UGHHHH So much for updating every two days. -_-

Here, have a chapter. *toss*

I startle out my thoughts as it ends. I remember something dark and a bright rectangle, but that's all. My thoughts feel jumbled, and I blink in confusion as I try to regain my senses. Determination. And where am I again?

"Judgement Hall." Chara answers inside my head. "And that was quite the foreshadowing, may I add."

I turn on her, suddenly feeling uneasy. "You saw that?" I'm remembering it all now. I can still see his dark eye sockets, boring holes into me as he watched me die. It sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it.

"Yes."

I narrow my eyes. "You saw the foreshadowing."

"Yes." She repeats.

"But in the foreshadowing, you pretended you didn't know about it."

"Which irked me." She responded. "So that's why I'm telling you now."

I'm not sure how to respond, so I take a shaky breath. "So that first one… it was a foreshadowing in a foreshadowing?"

"I guess so."

I blink in awe. "Just how many foreshadowings can I get?"

"Let's not test that." She suggests.

"B-but…" I'm suddenly feeling very overwhelmed. "I can just do that? I can just… keep getting these sights into the future until I defeat the enemy?"

She shrugs. "I suppose."

I frown. "You're so untalkative." I point out. "Why?"

She crosses our arms, annoyed. "What? So you don't remember a certain someone betraying me right at the last moment?" She leans in closer. "Even though I had been so obviously and plainly right, all the way up to the end?"

I suddenly remember, and guilt swarms me. I had made the same mistake twice, causing my death. The mistake of not listening to Chara. How many times have I told myself already? Chara was always right. Why couldn't I just hammer that into my stupid head?

"...sorry."

"Sorry doesn't keep you from dying."

I frown when I don't hear anger in her voice. "You're not mad?" I ask, confused.

"Oh, I'm mad." She clarifies promptly. "But since it didn't actually happen yet, I would suppose I have nothing to complain about."

I'm not sure whether to feel relieved or underlooked, but I decide it's for the best. "O-ok."

"Let's just go already." Chara grumbles.

We start to head back down the hall again. The silence between us is threatening. "Um, so since all my deaths are foreshadowings… does that mean this one could be one too?"

"One what?"

"A foreshadowing." I gulp. "For all I know, this is just another peek into the future. Maybe a current me is seeing myself do this right now, gaining information for her run."

Chara thinks on it. "Maybe." She shrugs. "But it better not be. The only reason you'll need a foreshadowing is if you die. And I don't intend on letting you die."

I shiver at the thought of death. Both times had been horrible, even if it was just a fake peek into the future. "Right."

"Hmm. that expression…" We come to a stop when we hear the voice. The annoying, irritating voice belonging to the skeleton that already killed us twice. "that's the expression of someone who's died twice in a row." Our lip twitches with annoyance. Why was this always the different part? I still hadn't sorted that out yet. "Suffice to say, you look really… unsatisfied. All right." Black eyes. "How 'bout we make it a third?"

"No thanks." Chara responds. Our soul is drawn out again, and we go into the air. This almost feels like routine now.

"It's a beautiful day outside." He mumbles. "Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. On days like this, kids like you…"

I remember to remind Chara. "Get ready-"

But before he even tells us to burn in hell, our soul pings to a blue. Even Chara is slightly taken off guard, and the bones manage to scratch our leg. Sans had tricked us! By then, Chara's already regained her composure. She aces the rest of the attack easily. The blasters miss us by a mile.

"Anyway, as i was saying, it's a nice day out." He winks playfully. "Why not relax and take a load off?"

Pissed at his goody-two-shoes-ness, Chara grinds our teeth and leaps forward to strike him. As precedent, he moves to the side and says some more gibberish that I don't plan to listen to.

I'm still stuck in my own thoughts though, wondering why the attacks and dialogue were different from the foreshadowing. Could it have just been inaccurate? No, everything was still going the same. The attacks were the same, his words were almost the same, everything was the same. Only Sans was different somehow. But how?

Unless… it was really just him acting upon what he saw. In the first foreshadowing, we had acted surprised and Sans defeated us. In the second one, we had been wary, and Sans knew it was the second time. And now… we were angry. And he knew it was the third.

Was it possible that Sans could read minds? Or even worse; that he could see my foreshadowings, and would therefore change his attacks to confuse us more?

No, that couldn't be it. If it were the case, he would've changed up his attacks some, but they're the same repetitive thing. Nothing new. I pause to watch him teleport away just as we slice empty air, and he winks at us before jabbering more useless things from his mouth.

How did he keeping doing that teleporting thing? Was it just a monster thing, or did only he have it? I guessed it was the second option, since if it were the first case, all the monsters would've just done the same as him. I sigh inwardly, not understanding. Sans was different. He knew more than all the others, but not much. He was a little peculiar and strange compared to all the others monsters I've met, right up from the beginning. But what made him stand out? What caused him to be the way he was?

But now, I think I've figured it out. He knew we had foreshadowing powers, and could tell which number we were on just by looking at our facial expressions. That was all.

I only watch as Chara moves our muscles, leaping and jumping and twirling through the attacks. Once again, the movements remind me of someone, but I don't remember who. She strikes forward, a crazed grin on our face, but Sans side-steps it before launching more bones.

And two more attacks later, they stop. Was it time already? It had went so much faster this time, but it also may have just been my thoughts distracting me, making me lose track of time. Sans looks tired, and a little disbelieving. We stop too, just to humor him. Attacking right now would just force him to dodge, anyway.

He speaks slowly, trying to sound sincere. "You, uh, really like swinging that thing around, huh? Listen." He closes his eyes, and I wait pensively. Will he really try the tactic again? I remind myself not to interfere this time. "Friendship… it's really great, right? Let's quit fighting." And just like that, he ends his great memorable speech.

We frown disbelievingly, almost with amusement. Sans wasn't even trying anymore. He already knew it was useless. We take a moment to sit ourselves down and snack on a bag of chips, just to humor him. A food break was just what we needed. After all, based on what I gathered from the foreshadowing, he wouldn't continue the fight unless we fought or spared him.

Finished, we toss the bag aside and wipe the crumbs off our pants. He's still watching, just standing there looking serious. Rolling our eyes, Chara steps forward to continue the battle.

Sans grins. "Woah, you look really pissed off…" Huh? No I didn't. It takes me a moment to figure out why Sans said what he did, but then I feel my eyebrows. They're scrunched together in concentration, and my mouth is curled into a grimace. Is this Chara's doing? Is she angry?

"Heheheh…" He chuckles. "did i getcha? Well, if you came back anyway…" His eye sockets darken. If he had looked serious before, he looked deadly serious now. "I guess that means we never really were friends, huh? Heh." Somehow, that single statement is enough to strike me cold. A pause before he winks playfully. "don't tell that to the other sans-es, okay?"

Then without warning, bones come from the sides. It takes me longer to react, but Chara is already jumping through the openings. Before we can even land, a flicker throughout the room causes the previous bones to disappear and new ones to pop in. We finally land, but long rows are coming from the right. We hop again, and now, bones are coming from both sides; layered with white ones and blue ones. The room keeps flashing and switching attacks. I don't understand what's happening, but Chara stays coordinated through the whole thing.

When what seems like five attacks finally pass over, I'm left in a sputtering mess. It may have just been a bit much for me to handle. However, Chara grins at her success and moves forward to strike. But she doesn't notice the bone flying towards us as we charge, and barely moves aside as it passes by us. The two of us can barely believe that Sans is attacking us as we attack. We miss Sans by an inch, which is more than usual, seeming to piss Chara off. She tightens her knuckles around the knife, our grip turning our fingers white.

"Sounds strange, but before this i was secretly hoping we could be friends." Friends? I find myself cocking my head at the unexpected comment. "I always thought the anomaly was doing this 'cause they were unhappy. And when they got what they wanted, they would stop all this."

Stop all what? The genocide? But my thoughts go away when the blasters show up again. It's a new attack. This time, they're thinner and freely roam around while they aim where they like. They move like they're alive; like they have a mind of their own. There are no platforms, but our soul is red, allowing us the same amount of freedom. Chara twists herself in the air as she moves between charged beams of death.

"About time the real battle finally begins." Chara grumbles, swinging the knife. Sans ducks, grinning.

He continues his speech from his previous statement, now winking. "And maybe all they needed was… i dunno. Some good food, some bad laughs." He shrugs. "Some nice friends."

A flash and then suddenly the unexpected attack is back. I'm thrown off-guard again, but Chara maintains her balance, soaring through all the bones and beams like they can't touch us. I'm left wondering why I'm always caught with surprise, and the thought strikes me that maybe Sans is distracting us with his words. Chara never seems to listen, and does fine on her own. Maybe I just had to do that too.

"But that's ridiculous, right?" I try to block out the words this time, but they just echo around the room and back to me in all different directions. "Yeah, you're the type of person that won't ever be happy."

Then suddenly, he's throwing us against the walls. Bones erupt on the walls where we stand, but we've already jumped, credits to Chara. I don't know how he's doing it, but with simple flick of his hands, he can control the gravity around us into any direction he wants. Our soul pings every time he changes the direction, and Chara adapts accordingly. Every time the gravity changes, I'm worried we won't be fast enough, but we always seem to make it out in time. I'm still left in spell-bound amazement, but I try to wipe the thought out my head.

Black eye sockets. "You'll keep consuming timelines over and over, until…" I'm momentarily confused. He sighs, shrugging at our silence. "Well. hey. Take it from me, kid." He winks. "Someday… you gotta learn when to quit." Right. He was just trying to distract me.

Crap, it's faster this time. His hand moves faster, changing our direction more quickly but giving us less time to jump before the bones erupt to murder us. Thankfully, Chara is just as speedy, if not quicker. Thank goodness for her.

It's our move now, but Sans is still flinging bones at us. Well, his arm isn't moving, but I know it's him. Feeling annoyed that his tactics are so different from what we're used to, Chara goes forward to attack and misses.

"And that day's today." He winks. Tough talk for a skeleton that can't even land a single hit on us. Though… we weren't really one to talk.

The free-roaming blasters are back, but they're bigger and fatter and slower this time. Not to mention that their beams are bigger as well, and harder to avoid. But Chara knows what she's doing. She keeps on swinging.

"'Cause… y'see…" He looks to the side, a little silly, like he's cracking a funny joke. "all this fighting is really tiring me out." Another line of sweat trails down his skull, as if to prove it. He's obviously losing stamina. But we can keep it up. Every second we last, the weaker Sans gets. And soon, he'll be too tired to even move aside. It won't be too long now, before he makes just one slip-up. It'll be enough to end him.

Long parallel bones appear from our left ahead of us, and to our right behind us. Their lengths are long enough to align along the whole room if stacked next to each other, which would make them avoidable if it were not for the fact that they were moving. At first I'm confused, but then I notice the pattern. Every time they pass one another, they leave a gap for us to slip through. What seems to be a circular movement is what keeps us from getting hit. Chara's doing great, like she promised. Another swing.

"And if you keep pushing me…" he opens an eye, teasing. "Then i'll be forced to use my special attack." What special attack? How could any attack be more special than what they were already…?

Random attacks again. Sometimes there's platforms and bones coming on either side. Sometimes they approach me on both sides at lightning speed. Other times we have to jump in between the moving bones. And don't forget those blasters and random wavy opening paths through waves of the bony stuff.

Even Chara is huffing now, slightly tired. I feel fine, which might mean she's blocking the signals or something, but her physical state is worrying me. I've never seen Chara so weak in a battle before. Maybe taking on an entire fight was too much for her. Maybe I should take her spot for a few moments to let her catch her breath-

"No." The response is immediate, coming from Chara. "I can handle this. Don't get yourself pulled into this again."

"But you're tired!" I protest meekly.

A pause before Chara grins. "I can handle it." She repeats before dashing forwards to strike.

Of course, a miss. "Yeah, my special attack." He winks, teasing. "Sound familiar?" He looks to the side, an expression with which I can only describe as giddy comes over him. "Well, get ready. Cause after the next move, i'm going to use it." I shiver at his tone. "So, if you don't wanna see it, now would be a good time to die."

He goes with some simple gravitational changes. We get slammed against the wall at a much faster pace than I would've liked, though Chara is handling it despite the fact that I think she's wearing down. She cuts forward, slicing the air in front of us. Sans is to the side, completely avoiding the attack.

"Well, here goes nothing…" He gives us a dark look of warning. We prepare ourselves, legs bent and arms in position. Being ready is a must. "Are you ready? Survive this, and i'll show you my special attack!"

He starts off with the wall slamming again, and I'm completely overwhelmed. The bones erupt so quickly that I'm surprised Chara can even manage to leap up in time. Following right after is the long parallel bone attacks that stretch across the whole room. And then with one more gravity slam to one side of the hall, we're sent straight down into a massive mess of bones. I gasp at the sight. There are so many that I can hardly differentiate the surfaces in the room from the white in the projectiles.

Thankfully, Chara seems to be able to. We glide through the bones instead of flying, since Sans is still sending us over with gravitational pull. Every moment and then, we catch a glimpse of Sans winking or shrugging on the sidelines. When I see him twice after I was sure we had passed him once already, I know he's teleporting. After a little while, the waves of bones disappear, and become replaced with longer spurts of bones of bones appearing here and there in bunches. The gravity moves so quickly that avoiding them actually becomes a challenge. The hall seems to stretch on for forever. Then there's some last bones that require precision, and we steady ourselves before popping straight through them and finally landing on the wall. Chara jumps, and we avoid getting pierced by more bones.

The world flashes, and we jump from the ground. Then again, and we jump from the wall. Then again, and this time the ceiling. But now, we have to go sideways, with bones erupting from the wall and the ground at the same time. This happens a few more times, and then a ring of the skull blasters surround us. It feels like we're going to have a bad time.

But it's just a feeling, anyway. The blasters shoot around us, every two collinear beams firing together to create a straight death ray that circles us. Chara moves around close to the center, trying to keep ahead of the beams. They move fast, but we try to move faster.

It's not working. Chara's tired, and the attack only seems to move faster as we progress. How much longer will this go? The more we sprint, the more the beams behind us catch up to us. We could go closer to the center, but we're scared of being fried by the cross-fire. It's so close now, I can almost feel our heel being singed…

And then, they stop. Relief is about to fill me, but then we're slammed against the wall extremely hard. We're suddenly jolted out of our concentration, and Sans flings us back onto the ground. We land face first, and even though I can't feel the pain, I feel the pressure. There are no bones, which is great because we're not exactly landing the most gracefully. Then he moves his arm around so quick that I can barely see it, and we're being slammed onto the walls, ceiling, floor tiles, and everything around us and our muscles are stretching, and our bruises are paining, and our breaths are shallow and everything is going in all a whirl of dizziness and constant bangings to the head and torso and then finally… finally… Sans slowly sets us to the ground where we fall onto our knees.

We're actually hurt. There's bruises on our arms and chest where we were pitched into the wall, and scratches on our legs and arms where we were scratched by the tiles. It was an undodgeable attack. Just flinging us around was enough to make us lose our bearings.

We're trembling. "Chara…?" I ask tensely. We're breathing heavily, but there's a smile plastered on our face. Why, though?...

Sans is breathing just as heavily as us, if not harder. He must have consumed all his energy or something, spending all his moves into this second-to-last special attack. Hie entire chest heaves as he stares at us tiredly. At least we weren't sweating. But Sans looked wet as if he had just taken a shower.

"Huff… puff…" Sans heaves out breaths in quick huffs and puffs, looking drained. "All right. That's it." He shrugs his arms. "It's time for my special attack."

I'm worried, but Chara faces him dubiously. He doesn't look like he has enough energy to summon a single bone, much less perform a great and amazing special attack.

He winks. "Are you ready? Here goes nothing." He puts his hands back into his pockets, and for a moment, I start to panick. I try to get Chara to stand back up, but she's just smiling. Grinning like a triumphant athlete that just won a gold medal. What's up with her? We hadn't won yet. Sans was still yet to be defeated. As long as he was standing, our fight wouldn't be over.

My worry slowly fades away to skepticism as I realize Sans isn't doing anything. We wait and watch, trying to figure out what Sans is doing. After a moment, he finally opens his eyes to look at us. "Yep." he grins mischievously. "That's right. It's literally nothing." I narrow my eyes at him, not understanding.

"What?" I whisper in disbelief.

"And it's not going to be anything, either." He chuckles half-heartedly. "Heh heh heh… ya get it? I know i can't beat you. One of your turns… you're just gonna kill me. So, uh. I've decided… it's not gonna be your turn. Ever."

I blink at him in disbelief. Was this even a thing? How was this even possible? We could just walk right around him, probably. Heck, we could just step right up now and attack him-

But Chara shakes her head. "Wait." She says.

"i'm just gonna keep having my turn until you give up." Sans concludes, eyes black. "Even if it means we have to stand here until the end of time." Back to the teasing grin as he asks for our understanding. "Capiche?"

We're still just kneeling there, giving him the look. He grins right back at us. I'm not sure what to do. He looks too tired to move a millimeter, but I don't want to defy Chara again. It may ruin everything, and we're too close to make mistakes. So instead, the two of us agree to sit down in a more comfortable position. We sit criss-cross-applesauce.

"You'll get bored here." Sans finally says after a while. "If you haven't gotten bored already, i mean. And then," His grin grows sinister. "you'll finally quit."

We blink at him. Feeling a little disturbed, I regain control of my arm and slowly move it to my pocket where I can grab a bag of chips. But Chara sends me a warning glare, and before I can stop and ask why, my hand retracts back into my pocket. Sans' eye flashes cyan for a brief moment.

Now I'm even more bewildered. Was that Chara forcing me back, or Sans' doing? Not that I was sure how he would do it, but I was curious. Feeling experimentive, I try again, but this time Chara tells me more harshly to stop, so I reluctantly do. I don't want to get on her bad side. And anyway, she seems excited for something.

"I know your type." Sans insists after a little while more. I listen, but only because I'm bored. "You're, uh, very determined, aren't you? You'll never give up, even when there's, uh… absolutely no benefit of persevering whatsoever. If i can make that clear."

I tilt my head in confusion, still not getting it. If there was no point, why was he still talking? And why did Chara insist not to do anything, and just wait it out? What could she possibly be waiting for?...

"No matter what, you'll just keep going." Sans sighs. "Not out of any desire for good or evil… but just because you think you can. And because you 'can'...you 'have to.'"

I'm not sure what to think against that. I'm not really trying to do good, though I admit I had went along with it on the way. But my true goal was getting home. That was all that mattered right now. To go home and recover my past. So if he meant that getting home was something I could do, and it was what fueled me to have to do it… then yeah. That made sense.

We wait longer. I try to tap my fingers on the tile, but another cyan flash makes me shove my hand back into my pocket. I narrow my eyes at Sans, trying to figure out if it really is him doing it.

"But now, you've reached the end. There is nothing left for you now. So, uh, in my personal opinion… the most 'determined' thing you can do here? Is to, uh, completely give up. And…" He pauses a moment to make a small yawn. I narrow my eyes. "Do literally anything else."

...nice pep talk. But I heard that yawn there. He was tired, that much was true, but was he really tired enough to fall asleep? Was that what Chara was betting on? Seeing that her excitement was growing larger, I could tell that it was. Why was she depending on Sans to fall asleep, and in the middle of a fight right where he was vulnerable before us? That was the stupidest thing I'd ever-

I pause when I notice his eyes dropping. He starts to slow down, his eyelids slowly closing little by little. I can't believe it. Soon, it looks like he's squinting, but I can tell he's still awake. We wait a little longer. His breath slows, and I watch his eyelids. A little longer. And a moment later, they're completely shut. Then not even a second after that, quiet snores come from him, and I can even hear it even though I'm so far away. My jaw drops in disbelief. He had fallen asleep on his feet, right in front of us where we could strike him.

"This is good." Chara says in my head. "Now we can kill him."

"Can't we just step around him?" I suggest.

"No." Chara insists, a little more harshly than I'm used to. "We can't. It's like the sparing trap. Walking around him will trigger him to instantly kill us, but killing him will end the problem once and for all."

I tilt my head. "I don't get it."

"You don't have to." Chara grins inside my head. "We just need to finish the job, and we're home-free."

I blink doubtfully, but agree. "Ok."

We watch his sleeping form a little longer. He looks so peaceful. It reminds me of something, but Chara interrupts my thoughts. "Do you want to kill him?"

I'm still stuck in my thoughts, so I don't completely hear it the first time. "Huh?"

"Do you want to kill him?" Chara repeats the question, seeming thoughtful. "I think I've been standing in the spotlight for long enough. It's about time you got some of the good and glory. You can finish him off for me."

"H-huh?" I immediately find myself protesting, though I don't know why. "Oh no, there's no need for that. You can do it, Chara. You've worked hard for this, and letting me steal all the credit at the end…"

"Nah." She reassures me. "This isn't stealing the credit. It's just letting you be a part of the team. We are partners, aren't we? Just letting me do everything isn't gonna cut it out for teamwork. Both of us have to finish this together, okay?"

I still hesitate. "What if I mess it up?"

Chara grins for us. "I'll make sure you won't."

After a moment, I nod my head and take back control of the body. I feel some of the pain course through me, but I know it's not the full feel, since Chara is still blocking most of the signals. Shakily, I stand myself up. The knife was still in our hand, even throughout the whole "slamming into walls" episode. I eye its glowy redness, feeling it pulse in my fingers. This was it.

Slowly, I make my way over to Sans. I make each step as quiet as possible, but it still leaves tiny echoes bouncing in the hall. Thankfully, Sans' snoring is louder, which covers up the noise. I take more steps, trying to make my breathing sound quieter, since I realize I'm taking heavy breaths. The tension in the air is stifling, making me lose my nerve. I would have to finish this before it got the best of me.

Even closer. He stands in the shadow of a column, making him look solemn and quiet. I was just a two-and-a-half tile space away from him now. I stop momentarily, trying to sort my thoughts out and quiet my breaths.

"Closer." Chara grins.

I nod, pushing onwards. I couldn't wake Sans, not when I was this close. Chara had promised to help me if I messed up, but I didn't know how she could manage to do that. She was probably just reassuring me, which meant that I had to try my best to avoid any conflict of any sorts. This would have to be perfect.

Only a one-tile space left. I'm almost right up to his face now. His face is peaceful-looking, and there's deep creases under his eyesockets, making him look extremely tired and older. Indeedly, there are drops of sweat on his skull, but they're already starting to dry. My eyes slowly trial down from his forehead down to his teeth. I stare at him a little longer, and I get the sudden urge to lean forward and close the distance between us. The thought confuses me.

Chara motions inside my head. "Go on." She encourages.

I slowly raise my arm, trying not to make any shuffling noises with my clothes. After a moment, the knife is poised above our heads, glinting from the light in the windows. I blink at it, uneasiness filling me. Chara notices my hesitation and growls.

"Do it." She hisses.

I nod quickly. Then I shut my eyes and swing the knife down.

At that exact moment, Sans darts to the side. "Heh, didja really think you would be able-"

My arm suddenly jerks to the left, and I cut him right across the torso, cutting his jacket. But it wasn't me that did it. My eyes widen with shock, and Sans' eyes are just pinpricks. He falls, red stuff coming out of him.

"..." He stares down at himself and back at me. His grin is sheepish, despite the fact that he's dying. "...so… guess that's it, huh?..." He closes his eyes briefly as he slowly picks himself up. "Just… don't say i didn't warn you."

I stare at him in shock, my eyes slowly trailing down to his blood-stained blue jacket. Something... an idea, no, an image... suddenly flashes through my mind, and I think I recognize it.

We're in the place covered with snow. I see him giving me his jacket as he grins mischievously. He says something, and I think it's a joke, since I'm laughing. He moves onwards, but then I call after him about something, and he replies back with a funny grin. I can't help staring at him, and I feel myself turning warmer for some reason. Then the jacket gets slipped on. I myself want to turn around and thank him, but all I see are footprints disappearing in the middle of the snow, with no sign of the skeleton. He's gone.

I blink from the memory as I'm startled back into the present, and the now-bloodstained jacket sits before me upon Sans, and I realize that he's dying.

"...Sans?" I whisper hoarsely.

"Welp. i'm going to grillby's."

He walks past me, not seeing me. Just staring at the wall. Just staring at something that's not there.

"...S-sans?" I repeat more nervously this time.

He doesn't hear me. "Papyrus, do you want anything?" I don't turn fast enough.

And all that's left on the ground is a pile of dust.