Making a hasty retreat from the house, you swoop into the shadows of the nearby alley just in time to see a pack of royal guards trotting towards your door. You expected as much, but not this soon. The old new ruler sure doesn't waste her time.

As you wait for them to finishing turning your house inside out, you rest your head on the wooden wall and overhear a door slam, followed by a conversation from the open window of Snowdin's shop:

"Oh my god are you sitting? You better sit down because I have SUCH. NEWS!" The excited voice sounds somewhat familiar. Probably one of the plentiful bunny folk. "The king's gone missing! And the queen showed up after god knows how long!"

"Yeah, I'm aware. The guards are barking so loudly it's hard not to notice that something is going on." This calmer voice is definitely familiar for it belongs to the shop's owner.

You scrunch your somewhat inflexible face as much as it can allow. Seems like gossip is as fast underground as it is aboveground. Being the center of all the fresh and juicy buzz never feels nice. You're about to move elsewhere when Sans stops you.

'hey, wait. let's hear what they has to say.'

'Didn't you tell me that " eavesdropping is not cool" ? ' You try to make an impersonation.

'heh. yeah, I did. but in this circumstance "eavesdropping" turns into "gathering useful information."' You shake your head slowly at that, though concentrating on the dialogue regardless of your opinion.

"I know right? I can't believe it! And I've heard she has a human by her side. Can it really be true?"

"No way. Where did she even find a human down here? It's just gossip, I'm telling ya." What's the name of the vendor again…? You've heard it once or twice but it keeps slipping away… Vanessa? Vivien? Velvet...? Oh well, not like it's important anyway.

"Who knows these days... I also heard she's very angry! And somehow she blames Sans...? And sent guards to capture him? Like, what did he do? Avoided his job like usual? Or told her some bad joke?"

"Now that really is weird."

"I think that the queen's gone insane after all the years of living alone and killed Asgore in a streak of madness and now wants us to blame Sans."

You snort out of indignation, luckily that sound was overshadowed by another bunny.

"Shush! What's that on your shoulders? A turnip? Who in their right mind says things like that out loud!?"

Their voices hush to whispers but you still can catch some of the things they are saying. From what you've figured, Toriel is the ruler now with Frisk staying beside her. Now humans are all welcomed underground and Sans... Sans has been declared a traitor. The full wrath of this woman has befallen on you.

'don't blame her, buddy. we all ended up in the wrong place at the same time.' Sans says in a calming tone.

'I know. I know. This timeline sure is messed up beyond repair. We have to reset, but for that we have to get to Frisk first. Which is going to be risky… Ugh, I didn't count on ANY of this happening!' you think with a hint of despair, pulling on the laces of your hoodie with your teeth. 'What Asgore did, even if it was awful, was understandable and I should've expected to stumble upon Toriel at some point, but her seeing my soul? This is just insane! And me?' You make an attempt to hide your face in the hood. 'I'm an absolute idiot! Not only did I not take any of the souls, but it looks like I scared Flowey away…'

'nah. you did what you thought was right. it just… didn't work. i dunno why. i seriously don't know.'

'Neither do I! My plans are crumbling apart and I'm not sure I can come up with new ones to replace them- Wait a second.' Some ideas crawl into your head. 'Sans… You knew about the hiding spot. Does it meant y-'

'ya think i knew 'bout the souls all along?' Sans interrupts you, smirking. 'no. i had no idea what these mechanisms are for. i never bothered to ask asgore 'bout them or about the souls. that's none of my business. dunno who even built those.''

'I bet it was Gaster.'

'well, uh, probably. the guy sure was productive.'

Before you can continue your conversation, the guards finally leave the house. Now they have company. With a heavy soul, you watch as fluffy warriors escort Papyrus down the stairs, sharp spears aiming at him. Even from far away you can hear that he's asking something about Sans in a loud, confused tone.

'Toriel won't hurt him... right?'

'she is a fierce lady as it turns out, but…' Sans sighs. 'yeah who am i kiddin'? i have no idea. let's follow them and make sure.'

With a double dose of worry you tail the white dog tails as they make their way through Waterfall, yet they didn't go past it, instead turning right before the Blook family's snail farm.

'What? They're leading him to Undyne? Huh…'

When the sharp teeth of the door snap behind the guards' backs, you crouch forward and peek through the window of the fishy house, trying your best to remain unnoticed.

The blue fingers tap an improvised marching rhythm on the table top. "Okay, Papyrus. Can I trust you with something?"

"WHY OF COURSE! I AM THE TRUSTWORTHIEST SKELETON IN THE ENTIRE UNDERGROUND!"

"Uh, sure... Listen here and make sure to keep your mouth shut about this. I think that human brainwashed all of us, including the queen. I also think that Asgore and Sans were onto them or got in their way so that's the reason they're missing. That's why we're going to storm the castle tonight. Almost all of the guards are with me... NGAH!" She flips the table and it flies above Papyrus' head, crashing into the front door. "We're going to get to the bottom of this even if it's the last thing that I ever do!" She relaxes and crosses her legs, squinting her single, yellow eye. "So tell me… Are you with me?"

"B-BUT-" Papyrus attempts to stutter something, but Undyne is having none of that.

"ARE YOU WITH ME OR AGAINST ME!? She roars at him, jumping to her feet, her face right in front of his."

The skeleton takes a step back but quickly recollects himself, standing up against her. "THERE IS NO NEED TO BE SO HOSTILE, UNDYNE! WE ARE ALL FRIENDS DOWN HERE!" His smile is almost as cheerful as usual and double as friendly. "SO I'M SURE WE CAN FIGURE SOMETHING OUT WITHOUT FIGHTING!"

"Ugh, Papyrus you are SO naive..." The fish warrior rubs her face, slowly calming down. "Anyway…" She continues, going around to pick up the table, putting it back with one hand. "Before taking action I would like to talk to Sans. He always seems like he's up to something and this time he might want to cooperate as his situation is... sticky… He is your brother, you know him better than anyone else. Find him and bring him HERE!" She says in a commanding tone, landing a hit to the table. The poor innocent furniture cracks and folds into itself. "...please," she adds after an awkward delay.

"OH, THAT'S IT? WELL! EASY-PEASY!" Papyrus proclaims cheerfully. "HE'S HERE ALREADY!" And then he points at the window right where you're standing.

'WHAT THE-' The abrupt thought flashes behind your rounded eye sockets.

"WHAT THE-" You had a split second to hear Undyne echoing the notion before you quickly teleport out of her sight.

'Sans, I swear to god your entire family is a freaking pile of mysteries!' You yell mentally, looking down the capital's alley you randomly hopped into and grabbing your chest to calm down your panicking soul.

'heheh.' The low voice chuckles in the back of your head. 'true that. ya have no idea how many of my pranks failed just like that. sometimes paps manages to surprise even me.'

'Well gee willikers…' You take a few minutes calming down a reassessing the new information. 'So they're going to attack. That's no good. They might hurt Frisk! Many can get hurt, actually. But on the other hand… It might provide a distraction to grab the kid and pull them out of there.' You think about that for a bit and then shake your head discarding that idea. 'No. That's way too dangerous. We need to act before they do.' You glance at the ceiling that is getting more and more murky with each passing minute. 'It's getting dark already.'

You teleport into the kid's room of the New Home as you anticipate Toriel to be housing Frisk there. For once the luck is on your side. They are here, already asleep on the bed that previously belonged to Asriel. After a brief hesitation you call out quietly to wake them up, "Hey, kid."

Slowly opening their eyes, Frisk notices you and as soon as they do the kid jumps slightly and scurries over to the far corner of the bed.

"Uh, what's wrong?" you stare at them holding onto their chest, like they're trying to shield it from you. Then a thought occurred to you in which circumstances you had to split up. "Wait. You… You think I'm going to take your soul…? Oh gosh, kid. No. I would never-" You rub your face, trying to gather your thoughts. "Listen, whatever Toriel told you it's not exactly true. I didn't took any human souls... actually- This might be complicated but I'll try to make it simple." It's going to be a challenge to explain something you don't even fully understand yourself to a child. Especially with the time limit, but this might be your only chance to regain Frisk's trust. "Let me properly introduce myself." You cough and look intently at them. "I'm not really Sans. My name… Well, just call me Berry. I'm a human, just like you."

Now, more than ever, their face looks like their in-game sprite with doubt written all over their squinted eyes.

"I know it's hard to believe it! But take a look for yourself." With a frantic wave of your hand you let your souls free from your chest. "This soul it's my soul and this one inside... see? It's Sans' soul. I took over his body, but not on purpose, honestly! And he is still here."

'say hi to kid for me.'

"He tells you hi. We are friends with him, alright? We're in this together, Sans and I. But the others, they don't know that. I didn't expect for Toriel to find out so soon…" Now Frisk's face is half doubtful and half perplexed, yet not even a tinge of trust can be seen there. "Still no…? I'm sorry I confused and scared you. Yes, I attempted to take these souls while you were about to fight Asgore, but all I wanted is to help you! To help everyone… And… I could've taken your soul back then, at Snowdin, y'know. But I didn't. And I'm still very, very sorry for what happened... Look, I gave you a chance, kid. Just like you asked. Now will YOU give me a chance?" you ask, offering them your hand.

There's a light knock on the door, that makes you shudder. "Child? Did you say something?"

You suppressed the rising panic and stare at Frisk with a silent plea.

"Child?" The voice of Toriel raises, filling with worry.

Frisk stands for a moment, biting their lip. Then, slowly, they put their hand into yours and nod. The small palm feels so adorably soft and warm. As cheesy as it might be, but this feeling fills you with determination.

The second before the teleportation you whisper, "Thank you."

Standing in the hidden corner of Waterfall, beside the lonely bench that hides the remnants of the abandoned quiche, you drop their hand as well as a deep sigh and say, "Here's the plan. Wait here for around five or ten minutes and then restart the world. We'll meet again when you'll exit the Ruins and figure something out."

They tilt their head and frown.

'berry…' Sans voice echoes the notes of terror rising in his soul.

"It's… It's going to be okay."

'berry, NO.'

Frisk grabs your sleeve.

"It's- It's okay… You trust me, right? And I trust you to reset…" You mutter, trying to carefully pry them away, though it proves to be hard with your hands shaking like you've caught a fever.

'don't even think about that.'

'Do you have any better ideas for how to fix what happened? Because I don't. Someone has to answer for my mistakes. Preferably me.'

The baffled silence is your answer.

'I'm sorry that you have the most useless screwup for an ally Sans, I'm really sorry…' as you talk with Sans, you feel Frisk tugging on your sleeve.

They keep tugging until you finally look at them. Then they stare at you and shake their head.

"Darn it kid…"You chuckle nervously and reach out to pat their head. "I'm flattered that you worry about me, but… We have to save Asgore. Don't you agree with that?"

They look down, thinking for a bit. Then they nod.

"We can't bring him back as long as both of us… you know… And I don't want you to get hurt again. You've been through enough as it is. So… yeah."

You slip out of your jacket, leaving it dangling in their hand and throw it behind your back, "I trust you."

The cold calm and quiet of Sans' laboratory you've dropped into via teleportation contrasts heavily with the fury of your emotions. The red of your souls pushes back the darkness with an ominous glow.

'berry, buddy, pal, sunshine. maybe chill for a moment?' Sans begins to try and reason with you once again. 'there's should be another solution to this.'

'Like what? Hold hands and wish for everything to be fine? This timeline can't be fixed and I won't let anything bad happen to the kid. Not again…'

'but… uh… there's no need to rush. we can just sit with the kid and think of so-'

"No rush!?" You bark out loud with a tinge of irritation. "There's an angry goat woman that takes no explanations with all of the guard on our tail! There's an angry fish woman that still hates humans that is going to storm the castle tonight! There's an entire underground that is going to be against us no matter who wins the throne! There IS no time and there is nothing else we can do, Sans!'

'c-come on…' He's still trying to protest, though you know he perfectly understands that you have no choice either. He's just stalling for time, waiting for the fear for your life to take hold and change your mind. Sans is good at that. At stalling, at waiting, at talking, but that won't work. Someone has to do the most painfully obvious action and it has to be you.

"Imsorryimsorryimsorry…" you mutter, voice quivering as you know that it's going to be awful, you know that Sans would have to feel the same pain, you know that with all of your trust in Frisk you still might never get back to life after this, but before any of this kicks backs any sort of sense into your head you summon a long and sharp bone needle and pierce it right through the floating hearts.

Your combined souls definitely hold more than one hit point or it might be that your intent for harm isn't strong enough. No matter the reason, your agony lasts way longer than you had expected. Huddled on the ground you gasp through the waves of shredding pain, each new breath comes harder than the previous one. One last faint sigh and it all goes away, replacing the reality with welcoming darkness.

The void is all around you once again.

Though there's no you.

There is nothing. Nothing at all.

No rush. No bother. No pain. No sadness.

The vail of emptiness is like the most comfortable of blankets. It shrouds you completely, covering you from everything, from all the hardships and stress of the world and doesn't let go, promising to always stay like that... forever… eternally…

But that is not deserved yet.

There are still struggles to go through, battles to fight, bonds to make. People to save. You can't abandon these quests and these people. Even if they don't know you. Even if they'll forgot about you.

The rest isn't earned. The journey isn't over. It is only the beginning.

You have to stay determined.

The red flare, brighter than a thousand suns consumes everything and then washes away, giving the space for the familiar lettery void.

This time, however, you and Sans aren't alone in it.

The silhouette builds itself from the letters, like these silly pictures that creates 3D illusions. Except it's not an illusion. Someone is manifesting before you and you think you know who it is.