A/N: To Guest: To answer your question this story is building up to Frisk's fall in the underground with some backstory of most of the monsters and all of the fallen souls. Most of which will be important for later in the story. It'll be a while though before getting to Frisk's fall in the underground.

Chapter 29: The First Determination Experiments.

The next morning Suzy headed down to the lab. There was a note on the desk.

'Suzy, There's another lab in Snowdin. Meet us there as soon as you read this.'

The elevator in the lab let out a ding as some members of the royal guard carried in a couple of limp monster bodies setting them on the beds.

"What's going on? Why are you bringing in those monsters?" Suzy asked.

"They've fallen down," one of the guards said. "The king wanted us to bring the bodies to the lab."

"Why?"

"Don't know."

Suzy sighed and headed to Snowdin. She spotted the rabbit monster that had helped her with Lucy.

"Oh fancy seeing you here. Anything I can help you with."

She was puzzled by her holding a long leash with her brother, a small white bunny on the other end.

"Uh what's the deal with that?"

"Oh my little brother loves to be taken on walks by the leash. I never did tell you my name did I? Name's Penelope and you are?"

"Suzy."

"That's a nice name."

"Do you know where the lab in Snowdin is?"

"It's east from town right before you get to the cave that leads to Waterfall."

Suzy walked until she reached the lab and knocked on the door.

"Come in my dear."

Suzy headed inside and saw it was a small room with a long conveyer belt to the north going from left to right and a desk that looked set up like a workshop to the left. A room was to the right of that.

She walked inside the room to find another desk looking through a clear window that was looking in on another room to the north.

"So what are we doing here?" she asked.

"I don't know," Sans said. "My dad said he wanted to ask you about your powers. He's thinkin' of tryin' another experiment."

Just then Dr Aster stepping inside.

"Sans, I need to speak with Suzy alone."

Once Sans had left, Aster spoke.

"So you're half human and half monster? I'll be honest I never seen anything quite like you. You have the entire appearance of a human yet possess the aging of a monster. I wonder if you have determination too."

"What? What are you talking about?

"You won't blame an old man for a bit of curiosity would you?" Aster asked creeping closer to Suzy. "I believe it was a little obvious when I saw that human with that monster. That was your mother wasn't it?"

Suzy was silent.

"I think by now it's a little obvious."

Sans came in.

"I trust you've heard everything."

Sans nodded.

"I hope you won't make this too difficult. It would be a pity to lose our friendship so quickly," he said grabbing her elbow and dragging her to the room up north. Suzy struggled, kicking and biting.

"Let me go, you bonehead," she snapped.

Sans locked the door behind him trapping Suzy in the room.

"Perfect."

Sans gazed at the machine from behind Aster.

"What are we lookin' at?"

"These are the attributes of her body. All her magic is stored in her soul. That's why her magic slows the aging process of her physical body."

Aster's eyes widened.

"Her magic is growing at an exponential rate too."

"Is that really surprising?"

Aster facepalmed and sighed.

"Monster magic is limited by the desires of the monster and their opponent. It can't grow if it could I could've used it to power the machine. Draining a monster's magic should be possible in theory."

"It's also highly illegal. I draw the line at breakin' the law."

Aster snorted.

"Well we could test her influence on the timeline at least by forcing her to 'reset'."

"It would be better if we persuaded her to cooperate. It won't do any good if we give her too much control while she's our enemy."

"Then I'll leave it to you."

Sans sighed and headed inside. As he drew closer to Suzy, she broke free of her restraints and punched him in the face.

"See how you like that, you loser."

Sans grimaced.

"I see you broke free of the chains."

"You really think they would hold me? I have magic. I could've broke free anytime."

"So why didn't you?"

"I wanted to punch your face before tryin' to escape this joint."

"Ah, won't you reconsider? Surely you can forgive your uncle Sansy?"

Suzy sighed.

"What do you want?"

Sans told her their plans.

"So you want me to deliberately use my powers to reset this timeline?"

"Yes."

"What makes you certain I know how to use them?"

"All magic needs is a lil' intent. So use your intent to pull your time travel shenanigans and we'll use you to record our progress."

Suzy called upon her magic to summon a save point having long since learned how master time magic from her mother.

Days passed and both Sans and Aster having gone through loads of resets gaining memories through faint recollections began to figure out how it worked.

"Your body seems to age with every reset and doesn't reset as all. So theoretically we could use this power to keep most things intact should another human fall down here."

"So isolating determination and putting it in an inanimate object should accomplish the same thing. This is merely theory of course."

"I think she should try it."

The first test was on the quantum physics book. Sans had torn a page from it.

Suzy had reset to find that the book was still there the pages still missing. Suzy told them everything.

"Interesting," Sans said, taking a copy of the book from his desk. The inside of it had all the pages intact. With this knowledge, Aster had created a room uneffected by the resets.

"It's really a pity that just being here doesn't preserve our memories."

"Are you satisfied?" Suzy asked.

"Let her out," Aster said.

"Are you sure? She might get violent," Sans said.

"I'll take my chances."

Sans unlocked the door and Suzy walked out.

"About time."

"Sorry, we did this. I was desperate," Aster said.

"I could tell," Suzy said.

"Sorry, let's go home."

"I forgive you this time."

With that the three headed back.

Once they had arrived, Suzy followed the two skeletons back to the lab.

Where the bed were laid out stood unconscious monster bodies. Alphys was standing next to one of the beds.

"Doctor, these bodies were in here when I came in."

Sans looked aghast.

"What is this?"

"I see Asgore delivered the fallen monsters," Aster said.

Sans glanced at Aster horrified.

"You mean you knew about this?" He asked.

"Do you want to go to the surface? Idling around isn't going to do anything. If monster souls can manifest determination that just might be our ticket out of here."

"What if it goes wrong? Their relatives will be asking for their dust."

"We've got to try something."

Sans sighed. No use in arguing with him. He was working for the king and the king did expect him to come through no matter what he thought.

Aster took a seat next to a horse monster who was lying in one of the beds.

"Suzy, get the vial of determination in my desk."

Suzy ran to go get the vial.

"Come Sans, Let's watch science at work."

She returned minutes later with the vial and handed it to Aster.

Using a syringe, he injected the substance in the monster's chest where their soul was located.

Minutes passed but nothing happened. Sweat beaded down Sans' skull.

Still Aster patiently watched them.

An hour turned to two.

"Nothing's happening. I expected at least something to happen."

"Then I guess the experiment is a BONE-ified success," Sans quipped.

Aster and Suzy looked unamused.

"Too on the nose?" Sans asked.

Aster sighed.

"Alphys, keep a watch on the subject. I'm heading out."

He walked out and Sans joined him.

Arial dropped by the lab just as Alphys was finishing up.

"You know I ought to take you clothes shopping. I used to be quite the shopper back in the day. Y'know one day a monster will really like you and I'm sure you want to look your very best for that person."

"I'm not the best looking monster though."

Arial chuckled.

"You know this ample bosom accentuated by this gorgeous dress? It's fake."

"You're not serious."

Arial coughed.

"You better believe I'm serious. Ever wondered how a female skeleton even gets breasts. We don't even have skin."

Alphys snickered.

"So I stuff my bra. For fun. I'll sometimes use a large pillow just to get a laugh from the kids. Sans thinks it's very embarrassing and he'll cover his brother's eyes. It's kinda cute."

Arial stumbled a bit.

"Are you alright?"

"It's nothing. My head was feeling kind of funny that's all. So do you wanna come?"

"Aster told me to keep watch of the monsters."

"Suzy's here though. I'm sure she could do a sufficient job, right?" Arial asked, smiling at the girl.

"Yeah, you can go. Have fun," Suzy said winking at them.

Once they were gone however the bed stirred next to her.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"What?" Suzy sputtered.

The horse monster was awake, sitting up as if he hadn't been unconscious minutes ago.

As they were heading to Hotland, Alphys got a call.

She picked up her phone.

"Suzy?"

"The monster is melting."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"When you left, the monster was awake for a while. Then they started to melt. I don't know what to do."

"Alphys is something wrong?" Arial asked.

Alphys' heart raced anxiously.

She covered the mouth piece on the phone.

"I-It's nothing," she sputtered before talking through the phone."Call Aster. You got his phone number on your phone don't you? Good."

Suzy clicked off her phone and dialed Aster's phone number.

Aster who had been taking a walk suddenly heard the sound of his phone going off.

"Who is it?" Sans asked.

"It's Suzy."

"Why's she calling you?"

Aster shrugged before clicking the phone.

"What is it?"

"The body, it's melting," Suzy said.

"What?! I see. I'll be there."

"What's going on?" Sans asked.

Aster started running back to the lab.

"Dad, wait up."

Sans ran after him.

The two eventually arrived.

"Good, you're here."

Aster looked on in horror as the monster was slowly melting.

"What the-"

He walked closer to the creature trying to summon it's soul.

"I-I can't take it."

"Well, I guess the experiment was a failure," Sans said.

"Nonsense, I can't give up. Everyone is counting on me," Aster said.

After the two had gone shopping in Hotland, Alphys and Arial were heading back with four bags of clothes.

"Amazing. We nearly bought the whole store out."

When there was no reply, Alphys turned around to find Arial had collapsed to the ground.

"Arial! Are you alright?" Alphys asked kneeling beside her.

"I'm fine," she said pushing herself to her knees.

"You're not fine. Let me help you," Alphys said taking her bags and holding out her hand.

Arial took it reluctantly.

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet. We still have to make it home."

Alphys pulled her up.

"You can lean on my shoulder."

Arial did so.

They stumbled into the lab. Sans who had been sitting on couch had instantly arrived at their side.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. She just collapsed," Alphys said, setting her on one of the beds. It must be that illness Sans was talking about.

Sans summoned Arial's soul, running Dr Aster's machine over her soul.

The readings showed her soul completely drained of magic.

"That's impossible."

"What is it, Sans?" Alphys asked.

"Her soul has been completely drained of magic."

"But how?"

"Listen mom, you know that illness that we were studying about. The last human that came here possessed that virus."

"Does this mean I'm gonna die."

Sans snapped.

"Don't say that. You're not gonna die. I just have to make more antidote," he said. "I'll just find the recipe and you'll be better in no time."

Sans shuffled through papers.

"Damn."

He ran out of the room.

"Sans wait," Arial called out.

When he was gone, Alphys saw her fingers slowly fading to dust.

"Arial look."

Arial looked at her fingers and sighed.

"Looks like it's starting, huh?"

"I won't last long but it was fun. It's a pity my husband is always so busy with his work. It's always been so lonely around here. I'm glad to have met you."

Alphys chuckled somberly.

"Don't worry I'm sure we'll meet again."

Sans ran into his room rummaging though his dresser for the instructions on the antidote. Finally after he found it, he ran back to the lab finding Alphys hovering over the empty bed.

"Where is she?"

"She faded to dust. I'm sorry. There was nothing I could do."

Later that evening Dr Aster had come back from where he was working on the CORE. Neither Arial's spaghetti and his hot cup of lemon tea were present anywhere on the table.

'Strange,' he thought.

He headed into the lab and saw his son looking at the bed with a toothy frown.

"Sans have you seen Arial?"

"She's dead."

"What? You're kidding right?"

The whites in Sans' eyesockets disappeared.

"She died from the little virus that the human had. She turned to dust before I could even do anything."

"You're lying. She's not dead. You're playing a trick on me," Aster said, laughing maniacally. "I won't fall for it."

His fist banged the desk.

"Dad, what are you talking about? You're scaring me."

Aster lunged for him pulling him up by the lapels of his lab coat.

"Don't lie to me or you'll regret it."