A drop here, a drop there (a one-shots/snippet book)

Undertale Time Loops Part 3

Writing this was like pulling teeth. It's like I had a mental limit as to how many chapters of a story I can write before I can't continue anymore. And my limit is two. [looks, resigned, at my Chaos' Champion rewrite and other stories I had started by not published]

So yeah, I didn't get to finish this one.

Loop 7

A familiar ceiling greeted him when his eyes opened. Sans slowly got up and warily looked around, but a sigh of relief escaped him when his room was the same as his room in Snowdin. The light from the window was dim in the waking day, but it was enough for him to see the tornado of trash and the noticeable lack of computer.

He collapsed back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He can hardly believe what he went through the last year or two, it was almost like a dream. A really long, and realistic dream. He stretched out a hand, willing it to disappear into his pocket space and took out his case. Opening it revealed eight shiny badges from pokemon gyms.

Yep, not a dream.

Pikachu said that loopers get to keep whatever strength and powers they get in a loop, so they naturally get more powerful as loops pass. While being a magic-less pokemon trainer didn't gain him any new abilities, the pokemon said that he'll one day end up in loops where he will, and he'll have even more chances to mess with people and have fun. Sans was particularly uneasy of the last fact. Playing with people's lives through the time loops...

It was too much like Frisk.

No matter what Pikachu said about their situations being different, that Frisk had a choice of stopping while Sans didn't, he won't change his mind.

"That is a fast way of losing your mind, you know." The pokemon warned.

"I'm sure I can deal."

"You wanna bet?"

"You're on, little mouse," The skeleton muttered. "You're on."

He heared footsteps outside his door, and as expected, a fist pounded into the wooden surface as his brother's muffled voice broke through the silence of the morning. Sans waited a few seconds, then called out in his best attempt at sounding sleepy, which was quite good mind you.

He'll be sticking to baseline for as long as he is able.

———————

"Please, promise me." The muffled voice pleaded from behind the door.

Sans sighed, he never liked giving promises, but he had a few loops to get used to it. "I... I promise."

"Thank you, my friend." Sans can hear her starting to calm down from crying, and Sans scratched his head. Usually, he would leave now after this exchange, due to the uncertain feeling he had about the promise. Especially the first time, since there was the possibility of the human being the anomaly that kept ending timelines, and Sans didn't really feel like letting the human do it to his.

But with the loops, Sans is certain that Frisk is stuck in a Pacifist run–at least, until the loops started diverging and genocide can happen.

But unlike the usual, this time he felt like staying. He can't believe he's saying this, but he actually missed the Underground after the years he spent in that fused pokemon loop. While it was a nice change to be on the Surface of some type, Sans had never been away from Paps and home for that long, and more than once he cursed the loss of his ability to teleport. Might as well take the chance to talk with Toriel more, instead of waiting to meet her (again) at the end of the human's journey.

When the sniffles lessened enough, the skeleton knocked.

Toriel's voice was hesitant and wobbly. "...Who's there?"

"Teary."

"Teary, who?" He can practically hear her start to smile.

"Nevermind. I don't think you'd want to hear my teary-ble joke."

"Pfftt-hahahaha!"

————————

Sans sighed as he leaned against the cave wall. He can hear the muffled conversation the others were having outside, and in the opposite direction, the doorway leading to the Underground was bathed in silence. They reached the Surface yet again.

Teleporting in 3... and he was at the bottom of the mountain. He can see Papyrus swiftly approaching in the distance, but Sans knew the loop will end before his brother can reach him.
Looping in 3... 2.... 1.

Loop 10

Sans watched the human from the back of the crowd. Frisk was waving their hands happily as Shyren sang to the cheering of the monsters. As opposed to the lively scene, the skeleton monster is tired. Tired and defeated and...bored.

But he grinned and handed a ticket-tissue to an eager monster.

He will grin and bear this. He will not be playing with lives.

Loop 15

It took the 15th loop until something changed in Frisk.

Sans stared down at the red scarf left in the snow. He felt numb. As the scarf disappeared into dust, he closed his eyes.

And he hated himself. He felt ashamed.

He cursed himself, because even though the pacifist run guaranteed a happy ending, even though it meant his brother was alive and everyone was alive-

He was relieved of the break from monotony.

And he hated himself.

Loop 16

After looking into the cheerful eyes of his brother, Sans broke down once he was alone in his room.

How could he ever feel relief when his brother died?