Sans was sleeping at his guard post that stood along the path toward Snowdin. He was getting a well-deserved rest after today's events. There wasn't a reason to go out today. For one reason, the storm outside his post seemed to be getting worse and worse with each passing hour, and besides, he knew that Frisk would be alright with Pap watching her. Pap was really taking to Frisk after that little scuffle of theirs, and to be honest, the kid was really starting to grow on him too.
'No doubt Pap's cooking some of that spaghetti of his.' San's recoiled at the thought of eating that stuff. 'At least he's improving… I think.' Sans probed his feet up onto the window of the guard post, slowly leaning in his chair as he did this. A few hours pasted and the storm didn't seem to let up in the slightest.
Suddenly something disturbed Sans. He sat up in his chair. There was something amiss, he could feel it in his bones. 'Something must be wrong with the timeline' he thought. It was brief but something lingered. 'Whatever it is it's still here.' That thought disturbed Sans, he knew that multiple timelines came and went running parallel to each other, but they never intersected with one another, and this rift was different, more violent than any he had ever encountered. He let the thought go and tried to pick up where he left off on his nap, that odd feeling still clung to him as he leaned back into his chair.
He awoke a couple hours later, his eye sockets scanned the perimeter of the guard post through the windows. The storm had worsened to the point that he could no longer see past 10 yards in either direction down the path that headed to the ruins nor the one leading into the town of Snowdin. That feeling in his bones hadn't left him and he began to feel both intrigued and worried as to what had possibly entered the underground. It was an unexpected and unknown variable that had been thrown into this timeline, and he didn't like it. 'If whatever entered the timeline entered the underground too, then it has to either come down the path from the ruins or through the woods. Probably the woods. There's no way anything could go through the woods in a storm like this. Right?' He began to scan the path toward the ruins, waiting for whatever entered the underground to pass by the guard post. He began to worry. 'The only way something could enter the rest of the underground was through that door in the ruins.' On the other side of that door was someone who San's had enjoyed sharing his puns with, a friend, someone he made a promise to.
He began to hear a metallic clinking off into the distance in the direction of the ruins. San's thought to himself, 'if whatever this is thinks it can just walk in here and terrorize the underground, it's going to have a bad time.' He couldn't just let this thing into Snowdin. He couldn't just let this thing hurt Pap and Frisk, along with all the other monsters living there. He began to walk outside of his post, making ready for a fight with this otherworldly creature. The metallic noise began to near, its clinking becoming more and more audible as it drew closer to San's. Then, a figure emerged out of the fog and falling snow. It was dressed head to toe in a type of armor, its eyes barely visible out of the slits of the iron helm that it wore on its head, a brown, tattered scarf that it wore around its neck flailed madly in the roaring wind. It had a long-blacked shield in its left hand, an odd and faded design covered most of the iron on the front side of this shield. A scabbard, hooked onto the belt of the figure, had an intricate design made of a golden thread. The helm that stuck out of the scabbard, was blackened, its handle was wrapped in what appeared to be horns of some ancient beast. The armor figure stared at Sans in the middle of the pathway, seemingly awaiting a response. Sans could feel the EXP radiating off the figure. 'Whatever this thing is, this doesn't seem to be its first rodeo. Just play it cool and wait for the right moment.' He thought to himself as he eyed the figure standing across from him in the pathway.
"so, what gives, you've got a reason to be down here big guy?" The skeleton said, his eyes narrowing toward the opening in the helmet, looking for a way to read the hulking, seemingly murderous mass of metal standing before him.
The figure continued to stare at the skeleton for a brief moment before reaching into a pocket attached from his belt with his free hand, producing a notebook and a pencil. He rested the iron shield onto the snow and leaning against the figure's left shoulder and began scribbling something down onto a page in the booklet. 'Not much for conversation.' Sans thought to himself. The figure soon faced the open notebook toward Sans, the edges of the pages violently rustled as the figure displayed what he had written onto the page. Two metal fingers held the book open.
'I was sent by the women of the ruins in search of the other human, to make sure that she is protected, have you seen her?'
Sans was both shocked and confused from what he had just read. He began to laugh.
"hahaha…"
'This must be some kind of trap.' Sans thought to himself. 'He must have been sent by that flower Pap was telling me about. Maybe he is telling the truth… maybe that woman behind the door really did send this guy. That doesn't explain all that EXP though… maybe he got all of it from whatever world he came from, the kind of world that a guy would need to be armed to the teeth like that…' He continued to think, peering into the eyes that were beneath that helmet. He was usually pretty good at telling what someone's intentions were by their expression. 'He doesn't look like he's lying…', but the thought of the figures EXP made him think twice about believing him. 'I haven't been wrong before…'
"alright big guy… i'll take you to her, but remember i'll keep my sockets on you…", with this, the armored figured nodded its head.
"come on, i know a shortcut." Sans began heading off into the woods, the armored figure staying close behind him. They continued to walk through the woods, their feet crunching on the new fallen snow. The storm continued to rage, its howling winds becoming even more fierce, the snow began to drop at an increasing rate. Despite the lack of visibility, Sans knew where he was going. He had taken this short-cut home hundreds of times and in even worse weather than this. He was still weary of what the armored figure's intentions were. Sans began to speak as they continued to walk through the woods.
"you know, on days like these, kids like you… should be burning in hell." The armored figure stopped, prompting Sans to turn around. Sans could see the confusion in his eyes inside that helmet.
"don't look at me like that, you know what you've done, all those people you hurt in whatever timeline you crawled out of… I can see it, all of those "execution points" you collected. lv 100, huh, judgement wise you're a pretty bad person. you wonder around, looking for people… killing them to take their money… don't you? that's just plain messed up."
Sans could see anger rising in the eyes of the kid behind the helmet. A gauntleted hand began to take pencil to paper.
'You know nothing about me, nor do you know anything about the land I hail from and yet you stand here judging me as though thou art a pious saint, sent by the gods themselves to determine my worth. I admit I have killed many times since I arrived in the land that occupies the sky above this cavern, but know this. Everything I have done I did in the name of protecting those I care for from the monstrosities that inhabit that land, and yet you believe me to be lower than dirt. A degenerate who goes around murdering the innocent to quench some insatiable bloodlust. I'm here right now because that woman of the ruins asked one simple kindness out of the near endless hospitality that she hath shown me. Speak ill of me all that you please, but I know where I stand, and it's not on the side of a murderous lunatic.'
Sans began to feel embarrassed by what he just said. He really didn't know what kind of timeline this kid fell out of, all that he knew was that it was something new. Something he didn't know anything about. 'This kid seems to have gone through a lot, and I just… he seems like a decent enough guy and I just treated him like a total jerk. He seems to know that voice from the other side of that door too, maybe I can give this guy a chance.'
Sans continued to stare at the snow as the figure continued to glare at him. The only sound being the howling of the wind and the creaking of the towering trees. At last Sans spoke.
"listen, kid… i'm sorry for the way i talked to you, you didn't deserve it."
"look, were getting pretty close to my house and my brother's a…", Sans had to stop himself, picking out the his next few words tactfully, "an 'ok' cook. you can crash at my place, Frisk, that human you were talking about, should still be hanging out with my bro. so… can we let bygones be bygones?" The skeleton reached out his opened left hand. The armor figure paused for a moment before he nodded and proceeded to extend his right hand. As he grasped the skeleton's hand, a loud fart echoed across the woods. The armored figure let go of his hand. Sans could see that figure seemed initially confused as to what caused the noise, then a look of amusement in his eyes.
"gets them every time. you know… you don't talk much, but at least you've got a funny bone under all that metal." The two continued through the woods as Sans began telling bad puns to his new acquaintance, the metal figure silently listening and enjoying every horrible punchline, even writing down ones he thought were particularly good. The storm continued to worsen as they reached the home, the howling wind cracking the bark of the trees, and snow began to fall at an alarming rate. Soon, the tracks they made disappeared… all three of them, becoming level with the rest of the snow on the forest floor.
