Me: okay brain, we're NOT gonna take on too many projects... okay?

Brain: okie dokie! Just gonna do this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this...

Chapter Thirteen: A New Mystery

Something flickered within his soul, an echo of an echo of the unknown force. With enough practice, he concluded upon their arrival, he should be able to summon it at will. Despite his efforts however, it did not manifest in these precious moments. He looked around at the simple setup about them. Had Sans not known any better, he would've believed this a typical room in a doctor's office. An exhausted human looked up at their unexpected entrance. He called once more to the force, hoping against logic that it would come and assist.

*You called for help

*But nobody came

"Hey. What-"

"Sans is sick!"

"No, I'm no-"

"He needs immediate medical attention immediately!"

The doctor glanced at him before replying, "you said 'immediate' twice. An' he looks okay t' me."

"But he was about to leave. Early!" Kira had released his wrist to gesture at him with both hands as though it would prove her point.

A suspicious look from the doctor, but a tired one. Perhaps he could talk his way out of this. "Ya ever have a bunch of ghosts try t' posses you? After almost no sleep, an' no coffee? My brain's like mashed potatoes."

"But-but-"

"Kira, ya ever have t' sew a person's butt back on? Exhaustin'. I'm tired. You look tired. Everybody's tired. Let's let 'im go get some rest."

"But," said Kira much louder than needed, still flailing her arms about in Sans' direction. A sigh, as she let them fall to her sides. Then, "will you at least give him a checkup or something? He never leaves early. Ever."

"Guess it can't hurt, jus t' make sure." To the skeleton he said, "c'mere."

With little choice, he complied, hoping the doctor had washed up after that whole butt sewing thing. The gloves looked clean, but still.

After the usual checkup procedures, the human removed an odd handheld device from a drawer. Sans remained still whilst he was apparently scanned for who-knew-what, taking note of each subtle change in the doctor's expression. When at last the device was aimed at his chest, it emitted a high pitched chirping so loud that it hurt the ears he didn't even have. The humans took on a look of pure shock, which quickly dissolved into confusion for the doctor, and concern for Kira.

"Huh."

"What?"

"There's a lot more Nil in you than usual."

Well that answered so many questions!

Sans had the feeling that somewhere, someone was being sarcastic about something. He ignored it, asking, "so can I go now?"

The doctor gazed at him for a long moment. There was silence, save for the dripping of a faucet. Water splashed into a shallow puddle on metal.

Confusion gradually left him, and the human smiled. "Eh, probably nothin'. Jus get some rest."

"Wh- but are you sure-"

"Hey, who's th' doctor here?"

Sans excused himself as quickly as monsterly possible.

OoOoO

"Nil? What in the literal actual heck is Nil?"

The cat didn't respond. He continued pacing.

"This world was supposed to be almost identical to mine! I get here and what happens? I'm part of some secret group of anomaly hunters! This doesn't make any sense! No wonder the other me's always so stressed out. He's gotta deal with demon goats, broken physics, and an overprotective assistant. And what the heck is Nil? Why can't I use magic? Is Nil what they call magic here? If I have more than I'm supposed to, shouldn't that mean I can use it?"

The cat merely stared, watching as he pulled the stone from his pocket.

"I am so done with this! When I get back, I'm gonna…." Here he realized something troubling.

The stone had lost its previous, faintly pink glow. He stared, searching desperately for any reason other than the one that had instantly come to mind. The lumpy grey rock seemed to mock him. He blinked, telling himself that it was nothing, that the rock hadn't lost its link to his world. Sans firmly told himself in attempt to quell the frantic pulsing of his soul, that everything was fine.

He wordlessly shoved the stone back into his pocket.

There he stood, listening to the ticking of the clock. His smile was not genuine, his eye sockets dark. He pushed the realization to the furthest corners of his mind. Now wasn't the time to dwell on that. There was plenty to figure out about Other Sans before the next day was upon him. That was surely deserving of his focus, though he found it nearly impossible to think about. Nevertheless, he tried.

"Anyway…. I need the password to his computer. And any other passwords I might need," he told the orange feline. "Problem is: it's not gonna be anything simple and easy to guess. I doubt he wrote it down anywhere. Kira thinks I've kinda sorta lost my mind already."

Leaning against the back of the couch, he asked, "any ideas?"

A meow. She looked at him as though he had lost his mind.

Ignoring that, he continued. "There's something off about those guys. Dunno what. I just know they can't find out who I am. So I guess you could say I'm in a pretty purr-carious position."

The cat hissed, jumped down, and walked out of the room.