Author note: I have been waiting for this for a while. This is a different Papyrus, and I think this chapter might cement that fact if the fact he trains so hard and refuses to be called prince is any indication. But I own nothing but my plot. Also, for those who don't know. Look at my twitter or Tumblr for updates on where am I with the story and the fact that I'm working so hard with my last semester of college and official working around the clock to make this work while being committed to getting A's on my homework. There is a lot of talking in this chapter. It's dialog heavy. So, if you don't like that I'm sorry about that. I obviously own nothing but the plot.
Sans wiped his cranium; he felt his nervous sweat on his palm. Leaving the room shakily leaning against the wall. His ever-present smile still intact, but a lack of pupils belied the way he felt in that moment. All and any who saw him at that moment would be shocked; their smiling and innovative king looked completely distressed. Shaken right to his Achilles heels.
What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to go about this, I had a plan, and that now goes to the wayside? I was hoping on the chance that Toriel would do the right thing that Toriel would do the task she has been doing since the being of imprisonment. What she has been doing since she made her home at the end of the ruins. Her duty was to bring any all humans to the capital, to bring Frisk to me without interference. When I saw her in The Ruins and showed her the path back to Toriel's home. I assumed it was something about her injuries, and I didn't assume anything more. How would it look if I stormed her home, taking back a human she never reported was in her home? I was only there, to begin with, because the mining crew wanted to ask me about the semi-precious minerals deposit; they found I never assumed I would find a dazed and sleepy Frisk walking around the ruins on her own. At that moment, I want to take her with me shortcut us to the castle, but I wanted to quietly make the preparations. Romance her like she deserves. I would ask her gently what she knew and start from there. Hell, how don't I smother her? I don't know how I can keep myself from trying to bring up what she knows, but I see it in her eyes already.
She doesn't remember me. She doesn't know what we were, have been, and I hope we will be once again. She doesn't even recognize herself or who she's been. Hell, she hasn't been this grouchy since that reset where she was a harpy. I don't even know why I'm surprised. She never remembers something is letting me remember every reset. She's willing to hear me out, but she won't trust a word I say. Probably not believe a word that I don't want to hurt her.
"SANS, PLEASE GET IN HERE. I CAN TELL YOU'RE DONE I CAN ALMOST HEAR YOUR BREATHING FROM HERE, AND WE NEED TO TALK NOW."
You can always count on Paps to get down to brass tacks and impatient. The world doesn't matter; the version of the reality? Doesn't matter one thing you can count on from Papyrus? Is that he has that streak of impatience. That's integral to his soul, that's present even when his personality matches more of mine.
"What's up, bro, what do you want to speak about?" I try to keep my voice light and breezy, but I knew my smile was giving me away more than anything. Papyrus was as smart as a whip.
"DON'T TRY TO PRETEND LIKE YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. SANS, WHY WAS UNDYNE DEMOTED, AND WHY WAS I PROMOTED! WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO EARN THAT? WHAT'S WITH THE IMMEDIATE SUMMON OF DOCTOR ALPHYS AND DOCTOR CRYSTAL? ARE YOU UNWELL IS AUNTIE, ANSWER ME!"
"Honestly? It's very complicated, and I would have to be one hundred percent honest with you, and you'd have to keep the secret. It's a state secret, and I can't have this getting out. While I trust you, little bro, this is not something the populace needs to know about."
"SANS! WHAT COULD BE SO SECRET AND VITAL THAT YOU NEED ME TO PROMISE NOT TO SPEAK OF IT PUBLICLY? AND ARE YOU GOING TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS?"
"To be fair with you, little brother, I didn't tell you because I didn't want to burden you with it. You have enough things going on and to add this on to your plate of things going on felt wrong."
"The plan was started very early after we lost the war when you're a small child, but with all the responsibilities and how you've taken charge of the military and our protection, I feel it was just the time; to tell you especially since were so close."
I could see the questions I raise a phalange telling him to let me finish.
"Well, if I explain this to you, I need you to keep quiet until the end. It's not easy to tell or why I kept this from you. I wasn't left much of a choice."
"I was a teen barely thirteen when our when our parents Felix and Lucinda, were killed in the war." It was hard talking about it Paps may not have known our parents in this timeline, but I had, and they had been a good, kind, loving but that's one thing that never changes they die before the happy ending is set to begin and there's nothing anyone can do about that. Even if I try, I will break the time-space continuum just to save them I will probably die and take reality with me not worth no matter how much I miss them, and I wish they were here. I've gone back in time before but never thousands of years without consequence before I got most of my boss monster abilities.
"And I knew we weren't going to win. When the wizard started taking our strongest monsters soldiers torturing and neutralizing them." Shaking my head lost in the memories in despair. It was always hard seeing the war in my mind's eye because it wasn't painful.
"Undyne's father and Mr. Merriweather, even Grillby, being taken out of the front lines, and they weren't the only ones after being split for their grand magical capabilities. And their continued tortured existence wasn't natural for me to rationalize. I had to live with knowing that. I had to believe we could survive the war, and that was enough of a win. So even in my grief, I made a backup plan. A tactical retreat that the wizards would claim they killed us all."
"They, the wizards, are assholes, but the line is drawn at murdering children. The humans made one thing clear. To eliminate monster kind? Would mean killing every single monster child and, very few have the stomach for it or the L.O.V.E. capable of doing it without remorse." I could feel my pupils recede as I thought back on that aspect of how bloodthirsty humans are when have set their mind on a goal.
"So, I planned; they gave us time for at least that. I asked those I knew could be trusted to start grabbing seeds for farming, some animals to raise and to start stealing supplies we would need." Looking at my brother, he had a look of disapproval of his sense of morality being bothered by my past action.
"I know I know uncouth tactics, but most of our original settlements on the surface had been raised to the ground. We had nothing. So, we took all we could to survive. So, we took all we could to survive." I shrug my shoulders, trying to look at ease.
"We aren't going to starve, not if I have the time and a plan to prevent it. The terms of the retreat weren't easy, shuffling under the mountain, but it was better than continuing to fight and be dust in the wind that they would laugh at. It was an agreement between the wizards and us, the humans didn't know. They were told a different story altogether."
"A century later, the first human fell here. I know you don't remember. You were still a baby bones and the only council I had and shoulder to cry on was Aunt Calibri, who was there to listen and was the one who brought in the royal scientist so we could discuss this."
"Because we had spent the first fifty years of our imprisonment trying to break the barrier, realizing a human soul would be the only way for it to come down. Mainly after Grillby conveyed precisely that to us from pressuring the fleeing wizards. He made it clear that even their magic couldn't undo the barrier." I said, looking at the painting on the wall in the room, it was painting of all three of us. A tingle of sadness that my uncle wasn't in the picture too.
"Only seven human souls would be able to break the barrier. That barrier purpose was to kill off monster kind and defenses within to ensure that we would die. But I made plans even in grief I made some last-ditch efforts."
"The only viable option for the first human was to put them into a magical coma; anything else seemed cruel and wrong."
Sans looked his age at that moment even though he's only 200 hundred years older than I am. At this moment, he looked like a monster who had been alive long enough to have seen death and war. Instead of wanting vengeance against humans, which most monsters wanted in some way? Sans just wanted our freedom as bloodlessly as possible. At least as how I see it. If I know my brother at all, he wasn't one to see others in pain or killed for no reason ironically. That's why the original dissenters from the kingdom still live instead of outright dead.
"So, you're telling me all these thousands of years that you've been holding on to this secret? For thousands of years, you kept the truth to yourself. So you have kept the humans in suspended animation until enough humans came down for us to break the barrier! Did all of them agree to this?! And why couldn't you tell me any of this sooner?! Didn't you trust me with the truth?" Papyrus looked angry upset. I knew this would happen it's one of the reasons I had kept this to myself for so long its enormous burden to hold on your clavicle.
"All of them agreed willingly. When I explained that there is no other way out without murdering a monster. And I wouldn't allow them to kill a citizen just to free themselves, and they weren't up for it either, so it was the most reasonable option for everyone involved." I said shrugging at my own laisse faire attitude I never had to
"We keep them as up-to-date as they can be. On what we know about the human world, the fact that monsters were like this will be in as much as I just had this thing to stay at Slade is up above, but half of Slade is here, and they keep us up-to-date with human life."
"So, we can update the humans that we have in suspended animation. We made chambers with top of the line technology that allows them to get all the information could or would ever need about the surface for the last few millennia. As well as providing them all the nutrients they need to survive. When they go back up along with us there not going to be out of the loop or scared or terrified or having issues to adjust. That'll be our issue in a lot of aspects, but then we treat them better than they would've ever treated us in the same position. At least that's how we see it if it was thousands of years ago."
"Now, on to what the issues are at hand, little bro. What Undyne did do? Something we that would have had any of the other guards fired. Keep that in mind. She injured the last human needed for the barrier to be broken. Considering she can crush a boulder to dust with her bare hands, imagine what she would do to a human with a punch to the head?
"She Could Kill That Human Quickly. With A Flick Of Her Finger." There was slight gasp a waver in Papyrus; usually, the loud voice sounded weak to my own ears. His voice losing it, often the boisterous quality that Papyrus can only manage.
"The thing is the human wasn't resisting or fighting Undyne. So, she made it clear she punched this human because she wanted to."
"So, her demotion was a punishment for going against orders. And her L.O.V.E must be out of control if she hurt someone who didn't fight her back." Papyrus shook his head, both disappointed and angry at one of his best friends acting so recklessly and violent against someone who was already injured. Papyrus was easy to read if you keep in mind his kindness.
"Undyne nearly killed the human that was found. Plus, Paps, you know this human. She's a new friend of yours. Do you remember a monster you recently met with her for lunch earlier today with Asriel Dreemurr? She called herself Frisk DoomFlower." Sans looked at Papyrus, who was rubbing his skull. Looking at me like he genuinely was wondering if he had cracked my skull sometime today.
"YEAH, SHE'S A VAMPIRE." Papyrus, for his part was looking at me questioningly like what else could she be. He was a decent judge of character and a trusting soul, so I didn't blame him for question a near-stranger identity of they are. What's to gain from lying about who you are when every monster knows each other pretty well.
"Sorry, bro, she's not a vampire. She's human. She disguises herself based on the rumor that has been circulating the capital very disgruntled and angry doctor."
"AND WHAT ARE THOSE RUMORS, BROTHER? WHAT COULD BE SO BAD THAT IT SCARED MY NEW FRIEND."
"That the humans that are actually preserved and kept very well alive? The rumor that has been spread is that every human who has stepped foot in the underground is dead, that I was killing humans who survive the fall. He wants to start another coup against me."
"LIKE WHEN I WAS STILL A LITTLE. THAT MONSTER WHO DEMANDED THAT KID, THAT YOU, WERE PUT OUT OF POWER."
"Yep, just like that little bro, I know for a fact. He's angry he didn't get one of the jobs at the lower levels of the lab taking care of the humans directly."
"Sadly, Dr. Crystal didn't think to inform me much fewer Alphys that she showed him showed him directly around the Facility. And now I have to clean up the mess since no one was supposed to know that human souls can break the barrier. It's a high-level secret kept to within the halls of this castle, scientists, the doctors, the royal family, and the top brass of the guard. Imagine what would happen if every monster knew that a human soul could break the barrier?"
"I know I can imagine that it would be outright chaos. They would demand those humans just be killed instead of waiting. Taking the time for all of them to be found and wouldn't do well for us. Imagine if we killed seven people to get out of the underground? Imagine explaining to their governments and justify those actions, no matter how desperate we are. I doubt that our appearance is going to be well received. I see your logic, big brother. They're so much of an ethical mess involved."
"Even then, it's not as simple as just having humans souls. You need everyone one the same wavelength that includes boss monsters apparently. They made the barrier akin to if you can find harmony, then the barrier will go down forever, so Undyne not stating her continual hatred of humans could doom us all." Sans looking at the crown in hand, looking at his own reflection within.
"Wait, so you are telling me… how is she supposed to get over her hatred? The hatred of humans they crippled her father. For her to forgive humankind would be a miracle, Sans!" his voice had softened the shock of all of this had made his normally boisterous personality subdued.
"I know it would be hard, little bro that's why the human that is staying with us right now."
"I wasn't sure how to tell you without sounding harsh, but Undyne needs to be punished. The only way to use their souls would be under friendlier and kinder circumstances Frisk that human that Undyne severely injured she's resting in one of the guest rooms near my own master chambers."
"For her to use or so for this to break the barrier and keep it intact, they have to do this another One kindness of their own hearts. Not because they want to save themselves at least not all the way those that are in suspended animation."
"Preferred it over having to kill one of us after how timely and family you are to them after making their space and even rolling them over, so they don't get bedsores we treat them well, and we make sure that they are okay with healed the rooms when they had good."
"Knockedy knock, am I interrupting?" Aunt Calibri took my suggestion to move back to the castle. If the guards moving her stuff back to her old room is anything to go by.
"Hello, auntie." Papyrus, who face had been very stone and serious more then I had ever seen him had glowed up seeing my aunt come in.
"Hello, auntie I'm glad you took my invitation to move back. The castle missed you warm touch." Coming into the door closing it raising her palm, the purple flow of magic enveloping the room the outside world seemed to fall silent.
"If the loud voices and the tension in the room are any indications, I'm assuming your telling Papyrus the truth about breaking the barrier."
"Why did it take you two so long to tell me. I'm an adult why wait several millennia's just to tell me something so intricacy to bringing the barrier I've had to silence the speculation, but I had no better idea about what was being done the average citizen."
"Well, I personally wanted to tell you when you are in high school, but Sans felt it would get in the way academically and after the time never seemed right one disaster after another."
"Still, I feel like I'm being treated like a lesser like I'm not equal."
"You are equal, Papyrus; you know that better to anyone." My voice was stern I was sad my little brother
"Of course, I am." He gave a sarcastic eye roll; this is going to be him being mad at me.
"Can I visit Frisk when she's healed?"
"Frisk? Whose Frisk?" My aunt tilting her head
"Well. This is going take a while to let get something to eat for you auntie." Sans, for his part, seemed to realize this was going to be a longer talk then he expected. He took a moment to send a message with his phone. Probably his assistant to get something from the kitchen.
"Thank you, funny bone, you know, I like some tea when people telling me that's that are happening within the kingdom don't forget I have developments to tell you both of you. I know you'll like to hear it, silly skull." Tilting her to Papyrus with a bright smile.
Final note: I am so grateful to have all this work. Getting done finally feels like forever since I've been able to update anything, but that's words, speech to text software! It makes it a little easier to get work done. Hopefully, you guys love this chapter update and all these explanations because the story is about the ramp-up. I'm going to attach everything that supposed to be connected by now because I've been till this point I've been waiting to attach them together all the extra one-shots to take place within this universe know if you can see the grin on my face a lot of lore dump. I might make a chapter about them about the war