A/N- WOW. A sudden spike of views. Thanks everyone!

Also, if you want, listen to 'Sans's Secret Lab' while reading this for what would play if this chapter was in game! 3

Verdana Constantia Garamond-Aster Italic had never imagined that the trembling little 10-year-old orphan she'd taken in all those years ago would've grown into this. This stubborn, lazy skeleton who was trying awfully hard to hide his... rather harsh thoughts from her. She supposed some of his anger was justified. She didn't, and wouldn't, deny the fact that she had basically ruined his childhood. But had the things they'd done really been that bad? Verdana seemed to remember him being a lot more enthusiastic before she'd had to make that other one.

She refused to think of it as a monster. It wasn't a monster! Only a shell, a vessel. Verdana had no idea how it'd developed a personality, but she wasn't about to make that one thing change how much she detested it. After all, it was that thing's fault she was in this rather uncomfortable situation at the current moment.

"So, V, we're here. What are you going to do?"

Straight to the point. Very unlike the Comic Sans she thought she knew, who would always respond with some sort of joke. But, that was to be expected after eleven years. Verdana was still surprised over how much time had passed, for while her conscience drifted between worlds, her perspective of time had been altered. A downside of this was that her 'accident' was just fading from her mind, like an unimportant memory, even though it was the only thing she remembered thinking about in the time that she was probably in the Crystal Timeline. \

She didn't want to let go of that knowledge yet.

"Let's see... I assume you've discovered the other floors by now. Take us to the fourth one down," she ordered. The laboratory she'd designed all those years ago had the unsuspicious, rather plain main floor that would probably lead anyone who might of discovered the lab behind her house in Snowdin to, with hope, lead any people interested in her activities off the trail of the (maybe a little bit illegal) experiments performed in the lower levels that one could access through the hidden elevator.

Comic Sans stepped forward, facing the wall south of the drawers of blueprints. He summoned a glowing magic bone that Verdana knew would activate the magic sensors that would let only Comic Sans or her access the elevator. When the wall split down the middle and parted to reveal a dusty metal box that Comic Sans slid into before the door shut and the elevator lit up with buttons lining the walls, all leading to different floors or rooms within the lab that Verdana had spent the first few years in the Underground constructing in preparation for her projects to break the monsters out and destroy humanity, Verdana let her brilliant mind wander over what had happened to her.

She'd been starting another experiment when things started going wrong. Verdana supposed it was a fault on her part that she hadn't noticed, but she'd been so busy at the time that the behavioural issues in one of the subjects didn't seem like such a big deal. And now here we are, she scolded herself. Verdana made a note to be more observant in future tests.

There would be more after all of this; she refused to accept anything else. After everything, she couldn't leave her science now. Science was, always had been, everything to her. She remembered her father teaching her the stuff even when she was practically still a babybones at seven.

That was before everything started to go wrong, wasn't it? She missed her old life sometimes, though science had become a good substitute.

Anyways, if she was right, nothing should've been changed from when she left. The furniture would be too Determined to gather dust, anyway. Everything could go back to normal, as it would've been if it weren't for that darned 'brother' of Comic Sans's.

"Comic Sans, where do you think you're going?" Verdana snapped out of her thoughts just as Sans turned a corner.

"Uh, my room? Did you have somewhere else in mind?"

She sighed in annoyance before dishing out a scathing response. "The lab, you idiot! Where else would we go?" Honestly.

Sans didn't reply but did turn around and go down the correct hallway the second time around. His stupid red boots slapped against the grey tiles, over, and over, and over, and ov- "We're here," he muttered.

She knew it had only been a matter of minutes, no more than twenty, but it felt like a day to her eager mind. "Oh, good. Now, then, Comic Sans, I'll need to access the control panel. Would you... key in the passcode?" It felt odd to ask something from him as if they were equals, as she'd never had to before but felt like it'd be necessary to keep him placated for now. She made yet another mental note to stop thinking that way. They were not equals, and never would be. He was a pathetic child and she was the most brilliant scientist in the Underground.

Unless some new genius had turned up while she was away...

It was then she realized that Comic Sans had not made a single move in regards to unlocking the computer before him on the gleaming silver table lying in the middle of the room.

"What's the matter?" Verdana sighed. "...Oh. You don't remember the passcode, do you." It wasn't a question. Of course he didn't; it'd been years and he'd only seen this computer twice in his life. "It's HelveticaGAI, with capitals on H and the GAI," she supplied tonelessly. It would do no good to think of the person her password was named after; emotions would only slow down her mental capabilities. Verdana wished she could just get rid of the darned things.

Kamia knows that was what she'd been trying to do for the last thirty years...

Comic Sans typed the letters into the computer quickly, with swift pecks of his phalanges. Verdana noticed that he favoured his left hand when clicking the keys. Was he left-handed? Verdana didn't know if she'd ever taken note of it before.

The screen lit up with a friendly message of "Welcome Back, Verdana".

"Here we are," she breathed. A strange feeling twisted in her stomach, and it took her a moment to realize that it was anticipation. How odd; it'd been a while since she'd really cared about the results of an experiment. The last would've had to be when she made the copy; lives had been on the line.

Maybe she should care more; it might enhance her productivity... 'Verdana, you're a mess', she told herself roughly. Caring was an emotion, the things she DIDN'T want. And it was a bit sad that she had to tell herself to care at all.

"So... what now?" Comic Sans tapped his phalanges together in an annoying rhythm that Verdana found herself recognizing but couldn't place her finger on where she'd heard it. Dada DA Da, da da da, dadada...

"Look through the desktop. There will be a file labeled 'DT Experiments PartA'." Heavens, she really needed to clean off her desktop. It was a jumbled mess of files and documents. She had thought she was more organized than this; evidently not.

Comic Sans groaned, seemingly observing that same fact. "Geez, V, you couldn't've just sorted these a little bit? This is like my room!"

'Hmm... he's already getting comfortable. It seems he is already remembering what we once were like...' Verdana didn't have all nasty memories of this skeleton. There was a time that they could even be considered family. Of course, that didn't last long, for her work had quickly become more important than any attachments she may have made. Work had to come first, always. Still, she sometimes wondered what her life would've been like if she'd made some different choices... No matter. The past is in the past, Verdana. No going back. Unless she wanted to go through all the (censored) she'd suffered through the one time she's tried to go back with Determination that was not her own.

Exploding hadn't been a good experience for her, even if the details were fuzzy.

"Hey, I think I found it," Comic Sans said, his voice echoing in the near-empty room. "There are three files inside it; DT1, DT2, and... Oh. The Crystal Timeline."

"The... last one," she replied softly. Though she needed the Timeline to find the shell for Comic Sans so that he'd cooperate, she didn't want to remember what it had been like there.

Even if she couldn't completely recall NOW, Verdana wasn't sure if she ever wanted to. Her theories didn't claim good things about the fractured version of the Universe she lived in. Even if her research was cut short, she knew enough to shiver at the thought of what could happen in that place.

Comic Sans scrolled through the pages of information that she'd written, his eye lights flicking intently back and forth not unlike observing a game of ping-pong. "Wow, V, this is... incredible. You really think he's in there?"

"I see no other explanation. That's where I was, afterall," she answered. "But, Comic Sans, you will return to our work when I've finished doing this for you, will you not?"

"...if you save Paps, then... yeah. But if you're wrong and this doesn't bring him back, you're gonna work your non-existent butt off till I get my brother back."

"Very well." Another question lingered in her mind, though she hesitated to ask it.

Unfortunately for her, Comic Sans always could sense when she had something to say after all their years together. "What is it?"

She sighed. "Why are you... no. Why do you care so much about it? You were, well, not alive, and now you are. Why aren't you satisfied? Does he really matter that much? Why would he?"

"He's my brother, V. I'd do anything for him. You had a brother, once, right? Didot or something?"

Verdana had to think for a moment there. Had she ever had a brother? Was he lying to her? She wasn't able to sense any proof of a lie in his mind, but she honestly couldn't recall a 'Didot' in her life. "No, I didn't. Where would you get an idea like that?" Perhaps she was forgetting more than she thought. Or perhaps all was not as she'd assumed in her return.

Yet another A/N- Yaaaaaaaaaay Chapter 10! Ugh why did this take me so looooooong

Welp it's here now! And just to confirm- SANS IS IN PAPYRUS'S BODY, NOT HIS OWN. Paps is 'probably' in the Crystal Timeline (which will come into play SOOOOOOOON), like Verdana said.