Cover Art: FairyFan94 from Deviant Art
Chapter 15 – Just a Nightmare
"Thanks for keeping a part of me save Sans." Just moments ago he had talked to younger Frisk, giving her his judgement hall speech about LV and EXP. Yet here he was and not able to believe what he saw. Right there, before him stood Frisk and not the little child he had been talking to. It was the Frisk he knew from the past timeline, the Frisk who had grown up to be a teenager, the Frisk that had lived with them in Aboveground for years.
"'keeping part of you save'?" The short skeleton asked confused once he got over his shock of seeing older Frisk and scratched the back of his skull. "Do you mean the kid-you?"
Frisk just smiled before tapping the skin near her right eye, confusing the short skeleton only more as he stared at her. The girl grinned seeing his confusion before turning her back to him and looking down the judgment hall that lay before them with wishful eyes.
The judgment hall, so many talks and so many fights had happened here. How often had he given the speech about LV and EXP? How many times had he killed the demon that possessed Frisk here in this place? How many times had he been standing here waiting to see if Frisk or the demon will walk up to him?
Sans walked up to the girl standing next to her. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye-sockets. The last time he had been her with Frisk, the older Frisk, not the child he had been talking too. He had grinned at her, gave his usual speech but winked at her knowingly before he let her pass. After all they had gone through a genocide run before Frisk finally took control again. So he had been more than glad that Frisk had been the one appearing before him.
"Say Sans, once everything is over…" Frisk started and snapped him out of his musing of the past. He turned his skull slightly to get a better look at her. The human girl on the other hand didn't turn to look at him, she glanced only shyly at him from the corner of her eyes. "…do you think… do you think we can watch the starry sky together again, like we used to…?"
The short skeleton blinked then grinned. "Sure we can kiddo."
They stood there in comfortable silence. Until a knife suddenly swung past Sans skull. Surprised the short skeleton leaped a few meters away from the girl he knew. When he looked up he no longer saw the older Frisk standing there but the younger one. She looked in wonderment at her hands one holding a knife.
They stared at their hand, flexing their finger, commanding every muscle in them with their will. A grin spread across their face. It wasn't a happy one. Their eyes looked up staring directly at the short skeleton before them.
Sans took a step back, sweating and eye-sockets wide. "This can't be… Why now?!"
Slowly their skin became paler and paler and their rosy cheeks stood out more.
He didn't want to believe what was happening. He prayed that this all was just a bad dream, a nightmare, a product of his paranoia and imagination. But… everything seemed so real.
A soul burst from the childs chest. It wasn't its warm and welcoming red, it was turning white and cold draining the war red color from it with every passing second.
Sans left hand stretched out to the side. His left eye started glowing blue while his right eye-socket turned pitch black. He didn't want to fight, but there was no other choice. The soul no longer possessed the slightest bit of red which meant that Frisk was lost and all he could do now was killing the demon and hope for another chance.
Red irises glowed in the black turning eyes.
Sans left arm swung forward, bones flew past him at the target before them. He jumped back just in time to avoid a knife swinging at him.
Their grin turned maniac, sinister and their wide empty eyes stared at him.
Eye-Sockets narrowed at child before them. His left hand shot forward clutching seemingly nothing in the air while the soul of the child turned blue. Sweat dropped down the side of his skull while he slammed body, that once belonged to someone he cared about dearly, against the walls, ground and ceiling.
They stood up again their sweater turning from blue and purple to green and yellow. Their eyes were looking at him with this eerie red glow and tilting their head to the side. They were mocking him, daring him to damage the body that didn't belong to them even more.
His left arm shot forward again, but not to get a hold of their soul but to summon several Gaster Blasters. They appeared around him and flew forward, beams shooting at the demon.
The demon was standing again, watching him.
Sans once again swung his arm forward but before he could summon a single Gaster Blaster with that movement he was feeling great pain and hunched over.
A long cut across his torso. He dropped to his knees
White light returned to both his eye-sockets. He looked to the side, a child… no a demon with a green sweater standing next to him playing with a knife.
"Stop getting in my way." The demon grinned manically.
Red irises pierced through him before everything turned black.
.
.
.
.
.
Sans eye-sockets snapped open. Sweat practically dropped already from his skull as he sat up and looked around. Only now he noticed that he had lain on the mattress of his room. His hands were shaking when he looked at them before he buried his face in them.
"A nightmare." Sans mumbled weakly, he wasn't completely sure himself. Frisk didn't go past the Core yet. She didn't even show any signs that she wanted to go that far. Yet he knew that it wasn't only a nightmare. Everything had seemed way too real for him. But…
…his right eye started to glow blue through his bony fingers.
"A nightmare." Sans repeated this time his voice was firmer and not a weak mumble. He didn't know if it was desperation or his determination to keep Frisk and everyone else safe, all he knew was that he refused to believe that it had been anything else than a nightmare.
"GAAAAAAH DON'T LET IT ESCAPE!" Papyrus enraged yell rung through the whole house.
Sans hurried out of his room only to chuckle, his nightmare already forgotten. He turned his head slightly watching how Frisk run into the living room and up the stairs before running down again. Determination was radiant from her once again and a small smile on her face.
"SANS! DO SOMETHING TOO!" Papyrus shouted once he spotted his brother, running after Frisk. The short skeleton chuckled lightly before moving to sit on the couch.
"I am doing something bro." he told his brother before leaning back and returning to watch Frisk run around the house chasing after a little white creature.
"SANS!" Papyrus shouted clearly not pleased with his shorter brother who only chuckled. The taller skeleton stormed up to the shorter one ready to pick him up and force him to help but was stopped as the little white creature jumped up and bounced of the taller skeletons face to change directions. Papyrus stumbled backwards but didn't fall. Sans was about to say something but was stopped when Papyrus hold up one hand and glared at him. "DON'T SAY ANYTHING."
"Everything… is fine bro." Sans chuckled as his brother stared at him irritated. He had a feeling that he knew what his brother was about to yell at him when the little human girl flew past their vision. Two skulls snapped in one direction to look what the child was doing.
"BROTHER?" Papyrus started slightly perplex as he watched Frisk holding on tightly to very familiar bone, a bone from his special attack.
"Yea bro?" Sans answered his eye-lights following as Frisk once more seemed to leap into the air bouncing of the wall and getting dragged up the stairs.
"WHY AREN'T WE HELPING THE HUMAN?!" As soon as the taller skeleton shouted these words he jumped into action chasing after the human child who was dragged around on a bone by a certain little annoying dog.
Sans chuckled lightly as he watch them. Frisk was laughing and smiling and looked like she had a lot of fun. The short skeleton was thankful for that. After all, the Mettaton incident was just a day ago and it had taken them a lot of time to convince the child that the robot was really fine. In the end Alphys had to recharge Mettatons battery and have the robot tell the child that he was really fine for Frisk to fully believe them.
A game of tug of war broke out in the living room once Papyrus had gotten hold of the little human child. But both human child and dog refused to let go of the bone. So now the dog was biting into one end of the bone, Frisk was tightly holding onto the other and the taller skeleton was holding on to the human child.
The short skeleton hoped off the couch deciding that maybe he should help them to win against the dog after all. Though… the dog suddenly let go of the bone, Sans blinked as the annoying dog barked happily wiggling his tail before dashing past him and out the house. A crash was heard and he turned to see that Papyrus and Frisk had crashed against the wall and a painting on it had fallen down on them. Of course the taller skeleton had made sure that the small human child did not get hurt, though his head was now sticking through the painting, disturbing the picture it held. Papyrus was already glaring at him like he knew what was on the short skeletons mind.
"SANS! DON'T YOU DARE"
"It looks like…"
"I AM WARNING YOU BROTHER!"
"It didn't go as you pictured it."
"SAAAAANS! WE DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR YOUR AWFUL PUNS!" Papyrus shot up, his hand resting on his hip bones as he glared down at his brother. "LOOK AT ALL THE CHAOS THIS ANNOYING DOG CAUSED!"
"Oh come on Pap." Sans grinned wider as he looked up to see a giggling Frisk. "Look the kid got the right idea so cheer up bro."
"NYEH?" Papyrus looked up and saw Frisk in the air, only now he noticed that he had thrown Frisk up when he stood to yell at his brother.
"Don't worry I got it floating." Sans chuckled stopping the taller skeleton from going into panic when he snapped his fingers. A blue glow surrounded Frisk and the girl levitated back down to the ground. The smaller skeleton grinned when Frisk laughed like nothing happened and hugged him. Before holding the bone, she still had, out to Papyrus.
"Whelp, how about breakfast?" Sans chuckled as he ruffled Frisk hair, right when her stomach started to rumble and she blushed in slight embarrassment. "Don't want the kid to be skin and bones."
Papyrus took the bone from the child and smiled brightly. "OF COURSE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS PREPARED THE GREATEST BREAKFAST BEFORE THAT DOG APPEARED!" he muttered the last part yet it was still heard by the other two. But it didn't take long for the tall skeletons cheerfulness to return.
The short skeleton chuckled when Papyrus picked the two up and seated them on the table before disappearing into the kitchen to get their breakfast. Sans turned to look at the child that was seated opposite him. He grinned. "Isn't my bro the coolest?"
Frisk nodded and then stared at him for a while, seemingly thinking deeply about something. Sans rose an eye-brow when he noted the hesitation in her movement when she looked down no longer facing him.
"Something wrong, kiddo?" The short skeleton asked but Frisk look up again nodded enthusiastic and grinned brightly at him. She cheered happily when Papyrus came back with their breakfast from the kitchen. Sans chuckle a little.
What had gotten into the child to be this happy about breakfast, especially one made by Papyrus. His nightmare from earlier returned to him and worry filled his mind as he watched the child. Sans couldn't help but wonder if the nightmare was more than just a dream and if it was in anyway connected to the cheerful Frisk before him. For some unknown reason he started to fear what would happen if Frisk decided to go past the Core.