Sans was looking at himself. Not from a mirror, but from a computer.

He didn’t know where he was. He really didn’t. On the brink of nightfall Underground, he wanted a quick trip from Grillby’s to his house. Pretty simple, he’s done it before. Traveling across time and space, while in theory may be complicated, in practice came naturally to him. 

Until he sneezed. 

That was definitely the worst timing from him, he’d be honest. He sneezed right in the middle of the darkness, the void, that always pressed against his bones for a millisecond during the teleportation. Instead of standing in his bedroom, with a twisting trash tornado in a corner, he was standing somewhere else. 

The library was quaint, quiet, and rather empty. The computer table was tucked away in a corner, hidden behind a line of bookshelves. Thick and worn, books pressed together, tightly packed until they practically bulged from the lack of shelf space. A screen, buzzing with pixels, was what caught his attention. His body, small and pudgy, sat on the other side. Not very flattering, since it was pure pixels, and rather small, but it was him. In Grillby’s, sitting next to the kid. 

That’s where Sans just teleported from. The single connection to him had the skeleton leaning over, soft eye sockets glancing over the screen. That was Grillby’s, that was the human kid, and that was him. That stuff happened not even five minutes ago.

So what was this doing in an old, creaky library? 

Sans, after deliberation, pulled away from the screen with a sigh. He was confused, that was for sure. This wasn’t the Snowdin library, so he wasn’t aware of his location. 

Peaking between the books and the upper shelf, he found himself looking at a few heads that certainly weren’t monsters. With scrubby, sometimes unwashed hair, or hair so cleaned it sparkled, the heads ranged in the library. Some different colored skin, some different outfits, but they all shared one similarity that shook Sans to his core. They were human. 

Which was a problem, because humans were above ground. And he certainly was not. At least, he wasn’t before. 

Sans stepped once, then twice. His pink slippers dragged across the dense carpet, creating that spark of friction that he barely paid attention to, rather distracted by his new and dire situation instead. How did he end up on the surface? That wasn’t, and shouldn’t be, possible. 

Instead, despite the science, the evidence right in front of him smacked Sans across the face. He clearly was in a human library now, so it was possible. Somehow. 

Just… how did he get back? 

Sans turned back towards the computer, narrowing his eye sockets at the screen. And how, exactly, did someone get a pixel looking image of what he just did onto a screen? Nothing made sense, and it was starting to make his head spin. Even puns eluded him, leaving the unpleasurable stench of uneasiness and uncertainty. 

A door he barely caught a glimpse of creaked open to his right, and Sans turned, realizing he was directly in view of it. The teenager, with long legs, clicked away on her phone as she idly walked towards the computer with the pixel image. Sans’ jaw dropped, as did hers, when she lifted her very human eyes up and made eye contact with Sans.

Her phone thudding against the carpet, while usually silent, was almost deafening. 

They stared. Both wide eyed, fearful, uncertain. 

“I-”

No other words were given the chance of life before she let out a loud, blood-curdling scream. As if the wind blew back her body, she fell onto her bum, quickly scooting back like a crab against the bathroom door. Another scream followed, just as loud, and just as alerting. 

“No, wait-”

Sans tried to calm down the human, but another rounded the corner, peering towards what the first had screamed at. This led to nothing but more screams, causing a chain reaction of more humans to follow suit. There were about seven people in the library, so it quickly disrupted into chaos amongst them at the sight of Sans. 

“Demon!” One shrieked. 

“No, calm down!” Sans tried to reason with them, but it was fruitless. 

“Help, please!” One man screamed out of an open window of the second floor. 

That was what drove Sans to stumble backwards, realizing just how much of a panic he may have inadvertently caused. Like when Asriel brought Chara above ground. 

Oh no, this was going to go exactly the same! 

Sans, unfamiliar with his surroundings, turned towards his own nearby window, following suit by flinging open the stained glass. The street was bare, rain cascading through the now open entry point. His eyelights, usually calm, now franfically bounced left and right, looking at the mostly empty street. It was a crowded city, with an abundance of buildings pressed against one another, much like the books were. In conclusion, not that many hiding spots. He barely paid attention to that observation, storing it for later as his primary goal was to run like hell. 

An alley!

His magic twisted in his nonexistent gut, and once again the familiar push of the void was upon him, coiling around his bones, until he was then standing in the alleyway. Rain now freely pelted him from above, the sounds of the screams mostly drowned out by the sound of water against concrete and bones. 

Now free to think, he ignored his now drenched clothes, plopping himself into a puddle of water. It splashed up, catching any fabric that had yet to be soaked. 

He wasn’t Underground, that was clear. And he wasn’t in a very accepting place for monsters, either. The humans were still racist and anti-monster, even after all of these years. 

But they called him demon. That wasn’t something typically associated with a monster. None of them went to attack, either, as humans knew their soul strength was naturally more powerful. Then, of course, there was the screen with him on it. There was no way someone would be able to recreate what happened less than ten minutes ago in pixels, much less humans, who shouldn’t have known about him at all. Unless they somehow remembered resets, and knew that exact encounter from him or Frisk, but that was an entire different can of worms and stress to lose sleep to later. 

Right now, he had to focus on how to get back Underground. 

It’d be way too far to teleport all the way from here, as he didn’t even know how far he was. Not to mention, just the action of getting here drained a lot of his magic, so he wouldn’t be able to teleport back with such a short amount of time. And could he even teleport through the barrier? He clearly did it before, but that was an accident caused by a sneeze. He’d have to time it, perfectly, that one in a billion chance to sneeze at the same time of teleporting, without any control if he would end up Underground or somewhere else random. 

Basically, trying to go back by teleporting was impossible. Sans reasoned that out rather quickly. 

However, the other glaring fact about his new surroundings was what brought his attention. How would someone even get an image of what happened?

There was so many unusual details about this situation that caused a whirlwind of confusion to storm his mind. Sans ran a hand down his skull, covered in rain that continuously pelted his unprotected body, but he barely cared. There was something on the screen that related to him. It was him! So why were they screaming, then, if no one knew who he was. They were all screaming, so clearly they didn’t know much about him, or anything. 

Again, they screamed demon. Sans wasn’t a demon. Unless it was some slang term to insult a monster, then he wasn’t exactly sure what was going on anymore. 

Everything hurt. 

It was confusing, sudden, and honestly, a bit… scary. Sans curled his knees against his chest, unable to form any plans or any sense of comfort from the changes in his environment. He didn’t know where he was, surrounded by humans that screamed at the sight of him, and was running low on magic. None of his friends were nearby, he couldn’t contact them, and he wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to read Papyrus his bedtime story. Sans shouldn’t be concerned about that, yes, but his family instincts still brought fear of Papyrus being alone over himself. 

Now what?

Sans wouldn't be able to find his way home easily, and he certainly didn't have much of his magic to be able to pull off anything big. Sure, he could fight against one or two humans, but an entire city? That wasn't going to happen.

Sans stood up, pulling up his hood over his skull. Staying near where he set a panic wouldn't be a good idea, but he wasn’t exactly sure where he could go. Everywhere was filled with humans, and if they all reacted the same way, he wasn’t going to make it very far without causing further panic. 

Stealing a look back at the end of the alley, he paused. There was a few windows back there, maybe one of those had a place that was empty. Honestly, it was worth a shot. Anything was better than sitting in the open like this. 

He peaked over the ledge, glancing around the interior. Empty. Taking a necessary risk, Sans teleported himself into the room, hugging his arms together to try and stay as silent as possible. No TV, no laundry, no walking. The front door, he could tell from where he stood, was locked. Good. 

Seizing the opportunity, Sans made his way around the house, searching for any map or technology he could use to figure out how far away he was from the Underground. They might have been really far, judging by how none of the humans really anticipated seeing a monster. Maybe humans just forgot about their race?

There was an office connected to the living room that Sans made his way to, drying his hands on a nearby curtain before he went to pull open the laptop. He should be able to google a map and bring it up, then see how far he’d have to travel. As much as he didn’t want to, he might have to steal a car. Sans knew the humans got Underground somehow, so he’d just circle around the mountain until he found it, then jump in. See that nice old woman behind the door. 

Sans shook away the lingering thought about the computer he saw in the library. One problem at a time. 

He ran a hand across his skull with an annoyed sigh when the question for a password popped up. A password? Was there any sticky notes around here that had one?

Drawer after drawer was pulled open, the contents within shuffled about. Nothing. No passwords, no hints, just paperclips and loose paper. He persisted, checking the entire room for a password, but found it lacking the key to his escape. 

Checking every other room in the small apartment also proved just as useless. This person was smart enough not to write down their password. Darn it. 

Seeing he didn’t have much to do here, Sans stood back inside of the living room, looking out at the ally through the window. There were computers in the library he could try, Though, he shouldn’t go back, he should wait until it closed. 

That’s where Sans found himself for the rest of the day, idling lounging inside of the empty apartment until either the owner returned, or until the library closed. Which, now that he thought about it, he had no idea when the library would close. He’d just have to wait until it was dark and guess. 

So, Sans tried to occupy himself, quelling away the anxiety of his situation that continuously built within his soul. He’d be back home in just a few days, right? Of course he would! Mount Ebott couldn’t be too far, and once he goes Underground he could forget about the picture on that computer. He’d feel better pretending that never happened. 

His chest hurt just thinking about it. 

The sun set after a few long, dragging hours that were passed by ultimately digging through the fridge to take a few snacks. What choice did he have? Sans couldn’t exactly just buy food, or go out into public, judging by their response of screams. 

Sans tucked his skull beneath his hoodie, now standing in the ally again as he looked around the street. No one. Good. 

He crossed, quickly, jiggling the front of the library doors. Locked. As he expected. The skeleton glanced up towards the roof with a sigh. He was burning through more magic than he was recovering from, if he kept teleporting around he’d run low on his reserves. Which he needed to recover from. 

Sans sat down at the receptionist computer once he was inside, pulling up google without any hesitation. Once he had it open, his digits danced across the keyboard, typing in the familiar mountain name within seconds. 

And got nothing. 

No location, nada. Again, he tried a different name, but that too proved fruitless. He stared at the screen, confusion now fully consuming his soul. How far away did he teleport?

He opened a new tab, typing in the word ‘monster’ with frustrated fingers. The computer paused, then produced some generic, folklore legends about monsters that were all from fiction. Okay, now Sans was really confused. 

He stared, gaping at the screen like he had just been stabbed by it. Nothing. Mount Ebott apparently didn’t exist, and the known monster population seemed to never live in the first place. It was as if, during his teleportation, everything he knew was wiped from existence. Sans might have theorized he somehow traveled into the future, but the technology was the same as his. 

What happened?

Sans clutched his head, staring at the screen as it spun lightly. There was too much confusion for him to deal with. Lord, where did he even start?

Apparently, the universe gave Sans the answer he was begging for, as the front doors clicked unlocked. His reaction was quick, reflexes forcing him to duck underneath the desk in a moments notice. Footsteps, loud and sharp, cut through the usually silent library, followed by the noise of a pencil against paper. 

“It would be unlikely that seven different people, with no connection to one another, would all suddenly make up the same lie of a skeleton appearing inside of the library.” The mans voice was loud, assertive. “Do you think it’s a keter class SCP?”

Sans, hearing the approaching voices, crawled into the small leg room under the desk. 

“We can’t assume anything yet. For all we know it might just be bound to this building and can be kept by ducktape. We just need to access the security cameras, that’s all.”

Security cameras? Well sh*t. 

“There’s seven statements about how the skeleton just appeared in the library, so if it doesn’t appear on cameras, we at least know it can be physically seen.”

Sans backed away into the corner when their feet rounded the desk, one of them sitting inside of the chair right in front of him as they clicked away on the computer screen. Where they sent from the human Kingdom or something?

“Definitely a skeleton, we have an SCP on our hands,” The woman said, “It looks confused and it disappeared without doing anything. It opened the window before it did, so we might have to trap it inside of an enclosed space to ensure it can’t disappear. Maybe it can turn into a gaseous state to move.”

A… What?

If Sans was confused before, it didn’t compare to how confused he was now. What were they talking about? SCP? Gaseous state?

“We’ll label it as a keter as of now, so they know it can vanish,” The man said, “Just as a warning for the unlucky bastards who have to catch this thing. Here, download the video, then erase it. Did the others erase the witnesses memories?”

“No, I’m completely stupid and would let seven people walk away unwiped,” She said sarcastically, “Yes, we did it immediately after questioning.”

“Sorry, ever since Brenden f*cking let two people go, we’re supposed to triple check now. F*cker really screwed us over, lost a lot of people. Idiot.”

“Anyway, I say we send in the retrieval and have them search the entire town. The library first, in case it is a ghost or some spirit. We get a lot of those these days.”

“Want to make a bet on that? Five bucks?”

There was a sigh from the man. “We aren’t supposed to be betting while on sight of an SCP seeing.”

“There’s no specific rule for that. Ten dollars?”

“Deal.”

 They clicked around for a bit on the computer, writing down notes here and there. Sans wasn’t sure if he should just teleport away or not, he was risking a lot being down underneath the desk. The humans were hunting him now, seriously?

“Write down what was searched in google as well, I find it weird that the computer was already turned on when everything else was off,” The woman said. 

Darn it. 

Sans stayed under the desk for the rest of their investigation, waiting for the two to leave. After a long wait, finally did they return outside, mumbling about sending in the retrievals. Not wanting to wait for whoever those people were, Sans climbed out from his hiding spot, peaking out across the empty library. Yeah, he wasn’t going to take any chances. He had to get out of town, now. 

~~~~~~

Sunlight pressed against Sans’ skull in chipped fragments, cut off fully by the foliage of leaves surrounding him. He turned away from it, dragging his bones against the bark as he soul growled hungrily. 

Three long and torturous days had passed, each more difficult than the last. Due to the season being summer, the days were longer, and the nights were shorter. That meant he couldn’t walk around as freely in the sun, as it would bring more attention to him. 

Oh, he tried. He kept his hood up, stole a pair of pants from a hanger to cover his skeleton ankles, and tried to walk in town. However, he had forgotten about his eyelights, which brought attention to him quickly. The next time he tried, he extinguished them, but then he was a hooded, unknown figure that also brought a lot of attention. A police officer had approached him and demanded an ID, but of course Sans didn’t have one, so that led to his hood forcibly being removed in a crowded street. 

Basically, he couldn’t go anywhere in public. He had no money, no identity, nothing. He wasn’t human, so he couldn’t fit in. 

And he was hungry. Very hungry. 

Sans turned on the branch again with the familiar ache, clutching his shoulders from the pain. His magic reserve couldn’t go much higher with only sleep, he needed food. But he couldn’t get food, a lot of humans were home constantly, and stores had cameras. If he was being hunted, which he certainly was for being an ‘SCP’ (whatever that meant), he couldn’t let them know where he was going. 

But that was the thing. Sans didn’t even know where he was going. How could he? Apparently the monster race and Mount Ebott never even existed, so he had no destination in mind. 

Were his brother and friends even still alive? 

If Sans had to guess, he must have teleported into a different timeline. That was the only thing that made sense. After all, monsters couldn’t just disappear. He might have ended up in a timeline where monsters never existed in the first place. 

But the ‘SCP’ thing and the picture made no sense. Sans couldn’t get any grasp on them, so instead he simply chose to ignore them. 

The idea of returning to his timeline was distant, and frankly, likely impossible. Even if he did manage to snag enough food and sleep to fully recover his starving magic, he didn’t even know how he got here. Or which timeline was his. How could he ever possibly return?

It hurt. Sans had cried a bit. Okay, a lot. But why wouldn’t he? He was in a strange world with no one to lean against, being hunted alive. Heck, the people were betting on him! They were professionals, then, if they were so casual about it. 

Humans were stronger than monsters. He was going to die. 

Know what? Fine. Sans was okay with them murdering him. What’s even the point anymore? He had no friends, he probably would never be able to see his brother again, and he could never form a life here. He had already long since given up due to the resets, this was only the final nail in the coffin. 

Another shake from his soul had Sans groaning, pressing his hands tighter against himself. Even if he was willing to accept death, he didn’t want to reach starvation. That could take months due to his skeletal heritage, and that was with low magic supply. Not to mention, painful. 

So, Sans stood, climbing down from the branches and landing onto the thick forest floor with a thud. He couldn’t hunt for crap, much less cook, for getting something from the forest wouldn’t be a good idea. 

But berries might work. 

The berry bush wasn’t too far away, tucked between two thick trunks. They probably were poisonous, but poison wasn’t something that could affect skeletons. 

They were sour, but Sans ate them all anyway, even the ones that weren’t fully grown. The entire bush was soon emptied, and it didn’t quench his hunger very much. He wiped away red juice from his mouth, staring at the now lacking berry bush. He needed real food. His magic would burn away the berries too fast, he needed something filling, fattening. Like Grillby’s. 

Now he wanted Grillby’s. Darn it. 

Sans glanced towards where he had come from that night, then dragged his eyelights up to his sleeping branch. He should probably keep moving, Whoever was tracking him probably had a lot of people, he couldn’t stay in one place for too long. 

Once bright pink slippers, now brown and muddied, dragged across the leaves and dirt. His legs now constantly ached, and his body begged for nutrition he simply couldn’t give. The words in his mind were now quiet, having given up on trying to reason with him for a happier outlook. Instead, it remained hollow on reassurances. 

He wondered through the forest during the day, ignoring the aches and groans. The berries barely lasted ten minutes, and once again his magic was in dire need of food. There was nothing he could do, though. Not until nighttime. 

Once nighttime hit, Sans managed to find his way to the next town, standing on the edge of the forest line as he stared at the empty street. Everyone was in their homes, so he’d rather go to a store than risk waking up anyone. He’d rather try to maneuver around the cameras and break them then have more people screaming. 

After a few minutes of walking along the sidewalk did Sans find a store, a bakery with the doors locked firmly. His body protested the use of magic, but Sans teleported to the other side of the door, ignoring it. He’d be-

“Ack.”

Sans suddenly turned to his sleeve, coughing heavily. A few blood droplets scattered across the floor, the remaining dripping from his mouth. With a groan of pain, he used his gloves to wipe his teeth. Crap. He was pushing himself too far. His magic was running lower than he thought. 

Without so much as a chance to even gaze at the food, the sound of roaring car engines had him looking back towards the glass windows with wide eye sockets. Sh*t. They knew he was here!

Not one, not two, but at least five different cars parked along the street, releasing a flood of armed and guarded soldiers out. F*cking hell, there was no way they’d be able to get here so quickly! Unless, of course, they figured out what direction he was going from the numerous sightings and predicted it would be this town, then hooked themselves up onto every camera and were already nearby, waiting for him to show up. 

Sh*t. They were smart. Sans couldn’t teleport out of town, he had barely any magic. 

He could hear rustling in the back, making him look back and forth between the two noises. They had the place surrounded. Crap crap crap-

Sans ducked between two aisles, trying to see how much magic he had left. Not enough to even hold up a fight. This was it. They were going to kill him. 

He turned, looking up at the several shelved food items nearby. If he could eat these, and wait for a bit, he should gather enough magic to be able to teleport away. A hand reached up for the food, but before he could grab it, the front door opened at the same time as the back one. There wasn’t enough time!

“It’s here!” Someone behind Sans shouted, pulling out a pistol when he turned. 

Still grabbing the food, Sans whipped it out towards the man, throwing it directly at his face as a distraction. The gun dropped to the ground, and Sans grabbed it quickly, holding it close to his body. Too many people, he couldn’t shoot. Without much choice, his magic sparked to life, teleporting him outside of the store and onto the street. The pain in doing so had him suddenly gripping his chest with a free hand, his eye sockets threatening to spill tears from the pure pain of pushing his magic past it’s limit. 

“It’s now outside and armed!” Another person yelled, pulling out their own bigger gun and pointing it at Sans. 

His breaths were heavy, as was his chest. His entire body burned, and his trembling hands held a meak firearm. He pointed it up towards them, jerking it back and forth between the armed people. 

“It knows how to use a weapon, keep your guard up!” A woman shout across the people. 

Sans couldn’t count how many surrounded him. Ten? Twenty? Too much, his head couldn’t focus. They outmanned him, and had bigger weapons, with much more firepower. If he shot them, he’d be gunned down at an instant. 

So, Sans lowered the weapon from them, and turned it. Against himself. The cold barrel now pressed against the side of his skull, trigger ready under his finger at any moment. It’s fine, he was going to die anyway. 

“It’s going to kill itself! Bring a negotiator out!” A person yelled, the words long since lost to Sans. 

It’s okay, he’d see Papyrus soon. Right? 

With that in mind, he tensed, and moved to pull the trigger. 

A gunshot echoed out across the street, but not from his gun. From a gun to the side, an armed man having turned their weapon down and shot at his leg to prevent a suicide. Sans’ own weapon fell from his hands as he cried out, dropping to one knee as he clutched the now injured leg. Warm blood, thick and dense, freely trailed down his leg as pain climbed through his bones. 

“You idiot-”

“Henry what the f*ck-”

“-Not supposed to shoot-”

Snippets of yells from the other people were caught as Sans’ vision started to blur. He already used a lot of magic, and now he was injured. His magic supplies just wouldn’t be able to keep up anymore. 

Through his blurry vision, Sans could see a few people approaching, and in his frightened and alert state, his body automatically teleported himself to the side, not too far from where the people were. Barely a few meters at best. The act had him curling up over his body, hacking up far more blood than he did previously. He stood, ignoring the way his broken leg splintered underneath him as he tried to back away. 

“-Causing it pain-”

“-Teleporting is hurting it-”

Sans freely bled and cried as he backed away from the shooters, his body teleporting one final time without his permission. He dropped to his knees from the plunge of magic, immediately throwing up the few berries he had managed to eat earlier. His chest heaved with breaths, and his overexerted body finally collapsed to the side, drained of energy. 

His vision went black. 

~~~~~~

The first thing Sans knew was that he was in pain. 

His entire body hurt, screaming with the ache of exerting himself well past his limits. His leg, too, ached, like he had gotten shot. Which he did. 

But Sans was alive. He wasn’t sure if that was something that made him happy or made him feel worse. Either way, he’d have to deal with it. 

Sans sat up slowly, looking around at his new surroundings. It was a plain grey room, no doubt made out of concrete, with a thick iron door on the other side.  His reflection stared back at him, the entire wall acting like a mirror. Reflective glass, probably bullet proof. The bed was nothing more than a set of iron bars sticking out from the wall, with a thin and laughable mattress underneath him. A blanket, thin and deary, clung to his bones. Despite how short he was compared to other people, it still wasn’t big enough to even cover his bare feet. A toilet, plain white, sat in the other corner. There wasn’t anything else to his cell, other than four mounted cameras near the ceiling. 

Seeing there wasn’t much to investigate, he turned onto his side, facing the wall and dragging the thin and practically useless blanket back up across his body. The reveal of his leg caught his attention, revealing a cast wrapped tightly around it. Whoever did it was extremely good at tending to injuries, as the cast was set firm, so firm he probably wouldn’t be able to take it off with his small hands. 

Lord, Sans was hungry. His magic was barely holding out at this point, begging him for food every breath he took. His leg wouldn’t be able to properly heal without it, and he was barely clinging to life with his magic. Funny. They went through all that trouble to treat his injuries and to lock him away, only for his body to shut down. Unless they brought food, he wasn’t going to last more than a day. 

Almost as if the world heard him, a slot opened to the side, revealing a plate of some weird looking mush food. The broccoli was clearly undercooked, and the… mashed potatoes, if Sans had to guess, looked quickly made. He glanced towards the slot on the floor, twisting his head to see. The other side was blocked by metal, no doubt only one could be open at a time. Not that it mattered, Sans could just teleport, so trying to stick his hand through it wouldn’t matter. 

But did he want to? If he escaped, they’d be after him again, and he certainly wasn’t getting back Underground anytime soon. So, Sans turned towards the wall once more, curling onto himself to try and just dust where he lay. 

No longer than ten minutes could have passed before, out of the corner of his sight, he was a shift in the glass, making it become transparent. Oh, so they could control it. Probably to keep him from knowing what was happening outside. Smart. 

“Hello SCP-6138.” The man’s voice was distant, and a bit… off. Like he was talking through a speaker, which he probably was. 

Great. He was nothing but a number. And what was with the SCP statement? Constantly, he heard it, but he didn’t understand it. 

“My name is Doctor Moser. I’m one of the head Doctors working at this containment sight. I know you are unable to stand, but we can provide crutches and a wheelchair if you so wish. Can you understand me?”

Sans remained silent. Some muttering could be heard, along with writing. Sans just wanted to disappear. 

“Can you tell us your name?”

Again, Sans remained silent. 

“I don’t think it’s capable of communication,” The Doctor muttered to someone else, “What if-”

“He.”

The Doctor paused as Sans finally turned his head over his shoulder, looking at the human. “Don’t call me it. I’m a he.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware you were coherent.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but was me running away from people with guns not good enough for you?” Sans said, “You’re a doctor, f*cking act like one. You should be smart enough to know that a person running away from someone isn’t a threat. I got shot, jacka*s. The fact that you guys saw a week and scared man running for his life and you still shoot at him tells me everything I need to know about you.”

“I do apologize about that, the man who shot at you has been terminated. I can request a wheelchair and set of crutches for you if you’d like.”

Sans stared at him for a moment before he turned away once more. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

The Doctor motioned to a nearby guard, who left his post and disappeared from view. Sans sighed, closing his eye sockets. He always got the worse luck, it seemed. 

“Can you tell me your name?”

“‘T’s Sans.”

“Sans. That’s an interesting name. I’ll explain where you are. You are at a containment sight to contain anomalies, objects or people or beings that don’t conform to the scientific world as we know it. The SCP Foundation was created to protect the world from SCPs that can harm or jeopardize it. I understand you were likely scared, and that the use of weapons against you may have startled you, but we deal with very dangerous stuff on a day to day basis. We also have to protect anomalies to ensure they don’t fall into the wrong hands and cause chaos and deaths.”

“I doubt I could fall into the wrong hands,” Sans muttered, “And how dangerous is this stuff that warrants so much guns?”

“A colleague of mine had his bones turned into jelly by an SCP. He died within a few minutes.”

Sans sat up, looking at him. “Oh sh*t.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve continued the SCP, so it won’t turn you to jelly,” The man said, holding out his hands to try and reassure Sans. “That’s why we cannot risk letting a single SCP roam about without properly ensuring we know everything about them. About half of the things in this facility can kill you, and a good chunk of those do desire to kill everyone they can. The letters SCP stand for Secure, Contain, and Protect. We identify all anomalies entities as SCPs, and give them numbers accordingly. That is why your SCP-6138. It’s a simple labeling process to see how many SCPs we have.”

“You guys deal with over six thousand?” Sans asked, “Are they all… you know, like me?”

“No, most SCPs range in their differences. None of them conform to expectations at any time. Some of them are simple objects, like a key or a coffee machine. A few are even locations. Some of them are animals, and some of them do have intellectual knowledge and coherent thoughts with the ability to speak and perform on our level. That’s why it’s so difficult to interpret what kind of SCP an unidentified one is. We weren’t sure if you were dangerous or not, since a lot of SCPs can be dangerous without attempting to be. Some SCPs even are dangerous just by existing, and they cannot control their rate of harm. Again, we didn’t intend to shoot you, and we had our doctors quickly tend to your injury. We did give you painkillers, did those help at all?”

“Skeletons can’t feel drugs,” Sans said, “So no. Trying to sedate me or poison me won’t work. Much less painkillers.”

“That would make sense. Do you not need to eat?”

“No, I need food, it’s just uh…” Sans motioned to his leg. “I can’t get over there, smarta*s.”

“Once again, we weren’t sure how safe it would be to give you any items other than basic food, much less that you could teleport. Is that the correct term?”

“I like to use shortcut, but it works,” Sans muttered, “And I’m too tired from before to teleport. You don’t have to worry about me, though, I’m not dangerous. You don’t need to be behind some thick glass just to talk to me, I won’t do anything unless I’m attacked first and defending myself.”

“We have to remain safe until we’re absolutely sure of what you are and aren’t capable of,” Doctor Moser said, “So you are able to teleport and are immune to chemicals, yes? Not to mention, you are a skeleton. Are you a ghost of some type?”

“No, that’s stupid,” Sans said, “I was born a skeleton. Had a skeleton Dad and skeleton brother. My Dad’s dead now, and I’m not sure where my brother is. I don’t even think we’re in the same universe anymore.”

“The same universe?”

“Well, from where I’m from, we have both humans and monsters. Like, it’s normal to know monsters like me exist, and when I googled my home, it just… didn’t exist. I’m guessing my shortcut went wrong, and now I’m stuck in your universe, where I’m an SCP.”

“So humans and monsters coexisted?”

“Kinda, yeah. I mean, there was some racism, but overall monsters and humans interacted often. That’s why I was caught off guard when everyone started to scream, since I thought humans should know that I could exist. Being in a different world is the only explanation. Your world is mostly the same. You guys have structure, houses, jobs, stuff like that, and we have the same technology.”

“That makes sense. We are aware there are different realities, and you may have come from one where SCPs are more normalized. Probably not as dangerous, though.”

“I’m just a normal guy who got thrown into a bad situation,” Sans said, “I’m not bad, just lost and confused. It’d be like if you went to a universe where humans don’t exist. I’m not dangerous, I just have some abilities I can use. I guess I get why I’m here, but it would have been more nice to not be shot, ya know.”

“Yes, that would have led to a more pleasant first meeting.” The Doctor tapped his chin. “We won’t be able to let you out of your cell for the first day, as we aren’t fully aware of what you’re capable of. We’ll have to conduct some tests first, and once we deem you pacifist, we can allow you free roam of certain parts of the facility.”

~~~~~~

The rest of the day was Sans getting adjusted to everything. They weren’t Government officials that just wanted to kill him, as he had assumed earlier, but people who just were trying to keep dangerous things under wraps. Honestly, Sans didn’t really have any intention to escape. He already lived out in the real world for three days, and he didn’t want any repeats of that. No thanks. 

They did some basic tests, and asked a lot more questions. Sans answered to the best of his ability, anger having long since drained away when he realized what they were trying to do. The Doctor was decently nice, and even brought Sans better food once he knew Sans could and needed to eat. Apparently he also would be having daily meetings with a therapist, as Sans had signs of depression and suicide, and it wasn’t something he could get out of. 

Sans demonstrated some of his skills. Most of them, anyway. He didn’t teleport, since he wanted to recover as much magic as he could, and they already knew he could do that. He also didn’t summon a Gaster Blaster, but that was something he wouldn’t tell them. It was a backup, emergency attack that would be sure fire way to defend himself. Sans would never use them unless he absolutely had to, so he kept them secret. It wasn’t like he had enough magic to use them anyway. But he did demonstrate bone attacks, and a soul grab, which he only used to pick up the doctor and slightly move him. They talked a bit more, and a few more doctors came to his room, and they agreed that they would try to find a way for Sans to return him if it was possible. It gave him some hope. 

But, in turn, Sans learned a lot about this world. Magic didn’t exist. At all. When humans died, they didn’t have a soul. Or, at least, the humans couldn’t see it, since Sans could still grab the Doctors just fine. Another thing he learned that was when an SCP escaped, it triggered blinding red lights and a screeching intercom that woke him up way too early. 

“There have been SCPs that have been released back into the real world due to their anomalies, one recent example is of a girl who can manipulate things in photographs. We have weekly visits and inspections of her house, and she does have cameras stationed around in case a different organization tries to take advantage of her anomalous gift.”

“What kind of organizations want that?” Sans asked. 

They were walking down the hall, Sans next to the doctor in his wheelchair, with an armed guard behind him pushing it. At first, he assumed it was because he was now an SCP, but found out it was for his own protection. Apparently, the SCP that had triggered the alarms was a tiny teddy bear that was dangerous, and had yet to be captured. The alarms trigger whenever it’s spotted, since it’s been hiding somewhere in the facility for over two weeks.

“Some that want to use more ‘useful’ SCPs to further themselves. To weaponize some of the most dangerous ones, though, it usually the primary goal. They’ve even tried to help a few SCPs break containment. That’s why we have to keep most of them here. Especially ones that don’t look normal. SCPs that are deemed good to have free roam around the facility like yourself are ones that would be released if their circumstances were different.”

A shuffle of shoes and metal alerted Sans, causing him to look up. Three men, all dressed in orange, were being escorted by six armed guards towards a door labeled ‘Heavy Containment’, where two more armed guards stood outside of it. 

“Uh, what’s going on there?” Sans asked.

“Our heavy containment zone is where the more difficult to contain SCPs are, and those are D-Class ranks going to experiment on them. Our D-Class members are all prisoners taken from execution, so they’re considered… well, expendable. A lot of experiments are dangerous so we take people who were going to be executed anyways and use them. They’re people like serial killers and cannibals, so don’t worry about getting innocent people injured.”

“What containment am I in?” Sans asked. 

“Light containment. We don’t automatically move people into heavy containment unless we have a d*mn good reason.”

Sans looked towards the D-Class ranking people, watching them disappear into a heavily guarded area. Yikes. 

“Will they be okay?” Sans asked. 

“Probably not,” One of the nearby guards snorted, “They’re going to peanuts room. Good luck to them.”

“Peanut…?” Sans echoed. 

“Let’s just say that their heads might be seeing a new view.” The Doctor pressed a few buttons on the door to Sans’ new room, trying to move on from the very dark topic. “But don’t worry about that. You won’t be encountering most of the dangerous SCPs, unless there’s a containment breach. In the event of a containment breach, though, all free roaming SCPs are to go directly to their rooms and lock themselves in. Or you can, if you’re too far, go to the nearest non-containment room and lock yourself in there. I wouldn’t recommend leaving your room, whatsoever, unless a doctor or guard gives you the clear. It’s protocol to do a sweep of all our rooms after a containment breach, including unlocking doors and checking on all SCPs.”

“What if I’m running around and one of the guards shoots me just because I’m an SCP in the chaos?” Sans asked, “Should I wear a certain shirt or something to show I’m a good SCP?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. All of our employees, even the janitors, are highly trained about protocols. We immediately release an announcement on which SCP or SCPs have broken out, their description, and measures to take. It’s extremely dangerous to face any SCP at all without listening to the exact details, so you’d be rather safe. And we have protocols in place to also ensure free roaming SCP’s safety. I believe we’ll ask Cain to show you the ropes, he’s very helpful. I have an interview with SCP-035, so I have to leave in a couple of minutes. Cain should be here in about… twenty minutes? So you can get accustomed to your new room, then get some tips about the SCP Foundation.”

“That sounds good, sure,” Sans said, “Is Cain like another Doctor or is he a special guard?” 

The Doctor shook his head. “He’s another SCP. SCP-073, to be specific. He’s been very helpful to us, and has been helping new, coherent SCP’s adjust to the building. Your room is actually next to his. I’d say your room placement is probably the best in this entire building.”

Once the door to his room peeled open, Sans peaked inside. Oh crap, they actually went out on decorating the inside. They had taken down Sans’ requests for a new room, but he didn’t anticipate this.

It wasn’t too big, but was rather decorated. Lush carpeting filled the room, stopping just at the edge of the kitchen. The couch was large and cozy, with lumps of pillows decorating it. A bedroom was connected from the living room, and from what Sans could see, it was filled to the brim with comfy blankets Sans could duck inside of. 

He loved fluffy blankets and pillows. 

“Are there any last minute questions you have for me?” Doctor Moser asked. 

“Uh… nah, I think I got everything.” Sans waved him a curt goodbye. “Thanks again for this.”

And he was soon alone.