Chapter 24: Everyone Makes Mistakes

Was this one of those 'boss monsters' Flowey told him about? Liam gulped and stumbled backward, almost loosening the grip on his weapon as he stared in awe at Sans' new form. The guy was fucking huge.

"Don't freak out. It'll be a piece of cake. This bonehead's all looks and only has one HP." It was Chara again. The child rarely spoke, but when he did, it was normally words of encouragement. Liam was very grateful for the kid, who became friends with him since falling Underground. From the looks of things, nobody else was able to see Chara. That was perfectly fine with Liam, who figured he would rather be Chara's only friend anyway.

"Only one hit point? How do you know that?"

"I've fought him many times in the past. He looks different now, but he'll probably still be a pain in the butt to hit. You could say he and I have... bonded after all those fights. He gets all excited when he hears my name. You should try it: Just say, 'Chara.' Hehehe..."

Okay, fuck that. Liam trusted Chara, but only so much. He knew that the kid was testing him, hoping that he'd go for it and have something 'fun' happen.

Sans gave a low growl and glowered at Liam, as it looked like the human was simply talking to himself. The corners of the boy's mouth twitched into an anxious smile and he ran his fingers through his jet-black hair. He tugged at the red scarf around his neck, stepping back and shifting all his weight onto one foot. Some thinking may need to come into play. Perhaps there would be some actual difficulty in killing this particular monster. With the intention of attempting an attack, Liam decided to approach slowly this time. He shuffled forward carefully with one hand stretched out, tucking away the blade for a short moment. He had been hoping to bring Sans' guard down - perhaps the creature would think the boy meant no harm - but to no avail. Well, the beast wasn't stupid, that was for sure.

It seemed that even though Sans was no longer capable of speaking, and apparently was not in the right state of mind to make rational decisions... he was obviously still quite riled up over the fact that Papyrus was gone - and rightly so. The long bony tail that had come with the change in form whipped to and fro dangerously in the air. He snapped his massive jaws in the direction of Liam's hand, as if meaning to say, "I'm not gonna trust any kindness from some filthy murderer."

Liam swiftly retracted his hand before he became an amputee and let out a frustrated growl himself. He brandished his blade as he looked about the area for some idea on how to approach the insufferable monster. All the other monsters he killed were of decent size, and there were no difficulties that presented themselves while he went about doing so. That ranting dummy, the weird child-sized talking rabbit, that wolf... Oh, right. There was that repulsive spider too. She had been causing him a few problems and wasn't letting him pass through because he wouldn't buy any baked goods, so he had no choice but to off her as well. He didn't quite like bugs and arachnids anyway, and the thing was wasting his time. But this one monster...

This one was huge and pretty much unapproachable. That tail would pose as an issue and could easily cover a large area while in the tunnel. It would be hard to avoid. And... How does one damage bone as thick and durable as that? Sans was now much more thick-boned than Papyrus was.

The boy had taken one second too long to think; before he knew it, he was thrown onto his back and pinned down by one of Sans' gargantuan claws. Liam gasped as the wind was forcibly taken from his lungs, trying to get at the beast with his knife... but to no avail. Sans' glowing blue eye flared for but a moment, and Liam's blade flew out of his hand. It clattered faintly in the distance, and his hope went right along with the thing.

Shit.

The skeleton beast drew in close to the offending human, sharp teeth gritting together and producing a screeching sound like that of nails on a chalkboard. The noise was too much, and made Liam's ears ring. The human grunted and tried to push the claws away, but Sans overpowered the boy by a long shot at that point. Sans unhinged his jaws and Liam gaped fearfully as an ominous special attack grew and pulsed with magical energy in the monster's mouth. The thing was preparing something deadly just for the dark haired child. It would be one that the human couldn't ever hope to survive. Sans fixed his gaze on the red scarf around Liam's neck and tightened his claws around the boy's fragile ribs.

It took a while to find her way through the CORE, but Ebony eventually made it to the throne room. The CORE was probably one of the biggest pains she had experienced. A plethora of rooms and hallways with a shitload of lasers littering the place? And the noise of machines running and what-not... The girl didn't want to experience any of that again.

Now, unpleasantries aside. . .

If she read the map in her Torn Notebook correctly, the Barrier would be past the room with the thrones and down the hall in the back. It was the map that Undyne had worked hard to draw out. Ebony used the heel of her left hand to rub at her cheeks, which were still streaked with tears. The big, ridiculous argument with Undyne was vividly replaying over and over in her mind. Ebony did admit... The words that were so hastily thrown at each other were highly unnecessary. People say and do dumb things when they're pissed off. She wished she hadn't made the mistake of saying any of those horrible things to her best friend.

It wasn't until she reached the throne room that she noticed more of the weird gray dust. Toriel and Asgore hadn't used those thrones in a while; she supposed it made sense for the dust to collect over time. But why was there so much of it?

The dust led from the throne room and toward the back, through another doorway. Ebony followed it curiously, shoving the notebook in her back pocket. The corners of the book dug uncomfortably into the right cheek of her ass, but the bulky item wasn't something she felt like holding at the moment. As she stepped along and followed the thin trail of dust, the young woman jumped in her sneakers and looked up while the ceiling shook. Debris drifted down to the ground in slow motion, making the woman wave the area in front of her with her hand so as to avoid the inevitable clouds of dust that billowed up. The dust coated the back of Ebony's throat when she inhaled, forcing her to break out into a coughing fit. She thought she had heard a monstrous bellow that reverberated down the dim hallway. Ebony gulped and peered down the hall with tears in the corners of her eyes from all the involuntary coughing. Well, she was so close to the end already... She'd be a damn idiot if she were to turn back now.

When she finally made it into the tunnel, Ebony grabbed nervously at her tattered scarf, struggling to find a way to collect her thoughts. She tried to find the source of the loud noise. A strangled, pained cry loosed itself perhaps in the next room over and the girl immediately shaped up, breaking into a frantic sprint down the tunnel. What the fuck was that? She had to help whomever was falling victim to the owner of that roar from a moment ago. There, in the distance, Ebony found a creature of impressive stature bearing down on a human under one of its feet. This upset the girl greatly, who suddenly felt the need to say something. Anything would do.

"HEY!"

Yeah... Anything but THAT would have done just fine. Real original, Ebony thought with an inward cringe. So much for coming off as heroic. But the word that she had barked aloud had caught the monster's attention all the same. Sans paused a moment and twitched in recognition at hearing the girl's voice, with Liam still struggling to escape from beneath the skele-beast's death grip. This gave Ebony enough time to make it to Liam and kick a couple of times at the claws that held him down.

Though he wasn't injured physically by the action, Sans seemed to give a snort of surprise and loosened his hold on Liam. Ebony quickly dragged the boy to his feet. Liam let out a wheeze and gasped as air filled his lungs once again.

"Are you okay? What the fuck is this... thing?" Ebony's green eyes moved along Liam's body to ensure that no major damages had been made after having been assaulted by the skeletal beast.

"That... He..." Liam began weakly, but was soon cut off by a threatening growl from Sans. Ebony whirled around and accusingly pointed one index finger at the skelebro, her eyes narrowing.

"You! Shut up! I don't want to hear another bone-shattering roar from you. I don't know what you are, but it gives you no right to attack a human! You're a bad monster!"

Sans seemed to flinch from being scolded, but he shook his massive head side-to-side and huffed as if trying to remember something important. That human... was special to him... somehow. And did she just throw out a weird pun without thinking about it? Something about hearing a pun again stirred a sense of familiarity within him. His deadly tail whipped down on the ground from frustration as a barrage of thoughts and instincts clashed with one another in his brain. The brown hair and green eyes... Sans struggled to remember what was so special about the woman. The thought was just within reach, but he couldn't summon it even if he tried.

"I knew you were going to show up eventually," said Liam as he cracked his thumbs one at a time with his chin. His voice was still ragged after being pinned down by Sans from a moment ago.

Ebony turned back to Liam and opened her mouth to say something, but caught him in the strange force of habit and let out a gasp of surprise. She only knew one person who did such a weird thing. And those sharp, green eyes... So unlike her own mossy green ones, but still oh-so-familiar. She hadn't paid much attention to it earlier. Even while standing and slumping over from aching, Liam still stood taller than Ebony by a good few inches. Because of the height difference, it didn't feel likely...

She was afraid to say it, lest she assume incorrectly, but swallowed down the lump in her throat and forced the name from her lips anyways with squinted eyes and furrowed brows.

"Brenn. . .?"

"There is no 'Brenn.' The name is 'Liam' now."

"What?" Ebony shook her head in disbelief and held the back of her hand up to her mouth, struggling to make sense of the situation. "Since when? You've always been 'Brennivin'-"

"Since the day I woke up from the... 'coma,' was it? ... and found that you abandoned me. For a life with monsters, apparently. 'Brennivin' died the day I lost my way and fell Underground. I was trying to kill myself... Guess I jumped down the wrong ravine, huh?" Liam let out an empty laugh and rubbed at his chin with his knuckles - another strange habit of his that he did when he was upset - while he glared coldly at Ebony. His eyes flickered up momentarily to check on Sans. The monster was still shaking his head and trying to sort his thoughts out; the poor idiot. "My only friends have been Flowey and Chara. Chara was right, you know; killing that other skinny, dorky skeleton would make for a world of changes - and really quickly, too."

Sans reacted harshly to the name 'Chara' and dug his claws into the ground with a sudden hiss, leaving deep, horrid marks in the dirt. Ebony took a step forward with widened eyes, grabbing Liam by the shoulders and shaking him roughly.

"Did you say...? You killed Papyrus? Is that his scarf?!" Ebony felt a chill run down her spine. Her brother spoke of murder a little too easily, and she wasn't quite happy with such a notion. The feeling. It was stepping straight from the happiness of reuniting with her brother and stumbling right into a whirlpool of disappointment and sadness. What had become of Brennivin? The bright, positive musician who made for a much better sibling than Ebony herself? "You fucking idiot! Why would you even kill Paps? He's got such a good heart - And you became 'friends' with Flowey? That thing is NOT a friend, Brenn! And... who the fuck is 'Chara'? Nobody else is here!" The girl stopped when she saw the despondent look on her little brother's face. She immediately felt remorse; this was not how she wanted their little 'reunion' to go.

"Oh, Chara's right here. He's been with me even while you came down here to stop this beast. Do you think I had a long list of 'Great Friends To Choose From' on hand in the first place? Do you not remember how 'good' those other kids were to me on the Surface? You're stupid," scoffed Liam with a shrug. "Besides, Flowey's been pretty good to me. I dunno about you. At least he and Chara don't ditch me. And I didn't realize until I got down here that killing's actually sort of fun. It's a good way of letting off steam. Chara was the one who introduced me to the idea in the first place."

Liam drew in close - much too close for comfort, even for his big sister - and spoke with derision as he stared down at Ebony.

"Don't call me 'Brenn,' Ebony. I'm not that naive little... music-obsessed... brat."

He shoved his sister away roughly. As soon as the brown haired girl hit the floor, Sans was on Liam in an instant, his tail creating a high-pitched whistling through the air and slamming the boy square in the chest. There was an audible, disgusting CRACK before the dark haired child went flying and hit the wall, making the tunnel shake dangerously. Ebony let out a wild scream and tried to scramble to her feet as quickly as she could, while Liam crumpled like a rag doll onto the floor.

"BRENNIVIN! Oh god, oh my god why did this thing even - God dammit, why the fuck did you do that?!" The young girl ran toward the skele-beast and pulled her folded knife out from her pocket, flipping it open with a cry of despair. "You... fucking monster! That was my brother! I swear to god if you killed him, I'll - Jesus fucking christ, are you. . ."

Ebony had caught the magical glowing blue eyes and tried to skid to a stop when it clicked in her brain about who this monster actually was. It was the only possible punster Underground who used blue magic the most. However, she realized a little too recoiled at the sight of another knife and swiftly jabbed his sharp, bony claws forward into Ebony's gut. He lifted her up with ease and flicked her body off to the side, his eyes darting around frantically as he searched for any other offending weapon. Ebony hit the floor roughly and rolled a few times, eventually stopping on her side as she fought to catch her breath. Her green eyes caught sight of a mangled package just within reach.

Trying to block out the feeling of white-hot pain in her belly, the young woman reached out with her bloody hands and clawed weakly at the package, which had been torn open after all the chaos in the tunnel. Sans must have accidentally stepped on it or something when he became... whatever he was now. Or maybe it was just what he always was:

A monster.

Ebony's fingers scrabbled for the fabric in the package and she pulled it into view. It was difficult to make out what it was at first - even more-so because the girl was dizzy from losing blood so quickly. It was a skater dress with cute little music notes adorning the bottom half. It was... perfection. The color of the dress matched her scarf, to boot. Tears gathered in the girl's eyes and fell to the ground in droplets the size of pearls when she recognized it as her birthday surprise from Sans. It was simply too innocent-looking for a filthy human like her. But this was partially the reason why he had gone to the Surface. He had done it for her sake.

The blood from her massive open wound slowly gathered around her body. Ebony's limbs began to twitch occasionally against her will due to the shock of blood loss.

Sans rapidly came down from his adrenaline high. He lumbered over toward one of the walls to rest as the feeling of awareness returned to him, feeling the well of magic in his body die down until it was at the usual comfortable level. He soon found himself crawling on all fours as a regular skeleton again, and not as a gigantic beast. Standing up dizzily, he noticed he didn't quite have anything on since changing into that terrifying form destroyed what clothing he did have. It was very difficult to remember what had happened while he was in that beast-like form, but he vaguely remembered... Liam. Looking around in a panic for the human who was about to kill him, Sans found the boy dead on the floor against the wall. Whatever had done the job had been used with such force that Liam's ribs and chest were caved in. The skelebro didn't think there would be any saving for that human.

Breathing a sigh of relief because he didn't have to do the killing this time, Sans scanned his surroundings to find the package that had Ebony's gift inside of it. He didn't have his own clothing, but he needed to make sure that the present was safe. There, lying much further off in a pool of her own blood, was Ebony... with the present. She seemed to be holding the dress close to her face. With a look of pure horror, Sans' eye sockets widened and he teleported over to the human. Totally disregarding the fact that he was stark-naked - so to speak - the skeleton dropped to his knees in the blood and desperately reached out in vain for the girl, letting out a strangled cry of despair. She was a little too far gone to see the tears that dripped from her boyfriend's eyes. The dress Sans had bought for the girl was now bloodied, and though he tried to move it away from her face, Ebony did not want to let go of the thing. She fought weakly with the skelebro and moved her lips soundlessly. Sans couldn't hear what she said until he leaned in close to listen carefully.

"... thank . . . you..."

"No... No - nonono - babe, you're not... This is just a sick joke... right?" Sans laughed shakily as he sat up and held a hand up to his head. "Heh... You know I love jokes, but this is goin' a little too far, baby! Joke time's over, okay? I-I mean, I just got back, I was excited to see you, and you were supposed to try the thing on so I can tell you how beautiful you always will be, a-and how much you make the dress shine because you're the one wearin' it... I, heh, already had everything planned, and I was so ready to sweep you off your feet after seein' the look of delight on your face! . . . I... I already lost Papyrus... I can't just - Jesus christ - I can't just lose you too..."

He shook his head with another borderline hysterical laugh, making Ebony's green eyes shift slowly so she could get a good look at him. The girl wanted to apologize to him for cheating on him. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to hold him and thank him for everything, and most of all, she even wanted to thank him for helping her die... because she wouldn't have been able to live with knowing that Brenn was alive the whole time, Underground just as she had been, and knowing that Sans had just as quickly killed the boy off within minutes of the siblings' reunion. Did the skelebro remember doing anything while his magic was out of control? Ebony wouldn't have been able to handle knowing any of that if she were living.

It was better this way. And Ebony wanted so badly to thank Sans for that.

"Baby - Sweetie, h-hey... Who did this to you, baby?" Sans was afraid to find out who had done the damage. Was it the same one who had killed Liam as well? Was he the cause of all of it? His fears were confirmed when Ebony's eye contact did not break with his, focusing as best she could to convey to him that yes, unfortunately, he was the very monster who had done all of that. Blinking tears away in disbelief, Sans sobbed and reached down for Ebony's hand, intertwining his bony phalanges between her own fingers, which were growing colder by the second. The girl was losing too much blood, and it was all his fault. He wasn't even aware that he had killed his lover. He... wasn't even sure what happened to make him change into an animal the way he did. Was it really the fracture in his skull? He felt pretty sure about it. There were plenty of things about his magic that he had yet to learn. Sans knew he had lost control over his own magic for a good amount of time, and had never before experienced such an anomaly until the cracked skull event. The excessive amount of anxiety he felt made his bones rattle noisily as he trembled uncontrollably.

He wanted to teleport her to safety, to Toriel's house in the Ruins, to Alphys' Lab... SOMEWHERE. He wanted to save her so badly. But with the state the girl was in, Sans just couldn't guarantee her life if he simply pulled her along with magic like that. He knew better than to attempt such a thing.

Ebony felt her eyes involuntarily roll up to the back of her head. She was getting... so tired. It was an extreme effort to keep her eyes open, despite hearing Sans' low, constant pleas to stay awake. His voice was her lullaby, and she eventually closed her eyes for the last time after trying unsuccessfully to pull his hand up to her face.

Sans stared down at his girlfriend and watched helplessly as the light left the girl's beautiful green eyes. His teeth clacked and his mind spun as he forced himself to look away. He felt himself dry heave a few times. No... No, he didn't want to be there. All of it was a nightmare, and he'd be waking up in a cold sweat soon... Ebony would be lying next to him, easing him patiently out of his silly anxiety attack like she used to do. She'd sing softly for him whenever she slept over at the house. Sans waited for the impossible to happen and choked back a harsh sob when he realized he had no choice but to somehow force himself to accept that he had lost the two people whom he held dearest to him.

He hunched over Ebony and finally let his tears fall onto her cold body.

A/N:

I'd like to take the time to apologize for my long period of absence. *she bows*

This story isn't quite done, so dooooon't think it has stopped already! :)

A whole bunch of things have happened to me in the past couple of months and my tablet was having issues, therefore preventing me from posting anything properly from the comfort of my home. I'm very grateful to those of you who are still reading this, and I am even more happy to those of you who have taken the time to type out reviews! Thank you thank you thank you.

Anyways, moving forward... I had this chapter typed out some time ago, so while I had no internet connection to post it, it simply meant I had more time to go through the content and change things as I pleased. I'm sorry I went and did that to them. I guess we'll have to see how Sans handles this. :'3

I'll be seeing you guys at the next chapter! :D

- LostInnocenz