Frisk sat in their room quietly, shrouded in darkness. They let out a small sigh, leaning back in their bed. Dinner will start soon and they knew. Everything was exactly the same as it was the last five resets. 

Everything was beginning to get boring again.

A knock awoke them from their thoughts and lured them to the door. With a tug, the door opened and a familiar face smiled at them.

"Heya." Sans grinned, walking into the room. He took a seat on their bed, leaning back just as they had. "Tori said to get you down for dinner."

"Right." Frisk slowly nodded, closing the door. They locked it. Sans glanced to them and back at the door, not saying anything.

Frisk stalked towards the bed and got on top of him silently, sitting on his chest. The skeleton gave Frisk an odd look. "Kid?"

"I'm going to reset." They said without hesitation, leaning down to look deep into the other's soul. "I'm going to reset and we're going to go back to killing each other over and over again."

Sans lost his breath. He moved his arm and pushed the kid off of him, pushing himself back and against the wall. He looked over the kid for a moment before letting out a nervous chuckle. "Heh, wow... you almost got me there, bud." He wiped a few beads of sweat away, his back pressing against the wall behind him desperately now. "What a bad joke."

Frisk blinked before they tilted their head ever-so-slightly. "I wasn't joking."

Sans froze. His eye-light flickered a little before he lifted a hand, the appendage cloaked in blue flames. "You-" He shot his hand up and then forward, taking the kid with it as he gripped their soul.

Frisk let out a laugh as they were slammed against the opposite wall, clawing at the invisible weight on their chest. "YOU CAN'T STOP IT, SKELETON! NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I DO IT, YOU CAN'T-"

Sans was off the bed now. He slammed the kid onto the ground and brought his real hand down on the back of their head, keeping them in place. He knelt over them, fingers digging into their scalp and their skin. "I can f*cking try."

He placed a knee on their back, putting pressure on it before he pulled their head up off of the ground. Sans pulled it closer and closer to himself, threatening to break their spine. The kid let out the first glimpses of a scream but was immediately silenced by the other hand, stuffing their mouth with his sleeve. Tears streamed from their eyes as they clawed to the arm holding their head. Messy pleading left their mouth as the skeleton drew them further and further until they were on the tip of snapping. Without another word, a single, sharpened bone materialized at the base of their ribs, teasing at the clothing with its tip. Slowly and painfully, it drew forward, settling itself right under the ribs and angling upward, reaching up and piercing the heart. A few gurgles and bubbles were heard before the child went limp in the skeleton's arms, motionless.

Sans held the kid there for a few more seconds before he loosened his grip and threw the body aside. It fumbled onto the floor, the limbs ending up at odd angles and the hair messily covering their face. He got to his feet and stumbled over to the body just in time to see a pulsing, glowing red heart arising from it. Without a second thought, he grasped it in his skeletal hands and squeezed.

"My child?" 

Sans let out a sigh, lifting his head up and towards the doorway. A tall, beautiful goat woman stood in the doorway, hand over her mouth and eyes wide with horror as she stared at the scene before her. Sans sat down next to the body, waiting.

The kid will reset.

He let out a sad chuckle, craning his skull to the body.

They always do.

That's when it happened.

It wasn't the reset he expected. It was something entirely new. His eye-sockets shot wide-open as searing heat flooded his soul. Shocked, he clutched his chest and let out a ragged breath. It hurt.

It hurt so much.

The feeling felt as if it wanted to tear his fragile soul into pieces. The feeling made him feel like he was burning alive as every bone in his body was being torn to splinters. 

The feeling felt like it was killing him and stitching him back together all at the same time.

It...

It was oddly EXHILARATING.

Soon, everyone in the house gathered at the doorway, filtering in the room. Shock followed by concern plastered on each of their faces as they first noticed Frisk... and then Sans.

The skeleton was heaving on the ground, gripping at his chest with such ferocity that it drew Papyrus to his side. "BROTHER? BROTHER, WHAT'S WRONG?"

The words barely registered to Sans. Nothing seemed to as the world became a mesh of blurred colors and incomprehensible sounds. The only consistent thing in him was pain. Simmering, searing pain.

And then.

And then suddenly, everything became clear.

Everything became eerily calm as sense set in.

Everything became alright.

Everything was alright.

It wasn't alright. 

Sans laughed. He laughed so hard, so loudly that it scared his brother, forcing the taller of the two to withdraw to the side. Sans keeled over, holding tightly to his skull as more and more horrid laughter fell from his mouth in rushed breathes. His bones shook. His smile stretched so wide that it hurt.

Why was he laughing?

Why was he happy?

Why did everything just...

"Make sense." Sans' smile fell in an instant as he stared at the others. 

Except the others didn't seem like themselves. They all just seemed... different. More... Oh, how to describe how he saw them. 

They weren't... them.

Just more people.

Just more EXP.

He let a hand claw up his skull, chuckling with anxiety. "Wow. Aha- wow, okay-"

"Sans," For the first time in years, Papyrus' voice was only down to a hushed whisper. "Sans, you're scaring me."

"I'm scaring myself!" Sans laughed again, this time against his will. He hugged himself tightly, letting his chest constrict until it hurt. "I- I don't know what's happening!"

Toriel's hands were over his mouth. "His LOVE..."

Sans' gaze flicked in the queen's direction and he looked down at his jittering hands, checking.

He stopped breathing.

Level 37.

Level THIRTY. SEVEN.

He didn't understand.

How?

Sure, he wasn't the most saintly person ever, but THIRTY SEVEN? 

It didn't make sense. 

Unless... 

He slowly turned to Frisk's body on the floor.

Frisk's dead body.

If he has thirty seven levels... then that could only mean that... 

He stared at them, horrified. 

They were actually dead.

"So,"  Nix gave a small shrug. "I actually killed them." 

The bat monster gave him a odd smile. "And that's why your in the room with bars like me?" They twittered with a curious tone.

"You mean prison?" Nix grouched.

"A what?" The bat giggled and fluttered a bit onto the wall before climbing onto the ceiling. Their feet grappled on a few loose stones and they let themself hang upside down.

Nix sighed. "Nevermind." He leaned against the wall. "Crazy bat."

"So," Another inmate slowly leaned against the door of their cell, peeking out the little window. "Why are you in the asylum block, then?"

Nix moved around in his straitjacket, frowning. "They think I'm crazy, BUT I'M NOT!"

"Sure," The inmate in the door chuckled. "That's what we all say."

"I'm not crazy!" The bat screeched suddenly, their massive ears swiveling on their head. Nix noticed they lacked actual eyes and found that intriguing. They turned in the general direction of Nix and frowned. "I know itty-bitty things that no one thinks I know about!"

"What??" Nix tilted his head. 

"THE DOOR!" The bat screeched. "THE DOOR, THE DOOR!"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP ABOUT THE DANG DOOR!" The inmate snarled, banging on the wall. 

The bat flapped its wings frantically. "THE GREY DOOR! THE DOOR!"

Nix's head shot up. A grey door? Why does he know about a grey door? "In Waterfall?"

The bat suddenly froze, completely spinning around to face Nix. It flapped and flapped until it fell off of the ceiling before it crawled over to its bars, pressing its face to them. "Grey door?"

"Yes," Nix leaned forward. "A grey door in waterfall."

The other smiled widely before nodding vigorously. "Grey door!"

The other inmate fell silent, only listening to their interaction. Judging by their face, though, Nix could tell that they thought he was crazy too. Nix didn't really care. "That door only shows up once in a million resets- a glitch in the code. How do you remember??"

The bat suddenly jumped. "STARTS! ENDS!" they bounced up and down. "STARTS AND ENDS AND REWINDS AND DO-OVERS AND-" 

Nix nearly fell over when he scooted closer to his bars. "You KNOW about the resets??"

The bat nodded firmly. "Know the do-overs and rewinds and the whatnots! Always repeats and repeats!" They make a circular motion with their wings before tilting their head. "Thought I was the only one which knew! Met other friend though!"

Nix was pressing against the bars at this point. "There are other people too??"

The bat smiled and nodded again just as if they were a bobble-head. "Yes, yes! Friend promised to help me out of room too!"

And on cue, sirens blared throughout the facility. Nix reeled back from the bars and landed on his back as a guard fell back-first right in front of his cell, unconscious. A familiar figure sauntered into view, brandishing a cloak and a lethal looking scythe. They turned to the cell right across from his, the one holding the bat monster, and slashed through the bars with ease. The bat monster embraced them quickly. "FRIEND!!"

The newcomer let out a small laugh before patting the bat on the head. "Let's go."

"WAIT!" the bat monster scurried over to Nix's cell and tapped on the bars, turning to their friend. "New friend!"

The stranger blinked before they shrugged and hacked Nix's bars as well without a second thought. Nix flinched. "Holy-"

"Welcome aboard." The stranger smiled, grabbing Nix and hoisting him over their shoulder before they fled.

((AND THUS

A TRIO OF CRIME AND ADVENTURE WAS FORMED-))