Chapter Text
You closed your eyes and inhaled deeply.
“I’m sorry, Seven, but... I can’t. I can’t sacrifice the lives of my friends just because I might die.” You took a step back from him. “I know that you might think that what you’re doing is right, but-“
“You... you don’t understand.” He had dropped his hand to his side, staring at you. “You can’t understand. But, that’s fine.” He closed his eyes. “At the very least...” He raised both his arms, and the darkness around you began forming into ghost-like creatures made of black data, advancing slowly towards you. “I won’t let you die because of that.”
Your (s/c) soul had sprung from your chest, something you hadn’t seen happen in so long that you were momentarily stunned at the sight of it. The ghosts lunged at you, clawed fingers bared, and you barely had enough time to get out of the way. “Wh- stop!!!” You shouted to Seven, but he ignored you, just watching as the data ghosts tried to kill you. You quickly re-arranged some nearby data into a weapon, only to have it fall apart in your hand. In your shock you barely avoided getting struck by a data ghost, falling to the ground to avoid it and scrambling to stand.
“Look, I understand. I know why you don’t want to do it.” Seven spoke, the ghost’s attacks slowing.
“But please...” You avoided another ghost’s strike. “Please trust me, okay? This needs to be done.”
“No!!” You shouted back to him, barely avoiding a ghost. “I can’t do it!!! I don’t care what will happen!!” There was no way you could abandon this world. There was no way you could put everyone through another RESET, especially a real RESET.
And suddenly, Seven was in front of you, a shadowy data-cloaked scythe in his hands and a blank look on his face. You had no time to react, and as you felt the scythe pass through you, you were absolutely certain you were dead. You could feel your soul break in half, and you stood, frozen and eyes wide.
But... you weren’t dead. You stared down at your soul, a deep horror filling the pit of your stomach as you only saw half of it floating in front of you. By all means, you should have been dead, but instead the half of the soul you were missing was filled with thick black data, mimicking the missing half.
You looked up slowly and shakily at Seven, who was now standing a distance away from you, the other half of your soul floating in his hand. He half turned to face you, a somber look on his face. “I know you don’t understand it now, but... you will.” He closed his hand around the half of your soul, and you watched as it absorbed into his own body. You felt dizzy, and strange. You could see the darkness creeping up around you. “Because you can’t die. I won’t let you.” He spoke with finality, and turned fully to face you. He raised his hand, and you could feel your body lifted into the air, your half a soul retreating into your body. “So please...” He had such a sad smile on his face, it filled you with pain just to see it. “Be good and stay put, okay? I promise I’ll come back to get you.”
Before you could say anything in reply, the darkness engulfed you completely and everything went black.
~
Papyrus stared at the tear in the sky, rolling his cigarette between his teeth restlessly. In every RESET, he’d never seen anything like this; He had been heading to the door to the Ruins, the way he normally did, when the air filled with a sickening cracking sound, and a wave of energy burst from the sky, causing the trees to bend and shake from the force. And then this... thing had appeared. And that was it. He’d been keeping an eye on it, waiting for something, anything, but... zilch. It was unnerving.
Sans had, of course, chosen a more sunny disposition towards it, although it was easy to tell his older brother was worried despite his boasts otherwise. Frankly, he was surprised the Queen hadn’t made any address regarding it yet.
“papyrus!! here you are, you lollygagger!!” Sans had come running from behind Papyrus, a determined look on his face. “you were out here boondoggling and you missed it!! napstablook just released a report from the capital about the tear!!”
“Oh yeah? What’d he say?” Papyrus had never really liked the DJ robot, but he was basically the only news source in the Underground. He turned away from the tear to face Sans.
“he said that- oh!!!!!!” Sans’ eye sockets widened, and he was staring past Papyrus’ head. He quickly whipped around and stared in shock as something thick and black came streaming from the tear at an alarming rate, straight towards the door to the Ruins. There was a loud crashing sound as it landed, and then silence.
Both brothers stared in the direction of the unidentified object, and then at each other. “...I’m gonna go check it out, 'kay Sans? You stay here.” Papyrus stuffed his hands in his pockets, heading in the direction of the crash.
“no way! i’m going, too, brother!” Sans followed after, a determined look on his face. “it could be dangerous! we have to go together!”
“Sans-“
“papyrus, i am the older one here! don’t worry, i’ll protect you!” Sans grinned happily, and ran off towards the crash.
Papyrus sighed, flicking his cigarette into the snow. If there was no dissuading him, then at least he’d get there before Sans, to make sure nothing bad had happened. His right eye glowed orange, and he vanished into thin air.
He re-appeared near the door, and he could clearly see where the thing had landed; There was a fairly deep little crater in the path in front of the Ruins, and many tree-tops and branches had snapped off and now littered the ground. He approached carefully, not noticing any movement or any tracks from the crash site; Was it just some kind of meteor?
“so!! what is it?!?” Sans had quickly arrived, looking incredibly excited.
“Dunno. Doesn’t look like anything came from it.” Papyrus replied, turning and glancing back at the tear. Yep, still there.
“oh, so then it was- wait!!” Sans suddenly ran over to the crater, leaning over to look inside. “p-papyrus!! there’s something in here!!”
“What?!?” Papyrus’ eye flared with magic again, and he quickly approached Sans. “Sans, get away from-“
“oh no! they’re injured!!”Before Papyrus could stop him, Sans had descended into the hole, and was carefully lifting out a body. “papyrus! we have to help them!!”
It looked human, Papyrus knew that much. Their body was limp, but... they were breathing. How had they survived that fall, and why were they in the tear? He didn’t trust anything about this situation, but... Sans stared up at him, his usual smile gone and replaced with an incredibly worried look as he clutched the human close. He closed his eyes and exhaled sharply.
“Yeah. C’mon, bro. Let’s bring them home.”