"Chara?" Flowey asked from beside Sans. "You mean . . . well then why hasn't she taken over?"

"Don't think she can." Sans trotted around the lab until he found a mirror. His energy should be his, and if it wasn't, he would feel something different when looking at himself. "Just me." But, it was such a small error. He remained in front of the mirror.

Doing nothing was the easiest thing in the world, and his brother was already pissed off. Might as well wait and see.

Alphys left him be for her own work after fifteen minutes. Flowey went into the hole in his pot after thirty minutes.

Three hours later, Sans caught it. Just a sense. A small sense of something not him. So small, he couldn't even communicate with it. Yep. Knew you were in there. Can't come out, huh? Paired with the wrong one in the reset? Well, that sucks. So this is our happy ending? I'm supposed to believe that breaking the timeline rule actually gave us a happy ending? Come on. Come on.

D iE.

Three hours for just that? A whispered supposed to be scary word? Nuh uh. Look, me staring at a mirror and silent is being a nice way of handling this. I can give you telepathic dialogue that is going to drive you nuts for hours on end. I can too, I've been working on some real new comedy routines. They are rough, but I've always wanted a built-in audience to test it out.

D iE SlOw aNd PAiNfUL.

How come you could take over Frisk and not me? It a human thing?

I reset the world, in exchange for her soul.

Oh. Can you just give that back maybe?

No.

What if I buy you a Grillby burger?

No.

Okay. You already destroyed a bunch of timelines, so can you just quit? Maybe a little Exorcise will make you feel better.

I used to say she had a perverted sentimentality that I could not understand, after she destroyed a world and went back, just to destroy it again. But then . . . I started to want it more too.

This wasn't getting him anywhere. Okay. So, guess you and I are just buds for the rest of my life. Frisk gets away with her soul anyhow. Everybody wins. Hey, I'll change my name to Chans. Or Sara? Nah, what kind of name is Sara. We'll be Chans. For the rest of my life. You can hear and hang out with Papyrus and me. Best buds, Buddy. Wait 'til you see what I do for a living. It's the funnest. I literally look at snow. Really. I watch snow because humans hardly ever come. Like once. Then, that's it. Nothing else. Sleep all day. Doing nothing. Pretty much like you in your grave except now you got me and Papyrus for company too.

Sans walked away from the mirror. He'd talked long enough he knew exactly what the energy feeling had been. She could communicate with him now, if she wanted to. But only if she wanted to before. She had sunk away into an abyss, unable to be reached, so that whole spiel about being best buds didn't really register to her yet.

But it would, 'cause he was good at his magic, and he knew exactly where she was now. She could no longer hide from him or slip away. So you know Papyrus? He's a real cool guy. Once he finds out about you, he'll probably cuddle me because he'll think he's cuddling you. He's gonna ask you things, and you'd probably say something bad, but I'll just change it into something good. And you are going to like puzzles too. And you're going to cheer him on too. Yep. He's going to believe that you're a poor, innocent soul that's good by the time it's all over. He skipped.

Let go of my energy!

What, so you can bury yourself from reality and only sense the outside when you want to? Nah, you should experience life. If you're hanging onto me, you are going to experience every single moment with me. Now, I gotta go home. Papyrus is angry enough at me for being late.

Sans' house . . .

"You just left! In the middle of a crisis!" Papyrus shouted. "Frisk is going to stay with a tree. Humans don't belong with trees, it will be poisoning and hurting her for the sake of its seeds!"

"I know. I did bad. I'm sorry," Sans apologized.

"You should listen to me more often, Sans," Papyrus said. "You wouldn't get into so much trouble."

"I know I should," Sans apologized. "Sorry, Bro."

"Now don't leave like that without telling me."

"I won't."

"And you missed work too. We had late shift. You were so lazy, you didn't even show up for work!"

"I am the laziest guy around." Sans winked at him. "It's hard to defend my title. Nah, just kidding. It's easy."

"Can't you put effort into anything, Brother?" Papyrus asked.

"Not really."

"Don't you want to?"

"Not really."

Three Days Later . . .

"Sans!"

"That's my name, don't wear it out." Sans shrugged. "Seriously, it's the only one I got. I don't have the energy to pick up a new one."

"Any spark of self-motivation from you is just a dream, isn't it?" Papyrus asked.

"Naw. I have determination," Sans said.

"Really?" Papyrus asked, stunned. "To do what?"

"I'm determined to do nothing for the rest of my life," Sans said. "Doing great so far."

Nooooooooooo!

"You can't just coast through life doing nothing forever! Have some kind of goal, Sans!"

"To eat a Grillby burger."

"Something that isn't done in a day!"

"To eat 50 Grillby burgers?" Sans just stayed still as he heard Chara screaming inside of him. There was only one thing that was going to cut through all the LOVE she had felt from Frisk. Someone as determined as she had been in life forced to endure a lazy, pathetic, unmoving skeleton that got scolded by his own younger brother, 24/7 with no escape.

You pay the bills of the house. Tell him that.

"Sans, you are a lazy good for nothing sometimes!"

"Just sometimes?" Sans joked.

You work miserable jobs and more than one for him. Tell him.

"Can I take a nap soon?" Sans asked Papyrus. "I haven't had one in like an hour."

You've been working out timeline solutions with Alphys, you weren't even watching the snow! Why put up with this? Tell him off!

"What would you do without me showing you the proper way to go in life?" Papyrus asked him.

"I'd be sinking. Quick, give Sands a boost? Ba dum tsh." Sans closed his eyes briefly, the screaming from his skull getting pretty intense. What's wrong, new best bud? I thought you liked your new cozy dwelling with me. You know, for the rest of my life. Me and you. Chans. Come on. Give it a Chans?

Let me go. Let me sink away from you!

No can do. That's no fun. We're best buds forever. Least 'til I die. Grillbys, puns, hanging out watching things and being with my cool brother Papyrus. Isn't he the coolest? He's got aspirations and stuff.

Fine! What do you want?

Frisk has to fix this timeline mistake. Now, I know she can, but if she does, you'll just take over the soul of her in the world where she'd last been killing. Half of my world. Then, you'll eventually reset this world and do the same thing.

I would. I have a perverted sentimentality now too, remember? It happens, time after time after time . . .

Promise that you won't then.

I promise.

Saying that right after that whole 'time after time' thing? Nah, you have to mean it. Really. 'Cause I'm gonna check, and if you are still holding onto the other soul-

You'll have her do the same thing again, I get it! This is no big deal. I will turn her in time. She knows what is at the end of her journey first-hand. I am not the one who turns her. She hasn't chosen genocide just once. She is both. She will be both, and her soul will be mine again in due time.

The Lab . . .

"I got Chara to give Frisk another chance." Yet, Sans already knew what was around the corner. As much as Alphys wanted to correct time, and knew about the consequences of unbreakable rules, she wasn't ignoring it to save him. She wasn't wanting to kill Frisk, just to save him.

She knew, that if time restored itself to how it should be . . . her child would pay the price.

She wasn't alone either. Al and Juleyard, if Frisk wasn't taken and imprisoned, would never exist. Probably more than one out there would be affected. But. "It's bigger than one thing, Alphys. We both gotta go."

Which would undo it all. Alphys shook her head. "She's my daughter. Frisk has kids. Too many innocents would never be born. It wouldn't be fair. Even Asgore agrees. There just aren't many monsters, and he won't lose them either. So, so, no."

"It won't hurt them any more than time hurt them before," Sans said. "It don't hurt them any more than a kid born twenty years from now feels pain." But, yeah, he knew what she meant. "There'd never be another skeleton pair like them. Normal humans can't handle it."

"My daughter isn't like all the other little monsters found from the surface," Alphys agreed. "She's mine. I had her. I can't just turn away. If we restore time . . . I can't do it!" She covered her eyes. "I-I know there's consequences, but it's my daughter!"

"And my little bros," Sans reminded her.

"And everyone else's too."

Sans turned to see Asgore walked toward them. He looked back toward Alphys. She must have triggered something to warn him.

"Sans, we need to kill Frisk," Asgore said as he stopped in front of him. "It will be enough correction without losing everything we have gained."

"Ugh." Dangit. There was only one thing to do. "You want the half-monsters that bad?"

"I did bring in thirty human women to even it out," Asgore reminded him. "Every monster counts and helps us survive. Just think. You are the last of the skeletons too. Without Al and Juleyard, there will be no one else. Unfortunately, you are not the only ones anymore in that situation."

"Fine." Sans wasn't gonna get a choice. "We could save the lot, but if we don't hurry, then it's them that would pay for it."

"What?" Asgore asked.

"Old family documentation," Sans said. "I know what Gaster did wrong. If we corrected it, and had the mom and kids visit the core-"

"Oh, no, no, no!" Alphys shouted and looked away. "No!"

"They'd survive. We are monsters. We'd remember long enough to save them," Sans said. "Only here, only in this timeline. We won't fracture them anywhere else, we can't risk that."

"All of our memories would be gone," Alphys said, "we couldn't keep them."

"No, but I don't have many memories. Neither do a lot of other monsters," Sans said. "A week. Most of that time I was trying to get Al to open up to me. Papyrus too, no big deal. They'll have someone. If we make sure we remember long enough to get them, then they won't get lost in time."

"Goner kids," Asgore said softly. "You want to turn the children and their mothers into goners?"

"But." Alphys looked at her hands. "I won't have any memories."

"Write it down. Write down what you can. This is the best we can get," Sans said.

"It's easy for you to say that. Your little brothers you knew for about a week. Me? A lifetime. Her lifetime! Same for . . . Frisk. Will she still be a part of their lives?" she asked. "She is making the transition. What would happen? Little kid? Mother? Will time continue starting from here, and our memories come in of what happened? The other Frisk interrupted the flow when she was eight. What will that corruption do here?"

" . . . I don't know," Sans confessed. "I don't really know at all."

"Then are we sure about this?" Asgore asked. "Will this be even worse than fixing the timeline?"

"It's not perfect, but ramming used to existers into a timeline they used to exist in isn't an unbreakable rule," Sans said looking toward Alphys. "We'll remember. The newcomers will stay inside the core completely until it's done. Our memories will dwell long enough to retrieve the goners. That's all I know."

"I know. Corruption. Goner kids. Natural phenomenon."

"Yeah but the chances it'll happen naturally are slim, so we should use the core. But this is just one. One consequence of what happened," Sans pointed out. "People never being born or goners. Things will get worse, you know it. There's no denying things always get worse when you break an unbreakable rule. We have to do this. No matter what the timeline does, or how corrupted it gets. It'll just be worse if we don't."

"Okay," Asgore agreed. "It's worth it to try that."

"Only way to keep them?" Alphys agreed quietly. "I'm scared, Sans. If we don't remember, then everyone will be adrift in timelines, almost like ghosts . . ."

"I know. It's been a long time since it happened, but you're going to have to trust me," Sans said to Alphys. "And you kind of have to. You've been hiding this! Karma is a serious thing you know."

"I know, I know," Alphys admitted.

"Things won't get better," Sans warned her. "They just get worse. It's the way it goes. You've got to trust me, Alphys. Please. Your daughter is gonna be okay."

Alphys wiped her eye.

"What do we need to do then, Sans?" Asgore asked.

The Ruins A Few Days Later. . .

Frisk helped Toriel with the dishes. Toriel was scolding her once again for giving up to the tree and not finding a better solution, but Frisk was fine with it. Things used to be a lot worse. Visiting a love-sick tree daily was not a big thing.

"Tori, I gotta talk to Frisk alone," Sans said from behind them.

"Doors," Toriel scolded him. "Use the doors, Sans. Goodness." She dried her hands and went to watch the children.

Frisk already knew Sans wouldn't care about the tree dilemma. He didn't really care about anything except his little brothers. She continued doing the dishes, waiting for him to say whatever thing he needed to say.

"Part of you needs to go back to the genocide run."

She stopped the dishes. Was he serious? Even thinking about it wasn't a good idea. She imagined her children and Toriel and shook her head. "I'm content here."

"You sold your soul to something. It gave you the power to start over, not true reset," Sans told her. "You've been jumping timelines and destroying them, even when you saved everyone because it takes over at the end."

Frisk turned to look at him. What was he talking about? "I used true reset. I have a used soul."

"Wrong." He pointed at her. "You've got a double soul. Humans manipulated it to their advantage. One gets struck, your body gets struck, the next gets struck but the other one heals in the process. It's more complicated than you think, but let's go with one part is good and one part should be bad."

Frisk stepped away from the sink. "A double soul that is good and bad?"

"You sold your soul to get a reset," Sans said. "That soul belongs to Chara, the thing you gave it to. But when you jump a timeline, the Frisk of that timeline becomes part of you. That part of you is good, no LOVE. Fresh restart."

" . . . but even if I'm good, part of me was bad, and took over at the end?" Frisk asked clearly.

"Yep."

"Well, that all stopped somehow," Frisk said. "It's been sixteen years. Why would you even . . ."

"Unbreakable rules. Monsters have unbreakable rules. I don't know what'll happen but I guarantee at some point, something extremely bad will happen because we crossed timelines."

"We?" What? "I reset. Only I moved."

"Nope. Somehow, your determination, Chara's power and my power caused a weird reaction just as you were hitting me. And the only reason this world still exists is because Chara is inside me instead." Sans patted his ribcage underneath his coat. "Didn't make no deal though so she's trapped. Not real happy about that. So I got her to give you a second chance."

Nuh? "Papyrus is gone. Undyne is gone. The royal guards. So many are gone," Frisk said. "I can't return us there! It's-"

"Empty?" he said, a little firmer than his usual speech. "Only part of you goes. Part of you stays."

Frisk didn't want any part of her to go. "If this Chara is trapped in you instead of me . . ."

"Thanks, are you saying thanks?" Sans asked. "Thanks Sans for holding the thing that was once inside my body and caused the end of timelines over and over. Welp, don't thank. It's going back to you."

"It's over," Frisk tried again. "There's no threat, it's not with me, why do this?"

"Remember those unbreakable rules?" Sans said again. "Just said it?" He tossed his hand flippantly. "Yeah, I tune out all the time too. Anyhow, timelines, unbreakable. 'Nuff said, okay?"

Frisk closed her eyes. "There's a saying where I'm from. 'If it's not broke, don't fix it'."

"Ah." Sans moved closer to her. "There's a saying where I'm from too. Break an unbreakable and you'll wish you were dead. Nah, it's not a saying. But uh, every time someone breaks one, bad things happen. Real bad."

"Like what?"

"Oh, like ending up dead and then SOULLESS? Or, hey, how about breaking just a tiny rule for a little monster that didn't know better? That must be okay, right?" Sans asked. "Nah, led to the monsters almost being wiped out and the rest of us trapped Underground for eternity. Okay, so how about something super small? How about a monster just kind of moving a human corpse. No big deal, right? Toriel did that to bury her daughter the way she wanted to. Nothing happened. For a long, long time. Then?" He aimed his finger at her. "A human came down, with the right kind of trait, right on her grave. Bam! So. No. You don't get to know the answers before it 'breaks'. You probably don't even get to see when it 'breaks'. You just keep it from breaking!"

Frisk looked to past the kitchen toward Toriel in the chair reading to her kids, but saw Sans arm block her view. "I." What he was asking for? "I can't do it."

"Soul's not used, it's doubled. You can," Sans insisted. "You have to."

Frisk turned back around to face the dishes. "I can't make everything like it had been. Yes, everything almost goes back to the way it had been, like some magically pressed button, but I can't change me." Frisk looked at her hands. "I aged way too much. I can't turn myself back. That is a huge glitch and who knows what that could do? Neither can I turn you back either."

"I didn't really age thanks to you humans being a little 'let's freeze the Underground for sixteen years' trigger happy. So no difference. Even if there was, it wouldn't be a valid excuse. Neither is your age." Sans answered. "Do it."

"No." Frisk went back toward the dishes.

"Frisk."

"I refuse." She started to dry a plate. He wasn't going to make her change her mind any more than anyone would make her change her mind about the tree. Unbreakable rule or not she had a family to take care of, and that other world was not-

"That's part of your world," Sans said. The mellowness in his voice melted away. "You made it. You can't run away from your mistakes."

"I have been paying for my mistakes," Frisk came back, just as coldly. "Almost all my life." She put the plate back down. "I go and separate, then what happens to my children? Does the me that stays here remember them? Is a part of me still here, like nothing happened?" No, wait. "Will time be undone? Will my children be undone?"

"Not exactly. They'll be goner kids. Someone that's not supposed to exist in this time, but they'll be fine."

"But-"

"I'll remember them long enough to get them taken care of."

"Taken care of?" What did he mean? "You'll forget too?"

"Everything will be undone except them. We'll protect the kids and their mom's, Asgore's orders. Now, you're coming with me."

The Lab . . .

The dishes disappeared. The whole Ruins disappeared. Frisk saw a large screen in front of her. Sans made her take the shortcut, whether she wanted to or not. She looked to her side and saw Alphys, just as scared as ever.

"Calm down," Sans said to Alphys. "We need to do this. She needs to have a clear vision of the world so she doesn't mess it up."

No. "I said no."

"No isn't an option. We aren't breaking timelines."

"It's been years!" Frisk yelled at him. "Get it through your thick skull, nothing's going to happen!"

"Something always happens. Time catches up to everything. " Sans voice was dark and his eye sockets, even darker. "You made that world. You have to stay there and fix it."

I thought I did. How was she supposed to know that she'd been taken to another timeline?

"F-first destination." Alphys cleared her throat and brought something odd looking online. It had lines, with some of them glowing yellow upward, stopping, and then glowing yellow again. In the corner of the screen was a number. "Okay. Um. H-human? Uh. You need to remember the exact point you left. After that, Sans will help, i-if things went right. If he doesn't remember, you need to get out and . . . and just accept the world as it is."

"Chara will be with you," Sans told Frisk. "On the other side."

"Y-your nuts."

Sans chuckled. "Look who's talking?"

"No. Look." Frisk gestured to herself. "I can't. Stop. Okay? You don't understand. I'm not even . . ." There. She couldn't even think. "I can't beat LOVE. I can't think with LOVE. I'm not right with LOVE. If I go back . . ." Frisk wiped her eyes and shook her head. "LOVE and determination is a combination that will just end everything! Just, no!" She wouldn't turn back into that.

"Broke your mind free once."

"One time, and I don't know any other times, so I'm guessing . . . I don't know how long this has been going on."

"Y-you ended twenty-six," Alphys answered. "Twenty-six timelines are gone forever."

Frisk covered her mouth. She ended twenty-six timelines? She destroyed everything in their creation? "It'll restart. I'll become . . . something. Something that's not me, I know it. No, I can't." This was life. This was her life. Her imprisonment of youth. Her life with her children. Her life with Toriel. This was it, this was life now. "A-and besides!" Oh yes! "I can't! The barrier's gone, and humans need a barrier to 'restart' or anything like that with a soul."

Sans shook his skull. "Propaganda, human, so no one knows. Even Asgore went with it, so you wouldn't know anything. That ability don't got nothin' to do with the barrier."

"It's determination," Alphys confessed.

"Determination? Like Flowey always said?" But that was wrong, it was the monsters that were the confused ones. Right?

"Why do you think all the humans died and you just kept restarting?" Sans asked her.

That was unique to her alone? Frisk held onto her shoulders, feeling a chill, even through the warm weather. "Can I just reset there?"

"T-too difficult." Alphys cleared her throat again. She was obviously uncomfortable around Frisk. Frisk couldn't blame her. "You have to start where you left. Then, move on."

"Move onto what?"

"The Lab," Sans said. "We'll go back, and I'll make sure you reset in the right timeline. After that, don't kill anyone, defeat the barrier and it's over."

"What if things didn't work out?" Frisk asked him. "What if I can't do that? This Chara, what if she won't allow it?"

"Contrary to a lot of people's thinking?" Sans said. "I know what I'm doing. If I don't make it, then don't try it. Go back, and live with the consequences."

"You don't get it, I can't go back and just walk away filled with LOVE. It's a weapon! It's a changing . . ." She covered her face. They just didn't understand. If she could control LOVE, it would be different. But with that LOVE, she would go back and just continue onward. "I can't . . . grip. Only extreme fighting brought me around to even know what I was doing."

"Then we'll just keep fighting to the lab," Sans said. "But, I know about LOVE too. Haven't experienced it. But I know what it takes. Nothing that we had back then. But we got it now." He pulled out a photo from his pocket and gave it to her. "Only picture you're gonna get of them. They were born in this timeline. They'll stay with this part of you."

Frisk stared at the picture. Al. Juleyard.

"Keep in mind what you're doing. Don't start getting repetitive, and remember what's on the line." His hand gestured to her picture. "You mess up, Chara gets your soul again, and this timeline is probably gonna be next. Say bye bye to your kids."

Frisk rubbed away her tears as she tried to stay in control. A part of her would never see them again. They wouldn't exist anymore in the other world.

"It doesn't matter how much you pay for your sin here," Sans said to her. "You know it. It'll always be there. Don't you get why? 'Cause this ain't the world that suffered. It's not the world that's still suffering. Alphys, pull up the lines closer."

Alphys pulled up the lines closer. Frisk saw the dark yellow, frozen. In one spot. Frisk looked toward her. Time stays stopped. That world just stopped without me.

"Alphys just wanted to kill you to get time moving again there," Sans said. "She thought the teeny 'me' thing would be okay, especially since she got her own reasons for not changing time, but then Chara now being in me?"

"I-it has to be done." Alphys looked toward Sans. "I'm sorry."

"Only to half of me. Other half of me will be fine. Shrug it off." Sans shrugged. "Ready, Frisk?"

Frisk looked at the photo. Al and Juleyard. Just, casually playing on the floor. Juleyard fixing something with string. Al working on a puzzle.

"Look. This isn't an option." Sans sounded serious again. "I'm not playing around with this. Yeah, it's been sixteen years. Yeah, I know this Underground was froze too for a long time because of humans again. I also know that you are down here now too. Things don't stay peachy forever. So we gotta go. One way or another."

Frisk lifted her eyes from the photo. "One way or another?"

"You don't break certain rules," Alphys spoke up again. "Y-y-you just don't! Ancient monsters know the rules, they know them, a-and they have deadly consequences. Worse than death, a-and anytime someone forgets that, something historically tragic happens, affecting more than just them. S-so-" Sans took Alphys hand. They disappeared a short time, and then Sans reappeared again.

"If we don't go, I'll tell Undyne how to kill you right now, and then get myself killed. Two hit points, it's easy," Sans said plainly. "Corruption ends."

His life. Sans would be willing to let his own life end for this? He must believe in the consequences of the unbreakable rule that bad.

Al. Juleyard. Half of her left behind. Would she remember everything? Would she not? "What about the me that stays?" Frisk asked.

"Won't remember a thing, time unwinds, except your age," Sans said. "I'll get your pacifist side back to your kids, I promise. You'll at least know about them. Now, are we gonna do this, or are we gonna just get each other killed?" Sans tapped his wrist bone. "I'll let Undyne have the kill shot info, but I doubt she'll make it that easy."

He wasn't leaving any kind of choice. "Where did Alphys go?"

"Helping Asgore with the final process. All the kids and moms are getting taken care of at the core. You only got five minutes total," Sans said. "If you don't? Everyone in the core will all be scattered into a million pieces in time."

What?

"Hey, had to make sure I could change your mind. Not always easy."

Huh?! "Damn you, Sans!"

"You did that a long time ago. Five minutes."

If I die, no part of me will be here for Al or Juleyard. Nothing can be done about the timeline I screwed up. My children will be scattered into a million pieces. I can't let that happen! Frisk closed her eyes, taking a few moments to herself. "It's been awhile," she said slowly, "but I think . . ." No. She knew. She had the determination to still do it.

That exact moment? That wouldn't be hard. It was all I think of. All I dream of every night. Any time that I had a spare moment to think of something, those same images appeared. They were burned into my memories. Never to be erased. Sans exact position. The way my weapon was coming down. No, I couldn't be that exact. Right before I hit him, I didn't want to kill him when we returned. He only had one hit point.

The walls were glowing. Gold. Embellished windows adorned all the sides. My face, blank, looked back at me from the knife's reflection as I held it just so in my hand. The dodging. The climbing. The sound of his voice filling my ears, and the sorrow within me reaching new heights. The walking to and fro as I began again and again. Gold was on the ground, in the stained windows, and everything in that room except for me. Amongst the gold, I was nothing but shadow. Sans was nothing but shadow.

We were nothing but the pawns that had to finish out the game. To save existence. To erase it all.

"Frisk."

That horrible shadow on gold . . .

"Frisk. Don't lose it. Run to the lab with me."

That horrible, horrible shadow on gold . . .