He looks half surprised, and half as if he knew that's what the answer would be. You might be imagining it, but there might be a hint of a geek's fascination with stuff like this somewhere under there too.

"You're aware of other timelines, right? Other Sanses like you?"

"uhhh..." He shifts awkwardly and scratches his skull with the tips of his phalanges.

"yeah. sort of." He seems unsure of how much he wants to tell you.

"Well." You decide to lay your own cards on the table. "Every time a new player starts a game, they split the original world further. If they reset, the timeline starts over in that world, but a new world isn't created. The world barriers separate the worlds from each other."

You wave at the dust-filled darkness around you. "So, this isn't your world, if that's what you've been worrying about."

Suddenly, you feel like maybe you've been charging ahead too boldly in this conversation, and his blanched expression confirms it.

His voice is quiet. "yeah, kinda was. thought maybe it wasn't, but didn't know for sure." You see the worry lines around his eye sockets, and feel bad.

"Sorry," you apologize sincerely, trying to slow yourself down. You take a deep breath, and continue.

"I brought us here 'cause I didn't want to be like Frisk and kill everyone while the anomaly was controlling me. I knew it was an empty world that a player abandoned after a Genocide run, where everything was destroyed."

"makes sense," he says in a low, strained voice. "so that's why the anomaly said if i died here, i wouldn't come back?"

"Yeah. I think so. The reset can only affect what's inside the world."

He looks pained, like the shadows of many memories are crossing his mind. It gives you a strange, eerie feeling.

A thought strikes you.

"Can you...sense what's going on in the other worlds?" you suddenly wonder aloud.

He's silent for a long time, staring at the ground and struggling with the decision, but eventually he decides to tell you the truth.

"yeah," he says, his voice low.

The implications of that hit you hard. "But then..." You know your face must show your horror.

Sensing the good worlds with nice players would be one thing...disorienting, but probably not traumatic...But what about the bad ones...and so many of them?

"i don't sense all of it," he explains. "it's like vague echoes, and parts of memories. i feel the other sanses' emotions, and some of what happens to them."

He looks up at you, his voice heavy and deep. "i guess we all can. maybe some of the other me's choose to ignore it more than others, or only feel the effects as nightmares. i don't know. it's always worse at night."

You don't have the words to reply to that. You try to show sympathy with your expression, but you have the feeling it's really not anywhere near adequate.

Well. You're only human. You can't change everything, or express things adequately when what is being talked about is literally beyond your comprehension.

Sans seems to appreciate your clumsy attempts at empathy anyway though.

"don't worry, it's not all the time. i can deal with it."

"Can you really?" you wonder. "Could anyone deal with this?"

"Ok..." you agree dubiously.

He changes the subject.

"anyway, let's just worry about our own problems. how're ya doing on food and water? don't know how long exactly humans can live without it, but i'm pretty sure it's not more than a few weeks."

Your mouth is dry. "I'm really thirsty. It's going to be bad after about a day or two. Having injuries and losing blood also means that I really need water. I could live without food for much longer, if I had some water."

"hmm." He considers that. "does your ship know where we are."

"Unfortunately, no. I thought trying to tell them might tip off the anomaly and make it take me over faster, and then it might make me kill everyone. It wasn't the best plan, I admit, but I could sense how powerful the anomaly is. I think it could easily destroy the ship. I'm really sorry I got you into this too. That was selfish on my part, but I was honestly scared. I was hoping you would follow me so I left the tunnel open. I didn't think I wouldn't be able to tunnel back, though."

You hold onto your legs with your arms as a wave of dizziness passes over you, and as you briefly close your eyes, you get the sense that you're falling over even though you're sitting down. Now that he's mentioned it, you're becoming aware of just how much your body is complaining at you.

"I hoped you'd use your karma and fix me, and then we could just go back. Thanks for doing that by the way. It's my fault I got broken when it grabbed me. If I'd been paying attention, maybe I could've dodged it or something..."

You know you're rambling, but you're trying to compensate for your sense of guilt and growing fear that you might not live through this. Plus, you might have gotten this Sans permanently killed too by bringing him here. The weight of the responsibility on you is quickly becoming crushing.

"you were hurt," he replies. "that's why you couldn't move fast enough. that was my fault."

"Only because I kidnapped you," you berate yourself. "That wasn't very nice, even if I had good intentions."

"well. i wasn't making it easy on you. you were trying to explain. i just didn't want to listen."

There's a despair in his words that you're not sure how to interpret. It almost sounds like self-hatred, but you're not sure why it's there.

You sigh heavily. "A series of mistakes I guess."

"look. doesn't help to hate on yourself for past mistakes. i should know. i do that a lot. but there's one thing that makes me happier about all of this."

You're curious, and give him an inquisitive raise of your eyebrow.

"it's different. 's better than being killed over and over."

You smile softly. "I guess so...I mean, of course. I can't even imagine that. But stopping that was what I originally hoped for. I just wanted it all to stop. I wanted everyone to stop getting hurt."

You shiver in the cold darkness, and neither of you say anything for awhile. He's sitting with his eyes closed, so you wonder if he's dozing off, but suddenly you can see his eyelights focusing up at you again.

"can you tell me more about what it was like from your side?" he asks. "you are human, right?" He sounds like he's trying to think his way through this.

The question surprises you, but you nod. "Yeah, I am."

"ok. we've never been sure about that. i mean, for all i knew, you could have been a god or something. messing with an entire world like that, and seeing us so small. it really pissed me off, honestly. i thought, is that all we are to you?"

There's so much buried anger in those words, under a thin veneer of calm. How much of his feelings is he hiding?, you wonder.

"on that screen," he repeats, "is that what it looks like to all of you? is it really that easy to mess with us?"

Was that the trigger point that made him decide to kill you, when you brought him to the ship?

It's not like he hadn't been trying to do that all along, but maybe in that moment, his hatred for you got personal.

You'd thought he'd calmed down, and you'd lowered your shield the same way you might lower a sword to avoid poking someone in the eye. If you stood too close to him with your bulky outer shield up, you could end up accidentally shoving him face first into the desk with it, and that was the last thing you wanted to do. He might've thought you were attacking him.

And then-

Sharp bones splinter through your memories, and you shiver.

"It's a really long story," you stall for time.

You're so naiive, a doubting inner voice says. Why do you keep letting down your guard?

Shut up, you reply, fighting with yourself. I know he went through a lot, but I don't think he's that far gone. He hasn't snapped like some of the others did.

You sure?

"a long story'd be a lot better than the snails' race we're doing now," Sans replies, interrupting your inner dialogue. " 'cause we're not going anywhere fast. might as well pass the time."

There's a steady intensity from his eyelights as they pierce through your soul.

He's really saying, I need answers.

You might be able to resist just that steady gaze, but you can't resist trying to do something about the despair behind it.

How long has he been searching for why all of this is happening to them? He's known since early on that it isn't just about Frisk and Chara.

You look away and bite your lip. Thinking about the past brings up a lot of painful memories, but you do want to help.

He can see you're almost persuaded.

Calling you by your real name, he says "listen. i know now you were trying to do the right thing. and you wouldn't have put up with me trying to kill ya for so long without fighting back if you didn't have some determination in you. so don't give up yet."

He shows his winning card. "maybe if you tell me, i can help figure out how to get us out of here."

"Good point," you sigh. "It's just, it's not an easy story to tell."

"i'm all ears," he says blandly.

You do a double take, not expecting that pun. "in a manner of speaking," he grins.

"Well ok, then. You already know about how your own world was split. But you might not know why, right?"

"guessing it has something to do with you players, right?"

"Yeah."

You settle in for a long explanation, sitting with the palms of your hands cold against the smooth ground as you lean back on them.