All of these shortcuts were starting to wear on him, on top of his heavy sleep deprivation. Sans was worried about dozing off when working on the Constant earlier—he'd suggested Grillby's in hopes that food would wake him up. Apparently, it got the job done, because he managed to freak out the poor kid quite a lot. Evidently, the stress of the last couple of days pushed both of them in very conflicting directions; Frisk seemed extra sensitive, and he felt extra manic. He would need to be careful to keep himself in check.

Beyond that, the hints of whatever new discovery Alphys had made had given the skeleton a new sense of energy—he was excited. Upon entering the lab, the two of them found Alphys, Papyrus, and Undyne all sitting on the floor near the computer, files and papers particularly arranged into a storm of chaos around them.

"Watch your step, we have a delicate system here." Undyne warned upon seeing them.

"I DESIGNED IT!" Papyrus chirped.

"looks great." Sans carefully weaved through the piles to the central clearing. Frisk followed close behind, still holding tightly to his hand for balance. "what do you have for us?"

"Um, it-it could be nothing." Alphys' lap was covered in papers.

Sans gently nudged a pile of papers out of the way for Frisk to sit down it, and then cleared another spot for himself. "let's hear it, al." He smiled at the scientist, trying his best to look encouraging. She was often prone to self-doubt, which could really get in the way of her brillance. Sans reflected that when he was a young budding researcher, he had the opposite problem—too much ego, not enough cleverness. And look where he ended up. But Alphys, he could see her outperforming even Gaster in a few years' time.

"W-we decided to start by recording every project name along w-with its date, budget, um, summary, that sort of thing. I just thought it was really weird that Gaster had so many projects. I, um, never knew him personally or anything. But he was known for being a little bit, er, elitist? All of these projects w-were kind of… small picture." She picked up one file. "This one analyzes the nutritional differences between varieties of tem flakes based on, uh, price. That's just… i-it doesn't compare to projects like the Core." She dug through another nearby pile and pulled out a folder. Only a single sheet of paper was inside. "Then Papyrus found this." She stretched to hand the folder to Sans. "That project was rejected. By the King. It was going to be called, uh, Save Point."

Sans opened the folder and peered at the form. Its description was vague, but incredible. He read part of it aloud. "the purpose of save point is to explore the possibility of creating static points in time and space that can be returned to by an individual or individuals through use of the substance known as determination. this is the next step in understanding and harnessing time." This was… Sans could barely believe what he was reading. It was eerily… relevant.

"A-as you can see at the, uh, bottom, it was rejected early on. Too high of a budget and a, uh, low chance of payoff. Also, undoing the past has some, well, ethical concerns. If you look at the date, this idea was pitched at the height of Gaster's career." Sans did notice that—it must've been when the Core development project was wrapping up. Sans must've just joined Gaster's team, the Constant project was barely getting started. He remembered it had also almost been rejected for similar budget reasons, but Gaster made a big fuss and it pulled through. Alphys continued speaking. "All of those smaller projects, they started getting pitched right after Save Point's rejection. We, um, haven't looked through all of them yet, but from what we've seen, they're not professionally done. Run by Gaster in name only. Incomplete data, bad design, often useless subjects. They didn't do much for his credit as a scientist. They were accepted because they were cheap, though. I think the whimsical subjects, uh, appealed to people." She opened the folder for the tem flakes study. "If you look at the expense reports and compare them to, uh, the studies, you will notice… discrepancies. A lot of materials they claimed to have bought never get used, or if they do, in much lower quantities than what is purchased."

"so, you think he was…"

"Money laundering? Um. Yes." Alphys closed the folder. "I mean I could be wrong. But I think he was. Maybe he was using the money for himself or, uh, or something else we don't know about. Or maybe it was…"

Sans finished her sentence. "…maybe it was save point. why do you think it's that specifically?"

She smiled. "I, uh, don't have a good reason. It's just… rejected project files aren't supposed to be stored in the True Lab. But that one was. Maybe that means something." Possibly, but Sans thought it could just as well be the result of the inherently terrible organization skills most monsters appeared to possess. Misplaced files were so common you might as well inverse the filing system instead of putting everything back. Nevertheless, Sans felt like Alphys might have struck gold here.

Sans looked around the room. "how far along are you at getting through these files? we need to confirm the laundering at least."

"About half way."

"how can i help?"

"SANS." Papyrus had been busily organizing papers into hill-shaped piles, but he finally decided to step into the conversation. "NO OFFENSE, BUT YOU DON'T KNOW THE SYSTEM. IT WILL TAKE FOREVER TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU AND IT'LL BE A WHOLE THING! JUST LET US HANDLE IT!"

Undyne grinned. "Yeah, we got this, you guys can relax! Maybe get some sleep or something!"

Sans sighed. He was grateful for their help, and if Alphys was right, this was a huge deal. But one thing that the skeleton did not like was sitting around and relying on others; he had trouble with delegation. Looked like they wouldn't give him a choice on that, though. "alright. thank you everyone. alphys—you have a good eye for detail. great job."

The lizard blushed—her expression was a mixture of embarrassment and pride. "Oh, um, haha, thank you!" Undyne gave her a huge delighted grin.

"So, uh, what should we do?" Frisk asked the group. The monsters all looked at each other.

An idea occurred to Sans. "i used to work for gaster, way back around that time." Alphys and Undyne both looked a little shocked by this. "kiddo, you and i can go look for some of his other employees. see what they know." The skeleton smiled over at the human.

"Oh!" Alphys stood up (ignoring the tsunami of papers sent flying from her lap) and grabbed a binder off her desk. She reached out to give it to Sans. "This is, uh, all the employee information from those years. Haven't looked through it yet, but it might help." She smiled. "I didn't know you worked here, Sans."

He shrugged. "it was a good gig but i had to quit." He tucked the binder under his arm and stood. "you know how that goes. probably for the best." Frisk popped up and followed as the short skeleton carefully made his way out of the paper hell. After a quick goodbye, they both stepped out of the lab.

"so what do you think, bud?" Sans looked at Frisk.

"That Save Point thing…" The human furrowed their brow in thought. "Always going back to the same time and place. Reminds me of the loops."

Sans grinned. He was excited again. "exactly, kiddo. if her hunch is right, that means… well, i don't know what it means yet, but it has to be good."

The human gave a small smile. "You think so?"

"yeah, why not. maybe… maybe everything is more connected than we thought."

"So, uh, your coworkers?"

"oh right." Sans pulled the binder out. He leaned against the wall of the lab and opened it up. Just for kicks, he looked himself up in there. "hey, check this out." He lowered the binder some, allowing the child to see. "that was me." Shown was a small picture of a younger Sans, dressed in a button down and slacks (oh, how Sans had loathed those pants). Also listed was his position (magical physicist), his employer (W.D. Gaster), the project he worked under (Constant), and old, outdated contact information.

"What did you do?"

"i helped gaster flesh out the theory of the constant, design parts of the computer, that sort of thing."

"So… you were pretty important?" Frisk looked up with wide eyes. He wanted to laugh at how impressed they were.

"nah. gaster was the genius. i was mostly there to be his rubber duck." The human looked confused. "it's a programming concept. when you can't figure out why your code won't work like you want it to, the idea is to get a rubber duck and explain out loud what you want it to do. the process of talking about it helps you find the error. it can be a literal rubber duck, or it can be anybody or anything else. gaster liked my company, so i guess that's why i fit the bill." The skeleton winked.

"Wow, Sans. You quack me up." Frisk said in a deadpan deliver. Sans wished Papyrus was around to hear this.

"thanks, pal. waddle i do without you?"

Frisk had to giggle at that one, but quickly returned to seriousness. "Okay, no more. We need to get to work. Who do you want to see first?"

"well... thing is, there were many others on our team. but they… all died around the same time. along with gaster and some monsters from other projects."

"What happened?"

Sans frowned a bit. "no one is really sure. it was after i left, so i wasn't there."

Frisk hesitated, and then asked. "Why did you quit?"

He smiled. "i was tired of quacking off. anyway, it's considered a very big mystery. it was a long time ago, so people don't bring it up much now. most think they were in the same room and suffocated; toxic gases from hotland's magma leaked in, maybe. but the thing is, no one found the dust."

"Oh. So, um, who can we talk to?"

"i guess we find some monsters from other projects." Sans thumbed through the other pages of the binders. "see who we can find."

Frisk gave a slow sigh. "This is going to be hard, isn't it?"

"maybe. but hey, i'm feeling good about things." He rubbed the child's hair playfully. "we finally have leads, buddy."

This chapter was fun to write. How many other Undertale fics can claim to include white collar crimes? This is cutting edge storytelling, you guys. I hope to squeeze in one more update before the new year but there's a decent chance I won't get to.

Anyway, I want to say thanks. I appreciate all of the reviews, favorites, and follows so much-my giant ego is adoring the attention. I am grateful for all the kindness you all have given me and I hope this story continues to live up to your standards!