A shortcut later, Sans and Undyne are standing in Asgore's flower garden. Sans has the human suspended in mid-air with blue magic. They're struggling mightily to get free.

You see Asgore's huge bulk across the way.

"Asgore?" Undyne addresses him.

He turns and you're fully confronted with how big he really is. He is massive and muscled enough that you think he could probably lift up the front of a car with no issues. Heck, he could probably lift it up and throw it.

His expression is friendly, but his face falls immediately when he sees the human.

"Another one?" he asks Undyne. He turns his huge furry head away like he doesn't want to look at the human, frowning sadly.

"I was going to kill them myself," Undyne says, and glares at Sans. "But Sans insisted on bringing them here. Even though the human killed dozens of citizens in Snowdin."

"Oh...I see," he replies, turning back to them. He looks horrified on hearing how many deaths there were, but resigned too, like he'd come to expect nothing better from humans. Some of the regret leaves his face.

He steels himself. "I did not want you to carry this burden, Undyne. I am grateful to him. Now please, both of you, leave this to me."

Sans puts the human down, and carefully blocks off their path back to the rest of the underground with magic bones, making sure they'll never return to harm anyone else. Then he teleports himself and Undyne away.

The last you see of the human is them rushing at Asgore like a snarling animal, while Asgore summons his fire magic and his trident and prepares to meet them.

When Sans and Undyne exit the shortcut, they're in Waterfall amidst glowing flowers and mushrooms. Sans puts his hands in his jacket pockets and walks slowly and contemplatively a short distance to a cliff with a good view, looking out at the sparkling cave.

"What's up with you, Sans?" Undyne questions him as she follows to keep up, sensing his unease. "We should be happy. Monsters will be free as long as Asgore wins. And if he doesn't win, I'm seriously going to hate you, so you BETTER hope he wins."

Sans shrugs. "i don't know...something doesn't feel right. the other fallen humans...from what i heard, they might not have been all good, but they weren't all bad either. this one felt so wrong i'm not sure they're completely human."

"Hmph." Undyne grunts indifferently. "So long as their soul works the same, I don't care if they're part rock."

Sans' shoulders tense at her cold words.

"you know, i didn't want this job. i mean, sending a kid to die, because i judged them? who am i to judge anyone?"

Undyne narrows her eye. "Don't go back on me now, Sans. Asgore and I are too angry not to kill every human we meet for what they did. If you capture them, then we'll execute them without regrets. If not, and they choose to fight us to obtain a soul so they can get through the barrier and escape to the surface, then it's us or them. That's an honorable fight."

He sighs. "i know. this just isn't what i wanted. i don't want anyone to die. i wish more of them had chosen to stay with us."

Undyne's face softens. "If the other humans had done that, if they had cared that much for us, and if they didn't hurt anyone...I might've been persuaded to look the other way."

He looks at her curiously. "you really sure there's no regrets?"

She looks caught out, and then sighs, giving in to his perceptiveness.

"You never met any of the other humans, so you wouldn't know. I only fought two of them. But I watched them. They MIGHT have had some good points, even though they were our enemies. I MIGHT have had some doubts. I'm glad I didn't have to kill them myself. Sometimes I felt like this new war was turning us into people I didn't recognize. Monsters aren't meant to be cruel like this, and it felt cruel. What Asgore was doing, I mean. Other monsters would show mercy to a human who was kind to them, but Asgore never would, no matter what they tried with him."

Then she hardens again, stomping her foot and brandishing her spear with righteous anger. "But this human...for everything they did, for all the people they killed...they deserve to DIE!"

Sans doesn't reply but he doesn't disagree with her anger either. They wait patiently for a few minutes until Undyne's phone rings, playing the song of a famous human anime show. She answers and talks for a minute, then hangs up.

"Hah! Alphys says he won!" Undyne smiles like a happy shark.

"well, good." Sans looks relieved, but still bothered by something. "we're actually free then?"

"He got the soul! WE - ARE - FREE!" Undyne yells jubilantly. Then she sobers. "I mean...this isn't really a day I should be happy, after so many died, but maybe this makes their deaths mean something."

"maybe."

"Hey, why are you still so moody?" Undyne asks him. "I know it's been a dark day, but we should be happy about this. It's a victory. You're usually the one taking everything too lightly, but now you're making me want to cheer YOU up. I know that's a sign there's something you're not telling me. So spill it."

"there was just something in that kid's eyes. it felt like they knew something i didn't. they weren't scared of being imprisoned at all, and they didn't show any fear when i mentioned asgore."

"Aw, I'm sure it's fine! What can they do to us anymore? They've been punished for their crimes, they're gone, and we're free!"

"guess you're right. will asgore really be okay with that many souls inside of him?" He has a bad feeling that everything is not going to be all right, but he decides to put it aside for now.

"Alphys said he should be strong enough. He'll probably make the attempt soon. Maybe we should go back and see if the two of them need any help, though."

"alrite. i'll take us back there if you want," Sans says. She nods, and he prepares to shortcut them both back to the castle.

But before they can take the shortcut, he senses an overwhelming force sweeping the world, like a soundless thunder, only a second before everything goes black.

...

The scene in front of you goes blank. You'd been so wrapped up in it that you'd forgotten all of this isn't real - it's Sans's memories he's showing you. Now though, all your sight and sound is completely cut off. You debate about making a nicer mental place to be in, but you hold off on that for the moment until you can ask what he wants to do.

You can't see him, but you sense him thinking, and doing the mental equivalent of looking at you, or inspecting you.

You start to get nervous. "Uh...so what now? Do you want to stop?"

"i just wanted to know what you thought of what i showed you so far."

"It's horrible! That was a massacre! I knew about it, but I didn't really understand what that meant...how awful it would be to live through. I felt like they were going to kill me too. I was so afraid they'd kill us. I was so afraid you were going to show..." You trail off.

"the human killing us?"

"Yes. You and your brother."

He's quiet for a long time. "that didn't happen until later."

"she's afraid. she didn't want to feel the physical pain of that happening through my memories...and...more than that, i get the feeling she just didn't want to see us be hurt. that's a good sign."

Did he mean for you to hear that? Of course you don't want to see them be hurt. He must have a really low bar of expectations at this point.

"Oh." Maybe they won against the human at first? How many tries did it take for the human to learn how to defeat them?

"i'm trying to decide if i want to show you more, or stop." You feel the hurt in his voice mentally, and from that you can guess what this kind of exposure to these memories is costing him.

He finally decides, "i'll show you the next day. that's all i can stand right now, and that's all i want to trust you with."

"and i might learn something from her reaction to that part...how much does she really know?"

That last part sounds like he didn't intend for you to hear it, but it's hard to hide your thoughts when you're in this mentally shared space in your minds, and this thought is too strong for you to not pick up.

His emotions have been becoming increasingly more intense, and that's saying something, considering how much he'd obviously been feeling right before he started showing you these memories, when you were both still outside the wall he built up to protect them.

Secretly you're grateful he's calling a stop to this soon. You're starting to reach your own emotional limits and you really need a break. You're fine with continuing to talk to him about it, but seeing it all in front of you like this is just too much to take for long.