"So, we meet again, God of Hyperdeath."

"I thought I killed you a long time ago."

"Ha! You can't kill me! You're too weak! Just hand over the crown, or I'll take it by force!"

"No, I'll never let you have it!"

"Then so be it! You have made your choice, and the choice is death!"

"Kids, what are you doing?"

At hearing a bunch of yelling and crashing noises, Alex had made her way upstairs to the children's room. They all turned to look at her, and Frisk started giggling happily. "You ruined it!"Chara shouted, flopping onto the floor and crossing their arms over their chest in a pout. "I was just about to face off with the God of Hyperdeath!"

Alex snorted a bit at the name. God of Hyperdeath. It was a name she was used to by now, as the children would frequently play these sort of role playing games, normally with Asriel being some kind of god, and Chara being some sort of demon rival for him or something. Frisk's role changed depending on what they wanted to do, or how they wanted the story to go. How these children came up with all of this was beyond her, but it was quite adorable, as sometimes the children would even dress up to fit their roles.

Like they were now.

Gosh, so cute. She'd take a picture if she didn't want to deal with their wrath later.

There came a loud gasp from Asriel, as he quickly hurried over to Alex and pulled on her arm. "The Queen of the Stars has chosen to aid me in battle against this demon! I have the upper hand now!"

Alex quickly found herself joining in on their game by force, but it wasn't something she was going to go against. It was actually really fun playing these kinds of games with the children, and since she joined in it was now a battle between Asriel and Alex against Frisk and Chara. It was a heated battle, one that seemed to last for eternity and would surely go down in the history books until Alex had to call it quits.

"Does this mean we won?!" Chara said excitedly.

"No! We're not done yet, Chara!" Asriel said, refusing to let his siblings take an unfair victory. "The Queen of the Stars just has other heroes and gods to go help out! I can fight on my own!"

Before she could even leave the room, the children were back at it, which caused a light laugh come from the female as she left the room and returned back downstairs to the living room. She sat on the couch with a heavy sigh, smiling for a moment, before emptiness too place.

Ever since she could remember, all she felt was... empty. She could laugh, smile, cry, get angry, all those other emotions, but no matter what she would just feel completely empty and tired. It was as if the emotions she felt weren't even real, and all she was inside was just an empty husk with no real thoughts or feelings of her own. It made her mad most of the time to the point where she would have violent bursts of rage, but never near the children. She'd hate herself too much if she were to every break out in a fit of rage near them, so she always made sure to leave long before she had the chance to snap at them.

Today wasn't one of those days, it was just the usual emptiness that would eventually lead to her erupting, but for now she sat there and listened to the muffled laughter and talking of the children upstairs as the continued on with their game happily. Sometimes she envied them, and wished she could go back to being a kid without a care in the world. Growing up sucks, and it made her exhausted.

In her hand, the phone buzzed quietly, and with a small sigh she brought her phone up to look at it. Her dread was changed to happiness when she had seen it was a message from Papyrus, and she smiled a little as she opened the message. It was a picture of him and Undyne, who were currently outside. They had only met recently, yet she felt like she could trust Papyrus, and the two would text each other constantly. She lived on the other side of town, so this was easier than having to go out and make the walk in such cold temperatures. It was rare, but she would get a conversation going with Sans, but they normally took place at night when the whole town was asleep and they were wide awake due to whatever was bothering them and caused them to keep awake.

In response to the picture, after telling him how cool he looked (which he honestly did), she asked him where his brother was at, since her train of thought was already thinking about both of the brothers anyways. She had expected him to say that Sans was out with them, but in the next message she got back he had said that Sans is sick and stayed home. Alex hadn't directly asked about the medical mask, but assumed that he wore it for the purpose of not getting sick and was clearly unwell. Concerned, she asked if he was all right. Luckily, his next text gave her a bit of hope when he said that he should be fine, and just probably overworked himself the day before. Also, he was currently home alone, since Sans had insisted that Papyrus would go out with Undyne, and Gaster had left for work early in the morning.

Looking at the clock, she knew she didn't have much longer to watch the kids, so quickly she texted him, and was thrilled with the response. She had asked if she could go over to their house and keep an eye on Sans, and Papyrus happily agreed and thanked her. She figured he would have been worried about his brother, as she was worried as well, and it would ease Papyrus to know someone was there in case he needed help. Papyrus told her of the spare key they kept outside, mainly for the purpose of the amount of visitors they have and how Sans forgets to bring along his key sometimes, and Alex patiently waited for Toriel to return home.

About twenty minutes later, Toriel did arrive back home with the kids instantly crowding to her. With a smile, she asked Alex how the children were, and Alex answered as always with "They were absolutely perfect." It was no lie, they were nice children and didn't give her too hard of a time.

"I have to get going," Alex said, quickly putting on her shoes.

"Oh, do you need a ride home?" Toriel asked, and Alex shook her head.

"No, I'm heading somewhere else."

"Oh... Oh, alright, well do be careful then."

"Of course, I'll see you all later."

With loud echoes of goodbyes behind her after putting on her coat and making sure she was ready for the weather outside, she left the house and quickly made her way to the other side of town. It was a good ten minutes, but she rushed getting there so it took her seven instead. Of course, she regretted the decision a little as she was out of breath quickly, but figured it was more important to watch Sans than to be concerned about her own health. Arriving at the house, she found the key exactly where Papyrus said it would be, and after unlocking the door she returned it to its original place and entered the home.

She closed the door quietly behind her, and listened to the silent home for a moment. Silence made her nervous most of the time, so she wondered how Sans could be in the house like this all day, even if he was sick. "Sans?" she called as she removed her coat and shoes. There was no response, so she frowned. Of course, the logical way to think was that he was just asleep, but she was worried so she made her way upstairs. She remembered where his room was, so walked down the hall to the door of his room. There was no answer when she knocked on the door, so after some debating, she finally opened the door and walked into the bedroom.

Clearly he didn't clean a lot, as most of the room was the same way the last time she saw it. She frowned. He should take better care of himself, but it was also understandable how he wouldn't have enough energy to do so. However, seeing the mess... all she wanted to do was clean it up.

Alex looked over to his bed, and saw him lying with the blankets twisted around him as he lied there curled up in himself, having also managed to knock off the pillows completely. It didn't look to be very comfortable, but when you're sick you just don't care too much. She had wanted to wake him up to at least let him know she was there, but at the last moment decided against it. Being sick was terrible, he didn't need someone waking him up for anything, so she left the room, leaving the door a bit open, and went downstairs. Dreading the silence, she turned on the television but kept the volume low. She gave Papyrus a quick text to let him know Sans was fine.

Her thoughts started to wander, and she couldn't help but feel like as if she knew Sans and Papyrus from somewhere. There had been something in her telling her that she already knew everything about them. How Papyrus had an undying love for spaghetti even though he couldn't cook too well, how Sans had an obsession with ketchup, but there were also things that just didn't make sense, like how she could so vividly see them being skeletons, and she could see her and Sans watching the stars, though the stars never seemed to be real. Sometimes, this even happened with the children, Frisk specifically. Though, she never brought it up with them, as it was a completely insane thing to say and she didn't want Toriel to cut off all ties they had. Toriel was basically another mother to her, and her kids were like new siblings.

In fact, this happened with mostly everyone she met so far, even at the restaurant Sans had taken her to, Grillby even reminded her of something. Flames, heat, being completely on fire but not being burned. Maybe it was just her overactive imagination at work, but then again everything seemed so real every time it appeared that when she saw everyone again, she was surprised not to see them the way her mind created them to look.

"You breakin' into our house now?"

She was kicked out of her mind when she heard a voice, and turned to see Sans standing there, looking like he just got hit by a car. "Papyrus asked that I'd stay here and keep an eye on you," she said, blinking and tilting her head.

"I don't need babysitting," he grumbled as he walked away, towards the kitchen. Alex sat there and contemplated for a moment, before she finally got up and followed him. He seemed rather cranky, but that's to be expected when you're sick, so she didn't mind too much. Whenever she got sick, it was easy for her to snap at others angrily.

When she went to the kitchen, she saw him downing a huge glass of water with his medical mask placed on the counter. He looked over at her when he was done and sighed. "You don't need to follow me either," he said, looking at the cup as if it offended him in some way.

"I'm not, just kinda got curious and didn't want to sit there anymore. How're you feeling?"

Sans stared at the cup for a long moment, before finally answering. "Better than this morning..." he muttered in response.

Even though he was sick, Alex felt like as if there was something more bothering him. With just the way he was acting and responding to her, it seemed like as if he were seriously thinking about something. He was still staring at the cup as if it offended him too, so she became a little worried about him.

"Is something the matter, Sans?" She asked, a bit hesitant on asking, since he always had a way of avoiding a question he didn't want to answer.

However, he did something that surprised her, and she couldn't figure out if it was really him fully aware of his actions, or if it was the illness talking, but he looked at her, this time able to see the troubled expression he wore fully because of the removed mask. "You," he said. "I don't understand you."

Alex blinked, before smiling awkwardly. "Uh... What do you mean?"

"You feel empty, don't you? So how can you keep going and pretending to have emotions? Why are you empty? How'd this happened? I don't get it, there's so many things that revolve around you, and I can't figure any of it out."

She didn't know how he knew about her feeling empty, or emotionless on the inside. Her eyes widened, and she just stared at him in shock. There was no way he could have known without her telling him, and she was sure she hadn't. It was a thing she kept secret, no one knew. And what did he mean that things were revolving around her? Now he really wasn't making sense, and she was sure it was the illness talking, but for some reason it didn't seem that way...

"I just can't figure out a way to help you," he muttered, once more looking at the cup with hatred.

It really wasn't like him to be talking like this, so Alex just stared at him, wide eyed and mouth open with silence only coming through. Sans sighed heavily, before shaking his head and putting the cup down. "Sorry. Been thinking too much. I'm going back to bed." He turned, and left the kitchen, and she could hear his footsteps as he walked upstairs, hearing the door close, and everything around her went silent.

He now handed her questions that were left unanswered for her to think about.