Alice in Undertale

By Lolitafreak88

Chapter 26 Core Conundrum

Alice was fully expecting something alarmingly futuristic and mechanical, but what she saw was nothing like she had envisioned properly. Blue walls and unusual geometric patterns done in lines of a lighter shade of blue, glass panels, two entryways marked by a glowing red sign, and an elevator straight in front of her. Some unusual chart with untranslatable green text was planted above it and made Alice wonder if such thorough detail and signs was a trademark of this new time period she found herself in. Alice was left staring in awe until her phone rang obnoxiously. Knowing exactly who the caller was, she was a bit surprised to hear what they had to say,

"Ready? This is it! Take the elevator up to the top of the CORE!"

"It can't really be that easy could it? Even in Wonderland the seemingly straightforward things often revealed a bizarre turn…" Alice murmured as she pushed the button.

As the little girl predicted, the elevator didn't give any following noise or indication it was working. Alphys quickly responded back,

"What? The elevator should be working…"

"Perhaps Mettaton tampered with it, or those mysterious figures I just saw." Alice suggested.

"... W-well then! Go to the right and keep heading up!" Alphys sounded shaky.

"Hold on a moment, why shouldn't I take the left path?"

"I-it's the longer way… there should be a m-much more straightforward path t-to where you need to go on the right…" Alphys explained.

"You sound nervous Alphys. Is everything alright?" Alice asked, not out of sympathy but more out of a hope to clear this increasing tension.

"Sorry… I'm getting t-the feeling Mettaton has been… u-up to something." Alphys sighed sadly.

Alice agreed with that, but she was still sure Alphys was in on some sort of scheme with Mettaton so this admission was more of a lie than anything else. Although Alphys did admit to Alice earlier that before helping Alice, she had very low self-esteem so surely that was her primary motive in trying to lead Alice on, right? In truth, Alice wanted to take the left path but she decided that in such an unfamiliar environment, it was best to listen to reason. Alice decided not to hang up as she went to investigate the right path. To her dismay, and presumably Alphys's, there was a black pit with flames blazing gently from it. It was like a flower garden set on fire. Something about the flames and what this meant was actually enough to make Alice a bit unsettled.

"Wh… where'd this pit come from?" Alphys asked when she noticed the incident as well.

"Clearly the Core changes aren't very diverse if pits aren't normal here." Alice remarked.

"You should be able to walk across here…" Alphys sounded fairly glum.

"Well, no use fussing over it. The left one is the only path we can take."

Alice turned on her heel and walked over to the left path from the entrance hall. When she did though, she suddenly noticed a strange monster flying over to her. It was a bird-sized creature with a hooked face and cheesy grin with its eyes and head eclipsed by a tall curled witch's hat. It was wearing some sort of robe with a curled neckline, and two heeled boots. It was almost like a cute little witch but it's appearance seemed more more ambiguous in gender and what sort of powers it possessed. Madjick pops out of its hat! This magical mercenary only says magic words. Must be a very polite monster then, Alice reasoned. She was glad it wasn't something of a daunting size or looking too terribly intimidating but she was still prepared to pacify her way out of the situation.

"Please and thank you." Madjick said with a very quirky, high-pitched voice.

Alice noticed that a magical orb started flying around her, leaving behind a cross-shaped insignia occasionally. Alice saw that these insignias were staying mid-air, like some sort of trap and it led her to be careful in dodging and navigating this attack. There was also an obscure smell in the air that was apparently magic. As it whispered arcane swear words, Alice noticed two orbs flying by it, the Chaser Orb and the Corner Orb. By staring at the intimidating Corner Orb, she seemed to weaken its power.

"Abra cadabra." Madjick spoke again.

To Alice's surprise, this time the orb seemed to emit cross-shaped projectiles in a slow but consistent surge towards her, and the orb even teleported mid-attack to send more projectiles from a new angle. Alice unfortunately found herself hit by where two of these projectiles seemed to converge and winced as it felt like a small rock had just hit her arm. As the little girl rubbed her arm, Madjick seemed to be doing a mysterious jig that Alice found slightly amusing. Alice then stared at the other orb, the unrelenting Chaser Orb, which crippled its attacks well.

"Alakazam!" Madjick cried.

Now it was a trio of orbs that were summoned by Madjick and trying to hit Alice, bouncing off one another and floating irregularly. Fortunately, these proved to be the easiest to dodge and with the orbs pacified, Alice was able to spare the Madjick. As it flew away, Aphys expressed further concern,

"Th-that was close… Wh… why are there so many monsters here?"

"That was only one monster. Do you see something suggesting otherwise?" Alice asked.

"I-it's just… unexpected. The Core isn't u-usually so habited… I mean… it's no problem, r-r-right? W-w-we've just got to keep heading forward! …" Alphys hung up abruptly.

Alice was starting to get an increasingly sinking feeling about this whole situation. Not only was this area so much more foreboding and bizarre than the other ones, but it seemed to be boggling Alphys as to how it was planned. Or was she pretending to be so boggled? It troubled Alice deeply because for the most part, Alphys had been working alongside her and had also been supporting her journey. Now all of a sudden she sounded very unprepared and even dismissive of what the Core was about. Even the locals seem more knowledgeable about the Core than she does right now, Alice realized. On the other hand, Alice considered she might just be a bit more paranoid because of the Sans encounter and maybe she was overthinking Alphys's behavior. Regardless, all that was left for Alice to do was to move on. She noticed there were six strange pillars of a mechanical nature off the path with somewhat totem-esque markings on them as well as a curious emblem over the entranceway to the next path. It looked like a knight's shield and sword with angelic wings over it which gave a somewhat ethereal appearance to an otherwise robotic room. As she entered the next room she suddenly noticed a familiar-looking obstacle.

"Not this silliness again." She groaned.

A blue laser was completely blocking her path, which consisted of a glassy bridge that looked quite strange with colored lights seemingly within it. Blue, yellow, and purple vials were hung on the wall in front of her in sets of three and there was a fairly obvious looking switch in front of her.

"Oh so I just need to push it then." Alice said to herself.

But then the phone rang again. Alice was nearly at her wit's end having to constantly answer each and every of Alphys's calls and considering how strange she was behaving, it'd be in her best interests not to. Sympathetic motives or not, Alphys was still being bothersome to the little girl's own adventure and attempt to free the Underground. Alice gave it some brief serious thought before she answered it with a resigned sigh.

"Looks like you can't proceed until you hit the switch." Alphys began.

"I believe even a Temmie could discern that much." Alice showed a rare show of sarcasm towards the Royal Scientist.

"W-what…? Err, o-on that note… if you try pushing the switch, the lasers w-will activate when you do. Looks like they'll come in this order. Orange. Orange. Blue. G-got it? Move until the third one." Alphys said, maybe not fully knowing what a Temmie was or otherwise wanting to stay focused.

"Are you absolutely certain? Mettaton is clearly here or someone has tampered with the Core's design from how you last remembered it Alphys. The monsters in the Resort says the layout was shuffled today after all." Alice mentioned.

"... T-that is true… I-I'm sorry Alice I… I guess I just thought this would be easier t-than it's turning out to be… be careful when you push it." Alphys showed some vulnerability as she gave Alice the most profound warning she had heard in awhile.

"I will."

Feeling a bit more at ease with Alphys's answer, Alice pushed the button. Surely enough, the blue laser of electricity dissipated but only for three thin lasers to swoop across the room. Alice's suspicions were correct as it was blue, blue, and orange. Stopping in time and then moving quickly through the orange one kept Alice unharmed. Huffing to herself at the unintentional thrill of the whole thing, she crossed the bridge as Alphys spoke up again,

"Oh my god… you were right… I-I'm so sorry… l-let's keep going down the right path then."

"It's alright… have you actually been to the Core before?" Alice inquired, hoping to ease some of the awkwardness.

"W-well it's how I visited Asgore f-for meetings and stuff… I've also studied things here and there… n-nothing that could help us break the barrier y-yet..."

"I'm glad to know you are still thinking of that cause and… a crossroads?" Alice stopped in her tracks once she noticed the path split to the left and forward.

"Uhhhh… T-try heading to the right!" Alphys suggested.

"But when you suggested the right last time in a crossroads situation it turned out to be a dead end. I believe it would be prudent to try the left path first." Alice remarked, holding a finger up.

"G-good idea…"

Although the little girl soon found that once she went down the left path that her guess was wrong. While there was no pit this time, there was a small and closed off blue room and a very intimidating looking monster ready to confront her. Knight Knight blocks the way! It did look very much like a knight with a helmet with spread out and slightly curled horns on it, steel boots like the Royal Guard, and a very powerful looking mace, but it also seemed to have a very bizarre design on its bodice which suggested a face. It looked like that of an owl or some kind of serpent, with flowing feathers on the side of it. Even more creepy was it's 'mouth' opened to reveal a staring eye. Upon examination, Alice found that it was a megaton mercenary that wielded the Good Morningstar. Alice flinched as it spoke in a somewhat noble sounding but deep female voice,

"Adieu."

In a surprisingly dazzling attack, what looked like a miniature moon appeared overheard and then a shower of falling stars rained down from the sky. The attack was quite gorgeous but the stars were plentiful and Alice found a much harder time evading this attack, with one of the stars pelting her back. It was a sharp pain of light and fire mixed into one.

"Ngh…" She winced and examined her options as Knight Knight watched quietly.

Seizing an opportunity to perhaps make it less prone to attacking her, Alice decided to sing a little lullaby.

"A very merry unbirthday to you, to you. A very merry unbirthday for me, for me." She twirled her fingers to emphasize the lullaby.

Fortunately Knight Knight started to look sleepy but merely wished Alice another 'Adieu' before using the same attack. Being able to better calculate and predict this attack, Alice was able to dodge all the stars this time around. Knight Knight smashed its morningstar in a groggy fashion. Alice then continued to sing her lullaby, repeating the same lyrics of the jovial tune that the Mad Hatter and March Hare sang during the tea party but in a soft, lullaby-appropriate tone. Knight Knight's eyes started to lower and it looked very much tired.

"Good knight." It yawned.

With one last shower of shooting stars, Alice finished singing her lullaby,

"Twinkle twinkle little bat, how I wonder where you're at, up above a world so high, like a teatray in the sky."

With this, Knight Knight was pacified and asleep and Alice snuck out of the room quickly. She sighed a breath of relief before apologizing to Alphys.

"I suppose your idea would've been the best option to have taken. Granted that wasn't a terrible battle but perhaps unnecessary." Alice confessed.

"It's ok Alice… I was thinking of going left m-myself… it happens to all of us. L-let's keep going…" Alphys accepted Alice's apology, albeit anxiously.

Turning back on her heels, Alice returned to the crossroads and continued down the right path. She soon stumbled upon what looked like another series of lasers along a bridge. This one was far more complex than any series of lasers Alice had seen between Hotland and now. There were moving blue ones, red ones, and a giant row of blue lasers further down. It'd be near impossible to get through all those unharmed, Alice thought. It was at this point Alice concluded Alphys's assistance would be greatly appreciated.

"M… more lasers… Okay, I… I won't mess around this time. I'll just deactivate the lasers and let you through." Alphys announced to Alice's surprise.

"That's certainly useful to know. Although why not just depower the Core temporarily until I get through?" The little girl asked calmly.

"T-that'd be a bad idea… since it is a big p-power source… hold on… they're not turning off…"

"The lasers?" Alice turned to look at the lasers and they were still on and in place.

"Y-yeah… it might be that… I-i-it's okay! I have this under control! I can turn off the power for that whole node. Then you can walk across." Alphys's tone seemed to slightly contradict her words.

"If anyone has control it'd be whoever has been manipulating the Core's layout…" Alice gave herself some good advice.

Just then, the lasers and the lighting of the room shut off instantly. The bridge was bear and exposed and despite the darkness, Alice could still make out a path to cross. Something going her way for once was a valuable confidence boost towards how this whole adventure was going. As she smiled, she carried on her way along the bridge. The bridge was a bit intimidating, reminding Alice of the ones in Waterfall, and she hoped it wouldn't break on her again. As Alice took several steps past the halfway point though, she heard a small flickering sound. Then Alphys's panicked shriek,

"W-WAIT! STOP!"

Alice flinched and instinctively forced her body to stand perfectly still as the lasers all turned on spontaneously. Each of them blue and each of them poised to burn her should she move. Alice felt a genuine sense of fear overcome her and she spoke as loudly as she could to the phone that she holding out.

"A-Alphys…! Is Mettaton doing this…?"

"T-that may well be the case… the power i-is turning itself back on. D-damn it… this wasn't supposed to… i-"

"Alphys, commentary and rude language is not what we need right now! Please can you shut it off again, even just brief periods of inactivity would be better than leaving it on." Alice interrupted what was clearly going to be another pity party.

"...! Y-you're right… ok, w-when I turn it off… move a little, and then STOP. OK? Y-you won't get h-h-hurt." Alphys reassured Alice.

Alice waited patiently for the lights to turn off, which happened in a matter of moments. With the path cleared again, she made a mad scramble for the end of the bridge. Regrettably, the lights started to flicker again, forcing Alice to stop again and freeze like a statue as the lasers turned back on. After two more rounds of the lights turning off and then on, Alice made enough progress to reach the other side safely. She was getting a bit tired and weary from the mixture of forced exercise and the pressure of the puzzle. Alphys spoke again,

"S-see? I got everything under control."

"... Are you insane?! If anyone has control of this situation it's Mettaton. Why are you contradicting yourself?" Alice lost her patience and put a hand to her hip.

"B-but I just helped to save-"

"Yes, I'm aware you wish to prove your worth Alphys by saving me, but I believe you've done more than enough! I would respect you more if you weren't pretending to not know how the CORE works when it's clear the residents of MTT do know."

Alice didn't care if Alphys had simply made a poor choice of words now, Alphys was starting to behave in an infuriating manner. The Royal Scientist was now trying to make herself seem even more amazing in the eyes of the little girl when in all honesty it was fake. Not to mention that while she was stupefied by the Core's redesign, it was clear that even the other monsters were aware of the changing layout and yet she had neglected to acknowledge that detail. Whatever Alphys was attempting to do now was only being bothersome to Alice and it further made her lose her respect for the doctor. If I were in her shoes I'd be looking for that alternative way to break the barrier instead of playing around with lasers, Alice thought. Alphys remained quiet on the line before giving a last statement, sounding noticeably dejected,

"I have to go… I'm sorry…"

With the phone hung up, Alice finally had an arm free and a reprieve from another tirade of phone calls. Putting the phone back into her apron pockets, she found herself at another complex crossroads. This time the path broke off into three sections: straight, left, and right. The air was filled with the smell of ozone… and it filled Alice with DETERMINATION. In all honesty, the little girl was feeling more frustrated than determined but her goals were still set. She noticed there was a sign on the left and read it carefully. 'North, the warrior's path. West, the sage's path. Any path leads to The End.'

"Interesting choice to name the destination after the concluding words to a story." Alice said.

Furthermore, the names of the paths were of typical characters found in fantastical literature. It was strange though considering how mechanical and materialized the area seemed to be. The only logical answer for why they had these names was due to being named by the king himself. Either way, Alice wasn't going to proceed just by reading signs and she was resolved to trying the left path first. To her surprise, she found herself in a rather warm room on a bridge with a strange glowing green and white haze on the bottom. Or was it some sort of energy? Furthermore, a conveyer belt was activated and appeared to be dropping ice cubes into the strange energy. The ice cubes melted as soon as they connected with the strange substance with a distinct hissing sound, Alice couldn't help but feel this was familiar...

'Excuse me sir! Can you please tell me why you are throwing those ice blocks?!'

"I see… so those ice cubes he throws end up here eventually. Could it be to cool this energy down perhaps? Alphys did say it used geothermal energy… they don't want it to become too hot and melt everything." Alice reasoned, feeling proud of herself for remembering that chance encounter with the wolf.

A bit relaxed from solving a riddle, Alice proceeded along the path until she noticed another sign that led to a left one. 'Solve this puzzle and The End will open.' I wonder if it'll be like the ones I did to turn off those lasers back in Hotland, Alice thought as she moved along this new route. To Alice's delight, she was absolutely right for she saw another grid with ammo, controls, squares, and the like. She was going to have to hit the ship once more. As she proved to be very good with these puzzles, Alice was able to solve it quite quickly. Taking a small breath of relief, she then returned to going down the ambiguous left wing. This time a right route was opened up as the path kept going straight. Making sure she covered all loose ends, the little girl went straight ahead but only found a Glamburger in a trash can. The sign above it said 'Why not relax and have a little snack?'

"... This is a really rudimentary scavenger hunt." She complained to herself.

Turning on her heel, she decided to take the right route that she had discovered. The sign she saw declared 'Traverse the northern room, and The End will open.' At least these signs seem to be more beneficial to me, Alice thought as she wiped some sweat off her forehead. Relieved it wasn't nearly as maze-like as the Queen of Hearts hedges, she went down the directed path to find another bridge. As she crossed it though, two monsters seemed to sprout up from the darkness and onto the bridge. She uttered a small scream and cowered back as Whimsalot and Final Froggit appeared. To Alice's surprise, they looked very similar to the Whimsun and Froggits she had seen in the Ruins. Except this time Whimsalot was wearing armor and wielding a small, double-edge lance and Final Froggit was wearing wearing a crown, had a sharp face, and seemed to have a glittery expression. Both monsters evoked a sense of power and danger though so Alice began to analyze them individually. Whimsalot had finally stopped worrying.

"Not this time." Whimsalot said in a composed tone.

"Robbit robbit." Final Froggit croaked in an alarmingly dark tone.

Alice soon found herself to be targeted by swarms of flies and butterflies,summoned by the two monsters. While numerous, they had a fairly telegraphed trajectory and Alice was able to evade these attacks safely. As Whimsalot shook its head dismissively, Alice decided to kneel and pray for safety from this particular trial. It seemed to help Whimsalot remember its conscience.

"Don't give up!" It said.

"Creak, creak." Final Froggit made an unusual sound like a door being moved.

"Frogs don't really make that sound…" Alice nervously commented.

After making such a statement, Alice saw that they were now surrounding her in a ring of hazardous butterflies while flies tried to nab her with quick bursts of movement. To Alice's regret, she was hit by one of them and oddly enough it didn't seem to hurt but Alice did feel disgusted and tired from it. Luckily, it appeared Whimsalot didn't want to fight anymore and Alice was able to spare it and it flew from the battlefield. All that left was Final Froggit who suddenly made a 'woof' sound like a dog this time. I wonder if it knows the Dog Guard, Alice pondered after giving a small chuckle. Curiously, a rather large frog was summoned and started hopping around, trying to strike Alice. It's slow movements but surprising dexterity made for a difficult obstacle to avoid. After successfully dodging, Alice examined Final Froggit despite being intimidated by its strength. Its future looked brighter and brighter.

"Skip, jump." It said.

After dodging some more flies, Alice decided to try to mystify the Final Froggit with a riddle. She figured it'd break through its intimidation and open it up to pacifying.

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" She offered with a raised finger.

Final Froggit appeared to recognize it had more to learn from this world and gave a thoughtful croak. After one more ribbiting attack, a pun that Sans would've appreciated, it seemed reluctant to fight Alice. This gave her the chance to spare it and keep going. But after just a small pace along the bridge, two more mercenaries hopped onto the bridge just like before. It was Madjick and Knight Knight again. Their diverse attacks were even more of a hindrance this time around, with Knight Knight summoning a sun that emitted balls of heat to strike Alice alongside Madjick's strange cross-shaped attacks. Luckily, she knew how to pacify both of them and the battle was over without taking any damage. How many more ambushes are there on this bridge? Alice asked herself in exasperation. As it turned out, there was one more and it was a nightmare! Final Froggit, Whimsalot, and a third, new enemy appeared. It looked startlingly similar to Loox with a balloon-shaped body with one giant eye for a face, eyelashes, four horns, skinny legs, and gloved hands. When it's eye closed however, it suddenly developed a cocky grin with the eyelashes becoming it's eyes and an unusual marking. It was called Astigmatism.

"Three at once! That hardly seems fair…" Alice complained as she started to pacify Final Froggit.

"...Don't pick on me." Astigmatism sounded much like some sort of rogue with its voice.

It appeared it's attacks involved large, circular disks that were hurled at Alice along with the flies and butterflies. Alice cringed as she found herself pinned and hit by these disks. They felt like pieces of wood that had smashed into her. Fortunately she was able to pacify Final Froggit, reducing the number of attacks to 2. Astigmatism stayed silent as Whimsalot merely said 'not this time' again. More disks and butterflies were sent Alice's way, leading up to her praying towards Whimsalot. Once again Astigmatism stayed strangely silent as Whimsalot reassured Alice. This time, she was surrounded by a circlet of butterflies and the disks summoned by Astigmatism attempted to wallop her. All these attacks accumulatively improved Alice's evasiveness and so she managed to dodge them again and spared Whimsalot.

"Take your last look." Astigmatism threatened Alice.

"I'm afraid I have more things to look at you see." She replied calmly.

A barrage of disks flew about and even seemed to bounce off certain spaces to hit. Though tricky to navigate, Alice was able to dodge these disks efficiently. After examining it, Alice found that it was a relentless bully who ALWAYS gets its way. Perhaps it was being quiet at times as an attempt to pressure and unnerve Alice. This time it sent wide rows of disks at her and prompted Alice to duck carefully. Following a failure to hit her, it clicked its teeth as Alice began to explore her options to deal with the monster. She did so by not picking on it.

"Finally someone gets it." Astigmatism sounded very happy at Alice's choice.

After another round of dodging bouncing disks, Alice was able to spare the creature, for it didn't care about fighting anymore. At the end of the bridge was a dead end but also a red switch. Alice wasn't sure what it was a switch for but she pressed it anyway. The switch became green which probably meant something was triggered elsewhere. This left Alice to retrace her steps and go down the bottom path. Before doing so, she read a sign that said 'Get lost… And stay that way.' It was a rather rude sign in Alice's opinion though she wondered who put it up there to begin with. Luckily for the little girl, the bottom path led back to the three-pathed crossroads and presumably meant the right path would lead her to where she needed to go. The sign for this path said 'East… The End.'

"At last I'm getting somewhere… I do hope those puzzles were worth something." Alice huffed to herself, finding the many signs redundant.

The right path eventually led upward and that was when Alice saw another small crossroads that broke off into two paths and two more signs for the left and right respectively. 'To the East! This is The End.' and 'I cannot fight. I cannot think. But, with patience, I will make my way through.' Based on the proximity of the left path towards the 'get lost' sign and the fact that this crossroads was similar to the one that led to the Glamburger at the top path, Alice deduced going right was the best option. Coming across another bridge over a steamy and strange flooring, Alice dashed to the other end, desperate to find where she needed to go. That is when her prayers were answered. A flashy door with the same noble design hanging above it like the door to the laser room, as well as an elevator. It was clearly the elevator that was intended to have worked by Alphys earlier but didn't. Behind this door must be the elevator to the King's castle. It filled her with determination as she realized this only meant one thing. Mettaton was going to be in that room. Alice clenched her fist. She had a lot to say to the formerly spectral robot and she wasn't going to let him take her soul. If her soul was ever to be taken, it would not be by Mettaton's hands.

"METTATON! I request you to show yourself no…" Alice's heated demand stopped once she saw that in the middle of the room, Mettaton was already waiting for her.

"OH YES. THERE YOU ARE, DARLING. IT'S TIME TO HAVE OUR LITTLE SHOWDOWN. IT'S TIME TO FINALLY STOP THE "MALFUNCTIONING" ROBOT." Mettaton spoke coyly to her.

"Moreso stop the 'malfunctioning' ghost." Alice taunted with her arms folded.

Mettaton seemed to twitch just the little bit and his breath seemed to heave. Alice had struck a nerve with him it seemed. Regardless, Mettaton kept speaking,

"MALFUNCTION? REPROGRAMMING? GHOST? HAH! GET REAL. THIS WAS ALL JUST A BIG SHOW. AN ACT. ALPHYS HAS BEEN PLAYING YOU FOR A FOOL THE WHOLE TIME."

"That was already crystal clear Mettaton." Alice looked down.

It stung a bit to admit it out loud, but also gave Alice some relief. Like she wasn't wrong in calling out Alphys for her obvious manipulating and alliance with Mettaton. Mettaton looked a bit more frazzled.

"YOU… KNEW? HUMPH. I SUPPOSE MY CREATOR WAS NEVER SUBTLE WITH HER PLANS, MUCH LIKE WITH HER TASTE FOR ANIME. SHE DESPERATELY WANTED TO BE A PART OF YOUR ADVENTURE. SHE REACTIVATED PUZZLES. SHE DISABLED ELEVATORS. SHE ENLISTED ME TO TORMENT-"

"Oh be quiet! I don't need a narrator to understand what she has done. She's wasted her time and status as the Royal Scientist to give herself a self-confidence boost. Whereas I should be understanding of the nervousness, she's been completely ignorant of the requests of the Underground. Let alone trying to fabricate human history for some strange purpose! And what of you? You-"

"DO NOT GO THERE WITH ME." Mettaton suddenly seemed hostile.

"No. I'll go to where I need to. You threw away Napstablook's support as a family member just so you could become this glorified star that you apparently are. You've abused me and made a mockery of me, working with your creator to play around with this charade instead of doing anything productive towards breaking the barrier. You abuse your workers, your tastes are gaudy, and you also wish to kill an innocent human! I mean, what would your fans think about you being a murderer?" Alice pointed at Mettaton with a challenging expression.

"...! N-NO… I'D BE THE SAVIOR… BLOOKY… BLOOKY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS! AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ABUSE? YOU'RE ABUSING THE UNDERGROUND BY NOT HELPING WITH THE CAUSE! THE PAIN OF NOT HAVING A PLACE TO BELONG… THE PAIN OF NOT FEELING COMPLETE… THE PAIN OF NOT ACHIEVING YOUR DREAM… I SHARE THAT WITH ALL THE MONSTERS THAT LOOK UP TO ME ON THE SCREEN." Mettaton seemed to briefly lose it.

Alice stayed silent. In truth, she felt her abuse had been very severe, not just from him but from Sans, Undyne, Flowey, Chara, her nightmares, and several monsters she had to face. She felt she had changed several times since this morning and wasn't even sure if she could go back to that morning, let alone before ending up down here. These monsters had a much longer, slower, more visible abuse though, imprisonment. Ever since that day they were trapped Underground, they could not move forward into the future with the same DETERMINATION Alice displayed so far. Mettaton had done what needed to be done to even attain the little but promising future left for him. Maybe this was what Napstablook meant by forgiving him, by understanding Mettaton's pain and relating to why he had done what had been done to her so far. I know the reasoning is believable and sincere to forgive him, Alice pondered, but can I really accept what he and Alphys are and aren't doing? As Alice continued to think, Mettaton seemed to be doing breathing exercises. He then spoke again to her with his initial tone,

"I HAVE NO DESIRE TO HARM HUMANS. FAR FROM IT ACTUALLY. MY ONLY DESIRE IS TO ENTERTAIN. AFTER ALL, THE AUDIENCE DESERVES A GOOD SHOW, DON'T THEY?"

"... At what cost though?" Alice whispered this to herself.

In her heart, she was relieved to hear Mettaton didn't have any killing intent. Yet she didn't have the compassion to vocalize this and could only be stuck on how much he and Alphys had let her down.

"AND WHAT'S A GOOD SHOW… WITHOUT A PLOT TWIST?" Mettaton suddenly spun around and the sound of a door shutting followed.

"Huh?" This was enough to break Alice out of her internal struggle.

"H-hey! Wh-what's going on!? Th-th-the door just locked itself!" Even more surprising, Alphys's voice could be heard as well as banging.

"What is she doing-"

"SORRY, FOLKS! THE OLD PROGRAM'S BEEN CANCELLED! BUT WE'VE GOT A FINALE THAT WILL DRIVE YOU WILD!" Mettaton's arms appeared as he raised one arm and held onto his microphone.

Alice had too many things to react to so she focused on the sight of five bold red spotlights appearing on the floor and then the sight of the floor raising itself into the air. It then proceeded to surge upward at an alarming speed and forced Alice to crouch to the ground and hold on tight.

"This againnnnnnnnnn?!" She cried.

"REAL DRAMA! REAL ACTION! REAL BLOODSHED! ON OUR NEW SHOW… "ATTACK OF THE KILLER ROBOT!" Mettaton roared with life and passion.

"... That's it. No forgiveness." Alice glared at him as she got to her feet and felt ready for this encounter.

"YES, I WAS THE ONE THAT RE-ARRANGED THE CORE! I WAS THE ONE THAT HIRED EVERYONE TO KILL YOU! THAT, HOWEVER, WAS A SHORT-SIGHTED PLAN. YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE A HUNDRED TIMES BETTER? KILLING YOU MYSELF!" Mettaton boasted.

"Well you'll find that this plan won't be a hundred times more effective as the other one." Alice responded back.

Alice was a bit nervous though. She recalled the rather offensive 'Z' attack scenario with Mettaton and how she felt very foolish when it was clear her phone projectiles weren't as effective as Mettaton was claiming. She had no real options to harm his invulnerable form. If anything I need to keep being evasive until some sort of opportunity opens up, Alice considered. Not even a burn would work. Rather, that would probably be what Alice would do if things continued in this manner.

"LISTEN, DARLING. I'VE SEEN YOU FIGHT. YOU'RE WEAK. IF YOU CONTINUE FORWARD, ASGORE WILL TAKE YOUR SOUL. AND WITH YOUR SOUL. ASGORE WILL DESTROY HUMANITY." Mettaton mentioned.

"He will do no such thing!" Alice declared bravely.

As brave as she sounded, she looked nervous at the sight of cube shaped projectiles homing in on her. Desperate, she pulled out her phone from the apron pocket and attempted to use the 'Z' function to destroy them. This did seem to work in her favor and she cleared a path.

"YES, WE ARE ON THE SAME PAGE! IF I GET YOUR SOUL, I CAN STOP ASGORE'S PLAN! I CAN SAVE HUMANITY FROM DESTRUCTION!"

"Wait… you want to spare humanity?" Alice was so surprised her her eyes had become the size of tea cups.

"HUMANITY WOULD LOVE TO WATCH ME AND BE IN AWE OF ME ONCE THEY SEE ME. THEY WILL RECOGNIZE MY STARDOM! MILLIONS OF THEM! I JUST NEED YOUR SOUL TO CROSS THE BARRIER." Mettaton reaffirmed his conviction.

It was at that moment Alice noticed some rather bizarre-looking projectiles heading her way. It was almost like a series of cubes lined in a row with one cube being a prominent yellow color. At the end of this bar was a boxing glove. Needless to say, Alice needed to get it out of her way. Firing more shots from her phone, she managed to hit the yellow square, pulling the bar back and opening space for Alice to navigate her way through this odd attack. After getting past these bars, she then noticed more cube-shaped objects from moments prior and a bomb. Shooting down the cubes allowed Alice to avoid taking any damage. Still without any openings, Alice could only continue speaking to Mettaton tensely.

"That's not the most sympathetic motivation for helping my people though… and I'm not in any mood to dying either." Alice remarked.

"WHAT IF A FEW PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE? IT'S NOT LIKE THE LAST SIX WERE KILLED BY MY HAND! TAKING THE OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE THE LAST SOUL NECESSARY FOR FREEDOM IS WHAT SHOW BUSINESS IS ABOUT BABY!" Mettaton seemed keen on shutting Alice's argument down.

At that moment though, the phone Alice was grasping like a gun was suddenly ringing. It was undoubtedly Alphys and right now Alice needed the Royal Scientist's counsel more than ever. She answered it in a jiffy.

"U… uh… I can't see what's going on in there, but… D-d-don't give up, okay? Th… there's o-one l-last way to beat Mettaton… It's… um… it's… This is a work in-progress so don't judge it too hard… But, you know how Mettaton always faces f-f-forward? That's because there is a switch on his backside. S-so if y-y-you c-c can turn him around… um… And, umm… press th-th th-the switch… He'll be…um… He'll be… Vulnerable. Well, g-g-gotta go!" Alphys fumbled over her words but her statement was invaluable.

"I hadn't even noticed he hid his back from me…" Alice murmured to herself, genuinely impressed that she missed such a detail.

Granted she wasn't going to thank Alphys yet until she was sure she was safe. In addition, she had more than a few words of her own to say to Alphys and she did intend to judge the Royal Scientist as hard as she needed to. Still, if this worked, Alice felt she could swing momentum in her favor. Quickly analyzing Mettaton, she found the best way to get the robust robot to turn around. Using her DETERMINATION, she summoned a golden looking glass from behind Mettaton. A looking glass had been a source of strong imagination for Alice alongside Wonderland, due to the idea of what was deep within the reflection.

"Mettaton! There's a mirror behind you!" Alice exclaimed.

"OH? A MIRROR? RIGHT, I HAVE TO LOOK PERFECT FOR OUR GRAND FINALE." Mettaton's response was unexpectedly animated and excited.

He turned around to face the looking glass and hopped up in happiness upon seeing it. That was when Alice noticed that there was a switch on his back, clarified with a down arrow and the title 'SWITCH' on it. As he began to pose and examine himself much like how Alice envisioned a queen would do, she quickly moved to press the switch.

"The only finale here is the end of our conflict!" She declared boldly much like how Papyrus would've done.

Mettaton paused in shock and the looking glass disappeared at Alice's command. His next words were full of disbelief and intrigue,

"DID YOU. JUST FLIP. THE SWITCH?"

He then turned around very quickly and put his hands to his head in great distress. The screen on his face made unusual sounds and blinked rapidly and he shook at increasing speeds. It escalated to the point where Alice suddenly had to avert her eyes as the sound ceased. But then there was a new sound, a sound that was unlike anything Alice had heard yet in the Underground.

"OHHHHHH YESSSSSSS~"

"... Huh?" Alice gave a very confused expression.

First the voice itself sounded… very… flirtatious if she had to be honest. It was deep and resonant but with a taste of sophisticated tone to it and it almost sounded like whoever said it was deeply enjoying themselves. Secondly, the area had now suddenly turned dark and Alice couldn't see Mettaton anymore. She did see two spotlights slowly roll down from the ceiling and turn on onto what appeared to be a smokescreen. It was a very deep smokescreen but within seconds, a silhouette could be seen within. It was not Mettaton… or was it? It had a very tall appearance with long legs, arms, shoulders that stuck out like horns and a side-swept hairstyle. It wasn't boxy or anything of the sort and made Alice wonder what it was and what had just transpired.

"W-was that… h-hold on a moment. Who's there?" Alice was about to inquire if it was Mettaton but changed her mind to ask a more general question.

"Ohhhh my. If you flipped my switch, that can only mean one thing. You're desperate for the premiere of my new body." The voice continued and revealed its identity with a subtle smugness.

"METTATON? H-how did you change…? Was that the true purpose of the switch?" Alice suddenly looked frazzled and flustered at this new information.

Alphys betrayed me! Alice roared in her head. She set me up so that Mettaton's true form would be revealed! That snake! It did seem that way to the little girl and although she was jumping to conclusions, what else could give Mettaton the confidence to say it was the 'premiere of his new body'. Even the wording of that phrase implied Alphys built this form for him to deal with Alice. Or was it for another purpose? Because of the nature of this encounter, Alice felt she had no opportunity to ask this and could only assume the worst. Either way, Mettaton gave her a response,

"The switch is merely there for whether I want to shed my invulnerability and show off my technicality, sensuality, and high quality. In this form, I'm the TRUE star of the show. Lucky for you, I've been aching to show this off for a long time. And as it's our grand finale, why don't I introduce ourselves?"

He's noticeably quieter and more human-sounding like this as well, Alice considered though she was starting to sweat in nervousness. As if on cue, one of the spotlights shown on Alice as the silhouette raised one arm to the sky through the smoke.

"Let's welcome our human star! The one who will help me be free of the Barrier and reach new heights! The Wonder from Wonderland, the Princess of Heart, the Disney Damsel… ALICEEEEE!" He announced with great passion.

"... I still am not exactly certain as to what this 'Disney' is and I am most certainly not a princess… Oh wait, you were referring to how my SOUL is basically my heart." Alice couldn't hide a small blush.

"And now for the main attraction… moi." A snap of the fingers followed Mettaton's latest words.

At that moment the spotlights cleared and the smokescreen as well. With no more effects to distract Alice's sight, Mettaton's new form was revealed to Alice in great detail. She quickly found it was almost too much detail. He was noticeably more humanoid with, black hair in a long fringe that covered his right eye, pale "skin" and visible metal segments below and above his left eye. He had a pink chest piece, a narrow metallic waist with a box contraption, and black shoulder guards above his segmented arms, which ended in gloves. The chest piece seemed to contain a speaker and some sort of knob or gauge, while the waist had two parts that seemed to act as a locking mechanism to contain a heart-shaped core. The most noticeable feature to Alice was long black-clad legs and pink high-heeled boots. The whole thing was… making Alice uncomfortable.

"What kind of fashion sense is that? You look… really… different from what I've seen." Alice looked away as her blush seemed to brighten.

"Envious? Well I'll give you more to envy darling." Mettaton just stood coyly and confidently.

Before Alice could ask what he meant, the sound of music began to fill the room. It was fast-paced and somewhat catchy but definitely sounded like an instrument Alice was not familiar with. If this could mean anything to Alice, it would mean some sort of performance was about to begin. Yet it was clear it wasn't going to be anything like that flowery performance Mettaton had performed in a dress. It sounded much more rhythmic and even calculated, like this was the kind of music Mettaton chose personally because he liked it. Something told Alice that she was about to be expected to join in on whatever show Mettaton had in mind now. But between his new form and Alphys's behavior she felt very unprepared. That's when Mettaton began to sing.

'Death by Glamour, you are enamored' (Mettaton cocked his hip to the left, putting one of his hands on his bottom and winked at Alice. This made Alice jump a little.)

'Aren't I stunning? Ah, I'm not shunning.' (Mettaton then seemed to slither his body forward like a snake before suddenly standing with his legs far apart and wagging his finger at the 'I'm not shunning' part)

'Heel turn, and pose. The audience nods.' (Mettaton then jumped up on his heels, landed in a complex pirouette, and striked a very flamboyant pose at Alice.)

'Ratings climb up, now you're getting it.' (Mettaton thrusted an arm over to the right, leading Alice's eyes to what was a distinct chart being displayed on the 'wall'. Starting at 4000 ratings and quickly declining, it appeared to be a line graph marked with a gold and blue line respectively and a quickly steeping and rising pink line zig zagging across it. It made Alice realize all of this was being filmed and presented to anyone watching T.V in the Underground. It seemed to make this situation even more daunting for her.)

'Break a leg, dear. Make sure they're not mine.' (Mettaton did a graceful spin on one leg though not quite a pirouette this time before getting onto his hands and knees in one swift movement.)

'I am shining, I am the star here.' (Mettaton then crawled over towards Alice in a very seductive fashion. The little girl could only wonder if the stage had grown big enough for her to run or dodge any of what presumably awaited her.)

'I will make your last living moments' (Alice took several steps back as Mettaton drew closer, completely out of her element. Mettaton rose to his feet and looked to Alice as though she were an enticing meal. The same kind of expression Undyne gave to Alice during the hunt. It meant he was ready to claim her soul.)

'Absolutely be-a-u-tiful.' (Mettaton moved his arms in rotation with an almost mystic shape being created before he suddenly lunged at Alice.)

To Be Continued...