This chapter is dedicated to all who are reading this right now. Yes, I personally want to thank you for being here for me, supporting me on this stories and my other ones too. Thank you for reading what I write, and giving me your feedback. I didn't expect my stories to get nearly as much views as they did. It still may not be much, but still. If you're reading this, right here, right now, let me thank you from the bottom of my soul. My heart goes out to you! Thank you so much! It really means a lot to me. Anyways, enjoy! Xx
Papyrus didn't show up to school the following Monday, or the day after that. He didn't show up the whole week, leaving Tess and Undyne to work on their history presentation alone, and present it alone too. They got graded a D because they lacked Papyrus' notes and had to improvise for some slides, which didn't turn out how the girls had intended it to go.
Eventually Papyrus' abnormal absence started to worry first Tess, then even Undyne. It was unlike him to just disappear into thin air and without word. They had waited for a whole week and a half, and when the teacher called his name in attendance, silence followed Papyrus' name, every time.
Undyne and Tess had tried to call Papyurs on the phone, but gave up once they ran out of gold to spend at the payphone. He hadn't picked up once, and a nice lady picked up in an answer machine, telling them that the person they were trying to reach was unable to take their call right now.
The two girls had even gone as far as to go to the skeletons' house in the outskirts of town. Undyne knocked on the door while Tess watched from the hiding of the snowy bushes in caution of merely seeing Gaster or Sans again. But similarly to the phone situation, nobody answered the door. Undyne had even thrown three stones at their window before Tess stopped her smashing their property.
Eventually they turned to the school office to ask about Papyrus to see if the school had anything to say about his absence, and they came to face with some unwelcome news.
"What do you mean he's left school?!" Undyne bellowed at the startled lady behind the desk, slamming her fist down on the table. "He wouldn't! He couldn't! Do you know what school he's going to now?!"
The old monster took a moment to get over her startled shock at Undyne's outburst before she began to tap something into her computer. It took her a while to reply to the expectant schoolgirls.
"His father transferred him into the Hotland School, which was surprising because Papyrus still lives in Snowdin as far to our knowledge," said she. "But of course we couldn't ask any questions yet- hey!"
Undyne didn't even wait for the lady to finish her sentence. She had busted out of the door, leaving Tess to apologise for her friend's rudeness and dart after her.
"Woah Undyne, where are you going?" she called after her, catching up to her friend easily.
"I'm going to Gaster's lab in Hotland," the monster girl snarled with her teeth bared. "Papyrus has to be there. I want an explanation to this mess. You go home and see if you can find any more pennies for the payphone and-"
"I'm coming with you," Tess said stubbornly, now running level with Undyne. The competitive nature of the fish burst to life as she tried to run faster than her human friend, but Tess ran side by side with her easily. "He's my friend too, y'know."
Undyne stared her down for a few seconds, then snickered with an exaggerated eyeroll, secretly glad that the stubborn scaredy-cat was going with her.
This time they didn't even have to call for the River Person and Boat, who were idle at the cold winter bank of Snowdin. Boat instantly greeted them with thunderous purr, and as usual Tess petted its hard wooden head while Undyne spoke to the River Person and explained their situation. And, as usual, the River Person offered no advice of its own. It just invited the girls onto its boat and set course for Hotland.
It always felt like no time passed when Boat ran across the river, but the change in climate was gradual and very, very real. What became of the harsh cold was scalding heat that felt strange on scales and skin.
Before Boat even had the chance to reach the dock, Undyne had leapt off Boat's back and began to run off up the many stairs. Her human counterpart said goodbye to her beloved steed and its owner and followed her best friend. Quite frankly, it was easy for her to catch up with the monster girl, who's resume was strength, not speed.
The heat had made her break into a sweat which matted her forehead and back as the muscles worked under her skin, and the awkward body sweat made her feel very unclean and in need of a shower.
Without warning, Undyne skidded to a halt, leaving Tess to run an extra few metres before she managed to pull to a gradual stop. The fish stood up straight as a broomstick, head pointing to the side and alert like a bloodhound. Undyne had done this many times, when she heard suspicious noises or just at random points in the night. Undyne had told Tess that while her mother was a sea monster like her, her father was a dog on two legs. You could actually see the hound features in Undyne if you looked close enough.
"What is it?" she asked, but she didn't need to. Her silver gaze followed the direction of Undyne's glare and set upon a massive white building, modern and pure, something that didn't fit into the red-orange hot environment of Hotland. If it wasn't for the huge banner that said 'LAB', one would assume that this was a hospital.
"Do we have to be here?" Tess asked her friend, swallowing the fear that crept up her throat along with the memory of the terrifying Dr. W.D Gaster.
"If Papyrus isn't here, I'm going to let his father have it for making him move school," said Undyne with a loud gnash of her sharp shark teeth. "He better be there."
With a thunderous step, Undyne stormed up to the lab door, Tess cautiously padding a few paces behind. Her wide fist hit the metal door once, twice, thrice. No response.
A few moments passed, and nobody came at the door.
"Welp, worth a shot," Undyne shrugged and turned on her heel to walk away. It was a few paces after that she realised that Tess had not followed her. "C'mon Tess, let's not waste our time here."
"Be patient," Tess told her. She pointed up at the single window above. The light behind it was lit. Someone was in the lab after all. "We have to try again. They'll open for us eventually."
With an unsure step, Undyne walked back to Tess and hammered on the door again.
Again there was no response. The more time they wasted, Undyne got more irritated, but Tess would tell her time and time again that they needed to be patient.
A few trips were made to the water cooler and back for water, Tess never leaving the post in front of the door. They had put the earphones and listened to their favourite playlist, which they listened to the entire way through without the locked door opening.
Undyne would bang her fist on the door regularly, yet it would stay closed and locked. Tess would join in the knocking, and noticed that at one point a tall dark figure stood in the window, staring down at them, blocking out the pale yellow light like a solar eclipse. She waved at whoever stood there, watching and waiting for them to leave, but the figure abruptly disappeared once it saw that she had noticed it.
Maybe that was Dr. Gaster? Maybe it was Papyrus or Sans? Tess didn't know, and neither did Undyne.
While Tess was patient for the door to be opened, Undyne was just determined to get it open. Eventually Undyne rammed into the door with her shoulder at full pelt, however only managed to dent it slightly. She waved Tess' concerns away and rammed into it again, but this time she just accomplished to bruise her shoulder slightly. Tess followed in her footsteps and tried to kick down the door, but made even less of an impact than Undyne did.
"Golly, looks like you two need some help~" cooed a sharp voice behind them. Both girls spun round instantly, but faced a surprising sight.
A tiny yellow flower had appeared from beneath the ground, speaking in a high voice that sounded like he were inhaling helium instead of oxygen. He had a face, but what was memorable about it was the eyes. They still blinked, looked and saw, but whatever- or whoever- was behind them had died. His happy smile did nothing to make him any friendlier. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes were empty and without any feeling, and that alone was creepy and unsettling.
"Who the heck are you?" Undyne instantly demanded, trying to hide the fact that she was a little hurt from ramming into the door.
"Oh yeah, where are my manners? Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!" the talking plant introduced himself. Undyne gave a snort at Flowey's unoriginal name, but Tess blinked in surprise. She had a feeling she had seen this creature before, she just couldn't put her finger on where.
"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" Tess asked, cocking her head to the side innocently. Flowey copied her gesture emotionlessly.
"Of course you have. Golly, don't you remember?~"
Raking through her memories, Tess tried to recall the place where she had seen the single yellow flower, but nothing came to her. It was at the back of her mind, never reachable.
Undyne pressed herself closer to Tess, flashing her teeth at the flower, giving him a silent warning to not lay a finger on her best friend.
"What do you want punk?" she growled, flaring out her fins so her face looked twice as large. "Are you here to make fun of us?"
"No, no, nothing like that!" Flowey insisted. "I want to help you. You've been knocking on that door for so long, and they've been so rude as to not let you in. I can help you. I can!"
With a few moments of hesitation, the girls moved away from the door and allowed Flowey to do his thing. The yellow buttercup gave a cat-like screech as two thorny vines emerged from the ground like kraken tentacles. They cracked loudly like whips towards the slightly damaged door, and broke it down effortlessly. The bent metal clattered on the floor at about a zillion decibels before all went silent again and the terrifying vines retreated back into the ground. The girls looked from entrance to flower, from flower to entrance and back again, wondering why he had helped them, but the innocent, empty smile was back on his face.
"My, that was fun! Haven't done that in so long!" he exclaimed. "Anyways, looks like my job here is quite done. Have fun you two!"
With those lines he burrowed himself under the ground and Hotland once again fell silent.
Questions buzzed around Tess' mind like a wild bluebottle, unable to comprehend why the stranger had helped them break and enter into someone else's property. However a cold, webbed hand gripped her arm and dragged her towards the lab entrance, and only let go once Tess trotted willingly behind her.
To their dismay, the lab was empty of any living. Just a huge room with a huge monitor and a messy desk. Undyne was the first to step into the lab, followed shortly by Tess. The coolness blasted in their faces, and cooled them down from the intense heat of outside.
"Undyne! Tess!" the most familiar voice called to them. Tess and Undyne lifted their heads to see their skeleton friend looking down at them from the above floor, worry and panic reflected in his eyes. He sprinted down stairs and to the waiting girls. "What are you doing here?"
"Better question: what are you doing here?" Undyne growled lowly. "Here and not at school?"
But Papyrus wasn't concerned with answering Undyne's question, but rather the broken metal lab door that was now laying useless on the ground.
"But why did you break down the door?" he whimpered, his hands on his skull in panic. "What am I gonna tell my dad? What am I gonna tell Sans?"
"Well maybe if you opened the goddamn door then we wouldn't have to break it down!" Undyne's voice slowly rose with anger at him.
Oh brother, Tess mumbled, realising that she needed to interfere if Papyrus was to keep his life.
"But why did you leave school Pap?" Tess asked him calmly. "We had to do all our group projects by ourselves with you leaving us standing on the ice."
Papyrus dropped his eye to the ground and didn't answer.
"Well?"
"Alright!" Papyrus snapped under the pressure. "Dad forbid me to tell anyone. I'm not allowed to come back to Snowdin as long as Tess is there."
Tess blinked in surprise, lost for any words. How could she be the direct reason to Papyrus not being able to step foot in Snowdin? Tess opened her mouth to object, but Undyne beat her to it.
"That's baloney!" she exclaimed. "Why?"
Papyrus shook his head. "Dad says Tess is too dangerous to be around. He says that it'll only be a matter of time before she goes rogue, or something like that."
Bile rose in Tess' throat, boiling in her anger. Now the dark glare Sans gave her at Grillby's made sense! He was suspicious of her! The story of the Brave soul, Sans feared that she would turn out the same way. "How can he say that! I'm no-one dangerous!" she objected hotly.
"My dad says something different," Papyrus explained. "He says that humans are dangerous creatures and only live to kill monsters. He told me that being friends with you was bad for me, and that I'm not allowed to see you anymore."
Usually it was Undyne who let her rage get out of control, but this time it was Tess who snapped.
"And what about you? Do you believe that I'll go quote-unquote 'rogue' and murder monsters?"
Surprise gripped Papyrus, and he replied instantly. "No!" Though the answer was too quick, and Papyrus avoided her silver eyes while his foot tapped instinctively on the polished floor. Papyrus was good at many things, but lying was not one of them.
The shock only lasted a mere moment, and was swept under a tidal wave of rage.
"What about all the months?!" Tess' voice began to get louder. "All the time we spent together? All the time I thought you were my friend! And what? Now you're scared of me?"
Papyrus stepping back away from her didn't help his situation at all.
"Am I wrong to be born human?! Is it my fault that the war broke out?!" Tess was shouting now, going slightly red in the face. Tears formed at her silver eyes, forming but not falling. "I thought you were my friend Papyrus! My best friend!" Her light blue soul began to resonate with negative energy, which caused her grey eyes to flash a bright sky blue before resuming their silver colour. "And all it turned out to be was just a joke. Were we even friends at all? Even if we were, I can never be your friend again!"
With that Tess spun round and ran out of the lab, not even pausing to look behind her shoulder.
Undyne wanted to call after Tess, but the human child was out the door faster than you could say her name. The fish monster bit her bottom lip, fully aware of the awkward silence that fell between her and Papyrus. Taking a deep breath, Undyne turned to Papyrus, who could not bring himself up to look her in the eye.
"Do you really believe that Tessy could do such a thing?" she asked calmly. The lack of rage surprised even Undyne. She should be yelling at him right now, but instead, she wanted to have a civilised conversation with him. It was what Tess would do.
Papyrus didn't answer, nor could he. What should he say?
Undyne narrowed her eyes, taking his silence as a yes. Finally the anger kicked in and Undyne lost it. "Really punk? For a guy who yearns for popularity you've just lost a whole lot of it."
So Undyne left Papyrus there, in his own thoughts. The broken down door was no longer her problem; Gaster would take care of it pronto.
Once again Undyne's cold scales were subjected to the scalding heat of Hotland's atmosphere. She shivered and directed herself towards the river, where it was cooler and offered water for her dehydrated scales. But one thing that wasn't there was the one thing she was hoping to see.
Boat wasn't there, neither was the River Person, or Tess for that matter. She must've taken the ride. And Undyne knew exactly where to find her.
So Undyne dived cleanly into the water, the coldness embraced her. After spending so much time in the boiling atmosphere of Hotland, the freezing riverwater gave her a slight shock at first, but her fish body adapted instantly to her surroundings. Undyne's lungs shut down automatically, her gills springing into play. The young fish wasn't fond of breathing through her gills, since the water going in and out of them was uncomfortable and disorienting, especially when they were neglected and forgotten about while breathing through the mouth above the water. But again, Undyne took a deep breath and swam with the current, quickly thanks to her fins and webbed hands.
This river, contrary to popular belief, was deeper than most. If the friendly monster named Onionsan had lived in the river, he wouldn't have to sit down all the time. The river, it was at the very least five metres deep, which was convenient since Boat and the River Person travelled underwater when called by the well known cry. Some other creatures also used this method of travel, though not much.
Undyne dived lower, so low that her body could scrape across the rocky bottom. It wasn't the best idea to dive into water fully clothed, but Undyne didn't care. She needed to get home as fast as she could.
Swimming was not as fast as Boat's running, but it would have to do. Eventually a bigger marking rock came into view through the blurry water, and Undyne shot upwards through the water like a torpedo. She burst free from the water like a fish, water dripping off her scales and soaking clothes as she landed safely onto the Waterfall marsh on two feet.
Without stopping to shake the droplets of water from her body, Undyne rushed down the familiar way home, shutting down her gills and once again the lungs sprung back to work. A few monsters turned their heads to gaze at her in surprise, among which were who Undyne personally knew, Shyren, Gerson and many moldsmals. Some called out to her to ask her what the hurry was, but Undyne didn't bother to answer any of them.
She skidded to a halt when she came across the friendly yellow bird that sat in the middle of the marsh. It stared at her with expectant, beady black eyes.
This little bird wants to carry you across. Accept the bird's offer?
Every time this bird offered her the service, Undyne wanted to toss herself into the lava in Hotland. How did it muster the strength to lift up a little child like her? Sighing her agreement, Undyne stretched out her arm and allowed herself to be carried across the gorge.
The moment Undyne touched down onto the floor, she was running again. In no time at all she reached their little neighbourhood, and was instantly greeted with her overly nosy neighbours.
"Undyne finally you're here!" Mettaton gasped at her, reaching her first followed closely by his cousin. "We were about to go looking for you and-"
"Where is Tessy?" Undyne cut across him, just now stopping to pant for the breath she had used for running and shook the remaining water droplets off her scales.
"She came in here, running and crying," Mettaton told her, though avoiding answering her question flat out straight. "I honestly can't remember that beauty being this upset before. I tried to ask her what's wrong, but she wouldn't have it. The dear won't let anyone help her." He directly avoided Undyne's annoyed glare.
"Where?" Undyne asked again.
This time it was Napstablook who answered. "She ran into your house," he whispered in his usual monotone. "S-she was really upset."
If Tess had gone straight home and not stopped by to tell the two ghost cousins the story then there was something seriously wrong with her. Undyne thanked her neighbours and bounded over to her house.
Damn you Papyrus, you're always screwing up, aren't you?
The strange door opened, and Undyne stepped into the house. It was orderly, since Undyne herself was a little bit of an OCD maniac and a collectionist, her newest collection consisting of golden bones with red ribbons tied round them. And at first glance anyone would've thought that nothing had changed, but Undyne was an observant person. She could see that the tea boxes that was stacked neatly on top of the counter were tossed about, presumably by someone who had gone into quite a rage. Undyne's finned ears flicked with concern as she held her breath, closed her eyes and listened.
The sobbing was quiet, barely hearable against the roaring silence around. But it could be heard, and Undyne slowly turned towards the sound and blindly walked towards it, her ears guiding her as she went. Eventually she bumped into one of the cupboards and snapped open her eyes into tiny slits. The sobbing was coming from inside.
Without hesitation, Undyne knelt down and opened the wooden door.
"Go away Undyne," came Tess' harsh bark, followed by a series of uncontrollable sobs. Her cheeks were wet, and still tears ran down them ceaselessly like a leaky tap. Her human soul was beginning to get unstable, causing her eyes to shimmer between their usual silver to a toxic, ice-blue.
Undyne shivered at the sight. They had learned about unstable souls at schools, a condition which both humans and monsters were in danger to. Monsters were more likely to get unstable souls, from what Undyne could remember, and their magic would get more powerful that way. But she could never remember what were the consequences of a human's soul loosing stability, but the one thing she could remember, was that it was very, very bad.
"Tessy get out of there," Undyne barked back, hoping Tess would recognise her brisk self. "You won't do yourself any good by cramming yourself into such a small space."
Tess wiped at her cheek, but it proved to be useless against the two streaming tear tracks. She shuffled to turn her back on the monster girl, letting her hair get tangled against the few pans and pots that were stored in there.
"Leave me alone Undyne," she requested again. "You're scared of me, I know it."
Undyne forced her signature laugh (fuh-huh-hu!), but it was clearly forced so Undyne quickly started speaking. "I'm not scared of anything! Especially not a scrawny human wimp like you! Come out of there, you'll back'll hurt."
Fortunately the human girl decided to slip back out of the tiny cupboard, and let herself be lead to the table, where Undyne told her to sit while she began to pick up the many tea boxes Tess had scattered across the room.
"You're not remotely scary," Undyne reassured her, balancing three boxes on her head. "What one do you want?"
Tess managed a laugh. "The golden flower one," she replied.
Of course, Undyne rolled her eyes. It was her favourite, why had she bothered to ask? The silence went away as the water began boiling in the kettle.
"Look Tessy, if you were scary, everyone would want to be your friend!" Undyne snapped at her, hoping to ease the situation in her own way. "Do you know why Lionheart is so loved? He's scary! He's big, he's strong, he's the Captain of the Royal Guard for Asgore's sake!"
However saying the captain's name only made the human shiver and blue flash across her eyes once more. Bad move.
"The point is Tessy," Undyne continued, taking the now screaming kettle off the heat and pouring the water into the cup. "You're not scary, outside or in. If you really were what those idiot skeletons think you are, you'd be in Asgore's castle right now, fighting him to the death. Heck! You'd be there earlier! Of course you'd lose, since our king is unbeatable!"
Undyne placed the hot cup on the table, and waited for Tess to take a sip. "C'mon, it's not that hot!"
Tess laughed weakly and forced herself to burn her mouth with the scalding liquid.
"Listen, Papyrus is being a punk, and he'll soon come to his senses... I think..." Undyne pulled a chair over to sit beside her. "But I'm not gonna believe that someone as skinny and weak as you will become some genocidal mass murderer!"
Tess genuinely laughed with her friend, her eyes no longer showing any traces of her soul colour. Thank the heavens. Undyne also laughed with her, and gave Tess a soft, playful punch to the shoulder.
"What about Papyrus?" Tess asked eventually, once again her soul energy leaking to her eyes.
Undyne lunged forward to wrap her arms round her friend's shoulders and held her close in a tight hug.
"Tessy don't worry about him," Undyne barked harshly. "He'll come to his senses eventually."
Tess' arms still hung limply by her side, but she shivered against Undyne's still wet body before she convinced herself to hug her best friend back.
"Stay with me Undyne," Tess begged, clutching on tighter and tighter. "Stay with me and never leave me."
Sans returned to the lab a lot later than he had planned to, but oh well. It was usual for Sans to get home half an hour, an hour or even three hours late. His father wouldn't care, and the worst he would get was a calm scolding from his younger brother.
But he didn't expect the sight he returned to. Not this. Never this.
The metal door closing the lab was broken down, busted in by someone who was clearly insanely powerful. Sans' soul leapt, and he quickened his already lazy pace to a run. Sans never ran.
"Papyrus? Dad?" he called cautiously when he entered, but found that nothing much had changed on the inside. Nothing was taken, and everything was where it should be.
Almost everything.
The little skeleton was hiding behind the massive computer, curled up into a little ball of bones, broken down and in tears.
Sans rushed to his side instantly, embracing him in a warm hug.
"My god Papyrus what happened?" he asked, not able to stop the nervous crack in his voice. The youngster pressed himself against Sans' wide chest and let his tears soak into his wooly blue hoodie. The only noises he could make were either sobs or whimpers.
Papyrus had a habit of crying over small things, but would only be a small tear or watery eyes. Sans had not seen Papyrus this broken down in quite some time. "Shh, it's okay Pap, I'm here."
"No it's not," Papyrus lamented, his white boney fingers clutching tightly onto Sans, not able to let go or hold on. "It can never be okay again..."
Sans took his brother's head in his hands to make his distressed face look at him. "Papyrus, you need to tell me what happened," he said sternly, though only earned another round of sobs from the little brother. "I can't help you if I don't know what had happened."
Papyrus clenched his teeth and managed to force out the story.
Undyne and that... thing... broke down the door because Papyrus responsibly kept the door shut against them, just like their father had told him to do. And what do they do next? Yell at him and break his fragile heart!
The marrow in Sans' bones began to smoulder with fury. His left eye erupted with a bright blue glow, and Papyrus shrunk away from him, scared. Seeing this, Sans rubbed his eye with the palm of his hand and the blue glow ceased to exist.
Right at that moment the door to the secret lab opened, and out came their father. Though Gaster looked more angry than he usually did. The purple in his eyes was glowing brighter than Sans could ever get his to glow. A dragon skull appeared behind him as he held up something into the air. Something small and thin, green and yellow, and something that was laughing like a maniac.
"You weed!" Dr. W.D Gaster shrieked in his low-pitched voice, the gaster blaster behind him getting ready to fire. "You dare break into my lab and sneak into my works!?"
Both Sans and Papyrus looked at the sight with wide eyes, not able to say anything in the wake of their raging father, even if he wasn't angry with them.
The closer he looked, Sans spotted that in his father's hands, writhed a tiny yellow flower, its face horribly disfigured and mouth wide open to show its terrifying jagged teeth.
"We're lucky I shipped the human souls to King Asgore yesterday, where you'll never get them," Gaster growled at him, but the flower merely laughed at his threats.
"That's what you think doctor!" the tiny plant sneered. "All it took was a crack and the door was down! You'll take those souls again, and I'll continue to take and take and take until I have the power to become god!"
Gaster threw the weed as hard as he could against the wall, where it lay limply for a second before it picked itself back up despite not being able to reach to the earth with its spindly roots. As it lifted its head, Sans pressed Papyrus closer to him, incase this midget threat was more than it seemed.
"And why do you think I could break in?" the flower shouted, still that unbearable, insane tic in its voice. "If that weakling-" it turned its head so its two white eyes bore into Papyrus' skull, causing his older brother to automatically shield him from the threat. "-had just opened the door for the human girl and her monster brute of a friend, they wouldn't've dented the door and weakened it! I helped the trio have their little chat, didn't I?"
Papyrus just let out a huge sob.
Seeing this, the flower smiled wider. "I guess it didn't go well?" it sneered with fake pity. "You had learned to trust the wraith and the human, yet thanks to doctor over here being the pathetic, unstable-souled monster that he is, you have turned both of them away." The flower lifted its head higher, and its already ugly face moulded so it shifted between Undyne's face and Tess', making it a horrible and disgusting sight to watch. "You could've had what I wanted, you idiot," shrieked the flower. "That human could've been my Chara to you!"
With that, the horrible weed smashed the floor tiles and slithered between the cracks and into the uncomfortable hot earth, certainly to be seen again.
"We need to get reinforcements in the true lab," Gaster sighed in annoyance, the skull behind him disappearing into nothingness like mist in the morning. "I will notify the king of this pest and-"
Sans didn't listen to his father's ramblings, but instead turned to his little brother.
"We're going to do something about this situation," he whispered to Papyrus and held out his hand to him. "C'mon Papy, let's go visit an old friend of mine."
Papyrus wiped his tears away and gave a happy smile. His red-gloved hand fitted itself into Sans' bone hand, and in a matter of moments, Sans focused his energy and the white lab melted away into a rather dark and shady neighbourhood in New Home.
Sans stood to his feet, followed closely by Papyrus, who looked around with wide eyes. Papyrus had never been to the city before, most of his time was spent in Snowdin or, until recently, the Waterfall. The houses in Snowdin were snug, warm little cottages, but the homes here tall, massive, no doubt strange and alien to him. So his hands curled round Sans' black shorts as his older brother looked right, then left, then all around.
This wasn't a place where one would willingly take young children to. The houses loomed forward from both sides like unwanted attention, and Sans knew that this was a bad place. Many monsters lost their lives here in violent duels or gang wars. Nobody from the outside apart from Sans had ever gone into this shady neighbourhood.
And this was coincidentally the place where The Captain of the Royal Guard, Lionheart, lived.
With an assuring word to Papyrus, Sans led the way to a certain house in the alleyway, indifferent to the others. The doorbell rang a now-familiar song, and a few moments after the huge ebony door swung open inwards.
"Sans?"
Lionheart was clearly not expecting a visit from Sans, or his younger brother for that matter. His heavy metal armour was nowhere in sight, instead replaced by a stained white yet yellowish vest and long jeans, fur as bright as gold sticking out from under the clothes.
"Heya Lionheart," Sans greeted him in his usual manner. "Are you gonna let us come in or are you gonna let us get torn to shreds by the dangerous kids that live out here?"
Lionheart yawned, showing off his massive lion mouth and sharp teeth, and stepped aside so Sans could enter, Papyrus still clutching to his clothes.
Lionheart lived all alone, since his mother had died in childbirth and his father was turned to dust by a rival gang. He had exceeded all expectations and fought his way up to the rank of Captain, despite his shady roots. His house was a lot like Sans' room, untidy and filthy, paint peeling from the walls and there were dents in the floor which showed where the feet have walked, over and over, worn away by time.
"What brings you here Sans?" Lionheart asked, and then noticed Papyrus standing behind his big brother. "And you've brought Papyrus?"
"I have to talk about your duty," Sans said seriously, abolishing his joking personality and getting strict. "You have killed humans before, haven't you?"
Lionheart shrugged as if it were just like squishing a bug and gestured the falling-apart couch, on which Sans sat on. However Papyrus still stood standing, shivering on his feet. The lion ignored him and shook his magnificent mane. "You remember Bravery? He put up quite a fight didn't he? Happy times." His face lit up. "Oh! And then there was Integrity! She didn't know what was coming for her! Ha ha!"
Sans shrugged, not thinking twice about Lionheart's strange... hobby, but Papyrus seemed terrified at the words that were coming out of his hero's mouth. Sans waved his doubts away, Papyrus was always over sensitive to everything, so this was nothing to worry about.
Lionheart stopped his roaring laughter. "Why'd you bring that up?"
"Another had fallen down," Sans reported.
In that moment something glimmered in the anthropomorphic lion's orange eyes as he leaned forward. "Go on," he said, his voice changed.
Sans didn't dare look at his brother. He knew it would be tough for him to take in, but he needed to realise that everybody and anybody who messed with him needed to pay.
"She's Patience," Sans told him effortlessly. "Black hair, silver eyes, light blue soul."
"Ooh," Lionheart purred in pleasure. "I don't think I've gone up against one of those before. Of course that isn't as good as Determination, but I've heard that Patience are awfully persistent."
Sans merely rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, that's your fun. This one's no older than Bravery was, but she's already settled down in Snowdin and made herself quite at home."
The mane around Lionheart's mane followed his movements as he slowly nodded his head. "This little human seems different from the ones that have fallen down so far, but it will make a fine collection to the others. King Asgore will be pleased." His paws rubbed together in delight. "Looks like there is another human to slay for Captain Lionheart!"
However both Lionheart and Sans had forgotten about the presence of Papyrus, who looked on at his brother and his friend in horror, tears forming at his eyes, a single thought reflected deep in soul.
What have I done?