Mosaic [Undertale AUs]

Ch2 - Awake

Pyrite's POV

Sleep was not an uncommon state for you to be in. The comforting blackness gave you a momentary reprieve from the painful experiments so frequently conducted upon your frail body. It was the only sense of solitude somebody in your situation was able to obtain, and the pain was always more distant if you weren't awake to register it.

Something felt different this time, though. Your dreamless state left you vaguely aware of what was happening around you even whilst unconscious, yet whatever words were shared, whatever actions transpired, slipped by meaninglessly, like dreams unable to be grasped by the waking mind.

The blackness became deeper for a while. You slept, and you slept for such a long time. Uninterrupted, undisturbed. It was rare you would be allowed to rest for such a long time, but your body was keep to snatch the chance up, desperate for the chance of a proper rest.

When you awoke, your entire body ached. From the exhaustion or the medical abuse, you weren't sure. The sharp pain in your skull was intense enough that bile rose and sour magic rose in your chest, and you shot up to a seated position so you wouldn't choke as you threw up. It burned as you heaved, and part of you grimaced at the realisation of magic now wasted.

It took a few minutes until your nausea finally settled, a soft groan escaping you. Your pale blue orbs flickered to life, barely taking in the scene around you, vision blurred. Your eyelights couldn't seem to quite focus on anything, leaving everything hazy, so you tried to focus on your other senses for the moment.

The first thing you noticed was that the air was fresher. There was no scent of harsh chemicals like bleach and ammonia like there normally was. There was a breese, too, a little cold, yet comforting on your aching bones. You could hear the rustle of leaves, the distant sound of animals moving through foliage, maybe even a stream.

Vision finally clear, you were thankful that there were no overbearing fluorescent lights to smother your senses. It was clear you were somewhere new, yet the realisation was slow to dawn upon you. You just kept staring, trying to process why everything was so strange and different.

Soft clothes adorned your figure. What happened to the medical gown? You touched the fabric curiously, phalanges trembling as you did so. The fabric was damp with water, but so was the soil beneath you, leading you to wonder if perhaps it had been raining at some point. Maybe it still was, but you weren't so sure since this place was dense with trees.

...Trees? You remembered seeing them in the underground, once, but not these ones, and not this many. Everything seemed so much more overgrown here. So much nicer. The density of magic in the air was so much different too, far too low than what you remembered the underground having been - but what did that mean? Where were you? How did you get here?

And then you looked up and saw the sky. Not the ceiling of the underground, but the sky. Your sockets teared up at the implications and you were unable to tear your gaze away from it. It was so beautiful. The sunlight was warm, the breeze was cool, the sky was gorgeous, and it was all just so new.

This wasn't the Nexus Facility. This wasn't even the Underground anymore. You were somewhere else. Somewhere above ground. It seemed impossible, but all this was far too real to be an illusion. 

How had this happened, though?

The memories came crashing back. You remembered Gaster having dragged you from your cell, strapping you down in one of the lab rooms so he could continue his experiments with the void.

His explanations were always such a long winded ramble that you never managed to follow them beyond the very basics, but from what you understood, he wanted to utilise the void as a power source? And he was trying to bind you to it, to this place, in hopes to use you to access it? Or... something?

You didn't remember much of the experiment itself, but you remembered feeling exposed and being in absolute agony. There was a deafening noise, the scent of rotten magic, and for a moment, you felt your body teetering to the edge of dusting. You had genuinely felt like you were dying, like everything was slipping away into oblivion. And at that point, with how much pain you were in, you welcomed that. You welcomed death.

But then there was shouting. Flashing lights. You think there might have been sirens, too, but it was hard to process anything that was happening. One moment, you were strapped to that cold metal table, sobbing and wanting to die, and the next, you were being carried by a muscular dinosaur woman, held in a gentle yet firm grip.

She was running with you in her arms, and there was a skeleton clearing the way, dusting everybody in sight. You think it was mostly doctors, people complicit in your pain. Surely that couldn't have really been Sans, though, could it? There was so much dust and magic in the air.  It was definitely Sans' magic, though. You were sure of it. You would recognise his' magic anywhere.

But you never got a chance to ask what was happening, or to talk to him. The pain, the exhaustion, it swallowed you up, and whatever happened between then and now was lost to sleep. 

And now you were awake, and Sans was nowhere in sight. Neither was the woman. You were alone.

You let out a shaky breath. Absent-mindedly, your hands slipped into the pockets of the dull hoody you were wearing. It still felt strange wearing such different clothes, but honestly, they were so much more comfortable than the paper gown. Warm, modest, you liked this.

But as your hands rested in the pockets, you felt something. Paper, maybe? Curious, you pulled it out, unfolding it and reading its contents.

'Papyrus. If You Are Reading This, Undyne's Machine Worked And You Are In A New Timeline. I Am Certain Wherever You End Up Will Be Better Than Here. Stay Safe And Keep Moving. I Will Find A Way To Join You When Things Die Down Here. I Transferred Some Gold To You As Well, I Hope It Is Enough To Get By For A While. –S'