A/N: WARNING: More mentions of rape, violence, and a bit o' gore in this chapter. Not much gore, but squeamish stomachs might have an issue. For those triggered, I will tell you now that Frisk is not raped in this chapter or any other.

Once again, I promise there is a reason for this. She's gotta find out that Sans is a magical monster somehow, and other scenarios just seemed like overkill for him to use his magic. He's gotta be desperate.

CHAPTER THREE

Sans whistled to himself as he turned the corner to Frisk's apartment complex. He wasn't sure why she had asked him over tonight, but he wasn't about to say no to a night with a friend. He loved spending time with her. She was funny and laughed at his jokes—even the ones he felt were almost too painful to say aloud. She liked scary movies a little better than Papyrus did, which was a plus in his book.

Just as he was about to walk up the steps to her apartment, he stopped. Something felt cold in his soul. It was something he had only ever felt once before, and it scared the shit out of him.

When Papyrus was in fourth grade, he had been attacked by a bunch of human bullies that broke his left humerus and right fibula. They had dragged him to a wooded area behind the school and were planning to continue their beating until he turned to dust. Sans had felt that chill then, and had found the source in time to save his brother.

He turned, breathing rapidly already, and searched out the source of the chill. There was a line of a smoke-like substance, red as human blood, wafting in the soft breeze across the street from Frisk's apartment. He'd never seen red magic before. He furrowed his brow bones and walked across the street. The iciness in his soul continued to get even colder as he approached.

The red mist began moving, slightly swaying as it shifted direction and traveled down the sidewalk. It turned a corner, and Sans followed.

He stopped short when he saw a woman hunched in the alleyway, her knees brought to her chest. She was crying quietly into her knees with her arms wrapped around her legs.

"Hey," he called out. He had to wonder why magic would lead him to a complete stranger, but it continued to waft ever closer to the girl on the ground. He ran to get closer. "Hey, are you okay?"

The woman looked up and froze. He cursed himself for thinking a random human could trust a skeleton. He took a step backward and held up his hands to show he meant no harm.

"I'm here to help," he said with a soft tone. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head and sniffled. "I'm not okay, but I'm scared for her. They took her, and I don't know where they went."

Sans' bones stiffened. "Her who?" he asked, his left eye already starting to heat up.

The woman shrunk back against the wall. "I don't know who she was. She tried to stop them, but they took her."

"What did she look like, then?" he demanded.

The red mist swirled right past the woman on the ground and continued down the alley. If there was any doubt in his mind who had been taken, it was gone now.

"Never mind," he growled, mostly to himself.

He didn't give the girl a chance to say anything else. He made a call to the police to come pick her up and walked away, following the mist halfway down the alley.

With his eye now fully charged, he took a moment to breathe and focus on where the mist was going. He stood still and followed it with his magic, like looking at a map. It moved too slowly, he thought. It must have been the frail connection to a human. Normally, he wouldn't have been able to sense anything at all. He didn't care why he could suddenly feel his friend; all he cared about was getting to her in time to help her.

Two minutes of searching later, he finally caught her location. He could hear the sirens getting closer to saving the girl in the alley. He didn't need to stay to make sure she was okay. Resolve set, he snapped his fingers and disappeared from the alley.

~LM~

Frisk's determination was waning with each minute she struggled against her restraints. The men had tied her to a pipe in the abandoned basement they somehow seemed to live in. They were in the far corner of the room, standing by what looked like dirty and unmade mattresses on the floor, discussing something she couldn't quite make out. The words she was able to catch scared her even worse and made her feel lucky that she didn't fully understand what they were about to do her.

As they spoke, she looked around the room. There was a table bolted to the floor in the middle of the room. It didn't look like a dining table, and there were no chairs. On one end, there was a small post that stuck up four inches. She could only imagine what the table was for. Her thoughts terrified her.

She prayed that Sans could somehow find her. She had gathered from Sans' rambling about these men that monsters could track their own kind, but couldn't seem to get that same focus on humans. She still managed to find hope that being Sans' good friend would let him know that she was in trouble.

Her hopes seemed dashed as the men turned around and looked at her. The one she had decided was the leader stepped forward first with a nasty grin twisted on his face. She had heard the others refer to him as Mike.

"I'm really going to enjoy this," he said as he walked toward her. The others followed suit.

Frisk shrank back from him as Mike stepped up to her. He reached out and grabbed her chin.

"Don't turn away from me, you bitch." He spat in her face and let go only to slap her. "You move only when I tell you to."

The one she'd heard being called Chris stepped up to her side and started to undo the binding around her wrists. Instead of relief, she only felt more terrified.

"Please don't do this," she begged, "I promise I won't tell anyone who you are."

Mike slapped her again. "Don't fucking talk unless I demand it!"

She whimpered and nodded.

The two men picked her up roughly and carried her over to the table. They all but tossed her onto the cold, hard surface. Chris took her hands and pulled them above her head, tying them down again to a small post that seemed to be there for this purpose.

As Mike started to lift her shirt, she felt a strong bolt of lightning through her whole body. She shrieked, startled at the intensity of the shock. What the hell was that?

Suddenly the two men closest to her were surrounded in blue light. Before Frisk could even wonder what was going on, they flew across the room and smashed against the wall.

"You're all going to want to get the hell away from my friend," Sans said with a low growl.

Frisk looked up as best as she could. She wanted to say that she was so relieved to see him there, but what she saw terrified her.

Sans stood in the corner of the room, his left eye blazing with blue fire that crackled up his skull. His left hand was held out in front of him, also engulfed in blue flame. It didn't take her more than five seconds to realize what had happened.

The blue light that threw the men across the room had been Sans' magic.

She'd heard of some monsters having magic. Those that did have it were only supposed to be able to affect other monsters, and even then, only those closest to them. She'd read stories about monsters from centuries ago that could summon magical weapons and single-handedly destroy small human armies.

It seemed like ages before anyone moved, but in reality, only a few seconds had passed before the three other men in the room charged the monster. One pulled a gun from the waistband of his pants and took aim. Frisk screamed.

What happened next was a blur of blue, white, and red that Frisk would never forget. As the shot was fired, a wall of white bones appeared in front of Sans, somehow protecting him from the bullet. It shattered upon impact. As quickly as the wall had appeared, it was gone. It seemed to have just shifted, suddenly becoming an arsenal of bones pointed at the men. Sans hurled his glowing hand forward, and the bones flew straight into the advancing men.

Frisk screamed again as the bones impaled the men, one going straight through a man's head. Blood spattered the table she was on.

"Stop it, or she'll die!" Mike yelled.

Somehow Frisk hadn't managed to notice him coming up behind the table. Sans seemed to have missed it as well.

Mike held a blade to Frisk's throat. "I swear to the gods, I'll kill her right now if you so much as flinch!"

Sans' eye somehow seemed to glow even brighter.

"Nah, you're gonna let her go. 'Cause if you don't, you're gonna have a bad fuckin' time."

The knife started to glow, and without warning flew across the room and stabbed the wall next to Chris, who was still unconscious.

Terrified and desperate, Mike wrapped his hands around Frisk's throat. "Fine, I'll kill her with my bare hands."

"Wrong choice," Sans said with a smirk.

Frisk tried to kick and scream, flailing as much as she could with her hands tied and her throat being squeezed. She jumped when she felt a warm blanket of light envelop her. It held her down, pinning her legs to the table. Suddenly she was even more terrified. What was he doing? He couldn't be serious?

A strong blast of white hot light filled the room. It lasted for a full second before it disappeared. Frisk didn't dare open her eyes. The blue light-blanket holding her down was gone, but she still didn't dare to move. She cried openly, so scared of what Sans was going to do next. It didn't even occur to her that there were no longer hands around her throat.

"Now, what to do with you?" she heard him say with a dark, twisted humor. She opened her eyes and saw him standing next to Chris by the wall.

"Sans?" she managed to squeak.

He looked over at her. His eye was still burning, but not nearly as bright as it had been. His hand was no longer on fire. The flame in his eye disappeared with a blink, and he walked over to her.

"Frisk, are you okay?" He untied the rope around her hands and helped her to sit up. "Please tell me they didn't hurt you." He looked her over. Her clothing was still intact, but her jeans had been undone. His left eye began to glow again. "Did they fuckin' touch you?" he growled.

Frisk threw herself at him, so scared and yet finally feeling safe at the same time. She couldn't find any words to say. She clung to him tightly and buried her face in the shoulder of his jacket. His arms wrapped around her and held on.

Sans wanted to just take her home, but there was the matter of the one remaining assailant. With a sigh, he raised his left hand and summoned a single bone. It landed perfectly in the middle of the man's forehead.

Frisk screamed again and tried to pull back. Before Sans could let her, he had to get her home. He located her house and snapped his fingers.

Frisk finally managed to free herself and stumbled backward. She fell back and nearly had a heart attack when she landed on her couch.

"What in the ever-living fuck!" she screeched. "How the hell am I home? What the hell did you do?"

Sans smiled sadly and stepped back to sit on the floor as far away he could get. He figured she would be too scared of him to consider remaining his friend, but at least she was alive.

"I killed them," he said matter-of-factly.

She tried hard to take a deep breath, but her lungs refused to fill. Instead, she could only take in shallow breaths. Her head started to feel a little too light.

"How am I here?" She questioned. She brought her knees up to her chest and pushed her face into them. "What the fuck just happened?" She began to rock gently.

Sans sighed and stood up. He couldn't let her ride out a panic attack on her own. He just hoped that his closeness didn't make it worse.

"Hey," he said softly as he sat down next to her. "Frisk, it's okay." He gently touched her back.

Instead of pulling away like he was afraid she'd do, she turned and shoved herself at him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close as she cried into his chest. She was still rocking and shaking so hard he was afraid she'd fall apart soon. He shushed her gently and just held her until she'd cried herself out.

Still breathing heavily, she pulled back and tried to wrap her head around the events of the last half hour. She looked around the room and realized that she really was home; it wasn't an illusion. She looked at Sans again and sniffled.

"How am I home?" she asked quietly.

Sans sucked in a deep breath and started to rub soothing circles on her back.

"I teleported us." He figured there was no use in playing it safe or sugar-coating anything at this point. She had seen almost every bit of magic he was capable of summoning, so there was no point in trying to hide anything.

"T-t…" she shook her head as if to try to clear it. "Teleported?"

Sans nodded. "Yep."

"How?"

He smiled. "Magic."

"Magic." She repeated the word softly as if she was hearing it for the first time. "You're a magical monster." She scooted away from him and pressed her back against the back of the couch. "You're supposed to be extinct."

Sans smirked. "Nah, we just learned how to hide real good."

Her eyebrows furled. "Hide?"

Sans laughed. "Man, you are out of it. Yeah, we hide our magic so human armies don't try to capture us. If they knew what I could do, I wouldn't be killed. There are much worse things than that." He shuddered.

Frisk realized slowly what he was saying. Her head was clearing, but it was still fuzzy. "There are more of you?"

"Magic monsters, yes. More of me" —he gestured to his whole body— "no. I'm the only me."

She felt her lips pull up at the edges. A thought made them fall again. "You killed them."

Sans nodded. "Yep. And don't even think about trying to make me feel bad about it, cuz that won't happen." He looked at her sideways.

She shook her head. "I don't want to do that. But you can summon weapons." Her arms tightened around her legs.

He nodded again. "Sure can. You're safe, okay? I wouldn't dream of hurting an innocent person. Those freaks were the furthest thing from innocent."

She thought of something and looked at him questioningly. "Why wouldn't you protect yourself against those bullies?"

He huffed. "Nah, they don't deserve to see something so cool."

She thought about that for a minute. She wasn't sure if 'cool' was the word she would have used for what she'd seen. She shivered again at the memory.

Her stomach twisted again as she remembered blood and brain matter spattering on the table. She wasn't quite sure how it had managed to miss her legs. An involuntary memory of the moment right before he zapped her home invaded her mind. She had turned and looked at where Mike had been standing above her. At first, she thought he had just disappeared. She could clearly see in her memory now that that was not the case. His top half was gone, but on the floor laid his legs, the bottom half of his waist, and intestines that had spilled out. And his hands…his hands were still on the table on either side of where her head had been.

Her stomach heaved, and she jumped up to run to the bathroom. Her legs buckled under her, and she toppled to the floor. Before she hit, however, she felt the warm blanket of blue light envelop her once again. She was set gently on her feet, and Sans stood in front of her to hold her steady.

"Okay?" he asked with concern in his eye sockets.

Her stomach seemed to have forgotten about its impromptu dumping session. She took a deep breath and nodded.

"Yeah. I think so. Thanks."

He nodded and pulled back.

They stood in silence for a moment. Sans desperately wanted to ask her if they were still friends, but he was too scared of her answer.

Frisk wanted to say something—anything—to bring back the lighthearted mood of all of their other times together. She wasn't sure those words existed. Sans had just killed five people right in front of her; there was no way she was going to be able to pretend he was the easy-going skeleton she'd thought he was.

Sans sighed and brought a bony hand up to rub the back of his skull.

"Are you gonna be okay tonight?" he asked, looking down at his slipper-clad feet.

Frisk nodded. When she realized he couldn't see her, she spoke. "Yeah, I'll be okay. I'm not leaving the house for another month."

He looked up at her and smirked sadly. "Okay. You know how to contact me if you need anything."

She nodded again. "Yeah."

They stood there in silence for another minute before Sans reached out and gently touched her shoulder.

"Hang in there, Kiddo. See ya later."

She almost said something back, but then his eye started to glow. He snapped his fingers and suddenly he was gone.

She squeaked in surprise and jumped back. She looked around suspiciously for a few minutes before it hit her that he had probably teleported home.

She stood in the same place and focused on her breathing for a few long minutes before she decided she was tired. She rubbed her face with her hands and walked slowly down the hall to her bedroom. She couldn't make herself change out of her clothes. Instead, she let herself fall haphazardly onto the bed and closed her eyes.

Her dreams were a confusing muddle of blue fire, white hot light, and a lot of Sans. His left eye burning with magic made for both terrifying and yet comforting feelings swirling around her.

A/N: Thank you for reading. I hope it was everything you hoped for and more…

Reviews are lovely; I'd love to know your thoughts!

And also, I'm on Twitter at Sheewolf85; come talk to me! I don't bite! (unless that's what you're into?)