Ruins (Sans X Alphys)

Never Hurt Me

Alphys took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was to come. She adjusted her coat, closed her eyes, and reached down, picking up king ASGORE's crown. Her hands shook as she looked down at it. It was such a small thing. Trifling, even. In truth, it meant nothing. And yet it was the message that it carried that really had an impact for her. When she put this crown on her head, she would be the Queen of the Underground.

She'd insisted that neither Sans nor any of the other monsters be present for her self-coronation. She knew that Sans would be with her, helping her every step of the way, through every trial and tribulation as Queen.

This was one challenge that she wanted to face alone. She wanted to prove to herself that she had the courage to commit to something like this, to do something selfless for the sake of the whole Underground.

She was not going to let everyone down. She wasn't going to sully Undyne's memory by wasting the opportunity she had given all of monster-kind. Alphys found it hard to imagine herself ruling the Underground, but...

Sans believed in her. And if Sans believed in her... then she believed in herself. She lifted the crown to her head, let out a deep breath, and lowered it slowly down, placing it between her spines. The sense of finality was staggering.

She wondered if this could have gone any other way, but quickly pushed those thoughts out of her mind. This was no time for speculation. This was a time for action. She merely didn't know what course of action to take.

"Sans! Come in here! Immediately!"

"what's wrong, your majesty?"

"Ugh. I'm j-just joking with you, S-sans. I... need help. Of c-course."

"with what?"

"I'm the Q-queen. Whatever you w-want to say about A-ASGORE, everyone can agree on o-one thing. His g-greatest failing was inaction."

"aha. if you're gonna be the queen, you wanna be the queen."

"Yes. But I don't know what to do."

"well, there are... a lot of empty jobs now. you could delegate tasks to individual monsters. surely you're smart enough to make better decisions then they are."

"Y-you're probably r-right. B-but..."

"don't wanna argue, eh? you're the queen and the scientist here, alphys. you're smarter than i am. what's the problem?"

"I... I d-don't want to v-violate their freedom of c-choice. I'm a Q-queen, b-but... I d-don't want to be remembered as the d-despot that saved the monsters. I'd... I'd rather be r-remembered as the just ruler that tried. It's better to die happy then to live miserable."

"not sure if i agree with that one. but you can handle this, fair ruler or not. if you don't think you need to be a dictator to save them, then you don't need to be a dictator to save them. this is all you, alphys."

"Thanks, Sans. I... I know what we need to do."

"see. i told ya. you don't need me for everything."

It was only about thirty hours later that the Underground was working in full swing. Burnt buildings were being rebuilt, food was being grown, the dead were being given proper funerals, and the monsters were too busy to be unhappy.

Alphys had, of course, been worried about the consequences of forcing the Monsters into manual labor. But it had to happen, and Alphys made sure to keep things as free as possible. While each Monster was required to spend 55 hours a week working for the mutual benefit of all Monsters, they could choose what their temporary profession would be and also choose when their work would take place, presuming they put in 155 hours every 3 weeks. She also made sure to do her own fair share of manual labor, proving to the monsters that she was not the kind of queen who would spend all her time giving orders. Even with all her precautions, though, Alphys was extremely worried that the monsters would resent the relatively heavy workload, and that she was somehow defying their rights by forcing them to work.