As doctor Alphys rode down the elevator she tapped her fingers against the metal supports. It eventually slammed against the ground and opened it's doors. As the light from the elevator flooded into the hallway a mass of slime lunged into the elevator. The doctor gave a particularly shrill shriek as the form of two paws pressed her into the ground. Her heart was still beating as it eagerly pressed its face into hers and imitated the movement of licking her cheeks.

"A-Alright, I'm s-sorry, g-get off me please!"

The dog obeyed at a rather stunning speed.

"Oh! I mean… er…"

The amalgamation pushed her forward a few inches, then skipped forward, glancing back at her. The doctor followed the canine through the hallways, straight to where Sans was had lazy lain himself on one of the beds. There were a few other monsters in the area, of varying health, a few of them were also canines.

"heya doc."

"Uh…. yeah, h-heya." The skeleton chuckled at this. He took over once he realized she didn't have much to say.

"given your face, betcha want me to tell you what i've pieced together. honestly, i'm pretty kinda bad at that. eh, it's not too hard to figure out anyway." The doctor's face had already formed into a grimace.. "what, ya really want me to do all the work for ya?"

Sans followed after her as she walked down the hallways and started skimming the monitors in the lab. She didn't seem to even try to read them thoroughly. She had put it all together rather quickly. Sans seemed to pick up on this, and lead her back to where they started, not after grabbing something from the kitchen. He offered Alphys something but she refused to touch anything from the rattling fridge.

Alphys sat down on the bedside, she took a long in-breath and gave a deep sigh.

"So?"

"I-I dunno…"

"aw… is it too much to take in for you?" His tone was more than enough to get under the lizard's skin.

"S-Sans! There's no time for you to joke around, and I c-certainly don't need to be teased now!"

"guess you have a point."

"S-So these… these monsters… the injection of determination." Alphys shook her head "I... did this."

"you haven't done a thing, doc."

"B-but I'm going to, aren't I?"
"well, not anymore you won't, that's for sure."

"Y-Yeah but I still would've! J-Just because I can cheat past it doesn't mean I deserve too! I still- in some form caused this, and these monsters are- they're-..."

"well it's not exactly cheating. it's just convenient." Sans sat upward and spoke more in response to the silent tics of Alphys than her words. "look alphys, it's probably a good deal to comprehend for you, and maybe you feel guilty about cheatin' consequences but seriously, lighten up a bit. we're not here for a crazy introspective journey, we just need to head back. no need to look a gift horse in the mouth."

"I…" Alphys glanced up at the skeleton, who she was convinced was anxious to get a move on and swallowed her complaints. "A-Alright but… I'm going to try to help out some okay? We've probably made things harder for her already. I-It's the least I can do." The lizard continued to keep her eyes lowered. Sans was slightly right in the fact that she should probably be grateful, but even still she was slightly irked by his approach.

"do whatcha want, i think i've already got a lead. just don't get too wrapped up here."

The skeleton rose to his feet and set to the lab again. He didn't plan on being here much longer. The doctor probably wouldn't have much time to do anything, and she'd probably be better off just about anywhere else. It was nice of her to be concerned but they were going to move on soon, anyway, so what did it matter. The solution to the machine's problem was simple. Alright, to be fair he had little to no reason to think so, but he'd come across another gut feeling. 'Determination', as was listed on the reports. 'The power to change fate' was the real part he was interested in. It seemed like something a time machine would need in excess, though maybe it was a bit abstract. With how crazy the old doctor could be, it might be something he could work with.

The main problem would be actually finding it. He'd plenty of experience with the area but the changes that where there were enough to disorientate him. Amenities had been set up for all the monsters that were staying here. He thought it might be refrigerated but the fridges were filled with more food than he could bother to name. He moved next to the centermost room, past the second elevator. There was a machine there, it looked to be for generating power, but in the center of it glew a pulse of red, the doctor had carved the shape of a soul into the device. The skeleton was more than eager to try to figure it out. He couldn't think of any reason for a glorified circuit breaker to have a luminescent heart stamped onto it.

He eventually, after what might have been a power failure or two, found a capsule of determination emerged from inside the device. It gave off a red glow, albeit weak. It was half used. Sans slowly unscrewed the lid. He drew a small amount of the liquid from the pool with syringe, and slipped it in his pocket.

"How dare you."

Sans turned around to a monster with a half-closed eye that melted down into a crooked smile.

"You can't do that. That's not yours to steal. It's only mine."

"excuse me?"

"Hand it over." The melted monster lifted an arm. Orbs of magic appeared behind it.

"heh, is that supposed to scare me or something? i mean come on, a bit of magic is all?"

"You dare to mock me?" The monster was clearly growing in frustration. "Hand it over." It repeated. The creature seemed to narrow it's eye, though it was so disfigured he could of merely been blinking. When Sans refused to act they let loose their temper and shot all of the magic towards him. Sans sidestepped effortlessly and chuckled.

"really, is that all you got?"

The monster repeated the action, trying to speed to movement of the magic and scatter the energy but Sans simply slid to the side. He cast his hands behind his head and smiled.

"That's it! That's it! Hand it over right now! Stupid skeleton! You don't know what you're doing! It's mine!" The horned monster summoned a rather sudden set of blasts of energy, at the same time charging forward at the skeleton. He intend for him to have no choice but to dodge into them, but the skeleton activated his powers. The monster froze in place He casually stepped around them to the other side and resumed time early, not wanting to wear himself out.

The skeleton was chuckling heartily as the monster charged forward. He got his horns caught on the machine, his magic started wavering.

"so ya need help with that?"

"Don't pity me!"

"ya sure?"

"Don't defy me."

"i don't get why you're so insistent, you really don't-"

The spheres of magic combusted on the two of them at the will of the monster. Sans had a split second to react. He attempted to activate his magic, lighting his eye. In the margin of time he had it collided with the magic he was weaving. The energy burst into the engraved breaker behind them.

The light in the room was flickering, Sans' back was against the wall again. Astigmatism reformed from a pool in the center of the room, his form even more distorted than the last time.

"Hand it over! I said so, and what I says goes!"
"seriously, dude, calm down. it's just a bit of determination, you can get-"

The skeleton realized he was gesturing at a broken container. "oh, now look at what you did, what are you going to st-"

Astigmatism thinned out it's body and extend its hand into goo, suddenly swiping the vial from his pocket.

"welp, didn't expect you do that." The skeleton put his palm in front of him and altered gravity to bring it back to him.

Well he tried to. There was no reaction.

"Heh. Lucky me!"
"hey, you can't taunt me, that's my shtick."

The monster didn't bother answering he made his way for the exit. Sans shot a barrier of bones straight through the ground and into the wall above. Astigmatism ran straight through reforming on the other side. Sans withdrew the barrier and attempted to pursue. Apparently the machine was integral to the structure of the whole room, when he withdrew the bones he had broke into the wall with the exit came crashing down.