Chapter 10
After going with the River Person to Alphys's lab, it had been 10 minutes exactly and I then went inside of the lab, seeing that it was incredibly dark as I noticed only one light on... it was on some kind of television console... and it was directly focused on me of all people! "Ooookay... I'm getting kind of creeped out right now..." I said as I moved forward with Undyne some more and I could feel some strange kind of foreboding tension in the atmosphere... and then, out of nowhere, I stepped on something... incredibly sticky and squishy.
"Ugh... is that gum?" I asked as I then moved my foot and saw it was a pure white-colored goop... but then, right in front of both me and Undyne, we saw a sight that truly made us horrified. The goop I stepped in slowly morphed into something... that looked like the sorriest creature imaginable. It looked a whole lot like a bird creature... but it looked like it was made up of numerous different other monsters, namely a strange monster in its forehead, two Vegetoids being their eyes, and the rest of them being very weak and looking like it was barely held together.
"W-What... the... heck..." Undyne gulped as the creature then said one word in a very sad manner.
"S...no...wy..." she said in a very strained voice, me then gasping as I heard my phone ring and I answered it.
"Hello?" I asked into it in worry. And then came another fright.
"Do yOu WanNA haVE a GooD TiME?" asked a mismash of scary-sounding voices on my phone as three different apparitions appeared in front of me and Undyne, me feeling that I'd entered a haunted house. These three creatures all looked the exact same and looked like they were each made up of numerous different heads and they happened to have some kind of static-looking effect that happened to them on occasion.
"What's going on here?... Where's doctor Alphys?" Undyne asked in fear, something I never saw in her before. We got our answer as a door opened up ahead of us and we saw multiple different creatures coming from it, one of them I recognized immediately.
"Sans?" I asked. The lights then came on and we then saw the other creatures... almost all of them except for Sans and one other person were all varying degrees of odd-looking mis-mashed creatures of various different monsters and there was only one that looked more humanoid, them looking like a stick person with a single arm that came out of their middle area.
"O-Oh... my god..." said the other person alongside Sans. It looked a lot like a yellow, female dinosaur creature wearing a lab coat, nerdy glasses, and having a bit of an overbite. "S-Sans... you said that it'd just be the human... y-you didn't say anything about... Undyne..." the girl said, me noting that Alphys sounded like she squeaked when she said Undyne's name.
"don't look at me, i said the human was coming by and that was all i said. i didn't know she'd invite a friend," Sans said with a frown as I then looked at Undyne and she simply looked at Alphys in confusion.
"Alphy... hon... what the heck happened?" Undyne asked as I simply looked at each of these creatures, wondering if it had anything to do with what Sans had in him... Determination. Just what kind of stuff did he work on with Alphys?
"I... I... I'm sorry..." Alphys said with a shudder as she then spoke some more. "I... When I became the Royal Scientist... after creating Mettaton... the king asked me to study the nature of souls... namely, trying to see if I could find a way to extend the life of monster souls... after I tried to extract them directly, it was met with failure... so I knew the only way to succeed was to find a way to prolong their life while they were still alive... so... I extracted a substance from all 6 of the human souls..." Alphys said as I finished it.
"Their Determination," I said.
"Y-Yes... that... but... it seemed like it wasn't working at first... everyone who got tested didn't show any signs of improvement and stayed comatose... until they suddenly woke up... as if, nothing had happened..." Alphys sighed as I then looked at all of these creatures and saw that they all looked at Alphys with what looked like sad faces. "B-But... it failed as well... only this time... it completely broke me... see, unlike human bodies, monster bodies can't handle that much amount of concentrated Determination... pretty soon, they started to melt and lose their physicality, melting into one another to... create... these guys..." Alphys said, me then looking at them and seeing that they all looked like they still had some semblance of awareness and I looked at Alphys with a smile. "S-Soon after... I panicked... I kept trying to hide them in my basement, taking care of them while keeping their current status a secret... pretty soon, people got angry and started to hate me... nonstop letters from angry family members... Asgore kept calling, talking how everyone hated me... I eventually stopped answering calls on the phone except for people I truly trusted... like Sans and Undyne... every other time, I just kept to myself... I felt so alone..." Alphys said, me looking at her with a smile as I then approached her, looking at the one monster combo I stepped on earlier and giving her a smile.
"Sorry for stepping on you earlier, miss," I said, her trying to smile at me as best she could.
"I...t's...o..kay..." she said as I then went to Alphys and simply hugged her, Alphys gasping at it and her shaking a bit at my touch before I then consoled her a bit.
"It's alright, Alphys... they're still alive, so it's not like you did anything truly horrifying, right?" I asked, Alphys sniffling at that. "But I'm positive that it's been long enough... I know it'll be hard for you to do... but if you'd like, I'm willing to help you out and come out with the truth... even if it means that I'm going to be late to get back home, I'll help you through this... do you trust me, Alphys?" I asked, the dinosaur crying at that and hugging back tightly.
"I... I thank you... Mute..." Alphys cried into me, me smiling at that as I only then recognized her voice from earlier.
"Wait a minute... were you the one who called me about pizza before?" I smiled, Alphys giggling a bit through the tears, which made Undyne smile.
"Y-Yeah... that was me..." Alphys said with a sad laugh.
"So can we go home?" asked another voice... one that had a large echo when they talked. And I looked to the direction of it and saw it was from the one that looked by far the most spooky of the bunch. It looked like it ha da giant toothy grin, a mermaid tail and... biceps...
"Hang on a moment... you're made up of one of Aaron's relatives... Shyren's sister... and a Moldbygg, right?" I asked them, the monster then chattering its mouth at that.
"The human is right," the creature said, Sans looking at me with a smile.
"wow, first attempt. how about the others?" Sans asked. I then looked at them and was able to deduce a couple of them.
"Uh... this bird-lookin' guy has wings that look a lot like Froggit... and legs that look like they're extended versions of Whimsum's... the head's the only thing I'm not sure of," I admitted. The creature then spoke all at once, but I could understand them.
"We're made up of Astigmatism... ribbit, Final Froggit... and Sir Whims, knight of peace," the creature said at once, them actually speaking through their eye.
"And this one..." I smiled as I saw it being a large dog-like creature with its head having a circular hole in it and the legs having the silhouettes of dogs in them. "Well, they're just good doggies," I smiled, the creature panting at that and their tail wagging at that. I then looked at the female bird monster and smiled, knowing I saw someone like her before. "And you... you're a Snowdrake... but you have parts of Vegetoid on you as well as some mystery monster," I smiled.
"Y-es... can...I...spe...ak...to...S...now?" she asked, me feeling sad for how her fate was by far the most miserable of the bunch.
"As for the other ones... apologies, but I got nothin'," I admitted.
"impressive, i'll admit. in order of who you spoke to, they all have new names that i called them soon after they melded their bodies and souls together. in order, they are lemonbread, reaper bird, endogeny, and so cold... though alphys insists to call her mrs. drake, since she's usually the one in control of the thoughts," Sans explained, Alphys then drying her tears up at that. "and the others? i call the three lookalikes the memoryheads and they're made up of the memories of the monsters combined to mrs. drake. and the tall one is called allwatch, and they're made up of... well, the memories of the human souls."
"Alphys," Undyne said with a smile as she then went to her with a smile. "It doesn't matter to me that you made a mistake, Alphys. I just want to make you feel better. And I feel obligated to help out as well. Why don't we all go to get these guys back to their families together?" Undyne asked, me smiling at that.
"I couldn't agree more," I smiled.
"Y-Yeah... okay..." Alphys said.
"Also... um... Alphy... I... I wanted to say something to you... I uh... I..." Undyne said as I could see her blush, me smiling at the duo as I then looked at Alphys with a smile.
"I think what Undyne's trying to say is, she really has the hots for a certain girl named Alphys," I smiled, Undyne looking at me with a glare before slapping me on the cheek, but it was playful and I knew it. If she really wanted to, she could've sent me through the walls. And Alphys blushed intensely at that.
"Y-You... like me? Romantically?" Alphys asked.
"Yeah, I do," Undyne smiled at her.
"E-Even after learning this... about my dark secret... you still love me... I'm... I'm so happy..." Alphys teared up and I simply smiled at her widely.
"Let's go get everyone back home, Alphys," I smirked at her as I looked at my watch. It was only 2:20. I still had over 3 hours to go. I had a feeling I could finish up the job in a short amount of time.
It ended up taking roughly 40 minutes of traveling to get every single monster back to their family member with Undyne taking Reaper Bird to the CORE to meet their family members and us taking the others to meet their families. And after doing so, I then went back to the lab with Alphys and we sighed a breath of relief.
"I still can't believe it... I finally came out with the truth... and everyone's happy... I thought they'd be horrified and furious... but they were all so understanding..." Alphys said with a small sigh.
"See? The people down here are almost always nice," I smirked at her.
"Almost always? What does that mean?" Alphys asked. I sighed and looked around a bit, wondering if the flower would be around.
"Okay... do you know if there are any places in this lab where a flower could pop out of the ground?" I asked her, Alphys gasping at that.
"Y-You mean... h-hold on, I'll get something to make this conversation secret," Alphys said as she went upstairs on an escalator and got a couple helmets that were connected by a wire. "Okay, put this on your head and you can share your thoughts with me... and I can do the same with you," Alphys said, me nodding as we put the helmets on and I then thought my next sentence.
"Do you know anything about a tiny talking flower? One that has no soul, yet has knowledge of its existence?" I asked in thought.
"I... yes... I do... it was a side experiment me and Sans worked on... to see what would happen if something without a soul gained the will to live... soon after I injected the golden flower with determination, it disappeared from Asgore's garden... and Sans explained how the flower has been messing with people for a long time... killing them, giving them predictions, and constantly reliving the same day over and over again until... well... you came along," Alphys said in thoughts only. I then smiled and thought of an alternative to the thought process.
"Do you know sign language, by chance?" I thought to her.
"Oh, Of course I do! It's something I learned from the former Royal Scientist," Alphys said with a smile as she then took off the helmets and I started to sign to her.
"Well, this flower has been trying to get me killed numerous times and has a habit of spying on me," I signed to her.
"Yeah... Sans told me about Flowey and what he's been doing to you. How do you think you're going to befriend someone who has no soul?" Alphys signed back.
"Honestly... I have no fucking clue... but I do know one thing about Flowey that's truly shocking," I signed as I then signed the thing to her. "Keep this a secret... Flowey is actually Prince Asriel," I signed, Alphys gasping at that.
"A-Are you sure?" she asked with her voice.
"Positive," I said with signing, Alphys nodding at that as I continued. "Asriel's ashes spread in Asgore's garden. Gold flowers soon popped up from the garden afterwards. And you injected one of them with Determination, giving it awareness and the ability to use the essence of a human soul to reset his timeline whenever he felt like it... but I do think I know of one possible way to befriend him... but I fear of what may happen in the process," I said to Alphys in sign.
"Yeah? What's that?" she asked in sign.
"My soul is not just one filled with Determination. It's one that's filled with Purity," I signed, Alphys smirking at that.
"I think I got it. You're gonna combine your soul with Flowey and, with all those positive emotions inside of him, he'll finally be a good guy?" Alphys asked.
"Yes, that's the idea... though I have to be careful, since I don't know if I'd be able to overpower Flowey."
"Okay... so what do you do now?" Alphys asked me in regular talk.
"I've gotta get going to meet with King Asgore. It's 3 o clock now, so I have 3 hours at least in order to hold my mom true to the promise I made her. You think you could help me out on the way through Hotland?" I smiled at her.
"Y-Yeah, I think I could do that... here, let me share phone numbers with you," Alphys smiled as she looked at my phone and gasped. "W-Where'd you get that phone? It's ancient! It doesn't even have texting!" Alphys gawked at it. "Hold on, can I borrow that phone? I think I can make it more modern."
"Sure, knock yourself out," I smiled as I gave her the phone and wondered how long it'd take... but lo and behold, it only took 10 seconds at the most before she then got back to me with a smile.
"Here ya go. Now it's got texting, item storage, a jet pack feature, a justice blaster, and I've signed you up on Undernet as one of my friends," Alphys smiled at me.
"Wow. All that in only 10 seconds. Impressive skills, Alphys," I smiled at her.
"T-Thanks," she smirked. "Okay, one word of warning when going through Hotland. Be careful not to run into Mettaton... I feel bad about this, but... when I was observing you on my console over there, I made a small plan with him. That he'd make fake shows and that I'd keep saving you from him... but Mettaton is very harmless. But he probably wouldn't like the fact that I'm going back on the plan, because he really loves to put on a show. So... whenever you get to somewhere where you encounter him, I'll observe you on my console and help out, okay?" Alphys smiled.
"Well, I can understand why you'd do that in the first place, what with how you felt lonely and all. But I have to admit, fighting this guy sounds fun. What is he, anyways?" I smiled.
"He's a robot that I made to impress Asgore... and he's also the only celebrity in the Underground. Everything on the television is made by him," Alphys smirked.
"Heh, even more fun than I thought. Fighting a robot entertainer sounds like the most fun I'll have down here yet. You're on, Alphys," I smiled at her.
"O-Okay, awesome!" Alphys smiled at me as she then led me to the east and to a door, where I saw it led to a different section of Hotland to the east. "Alright, I'll keep in touch with you on the monitor, alright?" Alphys smiled.
"Done deal," I smirked back at her as I then went forward, wondering what Mettaton would be like if Alphys was the one who built him.