Undertale: Reason to Live

Chapter 68

When he and Mettaton emerged from the trapdoor, Frisk stopped squirming long enough to notice that they were in a white clinical hallway with grey plaid tile floors and fluorescent lights next to a door labeled "Dr. Arial Nova."

"Here, we are, darling," Mettaton said setting Frisk on the ground and knocking on the door.

Frisk tried to make a break for it, but Mettaton grabbed onto his wrist and continued knocking on the door.

"Dr. Nova?" Mettaton asked. "It's Mettaton! I've brought my new son by a bit earlier than expected. He's been extremely restless at the studio, so I was wondering if you could give him his physical examination early as a timeout…"

The door was thrown open interrupting Mettaton mid-sentence.

Frisk's eyes grew wide when he saw the doctor. She was a female skeleton, but she didn't look like Sans or Papyrus. She had long black hair and swirly facial tattoos under and over her eyes with a black spot on her nose and red and black rings around her eyes. She was wearing a red and black striped shirt, a black mini-skirt, black pantyhose, black boots, and a long white doctor coat. She was a bright contrast to the dimness of the environment.

But her eyes were unsettling. They had a look of insanity behind them. They were the kind of eyes Frisk knew to avoid on the surface, and now, they looked right at him and pierced his soul. Frisk shook fearfully and found himself trying to hide behind Mettaton.

Mettaton smiled back at him, let go of his hand, pushed him in front of him, rested his hands on his shoulders, and said, "Now, Frisk, darling, don't be shy. Say hello to your new doctor. This is Dr. Arial Nova. Dr. Alphys interned under her once upon a time before she became the royal scientist. She knows more about humans than just about anyone else in the Underground."

"What's up, kid?" Dr. Nova said in an unsettlingly youthful and energetic tone of voice for a woman supposedly older than Alphys before she squatted to Frisk's eye level. "You're the first living human I've encountered in forever. I'm used to seeing only the dead ones. I've been watching you on the show. You're quite violent…"

"Then, you understand why I must leave him here for an hour or two while I get things up and running," Mettaton interrupted.

"Oh, of course," Dr. Nova said rubbing Frisk's hair. "I'd be stupid to turn him away. He's adorable. Besides, there is so much I can learn from him…"

"Now, now, doctor," Mettaton said sternly. "Remember our agreement. You cannot hurt him. He's my son, not a lab specimen. He's here for a physical examination. That's all, but you can use sedatives to calm him down if need be."

"Okay," Dr. Nova said holding Frisk's hands in her own as she cracked a twisted smile. "I got it. I'll behave."

"Good," Mettaton replied pushing Frisk forward into Dr. Nova. "Remember, if you leave even a single scratch on him, I'm taking him to a different doctor. Take good care of him, dear. He was a homeless orphan, so he's not in the best health."

She wrapped her arms tightly around Frisk in a hug and picked him up. Frisk flinched at the close contact and stared pleadingly at Mettaton.

"You worry too much, Mettaton," Dr. Nova said. "I'll give him all the health care you can afford."

"Splendid," Mettaton replied with a smile.

"The question is how you will pay me," Dr. Nova said with a suggestive glance. "Will it be cash or what you gave me the last time I did you a favor?"

Mettaton smiled suggestively back at her and said, "Arial, sweetie, not in front of the child. It will be cash. You remember what I told you last time."

"Awww! Come on, Metta," Dr. Nova said playfully. "You know you enjoyed it."

"I never said I didn't," Mettaton said moving his face until he was inches away from hers. "But I simply don't have time for a relationship in my life right now. Female or male. I have a business empire to run, and now, I have a child to raise."

"You have time to raise a human child, but no time for anything else?" Dr. Nova said moving her face closer to his. "What are your priorities?"

With each line of dialogue, their faces grew closer together.

"The little one is good for business."

"And I'm not?"

"You're too old."

"Ha! You know how slowly skeletons age."

"That is true."

"Your son could also use a mother."

"That is also true. You know. I may actually have to think about this…"

"Dammit, will you two get a room?" Frisk whined.

The two monsters looked at each other and looked back at Frisk disapprovingly.

Mettaton sighed, turned away, and said, "I had better return to my studio and my lovely audience. You get my child taken care of, and I might just give what you said some consideration."

"Okay, I will have to remove the make-up by the way," Dr. Nova said holding Frisk more closely against her side.

Mettaton visibly pouted and said, "Must you? It looks so good on him."

"I must check his skin," Dr. Nova said.

Mettaton posed dramatically and said, "Alright, if you must…."

"Please don't leave me!" Frisk pleaded.

Mettaton looked back at his son's eyes as he gave him the most frightened, pathetic look he could muster.

"Darling," Mettaton said firmly. "If you didn't want to be left alone at the doctor's, you should have behaved instead of destroying my expensive equipment. You brought this on yourself, dear, but don't worry. Daddy will come back as soon as you're done. Now, be a good boy and behave for Dr. Nova. I'm going back to the studio to check on your friends."

"You better not hurt them!" Frisk yelled at him as he created a trapdoor with his feet.

"I told you before that I don't intend on killing them, darling," Mettaton said. "Why ruin their entertainment value?"

Mettaton jumped in the trapdoor that dissolved behind him.

Frisk looked back at Dr. Nova trying his best to hide the fear behind his eyes.

"Come along, little one," Dr. Nova said as she stepped out of her office and started walking down the hall with Frisk still in her arms. "We have to give you a check-up."

Frisk kept shaking, but he heard Him say, "You are not alone, Frisk. I'm right here."

"This woman is crazy," Frisk prayed in his head. "She's gonna dissect me."

"You will be okay," He replied warmly. "Stay determined."

Frisk smiled in response.

The voice calmed him down a little, so Frisk took in his surroundings as Dr. Nova continued walking down the hall. He turned around and saw from his view out the window that they were still in Hotland. Frisk looked around the hallways and noticed that despite all the offices and labs they walked past the hallways were oddly empty."

"Why are there no people here?" Frisk asked nervously.

"Oh, this is a university and it's a school holiday, so most people are on break right now," Dr. Nova said as she finally walked through a door. "I was going to be on vacation until your hot Daddy called me yesterday and asked me to help him out, so I opted to stay here instead."

"Oh," Frisk said.

"You're a quiet one. Aren't you?" Dr. Nova asked before her face twisted into her demented smile. "That should make this much easier."

Dr. Nova suddenly turned left carried Frisk through a clinically white laboratory with metal counters covered in various medical instruments. She finally put him down on the metal table in the center.

Dr. Nova materialized a clipboard and a pen, pulled up a rolling chair, draped her legs over the arm of said chair, and said, "Alright, Frisk. Now for the boring stuff, I'm gonna ask you a bunch of questions and you answer them as well as you know how to. Okay?"

"I guess," Frisk said reluctantly.

"Alright, do you take any drugs?" Dr. Nova asked. "I mean the medication kind, not the bad stuff. Although, you should probably mention those, too."

"No," Frisk lied.

"That's surprising considering you were homeless," Dr. Nova replied.

Frisk glared back at her and looked away. She found his silence a bit unnerving.

"Do you smoke, drink, or have unprotected sex?" Dr. Nova asked.

"No," Frisk said with more annoyance in his voice.

"Do you even know what unprotected sex is?" Dr. Nova asked playfully.

"No," Frisk retorted.

"Interesting," Dr. Nova said as she made some notes on her clipboard. "What is your diet?"

"Whatever anyone feeds me or whatever I can find."

"Explains why you're so skinny. You're almost as skeletal as I am. Do you exercise?"

"When I'm with my family…"

"You haven't known Mettaton that long…" Dr. Nova said writing down some more notes.

"He is not my family," Frisk interrupted angrily. "He stole me from my family…"

"Oh, you mean that fish lady and Gaster's kids," Dr. Nova said without even looking back at him. "Duh. I should have assumed former family…"

For some reason, Frisk ignored her comment and asked, "Wait, who's Gaster?"

Dr. Nova looked back at him in disbelief and said, "Who's Gaster? Are you serious? He was only the royal scientist who invented the Core that gives us all green energy. I used to work with him. He was…interesting. I'm surprised you don't know more about him. You lived with his kids. One of his sons used to work in the lab with him. He was a brilliant kid but stubborn. They fought about ethics from time to time. It was so annoying. But anyway, there I go getting distracted again. I probably said more than I should have. Oh, well…Anyways, are you updated on your shots?"

"Uh," Frisk said not knowing what to do with all the new information. "I don't know."

"Yay!" Dr. Nova squealed while she spun her chair around. "You know what this means? That means I get to take a blood sample! I've never taken blood samples from a living human before. This'll be amazing!"

"What?!" Frisk asked in a panic. "Why do you need my blood?!"

Dr. Nova stopped spinning around in her chair and replied, "To see what antibodies your body has. You know how vaccines work, right? Your body receives a weak sample of a disease and develops antibodies against said disease so that the body's immune system can fight it should you ever be exposed to it. If I look at your blood, I can find the antibodies your body has and figure out what antibodies you still need. Make sense?"

"Yeah," Frisk said.

"Then, I'm a better teacher than I thought," Dr. Nova replied. "Anyways, I probably needed to get a sample anyway to check for other diseases and things like that, but now, I definitely can get one and study it forever."

Frisk cringed uncomfortably at the last bit while she continued, "Moving right along, were there any diseases in your biological family that you know about?"

"No," Frisk lied.

"Alright then," Dr. Nova said jumping out of her chair. "Now, for the fun part, for me anyway. I get to check the rest of ya. Just let me find the right equipment…"

As soon as Dr. Nova turned away to find her tools, Frisk pulled out his phone.

Sans had sent him a message saying, "Frisk, I know what happened. Where has Mettaton taken you?"

Frisk quickly replied, "I'm not sure. He used a trapdoor, but I'm still in Hotland at some kind of medical school. He left me with a skeleton woman named Dr. Nova. She said she knew your Dad."

On the other end, Sans paused in horror before he sent another text message that said, "Frisk, is her full name Dr. Arial Nova and does she have black and red tattoos on her face?"

"Yes," Frisk replied. "Do you know her?"

Sans felt the bile rise in his metaphorical throat as he remembered his father's former colleague.

Then, he took a deep breath and said, "Yes. Frisk, listen to me. Dr. Nova is crazy. I mean certifiably insane. You have to be careful around her and get away from her as soon as she can. You understand me?"

Frisk replied nervously, "I'll try. Mettaton made her promise not to hurt me, but I don't think she'll do what he says. They were flirting, like a lot. It was really creepy."

"What exactly did they say?" Sans replied.

Before Frisk could reply, Dr. Nova snatched the phone out of his hands and replied for him. After about a minute, she handed the phone back to him. Dr. Nova had basically summed up what happened but with her more suggestive terms.

Back at Toriel's place, Sans gagged at the reply.

"What's the matter?" Toriel asked.

"Dr. Nova replied for Frisk."

"What did she say?"

"You don't wanna know."

Thankfully, most of the message went over Frisk's head.

When he looked back at her, she shined a small light into his eyes and, "Keep your eyes open…Good."

Then Dr. Nova added a piece to the medical instrument and shined the light into Frisk's ears.

"Good," she replied while putting the device in her pocket and pulling out a popsicle stick. "Now, say, 'Ah!'"

"Ah?" Frisk said opening his mouth before she placed the popsicle stick on his tongue and used her device to check his mouth.

When Frisk gagged, Dr. Nova pulled the popsicle stick out of his mouth and asked, "What's the problem?"

"The stick tastes like alcohol," Frisk complained. "It tastes gross."

"Whoops," Dr. Nova said with a slight look of embarrassment in her face while she looked at the popsicle stick for a moment and then flicked it away without a second thought. "That must be the popsicle stick I used to stir my tequila mix last night. Sorry! Anyhow, let's check your weight."

Without saying another word, Dr. Nova pulled a scale off the counter and placed it on the floor by her feet.

"Take your shoes off and hop on," Dr. Nova ordered.

Frisk nervously removed his shoes and hopped onto the scale. The numbers came up and said he weighed 60 lbs.

"Damn, human, you're really underweight," Dr. Nova said while writing on her clipboard. "Did those skeletons feed you?"

"Yes, extremely well," Frisk said defensively. "I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert yesterday."

"You say that like it's a huge accomplishment," Dr. Nova noted before she set her clipboard down on the chair behind her. "Let me take a look at that torso of yours."

"NO!" Frisk yelled while wrapping his arms around himself and quickly pulling on his shoes. "You don't need to see that!"

"Frisk, sweetie, you don't need to be shy around me," Dr. Nova said. "I ain't gonna hurt ya. I just want to see how prominent your ribs are. That's all."

After pulling on the last shoe, Frisk backed away from her towards the door and said, "Tough toenails. That's none of your business. You're not my doctor or my mother!"

"Frisk, stay calm," he heard the Holy One say. "Panicking won't help you."

"No," Frisk responded to Him. "I have to get out of here. She can't see my scars. She'll get even creepier."

Dr. Nova growled in annoyance and raised her right hand. Immediately, Frisk was glowing blue, he couldn't move, and he was lifted to her eye-level. She pulled him in closer until their faces were almost touching. Frisk was trembling uncontrollably.

"Please don't…" Frisk pleaded.

"You're so stubborn," Dr. Nova said while lifting the sweater and the tank top under it. "What's your problem anyway? You're just like your brother…Woah!"

Frisk looked at her in dread while she pulled the sweater and tank top over his head and threw them on the table without letting Frisk go. His heart dropped as her demented smile grew wider at seeing all the scars.

"It looks like your Daddy wasn't kidding when you said you were depressed and you needed some serious psychological help," Dr. Nova said while walking around him and admiring all the scars. "That's some impressive work. They look recent, too. It's amazing you're not dead. You must be quite determined. Now, why on earth would you hide these from me? Hmmm…What else are you hiding?"

"Nothing," Frisk lied in a panic. "I swear."

"Sure," Dr. Nova replied sarcastically as she turned around and rummaged through the equipment on the counters until she found what she was looking for.

"The only way I'm going to get better is by being with my family," Frisk pleaded with tears forming at the corner of his eyes. "I don't want to stay with Mettaton or stay here. My brothers are the ones who've been making me feel better. You have to let me go!"

Dr. Nova turned around with a syringe filled with an unknown clear substance.

"NO, DON'T!" Frisk yelled while trying fruitlessly to squirm out of her telekinetic hold as she walked briskly back over to Frisk. "DON'T DISSECT ME! PLEASE! YOU PROMISED!"

She smiled her twisted smile while she placed one hand on Frisk's shoulder and used the other one to inject the syringe into his neck.

Instantly, Frisk felt his limbs grow limp and his eyes grow heavy.

"Please," Frisk muttered weakly. "Don't do this."

"Shhhhh…" Dr. Nova said quietly using her free hand to cup Frisk's face as his eyes finally slid shut. "Mommy's only gonna finish your physical. Now, rest your eyes. Only dreams now…"