"Gaster..." Linde gave Gaster and Alphys beside him a reproachful look. "I did tell you to run experiments..."
Linde felt utterly helpless. All he could do was lie down like Frisk and let the experimental equipment cover his body.
He muttered a complaint. "But I never said we should be the test subjects..."
By contrast, Frisk seemed to have been won over by a few words from Gaster and was willing to undergo the experiment.
Linde found this utterly baffling and grumbled inwardly, How did Gaster talk this kid into it with just two sentences?
Gaster, however, paid that no mind and replied with complete confidence, "You said yourself back then that we needed human cooperation in the experiments to successfully make this stuff."
"..."
Help. What do I do if I suddenly want to beat up my future self?
Forget it. Frisk already beat me into a masochist anyway. Why should I be scared of being experimented on?
With that thought, Linde simply lay there and stopped caring.
Gaster and Alphys certainly lived up to their reputation as mad scientists. They threw themselves into their work and made major progress in just two days.
That day, they came to Linde in high spirits to show him the results of their research.
Linde curiously looked at the magnifying glass in their hands and saw a tiny drop of liquid beneath it.
He was left somewhat speechless. "So... this is the result of your research?"
A trace of embarrassment appeared on Alphys's face as she explained, "Our technology isn't advanced enough. We can't mass-produce it. Who knows how you managed to get so much back then?"
The four Gaster followers beside her chimed in. "Exactly. With our current level of technology, producing a drop this big is already a miracle."
Linde helplessly covered his forehead and sighed inwardly. It seemed they still had a long way to go before they could successfully reproduce that miraculous liquid.
Elsewhere, something rather interesting happened to Mettaton.
A robot named Axis struck up a conversation with her.
She actually found it rather strange. After all, she had originally been a ghost, though she did technically count as a machine after Alphys modified her.
(If you didn't know this, you can buy the key to MTT's house from the two junk sellers in the alley, then go read her diary at her house. It's right next to the little ghost's house.)
Did this count as meeting one of my own kind? Still, it was pretty interesting.
(Axis, from Undertale: Yellow, is a true AI robot created by the fox lady's husband. It would originally have been selected, but Alphys's Mettaton stole the spotlight, so it was dumped in the Abandoned Factory. It doesn't mind, though. It simply misses its deceased creator.)
Axis seemed to be asking her where the two humans were, so she had no choice but to tell Alphys.
That day, Linde was practicing close combat with Frisk when Axis suddenly appeared outside the door. Linde recognized the memorable robot at once.
"Axis? How did you..." Linde was a little surprised, then suddenly thought of something and felt a wave of helplessness. "Don't tell me this has something to do with what we did in the past again?"
"Yes. Please follow me." Axis led Linde and Frisk into a house, where a middle-aged fox monster sat waiting.
Linde was utterly astonished. "Ceroba?! I thought you..."
"Were killed by Clover, right?" Ceroba smiled and picked up the Fox Mask from the corner. "You saved me back then and told me to give this to you."
The Fox Mask was remarkable. It didn't have much power of its own, but under the influence of the fleeting burst of determination Ceroba had released back then, it had become a mask imbued with special magic power.
"Thank you, Ceroba..." Linde solemnly accepted the mask.
"You should get going. You have important things to do, after all." With that, Ceroba gave them a meaningful smile and went into her room.
Back near the tents in New Home, the two children suddenly heard someone calling their names.
It was Toriel.
"Mom! You evacuated here with the monsters from the Ruins!" Frisk ran up and hugged Toriel. Mm, she was still just as warm...
Linde happily ran over as well, and Toriel gathered both children into her arms at once.
Before long, word spread that the Queen had appeared in New Home. Sure enough, Asgore came rushing over.
"Tori, I..." Asgore seemed to want to say something, but hesitated.
Toriel sighed. After their earlier phone call, she had worked through a lot of things. "Oh, Gori. Let's have a proper talk."
A flicker of joy flashed through Asgore's eyes. Toriel had finally called him by his nickname.
He tried to suppress the joy in his heart, but clearly failed miserably.
After a while, Asgore and Toriel came out together. Although they weren't as close as they had once been, they at least seemed like normal friends now.
An indulgent smile involuntarily spread across Linde's face. Then he looked at Frisk beside him...
Frisk's face was deathly pale.
"What's wrong?!" Linde grabbed Frisk's shoulders in concern and gave them a shake.
Frisk bit their lip hard. "I... I... I can't load anymore!!!"
Linde's expression changed in horror. At that same moment, Toby the Little Dog's voice rang out in his mind.
"That being just tossed a troublesome character into the Universe while I wasn't looking. But I have to deal with that being and can't spare the time, so... you're on your own over here."
Linde stumbled, his face turning just as deathly pale as Frisk's.
Before you continue