Not exactly sure how to warn for this chapter, but be aware that there's lots of yelling and f-bombs toward the end.

Chapter 55 – Rage

By the next day, Papyrus had made up his mind.

Hearing Mettaton tell him that he deserved answers, deserved respect… that everyone else was wrong to treat him this way… it had validated that miniscule voice in the back of his head that had always told him this wasn't normal or right, the voice that he had always silenced, not wanting to cause strife in the family.

But now, emboldened by his dear friend, he didn't care about that anymore. He was going to get answers, whether the others wanted him to know or not.

Papyrus knocked on his brother's bedroom door and waited.

Sans took a while, but he did open the door eventually. Behind him, Papyrus could see a few boxes labeled "CORE" on the floor, with papers strewn about. "Sans, what are you doing?"

"Just goin' through these old papers for Alphys," Sans replied casually. "Need somethin'?"

"Yes. Sans, you're probably not going to want to hear this, but I'm tired of waiting. I want to know what happened to us when we were children. I know my dreams have something to do with it—and before you say they aren't real, I don't think that's true at all. I'm sick of having nightmares and not knowing why. Not to mention, I still don't know what our plates mean—" He unconsciously wrapped his fingers around his right forearm—"And why I have cracks in my body that nobody can heal. I know you're afraid of my reaction, but I'm stronger than you think. Please, tell me the truth. About everything." By the end of his speech, Papyrus could feel tears brimming, and he struggled to keep his voice steady.

Sans looked away, and his hand tightened on the side of the door. "Pap… okay. Can you give me a little time to get ready first, though? It's… a lot. And, uh… Toriel's actually comin' over in a few minutes, so you might wanna wait until she's gone."

Papyrus studied his brother for a minute. "Why is she coming over?"

"Just to hang out a little, ya know. Been a while since she and I had a pun-fest."

"Ugh. I don't know which of you is worse." Papyrus made a face. "But… alright. I'm trusting you, Sans," he said seriously. "I'll let you and Toriel be, but when she's gone, I am expecting us to talk about things."

"Sure thing, bro."

Papyrus went back to his room and closed the door. His hand lingered on the doorknob. Something didn't feel right, but he couldn't explain what. He wanted to trust Sans, but with his recent track record…

He wasn't sure if Sans had told the truth about why Toriel was coming over.

Well, he'd find out soon.

In the meantime, he decided to pull out his sketchbook and a pair of headphones. He put the headphones on and plugged them into his phone, but deliberately did not put on any music, so he could still hear what was going on outside—if Toriel and Sans checked on him and thought he was playing music, they might believe it was safe for them to talk about something serious, and then Papyrus might be able to listen in. Normally he would abhor doing something as rude as eavesdropping, but at this point, he was beyond caring, if everyone else was going to leave him out of things.

Grabbing a pencil, he opened up the sketchbook to the first blank page and waited for something to come to mind. Immediately, he thought of the kiss he and Mettaton had shared in their dream… he'd apologized for that, but in truth, Papyrus wasn't entirely sure it had been only his fault. The kisses he dreamed of were a little less… passionate, generally, than that one had been.

He didn't dare to think about what that might mean.

He thought about drawing the kiss, but decided not to, in case anyone other than himself ever thumbed through the book for any reason. Instead, he drew the cat that Mettaton liked at that one store. As he sketched, he thought more about the dream he'd shared with Mettaton, and the incredibly disturbing implications the latter part had had. When Devon had pulled Mettaton away, his perspective had shifted from his own to what he could only assume was Mettaton's. He had heard Devon say "I'll make you mine," had fallen into the car, had felt a kind of agony that rivaled, maybe even was worse than what he experienced in his own, private dreams. And then he had found himself in that strange yet familiar dark room with the two laughing beings, just like in those private dreams.

Papyrus still remembered how Mettaton had told him that Devon had "hurt him" all those months ago. He had assumed it was a verbal fight of some sort, but that dream, coupled with Mettaton's reaction to him trying to bring up, indicated that this was the incident Mettaton had been referring to.

He remembered the first time Devon had come to dinner, and how Alphys had mentioned something about Devon abandoning Mettaton to muggers… and that Mettaton hadn't talked to Devon for a while after that. It sounded like that had been just a story Mettaton had come up with, to cover up the truth.

Which was that Mettaton had been…

The lead of Papyrus's pencil snapped, and he realized how hard he'd been pressing into the page. To his horror, he realized he'd been drawing his perspective from the nightmare portions of the dream. He closed the book and threw it and the pencil off the bed.

There was no other conclusion to make—Devon had done the unspeakable to Mettaton.

And yet… Mettaton had started dating Devon after all that had happened. Well after, in fact. Why would he do that, if Devon had hurt him so badly? It didn't make any sense. Papyrus was a very forgiving person, but even he couldn't see himself getting over something like that so fast.

But… what Papyrus had seen had been a dream. It might be much more complicated than he currently knew.

And yet, he still wanted Mettaton away from Devon—not out of jealousy this time, but out of fear for his dear friend.

Papyrus slowly picked up the sketchbook and pencil again. After sharpening the pencil, he turned to the next blank page and went back to drawing, still with his headphones on.

It wasn't long until he heard the doorbell ring. Quickly, Papyrus put on some music, as loud as he could tolerate, through the headphones. After a few minutes, his door opened, and Toriel peeked in. She waved at Papyrus.

"Oh! Hello, Toriel!" Papyrus said, lifting one of the ear cups and hoping she could hear the music blasting through them.

"Hello, Papyrus, dear. I hope you are doing well?"

"Abso-positively-lutely! Just drawing!" He waved the sketchbook at her.

Toriel smiled. "I see. Well, Sans and I will just be talking. I hope you have fun here."

Papyrus saluted and readjusted his headphones as Toriel left. He noticed her shadow under the door headed off in the direction of Sans' room, rather than the stairs.

Toriel rarely went into Sans' room. Something was up.

Papyrus turned off the music, took off his headphones, and pushed his sketchbook aside. He gave it a full minute, listening at the door, and after determining that there was no one in the hallway, he took a deep breath and used a shortcut to directly outside of Sans' room.

The door was closed, but he could hear muffled voices on the other.

"Tori, you gotta promise me you won't show anyone else what I'm about to show you. It's gonna be hard to look at, but… I need a second opinion on whether I can show this to Papyrus."

"I understand, Sans."

Papyrus clenched his fists. So Sans still wasn't inclined to tell him the truth.

He relaxed. Maybe, just maybe Toriel would believe in him and tell Sans he should know the truth.

For a few minutes, there was silence. Then, "Sans, I do not understand… These appear to be results of experiments. What do they have to do with you and Papyrus?"

There was what sounded like the rustle of papers, and Toriel gasped. "No… this cannot be…"

"We were the subjects," Sans said heavily.

Subjects… of what? Papyrus moved closer to the door.

More rustling papers. "This is completely barbaric… how could this have happened? How could no one notice?"

"I dunno. Whoever they were, they kept us pretty well hidden."

"You mean… you do not know who perpetrated this?"

"No. I can't even remember what they look like. Papyrus can't, either."

"How horrific… I cannot imagine Asgore knew about this; he never would have let this go on. But… this was obviously done in some kind of laboratory… but it can't have been sanctioned by Asgore."

"I don't think so. He seemed pretty shocked when Papyrus and I first turned up—he said we'd been missing for eight years."

"Eight years? You and Papyrus underwent these… atrocities for eight years?"

"I guess. Like I've said, I barely remember anything. The only things I know for sure come from all this evidence, and dreams. And Papyrus… he dreams about it, too." There was the sound of someone digging through a box, and then Sans said, "This isn't even the worst of it. Read through this."

Toriel murmured something Papyrus couldn't catch.

"The last pages are the relevant ones," Sans added.

A few minutes of silence. Then Toriel began to sob. "Please, Sans… tell me it is not true!"

"I'm sorry, Tori."

"I do not understand… how a monster could have done such a thing to another monster, a child…"

Sans did not respond.

There was a long spell where Toriel's sobs quieted and neither of them spoke, but from the rustle of papers, Papyrus could guess they were going through the rest of whatever Sans had in there.

"So, Tori… you've seen the evidence. I just… I dunno. It's hard enough to show you, how am I supposed to tell him? He'll be devastated. I don't… I don't want to tell him. He's gotta be better off not knowing."

"Sans… I cannot tell you what to do. You should do what seems best." Toriel paused. "I may not be the best person to ask whether Papyrus can handle this. You may be better off asking someone whom Papyrus spends time with frequently, and may have confided things in."

Silence. Then, "You think Undyne…? I mean, she's his best friend."

"I would be cautious with what you tell her. She does have trouble keep things quiet."

"Yeah… alright. I'm calling her now."

Though he was disappointed in Toriel for not taking a stand for him, Papyrus still clung to hope. Surely Undyne believed in him… though, this was the same friend who had been too afraid to tell him she was never planning on letting him into the Royal Guard…

"Hey, Undyne. Sorry for the short-notice call, but can you come over here? Need to talk to you about something important." A pause. "No, don't tell Pap you're coming over. He's just hanging out in his room right now, got his music on, so he can't hear us. Text me when you're here and I'll shortcut ya where we need to be."

Papyrus shortcutted back to his room. The insanity of this whole situation did not escape him. Sans would tell Toriel, and, it seemed, even Undyne, about their past before he'd even consider telling his own brother? Was it that bad, or was Sans just like everyone else?

He knew Undyne only lived about a street away, so he gave it several minutes before shortcutting back to the door of Sans' room. He appeared to be just in time.

"Dude, what is all this…?" Undyne said loudly.

Toriel quickly shushed her. "Sans does not want to alert Papyrus right now."

"Okay, well, what's going on?" Undyne's voice was lower.

"Sans would like a third opinion on whether he should inform Papyrus of… all this."

"Can I?"

"Go ahead," Sans said.

Papyrus could only guess from the silence that Undyne was looking through the same things Toriel had. He waited with bated breath.

"Holy shit… this is real?"

"I did not want to believe it, either," said Toriel. "But I think we have no choice but to conclude that it is all true."

"No way. There's no way you can tell him this, it's gonna destroy him."

The world seemed to crash down around Papyrus.

Undyne didn't believe in him.

"Perhaps we should not be so hasty. We need time to think…"

"I don't need time to think! I know Papyrus, there's only so much bad shit he can take. You tell him this, and he's never going to be the same," Undyne insisted.

"I don't know what I'm gonna tell him, then," Sans said.

Deep within Papyrus, something snapped.

He grabbed the knob and slammed the door open, trembling with rage.

"Pap! Hey…" Undyne said in an uncharacteristically small voice.

"I can't believe you right now… any of you!" Every word seemed to rip from Papyrus's throat.

Toriel stood from her position on the floor. "Papyrus, please, calm down—" she began.

"I will not calm down! I have had it! I'm SICK of all of you babying me and acting like I can't cope with how horrible this world is! The real thing I can't cope with is you all keeping secrets and treating me like I'm stupid and innocent! I'm probably the least innocent of all of you! I'M ADDICTED TO PAIN DRUGS, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"

Undyne was aghast. "You're what?"

"Pain drugs, Undyne! I'm addicted to the drugs I've been on for chronic pain! Which, by the way, I still don't know the origin of, because you—" Papyrus pointed to Sans, who had his head bowed and his eyes closed. "—refuse to tell me!"

"Pap, you don't get it! This is some of the most awful shit you've ever seen—" Undyne tried to tell him as she stood up.

"I DON'T CARE! I'm the one it happened to, so I deserve to know it!"

Toriel tried to speak again. "Papyrus, my child—"

"I. AM NOT. YOUR. CHILD!" Tears were coursing down Papyrus's cheekbones now.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Undyne shouted, and Papyrus turned on her so quickly, with eyes glowing red like a hot coal, that she actually backed up, as though she were afraid of him.

"So you all are allowed to baby me, but I can't be mad about it? Ha! You really don't get it, do you? I have the same emotions you all do! I get angry, I get sad, I get scared! But for some reason, you all have decided I don't get to express myself. Well, FUCK THAT!" Papyrus slammed his fist into the wall.

"Papyrus, stop! You're gonna hurt yourself!" Undyne grabbed his arm, and he yanked it away.

"Don't you manhandle me," he snarled.

"Papyrus, love, we had no idea you felt this way," Toriel said gently.

"Well, you never bothered to pay attention, now did you?"

"Pap, come on. You know we've never meant to hurt you!" Undyne contended.

"Shut the fuck up, Undyne! It doesn't MATTER if you meant to hurt me or not! You all have caused me pain that I don't know I'll ever get rid of!" Papyrus wiped his eyes roughly. "I'm sick of this. Sans, you're going to show me exactly what you showed them! Right now! And YOU two—" He pointed to Toriel and Undyne. "—are going to get of my house!"

"Papyrus—" Toriel tried.

"GET THE FUCK OUT!"

Toriel looked at Sans helplessly.

"Just go, both of you," he said, defeated. "Papyrus and I have a lot to talk about."

"Damn right, we do!"

Toriel and Undyne left, both continually looking over their shoulders at Papyrus, who watched until they were off his property. He then turned to Sans.

"Alright, Sans. No more excuses." Papyrus sat on the floor, face flushed from his rage. "Show me the truth about us."

oooooooooo

Chapter 55, aka Papyrus Finally Fucking Loses It.

I had this chapter planned for a long time, and it honestly feels unreal to have gotten to the point of actually writing it out. It was shorter than I expected it to be, but I think, again, that it's got more than enough punch to make up for it.

Again, we are entering the darkest part of the story so far. We all know there will be a happy ending, but there may be parts where you think the light at the end of the tunnel doesn't exist. Well, it does, I promise. I have enormous plans for Papyrus (and Mettaton!) and I WILL see them through.

If you have any specific ideas on how to trigger warn for this chapter, please let me know.

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