"... ..."

You stand in a dark place. Nothing to be seen that would help orientation. There is something in front of you. You can barely make it out, even though it is so close. If you would reach out your arm, you would surely be able to touch it. But you won't. You can't. You raise your voice and ask. It speaks.

"...Child... ..."

"...Do you expect a story? ...A sugarcoated lie about hows and whys? ...Trifles that matter not? ...Pasts that only explain so little...? …"

"... ..."

You speak up once more. You demand. Why are you doing this? Why can't you stop? It speaks again.

"...Heh heh... ...How precious... ... Very well... ...I shall tell you a story... ...One that should not start with a scenario of war... ...One not beginning with love... ...One not spoken off by any lip born and past... ... This tale is about...how it all...began... Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: Humans and Monsters…"

"... ..."

You listen, but...

"Heheheheheheheh… Hahahahahahahahahaha. Ahahahahahaha!"

"... ...!"

It's sudden laughter send a terrifying shiver down your spine. Like a knife that slowly cuts into your back. It speaks to you. You want to run.

You can't...

"Oh, what's with the frightened look, my child…? Hm? Why do I laugh about this?"

"... ..."

You feel an uneasiness overwhelming you. Why did you ask? Why won't you run?

"You know this story from start to finish already, child… Don't you? Every detail. Every little secret. Every word spoken...and...action...taken..."

You feel the sins of the world clinging to your legs. They start to climb up on your shoulders. And agony begins flooding over you.

"No… This won't do… So let me give you a gift instead. That wonderful Change you've aimed for with every Reset you've taken."

You try to check the Entity talking to you, but all goes Dark. Just endless blackness swallowing you whole.

"I hope you have fun, child… For they'll be your doing… After all...it's what you've been striving for... Is your Determination stronger than theirs? I'll look forward...to meeting you, then... Don't disappoint, my child... I bore so easily..."

You begin to fall. You feel your lungs caving in. Every inch of your body is in pain. Is being torn apart, by a voice. A voice that had no face to you.
Despite your Determination...for the first time, you feel completely helpless.

... ... ...

The wind was howling. Ashes stained the white of sand beneath a blackened sky. No clouds. No birds. Nothing, but the distant red flickering above the pitch black mountains. The blanket of gray hissed at the earth and clawed on each fissure and dune.

"uhh... ... ..."

From the ashen ground rose a color. A jacket soaked in the memory of oceans, seas, lakes and hope. The person coughed, tried to raise from the ground, but each push was weak against the pull of the wind.

"Wha...? Where...?", he spoke in a dull, low font. A skeleton of short statue, kneeling in the ashes of an endless wasteland. His gaze was confused, terrified and soaked with disbelieve. "where...am I?", he wondered. The white pupils within his eye sockets stared empty into the circling darkness before him. The world was heavy, colorless and drained of hope. Every breath felt like weight upon his non-existent lungs. Trying to drag him back into the ground. Whispers and echoes raced across the dunes. Agony and despair singing in a bitterly beautiful symphony. And to his own surprise, he saw a figure in the distance slowly fading from his sight. A slim shadow so familiar, it shook him to the core. Without hesitation the small skeleton pushed himself up and followed in hastened steps. "Hey! Wait!" With a blue haze, he swiftly gained on the shade. A red wing of cloth waving from the neck confirmed his greatest fear. "Pap?! Papyrus!? Papyrus! Pap-!", he shouted, but he didn't respond. Within the next heartbeat, he flinched and held all movement. Before his eyes the storm opened, revealing a massive tower-like structure crawling from the wasteland. Walls of crystals, darker than any stone he had ever seen. The building stretched endless into the sky, branching its arms across like a dead tree. From beneath the sand a wall circled it. Fortifications from stone figures, all staring and screaming in pain. Their voices now silenced memorials. Or perhaps trapped in the winding whispers that travel aimlessly over the dunes. The youngling realized that he was standing between broken pieces of armory, scattered and buried by the ashes and sand. Shields, swords, guns and blades, long swallowed by the vicious desert bellow. The one named Papyrus walked passed all this, unfazed or blind to it. He continued towards the tower's open gates. "Wait! Papyrus!", he shouted, but still he didn't respond at all. The small one followed quickly after. As he passed the massive outer ring, a garden lay before him. Crystal flowers illuminated each corner. Shimmering under this unearthly sky, their colors shifted from the brightest of white to the most gleaming blue. A strange tranquility emanating from their mysterious shine. Within their columns of glass-like petals other plants rose from the gray earth. Giant beasts of purple which seemed to glare at the Skeleton with hunger. He shivered slightly, but ignored their presence further on and rushed inside.

Finding himself in a big hall, he caught his breath. This one wasn't used to running so much. He still could hear the squirming of the plants outside. It pushed him further inside. The hall was massive. A round structure, stretching into the dark above, with walls of mirrors and ice embracing the emptiness in between. The floor was reflecting him, but not the walls or the flight of stairs surrounding the pillar formation close to the middle. Two gaping hallways invited his gaze with distant gleam, but kept everything within shrouded in a veil of thick blackness. The hall felt abandoned, besides one single figure, standing back turned in the center of the room. It was wrapped in a blue coat that was stained with two red stripes dripping along the spine. The fabric was more like metal or polished gemstone than anything else, yet it flapped smoothly over the soft breeze that haunted the hall. Veined purple leather clutched across the side of the coat, alive and twitching ever so slightly. One hand was looking like the tower walls on the outside, formed of the blackest stone, polished to perfection. But the left one was a crippled stump with three huge claws, two of them long enough to scratch the floor below. Gray fur covered the knuckles and palm. Or was it a flame? It moved so strangely, one could hardly tell. Across the ground slithered a twisted net of snake-like tails, with tips leaving molten pieces of white liquid behind. White as the hair that covered its head, waving in the breeze like open fire. Wings of purple grew from the top and buried bleeding into the skull beneath, leaving soaked strains amidst the solemn winter. But what caught the small ones attention most, was what lay behind the lone figure. The small skeleton was shaking with fear, disbelieve and anger. His left eye turned bluish slowly, as he stumbled towards a pile of dust. Within it resting a red scarf. His shaking hands took it and tears began to well from the dark of his eye sockets. "Pa- ...Papyrus?", he asked, hoping for all this to be a cruel joke. A nightmare. He'll soon awake, won't he?

"You shouldn't be here...", a sudden voice tore his eyes up. The figure before him slowly turned, repeating these very words. With a voice that rang like a thousand dying civilizations. The small one stumbled onto his feet, raising an arm in fury. Behind him a massive dragon-like skull appeared, fueled by incredible magic power. "You! You DIRTY BROTHER KILLER!", he screamed in his agony. Yet, the figure could care less for his tantrum. Ever so slightly turning, it revealed their face to him. It froze the skeleton in place. The cold crawled up his spine and each bone ached. Burned. A sensation of incredible pain washed over him. Breathing became impossible. As the figure's face snuck from the shadows, a red glow burned straight through his soul. The skeleton coughed and tried to form words, but nothing managed to overpower the pain and clawing suffering that began to embrace him. His body slowly turned to dust, him conscious. Every bit of agony that ate at his very limbs. Slowly the world around became dark and darker. Yet darker...

"... ...Children... ...You don't belong here..."

"S... ...sa...Sa...SANS?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

The young skeleton awoke in a messy room, screaming loudly. Frost covered the window and snow piled on the outside. There was little to nothing in here besides a table, a treadmill, the mattress he was sitting on and a self-sustaining tornado in the corner, next to the door. Another skeleton, taller in statue, was standing outside, screaming in unison with him. The two stopped simultaneously. They awkwardly stared at each other while catching their breath. The small one, named Sans, shivered heavily. He tried getting up, but couldn't really control his movements. "Papyrus?", he mumbled underneath his shaky voice, "P...Papy? Is...is that...?" The tall one, named Papyrus, fell backwards and sat underneath the door frame. He clawed across his chest, trying to calm down. "Oh Boy... I... I didn't know you could scream like that, brother...", he said and sighed, "I...I didn't mean to startle you like that, Sans, but you didn't answer to my knocking so I... uh... Are...you crying?" Sans crawled from the mattress and over to his brother. Exhausted, he let his head fall into Papyrus's arms. A sigh of relieve passed his caring smile and he stroke the tears from his cheeks: "...my god... ...thank god..." Papyrus looked down at him confused, but somehow felt happy to have his brother close. He gently embraced him and stuttered: "S...Sans? I..." "It's okay, bro.", Sans interrupted him and pushed himself free, "Boy...you sure know how to sneak up on someone." He smiled carefree and patted his brother on the shoulder. With every ounce of his soul, he tried to shake the dream, but realized that Papyrus was still shivering and shaking. "What's wrong, Pap? You look kinda rattled, bro." wrong, Pap? You look kinda rattled, bro.", he tried to calm him with a small pun, but it did not help at all. The tall skeleton grabbed him around the arms and partially yelled at him. "I had a nightmare! ... ..." Both stared at each other for a moment, surrounded by the silence. Papyrus rested his head on Sans's shoulder, grabbing a hold of his shirt as if his brother could disappear the next moment. Tears fell from his cheeks and it was hard for him to calm his breathing. "Hey, it's okay... it was just a bad dream, bro.", Sans tried comforting him, stroking his skull gently, to no avail. Slowly he rubbed his hand across Papyrus's back and tried thinking of something. "How about I make us some tea? Then we can talk a bit, if that's okay with you, bro.", he suggested. Papyrus nodded: "O...okay..."

The two went outside the room. Sans took his brother by the hand and guided him to the flight of stairs across the hallway. The house was not very big, but enough for the two of them. They passed another room, which was that of Papyrus. It was covered in posters and banners, one flashier than the next. Both skeletons went downstairs into the living room area. A big TV stood close to the wall and an old green sofa opposite of that. At the end of the room, close to the exit door and the kitchen area, was one table. On top sat a rock covered in sprinkles, neatly placed on a plate. Sans pulled his brother to the table and fetched him a chair. Papyrus sat down, placing his elbows on the wood and resting the head inside his palms, sobbing. His brother gave the rock a small pat before heading towards the kitchen. Sans went to a cupboard, took two cups and some tea bags out. He filled a can with water and disappeared for a moment. As fast as he was gone, he reappeared and poured hot water into each cup. Sans brought them over, along with a chair for himself and sat next to his brother, looking into his worried face.

"Damn... I've never seen you shaken up like this before, Papyrus...", Sans commented worried. "Nyeh...", his brother sighed spinning the cup nervously on the table. "Okay... so what was this nightmare you had, bro?", Sans indulged him, counting some scenarios in a funny tune, trying to cheer him up somehow, "Did Undyne noogied you? You didn't get into the Royal Guards, because Doggo had to pick a bone with you? Or maybe..." "I...died...", Papyrus answered him hesitant. His brother immediately stopped shocked. His gaze sharpened with a caring and worried expression. Sans placed his hand on Papyrus's shoulder. "You wanna talk about it? You don't need to if you don't want, though..." For a moment Papyrus sat there silent. His eyes were focused on the tea inside the cup. Both hands shaking uncontrollably, he was sobbing quietly, trying to calm himself somehow. Sans was unsure how to react on that, so he just waited until his brother would decide on his own. He placed his hand on Papyrus's arm and stroke it gently with his thumb. Anything to reassure his brother that he'll be there for him.

"I...", Papyrus began, "...I was in a weird place... It looked a bit like the plains outside Snowdin, but with no trees... And there was no snow, either, but something else... It smelled a bit like near the entrance to Hotland...and the mountains in the distance were glowing red, but everything else was just black and white...or... ...maybe it was more gray than white. I didn't know what else to do, so I began following some weird voice... It sounded like someone hurt, crying for help... ...and then there was this huge, black tower..." Sans listened to him, slowly realizing that Papyrus had seen the same weird place he had. He didn't stop him, though. Careful he listened to every detail that his brother described and tried to keep his calm. Yet the knowledge frightened him, for he knew what was waiting on the end of this story already. But how? How could they both have been there in the same nightmare? This has never happened and it began freaking him out. Yet, he kept his cool, gently stroking his thumb across Papyrus's arm, to help him finding some comfort. "The walls were weird... I've never seen a place like that before... Inside there was a pretty garden. Lots of flowers and they all looked like they were made of glass or something like it... I still heard that voice, so I kept following it... ... ..." Papyrus stopped. His finger bones were shaking and with each following sentence, his breathing became heavier. Almost forceful. "...I... ...I went inside the weird tower... ...Everything was so dark... ...It felt like the walls would crush me... and... ... ...and... ...there was this man... ...Thing... ...He...it had its back turned to me, but... ...it felt like it knew I was there... ... ...I tried talking to it and it answered me... You are not supposed to be here. ...or something like that... ...It turned around and was looking at... ...me..." Papyrus broke down on the table, knocking his cup almost over. He covered his head and tried to claw into his skull, whimpering. "It hurt... ...EVERYTHING STARTED HURTING... ...I couldn't breath... ...I... ...I felt like... ...being torn apart... ...I... ...I... ..." Sans embraced him, speaking calmly to him. "Shhh, it's okay... It was a bad dream...", he whispered and petted him on the back, "...just a dream..." Even though he was saying it over and over again, Sans himself did not belief it. He couldn't shake the feeling of something changing. Seeing his brother so frightened angered him. A feeling of helplessness washed over him. He knew the pan of which Papyrus spoke. It won't soon be forgotten. That he was sure of.

A hand stroke over the surface of glass. The light shifted and the two skeletons vanished within a shroud of fog. Slowly the glass object, an orb the size of a skull, traversed across a large room. Every corner was drowning in darkness. Shades dashed through the blackness, the entrance to this room could hardly be seen and the air was filled with a draining sigh. Countless similar pearls floated along, glittering in pale blue colors. Within the center of it all sat the thing from their dream. Its eyes glanced at each orb shortly. The wings stretched ever so slightly and two more pairs hung from its back and hip like thin leather blankets. A cup in their hand was given to a tall figure, triple their height. The person with the black suit and no face vanished as swiftly as it came, leaving a low-drumming screech behind. The thing sighed bored, focusing their attention back on the orb were Papyrus and Sans were shown. The two brothers have settled for sleep, cuddling close to one another, hoping to protect each other from new nightmares.

"... ...Hmmm... ... ...They remember... How peculiar... A dream...? Heh... No... But now I am certain. And it is time to act..."