Sans could only stare helplessly at the door, where Undyne had stormed out through. He could only imagine all the sorrow, the anger, the guilt built up inside of her, while he felt numb to it all.

He just could not bring himself to tell her the breaking news.

"I'll... go," Frisk spoke hesitantly, standing up.

Once they left, Sans turned to his brother, who was unusually silent. He thought that he would be the one to go and comfort his mentor, but he stayed put.

"Why... aren't you going too?"

Papyrus turned to him, smiling sadly. "Undyne has Frisk. If I left, you would be all alone. I don't know how close you were to Alphys, but... I could feel everything you do in this moment. Your remose, your agony... what kind of brother would I be if I left you?"

"R-right..." It was so like his brother to do such a thing; he should have already guessed it. Before he knew it, tears were beginning to leak out of his eyesockets, and he was wrapped in a warm, loving hug.

"Please don't handle this pain alone," Papyrus pleaded. He was crying too. "I'm here to share it with you. You can't do it alone."

Seeing his younger brother so willing to get close to him despite knowing that he would get hurt too, he nodded. "I will."

They stayed like that until there was an audible creak from the door, the signal that Undyne and Frisk came back. The former seemed to have calmed down - whatever Frisk said it must have worked.

"Sorry about that. Let's continue," Undyne spoke as if nothing had happened, even though her trembling lips said otherwise.

Sans could not do the same. He wanted to say that it was not the right time, and that they were all still trying to get over what happened, but it was too important to be delayed any further.

He left it at that, letting Undyne speak.

"Frisk, let's hear what you have to say," she prompted.

In response, they turned to the back and got the tiny stack of papers obtained from the Lab. "As you know... Sans and I went to the Lab, and we found this."

Back then, the two of them did not have enough time to go through all of them, but it seemed that Frisk had done it while he was dozing. It was then he felt that he had forgotten an important detail, which put him on edge as he watched the scene unfold.

"I'll get to the point," Frisk said dryly. "Whatever is happening is because of this."

They gestured to the piece of paper they were holding, which contained a surprisingly well drawn sketch of the flower they found in the hidden part of the Lab.

Silence reigned over the room. Papyrus simply blinked, scratching his head while Undyne looked unconvinced.

"A flower?" she voiced out her thoughts with an incredulous look on her face. "Okay, I believed you on what you said about Flowey the talking flower, but now you are saying that-"

"... another flower is causing all this?" Frisk finished for her. "Yes. At least that's what this paper claims."

"Who wrote that thing anyway?"

"Someone named W.D. Gaster," they responded after taking another glance at the paper to confirm.

At first, Undyne seemed clueless on who that was. It took a while for her to recognise that name, and even then she sounded uncertain.

"I think I heard about him. He's the previous Royal Scientist, isn't he?"

"I heard about him too," Papyrus piped up. "I remember Sans telling me that he was a genius... what confuses me is if he is accomplished, why don't people talk about him?"

Sans was not sure whether he actually said that, however, his brother was right. Everything about this Gaster person seemed awfully suspicious. His weird dream earlier in the day only further supported it.

It was like Gaster did not exist.

Before the initial focus of conversation spiralled to oblivion, Frisk coughed purposefully. "More specifically, they are called Night Flowers, somewhat like a corrupted form of a golden flower."

With that, everyone fell silent once again. Undyne, in particular, looked solemn with traces of a frown on her face.

"Anyone who stands near one of them will get affected. Their emotions will be taken away, until there is nothing left."

Sans froze, the events of the morning coming back to him.

He was worried about the king. People had yet to notice, but Asgore missed his usual morning walk around the Underground. The skeleton thought it was because of the human's presence, but he felt too uneasy to let it rest.

Sans teleported himself to the Throne Room, hoping to see Asgore, but a pair of Royal Guards stopped him. He made his request politely, trying to catch a glimpse inside.

"Sorry, but we are under strict orders not to allow visitors for the time being."

Sans gave them a stare. "I'm the-"

"No exceptions."

He felt frustrated, but he had to comply. However, before he left, he saw a speck of dark purple inside the Throne Room.

"Symptoms include unusual tiredness, headaches, disorientation..." As Frisk began quoting, Sans began to break out in cold sweat.

"Can you go and find the light switch? I need to catch my breath for a moment." He focused his weight on a wall as a wave of dizziness crashed over him.

"Sans?"

He felt too tired to brood over it at the moment. Normally, he would be taking a break by dozing at one of his sentry station, but he forced himself to stay awake. Apparently, his exhaustion was evident to Frisk, who was giving him a weird look.

"Sans!"

He was brought back to reality by Papyrus' voice. By then, everyone was looking at him.

"Is there something wrong?" Frisk asked.

"Nothing," he denied.

"Okay then." Much to his relief, the human did not pursue it, simply continuing what they were saying.

"This condition is referred to as the Scourge. The longer you stand near a Night Flower, the faster the effects take hold. Because positive feelings are removed first, those affected usually feel frustrated as well."

"That's it!" Undyne nearly sprang from her seat, realising something. "When I got to the capital, there was a riot. We interrogated one of the culprits, but that monster was all over the place with his emotions. If everything in that paper is true, it means that the Scourge is the cause of it!"

"Unfortunately... there's no cure for it," Frisk spoke, more quietly this time. "There isn't a way to stop it either."

"We can try and find a way," Papyrus said optimistically.

"If a brilliant scientist like Gaster couldn't find it, how can we find one?" they responded, with a rather bitter tone to their voice.

They're right, Sans thought cynically.

"It doesn't mean we can't do anything, right Undyne?" Papyrus tried again, turning to his mentor, who seemed chestfallen.

"Right." She stood up. "I'm going to New Home to issue orders for the Royal Guard and report to Asgore. I'll get back to all of you, don't worry."

The meeting effectively ended. While Papyrus got Frisk to stay for his spaghetti, Sans simply went up to his room to sleep. It was only the afternoon, but he was exhausted by the day's revelations.

Alphys was killed. Papyrus was attacked. However, most of all...

He found out that he had the Scourge.

~~~~

Undyne went back out in the cold. The painful feeling of loss and hopelessness was beginning to rise up again, but she had to push them all down.

She had a duty, as the Captain of the Royal Guard, to protect the people first.

It would be what Alphys wanted her to do.

Taking a deep breath, she looked up with a new kind of determination in her soul. Flowey had taken one of my friends away from me... but...

I wouldn't let it happen again.

------------------------------------------------------------

So, what is the important detail Sans forgot?

Because phones exist, they created a lot of plot holes for me, so I simply wrote it in such a way that got someone to destroy them (Getting out of plot holes 101 here).

If you are wondering why Night Flowers are dark purple in colour, well... check this out.

If you enjoyed, votes and comments are always appreciated. :)