Jake lifted his monitor at the sound of the door creaking open. Toriel was standing in the doorway, a dish of some sort in her hands. He started to rise when she quickly held a finger to her mouth.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLgSPvhL1Sn
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcioAXlRDqP
"Shh!"686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnCqT1IOcSs
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡte5jmdLooJ
Jake settled down and watched as the Bossun woman approached the sleeping form of Frisk and carefully laid the dish on the floor beside her bed. Jake scanned the object on the dish and identified it as some sort of confection due to the high level of sugars.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ39tY9Ftpgl
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRr2YTQ2hq6
Toriel patted Jake on the head before leaving the room silently. Jake remained active, however. Something about the room resonated with the memory files tucked away in his memory. It was a fairly large room, complete with a wardrobe full of clothes, plenty of toys, and a surprisingly number of shoes in different sizes, but there was something else that seemed to stick in Jake's data-banks.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoYPc1wf9Nj
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiFbfOK1np7
He remembered another room, one with a young boy and a little girl. No matter how much they squabbled, the boy always went over to the girl's bed at night and made sure she was tucked in properly. He called her 'sister', and she in turn called him 'brother'.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZc64eoyJAr
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKAIDX5ItHp
Brother ... the term seemed important somehow, but Jake's processes couldn't identify why. As the minutes passed, he felt a sudden compulsion to locate the boy; perhaps he could help Jake make some sense of the data.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡySrCOGTiQE
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBHZnf8OODA
Jake looked at Frisk. The little girl was sound asleep, her small face peaceful. The goat-woman named Toriel had treated her with kindness that could only be described as motherly. She would keep the little girl safe. While Jake's authority subroutines demanded he stay with her in hopes of finding Glen, his current master, he nevertheless found himself standing up and approaching the door. The old data-files were useful, telling him exactly how to open the door with his front paws without making much noise.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQz86azl4ey
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy6MNE4s7Tw
He walked through the tidy house softly, ultimately finding Toriel asleep in a chair beside the hearth. He started to activate a fire suppression system to prevent her from injuring herself, only to realize the fire itself was not actually burning; it was merely pleasantly warm, and caused no damage to the log it sat upon.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLx3YP3Ey3T
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb8pat4QyUk
Jake considered waking up Toriel to let her know of his departure, but ultimately decided against it. He still couldn't access any kind of verbal communication, and visual communication would take time. He wanted to be gone before Frisk woke up ... before either of them could wake up. He wasn't part of their story.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ66KhfgnYy1
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTcbTAmnDX
Jake froze, that final stream of data confusing him. Their story? What did that mean? How did he know he wasn't a part of it? He tried to compute some sort of satisfactory answer, but ultimately came up with nothing. Not even the memory data gave him an answer.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF1UgYQtIgF
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGfih77gHzj
Shaking his head, he turned around and left Toriel asleep by the fire. Going back wasn't an option, as his scans determined there were no exits that way. Fortunately, he'd already scanned the house and discovered the central staircase led to an underground corridor.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ87btd81nxN
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJv6gtFTHB
Jake walked down the corridor slowly, scanning the air for particulates in hopes of determining where the corridor might lead. The readings didn't match any location he'd visited recently, but he continued (doggedly ... heh heh) scanning.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTPjQkhW5lH
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv2mFBXM3hS
He paused. Where had that thought come from? Finding no answer, he continued walking. The corridor was quite long, eventually turning ninety degrees to the left toward a small chamber with a large door.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡseR4MKip0x
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCpHjO4Pepk
Scans of the area indicated a definite drop in temperature, as well as particulates indicating vegetative life, namely pine trees or some similar conifer. He hurried to the door and pushed against it with all his might. To his surprise, they opened quite easily. He staggered through, only to stop inches away from a familiar slipper.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8wQFLMAc6q
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ8ly72tEi4
It appeared to be the bio-form known as Sans; the bone structure and the face matched Jake's files on the skeleton, but the colors were wrong. The bones and clothes were black, the sweater beneath the coat was red, and the face looked so strange, Jake was certain the circuits that translated visual data for him were glitching.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA121pT2N0l
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0RNotJohOo
The skeleton who looked like Sans stared at Jake, the larger of his red eyes bearing two irises around a tiny black pupil, the outer yellow and the inner as blue as the real Sans's coat.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GKoY30SwL
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuNjZWJz4sn
"There you are." Error!Sans said, "I've been looking for you, doggy."686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTgtSTFzQ7Y
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2zISDQ1VL6
Jake began to sense subspace anomalies forming around the skeleton. In a flash, memory files clicked into place. This was the creature that attacked Glen, Sans, and Jake in the middle of what Sans called 'a shortcut'. Already the being was causing Jake's sensor data to overload as it has before. Jake shut off everything but his visual and auditory senses to prevent another overload, but not before the word 'ERROR!' appeared again and again in the corrupted data.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmi0MoicRMq
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzcIUBo8tZY
"That's my name." Error!Sans said, grinning all the wider. "Don't wear it out. Oh, that's right; you can't talk."686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQF5huY5JF
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Ep0Chy8mL
Jake let out a growl. He hoped it would intimidate Error!Sans, but once again his information files proved incorrect. Error!Sans simply laughed at Jake and shook his head.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqMNyDBNiSu
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5gqbj5Ynor
"I've destroyed hundreds of timelines, mechamutt ... maybe even thousands. What can I say? It's hard to keep count when you're having so much fun!"686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdKnw20sYx2
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSs2ZkMwFaC
Error!Sans thrust a hand at Jake. Blue threads shot through the air, wrapping themselves around Jake's limbs and lifting him from the ground. jake tried to open his back panel to use his interior energy buster, but more thick threads wrapped around his back, preventing the panel from opening. Jake yelped, but there was nothing he could do. The threads were surprisingly strong; even a blast of electricity from this front emitters did nothing.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS0rnTf9h1O
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh3m5XLHNTq
Error!Sans slowly approached the floating dog until his face was only inches away from Jake's monitor. "What makes you think you have any chance of stopping me from tearing you apart and taking your ..."686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9b9CWS326c
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqyH1DniQfm
Error!Sans frowned, his corrupted eyes squinting at Jake as though searching for an errant pixil in Jake's monitor. His smile faded, only to be replaced with a look of suspicion.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcREFxeFz1G
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmsOIGzS4aJ
"It's missing." Error!Sans said slowly, as though not believing what he was saying. "I can see inside you, where your soul should be ... but it's not there. What have you done with it?"686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEqStFDqRPc
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXnZCHgq6Ks
Jake barked loudly at Error!Sans, still struggling to free himself from the blue threads.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoA4uMGKsJM
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0XcdJBIBb6
"One of the others." Error!Sans said to himself. "The new abomination ... no, that human woman, the one with the green and gray striped shirt. She must have it. Where is she, dog? Tell me, or I'll tear you apart!"686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTdhUR90jFM
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxon8VVQm25
Jake was at a loss. His weapons were ineffective, his mobility was nonexistent, and the data Error!Sans wanted wasn't in his memory banks. There seemed to be nothing he could do to stop his destruction.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPVGLiJeHi
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhEWlMGAF8
A stick hit Error!Sans right in the face. It didn't do any visible damage, but the shock of it made Error!Sans release his threads from Jake. Jake landed on all four legs, his back panel sliding open and the blaster attachment rising out. He fired at Error!Sans, but the strange skeleton blinked out of existence only to appear a safe distance away.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP26nm0uBRx
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpsEgHNHjpY
A hand touched Jake's side. Jake turned to see it was little Frisk, her small face a mask of determination.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS9nrm00Iou
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUjrkl2kql5
"Little brat!" Error!Sans said with a scowl. He raised his hand, but this time Jake didn't wait for the threads. Barking may not have worked, but Glen had Jake hooked up to her personal database, which included a directory labelled 'Wrhse13' that contained among many strange and bizarre files a single sound file: 'marsden.mp3'.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAlJY5nC0uQ
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNknlZOr6OK
Jake blasted the file as loud as his speakers could handle. The effect was immediate; as the sound reverberated off the stone walls of the corridor, the look of anger on Error!Sans's face became one of bliss. True tears, separate from the strange teartrail-like markings on Error!Sans's face fell down the skeleton's cheekbones. The blue threads fell to the ground and faded from existence as Error!Sans sank to his knees.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1us6MQwNqt
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEmhLIwLVzd
Jake nudged Frisk, only to find her in tears as well, a look of pure happiness on her face. He was still at a loss for what to do when his speakers suddenly gave out under the strain.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA7jL9HSSsY
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTDFERgdfTb
The music died with a crackle of static. Jake tensed in anticipation of Error!Sans's resumed attacks, but the strange skeleton simply looked at them for a long moment before saying, "What was I doing?"686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ3z7MxyFwp
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9o2Rpdcnw1
Jake waited cautiously as Error!Sans looked around in confusion. After a few moments, he shook his skull and said, "I-I gotta go ..."686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZaI2w0Krb0
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzhIX73kgn
With that, Error!Sans was gone. Jake waited a few moments before deciding that he would likely not return for a little while.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yQrnk8Tfk
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZvGJqvHGGo
Hearing a sniffle, Jake turned to see Frisk rubbing her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater. Jake sat on his hind-quarters and put a paw on her shoulders.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8dYr2J7Ml
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtBUmcKdj2c
"I'm all right." She signed to him. "What happened? The black skeleton was shooting something at us, and then ... I can't remember."686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsjmxEK3i8Y
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqm6XXgCX4F
Jake considered his options for response for several moments before tilting his head forty-five degrees and displaying his 'puzzled' face.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPew3rRaEIw
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡImgj6fPtXR
Frisk giggled and rubbed his head. "Silly doggy! Come on; we really shouldn't be here. Mom will get mad."686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCxwje5Oc0G
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo43nsNHE0K
Frisk turned back to the door that led to Toriel's house, only to find the doors closed. There were no handles on their side, and Jake discovered that pushing them had no effect. Whether through magic or mechanics, the doorway was apparently one way only.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwJAfB2ebI0
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMXGXLKMjco
All trace of happiness left Frisk's face. She tried again and again, banging her fists on the door in desperation to no avail. She even tried calling Toriel's cellphone; while Frisk could not speak, she and Toriel had figured out some simple tapping rhythms that gave her some basic communication: yes, no, help, that sort of thing. Unfortunately (and quite strangely), the phone-line picked up to the sound of another dog barking inquisitively. Jake tried to bark in reply, but found his speakers still non-functional.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7yhXEgaOpR
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMQLWJQLulp
"It's no good." Said a voice that made Jake growl immediately. "It's a one-way door. Even your dog's blaster won't make a dent. You're stuck out here!"686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ2bHAJ3boV
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJP7Y4EjZIp
Flowey was back, having emerged from the small mound of dirt in the middle of the room. Jake moved in front of Frisk and growled, but Flowey lifted his petals in supplication.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFD38bIxRVq
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8DsH6lTEXj
"Oh, don't mind me; I've learned my lesson ... but have you?" Flowey asked, looking at Frisk. "I've been watching you, making friends with the froggits and the whimsuns, buying donuts from the spiders ... you think you're real clever, aren't you? Befriending all the monsters? Ha! Don't you realize in this world, it's kill or be killed? Well, you'd better realize it soon; you'll soon be out of the Ruins, where the rest of the Underground is waiting to kill you and steal your soul!"686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkKmLphBGCf
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWB7bNYcrm6
Frisk trembled as the little flower let out a high-pitched evil laugh. "Good luck, Frisk! You're going to need it where you're going!"686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUZloQ6rtka
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOnr3NYQHE0
Flowey laughed again. Jake lunged at the flower, but it dove beneath the dirt and was gone in seconds.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT8HOnqGNjL
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiNM3Ur03fN
Hearing a sniffle, Jake turned to see Frisk crying. He walked over to her and gave her another pat on the back. As she looked at him with tear-stained eyes, Jake again felt the strange resonance with the data files, this time producing an image; another face, that of the boy who lived in the room with his sister. He was crying too.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPzf0QrtXfc
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyUIO6DM2oP
Jake's programming told him that he belonged to Glen Adams Soleil, and if not to her, then to some person named Finn Cresste. In that moment, however, he realized his programming allowed for him to name other owners, should the need arise. Looking at the little girl's face, Jake knew the need had arisen.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcOUmXztUT1
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhURIylYGQF
"New user accepted." Crackled an automated voice from Jake's speakers as his self-repair systems patched them back together. "Frisk is recognized as the owner of this unit."686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhycMIZ4c5j
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgnRZtLTp8y
Frisk put a finger on her chest, a look of surprise on her face as she pointed it at Jake. Letting out an affirmative bark, Jake nudged Frisk's side. She looked confused until he did it again, crouching down on his legs. Realization in her eyes, she smiled and climbed on Jake's back.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPEM10671HF
686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2jjoPyTUMZ
With another bark, Jake ran down the corridor, Frisk giggling as she held him tightly. Toriel would come looking for her sooner or later, and until that time, Jake would keep his little master safe. After all, now it was his story too.686Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfUJfBjSl9C