The Doctor pondered how he was going to say goodbye this time. The Underground had been so welcoming to him…and here he was, running away to somewhere no-one would be able to follow, whether he liked it or not, once again. But this time…he had formed what everyone thought were to be lasting friendships. The kind and motherly face of Toriel, fiesty and energetic Undyne, Sans, with whom he sympathised so well, Alphys, who was a nerdy geek, simply put, Asgore the repaired king, and Papyrus. There was something about Papyrus that the Doctor just seemed to love. He wasn't sure if it was the way he spoke, or just how childlike he really was, he seemed like...a good mate.
If only, the Doctor thought, I hadn't allowed myself to become best mates with him. Now I have to say goodbye all over again.
The crunch of boots in the falling snow only accentuated his feelings further.
"Hello, Doctor!" Papyrus proclaimed cheerfully. The Doctor turned around, and smiled as if nothing was wrong, and waved back to him. "Allo. Taking one last look at your hometown, eh?" Papyrus stopped and took a look at the Snowdin landscape around him before answering: "Well, yes, now I am! But…Doctor. I thought you should know. Sans said he had something he wanted to talk to you about! So I thought, why not come and tell you myself, since my brother is so lazy!" The Doctor couldn't supress a smile. The two of them walked back through Snowdin together, until Papyrus pointed out a small clearing: "We were just sitting behind here…"
Sans turned around, slowly as he usually did, and smiled at the pair of them. "heya." The Doctor sat down by Sans, Papyrus slowly slinking out of sight. He had suspected this would be a hush-hush top secret private talk…but he didn't mind. He was used to his brother keeping secrets from him.
"so, time lord. i wanted to talk to you about something that might interest you." he said, turning to The Doctor. "you know how you keep talking about severed timelines? well, it's probably time i told you why they're there."
The Doctor's ears pricked up. He'd been too busy to actually investigate, and was now hoping secretly that there was still some unfinished buisness.
"i don't know about your world, but in our world, once humans fall into the underground, they can do something called a 'reset.' it's exactly what it sounds like, only worse. time doesn't just get rolled back to when they first enter the cavern. no. everyone gets ripped from this timeline, and placed into a new one."
The Doctor felt like he was in the Prydonian Academy all over again, learning about the universe. He felt a sinking kind of dread, however as he realised what that entailed.
"So that means anyone in the Underground can basically alter time and space without consequence?"
"yup. that's what it always teaches them, anyway. no consequences. always ends badly.-"
"It's not that. You can't just go altering timelines without some effect on the time space continuum. I'm surprised this world hasn't fallen apart already.
"welp. thanks for that."
"This is serious. This kind of thing is what my people endlessly worked to try and prevent. This kind of meddling with time and space itself can't go without some kind of effect."
"interesting. but what i really wanted to tell you is…i've been worried at the moment. every time the world is freed from the underground, they just reset it back to nothing. i've seen it again and again. so just…tell me when."
"I've told you, Sans. This kind of thing goes against the laws of time and space itself. The last thing I want to do is stretch the problem further. I'm not going to reset."
"that's what they all tell me."
"Just trust me on this one."
"ok. whatever you say, doctor."
The two of them met Papyrus outside the clearing, who had been waiting patiently, and trying not to listen, but he could already tell that what they were talking about he wouldn't have wanted to hear. Sans looked more sullen than before, and The Doctor looked…almost scared. When the Doctor was scared…that meant no end of trouble was coming.
"So…do you guys want to go join the rest of the monsters at the barrier?" asked the Doctor, trying to change the subject off of nothing at all.
Sans said he'd find a shortcut, and seemed to disappear into the background. Papyrus said he'd walk with the Doctor, saying goodbye to his brother and asking him again how the heck he did that. Sans only answered with a subtle wink, and everyone left the clearing. Only the snow whirled where they once stood…
Snowdin seemed more peaceful than ever before, with the almost entire city gone to rejoice at the capital. The best part was, some of the lights were still on, giving the town an almost cartoonish feel. Papyrus was chattering about everything he would do on the surface, which included riding a large car…wind in his hair? Very strange, thought the Doctor, very strange. The Doctor talked about his ship, how his life went, and the things he'd seen, the people he'd met- Papyrus was quite entranced by his stories. Being a monster himself, he wasn't so ignorant of stories of life high above the sky he'd never seen.
"So, basically, I was lying in bed, my friend was screaming in my ear, and I woke up, what do I see? A robotic Christmas tree rampaging through their house. I managed to turn it off with my sonic screwdriver before collapsing back into bed. And you know what the best part was?"
"What?" gasped Papyrus, who'd had no idea that humans considered Christmas trees to be so dangerous.
"The entire time, the tree- someone had retrofitted it with a speaker- the tree was playing 'Silent- what?"
The Doctor stopped in his tracks as something appeared directly in front of him. It was the reset screen.
"What? WHAT."
"Did you do that?..." asked Papyrus, attempting to touch the holographic screen, "…Or does that thing come up by itself?"
"No, no, it definitely doesn't. Either it was involuntary, accidental, or someone's trying to make me reset."
"Well, they're not doing a very good job of it!" said Papyrus, dismissing the reset screen, and laughing the situation off.
"Unless…" mused the Doctor, inspecting the area where the screen was. "The act of preparing to reset has an effect anyway!" he snapped suddenly, whipping out his sonic screwdriver like a reflex, but this time, he turned to Papyrus and whispered a harsh, well-kept whisper:
"Don't tell Sans I'm doing this."
The Doctor opened the reset screen, voluntarily this time, and immediately started scanning the hologram with his sonic screwdriver. The whine coming from the machine dipped and frayed more and more as the pulsing light at the end got closer to the Reset button. When that gave no results, he whipped out a pair of 3D glasses and put them on and peered closer and closer to the reset screen.
"3D glasses! I normally wear those to be cool! Are you trying to be cool while you investigate?" whispered Papyrus, trying not to break the Doctor's concentration.
"Yeah, they're cool, you might say, but it also allows me to see…Void stuff!..." the Doctor replied, recoling backwards as he realised what he was seeing.
"Void…stuff?"
"Void stuff. The Void is the space between dimensions, and Void Stuff is what comes out of the Void when there's a breach. Why didn't I put on these things before!? Every time someone even tries to reset, it creates a small breach in this dimension. Those breaches become bigger and bigger until-"
The Doctor motioned an explosion with one hand.
"Bang. They open fully and whatever's been hiding out in the Void can come through. Someone's in the void and trying to get out, or they're trying to let someone else out!"
Papyrus just stood there, dumbfounded, until he snatched the Doctor's 3D glasses, and took a look for himself.
"Wooow!...Is this…Void Stuff?" he gasped, turning to the Doctor, and pointing at what to the naked eye would seem to be nothing at all.
"Yep. Wait, just tell me, how much of it is there?"
"Quite a bit. Doctor, this is so cool!" he replied, looking still closer.
"Definitely not cool. Everytime a Reset screen opens, more and more energy is being drawn into the Void to prepare the world for…who knows what…."
The Doctor closed the Reset screen before the already existing breach grew wider still, and ran from the scene, Papyrus running close behind, asking so many questions the Doctor almost couldn't cope with all of them.
Finally, as they ran under the giant mountain, still scarred by broken spears and the heat of battle, the Doctor stopped in his tracks. "I think we need to go see your resident time expert about this." he said, panting from all the running.
The reset screen appeared again, this time with the reset button placed exactly where the Doctor's hand had been.
"No, no, no, no, NO!" the Doctor screamed, closing the Reset screen. Papyrus whirled around, wondering what on Earth was the matter. "Whoever is up there trying to make me Reset, then those tricks won't work on me!-" he continued. "Papyrus, we definitely need to see your brother!…"
"So, basically, the reset screen keeps appearing without my input at all. Worse, when you even consider resetting, this…reset construct channels energy into the Void, the space between dimensions to open up. Someone or something is trying to get the world to collapse into this Void." the Doctor explained to Sans, trying to communicate his problem as simply as possible. Sans simply shrugged.
"welp, if you're asking me who's done it, i can't say for sure. my best guess is the flower, if he's still alive."
"I wasn't asking you who's done it. I just wanted to let you know."
Sans nodded, and went on with his day. The skeleton house was filled with nothing but cardboard boxes. Only the sofa remained. Papyrus was in his room meticulously trying not to put even a scratch on his Extra Rare Shiny Mettaton Figurine. It was a curious scene. Two different species sitting on little cardboard boxes talking about such things as the space-time continuum.
The two skeletons were planning to leave for the surface tomorrow. After all they had done, after all they'd been through, they deserved a rest, and were offering the Doctor one at their place as well, albeit on the couch. The Snowed Inn was long abandoned.
Midnight. The Doctor heard a low hum, just for half a second. He immediately woke up, looked around, and saw nothing. He dismissed it as being something else, and went back to sleep.
Once morning came, the Doctor felt like he'd just regenerated. He couldn't fully wake up for at least half an hour, even with the skeleton brothers clattering around behind him.
"See, Sans, my friend showed me these amazing glasses! He was talking about some kind of, weird Void thing, but when I look at some things through them…they have this cool green stuff coming off them!" Papyrus was babbling again, following his brother around the house. Sans was preparing to go buy some supplies for the surface: ("Did you want a sunhat, Papyrus?" "YES!") and The Doctor was attempting to make his own breakfast using only flour, ketchup, noodles, and garlic…
"Might not do your stomach good if you use that too often, mate." mentioned the Doctor, looking upon Papyrus with glee. Ever since the incident with the Reset screen, he was obsessed with the 3D glasses. He was staggering around the kitchen counter, desperately trying to find something. The Doctor had to supress a laugh when someone seriously stated "So why doesn't my fridge have green stuff coming off it?".
It felt almost like he had a companion again.
But no, he thought, shaking off the thought like a bug clinging to his arm. No, he would never last in the TARDIS.
"Hey, Doctor! I finally found something!"
"…Show me?"
Papyrus was staring intently at, of all things, the couch. "It's got the green stuff, Doctor! I've found some!"
"I've actually had…Void Stuff on me at one point. No, no, that doesn't work. Void Stuff can't be passed on to something that hasn't gone through the Void…."
The Doctor finally found the strength to get up.
"Do you mind if I move the couch?" he asked, cocking his head to one side, and testing his aching legs. He kept glancing back at the couch.
"Oh, allow me!" Papyrus replied, immediately pushing the couch to one side with enormous strength- wait, no. He moved it a couple of inches, before the Doctor came to help him push. The couch went crash straight into a collection of cardboard boxes. The Doctor recoiled at the sound, but Papyrus reassured him that it was fine. ("Never to worry! Those just had our cooking and cushions inside!") The Doctor peered over the side of the cushion. "Okay, check if the Void stuff has moved or- No."
Staring him in the face like an unsolvable clue lay the Reset screen. It gently flickered, taunting the Doctor with its innocence. "NO!" he yelled, amazed, instantly turning it off, glancing about him for glaring errors in the surroundings. He took the glasses from Papyrus, who at this point was completely gobsmacked, and stared at the spot where the hologram had been. "Whoever's doing this obviously isn't just some random glitch in the system. Papyrus, check the house. I'll monitor the area! Something might have come through- that rift was open all night! Tell me immediately if you see anything, I'll come!"
There was agonizing silence as Papyrus ran off to check every nook and cranny of the house.
"Doctor?...There's someone in Sans' bedroom."
The Doctor ran up the stairs, hugging the railings in an attempt to get up as fast as possible. He ran towards the door, intending to hold back Papyrus, but it was too late.
Papyrus had already gone in.
"Excuse me, metal man! You are tresspassing! How did you get in here? Explain yourself!" proclaimed Papyrus, with two parts arrogance, one part fear. He trembled slightly as he spoke, but desperately tried to stay confident in the face of this stranger.
"GET BACK!" yelled the Doctor, pushing Papyrus behind his brown coat. He didn't want to believe what had come through. Once again, he was bringing destruction in his wake.
A Cyberman stood before them both.
The Cyberman pointed at the door, and The Doctor heard the click of a lock. Papyrus turned straight around and started fumbling with the handle- with no success. The Doctor and the Cyberman stood eye to eye. His only weapon now were his words.
"So tell me, Cyberman. How did you end up here?"
The Cyberman's metallic voice program booted up, still staring the Doctor in the face with no emotion. "We did not choose this place. The breaches in your world took one Cyberform into the new area."
"Interesting. Very interesting. Now I know what you're going to do next…blame it on me, The Doctor, opening the breach. But that wasn't me. That was somebody else. Do you have any idea who that was?"
"We do not know of any other information."
"There was someone behind all this." whispered the Doctor, quickly and quietly transferring his sonic screwdriver into his hand- "someone who handed the vital key to you behind their back." – he forced it out out of the back out of his clasped hands, waving it from side to side- "and quietly unlock the last door to your freedom" – Papyrus took the sonic screwdriver and instantly knew what to do – "and then you and your companions can finally –
The lock clicked once again. "Doctor! It worked!-"
"-escape! Anyway. Questions over! Bye!"
The doorknob banged against the wall. Papyrus and the Doctor ran straight down the corridor, practically slid down the banisters, landing in a mess of cardboard boxes. "Clever plan, Doctor! Clever plan!" yelled Papyrus, enjoying the adventure, picking up a particularly large piece of cardboard, and waving it frantically, while the Doctor unlatched the front door and collapsed through it out straight into the freezing wind, the Cyberman in hot pursuit. Papyrus stood outside, panting, but the Doctor grabbed his hand, and whispered into his ear what he had whispered to so many before.
"Run."
The Cyberman was blinded by flying snow as their charges got away. There was no chance of him ever returning back to the Void, he knew. There was no purpose other than to convert. They gripped the Cyber-Conversion pods in his hand. The chase will begin.
"I need to confine or disable this metal man so it doesn't take anyone else. I need you to go. I need you to go back to your brother where you're safe." the Doctor protested. They had run, far, far away, through the hidden paths and rivers of Snowdin and Waterfall, running and running just as the Doctor always did. Papyrus bombared the Doctor with questions, gripping the Doctor's hand as tightly as he gripped his. The Doctor kept glancing backwards to see if his friend was alright, and every time he responded with a grin, as if he didn't know about the danger they were both in….did he not notice the clanking echoing through the cavern? Did he not notice the wobbling network of slat bridges?...Or was he just smiling to reassure him?...
"Papyrus…I've got your back." he said, smiling back, and switched places with Papyrus on the narrow bridge. Several shots flew past the Doctor, the two of them copying each other's ducks and evasions….but it was only a matter of time…only a matter of time…time, time, he didn't have enough time. Eventually the Cyberman would get used to the constantly changing center of gravity and began shooting far more accurately. Why did he have to drag anyone, let alone Papyrus, into this situation? "Faster!" he yelled.
The Cyberman noticed that none of his shots were hitting. It was time for a different approach. He looked straight down at the oscillating bridge, and shot five shots straight at the rope of the bridge.
The bridge collapsed, and in half a second, the two of them were hanging on from two fragile slats of the bridge. The Cyberman had dropped, and only managed to cling on with vice-like grip about fifty slats down the now fallen bridge. He was scrambling up with vervor…The Doctor looked at their predicament: the both of them were in danger if they didn't get out of there fast: to hold on much longer would be impossible.
"Go up. I can deal with this myself." the Doctor gasped. The rough slats of the bridge were slippery and covered in splinters, hurting his hands, impossible to be gripped by his shoes. The gaps were too thin for them to fit. He only had raw determination to keep him up there…"I can't put my shoes in. You can…create…bone platforms…can't you?..."
Papyrus found the strength in his neck to look down at the Doctor, who appeared to be gasping for breath. "…Leave you here?..." Papyrus gasped, looking at the Doctor in disbelief. He freed his left hand from the gap between the slats, and prepared to cast his magic…
The Doctor sensed something appearing below his feet.
"No! Underneath YOU!" the Doctor protested, who hadn't let go of the bridge despite the safety net.
"Are you implying I just sacrificed myself for you?..." muttered Papyrus, looking sullen. "Well, you're wrong!."
"PAPYRUS, DON'T LET GO!-"
"The Great Papyrus does not sacrifice himself for anyooooooone!-"
Papyrus let go of the bridge and practically cannonballed onto the platform he had made, and the bones beneath the both of them started the creak and strain. The Doctor grabbed Papyrus and Papyrus grabbed the Doctor, and Papyrus pointed his hand to the sky. The bone platform, which at this point was ready to break, rushed up into the cavern sky, the Cyberman following in suit.
"That's the spirit!" yelled the Doctor, impressed with Papyrus' verve, while keeping an eye on the rapily advancing Cyberman. Shocked at how quickly the Cyberman was ascending, he pointed his sonic screwdriver at the ropes of the bridge and turned it up to full power (Papyrus blocked his ears.) and the bridge collapsed beneath the Cyberman, plummeting it into the abyss below. The Doctor watched it fall into the abyss below- there goes my hope of investigating the cause, he thought. Wait, no.
"Are you able to direct this platform downwards?" asked the Doctor as politely as possible.
"Why on earth would you want to do that?"
"Investigation."
"Alright, Doctor…"
It took a full five minutes before the reached the bottom on the chasm. The Cyberman lay there in a pile of rocks and rubbish, sparking. Papyrus elected to stay on the bone platform, ready to go back up as soon as possible. He probably doesn't want to ruin his boots, he thought.
To his dismay, the Cybermen had developed new technology since he had last seen them. Some of them must have made sacrifices for them to build new technology. And worse, what the Cyberman seemed to be holding were conversion pods. A prototype to a living Cybermite, it seemed they had been preparing to go to this dimension for a long time, even if they didn't open the door. Tactfully, he removed the Cyberman's inner hard drive, and using the inbuilt screen, navigated to the orders folder. ORD-349 held a .txt file. Nothing more. He read it, poring over the words.
"Breaches have been made in a particular world. We are unsure about who. World is broken to such a degree, Cyberforms could use it as a terminal to other dimensions. Investigate once breaches are full. "
A terminal. The Undertale world was that badly broken. The Cyberman were coming not to convert, but take it over and use it convert dimensions otherwise unreachable. One Cyberman was dead. Knowing Cybermen, that wouldn't be enough to put them off.
Shaken by the discovery, the Doctor and his friend ascended to safe ground, the Doctor taking an arm with him. He made sure it was the blaster arm...
The capital was buzzing with joy as the Doctor and Papyrus pushed their way through the crowd of monsters celebrating their freedom. If only I could feel the same way, the Doctor thought…Podiums were placed all over the town square ready for King Asgore to make his speeches to the jubiliant masses. Already, the Doctor could see the castle. It was strangely empty, probably so that the Queen and the King could have a bit of downtime together- as if.
As the Doctor entered the barrier, he was greeted by…well, greetings, and inquiries of 'what took you two so long?' Undyne looked almost impressed with the state they were both in: wet, a bit dirty, and the Doctor with almost raw hands. "Did you hear? There's some activists who don't want to leave the underground. Did you get in a fight with them!?" she exclaimed, hoping for the affirmative answer. "Much worse than THAT." Papyrus replied, and he was soon telling Undyne all about what just happened to him and the Doctor.
Sans went over to join the conversation without anyone noticing, as he always did. He noticed what they were talking about…and wasn't very satisfied.
The Doctor managed to sneak away from the group of monsters, and walked into the judgement hall. There it was, behind the last pillar on the left.
His TARDIS.
Would he leave now without saying goodbye, or…should he say a farewell? He always hated this bit. It didn't take much to leave a planet without taking credit for saving it. But he didn't keep running without some regrets. He leaned against the door of his TARDIS, contemplating everything that just happened: the Cybermen, the plan, the danger this world was in…when something snapped him out of his reverie.
Again, boots. Boots on a limestone floor this time. Papyrus was staring in awe at what the Doctor had explained was a 'ship'. It wasn't like any ship he'd ever read about…for one thing, it certainly wouldn't float.
"Oh, 'allo. I was just going to pop into my ship so I can hopefully fix the reset glitch." he said, smiling cheerily, and went into his TARDIS. Papyrus followed on behind him. That was when he found out the inevitable.
"What the-"
Papyrus hugged the side of the door, checking outside and in the Tardis to see if it was some kind of trick, measuring all four sides, and even checking for a back entrance. Eventually he just gasped like a fish, and sat down on one of the large TARDIS chairs, exasperated.
"It's…It's…"
The Doctor prepared for, once again, the inevitable.
"It's bigger on the inside!"
They always said that. Rose, Martha, Donna, everyone said it! It was pretty amazing how everyone chose that phrase instead of 'it's smaller on the outside."
"So…this is a ship?! A spaceship?!"
"Yep. It's called the TARDIS. Quite unreliable, but I still love her."
"Unreliable?..."
"Last Type 40 TARDIS in the universe. See, I just…run, you know? Go from place to place, never knowing where I go next."
"You don't have any home?"
"Well, other than my TARDIS, no."
"I can only imagine how lonely you must be!..."
The Doctor couldn't shake the feeling that what he was saying was completely true. No matter how much he denied it, no matter how much he detested them breaking his hearts…the Doctor needed companions. Companions to keep him in check, companions to ward off the loneliness and the rememberance that he was the last of his kind. He'd become friends with Papyrus because…he just felt he needed one.
The question was, should he return the favor?
"I see what you're getting at, Papyrus. You want to travel with me, right?" he said, leaning on the console.
"Well, I did alright against the metal guy!"
"I suppose so, but, we don't deal in fights with just one Cyberman here. Life in the TARDIS is dangerous. Really dangerous. I don't just pick anyone."
"I am not just anyone, Doctor!"
Be fair on him, the Doctor was thinking. You picked up an old shop girl and all she did was run when you told her to run, and I don't think she even asked to be in the TARDIS. This guy's got magic powers, is pretty good with hidden instructions and on top of that already has armor on. Give him a chance, Doctor. Give him a chance.
"Well…we might have to go see your brother about this."
"look. if he leaves now, he will never be able to see the sky."
"Oh, he'll see so much more than the sky. Trust me, this thing can go anywhere."
"welp. let me get this straight. my brother wants you to whisk him off in this tardis of yours for a heck of a long time, and into some possibly fatal situations. you expect me to just wait at home worrying about him?" Sans was protesting. The Doctor wasn't winning the argument. Time to play the final card.
"It can travel in time as well."
"prove it." Sans replied.
There was a pause. What would he bring back this time?
"Hey, Sans! I was planning to make a new kind of spaghetti for my leaving party!" Papyrus shouted back to the two of them from the kitchen. How convenient, thought the Doctor. This would be amusing.
The Doctor walked back into the TARDIS, and let it dematerialize. The two skeleton brothers had two completely different reactions: Papyrus was absolutely horrified, while Sans was anticipating a gift from beyond time itself.
The TARDIS immediately rematerialized behind Sans- he was holding something behind his hand, and quietly slipped it to him. Sans smiled again, a real smile this time- there was a new kind of spaghetti, undoubtedly terrible but still spaghetti. Spaghetti from the future. The Doctor put a finger to his mouth.
Sans made a note of the date and time. "welp. bring him back 'tomorrow', if you know what i mean." The Doctor smiled, and said a quiet 'yep.' He turned to Papyrus, ready for anything. "He says yes!"
The house practically exploded with Papyrus' excitement, he slid down the banister cheering 'YES! YES! YES!', Sans was sitting there thinking "So this is what woud have happened if he got let into the Royal Guard…" and The Doctor was beaming. He had never seen someone so happy to be allowed into his TARDIS, perhaps tied with Donna. "Come on, let's GO, let's GO!" Papyrus yelled, grabbing spare scarf after spare scarf off of the shelves of his room.
The Doctor turned to Sans. He was beckoning for the Doctor to come closer. "What?" he mumbled, turning to him.
"i'll let him go with you, doctor. but if papyrus does not come back alive-"
Sans' eyes went blacker than the night and his voice gained a hollow growl.
"I will give you a bad time."
Back in the TARDIS, the hat rack had been completely emptied. The ancient astrakhan that had been lying there for what was safe to say quite a while finally collapsed in on itself. The Panama hat with the multicoloured band was too tacky, and the other one with the red band was far too plain. Away they went. The fez just fell off and looked stupid. The fedora, however…
"Looks brilliant." said the Doctor with a hint of laughter in his voice.
"And of course, the Great Papyrus does not wear any hat without a jaunty tilt!"-...