This Place Again
This place again.
It's a beautiful day out. He can feel the sun streaming from above, the sound of birds chirping. Outside, golden flowers bloom. He's just a room or two away from the barrier that kept them trapped underground. Kept... no, wait, it's still there now. The present is just the future's memory of the past. Man, that's seriously confusing.
Sans had seen all of Frisk's memories, of the alternate timelines. They were the one constant which the world revolved. He thinks... he can understand. Not that he can just forgive them for everything they've done... that they were completely innocent or naïve to the process... but that the light of compassion could still exist within them.
Kind of an ironic thought considering he's standing at what's supposed to be his 254th death. They really were kind of a freak, more than Sans had even realized the first time he thought that. The point, however, was that Asriel had sent Sans a few moments before Frisk lost their soul completely to Chara.
Asriel had said this was the one point Frisk could not return to. Once their soul was gone, they could not gain it back. Resetting time would not help such a process, since they were effectively the one constant while the rest of the world changed.
However, this timeline skip had occurred without the human's power. Which meant Sans is the one constant which the world revolves. His grin has become entirely too wide, because theoretically, this human will have no prior knowledge of their future self. Just how Sans had no recollection of the other Sans-es actions... this human should have no knowledge of anything that happened past his 253rd death. Theoretically, of course. He'd know for sure when the human walked in. But at least this way, he could plan.
His plan?
Hm, yeah. He still had to work on that. As Asriel had said, this was a one-time deal. If he died, or if the human used their power to change time... he knew he'd be back to square one. Then time would just repeat itself and he'd be in the same predicament as when the barrier first broke – Frisk having evolved fully into a soul-less demon. He needs to find some way to convince them.
Ding.
The church bell rings.
Ding.
The human emerges from the golden archway, murder etched into their eyes.
Ding.
Their hands and knife are coated in dust, the deaths of countless monsters from the past, this present, and his future still within his mind. Sans and the human stare at each other, for a long time. Each waiting for the other to move or speak first. How much does the human know? Can Sans really act freely? Anything they say could be a lie. Besides, whether they're the Chara of the past or the Chara of the future, they're looking for a fight either way.
"well, kiddo..." he breaks the silence first. Actions speak so much louder than words.
He snaps his fingers and the gaster blasters appear, firing X-shaped lasers against the human. They've always expected him to mix up his own words, to sometimes stop his sentences halfway through and just begin the attack, but it had always been the same pattern. Not this time.
The blasters catch the human off guard, especially since he hasn't turned their soul blue yet. They roll in time to avoid dying, but their clothes sizzle from the magical burn, karma clinging to their soul and eating away their HP. He shocks their soul blue and slams them to the floor, only to summon so many bones from the earth and ceiling that his gravity can't possibly keep the human there for long.
They stumble out of the way again, the bones tearing through their legs and blood. They shriek in some combination of pain and rage; he stops a bone just millimeters from the heart because anymore and they'd definitely die.
"huh. you really don't remember, do you." He feels a lot more confident about this now and his smile is entirely too smug. The 'future' Chara would have expected some kind of crazy attack, but this one seemed to think he'd fall in line with the other golden-hall fights.
They're chomping on a steak, mouth way too full to ask any questions. But their eyes are alit with too many emotions for Sans to properly decipher. Confused, fearful, happy, pissed off. When he doesn't follow up with any other attack, they run at him with a raised knife.
Yikes. He needs to be careful to appeal more to Frisk than Chara, and a challenge is definitely more Chara's alley. His eye glows and he slams them into the ground again, this time the magic around them constricting into a box. His special attack. It's supposed to be a last resort, when he knew he couldn't keep fighting any longer.
But right now...
"let's me 'n you talk, buddy," he pants, a bit strained. Still, he has more energy than if he'd gone through the whole song and dance of a fight.
"What's this? WHAT IS THIS?" Chara shrieks. "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT YET!" They roll around in the box of his magic, flailing like a child having a tantrum. Whenever they get a little too close to his weak border, Sans's eye teleports them back to the center. This isn't working so great yet.
"hey, uhh... so, kid. i know this is supposed to be my two-hundred and whatever-th death, but any chance i could talk to the 'other one' for a bit?" Maybe he can just ask nicely about it.
They stop dead, halfway through a roll, looking at him like he's just said the strangest thing ever. "...What?"
"frisk. i want to talk to frisk," he tells them in the plainest terms possible.
"How do you know my name?" Their voice has suddenly grown very small, still staring at him now in pure shock. "Have you always... do you... remember...?"
Ah, right. In this timeline, he'd never become friends with the human, and so he'd never gotten their name. "i'm like... a different sans than the other ones you've been fighting," he says carefully, trying to put it in as simple terms that they can understand. "look... the other sans-es, they don't remember. but me... i remember even more than you, kid. that's why i'm here."
He slowly sits down, getting more comfortable. Wrapped up in his magic, they can't attack him now. Although, they seem to have stopped struggling anyway... He has to make this moment count.
"i'm from the future, buddy. and let me tell you, it's... not a cool place. i know you think that there's no consequences to your actions, that you can just do whatever and then go back, so it's like it never happened at all, but..." He sighs. "that's wrong. just because the world around you fails to remember... doesn't mean it didn't happen."
He waits a moment for them to say something, to say anything, but they don't. They're still staring at him with wide eyes, and he can't tell how much an impact he's making on them.
"you go through me and past these doors, and you'll really wake that demon within you – and there's no coming back from it, no kind of time travel that can take you back to this point."
Their gaze has become eerily vacant, like they're tuning him out, and he gulps.
"kid... it really comes down to, you can't have everything. you've got to take what you've got and accept it, and move on from there. cuz right now, what you really are, isn't really a person. people make mistakes and work to become better from it, not changing the world instead. right now... you've got to make a choice. if you want to live and be a person, go back and then live with the consequences of your choices. stop this weird messing of people's lives, and remember to be yourself, a you that you can be proud of."
Against his better judgement, he releases his spell. If this is going to work, he needs to have them trust him. He needs to trust them. Frisk... he knows they can do it. They stand up slowly.
"you and me... we've never been friends. not really. but i think we could be." He opens his arms, and steels himself. Whatever happens next... he won't kill them. "let's start now, pal. a goodbye hug, cuz i'm not gonna remember whatever you decide to do. then one last reset, and even without my memories, i know i'll like the real you."
They step forward. Their eyes are expressionless, and he can't tell what they're thinking. But they haven't dropped their knife.
He takes a deep breath, but keeps his arms out. Waiting. They've closed the gap and just stand there, neither hugging nor attack, just waiting.
One hand reaches towards him as if to accept...
The other hand with the knife lunges forward.
"Maybe I like being a god," they sneer, mouth contorting into a strange smile.
He could dodge, but he doesn't. The hit strikes him to the core, and he chokes. Well damn. Their hate is unreal. His bones crack from collarbone to ribs, an ugly diagonal slash across his chest. He thought that maybe, he'd weaken their hate or something. Maybe, his words would get through to them. That he'd actually save everyone. And that they could really be friends.
"well, uh... guess that's it. my one time, time-traveling, and i still fail. heh." He collapses. The pain is surprisingly quick and he's already growing numb, at least this death isn't torture like the others.
"Sans?" The human says with surprising meekness. The knife clatters to the ground, next to his face. "I-I thought you were going to... you could have... I-I thought you'd just try to kill... me..." They kneel next to him.
He manages to lift his face up just to see the other. And with his dying breaths, he can still see the tears streaming down the child's face. He can feel the dust creeping up his legs, erasing himself from existence.
"why are you crying? you're the one that killed me," his grin is lopsided. Maybe... Just maybe, he had gotten somewhere after all. With the last of his power, he reaches his bony hand and rests it upon their knee. "don't make decisions you'd regret... kid. you can do a bit better. i believe in you."
Even now, his last thoughts are of his brother, the same encouragement of Papyrus coming to Sans's mind for Frisk.
"i believe in you," he repeats, because he must.
He knows they can make the right decision.
Notes:
Hey, so! There's just one more chapter of this story left! (I'm awful at estimating how long/short chapters will be, but I know for sure now the next is the last lol.)
Thanks for reading, I'll leave some closing notes then. Until then, Merry Christmas!