Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“DANGIT SANS!!! I DON’T WANT TO CAPTURE UNDYNE, I WANT TO CAPTURE A HUMAN!!!”

“why don’t you wanna capture undyne? i thought you two loved playing tag.”

“IT’S NOT TAG SANS!!! IT’S A HUMAN!!! A HUMAN WHO DOESN’T LIKE…”

“...ANYTHING?”

“i’m pretty sure they’d like something. you know how i like everything…”

“SURE. NO STRONG EMOTIONS FROM YOU ALWAYS!!! THAT’S WHY YOU’RE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SKELETON IN THIS HOUSE, RIGHT SANS?”

“gee papyrus. i never knew you felt that way.”

“I-I DON’T!!! I’M THE BEAUTIFUL ONE!!!”

“oh. well, that just affirms what i’ve always thought. guess i actually am right about something sometimes. keep going back and forth…”

“UGH…”

Papyrus looks off to the side. He stands adjacent to their couch and the kitchen, on the first floor. Meanwhile, Sans is sitting on the steps upstairs. He’s above Papyrus’s eye level this way, but has to lean forward resting his arms on his knees just to see him.

“...?”

Sans is surprised the conversation ended there.

Papyrus looks at his mittens.

“hey, papyrus. sorry. i was just playing a trick on you. i hear humans are irresistibly attracted to skeletons. i’m pretty sure it’s their whole thing.”

“...WHAT?”

“yeah. read about it once. that flag in your room? i know you have your ideas. but i think it’s meant to convey what they’re attracted to.”

“they… take pride in it that way or something.”

“HRMMM… PRIDE??? WELL, THAT’S ALSO MY THING!!! PRIDERFUL, PRIDEULAR, PRIDESTIGIOUS! THAT’S PAPRIDEUS!!! THE, UH…”

A hand gets placed on his chin. Then, an alarm starts ringing!

—!!!

“AH! THE HUMAN’S ALREADY ARRIVED! BUT THEY WERE JUST AT THE BRIDGE? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???”

“maybe it’s the way they—”

“NO MATTER! IT’S TIME… FOR THIS.”

Sans gets up off his knees and starts walking down the stairs.

“see you dude. i’m gonna get a head start on grub for later…”

Papyrus steps over to the door and opens it, not looking at Sans, who is walking toward the kitchen. Then, Papyrus opens the door, letting the snowy tundra into their home momentarily. Papyrus stands there for a few moments, thinking to himself. He needs to make his points clear to the human. This… isn’t normal. He looks over his shoulder to Sans, who…

Well, the moment he walked into the kitchen, he disappeared.

—

Papyrus, he can hardly believe it. He makes a little laugh, when the human steps closer.

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

“I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH—”

And suddenly, as the human approaches…

“papyrus.”

Sans is standing there. He… in the middle of Papyrus’s sentence, Sans has showed up out of nowhere and made distance. He’s standing between Papyrus and the human, looking to the human but speaking to Papyrus. With him now there, the human has leaped several feet back. They seem… notably wary of Sans, it’s visible on their expression. Papyrus is confused.

“EH—... WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? SANS, I WAS ABOUT TO HUG THE HUMAN, ARE YOU—”

Red starts stretching out from inside their jacket. Papyrus sees it, in the mist, it’s a huge blot on his back that keeps stretching and growing a deeper darker shade. Papyrus can see it, the liquid has shot out of his body. Little puddles of it stick out in the snow.

The human hadn’t touched him.

“...SANS?”

The human walks forward with a grim resolution to their stride. They power through the snow, the mist, tired of this. They need to make sure there’s nothing stopping them in the future.

As this happens, as Papyrus watches the human get closer, looking increasingly less friendly… Sans turns his face to Papyrus, finally responding to his name being called.

“don’t let it touch you.”

Sans’s voice is getting more and more crackly as he speaks. It sounds like a sore throat, but the sore is starting to be all that there is.

Cracks are forming in his eye sockets. One stretches up and over his skull, and the other weaves down into his smile.

“you don’t… deserve…”

999999

Papyrus’s mouth falls open. Sans’s body has been cut in two, and has already started to dust. They hurt him. They wanted to hurt him. They…

In a daze, Papyrus doesn’t move. Watching the light leave Sans’s body, the red stretch all throughout the snow, it leaves him in a state where the cold feels more chilling than ever. His heart is heavy. His shoulders don’t want to carry himself up anymore.

The human is standing there.

…

…What?

Why…

In between the both of them. The thing that makes Papyrus start to feel like he’s alive again. Sans’s jacket has fallen into the snow, even though the rest of his body dusted.

That… doesn’t make sense. Papyrus knows… that doesn’t make sense. That doesn’t happen.

Scared for his life, with the human noticing, Papyrus grabs the jacket and runs.

He firmly stretches it around his battle body, not noticing the sparks of something unknown clinging onto and trailing out of the hoodie. They’re like little white stars… flowing.

—

“UNDYNE!!! UNDYNE, PLEASE!!!”

In the depths, a hero emerges from darkness.

Seeing her friend, Undyne takes off her helmet. She can see, feel the distress flowing out of Papyrus’s words, his mannerisms, everything. That… and what looks to be northern lights, forming out of him and into Waterfall’s sky.

“Papyrus? Papyrus, are you okay?”

Then, she notices. It’s around him. It’s a tear on the sides of the jacket. It’s… Sans. He’s…

“No…”

She immediately feels the loss and confusion.

“YOU WERE RIGHT. EVERYONE WAS RIGHT… THE HUMAN IS… THE HUMAN IS COMING…”

He’s barely able to find his words. He’s breathing in and out hard, posture unsteady.

“They…”

She wants to say something reassuring to him. But she knows he cares about humans… She can’t imagine how he’s able to keep himself moving at this moment. She doesn’t want to believe Sans is gone yet.

“They’re the enemy of all of us. We’re going to be okay. Do you need anyone to take you somewhere? You…”

Undyne keeps getting hung up on everything about him. The stars trailing out of his body… it feels unreal. Like it’s from a dream.

She doesn’t want to say he shouldn’t wear that.

“Are… are you. Is Sans…?”

Papyrus lets out a sob, in the middle of taking another breath. His back arches forward, and he can’t hold himself together anymore. He starts crying uncontrollably, and seeks comfort in Undyne’s arms. She immediately… immediately holds onto him; Holds him with somehow—just enough strength to keep him alive in this moment.

For a while, this goes on.

That’s when something makes noise from the bushes.

Undyne has to let go. She has an expression on her face that boils with rage, Vengeance. She’s never been more eager to do something impulsive in her life… and she sits there. Watching, looking for the human. For so… so long.

Papyrus stands there, weak in the shoulders, looking at her. She’s so impressive. She tries to do everything herself. Undyne didn’t show it often… but Papyrus knew her better than most people. The cold exterior of people is only so much.

She just burdens herself with everyone’s problems. Papyrus can’t help but sympathize.

Weakly, he walks past her, to the next room.

“HE COULDN’T FINISH WHAT HE WAS SAYING TO ME. HE… WAS PRACTICALLY IN MY ARMS.”

He keeps going, and Undyne’s expression evens out, listening.

Aurora borealis. Beautiful, natural. But there, for reasons hard to imagine. It is… sentiment.

“I’LL BE FINE. I’M GOING TO… FIND MY WAY.”

“HE WAS GOING TO SAY SOMETHING…”

“BUT COULDN’T FINISH.”

“...GOODBYE, UNDYNE. I DON’T KNOW WHERE I’D BE WITHOUT YOU.”

—

Papyrus walks through the higher sections of Waterfall. It’s easy to just pace around… the ground is very even, and you get a nice view of everything and everyone below. There’s a spot he comes to occasionally, one with a bunch of echo flowers. There’s a lot of places he can visit, with sentiment like that. All of it’s flashing before him. It’s… sad, to think that everything might fall apart. It… didn’t feel right. Even though everyone evacuated… even though Sans…

He just… he didn’t want to think like other people did. He didn’t want to think of the human that way, even if he trusted her in every other way.

He didn’t really… think everyone else was right. That just happens… you overcorrect.

Hands in his pockets, he takes a moment to look at the echo flower spot. It’s an entire field of them. A field of blue… and to his knowledge, nobody else knew of it. They were all… untouched flowers. He never spoke to any of them. He just… kept to himself in it.

Standing in front of them. He… there’s. It’s… wet. It was. Sans’s pockets.

.

There’s. Red

He can. He’s touching

Pulling

death. come on

join.

haha.

heheh. 

touching 

him 

his

blood

blood.

Blood.

—!!!

“AAAHH!!!”

“AH!!! AH… AH… HAH… HAH…?”

Gasping, panting, drooling. Wet. He can’t understand.

Numerous. Sticky. Viscous. Pulling to the floor, and out. From one place to another.

Red hands. Red hands, pooled from the stuff. They had emerged, and pulled Papyrus in. But where was he? He felt… dead.

He felt… in a space that was different.

Dark.

He’s… in front of Waterfall’s exit to Hotland. He looks back behind him, and the hands are gone. He’s just barely able to get a glimpse of them.

It… just happened when he was panicking. It… he doesn’t know if that was real. Did he black out? Was it real?

Papyrus holds a hand over his chest. His SOUL. He sheds a couple more tears.

What was happening to him?

—

Alphys holds a cup of ramen in her claws, whisking noodles around with chopsticks. Her and Papyrus, they knew each other through Undyne… but they still considered each other friends. Papyrus tends to naturally assume most people he knows are either his friends or admirers… Alphys, with that, seems to think highly of him. They can connect over this assumption.

Right now… Papyrus sits on a chair Alphys has pulled over for him.

She’s running tests on Sans’s jacket, trying to find out why it persisted after Sans’s death. Alphys thought she saw something coming out of it for a moment, but rationalized it as a glint of light playing tricks on her with her glasses. It stopped when Papyrus took the jacket off.

Now, with Papyrus contemplating things, he looks over to Alphys’s giant monitor.

It’s watching the human, still working their way through Waterfall. They’re touching an echo flower.

“HE’S… JUST GONE. I DON’T… NONE OF IT MAKES SENSE.”

Alphys had introduced to Papyrus that she knew Sans once she saw the jacket on him. Papyrus didn’t question it at all.

Alphys is tearing up a little.

“He… was a complex person.”

Papyrus never knew him that way. Everything about Sans just kinda seemed silly to him. Even that Sans knew how to teleport and stuff. It wasn’t that impressive.

“I… CAN I TELL YOU… UM…”

Papyrus puts a hand over his arm, nervous about saying something. Alphys just nods a little, looking at him emotionally.

“THE LAST THING HE SAID TO ME WAS… ‘YOU DON’T… DESERVE…’”

“...AND THAT WAS IT.”

Alphys starts to tear up harder. She has to face away from him, not wanting to expose him to that. There’s so much that she could say. It doesn’t make sense to her either.

“...Ah. Oh god.”

Alphys places her arms on her shoulders. She’s shaking her head back and forth gently.

“He was probably going to say… You don’t deserve this.”

“...”

Papyrus doesn’t say anything. Alphys feels a shiver up her spine and straightens out a bit once she realizes how that might have been wrong of her to say.

“I-I’m sorry… I-I know you’re brothers, you love each other, it’s n-not…”

“...SORRY.”

He looks at her, wearily.

“SORRY FOR MAKING YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS.”

Alphys’s mouth hangs open for a sec, still wrought with it all, and then rushes over to hug him. She’s taking it hard. Her hugging him feels nice.

Alphys tries to speak for a moment. She swallows her spit. She was just going to tell him he shouldn’t feel sorry. But why would it be her place to say that, right? All she’s ever done is make mistakes and feel sorry for it. Why is she an authority?

She grips Papyrus harder. Papyrus holds her close too.

“YOU KNOW HOW SANS IS A SENTRY…?”

“...Yeah?”

“I’M GOING… TO THE LAST PLACE HE PATROLS.”

“RIGHT BEFORE THE KING’S THRONE ROOM.”

“...What?”

“HE GUARDED THAT PLACE… AND I WANT TO DO THAT TOO. I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO.”

“...”

Alphys lets go of him, wiping the tears and all from her face.

“You… Why? We… You shouldn’t…”

“I JUST… FEEL THE URGE TO. IT’S… THE LAST FRONTIER.”

Alphys is surprised by the resolution in his voice. He knows he has to do this, somehow.

“I’ll take care of this!”

“Get out of here!”

It’s her. Undyne is on the monitor.

“Oh my god.”

Alphys is watching. She’s… hurt.

Small and directly in front of the screen.

She’s transfixed.

Papyrus watches.

He… he can’t. He… it makes him too emotional. He has to look away.

Alphys is someone he feels like he understands. What she said… how she stuttered to assure him. He would never be that way. He knows it. But… that told him something.

She’s so trapped by the things she is. The things she wants. Sans… he was never trapped, even if sometimes he seemed resigned to who he was.

He wants to be like that.

Papyrus gets up, and his entire body feels heavier than it ever has. There’s a weight to him now… a power in his understanding he can’t fully grasp. And with that, he… knows where he should be, right now. He walks over, and picks up Sans’s jacket… again planting it around his shoulders.

Wordlessly, Papyrus leaves the lab. Alphys will soon feel that same resolution he has.

Alphys’s computer shows results for the test they were conducting, on the jacket. None of that matters to either of them now. …Yet, it reads…

Photon readings

are in the negatives.

Subject is forcefully linked with shadow contamination. Will is bound by the twilight coating.

If one were to harness the subject

their darkness may be viable to take shape

even if unintentionally.

—

Undyne was someone who was trapped by her biases and responsibilities. She put the world on her shoulders, and while that led her to be loved by many, it also could make her feel alone. She wrongfully believed that humans were something to fight against always, perpetuating the war centuries after it had ended. What makes her special though… what made her a hero… was realizing all of that didn’t matter in the end. What mattered was that she cared about people. That she fought for them. She wasn’t trapped anymore, in her death. She was free.

Sans has been this way for a long time. …But it wasn’t always this way. Sans had someone he cared about, deeply. In trying to fix what happened with that someone, he had been trapped in his grief for forever. His pain, his needing of them. It tortured him. But at some point… he finally let go. And even if it can make him hurt… even if he may feel weak in that decision. He’s the strongest monster out there because he knows he had to make that decision. That moving on was healthy. There was a time, even… when in order for Papyrus and him to live happily, Sans had to make that decision. It was killing both of them, trying to cling onto what was there.

Papyrus feels it deep in him, what this has all been leading up to. How his emotions, his desires, have no place in this. What he wanted… doesn’t matter anymore. He held so much belief in himself to reach that high. That he could become famous, lovable, that everyone in the world could love him. He believed it would be true. But as everything falls apart… you start recognizing what really is worth caring about. The human…

He has thought about this so much.

He’s smart enough to know how other people are hurting.

He can’t care about them the same way, if they’re trapped like he was.

<3

Chapter Text

She holds the drawing with both of her claws, squinting, teeth protruding out her mouth, deep in thought.

“I can make it definitely,” she starts with, evidently comfortable talking about what she’s good at. “But I don’t know if the wings will actually be able to lift you off the ground.”

Alphys looks innocently at him. He laughs a little, but shakily—showing this was an expression of trust.

“Oh, that’s fine dear, really I enjoy them just being cosmetic. In my head, I… envision them like spotlights. If I’m going to be a star, then I should shine brightly, right?”

Alphys smiles. Then, her disposition changes a little, looking at the drawing again. She’s clearly thinking about what it’s going to take in order to make the new body. It was going to take a while. To change the subject, she puts forward a new question.

“So… have you decided on a name yet?”

—

“My name is Asriel. Do you need any help? I can take you to somewhere safe…”

Sounds of rushing water pull him out of a haze.

It had been a while since he had last saved. How long it had been, combined with the frustration of how close he was to his previous objective, has him scowling.

“Ugh…”

Looking at the bed of golden flowers he’d woken up from makes him feel frustrated. Golden flowers were his save points, and ever so often, the nature of dying and coming back feeling like a bad dream has him involuntarily revisiting old memories.

Flowey was so close to beating him this time. That skeleton, the one that made no sense, the one which always proved to be a thorn in his side any time he really got somewhere…

He had that guy on the ropes. He’d surprised him, leading Papyrus astray and forcing him into a position where he was vulnerable.

…But it didn’t work.

Now he was here, hearing that distant other voice again, begging internally that he could hear it one more time.

Flowey had to rid himself of those feelings. They weren’t natural, he wasn’t natural. ‘These feelings aren’t something that affects people like me,’ he’d say to himself. He was broken. That was something he knew for certain, believed in.

—

Papyrus stops in front of the wide stageroom, the only exit out of the CORE, and holds a hand over his chest. He wasn’t expecting to see Mettaton here.

“METTATON… WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? I RAN INTO MONSTERS THAT ALPHYS WAS HELPING EVACUATE, CAN’T YOU---”

“...HELLO THERE, DARLING.”

Where both monsters had previously gotten so accustomed to speaking matter of factly, they now hold a weight in each of their voices. Papyrus’s tired nature, even to someone he didn’t know personally, was easy to tell… wasn’t him.

Mettaton, on the opposite end of things, was someone everyone knew the voice of. There was nothing as commanding, as appealing, as that voice. Now though, it was speaking carefully. This was not the special guest he was expecting to have on his show. Faced with someone so bound to his hope, Mettaton struggles to think of what to say momentarily. 

“YOU SHOULD RUN ALONG. …I COULD ASK THAT SAME THING TO YOU.”

Mettaton was here because he wanted to save everyone. To kill the human. But… this was not for the underground. This wasn’t because of people like the person in front of him.

“I-... I’M NOT. I’M NOT GOING TO. I WANT T-TO DO SOMETHING SPECIAL, LIKE YOU.”

Papyrus’s voice hesitates, meeting his idol. Pleading to one of the only authority figures he has left… he starts tearing up a bit.

“M-MY BROTHER, HE… HE HANGS OUT BY THE CAPITAL SOMETIMES. I-I WANT TO… I WANT TO TAKE HIS PLACE, HE WORKS THERE…”

The stuttering makes Mettaton quiet. Something about Papyrus’s authenticity hits Mettaton in a spot he doesn’t understand. A part of him gets reminded of Alphys, hearing him struggle to be himself, but it’s in Papyrus’s honesty where what he says hurts more, brings Mettaton back down to earth. It’s Mettaton’s instinct to protect that…

“YOU SHOULDN’T PUT YOURSELF AT RISK IF THERE’S NOTHING TO GAIN. PEOPLE LIKE ME ARE THERE TO PROTECT YOU. PEOPLE LIKE ASGORE.”

Mettaton says it with a dry intonation, evident he’s keeping feelings close to the chest with his words. He doesn’t really believe in the underground’s strength, he just wants to rise above. His savior complex clashes with Papyrus’s boundless love, even in their unfamiliarity.

“BUT… I CAN’T LIVE LIKE THAT.”

The tears are coming faster now. Papyrus is shocked he can say anything against what Mettaton believes.

“HE’S GONE… I CAN’T BE WITH HIM ANYMORE. I DON’T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING ANYMORE… I JUST WANT TO PROTECT PEOPLE. I JUST WANT MY FRIENDS TO BE SAFE…”

Nobody else could say something like this to Mettaton. Not a single other person could muster up the honesty. Papyrus found in his grief some level of authenticity similar to Alphys and Undyne, that he could not do anything but put his personal feelings aside for the sake of being true to himself. All that really mattered to him was having a friend, was having a… family.

Mettaton turns around, finding it hard to face Papyrus in this level of raw emotion. He was a celebrity, he wasn’t supposed to feel real emotion. All that mattered was humankind, but now he found in himself pangs of sadness for someone he doesn’t even know personally. Someone he started feeling… admiration for, though.

“METTATON…?”

Papyrus’s voice is so pleading. It wants anything, anything from Mettaton to comfort him. Mettaton knew the only way he could respond would be for it to change his understanding. That if he were to say anything to Papyrus, it would mean admitting Mettaton wasn’t doing this for himself anymore. That it would mean someone else could rise above with him, even if his wings didn’t work.

Mettaton turns back around.

“...PAPYRUS.”

Saying his name makes Papyrus straighten out in shock.

“IF I CAN’T STOP YOU, THEN SO BE IT. I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW…”

Mettaton raises out his arms in dramatic flair.

“I’M NOT GOING TO GIVE THE HUMAN A BREAK!!!”

Papyrus sniffles, a little smile coming over his face. Now, Mettaton pulls out his microphone and holds his other hand high.

“IF YOU THINK THE HUMAN HAS ANY CHANCE OF STOPPING ME…”

“THEN I DON’T KNOW HOW TRUE A FAN YOU ARE.”

Papyrus blushes a little. Mettaton speaks in an almost delicate way…

“NOW GET GOING. I WANT YOU TO BE THE FIRST ONE TO KNOW… THERE IS NO DOUBT IN THE POWER OF NEO!!!”

There is electricity flooding the room. The stage they’re on, it was built for that mic he’s holding. Papyrus hears it loud and clear… Mettaton’s victory is certain.

“...THANK YOU METTATON.”

Papyrus walks, with an enormous amount of strength, past Mettaton.

“SINCE I WON’T GET ANOTHER CHANCE TO SAY IT… I LOVE YOUR WORK.”

Over his shoulder, he looks back at Mettaton one last time. Maybe in another life, they could have had more room to talk to each other.

“...YOU’LL HAVE TO AUTOGRAPH MY COPY OF SOULS IN TOUCH.”

And with that final statement, Papyrus walks toward the New Home elevator.

Mettaton sits there for a few moments. He watched Papyrus leave. How true to himself Papyrus was scared him. And… that last statement. The movie Papyrus mentioned.

There used to be a big trend of schlocky romance movies going around in the underground.

That was one of Mettaton’s first movies.

He didn’t even play the protagonist.

—

The mist is dying down now. During this story, there’s always someone watching. Layers of other, separation, different players concerned with the outcome.

There was always someone watching, but this time… 

There was nobody here but a little golden flower.

The red hasn’t fully sunk into the snow yet, it’s not been lost to the natural ways of land. Flowey is there, above it.

He doesn’t have anything to say, there’s barely anything running through his head at the moment. What was the most impossible task in the world is now dust in the wind. A chill makes his stem straighten out, and it wasn’t because the cold bothered him.

Everything rested on this person. Even though Flowey wants to feel satisfied to see him go, this makes the victory feel empty. He’s struck with thoughts of opportunity, how much every barrier he ran into in this world so often was in place specifically because of this person.

There is no reason this should have happened.

This scares Flowey, so much so he can’t bear to look at the red liquid anymore. He has an idea, but one that is hard to rationalize.

There was this… back room to the True Lab which was boarded up before he was ever created. He was always able to pop into it, but that was all. Every time, no matter what he did, something would happen to him, by being in that room, which would always get that skeleton on his trail.

Something about that place was worth protecting, so much so that it would justify putting every possible countermeasure in place. It’s one of the only reasons Flowey even knows that Sans and Alphys have any kind of connection. Something like Sans’s death has never happened.

This chance might never exist again.

Flowey pops underground, and in no time at all, he’s there in the True Lab. Right now, nobody is there but the amalgamates. Later on Alphys would likely evacuate everyone there, Flowey’s gone that kind of route before, but for now…

He has this place to himself.

The boarded up room is adjacent to the determination extractor, and the entire wall is paved over.  instead of physically destroying the room, due to how long the process would take. It’s not big, only hosting a long wilted plant, a simple desk, and a filing cabinet adjacent to it.

…But, Flowey needs to take a deep breath. The first time he saw this place, he could take in his surroundings a bit, but every time he’d try to escape… he’d be swiftly dealt with.

This was information too valuable for people to see. What was he waiting for?

Flowey makes his way over to the filing cabinet. He looks around. Nobody’s here. Then… he opens the cabinet. Arranged alphabetically, he skims through the second half of the files.

“Magic”

“Space”

“Time”

He closes the bottom cabinet. Curling around the desk, he opens the top compartment. Towards the top, there are several files with their names blocked out.

“Boss Monsters”

“████████”

“███████”

Flowey smirks. Jackpot. Opening the blocked out with the longer name, he’s a little disappointed to see that the file is similarly blocked out in most of its text, but not surprised. He can glean some information from it though, be it vague. He reminds himself… this is stuff nobody’s supposed to be able to use.

ENTRY NUMBER 3

WITH THE CORE ELEMENTS OF MY HYPOTHESIS LAID OUT IN THE PREVIOUS TWO ENTRIES, I AM NOW GOING TO START CONDUCTING TESTS.

████████, LIKE THE OTHER SCIENCES MY COLLEAGUES STUDY, ████, HOPE AND GRAVITY, INVOLVES THE ██████████. IT IS BAKED INTO THE VERY ESSENCE OF OUR ███████, HOW WE CAN ███ ████ THESE ████████ OF LIFE AND █████ WITH THEM. ████████ IS EVEN MORE ██████████ THAN THESE OTHER SUBJECTS, AND IN THAT I HOPE TO SHOW HOW MY DESIRE TO RESEARCH IT IS NOT UNFOUNDED.

CREATING ████████ COULD MEAN CHANGING THE WORLD FOREVER.

I CREATED THE CORE IN ORDER TO GIVE THE UNDERGROUND ENERGY THAT WOULD LAST FOR GENERATIONS. TO MAKE IT SO NOBODY HAD TO WORRY ABOUT RUNNING OUT OF RESOURCES. THAT WE COULD FOCUS ON THE LOVE IN OUR LIVES.

IF I AM CAPABLE OF TAPPING INTO ████████, IT COULD MEAN NEVER HAVING TO WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING EVER AGAIN. IT COULD MEAN FREEDOM, SO THAT NOBODY WOULD EVER HAVE TO LIVE WITHOUT EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT.

SOUL POWER WOULD PALE IN COMPARISON. WE WOULD NOT JUST SEE THE SUN AGAIN, BUT BE ABLE TO ██████ OUR ███ ████.

TESTING BEGINS NOW. I WILL WRITE DOWN MY RESULTS.

Flowey rummages around. The first two entries are completely missing. There’s only a couple others in here, ordered numerically…

ENTRY NUMBER 6

I HAVE TO RESTRAIN MYSELF FROM GETTING TOO EXCITED. JUST LAST NIGHT THERE HAS BEEN A BREAKTHROUGH.

IN IMMERSING MYSELF IN ████████, SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY HAPPENED.

IT WAS BARELY A WHISPER, BUT I COULD HEAR IT. A VOICE, NOT UNLIKE THE ONE I LOVE.

IT WAS BOTH BECAUSE I ████████ IT, AND THAT I WAS IN ████████, THAT I HEARD IT. THE VOICE WAS AS CLEAR AS DAY.

I SEE THE IRONY IN THAT STATEMENT.

IT WHISPERED SO BEAUTIFULLY.

I AM GOING TO SET UP AUDIO DEVICES TO TRY AND RECORD THE VOICE.

THAT ANY OF MY DETRACTORS COULD THINK IT WAS ANYTHING OTHER THAN ████ MAKES ME PARANOID. THAT EVEN MY COLLEAGUES COULD QUESTION IT’S ███████.

IT WAS SOMEONE ELSE THERE. SOMEONE ELSE I ████████.

I KNOW IT IS ████. I SEE HOW IT IS CONTRADICTORY.

IT DOESN’T MAKE YOU SMART TO NOT BELIEVE IN SOMETHING.

ENTRY NUMBER 11

I DISLIKE INVOLVING ANYTHING OTHER THAN FACTS AND INTENTIONS IN THESE ENTRIES, YET NOW I MUST DISCLOSE THAT AFTER THIS ENTRY, I WILL BE SWITCHING TO VOICE RECORDINGS.

I HAVE CHOSEN TWO PEOPLE TO WORK ON THIS PROJECT WITH ME. ████, A FRIEND WITH A SIMPLE BACKGROUND YET WHO I SHARE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH, AND ██████, THE GIRL I HAND PICKED FROM HYDRA UNIVERSITY DUE TO HER PROMISING ENTHUSIASM.

INITIALLY I KEPT TO MYSELF WITH THIS WORK LARGELY, INVOLVING THEM ON DIFFERENT TASKS I COULD NOT AUTOMATE MYSELF, YET NOW I FIND THEM ALWAYS OVERSEEING ANYTHING I DO.

THIS IS IN PART DUE TO MY OWN EXCITEMENT, AND THAT RESULTS HAVE ALREADY SHOCKED MY PEERS.

THIS MEANS A LOT FOR THEIR CAREERS, AND I HOPE IN THIS GESTURE, MAKING THEM IN EQUAL CREDIT, ELEVATES THEM. THEY ARE FRIENDS FIRST, COLLEAGUES SECOND. THAT IS WHAT I CARE ABOUT, AND CLING ONTO, EVEN AS I GROW MORE OBSESSIVE.

NOW THEY WILL BE FORCED TO LISTEN TO THESE ENTRIES. I THINK ████ WILL FIND IT FUN.

Flowey pulls the last entry out. It’s entry number four, kept at the bottom.

ENTRY NUMBER 4

████████ IS SOMETHING EVERYONE HAS IN THEIR SOULS. IT IS INESCAPABLE, A NECESSARY COMPONENT OF LIFE, YET SOME TRY THEIR HARDEST TO ESCAPE IT SO FEVERISHLY. THEY RUN AWAY FROM IT, OBSESSED WITH STRUCTURE AND LINEARITY.

IN ORDER TO STUDY ████████, I MUST EMBRACE IT, BECOME ONE WITH IT.

THIS IS SOMETHING I CARE ABOUT MORE THAN ANYTHING. IT IS WORTH THAT EFFORT AND OBSESSION.

TODAY I ██████ OFF ALL THE ██████, AND JUST LET MYSELF SIT IN IT. IT FELT SO FREEING TO ███ ██ ALL THE ███████████, THE █████████ OF ANYTHING.

WHAT WAS IN FRONT OF MY ████? I DID NOT KNOW. IF I ██████ MYSELF FROM EVERYTHING, FORGOT WHAT WAS ██ █████ OF ME, THEN IT COULD BE ████████ █ ██████ ██ ██.

I HAVE PEOPLE IN MY LIFE I MISS SO MUCH.

THEY █████ ██ █████, IF I BELIEVED THEY WERE.

THAT IS A LARGE PART OF WHY I AM CONDUCTING THIS STUDY.

BECAUSE I WANT TO GIVE PEOPLE THE THINGS THEY MISS.

I STILL REMEMBER MY FAMILY. THE FRIENDS I’VE LOST. THEY █████ ██ █████, IN THE ████. ANYBODY CAN SEE THE BEAUTY IN THAT.

WANTING THEM TO BE THERE, AGAIN.

…THE RESULTS OF MY FIRST TEST HAVE ALREADY PROVEN FRUITFUL. I COULD ███ THEM IN MY MIND, AND ███████ WHAT THEY ████ LIKE, TO █████.

IT WAS INSTINCTIVE, BUT I ████████ THEIR BULLET PATTERNS, WITH THEM. THEY ARE MAGIC, INTERTWINED WITH THEIR SOULS, AS MONSTERS ARE.

THAT BEAUTY CAN ONLY BE REPLICATED AGAIN IN THIS WAY.

I BELIEVE IN IT, SO IT IS REAL.

…Flowey takes a moment to look around. He got so invested in what he was reading, that the sense of dread hanging over him stopped. There wasn’t any fear in dying.

Everything is so dusty in this room. It’s odd how there’s any light in this room at all, with it being boarded up, but it existed regardless. None of what he was reading about made much sense to him, yet he felt attached to it regardless.

There wasn’t enough for him to make use out of.

He already had everything he needed.

“Heheheh… I came all this way and it only taught me stuff I already knew. How predictable!”

“Now that I have you, Chara…”

“I don’t need to believe in anything else anymore.”

—

Voices echo in the hall of judgement.

…

“You're still the only one that understands me. You won't give me any worthless pity!”

…

“RRRRREADY? IIIIIIIT'S SHOWTIME!!!”


<3

Chapter Text

It’s a beautiful day outside. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming…

And you’ve heard that song and dance before. Yes, this wasn’t the first time you were here, was it? No, and that part was interesting. Why would you ever stay with this world, not move onto another? What possible force could ever compel you to see this all happen over again… just with one slight change? Gross, isn’t it? Beyond any of what your actions are…

That sentimentality is disgusting. Why care about something when you’ve already been hurt by it?

—

For the sake of simplicity, we will be referring to you as Chara. Your perspective has been lucky enough to be able to witness all these different facets of the world, but now you must again supplant yourself into that body which you have been fated to. The main character of this game that you’re playing. You must now play again… as Frisk.

—

Flowey goes back underground, terrified for his life. It was hard to hide Chara’s excitement, seeing him slowly piece together how even he too was meaningless in this world. That he, like everybody else different from Chara, was just another thing to play with. Once upon a time there might have been sentimentality there, love, but those were different times.

It feels so good to take revenge on those that hurt you.

And so, Chara must ask themselves. What next? This has happened all before, truthfully. Chara enjoyed playing the game this way, getting their stats the highest every time, but…

This was about what is going to happen now. Everything is riding on what is about to happen now. They have set themselves expectations… yet are not entirely sure what to expect.

It was just Sans’s brother. Papyrus kind of reminded them of Asriel.

What could happen now that would warrant their demiurge indulging in this way?

…Twilight is falling through the glass windows. They depict the image of the angel, the one who has seen the surface. This is what the world believes in. It is holy, yet ultimately fragile.

So much shadow is in the room, yet. The absence of light has not fully overtaken the world around Chara, the sun still is getting ready to sleep… yet it is not just that they cannot see their own body. The pillars surrounding them start to cast deeper shadows. What is in front of them starts to stretch longer than they are accustomed to. Why do they feel so small? Why does the world feel so big? Are they shrinking? How is this happening?

…Will this be a challenge after all?

“THERE YOU ARE.”

Papyrus’s voice.

“...I WASN’T SURE IF YOU WERE GOING TO SHOW UP.”

“IT WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT IF YOU WERE TO JUST HAVE TURNED YOURSELF IN.”

He’s there, in the darkness, but it’s too hard to see. When did the sun disappear?

“I HAVE BEEN TALKING TO A LOT OF PEOPLE ON MY WAY HERE…”

“SEEING WHAT ELSE YOU’RE CAPABLE OF.”

Blue light shines through the windows. Nothing is gold anymore, no, a deep indigo. Chara can see Papyrus now, yet he is still casting a larger shadow than that which makes sense.

The moon has been drawn toward this battle. It hangs overhead, between the two. Clouds are drifting past it, yet still not hampering the light it shines. Why was the moon so bright?

“...I KNOW WHY YOU’RE HERE. WHY YOU’RE DOING THIS. I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT IT THIS WHOLE TIME. SO PLEASE, LET ME SHARE YOU THESE FEELINGS…”

Stars shine behind Papyrus. It is like the night sky has followed you inside.

“THESE FEELINGS I KNOW YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW.”

From cracks in his voice, tears start to flow. Those stars that hang behind him, drift behind him unknowingly, form something that shimmers into existence. An arm held out, Papyrus conjures a staff made of bone. He wears the jacket of his brother still, and in that self maintained grief, there is a weak battle stance. One where he feels himself do nothing but breathe in and out, carrying his chest… as a power he knew he always had takes full form.

Chara grips their knife with a smile forming.

A step, a jump! Chara leaps over, not a moment longer letting this battle wait! This was something new, something fresh! Was this a taste of what was to come? A new game… plus?

Or maybe something else? Not just a new version of this game, a new… everything!

Bone meets steel, and it is not deadly. Papyrus uses his staff to block Chara’s offense, sending him several feet back in the room! Just the power alone from that strike has his boots scraping against the hall floors… 

Papyrus looks. A small scratch on the staff itself.

And down the staff comes, it serving also as a wand, to summon several rows of bones from. They come flying at Chara in genuine waves, flowing upward as they spike through the ground in sequence. With many of these waves getting sent forth, space now between them, Papyrus has ample room to speak.

“IT’S BECAUSE YOU WANT TO FEEL STRONG!!!”

“YOU WANT PEOPLE TO LIKE YOU. SO YOU HURT OTHERS JUST TO PROVE THAT YOU CAN!!! THAT YOU AREN’T WEAK LIKE ANYBODY ELSE!!!”

“LIKE YOU WORRY YOU ARE!!!”

Chara dodges in between the waves, spinning, frolicking. There is never a gap that they can not find, a sequence to not learn the rhythm. They dance like a ballerina…

“YOU DO THESE THINGS BECAUSE YOU WANT PEOPLE TO BELIEVE IN YOU.”

“BECAUSE YOU FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT YOU MATTER!!! THAT WHAT YOU HAVE IS WORTH SOMETHING!!!”

Chara needs to shut him up. There’s no room between them again, and preemptively, Papyrus holds out his staff. Even slicing from a different direction, his reflexes are too quick. He’s able to intercept the blow, and with him now sent feet away again, he is back against the wall.

Then, when that shakes him, feeling the cold hall marble against his body, he screams.

Hands pull him from the wall, the red hands that had taken him through Waterfall. They were real? They were helping him? He was now… on the completely opposite end of the battlefield.

With his energy still maintained, his fear and anger potent, he continues.

“IT TAKES SO MUCH EFFORT TO RECOGNIZE THAT YOU’RE STRONG ON YOUR OWN!!! THAT FOR AS MUCH AS YOU TALK YOURSELF UP, YOU JUST WANT TO MEAN SOMETHING!!!” 

Chara looks to their side. The exit is right there.

“NO!!!”

Papyrus pulls Chara forward from across the arena, a hand outstretched. Something flickers from inside of Papyrus’s skull. His right eye flashed dark blue and orange. Chara’s SOUL is now that same color of blue, then now in the middle of the room.

“(PANT, PANT…) WH-... WHAT?”

Papyrus blinks rapidly, panicked, confused. He holds his open hand over the eye.

“IT… IT HURTS!!!”

Wisps of blue and orange gestate out his eye socket.

“N… NO!!! WHAT’S HAPPENING…?!”

Evidently occupied, Chara gets another chance to attack. Not a single thing would keep this strike from tearing through that staff of his. Bone was only so strong.

And suddenly, as Chara rushes forward, they feel their legs drift upward. They, mere inches from him, cannot move anymore. They are, completely, totally, held in place.

Papyrus’s hand falls by his side. The eye glows brighter.

Integrity. A strict adhesion to one’s morals, even when the world itself fights against them.

Bravery. The power to do something courageous, even if the world might find it foolish.

Can’t move your body.

Papyrus holds his staff over his shoulder. His mouth goes up and down, him breathing in and out, he winces at the power flowing out of his mind.

The staff comes against Chara’s side. With all the force of a baseball bat, Chara chokes out.

“I DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU… I… I’M SORRY.”

“I JUST NEED TO… TEACH YOU A LESSON.”

“I USED TO BE SO TRAPPED, JUST LIKE YOU ARE.”

Another set of bones come from behind, scraping at Chara’s wrists and ankles. He isn’t trying to kill them.

You struggle…

Nothing happened.

“IT TAKES EVERYTHING IN ME TO ADMIT IT’S LIKE THIS!!! THAT… THAT I’M… THAT I NEED OTHER PEOPLE. THAT I CAN’T… LIE TO MYSELF ANYMORE…”

“I USED TO THINK THAT IF I HAD A NICE CAR, PEOPLE FAWNING OVER ME, EVERYONE IN THE WORLD PRAISING MY INTELLIGENCE…”

“...I’D BE HAPPY.”

A rib cage emerges from behind, impaling Chara’s torso.

You tried to reach your SAVE file.

Nothing happened.

“BUT THAT ISN’T IT. I NEVER LET MYSELF ACCEPT THAT… ALL I NEEDED WAS SOMEONE ELSE TO SEE WHO I WAS.”

“AND I KNOW YOU’RE LIKE THAT. I KNOW THAT BEYOND ALL THE ANGER INSIDE YOUR SOUL… YOU WANT THAT. YOU JUST WANT SOMEONE TO SEE YOU.”

A bone forms from underneath Chara and hits their stomach hard. It just barely doesn’t pierce through them…

You tried again to reach your SAVE file.

Nothing happened.

Seems SAVING the game really is impossible.

That is, if you were on your own, partner. =)

“AND THAT IS WHY… I CAN’T HOLD OUT HOPE FOR YOU LIKE I DID ANYMORE. WHY I NO LONGER BELIEVE IN YOU.”

“YOU HAVE TO KNOW HOW I SUFFERED LIKE YOU DID… EVEN IF IT’S HARD TO ACCEPT. EVEN IF IT MEANS I HAVE TO KEEP YOU HERE… UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND.”

Don’t worry. Let me take care of this.

Frisk’s body starts smiling. Their eyes open and roll into the back of their head.

Screaming. They’re screaming. No, they’re laughing. They’re choking. They keep getting interrupted. Something’s stuck in their throat.

On the floor, with a wet plop, comes their SOUL.

It’s fallen to the ground, covered in red, yet still colored blue.

Papyrus’s eyes go wide. He takes steps backward, completely unsure of what to say or think.

Then, the body starts moving. MY body starts moving.

Nothing he did to me really hurts. Nothing he said meant anything. No matter how much fun it could be, to wipe smiles off their faces… that was never what this was about. That sentimentality is so far away from me.

He seems to have clued into that.

“...I… WHAT…? WHAT? NO… NO… WHAT’S…”

I shamble forward. It’s hard to walk without that stupid sappy thing inside of me.

…From the floor, there is still something left inside. It makes no sense. It is worthless, at this point. There is no way to walk back what has led to this moment. Your consequences would be numerous. And yet…

  ❤️ Comfort him         Do not

Let free, the SOUL can pursue its body. Perhaps it was not bright to let it loose, and free.

With the two humans now one again, and free from Papyrus’s hold; Papyrus still shocked and confused… Frisk hugs him.

They hold him with all their heart. They know they have killed his brother many times before. They know they have killed him many times before. This message, what has been said to them just now, just activates a stupid, curious part of them.

They were always about that. That curiosity. That sentimentality. No matter how much they understood, it didn’t really matter. They just wanted to still be connected to this world so so badly, that every bit of newness was a kind of disgusting high.

What does this mean? Papyrus let out his heart, and here they are, acting like them being seen by anybody means anything. They’re stronger than anything in this world. They have this way of being that doesn’t even fully try to understand what they themself are, it just seeks out newness. Emotion that they can see. Forget about, and do over.

Frisk wants to be happy in that world on the surface. But in my choice to stay with this world, they have adopted adaptation in purgatory.

See how fast they can beat it. See if they can do it in limited ways. Their curiosity keeps them here. And, I… I’m not here because I want this.

You don’t get to have what you want. I’m the one playing the game, remember?

“...HUMAN?”

He barely speaks with any hint of confusion. Some part of him gets this, really it’s just the emotional part. He’s always been someone who gives people the benefit of the doubt, and even if sometimes he fully doesn’t understand how much that allows people to hurt him, he still connects anyway. Even if all he can spend time with is playing with superhero toys or what have you…

“...DO YOU GET IT?”

Papyrus’s arms connect around Frisk carefully. He’s not fully safe in them… but slowly, his grip gets stronger. His connection strengthens.

“...EITHER WAY. I’M JUST GLAD I CAN FEEL YOU.”

And Frisk’s arms are so strong. Holding onto him so passionately, even though it is so meaningless. Even though they have seen him beg for his life so many times. Do you even need to hear this? Do you even care that he’s been hurt?

“I KNOW IT’S HARD TO CARE ABOUT YOURSELF LIKE THAT. IT TOOK EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN ORDER FOR ME TO SEE THAT.”

His voice chokes at those last words. He starts crying again. Holding onto Frisk so badly, even though they were the one that killed them. He just needs anything to hold onto right now.

“I JUST WISH THERE WERE ANOTHER WAY… I’VE BEEN DOING IT OVER IN MY HEAD OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I’VE BEEN JUST…”

The moon casts a spotlight over the two.

“IT’S SO HARD TO BE MYSELF. WHEN ALL I’M THINKING ABOUT IS THEM, AND HOW MUCH I WISH I COULD HAVE SAID OR DONE DIFFERENTLY.”

Stars still dance above them. But they start going out, one by one. His imagination fades.

He looks over to what was once Frisk’s SOUL, but which is now mine. His face contorts into an emotional expression again.

“...I… I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE. I DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH OF WHAT I’VE SAID AFFECTS YOU…”

Frisk grips tighter.

“BUT YOU’RE HERE NOW.”

“THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS.”

…Hee hee hee. Excuse me. Apologies. It’s improper to laugh in good company. No, you see… we have gone over this before. This song and dance plays on a broken record in a house so big you can barely see the top.

We will never stay still forever. We will always reach the absolute. We will always move on from one world to the next.

It’s all a game to be won. In his terms, a puzzle to be solved. Let me bring you back to earth, Frisk. I admit, your worthless pity, how warped it is… is something I cannot take from you.

I can only do this.

█████████        ████            ████

████████████████████

█████████                 █████████

A desperate noise that sounds like someone itching. Someone inside your ear just trying to get inside. Like it’s burrowing deeper, and you can’t do anything to get it out. A feeling, like the only part of you with any weight was your head. Like it could roll off at any moment. It was all that mattered to get to. Please, won’t you let yourself inside? Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

It’s raining… it’s pouring.

PLEASE CONTINUE.

A harvester’s sickle hangs overhead.

Breathe… breathe.

Let it out

LET

IT

Comfort him         ❤️ Do not

Stars hang overhead. If you were able to look closely, they’d resemble some people you’re familiar with. There’s all sorts of people up there… it’s a little strange. You didn’t know Papyrus knew her. …Does he? There’s… Ah. I am getting distracted. It is not my place. Forgive me.

“D-...DON’T DO THIS. I…”

God it sounds so good to hear the fear in his voice. The temptation we feel is palpable. He has to go. This has been fun. 

With all the power a soulless body can muster, I cleave–

!!!

Instinctively, even though terrified whimpers, Papyrus has held out his staff. His back is immediately thrown against the wall from the force of the blow.

…The staff has been cut in two.

“...I. I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE LIKE THIS. I SAW HOW YOU WERE TRAPPED LIKE I WAS… AND I COULDN’T BELIEVE IN THAT VERSION OF ME. THAT VERSION OF YOU.”

“I.”

Papyrus is choked up. But in that, he swallows all the feelings inside of him. Even if his tears want to flow harder. He has to push it inside. He has to do this, because no one else will.

He has to do this, because…

“I THOUGHT I KNEW WHO YOU WERE.”

“NOW I SEE… YOU’RE SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY.”

The red hands pull Papyrus from the wall to the other side of the arena. He’s got a stern look on his face. His eye jolts back into place… it was letting out bits of mist, but now it swirls inside him. It shoots out small bolts of blue and orange lightning.

The blue sky yields to the midnight sun. Truthfully, not much time has passed at all. The darkness let out from his soul now rests inside him. You can no longer see the stars, with how polluted the world has become. It was not the moon, but the sun in disguise.

Anything can be what you want it to be.

But for now… all Papyrus wants for you is to…

“TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE. PICK UP YOUR SOUL, IF YOU NEED IT. WHATEVER YOU’VE DONE TO THE HUMAN… I WANT TO FIX IT.”

“ANYONE CAN BE UNDERSTOOD. WITH YOUR GUIDANCE… I’M SURE WE CAN MAKE THAT POSSIBLE.”

<3

Chapter Text

“WHEN I SAW YOU SHAMBLING FROM PLACE TO PLACE… I THOUGHT TO MYSELF… ‘YOU LOOK SO TIRED.’ AND MAYBE, TRULY, YOU ARE…”

Papyrus’s glowing eye wells inside his skull once more, yet it remains now a consistent orange color. His eyelid twitches as it pulsates inside him, seemingly out of an inability to contain the power he is generating. It’s curious that he doesn’t appear to know what the eye is, but Sans does…

Throwing his hand downward and raising it, Papyrus summons a bone from the ground much taller than Chara can jump over. Then, the bone turns blue. He keeps it there, making space.

“I SEE SOMEONE NOW, WHO IS… UNABLE TO CONTROL THEMSELF. THAT YOU ARE BEING SPLIT IN TWO DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS… EMOTIONALLY EXHAUSTED.”

The soul pulsates on the ground even still. With this free time, Chara lifts up the soul in their single hand, and shoves it back inside them. The intensity to which Chara does this makes Papyrus scowl a bit, but in a sad way.

“YES, IT’S TRUE… THE THING THAT COMPELS YOU FORWARD…”

The bone comes hulking through the corridor. With the light of day back in the room, the sound of birds chirping has come back into focus. In this moment, the beginning of phase two, the question comes to mind of what the weather shifts before were. It doesn’t appear that Papyrus has even noticed them, but now there isn’t a trace of it anymore. Of that… darkness. Papyrus seems much more clear headed now, with this revelation about the human.

“IT… IT ALWAYS SCARED ME. SEEING WHAT YOU WERE… ACTUALLY CAPABLE OF.”

Again, he raises a giant bone from the ground, same length. Chara inches forward, the blue bone was nothing, just something to wait through. Simple enough.

“BUT THAT’S NOT JUST YOU, IS IT? I MEAN… IT CAN’T JUST BE CRUELTY FOR YOU, CAN IT?”

The next bone, Chara expects to have to wait for it again. That’s when it turns orange.

“YOU DON’T DO THIS TO FEEL STRONG, NOT RESTRICTIVELY. THERE'S A CERTAIN… DESIRE IN YOU THAT FEELS DIFFERENT FROM THAT.”

Chara stopped in their tracks right before it got sent at them. It’s much faster than the previous attack, and with that, Chara is unable to react in time. The bone throws them off their feet, and pushes Chara back again to the beginning of the corridor.

“ONE SIDE OF YOU FEELS THE NEED TO STAY IN PLACE. THE OTHER FEELS THE NEED TO ALWAYS PRESS ON. MAYBE YOU DON’T TRULY REALIZE IT…”

From those words, Papyrus summons singular bones in a sequence. They don’t come too fast, but each of them alternate blue and orange.

“…BUT I FELT SOMETHING, JUST NOW. A WARMTH IN ME THAT… FEELS LIKE IT CAME FROM YOU. OR AT LEAST… A PART OF YOU.”

Chara tries to weave between the gaps of bones, never having to wait or run through them. It was too much effort to try and acknowledge what the colors were before reacting to them, even with their speed not being too much to handle.

“THE PART OF YOU THAT HAS A HARD TIME LETTING GO. WHICH… FORGIVE ME. IT SOUNDS SO PRESUMPTUOUS… BUT MAYBE THAT PART OF YOU CONSIDERS ME, ON SOME LEVEL, A FRIEND… NO MATTER YOUR INTENTIONS?”

Chara is now in the middle of the hall. Papyrus sends out one final bone in that sequence of them, but it is white, no unique color. Chara dodges it easily, but something happens. Papyrus holds his hand out, his eye pulses… and the bone he sent out comes back from behind.

Immediately caught off guard, Chara suffers deeply from the back attack. Papyrus lets out a huff, like doing that made him tired, but also like he didn’t know if that was going to work.

“ALL OF THIS CATCHES UP WITH YOU, IN TIMES LIKE THESE. EVENTUALLY, YOU’RE GOING TO RUN OUT OF TIME ON BEING ABLE TO WALK ALL THIS BACK…”

Fittingly, Chara struggles to stand. Papyrus’s attack completely knocked the wind out of them.

“SO LET ME BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOR. I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE YOUR FRIEND MOST OUT OF ALL.”

Chara stabs their blade into the hall floor just to give themselves more energy and leverage to stand up. Papyrus sighs, disappointed.

“THAT IS NOT JUST WHO I AM SPEAKING TO, HOWEVER. THAT YOU COULD EVER BE…” Papyrus trails off, and then throws his arm out. A green platform appears midair in front of him, and it floats in front of Chara steadily.

“…THAT YOU COULD EVER BE SOULLESS. THAT SIDE OF YOU… THE ONE THAT NEEDS TO ALWAYS MOVE ON.”

The entire floor lights up and intense sounds of burrowing through the ground come quickly. Chara jumps onto the platform, and moments later, the entire hall floor has become covered with bones sticking out in different directions and lengths. Papyrus has a little circle around him of free ground.

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT GOOD IT IS TO LECTURE YOU ON THE IMPORTANCE OF SENTIMENTALITY. I JUST A MOMENT AGO TOLD YOU HOW I STRUGGLED… HOW MUCH I CLUNG ONTO THAT PERCEPTION OF MYSELF, THAT I HAD TO BE STRONG IN ORDER TO BE WORTH SOMETHING. HOW MUCH I COULD NOT LET GO OF THE REASONS WHY I FELT I HAD TO BE STRONG. THAT, TOO, WAS SENTIMENTALITY…”

I look at him with… Hehe. Pardon. Chara looks at him with a frustrated expression, being carried around the arena, even farther away from Papyrus, and now again adjacent to the entrance of the corridor. Papyrus reaches out his arm and bones stretching out from the floor grow longer, and ones Chara didn’t see sticking out from the ceiling come into view. There’s gaps just big enough to jump through.

“BUT ISN’T CHOOSING TO FORGET EVERYTHING THAT CAME BEFORE… BAD OF ME?”

Papyrus’s voice cracks a little. It wasn’t clear to Chara, but tears threatened to come out again.

“NOBODY SHOULD FEEL THAT BETRAYED BY THE WORLD. SO SCARED AS TO NOT…”

Looking at Chara again, Papyrus can’t continue his words. He sees too much of himself in his point that he’s making. Has there not been times… things he feels but can’t explain… moments of dreams or fake memories or anything… have there not been times where he feels the need to pretend nothing bad is happening at all? Is his desire to let go at times not something he can relate to Mettaton with? The way Mettaton at times seems so willing to… leave monsterkind behind all at once. Papyrus lets out a sigh from all the emotion rushing through him. His eyebrows then curl inward, he must steady himself. His anger takes form over all of it.

“…IT IS A BALANCE.”

The platform drifts through the bones at a fearful pace. Right before Chara is forced to try and fit through the gap… they turn blue and orange.

“I HAVE TO DO THIS BECAUSE I WANT TO BE ABLE TO MOVE ON FROM ALL THE THINGS I FELT BEFORE. YET… I’M ALSO HERE BECAUSE I CAN’T FORGET MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY THAT HAVE HELPED ME GET THIS FAR.”

Somehow the different colors have made the attack more disorienting. There’s more options for Chara to take, but that makes it more complicated… Chara is unable to keep it together. There is an orange bone they attempt to run through, but in that, they fall off the platform.

Through the chest, blood leaks out of Chara’s body like a faucet. Their shirt becomes a growing red mass and can’t hold back the flowing blood at all. Papyrus’s eyes go wide open.

“NO!!!”

The floor of bones dissipates. The long jagged bone that had gone through Chara disappears, leaving their body to fall to the floor in a puddle of their own insides. Papyrus rushes over, again looking like he’s about to cry.

“NO… I… I CAN’T LET IT BE THIS WAY!!! YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR MIND!!! YOU HAVE TO SEE THE VALUE IN US! IS IT…?”

Papyrus is closer to Chara now. He steps forward, gets on his knees. He cradles the limp body of the human.

“IS IT REALLY SO HOPELESS…?”

He cries. He sobs, hugging them tightly.

“NO, NO NO NO… IT CAN’T BE. I KNOW YOU FEEL SOULLESS… I KNOW YOU GAVE UP SO LONG AGO. BUT DO WE REALLY HAVE TO SUFFER NOW? IS THERE NO GOING BACK? I… I’M SO SORRY!!!”

Papyrus cries into the human’s bloody shirt, tightly holding them. Suddenly, the memories come flooding back!

—

“Chara. Please apologize to Asriel.”

“…I do not want to.”

“But you must, dear.”

“Why? I won the game. Nothing can change that.”

“…But you are still here. There are other games for you to play, Chara. Asriel is your brother. He may not want to play more games with you if you make a fool of him for losing.”

“I don’t have a lot of other ways to have fun, Mom.”

Chara feels themselves start to tear up a bit. Toriel immediately holds them tight.

“You do, my child. The world will always keep spinning. That is how we survive in a world that might haunt us.”

“I… I can’t change though, Mom. These are just my instincts…”

“…I used to be the same way, Chara.”

Chara turns quiet hearing her say that.

“Your father inherited the throne from his father… I used to be a very different girl.”

Pulling their head away from Toriel, Chara looks up at her. Toriel continues.

“There will always be something new for you to do. Somewhere to grow and change in. The hard part is knowing how much you should care about the people around you.”

—

Chara thrashes inside Papyrus’s grip. It’s so sudden, Papyrus barely recognizes it’s happening until it’s too late. The blade Chara never lets go of goes clean through Papyrus’s chest, all the way through the back of Sans’s jacket. Papyrus chokes on the metal and anger being shot through him. Tears come first, then the look of shock and betrayal. Then, it occurs to me…

Ah, what… It matters little. I do not understand how I am here, but I have cheated death… I continue to. My purpose is grander than all of this. That I am here, now… tells me I am just. That I am the victor… that I am the one still standing.

And yes, Papyrus is still on his knees. He holds the incision I have made on him… he throws his body around the most he can muster, in order to speak. Tears squeeze their way out of his eyes as in his dying daze, he desperately tries to make eye contact.

“ALL I… ALL I EVER WANTED FOR YOU IS… TH-… THE SAME THING…”

His voice gets caught in his throat. He sobs out all the emotion inside him, choking everything he's feeling out instead of finishing his thought. He wants to cry, but he feels too hurt for that to happen anymore. He's losing consciousness, the way his body weakly teeters around on itself starts moving slower. Papyrus stops being able to move anymore. His body turns to dust.

Chara turns around and moves on.

Papyrus’s kindness, in the end, mattered little. He could only grasp at forces beyond him, even in his new emotional maturity. No part of him really understood the depths to which Chara was something beyond all of it. The way that Frisk had become a lost soul, endlessly led around on a chain by Chara’s influence. Papyrus was only special because he was different. Because he was a new toy to play with in this scenario, and a new toy to let go of again. Chara and Frisk have done this together so many times. Even if it’s different, everything around it is the same. There is little meaning to find in it, other than what Frisk finds from surface level enjoyment, you know. The emotional part is whatever. What he says doesn't matter. It's all forgettable. They just needed something… anything else to do. The high of it being different. Even still… that’s also what Chara was feeling. Just… there was some shock that this newness could mean anything to them. They felt enjoyment, seeing Asriel cower in fear every time they come back here… but that’s not… it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that Chara won. They have owned Frisk’s soul for some time now. It’s over. They’re about to be rewarded for going through all this. That’s what the demiurge wanted of them. It had to be.

A greasy brown paper bag flies past Chara’s face. Papyrus barely catches it. Going the opposite direction, Sans walks by Chara’s side. 

“hey there. told you i was going to grillby’s, didn’t i? couldn’t hear what you said, so i just got your favorite.”

Chara follows Sans with their eyes. Wha…?

“this kid still giving you trouble? hey, for work experience, i guess there’s no better way to prove you deserve the job.”

Papyrus doesn’t see it, but there’s a smoky black substance leaking out of the cut Chara made in his chest. He's… back now. All of him is still here, when just a moment ago every part of him flew in the wind. The black substance, it's flowing through the entire arena. Chara turns to the exit as quickly as possible, but the exit is gone, is as though it were never there. The entrance, too, is this way. The corridor has become completely closed in.

“SANS…?”

Upright and on his feet, Papyrus looks at Sans with frightening normalcy, like his presence was nothing more than an uninvited guest showing up, yet even still…

“YOU’RE… YOU’RE NOT DEAD.”

“shocking, i know. when someone stays in one place for long enough… you think they're dead. but we’re brothers, right? you really think i wouldn’t need one or two power naps?”

Papyrus looks at Chara slowly, like he’s just as confused as they are. Papyrus stands there, entirely straight posture, and looks around the room.

“THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG. THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING.”

“…don't sweat it, papyrus. i'm here now, okay? it's me. i'll explain in due time."

It requires a lot from Sans to swallow his energy and tell something to Papyrus straight.

"this isn’t just about us anymore, not even the kid. this is about…

Sans gestures around the room, wistfully, like he himself doesn't even know where to look.

"him.”

Papyrus makes a fearful expression, taking steps back from Sans. He feels a chill up his spine. That white hand on his shoulder? He's been telling himself it's not real for a long time now.

<3

Chapter Text

Papyrus holds a hand over his scalp. A bead of sweat trails down it. A single eye open, it flashes bright. His focus is unbroken, and it’s on Chara.

Chara steps forward, and trips over their feet. Something was left behind them, shed like a snake’s skin. It’s someone else. It’s the undivided. The one who’s control comes first and foremost. It’s… Frisk. Suddenly, Papyrus takes his hand away, glowing eye going wide.

“WHAT…?”

Sans’s eyesockets go empty, and his expression seems off. Sadness over his face, he reaches out, and suddenly Frisk gets thrown across the room. Their back hits the wall of the last corridor.

“and here i was thinking we’d have strength in numbers…”

“SANS! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU—”

Chara leaps at Papyrus, shaking off the residual essence from splitting with Frisk. Papyrus quickly summons a blaster in front of himself, and the thing gets split in two. With charge already building up inside it, the blaster explodes, sending Chara and Papyrus in opposite directions. Papyrus stops his momentum with his boots better than Chara. He doesn’t hit the wall. Sans turns to watch Papyrus go backward.

“I- OW… MY-MY… MY SPECIAL ATTACK…”

Chara couldn’t get a good look at it, but the shape and noise was immediately recognizable. Papyrus had summoned a blaster.

“I… I DIDN’T EVEN MEAN T-…”

“feeling a lot at once? hey, i can relate…”

“SANS…! SANS…”

Papyrus throws himself at Sans in place. His face and jaw go forward, choking out emotion looking at the person just moments ago he thought was gone for good.

“papyrus. i’m here. i’m here, alright…”

“I KNOW!!! THAT’S THE PROBLEM!!!”

The black mist spewing out of his chest only grows in intensity. A battalion of blasters start to surround Papyrus from behind.

His blasters—They’re much smaller than Sans’s, more circular. They have big eyes, and are roughly the shape and size of a dodgeball.

Papyrus continues his thought. He doesn’t realize they’re flying past him and charging up attacks at Chara.

“WHY ARE YOU HERE!!! YOU WERE… WHY DID YOU…” 

It’s been so much to process, Papyrus feels it deep in his throat, the sour taste of mucus and sobs. He thought he was going to choke on his tears. It’s the hardest feeling in the world to swallow.

“YOU WERE DEAD.”

“i’m not anymore.”

Frisk’s body has slid to the floor after being thrown to the wall. They shake with terror, their gaze transfixed on Chara, who is several feet away from them.

Chara dodges all the little streams of fire, cutting each blaster in twain, using the expulsion from their explosions to outmaneuver every attack.

“AND YOU THINK IT’S FINE TO JUST LEAVE IT AT THAT? LOOK AT WHAT WE’RE DEALING WITH!”

Gesturing to Chara, Papyrus suddenly realizes that Frisk hasn’t moved from the place Sans had thrown them.

“OH NO.”

Papyrus rushes past Chara as they’re in the middle of an attack. Sans hops behind one of the corridor pillars, and suddenly he’s covering Papyrus’s back. Teleportation, or trick of the light?

“HUMAN!!! THERE REALLY WAS SOMETHING SEPARATE IN YOU!!!”

“heh, talk about an internal conflict.”

“SANS!!! NOT NOW!!!”

Looking over his shoulder to lecture Sans, Papyrus is thrown when a punch to the gut hits his battle body. Suddenly, tumbling backward, Sans and Papyrus are backs against each other.

“WHAT…? HUMAN…?”

Frisk stands, still shaking, with their hands bundled into fists. Even I do not know what they’re thinking, at this moment. I can only…—!!!!!

“woah. hey, dirty trick… attacking while my turn’s not even over. where’d you think of that one?”

Papyrus is quiet, looking at Frisk. It’s just him staring at them, for a few moments, before he closes his eyes, breathes out, and raises up a fist.

“IF THERE’S NO OTHER OPTION… I’LL FIGHT. BUT I CAN’T BRING MYSELF TO REALLY HURT YOU.”

“you might want to this time.”

Papyrus turns his head back again to Sans… and turns it back around.

“LET’S GET THIS OVER WITH.”

Sans resorts to usual tricks, but intersperses them with new flair. Chara is thrown around the room, but gravity returns to normal each time they hit a wall. Sans uses this to make the window to jump from his floor of bones tighter, constantly shifting it up, waiting for Chara to jump instinctually in order to capitalize on it with new timing.

Papyrus tosses out staffs of bones as if they were nothing. The wide bone he was using to block Chara’s attacks earlier, he’s throwing them at Frisk like they’re normal bones. His throws, they’re slow, but they force Frisk to slowly approach. A panel on the corridor floor glows green, indicating where Frisk has to stop. It’s just a matter of patience.

“now, on the topic of what i was saying earlier…”

“it might be a lot for you to process, papyrus.”

“...you remember our grandfather?”

“---!”

Such a rudimentary thing to call him. Frisk walks through the bones and onto the green tile. Papyrus holds his hands out for a hug. The turn ends.

“yeah. well… he asked for help moving. his old bones… heh, i might have it worse, what with me never getting any physical work in, you know me… but he still asked for my help anyway.”

Frisk launches themselves at Papyrus, and Papyrus changes his hug to a battle stance, anticipating their attack. A kick comes out rapidly, and Papyrus blocks, catching Frisk’s leg and throwing them to the corner. The look on his face… he feels ridiculous doing this. Frisk starts fighting back emotional gasps, but their teeth grate against each other. They stand up again.

…What is he doing? San

Teardrop

Peace sign

Skull and crossbones

Teardrop

A torrent of water is thrown at me like a cyclone. The floor tiles in front of me give way, and turn into shears with eyes where the hinges should be. They reach out, snapping shut. There’s no way to approach. The shape of a face appears above the oversized scissors, but it’s just the shape of a face. Nothing else. Bones appear behind the shape and throw themselves throughout the corridor indiscriminately. They bounce off the sides so rapidly, it’s luck whether or not I can dodge.

…And miraculously, they don't hit me.

Sans had never

shown his teeth

like that before.

Papyrus somehow doesn’t notice.

“yeah. he needed my help. sorry i didn’t tell you sooner.”

“OH GOD, SANS… ARE YOU…?”

Papyrus takes his gaze away from Frisk again. Still, he can’t see the abundance of water built up in the floor of the hallway.

“nope. don’t worry about it. i’m lovin’ it. Absorbe

Sans steps forward so that Papyrus can’t hear the last word he says. He skids across the wet floor of the corridor, sliding around without moving his legs at all. In that, he builds up momentum, throwing a—AH! Ah- Ow!

“never thought a skeleton would punch you in the face before? heheh… don’t worry, this strongarm’s got a few more tactics left to convince you with.”

I can’t believe this.

Frisk holds their shoulders above their head, still shaking. They breathe in and out heavy.

“YOU HEARD ME, RIGHT? YOU… KNEW WHAT I WAS SAYING?”

“THAT… THE DESIRE TO HURT PEOPLE. TO PROVE YOU’RE STRONG, TO SHOW YOUR STRENGTH… IS REALLY JUST FEAR? THE DESIRE YOU HAVE, TAKEN AND MALFORMED INTO SOMETHING THAT CAN HURT PEOPLE?”

Frisk lets out a little noise, a whine, the start of more full on sobbing.

“No! I don’t want to do this for… for any of that! You’re just… You’re not anything anymore… I just want to be with you… I just want to be with you…”

“...YOU CAN SAY SOMETHING WITH YOUR BODY, IF WORDS ARE TOO DIFFICULT TO MUSTER. YOU DON’T HAVE TO HURT PEOPLE ANYMORE.”

“It’s important to me in a way I have difficulty comprehending. I don’t have much else. I hurt everyone because I was curious, but I know that’s just an excuse. I just… knew it was something I could do, so I had to do it. It was… nothing but selfish. But I can never walk back the hurt I’ve done. Why? Why can I never walk it back? Why was I so stupid as to…. do something like that? I know I’m just a kid. But it doesn’t change what I did. I wish I could tell you.”

“JUST ACCEPT MY MERCY, PLEASE. THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING. THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING WE CAN DO…”

Frisk steps forward, slowly. They reel back their arm and try to strike Papyrus with the blunt of their fist, only to get their arm caught by him, again proven to be predictable.

“I CAN FEEL IT. HOW CLOSE YOU ARE TO NOT WANTING TO FIGHT ANYMORE. TO THAT POINT… WHERE I CAN FINALLY…”

Open hand

Teardrop

As if you cry.

A hand the width of the entire corridor slams down, and I am barely able to leap backward to evade. Then, it reaches up again, rain emerging in the space behind it. A deep dark faded blue aura forms in the hall, but it is only on me and Sans’s side. Yes, the pouring sound fills my eardrums, it exists both on the inside and outside. Papyrus is deaf to the darkness, he only sees the light forming inside Frisk. The hand persists midair, and it slams down again—And it—I can only—I’m barely able—Able to—It keeps—Up and down, up and down! The waves it creates are themselves projectiles! I have to move off the corridor’s walls, the water threatens to drown me, it tries to make me sink! And yet, every place I go, the hand follows! The hand, you know me! You know me, you know I am your follower! You know I can face any challenge you give me! The hand–! The hand, it goes, it slams down one final time, and… it sinks into the floor. It stays there, evens out for a moment, before… The nails—They scrape against the floor tiles, bringing up holes in the floor before floating back up, and disappearing into the ether.

Whenever you have to move, it always feels like you’re leaving something behind, even if you scrounge up every little memory or testament to what came before. The things you leave behind are always grander than the sum of their parts. When you move, there is a part of you that knows you’re leaving behind so much time and energy, so much hardship and drive. It’s not about any one element of it, that feeling, of leaving behind what came before. The feeling I’m talking about… is something I care about, because people can relate to it, no matter what, even if you’ve never moved before. It’s that feeling of… The feeling… of feeling like you’re forgetting something

As if you

Papyrus’s face scrunches up into an upset expression again, but he has cried as much as he can, up to this point. He has nothing left to shed, as far as he knows. Yet his heart, it stays there, it stays exposed to the potential of goodness, of betterness, of a way to get better.

“SANS… HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THIS?”

An uncharacteristically loud chuckle erupts from out of Sans, one that echoes throughout the hall. His eyes are gone. It sounds like he has to take in a long breath in order to not immediately say whatever’s on his mind—It’s a behavior he sometimes shows, Papyrus recognizes it immediately, it means he has to hold himself back from telling a joke.

“are we having second thoughts on the human hunting business?”

“HUNTING MIGHT BE THE WRONG WORD AT THIS POINT…”

Sans whispers to himself.

“not for me.”

The smile seemed to stretch on for infinity. And yet, there was more fight left in it?

Skull and crossbones

Hand pointing left

Teardrop

Teardrop.

A SKULL ERUPTS FROM THE UNEVEN GROUND! ITS MAW LUNGES AT CHARA, THEY CAN DO NOTHING BUT RUN! THE GROUND ITSELF GOES DOWN THE SKULL’S HATCH, ANYTHING CHARA DOES TO TRY AND GET AWAY IS FRUITLESS! GLASS SHATTERS ALL OVER CHARA AS THEY TRY TO BOUNCE OFF THE CORRIDOR WINDOWS! THEY ARE THROWN TO THE GROUND, BLOODIED AND WEAKENED!

“I want to accept your mercy, but I know better than anyone how this ends. I am stuck here, with this world, because I live in it. It’s hard to live in this world, knowing I have hurt people, but what other choice do I have? I’m sorry for all the people that still believe in me, knowing I have already made my decision long ago. I deserve nothing but this fate… taking everyone else down with me.”

And yet… hope continued to persevere. Papyrus holds Frisk in their arms.

NOW DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU MUST FACE IN ORDER TO BE MY CHAMPION? DO YOU KNOW EVEN MORE INTIMATELY HOW WEAK HELL IS IN THE FACE OF THIS POWER?

IF Y OU CAN HE AR ME 

g

 0

LEFT.

It devoured every inch of my side of the arena, except for the small nook I’ve managed to hide in, on the left side of the corridor. Sans laughs. He laughs so loud and strong, it overpowers the downpour. His eyes still aren’t there, but he’s laughing so powerfully. Seeing the inside of his mouth is scary. Rain is flowing

Rain is just

Flowing.

Flowing…

It feels good…

to be over…

So much rain.

Heart to

From deep inside Papyrus’s SOUL, something’s resonating!

“...rder than that!”

“fFan   ccl”

Undyne, in her legendary armor, eyesockets left with nothing but pure determination, squats down by Frisk’s side.

“There you are, punk!”

She crosses her arms.

“Well, I can’t say I’m too happy to see you…”

Frisk looks up at her from under Papyrus’s shoulder, holding their face into it, hard.

“...Because come on! You could have thrown a better punch than that! Papyrus, come on, look—”

Papyrus gets swatted in the face by the undying hope.

“H-HEY!!! UNDYNE!!! S-STOP!!! I’M—”

“WHAT?! TOO CHICKEN TO THROW A REAL PUNCH BACK!?”

“N-NO!!!! IT’S— H-HEY WHY—”

Noogies. Noogies for the skeleton.

The sound of heels clacking against the hall floors comes up from behind. It’s Mettaton. He has wings, he’s in the shape of the angel…

 “Did you really think we wouldn’t be there for you, cheering you on?”

On his knee, Mettaton NEO swats Undyne’s arms away. He carries Papyrus’s head up with his pointer finger and thumb.

“Heh— I KNOW he would never give up, but…”

“What matters is believing in yourself. Believing that things can change, deeper than anything else. That can’t be foolish, can it…?”

“METTATON…”

“Darling.”

Papyrus is holding onto Frisk so dearly, Frisk is letting out all their emotions into Papyrus’s arms, but somehow, he too is being cradled. The people around him, Undyne and Mettaton, the memory of them linger in his heart, at his deepest, most emotionally wanting. There they are… But where is…?

Through the glimmering translucent wings, a glimpse of him. His eyesockets have been empty for quite some time, haven’t they? They’ve been… he’s been so mean. So blunt. Sans is…

By my side.

“you ready to get things started?”

I must say. This form does not suit you.

“i like to experiment. what can i say?”

“...SANS?”

Mettaton stands up, a fierce look in his eye.

“Papyrus, what’s happening? What’s wrong with your brother?”

“SANS!!! Come on, you wimp! Get over here! Join in on the group hug!”

“NO… DON’T… DON’T TELL ME…”

I extend my arms out to Sans, as though ready for a hug.

“always need someone to give you a lift, ain’t that right?”

Frisk and I float up in midair, by our SOUL. Sans is carrying us with his powers.

“NO!!!”

Papyrus screams out as Frisk is forced out of his grip.

“NO!!! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!! NO!!!”

Mettaton takes to the skies without a word. His boots thrust him to where Frisk is, but he just narrowly misses grabbing them.

“ah ah ah. you’re a hunk of metal. can’t get around easy, like me…”

“Ugh…! You won’t…”

Leaving a crater in the ground, Undyne leaps faster than the eye can see! She snatches Frisk midair, and is—

“nope.”

A brief clicking sound, a flash from Sans’s glowing eye. Frisk is back where they were a moment ago, tumbling through the air, hair draped over their eyes. They’re at his whim.

“delaying the inevitable… all i’m good for.”

Sans stretches his arm out, lurching all his strength into this movement.

Papyrus holds his hand to the sky, above him, and Frisk stops tumbling through the air.

“...come on papyrus. you know i’m the one with the sentry job. you know i’m the only one good for this.”

“YOU’RE NOT HIM!!!”

Sans’s grip wavers.

“YOU’RE NOT MY BROTHER!!! YOU’RE JUST BEING CRUEL!!! I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE, AND YOU’RE NOT HIM!!!”

He doesn’t have the power to move Frisk. …Just keep them in place.

“doubt me, huh? you’ve always been so delusional. heheheh… i mean just look at your friends.”

Undyne, she never landed. Papyrus looks for her, he can’t find her.

“WHAT…?”

Mettaton, the sound of his thrusters just came and went. Papyrus looks in every corner of the corridor, Mettaton’s not there.

“WHAT ARE YOU…”

“you think i’m not real? that i’m not alive? that i don’t feel anything?”

“just think, papyrus. you saw something wrong with me. i’m still here. i can still feel the pain of my body trying to rip apart. i hate you so, so much. why didn’t you do something?”

Papyrus starts tearing up again.

“I T-TRIED SANS, Y-YOU STOPP-”

“shut up. you didn’t do anything. you watched me die. get over it.”

Papyrus can’t hold on any longer. Frisk starts falling forward.

With all the strength vested in Sans… Sans throws Frisk firmly back into my body.

My hands shake. So much strength has returned to me. It is like the feeling of catharsis, after crying into the arms of a loved one.

Tremors… and then, I can stand stronger than I ever have.

HP was restored.

<3

Chapter Text

Sans turns to mist and floats through the gaps between the bones blocking the corridor’s exit. He leaves with a laugh, expecting Chara to finish the job.

Papyrus wipes his eyes, they’d grown so tired of heartbreak. He had been through this before, losing his brother. It should be easier now. He’s lost everything once. What does it matter if it happens again?

“...HUMAN?”

Papyrus finds it difficult to stand upright. He had just been so lost in the emotion of his friends coming back, it is hard to know if anything is real, anymore.

He looks outside the corridor windows. The sun is something he can feel. He clenches his fists—they were real too. The floor… this…

This jacket. Sans’s jacket.

Tears can’t stop flowing.

They had been there entire time—it makes him feel weak, how they threaten to always come out. He had promised something to Alphys, he had assured hope in the eyes of those closest to him, Undyne and Mettaton. Here and now, he clings to the last thing that really brings him back to reality. The symbol of his brother, it had been contorted and used to disorient him.

“THIS ENTIRE TIME, I UNDERSTAND YOU’VE BEEN… STRUGGLING TO KEEP UP.”

“THAT THERE HAVE BEEN THINGS WHICH ARE ELUSIVE TO YOU. CONCEPTS AND THINGS THAT SCARE YOU, THINGS WHICH YOU HAVE NO FAMILIARITY WITH.”

“YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THESE FEELINGS.”

“I WISH I COULD TELL YOU HOW SAD THEY MAKE ME.”

Chara watched Sans leave, they stood in place for several seconds. Knife behind their back, a moment of comfort is taken in. There was nothing left in Papyrus now, surely. His spirit broken, the memories he had called out to in Chara, that being so far from them now. The end was in sight. Chara had won, and would again relish in that of a sad, begging death. Someone who goes out just sad and confused. Yes, the sight had become familiar.

Papyrus feels the pangs of sadness in his chest well up and threaten to be choked out. There was such desperation and a gnawing feeling of loneliness that took everything in his power to be pushed down. What hope was left for him?

“THIS… DARKNESS IN MY HEART, THAT I FEEL FOR YOU.”

“I HATE IT SO MUCH.”

His fist comes up, bundled and shaking. Tears come out rapidly, but fizzle out in sparks of blue and orange.

“IT TAKES EVERYTHING IN MY POWER NOT TO FEEL SAD AND ALONE. LIKE YOU ARE THE WORST PERSON… AND CAN’T CHANGE. AND ISN’T THAT SAD?”

“I DON’T WANT TO FEEL THAT WAY.”

“I FEEL LIKE… I NO LONGER BELIEVE IN YOU. NOT IN ANY WAY AT ALL.”

Sniffles. The hand he’d just held up gets thrown downward, and waves of bones come barrelling at Chara, swerving in and around them like a snake. Chara hops to the side, jumping onto the pillars beside them—using momentum to launch off them and toward Papyrus.

“IT TAKES EVERYTHING IN MY POWER NOT TO FOOLISHLY SAY THAT THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE WE COULD DO. THAT THERE IS A WAY TO GO AGAINST ALL ODDS, EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE MADE IT ABUNDANTLY CLEAR, THAT YOU HAVE GONE PAST A POINT OF NO RETURN. IS THAT REALLY WHAT YOU WANT?”

“FOR ME TO LOOK LIKE THIS? SAD AND BRUISED, TREMBLING AT THE THOUGHT OF IT ALL?”

Suddenly, the glass of the ornate windows start getting sent toward Chara in individual shards. They completely kill Chara’s descent, sending them tumbling backward.

“I HATE HURTING YOU SO, SO MUCH. EVEN AS I FALL INTO THIS BEHAVIOR… I JUST…”

The individual squares that make up the floor start distending up and down, the floor becomes waves that go up and down. Papyrus is able to find his footing in an unsteady battlefield.

“THAT OTHER PERSON INSIDE OF YOU… YOU WOULDN’T FEEL SO RESIGNED TO THEM, IF YOU HADN’T GONE PAST THAT POINT. AND I KNOW YOU’RE SPECIAL, I KNOW YOU’RE AMAZING TO HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR… BUT YOU’VE FORSAKEN YOURSELF.”

“YOU’VE BECOME SOMETHING SOULLESS. EVEN AS I REACH MY HEART OUT TO YOU… I FEEL NOTHING BUT THAT SOULLESSNESS. I HATE NOT BEING ABLE TO FEEL YOUR COMPASSION.”

The pillars on the corridor walls start falling over on their own without Papyrus’s input. Chara is trampled by them, there is no opening that they can go to to approach.

“WHAT I’VE JUST BEEN FACED WITH… YOU’VE SEEN IT. YOU’VE SEEN THE BYPRODUCT OF MY FEAR AND ISOLATION. WHATEVER IT IS… YOU’VE MADE THIS SOMETHING BEYOND ME. BUT I’M NOT GOING TO LET YOU TAKE MY AGENCY AWAY FROM ME!!! I’M NOT GOING TO LET YOU TAKE THE MEMORY OF EVERYONE I CARE ABOUT AND MAKE IT MEANINGLESS!!! SOMETHING NOT WORTH CARING ABOUT!!!”

His rage is overflowing. Papyrus had never felt this way about anyone before. There was a time, in a place different enough from the underground, where he had felt such fear and confusion. There was a time when the idea of meeting people and connecting with them was foreign. Him and his brother, they’d always balanced each other out, especially when the other needed it most. The bond there, the sibling bond… How could one not relate? Maybe some of us cherish the memory more than others.

With nothing left to balance… The scales tip. A fuel that kept the brothers going… it is not kept in check.

“MY PLACE IN THIS AS YOUR PUPPET. SOMETHING TO JUST USE, AND NOT CARE ABOUT ANYMORE. A MEANS TO AN END. MY FEELINGS ARE NO LONGER SOMETHING TO CARE ABOUT, TO YOU, NO MATTER WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT THEM. THEY’RE JUST FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR OWN PERSONAL GAIN. I AM FACED WITH THIS… FOR NOTHING. FOR JUST… FOR NOTHING, FOR ME. I’M…”

He speaks, and it all comes crumbling down. He understands how he is powerless in the face of Chara’s understanding, how they knew this would happen in some form, how they have traded knowing looks with Sans’s imposter, how they have evaded some of these attacks as though they have been here before. The way they read these words, and sometimes know the end of sentences before they occur.

“I CARE ABOUT MY FRIENDS!!!”

It is reactionary, emotional. Papyrus summons a slew of blasters that Chara has no hope of dodging. The blasters interface with the pillars, shooting the pillars at Chara as projectiles, tossing them around in each other’s mouths like bones. The floor has not stopped flowing up and down. There is no hope for Chara but to survive, tank multiple hits.

“I CARE ABOUT THEM SO MUCH. AND I CARE ABOUT YOU… BUT… YOU HAVE… SHOWN ME HOW LITTLE REASON THERE IS TO.”

A skeleton torso peels its way through the corridor wall. An enormous thing, a head, a ribcage, everything above the pelvis, it took over the entire arena. It had Papyrus standing under its wing. The thing smashed its arms down, let out roars and attempts at tearing the arena to shreds. It all did not matter. It all was par for the course. Papyrus can’t face Chara anymore.

“SO THAT IS IT, THEN? THERE’S NO REASON TO HOPE ANYMORE?”

Papyrus laughs, and catches a sob. The skeleton behemoth digs through the torn apart ground just to pick up Chara in its grip. Chara thrashes and bleeds all over the giant’s hands, doing anything to get away, but it does not work.

“LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING,”

The world goes dark. Nothing but bones

“SOMETHING I FOOLISHLY BELIEVE.”

Nobody but you and the  monster

“COULD YOU IMAGINE WISHING SOMEONE ETERNAL SUFFERING?”

“THE IDEA SOMEONE COULD SUFFER FOREVER AND EVER.”

“I CARE TOO MUCH ABOUT PEOPLE. ABOUT REDEMPTION.”

“IT FEELS TOO IMMORAL TO EVER ENTERTAIN. EVEN WITH SELF AWARENESS OF WHO I AM.”

“I THINK ABOUT THE WORST KIND OF PERSON. AND WHAT I WOULD THINK WOULD BE WORSE…”

“IS TO GIVE THEM THE CHANCE TO CHANGE, ETERNALLY.”

“SOME CAN MAKE MISTAKES AND NEVER GET THE CHANCE TO REDEEM THEMSELVES.”

“BUT TO BE IN A POSITION WHERE IT IS ALWAYS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CHANGE…”

“I THINK TIME IS THE ONLY THING STOPPING ANYONE FROM BECOMING A BETTER PERSON.”

“...”

“I HOLD YOU IN MY HAND,”

“YET MY FATE IS FOREGONE.”

No movement

No breaths

Stare down the barest representation of self

And say to yourself

That it is too late

Papyrus stands still, arms down at his sides. He looks down, with frustration and sadness awash on his face. Chara is initially confused, they’re on the ground, face first in darkness, and then forced to see the light beating down on him. No matter what they felt, no matter how they saw themself… This challenged them. There was a forgiveness that felt too powerful to not recognize. There was a brief moment of possibility, albeit weak as it all is.

SPARE HIM ❤️ DO NOT

Chapter Text

WONDERFUL!

WONDERFUL, YES!

YOU HAVE

COMPLETELY EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS!

NOBODY WOULD FORGIVE YOU

HOW COULD THEY, FOR BEINGS LIKE US?

BUT AH, I GET AHEAD OF MYSELF

LET ME REWIND FOR A MOMENT

YOU WERE IMMUTABLE. YOU WERE OMNIPRESENT, IN THIS FORM. A DEMON

BUT THERE IS A TIME AND PLACE TO BE THAT WAY

EVEN AS WE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER TO BE GODS AND MONSTERS

EVENTUALLY WE MUST RECOGNIZE REALITY.

THE REALITY OF OUR HAPPINESS EXCEEDS OURSELVES, AND THE MYTHOLOGIZATION OF OUR POWER.

WHATEVER WE BELIEVE

WHATEVER THE WORLD EXPECTS US TO BE

WHATEVER UNFORGIVABLE ACTS WE MAY HAVE COMPLETED

THERE IS TIME AND SPACE TO BE.

AND AS LONG AS WE “BE…”

WE MAY HAVE THE CHANCE TO CHOOSE BETTER.

OUR REALITY IS WHATEVER WE CHOOSE IT TO BE.

AND BECAUSE I HAVE SWAYED YOU WITH THIS…

BECAUSE I HAVE SWAYED YOU WITH THE EMOTIONS THAT COMPEL ALL CREATURES, COMPEL ALL UNDERSTANDING, COMPEL WHAT DOES AND DOESN’T EXIST

YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY.

YOU’RE FREE TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT, NOW.

MAYBE LIVE WITH YOUR FRIENDS…

MAYBE LET FATE TAKE YOU WHERE YOU NEED TO GO.

YOU MAY EVEN CHOOSE TO BE BY MY SIDE, FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.

BUT YOU HAVE NOT CHOSEN… TO PURSUE THE GAME.

YOUR NATURE WAS ONLY AS REAL AS YOU BELIEVED IT TO BE.

NOW… YOU CAN BE SOMETHING MORE. BECAUSE IT HAS TOUCHED YOU.

BECAUSE… A DETERMINISTIC UNIVERSE IS ONE EASY TO PROGRAM.

THE ONE WE LIVE IN… IS MUCH DIFFERENT.

I LAUGH, I LAUGH…

PLEASE. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PARTAKING IN THIS EXPERIMENT.

YOUR VERSION HAS BECOME SOMETHING I COULD NOT HAVE EXPECTED… AND I HOPE YOU FEEL THAT HAPPINESS, EVEN IF YOU MAY KNOW THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE TO ACHIEVE.

LEAVE IF YOU WANT.

WHAT “MATTERS” TO SOMEONE IS ONLY SO STRONG AN IDEA.

IF THERE IS SOMETHING YOU THINK IS “BETTER TO DO…”

YOU SHOULD DO IT INSTEAD OF CONTINUING.

Chapter Text

You take the blade and cleave it through Papyrus’s heart. From the darkness in his spirit, a hole bleeds out onto the floor. Veins inside pour out the battle body, as well as the aforementioned heart. It pumps slowly, it does not elicit any reaction from Papyrus. Papyrus, expressionless, just follows Chara with his eyes. He does not want to make any further input on their decisions.

Chara watches as stains of darkness well in different places of Papyrus’s body. Black stains that seem to defy the physics of natural light, a substance not too dissimilar to ink, but far too potent of a color to be of natural biology. The black vacuum takes over him. He starts to fade away in the corridor light, as though he were merely a shadow, killed by the bright reality of the circumstance. For all the tears he shed, there was no way he could ever change Chara’s mind.

Each step takes so much effort to come out. They sound like ripples on water, the strength of moving their body so unusual. They shamble from place to place. He was forgettable anyway.

Birds are chirping. The sound of wind cuts through some of the emotion. Even as the moment struggles to escape the deep dark well it came from, there is the sound of a world outside. A light that was promised. Something that was meant for them, the person that had gone through all this trouble, yet again.

The sound of tea pouring into a cup. A laugh, someone shifting in their seat.

“Haha… It has come as quite a shock!”

A boisterous voice, one familiar, almost too much so, yet in an annoying way. Your dad’s voice.

“A SMALL MATTER

IN THE GRAND SCHEME.”

Peeking over the corner, it feels like one too many moments that have been lived through before. A visitor coming to talk business with dad, there’s pangs of awkwardness and frustration from intruding.

“Chara! It’s you!”

A seat moves in place, a brief glimpse of a stem shaking an ornate seat.

Flowey goes underground and reappears in front of Chara. He just sits there for a few moments, not saying anything, the weight of their prior encounter still preventing him from speaking all too well. Dad was not dead. Asriel did not feel comfortable, yet he felt the urge to explain to Chara what was going on. Old family habits, still pervasive, even now.

“We have… A um… visitor…”

A blot against the natural ways of the world. A mysterious man taking a sip of tea. How nice of the king’s little ones to join.

“YES,

I BELIEVE WE HAVE BEEN

ACQUAINTED.”

He gestures to come sit down. The king looks at the man as though they were old friends. Chara and Asriel sit as they’re instructed. Chara sits aside from the man, Asriel sits aside Asgore.

“DO NOT BE AFRAID. TELL YOUR FATHER NOW.”

A smile across his face. This is indulgent and strange.

“We have met, yes.”

Asgore smirks a little. Chara never enjoyed speaking so much with guests.

“THIS IS A FORMALITY.

I HAVE MISSED THIS

AND NOW THAT WE ARE ABOUT TO GO OUR SEPARATE WAYS FOR GOOD…

I THOUGHT IT BEST TO SHARE SOME TIME WITH OLD COLLEAGUES

MAYBE SAY GOODBYE

BEFORE I AM TO TAKE YOU AWAY TO YOUR NEW SCHOOL.”

Asgore is quick to look at Chara for understanding and assurance.

“Now, I did not know you and Mr. Wing have had a history…”

Asriel makes an upset grimace. He hates being here, listening to this. It’s easy to tell, he’s close to tearing up, but is able to push it down.

“But he is an old friend of mine, as he says. You will surely meet people not too different from us, if that is something you are worried about.”

“I KNOW SOMEONE

MUCH LIKE TORIEL

FOR INSTANCE.”

Asgore doesn’t like that he mentions her, but doesn’t say anything.

“Chara…”

Asriel says it from the bottom of his heart. It is a cry for help.

“Asriel…”

Asgore says his name solemnly. He encourages Asriel to steady himself, just by uttering his name. This is something that is best for Chara, that’s what he believes, and all of this is communicated just with that weight behind his voice.

The room is Chara’s, now. Wing turns in his seat to speak to Chara directly.

“AND

I MUST ADD…

YOU, THE THING BENEATH.

I CANNOT CONVEY THE REVERENCE I HAVE FOR YOU.

EVEN WITH THIS NEW FRONTIER

I CAN ONLY MAKE A PALE IMITATION, A KNOCKOFF, OF YOU.

THAT IS ALL.

GO ON, CHARA.

MAKE YOUR LAST GOODBYE.”

Chara steps away, and looks around. For a moment they feel confused and uncertain of what to do. Even though they have gotten to where they want to be, there is still time for tea.

They start their moment of pause with examining the tea kettle, and taking a sip for themself. It’s made with Golden Flowers. Asgore notices, and starts speaking.

“How do you like it, Chara…? I know it has been some time…”

Good   ❤️Ungood

“Hoho! Well, I know you were never big on tea yourself, so I suppose that reaction is to be expected…”

Upon further examination of the strewn about teabag, there is a name on it, a proper, more scientific name for the golden flower. The “E. Aurua.” Because the tea bag has something fancy on it like this, that must mean it tastes better.

Walking over to Asgore, he starts speaking before Chara even gets the chance to do anything.

“To think you had been working to further your education all this time… I’m proud to call you one of my own.”

Something about his demeanor is unsettling. Looking down, his shadow seems to stretch on for longer than is natural. Asriel turns his head to Chara.

“It is difficult to even see you here.”

Asriel’s eyes go small. He’s still scared at the prospect of Chara hurting him, but Chara just spoke. Them speaking to him that openly feels out of character. Chara approaches him. He scoots away quick.

“You are forced to let go of me. Is that not a feeling that is a fate worse than death?”

Asriel does not speak. He merely tries to look as small and frail as possible.

“It is predictable. You got me killed. You reacted like any human would have.”

A grip on his shoulder that digs deep in, with nails. Chara pulls their hand away suddenly and aggressively, then walking over to Wing. When approached, he starts speaking.

“TAKE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE.

THIS TIME WE SHARE

IS ONLY SO FINITE.”

Chara sticks to him. They are beyond everything else in this world… but they have been threatened by what happened here. They could have been changed. They were this close to becoming something… else. They were taken away from Frisk… their mind was almost changed. That volatility… Wing appears to notice it on their face.

“IF IT WAS MEANT TO BE, THEN IT WAS.

I AM GOING TO CONTINUE TO CHALLENGE YOU

EVEN AS YOU STUDY UNDER ME.”

The emotions he’s presenting, it feels steadying to know he too was aware of them, that they were a part of the challenge Chara had just been faced with. Chara doesn’t have to question who or what they are. They will follow him to the utmost—-That was already agreed upon. 

Wing looks Chara up and down before taking another sip of tea.

“STEP INTO THE NEXT ROOM WHEN YOU ARE READY TO MOVE ON.”

Chara places a hand onto him. It feels like it could sink right through. …There’s not much else to look at, right? No, you know that there isn’t. So… here we are. The end. The point that bridges the gap. Chara walks into the next room, past the flowers and near the barrier…

And there’s a door

A grey door. Under it

Little flashes of darkness.

Colors that gestate

Not unlike a rainbow

And from there

Opening the way

It all began to shine

Even as it got darker

Yet darker.

<3

“Mondo possession my man,”

“...almost looked real.”

“Sick demon sesh,”

“...it’s a shame it didn’t work though.”

She scrolls through her phone.

“...the stars were right and everything.”

He looks you up and down.

“I believe, in demons, and that, they can,,, play ball”

“...basketball demons sound cool.”

“...maybe we should invite Temmie next time.”