Frisk - Thinking/Flashback

[~*~] – time change

"Frisk" - Dialogue

"Frisk"/*Frisk – Chara talking through Frisk/mentally communicating to Frisk

[…] – Chara & Frisk's voice overlapping.

Pain is at the forefront of her mind when she regains awareness. Despite her body being intact, her insides can be described as a molten core that's threatening to melt her from inside out.

Every little shift causes a searing jolt to travel through her body. Her vision clouded with black splotches. The little willpower she has left makes it a struggle to stay awake.

Only now does Undyne become aware that she's on her knees. The ground looks flat but without imperfections like it should be. The armor on her legs has cracks all over the place, and the pieces that fell apart dissolved into dust, revealing jeans and tank top she has underneath.

Get up… Her enemy might've survived. Alphys is still in danger. The kids are still in danger. There are still more enemies to be defeated.

The metal on her hands creak as she stretches her fingers. It feels as if nails are stuck deep between her joints, but she fights through the pain. Placing them firmly on the ground only increases the feeling, but it's something she expected.

Undyne pushes herself up, and straightening her legs brings out a new feeling: nothingness. Her mudded and pained mind can barely grasp why, but a moment of clarity is what she needs to notice that her body is nearing its limit, and her limitless magic pool is detrimental to her weakened condition.

But she refuses to be held back even by her own body. Despite losing the sensation in her legs, she still manages to stand. Her breathings are long and deep, and unlike before, her armor carries a weight that constantly fights her efforts.

She's tired, yet she's full of energy. Her mind feels like it wants to shut down, but her body moves on her commands despite the difficulties.

Her eyes trace over of what remains of their battlefield. It's now a giant crater that can be confused for a meteor crash. Steam rise from many spots, partially clouding the area.

"Heh *Cough-Cough* that was…amazing…" Her eyes see a dark figure in the smoke. "This is…the first time…I used [Gram] at full power." The steam parts to reveal Siegfried's figure, and he doesn't look that bad. His clothes look ruffled up. There are multiple tears around it, and blood slowly seeps out. The biggest difference are the empty presence of his swords. Gone are the raw and malignant power each one emitted. All six of his arms hang limply.

"Wow, all I did was scratch your armor." His smile turns into a grin. "You were very strong, so I will take that as an achievement." She doesn't understand that, and it must show on her face. "I know when I've been defeated. I'm nearly dry in magic, and my body is refusing to move. I concede this battle to you, and thanks for listening to me talk. Looks like I gave Georg enough time to rescue me."

Undyne takes notice of a blanket of fog creeping from behind him. She takes a step forward, but her body locks in place instantly.

"Undyne, was it?" The fog is already halfway up his body. "I hadn't forgotten how you sullied my title as a hero. Next time I will settle the score. Until then, don't die."

With those final words, the fog covers him completely before parting, revealing only air.

The threat is gone, so nothing can stop her from helping her friends against the other heroes, but she was already on her limit, and seeing her foe leave is a small relief that dissolves her weak concentration.

Her armor crumbles into dust. No injury is present on her skin, her clothes don't even look ruffled, and the light emitted from her eye disappeared. It now match her right eye, but colored a pearl white than black. The burning sensation is still inside her.

There's no more pain, but the control on her body slips. Her knees connect to the ground, and her hands barely keep her upper body up. As she pants, white beads of sweat starts pouring from her face. When it drips on the ground, she stares at them with confusion. Something starts rising from her throat. She can offer no resistance as she pukes.

Small tears flow from her eyes because of the action, blinking them way shows her a white pool of liquid.

Undyne is too tired to think, too tired to feel. Somewhere in her mind she knows she shouldn't, but her eyes close, and falls forward. A splash soon after.

Pieces of shattered trees litter the area. Random earth fragments have risen from the ground, making the ground look broken.

Beneath a pile of broken wood, a white light goes through the cracks before it explodes outwards.

So, Siegfried was pushed that far. Cao Cao raises to his feet. His seven orbs of light float behind him. His clothes has small tears. A bit of dirt smudges his skin, but no injuries to speak of.

The Hero's leader looks around, but doesn't see the-

A fire burst from the far right catches his attention. Ashes are swept in the breeze as the Monster King rises. His golden armor has cracks, and his purple cape lost its pristine shine while having several shredded holes. On his left shoulder his armor is completely missing, with dust covering his white fur. The monster's face is tightened in pain, and his fiery aura is gone.

Cao Cao readies himself, but drops the stance as he senses Georg's magic. He looks behind him, and sure enough, a wall of fog is slowly approaching him. He frowns deeply. A forced retreat.

Despite being the leader, Georg is the one responsible for getting everyone in and out, so he left it to the Magician's discretion if they have to retreat. Before it was more of a precaution. Now looks like it came in handy.

He rests the shaft on his shoulder and proceeds to walk to the fog.

Asgore furrows his brows. "Are you running away?" It's an honest question considering what he and his kind has been subjected to, but the human didn't seem to take it kindly.

Killing intent is leaking off him. His head turns to send a glare at the monster over his shoulder. "Don't misunderstand, Monster," he speaks back with harsh venom. "We'll retreat for now, but heroes never give up." He redirects his gaze, and resumes walking into the fog. His figure darkened before disappearing.

The King still keeps a tight hold on his weapon, but is relieved he doesn't have to fight any longer. That shockwave from earlier weakened the Determination he cloaked himself in.

He thinks over his options, but doesn't take long to decide to check over Toriel since she's closer. He moves as a blur to where his wife was conducting her fight.

Mass destruction of terrain. Check.

Powerful magic from beings he has little knowledge of. Check.

Immediately commanded his Sacred Gear for an emergency retreat. Check.

Georg isn't prideful like Heracles. If he makes a mistake, he acknowledges it and tries his best to correct. Before the fight began, he made the assumption that these creatures weren't that strong because the natural presence they excluded wasn't much if at all. Though he was still cautious and assumed they were suppressing their true strength for when they needed it. Yet, even after the monster he's fighting is clearly not holding back, he can't get a clear reading on how strong she is.

He can only make guesses based on the attacks alone, but the scholar side of him is frustrated for the lack of information.

I will make due with the little I learned today. Perhaps the others learned something useful.

There's just a small problem with that. His body can be described as bloodied and beaten. And the crack in his glasses bothers him more than he thought, as his vision is hindered with double-vision.

Even with his body in this condition, his magic was always dependent on mental control.

A white light envelopes him before he's teleported near the fog. He makes it envelop him quickly, for the precarious situation of the other three heroes—Heracles, Jeanne and Siegfried.

As he leaves, another being is already stirring. White flames burst underneath a pile of shattered trees, sending the pieces everywhere.

Toriel takes in a heavy breath as she stands, the air being knocked out of her by the blast. Her clothes are slightly torn, but mostly ruffled. Her narrowed eyes scan the surroundings for the human, but she no longer finds a trace of his energy. Only the remains of a broken land.

Her fists shake as her grip tightens, leading to a trail of dust drifting off from them. It stops as she slowly unclenches them. The tension of her body leaves her, and her body shakes as her paws find their way to her eyes.

A choke sob escapes her, and tears run down even when her hands attempt to hold them back.

I failed. She failed to defeat the mage.

I failed. She failed to protect her children.

I failed. She failed as a mother before, and she failed as a mother again.

Similar thoughts drift in her mind, and the worst are the images her mind conjures of her children. Some are of them injured, with wounds ranging from simple scratches to bleeding horribly and missing limbs while lying lifeless on the ground. The worst are of those Heroes kidnapping them for whatever reason, and she's helpless to do anything.

"TORI!"

Her head snaps to the side. Her ears already recognizing the voice of her husband, and her puffy red eyes take in the damaged state of his armor.

He stops next to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Tori, are you hurt-"

Asgore gets interrupted as she throws herself at him. Toriel's arms encircle his neck, and her wet cheek presses on his armored chest. A soothing warmness emanates from it, causing her to wail more openly.

Caught off guard, he can only wrap his arms around her back.

"I…I can't!" she chokes out through her sobs, and her ex-husband can only tighten his hold for support. "I can't lose another child! Not again!"

His breath hitches. The earlier battle required his full focus—the wounds he obtained prove how close it was for him. But now his mind has time to wander on what ifs.

None of them are pleasant for the old King, but now he understands her pain. The problem remains that he doesn't know what to say to ease her pain. They're stuck here, and with a quick scan on the fog, it's easy to tell they won't break through it so easily in their current state.

And not to forget the blond knight that left earlier, so many things could've happened while they were fighting. He shakes those thoughts away. Toriel needs him, but what can convince her? Alphys is a genius scientist, but she's no fighter. Asriel may be a boss monster, but he's still a kid, and Frisk-

His eyes widen. Hopefully that works.

"They're fine, Tori. Frisk is with them."

That got a reaction, though not the one he expected.

She takes a step back, and even with puffy eyes, her glare still holds the intensity she's famous for. He starts sweating.

"They're just a kid Asgore! What do you expect they can do!?"

"You should put more faith in them." He's surprised he found his voice. "They're the kid that managed to befriend every monster, and from what Undyne told me, defeated her without taking a single hit. They're not weak," he ends with more confidence than he started.

He feels guilty for putting his hopes on them, but yet, there is truth in his words. The previous six children never reached his castle, but Frisk succeeded were everyone else failed.

They reached his castle without killing a single Monster! Then minutes afterwards, the barrier went down and the other human souls disappeared. At the time he didn't question it since his people have the chance to finally be free, and the children's souls no longer have to be trapped.

Toriel looked like she wanted to argue, but instead she steps back and wipes tears off her face.

I should be glad she didn't refute me. He still wants to make her feel better, but how. A Monster's name comes to mind. "Tori, we need to gather with the others."

She looks up at him questioningly. Her eyes narrowed and red from crying.

"There's one Monster that can help us."

The anger leaves her eyes for fragile hope to fill them. "Really? But who?"

He smiles, confident in his answer. "He might not look it, but I know that Sans can do something with his Shortcuts."

[~*~]

This is easily Alphys' second worst day. Fear is a weak word to describe how she's feeling.

Shock at being trapped in another magical barrier of sorts. Surprised at feeling the amount of killing intent from the humans. Scared at being separated and having no clue to what's happening on the other side of the fog. Useless at being able to do nothing against the blonde knight.

Then there's Asriel. Not once did she consider she would be terrified of a Monster, but the little Prince proved her wrong in so many levels. If not for Frisk, she might've turned to dust from the pressure of his killing intent. If that wasn't enough, Frisk emitted malice at a level she didn't think it was humanly possible.

As the Royal Scientist, she had the…unfortunate job to study the children's soul at every possible angle to find (if possible) a break through the barrier faster. And she also read the notes of her previous predecessor. The only way Frisk could've emitted that level of hatred would've been if they killed hundreds to thousands so their soul would be tainted black. But the level Frisk showed outdone any calculations Alphys has done in the past.

She had a vague idea of what their level of determination was, but they completely shattered the power level she set on them. If they hadn't laid witness to the power they were emitting, then the lingering magic would do the trick.

Just standing at the edge where the malice is the strongest, breathing has become a labor.

But all that pales in this last few seconds. Asriel, no more than ten years old, walked straight into this hazard zone for Monsters, and still managed to talk to Frisk! But her breath hitched the moment she saw their arm move. Before she could even blink, that red blade became embedded on their hand that moved at the same speed, protecting Asriel in the process.

She wants to ask why they attacked him, or why they blocked the attacked instead of halting it.

Asriel's scream snaps her out of her trance. "FRISK!"

Without thinking about it, she rushes in. About four steps in, she places a hand to her mouth.

*Cough-Cough*

There's a painful knot in her chest, and her legs start to shake. Through the pain and blurry gaze, she still manages to see Asriel holding onto an unconscious Frisk, and the red liquid dripping from their hand.

She strengthens her resolve and steps forward. Her stomach churns and threatens to spill everything. She takes another step. Breathing is difficult, as she rushes forward with a slight stumble.

Once she's close, she gives a passing glance at the blonde knight. The older human is laying on the ground unconscious with most of the damage done to her clothes and armor. Small drops of blood leak from open wounds. The most prominent being the red line going down her forehead.

Asriel is laying Frisk on the ground. Their hands are free since the knife dissipated with their consciousness. The prince's words come out quick and incoherent. His eyes wide and darting all over Frisk.

Who, now that Alphys has gotten closer, is in much worse shape than she thought. Their killing intent quite literally took form as two streams of black liquid now coat most of their cheeks. Their breathing are quick and shallow. Their hand has a large gash now on their palm and spilling blood—there's a chance it's permanently scarred due to magic being involved. Then there's a faint, pulse of malice coming from the human. With every beat it grows stronger, and her body feels as if it's being slowly grinded.

"A-Asriel*Cough*." her hand moves to her mouth, but this time through her fingers, dust flies out. I-I need to get out!

The Prince looks up at her, tears starting to spill from his eyes as he looks at her with a hopeful expression.

More of her body threatens to be turned to dust and coughed out, but she wills it back into her body. "I can *Cough* he-help Frisk, but we need to *Cough-Cough-COUGH*" That last one has dust flying through her claws as she tried covering her mouth.

Asriel furiously wipes the tears with his sleeves, and picks Frisk in a bridal style. Alphys has an easier time getting out of the death zone than in.

But the better she got, she immediately got worse at noticing Frisk's blood leaving a small trail.

Once outside of the 'dead zone'—as she dubbed it—a thought comes to mind. Asriel. He…was in there but… Alphys noticed they have stopped. Asriel lays down Frisk on his lap, and as he checks over them. She sees a black stain on his cheek, bits of dust drifting about.

She almost reaches out to start healing the injury or tell him about it. Her mind still running so many questions inside her head till she remembers Frisk—a child with small stature and losing blood.

She goes on her knees next to them, and once she has a soft grasp on their hand, while doing her best to ignore the hot liquid, green electricity comes to life.

While, she's still an average at healing, every monster learns healing, but not everyone is at the same level.

Alphys can feel the wound close as the small stream of blood stops. She removes her hands, but stops a few inches as small strings of blood connect them. The intense urge to barf resurfaces to the point where she can feel it coming up her throat. The anime she watched didn't prepare her for this!

Her small claws twitch as pulls her hands to her sides, snapping the fragile links. The problem is her hands are now stained red. She swallows the bile down with much effort and starts swiping madly at the bottom of her lab coat.

She starts breathing heavily as she brings her hands up. They're now smeared red, and for a brief instant she fears that it's permanently there, but then she calms down and remembers she can wash that off.

She blinks, and realizes they're trembling. Alphys takes a breath then exhales. She does so again but takes longer and exhales longer. She repeats a few times until she's relatively calm.

Moving her hands down, she takes notice that Asriel is holding onto Frisk's healed hand. One hand under their palm while the other one is gently grazing over the new scar. His eyes are downcast as a tear fall from each eye. And bits of dust are still drifting from her stained cheek.

"A-Asriel…" He doesn't look at her, but grunts. "Do…you need me to…?" She points at his cheek.

He looks at her with a confused look before he touches his cheek. Then moves it in front of his face to see the black liquid on his paw, but all he says is, "Oh." No fear or surprise on his face, just annoyance. Asriel wipes it off on his shirt, and starts rubbing his paw on his cheek to get as much as possible before rubbing it off again on his shirt.

Once more, Alphys is at a loss of words at the ease Asriel takes the corruption off. It's like…he has high resistance. She continues watching with morbid fascination until he finishes. While there are still some black spots, what's been removed shows gray skin.

She almost offers her aid, but then his very fur regrows to normal in seconds. She pauses, and Asriel gives her a neutral look before focusing back on Frisk. His eyes regain a softness as he resumes caressing Frisk's scared hand.

Alphys just takes a minute to herself and tries to make sense of everything that's happened. Yet, she gets only more confused with a headache starting to form. Asriel resisting killing intent and even regenerating without activating his magic. Then Frisk with an inhumane amount of malice.

In any other day, she would be using the equipment in her personal lab to restore Asriel to full health. As for Frisk…she knows of one good way to extract the vile residing inside their soul, but she rather not use those if she can help it. So far Frisk has stabilized, if/when they return to her lab, she will need to do a full body scan for any injury she can't see, and to examine their soul more closely.

Then she realizes the former won't work. First off, Frisk is a human with organs. She's got tools that can perform X-ray, but Alphys is not sure if that's enough to perform the job right. Not to mention the most she knows of human biology is from her anime.

If her healing magic was just better she could just-her eyes widen, and she almost slaps a hand to her face. Monster food works on them, but do I have any?

She takes out her own phone and starts checking her inventory. A quick glance shows:

[Inventory]

-Instant Noodles

-Mew Mew Kissie Cutie Manga

-Mini Mettaton(3X)

And that's where her initial planned failed after a few seconds. Her grip on her phone tightens, but slackens a second later. She shoves it into the pocket of her coat and sighs in frustration.

Think Alphys! THINK! I can try healing again, but it won't be as optimal. Maybe Asriel will know something… that idea is dismissed because otherwise, the young Boss Monster would've done it himself. She takes a shaky breath, beads of sweet running down her forehead and traveling down her cheeks. Don't panic. There has to be something I can do before the rest get back. If they get back-she shakes the negative thoughts away. Stress, and jumbled thoughts pile in her mind as she tries to conjure a solution to help Frisk. Frisk! They have a phone! And within, something she can use!

She reaches over to one of their pockets. But her body is stopped cold as a wave of killing intent fills the air. With shaking eyes, she stares at a piercing gaze of the young boss monster.

"What are you doing?" he says it in a blank tone that matches his expression.

Alphys relives the fear from before as killing intent fills the air.

She swallows, realizing how dry her throat is. "I…I am j-just looking f-for h-healing item in F-F-Frisk's phone."

His eyes that showed an undertone of anger are replaced by a tired gaze as they turn back onto Frisk. "Sorry," he mumbles.

She breathes out a sigh of relief. It's official, I need to tell the Asgore and the Queen about this. She just hopes they don't panic too much when knowing their son can release killing intent.

Resuming back on task, she checks the pockets and finds the phone on the second. She can't help but smile widely. After a few taps, she opens the storage list and with a quick scan on the list, she pauses.

As the Royal Scientist, she's privy of almost everything: every dangerous prototype, social events she never gets the chance to go, and developments when expanding hospitable land. Yet, she's never heard of the item called Last Dream.

She wanted to say it's some random item from the Temmies, but when looking over its descriptions: The goal of "determination".

She looks at the list for something else she knows and can be used, but the Last Dream fills over half his inventory space, and she doesn't want to know where they got a Real Knife.

Seeing no options, she summon the item out. Putting the phone in her own pockets, she examines the item.

At first glance it's a four pointed yellow star. That floats…that last part is important. She stares as she cross-reference this item and its physical details to all the ones she knows, and comes up with nothing.

Aside from its origins and what its uses are, the biggest question she has is, where did Frisk get this? She already knew the human was special after they befriended every monster without killing them, but this is something else entirely. Just having this on her hand is enough to feel its essence that resembles determination, and that only adds to her confusion and intrigue.

Another question pops up. Can I use this to help Frisk? Determination can be used for anything if correctly applied. That's why she used on the fallen monsters—and that ended in such a horrible failure—but, this one isn't as potent.

She slowly bring her other hand next, and shifts the other one so she's holding it between them. If she can get this to react to her healing magic-

"Where did you get that!?" Asriel's voice gets her out of her musing.

She looks frightened as she thinks that the young prince will direct more ire at her, but that feeling is put down by the look of recognition in his eyes.

"Y-You know o-of this?"

"Yes," his response was immediate.

And while this raises—even more—questions, there's something that needs answering. "D-Do you…know ho-how to u-use this?" She wished she would stop stuttering, but the goat monster has her on edge.

He blinks once before focusing intently on the starlight. He leans forward and snatches it with a swipe.

"Eep!" She falls back and lands on her butt, with her hands supporting her. Alphys watches as he holds it near Frisk's chest. Then crushes it.

She gasps, a sinking feeling of horror grows in her chest as rainbow sparkles fall on the human. Their body glows, and the tears on their clothing begin to stitch up, dirt is removed, the blood stains vanishes and now their left hand has a faded but healed scar.

At this point, Alphys has officially lost count on the number of times she's been surprised.

Asriel exhales, then wears a relaxed smile. "Frisk, you had me worried. But it's alright now. I won't leave your side."

Both her hands cover her mouth as her eyes sparkle. Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! This is like the final season of Mew Mew when the main villain turns good and-She shakes those thoughts away as this is really not the time and place. So she lays there on her knees, basking in the fact that something good happened! If only the negatives didn't outweigh it.

She looks to her left and still feels the 'zone of death', and on her other side is something she passed by after the shield dropped down: a katana. She's seen enough anime to know they usually belong to samurais, but if a knight uses it, perhaps it's special. I did feel magic coming from it.

Not wanting to leave such a dangerous object around, she gets up and approaches it. Through her body, she feels the latent energy from the weapon, but it doesn't feel as threatening now that it's unwielded.

The only item that could beat it in power would be Asgore's trident. Now only five feet away, she takes her own phone out, and with a few simple button presses, her sword disappears and a new item is added on her list.

Right now it's just a [Katana], due to there being no information recorded in her phone.

She pockets it before turning around. I'm going to need Sans to deal with the 'dead zone'. While it's not a problem now as it can be avoided, but they will have to get rid of it before Monsters start making their homes on the surface. A cold wave claws at her soul.

Her mind starts to wonder to the others, and while it hasn't been awfully long, her mind conjures hundreds of scenarios of why they haven't returned—and none of them are pleasant. Her eyes drift back to Frisk's prone body.

Maybe they don't need any more healing, but constructing a diagnosis is better than doing nothing.

Alphys walks closer to the two children, coming up with something so Asriel will be more lenient on letting her get close to Frisk. It just wouldn't do to anger the Monster that was blasting the green dome with giant fireballs earlier.

"H-Hey um, A-Asriel," she starts as she gets right next to them. He looks back up with a soft glare—much better than before where it left her shaking. Still, she averts her gaze. "Y-You know h-how, well…" she coughs, trying to clear away her stuttering. "I h-have a lab-b-back in Hotland!" she adds the last part hastily, and when their gazes meet, she notes the unimpressed look in his eyes. Alphys dwindles with her claws. "I-I'm t-the Royal Scient-tist. So I-I know ma-many things ab-bout the s-s-souls. If I w-were to see what cond-dition it's in, I-I could heal them quickly ba-back in my l-lab," she finishes more confidently.

Asriel has a contemplative look. He looks down on Frisk before looking at her again. The young monster nods.

She can't help the smile that breaks out. In the back of her mind she cheers he didn't deny her request.

The Royal Scientist goes down to her knees and moves her hands over the human.

Her smile fades rapidly as she realizes that this will not be a pretty sight. That much residual sin could only come from a blackened heart. It was a theory at best as she was studying the human souls, and while she isn't sure how Frisk could come into obtaining so much, Alphys is confident of one thing.

Frisk has the determination to beat it. This is the same lone kid that befriended Monsters that were out to kill them, and stopped short from killing Asriel. She's confident their soul can be restored to its original pure state, and if she has to…she will use that machine then.

So without any flare or visible sign, her magic begins pouring into Frisk's chest.

A second later, she finds herself gaping, and locked in place as all logic shatters. She forgets that her friends and girlfriend are in danger. The world around her darkens and all that's left is the human's soul, or what's left of it.

The glorious red she once saw has now shrunk to half and is tainted nearly pitch black. And around it, completing the normal size of a soul, are the other six colors she studied for so long.

There exists two rules every monster in the Underground knows about, and that's no Monster can absorb a Monster's soul. The same rule applies for humans absorbing another human's soul. Though now that she's getting a better look at it, the soul is still the regular size she's seen before—minus the differences. The other six souls look perfectly stable, radiating their respective colors as the darkness in the center recedes.

They have not been absorbed, but only filling the missing spaces. That's all she can come up without her tools.

She looks at Asriel, who is holding a claw to his quivering snout. His eyes shifting to so many emotions as tears begin to pool. The settle for a narrowed gaze. His sets his hand down before looking at Alphys. "Ca-Can you cure him?" His voices raises and the air becomes hotter. "You studied human souls! You should be able to!"

H-How does he know that?! Granted, she's very well known in the Underground, but she wasn't even the Royal Scientist when he was still alive. Maybe Frisk told him? Though it's not like that's the most important question right now.

She looks at the human's soul. Their red soul is almost pitch black, but she can see its natural color fighting to return, and the other soul pieces—to which causes her a migraine thinking how that happened—pulse as the blackness shakes.

The shock begins to fade as her eyes narrow at the little detail. It's not permanent. However it happened. Frisk's soul is fighting it back. From what she deduce, the inner struggle is in some form of stalemate, but if she could give potency to the other soul pieces, then they could easily expel/destroy the sin. Alphys might've worried that the central piece (Frisk's determination) would try to absorb the outside energy and fight against the influences of the other pieces, but dismissed that worry as it's not entirely pitch black. So the only problem present is that she doesn't have the necessary soul power to-

Her gaze snap back to the goat prince. His eyes are on the human, and she sees his paws twitch now and then.

"I can't help them." His gaze turns to hers. Betrayal is clear in them, but it moves into a harsh glare. "B-But you c-can!" she hastily adds, realizing her mistake.

He pauses, and gives her a look that orders her to continue.

"W-Well, you s-s-see," she takes a breath to calm her nerves, but it's difficult under the intense glare of the goat monster. "F-Frisk's soul…is already fi-fighting a-against their h-hatred, but…" She swallows. "It needs more power, and…I was hoping…" Alphys smiles nervously. "You could p-provide red soul energy."

"Okay." He moves his paw next to Frisk's soul. Alphys looks confused, because she hasn't explained to him how the delicate transfer of soul power works, for a single error could produce an attack on accident, or how to create red (determination) energy, because it's the only thing that can feed Frisk's new soul without problem. But before she can voice her concern, a red mist emerges from his paw and travels to Frisk's soul.

She watches how it's pulled into it with no complications. The other soul pieces shine brighter, and blackness on their red soul starts shrinking.

Alphys is not a tattle tale by any means, but she really needs to tell this to the King and Queen, or is it Toriel. They're not technically together, but she and most likely every monster would still view her-she's getting off track. Besides, the amount of hate Asriel was able to create, the new state of Frisk's soul, those are things that shouldn't be kept. She herself knows how bad things get when important stuff is kept secret from the rest.

"Done." the Prince's cut off her thoughts, and just like she reasoned, the blackness has left Frisk's soul. "It worked," his voice is almost a whisper, and his smile extends wide. He wipes whatever tears are left before looking at her. "Thanks, Dr. Alphys. Thank y-"

That feeling of happiness is short lived as even she feels it, and following his gaze, she looks behind her. Aside from the ground littered with battle scars, there's a wall of fog not far, but despite not being able to see through it, she feels something dangerous approaching.

A feeling of trepidation crawls over her spine, and her heart clenches in an icy grip.

"You guys look like you seen a ghost. I'm just a skeleton, see? I'm not that scary." And out of the fog comes out Sans the Skeleton, the scariest skeleton that will ever exist-at least in Alphys' opinion.

She still sighs, letting the stress fade away at the arrival of a friendly face. She gets up before addressing him. "If you're here, then the others are alright?" Her lips curve into a shaky smile.

"They were since I last saw them." He rubs his left eye, but something Alphys notices is how his trademark smile dims. "But it's hard to see when the fog is in the way."

Every time Alphys thinks she can clink to a bit of happiness, it gets taken away. "You don't know!?"

He drops his hand and shrugs. "If it's any consolation, Undyne and Papyrus are still alive."

"NO! It isn't!" She pauses, thinking over what she said. "Well, I'm happy that those two are alive, but, Sans, what if the Queen and King die?"

It can easily spell disaster for Monsterkind.

"It wouldn't be so bad." her jaws drop and eyes wide as saucers. "What? I'm pretty sure young billy over there can take the mantle, or what about Frisk, Monsters' number one friend and current Ambassador will be more than happy to lead our race. What do you think little lamb?"

Alphys wants to reproach Sans for his attitude, but she looks back to check on the Prince, and she feels bad for him. The poor kid has Frisk clutched to his chest, one arm around their shoulder and the other one over the head. They have a shaky breath and gaze locked right on Sans.

I don't blame him, Sans can be scary, but… she looks back at the skeleton, and musters a glare. This isn't normal for Sans. Those white dots he has for eyes shift to her, and he shrugs.

"Just trying to do small talk. Is that bad? You and Papyrus always say I should try to socialize."

She's already thinking of a retort, but stops herself and pinches the bridge of her nose. Alphys is not in the mood to get into an argument with Sans of all Monsters. Especially since it's going to go something like: she makes argument, he does a bad pun, she argues more, he tries to play it off as not a bid deal (like he did just now), and then she gets straight to the point.

So she's going to skip the first three parts. "Do you know how to get out of here?"

"More or less."

She gives him a dull stare.

"Did I mention I get cross-eye in here, because I do." His left eye lights up a cyan blue as he looks around. His steps are slow and deliberate as he scans. Then that gaze stops at a particular patch of land near them. That smile becomes wider but thinner. "Looks like someone had a bad time, but say, where is the victim?"

Alphys already knows he's referring to the 'death zone', but the blond knight is right there-

She's not there, she's not surprised at this point. She's been too preoccupied with everything else that it literally slipped her mind.

*Sigh* "Sans," she starts with a tired tone. "Just get us to the rest. Asriel's parents must be worried sick about him, and," her mind conjures an image of a pile of dust that has a black eye-patch in it, "I-want to make sure Undyne is alright."

His eyes lock in to hers. "No problem, but fair warning, you might scream your souls out."

That leaves her confused for a second until ten separate blue flashes grab her attention. She looks up, and immediately her breath hitches. Ten giant skeleton heads with elongated animal snouts, sharp-needle like teeth, and white eyes on black sockets.

She knows what these are, and is ashamed that their very presence makes her unease.

They spread out in the air and once their jaws open, all aim at random angles.

"Sans?" She looks at him questioningly. "What are you doing?"

"Getting us out," he says like it's the most obvious thing. "I think I know how to get us out of this." He waves his hand around. "Dimensional pocket."

Her mouth drops at that. "D-Dimensional pocket?"

"The ground we're standing on isn't real. Just a replicate created from the spatial distortion."

"B-B-But how?" Granted, she's done it with the storage in their phones and the boxes littered in various areas in the Underground, but those are created by the fine tuning of technology and soul energy, and if what Sans says is true, then humans have managed to acquire the power to bend space in large areas.

She's not sure what's worse, that they were attacked after reaching the surface, or that humans have achieved this level of magic.

"Ask the caster, but I think none of those heroes are here anymore." His eyes shift to the Gaster Blasters as their jaws start emitting a white light. "And before you ask how I know that, it took me a while to get here, and you guys are still alive."

Alphys can't stop her body from trembling as her arms wrap around herself. Realizing that perhaps by luck she's still alive, since Frisk is unconscious and Asriel, while powerful, has little control over his soul magic.

"Hey, Alphys, one out of ten says I hit the weak spot. If not, I might consider wearing glasses."

There's humor in his tone, but she knows him for long to pick up the low uncertainty in his tone. After all, what happens if they forcibly break a dimension pocket?

But it's not like staying her trapped is any better, and being at the mercy of the caster if they're released or not.

Ten giant white beams are fired simultaneously. The ones that hit the ground puncture straight through and cause cracks around the impact zone. The ones hitting the fog causes raging winds to come forth, as if the air pressure is different.

But there's one that caused a different reaction. Purple lightning are shot wildly in the air and surge on the surface of the fog as the 'ground' begins to crack with a white light coming through.

"Ahh," hesitation laces in Alphys' tone. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea-"

A thunder clap shuts her up. Purple flashes around the field as the lightning picks up in intensity. The ground feels as if an earthquake is approaching, and all Alphys can do is pray for the best.

She sees sections of the ground just peel off and vanish into nothing, leaving a bright white light.

It comes to the point where she needs to close her eyes and then-

Nothing. No more quaking, and her breathing overwhelm her hearing. She cracks one eye open, and everything looks normal, far too normal.

A healthy green grass, trees standing strong around their little clearing, and clear blue skies that no longer hold the same promise of freedom as it did 30 minutes ago.

"Told you I could get us out." She's so used to Sans, that his voice appearing next to her doesn't scare her.

Alphys gives him a deadpan stare. "Don't pretend this was going to work, even you were unsure."

His eye has returned to normal. "Does that mean you wanted to wait here until you were nothing but bones?"

And being at the mercy of those heroes, her mind adds more value to Sans' argument. She turns to the kids, giving the victory to the skeleton, but now she's facing a different situation.

Asriel is still clutching onto Frisk, but now has his fangs bared with eyes narrowed in scorn as she hears…growling?

Sans really overdid it with his stunt. She smiles nervously while playing with her claws. "I-I know wh-what Sans-s did wa-was extr-treme but, um, it worked!" She knows she failed miserably when the young prince doesn't even glance in her direction.

"Don't worry about him Alphys. It's hard to get kids to pay attention to you in these days, but this one might be a problematic child."

The flinch from the goat is hard to watch. His body curls around the humans as the fear returns to his features.

"Sans!" It feels like ages since she felt genuine anger towards the skeleton. "What's wrong with you? Why are you…are you intentionally being mean to Asriel?" She ends her tone with open suspicion.

Those white beads turn up to look at her. "You know me Alphys, I don't like doing anything that requires effort."

She blinks and ponders at that. Did…he mean? She realizes that he meant, so she narrows her eyes.

"Frisk! Asriel!" That desperate cry she recognizes coming from the Queen, and its drawing closer.

Sans smiles looks wider. "Look at that, something more important to pay attention to."

"Sans," she says in a warning tone.

"That's odd." his eyes drift to the forest, where she sees Toriel slowly approaching. "The others are taking longer, and…Undyne's energy is fluctuating." That gives her pause. "Weird, I thought that boost she got wasn't going to last, but looks like she kept some of it. What do you think, Alphys?"

She can think of one viable reason that's happening, and she has to hold back a sob from escaping.

Queen Toriel finally emerges from the foliage. Her dress is still intact with minor wrinkles, but she looks dead tired. Her eyes are half-closed and struggling to stay that way. Some patches of her fur has a shiny sheen, and she pants at a quick rhythm.

But that smile is full of relief and joy. She rushes over to her kids, dropping to her knees as she's next to them and picking them up in her arms. An unconscious Frisk rests on one side with their head on her shoulder. Asriel is the same, but he's clinging on to her and pressing his face onto her shoulder.

Alphys can hear the sounds of crying. All the while Toriel is saying words of comfort to him, and shooting worried looks at Frisk.

Watching this scene, she can admittedly say brings relief to her. Which is killed as Sans speaks again.

"Your fish lady is coming." Fear grips her soul again. She wildly scans the trees for any signs for her. "Heh, in the air."

Her eyes dart upwards, and her breath hitches as she catches sight of them.

Floating towards them are the three monsters surrounded in a blue glow, courtesy from Papyrus. She rushes over to them. They land not too far from the Queen, and when the gravity spell is removed, she stops as her breath leaves her.

Undyne is still suspended in a light blue glow, but being this close to her, she can see liquid covering parts of her body. And when it drips to the ground, it's the color white.

"Alphys," her gaze moves over to Asgore, whose seen better days. His armor is cracked in several places, his cape suffered numerous tears, but the worst is his left shoulder. The armor completely tore off with dust marring his fur. The King's eyes are solemn, "It's happening to her."

It is, and she can't deny it, no matter how much she hates it, but she doesn't know how to fix it.

"DR. ALPHYS." That's Papyrus. His eye sockets are smaller and his smile less cheerful. "IT'S A GOOD WE FOUND YOU. I THINK UNDYNE IS SICK."

If only she was sick, but monsters don't get 'sick' like humans. Only when something affects their soul.

"I FOUND HER ASLEEP. WELL, I THOUGHT SHE WAS ASLEEP, BUT SHE'S COVERED IN THIS WEIRD WHITE GOO."

Alphys knows that Undyne is practically sweating determination. What she discovered with her failure on the amalgamates, is that Monsters just can't handle too much determination. Even injecting little and the Monster's soul runs the risk of producing more on their own. A Boss Monster might be able to handle it, but she won't dare test it. She doesn't want to add another mistake to her conscious.

"I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE YOU GUYS WERE, BUT I ALSO COULDN'T LEAVE UNDYNE ALONE." Alphys feels like she knows where this is going, and is confused by it. "SO IT DECIDED TO TAKE HER BACK TO MY BROTHER. WHICH REMIND ME. BROTHER! I TOLD YOU NOT TO MOVE FROM THE SPOT!"

"Actually, you said not to get into trouble, and there wasn't any trouble left here." Alphys doesn't need to see him to know that he winked, so instead, she focuses on his brother.

Papyrus is covered in white goo, but otherwise fine. So the big question is: Why has he and Undyne not fused? The Fallen who she injected determination, eventually started creating too much that went they touched another Monster, they merged, thus creating amalgamates.

Papyrus squints at his brother. "I FEEL AS IF YOU TWISTED MY OWN WORDS AGAINST ME, BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT! DR. ALPHYS, PLEASE TELL ME YOU HAVE A WAY TO HELP HER."

Now she focuses on Undyne, and while yes, she's still dripping white liquid, Alphys doesn't think she's generating more, and if that's the case, maybe she stabilized on her own?

Her eyes snap open. She can work with this miracle, even if she doesn't want to use it, she has no option.

"Sans!" She turns around, looking at the short skeleton with new found hope. "I need you to teleport us to Gaster Drainer. If Undyne still has excess determination, then I need to get it out of her."

The skeleton, unfortunately, stays in place. The hand that's in his hoodie shuffles, a movement she recognizes as nervousness.

She frowns. But why is he- Then she remembers. First she feels guilty for bringing it up, but then finds in herself to glare at him. "Sans, he was going to find out sooner or later. Please," she looks at him pleadingly. "Help Undyne."

"BROTHER?"

He stares at her briefly. "…Alright."

She knows he's not okay with this, and the only thing keeping him from showing his displeasure is the presence of his brother.

His left eye lights up cyan, and with the snap of a finger, everyone is gone in a flash of light.

A/N: Sorry guys, but university has been a pain this semester, and then my writing habits have suffered, so shame on me for that last part. I want to thank my beta Tapp for making this chapter so much better.

Please review, because those motivate me to write faster, and I need motivation.

P.S. Next chapter will be the last for "A Much Needed Reunion". There's really not much left, but I can't say how long it will be because I seem to write more than what I plan.

Edit (6/9/2018) – Grammar fixes. Nothing too major.