A/N: In response to a Guest Review and to anyone else with concerns about this story following "canon" backstories about Ink and Error: Please be aware that I am not following all "canon" things about Ink and Error. This fiction is my own personal take on them and has my own personal backstory for them included as my own original backstory for them is sorta important to my Undertale Headcanons. Since Ink and Error are technically AU/Fancharacters in and of themselves I decided that I as an author am allowed to take some liberties with how I do their background. I'm by no means meaning to soil the characters for you! No need to worry about being totally confused though! A small spoiler, all of the details about that backstory will be revealed before this fic is finished so I hope you guys enjoy my takes as you enjoy the originals. I will be adding this A/N to the beginning warnings of this fic so future readers are not confused.

By the way, thank you for your follows, reviews and favorites as well as over 500 views to this since this was published! Don't forget to leave a review as this helps me to grow as an author and in my portrayals of characters. This is my first Undertale fic so feedback is very much needed and appreciated.

Anyway, enough babbling from me. Enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter Four: Hope

Of all the times to do a genocide route, it had to be this one. The one time that things were already going crazy with Blue's appearance the kid had to make it worse by going on another killing spree. After sending warning calls to Undyne and Alphys that by now sounded like he might as well have them on a recording, Sans put his phone away and hid in the trees as the human exited the ruins.

Of course the child strutted around with the same innocent face they had shown for hundreds of timelines. Eyes that always seemed to be perpetually closed, confused expression, yet stifling the occasional giggle as they played with their knife. The dust of the inhabitants of the Ruins soiled their shorts and shoes. Oh how Sans just wanted to tackle them down and kill them right where they stood!

But what good would that do? Sans knew they would just respawn minutes later. This human was no different than Flowey.

Flowey. The one who made Sans quit caring about the future in the first place. That soulless flower had the RESET ability too. As soon as Alphys accepted doing that stupid expiriment with flowers that had been kissed with Asriel's dust, the cursed RESET wheel started its its endless spinning. Sans, as her assistant at the time, told her not to do the expiriment. However she hadn't listened. She thought that her efforts could revive a monster. Let it live on in a flower and maybe make Asgore just a little calmer and more rational about his policies about humans and what to do with the barrier.

Oh it brought Asriel back...just in the worst way possible.

Why did no scientist ever listen to what HE had to say?

It was whatever now. After Flowey's first 100 RESET bombs, Sans no longer saw much of a point in caring about researching RESETS and timeline breaks anyway. Like anybody but him would remember what he would learn once Flowey RESET? Now, with Blue's appearance, part of Sans wanted to pick it up again. Though at this point Sans was much too lazy and unmotivated to actually carry it out...

Better put together the same fake as heck greeting. Not that the human would even laugh at his joke though. Why even try? Well. It was part of the script.

Attaching the whoopie cushion to his gloved hand, Sans walked behind the child. In their first few RESETS Sans used to find it funny how his footsteps scared them. However, now the child showed no reaction. They didn't even stop to look around when they heard his footsteps for the first time.

"Don't you know how to greet a new friend? Come here and shake my hand."

There was no laughter when the whoopie cushion went off either...

As expected the human didn't hide when Papyrus came again upset Sans wasn't at his post. They were discovered and just like every other RESET, Papyrus began his little "heroic future Royal Gaurd Great Papyrus" kick, as Sans liked to call it.

It was all getting so old. So repetitive. Yet there wasn't a livid thing that Sans could do. Nothing he could do but live in these circles of events over and over and still over again.

Yet Sans found a small part of himself digging through his mind for an idea. An idea to make things different. An idea that might make this different than yet another kill, rinse and repeat done by the human. What things had he not tried in these 280 genocide runs? What moves has he made or not made?

280 times and yet nothing had changed. Sans always found his brother's scarf in the snow, always found Undyne's spear in the water, always found Mettaton broken near the elevator to New Home, always let his magic take him over...always was too frail to win...

And even if he did win, who cares, right? That human had infinate RESET points...

The game would go as it always had. The only difference this time would be that Blue would be one more pile of dust on the ground...

"All done! One clean room!" Blueberry announced as he smiled at his work.

The room was now sparkling clean and tidy for the first time in probably years. Blueberry put the treadmill neatly by the closet, put all the socks in the hamper, made the bed, put the lamp on the floor and even cleaned out the trash tornado (because gods, that plate of speghetti in there was starting to smell!). Now Sans would be able to actually see where everything he needed was without tripping on trash and dirty socks along the way! Now all the room needed was a spray of air freshener for the smell of dirty clothes and rotten speghetti and it would actually be habitable again.

"Blue? You awake in there?"

Blueberry looked over at the door when Sans's voice sounded.

"Yeah, I'm up!"

Blueberry soon heard the key going in the door as the it soon opened, revealing Sans. He looked kind of stressed. Maybe he was still upset at what he'd said. Blueberry frowned as he sat on the bed.

"Sans...about what happened at Grillby's-"

"I know you didn't mean it." Sans put his hand out, stopping Blueberry from saying another word. "Look...I don't even care about that. You weren't all there anyway."

Blueberry frowned nonetheless. Sans's tone said it all. He was still upset and it was probably over how he acted at Grillby's. Who wouldn't be upset about someone who they were just trying to help shouting that their favorite place was nothing but a dog's toilet and that they were just being a clown when they were just trying to make that other person smile? There was probably nothing Blueberry could do to undo what he had done.

Just like he could do nothing to undo how he hurt his brother that day at Muffet's...

"I...cleaned your room while you were gone." Blueberry said after a few minutes, his gaze locked on the floor. "I figured that you must be busy if you can't do it yourself...so..."

"Nah, just too lazy to clean it." Sans shrugged as he plopped down at the office chair that was parked in the closet. "Heh. Dunno what I'm gonna do with a clean room..."

Blueberry sighed. He wished he could just leave. He knew Sans was still upset at him. He hasn't even made a single one of those annoying pranks or puns he's said when they first met. Another person he failed to make happy it seems. Yet at the same time, Blueberry couldn't just leave. Not only did he have nowhere to go but somehow he felt he would upset Sans even more if he left.

"...280 times..."

Blueberry turned when Sans suddenly spoke, looking at him sitting on the office chair staring blankly across from him. His eyelights weren't glowing. Something skeletons only did when they were deeply upset. Dang it...Blueberry really blew it with his temper, didn't he?!

"...280 Genocide Routes."

"Hm?" Blueberry was honestly confused at Sans's words. "Genocide...Routes?"

Sans didn't answer for the longest few minutes. Blueberry returned his gaze to the floor, thinking Sans was just going to ignore him. But to his surprise, Sans did respond after a sigh.

"I have a question for ya, Blue." Sans started. "In your world...is there a human that keeps coming?"

"Oh? You mean Chara?" Blue tilted his head in curiosity.

"Well, sort of. The human here's named Frisk." Sans explained. "Has your Chara ever killed everyone before? You're a Sans, I'm pretty sure you would remember RESETS too."

"Yeah, Chara killed me a few times." Blue nodded. "But they spared me a lot of times too."

"Have you ever had to watch your brother die because of this Chara?"

"N-No...but why would they kill him? Even if they kill me, I always beleive that they would change. Maybe Undyne or Alphys helped them be good!"

Sans sighed at Blueberry's words. The exact same responses Papyrus would've given. Blue was a Sans - a Sans that remembered every RESET, knew everything his human did, yet still beleived in that human. Still beleived that someone would teach them to be a good person. Like a killing machine could be taught anything than what it was programmed for. How could Blue...how could Papyrus always keep faith and mercy for them?! Even more was how could this Sans still have faith and mercy for the human after living through their RESETS and remembering every run?

"Yet you always end up back, in the same space you started, right?" Sans asked Blueberry. "Every RESET. Even after a pacifist route, when they swear to you they won't RESET again, they get bored and you go right back to where you started. How do you do it?!"

How does he do it? Even Blueberry himself didn't have an explaination for it. There was always this part of him that just believed in others no matter what. Always beleived that even the most evil being had some good in them. No matter how many times he died to their knife. No matter how many times a peaceful end got RESET. Every RESET he just went into it thinking that this RESET would be the last. That the human would be good and do it right this time.

"I guess I just stay hopeful."

It was the best answer Blueberry could come up with. Hope. Hope was what kept him going...

"You probably wouldn't say that if you were me." Sans told Blueberry, his eyes still black. "If you knew that everytime that kid did a genocide route or if they just felt like it you would find your brother's scarf in a pile of dust and that kid going off to find their next victim. You always were too late to save him. You could never intervene. Never make it stop. At most you watch it happen..."

Blueberry fell silent a moment. He thought of how he watched his brother take the hit meant for him. Standing over him as he turned to dust. He imagined Chara being in Error's place, doing that same act. What would he do?

The answer was easy. He would beleive in Chara all the same. Just like he plans to spare Error. In spite of the bad things Error has done, he has a reason. Blueberry just knew that. When the time came for him to face Error he will learn those reasons and he will spare Error.

Just like no matter how many times Chara killed him, Blueberry always spared them...

"I would say that no matter what." Blueberry told Sans. "Seeing my brother die countless times would hurt but my hope that one day the human won't RESET anymore is stronger than any sadness. That hope keeps me happy every time I start over."

"... Heh."

Blueberry looked over at Sans seeing that he was...laughing? At first he felt himself getting angry again, upset that Sans might have been joking this whole time. However, he calmed down when Sans continued to speak.

"You really do act like my brother. You both have that "always give mercy" thing." Sans chuckled. "Always give mercy, always be positive...even when things really won't ever be any different. Even when you can remember every single RESET, you still want to believe things will change."

Blueberry nodded eagerly. However his happiness fizzled out when Sans's eyes went black once more.

"You're both fools..."

"Maybe we are." Blueberry admitted. "But how I feel will never change. I don't plan on killing anyone, ever. Not the human. Not Error. Not anyone."

"I always kept my mouth shut to Pap about it but you're a Sans. You've seen every RESET. Yet you beleive the human will change? You believe that they see this whole thing as more than just a game that they can quit or restart whenever they please?! Even after hundreds of reruns of the same thing?! Who else, besides an idiot, can keep that up?! Don't you ever realize that the human doesn't care about us? Why should they? This is a game to them! They can RESET, they can QUIT whenever they like and it won't affect them. We're the only ones who suffer with the effects of whatever game they chose to play! How do you not see that?! How do you not see that nothing about that will ever change?!"

Blueberry could see tears at the edges of Sans's eyesockets. His right eye was sparkling blue, just like his own has.

"You're looking at this all negatively!" Blueberry found himself yelling again. "Maybe this time is the time! Maybe this time the human has changed! You don't know it won't be- "

"I know when I see monster dust flying out of that door that this time ISN'T the time!" Sans yelled back. "That kid is going on another killing spree! They already killed the old lady! Already killed the wild monsters in Snowdin! Would have killed the townspeople too if I didn't go back into town and make them leave! And I know that once I leave here, I'll walk right out of town and find my brother's scarf in the snow for the 281st time!"

"Since when could you predict the future?!" Blueberry got up and stood in the middle of the room, yelling at Sans. "Last I checked all we could do was remember RESETS not see what will happen next on THIS run! Maybe you'd feel better if you looked at things positively for one run! The human can choose to be good at any time! And I beleive yours can too!"

"Alright, fine. I'll prove to you that they won't change!" Sans yelled, frustrated now. He pulled Blueberry up by the arm. "We'll leave town and I bet you we'll find the same scene I found for 280 runs!"

"Fine then! And when we don't see it, maybe you can beleive me and change your thinking for one run!"

...So much for the apology...

Blueberry felt a rush of wind as Sans telelported them off again. Neither skeleton said a word to the other as Blueberry looked toward the snowy feild. He could barely see anything in the fog. However, he could hear voices...and...sobbing...?

"I'm...sorry...so so sorry!"

"Shh, The Great Papyrus has you now, human. It's okay now!"

Seeing Sans rush ahead, Blueberry followed. Sans was frozen in shock at the scene before them.

There was Papyrus, completely unscathed, hugging little Frisk who for the first time ever was sobbing. Tears were falling down their face. Not the crocodile tears thar they always tried to cry when they tried to spare Sans on his boss battle. Something about these tears felt...different.

"Sans! Look! My idea worked!" Papyrus said proudly when he saw his brother. Thankfully, the fog still hid Blueberry from Papyrus's sight. "They want to change! They don't want to kill anyone else!"

"See...? I told you?" Blueberry said softly, smiling. "This time might just be it for you guys!"

Sans was speechless. Part of him wanted to beleive Blue on the whole "this might be it" deal. However, he still knew that the human had lied many times on being sorry for their mistakes. They"ve ve had a peaceful end and still RESET. Any sorrow they claim to have right now is fake! What's worse is that Papyrus and Blue both can't see that!

"...I...I see." was all Sans could say before Papyrus dragged him off. Blueberry saw Sans motion for him to stay hidden as they took off toward the house again,.Papyrus holding Frisk in one arm proudly.

Blueberry was forced to stand outside the house when the brothers went inside. Sans still didn't want Papyrus to see him. For what reasons, Blueberry had yet to know but given the situation, he didn't question things. He was afraid of aggrivating Sans again. He could already sense that Sans's magic was unstable. Best not make it worse. Hopefully he won't be made to sit out here for too long.

Waiting wasn't fun for Blueberry. The town was abandoned. The shops were all closed and empty, no people were outside picking up their Christmas gifts or decorating the tree, the library (or libraBy) was dark and empty, even Grillby's was emptied and closed tight. What on earth happened? Where was everyone? Did they flee because of Frisk? Maybe now that they changed the people could come back!

...It was sure cold out here. Blueberry hoped that Sans would be out to get him soon...

"Papyrus...why?! You...you could have gotten KILLED!" Sans shouted across the living room at his brother.

For once, Sans could not be funny and relaxed. He could not just not care about this. Something about this aborted genocide route made him have to say something...

"What did I always tell you? All anyone needs is some guidance from the Great Papyrus to be a good person!" Papyrus said as he put Frisk down onto the couch. They curiously began to look around. "And my method worked!"

"But you didn't KNOW it would've!" Sans argued back as he stood in the entryway to the kitchen. "That human killed other monsters! They would have easily killed you too! Yet you still didn't fight them?! How?!"

How could Papyrus not fight during any of the other 280 genocide routes past? What was it about this one that made the human abort the genocide route?! Why did Papyrus show them mercy despite the dust clearly seen on their shorts?! How could Papyrus not give that human a "dunking on" like they deserve?!

...Even though Frisk would have RESET after getting dunked on, at least it'd been a laugh, if only for a little while!

"I think a better question would be how could YOU hide things from me?!" Papyrus yelled as he turned on the faucet, clearly set on making Frisk some warm speghetti. "You told everyone else to leave, even Grillby, but you didn't even warn me that the human was causing problems!"

"Because I knew if I tried to tell you, you'd have gone right out there and played hero!" Sans yelled back. "I know you, Pap! You ALWAYS want to play hero, even when it isn't in your better intrest! I was just looking out for you!"

"And you still hide things and tell horrible jokes even when it isn't in your better intrest either!" Papyrus countered. "Yet I as your brother wouldn't have hidden something like that from you! Why can't you have some honesty with me, Sans?! Am I that bad of a brother to you?!"

"No! It isn't that at all!" Sans tried to defend himself.

However, Papyrus was already set on his opinion. Perhaps he had finally reached the limit with Sans hiding things from him. Hiding his feelings, hiding what he knows, hiding injuries...hiding them all in a sea of bad jokes and puns. Sans couldn't help it. It was what he knew to do. Making bad jokes was a coping mechanism. He didn't want Papyrus to deal with his problems. He wouldn't understand since unlike Sans, Papyrus didn't remember RESETS. Its less complex to not let Papyrus know.

Yet Sans failed to realize that by hiding things, he is only hurting his brother even worse...

"We're not talking!" Papyrus yelled in his childish way as usual. Closest thing to a hirtful comment that he could give to Sans...or anyone for that matter... He crossed his arms and turned his back to Sans, his THE COOL COOK apron swaying lightly as he did.

Sans looked down. Guess he probably deserved this. He screwed up and he knew it. It is funny how it took 280 tries for Papyrus to get to this reaction. Guess it had to happen sometime, right?

"...I'm going to my room..."

"Don't expect me to remind you about the speghetti either!" Papyrus yelled as Sans took off to his room.

Frisk looked over as Sans shuflled into his room and slammed the door, the door clicking locked. Frisk didn't even see that poor Blueberry eould be spending the night in the cold, abandoned city...