The train was about halfway to its destination in Lorena and Bubbles' country and the train car empty except for them, Sans and a tall package taking up its own seat.
The water elemental had been given crayons and plenty of paper to keep herself busy ; she had doodled the virtual creature she had found in Frisk's video game thousands of times already.
"so." Sans began. "can i ask you somethin'?"
"Of course", Lorena said. "What do you want to know?"
"has a human ever come to the Snow Cave before thas one team?"
The older monster fell silent for a moment, looking through the window at nothing in particular.
"…Just once", she finally replied, still not making eye contact.
Bubbles looked up from her doodling and at her mother. The latter seemed deep in thought, or most likely memories.
"The entrance to the Cave is hidden well enough that humans cannot find it", Lorena continued. "But once… centuries ago… I had just recently started living as myself back then. I think I had officially changed my name already? I found her outside in the snow near the door, unconscious and frozen. Had I been just ten minutes late, she might not have survived…"
"What happened then?" Bubbles asked.
"I took her in. I could not just let someone die out there in the bitter cold, not even a human. When she regained consciousness, I told her she might not be able to ever go back to her people. She said she didn't want to do that anyway. So she stayed with me- I mean, in the Cave… until the end."
Behind the sadness in her tone, Sans detected a fondness that seemed to indicate Lorena and this human had been close at some point, but this was none of his business. And not at all the kind of information he was looking for.
"did she ever act kinda weird?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"ya know, like she somehow knew what was goin' to happen before it happened."
"…No. This is a strange question. Why are you asking?"
"nothing. forgetaboutit."
Bubbles kept asking question after question about the human woman until she got tired of her mother's brief, vague answers. Lorena's mind seemed more present down memory lane than right there with the other monsters. She was giving a small, sad smile.
Sans couldn't come up with a joke to change the topic of conversation, so he took out his phone and texted his brother again. He hadn't been this far away from him in… well, ever. Then again, in the Underground you could never be very far from anyone. It took less than a day to go from one end of it to the other, after all. And this included the Ruins.
From what Sans could tell, Papyrus was doing just fine, going about his daily life knowing his brother would be back home in no time.
Sans started regretting his decision to take this job when the mountains came into view and he was told it would take a while to climb them. But well, if he turned back now he probably wouldn't get paid. And at least he could use his magic to make the package containing Alphys' device lighter until he tired out.
A few hours later, Lorena was carrying him, frozen Bubbles (neither of them were very heavy so she insisted it was no problem, really), and the package. When they finally reached the Cave, the boss monster had to shake the skeleton awake after greeting the guards.
He asked where the device should be installed. The queen pondered this for a short moment while the princess was slowly thawing.
"I think the reception room would be best", she decided. "Follow me."
Rocky was waiting for them inside the castle and welcomed them warmly.
"I see you've brought a new guest with you!" she exclaimed. "I'm Rocky. It's a pleasure to meet you."
She extended her hand towards Sans, who immediately took it. The whoopie cushion in his hand farted loudly. He chuckled slightly ; the look of utter confusion in the stone elemental's eyes was definitely worth coming all the way up here.
"hey. it's a classic. i'm sans the skeleton. al- doctor alphys hired me to install her fast travel device here."
"This way, exchanges between the Snow Cave and Ebott populations will be much easier!" Lorena added.
Rocky took the package and insisted on carrying it the remainder of the way then helping unpack it. Now it was time for Sans to do what he came here for. Alphys had carefully numbered each part of the device and included instructions on how to assemble them and in what order. Her handwriting was still hard to decipher though, so it took a while.
But eventually, the device was working, linking two distant populations of monsters together. It looked a lot like the metal detectors at airports, but larger and taller to accommodate bigger monsters. Did she use parts of one or more detectors to make this gate? It seemed very likely.
"So where exactly does it go?" Rocky asked.
"for now, in alphys' lab. but she's gonna move the other gate closer to the centre of ebott soon."
He powered on the device and the lights all around the gate lit up. Nothing else seemed any different, however when Bubbles (who was now completely unfrozen) extended her arm through it, her hand disappeared. She retracted it and went back to normal.
"It works!" she exclaimed. "Awesome! I can see Frisk whenever I want!"