He shouldn't be letting his brother come with him, he knew, but seeing his brother standing there with that… cloud of despair, around his head, muttering that it didn't matter anyway… what if that happened to Sans all over again if he made him stay behind?

Sans had been a quiet support this whole time. Maybe that's what he'd continue to do… after all, if Frisk's stories were any indication, he'd never fought while there was still someone else to do it before…

*bro, seriously. stop worrying about me. when ya can only take one hit, one thing you get real good at is notgettin' hit.

"THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO DO THAT IS TO STAY OUT OF FIGHTS."

*heh… true. but you know me. i can do stuff when i have to.

There he went again. Hiding behind that 'I'm too lazy to move' defense, when it was obvious that there had been another force at play this whole time. Certainly Sans was lazy by nature, but his older brother clearly hadn't just 'let him take care of things because he was so much better at them'. Which, happened to be true. But he'd never had a hint as to what else could be bothering Sans before getting pulled into this whole mess.

The entire situation was still leaving him feeling nauseous when he let himself think about it.

But Sans? Every new terrible thing they learned only made his brother look off to the side with that disheartened, 'i knew it' expression on his face. In fact, it seemed like nothing had shocked Sans since he'd found Papyrus wearing his older brother's hoodie in the kitchen.

It was so obvious, now, that something had been wearing Sans down from the inside out for a long time. Longer than Frisk had been here, even. He felt terrible for not really noticing how terribly wrong it was until now, but he was out of time.

Making things up to his brother would have to wait; they'd found Frisk. None too soon, by the looks of things.

A third Asgore clone stood, or rather, floated around Frisk in the blackness. The little human had already taken some hits. "You don't have to do this, Asriel. You remember what almost happened."

This, 'Asriel' shrugged and shook his head. "It doesn't matter. As long as you're still here to play. But enough! It's time for another 'Reset'!"

Asriel had the power to reset now?! From the way he was readying his next attack on the poor human that was refusing to even fight back, this wasn't a good development. His hand shot out as he erected a defensive wall of bones in front of Frisk. They absorbed the impact as he gave Sans one last pleading look to stay out of this.

But his brother had a serious, calculating tilt to his eyes. If he hadn't known better, he'd have thought that Sans had somehow absorbed the determination, the change was that drastic. It had been a LONG time since he'd seen his brother this motivated to do anything, and, with a sinking heart, he knew he had to let Sans make that choice for himself. "TOGETHER?"

Sans shot him a grateful smile. *together.

They walked over to stand on either side of Frisk, slightly in front of the formerly defenseless human.

Asriel was still staring at them. "How are you here?"

Sans gave a dangerous sounding chuckle. * heh heh… that's the leastof your worries.

Asriel rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Do you REALLY think you still scare me? I know ALL your tricks."

Sans winked. *thanks for the confirmation.

He gave a heavy sigh, shaking his head in disappointment. "YOU'VE BEEN TRYING TO MANIPULATE THINGS THE WHOLE TIME, HAVEN'T YOU?"

The floating boss monster's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "GOLLY, PAPYRUS… YOU CATCH ON FAST."

He didn't like the implications of that.

"Hey!" Frisk's fist balled up. "This is between us. We're…" The human sighed. "We're the bad guys here."

"You still don't get it? After all this time? After everything you did? I thought you understood, but you're really just an idiot, aren't you? It doesn't matter. What harm does it do? What, do you feel sorry or something? What difference does it make, how many times you kill them? You could have done it more times…. or is that it?" A wicked smile lit the face of the distracted monster. "Did you go back to your save points just to kill them again? That was fun, wasn't it? We're more alike than I thought, aren't we?"

Even though he knew it was essentially true, it still hurt. So did the thought that his little flower friend had been doing it for even longer than Frisk.

Asriel finished laughing. "Oh well. You'll probably get a chance to experiment more on that the next time around. Not that you'll have the power to reset, but whatever. You can't defeat me, no matter how many of your pathetic friends you pull to your aid. So just do us all a favor, and die."

He threw up another bone wall, blocking another attack, then another, as they started coming in hot and fast. A little too fast… he wasn't sure he could keep up with them all…

"Give up!"

*nope.

Sans's magic pulled up walls to fill in the gaps, and for the first time, he was relieved his brother was here. They had this… they could do this… he just had to believe in them.

The attacks got more complicated, filled with lasers, and explosions that were slicing right through layers of bone defenses.

Frisk was still standing in the middle, feet firmly planted, blocking the little that made it through with a stick. Asriel might have the determination, but he couldn't be as determined as all three of them.

A wave of the stronger attacks plummeted on them, and they barely recovered their ground as a huge attack powered up, pointing at them all, and radiating raw energy. As he struggled to defend, he had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't matter how many walls they put in front of the human… that thing was going to eat right through whatever stood in it's way.

Just as it was firing, he realized that he was defending on his own. Sans must have decided it was no use to even try. What kind of attitude was that? Why now, when…

Something else fired up, just in front of them. A large, head shaped attack made of bone. It opened its mouth as Asriel's attack fired, and white energy leapt out to meet the rainbow colored beam. The head cannon melted away, but so did the attack.

He realized his jaw was hanging open as he turned to stare at his brother.

Sans was standing there, calm as ever.

Asriel didn't seem any more impressed than Frisk. "What, showing off for your pals, Smiley Trashbag? You know I can outlast you, right? You can't stop me this time. Not like this."

Sans ignored the taunts, but the lazy way he was standing seemed to be nothing more than a cover. He could feel his brother's magic gathering for a strong attack, but he was merely getting it ready. *your call, guys.

What was he… oh… he was asking permission to use that attack. They'd been on the defensive the whole time, and it was clear that the three of them were going to get worn out long before the boss monster at this rate. Especially if Sans kept using those power consuming attacks, but… "YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS. YOU CAN BE GOOD. YOU CAN LET EVERYBODY GO."

Asriel laughed at him, a cruel sound. "You're right. I could. But that's not going to happen, so you're just wasting your breath. In fact, we're all wasting time here. But I'm allowing it, because it's amusing to watch your pathetic attempt to pretend you have control. But that determination is mine now, Frisk."

Wait… Asriel thought he'd stolen the determination from Frisk? If that was the case, then maybe…"

The attacks started up again, hard, and fierce, and suddenly directed at all three of them. Sans didn't bother putting up walls to defend himself, giving him more than one harrowing fright, but his brother was stepping to the side, easily missing the attacks.

Before they could get too comfortable with this new method of fighting, Asriel changed it up again, making each attack one of the more powerful ones. Apparently Sans was able to summon up more than one of those cannon attacks at a time.

He didn't look like he was tiring, but there was a bead of sweat running down his brother's skull, and Asriel was fighting back as hard as ever. "FRISK, SANS… I THINK WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CAPTURE HIM, IF WE WANT TO WIN THIS…"

Asriel laughed. "Ha! You think you stand a chance? That it's going to matter…"

It was all Sans had been waiting for. Asriel was forced to take the defensive as one blinding attack after another pelted the boss monster.

He frowned at his brother, noticing another bead of sweat. His exhaustion in the flashback Chara had forced him to watch made even more sense now. Sans was going to wear himself out… No. He wasn't going to have to. Before Asriel could recover, he unleashed his fabled blue attack.

Between them, Frisk stared down at the stick in their hands, then continued to hold it front of them like a shield. "Stop it, Asriel. We both know you don't really want to do this. You can feel it all again. All the choices you made. All the good times you had when you weren't killing everyone. You want to SAVE everyone, too, deep down. It's all you ever wanted, isn't it?"

Something resonated in him at the word SAVE. Acting on instinct, he left the fighting to Sans, and the defending to Frisk, for just a moment. Ah ha! Frisk had been giving him a clue! There were all his friends, just waiting to be saved, along with…

OH!

This was the moment Frisk had been trying to get to! Not the fight with Asgore, or even the fight with Flowey, but this! The moment when he would be able to SAVE. This was how they would set things right. "CHARA, YOU CAN STOP HIDING NOW."

The two other monsters froze, a remainder of one of Sans's attacks blasting harmlessly through the boss monster.

Asriel frowned. "But… the human is Chara…"

"You idiot."

Ah… there they were now. Red eyes and all, stepping out of the blackness around them, and going to stand by Asriel, and yet, apart from him.

The boss monster was suddenly trembling, as if remembering something horrible, even as he tried to smile. "Chara!"

The child in the green striped shirt ignored him. "So here we are. Did you REALLY think there wouldn't be CONSEQUENCES, FRISK? That you could just IGNORE what you did? Well… guess again. This is NEW for you, so let me spell out exactly what's going to happen here. You're all going to keep fighting. Asriel, the little crybaby, is going to do what he does best, and turn on me, but it won't matter. Papyrus, your blind faith in these undeserving wretches is going to get you killed first. That's gonna break your brother, all over again. He's already half ASLEEP anyway. That stick isn't gonna be much protection, Frisk. But it doesn't matter. Not even all the power Asriel has from the souls will matter. Not anymore. Thanks for the determination, Papyrus. Now I can FINALLY erase everything!"

Sans yawned. Not a tired yawn… that normally infuriating yawn that he did when he was pretending not to care one way or the other. *sheesh, kid. what did humanity ever do ta ya, anyway?

The child's chuckle was not pleasant. "Why don't I spell it out for you?"

By unspoken agreement, Chara and Asriel both attacked Sans at the same moment, cutting right through the wall of bone he put up to protect his brother, but Sans wasn't there when the attack hit. He suddenly appeared behind them. *aw, don't look so 'blue'.

He flicked his hand to the side, sending Chara tumbling as Asriel was forced to deal with another blaster. Sans was as nonchalant as ever, but there was a certain, desperation to his calm, calculated movements, that suggests Chara's comments had cut deeper than he was letting on. "SANS, THAT'S ENOUGH."

His brother vanished, and reappeared at his side with a casual shrug, stuffing his hand back into his pocket. *whatever you say, bro.

No longer under attack, Asriel raced to Chara's side.

The child lashed out angrily. "Get AWAY from me!"

Something akin to horror washed across Asriel as he looked at Chara's face. "Y-you're really going to erase everything… aren't you?"

The anger was even closer to the surface now. "Don't think I've been ignoring everything you told Frisk. You're as bad as them! Oh, sure! Kill the MONSTERS just because you can. But don't fight back against the people who DESERVE it, or anything!"

Asriel faltered a step back, then another, until he was practically cowering beside them. "B-but… they shouldn't have to pay for those mistakes…"

It was apparent that Determination had once been Chara's power as well, as the child got to their feet, and stared them down.

"No."

"They shouldn't."

A/N: The real battle begins...

I guest as much: Thanks! I'm a littler curious to see how it's all going to pan out, too. I mean, I do have somewhat of a plan, but these things are never set in stone.

MoonPoppy: I'm glad you're enjoying the story!

ThePunnySkeleton: Well, I'm not sure how epic this will end up being, but this was really only the battle part 1... Yeah, Sans is pretty patient. I guess if there's one thing awareness of the timelines has given him, it's the ability to appreciate the little things in life. I think it's how he hangs onto his sanity.

Interestingly enough... I am planning and working on a story that covers that particular point in time more thoroughly... not saying I won't make any further mention of it in the next chapter, but this story will be entirely in Sans's pov, so I'll be able to get in his head more.

Hey, guys, as always, thank you for the views and comments! I just wanna ask a real quick favor; if you are planning on a leaving a review, I really appreciate it, and it'd be extra awesome if you could refrain from any strong language. Thanks so much! =0)