Passive Hatred

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The Lab

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In a voice that felt hollow, distant, Alex heard himself speak, the words spilling out as if someone else had placed them there.

"What did you find out about me?"

His voice was low, laced with a strange edge he didn't recognize. Inside, he was screaming at himself to soften, to let her go, to stop this entire scene. But his body refused. Alphys, held in place by the tendrils, looked up at him with wide, fearful eyes.

"I... I was just running tests," she stammered, clearly trying to steady her breath. "I-I didn't mean to—"

"Answer the question," he cut her off, his tone sharper than he intended. Again, inside, he tried to fight back the overwhelming feeling that  he shouldn't be at the wheel.

"We—we found your soul's structure... it isn't... it isn't normal. Not like any monster or even human we know." Her voice trembled, and she gulped nervously. "It's... not heart-shaped. And it reacts... differently."

He could feel her pulse through the tendrils, rapid and tense. It matched his own, thrumming in his chest with anxiety he couldn't control.

"Differently... how?" he pressed, desperate to pull some kind of understanding from this stupid encounter he was creating, this mess he couldn't seem, no the mess that he didn't want  to stop.

"It—your soul reacts to negativity, unlike most souls. Like... like it's fueled by it. I don't know how... or why." Alphys' voice dropped to a whisper, the fear in her eyes mirroring the fear that twisted inside Alex's mind.

Alex's grip tightened involuntarily, and he felt a strange intensity in his voice as the questions came spilling out.

"What else did you see? Why is it different?" he demanded, even though internally he felt himself wanting to back away, to just leave the room. But some dark curiosity burned in him, and he couldn't ignore it.

Alphys swallowed hard, visibly shaken but beginning to answer, perhaps more out of a desire to survive than to help. "I—I noticed that when you get... emotional, the energy readings spike around your soul. It's like... it's waiting for something to draw on. You don't just feel emotions; they seem to... fuel you. Almost like a source of power."

"A source of power?" he echoed, more to himself, mind racing. He tried to picture this, his soul as something that could shift, change, or strengthen depending on what he felt.

"Yes," she whispered, nodding. "And... I'm not sure what would happen if it continued that way. I've never seen anything quite like it. Souls don't usually... adapt this way."

Alex leaned in closer, his voice a tense whisper, even as his mind rebelled against the words he was saying. "How would I... draw them out?"

Alphys glanced at the tendrils tightening around her, then back at his face, eyes wide with fear but seemingly grasping his question. She stammered, "W-well, usually, emotions are drawn out through memories or situations that amplify them... You'd need to... relive something intense, maybe."

Her gaze dropped, as though she were afraid to say more, but under his piercing stare, she continued. "It's not like usual magic. Your soul responds to heightened feelings, strong enough to... amplify it. To bring it to the surface."

Alex's mind raced with possibilities, an inner struggle growing stronger. Emotions as fuel, as power—he could almost see it now, the tendrils pulsing with some dark energy that matched the fear, the anger, the uncertainty swirling inside him. But did he really want to rely on that? And if he did, what would that mean for him?

A dark thought crossed Alex's mind, and he struggled to voice it, though it felt wrong, even disgusting even. But the words slipped out before he could stop them. "What if... I could use the emotions of others?" His voice was low, uncertain. "The negative ones—anger, fear... Could I pull strength from those, too?"

Alphys's face turned pale, and her eyes darted to the tendrils coiling around her. "T-that's... not usually how a soul's power is harnessed. Souls don't... connect to others that way. But, I mean..." She hesitated, as though dreading the implications. "If your soul really does react to negativity like this... then maybe, somehow..."

Her voice faltered. "It's not like any magic I've seen before," she admitted, almost as if she were saying it to reassure herself?

"She is afraid of you, just as it should be...... Take it, Take her fear and use it, Make yourself as strong as you should be, here I'll help just this once."

Almost instinctively, Alex felt his tendrils shift, tightening their hold around Alphys as if they knew precisely what to do. His mind barely registered the action, but he could feel the fear radiating from her like a spark in the dark, something raw and potent. Without thinking, he reached toward it, not with his hands, but with something deeper, as though his very presence was drawing her emotions in.

It was as if he'd done this before, like his body had a memory his mind didn't yet understand. The tendrils pulsed, seeming to drink in her fear, and he felt a faint but unmistakable surge of energy flow back to him. He wasn't sure exactly what he was pulling, only that it felt powerful, feeding a part of him he didn't know was hungry.

Alphys whimpered, shrinking back, and Alex snapped to, his mind catching up to what he'd just done. He let go of the tendrils holding her, letting her fall to the floor as he recalled them to his side.

Alex's gaze remained fixed on Alphys, his expression unreadable, cold and distant. The tendrils that had caught her moments ago hung back, as if waiting at his command, but he kept them at bay. Alphys, despite the shock of his actions, felt an odd calm, the fear that had gripped her moments ago now dulled, replaced by a strange, hollow feeling.

She shifted unsteadily, glancing up at him with a hint of curiosity. "What... what did you do?" Her voice held no trace of the terror she'd felt before, only a mild, almost clinical interest, like observing a specimen under a microscope.

Alex didn't answer right away, his cold expression betraying no emotion. Instead, he let his gaze linger on her, as though analyzing her reaction, debating something. "I suppose you'll find that in your research notes," he finally replied, his tone even.

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