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“It’s a beautiful day outside…” I say with a forced smile, “Birds are singing, Flowers are blooming…”
I cut off my speech with a sudden barrage, bones, blasters, anything I can muster. The kid manages to dodge the first wave before a stray blaster knocks them sideways. I take my opportunity, my eye burns yellow and the kid’s soul is engulfed in blue. They grin as I cave their skull in with a well placed bone.
“How’d you dodge all of that so well?” I already know the answer to the question. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
#
I stand alone in the judgment hall, the sun of the surface pouring in through the ornate glass. A light breeze comes from behind me. I can’t help but wonder how much dust it’ll pick up.
Through the doorway, the human’s silhouette takes shape from the corridor, a silvery grey trail follows them.
“Heya.” I say with a jovial tone, “You’ve been busy, huh?”
The kid’s face drops, they’re bored. How many times have I said this?
“So, I’ve got a question for ya. Do you think even the worst person can change…?”
The light from the windows reflects against parts of the kid’s knife, everywhere but the edge.
“That everybody can be a good person, if they just try?” I laugh weakly, at this point I don’t know if I’m talking to them or myself.
The human cocks its head, like an animal. They look kinda pissed, it’s better than no reaction at all I suppose.
“All right.” My own face drops, as much as it can anyway, “Well here’s a better question.” My eyesockets darken as I speak, “Do you wanna have a bad time? ‘Cause if you take another step forward… You are really not gonna like what happens next.”
I study the kid’s face, their body, everything for the slightest tell. Their knuckles tighten around the knife. They step forward.
I sigh, thinking back to the door in snowdin,
“Welp. Sorry, old lady. This is why I never make promises.”
I feel my magic coalesce in my eye as I force a smile,
“It’s a beautiful day outside…”
“Birds are singing…”
“Flowers are Blooming…”
The kid braces themself early. Shit.
“On days like these, kids like you…”
They charge at me, I dodge,
“What? You think I’m just gonna stand there and take it?”
I cast my blue attack, forcing them to the floor, then the ceiling, hitting them with the strongest combination of bones and blasters I can conjure. The kid takes a few strays, avoiding a blaster I summoned behind them by the skin of their teeth.
They survived the most overwhelming barrage I could think of. Before the panic becomes visible on my face I think of a joke,
“Huh. Always wondered why people never use their strongest attack first.”
A bell rings behind me, echoing from the city. The kid goes in for another swing, I dodge, readying another attack.
The hall around us cracks open as bones and huge deer skull shapes come tearing out of the floor, I jump on one of my blasters for mobility as a huge wave of bones cascades down the hall. The human is just nimble enough to avoid a few of them before getting flattened into a fine paste.
The sound of the human’s soul shattering echoes around me.
#
I stand alone in the judgment hall, the sun of the surface pouring in through the ornate glass. A light breeze comes from behind me. I can’t help but wonder how much dust it’ll pick up.
Through the doorway, the human’s silhouette takes shape from the corridor, a silvery grey trail follows them.
“Heya.” I say with a jovial tone, “You’ve been busy, huh?”
Something in the kid’s face looks angry, they swing for me before I get a chance to speak, I narrowly avoid them,
“What? You think I’m just gonna stand there and take it?”
I cast my blue attack, forcing them to the floor, then the ceiling, hitting them with the strongest combination of bones and blasters I can conjure. The kid takes a few strays, avoiding a blaster I summoned behind them and leaping over a wave of bones to attack me directly. I dip out of the way and force them into a pillar, pulling a bone through their skull before they regain their composure.
They avoided my strongest attack with barely a scratch. Shit.
The chimes of the city’s bell echo through the hall.
#
I stand alone in the judgment hall, the sun of the surface pouring in through the ornate glass. A light breeze comes from behind me. I can’t help but wonder how much dust it’ll pick up.
Through the doorway, the human’s silhouette takes shape from the corridor, a silvery grey trail follows them.
The kid stops and stares at me from the end of the hall,
“Heya!” I shout from my place by the spare pillar. The human doesn’t respond.
They stare at me with an almost unreadable expression, almost. If I didn’t know better I’d say they were planning something.
The chimes of the city’s bell echo through the hall as the kid finally approaches, their shamble quickly accelerating into a run.
I brace myself, dodging out of the way of the human and forcing them into a wall as I summon an overwhelming barrage of blasters and bones, trying to force the human into as many of them as possible. They dodge every single one almost perfectly, including a blaster I summoned behind them. I summon a wave of bones up from the floor, tearing open the judgement hall, the kid jumps straight over them and charges me. I narrowly avoid their blade and use their own momentum to force them into a pillar. The human takes most of the impact in their legs, grimacing as something breaks.
The bell chimes again.
I approach the kid, still clutching their leg, they swipe at me. I use a blue attack to hold them down,
“Our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum.” All pretense in my voice dropping. “Timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting...” Part of me wonders if showing my hand like this is suicidal. “Until suddenly everything ends.”
I laugh, “...That’s your fault, isn’t it?”
I set up a circle of blasters around the kid, watching as they get reduced to particles by the beams.
#
I stand alone in the judgment hall, the sun of the surface pouring in through the ornate glass. A light breeze comes from behind me. I can’t help but wonder how much dust it’ll pick up.
Through the doorway, the human’s silhouette takes shape from the corridor, a silvery grey trail follows them.
“Heya.” I say with a jovial tone, “You’ve been busy, huh?”
The human rolls its eyes, their face looks angry. They’re gripping the knife hard enough to whiten their knuckles.
“By that look on your face,” I start, wearing my normal ‘carefree’ attitude “I’d say you’ve died seven, maybe eight times in a row?” The human’s eyes thin and their mouth shifts to a scowl.
“How many times we gotta do this, kid?” I wonder if showing my hand like this is suicidal. I then wonder how many times I’ve had that exact thought. Doesn’t matter now.
A bell from the city echoes through the hall and I feel my magic coalesce in my eye as I force a smile,
“It’s a beautiful day outside…”
“Birds are singing…”
“Flowers are Blooming…”
Before the kid can react, I cast my blue attack, lifting them into the air and hitting them with everything I have, every surface of the hall comes tearing open as blasters and bones assault the human. They dodge almost everything with perfect precision, my heart sinks as I realise what that means. A stray blaster appears behind the kid, they narrowly avoid its beam and leap over the next wave of bones towards me, I narrowly avoid their blade and use their own momentum to force them into a pillar. They take most of the impact across their arms and legs, doing little more than maybe fracturing an arm.
I approach the kid, holding them down with a blue attack,
“Our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum.” All pretense in my voice dropping. “Timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting...”
I hear New Home’s bell chime again.
“Until suddenly everything ends.”
I laugh, “...That’s your fault, isn’t it?”
The kid smiles, something in their eyes looks almost entertained. I call a circle of blasters to surround them. The human rolls out of the way the instant before the beams hit home and instantly goes on the offensive,
“You can’t understand how this feels!” I yell between dodges, “Knowing that one day, without any warning… It’s all going to be reset!
I punctuate my outburst with a new wave of attacks, forcing the human against the ceiling and calling a wave of bones to end them. They leap out of the way as the tiles are forced apart, landing gracefully on the ruined floor, showered with fragments of stone and ceramic. As they stand, they push hair away from their face and, for a split second, the fringe reminds me of someone else.
For a second, everything is still, I do my best to catch my breath,
“Look. I gave up trying to go back a long time ago…” Suddenly all I can think about is Home as the kid goes in for another swing.
“And getting to the surface doesn’t really appeal anymore either,” I strain myself forcing them across the room again, “Cause even if we do…We’ll just end up back here, without any memory of it, right?
I summon a blaster beneath me and sit with both legs ‘crossboned.’ Heh, Papyrus would have loved that.
“To be blunt…that makes it kind of hard to give it my all.” I pet the deer skull on the horn before standing, “Or is that just a poor excuse for being lazy…? Hell if I know.”
I tap the blaster with my foot twice, its jaw hinges open and fires, following the kid as they jump around the hall. I do my best to keep my distance, forcing them into different surfaces and launching wave after wave of bones. They take quite a few good hits before the blaster stops and I need to catch my breath.
“All I know is…” The human glares at me from across the room, bathed in the fading sunlight, “...Seeing what comes next…” The bell chimes a third time, “I can’t afford not to care anymore.”
I call another wave of attacks. As many blasters as I can manifest circle the kid, all going off in slightly delayed succession. Clearly my own exhaustion is reflected in them as the human carves through one and heads straight for me. My blaster fires, retreating backwards and carving a straight line through the ruined floor. The human jumps for me, landing on my blaster and swinging. I hear a tear as their knife rips through my hoodie.
Shit, shit, shit! I panic, launching them back as far as I can, using enough magic to accidentally dispel the blaster beneath me.
The next thing I’m aware of is a sharp pain in my back as I hit the floor, a tile lodged in my ribs. Ow.
I stand up and pull the tile free, tossing it off to the side before climbing a pile of rubble. On the other side, the human lays in a pool of their own blood, desperately reaching for their knife. I almost feel sorry for the pathetic sight in front of me. Almost.
I make a noise akin to clearing my throat, obviously attracting the human’s attention. They scramble for their knife and point it at me. Obviously the impact hurt them badly. Good.
I kneel in front of the human, just out of their reach,
“You, uh, really like swinging that thing around, huh?” I put on an empathetic voice as I push the knife away, “...Listen.”
For the second time, their matted fringe looks like Tori’s kid. I can’t lose my nerve now.
“I know you didn’t answer me before, but… Somewhere in there. I can feel it. There’s a glimmer of a good person inside you.” The kid’s face seems to soften as I speak. “The memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing.” Is that a tear on their face? “Someone who, in another time, might have been… a friend?”
The kid looks like they’re about to cry. I almost want to believe the words I’m saying.
“C’mon, buddy. Do you remember me? Please, if you’re listening… Let's just forget all this, okay? Just lay down your weapon, and…” The kid makes eye contact, all I can see is Papyrus’s face on Alphys’s screen as he’s reduced to dust. “...Well, my job will be a lot easier.”
The golden glow of the last vestiges of dusk begin to fade away. The bell chimes a fourth time. The human stares into my very soul.
They finally break down into tears, throwing their knife off to the side. It clatters against shattered glass and stone.
“...You’re sparing me?” I make a genuine effort to not sound surprised, maybe the Doc’s theory was wrong.
“Finally. Buddy. Pal.” Those words sound filthy coming from my mouth, “I know how hard it must be… To make that choice. To go back on everything you’ve worked up to. I want you to know… I won’t let it go to waste.”
At this point, one last lie isn’t gonna hurt. Not that there’s anyone left to really hear it. The kid is bawling in front of me. All I can see is Pap’s head in the snow.
“...C’mere, pal.” I open my arms for a hug, they leap at me, sobbing into my hoodie, grabbing the ripped section hard enough that I hear it tear off. They babble something that almost sounds like an apology.
I stand up and summon one last attack, eight or nine bones straight through their torso. They look at me as if I had betrayed them. I smile,
“Geeettttttt dunked on!!!” I can’t help but gloat.
I hear the human cough something probably meant to be words, lost in a gurgle of blood.
“If we’re really friends…” I interrupt, looking them in the eye one final time, “You won’t come back.”
#
I stand alone in the judgment hall, the sun of the surface pouring in through the ornate glass. A light breeze comes from behind me. I can’t help but wonder how much dust it’ll pick up.
Through the doorway, the human’s silhouette takes shape from the corridor, a silvery grey trail follows them.
“Woah.” I can’t hide the amusement in my voice, “You look really pissed.”
The human’s face shows nothing but animosity. Their right hand is white from how hard they’re gripping their knife. Before I get another chance to speak, their left hand opens. They drop a small piece of blue fabric on the floor in front of me. Identical to the fabric of my hoodie.
At this moment I should be panicking, the Doc’s theory was true. I have proof we’ve been here before, sat right in front of me. Somehow all I can do is laugh. I think there’s only one way I’d have let them get that close to me.
“Did I getcha?” I think about how many times they must have been here. “Well, if you came back anyway…” I realise how insane I must sound if my hunch is wrong.
“I guess that means we never really were friends, huh?”
The human briefly looks hurt. Like I stuck a knife in their heart. My hunch was right. Shit.
“Don’t tell that to the other Sans-es, okay?”
The human attacks, I dodge. No reason to bother pretending anymore.
“Let’s just get to the point.”
The bell in New Home chimes, echoing through the hall before suddenly getting cut off. The human and I are in Snowdin, Papyrus’s scarf flutters against the wind. There are waves of bones approaching from all sides. My eye burns blue. Before the attacks land, I bring us to Waterfall, where Undyne’s half-melted armour still sits. A solid line of bones bursts from the cliff face. The human readies themself to dodge before I teleport us to Hotland. Disoriented, they lose their step and fall, tripping over the broken down remains of Mettaton. From the Core’s lava, I summon as many blasters as I can manage, charging them all to fire in rapid succession.
The human scrambles to their feet and charges me with their knife, I teleport us back to Snowdin, where the bone waves all impact, sending the human flying into the ice water. Before they can recover, we’re back in Waterfall, the second wave of bones hits. The human looks half dead by the time we find ourselves back in Hotland; Where the blasters all fire in rapid succession.
Finally, I bring us back to the Judgement hall, just as the bell chimes again.
I take a second to catch my breath, the kid isn’t going anywhere.
“Sounds strange, but before this I was secretly hoping we could be friends.” I remember the promise I made to the old lady in the ruins. Didn’t even occur to me she was almost certainly dead as well.
“I thought the anomaly was doing this ‘cause they were unhappy.” I consider explaining the anomaly. Screw it, the kid’s probably heard me explain it a hundred times by now.
“I thought that when they got what they wanted, they would stop all this.”
The kid gets to their feet, going in for another attack, I force them across the hall, smashing them through one of the glass Deltarune murals to the shallow cave outside.
“Maybe all they needed was…I dunno. Some good food, some bad laughs, some nice friends?”
I pick up the kid with my blue attack and send them crashing through the opposite window.
“But that’s ridiculous, right?”
I summon a small army of blasters from under the floor, sitting ‘crossboned’ on one. Heheh. Papyrus would have loved that.
“Yeah, you’re the type of person who won’t ever be happy.”
The blasters all fire. I feel lightheaded. The human seems more determined than ever, Not good.
“You’ll keep consuming timelines over and over, until…well.” The faces of my home flash past, Tori, Kris, the Doc. “Hey. Take it from me, kid. Someday… you gotta learn when to quit!”
My blasters fire again, the human jumps for me, I panic and push them away with a blue attack. Causing my blaster to dispel. Damnit.
“And that day’s… Today!”
The bell chimes a third time, I teleport us to Snowdin, by mine and Pap’s snowmen. A wave of bones bursts out from beneath the kid before they get their bearings. It almost seems like enough but as they recede, the human is left staring at me with the most unsettling grin I have ever seen. Well, save one.
I teleport us back to Waterfall, by the palaceview road. The kid stops for a second to scoff what looks like a slice of pie. I cast my blue attack and throw them directly at the palace, teleporting along their path to leave bones and blasters in their way. Also to gloat.
Before the kid can hit the palace, I teleport us back to the judgment hall.
If I had eyelids, they’d probably feel incredibly heavy right now and the human is somehow still getting back up. I guess Determination is one hell of a thing.
I use one last blue attack to hold the human to the floor, summoning enough bones to hold them down, creating a box that surrounds them from all angles.
“Y’see…” I say between breaths, “All this fighting is really tiring me out. And I’m not stupid, I know if I win, we’ll just be right back here again.”
I briefly wonder if I’m showing my hand… No, we're well past that I think.
The human struggles in my little bone cage, I laugh,
“You seem kinda boned, kid.”
I consider ending it then and there, maybe they’ll get the message. No, not yet.
“In case it’s not obvious yet, you’re kinda stuck. The only way these get dispelled is if I die.” The human stops. Through the bars they look a little bit like Toriel’s kid.
“That’s right, you’ll just get bored, laying here. If you’re not bored already I mean. And you'll have no choice but to reset. You’ll finally quit.”
I can hear the kid laugh.
“I know your type. You’re, uh, very determined, aren’t you? You’ll never give up, even if there’s no benefit to persevering whatsoever.” I think back to the briefing I had with Doctor G’ and Pap before this all started. The Doc would at least be proud his hypothesis was true.
“I also know you’re not doing this out of some desire for good, or evil. ‘Cause no matter what, you’ll just keep going. How many times did Undyne turn you into a fine paste? How many times have I kicked your ass? And I know I gave you at least one chance to give up and stop this.”
I suppress a yawn.
“You’re doing this because you think you can. Because you can kill all of us, because you can be friends with all of us. You think that power over our lives means you have to.”
New Home’s bell rings a fourth time, its echoes through the hall are suppressed by the damage.
“But now, you’ve reached the end. I’m not leaving this hall and that type of magic only dispels when I leave or…well… you know.” I sit down and lean against a pile of rubble.
“There’s nothing left for you now. So, uh, my personal opinion… The most Determined thing you can do here is to give up.” I yawn and place my hands behind my head. “And do literally anything else.
As my vision fades, it dawns on me that I will very likely be in this room till the end of time. Or ‘till the kid figures out I was bluffing. Whatever comes first I guess…
#
I stand alone in the cold forest of Snowdin, small flecks of snow come pouring through the dense forest A light breeze comes from behind me. I feel a sense of DeJaVu as I turn around to see the door to the ruins sat wide open.
Through the doorway, a human’s silhouette takes shape. I recall the promise I made to the old lady in the ruins and teleport behind them as they approach Papyrus’s attempt at a gate.
They’re the same height as me, just a kid.
“Human.” I attempt to sound creepy, “Don’t you know how to greet a new pal?”
Before I have a chance to finish talking, they turn around and shake my hand.
The whoopee cushion I tied to my bones goes off. Filling the quiet winter air with a comedic fart noise as the human and I stare each other directly in the eyes.
I laugh, trying to break the awkward silence,
“The old whoopee cushion-in-the-hand trick…” The kid’s hand falls away from mine, “Have you, uh, heard it before or something?”
The human’s expression is hard to read, they’re quiet.
“You turned around before I said to…weird…”
We stare at each other, I feel a sense of unease start to build. This feels oddly familiar…