Chapter 5: Save Him

You felt cold. You opened your eyes slowly, confused, wondering where you were and how you got there. The last thing you remembered was dying, but clearly you weren't dead. Were you in a hospital, maybe?

Wind. The next thing you registered was the wind hitting your face, similar to when you were riding in a car and the window was open. Then movement, beneath you, all around you, actually. Were you in a car?

Everything around you slowly brightened up, and you began to see what was happening. You were in a car. Why? You tried to remember anything that might help you. You had died. That's right; you killed yourself. Before that? You were alone. No, wait. Sans. You looked around, realizing that not only were you in a car, but you were moving within the car. You swiveled your head to see where the movement was coming from. Sans. You were seated in his lap. He smiled at you when you looked at him. You had missed him. You smiled back. And with Sans always came Papy-

It hit you. Memories came flooding back to you. The accident. You looked to your left. There, seated behind the wheel of the car was Papyrus. He looked slightly annoyed, but was laughing anyways. It seemed like you were back to the time right before the accident happened. But how?

It didn't matter. You didn't have time to think about that. If what you thought had happened was true, any minute now you would be hurtled into an accident. But you had time. You had to try and stop this.

"Sans, stop shaking me."

Your serious tone took him by surprise. "What's wrong, kid?"

You didn't have time to answer. "Papyrus, pull over." You demanded.

"Why? What's wrong, human?"

The sound of his voice was relieving to hear, but you decided you couldn't mull over it. "There's no time to explain! Pull over, now!"

"Frisk, calm down. I can't just-" Papyrus tried to reason with you, but just then, a car swerved over the barrier into your side of the road, heading directly towards your car. Quickly, you grabbed the wheel from Papyrus and pulled it towards you, using it as leverage to pull yourself out from under Sans' seatbelt and into the driver's seat. You maneuvered on top of Papyrus' legs to slam on the brakes, the car spinning and ending up on the side of the road, front end managing to stop just before crashing into the trees.

"Papyrus! Are you okay?" You screamed, turning around. Papyrus had ended up squished between you and the seat, arms around your waist. "I'm fine!"

"Frisk," Sans started, clutching at his ribs. "How did you-"
Before he could finish, another car that had moved out of the way of the car bolting towards them crashed into the side of your car, tearing through the door and into you and Papyrus. You were thrown sideways onto Sans and didn't see anything else, only heard the sound of bone grinding against metal and something cracking.

"Papyrus!" Sans yelled, and he grabbed you around your torso. You felt a sharp pain on your left side, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the last time. You struggled loose and kicked the car door open, shoving Sans out and immediately following. Looking both ways around the road to make sure nobody else was coming, you went to go around to Papyrus' door until Sans stopped you, grabbing the back of your shirt. Turning around, you watched as Sans lifted Papyrus with his magic, gently bringing him closer and laying his head on the side of the road.

"Papyrus!" You shrieked and ran to his side to asses the damage. He was in pretty bad shape. "We have to get him medical attention immediately," you said, addressing the elder brother beside you.

"There." He pointed to an ambulance a few yards away.

"Go, I'll stay with him."

"I'm not leaving him." Sans protested.

"I'm injured, you're not. There isn't time to argue!" You screamed over him. "Papyrus will die if he doesn't get help! It doesn't matter how I know, what matters is that he lives!"

Sans shut his mouth and gave you a strange look before teleporting over to the ambulance. You turned your attention back to Papyrus. You could hear him wheezing slightly. He wasn't dead yet.

"Papyrus, wake up, look at me!" You tried to get his attention. His eyes opened ever so slightly. "Stay with me, Pap," you encouraged, removing away any car parts from his body that you could without risking further injuring him or yourself, since your left hand had started to hurt pretty bad. "You're gonna be okay."

The ambulance made its way through the lines of immobile traffic and citizens that had emerged from their cars, and Sans came out alongside several medics. They took you and Papyrus into the ambulance, both on stretchers, even though you insisted they focus their attention on the skeleton.

Sans sat to the side, nervously watching over the two of you. "Frisk?"

"Yeah," you responded in between the doctor's space questions. Yes, it fucking hurt, goddamnit.

"How did you know?" You could tell from his voice that his face was grim.

"It's happened before." As you recalled the previous time when Papyrus hadn't made it, you remembered now that this kind of situation had happened in the underground as well. Undyne had managed to defeat you at one point, however, you awoke at the point just before where the two of you had fought before, good as new.

Of course, you idiot! "It's a save point." You realized aloud.

"What did you just say?" You bit back a scream as a doctor prods your left arm and declares "its broken!" like he's just discovered the gender of his first child.

Of course it's broken, stupid. "The car accident. It's a save point." You say, louder, not expecting Sans to make any sense of it, but from the gasp you hear it sounds like that means something to him. "How do you know about that?"

"Other than from Flowey trying to kill us all, you mean?"

Crap. You had forgotten about that. Flowey "deleting" your save file and trying to kill you multiple times had been pretty traumatic, to say the least. You had probably repressed that.

"Flowey's done some other things that… weren't exactly good." It seemed that both of you might have some explaining to do. The moronic doctor gave you a quizzical look and you decided not to say any more for the time being, opting instead to glare at him.
"Did Papyrus live?" Sans asked.

You decided not to answer that for now.

Later on, a doctor led you into a waiting room towards Sans. You donned a cast on your arm, rendering it immovable up to the shoulder. He and the doctor talked as you sat down with Sans to good side. On your left sat a row of more people and monsters, the hospital bustling with people involved in the several car accident.

As soon as the doctor left, Sans turned to question you. "You okay?"

You nodded. "Yeah, you?"

"Sure." His smile faded and pupils vanished. "You never answered my question. Did Papyrus live?"

You hesitated. "No." you said quietly, looking down as not to see Sans' reaction. You didn't know if you could bear to see him in any more pain. "You, um, how much do you know about the saves?" You asked, tentatively meeting his gaze.

His pupils had returned, but his expression was somber nonetheless. "I should ask you the same question. How much do you remember?"

"All of it." You shuddered. "Do you remember anything?"

"Not a thing." His eyes said differently, however. He changed the subject. "How do you know about the saves?"

You explained how Undyne had managed to defeat you, but your determination had brought you back. "What about you? Can you create save points or remember anything after them? What else happened with Flowey?"

With a sigh, he elaborated. "I used to work alongside the royal scientist. Our research had shown some anomalies in the timespace continuum, timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting. Some of this was you. The rest was Flowey who, before you came, had the ability to save. At first, he used his power for good. He made everyone happy. But, eventually he got," he paused before continuing, "bored? Curious? I don't know. He decided to start killing, dusting us left and right. They used their save point to bring them back. I knew immediately what had happened from my research. I remembered everything, possibly due to what we now know as determination." He shrugged. "I thought for a minute you might have known about the saves because you had killed in the underground before and I hadn't remembered for some reason."

You gasped. "I would never!"

Sans chuckled. "You never know. Humans have killed Pap- uh, monsters so many times I can never be too careful."

You nod thoughtfully. So that's what he remembered.

"But maybe he can be saved in this timeline." Sans said, standing and starting to walk.

You followed suit. "Where are we going?"

"Monster Recovery Wing. He should be out of surgery by now. He might be awake." Sans lead you to exactly where Papyrus was being kept. It was the same place as last time, and you didn't fail to notice how he didn't stop once to ask for directions. The nurse said that Papyrus' surgery had been successful, but that he wasn't awake yet. Upon hearing he had been moved to the recovery wing, Sans asked if he could stay in the room and she said yes. Again, he lead you to his room.

Entering after Sans, you both walked over to the bed. Papyrus lay unmoving on the bed. Sans looked him over, tense for a moment then relaxing. "He'll be okay." He said softly, pulling you close to him. You winced, but smiled despite yourself.

You had done it. Papyrus was alive and on the road to recovery.