Chapter 2: Darkness

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Until now, Alphys had been having a Good Day. She'd almost finished the legs for Mettaton's secret body, found a new episode of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie in the garbage dump, and even organised for her parents and sibling to come over next week.

Then she'd made the mistake of deciding to check the cameras in Hotland.

Well, no. It wasn't a mistake. If she hadn't done that, she'd be feeling like a failure right now. And Undyne...

Undyne might be dead.

For now, though, Alphys had made the right decision, and after a panicked phone call to Mettaton, some negotiations, and a doubly panicked rush back to Alphys' lab, the fish woman's chest was still rising and falling as she lay unconscious on Alphys' too-small bed. Her soul wasn't damaged, thank God, but she was losing blood fast, and gaining DT even faster.

The scientist fought down the anxiety blooming in her chest as she stared intently at the screen allowing her to monitor Undyne's soul. There was no real physical damage to it - the blood that covered Undyne's shirt was drawn by a bullet wedged in her stomach, a barely comfortable distance from the glowing white heart at the core of her being.

Undyne's soul looked perfectly healthy, and its light didn't seem to be dimming. If anything, it was getting brighter, almost unnaturally so.

That was what worried Alphys. Undyne was clearly very determined not to die, not to succumb, not to let her light go out. In theory, that would be a good thing.

Only...Alphys had seen exactly what being so determined could do to a monster. And the familiar roughness that was quickly disappearing from Undyne's scales filled her with creeping dread.

She knew what she needed to do.

She knew where she needed to go.

She could see it in her mind. She could see the dials she'd adjust and the buttons she'd press and the cold, piercing light that would suck out that dangerous magic. The magic that could pull Undyne, her friend, who she desperately wished could be something more, into the sticky pool of darkness that dragged Alphys down and made it hard to do anything at all.

The darkness that Alphys hid in, with her pathetic lies and excuses and guilt, guilt, guilt.

The darkness that she sometimes wished would claim her.

The darkness...that Alphys would brave.

To save Undyne.

To save her light.

Slowly and carefully, Alphys eased her friend's battered body into Mettaton's waiting arms, and together they carried her downstairs.

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