Sans gasped as the breath that had been knocked out of him returned with a force. He groaned in pain, his bones feeling as though they had been smashed to bits. Moving the slightest was absolutely excruciating and judging from the sounds Edge was making, he felt the same terrible way. He slowly cracked his eyes opened, relaxing slightly as he winced at the bright lights hanging from the cavern's ceiling. It was a good sign but it didn't confirm that they had indeed fallen back into Sans's universe.

"Sans…" Edge groaned. The smaller skeleton tilted his head towards him ever so slightly. He saw him roll onto his stomach and slowly push himself up. "Geez…" He extended a hand towards him, resting it on his shoulder when it suddenly started glowing green.

"w-what are you…?" Sans asked but he trailed off as he winced. The other's touch was burning but oddly soothing?

"I'm healing you." Edge bit out, trembling with pain.

"i didn't know you could do that." Sans stated in astonishment.

"You basically have to learn healing magic in the Graves otherwise you're pretty much dead." Edge informed. And the more he spoke, the more Sans found the ache in his bones was lessening. He could move slightly without it hurting too much. "I'm not good at it so the most I can do is take away some of the pain just like I did when I first found you."

If Sans remembered correctly, it meant he would still be subjected to a lot of agony for roughly two or three more days. But that was something he could deal with if they had truly fallen into his universe. He certainly hoped they had. He didn't know if he could take fixing another MaWoIn machine and using it to travel through dimensions until they got it right.

multiverse means an endless amount of universes… Sans reckoned with horror. we could be doing this forever…

"Ack, fuck!" Edge hissed as pain seemed to wrack through his body. He recoiled his hand and breathed heavily. "I can't…that's as much as I can do…"

Sans pushed himself into a seating position. He was still hurting everywhere but at least he could deal with the pain enough to move around. "it's fine. thanks."

"Are we…are we here?" Edge asked as he began to heal himself. "Are we in your world?"

Sans glanced at the edifice in front of them. It looked like the back of his house. The bricks and tiling were all accurate. He then glanced over his shoulder at the surrounding tree. They were firs which was another good sign. He supposed the only way to know for certain was to look into the lab and ask around Snowdin. When Edge was well enough, he helped him up and they used each other for support as they walked to the secret lab. At first glance it looked different mostly because of the marks of an explosion. But when Sans remembered what had first brought him back to his home, he supposed his lab looked just like he had left it with some minor changes caused by a powerful blast.

"let's ask around snowdin." He suggested, still unable to come a conclusive answer.

Edge nodded and made to walk but as he did so Sans teleported them by the Christmas tree in centre town. The taller skeleton's unbalanced stance when they had teleported caused them to fall over into an aching pile of tangled limbs. Both groaned in pain. The sound they made had muffled the surprised gasps of surrounding monsters Sans recognised once he took the time to look at them.

"S-Sans…?" A bear monster stammered and cautiously approached.

"that's me." He said, straining a smile. "just out of uh…curiosity, when was the last time you heard of me?"

A crowd of monsters steadily began to form around them. Edge was tense and Sans could see he was about to fight someone, his natural instincts kicking in. He had to confirm they were in the proper universe before he lashed out and hurt someone.

"U-uh…gee willikers…" The bear said, scratching his round ear. "Must have been half a year ago. There had been an explosion in your house."

good. Sans thought. It was a reassuring sign all things considered.

"If I remember correctly," He continued, "Scarf Face was the one who fetched you from Grillby's."

A red marionette looking monster with a neon green and yellow scarf moved to the forefront of the crowd. "Grillby said he was going to contact Undyne and told you to go home." They informed. "We thought Papyrus might have been hurt in the blast. A few minutes after you left, there was a second explosion. That time we all went to see."

"Sans, we thought you were dead." A bunny monster interrupted. "Where did you go for so long?"

"And who's the edgelord?" Another asked, gesturing Edge who frowned at them.

"it's a long story." Sans chuckled. He was now convinced he had come back home. "i'll tell you all some other time. first, i want to see my brother."

All of the monsters tensed and grew unnervingly silent. Sans and Edge exchanged a worried look.

"wh…where's papyrus?" Sans repeated, his heart and mind beginning to race.

"He…" Scarf Face hesitated. "He's also been missing for six months."

END