Chapter Seven: The Girl in The Metallic Dress
Devia didn't know how she went from running in a cavernous region to walking in a much more arid region. Her pants turned into silent heaving, and whatever strength in her legs she had left was barely there. The heat from the lava down below and in the air was making Devia's skin hot. There wasn't any water to be seen for miles, and yet her mouth screamed for it. The dust from the ground made Devia cough, making breathing more difficult for her. She walked for what seemed like hours but was most likely minutes. The heat was scorching with no end in sight. The soles of her feet felt as though they were on fire. She started to see spots of black in her eyes. She tried to blink them away but they only seemed to spread as she slowly lost consciousness. She didn't even notice the pounding footsteps heading her way.
Her hearing had become too muted to be able to hear much of anything other than garbled noises and mumbles. Her clothes clung helplessly to her skin, dried up and near ruined from the exposure to the elements. Devia soon found herself slumping forward, her only mode of balance being her knees that hit the ground. More dust came in contact with her eyes and mouth and another cough sharply exited her lungs. Another tired cough escaped her, and she grew weaker with each passing second. The footsteps from before grew louder and louder. Was it them? Were they coming for her? Did they find her already? A fading silhouette came into her line of vision. Was this what she thought it was? Yes. This was it.
She was going to die right here and now. She deserved it for all the trouble she put others through since her birth. After all, she was an imperfect outcast. A glitch in her now former society. They wouldn't miss her. They would revel in her death. She would be made an example of for many years to come. Just as she fell forward, a pair of arms caught her. Devia tried to keep her eyes open and lift up her arm, but she had become too fatigued to do much of anything now. All she could comprehend was her warm face was resting against something cool. Everything then faded to black in that instant with one last breath.
~~~
Devia was started to hear voices through the dark void. One of them sounded masculine while the other sounded feminine, and their voices were filled with worry. She couldn't make out what they were saying though. She tried to move her arm, but it wouldn't budge. She wasn't able to move her legs all that much either. Instead, she put all her strength into trying to open her eyes. Everything was so fuzzy when she finally gained back consciousness. Was she back home? Did they find her and take her back? Was she to be executed? Was she...dead? She slowly blinked to bring her surroundings into focus.
As her vision was coming back, a bright light from above caused her to immediately shut her eyes again. From what she could make out, she was lying down and in some sort of room. She couldn't even understand what language those voices were speaking in, as it didn't sound anything like her own. She was no longer in her metallic dress from earlier, as Devia was now wearing a much lighter material. Her body somehow felt cleaner than before. She slowly moved her head to the side to get a better view of her surroundings.
"H-Hey! She's waking up!"
"Oh my! Darling, are you alright? Can you hear us?"
She slowly opened her eyes, but squinted until they could adjust. There before her was a reptile creature wearing a lab coat and beside them, much closer to her, was some kind of metal person. Suddenly, a massive wave of thoughts rushed through her mind. Who were these strange people and where was she now? Did they kidnap her? Were they going to take her back to the Hub? Were they going to run experiments on her? She had to get up. She had to get out of there. Her heart started racing. She tried to move her fingers. Slowly she was able to ball them up into a fist.
One leg lifted up, and the other gradually followed suit. Devia's eyes grew wide as fear overcame her. Her lower lip quivered as she lifted her fist. She then punched the space where the robot stood and darted for the floor. She collapsed at first, but slowly regained her balance the more the moved. Once she made it out of the room, her first priority was finding a door. Devia made a break for the entrance, but to her surprise it was locked. She clawed and banged on the door helplessly. "Chæ?! Mūtodyêt! Chälæ nyesodo!"
The robot ran after her and called out to her. "Wait, miss! We saved you! You're safe here!"
Whatever he was saying didn't sound like it could be good. She quickly slipped past him and dove under the table. She had to find another way out. Some sort of way to leave this place. But how? She was now cornered. Why won't they just leave her alone?
"L-let me handle this," The reptile said as she knelt by the table. "I-it's okay. W-we're not going to hurt you..."
"Dåjētâr!" Devia shouted. Devia's hair began to levitate above the floor. A portion of her hair charged towards Alphys' feet. Alphys jumped away from it with a squeal. While she was distracted with one of them for the time being, she fled from the table and tried to find another exit. Mettaton's eyes followed the stranger grudgingly and with a growing amount of annoyance. He helped get her to safety and this is how she would repay the two?
"Oh no you don't!" Mettaton exclaimed as he took off after her.
"B-be careful, M-Mettaton!" The reptile woman called after him.
Devia looked around frantically for a quick escape. Despite her injuries still slowing her down some, she managed to find the kitchen by the main floor. It looked untouched and neat, as if it hadn't been used that often. Either that, or someone was very conscientious about keeping an organized environment. She saw all sorts of cookery, but no exit. Devia looked up towards the ceiling and saw a closed vent. Maybe she could try to climb up there?
Once Devia saw that the robot was now chasing after her, she grew more panicked than she had been before. When she took a leap to the left, he copied her. Same if she were to do it to the right. He was right there following her and her steps. It looked to be that her escape plan had to wait for now. That robot needed to be taken care of first, regardless of her own strengths.
"Yeinyyd haẵgḙt schkiväät?!" Devia tried to search for some sort of weapon, but none were big enough to suffice adequate injury. If she was going to fight, she may as well cause some damage. So she just had to use her hair for the remainder of time she was here.
She backed up towards the counter and tried to strike at him. He swiftly dodged the assault and slowly stepped forward. Devia tried to swipe at him again and again until she could find something to fight with. She reached behind her and tried to grab the nearest object to her. Her fingers wrapped around a metal bar and gripped it firmly. She took the frying pan and swung it at him as hard as she could. To her surprise, he grabbed the pan right about as it was about to hit his face. She tried doing the same with a rusty pot, but that failed to make contact as well when he grabbed its handle. What was she to do now? Her normal attacks didn't work, and he was bound to dodge any object thrown his way. More questions flowed within her, but there was one she was most concerned with: why was he continuing to look at her like that, in such an unnerving way?
She cowered and slumped to the floor, her vision not leaving the robot despite the tears growing. "Ĥjætḳa... n-namō?"
"Are you done now?" He asked. Mettaton knelt down and held out his hand to her. Devia shrank away from his hand and away from him as far as she could. She still couldn't understand a word of what he said. Why was this woman being so resistant with him?
"Look, I don't understand why you're acting like this, but that's no excuse for you to-" He was cut off by a quiet whimpering sound. Mettaton looked to see the girl with her hands covering her head. Her knees were now tucked into her body as the stranger hid into her own little shell. She had hoped he wouldn't notice her fear, but it was pointless. This monster was going to make Devia pay, she just knew it. The whimpers became more audible despite them being stifled. Her shaking got worse despite sitting perfectly still.
"Miss, are... are you alright?" Mettaton couldn't help but start to feel bad. What did he do, if anything, to make her so upset? Devia automatically flinched at the robot's touch initial touch to the shoulder. This caused Mettaton to slowly reel back his hand. Did she truly think that something would happen to her?
"If you think I'm trying to hurt you in some way, I'm not..." Mettaton tried to console the crying stranger.
"P-pởlchästä.. n-nyẻtşiṿai..." The girl spoke between small hiccups in her voice. Her voice became slightly cracked now.
He paused and rubbed his chin, wondering what could possibly be the problem. Then it dawned on him. He finally realized the language barrier between the two. No wonder she wasn't processing what she was being told. The other downside was that he had no way of telling what she was saying either. She must have thought that he was going to try to kill her, or worse. Mettaton knew that there had to be some sort of way to tell her he didn't intend to cause her any pain. Then, an idea struck him.
She heard him talk in a softer tone than before. Devia slowly lifted up her head, her large purple eyes popping out first. Below her eyes were wet splotches from where her tears had spread out. From what she could see, the robot was making strange gestures with his hands. Just what exactly was he trying to do here? He was trying to make signs as he spoke each word that he wasn't going to hurt her. She began to look up and watched him carefully, trying to make sense of it all. He fumbled around with his fingers as he continued to talk along the rhythm.
"I," Mettaton pointed to himself. "Will not," Next there was an x motion. "Harm you." He pointed to Devia before making a stabbing motion with his hand. He repeated this motion once more for her once she had completely faced him.
Devia slowly returned his gaze. It was at that moment that she finally figured it all out. He was trying to communicate with her rather than try to fight back. How foolish she was for not realizing this sooner! Once Devia realized this, she started to calm down from what she perceived was happening initially. She still kept her distance from him, but she now had a better idea of his intentions. She wiped the tears from her face with one of the loose ends of her shirt.
Mettaton smiled at her, knowing this time the message got across to her. He calmly held out a hand to her once more and motioned with his free hand to come. Devia looked down at his hand and then at him. She hesitated for a long moment before finally reaching for his hand. She knew she couldn't just sit there forever. If these people weren't trying to harm her, she needed to find out just what they wanted was. Devia took his hand and held a loose grip on it. She got up slowly with him and kept about an arm's length distance from him as she held his hand. Once she would be able to decipher the language around her, Devia knew that she would have to apologize for her behavior towards her two rescuers first.
"I've got good news and bad news, Alphys. The good news is that I've finally gotten her to calm down." Mettaton explained. "The bad news is she doesn't understand a single bit of our language. Only basic signs."
"W-well...I have heard of sign language but that's most likely too complicated for her. She'd need a simplified version." Alphys pointed out. Mettaton let out a sigh.
"It's not like we can read her mind either. If only..." he said. Devia looked around the surroundings once more and then at the two monsters. She listened carefully, trying to make heads or tails but to no avail.
Devia began to grow frustrated from this gap. She decided to give up on this pursuit and decided to look around a bit. Somewhere around this time, she looked down to see what she was wearing. It was a white collared shirt that was bigger on her than she expected. A pant like cloth was the one thing covering her legs. She touched it carefully. It was very soft but smooth at the same time. An odd combination but it was somehow soothing too. Better than that metal dress she'd wore earlier. Then a thought came to mind. 'Did they dress me?' she thought. She nearly face palmed at her own thought but quickly shook her head and tried to push it away. The thought of strangers undressing her while unconscious made her more uneasy. Especially that robot.
Devia now brought her focus to finding something to put her hair up with. There wasn't any sort of flexible material to work with, so Devia had to work with the next best thing. She looked around carefully and picked up a white object on the table. It looked similar to a comb of sorts except the shape was very peculiar. She decided it would have to do and used it to put up her hair.
"If only we knew who she was." Alphys finished for him.
"And where she came from." Mettaton pondered. "And why she was even out here and in such a terrible condition..."
"I-it's not like she'll be able to go to whatever destination she was headed to anyway." Alphys said. "Judging from how long she may have been out there and the nature of heat sickness, she's going to have to stay here for a few days."
The scientist then saw what Devia was doing. Alphys stole a perplexed glance at Devia, then at Mettaton. Back to Devia, then to Mettaton again. "W-why is she putting a fork in her hair?"
Mettaton turned to see Devia haphazardly try to center her hair around the utensil at the back of her head. Her hands were struggling to keep the fork in place at the same time as her unruly mane. He had become just as confused as Alphys at the sight and wondered how the young woman could possibly think a fork was a good hair accessory. It didn't even match what she was wearing.
"Bṛǣlmès!" Devia grumbled. She refused to give up on this challenge until Mettaton stepped in. He took the hand that held the fork and gently took it from her before bringing out a hair pin.
"Me," he said pointing to himself. "help." He pointed to the hairpin and then her hair. Devia lowered her hands and let out a defeated sigh. She wasn't sure how the robot and his odd object would help to tame her hair when she couldn't do so herself. But it wasn't like she had any other choice in the matter now. She closed her eyes as the robot proceeded to tend to her hair.
Her hair had a soft, cotton like feel to it. Which was odd considering the misleading style of her hair and how those small spikes popped out of the thick ensemble. The way his fingers went through her hair sent a small chill as it made slight contact with the back of her neck. She felt a strange, new object come into contact with her hair. Whatever it was, the bristles were going through her hair in up and down motion. Her body began to relax at the rhythm of the brushing. For some reason, the feeling of her hair being styled in such a way brought her comfort. The robot was swift yet gentle with his technique. Devia was now in her own little world. She would have never gotten a treatment like this back home. Before she knew it, he touched her shoulder to stir her back to reality. She blinked and glanced at him. Mettaton held up a mirror for her to see the final result.
Devia's eyes widened slightly and she touched her hair with the tips of her fingers. Her hair was now brushed back as to get any remaining hair away from her face. The other hand was touching the edges of this new foreign object. It was a rather simple change, but it impressed her nonetheless. That mirror was so small, too. How would anyone be able to see what they needed to do? "Chḯḯe.. naňeshiḯsnyekt.."
"Do you," Mettaton said pointing to Devia. "Like," he pointed to his own smile. "Your hairstyle?" he pointed to Devia's hair. She glanced at him and watched him carefully sign. She then looked back at the mirror and gave a slight nod in response.
Devia gently took the mirror from him to try to get a better look at her hair. She put it at different angles so that she could see it as well as possible. She did small facial expressions, ranging from sophisticated to a little silly. Different profile angles were seen in the mirror and it was as if she became glued to it. She gave out a small giggle before seeing Mettaton on the edge of the reflection. She went silent and carefully put the mirror back into his hands.
"Mâßdè ..."
Mettaton couldn't help but smile at her innocence. She was like a young child yet at the same time, she had the refined presence of a fairy tale princess. He looked at Alphys. "How soon can you make a translation of her language?"
"T-translation?! M-Mettaton... I-in order to do that, I'd need her alphabet... I'd need some idea of what some of her words mean to get a better idea a-and... It'd take me weeks, e-even months!" she answered.
"Are you sure there isn't any faster solution?" Mettaton asked.
Devia looked up at Alphys and tilted her head. She still couldn't make out anything without any physical indicators. Her eyes darted back and forth between their dialogue. It sounded awfully technical, whatever they were talking about.
"S-sorry to say, but there isn't." Alphys replied as she set something down. "Language processing isn't exactly the easiest task out there...H-hey, you said she could understand some hand gestures, right?"
"Of course I did. Why do you ask?" Mettaton lifted an eyebrow.
"W-well, maybe we can try to get her to learn our language that way." Alphys proposed. "It's not as reliable as sign language, but it seemed to work when you did it with her before."
"Hmm... it's gonna be a bit tough, but it just might work." Mettaton nodded. "But we're going to need to start her off with something easy."
"Why not start with her name?" Alphys suggested. "I-I mean, if she's going to be staying here, it would help to know what it is."
"True..." Mettaton lifted his chin. He found Devia tinkering with the same old mirror. When his footsteps got closer to her, Devia immediately set the mirror down frame first and pushed it away from her. Her eyes began to dart from side to side.
"Do you," Mettaton pointed to Devia. "Have," He cupped his hands together in order to try to form the word "A name?"
Devia squinted a little as she turned her head. The word meant nothing to her at this point. It was just phonemes randomly put together as far as she was concerned.
"W-what do you..." Alphys followed along with what Mettaton was doing. "Call," Alphys motioned her hand towards and away from her mouth. "Yourself?" She pointed to the girl.
Still nothing from her. Devia still carried the same confused demeanor. Perhaps an example would help her out.
"My name," He pointed to himself. "is Mettaton."
"And my name," Alphys pointed to herself. "is Alphys."
"Ma... Al... Al..Ma...Al..." Devia struggled to copy the pronunciation of their names. The most she could muster was a singular letter from each name.
"Repeat." Mettaton brought her attention to him. He was going to try something else. "Met."
Devia became confused as to what this robot was trying to do, but she complied nonetheless. "M-m-me-met. Met."
"Good. Now, Ta." Mettaton made a circle motion at the sound of 'ta'.
"T-t... Ta." Devia copied as she watched him repeat the same gesture.
"Both," Mettaton put both hands together. "Met-ta."
"Met.. ta. Met..ta.. ta. Met-ta. Metta?"
"Good!" Mettaton smiled. The pronunciation was a little off, but it would do for now. He then proceeded to make the same gesture from before, except this time adding in the final syllable. "Metta-ton."
"Metta.. t-ton. Metta.. ton. Metta. Ton." Devia fumbled around the letters in her mouth until she finally got it down. She pointed in the direction of his chest plate slowly while looking into his eyes. "Mettaton?"
"Excellent!" Mettaton clapped. This made Devia smiled from the praise she was getting, even though she wasn't really doing anything in her eyes. But it was one step closer to finally understanding these monsters.
"H-hey, it's actually working!" Alphys exclaimed.
"Of course it is, darling! You're the genius, after all!" Mettaton gave a share of the praise to the royal scientist.
"H-how about we try my name next?" Alphys suggested. She turned to Devia and started making signs. "My name is... Alphys. Al... phys."
"A-Al.. ph.. ph... ph... phy.." Devia was clearly having more difficulty on this one. "Al.. phy... Alph... y... Alph... ys?"
"There you go." Alphys nodded as she kept encouraging her. "Almost there."
"Alph.. ys.. Alphys... Alphys? Alphys... Alphys!" Devia grinned from ear to ear.
"G-great!" Alphys' eyes twinkled.
"What is," Mettaton pointed to Devia. "Your name?"
Devia tried to get out the first two words. "M-m-m...my... n-n..n-na-ame..."
"My..."
"M-My..."
"Name..." A scribble in the air.
"Na-ame..."
"Is..."
"Is..."
"Mettaton." He positioned his hands toward himself.
"...Devia."
Mettaton paused. It was foreign, but it sounded close to the word 'diva' in their language. Strange, but oddly fitting.
Devia continued to look at him and tried the sentence once again. There was more clarity to this one than the last. "M-my.. na-ame... is... Devia."
Mettaton smiled at her warmly, which made Devia smile back. "Devia... it suits you."
Devia chuckled as she hid her smile with her hand inches away from her mouth. "Chälæ."
"So Alphys, what do you think?" Mettaton turned his head at the same time Devia did.
"It's definitely a start." Alphys readjusted her glasses. "And she seems to be adjusting to it well so far, but she still needs some practice before she can pronounce sentences fluently."
"At least we've managed to get somewhere. In due time, she may even tell us more about how she came here."
"Ẍektovät ħanóshḛl kyᶒstaṿaǐno?" Devia said to them in her own tongue. Judging from the puzzled look on her face and the slightly annoyed inflection of the words, it was like she was reminding them that she was still in their presence.