You pushed your way through the crowd, desperate to catch as glimpse of the monsters that were making their way through the heart of Chicago square.

It had been a few months since monsters had emerged from the Underground alongside their human ambassador Frisk, a child that acted as the link between the human race and the monsters that had lived underground in the dark and in the cold for thousands of years, You shuddered at the thought of being trapped for your entire life in a rocky tomb, never once knowing the warmth of the sun on your back.

Like most of the other humans on the planet, you were curious to learn more about the monsters, eager to catch see them in person. The United Nations had chosen to host their meeting within the city that you were native to, a diplomatic meeting between the leaders of the world and the monster nation. There were several startled exclamations as you pressed yourself against the crowd of humans, eager to catch sight of at least one of the monsters. Most of them lived in the outskirts of New York City where the majority had settled shortly after they had emerged from the Underground, so you had never seen much of them aside from the news broadcasts on your television screen.

"Do you see them?"

You looked down at your younger brother Todd who was trying to catch a glimpse of the monsters as well but was not having any success due to his short height. For some reason you felt slightly repulsed by the sight of him, not sure why you felt that way. It was some instinctual feeling that was rooted deep inside your mind without any real evidence behind it, fearing Todd the same way a gazelle might with a lion, fearing the predator not for no other reason than the fact that the rift between the species was engraved into their very genetic coding.

"Not yet," you gritted your teeth before hoisting Todd onto your shoulders, fighting the repulsed feeling that welled inside your stomach as he wrapped his arms around your neck to secure himself on your shoulders. Had he once used the same hands to squeeze the life from your blood? Why would he do such a thing?

"I see them!" Todd exclaimed after a moment's hesitance, pointing a meaty finger towards something only he could see several metres away. "They're coming out of the building along with Mayor Grimes, it looks like she's about to say something - "

You felt your blood run cold at the sound of Mayor Grimes, the way her name seemed to burn inside you the way that Todd chilled your blood to ice, like some dormant part of your mind remembered what you could not, recalled past lives and past stories that were forever hidden from view, guided now only by your instincts. But that was impossible, was it not? It was impossible to have lived a past life before for the life you were living now was the first and only one you would ever have.

After pushing your way through the crowd some more, you managed to emerge near the front outside the stage where the monsters and the world leaders stood, displaying a union of international cooperation that had not existed since the dawn of man. It seemed like this would be the beginning of a glorious new age, one where monsters and humans could exist in peace, where they could cross boundaries and forge relationships that your ancestors had not.

You watched with a solemn expression on your features as Mayor Grimes walked to the podium and began to address the city of Chicago and the thousands of cameras that were trained on her face, cameras that would be spreading her message to every corner of the globe by the end of the hour.

"We stand today to mark an occasion that will forever reshape the future of man and monster." Her voice boomed across the city square, echoing off the buildings. "Today, with the help and insistence of Frisk, the human ambassador to the monster race, every major power in the world has signed an agreement to never act in nuclear war against one another, to never commit any act of violence, to never shed the blood of the innocent. We stand today to mark the union of peace that will dawn across this world today."

Your gaze met Frisk whose eyes never once left Mayor Grimes, a hardened look taking on their expression. You wondered briefly why Frisk had been so insistent on the United Nations to sign a nuclear arms agreement. Since when would the world go to nuclear war over monsters? That belonged in a fantasy book in your opinion.

But something did happen as Mayor Grimes continued to drawl on her speech, the air gradually losing its interest as she began to detail the agreements and treaties that had been ratified with the monsters and the humans, how provisions would be split up and how the world would deal with the millions of extra mouths to feed. Frisk's eyes left Mayor Grimes and for a fleeting second, you could have sworn that the human ambassador was looking at you, an unimportant human who was just another face in a crowd.

You were probably losing it, how could Frisk even know you? You were certain that the two of you had never met before and you certainly knew no monster, so why would they even bother acknowledging your existence. You tried to shake off Frisk's stare but could not, feeling their eyes continue to burn into the back of your head as you tore your gaze away from them and watched as Mayor Grimes stepped away from the podium at last, allowing Asgore, the king of the monsters to begin speaking.

"My wife Toriel and I - " He began and you felt a wave of confusion. You could have sworn that Asgore had been divorced from Toriel, but why you thought that, you weren't sure. Had not they always been married? "My wife Toriel and I would like to personally thank the whole of humankind for allowing us to take this step in uniting our two races," his voice boomed across the speaker, radiating power. "We have lost much, our son Asriel perished many years ago and it is an honour in his name to set a future that he would have been proud of. We hope to work with Frisk for many more years to come and..."

The rest of the day continued like this as monster after monster and leader after leader stepped forth to give their own personal speech. After the ceremony had ended, you began to walk with Todd back to your house, eager to retire to sleep and shake off the nasty feeling of deja vu that had been plaguing you since you woke up this morning.

You felt a tug at the back of your shirt.

Startled, you whipped around to come face-to-face with Frisk, who had been staring at you during the ceremony. Immediate confusion washed over you as you struggled to come up with a reason as to why they were even bothering talking with you, why they had chosen to come to you out of the thousands of people in the crowd today.

"I-I saw you during the ceremony today," Frisk greeted you, though it was apparent that there was more to this meeting than what they were letting on.

"A lot of people were there today," you snapped, your tone implying that you were not in the mood for skirting around the truth. You wanted answers, not lies.

"Y-Yeah..." Frisk seemed to be avoiding eye contact with you and for a second you could have almost sworn that they were ashamed to look at you, that you reminded them of a ghost that they had once known, that you were nothing more than an echo of the person that you had once been, wearing the same face but not the same mind.

After digging the sole of their heel into the ground, Frisk finally seemed to muster up a bit of courage. "I made a promise, a promise to a friend of mine that I would help them."

"And where are they now?" You asked.

Frisk's gaze met yours and the feeling returned that the human ambassador knew more than what you did, that they were seeing and remembering things that you should have but could not. "They died," Frisk said, though this did not feel like the truth, but then again, why would they lie to you, an unimportant human with a forgettable face, just another blip in the grand scheme of things?

"But," Frisk continued before you could ask another question. "There's another friend of mine, his name is Sans, and he was close to my friend who died and he's been lonely ever since, kind of distant after they died. He doesn't really have anyone besides his brother and I had promised my friend on their deathbed that I would find someone for Sans, that I would - "

"What does this have to do with me? Aren't you and Sans friends?" You shook your head, not understanding why you were wrapped up in this, how any of this involved you.

"Not really," Frisk laughed, their voice unnaturally high as if recalling some unpleasant memories. "We had a few... disagreements about things back in the Underground. It wasn't all friends and hugs if you know what I mean."

"But what does this have to do with me?" You pressed for more information, feeling on edge.

"You look like my friend," Frisk explained, "the one who died, I mean, the one who was close with Sans. During the ceremony, I saw you in the crowd and I knew it was meant to be, that somehow you were supposed to meet him." Frisk winced at how cliché their story sounded, but what else could they say? They could only laugh at how (Y/n) would react if they told them the truth, that (Y/n) and everyone else on the planet had once lived a different life in a different world in a different time, that (Y/n) and Sans had known each other in a distant life but remembered it no more.

Before the human could object, Frisk grabbed you by the hand and dragged you through the streets, pulling you to a crowd of monsters that had gathered around a news reporter, a few giving interviews. There was a particular skeleton near the outskirts of the group with his hands buried into a black overcoat that he wore with a matching fedora and a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.

"Sans!" Frisk tapped the skeleton on the shoulder who turned around, looking surprised by the contact. "I found them."

"Found who?" The skeleton looked at you and then to Frisk, not recognizing you the slightest. You knew who Sans was, having seen him in a few television interviews before but had never paid him much attention otherwise.

But then something remarkable did happen, some hidden puzzle piece clicked, a puzzle piece that neither you nor the comedian fully understood but felt all the same. You felt as if you had known this skeleton, felt and swore by it through the deepest root of your being, the same instinctual feeling that hummed inside you the same way there was that primordial beckoning of fear whenever you looked down upon Todd or Mayor Grimes but never could understand why.

You saw the same emotion flicker underneath the gaze of the skeleton, that he felt the same thing that you did, the connection without the connection, the reason without the reason. You wondered if this was the start of something new, or just the continuation of something that had already blossomed before.

"I'm Sans," the comedian extended his hand, still holding your gaze as you stared back at him, screaming at the hidden part of your mind that seemed to be withholding secrets and unspoken truths of a distant past.

"I'm (Y/n)," you replied, but the comedian did not react the slightest, as if he had already known your name and you were doing nothing more but confirming it for him. Frisk took a step backwards looking obviously pleased, though you did not understand why any of this was happening, why they had approached you in a crowd of thousands because they had promised a dead friend, why you and the comedian seemed to know each other as if you had only spoken yesterday.

"We were just about to leave," the skeleton rubbed the back of his skull, "but there's still some time before we hit the road. There's a bar down the road, though it's not as good as the one that we had down in the Underground. Wanna go check it out? Interviews are boring, anyway."

"Sure!" You agreed almost immediately, not sure what guided you, fate or destiny.

And as the two of you walked through town, not really understanding what bound the two of you together, why there were hidden whispers inside your mind, why it felt like you knew each other for years instead of mere seconds, the sun set over the city of Chicago, marking the end of one chapter.

But perhaps starting the beginning of something new.

~