BEN Drowned | Hopes And Dreams

T H E N - The Beginning

Our entire surrounding changed within an instant. The moment I put the metaphorical period at my sentence was the moment everything clicked into something else.

We weren't at Grillby's anymore. Honestly, we weren't anywhere near Snowdin. It was just us two, Sans and I.

The place was darker than the usual place we were in; it was darker than the Ruins, even. But there were a soft chalk-color of blue a few feet in front of us that somehow illuminated the place a tad bit more. There were twinkling things up at the ceiling of the Underground, and I realized they were droplets of water from above, illuminated by the soft blue the flower was giving, when they hit my forehead.

"What.. is that?" I questioned, my eyes glued to the flower in front of us. A soft voice, similar to mine, rang out afterwards.

What.. is that?

"It's an Echo Flower, it repeats everything you say."

It's an Echo Flower.. repeats everything you say.

True enough, it did. Even though we were a couple of feet away from it, it heard us.

"What exactly are we doing here?" I started to question, curious now at the sudden quietness of the short skeleton.

"..follow me." He went and walked ahead of me, and I did as he told me; follow him. The entire walk was silent except for the Echo Flowers talking to one another.

This place had never fail to be so beautiful.

Not as beautiful as you..

I wish I could tell Undyne how I feel..

Yo, Undyne is so cool!

I WANT TO BE POPULAR!!

....oh.....im lost....again...oh....

..................quiche.....

I wonder where the Royal family had gone. No one resides at the Palace anymore ever since...

"we're here." Sans suddenly spoke, and before us is an old wooden bench; beside it was a single, glowing Echo Flower. The sound of the water splashing at one another echoed through it.

Sans took a seat at the bench, and patted the one beside him. I obliged and sat next to him, waiting for him to answer the question posed a while ago.

"i need to know.. if youre one of them." He structured the word THEM as something so menacingly and I gave him a confused look.

"Them is who, exactly?"

Sans continue to remain silent, his dark sockets for eyes stared blankly at the river opposite us. Never have I seen such cloudiness in his eyes.

"we both know what we're talking about." He said that in a way that makes me feel a stranger. Like we didn't know each other.

"I honestly don't get you."

"are you one of them?" He growled once more, a blue aura ignited from his left eye, sending shivers down my spine as I stared.

"One of who?" I forced myself to question.

"the humans."

All the tension I had been feeling due to his intimidation immediately vanished as I let out a loud laugh.

"Do I really look like a human?" I asked while gesturing to my entire appearance, but it didn't soothe the hardened glare on Sans' face.

I sighed as I composed myself, closed my eyes for a second, and felt every inch in my code, to glitch. Upon opening my eyes, I could tell that I finally convinced him. The way he looked at me was like a mixture of both in awe and confusion.

"you.. how? youre really not.."

"I've been dead for hundreds of years, Sans.. How can that make anyone human?" I shrugged, picking up a stone under my feet and skipping it to the waters opposite us.

"i.. thats still not convincing. how do i know you dont know the thing?"  He was so vague that I was getting extremely tired of asking what the heck he meant, so I only raise an eyebrow.

He got it as he proceeds to tell me, "you really have no idea what im talking about, huh?"

I threw my hands up in the air as a way to tell him, Yeah, no shit.

There was a long pause between the two of us as we stare at each other. He took a deep breath before murmuring, "so you dont know anything about the reset."

For some reason, I felt a chill down my spine. "Reset?"

He flinched suddenly at my attempt to pronounce the word, the blue aura on his left eye appeared once more as he shot me daggers. "Whoa, chill! I was just trying the word. What do you mean by.." I paused, thinking of a way to phrase it, "it."

He seemed to loosen up a bit as he rested his back on the bench, "i.. it's exactly as the word indicates, but it only applies to this world."

"You mean.. this world.. your world..? Someone can reset this world?"

"not just someone," he told me gloomily, one eye glancing to look at mine as he said, "a human."

Another chill.

"Is that why you're so wary of me?"

Sans sighed at this before slouching on his own; elbows on his knees, hands clasped together as he rested his chin atop them. "its not my fault.. its just.. i dont want another reset, ben. everything seems peaceful—feels peaceful already.. i just.. i dont want to go through the past again."

Again..

"How many times..?" I heard myself ask as I stared blankly at the waters.

"..too many to count." Was all that he murmured. "too fucking many.."

For some reason, I could feel a weight on my shoulder. A weight I could only assume Sans had been holding onto ever since the beginning. "Sans, I—"

"you dont have to pity me.." That made me purse my lips as I gazed at him sympathetically.

"But you.. are you the only one who knows about.." I trailed off, frightened for his reaction if I said the word.

"the resets?"

I nodded.

"of course.. i could never tell anyone. it would make them go insane."

"But why.. why are you the only one aware of this?"

Sans looked me in the eyes then, and I could feel the burden he had transferred to every inch of my code. His eyes gazed into mine lazily.

"fucked up, huh?"