Chapter Three:
Everyone is still gathered around the screen, which seemed to be giving them a break to gather their thoughts. They were all rattled by what they had seen. Chara, previously only whispering horrible thoughts to Frisk, had taken over Frisk's body and went on to murder all the monsters that lived in the ruins. It was horrifying to note that Chara did not even seem done. They had every intention to continue their crusade when they went through the door to Snowdin.
"I, I AM NOT SURE THAT I WANT TO CONTINUE TO SEE THIS. IT SEEMS TO BE UPSETTING EVERYONE." Papyrus uttered, looking at everyone with a worried expression. It was clear that everyone was upset with what they had seen.
"it is not likely going to be that easy pap. the void brought us here for a reason. apparently until you ' D' me, well, i don't think we will be going anywhere." Sans stated in a matter of fact tone. He kne R, there was no chance the man would let them go before he got what he wanted, and he always got what he wanted.
"How?" Asgore growled, losing a bit of his calm, "How is this possible? How does this hurt help us understand you?"
"how should i know, it wasn't my plan. my plans are always much more humerus." Sans muttered, before closing his eye sockets as if to rest.
That avoidance of the issue bugged everyone. Especially Undyne, who seemed like she was a moment away from hitting the dense skeleton across the room. It wasn't something she was capable of, not because she didn't want to, but because she knew the only thing it would accomplish is more people getting upset.
"My child, are you feeling up to continuing now?" Toriel whispered to Frisk, who had stopped sobbing and was just dealing with a bad case of the hiccups.
Frisk nodded, and the screen started back up promptly.
Chara walked through the ruins and opened the door. Immediately on the other side, there was Flowey the Flower. A grimace crossed Chara's face as they walked out to meet with it.
"Wowey! I was not expecting you to be such a monster Frisk. You cannot really be human, in fact; you are empty inside. Just like me. Actually, you are Chara, are you not? I thought it might be possible but… I never thought Frisk would give into you. I guess that we are still inseparable, after all these years. Listen, I have a plan to become all-powerful. Even more powerful than you and your stolen soul." Flowey's expression changed from innocent to evil in a split second, "Let's destroy everything in this wretched world. Everyone, everything in these worthless memories. Let's turn 'em all to dust."
A derange laugh escaped Chara.
Flowey looked worried for a moment.
"Y-you think I actually give a shit about you anymore! Hahaha! You really are funny Asriel. We aren't friends anymore, I only ever used you. That was all there ever was to it! Hahaha~! I can't believe you ever thought it was more!" Chara sang out in-between deranged laughter.
Flowey just stared, almost hurt, but he could never hurt anymore. He didn't have a soul after all, just the echoes of feelings he had once had.
There were no more words on either side, Flowey just scampered away.
"What has become of our Children…?" Asgore muttered his head in his hands. He really could not do anything right. His children had all become psychopaths, he killed children, Tori would not even look at him… He did not deserve her, and he never deserved them.
Toriel was actually sympathetic for once, and gave Asgore's hand a small, reassuring touch.
She would never enter a relationship with him again, but she did still care for the idiot.
Humming under their breath, Chara walked into Snowdin, relishing in the chill that she felt. The long, dark brown trees around her hide Sans from view, but Chara knew they were watching. They had always watched Frisk after all. Followed them, protected them if it seemed like they would not be able to handle it.
They made sure that their knife was accurately hidden away, before hitting the fenced area.
Sans quickly followed behind the human, " N, Don't you know how to greet a new pal?" Sans was purposefully making their voice sound just on the side of dangerous, "Turn around and shake my hand."
"You are acting really spooky there Sans, prescribing to the human stereotype?" Toriel teased the skeleton.
Sans fought a blush and looked away, damn that woman's sense of humour. Really, she killed him every time.
The serious and tense atmosphere was breathable again.
"You're following them pretty closely, why?" Undyne said, watching as Sans crept around in the shadows of the screen, keeping close to the human, well still staying far enough away that the human couldn't tell.
Sans scratched his skull sheepishly, "well, Tori asked me to watch over any human that crossed over the barrier to make sure that they don't get hurt. So… i promised i would. i am probably trying my hardest to fulfill that promise, and still make sure that my brother gets what they want to be happy. not an easy mix to handle. but i'm hard as bones, so i can take it."
Toriel looked at Sans, thankful.
She had never assumed that he had actually tied to keep up with their promise to such an extent. Hearing that it mattered to them so much, that they remembered it, really touched her. Never mind the fact that Sans was not the type to hurt innocent children, like her idiotic ex-husband. That always helped her opinions of someone.
Chara turned around slowly, holding her hand out, her eyes wide, allowing the colour to sink in.
Sans almost flinched backward, but caught himself. Holding out a hand, which he'd put a little whoopee cushion on.
Chara kept expressionless as the sound erupted from their combined hands.
Frisk had giggled.
Sans was now on edge.
"Bonehead, you look really jumpy here. I don't think I've ever seen you that nervous, why? Could you sense something off, do you think?" Undyne questioned, studying the screen.
Sans thought over how to answer a question like that, "yeah… i am really good at sensing LOVE in people, so i'm probably on edge because i can feel an echo of it."
It was reasonable enough. There were several monsters that had such an ability – These included most of the monsters in the room. Well, other than Alphys, but she was smarter than most of them combined so, she got a break.
He would not allow himself to show it though, "hehehe… the old whoopee cushion in the hard trick. it's ALWAYS funny. that's your queue to laugh, or uh, to emote at all…?"
'Come on Frisk, you have me worried…' Sans thought, subtly observing every twitch the face before him made.
"okay, that's fine. everyone has their own sense of humour. i'm sans, sans the skeleton. i'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. however, y'know … i do not actually care about capturing anybody. now my brother, papyrus … he is a human-hunting FANATIC hey, actually, i think that's him over there. i have an idea, go through this gate thingy. yeah, go right through, my bro made the bars to wide to stop anyone. quick, behind that conveniently shaped lamp."
Unlike how Frisk would have done, the little human stayed right where they were, not bothering with the lamp.
"uh, okay, i guess you don't have to."
"I can't believe you tried to hide the human." Undyne muttered, glaring at Sans.
Sans just glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, placing his arms behind his head, "frisk is innocent, they don't deserve to get captured and hauled off to the king for execution. even if this time it's the 'thought whisper' there was no way for me to know that. i did the right thing, morally anyway."
"Maybe it was the most moral thing, but that doesn't make it the RIGHT thing." Undyne gritted out with a glare, "Sure, they're a kid, they haven't done anything wrong, but what about all the monster children who were punished for things the humans did, don't they deserve to be happy. One for the happiness of so many others, shouldn't that be worth it? It is worth it, whether you agree or not."
Asgore agreed, after all it was his decree. Sure, he could have done the whole thing better, SHOULD have even. He was idiotic for doing it the way he had, but one person, in the face of all his people? Worth it.
Toriel disagreed so heavily she could not even force words to come from her mouth, just glaring at Undyne with fire in her eyes.
"i care about very few things undyne, and the few things i care about, i'd trade the whole world for. don't try to tell me that if the one person required was alphys you would have agreed, because you would be lying." Sans logically explained, before any farther arguments on the matter could come up.
"SAN'S HAVE YOU FOUND A HUMAN YET?"
"yeah."
"REALLY! WOWIE! GUESS THAT IS SETTLED! "Papyrus just turned around and walked away after that.
"that worked out, huh?"
Chara just stared at Sans for a moment, wondering how he put up with such an idiotic brother. Sans just went behind his stand, pretty lost in thought, worried about Frisk. He would have to make sure to watch them more closely than usual this time around. Something did not seem right…
Chara seemed more than happy to just go about her day after that. Walking in the direction Papyrus had taken off from.
Just before Chara could leave, Sans interrupted.
"well, i'll be straight forward with you. my brother would really like to try out his puzzles on a human, so it'd be really helpful of you if you, y'know, if you felt like it."
"SANS! IT IS SO NICE OF YOU TO BE THINKING OF MY FEELINGS LIKE THAT. I AM SURE THAT THE HUMAN WOULD HAVE LOVED THE PUZZLES ANYWAY THOUGH, AFTER ALL! THEY WERE MADE BY ME, PAPYRUS!"
Sans just smiled painfully, already remembering Chara's interactions with Papyrus' puzzles. It had always hurt Papyrus' feelings, being ignored like that. Sans always wanted to tear anyone a new asshole when they hurt his brother like that, "your right, i'm sure that the human will feel that way, if they are smart enough to even be a quarter of how amazing you are, they will love your puzzles."
Everyone in the room smiled at the skeleton brothers. It had been a long time since they had seen such sincere and emotional moments for any length of time between the two.
They all knew that the brothers had been amazingly close, but they seemed to be drifting apart lately. It was good to see such bridges being mended.
Sans left after that, going in the opposite direction of the human.
Chara just shrugged their shoulders. A few puzzles were no skin off their back. They giggled their deranged laugh for a moment at their own little pun. Knowing that Sans was not around anymore, they found no issue with killing all the little SnowDrakes that they crossed path with.
"Hehaha… Monsters in Snowdin's dust matches really well with the colour of the snow! How beautiful!" Chara said, moving along, idly sticking their knife through the head of several monsters. They seemed to be mostly SnowDrake, which was boring to say the least. Still, they needed to get their LOVE up.
Of all the monsters, the SnowDrakes were the ones that Sans liked the most. Really, it was not a surprise to anyone that had spoken to both Sans and a SnowDrake. The thing was, Sans and the Drakes traded jokes regularly. Seeing them be killed made everyone feel bad for the poor creatures, but it hit Sans harder than the rest. Hell, Sans even knew the name of each individual SnowDrake.
"This sick fuck…" Undyne muttered under her breath, for the millionth time.
After killing all the monsters in the area, the whole place filling with dust, Chara continued on to meet up with Papyrus.
"SO SANS! WHEN IS THE HUMAN SHOWING UP? I WANT TO LOOK MY SUNDAY BEST, OR AT LEAST MY TUESDAY PRETTY-GOOD." Papyrus declared, striking a dramatic pose.
"don't you only have on outfit?" Sans said with a smile forming, making his always-smiling mouth seem wider.
"YEAH, BUT I COULD STYLE MY HAIR!"
"oh, right. good idea. say, isn't that the human over there?"
"A ROCK? WHY ARE YOU HAVING ME LOOK AT A ROCK?"
"uh, what's that in front of the rock?"
"A HUMAN?! HUMAN, PREPARE YOURSELF FOR HIGHJINX, LOWJINX, DANGERS, PUZZLES, CAPERS, JAPERS, BEING CAPTURED, AND OTHER SORTS OF FUN ACTIVITIES. REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED, IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!~" With that, Papyrus hurried off, his laugh fading in the distance.
"Geez Papyrus, why didn't you just take them into custody right then…? It would have saved everyone so much time." Undyne stated with a matter of fact tone, looking at the taller skeleton.
"I THOUGHT THE HUMAN WOULD ENJOY SOME PUZZLES, AFTER WHICH I WOULD CAPTURE THEM AND PUT THEM INTO THE GARAGE – I MEAN JAIL!" Papyrus said it like it was the single best idea anyone had ever had, pride nearly radiating off him.
Chara could feel her fist clench, this stupid bonehead skeleton… She could not wait to get him out of the way. If anyone could wake Frisk up, it would be Papyrus. She needed to work fast.
"… and you don't even bat an eye, huh?" Sans mentioned, narrowly looking at Chara.
"Do you know something, Sans?" Chara said, grinning wide and unashamed.
Sans went back to his normal stance, "All I know is that there is a sweet old lady out there that cares about you."
"Ha… Hehe… HAHAHA! Now that one was funny!" Chara said, before going on her way to the next station. Leaving Sans in the background.
Toriel once more had tears in her eyes, her child hated her – As if killing their mother was not bad enough, but they had to laugh about it?
Sans was so good though, he was suspicious, but he still wasn't doing anything to hurt Chara. He knew that they weren't what they seemed, but Sans didn't waver from the promise he'd made to Toriel. True dedication, but Toriel was not sure how to feel about it.
At what point did her child actually deserve to not be protected.
Frisk tugged at their mothers sleeve for attention, signing to them, 'Dunkle takes his promises very seriously. That's because he really cares, right?'
Toriel nodded, rubbing Frisk's head in a soothing motion, "Thank you my child, I will keep that in mind."
Doggo was sitting in his station, Chara knew this after watching Frisk's whole pacifist run. Chara snuck behind the half blind dogs station and grinned, sticking her knife through the paper thin box, right into Doggo's back, "W-what…? e…"
Doggo was dust.
"THAT EVIL DEMON! IF I COULD GO THROUGH THE SCREEN I'D SUPLEX THEM SO HARD THAT THEIR HEAD WOULD FLY STRAIGHT OFF! WHO DOES THAT?" Undyne raged, unable to help herself.
Doggo was her underling.
Undyne had kept them in Snowdin because nothing really happened there, they were disabled, but still do determined to help save the Underground… Undyne could not refuse their request to stay on the guard. Not when despite their disability they were still so strong.
Besides, she could relate.
Thinking it over, Undyne allowed her finger to gently touch her patched over eye, or at least, what was left of it.
"U-undyne I'm s-sure we all agree w-with you after-r seeing that… b-but maybe you sho-o-ould calm down a little bit. Y-you'll scare F-Frisk…" Alphys muttered in her usual shy nature.
"UNDYNE THE HUMAN DOESN'T UNDERSTAND! THEY ARE JUST SCARED AND MIND SICK. YOU CANNOT BLAME THEM." Papyrus announced, almost frowning at his friend.
Undyne almost wanted to refute this, but she did not have the heart when it came to Papyrus' innocence. Besides, with the way Sans was glaring at her, she almost felt a shiver come down her spine. No one was stronger than an older sibling, that was just the way of the world.
There was a snowman, a talking Snowman.
"Heh! Are you some kind of monster?"
"Mhmm, I can't move myself, so I was hoping that you would take a part of me with you on your trip!" The snowman said in a cheery voice.
"Hehe!~ Sure." Chara walked right up to the snowman, and tore chunks out of it, why not? Magical items like those heal you~ After she had gotten several chunks, she grinned at the frightened snowman, before mashing it into pieces, scattering it's remains all around the little area that it had once called its own.
Walking away, Chara munched on the snow, "Oh wow, what a good choice on my part. He tastes wonderful!"
Still munching on the snow, Chara met up with Sans and Papyrus at some sort of puzzle. Dropping the remains of that particular globe of snow, she started to pay mind to what they were saying.
"Destroying someone's dream to get to the other side… That's just too horrible darling…" Mettaton muttered under his breath, watching what Chara had just done with a growing horrour. Everything they had done so far was horrible, and Chara just kept getting worse, as it that was even possible.
"YOU'RE SO LAZY SANS! YOU SLEPT ALL NIGHT!"
"uh, i think that's called sleeping bro."
"EXCUSES. EXCUSES!" Papyrus chided, before they both turned to face the newly entered human.
"LOOK, THE HUMAN HAS ARIVED! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED PUZZLES. QUITE SHOCKING!" Before Papyrus could finish his little run through, Chara just walked across the puzzle field.
Papyrus stared at the human who was standing right in the middle of the puzzle, "I SEE, YOU MUST BE HAVING CULTURE SHOCK. YOU SEE, WHERE I COME FROM, IT IS A LOVING TRADITION TO SUFFER THROUGH HORRIBLE PUZZLES FOR NO REASON. SO IF YOU COULD JUST WALK BACK TO THE START…"
Papyrus had sweat gathering at the side of his head, tears close to gathering in his eyes, "Why couldn't we get the human that likes puzzles…"
Upset, Papyrus walked away.
Everyone was angry.
Hurting Papyrus like that… It was not easy; Papyrus was a tough cookie when it came down to it.
Still, he was like the baby of them all, even more than Frisk was. Sure, everyone knew that Sans was over protective of Papyrus, but everyone else was as well.
"How dare that demon treat my friend like that." Undyne gritted out, her teeth making unhealthy sounds.
Alphys looked like she wished she could help screen-Papyrus, but didn't know how.
Papyrus himself was confused, why didn't the human like his puzzles? Sure, they were not always the hardest but they were fun… Right? The taller skeleton brother turned to the shorter one, "Sans… Why don't they like my puzzles? I put a lot of work into them… I don't understand."
Sans looked helpless at this point, how could he possibly come up with a way to explain this and not hurt his brothers feelings farther?
"Papyrus, Sans has told you before that the human here is mentally ill. They probably don't find joy in anything other than being bad. It is not your fault. It's the child's parents fault for not raising the child with the love they needed and deserved." Toriel said, both comforting, and self-harming at the same time.
Sans was thankful.
Reaching over, Sans knocked Papyrus on the head for the first time in what seemed like forever, "see bro? anyone who knows you loves your puzzles."
Everyone nodded along and gave affirmative noises, Frisks had almost seemed like it would come straight off their shoulders if they nodded any harder.
"I SEE, THAN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL DESIGN A NEW PUZZLE FOR ALL OF US WHEN WE GET HOME!" As he said this, he already went into planning mode.
Sans almost glared at Frisk, or who he thought was Frisk, "it would make my brother happy if you played along."
"Ha! I do not really care about that. Besides, he does not really seem very upset. He was yelling his idiotic head off like usual." Chara teased horribly, tilting their head 'innocently' to the side as they looked at Sans.
'What the hell happened to you kid…' Sans thought, before walking off, having trouble controlling his emotions when it come to someone treating his brother that way.
All the dog warriors were quickly falling to Chara's knife, along with anything else that came into her path.
That little monster that bragged about his hat, well Chara took it's hat before killing it off. Sadly, the hat itself seemed to have been a part of the monster, so it turned to dust as well. Oh well, it was dead anyway! Not like it cared anymore.
The dog couple quickly followed after, the wife swore to get even when Chara killed the husband, but Chara just jumped on her back and forced her to fall into her husband's dust, "You wanted to be together forever right? Do not worry, your dust will mingle! Aren't I so nice~"
"AHH! HOW COULD THEY DO THAT TO SUCH AN ADORABLE COUPLE! I MEAN REALLY –" Alphys ranted, before noticing that everyone was looking at her, and she slide down her seat in embarrassment. She really got carried away huh?
'Wow, I really am trash, huh?' Alphys thought to themselves, blushing harder than they had ever thought possible.
Before Alphys could think of anything else to call herself, she felt something touch her cheek. Looking over, it was Undyne's hand. Alphys had not thought they could blush harder, but they did. There was practically steam coming out of her ears.
"I couldn't have said it better myself Alphie~" After which, Undyne reached down and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek.
The sight of the couple helped break from the horrour the screen had been putting them through, but of course, it did not last long. would not allow them to bask in the happy moments, when farthe was right around the corner.
It did not take that much longer until Chara met the skeleton bro's again, this time at Alphys' puzzle. This time Papyrus did not even get to speak before Chara started to walk across the grey puzzle board.
"BROTHER! WHY ISN'T THE HUMAN LETTING ME EXPLAIN THE PUZZLE? I WANT TO THREATEN THEM AND BAFFLE THEM WITH DANGEROUS JAPES!"
"well, maybe they don't like japes." Sans said, in some mock way of comforting his brother.
"EVERYONE LOVES JAPES!"
"ahhh, but undyne hates puzzles, right?" Sans mentioned, trying his hardest not to glare at the human.
"SHE HATES PUZZLES, BUT SHE LOVES JAPES."
"oh, that makes sense." At least his little brother seemed off the thought of the human snubbing him.
"HUMAN, WHAT DO YOU THINK? PUZZLES OR JAPES?" Chara didn't even bother with a response to the soon to be dead skeleton, "…. THIS IS USUALLY THE PART WERE YOU EITHER AGREE OR DISAGREE, AND DEPENDING ON YOUR ANSWER WE SAY SOMETHING GREAT IN RESPONSE."
Papyrus was hoping to teach the little human a lesson with this, but he seemed almost frustrated. He dropped a puzzle, before going on his way.
Chara did not learn it.
Killing Greater Dog was easy; the big armour dog didn't even try to fight back. Every time Chara hurt it, well, it just got up and tried to play with them again, despite the pain it was in. It made wounded noises, but Chara didn't let that last long, just turning him to dust a moment later.
"Of all the monsters, the adorable Greater Dog didn't deserve that." Mettaton said, looking frazzled for once in his life.
'Heh, cheep coming from the person that hurt Nabstablook so much,' Sans could not help but think in response, wanting to glare at the calculatour, but was unable to bring himself to. It would upset Paps, and he was going through enough already.
Eventually Chara came up on the bridge, and said something that would have hurt, if Chara were actually Frisk. Chara wasn't Frisk, so the fact that they didn't seem to be making friends with Papyrus, went right through them. They nearly chuckled at their joke pun. Apparently Papyrus would play puzzles with Undyne, oh well, that just made it easier for them.
They started to walk by after getting off the bridge, "Hey kiddo listen for a second. It seems like you will be fighting my brother soon, so… Let me give you some advice. If you keep going the way you currently are, well…. You are going to hav time."
As Sans said this, his eyes became black holes of nothing, and he looked vastly more threatening than he ever had. Soon after, he disappeared like he was never even there.
"Hehehe… Papyrus going to hurt me? How stupid… That bonehead would never be powerful enough to even put a scratch on me." Chara chuckled out, "Sans must really be off his rocker."
They had seen Sans angry for the first time during this whole thing.
He had been glaring at Chara when they first appeared.
This, this was different.
The look on Sans face when they said that Chara would have a bad time if they kept on that road, it was haunting. It was something you would expect to only see in nightmares.
Frisk, apparently agreed. The second that they heard that line, they whimpered softly and tears gathered in the corner of their eyes. Somewhere deep in their soul, they could feel it, the echoes of that line from across the resets. They knew of course, that Sans would not hurt them now… However, did that really matter when he'd hurt them before? Frisk frantically shook their head back and forth. No, they would not allow this screen to cause them to think about their Dunkle badly.
Sans watched Frisk's reaction with an internal frown, 'I'm so sorry kiddo…'
"Heh! That's a lot of enthusiasm for you bonehead, did you need to take a nap afterward, Lazy Bones?" Undyne teased her friend; about internally she was rather impressed. She doubted that he could actually back that threat, but was impressed nonetheless.
Asgore was not surprised though, because this was his judge. As far as how strong Sans was, he did not really know, but Sans ability with sensing was the best, and that was something that came from being a strong monster. It would not surprise him at all if Sans could back that threat up and more.
"THANK YOU FOR YOUR FAITH IN ME, BROTHER! THIS HUMAN SEEMS TO LACK FAITH, BUT I AM SO GLAD YOU BELIEVE IN ME!" Papyrus said with dazzled, starry eye sockets. Sans could never refuse his brother after all.
"sure bro, i'll always have the faith in your ability. you're super cool like that. i'm sure you'll take down that human with no problem." Sans lifted his hand lazily, and gave a thumb up in Papyrus' direction.
Everyone knew though, that it was Sans who threatened with the bad time.
After saying this, Chara walked into Snowdin. It was eerily quiet, their type of place! Chara walked into the shops and stuff, no one was there. Therefore, they took everything of value, including several hundred gold. There was a note there that read, 'Please don't hurt my family.'
It made Chara laugh.
It was a ghost town at this point, save for one person. MK, Kid, or Monster Kid, who was standing by the Christmas Tree. Chara walked over to him with a sweet smile, "Hey, everyone else is gone, why are you still here?"
"Well, all the adults went and hide somewhere, but I don't really understand why. I mean, they are so dumb! Don't they know that we have Undyne to protect us? She will beat up the bad guys." Kid seemed pretty determined on that point.
Undyne was touched by how much of an impact she had made on Monster Kid, but it seemed that the impact caused him to place TOO much trust in her. It made a sad expression cross her face as she prayed, actually prayed, that Kid would not get hurt. They had seen enough monsters die on this screen today – Another one would just be too much.
"Huh! I always knew adults were dumb. Of course she will protect us all." Chara said, fingering her knife. Really, they could just get rid of the problem now…
Why not wait though. It was not like the kid could actually present some sort of threat to them.
Skipping through the ghost town, they made their way over to where they would finally be killing Papyrus. A long time in coming, if you asked them. No one likes loud ass boneheads after all. As predicted, Papyrus was right there waiting for them, "HALT HUMAN!"
Sans cringed.
Full body, complete and utter cringed.
He wrapped his arms around his lets and pulled them close up to his chin. It was a very defensive move, almost as if he was protecting himself from the outside world. Sans did not want to see his brother let killed, never again. Now he was forced to do it, because of someone's whim.
Because the people he considered family wanted to stick their noses into something they could NEVER understand.
Everyone looked worried. Papyrus facing off against Chara, no one else was around… It didn't look good. Seeing Papyrus die would be… Heart breaking for all of them.
There was no HALT though; instead, Chara just took a step forward, a sickening grin forming on their face.
"HEY … STOP MOVING WELL I TALK TO YOU! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. FIRST, YOU ARE A FREAKING WEIRDO! NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT LIKE PUZZLES, BUT THE WAY THAT YOU SHAMBLE ABOUT FROM PLACE TO PLACE, THE WAY YOUR HANDS ARE ALWAYS COVERED IN DUSTY POWDER. IT FEELS … LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH." Papyrus stated, in an enthusiastic, yet somehow sad way. Almost like, he was on the edge of pitying Chara.
Chara just glared at the bone head, more than ready to kill him – If only to shut his mouth.
"HOWEVER! I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU! EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY! AND ME, I HARDLY HAVE TO TRY AT ALL! NYWEH HEHEHEHEHE!"
"Papyrus you really are just… Too kind." Toriel sobbed out, tears in her eyes and motioning to the TV. It was touching, incredibly. Seeing that even when Papyrus lived there, they had some sort of faith in her child. It brought some sort of hope to Toriel, as feeble as it seemed.
"I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, IT IS JUST WHAT ANYONE SHOULD DO. THEY ARE CLEARLY HAVING PROBLEMS! THE BEST WAY TO HELP SOMEONE WITH THEIR PROBLEMS IS TO BECOME THEIR FRIEND. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, LEARNED THAT LESSON FROM MY BROTHER AND FRISK!" Papyrus said in his indoor voice, curious and disbelieving of the fact that he'd done anything remarkable of praise on the screen.
"no way pap, you are so nice, no one can really stand up to that. you really are the nicest and coolest person i know." Sans praised.
Papyrus turned to Sans, still confused, "YOU ARE THE ONE THAT TAUGHT ME THAT LESSON, OF COURSE YOU WOULD DO IT TOO."
Sans laughed.
Laughed so hard he fell off his seat.
"god pap, i'm nowhere near that nice. no, i would not do what you're doing here. not after all they did… i'd be too angry. really i'm not the forgiving type of person." Sans finished, wiping a tear from his eye.
Papyrus nearly frowned, so Sans almost immediately got up and was ready to say he was kidding, or anything to make his brother feel better. However, he did not need to, "I BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THE RIGHT THING, BROTHER."
Wow, Sans thought, I really do not deserve such an amazing brother.
However, Chara just moved forward again, twisting their knife in their fingers, their eyes glowing with malicious intent.
"HEY! QUITE MOVING! THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT! HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF GUIDANCE! SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW! HOWEVER, WORRY NOT! I, PAPYRUS, WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOUR! I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!"
…But Chara didn't listen, and moved forward.
"I SEE YOU ARE APPROACHING. ARE YOU OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE? WOWIE! MY LESSONS ARE ALREADY WORKING! I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!"
"Nonononono…nono…Please no…" Sans muttered as he watched his brother, he had seen it before, forced himself to actually, but each time it hurt the same. As if he was the one to be stabbed, but a thousand times over.
The picture that Sans was making at the moment was too much. Much worse than what they had expected, granted they did not know what to expect. Normally Sans was stuck on one expression, lazy in all things, apathetic at best toward pretty much everything. He seemed… Broken. Sure, they had known something was wrong, but seeing some of the depth of the problem was a challenge they had not expected to exist.
Seeing Papyrus going to his most likely death with open arms was breaking for them as well.
Papyrus opened his arms with a gentle grin, expecting.
Chara walked forward with a different type of grin.
They hugged, if only for a moment, but Chara pulled away soon after, and there was an even more sickening expression on her face. Before Papyrus could move, his head was decapitated form his body.
"OH MY GOD THIS SICK LITTLE BITCH! OF ALL PEOPLE, OF ALL PEOPLE… PAPYRUS?" Undyne screamed, but afterwards nothing intelligent came, just screams of frustration and pure hot rage.
Alphys was sobbing into her girlfriends raging shoulder.
Mettaton was crying, sobbing, head in hands, but no tears. He was mechanical; he did not get that release of emotions, only dry whirling sobs. Papyrus, innocent Papyrus, the tall innocent skeleton that Mettaton loved, died right in front of him on that screen. Surely, it had not happened in their universe, but even just seeing it, seeing how it was done…
Toriel and Asgore did not cry, but their eyes were misted over. They didn't have right to cry, at least that was Toriel's opinion on the matter. They didn't get to, because it was their child that caused this. In some ways, that made it their fault.
Frisk was shaking, twitching and moving in ways that seemed painful, horrible. It was almost some expression of inner agony. They didn't speak, they couldn't speak, what they had just seem took the words away from them. They wanted to say they were sorry, to say that they should have tried harder, but no words. Frustration, sadness, anger, it was all too clear on Frisk's face.
Frisk dug their fingers into their arms, using that pain to distract themselves from the emotional. It wasn't right, but it was what they had.
"My child… Don't do that." Toriel whispered in horrour, gently prying Frisk's hands away from the damage they were ripping into themselves, tears finally falling from her eyes.
Frisk shook their head back and forth unable to pull away, but trying to put their hands back to where they were. They couldn't handle it, it was their fault!
Sans was just staring.
Silent tears were streaming at from his wide-open eyes as he looked at those around him. He did not have words, he did not have shields, and he just had that blank stare. Really, what did it matter anyway, he had given up a long time ago, right? Seeing this stuff should not bother him anymore…
"S-sans…" Papyrus sobbed, pulling his brother close to him. "W-why did the h-human do it… I was only being n-nice…."
Sans opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Sans looked to the people around him for help.
But nobody came.
They were too caught up in their own pain, their own shock, and really, it was pathetic huh. He knew they were amazing people, he knew that they wanted to help him… Yet here they were absorbed with their own emotions. Was it selfish of him to think it should be otherwise? It was normal right; he just needed to pull himself together for Papyrus, like he always did.
He did not need the people around them to comfort his brother, Sans had been doing it his whole life.
Hugging Papyrus even closer, Sans rubbed the very bottom of his brother's skull, a place of comfort that made Papyrus melt ever since they were baby bones, "Papyrus listen to me. That person on that screen, a thousand of them is not worth one of my amazing, smart, and cool little brother. What they did was sick, and they deserve to burn in hell for it. You are the only thing that truly matters to me in this world Papyrus, and I want you to always remember that."
Tears on Sans faced were dried, he was left with that normal face he made, lazy, but no pain was present, there seemed to be a burden around him, but no one could touch it.
Everyone had come close, but they fell short.
Sans was disappointed in himself for reacting so emotionally, he would not allow that to happen again.
"Wowie brother… You really know how to cheer me up… Thank you… I don't know what I would do without you." Papyrus muttered, slumping himself onto his brother as close as possible, Sans continuing to rub the back of his skull.
"God Paps…. It is the other way around… Trust me on that." Sans whispered, too softly for even Pap to hear.
No one saw the brother's interaction until it was over. They turned to look at Papyrus soon after getting over their shock, as if to make sure he was still there, but seeing him being comforted by Sans, they couldn't speak out their own reassurances. It wasn't their place.
Chara was laughing as his body turned to dust, leaving just his head behind.
"W-WELL, THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED… BUT ST… STILL! I BELIEVE IN YOU. YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER! EVEN IF YOU DO NOT THINK SO. I PROMISE…"
"HAHAHAHA! YOU'RE RIGHT I CAN DO BETTER!" Chara screamed in bliss, laughing as she did so, "I CAN TAKE CARE OF YOU RIGHT NOW!"
"Don't look bro." Sans said, covering Papyrus' eye sockets with his own boney hand. He would not have Papyrus see this, just could not allow it.
He did not even care that it was a clue into the fact he knew what was going to happen.
Chara walked over to the skull of the most cheery and lovingly innocent skeleton in existence, and lifted up her boot, "Get dunked on, you loud mouth, idiotic, pain in my ass."
She brought her boot down.
Dust.
Chara walked away, laughing.
Silence, no one in the room could think of words, except Sans who was quietly shushing his sobbing brother, saying small, comforting things.
He could not wait to see himself vicariously give Chara hell in Judgment Hall.
The screens perspective stayed on Papyrus' dust, unwaveringly. A distant voice jumped in:
"hey bro, i brought some spaghetti you made yesterday, thought we could eat it well we wait for the human to show up. i know that you wanted to face them yourself, but i really think that this is probably the safer way –"
Sans was close enough now to see the nothing that was there.
Nothing but dust, and red.
"P…PAPYRUS!" Sans screamed as he ran over, dropping the spaghetti as he went into full on sprint, "Nononononono… No way no…. Please no…"
Sans dropped to his knees in front of the dusty remains.
"Papyrus Papyrus Papyrus Papyrus Papyrus Papyrus…P….Pap…paypurus…. pa..please…PLEASE NO!"Sans screamed from the top of his lungs, eyes filling with tears, blue streaking down his face. All his features were twisted in some horrible contorted sort of agony.
"P-pap come on… I cannot live without you Pap… Brother…Bro… Please… I can't… Who will tell me to pick up my things…? Or make us spaghetti, or yell at me for being lazy…. Please pap no…"
"No…nonono…"
Sans couldn't stop muttering repeatedly, at this point he didn't even know what he was saying, he just wanted it to be over.
A shaking hand pulled something out of the dust.
Papyrus' scarf… The scarf that their mother had given Pap… The scarf that Pap never so much as let out of his sight.
Sans just brought it up to his face, and sobbed a broken mess into it.
"Why couldn't I have been quicker…? DAMMIT!DAMMITDAMMIT! WHY AM I SO USELESS…Why….I…? WHY?! Pap… pap does not deserve this… Why him… I don't…. I can't understand… I don't get it…"
Seeing Sans so broken, there were no words.
It was clear that Sans had thought everything out on the screen. He had noticed something wasn't right with the human, and worked out a solution to try to keep Papyrus safe, but he was too slow. The small skeleton was just… Broken.
Looking into his sobbing eyes you could tell, there was a shattered look.
Everyone knew that Sans loved this brother, but the extent of which was in front of them. Just losing one person in his life destroyed him, and there were undoubtedly effects. The kind of effects that only the monster themselves could see.
There were many possible things that could happen to a broken monster. If they were weak in magic, some of them just dusted right there and then, 'Falling Down' however, if the monster is strong enough to handle the effects of the breaking, the repercussions aren't light. Usually it had to do with magic control, level, or the amount of HP the monster had.
Seeing Sans here, they did not know what to make of it.
They were thankful though, that they didn't have to watch Sans die as well.
The fact that such a thing was a reprieve for them was more than a little bit twisted.
Suddenly, Chara was the main subject of the screen again, humming to herself and skipping around, just going about her day. She seemed to be on a straight path toward Waterfall, leaving behind Snowdin completely, probably at least until the next reset.
"We need a break." Asgore stated, after about five minutes of silence.
No one uttered a thing, but they did not disagree either. The screen seemed to shut itself off as well, so no issues there.
The surroundings remained the same, a copy of what Toriel's, no, the Brothers … No, Undyne's house would have been like. Rather, a comforting mix of them all, now that they really looked closely at their surroundings. Everyone seemed about ready to keel over, so they went their separate ways to look for somewhere to… Relax somehow, if only for a moment.
Papyrus was too emotionally drained, thank the lord. He seemed to have fallen asleep before Sans had found Papyrus head on the screen. The small miracles of life. Sans wouldn't dare wake up his brother, once he had worn out his emotions. So, ignoring everyone else getting up, Sans just allowed himself to drift off as well, the comforting presents of his nearby brother stalling a nightmare or two. Never all of them, but enough to get by.
Chapter End:
Authour Note: For some reason, it's freaking impossible for the way I formatted this story to work on , go figure! However, you can find this chapter with the actual formatting on my website: OurAnimeLives dot Com - You can also find it on archiveofourown, however! On my website we have each new chapter out a full week early. So if you're reading chapter two, my website has chapter three out already. You should check it out! Plus, website has pictures! You can find the link address on our profile page.
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