Broken Souls

Chapter 7 - Defying Orders

Despite what he'd told Papyrus, Sans was quite clearly not going to be back by dinner time. It had been an hour since Papyrus had eaten and he'd still not received any sort of message from his brother explaining where he was. Papyrus was getting worried, more so with every minute that passed. He'd rung Sans multiple times to no avail, each try only resulting in the monotonous beep that signalled a message being recorded. Each time, Papyrus hung up, waited another five minutes before trying again. At this point, he'd be lucky if Sans ever answered, even if it was just to put his brother at ease.

When Papyrus' phone rang, it scared him out of his metaphorical skin. He ran to answer, relief swelling up in his Soul.

"Hello?" he asked nervously. The voice that replied was not Sans' but Asgore's.

"Ah! Papyrus. This may seem rather sudden but is your brother with you?" the King asked.

"Well no... He hasn't been back from his meeting in an hour. I'm getting very worried." And then, because Papyrus wasn't used to talking to the king, "Your majesty."

Asgore sighed,

"He disappeared from the meeting in frustration. None of us have any idea where he would have gone."

"That is unusual. Sans hardly ever gets angry." Papyrus pointed out.

"We know... But that is a story for another time, right now I need you to find him." Asgore said, his tone sounded more hopeful, "Any idea where he might be?"

Papyrus hummed a small tune as he ran through Sans' favourite places to go when he was upset. When he was in the Underground, Sans used to go to the big door by the Ruins, but Queen Toriel wasn't there anymore. Papyrus knew that Sans wasn't in his bedroom upstairs so the next possible place was...

"Our basement in Snowdin!" Papyrus exclaimed. There was silence from the other end. Finally Asgore spoke,

"You mean he went back Underground?"

"I think so! He sometimes went into our basement for hours to 'work' whenever he needed to calm down." Papyrus explained. Asgore chuckled,

"Thank you Papyrus. Good luck finding him, Tori has some food for you to take as well, so pick that up before you go."

"Okay! Thank you your majesty!"

===

He was following Sans. Why? He didn't know. His other son was worried sick yet he still chose to follow Sans. They were in the brother's basement now, left exactly as it had been when the monsters were freed. The only difference was the pink blanket that had once covered the broken machine was now on the floor in a heap. He wondered if it would be worth the effort to help, but after the last stunt he pulled, his Soul was even more scattered than ever. He resigned to just watch.

===

Sans was hunched over the desk, scrawling on some paper. He'd been working on the finalization of the blueprints for a couple of hours now and he'd come to the conclusion that on top of being the most complex machine in existence, Sans had realised that the parts needed would be hugely expensive. He'd started out confident that he could rescue him. He'd even snapped at his friends as they tried to stop him. Oh how he wished he could tell them, explain to them how important this person was to him. Maybe then they would realise how desperate Sans was, maybe then they would give him the help he needed. But you can't talk about someone who doesn't exist...

Now, Sans was stuck building a machine destined to fail, not even able to ask for Papyrus's help for fear of him telling the others. He Checked himself out of curiosity and felt his Soul sink even further at the sight of his 1 HP; he couldn't do this. One mistake, just one explosion would dust him. This machine couldn't be completed with one try, that was impossible.