He had no clue what was going on. He just knew he ached all over, Alphys was alive and the world was still going.

He raised the fleshy left arm, placing the fingertips gently on the metal shoulder of the right. There was a faint ringing in his foreign ears.

Alphys was sweating nervously, trying to not look at the group of humans that had her surrounded, pinned underneath their wary glares. Four more humans had joined with the two he had woken up to, and they all have insisted that Alphys kept him near them. His jacket lay across his lap, flecks of his dust still clinging onto it.

"O-okay, that s-should do it." Alphys stammered, straightening her glasses. She took a few cautious steps back, ducking her head to avoid the eyes trained on her. "He s-should be f-feeling a lot b-better now."

A blonde human stepped forward, kneeling down to be eye-level with him.

"How do you feel, Edward?" she asked kindly, her eyes soft.

Sans put together that must be the name of whoever's body he was in. He opened his mouth to reply that he wasn't the human she thought was inhabiting the body, but he ended up biting his new tongue by mistake.

"Ow." He muttered, covering his mouth with the fleshy hand.

The group of humans seemed placated by this response.

"Great, now get up." The black-haired man said, turning to look towards Alphys instead. "And I've got some questions for you, if you care to answer."

Alphys grinned nervously "D-d-do I have a choice?"

"Not particularly." The human said.

Sans's eyes narrowed into a glare. His eyes sparked blue for a brief second, training onto the Human Leader. He pushed himself up, forcing down his unease and put himself between Alphys and the black-haired human, abandoning his jacket.

"Hey, no need to be so hostile." He said with a shrug. "She doesn't seem all that dangerous-"

"You seem to forget it-"

"She."

"….Fine, you seem to forget she electrocuted you."

So that explains the achy feeling, at least.

Sans shrugged, turning his back to the humans and turning his eyes on Alphys. He made a brief motion with his hands, a type of sign language only the two of them knew. Alphys's eyes widened.

"Sans!?" She exclaimed.

Sans shot her a pointed glare as the rest of the humans looked on in confusion. Alphys slapped her hands over her mouth, eyes darting about behind her glasses as sweat slicked down her scales.

"Why did you just yell that?" The human leader said with a glare.

Sans shrugged, turning on heel. For show, he let his left eyes blaze blue. The other eye, much to the fear of the humans, turned completely white.

""Cause I'm Sans." He said, noting how his borrowed voice echoed with his original voice.

The humans all tensed up, with the leader being the exception. He took a step forward as Sans dismissed his magic, standing tall over Sans. This didn't unnerve the former skeleton in the slightest (he was around the same height as he was before so he was used to having to look up at people). Alphys squeaked behind him, grabbing his arm as if to pull him back.

"Don't worry, Al." Sans said quietly, looking over his shoulder. His attention was drawn back to the leader when he spoke.

"So, Sans." He said, eerily calm. Sans gave him a lazy grin which quickly turned into a startled gasp when he was hauled up from his collar. His face was only an inch away from the human's, and his eyes were….frightening, to say the least. The human growled at him "What did you do to Edward?"

Sans's grin returned when he replied with a shrug.

"No clue. Must've passed out when Al electrocuted him." He said.

" 'Al'?" the human repeated, quirking an eyebrow.

Sans jerked a thumb over to Alphys "Alphys."

"H-hi." Alphys stammered, giving a timid wave.

The human's glare moved over to her, his anger blazing in his eyes. Sans decided to fix this by booping him on the nose.

"Ey, I'm right here." Sans said.

The human leader dropped him, storming over to Alphys.

"What did you do to him?" He said in a façade of calm.

"N-nothing!" Alphys squeaked. Sans was quickly in between them again.

"Yeah pal, Alphys got nothin' to do with this." Sans said, rocking on his heels. He thought a moment, eyeing his discarded jacket. Sans lifted a hand, curling a finger towards himself and his jacket flew towards him. Sans ignored the confused and baffled looks the humans gave and grinned up at the Leader. "Did Ed pick up this thing for a reason?"

The human continued to glare at him.

"Geesh, not much for conversation, huh?" Sans shrugged "Okay, I'll stop peakin' 'round the bush. There was probably a pile of dust or somethin' round this. Did Ed do something with it?"

The female spoke up this time "He fell in it."

Sans hummed "Fell in it? Did he, like, eat any of it?"

"He was coughing it up, so he might have accidentally swallowed some." The leader said. He tilted his head "Why?"

"Well, ya see, that dust was what was left of my body." Sans chirped nonchalantly.

…

"Okay, that makes no sense." The leader pouted "If someone eats someone's body or whatever, they don't gain their consciousness or anything."

"Do ya speak from experience?" Sans grinned.

The leader glared again.

"Geesh, don't like jokes either?" Sans muttered "Yer kinda boring."

The leader shook his head, muttering something "Okay, so what happened? How is that possible? I want answers." He poised his fingers as if he were about to snap his fingers "Now."

Sans's grin didn't falter as he tilted his head "….Or what? Yer gonna smooth jazz us to death?"

Alphys squeaked "S-sans, no! He- uh- when he snaps, he can make fire, somehow…."

Sans's grin turned a bit stiff "Ah. Got it. Um. Okay, listen, I ain't good at the whole explaining thing, but I'll try my best." He took a step towards Alphys, making a point to hide most of her body with his borrowed one. "But, uh, no hurting my pal here."

"We'll see." The leader said "Explain."

Sans chuckled awkwardly "Right, it'll be a bit hard to explain to humans, but, uh, I'll try."

"Monsters are made out of magic, right? And that magic comes from the SOUL of the monster. When a monster dies, the magic holding their body together falls apart and they turn to dust. That dust can hold fragments of a monster's SOUL. When, uh, your friend here faceplanted in my dust, he must've, uh, well, ingested some of it. When that happened, the fragments of my SOUL left in the dust must've reformed to….actually, hold on, I can CHECK this."

Sans placed his flesh hand to his heart, his jacket hanging from the crook of his arm. He took a breath, moving his hand away from his chest, guiding what looked like a heart out of it.

The humans stared.

"What the hell is that?" The leader asked.

Sans grinned "A SOUL. Y'think I was making shit up?"

"A little bit, yeah." The human leader said.

"At least yer honest." Sans grinned. "Anyway, let's take a look see….. yeah, I think I see the problem."

The heart he had guided out, the SOUL, was red. In the middle, pulsing faintly, was a small white, upside-down, heart.

"See this part?" Sans said, pointing to the white heart. "This here is what's left of my SOUL."

"….So Edward somehow absorbed it?" The leader said slowly, crossing his arms "Is that what you're saying?"

"Eeyup." Sans grinned, pushing the combined SOULs back into his borrowed body.

"B-b-b-ut that still doesn't make sense!" Alphys stammered. Her eyes darted over to the humans and she hastily explained "I mean, when a monster d-dies, we usually spread the dust on something that monster liked in life. B-but that doesn't mean that the object gains the monster's consciousness."

"Usually, yeh." Sans said "But, this situation is a tad different. Did you notice the SOUL this kid has?"

Alphys thought a moment. Then her already pale face turned a bit paler "Determination."

Sans nodded, his grin finally dropping "Yeah. Determination."

The humans looked amongst themselves. The human leader spoke up again.

"So, Edward is okay?"

"Yeah." Sans said with a nod "He'll probably regain control when he wakes up. Y'probably can't tell, cause your humans and all, but his SOUL is sleeping."

The leader gave a slow nod. "Well, I suppose we have no choice but to believe you for now."

"Cool." Sans grinned again, giving a thumbs up "So can we have some names now? Kind feel stupid referrin' to ya by just traits I notice."

…

"Okay?" The leader said again. He turned and introduced all of them in turn. They each gave an awkward greeting in return.

"So, Edward is okay, right?" Fuery asked.

Sans gave another nod "His SOULs intact and all, so ….. yeh, he's fine."

Roy hummed "I have a lot more questions about SOULs and magic and all that. So, Sans, while we have you here, you're going to be answering our questions."

Sans whined "I don't wannnaaaaaaa." He plopped onto the ground, leaving Alphys to squeak in fear. At the noise, Sans quickly scrambled back to his feet, allowing the yellow monster to hide behind him again.

"So all that dust was….monster corpses?" Havoc frowned, his cigarette drooping.

Sans nodded again "Yeh."

Alphys fidgeted behind him, her eyes misting over.

"…Why so much of it?" Roy demanded. Alphys choked, turning her back on them and hiding her head in her hands.

Sans's grin turned unnaturally tight. His eyes went white "Well, let's just say some humans jump straight to murderin' everything they don't like."

Roy frowned, exchanging a look with Riza. She spoke slowly.

"I see. Well, if you do not mind, we still have some questions we need answered. Then we'll leave."

Sans chuckled a bit "Yer a bit nicer than Roy-boy." He shrugged "Although, I've kind of been…dead, so I don't really know what's been going on." With this, he looked at Alphys. She sighed, wiping at her eyes and fidgeting with her tail.

"Y-yeah…. I'll explain."