Shivers went down Toriel's spine as Sans and herself headed for the lab. She had never been teleported with Sans before and the feeling was far too exciting for her old bones-It was quite literally like being one with the wind. She noticed how Sans didn't seem to mind, but then again maybe that was why he wore that big coat all the time. Toriel chuckled at this thought and then walked with Sans through the door to the lab, the dusty air made Toriel's nose scrunch up in disapproval. Sans made his way to the light switch and flicked it on, the harshness of its luminescence made Toriel squint her eyes until they adjusted and took in all that the lab had to offer.

"This is your lab Sans?"

"Yeah, but I like to call it the bonedoggle zone. My bro is pretty good at knowing stuff without really knowing stuff. I admire it. Anyway, let me give you the tour. Over there you can see most of the floor and above us is the ceiling. But what you really want to see is over here. Give me a sec."

Toriel giggled after realizing the word pun while Sans walked to the back of the lab and began to dig around in one of the drawers. It seemed like a pretty small drawer that wouldn't take much time to search and yet, Sans seemed to be taking his time rummaging his hand through the drawer, feeling for something. Eventually he put both hands in and focused solely on digging through the drawer. Toriel decided to take a quick look around while Sans did this and the first thing she noticed was the blueprints spread across the table.

"Oh! These look like they belonged to Gaster! Such a complex device...! He really was an intellect above our own. It was tragic to lose him on that day..."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure this was one of his old labs too, but I figured he didn't need it anymore so I could use it. They definitely go to that machine over there, but the thing was broken when I got here so I just salvage it for parts."

Toriel looked from the blueprints to the machine Sans was pointing at. It was sitting in the corner of the room with a large tarp over it, just gathering dust. She walked over and confirmed that the blueprints matched the machines design...to some extent anyway, Sans wasn't kidding when he said he had taken parts from it, the thing was beyond repair now. Though looking at it made Toriel feel uneasy, as though the late scientists presence was still lingering inside the machine. Even in this futuristic looking room, the machine seemed out of place.

Leaving the machine alone, Toriel returned to looking around the lab, occasionally glancing at Sans who was still digging through the drawer. Although she told herself she probably shouldn't snoop, she couldn't help but be interested in Sans' work. He had never struck her as the scientific kind of skeleton but just looking through some of the books and journals in the lab suggested otherwise. He must have had a vast understanding on quantum physics in particular, even going so far as to find plans for a self-sustaining tornado. Sans had spent all this time working towards bettering himself, gaining new powers and understandings of this world with all of these resets, and yet, Toriel had done nothing of the sort but continue to be played as a fool. How long had this skeleton waited to get to this moment? Her movements suddenly stopped when her hand brushed over a picture in the drawer which she pulled out to examine more closely.

"Oh! Did the human draw this Sans? I don't recognize these humans..."

Sans didn't even have to look to know what Toriel was talking about and yet, something about it bothered him. In her hands Toriel held a crudely drawn picture of three people smiling. On the top of the photo it read 'don't forget'.

"Don't forget? Don't forget what? Who are these people?"

"Ah don't worry about it. Just some kids who got in way over their head."

Toriel looked at the picture perplexedly and then back to Sans, not wanting to pry into Sans private matters. They didn't look like children, at least any that Toriel had seen before and no human aside from children had been in the underground after the barrier was created so...just who were these people, and why did Sans need to remember them?

"Forgive me, if I'm being rude Sans but...these humans look...older? How is this possible Sans? No human would dare let themselves be trapped in the barrier after the war...Would they?"

Sans stopped what he was doing, a hollowed expression washed over his face as he turned to look at Toriel.

"Trust me. There are some things you REALLY do not want to know."

"S-sans?"

"Like I said, don't worry about it, come over here and help me with this will ya?"

"Don't brush over this like I'm some ignorant child. I know it took a lot longer for me to realize the resets than it did for you. It must have been horribly lonely waiting for someone to open their eyes to all this. But...I'm here now, aren't I? Aren't we partners in this?"

Sans let go of the drawer and turned around to face Toriel, thrusting his hands into his pockets

"Believe me, I was thrilled to finally get you as a friend; no one else appreciates a good joke as good as you do. But I'm doing this to save us all, not to shove my burdens onto someone else. Until I know for certain that we've fixed this mess that kid started I can't worry about that picture."

"I apologize Sans. It wasn't my place to ask about these things. Its just...seeing all this, and knowing that you spent so long to accumulate it all...I get the feeling there is still a lot you are not telling me."

"I hear ya, and maybe one day I could elaborate a little more on that when this is all over but for now...help me out with this."

Sans again motioned to the drawer, but he wouldn't start until he got Toriel's confirmation. Toriel on the other hand, decided to drop the subject of the photo, putting it back in the drawer and then moving over to help Sans. If she earned San's trust surely then she could learn the truth about the skeleton but for now, she would settle for just being his friend, after all she owed a great deal to Sans.

Sans reached into the drawer and pulled out a colored rope and handed it to Toriel.

"Here, pull on this."

Toriel, confused as ever hesitantly took the rope and then began to pull on it. Her innate strength made it easy to pull and yet, the more she did it the more string that came out. It was as though the string was never-ending. She looked to Sans for some kind of answer but he just stood there as plain as ever, waiting for her to pull the string out. Faster and faster Toriel tugged on the colored rope, yanking at it with ferocious vigor. Sans checked his non-existent watch and then looked back to Toriel, still waiting. Determined to get to the bottom of this, Toriel kept pulling at the string, her eyes wincing from the amount of energy she was putting out just to get at this rope.

Longer...Longer...Yet even LONGER

Finally, there was something on the other end, Toriel desperate for results grabbed at the end of the rope and looked at it in her hands. It appeared to be a fishing line with a small note that read:

Hey! Call me!

Underneath that was a phone number and a picture of a weird looking monster and then, very faintly, almost unaudible, Toriel heard a trumpet playing an incidental tune. Disgusted and un-amused Toriel let the note fall to the ground and turned to Sans who was stifling a chuckle, but next to him was a large pod that she had not seen before.

"Did you hear that? Musta been a bird or something. Anyway, here is what I wanted to show you." Sans said trying to play it off.

Toriel's eyes narrowed as she looked at Sans knowing that she had been played a fool but then turned to look at the pod and was instantly shocked by its contents.

"That's-"

"The human's boss monster. Correct."

In the pod was a pile of bones.