Undertale: Persistence Is Key

Sans sighed dreamily, half asleep as the sun bore down on his exposed upper body and wings. The last four weeks had been the most fun and engaging that he'd had since he was a babybones. And the best part was? He didn't even have to try to hold himself back; this was his vacation, he decided what he did.

Sans wants to go see what swimming on Jupiter was like, which was trippy as all hell because the planet was made out of gasses that acted weird because his body was mostly made of magic, or go check out what the center of The Great Red Spot looks like? Go ahead!

Sans wants to see how long he could fly inside Saturn's belt without teleporting at top speed? You know it!

Sans wants to take a nap on the moon underneath direct sunlight in a lair of old shorts? Damn right he can!

Sure, learning to navigate space wasn't exactly all that smooth at first, he'd gotten lost and somehow ended up on Neptune for about two hours, but as long as he kept some bones on the moon to act as a sort of beacon for his shortcuts to hone in on it was all smooth going. Bones weren't meant to last though, so he had to remake them regularly which was fine for him.

"Hey, I was writing on that!"

And that other completely unimportant thing that just so happened to slip his mind.

These guys. Their voices echoed inside his head at all times as background noise now.

"Yeah?! Well maybe you should be focusing on something other than your stupid drawings!"

"They're not drawings! I was writing a story about werewolves!"

"We're on the moon!?"

"C'mon guys why do you two always have to fight?"

"Just let them wear themselves out, PATIENCE. I'll smack them back in line later."

"Mr. Sans!"

Op, that was his que.

Sans one good eye opened to take in the pretty monotone scenery around him; just a couple of craters and moon dust as far as his eye could see. But what caught his attention the most was the six gaster blasters with full bodies, each a different size, each of their eyes glowing a different color.

And hadn't that been a bitch when he first got to the moon a month ago? Finding out that the six human SOULs had not only stuck around after the barrier had broken, but had hitched a ride on Sans in order to sustain themselves outside of their containment glasses. He caught himself wondering sometimes how many other times they'd hopped aboard in those other timelines, but they were fortunate enough to not be conscious of the RESETs, or conscious period. They'd apparently been asleep since their souls had been stolen, but Asriel using them had awoken them long enough for them to latch onto him afterwards.

And now that he'd let himself 'go' and relaxed a little bit? They were up and about, for the most part.

He looked down at his chest, where six right side up hearts of different colors revolved freely around his own crippled SOUL, small strands of white connecting each of them to him. They'd tried to heal him, fix his crippled SOUL (which was a long shot in the first place, but he'd been hopeful, heh, anyways) the same way they could heal each other apparently, but it didn't do much but take the edge off his normal bodily aches for a day or so, and even that had pretty much sent them all into instant comas for the next twelve hours.

Since then, he'd figured out a way to let each of them sort of… pilot(?) a full bodied gaster blaster scaled down massively to a more manageable size.

"PERSEVERANCE. BRAVERY. ENOUGH." His thoughts rang out. He snapped his fingers and brought them both back to his arms before settling back down, his wings once more spread out on the ground, locking them in place on top of his rib cage.

""HE STARTED IT!"" They snarled at each other in his mind, their purple and orange eyes boring holes in each other, only stopping when he thumped them both on their heads.

"i'm finishing it then." Sans sighed soundlessly as he closed his eye once more.

And peace reigned once more on the abyssal plains of the moon.

"Mr. Sans?" 

For about ten minutes.

His eye opened halfway to stare up at the smallest blaster, the one piloted by the youngest soul, PATIENCE. She had hopped up on his chest at some point and had her little paws on his chin to look him in the eye while the two troublemakers had decided to follow Sans into dreamland. The largest blaster, about the size of a doberman, piloted by the sixteen year old KINDNESS, was next to them and had both JUSTICE and INTEGRITY pinned beneath her.

They'd been wrestling ever since Sans had settled down to sunbathe, and apparently the eldest had managed to win, to absolutely no one's surprise.

"Rematch!" JUSTICE cried out, stubbornly trying to throw the older girl off.

"I'm faster than you, how'd you catch me?" INTEGRITY whined out, pouting but staying in place.

He smiled up at the youngest SOUL, still barely a five year old toddler who'd wandered into the underground centuries ago only to be slain in the name of monsterkinds freedom, and felt his people's sins crawl all over his back. He'd always known in the back of his mind that the souls had been people before dying, but realizing that they'd all not even been eighteen before some monster had killed them and given their souls to Asgore had been… unpleasant, to say the least.

The SOULs had left behind their own names for their soul traits, apparently with all the years that had passed since they'd died, they'd chosen to leave behind any links they had to their centuries dead families. He could relate, he'd given himself and Papyrus new names after the accident too.

"Is it almost time?" Her tail was wagging softly behind her, responding unconsciously to her excitement. The other SOULs had their blasters eyes locked in on him now, filled with so much HOPE that it stirred even his busted SOUL.

Sans made a show of turning it over in his head, thinking as hard as he could before sitting up, smooshing the two other children on his chest together while setting PATIENCE onto his lap. "i suppose we could cut our little space voyage short."

"Yay!!!!" The youngest SOUL jumped up and down on his knee, trying to keep her balance but ultimately falling off, only to be caught in a bemused but patient KINDNESS' mouth.

"How about keeping your cool, little sister?" She set the cyan soul back onto Sans' lap and plopped down right on top of her, squishing her down under her weight. She looked up at him, her puppets eyes and SOUL regarding him with both wary warmth and tempered hope. "This will work, right?"

Sans stopped smiling and met her eyes seriously. "look, i won't say that it's a guarantee, but if anything goes wrong, it'll be because someone else stuck their noses where they don't belong."

"We're really gonna be alive again?" BRAVERY muttered to himself, lost in his own thoughts.

Another thing that he'd been working out in the back of his mind ever since their reveal; giving them actual bodies to grow up in, not as humans, but as monsters.

It was actually a lot more simple than he first thought, all he really had to do was get Toriel and they'd be set. It would suck, worse than dying in a few ways for them both, but that seemed to be fair; a type of penance from the queen and arbiter of monsterkind for their murders. The sins stopped crawling over his spine when PATIENCE started to nuzzle his leg, trusting his expertise in magic and promise to them all.

He scratched at KINDNESS' skull, letting her puppeted body crumble into a pleasurable heap on his lap as the SOULs inside his body celebrated and revolved all the faster around his own.

Welp, may as well get started. He had a full day until he had to come clean to his brother anyways, may as well use it.

XXXXXXXXX

Toriel smiled to herself as she planted the yellow buttercups next to her backdoor in the large garden her backyard afforded her. Roses and daffodils hung from wires in large pots on each side of a smooth grassy path that winded around three trees and four large bushes she'd pruned to perfection herself over her time living in the large empty house. The small friend that had been gifted to her was always around in one way or another, usually exploring the forest behind her house or on her shoulder as she baked, purring and pleading for his own share.

Her two daughters… her smile fell for a moment before she forced it back on and continued her task.

Her two daughters lived in the Embassy; as the ambassadors to the humans they must be available at all times, to mediate between the two species, especially with tensions flaring between them all over again. They used to visit, before… before. Toriel had mostly isolated herself here in her home for the last month, unable to look her other dear friends in the eyes afterwards.

To know exactly what her children had been up to over the last few centuries or millennium of non linear time. To see from her own perspective exactly what she'd unleashed on the underground every time she allowed them to leave the Ruins… or feel herself turn to dust…

Her dreams had been more unkind to her than ever before.

A deep sigh escaped her, her head resting against her dirty palms as she reminisced on her new and old memories, seated in her lonely little garden.

"you know the last time i heard a sigh that exhausted, i was at the park."

She froze.

"i was wandering around, noticed a girl that seemed down on her luck. i asked her what was wrong, and she told me to sit down and she'd tell me."

It was too soon! He wasn't supposed to be back until tomorrow!!!! She wasn't ready!!!!!!

"i sat next to her, and she pointed at the bench and told me the funniest thing ever."

She whipped around, and was met by an aurora of feathers and magic, her very best friend sitting against the only apple tree she owned.

His smile was wide if lopsided, and what she now knew was his only eye was locked on her with familiar warmth and care that never failed to set her heart at ease, especially now. He was only wearing his zipped up blue hoodie and some black shorts a size too small, but her skeleton friend had never looked kinder than he did now.

"she said the paint was still wet."

Toriel launched herself at her oldest friend, wrapping the shorter skeleton monster in her arms and bringing him into her chest in an honest attempt at smothering him. His hands came willingly around her back, his wings gently embracing her in his magical aura, the endless well of PATIENCE with just a hint of JUSTICE and something else was utterly welcome, especially in light of recent revelations.

"Sans!" 

Quickly pulling back but keeping his solid(thank Faust) shoulders in hand, she checked over the skeleton for any new injuries, subtly leaking KINDNESS magic to try a diagnostic spell. 

He rebuffed her spell with a kind wink and stuffed his hands back into his utterly ruined jacket. "sorry Tori, gonna have to buy me some drinks before undressing me." He teased her, but allowed her to continue fretting over him.

Which she did, for the next five minutes. Completely unable to check his SOUL for the damage she knew she had seen a little less than a month ago, and only being allowed to check his physical form was both a balm the the motherly woman's SOUL and a curse, because her silly best friend wouldn't let her help him.

"Sans!" She finally snapped after the skeleton had teleported them both into her living room, which was utterly unused over the last month and thus rather… uninhabited looking, rather sterile, unlike the rest of her home. "Let me help you, damn it!!"

Her hand snapped up to cover her mouth, Sans smile went wide enough to split his face as Toriel blushed a bright red that showed through her fur.

"Not a word." She hissed down, the slouched skeleton shaking in mirth, only just containing his giggles.

"oh…" Sans wiped away a blue tear, wheezing as he sat up from his poor posture. "i needed that. thanks, Tori." 

The admittance drew another concerned look, and another failed check on his SOUL, but the skeleton remained unperturbed.

"Tori."

She snapped up straight at his voice, the dead serious tone and slight echo snatching her attention as his demeanor changed; his eye locked on hers and he wasn't smiling anymore, his awe inspiring wings had been put away and his hands were tucked politely into his lap.

"i need you to listen, and wait until i explain everything before you start freaking out, okay?"

He was dead serious now, something she'd only caught a glimpse of between fury and pain that night.

"I promise." 

He searched her eyes, judging her words as the arbiter was meant to, before slightly relaxing back into her recliner beside her to put the words together.

As he was collecting his thoughts, Toriel fretted her muddy hands into her dirt stained purple gown, reflecting on the possibility of changing, or at least washing her fur off. She understood her friend needed her to be attentive right now, but she was born a noble lady! Taught from before she could walk how to receive guests, allies, even friends! And cleanliness was meant to be first and foremost among those lessons.

"hehehe." Her friend must have noticed her situation, and snapped his fingers. A wave of blue magic radiated out, and before she knew it, her fur was somewhat moist and poofing up slightly, but most of all, she was clean and ready to offer her aid.

"the six human SOULs…" He trailed off as the magic inside her heart stilled and skipped a beat, horror dawning on her as her other six children were brought up. "what do you think happened to them after the barrier broke?"

She kept her mouth, and her temper, well in hand. She'd given her word to be calm and hold her tongue until Sans was finished, but this would be much harder than expected. She would have to ask for compensation later on for such gross overstepping, even if there wasn't anyone else Toriel would speak of such things with.

"they didn't pass on."

… What?

"all of your children are so stubborn." He muttered to himself, staring past her at something only he could see. "but they were weak, fading away. so they latched onto the most compatible source of magic that could sustain them…"

No…

NO!!!!

That! Wasn't! POSSIBLE!!!!!!

…Right?

It's not…

It can't be…

P-p-please…?

Her hands were shaking, her claws digging deep into her own skin, liquid green magic dripping onto her gown as she stared into her sad friend's eye.

He stood up from beside her and stepped directly in front of her so her face was level with his chest.

Please…

His wings were back, framing his far too thin body, even for a skeleton, like a broken halo. His fingers were dragging his hoodie zipper down, and oh…

There they all were.

She'd blocked most of her memories of her lost children away over the centuries, but she could never forget the purity of their SOULs. Sweet little PATIENCE. Caring BRAVERY. Loving KINDNESS. Intelligent PERSEVERANCE. Energetic INTEGRITY. And eager little JUSTICE. All revolving and draining energy from her best friend's mangled SOUL like an embryo within a womb.

All of her children she'd mourned for centuries were within arms reach once more.

She pressed one shaky palm against the rib cage that held her broken past, the SOULs within pulsing brightly in a loving greeting that Toriel felt all the way in her own SOUL.

A broken sob tore out of her throat as she fell to the ground on her knees and pressed her forehead against the body holding the rest of her missing children. She fell apart in the comforting embrace of magical feathers and her children's eager greeting, skeletal hands gently wiping away each green tear as more and more stained her fur.

"we can bring them back, Tori."

Her eyes snapped open and she tore her way free from Sans' embrace, collapsing back into her recliner. Sans held up his hands in surrender, the wild feeling inside her SOUL flaring her magic around them unstably but unable, unwilling! To harm her friend nor her children.

"it'll take a lot from you and me." He stressed their parts almost as much as he stressed at his own hands now. "but it can be done."

Toriel snapped, retreating beneath centuries of experience as both a noble and then a queen. Her voice was unintentionally monotonous and distant, and she apologized to her friend silently for her cowardice when she saw him take a quarter of a step back. "What is required?"

"well, first." He said. "i'm gonna have to make a call or two. and then…?" He grimaced, his eye going dark. "get ready Tori, this is gonna hurt more than dying ever could, for both of us."

XXXXXXXX

The phone was ringing. Undyne didn't care. She ordered Papyrus to hold the damn punching bag steady so she could keep wailing on it, his new dogs laying silently by the door, keeping watch for them as Paps had taught them to. Her hounds adored the new addition to the guard, their pups loved them even more, constantly cuddling the new dogs and playfully gnawing on their paws.

She hated this feeling. Weakness. Undyne thought she'd escaped it when she'd beaten Asgore in a no holds barred spar for the first time. When she became the captain of the royal guard. Undyne thought she was the vanguard against the nightmares her people needed her to be.

She was wrong.

That title belonged to someone else, someone who was more stubborn than she ever thought was humanly, or monsterly, possible.

A vicious right hook broke the chain and almost sent her friend/student(Faust knows she didn't have anything left to teach him at this point, he was a professional chef with a diploma and everything, and had been taught to fight by Sans of all monsters, the literal judge of monster kind, but she would do her best to keep trying anyways) flying with the bag, but the skeleton was made of sterner stuff, locking both the bag and himself into position so she could continue.

Memories of facing off against a single human and losing utterly every time were vague at best, just like everyone else that was there that night, but her emotions as she turned to dust; her own DETERMINATION melting her SOUL apart? That resounded each and every time she died like a fucking gong in the back of her head.

"Who the hell is calling me?!" Her last punch shattered the bag into a large gust of sand that flew everywhere before she snatched her phone up and hit the stupid fucking buttons. "WHAT?!

"hey undyne."

She froze, her hand numbed enough for her to drop the phone. She had to snatch it back before it broke on the floor, quickly putting it to her ear while shooing away a concerned Papyrus.

"SANS?!"

"WHAT?"

The skeleton tried to snatch the phone, so Undyne put him in a headlock, ignoring the two dogs barking playfully as they heard their creator's voice once more.

"yeah, it's me. listen Undyne, this is serious. i need a favor."

"You're not making a joke, so it's gotta be something at least." This was good, something that could take her mind off things for a little bit until Alphys got off work and they could pretend everything was okay for another couple of hours, together.

"i need the captain of the royal guard."

Undyne felt her body straighten up into the casual ready position she'd spent months drilling into her dogs. Finally, something she could actually do.

"Where?"

"grab Paps and head to Tori's." His voice was relieved, almost as if he hadn't expected her to say yes. She tried not to think of why she wouldn't say yes to helping her best friend's brother. "and Undyne?"

"Yeah?" She was already out of the door, grabbing her favorite leather jacket and Papyrus' scarf on the way, never once letting up the chokehold she had on him. Normally, she'd grab her armor when someone needed Captain Undyne, but if it was just her and Paps, then this was a job that needed more finesse than her usual modus, the two dogs following quietly behind, picking up on her serious mood and remaining in a ready position with their tails high and their large heads down.

"thanks." It was a low sound, like he wasn't used to saying the word. She felt her normal smirk stretch across her face, glad that some things never changed.

"No problem."

She had a job to get to.

XXXXXXX

"So… basically, you're gonna have soul sex with the queen and give birth to six monsters with human SOULs?…"

"NO…" Sans couldn't quite take the 'are you mentally challenged?' out of his voice, which didn't look very good when you're trying to get someone's help; but was understandable considering Undyne's phrasing. "i'm tearing off pieces of me and Tori's SOULs and building monster bodies around them for the humans to… kind of inhabit, i guess? where the fuck did you get sex from."

"It wasn't very fucking clear." She hissed down at the skeleton from the love seat, sipping on the fresh tea Toriel had made on autopilot after Sans put his jacket back on, and hid the SOULs once more. 

"i called you here because i needed the captain of the royal guard, how depraved do you think i am?!?"

"Enough."

They both stopped and looked up at her, and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself. Her magic was roaring beneath her skin, her desire to hold her children igniting the flames of passion that had been carefully smothered ever since she'd exiled herself to the ruins.

It had been so long since she'd needed to keep herself under control. She'd nearly forgotten what it was like, to lose control of your temper as a boss monster was to bring devastation to the immediate area. She could not afford to lose herself to grief nor could Sans. He had told her of the process to bring her children back as living breathing beings once more. He hadn't wanted to go into details, but she had forced them out of her friend all the same.

He would begin by severing the ties that bound a single SOUL to him, gather enough neutral magic from the world and himself to power the underground for a few hours, then tear an small piece off both of their SOULs and fuse them all together around one of his 'blank blasters' as he called them. And her children (and they would truly be her children after this, just as Asriel, or Flowey as he went by before passing on, would always be) would be alive once more as monsters in their own right.

Her healing magic infused food would be necessary for them both to somewhat recover between forming the 'seed' so to speak for each 'rebirth'. And they would both be exceedingly fragile during this time, so calling his surprisingly still and silent brother, as well as the ever vigilant Undyne was both a necessity and a reassurance. The small animal friends Sans had gifted herself and Papyrus were now vigilantly patrolling around her house as an extra layer of protection, all without a word being said.

It was astonishing, truly, how well a monster's magic can reflect their nature.

The moment the fish monster had learned that every single one of the SOULs had been children younger even than Monster Kid, the poor girl had almost thrown up. She actually had thrown up when she'd learned how young little PATIENCE had been when she'd been murdered. She'd been complet onboard as soon as she'd come back from the bathroom.

Poor Papyrus had simply been a statue during all of this, too emphatic to understand why anyone would murder others, let alone children, even if it meant his entire species continued imprisonment. He truly was a most wonderful young man, Sans must truly be proud of the monster he raised.

"When do we proceed?" Toriel said pointedly, ignoring the irritation in the royal guard captain's posture in favor of staring Sans in his eye, hoping to stir the arbiter on. She wanted her children, and she wanted them now.

He looked up at her, squished beside her on the love seat as they both were, and shrugged before flicking his hand and rearranging all of her spacious living room furniture, clearing a good bit of space in the process.

A ten by ten feet of space was outlined in flaming bones, scorching her floorboards a deep dark black in the process that she couldn't care less about right now.

"need you both ready, now." Sans warned as small flames danced between his hands, forming an array of blue on the floor in a language she felt she should be quite familiar with, but couldn't quite place. "if anyone even touches us, we're all dead." Toriel tried not to think of the utterly uncaring way he spoke of their end, instead preparing herself for what Sans described as someone clawing out a portion of their identity with their bare hands, which was essentially what would be happening.

She stood up and stepped within the array of bones and runes, she quickly took twelve of her best healing items out of her INVENTORY, twelve perfectly baked butterscotch pies all stacked in neat little rows, placed on a small table that Sans had floating just above the edge of the array.

She looked down at the skeleton as he shucked off his jacket once more, revealing the joyfully dancing forms of her children's SOUL's within his ribcage, all pulsing with their majestically pure auras and interconnected to her best friend in a way she didn't quite understand, but was thankful for anyways. 

Her heart sped back up, her hands trembled, and her eyes began to burn alongside her magic deep within.

Soon, she told herself. She'd have her children back so soon it hurt to think of.

"Are we ready, my friend?"

He looked back up at her, really looked at her, and she almost flinched. There was no more grinning pun master that had kept his promise to her through the worst times of his countless lifetimes, there was no more proud elder sibling/father figure to the ever upright Papyrus, there was no more judge.

There was simply another ancient monster who'd seen far too much, with too many regrets festering in their SOUL's that kept them from truly embracing life in all its enchanting horrors and grotesque beauty. That expression, that look in his one eye…

She felt her expression melt into something perhaps a bit warmer, his own lighting up in response with enough warmth and resolve to breach through her defenses and steal her breath for a moment. It made her feel seen, to know that someone cared so much for herself outside of Asgore.

Perhaps this is why she'd opened up to him through every possible timeline her child had RESET. Why she'd entrusted what she'd assumed to be a hopelessly lost and confused human child in a world where everyone wants to steal their SOULs to him. Why she asked him to make a promise to a complete stranger.

He was just like her. But he had been alone by his own choice for far longer. No more.

"i'm sorry." 

She blinked at the sudden apology, confused and a bit apprehensive now.

"Why, my friend?"

"you're never gonna be able to look at me again without remembering what's fixing to happen." He grimaced, scratching at the back of his skull while the human SOULs blinked emphatically around his own. "not in this lifetime anyway." 

It was a small reference to the other timelines they were meant to know nothing about. She felt a small smirk pull at the edge of her lips as she looked down at him warmly. It would seem she was the one who held a secret from him now, how delightful; turnabout's fair play after all. He had no idea just how many people would now remember this world once it was reversed, if it ever was. Her daughter had been quite insistent on this life for a reason that was becoming ever clearer the longer she looked. "I wouldn't be so sure of that…"

Sans half heartedly grinned up at her and then all she knew was pain as the world went white.

XXXXXXX

Undyne set the comatose form of monsterkind's queen back on her fluffiest couch with a surprisingly steady Papyrus' help, almost an hour after Sans had begun. The screams of the poor goat woman were still resounding through her ears horribly, and she felt a bit faint at the amount of white 'freshly grown' SOUL Toriel was now sporting around her green center.

She looked back up and met Sans concerned eyes, the other monster with a mostly white SOUL now. He hadn't screamed thankfully; she wasn't sure if she could handle watching him fall apart too, but watching another monster carelessly gouge out parts of their own SOULs like that had been just as haunting.

"she'll be okay." Sans said, focusing on the six blue and green clumps of SOUL floating before him in another array similar to the one below him. "she'll be better when she wakes up."

He clapped his hands together tightly, blue fire rolling around him once more. Red and blue lightning flashed between his fingers as he pulled them apart, gathering the SOUL bits in his palms.

"close your eyes, this is gonna get bright."

She turned around to face the window instead, keeping watch while Papyrus continued to silently tend to Toriel.

She didn't bother looking back, she needed her one eye to actually see any threat coming. But, she FELT them all. 

KINDNESS.

JUSTICE.

PERSEVERANCE.

INTEGRITY.

BRAVERY.

PATIENCE.

One by one, their huge SOUL presence filled the room, and one by one, they shrunk massively to the average strength of a civilian monster.

She kept her eye looking forward, hoping for someone, anyone, dumb enough to try their luck right now, itching to tear off the patch on her fake eye and stop thinking. So she could go back to when all she had to do was stand around and look tough to keep her people happy and safe.

Papyrus joined her shortly, squeezing her shoulder tightly once he noticed her still shot nerves.

"THIS SHALL PASS, UNDYNE." He whispered to her, watching the setting sun with her as they kept watch. More light filled the room, this time a deep, dark red that burned her SOUL in ways that felt too familiar. "AS ALL THINGS MUST, IT SHALL PASS."

She opened her mouth, her serrated teeth on full display despite her relatively relaxed posture, and was interrupted before she could say a word.

"come meet your nieces and nephews, Paps."

Wait…

"What…?" She wasn't very proud of it, but she was frozen right now, just staring out at the sunset. Nieces? Nephews?

"IF A SKELETON WISHES TO ADOPT ANOTHER MONSTER," Papyrus informed her quietly as he passed her by. "THEY MUST FIRST OFFER A PORTION OF THEIR SOULS TO THE CHILD IN QUESTION, A WAY TO PROVE THEIR DEDICATION TO RAISING THE CHILD AND PASS ON THEIR OWN SPECIAL MAGIC. IF THE CHILD'S SOUL IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE FRAGMENT, THEN THEY SHALL MERGE, AND THE CHILD SHALL GAIN A BIT OF THE SKELETONS MAGIC AS WELL AS A DIRECT CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TWO'S SOULS, UNTIL THE CHILD HAS FULLY GROWN."

Wait, this whole thing has been some kind of weird adoption ceremony?!

She flipped around, ready to tear into both skeletons' nonexistent hides. Only for her words to be caught in her throat as she saw Sans cradling the tiny skeletons dressed in oversized white shirts that clearly belonged to the pun master, they couldn't have been a little over foot tall if they weren't curled up into small adorable little balls, six skeletal monsters that resembled Sans too much to be a coincidence, all resting on his chest.

Their tiny colorful SOULs, each a normal human SOUL, were overlapped by a larger, pure white monster SOUL. Small blue strings connected them to the still too white mangled SOUL of her best friend's brother, and she was sure she saw some red liquid dripping from his mouth before being wiped away.

But she put it all behind her as a manic grin stretched across her face.

It worked.

IT FUCKING WORKED!

Before she could call everyone she knew to celebrate properly, i.e. lots of pure alcohol and a long night with her girlfriend, Sans' exhausted eyes met her own with a tired grin.

"not so fast fish sticks." He settled down on the ground more comfortably, easing the, HIS (Faust, that was never going to stop feeling weird), children into better positions on his chest before shutting his eye sockets to sleep.

"we're gonna be stuck here for the next few hours as my magic settles in them."

His one eye popped back open, a hint of vulnerability that she'd never seen before in them. "think you and Paps could keep an eye on us for a while?"

She shook off her lingering confusion and settled for smirking confidently down at the new father of six. 

"Let me make a few calls."

XXXXXXXXX

"PUPPIES!!!!"

"PUPPIES!!!!"

"PUUUUUUUPPPIIIIEESSSSS!!" Asgore blinked in wonder as his guard hounds howled to the rising full moon. 

Someone was pregnant? Or had given birth? How odd, most monsters couldn't stop themselves from bragging about their new bundle of joy, why Asgore hadn't been able to stop crowing about Asriel for months after they'd confirmed his inception.

"Hmm…" He mused aloud, continuing to prune his small bonsai trees within his castle's large central courtyards. He had not been informed of any new monsterlings running around, and his guards were usually much more open about their daily lives, almost painfully open.

…There are some things a proper monster should do behind doors and have them stay that way, away from anyone else's notice, especially when those things include your wife/mate…

Anyways, Asgore set his smallest bonsai tree next to the large pots of buttercups he kept as a reminder of what negligence could cost him as Greater Dog came sprinting in on all fours, his weapon trailing behind him on a large chain attached to his hip.

"BOSS!!!" The large mammal panted as he came to a skidding stop before the king. "NEWS!!!!"

A slimy flip phone that smelled of dog saliva and sweat was dropped at Asgore's feet, and he was treated with the adorable sight of his guard attempting to hit the speaker button and failing hilariously. He'd have to tell Gerson about this at their next poker night, this was comedy gold.

It took a minute, just long enough for the old goat to reign in his quiet chuckles.

"ASGORE?"

"Undyne." He smiled, and decided to tease the poor girl a bit. "I hope there's some good news."

He heard her cursing out the dog's inability to keep any kind of gossip down low before her voice came back through.

"Listen, Asgore. I'm gonna guess you've heard."

"Yes, quite. It would seem our people have some new additions?"

"SIX."

"My goodness!" His small smile became a beaming grin at the excellent news. A single monster born in three months was considered average, six all at once was practically unheard of for the semi immortal race, not even among the dogs who were leading every category when it came to children being born in the last six hundred years! "A celebration must be had then! And a congratulations to the parents! Where are they?"

"I'm with them right now."

"Ah." He nodded, understanding. "A difficult birth, then?"

"More like extremely dangerous." Her voice was drier than the Hotlands, (hah! and Tori said he had no sense of humor). "Wrong kind of intent came their way, they all woulda dusted."

"Oh, my." Asgore's stomach dropped to the ground, this was quite unusual; monster births are generally painful considering the mother must be both conscious and not on any kind of medication to bolster the new SOUL's chances of survival, but they hadn't lost a newborn since before they'd sealed away the Ruins. Poor Gerson had never quite recovered from losing both his child and wife on the same day, he'd even resigned from his post as Captain of the Royal Guard and went to live in Waterfall. "But still good news?"

"Yeah, everything went just fine. Toriel's here, she'll take care of everything on that end, but me and Paps are gonna keep watch through the night, make everyone feel safer, yeah?"

"But of course!" He slumped in relief at the news, glad that his ex wife was present for such things, and maybe soon they'll be able to drop the ex part all together. "I shall handle things on this end, reorganize the guards for the next week, give you some time off after such a stressful encounter. I trust you'll be able to handle this?"

"Yeah… but Asgore?"

"Yes Undyne." He hadn't caught her tone, still high off the arrival of six new babies to meet and tickle and laugh with. He could hardly wait!

"I need you to be here at Toriel's in the morning…"

His golden brows furrowed in confusion at the request. 

"But of course. May I ask what the situation is?"

She hesitated for a few moments, debating with himself as he watched the drool covered phone on the ground, Greater Dog simply happily panting in the background.

"Just be here, please. A small personal guard is fine, but they'll have to wait outside."

Her voice was oddly… hard. This was serious.

"Of course." He spoke, the old king of the mountain who had withstood humankind's endless malice in the name of his people's future slipping through the tired old man he really was.

"Thanks, Asgore. I'll see you then."

Before he could respond, the phone clicked, ending the call.

Asgore was left standing there with an overly affectionate/happy canine monster every bit as large as himself, awkwardly.

"Would you like to play poker with me?" He smiled at the guard hound, whose tail was rapidly approaching light speed now.

"GAMES!!!!!"

He laughed uproariously, still high off of the news, and turned to the small bench just behind him, sobering up in a heartbeat. "Won't you be coming, my dears?"

THEY smiled warmly at him, THEIR red eyes glowing softly under the moonlight.

"Of course." 

XXXXXXX

Toriel sighed happily as she laid down facing the ceiling among ashes, bones, and blue flames, joyfully cradling the large, (he was five foot nine and a bit round in the waist Tori, he was not gonna be running anywhere, thank you very much!) pile of bones that she called her best friend ever closer into her chest in her attempt to hug him even tighter. She reached down to his own chest as he slept peacefully in her arms and lightly booped dear little Patience's sinuses, eliciting another tiny sneeze that was unreasonably adorable and sent a tiny flutter through her floating newly formed monster/human SOUL, still connected to and drawing energy from Sans even as they all rested.

With six tiny baby skeletons, and not to mention the peacefully slumbering judge himself, atop herself, Toriel admitted she was somewhat suffocating at the moment.

From keeping her giggles and squeals of pure joy from waking the sleepy skulls that is.

She had her old records that she used to encourage slumber in all of her children playing in the background by her own request, Undyne and Papyrus had both been so accommodating since she'd woken up an hour after Sans himself had fallen asleep. They'd gotten her the special medicine she kept on ice for those occasions where she needed to be more… receptive? To joy and celebration….

Okay, so she might just be a tad bit drunk at the minute. Just enough to put the memories of the past to bed for the moment so she could embrace the present. She only kept a small amount at any time, never enough to drink in excess.

She didn't have much of a choice, though see? Her friend had been right, she hadn't been able to look at him the same way after the… procedure.

She hadn't been able to let either her children nor him out of her arms ever since she'd woken up.

She'd been in pain that had rivaled even giving birth to her little Azzy, six times over. But the contrast between the endless care and affection he poured into her to help numb the agony flooding her veins and the utterly uncaring way he reached into his own SOUL and tore out great large swaths much larger than what he drew from her was deeply rooted in her psyche even now.

It was… unhealthy. The sheer indifference the skeleton had displayed as he tore himself apart before her very eyes like it was simply another thing he had to do at work that day. It was… horrifying. Nauseating.

It made her SOUL ache, to think about once more. So she stopped. And booped Patience once more, eliciting another sneeze and SOUL quiver that brightened her mood instantly.

"you're gonna wanna stop doing that, at least until they all wake up."

She blinked and looked around in confusion; Undyne was sitting at the window off to the side, quietly keeping watch over the moonlit front lawn while Papyrus was in the kitchen, making them all some food after a long muted conversation with his partner, Mettaton. Neither could have spoken to her, both still lost in their own worlds at the moment.

"tibia honest, being ignored is a new one for me."

The pun drew her wandering eyes back to the skeleton in her arms, the only thing giving his sleeping ACT away being the small blue zzzz's floating away from her friends still mouth. She smiled widely, and instead bopped HIM on his sinuses, drawing a small giggle and a flutter of his own white and blue scarred SOUL.

"their bodies are really receptive right now, like clay." He continued, like she hadn't discovered a new way to tease him relentlessly. "you won't mess anything up, but it'll be like someone sticking a feather up your nose… just without the pain."

"You're awake." She laughed to herself, squeezing his ribs even tighter. "I am glad."

He opened his one eye, blue and golden yellow mixing together to form green as he smiled warmly up at her, still half asleep. Her cheeks burned a deep red that had nothing to do with the alcohol when he closed his eye once more and snuggled back into her chest like she was a particularly large pillow.

"any problems while i was out?"

She shook her head in the negative, reaching up to adjust little Justice, who tended to flop about in their sleep, and nudged him back on top of the largest skeletal child, Kindness, who quickly snuggled the slightly smaller skeleton hybrid into her arms.

Her smile couldn't grow anymore, her heart felt so full it might burst as her arms became like steel bands around the poor exhausted skeleton atop her.

"They're so small." She breathed out in awe, running yet another green glowing hand over the six children in a diagnostic spell that came back to her as all clear for the umpteenth time.

"they'll be like that for about a year, and then they'll start growing fast as a bunch of weeds."

"When will they reach full maturity?"

"around fifteen years from now."

In other words just a bit faster than most humans.

"Oh my goodness." She was wrong, so wrong. Her beaming grin could get wider.

All that time to raise them. All that time to teach them. All that time to hold them.

"Thank you, my friend."

"get some rest, Tori." He gave one of his patented winks up at her and began to drift off once more. "something tells me tomorrow's gonna be wild."