Chapter XXII
Human
Okay, so… It hasn't been two years. I completely deny it. It's been two years minus 25 days.
No, but more seriously… I thought I had finished the story but, apparently, I had only wrote the summary of what was supposed to happen :/ So here it is!
I think I'll post a chapter every two weeks, just so I can be sure to have time to write them (college is still a thing, but the next four chapters are written).
Enjoy!
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PS: I am truly sorry for the cliffhanger of the previous chapter :(
'Alphys?'
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The call gets lost in the whirlwind of her thoughts, never truly reaching her. Paralysed, She can't give an answer as Sans repeats her name again. Nothing makes sense! She is a scientist, she should know better than to stand still near a human, which is the equivalent of a death sentence! But the fear… It holds her tied, preventing any of her movement. Her breath becomes sharp, irregular, as the outside world slowly disappears as terror rises inside her.
Contact.
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The sensation of hands shaking her, the muffled sound of words being said to her… To her.
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'Hey! Alphys!' The voice is finally registered by her confused mind, cutting short to her rising the panic attack. 'Are you okay?'
'I… You…' Her words can't come out as a whole fully constructed sentence as she keeps staring at Sans.
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Once she finally organizes her words in a more or her less comprehensible construction, both Sans and Papyrus know they will have a hard time explaining how and why their situation came to be the way it is.
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'You… Human?'
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oOo
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Human are dangerous. Humans are heartless. Humans are ruthless killers. They are not to be approached. Do not be seen by any of them: the kind ones are too rare. The kind ones are killed by the others. This is what they taught them at school. This is what they believe. This is what young monsters have to learn when they come of age.
Of course, she knows of the royal children. She knows human children can be nice, that they can learn to live with monsters. However, she is also aware the adult ones are not as accepting as their offsprings. Now, she can't really know whether the one standing in front of her is an adult or a child; he is taller than a child, but she thinks adults are even taller than him. She knows, or don't know. That's it. She can't afford guessing. Not now. Not when her life could be at stake.
Her fear manifests as her magic turns into small lightnings at her fingertips. In an attempt to push the human away, she uses them as soon as she can. It's all she can think of: pulling herself away from the threat, and running. However, her hands only encounters hard coldness, and not the warmth of a body. Not the softness of a human's skin. She doesn't notice at first — being a monster, she has no concept of body warmth — but she feels her lightings being stopped. Her breath stops as well as her eyes widen at the view of what broke her momentum: a bone. One smooth ivory bone. A bone still surrounded by the fading blue magic which has summoned it. And there is one thing Alphys knows for sure...
Papyrus's magic is not this blue.
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She stumbles, trying to retrieve the stability she lost when hers hands collided with the bone. Her feet barely coordinate, but she manages a step back to lean on the table, spilling her still half full drink. She must flee, but where? The human is faster than she is, and she failed to knock him out! He is armed, he has a bone! She will be ashes soon if she doesn't move! Her blurred vision grasps the sight of the human still standing in front of her, gripping his hastily summoned weapon, not less scared than her. And it clicks.
He didn't attack her. He came to her for help.
She attacked him.
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'Sans?'
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The child's voice pulls her out of her thoughts, as she realizes Papyrus standing near the bushes. Not hearing his brother coming back, the young skeleton had stopped hiding to come and check on him, only to see Sans in a defense position and Alphys on the floor.
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'It's okay, Paps,' Sans says, trying to keep his voice from trembling. 'We were just… There was a spider.'
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He knows his brother won't buy it, he knows it, but he hopes Papyrus will understand he is not meant to intervene. The bone in his hands disappears with the same blue light it appeared with, making their shaking even more apparent as he quickly hides them in his pockets.
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'I-I'll just… Go inside,' he stutters. 'You know, for… for the band-aids.'
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Still on the floor, Alphys watches him disappear in the door frame. Disappear… Just like the bone. A bone summoned by blue magic. Papyrus magic was cyan, not blue. Papyrus had not summoned the bone. The bone had not summoned itself. Sans had summoned it. Humans are not known for their magic abilities. They are not, because they have none. Sans could not summon a bone. But Sans did.
Alphys reaches for her glasses, fallen next to her. A striking pain overwhelms her right arm as she notices the shards of glass piercing her skin, but she tries her best to ignore it. She needs answers first, the shards will have to wait. The scientist in her is stronger than her fear of humans, and this scientist witnessed the impossible. So she stands up. And she runs.
Not from a threat.
To the threat.
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oOo
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Not slowing down, she takes the turn to the bathroom and smashes the door open. The wood strikes the tiles with a startling sound, so hard she thinks she may have broken one. Sans fixes her with wide eyes, frozen in place. Had he be sitting another foot apart from the sink, the door would have hit him instead of the wall. In his hand, the wet gauze he used to clean his scratch is dripping on the floor. He stares, more surprised than waiting for an answer — Alphys is the one who wants answers, not him.
Only then she realizes what she has done. There, standing in the door frame, her answers at reach… She realizes she can't do it. The question is there, at the tip of her tongue, waiting to be asked. Curiosity is burning inside her, and she yearns to speak. Curiosity is burning, but so is fear. Dimmed by her sudden understanding, it is arising anew and paralyzes her. She wants to know, but can't ask.
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'You will not hurt Sans, uh?'
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She feels Papyrus's hand pressing her left arm, softly — it wouldn't stop her if she decided to move, she knows it. Her mouth is dry, the words don't want to come out. Her instinct are yelling at her to run, or at least to defend herself — she can't listen to them.
Run. Run. Run.
The answers.
Stay.
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She doesn't turn around, she can't leave a human out of her sight. Her fists tighten, trying to keep her hands from trembling. She is afraid, but she has to stay — she has to ask this question lingering in her mind. So she speaks, a mere sentence barely louder than a whisper. Two words said so slowly she doesn't even stutter despite her stress.
'I won't.'
See you in two weeks!