Chapter One

It was snowing, the caves eased snow in from drafts within. There were holes after all, things can go in but they just can't go out. Crystals jutted out of the walls, emitting a soft and charming glow that illuminated the trunks of trees in the area. Trees growing through the mountain or even in this unnatural, sealed environment. A snow topped sentry station housed an unconscious Sans who was shaking in his sleep. He jerked slightly, knocking over a bottle of relish that knocked over the other bottles of condiments at his station and the sound of toppling items stirred him from his sleep. His eyes peered open and he looked around. He... he was back here? How? He stood up and looked at his station. It was just like he left it. His clothes were still the same too... and by the same he meant exactly the same. There wasn't a single cut from a dodged attack in his coat or pants. His eye sockets inexplicably blinked from his surprise. He looked around, he saw footprints in the snow that looked fresh and they looked like Papyrus's footprints, his dead brothers footprints. His nonexistent heart skipped a beat as he heaved slowly. His mind processed the sight and he thought maybe they'd been made before he died only for him to hear the voice crack through the air.

"SANS! I heard snoring! Are you sleeping again?!" That voice... Sans looked over, feeling his he was being thrown for a loop but there he was. He was tall and a red scarf and overall was rather thin, but at least twice Sans own height. He had some sort of ridiculous cosplay outfit they made together for a party. Just like he last saw him. Papyrus was marching right up to him as Sans wiped the sleep out of his eyes, trying to make sure he wasn't dreaming or something. He ran forwards, not even thinking and jumped, pouncing on his brother and tackling him to the ground, his eye sockets watered. He didn't even try to restrain himself. "P...Papyrus!" He chocked out, hugging his brother. "Y...you're alive! Oh my god you're alive!" He said with a shuddering breath. "Oh my god you're alive." He said, starting to break down. "Oh my god you're alive." He couldn't even restrain himself and he pinched Papyrus's cheekbones only for Papyrus to look so utterly baffled but concerned.

"Sans! What is wrong? Did you have some kind of weird nightmare? I... of course I'm alive." Papyrus stood up, pinking up his smaller brother and holding him at arms length while Sans kept his arms out to keep trying to hug his brother, tears flowing down his cheekbones. He seemed more like a lost child that had been found. "Sans, are you okay? The GREAT Papyrus would never be not-alive! That's a very Un-Papyrus thing to be!"
Sans lowered his arms and let his feet dangle over the ground as his brother set him down and he sniffled, wiping the tears from his eye sockets. "I..." He was lost for words.
Papyrus may not have been the brightest bulb in the batch, but he did know his brother. "Sans... what happened?" He asked again.

"I..." Sans hesitated before he choked on the words for a second and he closed his eye sockets, trying to think. This didn't make sense... unless... the time anomaly. Time... has been reset... but he's aware of it... somehow. He was too emotional, he had to think of an excuse. "I... had a bad dream."
"Well STOP! Bad dreams are not allowed. Especially if they make you this upset." Papyrus bellowed in an almost domineering way, but it was in fact comforting. Sans chuckled a bit, trying to restrain himself. He had to break the ice, tell a bad joke... but none came to him. He usually had a wit as quick as lightning but at the moment he was just so overwhelmed he wasn't in the mood for jokes, for once.

"Thanks Pap."

Papyrus tilted his head at Sans and looked quizzical, or as quizzical as a skeleton could look. "Well, your shift for human patrol begins now, so get to it, maybe tell a few bad jokes or something." He offered.
"Right... thanks for the Pap-talk." He figured he had to try something.
"That was worse than usual." Papyrus said with a groan. "So I'm glad to see you're back to normal then. Now stop being lazy and sleeping on the job and you won't HAVE nightmares!" He said loudly.

Sans sighed, shrugging. He turned around and went towards the door to the ruins. Pausing, he noticed there were no footprints that should be there... so the human wasn't here yet. He... well he had a chance then. Maybe if he was aware of what would happen now, he could at least take out the human now before everyone died. It would be something. The ruins would be whiped out, probably, meaning whoever lived behind that door, that poor woman was gone. He looked over at his stand as Papyrus left him to do his own patrol and Sans opened up the bottle of relish and poured it down the hatch to the abyss of nowhere down his jaws. He then grabbed the ketchup and mustard and repeated the process with them. "Alright, I'm ready... let's get to the point... again." He wasn't sure how he remembered exactly but he must have successfully abosrbed the human soul or something. He wondered if that meant he had power. He didn't feel more powerful. But time had been reset so maybe he had power for a second or...? He'd have to figure it out. He trudged down the snowy path and walked up to the door, glaring at it. His eyes faded from their upset blue to the usual white glowing specks as he tried to calm himself. "Alright... let's kill em'." He wondered if beating the kid would cause another reset. They obviously caused it. He was right to guess so. "Again..."
He waited patiently around the entrance to the forest. At least an hour passed only for him to be alerted by a woman's voice on the other side. He pressed one side of his skull to the wall to listen better as he heard a gentle woman. He knew that voice. He wasn't gonna like listening to this but he had to know what the kid did to her. He heard her warning the child not to be stupid and to stop. He heard a fight and the woman telling the child to fight or run away. "What?" He tried listening right at the crack of the door to get the sound and make sure that he hadn't heard that wrong. After hearing magic flare through the door he eventually heard the woman concede and he blinked, utterly baffled. Had the kid... spared her? After eavesdropping some more he backed up as he heard they were about to open the door. He hid behind a tree, thinking he'd better stay on his toes. He watched, wondering. He thought this time he could wipe out the kid right away, but he was behaving differently. Maybe it had to do with those two souls he saw. It had to be. All the same, one was incredibly dangerous. He'd regret killing an innocent soul but if it came to his brother and everyone else over this kid, he knew who he'd pick. He waited and the door opened as a smiling, green eyed human walked through the door, tears rolling down their eyes. This was the other soul alright... sorry kid. He waited till the door closed and stalked up behind the kid as they walked. His left eye glowed again as he prepared himself. He grabbed the kid with his power, turning the soul blue and lifting him up and slamming him down at full force. "Well, well, well." He said, disappearing just as the kid turned around. "I can see you might be the other one... the shaking soul... wheres your other one?" He asked coldly. "The one that killed my brother." He hissed from the darkness of the forest he'd reappeared in.
The kid stood up, wiping some blood from their nose. "S-Sans?" They asked shakily. "How...?"
"Do I remember? Good question." Sans scoffed. "I ain't tellin'"
"I don't want to fight you!" The kid shouted, sounding legitimately afraid.
"I don't either... I wanna fight the other one."
"NO! They're asleep, and I'm never letting them wake up." The child said with determination.
Sans disappeared from the forest and reappeared in front of the kid. "I see...what else can you tell me?"
"I..." The child shivered, looking at Sans with genuine remorse. "I think their name... is Chara."
"What's your name?" He asked.
"Frisk." The child said with their head lowered.
"Hrmph..." He looked at Frisk to check their LV and saw they hadn't gained any LV or XP. That... meant they hadn't killed anyone. "So... what do you got planned now?" His eye sockets turned pitch black as he stared at the nervous Frisk.
"I... I want to help." Frisk said slowly. "But... I... I don't think... somethings wrong."
Sans stood still as a statue still staring with hollow black eye sockets. "Go on."
"I can't... you said before that the time anomaly was my fault but... I don't think... I have that anymore."
Sans eyes appeared in their sockets again, the white pin pricks focused deadly still on Frisk. Snowflakes fluttered from the tops of trees onto the two of them. "So you're done then... I kill you here and now... that's it." He wondered what he'd done to take that. He hadn't succeeded in absorbing the soul if it was still with Frisk, he figured... probably.
Frisk looked nervous. "Are you going to kill me?"
Sans considered his options. "I see one ounce of that red eyed soul... and yeah. I'm gonna kill you."

Frisk gulped nervously and held out a hand. "Friends?" Sans pulled his hands out of his pockets and held it out. When the two hook hands, Frisk jumped, feeling a shock to his system.
Sans snickered as the buzzing cut through the air. "I figured I did the whoopee cushion last time, but..." He pulled his hand back and tapped the button on his finger. "The buzzer was a nice change of pace." He snickered. He'd play ball... for now.

Frisk chuckled a bit and looked at the ground, rubbing his arm with his other arm. A little more blood leaked from his nose. Sans looked at this kid, wondering how he was supposed to tolerate this. He walked over next to the sentry station he had woken up at. He looked around and saw Papyrus on his way as Frisk hid behind the conveniently shaped lamp without prompting. Sans looked at his brother and resisted the urge to hug him again. He had to act normal. At least for now. "Hey Pap, find any humans?" He asked, he couldn't remember exactly what he'd said before.

"No, the Great Papyrus has searched high and low but no humans have yet been spotted by my gaze. Surely though if there is one here, I shall find it. Then I can be officially inaugurated as a famous Royal Guardsmen! Then EVERYONE will want to be my FRIEND!"
"So you'll be a bone-a-fide royal guard." Sans winked, trying to play his reactions down since he was trying not to show how glad he was that Pap was alive and well.

"SANS!" Papyrus bellowed enthusiastically.
"Grow another funny-bone." Sans said dismissively. "Besides, you're smiling."
"I AM AND I HATE IT!" Papyrus said, crossing his arms and pouting like a child that had been told it can't have a shake with its happy meal.
"It's just cuz I'm so humerus." Sans smirked, whipping the bad skeleton puns out like wildfire.

"GAH! I can't stand all these bad puns!" Papyrus quickly stomped off. "You're so immature!"
"And I'm older than you!" Sans yelled after his brother as he disappeared in the distance. He started snickering to himself at this and started heaving as his laughter slowed and he shook his head, fighting his eye sockets watering so he wiped them clean with his fingers, avoiding sticking them directly into his sockets.
Frisk leaned out from behind the lamp and looked at Sans, approaching him slowly. "I... are you okay?" They asked slowly.

"Y... yeah... just don't fight my brother." He glared at Frisk. "Don't even touch him, got it?"
Frisk paused, looking at Sans and sighing, backing up. "I'm sorry..."