In Revenge's Wake (Undertale Fanfic)

25.

I jolted to reality by a dull ache forming in my temples. I had a ringing in my ears, and my whole body was tingling uncomfortably as I began to come to.
     
       I opened my eyes, shutting then immediately as the light hit the back of my head, opening the dull ache to a searing pain. My eyes still closed, I moved my head from the ground slowly now. I heard movement beside me and I opened one my eyes, my face screwed up from the light, and turned. Sans was sprawled beside me, one arm outstretched as if attempting to reach me. 

           I shuffled backwards with my hands in shock, the memory of what had just happened coming back to me in an instant. Sans had... saved me? Hadn't he just tried to kill me? The dust of the ground coated both of us, and I felt bruised and bloodied. The explosion must have thrown us both against floor. 

      I crawled painfully towards the crumbled lip of the cliff, looking down as far as I dared. The valley I had just destroyed was still settling in the heat, making me unable to see the end result right at the bottom. Occasionally I could see the fingers of a roaring fire lick out of the smog, however, so I guessed that whatever had happened to the cores' cooling system probably hadn't been gratuitous to my situation. 

         Sans' groaned from behind me, and I snapped back to the skeleton lying meters away from me. I tried to push myself up onto my knees, noticing my hands for the first time. They were scratched and bloody, and suddenly became all the more painful now I had noticed them. My stomach was already beginning to show angry purple bruises and welts too, and even my arms and legs looked awful. I cringed at all of my injuries. The hoodie I had used as a mask was nowhere to be seen- ripped away, I presumed, by my fall into the core. I looked like I'd just crawled from hell and back. Which, judging from my previous experiences, didn't seem entirely inaccurate. 

       Stiffly, I got to my feet, my body aching in protest. I wanted to go over and help Sans; really, I did. He had just saved me after all. But then the anger washed over me. He had tried to kill me- and killed my best friend. Just because he had come to my aid now didn't mean that all would be okay- didn't mean I could just trust him again. God knows what had happened back there. I didn't want to risk that happening again. I would be better off doing this alone. 

      I limped away slowly, biting down on my bottom lip so as not to cry out at the pain shooting all over my body. Breathing through it, I only took about 5 steps to reach a rhythm that my body began to ease into. Walking further along the path, I set my sights on the journey ahead of me, trying not to feel like I was making a mistake leaving Sans on the ground. 

         The ground itself gave a tremor for a second or two, but I barely felt it as I continued to be unable to focus on anything but the pain. 

       Don't look back. Don't look back. 

       "Hey!" 

       The yell made me jump in surprise, my trance broken. Footsteps got louder in my ears as Sans seemed to be picking up his pace to catch up with me. I tried to speed up myself to shake him off, but my body didn't seem to care about my haste; bruises slowing me down. 

        "Frisk," He said, a few meters behind me now. 

      "Leave me alone," I choked out, trying not to show how vulnerable and weak my injuries made me. "I don't even know why you're here." 

        He made no attempt to come any closer to me, falling in step far enough behind me to give me space. 

       "Frisk, I'm sorry what happened back in Snowdin. I don't know what happened, what caused me to turn into that..." His half-hearted apology trailed off as I let out a scratch high laugh. "What?" He asked.