Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale.
Iterations
Reunion
Alphys turned away, covering her eyes. "W-why would you make m-me watch this?"
He put his hands on her shoulders, turning her back towards the screen. "buddy, i wouldn't make you watch this for no reason. something's off, but i can't tell what. you gotta help me."
She was trembling, but uncovered her eyes. "O-okay."
He rewound the video and replayed it. She whimpered as the three monster children triggered the battle. Three bunny-like creatures. A pair of twins that barely reached their pursuer's chest. One small enough to fit in the palm of a human's hand, just a baby. Their paws trembled as they attacked, the magic warranting the slightest of sidesteps from their attacker to miss completely. One twin fell and the other immediately chose to flee, picking up its infant sibling with him. He did not even make it more than a couple steps away. The demon did not spare the remaining one a single glance as it rose its foot above it and stomped down. Sans paused the video.
"T-they're... they were barely o-old enough to even be able to use m-magic," she wailed.
Sans groaned in frustration, pinching the bone between his eye-sockets. "you weren't watching the right thing. there's something here that we can use but i don't know what."
"Why c-couldn't you show me a d-different one? Th-those were babies! So small!"
"and more of them will die if we don't do anything!" he retorted. At her flinch, he softened his tone. "i said i couldn't find anything, right? but i can feel it. really. and this one... this one the feeling is the strongest. alphys, please help me."
She took a shuddering breath, looking upward and blinking rapidly to stem the flow of tears. Shakily, she nodded. He pushed the remote into her hand. "whenever you're ready."
It was not until she pressed play that he realized he had not rewound it yet. On the screen, the demon turned. It scooped a bit of dust into the palm of its hand. Then it skipped towards the camera, stopping right in front of it. Its face was flushed with happiness, wide grin on its face. It held its hand up in front of its face and blew the dust off of it in the parody of blowing a kiss.
"Hey, Sans! You still watching?" It cocked its head to the side cutely. It made him feel sick. "When are you coming to play with me?" It pouted, red eyes wide with feigned innocence. It twirled away from the camera, giggling. "I've been practicing lots just for you!"
The screen went black as the video ended. Silence stretched heavily between them. He should have edited that out.
"S-sans?"
He did not reply.
She turned to him. "Sans. Do you kn-know–"
"nope."
"But–"
He looked at her severely. "i said no."
She cowered. Unlike Undyne, Alphys had seen his power before they had all been trapped in this reset loop. While she did not know the extent of his power, she had seen enough to make her wary.
He forced his voice to be normal with difficulty. "it doesn't help anything. really, alphys. so it doesn't matter. trust me."
She let her questions go. Despite everything, she did trust him. The rewound the video and watched it a third time. Though her vision was blurred with tears, she kept her eyes on the video, giving it her full attention. They needed to watch it several more times before she stiffened, finally getting the same sense of wrongness that he had been talking about. Sans tensed and paused the video where it was.
"did you find it?"
"Replay it again," was her only answer. He complied.
There was a confused furrowing between her brows. She absently scratched one of the spikes on her head. She took the remote and played it again. The furrow between her brows deepened. She slouched back in her chair, arms folding. Finally, she turned to him.
"Can I keep this? I think I might need more time to figure things out."
"knock yourself out." She knew more about the soul than anyone. If there was something off, she would find it.
The blue glow of his eye finally flickered out and the barrier fell. With it Undyne tumbled in, cursing up a storm. She had obviously been trying to get in for a while. She took one look at the tear tracks on Alphys' face and turned furious. She stepped in front of the scientist and a blue spear materialized in her hand.
She glared at Sans. "What the f–"
"U-undyne!" Alphys gripped the arm holding the spear. "He didn't hurt me! He just... gave me some bad news."
The spear faded into nothing and her shoulders slumped. She reached out and patted Alphys' head sympathetically. "Oh. Yeah, there isn't much good topside, is there?"
Alphys just shook her head. The pair turned towards Sans. He merely raised his arm in a lazy wave and turned to leave.
"Sans!"
He stopped but did not turn around.
"Stay close, all right? I-I might need to reach you."
The slightest of nods and then he was gone.
Sans walked restlessly through the tunnels of the Outskirts. Aside from just being a terrible place, it made him uneasy. He did not know the area well enough to make effective use of the shortcuts. It also seemed like a bad idea to let the demon walked around without some sort of surveillance. But it was more important that he stayed close enough to get any sort of information that Alphys could provide. Being in the overcrowded tunnels with the rest of the surviving monsters also made him nervous about running into his–
"BROTHER!" And there he was, struggling to get through the throng of monsters. Sans briefly contemplated taking a shortcut to get away, but he figured now that he had seen him, it would be cruel to disappear so immediately. He stood still and watched his brother come to him. Finally, he was in front of him, scooping him up into his arms so that Sans was dangling in the air.
"sup, bro?"
Papyrus held him out in front of him, not wanting to let go but needing to keep in physical contact. "YOU ARE OKAY! I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU! WHY DID YOU NOT EVACUATE WHEN EVERYONE ELSE DID?"
"had some stuff to do."
Papyrus let out a sigh. "ONLY YOU WOULD FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO WHEN THERE ARE IMPORTANT THINGS HAPPENING! YOU MUST WORRY ABOUT SAFETY AS WELL! THERE IS A REASON UNDYNE GAVE THE ORDER TO RETREAT!"
"my bad. won't happen again," he assured him comfortingly.
Papyrus threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He vaulted over a crowd that was passing by. "I SHALL TAKE YOU TO OUR CURRENT HOME!"
It turned out that their new home was a fort made of cardboard and gratuitous amounts of duct tape. He grinned at his brother fondly. He knew his craftsmanship when he saw it. Still, he planned on improving the home while he was down here. The cardboard was soggy and flimsy from the pipes dripping above. He considered bringing wood down from above, or at least wrapping the structure in plastic wrap.
"looks great, pap." The praise came naturally.
Papyrus preened. "OF COURSE IT DOES! IT WAS MADE BY MASTER CARPENTER PAPYRUS!"
The next few minutes went by with Papyrus giving him a tour of the small cardboard shack. Afterward, they sat on the floor, side by side, as the excited skeleton told his brother stories of life in the Outskirts. The stories were exaggerated, unnecessarily long, and full of optimism. They left Sans feeling more positive than he been in a while. It was not until his brother yawned that he realized how late it had gotten. He tucked Papyrus into the little nest of fabric he had made as his bed. He laid next to him. Levitating a book over, grinning as his brother murmured sleepily about his laziness, he read him his favorite story.
He had thought his brother was already asleep when his voice filled the room once more. It was whisper-yelled in a completely Papyrus-like way. "SANS?"
"yeah?"
"LOVE YOU."
Sans swallowed hard. "love you too, bro."
"...YOU'RE GOING TO STAY DOWN HERE WITH ME NOW RIGHT?"
He made a noncommittal sound that he hoped his brother would accept.
"IT'S SAFE HERE."
"yeah." But not really. Not for long.
"THIS IS OUR HOME NOW. SO WE'VE GOT TO STAY TOGETHER, OKAY?"
"...okay."
Papyrus did not say anything else. As his breathing evened out in sleep, Sans finally allowed himself to cry.
A/N: And a reunion. One of the two I'm sure you've been wanting. I made myself sad this chapter. Papyrus is just too much of a sweetheart.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time friendlies,
Dfsemina