Author's Note: SRM stands for Soul Reading Machine. MCR stands for Magic Composition Reader.
Flowey dodged around the bones, popping in and out of the ground to avoid the bones.
Meanwhile, Sans was launching the bones and teleporting constantly to avoid the "friendliness pellets."
They had circled each other countless times within the infinite timelines of the multiverse. But right now, it felt like their very first dance.
Flowey danced, having finally tired out. Sans was tired as well, but there was something he couldn't let happen. Once he got past that point, he couldn't return very easily. So he teleported, all the way back to Snowdin, to his and Papyrus's house. He was in for a bad time.
Papyrus found Sans collapsed on the floor when he walked in the house after coming from training with Undyne. He picked Sans up and placed him on the couch, placing a blanket on top of him. Papyrus stopped and frowned when he saw the pale blue glow of Sans's face. "How did Sans get sick?" he wondered. Papyrus dialed Undyne's number.
"What is it, Papyrus?" Undyne asked. She was sitting at the table, enjoying a cup of instant iced tea.
"Sans is sick. I found him on the floor, asleep. He was sweating-no, don't question it- and shaking a little bit. I haven't seen him this bad since last month."
"What happened the first time, Papyrus? How did you deal with it then?"
"Sans came home one night and fell asleep in my arms. He was sick for a few weeks, and even vomited a few times. The pool had red in it, Undyne. And as for what I did, I tried everything we had. I called Dr. Pierre, and even she couldn't do anything. Eventually, Sans got better. I thought it still bothered him a little, but I never expected this to happen."
"Well, I guess we should do the same here."
"Yeah. I'll get back to you tom-" Papyrus was interrupted by a thud. He rushed over.
"Sans!" In response, Sans groaned. He was only half awake, and in quite a bit of pain. His head swam. He couldn't focus. Papyrus's voice grew blurry in his mind. Sans fell back asleep. Papyrus scooped him up and took him back to the couch, this time holding Sans's head in his lap. Effectively a big red mitten pillow. Papyrus snickered to himself at the thought.
Flowey stared towards the light from the surface, shifting his petals to absorb as much light as possible. This was his method of healing and nutrition; monster food had no effect due to his lack of soul. Same went for healing magic. Since healing magic healed the soul itself which in turn healed the body, Flowey's lack of soul rendered him invulnerable to healing magic, as well as some effects of soul magic. Instead, the soul magic used his physical body. Flowey spread his roots far, gathering water from the soil. The damage done to his roots from his battle with Sans was quite extensive, and gathering water would heal him more. He dug into the earth, replacing the damaged roots.
Papyrus wrung out a wet cloth to put on Sans's head. Even if he couldn't cure the sickness, he could still bring down the fever. Sans refused to eat, not even ketchup. Papyrus was extremely worried, and dialed Alphys's number.
"W-W-What is it, P-Papyrus?" Alphys stuttered. She was watching anime, and a call from Papyrus either meant something was wrong with Sans, or Papyrus wanted to schedule something with her. Otherwise, he called Undyne.
"Sans is sick. Can you come over and take a look?"
"S-Sure, Papyrus. I'll be right over." Alphys hurried over to her medical case and found it was nearly fully stocked, the portable equipment neatly packed alongside syringes and sterile cleaning pads. She hung up the phone after realizing she forgot to, grabbed the medical case, and rushed out the door. She saw the Riverperson on the boat and asked them to take her to Snowdin. They said, "Hold onto your scales, tra la la…" They pushed the boat forward, starting slowly but soon speeding up. In no time, they made it to Snowdin. Alphys thanked the Riverperson and rushed towards Papyrus and Sans's house. She opened the door to find Papyrus in the kitchen and Sans on the couch with a warm, damp cloth on his skull. His face was illuminated with a pale blue glow. Papyrus heard her come in and said, "Thanks for coming, Alphys. I think it's the same one from before, but I wanted to know for sure."
"Of course. L-Let me take a look at him." She pulled out her SRM and turned it on, bringing it over Sans's chest. A diagram of Sans's stats appeared on the SRM's screen. She read them silently, then said, "Papyrus, it's similar to the one from before, but this one is… different."
"How so?"
"His magic levels are higher than the machine can read. I brought my extra quantity SRM because I knew he had a high magic level, but this is just ridiculous! His body can't function properly until the magic buildup is released."
"You mean we have to…"
"Y-yeah. We'll have to draw it out of him."
"Will it hurt him?"
"A little bit, but it'll be minor. There won't be any lasting effects."
"Okay. Then let's do it."
Alphys pulled an extractor from her coat pocket. "I keep this in my pocket for cases like this. It's all too common in boss monsters, sadly." She placed the extractor on Sans's chest, and turned it on. The machine started to extract Sans's magic when a large ERROR went across the screen of the extractor. The extractor shut off. Sans's breathing became uneven as the machine had pulled out a bit of magic, but not enough to return his levels to normal. Alphys tried to figure out what went wrong as Papyrus tried to help Sans breathe. Alphys finally got the machine working again, and continued the process. As the excess magic was drained out and his levels stabilized, Sans's breathing became slow and even. Papyrus stood up and said, "Thank you, Alphys. I'll call you if anything else happens."
"O-Okay, Papyrus. See you later." Alphys left and went back to the Riverperson's boat to head back to the lab.
Flowey popped up in Hotland, seeing Alphys on the Riverperson's boat. There was snow on her. He figured that she must have been healing someone in Snowdin. "Did I actually do some damage to Smiley Trashbag? I'll have to follow her."
Alphys hurried into the True Labs, Sans's magic still in the extractor. She was going to contain the magic and test it to see if they could prevent this from happening again. She took the magic sample and put it into the MCR. It was made mainly of blue and light blue magic, but also possessed some Determination. Alphys was confused. "How would Sans have Determination? Unless he… no, how would he know where to get it? Wait, he has that secret room in the back of the house. I'll go check there."
Flowey overheard Alphys's deductive self-conversation and decided to follow her there. He might learn something about Smiley Trashbag. A weakness, a strength, a secret ability, anything at all.
Alphys picked the lock on the back room and stepped inside. Flowey popped up in the soil before the doorway and said, "Hey Alphys. Do you want some help? I noticed you were talking to yourself in the True Labs and I figured you'd come here."
"S-Sure, Flowey."
Alphys opened the first drawer and saw multiple sheets written in strange symbols. She recognized the handwriting. "T-T-This is…"
"What is it, Alphys?" Flowey asked innocently.
"T-T-This is the work of W.D. Gaster. The previous Royal Scientist," she explained. She started looking through the drawer, and found a badge. It was Sans's lab ID, with a 5 printed in the top blank. "I-I don't believe it…"
"Is something the matter?" Flowey said, confused. In all his resets, he had never heard of the previous Royal Scientist. Nobody seemed to know, not even the King. Only people who worked in the Lab during the time he was working there seem to remember anything about him. Sans having his work, and even an ID, was very unexpected. Flowey knew he had a secret, but he didn't expect it to be a past career. What else did the skeleton hide?
Alphys unlodged a notebook that was wedged in the bottom of the drawer, and flipped through it. "These calculations are amazing! I know a few people who would love to have these… but anyway, I need to figure out what this sheet of calculations with the skull on it is for."
Flowey asked to see the sheet, and frowned suspiciously. The skull Alphys had described looked just like something he had come to recognize easily. "I've seen him use these before."
"What did they do?"
"They fired lasers."
"W-Well, that explains the c-calculations' subject. There's fire rates and blast size calculations here. I wonder how he made them…"
However, Flowey was more interested in the object under the sheet. "Alphys, I think you should look under that sheet. I would do it, but pulling a vine up would damage the floor," Flowey said.
"O-Okay.." Alphys stumbled over from the counter and grabbed the sheet, pulling it off. What was revealed, however, was something neither of them expected.
"You ready to test this out, V?"
"Yeah. Let's do this." They pushed the button. Nothing happened.
They pushed it again. Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Something.
Without any warning, the machine imploded. They were pulled in, leaving the other behind, pinned against the wall, their face contorted into a look of pure horror and shock. A piece of shrapnel hit them in their right eye. They screamed, waking the house's other resident, sleeping upstairs. The other resident rushed down the steps in a panic, hurrying to see what was going on. They rushed outside, opening the door to the back room…
And were greeted by what could have been mistaken for a scene from a horror film.