Gladiolus, a flower of the gladiators, can mean "give me a break".

You feel the oversized bony hand touch your head. It's gentle, barely ghosting against your hair. And then it lifts. Then you feel it again.

He was… Patting your head?

You stare up at Papyrus as he smiles, crooked teeth jutting out.

"Sa...fe." He gurgles out, words sounding wet.

Oh.

Huh.

"Thank you." You manage quietly, feeling a shiver from the chill of the water. You look around him, seeing Sans still flailing in his hold, his vulgar screaming muffled by Papyrus's hand. Papyrus notices your look and then holds Sans over next to you.

"Not… Bro...ther." He says. Sans suddenly starts screaming louder and you hear the crack of bone.

"Stop!" You blurt without thinking. Papyrus stills his hand. Looking at you with a tilt of his head. You purse your lips, looking between his red stained face and the skeleton who had tried to kill you multiple times.

You sigh, knowing what you were about to do was stupid.

"Please let him go." You point to Sans, who'd gone still. "He's… A friend." Papyrus perks up at your words.

"Fri...end?" He asks before he gives another look to the Sans in his hand. Finally, after a long minute, he lowers him down into the river next to you. When he lets go you look over to see if he was okay. Sans stares up at Papyrus with a disgusted look and then sends you a disgruntled glare before he looks away from both of you.

"Thank you." You say again to Papyrus. You give him your name as his face glows.

"Name." He says, pointing at himself. You blink, waiting for him to give you 'Papyrus', but instead he frowns and shakes his head. "Na..me? Name….Name…" He leans back, plopping into the river and splashing you. He cradles his head, mumbling over and over about his name. You feel your heart plummet. You reach out to him but Sans pulls you back.

"What is goin' on?" He harshly whispers at you, eye lights focused on the Papyrus in front of you. "Who is- Why does he-" He cuts off his question, even though you know exactly what he wants to ask.

"I promise I'll explain everything to you." You put your hand over the one gripping your arm. You feel him flinch at the touch but he doesn't immediately pull away. "I promise."

You slip from his grip and then slowly wade your way closer to Papyrus.

"Hey." You say gently, trying to catch the mumbling skeleton's attention. "Kid," You try. "Honey, sweet heart," A slew of pet names tumble from your mouth as you see him start to weep. "Come here cinnamon stick, it's okay, it's o-kay, let me help." You wade closer, ducking through his long bones to come up at his side. He sniffles, finally looking down at you. You hold out your arms, trying to signal you wanted to comfort him. He looks confused before he lowers his hand down to you. You hug it to your side and then reach up for his face. He hesitates but finally leans down enough for you to wipe the black tears from his cheek bones.

"Name." He mumbles again. You wipe the fresh wave of black tears.

"Can't remember?" You ask and he nods.

"I get that." You think back to your timeline, to your loss of memory. "That's okay though. I'm sure you'll remember. Until then, why don't you pick a name?" He sniffles again.

"Pi..ck?" You nod.

"Anything you want, cinnamon sticks." He mumbles something, gurgling on his words, before he raises the hand wrapped around you to press his finger to your chest.

"Tha..t." He says and you watch his face turn a dark burgundy. You tilt your head.

"I.. You mean one of the names I called you?"

"Cinny...min… stick." He replied and you smiled up at him.

"Alright. That'll be your name until you remember yours, okay? Does that sound good." He quietly nods against your palm.

Sans clears his throat behind you. You send him a look over your shoulder and he throws his arms out to the side.

"An explanation would be good any time now." He snaps.

"You could wait two seconds, Sans." You bite back.

"Sans?" Cinnamon asks, perking up immediately. He starts to stand, water pouring from his bones as he moves. Sans makes a noise as he starts to back up as Cinnamon nears him. "Not.. Sans." You hear the budding anger in Cinnamon's voice.

"You're.. right!" You shuffle back, getting between the two skeletons. "Not Sans, he's um… His name is…" You look over your shoulder at the black and red clad skeleton who was sweating bullets. "Red!" Cinnamon looks between you and Sans before he finally takes the answer and smiles.

"Red," He repeats. "Is… Fri...end?"

"No-"

"Yes!" You send Sans a scathing look. "Red is friends with me, so that means he's friends with you, because we're friends, right, Cinnamon?" Papyrus nods, head bobbing and teeth making a grinding noise as they move against each other.

"Friends." He draws out the s. You nod.

"Friends, Cinnamon." You back up and then look down to your soaked clothes. "Let's get out of the river."

Cinnamon easily steps out and before you can even move he picks you up and sets you on dry ground. You thank him, a bit ruffled at how easily he could lift you.

You hear Red grumbling next to you as he hikes his soaked shorts up and steps out himself. He shakes his waterlogged shoe before sending you a death glare and shedding his coat.

"The only reason why I haven't killed ya yet is cause y'ur my way out." He all but growls. His eyes flicker up to Cinnamon, who was standing now at his full height. You had a feeling Red wasn't going to try anything with him around.

"Listen, San- Red," You quickly correct. "I don't know how you got here." Red glares and takes a threatening step your way, but both of you freeze when Cinnamon moves. You glance over to the large skeleton, but he's already walking off, taking interest in something you can't see. You use his distraction to step closer to Red.

"You're not supposed to be here with me-"

"Fuckin' really?" He interjects with as much sarcasm as possible. You continue and ignore him.

"And I'm sorry that you got dragged into this, but I don't know how to get you back." You try to put a hand on his arm hut he slaps it away.

"I don't want y'ur fuckin' apology." He grabs the front of your wet shirt, pulling your face up to his. "And I don't want an excuse. You betta take me back to my brother."

"I can't! I can't control where I go-"

"That's not good enough!" He shakes you roughly. "I don't think ya understand who I am. I've killed humans like you every otha day of the week. I'm not threatin' you, I'm promisin' you." He shakes you again, as if it'll make you suddenly teleport back to wherever he was from.

"I get it!" You snap, throwing your hands over his, wrenching yourself free. You shove him back and he stumbles. "I don't care!" He balks at you. "Go ahead, kill me. You might get back if I'm alive but you'll be stuck here for good if I'm dead." You dust yourself off as if his hands had left a mark. "I'm not scared of you, Red."

You both stare each other down for a long moment. Finally you're interrupted by the gurgling noise of Cinnamon.

The large skeleton is stand off by one of the dry rock walls, his pinprick sockets glow ominously as he stares at you.

"Ugh." Red whines, making a disgusted noise.

"Whatcha got there, Cinnamon?" You call out, waving for him to come back. He hesitates in the shadows before raising his long arm. You realize he's pointing. "Want us to follow?" He nods quickly, starting off where he'd gestured.

"I'm not followin' that freak." Red spits, throwing his massive coat back on. You don't know why he does, it's hot wherever you two are.

"Then you can wander around here." You wring out the tail of your shirt before heading off. "But if Papyrus looks like that, I don't want to find out what happened to everyone else while i'm alone." You hear Red curse under his breath before trudging behind you.

Cinnamon was on a path lit by echo flowers. The eerie blue lights reflected shadows of gore over the lanky beaten skeleton. The field is overgrown, grass - seaweed? - towering far above your head, shriveled and dead. The echo flowers twisted up, strangling themselves as they loomed over the path, petals mimicking watchful eyes.

"What the hell…" Red murmurs, stopping at your side. "This…" You feel his eye lights on you. "We're not in my Underground, are we?" You glance his way out of the corner of your eyes.

"No, we're not." Then you take the first step after Cinnamon into the maze of plants.

Cinnamon isn't aware of how far his long strides take him. That, or he doesn't care if he'll have to turn back and find you. You're sure with his height he'd be able to peer over the field and find you and Red with little to no trouble.

"Where're we heading, Cinnamon?" You call, pushing one of the bulbous echo flowers out of your face. You hear it whisper something to you as you pass.

"Pa-th." He gurgles back. You jog a bit to try and catch up with him. "Ha...Ha-ome." He speeds up then, pushing the foliage out of his way with his body, clearing the path.

"Wait! Cinna-" An echo flower hits you in the face and you fall backwards. Red laughs behind you as you groan, holding your nose. When you look up Cinnamon is gone.

You stand up, brushing the dirt off your butt. When you notice Red still laughing you send him a dirty look.

"That was fuckin' stupid!" Red laughs harder, red tears budding at his sockets as he holds his nonexistent gut. "Y'ur face!" You glare at him, but as you watch him laugh, you feel your nerves unbundle. Something about it was familiar, as annoying as it was.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up bonehead. It didn't even rattle me."

"Are you makin' skeleton jokes?" He asks through his laughter. When he sees you smiling at him he abruptly stops. He catches himself, as if he was just remembering who you were. He huffs, shoulders going up and you can tell he gets defensive.

You look back to the treaded path Cinnamon had taken. You assume wherever he was going was Snowdin. What made you hesitate to continue after him was the fact he was heading "home". You didn't know if soul pieces could pop up in the same place in multiple universes. You needed to wander until you found another place connected to Gaster.

You'd been to the core, one of Gaster's inventions. You'd been to the secret lab further underground that had once belonged to him. You'd even figured out he was somehow connected to the skeleton brothers and a piece of him had been left with them. Maybe instead of heading back to Snowdin you should head towards the capital. If he worked in the labs of Hotland, maybe he lived there too. Maybe a piece of his soul was left with the king, if they had been close?

"Ya know, since the sugar skull is gone, why don't ya get to explain' who the hell he was?" Red grabs you by your arm, spinning you around.

"You know who he was." You shake off his hand. "He's a Papyrus. Just different."

"See, that's the part I need explainin' sweet cheeks. "A" Papyrus? What's that supposed ta mean?"

You stare at Red- No, you stare a Sans. You stare at him just like you had stared at the Sans before him, and the one before that, and even the original one that you knew. You stare at him like you had stared at all the Papyrus's, too.

An explanation was far from your grasp. You had a method to your madness, tramping around alternate realities, finding pieces of a scientist who no longer existed anywhere and yet was literally everywhere. How could you explain that to a skeleton that only knew his life? Just like your Sans, or the tired Papyrus a few worlds ago, how were supposed to explain anything? You barely understood what was going on. Even then you're sure you don't know the entirety of the truth. All you've done is made sense at what's been thrown at you.

"Hello? I'm talkin' to ya."

Plus, what were you supposed to do with him? You had just dragged him from his home, from his brother, just like you had been taken from yours. But it's different. You chose to leave, because it was your only chance. This Sans had no choice. Now he was stuck with you until… until what? Until you made it back to your home safe and happy? Wait until you could return to Gaster to get help from him? What happened if this Sans stayed away from his timeline for too long? Would he be… forgotten? Like you?

Two bony hands slap down onto your shoulders. You're snapped out of your thoughts and forced back into the present. Red is glaring down at you, hands squeezing your shoulders painfully.

"I don't like bein' ignored, doll face." He says. You feel a wave of painful guilt and Red must see some of it on your face. He avoids your look and then roughly takes his hands back.

Your soul hurts.

"Red I-" The loud snap of something breaking stops your words.

The two of your freeze, going ramrod still as you listen.

Something was in the grass around you.

You feel someone watching.

"I think..." You swallow your words when you hear someone run behind you. You spin around, trying to catch a glimpse at whoever it is. All you see is the grass gently waving. "There's someone here."

"They're circlin' us." Red murmurs. You feel the thrum of his magic pick up and the soft sound of metal music start in the distance.

There's a giggle. Whoever was running around was laughing at the way our heart squeezed in panic.

The echo flower next to you suddenly glows brighter, making you jump. You're not sure who touched it, but it wasn't you. It echoes crying, soft pitiful sobs. Another flower by Red starts up. However this one echoes ramblings of a tired grating voice. It's a jumble of words and worry and all you feel is an overwhelming wave of anxiety.

In the field you start to see multiple spots of glowing light and suddenly the quiet field is full of voices. Young and old, scared and angry. They murmur of food and starvation, of dead kings and insane queens. Some voices are slow and mumbled, others are fast and incohereable. They're voices of monsters who've lost all hope and all shreds of sanity.

It was terrifying.

Your soul hurts again.

Something jumps out of the grass at you. You duck just in time for it to fly over your head.

"Oh great." Red murmurs as you turn around to face the monster hunting you both. It was… "A fuckin' Temmie." He says, but it looks nothing close to the one you knew. The beast had spindly long legs and a jaw full of teeth. Temmie hissed at you, drool pooling in it's jaws. You wonder if it closed its mouth it'd look as sweet and innocent as you were used to, maybe that's how they hunted.

Hearing shuffling in the grass next to you, you back up. Multiple Temmie monsters start creeping out of the grass around the two of you. You hear Red curse under his breath.

"Y'ur a good monster," Red says, hands outstretched with a red glow. "Come on, we don't even taste good. All skin n' bones."

The Temmie's aren't amused.

In fact, it looks like all their attention zeros in on you instead. Nervously you reach for you bat- and immediately curse when you're reminded for the 100th time you're weaponless.

"Run." Red says. It takes you a second to process what he said, but by that time he'd already turned, shoved at you, and started to run.

The Temmie's bark variations of their name as they give chase.

You wade through the field, shoving screaming flowers and dead leaves out of your way.

"This way!" You grab at Red's sleeve, heaving him into the grass off the path. The thin blades cut against your face and hands but you don't stop running, hearing the monsters on your heels.

Just as the field opens up you feel something sharp in your ankle.

You yell as you're tripped, face smashing against the ground.

You try to lift yourself up but hear the growling too close. You roll over just in time to grab the Temmie's shoulders before their teeth rip into you.

"Kid!" You hear Red yell over your head before he grunts. You feel his magic flare and see a Temmie go flying through the air.

You shove at Temmie's cheek, getting it off long enough to curl a leg up against your chest and kick it off. Scrambling up to your feet, your ankle gives out and you stumble back to the ground.

"Go!" You yell at Red as you hear the other Temmie's nearing. You try to stand again but see the rivers of blood from your ankle. "They're after me! Run!" You shout, looking up to meet Red's confused look.

The Temmie's howl behind you.

They were hungry. Thin enough that you could see and feel every groove of their bones. They were after your flesh, your meat, not after the bag of bones behind to you. You're sure they wouldn't mind using him has toothpicks if he stayed around long enough, though.

You get to your feet, picking up a stick nearby, turning to face the pack of Temmie's. Your face and arms stung from the grass and you could feel your heartbeat in your ankle. None of them were pulling you into an encounter and you had a feeling this fight was going to be more like the ones you had on the surface. You were determined either way.

The first Temmie comes running. When it jumps at you, you dodge to the side, swinging the branch down on the next one to come close. You spin, clocking the one you had first dodged across the face when it comes back from seconds.

You step back, focusing on the next three. The first one charges and bites into the branch, trying to wrestle it from your grip. You try to pull it free, hyper aware of the two other Temmie's running for you. You kick at one, but it's friend bites into your leg. The branch snaps in the jaws of the Temmie and you're pulled back down to the ground. You punch at one of the Temmie's right as the third one bites into your arm and pulls. You feel your shoulder pop and you scream.

The ground rumbles underneath you. Suddenly large bones fly out and the Temmie's are thrown off of you. Larger bones grow out from the ground around you. They keep growing until they tent over you.

It's dark and you're safe.

You curl in on yourself, cradling your wounds. Taking a brief moment to just breathe.

You hear the Temmie's screaming as they're handled one by one.

Then it's silent.

You take another deep breath before you try and sit up. A knock on the bones makes you pause.

"Who's there?" You ask, trying to peak between the bone slots.

"Temmie." Red replies and you melt a bit at his voice.

"Temmie who?" The bones start to glow red before they evaporate.

"There was temmie of 'em, but I handled it." When the bones disappear, Red is standing there, looking just as damp and annoyed as he had before. When he sees you he sends a mocking grin. "Pretty beat up for someone who told me to run." You try to shug but your left shoulder won't answer you, making you wince.

"Why didn't you go?" You ask, using your left hand to push yourself up to your feet. You balance mostly on your good foot, trying not to put too much weight on your bloody one.

"You're my ticket outta here." He says immediately, almost too quickly. You watch his one red eye light bounce from your shoulder down to your bite wounds and bad ankle. "Fleshbags are a lot softer than bones. S'not a smart move, bein' a hero." He says, pocketing his hands.

"Wasn't trying to be a hero." You say, pulling your dislocated arm closer. "I was… doing what's right." Red narrows his sockets at you, giving you that confused look again before he completely turns his head away.

"Whatever." He starts walking off and you hurry after him.

Your speed is cut in half with your beat up leg. You keep your eyes on Red's back as you pause and kneel. He must hear you stop because he turns around with a scowl. He has something to say, you're sure, but the ripping of your shirt stops him. You take off the inch at the bottom, using it to bandage your ankle. You take off another inch wide strip to wrap the bite on the leg, then another for the one on your arm. By the time you're sure you're not going to bleed out, your t-shirt had turned into a crop top. You curl your good arm over your stomach, feeling bare and more open than you were before. Not being fully covered in this grimey new world added another layer of anxiety you'd have to push to the back burner.

You finally hobble your way up to Red, who's been watching you intensely this entire time.

"Y'ur so fuckin' annoying." He suddenly snaps. Just when you're about to snap back, he starts aggressively pulling off his coat. "Put the thing on if you're gonna whine the whole time." He sees your look and bristles. "Do I look like I wanna wear a wet fuckin' coat?"

"I didn't say anything." You say, but take his coat and immediately zip it up to cover your abdomen. Even though he said it was wet, it felt dry and warm to you.

Red starts off again, cursing under his breath about stupid humans. You limp after him, a small smile on your lips.

"By the way, I'm going to need you to pop my arm back into place."

"Fucking what?"