"Who first, Azzy?" Chara chirped, scanning her potential victims. Papyrus trembled, staring at his brother's dust and showing little to no sign of acknowledgement. Toriel stared, wide-eyed and shaking at her two children, revived from the dead.
"M-My children…" She stammered.
"Mother." Asriel smiled pleasantly. He grinned wickedly "So glad to see you again."
The goat woman, still trembling, stumbled to her feet. Her feet dragged along the golden tiles. Claws making soft, barely audible noises of scraping across the floor. Tears pricked in the corners of her eyes. One hand went to cover her mouth, the other shakily reaching for her children.
"C-chara, A-Asriel…." She said, her voice shaking with threatening sobs.
"How despicable." Her daughter's voice both silenced and stilled her. Trembling amber irises focused on the red glow of the human's eyes. Underneath them, sat a smile. Chara took a step forward, brandishing the kitchen knife "Your friend just died in front of you, and you instantly forget him. Do you have any sense of loyalty?" Toriel took a step back. This small action seemed to amuse Chara, as her smile grew wider. "Hah! I guess not." She turned to look at Asriel "Look at this, she was just SO happy to see us but once I remind her of what we just did, she completely forgets it."
Asriel shrugged, smirking "I know. Sad, right?"
"Doesn't she ALWAYS do this?" Chara said. She tilted her head, practically going limp above the shoulders. "And what about Frisk?"
Toriel flinched.
"HAH!" Chara grinned "You forgot about THEM too? God, just how pathetic are you?"
The large goat woman opened her mouth. Once, twice, as if trying to take in enough air to respond. A moment later and she closed her jaw—evaded her gaze. She wrung her hands and offered no defense.
Chara cackled "Too easy." Her wicked grin grew black as she raised her blade.
All this moved in slow motion to him.
Papyrus barely registered what was happening. In front of him sat the pile of Sans's dust. His hoodie, his slippers. Empty. Despite this being the fourth time this happened, it was still….still… he didn't know how to describe it. Like, like a weight. A shroud? The world suddenly felt heavier, the world felt darker. Less defined. He felt empty. Nothing crossed his thoughts, except that Sans was dead.
For good, this time?
He heard voices. But they were distant. Quiet and whispered.
"DIE."
Papyrus jolted up. Tearing his gaze away from what was left of his brother he stared as the human- Chara, moved to kill her- Toriel.
He moved without thinking. A quick grab of his red-mittened hand and he had the lady by the arm. He pulled her to him, out of the knife's path, and ran with her. She seemed to stumble along, staring blankly at their fleeing feet. A demonic hiss of frustration answered his actions. He picked up the pace.
"MISS TORIEL!" Papyrus huffed "IF YOU WOULD PLEASE RUN WITH ME!"
She offered no response.
Papyrus gritted his teeth, a low and frustrated screech vibrating through his jaw.
"MISS TORIEEEEEELLLLL!" he practically growled. The somehow threatening stomps of the children chasing after them were becoming increasingly louder. Papyrus took a quick glance behind him. Quickly he decided there was no point trying to reach her at this instant. He shifted his focus on keeping her alive. Luckily for him, Undyne had toured him around this area. So a quick turn and there would be an elevator-
He turned to look at the woman again. But behind her flopping ears he could see the demonic children in pursuit. Chara was smiling through her stolen face. Asriel roared threats after them, his fangs bared and claws sharp and eyes dark. Blue tinged the edges of his fur.
Papyrus swallowed, jamming his hand on the elevator's button repeatedly. He moved so he was in between his brother's friend and the two murderers. Asriel hissed at them, beginning to lunge when Chara held him back with a slight wave. Like a dog, Asriel recoiled. His eyes still locked on them.
They were toying with them.
Papyrus took a shaky breathe. Intuition and an analytical ability well-hidden bubbled to the surface of his being. They'd get in the elevator. All four of them. Toriel, in her current state, would be finished off quickly.
He pushed Toriel into the elevator as the doors opened. A quick slap of his hand, he clicked the down button. Before the duo could enter, he turned in the doorway and glared down at them. The elevator began to descend. Papyrus took a deep breath and rose his arm.
She smiled at him and jumped. Her knife flew towards his neck vertebrae but he ducked just in time, rolling away from the blow. Asriel tackled him at his knees, causing him to fall to the ground. Papyrus kicked him off, muttering a quick apology. He ducked just in time to keep the knife from his skull. Vines wrapped around his legs like snakes. Letting out a started shriek, Papyrus tugged his legs. Trying in vain to release himself as the children looked on. Asriel grinned sinisterly.
"Well golly, that's useful." He chuckled.
"You can still use vines, Azzy?" Chara smiled, tilting her head.
"Seems so."
"Good. Kill him."
Asriel cackled, winking at her. "Sure t-t-th-" his voice began to glitch, his jaws moving up and down like a twitch. The vines shriveled away to dust. Chara frowned, Papyrus looked up. The plant-goat gripped at his skull, digging his claws deep into his fur as he stumbled back.
"Asriel." Chara said curtly. She seemed annoyed.
Papyrus took a step back. A brief glance over his shoulder and he judged the distance between himself and his escape. He turned-
The human was in front of him. Something like black paint dripped out of her eyes and completely replaced her mouth. Not an ounce of concern was given to her struggling brother. "You're not getting away from me that easily, Papyrus-"
Papyrus growled, muttering some swear words under his breathe in frustration. He winced and immediately apologized for his language to no one.
"CHARA, PLEASE. I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT YOU-"
"No one ever does." She smiled.
Papyrus sighed "I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU-" he smiled "AND YOU DON'T REALLY WANT TO HURT ME, DO YOU?" He forced himself to relax, drawing his feet in comfortably and holding his arms out "CHARA, I THINK YOU CAN DO BETTER! I BELIEVE IN YOU!"
Her right eye twitched, the corners of her black grin reaching up to the bottom of an ever-permanent blush. The room was filled with cackling. The child threw her head back, dark drops cascading down her cheek, chin and neck like blood. She threw her head forward, a harsh SNAP accompanying the motion. Red dots shined from the pools of black blood that served as her eyes.
"You ALWAYS say that."She flicked out her knife "And I never listen."
"CHARA, PLEASE-" Papyrus began to beg. He reached for her with one hand but suddenly felt a small grip on his wrist. He looked down, instinctively tugging away. Asriel was sweating profusely, trembling with what may have been exhaustion. His fangs were bared and his claws dug into the skeleton's bony wrists.
His mouth moved but no sound came out. Papyrus breathed in sharply, glowing orange tears pricking the corners of his eyes. Then he was outside the elevator in the core, staring at its entrance. Shaking, he took a deep breath. He jumped at the hand on his shoulder and turned to see Toriel. Tear tracks stained her white fur and her eyes were red and swollen.
"Papyrus…are….are you well?" She asked in a voice no more than a whisper.
Papyrus wiped at his eye sockets, his hand sliding over the surface of his scar. He choked.
"I-I-….I WILL BE FINE." He said. "MISS TORIEL, ARE YOU OKAY?"
She chose not to answer that question "Let us go meet up with Doctor Alphys and tell her the situation. She would be at her lab, correct?"
Papyrus nodded "YES. LET'S GO."
A/N
I hope this chapter is better than the last one. Sorry about that. I wanted to give you guys an update but I didn't have this chapter done yet. So you got Sans's rambling there. But I think it actually helps to tie in something that happens later.
…So I suck at fight scenes. I tried my best though, I hope it came out good enough.
Thanks for reading, everyone! I really appreciate your attention and feedback! Oh! And thank you SO MUCH to NakuHetalia for drawing fanart of this fic! Here's a link to it if you want to see(you need to take out the spaces):
nani-chama. deviantart art/Fan-Art-Threads-Undertale-Fanfic- 615845928
Tra la la, he just said his last words.