Chapter 14: Escape

Fluttering your eyes open with every gasp of breath, you panted. Behind you, you heard Sans do the same. Along with harsh intakes of air you ear a small sob permeate the air. It wasn't until you felt wetness on your cheek that you realized the sound was coming from you.

Sans was the first to break the tense silence. "Frisk?" He whispered weakly. Not knowing what to say, you didn't answer, but the skeleton persisted. "You okay?"

"I don't know." You choked out honestly, feeling stripped of any personal barriers you may have had.

It was quiet again for a long while, both of you thinking over everything about yourselves and about the other. Or maybe you were trying not to think. You weren't sure.

It was you who finally, impatiently, spoke again. "Did you really kill a human?"

Sans sighed, and then nodded. "Yeah, I killed a human." He paused, letting his admission to the act sink in inside his own head. "I swear, I never meant for it to happen. I tried to be nice, to reason with them. But... Papyrus..." He sighed again, and you felt him shift anxiously. "I guess I let my emotions get the best of me. I do seem to do that a lot."

Internally, you chuckled, finding it sort of ironic that even though the two of you were supposed to be some kind of 'saviors' both of you were so incredible flawed and incapable of dealing with something as simple as your own emotions.

"But Flowey," Sans continued, "That damn dirty flower fucking resetted the world so many times with that human around, I was forced to take on the mentality of kill or be killed. I guess I kinda went crazy after that." He shrugged against your back, causing the two of you to sway ever so slightly in the darkness.

"Well, I kinda killed Asgore, so I guess we're even. We do what we have to." You paused. "But, Sans... you really..." You stumbled with your words, trying to figure out if what everything that Flowey had said was the truth. "You and Papyrus..."

"Yes, I fucked my brother," Sans growled. "Shit sucked, kid. I fucking tried."

Several shaky breaths later, Sans turned the gentle but nonetheless accusing finger towards you. "After all this, you still like a freak like me?"

You squeezed your eyes shut, a small pulse of guilt running up your arms. "Yeah, I do." Fuck it. "I love you, Sans."

He laughed darkly. "You really are a little sadist, aren't you?"

"Hey!" You bit back, thrashing before you realized it was useless.

"Shit, I'm sorry kid. I'm sorry. Fuck me. Fuck." He gritted his teeth audibly. Glancing back, you saw the brights of his eyes shining a dim light into the blackness. "Fuck!" He whispered again.

"Yeah," you agreed, kind of accepting his apology.

He laughed bitterly, almost sadly. "Y'know, kid, maybe in a different life, timeline, whatever... if all of this were different, we'd go out on a nice date and hook up," he chuckled, indulging himself in his fantasy. "You're not so bad, Frisk. Who knows, maybe someday. I wouldn't be opposed."

Your heart flickered to life, despite everything that had just happened. You smiled in spite of yourself; maybe there was hope yet. You clung to that shred of happiness deep in your soul, relishing it, even if it was only for a moment.

"But kid," Sans continued, and the feeling of dread was once more replaced inside the pit of your stomach. "I know your life couldn't have been so great if you'd've jumped down here, but was it really that bad?"

You clenched your jaw and your muscles locked at the memory of your life on the surface. "Yeah," you muttered hoarsely. "It was bad. But hey, I guess we're even now."

"Kid," Sans said soothingly. "Look at me." You craned your neck as much as you could, and it was enough to catch a glimpse of the sympathy in Sans' eyes. "I won't judge you for who you were. We ain't our pasts, Frisk. Somehow, we made it."

You smiled sadly, letting your head droop again and your neck give in to gravity. "I used to think that since I had made it through all that and even back to a place where I could make it to the end of the day without feeling miserable or completely hating myself, I could make it through anything. Now I'm not so sure."

"Don't say that." Sans demanded immediately after you had stopped speaking. "I may sometimes have my doubts too, but we have no choice but to keep trying. That's the only way we can save Papyrus and ourselves. We're a family now, Frisk, never forget that." He coughed briefly, before belly laughing. "You're knot getting rid of me," he snorted, gesturing to his wrists tied above your heads.

You couldn't help but laugh. This right here was why you loved him. Even if it was just a dumb joke to make you laugh at your situation so you could try and cope a little better, you couldn't help yourself from adding on to his pun. "You could even said we're joined at the hip," you chortled, nudging him with your upper thigh.

You both took a moment to die laughing, vainly swinging in the open enclosed space, no idea where you were or how to get out, but content to laugh hysterically despite yourselves. Perhaps without simple moments like these, you would have given up trying long ago. But alas, here you were, stuck with no palpable way out, laughing your asses off, and feeling determined.

"Sans!" You yelled abruptly, ceasing both your fits of hysteria. "Flowey can't overpower my save points anymore, can he?"

"He shouldn't be able to, even if he did manage to give himself back enough determination to work the machine. Without the core, he would never be able to give himself enough determination to overpower your saves."

An ominous sinking feeling welled in your chest. "Sans," you uttered direly, "He took the core."

You could feel Sans pale. "Shit." After a minute which Sans spent thinking, he sighed and continued. "Either way, that concoction I gave him should repel the determination from his body. Even if he managed to get enough back into his body to up his HP to a normal level, which clearly he did since he revived himself, there's no way he could transfer enough back with just the core. The DT Machine had to have soaked up at least a little of it, especially for it to reverse the process without the core, which he had to have done in order to attack us and thus steal the core from us, therefore using up more than just a little bit of power. Thus, your saves are worth a try."

You had stopped paying attention to his rant about halfway through. "Mmm, I love it when you talk science to me."

"Shut up and wrack up that determination of yours, kid," Sans laughed at you, nudging you encouragingly. "Let's get us out of here."

You'd have thought calling on your determinations would be easy at this point, but if anything it took more effort the more trouble you got yourself into. You barely thought you were determined enough to go back just this one more time. But alas, Sans believed in you and monsters were counting on you, so you had to. And you did.

However, where you ended up was hardly what you had expected, but much too familiar for comfort.