Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26006155-20181123023529/@comment-26006155-20181226074647

(continued)

Sans stares, looking at the haywire portal that Gaster disappeared into. Then he’s rocked by a horrific pain as the screen suddenly rewards him a surging boatload of Execution Points, and one Level of Violence after another, a surge of compounding damnation as his screams echo off the walls. Before the Core circuit breakers give out, and everything plunges into blackness again.

--

Time passes.

Sans kneels in the darkness, crying.

There are red flashes as his heart beats, somehow illuminating him so we can see him. A figure with empty eyeholes in a smiling mask. A creature of dead bone white surrounded by impenetrable darkness.

One of his empty eyes is trailing tears. While the other is trailing a stream of blood.

He’s a pitiful creature wracked by pain. And guilt. Doomed to forever be haunted by his mistakes.

A demonic creature lost in the dark, holding off the tug of the waiting abyss for just a little longer, through the sheer force of his failing will to life. Even if that life holds no possibility of redemption.

And then, just when he’s bowing his head, and beginning to accept that there’ no escaping the Darkness...

There’s a click. And the lights come on.

“Sans?”

Sans blinks, his eye dots visible again. He wipes his mask, then turns his head to look.

Papyrus is standing in the doorway, having just flicked on the lightswitch. His armor is heavily damaged, showing laser burns, cracks from ballistic impacts, fabric tears from miniature robotic claws, and the downy feathering from a barrage of tranquilizer darts that had absolutely no effect on his armor or skinless frame. But otherwise, he looks surprisingly good.

Papyrus takes a quick look around the damaged room, then goes to Sans “Sans.. what happened?”

Sans looks down “Gaster. He.. wanted to harvest the souls of all the monsters outside the Core to break the barrier. Then.. keep everyone in the Core as prisoners, for test subjects.”

Papyrus knees down “But he’s no longer here?”

“No..” Sans says, the words coming out slowly “I stopped him. I.. pushed him into the Portal. And.. it killed him.”

Silence for a moment. Then Sans says “Papyrus, you’re.. OK? I thought.. you were dead?”

Papyrus smiles just a little “Oh, Undyne said it best. I could never hurt a snail, but when it comes to taking damage, I’m pretty tough.” he glances down and plucks one of the tranq darts from his arm, rolling it in his fingers. “When to defenses activated, it was chaos. Lasers blocked the halls, so I had to stand in a few of them so others could get by. Robots were everywhere, trying to throw nets around the Royal Guards who were trying to save everyone else, so I turned the nets blue so they fell short. This big robot with miniguns for arms crashed through a wall, firing these little syringe darts at everyone, so I got in the way of that too. It’s strange, I thought that would kill me for sure, but these little feather darts didn’t hurt me at all.”

Sans slowly gets to his feet, shakily. “You’re.. A hero Papyrus.”

Papyrus looks quizzically at Sans “Me? I did what anyone would do if their friends were attacked by robots. The Royal Guard are the heroes, they’re the ones who have to save everyone, and how could they do their job unless someone saved them first?” Papyrus stands, dusting off the darts. “Undyne tried to tell me something after the lights went off, like ‘You deserve to be..’ but then she fell asleep. Took a few of those darts herself. I guess she.. Really needed a nap?”

Sans tries to smile “Well.. Royal Guard trainee assistant apprentice padawan Papyrus, looks like you’re just going to be called “Guard” from now on.”

Papyrus looks horrified “No! I like long names! More words make titles cooler!”

Sans looks around the room, slowly, still coming to terms with everything that happened. “Well.. I’m glad you’re a hero. It’s good that there’s at least one still around.”

Papyrus blinks at Sans “What? What about you? You’re the hero, you just saved all of us!”

“SAVED!?” Sans lashes out “I haven’t saved anyone! Gaster and I are the reason everyone was in danger! If we hadn’t come here, the Core would have never been build, and none of this would have happened! If I hadn’t been so.. DAMN STUPID!.. And let Gaster do all of this, so many people wouldn’t have gotten hurt! And I had to kill my best friend to stop it!” he grabs Papyrus’ arms “I had to kill my best friend Papyrus! I JUST KILLED MY BEST FRIEND!!”

Papyrus doesn’t move, and just looks a little sad, and hurt “I thought I was your best friend?”

“I…” Sans stops, and lets go, sobbing a bit “What am I going to do, Papyrus? Gaster and I came here together in the Silver Machine he built, and it broke when we tried to go back through the Barrier. Even if could break the Barrier somehow, which seems impossible after this, Gaster’s the only one who could fix that machine, and now he’s gone. I can never go home Papyrus, I can never go home!!”

“You could stay here?” Papyrus adds, softly “Among your other friends? They know you did your best, they won’t blame you. And whatever you say, you did save us all. You’re going to be popular now, don’t you see? You’re going to be popular.. Something I always.. Wanted to be.”

“It’s hard to feel popular, Papyrus, when I don’t even like myself.” Sans looks at his hands, which tremble a bit “I’ve killed someone, Papyrus. Someone who was like a father to me. The cool father who went on adventures with me, instead of the one I only talked to on the phone. I don’t think I’ll ever feel clean, or innocent again. I don’t know why.. But I feel only someone innocent can save this world, and break that Barrier. And that person is no longer me.”

“We may not always be who we want to be.” Papyrus says, then chuckles “So ironic, coming from me. But a hero always does what they can. And whether you believe it or not, Sans, the Future of Monsters depends on you.”

Sans stares for a moment, then laughs. “That’s.. Funny. It’s like something he said.” he gestures to the deactivated, but still intact portal. “If I only knew then, what I knew now, things might have been different. I guess there’s no sense living in the past.”

Papyrus tilts his head “Well, if you could go back, and talk to an earlier version of yourself, what would you say to him?”

“I would say..” Sans starts, then stops, staring at Papyrus “Papyrus.. Say that again.”

Papyrus ahems “I asked, if you could go back, and talk to an earlier version of yourself, what would you say to him?”

Sans stares “Papyrus.. THAT’S IT!” he looks at the portal, then around the lab “Gaster was studying traveling through time and dimension. He made the portal to try and look for a dimension where the Barrier didn’t exist. I CAN go back in time, and try to change the future! Papyrus, YOU’RE A GENIUS!!”

Papyrus adjusts his collar “Well, I do cook a mean plate of spaghetti, that only sometimes bites people back.”

Sans is on a roll “We can go back, change the past, and make it so that earlier version of me who left from the Ruins has a better chance at making better choices, and keeping his innocence. I might not be someone who can break the Barrier anymore.. But may the earlier me can!”

Papyrus smiles “We should set up a guard station outside the Ruins, and wait for the earlier you to arrive. That way we’ll be the first ones to meet him. Or any OTHER humans who pass through…”

Sans stops, and looks at Papyrus slowly “Papyrus.. How much do you know?”

Papyrus chuckles “I could recite the Royal Guard roster backwards in pig latin while riding a unicycle. But if we’re talking about you and Gaster being humans.. I’ve known that for quite a while. I know you always eat out because of that mask, but I have a bad habit of peeking in windows. You eat a lot more than just ketchup. And no skeleton I’ve ever known was able to teleport, or had to sleep every night.”

Sans stares “And you never turned us in?”

Papyrus looks hurt “I couldn’t do that.. They’d take your SOUL, and I couldn’t allow that. Rule 1 of having friends is that you protect each other. And when I met the two of you.. It was the first time I ever felt cool by association.”

Sans gives Papyrus a hug “Papyrus, I’m sorry. All this time I thought you were crazy.. But you’re the best friend anyone could ever ask for.”

Papyrus smiles and rubs his helmet “I’m not crazy. I’m just really Extra most of the time.” then, more serious “Do you know why Gaster did what he did?”

Sans goes to start packing bits of gear for the trip “He thought monsters would destroy humanity if they ever got free. But.. it was more than that. He’d become corrupted by some kind of alien force, and was starting to do terrible things, like stealing monster souls and absorbing them himself.”

Papyrus starts gathering gear too, and bits of bling furniture that seem less important. “Do you know what kind of alien it was?”

Sans “Unfortunately..” he cocks a Gaster Blaster “..I think I do. It’s something he and I have both fought before. Something that tried to destroy our world.” Sans shudders “I don’t know when he became corrupted, or how long it’s been eating at him. I don’t even know how much of him is still left in that shell. Saving him may be impossible.”

Papyrus scoffs “And what would the Doc say, if he heard you claim something was impossible?”

Sans stops, then chuckles a bit “He’s say ‘Almost anything is possible, if someone has the courage and imagination to try’. And after all the crazy things I’ve seen him do, I’m in no position to argue.”

“Well then..” Papyrus dons a pair of sunglasses, then turns to Sans, offering him another pair. “It’s settled. We’re traveling to the past to save the future of humans and monsters alike.”

Sans blinks “Papyrus.. You’re coming too?”

Papyrus smiles “Of course! We heros have to stick together.”

Sans “But it could be dangerous! We’re not just traveling in time.. But dimension too. This earlier version of myself we’re going to meet.. I have no idea what they’ll be like. Humans have darkness in their SOULs, Papyrus. He might be a real monster, and try to kill everyone! We won’t know until we test him. Ten minutes ago, a human tried wiping all the monsters out!”

Papyrus pushes the sunglasses onto Sans’ mask “And ten minutes ago, another human stopped him. Judge people not by what they are, but by what they do. And I believe in him, as much as I believe in you.”

It’s impossible to read Sans’ expression with the sunglasses on, but for all we know he could be blushing. He looks over to the portal controls and types a few keys, and the portal begins to glow a different color than before. “Papyrus.. I was lost in the dark before you arrived. You remind me there’s still good in the world, and that it’s worth fighting for. If you ever left me, I don’t know what I would do.”

“That’s why I’m coming with you.” Papyrus smiles “We may not have the same mother, but we’re still brothers.”

Sans finishes programming the Portal, which glows green. “Alright, it’s ready. Once we step through this, there’s no going back.” he glances to Papyrus, and adjusts his glasses, handing him one of the Gaster Blasters “There’s several miles to the Ruins. We’ve got a full rack of blasters, half a pack of spaghetti, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.”

Papyrus salutes “Hit it!”

Sans steps into the portal beside Papyrus “Don’t look back…”

The portal flashes, and both of them vanish in a surge of light, which gradually fades, leaving the laboratory empty.

Time passes, and then..

A ghostly figure fades into existence in the center of the lab.

Before his death, he was a old scientist pretending to be a ghost. But after.. He is now a ghost in truth. Something neither human nor monster. An amalgamation of the ultimate scientific mind, and an entity of ultimate mindless power.

Now, he is Wingding Gaster, for real. And duality rings in his voice.

“So.. Sans. That is your choice. To betray your own people to these monsters. So be it. I will make sure your Mother never sees you again.”

Gaster gestures with an ethereal hand.

And slowly, the golden flower vessel begins to move.

(Fade to black. End of Scene.)