There was an old saying Sans could remember fondly at that particular moment.

A simple, plain, all-encompassing statement.

What the fuck.

"You know about resets?" Sans asked, his voice strained and tugged thin from years of abuse and trauma.

When Sans was young - when Sans was stupid - he used to try and reach out to others about resets. Tried to tell others, tried to have them understand. And some did. When he was able to regurgitate the day's events, minute by minute, before any of it happened? People tended to believe that rather quickly. But then they forgot. Over and over again.

The two people that had gone the furthest with their help during Flowey's reign of resets had been Grillby and Alphys. Papyrus was too set on befriending the flower, and Toriel refused to leave the ruins. Asgore was a decent help, but he was swamped with his royal duties, and Flowey knew how to create crises and distractions so that Asgore had no choice but to focus on something else. Undyne just ran in, spears blazing. And always inevitably died.

Grillby was naturally set against Flowey with his fire, and he was a quiet listener who knew when to withdraw and when to attack. Alphys knew of Flowey, and had cameras everywhere. They were good. At first.

But then Flowey knew Alphys and knew how to overwhelm the girl. She never lasted more than a few days. And Grillby may be able to burn vines, but Flowey knew how to grab his ankle and throw him into a river.

Eventually, Sans stopped asking for help and stopped warning people about resets. By the time Frisk had come around, his belief had long since dwindled.

This was a cup of cold water being splashed against his face. A crisp, clean startling sense of freeze that settled over his bones and dragged him into a still silence. Laughing Jack had moved to crouch down in front of Sans, his face just so damn gentle that it hurt. It ached so much.

(It hurt because Sans was supposed to be the man of morals, the judge, the man of resets and protection. A proactive Father. He's none of those things. He feels like an imposter, and Frisk's yellow eyes can see Sans for who he is. And they're going to drag that out, no matter how long it takes them.)

(He knows he's a bad person. He knows. But Frisk is bad too. He's just so bitter with their victories, with his defeats, and it burns at his soul every waking moment.)

"I..." Laughing Jack bites the bottom of his lip, eyes trailing over Sans' hopeless face. He's struggling, Sans can see that much. The man wants to help, but Laughing Jack is never the best person for in-depth emotional discussions. Even if it frustrates the man, Sans can tell that Jack is taking the time to acknowledge that he isn't what Sans needs right now. A hand reaches out, claws tilted away from Sans' body. "Why don't we all go home, little potato... and talk more about this."

Sans wants to scream no. His throat aches and burns with questions, with why, with how, and please let me know now I need to know I need -

Instead, Sans accepts his hand and decides to trust in the knowledge that Jack will tell him in due time. Trust that a reset won't come.

They return back to the group - to the date - with no words. Bean babbles on, always so ignorant of the world around her. At one point she reaches up with her skull and hits the bottom of Sans' chin with her forehead. He'd laugh if he had the energy to.

Jane's worried and stressed. She doesn't understand what's happening, and it's eating her alive. He can tell. Jane is a woman who knows things. And not understanding why her boyfriend had a mental breakdown on the bathroom floor was certainly driving her in circles. Black nails tapped against the steering wheel, and he had the sneaking suspicion that she was speeding over the speed limit a bit.

Toby looks freaked out. He's an emotional person, and trying to get him to bottle anything up is like asking him to use a bottle with a gaping, open bottom. It spills right out. He's all over the place, trying to figure out what happened and trying to comfort Sans while also keeping a respectable difference. After a while, Sans manages to get Toby to play with Bean while he taps his fingers against his skull in quiet, repetitive movements.

Tap tap tap

Laughing Jack apparently knows about resets.

Tap tap tap

Laughing Jack knows.

Tap tap tap

Was it because he was an imaginary friend? Has he met someone who could reset before? He was over two hundred years old, it may actually be possible he has. He's met a lot of people, by all accounts.

He might have fought them before and had to win, A part of Sans whispers, cold and slimy. He did what you couldn't.

Sans squashes that thought down and doesn't let it grow back.

He hates how weak Frisk makes him. How one appearance at his home could shatter weeks, months, of emotional improvement. He feels like he's dangling by a string now, a broken, lifeless thing, held by a lifeline. But that hole that had once been an endless pit was now a built staircase, and so, Sans reaches out and takes a step. And another. As the car tugs itself forward into the driveway, and as the neighbors eye them like devious little pests, he takes a step forward on that staircase.

It's okay. It'll be okay. Frisk hasn't reset in over a year. And even if Laughing Jack doesn't remember, he knows.

That has to be enough.

"How much do you know about resets?" Laughing Jack asks as they pull into the driveway. Per usual, the neighbors are eyeing the odd new arrival to their town.

In the corner of Sans' vision, he could see Jane's fingers tense against the wheel at the word. He wants to cry and vomit all at once.

"I -" Sans paused, unable to find quite the right words to express himself. He's never... dreamed of this happening. Not ever. Yet here it was, a possibility. An opening. And he was speechless.

Laughing Jack's eyes trailed over him, as intense as ever.

"What does this have to do about resets?" Jane asked, her voice sharp and persistent. Black eyes peer into them from the mirror at the front of the car. "Why are you bringing that up to Sans? I thought we all mutually agreed we wouldn't tell him."

Sans snapped his gaze towards her.

"Tell me what?" Sans asked. His voice was almost shrill and shrieking from how fast it came out.

"It shouldn't even... it doesn't matter," Jane said, tugging the car into park with a scowl. "It shouldn't impact you, it shouldn't -"

"He's the one who brought it up!" Laughing Jack hissed at her. His claws dug into the padding until they dragged marks into the fabric. "It's not like he can remember them like me -"

Sans slapped a hand out, grabbing his boyfriend's chin and dragging it to face him. He wants to scream and throw things, he wants to break something and make it shatter. "Did you just say you can remember them? Like... like me? You can remember them?"

There's a stifling silence, and that tells him everything. It's not of hesitance, it's of shock. Of confusion and plain "What the fuck".

In the front seat, Toby ticked. Other than that, no one moved.

"Living room," Jane hissed to the others in the car. Her voice was more desperate than angry. Raw and plain confused. "Now."

No one argued. Sans couldn't hear them even if they had.

They practically stormed into Sans' house, slamming the front door shut without much care for the attention of the others within the home. Frankly, gaining their attention was a good thing. Sans needed answers, and he needed them desperately.

"Everyone, living room, fucking now!" Jane shouted.

"Is everything o... okay?" Toby asked. And fuck, if Sans' heart didn't ache at that question. He looked genuinely out of his element, having no idea what they were talking about and why they ended the date so fast.

"It will be," Jane hums out, giving no room for a second thought as everyone quickly gathers.

They all look mildly confused and annoyed. Jeff himself has a towel thrown over his shoulders, hair wet with water, and bubbles of shampoo not fully washed out. A scowl clings to his expression as he hovers near the couch.

"Why the fuck are we - did you have to drag me out of the shower so fast?" Jeff snaps at Jane.

"Resets," Jane said, shooting a look at Jeff.

Jeff sits down on the couch, shutting up in record time for Jeff. His expression is more hollow and pale than before. Smile Dog chokes on his breath.

Sans wants to throw something.

How long had they all known? How did they know? Had they met Frisk before? Fuck, did Frisk visit them behind Sans' back? The kid would've done that. Why hadn't he expected it sooner?

Laughing Jack can remember them. He mentioned it. It's only hitting Sans now, but he remembers. He can remember. Does this mean he's not alone anymore, does this - what does this mean?

"Obviously this is a... sensitive topic," Smile Dog starts them off, looking around the room and narrowing in on the four people that had been out on the date. "So I think it's best we start with the basics and then narrow down -"

"How can you remember them?" Sans managed to croak out, looking over at Laughing Jack with pleading eye lights. "How can you...?"

There was so much going through his mind at that moment that Sans couldn't finish his sentence. His mouth tasted like static.

Bean babbled on the floor as she crawled about.

"He remembers them too?" Ben hissed out, eyes wide and almost bloodshot. As if they weren't already bleeding constantly. Sans almost cries at the 'too'.

"Wait, how many of you can remember them?" Sans asked, looking around the room.

There's a hesitation that clings to the air. It tastes foul and putrid.

Then, the first hand rises. It's Laughing Jack, with a stone-cold expression and stiff joints. He looks disturbed at knowing Sans could remember them.

The second is Ben, following behind him quickly. He looks disoriented.

"I... I mean, I guess I..." Sally raises her hand. "Kind of."

Smile Dog raises a paw.

Zero giggles and raises her hand.

Sans is the sixth and final to raise his hand. It trembles in the air as he gags on his breath.

Five. Five other people in his house knew and remembered resets.

"How -" He stops, and tries again. "How do... how..."

"What's a reset?" Helen suddenly pipes up, looking rather lost himself. Blue eyes trail over the raised hands, trying to establish a connection amongst them that wouldn't really exist outside of their own select knowledge.

"Okay, let's get this out of the way next then," Jane said. His girlfriend leans forward, pressing an elbow against her knee as her gaze sweeps across anyone else, daring them to interrupt. "Who here actually knows what resets are?"

Everyone but Helen and Toby raises their hands.

"Sans shouldn't know. He shouldn't -" Jeff looks stressed, scratching at his neck nervously. "Why the fuck does he know?"

"Why do I - why do you know?" Sans asked. His voice strained as he continued, hands shaking uncontrollably. "The only people who knew underground were Asgore and the two who reset, and it was - fuck, it wasn't easy trying to let other people know. I tried, and - and there isn't any existing evidence of them, so I don't know how you all know but -"

He shut up rather quickly with a kiss from Laughing Jack. When he opens his mouth again, another comes. And another.

"Breathe, little potato," Jack hums, and Sans does. Albeit with a frown and clattering bones.

"To explain to the two who don't know," Jane starts, her voice quiet and almost defeated. "Resets are when someone goes back in time. They can 'reset' the world, so to speak."

Another barrage of kisses is planted on Sans' cheekbone, and Sans had to struggle not to let out a loose, defeated sigh as they came. His clattering goes down, only slightly.

"Is it another CreepyPasta ability or something?" Toby asks. "Like how Lau... Laughing Jack can do everything he can do? Or how Sally and Ben are alive after they... they died?"

"No. It's not directly tied to CreepyPasta. The person with the most determination in their soul in the world can do it," Jane explains. "It's something incredibly dangerous. And a threat to anyone in the wrong hands."

"Yeah," Sans croaks out.

"We all -" Jane shoots everyone minus Sans, Toby, and Helen a look, "Agreed to keep our knowledge on resets on the low when it came to anyone who didn't know. And especially Sans. Since resets are... complicated, to say the least."

"They're scary," Sally muttered against her knees, staring at the carpet with a blank expression.

"How do you guys all know about this? Those who don't remember." Sans asked.

There's a pause from Jane. "We're CreepyPasta, Sans. You really don't think anyone with the ability to do something as powerful as a reset wouldn't become a serial killer at some point in their life?"

The room is eerily silent. Outside, he could hear the murmurs of a distant train and the muffled sounds of a cartoon from Sally's T.V. in her room. She must have forgotten to turn it off when she was ushered down quickly.

"Trust me," Sans said. "I know."

Jane swallows thickly. "I figured as such."

Laughing Jack's hand that was holding one of Sans' tightened around it.

"It was an old killer, I never met them myself, but they're the reason a good chunk of us know about resets," Smile Dog said, gesturing around the room. "I'd say they were around at least five years before monsters escaped. They're dead now since Slenderman hadn't... Slenderman eliminates CreepyPasta he considers threats."

A look was shot towards Laughing Jack, who only shrugged and offered an empty grin.

"I met them once," Ben said.

Sans glanced over. Ben is hunched, halfway out of the T.V screen on the wall, with fingers drumming against the bottom of the T.V. His eyes are averted, and his bottom lip is trapped by his teeth. He grinds down before releasing it. "Just once. I wanted to see who the hell kept going back in time."

"How can you guys remember? Can you please tell me?" Sans asked.

Another pause from the room. If it dared to keep silent, Sans was going to go on a rampage himself. Or break down crying.

Probably both.

"Anyone who isn't a mortal - specifically not human or monster - can remember resets," Zero murmured out, running a silky strand of hair between her two fingers. It twisted and churned, just like Sans' sou. "Ben and Sally are dead, so they can remember them. I'm an imaginary friend who forced herself to life. Laughing Jack is an angel. And Smile Dog isn't a dog, technically." She shrugs, though the movement is stiff. "That's why we can remember. And why creatures like Slenderman can probably also remember. This begs the question as to why you can remember."

"I..." Sans trails off, looking down at his closed fist. "I'm not sure. I've just... always been able to remember them."

"You said... you were created in a lab, Sans," Jane said, leaning forward. "Do you think that has anything to do with it?"

Somewhere far, far away, Sans can imagine Gaster cackling in his grave.