'Til When Will We Part? (Reaper!Sans X Geno!Sans)

TW3P Part 2

Following any ordinary crack in spacetime would have been a problem, but as long as he could sense life mingling on the other end, Reaper could follow any path to reach it. And an odd path it was. Reaper could tell from the moment he emerged on the other side that he was in a world where the rules he was used to didn't apply. He tried to reach out to any other gods, but there weren't any. Indeed, it wasn't that he couldn't reach them, it was that there weren't any gods here. In their place, there seemed to be something called "code". This code coldly executed actions that had been determined for the world at the moment of its creation. It was dead and unfeeling, so one might think it would be more reliable than a living god.

One would be wrong. Reaper was staring directly at an error in the code that had allowed the natural order to be broken. Within this endless black space, there was a person: a skeleton who looked strikingly similar to himself. He was dressed all in white, aside from the red scarf wrapped around his neck. Blood leaked from his mouth and a nasty wound across his ribs. The right side of his face around the eye was melted terribly, though he was trying to hide it with some sort of visual distortion power stolen from the code. 

As alarming as it might sound, this person's condition was even worse than it looked. He wasn't merely dying, he was caught in a limbo just between his HP reaching zero and his soul shattering. For all intents and purposes, he was already dead, though it seemed he couldn't complete the process within this strange space. 

Reaper shook his head at the sad sight and floated down in front of the mortal, who couldn't see him just yet. "You've had it rough, huh?" he said sympathetically, knowing it wouldn't be heard. "Don't worry, I'll pick up the slack for your lousy code god. Wish it wouldn't hurt, but I ain't Papyrus."

Reaper lifted his scythe and swept it at the mortal skeleton. It passed harmlessly through his body but started to tug when it touched his soul. "Come on out you little rascal." Reaper caught a glimpse of the tiny fractured soul fragment that had somehow been sustaining this person and willed it to come to him.

But it refused.

A powerful force fought back against him, refusing to die. Reaper knew this power: the power of mortals, determination. For whatever reason, this person had a lot of it.

The mortal skeleton clutched his sternum and collapsed onto his knees, gasping heavily. "W-what on earth," he huffed, "was," and his head slowly rose, "tha...t?" and he saw death.

In one fluid movement, the mortal jumped back and called out a weapon that looked like an animal skull to defend him. "Who are you?! How did you get in here and what do you want with me?!"

Among mortals, only people who had been touched by death could see Reaper, and usually, they died in the process. When was the last time a living mortal had laid eyes on him again? Oh, right. Never. Reaper smiled, glad to have something interesting happen in his depressing and boring life. 

"I should think it would be pretty obvious, kiddo. The name's Sans, and I'm the god of death. Naturally, I'm here to help your soul move on to the next life."

"So you're here to kill me," the mortal glared. 

"I'm here because you were having trouble dying on your own. It hurts, doesn't it? I can make that stop."

"Can you really?" The mortal smirked darkly. "You tried and failed just now, didn't you? I have too much determination to die--and I don't want to die like this! If I go now, I'll just end up back in the loop, and I can't stand to be in the loop anymore. Living and dying just to live the same life over again--what's the point in that, Mr. god of death?!" The mortal glared with ferocity, his intact eye glowing red and cyan, "I die when I say so!"

Reaper raised his nonexistant eyebrows and took another look at the code that was the unfeeling god of this world, and he saw that the mortal was correct. 

"You know, I didn't take a close look at it when I first got here, but you're right. This world is pretty fucked. And not only that..." he trailed off and looked at the mortal with more caution and respect, "it's shattering as we speak. You've been doing quite a number on this place, haven't you? That explains why I could feel your pain all the way from my universe; this place is halfway destroyed already."

Amazingly, the mortal's face lit up with hope. "It is? Is it really breaking?!"

"That's what you wanted, I take it? Yeah. Looks like this place has about an hour left at most."

"Ha!" the mortal covered his half-melted face. "Ha haha! Hahahahahaha!" He collapsed to his knees, "I did it. The loop is going to end forever. Papyrus will never have to suffer again."

Reaper didn't ask about this mortal's brother having the same name as his brother. He'd understood from looking at the code that this universe was merely another version of his own. A very different version, albeit, but still with many of the same faces to be found. 

And this omnicidal mortal stuffed so full of determination that he refuses to even die is this world's version of me.

"Having regrets, kiddo?" Reaper asked him. 

The mortal lowered and shook his head. "I'm not proud of what I did, but I stand by my decision. This world wasn't capable of producing real happiness for anyone living in it."

"Right." Death looked slyly at his counterpart and then grinned, holding up a skeletal hand in an inviting gesture. "But, hey, you succeeded, so congrats!"

The mortal gave a small chuckle and gave the god of death a weak high five. A moment stretched on in silence, and the cloaked figure smiled dangerously. 

"So I was right. Even if I touch you directly, you won't die. What a nice surprise. So, your name is Sans, right? Just like me?"

"You can call me Geno. It's the name I deserve."

"Well then you can call me Reaper. So about this world..." Reaper chuckled and tried to wave off Geno's hostile glare. "Hey, relax. I'm not gonna undo all your hard work. Actually, I was going to invite you to come live in my universe instead. There's no loop there and no code, so you can live a life that means something."

The mortal lowered his head. "I... I'm not sure. I don't think I deserve it after everything I've done."

"Hey, I'm not gonna judge you for your past," Reaper shrugged. "The fact is, the only people my brother and I can safely interact with are each other and dead souls. Mortals die if we get too close and even gods will wither over time. It would mean the world to us to have someone like you around, who won't die easily. Come on, what do you say? If you don't like it there, I can just put in the effort to kill you. "

Geno still wasn't giving any answer, and Reaper was honestly a little desperate. "Please? It wouldn't hurt you to come and look, right?"

The mortal finally sighed. "Alright, fine. I'll take a look at your world."