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Sans sat with his fingers steepled in his lap, his eyes closed as he breathed slowly. He was completely and utterly numb to all the world, colors dancing behind his eyes. To any outsiders it would appear that he was simply asleep, as he was prone to do on multiple occasions, but on this particular instance his mind was a battlefield of rampaging thoughts.

Can't keep running forever-

What if something happens-?

There's no escaping your own timeline-

Maybe if I could just get through to him-

The relapse is inevitable, just like the reset-

What would I tell Tori-

What if one of them gets hurt because of me-?

Done the impossible before, we can do it again-

There is no escape-

The mind is both the final sanctuary and most terrible prison one can be locked in-

"Excuse me?"

Sans blinked out of his stupor, glancing up from his chair. He had nearly fallen asleep in front of the changing rooms at the department store, and he resisted the urge to rub his eyes as he stared up at the woman with a bag over her arm. She had auburn locks and piercing black eyes with a small pointed nose and lightly applied makeup that looked as if it had been done in a hurry. The woman's child (who unsurprisingly looked like a smaller version of her) meandered lazily into one of the changing stalls, giving Sans a dirty look before she did.

"What's up?" Sans asked, not moving at all.

"I just asked if this seat was taken is all," the woman gestured to the only empty seat beside him.

"Oh, go ahead," he shrugged with one shoulder and she plopped down into the seat with relief, dropping her bags beside her.

"Are you waiting on someone as well?" the auburn haired woman asked him, nodding to the other changing stall.

"Yeah." Sans nodded once, forcing his mind to clear itself. "Just waiting on my kid."

"Oh!" her eyes widened a little. "So you're a parent."

"Worst job to have if you ask me," Sans grinned at her. "The benefits are alright but the pay is just terrible."

Much to his surprise the woman snorted slightly, covering her mouth.

"You look familiar," Sans held out a hand for her to shake, which she took very gingerly, almost as if it were a bony white snake that might bite her if she moved too quickly. "Have we met before?"

"No, I don't believe so," she quietly took a wet wipe from her purse and ferociously scrubbed her hands with it before tossing it back into her purse. "I think I'd remember talking to a skeleton."

"That's too bad," he shrugged again. "Because I'm terrible at introductions. Name's Sans, by the way."

"Danielle," the woman nodded to him with a small smile. "I'm sorry to ask, I don't mean to be, um... racist or anything like that, but... you said you're a parent, right?"

"I was since the last time I checked," Sans blinked, uncertain of where she was going with her question. "How is that racist?"

"I mean-" Danielle said awkwardly, shifting her purse in her lap. "- You're a skeleton. How can you even have children?"

"We, uh, sort of adopted," Sans shrugged. Danielle's mouth formed a slight 'o' in understanding, and she nodded again.

"Right, right, of course," she said sheepishly. Sans's head turned when he heard the sound of the changing room door unlocking, and he nodded in Chara's direction as he stood. Chara held a small bundle of clothes in their arms, still wearing the faded pants and sweater that they had before.

"And that'd be my kid," Sans held out a hand to shake hers again, grinning. "Nice to meet'cha, Miss D- uh, you alright there?"

Danielle was staring at Chara with her mouth hanging slightly open, her brows furrowed.

"That's not right!"

"... Excuse me?"

"I mean," Danielle's brows creased tightly. "You're a monster; why do have a human child? She's not even a monster!"

"Right," Sans crossed his arms. "Right, so, first of all, what?"

"Well," Danielle pushed a lock of her hair from her face, clearly upset. "You're a monster. I mean, it would be at least understandable if you had a monster child instead of her, but she's clearly human."

"Which brings up number two," Sans held up two fingers. "They prefer they, not her. Rounding back to number one for a minute, exactly what is so terrible about them being human?"

"Well, a monster can't have a human child," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It's just not-not ethical."

"Not ethical," Sans repeated numbly. "Not ethical."

"Sans," Chara pulled at his hand, drawing him away. "Come on, let's go home."

"Give me a minute," he looked to them briefly. "I'm gonna give this bitch a piece of my mind-"

"Please?"

Sans froze, glancing back to Chara. They looked... nervous, surprisingly. Sans gave the woman a solid firm stare before finally shaking his head and allowing Chara to pull him away. They walked in silence for a little while, Chara simply carrying the bundle of clothing.

"Sorry I kinda lost my cool there for a second," Sans rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I just have an extremely low propensity for bullshit."

"That's just humans for you," Chara said expressionlessly.

"What do you mean by that, kid?"

"I mean exactly what I said," they frowned. "Humans are absolutely disgusting creatures. Ignorant, biased, incompetent and greedy, every single last one of them."

"Uh, kid...?" Sans raised a finger questioningly. "You do realize that you're a human too, right?"

Chara didn't seem to have a response ready for that.

They checked out their items in silence and Sans paid for it all with a small black card with no visible information on it, which Chara found both peculiar and slightly suspicious. However, they simply tucked the information away for later. The rain had finally stopped and the sun was shining through, a slight mugginess in the air lingering from the passing storm. Sans stopped to stretch his arms behind his head, taking in a long, deep breath and sighing before continuing.

"... Why do you do that?" Chara asked, carrying the bags of their new clothes.

"Do what?"

"That stretching thing," Chara stared at him as they walked down the parking lot. "You and my Sans seem to do that a lot."

"Just gotta appreciate the weather above ground every once in a while," he shrugged as he popped open the car door for them. "Nothing wrong with that."

Chara grumbled incomprehensibly as they buckled in their seat belt, and Sans paused as he entered the car, staring at his cell phone screen.

"... Now what?" Chara asked flatly. "Papyrus got his head stuck in a jar?"

Sans's head ever so slowly turned in their direction, and Chara noted that one of his eyes was glowing a bright periwinkle.

"Firstly," he said without raising his voice whatsoever. "Don't you ever speak lightly of my brother in front of me again. Capiche?"

Chara nodded, slightly stunned. The look was gone from his face the next moment however, and he simply looked... tired.

"Well," he shrugged as he tucked the phone back into his pockets, revving the car engine. "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, you're gonna get to see Undyne today."

Chara perked up at this.

"What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is, we're gonna see Undyne today."

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"Sans!" Alphys shouted over the maelstrom of flying equipment, all encompassed in a vibrant periwinkle glow. "Sans, you've got to stop this!"

A whirling chunk of metal easily the size of a car door flew directly toward her, and Alphys shrieked and ducked the debris. It was swiftly kicked aside by Undyne, who brought her foot down with a heavy whoom and smashed the metal plate to the ground. However, it gradually began to rise again, joining its brothers in the tornado surrounding the crouching skeleton.

"Come on, Alphys!" Undyne screamed over the sound of the raging whirlwind. "We've got to get out of here, now!"

"Not without Sans!" Alphys resisted her pull, struggling to stand her ground. "We've got to get him out of there!"

"He can take care of himself-" Undyne pulled harder, but the doctor's will was stronger than she expected. "- Come on, Al! We need to get out before that damned skeleton pulls the whole place down!"

"Somebody mention a damned skeleton?"

Alphys and Undyne's heads jerked in the direction of the noise, shocked to see another Sans standing with his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Sans," Alphys pried herself away from Undyne's grip, nearly getting hit by another flying bit of metal. Sans quietly noted that both she and Undyne were cut and bleeding in several places. Unsurprisingly, there were quite a number of glowing blue spears flying around the whirlwind as well, some clearly broken and still seeking a target. "Void broke in! He was ranting about the phase distorter and just-just went berserk...!"

"So I noticed," he said quietly, but was somehow able to make himself heard over the sound of the whirlwind. "Give me a minute with him, a'ight?"

"You have sixty seconds," Undyne pulled Alphys closer and toward the stairs, away from the tornado of debris. Sans nodded grimly and faced the twirling cloud of destruction, face stony. "After that, I'm going to freakin' murder him until he dies!"

He reached deep for the magic, and for several painfully long moments, nothing happened. He closed his eyes and pushed deeper, determined to find something, anything, any little scrap of power that he could. Finally, at long last, he could feel the magic tingling in his bones, and he summoned a short burst of blue magic to tear a hole in the whirlwind. The tornado parted in a small section, allowing him just enough room to squeeze through, although he had to suck in his gut to press all the way through. He found Void Sans curled into the fetal position in the eye of the storm, his eyes squeezed shut. Sans gently knelt beside him, and could easily smell the strong scent of alcohol on him.

"... Hey there, buddy."

Void Sans's eyes blearily blinked open, both glowing bright blue as he stared at his counterpart.

"... The machine," he croaked dryly. "Got to... shut it down...!"

"Pretty sure that's already accomplished, man," Sans patted him on the shoulder twice, glancing about at the utterly demolished laboratory. "And you, my friend, are drunk off your ass."

"You don't understand," Void slurred as Sans propped him up into a sitting position. He could feel the whirlwind around him lessening the more distracted Void became, and Sans continued to hold his gaze as the blue in his eyes slowly faded away. "The resets... it's not gonna stop, it's never gonna end...!"

"Yeah, it is," Sans slowly helped his doppelganger stand. The whirlwind had almost completely died down by this point, all of the heaviest bits of machinery sluggishly falling to the floor. "No more resets, bud."

"It's not gonna end," Void's voice cracked, and he leaned heavily on Sans's shoulder. "We're just gonna wake up in Snowdin and none of this will matter-"

"It's over," Sans forced him to look him in the eyes. "Listen to me. There aren't going to be any more resets, okay?"

"It's not okay," Void sobbed dryly, almost falling to the floor. "It's not okay-"

"... Sans?"

Void and Sans blinked at the sound of Chara's voice. They were standing at the bottom of the stairs, their arms crossed tightly as they stared at the carnage of the basement.

"If you aren't gonna take it from me," Sans motioned for Chara to draw closer, which they did with trepidation. "Take it from someone else. Tell 'em, kid. Tell him there aren't going to be any more resets."

Chara looked back and forth between the well kempt Sans and their utterly miserable one, chewing their bottom lip for a spare moment. They looked as if they were in the middle of a monumental struggle for a few moments before sluggishly moving, like the air were water and they fought for every step.

"... It's going to be okay," Chara hugged Void after a painfully long few moments. "There aren't going to be any more resets."

"... Okay, kid," Void hugged them back limply. "Okay. I want to believe you, kid. God help me I really do."

They stood like that for several long moments before Undyne poked her head down the stairs, staring at them.

"... It's been more than sixty seconds, Sans."

Sans responded by giving her an extremely rude hand gesture.

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A/N

Hey all, thanks for reading! If you liked the story, please let me know how I'm doing! :D