Megalovaniac
Beneath a green fire sky, in the throne-world of King Auryx, our lords embrace.
We the Hive watch as Savathûn puts her arm around Xivu Arath, and Xivu Arath clasps forearms with Auryx, and Auryx takes Savathûn by the shoulder. They are huge, huge, and they burn with furious power. But this embrace is weakness and we despise it.
Never before have we despised our lords. Have they failed us? We the Hive have been driven back, world by world.
"I am at my end," Savathûn says. "I plot and plan. But I cannot gather enough bloodshed to feed my worm. And the harder I try, the hungrier it becomes."
"I slaughter and kill," Xivu Arath says, "but the harder I fight, the more my worm demands. I too am at my end."
"The Ecumene war angels have killed me so many times," Auryx says, "that I dare not go out into the universe, lest I need my might to protect myself. My worm chews at my soul in hunger."
Is this the end of our crusade? Are we the Hive unworthy to exist?
Xivu Arath puts down her great head. "We should retire and gather our strength."
Savathûn closes her eyes in puzzled defeat. "We should beg the Worm our God to tell us what to do."
But King Auryx, who knows best the beauty of the final shape, roars at them. "Have you learned nothing? Would you deny our purpose? Whatever we do, we will do by killing, by an act of war and might. That is the final arbiter we serve, that violent arbiter, and if we turn away from it we deserve to be eaten. No! We must obey our natures. We must be long-sighted, and cunning, and strong. We must take this gift the Worm our God has given us, this challenge, and find a way to keep existing!"
"How will we feed our worms?" Xivu Arath asks.
"I know," says cunning Savathûn. "I know a way. But it won't work unless we are killing the Ecumene by the billions. How can we beat them?"
"If we cannot beat their strengths," says Xivu Arath, "we must infect their weaknesses. But they are lords of matter and physical law."
"I know a way," King Auryx says. "But it will require great power. More power than any one of us can claim."
"Then kill me," says Xivu Arath, "and use that killing logic, the power you prove by killing something as mighty as me."
So King Auryx took up his blade and beheaded Xivu Arath.
"And strangle me," says Savathûn, holding a blade behind her back. "Use that killing logic, the cunning you prove by killing something as smart as me."
But King Auryx turned with the speed and might of Xivu Arath, and beheaded Savathûn before she could move. King Auryx was the First Navigator, with the map of death.
These were true deaths, for they happened in the sword world.
Then he went to the Worm named Akka.
Harley: Did we die?
[H Ghost]: I… I'm not sure… but you've seen and heard… lived this moment before, haven't you?
Harley: Was that really… no, I don't… can't blame him. I've caused this… now the situation is… just for me to bring the kid out of here… and…
[H Ghost]: It's far worse than that… don't deny it… the kid… has changed as we did this… and right now we're in charge because Sans has cowed the kid into submission and fear… somehow.
Harley: I should be too… did he call Oryx… to beat on me back there?
[H Ghost]: I saw Atheon and Crota in the mix too… in your mind feed, not the one from the kid… I… didn't bother with that one…
Harley: Well, guess there's no use talking to him about this for sure… nobody would let somebody who killed somebody they loved go that easily… even if I… didn't mean to…
[H Ghost]: Ready?
[Harley]: I wouldn't know even if I said yes.
Sans: Heya. You look frustrated about something. Guess I'm pretty good at my job, huh?
Harley gazed back upon the smile which she knew now had to be forced…
Harley: Yes, you are…
Sans: It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... on days like these, kids like you... .
Harley knew there was no evading the telepathic fling since all Sans needed to do was just have her in line of sight. She leapt away from the expected shower of bones and sprinted into the gauntlet , weaving with the narrow path she still found available… The lasers came again… She slid away from the walls… blinked away from the corridor filling beam… slides back to the center away from the wall hugging laser cannons which materialized… but her blink wasn't ready yet… she took the beam from the lasers that manifested at both ends of the corridor… but she was still standing this time… something that felt like Skolas' devouring essence gnawed away at her within… but much more intense… was this what her Thorn did when she fired upon others with it? It burned and pained as if all her bones were broken and set aflame… she didn't even find the ability to scream despite the horrible sensation… It was dark… like she was drowning in it… Alak'hul suddenly appeared from nonexistence with that trademark roaring teleport of his and slammed his Axe, cleaving her into two vertical halves… Her vision returned, tinged purple as Sans shrugged before her in a taunting manner.
Sans: Huh. Always wondered why people never use their strongest attack first. Anyway, as I was saying, it's a nice day out. Why not relax and take a load off?
Harley: That's not really an option for either of us at all…
San's grin remained, but she could just see his eyes narrow a little… a small gesture that said a lot of his hate and feelings. She blinked near to him after a sprint and attempted a blink strike… she connected with nothing… Sans was but a sidestep from where he was though she hadn't seen him move at all.
Sans: What? You think I'm just gonna stand there and take it?
He vanished… and stood at the opposite end of the hall, flooding down a torrent of bones on the floor… Harley felt the familiar blue telepathic energy tugging on her body… increasing gravity… almost like the weight of darkness back in Crota's lair… she was being slowed and her double jump was stifled.
[Harley]: How am I supposed to… the chandeliers.
She managed to jump up and began to pull herself onto the thing… it was built firm… could take her extra weight… Sans saw that and reacted by sending another pair of bones to rack the ceiling from the opposite end of the judgement corridor... she managed to drop off the chandelier but hold on with her hands… one bone brushed her fingers… it burned and felt broken, pain spreading from it throughout her body for a moment after that mere instant of contact… she gasped as she held on by her right hand. But her lopsided grip let a lower bone strike her foot as well… her body scorched and ached as if it was shattered… She pulled out the kid's gun and fired one thorn shot from it at Sans… who dodged nonchalantly… a slick side step or blink… she couldn't tell… she saw, felt and heard Draksis empty his shrapnel launcher into her torso as the winter kell was suddenly replaced by Quodron, who detained her… and the cell kept getting smaller and smaller, refusing to break no matter how she struggled and tried to escape… Harley blinked the kid's eyes to try to ease the karmic pain and purple tinge on their vision.
Sans: Our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. Timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting...
She fired one more shot… another miss. Sans waved his index finger in a no-no manner with a wink and head tilt.
Sans: Until suddenly, everything ends.
One more bullet flew as she had managed to bring her other arm up to start heaving herself onto the chandelier… San's seemed to phase through it as he appeared nearer, still keeping his hands in his pockets and wearing that shit eating smile… it looked genuine and fake at the same time somehow… forced for sure.
Sans: Heh heh heh... that's your fault isn't it?
[H Ghost]: Does that mean the Vex are…
[Harley]: Not now!
Sans forced bones up right under where her arms and hands were gripping the chandelier… she lost the antique gun from her grip and let herself fall off… making herself roll away as blue and white bones rose to impale her from where she had landed… she answered with a Skip grenade… Sans vanished and reappeared on the other side of the hall again, resetting their fight positioning.
Sans: You can't understand how this feels.
Harley: Actually… I do…
Sans paused… and seemed to contemplate her answer… but his right eye went out while his left one flared blue again… chucking another torrent of bones at her from both ends of the room… there was just a tiny gap between the bones and at varying heights across each of the attacks… she leapt through the first… blinked through the second while twisting into position to clear through the third… stabbed the blade the kid somehow found earlier into the wall to hold position from the bones coming via the other end… and kicked off to get through the fifth… it brushed her…
She saw Sepik's prime for a moment and it pulled a Servitor attack on her… and received a clean hit from the sixth of Sans bone attacks as the karmic hallucination faded and switched forms into another… The hulking form of Phogoth was now before her and slammed the ground, knocking her away and barraging her with ogre eye beams… Her back was now facing Sans when she landed… she wolfed down another of Mettaton's face steaks to heal up the kid's body…
Harley:… Maybe I don't…
Sans: Knowing that one day, without any warning... It's all going to be reset.
That voice source and volume… The skeleton was right behind her now… she spun around with a slash of the blade… it caught nothing… no, something… a knitting of orange threads… from Papyrus scarf which Sans now was wearing… Sans was now atop the Chandelier himself. She jumped and blinked to get at him, and received a hard kick that sent her back down to the floor, cracking the tiles with her landing… She was struck by a bone on the way down… this time The Nexus Mind's room appeared… A minotaur gave her a hard shove and she seemed to fall infinitely as an equally vast Nexus Mind blasted her with Void energy projectiles…
Sans: Look. I gave up trying to go back a long time ago.
[H Ghost]: What's he talking about…
[Harley]: Maybe this is a place Atheon has toyed with for too long… or the flower… Flowey… with what he said on the way here…
[H Ghost]: You thinking what I am thinking?
Sans: …and getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore, either.
[Harley]:… This definitely is a place with a funny relation to time then… I've seen that smile before… on guardians who congratulate us on going to the lighthouse… after we beat them… on the 8th yellow dot…
Sans: Cause even if we do... we'll just end up right back here, without any memory of it, right? To be blunt... it makes it kind of hard to give it my all.
Harley: And how would you know?
Sans retorted by telepathically slamming her into a wall and then releasing his hold for a moment as a white and long blue bone awaited below… she barely blinked in time but scrapped the blue bone… She was suddenly back in Crota's oversoul throne… only… wait, something was different… her role had always been rocketing the Monster of Luna to his knees while Karina bared the sword… but now she was at his feet with no stolen Hive sword… and Oryx's son brought his massive blade down on her…
Sans:... or is that just a poor excuse for being lazy...? Hell if I know. All I know is... seeing what comes next... I can't afford not to care anymore.
Harley: For the record, I'm really sorry we're ending up doing this to each other…
Sans watched, still with his forced smile as she jumped, blinked over his head… and he lost sight… she tried to blink strike from behind… but missed again as he teleported behind her once more, this time keeping out of that range.
Sans: Ugh... that being said... you, uh, really like swinging that thing around, huh? ... Listen.
Harley: I am…
Sans: I know you didn't answer me before, but... somewhere in there. I can feel it. there's a glimmer of a good person inside of you. The memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. Someone who, in another time, might have even been... a friend? C'mon, buddy. Do you remember me? Please, if you're listening... let's forget all of this, ok? Just lay down your weapon, and... well, my job will be a lot easier.
Harley: I…
[H Ghost]: See, even he knows you're not unredeemable… let's just talk it out with him…
In the unknown space… Harley pulled her mask off for a moment to wipe away tears flowing out of her eyes…
[H Ghost]: You ok?
[Harley]: No… because deep down… I know I'm long far gone to suddenly just choose to be better from what all the blood and dust on me and the kid's hands means…
[H Ghost]: No you're not… you're a guardian of the Traveler and…
Harley shed one more tear before putting the mask back on and pulling the hood she had pilfered from one of the Psion Flayers back over her head.
[Harley]: And… I feel like this is a trap anyway…
However she laid down the blade in the kids hands and got onto her knees, head bowed…
Sans: ... you're sparing me? Finally. Buddy. Pal. I know how hard it must be... to make that choice. To go back on everything you've worked up to. I want you to know... I won't let it go to waste. ... C'mere, pal.
San approached… arms spread wide… she could feel fear, not from herself flood her senses, but she suspected this was a trap by Sans for sure… she killed his brother when he had offered mercy… why would she deserve his now? But still, if this was a trap for her, she would make it one for him as well… Part of her wanted to let him end it… the monster she had turned the kid into… yet another part of her wanted to win… and see to completion this mission she had botched so much… even if she wasn't sure she should bring this kid home anymore… she considered herself undeserving of a new chance… she was the awful thing that took actions leading here… then if she really was such an awful evil thing… like the darkness, mercy was not of her by nature.
Sans and the child embraced… An electric buzz sounded in the air and Sans teleported away from the bug as a showstopper attack was pulled off, destroying the bones he had intended to stop the child and whatever demons within with… He simply grinned again and let his left eye flare an alternating blue and yellow.
Sans: Welp, it was worth a shot. Guess you like doing things the hard way, huh?
Harley understood that as a declaration of "I have been holding back." Sans was creepy when he somehow made his pupils fade away… She leapt up to the Chandelier before Sans… but suddenly she was back on the floor with his telepathy pulling…
[H Ghost]: He can warp us too?
Harley threw a razors edge out from her blade dance at the bones coming from both directions… breaking through the white one, but she held still so the blue one would pass by harmlessly… Sans warped her again, she jumped as bones came from both sides again… when the barrage finished, she noticed one twirling bone chasing after her… she threw a razor's edge at it… no effect… it slowly continued to home in on her… She flung the last of her current blade dance energy at Sans… who evaded again.
Sans: Sounds strange, but before all this I was secretly hoping we could be friends. I always thought the anomaly was doing this 'cause they were unhappy. And when they got what they wanted, they would stop all this.
Harley: You really knew… all this time… everything…
Sans winked and the laser cannons returned… Harley found the revolver in the pillar's shadow… she fired at the boney machine… it took damage where it was shot, but that didn't stop the assault it discharged on her… followed by another out of her line of sight… She was launched airborne by a detonation from the Nexus Mind and Undying mind… and took a barrage of projectiles from them both… Atheon grabbed her in his fist and slammed her into the ground, then stomped on her… crushing and pulping everything inside her body… Sans' lasers continued to fire… she felt like any moment her body would fail, but she persevered, sprinting out of the shots they lined up on her, leaping… double jumping… sliding… blinking… She fired at Sans again… it didn't connect, though part of her knew he was beginning to tire…
Sans: And maybe all they needed was... I dunno. some good food, some bad laughs, some nice friends.
Harley: I fucked up real bad… that's what you really wanted to offer me. Not… this…
Sans: But that's ridiculous, right? Yeah, you're the type of person who won't EVER be happy.
To say that touched a nerve was an understatement… Harley felt her shattered sanity turn to powder and liquefy from her fury at receiving that statement.
Harley: I… I hate you!
Sans flung her into the ceiling… Harley leapt up from the bones that carpeted the ceiling that would have impaled her… she was thrown into the other end of the corridor… but stabbed her knife into the ceiling, holding tightly onto it as more impaling bones formed on the wall gravity was now dragging her to… the knife cut a long deep gash into the ceiling. Sans began to pull her to the floor… She jumped again… but the bones remained there long and waiting… she fell onto them… The Psion flayers were holding her suspended in the air with the combined powers of their minds… they levitated her off the balcony of the Clovis Bray building… where below Valus Ta'aurac waited and fired his quake missile barrage and Gatling gun… hitting her repeatedly before opening his maw to swallow her whole…
Sans: You'll keep consuming timelines over and over, until... well. Hey Take it from me, kid. Someday... you gotta learn when to QUIT.
[H Ghost]: That's not really us… unless he means what we do in the vault of glass?
She sprinted to Sans… throwing out a blink strike… the skeleton didn't teleport this time but merely sidestepped in his slippers and threw a right straight that sent her flying away 15 feet… Bones began to move from both sides of the corridor in opposite directions… while the spinning bone chasing her whirled menacingly… she sprinted down the corridor… slipped in the gap between the bones moving in the other direction and began to sprint back with it. The spinning bone grazed her… in addition to the bruises and cuts… the burning shattering pain returned… Skolas stood before her… peppering her with his shrapnel launcher before switching to his Scorch Cannon…
Skolas: DOOM OF INNOCENT PEOPLES AND VICTIMS! TRAVELER THIEF!
Skolas fired three blasts at her… sending her back to the corridor with the burning happening all over her body… purple tinged her vision… she fished for leftover monster food to cope.
Sans: …and that day's TODAY.
Harley responded by firing three shots… Sans evaded the first… the second was but a foot to the right of the first shot… Sans flickered for a moment where that was aimed… she then without turning around fired again behind herself…
Sans: Cause... y'see... all this fighting is really tiring me out.
Harley turned around like she did with Papyrus, throwing a slash with the knife… Sans ducked underneath the blade and retaliated with a double punch aimed for the face and torso… she blinked after crouch jumping… and tried to aim the gun at Sans head… He slapped the revolver out from her hands… with a shoulder tackle as he spun around to face her… Harley threw a stab with the knife… and missed connecting by inches as Sans sent her flying back again by means of his fists… she felt his telepathic pull but it didn't last and she clung onto the Chandelier again… Bones coated the floor and ceiling… an exceptionally long one swept from opposite ends of the corridors on both sides… Harley hurled a Flux grenade at the long bone closest to her level… it detonated just in her face… She took some recoil splash and her vision tinged purple again from inhaling the magical bone's ether and particles… the Chandelier's main suspension gave way due to metal fatigue and damage accumulated over the fight…
Sans: And if you keep pushing me... then I'll be forced to use my special attack.
Harley: "Push me"? You dare say that to me!? I've been having a really bad time since I fell down here into the kid's brain. I'm out of my proper place and time with no hope of seeing home ever again. I've killed people I don't want to kill here and have dark forces swimming around in my brain that make me do things until nobody here who could help me would ever want to help me anymore, and I have no idea if what sent me here killed my friends… I've been having a bad time way before you decided to give me one… And heaven help the bloodthirsty monster I've turned this kid into by showing so much killing…
Sans paused for a moment… Harley didn't attack… she just glared at him… the bone chasing her was slowly whirling away in the opposite side of the room… it was the only source of sound…
Harley: Actually you know what, it doesn't matter… Why'd I even say that to you anyway? The only way this is ending is with either of us dead now no matter what I do… I'm long far gone in my brain even before I landed in this hellhole… might as well just see this through… So yes… I'm having… One. Bad! Day!
She blinked forwards and slid at Sans, the skeleton threw a kick which missed as Harley pulled into a Blink Strike… Sans caught the knife with Papyrus' scarf and twisted the fabric, flipping Harley over… but mid throw she pulled the blade out with a slash… and blinked to avoid the bones behind Sans had been intending to use… She pulled the gun on Sans again, but the skeleton stepped forward and with superior strength gripped her hand and averted her aim, sending the spike projectile shooting past his skull by an inch and into the wall behind… Sans threw a headbutt, breaking the kid's nose and forcing her to drop the gun… which he kicked behind him… He summoned another laser cannon to fire again… intending to hold Harley there to take the full blast of the beam… the white blast issued forth with a blinding light.
Dredgen Yor: Ha… so, you're the one currently using it…
Harley: What? Who are you… where is…
She looked past the fallen guardian… groaning and pain filled her ears… pain of others… that she inflicted while using this weapon… countless aliens that were humanity's enemy in the Solar system… and Guardians she had defeated with the weapon in the crucible and then some… she looked back at Dregen Yor… he wasn't Dredgen Yor anymore… a skull wept at her…
Papyrus:… I don't understand! Could you at least tell me the reason why you are doing this to us? Why?! Is there no chance of good existing in you at all anymore?
She couldn't answer and choked back her tears… there had been a good reason at the start… but now… there wasn't… just a path she had to take because there was no longer any turning back or repenting…. Papyrus was gone… now The Speaker sat there… no ends to justify the means she had undertaken… her reason twisting into a poor excuse and not even qualifying as one anymore as events went on.
The Speaker: I, had only hoped…that your ghost had chosen wisely.
That voice was filled with tired disappointment… she had been close to The Speaker ever since he helped her purify Thorn and helped her during her earlier unstable days after the FWC experiment with alternate universe viewer memories being implanted into her… A group of guardians came up to her… all bleeding blight from where stakes impaled their bodies… the kind Thorn fired.
Guardians: Congrats on your win using that thing… we lost our mercy of Osiris before this final round, just so you know…
Her vision was tinged with Purple… Sans was no longer holding onto her… but the whirling noise was loud… she leapt up onto the last Chandelier… to look for and spot her opponent… she felt like her body would fail anytime… and part of her wondered if it would be better for that outcome to take place… She powered up the blade dance and threw a Razor's edge at Sans.
Sans: Well, here goes nothing... are you ready? Survive THIS and I'll show you my special attack!
He seized her telepathically again… this time was brutal… he slammed her into pillars with enough force to crumble them… leaving Harley barely any respite to contort herself so that the bones didn't impale her… she attempted one blink, but Sans caught her in mid air and threw her back to where the sparkle and box were… breaking clean through the wall and into a very long corridor… which was coated with bones on every surface… Harley screamed as she forcefully dislocated the bones of her limbs out of their sockets to gain the extra flexibility and agility needed to contort and pass through the barrage she was flying through… Sans teleported a lot intermittently, taunting her with a wink… a shrug… his emptied eye sockets… until she finally impacted another wall in her current state… she forced herself to jump and blinked, using the little air time to force her leg bones back into working place as the wall shoved more magic bones out of itself at her…
Sans summoned his final barrage of Gaster Blaster laser cannons… and they began to surround Harley… she sprinted, but found her exit blocked by more that were coming in as the first fired… forcing herself to turn she jumped and blinked as the beam assault started… staying just behind the beam that was about to finish firing while remaining barely ahead of the ones that just started to attack… she didn't dare blink out of the circle for fear of a change to the pattern or disruption causing her to take a hit… she felt horrible now despite the extra defense from Arc blade… and couldn't imagine the kid's current physical state… Sans telepathy came into full force again… she couldn't even open her mouth to scream as her still dislocated arms continued to pain… As she was thrown from pillar to pillar until they crumbled, through every window… into the ceiling… But there was something about this psychic bashing… Somehow in it, she could feel Sans anger and frustration… a tantrum of sorts even as it was… and most of it was directed at himself for his failure to be powerful enough to stop her rampage…
The throwing slowed and then stopped, losing force with each telepathic toss…Sans dropped the child's body on the floor one final time… but his blue telepathic aura and the glow in his eyes didn't cease.
Sans: *Huff... puff*... All right. that's it. It's time for my special attack. are you ready? Here goes nothing. Yep. That's right. It's literally nothing… and it's not going to be anything, either. Heh heh heh... Ya get it? I know I can't beat you. Once you get a turn to attack again... You're just gonna kill me. So, uh. I've decided... it's not gonna BE your move. Ever. I'm just gonna keep having MY telepathy on you until you give up. Even if it means we have to stand here until the end of time. Capiche?
[H Ghost]: He's breaking… he's tired… and… please… just let him go.
Harley knew the kid was stuck, but she flexed her arms back into their sockets… she could feel fear and frustration in the dimension… though she only felt the latter.
[Harley]: We need a plan…
[H Ghost]: We don't… you've won… we... we've won…
An hour passed…
Sans: You'll get bored here. If you haven't gotten bored already, I mean and then, you'll finally quit. I know your type. you're, uh, very determined, aren't you? You'll never give up, even if there's, uh... absolutely NO benefit to persevering whatsoever. If I can make that clear. no matter what, you'll just keep going. not out of any desire for good or evil... but just because you think you can. and because you "can"... ... you "have to".
[Harley]: He's losing focus… I guess we outlasted him… till he wore out…
[H Ghost]: I didn't know skeletons could sweat… he's still focusing on us… it must be draining…
Another hour elapsed…
Sans: But now, you've reached the end. There is nothing left for you now. So, uh, in my personal opinion... the most "determined" thing you can do here? Is to, uh, completely give up. and... *yawn* do literally anything else… z…zzz
The blue aura shimmered… and lifted entirely… Harley wasted no time popping the kid's bones back into place.
[H Ghost]: I can't belief he just… fell asleep…
[Harley]: More like passed out from exhaustion…
[H Ghost]: You gonna let him go?
[Harley]: Yeah… poor guy… I've caused… way too much suffering here… his words hurt… a lot. But they are true…
[H Ghost]: That's really unlike you… why would you… after all you've…
[Harley]: Exactly… and, I don't feel the urge to kill anymore… if I could have a do over here Ghostie… I'd… I'd do better.
[H Ghost]: I'm glad… you've come to such a realization…
The kid's body stroked sans shoulder and patted him on the head once… but as Harley prepared to leave she suddenly realized something… the kid's body wasn't responding anymore…
[H Ghost]: Wh… why aren't you…
[Harley]… It's not me!
The kid slashed with the knife, but Sans woke up and teleported out of the way.
Sans: Heh, didja really think you would be able-
Chara: Yes, I won't pass this up.
A blink strike followed up… it scored… a bright red wound appeared on Sans… who looked just as shocked to receive it… Harley gasped… that was from her, but it wasn't her will…
[H Ghost]: Why did you… Why? You said you would…
[Harley]: I… that… was my light but it… it wasn't me! I… Oh God… no… please…
Sans coughed once… red trickling out of his mouth… his smile was gone for a moment… as he looked down at his hoodie where a red flower was blossoming from the slash wound… and he grinned, again… Harley felt her organs within turn to lead and sank to her knees… Thorn dropped from her hands… clattering to the side of the dimension she was locked in… She beat her fists furiously on the walls of this accursed place… tears streamed down her face as she ripped the Mask of the third man off her head…
[Harley]: I can't take this anymore! Let me out! Let me out! Let me out! I… I… I… can't… don't want to do this anymore…
Sans:... ... ... so... guess that's it, huh?
He slowly started to get to his feet, closing his eyes and clutching his chest and torso…
Sans:... just... don't say I didn't warn you. Welp. I'm going to Grillby's.
Harley was back in control of the kid… she watched him stagger, stumble… and caught him as best she could when he fell at last…
Harley: I… I'm so sorry… I… really am…
Sans:… you are… but the other you… isn't.
Harley:…
Sans: But they wouldn't be… the skill in fighting is really yours… not theirs… you let them…
Harley:…
Sans: You, knew better… Too little, too late? G…go…to H..ell…
Sans smile brightened a little as that sparkle in his eyes began to dim for good…
Sans: Papyrus, do you want anything?
Unknown to Harley and her ghost as they grieved… the neglected Thorn in the corner began to spew a trickle of Blight…
Harley: It… it wasn't me… it was… the third… 'man'.
What was left in that hall was a pile of dust, a blue hoodie and an orange scarf lying on the floor.