The Mountain East (An Undertale Fanfiction)

Chapter 21

"here we are."

Sans led a skeptical human into the lab. The air was sweltering, the lava beneath frying the atmosphere like a grill. Hotland's inhabitants eyed her suspiciously as some were still unaware of her presence, even after the King revealed her existence. They were living in an outlying, desolate wasteland after all. Not to mention their reputation for being, well, hotheads.

"y'know, I didn't think you'd warm up to me for at least another half century. especially after last week." Sans was walking in the front, occasionally glancing back to make sure Chara didn't fall off the edge. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, despite it being obviously dumb because of the temperature. Then again, they didn't have skin, so perhaps they don't get fazed by extreme weathers.

"Things change, Sans. It's not like I'm good at keeping secrets anyways. Besides," she shrugged. "it might be for the better."

Sans looked genuinely surprised, in defiance of his usual sarcastic self. "now who put that through your head?" He scratched his forehead. "wasn't exactly taking you for the 'forgive and forget' type. Listen, kid. i don't want to pry into your personal life. but, hey, if you ever feel like you want a third opinion, I'm always open, as long as grillby's is too."

Chara laughed. "Thanks, Sans."

A brief moment of silence fell between them.

"so, uh, are you gonna tell me why you-"

"you said you wouldn't pry." Chara had already anticipated this question, despite all of Sans' assurances that he would not ask more questions. She couldn't blame him. It felt painful knowing only part of a story. But she was not ready to reveal that kind of information yet. Not to him. Not if she hadn't told Asriel yet.

"jeez. sorry." They continued to journey through Hotland on their way to the laboratory.

After some time, Chara had come up with a question of her own. "Say, why are you the only one that can see my, uh, stats? Even Asgore and Toriel didn't seem to know much about it."

Sans shrugged. "was born with it. didn't think it would be of much use, so I never told anyone about it. except you, that is."

Chara stared at him. "You're a bad liar."

Sans laughed and replied, "you said you wouldn't pry."

Chara frowned. "I never said that. You said that."

"friendship goes both ways." Sans produced a pair of spring boots from thin air. He threw them at Chara and watched as they fitted themselves on her feet. "you'll need those for the steam pads."

"Well, if it goes both ways, why can't you tell – what steam pads?" Her expression went from one of betrayal to one of confusion. It turned into one of fear as she was suddenly launched fifty feet in the air.

Sans looked up at chuckled at the screaming dot in the distance that was being propelled towards the upper cliffside. He could almost hear her a faint 'fuuuuuuuck' as her height became parallel to her destination. With a quick whoosh, Sans teleported next to the panting Chara. The boots he had given her had already returned to his hands via blue magic.

"how was the ride?" He jokingly asked. Chara glared at him, but her expression was not one of anger. She looked like she had just been on a roller coaster for the first time of her life.

"Breathtaking." Her eyes glinted with both adrenaline and excitement. "When can we do that again?"

"soon."

The two continued their journey. The Core was now in sight, a bubbling mass of metal suspended over the geothermal core of the underground. Pipes and gears could be seen running even from over the horizon, pumping out millions of watts of magical energy per second. Chara had never seen such an intricate and massive mechanical wonder before.

"that's the Core. the machine that supplies the underground with power." Sans explained, catching note of Chara's dumbfounded expression. "don't ask me how it works. hell if I know."

In front of them was a large, rectangular building that had seen its fair share of burns. Scorch marks littered the sides and the large sign stating 'lab' seemed like it used to be made of flammable plastic but was changed abruptly to reinforced steel. A yellow lizard-like monster stood nervously on the front porch, twiddling her fingers as she tapped her foot repeatedly, waiting. She gulped when she saw the two slowly approaching her.

"hey al. this is chara, the human. chara, alphys, my, uh, boss." Sans introduced the two to each other, in which they ended up doing a sort of awkward handshake-shoulder pat-fist bump thing.

"Y - you must be the human everyone is t – talking about! D – don't worry, we're not going to hurt you, we j – just wanted to r – run some tests on your s – soul, if that is fine by y – you?" She was a stuttering mess. Not that Chara could blame her, but being socially awkward themselves, all she could do was nod and made the occasional grunting noise.

Sans tried his best to try to lighten the atmosphere using his vast array of puns and jokes, but they merely caused the tension in the room to rise. Finally, Sans decided to 'go to the bathroom'. Neither girl refuted his obvious lie (as skeletons, well, against popular opinion, can't) and instead sat. In silence. Trying their best not to be the first to break a sweat.

Ultimately, Chara decided to say something. "So, uh, what exactly am I doing?"

Alphys breathed a sigh of relief. This was something she can answer. A bit too eagerly, she explained their procedure. "So, uh, as you probably already know, we're trying to break the barrier. The problem with that, is, well, we need a power equivalent to seven human souls to do so. We're trying to find a substitute by perhaps making artificial souls and tricking the magic into thinking it's real. W – we have a vial of red, uh, stuff, collected from a dead human way back in the days of the war. It – it's proven to be something, but I don't know what that something is. We were wondering if your soul harbored the same substance, the same checkbox that defined your, uh, humanity."

Chara frowned. Despite her constant assurances to both Sans and Asriel that she had gotten over her troubled past life, she still hated humans for what they did. To her. To them.

Alphys continued to explain, a bit too passionately. Her stuttering had reduced. "I've, uh, run some tests on it, but since we only have a limited amount, there's not really much I can do. I did use a fair amount of it to try to reverse the effects of life, b – but it only turned into the soul of a monster that had fallen down, and, well, when it enters that state, they might as well be dead. Y – you do know what 'fallen down' means, right?" She asked anxiously.

"Yeah." Chara responded. Add that to the list of sore topics for her.

"Maybe if I inject it into a monster that's in a comatose state, or, or if they are yet to turn to dust, m – maybe I can find what it really does, but there's too much room for error, w – what if I accidentally misjudge the limit to our soul's capacity, or, or -" The explanation had deteriorated into Alphys babbling about her countless future mistakes that she had not even committed yet.

How ironic. A person who can only see wrong in the future, and a person who can only remember wrong from the past.

And as Chara listened to her doubt herself repeatedly, she couldn't help but notice a skeleton materialize out of the corner of her eye. Wanting to leave the conversation, she decided to go see what Sans was up to.

But as she turned around to face him, she was met with a familiar face. One of disbelief.

In his hand he clutched several pieces of shattered glass.

"The determination."

His hands shook.

"It's gone."