"Can you please stop twirling that knife so close to my hands?" Alphys huffed, once again narrowly avoiding a slice to her arm. She needed to invest in an armored lab coat if Mew Mew—the robot, not the character, no matter what she said—kept coming to her for repairs.

"But it takes so long. And it's so boring. Boring. BORING!" Mew Mew fumbled the knife, and it clattered to the floor next to Alphys's workbench. She bent over to reach for it, but Alphys held her down by the arms.

"No. You are staying put until I rewire your central circuits. Now that you're fully corporeal, you can't just find a new body if this one blows up on you."

"Fine. Fine!" She crossed her arms over her chest. Alphys had to move them back out of the way before Mew Mew could shock herself. "Can't you at least put on a movie while you do all this boring stuff, mew?"

Alphys allowed herself one self-indulgent sigh. Hearing Mew Mew completely misinterpret another anime would be more torture than just listening to her complain.

"How about I put on some music?" she offered instead.

"As long as it's not boring. You got any skaa, mew?"

"Uh… I don't think so, sorry. I've got nightcore, dubstep, j-pop—"

"That's good enough, I guess."

With a few taps on her phone, Alphys broadcasted her "fun songs to feel like a magical girl to" playlist to the lab's speakers. When Mettaton had funded her lab on the surface, he'd invested in the highest quality ones money could buy. She was just glad they were loud enough to tune out Mew Mew's rambling.

"Oh, oh, oh, others come and go, but you're in my soul, forever-er more…" Alphys sang under her breath while repairing Mew Mew's mangled insides.

As much as she appreciated Mettaton's generosity, she was going to have to talk with him about toning down his chainsaw battles. The scuffs were easy enough to buff out, but severed wires? Even with help from her electrical magic, it took almost an hour to repair.

Finally, though, she set down her pliers and stepped back.

"How do you feel?"

Mew Mew sat up, her cat ears twitching. No smoke was billowing from her mouth, so that was a good sign.

"Wonderful. Wonderful! WONDERFUL!" She leapt up and twirled. When she did that, she looked almost like the real Mew Mew, from Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 1. But of course she had to ruin it by snatching the knife back off the ground.

"Here! As a token of not-enemyship." Mew Mew grinned and held out the knife.

Alphys blinked. "You mean… friendship?"

"Hey, don't get too chummy with me yet! I still think you're super weird!"

"Well, that makes two of us," Alphys muttered, but she accepted the knife. Where had Mew Mew gotten it? It looked rusty enough to be from the old dump back in Waterfall. "Why a knife, anyway? Mew Mew would give her friends snail ice cream—"

"I'm Mew Mew!" She snarled. "Whatever I do is canon! And I say snails are NOT! FOR! EATING!"

Alphys took a step back. So Mew Mew was as sensitive about snails as Mettaton. She should've seen that coming.

"R-right. My bad." She forced a smile. Better not antagonize Mew Mew when they were finally making progress.

"I should take my knife back." Mew Mew sniffed and crossed her arms. "But it's kind of gross, anyway. Soon I'll find a better one! Chara said they were going to go show me their coolest knives, mew~!"

Chara and Mew Mew. Alphys shouldn't have bothered with her repairs; with those two together, she'd be back before the day was over. At least Frisk would be with them to keep them out of trouble. Hopefully. Alphys wasn't sure how much control Frisk had over Chara's actions.

"W-well. Have fun?" She carefully set the knife on her workbench. Maybe Undyne would feel like cleaning off the rust later.

"AUNT ALPHYS!" Chara's voice reached her before the lab door burst open.

She winced. Chara was… well, interesting to deal with on the best of days. She really did not want to be caught in the crossfire of their and Mew Mew's shenanigans.

"H-hey, kiddo! How's it going?" She turned around and smiled anyway.

They were wearing their golden heart necklace, the second sign that it was Chara fronting and not Frisk. The third was the wide grin that showed their teeth. At first, it had been weird getting used to that expression on Frisk's face. But now, a year after reaching the surface, Chara was just another part of the family. Just like the grumpy flower they held in their arms.

"Char Char~!" Mew Mew pranced over to hug them. "Are you ready for an awesome afternoon with Aunt Mew Mew?"

"Duh." They hugged her back.

"Not yet," Flowey protested. "You promised we were going to—"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't get your petals in a twist." Chara flicked one of the golden petals sticking out of his face. "Can you wait on us outside, Aunt Mew? We gotta talk to Alphys."

"Of course, mew~!" She practically floated out the door. Some of her ghost properties seemed to remain even though she was fully corporeal. Alphys would like to study that, but it would probably be more trouble than it was worth.

"You—you wanted to talk to me?" She turned to the two kids. Or three kids. She couldn't always tell if Frisk was listening too.

Chara nodded and set Flowey's pot on the workbench. Then they tucked their locket under their shirt.

"Oh. Hi, Frisk." Alphys relaxed a little.

It wasn't that she didn't like Chara, even if they could be a little… creepy. It was just, they'd never really addressed the fact that Alphys had watched Chara and Asriel's home videos? And was probably the only one who knew how Chara really died? And… yeah. It was awkward. She might be better at not lying now, but who would want to open that can of worms?

"Hi Aunt Alphys," Frisk signed. "You were helping Aunt Mew again?"

"Ugh, get to the point," Flowey grumbled. "We don't have all day."

Alphys's brow furrowed. She didn't have all day either—she still needed to clean up for date night—but it wasn't every day that the kids needed her for something.

It felt nice to be needed.

"Y-you can sit down, if it would be easier," she offered, rolling out her chair from under her workbench.

Frisk shook their head before signing, "Sorry. Chara and Flowey are nervous about this."

"Am not," he mumbled, but he wouldn't face them.

"So I thought it would be easier if I explained." Frisk's hands clenched and relaxed a few times.

Alphys gulped. "I-is it the tapes? B-because I can give them back, or, um…"

Frisk's head tilted, and then they gave the sharp sign for no.

"I'd like that, actually," Flowey cut in, but Frisk ignored them for the moment.

"You gave Mettaton and Mew Mew bodies," they signed, their expression serious.

Alphys blinked. She started to sweat.

"H-ha, yeah! I b-build robots with souls. Did you guys want a science lesson…?"

It wasn't like she wanted to lie. But Mew Mew and Mettaton's secrets weren't hers to share. If they wanted to reveal their histories as ghosts, they'd probably do it on live television, in the middle of a chainsaw battle.

Frisk shook their head. "It's okay. I know about them."

"U-um, know—?"

"They were ghosts."

...Well. She hadn't told them, at least. She just hoped Mettaton would believe that it wasn't her fault.

"Oh, don't pretend you're surprised. Frisk knows everything," Flowey said.

"I fought Mew Mew before she was corporeal," Frisk signed. "And I broke into Mettaton's old house."

Alphys sighed.

"You know what? I don't want to know."

"I told him I was sorry." The faintest hint of a smile tugged at Frisk's lips. "Anyway. Us three have been thinking. If you made bodies for ghosts, could you make new bodies for Chara and Flowey?"

Oh.

Oh.

Could she? The bodies wouldn't be a problem—robotics were her element—but the actual soul transfer… Chara and Flowey weren't ghosts. Probably. It was hard to tell what Chara was, exactly, and Flowey definitely didn't have a proper soul.

"I—I don't know." She wrung her hands together.

"Told you she couldn't do it," Flowey muttered.

"I didn't say that!" If she could give Flowey a real body—well, that might finally ease some of the guilt she still felt for his situation. Maybe she could work on some advanced prosthetics for him? Honestly, she should've thought of that ages ago. If she weren't such a loser…

No. Remember Papyrus's training. She was great, she was a delight, she was loved.

Frisk tapped her on the arm. "Alphys?"

"S-sorry. I was just thinking." She cleared her throat. "I'll need to run some tests on you both—er, on Chara and Flowey. I don't want to make any promises, just in case—"

"Thank you!" Chara shouted out loud, beaming and throwing their arms around her.

"Oh, so now you come back out." Flowey rolled his eyes.

"Shut up. You didn't want to ask, either."

"It's okay to b-be scared," Alphys said while hugging Chara back. "I'm sure this c-can't be easy for you, um, being like…"

"Living in Frisk's head?" Chara let go and shrugged. "They're cool. They let me out when I want. I get to hug Mom. I get to dunk on my brother."

"Yeah, yeah, just wait 'til I've got arms again. I'm gonna dunk you. In the toilet!"

Alphys stifled a snort at that. They were so different from the kids in the videos… but a hundred years, intense emotional trauma, and a few body swaps could do that. It was a miracle they were even remotely okay.

"I'd like to see you try, Azzy." Chara grinned, their eyes glinting red.

"L-let's just start with seeing if it's possible, first," she interrupted before they could really start fighting. "I'll prepare some tests tomorrow. Just have fun with Mew Mew today, okay?"

"Okay!" They snatched Flowey up, and he yelped. "See you tomorrow, Aunt Alphys!"

They bolted back out the door, which slammed shut behind them.

Alphys shook her head and chuckled. What would it be like to have that kind of energy? She was already exhausted, and apparently she'd just loaded more work on her plate.

It was important, though. She would do everything she could to make sure those kids got the childhood they'd been robbed of.

She pulled her phone out of her lab coat pocket and tapped on Undyne's number.

"Hey, babe? Is it okay if we reschedule date night? Something came up…"

XXX

Ugh. Her back was killing her. Did she fall asleep at her desk again…? What time was it, anyway?

She stretched, pushed her skewed glasses back onto her snout, and blinked at the clock. 2:36 a.m. Her back must have really hurt to wake her up at this time.

BANG BANG BANG. Someone pounded on her front door. What the…?

"ALPHYS! ALPHYS!"

"P… Papyrus…?" She rubbed her eyes and hopped down from her chair. "You do know some of us actually need sleep, ri—"

She opened the door. And found Sans staring at her with wide eyes.

"ALPHYS! I—AAAAAAAA!" Sans pointed down at the ground, where his brother was sprawled lifelessly.

"'Sup, Al?" Papyrus said in a tired voice.

"DON'T 'SUP' DOCTOR ALPHYS! YOU'VE GOT TO—TELL HER WHAT HAPPENED, RIGHT NOW!"

Alphys blinked and wiped off her glasses. All that did was get more grease on them. She wasn't sure being able to see would answer any of her questions, anyway.

"I'm dreaming. Right?"

"I wish," Papyrus… who didn't sound like Papyrus… murmured.

"GET UP, SANS!" Sans—who was definitely not Sans—shouted. Somewhere in her bleary thoughts, she was grateful she didn't have neighbors.

"L-let's. Uh. G-get you guys inside?" She bent down to help drag "Papyrus" into the lab.

It looked like her long day was about to get a lot longer.