It had been nearly a week since her first experimentation with Alphys and Sans. She was feeling refreshed, focused, and had her heart set on trying it again. Alphys appeared to be leery of the idea, just as Sans had, but her fears were soon soothed by Stella's confidence. Stella was terribly sure that this time would be different, but she did make sure to bring a bottle of aspirin, a sports drink high in electrolytes, and kept her cell phone by her side with 911 on speed-dial in case something went wrong again.

Unfortunately, her aspirations concerning this secondary trial were proven wrong so completely that it would have been fair to say that she ended up heart-broken over it…literally. She died again, which felt surreal and caused her to wonder how many other people could say they came so close to non-existence multiple times in their lives. There was the blinding pain, too, to be dealt with, but it was honestly not as bad because she'd been prepared for it this time around. The only thing that was worse was they'd made the mistake of staying together too long and, when they had finally separated,Stella had been so overwhelmed by the pain and shock of their withdrawl that she'd vomited all over the rug.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled and shivered under the blanket Alphys had thrown over her. She had to force down the pill before her rolling stomach gave in again to the pain that pounded behind her eyes.

Alphys was scrubbing at the carpet. "N-no, it's fine. We were planning on getting the carpet steam-cleaned this weekend, anyway." She pulled off her yellow kitchen gloves and deposited them in the sink to be sterilized in the dishwasher later. "Sans, I think you both need to go home. You both look like you were dragged behind a team of rabid horses." It wasn't entirely an exaggeration.

"I need a shower." Stella moaned.

"You can barely stand up." Sans grumbled, helped her to her feet, and offered her his coat to replace the blanket. "No showers."

"Bath?" She didn't bother protesting when he lifted her up. She felt horrible; almost worse than last time because her body didn't grant her the reprieve of unconciousness.

"Yeah, I'll run ya a bath." He promised. "Do ya want rose petals, too?"

It took her moment to realize he was joking. "Oh, shut up." She let out a disgruntled snort. "No need to rub this in my face. Besides, I can handle it." She said as he lowered her into the tub and drew the curtain to avoid any awkwardness. She wiggled out of her clothes and dropped them over the edge to the floor, turned the temperature to hot as the fires of hell, and relaxed into the water. "Once I'm no longer wet behind my ears, I know it'll get better."

She heard him stifle a chuckle. It was adorable when he tried to be serious. "I don't want to see ya torture yourself."

"I know, Sans, but you've got to trust me." She reached her hand through the drawn curtain and felt his fingers brush along the skin of her wrist. "I want to be in control of this…conduit stuff…now more than ever. There may come a day when using it is our only option, and I will do whatever is in my power to keep you and the others safe. I don't have magic. I'm not coordinated enough to be trusted with weapons. This is the only way I can contribute and it makes me feel like I'm worth something."

"You don't need this to be worth somethin' to me." His voice was rough with emotion. "Ya don't…ya don't need to tear your fuckin' soul apart over and over again to protect us. I'm puttin' my foot down, darlin'. This is for yer own good. No more conduit practice."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Sans. I would've preferred if you were more supportive." She said softly. "You know I'm just going to ask Undyne to take your place, right?"

He said nothing for a couple of heartbeats. "Yeah, yeah, I know I can't stop ya, but I can refuse to participate or condone this. I'm not gonna let Pap practice with ya, either."

"Fair enough." She sighed and let her head fall back against the cool plastic wall of the shower. "Sans?"

"What?"

"I can't reach the soap."

()()()()

The next day passed in an achy, flu-ish blur. She forced herself to come to work, but it wasn't because she felt like she should be there. Grillby tried to send her home two hours early when he saw her fumble dumbly with a knife while cutting up garnishes. She'd cut herself in her delirium, though it wasn't a deep wound. The knife had barely sliced deeper than the upper layer of skin on her thumb, but Grillby was having none of it. "Go home and rest, you've worked enough for today." He said as she tended to her thumb with supplies from the first-aid box.

"I don't want to." She had a migraine coming on, and she rubbed ruefully at her eyes as if that could stave it off. "At least let me finish one more hour and then I'll head out."

Grillby sighed. "If you're sure, then. You know where I'll be if you need me."

He let her be until four, when she finally removed her nametag and retrieved her purse from her cubby in the office. They exchanged brief goodbyes before she went to leave through the front door, but just as her fingers touched the bar her whole body tensed, her eyes glazed over, and she stumbled back. She managed to right herself before she hit the floor, but another shock pulsed through her entire body without warning. This wasn't right. She'd taken her medication on time today, she knew she had. She flinched again and then again, and she realized that Grillby was shouting something behind her, but she couldn't find time between seizures to focus.

And then she saw it. That same tortured, grinning, skull draped in inky cloth. He was on the other side of the door this time, casting no shadow in the light of the afternoon sun, and he seemed to be mocking her. Her legs gave out and she went crashing to the floor, although her eyes remained locked on whatever creature was tormenting her. She couldn't do anything except focus on it, staring through the door as her body continued to randomly spasm.

She couldn't gauge how much time had passed, but it was long enough for EMTs to arrive. They walked straight through the creature, though it disappeared behind them soon after. It seemed to simply melt away like a morning frost. Her seizures slowed to the point where she could hold a short conversation, punctuated only by momentary jerks.

After she'd been examined, one of the EMTs knelt down to her level. "Do you believe you need to go to the hospital?"

"N*no." She lurched weakly forward. "I'm…fi*ne…" She took the clipboard and signed the yellow waiver.

When all of the excitement finally passed, Grillby let her know he'd called Sans. "He said he'd be here as soon as he could get away for a second." He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway. "You do know that this means that I simply can't let you come back until you've fullyrecovered. Next time, try not to push yourself."

"Grillby, no one ever made a diff*erence without pushing limits." She mustered a weak smile. "This is j*ust par for…f*or the course."

He pushed his glasses back up. "All the same, I don't think any of your friends want to see you collapse like that. I'm glad it was me, if I'm honest."

She hadn't thought of that. It did seem selfish, when he put it like that, to force herself along. "Pap probably w*ould have had a heart attack." She agreed sadly. She despised the idea of scaring her friend so badly just because she was newly intent on testing herself.

"Scared me half t' dust, too." Sans said from behind them. "Thanks, Grillbz." He pulled her arm around his shoulders for support. "See ya."

He waited until they were home to dish out the lecture. "Maybe you need to set a couple of alarms on yer phone." He thrust her pills into her hands. "What if somethin' worse had happened? You could've fallen on a knife or busted your damn head open-"

"Sans-"

"Or you could've burned yourself or-"

"Sans!" He stopped pacing her room to look at her. "I didn't forget anything. I took my doses at ten and two like I always have." She turned her pills over in her hands. "I have no clue why…I've never even had such a severe cluster." She shuddered violently as she recalled the blurred memory of that hateful creature watching her twitch helplessly on the floor.

He paused with a horrified expression. "This is because of that conduit shit, isn't it? I tried to tell ya t' give up on that!"

She groaned. "Sans, I really don't think that's it. I mean, maybe that contributed, but I'm fairly certain this is something else…I saw something." She twisted her hands anxiously in her lap. "I've seen it a lot, actually, but I didn't want you to think I was making things up or hallucinating. I've been seeing this…this hideous…thing. I don't know what it is, but it looks sort of like a half-melted skeleton monster in some sort of black robe." She grew nervous and backtracked. "It could just be a weird trick my brain's been pulling on me because of stress…"

He pulled a peculiar face; a combination of deep-seated fear and confusion. Then, a curtain seemed to draw itself over his emotions. "Yeah, that's probably what's up. Just…uh…forget about it, 'kay? Nothing to worry about."

She fiddled with the zipper pull on her purse. She was afraid, more terrified than she could ever remember being, that it was not her imagination. That thing was real, regardless of what she wanted to believe. "You know something." She deduced, her eyes went wide with fright. "You know what it is!"

"It isn't polite," He told her. His body language was eerily tense and stiff. "to talk about people who are listening."

The sentence made her blood run cold. Tears were welling up in her eyes. She had no idea what was happening, but this feeling of pure dread would not fade. She reached out to him for comfort, and he took her hand gently. "Hey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything." He took a seat on the bed beside her. "C'mere." He opened his arms to let her rest her head against his chest. "I won't let anything happen, awright?"

The embrace did help, but she couldn't shake the feeling that these events were surely coming to a head. She bit back a sob that had risen in her throat. Why was this happening? "I know you're worried, Sans, but the only thing that will make me feel safe is knowing I could do something about this."

"No." He replied firmly. "You still haven't gotten over the last time."

"It's the only thing I can do, Sans!" She protested. "If…if something happens and I can't protect anyone or myself…" She let her sentence hang in the air. "You said I could try on my own."

"That was before you worked yourself into a damned fit!" He shot back.

"If you won't let me, then I'll just find a way to do it without you knowing about it. I'm not above sneaking around, if it's for your benefit in the long run."

He groaned and squeezed his sockets shut. "Fine, but you gotta promise you won't let it go as far as last time." He pressed his hand just above her heart.

"It won't happen again." She vowed. She put her hand over his, and their eyes met. She was struck with an overwhelming warmth. He was trying, trying ever so hard, to keep her safe. That was what he did, she'd come to understand that over the brief time she'd spent with him, he believed he had a responsibility to protect everyone he cared for. He was only being obstinant because he didn't want to stand by and let her get hurt. It was a beautiful, sweet thing that stole her breath. She mattered to someone, and that realization inspired courage to blossom inside her. Whatever that thing was, she wasn't going to just let it harass her anymore. She was going to fight back and make it regret it'd ever tried to fuck with her and her family.

Sans insisted that she should stay the rest of the day in bed, but she soon became restless and moved to her love-seat to play a few games. Papyrus didn't leave his security job until 7 pm, so he had no idea what had happened. He was relieved to know she was okay, but she noticed that he paid especially close attention to her for the next three hours. His concerned glances continued through the next day, but she pretended not to notice.

She busied herself by texting Alphys, and they were involved in a serious discussion about some anime Alphys was trying to convince her to watch when she felt a tap on her shoulder. "Sans told me to get you." Pap explained. "We're going to try."

She scrambled off her bed, let Alphys know she had to go, and placed her phone on her nightstand. Sans was waiting in the living room and she noticed that the furniture had been shoved back against the walls to make as much room as possible. The blinds, plus curtains, were drawn for privacy. His hand was extended in invitation and she took it excitedly. Papyrus carefully took the other. Blue and orange swirled up her arms like curlicue wisps of clouds. They met only centimeters above her heart and melted into her chest. There was neither pain nor did she feel over encumbered by the churning power. With every exhale, puffs of magic leaked from her nose like dragon's smoke. She was warm all over, it was an comfortable heat that flooded her body from head to toe, instead of the infernal fever that had plagued her before. Suddenly, a wave of sensation hit her with the force of a tsunami. She gasped loudly and heard twin moans from both sides.

Their eyes were aglow with power and their mouths gaped open. Pap was panting, while Sans was squeezing her hand hard. His cheekbones were airbrushed with a cyan blush. Another thrill sped up her spine and dragged another gasp from her lips. This was entirely different than before, but why? Magic thrummed in her chest as questions swarmed in her head. When she willed the magic down and channeled it into her soul, she could have cried because she felt so utterly complete. "S-sans, try to do that thing from before."

Sans whipped his head around and stared at her like he was seeing her for the first time. His eye pulsed and wavered like a dancing flame in his socket. His grip on her hand tightened almost to the point of pain. "Stellaaa..." She tore her gaze away from Sans to turn to Papyrus, who seemed equally affected. His sockets were blown wider than she'd ever seen and he seemed dazed, yet he was giving her such an intense look that she had to avert her eyes.

She looked up to find a familiar set of floating skulls, yet they had retained their canine features, however, every angle seemed sharper and their fangs had overgrown so that the tips surpassed the top and bottom jaws. Gray fire enveloped both skulls. A pair of massive, ram-like horns curled tightly and jutted out from the back of their heads. "You can use the one on your side, Pap."

Papyrus slowly raised his free hand to direct his blaster's movements. He seemed to concentrate hard for a second and the skull fluctuated quickly between blue and white. "I can still do my blue attack!" He crowed happily and accidentally made a gesture that caused his blaster to grow exponentially in size. "This is quite an interesting development."

"This...isn't how it went before." Sans stated with surprise. He summoned a snaking, curving obstacle course of bones and found that he, too, could use Papyrus's attacks. With Stella acting as their conduit, the brothers could now access each others unique abilities and, if Alphys was right, they were all but invincible, though they weren't too keen on testing that particular theory.

There was still some pain when the brothers released her, but it was more like the sting of a paper cut, as opposed to being gutted, and she was able to stay on her feet. In fact, she only felt a tad light-headed and breathless, which passed in a matter of minutes. When the sweat of exertion had evaporated, and the trio'd had a chance to rest, she grinned at both of them. "Progress!" She crowed proudly.