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"How are you even certain that this will work?"
"I'm not," Gaster replied, readjusting his spectacles slowly and running a long, bony finger down the blueprints. "But someone has to try, regardless of what is and is not impossible."
Sans unconsciously stared at the fresh hole in his hand to match the other, the bandages having just recently being removed. To think that he had...
"I know it bothers you, Sans," Gaster put a hand on his apprentice's shoulder. "But this is our last chance at potentially developing an artificial soul for the king. I don't think he can withstand being forced to slaughter another human child."
"I don't think you can withstand making another monster," Sans eyed the hole in his hand, and Gaster sighed again.
"All progress comes at a price, Sans. If I can alleviate his majesty's suffering, even just a little, then I will make any sacrifice necessary to do so. That's what you're always harping on about, isn't it, Sans? Minimizing suffering?"
"I didn't think you'd..." he shifted his gaze away and onto the schematics for the prototype weapons Gaster and Sans had been developing as backup plans should this one fail. "Nothing. I just... I thought one assistant was all you needed."
"Surely you must be joking," Gaster grinned down at him, holding up one holed hand. "I mean, you're my right hand man, after all."
"... Heh. Heh heh."
"You don't have to worry about being replaced or something silly like that," Gaster readjusted his glasses, placing the papers down onto his cluttered workbench. "We need this new soul to act as a makeshift seventh soul for his majesty to finally shatter the barrier."
"Are you sure that we've even developed enough human traits into this one for it to work this time?" Sans asked quietly, hands in the pockets of his slightly dingy laboratory coat. "I mean, without a pure injection of DETERMINATION there's no guarantee that it will even stay alive, let alone act as an impromptu human's soul. I mean, look at it."
Gaster followed his gaze over to where the floating white monster's soul lay dormant in the amniotic fluids, surrounded by glass and letting off a pale egg white light that came from seemingly within and without it at the same time.
"The determination extractor is still in beta stage, Sans," Gaster breathed through his teeth, beginning to rifle through papers with a practiced efficiency. "And same for the blasters; why did you try to have the prototype sent off for the king to inspect? Those aren't even fully developed yet!"
"I just thought he'd have a real blast with 'em," Sans shrugged.
"... Did-did you just make a joke?" Gaster blinked. "Are you feeling unwell? You never tell jokes."
"Monsters change," Sans shrugged.
"That's the whole problem," Gaster tapped the glowing bundle of energy in the glass prison. "Monster's souls I can recreate. It's almost child's play it's so simple. Creating human souls, on the other hand, is proving to be much more taxing than I ever anticipated. This next one just has to work. This monster has no idea that it, too, will be far more human than it could ever understand, that it will grow to be the salvation of our entire race."
"Doc."
"Hm?" Gaster blinked, having already begun to lose himself in his work.
Sans was standing quite a bit further away from him than before, face emotionless and hands in his pockets.
"Yes, Sans?" Gaster spun around to face him fully, hands clasped together.
"Do you... do you regret making me?"
"At a time like this?"
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"Whuzzat?"
"I said," Alphys fumed. "Are you seriously taking a nap at a time like this?"
"Sorry, sorry Al," Sans rubbed the dream from his eyes wearily, fighting back the unpleasant memories. "Sorry. Just, uh, caught up in the excitement."
"It is a little overwhelming," she nodded. "I need you to pull the fourth lever, set the third dial to twelve and set the pronged switches to one, five, and seven respectively."
Sans followed her instructions to the letter, watching as thin white clouds of smoky steam began funneling in to the chambers. The lights dimmed further as the power drain took effect yet again, and Sans initialized the transference of the glowing white soul into Asriel's waiting body. It began to shake and rumble inside the containment cell, much as it had done whenever Alphys would periodically inject it with her violet mystery goo, but this time the thrashing died down much faster, leaving the body limp and looking surprisingly frail.
The question remained, he thought numbly to himself as he watched the host body completely absorb the soul, unconsciously welcoming it in through the chest like an old friend, as to whether or not it would simply reject it and cause Alphys's whole ma-
Sans blinked. There, in between the time had for the flickering lights to go in and out, he saw it.
A pair of glowing white eyes, coming from Flowey's containment chamber. It lasted only for a moment but Sans had to be sure. He wiped the frost away from the covering, using the edge of his sleeve to properly get a look at the little golden flower.
He lay completely unmoving. Even his face was no more. He looked... just like an ordinary yellow flower.
"... Sans," Alphys betokened him over from the other side. "I-I think that you should see this for yourself. He tore his eyes away from the limp golden flower and sauntered over to Alphys's side. A sliver of dread was stuck in his throat, and he coughed uneasily into his hand when nothing happened. The interior of Asriel's pod had become filled with a mysteriously smoky purple haze, obscuring the lifeless body. It was clear that he wasn't going to move.
"... Al."
Sans put a hand on her shoulder, but she only shook her head.
"No, no...!" she insisted and refused to budge an inch, unlocking the device and powering it down. "Don't say it, don't even think about it, this worked, it has to work!"
"Alphys."
"Help me get the containment chamber open!" Alphys pleaded with him urgently, unable to reach the other latch from her position. "Come on Sans, we need to get him out of there!"
Sans glanced back at the still, lifeless figures, face expressionless.
"... I'm sorry."
"Don't say that!" Alphys's voice cracked and her glasses grew misty. "It-it worked, it has to have worked, I need it to work...!"
"Al," he held out his arms, trying to calm her down without displaying any of the emotions running rampant in himself. "Come on. Calm down. We knew that this might happen-"
"It's all my fault," she rubbed her eyes behind her glasses with the hem of her lab coat. "I knew this was a m-mistake, I should never have-"
Bang.
Both Sans and Alphys jumped at the noise, heads whipping toward the source.
From within the containment chamber, reaching up through the smoke, a small, single white hand was pressed against the glass.
"... Oh my god," Sans breathed, hurrying to help Alphys unlock the pod. Heaping streams of violet vapor swam through the air, clouding their vision. A pair of fuzzy white feet gingerly stepped to the ground. He stood bare and as tall as Sans, and Asriel's purple eyes were nearly glowing as he slowly opened them, taking in a deep breath of the first fresh air he'd had in a long, long time.
Then he grasped his stomach, keeled over, and vomited a long stream of the purple concoction all over Sans's slippers.
"Nice to meet you again too, kid," Sans grinned.
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Frisk looked back and forth between Papyrus and the large television that his eyesockets were currently glued to. It was a small wonder just how Mettaton had acquired so many adoring fans, but that Papyrus was one of them was equally confusing. The two had practically nothing whatsoever in common. Frisk waited for some snide comment from Flowey about being a mechanical talking rectangle, but felt a pang when she turned to see him and he wasn't there.
"... Papyrus?" Frisk asked quietly.
"Yes, tiny human?" he sat relaxed with one arm draped over the edge of Alphys's sofa, looking down at her in the dim glow of the television light. "Is something the matter?"
"How much longer do you think they're gonna be down there?"
"Ahh," he looked upwards to the televised celebrity interview. "To be completely honest, I haven't the faintest idea. Sans said it shouldn't take very long, whatever it is they're working on."
Frisk toyed with the idea of informing him of exactly what they were doing, and briefly wondered how Toriel would react, especially if something went wrong. She chewed her bottom lip in silent contemplation, thinking.
She felt a warm hand on the top of her head, and she looked up to see Papyrus smiling.
"You have nothing to fear, little one!" Papyrus placed his other hand on his chest, beaming. "I am positive that our mutual flower friend is probably being snide and rude to the both of them right at this very moment."
"You're-you're probably right, Paps," Frisk rubbed her arms, feeling slightly cold despite having her favorite striped sweater. "Flowey is pretty tough."
"See?" Papyrus patted her head. "What could possibly go wrong?"
Then the lights went out.
"... Oh, dear. Probably shouldn't have said that."
"Hey!" Undyne could be heard from the kitchen with Toriel, though the lights flickered back on shortly afterwards and the house hummed back to life.
"Still," Papyrus tried to sooth her as she clambered down off the couch and made for the kitchen with the skeleton close in tow. "I'm certain that everything is fine. I mean, the power hasn't been going out that much, and it's not affecting the whole city this time! That's... something!"
"Frisk, Papyrus isn't just talking your ear off to help you calm down," Toriel knelt in her dress, pulling the worried child into a hug. "Your little flower friend will be perfectly fine. Sans already explained everything to me."
That got her attention.
"He-he did?" Frisk blinked.
"Of course!" she stood, sheathing her hand in a mitten and handing Undyne a hot tray of freshly baked cookies, which she took with her bare hands. "It's something about a 'cognitive transfer' experiment or something of the sort, Alphys seemed very wrapped up in it too."
From Undyne's uneasy expression it was clear that Toriel wasn't exactly being kept in the loop, and for a brief moment Frisk wondered if this was how others sometimes saw her.
She didn't particularly care for it.
"... Undyne," Frisk said at last. "Isn't that hot?"
"Isn't what hot?" she asked distractedly. "Oh, right," she dropped the tray of cookies onto the countertop, dusting her evidently unsinged hands.
"You guys made cookies?" Papyrus looked a little crestfallen. "With-without the great Papyrus?"
"The last time we let you help with cookies they came out with ravioli noodles in them."
"For flavor, duh," Papyrus rolled his eyes. Toriel snickered behind her hand.
"Papyrus, not everything can be improved with pasta," Undyne matched his gaze with a wry grin.
"Blasphemy!" he insisted. "Here, let me show-"
"Nope," Undyne jerked the tray of cookies away and held them over her head, quivering. "These are for Alphys. She loves macadamia and white chocolate."
"Which would be supremely improved by adding a sprinkle of Parmesan and spaghetti sauce," Papyrus crossed his arms with a harrumph.
"Well," Undyne pretended to think it over. "You do have a fair point."
"All of the Great Papyrus's points are fair!"
"Clearly there's only one way to solve this dispute..." she slowly gave a toothy smile, handing the cookies back to Toriel for safekeeping.
"... Oh no."
"OH YEAH!"
"NO UNDYNE PLEASE DON'T NOOGIE THE POOR SKELETON! NYOO-HOO-HOO!"
Everyone jumped when the power went out yet again, leaving the house in deathly silence. It was a long few seconds before the lights flickered back on, and Toriel quickly wiped the uneasy expression from her face.
"That was probably nothing," Undyne shifted uncomfortably with her grip on Papyrus, head in the crook of her arm.
Frisk looked between them and took a long, deep breath.
"... Mom?" she started. "There's-there's something I think I need to tell you..."
"Certainly. About what, my child?"
Before she could finish, however, they were interrupted by a loud bang from the basement door being kicked open.
"Boom, baby!" Asriel cheered, stark naked and grinning with a humongous, dopey lopsided smile. "Guess who's back?"
"... About that."
Toriel hit the floor before the cookies did.
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A/N All these delicious comments give me nourishment. Lemme know what you think! :D
The next chapter should be up pretty soon. Enjoy!