Flowey reluctantly let go after a reassuring smile and a head pat from his new skeleton. He looked through the window in concern as lights began to flash and the machine whirred to life; his vines poised at the edges of the door, ready to pry it off should he need to.

The others gathered round the nearby computer. Varying looks of concern crossed their faces as they stared at it expectantly. The machine stopped, the noises dying down and the lights dimming slowly. Flowey rushed to open the door, but it remained locked. He turned to the others in annoyance, ready to lay into them for keeping her in there but stopped when he saw the looks of confusion on their faces.

“What?” he demanded impatiently.

“W-W-Well, there’s- that’s- there’s nothing.” Alphys answered.

“Nothing?” Sans questioned, moving closer to the computer.

“W-Well almost nothing. Theres this” she replied, pointing to a little text box on the screen.

“That’s, huh” Sans was lost for words as he stared at the little text box. The machine had CHECKED her soul but nothing else. Sans and Alphys spoke amongst themselves for a few moments as they ran another, more in depth test, discussing the results of the first.

Undyne sat patiently for as long as she could, but all the nerd gibberish started to get to her, and it was only serving to worry Papyrus more. “HEY!! Mind filling the rest of us in. enough with the fancy words. What’s going on?”

“First test got nothin. Alph’s running a second test, more in depth. Hopefully it’ll tell us more.” Sans sighed, turning to her.

“Yea, I got that bit. Wait, nothing? Like actual nothing?”

“N-no. we have basic stats, b-but nothing more than a regular CHECK in an encounter could tell us.”

“Well, what’s her CHECK quote say? Can’t that give you a better idea or something?”

“N-not really. Look.” Alphys pointed to the screen, moving slightly to let Undyne closer.  

The babybones CHECK quote read: A clear bright light. Hope, she can help you.

“What’s with the comma?”

“I-It’s probably a typo. It happens a lot with monster infants.”

“Yea. When Papyrus was a babybones his was NYEHEHE!?&*! for two years” Sans laughed.

The machine stopped once again and Alphys hit the release button. Flowey wrenched the door open and scooped the babybones into a big hug. He turned to the others. “I wasn’t worried!” he insisted, reluctantly putting her back on her feet and moving to stand next to the others.

Sans raised his hands in surrender, chuckling. He was about to make a joke when-

“Th-that’s not right. W-what?” Alphys tapped frantically at the keyboard, looking through all the notes to double check she hadn’t missed anything. “O-Oh d-dear. Thats not-”

“Something wrong Alph?” Sans asked, moving closer to his brother. That sudden outburst from Alphys had Papyrus worrying his hand. The nervousness was clear on his face. Sans didn’t like it.   

“Y-Yes. I've got the readings here. M-Most of them are normal for a monster of her age.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Th-there’s something wrong with her soul.”

A shocked silence filled the room as all of them turned to stare at the little babybones, happily playing with some action figures on the floor with Flowey.

“What do you mean there’s something wrong?” Papyrus asked in a whisper. He couldn’t bring himself to speak louder, like doing so would make what Alphys was saying more true.

 “I-It's like there’s something in the way of her soul. T-There are a few more readings but-”

“Do you think that’s why they abandoned her?”

“M-M-Maybe. B-But I've been thinking. Maybe the lab you found w-wasn't a lab.”

“What?” Undyne asked.

“W-Well you said yourself that there was barely anything there. I think it m-may have been a hospital of some kind.”

“A hospital?”

“Y-Yes. Back in the early days of the underground, before the capital was fully b-built, there would have been some sort of hospital in waterfall. It would have been easy for everyone to get there. Back before the core was constructed the underground was v-very unstable. There were allot of earthquakes.  M-Maybe there was a massive tremor and they had to move. They would have taken all the equipment they could. B-But she would have been left behind.”

“Why” Papyrus asked, an audible shake in his voice.

“Undyne b-bought back some of the stasis chamber. The technology u-used was a very early prototype. It w-would have been too difficult to move it. And if the hospital did run on hydropower, theoretically, provided there wasn't a major malfunction in the equipment, s-she could have remained there forever. O-Or at least until they found a cure for what she has.”

“And what does she have?” Sans asked. He hated being in the dark. At least if he knew he could be prepared.  

“F-From what I can gather from the readings, m-my best guess is a congenital soul fracture.” Papyrus gasped, covering his teeth with both hands. He moved to sit in a nearby chair, Sans sat next to him, a hand on his brother’s shoulder for comfort, his usually present smile gone. Alphys rushed to reassure them.

“F-From the small amount of readings I could get I can tell you her soul is healthy, a-at least for her situation. M-Maybe the thing that's blocking the readings is some kind of container Holding it together.”

“Like the ones that hold the human souls?” Sans asked perking up a bit. That made sense, and if they could keep those souls together, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Exactly. T-There are studies that suggest such a thing could help combat the illness. B-But I’ve never heard of it a-actually being done. M-Most monsters with congenital soul fractures don't live long after birth. B-But she seems happy, and the rest of her test results look good, so she could be ok.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Undyne asked sombrely.

“Sh-She'll need to take magic suppressants to keep her magic levels down. Magic flare ups are common, especially in children. H-Having one could make her fracture worse. And keep a careful eye on her. I-If she gets sick, bring her to me straight away. I-I'll start working on building another stasis chamber. Hopefully we w-won’t need it b-but its always better to be safe than sorry.” 

“Thank you Alphys.” Papyrus replied, scooping up the babybones and Flowey and walking out the lab.

“Yea thanks Alph. You need any help with building that thing.” Sans asked, moving to follow his brother.

Alphys smiled, walking him to the door. “T-Thanks but I think Papyrus needs you more than I do right now.”

“Yea, no kidding. He's really gotten attached to the little squirt” Undyne commented, weighing up whether to chase after her friend to comfort him or not. She’d never been good at the mushy stuff. Probably better to leave it to Sans, it seemed like a family thing anyway. She’d phone him later.

“Heh, yea. He's barely put her down since he found her. We talked about it, and we’ve decided to keep her. Paps really fought her corner for her, made a whole speech and everything. That kid couldn't ask for better. Welp best be off. See ya” Sans gave a mock salute and shortcut the 5 feet to where Papyrus was standing outside. Papyrus looked at his brother in disapproval, shaking his head. Sans gave his brother the biggest grin he could before grabbing his hand and shortcutting home once more.

The skeleton brothers threw themselves down on the sofa, setting the babybones and Flowey down with some paper and pencils to play with.

“Do you really think she'll be ok Sans?” Papyrus asked, sounding completely defeated.

“Welp, Alphys said she would. We just gotta keep a closer eye on her that’s all. Alph is only working on the chamber because she likes to be prepared. Everyone can see how attached you are to the kid. They just wana help. Besides, this little lady has the great Papyrus taking care of her. And you’re the best at taking care of people. I should know, you've been taking care of me for years”

 “You’re right. With the great Papyrus taking excellent care of her there’s nothing to fear. Nyehehe.”

Sans smiled, tussling the babybones hair. “You know you still have to come up with a name for her. You are her dad after all.”

“Dad?”

“Hey don't look at me. You’re the one who insisted on taking her in and I’m more of a fun uncle anyway. So, what are you gunna call her?... how about Lucida?”

“Blue?” Papyrus looked at his babybones thoughtfully. The name seemed right, though he had to admit it did seem like a rather odd name for a skeleton.

“That's a colour not a name; And skeletons are named after fonts anyway, you know that. You can't call her Ariel, She's not a mermaid... Oh! How about Bazooka. We can call her zoo zoo for short... No wait! how about Antiqua then we could give her the nickname Quakie” 

“We are not calling her Quakie.” Papyrus deadpanned.

Sans chuckled, pulling out a ketchup bottle from his hoodie. He was about to take a sip, but thought better of it; instead choosing to place it on the side table and turn back to his brother.

Papyrus scooped up his babybones. She giggled as she hung in the air in front of him. “What do you think? Do you like the name Lucida?”

She smiled at him, nodding her head energetically. Papyrus smiled back and hugged her tight. “Well then. Lucida it is.”

“Great choice bro. you’re the coolest.”

*

back at the lab

“So, do you really think the kid'll be ok?” Undyne asked with a sigh as she watched the skeletons poof out of sight.

“I-I hope so. It's hard to tell. Most of the readings I got say she's healthy, so with precautions there’s a good chance she'll be fine. I j-just didn’t have the soul to tell Papyrus anything else.”

“Yea… Any idea where the kid came from?”

“N-No. If she's as old as I think she is, then I doubt we'll ever know… It's odd, whoever built that chamber for her clearly cared, b-but there’s no records of it, or her, anywhere.”

“What is with skeletons and randomly appearing out of nowhere?” Undyne sighed in exasperation.

“Maybe it's a skeleton t-thing?”

“Yea maybe. Well, I gotta go report to Asgore. He's gunna want to hear all about this. Then I gotta try and get home. The Temmie stole the light crystals again. Could barely see a thing on the way here, and the river person’s gone AWOL. It’s gunna take forever.”

“Y-You could stay here. Y-You know, if it’s easier for you. I found a new boxset of that anime you like. W-We could watch it, i-if you want.”

Undyne smiled fondly at Alphys. “Yea. I’d like that.” She replied, stomping out the lab leaving Alphys to her thoughts.

Alphys moved back to the computer and stared at the stats on the screen intently. They read as both 100% human and monster. Beside them was a corresponding folder labelled experiment 226 (other matter). She knew that experiment, she’d read up on it before. Back in the day when she was only a lab assistant, back when her predecessor had been sneaking off on a regular basis to work on some secret project. She still couldn’t read all of it, but she’d studied enough, REMEMBERED enough, to get the gist. two humans masquerading as a monster. Another human soul (hopefully) strong enough to break the barrier. Alphys stared at the screen for a moment. Rage built inside her accompanied by a sense of utter helplessness that sent her flying over the edge. She screamed in anger, her magic spiked, sending sparks of electricity bounding all over the room. Old notes flew everywhere, the computer in front of her exploded along with the lights, plunging her into darkness. Unnatural howls and screeching from the basement and the true lab echoed around her. She fought to calm herself, taking deep breaths as the tears pricking at the corners of her eyes, threatened to spill over.

“I- I can't do it again. Can I? He, he... She's like THEM. But it could mean… Asgore should know. I” Alphys began to sob, curling in on herself. Could she really do this again, after everything? And Papyrus, he’d never forgive her; Not to mention Sans. Alphys knew she deserved to be judged, and if he was as attached to the babybones already as she thought he was, well, there’d be no telling what he’d do.

Gathering herself she sighed and with effort, pulled herself to stand on shaky legs. In the end it ultimately didn’t matter what two monsters wanted; Not when the entire underground was concerned. She’d do it. No one would notice another monster go missing, and once it was done, they would all be free.