After climbing some stairs, Sweetie Belle and Frisk arrived at an intersection with, at the left the stage where Mettaton did his musical show, at the right the last elevator (R3), and in front another staircase leading to the top of a cliff. From where they were, they could see the top of a building poking out.
The Nice Cream seller was here, looking very happy, and not far from him were the two Royal Guards from earlier, without their helmets, happily eating ice creams together.
"Oh! That's you!" the seller shouted upon seeing them. "I must thank you! I followed your advice and moved to Hotland, and you were right! My sales were so good that I'm now out of ice cream! These two actually bought most of my stock just by themselves. So, next time, I will give you free ice cream! As much as you want!... Within reason."
"Thanks!" both children replied with big smiles at the thought of getting free ice cream.
They then waved at the two guards, the rabbit waving back, before they climbed the stairs.
They then arrived at a purple area where they had a full view of the building: MTT Resort. A tall, large building with a MTT sign above the entrance, two little winged Mettatons at the sides.
And, unexpectedly, Sans was here, in front of one of the bushes that were beside the door.
"hey," he began. "i heard you're going to the core. how about grabbing some dinner with me first?"
Well, that was even more unexpected. But after a brief glance at each other, both Sweetie Belle and Frisk accepted.
"great, thanks for treating me."
Of course...
Sans then moved toward the alley at the left of the building. "over here. i know a shortcut," he said before he entered it.
With raised eyebrows, they followed him.
Everything turned black, and the next thing they knew, they were inside a fancy restaurant with tables looking like Mettaton, each ones having a candles and sets of cutlery but with no chairs. There weren't much decorations however, mainly some potted plants against the walls. Speaking of, there were even some vines on them, where there weren't screens showing Mettaton and boards full of photos and messages (there again, from Mettaton).
It didn't even feel like a teleportation. They had just moved from the alley to around a table with for only transition that moment of blackness.
"well, here we are," Sans began before he looked at Frisk. "so. your journey's almost over, huh? you must really wanna go home."
"Uh..."
"hey. i know the feeling, buddo. though... maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you. down here you've already got food, drink, friends... is what you have to do... really worth it?"
Frisk looked down. "I really want to know who I was before waking up in the Ruins."
Sweetie Belle mouthed "Amnesic" to help Sans understand what she meant.
"i see. but by doing so, you may discover something about your past you may not like. after all, for what reason would a kid like you... end up climbing that mountain in the first place? maybe it could just be curiosity... or maybe it could be something more... sinister. i am, after all, aware that mt. ebott is reputed for being a mountain where people climbing it disappear. the kid falling before you gave the monsters this information before... well... becoming the sixth SOUL in the king's collection. So, for what reason do you think you climbed the mountain, probably knowing about this?"
Frisk didn't answer, biting her lip instead as she looked at the table. Sans had a good point... She didn't know what to say.
"... ah, forget it," Sans eventually said. "i'm rooting for ya, kid."
Frisk gave Sans a small smile at this. "Thanks."
Sweetie Belle just remained silent, observing the conversation. It was the first time that these two had a real talk, and she didn't want to ruin it.
"hey. let me tell you a story. so i'm a sentry in snowdin forest, right?"
And at Waterfall's entrance, and at Hotland's entrance, and beside the elevator R2, Sweetie Belle thought with an amused smile. Sans winked at her, apparently guessing what she was thinking, before he continued. "i sit out there and watch for humans. it's kind of boring. fortunately, deep in the forest... there's this HUGE locked door."
Frisk perked up at this. "The one to the Ruins?"
"yes, this one. and it's perfect for practicing knock knock jokes. so one day, i'm knocking 'em out, like usual. i knock on the door and say "knock knock." and suddenly, from the other side... i hear a woman's voice."
Frisk now listened intently, knowing who Sans was talking about.
""who is here?"" Sans said, imitating a woman's voice. "so, naturally, i respond: "dishes." "dishes who?" "dishes a very bad joke.""
Both Sweetie Belle and Frisk held back a laugh at this.
"then she just howls with laughter. like it's the best joke she's heard in a hundred years. so i keep 'em coming, and she keeps laughing. she's the best audience i've ever had. until you two came. then, after a dozen of 'em, SHE knocks and says... "knock knock!" i say "whos there?" "old lady!" "old lady who?" "oh! i did not know you could yodel!"
This time, Sweetie Belle and Frisk couldn't stop the laughs from coming out.
"wow. needless to say, this woman was extremely good. we kept telling each other jokes for hours. eventually, i had to leave. papyrus gets kind of cranky without his bedtime story."
This got a giggle from the girls.
"but she told me to come by again, and so i did. then i did again. and again. it's a thing now. telling bad jokes through the door. it rules." Sans did a pause before he said the next part. "one day, thought, i noticed she wasn't laughing very much. i asked her what was up. then she told me something strange. "if a human ever comes through this door... could you please, please promise something? watch over them, and protect them, will you not?" now, i hate making promises. and this woman, i don't even know her name. but... someone who sincerely likes bad jokes... has an integrity you can't say "no" to. do you get what i'm saying? that promise i made to her... you know what would have happened if she hadn't said anything?"
Whatever Sans wanted to say next, he stopped himself as he eyed Sweetie Belle who seemed to have understood where he was going with this.
"well..." He winked at Frisk. "let's just say that our first encounter would have been less funny..."
"And I probably would have ended up kicking your butt," Sweetie Belle said.
"yeah... seeing how you played with undyne... probably. needless to say, i would have given a violent first impression. which would have been bad! after all, don't we say that the first impression is the most important? at least, you have your own personal body guard now, so i didn't need to worry about protecting you."
"And all free of charge!" Sweetie Belle said, making both Sans and Frisk chuckle.
"heh." Sans then moved away. "well, that's all. take care of yourself, you two. especially you, frisk. 'cause someone really cares about you," he said before he moved to the back of the restaurant...
And disappeared.
They hadn't even eaten any dinner.
"I guess that we can thank Toriel," Sweetie Belle eventually said. "I don't know why you climbed the mountain, but... If the reason you did it is... bad, then at least, you have her."
Frisk nodded with a fond smile thinking about Toriel.
Yes, if... If she didn't have a mom, then...
They both left the restaurant, passing beside a stage where they encountered who they identified was the father of Snowdrake who was a comic working here.
But he wasn't funny at all...
They then entered the lobby of the resort. The center piece here was an indoor fountain with a statue of Mettaton spitting water... on the floor. There were some monsters here, complaining about the elevator here (apparently leading to New Home) not working. There was also a fast food, and Frisk decided to go and see what they were selling.
The seller here, some kind of brown cat-like bipedal monster, clearly didn't love this job. His smile was the most forced smile Sweetie Belle had ever seen. But once they bought some stuff from him (a Starfait and a Glamburger, a burger made of edible glitter and sequins, seriously), he was more than happy to talk to them.
The poor guy had a very pessimist vision of life, or at least of his life. He wanted to be an actor, and so, went to Mettaton, only to end up working here. And now, he considered that he had wasted his whole life, that he was fated to work at this place forever. Unless Asgore managed to get the seven SOULs to break the Barrier, so he may have a chance to start anew. He also didn't seem to believe in love and friendship as he had had some poor experiences with them, especially with two girls that had apparently settled shop in the alley at the right of the building, ending up with him being nicknamed Burgerpants.
Also, he hated Mettaton, a lot, and was clearly very jealous of him.
So they exited the resort and entered the right alley, finding the two girls Burgerpants talked about, Bratty and Catty, respectively an alligator-monster and a cat-monster.
Their specialty was to sell stuff found in the Garbage Dump at especially high price. As a result, they had some quite unique items such as a gun (empty), a cowboy hat, and a key to an unknown location. Frisk hesitated for a moment before buying the key, thinking to giving it to whoever had lost it if they managed to find them. As a result, however, she couldn't buy the hat, but she didn't mind. Yes, the hat offered a little more DEF, but it didn't heal like the apron.
Bratty and Catty seemed to be the kind of girls who loved to gossip and were big fans of Mettaton. They often finished each other's sentences, and had the tendency to say the same thing at the same time. They didn't know that Mettaton was actually a ghost in a robotic body, thinking that he was just a robot built by Alphys to impress Asgore, which got her the post of Royal Scientist. Alphys, Bratty, and Catty apparently once had a great relationship too, but apparently, since she became Royal Scientist, they hadn't seen each others, Alphys becoming a recluse for some reason. Also, Alphys had been friends with Mettaton, but it seemed that, now, that friendship was stained.
That looked like the kind of Friendship Problem that Rarity and the others were used to deal with. Alphys clearly had problems, and Sweetie Belle now needed to find what to help her fix her friendships.
They ended up talking about Burgerpants and... Well... After some back and forth between the two shops, they helped clarify the situation between the three, and Burgerpants now had a date with the girls.
Hopefully, he will stop being so pessimist. However, the newly-formed relationship didn't look very healthy...
Now that they were done playing Cupids, having nothing else to do, they took the exit of the resort toward the entrance of the CORE, which was just behind.
The bridge leading to it was... weird. The first part was made of planks, but the end was made of pipes.
And at the end, they spotted two silhouettes entering the CORE.
Alphys called.
«Huh? Who are they? N-nobody else is s-supposed to be here... oh well! We can't worry about that now!»
And she hung up.
Sweetie Belle and Frisk exchanged glances.
"Not sure if this is part of the 'play' or if she's genuinely surprised to see someone here," Frisk said.
"This could be another move from our anonymous enemy. We will have to remain on guard," Sweetie Belle said. But she was starting to have suspicions of who this 'anonymous enemy' could actually be.
As they entered the CORE, they found themselves at the lobby, facing an elevator with two path, one at both sides. And Alphys called again.
«Ready? This is it! Take the elevator up to the top of the CORE!»
So they went to take the elevator only to discover that it wasn't working! What a big surprise...
«What? The elevator should be working... W-well then! Go to the right and keep heading up!»
Following her instruction, they moved to the right path only to reach a dead end above a fiery pit.
«Alright, now just keep heading up!.......»
"Uh..." Frisk began to say.
«That pit... Isn't on my map. Forget it! Let's try the left side!»
"How is this possible for a map of a building to be wrong?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Is it a bad map that you have?"
«W-well, um... You know, the CORE is designed so that the rooms can change position and the layout can be altered. Someone must have done this without me knowing. But normally, it's forbidden as it would be an inconvenience for the workers. It's mainly for defense purpose. But who would do this? And why?»
"It seems that our mysterious anonymous enemy has decided to step up his game," Sweetie Belle said.
«Huh, w-what do you mean by "Mysterious anonymous enemy?"»
"During our journey through Hotland, an unknown monster sent other monsters after us. He notified the Royal Guard about Frisk and payed Muffet to kill her. Now, it looks like he changed the layout of the CORE and brought some... friends to deal with us."
«Oh... Oh no! I didn't know! I should have payed more attention! I'm sorry!»
"Hey, don't worry! We will go through this! It's not this that will stop us! Right, Frisk?"
Frisk nodded determinedly.
«But... With the rooms and layout changed, I won't be able to guide you...»
"That's okay. You have been a great help for us. Thank you," Frisk said. "But I guess that we will have to traverse the CORE by ourselves."
«I will at least try to find something. Be careful.»
After Alphys hung up, Sweetie Belle and Frisk took the left part where they were assaulted by a Madjick, a monster looking like a wizard with two orbs floating around him. He spoke using magic words, but upon spotting Frisk's stick and Sweetie Belle's horn he began to talk normally, thinking that they were fellow wizards, and left them alone. Apparently, he had a high opinion of wizards.
After the Madjick, they reached a path blocked by a forcefield, and there was a switch on the wall before it. However, they could see some of those devices creating lasers, actually turned off, beside the path.
«Looks like you can't proceed until you hit the switch. B-but, those lasers will activate when you do. Ummm... Looks like they'll come in this order: Orange. Orange. Blue. G-got it? Move until the third one!»
"But what if the mysterious monster also changed the order of the lasers?" Sweetie Belle asked.
«Uuh... Good point. They may have done it too. Then, uh, maybe they inverted it to take you off guard. So the order would be: Blue. Blue. Orange. But if that's not that, then, uh...»
"Then I suppose we will have to use our reflexes."
Sweetie Belle then pressed the switch. Like expected, it deactivated the forcefield, but activated the lasers that began to rapidly move toward them. As they thought, the order had been changed, and Alphys had been right as it was now blue blue orange. So they remained immobile for the first two lasers and moved through the last one.
«Yes! That's what I call a good teamwork, girls! Now, you can continue!»
Next was a crossroad. with the layout having changed, Alphys let the girls decide, and they took the path at their left only to reach a dead end where they were assaulted by a Knight Knight, a huge knight monster with a horned helmet with a crescent Moon as the visor and a great staff with a Sun symbol as a weapon. While the mouth of the helmet regularly opened, Knight Knight actually had a second face on her torso, an avian one with an eye inside the beak. As a result, it was hard to tell which face was the right one.
Not sure how to convince this monster to stop attacking them as she seemed determined to do her work as a hired mercenary, the girls eventually remarked the monster yawning, apparently not having slept much recently. So they began to sing a lullaby, and the knight eventually fell asleep.
They quickly left her and took the other path, leading to a bridge with more lasers. However, there were so many lasers that it seemed impossible to cross the bridge, especially a section where there were only immobile blue lasers.
«M... more lasers... Okay, I'll deactivate them so you can pass...... They're... They're not turning off... I can't turn them off, I... I-i-it's okay! I have this under control! I'm going to turn off the p-power for that whole node. Then you can walk across.» After a few seconds, the whole area turned dark, and the lasers deactivated. «Okay, go!»
With a nod, Sweetie Belle and Frisk advanced on the bridge until...
«W-WAIT! STOP!» Alphys suddenly yelled.
The girls immediately stopped just in time as the power returned, reactivating the lasers. Now, they were trapped right in the middle of the long series of immobile blue lasers. They couldn't move at all.
"Uh, what now?" Sweetie Belle asked.
«It looks like our mysterious enemy also thought about this. But d-don't worry! I will just turn the power off again! When it turns off, move a little, and then STOP. OK? Y-you won't get h-h-hurt.»
So the crossing of the bridge turned into a kind of green-light-red-light game, the girls carefully advancing when the power was off before stopping a few steps further. Before long, they managed to cross the bridge without harm.
«S-see? I've got everything under control. Everything's under control!»
After that, they reached another crossroad with a Save Point, and there were two screens serving as signs on the walls.
«So, um, I guess that from now, you're on your own... I have no idea what direction you must take. Maybe you should go read these signs.»
They did so. The right sign informed that the North path was named the Warrior's Path and that the West path was the Sage's Path, and that they both led to The End; and the other sign pretty much said that if they didn't take any of the path, then they just needed to wait to continue.
To put it simply, to reach their destination, they needed to take one of the two paths or just wait a moment. The Warrior's Path probably had lots of enemies waiting for them, and the Sage's Path some puzzles.
They decided to take the Sage's Path.
As they took the left path, they were greeted with the sight of the big ice blocks coming from Snowdin being transported on a conveyor belt before dropping into the pit below the floor level where they finally melted, apparently to cool down the CORE. But Sweetie Belle questioned how these ice blocks could be enough seeing the size of the building.
After that was the puzzle, which was just another of these puzzles with blocks to be moved to fire at an opposing ship. It was quickly solved. After looking around, they found no other puzzles (but they found a Glamburger in a trashcan), so they took the now unblocked East path without minding the Warrior's Path.
They finally traversed a bridge where they encountered a few more monsters, different versions of a Froggit with protrusions, round ones with a single eye that could become a fanged mouth (this reminded Sweetie Belle of Master Crowned Magolor), and little flying ones in armor armed with bows.
Finally, at the end, they reached another Save Point in front of an elevator leading back to the entrance of the CORE, now working. Beside the elevator was the door to the next part of the CORE, their destination.
After a quick SAVE, they passed the door.
And in the room behind, they found Mettaton waiting for them, his lights now all red.
"OH YES. THERE YOU ARE, DARLINGS. IT'S TIME TO HAVE OUR LITTLE SHOWDOWN. IT'S TIME TO STOP THE "MALFUNCTIONING" ROBOT... NOT!!! MALFUNCTION? REPROGRAMMING? GET REAL. THIS WAS ALL JUST A BIG SHOW. AN ACT. ALPHYS HAS BEEN PLAYING YOU FOR A FOOL THE WHOLE TIME. AS SHE WATCHED YOU ON THE SCREEN, SHE GREW ATTACHED TO YOUR ADVENTURE. SHE DESPERATELY WANTED TO BE A PART OF IT. SO SHE DECIDED TO INSERT HERSELF INTO YOUR STORY. SHE REACTIVATED THE PUZZLES. SHE DISABLED ELEVATORS. SHE ENLISTED ME TO TORMENT YOU. ALL SO SHE COULD SAVE YOU FROM DANGERS THAT DIDN'T EXIST. ALL SO YOU WOULD THINK SHE'S THE GREAT PERSON... THAT SHE'S NOT. AND NOW, IT'S TIME FOR HER FINEST HOUR. AT THIS VERY MOMENT, ALPHYS IS WAITING OUTSIDE THE ROOM. DURING OUR "BATTLE," SHE WILL INTERRUPT. SHE WILL PRETEND TO "DEACTIVATE" ME, "SAVING" YOU ONE FINAL TIME. FINALLY. SHE'LL BE THE HEROINE OF YOUR ADVENTURE."
"... We knew," Frisk said.
"WHAT?"
"We understood, right after the quiz show, that all of this was fake, but we decided to play along. If this is what she wanted... Then we didn't mind."
"... AHAHAHAHAH!!! WHAT A TWIST! SO I GUESS WE WEREN'T SUBTLE ENOUGH, UH?
"Well, we learned who you actually are before encountering you, so we knew that you weren't just a brainless robot following some malfunctioning program," Sweetie Belle said.
"AH... SO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY TRUE ORIGIN..."
"Yup!"
"WELL, GOOD FOR YOU. IT'S NICE OF YOU TO HAVE PLAYED ALONG ALL THIS TIME JUST TO PLEASE ALPHYS, BUT AS YOU PROBABLY GUESSED BY NOW, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS PREDICTABLE CHARADE."
"Yeah, that became more and more apparent as you were putting less and less effort in your shows. Knowing your profession, it clearly wasn't because you didn't know how to act."
"EXACTLY. WHILE IT WAS SOMEWHAT FUN AT FIRST, I QUICKLY GREW BORED OF THESE SHOWS. THE TRUST IS THAT I HAVE NO DESIRE TO HARM HUMANS. FAR FROM IT, ACTUALLY. MY ONLY DESIRE IS TO ENTERTAIN. AFTER ALL, THE AUDIENCE DESERVES A GOOD SHOW, DON'T THEY? AND WHAT'S A GOOD SHOW... WITHOUT A PLOT TWIST? AND THE ONE YOU JUST GAVE ME DOESN'T COUNT BECAUSE THE CAMERAS WEREN'T ON YET."
Then, the door behind the girls closed.
"H-hey!!! Wh-wh-what's going on!? Th-th-the door just locked itself!" Alphys shouted from behind.
Red lights then turned on on the floor, and a stage light focused on Mettaton as he took a mike.
"SORRY, FOLKS! THE OLD PROGRAM'S BEEN CANCELLED!!! BUT WE'VE GOT A FINALE THAT WILL DRIVE YOU WILD!!"
The floor then began to rise, revealing itself to be an elevator.
"Woah!" Sweetie Belle shouted as she did her best to remain on her legs because of how sudden it was, using her magic to help Frisk not to fall.
"REAL DRAMA!! REAL ACTION!! REAL BLOODSHED!! ON OUR NEW SHOW... "ATTACK OF THE KILLER ROBOT!""
And the real battle against Mettaton began.
Mettaton attacked by sending weird blocks that could be destroyed with magic and the Yellow Mode, and as the girls defended themselves, he continued to talk.
"YES, I WAS THE ONE THAT RE-ARRANGED THE CORE! I WAS THE ONE THAT HIRED EVERYONE TO KILL YOU! THAT, HOWEVER, WAS A SHORT SIGHTED PLAN. YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD BE A HUNDRED TIMES BETTER? KILLING YOU MYSELF!!"
"But you just said that you didn't want to harm humans!" Frisk said as she sent red-colored golden flower seeds to destroy the blocks.
"A BAD FOR A GOOD! YOU AREN'T THE FIRST HUMAN TO COME HERE, AND YOU PERFECTLY KNOW HOW THEY ALL ENDED. AND ASGORE WAS THE ONE WHO KILLED ALL OF THEM. DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT YOU CAN SUCCEED WHERE THE OTHERS FAILED? ASGORE IS POWERFUL AND VERY SKILLED! HE WILL CRUSH YOU! AND THEN, HE WILL TAKE YOUR SOUL AND USE IT TO BREAK THE BARRIER AND DESTROY HUMANITY. BUT IF I GET YOUR SOUL, I CAN STOP ASGORE'S PLAN! I CAN SAVE HUMANITY FROM DESTRUCTION!"
He began to diversify his patterns, now sending robotic arms made of magic that they had to avoid or shoot at at yellow spots to make them move out of the way.
"THEN, USING YOUR SOUL, I'LL CROSS THROUGH THE BARRIER... AND BECOME THE STAR I'VE ALWAYS DREAMED OF BEING! HUNDREDS, THOUSANDS... NO! MILLIONS OF HUMANS WILL WATCH ME!"
Now he was sending bombs that exploded if they were fired at, forming explosions shaped like crosses.
"GLITZ! GLAMOUR! I'LL FINALLY HAVE IT ALL! SO WHAT IF A FEW PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE? THAT'S SHOW BUSINESS, BABY!"
Well, here was a big problem. Mettaton had been totally blinded by stardom, becoming an egocentric selfish jerk. Pretty much Rainbow Dash if Mare Do Well hadn't knocked her down a peg. Now this guy needed his own Mare Do Well.
Alphys then called.
«U..uh... I can't see what's going on in there, but... D-d-don't give up, okay!? Th... There's o-one l-l-last way to beat Mettaton...» She clearly was forcing herself to say this. It seemed that she still considered Mettaton a friend despite everything. «It's... um... It's... This is a work in progress, so don't judge it too hard... But, you know how Mettaton always faces y-y-you? That's because there's a switch on his backside. S-s-so if y-y-you c-c-can turn him around... um... And, umm... press th-th-th-the switch... He'll be... um... He'll be... Vulnerable. Well, g-g-gotta go!»
When she hung up, Sweetie Belle and Frisk stared at each other in shock.
Was she telling them that they should destroy Mettaton?
...
Well, maybe she didn't think that there was a way to spare him, but they hoped to find one!
And pressing the switch may help them, so...
"There's a mirror being you!" Frisk shouted.
"OH??? A MIRROR??? RIGHT, I HAVE TO LOOK PERFECT FOR OUR GRAND FINALE!" Mettaton then turned around, revealing his switch. "HMMM... I DON'T SEE IT... WHERE IS IT...?"
Sweetie Belle quickly flew to the switch and flipped it, and Mettaton stopped moving.
"DID YOU. JUST FLIP. MY SWITCH?"
Mettaton then lost control of himself, his lights going wild as he was holding his head.
Then, there was a flash.
And...
When the flash disappeared, everything was plunged in darkness. Smoke then came from nowhere before two stage lights turned on, showing a humanoid silhouette through the smoke.
"Ohhhh my," a robotic voice from the humanoid silhouette began. "If you flipped my switch, that can only mean one thing. You're desperate for the premiere of my new body. How rude... Lucky for you, I've been aching to show this off for a long time. So... as thanks, I'll give you a handsome reward. I'll make your last living moments..."
The smoke suddenly disappeared, and the room was fully lit again, revealing Mettaton's new body in its full glory. Mettaton now looked like a human, with black hair with a long fringe hiding his right eye. He had a pink chest piece with a speaker and a knob as well as black shoulder pads above his arms which remained the same. The waist had a box contraption with what seemed to be a heart-shaped core inside, and his black-clad legs ended in pink high-heeled boots.
"Oh boy..." Sweetie Belle muttered.
She remarked at this moment the presence of a screen that showed the ratings. Actually, it showed that about four thousands televisions were broadcasting the fight.
And Mettaton began to take various poses.
So he wanted to give the audience a show? Very well! They will give the Underground the show of its existence!
"Lights! Camera! Action!" Mettaton shouted before he sent magically-materialized legs, like the arms earlier, excepted that these ones could directly be fired at to make them move back and forth, or to stop them from moving.
They made sure to avoid the legs as dramatically as possible, making close calls, taking poses, using teamwork! Judging by the ratings slowly climbing, the audience loved it, and words about the fight were spreading rapidly!
When Mettaton stopped sending legs, the girls jumped above the last one before landing back to back, arms crossed, looking smugly at the robot. Sweetie Belle even got out her sunglasses.
"Is that all?" the filly boasted.
"Trying to outshine me? I love this! But don't think I will let you do this without a fight!" Mettaton replied before he sent bombs and little versions of his box-like self that sent heart-shaped projectiles. The mini-Mettatons could be destroyed however, but they had to be careful not to fire at the bombs.
After a few more attacks, Mettaton let his ego get the better as he did a quick pop quiz asking "What do you love most about Mettaton?"
Well, for the show...
"Your look," Sweetie Belle quickly answered.
Frisk hesitated a little longer before answering. "That you entertain the monsters, that you make their life brighter like the star that you are."
"Oh... My, I'm touched... But don't think that it will convince me to spare you. Well, since you showed everyone your heart, how about I show you mine?" Mettaton said before his heart-shaped core came out of the box and began floating left and right while sending waves of lightning bolts in all directions.
Maybe if they damaged it enough...
They fired at it with their Yellow Mode while avoiding the projectiles of the mini-Mettatons. Before long, the heart returned inside the box.
"Oooh, I'm just warming up!" the robot said.
"Then what are you waiting?" Frisk asked provocatively, and Sweetie Belle nodded, faking yawning.
"Be careful of what you wish for!" Mettaton replied before the number of mini-Mettatons doubled, and the magical arms and legs became faster. Against the barrage of projectiles that followed, Frisk used a giant golden flower to protect Sweetie Belle, and Sweetie Belle shielded Frisk.
"You can't win against the Power of Friendship!" Sweetie Belle shouted.
"If you say so, but can you win on the dance floor?" Mettaton asked before a disco ball appeared in the air and began to rotate, sending sweeping lasers in all directions, some of them blue, others orange, and more just white. Shooting at the ball caused the lasers to alternate between the colors from white to blue to orange and back to white, so they had to use it in case they weren't able to move out of the way of a laser in time. They made sure to do this with dancing moves followed with poses.
Mettaton was impressed.
When he stopped using the disco ball, Frisk finished her dance by spinning before sending dozens of red petals to rain everywhere in the room. She then materialized a red golden flower and threw it toward Mettaton. The robot wasn't able to stop himself from doing a somersault to catch the flower in his mouth by the stem before dramatically landing on a knee. Mettaton caught up with what he did and grinned at the human.
"Clever girl."
This made Sweetie Belle laugh.
But the fight continued, the attacks becoming more intense and diversified as Mettaton used different combinations of projectiles. Eventually, probably because that was a TV stuff, he called a short breaktime before continuing the fight by sending his core against them again.
This time, the heart core was surrounded by blocks rapidly circling it, so Sweetie Belle and Frisk had to destroy them first before hitting the heart. Periodically, the heart sent the non-destroyed blocks around in attempts to hit the girls before calling new ones to protect it again.
But eventually...
BOOM! As the heart returned in the box, Mettaton's arms detached themselves from the body in an explosion.
This actually shocked him, but Mettaton quickly hid his shock behind his usual smile, albeit strained.
"A... arms? Wh... who needs arms with legs like these? I'm still going to win!"
Then he sent walls of bombs with a single block as weak point, so Frisk and Sweetie Belle had to destroy the blocks to pass the walls while being careful NOT to fire at the bombs as it would create a painful chain reaction. Then, suddenly, the attack rewound, the walls of bombs returning from behind. This one almost got them, and Frisk ate the Starfait. Somehow, this helped boosting the ratings, the audience probably recognising that it was MTT brand.
The attacks, from here, became very difficult to avoid, the number of projectiles reaching records.
Darn, for an entertainment robot, Mettaton sure showed signs that he could actually be an anti-human robot.
But now, Mettaton was losing patience. "Enough of this! Do you really want humanity to perish!?... Or do you just believe in yourself that much?"
"The second option," Sweetie Belle replied.
"Haha, how inspiring! Well, darlings! It's either me or you! But I think we already know who's going to win. Witness the true power of humanity's star!"
Mettaton then sent his heart core again, this time surrounded by bombs. This meant that they had to fire at the heart without touching the bombs. It wasn't easy, and more than one bomb exploded, but they still managed to avoid the resulting explosions, which wasn't easy as Mettaton also sent legs from the left and the right to hit them.
And after a few seconds, the heart returned in the box, and Mettaton's legs dropped, leaving him as just a torso with a head. He was very shocked, but he wasn't done for!
"... Then... Are YOU the stars? Can you really protect humanity!?"
And he sent the heart again, without protections, making it just move erratically while it sent electricity directly at the girls.
"I don't want anyone to get hurt!" Frisk said. "Humans and monsters! I will destroy the Barrier, and then, I will help the monsters live peacefully with the humans!"
"... Eh. You really think that it's possible? After what happened? Peace between humans and monsters is not possible. It would be too risky to trust the humans not to start a second war. As soon as the monsters will be free, the war will restart. And as the king, it will be Asgore's duty to protect the monsters, and so, to eradicate humanity. And with six human SOULs already in his possession, it will be a piece of cake for him. So, do you REALLY believe that you can avoid that?"
"I... I want to try... At least... I don't want to leave the monsters trapped here," Frisk replied after some hesitation.
"At worst, I have some emergency solutions at hooves, or hands, or whatever," Sweetie Belle said with a shrug.
Mettaton sighed. "You really are just kids..." Then, he saw the screen showing the ratings, which were now at 10081 and still slowly climbing. "OOH, LOOK AT THESE RATINGS!!! THIS IS THE MOST VIEWERS I'VE EVER HAD!!!"
Uh, he returned to fully-capitalized sentences. Was this way of talking another act?
"WE'VE REACHED THE VIEWER CALL-IN MILESTONE! ONE LUCKY VIEWER WILL HAVE THE CHANCE TO TALK TO ME... BEFORE I LEAVE THE UNDERGROUND FOREVER!! LET'S SEE WHO CALLS IN FIRST!" Ring! "HI, YOU'RE ON TV! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ON THIS, OUR LAST SHOW???"
Then, a voice that Sweetie Belle and Frisk recognised began to talk through the phone. «..... oh........ hi... mettaton... i really liked watching your show... my life is pretty boring, but... seeing you on the screen... brought excitement to my life... vicariously. i can't tell, but... i guess this is the last episode...? i'll miss you... mettaton...... ... oh.... i didn't mean to talk so long... oh...........»
Mettaton recognized the voice as the one of Napstablook. "NO, WAIT! WAIT, BL... H... THEY ALREADY HUNG UP." He looked down, saddened, for a few seconds. "...I'LL TAKE ANOTHER CALLER!"
«Mettaton, your show made us so happy!»
«Mettaton, I don't know what I'll watch without you.»
«Mettaton, there's a Mettaton-shaped hole in my Mettaton-shaped heart.»
This clearly had an effect on Mettaton. He was now realising how wrong he had been. He was remembering that it wasn't just him. Sweetie Belle and Frisk watched with smiles as this happened, observing as the Mettaton-centred world he had built in his head was disappearing.
"AH... I... I SEE... EVERYONE... THANK YOU SO MUCH." Mettaton then looked back at the girls, giving them his warmest smile. "... DARLINGS. PERHAPS... IT MIGHT BE BETTER IF I STAY HERE A WHILE. HUMANS ALREADY HAVE STARS AND IDOLS, BUT MONSTERS... THEY ONLY HAVE ME. IF I LEFT... THE UNDERGROUND WOULD LOSE ITS SPARK. I'D LEAVE AN ACHING VOID THAT COULD NEVER BE FILLED. SO... I THINK I'LL HAVE TO DELAY MY BIG DEBUT."
"And you won't have to wait long," Sweetie Belle said.
"MAYBE, MAYBE NOT. I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU PLAN TO DESTROY THE BARRIER BUT... I WANT TO TRUST YOU. I WANT TO TRUST THAT A PEOPLE WON'T NEED TO BE DESTROYED TO ENSURE THE SURVIVAL OF THE OTHER. HA, HA... IT'S ALL FOR THE BEST, ANYWAY. THE TRUTH IS, THIS FORM'S ENERGY CONSUMPTION IS... INEFFICIENT. IN A FEW MOMENTS, I'LL RUN OUT OF BATTERY POWER, AND... WELL. I'LL BE ALRIGHT," he reassured when he saw the girls' expressions. "KNOCK 'EM DEAD, DARLING. AND EVERYONE... THANK YOU. YOU'VE BEEN A GREAT AUDIENCE!"
Mettaton's eyes then closed, ending all this. The elevator returned in its place, and the door unlocked, letting Alphys enter.
"I... I managed to open the lock! Are you three..." the scientist began as she approached before she saw Mettaton's state. "Oh my god. Mettaton! Mettaton, are you..."
"Don't worry, he's just out of juice," Sweetie Belle said.
"Oh thank GOD. Mettaton, if you were gone, I would have... I would have..." Alphys stopped herself as she saw the girls' expressions. Clearly, she had been about to say something not good at all. "... I m-mean, h-hey, it's no problem, you know? He's just a robot, if you messed it up, I c-could always... J-just build another."
"... Alphys, you can stop," Frisk said.
"Uh?"
"We know... Everything. All this time, we knewn. About Mettaton being a ghost. About all this just being a show."
"O-oh... I-I see...... and you still went along? Why?"
"Well, at first, it was just because, why not?" Sweetie Belle answered to this. "It would be fun, and all. But after a time, we saw how it helped you, and so..."
"Oh... I don't k-know what to say..."
"You don't need to say anything. That's what friends are for."
Alphys looked at her in shock. "You... You still consider me a friend despite everything? Despite me... manipulating you?"
"We never stopped. Like I told you, we knew from the beginning, and from the beginning, you were our friend," Frisk said.
"But in the future, maybe you should avoid using manipulation. Some may not be as understanding as us," Sweetie Belle warned playfully.
"..... I... I... I don't deserve this... Such kindness... After I lied to you... After I manipulated you... after what I did... to them... I..." Alphys grabbed Mettaton and stepped back. "Th-there's something else I lied to you about. A human SOUL isn't strong enough to cross the barrier alone. It takes at least a human SOUL... And a monster SOUL. If you want to go home... You'll have to take his SOUL. You'll have to kill Asgore. I'm sorry."
And she ran out.
"Wait!" they both shouted, but it was too late.
Yes, it was a bombshell that she just dropped on them. And it could have been really bad for Frisk if she had been alone, having to choose between remaining stuck here or killing Asgore to escape. But with Sweetie Belle, it didn't change anything. And anyway, they wouldn't have gotten mad at Alphys for keeping this info to herself. They understood that she was desperate.
"We must help her!" Frisk said.
Sweetie Belle nodded.