Hello Everyone!
I still own nothing but my OCs, everything else is Undertale.
My Sans puns may be sciencey and CSy - college does that to a person.
Random bold text is "interference", because I want to make it a little more obvious here.
Underlined stuff means magic is being used.
Thank you for reading this - you don't know how much it means to me. Thank you so much *bows while blushing*.
...yeah, that's it…
12 AR - Sans
His desk was...a mess. Again. He sighed, dumping his bag in the corner. The chair still squeaked - hadn't he fixed that? Never mind. He searched for a pen...all he found were a few dog hairs. Served him right for taping them all to bones. He looked at the new calendar - thank you, Pap, he would've forgotten to get one until half the new year had passed. Hard to believe it had been twelve years since they'd gotten out -
"SANS! WHERE ARE oh. There you are, Sans!" Undyne tore open his door - glad maintenance believed him about the reinforced hinges - and swept the towering stacks from his desk, "Look at this, will you? I can't believe it!"
A large, poorly printed newsletter was thrust in front of him. He tuned out Undyne's continuing grumbles as he read it:
Come join us, fellow chosen ones!
Our search for ANGELIQUES triumphs!
The human race is reaching its pinnacle!
Our community of enlightened thinkers awaits
Balta, North Dakota
"So, what's so hard to be-leaf? Just another new-agey cult, sprouting it's wings."
"SANS! Did you actually read that thing, or what? It's them!" What was she - oh, right.
1AR - Sans memory
Coming out of the Underground after so long, so many loops - it was invigorating. It was exciting. Frisk had tried so hard to save them all - being able to see where they came from was...nice. Finding out why Frisk had come down in the first place, not so much, in a gut-burning, ragey kind of way. Everyone seemed happy, once they'd gotten Frisk away from those things, but he - he didn't trust them to stay away. And he never will. So he'd gone through their house, not that anyone had wanted to live there now. The cops had taken most everything - but he found a stash of, well, propaganda, that was the only way he could describe it. Stuff about how humans were superior beings, and that life was striving towards perfection, and that, whoever the author was, he was the only one who could lead humans into that new perfection. Something called 'Angeliques'. It was a clue, anyway.
He'd scoured the internet, libraries, everything he could get his hands on - NOTHING. He'd thought about sneaking into something more - dangerous, secret - but then he remembered Undyne.
She'd been reluctant (or as close as Undyne got, anyway), but when he'd explained why, well...she'd seen more of the cruel side of people as a Royal Guard, especially now that they'd come to the surface. She tried to look into it, but...Undyne and computers were like oil and water, so he'd convinced her to let him in, and he'd dove right in, heh heh.
It had taken days, and he knew he was worrying the kid, but, well, he could still function on little sleep. What he found was worth it - in a way. Apparently this 'Angelique' guy was something of a scientist, and had been working in the gene sequencing field before he'd just imploded. One minute a sane and serious researcher, next minute a prophet. He'd started experimenting with living people when they'd caught him. It seemed he'd gathered something of a following since then, although it wasn't big enough to tip off anyone's radar - until he'd started kidnapping monsters. The latest anyone had heard out of his cult was that, when the monsters had come back out of Mt. Ebott, they'd decided that this next evolutionary leap or whatever was the fusion of monster and human SOULs.
12 AR - Sans
"-SO COCKY, RUBBING IT IN OUR FACES-" apparently he'd zoned out again. Well, this was odd. The Angelique Cult had been so careful to stay of the public radar, he'd wondered how they managed to recruit new members. This wasn't their style at all - Oh no, little one. Don't question it. It's not a trap, I assure you...well, it didn't matter. What mattered was, they had an actual clue, after so many years in the dark, "North Dakota, eh? Should feel right at home."
"-what?"
Come on, Undyne, even you must have heard of..."I'll have to stop by the Badlands, just to hang out with the-"
"DON"T SAY IT!"
"-big bones! Come on now, Undyne, don't be such a grumpy-gills." Whoops. Quick, grab the bag before she blows it, and, "Seeyouatmyplacehavetograbsomethingsokaybye..."
"SANS!"
Sans
Finding the complex once they'd gotten to town wasn't nearly as hard as finding the town in the first place. It barely had a population to speak of, and if it hadn't been for signs to some "famous" cemetery, they'd have passed right through. The complex itself was southwest of town, and was looked more deserted than the town itself - until one of the guards Undyne had brought thought to check for basements. The subterranean levels were almost as big as the Underground!
Undyne and the other guards were huddling a little ways away - he'd never bothered to learn all the military tactic stuff, and she knew it - so he was left to test the fields around here in peace. Of course, they were in the middle of nowhere, so the magical fluctuations should be minim...or not. He'd never seen extrema this...extreme before. Maybe it was just - nope, kicking the scanner didn't even them out. Some of the peaks were even fuzzing outside of his scanner's range, which was saying something, since the only thing he'd ever seen do that before was Asriel, back when he'd broken the barr-no. No, no " no No NO NO!"
The slap brought me back, "SANS! What is-"
Right, Undyne needed to know this, "Undyne, there's at least one creature down there who's absorbed a monster and human SOUL - at least one each, probably more. And maybe more than one...these fields are so volatile, I can't...I've never...I…"
"Sans, look at me. Can you look at me, Sans?" Why should he bother, he was going to die, Undyne was going to die, monsters had already died and he hadn't told Frisk- "Hey, I need you to look at me, Sans. Come on," he looked up into her yellow eye, "Good, now, breath a little deeper, you dweeb, cause passing out won't save anyone. NO, LISTEN TO ME, WE CAN DO THIS, YOU DWEEB… Those people down there, they don't know what they've gotten themselves into, some probably didn't have a choice. They're stuck down there, like we were, only they're stuck down there cause of a madman, and we can deal with one of those, can't we? I've dealt with YOU all these years, right? So, we do our best, and save the ones we can, because we're the HEROES, got it?"
"Undyne, there's no way we can save them - most of them went down there by choice, and there's a hybrid SOUL down there, and-"
"DWEEB, WE CAN SAVE ENOUGH! Listen, okay, cause I ain't repeating myself. There will always be someone you can't save - even Frisk couldn't bring the Amalgamates back to normal, could they?" That's just one of the things they couldn't do, but- "Dweeb, pay attention. You're a dweeb, you've got only 1hp, you're useless in a fight," heh, "the enemy can just pick you up and carry you around under their arm. Me? I can't dodge, and I'm not nearly as smart as Alphys, or you for that matter!" Hearing her admit she wasn't perfect...was this supposed to be a pep talk? "You're right, there are people in there who will probably fight back," double shock, Undyne admitting he's right...impossible, "There's always someone you can't save. HOWEVER! DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE ONE'S YOU CAN! IF YOU FORGET ABOUT THEM, YOU'RE NO HERO AT ALL!"
"Undyne-"
"Sans, can you live with the idea of telling Papyrus you left them down there? With telling Frisk?" He winced, "Didn't think so. So, get up off that lazy pelvis, and LET'S GO BE HEROES!"
Cult Leader
Plaster fell from the ceiling, trampled underfoot by the frantic figures screaming through the halls; although their screaming could scarcely be heard above the alarms. Everything was red, whether from the generator lights or the rage in his eyes was anyone's guess. His followers still sensed his Purpose, parting down side passages or into the ce- rooms… yes, rooms. They were getting smaller now as he approached the test subject's housi…the Next Generation's Abode. Everything might be falling apart around him, but HE would remain as always, HE WOULD NOT BE SWAYED, WOULD NOT RETURN TO THE SHADOWS OF HISTORY. HIS DISCOVERY WAS GEN- oh, he'd arrived. Smile for the children.
Sans
Sans was in a room far behind the front wave, or whatever the term for Undyne's unstoppable force was. When some of the cult followers had flung themselves, crying, at her...well, he was glad she'd convinced him to come, not that she was letting him help much, really. He understood that the medic she'd brought in couldn't deal with the sheer mass of cases he'd been confronted with, and he wasn't exactly trained for this sort of infiltration, but...he felt there was somewhere he had to be, and he wanted to be there now. But seeing what this leader of theirs had been doing to his followers reminded him too much of Toriel's descriptions of Frisk, back when they first fell down. Despite the fact that there were monsters among them.
The lady in front of him could've been a distant relation - probably was, considering there'd never been that many skeletons in the Underground. She was babbling, though, so he couldn't get a word in edgewise to ask her name, let alone something like that. She was going on about how her friends had heard about this guy building a community where monsters and humans could come together in peace - apparently, that's how he'd been getting so many people to experiment on - and how she'd brought her son along when all of them had moved up here, but once they'd come in her son had vanished and she wouldn't leave without him, even if it was horrible here and the people in charge kept hurting her, had he seen the boy, a short little skeleton, not even four years old now, "And he'd got these odd lines on his skull, though everyone says they'll go away when he's older, only I thought those lines were on the back of his head, not his face, and-"
"Wait a moment, what did you say he looks like?"
"Here, I've got a picture of him in my purse...oh, right, they took that, um, I'm sure you'd remember if you saw, he's got a line going down from his right socket, and another going up from hit right, just sort of tapers off near the dome...you've seen him, haven't you? Where is he?"
"...I haven't seen him, I don't think, but I certainly intend to. Do you have any idea where they might have been holding him?" the odd look she gave him evaporated once she realised someone was actually going to go look for her son, "Were there areas you weren't allowed to go, places you heard children crying? Anything like that?" He hadn't seen any kids, now he thought about it, and there should have been some, with this many people in here.
"I-I don't know, I w-w-wasn't here that long…"
"Do you mean the Next Generation's Abode?" A young human nearby spoke up. This one looked kinda waxy, like he hadn't seen sun in a long time, "Most of the younger ones get taken over there pretty quick. I took food over there, once in a while. They weren't crying or anything...weren't making much noise at all. I only know they were in there 'cause a couple of kids got taken in when I was there, one time."
Sans' eyesocket swiveled over to the speaker, who fidgeted in the blue glare, "Where is it?" The man felt his sins crawling on his back.
"L-l-l-let me sh-sh-show you."
Narration
They'd heard the alarms go off, out in the main corridors, and all of the children had huddled together in the corners. Even the new ones had learned that when something...unexpected ...happened, they weren't in for a good time. When The Man came in, some of the younger ones had relaxed, since he was smiling, but the older ones knew better. The smile so tight across his face was a patch, a bandage, keeping the blood from leaping out. The knife in his hand didn't help matters.
"Well, my children...is something the matter? You seem a little tense."
The oldest human, who the man would normally have considered too old but for how easily they could be convinced to do anything, answered, "Well, we heard the sounds...and, they weren't the usual sounds, they were louder...and, no one came with our lunch...and, no one told us there would be different sounds…" They waited...that was it.
"Well, my child, you were right, those were odd sounds. Someone came into the complex today, and they've been making a fuss," He grinned, and the quicker children started to push back into the corners. Fuss was a bad word here, and making a fuss meant punishment. The other two hurt them when anyone made a fuss, "We've been trying to explain to them that we don't like fusses, but they aren't listening very well, and so I was worried. I came to check on you - you know how fusses catch."
A shudder, because those times when HE was around, if one child made a fuss, they all got punished. The short skeleton, who hadn't learned yet that silence was the only way of avoiding the pain, peeped up, "We haven't made a fuss *sniffle, sniffle*, we aren't going to make a fuss *sniffle SNIFF*, we don't like fusses."
HE sighed. It was probably meant to be a quiet sigh, one of those I-understand-but-you've-disappointed-me sighs, but in the silent, echoing hall it sounded more like a why-won't-you-SHUT-UP-you-useless-thing sigh. He bent down in front of the short skeleton, "I know we don't like fusses, but this is SUCH a big fuss, everyone is getting pulled" here he grabbed the skeleton, who squeaked in alarm, "in. DON'T MAKE ANY NOISE!" The knife arcked down-
Sans
Sans was running, flinging cult followers out of their way as the man ran down the corridors. He probably shouldn't have pushed him like that, but it didn't matter now. He saw Undyne running down a side passage and heard her "WHAT-" before he'd passed out of range. Normally, he didn't like to walk if he could 'port, but when he needed to, he could run very fast. Especially with his magic pushing him along. They'd made it into one of the residential sections now, the rooms on either side looked more like closets than bedrooms. He noticed the pun pass as he raced on.
Cult Leader
He hadn't expected resistance - but then, he should have remembered The Girl. The mere thought of her enraptured and revolted him - she, the only vessel to have accepted his experiments without complications, yet so frustratingly...resistant. She'd give her food to the weaker subjects, or infuriate her par- The Guardians until they beat her, totally forgetting about the infractions of one of the others. There had been a few "heroes", but he'd gotten rid of them early on. She hadn't shown this...irritating streak until after the first successful merge had taken and he'd destroyed the body.
She was strong now, too, although as an adult he could just manage to overpower her and take back the knife, cursing at the blood on his robe as he got up and turned back to the subj- vessel. He would worry about her limbs later, when these things had been dealt with. Part of him heard the running footsteps approaching the door, but it was lost in a sea of red.
Sans
The stupid door wouldn't open - some kind of keycard, and magicked to resist spells. The man was searching the nearby cells for anything strong enough to break the door down, while he was tearing at the hinges, desperate to find a way-
"SANS! GET BACK, WE HAVE A BATTERING RAM!"
Cult Leader
The girl had thrown herself at him again, and he'd had to smash her into the wall several times before she went limp. His robe was mostly red now, hardly any white at all. They'd pay for that, starting with the skeleton. He limped back over to where it stood, frozen in terror, and brought the knife down-
Sans
The shattered door sprayed into the room, the metal weakened from its battle with Sans. He grabbed the shards, desperate not to hurt the kids he knew would be inside.
Through the dust, he saw a man in a bloodstained robe crawling on the ground with a bloody wreck of a child on his back, a knife sticking out of shoulder as she tried, one-handed, to keep him away from a small skeleton that looked way too familiar. Undyne was running past, but he knew she couldn't get there before the boy was crushed in those huge hands…that suddenly went limp.
Everything stopped. Undyne froze, his sockets widened, the children's eyes were wide, the helpful man faltered in the door.
The body dropped from its wedge between the hilt of the knife and the girl's one working arm. It slid to the floor, its head twisted wrong, so wrong. She was frozen, too, fury draining into disbelief and horror. He saw...the LOVE meter. It always showed up in his vision when a human died, like it wanted to be judged or something. He'd never been able to figure out why. This man's was filled, his LOVE...higher than any he'd ever seen, even Chara's. A bit of it broke away, drifting over to the shivering girl. He saw her meter...grow. It had been empty before, and it hurt, seeing every LOVE gained - 8 LV. She was shuddering, now, a ball of shredded...he stopped the metaphor there. Undyne was leaning over, her hand out to touch the non-stabbed shoulder - and the girl yelped, and collapsed.
BLACKOUT.