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Thank you for all of the Awesome reviews!

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I'm going on holiday for the next two weeks so I won't be updating maybe until the end of the month.

Don't worry, though, I would never leave this 3-parter unfinished!

Enjoy~ :)

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Deja Vu III

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"Sans?" Papyrus asked through the door as he gave a light knock.

Startled, Sans quickly sat up and looked around. Another reset!? Why? A quiet understanding slowly came over him and he lowered his eye lights in guilt. He must have accidentally past out before. He couldn't help but wonder what Frisk must have thought when he hadn't even shown up last time. A frown settled over the skeleton's features as he pushed himself back to his feet.

This had to stop. He had to find a way to end this repetition and the only way he knew how was to save Frisk.

Turning to the sleeping child, Sans let his little brother's speech play out the way it was meant to. Once he was done, Sans released a tired sigh as he leaned over the little girl. Bringing his boney hand down, he placed it gently to the weakened human's forehead. He already knew he wouldn't be able to feel her warmth, that wasn't really what he was searching for anyway. He just needed to know that she was still there. Still alive. With all of the resets, his mind was feeling more than a little jumbled right now.

"guess what, kiddo?" Sans started, letting a small smile form on his skull. "i met your big sis." Eye lights drifting off to the side for a moment, he smiled a little wider. "heh. looks like your were right, she is slightly prettier than that picture you drew. i mean, there's not a huge difference, but i can still tell. she's just a tiny bit more attractive than a crayon drawing made by a toddler."

Letting his eye lights come back to the child's face, Sans felt his smile lessen. "all jokes aside, kid, frisk came all the way down here to see you, so you gotta hang on just a bit longer, okay? she's having a little trouble right now, so i need to go and help her out. you just stay strong, alright?"

Reaching over, Sans gave the small white dog a grateful pat on the head. "i don't know what's been going on in here but you seem to know what you're doing. so keep on keeping her safe, pal. i'm counting on ya." That said, the skeleton disappeared from sight leaving the little dog monster to once again stand guard over the Soulless child.

Accepting the task given to him, Poff placed his head on the little girl's chest as he gazed over to the corner of the room. Ears perking curiously, he carefully scanned the small area for the intruder but they were no where to be found. Where did they go?

...

Arriving at the usual place, Sans was surprised to find the heavy doors to the Ruins reduced to large stone chunks haphazardly strewn around the area. It was almost as if a battering ram or something of equivalent or greater strength had blasted through from the other side. Staring down at the rubble, Sans noticed an obvious trail speckled with blood. It looked as if someone had been dragged through the snow, and from the size and shape, he could easily guess who.

Staring into the darkness of the Ruins, Sans followed the trail of blood with his eye lights. He'd been too late this time, he concluded grimly as he stuffed his boney hands into his jacket pockets. Any moment now, time was going to be reset again. He'd just have to wait and try again next time.

Minutes past and the increasingly anxious skeleton was still waiting. Why hadn't there been a reset yet? What was wrong? Patience running thin, Sans summoned one of his blasters and stepped past the debris and into the Ruins. He didn't know how her magic worked, but if she hadn't used it by now then it must mean that she wasn't able to. Maybe something was preventing her from doing so. Whatever the problem was, he needed to find Frisk and help her however he could.

With its eye lights brightly glowing with cool energy, Sans used the large canine skull as a source of light as they descended into the darkness. For some reason, this wasn't exactly how he had pictured what was behind that door. He hadn't anticipated the deathly all consuming silence hidden within the shadows of vines.

Actually... now that he thought about it... He should have expected to see vines. But... not this many.

Upon closer inspection, Sans felt his metaphorical skin crawl when he discovered that the walls had become just a solid mass of blackened vines. The crystalized thorns jutting out every which way took on the appearance of glimmering gems in the cool glowing light. Unconsciously, the skeleton distanced himself from the wall, choosing to take a more centralized path down into the Ruins. He did NOT want to get touched by those vines again. Once was already too much.

A little further down the path, Sans caught sight of a red glow just up ahead. Entering into a small room, the temperature rose drastically as his eye lights quickly zeroed in on a familiar form laying in a mound of burnt flowers. Unmoving, Frisk was on her side, seemingly unconscious as visible waves of heat distorted the air around her body. She was so hot right now, she was actually becoming incandescent.

"what the..." Sentence trailing off, the skeleton slowly lifted his skull when he noticed the countless vines pointing towards her like deadly javelins from nearly every direction. He didn't have to be a scientist to understand why they hadn't already impaled her. The heat was repelling them. Just by standing here, he could feel the heat seeping into his bones, attempting to bake him from within. Not even he could withstand this temperature for very much longer. It was nearly comparable to a lava pit inside Hotland. He didn't know how the hell she was doing this, but if he was going to help her, he had better to do it fast.

Formulating a tactical diversion plan on the spot, Sans held his aching skull with one hand as he forced himself to summon five more blasters. This wasn't nearly enough to fight off all of these vines and he knew it, but maybe they might be able to give him just enough time to grab Frisk. As she was now, he couldn't do that physically, but then, he didn't really need to. This was going to be really tricky and if he didn't get it exactly right, they were both screwed.

Placing a boney hand to one of the canine skulls, Sans silently delivered his instructions. Its eye lights glowed a little brighter as it locked onto the vines before quietly hovering over to the far side of the room. The other blasters followed suit, all taking slightly different directions.

Once in position, the blasters opened their mouths wide as they began charging up their laser cannons. Sensing the build up of magic, some of the vines began losing interest in the incandescent human and turned their focus on the new arrivals. Losing their ridged spear-like appearance, the thorny appendages began to exploratorily wander towards the large canine skulls.

Sans took careful note of this. The vines had been distracted even without being attacked, almost like they were being drawn to something. They had targeted him directly a couple resets ago as well. It had happened instantly, right after he had teleported... Eye sockets widening slightly, Sans finally understood. They were attracted to magic. When he had teleported, he must have caused a small burst of magical energy that had alerted them to where he was. These vines weren't exactly sentient, they were only acting on an instinctual level, and right now, Frisk was the most magical being in the area.

Turning his attention back to the shimmering human, Sans knew what he had to do. He had to somehow rival her magic in order to distract the vines. The skeleton winced as he pressed a boney hand to his throbbing skull. Things were about to get very loud very soon. It was now or never and he couldn't afford to not give it everything he had.

The darkness of the small room was eradicated as the first set of blasters began their assault. Loud concussive vibrations shook the area, causing the already weakened ceiling to crack, sending stray chunks of rock tumbling down from overhead. The blackened vines writhed and convulsed from the magical disturbance, and the majority of them had already begun to lash out in mindless retaliation.

Flinching in pain, Sans stumbled away from the living wall of angry vines as he concentrated. His skull felt like it was splitting in two as he forced himself to summon even more blasters. He had ten now. No. Scratch that. Now he only had eight. That would have to be enough...

The small room had become a swarm of activity as the large canine skulls struggled to both draw in and fend off the vines at the same time. They were doing a pretty good job holding the focus on themselves as they attempted to back down the opposite hallway. Still, there were some holdouts. Some of the vines hadn't budged an inch as they continued to loom over the glowing human.

Sans had considered attacking them directly with a volley of bones but had ultimately decided against that idea. He couldn't afford to be reckless. Maybe if he just reached out and remotely moved her instead, they might not react aggressively. This would only work if the amount of magic he used to do this was less than the amount she was already using. If it was more, then the vines would target him. There weren't nearly as many now, but he still wasn't sure if he could evade all of them. If he got caught again, it was game over and he knew it.

Still, he had to try. Lifting his hand, Sans carefully reached out with his magic. To his great relief, not a single vine took notice of this. Wrapping his magic around the unconscious human's ruby red Soul, he slowly and gently lifted her body from the mound of blackened flowers. Arm dangling limply below her, something red hot fell from Frisk's glowing hand. It clattered to the stone floor before rolling away.

Some of the vines, confused as to what they should pay attention to, went after the stone, while the others followed the floating human. Sans didn't bother to speculate as to what that object had been as he focused on the task of drawing Frisk to him, while at the same time attempting to keep his distance by backing down the hallway he had originally come.

As awkward as this way, It was the only way he could think of getting them both out safely. She was still way too hot for him to let her get too close. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was good because she was still repelling the vines, but it also hindered his dreams of a quick getaway since he couldn't lay a hand on her. At least this offered her a bit of protection...

Or so he thought.

Lashing out, one of the blackened vines latched onto the human's legs, coiling around them in a tight constriction. Convulsing harshly, an audible hissing noise could be heard as the plant-like appendage began to sizzle and smoke. Despite being burned, it held strong, refusing to let go.

Feeling the thorns digging into her flesh, Frisk gasped as her eyes snapped open.

Sans cursed under his nonexistent breath as he summoned a pair of sharp bones and sent them flying, severing the vine in two. He should have been paying closer attention! If he had, he would have noticed that her temperature had been dropping. Whatever that thing was that she had been holding, it must have been what was keeping her hot. Without it, she was cooling down fast and the vines were no longer being repelled.

Acting on impulse, Sans yanked the human to him with a jerk of his hand. Her smaller body collided into his chest like a tiny molten meteor, causing him to take a step back from the impact. She was still so freakin' hot! Cringing in pain, Sans wrapped an arm around her waist and teleported the hell out of there with a large burst of magic.

Appearing just outside his sentry station, Sans quickly released his hold on the human, letting her body fall to the snow with a small thud. Steam instantly erupted around her as the snow melted beneath her smoldering form. Eye lights going out completely, the skeleton stumbled forward before crashing to the snow beside her.

...

He didn't know how much time had past, but when Sans finally opened his eye sockets, a searing pain throbbed to life inside his skull. It hurt so bad, he could almost feel it in his teeth. To put it simply, he had one hell of a headache. Not only that, but his whole body hurt and his energy levels were definitely in the red.

Pulling himself up from the snow, his eye lights landed on the unconscious human. Sans stared down at her vacantly for a moment as his mind finally caught up. That... hadn't gone the way he had planned. Even so, he had still been able to get them both out in one piece. Kind of. Leaving her snow dusted face, Sans let his eye lights wander down her body to her legs. They were bloodied and stained with blackened scratches that appeared to be slowly spreading.

Sans still didn't know what those black marks were but he knew that Frisk was afraid of them. She didn't seem to think they could be healed either. Still... They could at least give it a try. After all, the healing stars had been able to fix just about everything else. And even if it doesn't work, her legs will still be healed so it was worth a shot.

Kneeling beside the human, Sans gently placed a boney hand to Frisk's cheek in an attempt to wake her. She had probably just passed out from the sudden teleportation. It affected Fearia the same way, but it shouldn't last this long. Though, he still didn't know exactly how much time had slipped by while he was unconscious.

"frisk." Sans tried again as he gave her cheek a light tap. "come on. ya gotta wake up now." He received no response whatsoever for his efforts. She was out cold.

Sighing, Sans gave up his attempts to rouse the sleeping human. If she wouldn't wake up, then he'd just have to bring her to a star himself. Slipping one hand under her legs while the other supported her back, he gently lifted her from the fresh snow. Immediately, Sans was struck by just how light Frisk was. Sure, she wasn't anywhere near as light as her little sister, but she was still much lighter than he had initially anticipated.

Cradling the girl to his sore sternum, the skeleton's eye lights caught sight of the red stain on the bare rock where her head had been resting. Maybe that was the real reason she wasn't waking up, Sans thought grimly as he failed to suppress a wince. He needed to get her to a healing star quickly.

Teleporting to the fork in the road, Sans scanned the area in futility. He knew there was a star here somewhere. Papyrus had sent him a picture of it, but he couldn't quite remember where it had been. With the human in his arms, the exhausted skeleton wandered around the forested area in hopes of activating the invisible floating star-like object.

It had taken a minute or two, but he finally found it when a bright light flashed in front of him. Letting out a small relieved sigh, Sans stepped towards the light and carefully held out the human girl. Quietly, he watched and waited as the star got to work trying to repair her injured head. If he had to take a guess, he'd say that this was probably what had prevented her from resetting. It was reasonable to say that she most likely couldn't use that level of magic unconsciously. Even though he didn't know much about it, Sans was willing to wager that time manipulation magic definitely required a certain level of coherence to preform properly.

Minutes past by in silence until the strings of light finally began to migrate down Frisk's body to begin on her scratched up legs. Tentatively they reached out for the bloodied abrasions in an attempt to begin the healing process. What happened next was startling to say the least.

The dark lines from beneath her skin began to wriggle like some sort of living parasite before her cuts started to ooze black liquid. Latching onto the strings of light, the inky substance surged upwards, quickly flooding the floating star with darkness. The healing star shuttered slightly as its light was snuffed out in an instant. A second later, audible cracks could be heard as hairline fractures broke out over the star's now crystalline surface. Alarmed, Sans took a step back as the healing star suddenly shattered into tiny pieces of blackened shards.

Okay... that happened...

Letting out a silent gasp of pain, Frisk's eyes finally opened and she squirmed in discomfort.

Taking this as his cue, Sans complied with her wordless plea and set the human back on her feet. She swayed for a moment before her legs simply gave out from underneath her.

Landing in the snow with a small thud, Frisk stared at her legs in horror as panic began to rapidly rise up inside of her. She had to reset! Right. Now!

"wait!" Sans urged as he knelt down next to her. "before you rewind time, hear me out first."

Shakily, Frisk lifted her gaze to stare up at the skeleton. Even though she was scared out of her mind right now, she waited to hear what he had to say.

"whatever those vines are, they're being drawn to your magic." Sans started as he studied the swirling torrent of crimson colored energy contained within her Soul. "is there a way for you to tamp it down somehow? maybe make it a little less noticeable?"

Taking a deep breath, Frisk gave a small nod as she tried to calm herself down.

Sans watched as the restless energy inside her Soul gradually began to subside, and with it, the ruby heart's red glow lessened ever so slightly. Now he understood, her magic levels had been spiking due to stress. Who could blame her? Having to redo the same harrowing experience over and over and over again would put a strain on even the most hardened monster. The fact that she hadn't given up yet, was admirable to say the least.

"good." Sans gave a satisfied nod as a smile appeared on his skull. "now, let's try to come up with an actual plan this time."

Lifting her hands, Frisk quickly signed something out, a questioning look on her face.

Privately lamenting the fact that he still couldn't understand her, Sans pressed on. "how about this? instead of trying to make it out of the ruins on your own, i want you to try and find a safe place to hunker down and wait for me. i'll come and find you this time. do you know of a good place where you can hide?"

Looking away from him, Frisk hesitated as a small frown formed on her face. She obviously didn't like this idea.

Reaching out, Sans placed a boney hand to her shoulder as he tried to argue his point. "we can't just keep doing this day over and over again - it's not getting us anywhere. don't you think it's about time we try something a little different? come on," he started, giving her a reassuring smile. "you can trust me. i'm gonna get you outa there."

Turning back to the skeleton, Frisk began to lift her hands before lowering them again. Furrowing her brows, she looked conflicted for a moment before staring up at him imploringly with those hazel eyes.

Sans watched with a certain level of amusement as she mouthed out a single word.

*Promise?*

Heh. He should of seen this coming, Sans thought as he gave a humored shrug. Those two really were two peas in a pod. Sighing, he relented easily. There was simply no way around it.

"i promise."

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Be back by the end of the month. :)

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In the next chapter, Sans embarks on a very important rescue mission.

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Sheii Bae~