Level 11

"Hello? Erm, can we come in?"

Papyrus seemed reluctant as he called into the darkness, shoving the white building's doors open just enough so that Sans and himself could slip in. The building was caked in a layer of darkness, which made Papyrus start to slink back outside. "Sans, I don't think this is a good idea."

"Don't be scared, bro." Sans watched his brother tip-toe up to him while he dug around futilely in his backpack for his flashlight. "We need to escape the heat now that our canteens are empty. We'll just be in here for a few minutes, then we'll head to Asgore's castle."

"And then to our deaths." Papyrus glumly added, though the sudden twitch of light froze him in his spot.

Sans also stopped as the lights above them suddenly flickered on, the darkness around them fading and objects jumping out in the foreground. The building was just one, giant room, with several tables scattered all across the room and piled with messy papers, unclean beakers and garbage. Two escalators, one going up and down, seemed to go towards a small nook in the room for a possible second floor.

Papyrus, upon looking at the stuff before them recoiled with a disgusted look. "Eugh, this place looks worse than your room."

Sans regarded Papyrus with a light smile before venturing off to inspect the papers on the tables. "Heh, what can I say? Sometimes I like to 'mess' around."

"God, Sans!" Sans' grin only grew when he heard how irritated Papyrus' voice was, turning his attention back to the papers. He grabbed a few sheets and flipped through them, finding that most of them were just math equations and charts.

Papyrus aimlessly wandered around the room, his back straightening when he felt a chill crawl up his spine. "I don't like this place, Sans. What if a monster is waiting to attack us?"

"Well that would suck." Sans locked eyes with his lost brother, trying to comfort him with his smile. "It looks like whoever lives here is out, so don't worry."

"Hmph, just wait till they come back." Papyrus simply muttered, but decided to buy his time by shuffling through a few of his own papers at a nearby desk.

Sans shook his head before turning back to his paper pile. He shifted through a few sheets before pausing on one in particular, trying to study the characters drawn on.

It looked to be a journal entry, but Sans didn't know where to begin with the symbols on each line. It sort of reminded him of hieroglyphics, only with mailboxes and hand signs.

"Hey Papyrus, come look at this." Sans gestured Papyrus over, who was now checking out some of the beakers on a nearby table.

"What is it, Sans?" Papyrus gave his brother a cautionary glance when he stepped behind him. "Not another terrible joke, is it?"

"Nah, bro. Though you could say my jokes are 'trashy'." Papyrus' frown cut deep when Sans' grinned. "Come on, you walked into that one."

"What are we looking at, huh?" Papyrus deciding to ignore Sans, glancing around for what Sans had in mind to show him. He soon pointed to the paper in his hands. "Is that it?"

"Yeah." Sans handed the paper to Papyrus, who snatched it and thoroughly scanned the paper. "It seems to be some sort of writing, but I can't make heads or tails of it."

Papyrus buried his head into the paper, before bringing it down to his hips in a confident pose. "Well I'm glad you came to me then, Sans. Obviously this piece of paper is trying to tell us something by ways of pictures. Now watch as I, the Great Papyrus, am able to decipher this ancient text!"

Bringing the paper back up to his face, Papyrus began to read. "Snowflake, down pointed index finger, index finger pointing left, line break, snowflake, index finger pointing left, black drop, another snowflake, bla-"

"Ok, I think I get it." Sans waved a hand to his brother for him to stop, a little horrified that his brother would probably have gone and continued to ramble off the pictures until he got to the bottom.

He took the paper back from Papyrus' hands, looking it over once more. "It's like some sort of code, with each symbol probably representing a word, or a letter."

"Like Morse Code?" Papyrus asked, a frown settling on his face. "Fact, how does one speak Morse Code? I feel that would be really hard."

"I think you need a machine for that." Sans seemed more intent at staring at the paper than listening to his brother, trying to find a pattern.

Papyrus, noticing his brother was stuck in that paper decided to find his own, letting out an airy chuckle. "Well, if anyone is going to be able to decipher this, it's you, Sans. You're always acing every test, making mom and dad proud."

Sans didn't like where this conversation was going, his teeth clenched together. "Yeah, but you make mom and dad proud in your sports. I've never seen a faster runner than you, or someone who can throw a faster ball."

"Nyeh, I know, but you know what I mean." Papyrus glanced over to his brother, but Sans darted his head away.

Papyrus frowned, then went back to looking through stacks. "Do you know what you want to do after high-school?"

"I haven't thought that far." Sans spoke faster than what Papyrus was used to, raising red flags in his head.

He kept watching his brother, but Sans wouldn't move his head over to look at him, as if he were hiding something. "Dad wants you to go to a prestigious college. Says you'll be the next Einstein."

"Yeah well, that's what Dad wants." Again Sans' sentences were coming pretty fast, which Papyrus didn't like.

He stepped over to where Sans was looking but figured when Sans would look the other way, hands mindlessly shuffling through whatever it could grasp. "Sans."

"What?" Sans shrugged his shoulders, but kept his face hidden. "I'll come up with something eventually. Jeez Papyrus, you worry too much."

"Maybe I don't worry enough." Papyrus took a step closer to Sans, but he fumbled to the side in taking his own. Papyrus narrowed his eyes, unable to see how frightened Sans were.

"Look, I'm fine, Papyrus. You're letting this whole adventure mess with your head. Trust me, nothing's wrong, promise."

Papyrus stood straight, crossing his arms while he cocked an eyebrow. "You promise, huh?"

Sans nodded his head eagerly. "Yup, I promise."

"It's funny… If I didn't know any better, I would say you only make promises when you lie."

Sans, shocked by Papyrus' words shot his head up in a desperate search for his brother; sweat having formed on his brow and forehead. Papyrus however wasn't there, having walked off and farther into the room to inspect something else.

Sans felt the truth piling up in his throat like stomach acid, his lips quivering to finally say something to his brother. It's always been like this between the two, Sans never thought Papyrus would start catching on though.

His mouth opened to start, but his eyes caught something that changed his words. "What's that?"

Papyrus only glanced to watch his brother walk deeper into the room, rounding a small corner and halting soon after. Papyrus, being the curious one followed after Sans, who froze just as quickly as he had.

His head leaned back and gazed up in alarm, while Sans felt his skin crawling on his back. "Dang…"

Several rows and columns of small, cube TVs encompassed the wall the two stared at, having at the very least 30 monitors. There was a control panel just beneath the last row of TVs and two chairs, but the frightening aspect came from what the TVs showed. It was the snowy forest, it was Snowdin, it was the path to Waterfall, the dump, Hotland, every spot the two had traveled and more.

Sans eyed Papyrus and was a little surprised to see Papyrus already had the pager out, staring at it intently before back up at the TVs. Sans bit the inside of his cheek. "I think we found our helper…"

"Our helper?" Papyrus glanced at Sans before giving a weary glance to his pager. "You mean to tell me the monster who's been helping us is some sort of…stalker?"

Sans shifted his eyesight over to Papyrus. "I wouldn't say stalker."

His head turned to get a good look at the place once more. Funky papers, beakers on cluttered tables, a giant monitoring room. "I think we're in someone's lab."

"This? A lab?" Papyrus gestured with open arms at the area around them. "Labs aren't this cluttered, Sans. They're usually a lot whiter and cleaner, like in the movies. Also there's usually a hidden mutation or alien somewhere in the place."

As if to believe his words Papyrus lightly hunched over, eyes darting back and forth. "B-But of course this place is a mess! So therefore there can't be any hidden mutations or aliens waiting to devour our flesh and play the xylophone with our bones. N-Nyeh!"

Sans felt an urge crawl up his throat to pique Papyrus' fear with thoughts of a mad scientist lab, but figured he had had enough scares for one epic journey. He absentmindedly stared back up at one of the southern television sets, noticing a lot of air vents that looked to be in the form of a puzzle.

Slipping off one of his shoulder straps, Sans had his journal back in hand and was sketching the pattern out and a few other things he noticed, hoping it would come in handy in the near future. With Sans occupied Papyrus decided to explore the first part of the room again, leaving Sans to his observations and sketches.

He released a little sigh, eyes catching Sans every so often in his search for something unique. Papyrus' eyes flickered back over to the table he was at, trying to quell this uneasy feeling inside of him. If Sans wanted to talk, he would come to him.

Papyrus felt a sad chuckle escape his lips. Yeah, right.

Glancing back up, Papyrus was somewhat surprised to see a bathroom sign atop what appeared to be a door-slit in one of the walls. Even if he had just gone, the thought of using a restroom again was like a god-sent, moving quickly over to the door.

He first tried sliding the door to one side, but learned that it was locked. He then knocked on the door, angling his head to try and look at it better. "Hello? Is anyone in there?"

Papyrus' rapping on the door pulled Sans from his notes, leaning back enough to find Papyrus standing before what appeared to be a bathroom. "You need to go again, bro?"

Papyrus turned to Sans, lightly annoyed. "Well when's the next time we're going to find a bathroom, huh? If this is the only one I rather use it now then have to go outside later."

"Point taken." Placing his journal away in his pocket, Sans moved over to where his brother stood, looking over the door for any indication of a handle or way to get in.

Papyrus tried once more to force it open with Sans' help, but neither of them were able to budge it the slightest inch. The tall brother straightened his back while Sans' eyes darted around the room. "That is one sticky door."

"Yeah…" Sans took a few steps back, retrieving his hunting knife and releasing it from its sheath.

He immediately regretted pulling it out though when Papyrus merely glanced at it then back at the door, but upon realizing what he had just seen he turned his full attention on it. "Why do you have your hunter's knife with you?"

Sans gave a weary smile, shrugging his shoulders lightly. "I thought we might need it in case we ran into any rabid squirrels."

"Ok, so let me get this straight." Papyrus gave Sans a dirty look, extending his palm only to count on his fingers. "You brought two canteens of water, a bunch of snacks, your winter jacket, a map, a compass, some stick you found in the woods, and your hunting knife? Why would you bring all that stuff for a trip up the mountain?"

"Hey, you remember how much dad packed when we went camping?" Sans felt his grip get tighter on the knife, as if Papyrus was verbally backing him into a corner.

Papyrus threw his arms into the air. "That's because we were in the woods for days!"

Bringing his arms down, Papyrus took a deep breath. "Honestly Sans, why did you pack that much stuff?"

Sans opened his mouth to quickly calm the flames of Papyrus' curiosity, but Papyrus cut him off. "And I want the truth. I want you to open up to me, for once."

How pleading Papyrus' eyes were when he stared at his brother, crouching a bit to get a better eye-level. "Would it honestly kill you?"

Sans gritted his teeth, eyes darting to the side in mild annoyance. How he wanted to open up, Papyrus had no idea.

The only thing between the two was the glittering steel of the knife.

Knife moving, Sans pointed it at the door, trying to regain his smile. "Look, you wanted that door open, right? I'm not dying anytime soon, but I'd hate for you to go because you couldn't go."

His eyes moved back to Papyrus, having used his last ace in the hole. Papyrus was catching on too fast and Sans couldn't bear to have that talk, hoping that like every other time, Papyrus would move onto the next subject with mild annoyance. He had to.

But when his eyes locked onto his, Sans didn't get the satisfaction of knowing his plan had worked. No, he only saw the disappointment and sorrow in his brother's eyes before he moved to stand back up, crossing his arms. "I guess so."

A beaker, which had been teetering on the edge of one of the tables, fell silently before shattering into a million pieces. Papyrus nor Sans turned to the sound, as if they were tending to the thing that had shattered among themselves.

Sans had no words to express at his brother right now, who paid him no second glance, eyes only fixed to the door before them. "Well? You going to open it?"

Teeth gritted once more, Sans could feel the fire within him reignite. His hand itched with the knife in it, lifting it towards the door. "Yeah, give me a moment."

He had just stuck the knife into the crack when a loud knock echoed through the lab, followed by a commanding tone. "Dr. Gaster!"

Sans hissed and flinched back, pulling the knife out of the door and holding it before him. Papyrus turned to the door, his feelings at the moment being shoved back for fear again. "Sagiv."

Sans' eyes quickly scanned the room, hoping to find another door or somewhere they could hide. When he had decided to turn around he noticed a door east of the room, motioning for Papyrus. "Come on, this way!"

Papyrus followed behind Sans as they made their way towards the door, quickly passing by the set of monitors when Sans came to a halt.

Papyrus nearly ran into his brother, harshly whispering. "Sans! What's the hold-up?!"

The knocks were getting louder. "Are you home? Or is your head stuck in another human history book?"

"The monitors." Sans breathed, body turning drastically back to the rows and columns of TVs. If they had left just then, it would be easy for Sagiv to come in and track them. They were dangerous to be left alone.

Knife still clenched in his hand, Sans stomped back over to the monitors, grabbing the nearby chair and climbing atop it. Papyrus turned from his spot, watching his brother trying to steady himself on the roll-y chair. "Sans, we don't have time to mess around! Get over here and let's go!"

"You want to run? Run." Sans turned back to his brother with an annoyed glare, going back to the TVs while raising his hand with the knife. "I'm going to ensure Sagiv can't track us."

Teeth clenched, Sans brought down the knife upon the TV which showed the beginning of Hotland, his hand going through the screen and creating a loud, crashing noise. Sans recoiled when one of the TV shards cut into his hand, noticing a long cut on the side while blood started to form.

He knew however that he only had seconds before Sagiv would burst in, continuing to smash as many as he could in the time that he had.

"Gaster?! What in all of the Underground are you doing?!" Just as the front lab door had opened, Sans took that as his cue to run.

He hopped off of the chair, having broken most of the TVs up until they showed halls filled with wires and dim lights, scurrying over to Papyrus. "Go, GO!"

"YOU!" Sans didn't need to turn back around to know that Sagiv had saw them when they reached the east door, pushing it shut behind them.

Papyrus and Sans pushed themselves off the door when a huge dent cropped up, signifying that Sagiv wasn't here to chat. Reaching into his backpack while stuffing his knife back in his pocket, Sans ripped a few snacks out, opening them up and throwing them onto the ground.

"Sans!" Papyrus was a few good feet ahead of his brother, furious now for how slow Sans was moving.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing!" Sans yelled back, throwing the rest of the snacks he couldn't empty on the ground before running over to Papyrus. His brother didn't wait until he got there, simply running back and scooping him into his arms before charging off again.

"You didn't throw all our snacks out, did you?" Papyrus gave his brother the stink eye, to which Sans responded with a half-hearted smile.

"It was for a worthy cause." Sans started to shrug, though he didn't get the chance to finish it when they both watched an orange arrow rip through Papyrus' chest and disappear.

The next thing Sans knew he was dropped to the ground, scrambling to lift his head up with his elbows as Papyrus flailed around while continuing to rise. "SANS, HELP ME!"

"It's ok, Papyrus! Just swim!" Sans cried out, getting to his knees and looking back to notice Sagiv along with his Knights just a few feet behind them.

The head of the Royal Guard sneered when looking at Sans, then to his brother who was flipping upside down and around trying to get control of his body. "Fool me once with snacks, shame on me. But I learn from my past mistakes, Humans, and this time your trap didn't work!"

He quickly turned his head behind him, regarding his Knights who were currently scraping up some of the snacks. "But do pick them up; I would like to eat them later in celebration for ridding the Underground of two annoying Humans."

He regarded Sans and Papyrus when speaking the last of his sentence, lining another orange arrow in his bow. "Ready to join your brother?"

Sans rose to his feet, just dodging the orange arrow, but wasn't prepared when Sagiv rushed at him. The giant parrot attempted to grab Sans, who was stumbling over his feet and throwing his weight around to keep away from his iron grip. He remembered what happened last time when Sagiv had gotten a hold of him, and he wasn't going to let him do it again.

Again the itch to hold the knife came back, but Sans tried to throw that urge away. He wasn't in peril yet, they could still run. He needn't kill, and he wouldn't.

Pulling back a fist, Sagiv caught Sans off guard and punched him in the stomach. Sans instinctually opened his mouth and felt the air exit his lungs, along with a few drops of saliva before smashing onto the ground.

"Sans!" Papyrus was starting to get used to floating around for the moment, having to watch from the air above as the trained knight was closing in on his brother.

Sagiv brought his foot up to trap Sans once more, but Sans moved quicker than the old bird and expected him to do something like that again. Throwing his backpack off his shoulders, he rose to one leg, swinging his backpack into the parrot.

Sagiv, caught off guard by the backpack and how much weight it had, fell alongside the backpack, allowing Sans to get back up and continue running away. He motioned wildly with his arms for Papyrus. "Papyrus!"

"But what about the backpack?" Papyrus asked, doing butterfly strokes in order to kick-start his getaway.

Sans gritted his teeth, knowing that the stuff he packed inside was irreplaceable. But there was no time to go back, no matter how much he wanted to keep what was within. "It's ok, nothing valuable was in there. Now come on!"

Sagiv growled when he pushed the backpack off of him, rising to his feet. "I'm going to kill that fat human if it's my last act as head of the Royal Guard!"

He then snapped his head back, squawking at his two knights who had stopped picking up snacks. "What are you waiting for? After them!"

"But sir, the snacks!" One of the knights protested until Sagiv had come over and smacked them upside the head.

"Forget the snacks!" He then ripped away one of the bags, watching his two knights scurry after the two fleeing humans. For a moment, Sagiv lost himself when he sniffed curiously at the bag of chips Sans had opened, then flinched back with disgust for easily forgetting the mission and threw them to the side.

"How are you doing, bro?" Sans turned a corner during his sprint, feeling much better now that he wasn't lugging such a heavy backpack on his back. It was almost liberating, if not for the fact that he had left behind the photo album and several other precious things he had stored inside that bag. His left hand gripped his right, which had stopped bleeding but stung like a wild hornet's nest.

Papyrus kept up rather easily with Sans as he normally did, making strong, exaggerated strokes with his arms and legs. "Phew, nothing like swimming through the air to really pump your blood!"

"My exact thoughts." Sans easily remembered what it was like when he had to swim for his life, happy that he didn't have to do such a silly thing again.

"… Sagiv was the one who gave you the black eye, didn't he."

Sans almost stopped when Papyrus had asked such a question, turning to look at his brother. He no longer looked afraid; instead he was more serious than Sans had seen him, his eyebrows furrowed deep on his face.

Sans allowed himself to frown, lightly nodding his head. "Yeah... it uh, wasn't a good time."

Papyrus didn't respond back, but Sans could tell he was processing what he said. The look on his face, it slightly resembled the look of a mother bear about to do battle to save her children.

To conserve energy Papyrus switched to back-stroking, though he quickly surpassed Sans when a grove of tropical trees suddenly grew from the ground and cut Sans off.

The fat teenager was able to stop in time but sadly was thrown into the air just as one tree pushed out of the ground beneath him. He held onto the big, banana leaves and tried to steady himself from falling.

"I'm coming, Sans!" Papyrus stopped swimming and pushed himself back over to where Sans was, angling himself so that he would go higher to grab his brother.

"Heh, don't mind me. I'm just 'hanging' around." Sans tried to cut the tense atmosphere with a bad joke, though the Royal Guard didn't seem to like it as he was suddenly met with a torrent of arrows.

He moved his head when he could, ripping one of the banana leaves out to use as a shield. The second Sans held the leaf up one red arrow cut through the middle but got stuck, leaving Sans to lean back.

The monkey guard that had summoned the trees willed a few more to grow taller than the other ones, trying to block Sans off from his brother. Papyrus merely swam his way around them though, while the other guard unclipped two giant, wooden boomerangs from either side of them.

With a hearty throw the boomerangs zipped through the air, picking up the wind around it and creating small tornadoes. The boomerangs curved back to the knight, who caught them with a graceful jump, but the tornadoes were left to grow larger and head straight for Sans.

"Papyrus!" Sans gripped tighter onto the leaves underneath him, holding the arrow'ed leaf under his arm.

With a deep stroke Papyrus propelled himself forward and over to Sans, grabbing onto the arms his brother extended out. "I got you!"

Sans stared back at the massive tornadoes coming their way, finding himself screaming. Papyrus though used his brother's weight to pull him down to the leaves, and using them as a spring launched him and his brother high into the air.

Just as Sans felt the pulling sensation of the tornadoes beneath him the two had soared high enough out the wind's grasp, watching them dissipate behind them.

"Whoa…" Sans couldn't help but chuckle, then laugh from how nervous and frightened he was with the thought of being swept into lava. He angled his head up at Papyrus, who seemed to be beaming. "That was awesome, Papyrus!"

"Nyeh, just goes to show what an amazing brother I am!" Papyrus tried moving Sans to under his arm, angling himself to continue on. "Come Sans, let's fly away and into-!"

But sadly Papyrus' monologue had turned to screams when a red arrow flew into Papyrus, and with it both boys were sent plummeting towards the ground. They hit onto the banana trees before slamming back on the path behind the wall of trees, struggling to get up and move.

"Oh god, my back!" Papyrus twitched as he pulled himself to his knees, while Sans groaned in getting to his feet.

"I really didn't want to do that again." Sans moaned, bringing up the leaf he still held with the red arrow. It was still imbedded in the leaf, and for some reason he figured he would keep it for later.

The trees then shook, as if they threatened to return to the ground they came from followed by Sagiv's barking tone. "They can't run forever! Keep up the teamwork and we'll all be heroes today!"

"Come on, Papyrus." Sans helped his brother up, the two of them limping off before getting back into a normal run.

It wasn't long before the rest of the Royal Guard were back on their trail, with tropical trees sprouting to try and block them off while tornadoes grew into massive threats, followed by a shower of arrows. Papyrus had taken Sans under his arms once more, having been lucky to hurdle over the growing trees before they could cut them off while Sans told Papyrus where the tornadoes were heading to keep out of its suction.

Eventually the two came to their first puzzle of Hotland, with the path before them cutting away for several square pieces of land, vents, and lava beneath their feet.

Papyrus gulped and set Sans down, seeing no way onward. "We're stuck!"

Sans glanced at the vents before them, then to the sound of the Royal Guard catching up. In an act of desperation Sans threw himself onto the vent, hoping that it would do something than just fill his pants with hot air.

To his luck the wind coming out of the vents was strong enough to send him flying to the square patch of land before them, falling to his knees from an unsteady landing.

Papyrus did the same as Sans made room for his brother to come onto the square of land, quickly picking himself back up. "Which way are we supposed to go?!"

"Give me a second." Sans scanned the area quickly, seeing several paths they could take but knowing that they could only take one for success. They didn't have time to try them or really think about the solution with Sagiv and the Royal guard right behind them.

The pressure was too much.

"Sans!" Papyrus yelled out of fear, to which his brother turned right on him.

"I'm trying, ok?! Give me a moment!"

Papyrus, who was initially shocked at the small outburst glared back. "Well we don't have a moment! Let's just try our own paths and whoever makes it out can distract the guard!"

"Papyrus, that's a terrible idea!" But just as Sans had said it Papyrus had already taken off, leaving Sans on his plot of land.

He felt the need to curse but didn't when another tree threatened to grow right beneath him, going left while his brother had gone right. The Royal Guard once more kept up with their attacks, throwing tornadoes, trees and arrows whenever they could.

Papyrus fared well as he went on his path, but Sans was having a rougher time trying to map out the area and dodge for his life. Upon landing on a square close to the exit, Sans didn't know he was in peril until the winds behind him picked up. He turned in head in time to be swallowed whole by one of the tornadoes. "PAPYRUS!"

Papyrus stopped his vent-jumping in time to see Sans get engulfed, his hands gripping his head. "SANS!"

Sagiv couldn't help but laugh upon watching Sans get swept away, producing a few more orange arrows. "Let's see you try and escape that tornado, human! The only time you'll be able to is when it's right over the lava; your fate is sealed!"

"HEY!" Sagiv and the rest of the Royal Guard turned their attention to Papyrus, who had taken to flailing his arms in the air.

When he set them down he grew in fear for a second, then squashed it and sneered at the parrot. "Why don't you try hitting something that isn't running straight ahead! Or is that the best you can do?"

"Oooooh." One of the guards looked to Sagiv, who merely growled at them back.

He took aim. "With pleasure."

A couple of hours ago, Papyrus would have been screaming and running in circles with Sagiv's bow pointed at him. Instead he only crouched down and ran for one of the vents, allowing its currents to shoot him into the air.

With the release of his bow the orange arrow shot into Papyrus, giving him the ability of flight once more. He quickly used his newfound powers to shoot himself right into the tornado.

"What is that human doing?!" The boomerang guard asked, watching Papyrus willingly let the tornado take him. "It's like he's got a death-wish!"

"No, wait…" Sagiv soon caught onto what Papyrus had done, loading his bow with several red arrows. "Make more tornadoes, now!"

Upon letting the tornado take Papyrus, the teenager could safely say he now knew what his laundry felt like in the dryer. All the spinning and tossing made Papyrus thankful he was starving for the moment, trying to find his brother in all of the harsh winds and pulling. "Sans!"

"Papyrus!" A blur of blue shot just beneath Papyrus, letting him know that Sans was nearby. He swirled around and was thrown like a ragdoll, trying to keep the stuff in his pockets from flying off and into the lava. Papyrus however didn't notice that his pager had flown out until it passed by his head and out of the tornado. So much for their 'friend's' help.

Papyrus tried swimming deeper into the tornado, but that was about as easy as trying to drive through the ocean. Instead the only thing Papyrus could do was stick his hand out, watching as the eye of the tornado left the squares of land and erupted with the bright light of lava beneath them. "Sans, take my hand!"

Sans only caught what Papyrus was saying after he had gone by him two times, forcing his arm up and through the wind in desperation of grabbing his brother's hand. The winds were slowly starting to die, and if they didn't act soon, they too would die with it.

Just as the winds were almost gone Sans was pulled back over to his brother, lunging himself forward and grabbing a hold of his hand. Papyrus jerked with the sudden weight but held his brother up, the two watching the tornado disappear and an ocean of lava beneath them open up.

Sans yelped and his legs peddled him in a futile attempt to get away, but Papyrus was able to hold his brother in between his legs. "I got you, Sans! It's ok!"

"Oh god." Sans wasn't able to breathe until he knew he was safe in the crook of Papyrus' legs, sweating profusely from the heat and the thought of almost dying.

He regarded Papyrus with another weak smile. "Thanks, bro. I nearly got roasted there."

"Save the bad puns for later, Sans!" Papyrus turned his head back only to be met with three more tornadoes coming their way, colored red from all the red arrows flying inside. "It's time we departed!"

Tightening his hold on Sans and using his arms, Papyrus swam vertically upwards and above the tornadoes, but he didn't stop as he noticed platforms and other paths above them.

"Sir, they're getting away!" One of the guards pointed out.

Sagiv would have been furious, since he knew his arrows couldn't reach where Papyrus was now. However when noticing where he was swimming to he clicked his beak, then motioned for his Knights to follow. "They're heading for the third floor! Come, we'll beat them before they have a chance to get to the castle!"

With the guard rushing to find a way up, Papyrus was nearly exhausted as he reached the highest level he could swim to. He let Sans go from his grasp, who was at first reluctant to be let go but settled down when placing his feet on dry ground.

"Ok, this was cool at first but…" Papyrus wiped some sweat off of his forehead, arms hanging to the side of him. "I sort of hate flying now?"

Sans let out a nervous chuckle, looking to the banana leaf he held with the red arrow. "I know the feeling."

He extended the leaf to Papyrus, who gladly took it. "I thought you might want to get back in touch with gravity."

Touching the red arrow, the magical weapon vanished and with it Papyrus fell face-first onto the ground. Sans couldn't help but snort, with his brother pushing himself to sit on his rear. He rubbed his face. "That's not funny, Sans!"

"Hey, I'm taking my laughter where I can get it." Sans simply shrugged, though when the laughter died down the two were left with sweat, exhaustion and an awkward silence.

Sans bit his lower lip, a little surprised Papyrus hadn't yelled at him back or smiled at him. Instead he just looked away, and as if Sagiv never happened the two were back to how they were in the lab.

Without a word Papyrus stood back on his feet, watching his brother rub his neck awkwardly. He gave him a concerned frown. "You alright?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah." Sans suddenly couldn't make eye contact with his brother, as if in doing so it would restart their last conversation.

Papyrus stared hard at the deep cut Sans had received, moving his hand to grab his wrist, but Sans merely retracted his hand. Sans gave his brother a quick glance, but it was enough to know that he was still disappointed.

"Nyeh, why do I ask? You're always alright." Papyrus crossed his arms again, turning his head to look at the sight before them.

Sans followed Papyrus' gaze, the two noticing just how close the castle had gotten. Before them stood a giant, industrialized machine, but beyond that was the castle that just half a day ago was so far off. They were almost there.

"Wow…" Sans breathed, his hand reaching for his journal in his pocket. He frowned though when he remembered his pen was in his backpack, shoving his journal back away.

He instead decided to look at his brother, who looked more relieved than him to be so close to the castle. "We're almost done…"

Without giving the castle another glance, Papyrus dropped his arms and motioned for Sans to follow, where the path they were on seemed to lead to a long, dark tunnel. "Well? Come on then."

Papyrus didn't sound nearly as excited as Sans thought, but in not wanting to provoke Papyrus back into their earlier conversation just silently followed behind.

However the closer they got to the dark tunnel, Sans couldn't help but remark. "You're not scared, bro? I mean, we're sort of walking into a dark room."

"Please, Sans." Papyrus turned back, unable to stop himself from giving a small, proud smile. "I just escaped from a horde of tornadoes and wild banana trees. I think I can take a dark room."

In that moment Sans couldn't believe this was the same brother he had entered the Underground with. How much they had grown, chuckling. "Yeah, the Great Papyrus can do anything."

"And don't you forget it." Turning back to the dark room, the two brothers entered without hesitation. But had they just taken a moment to observe their surroundings, they might have taken notice of the cobwebs lining the top corners of the door frame.

To those who are skeptical, the tornadoes can only get up to F2 at the most, and while some could argue that Papyrus and Sans probably would have been sucked back into one, I'm going with the notion that they got high enough away where the suction didn't grab them. Also the tornado was slowly dissipating when it got over the lava, hence why a column of lava didn't shoot up the eye.

So let's call this the 'Jumping the Tornado' chapter.