The Thrill of the Chase
The sound of running footsteps echoed through the streets: the pitter-patter of a child's feet followed by the clanking metal feet of a KEI-9 Unit, and rhythmic slapping of an adult's bare feet against cobblestone. Glen winced, wishing she'd worn socks; with the padding of the tek-boots, she rarely bothered.
Still, she ran as fast as she could manage after Jake and Frisk ... or whatever the little girl had become. In truth, Frisk was her secondary concern at the moment; if Jake were lost or injured, Finn Cresste would undoubtedly be upset. The poor fellow was likely still reeling from the loss of his 'brother' after all, and Glen had the feeling that her promise to try and bring him back was one of the few things that kept the biggest thorn in the Illusive Man's immaterial side from losing it completely.
As the chase continued through the streets and alleys of the city, however, something started nagging at Glen. She pushed it out of her mind at first, but eventually it hit her; the city was deserted. There were great buildings carved from stone, easily capable of holding hundreds, maybe even thousands of monsters, yet no one came out running at Glen's shouts or Jake's barks. No one poked their head out of a window to watch the chase. The realization very nearly made her stop running; the city of New Home was apparently completely deserted.
She kept one eye on Jake as she tried to be more aware of her surroundings. Alphys's warning rang in her head; "The human's headed right for you!" She sounded terrified. The idea seemed unthinkable at the time, but after Glen's recent encounter with Frisk, she couldn't help but wonder: was Alphys talking about Frisk? Sans said she'd killed Papyrus among others ... just how many others?
Glen was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't notice Jake come to a halt in the middle of a crossroad. She ran right into him, falling on his back.
"Whoa!" Glen said, her hands quickly clamping around the KEI-9's mid-section. Peering over Jake's side, she asked, "What's wrong, boy?"
Jake whined, his monitor turning to each of the roads in turn. Glen looked as well; there was no sign of Frisk. She reached for her Impulse visor; it could detect local disturbances in the lifestream. Normally it'd be useless in a city, with every passersby giving off a different trail, but with New Home essentially abandoned, there was only Frisk to detect.
"A shame I left it with my other gear." Glen sighed and rested her head on top of Jake's monitor. "Great. Perfect. Now what?"
Jake let out a whimper. Glen rubbed the top of his monitor. "Sorry, boy; I wasn't blaming you. Something about this Frisk is definitely off. I ain't saying my powers are all that reliable, but did you see how she managed to deflect them? That's never happened before."
"Aroo?"
"No, never." Glen glanced at her rune. It was still faintly glowing. Hopping off Jake, she tried moving to every passage to see if maybe the reality distorting effect Frisk displayed would trigger the rune. It did not; if there was a change, Glen didn't notice it.
She did see something else, though; a flash of yellow out of the edge of her vision. Whatever it was vanished the moment she turned to look at it directly. The only thing that stopped her from writing it off as her imagination was the broken earth that lay where she'd seen the yellow. She examined it, but found nothing but dirt.
"This place just gets weirder and weirder." Glen glanced at Jake. "A shame you're not a real dog; you could just sniff her out."
Jake's monitor tilted for a moment before the dog robot let out a happy bark. The cartoon dog face vanished from his monitor, only to be replaced with an up-close image of a dog's nose.
"Jake ... just stop." Glen said, rubbing her forehead. "I appreciate the effort, but KEI-9 units don't have olfactory-"
Jake stood up straight and let out an excited bark before running down one of the roads.
Glen paused only a moment before following, if for no other reason than she had no better choice.
Once again they raced through the empty streets, Jake pausing every now and then presumably to catch Frisk's scent. They eventually reached the main road again, continuing on away from the now-distant Castle Dreemurr. Their path eventually led them to a single elevator.
Jake gave the elevator a sniff before letting out a bark and hopping inside. Glen followed moments later.
It was about that time she realized something else; Sans wasn't behind her. Glen tried to remember the last time she saw him, and realized it was back in Castle Dreemurr's chapel; she'd never actually seen him running behind her. For that matter, she didn't think she'd ever seen Sans run at all, hers or the one she just met.
"Sans!" She called out, looking around the nearby area. "Sans, where are you?"
Her voice echoed through the empty streets, filling Glen with an eerie feeling. Sighing, she stepped back inside the elevator. There were only two buttons; one pointed up and the other pointed down. Shrugging, Glen hit the down button. As worried as she was for Sans, she couldn't risk Frisk's trail going cold. With a sigh, she pressed the down button.
Frisk stared at the elevator doors as they slid shut, a satisfied smile on her face. She took a few steps back, her eyes still on the lift right up to the moment she bumped into Sans.
"Hey kid." Sans said, grabbing Frisk's hand. "You look pretty pleased with yourself. Having a dog-gone good time?"
Frisk managed to tear her hand free and quickly backed away from Sans. He stood perfectly still, hands in his pockets. Part of him felt as though he should be getting some pleasure from the look of horror on the child's face, but there was nothing. If anything, he felt tired ... more tired than he'd felt in a long time.
"What's wrong?" He asked. "You seem surprised. You knew we weren't done yet."
Frisk turned only to find Sans already there. With a flick of his hand, he lifted her in the air and pinned her against the wall. Sans slowly approached her as she struggled against his telekinesis.
"Gee, you look scared." Sans said. "Can't imagine why. How many times we been here, kiddo? How many times we killed each other, only to end up right back at the same place again and again and again?"
"Y-you ... you knew?"
"Not at first, maybe. I mean, yeah, a feeling of deja-vu here and there, but that's just life, ain't it? After awhile, though, it was more than just a feelin'. You know for awhile there, I wondered if I was one of those clairvoyants? Thought I was seeing the future. Didn't want to believe it, but it's hard when you start quoting entire conversations before you have them. Eventually, I started remembering everything. I even counted for awhile; stopped that pretty quick. Nothin' will demoralize ya more than knowing just how many times you've walked the same road."
Sans sighed and rubbed his glabella. "You know what the worst part was? Remembering that it wasn't always this way. Knowing that you weren't always a heartless killer. Y'see, when that lady said Toriel, part of me had no clue what she was talkin' about ... but part of me knew she was my friend from behind that door in the ruins."
Frisk didn't reply; she just watched as Sans paced back and forward in front of her.
"She's dead too, isn't she?" Sans said. "You don't have to answer; I'm pretty sure we both know the answer. Anyone with as much LOVE as you wouldn't have it in them to spare anyone. Still, that brings us back to the question of the day."
Three bones materialized in mid-air. They hovered around Sans's outstretched hand for a few moments before one shot toward Frisk, embedding itself in the wall just beside her head.
"Why haven't you reset things?" Sans asked in the same tone of voice he used to ask Grillby for a bottle of ketchup. "Clearly things haven't gone your way. So why keep this run going?"
When Frisk didn't respond, the second bone shot toward her, this one even closer to Frisk's head. Frisk flinched as bits of plaster fell on her cheek.
"Why are you afraid?" Sans persisted. "I've killed you more times than I can count, and you just come right back. What makes this time different?"
Frisk still didn't respond. Sans raised his hand as though to fire the last bone before slowly lowering his hand.
"And why don't I know about her?" Sans approached Frisk and stared her right in the eyes. "This Glenda lady. She's tellin' the truth when she says she knows both of us, yet I don't remember her at all. It's kinda refreshing, to tell ya the truth, but that just makes it more confusing; why not reset and deal with her the way you deal with me?"
When Frisk again didn't respond Sans sighed and walked away. "Goodbye, kid."
He raised his hand to send the final bone flying right through her chest, only to pause when she cried out, "B-because I can't! I can't restore my save and I can't reset the timeline!"
Sans nodded, a feeling of satisfaction spreading through his bones. "You die now and you're food for the buttercups."
Frisk slowly nodded, her eyes on the final bone.
"Why?" Sans asked. "What's changed?"
"I d-don't know. Please believe me, I have no idea!"
Sans stared at her for a long moment before slowly nodding. "Okay, kid; I believe ya."
He raised his hand again.
"I said I don't know!" Frisk screamed.
"And I said I believe you." Sans said. "And you're still a murderer. Once you're dead, I'll take your soul to Asgore myself; it won't save the others, but at least I'll be able to go to sleep without having to worry about going through it all again."
"I can save Papyrus!"
Sans's hand paused again. "How? You can't reset the timeline."
"That woman and her dog are the only new elements; they must be doing something to screw with my ability to reset. If we get rid of them, then I can reset again."
"Uh-huh." Sans said, crossing his arms. "And we go back to the way things were, huh?"
"N-no. I promise; no killings this time. I'll spare everyone; I'll even help you get back to the surface before going my own way."
Sans stared at her. He considered the possibility; being able to see Papyrus and all his friends in Snowdin again. It was tempting ... so tempting.
Slowly, Sans lowered his hand, lowering Frisk to the ground.
"Thank you." Frisk said, "You won't regret-"
The bone caught her right in the chest, pinning her to the wall. She stared down at it in disbelief as blood poured from the wound. She looked up at Sans, the look of shock remaining even as the rest of her went limp.
"Get dunked on." Sans said quietly, looking down at the dead child until he heard the soft chime of the lift. Glancing back, he saw the doors open; Glen must've pushed both buttons to be sure. For some reason, that made Sans chuckle.
Shaking his head, he turned back to Frisk and froze; the kid was gone. All that remained was the blood-stained bone embedded in the wall.
He looked around for some sign of where she'd gone; with that kind of injury, she had to be bleeding. To his amazement, however, there was nothing, not a single drop of blood on anything except the bone. That struck him as strange; there wasn't even any blood on the ground beneath the bone.
Sans knelt beside the bone and stared at it; he'd thought it blood at first, but he realized that it was in fact some kind of strange black ichor. He started to touch it when he remembered Glenda saying that it burned. Glancing around to make sure he was still alone, Sans dug through his pockets before pulling out a sock.
"Glad I finally listened to you, Pap." He said as he wrapped the sock around the bone and yanked it out of the wall. "I just hope Alphys can figure out something from this."
With a final glance around the streets, he hurried toward the lift.765Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbOJEDmoibd
