It was like time had stopped as Papyrus's outstretched hand reached for San but the skeleton was gone and Papyrus blinked. He was suddenly aware of all who were in the room and all who were not.
"Sans!" Papyrus scrambled to his feet rather poorly, catching a glimpse of Alex when Undyne moved to follow after Sans as well.
"No," Alex spoke, a hand brushing Undyne's leg. She stopped anyway, looking down at him. Papyrus stilled as well, but he was clenching and unclenching his hands. Why was Alex stopping them from going after Sans? Alex looked at Papyrus as best he could, uttering, "Go calm down your brother and bring him back. Too many people go after him and he'll only run more."
Papyrus nodded, taking off towards his room as Undyne started to argue Alex's decision. Papyrus dodged around Toriel and the others that had gathered outside the room. He stopped in his room long enough to grab one of the hoodies his brother had gotten him and his boots, shoving both over his pajamas before taking off after his brother. He just hoped he would be able to find him.
Papyrus hesitated when he stepped outside the lab. Even in the Underground, there was enough of a shift in the lights to dictate that it was still early in the morning. The area was bathed in an odd light that lit up the area but didn't. He remembered someone comparing the half light at night to having the full moon shine down on a clear night. Papyrus wondered if that was an accurate statement as he just picked a direction and went with it.
The first time he ran through the faint traces of Sans's magic, Papyrus nearly cried. The relief of knowing he was going in the right direction was overwhelming and Papyrus hurried on.
Papyrus was grateful that his brother had been too exhausted to make proper shortcuts. The magical footprints Sans was leaving behind were unusual, especially when his brother's shortcuts normally left nothing to even hint that Sans had been there to begin with.
When he came across a pile of snow that had an impression of what looked like Sans's face, he hoped he wasn't too far behind. Movement ahead showed he was right on Sans's tail and Papyrus hurried after his brother. He caught a glimpse of Sans coming to a stop in a clearing and was probably no more than a handful of strides away. Relieved, he opened his mouth to call out but a small figure collided with his head, wrapping themselves bodily around said appendage to mute Papyrus's cry. How no one had heard their crash into the underbrush was a surprise but, then again, Papyrus deduced that Sans's own ambush had created quite the ruckus as well.
The little figure moved enough for Papyrus to see but kept their arm across Papyrus's mouth to keep him quiet. It was a good thing, too, because Papyrus would have screamed. About what or at who, he wasn't sure. All he knew was that the thing trying to capture his brother terrified him and, as the little figure buried their face into his shoulder, complete certainty filled him; there was nothing he could do but make sure the little figure did not slip from where they were currently latched onto. As the black, inky mass that was ensnaring Sans came into view, Papyrus decided that he would have been screaming out of fear.
A child walked out from behind the trees, looking up at Sans. Papyrus couldn't see their face but the way the creature turned its head towards the child, it was clear that the child was there due to the creature. A giggle left the child and Papyrus shuddered. He froze but his shudder went unnoticed as the creature and child left with Sans in tow.
The little figure attached to him let go and landed on solid feet in the snow. He swallowed down the bitter taste of used magic as he looked down at the little human, sockets burning with unshed tears he was vehemently denying.
"Why did that….thing take my brother?" Papyrus demanded, knowing that the child before him would know. He could see the similarities between the child that had been with the creature and the one before him: same shirt, same shorts, same shoes, same hair, same overall appearance. The child shrank a bit before giving him a shushing gesture, their expression pleading. He frowned, but he nodded, watching the child dutifully write in the snow 'experiment'. His frown deepened. He asked softly, "Do you know where they went?"
The child nodded.
"Take me there," Papyrus half ordered, half begged. The child gained an apprehensive look and Papyrus's hands shot out to grip both of the child's shoulders. The child was tiny and Papyrus barely put any pressure into his grasp. "Please. I have to protect my brother."
Determination replaced the apprehension and the child nodded. Stepping out of Papyrus's touch, they gestured for the skeleton to follow. Papyrus quickly got to his feet and followed after the child slipping quickly through the trees. For a while, their trek was silent beyond the noises of Papyrus's boots against the snow. But when it seemed nothing was really going to happen, Papyrus figured it was safe to talk, even as he kept his voice low.
"Can you talk?"
Papyrus nearly smacked himself. Out of all the things he wanted to ask, that had not been one of them. But, now that it had left his mouth, he couldn't help wondering if they couldn't. After all, they hadn't said a word yet.
The child shook their head no.
"Do you have a name?"
The child glanced at him. The look clearly spoke of annoyance and Papyrus nearly took the question back but the child was already bending over to write in the snow.
'Frisk'
'Quickly.'
'Yes/No ? only'
The child took off at a slight jog and Papyrus had only a moment to take in the words before he was forced to follow or be left behind.
If he had read the set of words right, Frisk was the human child's name, they were in a hurry, and he could only ask yes or no questions. He felt rather stupid with that last bit. Of course he would only be allowed to ask questions that had yes or no as the answer. The child clearly had to write in the snow for anything more, which brought another thought to mind.
"Do you know sign language?"
The child gave him a confused look and he deduced that they could not. Odd how they knew how to write but not know how to sign. "Can you read as well?"
This time the look was one he had seen many times. It was flat and clearly spoke 'no duh' in a way that made Papyrus feel rightly reprimanded. Frustration flared through him as he glared back at the child. "I apologize for such a question but I know nothing about you and simply knowing how to write doesn't necessarily mean you know how to read. You don't know what sign language is and you clearly know more about the situation than I do. In fact, you could be in on this whole situation and leading me right into a trap!"
The stress of the situation was clearly getting to him as the words tumbled out but he didn't care. His only ally in this was Frisk and he didn't even know where the child came from, what was going on, and how he was going to get himself and Sans out of a situation he didn't recognize. Shame washed over the child's face and they reached out to him. At first he was confused but they grabbed his hand and pulled gently. When he was low enough, they hugged him tight, pressing their face into the fabric on his shoulder. His arms came up on instinct alone and he wrapped the human child in a tight hug, realizing his bones were rattling. He tried to swallow his fear and anxiety and frustration so that he didn't burden this child with everything that was coming but it was hard. It was hard to suppress everything and to push forward and strive to protect the one soul he cared most for.
It clicked.
That was it, though, wasn't it? He was there to protect his brother. He needed to treat this like he would as a royal guard, as his job. He didn't have to suppress his emotions, he just had to set them aside for the moment, strive through, and then deal with them when he got himself and his brother to safety.
And Frisk. If nothing else, the child was not only showing him the way but showing him compassion as well and Papyrus appreciated that far more than he would ever be able to voice. Standing with his arms still around the child, he shifted their weight to his side as they wrapped their legs around him as best they could, expression curious.
"Point and I will go that way."
Frisk nodded and pointed ahead of them. Papyrus took off at a run, determination thrumming through his bones.
Something other than reality swam before Sans's eyes. Whether a nightmare or memories long forgotten, he couldn't pull himself out of it. All he knew was that Papyrus was in danger and needed to be protected. He had to protect his brother.
He had to protect Papyrus.
"Sans! Don't."
The words were weak – pathetic, really – but reality snapped into sharp clarity around him. There, sitting before him on the floor, was Papyrus with a hand to a cheek. He could feel his magic all over the room, the majority of it collected in one location.
His soul dropped painfully as he turned. He jerked back, cancelling his magic as quickly as he could as the horrors of what he had done registered. His grip on Alex's soul vanished and the bones that had been imbedded in the human and the surrounding space shattered and dissipated. He flinched as Alex hit the floor, regretting the rash decision instantly.
He took a step back, hand curling towards his chest. He could still feel Alex's soul in his grip, could still feel the feedback of his own attack in the human's body, and for the life of him, he couldn't recall what had driven him to attack Alex like that. There was nothing there but darkness and, for some reason, that terrified him even more than knowing the truth behind the action. He looked to Papyrus, not knowing what to do. His brother was still watching him, sockets wide with an anticipation Sans couldn't read. His gaze flickered to his brother's hand still pressed firmly to a cheek but Sans couldn't tell if it was out of pain, out of fear, or an unconscious action. He couldn't tell anything and it was not only making him frustrated, but it was also terrifying. Still, he swallowed that fear and frustration in favor of helping his brother up. He offered his hand to Papyrus, taking a step towards the lankier skeleton.
His brother flinched.
Sans jerked back, pressing his hand against his sternum till it hurt. He yanked at the world, separating himself from his brother with as much force as he could manage.
It was a bad idea. He shot from spot to spot on what was thankfully a straight line but he found himself face first in the snow before he had time to rectify his mistake.
Everything hurt. Every bone he had hurt. Even his soul hurt and Sans couldn't help but be flabbergasted. What in the world had that been?
Pushing himself up out of the snow, he looked around. He knew where he was. He could still make out the lab's outline through the trees but there was quite a bit of distance between himself and the building. He sat back on his heels, trying to get his mind to focus.
What had happened?
Well, obviously, he had tried to take a shortcut, to teleport, but it had gone wrong and, quite honestly, had been downright awful. It was nothing like in his dream, in his memories, where it had been simply like stepping from place to the next, like passing through a doorway or portal. No, this was almost like he was ceasing to exist only to exist again in another place, that if he wasn't sure of his footing, he would cease to exist by either scattering himself across space and time or by planting himself into a tree or wall. The sudden understanding of how dangerous his shortcuts were now made him wish he had tried to use one long before now.
Why was this the first time he had teleported?
The answer, it seemed, was far simpler than he had anticipated.
Because there had been no need.
He had never had the need to utilize his ability. He had been so focused on getting stronger physically that where he would have normally used a shortcut, he had walked. And, to only add to the matter, he only recently felt able to do any sort of magic beyond holding himself together.
He sighed, his body relaxing. He felt like an idiot. Probably was one, too, for leaving in such a manner, but what was done was done. There was nothing he could do about it now.
He pushed himself to his feet, the knees of his shorts damp from sitting in the snow. While he didn't generate heat like humans did, his magic still ran warm and could melt snow, albeit far slower than a human could. Lacking the necessary nerve ending to properly feel temperature differences, Sans also barely noticed the snow under his bare feet beyond the realization that he was indeed barefoot stepping in snow that wasn't quite powder anymore. He made a face at the sensation as he wiggled his toes.
"Nope! Nope. That just made it worse," he voiced, hopping from one foot to the other to shake the snow from between his bones.
His foot swelched into the snow underfoot but he didn't notice. What he did notice, though, was movement in the opposite direction of the lab. He snapped his head around, pupils locking onto a figure a number of yards away.
His pupils shrank.
A human child was standing opposite the direction to the lab, watching him. At first it just creeped him out. Why in the world was there a child just standing there watching him? Where were their parents? Did they even live near here?
Who were they?
"Are you lost?" Sans called out, taking a step towards them. The child didn't react but he started to really take in their appearance. Brown hair in a symmetrical cut at the jaw line, stripped shirt, shorts, shoes…
"Frisk?"
The word was out of his mouth before he could even think it. No. There was no way that the child was actually real, that Frisk wasn't simply a figment of his imagination.
The child turned.
"Frisk!" Sans stumbled briefly before taking off after the kid. "Frisk! Wait!"
Whether it was a hallucination, he was dreaming, or it was really happening, he never seemed to get closer. The moment he thought he was gaining, he would see them farther ahead.
Out of nowhere, they vanished.
He slowed to a stop in a tiny clearing and even that was a stretch. It was more of a stretch of space he could fit 10 of his closest friends in if he wanted to and still have elbow room but it wasn't much of a clearing. "Frisk?"
A child giggled.
The magic around Sans's bones turned to ice at the same time it poured from his left socket in a flame. How could he have been so stupid. He knew that giggle, had heard it too many times to not know that giggle. That particular giggle reigned over his nightmares far more than he cared for.
Chara.
He sucked air between his teeth as the shadows around him surged forward. He dodged what he could without shortcutting. He couldn't bring himself to teleport. He'd gather the magic to do it but each time he nearly tipped the scale, the sensation of his last attempt washed over him and the magic would evaporate. He summoned bones, trying to embed whatever was lashing out at him but that only worked for mere moments. Whatever was going after him seemed able to free itself once pinned and Sans started to feel as if he was up against something that wasn't properly solid.
His sudden influx of magic use, the horrible experience that had been his shortcutting, and the night terror from earlier was catching up with him far faster than he would have liked, exhaustion slowing his efforts to remain untouched. He did his best to not let it become an issue, the fear of turning to dust with just one hit very potent in his bones at the moment. Even after weeks of knowing that it wasn't possible for him to dust with one hit any more, that fear was the only think keeping him from growing sloppy.
Didn't work out too well as he misstepped.
Tendril was the only word that came to mind to describe the black, stringy, inky thing that wrapped around his throat, the back of his skull, and across his teeth before it yanked him forward and up. He gave a muffled cry, pain shooting down his neck at the movement as he tried to fight, tried to pull the tentacle off of his neck, but other tendril shot out. One wrapped around his torso to the point he feared a rib would crack. Two others latched onto his legs as a third wrapped around his left wrist. It yanked his hand away from the tendril, leaving his right hand to only grasp at it to keep himself steady if nothing else.
All of the jerking around stopped not even a minute after it had started and Sans found himself immobilized a few feet off the ground even as he twitched about trying to get free. The tendril wrapped around his skull slipped over his left eye and it was like he had no magic to pull on. He jerked in the tight grasps, panic driving him to try and get free.
A mass approached from the shadows and Sans froze as ice cold dread rushed through his system. His magic started collecting out of instinct but the tendril already tight around his ribs squeezed and he had the sudden sensation of being sapped of magic. It made his head spin.
"WelL dONe, ChiLd," the mass from the shadows spoke, the voice seeming to ring through Sans's skull as the splotchy mask of a face turned to something Sans couldn't see. A giggle from the unseen thing made fear streak down his spine. "lET uS ReTurN."
He was screwed.
As the mass started taking him back to wherever it had come from, Sans started to calm down. Clearly the thing didn't want to harm him quite yet, meaning he had the chance to escape once the damn thing stopped draining him of magic.
"hAve YoU FoUnD tHe OtHEr one, yEt?"
Sans tensed at that. Other one what? Did the blasted thing mean Papyrus or something else? He prayed to the stars beyond that the thing was talking about something else.
He was glad that Papyrus was still back at the lab.
Hopefully.
"No. They will come home on their own."
"mAke SURe tHAT hAPpens. i dO nOt WANT ThE onlY oThER hEALtHY one gETTINg DamAGed. i wOrKeD ToO hard To haVe iT ALl ABrUptlY stoP beCAUSE You cAnnOt KeeP AN EYE On tHEM."
Sans relaxed marginally. That didn't sound like they were talking about Papyrus. In fact, it almost sounded like they were talking about another human. Sans tried to look at the child following but the tendrils kept him rather immobilized.
"Of course."
He mentally groaned. He couldn't read anything out of how the kid was taking this without seeing their face. It almost sounded like the thing was reprimanding them but how the kid reacted seemed as if it was nothing more than a statement about the weather.
A branch smacked him in the face and he glared at the thing carrying him.
Another branch smacked him in the face.
He groaned. So that's what this whole trip was going to be, wasn't it?
A third branch wacked into the side of his skull.
Fan-fricken-tastic.
Sans tracked their progress up till he got turned around and lost. After that, he closed his right socket and simply waited. There was nothing he could do without his magic and somehow the creature holding him could suppress just that. So, while still trapped in the not-slimy-but-certainly-looking-like-slim-and-ink tendrils of whatever the creature was, he had to wait. It turned out to be a nice half nap, once he got over the whole being choked and squeezed to death.
There was a sudden shift in light and Sans opened his unobscured socket to find himself being brought into a structure that was buried beneath a hill. The entrance was made out of thick slabs, the door equally thick. It opened slowly on an automated system but it was silent. There was no telling how large the complex was and Sans had a suspicion it was deceptively massive.
They went down a level and through several hallways before arriving at a massive room filled with an exuberant amount of very illegal experiments and equipment. The place was in disarray, cables both still hanging in there and busted dangling from the ceiling and crowding the floor, stains of unknown origins coloring dingy surfaces, and things everywhere. There were glass cylinders full of some liquid preserving some creature or another all over the place. Some looked to still be alive and the cylinders still active, others not so much alive as preserved for whatever reason. The creature weaved its way through the maze of things that Sans was certain would burn very nicely if he ever got the chance to start a fire.
He wasn't certain where the thought of fire came from but he wasn't about to give it up now.
The creature unlatched restrained on what Sans was certain was an examination table not meant for living beings. A tendril wrapped around his right wrist and he was slowly pulled out of the half curled position he had managed to get himself into. He fought it, thus why it took so long, but the creature only moved the tendrils to snake into his joints and force him to move when it was done with his struggling. It was a disgusting feeling, one he vowed to avoid in the future by just moving next time.
The tendril around his skull left and the first thing he did was ask, "So where are we, exactly? Doesn't seem like the kind of place I'd wanna stay in for long."
"i Am SuRpRiSED yOu dO NoT rEMEmBER. i HaD inTeNDEd fOr YOuR TImE HeRE to ReMain IntACT In yOuR MiND."
He jerked against the restrains now tight against his wrists, ankles, and torso, sockets wide as pupils vanished. No, no. No way. There was no fucking way.
An inky tendril curled against his cheek as if to cup it. "IT wOuLD sEEM tHaT RoMAn hAd Gotten TO you suCceSsFuLly AFTEr ALL." The tendril left and Sans suppressed a shudder. He felt disgusting now and didn't even understand why. "I had NOt BEEn ceRTAIn He haD mAnAGed To GeT HiS haNDS On a BOttlE oN His wAy OUt."
"Who's Roman?" he ground out. The odd way this monster spoke was starting to give him a headache.
He could have done without the distorted laughter in his head, too.
"SacRificINg HimSeLF FOr a noBLe CAuSe. wHY Am i nOT sUrpriSED. in fAct, I AM imPrEsSED he MAnAGeD To lAst LoNg EnOugh To SeE thrOUgH hIs nObLe DeEd." The mass moved away, rearranging things on some surface. "T. n. rOmAN WAs An assistant of Mine ThAT DeCIdEd He wAs ThROuGh workING wiTH ME. So, he Set tHe PLace on FIrE And FlEd with YoU AND YOUr broThEr. WHeRe is pAPYrUS? HeAlThy And WeLl, I HoPe?"
Sans thrashed against his restraints and the mask like face turned towards him, ever present grin seeming to only grow longer. "Don't you dare touch my brother, Gaster, or so help me I'll-"
"OR yOu'lL WhAt, sANs? tAke mE oN?" Gaster laughed again, coming over. Out of the goop near what Sans could only assume was Gaster's chest, something extended. By the time it touched his face to pat his cheek, it had become a hand pulled free of the mass that was now W. D. Gaster. "you ArE iN no ShAPe To tAKe oN ANyOnE, lIttLE SKeleTon. eSPeCially Not me." Gaster didn't so much lean in as stretch his head out like he would a hand till his face was inches from Sans. Sans couldn't even lean away, skull pressed firmly against the flat surface already. "i cAn tAKe yoU Out wiTh eAsE."
"You're lying," he choked, his soul dropping at the thought even as his right socket suddenly itched.
Gaster laughed again, the face rising up and back in a gesture that mimicked someone throwing their head back.
Sans smacked his head against the hard surface as he jerked back when Gaster's face was suddenly shoved into his own. "Oh, I Am lyInG, am I? YOUr pareNtS BroUght YOu TO me NOt WAnTING you anyMoRe. i TOoK you iN ANd TAughT yOU ALL YoU kNow. I TauGHt you HOw TO be thE oLDeR brOtheR. I mADe yOu INTO tHe monster THAT YOU ArE now aND I MadE SURE I couLd End yoU iF YOU gOt ToO Out oF hAND."
Sans didn't know why he was crying but he was. There were so many emotions rolling within him, he couldn't even figure out what they were. But there was something there, a feeling in his soul that Gaster was lying. About what and how much, he wasn't sure, but he certainly hoped for the majority of it to be a lie. This monster couldn't be responsible for the foundation of his life. He just couldn't.
But, then, the notes he had seen about him and his brother hadn't been fabricated.
The chuckle was involuntary. The cackling just seemed like the next logical progression.
Sans leaned heavily on his restraints as his ribs hurt from laughing so hard. As his laughing subsided, he straightened up, spurts of giggles escaping him as his cheeks were streaked with tears.
"Aw man," Sans spluttered between another splattering of giggles. "And I thought I had been crazy." The grin that stretched across his face seemed to threaten to break his skull. "It's a good thing I don't remember what you taught me, then, eh, G?"
The grin on the mask like face diminished slightly as the face receded. "wHAT do yOU mEAn?"
"I don't know how much you've been tracking of my life, Gooplord, but I Fell Down. Fell Down so hard that I got Dissociative Acute Amnesia. It was so acute that I didn't remember anything from before the twisted nightmare that had been my dream. You, weren't even in it. No human was, and certainly no monsters like you." Sans grinned some more. "In fact, you could say I'm a new skeleton. Only reason I know who you are is because of some of your old research notes."
Gaster pulled back completely, the grin on the mask not completely gone but certainly far smaller than it had been. Sans felt rather proud that he had knocked the creature down a few pegs, even if he was lying through his teeth on part of that. His memories weren't fully back but he remembered reading those notes prior to his coma.
Gaster didn't need to know that.
"yOu sEeM ProUD of thaT FAct."
"Eh, I take what I can get."
Gaster chuckled and Sans tried not to grit his teeth against the sound. "Oh, coME now, SANs. dOn'T tELl mE yoU'VE beCOME laZy?"
"Far from it, from what I've been told as of late," Sans countered, not at all comfortable as to why Gaster was suddenly amused. He had been annoyed earlier, Sans was sure. He had gotten a strike against his captor. "But my brother would say I'm a lazy bag of bones any day."
"ThEN I WiLl jUst hAVe tO aSK him, WON't I?"