Chapter Text
Letting the skeleton have the machine was, in fact, a mistake. Alphys had vaguely known about what it did before she just let him have it, but did she reason he’d ever actually get it working?
No.
It had been sitting in her way for ages, and when he asked for it she’d sent it off without a second thought. It wasn’t fixable. No one could get it working.
Of course, he did.
And at 2pm on a Tuesday, at that. She’d received a static filled, panicked phone call and had ran to his lab as soon as possible. (Of course, the “lab” in question was a shed that was apparently much bigger on the inside than it looked.)
He couldn’t have broken it, couldn’t have gotten rid of it, scrapped it for parts.
Nope, he just had to fix the machine.
Alphys would be more impressed if it wasn’t for the fact that the potential of the universe tearing itself apart was, in fact, a real worry.
“Sans…” she started, “How did you even fix this?”
“well I banged on it a little bit, uncrossed a few wires and boom. good as new.”
Awesome.
“And it does…what?”
“it’s supposed to access other places. similar to my teleportation but forcibly ripping a hole in the…space time…continuum…”
There was silence.
“ah. i see the problem.”
“Oh, really ?” Alphys replied, stressing and running mental calculations already. “How do we fix the universe collapsing, exactly?”
“it’s not collapsing, it’s just accessing other universes to bring things through.”
“Like what?”
A shrug.
“You put a machine back together, and didn’t know what it was for?”
“that about covers it, yes.”
Alphys’ eye twitched, and she took off her glasses to massage the bridge of her nose.
“if it helps any, it also tracks where the anomalies pulled through the machine are.”
Well, it was good news, even if the machine was working and the duo technically didn’t know what it did.
Alphys grimaced, “What if it’s dangerous? Maybe we should call for backup?”
Sans pondered the question, before resigning to his fate by replying with, “what if i teleport in, see what it is, and the come back?”
“That’s not a good plan.”
“but it is a plan, isn’t it?”
Alphys groaned, putting her glasses back into place, “You’re going to do it no matter my answer, aren’t you?”
Sans shrugged, grin stretching as he shoved his ungloved hands into his hoodie pockets, “maybe.”
An eye roll from Alphys and off Sans went.
Only to return a few moments later, sweating profusely.
“this is something you need to see.”
And with that, Alphys was yanked through a shortcut, and landed in front of the anomalies.
The anomalies that looked suspiciously like her and her friends, only a darker color scheme, and with more scars.
“T-They’re…uh…” Alphys’ mind was reeling. Definitively proving that other universes existed? And to see an alternate version of herself standing right there ? Oh she needed her notebook– no, her sketchbook– no, a camera .
“edgy?” Sans supplied, rather unhelpfully.
“I was going to say alternates of us, but that works too.”
Oh, a dark version of herself? What an interesting concept. What an exciting change. Would it be like Alphys had envisioned? Oh, she’d always thought about the possibilities of meeting an alternate version of herself, but this was something entirely new.
The edgy-Sans was the first to wake up, eye sockets snapping open. He sat up with a grimace, patting his skull as he got his bearings, only to leap to his feet upon seeing the duo.
“i don’t want any trouble from you two,” he snapped, the hum of activated magic layering the air, “but where am i?”
“congrats, you’re in another universe,” Sans butted in before Alphys could try and talk down their red friend.
“another…universe…?” the red-Sans stared at his counterpart, then sighed, “...you been messing with the old man’s machine too?”
Sans grimaced, “yeah.”
“who’d have thought of it. two idiots in two different universes working on the same machine.”
“you think we pulled the lever at the same time?”
A shrug, “maybe? would be an easier explanation than anything i could come up with.”
“Excuse me-” Alphys butted in, and the red skeleton turned his attention towards her. It was mildly unnerving to see him next to Sans. The not-Sans-but-Sans was a tad bit taller, although the platform tennis shoes might have contributed to that fact. Alphys cleared her throat, “Who are you?”
The skeleton’s grin widened, and he stuck out a hand, “sans. sans the skeleton.”
Alphys tentatively took his hand, only to be greeted with a shock, and yanked her hand back.
He laughed very heartily, Sans joining in as he noticed the buzzer on his alternate’s hand.
“classic,” Red Sans finally got out, “i met my alphys the same way.”
Alphys absentmindedly moved a claw along the part of her hand where it had touched, “It’s fine, I guess. Just maybe don’t do it again?”
Red Sans shrugged, “fine by me, as long as you don’t get any shocking ideas on a prank to play on me, too.”
A snicker from Sans. Alphys kept on trucking, “Is there something we can call you other than Sans? Since we already have one?”
Eyebrows would be raised if he had them, and Red Sans really thought about it.
“red, i guess.”
“why red?” Sans butted in.
“because it’s a decent color.”
“like ketchup?”
“do not tell me you drink that garbage. mustard is obviously the superior choice-”
“BROTHER, WHO ARE THESE…NEW INDIVIDUALS?” came a voice that only could be from a Papyrus, although his voice was slightly scratchier than Sans’ Papyrus. He squinted at Alphys, “DID YOU SHRINK? WHERE ARE YOUR SCARS?”
“bro…” Red responded, “our alphys is over there, passed out.”
“WERE YOU JUST GOING TO LEAVE HER THERE???”
“no. just trying to get to know the local fauna.”
“WHICH IS?”
“alternate universe. these are alternates of us,” Red jerked a thumb in the duo’s direction.
Not-Papyrus-But-Still-Papyrus squinted, “THAT LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER YOU. AND AN ALPHYS. I AM NOT OVER THERE.”
“but you have a counterpart here.”
“WHERE?”
“He’s at his house, I think,” Alphys butted in.
“A HOUSE? IS IT GLORIOUS? IS IT BIG?” Not-Papyrus leaned forwards, speaking slightly more quiet, but it only managed to be what is considered normal volume, “Is There A Racecar Bed?”
Sans nodded, “there’s a racecar bed in every room.”
“ALL OF THEM???”
“yup.”
“WELL, AT LEAST MY ALTERNATE SELF IS A SKELETON OF TASTE .”
“paps they want us to have nicknames.”
“WHY? IS MY OWN NAME NOT GOOD ENOUGH?”
“there’s more than one of us now, someone has to take the short straw.”
“I SUPPOSE THAT MAKES SENSE…WHAT DID YOU SAY?”
“red.”
“I SHOULD HAVE GUESSED.” Not-Papyrus’ browbones furrowed, “I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, WISH TO BE KNOWN AS…” a bit of a falter, “NOIR.”
“like those old detective movies?”
“PRECISELY!”
Alphys was texting the groupchat with Undyne and Papyrus, telling them to get over to the house right this second to witness this.
“UNDYNE AND ALPHYS AREN’T UP YET? I CAN FIX THAT!” to which Noir promptly scrambled over, and shouted at them, nearly level with their heads. Fortunately, it worked! Alternate-Undyne and Alphys were awake with a snap. Unfortunately, Undyne almost took out Noir when sitting up ramrod straight.
“Papyrus, how many times do we have to talk about rude awakenings?” Not-Undyne grimaced.
“AT LEAST TWELVE. YOU’RE ON NUMBER 10.”
Not-Undyne opened her mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by the current world’s Papyrus and Undyne slamming through the door, completely ripping it off its hinges.
“...I just replaced that,” grumbled Alphys.
Undyne glanced around the room, only for her eye to land on her counterpart, and she pointed at her, causing other-Undyne to point at her too in a sort of odd standoff.
“Are these the counterparts?” Undyne asked, glancing at Alphys for confirmation.
“Yes.”
“Sick!! I’ve always wanted to meet another me. It’ll be like those anime mirror episodes.”
Hopefully not, given that counterparts in mirror episodes tend to go rogue and be evil, but Alphys let that idea go.
“How much can you lift?”
“More than you, I’m sure.”
Undyne cackled, “Well, we’ll just have to see about that!”
The two Undynes began a shouting match with each other, and promptly went around collecting objects to continue lifting while more was added on. This was probably dangerous, right? Perhaps Alphys should stop the competition? Undyne was balancing 20 hats on her head. If Alphys wasn’t so concerned with the amount of weight her girlfriend was carrying (and don’t get her wrong, she knew Undyne was strong), the image of the hats along with a ridiculous load was borderline hysterical.
Alphys crept over to her counterpart, “D-do you think we should stop them?”
Not-Alphys waved her hand, grinning, the scar over her mouth stretching with the movement, “Nah, I believe in Undyne.” And Alphys jumped a little as her counterpart shouted, “Get her, babe! I know you can beat her in a strength contest!”
Counterpart Undyne grinned, and with a flash of a hand, Noir was suddenly on top of her pile, much to the amusement of everyone watching. Normal Undyne doubled down, getting Sans and Papyrus.
Counterpart Alphys frowned, “Actually, maybe we should-”
Before being able to finish her sentence, the two Undynes fell over. Apparently matched for strength, they decided to see who could run the farthest. The Papyruses (Papyri? Alphys pondered) followed the fish out the door to referee the race.
“I’m Alphys,” she said, sticking out her hand.
Her counterpart nodded, “I’m Alphys too. Though I guess you could just call me Al.”
Alphys nodded, fully taking in Al’s figure. Al was slightly taller than Alphys, and had more scarring (stories of which Alphys was dying to know, but couldn’t ask about). Alphys was absolutely bursting with questions. What was their world like? How did this Alphys come to be the way she is?
Al squinted, “You got something to say? You’re staring awfully hard.”
Quick, Alphys, think of something normal to say!
“You have a hole in your shirt,” Alphys pointed out. She wanted to crawl into a hole immediately after that. Why would she say that? She couldn’t have said anything else? What if Al gets mad? What if she doesn’t want to associate with Alphys anymore? What if-
“Oh,” Al stretched the shirt slightly, “I guess there are.” She leaned forward conspiratorially, “I bet it’s where Dyne and I were kissing the other day.”
And boy did that set off Alphys’ imagination, but she shook her head clear. That was for another time.
“How did you two meet?” Alphys tentatively asked.
“Oh, you know, she broke into my lab, I tried to fight her and lost, and the rest is history.”
“I’m sorry, what?”