April Fool's Interlude - Three Sans Collide

This chapter's contents are NOT part of the story. It was posted as an April Fool's joke and is being left up so future readers can enjoy it, too. Details are in the end of chapter notes.

The machine was built and ready to go. Sans was impressed at what Alphys pulled off when he told her everything he knew about spacetime, alternate worlds, and the timespace rift. He should have done that ages ago.

Well, no. If he’d done that, then he probably would have gone home and would never have had this opportunity. A shame Alphys couldn’t be here for this - she’d have loved to, but it was that would complicate things excessively. Frisk would be bad enough, and there was no way he wasn’t going to have them here. For lots of reasons.

“you ready, frisk?” Sans asked with a grin.

“I, um, yes,” Frisk said uneasily.

Sans was excited, but Frisk was nervous. They had reason for a lot more emotional uncertainty than he did, with this particular plan.

He put his hand into the device and it locked onto his signature. Matches in the timelines were found. He pulled his hand out and delicately adjusted the controls, locking onto his target. After a minute, everything was ready.

“here we go,” he said, activating it.

The platform in front of them lit up with an unearthly glow. Magic swirled around it, with threads of black weaving around the platform, making an odd dome of humming power. Within it, a shadow appeared, frozen in place. It slowly manifested into the form of a short figure who looked like they were embracing someone, but nothing was in their arms.

The image slowly solidified into a strikingly familiar fellow.

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Sans was confused. He’d been holding Frisk, trying to wish them luck, and then the next thing he knew, he was standing in some strange room, surrounded by ominous looking swirls of black threads within a rainbow of what looked like stabilizing magic.

When it faded, he blinked in surprise. Of all the things he’d expected to see - which, admittedly, his expectations were kinda nonexistent at the moment - seeing another Sans standing by Frisk was not on the list.

“look who decided to drop in,” the other Sans said with a shit-eating grin. “nice jacket.”

Their jackets were identical, though not the rest of their clothes, and Sans chuckled. He glanced over at Frisk. Something weird was going on, but the first concern was whether they were really him and Frisk. Not that he knew why they wouldn’t be, but well, he wasn’t quick to trust, as a rule. He wanted to test them, and why not? He’d rather not have the other Sans give away anything regarding his pre-made passwords with Frisk there, so they were the natural target.

“you the frisk i knew?” he asked.

“Yes,” they said, looking down uneasily.

“what’s the last thing i said to you?” he asked.

They looked up, and their expression was strange. Sorrow, regret, a hint of burning determination and steel the like of which he’d never really seen in their eyes. They’d been growing a spine in the time he’d known them, but this was something else.

“You knew that I couldn’t be persuaded from my path, not without a better way,” they said, their voice still soft. “You reminded me of all that I needed to remember, to fight for. To remember you. You wished me luck, as I wept in your arms, and then I fled time itself.”

He nodded. No one else should know that. He looked over at the other Sans.

“well, i’m convinced,” he said. “what’s goin’ on?”

“i’m giving ya the short version, since we’re pulling in one more sans in a minute,” he said. “this is the last timeline. frisk is never restarting again.”

The other Sans playfully nudged Frisk, and they gave him a sweet smile.

Uh. Not just sweet, actually. That expression…

He’d deal with that later. He didn’t want to deal with the pained twisting in his heart that Frisk’s expression was making him feel. The knowledge that he’d just been… replaced. With himself. And it had become something more…

Right, not thinking about that.

“yours was the first timeline,” the other Sans continued. “so we’re going to call you sans-one and i’m sans-three.”

Everything clicked.

“that would mean that sans-two would be the one from the timeline that frisk was planning on creating,” Sans-one said in a low tone.

“yep,” Sans-three said. “we’re bringing him in next.”

Sans-three gestured for Sans-one to come out of the portal and he did so, going over to Frisk, as Sans-three started configuring the console again.

“I’m sorry,” Frisk murmured in a low voice. “I was an idiot and I didn’t realize-”

“not yet, frisk,” Three said from the machine, as he began to activate it.

“i dunno, i kinda want to hear this,” One said, glancing over at him.

“i’m getting kinda sick of repetition in my life,” Three said. “sans-two will be here shortly and he’ll wanna hear it, too.”

Frisk nodded and One glanced over at them.

“you okay?” he asked quietly.

“I’m happy,” they said, smiling up at him.

That smile ripped into him. He’d never had anyone smile at him like that before… even she had been more reserved with her love. He swallowed.

But they did look honestly happy, even if everything was confusing and maybe a little more emotionally jagged than he might have predicted.

He looked back over at the platform that now had a cloud of black-threaded magic swirling around it.

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Exhaustion tore at Sans’ mind. The only thought he could hold onto was the burning hope that Papyrus was going to be okay. He blinked at the glaringly bright swarm of magic around him, with unsettlingly dark lines weaving through it, so black that they looked like they consumed light, rather than merely failing to reflect it. He didn’t want to be consumed, but he couldn’t…

The magic faded away and he pulled himself to his feet. The room spun uncomfortably and he tried to focus.

Two other Sans-es were standing before him, as well as the thing. But… but no. Their face… it wasn’t them. Or was it? Damn it, he couldn’t think.

“what…?” he asked. “what’s going on?”

“damn, you’re in bad shape,” one of the Sans-es said, the one standing by the machine’s controls. “frisk, you’ll need to top him off in a minute.”

The human nodded and took a careful step forward, but stopped as he tensed.

“what the hell happened to you?” the other Sans said, the one that was standing right next to the human.

“be careful,” he tried to say. “that thing… they’ll…”

“what, frisk?” the Sans by the machine said with a laugh. “don’t worry about them. anyway, newest sans. sleepyhead. you look pretty toast, so listen up.”

He blinked at the Sans by the machine and tried to stay focused.

“this is the sans from the first timeline, before yours,” he said, gesturing at the Sans standing by the human - Frisk, apparently, their name was. “we’re calling him sans-one and he doesn’t know anything either. you’re from the timeline after his, so you’re sans-two. i’m sans-three.”

Sans-two looked over at the human.

“you’re the human inside the thing i was fighting,” he said, his head clearing a little now that he was no longer trying to maintain his binding attack.

They nodded and looked down.

“I’m sorry,” they murmured.

“still not a good time for that,” Three said.

“i dunno, i kinda want to hear this,” Two said, and One snickered. “actually, no, better question - is papyrus okay?”

“you killed papyrus?” One asked, looking over at Frisk.

He didn’t look completely surprised, which immediately set Sans-two on edge. The human, however, immediately whimpered and launched themself at Sans-three. Two might’ve tried to protect him if he weren’t so exhausted, but the human just buried their face into Three’s jacket. He actually wrapped his arms around them comfortingly.

Two just stared, struggling with this situation.

“papyrus is great,” Three said, and the feeling of relief that flooded Two nearly knocked him off his feet, unsteady as he was. “everyone is. timeline’s solid, too - no risk of everything ending.”

One looked relieved at that. Good news as far as Two was concerned as well, of course, but the news about Papyrus was more important, personally.

“i know you’ve got reason not to trust frisk, but if you can trust your other selves, take their hand,” Three said. “they can restore some energy for ya.”

“you can do magic now?” One asked while Two stared at the human.

“Not exactly,” Frisk said. “A little, I guess, but mostly it’s just adjustment of my own spirit within my own body.”

“and infusing killing intent into your strikes,” Two muttered.

Frisk flinched a little at that, but reached out their hand.

“Please let me restore you,” they said.

He stared at them for a moment, then looked at the other two Sans-es. He pushed at his focus again, trying to take in the situation. Both the previous timeline version of him and the timeline that came after him, assuming the other Sans-es were for real, trusted the kid. But if these Sans-es weren’t for real… honestly, there wasn’t much he could do about that. Teleport away, sure, but he could do that while holding the kid’s hand anyway.

After all, it was his core that held the risk, not his limbs. He cautiously reached his hand out to theirs.

“thicken up your presence as much as you can,” Three said, while One looked over curiously. “this isn’t the fastest way, but it should do.”

Two obligingly let his magic manifest as a thicker presence on his fingers, even though it was a bit fatiguing to do so. The kid tenderly took his hand.

Weirdly, their grip went right through his presence, going straight to his bones. Where their flesh overlapped, he felt their strength pouring into him. It was kinda sorta like absorbing a human soul, in some ways. His mind grew clearer and sharper as their vitality sluggishly poured into him. Exhausted as he was, it felt incredible.

“what are you doing?” One asked, sounding curious.

The human smiled, but kept their eyes on Two.

“I have only learned this recently, but it was you, Sans-two, from whom I began to learn this,” they said, their voice soft. “You have helped me to learn to die. Not just to die, but to embrace death, to love it, to love being killed by you.”

One seemed increasingly horrified as they spoke, and Two was mostly just perplexed.

“I have learned to die in piecemeal; to sacrifice my life and soul so that any magic that overlaps mine, any soul that overlaps mine, consumes me for their strength,” they said.

“what the fuck, frisk,” One said, recoiling from their words.

Their smile didn’t waver.

“frisk’s got a knack for turning a simple question into a goddamned novel,” Three grumbled. “you’d think, after knowing me so long, they’d have figured out things like shortcuts.”

The human chuckled at that and One continued to just stare, though he and Two did crack a grin at the joke.

“huh,” Two said, his voice steadier. “it’s really slow, but it’s nice. what’s the faster way?”

“you don’t wanna know,” Three said and Two sighed.

“If I may,” the human said, stepping a little closer.

He stepped back instinctively. They stopped, giving him a sorrowful expression… and went down to their knees. They lifted his hand and pulled it closer, towards their throat. He went along with this, stepping forward a little, and they actually put his hand on their neck, his fingers wrapped around their throat. He couldn’t help but tighten his grip.

“hey,” One said, “don’t hurt them.”

Their life flowed much more thickly within their neck and poured into him faster. He met their gaze, his sharpening mind giving him more insight into what lay beyond those green eyes.

“actually, go ahead and hurt them as much as you like,” Three said, to One’s spluttering objection. “just don’t kill them, since that’d trigger a reset, or do anything magic can’t fix.”

“what the hell is wrong with you?” One demanded.

Frisk and Two were both ignoring them, as Three tried to get One to just quietly watch. Two was focused on Frisk’s expression - the face that he’d studied all day, on the worst day of his life.

No hesitation or fear, despite his grip being probably uncomfortably tight around their throat, their face reddening from the pressure. Now that his mind was clearing… the last thing they’d said to him was that they were sorry, that they were grateful, and that they loved him. He saw it all on their face now, without any of the conflict he’d seen at the end. As though the demon in their mind had been replaced by devotion, but left all the determination behind.

“you’d let me kill you, wouldn’t you?” he asked quietly, gazing into their accepting eyes.

They smiled softly.

“I would,” they said, their voice a little rough from the pressure he was putting on their throat, but still managing to sound gentle. “As much as you want. But you wouldn’t remember, and it would upset the Sans of this timeline. Still. I would not stop you. You may do anything you wish to me. Anything at all.”

He didn’t see a hint of guile on their face.

“it’s not as generous an offer as it sounds,” Three commented dryly and Two looked over. “they don’t exactly have a problem with being killed. or other things.”

Two chuckled a bit at that, his gaze returning to them. It wasn’t news that they didn’t take death seriously. His grip tightened further, just to see what they’d do. They couldn’t breathe and their face was turning purple, but the gentle smile on their face didn’t waver. Not a hint of fear or uncertainty in their gaze - only loving adoration, regret, sorrow, and acceptance.

He heard One try to protest, but Three said that Frisk had killed Papyrus and Two had had to witness that. Between that and Frisk being okay with this, it wasn’t right to interfere. Even if Frisk passed out, as long as Two didn’t finish them off, it didn’t matter.

Frisk got close to passing out, without even a flicker of resistance or defiance on their face. Discomfort, pain, those things he saw, but nothing dangerous. He let go and they gasped for air before bowing their head contritely and standing back up. One rushed to their side and pulled them into a hug for a moment.

He’d gotten the impression that he’d maybe been friends with the kid in another timeline. Had the hope that the next timeline would be better. Still, it was really fucking weird to see the previous version of him hugging the human, and the later version of him looking over at the pair affectionately. The human seemed to be in love with all three of the Sans-es, and the other two inexplicably seemed to return it to varying degrees. He very much felt like the odd one out, almost like something was wrong with him for hating the thing that had slaughtered Papyrus and everyone else.

He sighed and tried to relax a little. These two Sans-es were him and they’d seen things he hadn’t. And he had seen those weird signs. Maybe he shouldn’t hate them. The events of the day had left him beyond raw and he’d need a week at Grillby’s to begin to try to handle things… but while he couldn’t trust the human, he did trust his other selves.

“not completely restored, but that was something,” Two commented as he watched. “i want to know why you did it.”

The human flinched a little.

“wait, you didn’t even tell him?” One asked, looking down at Frisk.

“you knew about it?” Two asked, reeling. “you didn’t stop them?”

“i tried to talk them out of it,” One said. “but i wasn’t sure what was best - i could see hints of the end of everything and didn’t know what timeline it was in.”

“it was in mine,” Two said, practically growling in frustration. “with every person they murdered, it loomed larger.”

He glared at the human, who whimpered a little at his gaze. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a steadying breath. It was still too raw, too recent. His other self had known about the plan and been unsure. That meant it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. He had to try to push back his anger.

Three went over to the human, gave them a gentle smile, and then grabbed their shoulder, lightly pushing them towards One and Two.

“go on, say your piece,” Three said.

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Frisk swallowed and nodded.

“I am sorry. To both of you,” they said, and turned to One. “I was wrong. I wronged you horribly. I was so afraid, so lost in my obsession and worry, I didn’t realize some obvious things. I didn’t let myself understand that resetting would… would destroy you. In a way I couldn’t get back.”

One sighed heavily and rubbed at his forehead.

“I… it may not be the best time, but I think you should know, because both of the other Sans-es know, but…” Frisk swallowed again. “I didn’t realize myself till I fought Sans-two. But I’d fallen in love with you.”

One looked away sharply. Frisk turned to Two.

“I’m sorry,” they said again. “It was temporary, it was never meant to stay. I… tried to tell you, but I couldn’t face you. Every time I tried to speak to you, I reloaded. I couldn’t handle you knowing I’d tried to talk to you, I was afraid you’d talk to me again. Say things I couldn’t face.”

They bowed their head.

“that’s nice,” Two said dryly, then closed his eyes and shook his head with a sigh. “i mean, i appreciate it. but it doesn’t tell me why you did it, or why my other two selves trust you so much.”

“take it away, frisk,” Three said, leaning against the wall. “short version, please.”

They nodded seriously and faced the other two.

“In the first timeline, I tried to do things the right way,” they began and Three sighed.

“nevermind,” he said. “i’ll do it. frisk’s a good kid - sweet, rough background, determined, had some fear issues. got a happy ending in the first timeline. everyone was free, yadda yadda. found out they have a demon possession problem, tried to get sans-one’s help, and alphys’s, to solve it. failed. they freaked out, got obsessive and single-minded, didn’t think things through, decided to reset and go murder-crazy to pull the demon to the surface to figure it out.”

“that actually explains a lot,” Two noted thoughtfully.

“see, frisk? we can understand things without an hours-long explanation,” Three pointed out and they pouted.

One chuckled at that.

“he has a point,” One added and Frisk grumbled.

“that aside, was it solved? the demon problem?” Two asked.

“No, actually,” Frisk said. “It’s not been our priority.”

“seriously?” Two asked, directing his glare at Three. “do you know what they did?”

“yeah, i do,” Three said. “the demon’s name is chara and it’s… sort of empowered by their LOVE, which doesn’t come with on resets. as long as frisk doesn’t get any LOVE, it’s pretty quiet and harmless. we’ve got time.”

“do you still hear it? feel it?” Two asked Frisk.

They looked away.

“Yes,” they answered.

“wait, right now?” Three asked.

“... yes,” they whispered. “But I know their voice. I know what they want. I won’t listen to them.”

“what are they saying?” Two asked, his gaze flicking over to Three.

“You don’t want to know,” Frisk whispered.

“tell us,” Three ordered calmly and Frisk bowed their head, to One’s visible astonishment.

“They’re… laughing,” they said quietly. “Right now, it's quiet and faint, but I can always hear them. Usually, it’s just little things - insights, observations, that sort of thing. It’s normally not even bad things, in this or the first timeline. It’s often just helpful commentary, actually. But, um. They remember you.”

Frisk took a wavering breath, struggling to make eye contact and mostly failing.

“They’re laughing as they remind me of… of the most painful moments when I faced you. They’re reminding me of killing Papyrus, of what seeing that must have done to you. They’re reminding me of your mercy, of the false kindness you showed me, of my surrender to them. Of how much I learned about myself and about you, from those moments.”

“that sounds like this should be a priority,” Two said, looking at the others.

“i’m just wondering how the hell you got frisk to actually listen to you,” One muttered and Three coughed.

“you don’t want to know,” Three said.

“you do realize that just makes me want to know more, right?” One said dryly and Three chuckled.

“yeah, yeah,” Three said. “it’s not just me, either. frisk, your devotion thing extends to them, too, right?”

Frisk nodded. It was strange, to belong to three people like this, but they were all Sans, so of course they belonged to him.

“as long as you don’t go counter to my orders, they’ll obey you absolutely,” Three said.

“what?” One asked, and Two looked intrigued. “you’re basically our slave now? is that what he’s saying?”

“For three different reasons, and all of them you, I owe you my everything, and my soul is yours,” Frisk said, their head bowed. “Everything I am, anything you wish, always.”

The first Sans, who stood by them and helped them to grow, to heal, to have hope, to have faith in themself.

The second Sans, who showed them what it meant to give his everything in pursuit of what was right. Who awed them with his power, and who showed aspects of himself that they couldn’t help but admire and adore. The one they had hurt, who had saved them from themself, to whom they owed a debt that could never be repaid.

The third Sans, who had been their focus and purpose as they reforged their soul, whom they had grown to love so deeply and dearly, who had shared with them his own heart and soul.

“you’ll get used to it,” Three said. “it’s actually kinda nice, once you stop tangling yourself in knots about the ethics of it all. trust me, i’ve done enough of that.”

“and you ended up actually accepting this?” One demanded.

“you might stop for a second and think about why that is,” Three said. “it’s not like you don’t know me.”

“i feel like i don’t, right now,” One said, pulling Frisk into a tight hug. “look, frisk, it doesn’t have to be like that. you’re your own person. hell, i couldn’t get you to stop arguing with me, once i finally got you talking.”

“I was a little obstinate, wasn’t I?” Frisk said with a gentle smile.

“way more than a little,” One said with his own soft smile. “seriously, you don’t have to just obey us because of what you did. you had a reason to do it.”

Frisk looked at Three.

“it took them a ridiculously long time to get me to accept the situation,” Three said. “maybe i should have mentioned that. sans-one, you’re three weeks past the day frisk fell into the underground, right?”

One nodded.

“it’s the same day, the first day, for sans-two,” Three said, and Two nodded. “for frisk, subjectively, it’s been… a little over two years, i think?”

“Hard to tell, really, but about that,” Frisk agreed.

“and for me, it’s been ten months, calendar time. but now that i’m able to remember the loops, i’ve lost track of how much time it’s felt like,” Three said. “that happened six months ago, four months after they showed up.”

“how were you brought in on the loops?” Two asked, and One agreed.

“you also really don’t want to know,” Three said, to the annoyance of the other two. “anyway. i’m not saying chara isn’t an issue at all, but we’ve focused on getting me to remember the resets first. now that we’ve succeeded at that, we can look at other priorities.”

“it’s been six months since then,” One pointed out. “that’s plenty of time for other things.”

“we’ve, uh, been distracted by stuff,” Three said with a slightly awkward grin. “but that’s what we’re doing now - picking up other priorities again.”

“like maybe getting all of us in on the loops,” Two said, frowning. “this bullshit about us not wanting to know is getting old, ‘cause i’m pretty sure sans-one agrees with me here, we do actually wanna know.”

One nodded vehemently. Three sighed and shifted his weight.

“i get that, i do,” Three said. “but here’s the thing. you both have, uh, opinions about frisk. not only will both of you have objections to things, i dunno if either of you could even do what was involved in getting me to remember the resets. sans-one, you’d have problems with the violent bits-”

“wait, hold on,” One interjected, stepping towards Frisk protectively. “violent? towards frisk? what did you do to them?”

“my point exactly,” Three said dryly, then gestured towards Two. “and sans-two, here, would have problems with the intimacy bits. it’s kinda pointless.”

“what exactly do you mean by intimacy?” Two asked, giving Frisk another speculative look.

“i’m glad you’re both so cooperative with my i-told-you-so,” Three said with a grin. “getting you in on the loops seems like a reasonable long term goal, not short term.”

“i get that,” One said. “but the little hints you dropped are gonna bug me till i know. just tell us. whatever it is, we’ll deal with it, you know that.”

Two nodded in agreement and Three sighed.

“fine,” Three said, rubbing at the back of his head. “but after we clear the air and get us all on the same page. how about you two ask your most pressing questions for now before we get into that stuff?”

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The two newly arrived Sans-es glanced at each other and nodded. One spoke first.

“what happened to you, frisk?” One asked in a low tone. “the way you’ve been acting, what you guys have been saying - this isn’t you.”

“You’re right,” they said, looking away. “It isn’t. The Frisk you knew died. I began to lose myself in your timeline, and you watched me wither and decay.”

One’s gut twisted at that. They were being melodramatic again, but he had seen them losing themself.

“In his timeline…” Frisk said, their gaze turning to meet Two’s.

Two simply watched them impassively. He could read his own face pretty well, though - Two was struggling badly with this situation. Frisk would probably have no idea, but Two was hurting and trying not to actively be pissed about it.

“I lost myself,” they continued. “I failed. I tried, but I failed. Doing what I’d done, gaining that much LOVE… it destroyed me.”

“how much did they gain?” One asked Two.

“their LOVE was nineteen,” Two said.

“ninete… the fuck,” One said, sharply inhaling. “frisk…”

That was nearly the max. They’d been on the edge of complete dissociation. He hadn’t told them about the mechanics of LOVE, what it did to a mind and soul, but he’d tried to warn them. It hadn’t been enough.

Frisk’s head was bowed and their eyes were closed.

“It destroyed me, and Chara had nearly taken me over,” they said. “Chara is what Sans-two could see on my face, not me.”

“i saw hints of you,” Two corrected in a low tone. “it’s the reason i took the approaches i did. i thought that i must’ve been wrong, since you blew them all off, since you were obviously still trying. till the very end, i mean.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Practically everything you tried worked, actually,” Frisk said with a small smile. “You hurt me to a depth and degree the like of which nothing else I’ve experienced could touch.”

Two smiled darkly at that, and One’s hand clenched. It really bothered him how much Two was pleased at Frisk’s suffering. He understood it, he did, but… it was Frisk they were talking about. One of the gentlest people he’d ever known. Gentler than Papyrus, even - at least Papyrus was willing to attack nonlethally. He’d never seen Frisk lay a finger on anyone.

Though… he supposed Two didn’t exactly have cause to think of them as gentle. He still could barely believe Frisk had actually gone through with it all, but they’d clearly gone completely insane, to get their LOVE up that high, that fast. Nineteen, in a single day…

“frisk also has problems with giving up,” Three tossed in. “our best estimates, from your timeline layer, suggest you killed them between three hundred fifty and four hundred times.”

One just stared at Three, horrified. Close to four hundred deaths…? From him alone? Why had they kept trying?!

Two, on the other hand, just looked amused.

“that explains a lot, too,” Two said. “you were something else, kid.”

“But to address your question,” Frisk said to One. “Sans-two tried an approach of feigned mercy. Of calling on…”

They trailed off and swallowed, looking away, their face tight with pain.

“called on what i thought i’d seen hints of,” Two said. “that there might be a memory of a good person within them, someone who once wanted to do the right thing.”

Tears began to flow down Frisk’s face, but no sound emerged from them, as Two spoke. One simply watched and listened.

“that in another timeline, we might have even been friends,” Two said, continuing to pretend to be impassive as Frisk’s tears fell. “the plan was to beg them to put down their weapon, to forget all this, to stop fighting. i take it you accepted once, huh?”

Frisk nodded, not meeting his gaze.

It sounded like his other self had done a bang-up job, not that he’d have expected any different from himself. He’d called on the exact things that One had tried to impress on Frisk not to forget. It was incredibly frustrating to realize that they’d pushed it that far, despite his entreaty. But it had worked out in the end, seemed like.

“the plan was, if it actually worked, to take advantage of their vulnerability and kill them,” Two said, and One gave him a dark look, but as irritating as that was… it was a fair thing to do. “and, as they died, to maybe insult them a little for fun, but also to say that if we were ever friends, they wouldn’t come back.”

Frisk was trembling. One sighed and pulled them in for another hug, trying to soothe them. He passingly wondered why Three was so blase about this, just standing there and watching with an amused look, but at least One could be there for them.

“i find it interesting that you came back, despite what i’m seeing with sans-one, here,” Two said.

“worth adding in that killing frisk actually takes away their choice on that particular front,” Three said. “they reappear at their last save point, without thought or effort.”

“huh,” Two said. “would've taken a different approach if i’d known that.”

It had never been relevant to One, naturally.

“That was the final thing that destroyed me,” Frisk said, their voice haggard. “I… I should have gone back to the beginning then, I should have. But I was afraid. I hurt too much. I couldn’t handle the idea of facing everyone, facing my sins, of facing you, not yet. And Chara wasn’t afraid, wasn’t hurting. They offered to take over completely, if I just let them, and I wouldn’t have to do anything, and I could find out everything I wanted to know.”

“goddamn it, frisk,” One said.

Literally everything he’d tried to warn them against, everything he’d been afraid of… they’d fallen to it all.

“so you accepted. and that’s what i was fighting,” Two said, and Frisk nodded.

Their gaze turned back to One and he couldn’t help but feel frustrated with them.

“I was lost and destroyed, then,” they said. “Shattered fragments of a foolish soul, within a wall of LOVE, puppeted by a mad demon. But one thing remained and grew within that wall.”

Their eyes shifted back to Two.

“My love for you,” they said, and Two gazed at them steadily. “With all that you did, all that you said, all that you tried… you are absolutely amazing. I’d fallen in love with the first Sans, but with you, it solidified, it strengthened. It became the only good thing I could feel, within the pile of shards of my self, within the wall of LOVE, as I watched you, cheering you on, as you killed Chara again and again and again.”

They smiled softly.

This was just… One didn’t even have words. His last moments - at least, he thought they were his last - were spent believing that Frisk didn’t really care about him, not as much as he’d felt for them.

He had started to sort of maybe fall for them a little himself, slightly. And unlike Toriel, they… well, they had no trouble with Asgore. Or Undyne. Or hell, even that murderous weed, Flowey. They just accepted anything, as long as there was a reason for it. They’d oppose evil, sure, but they just didn’t have it in them to hate. To refuse forgiveness.

It made them feel… safe. Between that and their earnest care, their soft appreciation for him, the way they’d slowly unfolded around him, finding themself, and growing into an incredible person… how could he not care for them maybe a little more than almost anyone else?

And apparently it was returned in full. More than.

“believe it or not, they actually enjoy me killing them,” Three said with an amused sigh.

Another rip at One’s heart.

“what the hell?” One asked, reeling.

“at first, they convinced me to try for the sake of remembering resets, and i was only so easily convinced because of what happened in the second timeline. then there was a whole mess of drama before i was convinced they liked it,” Three said with a shrug. “it’s not like i wanted to hurt them.”

“interesting,” Two said, while One spluttered and squeezed Frisk close again.

“how many times have you killed them?” One asked.

“you probably don’t want to know,” Three said.

“quit it with that crap,” Two said, a hint of his emotional exhaustion, pain, and anger leaking past his pretense of calm. “it’s getting old.”

Damned right it was getting old. One needed to know and he glared at Three.

Three sighed.

“to be honest, i don’t actually know,” he said. “we did a bunch of violent trials to try to get me to remember the loops. probably killed them close to ten thousand times in those…”

“WHAT the FUCK?!” One yelled.

“damn, that’s a serious kill count,” Two said.

“not as impressive as yours,” Three said with a laugh, ignoring One. “in none of mine did frisk fight back.”

“heh, yeah, that would make a difference,” Two said.

“ten thousand times?!” One said.

“in those trials, yeah,” Three said. “and since gaining the ability to remember the loops, i’ve probably killed them several hundred times. maybe even over a thousand.”

“what? why?” One asked.

Three grinned darkly.

“like i said - frisk likes it, and i didn’t think you wanted to know,” Three said smugly.

One couldn’t help but reel at this. How ridiculously messed up was this…?

“this is messed up,” Two said.

“you have no fucking clue how messed up it is,” Three said with a laugh.

“i think maybe we do actually have a clue,” One said, then looked at Frisk, who was peacefully smiling as he held them. “frisk… what the hell happened to you? you were mostly okay with pain and death, by the end, but you still struggled, you still hated the pain, you still were afraid.”

“I got over it,” they said with a chuckle, and then looked at Two again. “To finish answering - Chara and I eventually managed to get past everything. It was no easy feat.”

“kinda wish we had a recording of it,” Two said with a grin. “it was something else.”

Frisk smiled. One… had to admit he was kind of curious how good at fighting they’d gotten to get that praise from Two. Maybe not outloud, it might encourage someone to do something stupid, but to himself anyway.

“Thank you,” they said. “You were more amazing, of course - I just memorized everything. Painstakingly.”

“except for the random attacks,” he said.

“You say that,” they said with a laugh. “But you only ever used one of about fifteen different variations. I actually had to memorize every single goddamned variation, and the opening signs of each.”

“seriously? that’s how you did it?” Two said with a laugh. “and here i thought you’d just gotten skilled enough to handle the unknown.”

“Nope,” they said. “You completely wrecked my ass.”

“which you love,” Three said with a snicker and Frisk blushed.

One and Two both gave Three a very suspicious look and he coughed. This did not ease their suspicions. One didn’t know what to think about those suspicions, but the thing Three had said about intimacy…

“Er, yes,” Frisk said awkwardly. “Anyway. We got past everything. The last bit, with binding me in place, and the things you said… I don’t know how to put it exactly, but it wasn’t really Chara’s thing? They were annoyed and subdued, but determined to sit patiently and get past you anyway. So I could just be quiet, and calm, and just listen. And without the excitement and intensity of the battle, I couldn’t help but be forced to face what it must have felt like for you.”

Two’s face was tight. Yeah, that would have really sucked for him… even with a LOVE of nineteen, it was crazy to think Frisk had it in them to do that to his other self.

Well, no. He knew how numbing LOVE could be.

“To think about you, to think about why I was there, what I was doing,” they said, looking down. “And I was still being a stupid coward, a broken pile of shards under Chara’s sway. I wasn’t fighting them. Even when they pushed to raise the knife.”

“i don’t get how you even did that,” Two said.

“I don’t, either,” Frisk said. “I get the feeling that Chara can pull on my soul for power in some way? I, uh, haven’t wanted to explore that. But it felt like… like Chara was on the edge of making me theirs. Of truly taking over, of making me truly, actually powerless. That I wouldn’t have to feel anything anymore. No more pain. No more fear.”

They looked down.

“I suspect that they might’ve used my connection to the timeline to destroy all of time,” they whispered.

At least that answered what the weird gap in his reports had been…

“but why?” Two asked.

“To answer that would involve a lot of speculative psychology on an entity that doesn’t exactly have a lot of sanity,” Frisk said. “Though in brief, I suppose it’s fair to say I don’t know, and only have guesses. And I’ve been really trying to answer Sans-One’s question.”

And for all they’d learned, they hadn’t even learned enough to know why.

“alright, alright,” Two said.

“So, I was nothing,” they said. “Dead, in all the ways that matter, stripped of all emotion, all meaning, all purpose, all self, save for the love for you that had managed to linger and grow within those many hours of witnessing your badassery. And Chara pushed me to raise the knife.”

“and that was your limit,” Two murmured. “you couldn’t kill me.”

Frisk nodded.

One felt another strange twisting in his chest at that. They’d killed Papyrus, they’d nearly reached their absolute, broken from almost any capacity to feel, to connect. They’d killed everyone else they’d loved and threw themself at his other self hundreds of times. Two would have killed them as torturously as possible, naturally, using every avenue he could to make them stop, emotionally and otherwise.

Yet their love for him was enough to stop them even then.

A part of him couldn’t help but wonder… if they could have handled Chara in his timeline… what might have been.

It didn’t matter. He shouldn’t think about that.

“Everything else that I was faded away,” they said. “Nothing else withstood Chara’s screaming, raging, aching, driving desire to take over. But I decided - or realized, or transformed, however you want to look at it. But in that moment, I became the person I am now. The love for you, the loyalty and gratitude and devotion I felt for you, it became the entirety of my soul and I clung to it. I fought against Chara, and for the first time, it was a struggle. I hadn’t realized they’d grown so powerful. But I fought, and I won. I managed to make myself smile, to say things, and to reset.”

“you said you were sorry, you thanked me, and said you loved me,” Two said thoughtfully. “it actually makes sense. huh.”

Frisk smiled warmly at him, then looked at One.

“And that is who I am now,” Frisk said. “My devotion to you is the very essence of my soul, of my self, of all that I am. To serve you is my greatest satisfaction. To love you is my purpose.”

This was just ripping through him in all sorts of ways he just wasn’t ready for. He’d already been feeling really emotionally fragile before being summoned here, and this…

“and yes, i really did try all sorts of things to encourage them to heal and become their own person,” Three added in. “but in the end, they convinced me that they really are happy like this. that they don’t want to change. they will give you a seriously hard and mind-wrecking time if you try to argue with them about this, so please don’t.”

They had lost themself. Completely. So the person that he was sort of maybe falling for had died, and he held an echo of that person in his arms. Someone who loved him, but in a twisted, broken way, all that gentle care replaced with steely devotion.

“so the frisk i knew is dead,” One said in a low tone.

“Yes,” Frisk said, looking down. “And the love I felt for you - a love of equals, of romance, of sanity - it is a precious memory, now, but only an influence on what I feel.”

An outright confession that they had loved him in… that sort of way. Another ripping through of what might have been passed through him. But it didn’t matter, that possibility had been lost when Frisk had thrown away everything in their madness and fear.

He hugged Frisk tightly to his chest again and sighed. Two looked curiously at them, clearly taking in something about about his expression. He didn’t care. Let him think what he wanted.

----------------------------------------

Strange how much One seemed to be hurting and caring for the human in his arms. Still weirded Two out that he was willing to hug them, let alone… with that sort of expression.

He did understand the situation, but emotionally, he was having a hell of a time with it all. He’d never expected to survive the end of his timeline, and it had been the worst day of his life. He’d had some decent contenders for that category, but this one had taken the cake.

And yet none of it had actually happened. The person who’d done it all had made a few missteps in regards to some sort of weird demon possession thing, but had otherwise tried to use their power for a legitimate reason, in a way that, if it worked the way they intended, would have no real ill effects. No one died.

End of the day, he’d fought for Papyrus’s future, and he’d won. Papyrus was okay. They all were. It was okay. He had to come to terms with that. He had to.

Kinda hard when he’d been desperately fighting against the thing they’d become, drowning in despair, hate, and anger, barely half an hour prior. Kinda hard after everything he’d seen them do, everyone he’d watched die, while he stood by and uselessly hoped they’d change their mind without him having to break his promise.

Maybe if he focused on other aspects of what he’d heard. He turned his attention to Three.

“if you’ve accepted it, i can’t help but wonder to what extent you’ve taken advantage of it,” Two commented and Frisk grinned.

Three sighed.

“let me guess,” Two said. “i don’t want to know?”

“honestly?” Three said. “yeah.”

“i think i need to know,” One said. “frisk is actually really damned important to me.”

Frisk squeaked out a happy sound and nuzzled into One’s chest. Two couldn’t help but give them another dubious look. He couldn’t stop seeing Papyrus’s murderer in their face… it was too weird, seeing them like that.

“look,” Three said with another sigh. “i know you care about frisk. i know you’re questioning my motives, and sure as hell questioning my means. but the fact is, no matter how much you care about frisk…”

Three’s eyes lingered on the pair of them.

“it doesn’t compare,” he ended quietly.

Again, Two couldn’t help but reel, hearing that. Three was being more relaxed about everything, which made sense, considering he was the only one not in a difficult situation, or caught by surprise. Still. Two could clearly see that One had… he didn’t even want to think about how much emotion was visible on One’s face. He pretty obviously had fallen for the human, to a fairly major extent.

Three wasn’t being as transparent about it - pain did a lot to reveal things about a person, and One clearly didn’t feel the need to hide from anyone in the room - but to say that he cared for the human more than that?

His mind, rejuvenated as it was, couldn’t resist going over what he knew, piecing things together to get a sense of what in them could make two versions of him care for them so much.

He had to admit… it wasn’t nothing. Even he’d been awash with appreciation for the sheer beauty of their skill, which was born of a determination so intense and pure that it was hypnotic. And even in the midst of hating them, he’d admired them for that.

Combined with everything else he’d picked up from this conversation…

“how the hell can you say that?” One asked. “you’ve killed them over and over. you’ve accepted them being your goddamned slave. and that’s just what you’ve been willing to admit! what else have you done to them? and you claim to care about them?”

“He does, Sans,” Frisk said. “He won’t say the words, but in the ways that I need, he loves me.”

“what does that even mean, the ways that you need?” One demanded.

“i’ve told them everything,” Three said quietly, and One blinked in surprise. “yeah. everything. where we come from, everyone we’ve lost, the lies we’ve told papyrus, everything we’ve done. all of it.”

Both of the trans-timeline Sans-es stared at him, but Three only looked at Frisk, who smiled warmly back.

Everything? Everyone? His heart twisted a little, hearing that.

He kept a lot of things close to his chest. He wouldn’t claim something like that unless he meant it. That level of trust… that level of declaration of care…

“are… you two a couple or something?” Two asked uneasily.

“not exactly,” Three said. “their head is too messed up for normal romance, and frankly, so is mine. but beyond that, basically.”

One pulled back from Frisk a little, uncertainly.

He’d… outright admitted it. As much as he probably ever would. He actually loved the human. Two couldn’t help but stare.

Stare… and wonder. How peaceful Three seemed. How content.

Even Two had to admit the human was… unusual. He hated them, and he didn’t really see that changing soon… but he could imagine it changing. Technically, they hadn’t actually done anything. He remembered it, and it’d be hard to let go, but Papyrus was okay, the timeline was safe, and they obviously cared. If things really were as they seemed… he could see himself getting over it. Not easily, but one day.

Probably not till after he’d spent some time with Papyrus. His smile softened at the idea of Papyrus’s confused glee at having three brothers.

No, that was really dangerous to think about - he’d probably start getting sappy himself, and after the day he’d had…

He took another steadying breath, feeling half insane. This all was just too much.

“heh, don’t worry about that,” Three said, chuckling as he looked at the uncertain expression on One’s face. “i’ve got no problems sharing, especially with you two. also frisk is really into that.”

“...into being shared around?” Two asked and Frisk grinned brightly at him.

Okay, yeah, that was not where he was expecting this to go.

“yeah, but mainly, they’ve got a huge kink for being used,” Three said. “if they were there for sans-one in a loving way, and were a sex toy for you to use and discard at will, they’d just about explode from excitement.”

Frisk was blushing bright red and squirming awkwardly. Two was just blinking in surprise at the turn this conversion had taken. A… sex toy for him to just use as he wanted? They’d want that?

“is… that true?” One asked Frisk.

“A-absolutely,” Frisk said. “Completely. Really, intensely true.”

Three snickered. Two didn’t know how to feel about this. His mind raced over the conversation, trying to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.

“that’s the faster way of healing that you said i didn’t want to know,” Two said. “isn’t it?”

“your tongue works pretty well, too,” Three said. “but yeah. oversized dick and that trick is something else.”

… huh. That had, uh, felt remarkably pleasant. That sensation elsewhere… Plus, as pissed at them as he still was, the idea of consuming them for power, for his restoration, it was… appealing. Especially considering the whole bit about them obeying absolutely everything. Seemed like a certain perverse justice in forcing them to serve him, too. It really wasn’t the sort of thing he should think about, though.

Probably.

“you consume frisk’s soul during sex?” One demanded, but was distracted by an odd sound.

A trembling noise had come from Frisk, and they clapped a hand over their mouth, blushing brightly. Three snickered at them. They’d just… started to moan in desire and cut themself off? Seriously? From… from One asking about consuming them during sex?

“that was a cut off moan of desire, wasn’t it?” Two asked, disbelieving.

“Y-yes, it was,” Frisk admitted breathily, their cheeks lit up in an intense blush.

He’d always loved people’s reactions, and the complete brick wall they’d been was on the list of reasons he didn’t like them, even beyond the murdering bit. This reaction was rather tantalizing and he found himself tempted to find ways to prod them to do it again.

Which was weird to feel, when he was still all tangled up with the mess of the day. He needed to do something to deal with the tangled mess in his head.

“wow,” Two said. “that is… messed up.”

“told ya so,” Three muttered. “but i didn’t bring you two here so that you could boggle at my pet immortal.”

One gave Three a dark look, but Two… heh. Pet immortal, huh? He couldn’t help but have some interesting thoughts flash in his mind at what he might… rather, what Three had probably done. He really shouldn’t think about that.

But he couldn’t quite restrain his curiosity.

“i admit, i’m curious how far that loyalty extends,” Two said.

“so far beyond your comfort level that it’s fair to say they will do literally anything,” Three said.

Anything, huh? From his other self, too, and to this version of him. Surely Three would realize what that implied. What Two might want to do to them. Not just sexually, either - that was an odd and amusing thought, but it was… darker thoughts that were finding purchase now.

Though… though Frisk was clearly precious to his other selves. Once he worked through his dumpster fire of emotions from the day, he might start to actually think positively of them, too.

Alphys’s tone was wavering as she tried to keep everyone calm, as they crowded into the lab. He shouldn’t even be here, it was a waste of time, but Alphys needed him. She was barely holding it together. He wasn’t much better himself. She was babbling something about spiders, but he couldn’t focus on her words.

His gaze passed over the terrified people packed into the too-small lab. The tear-streaked faces, the blank stares, the broken sobs, the desperate efforts of parents to soothe their children, to try to explain things to them.

One kid asked if Undyne was going to save them, and Alphys clearly heard. She broke again at that and ran off. He couldn’t blame her. They’d watched Undyne die together and hell if that wasn’t one of the most depressing things he’d ever seen. The way she’d slowly collapsed as Undyne melted, the keening wail of agony that choked from her, the desperate denials and sobs… Mind, every one of his top ten for that category of “most depressing things ever” took place in the last few hours. And he’d seen some fucked up shit in his prime.

There was a measure of hope, that the anomaly would undo this. That everything could be okay again. But he couldn’t tell Alphys. The idea of seeing that hope in her eyes, for something so tenuous… As much as he hated the human, he couldn’t do anything. If they didn’t stop all this, he’d have to try. For the sake of everything, he’d have to do whatever it took. That said, if they stopped for anything, for anyone, if they showed some sign of not being the true end of everything, he’d just let them pass. Killing them was pointless, after all, so he’d just have to hope that they’d reset and undo everything. Facing Alphys after that… he couldn’t.

It’d be a while before he could manage to actually think of them with anything but anger. Or hate.

“which we don’t need to test,” One said, hovering protectively near Frisk again.

“i gotta admit, it’s really interesting to see you like this,” Three said to One. “i spent a lot of time trying to figure out how i’d have felt towards frisk, if i’d seen them the way they described their first timeline.”

“it’s easy to feel protective of a harmless kid who’s too sweet and sensitive to defend themself, who instantly managed to become one of papyrus’ favorite people ever, and who honestly loves my jokes,” One said.

That knocked Two out of his contemplations. That was so different from his experience it was jarring.

“wow,” Two commented, giving him a curious look before turning his gaze back to Frisk. “lots of changes from just one timeline back.”

“I was afraid to let myself feel,” Frisk whispered.

A surge of empathy touched him at that. Part of him pushed back, not wanting to empathize with them, but he should try to resist his hostility a little. Clearly he was stuck with them now.

“heh,” Two said. “gotta admit, i completely understand that. so you actually cared all along. about everyone?”

“Yes,” Frisk said.

“i was distantly curious how you managed to raise your LOVE as fast as you did,” he said. “it’s because you were brutally killing people you actually cared about.”

Frisk flinched.

“I… wasn’t trying to be cruel,” they said.

“really?” he asked skeptically. “you’re trying to say the thing with the snowman wasn’t cruel?”

Frisk shook their head.

“Chara loved it,” they said quietly. “And then mocked him for being a ‘useless pile of snow’ when he was… gone. But for my part, it was pure practicality. We could feel how potent the magic was in each piece.”

Right, the demon thing. Which he’d seen himself, and the other two versions of him took completely seriously. So Chara was cruel, and Frisk was perfectly gentle?

He eyed them and then closed his eyes, sighing. Suspicious, but probably not completely wrong. Still, he might as well call them out on it.

“i guess i can see that,” he said begrudgingly. “i just find it a little suspicious that you’re trying to suggest every scrap of hostility is something else’s fault. it‘s not like humans are all that peaceful.”

Frisk shook their head.

“I’m not saying I’m perfectly peaceful,” they said. “I did lose my temper and kill Undyne in the first timeline.”

“you never told me that,” One said.

“It… I felt like it didn’t really matter, since I reloaded and undid it, and I didn’t want you to think less of me,” they said, looking down.

“c’mon, frisk, i wouldn’t have thought less of you for that,” One said, nudging their arm. “i’m sure most people want to kill undyne from time to time.”

“honestly, i’d have only been a little disappointed if you’d kept her dead,” Three commented and One nodded agreement. “she was kinda ridiculous to you.”

Two got where the other Sans-es were coming from, but it still… hurt a little to hear them being so dismissive of Undyne after what he’d seen. Her amazing stand against the darkness, and then, her death…

“in my timeline, she was incredible,” Two said, his voice mournful.

“She really was,” Frisk murmured. “I just let her kill me a bunch of times before I could find the will to fight her at all. She was too amazing, even with my purpose driving me. She was beautiful.”

Two’s gaze softened a little. So they did see it, did understand it. Something about this made it seem… real, that they’d actually cared. Even if they felt they had to continue.

“yeah, she was,” he said quietly.

“frisk has told me all the details a bunch of times,” Three said. “i’d love to hear your take, too. both from a place of pure appreciation, as well as scientific curiosity.”

Understandable, but holy hell, did he not feel like going there. It’d been an intense day. He wasn’t feeling the exhaustion now, but still. And there was something he’d heard that was really itching at him. If he’d remembered the loops, the human would have never gotten past him.

“not now, though,” Two said. “if we’re here to stay, i want in on remembering the loops. i’d like to address that first.”

Three sighed.

“agreed,” One said.

“alright, fine,” Three said. “don’t say i didn’t warn ya. what we did was make the bond that happens during sex, amplified it by using the trick we talked about earlier to consume them during the act, and then brought it to a peak of merging and intimacy by killing them during a mutual orgasm.”

One stared, his gaze going back and forth between Three and Frisk, and Two started laughing.

Maybe those idle thoughts and temptations shouldn’t be idle after all.

“not sure i could manage the soul bond aspects, but it sounds like it could be fun to try,” he said with a dark grin. “maybe if they were completely tied up, though.”

He’d feel a lot more comfortable if they couldn’t move… but that also opened up some interesting possibilities. Frisk flushed and looked at him, desire clear on their face.

Weird, to be wanted by them. And rather… intensely. Part of him couldn’t help but respond, and he didn’t know if he should resist.

“you seriously killed them during sex?” One asked.

“they’re a masochist like you wouldn’t believe,” Three said. “they actually get off to being killed. doesn’t let them have a full orgasm, since, y’know, they die, but it’ll set them off anyway.”

One just stared at Frisk again, who was flushing and squirming. A complete masochist, to that extent, huh? So anything he did to them, even following his darkest impulses… he might just be getting them off.

That seemed like an interesting compromise to the tangled parts of himself. He could let his anger have an outlet guilt-free, since they’d be getting off to it. Maybe not the safest thing to do normally, but he’d seen how unbothered they were by pain, how fearless they were towards death.

Hell, if he could remember the resets - not actually likely, if he needed to emotionally connect with them, but still - he could see it being cathartic as hell. Probably would speed up the whole not-hating-them thing, too.

Might need to kill them quite a few times, but it seemed like everyone but One would be on board with that idea.

“so i could hurt them as much as i wanted,” Two mused. “it wouldn’t actually pay them back any of the pain they caused, not really. still could be fun.”

“Do… do you want to try?” Frisk asked.

That hit him harder than it should have. The hope on their face, combined with the darkness of his thoughts… this was messed up and he was tempted in ways he really shouldn’t be.

“i… frisk, this is… that’s too…” One tried to object. “this is wrong.”

“if anyone deserves it, it’s them,” Two said bluntly. “but they’re willing anyway, so whatever. i don’t think you should tie yourself into knots over it. they’re fine with it, your older self accepted it, might as well fuck them to death and get some fun and power out of it.”

“huh,” Three said. “it took me a lot of work and persuasion on frisk’s part to accept that whole thing.”

Two shrugged. Probably because Three was worried about hurting them too much or making sure he didn’t wrong them or whatever. Two just could not be bothered with that sort of problem right now. He’d probably care later, but why would he come to a different conclusion than his older self? He trusted his own judgment - no sense in tangling himself up.

“it’s been a day,” he said dryly. “plus i trust your judgment. and i gotta confess, maybe i’m less worried about overstepping some moral lines in this particular case.”

He looked at them appraisingly. He wondered how they’d take him being a little… harsh.

Why the hell not.

“i’ve never fucked someone i hated before,” he said, as though it were an afterthought.

Frisk hadn’t reacted to the comments about hurting and killing them - not negatively, anyway - but they flinched back from that like they’d been slapped.

“seems like i can hurt ya after all,” he said, amused.

“look, you wanna stab them or blast them some, i’m on board, but i’d prefer you not actually hurt them for real,” Three said.

Two cocked his head. He wondered…

“what do you think, frisk?” Two asked.

It was the first time he’d referred to them by name and their eyes sparkled.

“You’re right,” they said softly. “I owe you a debt that can never be repaid, and I am strong enough to face you now. Perhaps a compromise, to keep Sans-Three happy? I will tell you if I feel you are hurting me to the point that might actually be too much, and you’ll agree to stop if I do?”

Interesting. They were fine with anything, even him being deliberately emotionally cruel. Their hesitation was about not hurting the other Sans. He did feel a touch guilty about that… but fuck that. His gaze hardened a little as he remembered the pile of dust in the snow.

“to hurt you in ways you don’t actually like,” Two said, drawing out his words. “such as by reminding you of the fact i do actually want to kill you.”

They flinched again, pain clear on their face, and then nodded.

He closed his eyes and took a steadying breath. Again. He was having a hell of a time with all this. No. Sans-One had said something about Frisk being Papyrus’s favorite person, which, from what he was seeing, was probably true in this timeline, too. Hard as it was to wrap his mind around.

He could torment them, and a part of him was seriously tempted to. But he should restrain himself to things he wouldn’t regret. Plus he didn’t want to do anything that would break their mind and make them go crazy - their mental health was kinda important for the well-being of the world, no matter how satisfying some of his ideas seemed right now.

“sans-three is right,” he said begrudgingly. “i shouldn’t hurt you for real.”

Frisk moved closer to him and he held steady, but they simply dropped to their knees in front of him again, gazing up at him with love burning in their eyes. It was so bizarre, that expression on the same face that had murdered swathes of innocents without a hint of remorse.

“If it would help you to hurt me, then please,” they said softly. “I am yours in any way that you wish. I know that I wronged you. You can let out your anger on me. Your… y-your h-hate.”

They swallowed, nearly in tears from that word. His heart softened another measure in seeing that.

“frisk, that’s… you don’t deserve to be tormented,” One said.

“It’s not about that,” they said, still holding Two’s gaze. “I just recognize that he’s hurt and that hurting me might help. It’s tearing me apart that he hates me, though I can’t blame him for that. But… but when I say I will do anything for you, for any of you, I mean it. If hurting me would help, then that’s what should happen.”

Two reached out his hand and lightly touched the forming bruise on their throat. He had to admit, they were making it a little hard to stay angry at them. He still was angry, of course - seeing what he had wasn’t something he could just get over, no matter how sweet and subservient they were being now.

But it was increasingly clear how things would go. How his hate would fade over time. Honestly, he wasn’t even prone to hate or anger, all told, and while today had pushed him over that edge… it was already losing its bite. Despair had drowned it earlier, but now it was just… raw.

Still wanted to hurt them, though. But them getting off to it was maybe more solidly a good thing.

“this sounds like fun,” he said with a laugh. “i’ll agree to your compromise. wouldn’t want you to actually lose it, anyway. or upset the other sans-es.”

Or actually go too far, but it might be more fun if he didn’t admit that part out loud. Them being afraid of him doing more than he actually would might be entertaining. Besides, he’d seen how inured to pain they’d gotten. That’d be a hard thing to top.

“fine by me,” Three said. “frisk, make sure you draw the line on the early side. no risks with your mental health.”

“Understood,” they said and Two nodded, absolutely in agreement with this.

“are we seriously doing this?” One asked, flustered.

For some reason Two hadn’t quite accepted that his comments meant he was agreeing to do this… ah, what the hell, why not. He was still angry at Frisk, even if it was already starting to fade; he wanted to remember the loops; and he had to admit, it sounded like fun. It’d been a while. Even if he couldn’t remember the loops yet, the attempt seemed like it’d be enjoyable on multiple levels. He had a number of things to get out of his system and this seemed like way more fun than sourly drinking at Grillby’s. Plus he’d heard of hate-fucking - apparently it was a neat experience.

“you said you wanted to get in on the loops, remember?” Three asked with a shit-eating grin. “your turn next, if you’re up for it. or hell, we could make it a group effort.”

Frisk grinned hugely at that and One stepped back in surprise. Two started laughing again.

“bet sans-two would go a little easier on frisk if you’re there,” Three said with a wink, his tone taunting. “maybe not with me, since he knows i’ve accepted hurting them.”

That’d be an amusing dynamic. Three clearly had figured out Frisk’s insane pain tolerance - possibly even more than Two had. But One had no clue. Two might have to show him some of what Frisk could handle, how hard it’d be to push them to their limits. It’d be fun to mess with him - he didn’t have a chance to mess with himself, ever, so that sounded like a blast.

He would have to go easier on them, with One there. There’s no way he’d stand for some of the things running through Two’s mind. Might not be bad to stop him from doing some of those things, considering he’d probably regret it one day.

Three looked over at Frisk.

“what do you think of this idea?” he asked, with a grin that said he knew damned well what the answer was.

“God, yes, please,” they said, gazing at the three Sans-es eagerly.

“and just think,” Three went on. “if it doesn’t work, we can just keep trying.”

“As much as you want,” Frisk said, their voice trembling with desire.

“this is insane,” One said.

“absolutely,” Three agreed. “so, you in?”

“let’s do this,” Two said, thoroughly amused.

What a weird situation.

One glanced back and forth between Frisk’s eager, hopeful face and Three’s confident one.

“i… guess if it’s what they want, and it’s happening anyway, it doesn’t hurt to try,” he said uncertainly.

Three’s grin widened. Heh. Guess that meant they were actually doing this.

“look at that, frisk,” he said. “it worked. happy valentine’s day.”

Their wide-eyed surprise and embarrassed appreciation caught Two by surprise, but he couldn’t help but laugh. All in all… it was a great way to start off the rest of the afternoon’s activities.

Happy April Fool's, to those who don't read the author's notes! :D