Before we get to the story I just want to say THANK YOU for the support! The amount of follows and favorites I've gotten and the awesome reviews have helped greatly. This story has gotten more love (the good kind) in the first month than my other story did in its whole existence starting last year. Then again, it's been helping my self-worth, with the thought that people like what I do, more than my motivation to write chapters. I am writing them, don't worry, and I love writing this, just don't expect regular chapter updates. I'll write the chapters at my own pace. Now that that's cleared up, let's get to what you came here for.

Sans was having a great dream. It involved being the emperor of a great city where everyone had to make puns with every fifth sentence. When the dream started to fade, so did the puns that were made. He felt disappointed. He could have had a lot of fun with papyrus this timeline. It suddenly occurred to him that he never dreamed between timelines. He usually instantly woke up in his bed back in Snowdin. Instead, as the waking world faded into existence, so did two figures. One was a female human who seemed to be a doctor of sorts. The other was a...his mind raced as he saw them.

The other person was a skeleton. Unlike Papyrus or himself, they appeared to be unable to form expressions. He had to admit, they had great fashion sense, with that awesome hat and his rather nice suit. (1) They appeared to be in a hospital of sorts, though there were some weird things around and some very intimidating guards with scythes strapped to their backs at the exits. Despite the situation, he kept his joking demeanor and grinned up at the odd pair of individuals.

"Heya. Howzit goin'? Why am I not dead?" the doctor's reaction to him speaking was hilarious. They had an incredibly shocked expression which resembled that of a startled fish. (That sounds familiar somehow) Although, he didn't know why they overreacted so much. A talking skeleton shouldn't be that surprising. Chances are the skeleton in the suit was able to talk. Maybe it was because his jaw moved like a normal mouth when he spoke. Who knows other than that god-like being observing all this?

Wait, what? He tried to recall the thought he just had but couldn't. It had vanished completely from his mind. It was probably nothing. Anyway, after the doctor regained their composure, they began to scribble something down on a clipboard. He felt the wound on his chest and winced. It still hurt, but at least he wasn't dying. Then again, even if he didn't die, the human would have reset by now, so he should be back in Snowdin, getting woken up by Papyrus.

The other skeleton shook its head in embarrassment from the doctor's actions. Unlike the doctor, the skeleton had just tilted its head curiously at him when he spoke. It opened its jaw and said "to answer your question, you're not dead because we healed you." The skeleton's voice smooth, intelligent. Experienced.

"Hmm. You're either my...relative, or my brother back from the dead. You can't be my relative, that's impossible. You could be my brother that came back from the dead with a quieter voice, greater intelligence and a much better fashion sense. Then again, Papyrus wouldn't just change even if he came back from death. I should know. I guess you're a completely different skeleton. Or maybe...no that's impossible." Sans banished the thought from his mind. There was no way he could do that even intentionally, so how could he possibly do it unintentionally.

"What's impossible?" The skeleton asked.

Sans thought about what answer would satisfy the skeleton's curiosity without revealing too much. He settled for a casual joke. "Hehehe. Tibia honest, it's a skele-ton of work to explain and I can't be bothered."

The skeleton chuckled at the pun. "Well, if you're going to be like that, i suppose you're going to be fine. As soon as you're able to walk, try to find me. I'll need to ask you some questions about you and where you came from. Doctor Synecdoche-" the skeleton finally noticed that the doctor had left to do some other, more important things.

-LINE-BREAK- (2)

Over the next week, Sans recovered perfectly. well, mostly. the slash that almost killed him had healed, but there was still a long ridge across Sans' ribs which substituted a scar. he was going to be stuck with it for the rest of his life (or until the next reset he's affected by). Sans explained that he was from Mt Ebott, that something bad was happening (he wasn't specific) and that something had happened to let him through the barrier, though he wasn't sure. the skeleton with great suits and hats introduced himself as Skulduggery Pleasant, a detective, sorcerer (Sans had a problem with that, but Skul-man cleared that up by saying he wasn't around when the barrier was put in place) and dead. seriously, he was dead and had been for a long time. that was the only part of what Skulduggery was saying that caught Sans' attention until he mentioned something interesting.

oh right, i should explain. at that current time, Sans was listening to Skulduggery giving a final report of his condition before he was to be released and then interrogated a bit more. (they already know everything, so why would they do that?) shut it. they don't know everything and you're not here yet. (that's right. not yet. hehehe.)

"we were checking your soul for permanent damage (3) when we noticed something...bonded to it. we're not quite sure what it is, thought it appears to be a soul of sorts. it doesn't behave like any normal human soul or like your monster soul. the magic level was off the charts." he flipped through the pages of a file, likely information on this mystery soul (4). "since you seem to know more about monster souls than we do...uh...it would help if you could...uh...what are you staring at?"

Sans was staring at the faint, shadowy outline of a tall, skeletal monster standing behind Skulduggery. just as described, it was tall, and seemed to be dressed in a long black lab coat. while the upper part of it was a shadowy form, the lower part turned transparent and faded out into nothing. it's face was hard to make out, but what could be made out was large eye sockets and a wide mouth curved up into an eerie smile. he could feel it staring right back at him. it seemed to notice that Sans could see it, and seemed to wave at him. it looked around and drifted towards an injured human that was bleeding all over the place. the ghostly monster's hand drifted over the human's chest and dragged out the human's soul. the doctors surrounding the human paused and stared at the soul. it was a strong orange color, signifying bravery, but the color was fading, cracks working all across its surface. the shadow monster reached out and took hold of the dying soul using black tendrils that dropped from its fingers. the tendrils seemed to smother the soul and when they released it, the soul had turned a blank grey color and seconds later, it shattered. the monster had sucked the determination out of the soul.

the moment the soul shattered, the monster appeared to gain mass and become solid. in less than three seconds, the ghost monster was surrounded by the humans in grey with their scythes unsheathed and aimed for where the monster's throat would be. the monster's expression didn't change, it didn't even flinch at the presence of the blades. now that it was in a more physical form, Sans could fully see what it looked like. just as he thought, it was dressed in a very formal outfit, which blended in with the black lab coat and contrast with its stark white skull and hands. speaking of its hands, each had a wide hole in its center. cracks ran up, over its cranium from its right socket and down to its mouth from the left socket. in the blackness of the eye sockets, each had a small white dot, almost like a light, but not quite.

the monster held itself with confident, almost arrogant posture, standing straight and hands behind its back. it raise its left hand casually, like it had nothing to fear and it wasn't in any danger and as it did so, the hand glowed an artificial looking purple color. the soul yellow souls of the humans in grey appeared. the monster flicked its wrist and they were thrown into the walls of the medical facility.

a click sounded and the monster turned straight into the aim of Skulduggery's revolver. "don't move, or i'll pull the trigger." the monster tilted its head curiously at Skulduggery, the dots in its sockets shifting their gaze from him to the gun and back again. a spectral hand with a hole in it appeared out of nothing and grabbed the gun, forcing it out of Skulduggery's grip. another flick of its wrist and skulduggery was sent crashing into a wall. the monster turned its gaze to Sans and opened its mouth to speak, but instead of words, it emitted strange mumbling and glitching sounds. well, that's what it sounded like to Skulduggery. to Sans, it sounded like this:

"it's been a long time, Sans."

aaand that's a cliff-hanger! hope i did a good job with this one, and my followers are still interested. okay, i'm sure you've been wondering what was with the bold numbers. they mean that i felt the need to explain something without the issue of making it fit into the story. here are the things:

(1)-i'm just commenting that Skulduggery has great fashion sense and he makes it look better than most people. there will be NO shipping in this story. even if that was my intention, i suck at writing romance. i know this because I've never done it before.

(2)-i couldn't think of a way to keep the conversation going.

(3)-i imagine that in the time this is based in, let's say a few years after Valkyrie returns to Ireland, the sanctuary continued Nye's work of finding the soul and succeeded, and through that, they were able to learn a lot, including how to analyse it for damage. sadly, their research of the soul did not give them the ability to enhance magic at the level of the accelerator. they can increase the power of their magic, just not on the crazy level of the accelerator.

(4)-how else could i describe it?

that's everything! i kinda just guessed what the number 4 was about, by the time i got around to this i had forgotten what it was for. i would have updated a few days ago, but i ran out of computer time at the library. seriously, i'm using library computer time to write this since the computer i have at home is usually being used by my brothers for roblox or something. okay, how would any of you describe Gaster? we all know who he is by now, he's not a mystery any more. i figured my description could be a bit better. if my description isn't very good to you, i'll probably change the image for this story to a fan-art image of Gaster so you see what i'm imagining. there might not be another chapter for a while, since i need to figure out how i'm going to start the next chapter.

i've talked enough, follow and favorite if you enjoyed it, reviews would be appreciated. oh, and speaking of reviews, just out of curiosity, what's your favorite undertale AU? stay awesome and love undertale-sceera