Chapter 7

Eric had no idea where he was. The last thing he remembered was hearing a noise in his house in the middle of the night. When he had went to take a look, someone had hit him on the back of the head, and that was all he could recall. Now, he was in a long hallway with large columns and stained glass windows along the walls. The windows seemed to be the only source of light and the hallway seemed to stretch on forever. Getting up, he started to walk slowly down the hall, admiring the simplistic beauty of its design. He had only walked for about a minute when he noticed that he wasn't alone. A figure stood before him, clothed entirely in black. He couldn't make out any details beneath the person's hood so he swallowed and asked,

"Um, hello. Do you know where we are?"

The person gave him a short chuckle in reply and answered. "Yeah, I do. Welcome to the Hall of Judgement human."

With that, the figure pulled back his hood, revealing nothing but a skull underneath. Eric froze in place, his mind racing with questions. "Hall of Judgement? What do you mean? And what are you?"

The skeleton sighed. "Look, pal. There isn't an easy way to say this, so I'll be frank with you. You're dead. The burglar you heard hit you a little too hard last night. This is the Underworld, and I'm the God of Death. More importantly, I'm also your Judge."

"Dead?" Eric replied. "I don't understand, I can't be dead yet. I… I.."

"I know its a lot to take in, pal, but trust me. You're dead alright. And now its time for your life to be Judged."

The light from the windows began to grow dimmer and dimmer. Eric found that he couldn't move; all he could do was stand and stare at the god before him. The god looked up with empty eye sockets and seemed to stare right into his soul.

"You will now be judged for your every action," he intoned. "Every decision you've made, good or bad, right or wrong, will now be taken into account."

He paused, as if to let his words sink in. After a moment which seemed like eternity he continued, "You lived a short, but happy life. You worked diligently in the fields and did your best pull your own weight. You had a short temper at times, and you didn't always consider how your actions would affect others, but you were never intentionally arbitrary or cruel. You knew of your weaknesses and tried to correct them, though you weren't always successful. Most of all, you were always ready to aid your fellows in their time of need."

The light returned to its former brightness and Eric felt a sense of great relief flow through his body. Death looked at him again, this time with a faint light glowing in one of his eyes and said, "You may enter the Gardens of Paradise human. Go now, in peace."

A gate had appeared before him, and a warm breeze washed over him. Eric felt a sense of acceptance fill him and he bowed to the god. "Thank you," he said before he walked through the gate and disappeared. The gate vanished soon after him.

Sans let out a sigh of relief. That was the last soul that needed judging today. Thankfully, it was a good soul this time. He never knew exactly what kind of person a soul had been in life until he judged them and he hated it when he encountered a wicked one. The things that humans were capable of doing to each other made him sick sometimes. Even worse, he knew that death, in other words himself, was partially at fault for some of the atrocities he'd witnessed. After all, if death didn't exist, then there would be no reason for the humans to keep inventing gruesome ways to kill each other.

He shook himself. Such thoughts had been plaguing him of late. When he sat down and considered things rationally, he knew that the humans were free to make their own choices and that he wasn't technically to blame for the horrible things they could do. Still, he could never fully shake the feeling of guilt from his thoughts. Especially when he thought about the one mistake that without a doubt was his fault.

"Where are you, Chara?" he asked himself for the thousandth time. He still couldn't detect any trace of her. Occasionally he would get images of random places in the mortal realm, but he never found a trace of her when he investigated them. That day was fresh in his mind even now, and it had been over a century since it happened.

The time that had passed was what really bothered him. Based on what Gaster had told him, this Chaos creature didn't exactly do things subtlety. He found it hard to believe that he had gained a mortal vessel to wield his power from and then did nothing with it for a hundred years. That kind of patience represented a degree of intelligence and cunning that didn't bode well. No, Chara was up to something, he just didn't know what.

"And I'm not going to know until it happens unless I find her soon," he thought.

To make matters worse, Asriel had never returned to the heavens. Asgore and Gaster both thought that he had simply went into hiding out of grief, similar to what the Goddess of Life had done. Sans wasn't so sure. He suspected that Chara was somehow involved, but he couldn't figure out how. His disappearance only gave Sans another reason to find Chara as quickly as possible.

He teleported out of the Hall to his house, looking for Papyrus. He really needed some of his brother's infectious optimism right now. He found a note left on the door.

"Sans! I am going out to reap a few souls. I should be back by dinner time! Just wait until you try the new spaghetti recipe I found yesterday!" —Papyrus

Sans let out another deep sigh. Figures. "Although I shouldn't be surprised. He probably wanted to spare the souls that will come quietly a visit from me."

The two of them had grown considerably over the century since they'd been created. Gaster had told him about it. Their powers would become stronger and more defined the more they used them. And it seemed like they were always using them. Humans died all the time, and there were only two of them. They probably used their powers more than any other god did. Now, Papyrus could see not only a person's cause of death, but their exact time of death as well. He'd also gotten the knack for determining if a soul was going to accept death willingly or try to defy it. Those that were at peace with themselves got a visit from Pap, he was very good at granting peaceful deaths. Sans got the more complicated cases. Not that his brother wasn't powerful enough to reap those souls, but he just didn't like doing it. Which suited Sans just fine. He didn't want his brother to dirty himself with that kind of work anyway. When Sans went to reap, it was quick and merciless. The last thing he wanted to do was create another Chara. Of course, what really mattered wasn't the reaping, but rather the judging, but it still made him feel better knowing that Papyrus wouldn't have to witness some of the atrocities he had.

He sighed again and walked in, heading for his room. Well, if Pap wasn't around to cheer him up, he could just try searching for Chara again. Not that he expected this time to be any different. He sat in the middle of the room, closed his eyes, and focused. Hopefully, the more he tried this, the stronger his ability would become. He focused on her name and on her image, recalling what she had looked like right before she vanished. As usual, he was greeted with nothing but darkness, but an image slowly took form in his mind. His tightened his concentration, was he finally going to find her? The image before him was a garden, being tended by several monks. A temple garden? That made sense, he supposed. Chara had been an acolyte after all. His vision focused on a single corner of the garden, where there were numerous golden flowers blooming. Sans opened his eyes and stood, preparing to teleport to that location. It still wasn't a clear picture of her, but it was a lot better than anything else he'd received so far. He had to investigate. Grabbing his scythe, he disappeared with a flick of his cloak.

He arrived in the middle of the garden from his vision. His hunch had been right, it was indeed a temple garden. The humans were growing all kinds of plants here, but they were mostly medical herbs. That made him smile a bit. Anything that helped people live longer meant less work for him. Shaking off his idle thoughts, he proceeded to the corner that his vision had focused on. The humans couldn't see him, but they could definitely sense his presence. Several of them were glancing at each other with looks of unease. Sans chuckled. The one thing he couldn't control was the effect his presence had on the mortal realm. When he walked into a room, humans would begin to feel an unexplainable nervousness. The temperature usually dropped, and timid people left as quickly as possible. He usually made bets with himself on which humans would leave first. After all, how many humans weren't afraid of death?

His thoughts had carried him to the bed of golden flowers he'd seen in his vision. Visually, there was nothing out of the ordinary. He reached out with his magical senses, and felt a presence trying to conceal itself. He summoned his magic, but before he could do anything, a golden flower burst out of the ground in front of him. That was strange enough, but this flower had a face and was moving, swaying from side to side.

"Hi!" the flower said in a bright cheerful voice. "I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!"

"Uh…. hi," Sans replied.

What in the world was this thing? Flowers didn't talk, and they were most definitely not sentient beings. The only explanation he could think of was that a god had decided to take the form of a flower. He had never met a flower god though. Even if another god had decided to temporarily transform into a flower, why would they be hiding like this? More importantly, why did his vision lead him to this creature?

"Are you playing too?" Flowey asked, breaking his concentration.

"Playing? Playing what?" he replied.

"Hide and seek, of course!" Flowey said.

"Uh, no. Sorry," Sans said. Whatever this thing was, it seemed pretty harmless.

"Really? Are you sure? I mean, you walked right over like you were looking for me. I thought that you might be the seeker this round."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Listen, who and what are you? And what are you doing here?"

"Me? I'm just Flowey, a regular old flower. And I'm playing a game with a friend right now. She told me to hide somewhere in this garden. Then, when she finds me, we'll play a new game."

"She?" Sans thought. "It can't be…"

Out loud he said, "So who's this friend of yours?"

"Her name is Chara," Flowey replied. Then, his face abruptly changed from innocent to menacing. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

Without warning, thorny vines suddenly erupted from the flower bed, tearing it to shreds. They moved with incredible speed, aiming right for his chest. Sans jumped back and drew his scythe in one smooth motion. He sidestepped the vines and cut them to shreds with a few swings, then he turned to face Flowey, who was laughing at him.

"Wow, you are easily tricked aren't you?" he cackled. "I never thought you'd fall for that!"

Sans glared at him, eye and scythe ablaze with his signature blue fire. "Where's Chara?" he demanded.

"Aw, he pulled out the scary face." Flowey replied. "Sorry, but Chara really doesn't want to see you right now. In fact, she kind of wants you dead. And, since I'm such a good friend, I'll kill you for her!"

As he finished speaking, more vines lashed out from every direction. Sans ducked and dodged, but the vines seemed to have no end. They began to score glancing hits and he staggered, falling to one knee.

"Dammit," he thought. "I could counter them, but if I unleashed my full power here, the humans would die instantly."

He glanced back at the humans still in the garden, who were staring at them in shock. Well, maybe not at them exactly, but at the invisible tide of destruction that had come out of nowhere.

Flowey picked up on his glance. "Oh, are we worried about the humans, now? How hypocritical. You didn't show Chara any mercy, so why should you care about them?"

Sans looked back at the demonic flower and gritted his teeth. "Leave them out of this," he said.

Flowey smiled wider. "Where's the fun in that? If you care about them so much, you can watch them die!"

Before Sans could do anything, vines erupted underneath the humans' feet and pierced through their bodies. As he looked on, the vines ripped them into pieces. Sans felt the life leave their bodies, and he could see their souls beginning to take form over their corpses. Anger, a rage he had never felt before, consumed him. He looked Flowey right in the eye and said, "Big mistake."

Flowey's smile faltered, and the vines shot towards him again. Sans let them come, and when they were within about a foot of them, he threw his arms outward and unleashed an explosion of his magic. A wave of blue fire shot out from him and washed over the entire garden. Flowey's vines were incinerated, and all the other plant life withered and died instantly. Grabbing his scythe once more, he teleported the distance between them and brought it down, aiming to cut the flower's head off. Right before his blow landed, Flowey burrowed into the earth. Sans turned around looking for him, but saw nothing. Then, he heard his voice, mocking him.

"I don't know why you're so angry at me," he said. "After all, if it weren't for you, they wouldn't be able to die, now would they?"

"Where are you?!" Sans shouted.

"Didn't you hear me before? I'm playing hide and seek. If you want to kill me so badly, you'll have to find me first. Of course, I have other things to do right now, so I'll be going. Don't worry though, I'll play with you again sometime. I can't wait to see how this game of ours turns out."

Sans felt a surge of magic, and he felt the flower's presence disappear. He lowered his scythe and glanced around the garden. Death, everywhere. Not a single plant was still alive. His gaze stopped on the mangled bodies of the gardeners and hardened. One day, he would make that flower pay, but he needed to take care of their souls first. He started walking over to them.

A few minutes later, after taking custody of the dead humans' souls, he had calmed down enough to think clearly again. Whatever that creature was, it was connected to Chara somehow. After all, his vision had led him straight to it. If he could catch him, he might finally be able to fix this mess. He had a feeling that Flowey wasn't going to make it easy on him. In fact, Sans was almost certain that he'd just been lying in wait for him here.

He surveyed the dead garden around him again. The flower had been partially right, as much as he hated to admit it. Flowey might have been the one who killed them, but it was ultimately Sans's fault that they had died. That was what ate at his core. He knew what his purpose was, and he knew that he was important to the cycle and balance of nature. None of that changed the fact that he was a monster, a being who only brought death and destruction wherever he went. He looked around the garden one last time to remind himself of that.

"I never thought about it before… but I really hate this job."