While she was in the middle of her walk Flowey popped out of the ground in front of her, expression incensed and looking as though he was set on stopping her. In her opinion, though, he pushed up too late.

"What are you doing?" He said.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Was all Frisk snapped in reply, walking around the flower and continuing on her way.

Flowey dug back into the earth and sprouted up again in front of her, this time throwing clumps of snow with how violently he rose. While she came to a reluctant halt he hissed, "It looks to me like you're headed somewhere dangerous without SAVING."

Again, she walked around him. "Well then buzz off."

"Frisk!" He popped up for a third time. ... When she didn't even stop he had to pop up for a fourth time, as well. "Frisk!" And then for the fifth time, "Frisk!" And then for a sixth time, this time shouting, "You've got fifty-two tallies under Papyrus' name, remember? Going into his house is just asking for another one!"

She finally hesitated at that, putting her hands on her hips. "I told you to buzz off. I'll be fine. I'm not going to fight Papyrus, I'm just going to look through Sans's things."

"But what if you get caught?"

"I won't!" Honestly, he was such a coward. "You were the one that told me that we had to help this person. Now I'm helping him! ...besides, if I die now I'll get a chance to save up the Iscream he got me instead of eating it all at once."

Whether he recognized the point she was making or not, the child couldn't tell. But all the same Flowey wilted, "...It's still a lot of backtracking. Can't this wait until later?" He tried to give her his most sympathetic, sad face. It was marred- or perhaps enhanced- by the tiny fangs in his mouth. "I really don't want to do all this again."

"And when is 'later' gonna be?" When Flowey only scowled at her, she stuck her tongue out. "...I'm not gonna die! I'm going now whether you want me to or not." And at that, before he could could protest again, she continued walking.

When Flowey shot through the snow several paces later she prepared to stomp on him, ignoring the panicked expression that he had on his face. "Wait, Frisk, if you die now, what's-" then he yelped, forced to go back underground when her foot almost collided with his face. He didn't pop back up after that, not when she crossed the river and not when she crossed the bridge into Snowdin less than an hour later.

This snowy town never changed; everyone who wasn't asleep already was too scared or lethargic to get out of their homes and spot her, so the place void of voices was only inhabited was a whimpering wind. (Still made a wide berth around Grillby'z, though, just in case.) Unswept steps and stones, as well as large clumps of snow, occasionally rose high enough to hide prowlers like her. The piles of white gave her the most unease.

Although whenever she got close enough to one to check for anything in it, Frisk would feel a sudden wave of realization for how foolish she was being.

It's just a snow poff.

Waltzing out in the middle of this place might be a bad idea, but Frisk was tired and most of the monsters that would cause her problems, like the canine unit, were asleep anyway. So she made her way to Papyrus' house with her pan dragging in her hand, making a little trail in the snow, and didn't bother to hide behind snow poffs.

When the child finally stood in front of that big, dark wooden house, clear on the other side of town, she didn't feel any fear. All of the lights were off.

Frisk tried the knob and, finding it unlocked, stepped inside.

She had never seen the inside of this place before, never had the need or opportunity. If she had the vocabulary for it, the word she would've used was "austere". No extra decoration, no carpeting, not an awful lot of space, and there was a crack in the only TV she could see there. On a walkway on the second floor, between two doors, was hung a painting of a grey skull. Even the sofa was black. In fact, the most vibrant colors in this whole place were the big red and blue "keep out" and "The Lair of Papyrus the Terrible" signs plastered across the left-hand door on the second floor walkway.

Frisk wrinkled her nose up at everything. She didn't know how her Sans could stand living here.

Oh. Right.

Scowling, the girl went up the stairs and past Papyrus' door, flinching every time she heard the floorboards creaking under her. But no one came to investigate the noise, and Papyrus was certainly not barging out of his room. So she chose to believe that he was out for the night.

A quick tap on Sans' door, and it creaked in. She wrinkled her nose up at Sans' room too; it was a pigsty, trash and underclothes and moldy food everywhere. She wasn't surprised, given the state of the sentry station. "Slob," she muttered to herself.

You probably won't find anything in this mess.

Ignoring her own thoughts for now, Frisk switch on a dirty old lamp and used the light to see by when everything else was so dark. She rifled through papers and socks and partly eaten sandwiches. She uncrumpled old letters, notes that made no sense at a glance, grocery lists, and notebook sheets filled up with crossed-out rants. She tossed underwear in the corner, pushed aside a black cat that hissed and ran out of the room, found a "thank you" letter addressed to someone named Krampus, and then finally pressed her face into Sans' smelly unmade bed to let out a muffled scream.

In the drawer there were was just more clothes wadded up and shoved in. Shorts, shirts, a black hoodie and a red hoodie, and another fluffy jacket. The jacket, Frisk pulled out to inspect with a smile, sniffing it like Dogamy. It smelled new- or at least, there was no rotting meat or spicy mustard caught in the pockets. The hood had fur lining it and Frisk ran her hand over it. Soft, like a small animal, not yet worn down. It must be a spare.

A sick feeling took a hard hold over the child's heart; her face distorted while she held the jacket up, but she shut her eyes tight and resisted it. She almost considered putting the clothing on, even though it would have made the feeling even worse, but as she did...

"A Sans Jacket" - Armor DF 10

Feels like Sans, except not as filthy.

It wouldn't be worth it. The child folded the jacket up until another thought occurred to her, again all so suddenly-

You think you can feel something in the pockets.

She couldn't feel it before, but when her hand brushed over the fabric again she did touch on something a little hard inside. "?" Unzipping the flaps, she stuck her hand inside and, after being scratched by something sharp, she found a little package wrapped up with brown paper and twine.

She struggled with the twine for several minutes, biting and pulling until there were red marks on her hands, before finally getting it open. What spilled out of the brown paper was a series of letters, not folded up in envelopes but crumpled all into wads and pressed tightly together into one box shape. Frisk was starting to get the idea that Sans couldn't fold anything even if he tried.

It wasn't hard to figure out who the letters were for, and who they were from; the ink was smudged, but not on the addresses. Some were from Sans, addressed to Dr. Alphys in Hotland. Some were from Dr. Alphys in Hotland, addressed to Sans.

Dr. Alphys had really tiny handwriting.

Frisk sat in the middle of the room with a lap full of creased letters, unsure which to read, and then she heard the door slam.

The door slammed.

Which meant...

"SANS!" A familiar voice shouted out, sending a chill through her spine. Frisk looked to the cracked-open door to her left and swallowed a lump in her throat.

Papyrus paused, and then said again, "SANS, ARE YOU BACK YET? IF YOU ARE, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! HOW DARE YOU KEEP ME WAITING SO LONG-"

You shoul-

Taking her pan back into her hands, Frisk jumped to her feet and dashed out the door before the impulsive thought could even finish forming. Her shoes scattered the letter-balls in all directions and she even kicked one off the walkway.

It hit Papyrus' head.

"!?" He looked at the human in front of him. His eye-sockets were smaller than Sans', but they looked even wider now, "NYAH!? HUMAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN-"

Frisk blinked. His voice... sounded way different now. A lot higher, less harsh. But he cleared his throat, and as his face took on a fierce glare the deep growl returned, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN SANS'S ROOM?"

The child didn't speak. They only glared back.

Papyrus snarled, magical energy rising. Frisk took on a more defensive stance, mentally berating herself for getting caught so easily. Nonetheless, a feeling in her gut told her not to fear. She just had to get around him and to the door... It would be much easier if she could think of things to throw at him from up there.

Papyrus is attacking you.

"YOU MAY HAVE CLEVERLY MANAGED TO DEFEAT ME LAST TIME, BUT I WON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES AGAIN," the skeleton was saying, as blue and white bones flew through the air around Frisk's head and feet. She dodged with moves that were familiar to her, jumping and ducking and even battering a few of the attacks back with her pan. "THIS TIME I'LL BE SURE TO CAPTURE YOU!"

A growl ripped from the girl's throat as she darted right, one of his blue attacks smacking her in the side when she did. - 5 HP. Although was painful, it was only painful for one turn before she was catapulting over the stairs. Bones were rhythmically swinging at her head from every side and she was constantly ducking as they did, making no sound except for a grunt each time one managed to hit. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she rolled on the floor and jumped over an attack that came swishing at her through the floorboard.

Papyrus' scowl deepened. "YOU HOLD STILL!"

He slashed his hand through the air at an arc and immediately Frisk felt a tug on her SOUL, the heart before her turning blue. "-!" Damn it, he cheated again. She gasped out as gravity increased, feeling like her feet were glued to the floor. It was only with a lot of effort now that she was able to dodge some of the attacks coming at her. Some of them were too fast regardless. - 5 HP - 5 HP.

But she knew how to cheat too, so with her pan she was striking back the bones like they were baseballs- all of the ones that weren't going at her feet, anyway. - 2 HP. Every turn her pain lessened, and every turn she lessened it with a stale piece of food hidden in her belongings; that was the only reason she was still standing upright.

Running past Papyrus wasn't possible right now. Frisk started to sweat.

Payrus is getting impatient with your futile efforts.

The menacing figure in front of her stomped his foot. "DAMMIT! I TOLD YOU TO HOLD STILL! FINE!" Then he waved a hand, summoning a chain of the bones that all went flying right for the child. "I'LL JUST USE A STRONGER ATTACK!"

If Frisk was watching, she could have made out "Papyrus is the coolest villain ever" on the chain of bones. But she wasn't reading it. She was trying to avoid getting slammed into by every word, face pale and hands clammy. On "coolest," she failed even in that. And as a result, even with the blue magic still working on her she was thrown backwards into the wall with a sharp cry. Something snapped, and she hoped it was one of his bones instead of hers. Her vision got blurry and dark as the rest of the bones slammed into her as well, feeling like their sharp points were tearing into her skin. Something else snapped, and she fell down.

"NYAHAH?.?" Frisk heard, and she blearily struggled to get up. Her leg hurt. Ah, oh god, her leg really hurt. In her blackened vision she saw Papyrus standing over her, bending down to inspect his work with wide eyes. "HUMAN?"

The pain was fading. Slowly fading.

Papyrus was still staring, one hand raised to his jawline in thought. "WOW, APPARENTLY THAT ATTACK DID A LO-"

"heya."

Frisk coughed, and Papyrus turned around. As her eyes cleared the child could see Blue Sans standing in the middle of the room, grinning a pained grin. Idiot, what was he doing here? But all the same, while his sudden appearance distracted Papyrus she was picking her heavy body back up with a low groan. The pain in her leg was nearly gone, reduced to a dull sting.

"...SANS, THERE YOU ARE!" He choked out at last, scowling. "YOU'VE BEEN MISSING FOR HOURS, WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GO?"

"uh, well."

"NEVERMIND! I'LL BEAT YOU FOR IT LATER!" Papyrus looked back at Frisk, and she tensed. "HELP ME CAPTURE THE HUMAN SCUM!"

"nah."

There was an audible crack from how suddenly Papyrus turned his skull back in Blue Sans' direction. "...WHAT?"

Blue Sans just shrugged, winking at them both. "eh, well, i can't say they're my favorite human. but if it's all the same to you i think i'd rather help 'em out."

"IT IS NOT ALL THE SAME TO ME!" Papyrus screeched. There was another surge of energy as he was, consciously or not, summoning more attacks. "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! ARE YOU ACTUALLY DEFENDING THE HUMAN SCUM?-?-?"

"yep."

Papyrus stuttered for a moment until the shock became anger. "BETRAYED... BY MY OWN BROTHER!"

"y'know, maybe you could stop being such a douche to your brother and he won't betray you as often," Blue Sans said, giving a shrug.

Frisk smiled at that, but Papyrus wasn't amused. Before saying anything more a blue bone swung right through Blue Sans, having no impact while the smaller skeleton turned rigid. Ten more white ones took its place, all spinning like turnstiles hyped on caffeine, and this time Sans moved almost too fast for either of them to see him, jumping backwards. "YOU'RE GOING TO WISH YOU NEVER SAID THAT!"

Twenty more bones, the ends pointed like spikes and some blue, came flying towards Blue Sans. He exhaled, uttering, "crap," before dodging low and then to the left, just missing getting nicked. So scowling, Papyrus threw his blue magic at his new opponent, and just like that Frisk felt her SOUL and body grow much lighter. She ran, dashing up the stairs.

In the meantime down below Blue Sans had started talking again, his voice strained with the effort of moving under Papyrus' blue attack "y'know, there's no way i'd ever want to hurt my brother, no matter what version of him it was. even if it's some punk version of him that likes beating up short people."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" Papyrus said, as he tossed bones along the ground that his opponent just barely managed to avoid.

And then in the smaller skeleton, a dramatic change appeared with his eyes. One turned blue and flashed yellow, an exertion of magic that was so strong it threw off the hold Papyrus had over his SOUL. He stood still, drawing out one hand. "but, uh, you're not really leaving me a lot of options. so, sorry, i guess."

A huge skull materialized beside Sans, a skull that looked like it belonged to a dragon or a dog. Its face was also lit within with white pupils.

At the sight of it everyone else froze. Frisk froze behind the railing, Papyrus froze where he stood on the ground floor, and Sans kept a steady gaze with him, keeping the skull at his side even after his eye turned back to normal. And then the skull opened up, and the whole house burned with light as a white-hot beam of magic shot at Papyrus the Terrible.

Frisk covered her eyes.

Although when she peeked between her fingers, disappointingly Papyrus was not reduced to cinders at the end of it. If anything, his outfit only looked a tiny bit singed. But the expression on his face, or at least what she could see of it... "SANS... YOU-? ATTACKED?-? ME?-?" Again that growl had disappeared, almost like his voice was cracking.

"yup."

And then it came back, with a stomp of his foot. "BUT YOU CAN'T EVEN USE MAGIC! HOW DID YOU SUMMON SUCH AN ENERGY-COSTLY ATTACK?"

Blue Sans shrugged. "probably should have told you this earlier, but you got the wrong sans, bud. sorry to disappoint you, turns out i'm not your bro after all."

"NYAH!? YOU-!?" Papyrus squinted, and then suddenly his eyes widened as if he was seeing something for the first time. Something Frisk thought should have been obvious. "...SHIT, YOU... YOU REALLY ARE AN IMPOSTER! WHERE IS MY BROTHER, THEN!?"

"i got no idea."

That answer didn't satisfy him, and Blue Sans flinched as Papyrus cast his blue magic over him again. "TELL ME WHAT YOU DID WITH SANS! OR I'LL BREAK YOUR BONES!-!-!"

But no one else was going to get a chance to tell anything, and nor was Papyrus going to get the chance to hear it. Right as Blue Sans was about to speak again there was a cry from above them, accompanied by a small child flying off the railing- or jumping, more like.

Falling fast, Frisk brought down the sharp edge of her pan directly on Papyrus' head, hard.

He screeched once on impact before falling silent, and then collapsed on the floor. Landing on top of him, the child rolled off and got to her feet with another grunt. She held her weapon close to her chest, waiting to see if the monster would get up, but he didn't.

For the second time, she had won against Papyrus. She didn't even die this time. A big smile spread across Frisk's face.

K.O! The crowd goes wild! Except not really, because this isn't a wrestling ring.

The smile disappeared.

"wow," Sans said next to her, SOUL freed. "thanks, kid."

She scowled at him.

"what? are you mad 'cause i followed you?"

"I thought you were taking a nap," Frisk said, her face turning red as she uttered it. There was a feeling in her chest that made her want to scream, and not knowing how to verbalize that she just said, under her breath, "Prick."

Blue Sans didn't respond to the insult, "dumb flower woke me up. sorry for stealing your thunder and all, but it looks like you 'pandled' the situation just fine."

"I'll smack you," Frisk said, raising her free hand threateningly. But Blue Sans didn't so much as cower. She sighed, letting it go limp. "But also what was that? That head thingy?"

"this?" No flashy eye this time, but he lazily winked at her as he summoned the skull. "it's called a Gaster Blaster."

She watched it with one foot stepped back, eyes on those huge teeth. "Is it your... pet?"

"pet?" He took a second to think about this, while the skull disappeared again. "nah, don't worry. it doesn't have a SOUL, s'just a cannon."

There was more she wished to ask, but Papyrus groaned by her feet and cut it off. Ah, right, it would be a mistake to ignore him. So she positioned herself and raised her weapon high, as he opened one eye. Strangely enough it had been so much easier to do this last time, in the heat of battle.

But before she could bring the pan down, "WOAH, woah, wait what are you doing?"

"..." She looked back at Blue Sans, her face turning red again. "I'm... breaking his legs?"

From below her, Papyrus whimpered. Blue Sans' eyes widened, while so did his smile, and a bead of sweat went down his skull. "uh. no, we're not doing that."

"Why not?"

"S-SANS..." Papyrus' voice came out as a burbled groan, the skeleton clutching his minusculely cracked head. "WHY DID YOU..."

A sigh, while he watched Papyrus look up from the ground. "like i already said, buddy, i'm not your sans."

The injured other skeleton paused. "THEN... WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"

"that's... a long story." Blue Sans said, his gaze becoming tired and pupils dulling. The whole while, Frisk inched behind him and glared at the skeleton who had, a few seconds previously, been throwing bones at her. "...or at least a confusing one."

Papyrus slammed his hands on the ground and propelled himself back up on his feet, clacking his sharp teeth together, "WELL, I WANT TO HEAR IT! WHERE IS MY BROTHER?!"

"okay, but if you get confused it's not my fault," Blue Sans replied. "sit down."


If this world's Papyrus was confused, he refused to show it by the time Sans was done talking. He just sat on the couch, arms folded over his chest, that sharp-toothed scowl on his face as if it was frozen there. But then, Sans tried to put it in as simple terms as possible.

When he finally finished, his not-brother spoke. "SO EARLIER TODAY, THAT WAS ALSO YOU AND NOT MY SANS?"

"yep," Sans nodded. "your brother is probably in my world with my papyrus still, doing god knows what."

"I SEE..." Papyrus nodded, and looked at the ground. While the two had been talking, the parallel Frisk was leaning against the opposite wall, thudding it against their back every few seconds. The kid was glaring from underneath their bangs, and when Papyrus looked up their eyes met.

His scowl deepened and he stood; "WELL THEN," he said, facing Sans, "IF YOU REALLY AREN'T MY BROTHER, THEN I APOLOGIZE FOR BEATING YOU EARLIER. IT WAS RUDE OF ME TO ATTACK A STRANGER, EVEN IF YOU DID NOT TELL ME YOU WERE THE WRONG SANS SO IT'S REALLY NOT MY-"

"What?" Frisk spoke up in a hoarse voice, cutting off both Papyrus and Sans, who had been taking a breath to speak. "You'll apologize to him for hitting him a little but it's fine to almost kill me?"

Papyrus put his hands on his hips. "PAPYRUS THE TERRIBLE DOES NOT APOLOGIZE TO HUMAN SCUM."

"You fucktard."

"kid, please," Sans said, waving dismissively in their direction. "not the time." He had his own thoughts to keep bottled for now. Frisk just snorted. So he returned his attention to Papyrus, who stood avoiding looking at the human again. "apology noted. now, would it be too much to ask you to let me search your brother's room?"

"I already did that," Frisk sneered from behind him.

Startled, Sans look back at the human child. "you did? why didn't you say something?"

The kid just frowned at him, and then picked a wadded paper ball up off the ground. "I'm saying something now, aren't I?" They walked to him and held out the paper ball, which he gingerly accepted. "I found a bunch of these hidden in there. They're letters Alphys and him were sending each other."

"LETTERS TO ALPHYS? WHAT DO THEY SAY?" Papyrus asked, running to peer over Sans' shoulder as he smoothed out the paper. "I DIDN'T KNOW THAT SANS KNEW ALPHYS!"

"Mmh," following footsteps, and that grunt, there came the reluctant sucking of a fridge door being pried open.

Papyrus' head sharply turned again in Frisk's direction with another unsettling crack. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! I DID NOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO RAID MY REFRIGERATOR!-!-!" But the child was already pulling out takeout boxes, eyes shining hungrily. With an exasperated hiss the parallel version of his brother was stalking over to the kitchen, snapping, "HUMAN SCUM, STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!"

"Make me, fartface!"

"don't fight in there okay?" Sans said as he looked over the letter, tuning out the whining voices of the other room. It was definitely the same handwriting as on the note he still had in his pocket. "don't wanna scrape either of you off the floor."

He didn't hear their reply, if they made one.

Smalphys,

i have a theory i wanna discuss with you. i'd rather talk more about it in person but it's about the humans, sorta- it's all kind of related to what we were discussing about the twerp last week. after they came back here to snowdin, i found out something new and now i have a theory.

it kind of sounds weird on paper, so even if i did want to tell you in a letter i won't. so yeah I'll be visiting you in a bit, probably a little while after you get this. it'd be sooner but i'm in hot water with the boss right now because of that twerp and you know how it is.

also what the fuck was with the battery you gave me? it fucking sucks. dies after just two startups? try again, geek. i know you got more than junk in that lab.

Sans

Not the way he would have worded it, but the sentiments were... familiar.

Sans sighed, looking back over at the kitchen where Frisk was shoving a cold hamburger in their mouth and Papyrus was trying to take the rest of the food from their arms. "guess what, kiddo? i gotta go to hotland after all."

Frisk bit the burger in half and the rest fell to the floor as she chewed, "Oh, to talk to Alphys?"

"well if there being a big pile of these is any indication it seems your Sans talked to her a lot. she has to know what he did to reach my world..." Sans murmured, his smile becoming a grimace as it downturned. "if anyone does."

No need to mention the "theory" for now.

He'll just get the kid disentangled from "Papyrus the Terrible" in the meantime.


Next Chapter: I'll Settle on a Name Eventually