I apologize ahead of time for the crud that is this chapter.

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"Back when monsters still lived underground - they were desperate to reach the Surface. However, that required the usage of seven human souls to shatter the Barrier, the wall keeping us sealed off from the rest of the world. King Asgore knew that he only needed one soul to cross the Barrier from which he could collect six more to set us free."

The pain in your chest seemed to worsen at the mention of human souls. Tears welled the corners of your eyes and you fought them back.

"The first human fell not long after the war between humans and monsters. She became like a child to the king and queen, even befriending their son. The monsters knew that shortly after the human died, we would have our first soul. The child - however - knew that the king would not be willing to collect six more humans souls after she died and wished to have the prince absorb her soul. They arranged for her to kill herself and succeeded. Something must have changed within the prince's mind and instead laid her body in a patch of flowers inside the child's village."

Sans closed his eyes before continuing. "The humans thought that Asriel had killed the child and struck him down. He returned to the garden of his parents and turned into dust. In a fit of rage, the king said that any human who fell down were to be executed. His wife was disgusted with his actions and left him. And so it was that every human who fell down was killed and brought to the castle. But a few years passed and no more humans fell down. Monsters fell into despair until a seventh human fell down. I don't remember much the first time she fell, but Frisk killed monsters and spared some when she had the chance.

"After word had passed Frisk left the Underground, I found myself suddenly back in my room three days earlier. I had asked other monsters what had happened to the human, but no one remembered Frisk. I thought it had been a dream at the time until Frisk appeared in Snowdin for a second time. I noticed that she was sparing all the monsters that she came across and in the end - she was able to free us all. We lived in the surface for a year or two when I found myself back in Snowdin. By this point I knew that the kid had some freakish power to go back in time or whatever. The third time she went through the Underground, there was something off about Frisk.

"It didn't take long for monsters to realize that the human was killing everyone they came across, sometimes even hunting them down for sport. I don't know what insane thing was going through the kid's head. They eventually killed everyone that hadn't evacuated and I knew I couldn't let them kill Asgore. I confronted Frisk in the Judgement Hall and had to strike them down.

"It was there I learned that Frisk even had the power to come back after death. No matter how many time I killed her, she would always come back and learn how to dodge my attacks until..."

Sans stopped talking, his eyesockets dark. His hand fell to his chest and you assumed that was where Frisk had delivered the killing blow. "I'm so sorry..." you muttered and gave him a hug, not knowing what else to do.

"And after they killed me, I was back in Snowdin. Stuff like this continued for a while, sometimes we would make it to the Surface and sometimes Frisk would kill certain people to see what would happen to the Underground. But the next timeline when she killed everyone, there was something different about her. She would phase in and out of Frisk to becoming Chara. I didn't want to face the fact that some deal had been done between the two... Frisk killed me and the world reset and I knew something had to be done about this. It took a while before the next Pacifist run occurred, but I finally decided to confront Frisk about the resets. She tried to blame Chara, but I knew Frisk had been the one to originally start the Genocide run.

"We weren't on speaking terms for a few years and the day before we met with the United Nations officials, Frisk jumped off Mt. Ebott. And this time... She didn't come back."

The two of you sat in silence for a while. You scooted over to Sans and let your head rest on his shoulder. "It's a nice sunset," you commented, looking at the darkening sky. Another wave of tension ensued.

"Y-You must think I'm insane..." Sans chuckled nervously and let his head tilt against your's.

"I think it's cute," you teased, hoping to lighten the mood between the two of you. Sans didn't reply but you detected the hint of the blue blush on his cheekbones.

The familiar knot of guilt wormed in your stomach. You opened your mouth to confess your nightmares to Sans but thought better of it. Wouldn't he think that you were insane?

That's probably what he thinks he is, you thought, sympathy stabbing you like a knife.

"Sans..." you mumbled and then realized that you had spoken at a whisper. "Sans..." you said louder this time, catching his attention. "T-There's something I haven't been telling you."

You explained your reoccurring nightmares of the twisted version of this reality. Sans seemed disturbed at the way he was portrayed in this universe but seemed to relax when you mentioned that there was a relationship between the two of you. You decided that for his own sake to leave out Chara and the Final Reset.

Sans didn't say anything after you finished explaining.

But somehow, the gap that had formed between the two of you was closing.

You could make out his white pinpricks in the darkness.

And as if by instinct, the two of you closed the gap with a kiss.