Sorry about the formatting error when this chapter was originally posted. I originally wrote this story on Wattpad, and when I tried to post it something went wrong with the formatting fixed now, I hope.

The Human was such a strange, enigmatic creature. Alphys didn't understand them, or why they did the things they did. She couldn't even figure out how they did the things they did. The achievements they managed, the wonders they pulled off.

But none of it mattered now. They had left, and chances were she'd never see them in person again. Frankly, she didn't care.

Of course, that wasn't to say that she didn't love the Human. Of course she did. It wasn't to say that she wasn't absolutely floored by what they had done for them, as she was. It was just that with the monsters' new lives on the Surface, and her new life with Undyne, the Human wasn't necessary anymore. Before, she had worshiped the Human like some kind of wunderkind there to save them all.

And of course, they were just that. But Alphys didn't need to have a hero anymore. She had one of her own. She didn't need to interject herself into an adventure, because she had her own. The feeling of independence was staggering.

She stepped out of her house... her home, and looked across the road to see Sans and Papyrus cheerfully laughing at each other for some indiscernible reason over in their front yard. Alphys smiled, happy for the both of them. She'd never seen two people so clearly opposites of each other, and yet who were so perfect in each others company.

Well, no, actually she did know some people like that. But she was amazed at how Sans and Papyrus were even able to love each other that much. It was amazing. She mentally pitied the person who so much as made fun of Papyrus, much less the person who actually hurt him. They would most likely have a most unpleasant time.

But no one had hurt Papyrus. And from the looks of things, no one would. She turned to her left and saw TORIEL and ASGORE, smiling and sitting silently side-by-side in a rocking chair on their front porch. Alphys chuckled under her breath. They acted like a couple of senior citizens, despite the fact that they had the physical age of a couple of 30-year-olds.

She flinched suddenly as she heard music begin to play with astonishing volume, a hip and modern tune, perfect for dancing. Mettaton couldn't get enough of his music.

Alphys smiled and began slowly counting down.

"Three... two... one... called it."

The moment she let out that "one," Mettaton's music had been instantly drowned out by that of his next-door-neighbor, cousin, and band partner Napstablook, who's taste in music was decidedly more... spooky. As the ghosts wordlessly argued with their speakers cranked up to full volume, Alphys smiled into the sky, wondering how the world could be this perfect. \

The dust mingled with her tears as she realized it was all over. It had been minutes since she lost consciousness and fell into her vision-ish dream world, and she had just returned to her senses.

Sans was knelt over her prostrate body, and breathed a sigh of relief as her eyes opened.

"you ok, alphie? or did that happen 'cause i let go? i'd be happy to fix that, of course."

"Y-you're taking t-this p-pretty well. And y-yeah. I'm f-fine. It was a... k-kinda weird vision, sorta."

"what's that mean?"

"It means the same thing it's been meaning. When I touch something, I sometimes have these weird visions of... I don't even know what. The Human is in them, and I love them. And everyone is alive, and sometimes we're free. It's a nice relief from this world. And in them, I never remember... this world. It's just that one. And Undyne and Papyrus are still here, and I don't have to worry about keeping the Underground alive."

Sans and Alphys once again came to the exact same realization at the exact same time.

"The Underground."

At this point, Alphys had been neglecting her duties as Queen for days now. She sprinted off in the direction of New Home, while Sans carefully carried Papyrus' dust and essence, trodding slowly but urgently along.

Alphys was panicked and overwhelmed, but somehow in a good way. While she was horrified with herself for literally forgetting that she was the Queen of All Monsters, and grief-stricken at the discovery that Undyne's death was permanent, she was exited. Pumped up, even. Papyrus' chances of being revived hovered around 80%, and she and Sans were finally together, something that she'd been secretly wanting since a while after she became Queen. And now, when she really thought about it, she hadn't lost anything. Undyne was dead, and she stayed dead. She had no right to act like it was an injustice that she didn't get her back more than once. On top of that, Papyrus was coming back, Flowey was satiated, and the Underground, statistically speaking, was safe.

Things couldn't be going worse, and yet they couldn't be going better. Genocide was a nightmare, but against all odds, queenship was a dream. But the irreconcilability of Undyne's death was a nightmare. Yet Sans' confession of love was a dream. She was sure she had made that exact connection before, but it was only now, making her way to... she didn't know quite what, that she really thought about it. For every good turn, there was a bad one, but then... every bad turn had it's own miniature happy ending.

Now that she thought about it, now that she felt the air going through her lungs and the DETERMINATION flowing through her veins, that she wasn't afraid of things going bad anymore. She knew they were going to go bad. But then, she was just as confident, something good would happen and everyone would eventually end up better than they were before. Sure, the Underground was ruined for three lifetimes. But eventually, Undyne, Sans, Alphys, TORIEL, ASGORE, and Papyrus would be forgotten, and then... the Underground would be a new place. A place with new people, new faces, and, she hoped, happy faces.

Alphys peaked over a hill and looked downward before stepping backwards immediately, feeling a catch in her breath as she saw what was on the other side. A relatively large group of monsters, led by Snowdrake's father, Snowdraken, were arrayed in front of the lab. Fuku Fire was standing in front of the door, trying to block the way.

"I'm telling you guys, the queen isn't even here! I just got here and couldn't find her or Sans either, so you're just gonna have to be patient!"

"We haven't heard from the Queen in days!"

"Where is she!?"

"We demand answers!"

"Down with the lizard queen!"

Alphys steeled herself for what was to come. Suddenly, though, as the crowd advanced on Fuku, another figure stepped out of the lab.

Mettaton BOSS blocks the way!

"Why don't you guys mess with someone your own size instead of bullying a little kid!"

"What did you just call me you little-"

"HEY!"

The monsters turned as Alphys cried out.

"You want me? I'm over here!"

Snowdrake's father rushed to the back of the crowd, which rapidly became its front as the monsters swiveled around in Alphys' direction. Flowey and Fuku didn't know quite how to react to this sudden turn of events. Snowdraken spread his wings intimidatingly as he advanced toward her.

"YOU! You worthless piece of trash! You murdered my son! You ruined my wife! You turned her into a FREAK! Just like you and those pieces of garbage that were backing you up back there!"

Fuku and Flowey decided not to respond.

"Really? I heard you left your wife, Snowdraken. Days after you found out she was still alive, you left her. Because of nothing but her appearance. You know, I'm fairly certain that if you really love them, you'd take them back in despite anything, melted or not. So why didn't you?"

"I loved her! But I couldn't live side-by-side something like that!"

"Are you even hearing yourself? "Loved." "Something." Not "Love" and "Someone." I admit I did wrong, Snowdraken. I'm sorry. I've apologized a thousand times. I've done literally everything I can for you. Money, land, breaks on the work schedule, despite the fact that every hour you didn't work was another hour that one monster went homeless. I helped you through everything, Snowdraken. What more do you want?"

Everyone present was absolutely shocked by Alphys' behavior. She seemed cool, calm, collected, and fairly brutal in her criticism. Not the slightest bit shy, flustered, or cowardly. Not sugar-coating anything.

That is, almost everyone was shocked. Snowdraken was infuriated.

"W-why YOU! I'll tell you what I want! I WANT MY SON BACK, YOU BITCH!"

Snowdraken summoned up a large number of magical crescent-shaped feathers that he launched at Alphys. The queen stood there, steeling herself to maximize DF, doing her best to tank the attack.

But she didn't even need to, as demonstrated by the massive blast of force that barreled through the area like a hurricane, obliterating the magical projectiles and whipping Snowdraken through the air like he was caught in a tornado.

Sans the Skeleton was there, suddenly, standing in front of Alphys. Blue flame billowed out from his left eye as he smiled grimly.

Snowdraken got slowly to his feet, one wing on his sore neck. He was trembling in fear.

"now, i want you guys to all understand something, kay? alphie here is my girl, and if you mess with my girl..."

" ."

Sans winked.

"get me?"