"

"You're the scientist, this is something I couldn't ever do myself"

Apparently that wasn't the right answer at all, because Alphys cringed and looked down. "Ah...alright..." I realized too late why she was asking: she was looking for reassurance. Telling her I was here simply because she was the Royal Scientist and therefore has the laboratory and technology I needed was like telling her she was only a means to an end. I hurried to correct myself – and what I was going to say wasn't a lie.

"More importantly than that, I trust you"

"You...trust me?" she looked up. I nodded with conviction.

"You're capable, you're passionate, I know I can rely on you" I said "Alphys, you have helped me so much. Not only you have made two dozen different weapons for the team, you also are working on how to shatter the Barrier with the materials we bring. You're working so hard, and we'd be nowhere without you" I approached her, making sure to sound absolutely sincere "You're smart and you know what you're doing! Even if I had the right machines, I bet I'd screw up without your help! I..."

"Yes?" she was staring at me like she couldn't believe everything I was saying.

"...I owe you a lot, and someday I'll repay you, I swear. I don't know what I'd be doing without your support"

Was that better? I hoped so. Alphys seemed happier, she looked at me with gratefulness. "Thank you. I think I really needed t-to hear that"

"Of course" I felt the bond between Alphys and I was getting stronger.

-ooooo-

Day 32

I didn't know how long it'd take for Flowey to exist. Alphys had injected the determination into the flower, so I knew it was matter of time before he was...alive...

The problem was that not knowing when exactly it'd happen made me pretty nervous. I couldn't stay at Alphys' laboratory 24/7. I had to return to the village sometimes, I had to go to work at the headquarters, there were a lot of things I needed to do. Alphys had said she'd take care of 'the subject' while I wasn't at the laboratory, but I wanted to be there for as long as possible.

I couldn't stop thinking about Ciruel, though. When I returned to the village last night I stumbled upon him. He greeted me, I returned the greeting and hurried to walk into Cohen's cabin. Even though many days had passed since I had attacked Ciruel and undid it, I still couldn't face him.

Today I had been staring at the cottage that was being built for me, noting how much it had progressed, when Byssa approached me, pushing Celia on her wheelchair. "Good morning, Syphus"

"Good morning"

"Is there something wrong?" Byssa asked. I hesitated for a moment and shook my head – I didn't really trust Byssa. From the six humans, she was the one I liked the least. I knew she had tried to kill Asriel in our original timeline.

...that's me being a hypocrite. My lips curled in disgust, I was upset with myself.

"If you say so..."

"Can you leave me here for a moment?" Celia looked up. Byssa shrugged and nodded, pushing the wheelchair towards me.

"Grandma wants to talk with you for a while. Please take her back to her cottage once you're done, alright?" she looked at me with a glare that clearly warned me to be careful with Celia. Had Byssa always been so protective of her?

Once Byssa went away Celia put her hand on mine, holding it comfortingly. "You can't fool me. There's something eating you inside, right?" I frowned. "You can trust me. If there's one good thing about living for as long as I have is that I'm a good listener. I won't judge"

Something about her voice made me believe her when she said she wouldn't judge.

Maybe...telling a little bit would help, I thought. I looked around, making sure nobody was nearby, and asked the question I had in mind for a long while already.

"What do you do if you betrayed someone's trust badly?"

Celia's expression darkened. Her eyes clouded, for a moment I feared I had said just the wrong thing. She didn't pull away her hand or try to get away, she just asked: "What do you mean?"

"I once did something bad. I hurt a person and now I regret it, and I wish I could make amends but...but I can't, I literally can't" Hard to make amends for something when technically it never happened. I could tell Ciruel but all that'd happen is that he'd think I'm crazy.

"Because they're on the surface?"

"...yeah, that's it" I lied, taking the convenient explanation.

Celia patted my hand in what I interpreted as a comforting gesture. "That's a problem. In my own experience I can tell you if you truly regret it you won't reach peace until you talk to them. If you can't, then there's not much you can do other than swallow your regrets and wait for the moment you can apologize"

That sounded graver than I expected. "Would that really work?"

"...no, maybe it wouldn't. Sometimes your regrets are so heavy even making amends won't relieve them. In that case there's nothing you can do other than carry that cross with you for the rest of your life" she stared absently at my almost-finished cottage "The problem is that if you're the type to feel strong regret, then you're also the type to hold onto it if your apology doesn't go well. You're doomed"

"That's a bit too negative for my tastes" I replied.

"It may be, but what else can I tell you?" she looked up at me "I don't want you to raise your hopes unnecessarily. It's for your own good. Take it from me, I'm your elder, after all"

We were silent for a while, just staring at my cottage. There was this constant miasma of resignation and subtle despair all over Celia I didn't know how to deal with. I still remembered all her comments from when I met her a few days ago, and what she had just said didn't really help me think she was okay. Besides, she had just said something... "Celia, what did you mean with 'from my own experience'?"

"...it means what you think it means: I have done things I'm not proud of" she admitted quietly.

"You? I have kind of a hard time believing that"

Celia chuckled. "How kind of you. I wasn't always on this wheelchair, you know. When I was...how old are you?" I replied I was twenty-six. That was the age my body showed, I couldn't tell the truth "When I was younger than you I did some stuff I now regret"

"And apologizing didn't help" if that also was from her own experience...

"It didn't. Anyway, this wheelchair is my punishment" she hit one of the wheels with her fingers "I don't mean the object, I mean what it represents: I'm a useless burden of a person who can't even move by herself. It's just punishment for my actions. Maybe I wouldn't mind it if it didn't mean other people have to deal with it too"

"Why, what did you do?"

Celia shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it"

Then why to tell me all that? It felt to me like she was teasing me, dangling in front of my face information I'd want to know and then yanking it away at the last moment. Some of my frustration must have showed in my face because she smiled, a bit pitiful. "What?" I asked, exasperated.

"I know what you may be thinking. I have to be honest with you: you are the only person I feel I can talk with" she looked up at the rocky ceiling above us "You're the only adult that has fallen down here, and when I look at the rest all I can see is the children they were at first. Maybe that's how Toriel feels...when you're old, everyone else seems like a kid to you. But you, you're different.

I believe you're the one who'd understand better than anyone else, just because you lived on the surface for longer than I did"

Oh if she knew the truth...still, I felt I was bonding with Celia. She was reluctant to talk to me about her inner demons right now, but maybe in the future she would.

-ooooo-

Day 40

It had been almost three weeks since the last time we did anything that could further our goal of breaking the Barrier. Almost three weeks since my master's influence over me stopped. I was absolutely certain those two facts were related to each other; no way they weren't. I started to get worried – we only had two months, 120 days to achieve the goal, but we lost twenty days already. More than a fourth of the time we had was gone, and although we made a lot of progress in just twenty days by obtaining five pieces of the twelve we need, now I realized that may have been mere good luck.

The rest of the team had been wondering what was wrong. Cohen talked to me the other day, trying to gauge if I had heard something. Undyne said she hadn't heard of anyone falling down – no surprise there – and said she was getting antsy about continuing life as normal. Ananas was taking things well, playing with Monster Kid every day at the village, although I was kind of worried she'd start pressing Cohen again like she used to do before she joined the team.

I also heard about Frisk. For some reason it was taking them ages to go through Hotland. Alphys said they had been wandering around aimlessly, not even trying to approach the MTT Resort. I had tried to talk with them, but they were rather evasive. They still stayed with Sans and Papyrus at Snowdin, enjoying a peaceful existence among the rather friendly monsters of that town. They all had gotten used to the human child, and by now everyone in the Underground knew Frisk was there.

It felt like every monster in the Underground was waiting for something to happen, for the king to take a decision as to what to do with the human child living in Snowdin. Thanks to my assistant position in the Royal Guard, I was able to hear a few opinions. The majority was willing to accept Asgore's decisions and spare the child if he wanted, and had decided to give him some time to think, but from time to time I heard how they couldn't keep waiting forever. Did that mean they'd take the matter in their own hands? A worryingly small minority wanted to let the child live there in Snowdin in peace, let them be welcome into the community, and...a rather vocal group of monsters were demanding Asgore to direct the Royal Guard to take the child's SOUL. It was a necessary evil, they said, as king he had to make sure to do what was best for his people, they said. I never found what Asgore thought about such demands.

Maybe that was why Frisk hadsn't advanced further than Hotland, because of how unusually close monsterkind as a whole were keeping tabs on him

Alphys and I had the experiment to keep us busy. We observed that flower for days, writing down so much data every hour. Most of the data was the same, but Alphys insisted that was how scientific studies needed to be done. "One of my teachers at college u-used to say science doesn't rush"

"I know, I know. This is why I'm not made for science" I consider myself a patient man, but it's kind of frustrating when you don't see any progress. I wrote the current height of the flower, down to the millimeters. The number hadn't changed ever since I brought the flower here for the first time. "Did you always know you'd be a scientist?"

Alphys smiled fondly. "I always liked science, but I studied e-engineering. I don't mean to brag, but I-I have skills in that field" In my opinion she should brag about it – she's quite skillful, if you ask me.

"That's why you're the Royal Scientist, then?"

I asked that without even thinking. I had been too busy measuring the flower's petals my mind was going in auto-pilot. When I realized what I had just asked, I looked up, finding Alphys with contemplative expression. Before I could apologize or change the topic, Alphys put aside the notes she had been reading, and shrugged, a bit sadly.

"Y-Yes, you could say that..." she hesitated, her hands shaking a bit, and wiped off some sweat off her brow. "I...I want to tell y-you something about that. Do y-you have a moment?"

I glanced at the flower. Flowey wouldn't come to life right when I was talking with Alphys, right? Just in case, I SAVEd and followed her on the elevator. Once we were sitting on the couch, in front of her many anime figurines, she started talking.

"You...You have heard of Mettaton, right?"

"Everyone in the Underground has heard of him"

"Okay, uh, so he's an entertainer and very famous, and I made him. Maybe you have heard he's a robot with a soul. And he is, he does have a soul! It's just that...uuuuuh..." she seemed to be gathering all of her courage "Syphus, can I trust y-you? Can you promise m-me you're not going to t-tell anyone this?"

"Of course, I promise"

"Not even to Undyne or any of our friends, I—please don't tell anyone"

"I won't" I was as sincere as I could. Alphys and I got along pretty well, but she was opening her heart to me, telling me stuff not even Undyne knew. I had a feeling she was telling me this only because I had seen her Shadow. I had met the parts of her psyche she had kept suppressed, I already had seen her at her most vulnerable. If it hadn't been for that, I doubt she'd even think of telling me.

"...so Mettaton is...he does have a soul! It's...it's just that...it's...a monster soul?" I said nothing, waiting for her to continue. "B-But not like I made a monster soul and put it in him! It's more like it's...it'saghostmonsterpossessingashellImadeandmakingitmoveandlivinghislifeandthat'sthegistofit"

I blinked. She said that so fast I couldn't understand many of those words, but from the few I did understand I pieced together what she had just tried to say. "...oh. That's nothing to be embarrassed about, I'm sure nobody else other than you would have been able to make a good shell for a ghost to possess"

Alphys was grateful for what I said, but she didn't seem convinced. "Ghosts can ta-take anything they like as th-their bodies. Even a dummy from the garbage dump would be e-enough, what I made isn't that amazing. K-King Asgore thought it was, and that's how I got this job" she joined her hands, contrite "He thought I had created a soul...he s-said I would help save monsterkind. He was looking at me with such kindness and high hopes for me I...I couldn't bring myself t-to tell him I didn't think I'd be capable of anything like that"

She paused, touching the head of one of her figurines. I didn't interrupt her train of thought – it seemed to me like she needed some time to get her thoughts in order. "At first I thought maybe I c-could do it" she said "I thought maybe I'd be able to think a-an idea or a plan. I had ideas for an e-experiment or two, but they'd have been impossible to make. I think y-you understand why"

"You didn't have a human soul to work on"

"It wasn't that same problem, but it was similar: I-I'd have needed rare stuff" Alphys nodded "The king left me work in any way I wanted, he just called s-sometimes to ask how I was doing. I...I liked those calls. It felt like he truly cared about me. I wasn't just the Ro-Royal Scientist; he was making sure I was okay because that was the r-right thing to do. Even when I had n-nothing to report, he understood. He always told me to take my time"

Alphys grimaced. "It made me feel very pressured. I-I thought someday he'd run out of patience and then I'd be fired. What use is a Royal Scientist w-who can't do anything...? I didn't want to disappoint him. I wanted to avoid disappointing anyone, I just—I just wanted t-to be of help!" she accidentally bent one of the cheap figurines forward. There was a deep sorrow in her eyes, the weight of her insecurities had imprisoned her since long ago, and now that she was talking about it, she was telling just how badly the king's expectations and her own expectations had affected her. "I can't do anything, I'm just a liar. I don't know what I'm doing, but you, you, Undyne and the humans, you're the ones who'll shatter the Barrier"

"You're vital for our team" I said, encouraging, but Alphys wasn't encouraged at all.

"I just craft weapons with what you bring me. I don't think me being the Royal Scientist has anything to do with that.

I didn't have any counter to that. Her negativity was almost contagious; I was starting to feel rather bummed out myself. I sighed, at a loss for words. She broke the silence by digging deeper into all her problems: "Do you know what my predecessors did?"

"What did they do?"

"The one right before me cre-created the CORE. It changed so many things about how we live here in the Underground, it was an a-amazing invention!" her eyes light up while she described the CORE "The way it takes the energy of the core of the planet a-and converts it into magic electricity...it's amazing! And before him there was the woman w-who made all those theories about magical food, and before her there was someone w-who tried to find out if humans could do magic. Everyone d-did some great things, that's why the p-position of Royal Scientist is so important"

Alphys took one of the figurines and swiveled the head and arms around, just to keep her hands busy with something while trying to find the right words to continue. "...and then there's me. Compared to them I'm no scientist. A-all...All I have d-done is...lie to everyone. I lied to the king, I l-lied to Undyne, I...I'm o-only good for lying.

I know I don't deserve to be the Royal Scientist...a-and I don't know h-how to get out of this. I-I'm trapped."

I just sat there, staring at her claws and trying to process everything she was saying. The person here I knew was a competent scientist on her own right, who undeniably had skills and the knowledge, but felt like she didn't deserve to be where she was. Her insecurities were so ingrained, so based on what she knew had snowballed from making Mettaton's body into her position as the Royal Scientist, I didn't even know what to say. I could remember a lot of things I had never seen before, my head was full of memories of what Alphys had done during the same length of time in countless timelines, but in none of them she had said something like this to anyone. I was at a complete loss of what'd be the right thing to say. All I knew was that I wanted to support her.

She kept going, as if she was talking to herself. "I-I have thought about quitting, and sometimes I want to run away. Th-there must be someone else who'd do a better job than me, b-but I'm...I'm scared about having to admit I lied. I don't want to d-disappoint everybody, if I quit, that'll happen, and i-if I keep being the Royal Scientist, that'll happen later. It's like I can't win, right?"

"When you put it like that it does sound like inescapable fate"

"I know. That's just how I feel. What do you think I should do?"

Great, now the spotlight was on me. What was I supposed to say? "I don't think I can give you a good answer"

"B-But I don't know what I can do! If you don't tell me I'll...I'll just do nothing. I can't even trust myself to take a decision"

"Then that may be what you need to work on first, on trying to trust your own decisions"

"A-And how am I s-supposed to do that part?"

"What do you want me to say? It's nothing I can help you with" I said that immediately, feeling pressured, but I had to say something else, if only to encourage Alphys. "But remember you have us. True, we your friends may not be happy to find out if you did anything improper, but we are your friends, and you also have Undyne on your side. You have people to support you on your decisions"

Sounded like empty platitudes to me. Pretty generic, if you ask me, but it was the best I could do under pressure. Still, Alphys seemed to feel somewhat better – although part of me thought it was because of how awkwardly I said it, not because I had said anything particularly encouraging or useful.

"Yes...I know I do. I'm sorry this experiment's taking so long, but in a way I'm glad I'm doing it" she admitted "I'm thankful you were willing to give me a chance to help"

...she's not going to be happy once the flower goes missing. I forced myself to smile. Alphys definitely wasn't the only person capable of deceiving, and for a moment I felt what she must have felt for so long, the feeling of lying to someone and not being able to tell them the truth It felt like having a knot in your throat, like you want to say it but something has your chest in a vice and you can't spit out the truth.

"Of course" I said. Despite everything, I felt she was growing to trust me more than I thought she ever would.

-ooooo-

Day 42

It happened so suddenly I can't avoid wondering how it'd have gone if Alphys had been around instead of me.

It was rather subtle, I almost missed it. I was carefully adjusting one of the lights above the flower, making sure it wasn't too bright, when the flower twitched. For a moment I thought that had been just my imagination, but I judged I shouldn't chalk anything up to my imagination and do nothing. My concern was justified once I examined the flower.

The flower was strangely warm, and I was sure it wasn't because of the light overhead. I poked the stem of the flower, getting no reaction, but the warmness was enough for me to think something was going on. The face of the flower was blank, no eyes, no mouth...instinctively I stepped back, like I expected him to suddenly pop out and scare me. Nothing happened.

What should I do? Telling Alphys was out of the question. Leaving the flower there to follow its course and turn into Flowey was another option, but I didn't know what he'd do, or where he'd go. I had to keep an eye on him somehow, but doing that here in the Alphys' lab may not have been ideal.

Maybe being able to go back in time was making me reckless, because my decision was to take the flowerpot and carry the plant out of the laboratory once I made sure to SAVE! Alphys was nowhere to be seen, she had gone to the garbage dump. As soon as I left the laboratory I went to the nearby river and arranged a ride in a boat to as close to the Ruins as possible.

Call it corny, but I felt it'd be appropriate if Flowey came to life in that secluded place in the Ruins.

No monster I found along the way paid attention to me, even though I suppose it's unusual to see a monster hurrying through the Ruins with a flowerpot. I even was lucky to not encounter a guard near the steel fence. I passed the flowerpot through the steel bars and climbed the fence, soon reaching the glade-like part of the cavern where Frisk usually met Flowey for the first time.

"Here we go..." I murmured, placing the flowerpot on the ground carefully. There was no reply, as expected, so I got on my knees and started working. I dug my fingers into the soil, moving the grass and digging until my fingers were sore. I made a hole several inches deep, the wet soil moved easily. With as much care as I could have with my inexperienced hands, I lifted the golden flower and placed it right in the center of the hole, carefully moving the earth until it covered the flower's roots. "Yes, that's it..." I kept the stem standing up until I was sure the flower wasn't going to tumble over, and I let go with trembling fingers.

The flower stayed there, upright. I slumped my shoulders, glad I hadn't screwed up.

I had still been staring at the flower when the cellphone in my pocked sounded. I took it out of my pocket, it was the one Cohen had given me to use. I didn't recognize the number, but I answered anyway. "Yes?"

"Th-The flower is gone! Syphus, the flo—the flower is gone!" Alphys' worried voice sounded from the other end of the line.

"...oh. Really?" I don't think I sounded convincing in my feigned surprise, but Alphys was panicking too much to notice.

"D-Do you know anything about it? I-I thought you'd be here! Where are you?"

I stood up, thinking fast. "Annie called me and said we needed to talk urgently. She thought someone from the village had fallen down, but it was just a misunderstanding"

"Oh. I-I see. That's—that's fine..." she seemed to have believed my lie, hook line and sinker. I didn't feel exactly proud of this. "I-I'll look for the flower! Don't w-worry, I'll find it!"

"I'm counting on you" I said, she hung up in a hurry. Feeling how a heavy weight settled into the pit of my stomach, I tried to ignore the growing guilt and sighed between my teeth, staring at the cellphone. "I'll have to make it up to her" I mumbled.

Another person for that particular list.