The sound was unholy.
An ear-splittingly loud screech literally shook the air, causing everything to look like it was shaking into waves. Alphys slapped her claws over her ears and she saw Undyne do the same, yelling something probably including swears. She shut her eyes tightly as the shaking of everything made her nauseous and faint.
Though her ears were covered and her eyes shut, she could still feel the tremors and feel her own body waver.
And she could hear a voice.
GASTER THIS HURTS- STOP! STOP-
And the whirring of a saw.
"What the hell is that!?" she heard Undyne yell.
"SANS!" That was Papyrus. Alphys peeled an eye open and saw the skeleton extending a hand toward the white soul which seemed to be the only thing not shaking. The threads extended from it that had been gathering up dust started to whip about madly.
One of them smacked Papyrus, hard. Under his left eyesocket it left something like a cut, a hole through his cheekbone that left small specks of dust flickering about. For a skeleton, that probably was something like a scar.
The little wound did nothing to stop Papyrus from making his way closer to Sans's soul. When another thread lashed at him, a bone would materialize and deflect it. Papyrus was a bit more resourceful than he was given credit for.
While Papyrus made his advance, Alphys squinted at where Sans's soul was screeching. The threads extending from it had half reformed him, but his eyesockets were entirely black and his jaw was opened. His skull was bent at an odd angle that made him look like some boney scarecrow. His half-formed arms were pinned to his sides by the soul-strings which seemed to tighten painfully around him. It dawned on her that the screeching sound was Sans screaming, distorted and twisted into whatever it was they were hearing.
The voice in her head was Sans too. Her eyes darted first to Undyne, then to Papyrus. Could they hear it too?
GGGGGRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!
"SANS! SANS IT'S OKAY, I'M HERE!" Papyrus yelled. One extended hand reached up and grabbed the edge of Sans's sleeve. The threads reacted to the touch, jerking about here and there and then became static. "SANS…"Papyrus said. His voice lowered considerably "Sans, I'm here."
The waves began to still and reality flattened out, became steady again. Sans finished reforming and collapsed. Papyrus caught his brother before he fell to the ground, holding him tight as his knees buckled and he collapsed onto the floor. The younger brother set his arms protectively around Sans. What he was being protected from, it seemed no one knew. For a little bit everyone just breathed, calculating how to act next.
And then Mettaton decided to talk.
"Well that was weird." Mettaton commented. Everyone in the room shot him looks full of murderous intent.
Alphys and Undyne moved forward, ignoring Mettaton and looming over the brothers.
"Sans?" Alphys asked timidly.
Everyone (except Mettaton) held their breath.
"mmf." Came the response. Sans gently pushed himself away from his brother (not too far away, it seemed neither of them wanted that). He looked around and yawned "hey, what happened to the wall?"
"Sans." Papyrus said. Bluntly, flatly. This caught Sans's attention and he looked up into his younger brother's face. His grin faltered.
Timidly he reached and lightly touched the cut under Papyrus's eyesocket. "I hurt you?" he asked so quietly it was barely a whisper. His eyesockets widened. "Pap-"
"IT'S ALRIGHT BROTHER." Papyrus grinned, suddenly speaking loudly (normally). It seemed he changed his mind about something. "JUST A SMALL CUT IS ALL. ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"
Sans slowly lowered his hand and stared at for along moment. Then, with just about the most irritation anyone has ever heard him speak with, his gaze slipped to Mettaton and…
"you did that on purpose." He glowered.
"Whatever do you mean?" Mettaton said, waving his noodle arms about "I simply wished to help Dr. Alphys figure out your soul!"
"WHAT!?" Alphys sounded horrified "Y-yes I wanted to know about why S-Sans's soul does such weird things but I didn't want to HURT him!"
"WAIT." Undyne snapped. Alphys chewed on her claws and cringed. Undyne took a deep breath and then hauled Sans up by his collar. "YOU DID KNOW YOU WERE DOING WEIRD SH-"
"don't swear in front of papyrus." Sans interrupted.
"OH, SANS." Papyrus laughed, waving dismissively "I ALREADY KNOW THE WORD 'SHINNAMON'." He thought a moment "WAIT, WHY IS THAT A SWEAR?"
Everyone else present collectively sighed.
Undyne twitched for a moment the decided to ignore the swear thing altogether. Her attention focused back on Sans. "So you knew?"
Sans shrugged "i know just about as much as you do." He eyed Mettaton "i also know it HURTS when you die, you big heap of metal."
"Well I wouldn't know, hmmm? I never died." Mettaton said, swaying about. "Besides, Dr. Alphys wanted me to help-"
"Yeah, HELP." Undyne snapped "You just went up and decided KILLING Sans was the best thing to do!"
"yeah, speaking of sans you should put him down." Sans suggested. Papyrus got up and reached for him, giving Undyne big watery 'gimme' eyes. Undyne opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, then handed Sans to his brother with an agitated huff. Papyrus clung onto Sans how a child might cling onto a stuffed animal. Sans seemed okay with that.
Alphys fidgeted. "I-I'm sorry. This is my fault. I asked Mettaton if he could help us figure this out a-and…" she trailed off. "I'm sorry." Was that the only thing she could think of to say? How sad.
Sans studied Aphys for a quick moment that felt so much longer. Then he shrugged "eh, no skin off my back." and gave a wink.
"BUT SANS" Papyrus said "WE DON'T HAVE SKIN- OH MY GOD THAT WAS A JOKE." He shook Sans lightly "HOW CAN YOU ACT SO CASUAL SO QUICKLY AFTER THAT!?"
Sans shrugged "eh."
Undyne began to reach for the short skeleton, thought better of it, and just settled for yelling "BUT YOU KNEW!?"
Sans shrugged "yeah."
Needless to say, everyone was rather frustrated.
A/N
So... Yeah things are gonna start to get a little weird, they're gonna get a little wild. I'm not from around here, I'm from another dimmension- Wait no I'm not. Sorry for lying.
Updates are going to be a bit less consistent for awhile. I ran out of pre-written chapters so... er... yep. Probably could've planned ahead a bit more.
Responses to Reviews:
Monkey999Boy: Dearie me you are correct. You have cracked the case. I confess, this is a MettatonxSans fic! Oooooohh nooooooooooo... ...Actually it isn't, I just wantedto adress this review because it made me laugh!
TimeturnerJasmy and Guest: "Then the wall blew up": YOU TWO. YOU TWO GET ME. That is HILARIOUS. How would you guys like to watch that? 'Dumb Ways to die Starring Sans'. L to the O to the other L.
TheDeductionist: I'm glad you enjoy this fic so much! And it's good you're confused/terrified. It amuses me. (But only if it is about this fanfic! I wouldn't want you to be confuse-errified in real life!)
Cosmickatsu: Er... Sorry for killing you twice then.
wolvesofthebluemoon: Thanks for liking the void! I was proud of myself for that little bit of scenery. And Mettaton isn't the nicest person from myperspective. Not that he's horrible, but he does seem like the type to blow up a building for the sake of curiosity.
If I didn't respond to your review it pretty much means I didn't have a response besides 'WEEEEEEEEEEH A REVVIIEEEEEWWWW'.
Tra la la, Scootered is an odd word.