"Entry Number 1. This is it… Time to do what the King has asked me to do. I will create the power to save us all. I will unleash the power of the Soul."

"Entry Number 2. The barrier is locked by Soul power. Unfortunately, this power cannot be created artificially. Soul power can only be derived from what was once living. So, to create more, we will have to use what we already have… The Souls of monsters"

"Entry Number 3. But extracting the Soul from a living monster would require incredible power… Besides being impractical, doing so would instantly destroy the Soul's host. And, unlike the persistent Souls of humans… The Souls of most monsters disappear immediately upon death. If only I could make a monster's Soul last."

"Entry Number 5. I've done it. Using the blueprints, I've extracted it from the human Souls. I believe this is what gives their Souls the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living… The resolve to change fate. Let's call this power… 'Determination.'"

Alphys's voice echoed from screens in the wall as Nafi walked past. It had never really clicked that he was a scientist, not just an engineer. The notes brought that fact to light, in Nafi's opinion, in the worst way possible. Experimentation never sat well with Nafi, mostly from stories of what the scientists Pre-Changing did to people as the strength formula was developed, even if they were all made up fiction.

Even if she was nervous, she had a mission. Alphys was still somewhere in here, and he had answers to her questions. And he would answer, she would make sure of it.

Leaving the hallway of screens, Nafi entered a bigger room with a large door across from her. It was labeled 'Power Room' so unless the power was out Alphys was probably not in there. There was an odd machine with food in it and two other paths, one to the left and one to the right. Nafi glanced at the machine and went left.

"Entry Number 6. Asgore asked everyone outside the city for monsters who had 'Fallen Down'. Their bodies came in today. They're still comatose… and soon, they'll all turn into dust. But what happens if I inject 'determination' into them? If their Souls persist after they perish, then… Freedom might be closer than we all thought."

Nafi walked into a new room. Operating tables were lined up against the wall with an odd fluid she refused to touch staining their surface. She spotted sinks on the other side of the room and, feeling dirty just looking at the tables, walked over to wash her hands.

Another screen played its message on the way.

"Entry Number 9. Things aren't going well. None of the bodies have turned into dust, so i can't get the Souls. I told the families that I would give them the dust back for funerals. People are starting to ask me what's happening. What do I do?"

Nafi shivered as the last of Alphys's voice echoed through the room. Did she pity him? Did she fear him? For the time being, she wanted to wash her hands.

She went to the sink farthest away from the stuff-covered tables and turned it on.

It was not water.

She backed up against the opposite wall as the white goo flowed out of the faucet and into the bowl, wriggling and gurgling as it did. Soon it was overflowing the sink, pulling itself into three odd spherical shapes. Nafi stood aghast at the pulsing, pained faces that made up the gooey creatures, until her Soul was revealed, and she realized they weren't just going to stand there.

Yet...her HUD gave her nothing. What-?

She gripped her ears as the things let out a horrible blast of static, distracting her from the odd white dots that surrounded her. Finally noticing when they exploded into odd wiggling faces, she sidestepped around each of them until they stopped.

Her phone made noise and she grabbed it.

There were voices. She didn't recognize them. "Come Join The Fun."

The dots started again, and she said as she dodged, "I would rather not."

They stopped, her Soul disappeared as the creatures left her alone and entered another room next to the sinks, leaving behind a red key. Nafi picked a different sink to wash her hands in and after finishing, investigated the room. A small slot was the only thing in the room besides the creatures, so she headed back the way she came.

Then came back and inserted the key into the slot when the right side was blocked by a door.

"Entry Number 12. Nothing is happening. I don't know what to do. I'll just keep injecting everything with 'determination'. I want this to work."

"Entry Number 13. One of the bodies opened its eyes."

"Entry Number 14. Everyone that had fallen down… has woken up. They're all walking around and talking like nothing is wrong. I thought they were goners…?"

"Entry Number 15. Seems like this research was a dead end… But at least we got a happy ending out of it…? I sent the Souls and the vessel back to Asgore. And I called all the families and told them everyone's alive. I'll send everyone back tomorrow."

"E-entry Number 16. No no no no NO NO NO NO NO!"

As Alphys's recorded screams of denial echoed with a disturbing finality to them, Nafi stared at a giant head like machine, and next to it, another odd goo creature that was staring right back.

Nafi called out, "Hello?"

It opened the tooth filled mouth that sat on top of the sinuous body. "Welcome to my special hell," echoed in a dozen different voices as Nafi's Soul was revealed.

Nafi threw herself to the side as it tried to bite down on her, mind trying to think on how to get out of this.

She tried humming, the body reminding her of a monster called Shyren she had met in Waterfall. It shook but didn't do much else.

She flexed her arms in front of her to block odd flashing projectiles. It flexed back.

She backed away. It left the way she came.

Time to explore before it comes back.

In a room off to the side, there was a video paused on a TV. Nafi pressed play.

A voice that wasn't Alphys came out, "I... I don't like this idea, Chara."

Nafi almost said what came next before it did. "You're crying."

"Wh... what? N-no I'm not…"

"I know the solution to this. Repeat after me. 'Big kids don't cry.'"

"...Big kids don't cry."

"Better?"

"Yeah, you're right."

"Did you doubt me?"

"No! I'd never doubt you, Chara… Never!"

"Then don't doubt the-"

Nafi turned off the TV. Whoever this Chara was or wherever he is, Nafi would never want to know why they sounded alike.

"Entry Number 19. The families keep calling to ask when everyone is coming home. What am I supposed to say? I don't even answer the phone anymore."

"Entry Number 20. Asgore left me five messages today. Four about everyone being angry, one about this cute teacup he found that looks like me. Thanks, Asgore."

"Entry Number 21. I spend all my time at the garbage dump now. It's my element."

"Sno...wy…"

Nafi looked back at the sudden shift in voice to see Snowdrake. Except it wasn't, it was melting all over the floor.

Nafi thought quickly and hesitantly told a joke, "I got hit in the face with a snowball recently, it left me out cold."

It laughed, "I ...remember…"

She told another one, "What did the snowman say to the bird? I have Snow idea."

It laughed some more, "Thank… you…" and scooted away.

The room past what Nafi could only assume was Snowdrake's mother was empty, so she headed back.

"Entry Number 11. Now that Mettaton's made it big, he never talks to me anymore… Except to ask when I'm going to finish his body. But I'm afraid if I finish his body, he won't need me anymore… Then we'll never be friends ever again… Not to mention, every time I try to work on it, I just get really sweaty…"

Nafi ignored the message playing again as she left the giant dog creature. This path was a bust.

"Entry Number 7. We'll need a vessel to wield the monster Souls when the time comes. After all, a monster cannot absorb the Souls of other monsters. Just as a human cannot absorb a human Soul… So then… What about something that's neither human nor monster?"

"Entry Number 10. Experiments on the vessel are a failure. It doesn't seem to be any different than the control cases. Whatever. They're a hassle to work with anyway. The seeds just stick to you, and won't let go…"

Nafi asks, "Please don't hurt me?" to the large bird-like creature. It says a few lines and walks away. No Alphys here either.

One last place, the door at the beginning.

Except, Nafi never actually had to check the door, she met Alphys on the way there.

"O-oh…" Alphys said, staring at Nafi in shock, "I... I didn't expect you down here…"

"I have a lot of questions," Nafi started as Alphys seemed to shrivel up on himself, "The least of which is about the goo creatures."

Alphys looked up at that, asking, "You-ou don't h-hate me for the A-amalgamates?"

The Amalgamates scooted into the room at the mention of them.

"I'll let you know when I figure it out," Nafi said as the elevator dinged as it deposited the rest of the people who had been at the table.

Reactions were mixed as everyone looked at the gooey monster mixes.

Sans and Undyne stood there in silence, and while Sans didn't give anything away, Undyne's face was a mask of horror.

Toriel just gasped in sorrow, "Oh my…"

Papyrus locked eyes with Snowdrake's mother and quietly, for him anyway, asked, "ICEDRAKE?"

Alphys wilted yet again. Staring at the floor, he quietly admitted, "I guess I have some explaining to do."

Everyone was gathered in the room full of beds, mostly because there weren't enough chairs for the five monsters, one human, and four Amalgamates.

Alphys was trying to hide in plain sight after he had just finished explaining everything. Everything that led up to the creation of the Amalgamates. Everything that happened after.

Everyone else had much the same reaction: silent contemplation.

Papyrus broke the silence first, "YOU TRULY REGRET WHAT YOU DID?"

Alphys nodded, mumbling an affirmative.

"THEN YOU NEED TO TRY AND FIX IT," he continued.

"But HOW?" Alphys almost screamed as he unfolded, startling everyone, "I've already ruined my chance by keeping them down here this long with nothing to show for trying to fix this! Nothing I do works, and no one is going to forgive me, I can't even forgive myself! I-I'm afraid t-to…"

He sunk back down, hiding in his hands, "I'm afraid I'll...do something… cowardly."

Nafi clenched her jaw as she realized just what Alphys was referring to. Undyne must have realized it too as she ran over to give some sort of comfort, Papyrus right behind her.

Ignoring what was going on, Nafi looked over at where Snowdrake's mother was trying, and failing, to pet the large dog. Yes, Alphys made a mistake in not saying anything. He regrets that mistake every day, and apparently is so torn up that he would do something drastic just to escape his imaginary glares.

She looked back over to the cuddle pile that had grown much larger and cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"What are you planning to do now?"

Alphys extracted himself from the pile, looking in the direction of the floor. "I need to tell everyone about what I've done. It's going to be hard… Being honest... Believing in myself…"

Nafi knelt to get on eye level with the lizard. "Look at me," she said and waited for him to look up, "You can do this. You are smart, you have done great things. If you need help, we'll be right behind you."

A wet hand plopped itself on her shoulder and she added, "Them too apparently."

Alphys smiled and looked around, "Thanks guys."

Nafi stood up as the others chimed in, "Your welcome." She looked around for a moment before asking, "Now that we have dealt with that, can we get to the reason we came down here in the first place?"

Alphys blinked in confusion before remembering what he came down there to do. "Oh! Oh yeah, I was getting papers to explain."

He pulled out a folder from underneath his lab coat, spreading the pages on the bed behind him.

"So, first, the previous royal scientist made a bunch of stuff, not all of it I could figure out what it did. When the earthquake happened, the first thing I did was make sure the Core wasn't going to explode. It wasn't but for some reason the power it was producing was much larger than it should have. Then I noticed a bunch of other gadgets were going bonkers," he pointed at some papers that had lines going every which way, "And after a few seconds they stopped, most of them even stopped working entirely. Now, I don't know what they did, but whatever they were tracking suddenly went up A LOT. The only way that could happen was if a lot of it happened all at once. My previous theory was just a lot happened at once. My current theory is that the excess energy from the Core got funneled into the Barrier and that caused the Barrier to hold us not only down here, but in time as well. Then the energy was used up and we were released. That's just a theory, but it's the best theory I've got."

There was silence as the, finally understandable, explanation processed.

Nafi spoke first, "Well, that explains things."

Everyone looked at each other, then Alphys looked at Nafi, "I would love to test this, but Mettaton isn't going to let anyone get to New Home until he has his fight with you."

Nafi nods, "If it's a fight he wants, a fight he will get." she smirked, "Let's go."