Who Says You're the One in Control?

Can't Wake Up

Asgore was sitting on the bed across the room. Had there been another reset? What had happened?

"That was kinda interesting, huh?"

Chara had happened. Sans recalled what happened with horror. His magic had unleashed in a crowd. Somehow, it was Chara's fault. It had to be.

"What happened?" Sans jumped a little. He had completely forgotten Asgore was there.

"I don't know." Sans conceded. He was done thinking. Done trying. He just wanted to sleep for however long the rest of his life was.

Asgore just sighed. Sans knew the king was stressed, and he wasn't helping. There hadn't been another reset, so that meant he really had released his magic in the lobby.

"Did I kill anyone?" He hated to think that he might have hurt a monster.

"No. Several are injured, but they'll make it alright." Sans nodded. He had no more words. The weight of his sins bore down on his shoulders. "I don't know what to do with you." The king scoffed. "I mean, if you can't control the souls, no one's safe around you."

Sans sank lower in the bed. His shoulders dropped entirely, and his head was almost as low.

"You know, you could always just restart."

"no!" Sans spat before he realized it. Asgore was looking at him funny, now. Great. "sorry. i think i need a minute."

Asgore stared at him in concern for a minute longer, but thankfully, he left.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Sans was pacing the floor. "what the hell did you do?" He questioned the air.

"I think the question is, what did you do?" Chara taunted. "I'm just a voice in your head."

"you know full well i had no control!" Sans felt like an idiot for talking to himself.

"Yeah." They laughed. "That was pretty pathetic."

Sans wimpered as he pressed his palms into his eyesockets. He wanted to strangle Chara, and the fact that he couldn't touch them was driving him insane.

"You should be thankful, you know. If it weren't for me holding the souls power, you would probably have been torn apart by now."

"What are you talking about." Sans was positive he would never be thankful for Chara. Not in a million years.

"I let you take down the barrier, too. I could've just held on to your powers forever and never let you use them." They gave a proudful sigh. "You really should be nicer to the person who's saving your life."

"like hell i'm gonna!" He didn't have anyone to look in the eye when he yelled, so was terribly awkward. He ended up looking at the ceiling as if she were a god or something. "you killed my brother and ruined my life!"

"Please, Sans. Papyrus was an idiot, and you know it."

"don't you fucking say that. i swear, if you even..."

"You'll what? Kill yourself? Hey, be my guest. I think a reset would be good right now." Sans slid down with his back against the wall. "I mean, it could really go either way. You could finish out this run if you want, too, I mean you have all the time in the world."

Sans slammed his head back into the wall. It hurt, but with any luck, Chara could feel it too. Again. He kept it up until he felt as if his skull were going to crack open.

"You know I can't feel pain, right?"

"worth a shot." He muttered in response, his head in his hands. The ringing in his ears was helping to drown Chara out a little, but Sans was sure he would never have a quiet moment again.

"In fact, I haven't felt pain since the first time I died." Chara was continuing with their previous thought as if speaking in retrospect. "Frisk on the other hand, oh man." They laughed. "They screamed, they begged, they cried.... All without you even noticing. Every time I died, they suffered."

Sans drew his knees up to his chest and sobbed. There was nothing to say, nothing he could do. He was trapped in Chara's hell, and he couldn't do anything. Now, knowing he had never been able to do anything to Chara, knowing he had hurt only Frisk all those times, it was all too much.

~

There was definitely something wrong with Sans. Asgore felt bad for eavesdropping, but he couldn't seem to move from his spot pressed against the door.

Who was Sans arguing with? Several of the witnesses had said Sans was muttering before he was attacked, but Asgore hadn't wanted to believe Sans was crazy. 

He left the door, and headed into the living room. He took two steps in before Changing his mind and heading out the front door. He needed to know what was going on.

Alphys' lab was almost always open. He rarely dropped by, he wasn't a big science fan. When he walked in he found it empty and the light off. She must be out.

He called her. "H-hello?" She answered on the fourth ring as usual.

"Hi, Alphys. I came by your lab, but you're not here. I have to discuss something with you, so maybe you can come over for some tea or something?"

While he talked he heard some clamor over the phone. "Uh... n-no I'm here, I'll uh.. I'll be r-right out." She stuttered a lot. He wondered if maybe it's gotten worse this past week?

Alphys walked out and turned on the light a few minutes later. "What can I d-do for you, uh... s-sir?"

"It's about Sans." Asgore watched as Alphys relaxed as if glad it wasn't about something else. She also seemed to shrink sadly.

"I heard about his accident at the resort." She was staring pretty hard at the ground.

"I think it's worse than that." That made her look at him. His own concern mirrored in her face. "He..." Asgore had to think of how best to put this. "talks to himself. Arguing with no one, and he just randomly says things. His attention is all over the place. He randomly jumps between emotions. In seconds, it seems. It's a mess."

As he explained her face darkened more and more. Asgore waited for her to answer, knowing it might take a while. She was very good at awkwardly long pauses.

"I don't know if this is about Papyrus anymore." She finally decided. "Could this have something to do with killing the human? What happened then?"

Asgore shrugged. He hadn't been in the corridor when Chara had died. He clearly remembered walking in to see Sans sitting against a pillar, staring at the soul in his hands, with the mangled body of Chara in the background. It had killed him inside to see a human who looked so much like his own adoptive child in such a state.

Sans had been surprised when the king had touched him, too. He was so lost in thought, he hadn't heard anything. Maybe Asgore should have talked to him back then? Honestly, he felt sure Sans needed some time to mourn his brother's death. Maybe that had been a bad call.

Asgore didn't know anymore. This had been what Toriel was good at. She would have fixed this by now, and made everyone happy. 

He missed her. Not just because she was good at the political side of running a kingdom, but because she had always been able to get Asgore to relax. He needed to relax for a while.

"I think we should talk to him." Alphys must like staring at the floor. "Maybe... Maybe he's just lonely?"

That seemed like a stretch. Sans never was one to talk about himself like that. He would usually shrug everything off with a joke. Asgore became solemnly aware that Sans hadn't made a single joke since Papyrus died.

"I'll talk to him when I get home."