Sans left the TV on the MTT channel in the living room, telling Papyrus and Undyne he wanted to see a special show he’d heard was going to play soon, and to make sure he didn’t miss it. In the meantime, he just lay in his bed, thinking.
The kid would take a little while to get through CORE. Hopefully they’d take their time. He could’ve asked them to take their time, now that he thought about it, but whatever.
Funny, how a promise from someone who seemed like they could be trusted could make such a difference. He hadn’t really thought about it from that angle before. How making the promise would have made Toriel feel. It’s not like he didn’t know that it helped, but… it made a bigger difference than he’d have guessed.
And for all that they’d done, that they’d said they’d done… well, he found that he did trust their word. They had problems, but a lack of follow-through wasn’t one of them. Assuming that he wasn't being tricked in some way he didn't see at all. But with his tools, his analyses of the timelines, and everything, combined with his observations - it seemed very likely to be true.
Some of his predictions bothered him. The level of devotion he'd seen on their face was not remotely sane. He was uncomfortably confident that if he asked them to kill someone, for example, they’d double check that he meant it, and then would kill them, no questions asked.
He was glad that they had a mission to occupy their obsessive determination for some time after freeing monsterkind. He half wondered if the reason they went nuts and decided to do the murder spree was because they were the sort to be insanely driven towards a goal, and didn’t have a goal to pursue. So they latched onto the problems of their ghost buddy and philosophical worries about their power.
Though maybe that wasn’t fair… he wouldn’t want to have Chara whispering in his ear, either.
That was a part that really bothered him. He could see that other version of himself blowing off their concerns, back when they had so little information to work with. And Alphys - they’d said she was distracted with Undyne.
Maybe they got together. They’d be cute.
But that aside, it sounded like the kid had a reason for concern and both he and Alphys had blown them off, just happy to enjoy life on the surface. And the murder route did, in fact, demonstrate that this Chara person was significant, and not just in their imagination.
Assuming the kid was right, of course. They could have just lost their mind from the pressure they were under. It sounded intense. But it really did seem more likely that Chara was a real entity, and a real problem, rather than a figment of their imagination, born of a broken mind.
In which case… wasn’t the kid kinda right to have taken that path? It’d have been better if they’d thought things through and figured out how to get him to remember first. That part wasn’t great. But could he really blame them in the end?
His uncertainty was eating at him. By the time they’d gotten to that point, their faith in their power was absolute. Its use was normal and meaningless. It just meant whatever they’d done would be undone, with absolutely no consequences.
From that perspective… their murdery path really was a harmless exploration for knowledge. He passingly wondered, in the end, who ended up dying more - the kid, or all the monsters they slew. None of whom were dead, in the end, with the kid being the only one who suffered for it. He and Flowey were the only ones who even knew about it.
And then there was the fact that the only reason he hadn’t murdered this person, this kid who was absolutely, fanatically devoted to the pursuit of peace, even in the face of horror… the only reason he hadn’t murdered them himself for personal gain was because of a promise he’d made to a friend.
Was he really in any position to criticize?
Yeah, he wasn’t exactly able to look down on them from a high and mighty place.
That acceptance, that in the end, he wasn’t any better than they were… and arguably was worse… it helped. He found that the resentment in his chest over the knowledge that they’d killed Papyrus in some timeline, and everyone else… it let go. The memory of the fire in their eyes as they swore to never leave him behind… how could he not trust in it?
And the fact that they loved him in a way that was maybe a little intense? It wasn’t possessive, it wasn’t controlling, and the simple fact was, it made him and everyone he cared about safer. From what he’d seen and heard, he thought it was far more likely that they’d tear apart the world to save him than ever hurt him or those he loved. This traumatized, insane immortal of fearless determination was 100%, absolutely and completely, in his corner.
And even at his command, if he ever needed it.
And damn him to all hell, but that was reassuring in the end.
“SANS! THE SHOW IS STARTING!” Papyrus yelled from downstairs.
“yeah, yeah, i’m coming,” Sans said, shoving his hands in his pockets and heading downstairs, his heart feeling lighter than it had in some time.
Time to see this “fun and glamorous” fight.
He, Papyrus, and Undyne had an absolutely fantastic time laughing, drinking, and cheering for the next while. The kid was a natural and the show was a treat.
He set up an alarm with the monitoring system to let him know when the kid got to the last corridor and then ‘ported off to his sentry station in Snowdin Forest. It was a “chill” place to hang out and sit with his thoughts.
He’d mostly just settled into a serene feeling that things might actually turn out okay when his phone chirped at him. Well, time to say goodbye and have a few timeline cycles of not existing.
He teleported back to the corridor, behind a pillar, and then waited for the perfect timing. He teleported again to show up with the most possible gravitas. They grinned at him. He noticed a change immediately. They were wearing a little golden locket, which they kept touching as they walked. And they had gotten rid of the stick at last. They had an actual knife, what looked like a blade for gardening.
“nice knife. doing some weeding?” he asked.
“Yeah,” they said with a grin. “There’s a flower whose head’s gotten a bit big. Needs to be cut down to size.”
“sounds like fun,” he said lightly. “i see you got yourself a bit of jewelry, too.”
“They were Chara’s, actually,” they said, touching the locket and looking at it. “The locket and the knife, both. The locket says ‘best friends forever,’ and it commemorates their relationship with Asriel. The knife was presumably for gardening, but… they were eager to kill with it, in the genocide route.”
Genocide. That was a word that seemed to match the darkness of what they’d done.
“is that wise?” he asked. “wearing their locket, using their knife?”
They hesitated for a moment, looking at the locket.
“The last time I stood in this Hall, I wore this locket, I held this knife, and I… we… tried to kill you,” they said, continuing to look at the locket. “I knew what this equipment was and what it meant. The first time, I felt drawn to them in a way I couldn’t have possibly described, but I felt like they mattered, like they meant something to me in a way I couldn’t grasp.”
They looked up at him, their expression serious.
“Chara wasn’t all bad,” they said. “When they were alive, I mean. I think they were aware for about a century, possessing their own corpse in the flowers where I first fell, and in that time, they lost what had been good about themself.”
Yikes.
“They weren’t great. They weren’t healthy,” they amended. “It sounds like they were pushy, hate filled towards humanity in particular, and manipulative. They’d fallen down here in a suicide attempt and had been rescued by Asgore’s family. You mentioned getting the story from Alphys?”
“about asriel, the human sibling, and their deaths? yeah, i did,” he said.
They nodded seriously.
“Chara was that first fallen human,” they said and he nodded. He’d suspected as much. “Asgore won’t want to learn this part, but Chara’s death wasn’t accidental. It was a plan between Chara and Asriel, so that Asriel could absorb their soul, cross the barrier, kill six humans, and free everyone.”
Yeah, okay, that was “dark undercurrents” alright… they were just kids…
“They committed suicide with poison and forced Asriel to cooperate,” they said. “I think… I think they still wanted to die, still felt torn apart by whatever trauma had led them here, and wanted their life and death to have meaning.”
This kid had a serious problem with dumping major bombs all over Sans’ thought processes and when the hell did he ever sign up for that?
He suppressed a sigh.
“Turned out Asriel was too gentle to follow through with their plan,” they said. “Because of that, he died and both of their deaths proved meaningless. There’s a lot of speculation here, but this is how it seems to have gone. His dust infused the seeds of the golden flowers from the outside world. When Alphys injected a flower with determination and later returned it to the garden, his essence awoke as Flowey. All of the memories, none of the soul. None of the capacity for love, hope, and compassion.”
He nodded at that. He’d gotten most of those pieces already, but it was nice to have them put together.
“Chara, however - Asriel had their soul as he died, and I think their essence was infused into their corpse, which he was still holding. They have memories of laying in the casket after their death. Asgore declared war, Toriel was the queen and abandoned him, taking Chara’s corpse back to where they’d first fallen, which is also where I fell, to be buried. Then I fell and due to compatibilities between us, their essence flowed into me and awakened.”
“that’s why you said you thought you were a reincarnated version of them?” he asked.
“There’s a few more hints I’ve seen, but that’s part of it,” they said. “The point is… while Chara wasn’t great in a number of ways and that story ended up being a wretched one, dark and sorrowful and pointless… I don’t hate Chara. I want them gone. I fear them, and their influence on me. I think they turned into a creature of hate and horror, in their century of imprisonment in a corpse. But I don’t hate them. Their plan was stupid in a number of ways, and they were an absolute asshole to try to force Asriel, who was just a kid, into a plan that involved repeated murders.
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“But… but they cared about Asriel and their family. They gave their life, gave up the joys that they’d discovered, to save people, when they’d previously only known hate and loss. Maybe it’s foolish and sentimental, but… I feel like, to whatever extent, that should be honored.”
They held up the locket.
“This was a symbol of love, the love of siblings, between a human and a monster, once,” they said gently. “And in a twisted way, Flowey and I are alike. We are both time loopers. We both remember all of the resets. We both carry with us an echo of that pair - he, with all of Asriel’s memories, and me, with fragments of Chara’s, I believe Chara’s reincarnated soul, and their disembodied spirit in my ear.”
Their smile turned more pained.
“He and I are alike in a few other ways, too,” they murmured, looking at the locket with a complex expression. “But I refuse to walk his path.”
They gave him a look that was thick with meaning, including pain and fear flickering in their eyes.
“Sans. My judge, my companion, my… friend,” they said, their eyes burning. “I am trying so hard to do what is right, by everyone. Am I… am I on the right path?”
Seriously, the kid had problems with dumping things on Sans’ head.
Though he’d been known to do that on occasion, too. He sighed.
“i told ya in the first timeline,” he said after a minute. “if it were me, i’d have thrown in the towel by now. and that’s just from one timeline. you keep trying. you don’t give up. you have determination in spades. and from everything i’ve seen, you look like you’re always trying to do the right thing.
“you’ve made mistakes, kid, but so have i. and unlike me, it looks like you’ve got a way to fix those mistakes. you’ve got a promise to guide ya now. i think you’ll be alright.”
They walked a little closer to him and their eyes were shining.
“Thank you,” they said, and then gave him a sheepish look. “Can I give you a hug?”
“heh,” he said with a grin. “sure, why not.”
They ran up and squeezed him tight, thanking him again before they let go.
“This is really gonna hurt,” they said with a sigh, looking past him at the end of the corridor.
“thought you were pretty much over pain?” he asked, feeling a little concerned.
“I mean, mostly, yeah,” they said. “But in that fight, Flowey intentionally tries to break me through suffering. Er, the first time I fight Flowey, anyway. Trapping me in reload cycles… I’ve gotten used to my power, so losing that crutch, knowing that I can’t reload, I can’t escape… it’s kinda terrifying, you know?”
“that sucks,” he said and they laughed. “how about i walk with you to your last save point?”
Their eyes shone with gratitude.
“I really appreciate that,” they said.
They walked in silence for a little while. They saw Asgore and Sans hung back. He watched the pain blossom on Asgore’s face as he realized who, and more importantly what, the kid was. Asgore struggled a bit, speaking about how he wished things were different, and then said he’d be waiting in the next room.
The kid gave Sans a look that clearly meant they wanted him to follow and he started walking with them to the next room.
Asgore was there and didn’t seem to recognize that Sans was even present, he was so lost in his own pain. He made a comment about treating this like it was just a trip to the dentist and that they should go into the final room when they were ready. He left again.
The kid led Sans right to the door and then sighed, manifesting a save point.
They turned to look at him.
“This is it,” they said softly. “For several versions of you, for many versions of you, the timeline is going to end in just a few minutes. For one version of you, Asgore and I will both be dead and the souls will be lost.”
He nodded.
“want me to leave a message, like last time?” he asked.
They smiled warmly, their gaze pained.
“Yeah, I’d really like that,” they said. “Hopefully I get it. It won’t be long after leaving that message when it’s all undone. But don’t forget that Flowey will probably hear the message, too.”
He nodded.
“And then, the last version of you will see me not go through this door,” they said with a smile. “I’ll leave, deal with the true lab and Alphys, and come right back. I’ll let you know if we’re in that timeline, that there won’t be any more reloading to this moment.”
“that last timeline isn’t so, uh, painful, is it?” he asked.
“Eh, it’s a little rough, but it’s got nothing on you,” they said with a grin. “I’m not worried about it at all. This one… really, the only thing that has me worried is whether things will actually go the exact same way. It’s a little less certain, when you’re opposing a time looper, you know? But I’m pretty sure it’ll work.”
“i sure hope so,” he said. “rootin’ for ya, kid. you got this.”
“Thanks,” they said with a smile and gave him another quick hug.
With an odd look of farewell, they reached out to the save point again… and their expression flickered.
“It worked,” they said with a sigh, rubbing at their face. “Thanks for the message, Sans. It’s funny, there were a few differences, but it was almost exactly like the very first time. It really made me smile to hear everyone like that, especially after Flowey was such an asshole.”
So yeah, that was a little disorienting.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention something,” they said. “Flowey’s going to do something to try to get you to come with, presumably through Papyrus. Um, you probably should. I use the connection between us, between all of us, to influence’s Flowey’s transformed soul. It’s a shame, but you won’t remember it, either - none of the monsters did, for some reason.”
“i’ll pop back home, then,” he said. “that means everything’s on track, though, right?”
“Yep,” they agreed. “It sucked - I tried to count how many times he killed me, but this one part was hard to judge. Probably… at least twenty times? But he didn’t kill me once during the part where he let me try to dodge, so ha! That counts as at least kind of a win, right?”
“yeah, that totally counts,” he said with a wry grin.
“But I spared him afterwards and he gave me the same spiel about how to improve things. I’ll go deliver the letter, I’ll see you back here, and then from your perspective, the barrier will just disappear after a disorienting flash of light.”
He nodded.
“See you soon,” they said as they started to make their way back to Snowdin, to get the letter.
“see you soon,” he muttered, mostly to himself.
Things proceeded exactly according to plan. He went back home, checking the sensor data on his way. Twenty three new timelines had appeared. He smiled at further confirmation of the kid’s honesty. He felt himself relax a little more, and just decided to chill for a little while.
At first, Papyrus was just focused on helping Undyne give the letter to the kid. After that, it wasn’t long - maybe an hour or so - before Papyrus urgently wanted him to go to the barrier room to keep the human and Asgore from fighting.
As the kid had said, after they had a really cute get together and he got to meet Toriel face to face - wasn’t that a treat? - everything turned white. When the light faded, he realized that even though he didn’t remember, something had changed.
As he looked at the kid’s body on the ground, he realized he knew their name. Frisk. More than that, he had the weirdest sense, like an understanding of their soul had been impressed into his mind. He didn’t only know their name, he knew what they felt, how deeply they cared for everyone. It was a faint impression - he could have missed it, and just called it intuition, but he knew his own mind. He knew what he knew. Getting a sudden depth of insight into someone wasn’t something he’d just brush off.
Funny, they’d told him so much, and had forgotten to mention that detail.
One way or another, though, his uncertainties and doubts vanished. The idea that they were a masterful actor and all this was a setup had already seemed incredibly unlikely, but this? Their love for him was only a faint impression that was hard to suss out, but nonetheless absolute in a way that felt unshakable. A bit unnerving - it was intense and felt frankly insane - but also reassuring. Even if he wanted to be suspicious of their motives, he just couldn’t feel it. They belonged to him. He would try to fix this, of course, but in the meantime, trust was, for the first time in so long, actually easy.
Seemed like everyone had gained that insight, too. No one else seemed to think much of it, but all of the lingering uncertainty and tension with the kid… with Frisk… had disappeared. They had a fun little hangout all together, talking about everything from puns to anime, before Toriel suggested that Frisk take a little walk and say goodbye to everyone.
They met Sans’ eye for a moment with a bright, happy smile, and then said there was someone they had to go say goodbye to. He realized he had no idea who it was, or why.
Eh, he could find out later.
He had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone. He lost track of time as he and Toriel messed around with texting. Eventually Frisk came back and they had an odd expression on their face. Joy, but also faintly regret, guilt, and sorrow. It wasn’t sharp edged at all, though, and they met his eyes without a shred of hesitation, so they hadn’t done anything too bad. Plus, still no EXP or LOVE, so he wasn't concerned.
From there, they moved on. Frisk was named the ambassador between humans and monsters. Papyrus decided to be a mascot and needed some brotherly guidance. Later, he found out that Frisk had, indeed, decided to live with Toriel for a little while, until they felt established, even though they were technically an adult. As they’d mentioned when they chatted about it, just because they were nineteen didn’t mean they didn’t need a mother.
Frisk insisted as gently, but absolutely as they could on a training regimen for monsters who wanted to live near humans, as part of their “ambassador” role, in an attempt to prevent diplomatic incidents. In other words, training on how to not accidentally hurt humans.
Asgore was informed about Frisk’s reset powers and laid down an absolute decree to inform Frisk immediately of any incidents of varying kinds. Alphys set up a reporting app for all monsters to use that would blare alarms for Frisk, Asgore, Toriel, Alphys, and Sans. The fact that literally every monster knew Frisk’s name and had a vague sense of their dedication to the welfare of monsterkind made this go over surprisingly smoothly.
Things settled into a new routine. Collectively, they did decide to occasionally - and increasingly - use Frisk’s time powers to get money, or to help make sure things went smoothly, such as with political meetings. They never admitted to the humans that Frisk had that power - it was treated as top secret.
Only Asgore, Alphys, Undyne, Sans, and of course, Flowey knew about the resets. Asgore, because he was the king and they'd needed him to give the orders regarding notifying Frisk of incidents immediately. Alphys and Sans, because of their work with Frisk on experimentation - plus the fact that Sans already knew. And Undyne, partly for Alphys’s sake, so she had someone outside of the experiments to talk to about it, as well as the fact that she was regularly training with Frisk. Their training could get pretty intense, now that Undyne knew that nothing could possibly go wrong. The smell of popcorn or hotdogs was frequently a distraction for days they had a full spar scheduled, courtesy of Sans.
Undyne’s raw strength counted for a lot, and if she tried to leverage that to break Frisk’s body, she could do serious damage. Outside of that, though, Frisk was basically untouchable. Attacking Undyne back was a problem, however - Frisk was initially afraid to attack at all.
Sans was worried about lingering mental trauma, and encouraged Frisk to learn to shape their intent with their strikes, so they'd feel safer physically interacting with monsters. This resulted in a few close calls - Undyne occasionally pushed herself a little too hard, to the surprise of literally no one - but Frisk was learning fast.
It was occasionally a bit of a complicated integration, but a surprisingly huge chunk of humanity was absolutely delighted to live with monsters. Papyrus became hugely popular, to the point he sometimes even had trouble with it. There were haters, too - both regarding monsterkind and Papyrus in particular - that tempted Sans to less than socially acceptable solutions, but Papyrus handled it well enough.
Sans, though… the fresh air and seeing the sun again… it meant a lot. It was a shame that Papyrus had been too young to remember, but seeing him experience it all helped to soothe that old ache.
A shame that none of the others could have seen this. The rest of his team. Or… her.
Still. It felt like a new day, and like a lot of those old wounds were scarring over.
It’d been a while since he could mean these words, but, well… life was good.