Papyrus groaned as he slowly became aware of his surroundings. He heard muffled chatter off to the side, it was too low for him to understand. Things went quiet as he began to move and he felt a gentle furry hand rest against his bones. "Careful young one, allow yourself to become more aware before you begin moving" a gentle voice soothed the skeleton. He blinked his sockets open and looked up at the figure who was bent over him. He stared in confusion as the face of a goat like monster peered down at him.
"Your majesty? When did you shave your beard?" he asked in confusion causing the figure above him to blink in surprise then let out a laugh.
"I believe you have me confused for someone else my friend, I am Toriel" the monster spoke as Papyrus slowly sat up.
"So… you are not king Asgore? Huh… that would explain why you sound different" Papyrus mused as he pushed himself to his feet "it is a pleasure to meet you Lady Toriel, I am the Great Papyrus, soon to be member of the royal guard". He gave the monster a bow causing her to laugh softly.
"it is a pleasure to meet you as well Papyrus… though I wish it could have been under more pleasant circumstances" Toriel said, her smile slowly fading causing Papyrus to blink in confusion and let out a small nyeh of concern.
"I do not understand Lady Toriel, what circumstances do you speak of?" the skeleton asked curiously. Toriel let out a soft sad sigh and asked "what is the last thing you remember?".
Papyrus blinked then frowned as he thought "um… I remember a human? And we were partaking in some splendid puzzles. Or well… we would have had they not simply passed them by with no interest… they acted so strangely. I wanted them to know how much I believed in them… we had a discussion about their actions and… the rest is fuzzy". His hand absently rubbed at his throat as he looked around. He spotted quite a few monsters gathered about. He noticed that almost all of the royal guard was there too. Other than that though they were surrounded by never ending blackness. "where… are we?" He asked uncertainly.
Toriel sighed and shook her head "I have no answer for you Papyrus. All I can say is every monster who is here… has fallen to the child's hands".
Papyrus blinked in surprise "f-fallen? What do you mean, surely not fallen as in…".
Toriel gave him a sad look "we were all turned to dust Papyrus, we have watched them from this place… I am sorry dear".
Papyrus held a lost look as he glanced around them once again "so… we are all… dead? But… there was so much I needed to do. I was going to become a royal guard… we were going to break the barrier… Sans and I were going to see the outside… Sans… oh goodness Sans… I've… I've left him alone! He needs me, I can't be dead!". Papyrus went from lost to panicked. Toriel pulled him into a hug to keep the distraught skeleton from freaking out.
"Hush now dear, I am sure Sans is doing well and is taking care of himself; do not fret" she shushed as she rocked him. Papyrus clung to the woman and allowed himself a moment to take in her comfort.
"You said you have watched the human from here… is there any way to watch someone else?" Papyrus asked as he pulled back. The goat monster shook her head and sighed.
"Many have tried to look in on their families but the image only allows us to follow the human" she explained as she led him over to what looked like a window. On the other side Papyrus watched the human make their way through waterfall, killing every monster they came across. After each monster turned to dust they reappeared in this black space; as confused and disoriented as he had been.
It took almost no time at all for them to make their way to the border that laid between waterfall and hotland. Much to everyones horror, monster kid confronted the human. Without any empathy the human struck out.
Just in time Undyne managed to take the hit. "Undyne no!" Papyrus cried out in shock. She told monster kid to run and reluctantly they did so. After the kid left Undyne slowly started to crumble. The monsters watched in horror and sorrow as their hero was dying. Suddenly she stopped. Everyone was astounded as Undyne refused to die, her determination too strong. They watched as her body transformed, turning her into an unstoppable killing machine.
They cheered her on as she fought the human, her attacks and strength more ferocious than ever. The battle was fierce and with each hit all monsters were on the edge of their seat. Cries of dismay rang out as the human cast the final attack. They watched as the heroin of the underground slowly died, her dust scattering to the wind.
There was a commotion as suddenly the very monster they were mourning appeared before them. Many exclamations rang out as Undyne was buried under all her admirers. Papyrus pushed his way to the center of the commotion. "UNDYNE!!!" Papyrus cried out as he tackle hugged the captain.
"Gah!" she grunted as the others weight crashed into her, toppling her back down "alright you big nerd! Get off!". Papyrus released her and sat back, letting Undyne sit up and take everything in "you got some explaining to do, like how we're all here and where here is".
"we don't know Undyne, we all woke up here just like you did now after confronting the human…. Your fight was astounding" Papyrus told her. Undyne got to her feet and walked over to the window, watching the human make their way through hotland. Clenching a fist she slammed it into the window, it didn't even rattle.
She growled as she watched the human encounter rg 1 and rg 2, killing both easily. Those same guards ended up in the dark world with the rest of them. They watched as the human had no trouble taking out muffet and mettaton, adding to their numbers. "Damn, there's only Asgore left to stand in their way, let's hope he listened to Alphys and absorbed the souls" Undyne grumbled as she glared at the screen.
The human traversed through Asgore's house. Everyone watched as flowey followed and talked to the human. "Whose the flower?" Undyne said with a huff. Papyrus watched in disbelief "i… but I always thought he was a nice flower… why would he want us to hurt?".
Toriel gasped and placed her hand over her mouth as she listened to flowey "A-Asriel?...". Undyne turned to give her a look "you mean Asgore's dead kid? That's what that thing is?". Flowey realized they were as doomed as everyone else, running away in fright. "Not much longer now" Undyne said solemnly as the human entered the judgement hall leading to the throne room.
They all watched as the human walked the length of the hall, the anticipation growing. Suddenly the human stopped and a ruckus went up among the monsters as they saw who stood in the humans way. "SANS NO!! RUN!" Papyrus exclaimed in horror as he saw his brother stare the human down. "Is your brother crazy? I couldn't even defeat that brat! What, is he gonna throw his slipper?" Undyne exclaimed in annoyance. Papyrus listened to the very words that he spoke leave his brothers mouth, leaving him with the realization Sans was there when he had died; his brother had seen and heard everything.
Papyrus watched his brothers eye lights go out and a sudden chill went up his spine as a bad feeling began to grow in his non existent gut. "oh Sans" Toriel said sadly as he mentioned the promise she made him give. Everyone watched as the scene went from peaceful talk of the weather to hell in five seconds flat. Lots of exclamations rang out as Sans first attack decimated the human.
"WHAT THE HELL!!!! SINCE WHEN HAS YOUR BROTHER HAD THAT KIND OF FIRE POWER!!!!" Undyne snarled, shaking Papyrus "HE COULD HAVE BEEN PART OF THE ROYAL GUARD!!!".
"U-Und-dy-yne ple-ease s-sto-op" Papyrus said dizzily. Undyne stopped and grunted in disgust, dropping him and turning back to the fight. They all watched as the human came back from practically dying and the fight once again resumed. This repeated many times, the human dying only to come back wiser and quicker, dodging more and more. They were astounded by Sans words. His talk of time lines and the end of their universe all because of one human with too much power.
Papyrus listened sadly to his brother as he talked about not caring any more, about having given up a long time ago. He had known Sans was hiding something from him, the other unhappier than he had ever seen him. He hadn't realized it had gotten this bad. Things grew more and more hectic. Everyone watched in amazement as Sans attacks grew more and more crazy.
Papyrus watched his brother worriedly, he could see this was wearing out the lazy skeleton; fighting just wasn't his brother's style but it seemed he could do so if absolutely necessary. Sans began speaking of a special attack and everyone grew frenzied as the fight wore on. The final attack was the most intense of them all, so much happening so fast; no one could keep up. As the attack ended Sans stood there panting and sweating.
Nothing happened for a long time and everyone grew tense, waiting. After Sans admitted his special attack was nothing you could practically hear the entire underground face palming at such a lazy move. Papyrus watched in horror as Sans slowly fell asleep. "No Sans stay awake!" He cried out, banging on the window. Once the human was sure Sans was asleep they took a swing at him. Papyrus cringed, waiting.
Sans dodged and was in the middle of gloating when he was suddenly stricken. Papyrus went from relieved to horrified in seconds, watching red drip from his brother. "is he bleeding?" Undyne whispered in awe, monsters didn't bleed so the sight was astounding. Sans stumbled off behind a pillar, asking a Papyrus who wasn't there if he wanted something from Grillby's. Papyrus let out a choked cry as he heard the sound of Sans dissolving out of sight.
There was a commotion as the other skeleton brother slowly appeared in the black void. Papyrus once again shoved his way through and tackled Sans "BROTHER!!!". Sans was disoriented and shaken, his dead brother was hugging him after his own death by human hands. He slowly hugged back and the two gripped each other tightly. The crowd decided to give them some form of privacy and backed away.
"Sans why did you fight the human, you should have stayed away, stayed safe" Papyrus demanded.
"And what? Live the rest of my days in an empty mountain? Just waiting till the day I finally dust? Fuck that" he said sharply as he gripped Papyrus face "without you in the world there is no point sticking around… besides, they'll reset… they always do… we'll be alive again after they kill Asgore and we'll go back to square one… I'm so sick of this Paps… watching you die over and over… it's hell".
Papyrus stared at his brother then pulled him into another bone crushing hug "I don't understand any of this but so long as we have each other we will be okay". After a long hug they pulled back and simply sat there a moment, enjoying each others presence. After a while Sans spoke up "so why are we in the void? I don't remember any of this".
"you know this place brother?" Papyrus asked curiously. Before Sans could answer, Asgore appeared causing a large uproar. Sans didn't pay this much attention, his focus was on their surroundings. No body noticed but he could see movement in the shadows. Sans pulled out of Papyrus hold much to the taller's displeasure. He walked toward the shadow with Papyrus calling after him.
Sans stopped a few feet away, Papyrus on his tail. "you did this, didn't you? You're why everyone is here in the void" he spoke, confusing Papyrus. A figure appeared from the dark, startling Papyrus. The figure seemed melted, their misshapen body unable to hold a solid form. "thank you Gaster" Sans said softly, staring sadly at his old friend "I'm trying to fix the machine, I'm trying to bring you back… it's hard with a kid constantly resetting time".
The dark figure wobbled and wavered, letting out a strange sound. Sans gave him a small smile and nodded, watching Gaster slowly meld back into the dark. After a long moment of quiet Papyrus spoke up "brother? Who was that? Did he bring us here?".
Sans was quiet a moment longer before turning and heading back to the group of monsters "it's nothing Paps, come on, the kid is just about done then we can all go back and forget this happened".
"you mean everyone but you will forget" Papyrus said lowly, causing Sans to freeze. Papyrus walked up to Sans and hugged him "I don't want to forget brother".
"Sorry Paps… that's just the way this works" Sans said lowly, his head hanging and eye sockets closed "don't worry about it bro… I'm used to it by now". Papyrus let out a desolate nyeh and hugged Sans tighter. There was a static sound that slowly grew louder. "I'll see you when you wake up bud" Sans said as everything went white.