A pile of cold snow cascaded over Sans' head.
"WAKE UP YOU LAZY BONES!" Papyrus shouted.
"Why did I have to fall asleep here?" Sans snapped at nobody in particular.
"BROTHER ARE YOU OKAY?" Papyrus looked concerned. Sans felt bad.
"I'm fine... I need to speak to Alphys, right away. Meet you later for hunting humans?" Sans beamed at Papyrus.
"OK! SEE YOU LATER!" Papyrus said striding off.
Sans called Alphys. No answer. Some things never change. Better to text.
"Hey got some reports u really need to see.
tb soon lemme know if ur not too busy"
Sans pressed send. Suppose I better actually get the reports from this timeline. He thought. He took a shortcut to his shed and once again opened the cabinet containing the timeline report machine. The results were very similar to last time. They went all the way up to the moment the button was touched. But it was way too long. instead of appearing seperately or as a split... this timeline seemed to have been neatly added onto the first one. Maybe this one is broken too Sans thought as he looked at the larger machine.
His phone vibrated.
"1 new messaged, Alphys."
"Hey I'm not too busy no! I'm watching this human they've just come out of the ruins!
Come watch with me if you like. Bring reports with u Alphys~"
Sans shortcutted to the lab and knocked on the door. Alphys opened the door wearing her trademark white labcoat.
"Hey Sans! Are you okay? How's Papyrus? How's the Snowdin dogs? You speak to them much?"
"I'm good, he's good, i dunno, not really no. Alphys listen these timeline reports-"
"Can't you study something useful Sans?" Alphys said exasperated
"Just look at them. They're perfectly linear. Does this look right to you?" Sans shoved the papers into Alphys face. Alphys took the papers and studied them carefully.
"Well I guess they're a little long. Aren't they supposed to be linear though?"
"I don't know what they're supposed to look like but they've never looked like this. Do you remember me showing you them before?"
"Yes they were splitting and running concurrently and all sorts. I think I remember telling you to stop playing with things if you don't remember how they work." Alphys said
"Alphys! This isn't nothing. This is just important, if not more important than your research." Sans shook his head. He should have expected this much.
"I think it's best we forget about these reports. We forgot everything else to do with it" Alphys said turning back into the lab.
"Wait Alphys... has the human killed anyone?"
"No." Alphys said without turning. The doors shut.
Sans walked slowly down the stairs near the lab. He needed some time to think for a second. He came to a river. He recognised it, it went all the way back to Snowdin.
"Tra la la, I am the river man. Or am I the river woman? It doesn't really matter." A cloaked figure on a boat called out.
"What?" Sans said
"I love to ride in my boat. Would you like to join me?" The riverperson said.
"Erm, sure, can you take me to snowdin?" Sans figured why not.
The river person nodded, Sans got onto the boat and leant back.
"So... you do this a lot?" Sans said. "I think I've seen you a-boat before" He smirked to himself.
"Beware of the man who speaks in hands" The riverperson said
"Eh?"
"You don't remember them, do you?" The river person turned around eerily. The boat sailed on.
"Remember who?" Sans asked.
"He built the core. And he built what's yours." The river person replied.
"What's mine? Do you mean the machines?" Sans stared with incredulity. Who was this guy?
"Oh, we're here." The riverperson said. Sans stepped off the boat into fresh cold snow. "come again some time. tralala." The river person turned away from sans and looked far downstream as if in thought. Looks like it's back to the longstanding traditions of the underground. At least there's one problem that can be fixed.
Sans took a shortcut to the ruins and began hammering on the door. A voice answered
"Sans is that you?" they said. they sounded like they had been crying.
"You're Toriel aren't you? Asgore's ex-wife." Sans said.
"How do you-"
"Somebody mentioned your name to me in passing. Asgore is going to fight the human. There is no avoiding it unless you, unless we, do something." Sans said firmly.
He heard sobbing from the other side of the door. "I couldn't even stop them from leaving! How can I stop them and Asgore from fighting?" Toriel cried.
"come see him. The human will be there too. In a few hours or so. You'll know when to go." Sans said warmly. "You won't be alone."
Sans heard the sobs beginning to quieten. Toriel didn't reply after that. Sans thought about Flowey's "prediction" to his brother. It was clear Flowey wanted everyone at the barrier when Frisk got there. Although as to why, Sans wasn't certain. There didn't seem to be many options though.
Frisk had probably reached Snowdin by now. Sans shortcutted to where he'd hid from Papyrus and Frisk's battle before. Frisk had just arrived.
Papyrus was repeating pretty much ad verbatim what he'd said before, with a few complaints about Sans not turning up peppered here and there. Sans suppressed a giggle.
Sans wasn't laughing once the bones started moving though. An entire world isn't enough to get over the trauma of being confronted by a mass murderer. Sans began to feel sick. He held on until the field of bones and huge bone appeared once again. His left eye lit and Frisk was carried high into the air over the bone. Again. Sans fell to his knees breathing heavily. The fight had ended, and Papyrus was leaving. Sans got up and walked out to Frisk.
"Hey kid."
"Hello?" Frisk said unsure.
"I'm Sans, Papyrus' brother."
"Oh he mentioned you! He said you're very funny!" Frisk smiled.
"heh, well I usually am..." Sans said looking down, he was tired.
"And you're very lazy!" Frisk laughed.
"Heh, well, same to that." Sans said grinning.
"By the way..." Frisk said turn away for a moment.
"What?" Sans said, still grinning.
Frisk turned back again, with an unnatural smile across their face. Sans had a flashback. Orange light filled his mind's eye.
"What would happen if Omega Flowey and Sans had a fight?" They said.
Sans was stunned.
"Wh-who are you?" Sans stammered.
Frisk's face changed. They looked like the innocent child Sans hadn't said goodbye to in the last world again. They smiled warmly, completely unlike before.
"Go hang out with my brother before you leave, okay?" Sans said before walking away. He was getting creeped out.
Sans stomped through the waterfall at quite a pace. Once again everything seemed to be going okay. But was not Frisk just then. That was... something else. Omega Flowey... that must have been the beast Flowey turned into. Not the name Sans would have picked. Something like "ugly pile of trash" seemed to suit them better. Why would Frisk, or whatever it was, ask that? To even know about "Omega Flowey" they'd have to remember the previous world. More questions occurred to Sans and more answered eluded him as he rounded a corner.
And slammed straight into Undyne. "Watch where you're going, I could have killed you!" Undyne snapped.
Sans glared. "Undyne you can't hurt the human you've gotta make friends with them." He said quickly. Sans felt sick. He couldn't escape the feeling he was being played.
"Why would I want to do that?!" Undyne said
"Beats me." Sans said honestly.
Undyne was glaring at Sans now. "Get out of the way" Undyne stepped around Sans. He turned and followed her.
"Do you think I'd say so if it wasn't important?" Sans piped up
"What's so important it'd mean making friends with our ticket out of the underground?" Undyne asked.
"Aahhhh how did I do this last time?" Sans was frustrated. Undyne looked confused, then confusion gave way to horror.
"Is this about... The experiments." Undyne said fearfully. "I'm gonna write a note to myself and if I forget anything it'll tell me to kick your ass."
Sans laughed. "No no those experiments are done with. This is different. I'm sure of that." Sans said. He wasn't so sure if the difference was a good thing, though.
"I don't wanna hear anymore." Undyne said shaking her head "I'll go easy on the kid if it'll make you and Papyrus happy, is that ok?"
"Thanks Undyne" Sans said grinning.
"You better be at your station in the Hotlands." She said quickening her pace. Sans stopped walking.
"I couldn't FISH for a better friend" Sans called out after her. A spear flew back missing Sans by miles. He laughed.
There was quite a while before Judgement. It'd been a while since Sans had got to speak with Toriel and share some idle chatter. He headed back to the ruins door and knocked it.
There was quite a while before Judgement. It'd been a while since Sans had got to speak with Toriel and share some idle chatter. He headed back to the ruins door and knocked it.
"Knock knock" He said.
"Who's there?" Toriels voice called out.
"Atish" Sans said smirking
"Atish who?" Toriel said
"Bless you!" Sans said
Toriel giggled. "I think I've heard that one" she said
"It's a classic" Sans replied. "How are you doing?"
"I'm well." Toriel said. "How is the human?"
"Oh they're doing fine. What have you been doing?" Sans asked.
"Erm, I've been here by the door reading. I was hoping the human would come back." Torel said sadly.
"Reading? What have you been reading? Any good?" Sans said. He didn't want to talk about Frisk right now.
"Oh, it's a story. There's a lot of old story books in here. I've read all of them." Toriel said enthusiastically.
"So how come you're reading them again?" Sans asked. He generally preferred joke books or books on science to fiction.
"Because I enjoy the story! It doesn't matter whether you've read it before. When you're reading it the characters are alive, you can know for certain how the story goes and yet still convince yourself it might all happen differently. Sometimes I like to think what would happen if it did, and make my own stories up. I haven't written anything myself though... There'd be no one to read it anyway." Toriel explained.
"why don't you tell me one of your stories?" Sans offered.
"ohhh no! I'd be much too embarassed. I don't know if I can remember them anyway." Toriel laughed.
"What are they generally about?" Sans probed genuinely interested.
"Well usually I try to fix things in the story I didn't like, or made me sad. But it's kind of dull if you just do that. No good story is without conflict." Toriel went on.
"Heh, conflict eh, so you mess with them?"
"I guess so... Well I like to think of new situations for them, or expand on things I think the booked missed. Sometimes I just really miss the characters and like to imagine what they did next."
"Sounds fun." Sans said.
"It is" Toriel said happily.
They continued talking for a long time. It was the most at ease Sans had felt since before any of this had started. She even unlocked the door for a moment and slipped a few books out for Sans to read. Eventually though, Toriel told Sans she was hungry, and went off to make something she called a "snail soufflé"
Sans went to MTT Hotel, he sat in the restaurant waiting for the clunk of the elevators. San phone started ringing. It was Undyne.
"Tell your brother to get off the phone to the human!" Undyne shouted down the phone
"BUT UNDYNE THEY NEED TO HEAR ABOUT THE HOTEL'S DOG PROBLEM" a familiar voiced in the background shouted.
"What's WRONG with it?" Undyne asked.
"EVERYTHING!"
"Pass me over" Sans said, he heard shuffling. "Papyrus, let Undyne call the human, cmon it must be a miracle she even wants to."
"OKAY!" Papyrus shouted in agreement. He hung up the phone.
The dog problem... That can only mean Frisk is at the hotel now. Sans stepped outside the restaurant to see Frisk standing there holding their phone to their ear.
"Is that Undyne?" Sans asked walking over.
Frisk nodded, then hung up. "She wants me to pick up and deliver a parcel. I'm pretty close to getting out of here though."
"Have you... Have you seen Alphys?" Sans asked
Frisked looked at the floor. "Yeah... She's pretty upset."
Sans sighed. "You wanna go see Undyne then? Cmon, I know a shortcut." Sans said winking his right eye.
Sans lead and Frisk followed. They met Papyrus and Undyne in Snowdin, picked up the parcel, and took another shortcut straight to the lab. Frisk went inside and talked to Alphys, and then they left together heading towards the waterfall. Alphys was wearing a dress, Sans couldn't believe it. He sat down. Might as well wait he thought.
Not long later, Frisk came back and entered the lab. Sans followed They entered True Lab's doors together. The smell of wet earth was heavy in the air and it was hard to see by the dim light. Sans mind was racing. Him and Frisk walking together through this place... it was a very familiar setting and he didn't like it. At this point it was clear Frisk and Alphys were friends. He wasn't quite sure why he was still following. They continued together in silence until reaching the DT extraction machine.
"It's that things head." Sans spluttered.
Frisk turned their head. "Hm?" they made a questioning sound.
"Nothing... It just reminds me of someone." Sans said tightly. "Listen, You've got this I'm gonna go..."
He left directly for the barrier and waited. Not long after Asgore entered, and then Frisk. Things happened exactly as before. Sans felt a bitter disappointment settle in his heart. Suddenly Sans heard a rush, and Asgore was knocked flying out of Frisk's path.
"What a miserable creature, torturing a poor innocent youth." Toriel said softly.
"T-Tori, you came back!" Asgore stuttered, his eyes wide in disbelief.
"Don't Tori me, Dreemurr! You pathetic whelp" Toriel snapped. "If you really wanted to free our kind you could have gone through the barrier after you got ONE soul, taken six souls from the humans then come back and freed everyone peacefully."
Sans stepped out laughing. He hadn't thought of that. "She's got a point, Asgore."
"Is that you? From the ruins? I know your voice!" Toriel said rushing over to Sans excitedly.
"Tori... You're right. I'm a miserable creature." Asgore said glumly. "Do you think we can at least be friends again?"
Toriel sighed in exasperation. "No, Asgore." She said firmly.
"Ngggaaah! Asgore! Human! Nobody fight each other!" Undyne came tearing into the room. "everyones gonna make friends or I'll-"
"H-hey! Nobody hurt each other!" Alphys stepped meekly after Undyne.
"HEY! NOBODY FIGHT ANYONE!" Papyrus shouted bounding in. "IF ANYONE FIGHTS ANYONE... THEN- HEY WAIT, SANS HOW DID YOU GET HERE BEFORE ME?"
Sans grinned. "A flower told me.
"So this must be your brother..." Toriel turned towards Papyrus. "Your brother has told me so much about you!"
"WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE ASGORE'S CLONE KNOWS WHO I AM!"
Before anyone could react, tough thin vines wrapped around everybody except Frisk. A flower popped out of the ground.
"You idiots!" Flowey said. "Whilst you guys were having your little pow-wow. I took the humans souls!"
"What, again?" Sans said.
"Shut up!" Flowey turned to Frisk. "All of your friend's souls are going to be mine too! With their souls and the humans' together, I will achieve my real form."
"Let's hope it's not as ugly as the last one" Sans cut in.
"Will you stop that?" Flowey whirled frowning at Sans.
More monsters poured into the room
"We'll help!"
"we're with you!"
"Cmon you got this!"
"You... You IDIOTS! ALL YOUR SOULS ARE MINE!" Flowey screamed.
"Enough of this." Sans muttered. Bones appeared in between the vines and his body, loosening them. He fell to the floor.
There was a flash of light, and everyone disappeared. Only Frisk, and a small goat-looking child remained.
"Finally, I was so tired of being a flower." The goat child said. They turned towards Frisk. "Howdy! Chara, are you there? It's me your best friend."
Frisk smirked. "Hi."
"You are there, aren't you?" The goat child said. The was another flash of light. Sans looked around him. All he could see were whirling colours. Where the goat-child had been a large goat-monster was flying in the air swaying from side to side.
"Sans help, help me, I can't do this." Frisk called out.
"What?" Sans asked, not taking his eyes of the flying goat-monster. It winked and smiled.
"If I fight I will die. I can't refuse. I can't reset or save."
"How do you know about that? Stop playing games Frisk."
"This isn't a game. Not anymore. Maybe it never was. Anyway, You have to do it. Save everybody, Sans!" Frisk said.
The goat monster approached.
"Asriel Dreamurr!" He declared with confidence. Guess that was his name.
"Alright cut the crap Flowey" Sans said. A gasterblaster swung into view.
"No! Sans! You'll kill your friends!" Frisk called out.
Sans hadn't counted on that. The gaster blaster fizzled out as soon as it had appeared. An explosion of stars rained down upon him. He nonchalantly dodged them all.
"What do you want?" Sans gritted his teeth.
"I Want To Be Able To Play With Chara Forever." Asriel said in a warm chocolatey voice that seemed to echo from everywhere and nowhere.
"Tough. You heard 'em. You kill them, they're dead. That's it." Sans said bluntly.
Asriel laughed. "You can't kill Chara." He swung huge curved scimitars at Sans. Sans dodged them effortlessly.
"You've got to SAVE them, Sans." Frisk called out.
"Why are you helping him?" Asriel said shaking his head.
Frisk gave an unnatural smile. "Conflict." They said flatly.
Sans felt warm inside, he reached out to Papyrus' soul with determination. Papyrus answered swiftly. There was no way he could forget his own brother.
Asriel was stunned. "What's happening?"
Sans reached out to all his other friends. It was easy. He'd known them and they'd known him for a very long time. Soon there was only one person left to save, the only one he didn't really know.
"It's you. I have to save you, don't I?" Sans muttered. Asriel said nothing. Sans reached deep down into Asriel. Buried under years of hatred and boredom as a flower, he found an ember of emotion. A ghost of the soul he once had. It felt so lonely...
"I'm so alone, Chara... I'm so afraid." Asriel said shutting his eyes. Tears began to roll down his face.
"Asriel..." Sans said sadly reaching out.
"I..." Asriel began... there was a final flash of light, and stood before Sans was the small goat-child looking up at him meekly, tears streaming down his face. "I'm so sorry." Asriel said.
"It's okay" Sans smiled warmly at the crying child.
"I can feel everyones soul inside me... Their compassion. They love you both so much. I wish I could tell you how everyone feels about you." Asriel said smiling.
Sans felt his eyes began to well up. "No, really it's okay" He said.
"I can't keep these souls inside of me. The least I can do is return them. But first.. There's something I have to do. With everyone's power, their determination, it's time for monsters to go free." Asriel said. He closed his eyes and slowly raised his hands. He gently floated into the air. Souls span out of his body weakening the barrier, until with a crash, it splintered and broke. Sans watched in disbelief. He stepped over the line where the barrier had been, and back again. He jumped back and forth over the line a few times.
"It's gone!" Sans called out ecstatic.
Frisk didn't answer. They were hugging and talking to Asriel. He seemed to be saying goodbye. Asriel took a few slow steps away from Frisk, before everything went black.
"Frisk, Sans, wake up." Toriel's voice called out concerned. Sans opened his eyes and got up. "Oh, you're both awake! Thank goodness!"
Everyone began to talk to Frisk. Sans slumped against a wall exhausted. Toriel came over to him.
"Are you okay, Sans? It's weird talking to you in person. At least I know your name now, you had me at an advantage earlier!" Toriel said
Sans laughed "I'm fine, it's just... well you wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me" Toriel challenged
"Well... let's just say I put in a lot of work for this happy ending. It's great to finally be here. I'm just glad it's done." Sans smiled.
"One day you should make a story" Toriel nudged Sans.
He laughed again. No chance. He thought whilst staring at his fingers and wiggling them. They were feeling kind of funny. Toriel stood up and began to talk to Frisk. Sans kept looking at his fingers. For a couple of seconds they seemed to shimmer and unform, before resolidifying. Sans made a fist and the feeling in his fingers went away. He looked at the crowd of happy faces surrounding Frisk. He thought back to the first world, where everyone was killed. It was hard to believe it had all lead to this. Yet somehow they had earned their happy ending.
After millenia trapped in the underground. They were finally free.