Sans was staring at the ceiling in thought. After the kid left to finish off the timeline, Sans was given some time to contemplate. Without Sans' notice, the world had turned him back to his in Snowdin. Papyrus wasn't awake yet and the house in Snowdin was shrouded in silence. Sans rolled over if bed with a sigh.

He was anxious, but also somewhat excited. The skeleton had all but promised he'd break his habits and do something new, and it wasn't every timeline he woke up early. His little rebellion against the timelines began early; with Sans getting up when in any other timeline he would have returned to sleep.

Instead, Sans figured he could go down to his lab. It sure had been awhile since he'd been so proactive. The short skeleton had to laugh, because in reality it had only been about a month.

4444

Sans was waiting for Chara when they left the ruins. There wasn't any dust sticking to them, to Sans' relief, but there was an odd glint in their eyes. "What's up?" Sans asked, opting to break from his usual script.

Chara didn't seem surprised, but the darkness in their eyes parted. "Just excited for all the new possibilities that come with you not being so rigid all the time."

Sans coughed into his sleeve and toyed with the fray of his jacket. "Yeah, yeah, kid. Something bothering you?" If something was bothering them, it was bothering him. While Sans was still reeling from Chara's true identity, he was also still wary of the human. Sans silently reminded himself to check out a book from the library on the first human.

"Just thinking," they replied offhandedly, "What do you say to skipping Snowdin?"

Sans' permanent smile shifted. He knew they were going to change things up, but he wasn't sure where the kid was going with this one. "Any reason why, kiddo?"

"I was thinking we could just skip ahead a bit with those shortcuts of yours. Aren't you curious how the story would change if we skipped ahead to Undyne?" Chara looked up at him. The conversation lulled, so Chara supplied, "I tried before to skip over certain areas. With all this unique terrain it's sometimes easy to forget we're trapped in a cave with a set path. But I figure you shortcuts can circumvent that, right?"

Sans had masked his curiosity for long enough, and to be honest: he was curious. What in the world did this kid have planned? Confiding in him? Asking for help? Sans had assumed opening up to Chara meant they would just torture him for all eternity despite any claims they'd made. He held out a hand.

Chara blinked, but grabbed his hand nonetheless, seemingly oblivious to the war raging in Sans' mind. "So how do these shortcuts work anyway?"

The space around them warped as the skeleton took a step forward. Within an instant, the snowy floor below them had become the wet stone of Waterfall. Splashes of water caught on Chara's sweater. Basically, Sans was avoiding the question, but when the human looked up to berate him, the skeleton was frozen in his tracks. The reason why being the blue scaled fish monster watching them with curious eyes.

Her eyes flashed from Sans to the human and then back to Sans. "Is that a human?" She didn't have her armor on yet, seeing how early Chara had arrived. It also didn't help that they had bypassed the royal guard's security with Sans' teleport. It wasn't often that one caught the captain of the royal guard off her guard. The skeleton almost chuckled. He'd have to use that one later.

Sans looked to Chara for answers. He was far too uncomfortable with messing around with the timelines to alter events as much as he was. The skeleton's eye lights shot around at the muck of Waterfall. This had been a mistake. He should have just stayed in Snowdin and followed his rules. The rules that kept the timelines from collapsing on one another. Sans motioned to take a step back, but Chara cut off his intrusive thoughts.

"Greetings, Undyne," they supplied.

The fish monster looked to Sans for a brief moment before turning back to the human. "How does this punk know my name, Sans?" Irritation clouded her eyes. Undyne magicked a spear into the palm of her hand, "Don't tell me you've been making friends with a human?"

Sans winced internally. He knew this was a bad idea. Maybe if he turned back now, then—

"Oh, we are not friends," Chara piped up to Sans' left. A heaviness settled in Sans' soul and he couldn't place why. "But he did take me over here."

Undyne's eye narrowed, but she didn't speak. Hesitation was in her frown. Though the human had yet to threaten an attack, Undyne shot her spear towards the child. Chara smirked and charged forward as well, armed with a knife Sans didn't realize they had yet.

The battle that followed was one Sans would rather forget.

4444

Undyne's dust caught in the stream and disappeared somewhere behind them. It bunched up on Sans' bones. Sans was mostly numb to the killing by this point. Hundreds of genocides could do that to a monster. He'd have a battle in his head later over whether that was really a good thing.

"I took care of Undyne for you," Chara frowned at him, "so you have to kill the next monster we see." They said it like a command, but Chara's tone was gentle in a way Sans didn't know they were capable of. At Sans' silence, the human continued, if not a bit hesitantly, "But You're a virgin when it comes to killing. So I guess we can take it slow."

Sans looked away.

"I was getting tired of Waterfall, anyway." They looked down at their toes, a small smile playing on their features, "I've got an idea."

"What's that, kid?" Sans was less curious and more thankful for Chara's understanding. He'd be lying if he didn't say he was surprised at their acceptance. The homicidal human was friendly to a point. It was sort of putting Sans off.

"Mettaton is supposed to be working on his show now, isn't he? Usually I'm fighting him around now." Chara kicked up some snow idly.

Sans didn't watch Chara fight the robot often. His brother always did, when he wasn't dead, so Sans caught the battle on occasion. But after the first hundred reiterations of the same show, Sans stopped watching it. "He's probably waiting for a human to show up," Sans looked pointedly at Chara, testing his luck, "So I'd say that's a yes."

Chara huffed, "So I know your brother really likes that tin can. But I can't say for sure that you ever had an opinion on him."

Scoffing, Sans replied, "Haven't seen much of that guy. MTT's show gets really boring when it always the same episode."

Chara smiled devilishly, "I'll bet."

Sans relented with a sigh, "You going to crash his show, Kid?" He was only silent for a moment before reaching out a hand for the kid to take. There really wasn't much point in fighting them and Sans would be lying if he said breaking his rules was somewhat exciting. So Sans warped them to Mettaton's stage. Chara was adamant abut skipping over Alphys, saying it would be fun to see her reaction to the skeleton helping the human later. Sans agreed without much complaint, despite knowing that Alphys had been able to watch them over her cameras the whole time. She probably already knew what he had allowed to happen to Undyne.

Chara guided him through the area, on the lookout for a robot that probably already knew they were there. They held onto Sans' hand despite his shaking attempts to pull away. It wasn't just the kid that put him on edge, but Hotland itself. The Core, too. Why, he hadn't been to the Core since...

The human glanced at the air around them, frown set on their face. Chara's eyes looked pensive, which was more than Sans had seen before. Beyond distant and homicidal, the human's eyes were rather lacking in expression. Chara shook their head. Sans didn't say a word.

4444

When they found MTT, he was sprawled out on the counter of his cooking show's kitchen rather seductively. He would have pulled off the look better if he wasn't still a large, flamboyant rectangle. They'd have to wait a little while into the battle for that reveal.

Chara glanced over at Sans, not thanking him, but also not looking away. "You could kill him." They said after a moment.

"I'll pass." He was still watching Mettaton who was staring back at him with an unreadable expression flashing across in a lightbulb code.

Instead of replying, Chara turned to the robot. A conflicted frown dashed across their face before disappearing behind a mask of gleeful contentment once again.

Mettaton and the kid shared a few words, but Sans was too busy sorting through his own mind to listen. Honestly, the Chara was sending him some mixed signals. They went from a crazy, psychotic killer to a troubled, kind child within seconds. He just did not understand. Was that kindness Frisk's influence? Or was it Chara's? Sans didn't want to think about it too much.

Which was good, because some of Mettaton's bullets were just narrowly dodged at the last second. That tin can was shooting his attacks out more for show than damage. The human wasn't complaining from where they stood, but it looked as though they had MTT's attacks memorized. Chara looked bored. Out of nothing more than obligation, Sans dodged any of the stray attacks that went his way. If Mettaton had noticed Sans' presence, it was only made apparent by the ten to twenty bullets shot his way. A whole barrage was launched at Chara, though only two hit. They charged behind Mettaton and—

Chara didn't flip the switch. They stabbed it. Twelve times.

The lights in Mettaton's eyes dimmed and Chara stood up. "That was fun."

"It was enlightening," Sans joked, but his posture was tense. A thought had been worming its way into his mind for a while now. Distracted by the robot corpse at his feet, the skeleton hadn't fully realized. But now...

There was a camera. Many cameras. Which wasn't a problem. Not really. The problem was that on special occasions, MTT broadcasted live. Which also wasn't a problem. The only real problem was that Papyrus always watched those broadcasts.

Chara was watching him curiously from the edges of his dimming vision.

Papyrus didn't even know the kid in this timeline, but Sans was still standing next to a murderer. He thought about his brother. Would Paps hate him? Despise him? ...Fear him? Sans was beginning to think coming here was a mistake.

"Dude, what the hell."

...then again maybe he had other things to worry about. But Sans just couldn't get past the idea of Papyrus watching Sans allow Mettaton's murder to happen. Something slapped his back a few times and it only took a minute before Sans realized Chara was attempting to calm him down.

Red eyes flashed up to meet his, "Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Sans took another breath to relax his soul. Deciding to open up slightly, he supplied, "Paps just watched that. He's still watching this now." His white bead eyes glanced at a camera to his left; red light on and somehow not broken throughout the battle.

Chara followed his eyes to the camera and smiled for it. "So? After Alphys and the king I'll just reset again. No biggie."

Despite any morality Sans thought he had, the idea actually reassured him. Sans smashed the camera to pieces with a magic bone. "Yeah. Okay."

4444

Alphys' heavy breathing could be heard from behind the two and Sans felt his spine stiffen. Chara seemed similarly put off despite their brutal assassination of the robot moments earlier. The red eyed child was the first to turn around.

They didn't get the option to fight Alphys very often, and it showed. Chara's movements were a mix of unsure and energized, but they walked confidently over to Alphys nonetheless. Sans waited for Alphys to get back up and fight...

...and waited...

And—

Chara slit her throat without a word. Their eyes were red and smiling.

And looking back on It, Sans shouldn't have expected much else. Undyne and Mettaton. Then Alphys. Break her will to live and you don't even have to fight.

Chara led him past the pile of dust.

4444

With that timeline finished, the two teleported to Waterfall immediately after the ruins. An old statue played its raindrop song.

Chara had been quiet and watchful. It had taken all through their battle with the king for Sans to recognize their movements as cautious and testing. Like they wanted to tell him something and weren't sure how he'd respond. Sans could understand that much.

So while they were staring blankly at the crystals somewhere above, Sans commented quietly, "Papyrus didn't remember the fight with MTT last time."

They were silent.

"Obviously. He's never remember the resets before so why would he start now? I mean—"

"I was dead, Sans!" Chara yelled, tears in their eyes, "I was dead!"

The skeleton jumped slightly at the outburst, but calmed quickly, turning to watch the kid. "Kiddo, we've all been dead. Most of us by your hands."

The human shook their head, tear droplets like rain pattering softly on the stone of Waterfall. It tapped along to the music the statue made. "You don't get it! I was dead! For years disintegrating in the dirt next to worms and stones. Spiders have crawled over my lifeless corpse and—" Chara choked out a sob, "I'm disgusting, Sans. A lifeless monster, a real monster, stuck inside a body that isn't my own. I'm not supposed to be like this! My skin is crawling! Frisk's skin is crawling! I don't belong here! Not anymore!"

Sans was taken aback, but he didn't move to comfort the human. He was still bitter. But he did understand Chara, at least of all the things Sans hated about himself, his body wasn't a priority; he was all skin and bones minus the skin. "Then why'd you take Frisk's soul? I mean, couldn't you have just stayed dead?"

"I thought..." The pitter-patter of water was its own tune and its own memory playing out softly in Chara's head. They wiped the tears from their face, but red streaks still marked the path. Chara placed a hand on the statue. "I thought I could be with my family again."

"Can't you?" Sans looked up. Raindrops fell from somewhere nonspecific above, "Toriel loves you, kid."

Chara laughed, but it wasn't malevolent like Sans was used to. It was bitter and sad instead. "She doesn't love me. She hardly even remembers me. When Mom sees me, she sees all the other human kids she couldn't save. Mom just sees me as another replacement child. But I'm not a replacement! It's me! Chara! Why can't she just love me! Why did Mom have to replace me! If Frisk were still in control then she could be happy with her fake-me and I could be dead where I belong. It isn't fair, Sans. Why can't Toriel love me like she used to? How could she just replace me so easily? Is it really that easy to get rid of me? To replace me with a better version?" They sighed, "We could have been so happy."

"Yeah," Sans was looking away, not wanting to watch the person he was born to hate sob like the child they were, "But everyone already is happy."

Chara pulled at the fraying edges of their sweater. "Everyone but us."

Sans looked away. He wasn't sure when they had grown so close together, Chara and him. 490 timelines of hatred between the two shattered in the 491st? Sans could't make sense of it. Maybe they'd been growing closer without even realizing it. But his hesitant demeanor couldn't change that fact that a certain softness didn't exist between the two of them. For a brief moment, Sans and Chara were closer than ever; both suffering for maybe the same reason. Maybe not. The kid had been surprisingly gentle with him for the last few timelines and at that moment, Sans wondered if he'd been mistaken about the human the whole time.

There were flowers growing on Chara's soul. Tall, gorgeous things that spread out and covered the earth. The air smelled of summer and the flowers were vivid with golden glory. Growing and growing with petals and leaves to sing in the wind when touched. So full of life and so lush with color. In Chara's eyes, Sans could see a garden.

Is this a short chapter? Yes. Did this take WAY to long to write? Yes. But the real question is: Wait. I'm still writing this piece of garbage? Evidently.

I'm sorry for the wait. I'm sorry it wasn't worth it.

Also this is the right chapter right? My planning got screwed up and I 100% do not want to fix it. Let me know anyway though I guess.

Next chapter: Uncanny Valley

which is to say it will be if I ever start and finish it.