Broken Souls

Chapter 3 - Translating...

Alphys sorted through the notes on her desk in a hurried manner. Sans was sat on the end of a second lab table, reading over a couple of papers with interest. They had both come back to the Lab for another go at translating after Alphys had claimed she had a sheet that could help. But so far they hadn't really made any progress.
Sans wasn't really working, other than his paper-reading but Alphys was furiously scribbling possible translations whilst muttering under her breath. Something was clearly bothering her and causing this amount of working frenzy in the otherwise careful lizard. 
Sans eventually looked up to watch Alphys for a few minutes, noticing her odd fervour before intervening,

"you're gonna tire yourself out." he said pointedly.

"I j-just have one m-more -"

"nah." Sans interrupted, "you need to rest. let me translate the rest."

Despite Alphys' many protests, Sans picked her up with Blue Magic, taking the sheets of paper from her hands then sending her over to the other side of the room. He gently sat her down on a chair before turning to look at the translation sheet he'd acquired, noting down the translation underneath the wingdings.

Translating was a tedious process and it wasn't long before Sans got bored, especially since it looked as if it was only three words repeated over and over again; "help", "please" and slightly more disconcertingly, "Sans."

Whatever was causing Sans to have the nightmares was trying to get help from him, although Sans couldn't imagine anyone who would do that. As Sans mulled over the new information, he noticed that Alphys had gone a lot quieter than usual. And as he was a good friend, Sans decided to pick her up on it.

"hey alph? you doin' okay?"

Her reply was a quick, slightly too hurried "yes". Sans frowned,

"what happened?" he asked. Alphys shifted uncomfortably, then plucked up the courage to tell her tale.

"Last n-night, after you l-left... I saw something in t-the file room." Alphys explained, "It was a f-figure, tall and really slender. It h-had a pale white head with cracks r-running from e-each eye, up on the right and d-down on the left. I-it just kinda stood there, m-making the weird c-clacking sounds you a-and Papyrus sometimes use t-to talk. And then it c-came forward, I closed m-my eyes and then it w-was gone, leaving b-behind the translation s-sheet."

Sans' eye-sockets narrowed,

"i knew ya lied about getting the sheet." he said. Alphys hid her face,

"I-i'm sorry! I sh-should've t-told y-you sooner!" she stammered. Sans waved a hand dismissively,

"don't stress 'bout it."

The two settled into silence, Sans staring hard at the pieces of translated message and Alphys awkwardly shuffling papers on her desk. Eventually Sans made up his mind and turned to look at the other scientist.

"you need to go home." He muttered, lifting one hand into the air. Alphys squeaked as her Soul turned blue and Sans picked her up. The skeleton used his other hand to deftly levitate the rest of Alphys' stuff, condensing it into one ball which he made her hold. He then plopped Alphys down by the lab exit and released his hold on her Soul. Alphys didn't move for a few seconds, debating what to do. She soon came to the conclusion that Sans wouldn't let her stay and instead accepted that she needed to go home.

"B-bye Sans." She sighed. Sans chuckled and waved her out, settling into the desk chair and kicking off his slippers. Once Alphys was out of sight, he kicked up his feet, leaned back and sent a quick text to Papyrus before falling asleep.

===

He pulled at a few fragments of his consciousness and appeared in the world. Not using much of his power, he was little more than a shadow, unable to interact with anything. Physically at least.
He stood by his son, watching with a quiet smile as Sans slept peacefully, dreams guarded by him. He felt happy. Plain and simple. Being here with his son, occasionally flitting over to Sans' phone to see Papyrus' texts, made him happier than he'd been in a long while.

Eventually, Sans began to stir and he prepared to leave. But before he did so, he laid one non-existent shadow hand on Sans' skull and gently patted his son's head. He could feel his strength waning and he needed to keep his energy for when people needed to see him. So for now, he would leave. But he would come back, he would make sure of it.

===

When Sans woke up again it was almost midnight and the lab was dark and quiet. Not seeing a light switch close by, Sans allowed his eye socket to light up, casting a pale blue light around the room. He hopped down from the chair where he'd been sitting and looked around for his slippers. The sound of his bare feet clicking against the hard tiles echoed around the room and made him wince. Thankfully, his slippers weren't too far away from the chair and his footsteps were soon muffled.
With the footwear issue sorted, Sans decided to explore the lab. He'd not been here much before the nightmares began and there was no point in wasting a good exploration opportunity.

With his left eye lighting the way, Sans headed down the long twisting corridors to explore each and every level of the True Lab. There were some obstacles; namely that the single elevator that was turned off at night resulting in Sans having to shortcut between floors. But besides from that, the skeleton was free to explore the entire lab and explore he did.

Nothing of interest happened until Sans reached the top floor. This was where Alphys had started her research to cure the amalgamates before she resigned, but it hadn't been used for a long time and the extractor fans had stopped working.

Being a skeleton came with some perks, like not having to breath. This allowed Sans to not worry about the fog of decidedly harmful chemicals that filled the corridors. His light, however, didn't penetrate the gloom and Sans was essentially blind.
And then... a flicker of movement. Hidden in the fog, something had definitely moved. As Sans crept closer he realised something was there. Something in the shape of a man.

Sans decided it was a good time to leave.

===

So close! He was so close to seeing Sans, getting help. But the only way he could bring his Soul together into a form was by staying in shadows, which gave him a creepy aura. He had no clue how to bring attention to himself long enough to explain without scaring any right-minded skeleton away. Then again, the dreams he'd used to convey the message had made Sans do something. Maybe some more dream infiltrating was in order. This time though, he would display something useful, something like blueprints to a machine. And this time, the machine would work.

Now it was just a matter of translating.