The look on their face was completely unreadable. But there was no dust on their hands. They turned around when Sans came up from behind them.
"heh. seems you do know how to greet an old pal."
They shook hands. The whoopie cushion in the hand trick did its thing.
"the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick. it's always funny."
The kid just looked at him blankly.
"tough crowd."
Sans judged them carefully. LV 1. They look bored.
"welcome to snowdin, kiddo. heading to the capital, huh?" He stretched his hand out again. "c'mere. i know a shortcut."
They just needed to get out of the Underground, right? No fighting, no mess. Just a hop over to the Barrier, and they'll be on their way.
The kid took his hand and Sans took a shortcut.
"there ya go. no muss, no fuss."
The kid looked at the barrier. They poked it. It didn't yield. They looked at Sans. Sans was confused.
Without warning, the child started laughing.
"You idiot," they said, with a wicked grin, "At this rate, you'll never see the Surface!" And with that, they walked away from the barrier towards the king.
Sans followed them, watching them and wondering what the hell was going on. A memory surfaced at the back of his mind. "The barrier can be entered by any human... but leaving requires both a human and a monster soul." And only Boss monster souls remained long enough for a human to see, let alone touch.
"oh." Sans didn't know what to do. He found himself stuck, watching as the kid approached Asgore and fought him. Watching again. There was nothing he could do. It didn't matter what he did. Asgore wouldn't stop. There was no way to get rid of the kid peacefully.
The kid didn't do much damage. They did only have one Level of Violence, after all. Though it did make Sans wonder how it'd reset if they still remembered killing people. Did going back make them less inclined to hurt others?
The kid almost killed Asgore by the time the old king relented, but to Sans' surprise, they spared him, and he swore he saw them glance to him for an instant.
Then a bullet flew out of nowhere and hit the king. His soul was exposed but for a moment when another bullet hit it and caused it to shatter.
That was when a yellow flower who'd stolen six souls took control of the timeline, and everything went black.
"Sans? Sans! You can't give up yet! They need you."
Everything was black. Whether Sans' eyes were opened or closed, everything looked the same.
No, wait. Off in the distance, a light? Focusing on that light, Sans took a shortcut as close to it as he could manage. It had to be impossibly far away, as after he took the shortcut, it was still off in the distance. But he could make out that it was multiple lights close together, rather than just one. So he did it again.
And again. And again. Every time, it seemed to be just a little closer, and he could make out just a little more. But progress was slow, and at times, it felt as if the lights were receding from him. But each shortcut brought him closer, and every time he could see a little more encouraged him to keep going. He wouldn't give up.
And when he was just close enough to see what was going on, he reached out.
The souls turned blue. All seven of them. Sans raised his arms and pushed them to either side with a forceful gesture. Flowey's convoluted form and the kid were thrown to opposite sides while Sans took one final shortcut between them.
"k, you two need ta have a timeout. let's talk."
