Time was distorting around me, timelines cutting off long before they were supposed to, people popping in and out of existence in the blink of an eye. I was stuck in the middle of the storm, existing somewhere outside every timeline yet intrinsically part of each and every one. I was tired, so very tired of it all. I wanted to go back to my home in Snowdin; I wanted to go back to my loud, obnoxious, but kind-hearted brother; I wanted to go back to the mysterious woman who laughed at my terrible skeleton puns. And yet, here I was, alone in the hallway of the king's castle, playing judge, jury and executioner of the creature rampaging through the underground. They – no, it slaughtered everything in its path. Man, woman, child – none of that mattered to the human-shaped creature in the dust-covered sweater. I was the last line of defense before it reached the king and, subsequently, the surface.
"you know, pap, i bet you would've found this whole thing humerus," I said sadly, the echo of a familiar scolding reverberating in my skull. I wished he were here to actually yell at me. That would've been so much better than this twisted hell. "i'm tired of watching people die. i'm tired of watching you die." I had warned him over and over again, begged him not to trust the creature that emerged from the ruins, but he didn't believe me; he believed in it. He believed it still had some good in it's heart, believed that he could redeem it. He believed that he could become friends with it.
And so I could only watch as my kind, naïve brother opened his arms for a hug and was ruthlessly cut down in return. How many times had I seen it happen? How many timelines had I been forced to watch, helpless, as he dissolved into dust? "St… still! I believe in you!" he would say every single time he was cut down, that damn smile still plastered across his face even as his body disintegrated, leaving him as nothing more than a talking skull. "You can do a little better! Even if you don't think so! I… I promise…" And that creature merely stood there impassively as his soul shattered before trudging through my brother's ashes without a second thought.
It was unforgivable and that, more than anything else, was the reason I stood in the long, empty hallway, hands tucked in my jacket pockets, eye sockets devoid of light. I knew of all the people it killed. Oh yes, I had seen it all. Jumping timelines to avoid being killed, decimating anyone that stood in its way, forcing entire villages to evacuate and hide; it slashed and hacked its way towards the surface with that innocent, damnable, empty smile stretching across its dust-encrusted face. Each death weighed heavily on my soul, my knowledge of the future and my inability to change anything dragging me into the pits of depression. The longer I stood there, the louder the voices in my head grew. "Why didn't you save me?" they asked. "Why are you only acting now? Why didn't you kill it the instant it left the ruins?" How was I supposed to say it was all to fulfill a promise? It was such a weak excuse. "You might as well be dead for all the good you've done!" It was nothing but the truth.
I was alone now, truly alone, save for the king, the soulless one, and the creature slinking through the Core. The king didn't know what was coming for him, and the soulless one was probably crooning in the ear of the villain. What was the point in all of this? They would both fall at that creature's hand. Already the soulless one had realized their inevitable fate. They were probably heading to warn the king. And I waited, the same way I always did. The same way I always would. The same way I would always wait until we were all finally freed from this endless repeating nightmare.
AN: I like Sans, I really do, but I also like to think about how reliving multiple Genocide Routes would ruin him.
Sorry 'bout it.
-Dismay