Sans waited for a reply with a smug grin plastered on his face, his left eye slightly glowing its twisting colours of yellow and blue as his magic hung waiting to be put to paper. He didn't think he had ever enjoyed dishing out judgment as much as right now but god did this feel satisfying. Well at least it did until the light at the side of notebook changed from green to red.

"Right, I forgot they could do that. Welp, brake time." The short skeleton leaned back in his chair, the structure creaking with the shift in weight, and closed his eyes. It was a beautiful day outside. Birds were singing. Flowers were blooming. If the world was going to end then it might as well be on a nice day like this.

Sans knew he was taking a risk. Don't poke the bear they'd say, or in this case, don't poke the all powerful being that can warp time and space whenever they feel like it, but tomātos tomătos. If they were going end it all then he would rather they get it over and done with instead of having the threat lingering over him. The rational part of him reasoned that by forcing their hand, by showing them that he expecting them to take the easy way out, he was in fact taking away some of their control, making them want to go against what was expected of them. That said Sans knew if he was being honest with himself, he was just tired and wanted this to end...one way or another. Not that he really wanted the world to end or anything. He would give everything to just be able to sit in the sun with his friends and brother enjoying their new life while it progressed in a straight line. No going back, no jumps and no deleting...no forgetting. His gaze flicked to a draw in his desk. Was that really too much to ask?

Sans rubbed his skull to try and shake himself from moping. The world was still here, and he had to continue to act like it would be here tomorrow if he was going to get any further with his research. God he hated work.

The notebook had proven to be the key. It had somehow become quantum entangled with something that existed within the Void. The problem was that he could not use it to get access. That ability, at least for the moment, belonged solely to the anomaly. Sans turned his chair to check one of his monitors. The amount of data he was able to gather each time the connection opened was incredible. So much so that it would quickly overload if Sans tried to gather too much at one time. That said, if he could just find a way to connect the void directly to his own systems then he might be able to use its own power to process and compile the information at the same time he gathered it. Unfortunately that would have to wait till he had a little more control on when the connection opened.

Sans looked back at the innocuous looking bundle of papers. It had proven to be frustrating at the start. He had been able to detect that it was somehow connected to something in the void but he had not been able to do anything with that connection. He had tried everything he could think of, even tried to track down the 'flower friend' Papyrus had and who the anomaly seemed very chummy with. While none of the monsters could remember how exactly the barrier had been broken one thing they could remember was a small talking flower acting in a very unfriendly like manner before everything got fuzzy. Sans got a very bad feeling when he thought about that flower. Unfortunately, despite scouring the Underground, he had yet to find a trace of the little weed.

Three months he had been at a complete dead end and then suddenly the notebook had, for lack of a better term, activated. He had not been in his lab at the time and had only been able to observe the after effects when he went to check on things. It had been surprising to see his own name written on the page, even more so when he realized that he would be able to use the notebook to directly communicate with the anomaly.

Access had been short and random at first but Sans quickly found out that the book gave off a large amount of energy when it became active - and that energy was active on all parts of the notebook, whether they were attached to the main body or not. All he needed was a piece and he instantly knew when the connection opened. You could even go as far as calling it his new - pager.

The anomaly itself...that was proving a little more tricky to compile data on.

He didn't have much to go on but Sans could be pretty sure on a few facts about it. Firstly, and most importantly, they did have emotions. If the anomaly had been nothing more than a soulless entity bent of analyzing every variable and outcome of this world then everything he was trying to do would have been pointless.

Second, they cared about his world and the people in it. Sans was not really sure how far this went. Was it the care someone would show for a pet? Or maybe a favorite book? It certainly didn't go too far if they could so quickly jump to ending it all.

Most of this data however had been from the initial 'letter'. All he had been able to gauge from recent contact was that it had a sense of humor...and a short temper. The humor part was a pleasant surprise really, the temper on the other hand, less so. The anomaly clearly saw themselves as a friend to everyone important in Sans's life. Actually that was wrong. It was everyone important to Frisk's life, which had made Sans wonder if the anomaly had been sharing the kid's emotions as well as their body. That little theory could more or less be put to rest now. He still wanted to know just how much of the kid down in the Underground had been Frisk and how much had been the anomaly.

Sans had talked to Frisk about the notebook only twice during those three months nothing had happened. It had been...rough for the kid to open up. They clearly didn't want to talk about it, heck poor thing didn't really understand it themselves, but they said they felt better to have someone to talk to. It hurt Sans the the core too see Frisk flinch or tense up around Undyne but they were getting better as new, vivid memories overlaid faded shadows. The night terrors had let up a lot though Tori said they still had them every so often, Sans could relate to that. He had told them that sometimes he thought he was seeing Papyrus turning to dust right in front of him and he would wake up in a panic, so sure that it had been real. Other times he would see faces that he knew, call names he remembered, only to wake up feeling that a part of his soul was missing while the faces and names would vanish like dust on the wind.

It had been the kid's turn to comfort him then. They had hugged him so tightly and with such compassion it had been hard for Sans to not start crying. Instead, he had done something that was very rare for him to do. He made a promise.

"Kid, buddy, you listen to me. I promise that I'm gonna fix this. I'm going to make sure no one is ever going to play with our lives again. You trust me?" The smile Frisk had given him at that moment could have filled a hundred monsters with determination and Sans had drunk it all in.

One thing was certain now. He would be damned is he was going to break a promise to that kid!


Just a little 'behind the scenes' look at Sans for this chapter. Oh and we have just broken 2000 views in less then a week - that is amazing. Thank you to everyone showing their support for this crazy little fic. I hope I can keep your all entertained.