It was disorienting to be one place, blink, and then open your eyes to somewhere completely different. I was sitting in that bed of flowers and Alex was sitting there in the grass, holding my phone out to me.

I knew how resets functioned, but I think part of me didn't realize it would happen so fast. Maybe I didn't even believe that it would actually work.

I stared at Alex like I'd never seen her before and she looked at me in concern. "Ri, did you hurt yourself falling?" she asked me.

And as I looked at her, watched her worry about me, I was overcome with emotion I couldn't control. I pounced forward and fell on top of her, hugging her to me.

"You wanna fuck right here?" she asked. "Come on, kind of weird timing, don't you think? We could've done that anywhere."

"Shut up," I muttered, pressing a kiss to her lips. I forced myself not to cry, because that would be too hard to explain, but considering the fact that Undyne and Alphys were out there, entirely okay, I was so happy I could burst.

I didn't know about Sans, but I couldn't worry about him right now. We were still in the Underground, which meant I couldn't let my guard down. I didn't know how Chara worked exactly, but I knew that we might still be susceptible to her influence.

I couldn't let this happen again.

"Alex, I need you to listen to me."

"Okay…" she said, looking at me like I had gone crazy.

"The Underground is really weird, from what people have told me about it. It feeds off of people's energy. If you think bad thoughts, bad things could happen."

"… Alright?" She still thought I was insane, but she was listening. She usually took me seriously even when I was being a nut-job.

"We need to go through here and be super positive about everything. We can't think about anything unhappy. Think about our friends, about graduating, whatever. Anything."

"About Halloween coming up and how hot we'll look?" she asked.

I blinked for a moment. Whoa. Right. We went back in time. Halloween hadn't happened yet. She hadn't bailed on me yet—and maybe she wouldn't this time, since I now knew her antisocial behavior was Chara all along.

"Yeah, that," I agreed. "There's going to be a flower in the next room and he's going to have a face. He's going to talk, but we're gonna plug our ears and not listen to a word he says. And most importantly, we are going to see some golden lights and we're going to want to touch them but you can't touch them."

Alex blinked at me for a long moment. "Riley, you've officially lost it," she said matter-of-factly.

"Oh yeah, years ago," I agreed, "but I would feel better if we were careful."

"No, I agree," she said. "I'm gonna be honest, I'm starting to wonder if this is a good idea. It seems kind of like desecrating someone's grave somehow."

It was a lot more like that than she even realized.

"Yeah, me too. Maybe curiosity really did kill the cat."

"Never thought I'd see the day," Alex said, smirking down at me.

I shoved her shoulder even though she had a point. Caution was not one of my strong points. "Point is, we're going to get out of here as fast as we can, okay?"

She nodded.

We ended up not even running into the flower in the room he was usually in and I convinced Alex that I found the Riverperson on accident in Snowdin. We quickly went through the castle and I didn't even look at the stairs to the basement.

We got through the Underground much quicker than last time. It wasn't even noon. Sans wasn't even up yet.

I shouldn't have thought it, because when I did I immediately started tearing up, and Alex noticed.

"Whoa, Ri, you're totally all over the place today. What the hell is going on?"

"I'm sorry," I muttered. "Sorry. I just…" I realized that I couldn't be entirely dishonest. I had to tell her something. "I didn't want to admit it, but Sans and I got into a fight yesterday."

After a moment, she gave a mischievous smile. "You guys are secretly dating! I knew it!"

It wasn't technically true now that we'd gone back in time, but it felt true anyway. "Not anymore," I replied. "It was a bad fight, Alex. I did something I promised I would never do. He said he'll never forgive me."

Alex snorted.

"What the fuck about this is funny?" I snapped.

"It's funny because obviously he's gonna forgive you. He's totally in love with you."

"Not after this."

She was still shaking her head like I was being stupid. "Want to tell me what you fought about?" she asked in a tone that seemed to know I wasn't going to tell her. Before I could think of a proper response, she added, "I'm guessing this has to do with whatever you've been hiding from me for weeks now."

I blinked. "What?" I asked dumbly.

"Ri, I know you way too well to believe that you were in that three day funk over your mom. You never let her get under your skin that much. I don't know why you can't talk to me about it, but whatever it is, Sans is going to forgive you. I bet you next time you see him, he'll already wanna kiss your face."

"I'm really not so sure."

"Well, if all else fails, do that sexy thing you do with the coat and the boots and he won't be able to resist you." What she meant was when I wore my long pea coat and my Docs—but only that. It was a thing I sometimes did when I was Domming with her and she was convinced it was the hottest thing on the planet.

I barked out a quick laugh. "I'll keep that in mind. But we should get going. Undyne's gonna want to hang out later and you have homework."

I said it before realizing that I couldn't just tell Alex what I knew was going to happen, but she didn't say anything about it, so I hoped we could pretend it hadn't happened.

It was nearly torture to wait until a time that Sans might be awake to go see him. I ended up sitting on Alex's bed and staring at the ceiling while she worked on her essay. Then I told her I was going to go try to make up with Sans and she told me to at least wear the coat, saying I could take off all the clothes underneath it if I needed a fool-proof plan.

I rolled my eyes… but I actually did wear the coat.

Because it was warm. Not for seduction.

When I got to Sans' place, I walked in without knocking. Papyrus didn't even notice me as he hummed in the kitchen and I barged into Sans' room.

He was sitting on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

"What are you doing here?" he asked coldly.

He was smoking in his room, which he was definitely not supposed to do under Papyrus' rules. He refused to look at me.

I didn't know what to say at first, because I had caused his voice to sound this dead. I had let him down.

But I also knew in my heart that Sans was wrong. He was being self-centered and was too caught up in his depression to even realize it. I'd been through enough depression that I knew how it felt, and how selfish it could make you. You'd do anything to stop feeling that pain, anything at all. I couldn't bring myself to be frustrated at Sans because I understood and acknowledged how hard this was going to be for him… but I also wanted to make him understand that I couldn't have done it any other way. Letting him go through this wasn't easy for me, but it was what had to be done.

Words came to me. "Is there any part of you that can get why I did this? I wanted to save Alex, Undyne, Alphys. Everyone." He only shook his head and looked towards the wall and my eyes burned, but I clenched my fists and said, "You have to come help me cave in the entrance to the Underground. I can't do it alone."

He flicked some ash onto the ground. "When did we agree to that plan? What if I think it's stupid?"

"We have to try, don't we?"

"What does it matter?" he said venomously. "You'll just reset again like—"

"I didn't touch any of the lights while I was down there, Sans. I can't reset anymore."

He finally sat up and looked at me. "What?"

"Yeah. I'm never making a save point again. If you don't trust me, then help me seal the entrance to the Underground and I'll never be able to get down there anyway."

His mouth was still set into a bitter scowl. "How do you know you didn't fuck up again? Maybe Alex is still possessed."

"She's not." I wasn't sure why I felt so certain. I knew I'd still have to watch her, but I was pretty sure we'd gotten through okay this time.

He huffed in frustration.

I sighed and came and sat on the bed. He flipped over so he didn't have to look at me, snuggling with the wall. "Sans, did you really expect me to let everyone die? To let Alex suffer? Would you have done that if you were in my position? All those times Papyrus died, didn't you convince the kids to reset? How is that any different?"

After a moment, he turned back over to look at me. His gaze was just a little reminiscent of how he would have looked at me twenty-four hours ago, back before all this madness—or should I say three months from now? Resets, man. They were weird.

"Ri… you don't know how many times I've had to relive the same things over again. How many times I've had to be reminded that nothing matters. That anything and everything can be reset. If you cave in that entrance, someone else can just reset all over again. And next time it won't be you, meaning that you won't remember any of it. Everything we had will be gone and I can't imagine looking at you when you don't know me."

The fact that it came down to me in the end gave me a little hope that I had to forcibly quash down. Instead I considered the fact that if Alex and I couldn't reset, then only Frisk could, and something in me was sure Frisk would never reset again.

But how could I say that? It's not like I was ever going to promise anyone anything ever again. There was nothing I could say to make him feel better. It's likely he wouldn't even let me. Too caught up in his depression. Too hurt to think straight.

I really did understand the feeling, which only made it harder to watch.

His cigarette had burned down to the filter, so I carefully took it from his hand and set it in the ash tray—it was not the first one in there and I wondered if they were all from today.

I wanted to apologize again, but I didn't see the point. I was learning lately that my remorse didn't fix my wrongdoings and saying I was sorry all the time didn't do anyone any good.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if the best thing I could do for him was to leave him be. Looking at me pained him.

I stood up.

"Well you don't have to help me close the entrance," I said, "but I'm gonna try."

I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I knew for a fact there were explosives that could be made from household products. Thank God for Google.

"Wait," Sans said.

I was almost out the door. I looked back at him.

"Did you mean what you said? That you didn't make a save point?"

"Yeah."

"And you never want to again?"

"Not in the slightest."

He nodded, sitting up. "There's… there's something we can do. I never thought you would go along with it, but since you didn't save when you were down there…"

"What do you need me to do?" I asked him. I didn't think there was anything he could ask me to do that I would refuse at that point.

"I need you to help me destroy the lights."

I stared, my mouth falling open. "You know how to do that?"

"Theoretically, yeah. You get shit like that when you travel through time as much as I do. But only a human who hasn't made a save point can do it. If you do this, nobody can reset ever again."

"Okay. What are you waiting for? Let's go."

I opened his door and stood in the doorway.

"You mean it? You'd be willing to do that?"

"Obviously. Let's go."

"There's no going back."

"Sans, do me a favor and shut up." I gestured out the door and he stood, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "I told you, I don't ever want the power to reset again."

And with only a nod, he went out the door.

Sans took us to the entrance of the Underground. "I can't teleport in and out," he said. "Too much magical interference. We'll have to get down there ourselves."

I nodded and we walked down the path together with his magical ball of light between us. It felt nice to be so close to him, especially since I was pretty sure I'd never be close to him like this again after this. This truce was temporary, that much I knew.

We jumped down together and this time I landed on my feet.

"We're gonna run into Flowey," Sans said. "If he talks, just—"

"I don't think he'll be there. He wasn't when Alex and I walked through."

I ended up being right. He was nowhere to be seen. Sans told me I had to guide him to the light, since he couldn't see it.

When the Ruins loomed overhead, I told him we were there.

He nodded. "Okay. This is what you do."

He guided me through what I had to do to destroy the light. It was mostly the power of thought and a little bit of his magic, which didn't surprise me. The Underground was full of the power of thought.

Once I had it down, I went over to the light and performed the steps. He told me to be careful not to touch the light in the process, because then it wouldn't work.

I performed the last step…

But the light was still there. Wasn't it supposed to be gone?

I looked over to Sans. "I don't think it worked."

He was just staring at me.

"Sans? It didn't work," I repeated. "You watched me do it. Did I do something wrong?"

His pupils had gone huge and I felt like I was missing something.

Then he said, "You didn't even hesitate."

"What?" I asked blankly.

"I didn't think you meant it when you said you'd destroy it, but you didn't even give it a second thought."

"Of course I meant it. Why would I lie?"

"I thought that after it fixed the last problem so conveniently, you wouldn't want to give the power up."

I shook my head. "I didn't do what I did out of convenience. Hurting you the way I did was not the easy choice. Both choices sucked. What it came down to was responsibility. My true mistake was coming down here at all. If I never had, I would never have learned about save points and I never would've even needed one, because Chara would have stayed trapped. It was my responsibility to undo what was done because I fucked up. And now the fuck up is fixed and I've learned from it. Save points are not the answer. They're the problem."

In fact, when I really thought about it, I wondered if the save point itself was how Chara was able to control us. Alex did say something controlling people through their determination, which was amplified each time they used a save point. Sans had thought it was some kind of bloodlust that she latched onto, but maybe it was determination all along.

But I didn't think about it for much longer because I noticed that the grin on Sans' face was suddenly genuine. And after a moment he put his arms around me.

That was when I realized I'd been duped.

How convenient it would be if Sans just magically knew how to get rid of the save points. If he really did know how to do that, he would've gotten me to destroy them back when I had no idea what they were.

It was all a test. He wanted to see if I was willing to get rid of my ability to ever reset again.

"So there's no way to destroy the lights."

He let go and shook his head, rolling his eyes. "I can't even see them, Rye Bread. How would I know how to destroy them?"

I smirked. "Wow. Guess I'm pretty gullible."

"I mean, this doesn't change anything, not really," he said after a moment. "Everything can still be reset. But it means a lot to me that you're willing to lose that power."

"I only did it to save the people I loved, and only because it was my fault they were hurt. I never want to do it again."

He nodded, finally seeming like a bit of him understood. "Yeah." I still saw the hopelessness in his eyes. I really had hurt him by resetting and I knew I wasn't entirely forgiven. He had months of reliving his life ahead of him and that was on me. He truly was the collateral damage of my mistake, and I wished I could change that.

"I'm sorry I let you down," I finally said.

He sighed quietly. "Like I said before, everyone makes mistakes. I meant that. I've fucked up plenty in my time—even fuck ups like yours where people died. And you know what? I've never had to live with them. Someone else ended up resetting for me every time, so it wasn't really fair for me to tell you to just deal with it when I've never had to. I…" He stared at the ground—looking pensive, troubled.

He didn't talk for long enough that I got a little concerned.

"Sans?" I asked tentatively.

He finally looked up at me, his eyes sad in a different way than before. "What I asked you to do was actually pretty fucked up, wasn't it? I mean, you told me you could save hundreds of dead Monsters, including some of my best friends, and I told you not to do it because it would make me a little uncomfortable for a couple months."

It's funny how during an argument, you could want so badly for the other person to admit you're right… but when they finally do you just feel shitty about it because of what they had to go through in order to get to the same conclusion you had.

Yesterday, I wanted so badly for him to see reason, but watching him realize that ignoring what he wanted was the right decision on my part didn't make me feel smug or proud of myself. It made my chest ache, my eyes burn. Now that he was realizing what he was truly asking me to do, he was disgusted with himself.

I didn't say anything, because I didn't want to lie but I definitely didn't want to shove the truth at him. I was sitting there trying to think of a response, but nothing really came.

He exhaled, his tongue darting out to wet his lips nervously as he considered the events of the last couple of hours. "Wow," he concluded. "I'm a complete asshole."

I still didn't know what to say, but I knew that he wasn't quite being fair to himself. I stepped forward to try to comfort him, but he stepped back from me, seemingly reflexively. "I'm sorry. I can't."

"I'm not trying to kiss you," I said quietly.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I know. I just—"

"You don't have to explain," I said. "I knew resetting meant that what we had was gone." It took a lot to say that without choking up. I didn't think that Sans understanding the decision I made was going to make him feel any better about how much the next couple months were going to suck. I never considered that he had the energy or will to actively hate me, but I also didn't think I could fix it with some well-meaning words. "Can I have just one more day with you?" I requested timidly. "Walk me through the Underground. Tell me about your life."

He looked at me thoughtfully for a long moment before affording me half a smile. "Yeah, okay. For old time's sake."

Things were almost normal as we walked through the Underground. He told me happy stories and we laughed. I wanted to hold his hand a million times, not just because I wanted to touch him, but because I wanted to console him. I was sure he still didn't want to let me. Maybe he was being butch, or maybe he didn't trust me anymore. It was hard to know.

I barely even looked at the lights.

We finally got outside and it was sunrise. We'd taken forever to get through, since we were walking slowly and we hadn't even skipped Hotland this time.

"Did you want to cave in the entrance?" I asked.

He looked at me for a long moment before sighing. "I feel like the universe would make me regret it if I tried to take things into my own hands like that. We'll just have to let it be."

"I really won't go down again." I knew better than to promise again, but I sure as hell meant it.

He nodded, but I wasn't sure from his expression if he actually believed me.

After a moment, he took my hand and teleported me to my front porch. His hand stayed in mine, maybe out of habit. I was too selfish to let go, figuring he would soon enough, when he realized what he was doing… and until then, it wasn't a total crime to steal a little comfort, just for a few moments.

Especially considering what I now had to ask.

Part of me didn't want to ask the question, because it sounded so stupid, but I had to know.

"Can we still be friends?"

He huffed out a little chuckle. He saw the humor in the line too, but not for long. His expression was sad and he let go of my hand, trying to make it sly by immediately scratching the back of his head. Did skeletons get itches they had to scratch? All I knew was that it was far too cold without his fingers in mine. Then he said, "Of course. Always."

"I just thought… you said you couldn't forgive me."

He shook his head, looking frustrated. "I can't believe I said that. What am I, a baby bones?"

"You were upset. People say things they don't mean when they're hurting."

He shrugged noncommittally.

"But this doesn't change anything," I added after a moment. He looked so guilty suddenly, and I really wished he'd tell me what he was thinking. Did he feel bad that he couldn't give me what I wanted? Did he want to take back some of the harsher things he said?

But he didn't say anything at all, and I knew what the silence must have meant. Even without animosity between us, too much had happened for us to just go back to where we were.

Finally, Sans let out a chuckle. "Ri, you could do better than a bonehead like me anyway."

Well, that was a rejection if I'd ever seen one. It still stung, even though I knew it was coming.

But we were still going to be friends.

And that was enough.