Despite all the pent-up tension, it turned out to be a pretty good day. Papyrus scolded him for not going to see a healer but it seemed like after a few hours he started to forget why it was such a big deal. Sans had a little trouble remembering why as well. So once they had gotten all the nagging out of the way, the two brothers got to enjoy a pretty decent afternoon in each other’s company.

Sans really didn’t care much about being a sentry. He had only taken the job because his brother had pushed him to do it. There had been a time when he had taken things a little more seriously though. He had even made and maintained his own series of puzzles once upon a time. Well, they were traps more than they were puzzles to be honest. Nasty ones. There were reasons why he had gotten a real sentry station while his brother had made a mock-up of his own out of cardboard.

Papyrus was ambitious and devoted but he would sooner offer a violent criminal a hot beverage and a place to stay than report or engage them in combat- even if it was for self-defense. He doubted his brother could ever bring himself to intentionally hurt anyone and everyone knew it.

Sans on the other hand had had far fewer qualms about doing his job in the past. Of course all of that was in the past now. Old memories, old obligations, old reasons.

Between realizing that standing in the way of the anomaly only ever made the bad timelines stretch out longer and having made a new friend on the other side of the door who had made him promise to help any lost humans that came his way- his devotion to his traps and puzzles had rotted away.

A little voice in the back of his mind nagged him to reconsider now. Go recalibrate those puzzles like Papyrus asked. It encouraged. Go make sure the area is secure. Move before it’s too late.

He took a deep breath. Nah. If he fixed them up now wouldn’t that just mean a faster reset and an obligation to go recalibrate them again?

Besides, whatever it was that was messing everything up out there would only be caught off guard once or twice before traps became a waste of time. Hell, it probably already had all this stuff figured out by now anyway.

So Sans chose to instead spend the day patrolling with his brother. Papyrus was quite pleased to see him acting so lively for once. Seeing him call off his half day to return to work early was a rare occasion and it made Papyrus proud of his brother’s devotion to his station.

Sans listened to his brother chatter about all of his perfectly maintained puzzles, tuning out the nagging buzz when he insisted that Sans go recalibrate his own.

They visited a few sites where Papyrus thought future puzzles could be set up, then had lunch together at Papyrus’s makeshift sentry station. Sans didn’t bother to mention that the spaghetti was nearly frozen to the point of no return.

Sans just… really appreciated the quiet day. Even though he still felt tired. Even though he felt a looming sense of dread hanging over him; warning him that this was one of the few good days they had left to enjoy.

He tried to ignore it. It was nice to hear his brother’s voice - even when he was shouting at him for making bad puns.

Sans even got his brother to slack off with him a little bit, making snow skelptures and demolishing snow poffs together. Yet during all this, Sans’s eyes often wandered off towards the distant tree line where forgotten memories seemed to linger in the forest like shadows.

“What is it? Did you see lesser dog goofing off again?” He brother asked, straightening from his act of snow sculpting and bracing his hands against his hips like an impatient mother.

“nah. i was just space’n out.”

It had been a while since he had checked in with his station. They had been in this clearing for quite some time now. He sort of had this gut feeling that he should keep an eye on the station near the door for the next few days...

He shook the feeling off for a while longer. It was calming to just have a lazy day like this. But soon their synthetic day began to draw to a close and the magic lights overhead started to dim with the hints of the oncoming evening. Their shift was over and Papyrus turned his attention towards home with a sigh. “Darn. I was so sure we would find a human today!”

Worry tugged at the corner of Sans’s smile. For a split second he recalled a familiar face, but then it was gone. “maybe next time, bro.”

“Well, I suppose we should start heading back. If I stay out much longer I will be late for my lessons with Undyne, and then there will be no hope of a home cooked meal tonight.”

“that’s all right. we could always hit grillby’s on the way home.” Sans said with a wink.

“You know I don’t like grease!” Papyrus wailed.

“come on, a little grease could be good for all those cranky joints of yours.” He teased, nudging him playfully with his elbow.

Papyrus narrowed his eyes at him. “I’m not sure whether or not that counts as a pun.”

Sans shrugged. “go on without me. i kind of want to stay out a little longer.”

Papyrus blinked in surprise. “Are you sure? You hardly fell asleep at all today.”

He kicked at the remains of an already demolished snow poff. “i figure i should just try and make up for all the days i have been slacking off on recently, ya know? thought i would fill in for dogamy and let em skip a shift.”

Papyrus practically glowed with joy. “Sans! You have no idea how happy this makes me! I am so proud of your increased work ethic! When you get home I will be sure to have an extra special batch of spaghetti waiting for you!” He gave him a crushing hug. “Oh, and you will be sure to call me if anything interesting happens, right? If you find a human I don’t want to miss it!”

The edges of Sans’s smile fell. There was an uneasy knot writhing inside of him. “um, about that.” He freed himself from the hug and took a step back. “i've been thinking… Papyrus, what if the human wasn’t…good?”

Papyrus scowled. “What do you mean?”

“what if nothing has changed since they locked us all away down here? what if humans have, i dunno, gotten worse? what if they are just… bad?”

“Oh.” His brother’s voice was unusually soft. He rubbed at his jaw in thought. The lingering shadow that Sans had occasionally noticed haunting his brother’s face returned. “Well, I guess we really don’t know what it’s like up there on the surface anymore. I suppose it could be that bad. But then maybe that’s why a human would come down here in the first place!” He brightened at this idea. “Maybe they came down here because they heard stories about us and they want to make nicer friends!”

Sans couldn’t hide his pained expression when he gripped his brother by the forearms. “but what if that’s not true, Paps? what if she has just come down here to hurt us? what if she just thinks it’s fun? what then?”

Papyrus blinked. “She?”

“she, he, it, they, them!” Sans waved away his choice of words with impatience. “look, i just worry, y’know? what would you do if you met a human and they turned out to be really violent? what if they didn’t want to make friends? what if they hurt people you cared about?”

Papyrus thought about this in a long stretch of silence. When he spoke again each word was carefully considered before he said them. “I suppose I would be very sad. Disappointed that they chose to hurt people when they did not have to.” Perhaps by some trick of poor timing and bad luck, Papyrus looked off in the direction of Sans’s sentry station over by the door to the Ruins. His brow was furrowed in thought and his eyes looked distant and sad. “But maybe they were just scared. Maybe they were just lonely and angry and were trying to get it all out and hurt someone by mistake in the process? Maybe a human like that would just need some help remembering how to be good again.” He looked down at his brother and smiled. “Maybe they just need a friend. A friend like the Great Papyrus!”

Sans’s tried to look optimistic but the undercurrent of defeat was straining to make itself known. “you are pretty great, bro.” He sighed in quiet defeat.

“I know I am!”

“heh. well go ahead and get over to undyne’s and work on that special spaghetti of yours. not really sure when i will be back so be sure to save some for me.”

They bid each other farewell and Papyrus raced away, scarf dancing in the wind as his long legs carried him across the snow. Sans watched him go, a rock nestled in his stomach.

Papyrus never changed. Sans wished he could have that sort of optimism. Then again part of him wished Papyrus wasn’t always so determined to see the good in everyone. It would have saved them both a lot of grief if he didn’t.

Sans ran into Dogamy and Dogaressa on his way to his station and let them know what the deal was before teleporting over to the little station and settling down.

He enjoyed the silence for a while, the only sound being the breeze whispering soft nothings through the trees. There were even a few breaks in the fog cover hanging overhead, allowing him to see a few of the distant glowing crystals on the ceiling: their improvised stars.

He loved the stars. He had always wanted to see the real ones someday. He had been told that the real ones moved across the sky and got brighter and dimmer as the days and months trickled past. He marveled at the thought of the stars being so high up and so far away that people could use them to navigate from one stretch of land to the next. You couldn’t do that in the caverns. Once you left the room they were in or rounded a corner, that was it. No more stars.

He had heard that some of the real stars were so famous people even made names and stories for them. How cool was that?

Sans had a favorite star in the Underground. It was right above his Snowdin station and really dim. It was kind of blue and overshadowed by a big green crystal a few feet to its side.

He had made a lot of big wishes on the big green star in the past but they had never come true.

The little blue star however, who he had named Gilbert, was pretty chill. Since Gilbert was a little star he imagined it could only handle little wishes. But the star didn’t often let him down when he made those small requests.

When he asked for an undisturbed nap, the discovery of a snack he had forgotten about or a cool pair of socks or something, Gilbert always delivered.

Gilbert was a cool star.

Sans swung his feet back and forth as he looked up at the dim star. “hey gillbert. nice night out isn’t it? didn’t think i’d see you out this early.” He yawned, a cloud of breath rising up between his fingers. “I got another wish for you. if you are up to the challenge. i wish my lil bro will get home safely tonight and make his best spaghetti yet. think you can handle it?”

The crystal flickered and shined as it always did. Sans took this as some sort of answer.

“thanks, buddy.” He drummed his fingers against the table, teeth clacking together as he considered saying something else. He sighed. “ah, who am I kidding. that’s not my real wish.” He looked back up at the star. “What I really wish is that my brother will be ok. I wish I knew the right words to say to Papyrus to get him to leave and find somewhere safe to be when things go bad this time.”

The crystal star danced and guttered and a wisp of fog threatened to hide the dim light completely.

Sans tugged his coat a little closer and rested his head against his folded arms; his breath warming the cuffs of his sleeve. The stress of going through the day waiting for the other shoe to drop was beginning to weigh down on him and ease his eyes shut. “eh, its ok gil. i understand. it’s a pretty big wish, isn’t it? i get it. trust me, i do. keeping him safe is a big job for a little guy... and you are just a little star.”

***

He listened for a while. His eyes reduced to slits while he searched for the sounds and whispers most people never noticed. Usually when people thought he was being lazy and dosing off he was actually just trying really hard to listen.

It was funny the kind of things people would reveal around you when they didn’t think you were paying attention. You could learn a lot about the world with your eyes closed.

But no whispers came this time. Not distorted voice tried to speak to him in the darkness. Even the wind had died down and before he knew it he was sleeping in earnest, at long last taking that well deserved nap.

There were no nightmares this time. No dreams. Just a comforting darkness.

Who knows how long he slept. He probably would have ended up staying like that right up until the cavern grew light again if it wasn’t for the alarm that went off. A little bell was ringing under the main compartment of the sentry station. Its high chime nagged at him until he cracked an eye open and smacked the off button with all the resentment one usually reserved for their alarm clock.

He yawned, jaw stretching wide and eye sockets screwing shut. When his mouth clicked shut again he rubbed at his sockets, wincing when he remembered the crack. The lights in his eyes slowly grew into being and began to focus in on his surroundings.

It was late. Time had continued normally and he didn’t have any strange half memories or new mysterious scars to worry about. It looked like there had not been any resets yet.

But the ringing that had woken him all but promised to ruin his night. There was a blinking red light on the hidden panel within his little station. He had to push away several frozen condiment bottles to see which of Alphys’s camera he had to go check on. One of them had seen something big enough to set off an alarm near the Ruins.

Usually when the alarm went off it was just some of the local teens out late having a laugh or a tree branch snapping under the weight of too much snow. He had lost track of how many times he had been woken up to go investigate something as thrilling as a broken ice sickle or a falling rock.

But this time he wasn’t so sure that would be the case.

He didn’t waste any time with walking. He teleported right over to the door. A familiar sense of dread toyed with him when he saw that the snowdrift up against the obsidian door had crumbled away. The door was closed now but it had obviously been opened recently. That alone was enough to make him uncomfortable. The door to the Ruins never opened.

He felt a little stab of regret at having not gotten here sooner. He had a friend on the other side of that door.

He crept a little closer to the main path, hugging up against the forest shadows and making an effort not to be too loud. There were footprints in the snow; deep, fresh and messy. Someone had just come through here and they had not been wasting any time. The kicked up snow and wide pacing made it obvious they had been going at a full run right out the gate, slipping in the snowdrift but otherwise refusing to slow down.

He cast a longing look at the closed door. He had never been on the other side before. He did not know how to safely teleport to the other side since he didn’t know the layout of the world behind it. If he did, he would have gone to see if his friend was ok. Unfortunately he had a pretty good idea of what had happened to her.

It’s happening.

He teleported ahead several yards, following the tracks but sticking to the shadows. The world had gone eerily quiet.

He didn’t catch up to Snowdin’s newest guest until he was nearly within sight of his sentry station again. The damn thing could really move.

He heard the pant of labored breathing and the loud crunch of footsteps just before he found his quarry; a dark silhouette running through the night. Its hair was like dirty snow, catching the dim light with every movement. Thick clouds of steam rose from their mouth and nose with every breath.

Sans squinted through the dark. Was that…a human?

It was muttering to itself now. Sounded female and somewhat…familiar? Where had he heard that voice before?

He felt a wide range of conflicting emotions. Humans were dangerous. This one in particular sent off all the warning bells in his head. Humans were powerful and resilient and after their two races had spent so much time apart, much of their true nature had become embroidered in fantastic myth. He was a sentry. It was his job to report this and capture her for the good of all monster. But those reasons rang hollow in his mind and lacked enthusiasm as he tried to convince himself of his duty.

He had promised his friend on the other side of the door that if she could not protect the humans she found, he would look after them for her. Even if that meant protecting them from himself.

The woman on the other side of the door had said so many wonderful things about the humans she had known. She had called them kind, smart and funny. She had praised their ability to think and wait and forgive. She had laughed at their quirky resilient behavior and had ultimately, quietly- so soft she had probably thought he couldn’t hear- sobbed at their misplaced bravery.

He had made a promise to his friend to look after this creature. And who knows, maybe this human had just snuck out on his friend while she had been sleeping and he was just being too pessimistic about her fate. After all it was pretty late.

His shoulders slackened and he reached into his pocket. Now that he thought about it, the poor kid was probably scared stiff. Cold, alone and lost in a world she probably knew nothing about. She was dangerous, sure, but how well did she know that? Maybe his brother was right. Maybe she would just need someone there to show her the ropes and help her get the hang of how things worked down here.

Well, hopefully that person wouldn’t necessarily have to be him, but regardless he should probably get a good feel for her character before she got to Snowdin. At least he could rest easy knowing Papyrus was safe at home for the time being.

He pulled a little whoopee cushion out of his pocket and worked on attaching it to his hand. It was such a stupid little thing but he always kept it handy for breaking the ice during tense hellos or awkward goodbyes. Maybe the little joke would be a good way to ease the human into their world- let her know they were friendly. Besides, he didn’t know how scary a human would perceive someone like himself to be. Maybe she was more scared of him than he was of her.

Sans teleported up near the bridge just as the human finally reached it. She skidded to a halt at the gap, leaning back so far that she fell over in a spray of old snow, cursing loudly as she fell. He scowled as she thrashed around wildly, like a turtle stuck on its back. She flailed her limbs, kicked up more snow as she made several attempts to get to her feet before literally kicking her legs out from under herself.

“what the hell lady?” He whispered under his breath.

“Dammit. Fuck! Shit.” She rolled around, struggling to pull something out of her sleeve. “Stop that.” She snapped, then lashed out at her own limbs and hissed, “Make me!” Her voice kept changing pitch.

He stopped trying to attach the whoopee cushion to his hand. Ok. This one may be a little loony.

Eventually she got back to her feet and tossed something out into the dark. It smacked up against one of the wooden poles of his brother’s poorly made gate and bounced right back at her. “No!” She shouted in frustration. “Ahah!” She cried in triumph a second later, diving for the object she had just tried to throw away with such enthusiasm.

Finally Sans got a good look at the object she was tossing around. It looked like a fire poker.

A sharp pain ran up against his eye and across his chest at the sight of it, causing his hands to dart up to the old scars in reflex. A flood of dark thoughts and emotions washed over him. He really, really did not like the look of that poker. He took a few clumsy steps farther back into the trees.

“Just drop it already! You know I’m just going to stab you again if you keep it!” Her voice dropped to a purr. “Go ahead. Our last save was in the house.” She turned to look back the way she had come. “Do you really want to reset everything and do that all over again?”

Sans’s hands balled into fists, fingers pressing together so hard they creaked.

The human hung her head, shoulders going slack. She slid the poker back up her sleeve. She did not move.

Sans glared out at her from the darkness. It was her. She was the one he had been looking for all this time. She was the anomaly that had been messing with the timelines. She was the cause of all his nightmares! Who’s to say for sure what it was that his dreams had shown him- the past, the future, vague possibilities- whatever they were she was the source. Whatever they were, some of them had been bad enough to give him scars.

She coughed and shuffled in place, her back turned to him. She stood there with her toes touching the threshold of the bridge. Several second passed by in silence. She began to scan the trees, looking over her shoulder and standing on her tiptoes.

Realization all but drained him. She was waiting for him. She knew he was watching her! She knew he was meant to go out and meet her! He had probably already done it a hundred times before.

“Do you find your name ironic, Sans?”

He tried to evade her but she had latched on to his shirt. When he teleported she came with him.

“You try so hard to hide it with jokes. You’re a Comic, Sans- like the goofy font! Oh go on, laugh. You love puns.”

Crack! His head collided with the trunk of a tree.

“But Sans can also mean ‘without!’ Hah! Without Hope, without peace. Often Sans a brother too!”

Sans backed up into the forest until he was out of sight, her cruel laughter echoing inside his head.

No. Not this time.

Already the memory was becoming nothing more than a faint wisp of color and sound floating around inside his head but for a brief moment he had known. He had been able to remember. She had messed up. He could still cling to these scraps a little longer before he forgot the reason why.

He could still get his brother out of here before she killed everyone.

***

It was by chance that they met outside of Snowdin. He couldn’t teleport directly to their home. He had to do things in a series of shorter jumps. He had just shown up near the main bridge when he spotted the tall, lanky figure of his brother trudging through the snow.

“Oh! There you are brother! You stayed out much longer than I anticipated so I decided to warm up some dinner and bring it to you!” He called across the distance.

Sans ran up to him and snagged him by the arm, nearly causing him to drop his container of spaghetti. He did however, drop the unplugged microwave he had had tucked under his other arm. “Hey!” Papyrus yelped, watching helplessly as it tumbled out into the snow and its door popped open. “Oh dear.” He sighed. “I hope it didn’t break. Undyne wouldn’t be happy if I broke her gift.”

“Paps. Papyrus. hey. look at me.” Sans panted, nervous and out of breath. The memories were gone but still he clung to what he knew. He clung to what he had seen and heard in the forest like a drowning man clutching at straws. She had talked about resetting time. She could reset time.

“i need you to go back. we need to go back to town.”

“Ok.” Papyrus said with a frown. “Did you make sure someone come to take your place at the station before you left?”

“uh, no. no. something just came up and we need to leave.”

His frown deepened. “Leave? To where? It’s the middle of the night! You never want to do anything but sleep when it’s this late. I thought I was going to have to carry you home once I found you!”

Sans lowered his voice even though no one else was around to hear. “look, somethings uh, something happened during my shift. everyone is fine but we should probably try and get the townsfolk to move somewhere else for the night just to be safe, capiche? just until undyne can take a look at it and sound the all clear.”

“Oh. Ok.” He stooped down to pick up the dropped microwave and squawked in surprise when Sans caught him by the arm and teleported, carrying his brother through the lightless vacuum and dropping them both off in their Livingroom.

“Sans! How did you-” He looked around in alarm, “The microwave!”

“eh, we can get it later. just roll with it for now, ok? just how late is it anyway?” He glanced up at the nearest clock then stuffed his hands in his pockets and let out a slow breath. He had to calm down so he didn’t freak his brother out. “ok. grillby’s should still be open. i will go let him know what’s up and he can spread the word to everyone staying out late. you can handle the inn.”

“Um, ok. But what’s going on? You haven’t said anything yet. What should I tell everyone? What did you find?”

Sans opened his mouth but no words came out. He rolled his jaw and clacked his teeth. He hadn’t had enough time to come up with a good story yet.

Papyrus’s voice became unusually soft for the second time that day. He stepped forward hesitantly and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Is … is it a human?”

For once Sans couldn’t put his mask on fast enough. Papyrus saw the truth in his eyes before he could look away and deny it.

“So it is a human.” He smiled. “But Sans, that’s wonderful news! I will finally get to meet a real human! I can capture them and Undyne will make me part of the Royal guard! And then king Asgore will finally have the soul he needed to break the barrier-”

“uhhh.” Sans cleared his throat and tried not to fidget. “i don’t think it would be wise to go and meet her, Pap. i’m pretty’s sure she’s dangerous.”

Papyrus frowned. “Didn’t we just talk about this a few hours ago?”

“i mean it Paps.” He pleaded. “there is something wrong with her. she’s dangerous and i’m afraid she’s going to hurt people. she has a weapon.”

“all the more reason for us to go out and meet her first!”

Sans shook his head. “no. no, look, i just know how this is gonna go down if you stay, alright? i know something bad will happen if we all just stick around and hope for the best. please Paps, go to the inn and try to get everyone to leave.” A thought occurred to him and he brightened a little. “as a future royal guardsmen you gotta put the people first, right? you gotta make sure they are all safe.”

Papyrus thought for a moment before giving him a reluctant nod. “I suppose it would be rather careless of us as Snowdin sentries and for me, a future Royal Guardsmen, to not alert our friends and neighbors and give them the option to leave if they so wish. I am sure many of them would be nervous at the sight of a human and we cannot afford to have anyone scare her when she comes to visit us.”

Sans sighed in relief. “thank you, Paps.” He pulled up the hood of his coat and headed out the door. “i will go cover grillby’s.”

“Right! I will be out in one moment. I must go prepare!”

Sans stepped out to alert the bar and a few other stragglers along the way. Papyrus took an unusual amount of time getting ready and then emerged from their home empty handed, looking no different from when Sans had left him. But he kept his word and let the woman running the Inn know what was going on and even took the initiative and covered the houses down by the river.

There was a fair amount of sleepy monsters collecting in the streets around them when the two brothers crossed paths again.

“I got everyone on my side of the town.” Papyrus declared with no small hint of pride. He had been darting around quick as lightning once he had gotten into it.

“great job bro. look, i want you to make sure everyone gets to waterfall safe, ok? grillby said he would call the river person over to help move everyone. You should go with them and report to undyne. i forgot to tell the guard dogs on my way over so i need to go drop by the doghouses real quick.”

Papyrus shifted uncomfortably and looked away. “Are you sure that calling Undyne right now would be the best idea? We both know she would never hurt an innocent person -and she’s a really cool friend! But maybe… maybe she would scare the human if she was the first monster they met?”

Sans took his brother by the shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. “listen to me. that thing is dangerous. more dangerous than you know.” He laughed at himself. He was the only one who knew just how pointless all this effort could be. But maybe she would pass them by if they stayed out of her way. Maybe if they all hid and kept quiet she would find whatever it was she was looking for and leave. Then again, maybe she would just reset everything and hunt them all down later. Maybe next time he wouldn’t be lucky enough to remember. Maybe next time she wouldn’t talk to herself and give away her secret.

Sans let out a dark chuckle as the unfairness of their situation set in. “who knows. none of this may even matter. but she messed up this time. she let something slip and now i know what she is.”

“...she’s a human.” Papyrus answered with a confused scowl.

“that’s right. but she’s more than that. she more dangerous than that. look, get to waterfall and when everyone is safe i will try to explain what’s going on, ok? this could all be for nothing. she may just bring us back if she can’t find us but- but i would like to try and keep you safe this time.”

Papyrus picked at the fingers of his gloves, shifting uncomfortably. “Sans, you are scaring me. I’m not sure I understand what you are trying to say. I think… maybe I should go with you.”

“you can’t . Please, not this time.”

“But I want to help her! I want to help her be good again!”

Sans hugged him tight, eyes unfocused upon the darkness outside of town where the human would eventually emerge. “i know you do, bro. but i don’t know if all humans can be born good like us monsters. some of them may not even have anything good in them to remember. look, if everything is ok by morning you can talk to her. but right now i really need you to take everyone to waterfall.”

His brother was quiet for a long time before he sighed and pulled away. “Alright. I will bring everyone to Waterfall and make sure Undyne knows. But then I’m coming back here with her to make sure you are ok.”

It felt like the entire mountain had been lifted from Sans’s shoulder when Papyrus finally agreed. His smile was one of relief as he looked up at his brother. “deal.”