Fall of the Empire [ Sans x Reader ]

/4\

Freedom.

How foreign the word seemed to you. What was freedom? How could someone expect to know a concept if they had never experienced it?

You watched as Gaster slowly descended from the railing and fell in almost what appeared to be slow motion towards a fiery inferno that would his downfall. I did it, you thought to yourself, bewildered by your actions. Yet somehow, this seemed too easy. Things never came this easily, especially not with Gaster in play.

But that didn't matter. None of it mattered to you. For the time being, you and Sans were free. You froze suddenly, the memories replaying in your mind. Gaster's fist smashing into what remained of Papyrus' dying form. Not all of us will get a chance to see freedom, you thought miserably and slowly trudged back to Sans' holding cell.

How would Sans react when he found out his brother had died?

A sick thought manifested inside your mind, yet some part of you deemed it necessary. You sped towards a corner of the laboratory that Gaster had secluded himself in for many days and nights - laboring to create the perfect specimens for his experiments.

Yes, you remembered each and every one of his failed experiments that had come before Sans and Papyrus. You could recall their screams in an almost inhuman vivid detail. I'm not entirely human, you thought with a smirk and adjusted your shoulders, feeling the exposed bones of your back brush against the light green sheet that you wore as clothing.

It had been a secret that you and Gaster had guarded carefully. When you had first been created as an artificial human, something had failed from within you. As an act of desperation, Gaster had inserted a portion of his DNA into your body as an attempt to save your life.

Indeed it had worked, but you now existed as a freakish human-skeletal hybrid. For a few months you had assumed you were related to Sans and Papyrus - until Gaster had made it clear that they were designed as skeletons, but shared no DNA with him.

In a way, it had been a relief for you. You had assumed that all the deceased lab experiments had been your siblings. You remembered the sick feeling that stirred inside your stomach as you had carried their lifeless bodies to the fire pit and watched them burn...

You shook off the memories and examined the room before you. Multiple tubes were attached to the wall from which you suspected were used to sustain the artificial lifeforms that Gaster created when they were in their infancy. You placed a hand against a tube that had been long since shut down. Your name was engraved in childish handwriting over the word Human that had been written by Gaster.

You could remember the branding irons that he had placed upon your back as punishment from damaging the engraving.

With a shaking hand, you began to assemble two small microchips. They were no more than a fingernail in diameter, yet you felt an overwhelming sense of dread as you placed one in the back of your skull.

Carefully, you carried the remaining microchip back to Sans and placed it in the back of his skull. There was a faint beeping noise and the projection of Papyrus appeared before you. You touched the hologram lightly and recoiled when you discovered it was solid. Your plan had worked.

It was necessary.

"Sans wake up," you whispered softly. He stirred and slowly rose to his feet.

"[Y/N]?" Sans murmured and shuffled out from his cage. You noticed that there was a faint blue aura that surrounded him. "Gaster placed an artificial soul inside of me," he answered after noticing the confused expression plastered on your face. "He was going to use me and Papyrus as vessels to break the Barrier.

"Papyrus..." he trailed off, an expression of horror on his face. "[Y/N], Gaster killed him! Before everything went dark, I saw the dust fall from the operating table..."

"I AM ALIVE BROTHER!" the hologram of Papyrus declared happily and bounded over to the two of you. "IT WAS NOTHING MORE THAN AN ILLUSION THANKFULLY!"

An illusion, you thought with a note of disgust at his choice of words. You couldn't help but recoil from the louder tone the hologram of Papyrus had taken on. In your haste you had forgotten to adjust that setting.

Sans hesitated for a moment, analyzing the hologram of his brother. "Papyrus..." Light blue tears welled in the corners of his eyesockets. "I-I thought you were dead." You relaxed slightly, relieved that he had fallen for the illusion.

"Where is Gaster?" Sans asked, straightening himself up suddenly. His eyesockets had lost their friendly light that you had grown used to. "He won't like it that I left the cage..." He shuddered slightly, which you assumed that he was recalling various torture methods that had been inflicted upon him as disciplinary methods.

"I killed him," you said, hatred lacing your words. Hysteria rose in the back of your throat. Was killed even the right word to describe what had happened to him? You had sentenced him to feel the fiery inferno of his death for an eternity.

Papyrus and Sans both fixated their gazes on you, reflecting both awe and disbelief. You couldn't suppress the chills that racked your spine of how realistic your hologram of Papyrus had turned out to be. "KILLED HIM?!" Papyrus exclaimed, still retaining the child-like innocence he had possessed throughout your times in the lab. "DOES THAT MEAN HE'S-"

"Dead," Sans replied, his voice taking on a monotone level. "How did you do it [Y/N]?" There was a sense of urgency coming from Sans, as if he believed that even death could not put an end to the Royal Scientist.

"I threw him into the Core," you replied and explained the events that had transpired. You hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether or not to explain the massive amount of magic you had channeled during the fight. "Something happened while we were fighting," you began, feeling an odd rush of anticipation coursing through you, "I used magic and that's what threw him over the edge and into the Core."

"HUMANS CAN'T USE MAGIC!" Papyrus exclaimed. "GASTER TOLD US-"

"Would you believe anything that damned excuse of a scientist said to us?" Sans snapped, turning to face his brother. "After everything we've been through, you can't possibly trust him!"

You froze suddenly, haunted by Sans' sudden change in mood. "We don't know what experiments Gaster did on us and the effects they can have," he continued, his tone much softer. Papyrus shifted uncomfortably and cast you a nervous glance, though you refused to look at him, feeling sickened by how much emotion your creation showed.

I'm not human, you protested, the words seeming to be at the edge of your tongue, threatening to spill out.

And suddenly you understood the concept of the word freedom that you had been so vainly trying to exploit. Freedom though defined as a word meaning without restraint to a burden, the entire concept of itself was a burden. Freedom started a chain reaction that threatened to consume the individual whom possessed it.

If you were free, how would you ensure that you stayed that way?

If you were free, how would you provide for yourself?

Your face fell down to Sans, the hologram of Papyrus unimportant in your gaze.

How would you keep the ones you loved alive?