A painful awakening.

Before we begin, I'd like to just clarify something. Sans's dialogue will NOT be all lowercase. While I am aware that this is how he speaks, typing out his dialogue and not capitalizing it will crush my inner Grammar Nazi. Just a heads up.

On the bright side, I will be writing Papyrus's dialogue in full capitals, so don't worry about that. Enjoy!

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Storms covered the sky. The bright stars and the full moon, hidden behind a swarm of darkness as the rain began to fall on the City of Ebott, now nicknamed the 'Town of the Humans and Monsters'. City lights could still be seen all around. Despite the rain, many were outside, socialising with their friends and colleagues. Restaurants were open and the shops were selling. The televisions were all showing the newest episode of "So You Think You're a Superstar?" featuring the world famous performer Metatton himself as a judge.

On the outskirts of town, a large house resided, devoid of light with the exception of two nightlights, one showing both monster and human SOULs, and the other showcasing the words "COOL DUDE" across the room. This was the home of Frisk's monster family. While struggling at the start, the monsters realised that G's were valuable on the human world, with an excellent exchange rate of $270 per G. This allowed the monsters to buy their homes on the Surface, and were quickly able to adapt to human life. Frisk, the saviour of the monsters, suggested that their monster family should all buy a house together. While Toriel was a bit reluctant at first, what with having to share the home with her ex-husband Asgore, she agreed, and the monsters were able to purchase the small mansion from a elderly kind-hearted human, who passed away a few months after. The residence had ten rooms, six of these occupied and four as spare bedrooms for whatever reason. The residents were all sleeping peacefully. All, save for one monster who was still awake and unable to escape to blissful sleep. The monster wore a plain white shirt and short black pants with a stripe running down the sides. Instead of a face, the monster had a skull, with two small glowing orbs in the place of eyes. The monster was a skeleton. A skeleton by the name of Sans. He often had trouble sleeping at night because his mind was always active, never stopping to rest. Because of this, the skeleton had no easy chance to sleep. Placing his pillow over his head, he shut his eye sockets and tried to force himself to sleep.

"This world will live on!" Undyne the Undying proclaimed, her entire body melting away to a puddle of goop. Even with this, she still smiled in defiance at her killer, knowing that they would be killed by the King of the Monsters with the power of the souls. With this thought, she closed her eyes, as the world around her faded to black...

With a start, the former Captain of the Royal Guard broke out of sleep, breathing heavily as sweat rolled down her face. Next to her, the ex-Royal Scientist woke up, disturbed by her partner.

"Undyne? W-what happened?" she asked with her stuttering voice, noticing the state her girlfriend was in. A year of dating, and she still couldn't believe it happened, nor could she get used to the fact that such an amazing monster would want to be with her, a screw-up. She had so much to thank her for. Undyne helping her gain her confidence back was one of them.

With a startled expression, Undyne turned to her girlfriend, feeling guilty about waking her up.

"Heh. It's nothing. I can't actually remember what happened." She replied honestly in her tough Guardsman voice, the memory fading fast. She stopped. Memory? That couldn't be possible. It was just a terrible nightmare, one she hadn't had in a long time.

"If y-you're sure." Alphys yawned, sleep rushing over her. Undyne cuddled up to her, kissing her on her forehead as she also tried to sleep. If it happened again, she would just suplex it.

It's strange though, she thought, why would I think it was a memory?

"You really hate me that much?" Toriel asked, horrified at what her child had just done. She helped them through the Ruins, protected them, thought of them as their child. And they had killed her. She looked at their expression, not seeing a trace of remorse or guilt on their face. As her body dissolved, she reflected on her life; all the failures and mistakes that she made. She hoped that this child would want to stay, and that hope blinded her to what they had done to the Ruins, voiding it of life. The foolish mother faded to dust, the world around her collapsing to nothing.

Gasping, the former Queen of the Monsters woke up in a cold sweat, slowly calming herself down as she realised where she was. She checked her bedside alarm clock. It read 1:27 A:M. Moving out of bed, she put on her purple fuzzy bedside slippers. They were a gift from Sans on her birthday, before he pulled out a beautiful dress from his small jacket. She never understood how he could do that, but the slippers were very comfortable and her favourite colour and the dress was a beautiful purple with the Deltarune symbol on it, similar to her old one but younger and more vibrant. Knowing that she wouldn't be going back to sleep, she decided to go downstairs to make herself a cup of tea. A light caught her eye, and she noticed that it was coming from the kitchen. Making her way down the stairs, she was surprised to see Asgore pouring water into a kettle. Hearing something, he turned around to see Toriel looking at him.

"Oh! Howdy Toriel. What wakes you up at this late hour?" He asked in his normal, kind voice.

"I could ask you the same Asgore." She replied, a little ice entering her voice. She had still not forgiven him completely, unable to bring herself to.

"It was strange. I had a nightmare, but I can't seem to remember it. I woke up from it, tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't, so I decided to come downstairs and make myself some tea. Would you like some?"

"W-Why?" Asgore asked, his expression and voice full of pain as he looked at the child that had stabbed him, catching him completely off-guard. He looked at them in pain, seeing their expressionless unreadable face, before pellets surrounded him, eradicating his physical body to dust and leaving his soul. All of his regrets and guilt came crashing down on his soul, before his soul shattered into a million pieces, with his world disappearing around him.

Toriel was shocked. What were the chances of someone else also having a nightmare and then not being able to remember it? Putting it off as a mere co-incidence did not do JUSTICE to it, but there were no other options. Sighing, she accepted the offer of a cup of tea, and sat down on one of the ivory arm chairs while Asgore boiled the water in the kettle and prepared the tea.

"I still believe in you. Even if you don't. I-I promise" the head of The Great Papyrus spoke to the human in front of them, the figure who attacked them despite an amazing, uplifting speech from The Great Papyrus himself. But that was okay. The human was probably just scared, and was regretting hurting him, even though they didn't show it. Somewhere, deep in his soul, he knew that they were capable of changing, even if they didn't know it. Smiling, he allowed himself to fall apart, as his world became darker, yet darker.

His eye sockets snapping open, Papyrus jumped out of his race-car bed and felt his head. Detaching it, he looked around at his body. It looked okay. He stopped. Why was he examining himself? As great as he looked, that didn't seem like the answer. He decided not to worry about it. Everything seemed to be fine, so there was no cause for worry. His room was lit up by his 'COOL DUDE' light, so he could see the entire room perfectly fine. Reattaching his head, he decided to go make sure that the others were fine, because that was the right thing to do. Opening his door, he noticed a light downstairs, and decided to go check it out.

Hearing someone coming down, Toriel turned her head to see the newcomer. To her surprise, Papyrus bounded down the stairs quietly with his usual amazing grace and agility.

"GOOD MORNING LADY TORIEL." Papyrus spoke in his inside voice, which wasn't much quieter than his actual voice. Toriel quickly gestured at him to lower his voice as the others were still asleep.

"Papyrus, why are you awake? It is very early, too early for even you to be awake." Toriel asked gentleness and concern in her voice. Papyrus was a very kind monster, and was always happy and cheerful, no matter what life threw at him. To see him awake at such an ungodly hour with concern on his face was very worrying indeed.

"WELL, I WAS SLEEPING AND WAS DREAMING ABOUT THINGS, BUT I CAN'T RECALL THEM. SUDDENLY, I MUST HAVE HAD A NIGHTMARE, BECAUSE THE NEXT THING I KNOW, I WAS AWAKE. SINCE I AM SO GREAT, I THEN DECIDED TO GO MAKE SURE THAT THE OTHERS WERE SLEEPING SOUNDLY. WHY ARE YOU AWAKE?"

Toriel looked startled. It couldn't be a co-incidence that three people all had nightmares on the same night in the same time period. She wondered who else was awake because of nightmares. As if answering her, Undyne and Alphys appeared as well, hearing all the commotion.

"Let me guess," Toriel sighed. "You had a nightmare and you couldn't sleep, so you decided to come down here because there was a light here and you were wondering why?"

"W-wait. You g-guys had mightm-mares too?" Alphys asked, visibly surprised. "I thought it was only Undyne who did."

"WELL MISS ALPHYS, IT APPEARS THAT WE ALL HAD STRANGE NIGHTMARES THAT WE CAN'T REMEMBER. IN FACT, IT SEEMS THAT THE ONLY PEOPLE STILL SLEEPING ARE FRISK, FLOWERY AND MY BROTHER. MY BROTHER, HOWEVER CAN SLEEP THROUGH ANYTHING, EVEN A TORNADO!" Papyrus exclaimed, shaking his head at the thought of his brother's laziness.

"Please don't hurt me!" Flowey pleaded, as they stared at their best friend in front of them. He never expected Chara to go this far. To be this ruthless and kill everyone without MERCY. It seemed the same would happen to Flowey. The knife flew, over and over into the body of the flower until they were nothing but grounded petals. Another life taken.

"Let us erase this pointless world, and move on to the next!" Chara offered, malicious glee in their eyes. Frisk refused their offer, not wanting to end it all. "You're refusing? Oh please... S I N C E W H E N W E R E Y O U T H E O N E I N C O N T R O L???" With a powerful slash, Chara completely devastated Frisk's body. Frisk stood there, not realising what had happened to them. Not realising that they , the killer, had become the killed as their lifeless body collapsed to the floor.

Frisk's light blue eyes flew open, as Flowey started hyperventilating. The two looked at each other, and knew what had happened. They had both seen their own deaths, but just like the others, they couldn't remember. They only knew that whatever happened was a memory, not a nightmare.

"Frisk? A-are you okay?" Flowey asked in his least harsh voice, filled with what little concern he possessed. It's not like he didn't care; he couldn't care. That was the key difference. At least, that was his excuse for swearing and ignoring people. He just made sure not to around Mo-TORIEL and Sans. Mainly because Toriel would wash his mouth with soap while giving him a very stern lecture. Sans for, well obvious reasons. Flowey shuddered a bit at the many battles he had with the S666miley Trashbag, probably the most powerful and the weakest monster in the Underground. But Flowey always won. It was only a matter of TIME. And when you had the power to control time, well, Flowey always triumphed at the end.

"Ye-Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay." Frisk replied in their quiet, high-pitched voice. Their monster family had helped them regain their voice so that they didn't have to use sign language any more. They started to recall the reason they learnt sign language in the first place, then stopped. Remembering that time of their life would only bring pain. Shaking his head, Frisk turned to Flowey, examining the fact that he was still shaking.

"You don't look okay. You're still shaking like someone put an ice cube down your back again!" Flowey exclaimed, oblivious to the fact that he was also shaking.

"You should probably look at yourself. You're shaking so much, I'm wondering if there's an earthquake going on!" Frisk joked, trying to keep the fear out of their voice.

The night-light was still on, and one of the monster SOULs were on Flowey, in the exact place that his own SOUL would have been. Frisk smiled sadly at the thought, knowing that Flowey was really Asriel, the son of Asgore and Toriel. One of the main reasons they had kept RESETting was because they were trying to find someway to regain Asriel's SOUL so that he could come back.

Flowey, noticing this, quickly tried to jump away with his flowerpot. It was the only way he could have stayed in the house, and it at least kept Sans from trying to get rid of him, so it worked. Frisk started to shake their head at this, then stopped. Noticing a light shining through the door, they opened it up to investigate. The downstairs light was on.

"That's strange," Frisk said. "The kitchen light is on. I'm sure it was put off before we went to bed."

"Probably just Trashbag again, looking for his ketchup." Flowey supplied, attempting to sleep.

"Let's go see!" Frisk spoke, carrying a reluctant Flowey with them. Creeping down so as not to wake anyone else up, Frisk descended the stairs like a ninja. A ninja with a plant. Surprisingly, there was no need for that, as instead of being Sans with his bottle of ketchup, everyone was downstairs, all sipping cups of golden flower tea. All except for Undyne, who was drinking something that looked suspiciously like a protein shake.

"Frisk! You're awake. I was hoping you wouldn't have had a nightmare as well." Toriel spoke suddenly, noticing her child on the stairs with Flowey in their hands.

"Wait." Frisk stopped in their tracks. "You all had nightmares?"

"Everyone b-but me." Alphys confirmed for them.

Frisk gazed at the monsters in front of them, all sitting at the long buffet table for twelve they had bought. Undyne was sitting in the middle of Alphys and Papyrus, cuddling with Alphys while she talked to Papyrus about his cooking lesson later in the day. Asgore was talking to Alphys about the quality of his tea, with Alphys constantly reassuring him that it was great tea, and just the thing she needed. Toriel was seated next to Papyrus and was closest to the stairs, which was how she had seen Frisk in the first place. Frisk did a head count. It seemed Sans was the only person who was still asleep.

"GOOD MORNING FRISK AND FLOWERY! IT SEEMES LIKE NOBODY IS SAFE FROM THE NIGHTMARES. ONLY MISS ALPHYS HERE IS SAFE FROM THEM, ALONG WITH MY LAZYBONES BROTHER." Papyrus boomed from the table. A thought occurred to him. "ACTUALLY, I SHOULD GO GET HIM. CONSIDERING HOW MUCH HE SLEEPS DURING THE DAY, IT WON'T MATTER NOW." With that, Papyrus leapt up from his chair, and made his way up the stairs. Frisk decided to follow him, with Flowey complaining all the way.

"Failure. I expected better from you 5A-N5." the figure spoke to the panting skeleton, hatred burning in his eyes. "You know the punishment if you fail again."

"Please! Stop! I can't do this anymore!" came the desperate reply, trying to back away as the figure came closer. He knew what would happen to him if he was caught, so he channelled what little energy he had left and tried to escape from him.

"You cannot run forever! This maze was designed to be impossible! You will never find the exit!" The figure promised, as they turned around and disappeared. 5A-N5 kept running, away from the pain. Away from the experiments. Away from this Hell.

Papyrus stood in front of Sans's room, about to open the door when he noticed a blue and yellow light illuminating from the bottom.

"OH NO!" He gasped, trying to open the door but finding it locked. Bashing it open, he found Sans floating in the air with blue magic, suffering from a panic attack. His left eye was flashing with hues of light blues and yellows, the traits for PATIENCE and JUSTICE. The small tornado that usually stayed near the door suddenly expanded, surrounding him fully and blowing away his bed along with the ridiculous amount of socks on the floor. Behind him, Frisk saw the scene, and regretted it immediately. They started having flashbacks to the Judgement Hall back during the Genocide run. The amount of times they had fought the skeleton, DETERMINED to kill him.

"AAAARRGGHH!!!!!" The piercing, bone-chilling scream from Sans broke them out of it, and placing a terrified Flowey down, they ran to help.

"STOP HUMAN! YOU MUST NOT GET CLOSE! WHEN SANS IS LIKE THIS, HE IS LIABLE TO ATTACK ANYONE AROUND! PLEASE STAY AWAY! I KNOW WHAT TO DO!" Papyrus warned Frisk, getting closer to Sans. They backed away, unsure of what to do. The other monsters were still sitting down when they heard that terrible scream. A chill ran down all of their spines as they ran to see what happened.

"SANS? IT'S ME. PAPYRUS. YOUR BROTHER. PLEASE STOP, YOU ARE SCARING THE CHILD AND POOR FLOWERY!" Papyrus pleaded, trying to help his brother. It had been going so well. He hadn't had a panic attack in over a year! Why now of all times?! Behind him, Toriel and the others came at the yell, and all saw Sans in the air.

"Papyrus?! What's going on?!" Undyne demanded, all of them trying to get close to Sans. Frisk stopped them, quickly repeating what Papyrus said. Toriel looked on, and was shocked to notice how much his panic attack resembled Chara's. Breaking out of that thought, she moved closer to Sans, knowing she could help.

"LADY ASGORE! PLEASE STEP AWAY! SANS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS RIGHT NOW AND ONLY I CAN HELP!" Papyrus cried out to Toriel.

"I know that! But I have seen a panic attack like this before! I know what to do!" She called out to him. "Sans! It's me, Toriel! There is nothing to be scared of! You are on the Surface with your friends and family!

"SANS PLEASE! I KNOW THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE, BUT YOU MUST COME BACK TO US! SANS!"

He was still running, about to give out from exhaustion and surrender, return back to those terrible experiments when he heard the voice of his brother and the voice of his greatest monster companion, calling him from somewhere beyond where he was to come back to them.

With a large gasp, everything Sans was doing stopped, halted in mid-movement. Time stopped. Nobody dared to move, the magic lying in the air so powerful it felt suffocating.

"P-Papyrus? Toriel?" Sans asked weakly, his voice barely a whisper as the tornado around him settled, his left eye dimming away to its normal white as he collapsed towards the floor, surely hitting the floor if not for his brother's fast reflexes.

"IT'S OKAY SANS. THERE IS NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF."

Sans tried smiling his fake smile to reassure them, then suddenly fainted in his brother's arms, darkness swallowing him whole.

Asgore and the rest surrounded Papyrus, gazing in concern at the skeleton.

"Papyrus?" Asked the calm voice of Asgore. "What happened to him?"