1 - Reset



I ran through the trees. I loved the air rushing past me; it was too bad there wasn't much wind in the underground. The kid had probably already fallen, which meant I had to get to the ruins as fast as I could. I finally reached the door - just in time, too; the kid was opening it. A determined look was written on their face, how cute. They scanned the path for traps - traps they had died from a thousand times before. I had ensured that there was no way out, for somebody normal, at least; however, the kid was anything but normal, and they somehow avoided getting killed. I had more than that, though. I always did. I walked out onto the path, staring down the kid.


"Heya, Murder!" They said, with a stoic grin. "We're sure gonna have another mad time, eh?"


"You don't know the half of it, kid." I replied.


"I think last time was really unfair. Flamethrowers are really overpowered."


"You killing my brother was unfair, too. You didn't seem to care."


"Hee hee! I guess you're right! But..do you ever get bored of all this?"


The kid then took a step forward. The kid also stepped on something called a trap. Their soul shattered again. Now I just had to wait until next time. Wait, did they say they were bored? Eh, it was probably nothing. World was gonna reset soon, I supposed. What to do, what to do.


"Hey Papyrus, what do you want to do?" I asked my brother. He was a ghost, since I killed him. I loved him so much!


"Brother, you should most certainly take a walk to Waterfall. You're stressed." He replied.


"You're the best, bro."


"I am the Great Papyrus!"


I chuckled and started towards waterfall. The forest was dark, and dust filled the air. To anybody else, it might have been sickening, but...I wasn't somebody else. I was bothered by it at first, granted, but after a while, it just became a permanent part of the underground. I got used to the dust of my victims a long time ago. Did that make me crazy? Perhaps. 


When I reached Snowdin, I didn't stop. The buildings looked the same as usual, the lights were still on, my front door was always open, and the tree was intact; the only difference was the cloud of dust looming over it all. This was Snowdin; well, it was my Snowdin, anyway. I'd seen it like this too much to remember what it was like before, and I stopped counting the resets after it became clear they would never stop. Even when I died, I got brought back. Once, I thought being practically immortal would have been fun; how wrong I was. I was smarter now, and I knew that immortality wasn't what they said it was in fairy tales.


After a fair amount of walking, I found myself surrounded in echo flowers. They were covered in dust as well. The echoes produced were..less than comforting. They were mostly yelling, asking not to be killed, it wasn't like I hadn't heard it all before - a couple thousand times or so.


"Isn't this nice, brother?" Papyrus asked.


"Sure, bro." I returned. I wasn't going to upset my brother, now was I?


"I knew it was a good idea!"


"You have the best ideas, bro."


"Yes I do!"


"Tibia honest, I bet you have quite a femur floating around."


"Murder! Stop telling those awful puns!"


"Okay, bro. We should get home now. I have to log today's events."


"Good thinking, brother! I must be rubbing off on you! Now if we could only do something about those dreadful puns you make."


"Maybe someday."


I then began the trek back to my house. We called it my house because Papyrus claimed somebody else's house, leaving me with our old one. He still wouldn't tell me whose house it was, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was Undyne's. I walked in the front door, which was still open, and shut it behind me. I didn't know why I only kept it shut when I was home, but perhaps my subconscious had some reason behind it. I skipped up the steps to Papyrus's old room, which I had turned into a study. I kept all my entries throughout the resets, the locations of important things, such as food and weapon stashes, and a few other necessities in that room.


I opened the door to the study and walked over to a small bookcase. I ran my fingers over the edges until I came to the book I was currently using; it was a story book I had found in the ruins. The old lady really was nice. The kid should have stayed with her instead of killing everybody; it would have made everyone's life a whole heck of a lot better. The only track of time I seemed to have was through the books in the underground. They were the only things that stuck with me through the resets, which was a blessing and a curse. It was good for keeping logs, but it was also a sickening reminder of just how many resets had passed. Speaking of resets, I could feel the world starting to prepare for the time loop. I had about a month before the kid fell down to set everything up before getting rid of them again. It should have only been a few more hours until I woke up in my bed and began dusting. I started my entry.


'Average reset, kid walked into trap.'


I didn't make the entries long, since I only had room to write between the lines. I also didn't feel like much was worth noting if it was all going to be reset again. I supposed that now I'd just walk to Grillby's and guzzle some ketchup while I waited for the inevitable. I hopped down the stairs, opened the door, and waltzed over to the restaurant; the inside was filled with dust. I took my usual seat at the bar and grabed some ketchup. 


There was something special about dust that you only noticed if you'd been around it for long enough; everybody's dust was different. I scraped some off the counter and held it in my hand. The chunks were large, but they had a certain softness to them. This was Greater Dog. If you stared at dust for long enough, it was like the person's life flashed before your eyes, and you could see every aspect of what they went through, special events, and even what they were feeling when they were dusting. Some were peaceful, accepting their fate, while others were scared stiff. I guess being surrounded by death made you notice some things - or maybe I was just crazy. One thing was for sure, though: there was something special about dust.


Sometimes I wondered if there were any survivors when I cleaned out the underground. I always managed to stop Alphys from evacuating anybody, but I wasn't infallible. I droped a piece of gold on the counter and took my drink with me. If anything good had come from this, I'd managed to pay my tab.


"Brother, that drink is unhealthy for you!" Papyrus scolded.


"Paps, when the reset comes, it'll be like I never even drank it. Heck, it'll be back behind the bar." I replied.


"That is no reason to do it anyway!"


"Paps, try as hard as you want, this is one thing I'll never stop doing."


"You can be quite stubborn at times, Murder!"


"I know. I love you, bro."


"I love you too, brother."


"I'm going to bed then. See you next reset, Papyrus."


"See you then, brother!"


After that, I entered my house once again and ran up to my room. I laid myself on the ground and drifted off to sleep; if there was something I'd never forget how to do easily, it was sleep. As I slept, I felt the world getting younger: a feeling I had developed before I started my new job. Even when they tried to fake a reset, they could never fake this feeling; and once you felt it, you always felt it.


When I woke up, I was in my bed, meaning the reset had been successful. I didn't know why it would ever be unsuccessful, but I guess maybe it was possible, and I could have gotte  stuck in the middle of time. That was only a theory I had, though. I wasn't lucky enough for it to actually happen.


"BROTHER! IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO GET UP!" Papyrus screeched. This was the other Papyrus: the one with a body. The ghost only came after I killed him, which made sense, since he was a ghost. I didn't kill him first, though; I would never do that.


"Yeah, yeah." I returned.


"Brother, is something bothering you?" He asked, entering my room.


"Nah. I was actually happy to get up so early. Thanks, bro."


"Oh! Well in that case, you're welcome!"


"Hey, bro?"


"Yes, Sans?"


"Could you do me a favor?"


"Sure, whatever you need, brother!"


"Could you run over to Hotland and deliver this letter to Alphys for me?" I held up a letter I had written.


"Sure, brother! But why do you not do it yourself?"


"I thought you would like the exercise, plus aren't you going to see the king to get us approved for those raises?"


"Oh, yes! In that case, I shall be off sooner rather than later! I shall see you, brother!"


"See ya, Papyrus."


I handed him the letter and watched as he went towards Waterfall. He was such a good brother, ghost and skeleton. Now I started my to-do list. I headed towards the Ruins, where I always started. The air wasn't filled with dust, and it smelled artificial. I was greeted by some monsters, who had greeted me a thousand times before, in the same way, with the same words, and they met the same end they always did. By the time I started dusting, Alphys would have read the letter and been sat on her couch, watching her anime, and ignoring her cameras. The letter specifically stated that today began the first "Anime Week," which meant that anime freaks like herself should have been binge watching anime. There were no witnesses, and there was less trouble. When I reached the door to the ruins, the air was already slightly tainted with dust, but it wasn't noticeable. I knocked, like I always did, and the old lady was there.


"Knock knock." I prepared myself.


"Who's there?" She asked.


"Care."


"Care who?"


"Care if I come in?"


"Oh! Well, I don't know.."


"It's fine, I was just wondering."


"I guess if you really want to.."


"Huh?"


"I shall open the door. Maybe it is time for a proper introduction."


"Okay."


I took a step back, waiting for the door to open. It did, as always, and I saw the old lady for the 'first' time.


"Hello." She greeted.


"Hi." I returned, avoiding eye contact.


"Are you okay?"


"No."


"Whatever could be wrong?"


"I can't tell you."


"I understand. Some things are just like that."


"I'm sorry."


"For..what?"


"Just trust me."


"I trust you, but what are you sorry for?"


I lifted my hand, and in her place was a new pile of dust. I couldn't stand to see her face or hear her when she went, but I instead made it rather painless. With the hard part over, I entered the Ruins, pulling up my hood. I took the objects that could be used against me out of her house, leaving it much the same, but with a few less decorations. As for the food, I burned it. I didn't need it, and the kid certainly didn't either. When everything was child-proofed, I exited the house and made my way through the passageways; I knew them like I knew my brother's dust. I dusted everything along the way, caught the stragglers, and came to the flowerbed. No matter how hard I had tried, that patch stayed there. I guessed that it was some kind of magical seal. With that over, I left the Ruins and started dusting the forest. 


It didn't take long to finish dusting the forest and Snowdin, since I knew everybody's attacks and how to avoid them. I tried to go as fast as I could in order to finish quicker; I didn't necessarily enjoy dusting everybody I'd known since who knows when. After Snowdin, the job got harder. All the way through Waterfall was pretty easy until I reached Undyne. It wasn't as if I couldn't fight her, or she could kill me; it was how she thought she could help me. If I could be helped, why would I be dusting the entire underground to defeat a threat they didn't even know was coming? Here was the part where she came in, blocking my path in an instant; as if she could surprise me.


"Sans, stop this! This is madness! What would Papyrus think if he saw you?" She questioned.


"For your information, he would say 'Brother, I don't know what's happened, but I know we can get over it together!' But I don't think you really wanted to know." I replied. He had done that a couple hundred times before I thought of the letter.


"Sans, why are you killing everybody? Heck, how are you killing everybody?"


"You wouldn't understand. You're next, by the way."


"You really think you can beat me? Sans, if you would just stop this senseless killing, we can help you! Whatever is happening, we can fix it!"


"No you can't. Not even I can fix it. I doubt even the kid can fix it."


"What kid?"


"Prepare for battle, Undyne."


"Sans, don't do this!"


I shot some bones, none of them missing. Undyne threw some spears, which I avoided. Apparently, she only gained her special form when she fought the kid, which I wasn't complaining about. I believed it was something about siphoning determination. Undyne soon dusted, and I continued on my way. Hotland was easy, Alphys even easier. By this time, Papyrus should have gone past me, using a different road. He was confused, but he thought somebody just forgot to clean up. Since Alphys was busy with her anime, there was no evacuation, and I made it all the way to the golden hall. In the past, when I came here, I felt dread, knowing I would dust. Now? Now, I felt nothing; I walked down the hall and saw Asgore. 


"Sans, why have you done this?" He inquired. 


"I had no choice." I stated.


"Of course you had a choice. What could make you do this?"


"The last human."


"But no human has fallen!"


"Heh. They will."


"I don't understand!"


"You don't have to."


I trapped him with my bone attacks, and he dusted quickly; I couldn't dust the king without making it painless. He was a friend of my brother and me once. Now that he was gone, there were only two beings left in the underground that I knew of, besides myself: ny brother and the flower. The flower was difficult, as it remembered the resets too. I always caught it, though. It cared about Asgore's death, and although I knew why, I didn't care. It just made it easier for me. I noticed a moving petal behind a pillar; there he was. I summoned a bone, and the flower died. Now all that was left was my brother.


I teleported to Snowdin, which was once again filled with dust. It was comforting to me, somehow. I walked to the clearing in the forest where my brother always ended up. This part used to be so hard; I was too busy apologizing to actually finish the job. Now that he turned into a ghost, I didn't need to worry about it at all!


"Brother? Is that you?" Papyrus wondered.


"Yes." I answered.


"Brother, something is terribly wrong! Everybody seems to have disappeared!"


"Nothing's wrong, bro."


"Then why is everybody hiding?"


"Just hold still."


"Wh-why?"


"Close your eyes."


"Okay, if..if you say so, brother."


I brought up some bones, and Papyrus dusted. A few seconds later, his ghost was back by my side. Now that the dusting was done, I just had to lay some traps and remake the study.


~~~chapter end woot~~~


Murder is a bean.


Thanks for reading my dusty writing!


Bye!



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