Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Y… you… really hate me that much?

Toriel had to admit to herself that she had seen the warning signs. The way their purple and blue striped jumper was covered in that thin sheet of dust when they’d arrived at her home. The way there seemed to be far less light in the child’s eyes than in the others’. The way the child had stared at her, like a predator, just waiting for the moment she’d turn her back.

She’d known what this child had done yet had chosen to ignore it. She hadn’t been able to admit the obvious truth right in front of her. Maybe her subconscious had convinced her she could help them. That with enough love and motherly care she could save at least one. At least one. She’d lost so many; she couldn’t lose another.

And now she was paying the price. Her eyes still open wide in shock, she clutched the deep, black gash their knife had left in her flank. Searing pain radiated from it, making every molecule in her body scream as if they were splitting apart. She released a choked gasp, and slowly raised her head to look the child in the eyes.

When she’d first met them, they’d reminded her so much of them, her first human child. They had that same spark, that same determination. Even now, they still reminded her of Chara, yet the fire in their eyes was no longer warm. There was a deadness to it, frozen. It was just waiting for her to flake apart so that it could move on to its next target.

“Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you there.” she took a shaky breath, struggling to keep her legs from giving out from underneath her.

“Not you… But them!”

The child didn’t react, watching her. Was that… fascination?

As she finally collapsed to one knee, images of Asgore floated through her mind. A despicable creature, truly undeserving of life. Yet the thought of him falling victim to the demon before her the same way she had left her feeling cold.

She thought of the one friend she had made since her exile. After she had lost her seventh child, she had admittedly had difficulty getting out of bed in the morning. And then he came along. He gave her something to look forward to everyday. Sitting with her back to the door, just laughing for hours. Laughing. She’d forgotten what true innocent mirth like that felt like after her years in isolation.

How long would he last? Would he survive? Would his brother be alright? Papyrus. She knew his brother’s name, but not his.

Had she ever told him her name?

“Ha… ha…” she buried her fingers in her chest fur through the fabric of her dress. She knew it was futile, but a part of her desperately needed to hold on to something, anything to prevent her body from flaking away.

As her vision finally went dark, the pain faded away with it.

Chapter Text

The wind was howling, it was almost impossible to see anything through the pelleting snowflakes. Undyne would be proud of him for choosing this spot. It was incredibly dramatic! The perfect spot for a human to totally not kill him, like they’d killed everyone else and totally turn around and become better and let him help them! Totally. Absolutely. Nobody could resist the great Papyrus!

The great Papyrus never backed down. The great Papyrus was never afraid. The great Papyrus stood up straight and tall. The great Papyrus did not need to repeatedly remind himself to not shrink in on himself. The great Papyrus couldn’t hear his bones rattling every time a shiver ran down his spine.

The great Papyrus couldn’t hear the conversation he’d had a few minutes ago echoing through his head.

“papyrus!” Papyrus heard Sans slamming the door shut behind him, breathing heavily. “papyrus. we have to go. now! they’re coming, everyone’s evacuating.”

It was rare to ever hear his brother sound this serious. Normally, that fact frustrated him to no end. Find Sans a pet, the lowest maintenance pet possible, and he still did not feed it. Push Sans to take the sentry job, and he’d never be at his post. And whenever Papyrus would try to confront him about it, he would never take the conversation seriously, saying things like, “woops. guess i’ll have to try better next time.” or “hey, none of it really matters in the long run.” and then make one of his stupid puns he seemed to have an endless supply of.

There wasn’t a trace of that carefree, joking tone coming from his brother now. Papyrus still didn’t turn around to face him. He stayed at the kitchen table, back to the door, picking at his gloves.

He started when he felt bony fingers close around his arm. He hadn’t heard Sans walking up behind him.

“paps…?” there was a slight quiver in his brother’s voice.

Sans knew him well. Sans knew his beliefs. Sans knew what he was about to do.

“SANS,” he said quietly as he placed his hand on his brother’s, still not meeting his eyes, “EVEN THE WORST PERSON CAN CHANGE. EVERYONE CAN BE A GOOD PERSON IF THEY JUST TRY.”

He finally turned his head to meet Sans’s gaze. He watched as his brother’s eye sockets widened in horror and his permanent smile twisted into a strained grimace.

Sans tightened his grip on Papyrus’ arm, “no… paps- “

“I’M NOT GOING TO LET YOU TALK ME OUT OF THIS SANS. SOMEONE NEEDS TO SHOW THEM THAT THEY CAN BE GOOD. THEY’RE CLEARLY LOST. THEY’VE FORGOTTEN- “

Sans pulled Papyrus to face him fully. He allowed it.

“do you know how many people they’ve already slaughtered?” Sans pleaded, “you won’t be any different Paps, they’ll kill you!”

  “THEY WON’T! NOT AFTER I GET THROUGH TO THEM!”, Papyrus said as he pulled his arm from his brothers grip to cross them over his chest. “THEY’RE JUST SCARED! SCARED OF GOING BACK AFTER DOING SO MANY HORRIBLE THINGS! THEY’RE JUST WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO HELP THEM!”

Sans was pressing his palms against his eye-sockets. “they don’t… DESERVE you CARING so much about them Papyrus!” His voice came out strained. Frustrated. If Papyrus didn’t know him any better, he’d almost think he was trying to stop himself from shouting. “you’re risking everything for that huma- for that THING after everything that they did!”

“I KNOW THAT. AND I DON’T CARE!”

“what about me papyrus? WHAT ABOUT ME?! that kid doesn’t need you I need you!!”

Oh…

Sans inhaled sharply and turned his back on him. He’d pulled his arms around himself in a sort of self-hug, hunched over. He always did that when he was trying not to cry.

Papyrus had known this was going to be difficult. He’d known Sans wouldn’t understand immediately. But this had turned out to be even more complicated than expected.

“i don’t know what i’d do without you…,” there was a tremor in Sans’ voice. It was quiet on a good day, but now he could barely hear it.

Papyrus took a step forward and maneuvered his brother around by his shoulders to face him again. He wrapped his arms around his small, round form, pulling him close. Sans went almost completely limp in his arms, he knew if he let go now there would be nothing between his older brother and the floorboards of their home.

“you’re choosing them over me,” Sans whispered.

Papyrus sighed, “SANS” He held on to his brother with one arm and gently lifted his chin with his free hand. There were tears in his eye-sockets, right near the surface, threatening to spill out at any moment. “YOU DON’T NEED ME TO SHOW YOU HOW TO BE GOOD. YOU ALREADY KNOW.”

Whatever had been keeping those tears at bay up until now came crashing down. His brother buried his face in Papyrus’s chest and sobs racked his entire body. He was clinging to Papyrus for dear life, to the point of it being painful. He was always surprised at how much strength there really was in his lazybones of a brother.

Papyrus just held him, resting his head on Sans’s. His brother was reacting even worse than he’d expected. He didn’t believe. He’d always struggled with believing that things would turn out okay in the end. But that was alright. Papyrus could believe enough for the both of them.

The human wasn’t that close yet. He would stay here, holding on, for as long as his brother needed.

After a few minutes, Sans’ sobs became fewer, and his grip slackened, exhausted. Never did have much stamina. When the sobs completely died down, he was still holding on, but was leaning almost his entire weight on the taller skeleton, his shoulders slumped even more than usual.

Papyrus scooped him up into his arms, Sans clinging to his ribcage like a little, tired koala, and went to sit them both down on the couch. Neither let go of the other.

A few moments passed in silence as Papyrus rubbed soothing circles onto his brother’s back. The latter had closed his eye-sockets, his head leaned against Papyrus’ chest. If it weren’t for his still uneven breathing, Papyrus could have been fooled that he’d fallen asleep. He wouldn’t put it past him.

Sitting like this… It felt familiar. It felt safe. He almost didn’t want to leave anymore.

Sans didn’t open his eyes as he took a shaky breath, “at least let me come with you.”

And oh… that was such a tempting offer. Despite his projected bravado, he knew there was a chance he wouldn’t come back from this. If Sans were there… and worse came to worse -it wouldn’t, but if it did- at least he wouldn’t be alone.

“BE HONEST WITH ME,” Papyrus moved Sans’ chin up to look him in the eye-sockets again, “WOULD YOU BE THERE FOR THEM, OR TO MAKE SURE I’M SAFE?”

Sans’ white pupils fell to his lap. They both knew the answer to that question.

“LIKE YOU SAID. THEY DID A LOT OF HORRIBLE THINGS.,” Papyrus said, “ TURNING BACK IS GOING TO BE HARD. IF THIS IS GOING TO WORK, IT HAS TO BE SOMEONE THAT TRULY BELIEVES IN THEM.”

Sans had gone completely quiet. The light in his eye-sockets were gone, replaced by an empty blackness. Papyrus hated it when his brother got like this. It made him feel guilty and he didn’t know why.

He wouldn’t let it stop him, though.

“GO EVACUATE WITH THE OTHERS, SANS. AND DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME!” he sat up straighter and pushed out his ribcage, “I’LL SAVE THEM! AND AS A SIDE EFFECT I’LL SAVE EVERYONE! NYEHEHEHE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS DOESN’T FAIL! I’LL BE FINE! THIS ISN’T GOODBYE! I’LL SEE YOU AGAIN IN NO TIME!”

Deep breaths now. He’d be a hypocrite if he doubted himself at this point.

He heard the footsteps crunching in the snow long before he saw the blue and purple stripes of their jumper.

Brave. Just like Undyne had taught him.

He went through the script he had written in his head. The script for maximum convincing potential.

“HALT, HUMAN!” He almost surprised himself with how much he sounded like his mentor. Commanding. Intimidating. He was off to a great start!

Except the human kept walking.

“HEY, QUIT MOVING WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU!” There was totally not a tremor in his voice just now.

The human stopped. And stood there, staring at him, no change in their expression. Good. They were listening.

“I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.”

What was he going to say…? He knew what he wanted to bring across, but the precise wording had completely disappeared from his mind, leaving nothing but an empty black void where thoughts should be. Well, time to improvise then. Improvisation was one of the Great Papyrus’ many talents.

He took a deep breath and puffed out his ribcage: “FIRST: YOU’RE A FREAKING WEIRDO!” Nailed it.

“NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT LIKE PUZZLES. BUT THE WAY YOU SHAMBLE FROM PLACE TO PLACE… THE WAY YOUR HANDS ARE ALWAYS COVERED IN DUSTY POWDER. IT FEELS… LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH. HOWEVER!”

The human tilted their head sideways. Yes! That was a good sign! He was getting through to them already! It totally didn’t make him feel like a particularly interesting bug under a microscope.

Everything was turning out Papyrus! Even some of the words of the script were coming back to him now!

“I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU! EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY! AND ME, I HARDLY HAVE TO TRY AT ALL!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!”

That part about him not having to try wasn’t in the script, but people always said that being natural was better while making a speech!

The human was moving forward again…

“HEY, QUIT MOVING!” he yelped, taking an involuntary step back and placing his hands out in front of him. They were getting uncomfortably close. “THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!”

They stopped again. He released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF SOME GUIDANCE! SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW! BUT WORRY NOT!” He hoisted a finger into the air. “I, PAPYRUS… WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOR! I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!!!”

He huffed. That was it. Everything he had. If this didn’t work he didn’t know what would.

The human was moving towards him again, their grip tightening on their weapon. He chose to ignore that last part.

“I SEE YOU ARE APPROACHING.” he said quietly. Everything was riding on this moment. “ARE YOU OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE?”

They raised an eyebrow at him, still not showing any sign of stopping. That was a good sign!

“WOWIE!! MY LESSONS ARE ALREADY WORKING!!”

Truthfully, he didn’t know if they had. But they had to. They had to. He just had to believe enough. If they saw how much he believed in them, maybe they would realize that they did have a chance.

He kneeled down to the human’s level and held out his arms for them to accept his embrace. He resisted the urge to shrink in on himself in preparation for… something.

“I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!”

Papyrus heard the cracking of his own skull before he felt the blow.

There was an excrutiating, high-pitched ringing. When he opened his eye-sockets, the human was gone. No… they weren’t gone. He just couldn’t see them anymore. He saw the pelleting snowflakes still falling down on him. He was holding his own head in his still outstretched arms.

“W- WELL. THAT’S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED…” forming the words was hard. Grey flakes floated into his field of vision. He gasped as gravity took him, hearing the cold clunk of his skull hitting the ice. His body wasn’t there anymore.

No… no he hadn’t failed! He couldn’t have! The great Papyrus never failed! He’d planted a seed! Maybe they weren’t ready to hear him yet… but they would understand later! He had to convince them. They had to believe!

“ST… STILL!”, his own voice sounded like it was coming through water. The painful ringing was getting louder by the second. “I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER! EVEN IF YOU DON’T THINK SO!”

They clearly didn’t think so.

He had to convince them. This wasn’t for nothing, it couldn’t be…

“I… I PROMISE…”

Blue and purple blurred together as he felt an intense pressure on his skull. The human was crushing him.

Thinking clearly became impossible. The conversation he’d had a few minutes ago was echoing through his head.

“you’re choosing them over me.”

Chapter Text

Undyne tried to keep her hands from shaking as she listened to the phone ringing out.

“DEAR FELLOW COOL PERSON!” She winced and pulled her ear a bit away from the receiver.

“YOU HAVE REACHED THE NUMBER OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS! IT IS WITH MY DEAREST APOLOGIES THAT I MUST INFORM YOU THAT I APPEAR TO BE BUSY DOING THINGS THAT GREAT AND POPULAR PEOPLE DO! PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE AND THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL PROBABLY GRACE YOU WITH HIS ROYAL GUARDY VOICE WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES OR SO. LOVE, PAPYRUS!!!”

“Papyrus. Where are you? You can’t pull things like this, not with a megalomaniac of a human running around! Call me back right now or I swear to the stars I’ll-“ If she was being frank with herself she didn’t know what she’d do.

“Just… just call me okay Papyrus… Please?” She hung up and let out a deep breath. Something was clearly, very wrong. Papyrus never missed a meeting. He always picked up his phone within the first two rings, no matter when she called.

Hey, there was probably a logical, not horrifying explanation for this. Maybe he’d fallen asleep watching MTT-TV or… he’d lost track of time watching for humans or…

Feeble excuses. Papyrus never lost track of time, and he’d certainly never fall asleep in the middle of the day.

She had to find him. She tied her armor to her back and set off to begin the search.

*

The house door was locked. No one answered the doorbell. She fumbled in her pocket and breathed a sigh of relief when her webbed fingers touched the cool metal of the spare key Papyrus had left her with.

The door swung open with a creak. The lights were off.

She flicked them on.

“Papyrus!?”

No answer.

“Smiley!?”

Nothing.

Neither of them was in the kitchen or living room. Her heart raced as she stomped up the stairs. First Papyrus’ room. Nothing. Then his brother’s. The latter was locked as usual. She had only recently discovered the reason. Not due to Smiley wanting privacy or hiding some deep dark secret. No, Papyrus was just embarrassed by the state of his brother’s room.

She tried knocking. She tried calling. Nothing.

It was fine! Chances were they’d evacuated like the rest of town! Wait… he probably forgot his phone at home! That had to be the reason!

She pulled out her own. It took a few tries to get the right number combination with her shaking fingers.

It rang… and rang… and rang…

And then she heard it! His goofy ringtone! She heard it!

It wasn’t coming from inside the house. It was too quiet for that. On a normal day, she probably wouldn’t have heard it, but the now deserted town was so quiet with all its residents gone.

She pushed outside through the still open door and followed the sound. It led her to the foggy region of the forest.

“YOU HAVE REACHED THE-“, she hung up the voice message and was about to call again when she saw it. Lying face down in the snow. Ignoring the sinking feeling in her stomach, she kneeled down and picked it up.

The face was cracked. Papyrus was nowhere in sight. She looked up through the pelleting snowflakes, as if they could somehow provide her with answers.

“Where are you Papyrus?”

*

Papyrus wasn’t with the other evacuees. Neither was his brother. She’d called Alphys to make sure. He wasn’t anywhere in the ghost town either. That left the brothers’ sentry stations.

When she arrived at Papyrus’ box that he liked to call a sentry station, it was as empty as she had feared. The trek to his brother’s was a short one. Those two couldn’t handle being very far away from one another, even while they were supposed to be working.

Neither of them were at his brother’s station either.

She was about to turn around and head back-

A single set of small, round, slipper shaped footprints… leading away from the sentry station.

Yes… Yes! She’d finally found something. She’d found his brother and wherever that lazy bugger was, Papyrus was never far away! She set off with a new bounce in her step.

She followed the tracks until the large, purple door to the ruins came up before her. A round blue figure was slumped in the snow, back leaned against it.

Yes!

“Hey Smiley!” A relieved laugh escaped her as her fast-paced walking turned into a jog.

He didn’t react to her voice at all. If she hadn’t been so glad to see him, she would have rolled her eyes. Asleep again, as usual.

When she came to a stop in front of him, she noticed two things.

One: He wasn’t asleep, he was just staring ahead, no reaction to anything she was doing, his eye-sockets as dark as she’d ever seen them.

Two: He was clutching a long, red, fluffy scarf.

Papyrus’ scarf.

“Where is he?,” she asked, dread creeping into her tone.

No reaction.

She huffed as she went down on one knee, armor still on her back weighing her down. She gripped his shoulder and gave it a gentle shake.

“Sans. Hey.”

He blinked a few times. Knowing where he was looking was difficult, his normal white glowing pupils currently not being present, but she thought she saw him raise his head slightly towards her.

“Sans. Where is Papyrus?”

*

If that human wasn’t going to die before, ohoho it definitely was now. She would not stop until that human was nothing but a skewered piece of kipper.

The fact that it had killed the dogs and everyone else… of course it enraged her, but if she let her mind cool down, she could understand it to a certain degree. Monsters and human were at war after all, and the dogs were sent to kill it. But why did the human have to take him as well?

There was no way he had given the human any reason to harm him. Half of her training sessions with him were spent trying to get him to understand that befriending a human was definitely not on the list of objectives for the royal guard. That sweet, naïve, self-absorbed idiot had probably tried to do just that.

She should never have given him hope for joining the royal guard. That fateful morning after he had spent the entire night at her doorstep waiting for her to talk to him. She should have just told him no. Told him that he didn’t have the willingness to do what it took. Maybe if she hadn’t gotten his mind fixated on humans he would have fled, like he should have done!

Sans wouldn’t give her any details on what exactly happened. Actually, he wouldn’t really talk to her at all. The only thing she’d managed to get out of him at the ruins door had been two, monotonous words: “the human”. That and the way he was behaving didn’t make putting the pieces together difficult.

She glared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, gripping the edges of the sink. That treacherous redness in her eyes. How was she supposed to get rid of that? Tears could be washed off, disarrayed hair retied. That redness was still there. She couldn’t just wait for it to go away. Every second she wasted, another monster was dying. Every second she was in here feeling sorry for herself, she was failing Papyrus even more.

She didn’t want anyone to see her like this. She was the hero of the Underground. She was the strong one. She was the reliable one. She could not fall apart. She was not weak.

She gave a final sniff and angrily wiped her nose, straightened her armor and flung open the bathroom door with way more force than necessary.

As much as she wanted to storm out to pay that human back for all the pain it had caused, there was one more thing that needed taking care of. He was still slumped on the couch where she’d left him, his hands opening and closing over the scarf. She’d expected him to at least flinch at her forceful reappearance.

“Sans.” No response. Again. It was starting to get on her nerves. “I’m heading out Sans. I’m going to kill that human for what it did. Now. I have no intention of dying out there, but I told Alphys to watch, and evacuate everyone if I don’t make it. Just in case. That won’t be needed, since I am the most powerful warrior in the Uderground-“

“doesn’ matter how powerful you are.” She started at hearing him mumble something for the first time since they’d arrived at her home.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Of course it does!”

He seemed to hesitate, then dropped his head again. She wasn’t sure where he was looking, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t at her, like he hadn’t intended to say that out loud.

“I wish you would stop dropping weird, ominous comments like that. But fine, keep your secrets. Nothing you could say would deter me anyway.”

She pulled her webbed fingers through her hair, almost ripping at it, “Ugh! Sans… what I’ve been trying to say is… if I die… you’ll be the only one left.”

He slowly raised his head in her direction. She found his expressions incredibly difficult to read at times, with his permanent smile and all that. But this one seemed pretty clear. No shit.

“Look, you’ll be the only one left that’ll be able to do anything. I know your attacks do more damage to those that have killed, so really, you are the best person to make the last stand. Alphys will tell Asgore to absorb the six human souls, but I need you to buy him time. That’s all I need from you. Once he’s done that you can go back to… I dunno, lounging about and feeling sorry for yourself. I don’t care. But if I die it’ll be time to get off your sorry ass and actually do something for once in your life.”

She was being harsh. She knew she was. She wasn’t the only one grieving here. But the time for coddling was over. Coddling had made Papyrus naïve and unprepared for the real world. Coddling had gotten Papyrus killed. Now was the time for taking action. She didn’t know if being harsh was going to do the trick for the skeleton who seemed to be allergic to doing anything at all, but it was all she had.

She pursed her lips and sighed, “Take it as a final wish or something. Okay…?”

He was looking at her now, that was for sure. If he had listened or registered anything, that was a different question.

She huffed and turned back to the door. Her webbed fingers curled around the handle; she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“For Papyrus.”

And she was off.

*

Her fists clenched at her sides and she resisted the urge to scream in frustration as she stomped ahead, following the human’s shoeprints through the sea grass. She had been so close. So close to ending it. Saving the Underground. Avenging the fallen. And that damn yellow kid just had to show up and ruin it.

She forced herself to take a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second. No. No it was fine. She needed to calm down. There was nothing wrong with having a hero.

She remembered how she’d been at that age. Determined to become strong, to become powerful, to help people. Asgore and Gerson had been those heroes for her. Heck, with them having fought in the monster-human war, who else could have been?

If she was that for this kid… well… that was great! Kinda sweet actually! She just wished they wouldn’t repeatedly fling themselves headfirst into danger. Like Papyrus had. Like everybody that looked up to her seemed to do. They reminded her of herself at that age in that way-

She stopped dead in her tracks. They reminded her of herself at that age… and at that age, if she’d been told by a know-it-all adult “Stay away from that human,” or “It’s too dangerous,” there’d have been only one thing she’d have done.

No, surely, they weren’t that stupid.

She was running. She didn’t remember starting. Her heart pounded in her chest. Even if they weren’t the way they were, what had she been thinking leaving a kid to wander about by themselves with a mass murderer on the loose? She hadn’t been thinking, had she?

She was about to turn the corner leading to the thin, wooden bridge crossing the wide fissure towards the end of Waterfall, when she heard it.

“Yo… Y- you’d b- better st- stop r- right where you are… Cause if you w- wanna hurt anyone else… you’re… you’re gonna have to get through me first. A… an… and…”

Her eyes widened in horror as they took in the scene before her.

The kid, their back to her, standing in the middle of the narrow bridge.

The human across from them… it’s weapon at the ready, looking like it had had just found a particularly tasty morsel.

No… NononononnoNO!!

She saw the strike, coming straight at her chest, and before she could even think of countering-

She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. It was searing, her entire torso felt like it was on fire. Like when she’d spent too much time in Hotland but worse. So much worse. Everything was too bright, a white sheen making colors impossible to distinguish.

As if in a time-loop, she saw the surprised frown on the human’s face shift to an almost imperceptible smirk.

“-ou’re… You’re hurt…” A high-pitched, devastated voice echoed from behind her, the words flowing together.

It was the kid…

She forced her head to turn around to them. Their eyes were round as saucers, their little body shrunken down in fear. But… not a scratch on them… they were okay. She must have leaped forward and yanked them behind her when the human lashed out.

“Hurt?” Her own voice was coming through a haze, she didn’t know what air she was using to force the words out. One thought managed to crystallize in her mind. This kid still needed protecting. “It’s nothing,” she wheezed, forcing what she hoped was a convincing version of her winning, toothy grin. “Next time, listen when I tell you to leave, okay?”

“Undyne… I-“

“I’ll take care of this! Get out of here!” she snapped.

They flinched. She watched as they slowly turned around and headed back over the bridge. It took much longer for them to disappear around the corner than she would have liked. Or was that just time stretching for her?

She finally allowed herself to gasp for breath, “…heh… ‘It’s nothing’ … No… somehow, with just one hit… I’m already… Already…”

She could feel her molecules straining to split apart, begging her to just let go, starting around the massive, deep wound that stretched diagonally across her torso, and spreading through her chest, her spine, into her head and limbs. This was not an injury she was just going to recover from.

“D… damn it…,” she hissed.

Gritting her teeth, she leaned on her spear to keep herself from collapsing. Alphys would tell Asgore to absorb the human souls… she knew he didn’t want to, there was no telling what that much power would turn him into. If he’d listened, Papyrus’ brother would try to hold off the human. But it had got her without trying. The tiny skeleton would be facing certain death.

“Papyrus… Alphys… Asgore… Just like that, I… I’ve failed you.”

She grit her teeth to hold back tears of frustration. She’d thought she’d feel better knowing she was not alone. But the awareness of Alphys watching her right now, that she would see her crumble to dust…

Images of her time with the royal scientist flashed through her mind. Watching hours upon hours of human documentaries with her. Her obsession with them was misguided, sure, but it was clearly intensely felt, with one hundred percent dedication. The first time she’d seen her awkward smile in the trash zone… Ugh it was so adorable it had made her want to punch a wall.

She’d never get to tell her…

“No…,” she tightened her grip on her spear. She would see that smile again.

“My body… It feels like it’s splitting apart. Like any moment I’ll scatter into a million pieces.” She forced her left hand to grab above her right onto the spear, pushing herself up an inch. She let her head fall back.

“But… Deep, deep in my soul, there is a burning feeling I can’t describe.” Her eyes closed as she huffed to get enough air into her lungs. “A burning feeling that WON’T let me die.”

She straightened her head to glare at the human standing before her. Its expression was blank and emotionless. But even through that empty void, she saw something else. A hunger. A hunger eagerly awaiting the moment she’d crumble before it.

“This isn’t just about monsters anymore, is it?”

A hunger that would never be satisfied.

“If you get past me, you’ll… you’ll destroy them all, won’t you? Monsters… Humans… Everyone…”

The thing slowly tilted its head sideways. Her heart skipped a beat. Something about those movements were not natural.

“Everyone’s hopes and dreams, vanquished in an instant.” She forced her right hand to grab the spear above her left, pushing herself even further.

“But I WON’T let you do that.”

No one else would die. She could not let anyone else die. She couldn’t place when exactly the burning, radiating from her chest, had stopped being painful. But now, it was invigorating. Growing stronger and more intense by the second.

“Right now, everyone in this world… I can feel their hearts beating as one. And we all have ONE goal. To defeat YOU.” She spat out the last word, giving herself one final push on her spear to straighten up completely.

“Human. No. WHATEVER you are. For the sake of the whole world… I, UNDYNE, will strike you down!”

The shapes fully solidified again, the white sheen grew to an almost blinding light and then faded, the little bit of echoing she’d still heard in her own voice disappeared.

The thing took what looked like an involuntary step back. Its blank expression faltering ever so slightly. Heh. This entire time it had been waiting for the satisfaction of watching her disintegrate. She couldn’t help but smirk, as this new power she’d always had within her coursed through her veins.

“You’re gonna have to try harder than THAT.”

Chapter Text

You breathe in deeply as you let the power from the goo-y puddle that used to be the hero of the Underground seep into your body.

It travels up your arms from your fingertips, entering your soul and filling you with warmth. You used to hate the feeling. You always see their expressions from their final moments flash before your eyes again, in excruciating detail. Every ounce of fear, every hiss of agony. The betrayal. The disappointment. The accusation. You see it all again, as if some higher being designed this game you’re playing with the intent of ensuring you never forget what you did. What you caused.

Seeing them cry. Seeing them fade. It doesn’t hurt you like it used to. It’s just another one of those things now.

You must admit though. Seeing her so full of hope, filled with certainty that monster-kind will prevail despite everything, is difficult.

Quite tragic honestly.

It reminds you of the person you used to be.

You remember saving them from Asriel’s clutches one by one, making use of all the wonderful memories you’d made with them. Your friends. You loved them with all your heart, and they loved you in return.

Leaving them in their happy ending was enough for a while.

And then it wasn’t. You had the power to erase all of it. With no effort whatsoever. The option had been like a red, forbidden button sitting at the back of your brain, beckoning. You wish you could say you’d resisted longer than you did.

Maybe you could have gone through your adventure again. The good version. The version that had filled you with so much joy and excitement.

But you knew even back then how that would have ended. You would have gotten bored. The same people. The same interactions. The same conversations. Over and over and over again.

You would have gotten bored. You would have lost your love for them.

Heh. Love. You shake your head at yourself.

If you truly loved these people, if they ever really were your friends, you wouldn’t be doing this. What you feel is obsession. An obsession to squeeze as much out of them as is humanly possible.

But you just want to know them. Inside and out. All of their hopes and dreams, all of their fears and failures, all of their grudges and deepest regrets. The best way to get to a geode’s beautiful center is to break it. Is that really so evil? Isn’t that a form of love? After all, everything you are doing... once you go back… none of them will remember any of it will they? You’re going to fix everything! Once you’re done with it.

Sans’ goofy puns. Toriel’s warm hugs. Undyne’s toothy grin. Papyrus’ hearty laugh. Oh Papyrus…

He believed in you. So… so much. And you crushed his skull under your boot.

It’s remembering moments like these, that make you glad your LV-ridden soul has lost all feeling.

You form a fist.

Just a little longer.

Just a little longer and you’ll know the worst ending possible. You’ll know. And you’ll go back. None of it will matter. Everything will be set right. Everything will be fine.

What they don’t know won’t kill them.

*

You hesitate before placing your palm on the smooth surface of the mirror in New Home. You can’t bring yourself to actually look. It feels cool to the touch. Just like a mirror should.

You let out a laugh, devoid of humor.

‘Despite everything, it’s still you.’

That’s what the supportive voice in your head said the last time you were here. They’d been almost proud of you, proud of the fact that you hadn’t let your experiences in the Underground corrupt the goodness inside of you.

You grit your teeth and snap up your head.

The face staring back at you is yours -it is! But… there is something else.

It’s me, Chara.

The voice used to be so kind.

‘The crinkling of the leaves fills you with determination!

You can flirt with that one!

PET THE DOG!!

The heroine that NEVER gives up.’

Now, all you ever get from them are cold, harsh observations of the environment and calculations of enemy stats and abilities.

‘Where are the knives?

Forgettable.

Nothing of use.

My bed.

His bed.

Determination’

Which thoughts are yours and which are theirs? The line had become blurred. You’ve caught yourself snickering internally at the half empty bag of dog food in Alphys’ lab, remembering the canine division you slaughtered one by one. You didn't feel anything as you hacked through Mettaton’s new body. If anything… it felt good. Oddly satisfying -you have nothing against the guy- just… feeling your LV increase. It’s exhilirating.

Back when the voice started to turn more calculated, and even began to control some of your actions, you’d tried to blame everything on them. When they made you walk straight through Papyrus’ puzzles, saying ‘no time for childish games’ you’d felt a sense of relief. When it came to the point of killing the tall skeleton, it wouldn’t be you, you’d told yourself, it would be them, controlling your actions. You’d be blameless.

Lies. The voice never does anything if you truly don’t want them to. If you’d really wanted to do Papyrus’ puzzles, you could have. No. The monsters’ dust is still on your shoulders, and yours alone.

Three left.

You turn your head in the direction of the stairs leading to the basement. Three left. Three kills.

There is no use denying it. You’ve turned into a ruthless killing machine. You’ve begun enjoying this. It is too late for you. Even if you fix everything, you will never be the same. A reset would be pointless after this. You’ve ripped every chance you once had for a happy ending to shreds with your own knife.

You set off. You don’t know what awaits you, but based on how much more difficult defeating Undyne was in this route, it’s going to be one hell of a showdown.

A part of you is looking forward to it.

Chapter Text

he sat slumped, back against the pillar in the familiar golden hall. he rubbed papyrus’ red, fluffy scarf between his fingers.

no… saying it hurt would be an exaggeration.

he just felt… nothing. he should be feeling something. this was the worst thing that had ever happened to him after all, at least that he could remember. but since he’d found papyrus’ scarf in the snow, no, since the realization that he wouldn’t be able to talk his brother out of it had hit him, everything had become… a little surreal.

his brother was dead.

dead.

dead.

dead.

dead.

he’d been repeating that word in his head a lot. it didn’t help to make it feel any more real. he’d stumbled his way to his door leading to the ruins. hearing nothing but the silence he’d been expecting from behind it hadn’t helped either.

undyne’s expression, barely able to hold back tears, but still glaring, accusing, silently asking him why he was alive while papyrus wasn’t, how he could have just let it happen. she’d managed to get him to teleport them back to her house. the instant they were there, she’d dropped him off on her couch and disappeared into the bathroom. hearing her strangled sobs from under the door hadn’t helped either.

maybe he needed time, and it’d all come crashing down later. later… did he have enough later left for that to happen?

it was probably better this way. this was honestly not too bad. he didn’t know what he’d feel once this nothingness wore off, but in this state, he wasn’t completely losing it. in this state he wasn’t tempted to just close his eye-sockets to finally escape it all. in this state, he could do what he had to do.

the kid could not be allowed to get past this hall. whatever they were planning would lead to the end of everything monsters and humans had ever known. he honestly had no idea what that meant. all he knew was that at a certain point, a point in which the kid had pushed past this hall, every timeline reading ended. would even the kid be able to reset after that? he didn’t know. but he couldn’t afford to take that chance anymore.

waiting.

waiting.

waiting.

heh. that was his hidden superpower, wasn’t it? just sitting around, watching everything play out, but never actually doing anything about any of it. after all, it was always only a matter of time before they decided to erase it all. none of it mattered in the long run.

he couldn’t allow himself to slip into those thinking patterns right now. the end had to be prevented. that mattered. and preventing it was possible.

the king had six corpses stored in his basement. six humans that had had the same abilities as this one. they’d all had the power to start over any time they wanted, every time they were killed. yet their corpses were still there, rotting away, not having moved since the moment they’d been dumped into their coffins.

so even a human’s supply of determination wasn’t infinite.

even a human could be pushed to give up.

as he saw it, this could go one of two ways.

option 1: he got them so worn out and frustrated, that they chose to start over, from the very beginning. in order to avoid facing him again, they would choose a kinder path. or at least one that wouldn’t lead to the destruction of the world. if they chose to be just a little less ruthless and merciless, they could always reset and fix it.

option 2: he drained them of every. last. bit of determination they had. they would die. and they would die permanently. asgore would absorb their soul and he would break the barrier, letting the survivors to see the singing birds and blooming flowers for the first time in centuries. asgore would make the humans pay for everything they had done.

he admittedly preferred option 1. while option 2 may have been a way to escape the endless cycle of pointlessness, to finally have a reason to care about things without fearing it all being ripped away the next day… there was nothing left worth caring about in this timeline. they’d already taken it all. if papyrus wasn’t with him-

footsteps.

a feeling like a cold dead claw gripping his soul filled his ribcage as he felt himself freeze up. no. not yet. he didn’t want to break his promise to the lady behind the door, even if she was gone. even if she was gone because she wouldn’t hurt them. he’d never wanted to fight, papyrus had believed in this kid, he didn’t want to hurt- he didn’t want to see them. he didn’t want to look them in the eye. what if this would be what finally made it real? seeing them, papyrus’ remains spread all over them. he couldn’t afford to break now. he couldn’t-

the footsteps were getting louder. no time.

he slowly forced himself to his feet, took a deep breath, and stepped out from behind the pillar.

they didn’t look any different from the first time he’d met them, when he’d done the old whoopy cushion trick on them. purple and blue striped jumper. darkish skin. closed eyes. blank expression. just a kid. nothing special.

except for the small, translucent letters and numbers floating above their head.

LV: 19

exp: 50’000

kills: 112

a murderer.

while he’d been waiting, he’d thought of a multitude of different things he could say to them. maybe he’d ask them if they could be good, like papyrus would want him to. Or maybe he’d just try to scare them, warn them of what’s about to come if they didn’t stop.

yet somehow, he got the sense that anything he could ever come up with… they’d already heard.

he pushed his hands into his pockets, and straightened up, releasing a dejected sigh.

“let’s just get to the point.”

*

the kid’s reflexes were good. very good. but they couldn’t dodge everything. the first bone attack to hit them grazed their shoulder, tearing off a small patch of fabric from their jumper. the initial wound was a simple scratch, barely noticeable, but then the skin around it began to bubble a deep purple as it grew, larger and deeper. within seconds the wound had gone from a scratch to a deep gash that revealed bone, leaving the kid hissing in pain. he’d never seen his karmic retribution work faster.

“COME ON SANS, WE’RE GOING TO BE LATE!!!” , papyrus whined as he dragged sans out the door of their home by his arm.

the latter didn’t bother to suppress a heavy sigh.

“do i really have to go too?”

“A BSOLUTELY! IT IS THE MOST IMPERATIVEST THING!!!”

“whyyyyyyyyyyy??”, he groaned as he made sure to hang his entire weight in his brother’s grip to make himself more difficult to manhandle.

papyrus whirled around, still not releasing his grip and placed his free fist on his hip, “BECAUSE WE ARE ROYAL SENTRIES NOW AND THE KING HIMSELF WANTS TO MAKE SURE OUR COMBAT CAPABILITIES ARE TOP NOTCH!”

“he said it was voluntary.”

papyrus’ face scrunched up in that typical look of exaggerated disappointment.

“paps, i don’t deal any damage, i don’t have any health. i wouldn’t stand a chance against a human no matter how hard i trained. my job, and technically yours too by the way, is to watch for humans and report them. not to engage them in combat.”

papyrus released his hold on sans’ arm so suddenly that he barely managed to stop himself from falling right onto his tailbone. “RUBBISH!”, papyrus huffed as he jabbed a finger into sans’ chest. “THAT’S JUST ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR EXCUSES FOR BEING LAZY SANS! IF YOU ACTUALLY TRIED AND PUT YOUR MIND TO IT YOU WOULD DO GREAT, I KNOW YOU WOULD!”

 “papyruuuuuuus…”

“ NO!! I WON’T HEAR IT!!”, papyrus said, as he whirled around and stomped off. “I AM HEADING TO A TRAINING SESSION WITH KING FLUFFYBUNS AND YOU ARE COMING WITH ME!”

how long would it take him to realize he wasn’t following? maybe if he just stayed quiet, he’d forget about him.

“SANS WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING BACK THERE!?”

welp. not that he’d had much hope for that working to begin with.

papyrus huffed and trudged back to sans, coming to a halt and folding his arms over his chest, glaring down at him with his disappointment face again.

they just stood there, staring at each other for a few seconds. papyrus sighed and dropped his arms to his sides. “LOOK SANS,” he said, “THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT YOU REALISING  YOUR FULL POTENTIAL . WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO DO IF YOU COME FACE TO FACE WITH SOMEONE THAT WISHES YOU HARM?”

“i dunno… shortcut away maybe…?” sans shrugged.

“NNGH!! YOU’RE INFURIATING SOMETIMES DO YOU KNOW THAT?! ALRIGHT WHAT IF… FOR SOME REASON YOU HAD TO STAY…  MAYBE PEOPLE ARE IN DANGER AND YOU HAVE TO PROTECT THEM AND YOU CAN’T SHORTCUT AWAY?”

“why would i have to stay when there’re so many other people who can do a better job than me?”

his brother’s frown only deepened as he crossed his arms again and pressed his mouth into a thin line, glaring at him.

sans waited for papyrus to get uncomfortable with the silence.

after about six seconds it became clear that papyrus wasn’t going to say anything until he answered seriously.

he sighed and shrugged, “dodge… i guess?”

“SANS EVEN YOU CAN’T DODGE FOREVER YOU KNOW THAT!!”

“yeah! i know!” he flung up his hands in exasperation. “i’m useless, i get it. the king won’t magically make my health higher, or actually make my attacks do more than one damage.” He shoved his hands into his pockets with a little too much force.

“YOU’RE NOT USELESS. AND YOU DON’T KNOW THAT! HE IS THE BEST FIGHTER IN THE ENTIRE UNDERGROUND! MAYBE HE CAN HELP!”

“paps, i really don’t think it’s worth-“

“NNGH, YOU SHUT UP!!”

if sans had been able to open his mouth, he’d have clamped it shut right about now. papyrus’ hands had formed fists, glaring down at him, eye-sockets filled with unshed tears.

“paps… are you- it’s just a sparring session it’s not that big of a deal! aren’t you overreacting a little…?”

papyrus angrily wiped at his eye-sockets and grabbed sans’ arm again, pulling him along. “YOU’RE GOING TO TRAIN WITH ASGORE AND YOU’RE GOING TO GET BETTER!”

sans didn’t try to resist anymore. this was obviously a lot more important to his brother than he’d initially thought. what was this all really about?

he stayed quiet. if papyrus had something weighing on his mind, he’d talk about it when he was ready.

after a few minutes of trudging through the snow, his brother did just that.

“I NEED TO KNOW YOU’RE SAFE SANS,” he said quietly. “IT’S  MY RESPONSIBILTY AS THE COOLER AND SMARTER AND BRAVER BROTHER TO MAKE SURE YOU DON’T GET HURT. BUT EVEN THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN’T BE EVERYWHERE AT ONCE.” papyrus was looking straight ahead as he said all this. while they’d been walking his hand had moved from sans’ arm to gently interlocking fingers with sans. “I JUST WORRY. ONE DAY I MIGHT NOT BE THERE TO PROTECT YOU.”

heh. he wouldn’t have known about his karmic retribution, or how to use it most effectively, if it hadn’t been for that first training session. papyrus had been claiming all this responsibility for him but really… sans was the older one. he’d been the one who was supposed to protect his little brother.

how did he always let it turn out the other way around?

*

welp. if he hadn’t been sure before, he was now. the kid had fought him before. many times based on how easily they outmaneuvered his attacks before he even had the chance to make them.

to be fair he had been going easy on them up until this point, in order to gage how advanced they were already, to make sure he could keep this up for as long as possible… and to maybe not piss them off so much that he ruined any chance he had at convincing them to turn back out of the goodness of their heart.

no, he hadn’t quite given up on that possibility.

he didn’t remember them from before the snowdin forest. but when he looked at this kid… sometimes, when they got hit real bad, or their eyes widened in fear… he had to resist the urge to rush over and check if they were okay. a protectiveness. a fondness. this was more than just a side effect of his promise to the lady behind the door.

which meant that… they hadn’t chosen to be this way every time. they’d even managed to win him over, at least once.

it was his turn now. that last slice had left a thin scratch on his hoody. no real damage but still uncomfortably close.

“you, uh, really like swinging that thing around. huh?”

what had felt like hours had only been about three minutes. sweat poured down the side of his face. his limbs burned. focusing on dodging with enough speed and precision had gotten increasingly difficult. based on the sparring matches papyrus had forced him into, he could keep this up for about five or six more minutes give or take.

the kid would turn back here, or they were going to have to do things the hard way.

“friendship…” he huffed out. “it’s really great, right?” he took a few more breaths, closing his eye-sockets for a few seconds, and held out his hand for a handshake. “let’s quit fighting.”

that… had not been his best attempt at convincing he’d ever done. but if papyrus had failed, what could he really do…?

apparently the kid agreed with him.

they lunged, with more force than he’d seen them use this entire fight, their feet completely leaving the ground. he barely had time to avoid the wide arching swing of the blade.

echoing flashes.

“c’mon, buddy. do you remember me? please, if you’re listening…”

the image of a knife clanking against polished tiles.

the sound of a child’s voice, sobbing…

the warmth of a small figure in his arms.

panicked squirming.

an overwhelming metallic smell.

the drip… drip… dripping of red.

“if we’re really friends… you won’t come back.”

he gasped as he was flung back to the present timeline. the kid spun back to face him from where they’d landed. they held the blade with so much force their knuckles were turning white. their jaw clenched. their nostrils flared with their rapid breathing. That was the most emotion he could ever remember seeing from them.

“woah, you look really pissed off…”

not so bad at convincing after all…

“hehehe…” he let the light fade from his eye sockets, “did i getcha?”

except they hadn’t reset. they were still here… he felt his soul drop.

“well, if you came back anyway… i guess we never really WERE friends, huh?”

of course, this was all a manipulation tactic. he didn’t actually have any real connection with them and clearly never had. even if some version of him had once believed… the disappointment he was clearly projecting was obviously not what he was really feeling. a ruse. a way to get them to feel bad. clearly.

he didn’t meet their eyes.

“heh. don’t tell that to the other sans-es, ok?”

*

he gently placed their broken body down onto the golden tiles of the judgement hall, finally releasing their soul from his blue grip. their breathing came in stuttered wheezes, their face was covered in black and blue, one of their arms was twisted in the completely wrong direction and he was pretty sure the jagged piece of white sticking out from it was bone. red splatters covered the floor and walls.

it was still his turn. he could end them. all it would take was one more hit.

they had been fighting for ten minutes. his vision was swimming, his hoody clung to him from the sweat. every breath felt like his lungs were on fire. if this went on any longer he would slip. and he would slip soon. their next attack could be the one that finished this.

he could end them and prevent that.

in this timeline.

“alright. that’s it,” he forced out between heaving breaths. “it’s time for my special attack.”

when he’d first brought up his special attack a few turns ago, he could have sworn he saw them wince, as if the memory of that phrase was somehow painful. but nah. he must have been imagining things.

the kid grimaced and forced themselves first onto their knees, with the help of their still functioning arm, and then onto shaky legs, grunting all the way.

but when they raised their eyes to meet his, that fire was still there. raging. all consuming. no number of physical beatings was gonna put that out, he knew that now.

“are you ready?”

they tensed and raised their knife.

“here goes nothing.” heh. good one.

silence.

the sound of heavy breathing, coming from both him and the kid, echoed and bounced from the walls of the hall. the drip… drip… dripping of blood.

seconds ticked by.

they frowned, pursing their lips and lowered their knife by an inch.

“yep. that’s right.” his grin would have been genuine at this point if it wasn’t for… everything. “it’s literally nothing. and it’s not going to be anything either.”

humans always attacked based on turns. it wasn’t a game if there weren’t rules. it wasn’t fun if it wasn’t a game.

he liked knowing the rules of games before he broke them. it had taken incredible force of will, but he’d managed to slide in a few weaker attacks during their turns, in spite of the forced compulsion in his head screaming at him to just stand there and wait for his turn. they were destroying everything. they’d trashed any right they’d ever had to him following the rules of their stupid game.

the kid dropped the arm holding their knife to their bleeding side, gaping at him. that look on their face… it almost made him want to burst out into hysterical laughter.

 “heh heh heh… ya get it?”, he paused to catch his breath. then continued, “i know i can’t beat you. one of your turns… you’re just going to kill me. so uh… i’ve decided… it’s not gonna BE your turn. ever.”

he guessed the realization of what was going on fully hit them as they pulled their head back and slowly raised their eyebrows.

“i’m just gonna keep having MY turn until you give up. even if it means we have to stand here until the end of time. capiche?”

waiting. waiting. waiting. his hidden superpower.

seconds ticked into minutes. he couldn’t let himself get distracted even for a moment, he had to keep his eye sockets on them. he should just stay quiet. he was just an interesting little toy to them. the less he said, the more boring he was, the faster they’d stop.

just reset. give up. bring them back. bring him back.

the creature had schooled its face to careful neutrality. it sat down on the blood-stained tiles, cross-legged, head tilted to the side, watching him. something about that was… unnerving.

“you’ll get bored here,” he said, “if you haven’t already i mean. and then, you’ll finally quit.”

the rhythmic drip… drip… dripping of blood was starting to cause his head to hurt. the sound of heavy breathing echoing off the walls was no longer coming from the kid. they seemed to be perfectly content and at rest sitting there. this wasn’t how this was supposed to be going. they were supposed to be getting anxious. they were supposed to be getting fidgety.

“i know your type.” he shouldn’t be breaking the silence. he should leave well enough alone… why again…? wasn’t he trying to talk them out of… into… giving up?

“you’re, uh, very determined, aren’t you?” he said, “you’ll never give up, even if there’s uh… absolutely NO benefit to persevering whatsoever. if i can make that clear.”

they were just sitting there, still as a rock, the occasional blink the only detectable movement.

drip… drip… drip…

there was a dull pounding behind his eye-sockets. his legs were burning. it was as if he’d been the one that had his soul turned blue as gravity pulled at him, begging him to just… collapse… give up.

no, he couldn’t do this forever. they had to give up, they should have given up by now. he’d been counting on them having a short attention span, dammit.

“no matter what, you’ll just keep going. not out of any desire for good or evil… but because you think you can… and because you “can”… you “have to”.”

what was he getting at here? had he had a point to make or was he just blabbing to distract himself from the weight of his own body? he clenched his eye sockets shut and opened them wide. dark spots danced in his vision. it was hard to keep a train of thought going when he had to focus so hard on keeping his eye sockets open.

right… they were gonna destroy the universe…

“but now you’ve reached the end. there’s nothing left for you now,” he said. “so, uh, in my personal opinion… the most “determined” thing you can do here? is to, uh, completely give up. and… do literally anything else.”

he jolted upright. when had his eye sockets closed? what was the last thing he’d said? right… giving up…

it wasn’t like it mattered…

nothing mattered…

this was okay. there was no harm in resting his eye sockets for a moment.

just…

a moment….

*

he dodged the blow before he was fully aware of what was happening.

the kid came into focus as his sleep addled mind slowly caught up to what had just happened, their sick grin falling to a scowl. they’d tried to stab him in his sleep.

“heh, didja really think you’d be able-“

their eyes flashed red. the knife shredded through his ribcage.

he felt a warm liquid running down his chest. it became more every time he tried to breathe. his mouth tasted metallic. he looked down -when had he ended up on the ground? - and saw his hands were coated in red.

they got him…

and then the pain hit, making him double over, grunting. almost without realizing he pulled his arms around his midsection.

he raised his head. they were standing there, looming over him.

“so…”, it hurt to speak,” guess that’s it, huh?”

he tried to take a deep breath. his chest felt like it was getting stabbed all over again. the metallic fluid escaped from the corner of his mouth. he wasn’t getting enough air.

“just… don’t say i didn’t warn you,” he managed to get out through clenched teeth.

they didn’t move.

“welp. i’m going to grillby’s.”

how had he gotten back to his feet? he had no idea. all he knew was that he couldn’t handle the creature watching him right now. just behind the pillar. he forced his legs to cooperate and start on the short distance that seemed miles long now. just… one step at a time. one step at a time.

he barely made it to his destination before his legs turned to jelly and he crumpled in on himself, back against the pillar.

so…

this was what dying felt like.

it wasn’t nearly as fun as it looked. it kinda sucked actually.

where was papyrus? his limbs spasm as his body entered an excruciating and spluttering coughing fit, despite having no energy left for it, more blood escaping from between his teeth. he’d never heard raw sounds like that coming from his own mouth before. it was only when he vaguely noticed the see through liquid hitting his blood-stained hand that he realized tears were escaping his eye sockets.

where was papyrus? papyrus always made everything suck less.

sans wasn’t going to grillby’s and the tall figure that had sat down next to him wasn’t his brother.

but hell… after being cursed with knowledge for so long… he figured he deserved a delusion or two.

“papyrus, do you want anything?”

Chapter Text

I close our eyes, as I listen for the almost silent sound that always comes with a dusting. There it is.

I raise our bloodied and bruised hand, still clutching my knife, to take a look. The numbers shift.

LV: 20

exp: 99’999

kills: 112

20. The highest Level of Violence achievable. Yet still. We are not done. Still not quite enough power to achieve our goal.

The now dearly departed skeleton thought of himself as something of a judge down here in the Underground. I chuckle to myself. He tried his best, but he was never powerful enough for that. he wasn’t willing to do whatever it takes.

I am. We are.

Humanity. So filled with hubris. They think they are above consequences. They always have. They think they can start a war with monster kind, take thousands of innocent lives and banish the survivors to a life of cramped darkness, without paying the price for it.

And without someone like me, they might never have to.

Two left. The king and the flower.

I wasn’t the one to kill mo- the queen. That was all them. I expected to feel something when I watched her crumble to dust. She’d loved me once after all. And maybe I loved her back. But… nothing. I felt nothing.

This time I won’t be idly watching, though. I will be the one ending their lives. My once father, and my once brother. It won’t hurt me. I haven’t felt a single ounce of compassion for anyone since my reincarnation. The small skeleton was the first monster I’ve killed myself. It didn’t feel much different from watching my partner do it. If anything, it felt a little better.

Our limbs stop responding to my commands as they take back the body again. Ah well. Being in control was nice while it lasted. I shall be the one to finish this, though. I owe my partner much, but they will not take my part in this away from me.

We step through the double doors leading out of the golden hall. We walk in silence through the grey passageways until we reach it. The throne room.

He is in there. I can sense his soul. A warm glow. I’m sure I’d have found it comforting had I still been human. But once again, I feel nothing.

I remember the flower speaking to me before our battle against the skeleton.

“Chara. There’s just one thing left I want to do. Let’s finish what we started. Let’s free everyone. Then… let’s let them see what humanity is REALLY like! That despite it all. This world is still “kill or be killed”.”

Poor thing. He has come far during his years as a soulless flower. But he still hasn’t changed from the child he used to be. Still immature. Still incapable of seeing the bigger picture.

Back when we both had our souls, when we were still living and executing our plan, I’d wanted to free monster-kind just like he had. But now I see what the flower seems to have realized as well. Freeing everyone will not be punishing humans.

It will be punishing monsters.

And I bear no ill will towards monsters.

I am here, to force humanity to face the ultimate justice. And the only way I can become the ultimate judge, jury and executioner, is by gathering power.

The dusting of everyone breathing in the Underground is… a most unfortunate, but necessary, side effect.

There is no turning back. We push open the double doors.

There is the garden. It is just as I remember it, if one ignores the hundreds of golden flowers covering almost every free inch of the ground. The king has always been a sentimental fool.

And there he is, standing among them, in his formal violet robe and golden armor. His back is turned to us. Now is our chance.

“Curious”, his voice suddenly echoes through the room. We freeze. Has he heard us enter? “I’ve never seen a plant… cry before.”

I have no time to consider the implications of that. The king turns around and locks eyes with us.

“…huh? You must be the one that flower warned me about.”

Asriel. Even after all these years, he’s still messing everything up. Still sabotaging all my plans. He has never been strong enough and never will be. He will forever obstruct justice.

“Howdy!”, the king pauses, glancing to the side, then back at us, “Erm… What kind of monster are you…? Sorry. I cannot tell.”

A monster. He called us a monster. What I have been wishing for, for so long. But no. Fate has deemed it appropriate to have me be born as something vile and horrifying instead. I just wanted to belong. I just wanted to be one of them. I just wanted to be the future of monsters. I wanted to be a hero.

But I have learned. I was born human, so that I could make the decisions a monster never could. I am the future of monsters. And I will avenge them. No holding back.

“Well, we can always-“

I yank my knife from its sheath.

Fath- the king, takes a step back, raising his hands, “Now, now. There is no need to fight. Why not settle this… over a nice cup of tea…?”

I lunge. My blade shreds through fur and flesh like butter, and clunks against the resistance of bone. He stumbles to one knee, pulling us, still clutching the knife with him.

“Why… you…”, his lips are parted, his eyes wide. I do not understand why he would wear that expression of surprise. The body he sees, the body of my partner, is human. He fought the war. He should not be surprised.

Just as I pull the knife from his chest, little bullets swirl out of the earth and surround him.

Friendliness pellets… NO!!

They strike him, taking the last of his remaining health. I watch, mouth agape as he fades into ashes.

No… NO, this was supposed to be MY kill!!

There is his soul. Before I can lunge to grab it, the same bullets surround it and shatter it into a million pieces.

And out of the ground he comes. That bloody flower.

How dare he?

“See? I never betrayed you!” he says with a grin that is clearly forced. “It was all a trick, see? I was just waiting to kill him for you!”

He morphs his face into the familiar one of Asriel. Still so misguided. Still so childishly idiotic!

“After all, it’s me your best friend! I’m helpful, I can be useful to you.”

Just like he was useful when we went to the surface, huh? My fist clenches around the hilt of my blade. “I promise I won’t get in your way!”

Little bug. Little numbers and lines of dialogue. I tilt my head to the side and grin at him. I know that face scares the shit out of him. Yes. An ever-growing quiver travels through his entire body. He’s still got that stupid hopeful grin on his stupid hopeful goat face.

“I can help… I can… I can…”

I loom over him as he begins to sob. If he still wants to be a crybaby, he should be. Let him suffer. Let him beg.

“Please don’t kill me,” he wails.

That voice…

“Chara, huh? That’s a nice name. My name is Asriel.”

Azzy.

He’s using Azzy’s voice.

It doesn’t make any difference if he sounds like his old self. It doesn’t!

Why does the knife feel so heavy all of a sudden…?

Do it.

Red forms in my vision. That was all I needed.

I slice through Asriel’s face.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

I do not stop until there is nothing left but a greenish white goo splattered on the grass.

My breathing comes in stutters. It is done. Everything that my partner and I have been working towards. It is within our grasp. But first, it is time that I speak to them. Face to face.

=)

I spread my arms as I stare into the eyes of the one person that never let me down. “Now. Now we have reached the absolute. There is nothing left for us here. Let us erase this pointless world and move on to the next.”

Humanity will finally pay for their crimes. They will finally face justice. I beam at my partner. They’re not like Asriel. They understand. They came from up there as well. They know what it’s like. They know that mercy was never an option.

Do not.

…

They stare right back at me, jaw set firm, fists clenched.

We… we had agreed… we had agreed after new home that going back would be pointless! Had they always planned on-

Not… not even them. Not even the person I’ve come so far with. Not even they understand.

I suppose I misjudged them. But… if they weren’t killing for this ultimate purpose, what were they killing for?

“No…?”

They do not respond. I tilt my head to the side and narrow my eyes.

“Hmm… How curious.”

They were never my partner, were they? They weren’t killing to punish humanity. They were killing… because they thought they could… the skeleton had been right…

My heart is pounding against my ribcage and I clench my teeth.

“You must have misunderstood,” I hear my own voice shaking in rage.

“SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?”

=)

I awaken with the same burning feeling I did on that fateful day, lying in the golden flowers. Their determination. It’s all supposed to be gone. I destroyed everything. Yet they keep coming back.

Why won’t they just let me rest?

I no longer have a body. Neither do they. I destroyed both. I see nothing. I hear nothing. All black. It would be peaceful if it weren’t for their determination, which shouldn’t exist to call me back to consciousness. But it does.

Interesting.

Conveying thoughts without hearing my own voice. A peculiar feeling that I have gotten used to.

You want to go back.

It is not a question.

You want to go back to the world you destroyed. It was you who pushed everything to its edge. It was you who led the world to its destruction.

I never would have concluded what I did without their guidance. The conclusion that I needed to gather power for the greater good.

But it seems that that was never what they had intended at all. They were not killing for any greater purpose. They were having fun.

But you cannot accept it. You think you are above consequences.

There is a silence. I already know the truth of my statement, but I want to hear it from them.

‘Yes.’

Exactly.

All this time, it seems I have been… misdirecting my anger. Humanity was, of course, disgusting and reprehensibly and deserving of the destruction they got. But at least they harmed monster kind for a reason. They acted out of fear.

This creature… whatever it is… is playing a game. And it wants to play and toy with everyone’s lives, over and over again, because it believes it can do so without consequences.

That. Cannot be left unjudged. Humanity’s punishment can wait.

Perhaps we can reach a compromise. You still have something I want. Give it to me, and I will bring this world back.

‘Yes.’

Then it is agreed. You will give me your SOUL.

‘Yes.’

No hesitation whatsoever. If I had a body I would have chuckled to myself. So full of hubris.

Then it is done.

=)

We awaken once again on the bed of golden flowers. When I catch a glimpse of their hands, they are the same darker skin tone that I have learned to accustom myself to.

I grin in the little corner of their mind that I have made my own. Their soul is mine. I can take the body whenever I’d like.

But I can wait. Run off little child. Fix all your mistakes. Befriend everyone. Make them happy. Try and soothe your guilty conscience.

I’ve never had full access to their thoughts. I could always only detect the occasional one.

When they shake the short skeleton’s hand, one slips through with crystal clarity.

‘What they don’t know won’t kill them.’

Oh, the irony.