Chara

I stared at the skeleton. I noticed that his eye was glowing again. Previously, it had only glowed briefly, but right now it was eternal, consumed with anger. "So, uh… Are you going to tell me, or…?"

"I said, I don't like talking about it." he growled. I shrugged.

"Seems like you're already talking about it to me," I pointed out. "And I think you'd have a higher chance of preventing it if you let me know exactly what it was you didn't want me to do-although, bear in mind, I may not listen. I have absolutely no idea who you are or whether or not you're trustworthy. Or if you're telling the truth." I paused briefly, then continued, "And in any case, why would you bring me here if you didn't want to talk about it? To let me know that I've made the right god damned choice or some other crap like that? You wouldn't have to bring me here to tell me. I wouldn't even care."

Sans sighed. "Very well," he said. He sat down on the cold linoleum flooring, and gestured for me to sit beside him. I declined the invitation and, with some difficulty, hopped onto the small counter, my legs dangling off the edge. The counter was almost as tall as I was. Sans did not immediately begin his tale. He just stared at me endlessly. His eye had stopped glowing.

"Well?" I prompted with some annoyance. I've been told I'm very impatient.

"Sorry," he said. "You'll pardon me if I leave out some of the details? I wouldn't want to change the timeline."

I stared at him. "No," I said. "That's why you came back in time, you said. Specifically to change the timeline."

The skeleton hesitated, his mouth open slightly. "I suppose it is." He glanced around, taking a deep breath. "Let's see. I suppose it began in here, actually. Looks like the machine isn't built yet… Actually." He stood up, turning around in a circle several times. "What the hell?"

I sighed. "What happened this time?"

He said nothing for several seconds. "No, no, no, this is all wrong."

"What?"

"I… am not supposed to exist... in this timeline."

"But I saw you upstairs."

He said nothing, nodding slightly as he processed the piece of information. "Tell me, Chara, who is the Royal Scientist?"

"What?" I asked, puzzled by the non sequitur. "Uh… some guy named W.C. Gaster, or… something like that." Sans muttered something quietly. "Beg pardon?"

"W.D. It's W.D. Gaster."

I shrugged. "So?"

"And he's the only one there is."

"It's called the Royal Scientist, not the Royal Scientists." I said. I was starting to get annoyed with the skeleton.

"...I see. Well then." He tugged on the strings of his hoodie. "I am not particularly interested to know what is in store for me here."

"What?"

"Nevermind." He hesitated. "Look, Chara, I've been keeping tabs on timelines for so long that I'm no longer sure which sections I lived through. Anyways," he said, shaking his head. "I was Gaster's… lab assistant." He stumbled over the words slightly. "Listen, kid, I don't even know if it's safe you tell you all of this. Don't be mad at me if the timeline rips apart, okay?"

"WHAT?!" my voice cracked. "No, no, no, that's absolutely not okay. Listen, skeleton, I don't what exactly-"

"Do you want to know or not?" he snapped, interrupting me. "Kid, I don't know much about you, admittedly, but listen to me: you have the power to RESET. If this timeline gets ripped apart, not much will happen except you'll RESET and life will continue as normal-sort of. Except nobody dies."

I stared at him, my eyes narrowed. "How the hell do you know this much about me."

The skeleton gave a hollow laugh, full of derision. "Do you think you're the only one who can remember through the timelines, kid? No." He finger-gunned me momentarily, flicked his hand, and the lab disappeared around me.

"Chara?" Asriel's voice piped up. "What took you so long? Why are you holding a teacup?"

I glanced down at the piece of china cupped in my hands. "I, uh… oh. Um," I stuttered. My eyes flicked from side to side nervously. Eventually, seeing that no other more logical course of option presented itself, I tossed the teacup over the side of the castle wall. I heard the sound of shattering glass a moment later, followed by a cry of alarm. "...Ignore that, Asri." He stared at me, clearly unsatisfied by my explanation, or lack thereof. "I, uh… some guy randomly gave it to me." I wasn't technically lying.

"Um… why?" he asked.

"Uh… Yeah, I have no idea." Asriel still looked suspicious. The kid may be young and innocent, but he's not stupid. I shrugged helplessly. Sorry, Asri. Can't tell you this one. "He, uh… pulled me over to the side, said he had to talk to me. Then he offered me tea."

"What did he talk to you about?" His eyebrows, if he could be said to have any, were furrowed together in confusion."

I was silent for a minute. "Can't tell you that, Asri," I said, unconsciously mimicking Sans as I finger-gunned him, right before RESETing to my last save.

His eye was glowing blue again. "Got a problem?" I muttered thickly. He seemed to process what was going on and shut his eyes for a few seconds. They had reverted to normal by the time he reopened them.

"Sorry, Chara," he said. His voice was decidedly lackluster in apology. "Back so soon?"

"Yes. Please don't send me back so soon this time? And definitely don't send me back right in front of Asri, still holding a teacup." I glared at him briefly.

"Sorry, kid." He didn't sound too sorry. "What do you-"

"Why do you hate me?" I interrupted. He blinked uncertainly.

"I, uh… oh." He sighed. "It's a long story."

"I have time," I said, narrowing my eyes. "Besides, as you so tactfully put out last time, I could always just RESET and nobody will be any the wiser."

He hesitated. "Good point," he admitted grudgingly. "I suppose you have the right to know." He sighed, glancing around the room. I hopped back up onto the counter.

"Listen, kid, everything that I'm going to say here is going to sound false."

"I think we're way past you telling me that. Everything you've said so far has sounded like a fairytale."

He stared at me. "Then… why... why are you… still here?" He blinked rapidly. Evidently he had something stuck in his eye.

"I want to hear the happy ending," I said. I thought my voice was clearly laced with sarcasm; clearly Sans didn't think so. He opened his mouth angrily, his eye flashing blue momentarily, but I cut him off. "I'm joking," I said. He closed his mouth, his jaw tightening, and nodded briefly. I tilted my head. "So?" I prompted.

The skeleton took a deep breath. "As I hope I've made clear enough to you, I've been observing the flow of the timelines since you first RESET." He paused, then admitted, somewhat grudgingly, "Well, actually, no. I've been observing the flow of the timelines since I was first born. I… was not technically alive at this point in time." Seeing me open my mouth to speak, he held his hands up. "I'll get to that," he said quickly. I grimaced slightly before nodding. "Anyways, my time is… a good fifty years, maybe, past this point. Asgore… After you… died-"

"Hold up," I interrupted him. "How… how far into the future would this be?"

He craned his neck to look up at me from his seat on the floor. "Chara," he said, annoyance creeping into his voice, "Did you simply fall to the floor shouting 'No! No! No!' at the exact moment in which you, in any other timeline, would have explained your plan to Asriel purely by coincidence?"

"I, uh… well." I raised my eyebrows marginally as I continued, "As you told me creepily in the middle of the night, apparently that plan would fail."

He nodded slowly, opening his mouth to speak briefly then shut it. He was quiet for a minute, before saying, "That's not what I meant."

"Beg pardon?"

"I mean your plan to break the barrier would fail. Not your plan to poison yourself." He glared at me, saying, "Asriel isn't as young, innocent, or dumb as you might think, Chara."

"I never said anything about thinking he was dumb!" I protested.

"In the other timelines," Sans began, "Asriel absorbs your soul according to plan. However, he immediately feels terrible about the plan-in his mind, he murdered his best friend and sister, and refuses to cross the barrier. Your soul takes control of his body and forces him into the human world. By this point, however, Asriel has regained control. He doesn't fight back. The humans try to kill him." He narrowed his eyes. "You know how humans are better than almost anyone else."

"Almost?" I said, looking Sans up and down. "Do you know anyone who's lived among humans?"

Sans hesitated. "Well… no." He sounded somewhat unsure of himself. I narrowed my eyes, suspicious and perplexed, as he plowed on. "You, of all people, know what humans are like." I nodded reluctantly. My people were not good people. "Anyways, but you and Asriel end up dying, and the barrier is no closer to being broken. Your father starts to collect the souls of the fallen souls, hoping to eventually break the barrier.

"The farthest the timeline's ever gone is to the seventh human, the last soul Asgore needed to break the barrier… To put it simply, Frisk has more determination than anyone I've ever seen. It shouldn't be possible for one entity, human or otherwise to possess that much determination." His left eye began glowing again.

I was quiet for a minute. I did not understand what this Frisk character had to do with everything, but Sans did not seem to like them very much. "Why don't you like them, either?"

Sans laughed. "Are you kidding? I love the kid. Sort of."

"Beg pardon."

"Frisk has RESET hundreds of times. At least a quarter of those are True RESETS. We've started from the complete beginning of the timeline over and over again. I've watched her break the barrier dozens of times. I've also- also seen…" he managed to choke out the last few words, then fell silent. He pulled a red scarf out of his pocket that couldn't possibly have fit in there. He held the scarf in both hands. I don't know how it's possible for a skeleton to cry, but Sans did so at that moment.

"I've also seen her kill everyone I ever cared about."

A/N: For the record, since this chapter has allusions to it, I do not follow the headcanon that Sans is human. Doesn't make sense to me. I do, however, follow this headcanon: watch?v=_uBGfEOoDkM