Sans leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. No, no, no! They got past him! The human, no, that monster was on its way to kill the King. And there was nothing Sans could do about it. Or was there?

A loosely formulated idea began to form in his head. Alphys. Alphys had everyone hidden in her lab. She was a scientist. She had to have something to fix this. She had to!

He straightened up, wiping the sweat off his browbone before he opened a shortcut to Alphys' lab.

The basement was dark and quiet as Sans crept down the stairs. He'd heard bad things about this lab, but it was the only safe place left. He entered a room with many beds, all crowded with monsters of many different types, all looking scared. Heads snapped up when he entered. A tall, white, pulsating blob stood in the corner, caring for small orphaned children. Its slow movements and blank appearance were quite unnerving. The children didn't seem to mind.

He crossed the room and called down a hall. "Alphys!" Surely enough, the patter of feet hurried up the hall.

Alphys ran towards him, a couple small Amalgamates following, weaving beneath her feet. "Sans!" she was surprised to see him. "Did you stop the human?"

Sans shook his head. "They went on to Asgore. Soon they'll reach the surface."

Alphys blinked, stunned. "Wh-what?"

"I'm sorry. But that's why I'm here. I need your help," he explained. "I- what's that?" he pointed to a clipboard Alphys was holding.

Alphys blushed. "U-uh... nothing!" she said, hiding it behind her back. "Just... just some dumb experiment... with Determination."

"Determination?!" Sans took a step forward, making Alphys jump. "You mean the stuff that little brat is full of? Alphys, you need to give me Determination. Maybe if I have enough, I can control the timelines."

"Alphys shook her head. "N-no, Sans. It's too dangerous! You don't know what happens to monsters with Determination."

"Alphys," his voice was deadly serious. "I don't care what it takes. I need to fix this world. I need to save everyone. Please."

Alphys pursed her lips. "Well, I have been working on something..." she gestured down the hall. "C'mon."

"Okay, be careful," Alphys warned as she and Sans approached a door at the end of a hall. "This is where the... cold amalgamate chooses to reside."

Sans and Alphys entered a long room with three operation tables along the wall, and some refrigerators down further. Sans examined the operation tables as Alphys went to the refrigerators. He pressed a hand to the table, pulling it up a second later, finding a few strands of something white stretching from his hand to the surface. His face pinched in disgust. "Sticky."

Alphys hesitantly opened one fridge. It was empty. She pursed her lips, she really didn't want to open more than she needed. The next fridge she went to, the moment she touched the handle, it melted under her fingers as the entire fridge collapsed into a blob.

Alphys jumped back with a cry. The blob slowly molded itself into a birdlike figure, resembling a Snowdrake. It had crooked prongs reaching up from... could it even be called a head? It had a melted beak and big sad eyes. Its symmetry was broken since half of it's body was drooping and seemed as if it wasn't even fully connected to the other side. Every part of its form dripped gooey white matter that had a viscous quality. The creature moaned pitifully as Alphys picked herself up.

She wasn't quite so scared as she was surprised. This one, the cold monster, the one she nicknamed Mother Snowdrake after the monster she resembled and her... supposed origins.

"S...sn..o...ow...wy..." it whispered, a little white ooze dripped onto Alphys' foot as she looked into the amalgamate's distorted face.

Alphys shook her head. This amalgamate was part of the mother of a Snowdrake in Snowdin. As far as Alphys knew, that Snowdrake had been one of that... monster's many victims. At first she had considered nicknaming her "Snowy" due to her constant repeating of the word, but this only seemed to make her more depressed. "Come on, Mother Snowdrake," she said, carefully guiding the monster along towards the door with a now slimy hand. "Why don't you go help take care of the children?"

Mother Snowdrake's constant grimace deepened. "Sn...sno...owy..."

Alphys frowned. "I know, I know..."

Alphys went back to the last fridge, and inside found a syringe labeled UE-DT. She took a deep breath as she closed the fridge and approached Sans, who had reluctantly taken a seat on one of the tables. He hopped down as Alphys showed him the needle.

"That's it?"

Alphys nodded.

Sans took a deep breath. "Alright, let's... let's do this."

He held out an arm to Alphys, who examined it for a second. "Um... Sans, can I even give you a shot of anything? You're a skeleton."

"Alphys, I'm still made of magic," he said, showing her the arm insistently.

Alphys bit her lip. "That's what I'm worried about."

She pulled back the sleeve of his jacket, revealing the radius and ulna. Carefully, she inserted the needle, that, for some reason slid into the bone like regular skin. With a deep breath, she pushed down the plunger, injecting the contents of the syringe into Sans' body.

Almost immediately, Sans felt the effects of the injection. He felt lightheaded, dizzy, the room spun, his feet stumbled without him intentionally moving them. Alphys' face blurred into a smudge of yellow. This most certainly was not Determination. Determination couldn't possibly make one feel like this!

"A-Alphys," he gasped, gripping the edge of the table in a desperate attempt to stabilize himself as his internal sense of balance failed entirely. "W-what... was that?"

"It's not Determination," Alphys said. "It's something else I've been working on. UE-DT. I'm... still working on it, but it may be our final hope."

Sans lurched to the side, he dipped in and out of consciousness, he felt nausea in his non-existent stomach. "I... I asked for... D-Det..." he dropped to his knees, scrabbling for anything to keep him from passing out.

"It was too dangerous for that," Alphys said, kneeling down in front of him. Sans felt his heart race, his body felt warm, limbs heavy, mind cloudy. Alphys clutched something in her hand. "I'm so sorry, Sans," she suddenly shoved the paper into his chest with two final words.

"Don't forget..."