Chapter 10

Of all the places in the mortal realm that he had to visit, Sans had decided long ago that medical facilities, "hospitals" as the humans called them, were both the best and the worst. On one hand, they saved countless lives from ending prematurely. However, they were also where many humans died from disease, age, or even serious injury. Of course, whenever he came to visit, it meant that someone was dying. Today was no exception. His target was an adult woman who was in the middle of labor, and who would die after giving birth.

"Of all the ways to die, this has gotta be one of the worst," he thought. Childbirth, for whatever reason, was incredibly painful. He would've assumed that the Goddess of Life would've made it more enjoyable, but apparently not. In this woman's case, she was about to go through the most painful experience of her life, and she wouldn't be able to raise her own child. She probably wouldn't even get a chance to hold him. Or would it be a girl? Not that it would matter in the end.

The woman let out another cry of pain, and the doctors readied themselves to catch the child when it arrived. Sans watched the entire scene with a mixture of curiosity and resentment. He still hated how Life kept making more and more humans for him to reap, but he had to admit that it was an intriguing process. It was the first time he had ever been present to witness a new life being brought into the world. Why did the female carry the child? Why did it take roughly nine months to happen? Why bother involving the humans at all? Surely Life could simply will new humans into existence. Why did she rely on the humans to reproduce naturally? He shook his head. After all, it didn't matter why Life did what she did. It didn't change what he had to do.

The woman cried out again, and this time Sans felt a magic presence fill the room. He looked around, but whatever it was, it wasn't physical. Then he understood, the magic was centered on the woman. He reached out with his senses, and his eye burned with a gentle blue flame as he examined her closely. He saw the magic being worked around her. It coalesced into a small golden flame, barely the size of her fist. The flame slowly descended, seeping into the woman and entering the child in her womb. The woman cried out in pain once more, but then she gasped in relief as another voice began crying. A small baby girl was now in the hands of the waiting doctors.

"So that's how she does it," he thought. "Interesting." He watched the newborn struggle and protest as the doctors examined her. "She doesn't even bother to show up in person. Heh…and I thought I was lazy."

He stared at the newborn for a few more seconds before turning to the mother. Her life was already fading from her body. She managed to turn her head to get a look at her child. Her eyes lingered on her tiny form before she let out a sigh of contentment. Sans walked over to her beside, and pulled out his scythe.

"Sorry, kid," he thought. "Looks like your life starts with tragedy." And he brought the scythe down.

After he finished his work, Sans teleported back home to drop off the souls in the Hall of Judgement. The Hall had been Papyrus's project, and it had kept him occupied for an entire week. That might not sound like much, but when you could literally make buildings appear out of thin air, a week was a long time to spend constructing something. Sans smiled as he thought of his brother. Papyrus never seemed to be bothered by what they were. True, he didn't like to forcibly reap souls, but he had never been depressed by it either. His brother seemed to be a boundless supply of positive energy. Sans wondered how he did it. Death wasn't exactly a joyous thing. He never considered asking him about it either. Whatever quality Papyrus possessed that allowed him to be so cheerful all the time was something that he didn't possess himself. He was sure of that.

His thoughts had carried him to their house. Walking in, he noticed that Papyrus had already cooked dinner.

"Sans!" he said. "You're running late! Your spaghetti will get cold if you let it sit any longer!"

Sans barely managed to hide his grimace. Papyrus had an unhealthy fascination with cooking pasta. It was a shame that he was a horrible cook. Sans had often suspected that Papyrus had been born with an altered sense of taste. His cooking was barely edible, but he shoveled it down anyway. Also, he had never liked Grillby's food, which was widely considered to be the best in existence.

"Sorry, bro, but I can't stay for dinner. I've got an appointment upstairs," he said.

"Really? With who?" Papyrus replied.

"Alphys. She's been working on a project for me."

"I see. Well, enjoy your visit! I'll put your spaghetti in the fridge so you can eat it later."

"Of course you will," he thought. Out loud he said, "Thanks, bro. I'll see you later."

He teleported to the entrance of Alphys's laboratory. The lab of the Goddess of Knowledge was one of the few places he never teleported directly into. Alphys was… disorganized to say the least. She was brilliant, but she sometimes let her enthusiasm get the better of her. Her various projects tended to end up scattered around the lab, usually in the middle of the floor somewhere. The last time he'd teleported straight in, he ended up swimming in some sort of tank filled with a strange liquid that had dyed his bones pink for a month. Since then, he'd made it a policy to use the door like everyone else. It was just safer that way.

The door swung open automatically when he walked up to it. He walked inside, and sure enough, there were various experiments everywhere. Alphys was no where to be seen, however. Then he heard her voice. "I'll be right with you!" she called.

Sans folded his arms and waited. He was a little impatient. He'd been anxious for this project to work, but he knew that trying to rush Alphys was futile. She had always moved at her own pace, and she was completely oblivious to suggestions that she should work a little faster. Of course, it was probably a good thing that she didn't rush some of her more delicate experiments. He heard footsteps, and saw her coming around the corner. "Ah, Sans!" she said. "Good to see you. How have you been?"

"Just fine, thanks," he replied. The Goddess of Knowledge was a short yellow reptilian creature who wore a white lab coat and glasses. Of all the gods that he knew, she was definitely one of the most interesting. She studied everything about everything. She would go out of her way to learn things that seemed completely pointless, and Sans was positive that she hardly slept at all. Especially with the task Asgore had given her. Ever since she was appointed to the council, she, along with Gaster, had been put in charge of researching ways to seal Chaos out of their reality. So far, she hadn't had much luck, but she was determined to do whatever it took to get the job done. It was something they had in common.

"Of course, she probably likes her job a bit more than I like mine," he thought to himself.

"I got your message," he told her. "I'm here to pick it up."

"Of course, of course," she said. "Follow me. And uh, try not to touch anything."

Sans nodded and followed her through the maze of stasis tanks, tool tables, and equipment monitors. Alphys led him to a corner in the back of the room, where a magic infusion table had been set up. There were several diagrams drawn on and around the table, and a clear crystal orb floated in the middle of it. "The process was relatively simple," Alphys was saying. "It just took a while to attune it and charge it up."

She stopped and carefully picked up the orb, examining it for any defections. "All right," she said after a moment. "Here you go. One scrying crystal attuned to the mortal realm."

"Thanks," he said, taking it from her. It was a lot lighter than he thought it'd be. "I can use this to scan any part of the human realm right?"

"Yep," she replied. "You can look at anything you want. You can even scan the entire mortal realm all at once." She paused for a second. "Although, I'm not entirely sure why you wanted one. I mean, its not like you need it to find the humans who die."

"I wanted it for… personal reasons," he said. Only two people knew the whole truth about Chara's corruption: Gaster and himself. Everyone else thought that she had died when he went to reap her. Gaster had decided that it would be best if the council didn't know about what had happened to her. Chara had been adored by the gods. Many of them had been upset enough when they found out she had "died." If the council, particularly Asgore, found out what had really happened, it could lead them to do something rash.

Alphys studied him for a moment, curious about what kind of personal reason Sans would have for a scrying crystal. Then she shrugged, it wasn't her business anyway. Besides, a scrying orb wasn't dangerous at all. "Well, alright then. Just try not to break it. I don't have a whole lot of time on my hands, so I wouldn't be able to replace it right away."

"Got it," Sans said. "Thanks again Alphys."

He teleported back to the Underworld. Specifically, he went straight to his room. He didn't want Papyrus interrupting him about his dinner right now. Spaghetti could wait until he gave this a shot. He sat the crystal down in front of him and placed a hand on it. He concentrated, channeling his magic through the crystal. He thought about Chara, and her image appeared in the crystal's center. Then her image vanished, replaced by a multitude of scenes from around the entire realm. He gritted his teeth. Nothing was changing. Try as he might, the images refused to focus.

He almost slammed the crystal on the floor out of frustration. The whole point of having a scrying tool created was so that he could focus his ability to find humans to track down Chara. Nothing had changed, and he was still no closer to finding her. "Think Sans," he told himself. "There has to be some way to find her."

He thought about calling up Alphys, but in order for her to help solve the problem he'd have to tell her about Chara. Besides, she'd probably just tell him to think outside the box. After all, it's not like she would know why the he couldn't find her.

"Wait a second," he thought. "Maybe I've been looking at this the wrong way. The crystal is channelling my power to find humans. Since its still not working, that means that my power isn't capable of finding her. Now, the question is: Why can't my power find her?"

He'd always just assumed that Chaos had been shielding her with some sort of counter spell. However, now that he considered it, that theory didn't hold up. Chaos might be able to wield his power through her, but only a fraction. Given how much his own power had grown, not to mention having boosted it with the scrying crystal, there should be no way Chaos could generate enough power to stop him from finding her. Which meant she was hiding in a different way.

"How could she hide from me?" he thought. "She has to be in the mortal realm somewhere, but where? Is there a place that I can't reach? And if there is, how would I find it?"
Then it hit him. "I'm Death," he realized. "The state of death is what connects me to the mortal realm. So if there's a place I can't see in the mortal realm, then it means that location is free of death."

He focused on the crystal again, preparing to scan the entire realm. It glowed, then became a miniature replica of the planet the humans lived on. His eye began to burn and he let some his power flow into the crystal, scanning for any trace of his own presence. The crystal slowly began to turn dark, covering up the landscape. Soon enough, the entire planet was black. Except for a single tiny dot. Wherever Chara's hiding place was, it was in the virgin forest backed up against Mt. Ebbot, the tallest mountain in the world.

"Finally," he said. "I've finally found you."