Hi, sorry I haven't posted the next chapter yet. School just started, and I've been in a pile of panic and dread leading up to it haha. And now that it's started, the homework's already starting to pile up... :/
Anyway, here's the next chapter.
XXX
After dinner, Papyrus, being the lazy skeleton that he is, decided to continue fixing the machine the next day. It was almost done anyway, and it's not like it was going anywhere. And besides, all that effort has made him bone-tired. Chuckling to himself about his own pun, Papyrus fell asleep on the couch while Sans got ready for his training with Alphys.
Unknown to the two of them, however, the machine was a bit more fixed than they thought. It was fixed enough to open up a portal to another universe, yet it was still broken enough to do so without anyone actually activating it. And early the next morning, that's exactly what it did.
With a mechanical roar, the machine came to life, and by chance, it opened up a portal in the exact right spot and time to save the life of a falling skeleton, who crashed onto the floor and went unconscious from the shorter-than-expected but still damaging fall.
[-0.05 HP]
The sound of the machine was loud enough to shock Papyrus awake, making him sit up suddenly and almost fall off of the couch.
"Ah, crap."
"Language, Papyrus!" Sans scolded as he burst from his bedroom.
It was a bit early for even Sans to be awake, but the machine must have woken him up as well. Hopefully, it hadn't also awoken the other residents of Snowdin.
"Sorry, bro," Papyrus replied as he stood up.
"Was that the timeline machine?" Sans questioned curiously, following behind Papyrus as he went to go out back.
"Sounded like it. Better check it out," the taller skeleton responded.
"Maybe someone came through it?" said Sans, his eyes sparkling with stars. "Wasn't it still broken, though?"
"Hm, thought it was. Guess not?"
The two brothers entered the room with the machine, with Papyrus throwing the door open, and immediately froze in place. Lying on the floor, unmoving, there was a short skeleton, and even from the doorway, they could tell that it was another Sans, though it was one they had never met before. They could, however, also tell that this Sans was injured pretty badly.
Seeing this, Sans ran into the room, ducking under his brother's arms to get a closer look at the newcomer.
"Paps, he's hurt!" Sans exclaimed, his tone worried.
Papyrus went to join his brother, kneeling down. Yes, this was definitely an alternate version of Sans. He was wearing ratty, torn clothes with blood staining the front of his shirt, making the red sweater appear almost black in some patches. There was also a painful-looking crack on one side of his skull, leading down to his eye socket. That wound, at least, appeared to be old, but Papyrus still found himself cringing at seeing such a horrible injury on someone who was, essentially, his brother. He quickly did a [CHECK] on the unconscious monster, hoping that the damage wasn't as terrible as it appeared.
[HP: 0.05/1]
Papyrus's eyes widened, immediately catching his brother's attention.
"What's wrong? Is it really bad?"
"Bro, could you go get some food from the house? Something liquid?" Papyrus requested, not wanting to tell his brother that the other him was on the brink of turning into dust.
"Oh, yeah!" Sans agreed, hopping up. "I'LL BE BACK IN TWO SECONDS!"
And with that, Sans dashed out of the room. Papyrus, meanwhile, summoned a bit of healing magic. He was terrible at it, but he could do enough to keep the skeleton alive while Sans got some HP-restoring food.
[HP: 0.1/1]
Yep. He really sucked at healing magic.
Luckily, Sans was as fast as ever, and he returned with a bottled protein shake in less than a minute. He dashed back next to Papyrus, who started shifting the unconscious monster into a more upright position, being sure not to jostle him too hard.
"Thanks, bro."
Once the skeleton was in a position where he wouldn't choke on the shake, Sans gently opened his counterpart's mouth and tipped some of the liquid into it, repeating the process after it had been swallowed. It took awhile for the other Sans to consume the entire shake, seeing as the sips had to be small and getting the unconscious monster to swallow without breathing it in was difficult, but eventually, the bottle was empty.
[HP: 1/1]
The two brothers collectively sighed in relief as the monster's health went back up. Papyrus set him back to lay on the floor, unsure of what would happen once the monster awoke. It didn't take long for his brow bones to furrow as he began to stir.
XXX
Sans woke up confused, not entirely remembering what had happened. As his eyes opened to see Papyrus staring at him, however, his brain automatically jumped to the first explanation he could think of: he was supposed to wake up for work.
"Ah, Boss-!" he exclaimed, shrinking back a bit.
The movement instantly reminded him of his injured ribs and forced him to become slightly more alert. Sans closed his eyes for a second with a sharp hiss. Then, he looked back at Papyrus, noticing that something was off about his brother. Very off.
Papyrus was wearing an orange hoodie, for starters. He didn't think Papyrus even owned a hoodie of any sort, and he doubted his brother would be caught dead wearing such a 'sloppy' article of clothing. And his expression was one Sans hadn't seen in a long, long time. It almost looked like he was concerned, at least a little bit?
"B-Boss, what…," Sans cut himself off as he noticed that there was a third person in the room with them.
The other figure was a short skeleton in blue standing next to Papyrus, and if he didn't know any better, Sans would think he was looking into a mirror. But, no, that was definitely another monster standing in front of him, not just a reflection. What in the world was going on?
Sans felt panic building in his chest again as he came to the realization that something was so incredibly wrong.
"HEY, ARE YOU OKAY?!"
The sudden screech made Sans flinch away again, and without thinking, he jumped up and got into a defensive position, ignoring the protests of his ribs once again. Better alive and in pain than dead. Or was it?
"Oh boy, you have no idea what's going on, do ya?" Papyrus asked him. "Don't worry, you're safe here. Me and my bro aren't gonna hurt ya."
Sans knew his breathing was speeding up again, but he also knew that he couldn't afford to have a full-blown panic attack right now. If that happened, he was as good as dead. Or at least, he thought he was as good as dead.
Dead.
And then, Sans remembered what he had done. Or, tried to do. If he was still here, that meant he'd failed somehow, right? He put a hand to his mouth as that harsh realization crashed over him. He'd actually tried to off himself.
"Hey, hey, it's okay! We can explain what's going on!" the other him spoke, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. "We're really not going to hurt you!"
The other him took a step closer, making Sans light up his one eye with a bright, red glow, hoping it was enough to tell the monster to back off.
He couldn't breath.
"Hey, bro, maybe give him some space?"
Sans started picking at the bones of his hand, not even noticing that he was doing it.
"Oh! Yeah."
The two other skeletons backed up a bit, with Papyrus shifting slightly in front of his brother, protecting him just in case something happened. Papyrus wouldn't do something like that. Not anymore.
Sans, meanwhile, couldn't force himself to calm down, but thankfully, the two of them stayed away from him while the panic attack ran its course. During his panicking, Sans tried to teleport away, but he found that he didn't have enough magic to do so, effectively cutting off his only method of escape. He knew that he had to stop, had to calm down and defend himself, but the panicking was out of his control. It did, however, help that the other two kept their word about not hurting him; at least, they weren't hurting him yet.
XXX
Papyrus waited until the alternate version of his brother had calmed down a bit before even attempting to explain what was going on. From the looks of it, he had been in a bad situation before being accidentally teleported to their world. Besides, Papyrus remembered how badly he and Sans had freaked out when they first found out about the alternate universes and met different versions of themselves. Trying to explain it while the other skeleton was already in the middle of a panic attack wouldn't even be productive, and it would likely just exacerbate it.
But, of course, he couldn't panic forever, so the monster's breathing eventually evened out into something resembling the normal pattern. He was still tense and shaking a bit, but that was to be expected.
"Hey, you okay now, little buddy?" Papyrus asked gently, trying to ascertain if the other Sans was present enough to have a conversation.
The other monster's eye lights focused on him, two small, stuttering pinpricks in a deep sea of black.
"What… Who…," he stumbled over his words before shaking himself. "What in the actual fuck is goin' on?!"
Papyrus saw his brother cringe at the rude language out of the corner of his eye, but Sans didn't say anything given the circumstances.
"Ah, well…," Papyrus started. "You've heard of alternate universes before, right? At least theoretically?"
"... Hah?!"
"Welp, that's where you are right now. An alternate universe," the taller skeleton continued. "My bro over there is this universe's version of you, and I'm this universe's version of your bro."
The other Sans just stared at him with wide eyes for a while before his expression shifted slightly.
"Oh, I get it," he spoke in realization. "This is all some fucked up hallucination I've come up with before I die."
Papyrus blinked.
"Nope, you're not hallucinating," he told him. "And you're not dying. Not anymore, at least, since we healed you. [CHECK] your stats, if you want."
He saw the monster do so, his expression growing confused again.
[HP: 1/1]
"Wha…," he uttered in disbelief. "This is some kind of joke, then, right?"
"Nope."
The other Sans threw his hands out to the sides. He appeared to be getting angry, but they were shaking.
"How in the fuck would I even end up in a whole other universe?!"
"That," Papyrus said, pointing at the timeline machine. "I was trying to fix it, and it turned itself on somehow."
The other Sans looked behind him, staring at the machine. Papyrus silently noted that it was broken again. The smaller skeleton remained silent, apparently trying to make the situation make sense.
"Look, I get this is a lot to take in and it's kinda hard to accept," said Papyrus. "But if this wasn't a different universe, how would my bro be standing here? Ya ever seen a skeleton who looks just like you before?"
"... N-No… But just 'cuz I haven't seen one doesn't mean there isn't one."
"How many skeletons have ya seen in your world?" Papyrus asked. "Right now, it's just you and your bro, right?"
Papyrus knew that, potentially, he could be wrong. In another universe, there very well could be plenty of skeletons, and perhaps, some might even look similar to Sans. Still, that hadn't been the case in any other universe they interacted with, and Papyrus wanted this version of his brother to accept where he was as soon as possible, so he made an assumption.
The other Sans put a hand back to his mouth again, staring at his mirror image.
"Holy fuckin' shit…"
"HELLO!" Sans greeted cheerfully, taking the look as an invitation to jump into the conversation. "Paps is telling the truth, you know! I'm you!"
Sans came closer to the other monster, who then, of course, backed away in response.
"So, I'm Sans, but since we're the same person, that gets kind of confusing!" he continued. "Usually when this stuff happens, people call me Blue! It's short for Blueberry, so it's like a nickname of a nickname! Oh, we're gonna have to come up with a nickname for you, too!"
Every time Sans got closer, the other would back away more. Papyrus sighed.
"Hey, bro, personal space, remember?"
"Oops! Sorry!"
Blue took a few steps back himself, giving the other skeleton more space.
"Anyway, your clothes look like they need to be fixed, and we have some extra stuff you can wear, so how 'bout we go back into the house?" Papyrus suggested, attempting to make the situation just a bit less tense.
XXX
And the AUs finally meet...