Sans stared at the clock beside his bed. It read 2 AM. It was highly unusual for him to not be able to sleep. Maybe it was his wariness of Lucida that kept him awake. He had no clue either way.

"welp, i guess now's as good a time as any."

Sans pulled himself out of bed and crossed the room to the door, grabbing his jacket off of the bedpost as he passed by it. He slowly pushed the door open, the soft creaking of the hinges breaking the silence of the empty hallway. Pulling on the jacket, Sans began down the hall. He counted himself lucky that the floors were carpeted. His bare, bony feet would have made too much noise against any other flooring.

"Hey, Sans!"

Sans whirled around to see Lucida standing just down the hall behind him. If he had a heart, it would have skipped a beat just then.

"what'cha doin' up?" Sans asked as Lucida came closer.

"Just hanging out, is all," Lucida replied, finally stopping a couple feet away from Sans, "Sometimes, I have a hard time sleeping. What's got you up?"

"couldn't sleep," Sans said honestly.

"Oh my pineapples, we have the same problem!" Lucida said, eyes lighting up, "We could practically be siblings! Two skeletons having trouble sleeping!"

"what are you?"

Lucida froze, her pupils disappearing in fear. Sans had decided to come right out and say what was on his mind. It wasn't like him to be serious like this, but he wasn't exactly sure how he felt about Lucida at this point.

"W-what do you mean by that?" Lucida asked nervously.

"there's something wrong about you," Sans explained, "i just can't figure you out. it's like, sometimes, you expect things to happen and they just don't. there's something that feels forced about you. nothing you do makes any sense at all."

"Not all that crystal-clear, is it?"

Sans felt the fire in his left eye flare up as it began to glow a brilliant blue.

"that's an interesting choice of words, buddy. mind telling me what you mean by that?"

"It all depends on how much you think you know."

"i told you what i know. want something more?"

Lucida tapped her finger against her arm, causing a steady ticking to resound through the silence. She then began to tense up, the ticking getting faster and faster, only capping off when tears began streaming down her cheeks.

"You don't know what it's like," Lucida muttered, "It's like a reset, but nothing's the same...except that everything's the same."

"i know my fair share about resets, buddy," Sans replied.

"Not like this," Lucida retorted, "I don't know how aware of resets you are, but I doubt you know about mine."

Sans stared at Lucida in bewilderment.

"I spent about five minutes with all of you before you ever got here," Lucida went on, "After that, I reset."

Sans' eye burned brighter, the corners of his mouth beginning to twitch.

"that's not possible," Sans said, "there's no way you reset. it takes determination to reset. monsters don't have the determination needed to do that."

"Well, I did," Lucida responded, grinning slightly, "What does that make me, I wonder?"

Sans felt a shiver shoot down his spine.

"lucida..."

"What's a name, Sans?" Lucida interrupted, "How do you know if Lucida is mine?"

"then who are you?"

"Maybe I'm nothing more than a lucid fake. I'm sure you appreciate the pun."

Sans was about to retort, but decided against it, opting to stay quiet.

"I'm just trying to get back what I lost, Sans," Lucida continued, "Just follow the script and we won't have any problems."

"what script are you talking about?"

"Ugh. I'm acting just like her, aren't I?" Lucida scoffed, looking away, "This isn't right. I'm not like this."

Sans stepped forward to try to get closer to Lucida, but, suddenly, his leg became trapped by something, making him unable to move. Looking down, he realized, to his horror, that his leg was now encased in ice, which was slowly beginning to spread up to the rest of his body.

"No," Lucida muttered, "I'll do anything I have to do to get it all back. Even if it's not the same, maybe it'll fill the void. That's all I can hope for at this point."

Sans quickly summoned a Gaster Blaster, pointing it straight at Lucida.

"let me go or i shoot," Sans demanded. Right now, he was desperate. If he didn't get Lucida to stop, she'd probably take his life.

"You can't afford not to care anymore, can you?" Lucida asked, "That's fine. Go ahead and shoot. I'll just reset and start from square one again. I'll live this entire thing all over again and you will too."

"what do you want out of us?"

"I told you that already. All I want is to get back what I lost."

"what did you lose and how do we fit into all of this?"

"It's too complicated for you to understand, Sans. Shocking, I know, but there are some things in life that even you can't comprehend."

Sans grit his teeth, glaring at Lucida with his one blazing eye.

"i'm not gonna stop, you know," he retorted, "i'm gonna keep fighting you for as long as i have to before you stop all of this. i'm not gonna give up."

"If you do that, then I'll just keep resetting," Lucida replied, "It doesn't matter how long it takes me. I will get what I want. You can't beat me, Sans."

Sans tried to reach out toward Lucida, but found both his arms now encased in the ice now creeping up his torso. The chill was beginning to sap away his strength and he feared that, if he tried to struggle, he'd just end up using it all up for naught.

"i'm gonna ask you one more time," Sans said, beads of sweat forming on his forehead, "who are you?"

Lucida stared at Sans for a moment, as if contemplating whether or not to tell him.

"You really want to know, huh?" Lucida asked.

"yes," Sans replied, "i do."

"Fine."

Lucida slowly walked forward toward Sans, tracing out his terrified smile with her finger.

"I'm an anomaly. I'm someone who once existed somewhere else. If you think that you can avoid me, you're sorely mistaken. I can and will reset until I get the ending I want, no matter how much you try to fight me."

She moved her finger from his mouth to his left eye socket, running her finger around the edge.

"I used to have friends. I used to have people I cared about. All of that was taken away from me, though. All I'm trying to do is recreate it with you."

She placed her forehead against his, letting her finger slide back down to rest against the center of his mouth.

"I am Krystal and you are my best friends."

With the last of his strength, Sans fired off the Gaster Blaster he'd summoned, engulfing both Lucida and himself in the searing beam of light.

Then, all was silent and all was dark.

"There are no ratings yet," Alphys replied nervously, "Apparently, it's a brand-new place."

"THEN THEY SHOULD HAVE SOME SPACE FOR SOME NEW FRIENDS!" Papyrus piped up, running ahead of the group.

"Hold on!" Alphys called out, running after Papyrus, "You don't even know where it is!"

Sans stared ahead. Part of him wanted to run after Papyrus and tell him not to go, but he knew that would only result in another reset.

"Is something wrong, Sans?" Toriel asked. Sans glanced back at her and saw Frisk getting ready to race after Alphys and Papyrus.

"heh," Sans thought to himself, "i thought i'd only ever have to deal with one resetting psychopath."

Frisk darted off, arms out like an airplane. Toriel giggled.

"now I've got two."