Chapter Text
Sci startled awake, a wave of Gasoline and rust wafting through his nose.
He couldn’t tell where he was- in-front of him was insanely dark.
He couldn’t see through it..
Couldn’t feel his glasses on his face- and realizing now, his arms were tied up into the air.
So tight he could barely move, and when he did try so much as to yank little, there was a distinct snagging that pulled back.
A light, airy glow filtered down onto the floor from behind him.. like a window cracked open.
He noticed it, his feet dangling inches above the ground.
Tilting his head as far as he could, he recognised something strange about his surroundings.
They were entirely different than where he was just a few seconds before.
At least.. in his memory.
His skull ached, with a new pulse that.. if he could guess, came from something blunt.
There was this.. clinking, in the background that brought him into focus.
A soft, yet agressively bright light filtered down onto him. A sound- like the trinkling of water, hitting metal. Water.
Or.. rain? Sci wasnt sure. He couldnt spin around to see it.
He couldn't feel the glasses on his face- did he even have his glasses? His eyes couldn't focus on anything in the dark, and even if he tried, he'd only strain them. Everything was slightly blurry.
He was.. confused, to say the least.
His first question was WHERE AM I?? which wasn't.. very easy to solve.
He knew he was in a dark place, dangling in the air like a bone-pinata.
The soul-beat in his ears slowed, yet his chest felt heavier than he ever remembered it being.
Each breath was tainted by the air, which
A shiver ran up his back as cool air brushed up his spine.
He tried to remember back, his mind feeling smoggy.
He was in his office, after just being told that.. "No, you can't use Dream as a test subject." Which wouldve been fine, if he hadn't banked his whole idea over it.
The idea was, that he could make them stronger. SO THEY DIDNT HAVE TO FIGHT THOSE.. evil guys, anymore?
He could inject liquid Positivity into them- and if it worked, which it WOULD... Would make them unstoppable. No more running.
It was to make the multiverse a safer place.
Why would they.. not accept that?
Why did they not trust him THIS time, but trusted his maybes and ifs when he was studying Code Manipulation, which is way more dangerous.
They knew him not to do risky things unless they were deeply serious!
Yanked away from his thoughts, he was thrown back into his surroundings.
Tensing at the sound of scraping metal and footsteps.
The pitter-patter stopped, and now it was frighteningly silent.
He struggled to stand, seeming to forget that he was in air. He only wobbled.
There was a click, and suddenly..
Light descended upon everything inside the room, but somehow, only from behind him. A soft, yet aggressively bright light that nearly blinded him.
Sci tried to make himself look limp as he previously was.
Like he hadn't woken up- that he wasn't fully aware of everything that might happen to him.
Three sets of footsteps entered the room.
Two louder- maybe heavier monsters?
One probably smaller, which was trailing behind.
"Heyy, do ya think we'll get payed for this, H?" A sly, smooth voice asked.
It sounded like they were right behind him.
"W're never paid." A gruffer one answered, their voice echoing through the room. 'H' apparently.
The louder sounds collided with a ruffle of clothing.. noise. "Get on withhit."
Sci strained to keep himself as silent and dead as possible, like a opossum hanging by it's tail.
He was helpless to do anything else- he could feel wind trickling up his back.
"Quit it!" The slyer voice dropped into a hasty growl.. with a shuffling of feet that suggested pushback.
Sci twinged, the voice becoming way more grating on his ear-holes. "I'm second in command! I'm basically YOUR leader."
"Funny." A new one sneered, starting low and raising up. "Don't let that new role get to your head."
Sci heard a huff behind him, following a rolling.. crunching sound.
Like.. something with tiny, rusty wheels.
He imagined one of those lame little cart-trays you'd have to pull around.
Something- someone moved behind him.
"'At least th'boss should'a given us actual equipment.." 'H' grumbled within earshot.
His voice was recognizable, heavy on the accent.
"Nah. I like these rusty things. Adds an air of "Tetanus" to the torture."
The monster behind him purred, sending a shudder up his spine.
They were gathering something in their hand- something metallic, he heard it click against the side of the tray.
What he thought was a tray, that is.
"Of course you would." The lower voice rumbled, rousing the 'second in command' to snap.
"YEAH. I WOULD." They barked, with Sci just now realizing that.. they were the monster that was right behind him.
"You- you know what those Star-shits say? DONT SAY ANYTHING IF YOU DONT HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY."
"Oh yeah. All you'll get is a slap on the wrist if this one dies."
"'M g'na be on kitchen duty forra month.." 'H' sniffed.
Sci gulped. He hadn't noticed he was . shaking.
He tried to still his movements, but it was instinctual, and he couldn't stop it before his captors noticed.
"Look who's awake.." The 'commanding' voice dropped, and with that everything was quiet.
Sci shut his eyes, air whipping around him as they spun him to meet face-to-face. A strong hand wrapped across his face, prodding his eyes until they opened.
Dark, impossibly round eye sockets confronted his. Black tear-like streaks lined along the Sans's face.
Sci.. recognized this face.
He knew it quite well, actually.
His mind brought up the posters in the Omega timeline, and, while the faces in them were mostly smudgey and unrecognizable, there was only one that stood out among them all.
He came to a realization that..
One of, if not, the most wanted and infamous serial killers in the ENTIRE MULTIVERSE stood infront of him.
A Sans who was known for picking apart his victims while they were still alive, and dumping their burned, broken, tattered bodies once he'd finished with them.
They'd be found as a dusting, decript corpse despite sustaining more than enough physical damage that it was practically impossible.
Sci had studied his victims for a time, but it was way too gorey for him to continue.
There were moments in his experimenting with samples from the rotting bodies where he'd felt paranoid, as if something.. or someone was watching him.
He'd always chalked it up to anxiety after seeing what happens when a body, so horribly wrong and bent, still manages to move it's eyes.
..and apparently, The Killer aligned with The Bad Sans Faction now- maybe he was always linked to it, the way the monsters were always weirdly connected to the timelines the faction destroyed.
Refugees, monsters who told their tales of escape in taverns, and even those who worked closely with The Star Sanses.
Whatever that horrible faction wanted with Sci now-- it couldn't be good.
The Killer must've noticed the look of fear on Sci's face, his grin growing wide and uncanny across his face. "Recognize me, Star-scum?" He purred, staring right into his soul, almost.
The scientist flailed, trying, and failing to kick him away. Killer held him still, gripping him firmly by his jaw.
He grit his teeth, knowing exactly what this murderer would want to do first.
He’d cut off his tongue.
Break his jaw, reorganize his teeth.
Killer glanced over his shoulder to look at the other two monsters in the room, who had periodically straightened up to look even more menacing than they already were.
One sans was in a hood that shielded most, if not all of his face. He sat in an office chair, looking almost dazed.. as if he were spinning.
The other was larger than the two, and already looked quite menacing on his own. If it weren’t for the blood-red eye in his socket, Sci would consider him one of the canny ones.. Like how humans thought of gorillas in captivity.
Would look cute on a poster.. maybe., but will rip you to shreds if you look at them funny.
"This guy's awake!" The deranged killer announced with that gut-wrenching smile.
-
"Get. get away from me- don't touch me!" Sci couldn't help the shiver in his voice- couldn't help how HELPLESS he was.
The Killer had picked up a particularly sharp, dangerous object from the afforementioned table beside him, and now was taunting him with it.
It was a knife, and with the way he hadn't cut into the scientist's bone yet was.. almost something to be excited about.
He traced a finger along the serrated edge, drawing a small amount of blood from his own marrow.
It'd looked like he accidentally cut into his own hand, but he hadn't reacted like any normal monster would.
Silently, he wiped the excess of his blood across Sci's cheek, almost mindlessly. Sci drew back his head, eyes still locked on the knife in his tormentor's hand.
He tried not to move, so not to be nicked by the blade.
"Don't kill me, don't."
"Not planning to." Killer hummed, and Like it was some special game, he raised the blade to the scientist's neck. "Unless I.."
He wrapped his other hand around the back of Sci's neck, pulling him forward as he pressed the blade against the crooks where his bone separated.
Sci shuddered at the foreign, uncomfortable, frankly painful feeling.
He struggled out his next words.
"I-I'll do anything. please!"
Killer chuckled, laughed, even.
"Quit that." The unnamed monster growled. "We need the scientist alive, not cut up into itty-bitty pieces."
"Doesn't mean i can't scare him." Killer shifted, glancing over his shoulder.
"C'mon, Kiki, th'boss doesnt like when you.." 'H' sparked up, trailing off at the look the Killer gave him.
"Horror. Don't act like you'd do anything less.. and Murder, stop fucking commenting on my work! this is an art!"
"Weird art." Murder said, judgementally.
Horror half-nodded, pulling a face.
"Aren't you afraid of getting demoted?"
He continued, seeming to poke an open wound in the killer's psyche.
"We'll all be punished."
Killer hissed through his teeth, nearly peircing into Sci's actual neck. He struggled, which alerted his captor before it cut further.
The killer pulled it away, a few drops of fresh blood on the edge of the blade. He grumbled, dropping the knife into the dish with a clank, and pushing the rustic table out of his way.
He released his grip on Sci's neck.
"I wasn't ACTUALLY gonna kill him." Killer pointed out. "Just.. making him think I was!"
"Uh-huh." Horror said, disbelievingly. "really.." Murder sighed.
"Let's split. This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies."
-
The two bigger skeletons, Horror and Killer, had left, leaving Murder to pick up the pieces. He was silent, and the only times he spoke to Sci were to ramble off directions.
Once freed, Sci had tried to run but that was short-lived.. and he was eventually caught no more than a minute after.