Okay, here's the epilogue! It came along quick, as expected. Enjoy!

I have woven o parachute out of everything broken." -William Stafford

File 0: Come True

On the surface, monsters lived happily in a city, proudly named Home City by King Asgore. He and Queen Toriel walked the streets every afternoon, with happy little Asriel scampering behind them. Nearby Undyne and Papyrus raced each other down the sidewalk, with Papyrus slightly ahead. Mettaton's latest quiz show was advertised on the big screens of the city, as many monsters stopped to watch it. Others, however, continued their daily routines unheeded.

Sans watched it all from the window in his lab. It was still strange seeing Toriel and Asgore back together, after being separated so long in the old world. Still, it made sense: if Asriel hadn't died and then got turned into Flowey, then the king and queen had no reason to fight. For that matter, there was no barrier to shatter, or human children to be hunted. So of course the royal couple remained loving to each other, almost sappily so. That was how they reformed in this world, and really it was for the best of everyone. The occasional ache in Sans's chest would eventually go away.

Sans would go visit everyone later. Right now, he had work to do.

Well, "work" was a loose term for the unknowing. He may have been the royal scientist, but his experiments and discoveries were trivial. Mostly it was just him figuring out how some of these human inventions worked, like washing machines or complex cash registers. Still, it was enough to make it seem like he was doing something.

However, that didn't mean that Sans was being lazy. Making sure all code ran smoothly was a tiring job. It was hard to explain that to most people. At some point, Sans hoped everyone would understand the truth without panicking. For most monsters, it wasn't that time yet. Papyrus liked to help with code, and was so close to comprehending what code really meant, but he wasn't quite there yet. Alphys seemed closer to grasping that meaning, but still couldn't manipulate code. Regardless, Sans didn't think it would be too much longer for either of them, and then monitoring and maintenance would be a lot easier.

He knew Flowey - now Asriel again - could manipulate code, but he seemed to refuse to even acknowledge the true state of the world. Sans knew Asriel remembered. Sometimes the goat-child said something he shouldn't know. However, he quickly corrected himself in such situations, and feigned ignorance when asked such questions. Perhaps Sans couldn't blame him too much though: the goat-child had been born corrupted, knowing the truth without guidance or relief. If he just wanted to spend some time enjoying the childhood he never had, that was fine. There was no hurry. It was important for everyone to learn and accept the truth at their own pace.

When Sans wasn't measuring the pulse of the new world, he was writing down what once was. His journal wouldn't make much sense to someone who didn't know better, but that was how it should be. Only those who had come to realize the true nature of the world would be able to appreciate it.

Sans left hints here and there. In certain bookcases, all the books were blank. At the back of an alley there was gibberish graffiti that was actually code for generating hot dogs. The rumor of humans still persisted, even though there were no longer any in this world.

Sans still knew nothing about the world where humans came from. It was one of his side projects to dig up some clues about them in the far reaches of the game. Occasionally he ran into Chara when he went out of bounds, but Chara did nothing to stop him. The child didn't help either, but it wasn't their job to hold anyone's hand. Anyone worthy of their definition of life must be able to find answers themselves.

Sometimes Sans hoped he would find Gaster somewhere out of there, even though he knew better. Sans let souls manifest freely in this new world. He manipulated code, not people. That would defeat the purpose of personal growth. Some took more time than others to reappear, but Gaster and his once-connected companions never materialized at all. Only Doge had come back, faithfully following her duty to serve her master. Even then, she had come back as a skeleton dog.

Sadly, Sans had expected their absence. After so much unending turmoil, all they wanted was to avoid pain in a new world. Even after straining so hard to create that world, fighting just to exist…

No, that wasn't right. With their pain finally soothed, they had passed on. Passed on…to the next world? Afterlife was a purely human concept. Monster lore and observation always said that a monster soul crumbled away soon after the body did. Sans never really thought about it before, but maybe that was an illusion too? After all, a monster's life could be restored with a reset. Maybe the true soul was stored somewhere else?

Sans couldn't reset back to the old world, but he could save and reset in this one if need be. However, he wanted to avoid that as much as possible. He still wasn't sure if he should set some kind of loop in the future, or if it would better to remake everything again if the world became severely corrupted.

He would worry about that later. Right now, this world was free, happy, and, most importantly, gave everyone the potential to grow into something more. To become something even the mysterious humans could respect.

This is what you wanted, right boss?

The door opened, and Alphys scurried in. "Hey! Papyrus and Undyne wanna have a hotdog-eating contest, so you know what that means, right?"

"More work? Oh boy." Despite the complaint, Sans got up with a grin. "Welp, time to get cooking. Otherwise they'll be eating cold dogs. Or maybe I should make some hotcats instead?"

Alphys rolled her eyes with a smile. "C'mon, let's go before they decide to eat something else. Like all my ramen."

:"Can't have that, huh?" said Sans. He followed her out of the door. See boss? We'll be fine. Maybe drop by sometimes, if you can? I'm sure you're discovering stuff, even now. To exist beyond code…maybe that was the next step. But he was getting ahead of himself.

Sans had no proof that Gaster was listening, and probably never would. But it didn't matter. Gaster had done many things deemed impossible, including existing past erasure. So, why not believe in the implausible? Even if it seemed like there wasn't way to get better, that perfection had supposedly already been reached….

So, I've got a question for ya, boss…Do you think even the best person can change?

IIIIII

Thank you so much to everyone who has read this story all the way into the end! I hope you enjoyed it and that everyone makes sense. What did you think of it overall?

It's been a fairly long journey writing this story, a little over a year, including lots of backtracking to rewrite. I've learned a lot as a writer weaving this tale, and it honestly feels like a new milestone for my skill. And of course it's been tons of fun to write as well.

Cya!