Written by: SansLover (Quotev)
Fanart by: GeekyWaffles  (Woah! Holy cow. This is awesome!)

Setting the Stage: Hey guys! So, since this is a collection of one-shots sprinkled within a month time period, for each one-shot, I'm going to be giving a little bit of background information before hand. When the one-shot takes place, a little bit of a synopsis... etc. (In other words, I'm going to be "setting the stage" for each one-shot.) Just thought you guys would find this helpful when you're trying to plug it in to the larger story that is ZanaTale. :-)

I'm pretty sure that this could happen literally anytime, so there's not much I need to say here. However, since this goes really well with the first oneshot that I wrote personally, I'm going to say that it happened directly after the chapter "All's Well that End's Well," when Sans headed home for the night. Yup! That's it. Happy reading~

Sans' Perspective:

After a long day hanging out with (Y/N), I head up to my room. Man, what a day. Welp, gotta get some rest for tomorrow. I wonder what'll happen...

I plop down onto my mattress. It takes a while—hours even—before sleep starts to come to me. Right before it takes over, though, I think I see the walls and ceiling glitch, and a weird noise seems to echo around the room. But before I can do anything about it... I fall asleep.

***

I open my eyes to darkness. I look around to see if I can see something, anything... but I don't find anything. I shrug, and look in front of me again. In front of me is a gray door. I'm not sure how it got there, but... with nothing else to do, what do I have to lose? I reach out for the door and go to open it. 

Inside is a huge lab. It's so blinding white that I have to place my hand over my eye sockets. When they adjust, I take my hands away and look around. The room looks like a giant infirmary, but only one of the beds is occupied. Next to that bed is... is a monster of some kind. I can't really make them out—glitches are literally surrounding them, so it's hard to tell who or what they are. But for some reason... I can't help but feel nostalgic. 

They're speaking. Or, I think they are, at least. There's a weird sound echoing through the room that sounds vaguely like speech, but I can't really understand what's being said. So instead, I move my attention to the monster on the bed. I can't see much of them from over here, but they seem very young, and they're either dead or sleeping. ...I can't tell which. 

I decide to walk over to the two monsters, and either comfort the monster talking to themselves, or check on the little monster. Before I can even come close, however, I trip. I turn to see what I tripped on, but it seems the object has other ideas. I had tripped on a very sharp vine, and it's now spiraling around my leg and binding itself onto me. 

I try using my magic on it, but for some reason, I can't conjure it up. So, without any other choice but to struggle, I let the vine finish wrapping itself along my leg. It drags me into a very dark room, and then something hits my head, and I feel myself slipping into the hands of unconsciousness.

***

I wake up with all of my limbs wrapped up in vines. I can feel their thorns biting into my bones, blood slowly seeping from the shallow wounds they create. I try and struggle to free myself, but to no avail. I hear a small chuckling voice, and then a small yellow flower suddenly appears in front of me. 

 "You," I growl. The flower smiles at my recognition of him.

 "Well, hello to you too, smiley trash bag." He continues to giggle, enjoying the pain that I can't stop from appearing onto my face. 

 "What do you want from me?" I still can't stand the sight of this abomination after what he did to (Y/N). It might have been a month ago, but to me, it feels as if those events are still fresh in my mind. 

"I just wanted to let you know how selfish you are." I stare at him in confusion. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed. Wow, you really are an idiot. Let me explain..."

I don't like where this is going.

"You have lived through thousands of timelines, but you already knew that. But, I've noticed something. In those thousands of resets, there have been hundreds of genocide runs. And every single time one happens... it's all the same. Especially for you."

"Wha-What are you talking about?"

"Come on Sans," he says, giggling again. "Has it really never occurred to you that you could've changed the timeline? That you could've changed what happened? Maybe even... save your brother from Chara?"

I stare at him in shock, but deep down I'm still confused. Where is he going with this?

"All it would've taken is one... simple... act. But no; you just had to stand there. You watched him get killed over and over and over again, without the slightest thought of saving him. And yet, when this new girl comes... this... this (Y/N), you do everything in your power to keep her from dying. You stepped in when I tried to kill her, even when you wouldn't do the same for you own brother. You don't care if your own brother dies. And you call Chara the dirty brother killer? Ha. That's rich."

"No... No, that's not true..."

"Isn't it though? Just think about it. You could have easily stopped her. Deep down, you know it to be true. So let me do one more thing..."

In the depths of the darkness I hear a voice—Papyrus's voice—call out.

"Sans...?" he calls, confusion evident in his voice.

At the sound of his voice, I finally put two and two together, and try desperately to free myself. Flowey giggles at my fruitless efforts, and gives me a self-satisfied leer.

"Paps... No. No! Paps!"

As he comes into view, Flowey looks right at him, his vines sneaking around Papyrus's limbs.

"Sans, are you in here?" Paps asks.

"Paps! Stay away!"

But before anything else can be done, Flowey completely wraps Paps in vines.

"Oh, so now you care about his life? Now you want to do something about it?" Flowey sneers, a smirk on his face.

"Well, I'm afraid you're too late, smiley. This time, you really can't do anything about it!"

Then Flowey forcefully takes Paps's soul out of his body, and drives one of his vines all the way through it. All I can focus on is Paps's gasp for air, and then his body dissolving away. Then, once again... everything goes black.

***

I open my eyes sockets again to see that I'm in some kind of floating cage made out of bones. I look below me, and see... me. I'm in Snowdin, and it looks like I'm talking to Frisk. But then... I see the knife she's hiding behind her back. That's not Frisk. 

 "Frisk" seems to ask me for a hug, and I accept it. But as "Frisk" jumps into my arms, she slashes me with her knife, and kills me instantly. As "Frisk" skips away, I see Paps walk out of our house with what looks like a plate of spaghetti. But it doesn't matter. At the sight of my jacket sitting on a little pile of dust, he drops his spaghetti and runs over to it. 

 My cage then creeps closer to Pap. I'm so close that I can almost reach him. "No, no no no no no! This can't be happening... Sans, please..." 

 He starts to sob. I hate seeing him like this. Especially since I'm so close to him, but can't do anything about it. 

 "I'm right here Paps! Just turn around! I'm here...." 

 But of course, he can't hear me. And no matter what I do, the stupid bone-bars won't break! Then, all of a sudden I see a ghost-like figure appear next to Paps, and start to... comfort him? I can't really make out the details of the figure, but it seems strikingly familiar... Before I can do anything else, "Frisk" appears again, and stabs Paps straight in the head. 

 "PAPS!" I scream. I can feel shaking all around me. How fitting. My entire world is literally falling apart around me. Then I open my eyes, and find a very concerned Paps shaking me awake. 

"SANS! SANS, EVERYTHING'S OK! I'M HERE, AND WHATEVER YOU SAW ABOUT ME WASN'T REAL—IT WAS ALL JUST A NIGHTMARE! SEE, I'M FINE..." 

 "P-Paps?" 

 I hug him with all of my strength, afraid that if I let go, he'll disappear right before my eyes. I can't keep living like this. I can't keep seeing him die over and over again. Dream or not, I need to find a way to control my insomnia, and the nightmares that come with it.