a/n: i've already submitted the first 2 chapters on archiveofourown so you get 2 chapters lol, enjoy

"W-we have to move him now," Alphys prompted them, desperate to get moving, an impending sense of doom gnawing at her, panic setting in.

Unfortunately, the information stopped for Gaster, as Sans' eyes once again rolled back in his head as he started shaking again.

Papyrus was at his wits end, "He's shaking again! This is what I was saying earlier!"

Alphys inserted something that looked remarkably like the monster equivalent of a syringe into a Sans' arm, "I-it's a seizure, b-but it'll be okay," she said, hopelessness tainting her optimistic voice.

Before either of them could do anything else, Gaster almost audibly huffed in frustration and secured a tight hold of the shaking skeleton, before they both suddenly disappeared in a puff of black magic.

Upon returning to consciousness again, the last thing Sans expected was for his surrounding to be completely derived with the sound of arguing.

Not like he could understand what was going on, but it was an unexpected thing to wake up to, nonetheless. He decided to play dead and remained to be 'asleep', letting his breathing remain slow as to not make those with excellent hearing draw attention to him.

"I-I still think he should be in hospital," came the annoyed but determined voice of Alphys, "H-he shouldn't be in your l-lab, right? He's not a-an experiment, he's j-just ill,"

huh. stuttering more than usual. gaster must be putting the fear of god into her.

"That may be so, but I prefer to have him where I can keep an eye on him. Besides, if this timeline he speaks of is affecting him, only I will be able to do something for him. The humans do not understand."

"I…I guess…"

Now bored, Sans opened a single eye socket and tried to get an idea of his surroundings without moving too much. One or two spikes in his soul rate will trigger the alarm. He was definitely attached to a number of machines, a myriad of wires trailing from his body. Well, at least he was safe. Sort of.

"Ah, Sans."

crap.

"How are you feeling?" the monotonous voice of Gaster asked him, striding over with his ridiculously long cloak…that shouldn't even exist.

"just tired, G. better question is, how are you here?"

The tall man looked taken aback by the question, but settled to find more answers "I seem to remember you saying that I should be dead."

Sans could see Alphys squirming uncomfortably behind him. "well, yeah. you shouldn't exist. shattered. remember? not something you forget easily."

"Hm," was the only response Gaster could give, seeming thoughtful for a moment.

Alphys finally spoke up, "Umm…so, what are you thinking?" she was obviously incredibly nervous, for some reason. Can't think why.

"I can think of only two reasons, but none of them are ideally what we want to hear," he put a bony hand on Sans' arm, watching him for a second, "Use your magic on me."

Sans blinked. "huh. well, i'd love to, G, but I can't."

He scowled, "And why not?"

Alphys stepped forward, "Uh-um, Gaster—"

"Try it. Use your magic." The grip locked around his arm got tighter, "Use it on me now."

Sans strained, honestly, it used to feel so effortless to use his abilities. But more recently he couldn't even get his eye to turn blue, let alone call upon his blasters, his teleport, anything.

"really, G, i can't, i'm trying."

There was a momentary staring contest between the two skeletons, before the older one relented and released his grip. "Fascinating. But not ideal."

Alphys breathed a sigh of relief, "Um...good. W-well, not good, obviously, but…"

"yeah, i get it," Sans exhaled and attempted to sit up before he was roughly shoved back down again by Gaster, who was holding him in place. "uh…"

"Don't sit up yet." The older skeleton was glaring daggers into him so much it almost made him want to squirm too. Almost.

"i'm fine, G, honestly. not sure what happened back there, but. fine now."

"Um, actually…Sans, you had a seizure, you're not fine." the little yellow reptilian was apparently determined to cause mild irritation.

Sans watched them both, eventually deciding they were gonna be too overprotective to let him do anything. So, he proposed a compromise.

"okay, so here's the deal. i'll lie here and do nothing, like always anyways, and if nothing happens to me after an hour, you let me get up. deal?"

Gaster appeared to be considering him for a moment before narrowing his eyes, "Sans, I will not let you die because you are 'bored'," he began, before studying the screens for a second, "This should be no different to your everyday behaviours. The only difference is that you are in my lab, and not at home with your brother."

well, he has a point.

"i guess," he shrugged, his gut sinking slightly at the thought of his brother likely worrying over him, before coming to a realisation, "what's your role here alphys? If G here is still the king's royal scientist?" this will prove to be interesting, if either of them feel they're not in the right place...

Alphys twisted her claws together, "Um…I-I'm just an assistant. B-but now we're on the surface, I'm a secondary scientist. J-just, not the main one l-like Gaster. So…still an assistant…I guess…"

Sans sighed. He really wasn't going to be getting answers here any time soon. By the looks of things, everything seemed normal to everyone except him...but he thought better of disturbing the peace. "alright. so, what do you think happened to me?"

"I…um…well, when we found you at your house, you were in a real bad way, Sans…I…I was sure you were a goner…but! I was able to stabilise you here! After Gaster brought you here, we could do something to save you!"

well, it looks like Gaster saved my backside, considering he got here first.

"You were talking about the timelines merging," Gaster reminded him blatantly, "I am unsure whether this was a confused lie, or the truth, because I cannot feel anything."

Sans shrugged, "like i said, you weren't supposed to be here, yet here you are," then he added for good measure, "i watched you die right in front of me, there's no confusion about it."

"Merging timelines," Gaster recited Sans' theory, "I suppose in the timeline you are from; I am already gone."

"kinda, sorry. you fell into the core."

"Intriguing."

"i mean, not really? if this merge wasn't happening you'd still be dead."

"Then perhaps I am back for a purpose," he decided, somehow unphased by his own demise, "Or we are all pawns in someone else's game."

Sans shifted uncomfortably, "well, only humans can alter the timeline."

Gaster nodded, coming to a realisation, "Bring the human in here," and walked the opposite direction away from Sans.

Alphys was perplexed, "Y-you mean Frisk? They wouldn't do a-anything like this. Right…?"

Sans remained silent. He and Gaster both knew about Frisk's ability to reset the timeline, the multiple different versions of themselves they were now on. The events that eventually led to the successful release of the monsters from the underground. If the kid got bored again, then…

"bring them in, alphys."

The reptilian spluttered, lost for words at how their innocent, kind, cute little Frisk could do something so disastrous, but the two skeletons seemed adamant. "O-okay, but I don't think this is a good idea…"

Sans closed his eyes, "yeah, me neither."

Frisk showed up as their usual self, seemingly unphased by the situation at hand—or perhaps naïve to any part of it. When they turned to see Sans hooked up to a monster load of screens, their shoulders dropped. They pointed at him, confused, as if to ask for an explanation.

Sans snorted, "nah, don't worry about me, kiddo. looks worse than it is. they just refuse to let me leave. if you thought tori was bad; oh boy."

Frisk stepped closer, glancing at the screens and having absolutely no idea what any of them meant or what they even said.

"they're both worse than papyrus, honestly."

Frisk nodded, bewildered, and eventually turned to face Gaster. They gasped, tripped and fell back.

"I see what you mean," Gaster noted, watching the child carefully, "A play, perhaps?"

Frisk shook their head at the sight of him, immediately backing away and fleeing for the door. Before the door had a chance to automatically open, Frisk was suddenly hauled up in the air and pulled back into the room with a yelp, their soul blue and frozen.

"hey, G, put them down. it's alright." Sans sat up, with Gaster unable to do anything about him with Frisk's soul in his grasp.

Sans felt pity on the kid, especially as it seemed they hadn't a clue what was happening; they had been called into the room and suddenly hauled into the air by a tall skeleton wearing a creepy cloak.

"Human, you have the ability to alter timelines, correct?" Gaster persisted anyway.
Frisk immediately nodded, sensing it was probably best to tell the truth in front of this…creature.

"And are you aware of this timeline merging with another?"

To everyone's surprise, Frisk nodded hastily and pointed towards Sans.

"huh?"

"Yes, because of your meddling, monsters have been hurt." Gaster seemed to have taken the obsessive pointing as a 'look what's over there!' instead of a 'there is something incredibly wrong here'. Well, at least he wasn't the only one that felt that way.

Frisk violently shook their head again, pointing a finger at Sans with such fierceness it confused Gaster, causing him to drop their soul to see what they were trying to do.

Sans shuffled back slightly when Frisk came running towards them, baffled as they started pulling at his coat.

"Stay away from him, human," echoed a voice that tore through the kid, making them jump. Sans glanced up over their head and eyed Gaster. He knew this Frisk, they meant no harm, despite what Gaster's paranoia thought of them.

"don't worry 'bout him, he's just protective." Sans hushed, causing the kid's petrified expression to soften. Gaster didn't seem to understand that Frisk had befriended everyone and was the reason why everyone was able to get out of the underground. In this timeline, Frisk wouldn't hurt a fly.

They pulled his shirt up revealing the jagged wound—or, surprisingly, the almost lack of one. Surprised, Sans ran a bony finger over it.

"wow. good as new."

Both Gaster and Alphys stood halfway across the room speechless. Not even a day ago there a cesspool of blood coming out of that wound; now it was nearly completely healed.

"B-but…that's…impossible," Alphys staggered, suddenly pacing over to see for herself, "How-how is that possible?"

Sans shrugged, "beats me."

Despite the good news, the kid still seemed stressed out, pacing in circles for some reason.

"kiddo, it's fine, i'm okay now," perhaps they were stressed knowing the wound he had was from a past timeline when they were genocidal. But, that's not this timeline.

"Curious." Magic, perhaps?

Everyone looked up to see Gaster staring down at them from above.

"so…" Sans grinned hopefully, "i'm free to go?"

Gaster glared at him, but then back down to the wound, and relented. "I don't see reason to keep you here longer if you have healed."

"B-but," Alphys butted in to ruin his freedom, "I would prefer it if we watched you for a while longer, j-just in case, you know?" came the logical voice of reason. She nervously played with her claws, "T-this is all just very sudden…"

Sans attempted to call upon his magic to show Alphys he was fine, only for nothing to come back. Neither of them appeared to have noticed, so he played it off, "look, listen, alphys, i'll swing by later, yeah? besides, y'know me, i probably won't do anything strenuous anyway. like sleeping."

"I…I guess," Alphys sighed, giving one last glance at the monitors, which all reported him in perfectly good health, before beginning to detach him from the wires, "But…if anything changes, you'll come back to me straight away, right?"

Both of them knew Sans wouldn't under any circumstances go back to either of them regarding his health, but they let him off the hook anyway.

"yeah, sure, whatever you say."

Frisk stood and watched Alphys detach the monitors from Sans while he swung his legs around the table and jumped down. Frisk's face contorted with worry, they and Gaster exchanged a few meaningful glances before the older skeleton walked Sans out of the lab.

Something definitely wasn't right here.

*to be continued...

a/n: ok i've had this written out for a day but was nervous about submitting it lmao, man my anxiety is bad lately. anyway i hope you enjoyed!