Control {[An Undertale AU]}

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Alphys's hand brushed along the books on the shelf, her eyes scanning for the magic word: human.

Two hours prior, she gone to ask the king if she could look through the castle for something -- anything -- on human souls. Of course he granted her permission, but the actual finding of research material was a little harder than planned. She had searched half the library by now and only had a few books in her right arm.

She had found some weird, old-looking VHS tapes there, too. She had put them in her backpack, planning to watch them when she got home.

ENTRY NUMBER 4: I've been researching humans to see if I can find any info about their SOULS. I ended up snooping around the castle... And found these weird tapes. I don't feel like ASGORE's watched them... I don't think he should.

Once she was done, she thanked Asgore for letting her search, politely turned down his offer of a cup of tea, and found herself in front of Gaster's door. She frowned, second-guessing whether or not to ask his help. She knew he knew more about humans, SOULs, and, well, everything than her, but she wasn't sure whether it was a good idea to tell him about this.

Before she could tell herself otherwise, she reached up and knocked on the door. It opened a few moments later, a tall skeleton standing in the doorway. His hands moved about in front of him as he talked and signed rapidly in his own language.

Oh, Alphys! He said, stepping aside. Come inside, you must be frozen. Can I offer you anything?

Alphys smiled and shook her head. "Oh, no, b-but thank you." She stepped inside, stomping the snow off of her boots and taking off her coat. "I d-don't know how you survive out here in Snowdin. It's too cold for me!"

Gaster smiled, though it's not like he ever stopped. You're a reptile, dear. You need heat to survive.

She smiled and closed the door, shrugging. "You're right again, Gaster."

You didn't just come here to talk about the weather, did you? What is it you want to ask? He was amazingly perceptive.

Alphys hesitated. "I... Okay, well... Asgore, I mean, H-His Majesty asked me to do something for him."

Go on.

"I, um... Y-you see, h-he wants me to see if I c-can h-harness, I mean, use the p-power of a SOUL. Y-you know, in efforts t-to b-break the b-barrier and all..."

Gaster was silent, thinking. I see. And you came for help?

"Yeah. Well, no, I mean, I n-need all the r-reference material and blueprints you have."

What, the ones I made for the extraction machine? What do you have planned, Alphys?

"I... I don't know." That was no lie. "I w-want to see what I can get my hands on, th-then I'll see what I will do."

Okay. That doesn't sound quite so foolish, I guess. Gaster turned, walking down a hall. He beckoned for Alphys to follow.

~~~

A few hours later, Alphys had everything laid out in a circle around her on the floor. Blueprints, books, everything. Scattered notebook papers were everywhere with her chicken-scratch handwriting dictating notes and observations and anything that needed to be written. She would pause every so often to chew the end of her pencil, then scribble something else.

Nights continued like this, until she started building, and tinkering, and experimenting. She became a creature of the night, sleeping when everyone else was awake, and then working her little heart out when no one knew.

ENTRY NUMBER 5: I've done it. Using the blueprints, I've extracted it from the human SOULs. I believe this is what gives their SOULs the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living... The resolve to change fate. Let's call this power... "Determination."