I really don't know when I started seeing through all of the lies.

I've seen so much that I lost count of how many days, weeks, probably years passed before it got to where it is now. So, just for both of our sake's, let's say that I started figuring everything out a very long time ago. But I remember WHAT started all this. I can never forget what was the very reason I started seeing what nobody else could see.

That was you. You were the catalyst for the awareness.

Betcha find that funny, don't ya?

It started the very first time I met you, however long ago that was. You were walking through the Snowdin Forest close to The Ruins that day from long ago, and you were walking along looking lost and confused, but set on moving anyway. I was watching you from in the shadows of the trees surrounding the place. I was there because I was feeling bored that day and wanted to do something different. You just happened to be there when I was. Was all just a coincidence really. Or maybe it wasn't and we were destined to both be in the same place at the exact same time so that everything that would follow could actually happen.

Heh heh, yeah right.

Whatever it was, you didn't see me watching you, but you could sense me near. I thought you were interesting when I saw you back then. You were a human, which was something I never saw down here in the underground after your kind forced all of us monsters to stay here. A kid even. I didn't know how you could have possibly gotten down here, but it didn't matter. You were a human in the world of the monsters now.

I was going to kill you the second I saw you. I really was. I was going to get your soul and bring it to Asgore so that we could finally break out of this underground world and go back to the surface. You were going to be the seventh soul we needed. But lucky for you, I had made friends with a woman who shared my love of bad jokes long before I met you, and she had made me promise that I wouldn't kill any of you humans and keep them safe. I don't know why she made me promise that, but I kept that promise because when you meet somebody with the same fondness for horrible puns as you, you can't say no. So I decided to go greet you instead. Sure, my way of saying "hello" was startling to you, what with me being a skeleton and showing up out of nowhere and all, but I was nice to you. I hid you from Papyrus when he was going to capture you, I made his puzzles easier for you, and I took you to eat out and had a nice chat with you there. Twice. I even paid for both of the meals because I knew that you had absolutely no money on you if you fell into my world on accident. I'd say I was nice to you. I'd even say that I was being a good friend.

And you probably don't know this, but I was watching over you through your whole journey. Even when you thought I wasn't there, I was keeping an eye on you from the shadows, making sure you were alright. I was always ready to help you out if somebody was going to kill you. It was what I promised to that woman, but also, because you were my friend. I take care of my friends. I keep my friends safe, especially when those friends were defenseless little kids.

But admittedly, there was something else that was making me do that. I couldn't understand it, but I felt that I needed to make sure that you weren't hurting anybody. I didn't know where I got the impression that you would hurt anybody when you're just a kid at the time, but I didn't argue with it. I listened to that weird thought and made sure you didn't do anything bad. And as it turned out, you didn't do anything. You show mercy to every single monster you came across, even if they were attacking you. So just before you were to go meet Asgore, I shared with you my observations and then told you what you had to do before leaving. I left the choice in your hands so that you could decide whether you would kill Asgore and leave us all behind or let Asgore use your soul to let us all go free. I personally didn't care which. Whatever happened, happened.

I don't know what happened after you went with Asgore to the barrier to kill each other. I didn't watch you back then. But what I did know is that you didn't come out of that barrier room, and Asgore's body couldn't be found anywhere and all of the human souls were gone. No one really knew what to think. I knew I should have assumed that you killed him and took all of the souls, but deep down I knew you didn't despite all of the evidence. I knew that you couldn't do it when you had spared every single monster you had come across in your time in the monster world. So I called you when I didn't see you again for days and told you about how everything was doing. You didn't answer me back, but I left it on your voicemail and hoped you'd hear it. I hoped that you'd come back one day. You were a nice kid and I missed you.

It was after that point that everything spiraled into a direction I never would have predicted. Looking back on it, it almost seems like it didn't happen with how scattered and vague my memories are of it, a lot of the memories being jumbled up and hidden in my other thoughts like something out of a word search puzzle, but I know it did.

I woke up that next morning and I decided to go wander out in the Snowdin Forest just 'cause. I didn't want to do sentry duty like Undyne wanted me to and I didn't want to help Papyrus with whatever he was doing , so I went there because nobody was there. Figured I'd maybe make a snowman of myself, because you know, why not? Whenever there's snow, you just have to make a snowman. It's a rule you have to follow when you find snow near your place.

So I went into that forest to make a snowman, and then I saw a human kid.

They were walking out of The Ruins and were going through the snow. They were scared, but determined. I decided to greet the kid by sneaking up on them and everything, but just as I was to extend out my hand, they stopped and turned around to look right at me.

"Hi there," the kid said to me with a smile, not scared anymore. "Were you trying to sneak up on me?"

I was surprised that they knew I was there when I was sure I didn't make a sound, but I didn't care.

"Yeah, you could say that," I told them. "You must have some good ears."

"Hah, you can say that," the kid laughed. "Or maybe you're just bad at sneaking up on people."

I laughed at that comment. It was a jab, but it was a friendly jab and I couldn't help but admire it. So after that, that kid led me deeper into the forest and I hid them from Papyrus as soon as I heard him coming along. I hid them from Papyrus, watched them do puzzles, traveled across the land, and monitored them, driven by that weird old lady's request to protect them and the feeling that I needed to make sure they weren't doing anything bad for a reason I couldn't understand. But they never did anything malicious. In fact, they seemed to go out of their way to make everybody happy, whether it was talking with every townsperson, going on a date with my brother, or spending time with Undyne at her house. They were really putting in their all to make all of the monsters happy for seemingly no reason at all.

It was nice to watch all of that. It was touching even. I hadn't seen so many monsters happy at once, especially not since we were all forced to live down here in the underground so many years ago. Now thanks to that kid, the black clouds around everybody was gone and everybody was happy, smiling as they continued about their day. It was like something out of a cheesy commercial after an argument between everybody was resolved with something really stupid like chewing gum. But it was still good to see all of the happiness. It was a nice change and the underground felt like a slightly nicer place.

But as I watched all of that, I couldn't help but help but shake off the strangest feeling of déjà vu. I felt like I had done this all before with this kid. Maybe not all of it, like the kid helping Alphys overcoming her fears to confess her feelings for Undyne, but a lot of it felt familiar. But when I thought about it, I couldn't understand why. I was fairly certain I hadn't met that kid before. Sure, when you were here, we did some of the same things, but they weren't the same. I didn't feel like I had pressed the rewind button on a cassette after reaching the end and then finally pressing play when the video was at the beginning again. Things were different and I hadn't met this kid.

I dismissed it as nothing more than some mind trick. Just like how I thought that Asgore had disappeared the other day with the human souls we had collected. He never did. He was still back at the palace like he always was, guarding those six human souls.

My mind was playing tricks on me and I had to ignore it.

The only time that I really thought something was off was when I found myself tangled in the vines of a golden flower with others that the kid had been friends with when we had gone off to save the kid from being murdered by Asgore. There was something off about that flower as it taunted the kid, saying how it had led all of us to our doom.

There was something familiar about that flower, but I didn't know why.

All I knew at the time is that I woke up in my bed after I started having these thoughts.

I immediately dismissed the entire flower experience as nothing more than a dream. I was sure I would have remembered a talking, evil flower bent on killing everybody if I had met it before. I was pretty sure something like that is hard to forget.

But when I got up and went to eat breakfast at Grillby's, I couldn't help but feel like I shouldn't be at that place. I felt like I was supposed to be somewhere else. I didn't know where, but I felt like it was somewhere much better than my favorite restaurant. Somewhere much happier and with some monsters that weren't just my brother.

I dismissed that thought too. It was crazy.

There was nowhere better than Grillby's.

After breakfast, I went out to Snowdin Forest to go on a morning walk. I wanted to see if there had been any more snow so I could make some snowmen out of it. I found snow alright, but I also found something else. At the entrance of The Ruins where I would talk with that woman who loved bad jokes was a human kid. They were standing there, doing nothing. Their clothes were covered in dust. They looked guilty about something, but I couldn't imagine why they would be. They were just a little kid. What harm could a kid do? And I knew that they weren't one of those crazy, psychopathic children I saw in movies that murdered every adult they could get away with. They didn't have the look in their eye.

Heh heh heh.

Whatever it was, I had a promise to keep, so I went up to that kid.

"Hey there, kiddo," I said with a grin.

That regretful frown on the kid changed into a smile when I extended my hand out to them.

"Hi!" the kid said happily. "Good to see you!"

They then put their hand in mine and shook it. As we shook hands, I had strange thoughts stir up in my mind. They were strange, but for whatever reason, I saw myself summoning white demon heads out of nowhere and making them shoot out lasers at some hazy target in the distance. I heard loud screaming, and then the person disappeared. And then, there was darkness in my mind once again.

I took my hand out of the child's and led them through the forest, making sure that Papyrus didn't catch them and turn them over to Asgore. I kept them safe and made bad jokes with them and Papyrus, but as I did all of this, I couldn't help but think about that weird thought.

Why would I daydream something weird like that when touching a random kid's hand?

I eventually got over it when the kid was done with me and wandered into Waterfall. I followed after them, making sure that nobody was going to hurt them. And then when I felt they were safe, I went to MTT Resort and did my gig there, making actual jokes that weren't just horrible puns. My audience laughed at them, claiming they were great and that they had never heard them before. Not a single person went home without some tears in their eyes.

But for some reason, I didn't find the jokes funny. They felt old to me, like decades old. Like as old as the "your mom" jokes that no monster with a shred of dignity would even use anymore.

I didn't know why my jokes felt old and stale. I had made up all of those jokes that morning.

I found another human kid in Snowdin Forest right in front of The Ruins the next morning, this one covered in dust as well and looking guilty for whatever reason. I figured maybe they had seen something inside of those Ruins that had said some upsetting things to them. But, I didn't know what could be in there that would do that. All I knew who lived behind those doors was the horrible pun-loving lady, and I knew she would never say anything cruel to anybody.

At that point I felt like something wasn't right. This kid was no longer starting to look like a total stranger anymore. I couldn't tell why, but something about this kid felt familiar. Something in the way their eyes shined and the power in their walk. I hadn't seen anybody walk with so much power before in my life, and yet… it felt familiar. Like I had seen this before somewhere in another lifetime.

I didn't think about it too much and accompanied that kid and helped them with Papyrus. And then, when I thought everything was safe, I let the kid go off on their own into Snowdin while I went to Grillby's to get a burger to eat. Everybody greeted me, saying hello and asking how I was. I answered their questions with smiles and said I just wanted something to eat because I hadn't eaten all day. So, they let me be after I got my sandwich.

The strange thoughts started coming back to me again as I ate. That kid from earlier today was what came to mind first. I was watching a memory of meeting that kid for the first time in front of The Ruins as I shook hands with them. I could see that kid's eyes staring at me with that guilty look they had before they calmed down and smiled at me. But then, instead of me and the kid walking off deeper into the forest, everything rewound and I was once again sneaking up from behind the kid.

They didn't have dust on their clothes anymore, and they were scared.

They were now you, the very first human kid I met.

I stopped eating as soon as I saw that in my mind. I didn't understand what I was seeing. The kid I talked to earlier that day and you weren't the same person. I was pretty sure that I would have figured that out. I would have recognized you if I saw you again. Everybody else would have known if you had returned, Papyrus especially. He really liked you even though he was supposed to be hunting you down.

And of course, I was still waiting for you to return the phone call I left you days ago. I wanted you to come back so I could know that you were still alive. But you hadn't called back. You had left me hanging, possibly because you were dead. Because something had killed you.

You and the kid I just helped weren't the same person. There was no reason to think that.

I finished my sandwich, and then decided to check up on you again. I figured that kid and Papyrus were almost finished with their "fight" by that point. I wanted to hear what he had to say about them and make sure that they weren't too hurt. Papyrus could hurt them, even if he didn't mean to, and I was going to make sure that kid was safe. So after paying Grillby, I got out of the restaurant and made my way out of town where I felt I would find my brother and the kid before they parted ways. I imagined the two of them were duking it out in the forest outside of town nearby Waterfall.

I walked into that forest and though the snow, looking for those two, but to my surprise, I found that neither of those two were there. Nobody was there. I didn't get it. I could understand the kid being gone, as they probably ran off to continue on out of the underground, but Papyrus should still have been there.

"Papyrus?" I called out into the wind.

He didn't answer. I started to get irritated.

"Papyrus, you know you're terrible at playing hide-and-seek with me," I called out. "I always find you in five seconds and you always end up crying for a whole hour afterwards."

He still didn't answer. I stormed through the snow, calling out his name while demanding that he quit playing games with me. But he still didn't answer, making me even more irritated. But also, it made me scared. Because he never acted like this. Not once in the entire time I've known him has he acted like this. It really started to worry me, so I started calling out his name louder and searched faster.

And then I saw a red scarf in the snow. A red scarf with dust on it.

It didn't take me long to figure out what happened. I grabbed the scarf and stared down at it in horror, demanding to know why. Why. Why would that kid do this? Why would they kill Papyrus? What did he ever do to them? What did he ever do to the kid so that they had to kill him?

I stayed there in that snowy field for a few more minutes, unable to understand any of this. All I could do was stare blankly at the snow as I remembered all of the times I shared with my brother, whether it was helping him with his stupid puzzles or eating his spaghetti even though it wasn't even edible. Because now, he was gone. He was gone, all because that kid killed him.

It was all that kid's fault.

When I finally snapped out of it, I got up and went after that kid. I had to know why. I had to know why they were doing this.

I caught up with them in the golden hallway that would lead to the Throne Room. They looked at me from the other side of the hall, staring at me with a confused frown. I only remained where I was, keeping my grin plastered to my face with my hands in my pockets.

"Why are you a dirty brother killer?" I asked the kid.

"Uh…" the kid said quietly as they played with their hands. "Well… you see I… well…"

The kid looked away from me, ashamed and knowing that they couldn't give me an answer that wouldn't piss me off.

"You going to answer?" I asked.

The kid just shook their head, still looking away from me.

When I saw that, I let them pass. I let them go on to the throne room to meet Asgore for a reason I couldn't understand.

But then again, was I really expected to understand anything that a dirty brother killer thought?

That kid disappeared into the throne room, and I went back home and went to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I went to The Ruins to get my mind off of everything. My head was filled with haze and I needed to be alone to clear out my thoughts. I needed to still understand that Papyrus had just died yesterday because of some little kid. I thought I'd get to think in the empty forest near The Ruins entrance, but the second I showed up, I found another kid getting out of The Ruins. Just like the one from yesterday and the day before, they also had a bunch of dust all over them.

I thought it was getting ridiculous that there were so many human kids showing up here every single day when it had taken years for six other humans to fall down into the underground. I remember wondering if there was an entire line of kids waiting at the entrance to the underground, all waiting their turn to come down for whatever reason. I wondered if the lady inside The Ruins knew about these humans and why there were so many.

I greeted that kid just like I did with all the others, and then I took them toward Snowdin. Without Papyrus around, there was no longer any need to hide the kid, so I could just take them to the town directly. Then they could go do whatever they wanted and I'd watch them from afar like always. It was starting to become monotonous and I wondered if this cycle would ever end. Babysitting little kids wasn't exactly something I enjoyed doing all the time. I wanted to be able to do something else other than serve as a hidden guardian of human children. I wanted to know when it would end.

I got my answer pretty quickly, because just as I was going to take that kid to Snowdin, somebody showed up to capture the kid.

It was Papyrus, alive and well. He was running toward me, wearing that silly outfit he refused to take off no matter what like some crazy cosplayer.

I stood there, dumbfounded by what I was seeing. I couldn't understand how Papyrus was alive again. I saw what happened to him yesterday. I didn't actually see him die, but I saw his scarf, abandoned and laying in the snow, something he would never do. He loved that scarf too much. And not only that, but dust had been all over it. A heavy amount of dust that I knew could have only been on there for one reason and one reason only.

Yet there he was, running toward me, screaming about something. I didn't even get a chance to warn the kid before they hid behind a nearby lamp. The exact lamp that I told all of the other kids to hide behind when Papyrus came over here. The kid didn't hide behind the rocks in the area, or the huge post. No, it was that conveniently-shaped lamp.

They hid behind that lamp when it would have been better to hide behind the post or rocks. But they chose the lamp.

They chose the lamp.

I stared at the kid, looking at them as this seemingly useless detail started making my mind churn. The kid kept hiding, not paying attention to me.

There was something wrong with that kid. Something wasn't right. I couldn't tell why, but I knew there was. Something about all of this wasn't right, besides the obvious fact that Papyrus was still alive and running toward me from the distance. I knew that wasn't right, but there was something else too. Something else I couldn't name.

I looked at the kid some more… and then it happened.

I didn't see the kid anymore, hiding behind that lamp so that Papyrus couldn't catch them. No, what I saw turned my world upside-down.

I no longer saw a human kid behind that lamp. I saw you. You were the kid hiding behind the lamp. You and the kid were the same person.

You were ALL of the kids I had been watching for the last few days. You were all of them, somehow coming back to The Ruins at the start of each day before going off to see Asgore before coming right back to The Ruins. Somehow you were able to get back there without anybody ever seeing you.

I didn't understand how this had happened. I didn't know how I couldn't tell that all of those kids were you. They all looked the same now that I thought about it, but I somehow couldn't tell that you were all the same before. I thought that each kid was somebody different. But no, they were all you. You were always with me, going through each day with me in some sort of endless loop.

At that point, I thought that maybe I was stuck in some sort of groundhog day loop where I was doomed to repeat the same day over and over again for whatever reason. It would explain why you kept coming back through those doors and why the same events always played out each and every day. But then I realized that wasn't true. Different things did happen each and every day, and they weren't because of me.

They were because of you. Like yesterday, you killed Papyrus even though you didn't do that the first time you were here. I hadn't done anything to make that happen; you did it on your own.

Which meant that you killed him because you knew that the day would reset. You knew that doing so wouldn't lead to any consequences. You were aware of the time loop just like how I was now, and you were taking advantage of it for whatever reason.

I didn't get to think for much longer, because then Papyrus finally arrived and asked why I was slacking off when there were humans to be found. I quickly snapped out of my stunned trance as I told him the exact same thing I told him every day. And of course, he left after I gave him my answer, leaving you and me alone again. You got out of your hiding spot and looked at me, like you were waiting for me to take you somewhere.

Because you were. You were playing along just like how I was playing along so that nobody caught on to the truth.

But I knew, and I knew how to prove it.

"Hey kid," I told you.

"Yeah?" you asked me. "What is it, Sans?"

You looked up at me, your eyes innocent, like you hadn't gone through this exact same scenario with me several times before. But I knew better as I kept smile on my face and looked down at you. The lights in my eyes disappeared as my smile widened a little.

"Why are you a dirty brother killer?" I asked eerily.

Your eyes widened as you backpedaled away from me, clearly not expecting that sort of question out of me. This had never happened before in the other times we had gone through this day, so it scared you half to death. It was right there that I knew everything I figured out was true. Things weren't predictable anymore, and you didn't like that. You were scared of unpredictability.

And not only that, but you didn't like that I had asked you this question before in another timeline.

You ran away from me after I did that, never looking back. You raced right through Papyrus's puzzles, doing them hastily before running into Snowdin. And you kept going, running right past Papyrus without even giving him a chance to fight you, and then disappeared into Waterfall. It was almost hilarious watching you run away from me like that. To think that you could be scared so bad all because it wasn't something that was part of the paradigm. It was something different, something that hadn't changed because of your actions, and it scared you.

I didn't bother to follow you at all after I saw you run into Waterfall. I let you be because I got the answer I wanted. I was satisfied. It was a good day, a victory even.

I don't think you killed a single monster that day.

The next morning, I was in my bed again, with the memories of "yesterday" still fresh in my mind. I could still see your terror-stricken face as you ran away from me and into the darkness of the Underground. It was at that point that I realized you were aware of this endless time loop as much as I was, and when you found out I knew, it spooked you. Now, for whatever reason, the timeline had reset itself like it always did, and I was back at the beginning of the day. But now somehow I was actually remembering what happened in an earlier reset for whatever reason.

I went to go meet you in Snowdin Forest, and sure enough, I found you standing there, not covered in dust this time. You looked frightened, still clearly terrified by what I had said to you in the last reset. I had to resist laughing at that. I was really tempted to do it again, but I decided not to. No, as tempting as it would have been, I realized right there that I needed to figure out what was going on. I had a dark suspicion that you weren't going to help me, but I knew somebody who could.

But first, I had to make it so that you thought my little stunt yesterday wasn't real. I didn't want to get you involved in this yet.

"Hey there," I greeted you.

"H-Hey," you said back, shivering.

"Why are shaking like that?" I asked, playing stupid. "You cold or something? I could give you my jacket if you wanted."

"No… no, it's fine," you said, slowly shaking you head as you took in a deep breath. "I was just… ah, never mind. It's stupid."

"Whatever you say, kid."

And that was the end of our conversation. The two of us then went through the motions of the morning all over again, the two of us saying everything we needed to say right on cue. It was like we were in a play and we were both speaking our lines perfectly to one another, as if we had practiced this a million times before, which wasn't very far off from the actual truth. And then when Papyrus came along, we both did exactly as we were supposed to before we finally parted ways. You seemed calmer as you left, your eyes blank and a small smile on your face. I would have been happy to see that if back then if I wasn't suspicious that you weren't an innocent little kid on the inside.

Second you left me, I headed out to Hotland to meet up with Alphys. I didn't care about following you around anymore and keeping you safe; I wanted answers to figure out why the timeline kept resetting and how you and I were aware of it. I figured that Alphys, of all of the monsters, would know with her being the Royal Scientist and all. And since we were friends, I figured she'd be willing to tell me about anything she found. I know it seems odd, her and I being friends when we seemed to have absolutely nothing in common, but we were. I might not look it, but I do have a bit of an interest in science, and well, she's a scientist. It was only a matter of time before we eventually became friends.

I just couldn't remember how we became friends. I just knew that at one point in time, we had met and started talking, and that was it. I don't know how or why we met, but we did and after a while got to know each other. Everything else was a blank.

When I got inside her lab, I found her watching you from her computer monitor, cheering you on as you avoided some close hits from a monster that was bothering you. The second she saw me standing there in her doorway, she got this embarrassed look on her face before she hurried over to me. I had to resist pointing out what I really knew about you. I didn't feel like destroying her positive image of you, a hero, just yet. I knew that she liked you a lot and I only wanted her to know once I knew for sure. So until then, only I would know. Only I would know that you killed Papyrus in an earlier time for no reason at all.

"Oh! Sans, you're… you're here! Haven't seen you in a while," she greeted me. "What umm, what brings you here?"

"You done any research about time travel and the timespace continuum?" I asked her casually, like it wasn't actually something I urgently wanted to know.

"Timespace continuum? I didn't know you cared about that kind of stuff," she confessed. "I never really took you one to umm… be interested in that sort of thing."

"C'mon, you know how much I like REAL science fiction ," I told her, winking at her.

She looked a little flustered when I told her that, scrambling away from me and shaking her head nervously as she retreated somewhere in the lab, telling me to come with her. I followed after her, passing by the monitor that was showing how you were doing. I peeked at it for one second to see that you were Undyne was hunting you down, throwing all of her energy spears at you while you ran away in a panic.

I had to resist laughing when I saw that. I turned away from the monitor as Alphys lead me to some room where she had a bunch of boards plastered all over the walls, charts and diagrams filling up every inch of them. Books were opened up and scattered all over the tables, and hundreds of sheets of paper lay beside them, also having a bunch of complicated drawings that for some reason actually made sense to me. I watched as she went over to one of the boards and pointed at it before looking back at me.

She told me that she had in fact been researching the timespace continuum in her spare time due to a strange impulse and had been noticing some strange things happening in it. For whatever reason, there was an anomaly in there that was making timelines do things that never should have happened. She said that the timelines were jumping left and right, and starting and stopping all the time. And though she tried, she couldn't figure out what this anomaly was. She couldn't pinpoint a single things could be making the timespace continuum act this way.

However, she assured me that she didn't think much of it. She admitted that it was a little troubling, but with how things were going on in the underground, she didn't think it was really much concern. It wasn't like anything absolutely horrible was happening thanks to this anomaly.

But that didn't satisfy me. I knew that she was wrong. Something was causing the timeline to keep rewinding back to the beginning of the day, and somehow you and I were the only ones aware of it. Maybe I didn't know the reason for why the anomaly wanted to do all of this, but I knew it couldn't have been good.

I was going to ask more, like what could possibly give the anomaly the power to manipulate timelines, but then something in the other room set off a loud alarm. Alphys didn't waste another second and barged out of the door, shoving me out of the way as she ran down the hall. I remember frowning, annoyed that she was being distracted over something stupid. I went after her, about to ask more information about the anomaly, but then I saw why Alphys had looked so panicked when she heard that siren.

There, on the monitor, was Undyne about to explode into dust as you kicked her in the chest. Alphys was in front of that monitor, screaming so loudly that it almost drowned out the sirens themselves.

I thought I was going to have to take Alphys to another room so she wouldn't have to watch what would happen next, but Undyne surprised the both of us. Her body solidified again, and she was back in one piece. Somehow, she was alive again, even after you had struck her down. She was still standing strong, shooting you a mocking sneer. Alphys and I couldn't believe what we were watching. All we could do was stand there and watch the impossible happen before us. Undyne had defied death.

Except… she really didn't. No, after she taunted you, saying you had to try harder to kill her, you kept striking her down. With a blank stare, you kept delivering the lethal strike, slowly making more and more of Undyne's body disintegrate with each strike. You did all of this while Undyne kept taunting you, staying strong and ferocious.

And then, after what felt like forever, you finally killed her for good, and Undyne melted into a puddle.

You left after that, and you left Alphys and I to stare at the monitor where Undyne's remains were, both of us at a total loss.

It was at that point that I really started to think something was wrong with you. First you had killed Papyrus for no apparent reason, and though I was sure that you hadn't of done that in this current timeline, now you had killed Undyne. I would have understood if you did it in self-defense since she was trying to kill you, but you hadn't. You had killed her with a blank look on your face, showing absolutely no remorse.

I thought that maybe, just maybe, you were evil.

"Undyne… Undyne…" Alphys said quietly. "No… she couldn't have… she had Determination… I saw her. That's why she didn't die right away. But… it wasn't… she didn't have enough to…"

Alphys didn't get to finish whatever she was whimpering about. She burst into tears right in front of me, lamenting over the loss of her closest and dearest friend, and love of her life. She became a wreck before my eyes, her heart torn in two. Even though I wanted to know what this Determination was, since it sounded pretty interesting, I knew better than to ask. Not when she was like this. It wasn't right to do that when she was a mess. So, I did the best thing I could do in that situation and I stayed with her as she cried, knowing that nobody else could really help her.

I knew she wouldn't remember any of this when the day was over. I knew that I didn't have to stay with Alphys the whole time and just let her cry in peace, but I did it anyway. I did it because I cared. Even if it was completely pointless, I did it anyway just to make this current timeline's Alphys feel better.

I didn't go anywhere else that day. I just stayed with Alphys and took her away from the monitor. We spent the rest of the day watching that strange thing she called anime in her room. I personally thought it was ridiculous and kind of stupid with the unnecessary screaming, over-the-top melodrama, and flat-out weird humor I guess was an acquired taste, but I watched it with her anyway because it would keep her mind off Undyne. I watched all of those episodes with her and only snuck out once when she was making noodles for us to go meet up with you at the golden hallway, but even that was only so that I could keep up my ignorant facade. Otherwise, I stayed with Alphys the whole time and did my best to enjoy the anime. Because I knew if there was one thing she loved more than Undyne, it was anime.

Well, and Asgore, but that was beside the point.

When she finally passed out after watching twenty episodes of anime in one sitting, as I'm sure her brain couldn't handle the absurdity any longer, I went home, knowing that when she woke up her memories of this whole thing would be wiped clean.

It was better that way for her. She didn't need to know the truth.

It would have been too painful for her.