"H-Hello?" Alphys asked, a shaky hand clutching her phone.
Papyrus was still tucked tight under Toriel's left arm, even though he was seeming oddly... lighter. Like something about that weird static conversation had soothed him. Undyne, on the other hand, stood ram-rod straight on his other side, keeping close to her girlfriend.
Asgore just pretended to be infatuated by a flower growing through the crack in the cobblestone path — Frisk doing their best to keep an eye on him.
The phone call had startled Alphys quite a bit, but the number, Sans number, had been why she picked up. Clicking it immediately to speaker-phone.
Undyne moved silently closer.
"Doctor Alphys.... I need a favor," a low voice shook through the tinny speakers, there was a short clang. Like something metal being moved.
Alphys wished she could be looking at her cameras to confirm her theories. But it sounded like there was just one monster there. Only Zero's voice, noticeably distorted by the echo of his helmet. Zero... on Sans' phone?
"W-What- I, um," She paused. Her throat felt scratchy and raw.
"W...what do you need?" Alphys asked softly, not really trusting much more.
"Please," Zero pleaded, without giving any more detail.
And, in a way so unlike him, he continued.
"I.... I know there's a lot you, a lot everyone doesn't understand right now, but..." The words were slow, dripping like molasses; but shaky in the oddest way.
Trembling, like the stone strong figure had faced something to make him loose his nerve.
"Why?" Undyne bit coldly.
"...What?" Zero asks, and Undyne can't help the freeing feeling that rushes through her, as she finally, finally gets him to crack.
"Cut the shit, Zero." She says coldly, wielding her edge with lethal precision, cutting harsh and quick.
"Besides your tenuous connection to Asgore,"—the king in question shied away from her violent gestures—"and whatever sham of a royal scientist came before Alphys-" She took a heavy breath, then glared, sharp and cold at the phone, laid flat in Alphys's hand.
"Why should we trust you," she spat.
A warm breeze ruffled by, it smelled like pine and damp earth. But beyond the ruffle of nature, there was no reply.
"Literally all you've done is lie," Undyne continued, her mounting frustration raising with her volume.
"Your disappear at the core," she counted off on her webbed fingers. Not noticing the way Papyrus flinched.
"You nearly dying in the labs-"
Toriel's jaw clenched, her arm tightening around her child, then around Papyrus.
"I mean- fuck!" Undyne exclaimed. A hand clawing through bright red hair.
"The incidents with those... those weird greyed out monsters-"
Alphys felt like something was crawling up her spine. Guilt and sin and a cold, icy sweat.
"Even just the first time we fucking met in that castle hall!" Undyne's arms flew up, then slammed down at her sides.
Asgore's shoulder's tightened. He didn't look up.
"None of it makes any sense, and nobody will tell me anything about it!" She exclaimed.
A cold wind brushed by, hustling her hair into her eyes. She wipes at them, they come away wet. Frustrated, she sighs.
"...you know Sans, somehow. Don't you?"
There was a long pause. And Undyne took a sharp breath in, ready to continue.
Not really expecting Zero to actually answer her-
"In a sense." Zero answered.
Momentarily, the line crackles with static.
The world feels cold and hazy for barely a second-
Then there's a warm flash.
Papyrus looked up, but turns his head- tucking his glowing eyes away from the group, even if they weren't paying attention.
"Huh?" Undyne asked.
There's another, shorter pause.
"Sans and I... know each other in a sense," Zero spoke slowly. Like each word was something he had to excavate from his throat, clawing and digging down to the bone, and through it; until there was nothing left.
Until all he had to bleed was truth.
"You know that's not an actual answer, right?" Undyne asked, unimpressed. Folding her arms around herself tightly, if only to have something to hold onto.
"Undyne," Toriel said, slow and warning.
"What?" Undyne asked, her exasperation throwing herself into the motion.
"We need honesty," she said-
"That we do," Zero agreed hesitantly from the other end of the line. The hiss of static echoed at the edge of it.
Calm settles yet again.
"And I'd be happy to give it...." He paused, and the group could almost hear the quiet leer in his tone.
"In turn for a favor," Alphys completed.
Zero hummed a quiet ascent.
"What kind of.... favor?" Papyrus asked, his voice still small. Not quite meek, but like he was doing his best to hear every word said; as well as what wasn't strictly spoken.
His eyes flickered, dim enough that nobody could see.
"Come, and I'll show you," Zero said simply.
Alphys opened her mouth to reply-
"You were on your cameras," he says with what sounds like a strong smile. "You know where I am."
Alphys's claws felt stiff around the phone.
And before anyone could say anything more- the phone clicked.
He'd hung up.
---------------------
Zero??? Reaching out for help????? Amazing. Wow. xD
Hope y'all are having a good week and thank you so so much for all your lovely comments!!
Just a reminder, i am still posting sneak-peeks/random Undertale art on my Tumblr
[ https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ninathenope ]
so please go and check that out!! Love y'all!!