lphys was toiling wordlessly at the machine, without a clue of what she should really be doing. Sure, she was keeping herself busy. Tightening connections, fixing short-circuits, improving battery life. But those weren't what she was worried about. None of that changed the fact that she was planning on using this machine for something that it was definitely not originally built for, and she had no idea if it was going to work. Perhaps, she figured, it would have been wise to edit the blueprints before she used them to rebuild it, rather than build the machine and then edit it after it was complete, but she was afraid that it wouldn't be complete in time if she did so.
She knew she couldn't expect any help. Her only true ally was a little yellow flower that had proven himself to be a psychopath over and over. And even he was only helping her since he'd been bribed. The fact was, she'd alienated her best living friend, and now she was living through the consequences. But in the day or so since she'd talked to Flowey, she'd found herself much more confident and decisive. Sure, she was alone. But that didn't mean she couldn't succeed without help.
She was going to SAVE the Underground, whether or not it wanted her to. She was going to SAVE the Underground with or without Sans' help. She didn't need him anyway.
"heya, alphie. gettin' nostalgic?"
Alphys suddenly turned on her heels, wide-eyed. She expected anyone but Sans here. And yet there he was, standing there with his hands in his pockets and a goofy grin on his face.
Her eyes were watering before she even spoke.
"S-sans! Y-you're... what... where have you been, Sans?"
She ran closer to him, almost tripping over her own feet more than once.
"eh. just tyin' up a couple of loose ends for ya. your haters can be pretty tough to sway, but i think i did a good enough job."
"W-WHAT!? You're not... upset? I thought you were... I thought I'd l-lost you Sans!"
"hey. i left for like... two or three days, max. that kinda happens a lot with me. and as for being upset... what would i be upset about?"
"Y-your... I... I was s-so angry, and i-insensitive, and I... I didn't r-realize what I was s-saying. I was yelling at you and b-being so c-cruel, and, and, and-"
"calm yourself, alphie. you're hyperventilating. listen. tensions were high, ok? so maybe i was a bit upset when it happened. but i'm just fine now, and you should be too."
"Sans... I know you're trying to write this off, but... I'm so s-so... so sorry. I k-know I h-hurt you. And I know you'd probably just w-write this off if I didn't say anything, but... I'm s-so sorry."
"it's alright, alphys. i understand. i know i hurt you too. i've found that i'm not really the most comforting type. sometimes is isn't the best to always have a smile. but i've got to smile, because if i don't smile, i cry."
"Sans, I-"
"six hundred and fifty eight thousand, two hundred and eleven."
"W-what? What are you- Oh my god."
"yup. that's how many times they died before they quit. that's how much it took to break their determination. i remembered them all, just little flashes. i remembered everything that worked, and everything that didn't. i remembered what they said, what they tried to use to break me. i remembered easy victories and close calls. i remembered it all. i fought harder every time they almost got me, and after six hundred and fifty thousand deaths, they finally quit. they decided that their genocide wasn't worth dying over and over and over and over, and they gave up. they ran out of determination and left."
"Wow. Y-you... you were f-fighting for that long too. Y-you... you had to deal with six hundred thousand consecutive fights too. how did you do that, sans? how?"
"like i said, aphie. there isn't any determination left in the fridge. it does wonders for a body, i guess."
"I n-never would've thought that you... W-wait. Y-you remembered the L-LOADS?"
"to a point, yeah."
"D-did you see... U-undyne? D-did you see how m-many times she..."
"wrecked their shit? oh yeah. well, sorta. i couldn't tell you exactly. i hadn't taken the determination at the time, and that makes a difference. but, uh, yeah. i'd be willing to wager on tens of thousands of times. and i gotta say, even with every single time i killed 'em, i never saw 'em get stomped harder than the first time they saw undyne transform. it was "harder than that," and they slashed her. and it did absolutely nothing. they flipped their shit, and after undyne impaled 'em a few thousand times, the expression on their face was... they weren't even angry. it was just like "what the hell?"
Alphys smiled, chuckling a bit.
"Thanks, Sans. For everything. For everything you've done for the Underground. For everything you've done for me. For everything you've done for the whole world. For everything, Sans. You're the only one who really knows what this place needs. If I didn't already know the answer, I'd offer you a kingship right now."
"eh. just give me some time to get to know ya first, and then ask me again."
"Huh? What are you-"
Alphys suddenly blushed the deepest crimson of her life as she realized what Sans meant. Oh god. Was this guy for real right now?
"OMFG, Sans, you've got to be kidding me! You're j-joking, r-right?"
"when am i ever not?"
"T-true enough."
"anyway, whatcha workin' on?"
"It's, uh, a l-long story. I'm uh, r-repurposing Mettaton's o-old chassis."
"i can, tell. but why?"
"It's... a new v-vessel. For Flowey."
"really? you think he'd really accept that?"
"He already did."
"what?! you convinced him to transfer bodies?! you're even more of a genius then i thought you were!"
"H-hey. Thanks, Sans."
Alphys was blushing again.
"eh, i just can't beleive it. flowery trashbags can be tough to work with, trust me."
"I... figured that one out! But... I really... I really need to do this. To m-make up for what I did to him."
"uh, could you maybe explain? cause i've been off the grid for a bit. i'm not super up to date."
"Oh! Of course, s-sorry! So... F-Flowey is the King's son. He's ASRIEL DREEMURR."
Sans' smile faltered for a moment in confusion and surprise.
"that's a new one. uh, how?"
"W-well, as you know, A-ASRIEL died and t-they sprinkled his dust in their garden. It was y-years later that I started my D-DETERMINATION experiments. S-so I had to c-choose a vessel to t-try to infuse with DT."
"and you picked the freaking flower."
"Y-yeah. S-somehow, ASRIEL's essence, it... somehow fused with the flower and... Flowey happened. I w-want to help him."
"you brought him back to life, though. shouldn't he be grateful?"
"N-no, Sans. D-don't... don't even suggest that. Y-you really couldn't be more i-insensitive. H-he's completely soulless. He's got no emotions. H-he... did some pretty bad things back when he could LOAD and RESET."
"oh god."
"Y-yeah. The Human is d-dead. He can p-probably do it again."
"you're not just a genius, alphys, you're also probably one of the best people i've ever met. you found a way to make flowey's life better and save the world at the same freaking time. god, asgore should've retired sooner."
"Thanks so much S-sans. I really can't say how much I appreciate that."
"eh. it's nothin'. either way, you're tryin' to make it... bossy?"
"That's the general idea. I kinda want it to be... as similar to ASRIEL's original body as possible."
"tough job, considering what it was made to look like."
"You said it. Best I can do is shorten the legs and add horns and ears. Hell, that isn't even easy. It could, uh, also use a haircut."
"i can see that. when are you planning on, uh, making the transfer?"
Alphys looked at the clock on the wall above them.
"22 hours, 17 minutes, and approximately 30 seconds."
"uh, that doesn't sound like very long."
"It's not. That's why this is so... MacGyverish."
"say again?"
"Oh, yeah. You're not a big fan of human TV."
"not too much of a human guy, yeah."
"Sorry."
"it's no problem. i know this was hard on you too."
"Yeah, but you... Ugh. You and your brother... Undyne talked about you two all the time. You were so close, so... undivided. You loved each other more than anything, and to see you torn apart, I... I'm sorry. I know this is more than a sore subject for you."
"doncha worry about it. papyrus is... in a better place. i... damn it. i keep trying to rationalize it, but..."
"You can't rationalize something with no reason, right?"
"that's it. the human just came through and..."
"Took everything."
"i've never felt so..."
"Helpless."
"never so..."
"Alone."
"in all my life, i never felt so..."
"Weak."
"that's it. that's all true. when i killed the second human, i really did feel bad. they only fought in self-defense, and even when they did, they never killed anybody. it really did shake me up. but this one. this one. my rage was half of what kept me going all that time. killing them over and over and over... i enjoyed it."
"Heh. I know I'm being insensitive, but... I feel your pain, Sans. I killed the sixth human and I haven't used my magic since. But when I saw U-Undyne fall, I... I started rebuilding NEO the second I got off the phone with ASGORE. I was sure they would be second only to Undyne the Undying! I was sure that they could at least slow them down, but..."
"titanium ain't much to a human that can kill undyne the undying, eh?"
"R-right. His defenses were... nothing. And he... he... he died too, just because of me. DAMN IT! I'm so sorry, Sans. I lost a friend and a girl I barely knew. I feel like a freak trying to compare it to what you went through."
"don't worry. papyrus was all that mattered to me. but i know what you lost too. i've been through that before, and it hurts. i know. i don't want you to have to lessen your loss in the face of mine. you've gone through hell, alphys. and you came out. that's more than a lot of people can say."
"Thank you. I'm so sorry. I guess we've both lost everything."
"eh."
Sans looked Alphys in the eye.
"not everything."