This was good? Probably? Sans didn’t even need to ask anything, he just commented that they were obviously having some trouble, and boom, a confession popped right out. Easy as anything.
So they were the anomaly. And, more interesting, they knew about the reports. Why in the world would he have told them about that?
He gave them a sidelong look as they lay on their back in the snow, blindly staring up at the ceiling. It seemed… best to stay and have this conversation. But he should play it safe. He was ready to teleport at a moment’s notice - well, that was true pretty much always, but whatever - so he’d be safe. He sat down next to the kid. They closed their eyes and seemed to relax.
They both were silent for a moment, while Sans tried to figure out what to say. Maybe a vague prompt. He knew they’d had a hard time, at least, so maybe start with that.
“how bad was it?” he asked.
Their face tightened, twisted with pain, and a whimper escaped them. Eh, maybe not a good question.
“You can kill me whenever you want,” they said, their voice agonized as they trembled. “As many times as you want. Or… or, if you don’t want to break your promise, I could kill myself. You just have to ask. Only…”
Ooookay, then, this was really not what he’d been expecting. He’d told them about the promise, too? He’d have only done that if he’d thought of them as a friend.
They swallowed and shook their head.
“Only… it doesn’t… I’d just come back. Whenever I die, I just find myself back, I don’t choose, I don’t know if I could stay dead even if I chose to. I mean, sort of, but it’s complicated, I…”
Their words choked out after a flurry of speech, and it looked like they didn’t know what they were supposed to say next.
“you’re not in control of your power?” he asked, which was probably the most concerning part of what they’d said. Maybe. There was a lot.
“Yes? No? Yes, I am,” they said, shaking their head unhelpfully. “The furthest back I can go is the moment I fell into the Underground, this morning. I can create - I guess you could call them anchors - whenever I want, with a bit of time and focus. I call them save points. And whenever I choose, I can just… push at time, and find myself there. Either at the save I’d made, or all the way back to the moment I arrived, nothing in between. But when I die, I don’t choose. I just find myself back at the save point.”
Okay, so that matched up nicely with today’s reports - the weird burst from today, the different layer start point, that was all them. But what was going on with the previous stuff? Was there a second time traveller, maybe?
It was also weird how they talked about death, how casual their tone was.
“sounds like you’ve died a lot,” he said.
They laughed at that, like he’d told a great joke. They looked up at him with a bizarre expression of adoration, but pain was still thick on their face.
“Yeah,” they said. “It’s how I discovered my power in the first place, actually. I kinda freaked out on seeing monsters, and some stuff in the Ruins was… complicated. And I didn’t realize the monsters were thinking. I mean, some obviously were, and I was nice to them, but the rest, I thought were creepy animals and I panicked. I attacked them, killed them. And then the magic… I freaked out more and died.”
That sounded depressingly on point for humans.
Weird, though. He didn’t feel even a smidgeon of LOVE from them. He tried to think of how to phrase that question, but they continued.
“Of course, I realized later that they all were actually people, actually able to think, and as soon as I did, I freaked out about that. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. So I pushed and found myself where I’d fallen, undoing it all.”
This was not lining up at all with that whole “kill me a bazillion times” thing they’d said. And also, did that mean that their LOVE wasn’t kept over resets? Huh. He’d thought that LOVE was a feature of the soul, not something that could be just discarded, time shenanigans or otherwise.
But that all aside, there was something really good in what they’d said.
“sounds like you really care,” he said.
They nodded and closed their eyes. Maybe asking what they’d done might be too much, but asking as to their motives might work.
“so… whatever it was you did… if you care that much, why did you do it?” he asked.
They put their hands on their face and trembled. Maybe it was a little much. They were obviously traumatized and he was really trying to ask questions nicely…
“I felt like I had no choice,” they said in a voice barely over a whisper, then looked at him. “Even despite that, when you killed me…”
He what? But his promise… what the hell had they done?
A surge of nerves filled him and his eye flared up with magic in response. This was way more dangerous than he’d first thought.
And worse, when they saw his eye light up like that, they smiled. It was a look of recognition, of pain and appreciation.
What the hell.
“Yeah,” they said with a wry, pained laugh. “You broke your promise in order to kill me. It was that bad.”
He gave them a sidelong look as they sighed, trying to figure out what the hell to do about this information. At least… well, they didn’t seem hostile in the slightest. They seemed to feel guilty. This was probably still fine. The conversation, that is, not the situation.
“But when you killed me, even though I felt like I had to do it, I still deserved it,” they said. “I’m trying to make it right, I will, I’ll do whatever it takes, but…”
They sighed. Sans’s anxiety settled down a little from his earlier nerves at hearing that they wanted to fix things. This was maybe not too bad.
“As to why I did it… that’s hard to answer,” they said and looked at him again, awkward regret on their face. “I don’t know how to answer that without telling you everything and I don’t want to bore you.”
… seriously?
“i’m not worried about being bored,” he said dryly. “go ahead and tell me everything.”
They nodded, relaxing visibly for some reason that Sans couldn’t guess.. The anguish on their face disappeared and they settled into an odd sort of contentment.
And they began to speak, the words flowing smoothly and without hesitation.
“The first timeline. I did things right, that time. With… help from my timeline powers, granted, but I did. I tried so hard. As I said, I’d attacked and killed some monsters, and had been killed in turn. And I met a few monsters… one rather problematic one… but I also met your knock knock friend, Toriel. She’s really nice. But smothering. She refused to let me leave at first.”
Toriel was a nice name. And this was sounding rather promising. A human thoughtlessly killing people that they didn’t recognize as people was pretty much standard in his experience, so while he’d judge them a little for that, eh. Realizing they were wrong and taking action to fix it, though? Now that was noteworthy. Absolutely zero judgment from him on that score.
“She eventually made me fight her if I wanted to leave, and so I did. But I didn’t realize how… I didn’t understand how monsters worked, then. Even though I had a dumb little toy knife made out of plastic, I managed to kill her. I was horrified. And I freaked out about that, and thought of the other monsters I killed, and… anyway.
“So I went to reload, but decided to try to fully reset instead, all the way to the beginning, and it worked, I was so relieved. By then, I’d suspected all of the monsters were thinking creatures, and combined with killing her, that's what pushed me to try. I decided to never attack anyone again. I had to be so careful.”
He nodded along. If they were used to fleshy things - humans and animals - it made perfect sense. All it’d take was some hostile intent, such as from their frustration at Toriel trying to force them to remain against their will, combined with the intention to strike. That’d do real damage, which wouldn’t kill Toriel in a single strike, but if they didn’t realize they were seriously hurting her… it added up.
“I made my way through the underground, and met so many wonderful people,” they said, a smile lighting up their face. “You, Papyrus. Undyne - though that was a mess, especially at first, but with Papyrus’s help, it turned out well. Alphys. Mettaton… well, he’s not exactly great, but we did have a really great moment. Right after he tried to kill me, but it was sweet, in the end.”
“you had a great moment right after he tried to kill you?” Sans asked incredulously.
“Yeah,” they said with a shrug. “I’ve died really quite a lot since coming here, but you get used to it after a while.”
Sans had absolutely no idea what to say to that.
“Things were… weird, but nice, all the way up to Asgore. And he was a complete pain in the ass. He absolutely refused to consider peace, to consider mercy. He killed me over and over, and I tried everything I could think of to make him stop, but I just couldn’t. And I know I said I’d decided to not attack anyone, but it wasn’t a promise, just a desire to be the sort of person I wanted to be, you know? I felt like I had no other choices with Asgore, so I attacked him. But, as I pushed him to his limit and he fell, he finally stopped trying to kill me. Finally, finally, he accepted my pleas for peace.”
Sans was having a hard time trying to reconcile what they were telling him. So gentle, so peaceful, that despite monsters trying to kill them over and over, they were dedicated and relieved for any chance at peace. And then they went and turned bad enough to make him break his promise? What the hell happened?
He believed them, too. Their face… it was like a deathbed confession. There wasn’t a shred of guile - this was truth.
“Things… got weird after that. The flower telling Papyrus things? It’s not an echo flower, it’s not a prank. That’s the original timeline looper. He’s… incredibly dangerous. It’s a really long story, but he doesn’t have a soul; doesn’t have the capacity for compassion, hope, and love anymore.”
How many ridiculous bombs are you going to drop on me, kid? he thought with an internal groan. He mentally filed this tidbit away to deal with later.
Still, it was nice to have things slot into place. There were, in fact, two time travellers, and the first one was not only connected to the flower from the experiments, but it was the flower. Somehow. He’d already been inclined to believe them, from their voice and facial expressions, but this was lining up absolutely perfectly. His doubts faded even more.
“All that complexity aside, the point is, I had to use some timeline looping power and I ended up getting Flowey’s cooperation - er, that’s the flower’s name - for a thing, and it’s really a whole story, but the short version, we were able to break the barrier. It was… really good. It was wonderful and beautiful and perfect.”
They sighed and covered their face with their hands. A feeling of guilt and shame practically oozed off of them.
It sounded nice, that timeline. Not that it mattered, when it was all going to reset anyway. Not worth putting in effort, if it’d all be undone. But still, nice.
But he just couldn’t understand, from what they’d said, why they’d choose to reset, then. Why didn’t they leave it alone, let them have it?
“but you reset anyway,” Sans said, his voice a little dark.
They flinched, and he watched them tremble.
“Some things I learned… about Flowey’s history, about someone named Chara…” they said, and something strange happened.
As the name “Chara” crossed their lips, a shiver seemed to run through them, and their face twisted into an odd expression. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it didn’t look… right somehow. Like it wasn’t them, though that didn’t make sense.
“There's danger in me, too. I… this is going to sound really dumb without a huge host of context, but I’m pretty sure I’m partially possessed by a soulless, empowered copy of a previous incarnation of my own soul.”
“that’s definitely weird,” he said. “but i believe you.”
They had access to more information than he did, and what they’d already said lined up well with his knowledge. The only problem was with reconciling their super peacefulness with them doing whatever it was that made them feel so guilty, that made Sans break his promise to kill them - and being possessed by something probably tied into that.
And even if they were wrong, it didn’t hurt to make them feel more comfortable confessing this all to him.
“Thanks, I think,” they said with a wry laugh. “So… there were some really scary moments. Moments where Chara sort of… took over. Please don’t say that name carelessly to Toriel or Asgore, by the way… it’s a sensitive subject. It’d need to be broached carefully.”
Interesting. So this “Chara” character wasn’t just some random time traveller problem, but a known figure? To both his knock knock buddy and the king? He wondered what was going on with those two. Must date pretty far back.
“Anyway. The times where they took over, it was… uh, not promising. And I found some things about their past that were likewise… not promising.”
That was annoyingly vague. But then, he supposed it connected to whatever made him break his promise… and it’d take a lot.
“And the idea of having this entity in my head, with the sort of power I have? It’s… I want to keep that golden dawn, Sans. I can get it back - I know how, and I have infinite attempts.”
He nodded at that. It was good they wanted to fix it, at least. Not so great that they were so cavalier about using the power, but he could understand where they were coming from.
“But what is this power? I don’t feel fully in control - again, I just find myself back when I die. I know it’s born of my determination and drive, but… what if I decide to let myself die, let myself cease to exist, and instead, Chara comes back? What happens when I die of old age? Is everything lost? If I got to the end of a long life, and got stuck in an endless loop, and found myself back here… I would lose my mind, then. I would, Sans, that might be the end of the world. When Chara and I work together…”
They hesitated, and Sans groaned on the inside. He didn't know if they knew about the part of the reports that indicated an end to everything, but it sounded like they had an idea of how to do it. And it looked like it had gotten damned close, last timeline, best as he could figure. This was seriously not good.
At least he had some information that could help make sure it never came up again.
“I didn’t give over everything to them, but it felt close,” they admitted. “But I’m getting ahead of myself. You asked why. That’s why. I have to know. I needed to know who they are, what I’m dealing with. How dangerous they are. What they want. I needed to understand them well enough to have a starting point to get rid of them. They seemed to stir the most in, uh, psychopathic moments, let’s say. Like, I saw something incredibly, soul-wrenchingly sad, and I felt from them a desire to laugh to the point of tears and it was… I can’t even begin to…”
They trailed off, looking utterly lost in their own head, and he considered.
Don’t think I agree with their reasoning, but I guess it at least makes sense. So they decided they needed some answers about their psycho ghost possessing them. To do that, they decided to do psycho things, rather than asking for help.
Or… actually, now that I think about it, who would they have asked? Alphys? Me? I’d have no clue what to do with something like that. Alphys either, I'd guess. Maybe they did ask us and didn’t get anything conclusive, since they knew so little. No one had any idea where to start.
So it was either take a gamble with everything by hoping it never goes wrong, or try to figure things out on their own. And hope they don’t go bad. But if they’re that peaceful, that they’d fight so hard to save people even as they died over and over again… maybe they felt there was no chance they’d actually go bad. That, as awful as it would be, it was the less risky option.
I don’t think I could… nah, who am I kidding? With a half decent reason, I could do some dark shit, too.
A good few minutes had passed in silence as he thought. He needed to get them talking again.
“so you decided to reset and see if you could draw them out,” Sans prompted.
“Exactly, exactly,” they said, sounding relieved. Their tone became pained and solemn again as they continued. “I sort of… wrapped my heart in EXP and LOVE, and found I couldn’t really… I don’t know how to put it… the things I felt, some of them couldn’t be said, couldn’t be expressed? Papyrus described me as ‘shambling around,’ you asked if I were even capable of emoting at all… and that was at the beginning, here, in Snowdin. It only got worse.”
Interesting. They were a completely open book right now. They seemed traumatized as hell, but not… that. But the two of them couldn’t keep dancing around what they did. EXP and LOVE, huh…? Hopefully the question didn’t mess them up.
“what did you do, kid?” he asked finally.
“Everyone,” they said, closing their eyes. “I killed everyone. Chara became more real, more tangible, with every kill; they felt a surge of satisfaction when no one could be found; so I killed literally everyone.”
What the fuck.
“Alphys managed to evacuate Hotlands and New Home, I’m guessing to her secret lab, and you st-sto-stopped me. So there was only you, Asgore, and Flowey left.”
They found the true lab? And not in their psycho timeline, sounded like. And why’d they stammer when they said he stopped them?
“But, Sans, from my perspective… it was temporary. I couldn’t manage to say the words, ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I’ll fix everything,’ not out loud. But in my head, in my heart, I screamed them again and again. They’d never know, they’d never remember. I had to hold that shield of LOVE else my soul would have torn in half, and I had to know. You were… you are…”
They trailed off, tears falling from their face. Sans just listened, reeling, as he took it in.
“You were the only one who understood what you faced,” they said, their voice hollow with anguish. “You were the only one who tried to speak to the soul behind the Level of Violence I’d gained, the only one who saw me as maybe not a mass murdering psycho. Or at least, not just that. You looked at my expression and made a new dark joke for the amount of deaths you’d judged I’d had, at your hands. There were many. Like damn, Sans, you are a badass.”
Their voice was admiring, their expression reverent. He’d have called it the face of someone in love, if that didn’t make absolutely no sense. They were talking about going on a mass murdering rampage and Sans repeatedly murdering the shit out of them, which did not match that expression at all.
And yeah, he’d have understood what he was up against. Nothing that can be done, really, against something that keeps coming back. His mind flashed to approaches he’d probably try, rules that could be stepped around…
But what would he have had to have seen, to actually pull out all the stops and try with everything he had? Would that vague ending in the reports have been enough? He wished he could just ask the other Sans, but that timeline, like all the others, was erased. Infinite copies of him, and yet completely alone. Because they were right - no one else understood.
Not anymore, anyway.
“and you couldn’t get past me,” he said, his voice darker.
“I… so, you blew up my body in a truly staggering number of ways, rather painful ways, as it should be,” they said. “But the real assault was on my mind, on my soul. You… you said… and I…”
They trailed off, choking again. It was a moment before they could speak.
“I’d committed to seeing it through,” they said with their eyes closed. “I’d kill everyone, and figure out who they were, who Chara was, and I found, really, all sorts of interesting things along the way about Chara’s nature. And then, I’d undo it, and fix everything, and maybe take what I’d found to you or Alphys and we could figure out what to do about it. And if what needs to happen is to forge that golden dawn, to fix everything, and then have you and Alphys design something to kill me absolutely, in a way I can’t come back from? Then so be it.”
They laughed bitterly and Sans felt a flash of pity for them. Determined enough to live that their soul wrecked timelines, but willing to die absolutely so the monsters could have a good future. Monsters who had killed them again and again since arriving.
They didn’t want that outcome - he could see it clear on their face. They were afraid of death. Of real death, anyway. But their determination to do what they felt they had to was unshakeable. He had to admire that, however begrudgingly.
“Except, Alphys… she couldn’t. She couldn’t! Not if she’s only known me as a gentle soul, who’s friends with everyone. I couldn’t… I couldn’t tell her, she wouldn’t understand, not like you do… I haven’t tried, this isn’t a thing I failed at, I haven’t gotten to her again after… after what I did…”
They shook their head.
That would be a problem, Sans had to admit. Alphys couldn’t kill a friend. He doubted she’d be able to bring herself to kill at all. But Sans?
He gave the kid a sidelong look. He could do it. Even if he grew to care for them, if he felt it was necessary…
But even with all this crap they did… with how much they clearly care about us and regret it… I wouldn’t want to. If it weren't for my promise, yeah, I'd have killed them for their soul. Still would - beyond the whole thing where there's another option now, and also the fact that it would accomplish less than nothing. For what they did, it'd be deserved, too. But seeing how torn up they are, how much they care… I really wouldn't want to.
“I reached your limit, and I felt Chara like never before,” they admitted hoarsely. “You were… you’d given me everything, every possible angle of attack, you were brilliant, and my soul bled… and you lay collapsed before me, passed out from sheer exhaustion, leaving me ‘trapped’ on your turn. I don’t even know how that’s supposed to work. I couldn’t do anything, really, it was brilliant, but… but with Chara, I…”
He swallowed.
Fuck. They won. Even with all that…? They never gave up?
“I was able to raise my knife, and I…” they said, trailing off again. “I felt them, then. Itching to come out fully. I felt that I was at the edge of the absolute. Somehow, I just knew… if I surrendered to them in that moment, if I did as they wished, if I killed you… I felt like that was the last choice. That they would be able to take control, rather than simply dark impulses and scary thoughts.”
Yeah, this was really not good.
“They pushed me hard. Don’t I want to know what happens, if you’d pull something else amazing out of your ass? I hadn’t even dealt with Flowey, and that was a situation rich with possibility - he’s another time looper! His power was co-opted by mine, so he could be truly killed if I wished, and I could see what would happen. And Asgore… so many people would say such interesting things as they died, maybe I could glean some true insight… he knew Chara before they died, after all. I just needed to strike you down and move on. You’d bound me so thoroughly I couldn’t even escape, except by reloading. It was all I could do to position myself to kill you. All we could do, rather - I couldn’t on my own. And they wouldn’t help me if I wanted you to live.”
They laughed bitterly. Sans was reeling from the staggering amount of implications in what they’d just said.
“I’d have done it, too. I’d have given in. I’d tried not to lose myself, but… I would have, if it weren’t for… you,” they said. “The things you said; the friendship we’d forged and you’d called on, even though you didn’t remember; everything… I… I’d always admired you, but in that moment, I realized… I…”
They choked before they could continue, but they looked straight at Sans as though begging him to know what they were going to say anyway. The look on their face…
This is all kinds of fucked up, he thought with another suppressed groan. The kid… the anomaly… fell in love with me? What the fuck. And from when I was killing them over and over? What the hell have you gotten yourself into, Sans?
His expression was tight and impassive.
“Even temporarily, even for knowledge, even for commitment, I just… I couldn't. My soul refused. And I reset.”
A shaky sigh escaped them.
“And now I’m here, trying to fix everything,” they said. “The memories are… without that shield of the Level of Violence, they’re too… they’re too much, Sans. I can’t tell you how much I want you to kill me. To kill me again and again, until maybe my heart stops hurting so much. And it’s stupid - why would that even help? You’ve already killed me a few hundred times, though only during that timeline.”
He couldn’t even mentally react anymore, this was just too much. A twinge of sympathy ran through him - as much as he was reeling, it’s gotta be worse for the kid. He understood, too. He’s probably the one that explained it to them in the first place, the way he meant to do, in the last corridor before the throne room - all about how EXP and LOVE worked. He didn’t realize that they could just shrug it off with the reset, he thought it ran deeper than that, but apparently that was how it worked. The kid was clearly not faking being messed up over all this.
“All I can say is… just… anything you want, Sans. I can’t… I was so wrapped in that shield, that I… I didn’t realize, then… what you saved me from… I think Chara would have destroyed the world. I wonder if Chara would have fully taken over, and I would become the little ghost in their mind as they destroy everything I love… I cannot begin to tell you what you saved me from. Saved everyone from. I can’t look at you without remembering, I can’t keep it a secret. Not from you.”
They sat up and bowed their head.
He guessed some of their gratitude made sense, if they looked at it like that.
And even more pieces had slotted into place. All of his reports lined up nicely. Somehow Chara was pushing for the end of everything. Those hundreds of loops were mostly him killing the kid, to stop that outcome. And there was basically no chance in this timeline, since they weren’t encouraging the psycho ghost.
“Anything, Sans,” they repeated, tears dripping onto the snow. “My life, my death, my service. My true death, with yours or Alphys’s help to find a way to make it stick. Though we’d need to deal with Flowey, first. If I lose the power, I think he gets it back. I know this is a lot to lay on you, and you don’t have to do anything with it. I just… I couldn’t just not tell you. I tried, but I couldn’t. However many times it takes, I’ll fix everything, and break the barrier again, and restore that beautiful future. And anything else you want. Always.”
He nodded slowly.
“By the path I’d followed… I’d become everyone’s friend. It… might be hard to do that, to fix everything and break the barrier, without building all of those friendships. But I can try. I can leave Papyrus out of it. I can refuse to be his friend, if you like, though I miss our friendship. If you want me permanently dead, after, and don’t want him to suffer the death of a friend.”
This, weirdly, seemed to be a bigger sacrifice than offering their true death.
Maybe… maybe they started by wanting to live. Their determination to keep going, to change fate - it was incredibly strong. And then, as they did all that crap, they didn’t really want to live anymore. But instead, they were determined to fix things. To learn about Chara first, then fix it. And then, once they were done…
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
But they really cared about Papyrus. They want his friendship… and also don’t want him to suffer if they die. That would be really hard on him. So they want me to decide right away if they should live or die in the end, for Pap’s sake.
Fuck. How the hell am I supposed to decide something like that? I don’t particularly want to kill them, not if we can get out without it, not if they want to help us as much as it seems. But if that’s the only way to keep everyone safe… but it’s not like I have any idea if that’s needed. They seem to think it’s a real possibility, that that’s the only solution. And then there's my promise…
Whatever. I don’t think they’ll care if I ask some questions first.
“i got some questions first,” Sans said, and they nodded as expected. “how likely is it that you’ll take a bad road and keep it that way?”
“Me? Never again,” they said with a hoarse laugh. “Chara? I am completely certain they would. And while it seems like they can only gain control when I have that Level of Violence around my soul, walling me off - the fact is, I didn’t learn nearly enough. I have no idea. They're back to being nothing more than a faint whisper, ever since I reset and let my heart feel everything again. So I’m in no danger now, but I swear to you, I’ll tell you if I ever think it’s changing.”
He nodded solemnly. That was as expected. He felt like his feet were under him again. He liked knowing things, being able to predict things, having a sense of what was coming. He appreciated the promise, too. From the look on their face - they were dead serious.
There was one thing that was really bugging him, though. They seemed attached to him and Paps both, and they hadn’t been too specific… and some had escaped with Alphys, though he couldn't really see Papyrus evacuating… had they really…?
“you do that,” he said. “and… just to make sure i’m understanding you… you killed papyrus?”
Their body convulsed, tears fell, and they recoiled away from him. It was several seconds before they could breathe, and they couldn't face him. They tried, but their head shook and just wouldn’t move.
Yeah, they did. But they’re obviously, uh, torn up about it.
“H-he… he…” they said.
Probably shouldn’t make them answer. I feel like an ass, seeing them cry like that.
“i get it,” he said gruffly.
“No, I mean, yes, but… he… I want to…” they said, rubbing aggressively at their face with their hands as they tried to make themself speak.
Sans was morbidly curious, so if they really wanted to give him more details, he wouldn’t stop them.
“He was… he was amazing, Sans, and I think he deserves to have it be known. At least to you. And Undyne, but you don’t know her the same way, but I want someone to know how beautiful she really is, too.”
I do know Undyne. Though, I guess, we’re not really friends like she and Paps are. And… yeah, I can guess she’d have been something else, if she had to pit herself against… what they’d described. They sound admiring - honestly kinda like how they sounded when they talked about me.
They gulped a lungful of air and with a determined expression, made themself speak.
“He couldn’t have stopped me. Even if he killed me - and he could never kill me, he was one of the only monsters who didn’t honestly try to kill me, I’ve died so much since coming here. And he is too gentle, in his heart. But even if he did, it wouldn’t have mattered. He was strong, is strong, but not as strong as Undyne. And even if he killed me, I’d have just come back, he couldn’t have stopped me.”
Sans nodded. Nothing really new there, but knowing their perspective was useful.
“And he didn’t try. He faced this shambling abomination, whose hands were coated in dust, who had driven the town to flee. And he… he reached out his arms in friendship. He told me that he’d be my mentor, teach me how to be a good person. He was so… he wasn’t complimentary, called me a freak and such, which is harsh coming from him, but also so adorably gentle. He just let me approach. And I… and I…”
Hearing it described like this was just too much. It was just like Papyrus to do something like that, and his overactive imagination was painting the scene in too much detail…
Papyrus grinning in eager, naive, childish hope. Papyrus’s scarf falling to the ground. Picking up that scarf, seeing the dust fall off it, once they’d moved on…
“and you murdered my brother,” Sans said, his voice yet darker.
They quivered on the ground, a useless lump of flesh and tears.
It didn’t happen. That timeline is gone. Papyrus is okay, and the anomaly is committed to doing right by him. It’s okay. I can’t make it worse for the kid, they’re clearly suffering enough…
He struggled to get his emotions under control and took a breath as he settled.
“I was screaming so loud,” they said from their curled up position, their voice muffled. “He couldn’t hear me, through the wall, not a speck of emotion on my face. Even to his last moments, he was so gentle… and I didn’t want to, I screamed it again and again that it was only temporary, that I’d fix everything, that he’d never remember, that it would never have happened, not ever, I couldn’t hurt him, not for real, and him dying meant that I could never, never, never let it be real…”
It did help, hearing that. The anguish, the agony they felt, it couldn’t be denied. Their voice was hoarse, their skin frostbitten and they didn’t even seem to realize it… the kid was a mess.
“i’m glad for that much,” he said with a weary sound, looking up at the light crystals glowing on the distant ceiling. “we’re all in a bit of a pickle, aren’t we? someone is screwing with the timelines only sorta on purpose. that someone wants friendship and a good time. that someone is also an insane ghost of the past who wants to kill everyone. and that someone is the only one who can really do anything - we can have our memories reset and lose everything without any warning.”
“I wish I could bring you with me, in the resets,” they said softly. “I wish I knew how. I would, Sans. Then you wouldn’t have to forget. Maybe I can learn how.”
He was silent for a moment, thinking.
That’d be nice. Way I think it works, though, I don’t know if it’d be possible.
Sans was trying to put the pieces all together, to make sure he understood everything. One part especially bugged him, and he glanced over at them.
“you’d really just let me kill you?” he asked.
“Test it, if you like,” they said with a smile. “If you succeed, you’ll forget, but you could push as close as you like. Burn me with the blasters, stab me with bones - I have a few healing items, I’ll be fine.”
“that sounds like a lot of work,” he said, looking back at the ceiling, and they laughed.
It was an earnest, honestly happy sound. In this specific context, that was kinda creepy.
They seemed weirdly eager for the idea of him attacking them. They’d said they wanted him to kill them, in hopes it would make all this hurt less. Maybe it would. Maybe if they died enough, they might stop caring as deeply, and then it would hurt less. Or even just tormented enough, tortured enough. In which case… yeah, that wasn’t an option. He might need to pay a little more attention than he otherwise would have. Their world depended on the kid continuing to care.
Another long moment passed.
“way i figure it, there's not much i can do at this point,” he said eventually. “killing you is pointless. you already stopped being a mass murdering psycho. you’re trying to make things right. that’s all for the best. i’ll keep trying to watch over you, make sure you don’t die…”
They snickered at that and he gave them a curious look.
“Honestly, Sans, you’re amazing and, like I said, a total badass when you want to be,” they said. “But a guardian, you are not. You invited me to chat, to dinner at the resort hotel, in the first timeline, and made this hilarious - at least, to me - comment about how you were doing a great job because I’d not died even once.
“And like, who hadn’t killed me at that point? So many killed me. A Froggit, in the Ruins. Most of the guard dogs, here in Snowdin. Undyne, a dozen times or so. Muffet fed me to her pet - that was really unpleasant. I died twice that way, like really. Ugh. Died a bunch after our conversation, too. Managed to get past Mettaton’s nonsense without dying, but Asgore killed me a bunch. Flowey, too, whew - that was kinda insane. I have no clue how many times he killed me - it was a whole thing.”
That was kinda embarrassing - were his efforts really that poor?
I guess if I knew they could reset… I was being lazy, wasn’t I? Damn it, Sans. But it sounds like they find it funny, and aren’t upset about it, so it’s all fine, I guess.
His look was curious and appraising as they continued.
“Anyway,” they said, “I got it covered. I had to get pretty damned good at fighting to get past Undyne - I have to tell you the story with her, sometime, I have to tell someone, because just… damn… anyway. And then, the skills I needed to get past you? Flowey will still kill me a few times, but no one else has a chance.”
“didn’t that wall of LOVE protect you from harm?” he asked.
“That’s true,” they said. “I’m not saying it’d be effortless. But, in that route - you and Undyne, with your teleportation and insane power, and her epic transformation - you were the only monsters that even were the vaguest threat. You both kicked my ass, gloriously. But still, I was able to get by on my first timeline with only maybe three dozen deaths, up until Flowey, and that was with no combat experience at all. I’ve got this.”
Three dozen deaths, on their first timeline, where they were trying to be peaceful? Damn. I guess it makes sense. Everyone knows we’re supposed to be anti human, from Asgore’s plan. But, with them being literally unkillable… we easily could have destroyed ourselves. If they’d been even a little less gentle as a person… why wouldn’t they have killed everyone they ran into, even without Chara, and just gone home?
“You’ll see with Papyrus,” they continued, “when he tries to capture me.”
“heh, i suppose i will,” he said.
He did feel a twinge of worry, but from the way they acted, he honestly thought they’d sooner rip themselves to bloody shreds than hurt Papyrus. And, in all the time he'd seen them, they had never so much as swung their stick at a single monster, not a single aggressive motion. They'd been gracious, kind, and understanding with literally everyone. Even Jerry. He tried to shove the worry aside.
“and… look, this is a weird question, but it’s bugging me,” he said. “you say i killed you hundreds of times, painfully, and you’re acting like… like you really trust me. that, uh, seems like the sorta thing you oughta be upset over, not grateful for.”
“You think I wanted to live, that I wanted to not be hurt, after what I’d done?” they asked with an odd laugh. “After… after Papyrus, was Undyne. When she did the thing, when she transformed and showed how beautiful, amazing, incredible her soul was… I couldn’t even raise my weapon. I wanted her to win. I wanted her to kill Papyrus’s killer, the thing that killed my friend, whom I loved so. Even though it was me. He drives me crazy sometimes, Papyrus, but he’s so… so… nice.”
Sans nodded at that, bemused.
That is such a fucked up perspective. But I guess, if you’ve died often enough that it starts to feel normal… still.
“And she did kill me - a dance of strikes of incredible grace and power - and I just laughed and found myself at the beginning of the bridge where we’d fought. I threw myself at her, at her spear, again and again until I felt like I could wrap myself tight enough with LOVE again. Enough to actually try. Even so, within that wall, even as I fought her, I cheered every time she won. Chara was getting pissed, but I wasn’t. And then we struck her down and I wanted to die again.”
Seems like that earlier guess was on point. They’re determined to fix things, but deep down they want to die. While also being afraid of a true death.
Sans related to that more than he cared to admit. He really didn’t want to die, but, especially lately, he’d been having problems with wanting to live. It was so exhausting, facing the pointlessness of everything.
They exhaled slowly.
“Going through Hotland and CORE, it helped harden that wall. But nothing stood in my way. Almost nothing, save the mercenaries in CORE that had been hired to kill me - they’ve probably already been hired to kill me, and it really sucks they weren’t evacuated and left in my path-”
“wait,” he interrupted. “there’s mercenaries in CORE that have been hired to kill you? right now?”
“Probably,” they said. “If not yet, then soon.”
No wonder they’d laughed when he’d told them he’d keep an eye on them.
“Alphys is conspiring with Mettaton to try to set me up in a silly little game of sorts to bolster her self esteem, where Mettaton pretends to try to kill me and she can pretend to be a hero - it’s a jerk move, really, but I understand why - but Mettaton betrays her and honestly tries to kill me in the end. First by setting Muffet after me, then with mercenaries, and then personally.”
Jeez, how did we not turn them into a true enemy of monsters with that sort of treatment?
“and then you had a ‘really sweet’ moment with him? after that?” Sans asked incredulously.
“Yep,” they said with another laugh. “It’s been kinda intense down here. Not like the surface at all. And all the dying would really have been a problem if I didn’t have the reset power. But once you get used to it, it’s not so bad.”
He was giving them another incredulous look.
It’s not so bad, they say, he thought, reeling. Is Chara even a real thing, or have they just lost their mind from all the deaths? Well, no, they said Toriel and Asgore know about them.
Whatever - I have to ask.
“and you’re not, uh, mad about all those deaths? about what’s happened to you?” he asked.
They paused for a moment, thinking.
“A lot of the monsters… I really think they’re just trying to interact with me, or play, and don’t realize they’re hurting me,” they said thoughtfully. “Some of them, like the royal guards, they’re following orders - that’s on Asgore. Or the mercenaries; again, following orders. That’s on Mettaton. For both of them… well, with Asgore, I understand. I don’t know if you know the story of what happened with his son?”
“uh, no,” Sans admitted.
“Huh,” they said. “I figured a lot of people knew that. But I know you’re kinda new - you never told me where you’re really from, but I’m guessing some sort of alternate universe thing. But I won’t pry.”
He nodded at that, wondering what pieces they had of the puzzle, and how the hell they’d guessed that much.
“Anyway. The short version is… Asgore dealt with a lot of serious trauma related to humans. He kinda lost everything. You should ask about the story - the monsters in New Home all know it, so far as I understand. It’s really sweet and sad. I’ll, uh, share the dark undercurrents of the story later, if you like. Asgore doesn’t know them, but Alphys does. Some of the dark details, anyway.”
Okay then.
“The whole reason for the war was just Asgore going mad from grief. So, it’s a jerk move trying to murder me and all, but honestly, I can’t really blame him too much. It’s a really sad story. So I don’t blame the regular monsters, or anyone just following Asgore’s orders. And it’s not like the guards are hard to dissuade, with one exception.
“And Mettaton… I mean, I know what he was trying to do, too. It really wasn’t okay. He took things way too far, but… he wasn’t… he wasn’t really trying to kill someone that he really acknowledged? I don’t think he even stopped to think about what it meant. I was nothing but a stepping stone on his path to glory. Once I got him to see me… to really see me… which only happened when he was halfway blown to bits, admittedly… it was different. So, yeah, it’s annoying, but I don’t hate him for it. Besides, the fight with him is fun and totally glamorous. You should keep an eye on the MTT channel when I get to CORE.”
These deaths really weren’t anything serious to them, were they?
“Undyne was… kinda awful at first, really, but she was just so hyper-focused on the goal that my death seemed meaningless to her, in the face of that. Yes, she was following orders, but she went way past orders and into straight up bitch.”
Sans coughed out a laugh at that, and they grinned at him.
“Seriously, it was bad,” they said. “She mocked me for trying to be nice, as she tried to murder me! She refused to accept mercy, or to let me run away, or anything! There’s a gap in her attacks where her magic breaks and I can escape. I had to lead her to Hotlands, where she passed out from the heat, dodging her spears the whole way, like honestly. And then had to get some water to save her. Which is when she finally decided to let things go. And even with that, it took Papyrus’s intervention for her to make nice, and allow the possibility of friendship.
“But… for all that, which I legitimately was pissed off about at first… she eventually won me over.”
They had an admiring smile on their face, which was pretty confusing, all told.
“Especially after what I saw of her, when she had a true villain to oppose, enabling her to be the hero she’s always aspired to be,” they said with a happy sigh, the admiration even thicker in their voice.
They flashed him a charming grin.
“Muffet was the worst, but I thought maybe she was okay, when I was doing things peacefully. Found out some stuff during the murdery timeline, though… she’s awful. Like, really awful. She wanted to kill Alphys for trying to evacuate her, like really!? And left the path open for me, because she wouldn’t take Alphys seriously!”
“gotta admit, it’s weird that you’re mad at what she did while you were murdering everyone,” Sans said.
They flinched a little at that.
“Yeah, well, I knew it was temporary and that I didn’t really mean it,” they said. “She didn’t know that. You’re the only one who knew about the timelines thing, that it might not be forever. Well, you and Flowey. I struggled in her web, dodging things like I had in the peaceful route instead of attacking, while she did a whole villain monologue at me. And at the end, she found out that I’d murdered all the monsters I’d found… but hadn’t killed any spiders.
“And for that… she let me go. Seriously, Sans. She openly acknowledged that I was a mass murdering lunatic, she believed I was truly caught in her web, and instead of continuing to try to kill me, or persuade me, or call for backup, or anything, she wanted to let me be on my way. Like, seriously. What the fuck. Who does that?”
Sans couldn’t help but grin at them for that.
“She died in a single strike,” they said with an annoyed expression. “My LOVE had reached the point that almost everyone died in a single strike, including her smug ass.”
Right, this wasn’t supposed to be funny. Sans coughed into his hand.
Though it was kinda funny.
“and me?” he prompted.
They gave him that complicated look again. The one that made him feel uncomfortably like they’d fallen in love with him.
“I don’t even have the words,” they said, their eyes closing. “From the first moment… you made it clear that you understood. That you realized how impossible I was to defeat directly. That you were prepared to kill me as many times as it took to make me give up. And you… you spoke to me. To me, the looper, the soul in the cage of LOVE, not the thing that stood in the hallway with you. You gave me everything you had. You did things I didn’t even know were possible. I was so glad when you didn’t die, when you weren’t even hurt.
“You were wrenching Chara and I apart. I could see them in such clarity. You couldn’t say anything to them, couldn’t understand them, but theirs was the expression you could read. You thought I was frustrated when you’d killed me the first time… and Chara was. I was admiring. That split - talking to me, but seeing them - it was… again, I don’t have the words.
“And then…” they trailed off, and the look they gave Sans was laced with such pain that he almost flinched.
They took a breath, closed their eyes, and spoke.
“You… you spared me,” they said. “You said… god, it hurts to say this… that you thought there was a glimmer of a good person in me. That there was a memory in me of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. That in some other timeline, we might have even been friends. You didn’t know, of course; you couldn’t. But you guessed. You said you had a feeling.”
They were shaking as they spoke, tears flowing freely again. Sans hesitated, but put a hand on their shoulder and they shook harder, leaning into him.
Ah, what the hell… why not. He wrapped an arm around them, and they started sobbing into his jacket.
“And god…” they said into his jacket, “And you said, you said, ‘do you remember me? Please. If you’re listening, let’s forget all of this.’ And you never lied, you didn’t, you said if I laid down my weapon, your job would be easier, and even then, I noticed the loophole, but I couldn’t… I couldn’t say no to that… so I cracked and my weapon fell and I ran to you and hugged you and you stabbed me with so many bones… and as I died, you said, ‘if we were really friends, you won’t come back.’”
“but you came back,” he said, his tone darker than maybe was wise.
They flinched and writhed.
“I just appeared in the Hall of Judgment,” they said, and he startled at the name.
He supposed it made sense they thought of it that way, since that's where he'd planned to go when he was going to judge them for their EXP and LOVE. It was just the last corridor before the throne room.
“I don’t choose, right? I was just there. I can only imagine what the next version of you thought. I must’ve come in, settled into my save point, and then abruptly fell to the ground, screaming. I wonder why that version of you didn’t kill me. You tried to ask me some things, but I couldn't handle facing you. I think you just wanted to get some information that you could use. Making me give up was the point, after all.”
He nodded. Reasonable guesses. He’d probably have guessed, at first, that it was from physical pain… but not for long. He wasn’t sure what he’d have thought, seeing the thing they'd become writhing around in emotional torment.
“So I was just there and I couldn’t… I can’t… I was screaming, it hurt so much more than anything else you’d done to me, more than all of Undyne’s spears, and your bones, and blasters, and poison magic, and the sins in my veins burning me alive… more than all of it, those words…”
They shook and sobbed again.
“guess i’m pretty good at my job,” he said with a dark chuckle.
Part of him was worried that they’d take it badly, but a bigger part of him just couldn’t help it.
They laughed at the joke, choking on their sobs, and just shook with laughter for a long moment.
“Oh Sans…” they said eventually, wiping tears of laughter from their face.
He couldn’t help but grin at their reaction. Making other people laugh - or groan, or whine, or really all sorts of reactions - was one of his favorite things in life, and even as messed up as this was, he couldn’t help but love their responsiveness.
“You made that exact same joke then, too,” they said, grinning at him. “Though it was when you saw Chara’s frustrated expression, from having died at your hands. That was great.”
They laughed again for a moment, then shook their head and gathered themself to continue.
“You said other things, too,” they said after a moment. “When you stabbed me, you said, ‘get dunked on,’ and it was honestly kinda hilarious and totally deserved, even though I was hurting so much, but it was… it was what you said, after, as I died… I do think of you as my friend, Sans, I do, I really, really do.”
They took a slow breath.
“I ripped completely in half, then,” they said. “I couldn’t… I couldn’t face anything, I was a coward, and I hid, I failed, I hid inside the walls around my soul and just cowered there. And Chara was in control. They couldn’t take control, I could have taken it back, but I just… I didn’t.”
Another shaky breath.
“I watched the battle from there,” they said, their voice subdued. “I felt everything, as though it were me in charge. It hurt a lot, but nothing compared to how my heart felt. I watched you kill the creature I’d become over, and over, and over again. I watched their frustration at your hilarious jokes, watched them strive to kill you again and again, but they couldn’t touch you. God, Sans, you were so incredible. Funny, charming, mocking of the world-ending creature I’d become, powerful, breaking all of the rules, brilliant, and just an absolute badass.”
They smiled at that, and breathed easier.
“I wanted Chara to give up,” they said. “That’d have been nice, right? If both parts of me didn’t want to fight you, that’d have been the best. But they… I don’t think they’re fully… I don’t have the words. I wonder if they’re mentally capable of giving up, if they are whole enough to have the ability. They sure as hell aren’t sane.
“Anyway. I was loving the fight. Watching you kill them like that… I mean, yeah, it hurt, but every time you grabbed me with your… what is it, psychokinesis? Every time you threw me, I hoped you’d kill me again. I cheered each time I died. I lov- er, um, appreciated you a little more with each new thing you threw at me.”
It was really weird, hearing them describe the fight like this. It was pretty damned clear that they did fall in love with him, and with the context… that was just messed up.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?
“I just… just watched, cheering you on, loving it, and that last attack… that was just insane, Sans, like damn. I was laughing with joy, seeing how… how amazing you are. I loved how you killed me, how right it felt.”
The levels of messed up were off the charts.
“And then… then, they dodged it all. I dodged it all. And you just threw me at the walls, and it hurt, but you didn’t summon any bones to actually finish me off, you were so exhausted. It was bruising and painful, but that was it. And as I lay there, battered, bruised, bleeding, but alive, and dragged myself to my feet, you told me your final attack was ‘nothing.’ That you’d just never let it be my turn. You did something that made it where I couldn't really move. And you said some things… basically calling me out on my crap. And slowly, slowly, you passed out.”
They rubbed at their face.
“How could I ever hate you for that?” they asked in a soft, admiring voice. “How could I ever begrudge you for any of it? You were amazing. You were facing - it sounds like, from what you said of your reports - you were facing a world-ending threat. One that couldn’t be killed, couldn’t be stopped, as long as it didn’t give up. One that seemed bound and determined to destroy everything.
“I’m sure you spied on the fight with Undyne - you must have seen the dramatic improvement in skill, all the signs of my having died against her so much. You must have known that even repeated deaths weren’t going to cut it. But, you didn’t just stand aside and give up. You did everything. How could I not admire you? Yes, it hurt, but how could I see that as anything less than incredible, beautiful, amazing?
“As you lay there, and Chara prodded me into positioning myself, raising the knife, even though I, we, had been bound like that… I didn’t want to. I mean, I didn’t want to kill the others, either, so that part wasn’t different. But you…”
They trailed off, a distant, focused look in their eyes.
“I don’t know how to describe the difference,” they admitted after a moment. “I really didn’t want to kill Papyrus. Or Toriel, or Undyne, or… okay, well, lots of people, I guess. Papyrus especially ripped out my heart as he died. It’s still weird to me that I can scream that much in my mind, and yet my mouth not so much as twitch. I didn’t want to kill them, but you… I just… especially after all that, all you had done, how incredible you were… I… I just couldn’t. Even with Chara pushing at me, insisting, trying to diminish my feelings…”
They smiled.
“I pushed past the wall of LOVE,” they said, their voice barely above a whisper. “I made my face smile, I made my mouth say the words, it felt like puppetry, but I didn’t care. I would make it expressed in that reality. I smiled at you, and I told you that I was sorry. I thanked you. And that I…”
They hesitated briefly, an uncertain look crossing their face, and then continued without finishing their sentence.
“And then I pushed at the timeline with everything I had, and found myself on the bed of flowers that broke my fall into the Underground. And for some reason, neither the wall of LOVE nor Chara’s full presence came with me.”
They shook their head.
“It hurt too much to scream,” they said softly. “And it took a little while before I could move again.”
Sans took a breath and they patiently waited, their skin further reddening.
There was a lot to take in. But he was way past “pretty sure” that they had some sort of devotion to him. While they hadn’t outright said they loved him, or sworn loyalty, that was practically semantics. The way they looked at him… he couldn’t help but feel absolute confidence that their devotion ran deep. He hated to think this way, but it might prove useful. Among other things, it did make him feel a lot more comfortable about things like their upcoming conflict with Papyrus.
He really needed to go to Grillby’s for a while.
But they wanted him to decide things. He sighed.
“i don’t think that we should try to permanently kill you,” he said after a moment, provoking a complex tangle of emotion on their face, relief being dominant. “i think that you should make friends with papyrus and everyone. he’d… he’d really like that.”
“Yeah, he does,” they murmured. “Um, it’s a bit stressful for him until I fix things with Undyne, but then he’s really happy about it, so don’t worry.”
He couldn’t help but snicker at that. Yeah, he could imagine that being stressful.
“anyway. that’s how i think this should go. let’s get that happy ending, go to the surface, and then we’ll work together and try to figure all this out.”
“Understood,” they said with a radiant smile.
It looked like a massive weight had been lifted from their shoulders. They looked… maybe not fully sane, but sane enough to fool anyone else.
“i’d also really like to not worry about things being undone,” he added. “think you can avoid resets?”
They grinned at him.
“Absolutely,” they said. “There’s no worry about that, not until I get to Flowey, after Asgore. That… well, there will be some resets then, but just over a few minutes.”
“seems reasonable,” he said. “in the meantime, we should take you back to my place, warm you up. you’re freezing out here, kid,” he said and they laughed again.
“Papyrus might be a bit difficult if we do it that way,” they said. “Let me have the fight with him first, and then I’ll swing by after. He’ll be happier that way.”
“uh, kid, i dunno if you’ve noticed, but you’re not exactly in great shape,” he pointed out.
They laughed again, a rich tone as they guffawed as though he’d made a great joke.
“Man, that’s great, Sans,” they said, confirming that’s how they’d taken it. “Ha! As if this counts as bad!”
Still beaming, they pulled away a little, smiled at him radiantly, hugged him tightly, then stood up. They dusted snow off their frostbitten skin without a hint of concern.
Monster food was really good at healing that sort of thing, but…
“you’re not going to eat anything? heal up?” he prodded, getting to his feet as well.
“For this?” they asked, amused. “Come on, Sans, that’s a right waste.”
“my brother is pretty tough,” he said, as they started to walk.
“No denying that,” they said. “But you do know that you and he have similar fighting styles, right? It’s going to be a challenging fight… because I need to make sure I take enough hits that he doesn’t feel like his training has been useless. I want him to feel like I barely escaped capture.”
“you’re going to let yourself get beat to within an inch of your life to make him feel better about failing to capture you?” he asked.
“Obviously,” they said, then looked contemplative. “Maybe I should go to the inn, actually. I could take a few more hits from him that way. Not like it matters if I screw up.”
“hey, you said you’d avoid resets,” he said, trying not to let any unease show.
They laughed again.
“Resets?” they asked, their eyes glinting with amusement. “He just captures me and puts me in the garage, if he wins. I can just leave and fight him again immediately. Did that my first timeline. Never actually won against him, but I bet if I outlast him, it’ll work out. Worst case, I’ll let him beat me up a few times.”
“er, yeah,” he said, and they laughed again. “just, uh, don’t forget to be careful.”
“No worries, Sans,” they said. “I know you were going to spy on me anyway, but you definitely need to see the fight against Undyne. I’m going to have a lot of fun - after all, she starts off being kind of a bitch, so I think it’s totally fair to taunt her into giving me the best she’s got. I think you’ll be a lot less worried about my fighting abilities then.”
It was true that he was having a hard time taking it seriously, deep down. They seemed like… just a kid. Yeah, yeah, a teenager, technically an adult and all that, but still. It was so hard to reconcile their story with the sweet teenager who’d done nothing but dance around and play with every monster they’d encountered.
Mind, he hadn’t seen them take even a single glancing blow from anyone… he’d thought that they’d had experience with these fights, but that was all. Easy to dodge an attack you know is coming, and the monsters around these parts were usually pretty chill. A bit of luck, familiarity, and monsters that were more relaxed - that’s all, he had thought.
But apparently those same goofy dogs killed them in their first timeline.
“guess so,” he said as they got to the top of the cliff.
“Hey, you need to pop off and support Papyrus with his ‘gauntlet of deadly terror,’” they said with a grin. “It’s just ahead. It’s a hoot - he’s so sweet!”
Man, this was weird. He figured there was no reason to avoid teleporting in front of them, though - he normally avoided letting people see that, since it made for better pranks, but that cat was clearly out of the bag. So he shrugged and just ‘ported off.
—
Frisk felt such intense relief. They’d shattered in their fight with Sans, and had formed into something… new, with that last realization, that last decision, that last commitment to him. But it’d been here, in this conversation, that it felt like they’d started to heal. Heal into a new shape, a new being.
To answer his questions, to do as he bid… it felt right. They’d already felt loyal, and like they now belonged to him, that they owed him everything, but it felt even deeper than that. They were healing and becoming something that was absolutely subservient to him, and that was good.
They smiled as they approached the bridge.