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The Underground was empty. A silence so deafening had settled itself over the area, replacing the void that was once so filled with monsters. With life.
The Ruin was portrayed exactly as it was named. The cold of Snowdin turned into an icy abandonment, the fields of echo flowers in Waterfall screaming or silent. And Hotland was naught but a barren wasteland.
It was almost just another genocide run for you.
Finding yourself in the hallway of judgement, you allowed yourself to bask in the warm, orange glows, not unlike the sunsets above ground. It was the only place in the Underground which had resemblance of light you long craved for. Its warmth was a familiar friend, a warm touch for you. Unchanging.
You took a deep long, breath, calming down your soul as it thrummed loudly inside you. You could almost delude yourself in thinking that everything was alright, and ignore the feeling of rough dust against your bare skin, trapped in the folds of your clothes. You temporarily convinced yourself that all the innocent monsters were still roaming the Underground peacefully and were not just smears of monochrome dust across the floors.
And everything was alright.
But you knew it wasn't.
Even though the scene was almost identical to the uncountable genocide timelines you had carried out in Frisk's body, almost was truly the keyword.
Your calm breaths turned into labouring shudders, and you were forced to lean against the columns of the hallway as you choked for air, almost heaving as you unwillingly inhaled dust. It took you a few minutes to regain yourself, but when you did, you straightened your back and tried to stand tall, ready to face your final challenge.
You were filled with DETERMINATION. The very last strain you had.
You ignored the gold star glinting in front of the entrance, opting to walk through the center of the Judgement Hallway. The tight grip on the knife turned your knuckles white as you walk further across the floor, fingers twitching. Everything, every sense, every feeling, every memory screamed at you to turn back, to run away, but there was nowhere to run.
The Underground was nowhere near vast enough to hide, and nobody would come to save you, except yourself. You weren’t a coward. You’ve killed him once, you’ll do it again, no matter the odds.
As you reached the section of the hallway with the three familiar columns, your footsteps halted and you blinked.
When you revealed the bloody hues of your eyes once more, you saw a heart-achingly familiar, yet unnervingly unfamiliar monster, a skeleton almost as short as yourself, dressed in blue and white with his hands in the pockets of his jacket. His left eye socket was ablaze with fire, and the pinpricks which grant his sight were looking straight at you.
"(Y/N)." although you weren't surprised by his sudden appearance, the deep voice, almost a husky growl, nearly made you drop your knife. There was a dark undertone laced between his words, and you couldn't tell what kind of LoVe was hidden in them.
You kept your silence and shifted into a stance, the small knife being your only protection against him. You locked your gaze onto him, concentrating.
The skeleton chuckled at your wariness, his own gait casual. If it wasn't for the tension hanging in the air between you two, you would have thought he was going to invite you for lunch at Grillby's or something as trivial as that. Unfortunately, Grillby was dust too.
"So tense," he commented. Seeing that you didn't make any indication of reacting, he shrugged. "Skullking now, kid? Tibia honest, it's unlike you,"
Your glare wavered as you let out what you hoped was a scoff. The tiniest of smiles tugged at your lips, and you hurried to smother it. You were never one to be serious.
"Throw me a bone here, what skeleton do you have in your closet?" the monster continued, and you struggled to keep your expression empty, to stay calm. You could see right through him. He was trying to let your guard down, and you couldn't let his humerus words lower your defenses.
Seeing the conflicting emotions run across your face caused the grin on his expression to widen, and your urge to laugh dissipated. You were used to his puns, his cheerful expressions, but the now unhinged look on his face, almost mirroring yours but with a lot more affection, reminded you of the gravity of the situation,
How could you laugh at a time like this? Maybe you were losing your mind. You knew since young that hatred for humanity was not rational and finding joy in seeing old friends turn to dust was definitely NOT sane, but you were ALWAYS the one in control, when you wanted to be.
Now you weren't sure.
"It's been a few timelines since I've seen that smile," the blue flames at his eye socket burned even brighter. "I miss it,"
You felt a chill crawl down your spine, and it wasn't from your sins.
"Why not we get to the point, numbskull," you snapped at him, before pausing for a second and scowling. You had been thinking in puns the whole time, and didn't even notice!
Another laugh echoed through the hallways and resounded back like a haunted spirit, causing you to take an unconscious step back.
Without a warning, his head snapped upwards and from corner of your eyes, you saw something white burst out of the ground behind you, and you almost stumbled to leap away from it, forcing you to roll back to your feet. "Don't you dare run away,"
As you got back your balance, you found yourself face to face with him. You were way too close to the skeleton for your liking, but you weren't going to show how intimidating he was. "Keep dreaming," you hissed in his face.
You could see the chaos of emotion tangling in his eyes, drawing you in a hypnotic daze. Anger. Hatred. Sorrow. LOVE. Mostly love. It was unlike what you’ve ever seen before.
He raised his hand tentatively, as if approaching a wild animal and bony phalanges brushed against your cheek in an affectionate caress. Gently pulling away the curtain of hair from your eyes, he brought a few locks of (h/c) hair to where his lips would be, then letting it fall away.
You couldn't help but shudder even though you were resolved to stand your ground. His actions flustered you, sending your acute thoughts into disarray. The shadow of sorrow in his gaze intensified.
He was no longer grinning (you didn’t appreciate your own expression to be used on you anyway), and for the first time since he appeared, he averted his eyes from yours. The skeleton turned towards the light streaming through the grand windows of the hall.
"It's a beautiful day outside…"
You felt your breath hitch in your throat, your vision narrowing down to him and only him. It was time.
"Birds are singing,"
You took the risk and pulled back slightly, making yourself a smaller target. Your trembling ceased, as you focused your mind on the upcoming battle. The kill.
"Flowers are blooming,"
It was so ironic… How the only moment you gave the monster the attention he lusted for… Was only possible when accompanied with bloodlust.
"On days like this-"
You shortly considered digging the knife into him at that very moment, but quickly decided against. Experience taught you that he had many shortcuts. It was best to let the predictability play out, endure and stay determi-
"Monsters like me,"
… Huh?
A single radiant blue tear fell from his eye, before the lights disappeared altogether. "Should be burning in hell,"
"WHA-" something pinged inside your soul and you were abruptly slammed into the ground. The impact knocked you back into your senses and you quickly jumped up, as white bones burst through the floor and just barely clipped your arm.
You swallowed the pain and swiftly weaved between the spiral of bones that came next, then dodging his cursed gaster blasters almost automatically. The final two blasters unleashed it's beam, which you eluded. You were panting slightly from the lack of breath, but you were far from tired.
In fact, with the exhilaration it brought, you could do this all day. Weeks. Months, years.
You survived the first onslaught, with only a small hit from the first attack due to carelessness. But as you knew karma was a bastard. The blood dripping down from your wound was tinted dark purple.
"Ready?"
You never thought that you would appreciate familiarity. "Do your worst."
You charged at him.
[Y/N] LV 1 HP
██████▒░░░
KR 12 / 20
It was so DAMN ironic. How despite you and Sans being the only ones left, you only had 20HP. Despite the dust that clung to your being, you had no EXP. And even though your desire to kill him ran wild with hatred, your LV was one.
You slashed upwards as soon as you reached him, but he had disappeared and reappeared behind you, as even more bones burst out from the ground.
The hauntings of dead monsters were not behind you. But HIM.
Already expecting this, you turned and jumped expertly between the gaps.
HIM, the one who persistently faced you despite it being such a HOPELESS battle, trying to save that what was left of the Underground. Had killed every. Single. Monster.
After the final jump, you brought the knife down to where his left eye was, shouting in glee. You didn’t realise the ‘creepy face’, as Asriel would call it, you were wearing, but if you had, you would gloat that you pulled it off a lot better than a skeleton.
Thirteen timelines you had faced Sans since the last true reset, and you knew by the third time that he was not acting remotely similar to the script the world assigned to him. After the first two neutral routes, with him being extra moody, he did something you never expected him to do.
Sans sidestepped your blow, but as your feet touched the ground, you twisted and aimed a kick at him, making him duck hastily.
Lifting a hand as if for a handshake a Gaster Blaster appeared behind him and ripped a hole straight into pacifist Frisk’s soul.
Seeing you off balance, more appendages appeared and shot at you with terrifying speed.
Your mouth was still hanging open when the eight fallen human and yourself appeared in the black menu screen. After a few minutes of awkward silence, you burst out laughing, a boisterous, undignified howl which resulted in you rolling on the non-existant ground with your hands clutching your sides. “Just perfect, Sans!” You gasped between laughs. “That weak flower must be blind to think Papyrus was better to play with!”
Swerving awkwardly around one, you used your knife to parry off two more, then slid under the bones as they speared into the floor where you had stood.
It took little to convince the child to get vengeance for injustice, and after backtracking to dust the Ruins for EXP, you forced Frisk out of their body [easily done after owning their soul] to kill your mother-figure with a blank face. Pushing open the Ruins, your ears perked up as you caught a high-pitched whine amidst of the creaks and ducked away from the beam.
Sans appeared abruptly in front of you, but before he could conjure another attack, you dug your heels into the ground and sprang straight at him.
You never thought Sans could look happier than Papyrus, but he came very close to it when you stepped out of the smoke, unharmed. Your crimson eyes gleamed with malice as you faced him. You were inwardly gearing up for a battle, twirling the toy knife excitedly between your hands as you looked forward to a potential battle. You have never fought Sans outside of the Judgement Hall, but you greatly welcome change. Because change was unpredictable. Change was entertaining .
“Haven’t you had enough?” you asked him, wondering how he would respond. He shouldn’t be able to remember you since this is the first you've appeared after a true reset. But why is he reacting so odd? What was his incentive? You have never seen Sans with HOPE, ever since the first time he exited the Underground.
You held your knife with both hands, attempting to stab between his ribcage where his soul would be, but he dodged to the side, so you attempted to follow up with a slash to his torso as you went past him.
The said monster lowered his arm, and his Gaster Blasters dissipated, then held it out to you. “Don’t you know how to greet an old pal… [Y/N]?” He chuckled. You felt your soul jitter inside you. He knew you. He knew your name. “Killing a friend the minute you meet them? That’s my style, and you’re stealing it,” you commented. “And so is not answering the question.”
Without a warning, you lurched forward, way faster than your momentum should bring you, and vaguely registered the feeling of something clenching around your soul before you crashed against the wall. The knife clattered to the floor.
Sans stood stock still, a contrast to him lazily swaying like he was letting a tune wash over him. “Hmm. What was your question again? If I’ve had enough?” He repeated, pretending to think, then facing you with an expression you couldn’t recognise on his face. “I’ll never have enough of you,”
Your gasps were muffled by the wall as your nose gave an unpleasant crack. Blood was running down your skin, but you had no time to worry about it. Hearing something was approaching from behind, you had to roll against the wall from the oncoming bones.
That moment signaled the time when your perverse entertainment turned into a bad time.
Your soul pinged again, and you were dropped unceremoniously onto the ground. You landed deftly on your feet, wiping the blood with your sleeve. Staining the unusually clean jumper gave you DETERMINATION. The clothes on you felt much more comfortable now.
On that run, he threw in lines and slotted in actions which at first aroused your amusement, but soon turned vexing. When you moved on to the Waterfalls after you were finished with the land of ice and snow, there was nobody there to greet you, not even Undyne. Transitioning from the humid Waterfalls, to the stifling Hotlands led to dust covered floors. The Core? EMPTY. You were only at LV8 by the time you had reached the Judgement Hall… and Sans had gained EXP.
You were seeing double of everything from the shock. The damage from hitting the wall took 4HP from you, but at least the wall did not have Karmic Retribution. Between his attacks and the wall, you’d take the wall [ideally, you’d take nothing, but having everything go your way was mundane.]
Needless to say, you reloaded 197 times, before you did something you’ve never done before. You gave up. The next timeline, you gave control back to Frisk, and the poor child was killed by the skeleton. You finally got the message by the next timeline that sending Frisk out would just result in instant death, even if they had killed the entire Ruins. By then, you were getting anxious. You were obsessed with the Underground to the point of lunacy, and toyed with it without fear of ever facing the long-term consequences. But this was always supported by the fact that you could exit the Underground any time you wanted.
You reached a hand out, and seemingly pulled a Nice Cream out of thin air, finishing it off in a few short seconds. Eating quick was a skill you mastered many timelines ago.
You felt your soul mending as your HP maxed out.
The following six times you reset consisted of constantly thwarted plans, the joy of killing taken away from you, and constant goddamn loops of trying to get pass the stupidly overpowered skeleton. You may have gotten used to his patterns, but those changed as his attacks and defense advanced. He wasn’t fighting for the Underground, he destroyed it himself. He wasn’t fighting for himself, he had long given up on that. So what was his incentive?
Keeping an eye on the silhouette of a skeleton, you bent down to pick your knife up, instinctively tensing as you expected another attack, but none came. Trying to avoid tripping, you blinked your eyes a few times to clear your vision and saw that Sans had appeared right in front of you.
You weren’t sure why memories were flashing in your mind as the battle progressed, but it gave you a sense of forbidding. The term ‘your life flashing before your eyes’ ran across your mind, and was then forced down. You could reload and reset anytime you wanted, couldn’t you?
But reset now, and you may be stuck in a true eternal loop with a single, deranged skeleton.
You didn’t think that his patience would run out, that something in his mind you break and never heal with resets. The hairline crack turned into a chasm, and soon without fail, Sans had fallen back into a generic routine, only now, it consisted in a race between you and him, trying to increase LV as much as possible. The odds were so against your sides, that the thrill of a challenge had made you light-headed and giddy.
But what made this timeline different was that a single ‘glitch’ had given you a window of opportunity, and you knew Sans was not going to make the same mistake. He had somehow dusted every single monster, even those which were inaccessible for you, and gained so much EXP that he reached the limit of stats… and went back to having 1 ATK, 1 DF, and most importantly, 1 HP. This was the only window open, and if you reseted, it would be slammed down, while your fingers were still on the sill.
“You should follow your advice, Sans, and learn when to quit,” you broke the verbal silence between you two, taking slow deep breaths in an attempt to hide any showing signs of fatigue.
Sans chuckled, his eyes fixated on you with an obsession you were getting quickly accustomed to, and shrugged in his nonchalant way. “It’s a taste of your own bittersweet medicine, kid. I can see why it’s so addicting,” he replied, licking his ‘lips’.
The Nice Cream in your stomach churned. “You’ve really bared your bones, haven’t you? Finally revealed what Monsters are made of,” you mused in a sickly sweet voice. “But hey, I can’t hate you for your honesty. Better than being deceived by some fragile lies and kindness,” the gentle face of Asriel flashed in your mind, which you pushed away. “But why keep me here, Sans? You wanted this monotonous repetition to end, didn’t you? So why are you prolonging it? You don’t care if I win and never come back.”
The shadows around his eyes seem to darken, making him look even more ominous than he already was. He stayed silent for a short while, sweat trailing down his skull. And all you got as a warning was a soft glow from behind and a swishing sound which came just a few seconds before multiple bones appeared on the wall, forcing you to jump away. Being too slow, one pierced through your non-dominant arm and you failed to hold back a scream of pain when it retracted.
Oh didn’t you wish you could carve that smug smile off his face.
You were now down to 2HP, once Karmic Retribution took its hold. Crimson blood painted the golden pristine halls of the Judgement Hall, marring its taintless image with gore. You quickly replenished yourself once more, this time with a cinnamon bunny and felt your arm mend itself. Pins and needles traveled up your skin, numbing and rendering the arm temporarily immobilised.
“Our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. Timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting…,” he began, still looking down at his feet, eyes following the drops of blood that splashed onto his slippers and matting the fur on it. “Until suddenly, everything changed,” Animalistic skulls abruptly materialised in front of you, shooting beams in an intricate criss-cross pattern.
“Heh heh heh… That’s your fault, isn’t it?” His whisper seemed louder than the whine of blasters.
You moved back and forth across the hall, hating how he was almost controlling your movements into a dance. You didn’t allow yourself to be hit, and had skills with experience to dodge all his attacks, but despite this, you were still in a young child’s body that tire out easily. When the tirade of attacks ended, you were breathing heavily.
“You can’t understand how this feels,”
Narrowing your eyes, you took a deep breath and sprinted towards him.“Why should I understand?!” You roared, slashing and stabbing relentlessly, desperate to get just one single hit. Just one scratch from your blade, and everything would be over. You would take his soul before he could leave, and cross the barrier for the final time.
The skeleton dodged your blows with infuriating ease, and between glimpses, you saw him run his fingers across his cheekbone, where something streaked across his face. He then trailed his tongue across his phalanges slowly to lick off a dark substance. “Knowing that one day, you’ll get tired of these games,” He paused his actions when he saw you hesitate, the provocative gaze he gave made violent flutters inside you. His left eye was ablaze with hunger while the empty eye socket seemed darker than black, devouring you into its abyssal possession. “That one day, you’ll leave… And I’ll never see you again.”
It took you a while for you to recognise what the fluid was, and it was fresh, sticky crimson blood he was tasting. Your blood. “Look, I gave up trying to go back a long time ago,” The newfound information send your throbbing head spinning into a turmoil, confusion, anger, and an overwhelming emotion which once again tempted you to flee. “And getting to the surface doesn’t really appeal anymore, either,”
Once Sans was finished licking off your blood, he continued what he was saying and pretended not to notice how uneasy you looked, and that action itself was mockery. “Cause if we do… There’s that chance that I would never see you again,”
Realisation was dawning on you faster than the threat of the next attack, as your soul pinged blue for the second time and you went flying towards one of the pillars which held the corridor up. You crashed painfully against it, but this time, you kept a tight grip on your knife. “He… What is he saying? Why would he want to see me?”
“To be blunt… I want to keep you here,” the monster said, once again moving his hand. For the third time, you moved against your own will, skidding across the ground towards the north wall. Blue bones appeared in preparation to skewer you, but reacting swiftly, you manage to dig your knife between the cracks of the tiles and into the earth below, almost wrenching your arm out of it’s socket. You come to a halt before you reached the attacks that would most likely kill you.
“Or is that a poor excuse for killing everyone...?” Sans said in dry amusement. “Hell if I know,”
Finally released from his attack, you quickly ate before he could release his next one. Dying or reloading wouldn’t fix the glitch, but for you, the thirteenth time was always a charm, where the monster loses his luck. Either that, or the 100th retry, and you sure as hell ain’t gonna go through this crap another 87 times.
You were so tired…
“All I know is that something inside me refuses to let you go. That I can’t not care anymore, ever,” Sans chortled. His hands were back in the pockets of his blue jacket and began swaying again. “Uhh… That being said. You really can’t accept this, huh?”
You steeled yourself mentally at the routine cue, thinking of a way to turn the tables and catch him off guard. Pretend to give in? Your pride was scolding you for even thinking it, but hey, you had a lot of practise on ‘pretending to be human’. Would you inevitably get dunked on?
Observing you in a few seconds of silence, he tilted his head in an innocent fashion, making his true emotions unreadable. “Welp, I’m not even going to offer,” Waving a hand, circle of bones surrounded you, cutting you off from any and all directions.
You yelped in surprise, and your eyes swept across your newly made imprisonment. Bones were criss-crossed across the top, maybe the gaps were small enough for you to squeeze through, but safely?. You cautiously approached the nearest bone. Poking the appendages with a knife before hand, you brushed against it lightly with a finger, then pulled back with a hiss. One damage was all it inflicted, but it was slowly draining away HP with each passing second. “Oh, that’s cheating,” you laughed, a weak laugh.
It appeared that the possibility of ending the battle on this try was dwindling. Perhaps now was a good time to reload. You certainly loved to push against odds and fight to your demise, but you found no pleasure in that anymore. And while you might not be able to invoke ostentatious magic, you could conjure up the menu, and it was an ability which could thwart anything. Two buttons materialised before you, and you reached out.
“And that isn’t cheating?” An unbearable pain pierced through your chest, and seemed to cleave through your entire body in unbearable agony. All your voice could let out was a feeble gasp. It hurt. It ached, burned, and tore more than what you’ve ever experienced before, and you’ve visited death more times than you could bother to remember. Time seemed to be a viscous matter you could only push through languidly at this point.
You heard a voice directly behind you, a hot breath tickling your ear. The voice was distorted, distant and deafening at the same time through the waves of pain that wracked your body. “No can do kid. I think it’s time you give up that power of yours,” Sans breathed out.
Expecting to see the curved end of a bone through your torso when you looked down, you were met with the sight of sharp, slender phalanges, wearing what appeared to be a glove of crimson red liquid. Clutched between its fingers was a luminous red heart, light slipping past it.
The world had tilted beneath your vision, and the surge of pain, became dulled into an aching pulse. Another blue-sleeved arm wrapped around your shoulders as the one through your flesh slid out. The only thing holding you up was the hold of a certain skeleton, and you collapsed against him, letting out wracking coughs of blood.
Hazily, you felt something nuzzle against the crevice of your neck, inhaling your natural scent that mixed with the strong tang of iron. You could feel your soul buzzing in despair, before it was enveloped into silence, and you let out a soundless, delirious giggle as you thought how odd it felt with your soul and body being two separate entities, like you were in two places at the same time.
The orange glow of the judgement hall dimmed, like sunset giving way to the night, as gloom began obscuring your eyesight. You could no longer feel the bony arm wrapped around you, that you were being turned to face Sans the skeleton for the last time.
Something cold met your lips in a passionate gesture, before it all faded into nothingness.
[ R E S E T ]
“Pap, I’m heading out,” Sans called out, tugging the light blue jacket tighter around himself as he headed towards the door.
A taller, more perkier skeleton stuck his head out of the kitchen, as a funny burnt smell wafted through the open door. “OH? WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”
The older skeleton looked over his shoulder with a reassuring grin. “Just out for a walk, I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t feel too bonely without me, Pap!” He said, as he stepped out of the door and into the snow, laughing slightly at his brother’s “IT’S TOO EARLY, SANS!”
As Sans went away from their house, his chuckles died down. Slippers crunching in the pure white snow, he walked further away from Snowdin and after confirming there was nobody watching, he snapped his fingers and the pristine scenery switched into the dark walls Waterfall. No transition, no motion, no sound.
Landing lightly on his feet, Sans was unruffled by the instant change of scenery, and plopped down on the bench with a soft sigh. Distant whispers of echo flowers filled the silence, monsters wishing and wanting to break the barrier, to see the real stars instead of wishing on a substitute, which albeit beautiful, was still fake. The skeleton shuddered.
“Feel the SANS crawling off your back?”
The skeleton mimicked what you thought was an eye-roll. “That makes no sans, kiddo,” he murmured to seemingly thin air.
You sneered at him, hoping to rile up his emotions. “Why don’t you open the barrier, Sans?” You giggled, floating around the room, before settling on top of the single echo flower that grew next to the bench, swinging your legs back and forth. “Free everyone, repent for murdering every single monster in the Underground!”
“I seriously wonder how Frisk puts up with you, sweetheart.” Sans commented, ignoring what you were saying. His eye sockets were slowly closing, but you knew he was far too occupied to actually fall asleep.
“You’re so booooring~” you whined at him. “Come on Sans, open the barrier. It isn’t that hard. All you have to do is absorb the other six souls from Asgore, and you can break everyone free!”
No response.
You narrowed your eyes, crimson orbs looking forbidding in the dark light, as you floated directly above the skeleton. “Oh right! ‘I wasn’t ready for the responsibility,” you imitated his deep baritone, perfectly mimicking the voice of guilt despite being so free of it yourself. “You’re surprisingly selfish, comedian,”
The laidback skeleton flinched, and you smirked with glee. “If you do open the barrier, I’ll probably cease to exist. After all, [Y/N] [L/- Dreemurr, is long dead, and ‘I’ only exist in this small space called the Underground. As nothing, but a figment of memory.” Saying those words out loud had hurt you a little more than you thought it would, but you continued your taunting.
“I don’t even have a soul. I’m just merely an add-on to the one you have,”
Sans abruptly sat up, blue flame burning from his left eye socket. You instinctively backed out of his way. “I don’t need a reminder.” he seethed, advancing towards you. A blue glow surrounded your body, and before you knew it, you were cornered into a wall. Skeletal hands trapped you from both sides. “You shouldn’t worry about yourself, [Y/N]. I will protect you, even from yourself,”
His face moved uncomfortably closer to yours, and your voice died in your throat. “You’re alive. And I will never let you die, even if it means I have to reset over and over,”
“Because all I do will be for you and only for YOU.”