Papyrus was breathing heavily, practically gasping for air and wheezing, by the time he had gotten to camp, his bones shaking quite violently. He looked exhausted and on the brink of collapse; the only thing keeping him still standing was his concern for his brother. The Surface Illness took its toll on the taller skeleton, his vision wavering from time to time as he continued pumping in green healing magic into the crippled smaller skeleton monster in his arms, wrapped in his own bloodied jacket and looking very much like a small child in comparison to his far taller younger brother, or a broken toy. Sans was also breathing quite harshly, and trembling weakly. His life literally hanging on by a thread, the only thing keeping him somewhat stabilized was Papyrus's healing magic.

The news had spread quickly, despite everyone's best efforts to keep what was happening hush-hush. Someone must have spotted Pap coming back into camp, the taller carrying a very limp and obviously badly beaten Sans wrapped tight in his own jacket; it was as if to try and keep him staying together in one piece. The smaller skeleton was held so close against his brothers chest as Paps ran by, so people were bound to talk. Word had gotten eventually to Grillby, hidden somewhere in camp amongst the other monsters, and he had immediately gathered some supplies from his tent and waltzed right into Asgore's massive tent without so much as a 'may I come in'.

Asgore had not minded, certainly not enough to scold the fire Monster. The worry in the bartender's expression was more than enough to warrant his rushed lack of courtesy. After all, one look at Sans and, although only his skull and a tiny bit of his neck bone, phalanges, patella, tibia, and fibula were visible past his clothes, and jacket which were so tightly but gently bound around the smaller skeleton. Asgore knew that this was certainly worrying. Not to mention the fact that Sans had just barely been hanging onto life by the skin of his teeth from what he could see.

Sans had been brought to the king's tent immediately after Papyrus had arrived with him in tow alone. The taller skeleton looked so panicked even after being assured by the King that they would do all they can to help. 

Toriel had been informed as well, her concern only surpassed by her horror that Sans had returned without Frisk or any of the others with him. Papyrus said through gasping wheezes however, that Frisk was fine and with Alphys and Undyne who were all on the way and that he'd just gone ahead.

She nodded in understanding, then proceeded to, along with Asgore, direct and attempt to convince Papyrus to lay Sans down on Asgore's makeshift bed of pillows and blankets he'd made. Papyrus was delirious with exhaustion and worry, and it took at least a solid minute to coax Papyrus into calming down enough to gently lay the wounded monster down. Then, after another few seconds, Paps carefully warned the Boss Monsters about the bone fragments, and not to lose any. Though neither quite understood what he meant. Very slowly the two got to work in easing Sans's jacket and shirt off with quiet words of encouragement...even though Sans more than likely could not hear a single thing of what they said.

There were gasps and whimpers of sympathy all around as the dreadful state of Sans's person was truly revealed. They already knew Sans' skull had been fractured, and slightly burnt, long thin painful-looking cracks littered the side of Sans skull, along with the massive hole surrounding Sans right eye socket. However, what surprised the monsters inside the tent the most, and what they hadn't been prepared for was the fact that everything past Sans neck bones was completely shattered. Tiny bones grinding together in an excruciating way if Sans was awake to even feel it. Everywhere they looked, bones were battered and broken, some more bruised with hairline fractures here and there, something that Toriel had not known could happen to a creature without skin or muscle. A few scorch marks here and there, and a few ribs were broken off completely, just barely hanging on by a thin layer of magic that kept some of them dangling pitifully.

But by far, of all the injuries that Sans sported, the wound in his chest was the worst. Particularly, on the small...tiny white inverted heart-shaped organ that was Sans SOUL, just barely visible beneath the shattered rib cage.

The poor little organ looked like it had been wrung out like a sponge, dimmer than any soul ever seen. Scars and little hairline fractures danced across its pale surface. But those looked older, less severe. What was so horrifying, so utterly devastating, was the jagged, gaping crack, like a spider's web, that sat smack center of Sans's core. The edges of the huge crack were dusted with a powdery gray. The thing looked like something had been digging at the crack for some time, almost going straight through but not quite.

The tiny soul was so fragile and weak, that it was only by pure divine intervention that it hadn't shattered completely even as its physical body was beaten so badly, Sans would need to wear many bandages even after the magical healing to ensure none of the small fragments would fall off and get lost. And probably at least a month of completely rest or more.

Tiny traces of something vibrant - was that soot? Blood? - bled from the sharper, more violent breaks in his SOUL, oozing down to drip onto Sans's spine and on the sheets he'd been laid on, adding onto the already red stained broken bones of Sans body.

Toriel gasped in alarm. 'Wait...but Monsters aren't SUPPOSED to bleed?'  She thought, horrified by the state of Sans being. 'Did his weak 1HP not allow him to even create soot or dust?'

She looked around the tent, noticing how silent everything was. Papyrus also seemed to be in a similar state of shock—his arms hung slack at his sides, and there was still a smile on his face. But the vacant look in his eyes said it all as he took in the sad, injured state of Sans soul in particular.

In the tall skeleton's mind he was recalling how Flowey had mentioned it had injured Sans's soul. And he was unable to quite process how his former friend had been able to do this to his precious older brother. Forgetting that the Flower was possessed by a demon himself. And how thankful Papyrus had been for his own quick thinking to protect Sans soul when Sans decided to sacrifice himself and get rid of the flower when it had possessed him.

Just then, Undyne, Alphys and Frisk had all also burst into the King's tent. All slightly out of breath as well, though Papyrus still beat them by a large margin as he still couldn't catch his breath at all. Though mainly it also had to do with the Surface Illness and the fact that Paps had been using magic the entire journey back with his brother to keep Sans alive.

"H-How is he?!" The Captain gasped as she and Alphys had gotten closer, also seeing the state of Sans being beneath his clothes and catching the injuries to his SOUL beneath the bones.

"Oh stars…!" Alphys cried out in alarm, scaly hand covering her mouth as her eyes had gone wide.

Frisk stayed by the entrance. She didn't need to see Sans SOUL, already guessing the state of it. After all since she'd actually been there to watch as that demon that had been possessing Flowey torture Sans. She did however, also whimper slightly in sympathy, seeing just how badly broken all of his bones were after the flower had been possessing him. Her arms tightening slightly and protectively over the unconscious flower in her arms.

'It hadn't been Flowey's fault.' She told herself. Despite the nagging thoughts in the back of her head scolding her for being a hypocrite and how she also told herself then when she was the one who started the Genocide runs and allowed for Chara to possess her too and then torture her friends with her own hands. Frisk swallowed.

Undyne stared, wide eyed in shock. She and everyone else awoken from their shock when Paps began to sob, unable to look any further at his brother's fragile state. The sobs exploded from the taller skeleton, in between gasps and wheezes, as he struggled to breath and cry at the same time. Paps knew this memory would be forever stuck in his mind by this point. Papyrus's arms reached out automatically, wanting to hold his brother in his arms, protective and never leave him again. 'HOW COULD I HAVE ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN?! AND AFTER I HAD PROMISED YOU WE'D BE TOGETHER ALWAYS, AND I'D KEEP YOU SAFE AND Y-YOU...' Papyrus sobbed, and suddenly his breathing had become violent as he let out a haggard gasp clutching at his ribcage. It sounded as if he were having a panic attack.

It was enough to send everyone inside the tent into organized chaos as everyone was awoken from their shocked states.

Undyne quickly moved to pull Papyrus away, helping the taller skeleton to breath properly as she lead him outside of the tent, not wanting him to have to watch his brothers mangled body anymore than he needed to. She waved to Asgore and Toriel when they looked at her injured back, telling them Alphys could take care of her, as Sans obviously needed the Boss Monsters far more than she. Alphys and Frisk joined her, and together they both managed to guide the weeping, miserable, skeleton monster outside of the tent and towards one of the open benches by a small fire close by, where they would wait and try to console him.

Toriel and Asgore both moved forward quickly, the moment the trio left, both taking a place on either side of Sans, and after Grillby had given the Boss Monsters some bandages he'd collected. They began pumping as much healing magic into the small skeleton as possible. The small soul was too fragile to touch directly, too afraid of even attempting to summon it out or even touch it; they could only hope that by healing the fractured, shattered bones surrounding it, they could make some headway with Sans's overall health.

Asgore took note, after doing a quick CHECK, it seemed Papyrus had successfully healed Sans HP to 0.03 and guessed he had been far lower before, but since he wasn't much of a healer, he couldn't do much more than that for him.

"Grillby, could you do us a favor and grab Gerson. Frisk as well, once Sans has been stabilized. I'd like to question her about what happened that made him be like this when this is done." Asgore had instructed over to Grillby over his shoulder. His hands still locked into place, pumping as much green healing magic into Sans as possible. The Surface Illness not really affecting either of them that much, being Boss Monsters. Though even so, they still needed to be careful until Alphys had finished her antidote.

Toriel's eyes drifted forlornly to Sans's soul, visible just under the shattered rib cage, from that of her ex-husband and had to fight the urge to gag. "Wh-Who could have done this...?" She felt her tears run cold and wet down her cheeks and through her white fur, blurring her vision.

"I do not know," Asgore replied, easing just a little more strength into his healing, watching with steady interest as the small threads of magic in Sans body leading from his SOUL to each of the shattered fragments, slowly seem to grow stronger and knit all the little tiny pieces back together. "But we will find out. And we will not let anything happen to him again; nor to anyone else. I promise Tori."

Toriel nodded, watching as Sans's bones slowly began to heal too, turning her attention away from his wounded cracked SOUL. His breathing was still labored and shaky, as she could hear him gasping for air. His HP just a breaths away from hitting 0 and Sans dusting away. "A-At least Frisk...seemed to be uninjured…" She heard herself say, before realizing how insensitive that must have sounded and gasped.

Some part of her knew how selfish that was, grateful her child was uninjured at the cost of Sans's own health. But she was grateful in the respect that Sans had kept his promise back then, whatever happened to the two while they had gone missing. And she was grateful he'd been returned to them alive, as well. Even if he was injured and at Deaths' door. She was also grateful Papyrus had not still been in the tent to hear her, and that Sans was still unconscious.

"S-Sorry…"

"Tori...don't be. I know what you meant, and I am glad as well. I suppose...whatever happened, Sans must have protected her and gone to great lengths to keep her safe, despite his one HP. Once we're sure Sans' life is no longer in danger, Frisk will tell us what happened to him and why he ended up this way." Asgore told her calmly.

Again Toriel nodded. Yes, Frisk would tell her. Once Sans was safely out of harm's way. And with that, she focused everything that she had on healing the sick, fragile monster below her hands, dredging up every single ounce of love, hope and compassion for Sans that she could. She did not even care that she was so close to her ex-husband now. She only knew that her 'friend beyond the door' was hurting, and that Asgore was putting just as much effort into helping him get through this, just as much she was too.

For the first time in countless years...they were finally working together again for something good. And Toriel would be damned if she'd allow some bad blood come between them and prevent her from saving the life of the skeleton monster before her who'd needed her the most right now.

Just as he'd been there for her at most loneliest. And she'd been there for Sans at his lowest.

She only hoped it would be enough.