Hello and happy new year! Let's continue young Sans' and Papyrus' adventures!

Chapter 15 : A light in the dark

Locked up in Toriel's bedroom, the children waited patiently. Violent shouting could be heard from the living room, half muffled by the thick walls.

Cross-legged sitting, Sans was distressed. Every scream made him jump and he was very close to a mental breakdown too. He was terrified. He had never been so terrified before. But he knew he couldn't panic now. He was the older one here, and he had to keep his big brother's face as neutral as he could. For Papyrus. Since they came here, the little skeleton had not left his arms. He was hugging his brother, his face hidden in his hoodie. Sans had tried everything to calm him down : play mummies and daddies, read stories, build traps with children cubes… But the adults talk kept going on and on and he was running low on ideas to occupy his mind.

At least the others looked fine. He glanced at Undyne. She was hugging his other arm while reading a book, in silence. Charlie was the entire opposite. Pacing back and forth, they seemed very agitated. Sans didn't want to be rude, but he really didn't like their behaviour. They worried everyone with their constant mumbling and the skeleton was not sure he could bear that any longer.

A sound of broken glass made Sans jump again, followed by new shouts. This time, the words were very intelligible: Gaster and the Queen were insulting each other without any control. Sans grimaced, then put his hands on each side of Papyrus' face. The little skeleton laughed at his pitiful try to protect him. Skeletons didn't have ears anyway, it was completely useless. At least, Papyrus smiled and lightened his brother's soul a little. As long as Papyrus was smiling, there was hope.

"Sans? Is Dad angry because of us?" asked the small skeleton. "Did… Have we done something wrong?"

"Nah, don't worry about that. I think Dad made a mistake and Lady Toriel is giving him an ear-bashing."

Not so convinced, Papyrus pouted slightly, then jumped on the ground to join Charlie. The small skeleton pulled out a huge puzzle box from under Toriel's bed and invited the human to try it with him. Charlie refused at first, but they couldn't resist Papyrus' guilty puppy eyes for long. Undyne hesitated, but Sans pointed to the kid with his head to encourage her to join them. She smiled at him, then went sitting close to Papyrus. She still kept a safe distance with the human, even if she started to chat a little more with them. She even smiled at one of their jokes. If it could help to forget a little the horrible murder of her mother, Sans didn't mind.

Since his big brother's duty was done for now, Sans chose to let them play and laid more comfortably in the bed to take a nap. If the situation was about to get worse, he wanted to have enough energy to face whatever would try to hurt him again. The long trip to get home, his dad's shenanigans and, now, the Royal Guard's attack in the forest defeated the small skeleton even more than he already was. He would gladly be a hero from time to time to impress his brother, but this was way too much responsibility for an eight years old skeleton like him. Even if he was well aware he was not exactly like the other kids at the same age, he was still hoping he could one day enjoy a little more of his childhood, without being forced to be a lab rat or a war survivor. All he wanted was to help Papyrus ride his bike without his support wheels and teach him how to bake pancakes like all big brothers did. He was tired of constantly having to protect him against dangers he was not even fully understanding himself.

Sometimes, Sans was wondering if the situation would have been the same if his Mom were still here. When he was three or four years old and his dad first took him to the lab, he remembered his mom arguing with him about mistaking his job and his family. His dad promised this day that he was not an idiot and would never intentionally hurt her child. It took only her death to break this promise. She never had the chance to meet Papyrus properly, but if she knew what he wanted to do to his little brother, she would have broken both of his dad's legs and then left the house with them.

Even if they acted like the perfect family in front of the King and the Queen, Sans knew things were not so well between his parents anyway, long before he was born. The few memories he still had of them together was perpetual oral fighting as he was hiding under the table, waiting for the storm to pass. He wished Papyrus were already there so he could comfort himself at that time. Flying pans and lab stuff scared him badly.

Sans looked at Papyrus, playing innocently with his new friends. Did his Dad even love him one day? What happened the day of his birth was horrible, but Sans remembered him smiling and crying, holding that very little skeleton in his arms before everything went wrong. Then he dumped him in Sans arms and never looked his way ever again despite the small skeleton trying so hard to have his attention. Without a mom and a dad that actually cared about him, Papyrus turned his affection towards the only receptive person : his brother. Sans knew it was not sane, Papyrus should play with other kids, be more independent, but at the same time, he was scared his brother would leave him behind the day he would realize Sans was needing him more than the opposite.

Footsteps stomped in the corridor. Sans sat up in bed, alarmed. When screams echoed behind the door, the children stopped playing, frozen. The door opened and the Queen entered quickly. She immediately locked the door behind her. Black furrows ran down from her eyes. Sans understood she cried. It was probably not a good sign. A pitiful knock on the wood made her jump.

"Tori… Please! Don't make the situation more difficult than it already is. It's for the greater good, you know I wouldn't do this willingly." begged Asgore's voice behind the door.

"Don't you dare try to convince me, Dreemur!" yelled back Toriel, her voice tainted with a burning anger. "I won't participate to your murder party. Go crawl back in front of Gaster and tell him that he better has enough HP to fight me if he really wants to lay a finger on these children!" She added, her face darkening. "They are under my protection."

"Tori… I… I can see you need some space. I'll let you breathe for a while and we'll talk about it later, alright?"

"Go to hell, Asgore!" she screamed.

Her voice broke at the end. Toriel fell down in front of them and burst into tears. It was not from sadness. The Queen seemed horrified and angry, disgusted by something the children didn't know. Empathic, Papyrus spontaneously threw himself in her arms to hug her and try to comfort her. She froze and looked down. The small skeleton, scared, was about to cry too. Toriel took a deep breath and washed away the tears, before hugging him back.

Worried, Sans jumped from the bed and got closer to them. The look Toriel gave him scared him even more. The skeleton was surprisingly good at reading people's eyes, without knowing where this gift came from. What he read in Toriel's eyes was unpleasant: anger, powerlessness, pity. He frowned, nervous. Maybe it was even more serious than he originally thought.

"Oh, my poor, poor children…" Toriel whispered. "I promise you will all be safe with me. I won't let anyone hurt you again. Everything… Everything is going to be alright from now on. Come here."

Undyne and Charlie gladly joined her arms to hug her too. Sans stayed away, still thoughtful. He didn't like any of this. He was tired of constantly feeling left out. He was about to ask Toriel more information when a loud bang hit the door, violently.

"You wanted to fight me, your Majesty? Here I am! Go on! Stop cowering and face me! That will change nothing. You better hand me this human right now or I'm taking it by force. The Royal Guard is on its way."

Sans tensed when he recognized his father's voice, cold and provocative. The children turned towards Charlie, clearly rattled by what they just heard.

However, Toriel chose not to answer. She stood up with dignity, put a finger on her mouth to encourage the children to stay silent, then led them towards the back of the room, in front of a big wardrobe. She opened it and made the back-wall slide, revealing a hidden way sinking into darkness. She pushed the children inside, then followed them, Papyrus still in her arms. She closed the wardrobe, then the wall behind them.

Confused and scared, the children chose to trust her blindly and went down a never-ending staircase. They saw nothing, they could only guess the steps below their feet. Above, a loud crash resounded, followed by angry screams and barks. Sans recognised the voice of the dog lady that tried to trap them in the forest. Toriel gently pressed his shoulder to cheer him up. They came out in a big tunnel, lit with fire magic torches that spread on a long distance. The Queen turned right and the children followed her into the unknown.

"Where are we?" asked Papyrus, nervous.

"We are in the emergency evacuation tunnels, my child. They lead to the east, right in front of the mountain. Every building has a hiding path leading to here, but only Asgore and I know where they are. We planned to use them only for emergencies, and so no one has to know where they are in case we get betrayed. No one will follow us here."

"But… The King knows where they are." noticed Sans.

"Don't worry, Asgore is loyal to me even if… It's… It's grown-ups' problems. He won't say anything, I promise."

"Where are we going?" asked Undyne, worried. "Are we in trouble?"

"No, of course not." she answered softly. "I'm only protecting you. We're going to hide in the woods, in a backup version of this camp. No one will search here. You… You need to be brave, all of you. We are going to walk several hours."

"But… What if there are humans there?" Undyne asked. "They… They're going to…"

"There won't be any humans there. It's a safe zone."

She put down Papyrus and gently pushed the children so they moved onwards. The skeleton took Undyne's and Charlie's hands and walked in front of them. Toriel let them increase the distance so she could have a word with Sans, without risking the children hearing her.

"I am so sorry to tell you that, Sans, but… You were right. Your father wants to kill Charlie. But…"

She hesitated. Sans smiled to encourage her to keep going.

"You are going to stay very brave, alright? The reason your father is after the human is because of their determination. He wants to use it on you, to make you more powerful so he can… So, he can hand you to the humans, with your brother. He wants to sacrifice you so you can… Hurt a lot of people with your magic."

"What…?"

Sans stepped back, troubled. It was lying to himself to think his dad would never do something like that, but still, how could he even drag Papyrus into this? He was not able to defend himself. The skeleton stared at his little brother, ahead, completely oblivious of what was happening. He resisted the urge to run, take his hand and leave this cursed place. Far away from this country, far away from the war. Far away from him.

Toriel gently put her hand under his chin to make him look at her face. She wiped out the tears that started to form at the corner of his eye sockets and smiled at him.

"Listen to me, Sans. I knew your Mom. She was a very good friend of mine and she was one of the best royal guards we ever had in our army. She didn't fight for so many years just to see you get dumped at the enemy. She would have killed just to avoid that, and it would be like betraying her memory if I would let him do that. I'm… I'm going to teach you how to use your magic, so you can control it better and more efficiently. I won't lie to you, I don't know how much time we have before they find us." she admitted. "But if I am unable to protect you for one reason or another, I want you to have the best weapons to save your brother, Undyne and Charlie. I want to give you your best chances. But, for this, you have to stay determined. Alright?"

Sans took a deep breath, then nodded.

"Alright. Let's do this."

She smiled and offered her hand. They rapidly joined the other children that were waiting for them, a little way ahead. The skeleton felt his chest hurt. He never wanted any of this, and now he had no choice but to deal with things that could threaten his life, and his little brother's.