Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Long ago,

Two races ruled over Earth:

Humans and Monsters.

One day,

War broke out between the two races.

After a long battle,

The humans were victorious.

They sealed the monsters underground

With a magic spell.

Many years later…

Mt. Ebott.

201X

“Legends say that those who climb the mountain are never to return…”

The Twins SOUL traits:

and the Twins: 

Chapter Text

Frisk was his sweetheart.

The person who inspired him to change.

The One that had him wholeheartedly believing

That he could still be a better person if he tried to be.

The person that died trying to save all of the monster kind.

And the one whom he failed to save.

“knock knock…” Sans greeted as he teleported into the edge of the Ruins. Sans reappeared in a bright flash of red in the darkest part of the Ruins and solidified as soon as the soles of his red and yellow untied sneakers touched the ground. 

Sans always came to visit at least twice every month without fail. Sometimes he visited Frisk’s grave a third time, too, if he could get away with it. But only if he knew with certainty that his boss wouldn’t catch him or be threatened with being thrown into the Torture Chamber for disappearing without a word to him.

This visit would now be his third in the month now.

The skeleton monster had reappeared in the furthest, darkest part of the Ruins, the closest by the pillars and archway surrounding the cave entrance leading into the next room of the Underground and where Flowey usually remained.

The only thing that gave away Sans's location and the fact he was even there, besides the greeting he gave, was the bright red glow of both his eye sockets and the dim light of his SOUL peeking its way through his three layers of undershirts and thick black, yellow jacket and red, black striped scarf.

Sans’s eye lights were sharp and intense, looking like a small lit fire from where he was standing in the pitch-black darkness. He quickly blinked away the magic, allowing his eye lights to fade into a regular white as he relaxed a bit. 

Here, he didn’t need to worry about fighting anyone. He didn’t have to keep his magic ready at all costs. Nor be prepared to attack and defend himself at a moment's notice if anyone decided to attack him to either get to Papyrus and use him against the other skeleton monster or simply because they thought that Sans would be easy pickings, having only “1” HP, 1ATK and 1DEF. 

Out there, Sans had to not always stay on his guard but also be sure to keep a handle over his magic, keeping it suppressed to fool other monsters, not to realize his 1HP had suddenly jumped by 20 ever since he’d accidentally absorbed Frisk’s SOUL. Also, being a skeleton monster, unlike other monsters, he couldn’t hide his SOUL the way they did. So if he let his magic slip, even through his countless layers of clothes, any Monster would be able to see his SOUL, and he would indeed be killed or worse if ever they found out what he’d been hiding.

Here, he knew he’d be in no danger as he let himself grieve. He had the protection of his friend beyond the door. She’d promised he’d be safe and allowed to visit as often as he wished. She was one of the few he trusted despite never meeting her in person.

Slowly he walked towards where the sunlight gently filtered down below from the opening into the mountain overhead and onto a vast batch of golden flowers.

“ Who’s there?” Frisk giggled a bit as she hand-signed the words. She watched the skeleton from afar happily as she sat in the garden's center, growing all around her and Chara’s graves waiting patiently for Sans to approach her. The golden flowers she died with now grew on her ethereal body, although they no longer caused any hindrance as they once did when she was still alive. 

“ And that’s my cue to leave.” Chara shrugged as she floated a little ways away to give the couple some privacy to a certain extent. Then, she floated straight ahead, her ethereal body phasing through some pillars, as she headed towards a corner of the room before stopping and thinking of a way to entertain herself for an hour or so while Sans and Frisk had their “moment.”

They couldn’t talk to each other, of course, since Sans couldn’t really hear Frisk or Chara since they were both already dead and no longer a part of the living world, even if they both still had some sort of  “something” holding their spirits to the living plane still.

For Chara (even though her 'father', Asgore, had poisoned her to death back when she was alive), it was the uneasiness of whether or not Monsters would ever be free of their prison, which has kept them all buried Underground beneath Mt. Ebott for around 107 years. So she simply refused to pass on, knowing the monsters who’d taken her in were still suffering below ground, trapped behind their prison.

For Frisk, it mainly was the regret that she couldn’t hold out until Sans had taken her to the barrier before she died for good. She also felt Sans himself could have had something to do with it without him knowing. After all, it was because he pleaded with all his might that she would return that his SOUL reacted and absorbed what remained of her DETERMINATION when her SOUL was close to shattering. And since monsters are very closely attuned to both their SOULS and their Magic, perhaps it wasn’t that farfetched to assume that Sans subconsciously kept Frisk’s spirit from moving onto the afterlife while holding onto what little DETERMINATION was left in the SOUL that he had fused with to keep her from leaving him altogether.

Although both of the girls could easily hear what Sans was saying and watch him. Sans himself had no way of hearing what they said or seeing what they were doing. However, at least Frisk could communicate her presence in small ways by touching the skeleton monster or phasing through him. Even temporarily possess his things like his phone to speak to him for a few seconds.

Still, Chara felt rude to eavesdrop on them and tried her best to give them privacy whenever possible. She tried to give the couple some space even if she couldn’t move that far from her physical body, buried deep below the earth more than a hundred years ago, beside Frisk’s own body—buried there more than seven years ago. Chara was also mindful of somewhat distracting herself from listening to their conversations.

After all, Sans always came to visit Frisk. And Chara was just fine with that.

Chara died long ago, way before Sans or even Frisk was born. She also knew that most monsters most likely forgot about her existence. She remained either a myth or a bad memory that some wished to forget.

The only monsters that hadn’t forgotten about Chara were the Royal family members. The same family who also became Chara’s adoptive family, the Dreemurrs.

Like her mother, Toriel, who lived in these same Ruins after she had abandoned her kingdom and her King post-death of Chara and her adoptive brother, Asriel, she came to visit Chara daily and tend to her grave and take care of the golden flowers that grew all around it.

Flowey, who was secretly Chara’s adoptive brother Asriel, reborn as a soulless flower, also visited Chara occasionally. And Frisk simultaneously whenever it was safe to do so, at least.

And then there was finally Chara’s father, the mountain King, Asgore, who made the whole Underground “Kill or Be Killed” after a fit of madness following the tragic death of Asriel when the humans had killed him when he left the Underground to bury his sibling. They'd thought he'd been the one who killed Chara. He didn’t visit Chara since he lived on the other side of the Underground at the farthest point near the almighty Barrier, which kept the Monsters forcibly underground. Besides also, the reason is that HE had been the one responsible for her death in the first place.

“flower,” Sans continued as if he could hear his sweetheart speaking to him in response. Sans walked into the golden garden and carefully knelt before Frisk’s grave. He was mere inches near Frisk’s ethereal body sat, their backs barely touching one another's.

‘come back…’ Sans thought to himself as he read the nameplate on the two sticks jutting out of the ground in the shape of a cross that also held up a sign which marked Frisks' grave. Then, on the gravestone, read Frisk's name carved into the wood by a sharp object like a knife in perfect ‘comic sans’ handwriting font.

Sans slowly stretched his hands outward. He gently began brushing the very tips of his phalanges on the carefully carved wooden namesake, brushing off some moss and dirt that had gotten on the grave marker.

He readjusted his old black and yellow jacket that sat on top of the grave marker as carefully he could. It was the same jacket he gave to Frisk to keep her warm after passing the harsh coldness of Snowdin and into the wet marsh of Waterfall. The old coat was still in fairly decent condition, despite being incredibly faded from being out in the sun the past couple of years and having some wear and tear due to the weather changes from the Surface land thousands of feet above their underground prison.

Sans had a new one, though, which he got from Papyrus after he became the Captain of the Royal Guard. Papyrus had used a portion of his first paycheck to buy it for him when Sans claimed he'd lost his old one, so he didn’t mind letting Frisk keep his old jacket even in death. Besides, he liked to imagine her still wearing it even as she had angelic white, feathery wings covering her back and a halo above her head. Sans imagined her smiling down at him from up in Heaven or wherever she was. As a monster, who didn’t believe in a Hell or a Heaven and would simply turn to dust whenever he was killed, he couldn’t entirely wrap his skull around the idea and always found human death a bit weird in comparison to a monster’s, yet fascinating at the same time.

“Flower, who?” Frisk asked through sign language as she played along. She closed her eyes slowly in sadness when she sensed the pain emanating from Sans’s SOUL. Slowly, Frisk leaned back, just enough for her ethereal back to touch Sans's spine. She could almost feel him shiver the slightest bit, past all his many layers of clothes when she did so.

Faintly, Frisk could also hear what sounded to be Chara singing softly to herself and realized her friend must have finally found a way to keep herself busy.

‘He said,

“Oh Mary, contrary. How does your garden grow?

Come with me; you'll be the seventh maid in a row.”

Her answer was laughter soft as she lowered her head,

*You're too late. I'm afraid this flower's already dead.’

“please… ” Sans muttered as she felt him tense behind her, and she immediately knew that he was trying hard not to cry just from the gentle sensation of his shivering and softly rattling bones.

“f-flower you today... sweetheart?” Sans whispered, his eye sockets tense as he struggled to hold back his tears. Sans knew he would not be bothered for at least two hours since Papyrus had left Snowdin to speak to Undyne in Waterfall. The Royal Guard dogs were all off on their usual patrols, leaving Sans with time to come to her grave. Nevertheless, he knew it would be challenging to dry himself off enough not to look like a total wreck before he had to leave if he allowed himself to cry now.

Sans tilted his head back, looking at the sky above. He didn’t even bother squinting his eye sockets or even raise an arm to protect his eye lights from the sun's harsh rays, still reasonably visible in the sky above from the tiny hole of the mountain they were inside of. From what Sans could see, there wasn’t even a single cloud in the sky. So from what he could tell on the Surface, it must have been late afternoon.

Staring at the sky from the open hole in the ceiling, he couldn’t help but question how she was doing. He wondered if she missed him just as much as he missed her. Suppose she’d thought of him as he constantly did, wishing for more time to be with her, if even to be able to RESET and fix everything. For a second chance to make things right…

“are ya happy up there, where’r ya are, sweetheart?” Sans asked as flashes of Frisk’s smiling face flooded his mind. The times they spent eating at Grillby’s, holding hands in Waterfall, and listening to the music box in that old broken-down statue near the piano puzzle Undyne had built on her own in her area, back when she still supported the "Kill or Be Killed" law.

He wondered if the other Gods up there and other dead people were treating his sweetheart well. He also wished to know if she was watching him too right now and if she knew how much he wanted her back with him again.

“i hate ta bud in while yer sleeping, but i guess it would be nice if ya rose up and into my arms again.” Sans joked as he fell back into his old habits of using puns as a coping mechanism. Sans slowly lowered his skull again, staring at the name etched onto the makeshift cross sticking from the ground below. “hey...do me a favor, alright... sprout outta there and make me happy again..."

“Soon…” Frisk said in her usual quiet voice as she signed out of habit. She was laughing sadly at his puns. Sans felt a gentle pulse of guilt shoot through his SOUL as Frisk thought about Papyrus scolding him for all his ‘terrible’ jokes that she loved so much. ‘ Let me go….It wasn’t your fault.’ Frisk thought to herself desperately, pulling her knees against her chest and hugging them. ‘ The only thing at fault you ever did, was care for your brother and me. My death was nobody's fault and especially not yours.’

“But nobody came.” Chara thought as she interrupted her singing and let out a sad sigh. 

‘Resetting as I was with blossoms in full bloom (blossoms in full bloom)

Never a chance to pause with magic to consume (magic to consume)

A shadow walked behind her, offering his hand

But couldn't understand.’

Sans let out a breath of air, his eye sockets still incredibly strained as he struggled not to cry. He continued, “hope yer doin' alright, iris you were here to hear this, but what are ya gonna do right?”

Sans paused as he wiped at his eye sockets with his coat sleeve before continuing, “anyways...i guess things 'ave been the same as always, boss and undyne are off in the underground talking about poppying off tryin’ another coup against the king or some shit. 'dyne is probably trying to convince him to join the rebellion for the umpteenth thyme. things in snowdin are...ok. it’s good we lily 've so far from the capitol huh? canna guy get some rest or what? haha...anyway, the king rarely goes this far out in the underground to take anybody to use as "examples" of us all against the freedom fighters so i guess there’s that. and boss has taken the whole town into the royal guard anyways. so even if the king did ever come out 'ere, the boss would be the one to punish the citizens since they are a part of his crew or whatever."

"and as fer me well...on my way here, i protected monster kid from some of those teenage jerks. between you an’ me, they are lotus trouble for the little guy because he has no arms, so i scared ‘em off usin' my blue soul magic. they called me a crocus shit after i threw them into some snow poffs haha. those little aster' s got what was comin' to 'em. ya woulda probably gotten mad or even laugh at me, or hell, given me a silent 'princess' treatment. who knows, but you’re right...at least he was happy.”

“I’m proud of you, Sans.. thank you for helping him.” Frisk tried to reply, turning to give the skeleton behind her a gentle hug. “No one else would have protected the little guy, and I’m sure he’s grateful for your help too.”

" forget me not frisk, cause i won't ever forget you,” Sans whispered soon after, moving one of his hands up to his chest, where Frisk’s hand was resting right over his SOUL to let him know she was nearby. Even if Sans couldn’t see her from afar, the two held hands… “i’m sorry i let you die… if i had been strong ‘n faster, we coulda-”

“There was nothing you could have done.” Frisk tried to tell him urgently as she desperately tried to squeeze him just a little harder to comfort the grieving skeleton monster. “You did your best not to kill him. I know how difficult it was for you to show the king MERCY, even if it probably would have been much easier to just kill him with one of your blasters and bring me to the Barrier. And for that, I’m proud of you. Nothing you could have done would have saved me, Sans. Please understand you did everything that you could have at that moment. Don’t blame yourself for my sake….”

‘ He said

Oh, Mary, contrary, how does your garden grow?

Come with me, and you'll be the seventh maid in a row

Her answer was laughter soft as I lowered my head

*You're too late. I’m afraid this flower's already dead.’

She didn’t hold a single shred of hatred for Sans. She didn’t have it in her to hate him when he was suffering like this. Nor did she ever hate him the past seven years that Sans chose to keep his GODsoul a secret from the rest of the Underground. Even when he had decided to instead focus on keeping the monsters trapped below ground forever. So long as it meant potentially protecting the humans on the Surface, she was also aware that he had his reasons, even if it was in fear of failing again to keep the mad King from getting the remaining monsters killed or hurting good humans like her.

She didn’t blame him like he’d blamed himself for not defeating Asgore faster. Or how he still felt guilty for the many times when Sans had killed Frisk with his own hands before she eventually won him over and convinced him to help her get through the Underground.

She simply couldn’t.

She knew Sans had been through so much, though she didn’t know from what. But even if he did believe himself partially to blame for why she died so abruptly. She knew she would find it in herself to forgive him anyway because she felt that everyone deserved second chances, even if Sans himself didn’t believe it.

‘Scattering petals down the road without an end (road without an end)

Left on the battleground for one, I called my friend (one I called my friend)

Maybe he loved her as he took her by the hand

And tried to understand.’

A red-colored tear slowly began to spill out from Sans's eye sockets, leaving a red streak dripping from his boney cheeks and onto one of the flowers as he whispered, “i love you...sweetheart. so...so please, come back now. we can try again, and this time break the barrier for real.”

“please.”

“i promise not to get mad if you RESET.”

“... having the power of a god wasn’t worth losing you…..”

“what was the point of this if you’re not here too? weren’t we supposed to save everyone together???”

“i need you, sweetheart. please come back already…!”

“i need you here; at least if you’re here, things would be more bearable….”

“this isn’t fucking  funny, frisk…!”

“please.... i’m sorry i fucked up, okay? or for killing muffet that one time….”

“i can’t continue living this life without you here.”

“do you think this is a game? huh? are you just gonna keep things as they are now? what the fuck was all that work even for…!?”

“are you just gonna let it go on like this? everything that we did…”

“that entire journey…. maybe you wanted it to be for nothing, and m-maybe I meant nothing to you but-”

“....please…..frisk……..”

“what's the point of making memories if you can't even keep 'em….”

“please….just come back.”

“...why am i such a fuck up?”

“frisk, if you're mad at me...i’m sorry okay? i’m sorry for being such a fuck up. i’m sorry i’m so pathetic and worthless. and-”

“god, i’m just sorry okay? so...so please….”

“let me reset…! we can try again, and i’ll do better this time…!”

“frisk…please….”

“....”

‘He said

Oh, Mary, contrary, how does your garden grow?

Stay with me. I can't see anywhere that we could go

Her answer was laughter as darkness swallowed her up

*One more time. I'll be fine. Sometimes kindness is enough.’

“...i need to stop doing this….”

Sans began to fall backward slowly, the tiny skeleton phasing through Frisk's ethereal body behind her until he landed on his back in a heap of golden flowers and petals began to scatter from the landing and gently floated around him. Sans lifted both of his boney hands and held them over his eye sockets and mouth as he desperately tried to soften the noises he made as he wept and tears started falling out of his control.

Bittersweet regret shoots through Frisk's spirit as she watches the skeleton crying on the ground. She hated seeing him cry like that. She wished more than anything whenever he did that she COULD come back and comfort him somehow. And just tell Sans that she wasn’t mad at him or anything, that even if he did mess up, he wasn’t perfect, and it was okay to make mistakes.

She loved him as he was, and she only wished that he would find it in himself to allow himself to be happy one day… But she also knew it was impossible now… Too much time had passed since she’d died, and she’d lost all of her DETERMINATION when her SOUL was seconds from shattering, and Sans had absorbed the remained of it all into himself when his SOUL had reacted to his strong emotions, demanding that she would never leave his side.

As gently as she could, Frisk floated towards the distressed, heartbroken skeleton monster lying in the field of flowers, bawling his eye sockets out, and gently laid her ethereal body atop him, wrapping Sans into a tight hug, thus causing him to shiver. His bones began to rattle as coldness covered his body everywhere that Frisk was “touching” him. Sans wheezed as he tried to ask what was happening to him, hiccupping past his sobs.

Frisk gently lays a hand over Sans's chest, causing the GODsoul to react and get summoned out. The SOUL slowly begins to float outside of Sans's body momentarily. “ Shhh...It’s okay… Sans, breathe. Please…” Frisk says, this time out loud.

Sans's breathing hitched when his SOUL was suddenly ejected outward from his body against his will. For a moment, he could have sworn he heard a familiar whispering as he stared at the SOUL through his blurred vision from his intense crying.

“ but it’s not...it has never been…o-okay… a-and… nothing ev-ever will be….again… n-not without you….” Sans choked out while desperately trying to calm himself and focus on breathing. Then, finally, a hand slowly ventures forward, gently cupping around the floating spinning SOUL directly above him.

“No...but it will be. Have faith. Sometimes...our pain can heal others… You’ll see. I could never hate you. Sans…” Frisk once more tried to converse. Her ethereal hands gently surrounded the exposed SOUL, hovering over Sans’ bony ones. After a few seconds, she slowly grabs hold of Sans’ own boney hands, moving them automatically towards Sans’ face, and wipes his tears away.

Sans didn’t even become fazed as his arms began to move of their own accord. He allowed “Frisk” to gently wipe away his tears. “i love you...sweetheart.”

“ I love you too, Sans. But you have to let me go so you can move on….” Frisk consoled, wiping his tears, and began to pull him up into a sitting position.

Sans’s body began to move like clockwork as he slowly pushed himself onto his elbows and then slowly back up again until he was sitting with his legs crossed. Sans sniffled a bit, taking another breath as he slowly calmed down. His eye sockets felt puffy, with dried tears and red streaks visible down his face.

‘i don’t know if i can…. i wanna see you again, sweetheart. please… just one last time…. we can start over again… we can do it right this time….?’

“No, we can’t. Come on; you can have a future without me, Sans. Please. You have to try at least….” Frisk whispered, tears coming to her eyes, still covered by the golden flowers as they trickled down her incorporeal cheeks. “ Enough about me, I’m gone… but you’re still here. You have a brother to look after. He needs you more than you need me. Please… just move on… Live your life. You have so much of it left. If you can’t do it for yourself, Sans, then please do it for Papyrus. Do it for Toriel, who would be devastated if she lost you. You are the only friend she has left to talk to anymore. Do it for me… I want you to move on from me. It hurts now, but it’ll fade someday… and you’ll be happy.”

Sans shook his head, placing a bony hand on his face in dismay. The other was still holding his GODsoul in his hands and “holding on” to Frisk’s ethereal ones.

“it's been seven years, frisk.... and it still hurts. it’s more than just hard and painful out there, frisk… papyrus doesn't need me anymore, he's capt'n of the royal guard, the third strongest monster besides 'dyne 'n the king... he can take care 'o himself... what good am i anyways? i...i need you...sweetheart….” He runs the edge of his sweater against his eye sockets, wiping away the red tear streaks from his eyes as he slowly stands and checks his watch.

It was time to go back.

Sans sighed as he forced his GODsoul safely back into his ribcage. He kept a hand there for a moment to feel the gentle magical pulse of magic coming from the tender organ.

It was time to go back to the real world. To go back to the hellscape they called “home.” To "Kill. Or Be Killed."

He realized Papyrus would surely give Sans shit for taking so long. But some part of Sans honestly couldn’t bring himself to care anymore. He was used to Papyrus yelling at him for some reason or another anyways... And if he weren't, he would force himself to be used to it. It was just a daily thing for him and his brother at this point, after all…

Sans began to focus, activating his magical eye. However, instead of both, as he did when he first reappeared in this part of the Ruins. He made one eye socket completely dark, the other glowing with the red aura coming from the DETERMINATION half of his GODsoul and a bit of yellow from the justice trait he had from being the Royal Judge.

He had to make sure he had perfect control over his magic and to keep only one eye glowing red, his spell in careful control as he held back his powers. His posture also became a bit more defensive and agitated. Ready to defend himself and fight back if need be, at a moment’s notice as he turned away. 

Frisk gave him one final hug again. “ Please, promise me you’ll try and be happy, no matter what happens. You deserve to be happy, Sans. Your smiles suit you best.” 

Like always, he looks back before he leaves. 

Like always, he whispers, “I’ll wait.” 

And, like always, there is no response.

Chara shut her eyes as he’d made the promise and finished the rest of her song:

“Oh, Mary, contrary 

How does your garden grow?

Don't leave me; please don't be the seventh maid in a row.

Her answer. A whisper-soft as she lowered her head

‘Set him free. I'm sorry, this flower's already dead!’”

Sans began to make his way down the hall and back to where he first reappeared from in front of the entrance to the small chamber-like room where flowey would usually be waiting. He raised a hand, his phalanges ready to snap, as he focused on his destination. While simultaneously also focusing on his magic to make the teleportation jump, when suddenly, from up above, he thought he heard the sound of children screaming. 

Sans looked up in alarm. His hand shifted as he started to summon bones in the palm of his hand as he looked for the source of the screaming, and it was then that he finally noticed two more human children trip on some kind of vine in the Surface world and tumble their way down into the Underground. The two of them landed smack in the middle of the garden, one of them even landing and breaking the tomb marker where Frisk's grave was.

“what the fuck?” Asked a very bewildered and confused Sans.

Chapter Text

“Hurry up, Otaku! Before that cloud goes over the horizon! I can feel myself growing old over here!” Akumu urged, standing about a foot away from the ledge on her tiptoes with her hands cupped over her eyes to shade them from the sun's rays. In the distance, a large white cloud was slowly making its way to cover the city Aku was now staring at from near the mountaintop. The cloud was gray, signaling a rainy day down in the city.

Otaku looked up to where his sister was standing. He was at least 4 or 5 feet below her, gasping for breath as he slowly pulled himself up a rocky ledge, finishing his rock climbing journey. The boy reached forward, grabbing a vine—some of his clothing snagged onto some thorns of a nearby bush. As soon as the boy had gotten his knee and both legs up on the ledge, he took his time to untangle himself from the bush and made his way forward, following a somewhat flat dirt path until it led to another ledge higher up than himself. 

Sighing, Otaku stretched upward, standing on his tiptoes as he grabbed the side of the ledge and pulled himself up, finally catching up to where his sister awaited him. He placed his palms on his knees when he bent forward, trying to catch his breath.

Akumu grinned, seeing her brother had finally caught up to her when she looked over her shoulder to check on him and pull him forward to stand at her side to see the magnificent view. However, the moment she and Otaku turned to look down at the city, she frowned a little when she saw the cloud had now completely covered the small city of Ebott from her view—ruining her plans of sharing the special moment with her brother and got him to check out the fantastic sightseeing spot she’d found.

“Aw, dang it, bro. You just missed the coolest view ever! Pity you won’t get to see Ebott City from way up here as I did! You’re such a slowpoke.” She teased, turning on her heel towards her brother. Akumu handed him a bottle of water she’d packed and patted his back while she allowed him to catch his breath.

Otaku accepted the water thankfully, taking a huge sip of the half-full water bottle before handing it back to his sister. “Not my fault…! I told you I’m afraid of heights!! And I’m not as athletic as you, sis….”

Otaku began to sit on the ground, still struggling to catch his breath, as he wiped his forehead from sweat on the back of his sleeves and readjusted his hat. He tilted the baseball cap bill to shield his face from the sun still shining high above them. His body was not adjusting to the higher altitude and thinner oxygen from how tall they now were. They were at least several feet past the clouds by this point and still had a bit more to go before reaching the summit, though they were nearly there. 

“Anyways, how much longer are we going to stay up here? It’s already 5, and soon it will get too dark to see anything! So how’re we going to get back down?” Otaku asked as he looked at his wrist's slightly broken digital watch. The screen had a small crack on the front, but it worked fine otherwise. He saw his sister several feet ahead of him when he looked up again—slicing down the shrubs and greenery that blocked her path as she continued to climb.

“Sis, wait up!!” Otaku called as he scrambled back onto his feet and followed behind. But, unfortunately, she didn’t seem to hear him.

“Otaku, hurry up! Quit being so scared of everything!!” Akumu shouted, stopping momentarily when one of her blades got caught in thick vines as she tried to free it.

“I-I’m not scared! But, sis… we don’t even have shelter up here! We have no food… This is dangerous, that's all!” Otaku cried when he finally caught up and stood behind his sister as he looked around them while Akumu was busy trying to get her sickles unstuck from the vines.

“Whatever, bro, we’ll be fine. It’s not even that bad!” Akumu replies as she finally cuts through the vine and gets her weapon unstuck. “And anyways… it’s not like this is our first time alone….” Akumu muttered under her breath as she continued forward and pulled herself up over some more steep rocks before pausing to help pull her brother up.

“What was that? And it IS still bad!” Otaku huffed as he reached for his siblings’ hand, as Akumu pulled him up onto the ledge. “Sis, what if we fall? What if one of us gets hurt, the adults don’t know where we are and….a-and….” Otaku trails off when the two reach a flat plot of land.

When Akumu noticed her brother was no longer following her, she turned around to look at him with concern. 

“And… you remember the stories about this mountain, right? And what is this whole place infamous for?” Otaku asks, his voice nothing short of pleading, “About how everyone who climbs this mountain disappears and is never heard of or seen again? All those missing person posters everywhere? What if we become one of those kids too???”

“Ota…” Akumu whispered as she looked somberly toward her sibling before sighing softly. Then, she slowly walked back toward the boy and hugged him tightly. “It won’t happen. Okay? Come on. It’s only for a few more minutes. Then we’ll make our back down, okay?”

Otaku hesitated a moment before finally relented, “Okay, sis….” Gently he returned the hug before Akumu slowly backed away from the hug.

“Come on, we better hurry. Maybe we can see the city from much higher up? I really wanna show you this view for our scrapbook together!” Akumu smiled as she pulled out her Polaroid camera beneath her black and red striped sweatshirt. “I just really wanna get this photo, then we’ll go, I promise! Trust me. It’ll be worth it.”

“Okay, fine. Let’s just hurry, okay? The sun is starting to set!” Otaku replies, wanting to just get this whole thing over with. However, part of him seemed a little happy that Akumu was excited to complete this photo. She’d been working hard on filling their scrapbook since she got that camera years ago. And to be honest, he was just as excited to see what the big deal was about this “great view,” too.

She moved forward again, further climbing higher until they reached another clearing. However, this one seemed to lead into the mouth of a cave, with sharp stalactites hanging off the ceiling. Inside the cavern was a massive hole at least 13 feet across. Looking down the opening, the twins could just barely see what looked like a garden of golden flowers 1000 feet below.

“Whoa… This place looks pretty steep. We should probably be cautious where we walk up here.” Akumu pointed out as she glanced down the hole.

“Can we go around?” Otaku asked as he stood next to his sister and looked around. To his left, he could see a small pathway going around the hole that led to another opening in the wall at the back of the cave. “There! We can probably get out of here if we go that way, sis!”

“Yeah, looks like it.” Akumu agreed as she looked at the way that Otaku was pointing.

Slowly and as carefully as they could, the two siblings began to take a side-stepping pose and began making their way around the hole. The pathway started to narrow as they made their way around. 

“Just a little bit further….” Akumu reassured as she slowly reached beside her and squeezed Otaku’s hand slightly as she pulled her brother forward. They approached where the narrow pathway started to end and gradually sloped to stable ground. 

When Aku’s foot stepped onto the sloping bit of gravel, the ground below her gave way to the loose rock. 

“SIS!!” Otaku gasped as he tried to stop her from falling. When she fell, however, she was still holding onto Otaku’s hand, pulling him down along with her as the two screamed, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

A few seconds later, the twins felt a weird sensation of gravity as the two entered into some sort of invisible bubble. Then, for several more seconds,s both twins felt themselves floating.

There was a crack of wood before their vision was covered by a flurry of golden flower petals scattered around them. Then all they could both see was a bright light. And after that, a distant memory seemed to enter Akumu's mind….

“It sounds like it came from over there.”

“Oh, you’ve fallen...haven’t you?”

“Are you okay?”

“Here, get up.”

“Chara, huh? That’s a nice name….”

“My name is....”

Chapter Text

Akumu and Otaku slowly re-open their eyes. The two found themselves inside of the mountain and at the very bottom of the hole, staring up at the setting sunlight that blinded them both from over a thousand feet overhead. 

Akumu was the first to move, raising an arm over her face and shutting one eye closed when a sting of pain shot through her temple. Groaning a little from the effort, she felt sore all over. There were pins and needles all along her body. Briefly, she wondered if she’d broken anything when she fell and carefully inspected her body-slowly moving her limbs but finding she seemed relatively fine besides a few bruises. She noticed many golden flower seeds sticking to her clothes and hair when she raised her arm. The sight caused her to jolt upright in alarm to attempt to remove the seeds but try as she might. They refused to let go of her. 

Sighing, Akumu began to sit up, she inspected the garden, and a voice started to talk in the back of her head that didn’t belong to her.

*It seems like the flowers caught your fall… Narrated Chara.

‘From way up there?’ Akumu thought as she looked up towards the hole that she had fallen from. The next thing she noticed was that she was still holding on to her brother's arm. Even after they’d both lost consciousness from the way down, she never let go. She felt relieved to see her brother looked okay, too, when she glanced over at him. He also had seeds all over his hair and clothes too.

Before she could check up on her brother, however, Akumu gasps. When she hears the sound of rattling bones in the cavern's silence, echoing off the stone walls, thus making the sound louder. Akumu quickly turns and notices a tiny skeleton monster staring at them dumbly across the golden flower garden.

“A monster?!” Akumu startles. She reaches blindly for her sickles when her SOUL is then popped right out of her chest, and the next thing she sees is sharp bones being flung at her. The bones impale her body before she can dodge, and her SOUL shatters when a femur goes straight through her chest, and a rib goes through the front of her skull and right in between the eyes.

“SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Otaku screams in alarm when he sees his sister falling to the floor and instantly coloring the once golden flowers in red blood as he gets up.

Otaku then feels his SOUL appear out of his chest, as the blue-ish, purple SOUL instantly turns blue, and pain blinds his eyes when he feels his back getting slammed hard into the stone walls of the cavern. When he blinks away the pain, he sees a dark red Gaster Blaster right in front of him, charging a beam before he feels his body reduced to ashes and charred remains.

*You cannot give up just yet!

*Chara!

*Frisk!!!

*You are the future of humans and monsters.

Akumu shoots up quickly, more of the golden flower petals falling all around her as she pats her body in search of the bones but finds her body relatively unscathed. “What the fuck-?!” Akumu gasps, breathing hard and shaking as she scrambles, lifting her sweater and undershirt for any sight of open, bleeding holes.

Nothing. No torn clothes, no blood.

Could it be considered déjà vu when you remember – when you have a clear memory of things happening before? Akumu was sweating bullets, and when she looked to the side, where her brother lay, he was trembling just as hard as she was. So she knew she couldn’t have been going crazy.

He could remember too. Remember dying…

“No, it can’t be,” Otaku whines, looking just as shaken as she was, inspecting his own body as well for any damage.

However, before Aku can do anything, she hears a voice behind her.

“ya shouldn’t have come down ‘ere.”

Akumu blindly tries to find her sickles attached to her hiking backpack before the bones appear again in her peripheral vision. Again, Akumu scrambles to her feet and, this time successfully dodges, rolling off to the side. Furthermore, her SOUL is turned blue before she feels her body being flung straight up into the air until she feels a sharp pain in her body as a stalactite stabs straight through her shoulders, and she screams in pain.

“SIS!!!!!” Otaku screams as Aku rips off the stalactite, and she gets slammed into more bones that appeared in the middle of the air, breaking her SOUL in half before the carcass is deposited onto the golden flowers.

Otaku cannot process anything as a humerus is flung straight at him, impales his chest, and misses his SOUL. Otaku screams in pain as another bone goes through the knee cap, and a third hits his SOUL, breaking it in half.

*Stay Determined.

Akumu scrambles to her feet instantly and finds her sickles lying in the golden flowers and grabs them. Her body shakes all the while as her empty hand again inspects for any damage.

Otaku remained on the ground, his chest feeling too tight for him to breathe correctly, and he automatically placed a hand there to inspect the damage before getting up, shakingly.

“W-Why are you doing this?! What the fuck did we ever do to you, jackass?!?!” Akumu yells as she glares at where she knows Sans is standing, staring at them with an angry expression.

When Sans realizes he’s being addressed, the skeleton smirks.

“You didn’t. But…. didn’t anyone ever tell ya, kid?” Sans drawls.

“Tell us what?! You’re the only one here, idiot!!” Akumu glares back angrily as she stands protectively in front of her brother.

Bones appear behind Akumu this time, impaling her brother.

There is a shriek, and Aku is immediately distracted when she turns, seeing nothing but a puddle of blood-forming where her brother once was. “OTA!!!”

“In this world-”

Akumu’s fist tightens around the handle of her sickle as she charges at Sans in blind fury and slashes downward, but the skeleton merely side steps and dodges the girl's attack. Her head snaps to the side where he weaves, and she notices the skeleton tap the toe of his sneakers on the ground as bones materialize in thin air again, and he launches them at the human. Aku dodges one-two of the bones. Ducks at the third that passes her by a hair's width, but something pierces her leg from behind, and she falls onto the stone, hard ground with a cry.

“It’s kill or be killed.”

Akumu twists her body to look at her leg- pinned to the ground by a bone – and looks up to see several more bones hovering in the air, poised to hit her.

The first bone hits her back, obliterating her spine, and Akumu arches, the motion making them scream in bitter anger at the skeleton monster and pain.

The second hit her arm, and the third cut through their soul. 

The last bone stabs through the back of her head. 

*Stay Determined, Chara.

*You are the future of humans and monsters.

Akumu lets out a scream when she gets up and immediately pats the back of her head, feeling for any wounds there. Of course, there's nothing, but she thinks she can still feel the phantom sting of something breaking her skull open. Confusion, pain, and anger fill her mind as she again stands up immediately. 

Otaku grabs her hand when she reaches for her sickles. Nothing short of a pleading expression covers his face when he looks into his sister’s eyes as he forces himself to stand up as well. His body was trembling.

Slowly, Akumu retrieves her hand, letting Otaku get up and try to reason with Sans. “Why are you doing this?” The boy asks.

“down ‘ere, it’s kill or be killed,” Sans repeats, a lazy grin on his face and both hands in his pockets. “I gotta greet my new pals and show them how it works around ‘ere and be a good samaritan.”

“Pals? Are you fucking crazy??!” Akumu glares at him angrily while trying to control her shaking and keep the tears from falling.

She’d never felt this frustrated before, even when their parents had left them on the sidewalk near an abandoned shopping mall alone at the tender age of 7. Back then, she already kind of knew that this would happen sooner or later; she remembered hearing the whispers about how her parents couldn’t afford to care for either of them anymore. Yet, it was her brother who remained in denial and held onto the hope that they would come back for them. That it was a mistake and simply forgot to pick them up.

“a little.” Sans shrugs, “after living as long as I ‘ave, well… even someone as lazy as me’s always lookin’ fer free exp.”

‘EXP?’ The twins stared at him questioningly. ‘Like… experience points? Like in an RPG game? What the hell is this guy talking about?’

“C-can’t we talk this out? Please- we still don’t understand-”

The twins then see a blur of white fill their vision before their SOULs shatter again.

When they reawaken again, Akumu tries to fight back and tells her brother to wait for an opening and instructs him quietly to make a break for it when he can.

Sans clicks his tongue… or whatever, as a flurry of bones appears. The twins dodge, and Otaku makes his way behind a nearby pillar as Akumu does her best to keep Sans busy and tries to grab an opening so her brother can escape. She dodges most of the bones, trips on a random root of a flower, and Sans kills her again, less painfully this time when she falls forward onto a bone waiting buried in the flower garden that pierces her SOUL.

Otaku is less lucky when his SOUL is then turned blue, and he gets launched straight up into the air from behind the pillar. Bones appear behind Sans and pose towards the boy.

“you and your sister should give up soon. trust me. it’s better to let yourself die to me than the monsters out there. ” Sans declares before he flicks his wrist, and the bones are launched toward the boy.

Otaku squirms, but try as he might, he cannot escape the blue magic surrounding his SOUL and entire body. Finally, he reluctantly shuts his eyes to prepare for the incoming pain and accepts his death.

After a long, while the twins forget how many times they beg the skeleton for MERCY, how many times they yell to be spared, how many times they're impaled in different ways and sometimes just held there in the middle of the air and get burned to death by the weird dragon skulls that fire beams of pure energy into their bodies. They forget how many times the voice at the back of their head often repeats the words, *Stay determined. *Stay determined. *Stay determined.

The twins realized the voices in their heads belonged to the two female ghosts floating nearby, watching the chaos unfold. They also learn it seemed like their ghost companions didn’t enjoy seeing the twins die but couldn’t do much to help either of them.

However, they do discover after they’ve woken up to the same ceiling they’ve now memorized every detail of,  that the name of their attacker was “Sans” and that he too seemed to be getting tired of this. The twins could only hope that perhaps soon, Sans’ll break, and maybe they’ll finally get their answers…

It takes a long, long time – before they finally dodge the last attack Sans throws at them before he finally stops, breaking a sweat on his skull. Then, finally, both Akumu and Otaku huffs a breath of relief, and they both sink to their knees in exhaustion. Their souls are held on by the faintest of threads. 

“look, kid… i don’t wanna do this anymore, alright? this is getting a bit old, even fer me. heh, i’m used to the timelines repeating and all, but… if i let ya go, it’ll only cause a whole lot of problems fer the both of us.`` Sans finally says as he starts to summon up more bones again, his phalanges shaking a little as he realizes he was starting to run a little low in his magic supply, “so just hurry up ‘n die already, won’t ya?!”

The twins stay silent, learning long ago that it was useless to plead anymore. As the two of them shake their heads, holding onto their DETERMINATION as they stand up on shaky legs.

“Sans, please stop!!!” Frisk tried, but of course, Sans couldn’t hear her.

“Frisk, it’s no use. There’s nothing we can do. We’re useless!!” Chara snapped, trying to calm Frisk down as she placed a hand on her shoulder.

Frisk shook her head. She had to try at least. There had to be something she could do to end this.

The battle started again, as Sans flung the bones he’d just conjured, and the twins dodged again, only barely. Sans bitterly turned his attention beside him suddenly and made a clicking sound with his mouth. The twins seemed confused, wondering what he was looking at, and looked down.

Then, it clicked.

He was looking at the grave marker still lying in the bed of flowers, which Otaku was accidentally stepping on when he landed.

The grave marker belonging to “Frisk.”

“Get. Your DAMN foot off of that!!” Sans snarled, both eye sockets blazing with red magic, as he shook with pure anger at the boy.

“W-Wait!!! It was an accident I swear!!!” Otaku pleads as he immediately jumps off of the wooden plaque. He barely registers Akumu screaming at him to “Look out!” when a blur of bones was summoned behind Sans and launched at the boy. The boy winces and shuts his eyes as he prepares to be killed again.

Frisk winced when she saw this. Her mind was racing for any ideas on how to stop this madness. To convince Sans to stop fighting. She glanced around frantically before suddenly she caught sight of Sans' cell phone sticking out slightly from the back pocket of his black and yellow shorts. As quickly as she could, she raced towards the thing, her spiritual form changing to that of pure energy as she possessed the phone and forced it to ring his Theovania ringtone.

The bones freeze in places, a hair's width from piercing Otaku’s body and SOUL. Otaku opens his eyes questioningly when he feels no pain, as Akumu never takes her eyes off  Sans.

“ugh, for fucks sake...” Sans cursed as he reached for his phone, “the boss is callin’...”

Sans picks up the phone, doesn’t even bother to look at the Caller ID, which reads Unknown on and he pushes the green flashing icon of a phone icon on the touchscreen, and he puts the speaker to the side of his skull where his ears should be. “what the fuck do you want, bo-”

KKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

A loud static noise breaks through on the other end startling the skeleton monster. He jerks the phone away from his face, shutting one of his sockets as he winces a bit from the loud noise, despite having no ears.

It takes a few seconds before, instead of hearing Papyrus' familiar voice, he hears a woman instead. “Sssss…” KKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHh- “SSs….aa….”

“Sssssaaaaannnn-” KKKKKSSSSSSSHHHHH!!!

“what the- hey, who the fuck is this?!” Sans demands, growling in anger suddenly as his stature suddenly grew tense, startling the twins. ‘ what the hell is this?! this voice….’ Sans thought quickly, recognizing who the voice belonged to.

“Ssssaaannsss….” The voice belonged to Frisk, focusing hard as she transmitted her voice through the phone's speaker though it was static. “Sans, c-can...can...you…?” KKKSSSSH!!!!

‘this voice...no way, this can’t be real. it can’t be…!’ Sans thought again furiously, his phalanges tightening ever so slightly around the phone. “if this is some sort of prank, i swear to fuck, you’re-!!!!”

“Sans, p-p-please… d-do you” KSSSH!!! “hear me? It’s….really m-me. I’m here. Sans. I’m right here. I….always have been…” KSSHHH!!

“F-Frisk?!” Sans suddenly shouted, gasping when the phone’s receiver finally seemed to stabilize, and he was able to hear her more clearly. Sans was so shocked he almost dropped the phone but caught it just before it completely slipped out of his hands. “Frisk!! I-I can-!! I can hear!!!”

“I’m...here. Sans. I’m sorry.” Frisk spoke aloud, her voice wearing out, but she was determined to get her message through to the skeleton she’d fallen in love with. No matter what. “I’m so very sorry, Sans. I w-wi….” KSSSSSSH!!! “I could-”

The phone again began to static and distort as it attempted to get a clearer signal. 

Sans had dissipated all of his bones by this point, as now all of his attention was focused entirely on the phone in his hand. “Nononononono...wait! Frisk!!!” Sans began to plead as he fell to his knees, his hands shaking as he held the phone tight in his hands as his life depended on it. “Don’t go!!!”

“S-” KKKKSSSSSSSH- “S-Sa-” KKKKKKKSHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

“wha- frisk, i can’t...you’re breaking up. sweetheart. please, come back. talk to me…!” Sans replied desperately, almost wanting to smash the phone against a rock to make the signal come back. He didn’t want to stop hearing his sweetheart's voice again. Oh, how he thirsted to listen to Frisk’s voice again, like a starving, dehydrated man in the middle of a desert.

“.........yo…..hear me?” Frisk tried again, also seeming to grow desperate and frustrated at the phone’s lack of cooperation. 

KKKKKKKKK SHHHHHHHHHHH…

Chara watched, shocked that whatever Frisk seemed to be doing was working to an extent and that she found a way to communicate with him, even if it was a little choppy.

Sans pulled the phone away from his skull, staring down at the screen. 

“w-wait, frisk, just...hold on, sweetheart!” Sans gritted his teeth as he clenched the phone in both his hands, shaking the thing violently as he willed for it to keep working. ‘Come on, come on!! Work you stupid, hunk of junk!!’

“San-” KKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

Sans began tapping the back of his phalanges on the screen, even pressing all the buttons on his keypad. Which only succeeded in making the static get even louder now as he sunk even further to the ground. “nononono...come on. Come on!! Work, you stupid…!!! this is the opposite of what i wanted, you damned piece of junk-!!!” 

KKKKKKKKKKKSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Sans began to press the “forehead” of his skull up against the phone screen as he begged, pleading for it to work again. His GODsoul was now glowing with solid magic, visible below his shirts.

“Please...please...work. Please… Please, I can’t lose her again. Please. Say something. Anything. Don’t go away again, please, Frisk. I need you, sweetheart. Don’t go, don’t go... don’t go. don’t go. don’t leave me anymore. C o m e  b a c k .”

“Come back. Come back… please, oh, stars, just let me hear my sweetheart one last time. please. i can’t do this on my own. please. please. don’t leave me. i’m sorry. please. please. come back. come back. come back. i’m sorry. i’m sorry for being such a useless fuck up. don’t go. don’t go. sweetheart. please. please. please. come back. come back. come back.”

There was a pang in everyone’s hearts as they all watched the skeleton monster in front of them, slowly starting to lose it as he clutched onto the phone for dear life. 

Begging. 

Pleading for the signal to come back. 

The skeleton was quite visibly shaking at this point. His bone-rattling sounded loud and clear past the many layers of clothes that he wore, and the sound echoed back and bounced off the walls of the stone cavern in concert as if taunting him.

“please, please, please just come back…i need you. sweetheart. please-”

It took several seconds before slowly, the signal began to come back, and Frisks’ voice spoke through his phone speaker. “Ssssaaannnssss…? Sssssssssaaaannnnsssss…. I’m….here. I’m.... hhhheeerre… Sans. Can you...hear me?”

“Y-Yes, Frisk. I can hear you! I can...hear you...sweetheart.” Sans lets out a breath of relief, continuing to press his face against the phone's screen. “I can hear you, Hahaha….Oh, stars. You’re here! Y-you’re...you’re here. I missed you so much, sweetheart.” Sans began to laugh, a genuine smile appearing on his face as red-tinted tears slowly pooled and dripped down from his eye sockets and onto the hard ground he was now kneeling on. “y-you...you came back.”

“I’m here. Sans. I’m so, so very sorry. I c-couldn’t free everyone… I’m…sorry that I-I didn’t make it t-to the Barrier. But I’m here now. I m-missed you…too, Sans.” Frisk tried to explain, her throat tightening up and knowing all too well how much Sans had missed her. But, of course, he tells her every single chance he gets, whenever he comes to visit, after all.

“nononono, it’s okay frisk. you…. we tried our best. i’m the one that should be sorry, i- i’m the one that failed you. none of this is your fault, sweetheart. but i don’t understand; why now? why did you wait until now to c-come back…?” Sans asked, perplexed, though truthfully he didn’t care about the ‘why’s’ he was just happy to hear his sweetheart speaking to him again.

The twins continued just to stand there and stare, afraid that any sudden movements might remind Sans of where they were and what they were doing. Though every nerve in their bodies kept screaming for them to make a break for it now while Sans was distracted.

“D-Do you...still remember...what I told you…? T-To...Always be kind. Sometimes, kindness is. Enough. Sometimes, kindness is all we can give. I...I told you...That we’d make it. Through. Together. I...I didn’t plan...for things to end up this way. But it’s… it’s beyond me now. I cannot RESET. And, I know that neither can you. A-And...I can’t...talk like this for long.. but, I just...Wanted to tell you.”

“Sans… I’m proud of you.” Frisk says with sincerity.

“wha-?” Sans eye sockets widened in alarm when he heard this, jolting a bit in panic. “w-wha...t? h-how. i’m not… worth being proud of….” Tears continued to flow down the skeleton’s cheekbones, refusing to believe the words he’s been wanting to hear for so long. ‘she’s...not mad at me?’

“frisk...come on. i...i gave up trying to save everyone…! i didn’t want to leave the underground anymore since you died. i’ve hidden my godsoul, i- how could you be proud of….me…? frisk...come on...honey….” Sans stammered out, watching as his red tears fell onto the phone.

“I. I know. That this world. Has scarred you. I know that living. In this world. Tears at you. Everyday. And, that it continues...To beat you down. Tortuously… but yet. D-Despite it all, it’s still you, Sans. You’re still you. And…. I’m proud of you for that.”

“i-i’m n-not…” Sans sniffled, tears flowing harsher now, as his bones and body continued to tremble. “of course, i still remember...what you told me. about being kind and showing kindness. but i’m not. i’ve...done so many terrible things. i’ve continued to do such terrible things. how could you ever be proud of me for this?!”

Sans bent his head down, one of his hands moved away from his phone as it gently gripped around his GODsoul, as the skeleton continued to cry. The action inhibited his ability to speak even further. But Frisk was unphased as she gently tried to quell the short skeleton and continued to talk.

“I understand, and it’s okay, Sans. D-Don’t… Blame. Yourself. It’s not your fault. Sans.” KKKKSSSH… “It’s n-not… anyone’s fault. For what. Happened to me. O-Okay…?”

“Y-You’re only d-doing...What you think is right. And. I know. How hard and how. Scary. It must feel to. Ever. Have hope in anything again. After we blew it. B-But- despite it all, I’m. So, so grateful to you. And so proud. Of the monster that I met back then. In that snowy forest. All those years ago. Sans. And of who you a-are now….”

KKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH----

Just then, Sans is reminded of the few and in-between happy memories he shared with Frisk.

Frisk passes him the mustard, and he hands them the ketchup. Frisk still thanks Grillby when they are served. 

"why d'ya do that?" Sans asks when the bartender walks away from a little brighter. 

Frisk points to themselves and tilts their head. 

“yeah, you, honey,” he says. 

Frisk thinks over how to string their words as they place the ketchup bottle down on the bar. "...be polite,” they say, “People don't deserve to be...you shouldn't be rude to people for nothing." 

“doesn't mean ya have to be polite all the time,” Sans says, "ya don't even know anybody here. ya could just leave it as it is and talk to no one." 

"Can be rude," Frisk says, "Don't want to. Don't have to." 

"huh." 

Sans eyes them for a second and then raises their bottle of mustard, “cheers." 

Frisk giggles – for the first time in such a long time down here – and raises their bottle of ketchup, “Cheers.” 

“I’m… so grateful. To have gotten. To have been. So lucky. To know you.”

KKKKSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH–

“Y-you...” Frisk hasn't hyperventilated in a long time. They'd thought they were doing so well, but they're back to having their chest too tight and taking in short breaths. "You're taking me to King Asgore?” 

Flowey extends a few vines towards Sans, ready to defend if need be. 

The skeleton spares the flower a glance but looks back into Frisk's only visible eye. “would ya believe me if i said i lied to my bro, honey?” he asks.

Frisk frowns, “Why –” 

"he was going ta kill ya," he says, “'ad ta make use of what i 'ad and getcha out of there. don't think he's going to chase us now except for if he wants to dust me.” He laughs, “i reckon he's always wanted to do that, but i don't go down easy." 

"Unbelievable," Flowey breathes.

Frisk frowns further, “You..." they look at him, held up hands and the expression on his face. “You're helping me?” 

"ya said ya believed tha' everyone could be a good person, right?” he shrugs like he always does, “'m tryin'." 

He slowly lowers his hands and holds one out.

Frisk eyed it warily. 

It's a minute or two when they hold the left one out and put it in Sans'. Then, he wraps bony fingers around their flower-covered ones and starts walking towards what looks to be a waterfall. 

Frisk isn't dead. Nor are they dying or in pain. They got past Papyrus. 

They smile to themselves. Determined. 

“To have. Gotten. To Travel with you. And. To call you my friend.”

KKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—

They pass by a small corridor, and Frisk mumbles at them to stop. He does so, and the kid weakly tries to straighten and squints at one of the signs. They make a frustrated noise. 

"A haunting song echoes down the corridor," he reads instead, "Won't you play along?" 

"There's nothin'," Frisk slurs and drops their head back down to Sans' other shoulder. He continues walking. 

A little ways off, there's a statue being pelted by drops of water from the cave ceiling. He doesn't know where the water's coming from, but maybe this part of the Underground was directly under a lake from above or something. 

Just as they near the exit, there's a small bin with umbrellas. He picks one up since he can hear water up ahead, and the downpour might be stronger there. Frisk says, “Wait," and then picks one up too. 

"we're only gonna need one, honey," he says.

They shake their head, “Go back.” 

"wha?" 

"Go back," they say. 

Even Flowey looks confused, but Sans does as he's told. 

He watches in amusement as Frisk opens the red umbrella and stretches their arm out as far as they can to place it by the statue. 

He's about to laugh when a music box starts playing. 

Frisk gives a little squeal into the fabric of his sweater. "Pretty," they say, "So that's what the sign meant..." 

They stand there for a while until Frisk falls asleep. Sans stares at the music box before they move on. 

“Never forget how much I love you. Sans. And how much. Papyrus loves you too, even when he doesn’t show it sometimes. B-because of how. Dangerous. That can be. We… We both. Love you. So. So much. Y-you…Bonehead.”

“Sans? Sans! Sans, wake up, please, I can't - I can't - " 

He wakes up to someone screaming his name above him. There's a light that's being obscured by something, and when his vision clears, the human's face is above him. Top half-covered by flowers and all, but it's Frisk, light above them acting like a halo behind their head, and they're soaking wet and maybe crying, but he can't tell. Flowey is on his chest, and he sighs in relief too when Sans wakes up. 

"He's awake,” the flower declares. 

Frisk exhales and then leans back. Sobs and then lets out a watery laugh. 

"Thank God.” 

Sans tries to sit up, ends up wincing, and then lies back down again. Undyne's not coming after them for a while. 

Frisk feels around his chest to get Flowey off of him and onto the - bed of flowers? Yeah - bed of flowers they've all landed on. The things were thick enough to break their fall. They're gold too. 

Like the ones on Frisk, he thinks maybe if the kid laid down, they'd blend right in. 

"mind if we stay here for a while, honey?" he coughs weakly, “i'm a little bone-tired right now." 

Frisk giggles and snorts un-elegantly. Sans smiles anyway. Papyrus barely laughs at his jokes. 

"Yeah. We're not going anywhere," Frisk says, “I can't see without you anyway." 

He falls silent at that. Half of the flowers that have taken over the human are his fault from his act of killing them, betraying them by ratting them out to his brother and neglecting their health. 

They haven't taken off that jacket since he gave it to them. “yer not sick from the water again, are ya, kiddo?” 

Frisk shakes their head. 

He makes a contented noise and closes his eyes, exhaling. 

“Sa-” 

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH

“f...frisk..? frisk, what was...that? i...i didn’t...quite catch that-” Sans asked, a moment of Deja Vu hitting him as he stared at the phone with confusion while straining to hear her. He did his best to ignore the memories trying to seep their way into his mind of the day Frisk lay similarly dying in his arms. They were maybe a foot away from the barrier, and he desperately brought the phone closer to his face.

“always be kind. sometimes kindness is all we can give,” Sans says, “sometimes kindness is enough." 

Asgore laughs, “That's not how it works around here, boy. It's kill or be killed.” 

Sans shakes his head and pulls Frisk closer. 

“Not anymore." 

He walks past Asgore, tense, but the king lets him to his surprise. He makes no move to stand and just keeps his head low. Sans begins to make his way to the barrier as he thinks how best to break it. 

He needs seven human souls to cross the barrier. Or one monster soul and one human soul. 

Whoever gets that gets to cross the barrier. He looks at the feverish human in his arms as they reach the corridor heading towards the Barrier.

“'ey, sweetheart,” he smiles as he looks at them. They're trying to press closer to him. It's almost amusing. “ya still holdin' on good?” 

Frisk nods slowly. 

The cement in front of him breaks, and Flowey emerges. He's got his vines wrapped into a ball and is panting, but he looks at Sans and then pulls his vines back to reveal six floating orbs of different colors. 

Sans' breath hitches. 

No, not orbs. Souls. The six human souls. 

“We can...can cross the barrier,” Flowey coughs, “Or at least take one of the souls. Cross the barrier, take one more, come back, take the rest and then break the barrier.” He's shaking badly, “I don't know, just get Frisk out of here or something." 

It's a good plan. Take one soul, get another from Surface, and then go back to complete the job and free Frisk and monsterkind. 

"No," Frisk rasps and grabs Sans' sweater. 

"Frisk!” Flowey yells, “We need seven human souls to break the barrier; we only have six.” 

Frisk shakes their head rapidly and clenches their teeth. Painful to move, even. Seven, they sign, Have seven. 

“No, we...” Flowey pauses and stares at the human, "...don't.” 

Frisk points to themselves and signs. We can use mine. She signs.

Sans nearly drops them. “No!! Nuh-uh!!! No fucking way!! I’m not doing it!!!”

Flowey stares at them, disbelieving, and Sans tightens their grip on them, "Are you fucking stupid? You can't just give up - not after all that we– ” 

"Not...not giving up," Frisk croaks, "Can't go back to Surface anymore. Nearly covered in flowers. Hah," they laugh weakly, “Dying. Slowly." 

"Don't say that. Once we’re on the surface, we’ll find a way to get rid of these damn things, maybe… maybe they’ll fall off on their own once you’re back there!" Sans pleads, desperately.

Frisk chuckles, "Y…You don’t know…that. One last thing. Hope of humans and monsters. Have to do it. Take my soul,” they smile weakly, “Free everyone." 

“Frisk, no,” Flowey sobs. 

Sans watches two drops of water land on Frisk's cheek before he realizes he's crying too. Stubbornly, he only holds onto her tighter and begins speed-walking toward the barrier. “ya can give up all ya want when i'm dead.  'm not gonna let you die, frisk! I’m NOT going to use your SOUL!!”

"Won't last long," Frisk says, “Please." They clutch Sans' sweater tighter, “Please.” They could feel their SOUL breaking…

The red soul flickers in front of them, and Flowey starts crying. Frisk's chest is still moving, up and down, but it's getting slower. Sans looks at them as the red soul floats near his face. “Get that away from me…” He growls in warning, walking faster.

Frisk whispers something, but he can't hear it. Mostly because he’s too focused on trying to hurry to the Barrier so he can figure a way to get her out of there, but now he feels her getting cold, and he’s now standing right in front of the Barrier before he finally glances down.

Her chest wasn’t moving.

“Frisk?” Sans stammers as he gently raises her head with his elbow, so it’s now resting on his shoulder.

"Can you say that a little closer?” he asks. “I didn't quite catch that.” 

“I….It s-seem…..s…. our t-time to ta...lk…. is at an end.” KKKSSSSSHHHHH--

“w-what?! no...nononono…! please, not yet!! don’t go yet!!” Sans begged, his SOUL feeling like it was being torn into pieces. 

“I’m……….” KKSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHH- “Sorry. Sans.” KKKSSSHHHH-- 

“Don’t. Don’t go. Please!! Frisk. I-”

“Don’t...worry. I won’t. Leave again.” KKKKKKKSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH- “Even if you can’t see me. I’m always...h….ere…. Sans.  I w-will… still be here. Always.”

“FRISK?! FRISK, PLEASE-!!! Can’t you stay...just a little longer? Please- I’ll do anything. Just for a little-”

“W...We’ll al-always-” KSH- “Want. For ‘just a little b-bit… longer.’”

“Frisk. Frisk, please. I don’t... I don’t know if I can do this. Please…! Not again!!”

“Y...You...can…” KKKKSSSSSSSHHHH- “Y-You. Still have...Papyrus. You’ll be okay. Sans.” KKKKKSSHHHHHHHHHHHH “And...you...have my determination. Too. So, I will be too. In your SOUL In....” KKSHHHHHHHHHHH “Your memories.”

“FRISK!!! Frisk. Don’t go. Don’t go, Frisk…! Please!!!”

“P-Promise me….” KKKKKSHHHHHHHHHHHH “You’ll be….good...to each other. And...and to g-give...these kids...a shot…” KKKKKKKSHHHHHHHHH “Something...tells me...they might...be able...and succeed...where I have failed….” KKKKKKKKKKSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH---

“Take...care… of yourself, Sans. Because...s…..someone really cares about you.”

“frisk…” Sans sobbed even harder now when the phone goes utterly silent as Frisk's spirit is then forced out of the phone. The only sound it gave off was the sound of the phone hanging up and that of his bones rattling through his clothing.

“Frisk, hey, are you okay?” Chara asks as she floats beside her. Frisk nods while looking completely exhausted.

Now Sans knew he was really in for it now. But he felt too drained even to care. He knew there was no chance he’d be able to live this down for not being at his post in time. And he also didn’t have much magic left, maybe enough for just one more shortcut to get out of the Ruins…

“....you heard my sweetheart. get the fuck out of here…” Sans mumbled, his voice sounding harsh and a little raspy. Barely even above a whisper. “and leave me be.”

“M...Mr. Sans…?” Otaku asked, feeling somewhat sorry for the skeleton monster when he was finally let go. He glanced from his sister down to the sad skeleton monster, who looked like he needed a hug right about now, and hesitated. “A-Are you…?”

“what? i thought i toldja to leave, ya ‘heard the lady, now get the fuck out of my sight.” Sans snarled, his eye lights flaring with powerful magic in a warning. As if to say, “fucking test me, and I WILL fucking kill you if you say yet another word, capiche?”

“Translation idiots, he’s letting you both GO. I suggest taking advantage of this situation unless you WANT him to kill you two for the who-the-frick-knows time?” Chara suggests, seeing the twins not moving and getting frustrated with their stupid stubbornness. Although deep down, she didn’t blame them as she stared concernedly at the tiny skeleton still sobbing in silence.

Otaku let out a whimper as Aku grabbed him by the arm. “C-Come on. Let’s just go, okay?” She exclaimed while pulling him along, not letting this opportunity slip by them when Sans let either of them go, at least until they figured things out. She wanted a chance to catch her breath anyways and patch up their injuries.

“Y-yeah..sure, sis…” Otaku nodded, following his sister as she led him down a dark pathway that looked to be leading out of the flower room.

Chara and Frisk followed behind the twins out of this little section of the Underground, where the flowers grew and wandered even deeper into the darkness.

Sans continued not to move for several long minutes. Then, after the twins had already gone and cleared the room, Sans let out a sigh as he fell backward and onto the hard rocky floor with a FLOP, all his strength gone. If he was going to be in trouble anyway for being late, he might as well rest and recover some of his magic before he returns to Papyrus’s side.

One of his arms rested against his chest as he once again summoned his GODsoul, so his phalanges could wrap around it tenderly. The other landed across the top of his skull and barely covered his eye sockets.

“i’m….so damn tired….” Sans finally said with a yawn as he shut his eyes.

‘Always be kind. Sometimes, kindness is enough. Sometimes, kindness is all we can give.’

  The words echo in his head as the tiny skeleton slowly starts to fall asleep.

Memories flooded back to him as he remembered the exact moment he knew that Frisk became someone he could no longer ignore. That she became someone, he cared for and would do anything for…

“so, I've got a question for ya,” Sans starts. Frisk wipes their hand on a napkin and listens. “do ya think...that even the worst person can change?"

He's staring at his empty tray now. "that everyone can be a good person if they just try?” 

There is a flower right beside Frisk's eye, and they know they are one death away from being blind. 

They smile a genuine one and nod. 

"Yes." 

Chapter Text

The children hurried through the darkness, heading towards the dim light source coming from the next room where they saw the pathway end. Up ahead, they saw a ruined archway, pillars surrounding an area where it looked like a door used to be, but was now no more. Only the broken hinges remained.

The room the twins stumbled upon mainly appeared empty, except for the faint light that came through the doorway. Inside, she saw a singular flower sitting in the center of the room—no garden surrounding it or anything. Instead, it appeared as if the flower itself was growing straight out of solid concrete.

"H-Hello?" A quiet voice called, the word shaky, "Is s-somebody there?"

Startled by the sudden voice, the twins stopped in their tracks and searched around, confused. ‘Where did the voice come from?’

"You can't sneak up on me, you know?" The voice called again. It tried to sound braver than it was.

The twins looked around again, Akumu stepping in front of her brother to protect him in case of an invincible enemy that may’ve been hiding in the darkness, like a couple of minutes ago. Akumu winced when she made the step, remembering she must have been close to death, her vision blurring from a moment from the blood loss, but she quickly shook the dizzy feeling away. She had to remain focused! Hopefully, whoever this voice belonged to wasn’t as powerful as that Sans guy was and would leave them alone…

Akumu’s eyes then trickled back down onto the golden flower in the center of the room when she decided no one was hiding in the darkness. The room was too small for anyone other than them to fit in when suddenly a face sprouted from the center of its five and a half petals, tear streaks evident on its cheeks, even from where the twins were standing.

The flower caught sight of her, and his face shifted, turning into a ghoul-like expression, makeshift fangs sprouting from his lips and his eyes growing into soulless holes, “Yeah, th-that’s right! I’m d-down here!” The flower growled, as suddenly little white bullets shot out of the ground all around the flower. They looked like tiny flower seeds, only all white and glowed with bright light.

“Whoa, hey!!!” Akumu gasped as once again both her and her brother’s SOULs shot out of their wounded bodies as the pellets came after them.

The twins gasped and weaved as they just barely managed to dodge the pellets thrown at them before all of a sudden, the flower had stopped its assault.

“Ah!!” The flower gasped, eyes widening in shock, when it saw the two glowing SOULs. “Th-those SOULs!! A…Are you two… humans?”

The twins stopped dodging and simply raised an eyebrow at the weird question. “What do you mean? Of course, we are!” Akumu barked out, angrily seeming a bit offended.

“A talking flower? Woah, that's so cool!” Otaku gasped as he slowly bent down so he’d be more at eye level with the plant. However, he remained mindful of some of his still open wounds from their fight against Sans. “Um, hello. We didn’t mean to startle you or anything.”

“It’s okay, kid. Sorry for suddenly attacking you like that; it’s been… a long time since I’ve seen another human SOUL like yours before.” Flowey explained, grimacing a little as his face took on a less frightening appearance and became much friendlier. “It’s so dark down here. I uh, thought you were a monster. But, of course, you never really know who or when will attack these days.”

“It’s okay,” Otaku replied, accepting the apology as he smiled down at the flower, seeming happy that it didn’t seem dangerous. “It was an accident. Thanks for not killing us.”

Akumu said nothing as her SOUL disappeared, observing the flower in silence.

“Um, anyways… I should probably introduce myself….” The flower responded, talking to no one before the flower cleared its throat or whatever. “Howdy, I’m Flowey. Flowey the flower. And uh, l-look. I know this is a lot to take in, and from the looks of you two, you probably already more or less realized this by now anyway, but hear me out.”

The twins nodded as they looked the flower in the eyes to appear that they were listening.

“Every human that falls here is predestined to die.” Flowey replies, a pleading look on his face as he decides it might be best to just cut right to the chase instead of trying to sugarcoat things, “I-It’s because of your SOULs. You see, your human SOULs have a lot more power than you two even realize, and monsters well, they can get pretty desperate for that kind of power you see.”

“Our SOULs?” The twins' question, confused. Their minds immediately thought of Sans and wondered if that was why Sans kept attacking them over and over again if he was one of the monsters that wanted their ‘SOUL power,’ whatever that meant.

“Yeah. I… I wanna help you two get out of here.” Flowey says after a couple of seconds, “Think of it as my way for making up for earlier, and anyways, you’ll need me to get past the traps and puzzles around this place. And in return, you two have to keep me safe, okay?”

“And how do we know you won’t try and kill us either?” Akumu states, after careful consideration. “Aren’t you one of those monsters too? Like that skeleton monster we ran into, maybe 3 minutes ago, that beat our asses.”

“Sis…” Otaku pouted, though some part of him couldn’t blame his sister for her lack of trust. After all, they’d been through, and then what happened between Sans and them either.

The flower frowned, though he did twitch a little at the confirmation that it WAS indeed Sans who’d hurt the kids. The flower then wondered if Sans was still back in the other room, where Flowey knew Frisk and Chara were buried for a brief moment. “Well, kid, you two can either stay here and probably starve to death, wait until Sans decides to come back through this room and kill you both. Or do the smart thing and let me come with you two and help you survive the monsters out there. And besides, I know I don’t look like much. I’m just a tiny little flower, but I’m also probably the only one down here who’ll ever give you a hand; it’s your choice.”

“Sis…” Otaku busted in, looking at his sibling, then back down at Flowey. “Let’s give Flowey a shot. I mean, he’s just as hurt as the both of us anyway. If he wanted to kill us, wouldn’t he have kept going instead of suddenly stopping when he realized what we were? Like Sans did. I don’t wanna stay here if someone is willing to help us out.”

Akumu continued to glare down at the flower, gritting her teeth in frustration before sighing. “Ugh…. fine. I don’t want to stay here and starve either, and I certainly don’t wanna run into that stupid, smiling bag of bones ever again. But I swear, Flowey, if you do anything suspicious-”

“Of course not! Listen, monsters like to bully me around, too, you know! All because I’m so tiny, they all think they can just step all over me like I’m nothing!!” The flower laughed bitterly, curling its leaves as if they were fists. “I’ll show them I’m not useless or weak! I’m not!!”

The twins frowned, remembering similar instances when the other kids in the orphanage did the same thing, especially when they were first found living on the streets together and brought there.

‘Tsk more little ones!’

‘They’ll be adopted first, for sure! They always like the younger ones, cuter….’

‘Let’s show them where they stand once the Director is gone.’

Otaku leaned forward a little more about to offer a hand to the flower, so Flowey could climb up and onto his shoulder when suddenly a fireball appeared next to the flower, its shimmering light illuminating his golden petals. Otaku gasped in horror, unable to dodge in time as the flames licked the tips of his fingers, causing the boy to yell in pain. Flowey quickly disappeared into the ground, just as the fireball slammed into the place where he had been and charring the concrete.

Soft footsteps could be heard heading towards them, and the twins turned towards the footsteps, Akumu already reaching to help her brother up as the other grabbed her sickles when she saw the owner.

A tall goat woman was walking into the room, her eyes bloodshot and a vicious, toothy smile on her lips, "What a horrible creature," she said, her voice soft, "sparing such a disgusting youth."

She sneered at the children, her sharp fangs glinting in the dim light as two more fireballs sprouted in both of the goat monster’s hands, "Are you afraid, my child?" She asked quietly before laughing maniacally. "Because you should be. I am Toriel, guardian of these ruins. It is my job to protect this place from disgusting filth like you.”

An insane look entered her eyes as she smirked, "And oh, what’s this?” Toriel grinned as she stared down at the boy and girl as their SOULs were once again ejected from their bodies in front of the goat. “The last SOULs we need to escape the Underground, I see. Of course, we only need one of your SOULs for the barrier, but you know, I could always cook the other one into a nice, delicious pie, I suppose. It would be no good to just waste you, after all, since either way, you’re just going to die anyway.”

Otaku trembled in fear, his legs and knees refusing to move as he stared up at the goat monster. Flames appeared around the goat monster and began to close in around him. All the while, Toriel watched them hungrily, as Akumu gave Toriel the scariest glare she could muster as she clenched the sickles in her hands even tighter, sweat breaking down from her forehead as she tried to hide the fear and exhaustion she still felt after the fight with Sans.

“HAH!! Look at you—these weak, pathetic, miserable children. You’re PARALYZED with fear, are you not?! You, humans, are so adorable when you are this age; I MUST kill you now before you learn how to harness the power of your determination!” Toriel laughed as the fireballs got even more significant in her palms, and she leaned back, ready to throw the flames at them at any given moment.

“Sh-shut up!!” Akumu retorted, getting sick of all these monsters attacking her and her brother left and right and for no reason. “I’m not afraid of you! And you’re not getting either of our SOULs, you jerk!!”

But these were just empty words, even if Akumu refused to admit it. She knew that both she and her brother were utterly exhausted, and they needed to heal and find a place to rest somehow. She may have been tough, far more robust than her brother was, but she knew she wouldn’t fare well now if another fight broke out. It was taking all the strength she had just to keep herself standing.

Her eyes glanced down at her brother, then at the hole, Flowey had dug to escape getting burned by the fireball, her breathing heavy. ‘Did he just abandon us to fend for ourselves? Tsk, of course, he would… He saw his escape, and he made a break for it. I knew trusting in others was a foolish mistake….’ Akumu thought as she returned her attention to Toriel. ‘Well, at least now we know how to survive Sans’s attacks at least. If we can do that, we can figure out how to get through this bit in the next ru-’

"Hey!" Flowey called from the edge of the room when he re-emerged again, "Over here!”

The twins gasp when Flowey grabs their attention, and instinctively, Otaku gets back up to his feet and runs towards Flowey, with Akumu close behind him. The twins ducked and jumped through a circle of fireballs, following him closely as Flowey popped in and out of the ground like a gopher.

“GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE BRATS!!” Toriel's yells could be heard behind them as the twins and flower began to run faster. The woman's heavy footsteps got louder and louder as she caught up with them.

They turned the corner and started making their way for the staircase. But, just then, Toriel threw fireballs at them from all sides. Only barely missing the kids and flower by millimeters in their wake. The trio gasped as they looked in the direction of where the fireballs had come from and paled when Toriel appeared, her face set in a scowl, red eyes blazing with rage.

“Forgetting something?” Toriel snarled as she flexed her fingers, “You might be able to run, but you cannot escape from me forever. You are bound to get tired sooner or later, and then your SOUL will be mine!”

“Shit!!” Akumu cursed, grabbing her brother's hand, just as Flowey disappeared into the ground again, and the twins ran. Together, the twins saw several different monsters looking ready to fight as they passed by. Their faces set in scowls and their spiked armor and sharp talons glimmering in the light. However, as soon as they heard Toriel running after the two, they quickly scattered, disappearing into whatever hole happened to be closest, and fled.

They passed puzzle after puzzle, Flowey quickly solving each one, not wasting any time as the twins followed closely behind him. Blood was now dripping profusely from their open wounds and leaving a trail for the goat monster to follow as the humans gasped for breath while trying to keep up. Flowey glanced behind him, noticing the twins were several feet behind him as they panted and began to slow down.

“H-Hey!! Why’re you two stopping?! If we don’t hurry, Toriel is going t-”

The two humans slowly caught up just a few seconds after. Otaku fell flat on his face, finally passing out. Akumu slammed both her palms onto her knees to keep herself from doing the same thing as she struggled to catch her breath when they finally stopped. Every single part of her body hurt like hell now from all the running, the salt from her sweat stinging as some began to seep into her wounds. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off as she began to gag and struggled to keep herself from throwing up. Her knees were shaking violently by this point as Flowey frowned, stopping his scolding as he stared concernedly at the two children.

Even more, blood began to drip onto the ground, creating a small puddle behind the twins, as he then realized the bloody trail that was following them both.

‘This is bad… they’re losing too much blood!’ Flowey thought, ‘I probably shouldn’t force either of these two to move anymore, but if we don’t hurry, Toriel is gonna catch up and kill us all!!’

‘Then again… if Toriels’ been following us because of THAT, I think we’re sunk either way.’ Flowey sighed, searched around, then noticed they were both near the room where the Spiderbake Sale used to be, and he got an idea. “Hey.. do you think you two can make it to that room? There should be some monster food there that’ll heal your injuries.” Flowey told them gently, digging through the ground so he could get closer to the twins.

Akumu nodded weakly, her head spinning. “I…. I c….an t-try b…..but m….y b-bro…ther…” Akumu gasped, too afraid of trying to pick up her brother and collapsing as well. She was so weak and lightheaded.

Flowey quickly wrapped his vines around the unconscious boy, preparing to drag him along. “C’mon, it’s just barely 5 feet away! We can do this! We can hopefully hide in here until she’s gone!!” 

Akumu nods, moving to drag her feet. Every step was agonizing, her vision blurring with every step, but she remained determined. Eventually, she managed to half-walk, half-drag herself over to the room that Flowey mentioned before. Once inside, she collapsed and fell unceremoniously, landing next to Otaku on the dirty concrete. The room was surrounded by empty or near-empty cardboard boxes and cobwebs as she knocked them over, the remaining leftover pastries and spider cider spilling all around them.

Quickly, Flowey searched the box, finding a half ripped handkerchief, and went over to the twins, dabbing on their wounds with the cloth. Unfortunately, the fabric instantly became drenched in red upon making contact. The twins hissed in pain from the touch, and Flowey turned to look at them both with a concerned expression.

“Just hang in there, okay? I’m going to try and drag her away from you guys and come back.” Flowey tells them. The twins do not answer, but Akumu gives him the weakest of nods to show she was listening, and the flower hurried off, stretching himself on his vines so he could walk instead of digging into the ground. He squeezed the cloth some more, causing it to drip more blood and making an all-new trail for Toriel to follow away from the Spider room where the twins were.

The footsteps got even louder as Toriel got to the room the twins were in, only just barely visible from the doorway where Toriel stopped, looking confused why the trail led into the room and then back out and seemed to consider a moment.

Akumu cringed inside the room, hoping and praying that Flowey’s plan would work and that Toriel wouldn’t go into the room she and her brother were in. ‘Please leave, please leave, please leave….’ Akumu thought desperately.

From behind the thin walls, she could hear Toriel sniffing the air, her nostrils flaring. "I can smell you, child," she said in a sing-song kind of face, “Come out, come out wherever you are~ You cannot hide from me forever. I WILL get that SOUL of yours!!!”

“HEY!! DICKWEED! OVER HERE, YOU SLUT!!!” Flowey yelled from the next room, his voice eerily similar to Akumu’s as he shouted, “NEENER, NEENER NEEEEEEEEEEEEEENER!! YOU CAN’T CATCH ME!!! PBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBTH!!!!!!!!!”

Flowey then proceeds to stick his tongue out at Toriel while also making sure he wouldn’t be seen, then dashes off, with the handkerchief held behind him with a vine making even more bloody trails in random directions of the underground.

Toriel seethes and lights herself on fire in anger at the insult, “YOU!!! WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME, YOU DISRESPECTFUL CHILD?!?” Toriel roared, her footsteps slamming on the ground as she chased after the flower. Her footsteps left a charred trail behind her.

Once Toriel was out of the hall just outside the room, Akumu forced herself to let out a sigh of relief. Grateful Flowey’s plan had worked, and he managed to get rid of Toriel, at least for now. She winces as she tries to push herself up, so her back is lying against the wall of the dirty, abandoned room instead of just laying on the floor where her wounds could potentially get infected. She then looked at her brother, who was still unconscious. Wincing, she slowly reached over to pull her brother up into a sitting position as well and had him resting on the wall behind them.

“Ota….” Akumu whispered, her vision blurry, as she struggled to keep her mind clear. Finally, a tear started to form in her eyes as she thought of everything that’s happened to them ever since she convinced her brother to climb the stupid mountain.

All for a goddamn photo…

“I’m sorry…. I’m sorry I dragged you into this mess…. This is all my fault……….” Akumu gasped, fighting back the tears as she half hugged her brother, pulling his head down so it’d rest on her shoulder as she cried for the first time in such a long time.

Not even when their parents had abandoned them on the side of the street did she cry, or when they almost starved to death as they both tried to figure out how to survive until CPS came to pick them up and found them. Even when the bullying, older children kept messing with them, she shed a single tear. She had to be strong for her younger brother. After all, she had to protect them.

Now slowly, bleeding to death, buried deep below ground in a hellscape where monsters everywhere kept trying to kill them to get her SOULs, she broke.

Because it was all her fault… If she’d been honest, she didn’t JUST climb Mt. Ebott, a mountain said to make people disappear, just for the photo. She wanted to end it. Adults were shit, lying pieces of garbage that would always abandon her, take her brother. She knew she was never wanted. She would talk back, be defensive, disobedient.

Some part of her couldn’t blame them that they always wanted Otaku more than her. He was kind, caring-far, more understanding, and sympathetic than she was…

She just wanted to stay with her sibling and find a place all their own. Only now does she realize she shouldn’t have tried to take Otaku down with her.

It was her fault they were in this mess. With no way out but a talking flower to guide them…

“I’m sorry, Ota, please….” Akumu whispered as she held her brother even closer. “If I die here… please let him live, Flowey protect him… please….” She muttered, as her vision started to go even darker, as she finally gave in to the exhaustion…

Chapter Text

Otaku opens his eyes and finds himself floating in a sea of black. Little specks of light were floating all around him when he looked around. ‘Where am I?’ he wondered.

Ahead, he could see the purple-blue glow of his SOUL floating just outside of his body.

‘Stay determined.’ A voice suddenly echoed in his head.

“Huh?” Otaku wondered, “Who’s saying that?” Otaku looked around again, his head felt foggy, and his body felt very numb. He also found it hard to breathe while searching for who was speaking.

‘Stay determined.’ The voice repeated, and a red light appeared near Otaku's feet as the boy floated through the dark, black space aimlessly.

“Who are you…?” Otaku repeated as the red light began to approach him gently.

‘Stay Determined.’ The voice says a third time, ignoring the frowning boy.

‘Stay Determined?’ The boy asks, wondering if that’s something the voice wanted him to do, not fully understanding what it meant. “How do I do that? What’s going on here, anyways?”

‘You are the Future of Humans and Monsters…’

Just then, Otaku woke up with a jolt as he felt a strange liquid enter his mouth as he swallowed, and suddenly whatever pain he felt his body be in had been magically healed almost instantly. 

“W-What!?” Otaku gasped, looking around as he saw both Flowey and Aku with expressions of relief on their faces.

“Are you alright now, Ota?” Akumu asks, and Otaku nods after a while, then raises an eyebrow in confusion.

“Yeah, but…. what happened? Where are we?” Otaku asks before he stands back up slowly and notices all three seem to be in a faintly lit room. A torch-lit up in the far corner hanging over a torn banner that said something about a Bake Sale. Below the banner and fenced off from them were some dusty, nearly empty cardboard boxes, some of which had seemingly been toppled over. On the ground near the children were some donuts cutely decorated with lavender icing and white cobwebs with fondant.

*Spider Donut- Heals 5 HP. 

*A donut made with Spider Cider in the batter. Frisk narrates for him when he picks up a donut and inspects it.

“You’re in the Spider bakesale room… or at least, this place used to be one before it got abandoned years ago when most of the spiders here ended up cannibalizing one another to continue making their bakery. The last of the spiders that once lived here left years ago and have never returned,” Flowey explains to them before prompting the two children to collect as many of the abandoned Spider Donuts as they can before they go again. “Toriel was chasing you two. Then you almost died from bleeding out too much; I bribed a Toaddit to distract Toriel, then fed you both some Spider Cider here once she was gone, though I don’t know how long the Toaddit can keep her away.”

“Spider Cider? How does Spider Cider heal us, though?” Otaku asks, realizing he and Aku barely have any injuries left now.

“The Spider Cider is made out of monster magic, that’s why. It also prevents the food from spoiling, unlike human food from the Surface.” Flowey explains, trying his best to simplify things so they can understand easier. “Speaking of, you two should also grab those Spider Donuts. It could be useful when you inevitably run into more Monsters trying to kill you guys for your SOULs.”

“Great….. Good idea, though,” Akumu agrees, getting up and searching through the empty boxes, finding a couple with at least 6 abandoned Spider Donuts inside. She divides them up by 3, sharing 3 with Otaku, while she shoves her half of them into the pouch of her jacket.

Otaku puts his in his pockets though he feels weird about it, having straight-up food shoved into his pockets even if they were magical. When the twins were done, Flowey left the room first and looked around, checking to see if Toriel was near them before leading them further into the Ruins, as he hoped the Toaddit kept her distracted.

Meanwhile, in the flower room,’ Sans is reawakened when he sneezes. He opens his eye sockets groggily and rubs his skull with the back of his hands as he sniffles a bit. “ugh, someone must be talkin’ ‘bout me....” Sans thinks as he shifts around a bit, trying to get comfortable. “‘s probably boss...”

He’s still lying on the ground on his back. Sort of in the middle of being both half awake and asleep simultaneously. He still felt exhausted and out of magic after attacking the twins; thus, his body felt even heavier than usual with how tired he felt. He didn’t want to get up…

“‘GET THE FUCK UP ALREADY, YOU LAZY PILE OF BONES!!!’” Sans imagined hearing Boss yelling to ‘motivate’ him. Sans let out a tired sigh of annoyance.

He knew sooner or later. He had to get back to Snowdin and return to work at his sentry station. And that the more he kept stalling, he knew, the worse he’d hear of it from Papyrus, but Sans still felt far too exhausted to do much of anything. 

And at the same time, he also felt completely torn between wanting to continue with his plan to kill every single human that fell into the Underground and get his vengeance on the monsters by keeping everyone trapped here. 

Or to do as Frisk had asked of him and “give the humans a shot” and allow them to continue their journey. Possibly even protect them as he’d done once with her.

But then again, was he willing to go through that again? Knowing it would once again be his fault if they died…. Even if it didn’t seem as if the twins had the same flower curse as his precious sweetheart- He didn’t want to go through that heartache a second time either….

Sans growled to himself, moving his arm over his face, completely covering his eye sockets as he tried to go back to sleep. ‘stupid… tsk, why should i help them?’ Sans thought to himself as he shut his eye sockets tightly.

Why couldn’t he just shut off his mind and not worry what the Boss would do to him the more he stalled having to return? Everyone past can go to fucking hell for all he cared…. even his bro- Sans growled and rolled onto his side, trying to get comfortable.

He just wanted to shut everything out. To not think nor do anything, especially since the RESETs seemed to start again when he kept killing the twins at least a thousand times, and things kept going back to the moment they first fell…

They even started to memorize his attack patterns… Soon, the RESETs’ll only get worse from here.

Somehow, Sans managed to wrinkle his nasal bone in disgust and anger as he thought about how much worse the RESETs would be this time. Would either of them be pacifist like his beloved? Or would they be assholes and go on some genocidal, mass-murdering spree and kill them all? Not that he cared either way, “Kill or Be Killed” down here or some shit, right?

How would it even work anyway, and would Sans himself be able to keep track of TWO humans’ timelines once they learned to manipulate it???

Sans sighed again, this time out of tired determination, as he slowly pushed himself up to sit against the cave wall. He concentrated a few seconds until he could summon his GODsoul from his chest. He opened his eye sockets as he reached forward, carefully cradled it between his phalanges, and stared at the red and white SOUL for a while.

It reminded him that he could just as easily walk through the barrier himself and find another way to break it and set the other monsters free. Then he wouldn’t have to deal with the twins, neither of the children would have to die, and he wouldn’t even need to interact with or protect them. 

“i don’t even know if my godsoul is strong enough to cross! since i can’t reset like you could, it… might be possible my godsoul won’t be able to cross the barrier either… maybe all tha’ shit abou’ the soul fused with a humans soul becomin’ super pow’rful was just a theory… i dunno…” Sans spoke to no one in particular, seeming to talk directly to his GODsoul.

“an’ besides honey… wouldn’t it jus’ be better ta keep everybody trapped down ‘ere? b’cause the king’s still deadset on tryin’ to get back to the surface world and startin’ yet another fuckin’ war wi’ the humans. an’ even if i helped fight too…it probs wouldn’ change nothin’. the humans are way stronger than all of us, an’ if another war broke out, fer sure, all monsters would jus’ go extinct. there’d be nothin’ of us left since there’s even less of us now than when the first war started. an’ i’m jus’ one monster. the king’s judge or not i dunno if i’d make all tha’ much’a diff’rence... and i’m jus’ so… goddamn tired .... of everything. frisk.” Sans sighed again as he thought about Frisk and imagined what she would even say to him at this very moment.

‘Always be kind, Sans… Sometimes kindness can heal others….’ He imagines his Frisk telling him. ‘People do not deserve to be hurt. But, sometimes, showing kindness is enough….’

“i-i know frisk….” Sans lets out a sad sigh, “‘m trying. but...i’m just so tired. every goddamn day i’m tired.” Sans confesses to himself as he watches his floating SOUL slowly spin in front of him. 

“‘m tired of being somebody that i’m not. whether i’m doin’ shit for the boss or bein’ the king’s judge and pretendin’ i’m totally over you. like your death no longer affects me... ‘m tired of all this ‘kill ‘r be killed’ bullshit. ‘m tired of trying to pretend shit matters, and everythin’ we do will matter when there’s always gonna be someone who has the power to make me live the same goddamn day for what feels like years, even though i know time is just th’ timeline repeatin’ over ‘n over again. ‘m tired of seein’ my brother die again. whether it’s from a past timeline or my memories and in my dreams, as if relivin’ that shit because of the fuckin’ flower wasn’t bad enough.”

“‘m tired of seeing you die again and again in my arms… and being useless to stop it and save you. or lettin’ th’ boss walk all over me but, yet my stupid ass can’t leave him alone to fend fer himself. b’cause despite how badly he treats me and all the shit... he’s still my little brother. an’ he’s still my responsibility.”

“an’ i know he still cares. that’s probably the scariest part abou’ all this shit. and i have the strongest fuckin’ feelin’ that asgore’s been startin’ to catch on and… i’m just so tired, frisk….”

Sans let out a sigh, still refusing to move. He closed his eye sockets tightly, shutting out the light of the sun and the world around him. Then, growling with frustration when he still couldn’t catch a nap as he wanted. “it won’t change anything. they’re not like you, frisk. you were special. you were…”

Sans clenched his fist, the one draped right over his skull, his other hand grasping tight around his GODsoul, but not enough to shatter it as he felt another tear threatening to fall again.

“you...were different. we were supposed to save the underground together. damnit…!” Sans cursed, once again. “you weren’t...supposed to die like that…! we were supposed to make it out of here together, and… we could ‘ave… maybe been together. jus’ you ‘n me. and be ‘appy.” Sans felt his jaw tighten, letting the tears roll down the sides of his skull and stain the sleeve of his arm, still resting over his face. “stars, what am i even saying? maybe i really ‘ave lost it….” Sans whispered, feeling the corners of his jaw droop as he shut his eye sockets, allowing the tears to fall. 

‘it’s just… how am i supposed to let you go? no one… no one… ever treated me the way that you did. carin’ for my wimpy ass, an’ even cried over me as you did… you were different. how’m i supposed to let you go? it’s not fair…’ Sans thought as his crying escalated. Even as he told himself not to, the tears just wouldn’t stop, and he didn’t have the energy to try and wipe them away either.

He just wanted to be with her again and see his sweetheart. And tell her how sorry he was for letting her die and for being such a failure. He even found himself cursing his weak stats, wishing he could have been stronger and gotten Asgore to weaken sooner than maybe he could have saved Frisk sooner.

‘if only i’d used one o’ my shortcuts to take you to that damn barrier… if only- if only i knew from the beginning ya were th' real deal...if only......'

“what the fuck's yer deal, huh?” Sans asks, "what's with the sugary-sweet schtick you've got going on? ya think we’re all idiots or somethin’, is that it?!” Sans asks her angrily, confusion clear in his voice.

Frisk frowns further in confusion and begins hand-signing to him, asking what he means.

“do ya think that ya can just get out of ‘ere by being good to everyone?” Several razor-sharp bones are materializing out of thin air now right behind Sans. 

Frisk takes a step backward out of fear, but blue magic starts to wrap around her ankles. Quickly worked its way up her body and past her elbows until it reached her SOUL, floating just outside near the center of her chest. Her SOUL is turned blue once the magic touches its red surface, and Sans raises an arm slowly until Frisk is lifted into the air by the now-blue glowing organ. Frisk begins to panic, trying to find something to hold onto, and Flowey is dropped onto the snow from several feet. 

“Frisk!" Flowey screams when the flower lands in the powdery white on its face and pushes itself up with its leaves.

Frisk flails around uselessly, continuing to drift upward even now. She looks down at the skeleton below her. She was now at a staggering 20 feet high up into the air, and her head was nearly touching one of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the Underground. 

"or are ya, perhaps, just trying to  let us think you're good?” Sans asks, his voice sounding harsh and cold. And not at all like the pun-making goofball she started to associate him as in the previous timeline, “and then, at the very last moment, once we all gave ya our trust and our backs are turned, you will kill us when we're most vulnerable?” 

"H-Help! S-Someone!! Please!!!” Frisk tips herself forward and reaches down to Flowey.

Chara watches from nearby helplessly as the two are now held at the mercy of the skeleton monster and thinks to herself with a heavy heart, *But nobody came.

Sans raises his other hand, and Flowey is coated in the same blue magic in one second and thrown onto the trunk of a nearby pine tree the next. Flowey lets out a painful “GACK!!” and his HP drops immediately down to 0, killing the flower instantly.

Frisk gasps in horror, and her eyes widen in shock as she stares at the battered plant lying in the snow, motionless “Flowey!” 

“well, let me tell ya, somethin’ kid, because if that's really what yer aiming for, then that's not going to work,” Sans moves his hand again, and the bones behind him begin to spin and pose themselves now, aiming towards Frisk. "and if it's the other way around; didn't anybody ever tell ya? in this world,”

The bones all fly toward the human. 

Frisk screws their eyes shut and mentally braces herself for the incoming pain. 

"It's kill or be killed.” 

“if only i’d neva doubted ya, not even fer an instant.” Sans opened his sockets again, staring at the dark abyss of the cave ceiling. His eye sockets felt puffy and moist, and he knew if he certainly didn’t already look like a mess earlier, he did now. “why? why am i such a fucking idiot…? i swear i wish someone could just dust me already... why am i even still alive...?”

Sans slowly began to push himself off the ground, leaning back on his hands as he looked straight ahead with a solemn expression.

“i know ya told me t’ give those kids a shot, and somehow y’ always have the best hopes that anyone can change, an' yer optimistic an’ shit….” Sans slowly sat up once he’d calmed down, looking somewhat resigned. “but it’s not that easy to do, ya know…? ‘m not like you, sweetheart. i don’t believe that people can change so easily. i tried an' i failed an' even if i do have yer soul an’ determination too, i just can’t be anythin’ like you.”

Sans shrugged, chuckling to himself, “heh, maybe that’s why i’m so perfect fer bein’ the judge, or maybe i’ve jus’ been th’ judge fer too long it’s hard fer me not ta have doubts about people’s characters… either way, i’m sorry honey… but, i know it’s yer last wish or whatever but… if you couldn’t change the king’s mind. i just can’t risk it. i can’t risk the king eliminating the rest of the monsters or sending us back underground. or, even if asgore doesn't get a whole buncha monsters killed fer his revenge, he'd be hurtin' a whole buncha otha humans who are just as kind as you were... and i...... i can't risk letting 'im 'urt anyone... i’m sorry….”

Sans turned toward where the twins went while he searched his pocket for his phone. Pulling it out, he finally noticed that it had been bombarded with texts from Papyrus as there were at least 20 notifications, all within 5 minutes, wondering where he was and how to get back to him.

Today 8:00 AM

-SANS. WHERE ARE YOU? I AM HEADING TO YOUR SENTRY STATION NOW FOR YOUR REPORT.

Today 8:10 AM

-SANS. I HAVE ARRIVED.

Today 10:17 AM

-WHERE ARE YOU?

-SANS THE DOGS ARE SEARCHING EVERYWHERE FOR YOU.

 -COME OUT, OR THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES.

Today 10:18 AM

-SANS. PLEASE.

-ANSWER THE FUCKING PHONE.

-SANS.

-SANS TALK TO ME.

-AND STOP IGNORING THE TEXTS.

Today 10:19 AM

*5 MISSED CALLS*

Today 10:20 AM

-SANS PLEASE, WHERE ARE YOU?

-YOU CAN'T BE DEAD RIGHT?

-OR ARE YOU JUST MAD AT ME FOR WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY???

-I'M SORRY. I WON'T LET YOU FEED DOOMFANGER ANYMORE, OKAY?

-I KNOW HOW MUCH YOU AND THE CAT DON'T GET ALONG.

-I JUST WANTED TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO DO BECAUSE I HATE SEEING YOU LOOK SO MISERABLE ALL THE TIME. JUST PLEASE TALK TO ME, SANS.

-SANS, I WILL BE LEAVING MY PHONE ON AND ON THE LOUDEST SETTING AND ALL NOTIFICATIONS ON TOO.

-JUST, PLEASE, SANS.

Today 10:21 AM

-SANS

-PLEASE

-I NEED YOU.

-YOU DO NOT HAVE MY PERMISSION TO DIE OR BE KILLED BY SOME MONSTER, OKAY? I NEED TO KNOW YOU'RE ALRIGHT.

-EVEN JUST TEXTING ME A SINGLE WORD WILL BE ALRIGHT. JUST

-PLEASE SANS

-TEXT ME OR SAY SOMETHING...

Today 10:22 AM

-calm down, boss, everythin’s fuckin’ great—no need to shit a brick and freak the fuck out, alright?

Today 10:23 AM

-SANS!!

-SANS PLEASE COME HOME.

-YOU ARE TO COME STRAIGHT BACK TO SNOWDIN FOREST AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF FOR WHY THE HELL YOU WEREN'T AT YOUR POST!! AND IT BETTER BE A GOOD REASON, TOO, YOU LAZYFUCK!!!

Today 10:24 AM

-alrigh’ alrigh’ boss, i’m comin’ back, throw me a bone ev’ry once in a while. i’m comin’

-wait fer me.

Sans shut his phone, returning it to his pocket. ‘better get this shit over with. guess there’s no need to try and come up with an excuse… he’d prob’ly figure it out once he sees me.’ Sans sighed, deciding not to waste any more time. He steps forward and snaps his fingers, disappearing in a flash of red magic. 

He reappears on the Ruins’ other side and into an icy, snow-covered forest the next instant. Sans pulls his hood over his skull, returns his hands to his pockets, and starts to walk forward, keeping his face and skull low, staring at the ground, hoping Papyrus won’t notice the red tear streaks on his cheekbones and ask too many questions. Then, he follows the purposely made trail leading to the wooden bridge and gate, which separated Snowdin Forest from his sentry post. And where he could also see his brother standing in front of him.

“SANS!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! WHY WEREN’T YOU AT YOUR POST WHEN I CAME BACK FROM UNDYNE’S PLACE?!” Papyrus shouted. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he was tapping the toes of his boot on the ground as he glared down at the shorter skeleton. He looked angry and full of concern.

Sans glanced upwards, only slightly, and saw that it seemed, for now, that they were alone. He began to fidget, sweat dripping off his skull as he spoke, keeping his voice as low as ever. “er, hi boss… i was just, uh….”

“SANS…. LOOK AT ME WHEN WE ARE SPEAKING.” Papyrus demands, his eyes squinting and brows lowering. Then, he began to raise his magic the slightest amount, just enough to catch Sans’s attention and to show he wasn’t playing around. He did not exactly want to hurt Sans, but he still felt he had to show some authority over the older brother to get what he wanted. “AND TELL ME WHERE. WERE. YOU?”

Sans gave a soft wince, cringing in his stead as he immediately turned his face up, catching Papyrus’s eyes but only briefly before he glanced back down. And it was at that exact moment that Paps had seen it. The dried blotches on Sans's cheekbones, and how the lower part of eye sockets was puffy and almost swollen in appearance, and Papyrus’ eye sockets widened in alarm as he took in the sad state of his brother.

He looked like a wreck, as if he’d been crying for several hours without pause. Sans immediately shot his head back down. Rocking back and forth, but only slightly. Sans's shoulders were hunched forward, sweat appearing on the top of his skull, hidden by the hood, and his body seemed to be shaking as Sans thought of the following words to say before seemingly admitting defeat. Instead, he began to mumble while still not looking directly over at Papyrus and keeping his gaze low. “sigh… okay, look… i-i went… to see ‘er again... okay? ‘m sorry i wasn’t ‘ere before ya got back… a-an' worryin' ya.... i-i just… ‘m sorry fer bein' a fuck-up okay?” 

Papyrus seemed to be at a loss for words as he stared down at his older sibling. Of course... he should have known he'd gone to visit that last fallen human's grave again.. He always goes to visit her...

His expression softened for a moment, ‘SO HE HAD BEEN CRYING… AND I WASN'T JUST SEEING THINGS.’ He thought to himself as he weighed his options. He scanned the area, all while keeping his guard up. As if he was considering talking with Sans now, or he knew to wait and instead it might be best to take Sans home back to their castle and deal with his brother there, away from any eavesdroppers or possibly one who might interrupt the two of them and accidentally hear in on their conversation.

“SANS, YOU KNOW FULL WELL HOW I’VE TOLD YOU TIME AND AGAIN TO STAY AWAY FROM THAT AREA! IT IS FORBIDDEN!” Papyrus snapped out, being extremely careful to hide the concern in his voice. And to sound authoritative and without mercy, since he didn’t know who could be listening or watching. “SO, SINCE YOU HAVE DISOBEYED DIRECT ORDERS FROM YOURS TRULY AND FAILED TO MEET THE STANDARD MEET-UP TIME, YOU WILL HAVE TO COME BACK TO ME TO THE CASTLE, WHERE I WILL DISCUSS YOUR PUNISHMENT! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!”

“w-? b-but...boss- i,” Sans stammered out, his eye sockets widening as he tried to argue with him before seeing the expression of sympathy cross his brother’s face, but only for an instant. And he realized Papyrus’s true intentions beneath the iron, ice-cold mask he’d been wearing in the open. It made Sans want to shut up almost immediately. But, instead, he once more reverted to his much more submissive stature, hunching his shoulders as he mumbled, “yes boss… whatever ya say….”

“HMPH.” Was all Papyrus uttered as he began to lead the charge back into Snowdin Town.

The twins snuck through the doors of the abandoned Spider Bake Sale room, which led to another far larger room with a set of stairs that circled some dead plants and yet another doorway leading to another room.

"Whoa." The twins proclaimed, gazing at the massive room. Up ahead, they can see a glowing star sitting smack in the middle of either stairway and the dead plants. As they approach, Akumu hears the voice again speaking to her.

(Seeing such a massive room in such a horrible place… You're filled with Determination.) Chara narrated.

Frisk signed the same thing to Otaku.

The twins stared at the star, unsure what the heck that thing was.

“It’s called a Save Star.” Frisk motioned with her hands and whispered, explaining to Ota. “It's the manifestation of your DETERMINATION, allowing you to SAVE your progress and fully heal your HP.”

“Huh? SAVE my…. progress? Like, in a video game????” Otaku asks, sounding confused.

Frisk nods, “Kind of… if thinking of it that way makes things easier to understand, then… yes. I suppose it is kind of like a video game.”

Otaku then nods before turning towards his sister and telling her what Frisk had told him.

“Huh… Interesting.” Akumu replies before looking to Chara, who confirms what Frisk has said.

After some moments of hesitation, both twins then slowly reached their hands out to touch the Star:

AKUMU/OTAKU LV1/LV1

Ruins-Entrance

FILE SAVED

Upon saving, Flowey points to the stairs nearby, urging them to continue going before Toriel catches up and realizes where they’d gone. The twins nod before heading up the stairs to another room. There was a hole in the corner of the room where bricks adjourned to the wall, and had fallen, leaving a pile of dust and broken rock. To the other side were a series of pressure plates and a sign right above it that read: "Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both not walk the middle road."

"Huh? A puzzle?" Akumu said, not understanding.

"Hey, you need to press these switches to open these doors here," Flowey said helpfully.

"Uh, okay, but in what order?" Aku asked, staring at the sign again in confusion.

"Here, I can show you the ones that are safe to pu-"

Before Flowey could do anything, Otaku realized what to do after rereading the sign and realizing it was a clue to solving it. So, carefully, Otaku ran to the switches in a zigzag pattern, avoiding the two controls in the middle of the puzzle.

The doors opened wide and welcoming to the two youngsters.

"Sh… Huh, you’re good at puzzles, huh, kid?" Flowey asked. “You solved that in, like, no time flat!”

Otaku smiled back at the flower. "Yeah, I used to do them a lot with my sister. Word Searches, Brain Teaser puzzles. They’re fun.”

"Huh. Good to know." Flowey smiled as he sighed in relief. "Okay, over here now. Follow me and stay close, alright?" Flowey said, using a vine to point at the now-open doors. "Oh, and be sure to watch your step. The Ruins can be full of traps, pitfalls, and spike traps. So you need to watch each other’s backs. It could be the difference between life and death."

The twins swallowed, nodding as they took Floweys advice and followed him.

"This way," Flowey said, going underground again and leading the twins to the next area of the Ruins, just an empty open room with a long corridor. The twins continued to move forward with Flowey leading. 

About halfway through the long corridor, however, a Toaddit leaped at the twins from around a corner of a wall obscured by vines dangling from the ceiling from the Surface. This alarmed both twins as their souls were ejected from their bodies in preparation for the fight.

*Toaddit attacks you! Chara narrates.

"Whoa!" Otaku yelled, jolting up a bit. "S-Sis, what do we do?!"

They could barely hear Flowey yelling at them they needed to fight. Instead, Flowey looked concerned and scared for his new friends.

Otaku decided to hit ACT and then CHECK his opponent’s stats.

*Toaddit- 8ATK 10DEF

*Life is edgy for this enemy.

The twins’ turn ended. The two found themselves locked into a battle box. Pure white magic burst from the walls around each of them, caging them inside.

"Skip, jump. Robbit!" croaked the Toaddit.

The Toaddit began hopping outside the Battle boxes shooting little red, seed-shaped bullet patterns at the twins alarming the two as they each moved around the bullet box, doing their best to dodge the bullets raining down over them.

One of the bullets grazed Aku's shoulder bouncing off of her. Akumu blinked when she felt no pain where the bullet struck her, shocked. Otaku, however, wasn't so lucky. He misstepped, just a little too slow to react as a bullet hit his knee. Dropping down his HP from the full 20 by 8. His HP was now sitting at 12. Otaku winced as instincts took over, cradling his wound.

The Toaddit's turn ended as Aku noticed his brother. "O-Ota!" She cried out to him. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah.." Otaku winced, still cradling his injury and holding back any gasps of pain. Frisk worriedly watched over Ota as Chara quickly floated towards Aku.

“We must end this battle now if you want to help him! Then, the SAVE star will heal his HP.” Chara told her, also looking somewhat worried for Otaku. “Luckily, Toaddits aren’t very smart. So maybe you can FLIRT with it to end the fight or INTIMIDATE to make it go away without hurting it.”

“What? Flirting? What is this ‘Prince and the Princess’ nursery story bullshit? Why the fuck would I flirt with a damn FROG Monster!? That bastard is going to pay for that!” Akumu yelled as rage filled her to the brim. She then decided, "enough was enough," and hit the FIGHT command. The same eye appeared again before her, and she carefully timed it. She grabbed her sickles and attacked the Toaddit dead center resulting in a Critical Hit. The Toaddits HP dropped considerably, now sitting at a trembling 1HP.

Once more, the black room lit up again as the magic flowed from the ground, locking them in a cage as the Battle box reformed. Otaku shakily returned to his feet as more seed-like bullets rained down on them as the twins moved to dodge them.

Akumu was half distracted, every so often glancing towards her brother, wishing she could give him a helping hand, but she and her soul poking outside her black and red striped jacket were locked in a separate battle cage from him. So more bullets bounced off her body as she was distracted that she didn't notice when the once red bullets eventually turned to pure white, and after several seconds, fell back down too.

This time, she felt the pain.

Aku's own HP had dropped considerably from its original 20 down to 8. She bit her lip, silently cursing for not paying attention, falling to all fours in pain.

"SIS!" Otaku cried out, once more getting hit by a bullet, dropping his 8HP now down to a little, trembling 4HP, yelping out as the bullet, this time hitting his left arm in full force.

Aku heard her brother’s yelp, prompting her to stand again as she moved out of the way of the last bullets.

The Toaddits turn finally ended.

Now, Akumu was mad this time. She moved to press the FIGHT button. Frisk began yelling at Aku to show the Toaddit mercy, but she had absolutely none. Why couldn’t these damn monsters just leave them alone?!?

As if also sensing the killing intent from Akumu, Chara flew between the Toaddit and Akumus blades to stop her as she moved her arms to each side. “STOP!!” She cried out, but it was too late.

Fuck this goddamn toad! Were the thoughts brewing inside of Akumus’s mind as she once more landed a critical hit dealing a solid 50HP of damage on the Toaddit.

Both Akumu and Chara felt their LOVE increase at once.

*YOU WON!

*You earned 10 EXP and 10 Gold.

*Your LOVE increased.

Chara again narrated for Akumu with a clear sound of disappointment.

“Sis… you…” Otaku stammered, his eyes widening as he watched the blade from her sickles hit, slicing the Toaddit in half. Akumu’s hands, clothes, and weapons are now coated in a thin layer of monster dust slowly accumulating before her.

“I… I didn’t mean to-” Aku stuttered back, realization now kicking in once the rage had died. “I-I didn’t want to kill the thing!! I just wanted that monster to leave us the fuck alone!! I-............”

“Sis…?” Ota asked concern and worry heavy in his voice as he slowly stood up, his body aching from the wounds the Toaddit had inflicted on him.

Aku then starts to try and rub the dust off her hands, when from the door frame, Ota gasps in fear as he sees a shadowy figure tower over and behind his sister as Toriel appears again.

“SIS, LOOK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Otaku screams.

“You’re not escaping from me, THIS TIME, you little brats!!” Toriel snarls, baring her fangs as Aku turns to see who stands behind her.