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Sans walked down the streetlamp lit sidewalk, vanishing in the dark spaces between the little circles of lights, hands tucked deep into the pockets of his jacket to ward off the slight chill of the oncoming storm. His footsteps were long and slow, and he silently took in the quiet of the world for what little time the city was dark. He could have simply teleported to Alphys's laboratory and saved himself the twenty minute walk, but it was peaceful out tonight in lieu of the gathering storm clouds, and Sans enjoyed it while it lasted. He loved the static power in the air, It reminded him of a long gone memory that he couldn't quite place.
He took in a deep breath of the cool air, letting the breeze blow away his worries as he slowly approached the multiple storied house with a wide array of oddly shaped lightning rods. Sans walked with deliberation up to the steel door before giving it a couple of quick raps with his knuckles. Undyne answered a few moments later, wearing, much to his surprise, a pair of safety goggles hanging from around her neck and a too short white lab coat.
"What's up, short stack?" Undyne greeted him in tiredly.
"Don't call me that," Sans deadpanned. "And what's up with the gear? Are you cosplaying as Alphys now or somethin'?"
"Ha ha," she laughed humorlessly, swiftly closing out the night chill behind them. "I've actually been helping Al in the lab."
"Wow. Color me surprised," he blinked as she led him toward the basement. "Alphys hates people watching her work."
"I haven't just been watching, I'm not some cheerleader," she rolled her eyes as they descended the steps, the light slowly growing brighter as they did so. "I've been helping Al with her latest project."
"She's been letting you help with that?" he asked in mild surprise.
"It's been more playin' gopher than anything," he could hear her frown. "But, yeah. It's been kinda fun."
"Good to see you're here, Sans!" Alphys greeted him warmly as the automatic door to the lab whooshed open. "Things have been crazy, I'm glad you're finally back."
Sans whistled as he looked around the lab, noting the many, many additions of tacked up graphs and pictures of apparently random people and monsters connected with string. "Wow. You've been... busy down here. What's goin' on?"
"So," she rubbed her hands together, placing her blowtorch down on the workbench. "You know how the timeline anomaly identifier picked up a spike on the radar a few days ago, right?"
"Go on..." he motioned with one hand.
"I think I've pinpointed the exact time and location of the next anomaly spike."
"So spill the beans," Sans stuck his hands back in his pockets.
"We've got approximately one week and six hours before it happens."
Sans felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. His heart felt like it had suddenly been encased in a block of ice, and the chill was slowly spreading through his bones.
Sans sucked in a breath through his teeth, his entire body tense. There was no mistaking it.
The resets were coming.
"Are you positive?" he asked in a low tone, watching as Undyne rifled through a folder full of charts.
"I've done the scans at least a dozen times," Alphys nodded grimly. "The anomaly spike is going to be big. Bigger than any of the previous ones from last year before we left the underground. This-this is huge, Sans. I mean, it's the largest one recorded."
Sans ran a hand over his head, letting out a long, slow breath.
"... Okay."
Alphys blinked.
"... Okay?" she balked. "That's all you have to say?"
"It's in the future," he shrugged. "We'll worry about it when the time comes."
"You're... awfully calm about this," Alphys noted.
"I'm screaming on the inside," he quipped, pulling out a rolled up paper from inside his pocket. "Brought this for ya', by the way."
He tossed the blueprints to Alphys and she barely managed to catch them, fumbling before readjusting her glasses to better study them.
"... Oh my god," she let out a low whistle. "You actually had them. Gaster's blueprints for the first core."
"So can you do it now?" he asked quietly. "Can you help me build a sufficient generator with the capacity to power a phase distortion machine?"
"I... think?" she rubbed her scalp with one hand, studying the worn writing and trying to ignore what appeared to be a large coffee stain. "It'll take me a while. Never was much good at reading hands."
"Estimation, Al. Time is kinda of the essence here."
"I'd say..." she gulped. "About... five? Six days?"
Sans paused, hands deep in his pockets as he stared at her.
"... No," his mind was racing. "No way-"
"I am not comfortable about this," Alphys rolled the blueprints back up, beginning to pace in front of her workbench. "The risks involved are high and I do not believe in coincidences, Sans. What if this and the spike are related-?"
"We have to try," Sans pleaded as she frowned. "Come on, Al- this could be our chance, our only chance to bring back the one monster with the knowledge to stop the anomalies from occurring ever again!"
"Yeah," she nodded once. "And it could also result in ripping a hole in the universe."
"We literally brought a child back from the dead," he tried to hold back his anger. "You think we can't pull this off, too?"
"That's not what I'm worried about, Sans," she said quietly.
"Then what?" his eye twitched. "We can do this, Alphys, it'll be just like old times-"
"Sans," Alphys gritted her teeth. "Gaster's methods tended to be... well, unorthodox.
Sans stared at her, struggling to find the right words.
"Everything that could possibly happen," he breathed, fists shaking in his pockets. "Everything that could possibly be a concern, and you're worried about his methods?!"
"You know how Gaster was a-about humans," she shifted from foot to foot, and it was clear from Undyne's expression that she was extremely uneasy.
"I can't believe this," Sans massaged his temples. "I can't believe I'm hearing this."
"I'm just saying," she held up her hands defensively. "M-maybe, if we even can pull this off, maybe we shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket."
"Just..." Sans held his hands over his eyes for a moment, letting out a breath before sticking them back in his pockets. "... Fine. Y'know, it's not that big a deal."
"... It isn't?" she blinked.
"No," he shrugged. "It's fine. You just take care of the second core, I'll take care of the phase distortion generator."
"I-I mean, S-Sans-" she started uncomfortably, but with a snap of his fingers he was already gone.
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It was raining a heavy drizzle before long.
Sans sat with his jacket hood deep over his head, hands tucked deeply into his pockets as he stared out from his place on the park bench through the rain at the wide open park. He glanced up at the sky, half expecting to see the glistening ceiling of the Underground instead of the hanging clouds.
Seven days.
The words bounced around in his head over and over again. His fists tightened as he struggled to stay awake, his head feeling heavy and numb.
Didn't Alphys understand how important this was? Did she really think things were just going to stay the way that they were forever?
Seven days until the spike.
"... Grilby's," he muttered at long last, straining to ward off the exhaustion as he stumbled to his feet. If anyone would understand (or at the very least listen to) what he was going through, it would be Grillby. Besides, it had been far too long since he'd visited the fire elemental's new pub that he'd built from the ground up. It had taken the collaboration of his daughter and a handful of slightly baffled human construction workers, but Grillby's new place was definitely a sight for sore eyes. The warm little lights in the wide windows beckoned him in with a comforting waver, and Sans could still smell the fresh, slightly smoky scent of polished cedar. The wafting aroma of cooking food drifting out from the kitchen drew him further in, and he took a seat at one of the bar stools before the pristine (if slightly burned) countertop.
"Hey, Grillbz," Sans gave a halfhearted wave to the flaming bartender, trying to keep from yawning.
"You're up awfully late, Sans," the whispery voice of Grillby floated out from where his mouth might have been. "You look... pretty terrible."
"Thanks, I try my best," he swept his head with a small black comb before sticking it back in his pocket. "I'll take a cold one. Keep 'em comin'."
"Long night?" Grillby passed him a bottle from behind the counter.
"Yeah," Sans said after a long drought. "Guess you could say that."
He looked back and forth between the bottle and the bartender, listening to the drumming of the rain on the windows. Grillby busied himself with cleaning a few crystalline mugs with a cloth, continuing from one to another until each one shined.
"... Grillby," Sans asked after a few minutes of silence. "If you knew you only had seven days until something horrible happened, what would you do?"
"That's... slightly more profound than your usual knock knock jokes," Grillby said after a moment of contemplation. "Sans, are you feeling alright?"
"Ah, fuhgeddaboudit," he grinned forcefully. "Just got a lot on my mind, y'know? I'll take another, by the way."
Grillby absentmindedly passed him bottle after bottle, each one Sans downed with enthusiasm.
"I suppose..." Grillby paused his constant cleaning for a moment. "If I knew I only had seven days left, I would spend more time with my family."
"You wouldn't... y'know... try to prevent it from ever happening?" Sans asked, finishing his bottle and motioning for another.
"Sometimes all one can do is go with the current," Grillby said sagely. "And should the worst occur and I found myself with no more than a week to live my life, I'd do just that. Live what remained of my life to the fullest."
Sans chortled.
"... What's so funny?" Grillby blinked, readjusting his glasses.
"Nothin'," Sans shook his head. "Just... I should come to you for advice more often."
"I wouldn't advise it," Sans could hear the smile in his voice. "Free advice, more often than not, tends to be absolutely atrocious."
"I'll hafta take your word for it," Sans shrugged, his head feeling heavy. "'nother bottle?"
"I believe you've had enough for now," Grillby crossed his arms.
"What?" Sans blinked woozily. "Why?"
"You've been drinking ketchup for the past five minutes."
Sans double checked the bottle he'd been drinking from, staring at it. Then he took another swig.
"... Not half bad, actually."
"You should be with your family."
"Huh?"
"You never ask hypothetical questions, Sans," Grillby stared at him with an odd look behind his glasses. "If there's something going on in your life that makes you feel like you're running out of time, then the best proposal I can suggest is to spend what time you have with the people that love you. Though take that with a grain of salt, it's free advice."
Sans stared at him for a long minute before slowly shaking his head.
"... Yeah." he gradually stood, tucking his hands back into his pockets. "You've got a point. Catch you later, Grillbz."
"Uh, Sans?" Grillby started, but the skeleton had already drunkenly teleported out of the bar. Grillby pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing.
Someday he was going to get Sans to pay his damned tab.
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A/N
Hey there, readers!
I hope you've enjoyed the story so far, and thanks for all the support. ^-^
Please let me know if there are any errors or typos I missed. Next chapter should be up soon!