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He woke up much more quickly than he expected. But, it wasn’t in his room.
It reminded Sans of images he’d seen of outer space, from textbooks and magazines he’d found in the garbage dump in Waterfall. He appeared to be in a boundless, dark void, with no sound except for his quiet breathing. There were pinpricks of light in the distance in every direction, a little like what he understood to be “stars”, but they weren’t exactly like any star he had ever seen in a picture. Instead of bright white, they were yellow, and they seemed to be moving slightly. Flickering? Rotating in place, maybe? Swaying? He couldn’t focus on any one pinprick long enough to tell, and they were too far away, anyway.
He wondered how he was staying upright with nothing below him to support him. He couldn’t feel anything under his feet, or on his back, so he wasn’t standing or lying down. Maybe he was so far away from everything that there wasn’t any gravity, and he was just floating with no forces to move him anywhere. He half expected every movement to send him spinning through the void, but it seemed like his body was being held in place.
Was this the afterlife? Is this what happens to monsters when they finally turn to dust, spend the rest of eternity with nothing but a bunch of pinpricks of light? It seemed appropriate that after all that time in the cramped underground, he would end up somewhere so big and open that he wouldn’t ever be able to explore it all. Maybe the light was every piece of his body, split up into tiny dust particles and scattered across the void, and he remained with only his SOUL and some sort of “projection” of his old body, so that he could still observe himself floating away until he couldn’t keep track of it all anymore.
The afterlife seemed more likely than an actual, physical place. How else could there be another person in the distance, slowly moving towards him? How could they be “flying” through the void without any wings to move them, or indeed, any air for wings to push against? As far as Sans knew, he was the only monster who could use gravity-based magic. Maybe this was a ghost, but they didn’t seem transparent. Humans sometimes wrote about angels, could this be an angel?
The figure certainly seemed like they belonged in this realm. Even at this distance, Sans could see that they appeared to be covered in the golden pinpricks of light that inhabited the void. There were even some trailing behind the figure, like a very long cape (along with the actual red cape they appeared to be wearing, and the long, light-colored garment that floated behind the figure as they moved closer and closer).
When they got close enough for their face to be visible, Sans realized a few things at once. First of all, they were wearing a garland of golden stars on their head, like a crown made of light and magic. Secondly, they were very pale, and their uncovered eye sockets and joints reminded Sans of his own face (was this another skeleton?). Finally, they were wearing an odd expression. They were smiling brightly in a way that appeared genuine compared to Sans’s permanent grin, but their eyes showed surprise and concern. Looking at their face for too long made Sans realize that something was aching inside him, and he looked away.
“SANS?”
How did this person know his name? Why did he address him as if they knew each other, when Sans was sure he had never seen him before? Sans didn’t respond, just stared at his own hands.
“NOT THAT I’M NOT HAPPY TO SEE YOU, BUT YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE!”
He didn’t even know where “here” was. He had no idea why his presence here would be a bad thing. It seemed like a nice enough place to spend eternity. Quiet, solitary, no one to tell him how to take care of himself or remind him how alone and purposeless he was. Maybe if this figure left him alone, he could be alone and purposeless and not have to feel guilty about it. The thought was oddly comforting. Even better than sleeping forever.
It was as if the figure read his thoughts, because they had a few things to say about that idea.
“NOW, I KNOW YOU’RE TIRED. AND THAT IS OKAY! LIFE IS A LOT OF WORK SOMETIMES! AND IT IS OKAY TO TAKE A BREAK IF YOU NEED ONE! BUT, YOU CANNOT STAY HERE. IT IS NOT MEANT FOR MORTALS. IT IS LUCKY THAT I AM GREAT AND STRONG ENOUGH TO STAY HERE AND WATCH OVER YOU!”
Okay, that made a little bit of sense. This person was probably some sort of guardian angel, then. That explained why they could move around on their own and he couldn’t. Guardian angels were supposed to protect everyone, right? No wonder they acted as if they cared about him. But that aching feeling…
“ANYWAY, YOU WILL NEED TO GO BACK HOME SOON. THAT MIGHT BE A LITTLE SCARY. BUT! REMEMBER THAT I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING IF YOU TRY! I KNOW YOU CAN! BUT IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN JUST DO YOUR BEST TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF! YOU ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR LIFE, AFTER ALL!”
Was it guilt? Longing? Nostalgia? The way this person was talking to him might have made him feel worse coming from anyone else, but from them, it felt like such a caring gesture. He tried to appreciate it, but he still couldn’t make eye contact with them. He already felt tears building up in his skull. He wasn’t sure if he could handle the embarrassment of completely breaking down in front of them, for reasons he couldn’t fully understand.
He felt, rather than saw, a bony hand touch his chin and raise it so that they were finally looking at each other. A sob rose up in Sans’s throat. Welp, never mind.
“AND REMEMBER. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. AND I WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU. I CAN MOTIVATE YOU FROM THIS REALM! JUST LIKE OLD TIMES! YOU WON’T EVEN NEED TO SEE OR HEAR ME!”
It was too much. Sans reached out and embraced the figure before they could see his face crumple. He felt a hand massaging the back of his skull as he sobbed. He was almost glad that he was crying in front of someone else instead of crying alone. The comforting gestures made him feel a little less hopeless, like maybe things would be okay someday.
He still couldn’t understand why this person made him feel like this. He wanted to ask them so many questions, get to know them, understand why they were helping him so much and why he felt like he had known them forever, why their comfort felt like something he had always been receiving, just never noticed until now. But it seemed like what the figure said about mortals not belonging in this realm was true, because their whispers and gentle touches were getting more and more distant, the lights in the distance slowly fading. Sans tried to hold on more tightly, but there wasn’t anything to hold onto. He swatted at empty space, silently begging the figure not to let him leave, to stay with him and talk to him for just a little longer…
He woke up in his bedroom.