So... it's the same chapter, but I was cross-posting to Amino and I realised that despite having proof-read this thing at least 6 times, I had a lot of cleaning up to do. A LOT. Most of that was cleaning up pronouns when switching between Sans and Chara as I would default to 'he/him' for some stupid reason - like I literally always refer to Frisk/Chara as 'they/them' when doing literally anything else. So... yeah. Here's Chapter 1 again guys X'D

10

25

53

79

154

279

Why? Why was it taking this damned long? This many SAVE files? Never before had it taken them this much…. Well, everything… to beat the damned skeleton before. What had he done differently this run? It was around the 300th attempt Chara noticed he was making miniscule changes to his patterns. An inch here, a cm there, small changes to his speeds – just enough to throw their dodges off. Not enough to be noticed at first. Well, that was new.

I thought you were against hard work, you damned lazy ass. You are making me work hard enough, why the HELL hasn't he got to the cheating or the time freeze yet? Mind you … Chara grinned to themselves it's been a long time since I've had to concentrate on a fight this much. Trust Sans to bring the fun back. A shame the fun quickly dissipated back to frustration and anger as the patterns they knew so well kept changing.

On the 371st try (Sans might have given up counting but they sure hadn't), Chara decided on a different tack. They'd finally broke through to the offer of mercy a couple of times by now and completely ignored it so far. This time round, when Sans came to the offer of standing down - they didn't know why he still tried… maybe the fool was waiting for Frisk to suddenly burst forth or something. Tch, yeah, right. That muppet was well under their control. Full puppet muppet (Az would probably like that one - they had a thought. Maybe they should share it before they kill him this go around, assuming he hasn't learned his lesson about betraying them yet. Eh, maybe. Actually, probably not was the answer to both of those things.) Chara decided to pause for thought on the offer, taking advantage of the moment to to think. Sans hated them, but maybe that promise is enough to get him to stand down or stand still long enough… a trick? Might work. Maybe. They never showed mercy, so he wouldn't be expecting it. Make him drop his guard? A brief look over and he was still stood in that non-committal stance with his hands in his pockets. Chara growled in frustration at the unreadable face and tossed down the knife in his hands, ready to pop open the invento
ry and grab another weapon the moment they had an opening.
"really? you make me do all this work and you ain't even gonna see it through to the end?"
"No,"Their hands make the most miniscule of shifts towards their inventory, eyes narrowing slightly at the tone. It wasn't angry or playful, just seemed to be… Bored. That really riled them up. Man, this was one timeline they were reeeeeeeeeeally going to enjoy killing this clown. "Bored now. I don't know what you've done, what you've changed, but I'm obviously not going to win."

Sans shrugs his shoulders like it was slightly unexpected but says simply "don't come back, then" before hundreds of bones pierced through Chara before they even had time to react, and then they're back at the end of the corridor. Chara snaps at the smug tone of the skeleton.
"hehe, did I getcha?" They go through another 56 attempts before they can see more than angry pulsating red through Frisk's eyes.

GodfuckingDAMNHIM!

Before this new attempt though, Chara takes a moment to think after the initial barrage, which was really hard when their anger felt like thousands of buzzing wasps in their brain. An idea came to them. An option they never use because they know the underground like the back of their hand. Or, did, until something apparently changed.

*CHECK

"you like what you see there, buddy?"

The skeleton was still fucking grinning, eye flashing ready. Did Chara detect a note of… glee there? What got him so excited all of a su-

*Sans 1 attack 1 defence

*HE'S FILLED WITH DETERMINATION

*you're gonna have a Bad Time

Well, shit, that was also new. The fact the last line was in his stupid goofy font irked them further, too. Chara launched into another set of futile swings before…. Yep, there's the load. New bones from behind, sneaky damned skeleton. But how? Was this like Undyne? No, that happens after they kill her.

...However...

This gave Chara an idea. They felt Frisk's soul flinch away from the mix of desperation and delirious malicious glee that suddenly overcame them. You're not the only one that can be sneaky, clown. They was gonna force an end to this fight on their own terms because they were taking too long here, they had things to do. No. It wasn't ideal, but it was way more ideal than being stuck in an endless loop of fighting here. If it worked. If it didn't work, they would just have to load again anyway, the way this fight was going. They could always start this run again after the reset; Frisk was wrapped pretty well around their finger by now. Give them time to think about how to combat this again if it came up… and they had a feeling it would, based on that lazy shit-eating grin on that stupid skeleton's stupid face. They would have to find out what Sans did, some way or another. No time to think on it while they were fighting this hard. Without thinking on it much further, Chara hit the new ACT option that appeared on the board in red writing. Their writing. They dropped the knife before lunging at Sans empty-handed before he could speak on their move. This startled him enough that he didn't quite move out the way quick enough.

They would end this. They were DETERMINED to end it.

Fingertips brushed the rib cage before he teleported out of the way.

Perfect.

Earlier:

Sans jolted awake, feeling the vague warmth of the sun fade off his face. Oh joy, another reset. Not that he was bothered any more, the general state of apathy and tiredness put paid to that long ago. He suspected that no amount of puns and pranks were going to hide his darkened mood today, thoughts churning, trying to hold onto any fuzzy detail possible. That was the worst thing about this: being aware of the reset but not knowing enough to know what to change to stop the resets. The trouble was, until he knew what speed the fan was going that the fertilizer was gonna hit, he couldn't plan. He pulled the blanket over his head and wondered if he could feign illness to stay on the couch. nope, because that would get papyrus' bones trousling and that was a no-go. Welp. Looks like he's sleeping in the sentry stand for a few hours,later. Plus that would wind up Papyrus, which is always fun. Heh, actually that might really cheer him up for a bit. He rolls back over and throws the blanket off, stretching out and resigning himself to getting up and tossing some clothes on before taking a shortcut out to the basement so as not to wake his brother by opening doors. and by 'wake' he means 'alert him to the fact Sans was awake' because he's pretty sure Pap is probably awake. Friggin' early bird. He gives himself a minute before starting to make his way through all his notes methodically, looking for anything new to be seen in them. This room always struck him as a little funny when he first came in because if Pap saw this room it might actually give him a stroke from how neat it was. But he never could work messy.

Nothing here, huh. He pauses to smile at the warm feeling that one note gives him on his soul... 'door to ruins = queen fluffybuns.' and scrawled quickly underneath it 'protect kid (unless they kill everyone).' and under that 'pattern? asks day before human comes out. sleeps there why?'. Well, except a new picture of the kid with 30 hotdogs on his head. He actually laughs at that one, brief but true. So it had been a nice timeline again. Those were the ones he wasn't sure whether he was wistful to remember or the most thankful he didn't remember. He added it back to the bottom of the pile of snap-shot moments he had gathered, and flicked through more carefully. The notes had started off so detailed, gathering all the information the could, but now it was just the briefest details of the most important things to help him keep track – he hadn't even got back into the habit of making more detailed notes when the flower had stopped being the one with the reset and saves. knowing too much is worse than not knowing enough. Three in a row it looks like, which meant a not so favourable one was almost inevitable. He sighed, looked over at the cloth covering the broken machine, tsk'd himself, then took another shortcut back to his room. He collapsed on his unmade bed, feeling exhausted already, not even grabbing the pillow from the side or moving the ball of sheets.

"BROTHER? GET OUT OF BED YOU LAZY BONES! WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE!" ...g'morning, papyrus. He groaned quietly into the matress and heaved himself back out of bed. He didn't even get a nap in before Papyrus was awake. Damn. Time to go.

The day passed like normal. He 'saw' Toriel at the door, he napped, he got yelled at for napping, punned his way through everything, got yelled at for punning his way through everything, spent a few hours at Grillby's, got yelled at for spending a few hours at Grillby's... the usual. He contemplated trying to drastically change the routine, but didn't want to risk stirring things up too much before the human comes through. Besides, what was the point? Why bother trying? Nothing would change in the end. Furthermore, what evidence did he have besides a bunch of notes that would make him look like a raving madman to anyone but himself (or Alphys, maybe with some convincing, but she had enough on her plate, he figured) if he decided to really shake things up. He had to chuckle to himself quietly. There's almost something comfortable about the routine, anyway. It's easy, that's for sure. Easy requires little effort, which is more than fine by him.

So he settled for routine. It was the third evening that Toriel makes her request for his promise. He falters on it, so much so that she shakingly goes to retract it, but he cuts her off and accepts, weaving in a pun. It sets her to laughing again, more than she had all of the conversation so far, and that lifts his soul a little. Every time she laughed, it did make him feel a little better about everything.

Maybe that's why he spends so much time here.

Maybe he should make an earlier visit tomorrow instead of just waiting for the kid to come out and have a quick chat with her before they come through whichever of them it is. hopefully we get lucky again, kid seems to be on a roll. Doesn't seem to matter what time he comes through, she always seems to answer eventually if she's not... if she's there. Eventually, he excuses himself and goes home and starts the evening routine. He has a bad feeling trying to creep in on him, but pushes it away and gets as much broken sleep as he can gather together. Vague nightmares jolt him awake, deja vu haunting him but keeping everything so frustratingly vague.

-bad feeling, bad feeling, bad feeling, bad feeling-

He knows to trust his gut by now, and takes a shortcut to the door. Mostly on this new instinct more than anything else. He arrives to heart-dropping sounds. The muffled tearing of flesh and cloth, and Toriel's shocked gasp muffled by stone.

no no nonono-

He'd been expecting it, the bad one. But hearing this... it tore at him in an all new way. There was no deja vu here, usually just in time to intercept.

"Y... You... really hate me that much? Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you here. Not you... But them!" He hears her sadly laughing before the sound fades, that sound chips at his soul in a way he didn't think himself possible anymore.

Sans took a step into the trees, rage flaring his eyes into darkness and cyan. Screw this timeline, if he kills them before anyone else gets hurt- he quietly laughs to himself before settling in to hide back in the trees. this ain't for everyone else, and it doesn't make a difference in the end anyway. He's had enough and he's angry; he lets them walk through to the bridge, before appearing behind them. They turn, expecting him, and he notices a flash of fear go through their face as they notice the eye and the flare of magic already going down his hand, the yellow in it shining most prominently right now.

good.

Then they smirk at him as he raises his hand, fear gone, as magic is flaring down his hand and fingers. "It's too early, Sansy~" and they flee before he has a chance to wrap the magic around their soul. Shit. He contemplates chasing them down, but then he knows that Papyrus would intervene at the sound of a fight. pap's too sweet... i ain't gonna be the one to ruin that about him. so... i need a plan. He takes a shortcut to his lab, and starts tearing through papers. Has to be something he missed or a clue somewhere. He growls in frustration and tosses things to the ground, then stands with his hands on a counter, forcing himself to calm down. Before even he knows what he is doing, he's porting into Alphys' lab.

"Sans!" she shrieks and throws up the papers she was carrying in surprise at his sudden appearance in front of her. "I-I-I s-saw you c-confront the h-h-human. W-what's going on?"
"you just said you saw the video, didn'cha? they came out of the ruins, hands covered in dust and a smile on their face."
"B-but you don't normally f-f-f-" She shakes her head. "Nevermind. S-so it's as bad as I-I-I thought i-it was g-going to be when I-I saw them l-leave? I w-was hoping it was j-just me o-overthinking..." She trails off, looking kind of sad. He wants to slap the expression off her face (only a little bit) and shoves his hands further down into his pockets with his fists balled from the urge.
"start evacuating." Hopefully the heads up will be enough to save more lives than normal, not that it actually matters... He trails away from that thought making an actual effort to push past the apathy closing around him as she scurries past the door – that door - to head up the up escalator, urgently making calls.

...Now that's something that he hasn't made a note of trying before, probably because it was the stupidest idea in a landmine field of stupid ideas. It's dangerous, probably a guaranteed death sentence, but he laughs to himself. this timeline's gonna to be one anyway. He takes a shortcut to his own lab while Alphys is distracted, leaves a hasty message on top of the desk that simply reads 'if things go bad, stay determined?' then ports back to Alphys, waiting just long enough for her to finish her next phone call while she is frantically punching things out on her computer that she's now at, and it sounds like she has got everything moving fast.

He takes his hands out of his pockets and crosses his arms over, leaning on the wall next to her, eye sockets dark in sombre contemplation.

"how much determination have you got left?"
He doesn't even flinch as she nearly breaks the keyboard she started typing at as her claws dig into it with her body going rigid. She starts stuttering so hard that it takes every ounce of his patience -and he has got real good at being patient- to wait for her to take a breath and get her thoughts together She starts winding her claws together nervously.
"I... Y-you..." She sighs, a look of resignation crossing her face. "What a-are you th-th-thinking, Sans?"#
"i'm thinking that none of us are going to win against the brat, and i need to try something that i hope is new." He holds up a hand to interrupt her, as he's looking like she wants to say something. "there's things going on here that it'll take too long to explain right now, but just think about how I knew to be there for the kid. i'll... tell you what i know if i can make it so we survive this to the end..." He specifically doesn't make it a promise because he knows that neither of them are gonna remember this. Also, he really hates making promises. another long pause.

"so...?"

"I-I... I think there... might be some left. I kn-know I should h-h-have-" He cuts her off again, letting his eyes settle, and shrugs at her, going back into the more familiar to her, non-committal air that he normally has.
"walk and talk, alph. we're boned if we don't move fast."She starts walking, muttering to herself quietly about how it wasn't the time for puns. He chuckles as she says it. There's always time for puns, not that it had been at all intentional this time. He wraps the bag of dog food in blue magic and floats it behind them.
"Th-thanks..." After they take the elevator down in tense silence -although Alphys does start and stop what are probably questions several times, then settles for looking him over, doing a primary assessment and a *CHECK - Alphys does say something he had briefly considered since this half-baked plan entered his head. "Sans... w-with your... with your HP so low, I-I-I d-don't know if y-you'd... if you'd s-survive the t-transfusion." she finishes meekly. He does nothing but shrug, though. That and put the bag of food down as soon as they walk out the elevator.
"we don't win anyway. way i see it, what's there to lose?" She lapses back into silence, starting to wind her claws together again. They walk briskly to a room near the back, full of flowers – dead and alive - and some cabinets. Creepy. The yellow flowers send a creeping chill up his spine. He hates that flower, too, but that's an issue seemingly over with for now... he should probably check up on that during one of the next resets coming. He hunches his shoulders a bit more, slinking in on himself a bit. Alphys digs in the cabinet a bit, and finds something. She stands up, and turns to him, a set look on her face.
"I-if we're doing th-this," she holds up a claw "Y-you let me e-e-e-examine you properly first." He sighs, but nods and sits himself up on a counter, letting the flowers drop to the floor.
"fine."

He holds a palm up, and lets his soul drift up and out so it floats just above his palm. He hated doing this, especially with his HP problem. Monster souls only persist for moments after dusting, and while he hasn't dusted through doing this yet, the idea of him dusting because it was in one of the suspension cylinders really didn't appeal. But he sucked it up if it would give him an answer quicker; also it was far better than sitting in the scanners themselves - the thought of which shudders through him. She takes it gently and puts it in a container that she had dug out, swiftly taking to... wherever. He didn't feel much like following at the moment. Plus, he had worked with Alphys enough to know she would be careful enough with it. As he was sat waiting, he felt his eyes drifting closed. He'd been so rushed up until now – first time in a while, actually, that he'd felt quite so motivated – that he hadn't... even...

It seemed like no time at all before Alphys was shaking him awake and snapping his name in a tone that was half- angry and half-panicked. He expected a berating over falling asleep at a time like this, but that drained away as soon as he saw her face.

"uh oh... you ok there, alph?"

"U-Undyne... I-I ch-checked the m-m-monitors while..." She wiped her eyes then made a massive effort to keep herself together. "W-Whatever we are doing, we need to do it soon." Hardly even a stutter.

Sans didn't know if that was a good or bad sign.

Both, by the sounds of things. She handed him the container then started pulling out charts and tables while he put his soul back in place. "I-I've never seen a-anything like this. Sans, look." She pushes charts at him, looking even more flustered. It's things he has seen before when he was trying to put his finger on his HP issue. He'd flagged it as strange but he was no scholar in soul study, and had only really been on the engineering side of Asgore's little project, so didn't realised it was that strange. "Th-These readings are... too high for a m-monster soul. I think th-that's what's c-causing the... HP issue... o-of course, I c-can't say for s-sure without o-other tests, but... never mind. W-with these r-readings... y-you should be a-able to sustain w-with determination, b-b-but... i-it might just be an e-extended period...b-before..."

He gives her a genuine smile.

"that's all we need to give this a real shot."