That Schmuck!

Toriel's Ruins . . .

"Chance is a very good babybones," Papyrus said as he knocked on the door for Sans. "Except that he can't sit still for more than ten seconds or so."

Sans shrugged. He'd been caught up with pretty much everything so it was time to see the kid itself. He tried to act like it was no big deal. He really didn't know how to take it, but he couldn't ignore it forever. Unlike his wife, it didn't run away. And. And when he heard about the pictures. The pictures of everyone he used to have in his life.

Toriel came to the door empty handed. She saw Sans and instantly lit up. "Are you ready to see your son?"

"Um." Frisk. Son. "Yeah. Think so."

"Great, stay right here." She left for only a little while and returned with a blanket. "He is actually napping. This is a rare occasion, so enjoy." She handed him over.

"Geez, it's really small." Really, really small. He could feel it's rib cage moving up and down. "This is Frisk?"

"Was," Papyrus said. "Was. Reborn. I-it was . . ." He rubbed the back of his head. "This was . . . it was kind of. Sort of maybe. The event that may have perhaps lent itself to you . . ."

"Why couldn't you have been a Monster, Frisky?!"

Huh? What was that? Oh no, he didn't want to really remember. Was that a memory?

"Do you feel anything?" Papyrus asked him. "Did anything come back?"

"Uh."

"Sans?"

"Here." Sans handed him to Papyrus. "Take it."

"But do you remember?"

"Sans?" Toriel asked concerned. "It's okay. It would be good if you remembered."

Why? Why would it be so good if he remembered? He'd heard enough. He'd even heard about the forgotten timeline. Seen the pictures. Papyrus drilled everything into his head. He really apparently liked Frisky.

But . . . she was Conner's. Why would he want to remember that? And the phrase that just popped up in his head. Why would he say that? He watched as Frisk woke up. He looked at him with little light guiders like he had and reached out.

"See? He wants to see you, Sans. You're his dad." Papyrus tried to hand him back over, but Sans didn't have it. But neither did Chance. He slipped out of Papyrus' grasp. "Oh!"

"Don't worry, he does it all the time. I can't contain him," Toriel laughed.

Sans watched as the little babybones came over to him. It stood up wobbly and patted his legs.

"Sans! Sans!" It kept walking to him, squeezing its hands in its palms, in and out. It had the same hair he remembered. His shirt was the same too, but way too big for him. It was more of a blanket than a shirt.

Sans just continued to stare down at it. More memories were coming back. "I shouldn't have come. I don't want to be here."

"He's your son, Sans," Papyrus reminded him. "You can't just ignore him."

"But it . . ." He grabbed at his skull, feeling intense pressure. How was he feeling such pressure?

"Okay, Chance. I am just helping out your soul. It's sick in a unique way, and we are going to make it better, okay?"

"Okay, I guess?"

"Alright, I am going to put my hands right by your chest. You'll feel a little squeeze."

Sans felt the squeeze on his soul. He couldn't ignore the radiant blue in his room, along with his grey soul in front of him.

"He's sick, how's he sick?" Sans asked. "His soul is sick."

"Not anymore. He was reborn," Papyrus said once again. "He's better. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh." Sans picked him up. "You've caused a mess of damage." He took a couple steps back. Chance reached out to him closer, grabbing onto the furry collar.

Sans watched him tug at the furriness of his collar coat. "Flowey. Give me a few minutes with him, okay?"

"Flowey really was there." Incredible. It had been . . . "A good flower and . . ."

"No achievements. No regrets," Flowey said. "Thanks for not letting him down, Smiley Trashbag. He'd been stuck there since the transformation. He even tried to escape it, like any sane person would. But, like a good Frisk, he did the right thing. All he wanted . . . he just wanted to be found again before he began again."

"Sans?" Papyrus tried to touch him as Sans walked away with Chance. "Sans, are you okay?"

"You died." Sans looked down at Chance. "The Frisk of you. But, it didn't?" He held him up and watched as he tried to move away. "You're still very . . . Frisk. You're still . . ."

"I can fetch his things," Toriel said. "I can fetch his things if you like. You can take him home."

"Frisk at the beginning." Sans chuckled, suddenly feeling really good. "Hey there! I'm Sans. Sans the Skeleton."

"Dad." Sans lifted him up slightly. "I'm dad, son. And everything's okay from now on, I promise." He brought him in closer to him, but felt him trying to move away. Much like . . . much like Frisk would do.

"No, I'm not Sans. I'm dad. I'm your dad. And-and-and . . ." No. No. "How . . ."

"Sans?" Papyrus asked. "Are you okay?"

"I already lost years, why couldn't she have just ran away?!" Sans exploded toward Papyrus. "He's my kid, she made me forget about my own kid? What kind of person would do that?"

"Partial mindwipe," Papyrus said.

"I don't care! If she already knew about the resets and everything, then why? Why would anyone do that after they've . . . they've gone through it?" Sans wiped at his eye sockets. "I'm manifesting tears? I haven't done that for years."

"Not really. We've been doing that a lot lately," Papyrus said softly.

"You want your son. That is clear," Toriel said stiffly. "Frisky wanted you to be happy. She did it the best way she could."

"Did what? What? Wipe my memories, why? "

"To give you no more worries. She wanted you just to be happy." Toriel's eyes were starting to glisten. "My child only wanted happiness for you. This was all she could do because . . ." She folded her paws. "She wasn't a Monster."

"Why couldn't you have been a Monster, Frisky?!"

It echoed in his head again. Why would I have cared? Should I? But, it doesn't matter because she wasn't mine anyhow. And, and if I did care? He looked toward Chance again. He wanted to remember his son. He wanted to remember everything, but if he did? "I complained that she wasn't a Monster and she ran away?"

"Well, um. Well it's. Part of it?" Papyrus said. "She um. Well she."

"You took away her problems and put them on your own shoulders," Toriel said firmly, "and then you blamed her for all of it."

"You were quite emotional at the time. I heard it all from my own room," Papyrus confessed. "You were just, you weren't there Sans. It was almost like a Soul Bearing."

"So, she gave you a partial mindwipe, picked up her own problems, and as a Frisk, dealt with them." Toriel looked away.

"What . . . problems?"

"It doesn't matter," Toriel said. "I know you want your son back. I will go fetch his things and you can take him back home."

"But, isn't Frisky still taking care of him?" Papyrus asked.

"She picked up her own problems and dealt with them."

"Hm?"

Toriel sighed. "She picked up her own problems." She looked toward Sans and Papyrus. "And dealt with them. I'm sorry." She shook her head. "One thing about Frisk that always stayed the same. They never stayed in one place for too long."

Sans and Papyrus' House . . .

"You would need a steel cage to hold you," Sans chuckled as he tried to figure out where to put Chance. There was no way he was sleeping in something with just a strap over the top of it. "Hey? Papyrus? Why are you ransacking my room?"

"He's looking for an MP," Flowey said. "I love how I came as part of the furniture," he muttered. "Just waiting for him to remember. So, you're a dad again! Congrats! How's it feel?"

"Feels . . ." Sans tickled Chance. "I missed him."

"Rather have him than a simple life of getting up in the morning, going to a simple job with just a few hours of work, and just taking it easy?" Flowey asked. "Because isn't a simple carefree life that you wanted?"

"Well. Um." Sans shrugged. "Life's life." He looked toward Chance who was trying to poke his fingers through his teeth. "Never going to get in there, pal."

"The MP! The MP!" Papyrus checked all over. "You must have another one. They were falling left and right. You need an MP! Where's your MP?"

He was really asking him. "Oh, I think I left it in my other skull. In that part that remembers. Bottom left," Sans teased him.

"But you need an MP!"

"Just wait for it," Flowey said to Sans.

"We need an MP! Alphys has an MP."

"It's coming in a few seconds," Flowey said again.

"Oh but she's so far away-the flower!"

"There it is. Hey, easy!" Flowey complained as Papyrus took him outside and put him near the ground. "What, not even a please?" He sighed and went into the ground. Sans headed outside with Chance, waiting for him to come back.

Papyrus immediately took the MP he brought up. "Uh, there's no transmission."

"Yeah, give it a bit. Chara doesn't automatically know everything," Flowey said. "And Chara is the one that lets the teleportation still function."

"Come on." Papyrus tapped his foot. "Okay, where is it on here?"

"Just give it to Sans. He's used it enough."

"Here, take this." Papyrus reached for Chance.

"Why? What?" Sans looked at Chance. "I was holding him."

"MP, Sans, concentrate!" Papyrus complained.

"Why?" Sans looked at the MP. He played around with it for a bit, some of it starting to seem familiar. It wasn't long before he found what Papyrus probably wanted. "There's a blinking red location. Is that someone with another MP or something?"

"No, it's a Frisk. Just one?" Papyrus came over and looked. "That's . . . not good. Well, Toriel did say you couldn't keep Frisk in one spot for long." He looked over toward Sans. "Go check it out. It's our only lead."

"Okay. If I remembered Frisky, would I be doing this?"

"You would have worked even faster and more frantically than me," Papyrus answered. "Please?"

Sans shrugged and hit it.

Waterfall . . .

Sans looked around and saw a strange human just kicking back along a bank. "Hey? You a Frisk?" Obviously male, so not his wife.

"Sans." He didn't get up, but looked back toward him. "Hey, Buddy, how are ya?"

Sans approached him. "So I'm trying to find my wife."

"No, you're not. Others are trying to make you find your wife," he said. "You don't care about her. You don't even remember her. That's the way she wanted it."

Okay. Decently smart human. "Do you know where she is?"

"She doesn't want you to worry. If you found me, then that means you got your memories back of your son. Great to hear that. He'd been through a lot of stuff, more than even you'll ever know. But, he got his new beginning. Good for him." He just kept his leg crossed over the other and gently knocked it up and down, like he didn't have a care in the world. "I'm not talking smalltime, Sans. Frisky has got a lot of weight. This isn't a nice little 'guess I'll save this human thing' thing."

"Guessing that," Sans said. "I was her husband though. I was supposed to share the weight."

"Yeah, but you lost it on her. Kept telling her you wished she was . . . well, you know, that could trigger. And I'm not going to force that on ya. Frisky wanted you to have a clear head. She thinks that you worried about her too much." He laughed. "Which totally makes sense because you should. Frisks are nothing but trouble. We really are. But, yeah. No more worries. You've got no worries. Stop the pursuit here if you want."

Sans shoved his hands in his coat. "Aren't there supposed to be more of you? How come I can only find you?"

"Frisks always find a way out. I'm kind of more of a rebel though. I stayed put for you. Just in case." He yawned. "Frisky has got trouble that could kill you to get her out of. That's no lie. You trained constantly with Farrisk, another Frisk. You even took on a flesh body so that you could get more power. All to try and save her."

"Man." Sans kicked a rock with his slippered foot. "Do I . . ."

"Do you risk your life for a girl that stole your memories that you can't even remember?" The Frisk laughed. "I would. I'd risk the world for Frisky. In another timeline, you two were going to get married."

"Yeah, I heard about that one," Sans admitted.

"In that same timeline, she was my girlfriend before her amnesia. And you knew that. Because we'd been friends for over six months."

Ooh. "Not this again." Great. "Sorry, fella. Uh. Does Frisky just get around or something?"

"What do you mean?" The Frisk asked him.

"She's carrying the kid of that Conner guy's too," Sans said.

"Conner? No. She always called him a schmuck. He duped you."

"What?" Duped?

"Since he knew you could judge him, I bet he met you at Grillby's and just looked more toward the bar to pull out the lie," The Frisk said. "No, there's no baby in Frisky right now at all. You two made that up to save us from some enslavement issues. You didn't want to call your wife your concubine. You wanted her as your wife, so there you go."

"So." Great. "So."

"She loves you, Sans. She loves you and only you." The Frisk chuckled lightly. "It's okay. We were never even together in this timeline. I could see it happening, but I never could bring myself to ask her out. Maybe a part of me remembered that we just weren't meant to be. Small part. Obviously we were all mindwiped though. Just data survives. Old and abandoned."

"So. She loved me, and I was fighting her battles, and then I went . . ."

"Why couldn't you have just been a Monster?" Sans blurted out. "Nothing would have happened if you'd been a Monster."

"Careful, Sans," The Frisk warned him. "You can turn around right now, tell whoever sent you that I knew nothing, and this will probably be it. No more worries. Take care of your son, raise him right, and that's it. If you plunge much further, you'll start to remember her."

"A life of no worries . . . or a life . . ."

"Why couldn't you have just been a Monster?" Sans blurted out. "Nothing would have happened if you'd been a Monster. Chance would've been born the way he should have. You would have already been here in the mountain, and I wouldn't have had to marry you just to make sure you were safe. You'd be a Monster, not some simple fragile human thing that always needed protecting. You could have your own place, and get your own GOLD." He stood up. "You could handle your own problems. You wouldn't need me to fight your own stupid battles. You wouldn't even have any stupid battles if you were a Monster. Why couldn't you have been a Monster, Frisky?!"

Sans grabbed his head. "Why did I say all that?"

"The only thing you said before you said that to her was that you said goodbye to Frisk," The Frisk said. "So, I don't know. You were holding your son real tight, even though nothing was wrong."

"Frisk died." But, this guy. The way he felt. He was Frisk. The way Chance moved. He was Frisk. So which . . .

"I'm sorry I broke our promise. I'm sorry I stepped over that line. You never even hurt me. No one else gave me a chance. No one else did, just you, and I'm so sorry." Frisk tightened his fist. "Mettaton's cooking show was kind of cool. Undyne fixed spaghetti. Flowey was always the first thing I saw when I came Underground. When I came from . . . from somewhere. I guess, I fell from the mountain. Right, Sans? I fell from the mountain?"

"FRISK." Sans looked toward the ground. "I just . . . the whole FRISK. Chance's memories, he was stuck in there and . . ." Now he remembered that. "The memories, it was everything, everything that he could possibly remember. All the different parts of . . . you." Sans pointed toward him. "Friskarino." He pulled out his bony fingers. "Friskay. Farrisk . . . Frisky?"

"Whoah." Friskarino stared at him oddly. "I've never seen the little lights in your eye sockets get that big. Learn something new every day, huh?"

"I-I I didn't mean that, I don't even remember that well, I-" Oh no! "Frisky, shoot!" He covered the front of his skull. What had he done? What had he almost lost forever? "No, I've got to explain. It wasn't me, I just hit a-"

"A limit. I get it. There was a loooot of stuff going on. Every Monster has a limit, first thing you learn as a soldier. Fishy Monster limits are super small, and even the sweetest Dino's have a limit. But, yeah. Frisky was too dang close to the situation to ACT right." Friskarino said. "Love blinded her to your natural limit break."

"Love."

"Yep."

"Did she say that? When, after the date? No, that's when . . . during the week?" Sans asked.

Friskarino shook his head. "She loved you before you even knew she existed separately from Frisk." He chuckled. "Of course, you know, GENOCIDE, and then thinking you'd kill her, it can confuse that whole situation. Oh, and the riding around in her son kind of thing when it happened. Pretty awkward. She'd never admit it though."

"Ha!" Sans laughed. "I knew-Frisky?!"

"Yeah, you've got everything back alright."

Sans rushed toward Friskarino closer. "Where is she? Where? If no Frisk is showing located in the Underground, then where is she?"

"Outside of the Underground. Chara's Determination is getting weaker. Don't know if you've noticed, but the things holding her DETERMINATION strong are getting taken care of. Her brother's almost all healed. Her 'Itty Bitty' is safe and sound. It may not be super weak, but it let us Frisks use the previous teleport hole. Friskay chanced it first, like always. She always puts her life on the line like that. Anyway, an allied Balancer ship is docked up there. So, voila. Home."

"No, she couldn't have left," Sans said outright. "She'd never leave Chance. That's why she even married me, 'cause she'd never leave him. Ever."

"Oh. She'll come back." Friskarino stopped moving his leg around and sat up on the bank. "Just as soon as she's done marrying Conner. You told him to secure her after all."

And that was the end of the light sitting as Sans picked him to stand straight up. He pulled him over closer to him.

He shook Friskarino. "Everyone had to waste time telling me little by little?!" Sans let go and slapped his own forehead. "Our marriage isn't legal outside the Underground!"

"Right. She'll get a clad one with Conner. Iron clad with a contract and a whole bunch of bells and whistles. It'll take a lot longer to process but he's a higher soldier. He'll make it like steel. No more worrying about 04823. No matter how strong he is, he can't beat the law. It'd be like the Underground not making a decision." He spread his hands out far. "Kapow! Boy, he's going to be pissed, but Conner's always been a little snake in the grass. In other words."

"That schmuck!"

"Bingo." Friskarino rubbed his hands together. "Okay, Sans. It's been awhile since a Frisk navigated the outside of the Underground, but it's a whole new territory for you. We don't have countless resets for you to learn the basics, so are you ready to go on one more adventure together?