Sans Has Control

Before he could pick up the kid, Sans saw Frisky's back with Undyne's spear graze still on it. "Not again." 

"I made a promise that I would tell you everything," Frisky answered. "Afterwards, if you want the reset memories gone, I will show you how to do that." Frisky looked back toward him. "Sorry." 

Sans looked around. "Great. Do we have to start this again?" 

"This will be the last step back you have to know about. After this, it can all be erased. You can forget everything about me, about Frisk, about the genocide, everything. The wipe is so good, 97.5% never even have a single nightmare about it. In fact, you probably don't know how many times we've been looping on reset. Even I'm not allowed to remember past 75, or it could destroy my mental state." In her hand, she held her small MP3 device. "It's been upgraded. Everything that just happened with the humans, it happened. There is no one else to fight now, right now. What I just did to create a new FRISK, it corrupted everything. Even the last save area was terminated, the program brought me back to my second save spot. This is called a motion shift. It was the last action I could take. This means that everything was just moved into the exact positions they were in this save area, and all Monster minds were wiped, except yours. It didn't bring anyone's lost soul back since then. I'm sorry." 

Sans moved away from her back. "I can forget everything?" 

"Yep, everything. You'll never know the whole FRISK. The Underground will be unaffected. You'll never know . . ." She just looked away. "You'll never have nightmares about knowing the truth. If you still wanted it." 

He crossed his arms. "After all this time, yeah. I want to know." 

"Okay. What do you want to know?" 

"Everything." 

"I can't explain everything," Frisky answered. "I don't have enough science experience for it all. I'm just a soldier, but I will tell you what I can. I have special permission to authorize you any and all facts that you ask for." 

"I bet it won't be half as fulfilling as a Grillby burger then." 

She chuckled. "I know you hate my guts right now. I'm surprised you haven't just killed me yet." 

"Don't know how to feel about you. Wouldn't kill you, but not exactly feeling buddy-buddy," Sans confessed. "Jacking around with time again. But, you saved the Underground. Again. So, keep your head straight and let me get this healing gel back on." 

"Alright then." Frisky took a deep breath. "This will be quite surprising, and you may not want to believe it. But, it's the truth." 

Sans shrugged. "I don't know how you can actually surprise me now." 

"Every time a Monster dies in the Underground, two humans are killed for it." 

Sans stopped. " . . ." He moved back toward taking care of her back. "What do you mean?" 

"Well, in my world, humans aren't rare. Aren't special. Nothing, really. We've become rodents, and because of our growing numbers, many of us are treated like rodents." Frisky kept looking straight. "If we have no purpose, no mission, and we haven't accomplished enough to be considered 'valuable', we are turned into re-resets. A friendly way of saying zoned out human. Some might use the phrase 'zombies', but they don't hurt anyone. They just . . . exist." She held her hands up gently while trying to keep her shirt tucked under her elbows. "On my right, one Monster. On my left, two people. Reset souls are souls that are drained of the essence that keeps them going so strong. They are nothing but hollow shells by the time they are forced to die. Thus, their soul just turns to dust instantly when they die. When a Monster dies, that dust is transported down to the Underground so quickly, no one catches the illusion." She tucked one finger on her left hand down. "Then, that same Monster's soul is protected within another re-reset for months. It doesn't perish or turn into dust. When the reset comes though, it is ejected with the strength of what's left of the human's soul. The human's soul doesn't survive the journey." She placed her other finger down. "One dies for the illusion. One dies after it protects the soul." 

Sans stopped putting the healing gel on again. Stunned. "What? Why?" 

"Preservation. Humans are rodents. Monsters are special. I am stuck with the same power only because I am a soldier down here. Every time I die, re-resets are used, and I just come back." 

He dropped the tube and stumbled backward, needing time. That . . . that number. "I've killed you thousands of times." 

"Actually-" 

"Seven separate souls in FRISK." 

"Yes." 

Sans stayed in the corner of the bathroom door for several minutes. He couldn't even name how many times he did that. All from him. She said she could remember 75 timelines. I remember thirty. Forty. That's . . . 

"Don't get worked up. They really are sadly more zombie than human. Death is the only release for them. Living is hell for them." Frisky took her device and inputted some stuff. "Look on your ceiling." 

Sans looked on the ceiling. He saw a projection of . . . ants? "What am I looking at?" 

"The Re-reset satellite." Frisky tapped some more. "A satellite was created for them because others don't want to see or interact with them. Hang on, I will focus on one quadrant." The focus became clearer. "They . . . are alive, but not. Drained of their essence. Look at them. Day and night, they stand. No sleep. No speech. They never make any kind of a break, just wait until their turn to die." 

Dead. They looked dead. Their mouths hung open and they shambled. 

Sans couldn't do anything but stare. 

"Power. Study. Research. It started as finding a way to defeat a Monster's magic if they ever moved out of the barrier. Then, there was a turn. Humanity realized we were turning ourselves into something much worse. Our studies and experiments had accidentally created the re-reset. Showed us how easily we can truly have our souls defeated. They can be created, they can be born . . . humanity was almost lost forever." 

"You experimented so far with souls, you created something like zombies. Humanity. Seriously." 

"Yes. Humanity didn't have a use for them at first, but they were growing with no control. So now, humans were just a disease. Now, the Monster was considered precious. They couldn't be turned, only transported into a re-reset. What humans once thought of as fragile and weak, became powerful and strong." Frisky bit her lip. "You weren't the only Monsters sealed up, Sans. Some escaped, and were sealed up later." 

Sans waited to see where this next part was going. 

"Humans could be turned easily. The research was out there, everyone knew it. So, we released more Monsters back into our world that had been sealed away too. They were our last chance but they weren't . . . happy." 

Duh. 

"They put up a battle and slaughtered a lot of us until an agreement was reached." She looked toward the ceiling. "With soul experimentation perfected, the strongest traits were established into a new breed. Monster and human, together. They are immune to the re-reset fate, and rule the world now." 

"Monsters rule the world? And my day is not going to get any weirder than this, right?" 

"I am human. Complete human, therefore discardable. So is Frisk. So is everyone that can be put into a conduit, or on missions. This is our life." Frisky chuckled a moment. "It's anything but funny." 

Sans finished up her back, putting the pieces together. "Basically . . . human experimentation created the zoned out humans . . . and you needed Monsters to save you." 

"Yeah, in a nutshell. The irony, huh?" 

Sans rubbed his forehead. "Then if humans are so repelling, why aren't we free yet down here?" 

"That is what my mission was supposed to be for. Mission Surface Seven. Finally breaking Monsters into the truth. It was debated on for so long though, because even monsters aren't full Monsters up there over thousands of years. The true Monsters are down here. So . . . I'm sorry. It's, just, the Underground . . . it's a-" She gulped. "A nature reserve." 

"Come again?" 

"The Underground is considered a delicate, natural habitat. There is no corner down here that escapes reset mode. Every Monster can be saved, at any time. Well, used to." 

"Nature. Reserve." Huh? Huh?! "Then, genocide?" 

"While my side wanted the Monsters to understand the truth, others wanted it kept secret. They feared another backlash. Even this mission, it could only work if Monsters didn't know the truth of it. PERSEVERANCE was of that belief, but he lost his mind. More than one of my crew was affected. There was an imbalance and it couldn't be fixed. Each save, things became worse from the imbalance. Humanity is a perfect machine with seven souls of presence, but not with an ounce of anything else." 

"Hm." Sans looked at his bony fingers and ticked them off one by one. "Monsters are thrown Underground. Humans create zombie things. To stop that, humans join monsters. Now, humans are nothing . . . and I live in a safety habitat." He groaned. "I need a Grillby burger sooo bad right now." 

"Well, not quite. Um. Everything has a flow. The resets, the conduits, it's all connected." Frisky took a deep breath. "When I went up in the Ruins, I found out it stopped. For good. Only with a reboot can it be accomplished." 

"Fine." A little rougher than he intended. "Nothing else new." 

"Not quite, Sans. When I went up, I also found out that you were the Guardian. On each mission, there would be one Monster that would remember a little about the resets taken from a specific mission. Usually toward the front area. Usually someone who . . . would steer a person back in the right direction if something went wrong. Often, it was a scientist or someone who could be helpful. If I remember correctly, something was sensed inside your house that Monsters shouldn't have." He was silent, and she couldn't blame him for wanting his privacy. At least he hadn't killed her yet. What else? There was so much to explain. "Saves. It's like a reset. Whenever I say the word DETERMINATION, I am giving myself a new place to begin, in certain locations. It is tricky though, because if I needed to change anything before that, I would have to cause a full reset, not a save. It's not something that can be done by anyone but you anymore." What else? "Um, resets Underground. It's a defined area . . ." 

 "That's it for tonight. I'll make this work without a reboot." 

 "Only a full reboot by you will bring everyone back. Toriel. The Royal Guards. Everyone." 

"What's done is done. I'm not living that way anymore." 

"You could still get a decent ending," she reminded him. "I'm sure it'll be fine." When she opened her eyes, she saw him right in front of her. She grasped her shirt tighter. 

"Don't lie. You're not the part of the whole FRISK who was good at lying." 

"Every Monster should be saved. The ones coming, you saw those numbers. They won't be easy to defeat. There will be more death before it's all over. No one will be safe if you don't reboot." 

"Nope." 

She closed her eyes. "Look, time is moving nicely, but if we don't trust in a hard reboot by you. . . sometimes . . . I mean, after several months of being in a re-reset . . ." 

"Done," Sans interrupted. "With everything." He rubbed his skull. "We can get back to bed now." He picked up the ball and chain. "Come on. Tomorrow always comes too soon for me." 

"But there's still more you should know-" 

"Not now." 

"Fine, then stare at the wall." 

Okay. "Really want to go to bed, kid." 

"I promise. Just stare at one spot for awhile." 

Sans looked at the wall in front of him. After a couple of minutes, he started to see the cracks in the wall move around. What? They moved into a pattern until the word reboot was in front of him. 

"The anomaly is too great. Only the Guardian, the Monster that remembers, can have control. When you're ready. You don't even need to tell me. Just, when you're ready." 

He only glanced at her slightly, inserting that information in his skull, and started dragging the ball away, giving her no choice but to follow. 

---------------- 

So. Zombies. Thanks, humanity. Sans closed his eyes on the couch. You'd think the fact no Monsters were actually ever killed and only weird zombie things took the burden would make him feel better. Yeah, it didn't. Figures. Look how far we got in our research just Underground. Being up on the surface, all those scientists . . . yeah, something was bound to happen. Karma. 

He sighed as he stared at the ceiling, seeing the button in front of him. A reboot. No kid this time. No perfect FRISK. His knock-knock door friend would be back. He'd never know she was actually the queen. He could just take care of his brother, and keep his daily life the height of his own problems. Forget the knowledge of humans. Forget everything. 

But, it would bring in more errors. Even if Frisky didn't think about it, he had been involved in the timelines enough to know there was something else going on Underground. An underbelly of Underground. He'd met a couple of creatures that showed up, even one similar to Monster Kid, that would say something simple, and then disappear for long amounts of time. 

They sounded lonely. They sounded knowledgeable. What if they were the Monsters that were once supposed to remember? The Guardians? 

Sometimes . . . he felt almost as lonely as those mysterious creatures tended to be. One in particular before it disappeared, never wanted to be remembered. 'Just forget about me', it said. That's all it wanted. To be forgotten. 

If Sans were the only one involved in this, he might do it. Might. But then again . . . 

FRISK wasn't in the timeline anymore. Sans broke it all apart. Frisk even destroyed one of them that had been inside of her, for good. So . . . the Frisks. Frisky and the kid, Chance. 

A ton of Monsters alive again along with the Royal Guards, all for two people and him. 

Math would say good idea. Math was also something he turned his back on some time ago. He only used it to check out the timelines. Which was why he was probably the chosen candidate to remember in the first place. 

Damn. The longer he got away from the point where he was always resetted, the more he wanted to live again. Live with surprises. Live new days. Have Papyrus learn new ways to make spaghetti. Spark new jokes. The more he craved something . . . and the more time went by, he knew what that was too. 

Baby bones couldn't just take care of each other, but in his mind, there was never anyone else. It had always just been him and Papyrus. Considering it's us who can study the timelines, it would make sense I'm not the first in a line. . . and if I end up an error, the best way to get rid of an error is to delete its existence . . .and if I'm gone, the next mission that comes around will make Papyrus the one that remembers. 

He sat up on the couch, sweating a little from that discovery. His little brother? No way, he could never do that to anyone, let alone Papyrus! No. No reboot, ever. 

Hm. Wait. Frisky said the Guardian had to be the one to reset. She dropped the ball when she let him know everything was that corrupted now. 

Then . . . if he never reset . . . "That'd be it," he mumbled out loud. "No more save. No more resets. Just, life. Unpredictable life." But, did he really have the final say about it? Frisky was just a soldier. Her knowledge was clearly limited. 

Nah. He'd catch up on sleep tomorrow during work. It was time to look closely at that MP3 with Alphys before he brought it back to Undyne 

 -----------------------------

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"Hey, Alphys. I need a favor." 

"Huh?" Alphys blinked once before sitting back in her bed abruptly. "Wh-who are you?! Wait, I know you. Don't I?" 

"Yeah, I think." Sans rubbed his head. "If I had known this was the timeline that mattered, I'd remember better. Pretty sure we've met though by now. At least once in the past before all this hell. If not, just trust the déjà vu you feel. Anyhow, I'm a guy who knows about your little science projects. Amalgamates ring a bell?" 

"N-no, I-I, I never meant to hurt anyone!" 

Sans held his hand up. "I'm here to talk about timelines. Humans, zombie things, and basically keeping Undyne off a couple of humans' backs. Secrecy for secrecy." 

"Wh-what?" 

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"They win. They won. Can we bag them now?" Frank asked. "Motion shift's been initiated." 

"Where's the sound volume?" Larrs asked. "This needs to be turned up. She was talking to him a lot, the dialogue just runs across the page too much to see what's happening. I'll have to pick this apart." 

"Nah, she has to convince him. Switched him to Guardian so we could do the memory thing without questions. Remember?" 

"Oh yeah, good cover. He'd be better than the flower, but the flower can remember everything. It's already insane so less work. Okay, locate them. It's night time, they won't move." Larrs bit his lip as he stared at the screen. "Finally, FRISK is complete. The ultimate weapon, I can't-wait? Frank?" 

"Feed is gone?" Frank looked back toward Larrs. "You?" 

"Yeah." Larrs checked all his channels and stations while Frank was doing the same thing. "Whoah, whoah, Frank. Incoming unapproved teleportations . . . 1 . . . 2 . . . 10 . . . damn! What the hell's going on?!" 

-------------------------------- 

"Not that. Not that. You can't see that. You can't watch that." Sans stood in front of Alphys main computer along with his own machine and the MP3. "No. No. No. No." He stopped only long enough to rub his eye sockets. 

Playthings. Animals in a zoo. That was all they were. One by one, Sans was taking over all the feeds. The MP3 was more than just a weapon, it was a super computer, and it had access points in it that enabled him to hack into other computers. With the strength of Alphys computer and his own machine too, he discovered a ton. Frisky said there was more, and he could see what else she needed to say. It made sense how even when they were alone, she still watched every word she said. Because they were never alone. "No. No. No." 

They had eyes everywhere. His home. His home had cameras in it. The outside. Shops. Personal homes. Even the small weird balcony they always had without a door. Everywhere, everything. The Underground could be completely seen, even King Asgore's castle. 

While he was doing that, he was also returning opposite feedback, teleporting the enemies, allies, and anyone else who didn't belong in the Underground away. Everyone but two, Frisky and Chance. Frisky had more information, and he wanted it all before he sent them away. 

 "This is absolutely amazing! Look at this. Look at all these parallels happening now. I-I've known it in theory, but to see it." Alphys adjusted her glasses. "And the technology of this little device, everything inside of it." She looked over at Frisk's MP device. "I-it's almost . . . i-if we had been on the surface, we would have made even more headway in our science. Stuck down here . . . but look at all . . ." She put in some more information in her own computer. "We've had limited souls of humans to study, and Monsters fade so fast. Look how much information they've gathered, how far the scientific community has gone! It's amazing. It's breath-taking." 

"It's dangerous. It created humans that aren't even 'human'," Sans reminded her before he went back to the feeds. "Nope. Nope. Nope." 

"Y-yes, you're right," Alphys corrected herself. "Still, the ability to join souls into a single body. Living souls. At will. Now, how would they control who would be a conduit? It's doubtful every child-" 

"Don't know. Don't care." Once again, more science he didn't want to think about. Especially considering what he discovered on that thing. "I just want to know. Your own theory. What will happen if I reboot it all?" 

"Uh. Mm." Alphys looked at the projections and back toward Sans' own machine. "A-are you ever going to tell me where you got that from?" 

"Nope." 

"Mm. I-if I knew the one responsible for this, then maybe I could-" 

"Nope." 

Alphys sighed. "From what I have, I think. Uh, all the components of anyone who doesn't have retrievable souls . . . they would probably ummm . . . get erased. Or maybe just a couple? Or maybe just their memories? I-I don't know." 

"Okay," he answered. "Not much more helpful, are you?" 

"Well, I studied different things. I didn't study this exactly. Th-that's the best answer I can give." 

"Okay. Question two. Am I the only one now who can really reboot?" 

"Hmm . . . well . . ." 

Three more hours of research, checking, and more fact checking . . . 

"You're extremely happy with that answer." 

Sans didn't need to comment on it. They checked and rechecked. 

Combining his machine, Alphys own research, and the MP device, it was certain. 

The humans tampered too much. A reset when something that was seven souls with some destroyed could not be brought back. And, if there was any kind of error that could allow it, it wouldn't be able to get past the fact that it was reformed with different souls for a second time. Even the humans knew it would be riddled with too many errors, which was why Sans was the only one to get to reboot. 

No reset for anyone. No saving for anyone. Not until after the reboot, which was really just removing the corruption, which was the ones who changed events because they could remember. Sans and anyone a part of FRISK would stop existing in that timeline. They'd be gone, wiped from everyone's memories so that there was no more errors. No more glitches. And the whole function of starting and saving could begin again. 

"I still can't . . . th-this is just . . ." Alphys gulped, trying to get a grip on what she was seeing. "The technology is amazing, but i-it's like we've just been toys to them! I-I don't know how I feel about that." 

Try living it. Sans gestured to the computer. "I want copies of this." Copies of the day his life was back under his control. "And uh, not a word to anyone, okay?" 

"Of course. A-and not a word about . . . you know . . . them?" Alphys said shakily. "Secrecy for secrecy?" 

"Not a word." Sans let himself slouch some again. He didn't just stop a reboot, he stopped everything. Humanity couldn't play around with their 'natural habitat' anymore. "Well, only one more thing left. I need you to talk to Undyne so she doesn't torture the humans tomorrow." 

 "But, Um." Alphys took her glasses off and cleaned them, putting them back on. She rubbed her shoulders. "Undyne's not really . . . sh-she doesn't understand science, let alone this complicated level. I-I mean I don't know how you even know it. No offense." 

"Forget it. Just talk to Undyne." 

"But, uh." Alphys stuck her tongue in her cheek, before continuing. "Why?" 

"After I talk one more time to Frisky, I'll send the two humans home." Sans stretched out his skeletal hand. "I need the MP back too." 

"You don't want to share it?" Alphys asked. "S-sorry, I guess I'm curious about things sometimes. N-nevermind, I'm sorry. Forget it. I guess. Are you sure? We could do so much with this device." He kept his arm outstretched and she gave it back. 

"Just deal with Undyne." 

"O-oh yeah. Um. But, why me?" Alphys asked. 

Huh? Oh yeah, FRISK didn't get far enough to get those two together in that timeline. "Just, trust me. You've got a good connection. So, I'm going home to get more sleep. Later." With those words, him and his machine disappeared out of there. 

-------------------------------- 

While he stared at the ceiling, Sans watch the Reboot button reform. He just waved at it. Never, never. He was tired of his world being someone's game. Monsters lived and died, that was life. It wasn't something that those re-resets should pay the price for. 

He rubbed his collarbone. That couch was okay for naps sometimes, but it wasn't built to be a bed. Still, he wasn't going to get Papyrus for his shift just yet. He was waiting. When he felt his cell vibrate, he picked it up and got the news he needed. Alphys got Undyne to hold off on the torture. Good. He had a hard enough time trying to break through to Frisky that he wasn't going to kill her in the middle of the night. Even though he even rubbed healing gels on her, she still seemed prepared for a bunch of bones to penetrate her back at any time. Especially as she tried to explain. 

She had DETERMINATION, but she was low in the trust area. She couldn't help how the world turned out above, so even if he wasn't pleased, why would he blame that on her? And having something that changed who controlled FRISK? He couldn't blame her for that too. She was just a regular human who got stuck with . . . hmm. 

That disconnection error that stopped everything, it had another side effect. Made sense why FRISK never had problems with lava or snow in a simple tutu. Humans were known to be fragile about the weather. Geez. Humans are harder to take care of than a pet by a longshot. Good thing they are going soon. He could see Chance trembling while his mother snuggled as close as she could. He got off the couch and moved closer to them. 

Please don't wake up and think I'm trying to kill you again. He took off his jacket slowly and tried to lay it on both of them. He felt the involuntary fear he always felt in Frisky. Of course, a momma always wakes up. She looked down at the jacket on top of her and Chance. "What's this?" 

"You're freezing," he said simply. "You two take it, I got more." 

"But . . ." And then, he saw it. He felt it. Finally. She didn't say anything afterwards but she didn't need to. 

She finally believed for one pure solid minute, that he wouldn't hurt her again. Through her eyes, the relief that flooded through her ricocheted back to him. He almost did a small skip as he laid back down on the couch. That look she gave had given him a tremendous boost. He kicked back with his legs crossed, staring in the air. Amazing, purely an amazing feeling. He'd felt a lot of things coming off of others, but he never felt so much . . . relief. 

Now. If he could have gotten that look for more than a minute, then maybe he could have become friends with Frisky again. Yeah. It'd be nice to bury everything for good before they left tomorrow.