It was some time before Toriel could fight past the sudden palpable tension in the air and make her mouth form words again.

"Re…set?" She slowly repeated the word back to him, and felt Sans' hand begin to tremble lightly in her grip.

He didn't respond right away. His empty sockets stared blankly down at the bed, and she could only imagine what thoughts and memories were tearing at him to fuel such a hollow expression. The feeling of his grip on her paw tightening was the only sign of movement from him as he finally managed to reply.

"yah… reset. start over, send the timeline back to the point where an… anomaly first arrived." He murmured, voice sounding as though it was coming from far away, growing worse as he went on.

"wipe away everything that happened and begin anew. every event, every conversation, every friendship, every action, every reaction… every m-memory…"

With that last word, he trailed into silence again, and his trembling seem to worsen by degrees. She stared down at him, mind whirling with confusion and now far more insistent fear. His words were quickly slipping into that odd incoherency that she'd noticed on occasion ever since she'd first met him. Words with little grasp on reality as she knew it, but clearly oh so real and painful to him. She turned a bit to face him better, reaching to lay her other paw over their clasped hands.

"Sans… I am sorry. I… do not understand." She said softly, doing what she could to keep her voice calm.

That did seem to be the prompting he needed to actually turn to look at her again. Those dark, empty sockets combined with his detached, vacant smile faintly chilled her, but she did not break from his gaze. As before, meeting her eyes seemed to help ground him and his unnerving expression softened a bit. His voice still carried a distinctly distant quality to it though as he kept talking.

"the anomaly… or anomalies… they have the power to reset a timeline, wiping all evidence of the last instance and starting it over. their decisions and abilities were what were twisting the timelines we could see through the machine. our world isn't what it seems tori. it was something with the barrier, something with the spell that trapped us, but whatever being has the most determination… they control everything…."

He paused, sweat beginning to dot his skull. There was little time for her to even think as he continued on, and she was reminded of his almost desperate insistence of continuing with his story the previous day. Clearly there was a debilitating fear that dwelled inside him that usually kept these words firmly locked away. But now that there was an opportunity that had punctured it, like a crack in a dam, that fear now made it so he couldn't stop the words from escaping him, coherency be damned.

"when the humans fall, once they pass through the barrier their determination gives them control of everything. they can manipulate it all. if they mess up they can just go back and try again. redo the same events over and over until they get it the way they want it." He went on rapidly, not even pausing enough to take a breath.

"all of us monsters are just pawns in it all. since the beginning, we just get wiped and sent back, whenever these humans choose. no one remembers a thing, no one is aware, no one knows the truth. until my goddamn father gets the genius idea to inject his own child's soul with that human girl's soul trait. light blue, patience, the power to perceive… not actually affect anything of course, but perceive it… and…"

His ranting stopped again, cutting off as he seemed to take in the expression on her face. He wants to keep talking, she can tell. But reality was starting to creep back in. Toriel could only look down at him helplessly, unable to piece together anything he'd said into any kind of rational, digestible idea. Parts of it made her magic feel like ice as it flowed through her body, but the shock was tempered by her inability to understand. Now that he was quiet again, she gave his hand another squeeze and willed herself to speak.

"Sans, please my friend. Slow down. I know this is difficult but… I just cannot grasp what you are trying to say." She implored, forcing herself to stare deep into the darkness of his empty sockets.

At her words, he shuddered hard and dropped his gaze from her again. A strained wheeze of empty laughter escaped him and he covered his face with his free hand.

"damn it… i'm not making any goddamn s-sense…" He croaked, curling in on himself a bit.

His bones rattled quietly as his trembling returned in earnest. He pulled in shallow breaths, all the while clearly fighting against the urge to begin his tirade again. The magic radiating from his soul was becoming heavy with frustration and fear.

"i'm s-sorry tori… it's so hard to focus, it's just… it's all so… there's so much…"

She felt her soul seize up painfully inside her at his distress. Instincts kicking in, she moved closer and freed a paw to rest on his shoulder, offering him her close presence but not as to smother his will to speak. Gently, she rubbed the spot in small circles, hoping to help ease his soul into calmness again.

"I know, it is okay my friend." She soothed, leaning down closer to his level. "Just try to relax, take a deep breath. I am not going anywhere, I promise. There is no need to rush with this… alright?"

At first, she was unsure if he would react to her words, until his grip on her paw tightened to the point that it may have been painful had he been a stronger monster. He clenched his teeth against the frantic words of his great inner burden and did his best to heed her. The next few minutes were only filled with the soft sounds of his shaky breathing, the faint rattle of his fragile frame as it shook, and the tender murmur of Toriel's voice as she continued to do what she could to help.

As she did however, fragments of what he'd said began to sink in. She still didn't understand them, but the idea, the concept, it was taking shape in her mind. And the implications… They were nearly too overwhelming to even consider. She focused on comforting her friend, if only to keep her own thoughts from becoming unhinged. But she did come up with an idea for how to go forward with the conversation. Once she felt her friend had sufficiently calmed enough, she ceased her quiet reassurances and spoke more directly.

"Listen, I think I know a better way to handle this." She said, giving his shoulder a light squeeze in an effort to get his attention.

He didn't uncurl or look at her, but his breaths stilled in a manner that indicated to her that he was listening. She ran her thumb pad softly over his knuckle bones in a silent show of thanks as she continued speaking.

"I will tell you what I believe I have gathered from what you have said so far, and you just let me know if I am right or wrong in those assumptions, sound okay?" She asked.

Sans drew in an unsteady breath and nodded weakly behind his hand, squeezing his empty sockets shut. It was the go ahead she needed, but she still took some time to begin. Just the idea of what she was about to ask him to clarify was so inordinately unthinkable it made her head feel numb. But she pressed on, forcing the words out even as her very soul wanted to lock up with fear.

"So… these "timelines"… our world… and everything and everyone in them can be… reset? Set back to a point and… erased of all that had happened before?" She asked, voice quaking a bit despite her best efforts.

The skeleton replied with a single shaky nod. It was a miracle she managed not to panic.

"And…" She paused, having to really struggle not to falter under the weight of her words. "It is the… humans who can do this? …or… have done this?"

Another nod met her words, but he managed a verbal reply as well.

"s-specifically… its whatever has the most determination…and is…or was… beneath the barrier… mostly humans… n-not always…" He wheezed, curling inwards a little tighter as he said the last part.

Toriel felt faint, and as though the tips of her paws had gone ice-cold. Her mind was reeling to a dangerous degree, but still, she kept talking, willing all her strength to be put into that task.

"A-and you… the patience trait that w-was injected into your soul… l-let you perceive that th-this was happening?"

He stiffened violently at that, beginning to shake hard again. His phalanges curled against his skull as if he were trying to tear at it, creating a terrible sound as bone dug into bone. She began to move to try and stop him, but before she could, his self-control shattered like a thin piece of glass. His left eyelight flared to life with a bright flash as he got to his feet and pulled his hand away so quickly and that Toriel distinguished the movement as only a blur. There was no time to prepare before his verbal onslaught returned with a vengeance.

"my memories don't get reset tori!" He shouted, trembling as he stood before her. "i remember everything! all of it! you all forget, all of you get wiped and sent back with no memory of any of it! but i don't!"

She could only stare with ever widening eyes, almost hypnotized by his flashing eyelight as his terrible words hit her soul like a freight train. But there was no time to comprehend, no time for any of it to click within her mind. He wouldn't stop, perhaps couldn't stop. Some deep part of her soul, perhaps the part of her who had witnessed the depravity of war and the grisly death of her children, gave her the mental fortitude to grasp some semblance of calm. She stayed silent through the rest of his furious outburst, letting him finally rid himself of the worst of his tormenting secrets without interruption.

"i can't forget. i keep my memories from every timeline. every. single. one. the ones where i die, the ones where everyone else dies, the ones where things are actually okay for once until it's all ripped away without a second of warning. every bit of progress i make, every relationship i improve, any bit of effort i put into anything at all. it's all destroyed. its all pointless! wiped from the world like it never happened!"

He was pacing on the bed now, still practically clawing at his face with both of his hands. The horrible alternating glow of his eyelight seeped through his phalanges like wisps of ethereal flame.

"i have to act normal for my bro but i can't. i have to pretend like i don't remember but i can't. i keep slipping, it all blurs together. the only way i can get by is to just shut down and not care about anyone or anything but i just. can't. i can't do it anymore. we are all helpless. the kid can take everything from us at any moment. but i'll be the only one to remember it all. everything we've built for ourselves up here. i d-don't think i have it in me to do this all again. they promised they won't reset again but i can't believe them, i c-cant'. we've been here for a year and i'm getting too u-used to it. things are too good and i c-can't trust it! it never lasts this long!"

His breaths came in shuddering heaves and he had to tear his hands away from his face as they too become fully consumed by blazes of cyan magic. He cursed darkly and turned from her, phalanges twitching as the magic flared around them, wanting to funnel his rage and pain into an attack that never came. He just went on with his ranting, giving voice to words that had been burning within him for so long that she may be among the only ones who could truly grasp the amount of time. It lasted for a little longer after that, but Toriel could no longer glean any new information from it, it was more or less just desperate, frantic repetition of what he'd already said. She kept her silence, watching him, absorbing his words and their utterly devastating, inconceivable implications.

She could tell there were still things he was not telling her, but at this point, she wasn't sure how much more she herself could take. Dots were connecting, pieces were falling into place, and it was all building into a fiery roar inside her mind. It nearly deafened everything else as her entire worldview threatened to cave in on itself and bring her down with it. Somehow though, that odd resilience from deep within held strong, allowing her to stay quiet and outwardly calm.

It was only when he turned to meet her gaze again and drilled her with that fervid eyelight that he finally broke from his cyclical diatribe.

"y-you… don't even believe me d-do you?" he croaked, voice wavering between anger and despair. "and who could b-blame you? i don't even know h-how much of any of it is real anymore, it's all so-"

"Sans." She cut him off, speaking again at last.

He froze up, some part of him snapping back to awareness at the sound of her voice, but only enough to silence him. His eyelight and the magic around his hands still flared intensely as he glowered at her.

"I… I do believe you…" She went on softly, words passing her lips almost subconsciously.

"D o n ' e…" He shot back, in that strange dark, reverberating voice that he'd used the last time he'd succumbed to his anger.

She didn't flinch, but if it was because of her own nerve or just the horrid numbing of her senses due to the things she'd just been told, she didn't know.

"I am not, my friend…" She replied, staring into the flashing blue and yellow that was his only visible method of sight. "P-part of me wishes I could deny your claims… indeed all of this is… beyond comprehension in many ways… but…"

A violent shudder coursed through her, through the awful dizzying haze that had encased her mind. She covered her mouth with her paws, vision blurring as tears pricked at her eyes. The skeleton went silent again, though she could still see a smear of dancing colors through the watery veil.

"Sans… when the human ch-children… when I would find them after they had fallen… I always felt as though I already knew them… Like I was seeing an old friend. I thought it was just because they reminded me of my Chara… but… I somehow knew what fl-flavors they'd prefer too… and they… th-they all talked to me like they knew what I would say… I…"

She choked back a sob welling up in her throat, not willing to give into a flood of emotions in her currently rapidly declining state. Surely if she did that, it would all be over. And one of themjust had to stay level in this situation. It took all her strength to face him again properly.

"S-Sans, it is because of all th-this, is it not? The h-humans, they had already, I had already…" The question burned as it left her, for she knew the answer, to the point she couldn't even finish.

His continuing silence cut deep, but she saw then through the blur of tears that his fiery displays of magic were fading. A few blinks managed to clear her eyes enough for her to vaguely see her friend's face again. The anger that had been there was gone, burnt out perhaps… or banished by the sight of her own quickly mounting realization and despair. Instead, exhaustion had set in once more, leaving him with that horribly familiar look of emptiness and guilt. She would have preferred he go back to being angry, rather than looking as though he had no strength left in his soul.

"t-tori… i… oh god… i…" His legs wobbled and then abruptly gave out beneath him.

As before, the sight triggered her instincts enough that she broke through the layers of shock that had left her practically frozen. Rushing forward, she caught him before he could fall down completely. As she held him close, their gazes met again and they both seemed to be fully pulled from their encompassing thoughts and back into the present.

She could see as well as feel that there was a terrible warring of emotions behind the expression twisting his now dark sockets. Some part of him wanted to launch into a wave of apologies equally passionate as his ranting before. Another part though, showed some tiny, miniscule glimmer of hope, some spark of relief that someone had believed him and finally knew some fraction of what he'd been enduring alone for so long. Neither side could seem to win over enough to push him to keep talking, and only succeeded in bringing tears to his sockets. She was astounded, that even now, he still fought them back and didn't let them fall.

"i'm s-so sorry… I'm so s-sorry…" he rasped out at last, indicating which side had finally claimed him. "oh god…" He covered his face with his hands again, shaking to the point that she had to tighten her grip on him to keep him steady.

His lack of an answer to her earlier question did not phase her. Even though there were, in that moment, perhaps endless things she wanted to say, to ask, but her mouth couldn't seem to form words. Everything she had previously believed about her world, her entire existence, now felt up to question. She struggled not to let this new terrifying reality that was settling in keep her from being there for her friend. If how she was feeling just from this newfound knowledge was any indication, she wasn't sure she could even comprehend the scope of her friend's true suffering.

All she could do for the moment was hold him close and fight to keep her composure. The air was filled with the sound of his broken, frantic apologies. She could not reply, but she hoped her tight embrace and the feelings flowing from her soul would be enough to soothe him in time. For beyond all the existential terror and rekindled grief that gripped her, he would find no trace of hatred or disgust, only agonized sympathy on his behalf.

"i shouldn've e-ever… d-dumped this on you l-like that." He croaked, after managing to gain back some coherency.

"goddamn it… i c-can't believe i just… t-tori please say something… please... t-tell me you are still…" He trailed off with another curse and she felt damp spots forming where he had hidden his face against her shoulder.

His pleas sent terrible stabs of pain to her soul, and were enough to drive her to attempt to speak again. With some effort, she managed, but her voice only came out as a hoarse rasp at first. She cleared her throat and found more success with her second attempt.

"I… I am…f-" She stopped. Her mouth had worked this time, but the words she had intended to speak were nothing but lies. There was nothing fine about this situation and they both knew it. What could she say then? What could anyone say…?

"I… I understand…" Was what she eventually uttered, when her mind could offer her nothing else.

Sans seemed to accept that answer though, relief at hearing her voice again clearly felt from his soul. Still, more tears escaped his attempts at withholding them, silently disappearing into the fabric of her nightgown.

"i'm so sorry t-tori…" He repeated, as he had so many times. "I didn't mean to l-lose it like that… it wasn't s-supposed to happen like this."

She was once more at a loss for words, but she had to say something. The conversation had to continue, lest the shock and horror drag her back into numbness again.

"It is… n-not your fault." She managed between shaky breaths. "Clearly, this has been… t-tormenting you, my friend… for so long... and… I… can see why…"

Her head swam, but she steadied herself again by clutching him tight. Sans gripped at her in response, seeming to sense her weakening grip on her own composure. It was almost comical, the idea of him trying to support her if she did faint. Surely, she'd smoosh him. If there was any space in her mind for humor at the moment, perhaps she would have felt faintly amused.

"h-hey, easy…" he said through a watery sniff. "i know it's… a l-lot to take in and i seriously didn't help things… just… breathe okay? st-stay with me here…"

She was too out of it to even see the irony of him attempting to use her own words to help ground her. The only thing she could do was listen to him and just… breathe. In through her nose and out through her mouth. Slowly. She could handle this. It was beyond anything she could have imagined, and it was surely tearing at her very sanity, but… she could handle this. She had to handle this. She had to know. That sentiment kept her wits about her and soon enough she was able to focus again.

She eased herself back a bit, now mindful of how much she'd been leaning on him. He slowly pulled back too, seeming to be watching her carefully. Their gazes met, and she found that his white eyelights had returned, if only faintly. The sight of the tears still spilling from his sockets tempered any real relief she could have felt from that though. She drew a final steadying breath before speaking once again.

"Sorry… I… I should be okay now…" She croaked, not sure just how much of a lie it was.

Sans looked like he wished to reply, but it seemed that now he was the one struck silent. He just gave her a small nod and rubbed at his eye sockets with a hand against another wave of tears. It was surprising how quickly he could get them to stop, even in his fragile poor state of mind. She couldn't give much attention to that though. Questions she'd forced from the forefront of her mind made themselves known again, burning on the tip on her tongue until she had to say something.

"Sans… m-may I ask you a few more questions?" She asked, willing her voice to be gentle again.

He kept his head down but nodded without hesitation, though she noticed his faint trembling worsened slightly. She silently offered him her paw as she had before and felt faintly glad when he once again accepted the gesture. He looked grateful for it now more than ever, squeezing it tight as he set his jaw against another harsh wave of emotion. She idly began to stroke his hand in the same, now familiar, rhythmic manner as she tried to parse through her spiraling thoughts and choose something to focus on.

Where to even begin?

"So… I…" She started eventually, going with the first thought she could give focus. "I have lived through these… "timelines"… and have forgotten everything from them?"

The question was so pitiful, like she was a child repeating something they'd just been told. But she felt she needed to hear it again, if she were ever to begin fully accepting it. Sans showed no signs of exasperation for it though, nodding as he worked up the strength to reply. He dropped his free hand back into his lap, his sockets mostly dry for the moment.

"yah…" He replied weakly. "every time o-one of the anomalies reset, you and every other monster lose your memories… though you all seem to k-keep enough of something from them to get that deja-vu feeling you were talking about. i've never been a-able to figure out how or why that is…"

She gulped, letting his words drive the point home. True acceptance would surely take some time, but she did feel this new great burden settle over her soul, no longer pushed away by denial. The claws on her free paw curled into her knee. Her next words left her before she could even think about them.

"But you do not lose them…" She continued in his stead, voice heavy. "you… you keep your memories…all of them."

Sans stiffened, skull sinking further. But he still gave a single small nod.

That was it. The thing that had been causing his carefully hidden despair all this time. The thing that plunged him into night terrors every time the sun went down, the reason for his obvious depression, the core source of his struggles that she'd wanted to discover so badly. Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined anything that came close to this.

She wanted to inundate him with attempted comfort, anything and everything she could offer. But what good would it do it in the face of something so beyond words? There was nothing she could say or do that could make this any better. If what he'd said was true… and as she swore to believe it was, she was just as powerless as he was. That harrowing realization on top of how much her bringing it up had caused him to tense up again, led her to decide to let the issue be for now. Once she was in a better state of mind, she would see to finding some way of approaching it.

For the moment, she, on a whim, leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. With how much her world seemed to be coming undone around her, her previous reservations on such displays of affection hardly registered at all. She also lifted her free paw to cup the side of his skull, pulling him just a little closer. Her soul did most of the "talking", carrying all the compassion and sorrow she felt on his behalf. But she did manage to share some quiet words as well, escaping her as little more than a whisper.

"I am so so very sorry my friend… please… just remember, you are not alone in this anymore… Thank you for telling me, for trusting me. I cannot imagine how hard it was for you."

All of it prompted the skeleton to shake anew as well as caused his diligent repression of tears to be ruined once more. But his soul answered back to her own, and in it she felt a powerful, sweeping sense of relief. Something had eased inside him, granted it was small and very hesitant, but it still brought a true spark of hope to both of them. There was still much he had yet to tell, but the gravity of the step he'd taken was not lost on her.

They stayed that way for a bit, taking what comfort they could from the other's presence. He leaned into her touch a bit, nearly letting his sockets fall totally shut. She tenderly used her thumb to swipe away the fresh surge of tears from his face until they ceased again. It took him longer than before to regain control of his emotions and even longer to get himself to stop trembling. Eventually though, both of them felt a fair bit calmer as they recognized the fact that one of the biggest hurdles was now behind them. They both sat back again in order to meet the other's gaze properly.

"th-thanks tori…" He wheezed after a bit, gripping her paw a little tighter. She understood it as a thanks for everything, in place of all the words he wished to say but couldn't.

"You are… most welcome my friend." She replied softly, tensing a bit as the returning weight of all she'd just heard returned to her.

Sans blinked up at her, expression softening by degrees.

"i… i know you still have questions." He rasped. "god, i-i can only imagine, h-heh… so, go ahead, i-it seems to work out better this way..."

She worried her lip with her fangs a bit, eyeing his exhausted, miserable form warily.

"Are you sure? You have put yourself through a lot to tell me this… Do you not wish to rest for a while?"

A hoarse wheeze of a chuckle met her words and he gave her paw another squeeze.

"i'll make do, at least for a b-bit longer. it would be real shitty of me to give you an e-existential crisis, expect to you b-believe in it all, and then not even explain anything further…" He said, a small, strained smile working its way across his face.

Hesitation still gripped her tight, but the truly insistent questions hammering at her subconscious eventually led her to give in.

"Very well, but feel free to stop me anytime." She replied softly.

She tapped the claws of her free paw against her knee, thinking hard. It didn't take her long to settle on what to ask first, casting her thoughts back to their earliest meetings. The days when he was only a voice behind a door.

"Sans… if you have been living through these… these "resets"… does that mean that the first time we met at the Ruins door was not actually… the first time we met?" She asked, scarlet eyes glassy.

His eyelights wavered but he did not drop his gaze, only gave her a small nod and let his poor excuse of a grin fall.

"yah… it was actually the fifth time, if my shit memory s-serves…"

Toriel felt her soul clench and a bitter chill run down her spine. The fifth? Five times? That day where she'd first heard him knocking on the door, that day she remembered so fondly, it had already happened five times before?

"H-how…?" She stuttered, before forcing evenness into her voice again. "How did you act so convincingly? I never suspected once that you already knew me… You seemed so genuine with everything you did. Your jokes, your questions, the stories you told me… You never gave an indication that-"

She stopped, a memory coming back to her with a jolt. The memory that arguably had started her entire mission of finding some way of helping her friend in the first place.

heh… you told that one last time…

All of sudden, that odd comment of his that had haunted her for so long, finally made perfect sense. She had told the joke he was referring to in another "timeline" that she could not remember, but he could. It made her mind reel with instinctual denial, but she knew it was the truth. There was no other explanation. She looked down at him with wide eyes and covered her mouth with her free paw. That expression quickly melted into despair on his behalf once more.

"guess you're remembering o-one of the times i slipped up back then, huh?" He asked, lowering his gaze momentarily.

"i'm sorry if it makes you s-sad to hear… but i was kinda just… repeating what i'd said during previous timelines, stuff i knew would help rebuild o-our friendship every time. course, you always did find some way to surprise me… heh."

He paused for a moment, eyelights showing a faint spark of warmth as he met her gaze again.

"at the p-point i was at when i first met you, i never sought out any new friendships… what w-was the point if they were just going to forget me come the next reset, y'know? i only gave any effort towards my bro, and sometimes those who knew me long enough to not be affected… but even that w-was pretty damn rare."

His grip on her paw tightened a little, and the lightest bit of a cyan blush colored his cheekbones.

"but… when i first met y-you by chance… I found that i just couldn't keep that up. as much as it h-hurt to have to reintroduce myself to you each time, i kept coming back. you w-were just… i dunno… so great… spending time with you took my mind off at a-all and eventually i realized that i really cared about ya… in a way i hadn't cared for someone besides my bro in a l-long, long time. i couldn't stand the idea of losing your friendship. and that's no small feat for me. so i made myself go through with it every r-reset… even if, admittedly, it took longer to get myself to do it each time."

Eyelights dimming again, he lowered this gaze to his lap and shame crept into his voice.

"this l-last one was… real hard for me... i almost gave up… i was just so tired and the idea of having to go through it all again was so overwhelming. but thank the stars i did… because it wasn't too long after that, that uh… a n-new anomaly replaced the old one, and the reset point w-was moved up to the moment they fell. that meant us knowing each other, and everything else before then, was set in stone and couldn't be erased. only what came after. More r-resets came from the new anomaly of course, but i never had to totally start over with you again."

He trailed off after that, faint grin uncertain as he forced himself to meet her eyes.

"sorry… k-kinda rambled there. did you understand all that?" He asked.

Toriel blinked, still processing all she'd just heard. She was surprised to find that, despite everything, a bit of warmth had returned to her soul. His words had been soul-crushing, but to hear just how much their bond meant to him, that he would be willing to play out their first meeting so many times just to keep it intact… It was enough to bring tears to her eyes, though she was sure not to let her emotions get away with her. Not now. That last part he'd said carried with it implications that chilled her to the bone, but, perhaps a touch selfishly, she focused on the part that had returned some levity to her soul.

"Y-yes… I understood it, my friend." She said, pausing to wipe at her eyes with her sleeve. "I am… so very glad you kept deciding to knock on my door. I am touched, truly."

The tiny smile on his face widened ever so slightly at that and his sockets eased shut for a moment.

"yah… i'm glad i did too…"

The warmth that the turn of conversation brought them was short lived, but still very much appreciated. As expected though, the oppressive veil of her newly altered perception of reality didn't take long to envelop her again. She wasn't sure she'd be able to fully escape it for quite some time.

A few minutes passed before another question rose in her throat, this one chilling her soul with grief.

"Sans if… if the humans could… "reset" … why did they not escape the underground…? Why did they all… die? You said they could go back at will, yes? R-redo things if they needed to… If that is the c-case, then… why?"

She was unable to keep her voice from shaking again, though she was careful to keep it from worsening beyond that. Sans looked up at her briefly with sympathy in the pale lights of his eyes, then lowered his gaze downwards again.

"i… i don't know…" he replied quietly. "i never met an anomaly who died for good like they did. i can only guess but… maybe they just… gave up at some point? maybe they tried and tried and still couldn't find a way out that worked for them, maybe they couldn't reset after death or… maybe didn't know how? i'm really sorry tori… i don't have a good answer."

Toriel felt as though her soul was being squeezed, and was unable to keep a few more tears from running down into her fur on her cheeks. Beyond the mournful sorrow his words brought out, they also reignited her feelings of shock.

'Th-the huma- or… um… anomalies as you say, they c-could come back from death with this power?" She croaked, eyes wide.

Sans stiffened a bit, expression tightening.

"damn… uh… guess i failed to mention that huh?" He said with a sigh, rubbing at his skull with his free hand. "figures, i've been utter shit at handling this…"

When she didn't respond to his comment, he just replied to her question with another slow nod.

"yah, they can. or at least the two i dealt with directly… they definitely could… and did… many times."

He paused, eyelights going fuzzy at the edges as it seemed he was becoming lost in his memories. The pale lights wavered slightly with what looked like fear, and she could feel the emotion radiating from his soul as well. It took a while for him to continue.

"though, both of their situations were pretty unusual… flowey being what he is, and frisk, well- "

He abruptly cut himself off, eyelights shrinking to pinpricks as those names escaped him. He clamped a hand over his mouth and shrank back from her, beginning to sweat profusely. The room suddenly felt ice cold.

Toriel couldn't say anything, the full weight of it all bearing down on her without mercy. Deep down, she'd known. She'd figured it out. The clues had been everywhere. But she had done what she could to deny it or not think about it. There was no way to do either of those things now. The ones who had tormented her friend so terribly, scarred him so deeply, were the two children she cared for. Her beloved human child Frisk and the mysterious flower monster Flowey.

Despite that realization fully taking hold, her mind still whirled to find some way his words could be false, hoping against all odds he could somehow be mistaken or that she had misheard. But his expression said it all, and any lingering doubt she could have clung to shriveled and died. It felt as though her soul was truly about to break.

She could only sit there, frozen, as hot tears welled and poured down her face. In the blur of colors her vision became, her mind conjured the image of Frisk, smiling sweetly up at her. Her child was so kind, so considerate, so full of empathy and compassion. How could they be responsible for resetting their world again and again? How could they erase everyone's memories and knowingly put Sans through something so traumatizing? And worse… Sans had mentioned timelines where he died, where everyone died. Those were his exact words. Meaning that Flowey almost certainly, and even Frisk, had… had…

"t-tori… tori listen t-to me okay…" Sans voice met her ears, but he sounded far away.

She didn't move, eyes still glazed over. It was only when she felt his phalanges curl around her cheeks and gently lift her face to meet his gaze did she snap back to reality.

"toriel…"

She blinked, vision clearing ever so slightly. In all the time they'd known each other, he had never called her by her full name. She was always "tori" a nickname she loved ever so dearly. But there was something about hearing him call her that… and it was impactful enough to distract from the roaring of her inner thoughts. Her eyes re-focused, giving him her full attention.

"listen, f-frisk is not a bad kid." He insisted, pale eyelights wavering. "they did some bad things, some really, really bad things. but they are just a kid tori, n-no kid should ever be given the kind of power they have. they can't be expected to always make the right choices, no matter how good-natured they are. that kind of power is corrupting, it makes them feel like nothing they do h-has real consequences. that detachment mixed with curiosity is like a poison. and on top of all that..."

He trailed off briefly and she could feel the fear in his soul spike again.

"there's something in the k-kid's head tori… something that talks to them… i… i… can't explain it but they aren't… alone… i think it's why they had an easier time getting through the underground than the others…"

His grip tightened faintly and he shook his head, clearly trying to refocus.

"anyway, the point is, deep down frisk is a good kid. they regret all the bad shit they did, they've told me so a million times, bawling their eyes out and promising me they'd never r-reset again. all that. they really do love us, and knew the best way to free everyone by the end of it all. they knew the path to the best outcome. and even the bad things they did had some level of u-understandable intent. they wanted to know everything there was to know about our world… in order to help that… that flower…"

His words cut off again as he had to stop to, in a metaphorical sense, "catch his breath." His chest heaved and he stared into her eyes, clearly searching for her reaction. She could only blink back at him, absorbing his words and letting the newfound knowledge fall into place with everything else.

"Flo…wey?" She heard herself say, despite not truly intending to speak aloud.

The skeleton nodded, clearly relieved to hear her voice again. Though the mention of the flower summoned yet another sudden pulse of fear from him though, dulling his expression quickly. He loosened his grip on her head, letting his hands go mostly limp but keeping them in place.

"yah… that flower… h-he's…h-h-he's…" He grit his teeth, sweating even more.

There was an odd mix of fear, guilt and even… pity? sympathy? in the lights of his eyes as he looked at her. If it were possible for a skeleton to appear pale, he certainly would have at that point. Eventually though, he released all the breath he was holding as a heavy sigh and shook his head.

"n-no… it's not my place to tell you…. i'm sorry… that kid is real hard to understand or g-get along with… but there is a reason frisk sees good in him. and as much as i may have my… serious issues with him… he has a right to h-his secrets too… th-that's all i can tell you. i'm sorry."

With that, he gave her a long, terribly sad look before stepping forward and wrapping his arms around her neck in a tight embrace. It took a long time, but eventually, in an almost robotic manner, she returned the hug, slipping her arms around him. He, likely subconsciously, ran his phalanges through the fur on the back of her neck as he spoke again.

"sorry f-for sounding like a major hypocrite…" He began, voice weak. "but… d-don't give up on those two because of this, okay?"

That drew her out of her shocked state a little more, long ears turning slightly to listen better. Her near-hysteric thoughts went quiet for the moment and her friend's voice became the only sound of importance.

"the love you've shown them has m-made a difference, more so than you'll ever know. especially with frisk. y-you were the only one who was willing to go against the king and show the kiddo kindness from the moment they fell. no one else was even half as brave to do something like that. if it weren't for y-you, i woulda never given them a chance either…"

She blinked, and her scarlet eyes softened. His words stirred that small spark of warmth within her once more. Something about hearing such honest compliments from him as before helped her regain her composure. She was vaguely aware of the fact the tears had stopped too. All her attention remained on him though, as he was quick to keep talking.

"despite everything, the kiddo carried all that kindness you gave them, they never forgot. it was a big part of why they chose to free everyone in the end, because they had gained love, and it all started with you. i t-told em as much whenever i saw them… take care of yourself kid… because someone really cares about you."

He said that last part with a bit of fondness to his tone. It died quickly though as it seemed the true nature of the conversation hit him again. A sudden shudder from him prompted Toriel to give him a gentle squeeze in response. His soul reflected his momentary surprise at her actions, likely thinking she was still too out of it to pick up on his unease. Relief replaced the surprise tinging his magic, but he still took a while longer before he spoke again.

"just… don't let this destroy all that." He said at last, voice weak. "i kn-know you won't but... i still feel like i h-had to say it… you're the best mother those kids could have, r-remember that, okay?"

With that entreat, it suddenly felt as though her soul was in her throat. He'd said something similar before, but it hit harder this time, perhaps due to her poor state of mind. The gratitude she felt for it was the same though, cutting through the fog within her mind and giving her the strength to speak again.

"I… I w-would never t-turn away from them… I promise…" She rasped, her voice carrying with it, fittingly, a faint spark of determination. "and… t-thank you... Sans… I… just… thank you…"

Saying that last part nearly brought back the tears, but she had the mental clarity again to quell her emotions to a manageable level. Sans tightened his grip on her in reply, voice dropping until it was barely above a whisper.

"y-you're welcome t…"

They stayed wrapped up in that embrace for some time after that, totally silent apart from the soft, shaky sound of their breathing. Toriel's mind could only parse so much of the new information that it had absorbed. Everything had fallen into place within it, all of it had been accepted as true, but giving any one element focus was far too much for her thoroughly exhausted mind.

Part of her wanted to collapse into sleep, but the lingering shock and terror clawing at the edges of her thoughts kept her wide awake. She sorted through what she could, drawing strength from the presence of her friend's nearby soul. It went on that way until Sans eventually carefully released her and stepped back to meet her eyes.

In many ways, he looked to be a mirror for how she felt. Exhaustion and despair were clear in his expression, with little to no effort to mask it on his part. The aspect that differed from her however, was that under all of that, there was that same feeling of relief she'd picked up on earlier. Telling her all this had taken lifted some of the enormous weight off of his fragile soul at long, long last. He clearly wasn't letting himself put too much stock in it, but the effect it had on him was just significant enough to be noticed.

That weight had to go somewhere though, and she had been the willing listening ear happy to take it on. Now that it was there on her own soul though, and so much more severe, so much more personally devastating than she could have imagined, she found it much harder to find any reason for relief. It was only happiness for her friend's sake and the fact that the worst of it likely now laid behind them, that brought her soul any fraction of peace.

Sans noticed her sad state she was in, clear in the way the pale, wavering lights of his eyes looked upon her. He sighed softly and wrapped his arms around himself as that faint spark of relief was dulled by guilt and remorse. She felt terrible for making him feel so bad about all this. None of it was his fault after all, and how he had not been driven mad by keeping all this to himself, she didn't know. She had gathered what little strength she could muster to try and reassure him about his actions, but he spoke up again before she could.

"tori… you probably need some time to process all this… hell, i think we both do, heh…" He rasped, gripping at the ulnas of his arms tightly.

He looked down at himself and grimaced a bit before giving her a terribly weak excuse for a grin.

"i should probably go shower before anything else though… i've uh… kinda sweat through my shirt at this point, heh… which is pretty gross… even for me."

His vain attempt at humor fell flat, but it still stirred some of that faint warmth in her soul once again. And indeed, he did look like a mess, as she was sure she did as well. He met her eyes again, expression uncertain.

"you… gonna be okay with that? i'll try and make it quick but… i totally get if you don't want to be alone right now."

The question gave her brief pause, but though it took her a moment, she settled decidedly on her answer. Truthfully, she was rather fearful about what would happen when she was left with only her thoughts. But part of her also felt she needed it, if she was going to make any headway in getting over the shock of it all. On top of that, she could tell he was likely feeling the same way. She gave him a weak nod.

"That is fine, my friend…take all the time you need. I should… probably do the same to be honest…" She admitted, internally noting how mussed and unkempt her fur had become.

Before she lingered on that thought too long though, she met his eyes with a touch of seriousness again.

"But Sans… I just… I just want to ensure that you know… You should not feel guilty about telling me all this. It is… v-very painful to hear obviously… and it's… probably going to take me a while to recover from… but I will in time, and we will get through this, my friend. None of what you told me was your fault… and you will not have to deal with this alone going forward… alright?"

It wasn't one of her best speeches. In fact, it was downright dismal… but she felt her current state excused that if nothing else. Still, Sans' expression softened at her words, and she even thought she may have seen a hint of tears welling in his sockets again.

"y-yah… th-thanks tori…" He croaked.

She could tell he wasn't being fully honest with how much he agreed with her, but the sentiment behind her words had obviously meant a lot to him. The terrible guilt in his eyelights had lessened by degrees, and that was honestly the best she could hope for right now.

"be b-back in a bit." He said in a quieter voice before disappearing in a bright blue flash.

It took Toriel a while after that to get herself to move off the bed. Now alone, her panicked thoughts had attempted to return with a vengeance, but she had built up enough willpower to keep them from overwhelming her again. Even if it was a painful process, her soul was adjusting to all the new, devastating knowledge that she now carried. She could handle this… She just needed to take it slow.

In just that fashion, she eased herself over the edge of her bed and got to her feet. The usually short walk to her bathroom felt like it took an eternity, and she had to brace herself against the wall at one point to keep herself steady. Eventually she did manage to reach it, twisting the shower knob to start the water and leaning lightly on the counter as she got herself out of her nightgown. The moments she caught her reflection in her bathroom mirror as she did so were somehow even worse than the previous night. She may be immortal, but in that moment, she looked far closer to the ancient, decrepit age she should have been… would have been, had her son been alive.

She shook herself from those thoughts as she stepped into the shower, knowing that surely if she let herself get worked up over her old grief on top of these new shattering revelations, she may very well suffer some sort of mental break. No, she needed to be a bit guarded with her emotions for a while, until she had sufficiently ridden out the shock at least. She stepped under the stream of water and tried to imagine it could somehow wash away all her misery the way it washed the grimy feeling from her fur. It, of course, did no such thing.

She stayed in the shower for a long time. Granted, that wasn't that unusual, as it was rather necessary for one to take lengthy showers when one was a monster covered in fur, white fur no less. Still, this felt long even for her. Her movements were sluggish as she washed and once she'd finished she found herself sitting against the shower wall with her knees pulled to her chest. Try as she might, she couldn't keep the wretched thoughts swirling within her at bay completely.

Her vow she'd made at the start of all this came back to her, to find out whatever ailed her friend no matter the cost. She'd made such an effort to prepare herself for anything he could possibly say, and after what he'd said about Gaster, the reason for his creation and the terrible abuse he'd suffered during his childhood, she had truly thought she was ready for anything. But she wasn't sure anyone could have been prepared to hear what he had revealed to her. Truly, it was no wonder her friend was as deeply tormented and slow to trust as he was… The fact he wasn't much, much worse off, the fact he could be so good at keeping up such a convincing act all this time… that was the true marvel.

And now… she had to carry that same burden as well. Her promise to secrecy meant that she would have to learn to be careful with her words, just as he was, to keep from giving any signs she was keeping such a secret. She'd have to never utter the words reset or timeline to anyone besides him, as they alone were left to bear this dreaded knowledge. This shared burden. Well them… as well as Frisk and Flowey…

She shivered, despite the warm water thoroughly soaking her fur. The haunting actions of the two children she cared for that her friend had implied to her came back in a rush. Once she was sure she could withstand the distress the thoughts brought her, she allowed herself to think on it while she could. Should she… confront them? Make them explain themselves? Hear their side of the story? Could she even go through with such a thing? All these questions spun through her head with no answer in sight. But another quickly joined them, one that truly made her feel chilled to her soul.

What if Frisk reacted badly to the idea of her knowing? What if it was enough to drive them to… reset? All of this could be taken from them, from everyone, and she wouldn't even know it had happened at all…

In that moment, she realized she was feeling but a fraction of the terrors her friend faced every single day, and had been facing for stars knows how long…

It was only then she allowed herself to weep again, salty tears mixing with the water from the showerhead above. Her body shuddered with restrained sobs as she wept for her friend's unimaginable suffering, her own torments old and new, her now corrupted view of the child she loved, and everything else that came with her newly shattered worldview.

She wasn't sure how long it had taken, but when the crying fit finally released its grip on her and she regained some level of composure, she shakily stood and turned off the water. It was strange but, she did feel a little better. Just enough that she was able to keep her mind quiet once more as she dried her fur with a controlled swirl of fire magic and changed into a comfortable, lilac colored robe. She trudged slowly back to her room after that, pausing in place as she reached the foot of her bed. The two warring sides of her mind began their squabbling again in earnest.

Part of her wanted to collapse back into the sheets and try to find sleep once more, if only to escape from all this for a while as well as ease her exhaustion. But the other side, arguably much more persistent, told her there was no way she'd be able to relax enough to sleep for a while yet. Not with everything going on in her head. If her everyday worries gave her chronic insomnia, it was true foolishness to think she'd be able to avoid it now. But what to do instead? Her instincts told her to go bury herself in mindless chores to distract herself for a while. Though remembering that Sans intended to return to her room kept her paws rooted in place. She certainly felt she needed to be here when he got back.

Settling on that, she began to move to sit on the edge of the bed to wait for him, but paused as a sound met her ears. It was faint, but as she twitched her long ears towards the direction it came from, it became clear what it was. The other shower was still running across the house, the one between Sans' room and Papyrus' room. Looks like both of them were taking extra-long showers in lieu of all this. That thought brought a bittersweet feeling to her soul, not sure how she should take the fact that they were proving to be more and more alike in many ways.

Another feeling welled up within her, and although it was an odd time for it to come to her, she accepted it far more easily now. She knew Sans had and probably still worried that sharing all of this with her would drive her to hate him, despite her continual reassurances. And in retrospect, she could understand those fears, given the world shattering nature of it all and the connections that his trauma had to her personally. But he couldn't have been more wrong. As she had predicted, this had not driven her apart from him. If anything… she felt closer to him than ever and that feeling burned passionately inside her even more so than before.

She had little time to reflect on that small spark of warmth though. For as she ruminated in those thoughts, they were abruptly cut off. A startlingly loud crashing sound practically shook through the house… and it had come from the same direction where she knew Sans was.

Before she even realized it, she was already running.