Sans made sure to wake up early. His biggest fear had been resetting to Chara laughing in his face, but she was absent. Good, that meant there was still time.
Convincing Toriel that they should go on a walk was simple enough. Second nature now. It should've been unsettling to Sans, how easily he was getting the hang of these new set of timelines, but it wasn't. Rather, he found it almost comforting.
He guessed having this structure, having knowledge of everything that's going to happen, was a part of who he was now. If he ever managed to really save the kid, living out a different life was going to be incredibly difficult.
Just like last time, Toriel paused just before they reached the cavern with the flowers.
"I think this is far enough," she said, already leading Sans back.
"C'mon, Tori, I wanna see the rest." Sans nailed the casual tone, though his SOUL was pounding. This was it, this was going to be the run he saved Frisk.
Toriel shook her head, sighed, and smiled regardless. "Very well, come then. There is not much through here."
"You don't come here often, then?" Sans asked, walking beside Toriel.
"I come down here to water the flowers from time to time, and I check for fallen humans every day," she explained, guiding Sans to the flowerbed.
The boss monster smiled at the flower patch with a sad, faraway look in her eyes. Sans had never asked about the flowers, there'd never been time. He knew that once, after a pacifist run, the kid had walked all the way back here before leaving for the surface, but had refused to tell Sans anything about what had happened.
For all that Sans did know, there was still one thing that remained a mystery to him: what happened at the end of a pacifist route? He knew that Papyrus called them all to the throne room, on Flowey's behalf, then the damn flower itself traps them all, and then…nothing. The next thing Sans can remember after that is waking up to see the barrier broken.
Frisk would never tell him. In those earlier runs, on those days on the surface before Chara poisoned their mind with whispers of violence and promises of bloodshed, when Sans had asked about the gaps in his memory, Frisk only look uncomfortable. They refused to speak, except to say that nothing could be changed.
They'd always looked guilty, and stayed silent.
Sans still had to wonder how Chara had been able to influence Frisk. How could a ghost of shell of a person like Chara turn Frisk from their pacifist ways and steer them onto the path of violence?
Sans should really stop reading into things. All these pointless wonderings, inspired by a simple patch of flowers.
If anything, the flowers should have reminded him of that bastard, Flowey. They did resemble him, after all, although these flowers were shorter and lacked faces. And sarcasm.
"Perhaps we could leave now?" Toriel asked. Sans didn't miss the way her voice was strained, how she couldn't look Sans in the eye.
But Frisk hadn't fallen yet.
And then, they did. Sans could only see because he was already looking up to look Toriel in the face, and she happened to be standing in such a way that Sans was also staring directly at the only source of sunlight in the entire underground.
Sans hadn't thought about how Frisk would fall. He had expected screaming, even from the usually silent child, and at the very least the flailing of limbs, but there was nothing.
Toriel turned at Sans' averted gaze to see a child, falling silent and still, to crash to a bed of a golden flowers and lie there, motionless.
"Oh, my child!" Toriel rushed to Frisk's side, her paws already glowing with magic.
The sadness in her eyes had receded, replaced by a look of determination. The former queen would not allow this child to die.
"Heh, that looked kind of fun," Chara said, folding her arms and leaning over Frisk as she materialised into existence.
"Are they going to be okay?" Sans asked, peering as best he could over Toriel's shoulder. He ignored Chara's sick smile at the state of Frisk's small body.
"My child, I have healed your injuries," Toriel said, addressing Frisk.
Sans stepped around Toriel to look. Frisk was sitting in front of Toriel, looking up with wide eyes. Their body was limp and small, their eyes lacking their usual fire.
Sans' gut-or lack thereof-clenched with guilt. He had done this to Frisk, they were only like this because their determination was no longer their own. But there was no choice. If Sans returned that determination, Frisk would be aware of Chara again. There would be genocide, again, endlessly, and nothing would've changed. This was the only way.
"You don't feel at all bad about this?" Chara asked, arching a brow at Sans. "We're more alike than you give us credit for."
"Let's take them to the house," Sans said abruptly, if only to shut Chara up, laying a hand on Toriel's shoulder. Light tremors shook her body, more noticeable when she stood, taking Frisk's hand.
Sans was still wary of the kid. He was almost certain now that they couldn't remember the resets, but his own memories were still as vibrant as the slick blood coating their hands once, in another life.
Frisk walked like they were in a dream. Their eyes stared unfocused at the Ruins around them, looking but not seeing. There was no fear in their body, just…numbness. Toriel was steering them to the house, and Frisk didn't resist, but it seemed the former queen was having to push them along. She must've been concerned, too, because Toriel didn't even explain the puzzles to Frisk as they moved, simply walking right through them.
"My child, this is to be your new home," Toriel said, once the trio were standing in front of her house. Sans was not counting Chara as a whole person. Not even as a half person.
"Come on, kid," Sans said, prompting Toriel to push Frisk across the threshold.
"You really think you can change things, huh?" Chara said, her tone mocking. "You think that if you get it right, you're going to fix things?"
She was really starting to get on Sans' nerves. No wonder Frisk eventually went along with what she wanted. "Shut up," he hissed.
"You're missing part of the equation," she explained, as though what she was talking about was obvious. "If you saw the whole picture, you'd know that nothing you do can save Frisk now. They made their choice when they came down here, and without their determination they're not changing their mind."
There was no way Sans could keep glaring at Chara without being suspicious, so he settled for ignoring her at the very least. At least he knew she couldn't interact with him physically, so the worst she could do was annoy the hell out of him.
"This is to be your very own room," Toriel explained, once she had lead Frisk into the guest bedroom. "We will let you rest, but we shall be in the living room should you need us, young one."
Sans followed Toriel's lead and left the kid alone, but not before sparing a glance at them, over their shoulder.
Frisk was lying on the bed, where Toriel had insisted they rest, staring at the ceiling. Chara stood over them, grinning, an almost knowing gleam in her eyes. Sans gulped at that, the expression too similar to his own, all those times Frisk-no, it was Chara. All those times Chara had gone genocidal.
Shows how much he knew back then. He'd really thought Frisk was capable of that. Even with Chara's influence, they shouldn't have been. They were such a good kid in the beginning, what happened?
Toriel's paw on his own, tugging insistently towards the living room, told Sans this wasn't the time to think about that. He could think once Frisk was acting more like themselves again.
"This has been quite an exciting day," Toriel said, trying to force some cheer into her voice.
"The kid's gonna be fine, Tori," Sans said, even if he wasn't sure of that himself.
The sight of Frisk falling, motionless, like they were already dead, invaded his mind. He couldn't shake it, no matter how many times he reminded himself that Frisk was okay, Toriel was fine, they were all good.
"I think I shall make some tea. Or…perhaps cocoa, for the child," Toriel decided, eyeing her armchair with discomfort. The idea of staying still didn't seem to sit well with her, either.
She didn't wait for approval from Sans to hurry into the kitchen. Sans barely had time to wonder what to do with himself before she was coming back, holding a mug of cocoa and a slice of pie in her hands.
"I thought I'd take these to the child before I prepared anything for us," she explained. Sans knew she was looking for an excuse to go and check on Frisk. He'd been looking for one himself, though he was trying to avoid hovering over them.
Chara appeared then, sauntering in from the bedroom. "That's not a good idea."
"I'll start with the tea," Sans offered, ignoring her, and a grateful smile curled across Toriel's lips.
"Thank you, Sans."
He went to the kitchen, Chara following at a sedate pace, humming to himself, as Toriel hurried off down the hallway. He was just beginning to relax, to think everything would be fine, when a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the silence.
There were twin crashes of shattering porcelain-one from the hallway, one from the kitchen-as Sans bolted out of the doors, running faster than he could remember running in a long time.
Toriel was on her knees in the doorway, rocking back and forth, gut-wrenching sounds tearing themselves from her throat. Sans pushed past, ignoring the crunch of porcelain shards and the burning of hot liquid on his feet.
Frisk was lying face-down on the floor, in a pooling circle of their own blood. There was a letter opener in one hand, and the other wrist, lying face-up, had been sliced jagged and deep. Frisk's skin was deathly pale, and Sans sensed no life or soul within them.
"Tori, come on, you can heal them, right?" Sans said, panicking. His eyes were wide, bones shaking. "Please, Tori, I know you can!"
"Not another one!" Toriel cried out, voice taking on a braying tone in her desperation. "Why? Why another one?"
Her arms gave out where they were bracing her against the floor, and she fell forward into the pool of blood. Chara laughed, a hysteric cackle, standing over them with blood dripping down her face, from her own wrist, joining the liquid crimson on the floor.
It was too much.
Sans turned and ran, barely thinking straight enough to bring up the RESET and press a finger to it.
Toriel's sobs and Chara's laughter grew louder as the world went black, echoing and knocking about in Sans' skull.
Then the world exploded into life, and Sans fell to his knees.
