They can't move forward.

They can't move back.

They couldn't even shift their Soul this way or that.

Not while the sins cling to them, crawl over them, and any time they do try to do anything their Soul is awash in Blue and shoved back into place… At least at first that was what was happening. Now they knew that they could actually, so easily, push it all away and end this.

But they don't want to. Not yet…

Admittedly….

Frisk's afraid.

And their mind is going over everything Sans had said. Their mind shifting through the guilt. Not all of it for killing everyone, but because there he was, sitting across from them with his eyes closed tired out in more ways than one. Tired from the Fight Frisk had put up, and tired… from the stuff Frisk hadn't even meant to do. Not really. Well, they had meant to or else they wouldn't have done it. Reset. Load. Just… All of it.

The sensation, The Other One, is growing impatient.

Kill him.

No…

Are you really going to Reset after all this? After all you've done to get here?! Are you going to let it all go to waste?

N-No...

Frisk is aware it isn't them. They have been aware since the moment they killed Papyrus and stared, wanting to mourn, but the other had wanted to push onward, the skeleton forgotten. They hadn't deserved to mourn, Frisk knew, and had followed their lead, but at the same time had known for sure that they weren't alone. Not really.

It had twisted their perspective of what was going on a bit, but in the end it didn't matter. Frisk had kept going. Now because they had no way to go back. Not really. And The Other had been so passionate in their cause. To get to the end. To finally do what they wanted… What Frisk had started and now couldn't finish.

They can't move forward.

They can't move back.

Sans refusing their Mercy had proven just that.

It was done. But… their sins crawling on their back…

They just can't move forward…!

All they had to do was let the LOVE take over again, The Other reminds them, but Frisk knew that if they did… Who would truly be in control? Then again why did that matter? The end result was the same. They bring about that end that Sans warned about. About the timelines… stopping.

Was that not the goal though? To put an end to all this? There was nothing left to do now but end it! Nothing left to go back to… So why? Why this hesitation? Why…?

Sans looks almost peaceful in his sleep…

Frisk finds themselves sitting, their legs having been too shaky and their hesitation too long. And soon… They feel the tears building up in their eyes. Stings and blurred vision as he snores.

They'd been such good friends, Frisk realizes.

Not really, The Other reminds.

True. Sans had always been sort of cryptic and disliked them. But that can't be all true, Frisk reasons, since they could always save his Lost Soul….

And now here they are… Across from each other, both worn down and exhausted and Frisk's own Lost Soul in turmoil… Stuck…

They can't stay here forever. Not really. But why not?

There's nothing left for them.

Nothing left but for them.

Sans doing nothing is the first time they've had to think clearly. But it hurts. So much. Too much. And they can't even call for him to help them. Help them figure this out! And The Other won't stop growling in their mind, so angry and fed up… Making it hard to think. This headache won't go. So they close their eyes. Try to block out the light. And the hurt. And soon…

Sans wakes up, a few hours later, feeling a bit better. Though sort of hungry. And he's sort of surprised they hadn't tried to take advantage of him in that state. Not that it would have worked, mind you, but he is still surprised. Yet even more surprised now to see them, hunched over across from him… Surprised to see that they've been crying.

And that they've cried themselves to sleep.

And it's at least an hour, the light beginning to dwindle, when they wake up again, sitting up across from him, wiping at their eyes, trying not to look like as much of a mess that they are.

And they sit. The two sit….

Doing nothing.

For as long as it takes, Sans knows. Nothing.

"You were right…" Frisk says suddenly. Their voice weak and airy. "I'll never be happy. Even if I do this. I don't think I'll really get what I want… I'd want to come back. But… If I did.. I'm not sure I'd be the one in control."

Surprise. More of it. Always it seems with them. Even when Sans thinks he gets something they turn it back around. This is not what he was expecting. In the nothingness, he did not expect them to say anything. They hadn't before. He's not sure how to handle this. How much hostility to hold back, if he even should. How much would help to get them to just give up?

"How do you figure?" Sans asks.

"Because barely in control now… They… wouldn't let me run away. While you were asleep." Sans raised a brow, not understanding but he refused to speak again, to play into this any more than he had to. "It's just… if we go back, it won't be really going back, I know. And I'll have to stop the Resets."

What?

"Why now?" Sans snaps, after all of this, now they have to stop the Resets?

"I didn't mean to hurt you… Not like that, I mean."

"Like what?"

"I always knew you knew something about the Resets… I didn't know that…. They were the reason you'd given up." They have tears in their eyes again but Sans was unmoved. "I just don't want to choose. I'm stuck. Killing you, it ends everything. Going back, I can't keep hurting you like that. But I don't want to decide. I never wanted to make a decision. I didn't have to. I'm scared to… I don't want there to be consequences! I don't want to have to move on!"

Silence. Frisk's head bows.

"Are you going to Reset?" Sans asks finally, after too long. The only response he gets is them covering their face with their hands. They didn't want to decide…. "But would you rather not have the option to? Like you said, if you go forward with this you won't have control… Will you take the easy way out? Doesn't sound like something someone who's determined would do."

They still didn't answer, but he heard the sniffles.

"Are we just gonna sit here and do nothing?"

Frisk nodded.

Yes.

Forever…

So Sans tilted his head back and closed his eyes…. At the very least, he could get a few more Z's….

If there really was nothing else.

Couldn't move forward…

Couldn't move back…

Like there was anything new for him in that.