Chapter Text
Clutching Flowey’s pot with both hands, Sans found himself a fair distance behind Toriel, who stood in front of the Ruins door. In the back of his mind — or rather, his soul— it was nostalgic.
Even from this distance he could see her hunched shoulders, and the burning wisps of flame that emanated from her fingers. In a small panic, Sans realized she was close to obliterating the area and so hastily ran forward and shouted at her,
“WAIT!!”
The voice startled both her, and himself. Sans couldn’t even remember the last time he truly raised his voice.
Both he and Toriel found themselves at an awkward and tense standstill, given he wasn’t entirely sure what the game plan was after this, and probably because she was shocked to see him down here holding a sentient flower in a pot.
Soon enough she regained her bearings however, and turned around to face them fully with an intense and fiery expression on her face. When Toriel’s yellow tinted eyes trailed down sharply to look at the flower in his hands, that natural glare of hers increased ten-fold.
“You. ” She growled, in such a hateful way that Sans wanted to hide Flowey behind his back. It was just wrong for her of all people to look at him like that, he felt. However, he refrained, and glanced down to see Flowey glare back at her, although not nearly as intensely. Still, he could sense the lingering animosity there.
“You useless weed, you’re always such a thorn in my side!” Sans’ face twitched at the most likely unintentional joke despite everything.
“Always thinking you’re the good guy!”
Sans saw her furious face twist into a gleefully poisonous smile, tinged with its own fair share of mania.
“Even though you’ve never been able to protect a single thing. ”
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Flowey wilt and begin shaking like a leaf.
Wow, look at this situation, Sans really wanted to go home…
But that wasn’t an option. So instead, he carefully set Flowey down on the ground behind some non-visible blue magic to keep any stray moving attacks at bay, and took a deep breath.
“ah. i just remembered i forgot to save.”
Funnily enough, that immediately reinvigorated the droopy flower to give him an incredulous,
“WHAT?! ”
“it’s fine, don’t worry about it. i just won’t die.” He merely received a baffled stare back, to which Sans replied with a cheeky but reassuring grin.
“i won’t die, trust me.”
Not that he’d be totally screwed if he did, he’d just have to go through a long series of events all over again. Which would suck. Besides, he was kind of feeling like he wanted to go through a deathless run here, no doubt a daunting task for an Underground with a pacifist run locked in hard mode. And dying just…didn’t sound fun, coming back or not. He still didn’t trust those save points.
Before anything though, he’d really like to try and talk things out first. Not that he was especially confident it would work, but you had to stick to your principles.
Toriel finally focused her gaze on him, an intense variation of a stare that he felt was much like a mother trying to make her kid go to their room. Awkwardly, he put a hand on the back of his head and plainly inquired,
“any chance you’ll just let us pass easy peazy?”
She snorted in an obvious dismissal, looking down on him.
“You are a foolish human, you don’t seem to fully understand what lies beyond this place.”
Her fists clenched tightly as her eyes narrowed.
“He, Asgore…will take your soul. And every monster you meet will want you dead. And what, you expect me to believe you can handle it with your pathetic, pacifistic fists? Don’t make me laugh. ”
Well, he could understand her skepticism here at the very least; it’s not like she knew he was actually a former monster with cheaty magic and save points for good measure. And hopefully she would never know that.
Her gaze flitted back towards Flowey for a moment as she sneered.
“Hmph, and it’s not as if that weed will be able to protect you, either.” Shaking her head, she focused on him again, now looking somewhat desperate.
“You do not need to go anywhere, I will take care of you. You will not die, there’s no point trying to go through there in vain!”
He could clearly see the loneliness etched into her expression, but he didn’t think she was aware of it. Part of her desperation to keep him here was most likely in large part for her, more than it was for him. The only thing he could do was sigh and shake his head.
“i’m sorry, but that’s just not going to happen. i know it may seem hard to believe, but i’m pretty confident i can take care of myself, murderous monsters or no.”
He could tell that she didn’t believe him for a second as she turned up her nose and scoffed. Suddenly, her hands flared up once again with an intense flame, a grin twisting itself upwards on her face.
“if you are so confident, then kill me, and make it past here.”
Sans fought back a flinch at her provocation, disturbed even by the idea. In no world did he ever want to kill Toriel, or anyone really. Even when he fought the human, he hated killing them. And he hated the blood the most.
“i’m not going to kill you.” He said firmly, shaking his head. “but even so, i’m leaving.”
She turned a vicious glare towards him for the easy admission of Mercy, disgusted.
“Without the intent to kill, the courage, you will merely be free EXP .” She hissed, turning his expression into a rare frown.
“huh, having the resolve not to kill seems way more brave to me.” It was brave back in his Underground, but doubly so now. For some reason, at that moment he felt a chill on his shoulder. Sans looked behind him, and although he could swear he saw something for a moment, there was nobody there.
Confused, he shook his head to clear it and turned back towards Toriel, who had a displeased expression on her face. He met it with his own stare, which made it evident to her that he was not budging on this matter.
“If that is the case, then prove to me you have the ability, and the will to survive!”
Without any other warning, a series of searing fireballs was launched his way, which he immediately stepped and dodged away from.
He couldn’t help but sigh with disappointment; he really kind of wanted to not fight here, even if it was totally wishful thinking. Toriel wouldn’t let him go until she was certain of his abilities, and even then...
Her attack was a fierce one, but when it came to his turn, he simply refused to fight obviously. This innocent act unfortunately infuriated the woman and caused her attacks to become even more dangerous. She didn’t seem to be controlling her strength much.
“Attack me! ” She snapped, watching him skip yet another turn.
“nope, i’m good.” He subtly bat away a stray fireball with a bit of blue magic, not at all rising to her provocations.
Toriel growled in frustration, unable to hit him, but also unable to draw out any semblance of an actual battle. The longer this went on, the more and more confused and desperate her expression came.
“Why… why won’t you attack at all?! ” She pleaded.
“because i don’t want to hurt you.” he replied simply, as if that was all there was to it. And really, that’s all there really was.
“I’m trying to kill you!” She screamed, shaking her head with frustration. “Do something, anything! ”
He felt a bit bad for distressing a distant version of his friend, but he wasn’t interested in fighting her. He simply shook his head.
Toriel’s face fell, and her attacks unintentionally faltered. She continued to throw them out furiously, but they were even easier to dodge than before.
“Just stay here… please , I’ll protect you. He can’t, I can— I can protect you. ”
He could tell she was referring to Flowey. However, it’s not like he really needed anyone in particular to protect him, despite how seemingly weak he may be.
Aside from that, he realized as he continued to avoid her useless reckless attacks, that loneliness was the most prominent emotion on her face, more than anything else. And a desire to protect something that in the past, she could not.
However, he couldn’t just go along with her wishes.
He moved decisively, stepping into the cover of a fireball and the moment clear visual was lost, he took a shortcut directly behind her. Immediately she became incredibly confused and looked frantically around the room. Sans had mercy on her though and gently poked the woman in the back to notify her of his presence.
And he of course ducked the hot swipe of Toriel’s hand that lashed out at him in her surprise.
“woah, you almost fried the hair you spent all that time on.” He commented nonchalantly with his usual grin while she stared at him in befuddlement, obviously not understanding how he got behind her. And…
“You…you didn’t attack me…You were in the perfect position, why?”
Sans couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her, since he really felt that he had proven his pacifistic ways pretty definitively, but apparently this still caught her off guard.
“i thought we’d been over this” He rolled his eyes, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
For a few long moments, she said nothing, but after that she suddenly sunk to the ground, thoroughly confused and defeated.
“Hah…hah…it seems you never needed my protection at all…and yet…”
Sans simply stood silently, listening.
“You still do not consider violence at all…you were right, that is a far braver action.” She smiled bitterly at the ground.
“And truthfully…the only reason I really wanted to keep you here was because of my own arrogance, and selfishness.”
With a sigh, she stood up in front of him, her height looming over him but not as oppressive as it had felt before.
“Nonetheless, you have proven to me that you are more capable than any others before you, and perhaps you may have a chance to make it through, even though I still do not know why you are so adamant.”
She shook her head, tired and exasperated. Sans tilted his head in a show of sympathy, simultaneously amused; his insistence to march on into a scary dungeon of dangerous monsters was probably pretty confusing for the average onlooker.
Toriel then kneeled down to his level (although she was actually still taller than him) and put a large hand on his shoulder.
“Human, you may leave, and I will not stop you, but…” her eyes drifted to the ground, pained, before meeting his again. “But please...do not come back.”
She looked indecisive after that moment. And so, carried on by instinct and hazy memories, Sans made the decision for her by leaning in and giving her a hug. She was stiff only for a moment, putting a restrained hand on his back. It was weird since he didn’t hug anyone except his brother, but if he closed his eyes he could pretend he was with his Toriel, in some random neutral or pacifist timeline.
However, she pulled away quickly and the fantasy was lost before it could truly begin, which was probably for the best.
She took a deep breath, and then quickly absconded down the hall. Although not before stopping next to the Flowey, who was still sitting there and carefully watching her with a guarded, but undeniably thoughtful expression.
Toriel gave him a cold glare, not nearly as vicious as before, but enough to be intimidating.
“Do not fail again.”
After that, she left them and the room went silent.
Sans quickly scooped Flowey back up, sparing him a somewhat curious glance before taking them back near Toriel’s house to Save and then right back to the door again. It really barely took a second. It was easy for him to pinpoint the save points from a distance and open a shortcut to them without a second thought.
“Hmph…at least you remembered that.” Flowey said, breaking the silence.
He was glad to hear the flower speak, because he didn’t do all too well with overly serious situations, and it had been feeling kinda somber as of late.
“course’, no way i’m doing that again.”
He really didn’t know how Frisk did it, emotionally and physically, it was exhausting. Actually, now that he was thinking about it, and the adrenaline was winding down; that had been a lot of dodging with zero breaks, and his chest had begun to burn when he breathed back there.
“urgh … actually, can we take a break before we leave?” He grinned weakly, plopping down onto the floor.
Flowey was set down as well, who raised a brow at him in curious concern.
“Your stamina is kind of terrible, isn’t it?”
“it's the worst.” Sans confirmed. At least before it was limited to sweat and sleepiness when he overworked himself, but now for some reason he began to breathe heavily too, and when he did that too much, his chest burned and it felt rather like dying. Was this normal for humans?
Having a highly physical body wasn’t all it was cut out to be. What was next, he’d get some sort of human sickness?
…
He probably shouldn’t jinx himself.
“anyways, i’m gonna take a nap, wake me up in like…15 minutes.”
He only got to hear Flowey sputter in confusion for a moment or two before he curled up and conked out in record time.
Sans woke up slowly, coming out of the haze of an unfamiliar dream that was already slipping through his memory. It felt like neither one of his memories, or Frisk’s, and he thought he could maybe remember seeing someone like Toriel in it. Either way, it was something that he put out of his mind with a satisfying stretch, which probably made him look like a starfish. Interestingly though, his head was not on the ground, but rather…vines?
Flowey sat there looking rather bored, but his attention was immediately drawn when Sans awoke. Long vines of the non-thorny variety curled up from out of his flowerpot and formed a sort of pillow. It wasn’t the most comfortable pillow he’d ever used, but it was miles better than the floor.
“aw, bud, ya shouldn’t have.” He flashed a wide smile towards the flower who quickly became embarrassed and pulled the vines away, allowing them to disappear into the pot.
“Well you just suddenly passed out! And the floor’s hard, and dirty…” He whined, pouting.
Sans chuckled while sitting up, flashing Flowey a lazy smile.
“i didn’t pass out, i just took an impromptu nap.”
“Impromptu nap-?!” Flowey began to blurt before Sans then abruptly stood up and interrupted the flower by picking up the pot.
“welp, we should probably get going, huh?”
Flowey grumbled in annoyance at being cut off, but he agreed. He felt a bit bad for leaving the flower out to dry while he slept, but it couldn’t be helped.
Together, they approached the door. Sans pushed it open with a little a lot of help from some blue magic and peered out. It would seem that this didn’t lead directly outside though, which he didn’t find particularly odd since this door seemed kind of small compared to the massive door he had always sat next to and knocked on.
It was a somewhat long walk, and Sans caught Flowey’s expression from the corner of his eye; it was pensive and contemplative, like he was considering saying something.
Sans said nothing for the moment.
When they finally arrived at the real door Sans stopped to take it in. It was truly strange looking at the door from this side. He could almost imagine Toriel sat up against it with a notebook, tea and pie, and a comfy pillow underneath her.
He shook the thought from his head, and turned towards Flowey expectantly. The flower appeared to understand what he was getting at, hesitating for a moment before finally speaking what was on his mind.
“I…I met humans before you.” He murmured, staring into the ground with a far off expression. Sans could have guessed that he had, but he was a little surprised that Flowey was telling him so directly.
“I tried to help them, but they all…” He trailed off, his mouth forming a tight line. “I couldn’t protect them, and I…I don’t know if I can protect you, either.”
Sans closed his eyes, a small but reassuring smile on his face.
“I’ll be okay.”
Flowey took that in for a few long moments, he didn’t look especially confident, but he seemed to be trying to accept it.
“Right, you’ll be fine…” He muttered quietly. After trying to internalize that concept, Flowey sighed and looked back up at Sans.
“By the way I…if you really could help monsters — not hurt anyone, change this place… I think that’d be good too…so…I just wanna let you know I’ll go along with it.”
Sans smiled genuinely. “I know, thank you.”
Flowey looked a bit embarrassed for a second before finally sighing and closing his eyes.
“I should have figured you’d want to do something like this…you two are similar in a lot of ways…”
Sans wondered who exactly Flowey was talking about, but although the flower had freely said this statement, Sans could immediately tell that it wasn’t something that Flowey would elaborate on, so he didn’t bother trying.
All that being said, it was time to open this door. He was both dreading and looking forward to it. It left a strange feeling in his stomach that he couldn’t pin down. But he had honestly stalled enough.
Taking a deep breath, Sans gathered up his Determination and pushed the massive door open. He simply couldn’t deny this time that it was mostly done with magic, and it humbled him a bit when he remembered that Frisk had probably opened this themselves.
Even as a human, it would appear Sans still had the physical strength of a wet noodle.
The instant he stepped outside he was overwhelmed with a feeling of…
COLD.
It was officially confirmed, being a human was way overrated.
Sans was glad he was wearing a hoodie at least, but his shorts and thin shirt still made it quite chilly.
Back when he was a skeleton, he could identify the temperature at least, but it had really just passed right through him. But now when he stood in the cold air his entire body vibrated with shivers, it probably didn’t help that he was quite skinny for a human too.
“I regret everything. ” he groaned, pulling Flowey into his jacket so he could easily hold him while stuffing his freezing digits into his pockets.
Flowey huffed, but was fairly concerned regardless.
“It’s the coldest in the outskirts, let’s just start moving.”
Sans began to nod, but then remembered something. Looking to the side he spotted a familiar camera hiding in the white bush next to him. He simply couldn’t help himself and crouched down to look directly at it in an extremely obvious manner.
He set Flowey down, and pulled out his hands to make a double peace sign, flashing the lens a winning smile. It was in a manner that Sans hoped was cute in some way, since he knew it was something Alphys was weak to.
“What the heck are you doing?” Flowey questioned him incredulously. He was probably surprised that Sans noticed the camera, but said nothing about it.
“giving a good first impression; if whoever’s looking sees it maybe they won’t try and kill us as hard.” He replied half seriously.
Flowey simply gave him a dead stare and rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath, “ Ugh, considering that doctor maybe it’ll actually work… ”
Sans caught the comment of course and chuckled lightly, although it was a little shaky due to his shivers. He picked Flowey back up and stuffed his hands back into his pockets, sighing in relief now that they were out of the cold.
Finally, Sans started on walking down a deeply familiar path. He had been carefully keeping the thought of himself and Papyrus out of his mind, but it was impossible now when he was gradually getting closer. He really didn’t know what he planned on doing with them, he didn’t even know if he could handle seeing Papyrus without reacting.
When it came down to stuff like this, sometimes it was just best to go forward without any concrete plan or worries, or else you’d never be able to do it. So when Sans sensed an uncannily familiar presence on the edge of his magical senses, he just continued forward with determination.
When he came to the large branch, Sans grinned and stepped on it to snap it with a subtle bit of magic. Flowey didn’t question his methods and just looked on in exasperation. With amusement, Sans recognized that it would probably mess up his other self’s little scare routine.
When Sans passed it by however, he suddenly heard a sharp crack behind him. When he whipped his head around to look, the branch was completely shattered rather than snapped.
Touchĕ other Sans…touchĕ…
As they walked down the creepy path, he could distantly hear strange scratching noises on the edge of his hearing, and of course, additional footsteps behind him that disappeared when he turned to look. Now that he was thinking about it, maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to scare a human kid like this back then right off the coattails of leaving Toriel behind.
Well, it was in the past now. This Sans was putting in the work to make it even scarier, even if it didn’t particularly work on him. Scares were about as effective on Sans as getting Papyrus to give up. It simply didn’t work; you can’t scare the scare master.
Therefore, when he arrived at the bridge (which was full of deadly spikes haphazardly affixed to it and red paint splattered all over) Sans just patiently waited until it was his turn to turn around. Flowey on the other hand looked very tense, probably for good reason. Sans wasn’t entirely sure about the reasons this Sans had that influenced him into not killing the supposed human immediately, after all, but he was pretty confident in this move.
“Human, don’t you know how to greet a new pal? ”
Despite everything, the voice startled him, mostly because he was literally hearing his exact same voice directly behind him, and it was unsettling. Although technically, his voice was a little different now at least.
“Turn around, and shake my hand. ”
It felt like there was a rock in his stomach, but Sans put on a casual and unbothered face and turned around, shifting his hold on Flowey to grip it with one hand.
He glanced down, and while there wasn’t a whoopie cushion in that familiar skeletal hand, there was an electric buzzer. What a nasty trick! Although he assumed it wouldn’t do him too much harm.
That being said, Sans wasn’t interested in getting electrocuted today, so instead he flashed the skeleton a jovial smile that made him feel like he was standing in front of a mirror, reached his hand out, and gripped the man’s wrist instead.
The other Sans looked surprised (although nobody except him could probably tell that), but continued on without missing a beat.
“huh, the buzzer in the hand trick is always funny, sure you don’t wanna give it a try?”
He wiggled his fingers temptingly, but Sans just dismissed it with a hand on his hip and a wry grin. He also noticed that the skeleton gave Flowey a quick and considering glance, but didn’t say anything.
“nah, i’m good. i’ll just imagine it, i’m not interested in any shocking discoveries today.”
Sans could tell that amused the skeleton given the way his eyes light up just slightly. Speaking of…this guy had the magic eye out…and it was red? It was kind of cool looking, admittedly, but it seemed kind of exhausting. Weird, but Sans ignored it for now.
Actually, he was wearing a lot of red in general.
And black, but the red stood out to him the most. He had this thought before, but it really seemed like this Underground had some sort of color scheme. It was probably a good thing that he and this guy didn’t look too obviously similar though, even if there were a ton of parallels if one took a good look at them. Sans was pretty sure that ‘alternate universe human Sans’ wasn’t really the first thing people would think of though.
“hm, if you say so. well, the name’s sans, sans the skeleton.”
Well that was a problem, it was just too weird to refer to this guy as Sans, so…
Putting a thoughtful and casual finger on his chin, Sans nodded as if he had made up his mind,
“yep, i think i’ll call you red.”
That got a reaction out of him.
“why though. ”
Sans couldn’t help but grin widely in a cheerful manner, innocently putting a hand on his cheek and asking,
“why not? i think it fits. you even have a red eye, red. ”
“because i literally just gave you my name, it’s not even that long.”
“nicknames always bring pals closer together, don’t ya think?”
“we’re not pals.”
“hm? i’m pretty sure you called me a ‘pal’ just a minute ago.”
It appeared Red had reached his limit, face-palming in pure exasperation and annoyance. Heheheh, it would appear his counterpart didn’t quite reach Sans’ level of patience in bullshitery.
“ugh, whatever, the point is i’m actually a sentry. and we’re kind of supposed to kill humans, you know.”
“that so? then why aren’t you killing me?”
Actually he was pretty sure the job of sentries was just to notify the royal guard, but Papyrus had always gotten overzealous with such things. It was possible things worked differently here though, too.
Red shrugged with a grin. “i’m too lazy and cowardly to kill anyone. sides’, the honors ought to go to my bro, papyrus.” he explained self-deprecatingly.
Sans really didn’t like the imagery of Papyrus killing anyone, so he purposefully ignored that implication.
“Well it’s not like that’s going to happen either, pal. ” Flowey interjected, glaring at Sans’ counterpart. Red considered the flower with a bland gaze, but otherwise just shrugged.
“well, either way you gotta pass through here, and my bro is vigilant. but hey, don’t sweat it, papyrus is an honorable skeleton, he won’t kill ya before tenderizin’ ya first.”
Sans raised a bemused brow.
“with traps and puzzles?” He asked.
“with traps and puzzles.” Red confirmed.
“great, can’t wait.” Sans kept the sigh he wanted to let out to himself. Sans did have an appreciation for puzzles mostly because of his brother, but he wasn’t exactly keen on doing them himself.
“heh… anyways, you can actually just pass right through this gate thingy if you just duck, the bars and the spikes aren’t close enough.”
Sans turned around and noticed that yes, indeed you could. Although it was still kind of treacherous considering the deep chasm. It was part of the reason why nobody was supposed to come around here, aside from how cold and far it was from town.
Carefully, Sans ducked through, his goggles just slightly scratched the top, but overall easy enough. Red on the other hand just…appeared. Not that it was even remotely surprising to him, but Sans couldn’t help but find it weird when someone else was being weird, creepy, and mysterious. That was kind of his thing.
Well, he supposed he could let Red have it.
The place here looked identical as to how he remembered it, aside from that…terribly inconveniently shaped lamp. On the edge of his senses, he could recognize a familiar presence approaching. Really, he could have identified it from a mile away. Red of course took notice as well, smirking at him and pointing towards the weird lamp.
“looks like papyrus is coming, you should hide behind that conveniently shaped lamp.”
It was a blatant lie and Sans didn’t have to see the smugly amused expression on Red’s face to know it. Sans simply rolled his eyes and flashed a cheeky grin back at him, hopping over to the sentry station instead and crouching underneath it. He saw Flowey smirk belatedly at the put-off look Red shot them.
Sans tried to share that amusement to try and drown out the anxiety about seeing this world’s version of his brother. And right on cue, Papyrus arrived.
“sup’, bro?”
“DO NOT ‘SUP’ ME SANS.”
In vying curiosity, Sans peeked over the station despite Flowey’s hurried whispers to keep his head down. He just had to see.
And wow.
If his brother had met this one he definitely would have thought he was cool as hell. It was like seeing a spikier version of Papyrus. In every place his brother was round, this guy was sharp.
He was super cool.
Not as cool as his bro, of course, but still very cool.
Sans was pretty distracted by looking at Papyrus so he wasn’t really following the back and forth going on here. Papyrus seemed pretty mad, even more than he was used to.
All of a sudden however, he turned Sans’ way and they made eye contact. An awkward and brief glance at Red informed him that he was to blame. Payback undoubtedly.
Sheepishly and with a friendly grin, Sans stood up from his crouched position in the snow. He had the urge to scratch the back of his head but was unwilling to remove his hand from its pocket.
“uh…hi.”
Papyrus was entirely shell-shocked, and didn’t make a move until Red waved a hand in front his face. After that he immediately shot off like a bullet, Sans hardly had time to react before Papyrus was in his face and tightly gripping his shoulders to intently inspect him.
Sans blinked and exchanged a glance with Flowey, simply befuddled as he allowed the overzealous skeleton to verify his identity all he wished.
“YOU….ARE A HUMAN?”
“uh, yup.” Sans hoped that sounded natural.
That made Papyrus release him at once, backing up and breathing in with his hands held near his face. He only seemed to think for a second or two before quickly running off in the direction he came again screaming out frantic orders.
“I WILL PREPARE THE PUZZLES AND TRAPS HUMAN, SANS, DO NOT WASTE ANY TIME! ”
Red, completely used to such behavior simply gave his brother’s rapidly fleeting form a lazy salute.
“righto’ boss.”
Sans was all at once hit with a sense of dire longing and homesickness as he stood there witnessing the interaction, and it was staggering. But with a bit of reluctant determination he managed a weak grin at Red, who probably took his expression to have a different meaning due to the smirk on his face.
“ready to be tenderized?”
“heh…you betcha’....”