I'm baaaaaack! With an update! Yeah!

Only a month from the last update! Better than last time!

Well, this chapter was originally meant to be this chapter and the next, but I split it so I could get this bit out sooner.

Didja like the cliffhanger last time? I'm proud of it.

Also, guess what! I got into lotsa fanworks for Undertale! Including Xtale, Underverse, Glitchtale (which destroyed my heart), and Undertale The Musical. All of those are so freaking good. Go give 'em so love, okay?

Song of the week! KARMA by VocaCircus. I've been getting into a lot of Vocaloid lately. So that'll probably pop up as songs of the week a lot!

Also I posted a drabble. It's called 'two cups of tea'. Basically Sad Asgore. I'm trying to get back into my Undertale Groove, so I might post some one-shots. Kay?

Now, without further ado! Undertale belong to our Lord and Savior, the Annoying Dog.

Undyne was unsure.

This did not seem safe. At all.

Alphys had left and returned with a small syringe of thick red liquid. Undyne had shooed the other monsters out of the room with the beds, insisting they should look around a bit. Find the Amalgamates. Get used to this, frankly creepy, laboratory. Now the three monsters were alone. They gathered around the bed where Sans lay.

Alphys regarded the skeleton with a critical eye. "I d-don't want to p-put it in h-h-his SOUL," she explained haltingly. "T-that w-w-would make him, um, l-like the o-others, I t-think… but t-the rest of him is b-bones?"

"RIGHT EYE SOCKET," Papyrus supplied. When the two girls blinked at the specific term, he elaborated. "EYE SOCKETS WOULD BE THE MOST ACCESSIBLE, AND HIS RIGHT ONE'S FAULTY. IT DOESN'T GLOW LIKE THE OTHER ONE. I DON'T WANT TO RISK PUTTING OUT HIS LEFT EYE."

Alphys tilted her head. "I r-really d-didn't expect you to b-be this smart," she remarked. She flushed red when she realized what she'd said. It was kind of cute, Undyne noted. "O-oh, uh, sorry-"

Papyrus waved it off. "I JUST… REALLY HOPE THIS WORKS."

Undyne looked to her… girlfriend? Were she and Alphys still in a relationship in this timeline? Whatever, not important. "Whenever you're ready, I guess."

Alphys' hands were shaking violently. The edges of Undyne's teeth toyed with her lip. Alphys had to be terrified, after what had happened with the Amalgamates… "Give it here."

"W-What?" Both Papyrus and Alphys stared at her in confusion. Undyne cleared her throat.

"I'll do the eye socket stabby stabby. Gimme the needle."

Alphys passed it off hurriedly, relaxing visibly once the DETERMINATION was out of her grasp. Papyrus kept watching Undyne, his gaze dark and serious. She shifted uncomfortably- the look didn't fit well with her usually happy-go-lucky friend. "Well, here goes."

She pressed the needle downwards into Sans' eye socket- he didn't even twitch- and pushed down. The DETERMINATION drained out of the container.

There was silence. Undyne slowly set down the empty needle and leaned forwards in anticipacion. Papyrus' fingers gripped the edge of the metal bed frame.

They both jumped when Alphys spoke. "I-it might t-t-t-take a little wh-while. The others…"

"nah," came a voice from the bed. "you did good, alph, thanks."

Immediately every eye was pinned to the small skeleton struggling to wake himself up and/or get out of the bed. "man, i feel like i just had surgery. a little help would be nice."

Papyrus grabbed Sans and swung him through the air, a relieved smile marring his scolding look. Undyne leaned out of the way, unable to resist a chuckle at Sans' expression.

"whoa!"

"YOU ABSOLUTE BONEHEAD, YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO DO THAT AGAIN EVER, DO YOU HEAR ME? OR AT LEAST TELL SOMEONE BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO RISK YOUR LIFE, OR MAKE SOME RISKY PLAN OR SOMETHING. ACTUALLY YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE PLANS WITHOUT INFORMING ME FIRST AND-"

"okay, okay, i get it." Sans apparently looked sufficiently chastised. Papyrus set him down. "eye socket making plans, right?"

Papyrus scowled. "YOU REALLY DO. BECAUSE I'M CURRENTLY GLAD YOU'RE ALIVE, I WILL IGNORE THE PUN, EVEN IF IT IS A STRETCH."

"Sans, you a-are an idiot," Alphys scolded angrily, her hands on her hips. "Do you even know how d-dangerous that was?!"

Before Undyne could jump in with some yelling of her own, Sans held up his hands. "yeah. i know it's dangerous, coulda made me melt or die immediately which would not have been fun for anyone, but we did need to transport a whole lotta monsters." He peered around the empty room. "uh, we did transport them, right?"

"Yeah," Undyne confirmed. "We sent them out of the room while we did emergency DETERMINATION enhancement on your eye."

Sans winced slightly. "well, i guess that explains why it stings… but seriously. you really shouldn't have been worried. i mean, i'll just come back next reset and you won't remember it."

Papyrus and Alphys looked ready to protest, but Undyne beat them to it. "First of all, you just Fell Down, so yeah, we'd be worried! And second, let me remind you that if you had dusted, none of us would have had any idea what to do next! None of us have lived through this like you have, and then we'd have to cope with you dying on us as well! Do you have any idea what that would do to your brother here? Or me, or Alphys? Not to mention, if this timeline did RESET, we wouldn't have any idea this happened, and if you told us again, we'd probably think you were crazy or something! This is literally our only chance to change anything! You can't be so… so…" She struggled to find a fitting word. "So frivolous with your life!"

Undyne held determined eye contact with the skeleton, refusing to break off the staring contest. Sans looked away first, staring at the ground. "i... didn't think of it like that," he said softly.

Papyrus broke in. "WELL, NOW YOU WILL! AND NOW SINCE YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN, WE CAN ALL STOP WORRYING AND FOCUS ON HELPING FRISK!"

Undyne heard the silent few words at the end of the sentence: and stop them from killing us. But Sans suddenly looked uncomfortable.

"um... my stupid dangerous plan might possibly have more to it? because i think i'm gonna start melting soon."

"WHAT?"

Papyrus immediately lifted up his brother again and checked him over for any signs of goopiness. Thankfully, there were none. "MELTING?!"

Sans held up both hands to try and placate his now freaked out brother. "oh- no, it's fine! that happens to all monsters with determination put inside them."

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S NOT A PROBLEM!"

Undyne threw up her hands. "Sans, what the h-"

"censor," Sans interrupted. "teenager here."

Alphys squinted. "T-technically, eighteen is l-legally an adult."

"really? is that how it works for humans?" Sans mused, seemed surprised and not at all as concerned as he should have been about the whole melting thing. "wow. i'm an adult. that's hilarious and mildly disturbing."

Papyrus groaned. "CAN WE PLEASE FOCUS?"

"I was going to say 'heck'," Undyne muttered indignantly, but let it go.

"Let me g-guess, your stupid plan s-s-somehow goes over b-being injected with D-DETERMINATION?" Alphys asked.

"actually, that's sort of the point of the whole plan. cause, you know, if this works out, we'll have a better plan for what happens next." Sans shrugged and started walking out of the room, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

The others exchanged confused looks but decided not to press it. The did have a time limit, after all.

Outside the room, they found Sans, looking extremely uncomfortable, being surrounded by several chatty monsters.

"um, yeah, it was, uh, a… really effective shortcut. look, not that i don't want to talk, but-"

Undyne bullied her way through the impromptu crowd, summoning a (harmless) spear. "Yo! We need Sans for a few! Clear out!"

Papyrus protectively stepped slightly in front his brother. "WE WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT IF YOU COULD ALL LEAVE THIS ROOM FOR JUST A LITTLE WHILE!"

The other monsters left without much grumbling, and only a few excited questions about how Sans had teleported them all into the labs. Soon the room was empty, and Alphys, Papyrus, and Undyne were free to look around.

"What is THAT thing?!" Undyne pointed up at the huge machine, shaped a bit like the head of a gyftrot with ominous-looking pincers.

"I d-don't really know..." Alphys confessed. "I used it… to e-e-e-extract the D-DETERMINATION from h-human SOULs… but I d-don't really know what it does."

"nah. seems like that's pretty much it. it is called a determination extractor, after all."

Sans approached the machine, setting one hand on the dark red surface. "hopefully it'll work on monster souls too."

The other three stared at him for a moment.

Then Alphys burst into laughter.

"Y-you mean, a-all I had to d-do was put them in the s-s-stupid machine, and they all w-would've been fine?!" she gasped, hysterical tears coming to her eyes.

Undyne panicked. "NO! THAT'S NOT WHAT HE MEANT! YOU DID EVERYTHING YOU COULD!" She enveloped Alphys in a comforting hug, glaring harshly at Sans.

The aforementioned skeleton looked at a loss. "um, yeah. what she said. and it might not work anyway. also, i don't think there's any chance it would've worked on already-melted monsters… and before then you really couldn't have known what would happen."

"IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT! YOU WERE UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE!" Papyrus tried his best to be encouraging.

Alphys sniffled. At some point she'd transitioned from laughter to sobbing. "...t-thanks…"

Undyne consoled Alphys for a couple more minutes. The skeleton brothers stood there awkwardly, exchanging looks every so often.

Sans' look said do you know what to do now...?

Papyrus' expression said I REALLY DON'T. I'VE NEVER BEEN IN A RELATIONSHIP BEFORE.

sure you have. you dated the kiddo.

I DID?

yeah. i spied on you with alphys. it was hilarious.

PLEASE TELL ME YOU DIDN'T DISRUPT US WITH INCIDENTAL MUSIC.

i try to make a point out of not lying.

THAT IS A BLATANT LIE IN ITSELF! YOU LIE ALL THE TIME.

when i have to. it's not like i can walk up to someone and tell them 'hey guess what i'm wildly nihilistic because our life resets over and over and there's literally no way out'.

WHAT?

um. you were not meant to know that.

SANS. YOU CAN'T HIDE THINGS FROM ME IN YOUR EXPRESSIONS. YOU NEED TO TELL ME ABOUT THESE THINGS.

didn't i just say i couldn't do that, though?

"Uh… are you two okay?"

The two skeletons blinked back into the conversation. "WE WERE JUST EXPRESSION-CONVERSING," Papyrus explained unhelpfully.

Undyne squinted. "What's that?"

Alphys jumped in. "Oh, that's j-just something s-skeletons do, since m-most of them can't stop s-smiling and some of them- like Sans- c-can't open their mouths, so they're all really g-good at r-r-reading expressions. Sometimes if they're really e-experienced or know e-each other very well, they can have c-conversations- wait."

She glanced between Papyrus and Sans. Both the two looked confused- albeit for different reasons. "I've never r-read any books on skeletons b-before," she said slowly. "Or r-researched skeletons at all… h-how did I know that?"

Undyne was open-mouthed. "Whoa! That's cool. And also sort of freaky. How did you know that?"

Sans' (skeleton equivalent of a) brow scrunched up in thought. "i told you that. a few timelines ago. you caught me and papyrus in a conversation and asked why we were standing there staring at each other. you repeated the explanation almost word for word, too. just got one thing wrong. i can open my mouth."

"Y-you can?" Alphys peered at him searchingly. "I've never seen t-that."

"i don't do it that much."

"BUT IF IT WAS IN ANOTHER TIMELINE, THEN WHY WOULD ALPHYS REMEMBER IT?" Papyrus pondered.

"the timeline," Sans realized. "i told you before that it's unstable." He thought of being briefly plunged into a (normal) Genocide Route and shuddered. "before you guys found me in the snowstorm, i was… thrown out of the timeline, i guess. into one where… well…"

He reached into the pocket of his shorts and brought out the long piece of red fabric- covered in dust.

Alphys gasped, bringing both hands to her mouth. Undyne went wide-eyed. Her eye darted towards Papyrus's scarf, and then the dusty replica in Sans' hand.

Papyrus reached out cautiously and took the scarf. "THIS… THIS IS MINE."

Somehow, everyone knew he wasn't talking about the scarf.

Sans nodded slowly. "that's where you died in that timeline… i had enough time to see it before i got pulled back."

Papyrus stared down at the smattering of dust on the scarf. It was different to see the evidence of his death in other timelines… the happy memories he had of Frisk felt faker, all of a sudden.

He made a decision. Papyrus, on an impulse, tied the scarf around the breastplate of his battle body like a sash.

*YOU EQUIPPED THE DUSTY SCARF!

*+20 DEFENCE

*YOU FEEL LIKE TWICE THE MONSTER YOU ARE.

Sans looked at him sharply. "papyrus, are you sure you want to-"

"PLEASE," Papyrus interrupted. "I THINK I MIGHT NEED… A REMINDER."

They locked eyes for a second before Sans nodded. "we should get to work."

Not that exciting... Aww. But Sans will be okay! Probably.

Man, I'm such a liar. I told you there would be action and I lied. I'm sorry.

This may seem like filler, but there is important plot! That had to be established. Especially foreshadowing [REDACTED] and [REDACTED].

What? You can't see those words? Huh. Must be spoilers.

I headcanon that all skeletons are AWESOME at reading expressions. Cause, you know, they can't move their skulls that much. So they have to know what even the tiniest shift means! They can even expression-converse. Although they can't lie without extreme effort while doing that, because... it's literally reading expressions.

Also, thank you so much for the kind reviews. I appreciate y'all SO MUCH. I love you all!

Thanks for reading, reviews and constructive criticism are welcome, and have a nice day!

-TheEscapedCharacter