You awoke to a face.

"Hello [Y/N]." The words registered through your mind with a startling familiarity. For a brief moment, you wondered if you had finally gone insane, wondered if the wall that blocked out the memories from your previous lives had finally broken and you were dealing with the aftermath, a blabbering, drooling mess.

The back of your head was still a bundle of pulsing agony from where a Chicago police task force member had rendered you unconscious with a steel pipe. It seemed illogical to use a taser because that would have been the easier measure of pacifying you. They liked to spice things up occasionally.

Sans.

The name flashed through your slowly recovering memories of the events that had transpired within the last twenty-four hours. In a day, a single instant, the very fabrics of your understanding of life had been ripped away from you as you were once more engulfed in the lives and fate of monsterkind. "If you're wondering about Sans, the skeleton you've grown attached to, he is very much alive," the voice droned on, the beginnings of amusement lacing its words. Was this some sort of sick joke?

"It seems that you and I have a differing definition of alive," you spat, struggling against the restraints that held you captive. You recognized and hated the face that loomed in front of you, the mass of greying blonde hair and dull blue eyes that reflected nothing but self-pity and obsession. Major Grimes had become the ultimate opposition of your existence, the death that you hoped would soon be at your hands. You wanted her to suffer, to feel the agony she had sowed against so many unsuspecting monsters.

"Sans has been subdued," Mayor Grimes corrected her statement and you felt your heart drop. "We've cured him of his illness, how can't you see that [Y/N]? Every monster has a disease, an awful, brutal disease that infects them to their very core. They want to kill, every single one of them. They want to be at the top of the food chain, not the other way around."

Your mind wandered to Papyrus, vague memories of him from previous lives, lifetimes that variated from this one. You didn't just remember him from your brief encounter before Sans had obliterated him into ash. You remembered a town, a snowy one locked away at the very center of the Earth, a town in which the two of you had been friends, a town in which you had even taught him how to prepare edible food. But it had also been a town full of dust, bloodshed, genocide...

"That's not true," you hissed. "Monsters want peace, they want acceptance. They've been locked away for hundreds of years by our actions, don't you think they deserve at least a little compassion? A little mercy?"

"How dare you speak about mercy," Mayor Grimes laughed, shaking her head at the sheer blunt irony of it all. After noting your confusion, the vague understanding that this demented woman was aware of your memories, she elaborated: "If you're wondering how I possibly know about your origins, that you've hopped from alternate realities besides this universe, I have my sources."

"What kind of sources?" you pressed further, hating this doubt, hated being in the dark. Why was everyone so damn wanting of keeping things hidden, drawing out their secrets in one painful display of humorous intent?

When Mayor Grimes refused to answer, it only fueled your anger. "I wish I could kill you," she sighed, picking up a syringe from a nearby table. "Relax," she rolled her eyes upon seeing your panicked reaction. "This serum doesn't work on humans, or at least the sorry excuse of one that you are."

"Look who's talking," you retorted, feeling your blood boil as she set the syringe down. It occurred to you that Mayor Grimes had every second in the world to draw out this encounter. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying it.

"You've been nothing but a thorn in my side the second he told me about you," she continued. "The minute I found out, the very instant I learned that you weren't like the other humans, that you were capable of doing things," she spat out the last word like it was poison to her, most likely referring to your ability to harness magic, "I wanted to stick a knife down your throat."

"Thanks for the welcoming gift," you remarked sarcastically, immediately regretting saying anything as Mayor Grimes loomed closer to you, pressing the tip of a blade against your throat.

"Watch what you say," she growled and set the knife down. "I wanted to kill you, but he insisted that I didn't, that I kept you alive. He was convinced that in this timeline he could get it right, he could corner you and finally put a stop to this timeline jumping ability of yours. So I agreed and I assume that he's still working out a way to confine you to this universe."

"Why are you telling me any of this?"

"I want you to know the truth," Mayor Grimes hissed, leaning her face within inches of yours. "I want there to be no medium between the two of us. There's nothing to hide anymore. You've been captured, your little rebellion group has been extinguished. And you are an asset [Y/N], an asset that will only serve to push humanity even further into a glorious new age. With you abilities, no one can resist. No one can oppose us."

"I will never serve you," you whispered, a deadly edge to your voice. You reached into the back of your mind and attempted to locate the vast store of energy that was there, the energy that if broached, would provide you the magical capabilities of escaping this damn place. But instead, you felt nothing, a vast emptiness.

"Since when were you the one in control?" Mayor Grimes sighed, stroking your cheek lightly with the affection that a mother might express. "Your magic has been briefly turned off, thanks to an invention we like to refer to as nerve tampering."

You felt violated; every fragile understanding of your world had been shattered. Your mind wasn't your safe place, the one spot in the world that was your own private viewing. And your body wasn't just your own, for with the right equipment, it could be moved from an outside viewer. You hadn't ingested the serum, but Mayor Grimes had sure as hell made the effort to make you feel like it.

Humming some unknown tune to herself, Mayor Grimes carefully undid the restraints on your wrists. Your first instinct was to lash out at her, to make her feel every extent of suffering that you had monster-kind had endured. But your limbs did not move as your mind wished them to do.

"Let's give it a test drive, shall we?" Mayor Grimes pulled out a controller, similar to that of a video game joystick. "Left foot up."

"Like hell I'm going to do that - " You were immediately cut short as your foot did as commanded from the motions of her remote.

"Perfect," Mayor Grimes purred and set the remote down and nodded to a few guards observing from a distance away. "Bring him in."

Your heart plummeted as the metal doors swung open, Sans and Undyne's unconscious forms dragged across the floor and thrown at your feet. "Once we had captured you, it didn't take long for their surrender," Mayor Grimes chuckled. Despite this, you couldn't help but feel relieved at the apparent fact that they hadn't been injected with the serum, not yet anyway.

"I want you to convert them."

You stiffened upon hearing Mayor Grimes' words, your eyes darting to meet her deadly gaze, reflecting both your hatred and panic at the thought of doing such a thing. She gestured to the two syringes and nodded in approval.

"No!" you shrieked and fought with every fiber of your being to resist as she compelled your nervous system to pick up the two syringes. You felt your tongue go numb as she rendered you incapable of speech, just another basic right you had been deprived of.

Undyne regained consciousness.

"[Y/N]?" she whispered, slowly coming to sense of her surroundings. "We have to get out of here, Mayor Grimes is going to kill us..." She was cut short as you pinned her to the floor, sticking the tip of the thin needle into her arm. Undyne let out a howl as she thrashed under your grip, letting out a string of profanities.

A million apologies formed at the tip of your tongue, but was blocked by the mental restraint that had been placed over you. Mayor Grimes had retreated into the shadows, watching in sadistic pleasure as you converted perhaps the last free-thinkers of the monster race.

"You were working for her." Undyne put two and two together.

"Of course I have," you chuckled, the words forced from your mouth. You screamed and wailed against the forced slavery, wanting to do anything but this. "It was actually quite humorous watching the two of you think that you stood a chance."

Undyne had little time to form a retort before she let out a guttural howl and clawed at her temples, the serum already going to work. It seemed that this was a much more advanced version than what had been delivered to the entirety of Chicago, rotting the monster's brain at a much faster pace.

Before long, grey matter was streaming out of her nostrils. Undyne hadn't even erupted in a violent rage like some monsters often did before their memories were wiped, before they were rendered permanent slaves. Her once vibrant blue eyes had clouded over, milky white membranes staring off into some fixed point in the distance.

Next you were turning to Sans. By then he had already awaken, though it didn't take him long to realize that it wasn't you in control, but rather the metal device that was so obviously protruding from your spinal cord, controlling your central nervous system. "[Y/N] you can fight this," he cautioned, taking a step away from you.

Like hell I can!

"I want this," the words spilled from your mouth. There was an icy eeriness to them, the voice of a person who could care less about the events transpiring around them. You tilted his chin upright, the dull pinpricks that acted as his eyes glared at you defiantly.

"We'll find a way to fix this," Sans pleaded, attempting to wrestle his forearm out of journey grasp.

"No we won't," you replied and stabbed the tip of the needle into the bone marrow, Mayor Grimes watching through your eyes in sadistic pleasure as Sans collapsed to the floor, rubbing at the injection site.

"Dammit [Y/N]," he cursed and attempted to stand up before ultimately collapsing, engulfed in an inferno of pain as the serum went to work, rewriting his very existence, his very being. Sans clawed at his temples but did not let loose a guttural howl as so many monsters had in their final moments, not wanting to give the mayor the satisfaction she craved.

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...

"I forgive you," Sans chuckled and gave a final shudder before going still. Grey matter leaked from the two pinpricks in his skull that acted as his nose, the final indication that the serum had rotted away his frontal lobe, removed any form of emotion or memory and had taken over his central nervous system.

In a matter of seconds, Mayor Grimes had managed to eradicate any opposition in the city of Chicago. Her slow clapping grabbed your attention as she wandered out the shadows, a cynical sneer on her face. "Well that was wonderful, wasn't it?"

She hummed her thumb onto some button on the remote and you were once more capable of speech. Before you could spew out a torrent of insults and profanities, she pressed a finger against your lips. "I gave you permission to speak, doggy. Free speech in these days is a privilege. I suggest you keep quiet and don't do any barking."

You bit the inside of your cheek to keep from talking, not wanting to be forced into silence again. For now you had a part of you back, even if it was still partially under her influence. "Well what are you waiting for?" Mayor Grimes cast a glance over your shoulder. She moved the joystick and you followed after her like some sort of sick puppy.

"Let's get started."

~*~*~*~*~*~*

He watched from the sky.

He was the god of this dying world, the god of this entire universe. He was the destroyer of worlds, the fabled monster under the bed that kept so many human children up at night.

Humans.

How much he hated that word, the reminder of the filthy race that had started it all in the first place. If they hadn't kept those sticks up their asses, had accepted the fact that they were to share the upper world with monsters, there would be no Barrier, the events that were transpiring now and in a thousand other worlds would be nothing more than a distant memory.

He was close, close to finding a way to permanently lock [Y/N] in this pitiful excuse of a timeline. They had a habit of coming back after death, just one of the many abilities of a Walker such as himself. Upon death, they had the ability to move to another timeline, to another universe. It was the cause of their memories, different recollections of past lives they had experienced.

And [Y/N] was a threat.

He had eradicated his opposition, the few individuals that lived in the Void, called themselves guardians for the awful background noise that was each different universe. But that would change, he would destroy them all.

Because Ink was dead.

Long live the king.