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viky2318 · 1 year ago

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Chapter 5: family.

Alphys seemed concerningly nervous. She kept looking around for the Lab to see if everything was alright and fixing things that were already good, her small clawed feet rapidly tiptapping up and down. the moment she stopped anywhere she just quickly checked her cellphone, stood still a moment glancing around and then went back walking around. Duo tried to tell her a few times that everything was fine, but she almost ignored him every time. After a while the skeleton gave up and started reading a book. He didn’t have many other things he could do, so in those few days he just read books. They were interesting, and the skeleton could spend whole afternoons just reading. The only thing that he didn’t like about it was the fact that he knew that the books on the shelves weren’t infinite, and so one day he would need to find something else to do. Sure, Undyne started coming over from time to time, but he couldn’t count on her presence forever…

Alphys was still walking up and down nervously.

Maybe she needed a break? Sure, the King was going to be there that day but- geez, she sure was exaggeratingly nervous! The days before she seemed overly joyful about this meeting and now she seemed about to explode in anxiety. The skeleton had no idea why she was like that, but he didn’t like that. Before he could try again to talk to her though, someone knocked on the door. “Oh- I- uhm- I’m coming!!” the lizard nervously exclaimed as she almost ran down the escalator and went to the door. It wasn’t closed, but for some reason the person on the other side didn’t open. Duo decided to get up and reach her, just to make sure everything was fine. The door opened, and a tall goat came in. He wore a long purple cape that partially hid a metal armor, and had a fluffy yellow beard that seemed made of cotton. A small crown, symbol of his status as the King of the underground, was placed on top of his head between a pair of well-kept horns. The old man had a quiet and warm smile, and his eyes, one orange and one light blue, seemed the ones of someone who saw everything in his long life. His face didn't hide the concerns of someone with an important role as his own, but there was also the satisfaction of knowing his people were well and safe. He looked exactly like last time…

Wh- again?! What was that continuous feeling of knowing this and that despite never having seen any of it? Geez, it felt so bothering…

“Good afternoon, doctor. May I come in?” The goat asked despite it not being necessary, his voice low and gentle. Alphys nervously stuttered a quiet “of course” and moved aside to let him in. The King walked inside, and the door slid closed behind himself. The old man's eyes moved to the skeleton, that seemed almost short compared to him, and smiled warmly. “Howdy young one. You're Duo, right? Doctor Alphys told me many things about you”, he greeted, offering a handshake. Duo took the goat’s hand and shook it lightly, his thin skeletal fingers almost disappearing in the soft fur. “Yes, that is me. It is a pleasure to meet you, Asgore”, he replied, not remembering Alphys ever mentioning the King’s name. “The pleasure is mine, young one” the goat commented, releasing the skeleton's hand. “Now, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”.

The three monsters sat at Alphys’ table, ironically the only thing that actually remained quite messy, and Asgore started making him questions. He asked about general things: how he was doing, what he usually did during the day, if he liked staying at the lab. He never forced Duo to reply right away, and his tone was always warm and friendly. The skeleton most of the time, surprisingly, had a reply that was clear and defined. Even about preferences, he had clear tastes and opinions. This surprised mostly Duo himself, since he tried almost nothing of the things he said he liked or preferred. He felt as if those preferences got defined before he could experience them, or as if he did but then permanently forgot about it. It was such a weird feeling, Duo simply couldn't help wondering what that was from. Maybe those were caused by the “mistakes” Alphys made as he created him? But then what about all the things he felt he knew about people? So weird…

After a while, the King had to go back to the capital. He asked for Duo to accompany him outside for a moment, as he wished to talk to him in private. The skeleton never stepped out of the Lab, but he didn't get too surprised as he saw the astounding lava falls of Hotland and felt the immense heat of the place.

“You know”, Asgore started as the door slid close, glancing at Duo with a quiet smile and a thoughtful look. “Alphys is a brilliant mind, but her self confidence isn't really the highest. She once had an assistant that helped her with that, but after he passed away she almost completely closed herself. Not even Undyne, the Captain of the Royal guard, had been able to help her much…”. The skeleton frowned a little. She had an assistant? What happened to him? And most importantly- what happened to Alphys? Was she alright?

“she may not clearly show it, but from the way she spoke to me about you she seems to care for you dearly. I'd like you to understand it and to help her when you can. I know it may be a lot to ask from someone you barely know, but…”. Duo remained silent for a moment, but then smiled at the old goat. “Of course, I'd love to help her with what I can. It's not a problem”, he replied. The King smiled wider, taking one of the skeleton's hands in his paws and giving it a gentle squeeze. “Thank you, young one. This means a lot to me”.

That evening, as usual, the flower popped out from the floor of Duo’s room. “Howdy there, friend! How was your day? I heard the King himself came by! Is that true?” he joyfully asked, climbing up a leg of the bed and placing himself in a sitting-like position next to the skeleton. “Yeah, he did. He's a really nice guy. Hey, uhm- you said you have known Alphys for a long while, right?” Duo quietly asked back. Flowey tilted his head, giving him a curious look. “Yes, I do. We have known each other since ages by now! Why do you ask?”. “You know, Asgore said something about an assistant she used to have. Do you know anything about this person?”. The flower frowned a little in a thoughtful expression, but then his face lit up. “Oh, I knew the guy! He was truly a nice person, you know? Smart, creative, supportive, patient… he was the best! Such a terrible loss… His name was-

Duo opened his eyes, quickly getting used to the dark of the room. Kate was still asleep, and the house was silent. Papyrus floated next to him, quietly murmuring a “good morning”. The skeleton silently got up and walked downstairs, the floating skull following him close. The clock in the kitchen read 6:15. Finally, a decent hour to wake up at. After a half hour he prepared breakfast for himself, Kate and Napstablook, making order in his papers (which remained scattered on the table until then) and placing the cups on the table. He almost automatically sat down with a cup of tea in his hand, taking with the other one of the papers and reading what was there all over again.

Why was the Barrier made like that? The human mages must have done it on purpose. He heard they were able to do anything, so why not make the Barrier with a regular thickness? Why make a space thin enough to let humans through?

...

Did they…

Nevermind. What mages from hundreds of decades ago wanted to do wasn't something he should care about.

With the new information he had, it was all different.

He lost so much time at New home when he could have just gone to the Ruins…

A whole year wasted…

No, dammit- focus!

He had the data he got from New Home. He just needed to analyze them from another perspective. So maybe in a few months-

No.

No no no.

Not “a few months”.

He had to go back to the Ruins and make a new analysis.

If it was as Paps said, Kate could go back home in less than a week.

In no time she could be again with her family.

“Paps, do you think I can reach the ceiling of the room with the flowers and take a look at the Barrier myself?” the skeleton asked the floating skull. Papyrus thought about it a moment. “Hmmm… I suppose you might be able, if you use a few bones as ladders or something like that”. Duo smiled, content with the answer. “Very well then. I know what we'll do today”.

The skeleton placed the paper back in the small pile as Kate sleepily walked downstairs. "Good morning buttercup”, he quietly said as he raised his gaze to hers. The small human walked to him with a small smile, sitting on a chair next to him and Papyrus. “ ‘Morning Duo… ‘morning Paps…”, she replied, taking a few cookies to eat with her cup of milk. “Hey, would you like to go to the Ruins again? Paps and I want to check a few things, and I thought you might want to come over”, the skeleton asked the little human as he stood up and went to the TV, opening the drawer under it. “Oh, of course! I'd love to!” Kate joyfully replied, completely waking up all of the sudden. The skeleton smiled a little more at her reply, taking out from the drawer some instruments and putting them in a backpack before closing the drawer again and looking at the human. “Very well then. This week we'll skip the visit to New Home”.

Soon enough, Blooky came by. This time he politely declined the offer, saying he had to keep an eye on his farm, but this didn't bother any of them.

Around 8:30 they started walking, and by 11:15 they were in the room again. Kate sat down in the middle of the flowers, curiously looking at the skeleton. Duo took a deep breath, then with a swift gesture he summoned a bone attack. It was long and thin, like a tibia, but as big as a human sword. It had been quite a while since he summoned one of those… he tightly held it with both hands, then made it move towards the top of the room. The attack lifted him without a problem, quickly bringing him higher and higher as Paps followed him close.

Duo lifted himself on the bone as soon as it reached the Barrier, sitting on it as he took a careful look at the magic shield. The Barrier here surely looked different from the area he used to see at New Home… it was completely transparent, and the skeleton could see a small cavern over the barrier. On one side, a hole showed the outside. He could see a glimpse of what seemed like a light blue ceiling (the sky, if he remembered correctly) and a bunch of… trees? Bushes? Something like that. And from that hole a pure, bright light illuminated the whole little cavern, resembling the light of New Home but with something that made it completely different. There were some noises from outside, partially muffled by the Barrier. He could hear the rustling of leaves in the wind, a sound he knew well from the forest that surrounded all Snowdin Town, and multiple curious sounds, composing what could be considered some sort of melody, but not made by instruments. Was it birds? He couldn't be sure. After all, all he knew about them was from old books.

The skeleton took out an electronic tool from his backpack, a small device that resembled a voltmeter but with only one cable that ended with a small needle. He stuck a metallic ring on the needle and laid it flat on the Barrier, then turned on the device and changed the settings to “flow”. The device was made to detect the magic power of things and measure it, either by sensing the radiation of the thing or by measuring the flow of magic at the contact. The two methods were both valid, but depending on the situation one was better than the other. For example, detecting the magic radiation of a thing may be better than checking the flow itself if the object you're analyzing is rather small or if their magic quantitative is low, while the flow is easier to detect in big objects or things with a high amount of magic.

The device started beeping, a number on the small screen of it getting higher. After a while it made a loud noise, and the number ceased to grow. The magic power of the barrier, obviously, was higher than anything else in the whole Underground, but in that specific area it was lower than in New Home. He quickly put the device back in the bag and took a small notebook, then wrote down the numbers and confronted it to the others he had: a human soul (Kate lend her own to take the measurements), a monster soul (Napstablook and Papyrus' ones) and a theoretical being with both souls (estimated through the others’ souls and the magic of the Barrier at New home).

He remembered seeing Alphys working on the Barrier from time to time. She said that a soul could go through the Barrier if it had around 50% of its magic (see how a single human soul, which is around 14.3% of its magic, can't go through and how 7 human souls, the equivalent of 100% of its magic, can break it). Comparing the data he had with what Papyrus said, that theory could be confirmed, and this meant that he could actually find a way to go through himself… if he found a way to collect the equivalent of a whole human soul in there.

Now though, he had to actually try making a human soul go through.

Sadly, he knew Kate wasn't the kind of person to take such an important decision all of the sudden. The human was smart and brave, but to make choices she always needed a little while. Not only that, but Duo was pretty sure she wouldn't leave the Underground all of the sudden.

“What now?” Papyrus asked all of the sudden, taking the skeleton by surprise. “Now… Now we gotta hope Kate won't do anything dumb when we'll tell her we might have a way to send her home”.

With a quiet sigh, the skeleton went back down to the floor of the room. The young human was drawing things on her little notebook, a focused frown on her face. As soon as he stepped down the attack, Kate stood up and went to him with a big smile. “What have you found? Anything new?” she asked with a curious look. Before Duo could reply, the floating skull turned himself into letters that said “we found a way out for you”. The skeleton didn't want to be so direct… the little human, as Duo expected, made a little confused frown. “... For me? Like- only for me? Why can't you and Blooky come?” she asked, a hint of concern in her voice. “Because of the Barrier, buttercup”, Duo started to explain. “If monsters could go through it, we would have got out long ago. Apparently humans are able to pass through it in this area, but only humans”. “But why is the Barrier there? Monsters are nice, why did they close you down here? You did nothing wrong!” The young human exclaimed, starting to get bothered. The skeleton sighed quietly, feeling that the discussion would end up getting pretty long. He crouched in front of her, directly looking at her big orange eyes. “I thought I already explained this to you… more than once… Long ago, Monsters and Humans fought against each other, and after a terrible war the Humans won and banished the Monsters because they didn't like what was different from them. They put the Barrier all around the Underground so that Monsters couldn't escape. Dozens, maybe hundreds of expert Monster magicians and scientists worked on it, trust me, but they simply didn't find a way to take it down or to escape from it”. “But then how did all the other monsters go away? You said they went away but we've seen all the Underground and didn't find anyone else! A-and then! I never saw a monster on the surface? Where did they actually go?” The girl stubbornly continued.

Well shit.

“... I…”

That wasn't a subject the skeleton wanted to deal with.

She was so small, so young, so innocent…

“I don't know. I really don't know”, the skeleton quietly lied. He simply couldn't bring himself to explain to her what actually happened.

“Then there MUST be a way out! A secret passage or something like that for a place with all the other monsters! And I'm not gonna leave any of you until we find it!” Kate declared, an almost stern look on her face.

…

“... Sure thing kid. We just gotta find it”.

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