Grouptale-Undertale AU Story

The True Lab

Kat's POV

"Kat! Kat!" a voice cried. "Please get up! I can't lose you..." Kat let out a groan, her hand resting on her thumping forehead. "Kat!" Arms flung around Kat. "Oh good, you're okay!"

"Frisk," Kat groaned, straining her eyes open. "What happened? Where are we?" Frisk pulled to Kat to her feet.

"That elevator we were in lost power," Frisk informed, leading Kat out of the elevator shaft. Kat looked around. The ground and walls of the hallway were a dark green.

"Where are we now?" Kat asked, squinting into the darkness.

"I don't know," Frisk admitted, walking forward. "I just hope it's where we'll find Alphys." They made their way down the hall, stopping in front of a sign. "Entry number one," they read. "This is it... Time to do what the King has asked me to do. I will create the power to free us all. I will unleash the power of the soul."

"Which soul?" Kat asked, resting her hand on her pounding heart.

"Don't know," Frisk admitted, continuing to the next sign. "Entry number two. The barrier is locked by soul power... Unfortunately, this power cannot be recreated artificially. Soul power can only be derived from what was once living." Do animals have souls? Kat wondered. "So, to create more, we will have to use what we have now... The souls of monsters." They continued to the next sign.

"Entry number three. But extracting a soul from a living monster would require incredible power... Besides, being impractical, doing so would instantly destroy the soul's host and unlike the persistent souls of humans... the souls of most monsters disappear immediately upon death. If only I could make a monster's soul last." Why don't they last long. "Entry number... five?"

"Five?" Kat repeated, looking around the dark hall. "Where's entry number four?"

Frisk shrugged before continuing. "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.'" Kat and Frisk made their way down the hallway, silence looming over them.

"Frisk." Kat broke the silence. "Now that we're alone... I wanna know what happened... after you left." Frisk glanced at her, eyes wide.

"How did you know...?"

"We all noticed something was different about you when you came back," Kat explained, stopping once they reached a small room. "So I figured something happened. What was it?" Frisk didn't reply. They reached out to touch something, probably a save point. "Was it Asgore? Did you... die?"

"Once," Frisk answered, briskly. "Then I came back."

Kat raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't seem right... you lost countless times to Undyne and you didn't give up then."

"That was to defend you guys," Frisk replied, slipping some gold into the vending machine. "Besides, I realized I couldn't go to the surface without them, especially you. Can you imagine what your parents would say?"

Kat pictured her Dad and Papa, probably freaking out over her being gone possibly forever. "Yeah... that's true..." Kat admitted with a sigh. "But that doesn't explain why you're so..." Kat observed Frisk's dishevelled hair and wide-eyed look. "...Frazzled."

"It was... an intense fight," Frisk replied, tossing Kat a bag of chips. They kneeled on the ground, squinting at a note. Kat kneeled beside them. The handwriting was so bad it didn't even look like english. "I can't make it all out," Frisk informed. "All I can read is 'elevator...' 'lost power...' and 'enter the center door.'"