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"-And while the long term effects can only be guessed at, the current number of citizens without power has risen to almost twelve hundred-"
"Sans." Alphys paced back and forth in front of the gigantic television screen that she had just turned off, leaving the dark room absent of any other distractions. He sat awkwardly on the couch, uncertain of where to look.
"You tried powering a photon dispersal generator by connecting it to the city's power grid. Am I right?" she swirled a small amount of amber liquor in her glass as she paced, thinking.
"W-well," Sans cleared his throat, suddenly feeling very pressured. He wasn't used to being under Alphys's scrutinizing glare. "It didn't exactly go as planned-"
"I can tell," her voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"Look, Al, it was an honest mistake."
"One that endangered the lives of everyone around you!" Alphys fumed, pacing back and forth in front of him. "Sans, I miss him too, but you could have been killed! Or worse!"
"But I wasn't," he interrupted pointedly. "And we learned something important from that particularly... explosive foray."
"And that would be...?" she motioned for him to continue, although she was clearly still upset.
"We're going to need power," Sans steepled his fingertips together. "Lots and lots of power."
"So, what would you suggest?" she sighed, beginning her process of maintaining her 'project' once more. The smoking liquid that fell down Asriel's throat flowed thickly, and Sans watched it for a while before answering.
Sans thought for a brief moment, chin in hands.
"We'll need a second core."
Alphys nearly dropped her beaker.
She adjusted her glasses with one hand, ignoring the shaking body for a few seconds to stare at him.
"... What?" he blinked.
"What do you mean, a second core?" she balked. "Sans, we had Gaster for the first core, I don't even know if it can be done again."
"That's why I came to you," Sans pointed out. "If there was anyone that could do what he did, it would be the royal scientist herself."
"Ex royal scientist," Alphys said uncomfortably, watching the body's spasms die down. "I'm not officially working for the king anymore. Hell, he's practically given up the royal title himself."
"So?" Sans stood with one hand outstretched, grinning. "What do you say? Can you do it? Can you make a second core?"
Alphys looked, if only for a moment, as if she desperately wanted to shake his hand. However, she slowly shook her head, a sliver of discontent showing.
"Sans," she said softly. "Doctor Gaster's had some pretty big shoes to fill." Sans smile faded a little, but not entirely. "I can't competently reproduce something as big as the core power station, I couldn't even get it moved out from the underground-"
"But what about mini-Asgore?" Sans jabbed a thumb at Asriel's body. "You managed to replicate that pretty damned well."
"This is different, Sans," she crossed her arms, a glint showing in her glasses. "Monster's bodies aren't that hard to recreate – it's the whole soul transference thing that's the trouble. And believe me, I have done lots and lots of research into souls, this project alone has been absolute torture."
"What if..." Sans said after a moment of silence. "... What if I told you that I could get you the blueprints that Gaster used to create the first core?"
Alphys looked as if he'd just grown a second head.
"... You can't be serious," she breathed, waiting for him to say gotcha or April Fool's, but he simply stood there with a blank expression. "... Oh my god you're not kidding, he actually gave them to you."
"I... acquired Gaster's blueprints, yes," he nodded once. "So... can you do it?"
Alphys resumed her pacing, one hand over her mouth as she walked tentatively back and forth. She did so for several minutes, Sans watching her with growing impatience. She finally turned back to him, her eyes wide.
"... With Gaster's blueprints, the actual drafts, I can begin construction of a secondary power core," Alphys said at long last, leaving Sans bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement.
"That's fantastic," he beamed. "I can –"
"On one condition."
Sans froze mid-bounce, staring.
"... Just-just in case something goes wrong," she said with bated breath. "In case your photon dispersal generator goes banana shaped and it k-kills us all..."
Alphys fiddled with her thumbs for a moment, unable to meet his eyes.
"I want to finish what I started."
Sans drew a blank until she gave a slow look to the covered body of Asriel. Sans nodded eventually in understanding.
"I gotcha," he said after a moment. "I'll do what I can to speed the process, but-"
"Just leave everything to me," she shook her head. "Just make sure that Flowey behaves himself, and I'll-I'll figure something out."
"You know..." Sans crossed his arms. "I did help construct the DT extractor. You aren't the only one who's delved into soul research."
"This is more than just speculation and theories, Sans," Alphys took a seat in her swiveling chair before the large monitor, sighing. "I literally can't transfer his consciousness into the body without either destroying one of the bodies in the process, which completely screws everyone in case something goes wrong, or two, without developing an entirely new soul, which would, in all likelihood, utterly destroy his current form of consciousness and memory. He doesn't even have a soul, I have no idea how I'm supposed to keep his mind intact without one; there's just no way to keep something that fragile in one piece long enough to transfer! I'm at my wit's end, Sans."
Sans softly, quietly reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of worn, dirtied square spectacles, and stared at them for a long time in complete silence.
Finally, at long last, he folded them neatly and placed them back in his pocket, letting out a silent breath.
"... I think I know how we can do it."
"You have my full attention."
"You made an artificial body out of the combined DNA from Asgore and Toriel..." Sans began slowly, steepling his fingers together. "Just hear me out on this one... what if we made an artificial soul?"
Alphys opened her mouth and closed it a couple of times, staring at him. She frowned firmly, crossing her arms.
"... Do you think that we can even do it?" she adjusted her glasses. "A replicated body is one thing, but an artificial soul? Is-is that even feasible?"
"Like a blank slate," Sans nodded once. "Extract the consciousness from the host flower and inject it into an artificial soul, a new empty vessel."
"But would it have the same danger of just creating a new real monster's soul?" Alphys mused aloud. "Is there still the possibility of accidentally erasing his memory, letting the new soul overwhelm the consciousness?"
"I'd say it's worth a shot," Sans shrugged. "And even if that does happen, think of it this way; all that pain, all that suffering is something he'd forget. It would be like the prince was being born all over again."
"Blank slate," she repeated numbly.
"Blank slate. We inject the body with a fresh, artificial half-soul, and follow up with Flowey's consciousness immediately after. It can't hurt to try. Mostly."
Alphys sat in silent contemplation for what seemed like ages.
"... Let's do it."
"Awesome," Sans grinned. "Now that that's out of the way, I've got a favor to ask of you."
"Yes?"
"Uh... d'you mind if I move the generator down here to the laboratory?" he motioned around the basement.
"What?" she blinked.
"Well... more like 'rebuild'," Sans shifted awkwardly. "The prototype kinda... um, blew up."
Alphys took a sharp intake of breath, cringing.
"I've got nowhere else to put it," he shrugged. "Tori sort of, uh... disagreed with leaving it in the house."
"Gee, I wonder why," she deadpanned.
"Good, so, it's settled then," he clapped his hands together with a grin, either ignoring or oblivious to her distasteful stare. "We'll get started on your project first thing tonight, and we'll then we'll have the photon generator up and running in no time."
"Can't wait," Alphys said utterly without conviction.
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Undyne watched in mild fascination as the skeleton and her girlfriend worked together with an intensity that she rarely got to see from either of them. It was sort of exciting in an odd way, witnessing the pair performing together in such perfect synchronization. The laboratory was lit up with sporadic flashes of light from the bizarre, unearthly glowing machine, shaped like the business end of a double barrel shotgun laid bare on the ground. Held together with welded steel and imbued magic, the dimly glowing device cast long shadows about the room. Sans and Alphys each stood on either side of the large machine, both looking roughly equally exhausted from their work for the last two days.
"Test number... thirty-seven," Sans said, readjusting his safety goggles as he stood beside a row of switches implanted into the side. "Preparing cognitive translocation in three... two... one..."
Alphys flipped a row of switches on the opposite side, and light bounced off the glass cases of the device, throwing the room into darkness for a few moments. Undyne stood with her arms crossed, leaning against a metal table that held only the covered body and Flowey in his tan flower pot.
"How much longer do you think this is going to take?" Flowey asked her in a bored tone, but it was clear that he wasn't going to stop watching until they were done.
"Dude, does it look like I have any idea what nerd thing they're doing?" Undyne shrugged, brushing a lock of red hair from her eye. Sans pulled a small white rat from the tube like contraption, just large enough for a small prince, as Alphys removed a slightly obese rabbit from the one opposite him. Both animals were seemingly sleeping with a number of wires attached to their heads, linking directly up to Alphys's large monitor which she checked periodically before shaking her head each time.
"Preparing test number twenty... uh, eight?"
"Thirty-eight."
Undyne shifted uncomfortably, uncertain of just how long Alphys was going to subject herself to her work. She had attempted multiple times to sway her away, to take a break, but she displayed a level of determination that rarely came out, and would not be pulled away for anything. It was a little inspiring, but Undyne still had a sliver of worry. She shook it off, looking back to the distracted flower.
Whatever they were doing, it was something Alphys really didn't want to talk about, and that was disturbing enough. Alphys told her everything.
Probably.
She cast a slow gaze to the corner of the room, where what appeared to be a floating white heart in a tube almost seemed to stare out at her. She had never personally seen an exposed monster's soul up close, but this artificial creation of Alphy's was... unsettling. The way it seemed to twist and turn in it's container almost reminded her of the wriggling human souls she had once collected, that had all mysteriously disappeared the day that monsters had gone free from the underground.
A hint of guilt began to rise in her throat, at least until she rubbed her eye patch in memory of what the previous human had done to her.
This soul was too... human.
"Hey," Undyne said after several more 'tests' in which both scientists were busy checking the charts on the monitor. "Not that I don't wanna stay up and watch you nerds go at it like a couple of lab rats all night again or anything," she watched Alphys stretch her back uncomfortably. "But can I get an estimation on when you guys are gonna be done with your dork work?"
"Come on, Undyne," Sans rubbed the back of his neck, removing his safety goggles for a bit to grin at her. "Such hurtful slurs, you're absolutely krilling me."
"... What," she balked.
"We've been herring the same thing out of you," he tried to hide his smirk. "We'll let you know when the device is o-fish-ally finished."
"Sans no."
"Sans yes," he grinned.
"Sans no," Alphys clapped a hand to her forehead.
"Are you against me now too?" he gasped, holding a hand to his chest. "You've codda be kidding me with this carp."
"Sans, oh my god," Undyne pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Come on, Undyne..." Sans fought not to chuckle at the absolutely disgusted look that Flowey was giving him. "You don't have to be a brain sturgeon to do this."
"Sans I swear to god," Undyne said through clenched teeth.
And so the puns commenced throughout the night, along with many a threat of being force fed a blowtorch.
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A/N
Sans: By the way can I use your lab to store my super explosive project? :D
Alphys: Sans are you fucking kidding me with this bullshit -_-