Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

He’d noticed her the second he’d walked through the doors, of course.

It’d been kind of hard not to. She was only one of two humans in the bar, the other being a rather robust looking guy with a sour face on the other side of the building, and her attempts to remain hunched over underneath that cloak she was wearing hadn’t hidden her slim figure and general lack of any monster-looking attributes. 

But despite the fact that she stood out like a sour phalange in a city like this one, he hadn’t paid much attention to her. Not at first. It was only until they’d gotten their first round of drinks that he’d noticed her staring in their direction, and that had been enough to make him sit up and take a closer and careful look.

Turns out, he needn’t have bothered. 

“Uh,” Undyne gaped like a fish out of water. Heh. “What?” 

“You said,” the human floundered for a moment, probably under the weight of their combined stares, before seemingly pulling herself together, her back straightening slightly. “You said you were traveling to Mount Ebott. I want to go with you.”

Beside him, Alphys made some sort of wordless squawking noise, sounding like someone had just stepped on her toes, and Papyrus was looking like his eyes were about to fall right out of his skull. Undyne continued to stare, incredulous. 

For his part, Sans simply grinned at the human as he studied her from underneath the hood of his cloak. He knew what they were all thinking - anyone with half a brain didn’t just walk up to a group of strangers in this city and ask to go traveling with them. That was like asking someone to just take all your possessions and leave you for dead on the side of the road. 

And, you didn’t accept strangers to go traveling with you, either, especially when you had a close-knit group of monsters like they did. The very last thing they needed or wanted was an unknown tagalong that needed to be protected all the time.  

“Hah!” Undyne sneered, clearly taking the lead on this weird encounter. “Yeah no, I don’t think so. Now beat it before I pound you into paste, punk.”

The force of Undyne’s derision was usually enough to drive off even the most delusional of interlopers on the best of occasions, but it seemed to only make this human more determined in her efforts. 

“Why not?” she asked, which, okay. Again with the lack of understanding of even the most obvious rules of grouping up with strangers. What even was this girl? She had to be new around here.

“I-I think maybe you m-misheard us,” Alphys finally tried, though she shyly ducked her head downwards as the human looked over to her. Or so he thought - it was kinda hard to tell, the way she seemingly kept her eyes closed. “W-We’re not traveling t-to Mount E-Ebott.”

“and hey, buddy?” he added, shooting the human a wink as her closed-eyed stare turned towards him instead. “pretty rude to eavesdrop on conversations.”

That seemed to deflate her a bit, a hint of color rising to her cheeks for being called out for her shameless eavesdropping. But it faded almost just as quickly as she hunched her shoulders, hands clenched together in front of her stomach. “Sorry,” she said. Funny, she didn’t sound all that sorry. “I didn’t mean to. But you said you were heading to New Haven, right? Mount Ebott is on the way, isn’t it?”

Undyne scoffed again, but Papyrus perked up suddenly, with that twinkle in his eyes that Sans had come to dread over the years. “THAT IS INDEED ON THE WAY!”

He didn’t like where this was going. “bro...”

Neither did Undyne, only she felt the need to express her feelings a little more forcefully. “Nu-uh, bonebag!” the fish monster exclaimed loudly, loud enough to draw the attention of the nearby tables. “No way! We’re not a charity case here! We don’t take dead weight with us, end of story!”

“I can heal!” the human jumped in, apparently sensing her opportunity for a free ride across dangerous landscapes and territories slipping from her grasp. 

Sans raised an eyebrow. Healing wasn’t a very common skill, mostly because it really only benefitted others instead of oneself. It you were going to go through all the trouble of learning a school of magic, it made much more sense to become proficient in a school you could use to defend yourself, not just support others. 

Undyne clearly had the same line of thought as him. “And?” the fish monster sneered. “Can you defend yourself? Can you fight?”

“...”

“kid?” he prompted.

“...Mostly...”

There was a collective sigh across the table - or in Papyrus’ case, a pitying sort of whine. He shook his head. “look pal,” he said, leaning forward to rest an elbow on the table, eyes trained on the human from underneath his hood. “you don’t seem to realize how much you’re askin’, here. we can’t travel out there if we’re too busy pulling you out of every set of dragon’s teeth that starts munching on your bones, and that’s the tooth.”

“BROTHER, PLEASE,” Papyrus groaned, “THIS HUMAN IS IN DIRE NEED OF OUR ASSISTANCE. WE HAVE NO TIME FOR YOUR INCESSANT PUNNING! THIS IS SERIOUS!”

“really?” Sans asked, lazily glancing back at the human. “i didn’t think ‘serious’ was a human name.”

“M-maybe she can j-just follow us as f-far as the Ghibraltan Borders?” Alphys cut in hesitantly, over the sound of Papyrus’ grinding teeth.

“No!” Undyne snarled, even going so far as to slam a fist down onto the table. Now half the tavern was glancing over in their direction, probably having figured out what the human was doing by now. “No dead weight!”

“no point in weighting around, kid,” he said unapologetically, shrugging his shoulders at the human. “looks like it’s a no go.”

“I-it’s not very d-dangerous outside of t-town - ”

“That could change, Al!”

“BUT IT’S NOT TOO FAR AWAY, WE CAN JUST STOP BY THE MOUNTAIN!”

“that just sounds like a mountain of trouble for us, bro.”

“SANS - ”

“I can pay!”

The table stilled.

Which...come on. Why didn’t she just say so in the first place?

Because a payment changed everything, and he could see it even on Undyne’s face. Freeloaders and dead weight, they could do without. But getting paid to make one quick pitstop on the way to the capital? Adventurers like themselves made their money through requests, so income wasn’t exactly steady. They made their living taking whatever job they could get, pretty much. 

Plus an escort job, given by the escortee if you will, was the best sort of escort job. Because they paid for their own safe passage; their payment wasn’t waiting in the hands of another person only willing to pay if the escorted traveler arrived safely. If the person being escorted died along the way, well...they could just take what they were owed off the body. 

...Though again, asking a group of strangers for an escort job in this particular city was a pretty stupid move, because not every group of adventurers was as nice as they were. Any other group probably would slit her throat the minute they were out of the city. This human had to either be the most sheltered person in existence, or she had zero common sense. 

But if she could pay, then...what’d it matter?

“Well why didn’t you just say so, human?” Undyne blustered, gripping the edge of the table. “Show us the coin, then we’ll talk.”

The human hesitated, which was enough to make the fish monster’s lips curl up yet again, and for him to raise an eyebrow. Again. All bluster and no talk, huh? A last, desperate attempt to join up with them? 

And then, suddenly, with a furtive glance around herself, the human leaned forward...and begin pulling the collar of the shirt she was wearing, down from her neck. 

Sans was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one to start in surprise. The table jolted as Alphys gurgled and leaned backwards, as if the human might just completely remove the garment and fling it at her. Surely she couldn’t...be offering that kind of payment to a group of monsters, could she? How arrogant could she get?

But the movement stopped, her shirt pulled just barely below the neckline...and he saw it.

And not just him - as one, the entire table leaned towards the human for a closer look. “T-THAT MARK,” Papyrus gasped, his naturally loud voice instinctively lowered to a hushed whispered.

“Is t-that - ?”

“Gotta be kidding me - ”

“the starlit magisterium,” he finished. Less to continue the broken line of thought from the others, and more to confirm it to himself.

Because despite the open trade and cultural mingling of humans and monsters, the Starlit Magisterium was the highest order of human hierarchy that existed. It was the organization responsible for, somehow, providing humanity with the ability to use magic that had previously been allocated solely to monsters. An ability that had allowed humans to grow and flourish and become one of the dominant forces on the earth, thousands of years ago. An ability that kept them in power today. 

And as thanks for their efforts, the Magisterium had been elevated to an almost cult-like status of power throughout the human realms. Though they didn’t quite run the human kingdoms, they came close to it, and their inner workings remained a secret even to most humans, except those that inhabited their closed and private seat of power at -

...At Mount Ebott. Of course. 

“The Starlit Magisterium has a...vested interest in me,” the human said, and, welp. Obviously. She bore their mark directly on her collarbone; not the wrist or the ankle, or even the forehead. On her chest, the center of her body. She couldn’t have gotten branded anywhere else to have a higher meaning than that. “Deliver me safely to Mount Ebott and...” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I can assure you that you will be heavily rewarded.”

Sans didn’t look around the table at the others. He didn’t need to. The moment he had seen the mark, he’d known what the consensus would be.

Because, well...

How could they say no to that?

“T-that’s awful,” Alphys murmured softly, claws clenched together as she stared up at the human. “I’m s-so sorry.”

The human - who’s name was Frisk, not Serious - nodded, face scrunching up in a sad sort of manner. “Thank you,” she said politely, “it was...traumatizing. But, well. That’s how I got separated from the others.”

Yeah, no kidding. A Skyvern attack would be enough to wipe out even the most resilient of travelers. Frisk was lucky to have survived the encounter. It also explained how she had ended up in the monster-heavy city they’d just left, too, completely alone and with no traveling experience whatsoever.

None, whatsoever. She didn’t even know how to start a fire.

Though, considering where she’d come from, Sans supposed it wasn’t surprising. She’d probably been pampered and taken care of her entire life by the Starlit Magisterium. No wonder she hadn’t thought twice about asking to travel with complete strangers.

“So, you guys were going to Mount Ebott, huh,” Undyne commented, from where she rode solo on her Sylven thanks to her bulky armor. Despite her initial reluctantance, the fish monster seemed to have become invested in Frisk’s journey to an extent. Probably interested in what sort of creatures she’d seen on the journey, though even she knew better than to ask about them when Frisk was recounting the story of her probably dead previous escorts. “Long ways from Khuvani.”

The other major, secluded Magisterium settlement. Journeying from Khuvani to Mount Ebott, huh?

Sans couldn’t see her, but he assumed Frisk nodded behind his back. “We were suppose to go straight to Mount Ebott,” she stated, and he felt her arms tighten around him slightly. “I guess...I guess it’s lucky we detoured through the Filtered Sands, otherwise I may not have ever found my way out of the sand dunes.”

He heard the unanswered question in her words.

So did Papyrus. “DO NOT WORRY, FRIEND,” his brother said valiantly, “I AM CERTAIN YOU WILL MEET YOUR COMPATRIOTS AT MOUNT EBOTT!”

Again, he couldn’t see what expression Frisk made - the way her hands twitched against his ribcage indicated she didn’t really believe Papyrus - but her face must have reassured him, because his brother puffed up some more. 

“AND I, THE GREAT PALADIN PAPYRUS, WILL ENSURE YOUR SAFE PASSAGE TO MOUNT EBOTT TO REUNITE WITH YOUR COMPATRIOTS. NYEH HEH HEH!”

“yup,” he added, tilting his head back a bit to glance at the human from the corner of his eye, “you’re in good hands, kid. my bro’s a real pal...”

“INDEED!” Papyrus exclaimed, one hand resting on his breastplate - until he realized what was about to happen. “WAIT NO - ”

“ -adin.”

“NYEH!” the other skeleton screamed, hands flailing off the reins of his Sylven as Alphys nearly toppled over behind him. “HUMAN, PLEASE DO NOT JUDGE ALL SKELETONS BY MY BROTHER’S BAD EXAMPLE. I ASSURE YOU, MOST OF US ARE PERFECTLY CIVILIZED AND VERY COOL.”

“aw, c’mon paps. you really cut me down to the bone, there.”

“Alright, ‘ya boneheads,” Undyne cut in, as Sans carefully maneuvered his Sylven away from his brother’s bug-eyed glare, “cut it out. We’ve got to pick up the pace if we wanna make it through the Coral Shores before they close up!”

“A-actually, I was t-thinking maybe we should g-go through the Drenga Green W-Woods,” Alphys commented, reaching into her pack to pull out her travel map, “t-then that would take u-us through the Under Steppes, a-and...”

Sans tuned them out. Navigation had never really been his things - too much work. He trusted the others to figure out the best mapping strategy to get them to Mount Ebott and New Haven as quickly and as safely as possible.

“I’m not a kid, you know.”

“hmm?” he mumbled, glancing behind him again. Frisk was leaning around him slightly to speak more directly to him, but she didn’t look all offended. Only bemused.

“I’m not a kid,” she repeated...then hesitated. “At least, not by human years. Are you?...”

“heh heh. yup.”

“Oh.”

Her voice trailed off, seemingly disquieted, and he knew why. Humans had always had trouble accepting the fact that Boss Monsters, a special breed of monsters, lived seemingly immortal lives. It just messed with their perception of time. Everyone felt like a kid to him, even though he knew, just judging by her features, that Frisk was probably at least twenty years old. 

Twenty to thirty. Humans tended to all start looking the same after a while, which made discerning their ages all the more difficult. 

“Is it - ”

Hmm?

Sans didn’t prompt her to finish the thought, letting her stew in what he knew she wanted to ask. Heh. He didn’t mind it. Maybe he would have, if he’d been alone, but...well. He had his brother and Undyne, and Alphys. All Boss Monsters. It’s why they had banded together in the first place. 

“Is it lonely?” she finally asked, quietly, hesitantly. “Living forever...is it lonely?”

“nah,” he said, shrugging his shoulders a bit. “not so long as you stay with other bosses. good food and good friends for a good long life...not so bad, hmm?”

“Yeah,” she murmured, and he felt her rest her forehead against his back. Her arms tightened around his waist again.

“It sounds...wonderful.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...welp. we’re broke.”

Undyne’s face scrunched up, as if their empty coin purses hadn’t told them exactly what he’d just said. “Ngaaah,” she growled, slamming one fist into an open palm, “I knew you shouldn’t have bought that new armor, Papyrus!”

“B-BUT MY OLD BATTLE ARMOR HAD A HUGE CRACK IN IT!” his brother protested feebly, though he whirled onto him a moment later. “BECAUSE SOMEBODY DECIDED TO THROW IT AT SOMEBODY ELSE.”

“sorry bro,” he apologized, for the thousandth time, “it was the only thing on hand.”

“MAYBE IF YOU DIDN’T STEAL THINGS YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO THROW THINGS AT PEOPLE!”

“what can i say?” he grinned, waggling his pointer finger and thumb at his brother. “it’s part of my class act.”

“YES,” Papyrus grumped, “YOUR VERY DISHONORABLE CLASS OF THIEF.”

“summoner thief,” he corrected, because he hadn’t spent eleven years at the New Haven’s Magic School of Magical Magicness for nothing. 

“Okay okay,” Undyne hissed, hands on her hip, “we need supplies, just to get through the Drenga Green Woods and Under Steppes. We got stuff to sell? Al?”

“S-sorry Undyne,” Alphys murmured, rummaging around in her travel pack. “I n-need these potions for b-b-battles, and I d-don’t have any e-extra ingredients.”

“S’alright Al,” the fish monster said, which, was totally biased. Undyne paused for a moment, before glancing to her side with a deadpanned air. “Frisk?”

Frisk started, pat herself down, and glanced up at Undyne with a sheepish look.

“Ugh,” the fish monster sighed, head raised skywards as if searching for some inner strength. Everyone was quiet for a moment. 

Before they all turned to look at him. 

And he, in turn, grinned at Papyrus, who crossed his arms and tried his hardest not to pout. “FINE,” he finally relented, “BUT ONLY WHAT WE NEED, BROTHER. AND NOT FROM THE POOR AND HELPLESS!”

“you got it, bro,” he said agreeably, because he only stole from people who could afford not to notice a few coins go missing here and there anyways. Not that Sans ever kidded himself into thinking it was okay to steal from anyone at all, but his unique skill set had long-since turned thievery into a...fairly lucrative business. They were only heading to New Haven thanks to his contract to steal some documents from the Olingo family, after all. 

“Meet us by the crossroads when you’re done,” Undyne ordered, jerking a thumb over her shoulder towards the path they had just come from, “and we’ll camp out in front of Drenga.”

“Why don’t we just sleep at the inn?” Frisk questioned, confusion on her face. 

Undyne, for her part, constrained herself to an eye roll. “Because we don’t want to be in the same town Sans is going to be stealing from, you punk,” the fish monster said, peering down at the human. “And we’ll be able to get a head start in the morning.”

“Oh,” the human said, before brightening. “Right.”

“Seriously, didn’t they teach you anything Khuvani?” Undyne questioned aggressively, already leading the way back to the crossroads. Papyrus shot him one last Look over his shoulder, but followed along with Alphys, the four of them disappearing into the distance.

Which just left him to do his work. 

The sun was close to setting by the time he rejoined with them, and a camp was set up near - but not directly against - the Grenga Green Woods. Papyrus was still unhappy, but even his brother couldn’t deny the smell of his all-time favorite; a strange human cuisine that was basically long strips of flour, baked and smothered in a sort of red sauce. It was the one thing he’d taken care not to mush or squish inside his bag, and the look on Papyrus’ face when he produced it with a flourish was worth the effort. 

“Is that all the food you got?” Frisk asked, surprised, as he unveiled his spoils. It mostly consisted of a new water skein for Alphys, plus some of the more uncommon ingredients for her potions; a grinding stone for Undyne; a new cloak for Frisk, to replace her tattered one; plus some extra ailment cures and potions, general supplies. The only food he’d gotten was some dried jerk, the essential emergency ration for the wise traveler.

“We’ll hunt on the way,” Undyne said around a mouthful of the fresh meat he’d bought off a vendor. “Lots of stuff to hunt along the route we’re taking.”

“And what about the other stuff?” Frisk asked, hands clasping her own water skein. “The...dangerous stuff?”

Undyne’s eyes took on their own dangerous gleam. “We kill anything that crosses our path!” she declared, slamming a fist into the ground hard enough to make the four of them jolt off the ground by an inch or two. 

“we’ve had it easy so far, kid,” he chuckled. “this was the babybones stuff. now we get to the parts that can swallow you whole if you don’t have the stomach for them.”

Frisk giggled a bit under her breath, and Sans gave her an appraising stare, ignoring Papyrus’ moan of frustration. He liked this girl. Despite their initial hesitance, she’d turned out to be good company...and she liked puns. What more could you ask in a friend?

But like he’d said, all they’d done so far was ride, and the Sylvens were being left behind tomorrow. They couldn’t pass through the Grenga Green Woods. From here on out, the actual journeying would start. 

And he -

Well.

He hoped Frisk survived the journey. 

Frisk was not going to survive the journey. 

“kid, you’ve gotta stop trying to work me to an early grave,” he said, and he knew the grin on his face had a decidedly grimacey tilt to it. “i don’t think my heart can take it.” 

He tapped one finger against where a heart would have been if he’d been a human and winked at her, but she knew that the reprimand was there, and flushed accordingly. A bit of a ways away, Undyne leapt at the Boghrein, magical spears impaling themselves into the creature, while Papyrus fended it off with his sword and shield. 

“Sorry,” she murmured abashedly, hands clutched in his overcoat. He pretended not to notice how they were shaking. “I was...I just wanted to - ”

“i know kid,” he said gently, because Frisk was a pretty cool human, but that determined little head of hers didn’t do any good against an angry and ravenous Boghrein. “but you’re paying us to get you to Mount Ebott in one piece, remember? can’t have you falling to pieces on us, right?”

Frisk chuckled weakly, nodding her head, and Sans finally felt comfortable to release her from his grasp. Her legs didn’t support her, and she ended up falling onto her rump in the grass. He’d teleported them a ways away from the battle, but the roars from the Boghrein still shook the trees, and he glanced up as Alphys was blown right past them, landing upside down in a bush. 

“good,” he said succinctly, and grinned more genuinely as he delivered another wink down at the human, raising his left hand. “you’re not a fighter. we are. you just sit back, relax...and try not to have a bad time.”

Snap.

He didn’t even have to turn around, he just felt Undyne and Papyrus leap out of the way as two Gaster Blasters were Summoned into the physical plane, angled at the Boghrein. The distinctive sound of their energy blasts briefly charging up, and then releasing, reverberated through the forest, drowning out the Boghrein’s angry wail as it was destroyed in an instant. 

And all the while, he kept his eyes on the human below him, grinning at her slack-jawed expression. 

“Hey!” Undyne growled out as she stomped up behind him, “no kill stealing!”

“sorry,” he said unapologetically, “did i kill the mood?”

“NOW YOU HAVE,” Papyrus grimaced, sheathing his sword into its scabbard as Undyne threw her hands into the air and stalked over to Alphys, who was still attempting to dislodge herself from the bush. 

Sans shrugged, before glancing back down at Frisk...who was still staring up at him wide-eyed. Er...well, he assumed wide-eyed, she still had her eyes closed. But the expression was there. “heh. you okay there, buddy?”

“You - ” she started, then stopped, and tried again. “You’re a thief.”

He grinned.

“summoner thief.”

“magical residue from the spirit plane,” he explained, flicking his fingers slightly. The Creeper Rats squealed as they were levitated to the left and the right, paws scrabbling for purchase as they were picked out of the air by Undyne’s spears. “summon the spirits hanging around, use them to move things. easy.”

“But,” Frisk said, for what was probably the thousandth time, “you never seem to have trouble Summoning magic wherever we are. Are there...are there just a lot of spirits ‘hanging around’?”

“yup,” Sans said, releasing his magical hold on the rats as Alphys’ poison potion finished its work. “tons of ‘em. it’s how i teleport, too. link spirits together in two different places on the physical plane, and just step through ‘em.”

“But - ”

“gaster blasters are actual spirit creatures. they’re not linked anywhere, i can summon ‘em any time.”

“But - ”

“simple conversion of residual magics relative to physical mass and spatial distance.”

“But - ”

“kid,” he interrupted, because her curiosity was cute, but she couldn’t learn eleven years worth of information in the couple of weeks they had left of traveling. “if you’re really interested, you should study in new haven.” He nodded down towards her hands. “you’ve already got a magic head start, better then most humans.”

Frisk blinked, before following his gaze down to her hands, a bit of healing magic spiraling into existence in her right palm. “I...I’d like that.”

“...but?” 

She started, glancing up at him, as the others in front of them set about collecting teeth from the Creeper Rats for Alphys. “But I...can’t,” she stated, then clarified, “I mean, I won’t be able to.”

“why not?”

Frisk was the one to grin this time, and tapped a finger on her shirt, over her collarbone. 

...Oops.

“oh, right,” he muttered, displacing his hood slightly to scratch at his skull, “kinda forgot about that.” Frisk was a highly-valued part of the Starlit Magisterium, who’d probably been born, raised, and confined in Khuvani for the entirety of her life...doing whatever it was she did that made her so valuable. “guess the magisterium isn’t so keen on letting people run off to study magic.”

“Nope,” she affirmed, with a slight smile on her face. “I’ve been a part of the Magisterium since I was five. They’ve put a lot of work into me.” 

Her words back at the bar came rushing back to him. “vested interest, huh?”

“They took me in when I was five years old and had nothing,” she said, softly, glancing back down at her hands. “They taught me healing, fed me, clothed me...gave me more luxuries that most people can even dream of.” Funny; the words were obviously said in pride at her position, but her tone sounded kind of sad. “I can never leave.”

Heh. A human didn’t just leave the Magisterium, even if they wanted to. Frisk knew it too, if the ironic twist of her mouth was any indication.

That was the joke. Even if she had wanted to learn Summoning, the Magisterium controlled every aspect of her life. She belonged to them. This was probably her first taste of freedom without a Magistrate hovering over her shoulder. And as soon as she was delivered to Mount Ebott -

Straight back to them.

“...do you want to?”

Frisk started, as if the question had never, ever, even occurred to her. And...and he wasn’t sure why he was asking, it didn’t matter. The Magisterium probably already had every single human city on the lookout for their high-valued member who’d gotten lost on route. Even if she ran away right now, she’d be forever hunted by the Starlit Magisterium. 

But after a moment, Frisk shook her head. “No,” she said, and there was genuine sincerity in her voice as she looked up at him. “Sans, the Magisterium...they saved my life. When I was young and alone, and didn’t even have a family name to call my own...they gave me everything. I owe, everything to them.” The human shook her head again. “I could never leave.”

Repaying the life they’d given her by giving her own to them in turn, huh. 

Made sense, in its own way. But it was no wonder she asked so many questions. About the Under Steppes, his Summoning magic, Undyne’s Arcane Warrior skills, the various potions Alphys concocted, and Papyrus’ seemingly endless supply of bone-styled swords. Once she was at Mount Ebott, she’d probably be locked away in their enclave once more, separated from the rest of the world to serve the remainder of her life at the Magisterium.   

She seemed okay with it. 

And despite himself, despite the futility of wondering something that could never even happen, Sans felt himself reach out with his fingers, brushing them against Frisk’s cheek. She stilled at his touch, head tilting upwards a bit as he studied her.

Was he projecting a bit? Heh heh...probably. He remembered how hard he had tried to remove himself from Gaster’s influence, from the madness and insanity that had nearly driven their family to ruin...and how he’d ended up bonding to his father’s creations anyways, Summoning the tortured spirits of Gaster’s research and feeding that perpetual madness.

How futile it had all been in the end, when he’d turned out just like his father. How little freedom he’d actually had, in the end. 

Life wasn’t fair. Things didn’t just work out because you wished hard enough. A son didn’t avoid repeating his father’s mistakes just because he decided he’d never become like him. A human didn’t leave the group that owed her her very life, just because she might want to. 

Seems like she’d made peace with that, the same way he had. 

Sooner or later, everyone ran out of options.

Running was probably the best option.

“Saaaaans!” Undyne screamed as the ethereal claws barely avoided snagging her ponytail, “do something!”

“nope,” he said simply, one hand in his pocket, the other clutching one of Frisk’s as he dragged her along at top speed, “that’s an amorphous class creature.”

“So what?!” the fish monster panted, lobbing some magical spears over her shoulder without even turning to look. There was a fierce sounding roar behind them, but the arcane warrior continued running with Alphys tucked under one arm, the alchemist haphazardly throwing any potions she could at the group to speed them up. 

“they’re between physical and spiritual, and temporal,” he explained, rather generously in his opinion, considering how they were, you know, running for their lives and all. “can’t be hurt by either, only both together, and only at certain times. pretty plane to see we’re outmatched here.”

“SANS,” Papyrus shrieked as they leapt over a fallen tree trunk, “THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS SAVE YOUR TERRIBLE PUNS FOR A TIME LESS FRAUGHT WITH DANGER AND PERIL!”

“sorry bro,” Sans apologized, and would’ve shrugged if his hands were free, “a-peril-ly this was a bad time?”

“SANS WOULD YOU JUST - ”

“Both of you shut up! We’ve got a huge - ”

“Cliff!”

Alphys’ shriek almost brought them up short, but the crashing of underbrush from behind instinctively kept them moving forward, even as the trees cleared to reveal - nothing. Just vast horizon. And, welp. He could make things and people float, but his magic was drained thanks to a particularly vicious Warg from earlier, and there was no telling how big the drop was - or how long he’d be able to sustain five full grown people. And he couldn’t teleport more than three bodies at a time.

...Then again, there was certain death behind them. A low chance was better than no change, right?

“We doing this?!” Undyne screamed, a bit unnecessarily, as not one of them had stopped running for the cliffside. 

“NYEH!” Papyrus cried out, grabbing onto Undyn’s free hand and hooking his other through Sans’ arm. “FRIENDS! I, THE GREAT PALADIN PAPYRUS, WILL KEEP US CLOSE TOGETHER!”

“jump it!” he grunted, and as one, the five of them leapt off the side of the cliff -

and Frisk’s hand was wrenched from his own grasp.

He was already falling over the edge, body automatically twisting around - and there was Frisk, falling over the side as well, momentarily caught just enough by the Wisp to have been pulled from his grasp, and now falling out of sync away from the rest of them -

“SANS!” he heard faintly from behind, followed by “HUMAN!” But he’d already unlinked from Papyrus’s hands as the trees below came up fast, and he reacted without even thinking, pulling her towards him with his magic, arms automatically encircling her body - and then they hit the trees.

Too far away for Papyrus’ defensive magic to encircle them.

He felt the branches hitting, snapping and groaning under their combined weight as they fell, and in the back of his mind, he knew they were breaking the fall for them. But that didn’t stop the falling from hurting as he kept himself wrapped around Frisk as best as he could, eyes squeezed shut as they fell, and rolled, and finally -

- came to a stop.

Distantly, he could hear the Wisp shrieking from atop the cliff, but he was mostly aware of how everything hurt, which, well, seemed the more important issue. And also, there was something else important that he -

“Sans!”

Oh, right. Frisk. 

“Sans,” she murmured, uncurled from the protective ball she’d been in. She leaned over him, and he blinked wearily up at her, trying not to wince as every single bone in his body seemed to creak. “I’m so sorry - here, let me - ”

A wave of healing magic rushed over him, and he groaned in relief as the worst of the pain was numbed from his senses. “t-thanks, kid.”

Frisk shook her head in an agitated sort of fashion as he pushed himself up to a sitting position. “I should be thanking you,” she insisted, her hands still glowing with pulses of healing magic. “When I felt it grab my ankle - ” Frisk paused, and he didn’t blame her. He remembered his first encounter with an amorphous class creature, and it still made him shudder sometimes. 

“heh,” he muttered, checking himself over for injuries - before he reached out and flicked her forehead, startling her into recoiling slightly. “what’d i tell you about working me to an early grave, frisk?”

The fear that had settled onto her face evaporated, and Frisk laughed lightly. “I know, I know,” she said, and leaned forward to tap at his chest. “Your heart can’t take it, right?”

“yup.”

Frisk shook her head once, before standing up and brushing herself. He watched her as she did so, grinning when she turned to him to offer him a hand up. He ended up leaning against her slightly, one of her arms around his waist and his own around her shoulders, but she didn’t seem to mind it.

Heh...funny. Neither did he. 

“SANS! FRISK! WHERE ARE YOU? YOUR VERY COOL FRIEND, THE GREAT PALADIN PAPYRUS - IS SORRY FOR LOSING YOU! NYOO HOO HOOOOO!”

“over here, bro,” Sans called out, and braced himself for the inevitable fussing that he could literally hear building up over the sound of his brother’s frantic movements through the underbrush. Frisk smiled as they walked in the direction of Papyrus’ voice...but she paused. “Sans?”

“hmm?”

And smiled.

“Nice catch.”

...Heh heh. Good one.

“kid, i know i’m a handsome skeleton, but you’ve gotta stop falling for me like this.”

“THIS IS ONLY THE SECOND TIME!” Papyrus complained as they slid down the steep slope of land, and seemed thoroughly despairing as Frisk laughed, loudly and unabashedly over the sound of wind rushing past them. “AND THE FIRST TIME WE WERE RUNNING FOR OUR LIVES!”

He winked at Frisk. “the human doesn’t seem to care.”

“THAT’S BECAUSE YOU’VE CORRUPTED HER WITH YOUR TERRIBLE PUNS!”

“i can’t help it if she thinks they’re punny, paps.”

“NYEEEEH!”

Frisk laughed again as she clung loosely to his neck, seeming to enjoy the ride down more than clinging for safety as he held one hand on her back, the other looped around her knees. Behind and above them, the pack of wild Howling Jackals bayed their displeasure at their escape. 

Not that they were the only ones expressing their displeasyre. “I could’ve defeated them like that,” Undyne growled as they slid their way down to a stop, barely stopping their momentum before they slid completely into the stream in front of them. “We didn’t have to run!”

“B-but we’re running l-low on supplies, Undyne,” Alphys said logically, wriggling free from the fish monster’s grip on her, “and there’s n-not a lot of safe p-prey animals to hunt a-around here.”

“ALPHYS IS CORRECT!” Papyrus chimed in, brushing his armor off as Frisk jumped out of his arms, “WE MUST MAKE HASTE. THERE IS ONLY THE NEBRALAN VILLIERS AFTER THIS AREA, HUMAN. AND THEN - ” The skeleton grinned widely at Frisk. “MOUNT EBOTT! WHERE YOU MAY FINALLY BE REUNITED WITH YOUR COMPANIONS!”

He froze, and felt Frisk freeze next to him too. He wondered if she had forgotten.

Because he had. The past couple of weeks, he had, well...completely forgotten that they were returning her to the Starlit Magisterium. These past couple of weeks had been nothing but fighting with the others, traveling, sharing stories and experiences...protecting Frisk, chatting with Frisk, carrying Frisk down mountainsides. And now, with only the Nebralan Villiers in front of them, there was less than a week of travel time left. 

And he apparently wasn’t the only one who’d forgotten. “No way,” Undyne said, hips cocked to one side, “that means we’ve only got about a week left? Damn.” The arcane warrior shook her head slightly, before grinning her sharp-toothed grin and reaching over to punch Frisk’s shoulder. “Just when I was beginning to get used to having you around, punk,” she guffawed. 

That was pretty high praise, coming from Undyne. 

“I KNOW,” his brother spoke back up again, and there was a definite misty quality in his eyes. “TO THINK WE’VE COME ALL THIS WAY...BUT WE SHALL BE STAYING IN NEW HAVEN FOR A WHILE. WE CAN COME VISIT YOU AT MOUNT EBOTT! RIGHT, BROTHER?”

“You bet we will! Don’t think you can get rid of us so easily, ngaaah!”

Heh heh...visit the highly secretive headquarters of the Starlit Magisterium? 

“...yeah. sure,” he said, glancing off to the side...and making eye contact with Frisk completely on accident. She was thinking the exact same thing he was, of course. Once she got to Mount Ebott, she would be staying there for the rest of her life, and they would be barred from returning the moment they left.

There would be no more adventuring with Frisk. 

“Uhm,” Alphys mumbled, glancing between the two of them. “U-Undyne, Papyrus. We should maybe g-go get some f-firewood for the camp tonight?”

“NYEH? ALL THREE OF US?” Papyrus questioned, confusion on his face. “SURELY IT WILL ONLY TAKE ONE TO GATHER THE FIREWOOD, LIKE NORMAL?”

“Yeah, I’ll go grab some real quick,” Undyne said, already moving away from the stream bed.

“Gah! I-I just though that...u-uhm, I t-thought that Papyrus could g-gather more than you...”

Undyne’s casual stance changed in an instant. “Eh?” she grinned toothily at the skeleton, “you think you can challenge me?”

“NYEH? I DIDN’T - ”

“You’re on, punk!”

Papyrus confused cry disappeared into the distance as Undyne dragged him off for a firewood collecting contest, and Alphys followed along behind - but not before he saw the look she shot them. Equal parts hopeful and pitying. 

And then it was him and Frisk, left alongside the stream. 

...It was a pretty area. Several small flowers bloomed along the side of the water, following its trail across the plateaus. That was the beauty of these untouched wilds, he supposed. Wild...but beautiful. 

“I forgot.”

Sans blinked, tearing his gaze away from the stream to look at Frisk. The sun was beginning to set, and the wash of orange and red behind her head framed her features. She almost looked like she was glowing.

“I forgot that I’m going to Mount Ebott,” she clarified, though he hadn’t needed the clarification. “I forgot that this was all...just for now. Not forever.”

“i know kid,” he mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

“I was just...having so much fun that I forgot - ”

“frisk,” he interrupted. “i know.”

Frisk nodded, wrapping one arm around herself as she stared down at the water. And Sans struggled to think. Why had Alphys given them this time? Nothing was going to change. Frisk was going back to the Magisterium, they would get paid, and...things would go back to normal.

“Yeah,” she muttered, turning slightly to face him. She smiled, and...and it was a genuine smile, despite the sadness tinting the edges of it. He couldn’t find it in himself to look away. “And I...I can’t help but be...happy, that we were attacked by that Skyvern.” Frisk twisted her head away, eyebrows scrunching up. “I know how terrible that sounds, but...it’s the truth. I’m terrible.”

Oh...there went his hand again, moving without his permission. The soft skin of Frisk’s face felt strange against his fingers as he caressed one cheek, before he turned her head back towards him, meeting her eye-to-eye. 

And grinned.

“so am i, kid.”

Frisk was the one that moved forward first, a fact that he would remember later on. But for the moment, he only paid attention to the press of her lips against his teeth, soft and warm, as much as he was capable of feeling their softness and and feeling their warmth. His other hand, the one that wasn’t against her cheek, had migrated to her waist at some point, and her arms had come up around his neck. 

And he struggled not to clutch at her, not to keep her trapped in his arms forever. Because...because maybe he was projecting. Maybe whatever feelings he had for Frisk had come from a place of sympathy and empathy combined. Maybe, whatever this was between them was only a momentary infatuation on both their parts, and would dissipate as quickly as it had come about.

But they would never get to find out, and that...that was the joke. 

Loosely, simply, they held each other as they broke the kiss, and he rested his forehead against hers. Neither of them clung at the other, because the harder they held on, the tougher it’d be to let go. They both knew it instinctively. 

So why couldn’t he stop holding her now, when it was suppose to be easy?

“Then...we can be terrible together. Like a bad joke,” Frisk said - whispered it like a secret, one only for him, and gave him a watery smile on top of it. He pressed one hand against her chest, settled directly over the mark that would forever define the rest of her life. 

“heh heh...hilarious, kid.”

Just for him. 

“The Starlit Magisterium extends its full gratitude for your brave and tireless efforts of returning Frisk to us.”

“Yeah well,” Undyne said, hands on her hips, “it wasn’t anything big. Nothing we couldn’t handle!”

“Still, you cannot begin to understand the gravity of your services,” the woman continued to say, though she paused as a servant looking guy walked forward, carrying a gilded chest atop a pillow in his hands. “And we hope this will serve as ample reward for your efforts.”

“I’m s-sure it’s more t-than - holy crap!” Sans heard Alphys stutter, probably with a huge and wide-eyed expression. Undyne let out some sort of weird fish gargle noise as they looked at the, presumably, large amount of money currently being handed to them. 

For his part, Sans watched as Papyrus hugged Frisk goodbye. He supposed they’d been lucky enough to even been allowed through the fortified gates of the outer ring of Mount Ebott in the first place. It was only Frisk’s insistence that they be allowed in with her, and her threat of simply marching right back around, that saw them all standing inside the marble domes of the citadel itself. 

He wasn’t sure if this was much better, honestly. 

Frisk hadn’t been given much time either. The moment she had stepped through the gates, she had been whisked away by official-looking people, and it’d been everything they could do just to keep up. Even now, he could see the ornery looking human male attempting to tug Frisk away, even gripping one of her arms and giving it not so subtle tugs, and she reluctantly released Papyrus. 

“I’m afraid I must ask you to leave the citadel now,” the woman was talking again, as Frisk turned in his direction, “we have much to do now that Frisk has been returned to us. Please, feel free to purchase supplies in the outer ring before leaving Mount Ebott.”

“Thanks lady!” Undyne exclaimed happily, before turning towards them. The man had one arm around her shoulders now, forcefully turning her away. “C’mon you boneheads, lady says its time to get moving!”

There was a veritable swarm of people around Frisk now, rushing her off towards the golden doors set off to one side of the chambers. Leading deeper inside of the citadel, probably. He could only just make out her brown hair, head half turned as she struggled to look over the crowd of people pushing her around, and -

- the doors closed shut. 

“S-Sans?”

Oh...that was Alphys, staring up at him with concern on her face. Or was that pity again? Heh heh...he didn’t know. 

And he didn’t really care, either.

“let’s go.”

Mount Ebott pretty much referred to the grand citadel located near the top of the mountain itself, and the surrounding rings were...not really enough to be called cities. The whole place functioned as the headquarters for the Starlit Magisterium, so there wasn’t a place for vendors, traders, merchants...no economy to sustain travelers. This wasn’t a place for travelers, only those needed by the Magisterium. 

There were, however, a few scattered vendors in the outer ring, and one tavern. Apparently just enough for passing people of importance to be allowed inside the gates or to trade with, and no more. And that’s where they found themselves after an impromptu shopping spree, led mostly by Undyne. 

“I’M GOING TO MISS FRISK,” Papyrus murmured, with a suspicious sort of sniffle as he wiped at his eyes. “BUT WE CAN COME SEE HER ON OUR WAY BACK FROM NEW HAVEN, RIGHT?”

His brother was addressing all of them, but he didn’t have to look up to know that Papyrus was looking at him. His brother always looked to him for reassurances, and he was always the first to give them to him. 

“...yeah. heh heh. maybe.”

Papyrus nodded, and he...nodded, as well.

That’s right...why was he acting like the end of the world had come? He still had Papyrus to look out for, and Undyne and Alphys too. And the Dreemurs, waiting for the documents stolen from their warring families. They still had their hunts and their contracts, and their whole lives ahead of them. He still had a life. 

“yeah,” he said with a little more enthusiasm, and shot a grin at his brother. “you’re right bro. we haven’t a thing to worry about.”

“SANS!”

Undyne groaned and Alphys giggled. And he grinned. 

“Folks doing alright?”

Sans glanced up at the friendly looking man with an impressive mustache as he came over with their drinks, settling them down onto the table. He wasn’t sure what had taken so long - they were the only customers in the tavern. “Don’t get many monsters around Mount Ebott,” he commented, “you might just be the first ones to ever set foot on this mountain.”

“UNSURPRISING!” Papyrus declared dramatically, “FOR I, THE GREAT PALADIN PAPYRUS, AM AN ADVENTURER OF UNTOLD SKILL AND LEGEND! IT IS ONLY FITTING I WAS TO BE THE VERY FIRST MONSTER TO SET FOOT HERE!”

“Who was first?” Undyne butt in aggressively.

“A-actually I think i-it was Sans t-that was - ”

“leave me outta it, buddy. i’m gonna admit defeet right here.”

The bar owner stared between them bemusedly. “So...you all here for the celebration?”

“C-celebration?” Alphys questioned, ignoring Papyrus as he choked inside of Undyne’s headlock. “Is t-there something special h-h-happening today?”

The man blinked, and paused, long enough for Undyne and Papyrus to stop their mock wrestling and stare - but his expression suddenly cleared. “Oh right, ‘course,” he laughed, holding a hand to his forehead, “you’re not...visitors are so rarely allowed in here that I forget most don’t even know about it.”

“ABOUT THE CELEBRATION?”

He nodded, his mustache tilting upwards. “Right. Everyone who lives on Mount Ebott knows about it, but I forget how little people outside of here know. The Magisterium performs this huge ritual thing every twenty years, and we all celebrate it afterwards. Apparently it’s what keeps humans and magic tied together, or something.” The man scratched at his cheek. “Lots of magic stuff and who-how, don’t know much about it.”

“A big party, huh?” Undyne asked, excitement lighting up her eyes. “Think we can stay long enough to join in?”

“Probably,” the bar owner affirmed. “What with the delay and all, they’re probably already preparing the sacrifice to use as soon as possible, so the ritual and celebration’ll happen right after, I’d imagine.”

...Wait.

“delay?” he said.

The man gave him a funny look. “Yeah, the sacrifice was suppose to be here weeks ago.” Once again, his expression cleared into one of happiness. “But some kind souls got her here safe and sound, thank goodness! Better late than never, haha.”

The table was silent. Undyne had even frozen with her mug halfway up to her mouth. 

And then chaos erupted. 

“S-Sans!” he heard Alphys cry out, but her voice sounded dim in his ears as he loomed over the bar owner, pinned down on the next table over with his magic. He couldn’t even cry out to the empty tavern, only choked and clawed futilely at his throat as if he could physically rip away the hold that had his back on the table. 

“where?”

“L-Let me go,” the man gasped, “h-help! Someone - gak - ”

“where?”

“A-at the top of the m-mountain! They c-call it the Room of Lifeforce!”

“w h e n ?”

“S-soon!” the bar owner wheezed, face beginning to turn an interesting shade of purple. “They were s-so upset that they were delayed, t-they probably started as soon as the s-sacrifice showed up! It’s probably already s-starting!”

He released his hold on the man, ignored him as he fell to the floorboards, and stalked out the doors. 

Which is when Undyne managed to catch him. “Sans, Sans!” she shouted, grabbing a hold of one of his shoulders. He couldn’t match her strength, and was ground to a halt as the fish monster came around to his front, “what do you think you’re - ”

He glanced up at her from beneath his eyelids, and Undyne’s words stuttered to a halt. 

“B-BROTHER,” Papyrus came up on his other side, Alphys close behind and wringing her claws together. “IS IT TRUE? THAT MAN SAID...COULD FRISK BE - ”

“you heard him, paps,” he snapped, “frisk is a sacrifice for their damn ritual. they took her in, raised her - all so they could use her whenever it was convenient for them.” He chuckled lightly, and ignored the way all three of them flinched. “they gave frisk her life...and now she owes it back.”

“Bastards,” Undyne growled, fists clenched tight next to her side, “what sort of damned, barbaric...animals are these Magistrates?”

“BUT THAT MEANS,” his brother said, eyes wide, “WE HAVE TO...WE HAVE TO SAVE FRISK! SHE IS IN TERRIBLE DANGER!”

“then let’s stop talking and go,” he suggested, already turning back towards the path up to the citadel, purpose in every step of his -

“Wait!”

He, Papyrus, and Undyne turned, incredulous, at the alchemist, still lagging behind with her claws clenched together. “What Al?” Undyne said impatiently, a spear already grasped in one hand, “we have to hurry! You heard the guy, they may already be starting!”

“But guys,” Alphys whispered, her tone even more wispy and breathless than it normally was, “guys, this is...this is serious.”

...Welp. 

Obviously.

“N-no, I mean, this is...serious,” the lizard monster repeated, looking more anxious than ever...if that was even possible. “This is t-the Starlit Magisterium. If we s-storm that citadel, and rescue Frisk, then that...that would mean war.”

Undyne froze, her aggressive stance shifting, and he could see Papyrus deflating in the corner of his eye. Alphys glanced back at him, and gulped.

But continued on. “War b-between monsters and humans. This could change...e-everything. For everyone.” Alphys looked down towards the ground, her claws clenched so tightly together that it was any wonder she didn’t pierce her own skin. “Are we...are we r-ready to do that?”

Silence, before every head turned towards him. 

And he -

He wanted to charge up there and Summon every Gaster Blaster he had at his disposal...but actions had consequences. He knew that. He would be charged a criminal of the highest order - Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys too, all of them - not to mention sparking a return of the war that had been tenuously resolved only scant centuries ago. 

There would be consequences. 

“...leave,” he said, still half-turned towards the mountain. But he waited. “get out. paps, you too. they’ll see three monsters leave, and only one attack the citadel.” He paused, before grinning. “i’ll save frisk.”

For Frisk, he would -

“FRISK IS OUR FRIEND,” Papyrus said immediately, “AND YOU ARE MY BROTHER. AND...AND IF A WAR STARTS BECAUSE THESE MAGISTRATES DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW TO TREAT THEIR FRIENDS, THEN...IT WILL BE UP TO ME, THE GREAT PALADIN PAPYRUS, TO TEACH THEM THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS!”

“That’s right,” Undyne cut in, hefting her spear over one shoulder, fierce smile spread over her face. “Don’t think you can hog all the glory, punk! We’re gonna save Frisk together!”

Heh heh...so he wasn’t the only one who’d fallen for Frisk, huh? He grinned, turning back towards the mountain - before pausing, glancing over one shoulder. He wouldn’t ask, he wouldn’t pressure her...but she had to decide.

And she did.

“Okay,” Alphys whispered, and for once, her voice was strong and steady as she looked up at them, resolve clear in her eyes. “Let’s go get our friend.”

It was almost too easy.

Whether because they were all Boss Monsters, or because Mount Ebott just wasn’t equipped to handle magical attacks of this fortitude, storming the citadel became just about as exciting as a walk in the park.

At least through the first set of doors.

“W-We’ll keep them distracted here!” Alphys cried out as she dodged a soldier, the arc of his sword stopped by Papyrus’ shield. “Go ahead, quickly!”

“NYEH HEH HEH! THEY SHALL NOT PASS THIS POINT,” the skeleton declared, forming his magical shield wall that could hold out for as long as he could, “FOR THE POWER OF LOVE FOR MY FRIENDS CAN FUEL MY MAGIC UNTIL TIME ITSELF STANDS STILL!”

“thanks bro,” Sans called out as he and Undyne ran past, “i’m countin’ on you!”

“OF COURSE, MY BROTHER!”

“by that i mean i’m countin’ the time left until - ”

“SANS WOULD YOU JUST - ”

“Go!” Alphys commanded, and Sans saluted the two of them as they slipped through the side doors, away from the commotion. 

“Where are we going?!” Undyne growled, keeping up with his pace as they ran through the halls. And that was...a very good question. All the gilded, marbled halls looked the same. He could only hope he was heading in the right direction, towards the center of the citadel, the innermost portion. Where the guards and officials were probably more experienced and capable of dealing with monster magic -

- speaking of which -

Sans managed to dodge out of the way of a blast of fire, but Undyne faced it head on, running straight through it. “Ngaaaah!” she screamed, hand stretched outwards towards the large group of mages, and she - pulled them towards her. He could hear their startled cries as they tried to run, but her magic would keep them fighting her for a while. “Keep going!” she yelled out, “these punks are tough! We’re close!”

They would be okay. They’d all come out of this alive, with Frisk in tow. He had to believe that. 

Undyne’s distinctive battle cries faded away into the background as he continued to run, conserving his magical energy as best he could. He teleported away from two groups of patrols rushing towards the commotions before they could even understand they’d just glimpsed a monster in front of them, and the hallways seemed endless, but there was a definite pattern to them, becoming smaller and smaller until -

They suddenly opened back up, and directly in front of him, lay a set of gilded silver doors. 

He didn’t even think - he burst straight through.

And immediately his magic was surrounding the man bending over Frisk’s prone body, spayed out on the stone tablet. The man didn’t even have time to shout out in surprise as he was slammed upwards, straight into the giant red crystal embedded in the ceiling, and the others turned with startled exclamations. But they couldn’t react quickly enough as he unleashed a burst of Summoning energy directly in the largest group of them, sending humans flying every which way across the room. 

“Sans - ”

More of them - the woman in front of him flung her hands forward, an arc of lightning racing its way towards him, and he felt the impact and the shock of it, shuddering through his bones - and he turned it back around on her, Summoning the energy to absorb the brunt of the impact and redirect it towards her, the surprise on her face given only a fraction of a second to appear before it was replaced by agony -

“Sans!”

A scream of rage from his left, a blast of energy that scorched his body and soul, combined with more of them all fueling together, but if they thought that could stop him, they were in for a bad time as the Gaster Blasters were Summoned into existence with a simple snap of his fingers, bringing an end to their existences once and for all -

“Sans, stop!”

And then a sudden stillness, the break in battle as everything resolved itself at once. All around him, humans groaned, moaned - some lay completely still where they had fallen, but he didn’t care, he only looked around for any other threats, before looking back towards the stone tablet.

She was sitting up on the tablet now. She’d been cleaned. Scrubbed and primped, all the grime of their weeks long travel erased from her features. Gone were the practical travel clothing and cloak she had worn, now she was dressed in the finest white silk human money could buy. Perfect, and pure. 

Heh heh. The look didn’t fit her at all, but he bet they liked it. A fitting sacrifice. 

“frisk,” he murmured, rushing towards her and - and damnit, he couldn’t stop himself from throwing his arms around her, because they had been so close to killing her. “frisk, we don’t have time, we have to leave.”

“Sans,” she said, and though her voice was steady, her arms trembled around him.

“later,” he ordered, because he had to go back and get Paps and Undyne and Alphys, and then they would leave the damn Magisterium behind and figure out what to do afterwards. “we have to go, now.”

“Sans wait - ”

“trust me frisk,” he said, finally releasing his hold around her to grab onto her hand, pulling her down from the stone tablet, and didn’t even register how she pulled back away from him. “they were going to sacrifice you like an animal, for some ritual, but i don’t know how many more our on their way to - ”

“I know.”

To...

- what?

Sans was vaguely aware that he had dropped Frisk’s hand, but his eyes were trained on the human’s face as she took a step back towards the tablet, hand clenched in front of her. “I know,” she repeated, glancing down at the floor, before looking back up at him, and her expression...

No. C’mon, kid.

“I told you,” Frisk whispered, “they saved me. They gave me everything when I had...nothing. And I...” she trailed off, hand fidgeting uncomfortably in her fine silken dress. “I owe them.”

“you don’t owe them shit,” he snapped, stalking forward, because of course the Magisterium felt they were owed. As if showering Frisk with gifts and a luxurious lifestyle compensated for the life they were taking. “kid, come on, this is crazy. let’s get out of here and - ”

“Magic.”

The randomness of the statement brought him up short. “what?”

“Magic,” Frisk repeated, “human magic. It’s how they...why humans can use magic. This ritual...this sacrifice...without it, humans will lose the ability to wield magic.”

She looked upwards, and he followed her gaze.

Above them, the crystal pulsed with an ominous red light, almost blood red in color. It seemed muted or dulled somehow, as if whatever energy that was powering it had almost run dry. As if it needed -

- another life source -

“Humans are so dependent on magic, now,” she said. Stated, like a fact of life. Humans need magic. I need to die. “If we couldn’t use magic anymore, we’d...humanity would fall.” Frisk shook her head, and he tried his very hardest not to shake her. “Don’t you see, Sans? They...they need me.”

She was serious. She wanted to sacrifice herself for the good of humanity. She wanted to...

...

“frisk.”

She squared her shoulders, already ready to defend her decision. And he could force her - he knew it, and she knew it. He could force her to leave these chambers. But she would never stop trying to run from him, and she would never, ever, forgive him for taking the choice away from her. 

She wanted...

“you never answered my question.”

She hadn’t been expecting that. “Wha...what?” she asked, staring at him. 

And he grinned.

“do you want to?”

Her mouth opened automatically, and he was moving before he knew it, thrusting one hand across her mouth and forestalling the inevitable affirmation.

“frisk.”

Her eyes, closed and secretive, looked at him, and yet somehow, he knew she was giving him a wide-eyed stare. 

“do you want to.”

Do you want to stay with the Magisterium? 

Do you want to owe your life to them? 

Do you want to die?

A drop of wetness ran down his hand, and even though he was staring straight at her, it took him a moment to realize she was crying. Tears, just a few of them, slipped out from beneath her closed eyelids, and he let her silently cry for a long moment, before he slowly - carefully - removed her hand. 

And she -

whispered

“No.”

Something loosened inside his chest. 

“No,” she repeated, and...and the floodgates opened. 

His arms opened automatically as she folded into his embrace, his coat only partially muffling her repeated cries. “I don’t want to die!” she moaned, and clutched at him, and he couldn’t do anything but hold her close, “I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!”

“i know kid,” he murmured into her hair, “i know.”

And he did. 

The Magisterium had wanted her for her determination to die. He knew that. Her will to die for her species, for their betterment and continued happiness. That’s what they had wanted.

But her determination to live -

That’s what they had needed.

That’s what they had always needed in every victim, no matter how much they tried to play it like a noble sacrifice. The will to go on, the power to continue...that’s the life force that had kept their crystal powered through all these countless centuries.

And finally, for the first time since the Starlit Magisterium had been established - that determination had backfired on them. 

And it never would again, as Sans snapped his fingers, and Summoned them. Twenty of them, thirty of them. More? It didn’t matter. 

All that mattered was Frisk’s muffled sobs into his garments, soaking up her tears as the room lit up behind them, shattering the last remnants of an era into a million dully colored fragments all over the beautifully marbled floor. 

“I swear punk, you punch like an old Whimsum!”

“I’m trying.”

“Well try harder! Like this - ngaaaah!”

“N-ngaaah!”

“Woah wait, time out!” Undyne cried, even going so far as to hold her arms in front of her like a giant ‘x’. “Wrong! First rule of engagement - never steal someone else’s war cry!”

Frisk frowned bemusedly. “Is that really a rule of - ”

“Papyrus!” the fish monster bellowed, and the skeleton popped his head out of the window, a bowl of those baked flour strings he liked held in his arms. “Get over here and show this human how it’s done!”

“WITH PLEASURE!” his brother bellowed right back, dropping whatever he was making and leaping out of the window to join them. They’d learned to just leave the windows open a long time ago. “FRISK,” he announced once he’d stuck the landing, “ALLOW ME, THE GREAT PALADIN PAPYRUS, TO DEMONSTRATE!” He sucked in a loud breath. 

And then -

“NYEH HEH HEH!”

“Louder, Papyrus!” Undnye commanded, fists raised towards the sky, “strike fear into the hearts of your enemies!”

“NYEH HEH HEEEEEH!”

“Louder!”

“NYEH HEH HEEEEEEEH!”

On the other side of the garden, Alphys bashfully watched as Undyne attempted to get Papyrus to scream his lungs out, sitting in the middle of her alchemy garden. She looked torn between exasperation and fondness as she attempted to stay focused...though that look quickly morphed into anxiety whenever the two of them got within five feet of her precious supply of ingredients.

For his part, Sans simply basked in the sunlight, arms underneath his head. It was a rare moment of reprieve that they had found, hiding out with the Dreemur family. Of course, Asgore and Tori had immediately offered them a place to stay after word had gotten out of some renegade monsters who’d attacked Mount Ebott, but they’d wanted to hang out in the wilds a bit. At least until the most obnoxious of the immediate rumors had died down.

Except the one that said a skeleton had killed all the guards of the citadel with the weird monster magic of his puns, laughing them all to death. He liked that one. 

Sometimes, he wondered if the two goat Bosses would’ve been able to afford to offer them a place to lay low, if war had broken out between monsters and humans. It was still on the fence, even months after the incident. But with magic no longer an option for humans to fight with, he supposed it wasn’t surprising that they hadn’t immediately leapt to a full blown war with the still very much able to use magic monsters. 

“Talen for your thoughts?”

Sans peeked one eye open, and even though he was already grinning, he felt his smile stretch wider. Frisk was dirty and covered with smudges from face-planting into the dirt so many times, courtesy of a very enthusiastic fish. Without her healing magic, Frisk had literally zero skills to offer up their adventuring group.

Somehow, they’d all been okay with that. 

All except for Frisk. She was, now, slowly learning how to handle herself with a small dagger and some basic hand to hand combat...or should he say hand to fin combat, pfft. 

“probably overpaying for them, kid,” he commented, as Frisk sat down to join him on his nice patch of grass. “just thinking about before. things kinda worked out pretty nice for us.”

Frisk nodded, though a shadow passed over her face, one that had him opening up both eyes. “Yeah, things kind of did.” She paused for a moment - maybe thinking back to Mount Ebott, to the Magisterium members that had died that day. To the ones that had died during her departure from Khuvani. Some of them vile and evil people, and some of them -

Just doing what they’d thought had needed to be done. 

For a while longer, Frisk remained quiet, long enough that Sans actually felt like he might need to sit up. But then, she turned her head back around to look down at him, and smiled. “But I’m still not sorry,” she commented, “and I’m still terrible.”

Heh heh.

“like a bad joke, huh?” he mumbled, relaxing once more into the grass, and let out a soft exhalation of air as Frisk abruptly joined him, pressing up against his side. He didn’t even think about wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer against him. He just did. 

“Mm-hmm,” she hummed, leaning upwards. He felt the press of her lips against his teeth, and closed his eyes, listening to the birds chirping, the wind rustling through the leaves above, and the sound of her voice in his ears.

“We’re hilarious.”

They really were. 

Because they had changed things. Not just for themselves, but for everyone. Monsters and humans. They had chosen themselves over others, and they would have to live with that. Monsters would flounder as the new dominant species on the earth, and humans would suffer without magic, of that there was no doubt. 

And, well.

Honestly?

They could both use their own damn determination to figure things out, from now on.