Alphys scurried across the outskirts of the road, bouncing over puddles and tromping right through others as her breaths came in labored gasps. She had not run this fast in ages, her legs were burning with effort, her throat dry despite the current weather. She skipped along the sidewalk, twisting another corner, her stomach twisting along with the motion; afraid that with every rounded corner, and forked road she was sure to forget the way she had come. Forget the way back. Forget, so that she hadn't ran off to get Undyne, that she had abandoned her friend. She had abandoned Sans, now anything that happened would be her fault. She let out a sob, adding a tightness to the soreness of her throat so she felt more and more miserable as the water finally soaked through her thin improvised jacket, and through her undershirt. Soaking her to the bone. How fitting.

Alphys tripped on her own feet, her features twisting in instant dread as she plunged. Before she could taste the gritty pavement, a scaly hand jerked out, catching her by the shoulders. Alphys tumbled into her with the left-over inertia from her fall, ramming one of her head spikes into her stomach. Undyne didn't even wince, probably those rock-hard abs at work.

"Alphys?! Why are you running so hard, did you find that alley Sans was in?" Undyne asked, grabbing one of her shoulders and pulling her away from her torso so she could make eye contact with the short lizard. Alphys's face screwed up, her eyes averting to the ground, distraught.

"Undyne…" Alphys' eyes filled with tears for some reason, causing Undyne to grit her teeth, her gaze sharpening.

"What happened?" Undyne asked, her voice hard and more commanding than she would like it to be. But it was just a habit, her captain like reflexes kicking in.

"It's Frisk! Frisk-F But sh-she… U-Undyne… sh-she…" Alphys had started to tremble in her grip, her shoulders hitching with hiccups.

"You found Frisk!? Where was she?" Undyne interrogated sharply, trying to bury her initial shock and relief at the info. She shifted the umbrella she was holding to her other hand, pressing Alphys into her only slightly damp sweater in a calming manor, knowing she was usually more likely to speak clearly if she was being comforted. Alphys shuddered into her, struggling for a second, before easing back into her reluctantly, not reciprocating the half-hug. Undyne rubbed her back, but Alphys seemed to be in a hurry, not exactly appreciating the comforting as much as she habitually would. Frisk had been missing for weeks now, nobody had seen her up until this point. Undyne could barely stand wondering what she had been doing all this time, alone and parentless, probably more scared by their deaths than anybody else. Undyne sneered. She would make whoever did that to that poor kid suffer.

"N-No Undyne you don-don't understand!" Alphys scrambled in her arms, surprising undyne mildly.

"Alphys, please, I need you to tell me," Undyne prompted her, gazing into her eyes pointedly.

"U-Undyne! She killed somebody! S-Sans is still there!" Alphys clenched her eyes shut, yelling the words like she had finally managed to get them out, renewed tears streaming from her eyes as she buried her head into her hands, sobbing and shaking in the rain seemingly unaffected.

Undyne went quiet, her grip faltering so the only thing keeping her arms around Alphys was Alphys herself. Alphys escaped her easily, frantically looking around as though if she stayed any longer something terrible might happen. "P-Please Undyne! I-I don't want to l-lose…" She gulped, eyes averting to the wet sidewalk. "I don't want to lose somebody else..." She slumped, her stout form hugging itself into a small little ball of weakness.

The silence that followed alongside the rain was deafening. It wasn't the silence itself that was heavy, it was the source of the silence that was. Undyne felt her lip curl, her teeth clenching, creaking against each other in their infinite sharpness. "What." the sound was guttural and infused with hatred. Undyne's face was tilted towards the ground, but the tight grimace that stretched across her face was clear in the black of the night against the street-lamps. Her hands were clenched, her fins drooping downwards with her glare.

The unspoken truth that came with what Alphys had just said was clear. Clear as fucking crystal.

Undyne's face snapped up, her expression screwed up in anger. She roared the betrayal out, summoning a spear to her hand and plunging it into the ground. The spear connected with a puddle and ran straight through the pavement underneath, sparks flying from the contact.

"Come on Alphys, it's time I finally return the favour for the murder of Toriel and Asgore Dreemurr!" She snarled, her teeth stuck clenched in an unnatural smile. Alphys nodded weakly, reacting little as the fish woman started running in the direction she came from, dragging Alphys by the hand.

When they finally rounded the last corner, they were greeted by an empty alleyway. The lights from the surrounding establishments had been snuffed out. Bars were present on many of their windows, and chain locks secured to their doors. A muffled tune and the light sound of laughter was distant, originating from the main road where most of the successful businesses were nestled. leftover water droplets bounced against the puddles on the ground, falling from the roofs of the narrow fitting buildings. Luckily, the rain had ceased, but the remnants remained rendering the city soggy and miserable.

Alphys sagged, her heart dropping. A small pile of gritty dust was the only indicator that anything had happened in the alley. Alphys gulped. The dog monster who'd attacked them had fully disintegrated into dust, he must've not eaten much human food. Probably one of those monster nationalists - they weren't exactly a violent bunch - but this one had been alcohol addled. Alphys pitied the pile of dust, and the monster it had been only an hour earlier. Nobody would find his dust, most of it was already spread across the street, or flooding down the gutter. This monster would become one with nothing but dingy sewer water, and the soles of the people who unknowingly trample his remains.

Undyne was dead silent. Alphys likened her to her earlier state, stricken silent and stock still, but unable to break that composure so carefully kept. The fish lady's fins turned street-wards, the only physical cue that anything was amiss to her in that moment stood next to Alphys watching the dust muddy further.

"Was that..?" Undyne asked quietly, turning towards her companion with a look that pleaded it to be contrary.

Alphys melted at the look, eager to supply the words that would wipe away that dread from the warrior's face. "No! No! T-There was another monster here with us, he was attacking Sans and me when I got here- b-but… Frisk…." she trailed off, unable to complete the link, letting the syllables hang in the air for Undyne to pick apart in her mind.

Undyne's face contorted in thought, in anger. The name brought with it the most primal feelings the fish could feel. Animosity. The urge to return in full every ounce of pain and suffering dealt and then some. Confusion. How could a kid, a child, a twerp, have any capacity for murder in their soul, and how did it get there? Betrayal. Traitor, scum. A kid pretending to be their friend without even an ounce of regard, turns their back and kills their parents, kills the joy of living instilled in them, kills that which she had contributed to. Brings such happiness, only to rip it away without regret.

Undyne's shoulders released their tension, sighing lowly in relief at the lizard's info. With a moment more of silence, the snap in her shoulders returned abruptly, and the fish lady looked troubled again. Guilt. Another primal feeling, it guided the lilt of her grin as it sank. "That's a shame… About that monster." She offered, bowing her head respectfully to add her regards to the scarce amount he would receive if any, the dust was already washed away into thin murky trails. Alphys nodded solemnly, playing with the cuffs of her sleeves. Undyne and Alphys were the only funeral it was going to recieve, for its right to a proper ending had been stolen away from it the second that murderer had arrived. Stolen like so many others had been by her hand. Stolen like happiness, as hapiness so often is.

"Where is that twerp anyway?!" Undyne snarled, tempering her rage to spare Alphys from her boiling seething hatred, to protect her from the lava burning inside her.

"I-I don't know sh-she was just here when I left, Sans told me to leave him- And… I did…" Alphys's 'doom and gloom' Undyne frequently called it, returned, the pity party smothering Undyne's style. "I left Sans. All alone. With no way of using his magic." Alphys listed, her arms hanging limply at her sides now, no longer preoccupied with picking at the cuffs of her jacket.

Undyne sensed her shift into Alphys shutdown mode, and made a quick effort to pull her out of it before she got too sucked in. "No, Alphys, it's not your fault! I can't let you believe you're to blame, when the only one at fault here feels no remorse!" Undyne protested, pulling the lizard out of her stupor, Alphys looked guilty, and her eyes were glistening with fresh tears. Undyne refused to accept this unwarranted guilt, Alphys who had done nothing amiss had no right in holding those tears in her eyes. Undyne grasped her shoulders firmly, tilting the lizard so she'd have to look her in the eye. "You came back didn't you? There was nothing you could have done for him if you had stayed, you'd only manage to get hurt too. Sans wouldn't have wanted that. And I damn right wouldn't want that." Undyne reassured her, pulling the lizard out of her pity pool, back into reality. "If anybody has to foot the blame, its Frisk" Undyne's voice hardened, catching the lizard's attention.

"And if she's hurt another one of my friends. She's going to pay."

DETERMINATION

"Wait… Undyne? You consider Sans your friend?" Alphys smiled despite the circumstances.

"Sh-Shut up Alphys." Undyne stuttered.

…...

Papyrus had found his car eventually. He and M.K wandered around like a pair of lost puppies, pitiable really. And he very much pitied the poor spooked kid. He had often found him lurking about near him, no doubt admiring his greatness. But the boy had been careless in his viewing of The Great Papyrus, and the cut on his neck proved it. Papyrus searched through the glovebox, procuring a band-aid from the very neatly kept and organized storage compartment.

"I HOPE YOU LIKE PANDA BEARS." Papyrus said, applying the patterned bandaid to his cut. "These ones are my favorite," Papyrus added, admiring his handy work. M.K nodded in agreement. "NOW THEN… I SUPPOSE WE SHOULD GET YOU HOME!" Papyrus proposed. Although he was against the idea of leaving Sans's guard and Frisk in the city, he couldn't advocate for the possibility of harm to an innocent. He would have to put his own needs behind him, case in point taking this poor trembling kid home to his parents.

M.K was abnormally silent the way to the given address. But then again it was to be expected from someone whom had been threatened at knife point by their best friend. An encouraging pat on the head, and a hasty explanation to his parents (minus any traumatic details) sent the kid on his way. Probably in for loads of spaghetti and pajama days ahead.

Papyrus drove slowly through the city streets before he could allow himself to return home, by any chance he might find the two individuals he had fled from. No such luck. It was rather dimly lit, and even a bit sinister, especially considering his boss's warning from earlier. But he tried to expel the fear, fear had no place within The Great Papyrus. For now, he would have to exercise his skill elsewhere, if helping the guard who had helped save that kid wasn't an option, he would have to be the one to inform his friends of… He would have to tell his friends, about Frisk. About how she had… been responsible for the recent… Golly this was going to be hard, if he couldn't even begin to admit it to himself!

But the more pressing issue was confronting Sans. His gut hurt, and he didn't even have one. Sans had been keeping things from him, every so often he could tell, in his eyes, in his odd and erratic behavior, but it was misleading sometimes. For every slight strain at the edges of his smile, he could remember a dozen more that looked entirely genuine. For every half hearted pun, a dozen more in-depth pranks affronted him. Honestly, Sans was a mixed basket, and Papyrus had just learned to live with it. Both the troubling bits he could never begin to confront his brother about, and the endearing bits that either provoked annoyance, or a fond smile.

Papyrus froze. His soul felt odd... Like, something was missing...

Just then, his whole body became cold.

It couldn't be...

…...

The dust was mingling with the puddles. Frisk paid it no regard, Sans paid it no regard.

The dust was forgotten as it mingled with the puddles. Frisk waited for him to lash out at her, but no such thing happened. Shame really, but she had planned on a little reunion chat before they got to play anyway.

"It's rather empty in this city." Frisk mused, wiping monster remains off her shoulder. There was little point to the gesture, the rest of her clothes were filthy anyway. "Do you like it, Sans?" She smirked at him. "I did it so you'd finally come out to play with me!"

"Don't you dare associate your sins with my name," Sans growled lowly, sending a shiver down her back.

"You have noticed, haven't you?" Frisk asked desperately, disappointed in herself. In him, angry at him the voice of LOVE chanted in her head.

"Where's Papyrus?" Sans ignored her. She didn't know if she liked that in his voice, the look in his eyes that was distanced and alien to her - She still saw the yellow burning with justice in his socket back at the judgement hall, the way he used to never show a shard of anger on his face, of anything except a permanent smile and his taunting words, even when she knew somewhere deep in him she had shattered his world. The first time around was a charm, but the skeleton was a different breed from the others - she hadn't noticed for ages, until the permanent smile was relinquished and Frisk could ponder the possibility that it had the potential to be temporary at all - yes, the skeleton was a different breed after all, but not so much different from her.

She... wasn't as alone as she was before then. Someone with a soul could remember, someone who wasn't just a reflection of her own desire, someone who could fight like nothing she'd ever seen before. Suppose she had the potential to feel fulfilled if she tried, but just as Sans's permanent grin being temporary, considering the possibility of it was baffling to her. Baffling… but not all that baffling if one thought it through, Sans was human after all. No pheraphs she should say monster. But however nice it did sound, it was a futile idea. Frisk could never settle, could never be satiated. No that's not true! Just because I have LOVE doesn't mean you can come and infect my mind with your crap! I can do whatever I want, I just have to… to fight Sans one last time at full strength…! She lied to herself. Stop GETTING IN MY WAY! You were supposed to be my partner Chara! And with that the spirit withdrew, leaving her to feel alone in her thoughts once more.

Good, it's better this way.

"Where's Papyrus?" Sans asked more forcibly. "I swear if you've killed him again-"

"You'll what? Kill me? Fight me for real maybe!?" Frisk teased watching the skeleton's reaction as his threats turned on him. "Maybe I should have! That might've been fun!" Frisk noticed him relax as she relinquished her leverage on him, the lilt of her smile tilting upward in an excited smirk. "Go on Sans! Tell me what my LOVE is!" She shouted, extending her arms in a welcoming manner.

That beautiful cyan orb flickered to life in his left socket, and Frisk felt it peer into her being, shivering a little even as she was expecting it. Sans' smile ebbed away in an emotion she couldn't sense but the nature of it wasn't helpless or afraid nor was it necessarily positive. "LV twenty-five, EXP eighteen thousand." He read out carefully, his voice full of that unidentifiable emotion. "I expected less," He sighed, weariness pulling at his voice.

"You… What?" Frisk stammered, fixing him with a dubious glare.

"Just sarcasm of course." He supplied, grinning tiredly as if he'd played some sort of prank on her. But Frisk still couldn't decipher if he had told the truth or not and was now thoroughly confused. "I know better than that, by now." He added gently.

Frisk stammered on her practised words, thrown off by Sans's little trick "T-There were a lot of people in this city." She said. "It's a little hard to overpower an adult human, but the amount of monsters in this city made it easy to-" Sans's expression made her stop abruptly. This was fine, she could work with this.

"Let's just get to the point," Sans's grin returned bitterly.

Frisk sneered, heat pumping through her ears and cheeks as she removed her knife from her waistband.

"My pleasure,"

The first few swings of her knife went smoothly. Sans dodged - Frisk immediately withdrew to get out of proximity of any underhanded tricks - like usual. But by the time she was tangled up in one or more swipes at a time she was starting to get frustrated. He was dodging her - in his usual unimpressed way - but the attacks on his end were stagnant.

"Come on Sans-y! Give me something!" Frisk struggled to beckon between another blow. Sans dodged to the side, grabbing her arm from behind her and disorienting her, nearly sending her sprawling to the ground, but she managed to right herself with nothing more than a harmless stumble. "Is that it?" Frisk asked, a little concerned. Was he playing her again? He had to be. Frisk could drag the fight out of him eventually. It usually apeared when he got desperate - at least it had on the darker runs. Those were the days the love told her; she agreed.

Sans knocked the breath out of her twice more, and her ribs were incredibly sore by the time she got a hit in herself. She never struggled with keeping him alive anymore, her intent to kill him had about gone ages ago. But he still hissed in pain as she rammed the butt of her knife into his ribs. He had dodged that one successfully, but his moves were too halfhearted to avoid her secondary strike. "What's this Sans? You can't dodge anymore?" Frisk wined, confused and disappointed by his depleted stamina. "Are you doing this out of spite? I don't understand why you refuse to use your magic, it's boring without it, you know." Frisk snapped at him irritably, beginning to hold contempt for the way he tried harder to dodge her instead of upgrading to holding her down with soul magic. He weaved quicker and more light-footed this time as she began to swing her knife madly, boldly hooking it through the air heavily enough that if it were to connect with him it would leave much more than a bruise. "If you don't use your magic, I'm going to cut you." Frisk stated, Sans's wary expression showed he thought so too.

Frisk had driven him into a corner, he couldn't spare the time to notice this as she swung again. This time the knife met its target. She thrust heavily, ripping through the soft material of his jacket and tearing through the outside edge of his ribcage. Sans in all his impressiveness, managed to keep his fragile balance, gasping and cursing under his breath. He clenched the wound with now bloodied fingers, glaring at her with impossibly piercing eyelights. "Maybe I won't beat you to death if you use your magic." Frisk deadpanned, aiming the butt of the knife for the other side of his ribcage. He dodged last second, stumbling around her and finally losing his balance - crashing to the ground.

Frisk turned, looking down at him with a sneer. "Why don't you? You realize you can't beat me barehanded when I've got a weapon, right?" Frisk glared right back down at him, white knuckling her fist around the dagger.

Sans huffed,"I don't think incapacitating myself trying will help my chances, either." Sans didn't even bother trying to get up from the street, his chest heaving heavily to regain lost breath. Sans gestured tiredly when her eyes demanded answers, drawing her attention to a bulky looking collar constricting around his neck.

We'll fix that

"Get up," Frisk demanded, but the real demand was embodied through another swipe of the knife. It shocked him enough that it grazed him as he scrambled to his feet.

With a regular oscillation of her knife; Sans became increasingly more uptight. His swift movements were hindered by his fresh wounds, he tripped, and stumbled around. Each blow she administered hit its mark, his spine, clavicle, ribcage, humorous, his ribs again. She slowly tired him out until he couldn't dodge even a feeble amount anymore. There might have been a purpose there earlier, but Frisk couldn't remember it very well anymore. She shoved the skeleton once more. He finally collapsed, his heavy breath had been replaced with hacking and wheezing.

Frisk slid her fingers against the glossy coating of her dagger, slipping the blade between two fingers to clear the metal of its red colored glaze. She leaned closer to Sans, barely registering the words that fumbled from his mouth. She traced the crudely cleaned knife against the collar fastened to his neck slowly, applying pressure to the now sparking metal. Sans's pleas had increased, Frisk ignored them. She could feel the electricity humming around her fingers as it traveled through her dagger, bursting with distressed magical energy fighting to escape the hold of the oppressive collar. Eventually, she heard the screams of the skeleton too, but her ears were pounding pounding pounding, covering up the sound but reassuring her that it was delightful. She agreed.

Her knife breached the metal and drew blood from the bone underneath. The screaming had stopped and his breathing had become almost imperceptible. Bright clouds of fizzing blue seemed to explode around them, grazing her cheeks, forearms, and calves, slicing her skin and clothes before it fizzed away entirely. Yellow and cyan flashed at nauseating speeds in Sans's socket, but just as the cloud had they dissolved too. All that remained were faint lights flickering weakly in his sockets, almost indiscernible in the sparse light.

Now that she thought about it, it was rather dark. The stars in the city sky were invisible, and the lights from the alley they had been fighting in had long since been extinguished. The night was chilly, and the biting wind snapped savagely at her cuts and bruises, rendering them raw and excruciating. Frisk's ribs were pounding and sore, and her vision hazy. She was a bloody mess. She was tired. Exhausted.

The haze of fury and rage boiled down, leaving her alone in the elements. She shivered, her teeth chattering and her bare arms ripe with goosebumps. She crouched, drawing her head into her knees for warmth. Frisk recalled earlier; the warmth she had felt when Sans had embraced her. She clenched her dusty and torn shirt, running her fingers along the coarse material and remembering the fluffy lining on Sans's coat. That had felt different. This was more familiar, but now that she had been exposed to the former scenario, the familiar one no longer felt bearable. All around… She felt…. Empty.

A small voice spoke up from somewhere in the back of her head, but this time Frisk didn't reject her friend. She felt a pang of sadness as the ghost kneeled beside her, enveloping her in a hug she could barely feel.'It's okay' she whispered, 'You're going to be okay now' She reassured. 'Just rest now Frisk, I'll relieve your burden' Frisk resigned easily.

…...

Sans tried to drag himself out of the alley, it was deserted and there was nobody around to spare him a glance. He called out for help -but nobody came. He gathered up his coat, wrapping himself in it and struggling to his feet. Blood(or something like that) ran from his wounds and met the runny puddles, dancing with them down the gutter. He coughed up a new batch of it, his body shaking and sticky from the liquid. He collapsed after a few stumbling steps, his whole side crashing into the ground forcefully. He laughed openly at his fear of a broken wrist earlier, pretty certain he had landed on said wrist wrong and broken it just then. He let the rain run and soak into his clothes, wishing it'd drain the sticky red that clung to his bones. He had hoped - for all that was worth - Alphys would come back with Undyne and save him, but the idea was shattered in all its nonsense. It had been at least half an hour since the lizard had left. Had she abandoned him? Did she ever intend to come back in the first place? Sans whimpered at the thought, lost in his desperation so far he had forgotten he'd wanted her to leave himself not too long ago.

Sans tried once more to get up, but he simply fell again, knocking his skull on the road and letting out another pitiful whimper of pain. Like a weak, wounded dog. He felt cold slowly seep into his bones, starting from the tips of his toes and extending until he could no longer feel the uneven surface beneath him, numb. Only numb. His eyes were heavy, and his soul sunk as the heaviness started to overtake him…. More and more and more…. More weight… His fingers were scrambling, searching for a hand to hold, to bear some of the numb, to expel the loneliness and fill him up with warmth, they scrambled and sought for a being to hold him before he had to leave again, leave to that awful place… they grazed a leather surface, instantly feeling a jolt of relief as he desperately reached out to the being, hoping for comfort. But his fingers were numb. He couldn't make it half of the way to the figure's feet. His phalanges, carpals, metacarpals shaking with weakness, falling short of them, denying him. A hand was outstretched to him, warm fleshy fingers grasping his numb and shaking hand. Another hand gripped his shoulder, the former one gently helping to raise the skeleton from the ground he couldn't feel anymore. The figure stood a few inches shorter than him, but without a second thought pulled the skeleton into a hug. Instantly heat blossomed in his ribs, dispelling the numb immediately. The skeleton's extra inches had him hunched over the rescuer's shoulders. He could feel how their heart beat in their chest, it reverberated through him too. Soft words of comfort were spoken to him, and he wondered if he had already died and was just being teased by his last wish.

"Come, you are dying, are you not?" The words sounded like Toriel's, had she come to guide him away from the numb? Through the 'catacombs'? He didn't believe in the afterlife, but he would have believed anything at that moment. "Hurry dufus, I know Frisk didn't mean to kill you, but she can get carried away under the influence." The voice of the rescuer pushed. But it was too much of a burden to listen, move, and comply to her all at once. His rescuer guided him further, but every step was pain and then blur, slowly becoming more and more of the latter by each determined step the figure took. In no time the pain faded completely and all that was became a haze of faintly flickering light and heat, and dubiety he didn't have the capacity to pay mind to.

Light flooded his measly awareness, light and music and talking. Some of the voices sounded familiar, barks, whistles and hoots that all felt distantly connected to a sense of home. "Hey smiley, is this familiar?" Frisk's voice asked. "Hey! Snap out of it, you're not dead yet!" Frisk waved her hand in front of his face. The blur became more confusing in response, drawing a raspy and broken moan from him. Frisk shushed him softly, mumbling for him to quiet down, that she understood it hurt but he needed to relax. Sans barely recognized her pleas, whimpering softly enough it didn't provoke her dissatisfaction anyway. "I took you to Grillby's, it was close by and I remember how you were always muttering something about going here before..." Frisk's warmth pressed against his ribcage again - she must have leaned on him - "Before we murdered you." She whispered softly near his skull, like she was afraid someone would hear her secret. "I remember vaguely, a timeline - maybe even the first timeline, when you'd actually taken her there." Frisk whispered again, "You loosened the ketchup lid so it got all over her fries" She walked him through, a smile in her hazy brown eyes. Sans tried to remember, scouring his mind for the memory but coming up blank. His skull throbbed at the effort, groaning, he clamped his eyes shut. Too much… Too many memories…. Why were there so many? Why were they so similar? But a few of them stood out to him, one in particular that he treasured -he held onto the memory of fries soggy with ketchup, held onto a memory of a purple ring around an unsuspecting victim' eye. He wasn't certain if he'd actually remembered them or if the young girl's recollection had planted the memories there. Either way, it was cruel. Way to twist the knife in further.

He felt fingers knock on the side of his skull, irritation prickled through him. Why couldn't she let him rest? His bones were so heavy… "Don't fall asleep dummy! I'm not done. And I won't let you be either." The tapping transitioned to shaking until he had to open his eyes back up to get her to stop. "Good, now listen." She withdrew her hand, her brown eyes flickering with a deeper red in the dim light. "It's not your fault, you know. Too much determination had always been the mistake." Frisk's voice told him. "And… sorry about this timeline. I'm sorry about our parents, and all those innocent monsters -and some of the innocent humans." Frisk's voice added the last part begrudgingly. "I wish we could go back to the start - even though technically we could - but I mean the real start. Back when we were friends and nobody had to die or remember ugly things. Back when Frisk would laugh at my jokes, or my advice (thanks Frisk). When we'd be on the same wavelength, outlasting Papyrus, fleeing Undyne, forgiving Alphys, and saving Asriel. Back when everything hadn't been so complicated." Sans let her talk, his sitting position melting away as he fell against the seat rest. "-And before we found out you were remembering too." Frisk's gaze turned towards him, he couldn't make out much other than her piercing eyes. Sans blinked in an attempt to clear the fog in vain from obscuring his sockets, but it helped nothing. "That's when I'd realized this had all gone too far, farther than curiosity and the thrill of battle. It was monster's souls we were playing with, Frisk and I. You, and Azzy, all of us slowly becoming less and less like ourselves -Azzy was already soulless- it just... It seemed so messed up?" Sans was fading.

"Sans, I swear, I'll think of something… I'll-I'll get us all out of this mess." The small skeleton's eyes were fighting to stay open. She knew there was no use trying to rouse him again, this exhaustion he could no longer suppress anymore. "You have to promise me, promise you'll help Azzy. Please help him. He- he's different now… but…" The skeleton's eyes fell. Frisk's body moved closer to him. "He looks like a little flower, he's somewhere in the underground." She told him, afraid he could no longer hear her. "I'll get us out of this mess..." Chara swore through Frisk, she knew it was an empty promise. But she had to try. "Promise" She entwined Frisk's pinkie finger with a lax phalange, sealing the commitment between a skeleton whom she knew inside and out, and a determined spirit, that to him was only a stranger. "You made a promise for me too. You have to remember!"

Frisk left the bar, a spirit was hopeful he would live, or at least when they reset his death he would remember what he'd promised her.