Note: (S/d) stands for the design of your soul.

"What are you looking at?"

You traced the tips of your fingers against the cracks on the wall, the cracks that were perhaps glimpses into a future outside of these green walls, the cracks that had always been there. "Don't you see?" You turned around to face Sans, feeling for the first time in a long time, a small glimmer of hope that rose inside your chest, that perhaps you could fix whatever had gone wrong in the past life that you could not remember, that you could save Papyrus, that you could protect the two skeletons you had allowed into your mind and heart.

"Not really," Sans joked half-heartedly, taking a step closer to you. "All I see are cracks in the wall!"

"Exactly!" You exclaimed, not sure if you were having a sudden revelation or the fantasies and revelries of some mad man. "The cracks in the wall, the reminders that nothing lasts forever, they're glimpses out of here. Look how deep they go."

Sans directed his gaze back to the cracks in the wall and began to have the same understanding that was dawning upon you. "There's light shining through the cracks," he realised, tracing his finger too alongside the breaks in the green tile. "Which means that these cracks, they go deep, possible breaking through the entire tile itself."

"Nothing lasts forever," you breathed. "The cracks are like a blueprint, one big map that shows and identifies all the weaknesses in the wall. Maybe, just maybe, if we could channel our magic and direct it towards the cracks, the breaks in the tile, we could apply pressure upon the weak spots, cause the whole thing to collapse."

"But even if we did," Sans muttered, the hope draining from his eyesockets just as quickly as it had come, "the scientist is probably going to notice a large explosion coming from our cell. There won't be much time to get out of here, and I'm not leaving Papyrus, even if he is a hollowed out shell that's dead to the world. Plus, if you haven't been paying attention recently, I'm the weakest of us three. I barely can lift a bone five feet from the ground, what makes you think that I can help you take down a wall?"

"We're not leaving Papyrus behind," you snapped, feeling slightly agitated that the comedian could have even thought that that idea would have crossed your mind. "But monsters, no matter how weak they might be, are made of magic, it's in your genetic code. And humans, like myself, while we may not be made of magic, our souls and vessels are filled with energy. What if we combined that together, channeled both of our physical abilities into one source of magic?"

"You're saying that we should combine our souls?" Sans shook his head at the prospect. "I'd like my soul to stay inside my body and yours inside your own, thank you very much."

You ground your teeth, on edge that he couldn't see the big picture. "No, that's not what I meant," you insisted. "Skeletons and monsters in general are too weak to contain a soul for an extended period of time, it's the reason why the scientist is changing Papyrus' physical structure so that it could hold high amounts of energy." You weren't sure why you knew that. Ever since you had pierced the barrier with its hidden memories, some of the details were ever-so-slowly bleeding through.

"So," you continued, "if I could summon forth my magic and you with yours, maybe we could combine it into one source of energy, tapping into your hidden reserves of magic and the energy within my soul to boost it."

"That makes perfect sense," Sans replied sarcastically, not understanding anything at all.

"Just give me your hand," you grumbled as you pressed your other hand against the wall, closing your eyes and allowing a thin tendril of your energy to pass from your mind into the cold green tile, prodding and poking at the weak points in the tile, mapping out where the hidden faults were.

You felt a bony hand clamp around yours and you could feel the magic that was trapped inside the skeleton, the way it was hidden inside his bones. Even if Sans was as weak as he insisted, magic was a prominent part of monsterkind and was rooted deep inside their genetic coding, magic that you allowed your own energy tucked inside your soul to harness and channel.

You let loose a gasp as a wave of heat tore through you, the magic from Sans and the energy inside your soul mixing together in a flurry of light and power, escaping from your hand and into the wall, flowing through the weak points in the wall, pushing and pressing against the cracks, the reminders that even the strongest and biggest of mountains would eventually crumble into ash and dust, widening the wall until it let loose a groan, thin pieces of rubble beginning to fall off it.

When you felt that you had spent enough magic on the wall, you severed the connection between you and Sans. "Run!" You shouted and the two of you shot towards the opposite end of the cell, placing your forearms above your heads to shield from the falling debris.

The wall collapsed to the ground with a large groan, revealing a gaping hole that led into the unknown world that you had never ventured into, offering a wide range of possibilities, perhaps leading to a future where the three of you could live out your lives without fear of being tortured or horrifically mutilated. As if on cue, alarms within the hall of the laboratory began to wail, casting ominous red lighting on the ground below.

"We should probably run," Sans suggested.

"Already on it," you gasped, feeling adrenaline hammering through your veins as you grabbed him by the hand and took off running, following the path you had last seen the scientist walking down.

You were also guided too by the memories that were bleeding into your mind, memories that were glimpses into a long and forgotten life. You were certain that you would not let either of these skeletons die again. You weren't sure how they might have died in this strange previous life that always seemed to be hanging over your shoulders, but this life that you were in right now, this was your second chance, a chance to get things right.

Or perhaps not.

"What the hell are you two doing?"

The scientist stood a few feet in front of you, standing outside a door that most likely led to some experiment room where Papyrus was. You stared down the scientist with a feeling of intense rage, hating him for everything that he had done to you, for throwing you in such an unfair position and life when you had done nothing to wrong him.

"We're done with this," Sans snarled, not bothering to hide the venom in his words. "We're done being your playthings that you torture and mutilate whenever you feel like it. We're done being thrown on the verge of death each and every day without end. This is us, leaving. And we're here to get my brother."

Much to your surprise, the scientist adjusted his glasses and began to laugh, reflecting the gathering insanity that had been growing inside his mind as he had watched countless of his creations die on a cold metal table in front of him, creations that whether or not he tried to deny it, were his children for they had been grafted from his very bone marrow.

"You cannot even begin to understand what is at stake here," the scientist shook his head. "Neither of you remember, no one remembers in fact, but I have been gifted with the knowledge recently that we are stuck in a hell, a hell where we are at the mercy of a demon that ventures throughout the Underground and slaughters all of monsterkind without impunity. This has been going on for centuries, only we can't remember any of it because it is wiped from our minds each and every timeline."

The two of you took a step back in fear, beginning to wonder if the scientist had truly gone insane. "It's why I have to finish these experiments, right here and right now. If I can't crack the Barrier before this human falls down here in a few months time, then there is no hope for us. Your suffering is nothing compared to what the millions of monsters trapped Underground will go through if I don't do this."

"Do what?" You shook your head in disbelief. "Is this what the experiments are for, to find some way to create a human soul to break a barrier?"

"Exactly!" The scientist shouted in glee. "Not as dumb as you look, are you? There is a Barrier that keeps all of monsterkind trapped down here in these rocky caverns and it requires seven human souls to break. We have six already."

"So why not just use me? Why not take my soul and present it to the Barrier?"

"Because," the scientist sighed, "your body was not grown, it was not naturally formed so to speak. I constructed your vessel out of artificially created materials, thus making your entire body unnatural in a sense. The Barrier sensed this and rejected it. Therefore I have been forced to resort to creating vessels that were grown naturally, developed over time so that they could take your soul and be accepted by the Barrier."

"And that's what Papyrus and I were for?" Sans snapped, looking horrified. "You created us to see if we could hold (Y/n)'s soul?"

"Correct!" The scientist nodded. "But when I created you, 1-S, something went wrong, you weren't as strong as your brother. It became clear that 2-P was going to have to be the one to take the soul if he survived the experiments, and survive he did! He's strong enough now, you're too late if you came here to save him. I've already adjusted his bone marrow, made him capable of hosting a human soul long enough to present himself to the Barrier and free the rest of monsterkind. Now, I just need the human's soul."

"No way in hell," you snarled, reaching into the reserves of magic inside your mind, preparing to fight the scientist should he make any indication.

The scientist took off his lab coat and flung it to the ground, his right eye flaring a deep orange and the left a light blue. He sprang from where he stood and soared through the air, summoning a wave of bones. You at first thought that they were aimed at you as you formed a (F/c) shield to protect yourself, but discovered, much to your horror, that he had aimed the attack at Sans.

"I am sure that you are capable of defending yourself for quite some time," the scientist mused, "but what about 1-S who can barely summon any form of magic, who would crumble to dust if someone poked him? Is this a fight you think you can win, one where you have to defend not only yourself but an ally who cannot fight and must not be injured at all? That I would like to see you try."

In a last ditch effort to protect Sans, you shifted your shield so that it surrounded him and not yourself before digging back into your mind for the needed magic to create another protective barrier around yourself.

The scientist, however, seemed to anticipate this and his attacks shifted course, now aimed straight at you. Bones numbering in the dozens dug into your legs, your arms, your chest and in your throat. You had expected a torrent of pain but felt nothing more than the icy arms of death wrap around you, blocking out any thought from your mind. You were pretty sure that Sans was yelling something at you, begging you not to slip into the folds of death, but you were so tired, could he not see that? Maybe you would just close your eyes for a little bit, sleep for a few seconds and then regain yourself...

"Oh, but you won't die."

The scientist had teleported in front of you. You could see Sans charging at him but was held back as the scientist took hold of his soul, throwing him across the room. He returned his focus back to you, tilting your chin so that the two of you were eye level. "Soon this will all be over," he whispered in your ear and dug his hand into your chest, the pain numbed by the icy feeling that was clawing its way across your entire body.

You briefly made out your soul ripped from your chest, a wide range of patterns that seemed to take on (S/d), but you weren't quite sure. Your consciousness was in two places at once for a small span of seconds, both inside the soul that was clutched in the scientist's hand and also within the decaying body that you had once lived inside. But then the connection snapped and you found yourself inside your soul, trapped and confined to the mercy of the scientist who held you prisoner as you had been your entire life.

You were aware that the scientist was walking, carrying you towards the limp form of Papyrus who like your faded memories of your past life, had lost his soul and was nothing more than an empty vessel waiting to be filled. The scientist slammed your soul into Papyrus' immobile form, in which you instantly found your consciousness flooding inside of, taking over his empty brain as if it was your own. Much to your horror and astonishment, you found yourself able to move the bony fingers of the skeleton you had once sworn to protect.

"It worked!" The scientist cackled in glee. "Don't think about trying to escape or run from me, there will be none of that. In a few moments time you will be presented to the Barrier where you will act as the seventh human soul to free all of monsterkind."

"I won't," you wheezed, disturbed by how your voice no longer matched your own but rather that of Papyrus'. "I'll fight you, no matter what. You won't win."

You raised a shaking arm, constructed now of bone rather than flesh, in hopes of summoning forth a wave of magic to once more combat the scientist. But much to your surprise, you felt a fresh wave of pain course through you, through Papyrus' vessel, and you watched in horror as your right arm began to wither into dust, unable to contain the raw and untampered energy of your soul.

"Looks like you had a miscalculation," you wheezed, not bothered by your death. Perhaps this was for the best, for you had failed in protecting those close to you and you were certain that Sans would be killed after all of this was over. "Papyrus wasn't strong enough to hold my soul after all. Even when we loose, we win."

"No!" The scientist shrieked, running his hands through the gathering dust on the ground. "I will not have this, I swear!" You let loose a weak laugh as you felt the life energy draining from your bones, your skull beginning to melt into ash and dust as was the fate of all monsters.

You could see Sans in the doorway, watching in horror as he saw the possessed form of his brother slowly wither away. "No," the skeleton muttered under his breath, a strange emotion glinting in his eyesockets. "It's not going to end this way!" He pushed past the scientist who was crumpled on the floor and pressed his hand against your chest, bringing your soul into view.

"What are you doing?" You croaked, your satisfaction giving way to fear. "No, Sans, you can't! This is how it's supposed to be, how it was always meant to. Let me die, let me - "

"And let him live? Let him win?" Sans shook his head. "No, I won't let him win, let him live knowing that he managed to take away everything from me. Because he won't stop, I promise you. He'll find a new way of creating a human, make more skeletons and force them to go through the same hell that we did. But I won't let that happen. If Papyrus is dead and you're dying, than I'm coming with you to whatever world lies beyond this one, but not until I take him with me."

On those words the comedian took hold of your soul, ripped it from Papyrus' vessel just before he had the chance to wither into dust and slammed it into his own chest, allowing his soul to mix with yours. Energy flowed throughout the skeleton, giving him a taste of raw and unchecked power that he had never felt before since he had lived his entire life being one breath short of death. But now that had changed, he was strong, he was free!

"You idiot," the scientist snarled. "You'll be dead in a matter of seconds, what good will any of this do? You've killed yourself by taking in the human soul." The scientist got to his feet and took off running down the hall, opening a door that led into a strange room illuminated by some orange liquid that churned and gurgled hundreds of feet below.

Sans followed the scientist into the room filled with lava, filled with a massive machine that seemed to harness the energy to create some form of electricity. The comedian could already feel his life draining away, but he would not die, not yet! The scientist would pay for everything he had done, everything he had done to wrong him and Papyrus and (Y/n).

"Kill me then," the scientist snarled, backed up against the railing. "We won't be so different then, after all."

Sans did not care, did not care for the moral or ethics behind this. He knew that his brother had spent years insisting that there was good inside the scientist, that there was always a way to change even the darkest person. But where had that gotten him? A pile of ash and dust on a cold floor, that was for sure.

"Burn in hell," Sans snarled and reached into the energy that was raging inside him, eating away at his corporeal form, and slammed a ball of (F/c) energy into the scientist, watching as he fell over the ledge and tumbled into the lava below.

But what perhaps was the strangest of all was the smile that was carved on the scientist's face, the way that he seemed to know of happenings that Sans and other mortals of this universe did not.

Sans watched as the scientist disappeared into the lava below and sat on the edge of the railing, watching as his right hand began to wither into dust. "We did it," he whispered to the human soul trapped inside his chest. "I don't know if you can hear me (Y/n), but I did it. I killed the scientist. We're free."

The comedian accepted death for he had fulfilled his purpose. The experiments would come to an end, halting the suffering that had been raging here for far too long. He sifted through his memories as he felt death creep upon him. Not only did he have his memories, but he had the memories of the human as well, for their souls were one for the time being.

He brushed against a cluster of memories that seemed to have been hidden inside the human's mind, memories of a past life that was long since forgotten in the land of the living. It was hard to make out all the details, a few glimpses of red and gold, whatever that was, and a strange power that had flowed through the human, power that made them almost god. He caught sight of (Y/n) inside a hallway filled with red and gold, slamming their fist down on a strange orange button, turning back the clock, turning back everything.

Turn back the clock?

Sans snapped out of his daze and looked deep inside himself, allowing the emotions and power inside of him to muster into a single entity, envisioning the strange button that had the power to turn back time to create a better world. As if on cue, an orange button flickered into view, a single word inscribed that seemed to radiate power.

Reset.

Sans' hand hovered over the button. If he did this, if he used this strange power, would it bring back the scientist? Hadn't the point of all of this been to create a world where there would be no more suffering, no more pain? If he turned back the clock, reset this world, wouldn't it be all for nothing?

But what if the scientist was gone? What if the lava had done more than just killed him, what if it had removed him from this universe as if he had never been there at all? Sans did not know why he thought such a thing, why it seemed so certain and so right. But what if the scientist was forever eradicated from this universe, so that if he did reset, the scientist would not be there at all?

"Screw it," Sans muttered as he watched his foot wither into ash. It was now or never.

With his eyesockets closed, Sans slammed his fist onto the button, knowing not where it would take him, if it would pave way to a better future, or to a hell that would lead to nothing but suffering.