Undyne sat on the edge of the table, silently watching her wife sift through the dust in the petri dish. Several times their eyes would meet, Undyne's showing interest and confusion while Alphys' only served to deny her. Nothing yet.

The guard lowered her head, her fins downing some to match her rather tired disposition right now. Back in the Underground, murders were a rather rare occurrence. Sure, you'd have the occasional argument or even a good shouting match, but legitimate attacks were very few and far in between, and as they should be. Monsters just generally didn't have a reason to hurt each other. Were there some in the beginning of their stay Underground? Yes, but that was long ago, before she was even born. Eventually, all every monster really cared about was living day by day before they fell. There was no hate between monsters.

As for humans? Well, that was another matter altogether, for it seemed as though every day they had other humans or even monsters at their throats. However, that was for another time. It didn't matter now, because it wasn't a human that was going around killing her kind; it was a monster, killing members of each side. A hate-filled, horrible monster was terrorizing her people, and no matter what she did or how fast she moved, all that was left behind was dust. It absolutely dusted her soul to see the tears of the friends and families she had to inform, having to respond to each phone call lying about progress made and that she was sure she would find the culprit soon. Even after all the training Asgore had put her though, nothing could prepare her for this amount of devastation. Guards were supposed to be resilient and stoic, but she was a monster made up of hope and determination. With every monster gone, she could only picture her friends in the same place, helpless and in need of help that would come all too late.

Speaking of…

Undyne's thoughts turned to the call received by one of the humans on their police force. It had been the call that had lead them to the dust they found in an alleyway. While many were rather indifferent about the "anonymous" caller, she couldn't mistake that voice for anyone else, even if it was crappily disguised. The high pitch, the proper language and grammar, and the fact that the caller had never even heard of an inside voice; it was none other than Papyrus. You couldn't convince her otherwise, and Alphys seemed to agree. But the main question was: what was Papyrus doing around a dead monster? And why try to hide himself? It was obvious from the tear-filled call and shaky voice that he was distressed, so why didn't he go to his best friend for help?

Her thoughts were interrupted by someone entering the lab.

Both Undyne and Alphys had decided not to tell Sans about his brother's phone call today.

The short monster strode into the room, looking fairly eager to get this over and done with. That usual resigned expression was now one of yearning curiosity for what the two had found. Alphys relaxed in her lab chair, rolling away from the desk to turn to him as her wife slid off the top of the table. "Wha'd you find?" Sans asked curtly, wanting to cut straight to the point. "It was a Vulkin this time," Alphys sighed, glancing down at her intertwining fingers. "Same monster. Same conclusion. All we really know is that whoever it is has a lot of LV in their stats and, most likely… they have a lot of determination in their system." Sans blinked as he immediately grasped she was talking about the chemical, and was rather surprised. "Determination? How much? As in…" He trailed to give a glance at Undyne. Alphys shook her head in response. "Even higher, from what I can tell. Far past the dangerous levels. If he really is a monster, he should be a melting mass by now."

Sans' expression lessened some, forming the closest thing they could call a frown. "Determined?" he murmured, just taking the information in. "Determined to do what?" Alphys opened her mouth to respond, but couldn't seem to find the right words. She glanced up at her companion in a silent request for help. Undyne took no hesitation in answering. "Determined to kill," she sighed. "They're just… determined to hurt and kill."

Sans fell silent, his eyelights disappearing from sight in the depths of his sockets. Gloved hand sunk themselves in his pockets, and yet were still visibly clenched tight. "Oh," he rasped, looking away. "I see…"

The next morning, Papyrus and that internal clock of his woke up just before dawn. He sat up, not needing to stretch any nonexistent muscles or pop any magical joints like the humans did. He instead got up straight from his bed, as energized as someone would be before a workout. He moved past the trailing red eyelights, barely even paying them any mind. Nothing could really disturb him from a moment like this, even if it was a daily occurrence. He threw open those pesky window drapes and rested the palm side of his carpals on the windowsill. He had a perfect view of their dim neighborhood street, and if you looked ever so closely, you could see a hint of Mt. Ebott in the distance. Within minutes of this action, the already brightened sky became even more blue as a hint of orange tinted the horizon. Soon enough, that large yellow ball Papyrus had grown so fond of rose up from its hiding spot behind the horizon, the bright colors now defining the black shadows that had once overtaken the city. A simple sunrise only took a good fifteen minutes, but Papyrus always made sure to savor every second, almost as if he was scared of somehow losing it.

By the time the sun had taken its place just above the trees, Papyrus was satisfied with what he had seen. He backed away from the windowsill and turned to retrieve his clothes, when a certain dimly lit mass caught his sockets. Sitting on the computer chair of his room was the other Sans, legs crossed and head tilted up slightly so his eyelights could be seen just under his hood. Had Papyrus not seen the glow of his red eyelights shining past the rim of the fabric, he would have mistakenly assumed it was his brother. Memories of the day before flashed through his skull, immediately flooding him with sorrow. For a while, he had assumed the events had only been a morbid dream, but with the proof there in front of him, he had no choice but to face the reality of the situation one again; someone had died, and this lookalike of his brother was to blame.

Dust, as Papyrus had named him in his thoughts, turned his skull fully to look at Papyrus, donning that same tired look as last night. Had he not gotten any sleep? After all, for Sans to be up this early in the morning could only be divine intervention. However, Papyrus remembered, this wasn't exactly Sans, or at least his Sans.

"Good morning," the taller skeleton greeted, deciding to move past so he could continue to dress himself. "Mornin'," Dust replied, following Papyrus' movements from his spot on the chair. He entered the closet for a moment, picking out an outfit of some pants and a light blue t-shirt, finishing it off with his signature scarf. Once he was out of the cramped space, he couldn't help but notice the slightly larger grin on the other's skull, contrasting from the usual dull smile he bore. Papyrus raised the tops of his sockets some inquisitively, which Dust picked up rather quickly.

"Sorry," he grinned, tired sockets lifting slightly. "I just didn't think you had skeletons in your closet." Papyrus blinked in confusion before the joke suddenly hit him. His sockets narrowed in an annoyed fashion. It seemed that this not-Sans shared more than his brother's features. "Ah, a man of class, I see," he sighed, fixing the scarf on his shoulders. Dust's expression turned into one of slight surprise. "Sarcasm?" he asked with a tilt of his skull. "Well when you have to listen to my brother and Miss Toriel's awful jokes all day long, you learn to pick it up," he responded, moving past him and to the door. He noticed the expression on the smaller's skull sag a bit, and no response was given. Papyrus stopped and replayed his remark, scanning to see if he had accidentally said anything wrong to upset the lookalike. Usually Sans brushed off comments such as this. He stopped his hand as it was reaching for the door handle, deciding to wait on breakfast to instead talk more. He had to admit that his curiosity was more that peaked. Like with Lady Toriel, he wanted to know all he could about the clone.

As usual, Dust's eyelights followed Papyrus as he made his way over to the bed and sat with his legs crossed. As soon as he was motioned to, the Sans followed, sitting directly across from him in the same position, barely a few feet apart. There was silence for a couple of minutes as the two got comfortable and observed each other. Then, the questions began.

Names were fairly obvious, so Papyrus started with an easy one. "How did you sleep last night?" he asked. The answer he got was rather blunt and out of character for someone who acted somewhat like his brother. "I didn't go to sleep." Papyrus paused, a bit taken aback by the answer. "Why not?" he inquired, folding his hands into his lap. Dust looked away for a moment or two. "I guess I just had too much to think about." The taller could understand that reasoning. There had been many time where he'd avoided sleep just to read a book or think out a puzzle. Still, with how his features sagged and how he wouldn't stop shaking, it worried him how Dust didn't get any rest that night.

"Where did you come from?" was Papyrus' next question. The other gave a small tilt of his skull, a look of light confusion donning his face. "Waddaya mean?" he asked, his phalanges folding over each other. "I guess the Underground." Papyrus wasn't sure what he had been expecting for an answer, but he supposed that would suffice.

"Why are your eyelights red?" he then asked, gesturing to the red and red/blue mix of the other's magic. Dust blinked, and looked down, raising a shaky hand to gently touch under his socket. "Oh, that," he mumbled. "Determination." Papyrus didn't exactly understand what feeling determined had to do with anything; Frisk told him to be determined all the time, and yet he didn't have red magic in his sockets like his new companion did. Still, he took the answer.

At this point, the younger monster was rather tempted to ask about the situation of the day before. However, he didn't want to overwhelm his friend just yet, so he moved on to more subtle questions. "Why do you wear your hood up all the time?" he questioned, pointing to the somewhat thick fabric over Dust's skull. The later skeleton looked up slightly and touched the hood, almost as if he had forgotten it was up. He looked back at the other monster.

"To keep the dust out of my sockets."

Papyrus froze up, a hand instinctively going to his teeth to perhaps cover up a gasp that never came. Why would something so small require him to wear his hood up all the time, especially when only harming one monster?

The thought of this Sans possibly hurting more brung a shiver up his spine, but he quickly pushed the thought away. He wasn't one to assume someone would do something so heinous. "I… I see," was his croaked out response. Was this Sans ill? "Well, you don't have to wear it right now. There's no dust, see?"

Dust seemed to take the concept into consideration. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he murmured. "I guess I should take this off." And with that, he removed his hood, his movements slow and deliberate, although his hands shook constantly and would twitch on occasion. Once the cover was down, Papyrus noticed how clean his bones were in comparison to those clothes he wore, which still sent down bits of dust at every major movement. He would have to clean those later.

Not exactly wanting to ask the Sans the biggest question nagging at the back of his skull, Papyrus gave another questioned that tugged at the end of his curiosity. "Why do you shiver so much?" he asked. Dust furrowed his brow. "Eh?" He looked down at his hand, seemingly having never noticed its default tremble. "Oh yeah…"

"Oh yeah" wasn't exactly an answer, but Papyrus wasn't exactly picky right now. Though, he was still curious as to why Dust shook like a vibrating Temmie. He reached a hand forward to grab the other's own shaking bones, only to have him hiss in surprise and pull away. He retracted his own gloved hand in surprise, not expecting such a response. Dust, however, was quick to apologize. "Sorry," he rasped, his other hand gripping his wrist. "I guess I'm not too fond of contact, huh?" He gave a dry, humorless chuckle as he looked up at Papyrus with those tired sockets. The skeleton, however, felt unease at the event, and decided that there had been enough questions for now.

"I suppose I should go make breakfast," he announced, unfolding his legs and standing up. Once again, he moved to exit through the door, but he was once again stopped. "Papyrus," he heard behind him. The thin monster paused and turned his head, looking over at his not-brother. Dust had yet to move from position, and instead had turned his head slightly to look at him. He noticed that weary grin twitch up slightly, about as sporadic as the rest of his shivering body. Papyrus gave a small "hmm" to show his attention had been caught.

"I have a…. rather odd thing to ask you," he murmured, blinking slowly as he kept his sockets trained on the bigger skeleton. "More a request, really." Papyrus, who was always happy to help someone in need, gave a nod and walked over. "Yes?" he inquired, repositioning himself on the side of the bed.

"Can you… touch me?"

Papyrus blinked, obviously taken aback by the odd request. He had never been asked something so simple and yet so strange. "Touch you?" he responded, asking for an elaboration, but he got none. "Yeah. Touch me," Dust whispered, raising a shaky hand up to the other, the gesture seeming to plead for the same thing.

Papyrus gave a slight nod, bringing his own arm up to meet Dust halfway, wrapping a gloved hand around the much smaller uncovered one. The smaller jerked upon contact, his bones tense within the larger's grip. Still, Papyrus did not retreat like last time, but his grip was instead was joined by his other hand, shifting to help cup the shivering bones in one large, yet soft and gentle grasp. Dust closed his sockets at this, his jerking and twitching more visible than before, but there were signs of them slowly going down and receding. Papyrus was patient, however, and gladly let the smaller monster settle himself down.

"How is this?" he whispered gently, furrowing his brow bone in faint worry. "Is this okay?" With stilted twitches and movements, Sans gave a curt nod. "Y-yeah," he breathed, his grip only becoming tighter. He had a blissed look on his skull, as if this touch was akin to being felt by the embodiment of happiness. "Thank you. This is perfect." He brought up another trembling hand to latch onto Papyrus' second one, his movements becoming slightly more unpredictable, but not as much as their first contact. His movements soon evened back out, and yet he didn't let go. This wasn't too bothersome, as Papyrus was fairly lost in thought, wondering why Dust acted to weird, for lack of a better term. He knew that some humans shivered in the cold, and from what he could feel through his gloves, the bones in his hands were fairly chilly. However, skeletons didn't have flesh, so the cold didn't exactly affect them, especially seeing how they used to live in Snowdin. Maybe he shivered because he didn't get many hugs from his own brother, which the thought alone was absurd. It was a bit of a silent rule that Sans was required at least two mandatory hugs to help him get through the day. He didn't know how he'd survive without them.

After minutes of staying like this, Dust finally pulled his hands away, though he seemed rather reluctant to do so. His fingers visibly clenched before being shoved into his coat pockets, the movement causing more dust to sprinkle. His features returned to looking tired and his movements were once again plodding, though his constant twitching had finally calmed down a bit. "Ha, sorry about that," he murmured dryly, shifting to get up off the bed. "I guess I kinda needed that. You were about to make breakfast, right? I've been messin' up your schedule, huh?"

Papyrus merely shook his head and came to a stand as well, exiting the room as Dust trailed behind him. "Not at all! You're perfectly fine. You haven't messed up anything!" "Nah," he heard in response. "Sure I have. You were going to visit Tori yesterday, weren't you?" Thinking back to it, he had made those plans, but they had been interrupted by his discovery of this other Sans and… well, he'd rather not think of that as of now.

"Well yes, I was," Papyrus confirmed. "But it wasn't completely set, yet. I was going to call Lady Toriel and Fr-" He paused mid-sentence, stopping in the middle of the hallway. He heard Dust halt in his tracks as well, looking up at the taller monster from behind. He slowly turned to look down at this Sans, brow ridge knitted tight in confusion.

"How… how did you know about that?" he asked steadily. Dust only gave a chuckle and a shrug as he moved past Papyrus. "Brotherly instinct, I suppose." He sat at one of the chairs. Sans' chair to be exact. "I am your big brother after all."

Papyrus' jaw locked, feeling a sensation well up in his soul, and it wasn't a good one. He didn't respond, instead going to start up breakfast.