The window-filtered light dimly lit the entirety of judgement hall. It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining, birds are singing, flowers are blooming, just lovely outside. On days like this, children should be playing, laughing, not having a care in the world. A shining ball of potential and innocence.
Yes, there should be children playing outside, but there weren't. In fact, there aren't any children at all. There used to be, but not any more. There all gone now.
Sans hated days like these. He despised them with a burning passion. They were a reminder, these days. A reminder of what will happen, again and again, for all of eternity. There would never be an escape. Never. This was an endless loop. This is sans' life.
Sans waited patiently. He clutched at Papyrus' red scarf. The kid should be here any minute now.
Sans also hated that kid. There was a constant trail of sins following them wherever they went. Dust coated their clothes and weapon. The haunting cries of the dead seemed to cling to their very being. Sans could hear his friends die every time he fought the kid. It's what gave him the strength to fight until he either killed the demon, or was killed himself.
Sans had lost track of the number of runs the kid had done over the years. At this point, he could only remember bits and fragments of each one. It was the worst memories that he kept mostly, and they constantly plagued his nightmares. The kid would sometimes spare every monster. Other times, they would kill only a select few. Mostly, they killed everyone.
Sans had quit trying to stop the kid a long time ago. He of course was always present for judgement, but he stopped trying to convince his friends, his brother, to stay away from it. It didn't matter what he did. It always ends the same way.
Everyone dies.
This run was the same. Everyone died. Now the kid is coming.
In a way, sans was anticipating dying. He was glad he would die soon. Then it would all start over, and he would see his brother again. Sans loved papyrus as much as a brother could. Pap is all sans has. His brother is what has ultimately kept sans fighting all this time.
To get to see his brother again, alive and full of hope, is always sans' final goal of each game. As long as he can see his friends and brother again, he will be fine.
So sans keeps coming back. He keeps passing judgment. He kills and is killed. This is sans' life. This is all there is to sans' life. Nothing ever changes.
'Ah, right on cue. Here's the kid now.' The child walks slowly down the hall towards the short skeleton. Their brown hair hangs in their face and overshadows the top half. All you can see is the murderous glint in their eye and the impossibly large smile plastered across their face. The knife hangs limply in their hand at their side. The tip of the blade drags along the ground as they walk. The scratching sound it made sent chills down sans' spine, which totally contrasted against the warmth of the sunlight spilling from the windows.
Okay, so maybe it wasn't entirely correct earlier to say that there were no children left in the underground. There was one left. That child should not be playing outside though. No, on days like this, kids like that...
should be burning in hell.
The child came to a stop in front of sans. The skeleton let out a deep, bone-chilling laugh.
"Hey buddy, if you take one step closer, your gonna have a bad time." He warned.
The child's grin simply widened, and they took one step forward. The room flooded with black as the engage activated.
"You think this is humorous? That's a real jaw dropper." Sans cracked.
The kid's head tilts to the side and devious child's laughter echoes through the hall. They jump forward and attack. The knife swings, but sans swiftly dodges the attack. He growls and lifts his hand, which sends bones shooting out of the floor and at the murderer. They also dodge.
The kid runs and swings their knife again. It's a miss. Sans retaliates by raising his hand high above his head, he summons two blasters, and thrusts is hand towards the kid. The monster has seen this attack to many times before. Not even a scratch is on the child.
Sans' frustration is growing. A ring of blue replaces the pupil in his left eye socket while the right becomes deathly empty. His hand glows with the colored magic, and there is a small ping as he seizes their soul and throws them across the room, hitting the child with wall after wall, manipulating all laws of gravity and inertia.
Their LV was draining. That didn't stop them though. As soon as his hold on the demon was released, they attacked again. Sans dodged, but also noted that his reaction time had slowed minutely.
"Had enough yet, you dirty brother killer?" Sans taunted as he sent a barrage of bones at them.
The kid scowled as they dodged, then they CHECKED Sans. They felt their sins crawling down their back.
"No need tibia salty swimmer. Why's it matter what I say about what you've done? Its not like you Chara 'bout anyone but yourself. I'm Asriel as you can around here." The big-boned skeleton laughed at his puns.
The kid's expression turned furious.
'Guess I found a sore subject. Pity for them. I've really managed to piss them off.' Sans thought.
Sans decided then that this was enough for this run. Over the resets, his energy for the final battle has dwindled. This fight grows shorter each time it happens. The more battles they fight over the times, the more the kid has won as of recent. Sans readies his final attack. Gaster-blasters completely surround the child. They fire.
The blasters did their damage, but the kid was still alive.
Sans was sweating now. His breath had become labored. He was exhausted already. Perhaps he would just sit the next run out. Rebuild his strength. It's been awhile since he's done that.
The kid laughs. They run at Sans and swing their knife at him. He dodges.
"Ha. You miss-"
The kid swings at him again, this time making contact. Sans barely registered how the kid changed their attack at the last moment. Instead of being cut by the knife, he was hit with the butt of the weapon. Sans fell, the engage broke. The Skelton glared up at the kid, who smiled down at him. There was something different in the false grin this time. Something more... sinister.
The kid turned around and left judgement hall. They were on their way out of the underground.
Sans growled to himself. Stupid kid. Why hadn't they dusted Sans? It's not like he wouldn't have come back next reset.
Sans CHECKED himself.
HP 0.23/1
It had been a close call.
Sans didn't know what that kid was doing, and frankly, he didn't care. The kid could force spare him all they wanted, as long as they didn't disturb the reset loop. Sans got up, slowly and painfully, but he managed to stand.
"Damn kid... should have just dusted me... they probably know I'm ulna lot of pain right now." Sans grumbled begrudgingly.
The monster slowly began limping in the opposite direction the kid came from. Back through the underground. Back to his home. Surprisingly, Sans had made it all the way back to Snowdin without just dusting from over exertion. He had even teleported through some areas.
Sans opened the door to his and his brothers house. He stumbled up the stairs and into his bedroom, which was unlocked. He collapsed on his bed.
His thoughts swirled as he stared up at the ceiling. By now, the kid should have cleared the True Lab. They would be on their way out. Then they would reset, like they always did. Sans would fall asleep, and when he woke, it would be to the same thing as every other reset. Papyrus calling him a lazy bones and making him breakfast spaghetti, which would become lunch spaghetti, then supper spaghettini, then leftover spaghetti. If it hadn't been eaten by then, the skelebros wouldn't be the ones to finish it. By then, it was free game for any bacteria.
Not that the spaghetti was bad, it was actually pretty good. Paps just made way to much of it all of the time.
Thinking about his brother made Sans content, and the sooner he went to bed, the sooner he would wake up to said brother. He would also get to see the others again. He was always happy to see familiar faces. How he used to feel about someone didn't matter much anymore, Sans was just content to have other monsters with him. Over time with the resets Sans had begun to miss most monsters, even if they weren't dead for that long. Papyrus, was of course, the first he began to miss during genocide runs. Next, the woman's voice behind the door. He enjoyed making her laugh. Then Alphys, his old science pal. After, Undyne, mentor to his bro, captain of the royal guard, and in a relationship with Alphys. Grillby and his bar. Asgore, with his overall kind heart and love for tea. Even Mettaton, with his annoying peacock-like flaunting. Now that Sans thought about, Mettaton has been spending more time with paps lately. Its never gone anywhere between them yet. The time between resets are just too short. Only on the rare pacifist route does sans ever see anything starting between the two. Then the kid gets bored. Sans appreciates almost every one in the underground, hell sometimes he'd even settle for Flowey, if he's feeling tolerant.
Sans yawned. He really should sleep. After all, he had the great papyrus waking him up every morning.
In no time, Sans was sleeping like the dead. He looked foreword to seeing his friends the next day.
•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
The second Sans woke up to silence he knew something was wrong.
He sat up quickly, "Wa-wahhh?" He rubbed his skull, wincing at the pain he felt in his chest. That pain should be gone. Sans never maintained injuries after a reset. The skeleton CHECKED himself again.
HP 0.33/1
Sans must have gained some HP from sleeping, but... why hadn't his HP gone up entirely? It always does after a reset. Why was it so quiet? Paps would never get up this late in the day. What time was it anyway?
Sans looked at the clock in his room.
11:00AM
Papyrus would never let Sans sleep in this late. The older skeleton brother darted out of bed, out of his room, and down the stairs. He checked the living room. Nobody. The kitchen. Nothing.
Something occurred to Sans at that moment. If Papyrus wasn't here... then...
Sans felt his neck. Instead of bone, there was a tattered cloth. He pulled it off. Red. Papyrus' scarf. The kid hadn't reset yet.
Panic filled Sans' soul. He stumbled towards the couch, collapsing at the foot of the piece of furniture. He started to hyperventilate. This has never happened before. The kid always reset. Always.
Sans lay there, unable to move for what seemed like days. Maybe it was. The skeleton lost count.
-time skip-
Three days after the kid didn't reset Sans finally left his house. He wandered aimlessly around Snowdin. A week after the kid didn't reset Sans took up a vigil watch over the doorway between Snowdin and the Ruins. He waited for someone, anyone, to come. He waited. And waited. And waited. Nobody. A month after the kid didn't reset he had already wandered around the entire underground. Nothing. He was alone.
Sans didn't sleep much anymore even though he was always tired. Dark areas had formed beneath his eye sockets. He didn't sleep because he hated that feeling of crushed hope he got every time he woke up and it wasn't to the sound of Papyrus calling him a Lazy Bones. Sans' constant smile became a constant frown. He was no longer able to really focus on anything. He mostly just stumbled around in a constant daze. He didn't know where he was going or why. He just moved. It was all he could think to do. Just keep moving. Sans didn't eat much either. Enough to stay alive, barely. His HP stayed at a constant amount of at most 0.50/1.
Sans was already half dead. The little sleep he got was plagued by nightmares. His voice was strained and quiet from not being used. His hearing was always straining to pick up something, anything other then the whirring of machines, blowing of wind, and rushing of water. Other than that, there was just silence. Sans was slowly dying of loneliness. He wanted his brother. He wanted his friends. They were gone though. Even that little demon had abandoned him.
He should have been dusted that day. The kid should have finished him off. They had no reason to spare Sans, other then to torment him.
These were the thoughts that crossed Sans' mind as he was walking to Waterfall from Snowdin one day. It was a foggy day. He could barely see three feet in front of him. It didn't take much thought to make his next choice of action.
Sans gathered all of the magical energy he had and filtered it into one last shortcut. Then he was gone. The jump took a lot longer and a lot more energy than he thought it would. When he appeared again he stumbled and fell to the ground. The jump had taken all the magic he had stored up. If it had taken much more, what he was about to do wouldn't be necessary because he would have been dusted then and there anyway. Sans didn't know why the jump had taken so much out of him, but he wasn't too surprised. He didn't even really care all that much either. It wouldn't matter soon. Sans stood back up. The fog was just as dense here as in Snowdin. Sans walked by the bridge, not acknowledging at all. He was briefly reminded that this is the bridge Undyne, ironically, died on. Sans stood at the cliffs ledge. He stared down into the dark abyss of the trench.
He stood there for a few minutes. The air around him was tense. His soul was heavy. Any and all noise around him was blocked out.
"Papyrus... do-do you want anything...?" He muttered to himself. Then he fell forward, into the darkness which was almost palpable. It swallowed him up.
He was free falling for hours, or seconds. He couldn't tell. It didn't matter. As long as he hit the bottom.
Ping
His fall was halted, but it couldn't be over, no, not yet. Sans hadn't felt any pain. It couldn't have been the ground that stopped him. Something else.
Sans opened his eye sockets, which he hadn't known he'd closed. It didn't help much. There was no light down here. The only light came from a faint, light blue glowing right under his face. He looked down. Magic had taken hold of his soul and he was being suspended by gravity magic. Someone else's magic. There is someone or something else with him in the Underground. Whoever they are had just stopped him. The light blue magic was faint and weak, not weak overall, but weak as in exhausted. They had been using their magic recently.
Sans remained suspended in that place for awhile. Just as he began to wonder how long he would be there, the magic switched to a much less exhausted and stronger orange magic. The light blue had relinquished its tenacious grasp. So there are more than one. The magic began to lift Sans up. Said skeleton decided to play opossum and went completely limp. If he was lucky, the strangers would consider him unconscious and too weak and just throw him back down to his doom.
It took awhile, but Sans' body finally cleared the lip of the cavern. He was suspended above the trench in plain sight of whoever was there. Sans resisted the urge to look up as he heard multiple gasps.
One voice chuckled, "Come on now, little Buddy. I know your only feigning unconsciousness. No need to be shy." It was a strangely vet vaguely familiar voice.
Sans groaned. So much for that plan. He opened his eye sockets again and slowly looked up.
He choked on his own gasp at what he saw. It that moment, for a second he felt like he really was about to faint.
•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~
Gaster sighed from the void as he saw his son disappear after his teleport. Gaster had been watching Sans this past month. He saw Sans slowly suffering. He couldn't take it anymore. That's why he brought it upon himself to move Sans to a place where he could potentially be happier. Gaster had spiked Sans' teleport with some of his own power. All the father could do now is hope that his son, wherever he now may be, that he could be safe and content eventually.
Welp, that plot bunny happened. What do y'all say? Continue or scrap the idea?