A Tale of Consequences
Reset?
x-x-x
Chapter 6
x-x-x
This time they had a ribbon in their hair. A tiny slip of faded red cloth, threaded through brown strands. He supposed it was supposed to be cute. Sans didn't know why he noticed such a small, inconsequential detail.
It's different.
Different was important when stuck in a timeloop, although he wasn't entirely sure what it meant.
Ping.
The ugly black and white heart slammed back against the door, dragging the body with it. They just bounced back, kicking off the stone and running, weaving through wave after wave of bones until the magic slipped away.
The toy knife lunged, but they weren't fast enough. Sans side-stepped, reaching out and pinging the heart again. It slipped from his grip almost immediately, but it was enough to nudge them to the side, making them lose their balance sending them careening into the snow.
The demon-child giggled and wiped the snow away from their face, smearing dirt and dust across a knife cut grin and matted hair.
"You're looking a little dead tired, aren'cha?" Sans commented dryly, a sweep of his arm summoning a set of three blasters, each at a different angle. The demon danced with the lasers, twirling and spinning and slashing. They learned from last time and didn't let the small knife go too deep. Numerous shallow cuts whittled away at one blaster's hp. They jumped on the snout of another, tricking the third into obliterating it. "You're here a day early, did you skip your beauty sleep?"
"What? No banter this time?"
That smile, spreading like oil on the water. The human brushed their matted hair out of their face-Or tried to. It seemed even more unkempt than usual even with the ribbon-and then wagged a finger and by proxy the knife at him "It's called focus, Sansy~ You remembering means I can't just memorize your attack patterns. You can't imagine how many times it took to get to your so-called Mercy trap."
Oh he knew all right.
Twenty-five. Thirty one. And now they were on round two.
Movement. Yellow in his admittedly limited peripheral vision. He didn't take his eyes off the child, who hadn't moved from their spot. Heh. Acting and not attacking. Unusual for this song and dance.
"Nice to know I can still shake you up." the skeleton drawled, taking his turn to pull up a series of shifting bones around them. The demon-child skipped through most, but a series of smaller, sneakier bones skinned their knees and they winced, but it barely left more than a bruise. Of course. They hadn't racked up nearly enough karma yet.
The oppressive LV deepened, but it wasn't coming from his opponant. Sans frowned. That was much higher than the kid had coming into the fight.
That's for hurting ****, you smiley trashbag.
"Brought a friend, did you? Two on one doesn't seem very fair."
The knife cut grin grew wider. The child giggled. Head lolling with the motion. Like a doll. It made him feel sick to watch. "I asked him not to interfere, but I'm afraid he's not really your biggest fan. He can be a bit...murdery, you see?"
Green vines, tipped with red thorns.
The pressure pulsed. He could feel the red dripping from his eyesocket, a slow trickle of heat sluggishly rolling from socket to cheekbone.
A nightmareish face, rimmed in yellow petals. "JUST DIE"
"Oooooh. That's new." Giggle.
Giggle.
GIGGLE.
Sans appreciated smiles, but he was beginning to loathe that one. It seemed frozen. Dead. A mockery of the face that was beginning to look less and less like the kid in the photograph and more like something entirely different. A forest of bones erupted from the snow surrounding him. The demon-child bounced, scampering out of range easily, and then swerving back in once the constructs fuzzed and dissolved. Dancing in and out of range. Toying with him.
Why.
Why.
Why weren't they attacking?
Ping.
Buying time. Must be.
Ping.
Time for what? Hell if he knew.
They were too close, darting forward and feigning. They were pushing him toward the bridge. Toward the ravine. So he shoved them back in that moment when he could touch that oil-drenched soul. It flashed blue, he jerked them against a tree. Bark snapped. Wood cracked. The fallen child groaned.
He grabbed again and again. The moment the soul slipped free he pinged them again. Tree. Rock. Ground. He kept his focus on the soul, drenched in death and monster dust. Nothing else mattered.
Behind!
"SANS!?" A phantom heart stuttered, skipping a beat. It was distant, but Sans couldn't not hear it. He half turned, seeing his brother's red and white battle-body approaching from the direction of his sentry station.
Oh god Pap.
"I HEARD YOU WERE IN TROUBLE SO I CAME TO HELP! IS IT A HUMAN?! YOU KNOW, WE WERE SUPPOSED TO USE OUR PUZZLES AND JAPES TO LOWER THEIR GUARD BEFORE CAPTURING THEM IN GLORIOUS BATTLE!"
The toy came down, slashing across his unprotected back.
Crack.
"OH WELL. I THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL BE YOUR OPPONENT NOW, HUMAN, IF YOU DON'T MIND. MY BROTHER IS RATHER FRAGILE SO I SHALL TAKE OVER IF YOU INSIST ON FIGHTING."
Everything began to fuzz. The wound growing hot as more of the red magic began to leak down his back. Please don't notice. Please don't notice. Hold it together.
He said something, didn't he? It was just noise.
Anything is a weapon to 1 hp.
Something. Anything to get his brother away from here.
"OH. I SEE. ARE YOU AND THE HUMAN ARE SUSPENDING YOUR FIGHT? DOES THAT MEAN YOU AGREE TO PARTAKE IN OUR PROGRAM OF PUZZLES THEN, HUMAN? THAT WOULD BE LOVELY! SANS! LOOK AFTER THEM FOR A MOMENT WHILE I GO CALIBRATE OUR PUZZLES. WOWIE. A REAL. LIVE HUMAN!"
And then Pap was gone in a flash of excitable energy, running off down the path again. Unharmed.
A tiny little flower leered at him from across the bridge, waving a leaf as Papyrus ran by. It burrowed into the snow, popping up just a few feet in front of him. Cackling.
Sans finally let himself fall to his knees.
"I know what you want." The whisper threaded through the fuzzing. The small arms wrapped around his neck from behind in a mockery of a hug. They felt cold. Suffocating. "And I always find a way through when something's in my way."
"Your moron of a brother didn't even question lil' innocent me." the flower cackled, "He never does. Friends-siblings-there's no point to them if they are all weak. Not like you Chara. I'm so glad you dropped the act. It's great to have you back."
Chara.
That name was familiar…
Pain. Sharp. Ripping and tearing as something small and cold plunged into his chest, easily smashing through the crumbling ribcage. Dust. Monsters returned to dust.
Why wasn't he dust yet? His HP was gone.
A green vine pulled free, dripping with red magic, wrapped around a battered soul. A monster soul. Flipped. White. Fracturing, just as his body was slowly crumbling. Too slowly. He was...there… there was here. The phantom heart raced and pulsed in time with the desperate soul.
White...with a core of red, desperately trying to hold it together.
No wonder they'd never come out.
"Hello partner…" The demon purred, "Did you miss me?"
NO!
The pressure exploded. The soul splintered into tiny shards of red and white. The demon laughed. Eyes a sunken black pit in their dead face.
You can run, but you can never hide partner.
X-x-x
Sans found himself on the floor of the darkened workshop. Skull pounding. Red magic leaking from the fractures in bone.
All in all...as expected.
Except…
"...kid…" he was just so tired, his hand buried in the fabric of his jacket, twisting it against the memory he was trying, and failing, to forget. Green vines. Thorns dripping with red magic. Curled around- "we really need to talk. Properly."
Where's the other one?
The phantom heart beneath his fist fluttered...and it wasn't so phantom at all. Sans closed his eyes and lost consciousness, the puddle of red slowly spreading through the tiles on the workshop floor. The pressure behind his eye felt...sorry.
They'd been here all along.
X-x-x
"SANS"
"SANS"
"BROTHER"
"CAN YOU HEAR ME BROTHER?"
...yea Pap. I hear you.
The ground felt cold. Something was bouying his head, but not by much. His skull was tingling where he knew the scar was. Where the magic should have been. But no. Nothing. No heat. Only the cooling after-effect of Pap's weak healing he was beginning to grow used to.
The lights in the workshop were near blinding, even with his bad eye. They cast Papyrus' long face into a stark silhouette. He could barely make out the details of his brother face. He was...in his brother's lap?
"YOU ARE VERY FORTUNATE SANS." Papyrus...seemed unusually calm, Sans thought foggily, through the steady pulsing. "IF I HADN'T HAD THE THOUGHT THE BASEMENT PROBABLY NEEDED SOME DUSTING, AND THEN FIGURED OUT WHERE YOU HID THE KEY, I PROBABLY WOULDN'T HAVE FOUND YOU. I'M GOING TO PUT YOU ON PERMANENT BED REST IF YOU KEEP REOPENING THAT WOUND."
Pap...knows about it?
"OF COURSE I KNOW ABOUT IT, THE GREAT PAPYRUS HEALED IT FOR YOU!" Papyrus seemed particularly irate at that, "TWICE! HOW COULD YOU FORGET SUCH A THING SANS? I TOLD YOU TO GO GET IT LOOKED AT, NOT COME DOWN HERE AND TRY FOR A REPEAT PERFORMANCE!"
What the hell.
"Wasn't on purpose bro, honest." What the...had the demon-child saved? How much time did he have? Why was he down here? He could have sworn… "Maybe...I ...uh...it's the head you know? But uh...how long have I been out?"
"I DON'T KNOW! I HADN'T SEEN YOU SINCE YOU CAME HOME FROM GRILLBY'S LAST NIGHT. THEN I CHECKED YOUR ROOM WHEN IT WAS TIME FOR BREAKFAST-YOU REALLY SHOULD STOP LOCKING THAT DOOR. I'LL NEED TO FIX IT NOW-"
...Grillbys? He hadn't gone to grillbys. Not last time. He was sure of it. The pressure behind his eyesocket pulsed. The red magic trickled down his cheekbones. Pap wiped it away with his gloved hand and sighed heavily, but completely unalarmed.
This wasn't right at all.
"Pap...when did I get this anyway?" He gestured vaguely to the right side of his face. His brother frowned.
"IT WAS-YOU KNOW, I CAN'T SEEM TO RECALL. BUT I'M SURE I HEALED IT FOR YOU ALREADY. SANS? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? BE CAREFUL! YOU KNOW YOU USUALLY GET DIZZY AFTER A HEALING SESSION!"
Sans was pulling himself to his feet, pushing through the headache. Papyrus was on standing much quicker, and caught Sans' elbow as he swayed. Sans tried to wave him off, "I'm fine bro, rea-"
"WHERE DO YOU NEED TO GO?" Papyrus ignored him, reaching around Sans' middle and bodily picking up the smaller skeleton, throwing him over his shoulder. Sans sighed. Resigned to his fate. He waved vaguely in the direction of the swimming workbench as the world wavered in his double vision."The computer."
It wasn't anything more than a few feet away. Sans could shortcut there if he didn't think he could walk, but Pap refused to put him down, and really Sans wasn't one to turn down a free ride even if it was just across the room. "REALLY, I CAN'T THINK OF WHAT YOU WOULD BE DOING DOWN HERE ANYWAY, SANS. IT LOOKS LIKE IT HADN'T BEEN TOUCHED IN DECADES-POSITIVELY FILTHY. DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT'S BEHIND THAT SHEET ANYMORE?"
-static-
The pressure pulsed...and then let it fade. Sans let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd held.
"Just some sentimental junk, pap. Don't worry about it. I come down here to think sometimes."
"BEHIND A LOCKED DOOR? YOU HAVE-HAD YOUR ROOM FOR THAT."
"Until you destroyed my door."
"I DID NO SUCH THING! IT-IT-IT REFUSED TO OBEY MY ORDER TO OPEN!"
"It's a door, bro." Sans chuckled, "It's kinda supposed to stay closed."
"YES WELL. IT WAS QUITE RUDE. IT WAS IN MY WAY."
"Yea sure bro."
Sans was beginning to think his poor door was cursed.
"HERE YOU ARE BROTHER." Papyrus finally set Sans down on the chair before the work bench, "WE COULD JUST BRING THE COMPUTER UPSTAIRS YOU KNOW. THEN YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO GO OUTSIDE IN ORDER TO GET INSIDE. THIS WORKSHOP SEEMS QUITE INEFFICIENT ANYWAY. MAYBE WE SHOULD BUILD SOME STAIRS FROM INSIDE, AND OH, MAYBE TURN THE WHOLE THING INTO A MUSEUM TO ME OR A SECOND COZY LIVING ROOM FOR WHEN I'M SUPER POPULAR AND OVERFLOWING WITH FRIENDS OR MAYBE A GYM SO I DON'T HAVE TO EXERCISE IN THE COLD-"
"Pap?"
Papyrus paused. Sans hadn't looked up from where he was staring at the computer screen as the old, outdated tech awakened from sleep mode. "YES?"
"I kinda like it the way it is."
This workshop was the only thing he had left of-static.
Sans closed his eyes as the wingdings text flicked across the screen. He knew what it read. The letters always blurred anyway.
Welcome doctor ******
"O-OH. WELL. IF YOU ARE SURE. AT LEAST TRY TO DUST A LITTLE MORE. I'M GOING TO NEED TO SCRUB THE FLOOR TO CLEAN THE RESIDUE AWAY AS IT IS, SO I SUPPOSE I COULD GIVE THE ROOM A ONCE OVER …"
Sans listened with half an ear to Papyrus' regular babble, the other half waiting for the tell-tale ding of the desktop loading. He opened his good eye, but just a crack. The headache did not agree with the bright blue light from the monitor.
The date was a blurry stamp in the corner, and the time was dim blue numbers on the clock to the left. That looked...right. Still the first day. A little later than he remembered, but he had fainted right off the bat this time. He was only a couple hours off.
So...no save. That was...good.
But...why?
They'd killed him.
That meant nothing would have been standing between them and the King. No one else had managed to stop them before.
Why...reset?
A notification was flashing in the system tray. The pressure-and he was beginning to suspect what that really was-prodding at him, Sans clicked on it.
Alphys has started a conversation.
*Sans? This is sans right?
*I didn't tell her.
Funny-Bone59 is no longer away.
Alphys is typing…
*I'm sorry Alph.
Sans closed the window.
First Pap was acting strange, and now that.
"SANS? ARE YOU OKAY? YOU ARE SHAKING."
"I'm...I think it's time to go upstairs Pap."
"OF COURSE! I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT TOOK SO LONG. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO GET THAT LOOKED AT?"
Sans didn't resist as Papyrus picked him up this time.
"...later. I'll go see the doc later."
"YOU PROMISE?"
"Yeah. Can't put it off forever, ya'know?"
"OH GOODIE! MISS BUNNY WILL FIX IT UP IN NO TIME, I KNOW IT!"
Somehow he doubted it, but Pap's optimism always made him want to smile.
What did we do kid?
The pressure eased. The phantom heart was a faint, but present burn in his chest.
What do we do now?
X-x-x
Oh dear.
Oh no.
What did she say?
What should she say?
*I'm sorry Alph.
She-she hadn't been sure, after she'd managed to calm down from the initial panic. It had just been a hunch. A strange nightmare that stuck in her mind with a sharp clarity she wasn't used to outside repeat dreams. Normally she always liked to type up her dreams. The good ones anyway. Some of them-well-it's not like Undyne would go snooping through her computer to find the fics that would never see the light of day. Mettaton maybe, but that's why they were on the tablet.
And it's not like he came around much anymore.
Claws scrambled to type up a reply-
Funny-Bones59 has logged off.
Well. Whatever there was to say, she just lost it.
God. I'm useless.
That habit made it very easy to remember the silly and fun dreams where she was running across the rooftops with Mew Mew, swooping down with skill and grace to protect Undyne's back with unrivaled coolness that would impress even Undyne.
Unfortunately...
It also burned the ones she wanted to forget into her mind, even if she didn't write a word. Mostly it had to do with the Amalgamates. With watching as her experiments failed over and over again and the subjects slowly lost themselves in each other. The never ending wave of unopened mail drowning her.
S-sans. Not you too!
E-everyone. Everyone's gone.
She screwed her eyes shut.
Don't you ever steal from me.
Alphys shuddered. Wrapping her arms around herself. Shivering in her chair. Tail curled uncomfortably. She wanted to become a ball. A tiny little ball that could roll and hide and not feel anything.
She-she wanted to call Undyne.
But she couldn't.
She'd reached for the phone, panicked and half awake and wanting that unshakable confidence. To ground her in the here and now. She knew it wasn't real. She knew it.
And then stopped.
*If you remember…
Don't call her.
It was silly to call her over a nightmare...right? One she obviously had known wasn't real. Sans wasn't fighting anyone. Especially not the king. He was too lazy for that.
*I'm sorry Alph.
Alph.
No one called her Alph.
Ever.
Except…
-static-
She checked her recent contacts again. It was early enough that most everyone was away, not online, but...
Funny-Bones59 is offline.
Pull it together Alphys. She banged her head against the desk. Not too hard, but enough for the shock to jolt herself back to the present. Sans is fine.You didn't go crying to undyne over a bad dream. And you somehow psychically knew his username despite not having spoken to him for years except in a timeline that never happened.
...yeah. Like that last part was at all reasonable. Who else would be called Funny-Bones59 and be posting bad puns on Papyrus' wall? Just simple deduction, not some weird time-space shenanigans.
Sans did use cyan magic though. In addition to the space component, time dilation is theoretically possib-oh quit it Alphys. Save it for your fanfiction.
And there she went making up things again. Even IF theoretically cyan magic had applications relating to bending space-Ugh. Alphys let her head fall back to the desk, and grabbed her phone. She barely glanced at the status update as she typed it and tossed the phone back onto the desk.
It buzzed almost immediately.
Like, just call 'em sister. Fabulous-Crocodilian had posted a response. If Bratty was online then Catty should be. Her phone buzzed again, the notification from Catty-Kitten this time. Yeeeaah. Just call 'em. The phone won't bite, not like Bratty.
It buzzed again.
OMG I do noooot Catty.
Buzz
ILU Alphys 3 Stop by sometime.
Alphys couldn't help a giggle. She-she-
She...hadn't seen them in a long time, hadn't she? Not since she became the Royal Scientist and moved out of Waterfall and into the lab. It wasn't that she'd...meant to. It was just…
With all the experiments.
And the mail.
And people...stopping her…
To ask about…
No.
She couldn't go outside.
And the advice to just call...wasn't that simple. She didn't even know if Sans had a phone.
Papyrus does.
He was constantly posting mobile updates, wasn't he? There'd been that picture the other day of a...uhm...well built snowman, obviously taken by a crappy phone camera..
Not that she knew his number or anything. She coooould write a program to try all possible number combinations and then cross-reference them with public or known phone numbers but…
Or you could, you know, just message him on undernet.
Ugh. But they weren't even friends. What would he think? She could see his wall through their mutual friend in Undyne (who never really clicked with the Undernet, despite many attempts on Alphys' part) but wouldn't it be weird to just up and message someone out of the blue?
You just did it earlier with Sans.
Well...yeah...but Sans was Sans.
Even if it'd been a year since Papyrus' sentry promotion party, they had hist-static-
Oh whatever. She typed up a quick message and sent it off before she could talk herself out of it. Then buried her head in her arms, and did what she did best. Blasted Mew Mew Kissy Cutie's opening song through her speakers and ran away from the problem. For a while.
Eventually, with a bony hand on her shoulder, it caught up to her.
"Evenin', doc."
x-x-x
A/N: Whoopsie. Things are changing.
Reviews and comments are always appreciated!
