"A BOSS MONSTER? WOULD THAT MEAN HE'S-"
"shh…" Sans stands in silence for a moment, then turns to Frisk. "kid, what happened exactly?" Frisk shrugs, apparently still shaken by it. Sans sighs and puts a boney hand on their shoulder. "c'mon kid, lets get upstairs." Frisk nods and goes with Sans and Papyrus back to the elevator.
Alphys is waiting at the top. "I- I saw on the cameras… Is everyone okay?"
"yeah, but the dai- flowey took a beating," Sans says. Frisk is carefully putting the flower pot on Alphys desk. They poke at them a little, but he seems unresponsive. Sans says quietly to Alphys, "did… you see what he turned into?" She nods in silence. Sans looks back at Flowey. "how is something like that even possible? i mean… that would make him what, some sort of royalty? and how'd he even do that?"
"He… He was injected with DETERMINATION," she replies quietly. "It's a force that allows one to affect the world around them, change their own fate, persist after death…" She looks to Flowey. "Some of the amalgamates have shown shape shifting abilities. Perhaps with a strong enough motivation, he can do the same."
"then why not before now?" Sans asks.
Alphys considers. "The main difference between him and the amalgamates is that he doesn't possess a soul. From what we understand of them, the soul is what makes us capable of emotions and connections to other people, but looking at how he acts with Frisk… maybe Flowey is like a counter example to that."
"how though?"
Alphys shrugs. "Another effect of DETERMINATION? But anyway, if that connection allows him to experience the motivation he normally feels, it's entirely possible that it could unlock powers aside from the whole not-dying stuff."
"but he's just a flower right? how'd he end up thinking he's a boss monster? he's got the memories of one or something?"
"I… I really don't know," she says.
"hm…"
*Would you both stop talking about him? Say nothing.
"eh… ok, yeah… sorry kid," Sans says. Frisk looks at him, clearly a little annoyed with their treatment of Flowey while he's unconcious. Sans smiles apologetically. "we're just trying to get to the bottom of this since he's so… unique. hey, has he ever talked to you about who he was before he went all…floral?"
Yes. *No.
"…would ya tell us if you did know anything?"
Yes. *No.
"great," Sans mutters. "well at least we learned one thing from all this. Those weird twisty-face things definitely have something to do with the distortions in time-space."
"Yeah, definitely," Alphys agrees. "But is that going to help us?"
"no idea."
She sighs. "Okay, well I guess keeping an eye on them will help."
"yeah," Sans says. "course they all came out of that weird gray door down there…"
Alphys pauses. "…Sans, what gray door?
"what do you mean, the gray door."
"There aren't any gray doors down there," she says. "Can you show me?"
"yeah," he says. "follow me. papyrus, look after the kid for a minute." Sans walks to the elevator and gets in.
"GOT IT," Papyrus replies. He grins at Frisk and sits down with them. "SO, I'M GLAD YOU'RE OKAY. I WAS REALLY WORRIED FOR A WHILE THERE." Frisk nods in silence. "ARE YOU HUNGRY? ALPHYS DOESN'T HAVE SPAGHETTI BUT SHE DOES HAVE INSTANT NOODLES AND THOSE ARE ALMOST CLOSE ENOUGH." Frisk shakes their head. "FRISK… I KNOW THAT MUST'VE BEEN SCARY BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL PROTECT YOU NEXT TIME."
Doubt it. *Thanks, Papyrus.
"NO PROBLEM." Frisk stands and goes to look at Alphys's monitor. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Papyrus asks. Frisk points at the monitor. "AH. WATCHING THEM. PEOPLE WATCHING, WHAT A WONDERFUL, YET CREEPY PASTTIME. …LOOKS LIKE THEY CAN'T FIND THE DOOR BUT IT SHOULD BE THERE. I SAW IT TOO. DID YOU SEE ANY DOORS WHEREVER YOU WENT?" Frisk thinks about it for a moment, then shrugs. "OH. TOO BAD, THE ONE WE SAW WAS WEIRD."
After a few minutes, Sans and Alphys return. "Are you sure about the door, because uh… there was no door," Alphys says.
"of course i'm sure, we opened it," Sans says.
"Hm…" Alphys ponders it for a while before her phone rings. "Oh! Undyne's calling."
"you told her we found the kid, right?" Sans asks.
Alphys nods as she answers. "Of course, as soon as they showed up… Hey Undyne. You're on speaker."
"Aw, well I'll keep it tame then for the kid. Anyway, after you called and said you found the kid and were picking something up west of Waterfall, I found something that might qualify as weird and wanted to see what you had to say," she says.
"Really?" Alphys asks, interested. "What is it?"
"It's uh… a door?" Undyne says uncertainly.
"A door, okay…" Alphys says.
"I've never seen it before, it's in the cavern wall, it wasn't here earlier. It's just… weird looking, gray…"
"Wait," Alphys says. "Did you say gray?"
"Yeah," Undyne replies. "Why?"
"A gray door appeared in lab earlier according to Sans."
"Well it's Sans we're talking about," Undyne says.
"Uh… Um, Undyne, you're uh… You're still on speaker," Alphys says nervously as she looks over her shoulder at Sans.
"Yeah, I know," Undyne replies. Alphys looks at Sans worriedly, but he just shrugs, apparently unconcerned with what Undyne says about him.
"Oh… well… a- anyway, he said there were those face things in it… listen, I should have a camera around somewhere. Go get it so we can keep an eye on you if you open the door."
"Okay… got it." There's the sound of her footsteps as she walks away, then a slight scraping sound as she pulls a camera from whatever hiding spot Alphys had for it. "This should work…" She holds the camera up to her face and her wide grin fills the screen of Alphys monitor. "Can you see me alright?"
"Oh yeah, you're coming through just fine," Alphys says, amused by her wide smile.
"Now, just go through the door?" Undyne asks as she walks back, keeping the camera facing her for the moment.
"Yes, but be really careful," Alphys says.
"Heh, it's me. Do I even need to be?" In spite of what she says, Undyne does open the door very carefully and points the camera inward. It's pitch black inside. "I'm not seeing much, Alphys…"
"Go a little further in," Alphys instructs. "And keep that camera ready. I'll hang up so you're not distracted."
Undyne puts her phone away and keeps moving forward, until in the distance a figure is visible. They're turned around, facing away from the door and muttering to themselves. It's the same voice as before. The voice that Undyne doesn't understand. Sans, however, goes closer to the monitor, listening in. Soon enough, I can see the accompanying symbols. The wall of text that appears is huge, I start to decipher it as Undyne slowly approaches the figure.
He seems to speak in a distracted and disjointed manner. "The core makes the heat into magical energy, a 7 percent efficiency rate. A low rate but magic is much more potent than heat. Magic destabilizes other magic. Monsters are made of magic. Magic could destabilize the barrier… yes, and then we would all be free. I could even study the sun. The core is the key, no one needs to die for that. The core is the key, but only 7 percent? We need so much more, but how can I fix it…" is what he's saying in his odd, garbled speech.
Undyne is only a few feet away from him. She reaches out and turns him around to face her. The face that meets hers is simple and almost mask-like, with only two eyes and a mouth. Cracks run down both sides of the face. Upon seeing Undyne he gasps in shock and fades away. "Hey! …Where'd you go…"
"he disappeared," Sans says quietly, looking at the screen with disappointment.
Undyne calls out to the figure in the room, but there's no response. She looks around the room, then sighs and dials on her phone. "C'mon Alphys, pick up…."
Alphys does, going to answer. "Hey, go ahead."
"The guy just poofed, you saw that right? Now what?"
"Just come on back out," Alphys says.
Undyne nods and exits, with the camera still facing her. "I just don't know what just happened." The door closes behind her, and as soon as it does, it vanishes.
"Undyne, look behind you!" Alphys says.
Undyne turns and looks. "What the… where is it? That gray door, where'd it go?"
"I don't know," Alphys says. "But that means two of them are closed." Frisk shakes their head suddenly and holds up three fingers. "Or... three maybe?" Alphys amends uncertainly. "
"So now what?" Undyne asks.
"Come on back to the lab I guess… Maybe we can find more of these doors and piece this together."
"Okay," Undyne says. "See you soon, and we'll get to the bottom of this."
And that's when I realize… When Gaster spoke of guiding them, he didn't just mean Frisk. He meant every single one of them. He meant using my influence of Frisk to affect the others. This whole time, in spite of the lack of control I've had, I've indirectly affected everything that's occurred after all. And not only that, when he referred to the 'gray ones' he didn't mean the odd monsters left behind when he was erased from this world. No, involved as they are, they aren't the way to fix this. By 'gray ones' what he meant were the doors…