**Goldie, Garnet, Onyx LG!Alphys and LustGold belong to S-E-Sagas**
Chapter 21 – Precious ThingsThat had taken more out of her than she thought… Jewel was currently floating outside of the AU she banished Nightmare and Dust to, barely separating them. They couldn't track where she went from out here… too many worlds… But she couldn't rest now. She pulled out the two red crystals in her hands before slamming them into an open window in the code. An eruption of ones, zeros and various letters ran through it before she let her eyes fade back to their normal color. The black mist that surrounded her arms evaporated… partially. Her arm that went into Nightmare was still burnt, but not nearly as bad as before. It was an angry red with scorch marks, but that was mild compared to before. Her wound on her back was still bleeding and… well… Nightmare's hands were just as acidic as the reset of him as her clothes showed the tell-tell signs of her struggle along with the slight burns underneath. She hadn't protected those areas… to be honest, she didn't have the magic. Too much healing… and she couldn't afford to retreat into her soul again. No, no she had to go somewhere safe…
Error… Ink… Sans… one of them… One of the… Sanses…
It had been a long day at work. Sans was exhausted as he let his purple vest with blue feather trim slump past his shoulders. He so badly wanted to just plop down on his couch and sleep.
"Come now, brother," Papyrus encouraged, those pinkish-red eyes gazing down at his smaller, older brother. "You shouldn't be so down-hearted. I'm making pasta tonight, I know how you enjoy it."
Sans chuckled softly, his eyes opening to reveal one purple eye on the right and a shiny, almost metallic golden eye on the left. He stretched and his already exposed midriff, which was nothing but spine, ribs and the tops of his pelvis showed just that much more past his slumping, baggy vest.
"Yeah, you're right. I really shouldn't skip dinner," he smiled at him, though realistically, the thought of food just tired him out more. He wasn't in the mood, all he wanted to do was sleep… he hadn't been getting much rest lately, his mind elsewhere…
"Again," Papyrus pointed out. Sans hadn't really been focusing on meals lately and it was worrying him. He was already so small and it felt like any stray breeze would knock him over. Luckily, they weren't in Snowdin anymore, there were no real winds around the capital. In the Royal Palace.
Sans was about to come up with some excuse, some little white lie that he eats on his breaks while at work. After all, what they did, it did create quite the appetite. But by luck, though good or bad he wasn't sure, their attention was stolen by something literally appearing by the ceiling and crashing to the floor.
"Holy shit!"
The brothers jumped back before running over. It was a person, that much they could tell. But they landed on their stomach, so the most they saw at first was the gaping hole in the shoulder that was surrounded by red… but the wound itself was coated in black with little bits flaking off as if evaporating. Papyrus was the one who gently rolled the person over on their side, brown hair falling over the face of what was very clearly a human. Blood dripped down her lips and chin. Her eyes were glazed over, barely open.
"S-sans…" she weakly called out before her eyes finally fell shut.
"Brother, do you know her?" Papyrus asked.
"No, bro, I don't." His mind was racing with the implications this had. He had met other versions of himself… could she be from another world? That had to be it, right? She confused him with another? There was no way he would forget meeting a human. But there was also no missing all the red in her mouth as she spoke his name.
"Can you pick her up?" he quickly asked his brother. There was no way he could, she was as tall as Papyrus, and no doubt weighed more than both skeletons combined.
"Maybe, but… I don't want to hurt her."
Point taken, she fell hard and while blood was something monsters still dealt with thanks to the minuscule amount of physical matter they had, this much of it was highly disconcerting. "Stay here with her, I'll go get Alphys!"
Sans was faster than his brother, they both knew it. Between his lighter frame, despite his shorter legs, and the fact he could shortcut to wherever he wanted, it was just so much quicker.
Not that they were far from where the yellow dinosaur-type monster stayed. She was still in her pink lab coat. She worked herself day and night, constantly, to try and figure out a more permanent solution to their current problem. When she wasn't managing the Harem, this is what she brought herself to do. After all… it had been eight years since the project first started and not a single child had been gifted the Golden Trait. And as much as they could keep trying… the fact was the monsters weren't exactly going to live forever. So many things could happen… to rely on these ten, all of which she was very good friends with… some more than others…
"Yo, Alphys!" she heard from behind her. She jumped up and turned, relieved to see a familiar blue fish-woman.
"O-oh, Undyne," she let out a started breath she didn't realize she was holding.
"Ya really need to stop throwin' yourself into your work like that," Undyne chuckled at her. "C'mon, business hours are over. Time for some grub. And you need something than those instant noodles you inhaling."
"W-what did you h-have in mind?" Alphys asked. She wasn't opposed to the idea in the slightest. A break would probably do her good, she was banging her head against the wall with the same ideas for the past week, trying to find some way around them. Maybe spending time with her friend would help.
Before the two could even get to the door, Sans had teleported into the room.
"Jeez, punk! What did I tell you about doing that?!" Undyne roared at him. She hated it when he pulled this stunt.
"Sorry! But something urgent just happened! Al, I need your help!"
"O-o-of course!" she quickly picked herself up.
"What's wrong? Something happen to Papyrus?" Undyne quickly asked, on their heels with them.
"No, but..! Just come on!" he grabbed them and teleported them back.
They reappeared to the sight of Papyrus crouched down beside a bleeding human. Surprise was an understatement for the two female monsters' current expressions.
"O-o-oh my g-g-g-goodness!" Alphys called out and ran over to the human.
"The hell happened, shorty?!" Undyne then demanded.
"The hell do I know? She appeared out of nowhere and fell in front of us!" Sans barked back at her.
"W-we need to get her inside," Alphys spoke up. "I-I-I'll need t-to examine the injuries m-more closely."
"Right," Undyne sighed before going over and easily lifting the human off the ground. "Jeez, humans are a lot heavier than they look."
"I-It's the m-muscle," Alphys spoke up.
"We can go to our room, it's closer," Papyrus spoke up.
Sans wasn't sure he liked that idea, but it was the closest room and she did look like she was in bad shape. Even if she was a strange human, randomly popping into his world, she knew a Sans… that had to count for something, right?
It had been a couple of hours as the group hovered over the unconscious human as she lay on the Papyrus' bed. Grey-blue eyes slowly opened and noticed the very purple room she was in. In a panic, she shot up, knocking over a poor tiny dinosaur in the process.
"I'm sorry, Alphys, I—!"
Quickly, Jewel placed a hand over her mouth. Shit, shit! She really just called the tiny dinosaur by name!
Alphys stared up at the human, confused. "I-it's all r-right," she tried to ease her, but the statement wasn't lost.
"Do you know her, Al?" Undyne asked.
"N-no," Alphys replied. "S-strange t-that you know m-my name…"
"She knew brother's too," Papyrus spoke up.
It was then Jewel fully looked around, noticing the outfits and all the… purple… God, where did she end up now?
"H-how are you feeling? I-I'm s-s-s-surprised you're… a-awake," Alphys spoke up.
"Fine given the circumstances, I suppose," Jewel muttered. She put a hand to her mouth, wiping the corners. She could still feel that coppery tang in her mouth, but it wasn't fresh at least. "Heh, medical questions before the interrogation?"
All eyes blinked and looked at each other, then back to her.
"Sounds like you've done this before," Sans finally spoke up, looking over at her from the side of the room. He purposely was standing back, just watching.
Jewel sweated a little. "Well, uh… not quite… this…" she admitted. "Look, I'm grateful you're all so interested in taking care of me, but, uh…"
"Don't sweat it," Sans said with a smile, walking over. "You're from another world, right? That's how you know our names."
"O-oh, s-so she's f-from o-one of the o-other worlds y-you mentioned?" Alphys questioned. "Yes, I-I suppose that makes sense…"
Jewel looked a little more relaxed. "So… you know about the AUs."
"Yeah, we've met a few others. There's this one bar we like to meet up," he chuckled.
"Really?" she rose a brow. "Normally you need a hopper. Maybe there's an overlay…" she muttered softly, starting to think.
Sans and Alphys knew that look and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Ugh, more nerd stuff!" Undyne rolled her eyes. "So, you got someone we can call for ya, punk?"
"Nah. I mean, not that I know any of their numbers to begin with," she sweated. "I can teleport between worlds on my own."
"Explains how you got here then," Papyrus said with a little relief. "You just popped out of nowhere and collapsed in front of us."
"Yeah, sorry about that," she sweated. "I, uh… I meant to go back to one of my friends. I guess in my state, the thought of just going back to "Sans" just brought me to the nearest one… or… something."
"W-well, you're all stable it s-seems," Alphys spoke as she stood up. "Your arm is bandaged and I can't tell what caused the bleeding in your mouth but it stopped."
Jewel sweated a little. "Yeah, uh… you wouldn't… be able to help with that," she said softly. "Human anatomy is weird."
"Y-you know what's wrong with you?" Alphys then questioned.
"Healing magic has its benefits, especially with self-diagnosis," Jewel commented, then saw the stares from the four sets of eyes in the room. Well, three and a half. "Yeah, um, I'm weird, I'll heal up in no time, don't worry about me. I'm pretty hard to kill," she smiled, a little embarrassed. She felt more like a spectacle here than she did in any of the other AUs. Then again… those had kids in them… and what she was feeling here… it wasn't… what she expected.
"O-oh, are you uncomfortable? Does it hurt? I-I have something f-for that," Alphys said as she started digging through her bag.
"No, I'm not in pain," Jewel sighed a little. "Just… awkward. I don't normally do social things in big groups. I'm lucky if I can handle more than two people. A-and I'm tired," she muttered softly. What was with her today? Then again, Blue did take all her social energy…
"Well, fret not!" Papyrus smiled. "You can stay with us tonight!"
"I-I don't know," Alphys started to protest. "You know the rules, y-you can't just-!"
"It's okay. I'll just go," Jewel said with a soft smile. "I don't want to put you guys out, you've already done more than enough and I feel bad for scaring you as it is."
Alphys looked a little disappointed. She had so many questions.
"Would you come back?" Papyrus then asked, making everyone turn to him.
"I have never seen a human before," he admitted. "I just… had some questions."
Jewel chuckled softly. Of course he did, he was a Papyrus… "I mean if you want me to. But I should get back, Blue is probably losing his mind."
"Blue?" Sans questioned, a brow raised.
"The Sans I was with. We call him Blueberry because he's small, sweet, and the biggest blue eyes you've ever seen. I can only imagine what's going through his head right now…"
"Why? What happened?" Undyne asked. "I mean, I'm assuming it's the reason you came popping into our world all banged up."
"Yeah, we were attacked. There's this… well, he's not quite a Sans, but…" she sighed a little. "It doesn't matter, it was just bad. I didn't want to risk Blue or his Papyrus, so I grabbed the two and teleported them out. I separated them, hid, but the damage apparently was worse than I thought. I knew I had to get back to one of my friends, they could get in touch with Blue if I didn't go straight there. But…"
"Then you should definitely get back to your friend!" Papyrus declared. "You can visit with us another time!"
She would have to look in the code to see where she was… it would be on her history, she knew, even if she didn't know where she was right now. Plus, the news of an overlay in the world was definitely something she should look into.
"Thanks for all the help," she smiled at them and waved. But the second she tried to teleport, her magic fizzled out and she doubled over, grabbing her chest as she coughed up some more blood.
"Yo, punk!" Undyne ran and grabbed her faster than any of them could react.
"I-I-I-I don't understand!" Alphys cried out as she ran over. "E-everything seemed fine!"
Jewel clenched her eyes shut as she could feel them pulse, magic flaring. The monsters could feel it leaking into the room and they stared at her. It took her a moment to get it under control. Slowly, she took a steadying breath and opened her eyes.
"That was…" Sans started, staring at her.
"Y-yeah… I… guess the damage to my soul was worse than I thought…"
"B-but nothing came up when I tried to check!" Alphys spoke up.
"My soul is undetectable. Obviously, I know it's there, but it's… well… you can't scan it, can't yank it out… I suppose that's good in most cases, but it also means healing magic or anything won't work on it either… and to be honest… I've never had it damaged before so this is new to me…"
"What the hell damaged it like that?" Undyne asked rather loudly.
"Uh… it was… karmic damage to a barrier I placed up. Dude was LV 20, so…"
"Shit…" Sans muttered.
"So… sorry… I… uh… I don't think I can… teleport out of here. Not until my soul recovers enough…"
The group all looked at each other. This made this more difficult for sure.
"Listen," Undyne spoke up. "It's late. No one has to know about this until morning, right?" she started. "I mean, she's not going anywhere right away. I can… even lend ya some clothes so you can get rid of those burned and stained ones. I think we're about the same size…"
"So long as they're not form-fitting," Jewel sweated a little.
"Well, I can see what I have," Undyne muttered. "You punks okay with letting her stay here? It might be hard to move her at this point."
"Of course," Papyrus grinned.
Sans simply shrugged. "Doesn't really bother me."
"A-all right," Alphys sighed. "C-call if you n-need a-anything. I-I wish I-I could do m-more for y-your soul… b-but if what you s-said is true…"
"Trust me doc," Jewel chuckled. "This is been a thing. You don't know how many Sanses are kinda up in arms about not being able to read me."
Undyne and Alphys held a small smile.
"What's your name anyway, punk?" Undyne asked.
"Jewel," she smiled.
They all kind of stared at each other and there was a bit of laughter.
"Jeez! You'd fit in well here," Undyne laughed.
Jewel rose a brow. "Am I missing something?"
"Nah, just our "stage names"," Sans smiled. "We're all kind of precious stones or metals."
Undyne smirked, pointing to herself. "Onyx."
"Garnet," Papyrus smiled.
"Goldie," Sans chuckled.
Jewel chuckled. "I suppose it does fit. Especially since Jewel's not my real name either."
"Really?" Papyrus asked. "Then why did you introduce yourself to us as it?"
"Because it's what I prefer now. My old name died with my world." Silence filled the room, but Jewel suddenly laughed. "Oh please! Don't start the pity part. You know how long I've been without it? I'm fine. Really," she smiled at them all.
Weak, but genuine smiles greeted her.
"Well, it's past dinner time now," Undyne spoke up. "Gotta get going if we're gonna have anything before bed."
"R-right," Alphys agreed, looking at the two skeletons. "Y-You're s-sure you're okay with this?"
"It's fine," Sans chuckled softly.
"Of course! Now, I'll walk you both to the door, unless you wish to stay for dinner?" Papyrus offered, but it was declined by the ladies.
Jewel watched as they walked out, the voices fading as they went down the hall.
"You really have no method of contacting anyone?" Sans then asked.
Jewel sighed. "I gave them my number, not the other way around… besides…" she went into her pocket and pulled out her phone. It was smashed. "I don't think this thing is worth much."
"So even if I let you use mine, you don't have their numbers," he sighed.
"I mean… I could try Ink."
Sans rose a bone brow. "Ink?"
"He's an AU hopper too. Another Sans, but his powers are… well, unique. I know a couple of other hoppers but Ink's the only one with a "summon" I suppose. If you spill liquid, it creates another portal for him to go through. But he has to see the portal open, and if he's not at his base…"
"He's not going to see it," he sighed.
"And with me only being gone a short time… there's no guarantee and I rather not clean up any big messes."
"I'm with ya there," he muttered softly before rolling his head and rubbing his neck. Stars, he was tired.
"Besides… I'm not really trackable, but I don't know if Ink is… I… really rather not bring any drama to your world. It's… strange to not have an Undyne go nuts over a human soul."
"Why would they?" Sans asked.
"In most AUs, Undyne is captain of the royal guard, serves right under Asgore. And… well… six human souls have already been gathered, so…"
"So..?"
"So the barrier…"
"Oh," he shrugged. "Well, we don't really worry about that down here. We got enough issues."
"Like what? I'll admit, I'm confused to which AU I'm in. I mean… you're dressed like Lust, so I have to assume it's a Lust variant, but I can't feel anything I would expect from it."
"Feel?" he questioned.
"I'll explain it later," she sighed. "So… question, and don't get offended. How's Papyrus' cooking? Because in some AUs, it's a kitchen fire waiting to happen."
Sans laughed a little. "No, he's good. Not the world famous skills he thinks he has, but it's edible."
She let out a sigh of relief. "How long was I out?"
"About two hours, give or take."
She let out a sigh of relief. But it was laced with guilt.
"Hey… you want me to go to that bar and see if my friends could help?"
"No, Ink might be the only one they could get to and again… admitting I'm here could bring unwanted attention. It's safer to just… pretend I don't exist for the moment. I'll heal up, and once it's enough I'll get out of your figurative hair."
Sans let out a soft chuckle, he couldn't help it. "Well, you can rest there if you don't feel up to eating."
"Eh, I really don't, but I should," she muttered. "At least a little. Blue would kick me if he knew I was passing up food. Especially since he ate half of mine," she chuckled. Even if it only had been a couple of hours ago… food was one way to get her magic back. "Though, Sans?"
"Yeah?"
"How long does it take… for a soul to heal?"
"Well… that depends on the damage. If it's… structural damage, it may never heal."
"But just… like from a fight… you know how karmic damage works, right?"
"Well, yeah. It's a poison… how effective it is depends on the LV of the attacker and defender. You said the person had 20 LOVE?"
"Yeah…"
"What's yours?" he blatantly asked.
"I… don't know."
"You… don't know?"
"I can't look at my own stats. Even I can't access my own soul. Even with my go-around it's all corrupted."
"What do you mean, go around?"
"I mean…" she sighed. "Look… I'm exhausted. Maybe we can go over all the details in the morning? I should just eat and sleep… sooner I get this healed up, the sooner I'm gone."
"You make it sound like we don't want you here."
"Well, do you?" she eyed him.
Sans felt his soul shudder at the look. It was like she was staring right through him. Granted, he wasn't exactly thrilled, but he wasn't going to turn her away. She was hurt, badly by the sound of it. Her physical wounds didn't even tell half the story. And to run into a guy with LV20…
"I'll… admit it's weird. Not something I'm used to… but I'm not about to throw you out. I mean, you can't really take care of yourself with a gash in your soul like that. That was a lot of magic leaking out."
"Yeah… and teleporting is the easier of my abilities. Should be the first one I can do again."
"Just because you can force yourself to doesn't mean you should. If you go back to your friends like that they're going to freak."
"Yeah, I can hear half of them now," she sighed. "But I was reckless. I forgot about how most Sanses have the karmic damage calculation in their stats. I'm so used to hanging around the ones that don't…"
"So you hang around some unique ones?"
"Heh, I hang around mostly good-karma ones. I forgot completely that it works the other way around too. That was my bad."
Sans chuckled a little. "Cockiness gets you every time."
"Hindsight is always 20-20," she sighed.
Sans moved to sit on the bed, not directly next to her, but enough to be in a more friendly manner instead of leaning against the wall. "So, I know you said you're tired and all, but my brother's going to be cooking for a bit. If there's anything you wanna get off your chest, now might be the time. Like, how you're looking through me."
Jewel sighed and leaned forward on her knees. She explained the bare basics to him, about how she lived outside in the code, pulled up a window that had data from his world, which didn't require magic at all, it was part of her biology now, just as it was as natural for Error to pixelate or Ink's eyes to change shape and color. She explained that she was an empath, how it gave her the ability to read one's emotions, get a feel of who they were.
"So… yeah, not really all that different than you judging someone's soul," she shrugged.
"Still feels more violating than that…" he shuddered.
"Just because someone can read through your poker face doesn't make it violating," she chuckled. "Reading a soul is more invasive technically. You broadcast your emotions, even the ones you try and hide. Trying to hide them just makes them stand out more."
"Really?" he questioned, thinking about it. "So… when you said you didn't feel what you thought you would… what do you mean?"
"Well, most Lust variants inject monsters of age with… uh… well, to combat their fertility issues, they just try and, ya know, mate more so the injections are a… make the monsters in a constant state of heat."
Sans stared at her, but then laughed. "I suppose that explains some of my friends then," he smiled a bit. "But, yeah, no, we don't do that here. We figured out the biology of the problem, just not how to fix it."
"Really?" she turned to him.
"Yeah. I don't know about the others, but our world, we have the Royal Harem. The only ten monsters that can sire children."
"The stage names…"
"Yeah."
"So all three of you…"
"Yup."
"God damn."
Sans shrugged a little.
"Well… do you at least enjoy it?" she questioned.
Sans turned to her, both eyes open instead of lazily only having his golden eye open. "What?"
"I mean… that's fucked up! You're born with this… and you have to… do you at least enjoy it? Because I mean… I… I don't know if I could go through with that. I'd… be lying to myself and say at least the job's fun but I'd be dying inside. Like… that's a lot of pressure and that you have no choice at all."
"We have a choice, we don't have to participate. But, ya know, we do our part for monster-kind ya know?"
"That's selfless as hell, man."
He shrugged. "I'm just one of ten, the others do just as much."
"You still hate it."
Sans stiffened a little. "Damn it, don't do that," he muttered before he looked at her. "What… what is it?" he asked, not liking the look in her eyes.
"I just…" she looked down on the ground. "Still feels very non-con to me. Like, if people knew, and they probably do, and you said no… the amount of… the guilt they put on you…"
"It's not that bad," Sans tried. "It's just how things are." But that look didn't disappear from her face. "Jewel, really, it's okay."
A shaky breath escaped her and Sans couldn't help but worry about where this was coming from. Sure, their situation sucked, but this was how life was. Everyone had to do their part. If he didn't, he'd be leaving his baby brother to be taking on his part of the burden, and the others, and he couldn't do that. He couldn't be selfish.
"Any clues as to what's causing the issue?"
"Nope," Sans replied. "And we're nowhere near any closer than when we started."
Jewel began to think about it. "So you're losing sires and only have monsters who can receive, right?"
He laughed a little. "What, you magically going to have the answer?"
Jewel chuckled a little. "Oh, hardly. I'm not even close to a scientist. I just… think too much. And it sounds like a problem with one of the countries of my world… just backward."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. But theirs was their own fault… cultural bullshit. Their population exploded, so the government banned multiple births. But there was this stigma that women couldn't carry on the family name, weren't worth anything. So a lot of people, when they found out they were having a girl, they'd terminate the pregnancy or kill the child after birth in secret… then try again for a boy."
Sans stared at her, the color drained from his face. "That's horrific! What the hell?!"
"Yeah… led to them having an 80/20 split male-to-female ratio. Men weren't so valuable then, when they couldn't get married and keep the family alive," she sighed. "Even after the practices stopped… the ratio never got better. It was like…"
"Karma," Sans muttered.
"Cursed by their own hand," Jewel sighed. "But, they later found out a way to manipulate hormones during pregnancy to try and coax the unborn child to be female. The ratio went up a little. Not everyone really agreed with the method, apparently, my side of the world called it pseudo-science."
Sans listened, wondering if that would be what they had to do. Try and alter an unborn monster's soul to try and give it the Golden Trait. That didn't sit well with him.
They sat in silence for a bit, before Jewel asked another question. "Has this been going on long, do you think? Or did it just recently drop?"
"No, it's been… a while."
"Ya know… I wonder if… well, what if you compared data from a monster's soul that's not part of your world, that has no issues, with your own. Would that help?"
Sans blinked. "I mean… yeah, that would definitely be data we don't have… if there was a difference…"
"Tell ya what… it might take me a bit but… let me talk to my friends. I can see if they'll let me scan their souls… either let their Alphys do it and I bring ya the stuff or… ya know. I mostly know Sanses, so…"
"So comparisons with me, huh?" he shrugged a little. "I guess I can handle a bit of poking and prodding."
"Most of them wouldn't be okay with me asking their Papyrus' either. Well, Red, maybe, but, I can just imagine Edgy's reaction."
"These are some of the weirdest nicknames," Sans chuckled.
"And most of you are colors," she chuckled. "Blue, Red, Goldie," she smiled. "Even Onyx and Garnet are colors too."
"True," he chuckled. "But… thanks."
"For what?" Jewel rose a brow.
"For… caring, I guess. Most people are happy to just get a kid out of us. You get here and the second you hear about the problem, your mind is racing to fix it."
"I don't like suffering in any form," Jewel said softly. She had seen more than enough, caused more than enough, especially in her own family…
"Brother! Human! Dinner is ready!" they heard from down the hall.
"Seems like no matter which Papyrus, names are never registered for humans," she chuckled softly.
"Heh, sorry, I'll try and make him remember your name."