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Footprints.
There were footprints in the snow, passing right in front of his sentry post, and Sans could feel the dark aura around his brother. The towering skeleton was glaring at the prints as if they had issued him a personal insult and Sans was nervously wringing his hands together, knowing that the glare was meant for him.
“THERE WAS A HUMAN…” Papyrus seethed. The shorter skeleton froze and stared hard at the ground. He waited for his brother to continue.
“THERE WAS A HUMAN,” Papyrus started again “AND YOU JUST LET THEM WALK BY AS YOU SLEPT SOUNDLY AT YOUR POST.” He whirled around and loomed over Sans.
“WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?” He snarled.
Sans’ voice caught in his throat while his mouth opened and closed uselessly. He swallowed, and tried to compose himself enough to speak.
“i-i’ve been practicing with my powers recently, just like you said to, but it really wears on me, y'know? i can barely keep my eyes open after using them so i…”
He swallowed, trying to figure out how to end the sentence. i fell asleep at my post? i conked out because you asked me to practice for hours before starting my shift? Neither of those sounded like something Papyrus would appreciate. Luckily for him, Papyrus didn’t let him finish, and instead let out a sigh and pressed a knuckle right between his eyes.
“AT LEAST YOU ARE HONEST.” He looked back down to the footprints. “THEY STILL LOOK FAIRLY FRESH, THE HUMAN COULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN FAR. LET US GO.”
As Papyrus took off down the path, Sans felt woozy from the sudden rush of relief he felt. Long ago, when they were new to the world, Sans had protected them both from any danger that came about. He cared for nothing except for the skeleton by his side, and that skeleton cared for nothing except for him.
However, as time went on, Papyrus got stronger and stronger, while Sans got weaker and weaker. Papyrus no longer needed him for protection, and set his sights to higher places. Sans still cared for nothing except Papyrus, but it could no longer be said the other way. He still cared about his brother to some degree, but escaping the underground and taking control of it as Undyne’s right-hand man (and after, her executioner) became more important to him.
Although it had never occurred to the younger brother to do so, Sans knew he could be easily tossed aside if he didn’t earn his keep. He was thankful for the small bit of loyalty Papyrus had for him, and he didn’t want to do anything to endanger that.
__________________________________________________________
The tracks they had been following had gotten snowed over, so his brother suggested they split up to cover more ground. Sans had found the kid talking to a potted flower. Since she was distracted, he thought he would sneak up on her, but she had known he was there. She had also known when he was going to attack and parried them with disturbing accuracy. She never struck back, simply standing there whenever Sans needed a breather, and let him wear himself out. After a particularly enthusiastic attack, he had blacked out and came to face first into the snow. Sans groaned into the snow, and tried to lift himself up on a shaking arm. He couldn’t get all the way up, and fell back down. He weakly clenched his fists as the sound of crunching footsteps approached him. He was completely helpless, having spent all of his energy with that last attack. This was not the way he wanted to go. The footsteps stopped in front of him. The wind was howling. He slowly lifted his head to meet the gaze of the child…
But she wasn’t looking at him. She was fiddling with something. He couldn’t make out what it was, and his brows came together in confusion. He was in the perfect position to be killed, and was it wrong that he was a bit insulted that she decided something was more important?
Suddenly she was crouching down, meeting him eye to eye. Her hand came up and pressed something to the middle of his forehead, and then she stood back up. He reached up and peeled the item off. She had put a band-aid on his skull.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” She spoke for the first time, and it wasn’t until then that Sans realized just how quiet she had been during the battle.
“I hope you know that I really don’t want to hurt anybody” She repeated, “and I don’t think you really want to hurt me.”
He scoffed at that “me trying to kill you with everything i got makes you think that i don’t really want to hurt you?” The band-aid must have been MTT™ brand, because it had only touched his skull for a few seconds, and he felt better all over. He pushed himself up and made it onto his knees, but his legs were still too weak to support his full weight.
“I think your brother wants you to hurt me, and I think you just want to help your brother.”
She said it as if it was the most certain thing in the universe, as if she had known this fact for her entire life.
“You would do anything your brother wanted you to do, even if you didn’t agree with it.” She tilted her head.
“Is that because you care about him, or because you are too selfish to say no?”
Heat rose from the pit of his stomach and curled his lip.
“hey, where the fuck do you think you come off callin me selfish?” Snarling at her, he struggled to his feet. Like hell he was taking this insult while down. “i’ve given my goddamn all to get my brother where he is today, and i’d give it again if he needed it!”
“No, you would give it if he wanted it.”
what difference does that make?, he thought, gritting his teeth. She continued on, ignoring his obvious anger
“Do you really think this power, this anger, is good for him? Do you really think undyne doesn’t know what he is planning?” She said this louder, almost yelling at him, and Sans could feel an icy chill replace the hot anger in his gut
“Do you not know, or are you so afraid of him leaving you that you would rather him suffer in the long run?”
Sweat dripped down his face, and silence seemed to cocoon them. They stared at each other, and a long moment passed before she shrugged.
“Just some food for thought, I guess.” She then turned and walked away, while the wind howled.
Sans stared after her, then down at the band-aid in his hand.
“shit.”
___________________________________________________________
Sans ran through the forest, head looking here and there trying to find his brother before he found the kid. He didn’t know what he was going to do when found his brother, but he knew the kid was right. If this human was captured, Undyne would probably kill Papyrus instantly
She wasn’t stupid and there was no reason why she wouldn’t be able to figure out Papyrus’ plan. If he captured the final human needed to escape, he was no longer useful and therefore unprotected. He might even be killed as soon as he handed the kid over.
He halted as he saw a flash of red to his right. His heart, too, halted as he he saw blue and purple on his left. His brother had found the kid and judging by the bones floating behind Papyrus, he had just ran right into the middle of their fight.
Papyrus seemed surprised at his sudden appearance, but a wicked grin spread over his face.
“PERFECT TIMING, BROTHER! WE NOW OUTNUMBER THE HUMAN. THERE IS NO WAY THEY CAN ESCAPE NOW!” Papyrus held out his hand to Sans, beckoning him closer.
Sans looked at the hand and nervously licked at his gold tooth, remembering the last time he had made him angry. He turned and looked at the kid. She seemed a bit nervous, a bit worried.
A bit unsure.
He took a deep breath.
He knew what he had to do.
He turned around again, facing his brother. He put his hands in his pockets and smiled as widely as he could.
“knock knock.” This seemed to catch the taller brother off guard.
“WHAT?” Sans swallowed, and spoke again.
“i said knock knock” Papyrus narrowed his eyes, wondering what game his brother was playing
“… WHO IS THERE?”
A shaky breath, and then “boo.”
“BOO WHO”
“h-hey paps, don’t c-cry. it’s going tibia ok.” He forced a laugh. come on kid, he silently urged, take the chance and run.
“SANS, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?”
“well it’s meant to be h-humerus” kid, run.
“SANS, I DO NO-”
“why didn’t the skeleton go to the dance?”
“SANS, THE HU-”
“because he had no-body to go with!”
“THE HUMAN IS-”
“why did the skeleton stay out in the cold?”
“SANS-”
“because he was a numbsk-”
“SANS, THE HUMAN HAS GOTTEN AWAY” Papyrus’ eye glowed bright orange and Sans could feel gravity increase around him, forcing him to his knees. His bones creaked from the sudden weight increase.
“BECAUSE OF YOUR IDIOCY, THE HUMAN GOT AWAY!” His eye burned into Sans’ own. Sans couldn’t move. Even if Papyrus wasn’t forcing him down, he wouldn’t have been able to move. He knew Papyrus would be upset, but never had he been on the receiving end of his brother’s magic before. Never had Papyrus been so enraged by him before
“YOU LET THE HUMAN…” He trailed off, a slow look of realization creeping over his face. Sans finally looked away from the piercing orange eye.
Papyrus slowly knelt down, and Sans could still feel him looking,
“Sans,” His voice was soft, quiet. It drew a terrified breath from Sans.
“If I had not lived with you nearly every day of my life, I might think that you let the human get away,” Cold fingers gripped his chin, and brought their eyes back together. Sans could see no emotion on Papyrus’ face.
“Tell me I am wrong.” It was a soft command, but Sans couldn’t bring himself to reply. The fingers tightened painfully, and the emotionless face twisted up in rage
“TELL ME I AM WRONG.” Papyrus roared
“YOU’RE NOT!” Sans shouted back. The hand released him, disgusted. Papyrus stood up and began pacing furiously, one hand covering his mouth and the other clenched behind his back, and the gravity around Sans suddenly eased up. The weightlessness made the world swim around him and he bent over, pressing his head into his hands. He could feel moisture. The tears on his face were unsurprising. He couldn’t remember a time in his life where he was more terrified, and he was certain that he was in for more than a missing tooth this time. Another shaky breath escaped him. At least the kid got away. His brother was safe for another day.
The footsteps suddenly changed course, heading straight for him. He raised his head, only for it to be snapped back by the force of Papyrus’ boot. He flew backwards, and landed on his back. He went to clutch his forehead where the boot had hit, but he instead flew upwards. Papyrus was facing him, arm outstretched towards him and eye ablaze, similar to how he had looked earlier. However the hand was no longer welcoming, and all of his focus was on the skeleton 3 feet in the air.
“SINCE I HAVE TAKEN THIS JOB, I HAVE BEEN FOUGHT AT EVERY STEP.” His hand moved, and Sans moved with it, crashing into a nearby tree
“COUNTLESS TIMES I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT I COULD NOT GET WHERE I AM TODAY,” Another flick of the wrist, another explosion of pain.
“AND EVERY TIME, I THOUGHT I COULD TRUST ONE PERSON. ONE SINGLE PERSON WHO SUPPORTED ME,” Flick. “ONE PERSON WHO I THOUGHT WOULD NEVER BETRAY ME,” Pain. “ONE PERSON I CALLED BROTHER.” Flick.
Papyrus brought Sans close, and inspected him. There were cracks on his skull, fractures in his limbs, and he was missing both his gold tooth and at least 2 fingerbones. He looked like he was in immense pain, and Papyrus had to fight to quell the sick feeling in his non-existent gut. He dropped him, and Sans collapsed into a pile on the floor. He stared for a long while, silent.
“… I knew you would never make it into the Royal Guard. You were too weak, not motivated enough.” He shook his head, “BUT CONSPIRING WITH THE ENEMY? COMMITTING TREASON? I NEVER, NOT EVEN ONCE, EVEN CONSIDERED THE THOUGHT.” Sans groaned and shifted, trying to get to his feet. Papyrus did not interfere.
“PERHAPS I SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SO NAIVE.”
“Papyrus, you don’t understand.” Sans’ voice was was begging him to stop. Papyrus did not listen to traitors.
“YOU ARE CORRECT. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WOULD DO THIS.” The bones that had been forgotten in recent events, rose from the snow. “BUT I DO KNOW THAT ASSISTING A HUMAN MAKES YOU A TRAITOR.” The bones moved fluidly, and pointed at his target. Sans’ eyes widened, as he realized what he intended to do.
“no nonono, paps please don’t do this!” Sans backed up, every bone telling him to take off running but he knew that it would make no difference.
“AND BEING A TRAITOR IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH.” Papyrus hand went forward as his gaze dropped to the snow. It was quick. The sound of the bones taking off, the sound of bones crashing together, and then silence. He let that silence envelope him for a minute, and then two, before looking up.
There was nothing left of him except for dust. No fragments of bone, no clothing, nothing. His eyes burned as he slowly started towards the pile, though not from rage. He fell to his knees in front of the pile. He felt numb. He felt alone.
In the monster world, there were no funerals. Grieving was a very brief process because if a monster died, there were usually more important things to worry about. There were only 2 ways the dust was dealt with. If you were the loved one, you spread it over something they loved. If you were the one that caused the dust, you spread it onto yourself. Luckily for Papyrus, he did not have to choose which role he would take. It would be the same either way.
With hands that certainly were not shaking, he scooped up some of the dust and brought it to his face. He slowly spread it from his chin to the top of his skull. By the time he had finished, he could not deny the shaking in his arms and curled them into his midsection.
The human. Her face burned in his mind, and cold hatred began to spread through him. The human had corrupted his brother, had convinced him to betray him. The wretched human was the cause of the dust slowly blowing away in front of him. When he found that human, he would not capture her. No matter what Undyne, or even Asgore, thought he would not take her prisoner. No, he would not be that merciful
When he found that human, he was going to tear her to shreds.