Chapter Text
Alphys hid many secrets, too many for her liking. Anime and food similar to those of the humans were her best, albeit temporary, methods of escape, from all of the events she kept buried in the back of her mind; never completely fading away yet never being fully present to torment her.
One of them was the true lab, hidden deep underground, with another secret inside: the amalgamates. Monsters that she brought back to life using Determination and melted into each other.
She tried her best to fix it, but there was nothing she could do.
Months passed, and the families kept sending letter after letter after letter. And she didn't know what to do.
So she lied again.
She lied that she would send them back home in a few weeks.
And week. After week. After week, she just kept lying.
She didn't even write response letters anymore, she just sent a pre-written response that always said the same thing. And it was for the better in regards to her psyche, not having to respond to every letter individually was a much needed break, she lied to reassure herself that maybe with time she would find a solution- but even her words rang empty to herself.
Time kept passing. And Asgore informed them that monsterkind was one step closer to freedom, since they had harvested the sixth human soul.
The way Asgore said this news filled each and every monster’s soul full with determination.
Determination…
…
Now that she thought of it… They have never experimented how determination affects humans. They only knew that humans can handle more Determination because of their physical bodies.
But what would happen if they injected more Determination into them?
Could this be the key to return the amalgamates to their original forms?
No, she can't just take the human corpse from the castle!
…
O-or could she?
…
Clover didn't know how much time had passed, but it couldn't have been more than a month.
When they gave their soul, he didn't really hope there would be anything, not even an afterlife for him. So it was weird when he first noticed that the first thing he could do after dying was think.
He didn't have anything to think about. He just wanted to sleep, to close his eyes. But he had no eyes. He tried to cover them with his hands. But he didn't have a body.
Of course, he was now in his own soul, although he didn't really know, he couldn't take a look at himself. Or could he?
…No, he couldn't.
‘What even am I?’ he thought, but couldn't really answer. The more he thought, the more the questions he asked himself.
At one point, he just stopped caring. Yeah, that probably was the best thing to do. Just don't care about yourself. You're dead now. There isn't much you can do anyways.
You can't walk, you can't talk, you can't sit, you can't see, you can't touch, you can't hear, you can't taste. You can't change.
You can't love. But you'll never feel sad again. You'll never feel safe again. Or sorry. You won't ever feel anything at all.
If Clover had a head he would shake it. ‘I can love, I love my friends!’ They were the whole reason he gave up his soul for monsterkind.
…
Clover thought of his friends. Of the family he found. He was never going to see them again, but there was nothing to regret either. He could rest.
‘I hope they are okay…’
At this moment Clover realized that he didn't know how much time had passed.
‘...I couldn't have been thinking for that long, could I?’
His mind got quietto remember how much time had passed.
He got quiet for too long.
…
Clover felt something. ‘That's new.’
He tried to concentrate on that specific sensation. ‘Why does it feel familiar?’
The more he concentrated the more he remembered. It was similar to the Underground's version of plastic. It was thick, not the cheap version for sure…
Until…
…
P A I N.
He totally remembered this, this was pain, he felt this every time he died.
It hurt every part of his non-existent body.
The pain increased. He wanted to yell, but he couldn't. A scream shot through his throat so powerful it breached the clouds and made its way to the heavens. Not a single decibel of sound left his mouth.
He wanted it to stop, but it didn't.
He tried to grab something, anything.
And he did.
Alphys looked speechless at how the human was grasping the body bag it was in, First they started convulsing and screeching violently. ‘H-has the D-d-d-determination injection brought them b-back to life?!’ She didn't know. “O-or c-could it be t-t-t-t-that the Determination is just affecting t-their muscles?’
Yeah, that had to be it. She didn't bring this human back to life, it was just their muscles. Human bodies would spontaneously do that after they fell defeated in battle, there were notes of all the previous royal scientists on the matter.
She tried to get closer to the body bag to confirm her thoughts, but her legs couldn't move. Was she afraid? Afraid of What? The human can't be alive, can they? Nothing she ever did turned out successful, why would this be an exception to the rule?
She tried to move again. Nothing. ‘C-c-cmon! M-move!’ She demanded her legs to move again, but nothing.
Alphys looked at the body bag again, it was still.
‘S-s-see? Nothing to worry about! T-t-the human is not alive!’ Finally her legs started moving forward. Step by step, she got closer and closer.
…
‘Wait…’ She stopped to analyze the bag. It wasn't completely still, there was a small portion of it that was getting sucked in and out near the area of where the head should be… no… no… no…‘I-i-i-is it breathing?!?!?!’
N-N-N-NO, IT CAN'T BE. I-i-i-it had to be their muscles! There's no way she had brought the human back!
~
Clover moved, ‘W-was moving always this hard?’ Every part of him felt like it was burning, but it wasn't something he couldn't stand, he had already been burned by Ceroba’s fire magic. He had adapted a little to that feeling.
He felt almost as if there was something pulling him, stopping Clover from moving freely… Was gravity affecting him? ‘Am I laying up?’ He tried sitting by himself.
A G O N Y…
It was too much to bear, nothing in his time down the underground had made him feel this tormented, anguished, agonic.
His body got tense.
Something was horribly wrong. Could-
His train of thought froze.
His legs didn't answer.
The weight of the world fell onto him.
He fell. Literally.
A loud thud resonated through the rooms walls.
Alphys stood horrified, seeing how the bag tried to move vertically, only to fail and fall off the table it was in...
…It worked?
…
IT WORKED.
‘OH NO.’