Work Text:
Neo was alone in the house and the air was stale and silent. He hated being alone, but there was nothing he could do about it. Trying to get his mind off of being alone, he examined the empty house. Before long, he found himself in the kitchen. It was just a normal kitchen with an oven, sink, and a fridge with finger-shaped indents on the sides as if someone had tried to suplex it.
His gaze wandered around the kitchen, examining every detail from the back tile to the wooden knife rack. The hated nightmare rushed into his head, replaying its horror. The small child plunging the blade into his soul and his bodily functions failing as he exploded.
Neo stared at the knife as thoughts nagged his mind. Take the knife. Why would he take the knife? Neo felt a phantom pain in his soul and clutched the box. Neo’s other arm moved forward and took the handle of a large kitchen knife. His mind screamed to drop it but it was drowned out by the chanting of ‘pick it up, pick it up’. Neo wanted to be sick. Bodily oils sloshed around inside of him as he became uneasy.
The robot went into Sans’s room, leaving the door slightly cracked open, and found himself sitting on his legs with his back to the pile he had woken up on. The blade reflected his face, shining the expression back at him. Why did he still have the knife? Thoughts that he never wanted to think of resurfaced themselves in his head. Who would be sad? Sans and Papyrus. NOBODY. Who would be happy that he was gone? Mettaton would be relieved. Don't kid yourself. They all hate you. Could he do it? The blade’s sharp edge teased him as he held it in his grip. He wanted to think he couldn't do it. That he wouldn't. But you can do it. You actually want to. Don't you?
Neo gripped the knife in both hands. Stop. Go on. He lifted the knife, the blade pointing towards his soul and his arms outstretched. Why was he doing it… Because what other choice do you have? His hands shook. I don’t WANT to do this. Tears fell from his face. His arms outstretched themselves more. The knife came plunging towards him, shattering the glass box and piercing the half heart.
Neo’s eye went wide. What did I just do… Electricity shot through his body, zapping his nerves and causing his body to twitch and convulse. Neo let out some shaky laughter before black oil oozed from his soul and corroded its bubblegum pink color.
His body began to overheat.
Pressure build on his body from the inside.
“I’m sorry Sans,” he murmured.
A white flash filled the room and black marks were left on the walls. By a scorched pile of black turtlenecks and blankets, lay a tattered torso and a tearstained head.
The dim neon lights had faded into nothing.
Papyrus walked Mettaton home with a wide smile on his face. The two were laughing and having fun.
“SO, WHAT’S YOUR NEXT SHOW GOING TO BE ABOUT?”
“Oh! It's going to be abou-” Mettaton cut himself off as his pupils shrunk and his mouth froze.
“M-Mettaton? Are you alright?” Papyrus put a hand on his boyfriend's back to comfort the frozen robot. Mettaton only responded by coughing up a black oily substance and collapsing into Papyrus’s arms. Papyrus flipped him over to look at his face, which was covered in oil. Mettaton’s soul was a grey-pink color and looked lifeless. Papyrus began to panic and pulled out his phone and clicked on Alphys’s number.
“Hello?”
“ALPHYS!” the skeleton yelled, his voice terrified. “I-I’M WITH METTATON AND, H-HE, M-METT-METTATON.”
“Calm down Papyrus! Tell me what happened,” Alphys’s voice was slightly scared. The call had startled her, as she was holding her phone and about to call Neo.
Papyrus took a deep breath and spoke, “I was walking with Mettaton when he stopped mid-sentence and spat up a vile black substance. He’s not moving and his soul is grey,” Papyrus began to cry, his tears glowed orange as they streamed down his skull.
“Bring him over here right now!” Alphys shouted into the phone as she began to panic. She couldn't bare to lose her friend. Neo would have to wait.
Sans was just about to get off of work when his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. Picking up the device, the skeleton held it to the side of your face and spoke. “Hello?”
“SANS!” Papyrus’s voice cried through the phone, causing you to pull it back from your skull, “Something happened with Mettaton, I’m bringing him to Alphys’s. Please keep an eye on Neo.”
Sans’s face fell. Papyrus had been crying. Something was seriously wrong with Mettaton.
“Grillby!” Sans called across the bar to the fire monster, causing him to turn his head.
“Yes, Sans? What is it.”
“I’m going now. There's a home emergency.” Before Grillby or any customers could say anything, Sans was gone.
“He smelled scared,” Dogaressa commented, her snout twitching.
“Something is definitely wrong,” Grillby’s voice had an usual fear to it as he wispily spoke.
Sans didn't bother acting natural as he tore through a tear in reality straight into his living room. “Neo? Neo! Are you okay? Answer me!” Sans raced up the stairs and didn't even bother to look at the black soot on the ground. He opened his door in a rush and stopped.
His room was a complete mess. More than usual. His bed was shoved against the wall on its side, his wall was scorched black, and the items on his desk were blown off. Sans let his eyes follow the scorch and soot marks to their source.
A shining metal kitchen knife lay on the floor next to the source. By a pile of once-white turtlenecks lay Neo. His arms and legs were detached from his body as the sockets leaked a black oil. Sans’s breath was quickening as he looked at the soulless corpse.
“H-Hey. N-Neo. P-pal. Please,” blue, glowing tears streamed down his face, “This has to be some sick joke. Ha ha. You got me.” Sans hiccuped as he fell into a panic. The skeleton’s eyes darted around the room as he choked out sobs. “You’re gone.” His voice was hoarse. A blue light glowed from the room as Sans broke down.
The blue light only grew brighter as the Skeleton sobbing turned into a painful laughter. I’ll make them pay. The sounds of bone cracking filled the air. Sans’s bones snapped and morphed, becoming sharp and long. A sobbing roar filled the air as the room was filled with a blue, neon glow.
Papyrus paced in Alphys’s lab, waiting for results back on Mettaton. When he had got there, the scientist was worried sick. She immediately took Mettaton and feared for the worse.
Fifteen minutes had passed before Alphys waddled over to Papyrus and looked up at him, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m sorry Papyrus.” Was all she could make out before she broke down.
It took a moment for it to sink in. Mettaton was dead. His soulless body lay in the other room. He would never hear his sweet voice again. Never be able to hear a loving “Darling” fall from his lips ever again.
Papyrus covered his eye sockets with his hands and collapsed to the floor. The tall skeleton took deep breaths, each one shakier than the last. “I’m sorry I couldn't save you,” He whispered, orange tears streaming down his face again.
Papyrus lost track of time through his grief, sometime in the middle of it he heard Alphys walk over to the corner.
There was rapid knocking on the door and a faint voice. “Alphys! Alphys open up!”
The yellow dinosaur made no movement towards the door. The knocking continued and so did the desperate cries for help. Papyrus couldn't stand it anymore and opened the door.
Frisk stood outside, tears streaming down their face as they looked up at the skeleton. “It's Sans,” they said, pulling on Papyrus’s leg, “He’s on a rampage, Saying that ‘he’ll make them pay’.” Frisk sobbed and took a deep breath, “I’m scared Papyrus.”
The tall skeleton didn't know what to do. Too much was happening too fast. He tried to compose himself and led Frisk inside and sat them down in a chair. Papyrus pulled out his phone and looked at the contacts. He called Sans. No answer. He called Neo. No answer. He called Undyne. The phone was picked up after a few rings.
“What is it Papyrus? I’m b-”
Papyrus cut her off, “It's Mettaton, Sans, and Alphys. Sans is on a rampage as Frisk says, Alphys is breaking down, and Mettaton,” Papyrus choked up, “he’s gone.”
Undyne was silent, “What about Neo. Have you tried contacting him.” The fish monster was dead serious.
Papyrus shook his head, even though Undyne couldn't see it, “Neo wouldn't answer.”
“Crap, crap, crap, CRAP! I’ll be over there in a minute Papyrus, just hang in there.” Undyne hung up.
Frisk stared at Papyrus and their tears had just started falling faster, “Mettaton’s dead, isn't he. Is Neo ok?” Frisk’s voice squeaked as they forced out words.
“I’m not sure Human. I don't know if Neo is alright. He won't respond.” Papyrus avoided the topic of Mettaton completely.
Papyrus and Frisk ended up contacting Toriel and Asgore to get them to help, but Papyrus wasn't sure of what they could do.
Within fifteen minutes, Undyne, Toriel, and Asgore had arrived. Toriel and Undyne went to go comfort Frisk and Alphys respectively as Asgore talked with Papyrus.
“Do you know what’s going on with Sans?” Asgore’s deep voice resonated in the room as he attempted to stay composed and calm.
Papyrus slowly nodded, “When my brother experiences really extreme emotion, he becomes a monster. It happens randomly too sometimes, but from what Frisk was saying, I can only think something happened to make him change.”
Asgore hummed quietly, “Do you know of a way to change him back?”
“Only one, if he exhausts all of his magic, he morphs back. Otherwise, he just morphs back randomly.”
“Thank you Papyrus. This inf-”
Asgore was cut off by a large hole being torn through the wall by a bright blue light. Through the hole, came in a large skeletal monster. The beast had a goat-like skull, five spikes down its spine, a long bony tail, and sharp claws that could probably cut through metal. It wore a torn blue jacket with black shorts. In its arms, clutched to its ribcage, was a disfigured black shape.
{Where is she…} the beast growled, voice filled with anger and sadness. The only one who could understand the garbled speak was Papyrus. It had been a long time since he heard Sans speak like that, and it frightened him.
{Tell me where she is!} Sans’s jaws and eye glowed as bones shot up from the ground throughout the group.
“Sans! Please stop this!” Toriel cried, Frisk hiding behind her.
The beast paid her no mind as he stomped through the lab, towering over everybody with an imposing height just over 8 foot.
“Papyrus,” Asgore tapped the now shorter skeleton’s shoulder, “can you understand him?”
Papyrus turned to the king and nodded, “He’s looking for ‘her’.”
A small yellow tail swished from behind Undyne, catching Sans’s attention. The monster neared the pair and opened his jaws.
Undyne looked at the bundle in Sans’s arms and recognised it. “Neo?”
{This is HER fault!} Sans let out a gaster blaster charge at the two, Undyne blocking some of the damage with a magic spear. {Out of the way.}
Papyrus ran over to his brother and grabbed at his leg, {S-SANS,} Papyrus stuttered, attempting to speak in the long forgotten language, {Don't hurt them, Please}. Sans paid no mind to his brother as he whisked him away with his bony tail.
{IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU,} Sans charged another blaster beam at the two, blue liquid falling from his sockets, {NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED}. Sans released the beam.
Asgore stood in front of Undyne as the beam was released, attempting to block it with his triton.
{OUT OF MY WAY} He fired another that was blocked by Toriel, the goat monster summoned a wall of fire to weaken the blow.
{JUST LET ME DO ONE THING FOR HIM.} Papyrus stopped the blow with a wall of bones.
{Sans please, just tell me what's wrong.} His brother wailed, trying to talk some sense into him.
With a whisk of the tail, everybody was sent flying away from the cowering Alphys. Sans lowered his face so it almost touched hers. Hot, angry breath came out of his snout as he exhaled. {If It wasn't for you, Neo wouldn’t be dead.} Papyrus shot a final gaster blaster at the scientist, hitting her head on.
“Stop this!” Undyne called, struggling to get up. But it was too late, the beam had already shot and surrounded Alphys in a blinding light.
The light began to dissipate, everybody fearing the worse. When the light was gone, there stood Alphys, hanging on to 1HP. Sans was wailing as he finished the attack, looking into the bundle of charred fabric and metal in his arms. The skeleton collapsed to the ground and wrapped himself around the bundle. {I couldn't even do one thing for you, pal. I’m sorry.} Sans closed his eye sockets and passed out from exhaustion.
Everybody was weakened by the gasterblasters except for Frisk, who had no magic to defend Alphys with. The child approached the swath of blankets in the beast’s arms and looked inside. The child saw a destroyed metal body with no arms or legs, only a head and torso. Backing away, Frisk ran back to Toriel and told her what they had saw.
By the time everybody was up and working, they were either helping Alphys heal, or looking at Neo’s robotic corpse.
Papyrus stared in horror at both his brother and Neo; he didn't think that Sans would go to such extremes for the now dead robot and felt bad for not noticing. What terrified him most, was that Sans wasn't changing back. The beast had used up all of his magic abilities and should’ve morphed back by now, but he hadn’t. It terrified Papyrus.
Papyrus was able to take Sans home after he had slept for nearly two hours on the floor in Undyne’s lab. During that time, he wouldn't let anyone near Neo and didn't show any signs of changing back.
Once Sans was home, all he did was sleep in his room after Papyrus had cleaned the soot from the walls and cleaned out all the charred clothing. Sans held Neo to his chest and refused to let him go.
A few weeks later, the group of monsters held a funeral for Mettaton. Undyne had collected the dust that had formed from his soul and gave them to Alphys and Papyrus to spread on something he cherished, after Napstablook and Mad dummy had denied the offer. Alphys spread her share of his dust on his old, rectangular body that sat in the corner of her lab. Papyrus took his ashes up to the top of Mt. Ebott and waited for nightfall to say his final goodbyes.
“Mettaton. I was never really good with words like you were. I was never as popular as you were. And I didn't have as many friends as you either. But none of that mattered to you. You loved me for the bone head I was. You cared about me and cherished me for as long as we knew each other. Mettaton, just know, I will always love you.” Papyrus quietly cried as he threw the dust into the air, “Now go be a star, like you always wanted to be.”
Papyrus didn't talk to Aphys much after that. He didn't blame her for what happened, but he couldn't stand to face her. It had been weeks and Sans was still in his Gaster blaster form, huddled in his room. Papyrus had tried to get him to come out but nothing persuaded him.
Grillby had come over a few times to ask how he had been, but it was the same every time. Every visit, the fire monster left with “he hasn't moved since.”
Papyrus did his best to put on a brave face through all the hell and grief he was going through, but sometimes he just couldn't. He broke down with Undyne once over how he was worried about Sans. It had been three weeks and he hadn't moved or done anything. Undyne did her best to help. She didn't know what to do with Alphys either.
On the fifth week, Papyrus had woken up to find Sans was back in his small skeleton form. His brother was still wrapped around the fallen robot, but it was better that he was back to normal on a physical standpoint.
Grillby was happy to hear the news.
Within another week, Papyrus had convinced Sans to leave his room and eat something. Although the two didn't feel the need to eat, not doing so impacted their bones. Sans’s bones were weak and fragile from weeks of malnutrition. Sans still refused to speak more than a couple sentences or leave the house.
Another two weeks passed and Sans had been convinced to spread Neo’s dust. The short skeleton said that he wanted to do it alone and Papyrus reluctantly let him.
In the dead of night, Sans set out, hugging his jacket and box of dust close. The skeleton wanted this moment to last as he walked down the streets. Sans arrived in a shopping district and looked for the park bench to sit at. When he finally found it, he took a seat.
Sans gazed at the starry night sky, watching the clouds dance over the stars. He smiled sadly and looked down at the box of ashes.
“Do you remember this place Neo? This park bench, this shopping district, and the clouds that danced across the sky? This is the first place I met you, remember that? I thought you were Mettaton and I was about to give you shit for dating my brother, but when you stood up I realized, ‘That isn't Mettaton, but he does have a nice face’,” he chuckled and continued, “Remember when we played charades? When we tied with Frisk, Toriel, and Asgore? You were so happy then. I wish it stayed like that… The first time we shared that bed, your nightmare and how I calmed you down from it? And that time that you came over and we played games and I- Well. I gave you a skeleton distraction. What I would give to see you like that again. I remember finding you in that alleyway, and you were freaking out. You almost shot my arm off ya know? Anyways. I’m not sure what I’m trying to get at, but I want you to know that I care about you,” Sans looked down at the box, letting some glowing tears drip down into the dust. “I really liked you Neo. Why did you do it. Was I not enough for you? I never was good at keeping promises ya know. Maybe I shouldn't have promised to make the nightmares stop. Maybe I shouldn't have gone to work that day. Maybe I shouldn't have met you… No. I don't regret meeting you. Sorry. I only met you, what? Four months ago? Maybe not even. But in that time, I found someone that I cared for. I just wanted to see you happy again. I just wanted for you to live a happy life!” the ashes were covered in droplets of water now. “I’m sorry. I didn't mean to get you wet.” Sans sighs and takes off his jacket. “I should probably be getting to the point now.”
The skeleton laid his jacket out on the park bench and stood up to look at it. “When I met you, the birds were singing, the flowers were blooming,” Sans began to tip the box over his jacket, “And on days like those,” the dust began to spill onto the blue fabric, “monsters like you,” the dust covered the jacket, “Should be alive, and loved.”
The jacket was completely covered in dust as Sans took his hand and spread it around the jacket, letting it sink into the fabric. Sans picked up the jacket and let the remaining dust fall into the box, there wasn't much though. The skeleton slid on his dusty jacket and held the remaining dust to his chest.
“Now, you’ll always be with someone who loves you.”