Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"it's a beautiful day outside..." Sans started for what seemed like the hundredth time. He glared at the being in front of him. As "human" as it seemed on the outside, he knew there was no resemblance to the child he had once considered his friend. At first, they might have been mistaken for the peace loving kid that used to traipse around the Underground. Maybe back in Snowdin they could have seemed somewhat similar, but now the demon that had taken this child's body has transformed them into something hardly human at all.

Chara seemed impatient to start. Grumbling under their breath as if Sans was telling them to clean their room, and not judging them for murdering every monster that was too slow to get to safety. Sans might have been ticked off at them if he wasn't already so tired of the fighting.

At first, Sans couldn't kill them fast enough. He wanted to watch them suffer and die over and over. They had. Now, his red hot anger had cooled into a calm hatred. And he was so tired. He didn't want to watch them die anymore, he had seen it plenty. Now, he just wanted them to stay dead. He wanted to go home, and never leave again.

Papyrus. Sans repeated the name in his head over and over. Papyrus. Papyrus was the reason he was here. Not only Papyrus. Chara would kill everyone if they could. They didn't deserve to die only because of the death they had caused, but because of the death they would continue to cause. They would never stop.

The fight wore on for a while, but Chara was still too slow. Too sloppy. They were getting better, though. Memorizing patterns. It seemed as though every time they fought, Chara was lasting longer. They were using less of their health items, too.

Sans knew it was just a matter of time until he died. The idea of death didn't seem all too bad. At least he could rest for a while.The only thing holding him to this world was that look of pure frustration on Chara's face. He wanted them to pay for what they had done, even if it was only in this small way.

Sans finally killed them again. As soon as they were gone, he slumped to the ground and waited. This was his usual pastime between resets. He glanced at their body. It was lying in a mangled heap a few feet away. Their soul was exposed. The first few times he had killed them, he had tried to take the soul to Asgore to cross the barrier with. He had never made it to the throne room. Chara had always reset before he could get that far.

In an instant, Sans was standing behind the pillar. Chara was alive and well at the end of the corridor. They walked towards him. Their pace was as slow as it had been the first time they had walked through here. Sans still felt it was far too slow. Maybe this was their payback for Sans' speech.

"it's a beautiful day outside..." Sans wondered why he even bothered with this. At first, He had forced these words to come out before each battle. It was as much as he could do to keep sane. He had needed the words to keep him from running into the fight without thinking. Even then he had known doing that would get him killed. Now, it seemed more of a tradition.

All his movements were habit, too. He didn't have to think of his attacks, they just came naturally. He felt as if he were merely watching the fight, and not participating in it. The odd detachment was something he was grateful for. He didn't feel nearly as guilty when he was in this state, and he could simply allow the grief over his brother's death fill his mind.

Chara swung at him again. It was a weak attempt. Even for them. Sans couldn't help but see how irritated they looked. They had been grumbling nonstop for the past three resets. He suddenly realized they hadn't gotten very far these past few attempts, either. Sometimes they got into a slump where they would do worse and worse until they finally made a reset where they went back towards the rest of the Underground for a few hours. Like they needed to get away from the battle for a while. Sans hated those runs.

The next few runs were steadily worse. Sans knew they would run off any time now. He didn't care much anymore, but he wanted to get his death over with. He wanted a true reset. He wanted to see Papyrus. Or even just to stay dead. Honestly, that sounded just as good to him.

He spared. He did this every run, and he really didn't understand why. Chara had been curious enough to fall for it once, but never again. So why did he throw it in? He really didn't know. He kinda felt like it was what made him and Chara separate. He spared, she didn't.

Then again, his spare was a trap...

Sans pushed the thought away. Chara still hadn't attacked. He was absolutely in shock when they dropped their knife and started crying. "Sans... I'm so sorry..." He was filled with an instant rage. "I'll never..." He finished his job before they could say anything more.

He glared at the body for a few minutes. His grin finally falling from his face. He was too tired to hold it up anymore. It took him a while to calm down. Chara had never spoken before that run. At least, not since the first time they fought. They had certainly never cried. Why had Sans gotten so mad at it? Why had they said anything? Ugh. Their voice sounded so much like Frisk still.

Sans couldn't wrap his head around it. Chara apologized. Chara had said "sorry". Why? He paced the Final Corridor, waiting for the inevitable reset. This time, he would break conduct. He planned exactly what he was going to say to them. He stopped pacing after a while, and sat against a pillar. He wanted to be sure he knew exactly what he wanted to ask them, and depending on how they responded, he would live or die this next reset.

~

Sans woke up with a jolt. He half expected Chara to be waiting for him, but when he looked, they were still dead on the floor. How long had he been asleep? Why hadn't Chara reset? This was all new, and uncomfortable. Sans hated it. He didn't want to think anymore.

He walked over to the body slowly, as if they were going to jump up and attack them at any moment. Their soul was intact. He took it, reluctant to leave it sitting there. Just in case it really did come back to life. He waited for the reset for a while more. Sitting against the pillar, he looked at the human soul in his hands.

It was red. Obviously. Frisk's soul had always been red. But Chara's Possession had changed Frisk's pure soul. Inside the soul, Sans could see deep red wisps. They swirled about inside the soul, as if they wanted to devour all the purity the soul held. Despite how messed up it was, it looked beautiful. The dark tint was Chara, as far as Sans could tell. He stared into the soul, mesmerized by the beauty. How could something so evil look so pretty? How could the person he had fought god knows how many times fill him with so much serenity when he looked into the soul they had possessed?

He pushed the thought aside, and thought about Frisk. Allowing himself to think about the first few runs. The runs where Frisk seemed happiest. It was true, they had quickly become dissatisfied with the Underground. It was as if they wanted the adventure to be brand new each time. And when it wasn't, they seemed to look for any discrepancy they could get. It had soon led to killing, and now.... this.

Thinking of frisk soon lead to thinking of the only monster who seemed to believe the child could do anything they set their mind to. Papyrus. Thinking about his brother hurt Sans on more levels than one. Still, the memories flooded back. He let them wash over him in mourning. All sense of feeling left his body. Emotional and physical. All that was left was Papyrus. Papyrus was all that mattered. He was all that had ever mattered. Sans knew he was never going to get past His brothers death. He would mourn his brother till he himself died.

Chapter Text

Sans Jumped when he felt something on his shoulder. King Asgore was kneeling next to him. Sans hadn't even heard him coming. He looked away when he noticed how sad and tired the King looked. The soul in his hand drew his attention, again. How long had he been here? When was Chara going to reset?

"Sans, it's over." Asgore seemed to sense Sans' silent question, and answered it accordingly. Sans couldn't believe that. Chara was playing some sick joke on him. This wasn't over. Nothing was.

Sans stared at the soul in his hand as if willing it to disappear. Why was it the one time Sans was prepared to die, Chara had to pull something like this? "Sans," Asgore shook Sans back to reality again. "You saved the monster race, and set us free. You're a hero."

"no." Sans spat, slapping the king's hand off his shoulder. He stood up and turned his back to Asgore. He wasn't a hero in any sense of the word. He hadn't even been able to save his own brother.

This couldn't be the end. He had resigned himself to his fate of dying long before Chara had finished killing the other monsters. He had decided that that was going to be his future. Living here, without Papyrus, was unbearable to think about. Now Chara was just going to give up? What had happened to DETERMINATION?

"Sans, please." Asgore sounded so tired. "Let this be over."

Sans turned to see the boss monster looked ten years older than he had before. There had never been a run where Asgore had come to the corridor. That, plus the soul that was still in his hands made Sans feel incredibly tired. It was as if his body knew it was over, even if his mind was unwilling to accept it.

He gave in. Handing Asgore the soul, he went home, ignoring the king's protest. There was nothing left for him in that corridor until Chara reset, anyways.

~

Sans woke up to a knock at his door. It took him a moment to figure out where he was. He had fallen asleep on the couch. One look around the living room reminded him of what had happened last night.

The living room was trashed. The TV had broken, the table was on its side, empty bottles of crab apple hard cider were strewn across the floor. Sans could only imagine what Papyrus would say if he could see what Sans had done last night in his drunken rage. 

Sans winced as he heard another knock at the door. His head was pounding. At least it was a soft knock. Sans' mind flashed through all the monsters he knew who would knock softly. Only a few came to mind that were still alive. Further deduction on who would actually come to see him narrowed the list down to even less.

"Um.. S-sans?" The voice through the door belonged to none other than Alphys, the Royal Scientist. 

Sans thought for a minute of what opening the door would mean. For starters, it meant standing up, and that alone seemed out of the question. Then he would be forced into a conversation. She would undoubtedly bring up Papyrus, and would possibly mention the state of his living room. Sans knew she would bring up Undyne, or at least refer to her. She might even cry. He decided to wait where he was for her to leave. The idea of even looking at another monster made him want to curl up and die.

She didn't leave. He could hear her shuffle around for a while, as if waiting for him to answer the door. She was going to be disappointed. "Sans, I know you're in there. Can we just talk?" She said when she finally realized he wasn't coming. After a few minutes, she sighed and continued. "I know you lost your brother." There it was. "I lost someone I loved, too." yup. And she was crying, too; her voice shaking. "I never even got to tell..." She trailed off for a minute. 

Sans could feel the wetness of fresh tears on his own face as he listened in silence. When was the last time he had told his own brother he loved him?

After finally calming down, she continued. "No one's okay. Everyone lost someone." She paused for a while more. "Sans, I have this feeling like I should be here. I know how much you loved Papyrus." Oh god make it stop. Sans was sobbing. Alphys continued. "I want to help you." Her voice shook a little. "Please, let me in." 

Sans felt as if someone was sitting on his chest. His grief overtook him in seconds. Papyrus was gone. Sans was absolutely alone. He would never hear his brother laugh. He would never have a chance to eat his famously awful spaghetti. He would never see the day Papyrus was admitted as a member of the Royal Guard. The worst part was, there was no more resets. Papyrus was never coming back. Sans was still alive, and Papyrus was gone. Chara was gone. Frisk, Toriel, Undyne. Sans would never see any of them again. 

"S-sans?" Alphys was still outside. Sans had forgotten about her entirely, too caught up in his crying to worry about if she could hear. He heard her sigh and try the doorknob. It was amazing he had even locked the door at all yesterday. "Ok. I'm probably making it worse. Sorry.." Her voice cracked on the last word, and she ran off crying.

Sans felt sorry for her. It was a distant feeling, though. As if Alphys was an abstract concept. Feeling sorry for her was like feeling sorry for a spider you step on accidentally. His mind was too wrapped up in his own pain to be concerned about how others felt.

Sans didn't move. He hardly thought. He didn't cry; he just existed for what seemed like hours, feeling nothing. Without meaning to, his mind wandered to his brother.

Chapter Text

Sans groaned. "i seriously think you hate me." He grumbled.

"Nonsense! I'm only doing this because I love you, brother!" Papyrus grinned as he turned around. He walked as confidently backwards as he did forwards. Must be the long legs. "If we can get you more in shape, perhaps you'll be more capable of taking a hit!"

Sans groaned. Already done with this 'feild trip', he stopped walking and flopped on his face. Half out of laziness, half to annoy Papyrus. "welp. i'm dead now. RIP." He grinned at the ground.

"SANS! GET UP!!" Papyrus yelled, running over to him and trying to pull him to his feet. "We haven't even started the warm up!"

"come on, bro. i don't wanna do this." Sans complained as he stood up.

"And I don't want to attend your funeral! So let's get started!" Papyrus had a point there. Sans sighed and followed his brother through the forest until they got to a small clearing near the wall of the cave. "Now, let me see a normal attack!" 

Sans tossed out a half baked attempt at an attack. It fizzled to the ground in a pathetic display. Even Sans had to admit it was awful. It had horrible distance, and it was terribly slow and weak. "okay, th-that was pretty bad."

"Pretty bad? No, Sans. Your attempt at quiche is 'pretty bad'. The mess in your room is 'pretty bad'. That, was absolutely horrendous." He sighed.

"yeah. sorry." Sans averted his gaze.

"You're better than this." Papyrus said in his motherly, concerned voice. He even put his hand on Sans shoulder. "Your magic is so much stronger than mine, too."

"except the magic holding me together." Sans forced the grin to stay on his face. Not really sure if it was lightening the mood, or making things more tense. Either way, dropping his smile would be admitting how he really felt, and once he did, it could take a while to get a good grin to stay on his face again.

"We can change that." Papyrus looked so sure of himself. Sans gave a noncommittal shrug. Everything suddenly seemed more interesting to look at than Papyrus. "Let's start with something easy! A blue attack!"

That made Sans stand up straighter. He was great at blue. "alright. just blue?"

"Well, yes. I think blue.." Papyrus dropped in the middle of his sentence. The magical weight of gravity suddenly overbearing. Sans grinned wide. "Sans, I..." Sans changed the direction of his brother's gravity, slamming him into the wall. "SANS!" Papyrus looked beyond done with his brother. "YOU CAN PUT ME DOWN NOW!"

"sorry, bro." Sans was laughing. His brother, standing perpendicular to the floor of the cave, was stomping his foot in frustration. "i didn't mean to drive you up the wall."

"OH MY GOD STOP!"

"you gotta admit, im great at blue." He gave an open shrug. "even if my tactics are a little off the wall."

"I'LL BE LEVEL WITH YOU," Papyrus crossed his arms. "I REGRET TRYING TO HELP YOU AT ALL!"

Sans couldn't tell if Papyrus realized the pun he had just made or not. Either way, it was the highlight of his day.

Sans dropped Papyrus to the ground with little thought of how he would land. The taller skeleton ended up a pile of limbs, but quickly scrambled to his feet with an exasperated sigh. "As expected, you're still amazing with blue attacks."

"i'm short. how else would i get things that are out of my reach." Sans couldn't imagine what it would be like if he couldn't use his magic to reach things. He imagined he would hate it though.

"You can use blue on items?"

"well, y-yeah. it's gravity. once you get the equation down, it's easy." Had Papyrus really never known that? Looking back, Sans never really used magic when his brother was around. All he had to do was ask his bro, and the taller skeleton was willing to drop anything he was doing to help Sans out.

"What else can you do with your magic?" Papyrus was more intrigued, now. Usually, even the mention of an equation was enough to change the subject. Papyrus wasn't book smart, and talking to Sans about math or science usually ended up with him getting frustrated.

Sans shoved his hands in his pockets. "i mostly just use it for practical things."

"Battle is practical, Sans." Papyrus scolded.

"why? i mean, when's the last time a human came down here? a hundred... two hundred years?" Sans turned his body away from Papyrus. He tried so hard to support his brother, but this was one thing they hadn't ever seen eye to eye on.

"Just because you haven't seen one yet, doesn't mean you never will, Sans." Papyrus had that flat tone of annoyance that made Sans flinch.

Sans liked annoying Papyrus, but this was different. This wasn't the high pitched yell he would expect after a bad pun. This was the tone of an incoming argument. If Sans wasn't careful with his words, the possibility of them coming out of the forest on good terms was small.

"i know." Sans decided to give up. He hated fighting. Especially with Papyrus. Usually, he would end up feeling worse for fighting than he would have if he had just allowed Papyrus to win. "but with you here, i don't need to know how to fight."

There was silence for a second. Wow, who knew shoes had this much detail? He could hear Papyrus getting closer. The hand on his shoulder confirmed that suspicion, as his brother turned him around.

"As much as I would love to protect you from everything," Papyrus kneeled. "I have the feeling there will be a time where you're going to fall through the cracks. I can't be there forever."

Sans couldn't keep back the scoff that escaped. How pathetic could he get? Expecting his younger brother to protect him. He shrunk into his jacket more. He really was a piece of shit.

"Sans..." Snapping into attention, Sans saw his brother's eyebrows furrowed in concern. "You have that look again."

"what look?" Sans forced his grin to widen.

"The one I keep asking about. I don't like it. What's wrong?" Why was Papyrus so observant? "If theres a problem, you can tell me." He seemed ready to beg at this point.

"nah, bro. i'm fine. really." Yet he wasn't able to meet his brother's gaze.

Papyrus searched his face for a while longer. Half expecting him to cry, it seemed. Finally, he pulled him into a hug.

"Alright. I believe you." Papyrus always was one to give the benefit of the doubt. Even if all evidence was against it. Sans hugged back, feeling a sense of dread at how gullible his brother was, and guilt for using that weakness now.

"ok. so, teach me how to fight." Sans said when he finally pulled away.

"Really??? You'll train with me?? WOWIE!" Papyrus smiled wide. His eyes sparkling.

"yeah. teach me how to keep you safe. that way we can fill up all the cracks so neither of us fall." He knew it would never get that far, but the sentiment was good enough for now. In truth, this training regiment probably wouldn't even last a month.

Chapter Text

Snowdin was cold. That's how Snowdin naturally was. But with the citizens all gone, save a few shop keepers and Sans, it seemed even more so to Asgore.

He had come here often. On walks, late at night for deliveries, and to check up on the Royal Guard every once in a while. He felt a special closeness to this place. It was the last place he had seen his wife before she had disappeared.

Alphys had told him about Sans locking himself in his home. It was understandable after losing his only family. The king himself had made lots of rash decisions after his children had died. What would have happened if he hadn't made those decisions?

Asgore forced himself to focus on the door in front of him. He knocked. If Sans was home, Asgore was positive he wouldn't answer. He waited out of consideration.

One minute...

Two minutes....

As expected, if Sans was inside, he had no intention of opening the door. "Sans, are you in there?" Asgore knocked again.

No answer.

That was fine. As king, it was expected of you to have a plan B, and Asgore had had plenty of practice.

He climbed up to the roof. His cape got in the way slightly, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Why monsters even had chimneys was a point of concern, seeing as they used magic to heat their homes. Yet Asgore had to admit, it made his hobby much easier then climbing through a window.

"K-king Asgore?" He heard a yell from the ground. He looked down to see a duck monster staring up at him. "What are you doing on the skeletons' roof?"

"I... er.. lost my wallet." He really should have been more prepared for this sort of thing.

It had been decades since he had seen Toriel, yet he knew exactly what she would say. "What were you thinking, climbing on the roof midday?"

"You lost your wallet on a roof?" The monster tipped his head to the side.

"N-no. Of course not. I was just getting a better view from up here." He leaned against the chimney acting as nonchalant as he could. Pretending to slip, he threw himself down headfirst.

"Woah! The king fell into your house, Sans! " Asgore heard the duck bang on the door as he landed with a thud.

~

Sans grumbled as he stood to his feet. Being woken up by a knock like Asgore's was bad enough, but having his house broken into and some guy yelling outside, trying to kick down the door was just plain rude. They could've at least given him a moment to let his face dry from his dream.

He swung the door open, glaring at him with a frown. His old drinking buddy stepped back in fear. "U-um... Th-the king..." He stuttered as his foot slipped on the step. He landed in the snow with an "oof."

"look, i got a huge headache, so can you stop yelling on my porch?" Sans half wanted to throw him in a snow bank, but felt like that was a bad idea. So long as they left him alone, he had no right to be mean.

He closed the door before letting them reply, and turned to Asgore. The boss monster was gawking at the mess Sans had made in the living room. The skeleton leaned against the door, too tired to stsnd on his own, and too pissed to relax on the couch.

Sans cleared his throat to catch the king's attention. "Ah. Sorry about that, Sans. I need to talk to you."

"get out." Sans didn't care much about being polite to Asgore. The king, unlike the monster at the door, knew exactly what Sans wanted. He had broken into the house because he knew Sans would want to be left alone, and wouldn't answer the door.

"Sans, we need to talk. It's important." Asgore seemed stressed.

"i don't care, okay? i just don't give a shit anymore! you got your souls, so just get out of my house and leave me alone!"

Asgore grabbed Sans' shoulders. His face was a mess of concern and horror. "What happened to you?"

That was it. Sans could only take so much, and having someone point out what he was now, was too much. Sans' eye flared to life. With the flick of the wrist Asgore was against the wall. "my brother fucking died!"

Sans rarely raised his voice. His vocal chords weren't made for loudness. Yelling the way he was had already made them hoarse when added to the fact he was on the verge of tears.

"You're not the only one who's lost someone, Sans." Asgore was somehow managing to keep his voice level. Sans put more gravity against him. "Everyone knows how you feel. Entire families have been wiped out."

"i did my part. i got rid of Chara while everyone else hid. what more do you want from me!"

Tears fell down Sans' cheeks. The thought of Chara being gone forever crashed over Sans again. No more resets. No more Papyrus. He could feel his magic weaken.

"I need you." Asgore pulled something from his pocket. At the sight of the small red heart, Sans flinched. Frisk's soul.

~

Asgore tried hard to keep his breathing steady as Sans stared in open shock at the soul he was holding out. It was obvious that this was something Sans hadn't planned for. The lost skeleton looked between Asgore and the soul in confusion.

"i... i thought you had absorbed the souls." He muttered. "is... is the barrier still up?"

"Yes." Asgore conceded. "I want you to be the monster to break it down."

The look of surprise vanished. Replaced by immediate distrust. "why?"

Asgore looked for words to say. That he was scared, terrified of having that much power. That he had put off absorbing one soul till now because he was scared to see what that could do to him.

Asgore knew he couldn't tell Sans any of these reasons. "You are the hero." As soon as the words left his lips, the breath was knocked out of him by a burst of magic on Sans' end.

"stop saying that!" Sans rasped. "i'm not a hero! i never wanted to be a hero! that was Papyrus's....." Sans looked down. The look on his face broke Asgore's heart. "i never want to be called a hero again. i did what i had to do to survive."

"Sans, everyone's pushing for me to break the barrier. I'm holding them off by announcing a week of mourning, but after that..." Asgore trailed off. His excuses were threadbare.

He had never been very good at coming up with stuff on the spot. That was Toriel's gift. She had secretly guided him along during his reign, and now, he was often lost without her.

"why don't you do it? wasn't that the whole fucking plan?" Sans was smart. Asgore knew he would have to up his game to get past the skepticism.

"I can't." I mean, look at what it had done to his son. The boy was dead. Asgore looked away.

"why?"

Asgore searched for words. He had to make Sans believe him. "Power... changes people." That was a good start, right? What would Toriel say? "I'm afraid if I gain power, I'll use it against the humans who killed my son."

"what makes you think i wont use it for the same reason?"

Asgore's gaze fell to the soul in his hand. "You got your revenge. You're the only one who's got that."

If it hadn't been for the somber atmosphere, and the seriousness of the conversation, Asgore could have been proud at his logic.

"i don't want your power." Sans dropped Asgore and slumped onto the couch. He looked exhausted. His gaze drifted across the room as if focusing on one thing was beyond him.

"Sans, I won't give it to someone who will misuse it." Asgore took a step forward, offering the soul to Sans. "You're the only one I trust with this."

The silence bore around them. Asgore waited for an answer he doubted was coming. Minutes passed around them until Asgore felt the need to add more.

"If you do this, I'll leave you alone." As soon as it was out of his mouth he regretted it. Sans needed people around him to help him recover.

"is that a promise?" Sans glanced at Asgore, interested at last.

Asgore could hardly believe himself as he nodded his head in confirmation. He really was a horrible king.

Sans looked away for a second. "fine. if you won't ask for anymore favors, and you'll stop sliding down my chimney."

Asgore nodded again.

"no. i need verbal confirmation. too many broken promises." More seemed to be behind those words than just a few leaked secrets. "i want your word as a king."

"You have it." Asgore assured. The feeling something bad was going to come of this weighed in his stomach. The king couldn't help but feel like he had thrown Sans under a bus, but there was no way to reconcile what he had done. He had given his word.

Chapter Text

"Look at you." Asgore muttered in shock when he saw Sans lying in a pile of trash and bottles.

Sans had spent his 'mourning week' drunk. He cried some, drank a lot, and slept it all off so he could start again. That was basically it. In the back of his mind was the constant temptation to end it all. He had told himself he would think about it as soon as he broke the barrier, but he really wasn't sure about that. The whole idea was okay in thought, but he didn't even have the motivation to die at this point.

Asgore had tried to visit every day. Leaving tea and pie on Sans' porch. Sans hadn't even opened the door.

Now, the time had come to finish off the last of his responsibilities, and he had the biggest hangover. He groaned as Asgore helped him up.

"Go take a shower." Asgore told him. "It'll make you feel better."

Sans stumbled to the bathroom in silence. As long as Asgore left him alone, Sans would do whatever.

After his shower, Asgore gave him some fresh clothes, and headed out. The light outside, artificial as it may have been, was enough to make Sans screw his eyes shut. His house had been nice and dark.

The wind ripped through Sans as he followed Asgore through the fog to Waterfall. Apparently the river person was out for the day. Which meant lots of walking.

Sans paused after being carried across the gap by the duck. Something yellow caught his eye up towards Undyne's house.

"must be going insane." He muttered to himself with a depreciating laugh. Asgore gave him a worried look he chose to ignore.

A little while later he noticed Monster Kid sitting off the path near the waterfall. His back was turned, but he seemed more upset than usual.

New Home was full of activity. Most of the monsters had moved there after their family members had died, so while all other areas were practically deserted, New Home was bustling.

Sans trudged along behind Asgore in silence. Every monster they passed stared at Sans with open surprise.

"why are they staring at me?" He finally growled. He wasn't even doing anything.

"hmm..." Asgore glanced at Sans over his shoulder. "I don't blame them. You look menacing without your normal smile, and you haven't left your house in a week."

Sans grunted. He didn't care about smiling anymore. He was done with that charade. As for him not leaving the house, what made it their business to begin with?

Upon arrival, Asgore was met by a family of bunnies Sans remembered from Snowdin. They asked when he was going to take down the barrier, and if they would truly be safe on the surface.

Asgore assured them that he was going to take as many steps as was necessary to keep everyone safe. Sans found the exchange dull and exhausting.

He moved his attention to the smallest rabbit. It was staring at him. He stared back. As meaningless as it was, he refused to be out-stared by a baby monster.

A few minutes went by before he realized the adults had stopped talking. Asgore and the child's mother were looking at him in concern. He hadn't realized he was scowling till he saw how protective the mother looked.

Now seemed to be the perfect time to go inside. The house was warm. Cozy. Sans immediately felt the urge to kick off his slippers and nap. With the impending responsibility before him, it would be almost tradition.

Pushing the thought away he went to the mantle. There were pictures of all kinds of monsters. Some new, some old. The oldest seemed to be one of his family.

Sans took a closer look. Jumping back in surprise, he felt his magic stir inside him. Chara. Their face was covered in flowers, but he could tell. He had been focused on them long enough to know.

Chara seemed off in that picture. It was bazaar to see them standing with smiling and laughing monsters. Sans had known them as a ruthless killer. Not a friend.

"My family." Sans jumped when he heard Asgore behind him. The king had made no sound coming near him. "My wife, Toriel, my son, Asriel, and our adopted child, Chara."

Sans flinched at the name. He still wasn't sure how Chara had gotten into Frisk's soul, but even so, why hadn't they been the person they seemed to be in this picture? Making monsters laugh instead of killing them?

"It's a shame the last human had to soil the child's name so disgracefully. I loved them as my own." Asgore's voice quivered.

Sans could only manage a nod. He knew the truth. Chara was a demon. The first human to fall, and the last to travel the underground. What would the king have said if he knew the child he had loved so much was the one responsible for all the pain the monsters felt?

"Well, let's finish this." Asgore had recovered. Sans followed him as he led down the corridors, towards the throne room.

In the final corridor, Sans froze. His magic flared instinctively. Oh god, he could still see the child's body, mangled and destroyed.

How long had he spent in this room? Killing over and over. No one knew. To the king and everyone else, he had killed Chara once and that had been it. They would never understand how it felt to be trapped in a loop where you were forced to kill someone over and over just to stay alive. Fighting for what amounted to days, but only hours passing around you.

Asgore put his had on Sans shoulder, effectively snapping him back into focus. "If you'd like for me to give you a moment..."

"no." Sans shook the kings hand off him. He walked through the corridor, ignoring the smell of blood that still hung in the air. Despite his outward facade of strength, he was shaking.

The souls were all lined up perfectly. Like a prism of power they stood in a line. Waiting to be used. Sans' gaze drifted to Frisk's soul. DETERMINATION. He chuckled pitifully. She had always been determined, huh?

"I'll uh... leave you to it." Asgore stuttered. A moment later, Sans was alone.

He took Frisk's soul into his hand. The dark wisps flicking and swirling inside. "look, Chara..." He paused. Was he really talking to a soul?

He took a sigh and continued. "I got a job. I'm supposed to break down the barrier and set the monsters free."

He had never done this before. Frisk had always destroyed the barrier on her own. Now that he thought about it, he had never understood how she managed that. Humans can't absorb human souls, and monsters can't absorb monster souls. Yet no one had died, and all six souls had dissappeared. 

"i... uh.. look, i don't wanna do this if it's all gonna be for nothing. so, if you're gonna reset, do it now." His soul fluttered at the hope of a reset. Normally, the idea of it would make him more depressed, but at this point, seeing his brother was all that mattered.

He waited a good ten minutes. He watched the tendrils of demon possession as he waited. Slowly, the embers of hope died, leaving him cold and empty.

He summoned his soul as if calling for a fight. Using magic as a catalyst, he absorbed the red soul in his hand. He felt.... something. As shift in his magic, maybe? He wasn't overwhelmed by power, or anything, just slightly... different.

He absorbed the other six souls, but no overwhelming power burst from him like he had expected. It was just a slight shift somewhere deep inside him. He didn't know what he had expected, but it wasn't this.

He sighed and approached the barrier. How he was going to use the power he supposedly had gained was beyond him, but he had to try.

He focused.

Suddenly, the power took full effect. He gasped as his magic roared inside him. The sheer force of his own strength scared him. He couldn't hold it in, and soon, everything went white.

Chapter Text

"SANS I DID IT!" Papyrus screamed, flinging the bedroom door open. Sans flew out of bed in a flurry of blankets. He landed on the floor with a thud. Papyrus hardly noticed. "I'M FINALLY GOING TO BE POPULAR!!!"

Being awoken like this was always annoying. Sans swore revenge, but for now, Papyrus seemed to have big news.

"what?" Sans' voice dripped with the after effects of sleep. "wait, you got into the Royal Guard?" He sat up a little straighter. He vaguely remembered Papyrus leaving last night to beg Undyne to let him join.

"Well," Papyrus hummed a single note of contemplation. "No." He conceded. "But I am closer!" Sans just stared in drowsy confusion. "Undyne is giving me private training lessons!"

"Oh, gee Paps, that's great." Sans glanced over at his dresser. It was a good focus point when things got awkward.

"Sans, you don't seem very pleased." Looks like it was Papyrus's turn to be annoyed.

"no, i am. trust me, that's a really great gig. it's just that..." His voice trailed off as he looked for the right words.

"Just what?" One look at Papyrus was enough to make him think really hard about what he was trying to say. He had ruined the moment with his needless worry. Fuck.

"well," he gave a light chuckle and grinned wider. "Undyne's pretty bossy. ya know, she's my boss. and sometimes she can get out of hand, so you gotta work really hard to get good at this. otherwise she'll pummel you."

He felt guilty for not being up front. Undyne was a mess. She never seemed to know when she was being too rough. She also wasn't normally one to take small steps. Usually, either you were in, or out. 'Training' seemed like a lame excuse to get someone off her back.

"That's it? Sans, I can take care of myself." Papyrus sounded irked. Oops.

"i know, but hey, i worry about ya." Sans shrugged. "it's my job."

Papyrus sighed and relaxed a little. "Since when have you worried about doing your job?" Back to playful. Thank god. Sans hated the tense atmosphere.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to encourage me? If you're gonna be snappy about it, i'll go back to bed." Sans rolled over as if to sleep. He knew that wasn't happening any time soon.

"Back to... SANS, IT'S NOON!! YOUR SHIFT STARTED FOUR HOURS AGO!" Papyrus screamed as he picked Sans up and dragged the laughing bag of bones out of the house. "GET GOING!"

Sans was lying on his back in the snow. "yes sir, mr. almost royal guardsman, sir." He outstretched his arm and stuck his thumb straight up in the air. The look of pride on his brother's face well worth being dragged down the flight of stairs.

Next stop was Undyne's house. It was a good thing he knew a shortcut. He knocked at the door and jumped slightly when he heard something shatter inside.

"Frick. Someone's at the door...." There was quiet mutters, but Sans couldn't make out what the other monster was saying. "No, yeah. Hide in my bedroom for now...... Okay." The door flung open. "Sans?!?" Undyne seemed absolutely shocked to see Sans at her door.

"sup, Undyne. sorry, i didn't think you'd have guests..." He trailed off when he saw schematics on the table.

Undyne quickly hid them. Sans took that as an invite in the house. "I was just working. Alone. On a project." She was way too defensive if that was the case.

"what kind of project?" Sans asked trying to get a good look at the papers in her hands.

"Hey! Back off, we got it!" She pushed him away hard enough to make him catch himself for balance.

We. Interesting.

"anyways, Papyrus woke me up with some pretty interesting news." He shoved the other matter aside and plowed into his reason for coming.

"Weren't you supposed to go to work today?" She crossed her arms.

Sans decided it was best to ignore her. He was going to say what he came to say. "apparently you're gonna train him to be able to join the Royal Guard?"

She visibly flinched. Her gills flicking in agitation. Sans made sure to give her one of his famous stares to keep her on defense. So long as she didn't fight back much, he wouldn't feel too bad about accusing her.

"Yeah! I mean, he spent the night on my porch! A guy like that has to have enough guts for the Royal Guard!" She wasn't making eye contact.

"look. Royal Guard aside, my bro is pretty... simple minded. unlike you, he isn't the type to 'beat bad guys' ass'." She had used that phrase all too often.

Sans had never really liked her stand on fighting. She was always spoiling, and he was only too aware it would end up being her downfall if she wasn't careful.

"So you're saying Papyrus isn't capable?" She crossed her arms. She was starting to fight back.

"no. i'm not. my brother isn't perfect. heh. trust me, i know. but he isn't a coward either." Undyne opened her mouth to talk. Sans took a step towards her and continued. "i think the hot headed mutts of the Snowdin Royal Guard could use someone as strategic and level headed as him."

"I.." Undyne tried to interject, but Sans continued.

"but here's the thing. for someone like you, to give someone like him a deal like that... it just doesn't sit right with me." Oh god the look on her face. She was speechless. "but hey." Sans took a deep breath, finally calming down. "i'm sure the leader of the Royal Guard wouldn't stoop so low as to raise someone's hopes knowing they'll never be fulfilled, right?"

Undyne was dead silent. Her mouth half open. Sans knew he would regret this later, but right now, he only felt the urge to keep his brother from getting let down. Man, work was going to be tense the next few weeks...

Finally, Undyne collected her thoughts. "I wouldn't waste my time training someone if I wasn't planning on letting them into the Royal Guard." She still wouldn't look him in the eye.

"glad to hear it." Sans backed towards the door. He was done here. "now, uh.. i gotta go clock in."

As he left, he heard Undyne say to her companion, "Maybe we can make the sword three times my size, instead?!?"

Chapter Text

Sans was normally disoriented when he woke up. Especially recently when he would be crying, or have a hangover, or both. Usually both. This time, there was a whole new wave of confusion. Mainly because Sans had never been here before. He sat up slowly and looked around the room. He was in the bed farthest from the door. There was one other bed along the opposite wall. By his deduction, the room had belonged to two kids. 

Sans took a second to debate whether to get out of the bed and look around or not, but in the end, he decided he didn't care quite that much. He lay back down to go back to sleep.

Was the barrier broken?

Sans suddenly remembered what had happened before he passed out. He sat up straight and looked at his hands and arms. He lifted his shirt to check his ribs, too. Whatever he had been looking for, he hadn't found it. Just bones. He was still nervous.

He pulled out his soul. It hurt a little, but he really didn't give a shit about pain at this point. It was still white, but a different type of white. Where the light hit off of it, it gave the faintest shade of a rainbow. Sans stared at it in absolute awe. No matter what kind of soul he had seen, this took the cake. Well, no. Chara's effect on Frisk's soul was pretty damn cool, too.

Despite the power he had felt last night, he couldn't feel anything now. He wondered if he had used up all his power, but decided that was unlikely. Maybe it had to recharge or something.

Asgore was standing just inside the door when Sans looked up. How long had he been there? Sans frowned at him, expecting the king to either tell him what he wanted, or leave. The boss monster did neither, opting to sitting on the bed across from Sans instead.

"The monsters are too afraid to leave, now hat the human has come down here and destroyed so many of us." He looked so tired. Sans turned his attention back to the soul in his hand. His soul. This was his soul now.

Looking at one's soul is a lot like looking at your eyes. You know what your eyes look like, what color they are, but it's not something you spend a lot of time on. Some people spend more time on it than others. Sans used to catch Papyrus staring at his soul in pure interest. He had always been so curious about how the soul worked, how it looked, everything. Sans could probably count the times he had looked at his own soul on one hand. 

"Sans, what do I do?" Sans glanced over to see the king hunched over with his head in his hands. "I thought breaking the barrier would solve all my problems, but..." He trailed off.

There was a moment of silence. "i would just give up." Sans finally said as he decided to climb out of bed. It was time to go home and get so drunk he forgot how to think. He paused for a second before he passed Asgore. He really shouldn't leave it at this. "but if you don't wanna do that, why not send an ambassador?"

Sans left without another word. He didn't feel like debating how well that would work, and he didn't wanna tempt Asgore to break his promise and ask him to be said ambassador. He had filled the sense of obligation he had felt, now it was time to go home.

Sans was glad for the elevators. It took him little time to actually get through the CORE and Hotland. Heading to the river, he discovered the river person was still out. Great. Looks like Sans was walking. 

The walk through Waterfall was quiet. The gentle sound of the water put Sans' mind back to sweeter days. Waterfall had always been his favorite place to nap. He knew this great spot with a bench. It was hidden from the main path, and it was nice and comfortable. After some thought, Sans decided to rest there before continuing. He had all the time in the world, he remembered with a bitter laugh. It wasn't as if anyone was waiting for him back at home.

~

Flashes of battle raced across Monster Kid's mind as he watched the water lap at the shore in front of him. He had been so useless. Undyne had given herself to the mercy of a killer just because he had been stupid enough to not obey orders. Now, she was dead.

Everyone told the kid it wasn't his fault. After all, Undyne would have fought the human anyways, right? But that first attack.... Even as he ran, the child had known it was too late for Undyne. He had seen her crumbling, despite the tough charade she had put on. Now, he was left alone. None of the others had seen the look in Chara's eye as they attacked. Monster Kid couldn't seem to get the look out of his mind.

Mild amusement.

That was it. No hatred, no pain. As if every step they took was just a game. Everyone else who had seen this look had died. Monster Kid was alone. He was stuck in that moment. Watching as over, and over, Undyne stepped between himself and the killer, and knowing it was all his fault. He couldn't even cry about it at this point. It was as if he had no more tears.

He leaned his head back against the hard wood of the old bench. He was glad for the nice secluded place to relax and be alone. His mom and dad worried so much when he was sad, he had stopped talking to them about that day. It wasn't like they could understand anyways.

"oh." He heard a voice and jumped. Looking up, he saw the sentry he had often seen sleeping at several of the stations along the path he had taken to see Undyne. "well, i feel robbed now." The skeleton was frowning, but he didn't seem to be mad at the kid.

"Sorry, I was just looking at the water." Monster Kid gave a weak smile. "Is this your bench?"

"nah. i spent a lot of time here, but not so much now." He sat down, obviously exhausted. Monster Kid searched for something to say, but the more he thought, the less he could think. "so, uh.. what's got you so down?"

The kid snapped his gaze up at the sentry's face. He didn't seem to be intrigued, or 'just trying to help'. He wasn't even looking at the kid. His gaze was steadily fixed on the water. His face blank of any emotion. The kid began to get curious.

"What do you mean?" He asked in a peppy voice. His smile felt unnatural. He didn't like it, but it was better than seeing the looks of concern he would get otherwise. He had to admit, he got some concerned looks anyways.

The skeleton leaned his head back and closed his eyes(?) "you're gonna need a lot more practice before you can fool me, kid."  Looking at the kid, he added. "you were sitting by the waterfall yesterday, too."

Wow. This guy was good at staring, huh? Monster Kid squirmed under his gaze and was forced to look away. "I-it's nothing." The look on Chara's face flashed across his mind again, making him shudder.

The skeleton grunted in response. Monster Kid waited for him to press an answer out of him, but time passed, and the sentry didn't move. Everything about this guy threw the kid off. The longer the silence stayed, the more the kid wanted to spill everything to the practical stranger. He gave a sad laugh, and jumped when the skeleton jumped at his noise. Was he... sleeping?!? 

"huh. oh, kid, yeah." He laid his head back again and immediately started snoring. Monster Kid laughed more at that, waking the older monster up a second time. "unh.. you're really loud."

"Well, this is a public place, Mr... uh.."

"Sans. Sans the skeleton." He replied as he sat up more.

Sans. "What happened to your smile, Sans?" He had only ever seen a smile on the sentry's face before now, but now, the skeleton looked as though he had forgotten how to smile.

Monster Kid thought he had detected a slight flinch. "i got tired of pretending."

The kid stared out over the water. Bringing his knees up, he rested his head atop them as he thought about the skeleton's reply. It was obvious the monster wasn't okay. One look in his eye sockets could tell you that. From the looks of it, he wasn't sleeping well, either. 

"You know, I remember you." Monster Kid finally said. Sans kicked his feet. It was strange to know he was an adult and could still kick his feet when sitting on a bench. "I remember seeing you every day when I went to see Undyne train." Sans stopped kicking his feet. He was obviously uncomfortable with where this was going. "I didn't see you the last day, though."

~

There it was. Sans looked at the poor kid sitting next to him. His eyes were trained on some distant memory.

"I met another kid. They were kinda quiet, and weird looking, but..." He took a deep breath. "Well, I never had lots of friends that I could express my respect of Undyne too, so I ended up talking to them a lot. I ran into them every time I saw Undyne, so I figured they were a fan too."

Sans listened in horror. He didn't have to think hard to know what the kid was talking about. This kid had come face to face with Chara and had survived. No wonder they were so upset...

"Well, anyways, Undyne found out I was talking to them, and told me that they were a dangerous human, and that I needed to leave them alone." His voice was shaking. "She told me to go home, but.... I felt like... maybe the human was actually my friend. So, I looked for them..." The kid gave a shuddering sigh.

"Chara was on a bridge. One of the last ones before Hotland. I asked them about Undyne's accusations, but they just looked away with a smirk. A fucking smirk." The kid was shaking. Tears rolled down his face as the words fell from his mouth. "Then they attacked me. The only expression they had on their face was a mild interest in it all. My life didn't matter, no one's did. All they wanted was a bigger challenge."

Sans knew that all too well. A bigger challenge, and a more interesting run. Look where it had led. To a child and a grown monster sitting on a forsaken bench reliving past horrors and crying.

Yes. Sans was crying again. He hated it. He had become such a crybaby since that day. He despised how weak he felt when he cried. It didn't matter, but he still felt awful when he ended up in tears, especially in public.

"Undyne saved my life." The kid finally said when he was able to again. "She stepped right between us and took the hit. She looked so surprised..." A small hiccup escaped his mouth. "She said she was fine, but... I could tell she wasn't."

Sans flinched when the kid suddenly looked up at him. His eyes pleaded innocence, as if he were on trial. "I wa-was so scared, I didn't know what else to do. I ran away as fast as I could and I didn't look back." He turned his body away and slumped over. "Undyne was left there all alone to fight the monster...."

What had this child done to deserve this? Hadn't his only mistake been to trust the human? Hadn't Papyrus been offering them peace? How disgusting did you have to be, to attack someone who held open arms to you?

Sans let the kid cry. He wanted to do the same thing. He had had enough rest. It was time to move on... But first.

"Undyne was tough, but she wasn't unbeatable. trust me. it took me a lot to get the jump on the human, and Undyne isn't one for strategy. the circumstances of her death weren't great, but they weren't your fault either."

Monster Kid wasn't meeting his gaze. Sans frowned. He knew it didn't matter what he said, the kid was always going to blame himself for Undyne's death. 

"there was this really cool sentry i worked with. he was... damn he was cool. heh." He couldn't tell if that was a petty attempt at a laugh, or a straight up sob. "when the human came down, they were mean to him over and over, but you know what he did when they finally faced him?"

"What?" He was surprised to have gotten an answer. The small monster looked up at him.

"he offered them a hug and told them they could do better... he encouraged them to do good he turned to dust." He spat out the last few words. A small gasp escaped the child's lips. Sans couldn't speak for a while. He ended up turning away from the kid, too embarrassed to look at him.

"no matter what happened, your choice defined you. in the face of a killer, you showed mercy, and that's more than i can say." He could feel the weight of his sins on his back.

"You're the one that killed the human, aren't you?" Sans shrugged. After a moment of silence, he glanced back at the kid. They were staring at him in awe. "How?"

A bitter laugh escaped Sans. "They gave up." That was obviously not the answer the kid wanted.

Sans was tired. Standing was exhausting him at this point. He felt as if he was blue, all gravity pulling him towards laying on the ground and never getting up.

"I'm going home." Sans sighed. He didn't like the atmosphere here. It depressed him more. That poor kid, but what could Sans do for them. He was worse off than the kid had been.

As he turned the corner, he thought he heard the kid mumble something. He decided it wasn't worth it to turn back.

He was almost to the end of Waterfall, when he heard a small, gleeful voice behind him. "Howdy!"

Chapter Text

His feet were aching. His head pounded from crying. Sans' plan now was to go home, get drunk, and stay that way for however long he was alive. He turned around to look at whatever interruption had come up. Nothing was there.

"Wow. You're on the ball, today." The voice giggled from behind him again. Sans' patience was about spent. He turned around to see a small yellow flower bouncing on it's stem.

"what do you want?" The sickly sweet smile on the unnatural face was enough to make Sans take a step back.

"I've been watching you. I'll be honest. When I saw you standing in Chara's way, I never thought you'd be much of a challenge for her." Sans glowered at this fucking flower who insulted him in such an upbeat way. The thing looked creepy. Just plain creepy. The way it smiled, the way it spoke. "It turns out you're not as useless as I thought!" 

Yup. That was it. Sans didn't have to stand here and listen to this shit. He shoved his hands in his pockets forcefully, and walked past the flower. He wasn't in the mood to deal with it. He stopped short when he felt a tug on his ankle. Looking down, he saw a sharp vine wrapping tightly around his tibia. He looked around for the damn flower, and growled when he saw him right in his path again.

"You must not have understood, friend. I wasn't done talking." The flower smiled up at Sans as if he hadn't been effectively holding the skeleton in place.

"fuck off" Sans spat. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and turned the Flower blue. Instead of falling to the ground, it disappeared under the ground. Sans' magic dissipated. The vine was still wrapped around his leg, so he looked around for the owner. It surprised him when he was suddenly turned upside down, hanging midair by the vine which had now grown considerably. He was only inches above the ground, but it was enough to make him thoroughly pissed.

The bright yellow flower popped up right in his face. "You really think I'm scared of you? Just because you killed one measly human?" It's face contorted into a wicked grin. It's eyes became wide circles of creep. The smile didn't even fit on it's face anymore. "I've killed you thousands of times! What could once more hurt?" 

Sans was ashamed at the lightness his soul felt at the thought of being killed. He was almost eager for it. He decided to focus on the matter at hand. He summoned an attack. The flower was no idiot, he dodged easily, but that wasn't Sans' goal. He braced his hands against the ground just as the attack cut through the vine holding him. The look of surprise on the plant's face gave him satisfaction as he stood up.

"Pfft... You're serious? Do you want to die?" Just when he thought the smile couldn't be any more disturbing, teeth were added. "YOu ReAlly aRe An IdiOt!"

All Sans had to do was summon the power he had used to break the barrier. Honestly, he was somewhat worried about it. He hadn't felt anything all day. You'd think he would have noticed he had seven human souls in him, but there was absolutely nothing. 

He focused.

Nothing happened.

The weed giggled. "What are you even doing?" Sans glared at him. "You know, I don't think even I could have made you this upset. As many times as I killed Papyrus, you never turned out like this." He dodged the attack Sans threw at him with practiced ease. Sans had only seen one other who could dodge his first attack like that.

"you had reset power." His conclusion made the flower giggle more. 

"Very good, Sans!"

"how?" Finally. Finally, Sans could get some answers. He had been thrown into this Neverending loop completely by surprise, and now, here was someone who could tell him why.

"Who knows." Another giggle. Sans' eye flared. He was going to get answers. This shitty flower's resets had destroyed any hope he had had of happiness. "Oh please, Sans. You're not fooling me with the tough guy routine. Besides, isn't that Undyne's thing? You were always more likely to give up and run away than you were to fighting."

"shut up!" Sans threw another attack at the thing. More complex, and precise. He still couldn't access the souls, but his own magic could probably kill a weed at least.

It completely ignored the attack. At the last second, it burrowed into the ground appearing behind Sans. If the thing had a soul, Sans would be able to keep it from fleeing like that, but as it was, the flower fought dirty.

Sans whipped around, just barely seeing the flurry of bullets in time to dodge. That was a cheap shot. It took Sans a mere second to retaliate. Using his blue, he forced the flower towards the ceiling. The roots suspending it midair. That's where he focused his attack, relishing the look of shock on his foe's face.

A thick vine forced it's way out of the ground and took the brunt of the damage. Sans had put enough force in the attack to cut through the trunk of the vine, but the damage to the actual flower was minimal. He cursed under he
is breath.

"Golly! I haven't sustained this much damage in a long time!" The flower was fucking giggling again. "Looks like you killing Chara over and over really wasn't by chance." Before Sans could respond, he was surrounded by a ring of bullets. "I wasn't going to kill you," He was bouncing on his stem as if nothing exciting was going on. Like he had to entertain itself. "but you seem only too eager."

The ring got smaller. Ever so slightly getting closer to Sans. Staring at them, he realized with a flash how big of a jerk he had been. Pushing Alphys away when she had just lost the only person who she had spent a lot of time with, being mean to Asgore when it was obvious he just wanted to fix everything, leaving a child crying on a bench knowing he was the only other person who had come face to face with Chara.

Suddenly, he felt a strong desire to make things right. It was too late. The bullets tore through bone, magic, and soul. Sans last thought was a desperate realization that he wanted to live.

Chapter Text

Asgore walked out of the kitchen with a sigh. Another failed attempt at Butterscotch-cinnamon pie. That, along with everything else that had happened this past week, had sapped Asgore of any strength. He was stretched thin. When he saw Sans pacing the hall with his skull in his hands, he just sighed.

He hadn't expected Sans to wake up for hours.

~

Oh god this can't be happening. Sans paced the hall on the verge of tears. He had reset. He had wanted to fix his mistake and it had sent him back. He had been so close to never feeling anything again. Why was he so damn resilient? It was painfully ironic given his one HP.

Sans wasn't an idiot. He knew what resets meant. He had talked to Frisk about them in detail. He couldn't die. No matter what happened, he could never die. Doing so would send him back to the point where he was waking up in Asgore's bed.

He was still trapped in these god forsaken loops. He gave a pitiful laugh. This was karma. He knew karma, and it was having a hell of a time with him. He groaned and paced more.

How the hell was he going to get out of this? How had he gotten this power to begin with? He knew the answer to that. This was because he had absorbed Frisk's soul. Which he still couldn't even tell he had, if you didn't count the whole coming back from death thing.

Shouldn't he feel it? It was in him, and he knew what it felt like when it was fully activated, so what was going on? He hadn't been able to use it when that damn flower had attacked him, either.

He leaned against a wall and slid to the ground. Putting his hood on, he sighed. He was so tired of living. But then again, if that was true, he wouldn't be here, would he?

"Sans? Are you alright?" Asgore was standing at the end of the hall. Great. How much had the king seen this time?

"peachy." Yeah, that sounded natural, Sans, good job. He didn't care at this point. Asgore just sat next to him with a sigh.

That's right. Asgore was stressing about leading the monsters back to the surface. Sans had been a jerk to him about it, too.

Maybe he should leave. He was obviously not helping, and Asgore looked very tired. Sans got up to go.

"Leaving so soon?"

Sans whipped his head around. That voice was familiar. He couldn't see anyone besides him and Asgore.

"This is the first time I got to see my dad in decades, and you're just going to leave?" There was a laugh afterwards that made him sick. Literally. Skeleton digestive tracts are a difficult matter, and when you're vomiting up magic and hard cider, it's really the last thing you want to explain.

Why couldn't Chara just stay dead? It was like they loved the thought of dying so much they wanted to do it over and over. It was sick. Was this what DETERMINATION did to people? He thought back to the flower. Oh god. Did DETERMINATION turn you into a fucking psycho like that? Like Chara?

Was Sans going to turn out like them? Killing people just because he could? He sank to his knees, leaning on his arms against the wall in front of him. He just wanted to go home.

~

Asgore was completely bewildered. Sans had gone from pacing the halls, to sitting on the ground, to getting sick in a potted plant, to sobbing against a wall. The entire time, he had been muttering to himself, though the king didn't even know if the skeleton had realized it.

He had heard the name Chara several times. Was this how Sans was mourning his brother's death? This was absolutely insane.

When Chara and Asriel had died, Asgore had mourned. Grief, anger, denial, confusion... he had been through it all. Whatever Sans seemed to be going through was on a whole new level. Asgore was pretty sure you weren't supposed to feel all four emotions within five minutes. With him it was more of a process from one to the next that had taken weeks.

Sans banged his head against the wall. Whatever he was saying was lost between the sobbing and the hiccups. Asgore was completely lost. Should he try to comfort Sans? Would that make it worse?

As if to answer his question, Sans jumped up and ran from the house yelling "shut up!" over and over.

~

Sans shoved through the crowds in New Home. His vision was blurred by tears, but that was nothing new, right? He seemed to be constantly crying or on the verge of tears. After holding his pain inside for so many years, Sans was at least glad for a time of release. Not that he felt he could have held them in even if he tried.

Chara was in his head. Somehow, absorbing the tainted soul had allowed them access into his consciousness. They could talk to him freely, and no one else had any idea. Sans stumbled out of the elevator with the realization that he was going insane. He groaned.

"You don't seem all that happy to hear me." Chara remarked. Ugh they were so snarky. "Oh hold on, I wanna try something out."

Sans didn't even have time to register what they had said before his magic, as well as the seven souls, flared to life.

~

Asgore felt like something was horribly wrong with Sans. He had never seen the skeleton freak out like that. Maybe he should follow him? Maybe that was taking it too far. After all, he had promised to leave the poor guy alone.

Asgore was on the verge of giving up when a mole ran in. "S-Sans is attacking citizens in the MTT Resort!" It wheezed, obviously out of breath. Asgore was out the door a second later.

The lobby was in shambles. Walls torn apart, a platoon of ficus needlessly abused, the floor had deep gashes running all across it, several monsters lay injured, and the fountain was gone. Just gone. In it's place was an unconscious Sans.

"What happened?" Asgore asked a hand monster who had come from his usual place behind the counter.

"He just started giving off a huge amount of magic all of a sudden. One minute he's fine, the next minute three monsters are thrown across the room, and he's screaming."

"No, that's not right!" A business monster yelled. Probably at the hotel for a meeting. "Sans was talking to someone. I heard him!"

"What did he say?" Asgore turned to the dragon.

"I'm not sure. He was mumbling, but he seemed pretty mad, like he was fighting with someone on the phone."

Asgore asked a few other monsters, and made sure everyone was okay. He didn't find much more information on why Sans had gone nuclear in the middle of a crowded resort. He would have to wait until Sans woke up. For now, he would bring him back to New Home so he could keep an eye on him.

"Wait!" Asgore turned to see a tall monster with a diamond on his head. "Is this just normal now? I mean first a human comes down and kills a ton of monsters, and now monsters are attacking monsters? Where can we go to be safe?"

A murmur rippled through the crowd. This was bad. If the citizens started getting scared, they might do something irrational. Without a Royal Guard, he had no way to keep peace if things got out of hand.

"You are safe here. I'm sorry, I should have been more careful with my friend. He will be under my watch from now on, I assure you, you have nothing to fear."

"Except another human! The barrier is down! Who's to say they aren't going to come through and finish off what the other ones started!" A girl from the back screamed.

All around were murmurs and growls. "Need I remind you, I have seven human souls at my disposal now. I will protect my citizens with my life."

That seemed to calm them some. He felt bad for lying, but also proud at his quick thinking as king. He would definitely risk his life for the people he ruled. He loved them all.

"I'm looking for a way to reconcile with the humans on the surface. You need not worry. I will also be putting together a new Royal Guard. Alphys and I have been working nonstop to make sure all monsters are safe and secure. Please be patient with me."

Asgore was tired. He had spent many long nights looking for someone to head up the new Royal Guard. The entire mourning week had been filled with paperwork, background checks, interviews, and much more.

Once he had a Royal Guard in place, he had to worry about going to the surface. He hadn't even thought about how he would get through that obstacle. He would cross that bridge when he came to it.

For now, he had to get Sans away from people. Who knows when his next outbreak would be.

Chapter Text

Asgore was sitting on the bed across the room. Had there been another reset? What had happened?

"That was kinda interesting, huh?"

Chara had happened. Sans recalled what happened with horror. His magic had unleashed in a crowd. Somehow, it was Chara's fault. It had to be.

"What happened?" Sans jumped a little. He had completely forgotten Asgore was there.

"I don't know." Sans conceded. He was done thinking. Done trying. He just wanted to sleep for however long the rest of his life was.

Asgore just sighed. Sans knew the king was stressed, and he wasn't helping. There hadn't been another reset, so that meant he really had released his magic in the lobby.

"Did I kill anyone?" He hated to think that he might have hurt a monster.

"No. Several are injured, but they'll make it alright." Sans nodded. He had no more words. The weight of his sins bore down on his shoulders. "I don't know what to do with you." The king scoffed. "I mean, if you can't control the souls, no one's safe around you."

Sans sank lower in the bed. His shoulders dropped entirely, and his head was almost as low.

"You know, you could always just restart."

"no!" Sans spat before he realized it. Asgore was looking at him funny, now. Great. "sorry. i think i need a minute."

Asgore stared at him in concern for a minute longer, but thankfully, he left.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Sans was pacing the floor. "what the hell did you do?" He questioned the air.

"I think the question is, what did you do?" Chara taunted. "I'm just a voice in your head."

"you know full well i had no control!" Sans felt like an idiot for talking to himself.

"Yeah." They laughed. "That was pretty pathetic."

Sans wimpered as he pressed his palms into his eyesockets. He wanted to strangle Chara, and the fact that he couldn't touch them was driving him insane.

"You should be thankful, you know. If it weren't for me holding the souls power, you would probably have been torn apart by now."

"What are you talking about." Sans was positive he would never be thankful for Chara. Not in a million years.

"I let you take down the barrier, too. I could've just held on to your powers forever and never let you use them." They gave a proudful sigh. "You really should be nicer to the person who's saving your life."

"like hell i'm gonna!" He didn't have anyone to look in the eye when he yelled, so was terribly awkward. He ended up looking at the ceiling as if she were a god or something. "you killed my brother and ruined my life!"

"Please, Sans. Papyrus was an idiot, and you know it."

"don't you fucking say that. i swear, if you even..."

"You'll what? Kill yourself? Hey, be my guest. I think a reset would be good right now." Sans slid down with his back against the wall. "I mean, it could really go either way. You could finish out this run if you want, too, I mean you have all the time in the world."

Sans slammed his head back into the wall. It hurt, but with any luck, Chara could feel it too. Again. He kept it up until he felt as if his skull were going to crack open.

"You know I can't feel pain, right?"

"worth a shot." He muttered in response, his head in his hands. The ringing in his ears was helping to drown Chara out a little, but Sans was sure he would never have a quiet moment again.

"In fact, I haven't felt pain since the first time I died." Chara was continuing with their previous thought as if speaking in retrospect. "Frisk on the other hand, oh man." They laughed. "They screamed, they begged, they cried.... All without you even noticing. Every time I died, they suffered."

Sans drew his knees up to his chest and sobbed. There was nothing to say, nothing he could do. He was trapped in Chara's hell, and he couldn't do anything. Now, knowing he had never been able to do anything to Chara, knowing he had hurt only Frisk all those times, it was all too much.

~

There was definitely something wrong with Sans. Asgore felt bad for eavesdropping, but he couldn't seem to move from his spot pressed against the door.

Who was Sans arguing with? Several of the witnesses had said Sans was muttering before he was attacked, but Asgore hadn't wanted to believe Sans was crazy. 

He left the door, and headed into the living room. He took two steps in before Changing his mind and heading out the front door. He needed to know what was going on.

Alphys' lab was almost always open. He rarely dropped by, he wasn't a big science fan. When he walked in he found it empty and the light off. She must be out.

He called her. "H-hello?" She answered on the fourth ring as usual.

"Hi, Alphys. I came by your lab, but you're not here. I have to discuss something with you, so maybe you can come over for some tea or something?"

While he talked he heard some clamor over the phone. "Uh... n-no I'm here, I'll uh.. I'll be r-right out." She stuttered a lot. He wondered if maybe it's gotten worse this past week?

Alphys walked out and turned on the light a few minutes later. "What can I d-do for you, uh... s-sir?"

"It's about Sans." Asgore watched as Alphys relaxed as if glad it wasn't about something else. She also seemed to shrink sadly.

"I heard about his accident at the resort." She was staring pretty hard at the ground.

"I think it's worse than that." That made her look at him. His own concern mirrored in her face. "He..." Asgore had to think of how best to put this. "talks to himself. Arguing with no one, and he just randomly says things. His attention is all over the place. He randomly jumps between emotions. In seconds, it seems. It's a mess."

As he explained her face darkened more and more. Asgore waited for her to answer, knowing it might take a while. She was very good at awkwardly long pauses.

"I don't know if this is about Papyrus anymore." She finally decided. "Could this have something to do with killing the human? What happened then?"

Asgore shrugged. He hadn't been in the corridor when Chara had died. He clearly remembered walking in to see Sans sitting against a pillar, staring at the soul in his hands, with the mangled body of Chara in the background. It had killed him inside to see a human who looked so much like his own adoptive child in such a state.

Sans had been surprised when the king had touched him, too. He was so lost in thought, he hadn't heard anything. Maybe Asgore should have talked to him back then? Honestly, he felt sure Sans needed some time to mourn his brother's death. Maybe that had been a bad call.

Asgore didn't know anymore. This had been what Toriel was good at. She would have fixed this by now, and made everyone happy. 

He missed her. Not just because she was good at the political side of running a kingdom, but because she had always been able to get Asgore to relax. He needed to relax for a while.

"I think we should talk to him." Alphys must like staring at the floor. "Maybe... Maybe he's just lonely?"

That seemed like a stretch. Sans never was one to talk about himself like that. He would usually shrug everything off with a joke. Asgore became solemnly aware that Sans hadn't made a single joke since Papyrus died.

"I'll talk to him when I get home."

Chapter Text

Sans yawned as he walked down the stairs towards the kitchen. Papyrus was standing over the stove, stirring spaghetti sauce. A slight groan slipped between Sans teeth.

"Good morning, brother!" Papyrus seemed happy. "I made you something for breakfast!"

Sans was pouring coffee. "do we have to have spaghetti every morning?" It was as if Papyrus had no idea what normal breakfasts were supposed to be.

"What are you even complaining about? We had cinnamon bunnies yesterday." Sans glanced at Papyrus. How could his brother not remember Sans complaining about the spaghetti yesterday?

Maybe Sans had dreamed it all up. He wiped the counter as his toast popped up. There was no way he was eating what Papyrus cooked.

"Sans, get a plate!" Papyrus yelled as Sans headed for the living room with his breakfast. Sans gave a guilty grin and headed back to the cabinet. After a moment, Papyrus sighed. "Er... Sans?"

"Yeah, bro?" Sans had climbed onto the counter to get a plate from the top cabinet. Curse his short legs and arms.

"Can we uh... Hang out today, instead of you working on your project? Just this once?"

Sans put the plate down and jumped to the floor glancing at his brother. The 18 year old Skeleton was absently stirring his meal. He had asked the same exact thing yesterday in the same way, was he messing around?

Sans laughed. "Paps, i gotta work some time."

Papyrus sighed. "If you don't want to hang out, you can just say so, Brother." He put the spoon he had been stirring with on the counter.

"what? no, i..." Sans froze. Everything seemed off, as if all of a sudden a light had turned on. His brother looked sincerely hurt at Sans' remark. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and Sans could read the guy like an open book.

Papyrus was wearing the exact same outfit as yesterday. He went through phases where he would wear the same thing every day, but when he wasn't, the very idea of wearing the same clothes twice in a row was disturbing to him.

This seemed like a genius idea for a joke, but he wasn't one to play practical jokes. He definitely wasn't one to plan very far ahead. A scheme like this was completely out of character, and Papyrus thought stuff like this was stupid to begin with.

Then what had happened? Sans was sure this had happened before, right? Maybe... maybe it was deja vu? Maybe it was still a part of a dream. He could be in a coma or something.

"sorry, i'm not fully awake yet." He took to sipping his coffee instead of making eye contact. A sniffle from Papyrus brought his attention back. "bro?"

"I'm fine." Papyrus turned away. Sans came around to see Papyrus's face, but as soon as he came into view, the teen burst into tears.

"what's wrong? why are you crying, Papyrus?" Shit. Sans hurt his feelings. He felt awful. He tugged on his brother's hands, trying to coax him to talk to him.

"I don't know. I just wanted to play with you like before, but then you said that, and I guess I'm probably just annoying you. I'm sorry." He slipped his hands away from Sans' and hid his face in them, sobbing.

"Paps, n-no." Why was he so bad at comforting people? "i didn't mean it like that, i'm sorry." Hugging was a weird thing to Sans. Maybe because he was a skeleton, or the fact that he was short and wide. Point was, he never hugged. For a crying skelebro, he made an exception.

Papyrus hugged back, crying into Sans' jacket. As far as Sans could tell, his physical state and Papyrus's mental state were about the same. One hit and they were close to being completely destroyed.

Maybe Sans could take off work to hang out with his little brother for another day.

~

The couch was a lumpy, stained mess, but after the day the skeletons had had, they were glad for the small comfort it managed to give them.

Sans slipped off his sneakers, opting for the slippers beside the couch now that he was home.

Papyrus was scowling. "How can you stand wearing those grungy old sneakers, anyways?"

"they match my socks." Sans laughed at the disgusted look he got.

He laid his head back with a sigh. Things still seemed off. Not big things, but there were just small moments where Sans could tell exactly what would happen. He had decided not to tell Papyrus.

There was one thing he was waiting for. On rare occasions, Dogamy and Dogressa would go on a date night. It usually ended with them drunk, and they had even gotten the Royal Guard called on them a few times.

Last night, they had gotten drunk, and spent about half an hour howling at the top of the cavern. Eventually, Undyne had been called, and they were sent home.

If they were out there tonight, Sans had decided to talk to Alphys tomorrow. Somehow, he must have gone back in time, or something. Whatever had happened, he had to find out.

That was tomorrow. Tonight, he and his brother were going to rewatch Mettaton's fourth movie. He was going to relax. Forget about the work.

"i'm gonna get some ice cream." He jumped off the couch and headed for the kitchen.

His brother was dismayed to see him return with two spoons and a tub of chocolate ice cream. "Can't you put it in bowls, Sans?"

Sans glanced between the ice cream and Papyrus's annoyed expression. "why? we're family." As an afterthought he added, "and we don't even have saliva. you couldn't get germs from me even if you wanted to."

Papyrus crossed his arms. "It's the principal of the matter."

Sighing, Sans went back into the kitchen for bowls. As he put the ice cream away, he heard howling from outside. Yup. Date night two nights in a row was unheard of.

Sans pushed the thought to the back of his head. Tomorrow he would figure it out. He went back to the couch with the ice cream and got comfortable. He needed a break anyways.

Chapter Text

Sans woke up in a weird position. He was basically bent in half on the floor, his head fuzzy with the after effects of crying himself to sleep. Sitting up made every joint in his back pop.

Asgore was watching him from the bed he usually sat on. Sans frowned. Why was Asgore always around when he wanted to be alone?

"I'm worried about you, Sans." Asgore answered Sans' unasked question.

"it's funny. i distinctly remember you promised to leave me alone after the barrier was gone." Sans put extra emphasis on the word 'promised'.

Asgore flinched.

"Well it's not like you can really judge him for a broken promise, now can you?"

Sans ignored Chara. It was really all he could do at this point. It was like they didn't know when to shut up.

"That was before you exploded in a crowd of monsters. I can't keep everyone calm when they're afraid to go outside. There's a suspicion going around that the barrier breaking caused an unbalance in magic for some monsters because of you! Alphys and I are swamped with scared citizens trying to get checked out for this made up magic disease, and we already had enough to do as it was!"

Sans ended up staring at his knees. It wasn't his fault his magic had gone off like that, it was Chara's.

No, it was his. He was weak, and he just couldn't control the overwhelming power of the souls all at once. He was a useless lump of shit that couldn't even die correctly.

"Sans, you were never like this before. The mumbling, the random outbursts... the frowning..."

Sans still had no idea how he had ever been able to smile for so long. Things had just seemed to go downhill so fast after Papyrus died. Now he looked at himself and cringed.

"i'm fine." He muttered the common response with little conviction. It obviously wasn't fooling Asgore.

"You should just reset so he doesn't think your crazy."

Sans growled. "See, it's things like that that tell me you're not fine." Asgore was pleading, basically.

Sans kept his mouth shut. He wasn't even going to try to give a reason. If Asgore thought he was crazy, so be it. Maybe Sans was crazy.

"This is boring. Do something." Sans ignored them. "Sans! Come on!" Nothing. Sans wasn't playing their game. "Fine. If you won't do something, I will."

"don't you fucking dare!" Sans gave in. His mind filled with Chara's laughing as he glanced at the king. More concern. "and i don't need you judging everything i do!" He screamed at the poor goat king.

He stood up and headed for the door. Asgore looked as if he was going to stop him, but thankfully, he didn't. Sans needed to get some place without people. Somewhere that Chara couldn't hurt anyone.

~

Sans stormed out of the room. Asgore was still unsure what had made him start yelling, but it was definitely something only Sans could sense.

He was having a hard time putting faith in Sans' sanity. He didn't want to think the monster was mentally inept, but the evidence was all pointed the other way.

He looked around the room and sighed. He missed when this room was full of happy children. Asriel and Chara. He looked around the room, lost in the past. Reading bedtime stories, playing games, laughing and telling jokes.

He needed to call Alphys. He left the room to clear his head. He should tell her everything that happened. He was no expert on monster psychology. She wasn't either, but between the two of them, maybe they could find something out. It's not like they had many options.

~

Sans sat against the wall. Beside him was a pillar with a plaque. The artifact that was normally displayed here was gone.

"Hey, this is where I got the dog residue!" Sans tipped to the side till he was laying on the ground. "I was so curious about what the artifact did, but the Annoying Dog steals it every single time."

"why did you give up?" The question rang through Sans' mind. He had so many questions. Why did Chara kill? How were they still alive? Why did they kill Papyrus?

"I'll tell you if you tell me something." They waited for Sans to answer, but he didn't. They continued. "Why did you only fight me when I killed everyone? I mean, I had killed Papyrus before, but still you never fought me."

Sans thought for a minute. He hated fighting. He hated hurting people. Even if they deserved it, he would rather hate them silently, make sure they knew they were hated and then never speak to them again. He didn't want to try to hurt them physically.

With Chara, he was forced. They would easily have killed everyone if he didn't, and he knew that. He was hurt, angry, sad. He just wanted them dead.

"Frisk killed Papyrus those times. not you." He finally answered. "Frisk was my friend at one point. not you."

Chara laughed as if he had told the best joke in the world. "So because you guys were chummy at one point, you let them go and not me?"

"i just wanted the reset to hurry up and come. i didn't want the pain of killing someone i loved over and over. i didn't care with you. i just wanted you to suffer like i was." Why was he defending himself to Chara of all people?

"So, basically, you were weak." 

"i managed to get you to stop attacking, didn't i?"

"I stopped because I realized Frisk was right. Killing you off like the rest of them would have been a shame."

Sans sat up. "what do you mean Frisk was right?"

"You were the odd duckling. You weren't connected to the resets, yet you could sense them. You didn't think she was interested in you because of your wit, did you?"

Sans had become very fond of Frisk. Their silent strength, their kindness, their DETERMINATION. When they started killing, Sans was shocked. He had come to trust them.

He had been alright with the resets for a while, enjoying the joy Papyrus had every time he saw the human for the first time. He and the kid had talked it all over, but then they did what he never thought they would do. They had killed Papyrus.

When he confronted them, they apologized, but they kept killing. They promised him they were going to stop soon, and then they would give him the happy ending he wanted. Now look where it had led.

"What you call 'giving up', I call strategic surrender. After all, if you ended up dead like all the others, there would be nothing left for me to entertain myself with."

Sans' heart dropped. Everything wrong with his life was caused so some psychopath could have a good laugh. How was he surprised by this? Of course that was all it was. He had the worst luck in the world. When Frisk came down, he should have known his happiness wouldn't last. Depression always came back. Always worse than it had started. Now he was trapped forever.

"so you got what you wanted then." He pushed out a pitiful laugh.

"Oh-ho-ho no." They perked up. "This was not what I wanted. No, I wanted to gain control of Asgore and mess with you through him. You absorbing the souls hadn't even crossed my mind."

Using their own father as a puppet to mess with him. He was more disturbed at the fact that it didn't surprise him. How fucked up could one kid get?

He took a few minutes to digest the information he had gained. Gladly, it seemed Chara was doing the same. She was silent for a few minutes.

"You should reset." She finally suggested.

"no." Sans didn't know how to reset without dying, and even if he did, he refused to use that power. He hated it. Not only because of what it did to the timeline, but because of what it did to the person who reset. If Chara and the flower were any proof. Sans was never going to turn out like that.

"lame. This timeline is getting boring."

Sans rolled his eyes. Or the skeleton equivalent to the gesture. Standing up, he headed back for home. "you're gonna have to get used to boring. i'm not gonna be your entertainment. if you wanted that, you shouldn't have killed Mettaton."

"Oh please. Mettaton was all about bigger than life. I'm not into all that. Life is what I like. Real, bloody, cut-throat life."

"that's cuz you're a fucked up psychopath child who should've died hundreds of years ago." He shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked.

Sans glanced to the side. There, he saw something he wasn't happy to see. It burrowed into the dirt as quickly as possible, but Sans couldn't mistake the sight of the small yellow flower.

Chapter Text

Sans didn't walk more than ten rooms before the flower popped up.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower!" He pepped. It was good to have a name for the damn thing, now.

"fuck off, Flowey." Sans fought back the urge to stomp the flower into the dirt. Doing so would probably land him back in Asgore's bed at the start of the time loop.

"Golly! You should really watch your mouth! We haven't even met yet, and you're being so rude!" Despite the words he said, the flower sounded very enthusiastic. Sans hated how fake it all seemed.

"don't mess with me. whadda ya want?" If he were sure Flowey wouldn't stop him, he'd have left already. For now he just tried to ignore Chara pestering him to kill it. They only wanted him to get killed by the thing so they could get a reset.

"This is why I never liked you. You're never fun." Still a sweet little fake smile. At least Sans' smile looked realistic when he had had it. Mostly realistic at least. "But at least now you're useful."

He said it like Sans wasn't useful before. "i don't need some shitty flower judging me." He spat. "i have enough on my plate. besides, you don't even know me! so stop pretending you do!"

"Actually, I do know you!" Flowey bounced. "You're Sans the skeleton! You tell jokes to hide your depression, but only because you're scared of confrontation. You drink away your problems, and look up to Papyrus like he's god! Well, you did." He ended his verbal attack with a giggle.

Sans was growling. Completely unable to disguise his hurt and hatred, he glared at the flower. His hands clenched and unclenched over and over, his magic just below the surface.

"Looks like you got a target this time. Let's see how this works now."

Despite his inhibitions, Sans allowed the power of the souls to channel through his magic. It was much weaker, and easy to control. Chara had probably only released some of the magic. He summoned two massive Gaster Blasters and aimed at the still smiling flower. A beam of rainbow colored magic burnt the place Flowey had been to smithereens.

Turning, Sans saw the flower a little ways away. It's face was split in half with a deadly smile, as it sent a wave of bullets at Sans. Without hardly thinking, several walls of bones stood between him and the attack.

His blazing blue eye wasn't just for show. Using it changed his view on the world. He looked around as if the world were made of numbers. Lines of code he had come to trust. They were the only truth he had found to be consistent.

Flowey was no longer on the other side of the walls of bones. He let them dissipate and scanned the world around him.

There.

Two rooms away, the code he had come to recognize as Flowey was sitting. Using his magic, he programmed a shortcut, or space jump, into the numbers, and found himself in front of the flower. A look of pure shock landed itself on Flowey's features, followed shortly by a crushing attack.

"Holy shit. What did I just see?" Chara was strangely mellow.

Sans ignored her as normal. The power now put back under Chara's control, he stared down at the mangled remains of the flower.

"Sans, can you always see like that? And your shortcuts? Is that what your magic does? You're a hacker?"

"can you just shut up?" So many questions. Ugh. He picked up the dead weed and froze. He had killed this thing.

He was so used to attacking Chara when he got mad, it hadn't taken much to push him into killing the abomination in his hands. He felt bad, but he was still kind of angry. He was also curious. It was apparently not a monster, seeing as it hadn't turned to dust when it died, but it was also obviously not human.

Sans decided it would be best to ask Alphys. He shoved the flower into his pocket and headed back towards Hotland. He was tired, the fight had used most of his magic. He promised this would be the last thing before going home.

"What did all those numbers and stuff mean? Can you teach me how to read it?"

"no! okay? i'm not teaching you anything, so shut up and leave me alone!" Sans yelled. He stomped forward. Why did he have to attract such annoying people to him?

Finally, he made it to the lab. It was open as usual, so he headed in. Alphys was sitting at the desk looking through a pile of files.

"hey, Al." She jumped, causing a tsunami of papers to crash to the floor. "sorry, i didn't mean to scare ya."

"S-Sans! Sorry, I... uh... I wasn't e-expecting you..." She tried to pick up the papers. Sans helped.

"yeah, i wasn't planning on stopping in, but i gotta talk to you." She froze for a second, looking at him in shock. It was mere seconds before she had recovered.

"What can I help you with?" She asked. "I... I heard about your uh.. accident... at the resort."

Sans was thrown slightly off guard. "what? no. this isn't about that."

"Oh... is it a-about..." She looked around as if keeping a secret. "I-is it about the v-voices?"

"what!?! Alphys, i don't want to talk to you about the fact that Asgore thinks i'm crazy! i have a real matter to discuss here!"

The fact that Asgore and her were talking about him was unpleasant, but not a surprise. He was more annoyed at Chara's laughing right now. It wasn't that funny that everyone thought he was insane.

"Sans, Asgore and I are really worried about you." She took a small step towards him, as if for comfort. Sans took it as an offensive move, and took a step back to match it.

He pulled out the flower and threw it on a stack of books. "i came to find out what that thing is."

Alphys took a moment to search his face before she finally let it go and looked at the wilted flower.

"A flower?" She shrugged. She looked tired. Tired and hopeless.

"it attacked me. it talked, and fought. it used magic, but it's not turning to dust."

Alphys sighed. "It must've been the old experiment I had back when I was studying DETERMINATION."

It was an experiment? Sans took a step towards her, excited to finally get some answers. Could this be the beginning of the resets?

"when? what happened? how long ago did you make it?" Alphys looked guilty, but he wanted answers. He took another step forward and put his hand on her shoulder. "please, Al, it could help me out a lot."

Alphys looked as if she were going to tell him, but before she could speak, Chara interrupted. "How about no?"

Sans tried to jump back, but it was too late. His power activated fully, leaving him in a flash of white light. Then, everything went black.

~

Sans woke up to see the mess he had caused. Absolute destruction lay all around him. What had once been a lab now looked like an absolute war zone. His gaze scanned across it in horror till it fell on a pile of ash.

Alphys.

"no." He croaked. He crawled towards it, crying as he realized what he had done. He couldn't be trusted around her. Or anyone, for that matter. He would only kill them every time Chara saw fit. When he least expected it, they would release his power on anyone nearby.

Asgore ran in, probably tipped off by some monster who had passed. He looked at Sans in dismay. Sans just looked back at the ash.  He had no excuse for Asgore.

"Sans, I can't protect you anymore." Sans knew that. This was exactly what Chara wanted. He resigned to his fate and stood. He was a filthy murderer.

"just... i'm sorry." He wished he could explain how it wasn't his fault, but it was his fault. He was too weak. He had always been too weak. Papyrus had warned him, but Sans had never listened.

Asgore looked at the ground. His expression was dark. "Sans the skeleton, I cannot allow tyranny to run through my country at such a critical time in our history. For the sake of my people, I sentence you to death." Asgore paused for a moment. "I'm sorry." His voice cracked as he apologized, but when he looked up, his face was hard.

He pulled out his spear, and in a matter of seconds it was tearing through Sans' soul. There had been tears in Asgore's eyes. It made Sans glad to know the king did care in the end. Then it was all over.

Chapter Text

Sans stared at the ceiling for what seemed like hours. There was a crack from the wall to about halfway across the bed. It branched off several times, causing it to look like one of the many evergreen trees in Snowdin forest.

Sans' mind was dull. He felt like he had just been frozen. Everything ached, movement seemed sluggish, and he couldn't get his thoughts straight. There was only one thought he could get to stick.

He had killed Alphys.

Sans had killed Alphys, and then he had reset. He had welcomed Asgore's judgment without question. He had allowed himself to be killed to escape the horror of being a killer, but it was still there. He had killed Alphys. The flower, too. He couldn't excuse that even if Flowey had been begging for it.

Groaning, Sans rolled onto his side. He was tired of looking at the tree crack. He was tired of being awake, or even alive. Sans could honestly say he had never wished for death more than at this exact moment.

"It was for the better, Sans. I mean, Alphys is alive and well, and no one thinks you're crazy anymore, right?" Couldn't they ever shut up? 

Sans pulled his knees up to his chest and tucked his head down as low as he could. Maybe, if he was small enough, he could pretend he didn't exist. He stayed hidden under the blankets, watching his tears stain the sheets beneath him until he heard the door close.

"Sans?" Asgore was probably wearing the same look of concern he usually donned in Sans' presence these days.

"go away." Sans didn't want to be bothered, but more importantly, he didn't want to hurt anyone else. And with his power at Chara's whim, there was only one way to protect anyone. He could never give Chara an opportunity to kill anyone ever again. 

"Are you just going to stay there?" Asgore asked with a sigh. 

"it doesn't matter." Even if he moved, the chances of him ending up right back here was extremely high. Chances were, he would have more sins pressing on him at that time, as well. 

"Do you truly think this is what Papyrus would want you to do?" The name hit Sans like a physical blow. What would Papyrus have thought if he knew Sans had killed Alphys? He shrunk into himself more at the thought. Asgore sighed and Sans could hear the springs creak as the massive monster put his weight onto the second bed. "This room used to belong to my children. I remember it all. This bed I'm on was Asriel's. The one you're using belonged to Chara."

Ew. Sans jumped out of the bed in disgust. He tripped on the blanket and landed in a tangle of bedding and bone. He groaned and decided this was far enough from the bed for now.

"Wow, rude much?"

"Sans, it's just a bed." Asgore sounded just the slightest bit annoyed. 

"i have standards." Sans felt just the slightest warmth at hearing his brothers excuse. 

Asgore sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time since he entered the room. Glancing up, Sans saw how discouraged he looked. Sans found it hard to remember other people had problems when he was so swamped in his own. He must have been a handful in the last timeline. 

He needed to leave. He would only cause more problems here. He stood and headed for the door without a word.

"Sans, wait." Looking at the monster that had killed you was weird. Sans had known it was hard for him, but the fact that he could get to the point where he consciously brought Sans' demise put a whole new spin on how he looked at the king. He had considered the king a friend, but now he didn't know how he felt about him. 

Asgore looked at the floor. "If you ever need to talk, you know where to find me."

It was good to see Asgore at least attempting to keep his promise this time. Sans nodded and left. 

He tried not to look at the lab as he passed. Thinking about what had happened was not something he had time for right now. He just had to get home so he wouldn't hurt anyone else.

He expected to be stopped by the flower, but when an ancient turtle called out to him, he didn't know how to react. What was the turtles name? Gerson. Yeah, that's right.

Gerson walked over, slowly. Sans knew he had been in the war with the humans, so he was incredibly old. Sans noticed the sense of humility he felt merely at the monster's presence. It threw him entirely off guard. 

"I've been lookin' for you." He had a mischievous smile. Kindhearted, unlike Flowey's, but mischievous all he same.

"yes?" Sans waited. He wanted to get home as fast as possible, but he felt like it would be rude to run off on the elder.

"I saw your fight earlier." He wore the same smile. It was the type that made Sans wonder if maybe Gerson's only objective on life was to confuse younger monsters with his smile.

What fight? Surely he couldn't mean the fight with Flowey, that had been in a different timeline. Sans tried to think of any other fight he had had in waterfall.

No. The look on Gerson's face said it all. He knew. Somehow, the elder knew what happened between Sans and Flowey in the previous timeline.

"You don't have to look so surprised!" Gerson gave a hearty 'Wa ha ha!'. "I've lived a long time, sonny; seen a lot weirder. A few extra years are welcome for an old coot like me, even if they're on repeat."

"you remember past resets?" Sans had never thought anyone else could sense what was happening. He had kept it all to himself for hundreds of timelines because he had never felt like telling anyone would accomplish anything.

"Well, 'course! I may be old, but I still got a few tricks up my sleve." He looked Sans over for a second. "Asgore's told me to lookout for people to join the Royal Guard. I think with a little training you could be what we need."

Sans was in shock. First from the fact that he wasn't the only sane one who knew of the constant abuse to the timeline. Now this turtle was telling him to be a member of the Royal Guard?

"Yes. Say yes. This could be so much fun!"

"no." Sans almost spat it at him, but the venom was meant more for Chara. "I can't even control my magic at this point. You want me guarding innocent people? Yeah right." He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to leave.

"Like I said, I can train you."

Sans paused. If he could get control of the souls, he wouldn't have to worry about resets nearly as much. "what do you know about controlling human soul power?" He couldn't help being suspicious.

"Nothin'!" He said, giving another sharp laugh. "But I know magic. I'm probably the closest thing you've got to an expert on keeping control in the heat of the moment."

Sans could imagine that was true. He had taught Undyne to keep her magic in check while sparing. Before the training, Sans had had to forbid Papyrus from getting to close to her fights.

No. No, he would probably end up killing the turtle a hundred times before they got anywhere. "i'd rather not." Sans continued his journey home.

"Thats ok, I can wait." He gave another 'Wa ha ha!' before heading back to his shop.

Chapter Text

Sans didn't see Flowey at all in Waterfall. It disturbed him. A thing like that probably held a grudge from being killed. He said nothing as he walked through the fog into Snowdin.

Chara, on the other hand, didn't stop talking. "Sans, you should have joined the Royal Guard! Imagine how fun it would be to train with the old guy. I was always a little curious to see how he fought, being the Hammer of Justice and all. I bet he would have given me a big challenge." They laughed. "I promise, if you join, I'll be good..... Till I get bored.... But seriously, you gotta let loose a little, Sans. I mean, you can literally do anything you want to, and no one will know."

"i'll know!" Sans snapped. He hadn't wanted to encourage their incessant chatter, but he was getting angry. "i'm not gonna to play your fucking game, so shut the fuck up and leave me alone!"

He was just about to open his front door when he heard, "Golly, you still have such a dirty mouth!"

Looking around, he found it unnatural to see a bright yellow flower swaying in the snow. He was so close to being done with this. All he wanted to do was go inside and fall into his bed.

"Kill it." Chara gave a little laugh.

Sans sighed. "sorry for... ya know, killing you." He looked away. As much as he hated the dumb plant, he wasn't going to let himself get away with murder.

Flowey was smiling as innocently as ever. "You really are an imbecile." It giggled. "In this world, it's kill or be killed." It's smile stretched out again, turning dastardly. "I was too slow, but I won't make that mistake again."

Sans took a step back. He didn't want to kill this thing again. Floweys smile closed up.

"I really had hopes for you, but I can't allow someone like you to make a fool out of me! I'll make sure you come to respect me, even if that means killing you over, and over, and over. " All while Flowey was talking, it was pulling more of itself out of the ground, till it towered over Sans. It's smile was a diabolic, toothy grin. Like that of a beast.

Sans attacked first this time. Several Gaster Blasters shot at Flowey, but it dodged. The magic he had now was nothing like what he had used yesterday, and he longed for that strength.

"Chara, give me some of the soul's magic." Sans ducked out of the path of several rounds of bullets.

"Nah. I think a reset is perfect, right now."

"you what?" Sans hissed. He was screwed. He couldn't beat the flower with his magic alone.

"You were gonna lock yourself in your home. I might have helped you if you had joined the Royal Guard, but..." They let their sentence trail off. As if it were Sans' fault.

He sent several attacks at Flowey. Each taking exact precision to dodge. The damn weed burrowed under them, popping up unscathed.

Sans sent another attack. Flowey dodged, but Sans was prepared with a second attack from behind. It made contact, but it had been a weak attack.

"Golly! That was dirty!" Flowey smiled. He had finally gotten close enough to form a ring completely around Sans. "DIE!" His maniacal laugh was about a thousand times worse than his normal laugh.

Sans' eye flared to life. The code never lied. Seeing the world like this calmed him. The ring of magic was getting smaller, but Sans knew he needed to focus.

It was all just a code. Everything he knew, everyone he loved. He created a shortcut and was taken to Undyne's house in an instant. It was as far as he could get in a single jump.

He dropped to the ground, completely exhausted. Papyrus was right. He was horribly out of shape. He only rested as long as it took for him to see straight again. The code messed with his perception, making it hard to walk after overdoing it. Finally, he stood and headed toward Hotland.

"So where are we going now?" Chara seemed to have a strange, childlike excitement sometimes. It threw Sans off.

"shut up, i'm mad at you." Sans shoved his hands in his pockets and continued.

"Well, maybe if you'd listen to me, I wouldn't try to kill you."

"i'm the one that absorbed the souls, i should get to use the power whenever i need it!" Sans hated the fact that he had to deal with Chara at all. Having to be on their good side to use the power he rightfully gained was rediculous.

"Well, this is how it is, so you're just gonna have to deal with it."

Sans sighed. He was done with the conversation anyways, he had arrived. He entered the shop, and tried not to glare at the keeper as he walked to the counter.

"i want your training." He focused on tracing the grain in the old wooden table. "if it's up to par, i'll join your Royal Guard."

"Humph! You kids are always the same." Gerson grumbled quietly. To Sans he added, "You'll join the Royal Guard, and then I'll teach you what I know."

Sans sighed a lot for a monster with no lungs, but easing the tightness in his ribs definitely helped him to stay calm. "fine." He conceded. "what do you want?"

"Go home." The elder snapped. "You look half dead. Come back in the morning with a few hours of sleep under your belt."

Sans had to admit he was exhausted. He could feel the effects of stretching his magic to thin. He usually slept seventeen hours a day, so all this walking was tiring him out.

He nodded, and headed for the door. Since he had entered the shop, Chara had not stopped chattering happily. They laughed, squealed, and talked since Sans had first reached the door. When he left the shop, he barely had a chance to yell at them to shut up before running into Flowey yet again.

"Golly! You can be pretty hard to find when you try!" The plant did the floral equivalent of applauding, which looked more like jazz hands to him.

Sans didn't even have time to register what had happened before several bullets found their way through his soul.

Chapter Text

"When I said come back in the morning, I meant tomorrow morning, not this morning. Wa ha ha!" Sans was peeved at Flowey forcing a reset, but Gerson's memory made Sans glad. The turtle remembered him. He wasn't alone.

"He's called the Hammer of Justice, so does he fight with a hammer? I mean... okay. Here's my theory..."

Sans wondered if Chara could talk all day. No matter how much he ignored them, they never seemed to get the hint that he didn't care. They just talked, and talked.

"Hey, no need to go zoning out on me." Gerson snapped his fingers in Sans' face. "Come on. Let's go meet the other members of the Royal Guard."

Sans followed quietly. Chara's excited chatter filled his mind, and put him in the mood to be quiet. He put his hands in his pockets and rolled his shoulders forward. The weight of depression pushed down on him hard.

He was curious to see who Gerson had chosen to be his future coworkers. Chara was listing off people they thought would be in it. Sans really couldn't see many people being capable of doing what Royal Guardsmen are responsible of doing.

When he went to the training room, all expectations flew out the window. He covered his face with his hands and groaned.

"Wa ha ha! Meet your new team!" Sans just sighed.

Standing before him were several monsters. Among whom were Heats Flamesman, Temmie, Burger Pants, and Grillby.

"Fucking Burgerpants?!?" Chara squealed with glee. "I'm so glad I died. This is the best thing ever."

Sans just looked at Gerson in disbelief. The elder turtle was having a good long laugh at his expense. "this... this is your Royal Guard?!?"

"No, sonny, I'm far too old to be captian. This is your Royal Guard! Wa ha ha!"

"what!?!" Sans mind was instantly filled with noises of joy from Chara. He flinched away, only to end up looking like an idiot.

"What, you think I'm training you so you can be just another member?" Gerson scoffed. "You're going to take Undyne's position as head of the Royal Guard."

Sans stared at him for a moment. Then he turned hopelessly towards the band of monsters. Temmie was licking a blotch of slime off the cave wall.

"YIKES! Wall slime NOT yums!" The creature was vibrating visibly. Sans wanted to die.

"Don't just stand there, go meet 'em!" Gerson pushed Sans towards the group.

"Hey, I didn't think you were joining, Sans." The bear that stood outside Grillby's walked over.

"Same to you. You don't seem into the Royal Guard." A respectable counter argument in Sans' mind.

"Well of course not." The bear laughed. "But hey, I heard people are more likely to vote in government official if he spent a term in the military." He shrugged. "That's just politics."

Yup. Sans should have really expected an answer like that. The teddy loved his politics. Last Sans had heard, he was trying to put together a committee to discuss the growing concerns about lack of support for misunderstood dogs and their love of bone shaped magical attacks. Something like that, anyways.

Sans chatted just as long as was necessary to not be rude and went to Grillby. "Why are you here? You have a bar, don't you?"

Grillby stared at him.

....

....

....

....

....

"He says the customers were all gone, so he had to close up shop." The translator duck monster chimed in.

"That's a shame. wasn't that your favorite place?"

Sans did feel a loss at the new information, but he had seen Grillby shut down lots of bar fights. He was most likely the best Guardsman in the entire outfit.

Moving on, he found Burgerpants sitting against the wall a little ways away from the rest of the group. The greasy monster was smoking a cigar, and wore an expression that matched Sans' inner emotions perfectly.

"hey." He sat against the wall next to the cat. "i'm not sure if you remember me or not. i'm Sans."

"oh, uh... hey." The monster barely muttered loud enough for Sans to hear.

Awkward silence.

Sans looked for a topic to discuss. "so... uh.. you worked for Mettaton, right?"

At the mention of the previous star of the underground, Burgerpants sat up perfectly straight. "Yeah!" The expression on his face was even more fakely happy than Flowey's had been. Sans jumped back at the sudden change. "I used to work for Mettaton!!!"

"uh... okay??"

Burgerpants' expression fell. He looked timidly to the side. "I guess I wasn't a very good employee." He raised his hands as if a tragedy had just befallen him. His face was half crazed. "I mean, he literally said so much shit about me, so I must've been awful! He made my job shit!?!" Finally he calmed down. His expression deadened and he put his cigar back into his mouth. "I came here for a better life. Honestly, I wouldn't give half a shit if I died in this god forsaken group of misfits."

Sans knew exactly how he felt. He knew Mettaton was a horrible boss, especially to Burgerpants. The poor cat had been the victim of a number of songs about how horrible he was at his job.

"I love Burgerpants" Chara laughed. "His crazy expressions are so funny."

Burgerpants had been pushed past his limit by Mettaton. The fact that Chara thought it was funny made Sans wonder how long he had till he was completely insane.

Sans stood and headed back through the crowd towards Gerson. This entire crew had depressed him beyond caring.

"So, what did you think of your team?" Gerson asked as Sans slumped down beside him. Sans just sighed. "Wa ha ha! Don't worry too much. You should have seen the previous Royal Guard at first. Just about seven dogs sniffing each others behinds if you know what I mean!"

Sans huffed. He hadn't imagined it before, but he could see that happening in retrospect. He couldn't help but wonder how many years it had taken to get them to where they had been. Even that had been pathetic, but it was much better than... whatever this was.

Gerson stood up. "Come on, son. Time to start your training."

Sans nodded. He had never been serious about training. This time would be different. He had to do this. He had to get stronger. He had failed to save over 100 monsters. He wasn't gonna let anymore fall through the cracks.

Chapter Text

Sans stared up at the two story house he had just rented. Papyrus was gonna love it. It was big, had two bedrooms, and was in a nice town away from the big city. The cold didn't bother either of them, so it seemed absolutely perfect.

He headed back towards the Waterfall. He liked the walk to the resort, and once he got there, he would have to help Papyrus pack for the move to Snowdin.

"Oh." Sans looked up and saw a massive goat monster smiling at him. "I don't think I've ever met you before."

"uh... no, i guess not. i'm Sans. Sans the skeleton." Sans held out his hand for the massive monster to shake.

"I'm Asgore." The goat smiled wider and shook Sans' hand.

Sans was sure he wouldn't remember the name. He had met so many new people the past few days, all the names and faces were merging together. He would have to work hard to remember who was who.

Papyrus was the other way. He could remember your name and face as well as just about anything important he had learned about you.

"You wouldn't happen to be the monster thaat rented the two story house on the edge of Snowdin, would you?" Asgore seemed nice. He was relaxed. Sans was used to knowing people, so when he didn't, things were awkward.

"heh. Yup. Me and my bro." He shoved his hands in his pockets to compensate for the growing awkwardness.

"Your brother? That's strange, you would think I would know about two Skeletons, but I've never even heard of you guys."

Shit. "uh.. w-we aren't... um... we haven't... yeah." Sans really had no idea how to explain where they had come from. As soon as he found out Papyrus had amnesia, he had decided to leave it as it was until he could get them home.

"Well, I rarely get to meet new people, would you like to come and have some tea?" Sans was glad the goat didn't pry, and nodded.

~

He was going to have tea with the king. The fucking king of monsters. Sans was standing outside of the palace, and Asgore had just walked straight into the building.

Taking a deep breath, Sans followed. The building was entirely different from what he had expected. It looked like an average home. Asgore was setting a tea set out at the table.

"so, uh.. your the king?" Sans hated not knowing things. He was really bad at conversation unless he knew someone at least somewhat well.

"Oh... well, yes." He headed for the kitchen. He turned just before reaching the door. "Would you like some snail pie with your tea?"

Snail pie? Gross. Sans gagged at the thought. "Nah. I don't have the stomach for it."

Asgore stared at him for a second. "Did..." Please fucking laugh. "You..." If you don't laugh, this is gonna be fuckin' awkward. "Because.. you're a skeleton..." He sighed, but there was a huge smile on his face. "I haven't heard anything that awful in a while."

Sans relaxed. Thank god Asgore had a sense of humor. "heh. yeah. I thought it was kinda humerus."

Asgore looked as if he was going to protest that one, but just as he opened his mouth, the teapot whistled, and he was obligated to go to the kitchen.

In the few seconds of peace, Sans tried to calm his nerves. Flaring his magic slightly, he looked across the room at the code. The code never lied, and seeing that there was nothing concerning made Sans relax.

Asgore came back, and Sans and he talked for a long time. He seemed to like Sans' sense of humor. Sans found himself enjoying the time he was spending with the king.

"So how old are you?" Asgore poured Sans some more tea.

"i just turned 18. my bro, Papyrus, is 15, so i guess i'm a little worried about taking care of him on my own." He laughed nervously. He didn't even have a job. "he can be a handful."

"Well, if you need a job, you can always look into joining the Royal Guard. I saw you using your magic earlier." He looked curious.

"uh.. yeah that's just something i do." Sans pointed at his left eye and let it flair with magic. "i can see absolute truth like this, so i use it sometimes when i'm in a new area."

"Absolute truth..." Asgore muttered. "What does that mean."

Sans thought for a second. How would he explain the code he saw? What did he even know about it?

It was white. All white code in a black background. He could distinguish items by their shape, and the code told him exactly what it was. With people, it was the same. He could see everything about them. Their stats, equipment, LV...

The code never lies.

"exactly what i said." He shrugged. "i can see the truth."

"Really? And what truth is that?" Asgore looked entirely intrigued. He was leaning against the table on his elbows.

"Your LV is somewhere between 5 and 10. Your Attack and Defense are both at 30, and you have a magic trident and use fire magic. The house is absolutely average, with hints of disuse in areas. Especially the first two rooms in your hall. Your basement leads off way away from the house."

Sans continued. He was proud of his magic. "i can shortcut with it, too. make the seam between rooms lead to a different seams instead of straight through."

"Seams?" Sans forgot most people didn't know about them. If you couldn't see the truth, it looked as if all the rooms seamlessly crossed into each other. Sans could see them, though. The code showed him where they were.

"i'll show you." Sans stood and headed toward the hall. "this is one of the two doors to the living room. that is the other." He pointed at the kitchen. "i can, using my magic, walk through this door and come out that one."

He turned from Asgore and looked at the code. Using his magic, he altered the programming between the end point of the small portal, changing where it sent him to the other door. Then he stepped through, coming out behind the king.

Asgore whipped around. "I..." He just stared at him for a moment as if deciding what to do with this information. "I change my mind. Don't bother with the Royal Guard. I have a better job offer for you."

Sans stood up straighter. "and what's that?"

Asgore smiled. "I'll set it up with Undyne and make sure she lets you in."

"wait, what is it you're expecting me to do?" Asgore was excited. Sans was glad for a job opportunity, if he thought it would work, he would totally take it. No need to go out searching when a job was falling right into his lap, right?

"I want you to be my judge."

Chapter Text

Sans woke up and stared at the crack in the ceiling. Gerson had killed him during training. Why? He hadn't even explained it. He had just told Sans to try and stay alive, and then attacked him. Sans hadn't even had the chance to attack once.

"How rude. He just up and killed you!" Chara was mocking him. He rolled out of bed and headed for the door. He had to ask Gerson why.

"Oh. I'm sorry, Sans. I didn't know you were up." Asgore was in the hallway.

"yeah. i gotta head out. Gerson is waiting." Sans pushed his hands into his pockets and looked away. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that Asgore had killed him. Asgore had judged him. It made him uncomfortable.

"Gerson? You're... you're joining the Royal Guard?"

Sans frowned at the wall. "yeah." Oops. He hadn't meant to tell Asgore that. Hopefully this wouldn't mess with his training too much for this timeline.

"Well, then you should go and meet with him." Asgore stood a little straighter. Sans nodded and left.

~

Asgore gave a sigh as soon as Sans closed the door. It looks as if he had been worried for nothing. Sans was working again. He had even joined the Royal Guard.

He called Alphys. "Yes, hello, Dr. Alphys. I just wanted to tell you, Sans is joining the Royal Guard, now."

"What? R-really??" There was shuffling on the other end of the phone. "Th-that's great! He must be moving on."

Asgore sighed. "That seems unlikely. Not from how he was yesterday." Sans had seemed like a different person this morning. Not entirely, but enough to notice.

"What do you think he's working for?" Alphys broke the silence Asgore hadn't even noticed.

"I'm not sure." Asgore could definitely tell the skeleton had a goal, and that was something he hadn't seen in a while. He wanted to know what his motivation was, but his promise to stay out of it made him steer clear.

He regretted his decision. Even now he had a knot in his stomach about Sans' change. He really didn't know what human souls did to a monster, but he was sure that was what had killed his son.

He had no proof for this, just a gut feeling. Absorbing the soul of something as powerful as a human seemed almost unnatural. Like it was something that never should have been thought up. Asgore felt like only disaster could follow.

"I'll keep an eye out for him. If he passes my lab, I'll talk to him." Asgore kept forgetting he was on the phone. Alphys was so quiet.

"Tell me what you find." Asgore thanked her and hung up. This still felt like a break in his promise, but he wanted to know everything would be okay.

~

Sans jumped when Alphys called out to him. He was surprised by how new everything was becoming. Wasn't the whole thing with resets the fact that most things were the same?

"Hey, uh.. h-hows it going, Sans?" She apparently had no plan for this conversation. Sans wondered what her goal was. She wasn't really one to make small talk.

"Alphys is my favorite. I never got a chance to kill her." Chara sighed as well as a voice without a body could. "I bet she's got great dialogue."

Sans flinched. Just how detached was Chara? They seemed normal most of the time, but then they would say something really dark like this and he would be reminded of what they had done.

He hadn't even realized he had forgotten they were the one to kill everyone. He had gotten used to the constant rambling in his head. He didn't really think about who's voice it was, it was just a voice.

He was definitely learning more about the killer. He knew already they were fucked up. He knew they got excited when there was something new. They had so much energy, too. Constantly talking, but they were smart, too. They could keep secrets.

"Sans?" He had forgotten about Alphys. She looked worried. Shit.

"sorry, i zoned out. what'd you say?" Sans scowled at the cave wall. He hated how much Chara distracted him. He would have scowled at them if he could have.

Alphys searched his face. "Are you okay?"

Sans frowned at her. "Al, i really don't have time for a long talk about my sorrows." He shoved his hands in his pockets, and turned to go to Gerson's cave.

"You don't have to run." Alphys broke in. "I know you're strong enough to make it." Sans turned to see Alphys was staring at the floor. She didn't seem to know what she was saying, but she was convinced she needed to say it. "Y-you can make Papyrus proud."

It would have hurt enough just to say that. The fact that she had looked him in the eye like that made it a critical hit. He immediately got choked up. The only thing he could think of was the fact that he had killed her not two days ago. What about that could Papyrus be proud of?

Sans didn't even attempt talking. He just nodded and left. If he had tried to talk, he was sure he would have cried.

"Awe, come on, Sans. You're not still sad about Papyrus, are you?"

"fuck you." His voice cracked. He put up his hood and cried.

How could they think he was over his brother's death? It hadn't even been a month in his recollection.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help."

Sans forced himself to keep going. The sooner he got to training, the sooner he could go home. He still had to know why Gerson killed him.

"Would you feel better if I apologized?"

Sans froze in front of Gerson's shop. His hands balled up into fists, he turned around and walked further towards Snowdin.

"Sans, I said I would apologize. Why are you walking away?" Chara had the edge of agitation in their voice.

"i don't want your fucking apology. you don't feel bad for it, you thought it was hilarious! so, ya know what, fuck you. fucking die, okay? i hate you! you're annoying, you're bossy, you talk all the fucking time, i'm fucking done. leave me the fuck alone."

Sans sat against the side of the cave and cried. He was too tired to go any further. Chara had the sense to keep quiet; he was grateful for the silence.

Chapter Text

"Sans! If you don't hurry, we won't get good seats!" Papyrus yelled as he ran a little ways ahead before running back to sans' side. Sans chuckled. "You're not moving any faster!" The excited teen pulled Sans' arm out of his pocket and tried dragging him.

"what's the hurry?" Sans asked, allowing himself to be dragged along at a slightly faster pace then he had previously set for himself.

"Undyne is fighting the king again!" Papyrus beamed. Sans had joined Papyrus several times in watching Asgore and Undyne fight. Undyne always lost, even though the king refused to attack her. It wasn't all that exciting, but Papyrus could never get enough.

"it's not like there's gonna be a bunch of people there." Sans argued. Papyrus was basically carrying him at this point. "in fact, i doubt anyone besides us will be there." There wasn't much to do in the underground, but by now, even the fights between Asgore and Undyne were old news, and the one sided battles had gotten boring fast.

"I would bet that there will be others there!" Papyrus had stopped. He let go of Sans and crossed his arms. "In fact, I'll bet on lunch that there will be people besides Asgore, me, you, and Undyne there."

Now this was interesting. Papyrus rarely placed bets on anything. Sans had already planned on going to Grillby's for lunch, and that would mean complaints from Papyrus. The cocky grin on his brothers face made Sans' own grow wider.

"really, now?" Sans was easily willing to take that bet. Even if it was just for the fun of watching how annoyed his brother would get at being wrong. "alright. if there's more than four people there, you get to decide what's for lunch. if not, were going to Grillby's."

Papyrus made a face at the mention of his brothers favorite bar. It was no secret the younger brother hated the place. Sans didn't think there was really anything wrong with the place, but Papyrus had set his mind against it for some reason.

"Fine! If I win, you get to have my famous home cooked spaghetti!" He laughed triumphantly, as if he had already won the wager.

Sans was utterly shocked when he saw an ancient turtle sitting next to Undyne's things. Papyrus just gave a good hearted smile. Looks like pasta for lunch.

The fight wasn't even all that great. Sans was more interested in watching how funny Papyrus was when he squirmed with excitement.

The 15 year old was practically beaming. He seemed torn between staying next to his older brother, and running to sit closer to the fight.

Sans watched him sleepily. Despite how boring this all was, he was just happy hanging out with his brother. He rested his head against the cave of the wall he had been leaning against.

Maybe this place wasn't so bad. Of all the places he could have been sent, this was nowhere near the worst. He could enjoy the break. He never really had the chance to relax back home.

~

"SANS! You missed it!" Sans snapped awake. Where was he? He looked around. Oh yeah. The spar.

"what happened?" He yawned.

Papyrus looked perturbed. "Undyne lost." He crossed his arms.

"really? wow. what an unusual turn of events." Sans leaned his head back again. He was still drowsy, and the wall was actually really comfortable right here.

"Sans, you didn't even watch!" The teen shook his brother again. Sans sighed. Looks like no more sleep for him. "Asgore got hit to the ground, and Undyne felt really bad."

That was new. The fish was getting tougher. "is the king okay?" Sans looked around, but the only one still left besides them was the ancient turtle that had cost him a good lunch.

"He was really proud of her! It was amazing!" If Papyrus had eyes, they would be sparkling. "Sans, do you think I could be that tough someday?"

Sans laughed. "what, are you kidding? you could easily be ten times better than that." Sans made sure to always encourage his little brother. He knew the feeling of being inadequate, and he never wanted that for his brother.

Papyrus gave a gleeful laugh. "Come on, brother! Let's get lunch!"

~

Sans stared at the spaghetti in front of him. Half the noodles had been cooked to the point that they were falling apart, the other half were still raw and stiff.

The pasta sauce was no better. Somehow, Papyrus had managed to crystallize the tomato. The way it clung to the noodles looked more like the crystals on the cave wall than any form of food.

Sans sighed ans took the fork Papyrus was offering to him. He could be eating a perfectly greasy burger from Grillby's right now.

"so, how did you know Gerson was gonna be there?" He asked as he picked at the food.

Papyrus swallowed down a bite of the toxic pasta before he spoke. "I had to pick up some supplies at his shop, 'cuz the store in town was low on tools. He's the one that told me they were fighting today."

"hey, that's cheating!" Sans overemphasized his discontent. He pointed his fork accusingly at Papyrus. "you rigged it."

"I wouldn't! Never!" Papyrus's indignance was equally as extreme, but Sans was almost positive it was real. "I... er.. I merely knew more than you." He crossed his arms again.

"yeah, that's a first." Sans teased.

Sans always cracked up when Papyrus got that disapproving look. He acted almost like a mother to Sans, and the older skeleton thought it was hilarious. Maybe he needed some mothering. He wasn't sure, but he didn't mind.

"okay, okay. i was kidding, jeez." Sans put his fork down. He hoped Papyrus hadn't noticed he wasn't even pretending he was gonna eat what was before him.

Papyrus seemed to annoyed to care. Sans took this as a win. Papyrus finished his meal and headed up to his room. Probably to get on the Undernet. He was really into it right now, but Sans wasn't sure he would be able to stay cooped up in his room like he was for very long. Sans was glad to have a few hours to himself at least.

Chapter Text

Whenever Sans had passed out, it didn't matter. He woke up sore and tired. He always had to fall asleep in the weirdest places. He missed his bed. As lumpy as it was, it was his. 

Sitting up, he sighed. Chara wasn't talking, thank god. He took the few moments of peace and cherished them. They were interrupted all too soon by an annoying flower popping up.

"So! Joining the Royal Guard, huh?" Looks like the glare Sans was giving him was just not enough of a signal for the weed. "You really have changed in this time of adversary!" 

"Flowey, go jump into the CORE or something, okay?" Sans wasn't being bothered by Chara for the first time in how ever long, and of course Flowey had to show up. Sans stood up. "Anyways, don't fight me this time, I'm not in the mood." He wondered if the plant would obey or not. He figured at this point it didn't matter much, so he just turned his back on the foe and headed for Gerson's shop. Flowey didn't stop him.

Gerson was waiting outside. "Heh! And here I thought you weren't coming!" He looked glad to see Sans. Sans just frowned at the old turtle. "Well, let's get started, the day's wasting away."

Sans didn't move. "Why did you kill me?" He finally asked.

Gerson didn't even flinch. "You think I'm gonna waste my time keeping your one HP in place? You got a nifty power, bein' able to come back after dying. I plan on using it to it's fullest."

Sans couldn't believe what he was hearing. Gerson was going to train him through the time skips. Gerson didn't see them as a curse at all. Sans immediately realized he saw the reset power as an opportunity to train with someone who would otherwise die with his training. 

"Don't think you can turn out like that human, though." Gerson warned. "I may be old, but I'm not an idiot. Long lives are bad enough, unlimited lives give way for temptation."

Sans nodded. He knew he couldn't trust his own judgment. He couldn't trust Chara's judgement. Gerson was all that was left.

"Now. Hit me with everything you can muster." Gerson ordered.

Sans really didn't want to. He had no reason. Well, he did. For training, but he always had this problem when it came to training. The person who trained him was always a friend, and throwing an attack at a friend was wrong, right?

"Too late." Gerson summoned a magic war hammer and attacked. 

~

"Hit me." Gerson ordered yet again. Sans had died probably ten times like this. He was getting nowhere.

Gritting his teeth, Sans prepared an easy attack and aimed it at Gerson. Gerson didn't dodge, he took his own magic and hammered the attack back at Sans. Jumping out of the way, Sans sent a more complex attack. Gerson shattered the bones in his way, and rushed at Sans.

Several more resets passed before Sans could dodge the attack. By then, he was completely set on defeating Gerson. Calling several blasters, he surrounded Gerson. He knew Gerson couldn't destroy this attack as easily. The pure energy blasted at the turtle, threatening to dust him. Gerson used the long shaft from his own weapon to jump the attack. He was just above Sans, now. In the perfect place to pound Sans into the dirt.

~

Sans woke up once again. Sitting up in bed, he sighed. He hadn't heard from Chara in how long? He knew he couldn't use the soul's extra power without them, but since he had started training, he hadn't heard a word from them.

He tried to think of how to get them back as he bumped into Asgore. He had memorized the easiest conversational path to make Asgore leave him alone. It tumbled out of his mouth without much thought.

He walked through the crowds in silence. He was used to their open curiosity by now. All it meant was that they didn't know about the resets.

Maybe he should try Alphys' lab. She might be able to get Chara to talk again. Sans had never realized how quiet Hotland was. The sound of steam vents were all he heard.

Real conversation was rare now. Gerson was nice enough, but he wouldn't talk more than a few minutes before he pulled Sans back into training. Everyone else was boring to talk to. Sans could mostly predict what they would say. Chara was gone, and damn that flower. Sans was alone.

Walking through waterfall, he decided to try and start up a conversation with them. "uh.. Chara?"

"But nobody came."

Sans jumped. Their voice was flat. "so you are still there." No reply. "you seem really quiet."

Sans stopped walking. He waited for a response. "Isn't that what you wanted?" Chara spat the words out after a few minutes of pure silence. "I wouldn't want to annoy you by talking to much."

Was Chara pouting? Sans could hardly believe something like that. "so you disappear for..." How many timelines had passed? He had started counting the times Gerson had killed him, but he had lost count at sixty-seven.

"I was mad!" Chara whined.

They were pouting. Sans laughed. He laughed a lot. He laughed harder than he had in god knows how long.

"I'm glad you think it's so funny, Sans!"

Sans was under no obligation to see to how much he hurt Chara's feelings. "i can't believe you fucking shut your mouth for that long because you were pouting. here i thought i was finally free from you for good."

"You know what, fuck you! Keep laughing! See if I let you have soul power ever again!"

Sans calmed himself down to grinning like an idiot. He was close to Gerson's shop, so he should make up with Chara or something. "you can't really blame me for not caring a whole lot what happens to you." He shrugged. "i mean, this is what you get when you murder innocent people."

That thought put him immediately back into a sour mood. The good mood was okay while it lasted, but Sans should have known it was destined to be short lived.

"I still have feelings!"

"pardon me for not caring then." Sans scoffed. "anyways, i need the souls."

"No." Sans had been afraid of that.  "You think I'm just gonna be all buddy buddy with you? Ha! Get real!"

"i don't care if you're buddy buddy or not! give me my power when i want it, or im going back to my first plan of never leaving the fucking house!"

Chara was silent for a good five minutes. "On one condition. I'll give you the power on your command, but only if you use your cool eye magic every time you fight Gerson."

That would kill him. He mostly used the code magic for short periods of time. Too long using it gave him a huge migraine and messed with his vision. Thinking back, he realized he barely made it a minute into training, so maybe using the code would be bearable. Besides, it seemed the only way to get anything from Chara was to see to their boredom. He would have to keep that in mind for later, and make sure he used what little means of entertainment he had to the best extent.

"deal." Sans wasn't sure how well it would work, but he could at least try, right?

Less than half an hour later, he realized this was the first timeline he had smiled in since absorbing the souls. 

Chapter Text

The ceiling was permanently ingrained in Sans' mind at this point. He had woken up to it innumerable times by now. He sat up and looked around the room.

"You're in a rut." Chara knew all about it. He could recall all the times they had simply walked out of the Last Corridor to take a break. "You should take a vacation for today."

Sans had to admit a break sounded great. Between all the deaths and his constant use of his eye magic, he was getting sick of the repetition. Even a battle with Flowey was preferable over the sparing right now.

"yeah. i think i wanna go home today." He missed his home so much. It seemed as if every time he died, he thought about it more and more.

"You'll come back though, right?" They sounded worried.

Sans thought for a while. "yeah." Even if he didn't want to, Gerson was waiting for him, and the rest of the Royal Guard needed a leader.

He still wasn't sure about being leader, but he had accepted the position. Gerson was trustworthy, and if he thought Sans was the monster for the job, Sans had decided he would do his best not to let his mentor down.

Asgore walked in and slumped into the bed. It was funny, Sans usually didn't let him get this far. Asgore immediately looked curious about Sans' expression. That was normal.

Sans knew he was very different from what he had been when he started the loop. Maybe it was time, or something more basic. The point was, he had changed.

"so how's the king?" Sans tried to break the silence.

"The kingdom is falling to peices." Asgore sighed. "And at it's head, I'll be the first to go."

"you'll find a way to survive." Asgore looked even more surprised. Sans was somewhat surprised at himself. "you're a good king. people might be stressed, but i know they'll follow you."

"Uh.. Y-yeah.." Asgore muttered. He sat with a gaping mouth.

"besides, i'll be right beside you when we leave the Underground." Sans assured. He gave a small smile to assure Asgore.

"Sans, what's wrong with you?" Asgore finally pointed it out.

Sans just looked at his blankets and sighed. "i'm not sure."

Asgore searched Sans for something. Sans could feel the goats eyes bore into him more and more. "Okay. If you need anything, just ask, okay?"

Sans nodded. He had hoped to stay in bed for a while longer, but he felt he should leave before Asgore asked more questions.

He stopped in Hotland to relax. He had nowhere to go, so he figured it would be nice to visit his old stations. This was where he had put twenty-nine hot dogs on Frisk's head all those timelines ago.

He sat behind the counter. "hey, Frisk is in me too, right?" Sans asked as he looked at his old stores of condiments.

"Well, yeah, they're here." Chara seemed surprised at the question. "The other six souls are, too."

"can I talk to Frisk?" Sans hadn't thought about it. He had basically blew Frisk off after all she had done in this. He missed her, though.

Chara snirked. "I suppose I can let you hear them."

Sans immediately regretted it. "Help me!" "Save us!" "I'm sorry!" "Don't trust Chara!" "Don't use us!" "It hurts!" "Stop Chara!"

Every voice crashed together in his head like a cacophony of distress. It overwhelmed him. He immediately put his hands up to his ears despite not having any. It wouldn't help against an assult from the inside like this, anyways.

"Chara! s-stop!" Sans yelled through the voices. He was on his knees on the ground, holding his head. The voices had been so loud.

Chara was all that was left. Laughing, they said, "Hey, you asked for it."

Sans stood up a little wobbly and sat back in his stool inside the station. "i wanted to talk to Frisk. only Frisk."

"Oh! Well yeah, that's easy!" Chara pipped.

"S-sans?" Sans stood up when he heard the same voice use a softer tone. The two sounded almost identical.

"Frisk." He looked for words to say. He realized he didn't know how he felt about Frisk. It had been so long, and they had done so many bad things. What was he trying to say to them now?

"Sans, I... I'm s-so sorry." Frisk stuttered ever so slightly. "This is a-all my fault, I'm sorry."

Sans suddenly felt very mad at them. Mad and betrayed. They had killed Papyrus. They had been the one in control at the beginning of the last run. They had promised him they would let the last run be happy, but now it was
a mess.

"how are you doing, Frisk?" He felt sour about his anger, but it was bugging him a lot. He felt he should make small talk, but in reality he hated Frisk for their part in this.

"As well as I deserve." They answered after a long pause. "I'm sorry about Papyrus."

"really?" His voice dripped with sarcastic rage. He forgot who they were. To him, they were just a dirty brother killer. "so you don't feel bad when you're the one killing him, but now that someone else is involved, you feel the need to apologize?"

There was silence for a long time. "Yes. I'm so sorry. I... I never meant for this to happen."

But it had happened. He was stuck in this world without his brother. The only monster he had ever wanted to protect was gone. Why had he thought talking to Frisk had been a good idea?

"Sans, I know you hate me, but please listen." He leaned back in his stool, still trying to get over the betrayal. "Chara is not your frie...."

"I think that's enough of a chat for now." Chara interrupted. "If you wanna talk more, it'll cost you."

Sans didn't like how quickly Chara had cut Frisk off. 'Chara is not your friend.' Why would Frisk wanna tell him something he already knew? He hated Chara.

Whatever. It didn't matter. He had one goal today, and that was to finally make it to his home. He could go as slowly as he wanted. After all, he was taking a break, right? He decided to forget about Frisk and move on.

Chapter Text

Gerson was fine with a day off. He encouraged it, in fact. Sans was basically pushed out of the shop when he tried to explain more.

Walking through waterfall, he relaxed even more. The soft sound of the rain was calming. The music box wasn't playing, Chara knew the song by memory. Sans didn't mind, though. It was nice to have the quiet.

Well, mostly quiet. Chara still talked a lot. They asked a lot of questions, then told what they imagined to be true about the subject. Sans had given up trying to be a part of their conversations. He just listened. Some of their thoughts were pretty off the wall.

Sans listened to the constant jabber of opinions and reasons as he walked. He paused when he got the the room with the bridge flowers. Monster Kid was at the bench.

Sans headed for the hidden room. He hadn't talked to the poor kid since the first timeline. Just like last time, the child was staring at the water with his shoulders down.

"well, i feel robbed now." Sans repeated his previous words. This time with a slight smile. Monster Kid jumped a little.

"Oh, um.. sorry." He gave his fake smile.

"it's cool." Sans sat without asking. "what brings you to the best napping spot in the whole Underground?"

Monster Kid looked at the water. "I was just taking a break." He was trying very hard to hide his pain, but he was very bad at it.

"He's really bad at this." Chara laughed. Sans was ticked off at their attitude. They had tried to kill the kid, and now he was tormented by it, and they laughed.

Sans forced himself to stay calm. Yelling at Chara was not his priority. He sighed and set his head back against the bench, sliding down to a slouch.

"you look like you got some serious shit on your mind." Monster Kid flinched. It took Sans a second to realize he had said shit in front of a child. "uh, sorry. i meant you look kinda sad."

The kid tried a bigger smile. "I'm fine."

"liar." Sans called the kid out bluntly. "it's been less than a week since the human came through. no one's really fine." He quickly added to throw off any suspicion the kid might have had.

The child frowned. "You seem to be doing fine." He sounded almost spiteful.

Sans wondered at that. He hadn't realized it till now, but he really wasn't doing as bad as the others. He had had time, that was for sure, but he felt like it was more. Every time he woke up, he went straight to training. No matter how many times he died, he was always going back. He was determined.

That thought sent a shiver down Sans' spine. He had known he was determined to live, that was the reason he couldn't die. The fact he had found something else to be determined about disturbed him.

Yet he felt better than he had at the beginning. He had started to accept the way things were. He knew it wouldn't be long before he got better than Gerson and things got boring, but for now he was okay.

He wondered if he could find save points like Chara and Frisk had. That would help him wih the dullness of resets. Maybe he could get one after he became head of the Royal Guard. He might even make it to the surface. It was still a long way off, but with all the time he had, he could pace himself. He had to train the other members of the Royal Guard before he could get that far.

"Whatever." The kid sighed. "I'm glad you're doing okay at least."

Sans had forgotten he was in a conversation. "you, uh..." How could he do this? "you were that kid who kept sneaking here to see Undyne, weren't you?"

No answer. Sans looked over to see the kid looked ready to break down. He wanted to help the poor guy, but he had only done this once before, and it had been completely different.

"uh, s-sorry. i just, um.." He paused to think of what to say.

"It's fine." Monster Kid interrupted. "It's... whatever."

This was a lot harder than last time. Maybe he should just give up. He knew what it was like to have someone try to pry into his feelings.

"so, uh... i'm taking over as the new captain of the Royal Guard soon." Sans said. The kid just shrugged. Sans continued. "i'm kinda freaking out about it. i mean, i'm gonna be responsible for all those people." He gave a curt laugh. "i couldn't even take care of myself without Papyrus. i mean, he was always making sure the house was clean, and there was food for both of us, and he would get me up in time for work...."

Sans hadn't even realized he felt this way till he started talking. Now he couldn't seem to stop. "Papyrus was everything. he was my whole fucking existence. i went to work so he could have a house. i ate so he could relax. i smiled so he wouldn't worry. now he's gone, what the fuck am i even doing? im fulfilling his dream in his place."

Monster Kid was looking at him again. Sans stared at the water. "i couldn't protect the most important person in the world, and now they want me in charge of protecting everyone? how does that make sense? it was a complete fluke that i even killed Chara at all, i mean..." He trailed off.

He hadn't told anyone he had been the one to kill Chara. Asgore had been the one everyone just assumed had killed her. Sans had been fine with that. He didn't really want people to know. Honestly, he would rather not be thought of as a hero.

"You killed the human?" The kid whispered.

"well, uh.. yeah. i did." Sans looked at everything except the kid.

"But they said it was the king that killed them."

Sans snirked. "you believe everything you hear?" The kid gave him a blank look. "i wanted to forget it. not get applauded for it." Sans explained. "besides, the king needs to be seen as strong. especially right now."

That seemed to be enough of an explanation. The child looked at his knees. "So, you fought them, and won?" Sans nodded. Monster Kid was quiet for a really long time. Sans let him have his peace.

"Telling some twerp your sob story life now? You really have gotten low." Chara laughed.

The mocking and laughing was really getting annoying. It was like Chara had two modes. Pure curiosity or sadistic humor. He didn't mind the first so much, but the second was absolute hell for him.

"I... uh, I was there at the beginning of Undyne's fight with the human." Monster Kid finally spoke up. "It was crazy. It was like they knew exactly what attacks she was gonna use before she used them."

"yeah." Sans knew the exact reason for that. Explaining it would be pointless, seeing how the kid wouldn't remember past this timeline anyway. "i had the same problem at first."

"How did you manage to get past it?" He asked, wide eyed.

Sans shrugged. "i didn't. i told you it was a fluke. all i did was dodge 'till she gave up."

"Undyne didn't dodge at all. She just took all the attacks. Hit after hit."

"She was still a hell of a fight."

"Undyne was really strong." Sans smiled. "Always going on about the power of the people's dream."

Undyne was a meat head, but she had the purest motivation. She desperately wanted everyone to be safe and happy. Sans might not have seen eye to eye on her methods, but she was definitely respectable.

"Undyne was my role model. All the way to the end. The way she sacrificed herself to save me...." He sighed. "One day I'm gonna be as great as her."

Sans nodded. "when you get older, if you're interested, i want you as a guardsman."

Monster Kid looked shocked. "Really?"

"well duh. like it or not, you and i are the only two who survived Chara. no one else really gets it, do they?" The kid shook his head. "exactly, so we gotta stick together."

Finally, a small smile crossed Monster Kid's face. "Y-yeah."

"Can you stop being so corny and go home already?" Chara shattered the moment. Sans sighed as the last pieces fell away, leaving him with the feeling he had just watched one of Mettaton's drama shows.

"anyways, i should head out." Sans stood. "thanks for the chat."

"Hey, I don't know your name!" The kid jumped off the bench.

How could Sans forget that? "i'm Sans. Sans the skeleton." He smiled again.

"I think your gonna be a good replacement for Undyne." Monster Kid looked more like himself. "I should get home. Bye!" He ran past Sans. He almost tripped, but he managed to catch himself at the last second.

Chapter Text

Papyrus was going to flip out. Sans watched as the small human shoved their head in a bush. They looked confused by the camera, but left it alone and moved on.

Sans was wary of it. He hated new things. The only reason he was still hidden and hadn't gone to warn Papyrus was the promise he had made. He stayed hidden. Using his magic, he read their code.

Name: Quack
Weapon: Toy Knife
Armor: Ribbon
LV: 1
Kills: 0

Sans relaxed a little. They were peaceful. He followed silently. Quack looked scared, so being the nicest monster in the Underground, Sans decided to prank them.

The child climbed over a stick in the path. Sans sent a small attack to break it in half. The kid tensed, but walked on. Sans sneaked into the shadows of two trees and made the snow crunch before hiding again. The kid was Determined to continue.

Finally, they got to Papyrus's gate. Sans saw them pause. He wasn't sure if it was the size of the bars, or the four hundred foot drop that made them pause. Either way, he stepped out of his hiding place, and made as much noise coming towards them as he could. He stuck to the shadows, but they hadn't turned around anyway.

"human." He spoke quietly and slowly. The child was shivering. "don't you know how to greet a new pal? turn around and shake my hand."

The child turned slowly. Sans saw the tears in their eyes and immediately felt bad. His hand was already extended. Looks like he had to go through with it.

The child looked prepared to die as they reached a shaking hand out to shake his. He felt bad, but the look of pure surprise when he squeezed their hand against the whoopie cushion was still slightly enjoyable.

He laughed a little awkwardly. "the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick. it's always funny."

The kid's fear melted away immediately. Replaced by fascination. Sans relaxed more, too. He had never gotten this far before the world skipped back, so maybe he would never have to go back to day one again. The thought made him giggly and light.

Papyrus came to yell at him for not doing his job, but he took it all in stride, countering with jokes to entertain himself and the human who was hiding behind a lamp. Finally, Papyrus left in frustration.

The human wandered around the room in no real hurry. They made a funny face at the condiments in his station, then headed to the next room. Sans asked them for a favor first, then headed off. Papyrus was gonna have a hayday.

He stopped his brother a few rooms down, and held a conversation so Papyrus and Quack could meet. To most standards, the meeting was rediculous. To Papyrus's standards, it was pretty good. Sans hadn't felt this excited in a long time.

Papyrus had some cool puzzles, but his own error of judgment made it easy for the human to figure them out.

The child never went very fast. They looked at everything with interest. Rereading signs, poking their head through the branches of trees to find more cameras, exploring every path, and turning back if they accidentally went the correct way without looking down a separate path. They talked to every monster, in every room. They were attacked, but always spared.

Sans found himself watching them more and more. He wanted to spend time with them. The innocent curiosity pushed him to invite them to spend break with him not once, but twice.

He waited for them in the last corridor. As they walked to meet him, he used his magic to reread their stats.

Name: Quack
Weapon: Real Knife
Armor: Heart Locket
LV: 1
Kills: 0

He smiled wider. The kid had done it. They had survived the world without killing anyone. They were friends with Undyne, Alphys, and Papyrus, discovered the True Lab, had managed to scrounge enough money together to send Temmie to college, and had performed beautifully on tv with Mettaton.

Quack had passed perfectly. Sans knew they had a hard choice ahead, but for once, he had hope. He watched them head to the throne room and waited for them to make their decision.

Sans stared at the setting sun beside his brother. His hope had been fulfilled. He had made it past the timelines and was finally on the surface. He listened as the others around him made plans for the future. The future. One he could finally believe in!

Sans had forgotten what happiness felt like, but here and now, he felt the purest form of it. Standing next to his brother, planning a future of peace with the humans, knowing the timeskips were gone. He let tears of joy fall openly from his face. He was free to live again.

~

Sans' heart dropped when he watched the child walk right past the bush with the camera in it. He had been wrong. He wasn't free from the curse, he just had a new day one.

His hope shattered. He had seen everything he wanted come true, just to be thrown back into this hell. Nothing was going to ever get better. He would be doomed to watch this human give him freedom over and over, just for them to snatch it away.

What had he done to deserve this? Why was he the only one who knew of this? He wanted to die. That was all he wanted. If he died, he would be free for a while, until the human turned back time.

Papyrus would be sad, though. Sans immediately pushed the thought out of his head. He would never hurt Papyrus. Even if it was something his brother wouldn't remember, Sans refused to allow it.

He used his magic. All the stats were the same as last time, at least. He sighed. As was habit, he set about doing the same exact thing he had done last time. Soon it would be routine, and he wouldn't even need to think about it after that.

~

Sans felt chills down his spine. This child wasn't the same one. Looking at them through the code, he noticed several things.

No matter how many runs they had made, Sans had never seen red in any code. The red he saw in theirs made his soul quiver. The code never lied, and this was something new and terrifying.

Their LV was remarkably high. There was no way they would just happen to find that many monsters on one pass unless they were looking for them.

And the name. Chara. Sans knew Chara had been the king's adopted human child. Sans knew Frisk looked just like Chara. Frisk knew all this, too. Why would she choose to call herself by that name? And why was that name one of the things written in red only in this timeline?

Sans knew what Frisk had been doing the last few timelines. They had killed a lot of people. Sans had a horrible feeling this time. Hopefully, the kid wouldn't make him break his promise.

Chapter Text

Flowey popped up a little while after Sans left the room with the bench. Sans figured it wouldn't be long. The flower had confronted him a few times on the way to training, the last few ending badly for it. Whatever it's plan was, Sans wasn't interested.

"Howdy!" Flowey chimed as soon as Sans acknowledged it. "You've been cheerful today, huh?" Sans glared at it. He wasn't in the mood for the whole song and dance. Flowey noticed and frowned. "Really, Sans. I've never seen anyone so stubborn to hold a grudge."

Flowey had made him reset more times than he cared to forgive. He was stronger than the flower, now. That's the only reason Flowey was trying to get on his good side. Sans refused to be fooled.
Flowey caught on to Sans' silence. "Fine. Don't expect me to help you out when things fall apart." It burrowed into the ground.

"what's up with the flower, anyways?" Sans asked Chara as he walked on.

"Who's Gaster?" As normal, information wasn't free.

That question, however, was off limits. Sans had told Chara that several weeks ago. They bugged him about it all the time, but he was sure he would need to save it for a bigger favor.

"not gonna happen, Chara." He shook his head. "learning about a shitty flower isn't worth Gaster, and you know it. stop trying to cheat me."

"Come on. I'm dying of curiosity." They whined.

"really?" Sans pretended excitement. "wowie!" He smiled at the word. It was so dorky, and he loved the memories of Papyrus it brought up.

"Ok, fine. Then what's up with the lab behind your house?"

Sans thought for a second. "what do you mean?" The question had a lot of different answers.

"What's with it? What's the machine? Is it your lab?"

"well duh it's mine. why would i have the key if it was Papyrus's?" Sans scoffed.

"Why does a sentry need a lab?"

Sans kicked a rock into the water. "i wasn't always a sentry. i was a scientist before i moved to the Underground."

"Wait, what?" Chara sounded more excited. "You switched jobs? Why? I didn't know you were a scientist! I mean, it makes sense in retrospect, but...." Sans waited while they paused for a good thirty seconds. "Wait. You moved to the Underground? Meaning you weren't born in the Underground? What?"

Sans hadn't meant to say anything about that. It had slipped. Listening to the desperate curiosity Chara's voice laced with was satisfying, though.

"i answered your question. answer mine." Sans knew this would pick at their mind forever. The thought brought a playful smile to his face.

"No fair! You can't just say something like that and not expect me to be curious!"

"oh, you can be curious. i'm just not gonna tell ya." Sans winked. This was messing with her so much, and he loved it.

"Sans! Come on!" Chara whined. Sans kept walking quietly. Chara was probably not gonna let this go for a while, so he decided he would remind them they owed him an answer later.

The entire way home Chara begged for an answer. They gave several hypothesis and asked him to tell them if they were right. He ignored all of it. He was enjoying this immensely.

Finally. Sans got home. He opened the door and looked around at the livingroom. Months after leaving, he stepped into the door.

His mood dropped. Everything was a wreak. He had expected a house that was warm, clean, and welcoming. He instead got a reminder of how things were now.

He stepped over the trash to the middle on the floor. The mattress from his room was leaning against the couch, and the table was on it's side. There was garbage, food, and clothing strewn across everything. The tv had fallen on its face, and was most likely broken.

Sans picked up a shirt. It was really dirty. Sans was glad he didn't have a nose, otherwise this might be deathly. He rounded up a few other clothing items and started the laundry. Only one sock was left, and it was covered in post-it notes.

Looking around the room, he decided he might as well pick up the trash. He picked up the tv, put his mattress back in his room, vacuumed, and set everything up how it had been when Papyrus was in charge of cleaning. He ended up cleaning his room, too.

Peeking his head in Papyrus's room, i was still immaculate. Sans smiled a little. He had made sure not to touch this room.

Walking in, he looked around at all the ordinary objects. Each was a treasure to him. He dusted the shelves and table of action figures, and vacuumed. He was about to leave when he saw a flashing light on the computer.

It had been left on this whole time? He moved the mouse, and Papyrus's undernet profile popped onto the screen. It was a message to Undyne.

StrongFish91- I heard a human came down!

CoolSkeleton95- Yes! Sans and I have been trying to capture them all day. They just don't seem to want to comply!

StrongFish91- Hmm. Don't worry too much. I'll take care of them

Chapter Text

Sans walked into Gerson's shop completely prepared to finally beat the old turtle. He had been lasting days of training before dying. He had survived months last reset.

He'd even accidentally killed Gerson a few times, and forced himself to reset. It wasn't as bad as needlessly killing monsters and resetting so he could pretend it never happened. Gerson knew it had happened. Gerson was alright with it. Only Gerson ever died.

When Sans walked in, Gerson had the same mischievous smile as he had the day he recruited Sans. It threw the skeleton off immediately. "what?" Sans asked.

"You're ready." Gerson said. Sans immediately knew what he was talking about. "Let's go talk to Asgore."

Sans half wanted to refuse. He was so anxious about being captian, he felt weak in the knees. What if he failed?

"Finally!" Chara remarked. "I've been waiting for this forever."

Sans was far less enthusiastic. He was terrified, in fact. Gerson led him to New Home. Sans didn't say a word the entire trip. Gerson seemed to understand. Chara didn't. They talked nonstop the whole way.

~

Asgore's jaw dropped. "S-sans? You want Sans to be captian?" He looked between Sans and Gerson. Gerson looked sure.

From what Asgore had seen even yesterday, Sans was in no place to lead. Asgore looked at the skeleton again. He was looking at the floor, his shoulders tense. Maybe Gerson had made a mistake.

Asgore wanted Sans to be in the Royal Guard. When Sans had told him he was training that morning, Asgore had been glad to see Sans being a part of the community, but captian?

He knew Sans had beaten Chara. However, while a human soul was more powerful than a monsters, most humans had no idea how to use even a fraction of that power. Keeping order as leader of the Royal Guard was a huge responsibility, and Sans was well known for neglecting such things.

"What makes you qualified to be captian?" Asgore finally asked Sans. He could see the visible flinch, and an immediate change of expression. Sans had as much doubt as Asgore did.

"uh..." Sans looked at Gerson to jump in, but the turtle understood the question was for Sans. "i.... um.." He looked at his feet.

Asgore sighed. Sans wasn't going to be able to stand before everyone as captian if he couldn't even answer why he deserved that opportunity. This had been a waste of time.

~

Sans was freaking out. Why did he deserve the spot Gerson was giving him? He didn't. He couldn't save Papyrus. He failed once, and now he was supposed to be in charge of protecting a whole race of monsters?

Asgore was walking away. All his goals were circling the drain. Everything he had worked for over the countless resets he had made.

"You're just gonna let him go?" Chara sounded only mildly interested. "I thought you wanted this."

Sans didn't want this. Did he? Why had he really done this? Why had he spent all those resets training? What exactly did he want?

He rubbed his temples. He had had a headache for so long. It was getting worse. He wondered if maybe it had to do with all the stress.

Maybe he should just give up and go home. His house would be a wreak when he got there. He would have to clean it again. He was the one who made it like that. That was who he had been. Did he really want to go back to that?

Wasn't that reason enough to want to be captian? It had given him something real to work towards. A diversion from the pain of Papyrus's death.

But that doesn't answer the question. What makes Sans qualified to be trusted by all those people? What gives him the right to ask everyone to follow and obey him?

He looked at Gerson for answers. The ancient turtle just shrugged and walked off. Sans knew he knew the answer, but Gerson wasn't planning on telling him. Were all old people this annoying?

Sans had no idea where to go next. He really didn't have anything else. If he wasn't going to be captian, he might as well go home. He had a long trip, and a lot of cleaning to do.

The closer to home he got, the worse he felt. He had failed. He couldn't do it. He was still as useless as he had been on day one. All his training was for nothing.

"Boy! I knew you were an idiot, but I never expected this!" Flowey chirped. Of course Flowey had to appear. Sans ignored it and continued home. The flower followed. "You're really just going to leave it like that?"

"Yeah, Sans, I thought you were actually gonna do it. Why'd you bail?" Chara hadn't said much about it during the walk. Even now, they seemed only mildly concerned.

Sans paused. "i dont have to explain myself to a murderer." It was a jab at them both, and they both shut up. Flowey left, Chara pouted, Sans went home.

He had forgotten the house would be a wreak. He stared at it for half a second before slamming the door shut and walking towards snowdin forest. He couldn't deal right now.

Sans meandered through the old, deactivated puzzles. He could still see Papyrus's face as he watched Frisk try and figure each one out.

He made his way all the way to the door he had spent hours talking through. Knocking, he sat against it as normal.

"Knock knock."

As expected, no answer. He answered himself. "who's there?" He used his mock Toriel voice.

"Iran." He ignored the tears that choked him up.

"Iran who?" His voice for her really was the absolute worst.

"iran outta puns... so i said a knock knock joke..." He couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

All his stress, his pain, his disappointment, his loneliness poured out of him. He missed Papyrus and the others that had died. He hated himself for failing to become captian.

He hadn't cried in a long time. He had a lot of tension built up, so he let it all come out through is sobs.

Chapter Text

Sans had no idea what was going on. Dad was talking to the man at the door, but the child had never heard him talk in this tone before.

Dropping his book, he jumped up from his spot on the floor and ran to the door. Dad immediately shooed him away.

Sans pouted in his room till the stranger had gone. Once he heard the door shut, he ran out to peek between the banister bars.

Dad gave a big sigh before looking up to see Sans watching him. He motioned for the seven year old to follow him into the living room. Sans obeyed.

"Your mother..." He sighed and rubbed his forehead. His normal sign of stress. "What do you remember about her?"

That question alone was weird enough. Dad never talked about mom. Every time Sans asked about her, dad would push the thought away. Sans hadn't seen, or even heard from her, since he was three.

"um.. i don't know." Sans replied, guarded.

Dad just nodded and stood. He went to the window to look at the yard. In the sunlight he looked older than he was. Sans wondered how much sleep his father had gotten this week. Dad always seemed to be working, so food and sleep were low on his priorities.

"She died."

It took Sans a second to register what dad had said. As soon as it hit him, his heart dropped.

Mom was a mystery to him. He had only a vague memory of what she looked like. He wondered what would have happened if mom and dad hadn't split.

Now she was dead? He felt loss, even though he knew nothing about her. He was motherless. He wouldn't ever get to see her.

"How does that make you feel?" Dad asked. Impatient as always to get the conversation over.

"i... i don't know." Sans took a step back. the back of his shorts brushed against a chair, so he sat down. "how'd she die?"

"She was killed by a human."

Sans flinched. The unrest between humans and monsters was growing more and more. Humans were scared of monsters. After all, all a monster would need is a human soul, and they could easily be stronger than the humans.

"so... she's dead..." Sans stood to leave. "thanks for telling me, i guess." Pretending to be okay was the only way to keep dad from getting annoyed. There was no time for feelings in a conversation with him.

"Sans, that's not what I need to tell you." Dad turned away from the window and looked at Sans. "Your mother was pregnant when we split up. The child is coming here to live with us."

That was it. Sans had wondered why mom's death had caused dad so much stress. There was another kid. Sans had a sibling.

Sans had a sibling.

Sans had a little brother or sister, and dad had never said anything. He had had four years to say anything, but he hadn't. Sans just frowned at his father.

"You have nothing to say?" Dad saw his discomfort. He knew why, too. Sans knew it would be best to let it slide.

"i don't want some crybaby sleeping in my room." Sans muttered. He didn't wait for dad to speak, he just grabbed his book and headed upstairs.

~

Sans watched from his favorite spot at the balcony as dad brought suitcases and other luggage into the house. He could hear yelling from outside. It must be his new sibling.

Dad sighed. "Come in here, child." He ordered.

"You can't catch me!" Sans heard from outside. Followed by "Nyeh heh heh!!!"

Dad groaned and stomped outside. "I don't have time for this! I have several projects I have to work on."

Sans ran down the stairs and watched as dad chased a small skeleton boy across the yard. It cracked Sans up to watch someone as serious as his father running around.

Finally, the kid was caught, and dragged into the house. Dad was grumbling under his breath as he closed the door. "Now behave!"

"Sorry, dad Gaster." The child looked at the floor in guilt.

Dad had no room for pity when he was already at the edge of his patience. "I told you, just call me dad." He snapped.

"you could try calling him dadster." Sans threw in. Both stared at him as if they hadn't noticed he was there.

"Sans don't make up rediculous words." Dad calmly ordered. Sans knew this was just the quiet before the storm. Dad always took this tone when he was stressed. Sans had learned to keep away when he heard it.

He turned his attention to his sibling. The smaller skeleton was grinning with unchecked curiosity painted across his face. When Sans looked at him, he blinked it away and waved like a dork. "Hello! I'm Papyrus!"

Sans didn't like the kid. He was loud, obnoxiously happy, and annoying. The kid was wearing a cape over his tee shirt, and heavy boots. His baseball cap was on backwards, too. As if he was trying to look cool. He looked rediculous.

Dad saw his disdain and snorted. "You two have fun." Dad threw back at them as he left.

Sans looked Papyrus over once more before heading to his room. "You're Sans, right?" Papyrus bounced up the stairs after him. "I've never had a big brother before!"

"actually," Sans turned to look at the squirt behind him. "you've had a big brother your whole life."

The blank stare of information processing he got as a reply was good enough for him. He walked to his room and shut the door.

"It's alright, brother!" Papyrus yelled through the door. "I can wait out here!"

Sans fell into his bed and grabbed his book. He had no intention of going back out until dinner time. It took three minutes before Sans could hear sniffling from the other side of the door.

Groaning, he rolled to his feet. He opened the door, and saw Papyrus jump in surprise. The child looked up at him with tear streaked embarrassment.

"what are you doing?" Sans asked. He realized afterwards how heartless he sounded. Dad was to blame for that.

"I... er.. I just t-tripped!" The kid replied bravely.

"where does it hurt?" Sans didn't make a move to be comforting. He didn't know how to do something like that.

"My soul!" Papyrus burst into tears again.

Sans jumped a little. He had no idea how to deal with crying. He knew what his dad would do. He would order Papyrus to stop crying. Crying was a waste of time and energy. It accomplished nothing. Sans wasn't going to be that kind of brother, no matter how annoying Papyrus was.

"uh... it's okay..." He pat the smaller skeleton's shoulder. This invoked a hug from the sobbing child. Sans tensed immediately. How long had it been since he had been hugged by anyone? "uh.. Paps, you're getting my shirt wet..."

Papyrus only hugged tighter and sobbed more. Sans sighed. Awkwardly, he tried hugging back. For better or for worse, this was what he was going to have to put up with from now on. He might as well get used to it.

Chapter Text

Sans wasn't exactly asleep, but he wasn't awake either. It was almost as if any normal process besides staying alive was completely focused on his memories of Papyrus and the others.

Five minutes could have passed. Hours could have passed. Days even. He had no idea. Slowly, consciousness returned. He started becoming aware of his surroundings again.

Last he remembered, he had been leaning his back against the door to the ruins. Sometime after then, he had slid and ended up laying on the ground.

Looking beneath his head, he saw signs of tears. He felt as if he had cried his entire soul out through his eyes. He was weak and tired, but doubted he would be able to sleep.

Chara wasn't talking. Sans wasn't sure if he was glad about that or not. He was having a hard time registering anything right now.

He stood up, leaning against the door. Every centimeter of his body screamed "no". How could doing nothing hurt more than the training he had gone through?

He stumbled through the forest back towards civilization. All these puzzles. How horrible could someone be to walk straight through them? Papyrus had worked so hard on them.

Sans had thought time would help him feel better about losing his brother, but at this exact moment he felt as if Chara had just come through here yesterday.

How did people survive stuff like this? This was something Sans couldn't have wished on his worst... no.. he might have wished this on Chara. After all, they had forced it on him.

Sans' only wish now was for no one else to suffer like he was. Losing someone like Papyrus had hurt him more deeply than he could have imagined.

Undyne had fought for the dreams of everyone. Was that what it meant to be captain? To work towards fulfilling the dreams of the masses?

Undyne was into fighting. She was the kind of person who loved the idea of war. She showed off battle scars like they were pictures of her kids. Always telling stories.

Sans thought you had to be like that to be captain. Easily ready to beat the shit out of anything that seemed even remotely capable of fulfilling the goal. Maybe if he could just work towards the actual guarding monsters, he would do okay?

But how was he qualified for the job? Gerson had taught him to fight. He had killed Chara. As much of a fluke as that was. Neither of those seemed good enough. Anyone who worked hard enough could be as strong as he was.

Why had he agreed to this? He knew he had no qualifications. Why had he worked so hard? Why had he allowed himself to hope again?

He had hardly noticed he was headed for Grillby's till he was at the door. It was locked. That's right. Grillby's closed down.

Sans skipped his house. He didn't want to get more depressed, and his house was a wreak. He headed to Waterfall instead. With any luck, he can talk to Monster Kid for a while.

He looked in the usual place, but the kid wasn't there. Sans felt a little prick of sadness add to his pain. He sat on the bench in complete silence. He was utterly alone.

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't think anyone would be here." Sans looked up to see a toothy, armless monster. He was surprised at how much joy that one little thing had given him.

"i was lonely anyways, wanna sit?" He offered. Over the timelines past, he had found exactly what to say to make the kid feel better.

"I don't know, mister." Monster Kid hesitated.

"i'm Sans. Sans the skeleton." Sans introduced himself as normal. "i um.. actually wanted to ask you something."

Monster Kid was baited into sitting with Sans. "What?"

Sans paused. "what was the coolest thing about Undyne?"

The kid was surprised. That was to be suspected. "Huh?"

"i watched you follow after her all the time. so what was so cool about her?" Sans had never asked the kid something like this. He always focused on making the kid feel happy.

"Everything about her was cool." The kid answered almost immediately. "She was strong, and awesome, and brave...."

Everything Sans wasn't. Sans felt even less qualified to run the Royal Guard. He was a coward and he hated fighting.

"But the coolest thing was probably the fact that she wasn't fighting to be cool. She really wanted to get everyone to the surface."

"but no one's going to the surface, even though the barrier is down." That was what was saddest about Undyne's death. The dream she had worked so hard for had been realized, yet no one wanted it now.

"Maybe Chara made people realize that their priorities were wrong." Monster Kid kicked his feet. "Now people just wanna be safe, and we have no one like Undyne to protect our dreams."

How noble. Sans felt a tug at him. He wanted to protect the citizens. He wanted to make sure no one felt loss like he had. That was what he worked for, right? So that he could protect monsters from humans like Chara.

"what if i knew someone who wanted to do that, but they didn't fit the qualifications?" Sans had gotten pretty low to be asking a traumatized child for advice.

"It's not like anyone else is stepping up to do it." The kid spat. "The fact that he actually cares enough for other people to put himself in the way of danger for them is enough for me. What other qualifications do you need?"

Sans hadn't seen the kid get angry like this before. Monster Kid just kept talking. "Most monsters are too scared to do anything for anyone! My parents keep saying that there's gonna be a fight between the monsters! Why? Haven't enough monsters died? Why does everyone have to stop trusting each other? Undyne would never let this happen!"

Sans had kept away from people since Papyrus had died. People were put off when he frowned. He smiled more often, but when he felt down, he couldn't bring himself to keep the smile.

He had kept out of social circles, so he didn't much know what people were thinking. The fact that the child thought the monsters were on the verge of civil war shocked Sans.

"what do you mean they don't trust each other?" Sans sat forward.

Monster Kid shrugged. "They just all think they're gonna kill each other, I guess? I mean, there's a huge gap in power. Without the Royal Guard, the king is really just a man. Really, anyone could take over kingship with a small following, so there's a lot of mistrust."

The underground was on the verge of total anarchy, and Asgore refused to let Sans be captain? On second thought, having a lazy captain would make the Royal Guard nothing more than a joke.

"thanks, kid." Sans jumped off the bench and headed towards New Home.

~

Asgore opened the door to see Sans waiting. A set look of determination was etched into the skeleton's very being.

"i have no qualifications. hell, i'm not even sure it's a good idea, but just hear me out, okay?"

Sans never acted like this. The fact that he had even come back at all was completely against his personality. Asgore nodded approval to continue.

Sans sighed. "okay. i want to be captain of the Royal Guard. when Papyrus died, i felt like i had died, too. it..." He looked ready to cry. "it hurt a lot. i promised myself i would never leave home again."

Sans stopped talking for a while. He looked like he was trying to keep his emotions under control. He took a deep breath before continuing.

"you and Gerson helped me not... not focus on Papyrus's death. it still hurts, though. god it hurts so much sometimes. i hate it. i hate Chara. i..." Another pause. "i wanna be captain so i can save people from feeling that. i might not like fighting, but i wanna protect the most basic wish of the people."

Sans shoved his hands into his pockets. "uh.. besides." He averted his gaze with an awkward smile. "it's not like you're exactly drowning in applications for the job."

Asgore knew he was right. Sans was the only person who had applied. Besides, Gerson had a good sense about this kind of thing. They didn't see eye to eye on everything, but Asgore's old friend was loyal to say the least.

With all the unrest, having a captain would be a big help. Sans seemed so serious about it, too. Asgore knew when Sans had a goal it took a lot to dissuade him from it. There was only one or two times he had seen Sans really focus on anything, but each time had forced Asgore to really consider him as candidate for Royal Scientist.

Asgore had a feeling he would regret this, but he decided to put faith in Gerson and Sans. Each was a good friend to him, and he wanted this to work.

"I'll set up the vowing ceremony." Sans looked up in joyful surprise. "I just hope you can stand up to the citizens judgment."

Sans relaxed. The calm, playful smile that had once adorned Sans' face once again crossed his features. "hey, if there's one thing I'm good with, it's judgement."

Chapter Text

Asgore tried to get Sans into a set of armor. Being a skeleton, even normal clothes were a pain to work with at times. Armor was a definite no.

Asgore didn't fight much. He had too much to set up. The ceremony was in 15 minutes, and Sans was just about the only one not moving. He was stressing too much to be any help. He had already spilled coffee all over Burgerpants, and ran into Gerson, knocking the poor turtle unto his back. It had taken three people to rectify the second accident. Gerson had just laughed it off.

Asgore had finally decided Sans was too shaken up to be much help. The skeleton was ordered to sit still like a child. Having nothing to do but think of all the things that could go wrong was worse to him than running around stressing over the food and entertainment. The pounding headache he had had for so long didn't help much.

"Hey, Sans?" Alphys had completely sneaked up on Sans. He jumped a little. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"nah. i'm just nervous is all." Sans forced himself to relax. "what's up?"

"I just wanted to wish you luck." Alphys gave a shy smile. "I... uh.. I'm rooting for you."

Sans felt so much better hearing that. He didn't even realize how alone he had felt till she said it, but now, he was grateful. "you think i can make it?" He asked with a sheepish smile.

Alphys looked surprised. That was to be expected. He normally only talked to Papyrus about his fears, and that was rare.

"Of course you can make it!" Alphys said.

"heh. thanks, Al." Sans smiled.

Asgore walked up and shooed Alphys back to her seat. It was time to start. Sans could feel the butterflies in his stomach, despite not having a stomach.

Asgore started with a whole spiel about how much Chara had destroyed and how his main concern was the safety of the general public. He told about the advances Gerson was making with the cadets of the Royal Guard.

"Of course, I can't lead the Royal Guard and focus on all my other responsibilities." Asgore continued. "Undyne loyally assisted me in her life and heroic death. Now, I've called another monster for help."

Sans took a deep breath and stepped unto the stage. He was met with absolute silence. Looking over the monsters he was to be protecting, he suddenly regretted eating. He was almost certainly going to vomit.

"Sans the skeleton has stepped up to take the responsibility of leading the Royal Guard." Asgore continued.

"Sans?!?" Someone yelled from the crowd. "Are you shitting me right now?" The entire crowd bristled. A short, square monster with cat ears stood above them. "He can't even stay awake at his post! He's the town drunk! You want us to believe he's gonna be the one protecting us?"

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Sans had no idea how bad the unrest between monsters had been until this moment. They were teetering. If he didn't sell this, he was sure he would die again. Whispers concerning Sans and the king's sanity filtered to the stage. Each was negative.

"hey! i don't see you doing anything!" He yelled. Genius. Yell at them. Perfect idea, Sans. He immediately regretted saying anything, but he was committed now. "yeah, i got lazy. i stopped caring. i gave up. you know what the consequences were? i fucking lost my brother."

Everyone had stopped. Sans was shaking. He was terrified. He knew they couldn't really hurt him. Just make him start over. He didn't want that, though. He wanted to stop relying on resets and actually start to progress.

"i'm sure you lost a friend or family member, too. you know the difference between us? i'm standing up to help the country instead of tearing it down with doubt and selfish fears! i have heard children cry in fear of what you people are talking about!" He scanned the audience for Monster Kid. The child was watching him with wonder filled eyes.

"i want to help. i want to make sure you people never have to feel the pain i felt when Chara murdered my brother. i'm gonna stand by the king. if you stand against him," He blackened out his eyes. "i'll give you a bad time."

The monster ran into the aisle. "Is that a threat?!? Then come on! Fight me!" Sans' eye flared blue. He scanned the entire group, and pinpointed all threats. Some of the farther monster's code was fuzzy, and his head pounded harder. Sans grit his teeth and stood his ground. The monster standing before him was nothing special, yet he ran up the aisle towards Sans.

Sans turned the monster blue and watched him fall to the ground. The crowd watched in shocked silence. "i don't have to fight to keep peace, and i'm not going to let more monsters die needlessly."

"Go Sans!" Monster Kid had somehow gotten to standing on his chair. Sans immediately felt embarrassed for having used his magic in front of so many monsters. In the heat of the moment, he hadn't even realized they were watching him.

He smiled in embarrassment and jumped off the stage towards the monster still pinned to the ground by his magic.

"uh.. if i let you up, are you gonna attack me?" He asked quiet enough for only people close enough to him to be able to hear.

"Fuck you! Fuck the king! Fuck it all..." The monster spat through his tears.

Sans sat criss-cross in the aisle next to him. "hey, trust me. i know how you feel."

"You don't seem all that upset." The monster pointed out. Sometimes Sans forgot he had had so much more time to get past the grief than the monsters around him had. "I bet you don't even care all that much about your dead brother."

Sans' eyes blackened again. "really now?" With complete subtlety, he pressed the monster into the ground more with his magical gravity. Till he could hear his victim struggle for breath. "that's quite the observation."

"S-stop..." The monster gasped.

Sans lightened up. "sorry i don't mourn the same way as you, but at least i don't make accusations about the extent of your love for your dead." His only response was silence. "okay, i'm gonna let you up now. if you try anything, i'm gonna arrest you. deal?"

Still silence. Sans decided that was consent enough and let the monster up. The monster glared at him a while longer, then silently returned to his seat.

Sans took a deep breath and climbed back unto the stage. He could still feel the apprehension the monsters had for him, but he met it with as much determination as he could manage.

"I'm asking you guys to trust me as your king." Asgore pleaded. "I believe Sans is capable, and I'm sure he'll prove it to you over the next few weeks."

The vows to protect the king and country were given, and Sans was fully admitted. During the celebration afterwards, the majority of the monsters avoided him. Monster Kid and Alphys were the first to congratulate him, and Sans made sure to talk to each member of the Royal Guard during the party.

After it was over, Sans stayed to help clean up. He was much more helpful now.

It was way past midnight when he finally got home. He was exhausted. He fell into bed without so much as taking off his shoes. He would clean the mud off the floor later. He needed to rest before his first day as captain of the Royal Guard.

Chapter Text

Sans woke up late. Shit. He had forgotten to set his alarm last night. What a great way to start his new job. He quickly changed clothes and ran out the door.

Luckily, he knew a shortcut.

Gerson was patiently waiting for him at the training grounds. He did nothing but chuckle at Sans' rushed expression. He beckoned for Sans to follow him. Sans took a second to collect his thoughts before following the turtle.

Gerson's job now was to help Sans train the other members of the Royal Guard. What a feat that would be. Among the members in front of him, he couldn't see any of them really standing up to anyone.

Gerson was looking at Sans in expectation. All the others followed his lead. Sans had no idea what he was doing wrong, he hadn't even been here a full minute. 

"Well aren't you gonna say something?" Gerson prompted with a smirk.

"oh. um.. i'm not a good public speaker. so uh.. you guys do good by me, work hard, and stay loyal, and i'll be honored to work with you." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "this is my Royal Guard now. don't expect it to be the same as when Undyne was in charge. our goal isn't to break the barrier. we're here to keep the peace. Gerson and i will train you for that exact purpose."

Gerson looked happy with that response. "How do you wanna take this?"

"uh.. train them in defense and tactics to restrain people instead of injure or kill them?" Sans was totally guessing. Gerson hadn't even trained him like that. It had ended up like that after a while, but that was mainly due to Sans' low HP.

Gerson gave a slight chuckle. "It's obvious you haven't trained anyone before."

"heh. isn't that why you're here?" Sans averted his gaze in embarrassment.

Gerson nodded. "I'll get something together. Papyrus was really the expert in controlling his magic to just perfectly match the enemy's strength."

Sans felt loss at the mention. He couldn't help but wish he had taken more of an opportunity to learn from his brother. All the times his brother bugged him to train with him, and Sans just ignored him.

"Hey." Gerson put his hand heavily on Sans' shoulder, knocking the trance away. "You should head out for a patrol."

Sans nodded. He watched as Gerson ordered the monsters into training for a second, then headed back towards Snowdin.

On his way, Flowey popped up. "Golly! Color me surprised! I never would have thought you could actually make it to becoming captain! And the show you put on during your ceremony! Papyrus should have died a long time ago!" It gave it's sick little laugh.

"i don't think you count as a citizen since you're technically dead, so i'll warn ya. you cause trouble, you wont get arrested. you'll die. and i'll kill you every time i see you after that. no matter how many resets happen."

Sans was absolutely calm as he spoke. He had known this would be the deal he gave Flowey. He was also sure the flower wouldn't stick to it for long. He still wanted to give it a chance. That seemed like the most honorable way to go about it.

"Wow! How did you get so cool? Right under my nose, too!" Flowey seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this. "Threatening me like that, it's completely unlike you! What happened to the cowardly wimp who wouldn't hurt a fly?"

Sans hadn't realized how really different he had become until Flowey pointed it out. He wasn't afraid of a fight. He preferred not to fight, but Gerson had beaten the fear out of him.

Looking at the other areas of his life, he realized he was far less lazy now. He hadn't gotten drunk in god knows how long. His house was clean. He was becoming responsible.

He smirked. Imagine what Papyrus would think if he saw Sans now. He would probably die of shock.

"Talking to your voice again?" Flowey bounced. Sans flinched. He had forgotten Flowey was there. "I know you have Chara in there somewhere." It giggled.

Sans shrugged. "maybe. it's not like it's your business. excuse me, i have to finish my route."

Being the only one on patrol meant he had to walk all the way from the door to the Ruins to New Home.

Monster Kid picked up on his trail a while in. Sans took notice, and invited the kid to patrol with him. He would enjoy the company.

"That was sooo cool the way you got that guy to stop fighting like that!" Monster Kid had been rambling the whole way. Sans didn't mind. He enjoyed listening to someone share their thoughts so openly. "Undyne would have beat him up, but you just BOOM knocked him to the ground! Without even touching him!"

The monsters around watched Sans with open suspicion. Sans focused on the Monster Kid's conversation rather than acknowledging them.

Once he got near the end of Waterfall, he sent the kid home. Hotland might be too far for the kid to go without his parents permission, and Sans would prefer not to have complaints on the first day.

Without the kid, suspicion was even more noticeable. Every monster stopped talking as soon as he came near. They all watched with either suspicion or curiosity.

Sans ended up wishing he was back training with the others. His feet were tired, he was hot, and he had been in such a rush, he hadn't eaten anything all day.

He reached New Home in silence. Asgore noticed him and invited him inside for a cup of tea. Sans readily accepted.

"How are you taking your responsibilities as captain?" Asgore asked as he handed Sans a piping hot cup of tea. Sans would have preferred something cold, but he wasn't going to complain.

"i'm getting settled." Sans shrugged. The movement sloshed some tea over the edge of the cup onto his fingers. He wiped it off on his jacket, glad for the inability to feel heat. "so far it's included public speaking and lots of walking."

"Wait till you get to the reports." Asgore smiled. "Undyne hated those."

Sans could only imagine how annoying it would have been for someone as active as Undyne to be forced to sit and write a report on all activity. The thought made him laugh. "i bet that was a riot."

Asgore sighed with a smile. "She had about three months worth of paperwork she had yet to turn in."

Sans nodded. "sounds right." He chugged down the last of his tea, and put it on the table. "i should head back. the recruits still have a lot of training."

Asgore nodded and walked with him to the door. "You seem to be doing well. Good luck with the guardsmen."

Sans nodded and headed back. He knew it would take a while, but so long as he could keep from dying, he was sure he could make a Royal Guard everyone would be able to trust in.

Chapter Text

"don't climb so high you fall!" Sans yelled at his brother as the eight year old reached for a higher branch.

"Don't worry, brother!" Papyrus called down. "I'm an expert at climbing trees!"

As if karma were striking him down, his foot slipped. Sans watched in horror as the skeleton fell. There was a snap, followed by an ear splitting scream.

Sans ran to Papyrus's side to see the smaller bone of his arm broken cleanly in half. He held back the urge to vomit, and picked his brother up. Using what little blue magic he knew, he made Papyrus as light as he could, hoping he could get home before he became too tired.

Papyrus screamed the entire way. Tears streaking down his face as he looked in horror at his own arm. Sans had a feeling if it had been him, he would have passed out by now. He often found himself amazed at the durability of his brother.

He ran into the house and made a beeline for dad's lab. When he found it was empty, he groaned.

"What happened?" Sans turned to see his father standing in the door. Annoyance turned to worry when he saw the cause of Papyrus's screams.

Immediately, he took the child from Sans and ran to the other side of his lab. Scattered across his counter were countless papers. Dad swiped them onto the floor with one quick motion, and replaced them with the sobbing skeleton.

"we were c-climbing a tree, and he fell." Sans explained as his father soothed his brother with his healing magic. Sans opted to picking the papers off the floor. It was all he could do to be even remotely helpful.

"How far do you think he fell?" Dad asked, not looking at Sans.

"twenty-one feet and four inches. from the top of the branch his foot was on to the ground." Sans replied without much thought.

Dad glanced at him for only a second, but Sans noticed the confusion his expression betrayed. "That's a very precise estimate." He commented.

"that's how tall it was." Sans replied in annoyance. "you want me to go measure it or something?"

Dad sighed. "No, Sans. I'll take your word for it."

Papyrus had stopped crying by now. He lay sniffling on the table, watching dad with the biggest eyes. Sans could feel a sort of pressure on his chest. Like a subtle ache at seeing his brother in pain.

He seemed to feel that every time Papyrus cried. He cried a lot. The little skeleton had turned the whole household upside down. Over the past four years, Sans had come to love the kid.

Dad seemed to be trying harder to be involved, too. While Sans was an easy child who didn't need much attention, Papyrus was constantly getting into trouble or asking for something. It forced Sans and his father to act more like a family, with Papyrus at it's center.

Sans had found it interesting to watch dad learn how to be a dad rather than a housemate. Once Sans had learned to read, dad went back to work and left the child mainly to himself. Sans hadn't minded much. He was an 'easy child'. Papyrus minded.

"I'm sorry, brother." Papyrus said through tears.

"what? why are you apologizing?" Sans felt the pressing pain get stronger.

"You told me not to fall and I did." Papyrus was still holding his arm.

Sans could see a hairling fracture where the break had been. Dad wasn't the best healer, but Sans was surprised he had managed to close it up this much.

"i'm not gonna blame you for an accident." Sans was amazed at how Papyrus's mind worked. Here the kid had just gone through something traumatic, and he was worried about disobeying Sans accidentally.

"Papyrus, I'm going to give you something to help you sleep, okay? I want you to go straight to bed." Dad ordered as he took a bottle of pills off the shelf. He carefully cut one in half and handed it to Papyrus.

The child obeyed. Sans could guess crying so much had helped tire him out. Sans found when he cried, it was very exhausting.

"Sans, show me what tree you were climbing." Grabbing a tape measure and his coat, dad headed for the door.

Sans wasn't so eager. "you're seriously gonna measure it?"

Dad looked at his son in annoyance. "Humor me." He didn't wait for a response. Sans growled before following.

When dad got to the tree, he measured the branch. Sans stayed on the ground. The scientist muttered like he normally did as he worked.

Pointing to a higher branch, dad asked Sans to tell him the height. "i don't really get the point of the game." Sans replied.

"I'm not playing games here. Just tell me how high the branch is!" Sans had called down to him.

The branch was a little over two feet above the branch Papyrus had fallen from. "twenty-three and a half. i don't know."

Dad frowned. "You have no idea how tall it is?"

"do i look like the kind of person who measures trees in my spare time?" Sans snarked.

His father climbed down to stand in front of him. "You were less than a quarter of an inch off on that first branch. Yet even having a reference, and being able to look at the tree, you couldn't make the same accuracy with the second?"

"Dad, this isn't one of your dumb experiments!" Sans hated when his father looked further into things than was necessary.

"How did you know the height of the branch." The scientist wasn't planning on giving up any time soon.

Sans gave a loud groan in protest. His father would have none of it. "fine. it was just there, okay?"

"What was?"

"the height. it was on the tree."

Dad looked back at the tree. He walked all the way around it then gave Sans a distrustful look. "I don't see it."

Sans sighed. "me either. it happened so fast, im not sure how i saw it." Dad stared at him in contemplation. "can i go home now?"

Father looked back at the tree. "Yes. Go back. I'm going to have another look."

~

"I believe it was some form of magic that let you get the height of the tree." Dad said as he sat at the table for dinner.

"great." Sans shoved a fork full of spaghetti into his mouth with as much angst as he could. This was Papyrus's treat for being such a trooper. Pasta take-out from the nearest Italian restaurant.

"I'm going to be working with you to develop the power even more." Dad had no apparent interest in the plate of food set before him.

"great." Sans replied again. He hated when his father pretended he was another science experiment.

"Sans, it might help you in the future to have a good understanding of your magic. Especially if the humans go to war."

Sans knew he was right, but even the idea of fighting the humans made Sans sick. He pushed his plate away. "welp. it's not like you're gonna give me a choice, now is there?"

He stood up to leave the room. As soon as he closed the door, he heard Papyrus pipe up, "Don't worry, Dadster! I will protect Sans with all my strength!"

Sans smiled to himself. All annoyance gone. He knew Papyrus would do anything to keep the people he loved safe. Sans decided he wanted to be that same way. He would keep Papyrus and Gaster safe no matter what. They would always be a family.

Chapter Text

Being captain was hard. He had to be up to take care of midnight complaints, he walked all the way across the Underground at least once a week, he was in charge of all scheduling, and on top of that he still had to help Gerson train the recruits to fight. Asgore had been right, too. Paperwork was an absolute pain.

The past few months had been exhausting. Sans couldn't help thinking about all the union regulated breaks he was missing just because he had so much stuff to finish before he could take a break.

Today had been no different. He had no one to take the morning Hotland/CORE route, and the afternoon Snowdin route had been given to a specific ice throwing wolf who had gotten sick because he had slept outside the previous night.

Sans gulped down two cups of coffee before leaving the house. Heading for Hotland, he passed his old sentry station in Waterfall. Monster Kid was waiting for him.

"Yo! I heard you have patrol today!" The kid ran to walk in step with Sans.

Sans had let the kid come with him every time he wanted to. Sometimes, he would ask the kid questions, sometimes they played games. Today, all Sans wanted was to listen. The kid picked up on that immediately.

"Remember when you first became captain? And everyone hated you?" Sans flinched a little. What a nice way to have put it.

The first few weeks had been hard. The unchecked tension had boiled over several times, resulting in fights. Sans had had to work extra hard to keep on top of them. Things had settled down as people found Sans more and more reliable. Now, drunken bar fights and noise complaints were the most Sans dealt with, and they were much more sparse.

"Well, mom said that her friend told her that Bratty had the hots for you." Monster Kid finished.

Sans snorted. "Bratty has the hots for anyone who can even remotely be counted as male."

The kid laughed. "Yeah! Catty seems pretty into Burgerpants, though."

Sans didn't even want to get started on that. Catty and Burgerpants had a huge drama going on in the Guard. If the guardsmen werent talking about it in their spare time, Sans knew something huge had happened in the Underground.

"Did you know they went as a couple to Leo's concert?" Leo was a lion monster. He had been a big fan of Mettaton, and Sans could still remember him dressed up in the dress Mettaton had given him during Frisk's first few runs in the underground.

"I bet they're dating. I wonder if they'll get married. I bet they will once we finally go to the surface!"

That shocked Sans. Most monsters refused to speak about the surface.  "you wanna go to tge surface?" Sans interrupted Monster Kid's thoughts.

"Well, yeah! Once the Royal Guard gets stronger, we're going to make peace with the humans, right?" The kid was bouncing with excitement.

"yeah." Sans couldn't help but smile. He was so close. The training had been intense the past few months, but Sans was seeing results. "let's hope we can get there next summer, okay?"

Monster Kid gave Sans the biggest smile he could manage. "Yeah! Next summer!" He looked around. They were almost at Hotland. "I'm gonna go home and tell my friends!" He ran of with little regard for saying goodbye. Sans didn't mind.

Finishing his route as quickly as possible, he headed back to the training room. Looks like today was strength and endurance training. That meant, for the most part, Gerson was only semi-occupied.

The old turtle couldn't much set the pace in this training. He got tired too quickly. Instead, it was a competition. The loser would have night patrol scheduled for the next week. It was a pretty good motivation.

Sans sat next to the elder monster and watched the guardsmen run. "how's the training?"

"They're getting there." Gerson chuckled.

"yeah? you think they can be ready by next summer?" Sans glanced at Gerson, hopeful for a yes.

The turtle leaned forward in interest. "You planning a trip?"

Sans shrugged. "Monster Kid and i were talking, and he seems to think its time. i think i agree."

Gerson threw back his head as his signature laugh escaped his beak. "Well, now. Aren't you ambitious."

"the barrier is down. i mean, why stay down here, cramped and bored, when the whole world is finally open to us again?"

Gerson sighed. "Knowing humans, history is just bound to repeat itself."

Sans agreed. Humans would probably one day start another war. They might kill hundreds of monsters. "but shouldn't we try to have the best life we can while we're here?"

Gerson gave a short laugh. "Asgore thinks the same thing." Relaxing again he added, "Maybe you're right. After all, hiding underground hadn't helped much when Chara came, now had it?"

Sans turned to watch as the guardsmen ran laps. He wanted to get his mind off the topic of Chara. Normally, he would be out working with them, but he felt he hadn't had time to discuss anything with Gerson in a while.

Watching the runners, Grillby was in lead, as usual. His stronger physical build gave him a larger lead. Burgerpants, in second, surprised everyone by being an extremely hard worker. He was socially awkward, and not nearly as capable physically or magically, but with hard work and encouragement, he was getting past that.

Temmie was at the other end of the scale. Sans couldn't even see her amongst the runners. Looking around, he found her messing with a glowing mushroom. Sans still didn't understand why she was here. She forgot her strongest attacks most of the time, she wandered off all the time, and her reports were absolutely awful to read. Not only did they make no sense, but each letter was cut out of a different font of newspaper. It probably took her longer to make up the report than it did to actually do the route.

Most of the others were pretty average. There was little trouble with them, just a lot of training. Sans was glad they all worked so hard. He was sure they could make it to the surface with enough work. Passing it by Asgore was the biggest hurdle he could forsee.

Chapter Text

Sans jumped into the training for a while before his Snowdin route started. Papyrus used to train three hours on his own, and another two hours with Undyne. Sans still found it amazing he had managed to spend over a fifth of each day in training, and still keep up on everything else he did with such energy.

Heading back to Snowdin, Sans ran into Flowey yet again. He hadn't seen the bright yellow plant in a few months.

"Are you really gonna do it?" The flower looked up at him in awe. "Are you going to the surface?"

"been there before. it's not that bad." Sans rocked on his heels. "maybe this time i can stay a while."

Flowey smiled. "Golly, you're getting cocky, huh?" He winked and stuck out his tongue. "Just make sure you remember who your dealing with." With that, Flowey left.

Sans didn't give much credence to the warning. The flower may have been sadistic and manipulative, but Sans was stronger than it. He hadn't been scared of the damn thing in a lot of resets.

Snowdin was quiet as usual. Most of the monsters were still staying in the city. Sans wasn't sure if he liked Snowdin this empty, but hopefully, it would be completely cleared out eventually.

The cold of the forest seemed to make his headache worse. The snow glared into his eyes, making things fuzzy and hard to focus on. He hated this patrol for that exact reason.

Finally, he made his rounds and went home. He started a pot of coffee and called Asgore. "hey, you doing anything for dinner? i got some business i wanna talk over."

"Oh, sure. I'll head over in about an hour, I'm just finishing up watering my garden." Asgore said with pleasant surprise.

Sans finished the call quickly, and said goodbye. He had to shower, finish some paperwork, and start dinner. He made spaghetti and cake. It wasn't extravagant, but Sans wasn't a horrible cook either.

While dinner was cooking, Sans straightened up the house. He had been keeping it mostly clean. Vacuuming was weakly, and he made sure he had clean clothes. He was nowhere near Papyrus's level of clean, but it was good enough for him.

Finally, Asgore knocked on his door. "who's there?" Sans called.

"It's me, King Asgore." Asgore answered, brutally murdering the chance for a joke. Sans sighed and opened the door.

He let the king in and took care of all the responsibilities of a host. Asking if the king wanted water, inviting him to sit and chat, serving dinner, and just overall making sure his guest was comfortable. He had watched Papyrus tirelessly toil at this same duty often enough to have it down. Somehow, his brother had made it look so easy, but as he went through the process, he found himself worn out.

Once dinner was done with, Asgore pushed his plate aside and asked, "What was it you wanted to discuss?"

Sans took a sip of water to ease his growing headache. All the movement today had made him tired and nauseous. He had almost fallen while making dinner, he had been so dizzy.

"i, uh... wanted to make plans for heading to the surface." He tried to make it sound as casual as he could, but Asgore's face still held a resemblance to shock.

"The surface? You think the Royal Guard is ready?" The goat leaned onto the table.

"no. not yet." Sans conceded. "they're making progress, but i figured having a goal would help them train harder." He paused to read the king's face. It was guarded too well for him to make out what the king was thinking. "i was thinking next summer?"

Asgore digested the information for a while. "Let's keep it quiet for now." He finally decided. "I'll discuss it with Alphys and Gerson and see what I think."

Sans nodded. That was the most he could expect for now. "i told Gerson about it already, but no one else..." Oh wait. Monster Kid knew. Shit. "well, i might have come up with the idea with Monster Kid, so... he might know, too."

Asgore blinked a few times. He let his breath out sharply through his nose in frustration. "Well, I guess I'll have to address it to the public soon then. What are your plans about it?"

Sans took a second to think. "i think i go out with maybe a second person, or a small group of ambassadors, and introduce monster kind back to the humans. see if the world is willing to accept us again, and then start up negotiations for relocation of monsters to the surface."

"And if the plan goes south?"

"worst-case scenario, you lose a handful of monsters and have to find a new captain of the Royal Guard." Sans knew if he died there would be no need for that, but going this far without a reset made him want to cling to life almost as much as if he were to not reset at all.

"And you think the risk is worth it?" Asgore seemed doubtful.

Sans nodded. He had been to the surface. The humans were pleasantly nice to the monster kind. "there are monsters out there who still dream for the surface. i wanna fulfill their dreams."

Asgore nodded. "How did Gerson feel about all this?"

Reflexively squirming, Sans avoided eye contact. "he was worried the humans would end up repeating the war a few generations down the line."

"Ah." Asgore chuckled. "He never wanted to go to the surface to begin with."

Sans nodded. He knew why. The battle between monsters and humans had been absolutely brutal. Sans still couldn't get behind the idea of becoming complacent. He knew the importance of keeping a goal.

Sans sighed and rubbed his temples. "well, to each his own. i need a goal."

Asgore looked Sans over. "Are you feeling alright? You look tired."

Sans smiled slightly. "i'm good. i mean, i'm tired to the bone, yeah, but my headache is just beating the shit outta me."

Asgore nodded. "Then I'll leave you be. Rest up." He stood. "I need you at your best." Sans said his goodbyes and cleaned up. He moved nice and slowly, and immediately went to bed after making sure leftovers were put away. He knew he had a lot of work left to do, and he only had till next summer to finish.

Chapter Text

"Good luck." Asgore muttered as he placed his had strongly on Sans' shoulder.

Sans nodded. "we should be back in a few days." The capital was very close to Mt. Ebott. Sans was sure everything would be fine.

Looking back at the group getting ready behind him, Sans took a deep breath. Today would be the day he finally went to the surface.

He fixed his glasses nervously. It had been a month ago when Alphys realized Sans was squinting. She had found him glasses, and it had solved his headache problem immediately. Sans figured it was due to constantly using code so often. He didn't think anything physical like that would last through the resets, but since seeing in general was more of a magical process for a skeleton, he wasn't really sure.

In his pocket, he held the signed documents from the king signifying Sans and the group to be Royal Ambassadors. There wasn't much the monsters could give in way of peace offerings, seeing as most of the stuff they had was recycled trash. All in all, the convoy could have easily been considered pathetic.

Sans refused to let that get him down. He would have jumped out of his skin when Alphys cleared her throat beside him. "G-good luck." She muttered. She was looking at his shins.

"hey, don't get over excited or anything." Sans laughed.

Alphys was nervous. He was glad Asgore hadn't put her in the convoy. Half because she would probably have been a nervous wreak, and half because if anything bad happened to them, she was an amazing scientist. Sans would have hated for her talent to go to waste.

"Just.... don't die." Alphys pleaded. She looked him straight in the eye sockets. "I don't think I can handle losing two captains."

She was thinking about Undyne again. Sans could see it. Everyone knew the two had been in love, and it had taken Alphys a long time to get to the place where she could talk about it.

Sans hugged her. He didn't think about it, but Alphys always was there for him. It was a really awkward hug, seeing as he had only ever hugged Papyrus on rare occasions. Alphys probably didn't hug people often, either. But they hugged.

"i'll be back in a few days, okay?" Sans assured. He almost added a promise, but caught it just before it slipped past his teeth.

Alphys nodded, and Sans led the group to the next room. Gerson was waiting for them at the exit. He didn't say anything, he just nodded as they passed.

The sun was high above them. It was early afternoon, and the monsters all stared at the sky with wonder. Some cried. Every face held a smile, and every soul brimmed with hope. Even Sans was swept up in the splendor.

The sky was a beautiful shade of blue, with a few wispy white clouds. Bird song was audible above the rustling of leaves the slight breeze kicked up. The scent of wild flowers only added to the absolute perfection of the day.

The monsters took a while to enjoy their first time on the surface. Sans stretched out in the grass, others explored the mountain or collected flowers. Sans had ordered them to meet back here in an hour.

Laying on his back, Sans closed his eyes. The smell of grass and dirt mixed with the fresh air made him drowsy. He focused on the sound of a bee buzzing to his left.

"Get out of my face, you shitty insect!" Sans jumped at the sudden intrusion. Looking around, he saw Flowey shoot the bee down with excellent accuracy.

"what are you doing here?" Sans asked with growing fear. Flowey's angry expression flipped to cheerful as he looked at Sans.

"Watching." The plant giggled. "Today is going to be very interesting, after all."

Sans stood up quickly. "what did you do?"

The smile stuck out its tongue. "Awe. If I told you that, you might try something."

Sans flared his eye. "you better fucking tell me."

Flowey gave a thoughtful hum. "Alright, but only 'cuz I'm your best friend!" He put extra emphasis on the last two words. "I did you a big favor, you know. Coming up here as an ambassador to lead the way. The humans, however, were so mean! Somehow, they got it into their minds that you monsters want vengeance!"

His smile grew wider and more creepy. "That you were going to bring humanity to it's knees!" It grinned its diabolic grin as it continued. "That you were going to give them the same fate they had forced on the monsters so long ago! Hahahahaha!!"

Sans listened in dread as it finished. "Now they're coming to kill you and your friends, and seal the monsters in the underground, forever!!!"

Sans' heart dropped. His dream was taken away once again. He raced into the woods, using his magic to try and find the others. The world was absolutely huge.

BANG! A gunshot went off in the west. He ran towards it, praying no one was hurt. He got there just as a clam monster did. Seven humans with big guns were marching up the mountain. Sans was horrified when he watched as one stepped straight through a pile of dust.

"Sans, what happened?" The clam yelled.

"get back to the cave!" Sans pushed the monster towards the mountain. "where's Heats Flamesman?"

Another shot rang out, and the clam fell. Sans turned back to help the monster, but he was already turning to dust. He ran up towards the cave, joined by the fiery monster.

"Don't ever come back!" The humans yelled behind them. Quieter, one ordered. "Cave 'em in."

Several loud explosions went off above Sans, and the roof started falling. Sans ran faster. He dived into the entryway, and sat, gasping for breath in the dust that followed. He looked around. No one else had made it back. Heats had gotten caught under the rubble.

His gasps turned to sobs. Once again, his hope and dream had been torn away from him. Was this all his future held? Would he spend the rest of his life finding something to hope for, and getting it, just for it to be ripped from his hands by Chara or Flowey?

He sobbed till the dust settled. He kept sobbing. Gerson showed up at some point and sat with him, but Sans took no notice. He had nothing to hope for. He couldn't live a hopeless life, yet he couldn't die either. What was he supposed to do? What was keeping him so god damn determined to live?

Chapter Text

"a fucking time machine?" Sans yelled, slamming some notes down in his father's work space.

Dad looked at Sans' face over his glasses, ignoring the notes on his desk. "Don't use such vulgar profanity in my presence, please." He replied calmly.

Sans refused to let himself get on a different subject. "you're supposed to be recreating a human soul! that's supposed to be our only priority!"

At sixteen, Sans had joined his father in being a scientist. He was the famous W. D. Gaster's right hand man. At seventeen, the humans had declared war on the monsters. King Asgore had ordered Gaster, as Royal Scientist, to find a way to synthesize the human soul for a monster to absorb. They were now a year into the research.

"I'm putting plenty of work into the synthetic soul. However, I'm sure you know, it's still got years of research before we can recreate it. This," He motioned to the papers Sans had violently brought to his attention. "is plan B."

Sans shook his head in disbelief. "what good is a time machine gonna do?"

Dad sighed. "Think about it, Sans. Something led up to this, right? All we need to do is go back and find out what the catalyst was. Then, we can stop this war from ever starting."

"oh okay, so we just hop in a shining time machine, and go back in time and fix everything!" Sans added as much peppy sarcasm as he could. "sounds like a plan, man."

"Would you stop acting like a child and think for a moment?" Dad stood and rooted around in a filing cabinet, pulling out a folder. He laid it on the table. "This isn't something I just started. I'm close. Very close."

Sans picked up the folder and looked at it. The notes weren't written in wingdings, which dad had started using for all notes and reports since the war had started. He had said it would take the humans longer to decipher the notes if they ever got their hands on them.

"these notes go back for years." Sans was surprised. "how come i haven't heard of this till now?"

Dad shrugged. "It was more of a personal project."

Sans sighed. "well, i thi-" Something started beeping. Probably test results. Sans looked at dad for one second more, then decided he had taken a long enough break.

He didn't have another chance to talk to his father about it all day. It seemed as if everyone needed things from him. He decided to work late, so he could finish the report he was working on.

Papyrus came by at around 10 pm. "Brother, I have brought you something to eat!" He yelled as he came in. Sans was glad for a reason to take a break.

"hey, bro. how was school?"

"We had an invasion drill in the middle of a math quiz, so I didn't have to finish it!" Papyrus beamed.

Sans laughed. "nice." He cleared off a chair for his brother and opened the lunchbox he was given. Spaghetti. "you make dinner?"

"No." Papyrus said downbeaten. "Father bought it on his way home." He shook it off quickly. "And how was your day at work?"

Sans grinned. "i found a secret. wanna check it out with me?"

Papyrus immediately sat up straighter. He was so tall. Sans felt a hint of jealously. "What secret?"

Sans jumped up. "follow me." He grabbed the file dad had showed him from the cabinet, and headed downstairs.

In one of the last, unused rooms, he found the machine. "What is this?" Papyrus asked blankly.

Sans was reading into the file more. "It's a time machine. It looks like it uses a mechanic similar to the magic my eye has."

Papyrus gasped. "Wowie!! A real time machine?!?"

Sans tried turning it on. "i wonder what programming he has worked into it?" It was unplugged. As soon as he plugged it in, it beeped and hummed to life.

"Sans, are you sure we should be messing with this?" Papyrus asked as he took a step back.

Sans laughed. "he still sucks at coding." Fixing the coding bugs were easy enough. "let's have a look at the chamber."

Walking around to the other side of the machine, Sans entered the chamber. "Paps, come look at this!" Dad was an amazing scientist, and a damn good engineer when he needed to be. "he's got it all rigged up."

Sans showed Papyrus several key mechanisms in the chamber, and explained what they did. It was all fascinating, and Sans could tell it had taken dad years to get the research for this.

"wanna check out the pressure lock?" He asked as he pulled Papyrus into the machine.

"Won't we get in trouble?" Papyrus was never one for doing anything immoral.

"we won't hurt anything." Sans shut the door. Messing with the lock mechanism, he figured out how to lock the door, pressurize the chamber, and unlock the door.

He was fiddling with the amount of pressure, when a red light started flashing. "Oops." Papyrus muttered.

Sans' heart dropped. "oops what?" Papyrus gave him a guilty smile just before the explosion.

It wasn't a fiery explosion. It was a magical one. Sans could feel all his magic burn intensely. He blacked out almost immediately, his body opting for painless darkness rather than whatever it was he had experienced in that second of awareness.

~

He woke up in the snow. Papyrus lay on top of him protectively. Thinking back to the kid's broken arm, he wondered how much his brother had endured before he passed out. The thought made him feel sick.

He slipped out from under his brother, and looked around. He was in a snowy forest. The lab and any civilization was gone.

"Papyrus, get up." He shook his brother.

Papyrus stirred after a while. He looked around in confusion, then back at Sans. Sans was surprised when he didn't say anything. Maybe he was tired.

"come on. let's find out where we are." Sans waited for Papyrus to stand, and lead the way through the woods. They came to a road a while later. "hmm... left or right?"

"Right." Papyrus answered curtly.

"you okay, Paps?" Sans was getting worried. His brother was never this quiet.

Papyrus looked away. "I can't remember." He grabbed his arm nervously. "Who are you? How did we get here? Why can't I remember anything?"

Sans felt the pressing pain in his chest again. "i..." Amnesia? Papyrus had amnesia? "don't worry." Sans smiled. "it's gonna be okay."

Papyrus didn't look so sure. Sans continued. "i'm Sans. your brother. uh.. if you don't remember your name, it's Papyrus."

"Papyrus." He repeated. He looked around a little bit. "It's very nice to meet you." He said after a second. "Again."

Sans felt as if a shard of ice had gotten lodged in his soul. Under confident Papyrus was a horrible sight.

"come on, Paps. let's see if we can find a town or something." Sans lead the way down the road.

"Are we lost?" Papyrus followed slightly behind.

"yup." Sans forced confidence. Walking backward, he pulled his hands out of his pockets and gave an exaggerated shrug. "i can honestly say i have no idea where we are." Papyrus looked down in silence again. "don't worry. if worse comes to worse, we may have to chill out in the woods for a night."

Papyrus made a face at Sans pun. Progress. "but hey," Sans continued. "i'm just glad to have such a cool dude with me. i'd rather not be ice-olated out here."

"Oh my god..." Papyrus sighed and covered his face. "Are you sure we're brothers?"

Sans tipped his head trying to keep his smile constant. That had hurt quite a bit. "whadda ya mean?"

"Your sense of humor is absolutely horrendous." He removed his hands from his face. He had enjoyed the jokes. Even with amnesia, he was still readable.

"wow." Sans relaxed. "giving me the cold, hard truth, huh?" He had been terrified he had come off poorly on Papyrus, but it seemed to be fine.

"No!" Papyrus grinned. He stomped into the lead and pretended to be upset.

"come on, bro. don't give me the cold shoulder."

"If you keep making ridiculous jokes I'm leaving you behind!"

Sans laughed. "no wait, there's no need to be so cold hearted!" He ran to catch up.

Papyrus gave a snort. Sans took up step next to him and grinned. Maybe it wasn't so bad for Papyrus to have amnesia. At least, not till they could get home. The poor kid would probably miss dad terribly, and so long as he was still the same Papyrus, everything seemed to be okay.

Chapter Text

Flowey popped up way too soon. Gerson had just gone to talk to the king, and it seemed as soon as Sans was alone, the weed popped up. "You should probably go talk to the king. He seems like he's having a hard time calming everyone down."

Sans was up in an instant. However, instead of obeying the flower, he attacked it. He shot attacks at him as fast as he could. All his rage flowed from his body into the attacks.

"Chara." He muttered, dodging several flurries of bullets thrown at him.

"Can I help you?" They replied. Sans could tell they were ticked off.

"what the fuck do you think?" Sans snapped. He had Flowey on the defensive, but that wouldn't last without the souls.

"hmm..." They hummed, taking their sweet time. "Oh! I know! You wanted to ask how I was! Since you haven't talked to me in sooo many months, right?"

"of all times-" Sans broke off. He had to concentrate. He had almost gotten hit that time. Flowey knew how the rules broke. He and Sans both had their dirty tricks, and Flowey was always getting more cunning.

"I'm doing alright, Sans. How are you?" Chara pestered angrily. "How's your job in the Royal Guard? You haven't talked to me since you fucking got it!"

Sans was nearing his limit. Without soul power, he and Flowey were pretty even in strength. "Chara, please." He muttered even quieter.

Chara thought for a minute. "I'll save your pathetic run, so long as you give me three free favors."

Being obligated to say 'yes' to Chara three times without any voice in the matter was a death wish in the making.

Flowey caught a hold of Sans' leg. He had gotten distracted. In a split second, he found himself face to face with Flowey's bullets. Another instant, and Gerson was in front of him.

Sans was dropped to the ground. He got up and ran to Gerson's side. The bullets had broken through his shell. "oh my god..." Sans felt the burning tears ready to spill over again.

"Heh! Like hell I'll die!" Gerson scoffed. "You go see the king. Apologize and take responsibility for your actions before you reset."

As always, Gerson took care of his role as Sans' conscience. Sans nodded. Fuck. He knew he would see Gerson again, but it hurt still. Gerson turning to dust hurt him severely. Looking at the dust on his gloves, being reminded of Chara's disgusting joy in covering them self in the dust of monsters, it hurt so goddamn much.

Sans forced himself up. He walked quietly through the Last Chamber and made his way to Asgore's home. Chara was probably sulking again.

The king was out front. A crowd of monsters were crowded in the passage. The Royal Guard was the only thing holding them back. It seemed as if all of them were talking.

That is, till Sans was seen. A quick hush immediately fell over everyone. The only exception was a few whispers noting the dust on him.

"Sans, what happened?" Asgore asked.

Sans took a second to get control of his emotions. "everyone died." His voice cracked at the end irregardless.

Deathly silence followed. Sans focused on breathing. He couldn't cry here. "Are you serious?" Asgore barely breathed out. Sans could only nod.

"Murderer!" A monster from the back screamed. The floodgates opened. A monster quickly slipped past Burgerpants, and ran at Sans screaming. Everyone seemed to want to attack him.

Immediately, Sans pushed all the monsters besides the king and the Royal Guard to the ground with blue magic. He didn't know what else to do.

"i'm sorry." The tears he had held back fell without invitation. "god i'm so... so sorry." He dropped to his knees and covered his face, sobbing now. "i wanted to protect you all. i really wanted it to work, and i... i ignored..."

"Sans, you need to let off!" Asgore yelled. Sans looked up to see all the monsters pressed flat against the ground, gasping for breath.

"what?" He tried to free them.

Chara poured more soul energy into him. Having a target, he couldn't stop using magic with the amount of power he had, even if he wanted to.  His eye flared without him wanting it to.

"Sans! Stop now!" Asgore yelled with more urgency. Sans watched through the code as their HP decreased more and more. His glasses had broken in the cave in, so some code was fuzzy again, but he could still make it out.

"Chara, please..." Sans begged brokenly.

"Next time, don't forget me." They ordered, flooding his system with twice as much magical power than he had ever been given before.

Sans watched as monster after monster turned to dust. Asgore begged and pleaded, but finally, he had had enough. To save the handful of monsters left, he summoned his trident, and ran it through Sans' soul.

~

Sans woke up with Chara's laughter in his head. He screamed. "SHUT UP!" He screamed. Over and over he screamed it. He had fallen on the floor, and Asgore was trying to comfort him in utter confusion. He screamed more. He banged his head against the floor, mixing his tears with blood.

He blacked out.

Waking up, he rolled over. "GET UUUUUUPP!!!" Chara yelled.

"no." Sans muttered. His headache was back with interest. It was more pain than he had ever thought he could bear, yet he did nothing to mend his wounds.

"Why?"

"no."

"That isn't an answer."

"no."

The process continued for quite a while. Asgore came in again, Sans didn't care. Asgore was speaking to him. Sans didn't care. Nothing mattered.

He stayed like that for god only knows how long. When he was done, he stood up quietly, and left. Asgore asked where he was going, but Sans ignored him.

He had one goal. Kill Flowey, kill Chara. The first part wasn't so hard. The second, would be incredibly difficult. He had an idea where to look, so he headed to Hotland. He needed his glasses if he was going to read the code.

Gerson was waiting at the elevator. "Sans, are you okay?" He looked shocked at the blood covering Sans' face. The skeleton's head was cracked severely, yet he walked past in silence. He didn't even look at Gerson.

"Sans, what happened after I died?" Gerson asked, following.

"I can tell you what happened." Flowey giggled, but Sans cut it off. Part one was accomplished.

Determination.

Chapter Text

Alphys looked equally as horrified when Sans walked into the lab. He knew where she kept her spare glasses, and grabbed them. The royal scientist was saying things. Chara was saying things. Sans didn't care. He grabbed the glasses and left.

Gerson was waiting for Sans outside. Sans walked right past. Gerson turned Sans around, saying something. Sans refused to let the words make sense.

Sans was forced to look at the worried expression on Gerson's face, though. He wondered if, on a normal occasion, it would have caused him to cave and give into what Gerson wanted. He was sure it would have, but now, he just didn't care.

Giving an empty laugh, he turned back around and kept walking. Gerson tried again, but Sans just shook him off. He was numb now. He needed to use this feeling to completely obliterate Chara.

He trudged through Snowdin in quiet. He half expected to see Monster Kid, but he had started over. The child was still at Waterfall, mourning Undyne's death.

Walking through the forest, he refused to note any traps. He couldn't think of Papyrus right now.

He got to the door at last. Not the door to the ruins. A hidden door. Gyftrot had lived in this cave, yet no one knew what the door was for. Sans did.

He hacked the door open. The dog who was normally asleep was gone. Sans didn't care. He looked at the code.

As always, this room had different code. He had come into this room on several occasions, and learned that it held all the workings of the universe in it. He was sure there would be a way to destroy Chara in here.

When he had first found this room, he had had no idea how to read the code. It worked differently from any other area of the world.

Normally, when he beheld an object, it would tell him its specific stats. Its uses, its point of origin, its break points. Food items and other special things had additional information, but always about the specific item. Only about that item.

Here, code didn't cling to items. It seemed to run freely, and in groups. Folders. Finding what he needed would be as easy as looking in the correct folders. Except it wasn't easy. There were hundreds of folders, and for some, Sans couldn't even understand why they were there. So many were empty, it seemed like a waste of space. 

"What is this place?" Chara asked. 

Sans ignored her and started looking. Something could help him. He knew it. He also knew Chara would be too interested in figuring out the new type of code, they wouldn't realize what he was doing until it was too late. Hopefully.

It had taken Sans hours, but finally, he found something. Folder location C:\Users\ColorfulNoodle\AppData\Local\UNDERTALE. Opening it up, He saw numbers and letters involved with different members of the universe, but the main thing, was the name Chara. It was in every single document in the code, so in order to destroy her completely, he had to obliterate the whole file. 

He knew it could potentially destroy the world, but the way things were going, he figured he could either destroy it now, or later. The only difference was the amount of suffering he would have to endure before the end.

He had learned about changing code a while before resets had started. He had only experimented a little. Code never lied, so changing it to make it false was dangerous. Obliterating it was something else entirely. Sans only knew of one group of coding that had ever been ripped entirely from the world. 

Dad.

Sans' dad had fallen into the CORE. Even after most monsters died, their code was still on file, and could be accessed. Sans had searched for W. D. Gaster's code for years. The closest he had gotten were some in-code monsters around Hotland. Followers of some kind.

Sans headed for the CORE. If those monsters were right, being thrown into the CORE could potentially destroy your very existence. He used a shortcut to get there. He had learned from Gerson how to get from one end of the Underground to the other using shortcuts. If he had tried going the long way, Chara might have caught on.

"What are you doing?!?" Chara screamed. Sans didn't even hesitate. He threw the file into the CORE. On a whim, he jumped in after it. If the world be damned, so was he. If not, he preferred the black abyss of the void to the toils of living, anyways. He was lazy like that.

Chara, and all the codes associated with her, fell. Sans watched as the flames grew closer. His magic flared one last time as Chara tried to evade this death, and he watched the folder flutter down in front of him.

Sans would have loved to live longer. Watch Monster Kid grow up and join the Royal Guard, see Gerson retire in happiness, see Alphys and Asgore once more and just hang out, safely escort the monsters to their new houses on the surface.

He felt those dreams were all out of reach, yet something pulled him towards them. A primal instinct to survive. To succeed. A desire to love and be loved. Or just a longing for happiness.

Sans didn't want to die. He needed to, but he didn't want to. He knew this was the only way to stop the resets. Even this plan was a long shot. He needed to try, anyways. He needed to be Determined about it.

Sans watched the folder shatter into ones and zeros at the bottom. He didn't even make it that far before he felt the timelines pulling him back. Chara gave an ungodly scream. Then, everything went black.

Chapter Text

"What was home like, brother?" Papyrus asked as Sans closed Fluffy Bunny. Sans was surprised Papyrus was still awake, but it seemed like he wasn't sleeping so well recently.

It wouldn't have been concerning if Papyrus got more that three solid hours of sleep on normal. Now he was getting closer to one hour. Maybe he was getting sick.

Sans' smile faltered slightly. "uh.. it was okay." He put the book on the desk. "we had friends, and stuff, but things were really stressful on the surface."

He hadn't told Papyrus about Gaster, or the war. He had only told the kid that they had moved from the surface. The poor kid couldn't remember anything from his childhood.

"But what was it like?" Papyrus asked again.

Sans hummed a note of contemplation. "it was like down here, but all the areas mixed. during some months, there was snow. others, there was lots of rain and mud. then it got really hot. but there were lots of nice days, too."

Papyrus smiled. "Was there spaghetti?"

"yep." Sans laughed. "there was a place called Italy, and it was famous for its pasta of all kinds."

"Really?!? Wowie!! Sans, can we go there someday?"

Sans shrugged. "maybe when i get us home we can."

"Are we really going to go home?"

"of course. i promised, right?" Papyrus nodded. "you know how much i hate breaking promises."

"Can you tell me more about the surface?"

Sans sat back in the chair. "there's tons to do. if you wanna learn, you can study the stars, the plants, the different languages and types of people, the animals, or hundreds of other subjects. if you would rather explore, you can go to a dessert, or a forest, or a mountain, or the sea, or any of the seven continents. if you like food, you can try Italian, Mexican, American, Chinese, Indian..."

He talked about it till Papyrus fell asleep. He looked at his brother for a while. The seventeen year old looked ready to jump awake and run a marathon. That was how Papyrus slept. It was very strange to Sans, who slept more like a sack of popatoes.

Sans turned off the light and closed the door. Skipping the noisy step, he tiptoed down stairs and out to his lab. He had been trying to remake dad's machine for two years, now.

He grabbed his coffee, and looked over the partial blueprints he had found. They weren't even of the same machine he had stupidly fiddled with on the surface. They were for a failed attempt dad had tested.

Making a working time machine out of someone's failure was hard. It was time consuming. Sans looked at the clock. He would probably end up pulling another all-nighter.

~

"Sans! You're going to be late for work!" Papyrus banged on Sans' bedroom door. There was a groan from Sans as he slid to the floor. "I have made you a delicious breakfast, but once again, you will have to eat it once you get there!"

Sans mumbled a thanks and lay on the floor for a good five minutes before finally standing up. He threw on his sneakers and headed downstairs. No need to change clothes, he had done that yesterday.

Papyrus looked him up and down. "Sans, did you even take a shower?"

"nah." Sans replied through a yawn. "i gotta get to work, remember?"

Papyrus handed him the spaghetti, and touched his shoulder lovingly. "I hope you get out of this slump soon, brother. It isn't like you."

Sans was shocked. It was like Papyrus had physically hit him. Had it really been that noticeable? Did Papyrus really know he was depressed?

It had been so long since the timelines had started repeating. Sans had used the time to work long hours on the machine, but he had only ever hit dead ends. Papyrus only saw three years of research, but Sans had gone through four, maybe five, years if you included all the timelines.

He had finally given up. He had no more leads, and nothing had worked. He wanted so badly for it to have worked.  Maybe he could have escaped the repetition of days, but he wasn't good enough. He had broken his promise.

Slowly, he had stopped caring about what happened. Nothing really mattered in the end. Each time he reset, he would end up just sleeping it all away. Maybe if he waited long enough, the timelines would correct themselves. Sleeping was the quickest way to pass time.

He also worked on his jokes. He thought up puns for as many things as he could. It was really the only way to amuse himself, and the reactions he got were interesting for a while. Besides, being known as a jokester was better than being known for being depressed.

He grabbed the lunch and nodded. "I guess it's pasta time for me to be at work." He pointed at the sack and watched as Papyrus's face contorted in annoyance.

"Sans! Get out!" Papyrus yelled, pointing at the door.

Sans laughed. That was a very new reaction. He waved goodbye, and headed for snowdin forest. He chucked the sack lunch into the forest, knowing if he ate it, he would be sick for days. He enjoyed hot dogs much more, anyways.

He sat at his station for a while. It was quiet and lonely. He meandered about, looking for anything to waste time on.

"Sans!" Papyrus ran into the room with his hands behind his back. It was around noon by then. "Guess what I found at the dumps!!"

"is it a porosimeter?" Sans asked. He was sure it wasn't, but he had as much a chance with that guess as with any other.

"I don't even know what that means!" Papyrus yelled.

Sans shrugged. "i was just talking to Alphys about how she should look at a soul's physical form more closely. maybe a porosimeter could help."

"Well, I am not interested in your sciencey stuff!" Papyrus stomped. He had emphasized several words, timing them each to match up with his stomping.

"yeah... ya know, i don't even know if a soul has pores to begin with." Sans winked. "it was worth a guess, though."

Papyrus stared at Sans for a few minutes in utter disbelief at his idiocy. "It's a lamp!" He yelled in annoyance. "Just a plain, old lamp!"

He took out the ugliest lamp Sans had ever seen, and put it on the ground. The thing was just weirdly shaped. The base was lopsided, and the lampshade looked like it had been sat on and then stretched out to try and fit the lamp again.

"wow. hey i kinda like that lamp." Sans chuckled. It was the shitiest lamp in existence. It reminded him of himself.

"Do you want to know what I am going to use it for?" Papyrus was so excited over this pathetic little lamp. That was what Sans loved about his brother. Papyrus was able to love even the shitiest of things.

"illuminate me." Sans winked, trying to push his depression down as much as he could.

Papyrus stared at Sans for a long time. "I'm disowning you right now!" He yelled.

"i was just trying to lighten the mood." His brother threw up his hands and stormed off. Sans called after him, "wait, bro! you forgot your lamp!"

"Forget it!" Was all Papyrus said in return as he marched away.

Sans sighed and looked the lamp over. It was frozen to the ground. "welp. so much for that."

He walked past the new monument and went off to explore the woods. He had started a few timelines ago. It was well known there was nothing new in the woods, but he had enough free time, he had decided to make sure.

He walked for quite a while, and eventually he came to a door. It was big and old looking. He scanned it with his magic. Unopenable from this side.

He banged on the door. "knock knock."

Obviously there was no answer, so he answered for himself. "who's there?"

"interrupting cow."

"interrupting cow wh-moo!" Sans hadn't thought about how awkward it would be to do both sides of that joke. "it's better on someone else." He said as he knocked again. He could stand to do this for a while. It was good practice. He could see himself spending a lot of time here the next few weeks.

Chapter Text

Sans stared at the station in front of him. He had expected a tree shaped crack in a ceiling, not this. It didn't much matter. He took off his glasses and rested his head again. He was so tired. His head was too fuzzy to think.

~

Sans woke up with a jolt. He was still at the sentry station. The human walked by, taking little notice of him past a knowing smile. Sans had to squint to see it.

Sans grabbed his glasses off the table. He was about to put them on, when he realized. If this was Day one of Frisk's reset, why did he have glasses?

He tried looking at the glasses through the code. Immediately his vision was filled with black "ERROR" messages. He dropped the glasses and covered his eyes.

Not only couldn't he see, but the way his magic was trying to correct itself, it was extremely uncomfortable. Sans tried to calm his magic down, but doing so seemed to make it worse. He ended up having to wait for it to pass. Eventually, it did.

He put the mysterious glasses on, and made a shortcut to Snowdin. He had done it so many times, he didnt need to see the code to accomplish it.

Papyrus ran up. "Sans! You'll never believe what happened to me today!" The skeleton was beaming with glee at seeing a human.

Sans beheld his brother in wonder. He was alive. Papyrus was alive and well. Sans was so unprepared to see Papyrus again, he couldn't even form proper words. He stood like a deer in the headlights, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

"Sans, are you alright?" Papyrus moved to put his hand on Sans' arm.

Sans suddenly remembered all the monsters. All of the death people around him had suffered. He jerked away, not daring to risk that with his dear brother.

"Sans?" Papyrus looked hurt and confused. Understandably so, but Sans still couldn't get a grasp on this.

Destroying the files hadn't destroyed anything. It had only reset the world. Why to here, though? Why not to Sans' Day one? Or Flowey's?

Why could Sans not use his code reading? Why did he have glasses? Why had Chara passed right by without talking to him?

Normally, they would talk to everyone their first run. Even if their memory hadn't been wiped clean, the fact that Sans had been in a different location would have been enough to cause them to look into it, right?

But the smile they had given him was enough to answer that question. They remembered just as much as he did. They must have taken over Frisk's soul by force.

Papyrus got on one knee, to where he was closer to Sans' height. "Sans. What happened?" He looked very worried.

Sans shook his head. "sorry, bro. i feel kinda out of it." Papyrus tried touching him again. Sans took a step back. "uh... can we... not?" Hurting Papyrus would be unbearable. It would be too much for Sans to cope with. He took yet another step away from his brother.

"Sans..." Papyrus looked ready to cry. He looked so incredibly hurt and upset. Sans looked away. The pressure he had often felt on his soul at his brother's distress was unbearable.

He would have loved nothing more than to run into his brother's arms and cry, but having hope in the fact that Papyrus was alive seemed more like a trap than anything else he had hoped for since getting the power to begin with.

"i... gotta go." Sans backed up more, then turned around and ran off. Leaving his brother forlorn in the snow.

He ran past Chara, who was just making it across the colorful tiles. Without Papyrus to activate the trap, it was just an average room.

He ran all the way to the door to the Ruins. It was partially open. His curiosity drove him inside. His heart dropped as he realized what was happening.

Chara was making a genocide run. Toriel's ashes were in the basement. Sans ran back through the ruins, but it was no use. Chara had killed them all.

Papyrus.

Sans ran to the closest door to shortcut to Snowdin. As he stepped through, he realized with horror he had messed it up. He had screwed up the entry point instead of changing the destination. Not being able to see the code was harder than he had thought.

At the same time his vision turned into a static of "ERROR", his hearing went haywire. Sans wasn't sure what he heard, but it was loud, scratchy, and computerized. He fell away from the door, gasping for breath.

He got up and ran back to Snowdin. He hadn't even noticed the monster dust mixed with snow on his journey towards the Ruins, now it was all he could see. Why had he been so blind?

He stopped at the beginning of the room between Waterfall and Snowdin. Chara was grinning widely. Around their neck, they wore Papyrus's scarf.

Sans stared at them in silence. Still catching his breath, he felt the sticky tears stream down his face.

"You tried to destroy me." Chara said messing with their hand. On it, the tough glove was covered in his brother's dust. "That wasn't very nice."

Sans hadn't ever felt hopelessness like this. He dropped to his hands and knees, sobs catching and wheezing out in a pathetic display.

Chara watched him with the biggest smile on their face. When they had seen enough, they turned towards Waterfall and left him alone in the fog. Sans dropped even lower, exhausted from sprinting all the way through the Ruins and Snowdin.

~

Sans woke up, and headed down the path to New Home. He had a feeling Chara would be waiting for him if he wasn't at the Last Corridor. He didn't know why he was going, he just went.

Chara was sitting, braiding a flower crown, when Sans entered. The sickly golden flowers complimented them perfectly.

They looked him up and down, then nodded their head towards the other side of the room. Sans knew he had to obey. They had the reset power. They could do whatever they wanted.

Sans stood in his normal spot, and watched as Chara stood, put the flower crown on their head, and slowly walked over to meet him.

They walked as if they were the ruler of the world. Their confidence emanating off them. They knew who was in control, and they weren't afraid to show it.

Chapter Text

"Chara, can you just get this over with?" He asked, looking at the floor.

Chara waited. Their smile daring him to say another word out of line. He knew it would be a mistake. He obeyed their unspoken command.

"it's a beautiful day outside..." Sans' voice cracked twice during the monologue. Each time it did, he paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "on days like these, kids like you...."

The last words choked in his throat. Saying them would throw him back into a world of torment. Back to fighting Chara over and over and over. He couldn't stand that.

"Chara, please..." He knew he would regret speaking out of turn, but the way he saw it, he would regret it either way. "why does it have to be like this?"

Chara's smile didn't falter in the slightest. "You're the one who did this. You were the one who threw my file into the CORE."

"i..." What could Sans say to counter that? What could he do to make Chara forgive him? "i just wanted you out of my head."

Chara chuckled. "And your wish was granted." They put a slight tone of pure, sadistic enjoyment into their words. "You got a 'true' reset."

This was not a true reset. This was Chara's way of getting back at Sans. They nodded at him to finish his speech and start the fight.

"kids like you... should be burning in Hell." He ended up barely whispering it. He pushed all his pain into the first attack. He knew it would have to be a good fight, or Chara would get bored.

Training with Gerson had taught him a lot about using the time skips as a surprise factor. He fought his normal attacks for several runs, then when Chara was comfortable with them, he switched them drastically. They fell for it.

"Good boy!" They praised when they came back. Their face radiated pleasure.

Sans felt lower than scum, succumbing to Chara on such a drastic level. Disobeying her was a terrifying thought, however, and one Sans dared not think. One thing he had learned, things could always be made worse. He dared not let that happen here.

He was on the verge of tears constantly, yet he was afraid of crying in front of Chara. Doing so would show how weak he was. It would annoy them. Sans had the feeling it would be as bad as disobedience.

The fights wore on for longer than Sans had ever thought he could bear. His nerves were at their end. Yet he fought to survive. He knew he would die, but he dared not stop.

He was exhausted. All his exhaustion carried between resets. He also stayed wherever he was instead of going to where he had been before the reset. He wondered if it was the same thing as to why he still had the glasses.

His despair grew and grew till he couldn't bear it anymore. "when does this end?" He finally asked, taking Chara by surprise. "even if i die, you'll bring me back, won't you?" Their smile confirmed that. "so when does it end?"

They shrugged. "When I get bored of hearing you beg for mercy, I suppose."

Sans slumped to the floor. He was too exhausted to stand anymore. The weight of Chara's words pressed him down further. He leaned against a pillar, and focused on breathing. He was so close to tears, he was afraid to even look at Chara.

They waited for him. He calmed down enough to get some rest, but he dared not sleep. Sleep was seconds away, yet he forced himself awake.

"Sans, I'm getting bored." Chara's smile was drawn.

Despite the rest, Sans felt as if fighting, or even standing, was completely beyond his mental and physical capacity. He shook his head to tell Chara so.

They sighed. "I suppose I can go find you some motivation. You owe me, though." They left with a giggle.

Sans leaned his head back, and cried. With Chara out of the room, he finally let his tension release. He was useless to stop them, and now he was nothing more than their favorite toy.

~

"Sans! Are you alright?" Sans woke up to see Papyrus shaking him awake. Chara was nowhere to be seen.

"Papyrus?" Sans barely breathed the name. He had definitely not gotten enough sleep, but seeing his brother pushed his exhaustion aside.

"I heard you needed me. Are you alright?" Papyrus looked his brother over in concern.

Sans took in a ragged breath, and let out a big sob in response. He felt every emotion known to the world in that moment. Love for his brother, hate for Chara. Joy at seeing him, dread for knowing what came next. Comfort at the hug Papyrus gave in response, and fear at the unknown mind of Chara.

It was overwhelming. He couldn't bear it anymore. He gripped his brother tightly and cried like a lost child. Papyrus comforted his brother in complete silence.

Sans ended up curled into the fetal position in Papyrus's lap. His breath catching sporadically from his crying. Papyrus was still silent. He rubbed Sans' arm comfortingly.

After several hours, Papyrus finally spoke. "Sans.... is there anything you want to talk about?"

Sans didn't move. He didn't want to talk about Chara. He thought over his life. From beginning to end.

"remember what i said about our home on the surface?" Sans finally asked.

Papyrus blinked in surprise. "Mostly, why?"

"can you tell me what you remember?"

Papyrus nodded. "I still don't have any firsthand memories, but I remember you telling me about Italy. The land of pasta."

Sans gave something similar to a chuckle. It was more like a soft snort. Of course Papyrus would remember Italy.

"I remember you telling me about the stars. How they move? And the sunshine. And how I fell from a tree when I was a kid, and I broke my arm clean through."

Sans listened as his brother recalled all he could about the surface. Talking about clouds, and animals, and butterflies, and the moon. It was a nice distraction for a while.

Chara came in after a while and ruined it. Sans had sat up by now. Papyrus stopped talking when Chara started down the hall. He looked put off by them. Sans stood defensively in front of Papyrus.

"Feel better?" Chara chirped. Their smile was proud. They expected a thanks. Sans wasn't going to give one.

Sans was forced to hope. Despite everything, he wanted his brother to live. Chara had known that. That was why they had allowed Papyrus to come. They knew Sans would fight forever if only to save his brother.

"hey, Papyrus." Sans glanced back at his brother, who had stood by now. "don't get involved, okay?"

Papyrus looked utterly confused. "What?"

"i mean it. even if i get hurt, even if i die, you don't do anything. i want you to promise me." Papyrus fumbled for words. "please..."

After a second, Papyrus nodded. "Okay." He was shaking. "I... I believe in you, Sans."

Sans felt as if he had been stabbed. He swayed slightly, his grief taking over for one second. He and Papyrus were just dead men talking, in the end. Chara saved, and faced off against Sans.

"it's a beautiful day outside."

Chapter Text

Every time Sans killed Chara, Papyrus would run out and hug him. "i need to rest up." Sans said every time. Papyrus thought it was over each time. How wonderful it must be to be so ignorant.

He took the time between resets to catch his breath a little before the next fight. It was getting harder and harder. Papyrus kept him going. Always cheering him on.

He fought Chara over and over. The more he thought, the more he wondered at his conundrum. Any of even the slightest of injuries he obtained during the fight stayed with him through resets.

He knew why Chara remembered. Chara meant character. That title alone meant that no matter how the world was reset, Chara knew everything. Not Frisk, per say, but definitely Chara.

Why didn't resets affect him at all? Was he too close to obliteration? Perhaps the world thought he was destroyed, and now ignored any code of his entirely. What did the world see his code as? Sans knew the answer. It popped in front of his face any time he tried to examine code. He was an error. He didn't belong here anymore.

That begged a question. If he died, would he stay dead through the resets? The thought should have prompted him to try, but any time he decided to, he would kill them, and Papyrus would cheer him on.

He felt as if he was being pushed to live by Papyrus. Even if it was illogical, or impossible, he wanted to be with Papyrus. He wanted to live and belong in the world again. He had the smallest fragment of hope in his ability to be alive.

He fought on. Over and over Chara died. They really weren't taking it seriously, it was all just a game anyways. They made sloppy mistakes and didn't try to focus much on patterns. They were just here to entertain themself.

Sans was fighting for his life. And he was losing. He was getting more and more tired. He was hardly standing by now. Only his Determination kept him on his feet, and that was waning fast.

Chara noticed. "You get tired easy." They commented. Sans dropped to his hands and knees, gasping for breath. Their words gave him enough reprieve that he couldn't stand through it. "This was much more fun before."

Sans felt as if he was dying. His magic was low, and he was starving. "i can't do this." His voice cracked as he saw the teardrops stain the tile.

"That's okay, I'll just have to give you some incentive." Chara walked past him, and headed for Papyrus. Sans didn't move.

"H-Human, what are you..." Papyrus's sentence turned into a ragged gasp. Sans didn't need to turn to know what had happened.

Chara stayed behind Sans for a while longer. Sans was sitting up now, crying. Chara stood in front of him, their hands behind their back. "If you fall again, before I kill you, I'll take him for good."

As they spoke, they brought Papyrus's scarf from behind their back. Chara had scooped up his dust into it and carefully dumped it over Sans' head. Almost as a sick reminder of the monster's burial ritual.

Seeing his loved one's ash cascade off his forehead, Sans felt his horror and pain meld into his soul. It triggered something he didn't know he could feel. It amounted to a sort of rage he couldn't control. He jumped up, infuriated, and snatched Papyrus's scarf from the killer's hands.

His hands were trembling. His soul felt as if it would shatter any second. Sans' eyes flared to life at his distress, causing the error messages to pop over his vision once more.

He felt his code glitching as his magic grew. Constantly trying to correct itself and match the info given by the world around him, but he was an error. There was no way his magic could match when it wasn't supposed to exist in this world. It hurt, but not nearly as much as the pain he felt at his inability to protect Papyrus.

Sans' balance faltered for a second, making him stagger. "i just realized something..." Sans forced himself to relax. He knew exactly what was going on, and how to fix it. "you're the kind of person who won't ever be happy..."

Relaxing made Sans' magic calm down. He looked at Chara to see fear etched into their face. Excitement underneath, but fear for sure.

He looked at his hands to see their color was flickering. He could feel when it changed, as a glitch in his code. The scarf in his left hand was the only consistent color. It was curious to see, but Sans was too preoccupied to care.

"once you get bored of me, you're not gonna leave." He laughed. "you're just gonna find a new toy."

Chara flashed a smirk. Sans flashed one right back. That made Chara step back. "so long as there's a universe to toy with, you won't ever stop."

Sans had watched code be destroyed. He knew how it worked, now. He tested it out. A pillar glitched a little, then disappeared entirely. Sans could do this with the entire world.

Chara took another step back. They had obviously not thought about this. Sans destroyed the code across the floor around them, isolating them to that one spot. Sans knew the code of this world amazingly well. He was confident he could destroy it all.

The world around them fell to pieces. Sans kept Chara's code intact, but any other code was obliterated entirely. Even the scarf in his hand was destroyed. Soon, it was just the two of them.

Sans could feel himself blinking out of consciousness as he got lower on magic. Chara looked horrified to say the least. Sans destroyed her last.

He had wanted her to see the world's destruction. He wanted to show her his defiance, and he had. Chara disappeared into a simple scattering of digits.

There was nothing left. The universe had been destroyed. Finally, he could rest. Sans felt the cold grip of unconsciousness fold around him. His job was finally over. He could give up on the downward spiral this world had become.

Chapter Text

The most noticeable thing was the suffocating quiet. It wasn't as if you were sitting in Snowdin forest at night, and it was just quiet. This was a complete absence of sound. Like the emptiness was constantly absorbing even the most minute whisper of life. There was nothing.

That is what Sans woke up to. He stood, having no idea where he was. There was nothing around him except pure white nothingness. No color, no sound. Only Sans.

Slowly, he remembered what had happened. Was this where you went when you stopped existing? No. That didn't seem right. He was existing here, wasn't he?

He walked around, looking for a way out. Anything. Not having anything to focus on was driving him crazy. The silence didn't help. He had no way to know if he had even moved an inch.

"hello?" He called. His voice sounded muted. Absorbed slightly even before it had reached his own ears. It was strange.

No one answered him. He called again. He sat down, fiddling with his zipper. He zipped it up and down his jacket, glad for a way to make even the slightest bit of noise.

He sat criss-cross. Folding his hands in his lap. Waiting. Nothing changed. He took off his glasses wondering if maybe he could figure out why they had come with him. He hummed random notes to fill the quiet.

His glasses were definitely the ones from Alphys. Red ones. They were really big, but he preferred them like that. How did anyone see out of those tiny slit ones like dad used to wear? Sans felt he would easily get annoyed by them. He put his glasses back on, waiting again for any change.

He didn't know why he was waiting, the question never even entered his mind. All he knew was there had to be something next. There was going to be another psychopath trying to destroy everything, there had to be. This couldn't be it.

He missed dad. Sure he hadn't gotten along all that great with the guy, but Gaster really was a great scientist, and he really did care about Sans when it counted. He thought back on his childhood, looking for ways he would improve it if he could go back.

Not that he could. Usually, peolle said they wouldn't change even the worst part about their childhood, since it made them who they are now. Sans hated who he was. He hated what had happened. He would change anything in an instant if he could live a happy life.

What would have happened if he hadn't broken protocol to mess with dad's machine. He was so stupid to have done that. He could hardly remember what he was feeling when he did it, but he was sure he had done it out if spite for his father not telling him. Thinking about it now made him feel even worse about himself.

He decided to sleep. He lay back, looking at the whiteness above him. He enjoyed sleeping. It was really the best way to pass time, so he slept.

And slept.

And slept...

How long had he slept? He hadn't kept track of time. It felt like a very long time, but it also felt like nothing compared to this place. Time didn't change this place. Time was relative, and here, there wasnothing to compare with.

He stood. "hello!" He yelled.

No answer. Sans looked around. What if there was no one left? He had destroyed everyone's code. What if he was alone? Forever?

"ANYONE!" He screamed, panic rising in his chest. "PAPYRUS! ALPHYS! ANYBODY HELP ME!!!"

Sans screamed and screamed. "PLEASE, COME BACK! I'M SORRY!" He cried.

Filled with regret, he started pushing his memories deep within him. He focused all his attention on screaming. Thinking about the others hurt. It killed him. So he pushed the memories away.

He would scream for help till his throat got sore and raspy. Someone would hear him, right? There had to be someone else. He couldn't be alone all his life. He couldn't have been the one who destroyed all life in existence. There had to be more.

He had no idea how long he spent screaming. He screamed a long time. When he got too panicked, his magic would be triggered. That would shock him enough to calm him down. But soon, he would think again, and the fear would rise again.

Then something happened. The screams he pushed from his mouth returned. They screamed back.

"MURDERER!" "KILLER!" The screams forced their way into his head. He stopped screaming, they didn't. The silence he had heard turned into a cacophony of accusations pointed at himself.

It was too much. He curled up and pulled the hood of his jacket over his head. By this time, it had seemed as though the colors had finally decided on black, red, and yellow.

The screams never stopped screaming. Sans found himself blocking those voices out with hand puppets. All he had to use was his socks. Right was a prick and Left was an idiot. They were all he had, though.

Sans created a whole life with them. Left was obviously in love with Right, but Right was too much of a tsundere to admit he liked Left back.

Of course, Left, being a complete imbecile, was constantly getting depressed at the fact that Right 'hated him'. Even thought they did everything together, and Right was only ever nice to Left.

Sans was always the one Right picked on. He hated it. Left was always telling Right to be nice, but Right was the master of angst, apparently, and couldn't ruin his image by being nice to some nerd in dorky, big glasses.

Sans got bored of Right's shenanigans. Throwing the socks on the ground, he stood up and slid into his slippers. He had to focus on getting out of here. He didn't have time for the petty drama Right and Left always caused.

He tried looking at the code, only to be punished by the error messages. He sat in annoyance while it passed. He was getting more used to the uncomfortable glitch, but the blindness was annoying.

He started playing with the code blindly. He figured, even if it broke this place, it was much better than being trapped here forever. There had to be some way out. Sans would find it. He had to stay Determined.