One last shot... That's all Sans had left in him before he would unleash his special attack. He didn't have the strength to go much further and things were more than a little grim. The psychotic human would get him one of these turns if things kept going this way. He'd exhausted everything. How many times did he have to kill this punk before he'd give up? Truthfully, he'd lost count. He'd also stopped caring. If he couldn't stop him here and now... Now? Time was such a fickle thing. He couldn't stop smiling, even after all the grim thoughts that were rattling around in his skull. There would be no mercy. There could be no mercy. It wouldn't be right... not after what this kid... no, this demon had done.
"Get dunked!" he called out, magic bones spearing the human soul and Gaster blasters firing in rapid succession. With all of that... ALL of that... it had to be over. Sans held his breath, watching the human and the broken soul warily, his left eye still aglow. 'Is it... is it finally over?'
His answer would come shortly, a voice in his head, only he was aware of if ever anyone was watching. "I think he's done this time."
The soul fragments glowed blue and hung in the air before Sans. He was manipulating the pieces now, keeping it at a careful distance. "You sound real confident ol' man." sarcasm?
"What can I say? We're still here, aren't we?"
"Yeah. I guess there's that. Phew... I need a burg or somethin'..."
Sans spent a moment collecting himself before he felt like moving at all. Actually, he didn't want to. He didn't want to move, to go anywhere. After going up against a human soul with the determination to change fate, he had somehow overcome... again. He'd resigned himself to the feeling that there would always be another day, another time... this would just... keep going. Determination? What a joke. No monster had the ability to change fate like this. Even so, there wasn't any point in standing there any longer, and he pulled the human soul with him toward the door to the throne room.
"Ah, I think we see the anomaly now don't we, Sans?"
'Yeah. I see it too.' Sans thought privately, watching the king speaking to a flower. 'And here I thought it was someone pranking my bro with an Echo flower.' "Hey, king... I brought you something."
"Oh" the king turned. Asgore faced the skeleton, whose eyes had gone back to normal, though an imperceptible part of him was glaring at the flower. "Howdy, I was expecting someone else, I think. Still... is that...?"
"It's a human soul. I'm... sorry I failed." the skeleton said with true regret in his voice. Whatever the flower had been thinking, it was now curiously watching the scene unfold. Sorry? Failed?
"I am sorry too... but... Who are you?" King Asgore asked.
"Eh? Me? Oh, I'm just a sentry in Snowdin forest... Sans. Everyone knows me there. Heh, well, I guess they don't any more. Here's your soul... good luck with that whole barrier thing. I think I'm... I'm gonna' go to Grillbys." Before Asgore could say anything further, he'd walked past him in the direction of the barrier, and somehow was already half way through the city. This left the king, and the flower, both unnerved and confused.
Grillbys? You're kidding. Where do you think you're going to Sans?"
"I'm taking a shortcut." Sans said in reply to the voice in his head. The underground was quiet with nobody in it. Sure, a few folk had escaped. Sure, there were a bunch still hiding in the capital. Every step he took seemed hollow, empty... as nobody came.
This isn't the way to Grillbys. Where are you... oh no. Sans, stop. You know she isn't there. The ruins will never open again."
Ignoring the voice perhaps, he found himself at the edge of the ruins. The door was closed to him, it was the one place he'd never seen the inside of in all his time in the underground. He'd never found a way inside, even though he knew that monsters used to live in the ruins. He knew history... hell, he'd lived his own more times than he could count now too.. well, to an extent. "Gaster, can you help me open this?"
"Didn't you hear a word I said? There is no point to this exercise in futility. I will not help you."
The skeleton's eyes somehow closed as if he possessed eyelids. He was still smiling. Everything had gone horribly wrong, but he couldn't stop smiling. He laughed, a joke known only unto him. "I didn't ask your opinion. Come on... One more... One more... please..." he stretched his hand out for a borrowed power that didn't come. If anyone had been watching, it would be a truly sad sight to see him stand there, crying in the cold.
"Sans, there is literally NOTHING left for you here.. Please don't make this harder than it has to be. You won... the human soul will be used by Asgore and...
"Nobody's going to be happy with this, and you know it." he said and turned heel away from the ruin. He pulled up his hoodie as if to keep warm and trudged away from the ruins. Despite heading deep into the woods, he was somehow at the door to his and Papyrus' house. "You don't get it, do you?"
You won.
Sans laughed and headed around back to a secret door. Well, maybe not so secret, it was just the way to the basement. Still, Sans was the one with the key, and it hadn't been used in a long time. It opened with a soft click, and he headed downstairs. "No. I haven't. Not until we get a happy ending."
"A happy ending? Are you serious? What kind of idiot are you?" a voice shot up behind the skeleton. It had issued from the same gold flower that had been speaking with the king, and was now watching him as if in judgment. "And just... who... who are you even talking to? Everyone's dead. Everyone you know, everyone you love. I didn't even have to do it this time."
Sans gave a hollow laugh at the flowers' words. As if this thing could hurt him? No. Not here at least, not this time... he'd lost his chance already and didn't even realize it. He pulled down a curtain that hung over a strange machine. Sans, I forbid you to use that! It hadn't been used in some time, and dust had collected where the curtain had been torn in a spot. He was still smiling, "This time? Ah, I see... I thought you might be real, but I couldn't tell for sure. Old man kept a lot of things from me. All these jumps back in time really take a toll on you. You know, there was a time I was just as excited about everything as Papyrus was? Every jump... every reset... I lose myself more and more. Call it lazy if you want, but I just... it's hard to give it your all when you know that one day, it isn't going to matter. Look at me, I've gone more than five minutes without making any jokes... I must be a mess."
The flower absorbed those sobering words, quiet for a moment while he set about fixing or adjusting the machine somehow. "If you're thinking about changing things, you can't. Only a being with absolute raw determination could do that. Go back? Change fate? Ha! You're barely holding together even though you won that fight. How do you expect to change things when I couldn't? I'm MADE of determination!"
Please let me kill him Sans. I promise I won't ground you for firing a Gaster Blaster in here.
Sans snickered. "Truthfully? I don't. I don't... I don't have that determination... I just know who does."
Flowey frowned. Someone with greater determination? The only person he knew like that was... "Wait! You! You mean to go back to when that human was alive? Didn't you just spend countless threads of time killing him?! You won! Why would you do that? Just so he can murder everyone again?"
"Because... I hope, this time, it will be different." The flower glared at him in a mixture of disgust and complete disbelief.
History suggests otherwise you know.
"I know it's crazy... But I have to try."
"Why? What's in it for you? Why not deal the card you're dealt now? Asgore's going to break the barrier, humanity will finally suffer as we have suffered! A single child robbed you of everything, and you want to go through all of that again!? You really ARE a fool!"
There was the patience of a thousand times the skeleton's true age in his smile. It was something beyond himself he couldn't describe. He didn't feel like he had any determination of his own... but when his back was against a wall, there was one constant. One reason he kept going back... He'd like to say it was the lady at the door of the ruins, but that wasn't true.
"I'm doing this for Papyrus." he said, as if that would end all arguments.
Papyrus is gone. How many times will you see him die before this is all over?"
"What...?"
"His last words to the human... 'I think you can do a little better, even if you don't believe you can.' And every time I face that human I ask... 'do you think that a person can change? That they can do the right thing, if they only try?' I keep hoping those words will be true. That... if I just reset one more time, we'll all be free and nobody will have to die."
Sans hadn't been idle while he spoke, and the machine was whirring with magical electricity now. He would be able to do whatever he wanted in short order. Flowey had been wondering if he should kill him this whole time, but this was... entertaining... more fun than feeding Papyrus' hopes and dreams had been. He laughed uncontrollably.
"I can't do this alone though... but I can't trust you either. So... I think you've seen some things too... we've reset, we've been reset... who knows how much of us will remain when I start up this machine in earnest. Still, I can't get into those ruins... and I can't go back earlier than the day that kid falls into the underground. You've been there... you're where it all started. So, I just have one request."
"If it's to help the human... Oh, I will, I'll help him destroy every last one of you! And then I'll destroy this world too!"
"You probably could. Might still do that actually." Sans shrugged, "You know, I've seen this future before. Asgore breaks the barrier... and keeps to his word. He wages war... but most of the monsters left aren't fit for battle. Humans die. Monsters die. Nobody's happy. Not even you." The flower went quiet. "Hey dad... if I forget you again, could you clue me in a little sooner?"
I can see your mind is made up. If I cannot stop you, so be it. Time and space are nothing to me. I hope you're happy with your choice, son. Say hello to Papyrus for me.
"I will." With that, the skeleton finished his work on the machine and stepped inside a tube.
Ironic, is it not? I exist on a different level now... the only one who gets to observe all of this, but I am powerless to change things as you are. Over and over I have watched you, my son. I've seen you die so many times, I've seen Papyrus die too. This gives me no pleasure. Still, you persist, I am surprised. I hope you find the future you're looking for.
The machine started up, Flowey having apparently just made up his mind went into action. Dozens of seed bullets fired, ready to take Sans down. It was too late, for a moment the flower could perceive another skeleton, bent and smiling, before a freaky skull opened its maw, a Gaster Blaster destroying the seeds and the flower before they could strike the somehow pudgy skeleton. In an instant, it was all pointless.
Sans was standing outside the ruins door. "Tough gloves."
"Tough Gloves who?" came a female voice from behind the door at the end of the ruins.
"Tough gLOVEs needed sometimes." Sans replied to a din of laughter. "Hey. I have some things I need to do. Continue this later?"
"Ah, sure. There are things to which I must attend as well. Will you be here tomorrow?"
The smile on Sans' face was genuine, even though she couldn't see it. "I sure hope so." With a little luck, a little hope... maybe... maybe this time, things would be different. He knew parts of his memory were already clouded, that he wouldn't have everything straight in his mind, but there was that one constant. At the very least, he would get to see his precious brother again. 'You don't understand... but you're what keeps me going. You try harder than anyone else. Doesn't matter if you fail a thousand times at making spaghetti... you keep trying and trying. It's not much, but I see you improving. If we get the ending I hope we do... if that kid really can change... can be good... Well, I want to believe. I want to see what you see, brother. Fail all you like, I won't let your hopes be for nothing.' there was a change in the air around the skeleton... Hope. And someone, somewhere, was watching out for him, even in his darkest hour, if he could just communicate sooner. Well, here's hoping.