The judgment hall is long and wide, paneled with large stained glass windows illuminating the area in a warm yellow light. Great pillars rise up from either side of the red and orange tiled floor, smooth and massive and carved of pure white marble stone. Birds can be heard from outside somewhere, twittering and singing as if they were flitting through the trees on the Surface. Great spikes and collections of sharp bones fragment around, jutting out of the walls and floors and spotted with dark red blood.
In the center is a human. A bruised and bloodied human, to be sure, but alive all the same. It's standing in a rigid, unnatural position, a sharp knife clasped in its right hand.
Directly across from it is a skeleton. A skeleton with his hood thrown back, perspiration dripping down his skull. A skeleton whose eye sockets are somehow closed.
A skeleton.... who is sleeping.
The human raises its hand. The hand holding the knife.
It lunges.
Sans's eyes snap open, and he jumps to the side. The human skids past him, knife slashing down on empty air.
"heh, didja really think you would be able t-"
The human turns and slashes again.
But before the fatal blow can land, before the blade can slice through Sans's SOUL, Finn leaps in front of him, hands stretched out, desperately blocking the attack. The knife tears through their palms, and for a moment time freezes. Finn stares at the human. The human stares back. For a split second, their eyes are open. They're wide, blue, innocent. Terrified. Filled with pain.
Then the moment passes, and the human staggers back, eyes closed once more. Red blood drips from their knife. Finn's blood.
Agony flares up in Finn's hands. They hold them up to their face, trembling. They're covered with blood. Blood is pooling in their palms, dripping down their wrists. Their fingers are stained red. There's so much blood they can't even see the actual gashes on their palms. They try to move their fingers, and the pain shoots down their arm like an electric shock.
They feel dizzy. They wonder if they're going to faint.
Before they can, however, there's a sudden warmth at their back, and Sans grabs them and holds them steady. There's a small pop, and they teleport to the far side of the hall, away from the human. Keeping one arm wrapped around them, Sans turns them toward him, and they stare anxiously at his face. He looks exhausted, more tired than they would've thought possible. Even his smile is drooping. But his eyes are awake, bright and filled with shock and concern.
"kid... oh, kid..." He gently takes one of Finn's hands, holding it by the wrist. "it's gonna be okay, monster magic will..."
He trails off and stares at them, disbelief etched across his tired face.
"...why?"
Finn blinks, their eyes suddenly filling with tears.
"'Cuz I like you," they sniff, "even if you hate me, and I can't let them murder you, not in front of me, I want to... I need to save everybody..."
Sans studies them for a moment, then abruptly pulls them close, letting go of their wrist to hold them in a tight one-armed grip. Down the hall, the human has regained its balance and is slowly turning to face them. It's standing. Waiting. Finn feels a burst of fear, terror for Sans's life and the lives of all the other innocent monsters of the Underground, and they turn away, focusing their gaze on Sans's gray turtleneck.
"i don't hate you, kid," he says quietly.
And then, suddenly, they're off.
The next few moments are a blur to Finn. Wind whistles through their hair, and they can tell that Sans is moving rapidly around the hall, using his strange powers to significantly enhance his speed. His right arm, the arm that's not wrapped around Finn, flies out and performs astonishingly quick gestures to summon white and blue bones and humongous skeletal heads whose jaws burst open and send blindingly bright white lasers blasting in the direction of the human. The human follows Sans around the hall, moving with inhuman speed, deftly dodging his attacks and trying to get close enough to strike him with their blade. Occasionally the light in Sans's right eye dims, and the one in his left eye swells and begins flashing turquoise and yellow. When this happens, Sans is able to use his power to latch on to the human themself with a blue aura of force and fling them across the room.
Finn clutches Sans's turtleneck in their bloody hands, upset about getting the blood on his clothes but too terrified to let go. The agony has faded somewhat, though there's still a pulsing pain in their palms, and the fabric feels rough and raw in their grasp. Sans keeps one arm wrapped tightly around their waist, and they know he's not going to let them go, but that's the problem. He can't keep fighting this thing forever. No one can.
Already, Sans's face is knit in pain and exhaustion, and perspiration is quite literally dripping off of his face. But he keeps going, teleporting again and again, keeping just out of reach of the human's knife, sending attack after attack after them. The human, meanwhile, grows more and more eager, moving faster and faster, coming closer and closer to achieving their goal.
He's pushing himself way too hard.
Indeed, Finn notices in horror that particles have begun flaking off of Sans's face and floating away into the air. Pieces of dust. Sans is disintegrating. The strain is killing him.
"Sans," Finn whispers, but of course, Sans can't hear them; what between the wind, and the crashes, and the blasts of energy, the room is just far too loud.
Sans is slowing, his movements becoming more and more languid, the human catching up to them faster and faster. He can't help it; he'll hold out until the end, but he's literally falling apart. His eye flashes yellow and turquoise once more, and with a burst of effort he flings the human far away, taking the moment to pause for a second and catch his breath. A large chunk of his skull flakes off and floats away, but he maintains his firm grip on Finn, holding them close.
I have to do something.
The human leaps back onto their feet and comes after them once more, faster than they've ever moved before. Sans immediately teleports himself and Finn away, sending a couple dozen more blasters after the human. His breath is coming in sharp gasps, and the lights in his eyes are starting to fade.
Sans...
The human swipes at them with its knife, but misses. Sans sweeps around them and sharp bones jut up out of the ground, which the human just barely dodges. Sans tries to teleport to the other side of the hall, but his power gives out and they are dropped mid-teleport onto the floor. He tries to summon a blaster, but it flickers and disappears. The human turns to face them, and then begins leisurely walking toward them. It takes its time. It knows they're beat.
Finn makes a decision.
They shift abruptly and thrust their hand into Sans's chest, pressing the RESTORE button that fades eagerly into existence at their fingertips. Startled, he staggers backward, releasing Finn from his grasp. The pieces that flaked off of his skull begin melting back into their proper places, but Finn doesn't have time to watch. They turn, their eyes latching on to the human.
It's right behind them. It gives them a sickening grin, then grabs them by the shoulder and rams its knife into their stomach.
Finn gasps, a sudden numbness taking their soul.
And then they see it.
The shiny RESTORE button, floating in the center of the human's chest.
They smile at the human, blood trickling from their mouth.
They press it.
Time seems to slow down, slow enough that Finn can watch all of the million things that happen at once. It's like... it's like the human was covered in a shell that burst open with the press of the button. Suddenly their body relaxes, breaking out of the strange rigid position. Their hair falls normally back onto their shoulders. The dried blood and cuts in their clothes disappear, cuts sealing up and fabric re-knitting itself. The knife falls out of their hand, clattering on the tiled floor. Color returns to their face, and their eyes snap open, blue and scared and innocent and full of pain. Those blue eyes latch onto Finn's, and they fill with tears and guilt and horror and twisted agony.
"No...." they whisper. Despair shivers through their body, and they fall to their knees, crying.
Finn stares at them for a second, but soon they too are falling, falling backwards, and they don't seem to be able to stop themself, but luckily Sans is there to do it for them. He catches them in his arms and holds them, and suddenly they're looking up at his face, his whole face, completely healed, no longer strained or tired, but contorted in... shock? Horror? Awe? Sorrow? Finn tries to figure it out, ignoring the increasing wetness of their sweater, ignoring the tingling numbness consuming their body, pushing away the darkness hovering at the edges of their vision.
"S...Sans..." Finn tries to speak, but chokes on something in their throat. They can't really think of what to say, anyways. Their brain is fuzzy, fumbling, unable to string together the words.
"kid," Sans says, trying to keep his voice calm and reassuring but failing miserably. "it's gonna be okay. we're going to get you... get you to someone who can... monster magic..."
"No," Finn coughs weakly. "No, I'm gonna die, Sans. It was always going to happen. Just take my SOUL, free the monsters..."
"what monsters?" Sans asks hoarsely. "they're all dead."
The other human sobs, burying their face in their hands.
"N...no...." Finn tries vainly to speak, tries to tell Sans the truth, but it won't come. Their tongue won't move.
Luckily, at that exact moment, footsteps and voices sound from the outside hallway, growing louder by the moment. Sans stiffens, and Finn tries to lift their head to see, but they're too weak. They listen, however, and pick out the individual voices. Their heart feels like it's about to burst with joy.
"They're down here, down here! We have to hurry!" That was the dummy's voice, muffled by the distance.
"NGAHH!! It's time for that brat to pay!! Try taking all of us AT ONCE!!" Undyne.
"I HOPE FINN IS ALL RIGHT." That was Papyrus.
"I am sure they are fine." A worried, motherly sounding voice. It had to be Toriel. "They must be fine. Otherwise..."
The footsteps reach the Judgement Hall, and Finn hears the collective gasp as their friends catch sight of the dismal scene.
"FINN!!" roars the dummy.
The others all start frantically talking at once, and the voices grow louder as they hurry over to where Sans is hunched over a dying child while another one curls sobbing on the floor. Finn loses the individual voices as their brain grows fuzzier and fuzzier, but they smile weakly as familiar faces swim into the air above them - the dummy's ragged, stitched face, Toriel's soft, motherly face, Papyrus's tall, friendly face, Undyne's blue, eyepatched face, and a couple more that they can't quite recognize, their vision's getting darker and darker...
"Look, Sans, it's Papyrus," they say weakly, coughing slightly, but Sans doesn't notice because he's crying too hard, and there's a fuzzy white hand holding Finn's, and another resting on their chest... why was their chest so wet? Hadn't they left Waterfall ages ago? There's a soft green light coming from that hand... Finn can't see it very well, but it looks pretty. And it's... soothing. They feel less of a tingling numbness and more of just... a numbness. Is that good? Is that normal? They've forgotten what normal feels like...
"I do not... I do not believe it is working," says a quiet, heartbreakingly sad voice close to Finn's ear. Toriel. Poor Toriel. Why is she sad?
"NGAHHH!! It HAS to work!! They can't give up now!! Get yourself together, punk!" Undyne's voice sounds strangely desperate.
"FINN! YOUR STRANGE POWER!! USE IT ON YOURSELF!!" Papyrus urges.
Finn shakes their head, remembering something. "No, take my SOUL. See the stars. Be happy."
"T-they're completely delirious..." A shaky voice. Alphys.
"come on, kid. you can do this." Sans's grip on Finn becomes tighter. "you can't just save a civilization and then go and die right afterwards. that's... that's not fair. it's not allowed."
The darkness is closing in, and the voices are fading into it. It's so welcoming, this darkness. It's calling softly for Finn to go bury their face in it. Just forget it all...
No. You must stay Determined.
A new voice, one Finn's never heard before. They laugh at it, silently, in their head.
Stay determined? I never was.
They let the darkness take them.