Two weeks. It's been two weeks since he had to kill Jason. He may have done it for the greater good, but he couldn't get his pleading final words out of his head. Just one more thing to add to his nightmares. Sans had just finished a meal at Grilby's when he noticed one of Muffet's spiders hanging over the door, waiting for him. He stood up, a bottle of ketchup in hand, and began to walk towards the door,
"just put it on my tab, grilby." He said, waving the bartender off as he began to fume. Sans stepped outside and stood off to the side, watching the spider climb down its web with a note trailing behind it. He plucked it from the silk thread and held it between his bony fingers. It was a simple message, scrawled across the paper in Muffet's handwriting.
Another "Half-Blood" has fallen.
Sans nearly dropped the note into the snow, his left eye already starting to glow blue. He put 10G and the note into the web before jumping into one of his "shortcuts", without even putting his bottle down, and landed right outside the doors to the Ruins. They were left wide open. Sans tried not to look in, but the trail of dust dragged his attention into the room. A pile of dust, along with a purple tunic, sat only a few feet from the doorway. Sans felt tears welling up in his eye sockets, and he dropped his bottle of ketchup. He didn't even flinch at the shattering glass.
"i'm sorry." He whispered, trying to keep himself together. He never got to see into the Ruins before this run, even in past timelines. The smells, the laughter…the voice. They were all gone now, because of Jason. He felt anger bubbling up inside him, and he punched the wall. Repeatedly. It wasn't until his bones threatened to crack did he finally let up, and he put his head against the wall, closing his eyes and letting his tears fall. Even with his preemptive strike, he wasn't able to save Toriel.
"Hello? Anybody home?" called a voice, somewhere deeper in the Ruins. Sans' eyes shot open, it was a higher pitched voice, and it sounded a little familiar. It sounded kinda like Frisk, only a bit…older.
'No…It can't be Frisk.' Sans thought to himself. It was WAY too early in the Underground's History for them to fall. It was too early for any of this to be happening, actually. He didn't have time to look into it, since the sound of footsteps were getting closer. He gritted his teeth in irritation. As a scientist, this was going to bother him until he figured it out. Something was wrong with the timelines…Horribly wrong, and he highly doubted it was Frisk this time...He needed to meet with a certain flower after this was over. If anybody would have an idea of what's going on, it would be Flowey.
"Hellooo?" called the voice again, this time much closer. He had to do something, but he didn't know what. Should he kill this one too? Or try and help them leave the Underground? He chuckled to himself, surprised at the thought, and shook his head. No, it's been a LONG time since he actively tried to lead someone back to the surface. That was part of his promise to his friend…His crush…Oh God, bad idea to think of her. He shook his head violently, forcing away the tears. He quickly shut that thought down. She was gone now, so that promise was no longer binding.
He decided to just wait for them, and see what happened. Sans leaned against a wall; eyes closed, with his hands in his hoodie pockets, listening to the approaching footsteps. As soon as they made it to the corridor leading out of the Ruins, they paused. Sans opened his eyes and looked over to find the owner of the footsteps. No doubt about it. This was one of the girls from "Camp Half-Blood", the one that was closest to Jason in the picture. He pushed himself off the wall and walked to stand between her and the doors,
"So I'm guessing you're not willing to let me just walk through, are you?' She called to him, folding her arms across her chest. She was dressed like a hiker, with boots and a jacket to match. Kind of reminded him of Gerson, actually, minus the hat. Sans was almost willing to believe that she simply fell by accident, if it weren't for the dagger strapped to her leg.
She must've been expecting to come across monsters.
He CHECKED her, just to be sure. Her name was Piper McLean; and sure enough, her SOUL was green with KINDNESS, but it had the same faint golden glow as Jason's did. Her LV and EXP were nowhere near as high, though. It was almost the same as Frisk's during a standard Neutral run. Maybe this was a human he could reason with, maybe even protect long enough to lead out of here…and in her house, he was going to honor her memory by trying. It was the least he could do.
"the name's sans, and i know who you are, piper mclean. i have no hatred for you. if you'd like, i can lead you out of here." Sans replied, his hands still in his pockets, showing that he wasn't interested in a fight. The girl didn't reach for her weapon right away, so Sans figured that was a good sign. He walked over and held out his hand for her to shake,
"on one condition" He said, waiting for her to reply.
'What's is it?" She asked distrustfully, her arms still crossed over her chest.
"you won't harm a single monster you come across. or i'll make you regret it." He stated, the glow completely removed from his eye sockets for a second before they returned. All the while, his smile never left his face She shuddered despite herself, the undead never were her favorite kind of monster. She looked grim for a moment, but she reluctantly reached to shake his hand…
PFFFFFFFFFFFFTTT!
Sans suddenly burst out laughing, holding the area where his stomach would be. Piper just stood there for a few seconds, completely confused. He was barely able to lift his head; he was laughing too hard. Eventually, even Piper began to laugh. He flipped his hand over, revealing a whoopee cushion nested in his palm,
"the ol' 'whoopee cushion in the hand' trick!" Sans said, finally regaining a bit of his composure. He straightened himself up, and put the whoopee cushion into his pocket. He fixed his hoodie to ensure the picture didn't fall out, then began to walk towards the exit. Last thing he needed was her to see the picture, and seek revenge.
"Where are we going?" Piper asked, following him from a safe distance. He shrugged,
"you want to get back to the surface, right?" Sans asked, looking at her over his shoulder. It's been awhile since he was a guide…he forgot how much he liked it, venturing with humans. He smiled a bit wider, and led her out of the Ruins onto the path to Snowdin Town. It was nice, helping out a lost stranger, especially one with a SOUL filled with KINDNESS.
Maybe the kind heart that was in Piper was what drew him to Frisk in the first place. When they were Pacifist, of course.
"What is this place?" She asked, looking around in awe. Despite being underground, there was a snowy forest stretching out before her. She listened to their feet crunching the snow, and inhaled deeply. This was strangely calming.
"this is the underground. it's where the monsters were forced to go when human magicians put up the barrier to keep us down here." Sans replied, spreading his hand over the landscape as if he was a tour guide. He stopped so suddenly that Piper crashed into him, nearly knocking him over. Before them lay a giant wound in the landscape, as if it was carved from a giant knife. This was where he killed Jason. Maybe it was just his conscience, but he could swear he could still see his blood decorating the snow. This wasn't good.
Sans gulped and quickly looked back to her,
"i'm gonna use a shortcut, okay?" He said, opening one up before she could even answer, and shoved her through. He hopped in after her and closed it. Before he knew it, they landed in shallow water, with the sound of rushing water echoing all around them. They were all the way in Waterfall.
Damn, he was better at that than he thought.
"What was that for?!" Piper snapped, holding her stomach like she was going to be horribly sick. Her legs were soaked, having landed on her knees, and she looked a little green. Sans shrugged again and began to walk onwards,
"helps me get around quicker." He replied, as if that was sufficient enough. She groaned and hunched over, gagging a bit. Sans forgot that humans had stomachs that, like, actually held food.
Oops.
Piper straightened herself up, thankfully without vomiting, and started to follow her skeletal guide. She didn't know monsters could be powerful enough to warp time and space like that. As far as she knew, only the Gods could do that…The thought sent a shiver through her body. No monster should have that much power. Thankfully; it seemed like her guide was a good monster, if not a bit lazy, but the jury was still officially out on that. Sans slowly began to hum to himself as they waded through the ankle deep water, but the echo carried it to her ears. It was a haunting melody, that nearly brought a tear to her eye. How could a monster know something so beautiful?
"What is that you're humming?" She asked softly, as if by talking louder, the song would vanish from existence.
"it's just a song i know, it's called 'it's raining somewhere else.' a friend of mine used to hum it while she worked." He replied casually, but Piper was good it reading undertones. The subject of that friend wasn't open to talk about. She gently reached over and placed her hand on the skeleton's shoulder, causing him to jump a foot out of his slippers. Despite the power this short monster had, she laughed right out loud, despite how insulting it would seem. At first he chuckled nervously, but it grew into genuine laughter as a few moments passed.
"Why so jumpy, Sans? You're just like Frisk." She giggled, causing him to freeze mid-laugh. He tried to cover it up by coughing. On the outside, he seemed just fine. Inside; however, he was doing his best to keep his emotions in check. Frisk, the Guardian Angel or the Angel of Death…was Piper a savoir from Genocide, or a delay of Freedom? He had to find out which version of the kiddo she met.
"who's frisk?" He asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
"They're this adorable kid I met earlier. Frisk was so jumpy...and great at dodging…nimble little sucker." She said the last bit a bit under her breath, as if that part irritated her. Sans chuckled, dodging was a very good sign. He kept walking ahead of her, that way she couldn't read his face, even with his permanent smile. Who knew what humans were capable of nowadays?
"were they happy? most humans who come here…aren't." He spat that last part like it held a bad taste in his mouth. He had seen many humans fall down here before, adults to be precise, and they all met with "unfortunate" accidents after they started hurting the weaker monsters. It's a shame he blew their SOULs to ashes as well, if he hadn't, they could've been free by now.
"I'd say so, yea." Piper responded, allowing Sans to slowly release a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He eventually made it past the dump where Alphys did most of her "anime shopping", and he paused when he noticed that Piper was staring at something in one of the heaps of garbage.
"hey pipes, you alright?" Sans asked, walking back to see what she was staring at. She fell to her knees, and pulled out a sword, covered with ash and dust, from the pile of trash. He recognized that weapon, because he was the one who hid it there, hoping he'd never have to see it again.
It was Jason's sword.
Author's Note: Wow…that's kinda a depressing way to end a chapter, don'tcha think? I'm sorry to all the Jason Grace fans, but he was honestly my LEAST favorite Heroes of Olympus characters, so killing him off was a staple for me from the beginning. Honestly, I think he serves a much better purpose as a SOUL to break the barrier than as a demigod…Just sayin'. Hope you all enjoy this.
Thanks for reading!
