Sorry about the delay guys, but honestly, we should probably expect me to take months between chapters now, haha.

Anyway, THIS month's delay you can mostly pin on Minecraft Dungeons. Seriously, that game is ADDICTING AS ALL HELL. It should NOT be as addicting as it is. It's a dungeon crawler with a minimal story and I can't even play it at its best graphics due to my computer being laggy, and yet I keep finding myself coming back to it? It's downright addicting. I'm at like, level 41 on my first singleplayer game as of now, with my armor fully enchanted (two slots fully leveled up!) and I think my favorite weapons right now are the gauntlets. It's so fun just – mowing down enemies by punching them in the face, even if it's a little risky since you have to get right up close and personal and the gauntlets don't cause as much damage as other weapons. And I have one of those Corrupted Beacon weapons too now, and it's basically a laser. And a pet llama, which attacks by spitting. It's great.

Also, on a slightly different note, here's a link to the podcast me and daniel participated in, for those of you who weren't able to watch it live or didn't know where to find it on YouTube! Just remove the spaces or, if for whatever reason the link doesn't show, just look for The Determined Podcast on Youtube, and our podcast is the one with our names in the title! Enjoy! ;P

www . youtube watch?v = pRWC3yKpi4k&t = 366s


It was… a little weird, being in Fowl Manor and knowing what she did now. Perched on a comfy chair in the Fowl Estate dojo (a dojo, the Fowls had an entire dojo in their home, she didn't think she'd ever be able to get over that), and watching Juliet and Undyne try to beat each other up in the name of making up and being friends again, Alphys tapped a pen nervously against an empty pad of paper as she thought.

It had always felt a little weird being here – Alphys could count the number of times she'd ever been in a building as huge and extravagant as this one on the claws of one hand – but it felt especially so now that Alphys knew about the fairies and the Fowls' alliance with them. Something about the Fowls had always felt a little off to her, but the former scientist had always put it down to, well, them being humans and being rich – monsters may have had an economy sort of similar to humanity's but they'd never put much stock into money, whereas humans seemed to be obsessed with it to the extent that the more money they had, the more power they had.

Finding out about the fairies and their alliance with Artemis Fowl and his family had been like – like finding and fixing a burned-out circuit in a computer's motherboard. Suddenly so many of those weird little discrepancies she'd barely paid attention to – the complete lack of discomfort when faced with obviously non-human beings, the utter calm when faced with the casual use of magic, the acceptance of Frisk's position as Ambassador (something that many humans still apparently couldn't accept, if only because of Frisk's age, which had never made sense to her, honestly – Alphys had been experimenting with robotics and engineering since she was still in stripes, how was politics any different?) – made so much more sense.

If it hadn't been for the fairies themselves, and the situation they were in, Alphys would have been all kinds of excited. The discovery of a whole new sentient species, a magic-using species like them with technology just as advanced as their own, if not more so in some ways, was amazing, and like something from straight out of one of her anime, and what little technology she'd seen the fairies actively using (the wings alone had her itching to get her claws on some) was fascinating.

But that same tech that was so fascinating to her… it was also more than a little horrifying.

A mind-wipe. The ability to completely alter someone's memories, someone's sense of self, without magic or Determination.

A flash of memory – a dark lab, monsters turning to pale goop and blending together until their bodies and souls (their selves) were no longer entirely their own – had Alphys closing her eyes and taking a few deep, shaky breaths in an effort to calm down.

It's even worse than what I did to the Amalgamates. They at least still had some of their memories, and I never intended for that to happen to them. But the mind-wipe? The fairies do that on purpose! An entire race of people willing to destroy pieces of someone's sense of self like that… how can they even look at themselves in the mirror, let alone think that's normal? You… you don't do that to other people!

Which implied that the fairies didn't really… see humans as people. Not in the same way they viewed themselves as people, at least. Which in and of itself had her tense and nervous and worried for several other reasons, because if the fairies didn't think of humans as people, and monsters considered themselves equal to humans, did that also mean the fairies looked down on them? Was them being terrified of discovery the only thing keeping them from doing the same to monsters as they did to humans? And worst of all – what did that mean for the monsters, if the fairies were to ever find out about their biggest weakness, the fragility of their souls?

And yet, despite those fearful thoughts… Alphys couldn't help but want to sympathize with the fairies, just a little.

"We are the violent nightmares of fairykind," Fowl had said, "their boogeymen, and they are absolutely terrified of being discovered by us."

Alphys could understand all too well just what kinds of things fear could push you to do. She had lied to everyone she knew, from King Asgore to her now-girlfriend, hidden her mistakes behind locked doors, along with those that had suffered because of said mistakes, all because she'd been terrified of people finding out what she'd done, of them being disappointed in her failure. Compared to the fear that fairies must feel at the idea of discovery by humans, of being discovered by the same race that had forced them to flee below ground, the same race they thought would come for them again if they ever showed themselves?

Alphys's old fears seemed downright pathetic.

Fear that strong would push them into doing things so much worse than I ever could.

A heavy thump, and a crow of triumph from Undyne, had her shaking off those thoughts and looking back up from her still-empty notebook. Her girlfriend (god, she'd never be able to get over how lucky she was to have someone as amazing as Undyne return her feelings), was standing over Juliet, one of her magic spears disappearing in a flurry of white and blue sparks.

"Hell yeah!" Undyne whooped. "I win, in your face!"

Juliet snorted, rolling her eyes. "And how do you know I didn't let you win? You were holding back this time."

"Fuck that, punk, I won fair and square!"

With another snort, and a casual shrug, the Jade Princess jackknifed up from the mat, landing on her feet perfectly, and Alphys gawped at her.

"C-congrats on the win, Undyne," she managed as she tried to calculate exactly how the wrestler had managed to go from flat on her back to back on her feet that fast. Seriously, how? "That was some r-really good aim at the end there."

"Yeah, joking aside, those spears of yours are pretty cool," Juliet said. "The black-and-white thing with the glowing heart is kinda… weird, though. What even is that?"

Undyne made a face. "What is that? Seriously? It's your soul, duh."

"My what?"

"Oh! Um, right, humans… aren't u-used to that sort of thing." Alphys slipped off the bench, tucked her notepad back into one of her dimensional storage boxes, and then smiled nervously. "Monsters can, um, very temporarily pull out a human's soul. W-we can't do it with our own souls, t-though, just human ones. It's not – it's not harmful!" she added hurriedly, seeing Juliet's shocked expression. "Um, not most of the time, a-at least! Though, um, you need to be careful when in a fight – magic can hurt it, and if too much magic hits it –"

"Dead as a doornail," Undyne finished for her bluntly. "You humans are weird, though, monster souls can't be pulled out like that. It's like – your souls aren't completely attached to your body or something. It doesn't make any sense!"

"Well," Alphys hedged, all too aware at how close they were getting to a topic that Frisk had suggested they not talk about, "um, we're… made mostly of magic. And dust. A-and our souls are directly connected to our bodies through it. Humans are mostly made of molecules and water, I t-think?"

"Huh." Juliet raised a thoughtful eyebrow at her, and Alphys tried not to sweat too much. "So, like… souls are separate from our bodies in humans, but in monsters, they're not? No wonder you guys freak out so much at the idea of mind-wipes."

Right. That. Undyne grimaced, and Alphys glanced up at the ceiling, in the general direction Frisk had gone after breakfast.

Frisk had looked so scared when they'd walked off, with Flowey's pot in their arms. As scared as Alphys had once felt about people knowing about the Amalgamates. Except… well, Alphys had always had the impression that Frisk's secrets (and she knew that her friend had quite a few, ones she'd never been privy to) had, in some ways, been much much worse than hers could ever hope to be.

"Hey," Juliet said, and Alphys started a little and glanced back at her. "Don't worry. Your little ambassador friend will be fine, I promise." She gave both monsters a crooked grin. "Arty's bad at most social stuff, but he knows when to stop pushing if things start looking too stressful, and your buddy's got backup that can tell him to fuck off if they need it. They'll be fine."

Alphys started messing with her coat and glanced back up at the ceiling, anxiety pulsing in her soul. Juliet… might be right, but at the same time

Juliet, obviously recognizing that her worry wouldn't abate, sighed, then grabbed a walkie-talkie off her belt and flicked it on.

"Hey Arty," she drawled into it, "you and little Frisky-bits done talking?"

After a few moments, a muffled, barely audible voice crackled through the speaker, and her brow furrowed slightly. "Hey, you okay? You're sounding a little… off."

Alphys's eyes widened a bit, and she and Undyne exchanged worried glances.

After another few seconds, Juliet sighed, rolled her eyes, and flicked off the walkie-talkie, tucking it back onto her belt. "Well, they're done talking if you two wanna check on your friend –"

"Finally!" Undyne yelled, and Alphys yelped as her fishy girlfriend suddenly grabbed her and lifted her right up off her feet. "C'mon Alph, let's go find the punk! I swear if that Fowl guy so much as looked at them funny –"

"Sorry Betta Fish, but you'd probably have to get through me and my brother before you could give him any kind of payback," Juliet drawled. "You okay, Alphys? You're looking a little red there."

Alphys felt her face heat up, and she covered her snout with her hands with a mortified squeak.

"Aw, come on Alphys!" Undyne groaned good-naturedly, striding out of the dojo, "we've been over this – you gotta be more confident in yourself! Do I need to get Papyrus to run laps with you hooting about how great you are again?*"

"N-no!" Alphys squawked. "No, I'm fine, Undyne!"

"Sounds like there's a story behind that," Juliet mused. The blonde human was trailing after them, locking the dojo door behind her and following them down the hall, and she shot Alphys a cheeky grin.

"Oh, you bet there's a story behind that!" Undyne snickered. "Alphys thought that Frisk was asking her out on a date, and even if she didn't return the kid's feelings she still wanted to at least give it a try for them, and…"

Alphys watched as slowly, some of the tension that had still been stretched thin between the wrestler and the former Captain began to ebb away, the two chatting and snickering like old friends. And relaxed, smiling slightly behind her hands.

I'm glad Undyne isn't upset with Juliet anymore. She was really messed up by it when she realized that her new friend was on the fairies' side, and I can't really blame her, either, with everything going on.

Now all she had to worry about was the fairies themselves… and whatever had happened between Artemis Fowl and Frisk. Because Juliet had sounded worried, just for a moment, about Fowl when she'd contacted him over the walkie-talkie, and Alphys was pretty sure that that wasn't normal for him. Someone as confident as Fowl had been in the labs, someone as smart as he was, couldn't possibly be openly worried with any kind of frequency, not when she was pretty sure he could outsmart everyone in a room without batting an eyelash. And if he was worried…

What happened up there?

That, though, would have to wait. Because even now they were approaching the gardens (with Alphys still being carried easily underneath one of Undyne's arms, god she was never going to get used to how strong her girlfriend was!), and Alphys, with a bit of neck-craning, could actually see Frisk talking with the twins, and even from a distance, they seemed a little tense.

A little tense… especially as the two monsters and Juliet approached. And while Alphys was pretty sure that Undyne hadn't noticed, the former royal scientist had spotted her human friend quickly tucking what looked like candy wrappers into one of their pockets, with the urgency of someone trying to hide something big. And, even more telling in her mind, the twins quickly tried to avert attention away from Frisk so they could hide the wrappers by speaking louder than normal (the blonde boy – Beckett, right?) and leveling a sarcastic quip at a grinning Juliet (his twin.)

Alphys wanted to ask. She wanted to ask so badly. But she had a feeling she knew why Frisk was hiding the wrappers of what she was pretty sure was monster candy... and it probably had something to do with her girlfriend. Her girlfriend who, despite being wonderful and amazing, was also prone to jumping to the worst conclusions at the worst possible times, and who seemed to have grown an overprotective streak several miles wide when it came to people messing with her bestie.

I don't think Artemis and the fairies with him hurt Frisk, she decided, after a moment's alarm. That just… doesn't seem to be his style? And it wouldn't make sense if they're trying to get along with us.

Catching Alphys's eyes, and obviously recognizing the worried expression she had for what it was, Frisk shook their head slightly at her and mouthed I'll be fine.

I'll be fine. Not I'm fine or even we're fine. I'll be fine.

Alphys couldn't remember ever seeing Frisk admit, in any way shape or form, that they weren't fine without being put under duress first, whether it be by their friends or by the Queen. Something had clearly gone down in Artemis Fowl's office.

But the question now was what?


Alphys gave me a little trouble – I've only written an Alphys POV like, once, in my entire life, and that was for a short drabble in my Multiverse of Ideas doc, AND it was a drabble taking place before her canonical confidence boost. Still, I think I managed to get her character across!

Next chapter we'll be returning to Frisk POV! Bonding-with-the-twins time! And then things will start to pick up again...

*Running laps hooting about how great you are – this is from the end of the "date" you have with Alphys just before the True Lab! Undyne, instead of helping Alphys herself, calls in Papyrus to help her with her confidence, and his exact words are something along those lines. Considering Alphys was then able to go to the True Lab and make the decision to tell people about the Amalgamates, I'd say it worked!