"Am I dead?" Sans asked himself as he slowly stood up as he seemed to be in a very dark room, he wondered around for a little bit before finding a small blue soul that seemed to be tearing at the seams. It was hurt and very careful, Sans knew he had to help it but as he thought these small words he was cut off by hearing a familiar echoing voice that bounced off the walls and gave him a slight headache.

"Ha, we'd both rather that wouldn't we?" His familiar counterpart snapped but Sans just shook his head, he swiftly turned to face the voice but couldn't find where it was coming from until he saw a pair of gleaming yellow eyes in the dark.

"But alas, we seem to be in-between life and death, our soul is flickering like a candle in-between the two. We should just stop trying to fight, maybe if we die here we can finally stay dead-" Sans cut off the mirrored version of himself as it seemed to slowly seep from the shadows darkness.

"We both know that's not how it'll work, the kid'll just reset and nothing good will come from it. It'll keep them all happier, I just need to continue on." Sans said, the flashing eyes of his mirrored self starred into him as it floated a little above the ground, it seemed to be a little angry at Sans.

"It's always about them with you isn't it? Their happiness, their safety, always them! UGH!" The monster yelled, throwing it's hands in the air in utter destress.

"Can't you think of anyone other than your stupid brother and idiot friends?" The shadowy creature asked with a loud groan, Sans felt something strange build up inside of him as he remembered that he hadn't taken his medicine last night and hoped they wouldn't figure it out.

"You're useless, you know you can never stop the resets, that you can never live up to what they need you to be, why even try. They don't need you, you're so stupid." The other Sans said as his hands flared a bright yellow, did they really not need him anymore? Was he really that useless? The blue soul that floated beside him seemed to dim a bit but then brightened as he got into a fighting stance and his hands glowed with magic, Sans realized, it was his soul. If he gave up than he would turn to dust, and slowly, he was losing HOPE.

~ - ~ - ~

"Sans, you have a lot of explaining to do." Undyne said and most of the other monsters nodded, suddenly he clutched his chest as his eye flashed yellow he looked to be in significant pain, he collapsed to the ground suddenly and his eye sockets looked dark and empty. Everyone was astonished and soon rushed to his aid, hoping that the flower hadn't hurt him to much.

"BROTHER!" Papyrus yelled worriedly, darting over to his brother who had just collapsed and holding up his head, everyone circled around the small skeleton and wondered what had happened as they darted inside and set him on the couch.

"H-He may h-have just collapsed f-from exhaustion?" Alphys theorized as he was lied out onto the couch, his eyes were shut and his face was unusually pale.

"He may be wounded." Toriel's slightly shaky and concerned voice said, she slipped off his coat and it didn't take long to notice the maroon color that sept out from in his t-shirt in small beads, the shirt had been stained with so many things it led many to believe he never took it off, as if he was afraid of something.

"I-I hope t-that's ketchup..." Alphys joked as she tried to give a little light the situation, it didn't work that well as her girlfriend lifted his old and slightly tattered shirt to examine the presumed wounds and found the long scar, Alphys let out a sharp gasp at the unnatural looking dip in his skeletal structure where the deep scar lie, as if the bones had been cut so many times they'd just stopped trying to heal.

"Just like him..." Alphys whispered, Sans' chest continued to rise and fall but it slowed, deep heaving breaths escaping the teeth of the skeleton as his eyes were completely black and void of any signs of even the frailest hope, he looked as if his soul had just suddenly decided to give out with no signs of where or how as it seemed to make his body collapse.

"What the hell has he been through?" Undyne asked, solemnly tracing the scar along its path that ran down his chest diagonally. Undyne noticed how the bottom of the wound had opened and Toriel placed a furry hand to it, a warm kind of fire magic stopped the bleeding and when the light died down, the scar was still there. Toriel tried to heal it again and get rid of the long and natural divot in his bones that made Papyrus feel a little uneasy and want to look away, the flame subsided and sweat had formed on the goat woman's forehead, the long scar was still there.

"Wha... This should not be possible." Toriel said, and she was very right. She was the best healer in the history of the underground, that much was common knowledge, but Sans scar seemed much to deep for even her to heal.

"What is it kid?" Undyne asked as she turned around to face the child that had been tugging on her black and slightly torn tank top for the last few minutes, Frisk pointed to Sans hand.

"Huh?" Undyne asked, Frick let out an exaggerated sigh and marched over to Sans where he was still clutching the flower that had wilted a little, Frisk ran off with the flower before quickly returning with it now in a small flower pot with some wet dirt in it along with the flower that had almost killed them.

"How is that thing gonna help us?" Undyne asked, Frisk rolled their eyes as if how an evil flower could help them when Sans seemed to be dying was obvious.

"Flowey knew..." Frisk said, looking at the now much weaker looking flower that slowly looked up at them, an almost pitifully innocent expression on the it's face. Alphys had stayed completely silent for the entire time, the look on her face as if she had wandered off somewhere in-between bad and terrible, she let out a deep heaving sigh as she stood and looked down at her feet.

"N-No, Asriel won't help us, he is in no shape to anyways." Alphys said with almost no stuttering, her confident tone taking most of the monsters off guard as Sans apparently wasn't the only one hiding a few things. Toriel looked as if she was about to either cry out or just plain cry, Alphys looked at her then back at the flower.

"Look, if you want to know more about Sans than you're gonna have to go... Deeper. Surely deeper than he would want, but we have to if we want to help him." Alphys said as she straightened her lab coat and walked towards the door, Undyne was the first to move as she trusted her girlfriend implicitly. She picked up the weak skeletal form lied on the couch and followed, soon everyone else did the same as whispers seemed to follow. They walked through the slow going streets of the familiar town, getting many looks from passers by that they didn't do much about.

"Alphys... Why did you call that thing by my son's name?" Toriel asked as she broke the silence, they were finally reaching hot land but this was not where they needed to be quite yet, they continued to march onwards.

"I'll explain it when we get there." Alphys said as she led the way, silence filled the questioning air around them as they wandered through the hot terrain, no one knew what to think. Did anyone else have secrets? What did Sans mean when he asked Frisk if they were going to 'reset'? Why were they both hiding things? How long had they been lying? And how much longer would they have kept lying if that flower hadn't attacked? These questions rung through most of the monsters heads until they arrived at Alphys's old lab, it was all the same except with a few more cobwebs, they all wandered inside of the old building.

"ALPHYS, WE HAVE SEEN YOUR HOME! WHY WOULD THIS HELP?" Papyrus bellowed the question out and it echoed off of the pale green walls, nothing. They walked slowly through the hall, passing the long shut down escalators and a large monitor.

"Umm..." Toriel said as if sh knew where they were headed, and she did. They passed a large container of dog food which Alphys silently walked over to and grabbed a handful of, no one understood why as she led the group in silence.

"Hey Alphy, what's the dog food for?" Undyne asked and used to pet name to maybe help get an answer, but there was no response. They passed a large hole in the wall and got to some sort of elevator, there was a stray and slightly yellowed piece of dusty paper that Alphys passed without a second thought, Alphys gestured for them to get in the elevator and so they did.

"Umm, where are we going?" Undyne tried again, her girlfriend was completely silent as she fiddled with something. Alphys finally replied to her girlfriend with three short words.

"The true lab." She said, grabbing a key from her pocket and turning it, the metallic doors shut quickly and they defended at an alarmingly fast rate. Alphys tried to keep herself calm and silent as she knew that if she spoke it would all leak out without any proof, they would never believe her, the lights dimmed a bit and the door cracked open enough for them to get through. It was dark and it took a while for everyone's eyes to get used to it, unnoticed by everyone Sans was completely aware of everything that was happening around him, he just couldn't do anything.

"Come on, its time that I told you the truth, of my part of it at least." Alphys said, her tail swishing slightly as she made it out of the elevator, everyone squeezed through only to find themselves in a dark room that looked like a scene from a horror movie or part of a haunted house. Alphys shook a little as she walked out, sweat dribbling from her forehead as she knew what would happen, she just hoped they would understand.