They're hanging by their bound wrists, with a dislocated shoulder. They're surrounded by a small cage but their broken ribs mean getting out and finally moving would be agony. Their cage is hanging just above one of the many ravines in Waterfall, but their hands are broken so they can't climb out using the cage even if they managed to get out of the cage or get out of their wrist binds. They try to scream and call for help but their voice is sore so nobody hears and nobody here cares and monsters are stopping to laugh at the tortured human and they can't stand it anymore!
Silent tears streak down their face because none of this makes any sans! (Heh, the real Sans would have liked that one. This Sans only likes morbid jokes about death and suffering and torture torture torture.)
Toriel wasn't supposed to be so… so…
So…?
Terror took over them. They'd died so many times in this warped timeline that they'd forgotten what Toriel was actually like!
They tried their best, running through their list of friends (enemies torturers executors). They had to remember, they couldn't possibly have forgotten their family and friends!
Blooky wasn't supposed to… … …?
Papyrus wasn't supposed to… … … to…
Sans… He… He…? He wasn't him, none of those they'd met so far were who they were supposed to be, but they didn't know, they'd forgotten; what were their friends really supposed to be like?
They gasp for air in their fear and the monsters watching sadistically them snicker loudly and their desperation. More tears trickle down their face and they're grateful that they're at Waterfall where tears could be passed off as residual spray from the waterfalls. The monsters snicker louder. Apparently not.
Flowey was dead. Asriel was dead. He was supposed to be the only one with the "kill or be killed" motto but it was just him that wasn't affected in this… this, was it? None of it made sense but he'd sacrificed himself to give them another chance at life. But they didn't deserve it, didn't make use of it, heck they'd unconsciously saved after he died out of the relief that they'd made it out of the trap without dying that time only to turn back and realise that Flowey wasn't there!
Their lone tangible source of comfort and stability in the entire timeline was ripped from them. (Sorry Chara.)
And that was how Papyrus-not-Papyrus (with his black spiky armour) found them. He grinned menacingly and brought him to his not-shed (torture cell). And it hurt.
Everything was on fire, their vision was swaying, excruciating pain tore through them the moment they moved even the slightest bit. Sans-not-Sans had forced them to save in this position, hanging above ravine in cage with broken bones at all. Even if they loaded, they'd just end up in the same position, only with a very angry Sans.
Frisk squeezes their eyes shut and try to think of the good things of their situation.
What good things? Chara's salty voice tears through their mind and they flinch at the sudden voice in their head. Just let me take over, please Frisk. You can't just keep all the pain to yourself. I'm part of you, it'd only be fair if I take the pain too.
Frisk refuses with all the determination they have, hanging on to consciousness. They refuse to let Chara suffer like they do.
They remember the (mis)fortune they have to see Papyrus blatantly abusing Sans and Sans in turn taking out his frustrations on them.
Everyone here just needs a little taste of Mercy… They'll just have to… Bring it to them… Perhaps… Show it….
(The darkness seems so welcoming.)
No! Damnit Frisk! Chara screams in their head and Frisk listens with a half-smile on their face. Frisk! Stay with me. Don't go into the darkness! Stay with me! Just… Stay!
But they're so so tired… And if they go to sleep, then all the pain will go away, right?
Frisk! NO!
Their half-smile forms a full one and they let go despite Chara's pleas.
In their mind's eye, they see their red soul form, and shatter before their eyes.
Stay determined Frisk… Please… Chara begs as the control screen forms before them.
What for? They wonder, but press continue anyway, the reset button shattered in pieces from Sans' anger some time ago (how long ago was it? Was it in this timeline or the original one?).
They continue hanging in pain for a couple more seconds before a very pissed off Sans appeared before them.
A growl rips through the skeleton's throat.
"what the fuck did you do?"
Frisk lifts their head up weakly, too drained to answer.
Chara growls back next to them. Absolutely nothing other than die because of you, you sorry excuse of a monster!
Frisk laughs a little at the other's outrage, but ends up coughing up blood.
"what the fuck are you laughing at?"
Frisk blinks, then smiles at Sans. "Nothing… I'm just so… tired…"
Frisk no! Chara screams, but too late.
The red soul cracks and shatters into pieces.
The next time, it takes Sans an even shorter time to appear before them.
"you're gonna die," he notes emotionlessly.
Frisk smiles at him, nodding weakly.
"good," he says, and any minuscule hope they had left was completely crushed.
Their soul shatters and reforms.
I'm gonna fucking murder that son of a bitch, Chara curses as the command menu reforms in front of the two dead humans.
Frisk reaches out for the continue button, only for Chara to stop them, pain in their eyes.
Let me, they say as they press the button, smiling at Frisk.
Frisk's mouth half-opens in a protest before they are jolted back to their last save point.
Chara hums, trying get themselves comfortable. Sans teleports in front of them, sadistic grin on his face. Chara grins back, waving a hand at him weakly. They won't let the skeleton see them hopeless.
Cold red eyes bear into Sans's eyesockets, and he distinctly remembers that not being the kid's eye colour, but he shrugs and ignores it. It's the kid's problem, not his.
Chara laughs at his ignorance. Frisk frets next to them, worried for the pain their companion will be put through.
But I'm not you, Chara tells Frisk smugly and mentally as their shared eyes flash red and the cuffs explode with red magic.
Determination fills the both of them up and Chara saves almost unconsciously, smirking at the skeleton who's eyes fire up with red. The save heals them and they slip through the too-wide bars of the cage with ease, a grin on their face all the while. Their eyes glow red again and they form a magical path they can walk across without falling into the ravine.
"you're not the same kid," Sans notes, eyesocket still blazing red.
Chara grins, and smirks. "You'LL WiSH We WeRe."
Frisk saves out of instinct before Chara does something they'll both regret just as Chara drives their stick into Sans with enough intent to do major damage. The skeleton doesn't stand a chance with his pitiful HP and he crumbles into dust.
Chara laughs maniacally, their LV rising by 7 whole levels. Frisk's blood runs cold because did Sans really have that much LV and EXP to give? And then… Numbness takes over.
Frisk doesn't know how much longer it is before their soul shatters and the control screen pops up again but Chara is crying and screaming and so Frisk sits next to them and tugs the other human into an embrace. Chara sobs and tells them about Undyne's merciless nature - even by Undyne-standards - and Alphys's unethical experiments on them.
Frisk bites their lip, and reaches out for the continue button, hoping beyond hope that Chara didn't save after they did.
Frisk blinks back into the scene, stick half-raised, ready to strike down on a monster. They freeze. It's Sans-but-not-Sans. He takes their hesitation and teleports away behind them, and a bone stabs into their back. They gasp out blood and Chara is jolted from their corner of Frisk's mind.
Oh no you don't, they growl and take control.
Red magic flares and heals them and their hand grabs the spot between Sans's ulna and carpals, where his wrist would've been if he had one, and teleported away to a new spot because Sans isn't the only one who can use "shortcuts".
Golden light hits the pair of human and monster and Chara makes a save, grinning at Sans with glowing red eyes all the while.
"so you're a fan of irony," Sans notes, observing their new surroundings, and smirks back at Chara with a feral grin.
Chara continues to grin back. "Well, seeing the Judge die in the Judgement Hall would be rather ironical."
"seems like i'm about to have a great time!" Sans cackles, and Chara laughs with him.
It takes a split second for the mood to change and if Frisk had blinked, they would have missed it.
Both parties shoot out red magic at the same time. Chara's determination magic is sharp and refined, shaped and controlled, Sans's magic is wild, lashing out as it wished. They meet in the centre between the two, clashing against each other, fighting for dominance. Streams of magic flicker in and out of existence. It would've been pretty, if not for the high chance of death on either side.
Determination overpowers Sans's magic, and he growls, teleporting away before the burst of magic can hit him. Frisk is torn between relief and fear. Relief that Sans wasn't hurt, but fear that Chara could be hurt.
Sans summons a series of red bones, and sends them at Chara, who spins away gracefully and finishes with a curtsey and a smug glance in Sans's direction. Determination red magic in the shape of everything and nothing at once lunges at Sans like a wave and would have engulfed him and drowned him had he not teleported away. Chara screeches and sends more waves of magic and Frisk begs them not to - they'll get too tired too quickly that way - but Chara just flat out ignores them, all attention focused on Sans and Frisk swears their partner forgot to breathe for a few moments there.
Eventually, Chara runs out of Magic Power and it drains their energy resource and Sans takes the opportunity to fight back with his untamed wild magic. Chara looks up, barely in time to take an ever graceful leap backwards and skip sideways, pretty much dancing around the skeleton's attacks. Despite their exhaustion, they smirk at Sans which only riles the Judge up even more and the attacks come faster and harder, but Chara dodges it all with grace and ease.
Eventually, Sans gets tired too, but Chara's regained energy at this point and retaliates.
It goes back and forth and back and forth for too long (to Frisk) and Frisk swears one of them is going to eventually collapse from exhaustion so the next time Sans gets too tired, they force their way back into control of their body and Chara is screaming and screeching at them but. They. Don't. Care.
They're determined and this is their body, not Chara's so they're going to do what they want to do and Chara. Can't. Stop. Them.
They walk up to Sans, slowly, and watch as he keeps a careful eyesocket on them, only to be outright shocked when they embrace him tightly, refusing to let go.
"after all this?" Sans asks lowly, and Frisk can tell that he's holding back tears. "still? you spare me?"
Frisk nods firmly into his hoodie, and makes a save point just in case things go south.
"why?" Sans asks slash screams. "why?! i don't understand! why are you being so nice to me? why are you being so nice to all of us? i can't understand. i can't understand! i… i just can't…! anyone and everyone here would kill you without mercy, we tortured you, we all killed you over and over and over so many times, why are you still sparing me? why are you still showing mercy? no one else would ever do such a thing! …why..?"
Tears sink through Frisk's black (why is it black? it's supposed to be blue!) sweater and they can feel the wetness on their skin but they don't comment on it and stay there, Sans in their embrace, for a long long time. Even Chara grows quiet by then.
Eventually, eventually, they untangle themselves from each other and there's a moment there where they both stand there awkwardly before something unreadable flashes past in Sans's eyes before Frisk can catch sight of what it is.
"…kid…?"
It must have been recognition because a few seconds later, Sans launches a surprise hug attack back at them and they just barely contain a flinch but Sans sees it anyways, and steps back, apologies spilling from him.
There's that something again, but it's glowing out from Sans, and it's consuming him until he stands there again, but it's not wrong-Sans, it's Sans from the original timeline in all his blue jacket and pink slippers glory. There's this feeling that wells up inside them and they know Chara can feel it too because they can feel Chara's delight at having someone they know back but does that mean that they went about it wrong with Toriel?
They scramble for their phone, and dial Toriel's number.
The phone rings and rings and rings and they can feel their stomach drop but then there's that voice that they've missed and that means that it's actually Toriel! Maybe they're fixing things but they haven't fixed it right but they know that they're doing things the right way now!
"My child?"
"Mom?" They whisper in pure delight.
"Frisk?"
"Mom!"
"I'm so sorry Frisk, I don't know what happened, it's like it was someone else and it wasn't me and-"
"It's okay mom, I understand, but I miss you mom and I just wanted to say hi again and sorry I have to go now Sans is waiting!"
"Of course my child," Toriel answers, and Frisk can hear the smile on her face as she hangs up.
They turn back to Sans, who is still spilling apologies, eyesockets wide and unfocused, like he's somewhere else. Something breaks inside of them and they jump forward, and they swear Chara's magic is propelling them because they shouldn't be able to jump this far. They cling on to Sans like he's their lifeline and they don't let go even as he screams something about hurting them and not deserving their mercy. There's pain in his voice that shouldn't be there as he tells them about how the memories of two lives are clashing in his head and barely anything makes sense to him and Frisk nods and listens patiently until Asgore comes in and they both teleport away thanks to Sans because no, that's one encounter they're all willing to put off for a little while longer because Asgore is supposed to be the last one before either Photoshop Flowey or Asriel, and Frisk freezes because there can be no Photoshop Flowey or Asriel because Flowey is dead and he's not coming back. Flowey is dead. He's dead dead dead dead dead and he's not coming back.
Sans must've picked up on their mood change because he's whispering soothing nothings into their ear and they let themselves relax for the first time since entering this strange warped timeline.
If only it could always be this peaceful, and they note that they're back at the skelebro's house.
Chara takes control with Frisk's consent and they drag themselves out of Sans's embrace to tell him something. "Stupid comedian if your brother sees us like this, both of us are gonna be dead. The least you can do is change back to your clothes from this… place."
Sans glares at them like he knows it's Chara in control - they wouldn't be surprised if he actually knows - but heads upstairs to change back into his edgy puffy jacket and collar. He looks visibly uncomfortable as he walks down, the weight of the collar unsettling on his neck.
Frisk wrestles back control playfully and Chara fights back playfully before relinquishing control, and Frisk prods a little fun at Sans and they both laugh and if it keeps going on like this, maybe this timeline won't be that bad.
They all just need a little mercy.
Word Count: 2774 words
(A/N: Hey I didn't mean for this to happen. Whoops I'm sorry. I think I went out of control here. ~Summer-Moon)