Hopeless?

"...dad?"

But the figure stood there, as if it was unalive.

Sans carefully and slowly approached it to look at their face.

It was indeed Gaster. The only thing was that he was almost unrecognizable: he had two black circles under his eyesockets, pin-pricks small as atoms, and his gaze...

The gaze of someone who was ready to kill hundreds of men.

Sans felt a chill down his spine: he had never seen his dad like this.

"dad, can you hear me?" he called again.

His dad slightly frowned, almost as if it was brought back to reality.

"...Sans" he just said.

darn, not that tone, Sans thought.

"dad, please, tell me how you are here. you should be in the void now"

Gaster looked at him, his pin-pricks still small as atoms. Sans felt again a chill down his spine. It was like he was being judged.

It was like HE was the one being judged now, as he remembered judging Frisk in the judgement hall.

Surprisingly for Sans, Gaster only sighed and fell on the couch.

He was feeling a knot in his throat.

But he didn't want to cry in front of his older son.

Not yet.

He slowly opened his hand and showed what he was clenching.

Remains of a broken test tube.

"It's what remains of the Determination I extracted from Chara's soul"

"wha- dad, why did you still have that? i thought you threw it into the bin"

"Hah, good question. I found it in my pocket when I went with...Y/N...at the amusement park. Perhaps it was fate, perhaps I simply forgot it there or was too lazy to take it out of my pocket, but god was it a good thing to keep it there. If I didn't keep it at this time I would have been lost in the void."

"how did the determination in there brought you back though?" Sans asked.

Gaster sharply inhaled air for a second as he thought about a possible answer.

"I crashed it when I was about to become similar to slime. You know how Determination deforms our bodies, don't you? I thought that by crashing the test tube and touching its content while I was going back to the void would have made the void refuse me, as I was losing my physical form after touching the Determination. It brought me back here, and I guess I am finally safe from the void"

But I would rather be in the void than here without her, especially without her remembering me. If not for my sons, I wouldn't have crashed the test tube.

He clenched his fist, the broken glass falling through the hole on his hand.

He was seeking revenge, his eyes clearly telling what he was feeling.

Sans gulped as he felt genuinely scared. He had never seen his dad like this.

"dad-"

"When does that human arrive in Snowdin?" he asked, a tint of rage in his voice.

Sans stayed quiet for a second before answering.

He gathered all his courage, even if he was scared just a second before and answered.

"i'm not telling you, dad"

"Sans-"

"i said, that i'm not. telling. you. i can't understand what you are feeling right now, that's for sure, but i won't let you kill the kid"

Killing Frisk wouldn't have solved things anyway.

Gaster's pin pricks turned purple with a ding as he was ready to destroy something, possibly the nearest thing to him.

"Sans, tell me. RIGHT. NOW"

Sans' left eye turned light blue as well, switching quickly from light blue to yellow.

Light blue and yellow.

Patience and justice.

And right there, he was being patient, judging his father.

Both father and son remained there, looking at each other with coloured eyes and angry looks.

A few seconds later, Gaster scoffed as his pin-pricks returned white as they were before.

"Whatever" and with that, he turned and went into the kitchen.

Sans watched as the tall figure belonging to his father walked and grabbed something to drink.

He sighed, grabbing the keys of his room, and opened it.

It was still as ever. Well, it must have been still as ever since a [Reset] just had happened. The bed still with that ball of sheets and his socks all around the room, mostly in one corner.

He sighed, falling on the bed and curling up, closing his eyes.

Every time a [Reset] happened, he would always sleep until fate would wake him up to go and greet the human with Papyrus.

He sighed. He had to live again all of this, just when something was finally different from the other timelines.

His father.

And a person he could possibly call "mother"

But apart from the first thing, everything was now destroyed. Who knew if you would have fallen again in the underground, and meeting Gaster would have been impossible now as he wasn't a ghost anymore and managed to come back from the void with Determination.

After thinking for too much time, a slumber sleep without dreams welcomed him.

...

Sans shot his eyes open.

It was time to go and greet Frisk

He got rid of the blankets that were on top of him.

wait...blankets? didn't i just curl up on the bed?

He sighed, realising that Gaster had put them on him.

still protective as ever, aren't you, old bones? he thought jokily.

Gaster always cringed at that nickname because he wasn't old, and Sans always teased him with it.

He got up, for once tidying them as he always made a ball with the sheets.

He opened his door, and once he got in the living room, he saw many tissues with purple stains.

A LOT of purple stains.

Sans empathetically thought about his father.

you really love her, don't you?

That's when he shivered a bit. Cold? In their house?

He felt cold air on his skull, and when he looked up, he saw that the door was slightly open.

His pin-pricks disappeared in terror.

you didn't go outside to kill frisk, did you?!

Just as he was looking at the door, it opened, and a tall, familiar skeleton wearing a red scarf came in.

"SANS! IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU AWAKE! LET'S GO AND SEARCH FOR SOME HU- ....SANS, ARE YOU OKAY?"

Papyrus had entered the house and seen his brother without his usual white pin-pricks in those eyesockets.

He approached his older brother and shook him, bringing him back to reality.

"p-paps?"

"SANS, IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT? YOU LOOK LIKE YOU HAVE SEEN A GHOST"

"u-uh?"

Papyrus looked in his eyesockets, with a worried gaze.

"...heh, if i saw a ghost, that would be un-boo-lievable, wouldn't it"

Papyrus cringed at the pun and almost threw at his brother the little rock sitting on the table of the living room.

"AND HERE I WAS WORRIED THAT SOMETHING HAPPENED! OH, WHAT DOES THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE TO GO THROUGH" he said dramatically.

Sans chuckled as his brother acted like this.

He then remembered what he was worried about.

"uh...paps, still wanna go to catch a human?" he said as an excuse to ensure his father stayed away from Frisk.

Little stars appeared in Papyrus' eyes as Sans asked this.

"I SEE THAT YOU ARE PUTTING EFFORT IN THIS SANS, I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!"

"yeah, i don't want to waste thyme"

He had to run like he never ran before to escape his brother's fury.

He then noticed on the snow footprints, probably belonging to a tall man.

They were directing towards the entrance of Snowdin.

Towards the Ruins.

...

They reached the end of Snowdin. Papyrus had stopped as usual (as in every timeline) to check on puzzles, so Sans directed towards the door of the Ruins.

He waited, and saw nobody that looked like his father. He sighed in relief.

maybe he just went somewhere else to think. hah, i should probably trust more his calm.

The doors of the Ruins then opened, and Frisk came out of it.

He observed the kid. Luckily, there wasn't dust on their clothes. At least.

don't believe i'm not angry with you though, kid. you didn't respect our promise.

He prepared his usual speech and walked behind them as they reached the bridge.

He was now behind them.

"h u m a n. d o n ' t y o u k n o w h o w t o g r e e t a n e w p a l?"

But as they turned around, they both heard a ding.

Frisk's soul popped out of their chest in a vivid blue colour.

But it wasn't Sans' doing.

Frisk was then slammed against a tree.

Scared, as he understood what was happening, he tried to grab Frisk's soul as well to stop him, but he soon heard a ding too from his ribcage.

His little white soul was blue as well. He was immobile though.

Well, he was quite paralysed. He couldn't move. An unknown force was paralysing him.

shit! i need to do something.

Just as he was thinking, he heard crunches on the snow as Frisk was still getting slammed on trees and on the floor.

Sans looked at his left and saw a familiar black, tall figure.

A figure he knew too well.

The only difference was that both of his pin-pricks were purple.

Purple with Perseverance.

And rage.