Empty eye sockets stared at the burning husk of a door. Sans was struck dumb by the sight. He didn't move. He didn't breathe. He just stood there and stared and the burning remnants of the monster he admired more than any other.

He could still remember the day he had found out that this house was for sale. It wasn't even a question for him. He had made the offer with as much cash as he could get his hands on in less time than it would have taken him to walk all the way down there. No one else even bid on the house; Sans suspected that no one else could even remember that the house existed for long. That was the effect of what had happened to Gaster. Everything that was connected to him became unmemorable.

This house, the family home that Gaster had grown up in but rarely went to, still held his biggest secret. In the back of the house, hidden under a giant tarp, was the machine. Sans honestly had no idea what it did. It was big, it was complicated, and it was Gaster's. That's all that mattered to him. He spent hours fiddling with the thing just to try and figure out what it was. He failed.

Now Sans was terrified to crawl into the ruins of the basement and find out if that machine had survived. He knew it would all be back in the next RESET but that didn't matter to him right now. What mattered was that there was someone else, who not only could see the little hidden door, but could get into the locked basement, had broken in and destroyed the only connection Sans had to the Uncle he loved and admired more than any other monster. So when he heard the sound of dirt being bowled aside Sans spun around with herbicide on his mind. Flowey had a scared and worried expression on his face. Sans didn't believe it for a moment.

"what do you want?" Sans growled. The voice spell gave him an unnatural ability to make any sound he could imagine.

"I came to warn you! I saw a really shady monster messing around with this door back here. I already told Papyrus, and I've been searching everywhere to find you!" Flowey said. Sans could practically read the lie on his face.

"yeah right," Sans snarled, his voice deep, rumbling, and capable of scaring the daylights out of humans and monsters alike. "you and paps are the only other people i know who can see this place. don't even try to convince me it was him. there's no way Papyrus would do something like this." That was when Sans made the biggest mistake of his young life. He summoned his best attack, the blaster that Gaster had designed for him personally, and said, "now, do your weird little timeline thing. otherwise you're in for a bad time."

Flowey's face switched away from concern in less than a second. His mouth twisted into a cruel smile with four fangs nearly meeting in the middle. His normally small slits that Sans couldn't help but think of as eye sockets were blown wide, baring the red pin pricks in the center of the sockets that turned his whole face from amiable to evil.

"I knew it," Flowey said in a chuckle, "You do remember. What is it, smiley trashbag? Are you upset that I destroyed your little toy?"

That nickname was like a slap to the face. Sans scowled. No one should call him that but his siblings! Without even thinking about it Sans let the Gaster Blaster he had summoned loose on the tiny little plant. He didn't even bother to dodge. The paltry 1 DMG Sans could deal did hardly any damage at all, which meant that Flowey hadn't hurt or killed anyone this time around. Darn it. Sans relied so much on that Karmic Retribution of his. He was useless in a fight without it.

Even now he could feel the heavy drain on his magic from the blaster forcing him to his knees. When they hit the dirt Sans heard it. Flowey's laughter would haunt him for a long, long time to come. The blaster fizzled out as he fell over. He'd used up all his magic on that one spell. As he slipped into unconsciousness, cursing his own inability to judge his own stamina, Sans heard those terrifying words.

"Now, let's see. What do I want to do to you first?"

Chara groaned as they got up from their position kneeling on the floor. 82 years was a long time to be alive for a human, and their arthritis was nearly crippling them now. That wasn't the only thing that was wrong with them. They hadn't told Mom, but they couldn't see out of their left eye anymore and could barely see out of their right. They suspected it was linked to those white floaters in their eyes. It made life difficult to say the least. And there were so many times now that they felt their heart skip a beat. They weren't sure how much longer they could take it.

That exhaustion with their own body had led them to the plan. It was simple, really, and inevitable, too. Dad was always going on about how they were going to be the saviour of monsterkind. Now they were dying, so they needed to make that death count.

They'd done their research about this. Any monster could absorb their soul after they died and go through the Barrier with it. If they did that, then they could find some humans, kill them, and take their souls back to the Underground and use them to break the Barrier. That would let the monsters they loved finally see the sun they so longed to see. Dying would be worth setting them free.

The only part of the plan they weren't sure about was that monster. Who could they convince to do it? Mom and Dad would try to stop them, Papyrus was too nice, and Sans was too young. No one else was close enough to them that they would feel good about letting them absorb their soul. Also, they would need to be there when Chara died, and Chara was pretty sure that Mom wouldn't let a stranger in to do that. That left Azriel. He was easy to convince to do things, but he was so gentle… they'd just have to be the one in control when the killing began. And they'd need a good story to convince him to do it in the first place. What could they say?

Chara looked over at the wall of artwork and saw the pictures they had drawn for Sans. One in particular stood out. It was the one they had drawn of the flowers from their home village. Maybe that would work. They could tell Azzy that they wanted to see the flowers from their village one last time. He was sentimental. That would definitely work on him.

There was one last thing that they needed to be sure about before they started on the plan. They shuffled their painful way to where Sans was drawing. He looked up and smiled at them. They smiled back. "Sans. Can I ask you something?"

Sans nodded. "uh-huh."

Chara swallowed. "Can you promise me something? I want you to promise me that you won't ever let a human hurt you. Can you do that for me?"

Sans swallowed. He already had such a serious attitude when it came to promises. Chara knew he would keep it, though. He was obsessive about keeping his promises. He hated giving them out, too. They knew it was a lot to ask him to to do this, but they needed to know.

"...yeah," Sans said slowly, stretching the word out, "i can do that. why? won't you be here to do it for me?"

"I'm… going to go away soon," Chara explained slowly, "and I won't be coming back."

Tears welled up in Sans' eye sockets. "b-but why? don't you love us anymore?"

Chara instantly got down on their aching knees and pulled Sans into their lap. "Of course I do. I will always, always love you, smiley trashbag. But… I need to do this, okay?"

Sans sniffled, "okay… can i draw a picture of you to keep with me? please?"

Chara nodded. "You can draw as many as you want, Sansy. I'll even do some silly poses. What do you want me to do first?"

Sans grinned. "well…"