Chapter Text
Error’s chuckles reverberated into the distance and he quietly hummed to himself. He was feeling a small surge of giddiness or rather adrenaline, it had been awhile since he let loose and just did what he was meant to do.
“Heheh and who do we have- Abomination number 13?” Error choked on his words as Edge looked up at him barely noticing the blue shadow that followed.
“Yea hey, some people call me by my actual name y’know? Like Edge or Sans?”
“You lost that privilege and you know exactly why.” Error crossed his arms almost like he was chastising Edge.
“You’re, you’re a S-Sans..?” a small voice questioned
“Yea yea, something about being a glitch and never should have existed we did this already. So who the fuck is this little blue…thing you have with you, it almost looks like a- a”
“A Sans yes! My new friend in fact, we call him Blueberry.”
“D-did you actually p-pull another Sans from a timeline? And w-who is we?”
“Oh you think so small; not just a different timeline a whole ‘nother Universe!” Error outstretched his arms triumphantly like he was waiting for applause. The blue Sans cautiously walked to the side of Error making
eye contact with Edge.
“Y-you look pretty injured.”
Edge scoffed
“Heh- yea s’what happens when your arms are used as chew toys and your eye gets stabbed.”
“Oh that’s why we match!” Error clinked his boney finger on his own cheek.
Edge forced an arm up to his left eye flinching a little, touching his own cheek and bringing his hand back down. He saw red residue, maybe his eye suffered more damage than he thought. Edge spoke through gritted teeth
“You really caught me on the wrong end of a real bad time. You and your… friend thing need to go.”
Edge tried to stand and nearly gasped when he felt pressure around his waist. The blue Sans, or rather Blueberry was helping him to his feet, Edge tried to say something but his mouth just hung open slightly as he stared at this peculiar skeleton. He had this sort of tentative smile on his face looking up at Edge his whole persona seemed…innocent; his eyes were big and blue and that’s when Edge noticed the tear stains on his face. Thinking back to the carnage that Edge was thankful enough not to see he couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for this guy. A whole new puzzle whirred in his head because it wasn’t just some random monster, it was him, a Sans. Some Sans from another universe that was now here in his world and supporting his weight for no other reason than he felt like it, somehow that was in his nature. Edge had a hard time fathoming it
“You really don’t belong here” he whispered bewildered. Blueberry furrowed his eyebrow ridges his smile wavering when a booming dark voice came from behind Edge.
“SANS!” It came as such a surprise that Blueberry flinched against Edge before he ran back to Error’s side clearly frightened and still confused. Edge was still trying to steady his own weight as he called out
“Papyrus, I’m here!”
His taller brother came up a couple feet beside him first eyeing the two strangers before taking a look at Sans. The small blue one seemed to shiver in his spot but his eyes were wide just staring at the looming figure who studied him. The other, nothing like he had ever seen before, words appearing over parts of his body, pieces of this skeleton would flicker seemingly in and out of existence. Between the two the flickering one looked a lot more dangerous, maintaining eye contact and a wide smile.
“So good to meet The Great Papyrus of Underfell” Error’s giggles fell in and out confusing Papyrus even more.
Papyrus flipped his eyes over to Sans’ whose legs were spread wider than usual to help him stop from losing balance and he was hunched over, dangling his arms uselessly. His sweater on his forearms was darker than usual as if they were wet and as he followed down to his fingers he could see the magic dripping from his phalanges to the snowy ground. Sans looked at his brother a small smirk on his face
“Hey bro…”
His eye was bleeding with the red magic imbued iris struggling to stay present. Papyrus was impressed, there was some serious trauma he suffered, more than he had ever seen his brother go through before, and Sans was still standing. Still he knew his brother was spent; they needed to finish whatever this was quickly if Sans were to survive. An odd pang struck Papyrus when he thought that but he didn’t have time to reflect.
“Who are you?” Papyrus growled in Error’s direction
“Heheh tonight? You’re worst nightmare.” Error rained down a string of bones rapidly heading towards Edge, papyrus sprang into action grabbing his brother and creating as much distance between him and Error as he could.
“Sans, Sans!” Papyrus grabbed his brother’s face forcing eye contact “We need to stop them; I need you with me on this!”
“Okay…” Edge tried to focus, he wouldn’t- he couldn’t let his brother down, not when he came back.
Papyrus sighed pulling Sans’ against him like a rough and rather awkward hug, immediately Sans felt the thrum of his soul inside his head. There was a wave of light that warmed his whole body, and just as quick it was gone.
“Move!” Papyrus pushed Edge away from him and jumped back, Sans mimicked his movement as a series of bones thunked into the ground narrowly missing his feet. Sans couldn’t believe how good he felt, what had Papyrus done? He lifted his sleeve and saw that his wounds were glowing a bright red-orange colour. He looked at his brother curiously
“It’s temporary, we need to finish this quick; give me all the pertinent information now!”
“U-um, the fucked up looking Sans has all the same abilities as me and these… strings I dunno. You can’t get caught by them and Papyrus? Leave the blue one alone.”
“That thing is you? I don’t understand…”
“Not important right now- We just need to get him out of here or he’ll kill everyone!”
Papyrus gritted his teeth, looking back to Error who just wore a large grin as spindly bright blue strings floated upwards from his fingers. Edge in his rejuvenated state started his attack with bones and running towards Error trying to close some of the distance. Error responded with his own projectiles, his opponent side stepped them easily.
Blueberry had himself pressed against the edge of the forest eyes wide trying to hold back more tears, this was just too much, too real. He’d heard and seen two of those dog monsters die before he closed his eyes, monsters who in his timeline were friends! Blueberry fell to his knees completely overwhelmed; he just wanted to go home, see his brother, sleep in his bed, and train with Alphys again. Why did this have to happen, why him?
Error was struggling. Underfell was dark and his eyesight was bad as it was without the added environment disadvantage, he could barely make out his two adversaries. For the most part it was a fury of bones and with them all being a similar colour was just another strike against him and to top it all off he’d gotten himself into a fight with two of the strongest monsters in this universe. Error knew he was outmatched and what he needed to do was find a way to escape, well aware that this Papyrus wasn’t one to just let him turn his back and run for the anti-void. He threw another series of bones mostly trying to buy time and an opportunity.
“I see your aim hasn’t gotten any better.” Sans’ taunted
“I just missed watching you dance for me, but since you seem so bored why don’t we get serious!” Error summoned two gaster blasters looking just as malformed as him and released a quick burst of powerful white magic. The blast lit up the whole area briefly blinding both Papyrus and Sans as they avoided the attack.
“Ya alright, two can play this game!” Sans summoned gasters of his own quickly ducking to safety as one was immediately destroyed with another blinding explosion. Error cackled as he hung in the air, sets of strings attached to his blasters. Papyrus created a barrage of bones giving his brother some cover to run to the side, Error pulled his left gaster blaster swinging it around in front of him releasing a shot heading towards Papyrus. He dove forwards deftly avoiding the beam and watched with a small grin as Error followed through with the momentum causing him to spin around. With a well-timed series of bones Papyrus cut the strings sending Error flying backwards his eyes opening as he watched his blasters go in the opposite direction with one hurtling towards Blueberry.
“Nghh-!” Error’s body started to glitch excessively the word ‘error’ clouding his vision; he was rapidly heading towards the ground, he was blind, and Blueberry was going to die.
Edge was moving before he registered what he was doing, the small skeleton was curled in the snow head in his hands probably wasn’t even aware of what was happening. His remaining gaster had come up behind him propelling him forward at a much faster pace, he flicked his eyes to the stray gaster; fuck what was he doing!
Blueberry looked up words dying in his throat as horror made its way onto his features. Error’s blaster looked massive as it came towards him and his whole body froze. It felt like he had been hit by a wall his head snapping back and the loudest noise he had ever heard sent out shock waves from behind him. He heard trees ripping, bones breaking and felt a hot hand hold his head close to what felt like a chest.
Edge could’ve laughed if the realization of what he had just done wasn’t making him start to shake. When he made it to blueberry he was on his knees crashing into the smaller skeleton and continued to slide through the snow out of harm’s way. He felt his blaster get hit with Error’s as they both careened into the forest, it made Edge want to puke from how close it was.
“H-hey are you okay?” His voice quivered as he stared down at the quiet Sans.
Blueberry could feel him shaking as he loosened his grip, he turned to look up at him trying to form a reply before there was another voice shouting in the distance.
“What the hell was that you fucking MORON!” Papyrus was livid.
“Where in your thick skull did you ever think that was a good idea? I can think of at least five other ways- IMBECILE!” He tripped over his words too mad to even be able to think straight as he stomped towards the two rather terrified looking Sanses.
Edge quickly released his hold not wanting Blueberry to feel his tremours and he stood up to meet his brother. He suddenly felt very choked, his soul felt cold and his body froze. He looked down and watched with terror as his soul was pulled out from his ribcage, blue strings knotted all around it.
“E n o u g h.” Error’s voice crackled darkly.
Papyrus paused in his steps as he went back into a fighting stance ready to strike but unsure of how to proceed. Edge frantically pulled at the strings and cried out when a searing sharp pain tore through his entire body.
“S-stop!” Blueberry pleaded to Error who seemed barely aware of his existence. He had a crazed stare that bore directly into Papyrus as he tightened the strings on the whimpering Edge pulling him closer until he was only a couple feet in front of Error.
“Now doesn’t this look familiar…” Error chuckled lowly and Blueberry flinched.
“Make any move at all and I will kill your brother before you can even blink.”
“Error… Please you don’t wanna do this, l-let’s just go home. We- we didn’t come here for this.” Blueberry held his gloved hands tightly against his chest taking small steps towards Error.
“Home? You don’t HAVE a home!” Error’s voice was hard to understand as the glitching increased, the words beginning to cover his eyes again.
“Let’s go Error, Please I don’t want to be here anymore!” Blueberry pressed on loudly, desperately.
“Kill him.”
Shocked eyes all turned towards Papyrus.
“P-paps?” Blueberry squeaked.
“Boss…” Edge became devoid of emotion his eye sockets sinking into blackness. His body still shook as he looked to the ground; it seemed so far away and everything slowed down.
“Either you will or you won’t” Papyrus took a step forward sharp bone in hand and Error took a small step back.
“I will!”
“Then do it! Because in that second, you will become vulnerable but I won’t be” Papyrus took another step forward.
Error’s vision was becoming more obscured and his body hurt from the long stretch of aggressive tearing at his existence. He look this Papyrus in the eye and knew he meant it, he could probably still kill this Sans and manage to avoid a killing blow but did he want to risk it?
“Heh, and here I thought I was cold…” Error raised his free hand opening a connection from Underfell to the anti-void.
“I just came here for some chocolate y’know? I didn’t expect all this” Error laughed light heartedly and gave a quick glance to Blueberry who shuddered and side stepped towards the anti-void.
“Don’t come back.” Papyrus said through gritted teeth, he had never let an enemy get away before.
Error with Blueberry stepped into the anti-void, strings still attached to Edge’s soul and they both stood there as it began to slowly close.
“Oh I’ll be back and the next time you see me?” He lowered his voice into a menacing tone “It’ll be too late.”
The gap closed cutting the strings and they faded away into nothingness, freeing Edge’s soul to return inside of his ribcage. Papyrus roared in anger shooting bones to where the hole was and they kept going until crashing in the doors of the Ruins. Edge’s body collapsed hitting the ground with a solid thud and Papyrus walked up letting out a frustrated sigh; he was out cold.The wounds in his arms had begun to bleed again and Papyrus huffed as he picked him up with his arms supporting his back and under his knees. Papyrus walked home with Sans in his arms his mind buzzing, how long had his brother known of the existence of Error? Why hadn’t he told him? How were they going to fortify Underfell for when he comes back?
“I shouldn’t have let him get away…” he muttered looking down at the pained face his brother was wearing while unconscious.
Things were going to change.