Resetting was very different from simply knowing one had been reset. The world went black, and there was a noise akin to everything happening all at once. Sans caught snatches of conversation, battle sounds, music, all seeming to come closer before vanishing right into the heart of him.
And then, for a time, there was nothing. No music, no sound, no light. Nothing.
Then Sans woke up.
His bedroom was the same, right down to his trash tornado twisting in the corner. Sans could feel, for the first time in an impossible amount of years, hope. The prospect made him so giddy his bones shook. The human was going to die. This infernal, eternal reset loop was going to end with him.
There was no time to waste. If he could get into the ruins, he could even save Toriel. Ignoring the lazy instincts he'd spent so long building up, the smaller skeleton leapt out of bed and rushed to get dressed. He'd have to act natural in front of Papyrus, in case his brother got suspicious, but he could manage that.
It wasn't until Sans left his room that he realised something wasn't right. Every reset since Frisk had taken control had begun in the same way: Sans would sleep in and Papyrus would come drag him out of bed for guard duty. But when Sans went downstairs, Papyrus was in the kitchen eating leftover spaghetti, completely disinterested in waking his older brother.
"Morning, Paps," Sans said, strolling into the kitchen. If he'd managed to royally mess things up, not only would that flower have been right, but Sans needed to know now. He wouldn't let this get out of hand.
"Sans!" Papyrus nearly threw his spaghetti in the air at the sound of his brother's voice. "You are up early!"
Sans chuckled, and smiled. This was the first time in years he'd given his brother this much of a shock. "You didn't come wake me up for guard duty. I thought I'd come make sure a human hadn't kidnapped you," he joked.
"Sans, honestly," Papyrus began. "You know I am training with Undyne today and you convinced her to give you the day off."
Sans blinked, staring at his brother. This had never happened before. It couldn't be that he'd arrived too late, the human would've already come through. But before the reset loop…the last time Papyrus had trained with Undyne was at least a couple days earlier, if memory served. It had been so long since Sans had seen anything other than those few days with the human.
"What can I say, I'm always forgetting things," Sans said. He was disappointed in himself that he couldn't think of a pun, but for once, there was something more important going on.
Papyrus looked suspicious, searching for the double meaning in the words as he chewed his spaghetti. Sans ignored him and pulled out his cell phone.
The date stared at him from the screen. Two days before the reset loop. Two days before the human fell into the underground. He could still save Toriel.
"Hey, Paps, I gotta go away for a few days," Sans said.
If he could be in the Ruins when Frisk fell, nobody had to die. Nobody but Frisk. Toriel would never forgive him, but at least she would be alive. Not to mention Sans could break the barrier with Frisk's soul.
"But Sans, we have guard duty!" Papyrus protested. "You aren't just trying to get out of work, are you?"
"Nah, bro, I wouldn't do that," Sans grinned, but the expression dropped. "Listen, there's a…friend, that needs my help. You wouldn't want me to abandon a friend, would you?"
Papyrus suddenly became serious. "Sans, you have to go this instant! I will take care of your work with Undyne!"
And before Sans knew what was happening, he was being practically pushed out the door. At least Papyrus had been easy to convince. Now for the hard part.
The Ruins weren't a particularly long walk from Snowdin, but the trek gave Sans time to think. He had the perfect joke ready to get Toriel to open the door. Technically he had dozens of them. In the early timelines, Sans had been really tempted to abandon the script and meet Toriel early.
The short time he'd gotten to spend with her on the surface in the pacifist runs was one of the only things that'd made the resets bearable; knowing that he would get to see her again, even if it was a few runs away.
It had been only a few days since Sans had last seen the Ruins doors, yet they seemed different. Maybe it was because, for the first time in countless years, Sans was going to be on the other side of that door.
Or maybe it was because there was a yellow flower waiting for him, swaying gently in a breeze Sans couldn't feel.
"For someone who remembers so much, you sure are stupid." Flowey smiled, bopping his head as he swayed back and forth.
"I'm smart enough to know that giving you the reset power is gonna lead to a really bad time," Sans said. He stepped over an aggravated flower, intent on ignoring Flowey and getting into the Ruins before it was too late.
"You don't notice anything different?" Flowey asked.
Sans knew what he was referring to. "So I'm a couple days off, big deal." He shrugged.
"You never did understand, did you?" Flowey laughed. "The reset takes you back to the moment you got it. Not before, not after, not even an instant off." He narrowed his eyes. "So what makes you so special?"
Sans could take a guess at why this time was different. But it wasn't like he'd reveal that information to a flower, of all things.
"Take a hike," he said, kicking snow over the flower.
Flowey coughed, spluttering, and began to sink beneath the snow. But his sinister smile never once left his face.
"What did you mean, your body used to be human?" Flowey asked. He was asking, but demanding at the same time.
Sans' mind went blank. Images flashed by, of a different place. Not another timeline, another universe. That'd been what Gaster had been searching for. Sans remembered it sometimes, just in flashes. Another place, where his bones had been covered in skin, when his body hadn't been infused with magic.
Then there was the pain, the scorching, searing, burning pain of being pulled through time and space to this universe, of having his humanity ripped away and replaced with the burden of being a hybrid. Only Gaster had ever known; Sans had made sure of that. Papyrus had been too young to remember.
Then there'd been the accident. If Sans could think of one reason the reset had taken him back this far, that was it. Gaster hadn't been the only one affected that day. At least Sans had survived.
Mostly.
"What do you think I meant?" Sans deflected. If Flowey was annoyed by his lack of response, the sinister grin on his face sure didn't show it.
"Don't say I didn't warn you. You have no idea what you're doing, and it was never supposed to work this way."
Sans didn't listen. Maybe he should have.
The door was the same as always. Grand, imposing, locked. There was a reason Toriel said it was a one-way exit; the outer face had no doorknob, no handles to turn. It could only be opened from within.
Raising his fist, Sans rapt twice with his knuckles, and waited.
There was a shuffling on the other side, before that familiar, muffled voice sounded out. "Who is it?"
This was it. "Eva."
"Eva who?" she asked.
Sans took a deep breath. "Eva tell you, will you let me in?"
There was a pause, a sound that sounded like a gasp, then a nervous chuckle. "Haha, yes. Very good. It is my turn now, is it not?" Toriel asked. Her voice was not as steady as it should've been.
Sans' soul clenched, but he wouldn't let this be over. "Hang on, hang on, I've got another one. Knock, knock."
"Who is there?" Toriel finally asked.
"Emma." Sans tried not to let his own voice shake.
"Emma who?"
"Emma bit cold out here, can you let me in?" Sans thought it was appropriate, given the snow.
Toriel sighed, and it sounded like she was leaning against the door. "You want…to come inside the Ruins?"
"I figured we've been joking around for a while now. Isn't it about time we let each other in?"
The puns got a quiet laugh from Toriel. Sans would've held his breath, if he'd had one, but as it was all he could do was wait.
The door opened with the clunk of a lock and the creak of hinges that had gone unused for far too long. The air that rushed out was dusty and stale, a definite smell of dampness permeating Sans' nose-or lack thereof. These doors had not been opened in many years.
Sans wanted nothing more than for Toriel to wrap her arms around him and just hold him, like she had so many times on the surface. But this was her first time seeing Sans in this timeline, and he couldn't, no matter how much he wanted to.
The former queen looked down at the skeleton, taking him in. She seemed surprised, but not disappointed, just like every other time they'd met.
"You must've been very 'bonely' to want to come in here," she finally said.
Sans lost it. He laughed like it was the greatest joke he'd ever heard, because it was new. She'd never used that pun before, because there'd never been any need. For the first time in years, Sans was getting new puns from Toriel.
"Yeah, I guess you could say I was all 'a-bone'."
The laughter was contagious. Soon Toriel was laughing along with him, the two of them practically howling. Sans couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed this hard.
"Come, I have just baked a butterscotch pie," Toriel said, once they had managed to calm down enough to speak.
Sans smiled. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to butter me up."
Toriel laughed again, and took Sans by the hand to lead him through the Ruins.
She seemed to debate saying something as they walked, drawing in breath only to pause, mouth half-open, before releasing it in a slow huff. Sans was beginning to think she wouldn't manage it when finally, she spoke.
"I must admit…before today, I had been contemplating sealing the door permanently," she admitted, voice soft.
Sans squeezed her large hand in his much smaller one. "Don't worry, you still wouldn't have kept me out." He winked up at her questioning look. "I know a few shortcuts."
Toriel looked curious, but did not question Sans further. They had reached her home by then, and Sans had never seen this before, not in any of the timelines. Sure, he'd seen Home before, back when he was still a babybones, but that had been a long time ago. Home was different now, older and time-worn. When Toriel sat him down at the table and busied herself serving the pie and two steaming mugs of cocoa, it was both all too familiar and entirely new, and Sans wanted this moment to go on forever.
Sans' soul ached knowing in could only last two days. Then Sans would kill Frisk, and Toriel would never speak to him again.
But everyone would be safe. This was how it had to be. So he sipped at his coco and told as many jokes as possible. He laughed at Toriel's puns like his life depended on it, and in that moment, that one, fleeting instant in a sea of disappearing hours, Sans was happy.