Chapter Nine: Undyne and Alphys

I decided to go "hang out" with Undyne and Papyrus. I used the ferry to return to Waterfall and went to the dragon-fish house. Papyrus was already there and I could hear someone playing the piano within. When I talked to him, he said he had a plan to help me and Undyne be friends. I told him I was as ready as I'd ever be and he said to stay behind him. He gave me a gift to give Undyne, a golden bone with a red ribbon tied around it which he said she loved. I had my doubts, but before I could express them he was already knocking on her door.

"Hi, Papyrus! Are you ready for your extra private, one-on-one training?"

"YOU BET! I EVEN BROUGHT A FRIEND, TODAY!" Papyrus moved out of the way, and Undyne was smiling pleasantly.

"Hi, I don't think we've…" Her smile became very strained at the sight of me. She looked to Papyrus, who had a hopeful smile on his face, then looked back to me. She spoke through clenched teeth. "Why don't. You two. Come in?" She went into her house, and Papyrus seemed excited. This probably counted as a success, to him. We both followed her inside.

Papyrus prompted me to give Undyne the gift I had "brought of my own accord!" She didn't seem very impressed when I handed her the bone. She said she'd put it with the others and moved to a drawer in her kitchen area. It sounded full of bones when she dropped the new one in and closed it. She asked if we were ready for the lesson.

Unconvincingly, Papyrus said, "WHOOPSY DOOPSY! I JUST REMEMBERED I NEED TO USE THE BATHROOM! YOU TWO HAVE FUN!"" He then ran to her window and demonstrated how to defenestrate. Why he did so when the door had been right behind us, I wasn't sure. Also, monsters didn't need toilets so why use the bathroom excuse?

It was just me and Undyne. She scowled as she said, "So… Why are YOU here? To rub your victory in my face? To humiliate me more? WELL?"

I shook my head. "I'm not here for either of those things."

She was suspicious. "Then what…? …Wait. You think I'm gonna be friends with you, huh?"

I shrugged. "It's more like I hoped to reach an understanding with you."

"An 'understanding'?" Even outside of her armor she managed to be intimidating. "Here's what I understand. I understand that you're a coward who only knows how to run. I understand that you have the last SOUL everyone needs to be free and you're holding on to it. And I UNDERSTAND that you've somehow convinced my friend that you're his friend, too!

"Well, you know what? YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BE MINE! I don't need weakling little 'friends' like you! If you weren't my houseguest you'd be dog meat by now! You're the enemy of everyone's hopes and dreams! We will NEVER be friends. Now get the hell out of my house!"

It was as hopeless as I'd feared. She wasn't going to budge just by talking to her. But as I turned to leave Papyrus came back to the window!

"DARN, WHAT A SHAME! I THOUGHT YOU TWO COULD BE FRIENDS. I GUESS I OVERESTIMATED YOU, UNDYNE. YOU'RE JUST NOT UP TO THE CHALLENGE!"

"CHALLENGE!? Papyrus, get back here and say that again!" But he was already gone. "Damn it…" She looked back at me. "So, he thinks we can't be friends, huh?" She suddenly smiled. "Fuhuh! What a joke! I can make friends with a wimp like you any day! I'll show him."

She grabbed me by the front of my sweater and pulled me closer. "Listen up, human. We aren't going to just be friends. We'll be… BEST FRIENDS. You'll like me so much, you won't be able to think about anyone else!" She laughed as she put me in a headlock and rubbed her fist on the top of my head. "IT'S THE PERFECT REVENGE!" She set me down and very politely invited me to take a seat. Somewhat dazedly I stumbled around her house, just looking around first.

When I inspected the window Undyne said that Papyrus normally stuck his landing. I took that to mean this wasn't the first time he had jumped out of her window. Next to it was a piano and she told me a friend of a friend had once lounged "seductively" upon it and fed himself grapes. She didn't like him, but admired his lifestyle. When I looked into the drawer she had shoved Papyrus' gift into, all I found was the little white dog that I had been "dogging" my steps! It winked at me, and I shut the drawer tight.

I was still a bit dazed, and when I put a hand on her icebox to steady myself I found it to be strangely warm… She boasted that the same Dr. Alphys who had made the puzzle in Snowdin had made her a fridge that would keep her food warm, just the way she liked it. I thought it strange, initially, but then I remembered monsters didn't have to worry about spoilage. Her food was probably fine, being hot all the time.

Next to her dining table was a longsword stuck in a small boulder. She said that while humans "sucked," our she liked our history. She had gotten the idea for the sword from one of Dr. Alphys' "history books," and Dr. Alphys herself had come up with the specifications. She liked how it could slash AND bash at the same time.

Not wanting to upset Undyne by dallying, I sat at the table. When she offered to get something to drink, she took several items out from her hotbox and set them on her counter. But when I tried to get up and pick something she threw a spear at her table and broke it in half!

"DON'T GET UP! YOU'RE THE GUEST, SO SIT DOWN AND ENJOY YOURSELF!" She brought herself back under control, then said to just use the spear to pick something. So I plucked the spear from what remained of the table and pointed to the box of tea, since that seemed to be a safe-enough choice. Things got a little awkward as she prepared the kettle and the silence was heavy as we waited for the water to boil. She finally brought me the tea in a cute little fish-shaped cup. She sat down, warning me that the tea was hot, but she soon lost her patience with me blowing on it so I took a sip.

It was still boiling hot, but delicious. I told her so and she said there'd be nothing but the best for her "ABSOLUTELY PRECIOUS FRIEND!" She seemed to be thinking of something while I blew on my tea some more.

Almost reluctantly, she started talking to me. She said that it was strange that I would pick this tea. Golden flower tea was the king's, Asgore's favorite. She said that I reminded her of him, in that we were both "total wimps!" But only sort of.

She told me how she tried to prove that she was the strongest, as a child, by fighting Asgore. Tried to. She couldn't land a single blow! The worst part was that he didn't even fight back. She had been humiliated, but Asgore apologized and asked her if she wanted to know how to beat him. She said "yes," and he began training her.

One day, during practice, she finally knocked him down! But instead of feeling satisfaction or pride in herself she only felt… bad. But he was beaming! She'd never seen anyone so proud to have their butt kicked. Long story short, he kept training her, and she was now head of the Royal Guard! She was the one who trained "dorks" to fight. People like… Papyrus.

I had to ask. "Do you think he has what it takes? To be a royal guard, I mean."

She was reluctant, but finally said, "I… don't think I can ever let him in. Don't tell him I said that! It's just... he's… It's not that he's weak! He's actually pretty damn tough, but… He's too innocent and nice! I mean, look, he was supposed to capture you and you guys ended up friends! I could NEVER send him into battle. He'd get torn to little, smiling shreds."

I… could see that happening. Papyrus trying to resolve some conflict peacefully, with his great big grin on his face, only for someone to take something in their hand and-! Just the thought made me shudder.

"See? Even weakling like YOU can figure it out." She sighed. "It's why I started giving him cooking lessons, to give him something else to do with his life."

We sat in silence for a while and I found that I was out of tea. Undyne noticed and took the cup to get me more. But halfway back to the kettle she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Wait. The cooking lesson! PAPYRUS WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE THAT RIGHT NOW! We rescheduled and everything!" She turned to me with a manic grin. "If HE'S not here, YOU'LL have it, instead!" She ran to the counter and knocked off all the items she had taken out of her hotbox. She turned back to me. "That's right! NOTHING has brought us closer than cooking! If I give you his lesson, then WE'LL be closer! Fuhuhuh! We'll be best friends, yet!" She jumped from her kitchen and landed next to my seat. She grabbed my by the sweater again and jumped back to her kitchen, setting me down in front of the counter.

"The first step is to start the sauce!" She stomped her foot and the whole house shook. Tomatoes and other vegetables fell from the ceiling, somehow. She told me to envision them as my greatest enemy and to pound them to dust with my fists! I had the perfect face in mind, and punched a tomato with everything I had! It fell over. Undyne was pleased.

"Yeah! Our hearts are uniting against these healthy ingredients!" It was her turn and she brought her fist down like a hammer. Not just the tomatoes but everything splattered all over into a juicy pulp! We were both covered in it. She said we could scrape it into a bowl later, but for now it was on to the next step.

We stood by her stove and she stomped again to summon a pot and a box of pasta from nowhere. She had me put the pasta, box and all, into the empty the pot. I did so fiercely and it went clank! against the empty bottom. She then coached me on how to stir the noodles and, even though I stirred them as hard as I could, she still took over from me and stabbed the pot again and again with a spear. By the time she was done the pot had crumpled and deformed. She still seemed happy.

The last step was to turn up the heat. The stovetop would symbolize my passion and I had to turn my hopes and dreams into flame! There would be no holding back, so I kept turning and turning the dial. The flames went higher, and higher… Undyne kept encouraging me and so the flames went higher until…!

FWOOMPH!

"… oops." We stood in what was left of Undyne's kitchen. We were both covered in soot, although we were miraculously unhurt by the fireball that had devastated her house. Undyne, however, seemed pleased.

"No wonder Papyrus sucks at cooking! He doesn't have nearly as much fire in his belly as you do! So, what's next? Scrapbooking, flower crowns?" I almost thought she was being serious, but then her expression fell. We wiped the soot off our faces as she said, "Oh, who am I kidding? I screwed up, didn't I? I can't force you to like me. Some people just don't get along. I understand if you feel that way. It's fine if we can't be friends, because…" She grabbed me by the front of my sweater again, throwing me into her dining room as she yelled, "IT MEANS I CAN DESTROY YOU WITHOUT REGRET!"

I landed with a roll, somehow managing to face her as she summoned a spear to hold. She started a fight, saying, "I've been defeated, my house is a wreck and I've failed to befriend you. I don't care if you're my guest, I want a rematch! All out on both sides! IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO REGAIN MY PRIDE, SO HIT ME!"

I still didn't want to hurt her, but fortunately I had the option to perform a fake attack. I ran toward her, roaring as though I was going to punch her with everything I had, then made myself falter at the very last second. I barely punched her in the stomach and her HP only fell by one point. I huffed and puffed and hoped that was convincing enough…

"What." Her expression was a cross between confusion and disgusted disbelief. "That's the best you can manage at full force…? Even after all this, you still can't muster the intent to hurt me? …You know what?" She dropped her spear and the fight ended. "I don't want to hurt you, anymore. I hated your saccharine act, but your hit just now… It showed me you're not just some wimpy loser." She was beaming as she said, "You're a wimpy loser with a big heart! Just like him…"

Her smile faded. "...Listen, human. You and Asgore are fated to fight. But knowing him, he probably doesn't want to. Talk to him. I'm sure you can persuade him to let you leave. A mean human will fall down here, eventually, and I'll take their SOUL instead! Good plan, huh?" She paused, then said. "Oh, and if you DO hurt Asgore, I'll take the other SOULs to hunt you down and kick the SNOT out of you! Because that's what friends do, right? Fuhuhuh!"

We got out of her flaming house and stood on her front lawn. She asked me if I'd had fun, and that we should hang out again… somewhere else. I told her that it was very good stress relief. She said she was going to go stay with Papyrus until her house was fixed and, if I wanted to talk to her, I could just call him and the both of them could talk at the same time. But as she left she called me "punk" again, and I figured enough was enough.

"Hey! My name isn't 'human' or 'punk.' My name is Frisk."

She had turned around at my shout, then walked back to me with a smirk. "Frisk, huh? Well, TOO BAD! You're still just a little punk!" She put a hand on my head and roughed up my hair quite a bit, but she was grinning while she did it. She jogged away, leaving behind her rather sad-looking house, the possessed training dummy and me and my bruised head.

As I made my way back to Hotland I carefully tried to set my hair back to rights. After stepping off the ferry I visited the save star, because I did not want to go through all of that again. The royal guards were still blocking the road, so I went to visit the building marked "Lab." The door slid open by itself with a peculiar sound as I approached. I took that as an invitation to let myself in.

The door shut on its own, leaving the room dark. The only light I could see was from a large screen, much like Papyrus' crystoputer but five times the size. The only image on it was me, and no matter where I went the image followed and moved with me. It was like a mirror, but not really…

Moving further in I thought I saw a messy desk with a smaller crystoputer on it, but I couldn't make anything else out. Before I could call out and ask if anyone was home the same peculiar sound I'd heard when the door opened echoed through the room. Someone came in and the lights suddenly turned on. I felt my eyes adjusting to the change in light level and I was temporarily blinded. As I rubbed at my eyes, a female voice said "Oh. My. God."

When I opened my eyes again I was facing a little, yellow lizard lady who was goggling at me thru her glasses. She was wearing a coat that looked familiar but I couldn't place it before she started fretting and spinning around in place.

"I-I-I didn't expect you so soon! I haven't showered, I'm barely dressed, everything's messy, a-a-and…" She brought herself under control and took a deep breath. She turned around to face me, looking very nervous. "Ummm… H-h-hiya! I'm Dr. Alphys. I'm Asgore's royal alchemist! B-b-but, ahhh, I'm n-not a 'bad guy'!" She blushed a little. "Actually, since you left the Ruins, I've, um, been 'observing' your journey."

I gasped. "The eyeballs!" She seemed confused, and I asked her if the hooded crystal balls were hers. I also belatedly introduced myself.

She seemed embarrassed. "Y-you mean the scrying eyes? Y-yes, those are m-mine… I-I'm sorry if they made you uncomfortable, Frisk… B-but they let me watch all your fights, your friendships… Everything! I was originally was going to stop you, but… Watching someone through a screen really makes you root for them." She smiled. "S-so now I want to help! Using my knowledge, I can guide you through Hotland! I know a way to the castle, no problem!"

Her smile became nervous again. "… Um, well, actually, there's one tiny issue. You see, a long time ago, I made a robot named Mettaton. He was supposed to be an entertainer, you know, for the CV? But, well, recently I decided to make him more useful. Small practical adjustments, like, um… Anti-human combat features?"

I had to stop her. "Doctor, before we go any further, what's a robot?"

She seemed shocked. "W-what? You don't know what a robot is? B-but I thought humans made them?"

I shook my head. "If they did, it was before The Blackout. I haven't even seen that word in any of the books I've read." I paused, then amended myself. "Well, I may have seen it in an old dictionary, but I can't remember what it was defined as."

"W-what blackout?"

"The Blackout. The day technology died." I gave her the short version of the story. About how a flare of radiation travelled from the sun to knock technology from the sky, the first step in humanity's decline. On the ground everything involving the transmission of electricity overloaded and was never repaired. Natural disasters rocked the planet as though the flare had shaken its very core. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis raged… To top everything, humans did what humans do best when faced with such adversity; some pulled together, but many turned on one another.

Some managed to pull through and survive, if just barely, but they'd been knocked back several centuries in terms of the technology they could utilize. Too much knowledge had been lost, and too much had to be reinvented for it to be regained quickly. I was lucky to have been born in one of the more "advanced" human settlements to survive, and was able to learn more than most humans could boast.

Dr. Alphys was aghast. She looked like she almost couldn't believe me, but I had no reason to lie. It had been almost sixty years after it all happened and you could still see the bones of those who perished back then, littering the old roads by the thousands, or more. I saw plenty after my parents died and I was forced to go live with…

I shoved him out of my mind as hard as I could. Punching the tomato in my head helped.

"Oh my god, I-I had no idea that was h-happening on the surface! I mean, I n-n-noticed how the trash flowing i-into Waterfall changed, b-but I didn't think a-anything like that had happened!" She fell silent, and I gave her time to let it sink in.

Bang.

We both jumped. The sound had come from the wall to my left, and I backed away from it as Dr. Alphys began to stammer.

"Oh n-no… U-um! Th-that's him! M-Mettaton! I t-tried to remove the combat features, b-but I messed up! Now he's an unstoppable killing machine with a taste for human blood!"

Bang, bang, bang, BANG! The lab went completely dark and a sultry, male voice echoed metallically.

"OHHHH YES! Welcome, beauties…" A spotlight from above illuminated a cuboid construction made of glass and metal standing on a single wheel. He had skinny arms stuck to either side, and in one hand he held something that looked like a crystal sphere glued onto a metal tube which was amplifying his voice. Dials and buttons on his front blinked and shone as he said, "Welcome to today's QUIZ SHOW!" More lights came on, multi-colored and spinning in patterns I couldn't follow as little bits of colored paper fell on our heads like rain. "Oh boy! I can tell it's going to be a great show! Everyone give a hand for our wonderful contestant!" Mettaton applauded me and more applause sounded from somewhere, even though it was just the three of us. It stopped as abruptly as it started.

He wheeled close to me, around me, getting too close for comfort. "Ever been on a quiz show before, gorgeous?" When I shook my head, he gripped my shoulder with his free hand as he said, "Well, don't worry, because it's very simple! There is only one rule here. Answer correctly…" his hand tightened almost to the point of pain, "… or you DIE!"

He used the hand on my shoulder to spin me away from him and something like a fight started. Mettaton said he would start with something easy. He asked "What is the prize for answering correctly?" I had to choose one out of four answers. I could see Dr. Alphys standing just behind and to the side of Mettaton. She made the letter "D" using her hands, pointing me to an answer of "more questions." It was correct, and she gave me the old "thumbs up" gesture.

So the quiz went. Mettaton would ask a question, and I would rely on Dr. Alphys for the answer. That became important, especially when he asked a complicated math question that I couldn't solve in the amount of time I had, had me count the number of flies in a jar and asked a trick question. Although, when he asked if I would "smooch a ghost," I couldn't interpret the doctor's expression. Was she looking at him like that because he'd rigged all the answers to be "Heck yeah!"? Or did she honestly think I would kiss a ghost I didn't even know and was being a little judgmental? I was forced to pick one of the options, and Mettaton said he loved my answer.

He finally asked a question about a fantasy book I had read when I was younger, which had been about a young girl's journey through a magical world she had arrived in by falling down a rabbit's hole. Dr. Alphys was all too happy to answer for me, going on and on in more detail than I could remember about it. But when she realized that Mettaton had caught on to our teamwork she faltered.

"Alphys, Alphys, Alphys… You aren't helping our contestant, are you?" She was shaking her head, trying to deny it, but Mettaton didn't believe her. "Ooooooh, you should have told me! I'll ask a question you'll surely know the answer to~!"

The question turned out to be "Who does Doctor Alphys have a crush on?" I hovered my hand over the answers and she was trying to wave me off. She shook her head particularly hard when my hand hovered over Undyne's name, silently begging me not to pick that answer… so I picked it. It turned out to be correct. Dr. Alphys fell to the floor in an embarrassed heap, blushing behind her hands as she covered her face.

Mettaton only said, "See? I told you it was obvious. Even the human figured it out."

He huffed, putting his hands on his… hips? "Well, well, well. With Dr. Alphys helping you, this show has no dramatic tension!" He threw his hands in the air and said, "We can't go on like this! BUT this was just the pilot! Next up, more drama! More romance! More bloodshed! Until next time, darlings!" He retracted his arms and wheel and he flew into the air with a flame erupting from the bottom of his boxy body.

Dr. Alphys and I were alone. She picked herself up off the floor and all she could say was, "… Well, now you know what a robot is, at least?" Then, with an embarrassed smile she added, "Y-you can ignore that last question. He wasn't supposed to ask that one." As I moved to explore the lab, I had to wonder how she knew that. But before I could get very far Dr. Alphys stopped me.

"L-let me give you my ph-phone number! Th-then, m-maybe… If you need help, I could…" She gasped when she saw my phone. "Wha… Where'd you get this thing!? It's ANCIENT! You can't even send texts… W-wait a second, please!" She ran off with my phone, doing something very loud and complicated-sounding to it before bringing it back. She looked so happy…

"Here! I upgraded it for you! Now you can send texts, it's got a keychain, and now you can access boxes from it! Oh, and I signed you up for Undernet, too, so we can be friends there! And, um… yeah…" Her excitement faltered, and I used the break in the barrage to ask her how "texts" worked. It turned out to be very simple, and another awkward silence fell between us. She finally excused herself to go to the bathroom and ran through the door I think she exited when I arrived. I couldn't get her to come back out.

When I looked I didn't find any new phone numbers. She must have forgotten to add it in when she upgraded my phone… And I never managed to ask her how the Undernet worked. I thought that was what the "social network" Papyrus showed me was called and I wanted to "follow" him.

I explored the laboratory. The messy desk I thought I'd seen earlier was, indeed, an excessively messy desk. Books and folders and papers covered in chicken-scratch writing were balanced precariously high. There were empty bowls and containers of food that almost all claimed to be "instant," or were snacks of some sort like potato chips (or was it popato chisps?). A cute little teacup shaped somewhat like the doctor was filled with something sweet-smelling and fizzy. The only spaces not completely covered with mess were the crystoputer (which had the floor tile puzzle in Snowdin on it) and one end of the table with a doll on a stand that looked like it came from before The Blackout. She was dressed suspiciously like Undyne had been when I visited her house. Her pale plastic skin had been painted blue, and an eyepatch had been colored on, as well… She wasn't nearly as muscular, however. That headlock had felt like I was being crushed in a living, blue-scaled vice and the top of my head was still stinging!

Next to the desk was an icebox with more junk food within and an enormous, half-empty bag of food for dogs sat upon the floor. I had to wonder how big a pet Dr. Alphys had that would require that much feeding… Next to the dog food was the wall that Mettaton had come crashing through. The space behind it was suspiciously small, just barely big enough to fit the robot, in fact. Had he been waiting in there? Who sealed him in? Had he heard me and the doctor talking? I wondered.

Beyond the hole there was a stairwell up to another floor, but it was unlike any other stairwell I'd ever seen before. The stairs were sliding up, all on their own! I was almost reluctant to step onto it, but I hadn't made it this far by being timid. (I didn't count running from Undyne as being timid, just plain old common sense.) I managed to step on without incident, keeping one hand on the railing even as it slid by (or rather as I slid by). Once at the top I watched in fascination as the steps slid beneath the floor. But I maintained a respectful distance from it because I had a feeling it would be a Bad Idea to get myself caught.

I found myself in what appeared to be Dr. Alphys' room. There were a number of bookshelves and they were the first things I looked at. One had a number of scientific research materials and texts on human anatomy but they were all very dusty. Other shelves held books labeled "human history" but they all turned out to be fictional novels. One that I checked turned out to be a rather… risqué romance novel about a innocent maid and a randy female knight that I don't think I was supposed to be reading. My face felt hot as I put that one back.

The oddest thing was that the human books were all made of plaspaper. But then again, it made sense, too. They would be more durable than books using wood pulp paper and would survive being swept into Waterfall far better. Not even the ink would run, since the text and/or any illustration was very much a part of each page. It was just hard to believe people back then were foolish enough to throw away books, even the novels.

Next to the bookshelves was a large contraption turning some kind of plant material into a pink goop, which was dripping into a bucket set up under a nozzle. The goop smelled sweet, and faintly of strawberries. I tried a little, to satisfy my curiosity, and it tasted just like strawberry ice cream! But it wasn't cold, yet, which was mildly disappointing.

There was a worktable with dusty tools and blueprints spread all over. I couldn't read the handwriting on the blueprints but it had a picture of an upside-down heart being turned right-side-up, then going into a metal body. But looking at it made me think,*Is that… a soul?

There was a wardrobe and I figured since I was already being such a snoop, why not look inside? If the good doctor didn't want me poking my nose everywhere, she shouldn't have left me to my own devices. I found more coats like the one she had been wearing and one very nice dress. The familiarity of the coats made me take one off its hanger and look at it. They were all sized for Dr. Alphys, obviously, but the bell in my mind wouldn't stop ringing. I threw it over my shoulders and there was something about the way it draped over me while it was unbuttoned that made me feel… warm. Even the placement of the pockets was familiar… I pulled the coat over my head, still trying to remember. I peered out through a gap and I suddenly remembered why the coat was so familiar.

*Sans! Sans wore a coat just like this one! Except he didn't fasten the buttons the way the doctor did. And his coat had a hood on it… Or did it? Remembering our conversation in Grillby's, the color of the hood was different from the coat, black as opposed to the dark brown coat. But the material and the shape of the coats were just the same. As I put the coat back I had to wonder what Sans was doing with an alchemist's coat…

There wasn't much left to the room. There was a stack of unopened letters from monsters like Doggo and Snowdrake, a big cube that unfolded into a bed when I pushed a button, and a poster hanging on the wall for a performance by Mettaton. One of the corners had peeled away from the wall, and there was writing on the back. It said "Thank you for making my dream come true", and was autographed.

Just what was the relationship between the two? I just couldn't see them as being simply a creator and her creation. Mettaton was clearly independent, but since I knew nothing of robots maybe he was supposed to be that way? I simply didn't know enough to start making assumptions.

There was nothing left in the laboratory for me to explore. There were no other doors, except for another exit, which I found odd. How could this gigantic building have so little in it? There had to have been more, I just wasn't seeing it. Maybe I could come back and convince the doctor to show me around some more, perhaps even let me see what was behind that door she had ducked behind.

I left using the second exit, back out into the heat. Still, I wondered.

Why was Dr. Alphys all alone?