Here's another short story that I made for a contest. Unfortunately, I did not win anything but I'm still really happy with this one. It's a scene that I really want to see in this AU.

BerserkTale is not by me! It's by a DeviantArtist called BoneToDraw. The picture above is also drawn by them. ^_^

~~~~~~~~~~

"So, we meet again..."

A single cyan-coloured eye stared at another pair of white pinpricks in eye sockets similar to his own. Behind the pair of white pupils was someone much shorter, and with her eyes closed and looking like slits on her smooth and delicate face.

The cyan-eyed skeleton's grin grew wider. "Ah... yes... I remember that face."

"That expression..."

The man opposite of him gripped onto his cane-sword tighter.

"Just makes me want to..."

The ground shook as a hurricane of bones with light-blue hues emerged from the earth.

"Kill... you."

"Please sto-!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"SANS!! WAKE UP!!!" you've gotta be kidding me.

The skeleton slowly opened his eye sockets as he took in his surroundings. His skull hidden in his arms, a wooden board beneath his hands and as he looked up, a single white pupil with red markings above and below his only eye socket

of course it's a dream. "morning, paps." The lazy skeleton greeted his taller brother without much of a 'sorry for sleeping on the job'.

The red marks on his skull pulsed a weak light of red, a sign of annoyance. "MORNING?! IT'S THE AFTERNOON ALREADY, SANS!! HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING A LOOKOUT FOR A HUMAN AT ALL?!"

"nope." Sans answered nonchalantly, shrugging.

Papyrus stomped his feet on the ground in frustration. "WELL YOU SHOULD! IF I CAN CAPTURE A HUMAN, I'LL BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD!! ARE YOU TRYING TO RUIN MY CHANCES?!" 

"nah," Sans answered simply once more before winking his left eye. "i'm just too 'bone-tired' to give it a shot."

Papyrus' single eye widened at the pun. "SANS!!!!" He facepalmed himself for some time before he sighed. "WHY DOES SOMEONE LIKE ME HAVE TO DEAL WITH ISSUES LIKE THESE?" He muttered to himself.

"ANYWAY," He continued, turning to Sans again. "I'LL GO AT MY POST AGAIN TO KEEP A, AHEM, BETTER LOOKOUT FOR HUMANS! AS FOR YOU, YOU'D BETTER PUT SOME 'BACKBONE' INTO YOUR WORK, BROTHER!" He commanded before walking away and chortled. "NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!"

"... this again?" was all that Sans could think of before he went back to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been a while since Sans first saw Frisk enter the Underground. While the memory was a little bit hazy, a side-effect of always experiencing a reset without forgetting anything, Sans could still picture the sight of the human girl slowly opening the door to the Ruins from the inside. Instantly, his curiosity perked him, and unlike usual, he didn't sleep a wink as Frisk walked past the trees that surrounded her outside the Ruins. Instead, he kept his two pinprick pupils on the human's movements as she walked down the path, slowly coming to the makeshift 'gate' that Papyrus made a long time ago.

Now, Sans was not the kind of monster who would be so curious about humans; he was leaving that position to his younger brother, a human fanatic. And naturally, Sans was not the kind of monster who would be so alert about another creature's movements. 

So why was this an exception? He couldn't understand why, and he couldn't find the answer, either.

In any case, it was something new to the skeleton. The feeling of warmth from the human's hand as she fell for his whoopee cushion trick felt new to him. The sound of her laughter echoing in his head felt new to him. Even the sight of her subtle but definitely present smile felt new to him.

He was so confused as to whether he should protect her and keep that feeling in his heart for as long as she lived.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today was the tenth's reset ever since Frisk came.

Sans had been watching her for days now. Most of the time, she would be accompanied by Gaster, an older skeleton monster who always held a cane-sword in his right hand and held firmly to Frisk with his left. Sans could not bring himself to face him after their first encounter, and especially not with Frisk watching him battle the old scientist, so during these times, the short skeleton would just walk away. 

This would happen during another occasion, too; whenever Frisk came out of the Ruins with another human by her side, Sans would avoid any interaction with the duo. The other human had an apple green hoodie and a pair of red, intimidating eyes that always haunted the skeleton in his sleep. Literally, he would always have nightmares of 'the demon that comes when people call its name' day in and day out and seeing those beady ruby eyes come to life definitely wasn't something Sans wanted. So naturally, he would walk away whenever Frisk was accompanied by that human, too. That all said, Sans would usually avoid Frisk.

But this time was different.

Because this time, Frisk was alone. Just like the first reset, she was walking through the Snowdin Forest alone.

Instinctively, Sans kept his eye on the human girl, following the sight of her light hazel jacket that stood out in the white background of the forest. Without Gaster or that 'demon' human around, Sans could feel no shackles holding him down from observing Frisk's movements. He watched as she spared every monster that she faced and even interacted with them as if they were long-time friends. All the while, the skeleton had the same warmth and fuzzy feeling in his ribcage that he could never deny.

what was it? why am I feeling this way? He still couldn't comprehend the strange sensation in his heart. Something in him was begging to find out more about it, something else was too lazy to find out. 

The skeleton closes his eye sockets in frustration; he was stuck in a dilemma. This was the golden opportunity for him to talk with Frisk, and chances like these were not things that you would have every day, Sans knew. Yet he just couldn't-

"Ah!"

Sans could feel the atmosphere around him fizz with traces of magic and energy. Of course. Disaster just struck at the worst time.

As his eyes snapped open, they caught the sight of a tall figure with a white cloak and a chain of heart-shaped locks across his chest. The figure had large black horns coming out of his head and his claws were aimed to strike the poor human girl before him. Clutching tightly to her white jacket and her yellow and blue sweater, the girl bit her lip in the fear of losing her life. Being cornered to a nearby tree, she had no way to escape.

If Sans was a human, his blood would be boiling by now. He took less than a minute to recognise who that monster was: the virus spreader, Berserk, had arrived at the scene. i'm not letting this go on. The skeleton declared.

Before Berserk could land a strike on Frisk, a bone attack came his way and scratched the right side of his face with extreme precision. Startled by the attack, Berserk stumbled backwards as his hands desperately covered his wound. The human girl, too, was surprised by this interruption.

But her heart calmed down when a familiar voice said: "it's not cool to pick on children, you know?"

The hoodie-wearing skeleton came out of the shadows of the forest as soon as Berserk turned to him. His hands were in the pockets of his jackets and he had his usual, nonchalant look on his face. "heya," he greeted his opponent, his white eyes staring at him.

While he made no sound, his eyes glared at the skeleton with anger as the wound on his cheek slowly healed itself. regeneration magic, Sans thought. This was going to be a harder battle than he thought.

The sound of Frisk quivering and whimpering in fear snapped him out of his thoughts. Sans momentarily turned to Frisk and whispered: "go and hide, kiddo. i've got this."

The human girl nodded as she hurriedly stood up and ran. Berserk's violet right eye caught the sight of this, and he fired coloured projectiles at her. However, they were deflected by Sans' bone projectiles of his own. "sorry buddy, i'm not done with you just yet." He said to him coldly, pulling his hood little more over his head.

Berserk narrowed his eyes, his stare expressing his anger and fury. Sans only shrugged in response as an ebony black Gaster Blaster appeared next to him. As it roared loudly, its jaws opened wide, firing a large beam of blue magic.

As Berserk dodged the attack, Sans clenched his left hand as more magic flowed through his body, an orb of blue surrounded his left fist. In the blink of an eye, Sans teleported himself to Berserk and punched him hard in the gut with his left fist. His foe softly grunted, but it wasn't long before he himself raised a claw, ready to strike back. Naturally, Sans teleported out of danger's way and went back to his original position. Summoning two more Gaster Blasters, his left eye pulsed in blue as he fired two more shots of magic. 

Fortunately, Berserk could feel the energy from Sans' Gaster Blasters and managed to leap before they could hit him. With his outstretched hands, he launched multiple projectiles of different colours at Sans. But the skeleton was not daunted by this as he teleported himself from one place safe from the projectiles to another. The white-cloaked monster could feel that this monster was nothing like a normal monster; it would not be easy to defeat him in battle.

Meanwhile, Frisk watched the battle behind a nearby bush, seeing Sans suddenly appear and disappear into thin air and Berserk constantly aiming projectiles at him and trying to attack with his claws. The human girl had the inclination to leave, but something desperately urged her to stay... 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Berserk landed on the floor, he punched the ground with his fists. The earth below rumbled as coloured crystals appeared from the ground, drawing a line that was headed straight for Sans. While this had caught the skeleton off guard, he managed to sidestep away from a cluster of crystals that were about to impale him. With his cyan-coloured eye, he could see Berserk fleeing. Fueled by anger, Sans raised his left hand to pull more bones out of the ground.

And for once, they finally impaled his enemy, piercing through his feet and forcing him to grunt in pain. As soon as Sans regained his balance, both of his eyes glowed with a cyan hue as he aimed four Gaster Blasters at Berserk. He had nowhere to run now

"burn in hell, you freak." Sans muttered in a low and threatening tone as he signalled his blasters to fire. Four massive beams of light headed towards the trapped monster. It was the end of the battle, and Sans closed his eyes as the roars from the blasters droned in his ears.

But then came another sound. 

And it wasn't the sound of a monster's soul breaking.

It was very quick and very soft, but Sans could hear it a mile away.

A short gasp of air.

"S-S-Sans..."

His eye sockets snapped open as soon as he heard that soft, familiar voice. no... it couldn't be...

But it was.

A human girl, with a trail of blood trickling down her lip, opened her mouth, her face bearing a terrified expression. Her eyes that were once only lines on her face were now opened, and expressing anything but a neutral expression.

Time felt as if it was at a standstill. 

The skeleton monster could not move a single muscle.

He only stared at the human girl's petite and delicate figure as a dull grey heart emerging from her body and hovering over her chest. With that, her body began to fall to the snowy forest floor... 

If not for Sans hurriedly teleporting next to her and catching her in his outstretched arms. He could do nothing. And if the events that just happened were not enough to leave Sans speechless, whatever happened next definitely did.

Her soul broke apart.

... no.

The pupils in his eye sockets shrunk to the size of a pin's head as they decolourised back to white. As he watched the pieces of Frisk's heart fly past him and towards Berserk, who was behind him, forming a new heart lock on the chains of his cloak, a huge wave of emotions flooded through his soul. He could not stop them from flashing through his mind. 

Anger, rage, pain, shock, frustration, anger, agony, shock... they kept coming and going, appearing before his eyes like fireflies; so many, and so repetitive.

Unable to summon another attack, the skeleton stumbled to his knees, his trembling left hand slowly pulling a few strands of her short chocolate brown hair behind her ears and wiping away the trail of red blood on her chin. Her face had reverted back to the same emotionless expression that she had during many resets. But her eyes looked dull grey just like her soul colour, with no signs of life left in her.

Sans gazed at her face, the flood of emotions still on his mind. At a time like this, his face was so close to Frisk, and if she was still alive he may have found out why she made him feel warmth and comfort.

But she wasn't alive. Not anymore. And the worst thing was, he killed her.

Sans had no clue that Berserk had raised his hand above his head, baring his claws, ready to bash the skeleton's skull and strike off his one health point.

... ... ... 

If only he was really going to let that happen.

not on your damn life, you virus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Both of Berserk's eyes, even the one concealed by his half-face mask, widened at the rapid growth of a strange horn protruding from the right side of his head and through the skeleton's cobalt-blue hood. The horn had deliberately blocked the virus monster from hitting Sans' skull. In the midst of his shock, he could suddenly feel the air around him grow tenser by the second, and sparks of magical energy began to fly past him like fireworks.

Then, he was drawn by instinct to jump away from Sans before the skeleton could fire a bone attack at him.

It flew past Berserk like lightning, a long bone projectile radiating a blue aura stabbing a nearby tree. The sapphire glow from it seemed unusual and incredibly... dangerous.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Berserk turned back to the skeleton in front of his, who slowly stood up after squeezing Frisk's icy hand once before placing it on the Snowdin Forest floor. The silence in the Snowdin Forest made this scene look all the more intimidating as the white cloaked monster watched his opponent stand before him. The sight before him looked intimidating even without the skeleton giving him a death-stare.

And then, his voice broke the silence.

"it's a lovely day outside, isn't it."

Judging by his tone, he could tell that Sans was not happy. His thoughts were confirmed as a bundle of bones appeared from the ground before him, causing a small tremor and startling him so much that he fell to the floor. The bones had their razor-sharp edges sticking out of the dirt.

"birds are singing, flowers are blooming."

Berserk slowly stood up as well, wiping off some dust and dirt on his body.

"on days like these, freaks like you..."

Berserk watched as the skeleton monster finally turned around, showing off his fangs and cyan-coloured pupils. His left eye was glowing brighter than the other, and the berserk marks on his face were illuminated in blue as well. The horn on the right side of his head was radiating a small blue aura of its own as well.

Without warning, Sans summoned a Gaster Blaster and fired a beam of light at his enemy. The shot left a deep scar on the earth. Sans' grin grew wider.

"should be smouldered by the flames of hell."

"playtime's over, berserk. you've had your chance." He bellowed, his cyan eyes glinting with the lust for vengeance as he fired more bone attacks towards Berserk.

"now you're gonna PAY!"