Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Papyrus falls into Mt. Ebott.

The golden flowers must have protected him from the impact of the fall, because, despite the distance between where the fall started and where it ended, his body is miraculously unharmed. There aren’t even any tears in his clothing (well, that isn’t quite true, but the rips in his jeans had been there already). Still, even though he’s grateful to the flowers, there’s something about the little garden that tells him it would be a bad idea to linger. With one last thank you to the flowers that bruised themselves to save his life, he walks on, without a backwards glance.

In the next room, there’s a larger flower, which raises its head as Papyrus walks in. Its face is bright and cheery, an impression helped by its yellow petals and wide grin. “Hello! My name is Flowey,” it - he - says. “Are you new around here?”

Papyrus stays silent, but even if he’d tried to say anything, the flower would have talked right over him. “Oh, you needn’t bother answering. That look of confusion on your face tells me everything. I suppose I can explain how things work down here. It’ll be doing you a favor!”

There’s a red heart floating in front of him now, and the world’s lost its color. Flowey looks a little less cartoony in black and white.

“That’s your SOUL, the very culmination of your being,” Flowey explains, motioning at the heart. “It’s pretty wimpy right now, but that’s because you’re just starting out. To grow stronger, you’ll need to collect LV - that’s short for LOVE, if you were wondering. You want some LOVE, right? Well, you can get some from these!” With a teasing wink, the flower summons up a few white… things. “They’re called friendliness pellets. Catch as many as you can!”

Papyrus reaches for one as it passes by, but his soul jerks out of the way at the last minute. Flowey’s face goes through an interesting range of expressions in a very short period of time, but quickly settles into cheerful neutrality. “Oh, Sans! You’re back,” he says, smile wide. “Does this mean you’re finally ready to continue the experiment?”

“My name isn’t Sans,” Papyrus replies, wrinkling his brow. “And what do you mean, ‘experiment’?”

Flowey snorts derisively. “I wasn't talking to you, you idiot. I was talking to my best friend.”

With a sensation like being shoved into the back seat of his own head, Papyrus finds himself watching as his mouth moves by itself. “The experiment failed. We’re done with this, Dings.”

“But now that we have a new test subject, we can begin again! Come on, Sans, you always said that freeing the monsters from the Underground was more important than the two of us. We can do it this time!”

“I said, I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore.”

The flower droops, and when its stem straightens again, the face on the stalk looks half melted and cracked in disturbing ways. “I see. So you're betraying me again, then.” Flowey (Dings?) cackles, then surrounds Papyrus’s soul in a circle of pellets. With a dismissive flick of a leaf, he says, “If you're not willing to continue the experiment, I have no need of you,” and the pellets start closing in.

A fireball comes out of nowhere, forcing Flowey to flee and destroying the deadly circle of bullets. “What a horrendous creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth,” laments the goat monster that must have cast the flames, glaring after the flower. When he sees Papyrus’s face, he hastens to continue. “Please, do not be afraid, my child. I am Asgore, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass by here every day to make sure no one’s fallen down. You are the first human I’ve found in a very long time.” He frowns at that, eyes sad, but shakes the moment off quickly. “There are many dangers here. If you’d let me, I would like to guide you through this place. May I?”

After a moment of thought, Papyrus nods. Asgore takes Papyrus’s hand and begins to lead him through the Ruins.

Now that his pressing concerns have been dealt with, Papyrus can feel where there's an alien presence in his head. He contemplates introducing himself to it, then decides that would look too strange to do in front of Asgore. No sooner has he come to this conclusion than a thought that isn't his pops up. ‘don’t worry about it for now,’ it says, in a distinctly lowercase drawl. ‘we can do introductions later, once you have some spare time to think. for now, just try and get through these puzzles.’

‘ALRIGHTY. WAIT, THEY HAVE PUZZLES DOWN HERE?’ Papyrus replies, enthusiasm and unfamiliarity with thinking to someone else making his mental voice resound loudly in his head. He feels a wince from Sans, and resolves to turn down the volume somehow next time.

‘do they ever,’ comes the reply, tinged with nostalgia and a sadness Papyrus doesn't understand. He thinks warmth and comfort to his passenger in response, and feels him shift uncomfortably in the back of his mind. ‘...anyway, there’re some over there. they're pretty simple, but it's a start.’

‘GREAT! I LOVE PUZZLES.’ This time, he manages to shout quieter, receiving the mental equivalent of a thumbs up for the progress from Sans.

The approval comes with another wash of sadness. ‘yeah, i can tell,’ Sans says. ‘you should go over there and get to work on them. there’ll be more throughout the ruins, too.’

He sends Sans a thumbs up back, accompanied by another feeling of care and a willingness to listen later. Then he follows Sans’s suggestion and begins on the puzzles.

When Asgore leaves him alone in a room, making Papyrus promise to wait for him there, Papyrus figures it's the perfect time for introductions. He and his passenger exchange names, though that's little more than a formality at this point, and then he waits expectantly for Sans to tell him more about himself.

It takes a while, but eventually Sans says, ‘i don't like talking about myself much, so i’ll make this short. i fell down here a long time ago, just like you. some monsters adopted me, so that was alright, but when i tried to leave, something went wrong and i died. the end. next thing i knew, you and i were doubled up like this.’

‘OH.’ Papyrus thinks that over, then perks up. ‘DOES THAT MEAN I’M BEING POSSESSED BY A GHOST?’

A ripple of Sans’s amusement. ‘guess so. just ghost to show you...’

‘OH MY GOD. YOU DIDN’T.’ He sends Sans an impression of the anger/resignation/actual physical hurt that pun inspired, and receives surprise, then that sad/happy mixture again.

‘but i did.’ A sudden spike of excited anticipation, hastily hidden under forced casuality. ‘what, did that pun give you… phantom pains?’ A wink.

Papyrus doesn't even bother with words this time, just groaning out loud.

‘aw, thanks. i try.’ Another wink, this one accompanied by satisfaction and almost shy pleasure. ‘besides, i know you like ‘em. you're smiling.’

‘I AM AND I HATE IT.’

They wait there for a long time, but Asgore doesn't come back, and Papyrus has never been the most patient. He's walking after the broad, goat-like monster when there's a blinking feeling behind his ribs, and his soul pulls away from his chest again.

Immediately, Papyrus is shoved to the back of his (their?) mind as Sans takes control, bringing up the stick he had been holding. Alarmed by Sans’s sudden anger, Papyrus sends him a worried question mark.

Sans responds out loud. “The monsters want to hurt you, Pap. I can't let them do that.”

‘SO YOU’RE GOING TO HURT THEM INSTEAD? SANS, I CAN’T LET YOU DO THAT!’

A burst of Sans’s anger. “Papyrus, you don't understand! They -”

Papyrus winces, then brings his own anger back down to a simmer. ‘DON’T TELL ME WHAT I DO AND DON’T UNDERSTAND,’ he thinks lowly, and tries not to feel a little smug when Sans cringes and slinks off apologetically to the backseat. It's all too easy to agree to put the issue aside for a while when he realizes that, behind the guilt, Sans is feeling destructively angry with himself over having tripped into an obvious sore spot.

Besides, the Froggit had hopped away while they were busy talking. It must have given up when Papyrus began seemingly arguing with himself.

Stretching a little, relieved to be able to move his own body again, Papyrus resumes walking. When he next encounters a monster, Sans stays in the back of his head, and Papyrus happily doesn't pick on Loox and waves them on their way.

Sans sighs and admits defeat when Papyrus raises a mental eyebrow at him. ‘okay, okay, fine. i’ll let you handle the monsters however you want. but if they start hurting you, i’m not just gonna stand there and let you take it, okay?’

‘I SUPPOSE THAT’S ALRIGHT. BUT YOU HAVE TO PROMISE THAT YOU WON’T KILL ANYONE.’

‘pap…’

‘NO KILLING.’

‘even if -’

‘NO. KILLING.’

‘...fine. i promise.’

Meeting a new friend… It fills Papyrus with determination.

Chapter Text

When Papyrus stumbles out of the Ruins, he finds himself shivering in a dark, snowy forest. He's tempted to go back through the door and see if he can get some warmer clothing, but Sans vetoes that idea with a reminder that Asgore probably wouldn't be too happy to see them again. Instead, Papyrus resolves to just hurry through as quickly as possible, hoping that his natural resistance to cold will keep him from freezing too badly.

...Except, it feels like someone’s following him. It's nothing he can pin down, and when he tries to catch a glimpse of the pursuer over his shoulder, he sees nothing but trees, but all the hairs on his neck and arms are standing on end.

Knowing how protective Sans gets over him (not that he really understands that, either), Papyrus would expect him to be bristling with tension and barely-controlled violence. But his passenger is strangely calm. When Papyrus asks him about it, he just receives an impression of a shrug. ‘i dunno either,’ Sans says. ‘i’m not saying you’re wrong, but i’ve got this kind of deja-vu or something that’s telling me you should be fine.’

It's hard to trust that assessment of the situation, especially when something snaps behind him and he discovers the splintered remains of the giant stick that had been laying across the path.

When he reaches the gate in front of the bridge, he starts hearing footsteps crunch slowly over snow behind him, and freezes as they get closer and closer. ‘MAYBE IF I STAND COMPLETELY STILL, THEY’LL JUST WALK RIGHT PAST ME!’ he thinks, irrationally. Still, the footsteps stop, and he's beginning to hope that they really will move right past him when his shadow begins to speak.

“Hey. Don't you know how to greet a new pal?” The person behind him chuckles lowly. “Turn around and shake my hand.”

Despite his companion’s statement earlier, Papyrus can feel Sans’s hackles beginning to rise. Ultimately, though, that's what gives him the courage to turn around. Knowing Sans is watching his back makes him feel safe, no matter what kind of monster is behind him.

It's a bit of a disappointment, after all that, to only see a short skeleton offering their hand. Papyrus takes it, and they shake.

‘would’ve been funnier if they’d had a whoopie cushion,’ Sans remarks, settling back grumpily. ‘all that buildup for nothing.’

“Greetings. I’m Chara,” the skeleton says, crossing their arms. “Don't worry, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already.” Chara pauses, then shrugs. “Actually, that isn’t true. I do want to kill you, rather badly, actually. But the last time I did that, it upset my sibling, so I won't.”

‘well, that’s reassuring.’

Chara waves a hand at the gate. “Go on through. My sibling and I made the bars too big to stop anyone - after all, how could I prove I deserve to be in the Royal Guard if I never got the chance to kill a human? I'll keep an eye socket out for you, but that is only because I want you to last until - well, you'll see.” They smile grimly, and Papyrus feels a shiver run up his spine.

Sans sends him reassurance as Papyrus walks through the gate. ‘don’t worry about it,’ he says. ‘i won't let them do anything to you. and if they try…’

‘NO KILLING,’ Papyrus reminds him, and waits until he feels Sans’s grudging acceptance before letting his gratitude for the offer seep through.

Chara catches up to him on the other side. “My sibling’s sentry station is up ahead, so don't try any funny business,” they warn him. “Seeing you is going to make their day. Do we understand each other?”

Papyrus nods, and follows Chara over to the station.

“Alright,” Chara says when they get a little closer. “Now, what will happen is this. You are going to hide behind this lamp, or else, while I talk to my sibling. When I give the signal, you're going to come out.”

He nods again, though he still feels confused.

‘if you’re still confused, why don't you ask questions?’ Sans asks, backing off when Papyrus cringes. ‘sorry, just curious. if you don't want to tell me, that's fine, i get it.’ He pauses, then, cautiously: ‘you want me to -?’

In his rush to answer, Papyrus thinks right over the end of Sans’s thought. ‘PLEASE.’ He's rewarded with a flash of relief and gratitude from Sans, but there's still a twinge of hurt underneath at the thought of Papyrus not trusting him enough to answer his earlier question. ‘I’LL TELL YOU LATER,’ he adds, to assuage that hurt. ‘IT’S NOT THAT I DON’T TRUST YOU! ACTUALLY, I THINK I TRUST YOU MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE I’VE EVER MET. IS THAT STRANGE?’

‘no! i mean, uh, i feel the same way.’ Sans’s presence feels embarrassed, but sincere, and Papyrus gives him a mental hug as they trade places.

Sans splutters a little as he gets his thoughts in order, but finally manages to figure out where the external conversation left off. Luckily, Chara is still waiting, though they’re looking increasingly impatient. “Okay, so, I've got a few questions after all,” he says.

Chara rolls their eyes, but motions for Sans to continue. “Fine. Just hurry up.”

“Sure thing.” Sans rocks back on Papyrus’s heels. “Numero uno: you do realize that if we - sorry, I - hide behind that lamp, from your sibling's perspective, I’ll just be standing next to it, right? The sight lines would leave me completely open.”

Chara thinks this over, then groans. “Ugh, fine, whatever! Just come with me then, I suppose. Is that all?”

Sans confers with Papyrus, then shrugs. “Guess so. I was gonna ask what the signal was going to be, but if I'm not gonna be behind the lamp, I guess it doesn't really matter.”

“Wonderful.” Chara starts walking again, striding right up to the station and muttering what sounds like “Why does being nice have to be so difficult?” under their breath.

(With Papyrus’s long legs, Sans has to consciously hang back to let the short skeleton lead the way. It’s difficult to keep from chuckling out loud. Luckily, Chara doesn't notice the way Papyrus’s eyes are squeezed shut with mirth. Sans doesn't think they'd appreciate it if they caught him laughing.)

At the sentry station, there's another skeleton, skull rested on their crossed arms. ‘THAT DOESN’T LOOK VERY COMFORTABLE,’ Papyrus thinks. ‘MAYBE WE SHOULD GET THEM A PILLOW?’

‘you’re too nice for your own good, paps,’ Sans replies fondly.

Chara raps their fist sharply against the station’s desk. “Hey, Frisk! I keep on telling you, no sleeping on duty! What would you have done if a human had come through?”

The other skeleton, Frisk, raises their skull and looks blearily at their sibling, blinking a few times. Then they begin signing, phalanges sluggish. {I was on break.}

“You're always on break. Come on, Frisk, you're killing me here!”

There’s a pause, and then a slow smile creeps across Frisk’s face. {Am I breaking your heart?} They add in a wink for good measure, and Sans struggles to resist laughing again as Chara makes a face.

‘i like this skeleton.’

‘YOU TWO DESERVE EACH OTHER,’ Papyrus groans.

“Anyway,” Chara enunciates, “I have a surprise for you. Meet Soul Number Seven!”

Frisk sits bolt upright at that, though their eye sockets remain mostly closed. They give a small wave, which Sans returns, and are beginning to sign again when Chara interrupts them.

“No, no, no! Don't bother with the introductions; I did not bring him here to have you two make friends. You were just so upset, when I killed the orange one… I thought I would let you handle it this time.”

Frisk rapidly shakes their head, starting to look worried.

“But - don't you get it? This is the last soul! It would be such an honor, to obtain the last one. And then Alphys will have to let you into the Royal Guard!” Chara crosses their arms. “I'm not going to let you back down from this, Frisk. You and I both know we deserve to be in the Guard. I am not going to let you give up our future just because you don't think you're good enough to kill a measly human!”

{That’s not -} Frisk starts to reply, then gives up, shaking their head. {Okay, fine. I'll fight the human.}

Sans gets ready to run as Chara grins. “I knew you would come around. Go on, then, do it.”

But nothing happens.

Chara frowns, but before they can say anything, Frisk begins signing again. {It doesn't feel right to kill him like this. Why don't we put the human through the puzzles first?}

“Puzzles?” Sans and Chara ask simultaneously.

{Yes. Puzzles.} Frisk grins. {If he can make it through them all, I'll fight him at the end!}

“Ugh, fine,” Chara sighs, before striding off again. “Do whatever with him, I don't care. But he's your responsibility from now on, understand?” they call over their shoulder.

{Got it.} There's a mysterious smile on Frisk’s skull that Sans doesn't quite understand as they wave to their sibling’s retreating back. When Chara can no longer be seen, Frisk turns toward Sans. {You can understand me, right?} they sign to him.

“More or less,” he admits. “I'm better understanding it than signing myself.”

{That's okay.} There's a pause, and then they continue, with another strange smile: {What about your passenger?}

‘THEY KNOW?’ Papyrus wonders. ‘HOW?’

‘search me,’ Sans answers with a mental shrug. “What do you mean, ‘passenger’?” he says out loud.

{Come on, there's no need to play dumb.} Hands shaking with quiet laughter, Frisk concludes, {After all, all the signs are there.}

“Oh, come on!” Papyrus screeches, taking control back in order to bury his head in his hands. “I shouldn't have to deal with this.”

{There we go.} The skeleton leaves their station in order to come around in front of Papyrus. {Can you understand me when I sign like this?} they ask.

“I - Sorry. I can only understand you when Sans translates,” Papyrus answers, feeling ashamed and a little embarrassed at being tricked so easily. “I'm going to switch back now, so you two can talk. Okay?”

Frisk nods, so Sans slips back into control and lets Papyrus sink to the back of their shared mind. “Did you plan that?” he asks, dangerously quiet. “Because, if you did, it wasn't very nice.”

Frisk blinks, surprised, but shakes their head. {No. Don't worry, I'd never hurt you. Either of you.} Despite their unassuming appearance (thin even for a skeleton and only a little taller than their sibling, their bones look brittle and they're drowning in a blue hoodie that's too big for them), there’s something like the beginnings of a shiver down Papyrus’s back that lets Sans know exactly how serious the little skeleton is being. {I'm sorry if I scared you. I know Chara probably didn't make the best first impression, and promising to fight you later didn't exactly put me in the best light, either. But I promise I have a plan about how to get you out safely, both out of Snowdin and out of the Underground.}

They give him a little while to process this, then continue. {I bet you two have a lot of questions. I'll answer what I can later, but right now, you should get moving, before Chara comes back. You'll freeze standing out here, and, even worse, you'll have to sit through more of my jokes.} Frisk winks and steps back, clearing the way for Sans to pass through.

Knowing he has people looking after him… It fills Papyrus with determination.

Chapter Text

Up ahead, Frisk and their sibling are discussing something about Papyrus, or maybe a rock, but Sans isn't paying too much attention. ‘you gonna tell me what's up with the whole speaking thing now?’ he wonders, almost absentmindedly.

Papyrus frowns. ‘IS THIS REALLY A GOOD TIME? WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT COULD BE IMPORTANT.’

Chara stomps away, evidently finished with the conversation, and Sans raises a mental eyebrow. Papyrus sighs. ‘JUST… GIVE ME A SECOND, OKAY? IT’S... HARD. I NEED TO FIND THE WORDS.’

‘sure thing, pap. take as long as you need.’

Frisk looks at him knowingly, then signs, {Chara’s gone to set up the puzzles. We're ready when you are, so come join us when you're done talking.}

{OK,} Sans answers, the signs made slow and clumsy by unfamiliar hands. Frisk nods and walks away.

‘so, uh, you good yet?’

‘...YES.’

There's a pause, in which absolutely nothing happens.

Finally, Papyrus begins to speak, mental voice taut but matter-of-fact. ‘IF YOU REALLY CAME FROM THE SURFACE, YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT THE PEOPLE THERE CAN BE… NOT VERY NICE. AS I GREW UP, I WAS OFTEN TEASED BY THE OTHER CHILDREN. POPULAR TOPICS INCLUDED MY HEIGHT, MY HOBBIES, MY PERCEIVED LACK OF INTELLIGENCE, AND MY UNKNOWN PARENTAGE, BUT BY FAR THE MOST COMMON WAS MY VOICE AND MANNER OF SPEAKING.’

Sans glares at the ground. It's all too easy to imagine a small Papyrus, eager to make friends, only to be taunted and tortured by those around him. Unfortunately, those bullies are far beyond his reach, so Sans clenches Papyrus’s hand around that stick he's still holding until his knuckles are white and he can feel every ridge of the bark against Papyrus’s skin. ‘they're lucky i wasn't around. i would've made them pay for saying that kind of -’

‘SANS! THAT IS QUITE ENOUGH OF THAT.’ Papyrus grabs for control, and Sans relinquishes easily with a grin and a ‘yes, mom.’ As Papyrus works his fingers free from the stick, rubbing the indentations in his palm, Sans is silent, until finally -

‘you know they're wrong, right?’

Papyrus hums noncommittally, eyes focused heavily on his hands. ‘PERHAPS. BUT IT IS TRUE THAT I AM VERY TALL, AND THAT MY INTERESTS DID NOT LIE WHERE THEIRS DID. AND THAT I NEVER SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THINGS AS QUICKLY AS I SHOULD, AND THAT I DO NOT KNOW WHO MY PARENTS ARE, AND THAT I DO NOT SEEM TO HAVE AN “INDOOR VOICE”. I AM SURE THEY DID NOT MEAN TO BE SO HURTFUL IN THEIR OBSERVATIONS, BUT IT IS NOT AS IF THEY SAID THINGS THAT ARE UNTRUE.’

Sans has no counter for that, but the fierce affection surging through him speaks for itself. ‘you don't have to worry about that anymore,’ he promises. ‘i’m gonna take care of you, no matter what.’

‘I - THANK YOU. AND I -’

‘don't worry about it. you don't need to do anything for me, except live through this. and, uh, maybe keep on enjoying my bad jokes.’

Overcome with emotion, Papyrus stands still for a while, just basking in the glow of Sans’s unexpectedly warm feelings. Finally, though, the cold biting through his striped shirt registers. It's time to move on.

After some puzzles, a few dogs, a nerve-wracking bridge, and a brisk walk through the cheery town of Snowdin, Papyrus finds himself face to face with Frisk again. {You've solved all the puzzles!} they sign, obviously excited. {Great work. I knew you could do it!}

Papyrus meets their happy smile with a shaky one of his own. “Thanks. I had fun!”

‘you spoke! nice going, paps!’

{What did you think of the one with your face?}

The question, and Sans’s cheering, firms Papyrus’s smile a little. “Wait, that was supposed to be my face? I thought it looked familiar! Well, my nose looked a little strange, but -” He claps a hand over his mouth, worried about the statement coming off rudely, but Frisk just laughs.

{I can redo it later, if you want. It'll just mean I get to stare at your face a little longer.}

“Wh- Are you -” Pap smooths a hand over his hair, blushing furiously. “Are you flirting with me?”

{Yep! Do you wanna go on a date?}

“Weren't you supposed to be fighting me?” he asks, covering his eyes with a hand when Frisk shrugs. “Fine! L-let’s go on a date later!”

His soul tugs free from his chest, triggering the fight. The battle begins.

Several small bones pass, slowly, underneath his soul.

“That's it?” he asks, nonplussed.

Frisk shrugs again. {I'd SPARE you immediately, if it were up to me, but Chara made it clear that they want a good fight. So… I'll use a blue attack!}

The bones traveling ineffectually beneath him are blue now. He's about to shrug off his opponent as being completely harmless when there's a ping! and gravity suddenly feels a lot stronger. The last bone whacks him solidly as he flinches away from it, ticking his HP down a few counts.

{You're blue now!} Frisk signs, expression somewhere between triumphant and apologetic. {That's the attack.}

The next rows of bones are moving a little faster, and some even grow and shrink, making it even trickier to time his jumps right. But now that he understands what the new color of his SOUL means, Papyrus is actually having fun jumping over them (despite Sans’s continued mistrustfulness), so it's a bit of a disappointment when no new bones appear. “Is that all?” he asks, panting happily from the exertion. “I was barely getting warmed up!”

Frisk grins. {Well, there is my special attack. You sure you can handle it?}

“Bring it on!” Papyrus declares, thumping a fist on his chest and grinning back.

{Alright, here goes nothing!}

A few seconds pass. A brisk wind blows by, making Papyrus’s teeth chatter. Frisk’s smile slowly grows, and finally, Pap buries his forehead in his hands. “It was literally nothing,” he groans, his expression becoming even more long-suffering as both Frisk and Sans start cracking up together.

Frisk wipes a tear from their eye socket. {Yeah. Sorry, I couldn't resist.} They hold out a hand. {Anyway, I'm sure that's good enough to satisfy Chara - I'll just tell them the Annoying Dog stole my special attack before I could use it. You ready to call it off?}

Papyrus narrows his eyes at them, then sighs in mock-resignation. “I suppose. If you're sure your sibling won't mind.” He takes the skeleton’s hand in a firm shake, and is only a little surprised when the action results in a long, drawn-out fart noise. Over Sans’s guffaws, he turns to walk away. “I am going to move on now. Hopefully the next area will have less horrible japes.”

‘aw, paps, i’m hurt!’ Sans laughs. Frisk waves cheerily, then signs, {Don't forget about our date!}

“...fine,” Papyrus grumbles, turning back amid more silent laughter. “Lead the way, skeleton.”

{It'll be back in Snowdin proper,} Frisk replies. {I'll meet you there.}

Papyrus nods decisively and strides off, passing by a sparkling spot on the ground as he goes. The possibility of getting to know this strange skeleton a little better… It fills him with determination.

Chapter Text

Papyrus only saw one path leading back to Snowdin, and Frisk definitely hadn't passed him, but when he reenters the town limits, the small skeleton is already waiting for him. Before he can do much more than give them a quizzical look, they're already explaining that they know a shortcut, and then they're grabbing his hand with a grin. The bones are cool to the touch and smooth, with little divots and rough spots here and there. Papyrus runs his thumbs over them, exploring the sensation, only to flush again when he realizes that they haven't moved.

Frisk’s hand trembles a little with their silent laughter. When he looks over to meet their gaze, red in the face, they quirk a single eyebrow-like bone ridge and sign, one-handed, {Are we going anywhere, or are we just gonna hold hands the whole time? Because I'd be fine either way -}

“N-no, we were going to go somewhere!” Papyrus yelps, covering his eyes with his loose hand. “Let's go. And do that. The thing that we were going to do.”

The skeleton snorts a little, then tugs his hand in a this-way kind of manner. They walk together for only a few steps before Frisk pulls him to a stop in front of the cheerily decorated house he had passed on his earlier way through town. With a flourish, they motion him through the door.

Papyrus looks appreciatively around the interior. ‘pretty bare bones,’ Sans comments, and, though he snorts at the pun, Papyrus agrees. There are hardly any furnishings; only a lumpy-looking couch, a TV, a threadbare carpet, and a small table in the living room, and a too-tall sink in the kitchen. It doesn't seem to match its inhabitants’ personalities at all, but it still feels, somehow, like he's come home.

Frisk taps him on the arm, and he comes back to himself with a start. They give him a tired grin. {You're feeling right at home here, aren't you? And Sans is probably wondering a few things, too.}

Sans’s presence, which had been distant, comes flaring back full force at that, though he stays silent. Papyrus pokes his fingers together. “I… Maybe? It does feel very home-y.”

The skeleton nods. {Yeah, I thought it might.} They pause, tilting their head to one side, then continue. {And, at a guess, I'd say Sans is wondering about how he got here and why you two are so familiar with each other, at least. Probably also why neither of you can remember much about your lives before you fell, and about why it feels like you half-recognize everyone. There's probably more he's picked up on, too, but Sans has always been rather inscrutable, even to me.}

Sans radiates mistrust and anger, and despite himself, Papyrus finds himself clutching the stick harder. ‘they're hiding something big, pap… and they're definitely not telling us everything. are you sure you shouldn’t fight? one hit’d probably be enough. heck, it might not even dust them. then you could run away, or something.’

With a conscious effort, he relaxes his fingers. “No, I trust them!” he insists out loud, to himself as much as Sans. “They said they wouldn't hurt us. So they won't!”

A tension Papyrus hadn't even been aware of vanishes from the skeleton’s shoulders. {Yep. I promised I'd take care of you two, and I don't break promises. But Sans is right - I do know a lot more than you do. For example, I know who you are and how you got here.}

Papyrus blinks. “But I know those, too. I'm Papyrus, and you walked me here for our date.”

Frisk shakes their head, still smiling tiredly. {Well, kinda. But actually, you're The Great Papyrus.} They put special emphasis on the ‘great’, and Papyrus nearly blushes again. {And I meant that I know how you got to the Underground. But, well…} They sigh. {I like you a lot, Pap, but only platonically. So this isn't really a date. I just needed an excuse to talk with you in private.}

“R-really?” He should feel crushed, he knows, but all he feels is relief. “That's exactly how I feel! Well, not about the needing to talk to you part, obviously, because, while you are very cool, I do not have anything in particular that I need to tell you. But! I am glad to be able to spend time with you, and that I do not have to come up with a way to let you down gently from the torrential passion I assumed you had for me.”

{That's good. I was worried you might take that admission the wrong way.} Frisk runs a hand over their skull. {Now that that’s settled, we should talk about the future, and the past, preferably somewhere more removed than the living room. Come to my bedroom?}

Sans shoves his way to the front, throwing up Papyrus’s arms in a big ‘X’. “Nope, nuh-uh, we are not interested in going to the bonezone today, try again sometime next century -”

{Sans.} Frisk fixes him with a flat expression. {Did you miss the part where I just said I had no interest in Papyrus beyond the platonic level? I only want to talk, honest.}

With a huff, Sans subsides, and Papyrus awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. “That was very rude. I apologize for my brain ghost. He was evidently not raised with manners,” he adds pointedly.

‘alright, alright, i’m sorry. geez,’ Sans grumbles.

Papyrus prepares to pass on the apology, but Frisk is already waving it off, tugging him up the stairs and into a messy room. {Don't worry about it. Just… Can we hurry? I'm not sure how much time we have.}

“Before Chara gets back?” Papyrus ventures, sitting gingerly next to the skeleton on the bed.

{No.} Frisk’s eyes are solemn. {Before the end of the world.}

Chapter Text

“The end of the world?” Papyrus gasps, clapping his hands to his face in surprise. (In the back of his head, Sans is giving off a strong impression of rolling his eyes, but he stays silent.) “That sounds dangerous, and also very final.”

Frisk’s shoulders shake with quiet laughter. {I guess it does. I…} They trail off, then run a finger under their eye socket, looking displeased to see it come away wet. {I'm not really sure where to start,} they confess.

“The beginning is usually a good place,” Papyrus offers.

{Yes, but which one?} Frisk shakes their head. {No, never mind. I'll start this story with a discovery…}

Frisk tells a story of a war between humans and monsters. Though the monsters were powerful, they were easily defeated, and the humans sealed them underground with a magic spell. In an effort to better understand the fortitude of the human soul, the Royal Scientist discovered that humans possessed a quality that would come to be known as Determination: the ability to reject death itself.

{Many years later, a human fell into the Underground,} Frisk continues, and Papyrus listens intently. {This human had so much Determination that they were able to reject death entirely. In effect, they could time travel, with two abilities they called SAVE and RESET. By using SAVE, they could go back to a point when they had felt particularly determined. They could use that power to come back to life after being killed. The other ability, RESET, allowed them to declare a whole string of events ‘dead’, and they'd wake up at the start again. No one but them would know that anything had happened, because to anyone else, nothing would have. Does that make any sense?}

‘i get it. think of it like a bookmark, paps,’ Sans explains, sensing Papyrus’s confusion. ‘by saving, the human could flip back to where the bookmark was. and by resetting, they could start the book at the beginning again.’

“Oh, that makes sense! I understand now,” Papyrus smiles.

Frisk smiles back. {Good. I'm glad Sans could explain it better for you.} Their expression darkens. {But, this human… They weren't very nice. Whether it was because they were scared, or hurt, or because they just liked hurting others, they killed their way through the Underground. No monster could stand up to them, because even if the human lost a battle and was killed, they’d just load a SAVE and continue. Finally, though, they met a monster they couldn't beat, no matter how many times they died. Forced to admit that they hadn't made the best decisions, the human RESET, and began their journey all over again.}

Papyrus frowns. “Is that it? That wasn't a very nice story.”

{No, it's not,} Frisk agrees, eyes sad above their grin. {But it's one you need to know.} They hop off the bed, then sign, {You were given a phone, right? Can I see it? It would be a good idea to keep in contact.}

Papyrus fishes the phone out of a pocket and hands it over. “This might not have been a real date, but I have still obtained a phone number!” he crows, as Frisk taps some buttons and gives it back with a secretive smile.

{Call anytime,} they sign. {It'll be picked up before the third ring, guaranteed.}

“Wowie, thanks!” Papyrus pockets the phone again, then shifts awkwardly, unsure of what to say. “So…”

{It's probably been a long day for you,} Frisk signs sympathetically. {And you should probably be well rested when you get to Waterfall. Alphys, the captain of the Royal Guard, patrols there, so you'll need to be extra careful. I think you should get some rest at the Inn here in Snowdin before moving on.}

“But it's still light out,” Papyrus protests.

‘we're literally under a mountain, papyrus,’ Sans argues back. ‘it's kinda silly to wait until the sun goes down to take a nap. besides, waterfall’s full of cliffs and gorges. wandering around there when you're tired is just asking for trouble.’

‘BUT I’M NOT TIRED!’

‘seriously, paps? you're gonna pull that trick on me?’ Sans points out the heaviness in Papyrus’s limbs, the way he’s blinking slower and more often than normal, the way the stick keeps drooping in his hand. ‘i’m literally in your head, dude. you’re gonna have to try harder than that.’

‘ALRIGHT, SO MAYBE I AM FEELING A LITTLE TIRED,’ Papyrus admits grumpily. ‘BUT…’

‘nah, i think you lost this argument. tell the skeleton to take you to the inn.’

It's a quick walk, and the owner of the Snowed Inn (Sans gets a kick out of that) is more than happy to put Papyrus up for the night, so it isn't long before Papyrus is tucked in bed and staring at the ceiling, listening distantly to the snoring in the next room over. He and Sans exchange goodnights, but linger in wakefulness for a while, trying to convince themselves that it doesn't feel like anything is missing. Finally, Sans drops off, and Papyrus doesn't take too long to follow after.

He's dreaming of fluffy bunnies, for some reason, when everything washes yellow and he's suddenly standing in a golden hall. His body feels alien, like his limbs are stuffed with cotton to make them longer than they should be, like his skin is too tight, and there's dust on all his clothes.

At the end of the hall, Chara is standing. “Burn in hell,” they growl. Their eye sockets light up red, the world goes white, and he shoots up, panting.

He can feel where Sans is trapped in a nightmare, too, the space he occupies in Papyrus’s mind filled entirely with fear and pain. When he snaps awake, Papyrus is ready, trying his best to radiate comfort while still shaking from his own nightmare.

‘so. you had one too, huh?’ Sans asks when they can both think clearly again.

‘YES. IT WAS… NOT PLEASANT.’

‘well, yeah. nightmares generally aren't. ...so, what was yours about?’

‘I WAS STANDING IN A LONG HALLWAY. MY CLOTHES WERE ALL DUSTY, AND MY BODY FELT LIKE IT DID NOT FIT RIGHT. AND… I THINK CHARA KILLED ME.’

‘oh, man, that's heavy. did you feel anything?’

‘NOT REALLY. I WOKE UP BEFORE WHATEVER THEY DID REACHED ME.’

Sans is silent. Hesitantly, Papyrus asks, ‘DO YOU THINK I WAS THE HUMAN FRISK WAS TALKING ABOUT? CHARA CERTAINLY SEEMS LIKE THEY WOULD BE A DIFFICULT OPPONENT, AND I AM THE ONLY HUMAN DOWN HERE.’

‘i dunno,’ comes the answer. ‘monsters turn to dust when they die, so if your clothes were covered in it, odds are good that you killed a few. but, honestly, i can't see you ever doing something like that. besides, it's only a dream. unless you suddenly discover any weird time warp powers, i think you're good. go back to sleep, pap. you’ll need the rest when you wake up.’

‘HM. ALRIGHT.’ The trepidation lingers, but Sans’s argument is sound, and Papyrus really doesn't want to be the kind of person that would kill anyone. So he pushes the worry aside and rolls over again, determined to at least try to follow his passenger’s advice and get some rest.

Sans lets out the equivalent of a heavy sigh. When Papyrus’s breathing evens out and his mental presence becomes fuzzy, Sans relaxes the deathgrip he’s got on his emotions, allowing his tentative hum of affection to wash over his companion in a flood of love he's only just starting to understand. ‘don’t worry, bro,’ he thinks. ‘i’ll protect you this time. i promise.’

Chapter Text

The snowy scene outside the Inn’s window is just as bright upon Papyrus’s awakening as it was when he fell asleep. Despite the nightmare earlier, he feels well-rested and ready to continue his adventure. Unfortunately, Sans’s presence in the back of his mind is heavy and woozy still with sleep, which makes it rather difficult to be excited about what's ahead. With difficulty, he resists the urge to stamp his foot and shout his passenger fully awake (the words wake up, you lazybones trot eagerly to the tip of his tongue, but he swallows them back, not wanting to be rude), and restricts himself to simply putting an extra bounce in his step and waving perkily at the innkeeper as he leaves.

It occurs to him to drop by the skeletons’ house to say goodbye to Frisk before he heads to Waterfall, but he really doesn't want to bump into their sibling on the way. Chara had openly admitted to wanting to kill him, after all, and there’s no telling how upset they’d be with their sibling letting him go. Instead, he pulls out his phone and calls the number Frisk had put in his contacts, under ‘Skelesib’.

Just like Frisk had said, the phone only has time to ring twice before the call’s picked up. “Hello?” says the sleepy voice on the other end of the line.

“Hello!” Papyrus replies. “I’m headed off to Waterfall now. I thought I would let you know.”

There’s a long pause, then a heavy sigh. “My sibling put you up to this, didn’t they,” Chara groans. “Well, I do not care what kinds of things they spouted about friendship or interspecies cooperation or whatever. I am not being friends with you, and that’s final!”

And with that, they cut the call, leaving Papyrus with a dial tone and a very confused expression. Sans has just enough time to think a resigned, half-laughing ‘...welp’ before the phone starts ringing again. Papyrus looks at it strangely, then answers.

“Frisk said I had to apologize, or they would disown me,” Chara grumps before Papyrus can say anything, and he has to clap a hand over his mouth to stop the sudden snort of laughter this prompts. He must not have been entirely successful, though, because he can practically hear Chara glaring on the other end of the line. “Don’t think this means you’ve won,” they spit. “You might have befriended my sibling, but you’ll never win me over, human.”

The word sounds like a death sentence in their mouth, complete with tolling bells and looming shadows, and Papyrus swallows heavily, reminded suddenly of his dream from last night. Sans glares at the phone and pretends he can kill Chara through it with imaginary eye lasers.

“I have only one piece of advice for you,” Chara continues, “and I’m only giving it on Frisk’s behalf. If you’re thinking of fighting Alphys? Don’t. She’s the captain of the Royal Guard, and she’s bigger, stronger, and better than you. If you want to get out alive, run. As fast and as far as you can.”

Papyrus draws himself upright, one fist rested proudly on his chest, gaze fixed sternly into the middle distance. “I never back down from a challenge. I, Papyrus, will never turn my back on an enemy!”

(‘aw, man,’ Sans thinks quietly at the back of their mind. ‘so cool.’)

“An admirable sentiment, for a human,” Chara says, sounding just short of impressed. “I didn’t think you had honor up there, after what you did to us, but evidently some shred must have survived. But believe me when I say this, human: Alphys will not go easy on you the way my sibling did. If you want to survive an encounter with her, you will have to put your ideals aside.”

“Never.” Papyrus’s hand drops, and he looks around at the sparkling snowbanks on the sides of the road, the tall evergreens somehow growing under tons of rock, the inky river with its bobbing cubes of ice. “I am trapped underground, in a strange place, with strange people I don’t know. In an instant, I have lost everything familiar to me. I’ll be damned if I lose my morals, too.”

‘ooh, you said a swear,’ grins Sans in the resulting silence.

Papyrus flushes, embarrassed. ‘SHUT UP, SANS.’

His passenger snickers. ‘hey, don’t worry, paps. i thought your dramatic monologue was really cool.’

Papyrus huffs, crossing his arms and frowning sadly. ‘YOU’RE MAKING FUN OF ME.’

‘hey, no i’m not! you really told them off. it was super cool!’

‘R-REALLY? ARE YOU SURE?’

Sans smiles. ‘yep. i promise.’

Chara interrupts the humans’ bonding moment with a sigh, so quiet as to be nearly inaudible. “I suppose it is your life to throw away. I hope, for Frisk’s sake, that you live to regret your choice.” And, with a click, the call is over.

Papyrus lowers the phone, but keeps it in his hands for a little while longer, just twiddling it back and forth and running his fingers over the Braille on the number keys. When he makes no move to put it away, Sans sends him a question mark of concern, and he sighs. “I should have known it would be Chara who picked up,” he says to the air in front of him. “Frisk doesn’t talk. It would make no sense for them to give me their own number.”

‘hey now, there’s no call to go beating yourself up about it,’ Sans says, concern still evident despite his airy tone. ‘they deliberately worded things ambiguously so you wouldn’t notice. ugh, i knew we shouldn’tve trusted them...’

Papyrus shakes his head. “No, they must have done it for a reason,” he insists. “I just…” He trails off, sighing. “I just should have known better.”

(‘THAN TO EXPECT SOMEONE WOULD ACTUALLY WANT TO TALK TO ME,’ the thought continues, unbidden.)

Sans thinks for a while, then makes a show of dropping the issue. He gives off a strong impression of reclining lazily with his arms crossed behind his head, despite not having a physical presence with which to do such things. ‘so, hey,’ he starts, ‘i just realized i haven’t made a pun in a while.’

Papyrus snaps to full attention. “Don’t you dare,” he warns.

Sans just grins, continuing as if Papyrus had never said anything. ‘guess i’ve been really…’

“No. Do not.”

‘...phoning it in?’

Papyrus groans, dropping his head into his hands as Sans adds a ‘ba-dum tss’ for effect. Still, there’s a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, and it only grows when Sans says, ‘looks like i’m pressing all your buttons with these.’

“I’m putting this away now,” Papyrus grouches, grinning, and drops the phone back into its pocket. Then he turns his attention to the road ahead. “We should…” The sentence trails off, and Papyrus sighs harshly, covering his eyes with a hand.

‘...yeah? what?’ Sans prompts, eagerly anticipating the accidental punchline.

“We should press on, I suppose. Waterfall awaits.” The smile on his face grows steadily. “Though I should probably keep my side of our dialogues more internal than I have been, today. After all, I wouldn’t want anyone thinking I was talking to myself. They’d put me in a padded cell.”

‘oh my god, papyrus.’ Sans is cracking up. Papyrus suspects there would be tears in his eyes from laughter, if his passenger currently had eyes to water. As it is, Papyrus just grins widely, happy to have made Sans laugh.

Knowing Sans, at least, enjoys his company… It fills Papyrus with determination.

Chapter Text

As Papyrus walks, the snowy ground cover under his feet gradually gives way to indigo-gray stone, and little glowing mushrooms start appearing on the path. There’s a heavy mist in the air, and streams too small to be called true waterfalls but too large to be called rivulets pour down over the walls of the cave.

Finally, he sees a larger cascade. Small boulders, pushed by the force of the water, crash down from above and fall far below. Papyrus leans over to watch them fall, but they vanish into darkness over the course of the drop.

The river blocks the way forward. The only thing Papyrus can do is wade through it, so he steps into the rushing flow with a grimace, trying not to think about his shoes are getting wet or how squishy his socks will be after he gets out. ‘I CAN SEE WHY THEY CALL IT WATERFALL,’ he remarks.

‘heh. yeah, uh.’ Sans shifts in the back of his mind. ‘our king wasn’t that great at names.’

‘I LIKE IT,’ Papyrus decides. ‘THERE’S NO REASON NOT TO KEEP THINGS SIMPLE. BESIDES, IT MAKES IT EASY TO REMEMBER.’

‘guess it does. wait -’ Sans cuts off abruptly, and there's a quick pause like he's looking around for something before he curses. ‘get in the grass, now.’

‘HUH?’

‘alphys is coming. move!’

The tension in his passenger’s voice spurs Papyrus into action. He slogs through the rest of the river as quick as he can and dives into the tall grass on the other side, ducking his head low and trying to blend in with the vegetation. It's the first time he’s heard anything even approaching fear in Sans’s normally level mental voice, and Papyrus can sense him running through plans of action at the speed of thought at the back of their mind. Most of those plans would seem to involve violence, though, if Sans’s constant, muttered stream of ‘no killing’ is anything to go by. Papyrus winces and hopes they won't have to rely on any of them.

If he listens closely, now, he can hear what Sans must have picked up on - the heavy footfalls of armored boots on stone. Papyrus shivers and presses deeper into the grass, staying as still as he can as the clanking footsteps get closer and closer. He’s got his head down, so he can’t see where they stop, but when he risks a glance, a figure in a yellow-crested suit of armor is standing right next to him. The helmet turns towards him, and he gasps, ducking back down and trying not to breathe too loudly.

It’s too late, though. Alphys’s armored gauntlet shoots down into the grass and pulls up… a little, armless reptile monster?

With a clank, Alphys’s other hand hits her forehead. She drops the monster child gently into the grass and turns around, a yellow tail swaying dangerously behind her as she clanks back off in the direction she came from.

When he’s sure she’s gone (and when his heart rate has slowed down enough to breathe again), Papyrus wades through the rest of the patch of grass. Then there’s a series of swishes behind him, and the monster child rushes out of the grass after him. “Yo, did you see that?!” they gasp, stars in their eyes. “Alphys just touched me! I’m never washing my face ever again!” They grin widely. “Man, are you unlucky. If you were standing just a little bit to the left…”

Papyrus just stares, eyes wide. ‘pretty much every kid wants to be alphys when they grow up,’ Sans tells him, voice low. ‘the royal guard is like a team of superheroes or something, and she’s its captain. i told you when you first fell, pap, everybody down here wants you dead. the kid’s no different.’

With an effort, Papyrus swallows. ‘I’M STARTING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU MEAN NOW, I THINK. BUT STILL, I HAVE HOPE! EVEN IF ASGORE ISN’T HERE… AND EVEN IF HE REFUSES TO TAKE MY CALLS… HE WOULDN’T HAVE FOUGHT SO HARD TO KEEP ME IN THE RUINS IF HE WANTED ME DEAD!’

‘he wasn’t exactly raring to come with you, either,’ Sans points out dryly. ‘if a big, strong monster like him was here to protect you, i bet you’d be in a lot less danger.’

‘WELL. YES. BUT STILL! FRISK DID NOT TRY TO KILL ME! AND THEY GAVE US USEFUL INFORMATION, TOO.’

‘what, the skeleton?’ Sans snorts. ‘they’ve got a good sense of humor, i’ll give them that, but the only information they gave us was a cryptic story about something out of a sci-fi novel. and even if they were going easy on you, they still fought you when their sibling told them to. if chara told them to kill you, do you really think they wouldn’t?’

‘I - MAYBE?’

Sans sighs. ‘face it, papyrus. it’s… it’s kill or be killed, okay? if you don’t want to kill anyone, that’s fine, but… just let me do this for you.’ If Papyrus could see him now, he knows, Sans’s eyes would be wide and watery with sincerity. His mental voice sounds a little choked up as he quietly adds, ‘i don’t want to lose you, too.’

‘YOU’RE NOT GOING TO LOSE ME, SANS,’ Papyrus promises, knowing even as he says it that he has nothing to back that vow up but desperate hope. ‘AND I DON’T WANT TO LOSE YOU, EITHER. YOU’RE THE BEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO ME.’ He hadn’t meant to say that, but, to Papyrus’s surprise, it’s true. He forges on. ‘BUT I REALLY DO THINK WE CAN RETURN TO THE SURFACE WITHOUT KILLING OR BEING KILLED. THERE ARE GOOD PEOPLE HERE, I’M SURE OF IT! AND BESIDES, ANYONE CAN CHANGE. EVEN THE WORST PERSON CAN BE GOOD, IF THEY JUST TRY. I’M SURE WE CAN CONVINCE THE MONSTERS THAT THEY DON’T HAVE TO KILL ME TO BREAK THE BARRIER. THEN WE CAN FREE EVERYONE, WITHOUT ANY KILLING AT ALL!’

‘...that’s a nice thought, paps,’ Sans finally says. ‘but i just don’t think it’s that realistic.’

‘WELL, I DO. AND I’M THE ONE WITH THE BODY, SO, NYEH.’ He imagines sticking his tongue out childishly, and Sans blinks, then laughs a little.

‘okay. if you’re sure, i guess. we’ll try it your way.’

Papyrus sees the monster kid looking at him weirdly and gives them a shaky smile, still not over the adrenaline rush of his close call. The kid smiles back. “Yo, don’t worry,” they attempt to console him, mistaking his lingering fear for regret. “I’m sure we’ll see her again!”

Papyrus swallows, but manages to firm his smile a little. He gives the kid a nod, and they beam back, proud to have seemingly cheered him up. Then they dash away, tripping as they go. Papyrus instinctively steps forward to try to help them up, but, despite the lack of arms, they’re up again and on their way in no time.

Papyrus stares after them, lost in thought. ‘hey, uh, i’m pretty sure there are some more puzzles up ahead,’ Sans ventures after a while. Papyrus immediately perks up, and Sans snorts at his enthusiasm.

‘WELL, WE HAD BETTER BE GOING, THEN!’ Papyrus walks on, following the path Alphys and the kid had both taken.

A feeling of dread hangs over him. But he stays determined.

Chapter Text

There are, indeed, puzzles up ahead. Papyrus solves them easily, even with Sans giving him ‘hints’ that turn out to be the exact opposite. (He had nearly lost it when, following his passenger’s advice, he used the bridge seeds to read a sign that just said, “Congratulations! You failed the puzzle!”)

Papyrus wants to investigate the glowing blue flowers in the next room, but Sans thinks Papyrus should hurry through before Alphys finds him, so Papyrus ignores them and moves on. But after rushing over some wooden platforms, his eye is drawn to a glint in the darkness. Behind the pillars on the other side of the room, Alphys is lurking. He gulps.

Something smells of ozone. Sans shouts ‘move!’ and Papyrus jumps to the side, a spear of lightning striking where he had been standing. Little sparks dance over the dock for a few seconds, and then more spears are coming and Papyrus is too busy dodging and running to admire how pretty Alphys’s magic is.

‘what the heck, pap? why - on your left! - are you admiring her magic when she’s trying to kill you?’ Sans yelps.

‘I JUST THINK -'

‘watch your feet!’

‘YES, THANK YOU. IT’S REALLY PRETTY, THAT’S ALL!’

‘ok, yeah, but -’

Distracted at a critical moment, Papyrus nearly steps off the dock as it curves around a bend. When he stumbles back, it’s right into a lightning strike, and even though Papyrus swallows the scream, Sans can still feel it in his host’s throat as his hair singes.

As soon as Papyrus regains his hearing, he can hear Sans tripping over himself to apologize. ‘I-IT’S OKAY, I’M FINE!’ he reassures him, tearing off across the dock again. ‘I’VE STILL GOT LOTS OF HP. IT JUST KNOCKED OFF SOME OF THE EXTRA FROM THE INN, THAT’S ALL!’

Sans refuses to accept the reassurance. Mental voice shaky and thick with horror, he retorts, ‘no, it’s not fine! i nearly- i hurt you, paps! you- you could’ve -’ He swallows back tears. ‘oh, god, i’m sorry, i’m sorry, i -’

‘SANS!’ Papyrus takes an unusually stern tone as he dodges around another bend. ‘NOW IS NOT THE TIME! NOTHING HAPPENED, I’M FINE, AND I DON’T BLAME YOU AT ALL. END OF STORY!’

‘but -’

‘NO.’

‘but -’

‘NO!’

Sans still feels horrified about what happened and his part in it, but it’s obvious Papyrus won’t be convinced of anything, and anyway, Sans doesn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. Winning this fight would mean that Papyrus would never trust him again, and Sans doesn’t think he could stand that. Still, being the kind of guy he is, he can’t resist one more ‘...but -’

‘NYEH!’ Papyrus scrunches up his face. ‘YOU’RE JUST MESSING WITH ME NOW, AREN’T YOU?’

‘maybe a little,’ Sans admits easily, internalizing the rest of his panic attack with the ease of practice. Casting around for a diversion (and tugging Papyrus a little harder around a curve), he forces a grin and says, ‘be careful where you step. this part of waterfall’s gorges.’

‘HUH?’

‘oh, cuz, it’s- it’s pretty but dangerous. cuz of all the deep holes everywhere?’ Sans flounders. With a sigh, he gives a mental shrug and lets the joke go. ‘eh, not one of my best. delivery could use work.’

Papyrus grimaces. ‘NONE OF YOUR JOKES ARE ANYTHING I WOULD QUALIFY AS ‘BEST’. THEY ARE ALL EQUALLY AWFUL.’ Still, he gives Sans the equivalent of a tentative smile. ‘OF COURSE, TAKEN A CERTAIN WAY, THAT ALSO MEANS THEY ARE ALL EQUALLY GOOD.’

Taken aback, Sans blinks. Then his presence lights up with a tender grin. ‘aw, thanks, pap. you always know just what to say.’

‘R-REALLY? I MEAN, UM, OF COURSE I DO!’ If Alphys weren’t still chucking lightning spears at him, Papyrus would be tempted to pose dramatically, but that didn’t stop being a thing that’s happening, so he just thinks ‘*DRAMATIC POSE*’ instead and keeps running. Sans snickers in response, and Papyrus grins.

The lightning’s starting to pour down faster as Alphys loses patience, but luckily, there’s another patch of the tall seagrass ahead. This one’s larger, too, and Papyrus somersaults into it with a whoop of exultation.

‘whoa, where’d you learn to do that?’ Sans asks curiously.

‘I TOOK GYMNASTICS AS A CHILD! ...I THINK.’ Papyrus frowns. ‘I CAN’T REALLY REMEMBER. BUT- YES, I MUST HAVE.’

Sans laughs thinly. ‘yeah, course you did. makes sense.’

Armor clanks as Alphys stomps over to the grass patch. Her helmet turns from side to side, inspecting the grass for any sign of movement, but Papyrus controls the antsiness in his limbs and manages to sit still.

After a while, the guard captain shrugs to herself and clanks off again with a sigh. Sans refuses to let Papyrus move out of the grass for a while longer, ‘just in case’, but Alphys doesn’t come back. With a sigh of relief, Papyrus makes his way out of the patch, bouncing on his toes a few times to celebrate having free movement again.

Just like the last time, as soon as Papyrus exits the grass, the little monster child follows. More prepared this time around, Papyrus greets them with a smile, and the monster kid returns it, starry eyed.

“Yo, did you see that?! Alphys -” Their sentence cuts off suddenly, replaced with garbled static. The kid themself flickers in and out briefly, ripples of nonexistence rolling over their body, and Papyrus jolts backwards.

‘IS… IS THAT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN?’

Sans’s voice sounds shaken. ‘definitely not. that’s- that’s definitely not normal.’

The static stops as suddenly as it started, and the kid continues talking like nothing happened, barring the rolls of static that keep interrupting them. “Man, are you - krsshht - lucky. If you - krrrsshshshshhht - just a little bit to the left…”

Even the inflection in the kid’s words is the same. Papyrus swallows heavily and takes a few more steps backwards, just to be safe.

“Yo, don’t worry. I’m - kkrshshshhhhhhhht - see her again!” The monster kid concludes their dialogue and takes a step towards Papyrus. For a moment, he thinks he can see something in their eyes - some kind of spark, maybe, or maybe fear - but then their eyes disappear behind a flicker of static. Papyrus gulps, but the kid doesn’t come any closer. Instead, they dash out of the room the same way they had the last time, faceplant and all. It’s not nearly as charming the second time around, though; now it’s just kind of chilling. Papyrus finds himself rubbing his arms and wishing Sans could really be there so they could hold hands.

‘me too, pap,’ Sans whispers.

The mystery is only deepening. A chill crawls up Papyrus’s back, but he stays determined.

Chapter Text

As before, Papyrus hurries through the next rooms at Sans’s urging. Being chased down by the captain of the Royal Guard was enough, but now all Papyrus can think about is that brief moment of fear in the monster kid’s eyes before they were consumed by static. Luckily, there aren’t any more puzzles (much as Papyrus loves them, he doesn’t think he can stand the heavy thought they require right now), and when they get to a maze of docks over some softly glowing water, Sans offers to take over.

Well, it’s more of a demand than an offer. ‘you should rest,’ he says, his tone brooking no objections. ‘alphys might not’ve killed you, but it’s obvious you’re pretty shaken by the whole thing with her and the kid. so, take the backseat for a while. that way, you can enjoy the scenery all you want, right? ‘sides, i, uh. i know the area better, anyway. less chance of you tripping and falling in if i’m the one doing the walking.’

Papyrus can’t argue with that, especially not when he can feel how determined Sans is to do this for him. It’s hazy, but Papyrus can still feel faint wisps of guilt and regret around Sans’s presence, and it’s obvious that his passenger feels like this is the least he can do to make up for any harm he caused. Besides, it’s not exactly like it’s an inconvenience, even if he would rather do his own walking. Papyrus steps aside without argument, taking the backseat and allowing himself to truly appreciate Waterfall for the first time.

It’s beautiful - Sans hadn’t been lying when he’d described Waterfall as ‘gorgeous’, even if that had only been for the sake of making another pun. The ground is dark, and it and the docks are almost black, a lovely counterpoint to the phosphorescent water underneath. Little lights drift upwards from the surface of the water, too, though Papyrus isn’t sure of they’re just froth from the small waterfalls pouring endlessly to some distant, unknowable depth or if they’re some kind of firefly, maybe, trapped down here with the monsters. The crystals in the floor and the lily pads in the river shine and shade respectively, making the beauty of their respective settings even more resplendent, and the delicate blue petals of the flowers have a haunting beauty of their own that Papyrus can’t even begin to describe.

Sans smiles at his enthusiasm. ‘yeah, it is really pretty,’ he agrees silently. ‘i used to spend a lot of time here, before… well. you know.’

‘NO? I DON’T???’ Papyrus winces a little, but, when Sans doesn't seem to react, decides to risk continuing. ‘I KNOW YOU DON’T LIKE TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF MUCH, BUT…’

‘don’t have to pe-tell me,’ Sans interrupts with a laugh, glancing at one of the flowers on the path.

‘...SANS.’

‘no, seriously! there’s no stamen not wanting to talk about myself, right? i kinda think you might be ovary-acting a little there, bud-dy.’

‘SANS.’

Sans pretends to mull the situation over, tapping one finger against Papyrus’s chin. ‘still, at least you’re not pollen me names or pulling out a pistil or anything like that. then again, we haven’t exactly botany of those with us, so...’

‘SANS!!’ Papyrus gives off an impression of stamping his foot. ‘PLEASE STOP WITH YOUR JOKES FOR A WHILE! I ALREADY KNOW THAT YOU ARE VERY GOOD AT MISDIRECTION.’ When his passenger doesn’t reply, he frowns. ‘IT JUST SEEMS LIKE YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ME! AND I STILL DON’T REALLY KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOU. IF YOU REALLY DO NOT WANT TO TELL ME ANYTHING, THAT’S FINE, BUT… I DON’T THINK IT’S VERY FAIR OF YOU TO EXPECT ME TO JUST LET YOU WALK MY BODY AROUND, AND THEN NOT TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT WHO I’M GIVING IT TO!’

Sans stares at the ground, thumb rubbing absently at that stick. ‘eh, that’s fair,’ he finally says.

‘REALLY?’ If Sans wasn’t using Papyrus’s eyes, they’d probably be wide and sparkly right now. Sans laughs a little.

‘sure thing. go ahead, shoot. whaddya wanna know?’

There’s an expectant air, but Papyrus doesn’t say anything; if he had access to his physical body at the moment, his mouth probably would have opened, then closed again. ‘ACTUALLY, I AM NOT CERTAIN!’ he admits at last. ‘I DID NOT EXPECT TO HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR. PERHAPS… YOU SAID, WHEN I FIRST MET YOU, THAT YOU WERE ADOPTED BY A FAMILY OF MONSTERS. IS THAT CORRECT?’

‘yeah.’

Papyrus waits, but no explanation follows. He sighs. Of course Sans is going to be lazy about this and make him do all the work. ‘WHAT WERE THEY LIKE?’ he prompts.

‘they were alright, i guess.’

Papyrus glares. With a chuckle, Sans elaborates, looking into the water as he ambles on, as if to catch a glimpse of that time again. ‘they were a family of three - mom, dad, and my brother. mom liked to bake pies. she was real good at it, too. i’m finicky about food, but she didn’t hesitate to make what i could eat, even if that ended up being the same thing night after night. dad… i was never as close with him as i was with mom, but he was always smiling, especially when he was in his garden. he grew the most beautiful flowers, paps, even underground. made nice tea, too.’

Papyrus is suddenly reminded of Asgore, with a wistfulness that makes his heart lurch. The goat monster had become almost like a father to him, even with how brief his stay in the Ruins had been, and the golden flower tea he had made upon Papyrus’s arrival had been wonderful, even if Papyrus wasn’t usually the biggest tea fan. And then there was the strange melancholia of the tidy little house in the Ruins… That ketchup bottle from the surface in the back of the refrigerator. The old calendar, with a date circled in red. Asgore’s desperation to save him from the outside world, knowing he could be all too easily torn away from it, and Sans’s silence during their fight… Papyrus narrows his nonexistent eyes, but lets the puzzle go for now, storing the clues in a mental file. This isn’t the time. ‘WHAT ABOUT YOUR BROTHER?’ he asks instead, shaking off the irrational jealousy this prompts without too much thought.

‘he was great.’ Sans smiles, rubbing a hand against Papyrus’s forehead. ‘curious as all get-out, though, and a little self-righteous. i mean, what kind of person sees a creature from one of their nightmares crash down, screaming, through a hole in their ceiling, and has the first reaction to ask what its name is?’

‘I WOULD,’ Papyrus huffs.

Sans’s smile flickers briefly. ‘yeah, i know,’ he replies, switching the stick to Papyrus’s other hand and shaking out the hand that frees. ‘but you belong to a significant minority, is my point. anyway, so he sees this human come screaming down from above and asks me my name. which was all very well and good, except it, uh, really wasn’t a clean fall. i wasn’t looking too good. wasn’t feeling too good, either, which is why i passed out before he could finish his half of the introductions.’

‘YOU PASSED OUT?!’ Papyrus gasps, horrified. ‘OH MY GOODNESS, WERE YOU OKAY?’ The instant he says that, of course, a rush of shame hits him. Of course Sans was okay; how else would he be telling this story? God, he must look like an idiot.

Sans just laughs, though. ‘considering where i woke up, i bed-er have been. when i opened my eyes, i was in my future bro’s room, all healed up and tucked into his bed. he’d been off doing other stuff, of course, but as soon as he heard i’d woke up, he rushed in to see if i was feeling better. had a ton of questions he wanted to ask me, too, about who i was and what i was and what the surface was like and stuff like that.’ That sad, nostalgic tone is back in his voice again, Papyrus notes. ‘he was always such a scientist. liked puzzles a lot, too, just like you do, paps. uh, he was a lot moodier, though. and quieter, too.’

Papyrus winces heavily. Sans moves to reassure him, but Papyrus waves him off. ‘IT’S NOT A BIG DEAL, REALLY! BESIDES, YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT YOUR BROTHER. WHAT WAS HIS NAME?’

‘you know, it’s funny, really,’ Sans muses. ‘he went by gaster, usually, or w.d., but that was only because he had a super weird name. like, weirder than ‘sans’ or ‘papyrus’ weird. i have no idea why his parents subjected him to it, but his name was, get this, wing dings.’

‘WING DINGS.’ Papyrus’s mental voice is flat. It’s a sharp contrast to his typical cheery shout, and Sans’s thought process brakes hard.

He gives a weak laugh. ‘yeah, wing dings. haha, funny, right?’

‘AS IN ‘DINGS’ WING DINGS?’

‘...yyyyyeah?’

‘SANS. ARE YOU TELLING ME YOUR BROTHER IS A FLOWER?’

‘um, maybe?’ If this were Sans’s real body, he’d be sweating heavily right now. He’s kind of glad that he isn’t, but also sort of misses the familiarity. ‘i mean, the whole flower thing was a recent development, really -’

‘WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THAT WAS YOUR BROTHER? I WOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING!’

Sans stares incredulously. ‘uh, no you wouldn’tve,’ he points out. ‘considering that you don’t like talking to strangers. and that you didn’t even know i existed at the time. and that he called you an idiot and tried to kill you.’

‘WELL. MAYBE,’ Papyrus admits. There’s still a large part of him that really wants to be angry at Sans for not having told him sooner. But, in the end, the information doesn’t really change the situation any. He’ll just have to react with it in mind in the future, if - when - he sees Flowey again. Papyrus lets some of that conviction seep through to Sans, who frowns.

‘look, paps…’ He trails off awkwardly, hunching his head into his shoulders and going to fold his hands into pockets that aren’t there. ‘my bro’s not the same anymore. what he went through to become a flower… it changed him. he’s not the same big bro i used to live with, okay? he used to be the ask questions first, shoot later kinda guy. now he’s a “i don’t care what the answers are, you have something i want so i’m gonna shoot you” kinda guy.’ His mental voice hardens. ‘he wants you dead, paps. if it comes down to him or you, i want you to be the one to walk out, okay?’

‘B-BUT THAT’S TERRIBLE!’ Papyrus yelps. The force of his emotion pushes him back into the driver’s seat, but Sans relinquishes easily. (A stray thought confirms that the end of Waterfall shouldn’t be too much farther from here, which probably has something to do with it.) Now that he has access to his eyes again, Papyrus can feel them watering, and he dashes the tears away angrily with the back of his wrist. ‘AND IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, EITHER,’ he vows, conviction strong and burning brightly. ‘WHATEVER HAPPENED TO YOUR BROTHER TO MAKE HIM SO CRUEL, I PROMISE YOU, I WILL FIND A WAY TO BRING HIM BACK TO YOU!’

As Papyrus takes the first few steps onto another long bridge, Sans is silent, thoughts whirling too fast for Papyrus to read. A yellow monster tails him over the wooden planks, moving just as silently.

‘IT’S OKAY TO MISS HIM,’ Papyrus encourages his passenger, with a smile that’s only a little bittersweet. ‘BROTHERS SHOULD STAY TOGETHER. THAT’S WHY I’M DETERMINED TO FIX YOUR RELATIONSHIP AND REUNITE YOU!’

A burst of glitchy noise behind him makes Papyrus turn. The armless monster child is staring blankly at him. Static is rippling over their little form, making their words almost unrecognizable, but if Papyrus strains, he can hear “Yo, did you see that?!” repeating incessantly.

He backs away in fear, but the little monster takes a step forward for every step he takes back, glitching harder and harder as they do. The narrow bridge makes retreating difficult, but Papyrus’s footing stays steadily supported as he continues trying to put some space between himself and the kid.

Just past the middle of the bridge, the static hum rises into a roar. Papyrus can barely even make out the child’s outline in the cloud of flashing black and white.

Then, suddenly, there’s a break in the noise. Clear as day, Papyrus hears the monster child say, “I guess that makes us enemies or something.”

Papyrus recoils, blood rushing in his ears. Sans is freaking out somewhere distant in his skull, but his little pings of distress and worry feel like they’re wrapped in cotton wool in the back of Papyrus’s mind.

The static swamps the monster child like a wave. When it dissipates, the child is gone.

Alphys stands, statue still, at the end of the bridge. “What did you do to them?” she whispers, voice made muffled and echoey by her helmet. “Oh god, WHAT DID YOU DO?!”

Sans grabs for control in the roughest takeover yet and throws himself forward. Unused to Papyrus’s long limbs still, he stumbles away from the spear of lightning and runs toward the other end of the bridge. It’s no use, though. Alphys might be weighted down by heavy armor, but she’s fast when she wants to be, and Sans is uncoordinated in this body that isn’t his own. By the time he reaches the giant crag, it’s clear he isn’t going to get much farther like this.

Papyrus takes a deep breath and grounds himself before taking back the reins. Alphys’s initial rage seems to have settled into clear, cold, calculating fury. There’s a bolt of lightning gripped tight in her gauntleted hand.

This isn’t how he wanted the battle to go. Well, ideally, Papyrus didn’t want to fight at all. But he definitely didn’t want it to be like this.

It seems hopeless, but then he remembers the promises he made to Sans. The thought of keeping those promises fills him with determination.

“I’m going to kill you,” Alphys promises, voice icily steady. “I was going to kill you anyway, human, for your soul. The last soul. I had a whole monologue ready, I practiced in front of the mirror, and everything. But I was only going to kill you because you were human, before. Now, I’m going to kill you because I know you’re a murderer.”

Papyrus feels his sins crawling down his back.

Then his SOUL shatters. And then he doesn’t feel anything.

Chapter Text

Click.

A screen turns off. The scientist turns away from it with a sigh. “He'd been doing so well, too.”

The room is blacker than black, emptier than empty, except for the scientist in the middle of it. “I guess it doesn't really matter,” he says conversationally. “There's only so much time left, after all. But what do I care, anyway? It's been made very clear to me that I never had a place there to begin with.”

A little chirrup comes from his pocket, which flares briefly with light. The scientist reaches a hand in and withdraws a SOUL. It chirps at him a few more times, and he wrinkles his nose in a dignified pout.

“Yeah, I'm well aware of your stance on the matter. But I still don't see what it has to do with me. This whole thing was just a cosmic joke. They don't even remember!” The scientist huffs, crossing his arms. “But that's fine. I don't want to be involved anyway.”

The SOUL chirps at him again. “Am not!” the scientist protests. He runs a clawed hand through the little tuft of fur on his head. “I really don't care. I've had plenty of time to get over it, and I'm fine. Heck, I'm even fine with this.” A veritable picture of forced cheer, he motions at the empty room. “Here, I can perform all the experiments I want, no interruptions. It's paradise! What more could I want?”

The SOUL bobs a little, but before it can vociferate, the scientist sighs. “I know, I know. But even if I wanted to help, you know my limitations as well as I do. Although…” He trails off, peering deeply at the SOUL in his hand. It bumps gently into his nose. The scientist goes cross-eyed to follow it, then nods, mouth set stubbornly. “Fine. If I do this, will you let me get back to my work?”

The SOUL floats happily in his palm.

“Then it's a deal,” the scientist agrees. He lifts a hand, and a hall of screens like the one he had turned off fizzles into focus. He strolls through, murmuring things like, “No, not there,” until he stops sharply in front of one with an “Aha!” The scientist taps it with a claw, and it enlarges, the others flickering out behind in as it grows.

The screen shows an aerial view of Hotland. The map is covered in little circles, with lines connecting them to enlarged views of each area. He contemplates the screen, inspecting every component carefully, before making his selection. With a snap of his fingers, the chosen boxes fill suddenly with static. The sections of map they represent, too, are replaced with white fog.

Somewhere far away, a spider stares at a cave wall, over a table of ridiculously expensive baked goods. If anyone was watching, they'd see her explode into a cloud of glitching particles and disappear. Unfortunately, the only one watching is doing so from an insurmountable distance. Then again, that might be fortunate after all, considering that this room is one of the ones he just erased.

“There; that's taken care of,” the scientist says, stepping away from the screen and smiling. He turns to the SOUL in his hand with a mock-glare. “Can I get back to my work now?”

Chapter Text

‘Sans, you cannot give up just yet! Please, stay determined!’

When that fails to rouse him, another voice resonates in his skull.

‘come on, pap. i believe in you!’

That one does the trick. Papyrus groans, blinking blearily as he comes to.

“Thank god,” Sans breathes, and Papyrus winces, hand rising to probe experimentally at his chest. There's no evidence of the wound that had killed him, but the world is pitch black and empty, even with his eyes open -

Actually, scratch that. It's only mostly empty, because sitting next to Papyrus in this apparent void is a boy with mismatched eyes and a striped shirt that looks eerily similar to Papyrus’s own, except for the fact that it's in different colors. And has only one stripe, compared to Papyrus’s two. And that it’s made of thicker-looking material, and- Actually, it doesn't look very much at all like Papyrus’s shirt, aside from being striped. Either way, Papyrus scoots himself away from the stranger a little, watching them warily.

The boy’s eyes widen. “Paps? A-are you okay? I mean, you look fine, but I should've known it'd be too much for you to be okay after you literally just died-”

It clicks, and Papyrus relaxes, cutting off Sans’s nervous chatter by pulling the other boy into a tight hug. “It's okay, I'm fine!” he shouts cheerfully. “Admittedly, I have no idea where we are now. Or how we got here. But that’s okay, because I can see you now! And give you hugs, nyeh heh.”

Sans is rigid with shock at first, but gradually relaxes into Papyrus’s hold, just letting himself be hugged for the first time in a very long while. Basking in Papyrus’s presence, he almost misses it when the taller boy continues to muse, “I wonder why that is? Me being able to interact with you now, I mean. Maybe my death was the final ingredient necessary to break the curse you had been trapped under! Ooh, or maybe-”

Sans cuts him off with a hand papped over his lips. “Sorry to burst your bubble, Pap, but, uh, none of those are it. Pretty sure you can see me right now cuz we’re both in your head.”

“In my head?” Papyrus furrows his brows, then tries to look, cross eyed, at his own forehead. This works about as well as can be expected.

Sans chuckles. Without raising his head from Papyrus’s shoulder, he motions blindly behind him at the two glowing buttons that had appeared when the humans had first arrived. “Remember Frisk’s story, with the human who couldn't get killed?”

“...Yes?” Papyrus turns to look in the direction Sans was pointing. The buttons continue floating steadily, and Papyrus frowns curiously at them. “Sans, I do not see how these floating rectangles have anything to do with Frisk’s story.”

“Take a closer look, Pap. What do they say?”

Papyrus takes a closer look. “One says ‘CONTINUE’, and the other says ‘RESET’,” he reports.

“Yeah,” Sans confirms. “Frisk said the human in their story had two powers - SAVE and RESET. You remember what they do?”

“Of course! I am very good at remembering things, after all. Let's see…” Papyrus taps a long finger against his chin. “The RESET power was the one like closing a book. The SAVE power - oh, I see. It let them CONTINUE through the Underground, after they died.” His face falls. “So I am the human they were talking about, after all.”

“It is looking pretty likely,” Sans agrees, into Papyrus’s shoulder. “Sorry. But this should also mean you don't have to stay dead, as long as you stay determined, which means I don't have to start plotting revenge immediately. Although I’d really appreciate it if you let me take a shot at Alphys anyway.”

“Sans!” Scandalized, Papyrus pulls away from the hug, gripping the shorter boy’s shoulders and staring sternly into his eyes. Sans hunches his shoulders and fidgets, trying to break eye contact, but Papyrus gently grabs his chin and brings it upward until their eyes meet again. “I thought we talked about this,” he says, sounding disappointed. Sans winces. “No killing, remember?”

“She killed you!” Sans bursts out, shoving his fists into the pockets of his striped sweater. “It doesn't matter if you can come back or not, okay? Not to me. She hurt you, Paps, and that won't go away if you hit that button.” Shocked, Papyrus lets go of his chin, and Sans tears his gaze away to glare mutinously at the ground. “They hurt you and hurt you, and you never fight back. It's not fair. Why won't you let me do this for you, Pap?”

“Killing is wrong,” Papyrus insists. “No matter who is doing it or whether they think they have a good reason. Everyone deserves to live.”

Sans smiles humorlessly, jaw tight. “Not everyone thinks the same way you do, Papyrus.” He raises his head again to meet the other’s gaze, his mismatched eyes full of unspoken pain. “What if they didn't stay dead?” he asks. “What if you could kill whoever you wanted, and with a snap of the fingers, they'd be back again? No one would ever have to know.”

Something flickers over Papyrus's face, but he shakes his head. “Killing is wrong,” he repeats softly. “Even if I could undo it.”

Sans is still. Finally, he pulls himself laboriously out of Papyrus’s lap and stands. “Fine,” he says. “You want to be killed over and over again, that's your choice. That's fair.” He shrugs his shoulders, smiling a grin he obviously doesn't mean. “But if you're going to go around getting killed right in front of me and then not letting me do anything about it, I don't wanna have to sit there and watch anymore. So I'm not gonna.”

He turns and starts to walk off. “Wait!” Papyrus calls, scrambling to his feet and following after him when that has no effect. Sans throws him a glance over his shoulder, but doesn't stop until he reaches the floating duo of buttons.

Before Papyrus can say anything, Sans throws an arm over the CONTINUE button. “In the interests of saving you some time - figuratively speaking, of course: Hitting CONTINUE will bring you back to the last time you felt particularly determined,” he says. “In this case, it's right before you fought Alphys, so, uh, good luck with that. And RESET’ll start you over from the flower patch in the Ruins, no matter where you were when you died. Got it? Good, cuz I'm not saying it again.”

He turns to leave again, but this time, Papyrus grabs his arm. “Thank you,” he says.

Sans flinches heavily, and he almost rips his arm from Papyrus’s grip in his haste to get away. “No problem,” he mumbles, refusing to meet the other's eyes. Then he walks away, alone, into the darkness.

Papyrus waits until he's out of sight to wipe away the tears.

Chapter Text

After taking some time to pull himself together, Papyrus hits CONTINUE. Just as Sans had said, the button takes him to just before the fight with Alphys started - right before she declared her intent to murder him. Unfortunately, knowing what happens next doesn't seem to do him much good. The shock of experiencing real life time travel for the first time keeps him from ducking away in time to avoid the lizard monster’s spear, and Papyrus finds himself hopelessly adrift without Sans’s keen senses augmenting his.

Of course, thinking about Sans makes him tear up all over again. Papyrus desperately wishes he could be angry at the other human for leaving him all alone again, but it's obvious that Sans didn't really want to leave. Papyrus can't blame Sans for not wanting to watch him die over and over again, which, naturally, leads to self-doubt. Did he make the right decision? Should he have let Sans take his anger out on the monsters? Does it really matter if innocent people die, if he could bring them back without them ever knowing what happened?

Maybe it doesn't matter, he admits to himself. But it's still wrong.

Is being right worth losing his best friend?

Friends don't let friends hurt other people. He did the right thing, no matter how much it hurts.

If he had known Sans would react this way, would he still have said the same thing?

...Well. That doesn't really matter, does it.

He’ll just have to make Sans see the error of his ways, that's all! Once he breaks the barrier and sets the monsters free, without killing (or hurting) anyone, Sans will have to see he’s right. Then he can apologize, Papyrus can graciously accept, and they can keep being friends like nothing ever came between them.

He just has to get through Alphys first. Ugh.

The next time through, he manages to dodge most of Alphys's opening rally, and tries pleading with her. “I had nothing to do with that child’s death, I promise! Alphys, please, you have to believe me. I am just as confused as you are. If you stop trying to kill me, we can work together to get to the bottom of this! What do you say?”

Alphys, having politely stopped attacking for the duration of Papyrus’s little speech, snorts and raises another lightning bolt. “Okay, first, that's Captain Alphys to you, human. Second: um, why should I believe you when you say you had nothing to do with it? Everyone knows humans are evil and will stop at nothing to kill any monsters they can get their grubby hands on. Plus, I saw them disappear. They only started doing that weird staticky thing when you showed up, so it had to have been you! Third: No.”

She throws the spear at him, he dodges right into a second, and it's back to empty blackness and the two buttons.

The fourth time doesn't go much better. He tries complimenting Alphys on her bulging muscles. She levels a glare at him that's so strong, he can feel the heat even through her helmet. “I'm not interested, especially not in you. You can flirt with me all you want, human, but it won't change the inevitable.”

He dies blushing. From what feels like a long way away, he hears her mumble to herself, “Like I'd fall for that. My kokoro only goes doki-doki for two people, and he is definitely not waifu material.”

The fifth time, he compliments her magic instead. That seems to go over a little better, since her attacks don't feel quite as strong afterwards, but in the end, that just means it takes more spears to kill him.

When his sixth try (insulting her capabilities) fails miserably, Papyrus feels like he's running low on ideas. His last idea is trying to simply outlast Alphys, like he'd done with Frisk in their battle, but the guard captain is no slouch. Even knowing where her spears are going to come from doesn't make the battle any easier, and he hates not being able to do anything but pivot when she turns his SOUL green.

After his fifteenth time through, it's clear that Alphys isn't captain of the Royal Guard for nothing. No matter what he tries, he can't beat her, and, now that he doesn't have Sans to put up a brave front for, he can freely admit that he's outclassed. The only option left seems to be the RESET button, but Papyrus really doesn't want to have to walk all the way back here from the Ruins again, especially because it probably wouldn't change anything. Procrastinating is the lazy way out, and if there's one thing Papyrus isn't, it's lazy.

So, what to do? Papyrus thinks of the situation like it’s a puzzle. (He wishes he had some action figures or something on hand so he could plot out different scenarios, but that just doesn't seem to be in the cards.) If an impassible, immovable object is blocking his way, the best solution would be… To go around? Papyrus frowns. Once again, a lazy answer. If his opinion of the monsters weren't so murdery, Papyrus is sure Sans would be quite happy with that solution.

Still, he's reminded of the advice Chara had given him. Perhaps running really is the only answer. Papyrus sighs. Looks like he’ll have to put some of his morals aside today, after all.

As soon as Alphys tells him he's a murderer for the sixteenth time, Papyrus takes off running. The move takes Alphys by surprise, and her shock gives him a few seconds’ head start before she comes barreling after him. “Hey! Come back here, you coward, and face your death with honor!” she shouts, and Papyrus has to withhold an uncharacteristically bitter chuckle. ‘BEEN THERE, DONE THAT,’ he thinks, feeling Sans’s absence all over again. He would have thought that was funny.

Still, despite the many painful deaths he’s suffered at Alphys’s hands, Papyrus can't bring himself to hate her. She's only doing her job. Even if she is chasing him down with more vehemence than he thinks is really necessary, out of some misplaced sense of vengeance over something he didn't do, he can't blame her for trying to protect the monsters in her charge from a human threat.

He’s just entering a long, dark hallway full of standing water (and grimacing at how loudly the splashing resounds in the narrow corridor) when his phone rings. He's prepared to answer on the run (it would be rude to leave the caller hanging, even if he is in the middle of a deathly chase!), but, to his shock, Alphys dissipates her spear and motions for him to answer it.

“You're letting me answer my phone?” he asks, bemused. “Doesn't that interfere with your goal of trying to kill me?”

She flaps a heavily armored hand at him. “Of course I’m letting you answer your phone. You might be” - her voice drops suddenly into a growl, echoing darkly through her helmet - “an enemy of the crown, who murdered a young child for no reason, but unlike you, I have honor, and that honor includes letting people answer their phones one last time before their imminent demise. I mean, I'm not a human.”

Papyrus blinks at that, then blanches when the change in phrase registers. Of course monsters wouldn't say they aren't monsters. It only makes sense.

He fumbles the phone out of his pocket and checks the caller ID. The fact that it's Chara calling isn't too much of a surprise, considering that they're one of only two contacts and the other one never picks up his phone, but Papyrus still can't think of any reason they'd call him.

“Hello?”

“Yes, hello, greetings, all that.” Chara sounds displeased, though it's hard to tell given their typical state, and a little harried. “Frisk told me to call at exactly this time, and said to tell you congratulations if the call went through. I assume this means both that you've encountered Captain Alphys, and that you have chosen to follow my graciously given advice.”

“Well, yes,” Papyrus admits grudgingly. This skeleton rubs him the wrong way, but he's still determined to make friends with them, so he tries to keep his tone cordial. “How did you know?”

“That you'd run into Alphys?” Chara laughs. “Well, I rather thought you might, after I gave her your description and told her you'd be in Waterfall. I am a sentry, you know, and you're a danger to the whole Underground. Frisk might have taken a shine to you, but if you happen to die discreetly where they don't see, it would be no hardship to me. You might even say it's no skin off my nose.”

They giggle at their own joke, and Papyrus glares at the wall, caught between irritation at the not-quite-a-pun and fear from the not-quite-a-death threat. He's tempted to hang up, but Chara continues before he can end the call. “Anyway. Frisk wanted me to pass along their message of tolerance and understanding, please don't hate us, blah blah blah. They want you to know that Alphys isn't so bad when you get to know her, and they said something about needing to make friends with her later, so don't take her trying to murder you too hard.”

Papyrus can practically see them making air quotes around that sentence.

“The last thing they wanted me to pass along was… This.” Chara pauses, almost certainly rolling their eyes, and then adopts a deep voice that's obviously supposed to be seductive. “‘Hey, hot stuff,’” they say, and have to break off almost immediately when Papyrus interrupts with uncontrollable snickering. They drop back to their regular voice to shout, “Hey, do you want to hear their message or not?!”

“N-no, I'm sorry,” Papyrus manages to get out, doing his best to calm the storm of laughter. “Please, go ahead.”

“Fine.” Chara clears whatever passes for their throat and begins again. This time, their voice is flat and unaffected. Papyrus isn't sure if that makes their message sound better or worse. “‘Hey, hot stuff. I've been getting bonely here without you. I think it's time for another date, don't you? I'll meet you in Hotland, at the MTT Resort. Pumice me you'll come soon, okay? We've got a lot to talk about. I lava you, Frisk.’ Message ends.” They pause to give him time to absorb the message, then abruptly say, “That's it,” and hang up.

As soon as the phone is back in Papyrus’s pocket, Alphys lets out a roar and the chase is back on. But despite her determination to make Papyrus pay for crimes he didn't commit, it's obvious the Captain is flagging. The distance between her and Papyrus widens steadily, and she begins to pant and huff with every step. “We can stop any time, you know,” Papyrus calls over his shoulder from his comfortable lead.

“I don't want your pity, human,” Alphys grunts. “And besides, all of monsterkind’s hopes and dreams are riding on me. I can't let them down!”

Papyrus shrugs and keeps running. He can appreciate her point of view, but that doesn't mean he's eager to die - again - for it.

It seems like they've been running forever when Papyrus crosses yet another long bridge and enters what feels like a curtain of humidity. He pulls his collar away from his neck with a grimace, suddenly covered in sweat and hating it, but Alphys has it much worse. Being sealed in what amounts to a giant tin can, in the aptly named Hotland, is not a good place for anyone to be, but especially not while they're undergoing heavy exertion and are low on fluids. As soon as she steps off the bridge after him, Alphys sways unsteadily on her feet and collapses in a clanking pile of armor.

“Oh my goodness, are you okay?” Genuinely worried for the monster’s health, Papyrus doubles back and, after hesitating slightly, pulls off her helmet. (The yellow crest doesn't come with it, and for a split second, Papyrus worries that he's broken it somehow. Then he realizes that the crest is actually part of her head, not her armor.) Now that he can see her face, she looks absolutely awful - paler than she should be and still taking great gasps of air, Alphys’s face is shiny with sweat, and her gaze is wobbly and worryingly unfocused.

“You need some water,” Papyrus decides. Luckily, there's a water cooler only a few feet away, with paper cups and everything. How handy!

It's almost too handy. Sans would tell him not to turn his back on the enemy, that it's probably a trap, that he should dust Alphys while she's too weak to fight back, or at least run where she can't follow. But Sans isn't here, and Papyrus can't refuse help to anyone who needs it. Even if Alphys is his enemy, even if it does turn out to be a trick, Papyrus fills a cup with water and gently splashes some on her forehead. Then he offers the rest of the cup to her, pushing it at her insistently until she takes it and drinks.

As soon as she regains a little more consciousness, Alphys is glaring at him again. “Why?” she hisses. “I told you, I don't want your pity!”

Papyrus regards her solemnly. “It's not pity,” he says, getting up to refill the cup and pushing it at her again. “I just think everyone deserves help when they need it.”

Alphys huffs, taking the cup and draining it. When it's empty, she pulls herself to her feet. “If you weren't human, I could almost respect that,” she says. Then she grabs her helmet and clanks back off to Waterfall.

Papyrus takes a deep breath and turns toward Hotland. He's hating every minute he spends here, so far. But the possibility of finally getting some answers fills him with determination.

Chapter Text

Going by Frisk’s message, Papyrus was expecting to have to find the MTT Resort before meeting up with the short skeleton. But, to his surprise, they're waiting for him in the next room.

His confusion must show on his face, because, just like in Snowdin, they're responding to his questions before he has the chance to voice them. {I know I said I'd meet you at the Resort, but I just remembered how much stuff there is between there and here,} they sign, {and also how much you hate Hotland. I figured that'd only get worse with skin, so I thought I'd meet you here.}

“W-what -?”

{I'll explain later,} they sign impatiently. {Sorry. I know this has got to be really aggravating, but there's a way these things have to be done, and we’re running out of time, okay?} Papyrus nods slowly, not really understanding what's going on, and Frisk gives him a genuine smile. {Okay, here goes.} They take a deep breath, then grin widely. The expression is noticeably faker, though it sits naturally on their skull. {Hiya! You look surprised to see me. What, you've never seen someone with two jobs before?}

There's a pause. Papyrus is unsure whether he's supposed to reply or not, but just before he opens his mouth, Frisk continues. {Fortunately, two jobs means twice as many legally-required breaks. I’m going to the MTT Resort. Wanna come?}

He frowns at them, attempting to discern whether he's actually supposed to say anything this time, and they give him an encouraging nod. “Um. Yes?”

{Well, if you insist... I’ll pry myself away from my work. C’mon, over here! I know a shortcut.} With that, they grab his hand and walk back towards the bridge. He starts to tell them they're going the wrong way, but thinks better of it, opting to just cling to their hand and walk with them. They know where they're going. Right?

His vision blacks out for a moment, and when he comes to, he's leaning woozily against a wall, Frisk hovering nervously next to him. When they see him stir, they give him a relieved look. {Fast shortcut, huh?}

“I am getting very tired of not knowing what is going on,” he says wearily. “It has been a long day. I watched someone disintegrate in front of me, discovered I've murdered people without having any recollection of it, got chased by a lizard, lost my first friend, and died. A lot. Please just tell me what you need to.”

Their smile dims. {We have to sit down first,} they sign apologetically, and he narrows his eyes, striding to a table at random and dropping into a chair. {Thanks. Would you like me to start explaining this now?}

“Please,” he sighs. He wants to be angry, to let off some of the stress, but the skeleton across from him is an innocent party, and they're his friend. He can't do that to them.

{Okay. First, about that “losing your first friend” bit? Think, Papyrus. You said you couldn't understand me without him to translate, so of course Sans is still around.}

There's a startled exclamation point somewhere in the furthest recesses of his mind, and he gasps, heart leaping. “Really?”

Frisk’s grin quirks at the corner. {He probably got upset at your stance on killing people and stormed off in a huff, right? Don't worry, he can't go far.} They grimace, rubbing absently at their chest. {Besides, he's already had his turn.}

A tiny ‘oh’ echoes in Papyrus’s head, and he traces it back to its source. Sure enough, Sans is hiding in the furthest, darkest corner. Papyrus sends a ball of his current emotions at him, a heavy mixture of worry-pain-relief-hope, and Sans winces. ‘...sorry?’

Papyrus sighs. ‘WE’LL TALK ABOUT THIS LATER.’ To Frisk, he asks, “What do you mean, ‘he had his turn’? I thought I was the human you were talking about, who had done such horrible things.”

They seesaw their hand. {Kinda were, kinda weren't. But let's keep things simple, for now. How many times have you died?}

“Fifteen,” he responds promptly.

{Okay, so you've seen the buttons then. But you’ve only used SAVE, not RESET. This time.}

“Okay? I am not entirely sure where you're going with this,” Papyrus admits.

They nod, having apparently expected this. {Let's call the period from RESET to RESET a ‘timeline’,} they sign. {In this timeline, you fell. When you met Sans, you both felt an unexpected affinity with each other, which made you feel safe. Sans agreed to play by your rules, and you resolved every encounter peacefully. But what you didn't know is that a RESET erases the memory of the one who uses it. You could have been through any number of timelines before this and never known.}

His mouth gapes in an ‘O’ of understanding. “You're saying that I did the murdery things in another timeline. That's why I have no memory of it!”

‘h-how many have we been through?’ Sans asks shakily. Papyrus passes on the question.

{Three,} Frisk answers decisively. {The first timeline, Sans, you possessed Papyrus’s body immediately and killed everyone. Chara put up a hard fight, but in a battle between a monster and a human with Determination, the human always wins eventually. With the entire Underground’s dust on your hands, you realized that you could no longer hear him, and were alone in an empty world. It was only a matter of time before you gave up and went back.}

Both humans reel from that. ‘i’m glad it was me,’ Sans says quietly. ‘at least you didn't have to worry.’

‘OF COURSE I WAS WORRIED,’ Papyrus snaps, on the brink of tears. ‘IF I HAD ANY SORT OF CONSCIOUSNESS AT ALL, I WAS WORRIED FOR YOU, SANS. NO ONE DESERVES THAT.’

‘even a murderer like me?’

‘YOU WERE ONLY TRYING TO PROTECT ME! BESIDES, I KNOW YOU CAN DO BETTER.’

Frisk lifts their hands to continue, and Papyrus’s eyes snap to them, desperate to know more but afraid of what he might learn. {In the second timeline, Papyrus, you gave up. I think the stress of fighting Alphys got to you, and Sans convinced you that the only way out was to fight. You allowed him to kill her, and, after that, fought every monster that wouldn't let you go within a few turns. Chara judged you harshly, upset at the loss of their best friend, but was forced to let you go because of a promise they made to Asgore.}

“They know Asgore?” Papyrus bursts out, interrupting.

Frisk laughs soundlessly. {Yeah. They have the sentry stand right by the door to the Ruins — that's how they saw you before I did — so they started ranting about humans in front of the door one day and were shocked when it talked back. Asgore doesn’t like to see anyone upset, you’ve probably noticed, and both he and Chara are pretty lonely. So the two of them got to talking, and Asgore made Chara promise that they wouldn't use violence against anyone unless it was an absolute last resort. That's why you even made it this far. Do you get what I’m saying?} The glow in their eyes cuts out suddenly, leaving their eye sockets blank and empty. {If it hadn't been for that promise they made him, you'dve been dead where you stood the minute you walked out from that door.}

Papyrus flinches back in his seat, but Frisk’s pupils come back as fast as they went away, and they give him an apologetic smile. {Sorry, sorry! That's a requirement of this chat, though. Figured I'd get it out of the way while we were on topic.}

‘are you okay?’

‘I THINK SO?? THIS IS JUST A LOT TO TAKE IN. ...ARE YOU OKAY?’

‘that doesn't matter.’

‘OF COURSE IT MATTERS! I CARE VERY DEEPLY ABOUT YOU, SANS.’

‘even though i hurt you?’

‘OF COURSE.’

Frisk knocks gently on the table, bony knuckles rapping lightly against the wooden surface. {Are you two done? We are on a time limit.}

Papyrus blinks at them. “You keep saying that,” he observes, “but you never explain what it's about.”

{Oh. Sorry, I thought you knew.} Their eyes are serious as they meet his gaze, leaning slightly over the table. The flickering candlelight casts eerie shadows over the alien planes of their bare skull. {Didn't I tell you before? The world is ending.}

Chapter Text

“Okay, but what do you mean, ‘the world is ending’?” Papyrus likes Frisk, he really does, but all this cryptic nonsense is really starting to aggravate him. He doesn't think he can take another mysterious answer.

‘uh… it’s probably way too soon after our argument for this, but i could handle the conversation. y’know, if you wanted,’ Sans offers. ‘i’ve gotta lot of questions, and it'd be easier to just ask them myself instead of having you pass them along.’

‘FINE. YES, YOU SHOULD DO IT. YOU UNDERSTAND THEM BETTER, ANYWAY.’ Papyrus pushes to the backseat, allowing Sans to take control.

As soon as he's settled, Sans fixes Frisk with a piercing gaze. “This end of the world stuff. Does it have anything to do with why the monster kid we ran into was being so freaky?”

{Keep in mind, I wasn't there to see that. But, probably, yes. Describe it for me?}

“When we first met the kid, they were fine. They said something about how much of a shame it was that Alphys didn't find us, then ran off. The second time, they repeated the exact same thing they said the first time, inflection and all, but kept getting interrupted by static.” Sans leans an elbow on the table, smiling grimly. “Then, the last time we ran into ‘em, they totally glitched out. They kept repeating the same thing, then said we were enemies or something, and then they got eaten by the static.”

Frisk nods. {Sounds about right. What other weird stuff have you noticed?}

Sans’s eyes dart quickly around the room, then focus back on the skeleton in front of him. “If this is supposed to be a busy restaurant, how come we’re the only ones here?”

{Great question. Anything else?}

“That trip through the Ruins seemed way too quick,” he says. “And all of monsterkind’s been trapped down here, right? How come we’ve barely run into anybody?”

{Those are definitely things you should be wondering about. But then, I always knew you were perceptive.} Sans blinks at the compliment, but Frisk continues, {You're missing something really obvious, though. Think back to your family, when you first fell.}

The humans puzzle over that for a while. “If it's so obvious, why am I missing it?” Sans asks, aggravated by the elusiveness of the answer.

{It's probably easier to see from the outside. How much have you told Papyrus about your family?}

Sans sighs. “Not a lot,” he admits.

{That’s to be expected, I guess, considering both yourself and the role you're filling. But I bet Papyrus has something worked out by now. He's very good at that sort of thing.}

‘pap?’

Papyrus gives off an impression of dragging his toe through the dirt. ‘I SUPPOSE IT IS TRUE THAT I MIGHT HAVE WORKED SOMETHING OUT.’

‘yeah? like what?’ Sans is kind of put off by the fact that, despite how cagey he was trying to be about his past, it was apparently really easy to put the pieces together. But that just makes it a victory for Papyrus, not a loss for Sans, and, to be honest, it's really cool how smart his companion is.

Sensing Sans’s excitement, Papyrus brightens up a little. ‘WELL, ASGORE IS YOUR DAD, CORRECT? AFTER THE DEATHS OF YOURSELF AND YOUR BROTHER -’

‘hey, hold on, i never told you my bro died,’ Sans protests.

Papyrus rolls his eyes. ‘YES, YES, BUT YOU KEPT REFERRING TO HIM IN THE PAST TENSE. THAT REALLY WASN’T A HARD DEDUCTION TO MAKE. ANYWAY, AFTER YOUR DEATHS, SOMETHING HAPPENED AND ASGORE FLED TO THE RUINS. I’M GUESSING THERE WAS A CHANGE IN UNDERGROUND POLICY, PROBABLY TO DO WITH HUMANS — DID YOU SOMEHOW SEEM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS? — AND, SINCE HE DIDN’T AGREE, HE LEFT TO GO LIVE IN THE MOST REMOTE CORNER HE COULD FIND. HE AND YOUR MOTHER PROBABLY HAD A BIG FIGHT ABOUT IT, BECAUSE OTHERWISE SHE’D BE THERE WITH HIM. WHAT WAS HER NAME, BY THE WAY?’

At the rate he’s going, Papyrus is going to work it out anyway, so Sans just tells him. ‘toriel.’

‘TORIEL? HM. ALRIGHT.’ Papyrus effortlessly switches back to his prior train of thought. ‘ANYWAY. IN ORDER FOR A CHANGE IN POLICY TO BE COMPLETED SO SOON AFTER YOUR DEATHS, YOUR PARENTS WERE PROBABLY VERY IMPORTANT. MAYBE EVEN THE MOST IMPORTANT! SANS, WERE YOU A PRINCE?’

Yep, there he goes. ‘pretty much,’ Sans admits. ‘pap, that was amazing!’

‘HUH? NO, IT WASN’T,’ Papyrus protests. ‘IT WAS JUST BASIC PROBLEM SOLVING.’

Sans glances at Frisk. ‘we’re gonna have to agree to disagree on that one, buddy, cuz i thought it was really cool. but what does it have to do with this “really obvious” thing i’m missing?’

Papyrus hums thoughtfully. ‘WELL, I’VE MET ASGORE ALREADY. DOES YOUR MOTHER RESEMBLE HIM AT ALL?’

‘yeah, they look really similar. they could pass as clones of each other, if toriel grew out her horns a little and asgore shaved his beard.’

‘WHAT ABOUT YOUR BROTHER?’

‘you know, it’s kinda weird. mom and dad are both broad shouldered and furry, but dings - hey, wait a second.’ Sans wrinkles Papyrus’s brow in utter confusion.

Across the table, Frisk snickers. {See? You got it!}

“How on earth did two goats have a skeleton kid?!” Sans grips a temple, squinting off into the middle distance like the answer is dancing in the candlelight. “And how did it take me this long to notice how little sense that makes?”

‘MAYBE HE WAS ADOPTED?’ Papyrus offers, just as confused as Sans is.

‘no, they would’ve told me about that. this makes no sense!’

{Exactly,} Frisk agrees. {Two monsters can have a kid that looks nothing like them, but not when they’re as alike as Toriel and Asgore are. And yet, despite the impossibility of the situation, no one has ever thought to question it. But I can tell you how it happened, and it wasn't by adoption.} Frisk leans further over the table, holding Sans’s gaze with piercing solemnity. {Sans. Papyrus. This world is not real.}

Sans blinks at that, then sighs, crossing Papyrus’s arms on the table and resting his chin on them tiredly. “Explain.”

{Gladly.}

Chapter Text

On the Surface, Frisk explains, there was a house. Inside the house lived many monsters and two humans, one alive, and the other dead. The living human’s name was Frisk, and the other’s was Chara.

‘BUT YOU AND CHARA ARE SKELETONS,’ Papyrus thinks, forgetting for the moment that it's Sans who has control of the mouth. Sans shushes him. ‘they’ll get there eventually, pap. i hope.’

Frisk had fallen into the Underground a long time ago. It had taken them many Resets, but, together with Chara, they had finally managed to break the Barrier and set the monsters free. In the process, they had stumbled into the story of two siblings who had made poor choices for good reasons, and had resolved their conflict. In addition, they had also managed to find and restore another monster who had been wiped from existence entirely.

After Frisk had broken the Barrier, they had moved into a large house with all their friends and family: Toriel and Asgore, the queen and king who had become their parents; Sans and Papyrus, two skeletal siblings who had become their older brothers; Alphys and Undyne, the latest ex-Royal Scientist and the former captain of the Royal Guard, respectively; Flowey and Chara, who had promised not to kill anyone as long as no one expected them to be nice about it; and W.D. Gaster, the skeleton brothers’ long-lost oldest brother, recently recovered from the Void. Though Gaster was overjoyed to be reunited with his expanded family, his return had cost him his memories, and, desperate to recover what he had lost, he turned to science.

Gaster decided that he was going to make a machine that would allow him to go back through his personal timeline, in order to see and remember what he had forgotten. But he had overlooked one crucial thing. His memories had left him as he entered the Void, when his SOUL was dissipated into the very fabric of time and space, and to help him return, Frisk had had to create an entirely new existence for him to inhabit. As such, Gaster had no timeline to trace back — or, taken a different way, his prior timeline encompassed every moment in history and every place in the universe. The machine had done exactly what it was supposed to, but was unable to cope with the sheer amount/lack of data it was presented with. The resulting snapback was what had created the illusion of the current reality. It had absorbed the consciousnesses of everyone who was in the house at the time, then scrambled their timelines, trapping them in a fake version of their world where everyone had a different history.

{I've always been resistant to changes I didn't want,} Frisk signs, {and I was right next to the machine when it stopped working right. I think a combination of my natural determination, my proximity to the machine, and the role I'm now inhabiting is what lets me remember how things really are. But, like I keep saying, we’re running out of time.} They’re sweating, even in the air conditioning. {Energy is neither created nor destroyed, right? The machine didn't create anything. All it did was channel the power it couldn't handle into this dream world, which would be fine, except we’re real people. We’re using that energy to live and breathe, and in your case, to SAVE and RESET. There’s only so much longer this world will hold up under the strain.}

Sans whistles lowly. “Okay. Wow, that's a heckuva lot to take in. But if you're telling the truth — if Pap and I are actually skeletons, and this world really isn't real — wouldn't it just be us floating around in empty space? How’d it create this place so solidly?”

{You'd probably know better than me, Sans. You're the scientist here.} They pull their hood over their skull, and, all at once, he can see how vulnerable they are. If Frisk is telling the truth, they're his little sibling, and they're trapped in a body that's totally alien to them, in a world that’s slowly dying, with friends and family that don't remember them. They’re just a kid! In this moment, he’d give anything to trade places with them. But then they meet his eyes again, and there’s a look in their eye sockets that can only be described as ‘determined’. {If I had to guess though,} they sign slowly, {I think it might be using everyone’s memories to reconstruct the environment, maybe? Going by what Chara says they half-remember, the world started getting fuzzier as you killed more people, and when I tried to find some of the secret places I discovered on my own runs, they didn't exist. I only saw static.}

“Huh. You might be onto something there, kiddo.” The term of endearment just slips out, but Frisk beams, and Sans can't bring himself to regret the lapse. He responds with a grin of his own, but there’s no way he has a chance of outshining theirs. “D’you think that's what happened to that monster kid? They just didn't have enough people who remembered them all of a sudden?”

Frisk shrugs. {I don't know, maybe? Maybe projecting them wasn't worth the energy anymore and they got reabsorbed. We are getting pretty close to the wire.}

‘SANS?’ Papyrus’s mental voice is quieter than normal, and taut with worry. ‘IF THIS WORLD RUNS OUT OF ENERGY, WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO US?’

“Oh. Yeah, that’d probably be a good question to ask.” Sans looks to Frisk, who is already signing an answer.

{I don't know what will happen if we use up all the energy here. Maybe the machine won't be able to keep us here anymore and we'll wake up like nothing ever happened. After all, it's not like we’re really here. Our real bodies are still back home, probably passed out on the floor or something.}

“But you don't want to take that chance.”

Frisk nods. {There’s too much at risk. I don't want to stake everyone’s lives on one child’s uninformed optimism.}

“Probably a good idea,” Sans agrees. “So where do we play in in the plan you've got?”

The skeleton startles. {How -?} Then they interrupt themselves with a shake of their head. {No, nevermind. You're Sans. Of course you did.} They give him a shaky smile, wiping the sweat from their brow with the back of one hand. {There are only two people who might have any idea how to fix this mess: the same one who got us into it.}

“My brother?” Sans guesses.

{Exactly.} Frisk meets his eyes evenly. {Right now, just like Chara and I are playing your parts, you two are playing ours. You need to get to Asgore’s- I mean, Toriel’s castle. But, more than that, you need to befriend everyone. When we finish here, go watch anime with Alphys. Don't worry: now that you've escaped her once, she won't be able to hurt you, so you'll be fine.}

Sans narrows his eyes. “Are you sure about that? She sure seemed eager to kill us last time I saw her.”

‘THAT WAS BEFORE I SAVED HER FROM HEATSTROKE!’ Papyrus points out. ‘NOW THAT SHE’S SEEN HOW NICE AND NON-MURDERY I AM, I’M SURE WE’LL BE FRIENDS IN NO TIME AT ALL.’

{It'll be fine,} Frisk reiterates. Then they pause. {Well. Unless you count her house.} They shake their head. {Just trust me, everything will turn out fine. Anyway, after that, there's going to be a lot of back and forth. Make it a point to call Chara every time you enter a new room. They're wary of new people, especially after you murdered me,} - Sans winces - {but they'll warm up over time. When you get back here, go through Al- sorry, Undyne’s lab. Be patient with her, okay? She's under a lot of stress right now.}

‘CAN WE HELP?’ Papyrus wants to know. Sighing, Sans passes on the question.

Frisk starts to shake their head, then stops and starts nodding, then shakes it again. {That's complicated. You have to face Toriel first, and, as far as I know, there's no way to beat her there without fighting. It’s horrible, but you have to kill her, okay? We really don't have enough time left for you two to keep dying while you try to find another way.}

Sans nods easily, but Papyrus is much more reluctant to agree. ‘that isn't for a while yet,’ Sans reassures him. ‘we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.’ “What then?” he asks out loud.

{By then, I should have managed to get into contact with my other lead. I'll tell Chara to call you and pass on what I've learned. If he has a solution we can use right away, or if your brother tells you anything useful, we'll go from there, but I get the feeling we'll have to use Plan B. You'll have to go back and talk to Alphys again, where you'll be given a very important mission.} They lean in, incredibly serious. {You have to set her up with Undyne.}

Papyrus gasps excitedly. Sans facepalms. “You can't be serious.”

{Oh, but I am.} Frisk giggles silently. {They're so cute together! Besides, it's obvious they're head over heels for each other.} Their expression sobers. {Also, it's the only way to find out what's going on in Undyne’s basement.}

“What's going on in her basement?”

Frisk shakes their head. If they had lips, their expression might have been described as ‘tight-lipped’, but they just mime zipping their mouth shut to make the point clear. {Sorry, but I can't tell you that. Spoilers.} Sans gives them a look, and they shrug. {Moving on. After that, you'll be able to go back and face Toriel again. You won't have to kill her this time, but just like in the other scenario, Flowey will show up and ruin everything. I'm just hoping he'll have more to say at that point, because I think that's our last shot. If he still doesn't know what to do, I have no idea what will happen to us.}

Sans isn't usually one for hugs, but the kid looks like they need one right now. He asks Papyrus if he’d rather be the one to do it, but the other human would rather not be the one clutching their sweaty, bony body, so Sans comes around the table and does it himself. “It'll be okay, kid,” he tells them, lying with the ease of practice as he pats their spine. It's weird as heck, technically speaking, but also feels familiar somehow. “I'm sure everything’ll turn out fine. You've got a plan, and you've also got the best person around on your side.”

{You?} they sign critically, and he feigns offense at their disbelieving grin, throwing a hand over his slighted heart.

“You don't think I'm good enough for you? Kiddo, I’m hurt.” He winks. “But nah, I meant Papyrus.”

‘R-REALLY? BUT I’M NOT FIGHTING ANYONE! DON’T YOU STILL THINK I’M TOO NAIVE FOR THIS?’

‘nah. like the kid said, i had my turn, and it didn't get me anywhere. all i did was split up another pair of siblings and lose the best thing that's ever happened to me. just… promise me you’ll stay alive, okay?’ Hesitating, he adds, ‘...bro.’

Papyrus is shocked for a long while. Finally, the equivalent of a grin spreads over his presence. ‘THAT’S RIGHT! IN THE REAL WORLD, WE ARE BROTHERS!’

‘heh. yeah, long as you believe the kid.’ He shifts anxiously. ‘and, y’know. as long as you want the idiot, screw-up ghost in your head to be your brother.’

‘I DON’T THINK YOU’RE AN IDIOT, OR A SCREW-UP,’ flits across Papyrus’s mind, but he doesn't voice the thought. Instead, he says, ‘AS LONG AS YOU WANT THE MORONIC, BROKEN LOUDMOUTH WHO LET A MURDEROUS GHOST POSSESS HIM TO BE YOUR BROTHER!’

‘i don't think you’re any of that,’ Sans thinks in return. He smiles. ‘alright, then. brothers it is.’

‘BROTHERS,’ Papyrus agrees, grinning just as wide.

The thought fills both of them with determination.

Chapter Text

Frisk is kind enough to take Papyrus back to Waterfall via another of their mysterious ‘shortcuts’, but they disappear again as soon as Papyrus can stand upright without help, telling him that they need to track down the whereabouts of their other source and reminding him to keep calling Chara. He really doesn't want to follow that piece of advice, but obediently dials anyway. He'll do anything to help make Frisk’s plan succeed, even if that means talking on the phone with their scary sibling. (In the short period of time it takes for them to pick up, he idly wonders which skeleton sibling is older. Come to think of it, he isn't sure if he's older or younger than Sans, either.)

“What do you want?” Chara growls as soon as they pick up the phone. “This had better be important. I have better things to do with my time than talk with humans.”

“Like what?” Papyrus asks curiously.

“Like go to my private training session with Alphys.”

“Really? Wowie! That's where I'm going, too.” He pauses. “Well, not for a private training session, exactly. It's more of a... surprise training session. Without the training.”

There's a long pause. “You mean, you're going to show up at her house unexpectedly,” Chara says flatly.

“That does seem to sum it up,” Papyrus cheerfully admits. He's not about to let a surly skeleton ruin his day by pointing out that he has absolutely no idea about how go about making friends with the intimidating lizard woman who wants to kill him! He just has to stay positive, that's all. With Sans back on his side and the power of positive thinking, he's sure he can accomplish anything!

At least this isn't the timeline where he flirted with her.

(Sans does a mental spit-take at that. ‘I’LL FILL YOU IN LATER,’ Papyrus promises. He thinks over that some more. ‘MAYBE.’)

Chara appears to be weighing whether letting him die is worth their sibling’s tears. Finally, they sigh harshly into the phone. “Stay where you are,” they reluctantly tell him. “I will arrive shortly. Alphys is expecting me to arrive alone, but I suppose I'll have to tell her we have an uninvited guest.”

“You're letting me join your private training session?”

“Only because Frisk would want me to,” they grumble. “It isn't like I like you or anything.”

Papyrus has just enough time to say, “Oh. Thank you!” before they hang up.

‘why’d you thank them, bro?’ Sans wants to know. ‘they’ve been a huge jerk to you.’

‘IT IS THE ACTION, NOT THE FEELINGS BEHIND IT, THAT’S IMPORTANT. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE BEEN INVITED ANYWHERE! ...I THINK?’ He scrunches up his brow. ‘IF MY MEMORIES OF MY LIFE BEFORE THE FALL ARE FABRICATED, THEN I GUESS THAT ISN'T NECESSARILY THE CASE. WHAT DO YOU THINK, BROTHER?’

‘about your memories being fake? i mean, frisk said the machine scrambled up everyone’s histories, so maybe they were someone else’s.’

‘THAT DOES MAKE SENSE,’ Papyrus agrees. ‘I WONDER WHOSE?’ He shakes his head roughly. ‘NO, NO, THAT WASN’T WHAT I WAS ASKING ABOUT! SANS, DO YOU REMEMBER ANY OF OUR LIFE TOGETHER? IN THE REAL WORLD?’

‘why would i know anything about that, bro?’ Sans sounds confused, but then, he's always been a good liar.

Papyrus doesn't know how he knows that, but he trusts his instincts, both that Sans is avoiding the question and that he should let the matter drop. Sans will tell him when he's ready, and until the information is important, pressing him won't do any good. So Papyrus just hums, and, instead, starts thinking about how he'll make friends with Alphys.

By the time Chara shows up, he's still made absolutely no progress on that front, and he tells them so after they immediately demand to know if he's thought of anything yet. They don't seem that surprised. “I guess you'll just have to prance right in and use your power of friendship to convince her to turn on her own kind,” they conclude, sounding downright cheery about it. “It will be fun to watch your pathetic attempts at civility crash and burn.”

“I do not think they will crash and burn,” Papyrus responds after a bit of thought, “because an attempt is not a physical object, and is therefore incapable of both falling and burning. I'm sure we'll all have fun anyway, though!”

Chara stares blankly at him, then laughs, the sound harsh and mocking. “Oh my god. That was a metaphor, idiot.”

“Oh.” Papyrus frowns, his optimism evaporating like spilled water on a hot day. With all the positive response he'd been getting, he'd almost forgotten why he hates talking with people he doesn't know. But Chara sounds just like the kids that used to taunt him on the Surface, and even the possibility that all that trauma never happened doesn't make the recollection any easier.

Sans’s presence in the back of his head is bristling with the urge to take control and tear into the skeleton, with words or that stick, he doesn't care. But he takes a deep breath and wraps Papyrus in comfort instead, telling him he's there for him, that Chara’s just being a jerk, and that their hurtful words don't matter. ‘if you don't wanna deal with them, i’ll do it,’ he offers, but Papyrus can tell that if his brain ghost brother had knuckles, he'd be cracking them in anticipation right now. He gives an impression of shaking his head.

‘I DO NOT THINK YOU TWO GET ALONG WELL ENOUGH FOR ME TO LET YOU TALK TO THEM FOR ME. YOU’RE BOTH TOO RASH AND QUICK TO ANGER. BESIDES, THIS IS SOMETHING I MUST DO FOR MYSELF. AFTER ALL, IF I RELY ON YOU FOR EVERYTHING...’ A forgotten instinct stirs, and he remembers his chat with Frisk in Snowdin — how they had called him not just Papyrus, but The Great Papyrus. It seems familiar, carrying with it memories of snow and something red. In the real world, did he manage to hold on to his childhood habit of talking about himself in the third person? It brings a rush of shame to even think about finishing that sentence the way it had sprung to mind, but the only one hearing it is Sans, and his brother wouldn't make fun of him for something like that. He knows it. “...HOW COULD I CALL MYSELF THE GREAT PAPYRUS?”

Something springs to alertness in Sans’s presence, but the other human quickly covers it up with his weird mixture of lazy pride. “nah, you're right. just like always. heh. you’re so cool, bro.’

That brings a smile to Papyrus’s face. ‘YOU ARE PRETTY COOL YOURSELF, SANS.’

Sans is still spluttering over that when they come upon an oddly-shaped house that reminds Papyrus of a lizard’s head. Obviously, this must be Alphys’s house.

There’s upbeat, sparkly-sounding music playing from somewhere inside. A cartoon theme song? Chara interrupts it with three heavy knocks on the door, and the music abruptly cuts off. Clacking footsteps race to the door, which swings open to reveal Alphys in a pink t-shirt and sweatpants. “Chara!” she exclaims. “You're right on time for today’s session! Not that you're ever anything else, but still. We’ve got a lot of episodes to watch- um, I mean, training to do, so I hope you're ready for another action-packed day!”

“Of course, Alphys. I'm always ready for your training sessions. They're so exhilarating.” Chara’s voice is flat and sarcastic, but there's a hint of fondness buried under the snappish tone. It's the least angry he's ever heard them sound. If this is the way they act around their friends, maybe making friends with Chara will be worth it after all, Papyrus thinks. “In fact, they’re so exhilarating,” the skeleton continues, “that I just had to bring a- ah, someone else along with me. When Frisk told him about our special lessons, he said he was dying to come. It seemed very important to him. It might even be a matter of life and death!”

‘that's just in poor taste,’ Sans frowns.

Alphys gasps. “R-really? He really said that?” Her scaly arms flap tightly at her sides. “Well, who is it? D-do I know him?”

Chara gestures upward, and Alphys’s gaze, which had been locked on the short skeleton the whole time, slowly rises. When she sees Papyrus, her expression instantly sours. “You,” she growls.

“Yes, me,” Papyrus agrees, fighting to keep the nervousness out of his voice. “Hello!”

Chapter Text

The air feels charged, and Alphys is glaring like she wants nothing more than to summon a bolt of lightning and run Papyrus through for the sixteenth time. Papyrus flinches. Those deaths were not pleasant, and, despite not having technically happened, he can still remember how much they hurt.

But nothing happens. Alphys’s eyes flick to Chara, who gives her a pleasant smile, and she sighs, scaly lips drawing up in an uncomfortable grimace. “Why don't you come in,” she grinds out, stepping out of the doorway and motioning her visitors through.

The floor is tiled in muted blue and yellow, and Papyrus studies it intently, wishing he’d had the foresight to bring some kind of gift.

There’s an awkwardly long pause. Chara seems to luxuriate in it.

Finally, Alphys asks if they’re ready to start.

“Hm, I think so,” Chara answers. Then something seems to occur to them, and they gasp dramatically. “Actually, whoops! I just remembered. I absolutely have to do something right now. You two have fun!”

They saunter off. ‘good riddance,’ Sans huffs, but Papyrus half-wants to call them back, especially when Alphys sighs harshly and drags a clawed palm down her face as soon as the skeleton leaves the room. She seems almost to deflate under Papyrus’s gaze, the aura of menace evaporating and leaving only a small, hunched lizard.

“So why are you here?” she asks tiredly. “To rub your victory in my face? To humiliate me even further?”

“I would never!” Papyrus gasps. “I am affronted that you’d think such a thing of me. It’s just… your dedication to your job is quite admirable. I merely wanted to assure you that, despite how your pursuit of justice unfortunately became a pursuit of me, I do not think any less of you in the slightest.” This is all blurted out at high speed, of course, so Alphys can do little more than blink uncomprehendingly, and the human winces. “That is, I thought what you did was really cool, and I was wondering if we could maybe be friends?”

She barks a laugh. “Right, yeah. Friends with the monster who hunted you down and nearly speared you to death. Sure, why not?”

“Really?!” ‘WOW, THAT WAS MUCH EASIER THAN I THOUGHT! ’

‘don’t get your hopes up, bro…’ Sans warns, just as Alphys shouts, “No!” “Don’t you get it?” she continues. “I could have killed you. I would have. Heck, I should be doing it right now!”

“But you’re not,” Papyrus points out.

“Only because you’re a guest. But that’s not the point! I can’t be friends with a human. Especially not you.”

Papyrus blinks, hard, ignoring the wobble in his throat when he asks, “Why not?”

“B-b-because-” she sputters, then sighs heavily. “Because every time I’d look at you, I’d see what I would’ve done, okay?”

There’s nothing Papyrus can say to that.

They sit in silence for a few moments, just staring blankly at each other, until obnoxiously loud crunching begins to ring throughout the room. Chara’s leaning against the kitchen doorway, an industrial-sized tub of popcorn in their arms, and, as Papyrus watches, they toss another heaping handful of kernels into their mouth. “Oh, don’t let me stop you,” they hum. “The two of you were doing so well!”

Alphys scrunches up her snout. “Oh my god. You’re seriously eating popcorn right now?!”

“Hey, why not?” Chara shrugs. “It was there, you two were arguing, it was the perfect opportunity. Now, are we going to watch anime or what?”

“...Yeah, okay.”

They file into the living room, the two monsters plopping down onto two well-worn spots on the couch. There’s no room left for Papyrus to sit, but that’s okay. He’s fine with standing.

There’s a bit of a panic when Alphys can’t find where she left the remote, but Sans spots it under one of the couch cushions. The lizard reluctantly thanks Papyrus when he points it out, and then cheery theme music is playing over a title screen filled with a bright full moon and swirling cherry blossoms. The subtitles translate the Japanese on the title card as “The Power Within Us: The Knight and the Star Warrior Unite?!~” and the camera pans down to a moonlit view of two characters facing off on the roof of a big building.

Papyrus would have been content to watch without knowing what's going on, but Chara brings up the fact that he's never seen the other episodes of whatever show this is, and Alphys immediately pauses the video to explain absolutely everything. Apparently, the pink character was a normal, everyday schoolchild until their first day of middle school, during which they accidentally stumbled upon a portal to another dimension, where they somehow obtained the power of telepathy and a star-tipped wand that lets them transform into a magical being called a Star Warrior. A mysterious voice tells them that they’re the latest in a long line of Star Warriors, chosen to protect a mystical artifact called the Fountain of Dreams from the evil forces of Nightmare, who would do anything to get their hands upon it. The pink character learns how to use their new magic abilities to fight by absorbing enemy attacks, and their best friend comes along to cheer them on. But trouble brews when a mean new transfer student shows up at school, and, with some clever detective work, the best friend discovers that the transfer student is also a Star Warrior, but that he’s turned traitor and has been working as Nightmare’s general.

“The last episode was their climactic battle, I think,” Alphys says. “Or, wait, maybe that was the episode where the two Star Warriors just stare at each other dramatically the whole time? I don't know, it's been a while since I last watched this show.”

“I see!” Papyrus nods. He doesn't see at all, despite having hung onto every word (Sans tuned out almost as soon as Alphys opened her mouth, so he's no help), but figures he'll be able to work it out himself. Still, Alphys looks satisfied, and soon the video is playing again:

Pink Hero: So… You really were working with them the entire time.

Masked Knight: I did what I had to, to ensure a better future.

Ponytailed Sidekick: E-even-

Masked Knight: Yes. It is I who was behind so many of the attempts on your life, young Star Warrior.

Pink Hero: Because of the Fountain of Dreams, right?

Masked Knight: I could not allow it to remain in the care of an untested youth when it could be put to better use by more experienced hands. Don't you see? With a power like that, I could save my people!

Pink Hero: That isn't the way. Join us, instead! With the power of friendship on our side, we can do anything!

Masked Knight: I- I cannot. I would only drag you down.

Pink Hero: No, you wouldn't! I've seen how you fight. With you on our side, Nightmare wouldn't stand a chance!

Ponytailed Sidekick: Yeah! So what's your real reason?

Masked Knight: ...Though my reasoning was pure, I have hurt you too much. It is impossible for you to forgive someone like me.

Ponytailed Sidekick: No way!

Pink Hero: You were just doing what you thought was right, and I admire that. It isn't impossible for me to forgive you at all, because I already did just that!

Masked Knight: That’s-

Pink Hero: That’s right! (They pose.) Let the negativity in your heart be carried away on white wings of love! Cupid’s Arrow!

(The hero’s wand flashes pink and becomes a star-tipped bow and arrow, which they grip tightly in their pink gloved hands. They draw and fire at the black heart that appears in front of the knight, and, in a shower of sparkles, the shadow cracks away to reveal the tender pinkness beneath.)

(The knight falls to his knees with a gasp, clutching at his chest, and the hero offers him a hand with a smile.)

Pink Hero: Let's be friends from now on, okay?

Chara snickers throughout the entire exchange, darting glances between the other two, and Alphys gets redder and redder before slamming down the stop button. “L-let’s watch something else instead,” she suggests, with a fervor that clarifies that, no, it wasn't a suggestion at all. With practiced motions, the guard captain switches out the VHS cassette with one from a different pink box, this one practically falling apart at the seams. It's obvious that this video’s seen much use, especially when Chara groans, “Not this again!”

“Hey,” Alphys rebukes them, “you can shush, okay? Mew Mew Kissy Cutie is a classic, and anyway, the human hasn't seen it yet. Right?”

Papyrus admits that he has not.

“See?” Alphys exclaims triumphantly. “I told you!”

Chara groans, slumping. “Sure. Whatever.”

And so Papyrus is introduced to the sparkly world of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. Sans is incredibly nonplussed by the whole thing, seeming bored, and a lot of it goes over Papyrus’s head. Why can't the heroine just talk things out with the aliens, instead of purifying whatever weird creature they decide to create this episode and leaving? How do the aliens think they're going to accomplish world domination just by transforming one animal at a time into a chimera? And, most importantly, why is Mew Mew so obsessed with her uninteresting boyfriend when she has so many great friends to hang out with instead?

He makes the mistake of asking this last question out loud, and Alphys launches into a whole diatribe over how Mew Mew and Mint are a much better “ship”, but Mint and Wolf are super cute together, too, if you ignore the age difference, so maybe Mew Mew and Cabbage should get together instead, since their interactions are so adorable, especially in this one episode where Mew Mew saves Cabbage from a bunch of bullies and oh my god, they should totally watch that one next, it's a little out of order but that doesn't really matter since it’s filler anyway and you don't have anywhere to be, right?

This also turns out to be a mistake when Alphys gets too angry at Cabbage’s dumb friends for being such stupid bullies and throws a spear at the screen, shorting the whole thing out. The spark catches, and suddenly the house is on fire and they all have to evacuate. Papyrus is worried about the expression on Alphys’s face as she watches her house burn down, but Chara nonchalantly slaps her on the back and says their couch is free, just like the last five times this has happened.

Then they all start hearing distant popping noises coming from inside the blaze. Turns out the house fire brought enough heat to pop all of Alphys’s popcorn stash, which is a funny enough thought that even Alphys can't help but laugh. Chara tries to tug her back towards Snowdin, saying they'll need to get everything set up for her extended stay, but the lizard hesitates. Finally, she looks Papyrus in the eyes and says, “Tiff was right. ‘Let’s be friends from now on, okay?’”

Papyrus gives her a big, wide smile, and she laughs, tossing a shy wave over her shoulder as the skeleton drags her away.

Making friends with an old enemy… It fills Papyrus with determination.

Chapter Text

“Those snails haven’t moved in a while. Maybe they’re feeling sluggish.”

“Gerson’s shop? Why are you bugging me about it? I’m sure he’d love to talk your ear off himself.”

“The smart thing to do would be to take the Riverperson back to Hotland. But you’re not going to do that, are you.”

“It’s a big waterfall. You wonder where all the water comes from, staring up at the top of the falls with a big, dopey expression and pondering the mysteries of life.”

“There are mushrooms here. I know, they look delicious, but perhaps it would be better not to put strange, glowing things in your mouth.”

“The lanterns here only glow for a short while. Good thing you're not scared of the dark.”

“Alphys probably tried to set up some dramatic trap here. Did you manage to avoid it somehow?”

“The echo flowers are everywhere. If they weren’t so beautiful, I’m sure they would have been cut down long ago. It makes you think about your values.”

“Unlike the one in Snowdin, this bridge isn’t painted. It’s exactly as dangerous as it looks.”

“This corridor feels empty, for some reason. Is someone supposed to be here?”

“Did Alphys get to ambush you here, at least? She must have practiced her monologue a hundred times. It would be a shame if she never got to use it.”

“The sign says, ‘Welcome to Hotland!’ How long have you stood there, trying to read it?”

“Alphys probably collapsed about here. It wasn’t the heat, if you were wondering. It’s that she lives on a diet of ramen and soda.”

“Honestly, I’m surprised the water in that cooler hasn’t evaporated yet.”

Chapter Text

By the time Papyrus takes his first steps back into Hotland, he's already regretting his return. Sweat runs down his back and shoulders, slicking his shirt to his skin and making everything feel sticky and wet. The heat feels like someone wrapped him up in a scratchy wool burrito and microwaved him in a sauna, and he doesn't even want to think about trying to do puzzles when his brain might be melting out his ears. Sans sympathizes with his complaints, but says at least it's more comfortable than Snowdin’s freezing cold. The resulting debate takes up most of Papyrus’s attention, until he nearly walks face-first into the side of a large, white building.

‘hey, it’s the lab! dings used to spend a lot of time here, before-”

Sans is interrupted by a loud crash, as whoever’s inside the lab slams the door open, shouting, “Finally!” as they go. “You have no idea how long I've been watching those cameras. Did you have to pull out your phone every ten steps, punk?! I've been dying of boredom here waiting for you!”

The accosting stranger is a tall, blue-scaled fish lady in a lab coat, with red hair pinned back in a sloppily-made bun and seemingly no understanding of personal space. Without waiting for his say-so, she grabs Papyrus’s arm and drags him inside the lab.

(He'd be more inclined to protest if the cool air from inside wasn't hitting him like a blessing. Praise be to the mighty air conditioning unit.)

The lab is dark, and the air inside leaves an acrid singe in the back of Papyrus’s throat. A giant TV on the wall appears to be broadcasting a live video feed of Papyrus, who stares at it uncomprehendingly. Why would anyone want to watch his every move like this?

‘that’s kinda creepy,’ Sans says, frowning. ‘security cameras are one thing, but rigging them all up to record you like this rubs me the wrong way.’

The fish lady laughs, just a little too sharply. “Yeah, this is how I’ve been keeping tabs on you! What, got a problem with it?”

“Actually, I think it’s kind of cool,” Papyrus admits, trying to smooth his hair down. The Papyrus on the screen follows suit, and he smiles. “I’ve always wanted to be on TV! Maybe not quite like this, but everyone has to start somewhere.”

“Exactly!” She gives him a wide, toothy grin, but it tightens into a small smile after her eyes flick over to her image on the screen. The expression looks uncomfortable on her. “Anyway, I’m Undyne,” she continues, hitting the light switch. The lab is pretty clean, actually, except for a giant pile of broken junk in the corner. “...Uh, Doctor Undyne. I’m Toriel’s royal scientist, I guess.”

Papyrus’s eyes dart back over to the junk pile. It might be his imagination, but it looks like some of it is smoking.

‘wow,’ Sans remarks disdainfully. ‘looks like humans aren’t the only thing that’s fallen. standards these days must be lower than the entry criteria for dings’s middle school science fair.’

As if in response to Sans’s comments, Undyne rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yuk it up. Me, a scientist? Obviously anyone with muscles can’t possibly know how to build stuff! Ha! I’ll have you know, I’m the best scientist underground!”

‘pickings must be pretty slim, then,” Sans drawls.

‘DON’T BE RUDE,’ Papyrus rebukes him. ‘SHE’S OBVIOUSLY TRYING HER HARDEST, AND ISN’T THAT WHAT COUNTS?’

His passenger huffs, but doesn’t say anything.

“Don’t believe me, huh?” Undyne steps into Papyrus’s space, glaring up at him through her glasses. “Well, I’ll show you! Give me that outdated brick you call a cell phone. I’m gonna make it the most advanced piece of technology you’ve ever seen!”

“Really? Wowie!” He hands her his phone easily, despite Sans’s worries about whether he’ll get it back in one piece. A thought occurs to him as she’s halfway across the room, though. It’s childish, but he has to ask. “Can you make it turn into a jetpack?”

“A jetpack? Really?”

Papyrus wilts, wringing his hands. “It’s stupid, I know, but -”

“No way, are you kidding?” Undyne turns back to face him, eyes glowing with fiery enthusiasm. “A jetpack-phone would be super cool! Like, I dunno, an impossible puzzle with robo-pirhanas or something. But, uh, yeah. Heck yeah! I’m totally gonna turn your phone into a jetpack!! Just watch!!!”

And with that, she dives into the side room. Bangs and crashes start ringing out immediately, along with some sort of strange grunt of effort that sounds kind of like NGGGGAAAAAAAH! There are even a few small explosions.

Sans winces, drawing away from the noise. ‘you, uh, think she’s got everything handled in there?’

‘OF COURSE!’ Papyrus answers admiringly. ‘SHE IS THE ROYAL SCIENTIST, AFTER ALL. ALTHOUGH THIS SCIENCE IS MUCH MORE EXCITING THAN I HAVE BEEN LEAD TO BELIEVE!’

‘depends on how bad the scientist is,’ Sans gloomily replies, watching a dark cloud of smoke roll out from under the door.

It seems like Undyne is only in the side room for a few minutes before she stumbles through the door, coughing. Her lab coat is covered in soot, and Papyrus has the strangest urge to take it home and wash it. “See, I told ya I could do it,” she hacks, holding up a triumphant fist.

The phone in it is definitely not the one Papyrus gave her, but it's whole and shiny and somehow entirely unscathed, despite the admittedly worrying noises from the upgrade process. Papyrus narrowly resists the urge to think, ‘I TOLD YOU SO!’

“Wow, it looks amazing!” he gushes instead, snatching the newly-upgraded device from her scaly hands and turning it over in his own. “How did you do it?”

Undyne cackles. “Same way I do everything around here! First I hammered it until it revealed its vulnerable core -”

‘uh.’

“- and then I jabbed it with my magic spear until it stopped not being upgraded out of fear!!”

Papyrus stares at her. ‘i don’t think that woman’s ever been to engineering school,’ Sans remarks faintly.

‘WELL, IT EXPLAINS THE SMOKE, I GUESS,’ Papyrus replies, just as lost for words. ‘I'M NOT A SCIENTIST, BUT I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S NOT HOW SCIENCE WORKS?’

‘it's probably plot convenience.’ Sans nods smartly. ‘this is all based off of what already happened somewhere else, right? like a dream, frisk said. if it “knows” something’s supposed to happen, how it happens might not matter so much. the scientist upgrades the phone here, therefore, the phone upgrades. i wouldn’t ask her to make anything else for you, though.’

‘IT CAN'T HAVE JUST BEEN MY PHONE, THOUGH,’ Papyrus argues stubbornly. 'SHE STILL HAD TO HAVE BEEN MADE ROYAL SCIENTIST FOR A REASON, RIGHT?' “That’s… very impressive,” he tells Undyne, who beams at the praise, but quickly covers it with another scowl.

“Yeah, I know. I told you I could do it.”

“You certainly did,” Papyrus agrees. “Have you built anything else?”

“Uh, tons of stuff!” Despite trying to keep a stern expression, the corners of her mouth keep tugging up. “Like, there’s this one robot that hangs around in the lab a lot.”

An ominous thump echoes through the lab, making Papyrus jump.

“I’m pretty sure I built him?” Undyne continues. “I mean, what else would a robot be doing at the lab?"

Another thump, this one louder.

"He's actually a human eradication robot! Pretty cool, right?"

"Um, Undyne?"

Undyne grins widely. “Oh, right! I almost forgot to tell ya! I figured you and him could have a showdown,” she says. “Humans are super powerful, right? You should have no trouble!”

Another thump. Everything in the lab is rattling.

“Um. Undyne,” Papyrus tries again, but Sans interrupts him.

‘get back, now!’

Almost before the last word is out of his mouth, there’s a crash, and something comes bursting through the wall. Suddenly, there are lights everywhere. Papyrus winces, covering his eyes, but his hands are no protection against the blaring “OHHHHHH YESSSSSSS!” coming from the… microwave on a unicycle?

‘oh, nooooooooo.'

Chapter Text

Squinting slightly against the whirling rainbow lights, Papyrus watches in awe as the rectangle bot welcomes some kind of audience to today’s quiz show. How exciting! ‘SANS, DO YOU THINK WE WILL BE ABLE TO WATCH THE QUIZ SHOW LIVE? I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE PART OF A STUDIO AUDIENCE!’

‘part of the audience? bro, you’re the contestant.’

Papyrus gasps. “Really?”

Despite not having a mouth, the robot manages to give an impression of frowning. “Yes, of course, darling! All of my shows are great.” In a modulated undertone, he adds, “And, by the way, it is extremely poor form to interrupt the host. Understood?”

Eyes wide, Papyrus nods. Shoot, he really needs to be more careful about what he says out loud. “Of course. It won’t happen again!”

“See that it doesn’t.” The robot stares in his direction a second longer, then returns to addressing the audience. “Everyone give a big hand for our wonderful contestant!”

A tinny clap track plays. Papyrus, struck dumb, is clutching his hands to his cheeks and broadcasting a steady stream of ‘!!!!!!!!!!’, while Sans is amusing himself with picturing an audience holding up a giant hand in welcome. The exclamation points turn horrified, and Sans snickers.

“Never played before, gorgeous?” The robot asks, tilting in Papyrus’s direction. At the shake of his head, the robot laughs, the sound flat and electronic. “No problem! It’s simple! There’s only one rule.”

A one flashes on his screen. Papyrus watches as it blinks in and out.

“Answer correctly… or you die!”

‘WAIT WHAT’

‘ugh, i knew he pulled something like this…’

Papyrus’s SOUL is torn out of his chest, prompting a gasp, and the quiz show begins.

‘SANS, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!” Papyrus is panicking, eyes darting around in the black and white space. He feels eyes burning into him from all sides, just waiting for him to mess up. Oh, god, he’s terrible at quiz shows, he always picks the worst answers and everyone always laughs, he’s going to die like this and it’ll be awful and humiliating and everyone will laugh when he dies again and -

‘hey.’ Sans’s mental voice is soothing and smooth as ever, settling around him like a favorite blanket, warm from the dryer. ‘it’s okay, bro, it’s okay. you’ve got nothin’ to fear. i’m here. ‘member?’

There’s a flash of something - Papyrus remembers shaking, little clicks ringing out like tumbling dice as he’s held, safe. Someone is singing, low and deep, but the memory fades before he can tell who. ‘...SANS?’

‘heya.’ There’s an undertone of relief in his voice, but it’s buried deep.

‘DID… DID YOU EVER SING?’

‘me? nah. i’m not an organ.’ An impression of a wink. ‘don’t have the pipes for it.’

‘UGH, SANS!!’

‘don’t have any organs, either. uh, apparently.’

‘UGH!! SANS!!!’ Despite himself, Papyrus is grinning. Somewhere deep in his head, Sans is counting slowly, and instinctively, Papyrus finds himself breathing to the count. ‘WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT THE QUIZ SHOW?’

The first question is up and flashing: “What’s the prize for answering correctly?” And, nestled amongst the answers, is -

“A new car?” Papyrus gasps, a red convertible dancing in his mind.

Sans winces. ‘bro, you can’t just-”

“Hahaha, you wish! Wrong!” Mettaton laughs gleefully, and an arc of electricity shoots from his hand, taking down the human’s HP by five points. Behind him, Undyne laughs.

‘ugh, that puffered-up-’

‘SANS…?’

‘shi- shoot. you’re fine, bro, you’re fine. we just gotta work together for this. no more blurting out answers, yeah?’ Sans glares at Undyne. ‘obviously we’re not gonna get any help from her.'

‘I-I’M SURE SHE’S JUST-’

‘just what? just enjoying watching you get cooked by this overgrown microwave?’

‘...MAYBE IT’S SOME KIND OF TEST! AND IF WE DEFEAT HER ROBOT, SHE’LL SAY WE’RE POWERFUL ENOUGH FOR HER TO JOIN OUR TEAM SO SHE CAN HELP US GET TO THE QUEEN AND FIX THE UNIVERSE!’

Sans chuckles. ‘think you’ve been playing too many video games, bro. sides, mtt isn’t her robot.'

‘M-T-WHO?’

‘mettaton. mtt if you want something with less leg-nth.’ Sans indicates the robot across from Papyrus, marking him briefly with a mental dot. ‘and undyne definitely wasn’t the one who built him.’

That makes sense. Papyrus isn’t entirely certain he can remember all the pairs Frisk said swapped, but when he thinks of Undyne, he feels shouting and heat and red hair spilled out over a green couch, not machinery and artificial-lemon-scented cleaner and vaguely-chicken-scented steam.

The quiz show continues.

“What’s the queen’s full name?” Mettaton asks.

Papyrus inches his SOUL closer to “Dr. Friendship.” Undyne cackles, hiding her mouth behind a scaly fist.

‘bro.’ Sans is somewhere between amused and worried. ‘bro, that’s- that’s not the right answer.’

‘BUT IT SHOULD BE!’ Papyrus protests. ‘DR. FRIENDSHIP WOULD BE AN AMAZING NAME!’

‘maybe say that somewhere where you won’t get electrified for it, k?’

‘UGH, FINE. IT WAS TORIEL, RIGHT?’

‘yeah. toriel dreemurr.’ Sans huffs, giving an impression of shaking his head. ‘man, it feels so weird to say her name like that.’

‘WHAT DID YOU CALL HER, THEN?’

‘...mrs mom lady.’

Papyrus broadcasts exclamation points again, this time in pink. ‘THAT’S SO ADORABLE??? OH MY GOD???’

Sans grumbles. Papyrus catches a snippet of ‘i’m not adorable, i’m manly as hell’ and has to hold in laughter as he selects the appropriate answer.

“Correct! But enough about you. Let’s talk about me,” Mettaton says, draping a hand over where his chest would be. “What are robots made of?”

Papyrus doesn’t hesitate. Without waiting for Sans to regain his composure, he slams the buzzer for answer A.

“Hopes and dreams?” Mettaton laughs as Papyrus is shocked again. “As if!”

‘bro-’

“Y-yes, as if!” Despite still being wobbly from the shock, and at only half health, Papyrus stands tall. “Every living thing has hopes and dreams! You might be a robot, Mettaton, but I know you, too, have things you wish for!”

The music has ground to a halt. Papyrus, Mettaton, and Undyne stand in total silence for a moment.

Finally, Undyne gives a whoop of laughter. “I like your nerve!” she shouts. “What’dya have to say to that, you bucket of bolts?”

“...oh my. The contestant’s passionate defense of his response… has rendered me absolutely speechless!” Mettaton looks a little shaken. One arm is flopping loosely at his side, while the other clenches his microphone tight enough to make it creak. “Well! We can’t have that, can we? After all, there is such a thing as too much dramatic tension! We can’t go on like this!” He brandishes a finger. “But!! But!!! This was just the pilot episode!! Next up, more drama!!! More romance!!! More bloodshed!!!” Pretending to blow a kiss to the camera, he says, “Until next time, darlings!!!”, retracts his limbs, and takes off like a rocket.

As soon as color returns to the world, Undyne claps a hand over Papyrus’s shoulders. “That sure was something!” she crows.

“It certainly was,” Papyrus agrees, shaking out his arms.

‘you should probably get going,’ Sans reminds him, the words accompanied by a faint impression of ticking. ‘we don’t exactly have time for you to get chummy with every gill you meet.’

Papyrus sends a flurry of frowny faces at Sans, but obligingly asks, “So, where is the exit located?”

“Hey hey hey, wait! You can’t just leave!” The arm around his neck has tightened in a way that makes Papyrus wary, but Undyne looks more frantic than anything else. “I mean… we haven’t even gotten each other’s phone numbers yet!”

“Oh! Of course!” Papyrus fumbles with his new phone, unsure of which buttons to push, and Undyne snatches it out of his hands.

“I’ll just put mine in,” she explains. “I, uh. Kind of got yours while I was upgrading your phone?”

“That will save us some time,” Papyrus nods. “How convenient! That was very clever of you, Dr. Undyne.”

The scientist blushes, scales faintly pink around the edges. “Uh, y-yeah, sure.” She holds out the phone, but her fingers linger when Papyrus grabs it. “H-hey, listen… Y-you were really cool on that quiz show! Even when you gave a wrong answer, you did it loudly and proudly. I really admire people like that!”

Dumbstruck, Papyrus can do nothing about how his jaw is hanging as Undyne continues, “That’s why I’ve decided, I’m gonna help you through Hotland! Yeah, I want us all to be free, but… someone with the kind of determination you’ve got deserves the chance to make it through! You get me?”

“Dr. Undyne! Do you really mean it?” Papyrus gasps.

“Of course I mean it! I wouldn’t lie! ...About stuff like this!” Undyne laughs nervously, sweat beading on her forehead. “Which... is why you need to get going! Yeah! So I can start helping!” Without waiting for Papyrus’s response, she starts pushing him towards the exit. As soon as his feet are on rock again, she shouts, “Go do your hero thing!” and slams the door behind him.

‘...WELL!’ Papyrus thinks at last. ‘CLEARLY, THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY ABOUT THAT INTERACTION!’

Chapter Text

‘SANS?’

‘yeah?'

‘THE ROCK IN HOTLAND WOULDN’T HAPPEN TO BE INSUBSTANTIAL, WOULD IT?’

‘...uh,’ Sans says. ‘nah, it’s usually fairly solid.’

Papyrus wiggles his foot out of the rock. It clings to the sides of his soles. ‘SO THIS IS ABNORMAL, THEN.’

‘yeah, there’s a, uh, fairly good chance this is another weird anomaly.’

‘HMM. AND THE STATIC IN FRONT OF US…’

‘is another anomaly. yep.’

“Well!” Papyrus says, over-brightly. “There is no time like the present, I suppose.”

‘wh- hey!’

With a few long strides, he crosses over into the static.

The rock disappears. Other than that, nothing happens.

Sans breathes a sigh of relief. ‘you nearly gave me a heart attack!’ he scolds. ‘next time, maybe don’t just walk into the void? what if you ended up like that monster kid?’

‘OH.’ Papyrus blinks. Honestly, he hadn’t even considered that possibility. ‘BUT I DIDN’T! WE’RE BOTH FINE.’ It’s nice of Sans to worry, though. He passes along his gratitude.

‘y’don’t have to thank me for being worried about you,’ Sans replies, embarrassment warring with indignation. ‘just - think a little first, huh?’

‘I WILL ATTEMPT TO REMEMBER FOR NEXT TIME!’ Papyrus promises.

‘heh. guess that’s all i can ask.’

He keeps walking. If he isn’t careful, his feet keep sinking into the static, but he discovers that the floor (is there even a floor? All he can see is static) retains solidity if he makes contact hard enough. It’s rather like a substance he vaguely recalls making at summer camp one year.

‘oobleck?’

‘YES! THAT WAS IT.’

‘aw man, that’s my second favorite non-newtonian fluid!’

Papyrus has no idea what that means, but he can’t resist quirking an eyebrow. ‘SECOND FAVORITE?’

‘yep. it breaks the rules, it’s fun to play with, cheap to make, and it was named after a dr. seuss book. what’s not to like?’

Papyrus grimaces, tugging his foot out of the floor. ‘WELL, I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT FOR FLOORING.’

Sans laughs. ‘fair enough. and,’ he adds, ‘my first favorite is ketchup. since you were so curious.’

‘AH!' Somehow, Papyrus thinks, remembering the ketchup bottle in Asgore’s fridge, that makes perfect sense.

(There’s a flash of something: laughter, dim lighting. Eyes on him, around him, the light keeps flickering and it’s too loud and just- too much- someone at the front is gulping from an upturned ketchup bottle and he should feel irritated but all he can feel is relief.)

It’s impossible to see how much the static extends in any direction, and the pins and needles he’s getting in his feet only seems to worsen every time his steps don’t carry quite enough force to keep him out of the floor. On the other hand, having to march like this is -

Huh. Alright, so it doesn’t fill him with determination, but -

‘huh?’

‘IT APPEARS WE’VE MADE IT!’

...marching his way through the deleted space fills him with determination.

‘DELETED SPACE?’

‘huh?’

‘I THINK… THAT MIGHT BE WHAT WE JUST WALKED THROUGH?’

Sans sends him a question mark, but all Papyrus can do is shrug. He isn’t entirely sure where he got that idea from, either.

His phone rings. “Hel-”

“Oh my god,” Undyne shouts. Even as he winces and holds the phone away from his ear, Papyrus is oddly reassured by her unapologetic volume. “Seriously, what just happened?! You were right outside my lab a minute ago, and now you’re in the CORE??!”

‘oh, huh. so we are.’ Sans is obviously admiring the place they’ve found themselves, from the archway with the weird symbol over it, to the glowing walls, to the white-hot energy roiling under the bridge. ‘dings and i always wondered about this thing.’

Papyrus frowns, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot as the pins and needles dissipate. ‘I DON’T THINK I LIKE IT MUCH.’ That’s an understatement. This place provokes a strange mixture of foreboding, jealousy, and even fear. He doesn’t want to stay here any longer than he can help.

He’s left Undyne without a response for far too long. “You know, I’m not entirely sure myself,” he says, hoping she’ll think he was just too confused to answer right away. “The rock started getting all mushy, and then -”

‘oh my god.'

‘SANS! CAN THIS WAIT?’

‘yeah, sorry bro. keep going; i’ll tell ya later.’

“Well, then everything was static. I walked through it and ended up here?”

“But- that doesn’t make any sense! Mushy rock? And even if there was some weird static stuff, how the heck would you be able to walk through it, and even if you could do that, how would it get you inside the CORE??!!??”

‘well, for one thing, nothing’s real,’ Sans remarks casually. ‘that might answer a couple’a your questions, there.’

“That might be because nothing is real!” Papyrus dutifully repeats. “We are all currently living inside a realistic simulation of our universe, which happens to be breaking down at an alarming rate. This is likely what is causing such strange occurrences.”

There’s silence on the other end of the line.

“Oh,” Papyrus hastily adds, “but don’t worry! I am on the case and will do everything in my power to fix this!”

‘...bro,’ Sans half-laughs. ‘you, uh. weren’t supposed to repeat that.’

Papyrus frowns. ‘I DON’T SEE WHY NOT. IF I WERE STUCK IN A DISASTROUS SITUATION LIKE THIS, I WOULD WANT TO KNOW!’

‘sometimes ignorance is bliss,' Sans points out. ‘is it really fair to make other people worry about stuff they can’t do anything about?’

Ugh, Papyrus hates dealing with these kinds of arguments. Sans is so much better at arguing his points, so Papyrus inevitably gets put in corners where all he can do is reject Sans’s claims without points of his own. Or give in, which he won’t, because he’s right. Or just table the discussion and stomp off to his room - which he can’t do right now, because they’re sharing the same head.

He’s spent too long paying attention to the wrong conversation again, but luckily it seems like Undyne has already hung up. (Or unluckily. He hopes she took that revelation well.)

‘so, hey, wanna hear that pun now?’

So that was all that was? ‘NO, THANK YOU! I DO NOT NEED TO HEAR ANY MORE OF YOUR TERRIBLE PUNS!’

‘yeah, you do. here goes.’ Sans’s grin is bright and unrepentant. ‘what kinda music does the ground in hotland like to listen to?’

Papyrus sighs. He knows he shouldn’t encourage this, but he just can’t help himself. ‘WHAT.’

‘soft rock!’

‘NOPE.’ Papyrus can’t stand still for this any more. Foreboding or not, he’s heading right through that strangely marked door.

Sans is laughing uncontrollably. ‘soft rock, paps. you get it? like the music genre, and cause-’

‘AND BECAUSE OF THE ACTUAL CONSISTENCY OF THE GROUND. YES. I GOT YOUR JOKE, IT JUST WASN’T FUNNY.’ Despite his words, though, Papyrus is grinning. Sans’s laughter makes him too happy to keep a straight face.

‘but- paps. soft rock.’

‘YES, I KNOW. I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME.’

Chapter Text

It’s very dark in this corridor, Papyrus absent-mindedly notes, resting an arm against the wall for balance. If he concentrates, he can just make out -

‘oh, no,’ Sans groans. ‘not him again.’

“Oh, yes,” says Mettaton. “There you are, darling. It’s time to have our little showdown.”

‘WHAT SHOWDOWN?’ Papyrus wonders. ‘DIDN’T WE ALREADY DO THAT?’

“It’s time to finally stop the ‘malfunctioning’ robot.”

“Oh, no! Are you malfunctioning?” Papyrus peers at Mettaton, squinting in the dark. “You look perfectly fine to me!”

“Why, thank you, darling,” Mettaton exclaims, pressing a glove to where his cheek would be. “That would be because the whole thing was just a big show. An act! Did I play my part well?”

“Well, the one time I saw you, you did very well,” Papyrus answers honestly. “I think you make a very good quiz show host!”

'aside from the whole, y'know, "nearly shocking you to death" thing.'

“The… one time?” His pixels rearrange themselves into a question mark. “No, no, that can’t be right. I’m sure we met more than that!”

“I’m fairly certain we didn’t.”

“The cooking show, the news report, the musical… Did they all mean nothing to you?”

Papyrus thinks hard, trying to remember anything vaguely like a cooking show, news report, or musical. The closest he comes up with is the popcorn Chara and Alphys made at the guard captain’s house, but that doesn’t seem right at all.

‘they never happened,’ Sans says. ‘this guy… pap! frisk never said mettaton was one of the people who got switched around. he’s not real!’

‘LIKE THE MONSTER CHILD? BUT HE’S NOT REPEATING ANY LINES!’

‘the guy’s a celebrity. maybe people just remembered him better?’ Sans sounds unsure, though.

Papyrus remembers anticipation, opening a newspaper-wrapped lump and playing with the action figure inside, and admiration, bright colors flashing on TV as he sings along to the opening theme of his favorite show. He blushes and carefully ignores those memories. ‘IT’S POSSIBLE.’

“I know it’s difficult not to be overwhelmed by my sheer presence, darling, but I don’t like thinking my performances were so unmemorable as to slip your mind entirely.” His facial pixels display an intimidating-looking smiley face. “Please, do say it isn’t so!”

“It’s not so! They never happened, Mettaton,” Papyrus insists.

The robot huffs. “Don’t play this game with me, darling.”

“I’m being serious! Mettaton, this world is not real. Think: what was the last show you aired before I fell?”

“Oh, that’s easy, darling! It was Mettaton: The Movie III: The Bot is Back, featuring me, me, myself, and, of course, me, reprising my role as myself.”

“And before that?”

“Dancing with the Star, darling.”

“Before that?”

“The Mettaton Show. Then Mettaton Extravaganza!, Down to the Wire, The Mettaton Variety Hour, When Mettaton Met Mettaton… I could go on, darling.”

‘huh,’ Sans remarks. ‘seems like someone knew their mtt.’

‘YES! THIS MYSTERIOUS, DEDICATED FAN MUST HAVE SPENT QUITE A LONG TIME BONING UP ON HIS MATERIAL.’

Sans snickers. Papyrus isn’t entirely sure why. ‘anyway, bro, why don’t you try asking something else?’

‘LIKE WHAT? I’M OUT OF IDEAS!’

‘let me?’

‘SURE, WHY NOT.’

Sans slips seamlessly into control. “Here, what about this: can you tell me who Napstablook is?”

“Napstablook?” When Mettaton says it, the name sounds foreign. He brings a hand woozily to his forehead. “That… sounds familiar, but… I can’t…”

“Heh. Yeah, thought so.” Sans stretches, popping Papyrus’s spine, then drops into a slouch. “Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but like I said, this world’s a fake. Right now, you’re just an MTT-brand MTT substitute.”

“That’s impossible, darling.” Mettaton laughs, but it sounds forced. “There’s only one Mettaton! No soulless copy would ever be able to live up to my image, darling.”

Sans shrugs. He doesn’t look too bothered. “Guess the real you must be even greater, then.”

‘SANS,’ Papyrus rebukes. ‘THAT WAS MEAN!’

He sighs, but tries again. “Look, bud. Whether you’re fake or not, I’ve barely seen a single monster down here, and I’ve been walking since Snowdin. Out of the, what, seven monsters I have seen? One of ‘em literally came to pieces right in front of me. Your odds of surviving this aren’t good, and even if you manage to get through okay, your max audience is probably about six people. Whereas if you let me go through, we can start working to fix this and get back to the real world. Make sense?”

“I suppose, darling, that you make a good point, darling.”

“Heh. You, uh, realize you’re saying ‘darling’ practically every other word, right?”

He claps both hands over the lower portion of his screen. “Oh, darling, I just don’t know what’s come over me, darling!” The pixels are beginning to flash, switching rapidly between yellow and red, until they turn mostly red and stay there. “Sorry, folks! The old program’s been cancelled!!! But we’ve got a finale that will drive you wild!!”

The floor lights up, then begins to rapidly rise. Papyrus feels sick, but Sans appears to be perfectly at ease. “You still in there?” he asks. “I really don’t wanna fight. It’s way too much effort.”

The yellow begins to flicker back. “Real drama!! Real actio- no, stop! I don’t want this!”

“Right,” Sans nods. In one smooth movement, he darts behind Mettaton and flips the switch on his back. The world goes black and white, but mostly white, as a cloud of steam begins to hiss from the robot’s seams and hides him from view. “I don’t wanna fight,” he repeats.

The smoke clears, revealing Mettaton EX in all his glory. “I-” he manages to choke out, before all his limbs seem to go haywire at once. “I accept your MERCY!”

His arms and legs fall off, leaving him a limbless torso as the FIGHT screen fades.

‘he’s fine,’ Sans says, before Papyrus can say anything. ‘here, i’ll even double-check for ya.’ He nudges Mettaton with a toe. “You good?”

“You,” the robot groans, “are a dirty cheater.”

Sans grins. “Yep.”

It seems to take him all his energy, but Mettaton smiles back. “In a few moments, I’ll run out of battery power, and… Well. I’d say I’ll be alright, but…”

“Nah, I getcha,” Sans nods. “Kinda hard to shrug without arms.”

Mettaton laughs. “Knock ‘em dead, darling. Whether I did those shows or not… you’ve been a great audience!”

He goes silent.

There’s a clunk, and then Undyne runs in, lab coat flapping behind her. “Aw, dang. Looks like I just missed your guys’ epic showdown!” She boots Mettaton in the side. “You really did a number on him, huh?”

“Nah, he just kinda ended up like that. I think the limbs’ve got some kind of rocket function or something, but it didn’t work right.” Sans scratches his head. “Well, actually, that’s a lie. They fell off because that’s what they were supposed to do here, probably. Managed to shortcut the fight itself, but the trimmings still came with it.”

“...huh?”

Sans shrugs. “This world’s a fake, based off things that happened somewhere else. You and I are real, probably, which is how we can talk about this without shorting out like he did. Since his legs fell off IRL, and this whole thing is based off that, they had to fall off here, too.”

“Uh,” Undyne says. “I think I got that?”

“Cool.” He grins. “By the way, how’d your walk through Hotland go? Did it sta-tick you off?”

She narrows her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I get the feeling it’s something stupid.”

“How was the walk from your lab?” he repeats.

“What walk?” She’s not quite growling, but it’s close. Then what he’s saying seems to dawn on her, and her eyes widen. “I… there wasn’t a walk. I was just… here.”

“Yep.” He winks at her. “Now you’re getting it.”

She shakes her head incredulously. “I’m gonna have to think this over. You go on ahead.”

Sans steps around Mettaton’s lifeless chassis without qualm. Just as he reaches the door, though, Undyne says, “Wait!”

“Yeah?”

“If this world’s fake, I dunno about the Barrier, but if you wanna pass through it, you’re gonna need more than just a human SOUL,” Undyne says seriously. “You’re gonna need one from a monster, too. You get me? You’re gonna have to kill Toriel.”

“Yep. Kinda heard that already.”

Undyne scratches at her eye patch. “I dunno, it just felt really important for me to tell you that.”

Sans shrugs. “Fair enough.”

‘YOU KNOW, SANS, I’M IMPRESSED!’ Papyrus says as Sans leaves the room. ‘FOR ALL YOUR QUALMS ABOUT TELLING OTHERS THE TRUTH OF WHAT IS HAPPENING, YOU LET DR. UNDYNE KNOW QUITE EASILY!’

Sans rubs the back of his neck. ‘wasn’t exactly as heroic as you’re making it seem, bro. i just figured, hey, she probably isn’t gonna remember anyway, right?’

‘SO YOU DID IT JUST FOR ME, THEN,’ Papyrus reasons. ‘WELL! IF YOU HAD TO PICK JUST ONE PERSON TO DO THINGS FOR, I SUPPOSE I WOULD BE A FAIR CHOICE. ...YOU KNOW, SEEING AS YOU’RE IN MY HEAD ALL THE TIME, NOW.’ He gives an embarrassed cough. ‘EITHER WAY, SANS: I’M PROUD OF YOU!’

The confrontation with Toriel is nearing. But telling the truth… it fills them both with determination.

Chapter Text

The elevator ride is long. Papyrus takes his mind off the eerie quiet by attempting to flex his right hand.

‘oh, sorry, you want control back? i can -’

‘NO, DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT,’ Papyrus reassures him. ‘I’M JUST EXPERIMENTING. I WANTED TO SEE IF WE COULD SHARE!’

Sans laughs. ‘man, you sound just like dings sometimes.’

‘COULD YOU… TELL ME ABOUT HIM?’

He hesitates, but shakes his head. ‘sorry. maybe later.’

‘...ALRIGHT.’

Finally, the door opens, and Sans steps out onto gray streets.

‘IT FEELS SO EMPTY,’ Papyrus remarks. ‘WAS IT ALWAYS LIKE THIS?’

‘nah. it’s kinda creepy, seeing it deserted.’ He shifts his grip on the stick, glancing furtively into the alleys he passes. ‘least i’ll be ready if anyone tries a jumpscare.’

‘WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO SCARE US? IT WOULD PROBABLY BE A JUMP-GREET, INSTEAD!’

‘that doesn’t sound as good, though.'

‘FRIENDBUSH?’ Papyrus wonders. ‘OH!! WHAT ABOUT -’

He’s cut off as Sans nearly trips over an empty-eyed Froggit. It buzzes with static and loses some of its shape. Papyrus has to grab for control to stop Sans from whacking it.

“A long time ago,” the monster says, “a human fell into the RUINS.”

‘??’

‘IT WASN’T THAT LONG AGO!’

Another Froggit, hazy and shapeless, speaks from beside the first. “Injured by its fall, the human called out for help.”

‘uh,’ Sans says. ‘think they’re talking about me, bro…’

The monsters speak again. For a moment, they’re smaller, with protrusions that might be antennae or wings, but describing them is pointless when their forms are ever-shifting.

“GASTER, the king’s son, heard the human’s call.”

“He brought the human back to the castle.”

Are there only two? The shapes in front of them are many, but there are more all around them, surrounding them in shifting static.

“Over time, GASTER and the human became like siblings.”

“The King and Queen treated the human child as their own.”

“The underground was full of hope.”

‘stop,’ Sans says. He’s grinning, but it’s too wide, too tight. ‘i- i don’t-’

“Then... one day...”

“The human became very ill.”

‘i don’t wanna hear this.’

“The sick human had only one request.”

“To see the flowers from their village.”

“But there was nothing we could do.”

‘i don’t want to hear this!'

(Papyrus can’t help but wonder if Sans doesn’t want to hear this, or if he doesn’t want Papyrus to hear it.)

“The next day.”

“The next day.”

(He keeps the thought to himself.)

“...”

“The human died.”

‘no…’

“GASTER, wracked with grief, absorbed the human’s SOUL.”

“He transformed into a being with incredible power.”

‘that’s- he didn’t-’

“With the human’s SOUL, GASTER crossed through the Barrier.”

“He carried the human’s body into the sunset.”

“Back to the village of the humans.”

‘i never wanted...’

“GASTER reached the center of the village.”

“There, he found a bed of golden flowers.”

“He carried the human onto it.”

‘it wasn’t even flowers!’

“Suddenly, screams rang out.”

“The villagers saw GASTER holding the human’s body.”

“They thought that he had killed the child.”

‘heh…’

“The humans attacked him with everything they had.”

“He was struck with blow after blow.”

“GASTER had the power to destroy them all.”

‘...’

“But…”

“GASTER did not fight back.”

Sans laughs. He’s covering Papyrus’s ears with his hands, but the words keep coming.

“Clutching the human…”

“GASTER smiled, and walked away.”

He laughs harder. Tears stream down his face.

“Wounded, GASTER stumbled home.”

“He entered the castle and collapsed.”

“His dust spread across the garden.”

Papyrus has been trying to take control, to shield his brother from this, but Sans won’t cede.

“The kingdom fell into despair.”

“The king and queen had lost two children in one night.”

“Once again, the humans had taken everything from us.”

All he can do is wrap himself around Sans’s presence and broadcast comfort.

“The queen decided it was time to end our suffering.”

“Every human who falls down here must die.”

“With enough souls, we can shatter the barrier forever.”

It’s hard, when the words won’t stop coming and he doesn’t know why they’re affecting Sans this way. But he never knows why, does he, and hugs and humming always help his brother when he gets like this.

“It’s not long now.”

“Queen TORIEL will let us go.”

“Queen TORIEL will give us hope.”

“Queen TORIEL will save us all.”

(How often does he get like this?)

“You should be smiling, too,” admonishes one of the formless masses.

‘i am!’ Sans gasps hysterically, grin stretched wide over Papyrus’s cheeks.

“Aren’t you excited?”

“Aren’t you happy?”

Papyrus grabs for control again. Sans doesn’t bother fighting this time, but just as Papyrus is about to tell the forms to go away, they all speak as one.

“You’re going to be free.”

Everything shivers with static as reality distorts like heat over pavement. When the air clears, the monsters are gone, and Papyrus’s legs are wobbling in a golden-tiled hall.

He sinks against a pillar and takes a few deep breaths. It’s difficult to keep himself under control with Sans still hyperventilating in the back of his brain, but counting slow and breathing deep helps them both start to recover.

“Can I hug you?”

Papyrus’s heart jumps. There’s no one else here, and the quiet rasp doesn’t sound familiar. “Who-”

“Sorry. Frisk.”

“You can talk?”

“Sometimes. Don’t like it.”

“I understand completely.” He tries to look for them, peering into shadows and behind columns, but there’s no one there. “Where are you?”

“Behind you.”

He turns, but there’s nothing.

“Still behind you.” They laugh, the sound rusty with disuse. “Can I hug you?”

“Can I see you?” Papyrus replies.

“Not important.” The humor is gone now, but they make a good effort to keep their tone upbeat. “Hug?” they insist.

He nods; then, unsure if they could see that, says yes.

A pair of jacket-clad arms circle his torso. After a pause, a heavy weight on his back suggests they’ve laid their head against him. “You’re doing great,” they say. “Just a little more.”

It certainly feels like more than “just a little”.

“Frisk?” Papyrus asks. “...how many tries did it take you to get past Toriel?”

Their silence is answer enough.

Sans is an incoherent miasma of negativity in Papyrus’s mind, exuding hopelessness and helplessness until Papyrus can’t help but feel overwhelmed and afraid. “...it feels like I’m responsible for so much.”

“Your actions here,” Frisk says, solemn, “will determine the fate of the entire world.” The head on his back sinks a little lower. “But it’ll be okay.”

Papyrus nods. ‘THE PATH AHEAD MAY LOOK DIFFICULT,’ he tells Sans, ‘BUT WE HAVE MADE IT THIS FAR. AND WE’RE TOGETHER. I BELIEVE IN US!’

“You never gained LOVE, but you gained love.” Papyrus blinks, confused, and they giggle. “Does that make sense? Maybe not.”

‘...heh.’ Sans’s presence is shaky, but he’s more coherent now. ‘so as long as we hold on, and do what’s in our hearts, we can do the right thing, huh?’

‘EXACTLY!’

They share a grin. The battle ahead…

Frisk hugs a little tighter, then lets go. “We’re all counting on you,” they say quietly. “...good luck.”

It fills them with determination.

Chapter Text

The throne room is filled with ash.

Sans freezes in the back of Papyrus’s mind. He tries to shake it off, but Papyrus notices too quickly, and Sans gives up with a sigh. ‘...there used to be flowers in here. guess tori burnt ‘em when dad left.’

Oh. Papyrus swallows, unable to look away from the dead garden. The chirping birds sound faint and far away, and he’s struck, yet again, with the magnitude of his task.

“Oh. Is… someone there?”

The exhausted voice makes his head snap up. There, on the throne, sits…

‘DID SOMEONE CLONE ASGORE?? AND SHAVE HIS BEARD??’

‘no, pap. that’s… that’s the queen.’

Furry paws clench tight around the arms of the throne as Toriel pulls herself to her feet. “I will be with you in just a moment,” she yawns. “I apologize; it was unprofessional of me to drift off like that. I suppose I have not goatten enough sheep...”

The double whammy catches Papyrus off guard, and he snorts.

The sound brings a slight smile to her face. She rubs a hand over her eyes. “Well, then. Greetings. How can I…” When she sees who is standing in front of her, the smile drops, and her ruby eyes turn hard and cold. “Ah.”

Sheepishly, Papyrus gives her a little wave. “Hello, there.”

“I would say that I wish I could offer you some hospitality,” the queen says. “But we have already been here for far too long.”

‘hey, mom,’ Sans says, a hint of wistfulness in his thought-voice. ‘sure we can’t just boondoggle for a while? it’d be like old times.’

‘THERE’S NO USE IN DELAYING THE INEVITABLE,’ Papyrus answers. ‘BETTER TO GET THINGS OVER WITH, I SUPPOSE.’

The queen narrows her eyes at their lack of response. “When you are ready,” she says, “I will be in the room beyond the pillars. Do not keep me waiting.”

She sweeps out of the room in a swirl of robes, leaving Papyrus alone amongst the ash.

‘do you trust frisk?’

They’ve never steered him wrong… except maybe when they gave him Chara’s phone number. But now he and Chara are the best of friends (except, isn’t Alphys his best friend? Or, wait, would that be Sans? No, Sans is his brother. That doesn’t count), so Frisk was really only helping him! Besides, Frisk promised they’d help, and the determination in those eye sockets leaves no doubt in Papyrus’s mind that they meant it. He nods. ‘I TRUST THEM COMPLETELY.’

‘k. then here’s the plan: we fight until she can’t fight anymore. once her hp starts running low, we’ll spare her and see what happens. sound good?’

Papyrus won’t kill, but if there’s no other way, he’s willing to fight. He clenches his fist around his trusty stick. ‘ALRIGHT.’

‘sure you don’t want a better weapon? i’m sure we could find one if we went back and looked.’

Of course, there are already several weapons in his inventory, so backtracking would be unnecessary.

‘WHAT??’ Papyrus checks his phone and finds his Dimensional Boxes full of strange items. One Box has different kinds of clothing (a locket, an apron, a bow, a cowboy hat, etc), while the other stores various weapons (a dull knife, a frying pan, a pink glove, a pair of ballet shoes, etc). None of the items look familiar.

To him, at least. Of course I know what they are.

‘WHO ARE YOU???’

‘who’s who?? pap?’

Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t be here for too much longer, anyway. But if you really want to know…

‘pap?! who’s there?’

Woof.

Papyrus waits, but there’s no explanation. Finally, he shrugs. ‘I DON’T KNOW! I THINK IT WAS SOME KIND OF… ANNOYING DOG? YES, THAT SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT.’

‘uh. okay?? as long as they’re friendly, i guess.’

(Well. Kind of.)

Papyrus cautiously slips on the apron and trades out the stick for the tough glove. They both fit him perfectly, somehow. He flexes his hand, getting used to the soft leather. It’s strange -- he could’ve sworn the articles had been too small for him, but now it’s like they’re tailor-made to his build.

There are no more reasons to procrastinate. With a deep breath, Papyrus walks through the door.

It had been easy to forget that his journey had taken place entirely underground. This empty corridor, with its dark stone floor and low ceiling, reminds him.

Then, at the end, two pillars. The Delta Rune sits proudly over them, and beside them twinkles a little light.

This will not be the end. Papyrus is determined.

As he steps through the pillars, a dull roar washes over him. It gets louder and louder as he walks forward, until he stops next to Toriel. The rumble grates against his bones, and the pulsing light all around makes his head spin.

‘sure you don’t want me to take over?’

‘I CAN DO THIS,’ Papyrus replies, resolute. ‘I WILL DO THIS. YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TO FIGHT YOUR OWN MOTHER.’

‘i’d fight anyone, if it meant you were safe.’

‘I KNOW. BUT I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF, TOO. THIS IS SOMETHING I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MUST DO.’

‘okay. just lemme know if it gets to be too much. you’re not alone, pap.’

“This is the Barrier,” Toriel says. Her words are quiet, but they drop like slabs of stone into a tar pit. “The barrier your kind made to trap us all underground.”

Papyrus stares straight ahead. After a moment, the queen turns to face him. “I will give you one last chance to submit. If you… let me take your SOUL, there will be no need to fight. We can resolve this, and monsters will return to the surface.”

He swallows, but shakes his head. ‘I’M AFRAID I CAN’T DO THAT.’

“...I see.” Her eyes set. “This is it, then.”

There’s a whirring sound. The floor separates in seven spots, and seven canisters rise through the holes.

One is empty. The rest are filled with strangely colored, glitching shapes. (There might be words over them, too -- “fOf 3PRUP E1LE N0T FO0N6”? It’s hard to tell with all the flashing lights.)

Then the world goes black and white, and Papyrus breathes a sigh of relief. He’s never been so grateful for the encounter screen.

“Human.” When Papyrus looks up, Toriel smiles. It doesn’t meet her eyes. “I hope your stay here was nice, while it lasted.”

‘eh, it was alright,’ Sans replies. ‘i’d rate it 4.3 stars on yelp. the whole ‘people trying to kill my bro’ thing kinda dropped the rating.’

The joke clears the air a little, as Sans doubtless intended. Papyrus adjusts his stance and brings his fists up. He’s ready for whatever she can throw at them.

“Goodbye.” All pretense of humor is gone from her voice. In one smooth, unexpected movement, she’s summoned a blood red trident, and stabs the MERCY button clean through.

‘welp,’ Sans remarks, shocked. ‘guess that plan’s out.’

‘I GUESS SO,’ Papyrus agrees, just as lost for words. And then the field is full of fire, and all he can think of is dodging and attacking and the flickering heat on his face and burning his arms.

But he won’t die. Not once. He is determined.

Of course, having an inventory full of bisicles helps. Narrative convenience is a powerful thing.

Finally, Papyrus deals the queen a blow that leaves her staggering. She drops the trident and falls to her knees.

“...ah,” she gasps, clutching her chest. “So that’s how it is.”

There’s nothing Papyrus can say to that. With effort, he relaxes his grip around the frying pan.

“...I remember the day after my sons died,” Toriel says, unprompted. “The entire Underground was devoid of hope.” Her voice is bitter when she adds, “The humans had stolen our future once again.”

Papyrus expects Sans say something to that, but the other boy is silent.

“It was only logical to declare war. I proclaimed that any human who found us was to be destroyed. I would use their SOULs to free us from this terrible prison… and then I would destroy them all….” She trails off, shaking her head. “I told myself it was so monsters could live in peace. But my husband said it was revenge. I… I told him that questioning my orders was treason.”

‘SO HE LEFT.’

“So he left,” Toriel confirms. “Never to be seen again.” A bitter laugh crawls out of her throat. “To think, he was right all along! I just wanted… to give everyone hope.” Her eyes seek Papyrus’s. “Human. This war has gone on long enough. You have the power… Take my soul, and let me see my children again.”

‘NO!’

‘no.’

As one, both humans give her MERCY. Papyrus immediately wraps his arms around her. “You can still do the right thing,” he says. “I, the Great Papyrus, believe in you!”

Toriel is stiff and motionless in his arms. “Papyrus… after everything I’ve done to hurt you, you would rather stay here and suffer than live happily on the Surface?”

The words won’t come. He nods instead.

She sobs, once, a great heaving of her ribcage. Then furry arms encircle him. “Well, then,” she says. “What kind of a queen would I be, if I did not let you stay?” She leans back and brings his chin up, and only smiles when his gaze comes to rests on her left ear. “For as long as you remain here, I will take care of you. I promise.” Her eyes begin to mist, and she continues, “We can sit in the living room, telling stories… though I suppose there wouldn’t be any tea… but… we could be like…”

“A family,” Papyrus answers, shyly smiling up at her. “I- I’d like that.”

Sans shifts uncomfortably in the back of his head, but Papyrus is too busy luxuriating in Toriel’s hold to notice.

Then a ring of bullets surrounds her. Before Papyrus even has time to shout, they close in, and Toriel is gone.

A white, inverted heart raises shakily from the pile of dust. Papyrus reaches for it unthinkingly, but it, too, hits a seed-bullet and falls apart.

“You know,” Flowey says conversationally, “they say insanity is repeating the same experiment and hoping for a different result. I had thought you were smarter than that, Sans.”

Sans is a speechless, searing mass of rage, hurt, and confusion in Papyrus’s head, and Papyrus is too shellshocked to reply. The flower just laughs.

“I’ll simply have to remind you of the conclusion. It is slightly pathetic, considering that you are the one who taught me in the first place. But, I suppose, we all could use a refresher from time to time.”

The multicolored glitches from the canisters (are those supposed to be the SOULs? The ones that… grant godlike power… oh no…) begin to circle him.

“In this world…

The SOULs draw in closer and closer as Flowey cackles maniacally. The flower’s face deforms and drips to the ground, but he doesn’t seem to notice, and Papyrus can’t say for sure whether it’s another aspect of his stretchy shapeshift powers, or an effect of the SOULs’ proximity, or whatever it is that’s causing the world to get brig hte r an d bri gh te r ú ņ ť̸̐̅ͩ̕ ̢̉͡͞l̶͂̇̈́͂͒̚ l͗̾̇̀̈̀͟͝҉̛

Chapter Text

The chapter you have attempted to reach is nnnnNnooÒ̴́҉̸t in service. Would you like to try again?

Chapter Text

Somehow, despite there being no ground for them to sound against, there are footsteps.

The scientist sighs, shoulders dropping as the SOUL by his side twirls. “I guess it was too much to hope they wouldn’t find me here. Isn’t that right, Frisk?”

There might be a shrug, but the scientist doesn’t turn around. He makes a show of ignoring his visitor, continuing to tap patterns on his screen. “Even the darkest corners of the void aren’t safe from children. Especially children determined to stick their noses in other people’s business.”

“If I am, you are, too,” they point out.

He laughs despite himself. “I guess so. Then neither of us should be here, probably.”

They grin, triumphant, and he turns away from their face with a groan. “That wasn’t an invitation.”

They hum to themself, but let that one pass. “Know why I’m here?”

“You want to know how to break the simulation.”

“Yes.”

He snorts. “And why should I tell you? I’m still going to be stuck here.” The words sound unexpectedly bitter, and he flinches.

The SOUL nudges his fingers. Absentmindedly, he begins to stroke it. Frisk smiles. “Can fix it,” they say.

“‘You can fix it’?” he repeats incredulously. “Sorry if I sound a little skeptical, but I’ve tried everything, and I’m a trained mathematician, physicist, and Boss-level magician. You’re a child. What could possibly make you think you can succeed where I failed?”

“Determination.”

He laughs. “Don’t you get it yet? Right now, that’s not the solution. It’s a problem.” The reprimand fades, not-echoing into the nothingness, and he turns to face them properly for the first time.

To assess the damage.

The child in front of him looks only vaguely skeletal, but even that is an accomplishment given the liquid ease with which their skull is caving in. Their overlarge blue hoodie and long pants make it difficult to see the state of their bones, but judging from the way their phalanges keep dripping and reforming, and the way their shirt doesn’t seem to sit quite right, he’d say they’re already at the advanced stages of DT poisoning.

“It’s been three timelines,” he reminds them. “And just keeping your memories takes way more DT than any monster should generate. Now you’re trying to survive in the Void -- that’s more DT -- and complete quests? You’re going to kill yourself, Frisk.”

{I don’t care,} they try to sign, but their dripping fingers make the movements difficult. Narrowing their eyes, they repeat, “Don’t care. Have to.”

He shakes his head. “I can’t- I can’t speed your collapse like that. I refuse to make the same mistake the other me did.”

“Too late,” they say gravely. “Determined to fix -- you. World. Everything.”

“And you can’t just- you know. Stop??”

“No.”

He sighs, running a hand through the tuft on his head. “I guess there’s no choice, then.”

“Nope.”

“You do realize, of course, that something’s got to give?”

“No. I refuse.”

“The more determined you are, the quicker you’ll fall.”

“No.”

Against his will, the corners of his mouth seem to be turning up. “Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No!”

He laughs, caving despite his better judgement. “Alright,” he says. “I’ll help you break the simulation.”

“Promise?”

He knows the Reload will make their conversation irrelevant.

He knows they won’t remember when the world begins again.

But he promises anyway.