Suna lead them to the basement. "One more time." Sans nodded. "one more time." Alphys, Frisk, and Undyne were quick to offer their services. She was grateful. "Let's get your father back." Sans chuckled. "miss him that much, do ya?" She started were she left off. "Naturally." Papyrus stomped a foot. "NYEH! YOU GUYS KNOW I DON'T UNDERSTAND WINGDINGS!" She tried not to snicker. "Sorry Papyrus."
"yeah, sorry bro." The others looked between the skeletons. "W-wingdings?" Alphys asked as she started her work. "An ancient skeleton language that my husband had spoke and taught myself and Comic. Papyrus would have learned as well, but we were kind of out of commission." Suna answered the dino. "I wasn't aware you spoke other languages, either of you." Toriel commented. "don't speak it very often. never had reason to." Sans replied. "I have a question. Why do you keep calling Sans Comic?" Undyne asked. "Sans is our middle name. Comic is his first." She replied. "don't start calling me comic. she just gets to because she's my mom." He liked his first name just about as much as Gaster liked his. In other words, he hated it. But he couldn't imagine Suna calling him anything else, just like his father.

₩₩₩

Once more Undyne was doing the heavy lifting with Asgore helping. Toriel and Papyrus were making sure everyone was well nourished and Frisk was getting items for the two scientists and determined female skeleton. "How is this supposed to work anyway?" Suna asked curiously. "it's going to create a clean gateway between existence and non-existence so dad can move freely from there to here. that's what i hope, anyway." The concern of everyone intensified. "I wonder what the gateway will look like, or if we can see it?" She mused. Sans shrugged once more. "i don't know. i never succeeded in making it."
"We will succeed this time." She assured. "I can't afford to fail. I promised." Her magic glowed softly. Sans smiled. He wanted to tell her not to get her hopes up. There was no way, but after everything that has happened in the last few timelines, he was starting to feel a little hopeful too. It was affecting his stats.

Sans

ATK: 1

DEF: 1

HP: 2 the last stat glitched. HP: 3

Is ever so steadily gaining HoPe.

₩₩₩

They were taking a small reprieve. "HEY BROTHER?"
"hm?" Sans didn't look up from his pie. "I'VE NOTICED.. YOU'VE BEEN CHECKING YOUR STATS ALL NIGHT.. IS SOMETHING WRONG?" Papyrus looked nervous while Suna immediately ran a check. Her sockets widened as she shared her son's grin. She'd known for a while about how low the eldest's stats had gotten, but now they were rising. He was gaining HoPe. "Congratulations, Comic. I'm very happy that your stats are rising." He shrugged. "eh. was gonna happen eventually. think they'll ever get as high as they were when i was a kid?"
"Maybe." She mused. "WHAT WAS SANS STATS AS A KID?" Papyrus asked. Attack and Defense has always been the same, his Hope however was 650 as a boy."
"650?! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Undyne demanded. "the war happened. i thought i lost mom, which took a large chunk of my hp. then i lost dad, which took more. it just kept falling from there."
"A-and now it's rising?" Alphys asked. "by the hour. my hp is at 5 now." Papyrus crushed Sans. "THAT'S WONDERFUL NEWS, BROTHER!"

₩₩₩

"i think.. that's it." Sans and Alphys looked over everything. "Really?" Suna asked. "really, really. all we gotta do now as start it up. i don't think everyone should be in here once we do." Only the skeletons stayed behind as everyone went to wait upstairs. "Ready to see your father again?" Suna asked. She gripped the necklace tightly, wishing for this to work. Stars, please work. Sans started it up, backing away to the other two as the machine started to hum. That's all that happened. "Anticlimactic.." Suna commented. Until.. a black substance leaked from the machine. "UH.. IS THAT BAD?"
"imma shut it down, something must be wrong." He tried, but the machine wouldn't respond. More black leaked out of the cracks and crevices in larger quantities, Sans backed away as it pooled onto the ground and started to move towards the center of the room. The blackness swirled and clumped together, forming a figure. With a click, the machine produced a soul. The figure's soul. His soul..It hovered over to it's master and the machine finally shut down. Nobody moved. Nobody made a sound. Not until his sockets flickered open. "W-what..?"

2 chapters left.