The calendar was approaching the end of May, and above in the United Kingdom, it was warm. Muggles had gone to wearing t-shirts, and even wizards were wearing lighter robes and forgoing their traveling cloaks. In the underground, Sans had called for Kurt to be once more on the trail of the mysterious Dr. Gaster.
"You think this is the last one?" Kurt asked Sans. They had retrieved the machine, and were bringing it back towards the surface again. The idea both relieved and disappointed Kurt. Technically, playing around in time and space like this was breaking the law, and part of him would be glad that he wasn't risking it any more. But it had been so thrilling, so exciting. The idea that the underground was some sort of nexus of 'possibilities', and that the plight of the monsters had happened in other worlds had generated dozens of ideas for scholarly papers, none of which Kurt would ever be able to share with anybody else.
"almost positive, yep," Sans responded. "after containing the pieces we've already found, i became sure that there is only the one signal left. i guess that there might be two pieces in the same metaphysical direction, but i doubt it."
"Where in the underground will it be, so to speak?" Kurt asked.
"not far from where the barrier was broken," Sans told him. "might even be right up to next to it. got a place that's almost always empty that we can set the machine in." He led the wizard through the long corridor with the backlit stained glass, but instead of heading into the wildflower strewn throne room, he went the other way, down some steps that Kurt had seen before, but never actually gone down. "i should warn you, this was..." Sans said, pushing a door open.
Kurt saw into the room, stopped, and stared. Sitting near the door was a stone box, about five foot long, three feet tall. On the side was a metallic plaque. Sans was still talking, but Kurt wasn't listening, he pushed past the skeleton, kneeling down beside the box, and rubbed his finger over the metal to read a single word: "Chara". He looked up at Sans. "This is where she would have been buried?"
"yep," Sans said. He was looking moodily at the empty spaces on the other side of the coffin. Kurt followed his gaze, but all he saw was an empty area of dust. "she wasn't the only one. dumbledore told you, didn't he? chara fell, then six others, then frisk. after chara died, the king decreed that any human that fell down here had to die. the guard brought them here after they did. asgore stored their souls near the barrier. hadn't met humans before, so i only knew the stories. now? kind of wonder."
"did you actually kill any of them?" Kurt asked. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.
"no. made a promise to someone," Sans said. "just watched. i always watched. didn't stop any of the others from attacking them, though. sometimes humans fought back. sometimes they talked 'em out of it. none of them actually made it to the barrier. to asgore. it was orders, but. still."
This was more introspective than Kurt had ever seen the smiling skeleton. Maybe Kurt even agreed with him, at least partly. "You ever tell Asgore this? You worked for him, didn't you?" Kurt thought about it a bit more. "If we blamed you, we'd have to blame everyone in the underground."
"asgore is the king. he's taken full responsibility, and i know he's gone to apologize to the parents of the children in person. in the end, we needed the six souls, i guess. doesn't really make me feel better."
"Then let Asgore take responsibility, and do what you have to help others in the future," Kurt said. "Don't let it eat you up. You have someone to help right now, don't you?"
Sans looked up to the wizard. "yeah. guess you're right." Sans turned back toward the machine, opening the door. "welp. ready to find the last of these twelve monkeys?" Sans asked him.
"Sans?" Kurt asked, turning to look at the grinning skull, though he was glad the skeleton had gotten past his regret, at least, for the moment. "Do you have anything better to do than figure out muggle things I don't understand and making jokes about them?"
Sans tapped the side of his skull for a moment, then shrugged, hand bones upward. "nah," the skeleton told him, winking. "it's a nice break from the skeleton puns that my brother adores so much."
Kurt just let that pass, and climbed in the machine, letting Sans come in afterward. They checked and double checked the machine's instruments. Sans checked his notes, and plugged in their destination. "Ready, Sans?"
Sans nodded, and he punched the button, thrusting the machine into the multidimensional 'motion'. The screen went white, as the engine rumbled and whirred then, as quickly as it started, it stopped again.
When Kurt climbed out, he realized what Sans had been trying to tell him. Where there had once been one coffin, now there were seven, one for each color of the rainbow. Had he checked, he knew Chara's would have been empty, the body (or perhaps its substitute, depending on the timeline) taken to the ruins.
The others... Kurt forced his mind elsewhere, this wasn't his timeline. He put on his invisibility cloak. "Sans? Where are we headed?" he called out. He looked over to the other side of the machine to see the skeleton had pulled out his phone, and was scrolling through it again.
His eyelights were out.
"Sans?" Kurt asked, unconsciously backing up a step. "Sans? Are you okay?"
"they're dead. they're all dead. Papyrus... undyne... just about everyone. alphys has survivors from mtt and the core in the hotland apartments. where was i? where am i?" Sans asked. He looked up at Kurt as a bright blue light appeared in his eyesocket. "and where is that murderer now?"
Sans took off, back up the stairs, Kurt stared after him in shock for a few moments, then charged up the stairs after him. When they reached the top, there was a cry from the direction of the throne room. "Please don't kill me!"
Sans didn't even wait for Kurt to catch up, but charged into the throne room. When Kurt got there, he was met with a sight that he didn't really understand. Sans was there, of course. Then there was a large golden flower, chopped nearly to pieces by a young human wielding a sharp looking knife.
Kurt stared harder. Did that flower have a face? Kurt felt his blood run cold. Was that Flowey?
The flower, what was left of it, stared at Sans. "I... I watched you die. Didn't I?"
The other human turned, and Kurt stared, it was a child, who might have been barely Hogwarts age, if that. She was wearing a blue and purple striped shirt. Her half-lidded eyes passed over Kurt without seeing him, and landed on Sans. Then a creepy smile split across her face, she raised the dagger in the air, and began to run towards Sans.
In a blink, Sans simply wasn't there any more. He was on the other side of the room, with one eyesocket now blazing with blue eldritch light. He simply raised a hand, and two large demonic skulls appeared, flanking him. He snapped his finger bones, and they both breathed out large white beams of light. Kurt was nowhere near, and he could still feel the heat simply radiating outward. If it struck, he was pretty sure nothing would have survived.
The girl leaped over the hot death, ready to bring the dagger down onto Sans's skull. And again, he simply wasn't there any more, having backed two feet further into the throne room. "heh. could use some help over here, you know."
The girl took two experimental swings of her dagger and glanced briefly at the flower. He looked up at Sans, but his petals were nearly lifeless. He closed his eyes, wilting back to the floor.
Kurt had to get his brain back into gear. That girl was going to kill Sans if he didn't do something. As she made ready to make another charge, Kurt leveled his wand and shouted "Petrifcus Totalus!" The purple beam struck the child in the back, causing her to freeze where she stood. She wobbled for a moment, unable to move, before tilting over backward.
"i'm sorry, frisk," Sans said. He snapped his finger bones again, and bright white light from both skulls poured over the child. When they stopped, the child was unmoving on the floor.
"Wait," Kurt asked in shock. "Frisk? Frisk Dreemurr?"
"You haven't stopped her," the flower said. "She's just going to try again."
Kurt put on his invisibility cloak after he climbed out of the machine. "Sans? Where..." but he was interrupted.
"Help!" shouted a male voice from up the corridor, "Sans! Human! Please!"
"What?" Kurt asked in shock. "How can anyone know we're here?"
Sans's eyelights were out, and his phone clattered to the floor. "kurt, get the time turner. don't want anyone to steal our ride," he told him, then ran towards the stairs.
Completely perplexed, Kurt opened the panel, removing the delicate time turner, and followed the skeleton up the stairs. Just as he reached the doorway that led into Asgore's throne room, he felt something sharp cutting into his back and cried out in pain. "Sans!" he cried, and was rewarded with a second stabbing sensation, thrusting into his side, cutting upward.
Kurt fell into the throne room. He could feel his robe becoming sticky with blood. He tried to roll on his back, to get some sort of look at who or what had stabbed him, and was rewarded with more pain. Sans was staring at him, then past him, one eye socket filled with blue eldritch light. Behind him, a golden flower. In the center, was a white face, complete with familiar looking green eyes. Flowey? That had to be Flowey. But if he was in front of him, who had stabbed him?
Sans clenched his hand bones into a fist, yanking it upward.
There was a thud of something behind and above him. Kurt was trying to turn his head, but his back hurt like hell, and it was getting harder to focus. He got a glimpse of someone, possibly a small human, getting up, off the ceiling. Wait, what?
"that's the expression of someone who thought she was done, only to find out she was truly about to get dunked on," Sans said, snapping his fingers, summoning two skulls. "ya know, asriel, i could use your help." Kurt could see the flower start in surprise, and look up at Sans. "tell you about it later. but if that human finishes off kurt and me, you know who's next, don't you?"
The green eyes blinked at Sans, then focused on something on the other side of Kurt's line of vision. "She just comes back. She'll keep trying until we're dead."
"hmm. well. not keeping this loop anyway. not with kurt like that." Sans had to step backward, as the human jumped down from the ceiling, swinging something towards him. But the blow missed, and the human fell back upward to the ceiling. Kurt's vision was really starting to go. "hold her still for me."
Around the flower, Kurt could see a small collection of bright white seeds. A moment later, they encircled the ceiling bound human. The human pushed through one of them, but flinched as she made contact. With that flinch, Sans fired. Bright white hot beams of light poured from Sans's summoned skulls.
Kurt felt his eyes close as a disturbing thump came from behind him, probably the sound of a body hitting the floor. He could hear, from somewhere far away, someone calling his name.
A sudden cry came from up the stairs, "Sans! Kurt! Be careful! I don't know where she is!"
Sans's phone clattered to the floor as Kurt simply stared. "How can anyone know..."
"Kurt, get the time turner. don't want anyone to steal our ride," Sans told him. The skeleton reached down to pick up his phone, but his gaze never left the stairs that led to the throne room.
"...who I am?" Kurt asked, utterly perplexed. He opened up the panel, removing the delicate time turner, and stood. Sans hadn't moved, so Kurt went to join him. "Sans? What's going on?"
"not positive," he said, putting his phone back into his pocket. "don't like my guess, though. follow me." They climbed the stairs. Sans stopped Kurt at the top of the stairs, looking both ways in the corridor before going into the throne room. Unnerved by Sans's sudden paranoia, Kurt pulled the invisibility cloak tighter around him, and stepped into the throne room.
The throne room was not that different from the one in present day. There might have been fewer flowers piercing the dirt floor. But there was one flower, with a worried facial expression staring back at him. That was Flowey. "Was that you?" Kurt asked, "How did you know my..."
"Look out!" the flower cried.
Kurt felt Sans grab his arm, and then had a lurch in the pit of his stomach. A moment later, he found himself standing next to the flower, looking back at the entrance at a small human child in a blue and purple striped shirt. He also thought he was going to be sick to his stomach.
"you don't want to do this, frisk. you're a friend," Sans told the human.
Kurt stared, that sick feeling getting a little bit worse. This child was wearing an extremely off putting smile, and was following through on a dagger thrust that must have been right where he had been standing. But the worst part was the name Sans had called the child. "Frisk? Frisk Dreemurr?" he asked in shock.
"that expression," Sans said, a single eye socket glowing with eldritch blue light. "i'd say that's the expression of someone who's died twice in a row. go back, frisk. try it all again. you don't want to do this any more than i do."
Frisk's eyes had narrowed, and she was staring at Sans, but had made no move to attack again. She also didn't say anything.
"what? think i should be saying something about you needing to burn in hell? maybe you should. or, maybe, you're wondering how i know your name. does that matter?" Sans asked. "maybe it does. because it's not the only name i've learned. you've got another voice whispering in your ear, don't you? does that voice respond to 'chara'?"
Frisk took a step forward, the dagger was raised, but there was something in her eyes. It hadn't been there a second ago. He wasn't sure what it was, or what it could mean.
"thought so," Sans said. "the 'fallen human child'." Kurt felt a sudden tension in the air. A moment later, bright colored lights filled the area. Kurt looked down at the bright green heart that hovered inside of him. Sans was bathed in a bright silvered light. In front of Frisk, there was something in the shape of a heart, but covered in what looked brown and crusty, like a scab that had been on the skin too long. "LOVE covering your determination, i see. it's not all yours, is it? not that i can tell, it's all red on red under the LOVE. you picked up a piece of her soul when you fell."
At that, Frisk charged, swinging her dagger at the skeleton, who dodged backward. He snapped his fingers, and a pair of skulls appeared in mid air. They blasted the space between them, forcing Frisk backwards. Kurt backed himself up to, trying to find some sort of cover.
"who's pushing who? is this how chara's going to get revenge on those who abused her? gonna gain strength through killing others? then reset to get across the barrier? don't think it works that way, chara. you didn't really want to hurt the ones who took you in, did you?"
Frisk was on the move again. "Petrifcus Totalus!" Kurt cried out, pointing his wand. As the first word was out of hit mouth, the child looked at him, and dove under the purple light that he fired. She rose to her feet, and kept running, dagger outstretched... until her heart was struck by two white pellets from behind. She staggered, and Kurt got the shield charm up just in time. The dagger was thrust with such force that it nearly penetrated his shield, not quite reaching Kurt's nose. He stared at that dagger, his breathing coming in short bursts. But the shield held.
"or maybe it's you, frisk. did you break the barrier and just get bored?" Sans postulated, "maybe you started wondering what would happen if you hurt people, and just kept going from there? there's nothing for you this way. i ran the numbers after the doctor disappeared. everything ends. don't do this."
Frisk ran back toward Flowey, intent on carving a hole in the flower that had just saved Kurt's life, only to be blocked by a wall of blue ethereal bones. Frisk stared at the bones, unwilling to touch them.
"feel the sins crawling on your back, do ya?" Sans continued, relentlessly. "i've seen it all the other way, though. i know what happens, what could happen. don't think this possibility will lead to mine, not from what i've learned. but there's a way out for you."
Frisk looked up to Sans, a dark expression on her face, and shook her head once. Then she was on him again. Sans held up one first, and pushed it outward. Frisk went flying, back toward the wall. She thrust her dagger into the dirt floor, slowing herself, looking back at Sans with that same dark smile.
"you may think you don't want it, but i think you're wrong. both of you. frisk, my friend frisk, managed not just to break the barrier, but to bring you back, chara. back to a family that loved you, a family that would still sacrifice for you, even now."
Frisk had pulled herself to a standing position, staring at Sans. But her expression was unreadable now.
"frisk told me how toriel kept a chocolate bar in the fridge. its still there in the ruins, now. waiting for you, chara. and you wouldn't believe the presents you got for your first christmas with your real family, frisk. they're back there. they're waiting for you. you just have to turn this around. i know you can."
Frisk simply stood there, still not saying anything, the dagger still held tightly in her hand.
The blue energy was gone from Sans's eye, and the skulls vanished. "and i can't give up on you, frisk. because the frisk I knew never given up on anyone. you brought asriel home, as asriel. you brought chara home. and you didn't know it at the time, but you led me down the path towards getting my father back. it was you who proved to me that anyone could be a good person, if they just tried."
Frisk twitched, her empty left hand moving to rub the spot under that crusty, LOVE covered heart.
"I watched, Sans. You say she would have a loving family. But Toriel struck her, because Chara-Frisk asked to leave the ruins. She said to prove she was strong enough to survive, and Toriel struck her. Every time, every go around." Flowey said as the bones in front of him vanished. "In this world..."
"no, it's not, flowey," Sans snapped, and he turned back to Frisk. "give her one chance," he pleaded. "give torii one chance. just, stand there, and she will realize what she is doing. if that fails, and she continues to hurt you, just come back and tell me: 'torii killed me', and i will let you end it. because i promise, and i swear on Papyrus's name, that will not happen."
Frisk stood there, her eyes closed, listening to a voice only she could hear.
"you can come home, chara," Sans said. "and believe in me. because, Frisk, i believe in you."
Frisk stepped forward and raised the dagger in the air. Sans didn't react, his eyelights were still out. Kurt's wand was out, but he was paralyzed with indecision. If he acted he might... but if he didn't act. Frisk brought the dagger down, into her own LOVE caked soul. As it broke apart, Kurt could see the red light stream free from within. Frisk fell, unmoving, to the floor.
"she's resetting the timeline kurt, we don't have much time, we need to find the piece of Gaster before she does. i'm not sure what would happen if we were still here. i don't want to find out." Sans pulled out his scanner, but was interrupted by Flowey.
"Is that what I saw? Up by Asgore's soul jars?" he asked.
"Maybe," Kurt said. "Sans? What do you mean by 'resetting the timeline'?"
"tell you later. come!" the skeleton said, rushing out the throne room, down a short hall way. Near a spot that Kurt recognized as near the barrier, there was a large mess of broken glass, and, sitting in the bottom of a broken jar, the fourth of Gaster's mysterious 'hands'.
Sans grabbed it, and turned to run back toward the machine when Flowey stalled him again.
"Do you really think Frisk will do better this time?" he asked.
"trust me, asriel," Sans told him. "i trust Frisk. but we need to go. if the timeline ends with us here, we may never get home again." So saying, he raced back toward the machine. Kurt reinstalled the time turner, as Sans set the controls. When Kurt climbed into the machine and closed the door, Sans activated it.
"Now," Kurt said. "What was that about 'Resetting the timeline'?"
