"St.. Still! I believe in you!" Papyrus smiled up at the human, their foot on his skull. "You shouldn't, Papyrus. Your expectations. Your loneliness. Let them all die." The human smiled, and the pressure on Papyrus's skull increased. It was painful. There was so much pain. Why did this happen? It was so familiar. It was so.. normal.
"Papyrus!" Frisk smiled in front of the tall skeleton, who looked as if he was in shock. "Papyrus, are you okay? Did something bad happen?" Frisk shook the skeleton's arm, and it seemed to take him back to the current time at hand. "Ah, no, I am absolutely wonderful, Frisk!" Papyrus grinned, and Frisk grinned back.
"A grinning contest, hmm? Nyeheheh! I'll always win against you, Frisk!" Papyrus laughed, and the small human, so gentle, kind, and warm, grinned back.
"Heheh. I'll always win, no matter what it is, Pap." Sans grinned even wider, and his younger brother, Papyrus, looked surprised, but simply laughed, grinning as wide as he could. "Nyeheh! I will accept this challenge, Sans! This is not hard at all, compared to what Undyne has trained me for!"
Sans paused, confused. "Who's Undyne?" He asked, forgetting about the grinning challenge at hand. Papyrus was shocked yet again, scared. "W-what do you mean, 'who's Undyne'? She's-"
"Why're you talking like I'm not here, Papyrus?" Undyne questioned her disciple, taking a swig of her water. "So, as I was saying about Asgore, he-"
"Undyne." Papyrus interrupted Undyne, flinching at the glare she sent at him. "T-There's something going on. It's scaring me. More than most things. It's as if everything is flashing before my eyes- Every memory! All because of this.. one.. dream that I had. It felt so.. real." He attempted to explain more, but was only cut off by another memory.
One, someone, that he put so far back in his plentiful happy memories, that he almost didn't know who it was, until..
"PaPyRus? IS thERe sOMEthIng wroNg? YoU seeM VErY SuRprISed aBOUt SomethInG." Gaster motioned his hands quickly, panicked that he may have scared the poor Papyrus. "G-Gaster? Is that really you?" The young skeleton asked, forcing tears away. It was so long since he's seen this wonderful skeleton, the great Royal Scientist!
"WhY would yoU ask? Of course it'S me, PaPyrus." Gaster smiled, opening his arms. Papyrus let the tears fall as he ran into Gaster, sniffling and sobbing. "Gaster, I don't have much time. This has been happening so much. My memories have been passing around, all over, and I don't know what to do! I-It's just been so terrifying.." Papyrus spoke quickly, and it took a second for Gaster to understand that he had to hope that the young skeleton would understand his quick hand motions.
"Papyrus, you have to understand something. What's happening is normal. Your brother, Sans, has been working on a device where time and space travel works. There was once, where Sans had come from the future to warn me, although I hadn't a clue as to what he was talking about, or who he was, about how I would die while working on a great invention to save the Underground. It excited me, but also terrified me." Gaster had a sad look on his face, but then quickly smiled, and continued. "Do not be afraid of your memories. They may be from different timelines, good or bad, but you are okay. You will be okay. But just remember-"
"This is just a bad dream!" Papyrus heard Sans scream, and it sounded as if his brother was sobbing, telling himself that it was just a bad dream, what was happening to Papyrus. Brother! Sans! I'm okay! It is going to be okay! Calm down, Sans! I am just fine! He tried to say, but it only came as a thought to himself.
It was a shocking discovery. He could no longer speak. No matter how hard he tried to summon up something, some sort of word, or sound..
He tried to call out for help. Call out for something.
"Hahahah.. But nobody came." A small, golden flower appeared before Papyrus, an evil grin on his face. "Did you really think you could do anything to save yourself? Save others? You loved them all too much, and when they all began to forget.. while you were going through all of those memories.. You changed them. Forever." The flower turned it's head upside-down, the grin turning with it.
The golden flower disappeared, but Papyrus could still hear it's haunting laughter. "No.. I did not change any of those memories! You cannot persuade me that I did anything of the sort! This is just a nightmare-"
"AND YOU'RE NEVER WAKING UP." The flower cackled, and it was suddenly everywhere around the room, the grin terrifying, taunting, evil.
Papyrus tried to step back, fleeing away from this flower. "N-no. I.. never did anything.." He mumbled, tripping and falling. He didn't even try to get up. "I.. didn't mean to do anything. I don't want to hurt anyone. What did I do to deserve this?" The young skeleton began to cry, and the flower looked disgusted.
"What did you do? Oh, PAPYRUS, you did everything to deserve this. As did everyone else in the Underground. You're all so nice to each other it's disgusting." The flower removed itself from around the room, leaving Papyrus to his own crying for a long amount of time.
I'm a horrible monster. Papyrus thought, curled up in a ball, as compact as he could force himself to be. I was never strong. I can never do anything. I'm a weakling. I'm pathetic. Why is it so hard to live? Why is it so hard to make choices without ruining everything? Why..
"Why can't I make all of the choices so I don't make any mistakes?" He wondered out loud. The flower appeared again, a sweet smile on his face, like the gentle, patient smile that Frisk gave him when he was having trouble with something.
"But Papyrus!" The flower began. "You can make all of those choices! You'll be the strongest, most perfect member of the Royal Guard, too!" It caught Papyrus's attention, and the flower smiled, but it wasn't a happy, gentle, patient smile. "I don't think you'll like it, though." The golden flower grinned evilly, and Papyrus lost consciousness.