Theodore let out a heart-wrenching sob as he clutched the catwalk railing with white knuckles, and (Y/n) quickly dropped the jagged red bone in her hand to instead hold a hand over his mouth to try to silence the sound. She could feel his agony as he stared at the pile of dust where Mafia once was, and the entire room seemed dead for a long, chilling moment. Theodore collapsed into her side, grabbing onto her blue hoodie tightly as he cried. It terrified her to see him like this, the once composed and professional man reduced to shambles at seeing his right hand demon killed in front of him. He'd always pretended not to care, claiming his demons didn't matter to him because he didn't matter to them, but every time he said that, Mafia would silently look away—like maybe their bond was deeper than Theodore wanted to admit. And now, with the stark realization that he just lost his best friend that had been there for him since this whole situation started years ago, he only now realized how much his demons mattered to him.
Theodore let out quiet, unintelligible murmurs, apologizing for letting Mafia down as he clung to the girl. (Y/n) did her best to keep him quiet as she stared in fear down at the demons below. Sans killed Mafia like he was nothing, and the sheer ease he did it with seemed to terrify her demons. Nobody moved, nobody spoke, but she could see it in her normally resolute King Nightmare's eye: he wanted to run.
"Was that so hard?" Graham snapped, glaring at Sans. Sans flinched, pure burning hatred in his glowing eyelight as he glared right back at Graham. Graham made him kill Mafia; he couldn't violate a direct order like that. For several years he'd been dealing with his insufferable human with a corrupt soul as black as midnight. He'd stupidly clung to the hope that if he tried to be the human's friend, cracked jokes and hung out with him, did what the human wanted, that Graham would change. But despite telling himself that even the worst person could change, he was a good judge of character and he'd known better despite his optimism. There was no redeeming someone like Graham, and this just proved it.
Dust shrunk down as Sans' heated glare passed over his head at Graham. There was so much fury in just a look, years of hatred boiled down to a simple glare that communicated more than words ever could. And as Dream and Nightmare's team looked at each other, they all came to the same conclusion: they needed to free Sans. Sans wasn't their enemy, Graham was, and Sans wanted him dead just as much as everyone else. And as Dream stood taller and Nightmare smirked wider, they realized that maybe, just maybe, with Sans sharing their goal, they stood a chance.
"Now kill this one next," Graham barked, pointing right at Fell. Fell's sockets widened as a silent 'oh shit' left his mouth, and Sans focused on Fell. Immediately the Demon Lord was gone, teleporting away to the other side of the room, and Dust quickly summoned a Gaster Blaster and tried to keep Sans in place with blue bones as Nightmare and Killer rushed at the original demon to take advantage of the momentary pause. Sans smirked and teleported out of the bones, leaving the pair to look around in confusion before they settled on Sans up in the rafters looking for Fell.
"Angelus!" Nightmare shouted, and (Y/n) perked up only for her eyes to land on Sans all the way down on the other side of the catwalk. She froze in terror as Theodore's sobs didn't quiet, and the Strike Force around her held their weapons tighter. She scarcely breathed as Sans lazily looked around for Fell, not bothering to even glance in the humans' direction. He didn't care for them, they weren't his target. (Y/n) felt a frown form on her lips before she came to the same conclusion Nightmare and Dream did: Sans didn't want to fight. He was only following direct orders—orders he was contractually obligated to follow—while still being as lazy as possible about it. Did he want them to win? He certainly wasn't trying very hard. But if he really did want Graham to lose, then maybe they stood a chance!
Another scream made her heart still in her chest, and she frantically looked around for who it was. Outer stumbled backwards as his arm turned to dust at Reaper's touch. Reaper grumbled about missing his soul before swiping his scythe at Outer. Swap created a barrier of bones to block the attack, then grabbed Outer to teleport him away. Swap looked him over as Outer breathed in and out quickly, his very life flashing before his eyes at coming so close to death. Reaper's touch was deadly so he got extremely lucky that the grim reaper only grabbed his arm.
"Humans!" Swap shouted up at (Y/n) and Theodore. "We need you to focus!" Without Theodore's mental warning, Reaper almost got the jump on them again as he tried to take Swap's head off. Swap teleported him and Outer on top of a different crate before looking up at Theodore pleadingly. They needed him.
"You've got to focus! Your demons need you right now." (Y/n) said, pushing Theodore to his feet so the man could focus on the fight going on down below, keeping close to his side in an effort to ground him like Nightmare did for her earlier. Feeling Mafia's mental connection sever was undoubtedly all sorts of traumatic but his other demons needed his attention on them right now. Theodore struggled to compose himself, watching the fight down below and giving mental callouts as his fingers gripped the catwalk tightly. With him back in the fight, his demons looked more united and less clueless of what was happening around them, and (Y/n) gently squeezed his hand to comfort him. He shot her a small smile in thanks, though his blue eyes were still clouded with grief, and her heart hurt for him.
"Have you seen Fell?" a casual voice asked, and (Y/n) felt herself freeze again as she noticed a new demon right beside her. Sans had his arms crossed on the railing as he leaned over it, his grin relaxed as he eyed her with normal white eyelights. "He got in a skele-ton of trouble with Graham, so I figured I oughta mustard up the guts to ask where he is." He waited for her reaction but she was too flabbergasted to laugh. The most powerful skeleton demon—who was supposed to be murdering her and her demons—was cracking puns with her while Fell ran for his life. She felt herself smile awkwardly as Sans chuckled. "Tough crowd."
"Sorry," she said quickly, clutching Theodore's hand as she backed into him nervously while the rich man pointedly kept his gaze on the action below. He was too scared to look at Sans, and the Strike Force around her hesitated to act. They didn't want to piss him off, and since they couldn't tell if (Y/n)'s life was in danger, they weren't sure what to do, awkwardly shuffling on the rafters behind her as they held their guns at the ready but didn't fire.
"Say, Waylon..." Sans said slowly. Theodore visibly tensed, unable to turn his head to look at the demon. The last time he came face to face with Sans, he nearly died. "You have a mental connection with your minions, right?" (Y/n) nodded for him, still backed up into Theodore's chest as she smiled nervously at Sans. Her mind was too panicked to even think of reaching for the jagged bone Error gave her to defend herself with—not that she could use it well enough to save her own life. Theodore didn't back up and didn't look away from his demons down below, but he did keep a grip on (Y/n)'s hand to try to reassure her. If Sans wanted them dead, there was nothing they could do.
Sans chuckled. "It's alright, kiddo. I'm not gonna hurt ya. The human hasn't ordered you to die, so you're safe. Killing really isn't my thing." He looped his thumbs through the waistband of his basketball shorts, his stance casual. (Y/n) looked a little more hopeful as Theodore's grip tightened on her hand. She knew what he was thinking: 'but you killed Mafia. You almost killed me'. She was just glad he had enough self-preservation in him to keep the thought to himself. But Sans wasn't lying, and his expression when he killed Mafia did genuinely look pained—even if now his real feelings were hidden behind nonchalance. She wondered just how much he had to suffer to get that good at pretending to be ok.
"How can we help you?" (Y/n) asked softly.
Sans' sockets widened before he resumed nonchalance. "'Help me'? Pretty sure we're on opposite sides, kiddo. Why would you want to help me?" Then, after winking, "Unless you can help me find Fell, the slippery devil."
"We want Graham dead just as much as you," she said earnestly, her eyes pleading with him to believe her.
He rose a browbone and cocked his head. "That so?" He was willing to listen. This was her chance.
"If you can help us, we can end your suffering! We know the others are free if Graham dies, so we just need to know your contract terms so we can kill Graham and not you." She waited with bated breath as he considered her offer; every second he spent considering it was another second her demons could die. It made sweat trickle down the side of her head as she squeezed Theodore's hand tighter. She could hear the sounds of fighting down below as Theodore concentrated on keeping them alive, but she kept her eyes on Sans. They weren't going to win if he wasn't on their side and he knew it. He controlled their fate; he controlled whether or not any of them walked out of here alive.
"I won't bore you with the dets, but I will tell you I quote 'must stop them from killing him', meaning I have no choice but to prevent his death." Unlike with Epic's contract, this one didn't imply trying your best, it was an outright command to not let anyone kill Graham. If any of (Y/n)'s demons killed Graham, they killed Sans. He watched (Y/n)'s expression as it fell and he let out a soft chuckle. "You really wanna keep me around, eh kid?"
She focused on him with wide, nervous eyes. "Well, I was hoping you wouldn't have to die for being summoned by the wrong person." She didn't want any of the demons to die and not just because she'd grown attached to them. They didn't deserve a life as a servant because they were unfortunate enough to be summoned by terrible people, Sans least of all. She didn't know him all that well, but that didn't mean she wanted him to suffer and die because of someone like Graham. Surely he had to have spent a lot of time thinking about loopholes to get out of his contract, suffering every day because of the horrible man that summoned him, but how much longer did he spend waiting for the chance to exploit them before giving up entirely on ever getting that chance?
Sans considered her words as he studied her, like he was looking directly at her soul and judging it, before he shrugged. "Haven't seen many pure souls in my day. You've got a good heart, kid, so I'll let you in on a little secret..." He leaned closer, his eyelights disappearing as he spoke with chilling seriousness. "The term 'them' in my contract can mean a lot of things, but it certainly doesn't mean me." He leaned back, his sockets closed as a lazy grin stretched across his face once more.
(Y/n)'s eyes instantly widened in realization and she quickly tugged on Theodore's arm. "Tell them we have a game plan! Tell them we know how to kill Graham without killing Sans!" Theodore looked down at her with surprise as she prattled on, explaining the plan to him so he could relay it to his team.
Sans lazily stretched his arms over his head. And here he was thinking he'd finally die so he wouldn't have to fight for that evil human anymore. Welp, guess plans change. Looks like he'd be sticking around a little while longer. He draped his arms over the railing as he looked for Fell once more, his gaze moving slowly since he was in no rush. (Y/n) needed time to get all her demons on board and he was feeling rather lazy. If he wasn't going to his eternal rest, he'd need to take a nap instead once this was all over. Preferably on a couch. He loved a good afternoon couch nap.
Nightmare teleported up to Sans as Dust made sure Fell was fine and Killer joined Dream's team to fit off Geno and Reaper. Nightmare stood protectively in between (Y/n) and the original demon, and he looked scared—something (Y/n) wasn't even aware he was capable of—but he stood strong regardless. "Sup Night," Sans said casually, glancing over at the King lazily.
"Noche, we've got a plan!" (Y/n) grabbed his arm, and he startled at her positivity despite being so close to Sans. "We need to have Sans kill Graham."
Nightmare froze. "What?"
"His contract forbids him from letting anyone else kill Graham, so he has to be the one to do it!" Her words came out in an excited flurry like she was trying to implement her plan as quickly as possible. She watched the surprise pass across his face at her revealing she figured out Sans' contract before he quickly zeroed in on what she'd told him and a tentacle flicked.
"But his contract likely forbids him from going against Graham's wishes, and Graham clearly wishes to continue living." Nightmare glanced at Sans, who gave a subtle nod like he was on the right track. That seemed to confuse him more, like he still couldn't believe Sans was trying to help them.
(Y/n) frowned. "So how do we get Sans to kill Graham without actively trying to kill Graham?" She looked between the two demons. "By accident?" Sans yawned, though it looked like he was subtly nodding again.
Nightmare smirked. "I have the perfect plan. Where is that pesky Demon Lord at?" He joined Sans in looking for Fell, but he found Fell a lot quicker and teleported away.
Sans sighed heavily. "I'm gonna have to ketchup to him soon, heh." (Y/n) found herself smiling despite the situation—and the seemingly out of place condiment puns. She rather liked Sans, he was goofy in a fun way, and to treat this entire situation so casually was just his way of showing how truly powerful he was. He was not the type of skeleton demon she expected the original to be but she liked him all the same.
Ink and Error reappeared, once more trading blows like they'd been doing this for years. (Y/n) watched them carefully, hoping that—despite not being able to hear Theodore's mental warnings—Error would still be alright. His outfit was torn in several places and he looked out of breath, but Ink wasn't unscathed either. There was only one vial left on his chest and Error was trying to get it from him.
"Give it to me, you damn squid!" Error spat, flinging his strings out to wrap around the vial. Ink used his brush to block the strings, but that resulted in his brush being pulled from his hands. Error caught it and snapped it in half, making Ink's stare turn cold with fury. Ink leapt at him, but Error caught him with his strings and bound him up with his arms trapped to his sides, stopping him in place as Error quickly reached out to grab the vial. He popped the top off and shoved it in Ink's mouth, making the Archdemon's sockets widen.
Error caught his breath as he smirked at Ink victoriously. Slowly, life seemed to return to Ink's face and his pinprick eyelights shifted into a yellow star and blue circle. He spit the vial out then grinned at Error. "Aw, I knew you cared about me!"
Error stuck out his tongues in disgust as he physically cringed at the thought. "There's nothing I hate more than you, damn anomaly," he hissed. Ink's smile didn't fade, and he broke out of Error's strings to try to wrap the glitchy demon up in a hug. Error almost crashed as he tried to get away from Ink, and (Y/n) couldn't help but relax. Emotionless Ink was a force to be reckoned with, and while clearly Error hated emotional Ink just as much, at least they weren't trying to kill each other anymore.
"Get down here and kill these demons!" Graham shouted, making (Y/n) and Sans look up. Graham was surrounded by Fell, Nightmare, and Dust. Dream's team was still holding off Sci, Geno, and Reaper as Cross took Epic out of the fight, so that left only Sans to help Graham out. He sighed tiredly before teleporting down to Graham, charging up multiple Gaster Blasters and sending bones flying towards Fell, Nightmare, and Dust. The demons dodged as one of the bones sliced Graham's cheek. He winced and glared daggers at Sans. "Watch where you're throwing those things, you useless demon!" Another order. Sans smirked, easily coming up with a loophole as he watched the bones very carefully as he threw them close to Graham.
Nightmare kept really close to Graham to try to keep Sans' attacks within killing range, but Graham was too attentive for them to land. Fell and Dust were a little slower than Nightmare and much too flighty despite the plan he'd told them to follow. How irritating. Despite Sans' own attempts to keep the attacks as close as possible to Graham without trying to hit him, they still weren't close enough, the human more than crafty enough to see them coming and get out of the way in time, muttering spells under his breath to block the bones that got close enough.
Dream was getting tired as he kept just out of Reaper's reach, using his tentacles to bat the scythe away. Geno and Reaper were putting up a decent fight, and they worked together seamlessly to keep the King, Swap, Killer, and Horror away. Outer stayed out of the fight, instead opting to use bones to block Reaper's blows or stop his hand from reaching the others. But they were getting tired. All of their magic was quickly being depleted, and with Reaper simply needing his scythe and hand to take them down instead of magic, they were outmatched.
Nightmare's magic was running out too, and Dust and Fell were getting slower to dodge Sans' attacks as they recognized they were almost out. If they ran out, they were dead—they wouldn't be able to teleport out of the way or summon bones to defend themselves with, and they were already getting too sluggish to properly dodge as is. Ulterior motive or not, Sans was still being forced to kill them, so if they ran out of magic, they were dusted. Sans' attacks didn't slow, and though he was getting tired from all this fighting and sweat was collecting on his forehead, it was clear he wasn't nearly as close to dropping dead as they were. They were running out of time.
Dust didn't move fast enough and a bone pierced his leg, skewering him to the ground. He let out a shout of pain, quickly snapping the bone off in his leg so he could teleport out of the way of a Gaster's blast, his hands over his wound as it bled. He couldn't stand on his injured leg, and Nightmare quickly deflected bones sent his way with his tentacles. Dust's eyelight flickered, his magic nearly out. Their time was up.
Grumbling about having to save his minions, he stood directly in between Graham and Sans and used a tentacle to throw one of Sans' bones back at him. The bone went straight through his jacket, tearing it as his gaze narrowed on Nightmare, and Nightmare simply smirked. "Come get me." So Sans summoned a long, jagged bone and sent it hurtling straight towards Nightmare. (Y/n) mentally screamed at him to move, but he didn't. He stood completely still as it went straight through his ribs and into the man behind him, impaling both Graham and himself. Graham didn't see the attack coming and thus didn't dodge, and he only connected the dots of what just happened as Nightmare smirked proudly. Gotcha.
Sans rested his thumbs in his waistband as Nightmare pulled himself free from the bone. The sound was horrible, and goop remained on the bone where he'd been impaled. He breathed shallowly as Dust held out a hand to try to support him, shuffling over with the bone still through his leg. Graham collapsed behind him as Nightmare swayed on his feet. The man bled out on the ground, choking on the blood in his lungs while he writhed. Nobody moved to help him, not even his own demons. The fighting had stopped with the final blow, and now everyone simply watched. Graham's death was slow, agonizing, and painful to watch, but he deserved nothing less after what he'd done. He'd killed countless humans and demons to get where he was, and he always wanted more. He wanted to be more powerful, to have more money, to become a demon himself, and all to satisfy his corrupt soul. Sans watched him, his blue smoking eyelight returning to its calm white glow as the soft chime of a distant church bell rang throughout the warehouse. Judgment day had finally come.
"Noche!" (Y/n)'s shout broke the silence, and Error quickly created her a portal so she could join them on the main floor. She rushed over to Nightmare, her gaze panicked and horrified as she held him upright. "Are you alright? I know you're not, but are you going to be alright? Are you dying? Please tell me you aren't dying-" He cut her off with a soft, sweet kiss, and when he pulled away, her face was bright red and her eyes were dazed. He chuckled softly, his goopy form resuming its solid state as it filled in the hole in his chest like it was never there at all.
"I will be fine, summoner." She placed her hand on his chest and he winced, but his expression relaxed once more as her hand glowed green with healing magic. It wasn't much, but it did make him feel better.
Theodore walked over to the pile of dust on the floor, crouching down to bow his head at what once was Mafia. Nobody interrupted him as he said his final goodbyes, his demons sadly looking away as (Y/n)'s looked on with sympathy. Sans looked the saddest of all, but it wasn't his fault. It was Graham's, and he paid for what he'd done.
Slowly, Theodore stood, adjusting his suit across his chest and messing with his cuffs as he turned to look at all the demons in the room. He looked from his, to (Y/n)'s, to Graham's. There were 16 demons left and all of them needed a way back to the Underverse. They deserved at least that much after what they'd been through.
"(Y/n), I believe it's time you sent them home," Theodore said curtly, his tone professional and businesslike. It was comforting that he was able to keep himself composed after all that had happened, and she found herself trying to follow his example as she nodded curtly.
"I think that's a good idea." (Y/n) smiled up at Nightmare and he held her protectively against his side, a tentacle lightly going up and down her arm. The demons around her relaxed at the thought of finally returning home, but then her expression turned embarrassed. "But, um, how exactly do I do that?"