"You'll get the hang of it, you just have to put a little more effort into it!"

"I am trying!" Sans protested as he narrowed his eyesockets in concentration, mustering every ounce of his will power and focus on this single bone, willing it to move upright in the air. A wavering blue aura of magic surrounded it, lifting it a few feet above the ground before the skeleton once more broke concentration and it once more came back crashing to the ground, bound again by the laws of gravity and space-time.

You watched in humoured fascination as Papyrus continued to instruct his brother on the fine art of magic. It was curious how easy it was for Papyrus to summon forth magic with a mere flicker of thought whilst it took his brother several strained efforts to even lift a bone from the ground. You couldn't help but wonder if it had to do with Sans' condition, the strange and unexplained part of the short skeleton where his health was abnormally low, so low in fact that even the slightest touch could cause him to wither into ash and dust.

The easiest enemy.

"It's not fair," Sans mumbled and sat down on the ground, kicking the bone in the midst of his frustration. "It's not fair how you or (Y/n) can summon magic on a whim, how easy it is for the both of you. I could die at the slightest touch, I can barely even use magic to defend myself should I need it, so then what's the point of me? Why am I even here? I'm obviously the weakest and most expendable of the three of us, so what's the point in keeping me here? I'm sure the scientist could have just as much fun torturing the two of you without me being here."

"Don't say that brother!" Papyrus exclaimed, looking horrified by his brother's words. "You're not a mistake or a reject, you're the best thing that's happened down here! Just because you don't get it the first time doesn't mean you won't be able to one day. Sometimes you have to fall down a lot before you can walk."

"Where did you get that from?" Sans asked, awed by his brother's sudden wisdom.

"From a cat poster in the scientist's office!" Papyrus exclaimed, looking very pleased with himself.

As a second-hand observer, you were often fascinated with how different the two of them were. Papyrus was determined to find the smallest ounce of positivity in anything handed to him and would latch onto it for the end of time. Sans, however, seemed to match more of your attitude when it came to both your imprisonment and the scientist, hating the world around you for dealing such a cruel hand of fate.

Papyrus had been insistent that his brother learn how to enhance his abilities in the field of magic, a task that was proving to be rather difficult, though if the tallest of the two skeletons felt any sort of frustration, he was doing a great job in hiding his emotions. You could sympathise with Sans on how aggravating it was to summon forth the needed magic to complete a task. It often took you several agonizing seconds to tap into the strange part of your mind that harboured the strange energy needed to reshape the world around you, a task that would almost certainly prove disastrous against an enemy that was more skilled than you in the field of combat, specifically the scientist. You didn't think he would wait for you to activate your magic before he roasted you to death in a torrent of flame and arcane energy.

"I'll give it one more try," Sans grunted as he got to his feet, sticking out his right hand, the part of his body where he seemed to channel his energy.

He fixated his gaze upon the bone and latched onto some main emotion that was ravaging inside his mind, allowing it to fuel him and thus the magic that constructed every monster, directing the energy towards the bone strewn on the ground. It gave a feeble wobble as a blue aura began to surround it before the bone rocketed from the ground at a speed unimaginable.

"You've got it brother!" Papyrus cheered happily as the bone floated around the ceiling, guided only by Sans' thoughts. You couldn't help but feel a surge of hope at the sight of Sans being able to harness and channel his magic, as small as it appeared to be. If the three of you could combine your strengths together, than perhaps it would be enough to best the scientist.

It had not worked last time, sure, but the three of you had little to no training in the set of magic. Perhaps if you practised, if you got better at honing your abilities, then there would be a chance for the three of you to escape into a better life without pain or suffering, where you could live free from the scientist's wrath. But that was relying upon the assumption that Papyrus would help take down the scientist, when even after he had done all the things he had, you were convinced that Papyrus would refuse, still wrapped in up in the delusion the scientist harboured good intentions.

The bone that Sans controlled began to shake wildly as the skeleton struggled to maintain control over it. It began to dart randomly across the room, striking the side of the walls and missed your head by a few inches. "Watch it!" You shouted and ducked as the bone missed your side.

"I can't control it!" Sans yelled back, looking frightened. And he should have been, for it this bone made even the slightest contact with him, it could kill him in an instant. It seemed as if he had last control over his once harnesses emotions, breaking his concentration and allowing the whole thing to collapse.

The bone shifted course in the air, guided by nothing more than the skeleton's wavering concentration, and zoomed towards you with speed unheard of. It was such a sudden change in the direction that it originally had been flying in that there was no time to react as the bone embedded itself in your right hand. You were not sure what you expected, if you a part of you had anticipated the magical attack to deal a significant amount of damage as Papyrus' attacks often did whenever he practised on dummies of the sort.

But even coming at you full speed, the bone did only a small amount of damage, barely depleting five points from your overall health. You felt a surge of relief that it had not been a fatal wound and that you would recover in a few minute's time, but you couldn't help but darkly note that as small as the damage was, a mere graze from this bone would have been enough to reduce Sans to a pile of ashes.

On the note of the smaller skeleton, he seemed rather disturbed at the revelation of how much damage the bone had done to you. "It's nothing," he muttered under his breath as he finally summoned up enough energy to have the bone vanish from view. "All of that energy, all of that concentration and effort into one stupid attack and it barely does any damage."

"Is that necessarily a bad thing?" You laughed weakly as you wiped the blood from your hand.

Sans seemed conflicted for a moment. "Yeah, I mean it's good that you weren't hurt too bad and all, things could have been a lot deadlier, but what good am I then? If we had been attacking the scientist, there's no way that I would be any help at all. My attacks, even when I can manage to summon forth my magic, barely do any damage at all! I'm useless," he grumbled and slumped over in the opposite end of the cell, staring at the ground as Papyrus walked closer to you, preparing to heal your injury.

Unlike you or Sans, Papyrus seemed to be the most skilled in the area of healing wounds. You weren't sure what about him allowed such an ability, why he seemed to excel at healing others whilst the majority of your magic seemed to only be able to prove useful for offensive attacks.

"You are not useless Sans!" Papyrus insisted as he held his hand over yours, a green light illuminating from his bony hand that spread to your injury. It was a serene sight, watching your flesh slowly creep and crawl, the wound mending itself. It took every ounce of your willpower to refrain from itching at the healing injury.

"Reality seems to have a different opinion," Sans mumbled.

You opened your mouth to interject when a pair of footsteps that echoed down the hall caught your attention. You felt your blood run cold at the thought of the scientist once more dragging one of the three of you out of the cell to conduct a strange array of experiments, promising with absolute certainty a day full of excruciating pain and agony.

"You might want to save your magic for later," joked Sans as the footsteps grew even louder as the scientist neared the cell. "Something tells me that we're going to be coming out of whatever hell he has planned with a lot more than just bumps and bruises."

You shuddered at the memory back when Sans and Papyrus had first made their appearance in the lab, during the time when you had convinced yourself that they were nothing more than things, inanimate objects that were programmed to walk and talk. Sans had been on the edge between life and death back then as a result of some experiment that had quite literally blown his skull in two.

"Don't say that brother!" Papyrus snapped. It was remarkably curious how defencive the tallest of the two skeletons was concerning the very monster that held the three of you as prisoners within these dark green walls full of chaos and misery. "I'm sure that whatever he's doing, there's good reasoning behind it! Soon all of this will be over and we'll have a life outside of these trials or whatever the scientist is doing! I know it, I just know it!"

Sans opened his mouth to shoot back a snarky reply when the laser beam in front of you disappeared from view, the scientist stepping into the cell. You briefly had the mad urge to leap from where you sat and take off running, though previous memories of you trying to escape from these halls told you that nothing good would come from that.

"2-P," the scientist instructed, his voice cold and devoid of all emotion. "I need you to come with me."

"His name is Papyrus," Sans growled as Papyrus happily got to his feet, as if thinking that his unwavering obedience would somehow make the scientist see everything good and true in this world that was filled with nothing but darkness. The scientist did not respond the slightest to Sans but Papyrus shot his brother a disapproving glance, not liking the attempt at creating conflict. You did not think you would ever truly understand what went on Papyrus' mind, no matter how close you were to the two skeletons.

There was something wrong with this scenario though you could not quite place it. Some small voice in the back of your mind thought that it was not right that Papyrus was going away with the scientist alone, as if you had seen this before and knew already that the consequences would be severe. It was the same feeling of deja-vu that you had felt whenever your mind tried to brush against the fading memories of the strange dream you had had only a night ago.

"Wait."

You got to your feet, unsure of what you were doing. "What are you going to do with him?" You asked, surprised by your own recklessness. The cold glare shot your way by the scientist made you pretty sure that whenever it came to be your turn for whatever torture was in store for you would be made especially painful as punishment for your outspoken behaviour.

"That's confidential information," the scientist said with a sneer, enjoying having an advantage over you.

"What are you going to do?" It was Papyrus' turn to speak.

When the scientist turned to look down at Papyrus, he seemed rather conflicted for a moment. It was quite clear that the scientist was determined to keep a detached attitude from the atrocities that he often did within this laboratory. You were convinced that the scientist almost relished inflicting pain upon you each and every day, as if he was exacting his own form of personal vengeance against the human race, though you weren't sure what he held against them as you knew almost nothing about his background.

On the other hand, you were certain, the scientist seemed to regret inflicting pain upon Sans or Papyrus, as if there was a part of him deep down that cared for the two. It seemed only natural, you reflected. They were the same species after all.

"I will be increasing the density of your bone marrow," the scientist replied coolly after a moment of hesitation, his gaze still fixated on Papyrus. Was that shame that glinted in his eyesockets? "I am doing this primarily to increase the amount of energy that your body can contain."

"That sounds painful." Even Papyrus seemed a little wary of what lay in store for him. "Will it hurt?"

"No," the scientist shrugged, trying his hardest to conceal whatever emotions might be going through his mind at this moment. "Soon you won't be feeling much of anything anymore."

And before any of you could react, the scientist slammed his fist on the keypad and reactivated the force field that kept you prisoner. He took hold of Papyrus' soul and lifted the skeleton several feet in the air, dragging him off to whatever hell awaited.

"What do you think he's going to do to him?" Sans asked, looking anxious. He was within inches of the laser beam, trying to catch any whisper of a conversation between the scientist and Papyrus that might offer more information as to what was going on.

But you didn't reply. You were lost within the folds of your own mind, trying desperately to remember the memories that were lost, folded and tucked away within some mental barrier that blocked out the memories of any past life. You were certain that this strange dream that you could not remember any longer must have been some glimpse into the past, or that perhaps it was a warning for future events that had yet to pass.

This barrier inside your mind seemed smooth and indestructible. You knew it was there, you could feel it. But yet you could find no weak spot, no small deformation that you could press against to collapse it and allow the hidden memories to resurface. You launched a mental assault against it for quite some time, growing convinced as each second passed that there would be no hope, that these memories would never again see the light of day...

Until you felt a crack, some weakening and depression within the barrier! Excitement began to course through you and you slammed once more into the mental block, eager to delve any piece of information. You could make out ghosts of memories, a blurred vision of a hall filled with red and gold but you weren't sure what any of that meant. You saw dust and snow and felt a wave of immeasurable sadness from lives so brutally lost.

But you were not intending on delving inside those memories. You had to know what the scientist was going to do to Papyrus because you were certain, absolutely certain that there was some memory tucked away within the folds of your waking dreams that offered an explanation to all of this.

And then you felt it, the snippets of swirling conversation that matched with striking similarity to the situation that was ongoing now. You could not make out the physical surroundings, but the dialogue between you and the scientist rang clearly in your mind.

"What were you doing to him?"

"I was making adjustments to his physical composition. I added a dosage of liquid determination into his bone marrow to increase his structural capacity to withstand a high amount of energy."

"Why the hell would you do that?"

There was no response from the scientist. The memory shifted to you kneeling over Papyrus' lifeless form, summoning forth a strange magic to sift through the skeleton's vessel, to identify whatever was causing him to remain in such a comatose state.

"Well?"

"Whatever experiment you were performing on him, trying to enhance his physical capacity to harbour an energy source, it was too much. In trying to make it so that Papyrus could hold a larger amount of energy inside of him, his original soul was absorbed, eradicated from existence. It was no longer able to support itself inside the vessel it was in because the vessel required a greater energy source to sustain itself," you spat out each and every word, not bothering to hide the bitterness in your words.

"But the experiment was a success?"

"Why the hell does that matter? His soul is gone, it doesn't exist! He's just an empty shell waiting to be filled!"

"That's as it should be. Your services here are no longer required as it has become clear that 2-P's structural capacity is not in danger of collapsing."

"But what about his soul? Isn't that important? Even if he does wake up, he won't feel anything anymore! He won't be - "

"For the purpose of my experiments, a soul is not required for either 1-S or 2-P. The fact that 2-P has lost his soul is rather a relief more than it is a hindrance in my research."

"Than why did you give them souls in the first place? Why give Sans or Papyrus the ability to feel anything at all? Wouldn't it have been easier for them to not have souls at all, to be empty shells that you tortured and mutilated for your own sadistic entertainment? Why the hell am I even here!"

"1-S and 2-P were given souls initially so that they could grow and develop. Without a soul, they would have not been able to respond according to the treatments applied to them. I was intending to remove their souls upon the conclusion of my experiments and the fact that 2-P has lost his soul is just checking off a box that I was going to do anyway."

"And what about me? What about Sans? Are you just going to rip out our souls once you've grown tired of torturing us?"

"I would enjoy tearing your soul from your chest and watching you bleed across these floors. But I am not done with you yet. As for 1-S, I am not sure what I will do with him. But I can reassure you, whatever fate awaits him, you will not be around to witness it."

You tore from the memory with a gasp, startled to find a stream of tears rolling down your cheeks. "What's wrong?" Sans asked, noticing the sudden shift in your mood. You hurriedly explained what you had just witnessed.

"I don't know if it's connected, how it relates to any of this and why there are these hidden and suppressed memories of some past life, but it happened before and it's going to happen again," you finished, feeling panic claw its way through your chest.

"But whatever this is, if this is some second chance to fix whatever happened in an alternate timeline, we have to make sure that the experiment doesn't go through. Because if he does, if he scoops out Papyrus' soul, then we've lost. We'll never get out of here."

But that was just the problem, was it not?

You were trapped inside this cell with no way out. Your gaze drifted over to the cracks in the green wall, the cracks that had always been there since as long as you could remember, the cracks that were reminders that nothing ever really lasted forever. Everything ended.

And so could scientists.