The day after the fifth human Soul had been taken, Sans came into the lab more or less as happy as usual.

He paused, though, when he saw that Alphys was not there. She was always there before him. He had become rather good friends with the intern, and was a little concerned to see she hadn't arrived yet.

Stepping up beside Gaster, he remarked on this. "hey, where's al?"

Gaster didn't look up from what he was doing. "One of her friends, a trainee for the Royal Guard, got hurt yesterday in the human attack." He paused a second. "... Well, I suppose 'hurt' is a bit of an understatement. Apparently, she was hit in the face. She'll be blind in her left eye... if she pulls through. From what Alphys said when she called to say she wasn't coming, her friend is still unconscious, and it's unlikely she'll wake up."

Sans blinked a little. "... annoying dog, that's... awful."

"... Yes, I suppose so."

Sans looked up, surprised at the lack of sympathy in Gaster's voice. "you sound like you couldn't care less about this."

Gaster looked down at Sans. "You mistake my lack of surprise for apathy. I was in the war, Sans. I have learned through experience that humans and death come hand-in-hand. While it is a pity that some should die, it is no surprise when in war."

"but we're not in war."

"Humans are war. They always have been, and always will be. If not against monsters, then, I have little doubt, against themselves. When a human falls into the Underground, they bring with them their war."

"so we're just going to let her die?"

"What could I do that the doctors in New Home hospital could not?"

Sans paused. That was a good question. "i-... i don't know. you're the royal scientist. there's gotta be something."

Gaster sighed. "Sans, as far as anyone can tell, her body is perfectly fine- well. Except for her eye. But that should't still have her in the state she's in. Her Soul simply doesn't have the will to live. The only thing we could possibly do is give her Determination, but..."

Sans' hand subconsciously went to his unmoving jaw.

Gaster saw. "Yeah. That."

Sans blinked a little. He knew Alphys, knew how shy and introverted she was. She didn't have a lot of friends, Sans knew, and every one of her friends were practically as close as family.

"there's..." Sans glanced around. Gaster and he were the only ones in the lab. The DTW project no matter how done and gone, was still an illegal one, and Sans would rather not have his creator incarcerated. "we could give her the physicality serum, first."

Gaster shook his head. "No. If she doesn't have the Determination to live as is, she'd never survive. You of all people should know how trying those injections are."

"... right..." Sans sighed. "... and... and we couldn't just give her a little? how much dt can a person handle before their body gives out and they melt?"

Gaster shrugged. "It depends on how much physicality their body has. You probably could have withstood one or two injections right from the start without the physicality serum."

"so if we just give her as much as is safe..."

"Still can't guarantee it'll be enough to get her going."

"no harm in trying though, right?"

"Except for the part where people ask questions."

"we say it was an experimental new drug."

"And when people start asking for it?"

"we say that, while it worked here, there's way too much potential for dangerous side effects, so we discontinued the research for it."

"... You certainly are determined to do this. Especially considering that you know all too well what could happen."

Sans looked down. "... alphys is my friend. i'd hate to think what would happen to her if..."

Gaster sighed. "I suppose, if you really want to, we can give it a go."

"i do really want to."

Another sigh. "... Well, then, let's go to the hospital, then."

~o0o~

Alphys was rather surprised when both Sans and Gaster came into the hospital room.

Sans gave her a wink, something he had started doing instead of a smile when greeting people. "heya, al. this your friend? undyne, you said?"

"Y-yeah--..."

Sans looked at the unconscious monster on the hospital gurney. She was training to be in the Royal Guard, and, even as she was, she definitely looked the part, her scaly green skin stretched over a solidly muscled frame. Her dark red hair was loose, spread across the pillow, the fins protruding from her cheeks tangled in the red mass. Her right eye was closed, and there was a square of gauze taped over her left. There was an IV in her arm, and a tube down her throat. Four wires disappeared under the collar of her hospital gown, the other end connected to a machine that let it a soft, slow, rhythmic beeping sound.

"So, Sans?" Gaster said slowly, stepping up beside the gurney. "Still think this'll work?"

Sans reached out and poked the fish monster's muscular shoulder. "oh yeah. look at her. she's solid as a rock."

Alphys blinked a little. "W-what are y-you talking about?"

Gaster gave Sans a sidelong look. "You get to explain."

Sans turned to Alphys. "well, al, see, we've got this thing. an experimental drug that might just work to wake her up. problem is, it, uh... it can... kinda sometimes melt people if they don't have enough physical matter in their bodies. but undyne is pretty dang solid, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Alphys blinked. "Y-you're saying... y-you can s-save her?"

"yeah, mayb-"

Sans was cut off as Alphys suddenly lunged from her seat, wrapping Sans in a nearly bone crushing hug. "Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!!"

"Don't get your hopes up too much." Gaster intoned. "Just at a glance, I'd say it would work, but looks can be deceiving. We'll have to take her back to the lab, so I can run a few tests. Then there's the dosage size, it'll take me a while to calculate that, if all the tests turn out alright."

Nonetheless, Sans could tell Alphys's hopes were definitely up.

~o0o~

Alphys was a little reluctant when Gaster started to bring her friend to the lab. She would have to be taken to Gaster's own lab on the tenth floor, and Alphys still wasn't allowed down there.

Sans assured her, though, that everything would be as fine as they could make it.

As Gaster settled Undyne onto the steel table in his lab, Sans reflected on how weird it was to have someone other than himself lying there.

It was very weird.

After a little while, he helped Gaster with the sensors, and soon enough, they had the test results.

Gaster let out a whistle of appreciation. "She has a lot of muscle. Lots of physical matter. Her body could probably hold... a good six, seven injections."

"so we're gonna do it, then?"

"Yeah. Give me a little while to figure out exactly how much she can take."

~o0o~

Exactly how much Undyne could take, exactly, was about ten of the base-sized dosages Sans had gotten.

Just to be sure, though, they weren't just pumping it all into her at once. They planned to span it out across four days, and if she woke up before they got it all into her, that was all for the better.

So they started with just a small injection. Then they spent the next several hours around Gaster's lab, messing around with whatever project Gaster had at hand. When the tests showed minimal strain on Undyne's physical body, they gave her the next injection.

A few hours later, it was getting late. Gaster had gotten Jeff to go check on Papyrus, as both Sans and Gaster were reluctant to leave Undyne. So Papyrus was staying with Jeff for as long as this took.

As the evening lengthened into the night, Sans somehow found himself sitting at Gaster's desk, curled up in Gaster's lap for the first time in years, despite the fact that he was twenty two years old.

... He had forgotten how comfortable it was, really. To lean against Gaster's chest, listening to the beat of his Soul. To feel Gaster's grip around his shoulders, and to know that whatever happened, he was safe in his creator's arms.

Sans slept deeply.

Over the course of the next day, they gave Undyne five more injections.

At one point, Sans asked Gaster if these injections were raising his Lv at all.

"No." Was the easy reply.

"i wonder why...?"

"It's pretty simple, actually. Granted, the injections might be painful to her, but it's like... like an organ transplant. Sure, maybe you're hurting someone by cutting out their organ, but you're doing it to replace a failing organ, and in the end, the person would be much worse off without that. You're saving their life. You, though, were perfectly fine. Absolutely healthy. I was replacing your organs even when they didn't need replacing, hurting you because I wanted you to be 'stronger'."

That made sense to Sans.

Several hours after the eighth injection, near the evening of the third day, Undyne began to stir a little.

It was then that they moved her back to the hospital.

~o0o~

It was three days since Undyne had been brought back to the hospital. Sans' grin widened when he saw Alphys walking into the lab. She smiled when she saw him.

"I d-dunno what you d-did, but it w-worked!Undyne w-woke up last night!"

Sans already knew this, of course, as Gaster had been keeping an eye on things just to make sure Undyne hadn't started melting or anything, but he responded enthusiastically. "hey, that's great! how's she doin'?"

Alphys chuckled a little. "H-her depth perception's all messed u-up, since she o-only has one eye, but she says it's o-okay a-and she'll make it work, she'll f-figure something out. She's also r-really s-strangely happy that she has a legitimate reason to w-wear an eyepatch."

"but she's doing well?"

"Yeah!"

"that's good."

When Undyne was allowed to leave the hospital a week later, she was still completely solid, and more Determined than ever.

§

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