Chapter 23: Technical Difficulties

Before heading to the CORE, Ebony decided to stop by the little shop in Snowdin to see her former boss and pick up supplies. The human made the decision to high-tail it out of the Underground before she had any more qualms about leaving. Upon setting foot in the small store and putting in an order of items to bring along, the girl saw that her boss looked rather distraught. While rummaging through the shop's inventory for Cinnamon Bunnies and Bisicles, the shop owner was mumbling concerns to herself and was obviously distracted. When asked whether she was okay, the rabbit smiled half-heartedly.

"I'm sorry, sugar. It's real nice seeing you again, but right now I'm just worried about my sister. She can't seem to find her kid, and it's been about a coupla weeks now. The kid's pretty good about finding his way back home after playing outside with the others, but to be gone for such a long time... Y'can only imagine how nerve-wracking it is for my sister that her child could even go missing."

That was strange. The bunny was usually pretty good about sticking to his mother's side majority of the time. There was no way he could have gotten lost; the Underground wasn't that expansive. At least, not as much as it was on the Surface. In fact, the world below seemed rather straight-forward and pretty much led from Point A to Point B - that being the Ruins and the Barrier. He couldn't have gotten far...

Ebony voiced her condolences and reached over the counter to give the rabbit woman a tight hug. "Boss, I'm really sorry to hear... If I find the kid, I'll boot him back home, okay?"

"Huge thanks, girlie. It'll do my heart good just as much as my sister to see the kid back home where he should be."

Once the necessary supplies had been picked up, Ebony waved farewell to her good boss and headed off to find her next friend. She came up by the perpetual Christmas tree, with all its festive decorations and presents. However, her eyes landed on Grillby's establishment and she automatically veered away from it, passing it and instead heading for the pathway that came right after the bar. The woman didn't want any heated situations to arise if she saw Grillby again. Lord knew they would most assuredly have sex again, and though that was welcoming indeed, she did not want to be kept behind simply because of some good fucks. That flaming bartender always made her want to do sinful (and astronomically regretful) things whenever she was around him, and she didn't need any more than what was already weighing down on her very Soul.

There was a wolf around the corner who usually did the tiresome job of tossing huge blocks of ice into the river so it would float over to cool off the ever-burning CORE. She usually made it a routine to stop by and bring the monster some snacks as her thanks for his hard work. The wolf always told her that he didn't have to chuck ice into the river any more, probably since the Barrier was gone, but still... It was something he couldn't bring himself to stop doing. Doing it in the first place gave him a feeling of being needed by people. The girl related all too well with that.

"Not everyone can lift these blocks of ice the way I do, you know," the creature always said in a matter-of-fact tone (though, Ebony felt that he said it more for reassurance on his part, and not for her sake). "Well, Undyne can probably lift these no problem too, but that's beside the point."

Apparently, he wanted to stay fit and muscly so he continued to lift ice blocks while also 'leaning up and bulking up'... Whatever that meant. How in the world did one do both leaning and bulking at the same time? The girl didn't quite get it, and the wolf looked more than fit enough to her. Maybe his standards were different there. But Ebony stopped by MTT Resort prior to her trip to Snowdin and had some steaks (much to her disgust; not everyone was vain enough to put their face on slabs of meat, but obviously Mettaton was) put aside for her furry friend. She had plenty of money saved up and could spare giving a friend a goodbye gift before going back to the Surface. She wasn't going to need the G's any more once she hit the Surface. Nearing the little fenced-in area where the wolf normally worked, Ebony was surprised to see that the wolf was not there. The tiny building that constantly pushed out blocks of ice was not generating any ice; instead, there was a strange, thin film of gray dust covering the conveyor belt and sticking to the snow on the ground.

It had been a while since the girl had last visited him, so he probably finally stopped with lifting all that ice. She could understand the dust accruing after days of the machine not being used as a result of that decision. Ebony smiled a little and hopped over the fence to leave her usual gift of steak near the conveyor belt. The wolf would probably change his mind eventually and decide to come back again, as he normally did.

Now to stop by the skelebros' house. She wasn't sure she wanted to see Sans yet if he was magically home - and weird magic-filled situations were quite abundant while Underground - but she wanted to at least see Papyrus one more time before leaving. Maybe he'd let her take some spaghetti for the road! That would make his day for sure, and she had a bad craving for pasta.

Ebony passed the librarby and soon came up to the ever-familiar nonsensical house. She knocked a couple of times and waited patiently, but after knocking a third time, it occurred to her that Papyrus might not even be home. There were a number of places he could be. She didn't want to make herself at home by stepping inside without one of the skeletons around. So the woman tightened the scarf around her neck and pushed her short hair behind her ear, continuing on to leave Snowdin for good. She felt bad about not telling her roomie that she was going to go back to the Surface, so she decided to stop back at Waterfall for but a moment.

Otherwise, knowing Ebony left without telling the very one who wanted to help her leave in the first place... The remorse would only make leaving more difficult for the girl.

Upon arriving at Undyne's house, Ebony opened the door with her spare key and found her fishy friend sitting at the piano, drearily plunking away and playing 'Greensleeves' as best as she could. It had taken a while to learn, but it was the first song that Ebony taught the captain when they first began to live together. Playing chords was still sort of a problem, but it was good to see the woman practicing. Undyne's eyes darted upward from the keys when she heard the CLICK of the front door, her pupils lighting up at the sight of her best friend's return.

"I thought I heard my favourite song," said the green eyed woman with a faint smile.

"Ebb, you're back! I... I thought you weren't going to come back." Undyne stood up and accidentally knocked over the piano bench, relieved to see that her friend had indeed not gone to look for Sans. Ebony, however, was confused by that remark.

"Why did you think that? I mean, it's not entirely false, but-"

"Wait, what do you mean? You... weren't going to come back?" Now both women were confused.

Ebony was finding it a hundred times more difficult than expected just to tell her friend, but knew it had to be done. No more waiting around for something to happen, or for someone to return. "I'm... gonna be going now. To the Surface."

Undyne wasn't quite expecting that. Her chest felt weird; like someone tightened their hands around her diaphragm, making it difficult to breathe and think properly. She wanted to help her friend leave for the Surface since the beginning, but at the same time she had always hoped that the human wasn't going to leave in the end. The amount of hurt the fish woman felt was unexplainable. "The. . .? Why're you going now? I... I thought you said you weren't going to look for Sans!"

"Well, I'm going because - Wait... That last bit. What does Sans have to do with...?" The young woman grasped at the scarf around her neck, her eyes widening at first before narrowing into slits. "What did you say?"

Undyne's hand flew up to her mouth, the perfect picture of regret and alarm clearly slapped across her face as soon as the words slipped out. No. The feeling of panic rose in the fish woman's chest when she saw realization dawn on Ebony's face. Oh, fuck. That wasn't supposed to come out.

"Tell me what you said." Ebony took a step toward Undyne, her green eyes desperately searching her friend's yellow ones for an answer. If Sans was still alive and well, then that meant the girl had... "Please, just - I thought he just ditched me all this time - Undyne, tell me what you said. Where the fuck is Sans?"

Tsk tsk. . . Cheated on the poor guy, the voice in Ebony's head pointed out with a click of an imaginary tongue.

No.

"I - Ebb, that came out all wrong, I didn't even mean to say that-"

"WHERE IS HE?" The girl was finding it difficult to breathe now. Her chest tightened, and she could hear her own voice growing more shrill as horror creeped onto her face. She could hear all kinds of voices swirling around in her head... Especially a round the mistake she had made. "YOU KNEW WHERE HE WAS ALL THIS TIME?"

Fucking SLUT.

You went and fucked Grillby without even thinking of the consequences.

NO.

What have you done? What were you thinking?

If you only waited...

"Wh... WHY ARE YOU RAISING YOUR VOICE AT ME? It was supposed to be a surprise for you! YOU... YOU FUCKING IDIOT! NGAHHHHHH!" Undyne's fist slammed into the piano as her own voice grew into a roar of frustration, and Ebony flinched as she heard the groaning of piano wires snapping and fine quality wood cracking while the beautiful instrument died in front of her.

"A surprise...?"

"We knew your birthday was coming up, you dumb punk!" The fish woman didn't care any more. Fuck the surprise; it was already ruined. "Sans and the Queen went to the Surface to find your stupid present and to help you find your brother. We were doing it for you and wanted to surprise you. There. Are you fucking happy?"

You cheated on him. It's as simple as that.

Are you happy with yourself now?

No. . . Please, stop-

Opening your legs for anyone, and not just your boyfriend...

But how could I have known what he was doing?

Everyone was keeping this whole thing from me as a surprise...

As a SECRET.

Ebony was at a loss of words. The voices in her head were bearing down on her. The guilt from what she thought was her 'revenge sex' was there behind all those irritating voices, mixed with a feeling of... betrayal. She was in no state to feel concern over anything else, really. The 'revenge sex' had so suddenly become 'cheating' in a matter of minutes.

"You were hiding this from me? For about a month?" Ebony managed to ask softly, her words coming out shakily as she felt anger well up inside of her. If it was one thing she despised, it was finding out later that everyone she had come to trust was part of some circle - some plan - that she knew nothing about. Finding out that everyone else was talking about things regarding her behind her back. It was like high school all. Over. Again. "You lied about Sans working... You made me believe something else entirely for this long and lied to me - for a... for a stupid SURPRISE? Do you realize what you've caused by doing this to me? You don't realize that I had just done something utterly horrible!"

Undyne was hurt. She no longer cared about being 'nice.' Her lips curled into a bitter smile as she barked a laugh. Sure, she had been giving Ebony vague answers and even mentioned things about Sans working for the sake of a nice surprise, but if this was how a 'friend' thanked her for the sentiment alone... Then she didn't need a friend like that. "Whose fault is it for doing something you know would be regrettable later? Okay, go on. Go find your puny brother or whatever you were gonna do. See where that 'DETERMINATION' of yours brings you. It didn't get you very far down here, anyway. So go back to your fucking home on the Surface, Ebony. Oh, wait - You don't have one."

The brown haired girl was livid now. It was true that she no longer had a real home on the Surface, and she admit that she didn't get very far in the search for her brother while Underground for two years, but for her best friend to make such a low remark was not a smart choice.

"You're fucking kidding me! Fuck you, bitch. I'll find Brenn. And I did fine without a damn home anyways," spat Ebony with tears blurring her vision. She was not alone in the feeling, as Undyne's big eyes were also brimming with tears. Both were seeing red, and reasoning was not going to change a thing as long as one was fuming at the other. "I don't even know where the fuck Sans is right now, but the fact that he didn't even say a word to me about this... And the fact that I had to find out about this from you in such a way... No. I can't. I don't need people who lie to me and hide shit from me. I've dealt with enough of that already."

And with that, the human turned on her heel and stormed off for the Barrier. Undyne panted heavily, feeling extremely high-strung thanks to the heated conversation. Her legs eventually gave out from under her and she felt salty tears running down her cheeks. She cried the way she did years ago when she was a lost, abandoned child. The piano sat sadly next to her, all fucked up and splintered, and no longer playable. Undyne wasn't sure whether following Ebony would even matter at the moment. It wasn't going to solve much.

"Ebb, you fucking dummy. . ."

Sans travelled alongside Toriel with a happy bounce in his step, a neatly wrapped package nestled under one of his arms. In his other bony hand, he helped the goat woman and held some of her bags that contained souvenirs. The skelebro would finally be able to see his dazzling girlfriend again. His excitement was showing so much that he was freely tossing cheesy jokes left and right again like he used to, before they had to embark on their journey to the Surface.

"So Tori, how does a zombie feel after a long day at work?"

"I do not know, Sans; how do they feel?" Toriel was delighting in the fact that they could talk about puns and jokes while walking through the tedious tunnel to go back home. She was glad that she had found a good pun buddy in Sans.

"Easy! He feels dead tired! Hey, and how about this one: So I thought about having a pencil with erasers on both ends..."

"Oh, what will this be now? Your jokes never get old!" gasped the goat woman with tears of laughter at the corners of her eyes.

"But then I thought... What's the point?" Sans had the biggest grin yet, and it was obviously contagious, as Toriel was all smiles too now. "Get it?"

Toriel was dying now. She doubled over, letting out a hearty laugh before taking a second to pause and catch her breath. She tried to fan her own face with her big furry hand. "This is wonderful. It makes perfect sense, because how can you have a pencil with erasers on both ends? There would be no point, so to speak! Ah, I am so glad to see you are back to your normal self, Sans!"

The skeleton chuckled and gave a quick, small shrug. "It's just good to be heading home. Finally! I can't wait to show Paps his book. ... And I can't wait to see Ebb."

Sans had bought Papyrus a book with a myriad of Italian recipes and plenty of pictures. After leafing through the book himself, he had gathered that Italy was perhaps well known for their combination of bread and pasta, among other things. The man could only imagine his brother's eyes popping excitedly out of his eye sockets at the idea of a land that existed on the Surface where pasta was actually popular.

Sighing happily, Sans shut his eyes for a moment as his thoughts flew to Ebony. He was positive that the gift would look wonderful on her. He couldn't wait to see her vibrant smile again as she tried it on! Seeing Ebony again was just not happening soon enough for him.

He opened his eyes, still lost in the daydream of getting kissed over and over with the girl's warm lips. His gaze automatically trained on a figure off in the distance. How strange: According to Toriel, the Barrier rarely had other monsters traversing through lately. What piqued Sans' interest the most was that the person looked like... a human. They were a little too tall to be Frisk, and though they were rather lanky, they didn't look like Ebony either. He decided to try and greet them. Humans seldom walked through the Barrier for any reason.

"Heya kid, you lost or somethin'?" Sans called out to the figure, who turned around to face the two monsters. It was a young man with light skin and dark hair. Around his neck was an old red scarf, and he wore a dark gray jacket with black jeans. Underneath that jacket, the man had a beige turtleneck on. "If you need out o' this here tunnel, the exit's behind us."

The skelebro was expecting the human to make a big deal of seeing two unusual monsters like all the others on the Surface had done, but was surprised to see that the human was handling the situation rather calmly. It was almost too calm, and felt sort of uncomfortable.

The man's eyes surveyed the monsters that approached him, his gaze sharp but indifferent. Sans wasn't getting a good feeling from the guy, and was probably assuming correctly. His instincts about stuff like that was pretty spot-on. What was noticeable at first was the scarf around the human's neck. That was - "Hey, buddy... That scarf doesn't belong to you, does it?"

"I got it as a reward, so I believe it does belong to me," said the man coolly. It wasn't until Sans was a few feet away that he could see the knife in the stranger's hand... and the gray smears on the scarf. The dust of a monster.

Someone died.

Sans felt something terrible jump up into the back of his throat, the feeling of Horror making itself a home there and rendering him speechless. It couldn't be. It wasn't supposed to happen again. It wasn't Chara... It... couldn't be. Chara was much younger. But still: He was the only one Sans knew of who would kill just to kill... The only one who would kill for the fun of it, because nothing else amused him...

Chara was the only one who killed others for the sake of EXP and LV.

"That scarf... doesn't belong to you," Sans managed again with an anxious gulp. The frustration felt inside of him grew exponentially and made the magic in his eye glow blindingly. Papyrus was *not* supposed to die this time. It wasn't possible. Everything was going so well: The Barrier being broken; Tori and Asgore getting back together and adopting Frisk... and Sans, getting a girlfriend for once in his miserable life. Everyone was happy. Or had been happy. The skeleton could feel his magic pulsing like rapid heartbeats in his bony body. Toriel was still there with him. He had to teleport her to safety. The heartless boy was probably not going to Spare the Queen. He didn't feel like putting in effort and wasting time joking with the boy. But was Sans going to be stuck in those nightmares for the rest of his lifespan? Because that's what it felt like: A pretty little nightmare that liked to loop itself constantly, and not letting the skeleton climb out of it.

Grabbing the bags and laying one hand on Toriel's arm, Sans teleported her back to the living room in the Ruins. He dropped all the bags promptly and spoke feverishly, as if he had dealt with something similarly in the past.

And he had indeed dealt with it a countless number of times before... When Chara was around, many timelines ago. The thing was, nobody else really remembered the child. The difference with Chara and that 'human' was that this time, Sans didn't know how to handle someone like this. The situation was new - unpredictable - and the idea of it made the skeleton extremely fearful and uncomfortable.

"You need to tell everyone to stay in their homes. Don't let them leave. Alphys can help you. Just don't... Just... Just stay away from the Barrier, okay, Tori? I have a friend to ketchup with." He didn't give Toriel any time to speak, but instead flashed a quick smile before teleporting right back over to the stranger in the massive tunnel.

"Don't think I'm going to just let you run off with that scarf," Sans continued in a low, dangerous voice. "What did you to Paps?"

"If you're talking about the skeleton who had this scarf first... I got rid of him." The stranger answered simply with a noncommittal shrug. He let out a short laugh, his eyes cold and unforgiving. It sent chills up and down Sans' spine. "The guy was so weird, talking about wanting to be my 'friend' and trying to hug me a few rooms ago. I wasn't going to fall for his dumb shtick, so I killed him before he got to me."

Killed him.

Tried to be HIS friend? Paps tried being friends... with this killer?

"You ruin my happy day and then tell me you killed my brother... and took his scarf for yourself. . .?" asked Sans incredulously, the feeling of displeasure coursing through his very being like a lethal injection of poison. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

It was then that the poor guy felt a head-splitting ache between his eyes, making him see stars and flashes of light. Sans doubled over and bit back a miserable groan, his bony phalanges spreading over his eyes as he glared up at the human. Fuck. The headache was back. What perfect timing.

"You're his brother? Hah! If that's the case, then you'll die just as quickly, I'm sure. I'll just get rid of you and all the other disgusting creatures down here before heading back up." The young man stepped over and leaned forward slightly, his expression the very definition of contempt as he looked down at the skeleton in a condescending manner. "But I'll tell you something that you should know: My name is Liam. You're not going to like me one bit. And you know what the best thing is? I'm okay with that."

Sans opened his mouth to snap an answer in return, but the headache grew worse. Crying out in frustration and pain, he fell to his knees and held his head in his hands, desperately willing the head pains to go away so he could personally deal with yet another dirty brother killer. His bones ached and even creaked; it felt bizarre, as if someone were trying to stretch or rip him apart.

The human grabbed Sans by the jacket's collar and readied the knife that he had been holding in his other hand. "You monsters shouldn't even be alive. You take up more space than we as humans would prefer. It's a wonder there are even some of you still existent in this world. But I digress... I think it's about time for you to die, you disgusting thing."

The skelebro's magic was pulsating wildly now. He could feel his control on it slipping, as if he didn't know how to use magic properly any more, and could no longer think straight. It was as if someone took a huge hammer to his head and decided to abandon all loose pieces on the floor. The unfamiliarity of the situation now terrified the poor skeleton. Sans raised a hand and tried to use his magic to push the human away from him, but a shot of pain hit the back of his head again where that hairline fracture existed. The pain persisted, completely hindering his movement and sense of logic as he suddenly blacked out completely.

Liam watched warily, holding Sans at a distance like some dead cockroach as he watched the skeleton fall limp in his grip. He wasn't entirely sure what happened, but he noticed a wisp of blue escaping from the crack on the back of the monster's head like a gas leak had sprung up. Was the thing still alive? He felt Sans shift in his grip and instinctively let go with a start, stepping back a bit as the skelebro hit the ground face-first.

It was like watching something straight out of a horror flick: Sans still looked quite unconscious, but his bones seemed to stretch and expand out of proportion, ripping through the clothing as if they were rice paper. Liam watched as the bones of the monster slowly cracked and reformed itself until what stood before him was no longer a normal skeleton. It seemed gruesome, but looked more creepy than anything else... Especially because the skelebro was unconscious just a second ago.

What stood before him within minutes was a big, terrible beast with a gaping jaw that stood hunched over on all fours. It towered over Liam, staring down at the human. One of its huge eye sockets flamed dark blue with an intense form of magic.

"What the fuck-"

Liam wasn't sure how any of it had even led up to that moment in time, but he had vaguely concluded that Sans was probably stronger than the skinny, useless little brother.

A/N:

I apologize GREATLY for being unavailable with my story for about a few weeks now! I've had my ups and downs of being sick and busy, and then Smule's Sing app got me hooked all over again with all the covers I can make. To those of you who stuck around for this chapter to pop up, I hope it was passable! I still don't intend on stopping with this story until I get to the end. The Determination continues to exist within. c:

I will work on the next chapter - again - whenever I have the opportunity to. Thank you for your love, guys. I missed all my readers. :))

I don't think Paps is useless :( Gah, Liam is such a butt. And also, I always liked the idea of Sans as some skeletal creature. It just... sounds cool. xD

Please enjoy, have a Sanstastic day, and I'll see you guys at the next chapter!

- LostInnocenz

P.S.: Yes, I am well aware that I spelled the building as "librarby." Very much intended! c: