*Warning. This fanfiction contains dark themes, including hints of alcoholism, suicide, depression, and major character death. Basically just straight up angst. Only read if you're looking for a bad time.

Takes place after the Neutral route which is closest to the No Mercy run.

Betaed by the lovely FlightlessTree.

Sans waited for the phone to pick up, but instead it sent him straight to voicemail.

Figures.

He stared down at the phone in his hand, eyes pitch black, half tempted to hang up, but he didn't. He needed at least some sort of closure.

"heya," Sans said candidly, tapping his fingers on his desk. "is anyone there?" of course not. "well, i'll just leave a message…"

Sans sighed, giving a half-hearted chuckle. "it's been a while, huh?" He trailed off, closing his eyes, remembering the human.

Their dirty pink and blue sweater, the tousled hair, the scared and hunted look that haunted their every step. He wondered what they were doing right now.

"...things have gotten pretty bad here," The skeleton continued softly. "everyone considered a leader disappeared overnight." He stood, walking over to the window to stare outside. It was silent except for a bird somewhere, chirping softly. That was right- it had been a day just like today the kid had left the Underground, hadn't it? "it's gotten so quiet."

Sans reached up, grasping the red scarf hung loosely around his neck. "there's a bad feeling hanging over everyone. like everyone's going to die here, trapped in the dark…"

A wry grin made its way onto Sans' face, and he leaned his forehead against the glass as his reflection gazed back at him. The different clothing didn't suit him, he thought, studying his changed appearance. The kid probably would've found this hilarious… all the more reason not to tell the truth. He didn't want them having any joy at his expense ever again.

"i bet you're wondering why i'm not ruler," he continued. "eh." you don't need to know. "i'm not cut out for something like that. i like to take it easy, y'know?"

The lie slipped out, easy to say because it felt true. Even now, he himself could barely believe what had happened since the kid had left. Sans' face slowly darkened, and his grin grew. "...that's a joke." He studied his reflection one more time. Then he sighed, slipping back into his chair. "this is what happens when people like me take it easy."

Papyrus, gone.

Undyne, gone.

Alphys, gone.

Asgore, gone.

Someone Sans once joked with, gone.

All Sans' fault. All Sans' responsibility now.

"hey, at least things are less crowded now. 'cause, y'know, of all the people you killed." Sans examined the phone. Welp, almost out of time. "hope that was a good experience for you."

It the human's decision to gain LOVE; it was the human's decision to hurt others instead of risking the chance of getting hurt themself.

"...just kidding." Sans' eyes dimmed, and he growled the last bit out. "i don't really hope that."

The human had chosen to do it all, and yet Sans had chosen not to stop it. At the end, at least, he should had taken revenge. But that mistake was done and over with; now Sans had to keep moving forward.

"go to hell." Sans hung up with a click and rubbed his face with one skeletal hand before he got up. He adjusted his crown. He had work to do.

At this point, there was no turning back. Sans would keep walking the path that had been given to him. He could still remember with unusual clarity how all of this started, so soon after the human had left the Underground...

.

-One year prior-

"i like to take it easy, you know? you're looking at the wrong guy for this," Sans pleaded, backing away. The monsters stared back at him, pressing close to him, encircling him, trapping him. Sans felt like he was drowning in the expectations he saw reflected back in their eyes. "find somebody else, okay? i- i can't be king, okay? that's… that's a really bad idea. i can't…"

"Please, Sans!" One of the dog sentries begged. Dogamy, Sans recalled dimly. "There's no one left. We know you had something to do with Asgore while he was alive. You can't just abandon us! Even… even Dogaressa… she's dead, Sans… Undyne, too. No one is left," Dogamy repeated, voice breaking. "No one left but you."

There was no accusation in Dogamy's voice, but Sans sure felt like there was. Why was Sans still alive when so few others were? Sans backed up some more, shaking his head, and bumping into a wall. His eyes widened; he was being surrounded by more and more monsters. The voices rose and Sans' own words were drowned out by the wishes of others. His hand reached up and curled around the red scarf that hung from his neck. A medallion of his failures, a memento of what once was.

Indeed, Sans was the only one left. There really wasn't anyone else left.

pap…what would you do if you were here right now…? what would you want me to do? Somehow, Sans knew the answer, but that didn't make it any easier. This whole mess had happened because Sans had taken it easy. He had looked down at the kid, hissed at them to go to hell, but still refused to lift a single finger to stop them. He let them merely walk out of his life without even obtaining the last soul needed as their payment for their cruel deeds… Sans supposed the time for such complacent acts was over.

Sans took a deep breath and lifted his head. His mouth moved, and all of a sudden the monsters went silent, so silent that all that could be heard was Sans' rasping voice.

The voice of the new king.

Moments before his words had quivered, but now they sounded firm. Confident. Something Sans didn't feel at all.

"all right. if you want me that bad… i'll do it."

As cheers rang around him, Sans' grip tightened on the red scarf. He glanced back at his and Papyrus' old house one final time before he moved, starting to walk down the long path to the New Home. Monsters followed him, calling out the news to those crying and broken along the way. The crowd grew, and the short skeleton had to suppress the hysteria creeping through his very soul.

Sans closed his eyes for a second, letting out the breath that he had held for so long.

In the end, his own judgment had caused all of this. He knew what the human was, what the human could do, had done, and yet…

Welp. What was done was done. Sans made his bed; now he had to lie in it. He could only look forward, pushing off the clawing emptiness that screamed at him in the form of a ragged red scarf.

.

And even with a new king, things were bleak.

What had the Underground been expecting? Maybe someone else could have pulled the Underground out of the depression and hopelessness that had plunged over the kingdom in a single day, someone braver and more cheerful than Sans, but in the end Sans was only a reflection of the people he now governed.

Tired.

Broken.

Hopeless.

The paperwork- much more of it than what Asgore used to deal with- lay in perpetual mounds around Sans' new desk. Trash littered his new abode, and Sans was only reminded that no one was there to pick up after him anymore. His fridge was constantly empty, and Sans didn't have it in him to cook anymore.

He had tried to make a quiche once, but his reason for that attempt was silent. She was probably gone, just like the rest.

Sans wondered what her name was. She must have loved the human; Sans could remember his promise to her quite clearly in stark contrast to the rest of his muddled memories. Sans bleakly wondered what she had thought when she turned to dust at the hands of the same one she had tried to protect?

Sans wished he never agreed to that promise.

He examined the vacant fridge for a moment longer, remembering when he had opened it once upon a time to find spaghetti attempts overflowing onto his side.

He slammed the door shut, and rubbed his face.

For once in his life, Sans wished the tears would just come and get this over with, but he was simply too tired. The tears would no longer come.

.

Sans rubbed his head with a sigh. "so? what was so important in here you just had to show me?" He asked as the elevator descended.

The monster uneasily shifted, fumbling with their keys. "That's, erm," they trailed off, and then frowned. "We found some signs of- of life in the basement down here while sorting everything. We thought you should, ah..."

"is it alphys?" Sans asked quickly, suddenly alert. She'd been missing ever since what the citizens of the Underground were now calling the Second Fall.

"We don't know."

Sans studied the monster- they looked nervous. The elevator doors slid open. "wait here," he murmured, not missing the relieved look the monster shot him as he hurried down the corridors.

There were no signs of life in the first room. Sans squinted as he looked around the dusty laboratory. Messages stuttered to life as Sans walked by but he ignored them, focused on his mission alone.

Hesitantly, Sans headed for the largest room- he could dimly recall the layout from the time he worked here long ago- and paused. His white pupils examined the dark entranceway for a long moment before he took a deep breath and entered the room.

This room was filled with beds from wall to wall. However, what really caught Sans' attention was the two monsters crowding around one bed in particular.

Sans didn't know who or what these monsters were- they all looked misshapen, strange, and starved. One appeared to be a giant white dog, the other some strange type of bird. Judging from their gaunt appearances, Sans suspected the many piles of dust in the room didn't just come from a lack of regular cleaning.

Sans approached them, slippers silently sliding over the ground.

He didn't understand what these monsters were. He didn't understand what Alphys had been thinking in the last moments of her life.

But Sans understood quite perfectly what the pile of dust on the bed, a pink phone lying next to it with its battery still barely alive, represented.

Sans sank to his knees, a soft sigh rattling past his teeth. Again. It happened again.

He was too late.