The chaser sped along the tall grass of the plains toward the durien, the space between them growing smaller and smaller until they were only a few feet apart. Setting the Chaser to automatically chase the durien, Glen carefully climbled over the shattered windshield, crouched while making sure her feet didn't slip across the chaser's smooth panels, and leapt.
The durien roared as Glen landed heavily on its back and brought all six limbs down, bringing it to an instant halt. Glen scrambled for something to grab, but was sent flying over the durien's head to land on the ground with a painful thud.
The durien was on her in an instant, its reptilian maw open to chomp her in half. Glen caught the front of each jaw with Headache, the mechanical hands giving her just enough strength to keep the jaws from closing on her.
"Stop making this so difficult." Glen hissed through her own clenched teeth. She planted her foot on the durien's lower jaw and quickly flicked through her now-freed hand's Headache subsystems. Unfortunately, she didn't see the tongue snaking toward her until it was too late; it wrapped around her leg and pulled hard, making her fall to the roof of the durien's mouth just inches away from the reptile's sharp teeth, moments before the upper jaw slammed down.
The durien raised its head as it did when attempting to swallow difficult prey. When it finally lowered its head again, there were no bulges indicating Glen's presence.
The durien took a few steps before letting out a roar of surprise and immediately falling on its side, its legs lying in a tengled heap.
After a few moments, its mouth slowly opened to reveal a very slimy-looking Glen, one of her Headache units now ending in a syringe that resembled a turkey injector, the material resevoir now empty.
She let the creature's jaw fall once she was out and took a moment to close her eyes and breathe in the cool night air as the rainfall washed the stomach acid and other unsavory contents of the durien's stomach from her body.
The sound of clapping made her eyes shoot open again. She looked toward the sound to find Sans standing beside her idling Chaser, his usual grin plastered across his skull as he applauded.
"Just like you to get to the heart of things."
"No jokes, please." Glen said. "I can still smell its last meal."
"Hard to stomach, huh?"
Glen glowered at Sans for a moment before walking to the durien's hindquarters. Deactivating the injector and replacing it with her plasma cutter, she swiftly sliced the durien's tail off just above the creature's backside. It grunted in it's sleep, but the sedative Glen used was powerful; in another moment, it was fast asleep again.
"Won't it find it's loss of tail a pain in the butt? Er, so to speak?" Sans asked, grinning just a bit wider to make it clear his choice of words was not accidental.
"Duriens are innately magical beings." Glen said, rolling up the tail into a coils. "It'll take a month, maybe two for it to grow a new tail and be back to terrorizing livestock."
"Charming." Sans said. Once the tail was tucked away in Glen's pouch, she asked, "Any luck with Cimorene?"
"Well, yes and no. She has some hens' teeth, but she wants three quills from something called a darunite in exchange."
Glen winced. "Ugh. That might be a problem; the only darunite colony I've encountered is on Midraoss, and those buggers don't like me much."
"Should they?"
"I didn't misplace their goddess!' Glen snapped. "She deliberately vanished and left me holding the sack. I've tried to tell them, but they just won't listen!"
Shaking her head, she asked, "Any word from Tori?"
Sans's smile faded. "Frisk's running high-fever. Tori's brought in a doctor, but apparently, he still can't nail down why she's sick."
"Not surprised." Glen said. "Magical illnesses are a bit of a mystery even in my time. I just hope this recipe isn't bubkiss."
"It was in your notebook." Sans said, raising an eyeridge at her.
"Yeah, so is my Chzo Mythos fanfiction."
The durien shifted, the scales rubbing together sounding like a rack of armor being moved.
"Okay," Sans said in a quieter voice, "Let's continue this somewhere a bit dryer, eh?"
"Good idea." Glen said, taking his hand. "We still got a lot of stuff to collect."
Sans awoke with a start, the remnants of the Dream leaving him confused until he remembered that Glen's Sans was in fact a different Sans. He glanced around the modest little hotel room and found Artie asleep and snoring softly on one cot, three little bunny children snoring in unison around him. Chuckling softly, Sans quietly rose from his makeshift bed and slipped on his coat before stepping out of the room.
Snowdin was quiet; while there was no true day or night in the Underground, people tended to fall into a pattern. He'd seen it often, his own sleeping pattern being erratic at best. Still, the town wasn't completely deserted; several guards patrolled the area, many giving Sans looks of respect likely intended for 3177. Sans waved back; either way, it paid to be friendly.
His feet eventually led him to Grillby's. From the sounds coming from the front door, it was far from empty. Eager for something to eat, Sans pushed his way through the doors.
Alternate dimensions, parallel worlds, other realities … whatever you choose to call it, it is easy to fall back on the idea of the 'what if?' when describing them. "What if Frisk was a killer? What if the monsters were killers? What if the humans were monsters and vice-versa?" The problem with the 'what if' description is that it attempts to simply an entire reality, something that any Dreamer will warn you is foolish at best. Often, the differences in reality can come down to a great many things, lesser in scope than the 'what if' scenario, but nevertheless very surprising for one not expecting them.
Sans noticed the building was bigger on the outside, but hadn't thought much of it. Stepping into Grillby's, however, and finding it much more like the restaurant in Hotland's hotel, complete with stage, was a bit of a shock. The black chairs and tables, the soft lighting, the bar with its shelves of colored liquors and condiments gave the establishment the feel of a night club rather than a diner.
Still, the sudden shout of "Sans!" from a dozen mouths, one of which was Grillby himself, looking a little redder than Sans remembered, made Sans instantly feel at home. He waved and grinned at the other patrons, some of whom had familiar faces, before taking a stool at the bar.
"Hey, Grillby." Sans said.
Grillby nodded. "Welcome. Sans said you'd stop by."
"Well, I've never known me to be a liar.' Sans said with a shrug. "Can I get some ketchup?"
Grillby reached under the counter and set a full red container in front of Sans. "Been harder to make, what with the Foundation and all."
"I appreciate it." Sans said, fumbling in his coat pocket before producing a few coins.
Grillby raised a flaming eyebrow at Sans, a look of amusement on his face. "You? Pay? Then you really are from another dimension."
"Guilty as charged." Sans raised his bottle. "To becoming somewhat responsible."
"I have a wife and daughter, thank you very much." Grillby paused and added, "But I'll drink to you returning our Sans. This place hasn't been the same without him."
"Fair enough." Sans savored the taste of the ketchup, the slight bit of garlic as delightful as ever. Letting out a satisfied sigh, Sans asked, "Where is my other self? Kinda thought I'd run into him here."
Grillby opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by another loud shout of "Sans!"
Sans turned to see 3177 entering the bar. With fresh clothes, he really looked identical to Sans, though perhaps his smile wasn't quite so big. He nodded at Sans and walked over slowly, greeting a few others before taking the stool beside Sans.
"I weep for my tomato garden." Grillby said with a smirk as he set another ketchup bottle in front of 3177. Even Sans watched with amazement as 3177 downed most of the bottle in one long gulp.
"Ah." 3177 sighed. "It's been way too long since I had somethin' decent to eat. Those SCP bastards kept shovin' plates of this protein paste crap into my cell. If it weren't for the ketchup packets, I'd starved by now."
"They gave you condimints?" Grillby asked.
3177 finished off his bottle. "Not at first, but the lady watchin' my cage was nice enough to slip 'em in for me. Just about the only decent person I met over there."
3177 turned to Sans as Grillby took away the empty ketchup container. "So, how you findin' our little slice of home?"
"Different." Sans admitted. "But not bad, considering the Foundation goons are at your doorstep."
'Buddy, you don't know the half of it. Thanks, Grillby." 3177 nodded at the fiery bartender.
The parting of the stage curtain stopped further conversation. The velvet draping the stage was pulled away to reveal a fiery woman who could only have been Missus Grillby. Her purple flames licked about a stunning dress as she took the microphone and gestured at the band, who immediately began playing a slow jazz number.
Sans could only watch as Grillby's wife sang, her voice beautiful yet sad. Perhaps it was the song, Sans thought, though he suspected their situation with the SCP Foundation was more than enough cause for saddness.
"Hey."
Sans turned to see 3177 tugging at his coat sleeve. In a quiet voice, his other self asked, "So what did happen in your dimension?"
Sans took another swallow from his bottle before letting out a sigh. "Frisk was possessed. I don't know it it was this crud we call the ichor or if it was Princess Chara like it claimed; either way, she tore through the Underground killing everyone in her way."
"Papyrus?"
"Died buying time for the rest of Snowdin to escape." Sans said, focusing his vision on the label of his bottle. "All I found was his scarf, lying on the ground right the edge of town. I guess that's when I realized how serious things were … unfortunately, the kid was fast. I found Undyne as a pile of ash as I passed through waterfall, and one of Alphys's robots was lying broken in the lobby of the Hotland hotel. Nothing but little piles of ash everywhere."
"I'm sorry." 3177 said, his own gaze lowered. "Must've been tough."
"It was." Sans agreed. "It still is, to be honest, but after all this dimension hopping stuff … I dunno."
"About that," 3177 said, "How did that get started?"
"A human woman named Glen. She saved me from the Frisk of my dimension, helped bring down the barrier and stopped Asgore from destroying the surface. Turns out in her dimension, things all worked out."
"Yeah?"
"Monsters all over the galaxy, according to her. Ebott … the human settlement near the Underground."
"I remember." 3177 said in a quiet voice.
"Right." Sans said, "Well, apparently in her reality, we all live together. I'm sensing ol' Glen's hand in some of that, if there's any truth to my dreams. In any case, we were welcomed. We even got married."
"No kiddin'." 3177 said, a look of disbelief on his skull that quickly turned to astonishment. "Huh. Never thought we'd get hitched. Who's the lucky woman?"
"Queen Toriel, apparently." Sans nodded in response to the shocked look on 3177's face. "Yeah, that's what I said. Frisk lives with them as their kid too. Papyrus heads the town guard, and Alphys and Undyne eventually got hitched."
Chuckling, 3177 shook his head and said, "Well, it's nice to know someone got a happily ever after, even Paps. He'd like that."
The silence that followed that statement was all too telling. Sans put a hand on 3177's shoulder. "What happened?"
"That's the thing." 3177 said. "I don't know. The foundation goons, they grabbed everyone they could get their hands on. We got classified into a bunch of groups unless we cause real trouble, like me. Thing is, if you weren't a trouble-maker and they had extra of your 'type', they made you a D-class."
"D-class?"
"Just what they called it. Basically guinea pigs. They took volunteers at first, and … well, you know Papyrus. He wanted to help, he wanted to show that we could all work together. He volunteered."
3177 fell silent again. Sans waited patiently for the rest.
"Expendable." 3177 said, staring again at his ketchup container. "That's what D-class means. They do it to themselves, too; they used to throw D-class at me a few times to see how I'd react. That's where I found out what happens to D-class who survive the experiments."
"They're let go?" Sans asked. "Made into researchers or somethin'?"
"No." 3177 said, his voice quiet. "Mandatory execution. I thought the monsters would be exempted from that, but …" 3177 shook his head. "During my first escape, I found the area where they disposed of the bodies … and the ashes. And then … well, let's just say I found I had more LOVE than I care to admit. Did a number on 'em, and even got a few monsters out before they caught me, slapped me with my own designation, and tossed me in that cell."
Sans didn't know what to say to that. Then again, what could someone have said to Sans when he found his brother's scarf lying in the snow? All there really was to do was to drink in silence.
The beep of Sans's cell-phone came as a relief. Sans pulled out the phone to find a text message from Fuku, "Meet me at the Ruins, plz?"
"Well, this has been fun." Sans said, rising from his stool. "But my lady's calling for me."
"Your lady?" Grillby said as he took away the empty containers. "Anyone I know?"
"Er …"
"Nah." 3177 said with a carefree wave. "You go on; I'm gonna stay here a bit longer. Oh, and don't stay out too long; Alphys wants to see us tomorrow."
"Roger that." Sans fished out a few coins and left them on the counter for the bemused Grillby before heading out of the diner and across town to the Snowdin fields.
Nostalgia gripped him as he walked through the snow-covered fields. It had been awhile since he'd seen the place so much like it had been back in his dimension. It sparked so many memories: memories of his dog-friends of the Royal Guard, memories of Papyrus both as a child and as an adult tromping through the fields, memories of puzzles and pranks years passed.
Fuku was waiting for him just inside the passage to the ruins, the door already wide open.
"Hey." She said before giving him a small kiss. "Sorry to call you out here so late."
"Anything for the old ball and flame." He said with a grin.
She let out a snort. "Call me that again, and I'll show you flame, fluffy-bones."
Chuckling, Sans held out his arm. Fuku accepted it and leaned against him slightly as they walked into the Ruins. Toriel's home was much the same as it had been in the other dimensions, though notably cleaner than that of the Underfell dimension. Somehow, the sight of Toriel wasn't all that surprising. The Bossun woman was asleep in the living room, her glasses still on her head and an open book in her lap. Fuku held a finger to her lips, and Sans nodded in agreement before the two of them snuck out of Toriel's home.
"She must be exhausted, taking care of all those children." Fuku said as they passed the tree with the bare limbs in front of Toriel's house. "Sixty-eight children in all, believe it or not. Every child whose parents were taken."
"Doesn't surprise me." Sans said. "Tori of UNDR-Ground had her own little legion too. Heck, even your future step-mother loves the heck out of Frisk and Asriel. She's a natural mother, I guess."
Glancing at Fuku, Sans said, "Speakin' of moms, I heard your mom singing at Grillby's. Kinda surprised I didn't see you there."
"I thought about it." Fuku admitted, "But … well, the Fuku of this dimension was captured. If I go there, it might give them false hope, and even if they're not really my parents, I just can't do that to them."
"Fuku was captured?" Sans sighed and shook his head. "That's why Missus Grillby looked so sad. Man, this whole reality is kinda depressing. Monsters either trapped in cells or trapped in the Underground, chilren without their parents. Papyrus …"
After a few moments of silence, Fuku said, "I'm sorry. I was hoping we could talk about something to get our minds off all this mess."
"Oh? Got somethin' in mind?"
Her cheeks burned rosy. "Well … what if we hadn't been dragged from the UNDR-Ground? What would we have talked about?"
"Well, there's your father and Tori getting hitched." Sans said. "You seem fond of Tori, and I know Frisk has a soft spot for her."
"She does." Fuku agreed. "And Asriel's adjusted well, considering what he's been through. I still have a hard time imagining what it would be like, to exist being unable to feel happiness or love."
On impulse, Sans gave her a kiss on the cheek. Her cheeks burned red again. They strolled hand-in-hand through the puzzle-filled rooms. The room with the false floor was inactive, though Sans took care to carry both he and Fuku across with telekinesis. There was a permeating feel of peace seemingly exuded by the Ruins that helped ease the tension caused by their adventure.
"The thing is," Fuku said, her hand moving a flicker of flame from her eyes. "With Toriel and Dad getting married, our house feels a little cramped. It wasn't so bad when I was in college, but now that I'm going for my Doctorate, the house can be a bit … noisy."
"I'll bet." Sans said with a chuckle. "Asriel and Frisk running up and down the stairs constantly, the both of them poking into anything that makes them curious."
"Oh, you have no idea." She said, laughing as well. "They get into everything. Little troublemakers, that's what they are. I love 'em like, well, siblings, but I wish I had a quiet place to-"
"You could move in with me."
Fuku stopped and stared at him, making Sans blush. Rubbing the back of his head, he said, "Well, you already spend a lot of time at my place. You certainly do more than your share of keeping the place clean, somethin' I'm honestly a bit sorry about. I've got an extra bedroom, and having you there might give us a chance to see how it might be."
"How what might be?" Fuku asked, her voice quiet.
Feeling suddenly on the spot, Sans took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes. "How it might be for us to be living together. Y'know, as a couple. I mean, if you're interested in that sort of thing. I ain't tryin' to push you or-"
She interrupted him with a long, tender kiss. Her cheeks still red, she said, "How long have you been thinking about this?"
"Since before we left the UNDR-Ground." Sans admitted. "I was thinking about asking you the night Glen showed up, but … well, you know the rest."
"Sans." She said, squeezing his hands. "I think it's a great idea."
"You do?" Sans said, relief flooding through him.
"Mm-hmm." She leaned close to him, stopping just short of kissing him again. "But only if you promise me one thing."
"Yeah?"
"Pick up your socks."
Sans stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter, Fuku doing the same moments after. Their laughter was cut short by a sudden ringing from both of their phones.
Exchanging curious glances, Sans and Fuku pulled out their respective cell-phones, only to see a rabbit-man with a red face.
"Artie?" Sans and Fuku said together, exchanging curious looks.
"Where are you?" He asked, the screen shaking as though he were trying and failing to keep it steady.
"In the Ruins, near Old Home." Sans said. "What's wrong?"
"Snowdin's under attack!"
