Chapter One

Subconsciousness Is Fun, Especially With Demons And Other Weird Stuff

Sans stood at the dark doorway. It was night outside Frisk's window, and the stars could barely be seen in the sky with the winter clouds pouring snow. It was a light pour, and the snow lay gently on the window as the glass gathered frost. He took a moment to smile… funny how much it reminded him of Snowdin, even though snow wasn't really a rarity on the surface. Probably nostalgia speaking to him. The Underground was very claustrophobic, but places like Snowdin were peaceful and quiet, full of monsters who accepted bad puns on a regular basis. It was one of those things that helped you forget about the Underground. It was home to Sans… but he knew he was happier up here.

Sans glared at Frisk, who was sleeping on the bed. "why haven't you reset yet, kid?" Sans whispered to himself. He walked over to the lamp next to the window and clicked it on. Frisk shifted a bit. "hey, frisk."

Frisk sighed and said in a rather irritated fashion, "Whaaaat? It's one o'clock Sans…"

"i know, kid… i know…"

"What do you want?" Frisk rubbed their eyes. Sans sighed, "you know what i gotta do."

"I thought we were doing this once a week…"

"well, i changed my mind." Sans stated, "we're doing it every other night now." Frisk's eyes lowered, "You sure that's a good idea…?"

Sans approached Frisk's bed, "is it a good idea? not at all. but it's what we've got to work with. every week just isn't cutting it."

Frisk looked worried, "Nothing good will come out of this Sans. I don't want you to overstep your boundaries."

Sans shook his head, "frisk, no offense, but i know my limits. i'll be fine."

Frisk nodded… "Alright Sans… I just don't want you getting hurt."

"hey, don't worry about ol' sansie. i've been through worse."

Frisk then hugged Sans, "I know…"

Sans' heart sank. Smooth one, Sans… Smooth one… "sorry. i didn't mean…"

"I know… Let's just get this done."

Sans nodded and sat next to Frisk, then put his skeletal hand on their head. "hey frisk…" Sans said. Frisk looked at Sans and he winked at them, "don't lose your head over this." His eyes went dark, and so did his vision.

He then popped back into existence almost as soon as he exited it. His vision returned and he was suddenly flying… flying across space and time. He stood on a platform, which was shooting past planets and stars and galaxies at supernatural speed, but he remained on the platform as though they were completely still. It was disorienting, but it was always this way in Frisk's consciousness. After a few months of doing this, he was used to it by now. He wasn't mastered in exorcism, but he had been learning for the sake of freeing Frisk. There are multiple ways to approach an exorcism; one was the traditional way, but it was usually a long and grueling process, and loud. Sans didn't want to involve anyone else in this, so he decided to take the more indirect approach. It involved magic, and through this magic Sans is able to go into Frisk's consciousness and exorcise them from within. Sans is able to enter into Frisk's mind so long as Frisk willingly allows him inside. Then the exorcism begins.

Sans has been trying for a long while to cast out the demon within Frisk, but it was more difficult than he originally thought. This one was powerful, far more powerful than he had ever known. The power… it was familiar to him, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

In order to exorcise a demon from within, one must fight the demon, either till it is defeated or until it is exhausted. Die in the process, and Sans would immediately be blinked back into his body.

Sans stood up on the platform. He looked across the space that was flying past him. Frisk had been teaching Papyrus about the stars and planets. Maybe that is what Frisk was thinking about at the moment…

The platform before Sans began to stretch unnaturally in front of him. The platform looked almost like a rubber band being stretched before it is flung at someone. It kept going and going, until Sans saw a figure at the end of the platform when the stretching stopped. The platform by now stretched far away, and the figure was barely noticeable. Sans' teeth began to chatter and his breath could be seen in the freezing air. That was it. The demon was waiting for him. Sans was shivering, but he took a deep breath and put his hands in his hoodie pockets. He looked at the figure. It was merely a speck in the distance, but Sans could feel its presence from here. The zooming galaxies began to slow and the scene faded to black. Even the platform disappeared in the dark. Sans couldn't see the figure anymore, which caused him to panic a bit. He looked left, right, behind him… It was pitch black. He took a breath and closed his eyes a moment, then opened them, his left eye now bursting with blue flames. Sans raised his hand and several bones materialized around him and spun.

"come out, come out, wherever you are…" Sans sung quietly into the darkness. Sans crept a step forward, then another, one foot at a time. It was eerily silent except for the sounds of Sans' shaky breath. The bones began to float rather than spin, waiting for something to happen. He felt it out there… Somewhere. Sans couldn't pinpoint where it is… but there was an aura this thing left in its wake. Sans continued breathing, but as he focused, he heard his breathing was rather abnormal… it seemed more drawn out… no, that wasn't it. It was like he was breathing in layers. Then he held his breath. There was still breathing.

Sans twirled around to meet the gaze of two red eyes. They glowed in the darkness, staring at Sans.

Sans had little time to react; he launched the bones surrounding him at the figure. Before the bones could make their mark, they were slashed in half, split horizontally, then flung behind the thing. It was so quick, but Sans knew how to dodge it after months of practice; it was dark, but he predicted the next move to be a downward slash. Sans sidestepped to his right, and a knife went WHOOSH. He had predicted correctly.

Next was going to be a side slash in his direction in frustration. Likely toward his head. Sans ducked down and another WHOOSH went past his head, then he stood, staring at the evil eyes for a moment. Now, a slash at his face again, this time the other direction going with the momentum of his previous swing. Sans ducked once more and the swing went over again. Sans took the opportunity to summon a Gasterblaster while it was in mid swing. The Gasterblaster floated over his ducked head and shot a beam of magical energy at the demon. It flew across the expanse far away.

Sans took a deep breath. He knew he had to play very offensively. He can't give him the opportunity to overwhelm him. The scene began to shift again, the darkness began melting away like ice cream in a microwave. As the curtain of black faded, the expanse seemed to fill with a strange yellowish fog. Dirt covered the ground and hills began to form. It was an empty field of dirt, and in the sky Sans could barely make out large eyeballs of various colors staring directly at Sans. He shivered at the sight of them, but he's been through more surreal things in these scenarios before. Sans extended his arms and summoned a series of bones, which formed a circle just hovering above his hands. The bones spun quickly and created something like a bone buzzsaw. He would use this for close encounters.

Sans glared across the landscape. The demon would surprise him again, he was sure of it. The sound of the landscape was windy, though only lightly. The sound of his spinning bones was overpowering it, which made a noise similar to a fan. However, the wind began to pick up, which turned from a distant wind to a deafening and chaotic storm in almost an instant. Sans covered his eysockets from the dirt and dust. The ground from under him began to shake and rise up. Sans lost his balance and tripped. The ground continued to shake and rumble, the earth making a horrific moaning noise as it did so, like the ground was in pain. Sans closed his eyes and put his hands over his head, kneeling on the ground wishing the noise would stop. Eventually it did, and Sans decided it was time to look up. He was on a very narrow hill, so narrow it almost pointed straight up vertically. The hill was long, and the tip he resided on was in space, above the supposed world. He could see the foggy yellow clouds from where he stood. Surrounding him and floating about in the short distance were the giant eyeballs, looking at him for no particular reason. The eyes seemed to all turn a glowing blue color, just like his own eye was right now. A flash of light in front of him made him blink in confusion. Suddenly, the demon stood before Sans. It put a finger up and pushed heavily on Sans' forehead before he could even react. He was in space, but despite that he fell off the hill and toward the plagued earth below. Sans tried his best to maintain his composure as he fell, but he looked at the vertical hill as he was falling and saw the demon running down alongside it, despite it being far too steep to even crawl up of. It was sprinting about the same rate as he was falling, and the demon leapt from the hill and clung onto Sans' blue hoodie. The demon raised his blade and went for a stab, but Sans stopped it and grabbed its wrist as it was coming down. The wind was rushing and made a deafening sound, which drowned up the demon's cursing at Sans. They spun around while they struggled, but Sans kept his grip on the demon. His eye turned blue and energy began to emit from it, but the demon's eyes turned red at that same moment.

Sans felt a horrible pain on his hand. He screamed and looked to see that his hand was no longer grasping the demon's arm; instead, it was being shredded by spinning blades which replaced the part of the arm he was grasping. Bits of his hand flew everywhere, and the demon's blade plunged right into Sans' glowing eye. The pain was unbearable, and Sans could no longer scream from hurt, and as sparks flew out of his stabbed eye, he felt himself slipping away. The demon spun Sans around, and with the ground only feet away, slams the hilt of the knife into the earth, digging the blade further into Sans eye socket.

…

Sans blinked back into reality, his right hand leaving Frisk's head and putting it over his left eye. He wiggled his bony fingers around to make sure they're still there. "Sans!" Frisk gasped, "Are you okay?"

"i'm fine… i'm fine…" Sans kept blinking his eyes and wiggling his left fingers. He still hadn't gotten used to the feeling of dying in someone else's consciousness.

"Let me go get you some water…" Frisk started to get up, but Sans stopped them, "no, i'm fine. i'll get it myself. i don't want to disturb anyone with this."

"Sans, you can't do this alone. We need help to…"

"no. i don't want anyone else to have to go through this. understand? i don't want this for tori, papyrus, alphys, even undyne and asgore." Sans paused, then continued, "it's horrible, dying again and again… every week i get to look forward to my own simulated death. nobody else deserves that, and i certainly won't let them do that to themselves. i need to do it on my own."

Frisk looked down, saddened by Sans choice. Sans put a hand on theirs and said quietly, "i will beat it. i promise."

Sans patted Frisk's head and got up to leave for his room, he took a glimpse outside and watched the snow fall quietly on the window for a moment. Tomorrow is a new day.