Awkward was the first word that came to mind to describe the walk towards Hotland, where Alphys' lab was located. Sans could feel invisible drops of sweat rolling down his skull, keeping one eye on Frisk, who was completely silent throughout.

Meanwhile, Undyne marched forward, too intend on her destination to notice the wordless tension between them. Often, the skeleton had to sprint to catch up. He had contemplated using a "shortcut", but it was notably more taxing than usual, so that idea was quickly dropped.

Noticing that Frisk was beginning to lag behind, Sans figured that it was an opportunity to talk to them, but he was hesitant. It's not like me to take back my words so easily... but then again, it wasn't like me to confront them like that earlier...

Every time he replayed that scene in his head, he found it weirder than before. Where did that sudden surge of frustration and resignation come from?

"Hey punks!" Undyne shouted from a mile away, but it was miraculously audible to both of them. "I'll be going off first! Call me if you find anything!"

Nodding absentmindedly in response to her words, Sans shook himself mentally. Now was not the time to brood about it; there were other matters at hand, like the strange dream he had.

W.D. Gaster... where did he hear that name from? Whatever it was, the thought of that name gave him mixed feelings, something that was a cross between uneasiness and shame. Nonetheless, he found no harm in listening to Gaster's advice, so he gave it a try.

Remember Papyrus' words...

"Sans... when someone does something wrong, they would feel bad about it and would want to make up for it. I believe in them because if they want to change, they need support."

Those were the words his brother said so earnestly, that it even threw him off. Suddenly, it became obvious what he should do. Letting out a long drawn sigh, he reached a decision.

Sans took the first step. "Hey, kid."

They stopped, an indicator that they had heard him, standing a few metres away. "What is it, Sans?" they asked, without turning their head.

There was no turning back now. "About earlier... I want to apologise."

As if it was in slow motion, Frisk turned to face him. It was brief, but in that moment he noticed the look of bewilderment plastered all over their face.

"You heard me right," Sans confirmed. "I'm not sure what got into me that morning, but I felt... frustrated and said all those things because of it. Truthfully, if you were innocent, you wouldn't have that reaction... but it's still an assumption, and I had no right to judge you based off that."

He paused, scanning Frisk's face for any signs that could tell him what they were feeling. There was none, other than a tiny nod of acknowledgement and a slight eyebrow raise.

"I'm going you the benefit of doubt," he said, sticking out his hand expectantly. "I'm sorry for treating you the way I did. Let's put this mess behind us and start over."

Frisk stared at him blankly, perhaps still taken aback by his actions. At last, the hints of a smile creeped up on their face.

"Okay," they said, taking his hand.

The moment their hand came into contact with his, there was an obnoxious farting sound.

"Heh, the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick, remember?" Sans chuckled, grinning. "But umm... this is my way of showing that I'm serious about this. About starting over. Got it?"

"Yeah."

Sans was relieved. It was as if a huge burden had been removed from his chest after a prolonged period of time. Scratching the back of his skull, he faced the direction of the Lab. "You are heading there, right?"

Frisk nodded. "It's the place where Alphys is mostly at... maybe it could lead us to clues about her whereabouts if she's not there."

"True," he hummed. "Let's go then."

It did not take long for the pair to reach the entrance of the Lab. The doors were closed, with a keypad beside it. The word "Lab" was written in red block letters, placed above the doors.

"Do you know the password?" Frisk asked, their eyes fixed on the keypad.

"Err... no."

I never needed to, he thought to himself.

"But I have a shortcut," Sans added, though there was a slight trace of uncertainty in his voice. What worried him was the energy he needed to use it; it had been functioning erratically since this morning.

Grabbing his hand - free of that whoopie cushion, they arrived in a dark place. It was unmistakably the Lab, evident by the blue tiles that Sans managed to make out in the darkness.

"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.

"Okay." Frisk's voice sounded in front of him.

As Sans regained his composure, he heard some shuffling and a knock, causing something - presumably the trash bin - to topple. It did not take as long as he thought for the human to switch on a screen, giving out some light.

"I can't find the light switch, but I think you should look at this," they said quietly.

"I'm coming over."

Sans recognised that monitor. It was the one where the camera footage from various places in the Underground was recorded and stored. We could use this to find Alphys' whereabouts!

However, he noticed something out of place. Each footage was arranged in folders separated by the camera numbers, which are sorted based on which part of the Underground was being monitored. What was unusual was the addition of another folder, labelled "tr_cameras".

I don't remember that folder being there...

The skeleton took control of the monitor, checking the contents of that folder. There was only a few bits of footage, which added onto the evidence that it was new. While he was glad that he was not remembering wrongly, he felt apprehensive and disturbed, like an omen of what he was going to discover.

Eventually, Sans opened the most recent one, but nothing could have prepared the two of them for what they saw.

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Fun fact: The contents of chapter 5 and 6 were switched in the original. Looking back at it, it was pretty random, so it was changed.

The next chapter is particularly important... but it doesn't mean the others aren't, so you should probably keep your eyes peeled.

Anyways, votes and comments are always appreciated.

P.S. Thanks for 300 reads :)