Above Suspicion

Chapter One - The Plan

 "So, I've been thinking..."

 Every skull in the conference room turned. Today's meeting was unusually tense. Ink and Dream hadn't been very talkative. Sci was standing quietly at Ink's side, nervously messing with his pen. When they looked back to the owner of the voice, Ink, his eye-lights had an... abnormal glow to them while his small smirk was strained. "Last time I battled Error-" The tenseness seemed to only tighten at the mention of the Destroyer. "I noticed something..." They blinked and he started to elaborate.

 "We were fighting in a Undertale copy, #56, I believe. He was close to destroying the Au's code." He stopped. Was he really doing the right thing? He can't help but get a bad feeling in his stomach. He looked over to Dream, who only nodded for him to continue. He sighed internally. It was probably just his vials talking. "I saw him looked at the Papyrus of the Au, and then he just-kinda stopped? It took me days later, after the fight, to finally realize it." Every socket was on him now, every backside was pulled forward balance at the edge of their seats with anticipation.

 "Error is still a sans." That confused them. They already new that, why was Ink telling them something they already know? The atmosphere seemed to lighten up, as everyone was now looking on with a unimpressed stare. Fell seem to get angry at the statement, choosing to voice then keep it in. "Took ya long enough-" Before he could finish, hands were slammed down on the table as the bearer quickly stood up. "I'm being serious, Fell. Think about it. Every Sans has two weaknesses, their low stamina, and their brother." He held up two fingers, looking away from Fell, who sighed in relief, and now facing the rest. "So with that, I thought of a plan." He gestured towards the doorway with a yell, "You can come in now, Gaffe."

 The response was slow. They could all hear the hesitant footsteps of whoever was behind the door, then a turn of the knob. The door opened just a bit, a purple socket peeking through the gap. "It's okay, Gaffe. Come in." The door opened even more this time, the prodding of Ink seemed to work.

 As soon as he was in sight of the others, alarms went off. One of the more violent Sanses, Swapfell sans, summoned a blaster, directing it towards the doorway. Ink was quick to react, he jumped in front of the Papyrus, sending a cold glare at Rasp. "Don't do it Rasp, he's a friend. And I spent a very long time on creating him." The other occupants were speechless, aside from Dream and Sci. 

 Like most Papyrus's, he was tall, maybe even taller than Aster, Echotale Papyrus. Instead of white, his bones were black, teeth were blue, and sockets were purple. He wasn't wearing a shirt, leaving his ribs out for the world to see. His red jacket was long, ending at his hips and leading down to his blue belt and black pants that were stuffed in to his purple boots. The scarf around his neck was, thankfully, covering his neck and clavicle. But oddly enough he didn't glitch around or as badly as the Destroyer.

 The council erupted. "Ink, what the absolute fucking hell are you thinking! You made a Second Destroyer! Why?! Is one not enough?!" Multiple skeletons went to attack but were stopped by a bright light and a shout. "Everyone, calm down!" It was Dream, he teleported in front of the terrified Gaffe, along side Ink with his hands outstretched in a stopping motion. "He's not a threat! Ink made him with a small amount of magic, so he can barley even do a basic bone attack!" That seemed to calm them down. They hesitantly dispersed their bones and blasters before shakily taking their seats.

 Dream nodded to Ink before gently turning to a terrified Gaffe. His sockets were wide, and form was shaking like a leaf but he continued to stand tall. He looked down to face the Creator. "I-Ink, do they... do they not like me?" It was a heartbreaking sight for the judges in the room, they immediately regretted their actions. The blank look Ink sent them was enough to send them over the edge and they internally sighed in relief when he turned to reassure the taller. "What! Of course not! That's just their way of welcoming you!" He lied, turning back to them with empty sockets, "Right, guys?" They all nodded furiously.

 "B-But they-" Ink cut him off was gently pushed him towards the front of the room. "Don't worry about it! They're real nice once you get to know them!" He persuaded, causing Gaffe to sigh. Gaffe glanced towards the council. "I don't think I want to get to know them..." Ink was the only one close enough to hear the whisper but didn't reply. Once they were at the front, Dream started to explain. "Ink thought of a plan to create a Papyrus that would be able to connect with the Destroyer so that we could be able to gather information and possibly even convert Error to our side." Once finished, Ink butted in, excitedly introducing his newest creation.

 "This is Gaffe, I based him off of Error but he's obviously very different in personality. I originally planned to have him interact with Error and report back to us, but that could go horribly wrong. So instead, I had Sci help create and install a camera and mic into Gaffe so we could see what he's seeing." He smiled at the shocked faces as Gaffe waved shyly from behind Ink. He turned to Sci, who's chest was puffed out at the credit given to him, and nodded. Sci quickly pulled out a small remote, pressing it caused a screen to emit down from the ceiling. He pressed another button to turning the screen on. The council watched as they showed up from Gaffe's point of view. "First off, I was able to connect my camera's with Ink's magic to Gaffe's eye sockets, so you can't remove them without completely damaging his vision. Secondly, the microphone I placed along with a receiver so we'll be able to communicate and send commands through this transmitter." He pulled out a small device, before sheepishly laughing to himself.

 "Um..." All attention was snapped towards Gaffe, who jumped at the quick reaction. "Yes, Gaffe?" Ink looked up at him in question. The taller looked away shyly, nervously wringing his hands together. "Isn't this wrong? Were practically invading his privacy and tricking him in the process. Didn't you tell me that were trying to h-help him?" He looked back at Ink, the strained smile on his face scared him. Ink stayed quiet before answering. "We are helping him, Gaffe. He just won't let us, so we had to resort to a different way to do it." His smile left, leaving only a blank stare towards him. "You do want to help him. Don't you, Gaffe?" 

 Gaffe gulped before answering. "Y-yes."

-Chapter End-

Word Count : 1187