Undertale: Resurrected

Chapter Twenty-Five: Alphys' Analysis

None of the children fully understood why exactly they were over at Alphys' house, though none of them seemed to mind considering they recognized the monsters. Mettaton in particular garnered lots of attention from the children, though unfortunately none were allowed to really play with him until after they were scanned.

"O-Okay Gabriel. You're the last one-! You know what to do, right-?" Alphys looked up from her computer and towards the young boy as he shuffled forward nervously, Austin accompanying him up to the mat before looking off at another room in the house. "...You can go play if you want-"

Austin didn't need to be told twice. Patting Gabriel's arm, the boy then darted off, nearly stumbling into a wall on his way out. That worried Toriel for a moment, the monster calling for him to be careful, but she stayed to keep Gabriel company as he waited for Alphys to finish logging.

"Okay! Do you need an explanation, Gabriel-?" She didn't know if he wanted one again, especially when she'd recited the directions a good couple times already. But, she did know that hearing directions like these again calmed her down, and he also seemed to be a timid kid, so maybe it would have the same affect for him?

Either way, Gabriel did nod shyly at Alphys, the monster picking up her scanner as she trotted back over to him. Finally, they'd finish up this last scan, and then he could go hang out with Mettaton and the others.

"S-So. This won't take long. I'll just use this to scan your vitals. It's m-mostly for monsters though, so I'll have to perform two scans: A-A deep scan and a soul scan. We'll do the soul scan first. This should only take five minutes-!" Alphys did her best to reassure the child as she got to work, the monster beginning the first scan, which was over rather quickly. The second one, however, did take longer, but soon enough, Gabriel was free to go, and with a nod from Toriel, he happily scampered off.

Now it was just Alphys and Toriel, and both were already headed for the computer for answers. Of course, Alphys had reached the machine first and was already typing away at it, but it didn't take long for Toriel to begin looking over her shoulder to see what the smaller monster was up to.

"Alright. I-I have the reports." A couple clicks later, pictures of the children, including Frisk, popped up on screen, though their pictures weren't quite of them, but rather their outlines. In the center of the white outlines were glowing souls, each brimming with life as lines stretched across the bodies of the children. It was all interesting to see, for a multitude of reasons; however, Toriel couldn't help but find those reasons to be... concerning.

"...Why are their souls so dark?" That was the first question Toriel had to ask. While Frisk's soul was glowing a brilliant red, the others' souls weren't at the shade they'd been in their... previous states. The dimming of the colors didn't sit well with the monster, and for that, she hoped Alphys had answers.

"Trait-shifting, it seems-" Alphys replied, bringing up a few other files to show on her other blank monitor. "When we first t-tested the souls, back in the Underground, um, they all were strong in their traits! But- I noticed at the house, the kids all acted... a bit off. A tad-"

Alphys couldn't help but bite her lip as she tried to phrase things without offending the former queen; she'd seen just how quick she was to shut out those who didn't like her children, and that made her more anxious than she usually was. But, this information was important, at least in her opinion, so she felt it necessary to continue sharing it, at least with Toriel. "A-And I remembered my studies, back with my coworkers. They all got their souls tested, and- and their souls were all variants of the six main traits! We've been working on a key to properly name these variants, but the darker the soul, the further it is from its original trait."