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~outside Ebott~
7 Figures stood at the base of Mt. Ebott. They had all been waiting for this day for many years now and they were finally ready. Some of them were pacing anxiously, some were lounging around napping or reading, others were playing cards.
“I don’t get how you can all be so calm” One of the figures snapped, finally having enough pacing.
“Who said we were calm? Some of us just don’t see the sense in wasting energy with senseless pacing” another one spoke, their voice bored.
“You sound like dad” one of the one’s playing cards commented and the lounging figure just shrugged.
“We have to wait for them to come out of the mountain anyways, not much we can do till then” another said.
“But what if that kid resets before we can do anything?” the first said in frustration “We’ll have to wait for the next time and who knows when that will be”.
“This will work, it has to” another figure spoke up “We won’t fail”.
The group fell back into silence at those words.
~inside Ebott~
Frisk was having the final battle with Asriel. They had run the Pacifist timeline this time, setting a new record for how fast they could get through it. Sans had seemed odd through the whole run but then again the skeleton was always odd and secretive. Despite their best efforts and many resets, Frisk still wasn’t able to uncover all of Sans’ secrets and it kind of irked them.
With one last move Asriel lost their fight and broke the barrier. Frisk came to, surrounded by the usual band of merry monsters. They did their usual round through the mountain one last time before stepping outside with their six companions. The group said their usual dialog, doing their usual antics, and enjoying the brief freedom. Frisk finished the dialog with Toriel, telling her they had somewhere to be.
They watched the goat monster walk away and moved to open their menu. This run was done and Frisk felt like another genocide run was in order. Before they could push the button to reset however, a familiar feeling encased their soul. Frisk suddenly became much heavier and couldn’t move to touch the button.
“Sorry pal, not this time” Sans commented as he stepped into view. This had never happened before so Frisk was both confused and intrigued. Why was Sans suddenly using blue magic on them?
“Ya see, I’m tired of getting sent back to the underground” Sans shrugged, looking bored “You’ve already proven you can’t keep a promise so there’s no point in asking you to not do it”.
So then what was the point of all this if Sans knew Frisk would do it anyways?
“See, there’s something you didn’t account for” Sans continued talking “time may reset underground but up here it keeps moving; anything we do up here doesn’t get erased like everything down there does”.
Frisk started to become suspicious, what was Sans getting at with all of this?
“I’ve been planning this a long time buddy” Sans told Frisk “You don’t think yer the only special kid in the world do ya? I’ve been busy makin friends while you were busy being a megalomaniac”.
Frisk would have tensed if they hadn’t already been frozen by the blue magic. What was Sans talking about? Who were these friends? Frisk had to figure out a way to get to the button before Sans could do something stupid.
“In fact they should be coming up any second, had to wait for the others to scatter ya know? Wouldn’t want to make a scene” Sans mused and turned his head as he heard seven sets of footsteps “Ah here they come now”.
Frisk saw the seven figures making their way up to them and Sans. They were all different ages, some Frisk's age, some older, some younger. They also seemed to be different genders and nationalities, it was such a miss matched group that some outside force had to have brought them all together intentionally.
“Hey old man, are we doing this or what? We got reservations waiting” a man spoke up.
Sans chuckled and shook his head “Hold yer pants on kiddo, we gotta make sure this is done right”.
“We’ve gone over this scenario a thousand times” said a woman this time “There is no way this could go wrong”.
“Ya know… if one of the others doesn’t come back that is” a teen that looked rather androdynous spoke up solemnly.
“Quit being a pessimist” a teen boy scowled and swatted the other’s shoulder
“While I do appreciate the vote of confidence in this plan, Sal is right, we have to get this done quick or someone will come looking” Sans said seriously and the 7 humans made various sounds of agreement. They moved until they all surrounded Frisk. Frisk eyed them warily, wondering just what was going to happen.
They didn’t have to wait long.
They started to all chant in unison in a language Frisk was unfamiliar with. Each person started to glow and Frisk realized they each represented one of the seven soul traits.
Patience, Bravery, Justice, Perseverance, Kindness, Integrity, and Determination.
Each one flared brightly as the chanting continued and Frisk had to eventually close their eyes. They felt strange, as if their determination was slowly draining from them. Frisk started to panic at that realization and tried to struggle out of the magic’s hold. They were eventually let go once the chanting stopped and Frisk stumbled away from the group.
“What did you do!” Frisk finally spoke, staring at Sans in fury.
“Oh not much” the skeleton shrugged “It’s just a little spell we found in a book, it decreases someone’s soul trait to nearly nothing; without yer determination you can’t reset the timeline”.
“I- I’ll tell Toriel and the others that you attacked me!” Frisk said frantically.
“Tch and who would believe you? I’m the weakest monster in the underground, remember?” Sans said smugly “What can a guy like me do against the kid who took on every monster in the underground and won? Plus I’ll have an alibi and witnesses, face it kid yer game is done”.
“You can’t do this!” Frisk shrieked.
“Can and did pipsqueak, now if you will excuse me I gotta go have dinner with my kids” Sans waved and turned to walk away with the group.
“Man they are such a brat” one of the younger kids commented.
“I can’t wait to hear what you punks have been up to lately” Sans chuckled and they all started to chatter excitedly.
Frisk watched them walk away, dread filling them as they tried to call up their menu and failed to do so.
Sans had finally won.