Chapter Nineteen: A Failed Escape

Wrong.

Something was wrong, he knew, and the fact only grew clearer as the muffled sounds turned into words. He heard without understanding. The meanings these syllables held failed to register. He needn't know; something was wrong, and that alone was enough to spur him into attempted action. Sans forced his eye sockets open, finding it to be a task with painful results. He couldn't make sense of the spinning world, which oblivion consumed as he continued to listen.

"….. Think you should see this."

A moment of quiet, save for the beeping.

"O-oh…. I-I- how? What- oh my gosh, how? H-he-he's…. I don't get it."

"I mean, I'm sure there's some kind of explanation but…. You think we should put him back under, just to be safe?"

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep beep beep beep beep!

Oh, no ya don't!

His eye sockets shot open, finding blurs which shifted as he forced himself to move. He commanded his body, unsure of how thoroughly it obeyed. He received only a vague sense of movement from his limbs. Blinking, he found the shapes around him sharpened after a few more beeps. They retained some level of haziness, though not enough to truly impede his view. A lanky human male stared bewildered at him, alongside a yellow lizard monster who wore a look of sheer terror.

With the two of them momentarily frozen, his eye sockets darted about. He sat upon a hospital bed, connected to the noisy machine by a small pad attached to his chest. The adhesive gave easily and he tossed the thing aside to the tune of a skull-splitting alarm. It seemed a fairly typical room one might expect of any medical facility. Had he been in the midst of a mission before waking here, Sans would have felt no suspicion.

Movement caught his attention as the feeling fully returned to his body. The human stepped tentatively in his direction, and he wasn't about to wait for the outcome of that.

"Hey! Get back here!"

He ignored those idiotic words. Heart pounding, he chose a direction at random and sped through the hallway. He heard footsteps behind. The lizard shrieked, "Undyne!" just as he turned a corner. So there were at least three enemies he'd be dealing with. He expected there to be more than that, however. He sprinted clumsily past a window. Trees. He was at ground level. Useful information he thought with a glance behind. They hadn't reached this hall yet. He hurried through a door, surveying the room with practiced speed. No one was here. It was a room similar to the one he'd escaped, and he took these moments to search for a weapon.

They passed him without thought, the monster still calling for…. His neighbor?

He looked up, blinking. What was Undyne doing here? Where was here? He shoved the questions from his mind. Now was not the time. Fight first; questions later. Struggling for breath, he scoured the cabinets and drawers for anything he could use. Finding nothing, he stepped cautiously back into the bright passage.

Several doors revealed the same setup. He left them be. He carefully wandered these hallways until hearing pursuers and slipping silently into a new room. Here he found a number of useful drugs and syringes stocked neatly in cabinets that should've been locked. Sans could find nothing he recognized as poison. With everything that he found, there wasn't enough of it to be deadly. He settled upon a drug he knew to be a sedative.

He filled a few syringes as a group hurried by the door. He stepped out into the hall and ran in the opposite direction they had gone. It wasn't long before he found the need to hide once again. He positioned himself behind the door. He waited. There were definitely more than three people here. Who did they work for? What did they want? Was the Undyne she called merely a different person of the same name?

Upon seeing who entered, he was even more confused. The goat-like monster spoke in a soft tone, her gentle words claiming he had nothing to fear. One look at this person told him it was not the Toriel he knew. He closed the door behind her just as she turned to see him. His movements felt off, but proved quick enough for him to empty a syringe into her leg. Only just. He found himself knocked backward by a powerful, orange blast. He felt a stinging in his bones, and smoke obscured his vision. He didn't stick around to watch her fall to the floor.

He turned a corner. At the end of the long hallway was a simple wooden door. He ran, stumbling once along the way. He heard nothing but the wind rushing past his skull and the pounding of his heart. Panting, he neared the door, reaching for the handle.

Something stopped him in his tracks. He fell, dropping the remaining syringes. They rolled across the white floor, producing a soft, high-pitched ringing. He struggled instinctively against this unseen force. An invisible heaviness kept him from rising, most prevalent in his chest. With a growl, he pushed against the floor, noticing the radiant green glow coming from within him. The force pushed him farther down until he laid flat on his rib cage. He vainly flailed his limbs. There wasn't enough oxygen to satisfy his lungs.

"Give it up, ya little punk! You're not getting away from me!"

The voice was so familiar, yet unfamiliar all at once. He continued to struggle. The world spun. His vision blurred. Air had been scarce enough without the weight. He wheezed, feeling himself grow limp. The Undyne that wasn't Undyne reached him as muffled voices drifted through the air.

"Now, tell me how you got all that LV."

Lifting his head was a challenge he nearly failed. He looked up at her. "What?"

She regarded him with barely-contained ire, baring her shark-like teeth. "Your LV, punk. How'd ya get it?"

He coughed. "I…. Can't…. breathe…"

She gave a slight wave of her hand, and the unseen weight lifted to some tiny degree. "Well?"

"I don't…. I don't know wha'cher talkin' about."

"Sure you don't." A kick to his ribs. "Nobody gets twenty LV by accident! So what's wrong with you?"

He glared at the anomaly. "I…. I dunno what the hell you're talkin' 'bout ya psycho-"

"Watch your fuckin' language!" Another kick.

"Hah…. I dunno wha'chu are, or why ya look like my neighbor…. But-"

"Undyne," said a new voice, one he didn't recognize. "Perhaps he truly does not know. Things may work differently in his world. And he is surely frightened by waking up here, with no idea of what has happened." A male goat monster appeared in his limited view, smiling. "I am sorry, Sans. Things were not supposed to turn out the way they have. I am sure you have many questions. Why not settle things over a nice cup of tea?"

Before he could speak, "Undyne" spoke up. "Ugh, ya got two choices here, all right? You can stop acting like a lunatic and hear us out, or we can just put you in a coma again. What's it gonna be?"

Surprisingly organized and articulate for a bunch of anomalies. They almost sounded like people. He struggled for a few seconds more, as though doing so would somehow remove the creature's power. He halted with a resigned sigh.

"I wanna know what's goin' on."