Frisk took a deep breath, the small machine hissing as it sealed himself shut. Briefly, he glanced around. It felt as though he had just been helped into a coffin. Through the small glass window, he saw Sans and Alphys, both standing behind the control panel. Alphys gave Frisk a thumbs up, though her hand trembled like a leaf. A shudder ran up Frisk's spine as he gave a curt nod, and he saw Sans flip a switch.

Frisk started as a sudden clunk ran out. Within his chest, his heart manically pounded. He gulped as a mechanical whirring flooded the chamber. The whine slowly rose an octave, and then another. He pushed his head back against the headrest, trying not to panic. Sans nodded to his compatriot.

"begin the extraction."

Above him, Frisk saw a port open. Alphys pushed a button, her voice crackling from an intercom.

"F-Frisk, you n-need to expose your s-soul so the m-machine can extract th-the Determination!"

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. Alphys steeled herself as Frisk's soul slowly revealed itself in the chamber. The heart emanated a soft, blood-red glow in the chamber. It hovered just in front of Frisk, right below the port. Sans clasped his hands behind his back.

"start it slow, 25%."

Alphys took a moment to steal a glance. She was almost surprised. Like this, he looked almost like a shorter version of Gaster himself. For as long as she'd known him he'd always seemed goofy and carefree, but tt seems that some of her mentor's seriousness had indeed crossed into his creation. She turned a dial a quarter of the way up.

Inside the extractor, Frisk's breath hitched. The machine whined again, and his soul trembled. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. His chest rose and fell. Shallowly. Rapidly. A burning sensation, starting in his core, flooding his limbs. Still, he persisted.

Sans glanced to a vial, watching as it steadily filled with a murky red liquid. Alphys carefully turned the dial to a higher setting.

"V-Vitals seem alright, I w-will turn it t-to full. Q-Quicker this gets done, th-the better!"

Sans gave a hesitant nod. From the chambers, he heard Frisk whimper. The human child's hands balled up into fists. His chest heaved. A tear slid down one of his cheeks. The shaking of his soul grew more violent. Time slowly ticked by, Frisk's whimpers grew louder. Slowly, the vial filled, until finally it was too much to bear. Sans flinched at the scream of agony. He stood rigid, his own hands curling to fists, then he grabbed Alphys's shoulders.

"shut it down!"

Alphys spun around to face him, "We c-can't! If we s-stop midway th-through, it could k-kill him!"

"that machine might kill him anyway!" Sans shouted over the growing din.

"We don't h-have a choice! We're t-too far in!"

He made a noise of frustration. Alphys saw a flicker of blue in his eyes, before he huffed, shaking his head.

"hang in there, kid…"

Agonized cries rang through the air, never faltering in pain or volume. The two scientists could do nothing but watch apprehensively as the vial slowly filled itself. At last, the vial reached the marked line near the top. Right on cue, the machine died, the whining growing still. Frisk slumped forward in the machine, head hung low. The pair of monsters took deep breaths.

As soon as the machine had fully powered down, Sans sprinted around the panel, wrenching open the doors of the machine. He grunted, pushing Frisk back to keep him from falling on top of him. The child was barely conscious. He could still see the kid's soul, still red had almost completely faded away, leaving it an eerily pale pink. Sans took one of Frisk's limp hands, helping him to close his hand around his soul, letting his body absorb what energy was left.

"you did good, kid…" He looked to Alphys, currently disconnecting the vial from the machine. She gave a short nod, then slunk away to the other end of the lab, where a containment pod waited. Sans grunted, helping Frisk out from the machine and back into his wheelchair.

"hey alph, i'm going to bring him into the house, let him rest up. I'll join you in a bit."

Alphys nodded, already busy with the extracted substance. Sans wheeled Frisk outside, quickly around the front of his house. Promptly, he the door and get Frisk into the warmth. Moving with purpose he wheeled Frisk over to the couch, then helped him out of his chair to lay down.

"i'll get you a blanket. don't really have anything for the pain…" He waited for some sort of response, and got none. With a single nod, he walked upstairs. The skeleton entered his room, nabbing one of the many blankets upon his bed, dragging it back down to Frisk, whereupon he laid it over the child, stepping back. The wheelchair was kept close by.

"look...i know it wasn't easy…" Sans started, "but if you can understand me, i appreciate what you did today. this could change everything. i...i'll let you get some rest."

He backed away. Frisk's eyes were still half-open, unfocused and hazy. They seemed drained of all emotion and life, yet the steady rising and falling of the blanket was an indication that he was still amongst the living. He quickly stepped back outside.

The skeleton took a shaky breath, standing just outside in the snow. A sigh seemed to echo from him as he looked up the road at the rest of the town, mostly abandoned. Not even a year ago, and the town looked friendly and bustling with life. It was a good home, and certainly inviting. Now, though...it was nothing but a shell. In the dark, it even appeared sinister. Even the air in the region had seemed to chill.

With a shake of his head, Sans walked back around the house into the secret laboratory. Alphys had already begun to utilize the Determination with the experiments. She glanced over her shoulder.

"I-Is he going t-t-to be alright?"

"i don't know."

Silence.

Sans approached the workbench. He pulled up a second chair, sitting down beside Alphys and looked over all the tools and materials laid out. Scattered across the table were the notes from previous experiments. Sans hardly realized that his next breath sounded more like a sniffle. Alphys glanced over to him, noticing a shimmer in his eyes as he looked at the mess.

"H-Hey...cheer up! W-We got what we needed! This will ch-change everything! It's going to be okay!" Then she immediately flinched at her own words. She'd never been the one dispensing reassurance before, but Sans shook his head.

"but...it isn't okay...none of this is okay…"

Alphys opened her mouth, but before she could get a word out, Sans turned on her.

"look around you! the whole world is at war! and us monsters?! we're caught in the middle of it! and now look at us! we've resorted to experimentation, on a child!"

Alphys looked down as Sans continued, hot tears causing her vision to blur.

"look at what we've become! this is the exact kind of reckless experimentation that wing did! we both swore that we would never resort back to these kinds of measures! did we not?!"

"...T...this...isn't about Frisk...or the war...is it?"

Sans shook his head, slumping forward.

"n-no...it isn't. all this talk of...souls...and resets...it's dug up old feelings about...what we did all those years ago. the lives that we helped ruin. we...we vowed that we would never allow it to happen again. and now here we are again, but with even higher stakes! i, i can't sleep...i can't eat...haven't relaxed properly in days...i…" He put his head in his arms on the table, openly sobbing. "...i don't know how much more of this madness i can take!

Alphys' throat clogged with emotion. Never before had she seen Sans look so...defeated, Especially in a case that most would have considered a success. Yet...she knew the feeling. It was the feeling of guilt. There had been days, weeks after Gaster's death, when she could do nothing but question herself, on why she had made such horrible choices. More than once, she had gone to the edge of the cliff faces in Waterfall and Hotland, wondering what came after this life. But every time, she managed to drag herself back from the edge.

She reached over, rubbing his back. It was a struggle to find words to speak. "At least this time...you know that what we are doing is right. We know what we have done here will be used for good. Not t-to mention, we have a lot more experience th-than last time. We learned f-from our past mistakes. Trust me...S-Sans...we will get it right this time." She struggled to hold confidence in her voice, and she prayed that the message got through to her friend.

Sans looked up from the table at her. She gazed back earnestly.

"since when did you become the optimist…" he mumbled.

She giggled. "Wh-When I started h-having hope again, I guess…"

He nodded, a small thought clearly in his eyes. Then in an instant, it was gone as he sighed. "c'mon. we've got work to do."