Chapter Text
Frosty wind danced from the windowsill, intricate patterns remaining stagnant for a second or two before disappearing as the frost left its ghostly current. It was chilly as always in the small town of Snowdin, thick sheens of ice littering the ground all day, every day, as it would stay for the next months, and years, to come.
For a while now, the town had been long abandoned by its residents, as were the many other regions past it. After all, there was no need to stay and do business underground when all the brilliant commodities and chances for fame beyond comprehension were set upon the surface. With the barrier broken, monsters were given opportunity, a way to flourish beyond their stony cage down below, and with humans nonetheless!
Yet, despite it all, one house in particular still had its lights on, a small sort of illumination emanating from it and it alone.
Upon the top floor, a gloved finger lazily drew small circles into the glass, round eyelights slowly following the movements as they repeated once, twice, thrice, and so on.
Sans blinked, attempting to wipe the fatigue off his eyesockets. He lay in his barren mattress, pajamas still worn, even though he’d been awake for about an hour now, and while he fancied the idea of going back to sleep, there were unfortunately… much more important things that needed to be prioritized.
‘CRASH!’
“YOU LITtle…!”
“WHY DON’T YOU TRY And…!”
He sighed. Yes, those “things”: The alternates.
In short, they were duplicates of both him and his brother, yet varied in personality, worldview, and status. Some were strikingly similar, whereas others couldn’t act any more different, and currently, the “different” ones一 or the ones he and Papyrus deemed the “fell” variants, were currently having their morning feud.
He listened as muffled insults were shouted from downstairs, closing his eyesockets for a small moment to gain one final ounce of proper rest before he’d have to go and take care of it.
Amidst his daydreaming, frantic motion could be heard from beyond his room, the noise making its way quickly up the stairs, before a silhouette appeared, blocking the light in the hallway that once bled out from the crack under his door. Sans groggily sat up, knowing that nobody but his brother would be trying to ask for him at this moment, if at all.
A series of knocks were heard against his door, quick and desperate, before Papyrus’s voice sounded through the door.
“SANS? I DON’T THINK YOU’VE REALIZED BUT THERE IS CURRENTLY A FIGHT GOING ON DOWSTAIRS BETWEEN EDGE AND BLACK… AGAIN.”
He realized. He just didn’t want to deal with it.
“ALL THE EFFORTS I’VE MADE TO CALM THEM DOWN ARE FUTILE, AND I’D APPRECIATE IF YOU TRIED TO DO SO INSTEAD. QUITE FRANKLY, I’M GETTING TIRED OF THEIR BICKERING, ALL OF US ARE.”
Another shatter resounded from downstairs, the smoke alarm setting off.
“OH, AND IT SEEMS THEY’VE STARTED A FIRE.” His brother heaved a long sigh, “PLEASE TAKE CARE OF THIS, SANS.”
“yup, i’ll be there in a sec bro, just lemme’ get ready, can’t go in looking like Sleeping Beauty, it wouldn’t be proper.”
Another sigh, “ALRIGHT, JUST PLEASE MAKE IT QUICK, I WOULDN’T WANT ONCE OF THEIR BROTHERS WAKING UP AND ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE一, FIGURATIVELY AND LITERALLY.”
“YOU INSUFFERABLE PIECE OF-”
Sans slowly made his way down the stairs, watching as a cloud of smoke grew from the kitchen. Blue, the “Swap” variant, was frantically waving at it in an attempt to dispel it through the windows he’d opened.
He leaned forward, peeking into the space. Flames covered the entire area, bones protruding from all around the counters, and right smack-dab in the middle were the perpetrators themselves, Edge and Black. The two were hurling insults at each other, their voices carrying past the fire that crackled and popped in sync with their magic.
“hey guys,” Sans started holding out his palm, “...why don’t we calm down and-”
“CALM DOWN!?” Edge snapped, whipping his head towards Sans. “WHY SHOULD I CALM DOWN WHEN THIS…THIS MANIAC VERSION OF MY STUPID BROTHER THINKS IT’S OKAY TO INSULT ME AND MY COOKING SKILLS?!”
“MANIAC?! I’LL SHOW YOU WHAT A "MANIAC" LOOKS LIKE YOU POMPOUS NUMBSKULL!!” Black snarled, getting into a fighting stance. Sans sighed as they both continued on, flinching suddenly as a large gloved hand softly pushed him out of the way.
“...Sorry.” Crooks, the “Horror” variant, softly muttered, making long strides inside the kitchen, a fire extinguisher in his hand. He sauntered past the other skeletons, who were much too into their cooking argument to acknowledge him.
“okay. The jokes' getting old guys, lets wrap this up before the entire house burns down, alright?一”
‘BAM!’
A noise rang out across the kitchen, startling all the skeletons into silence. Sans saw a flash of red fly past him, white foam spraying his face, making him tumble over. He watched as what he now recognize to be the fire extinguisher, flew wildy around the living room, smacking itself in ever possible corner as it sprayed copious amounts of its contents absolutely everywhere.
Everyone who’d previously been lounging around the area either blipped or ran upstairs to escape the extinguishers range, though most unfortunately left covered in foam. Sans struggled back up to his feet, almost tripping over himself as he tried to make his way back to the kitchen.
The extinguisher’s attack had been… surprisingly effective. Black and Edge both lay coughing and flailing around what could only be described as a large, very wrong-looking bubble bath.
“WHAT一” Edge gagged, absolutely covered in the substance, “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?” He pointed a finger accusingly at Black, “WAS THIS YOUR DOING? SOME SORT OF一 OF SNEAK ATTACK TO WEAKEN ME?”
“YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS RIGHT NOW.” Black squawked, attemped to find his gatherings amongst the very slippery floor, failing multiple times and eventually just choosing to succumb to the ocean of bubbles, “I一 I AM MUCH TOO OCCUPIED TO INDULGE IN YOUR DUMB, BLOCKISH QUARREL ANYMORE…” He muttered, voice muffled.
The others who’d escaped to the second floor wiped the coating of foam off of themselves, all turning back towards the kitchen.. Axe blipped in suddenly, his single eyelight slowly examining the wreck before he strode inside, most likely in search of his brother.
There was a beat of silence, before he re-emerged from the bubbles, turning back towards the others.
“He’s… not here.”
“...”
Axe huffed in exasperation and summoned his weapon immediately, lifting it towards the bubbly mound before swiping down, dispelling a good chunk of the mess and readying himself to try again, eyelight darting wildly around the room.
Papyrus came in from upstairs, quite literally diving into the mess to act as aid in the search for his larger, much scarier-looking counterpart.
“CROOKS! WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU OKAY?” Papyrus asked, his skull momentarily appearing above the fluff before ducking back in again.
Axe violently swung his...well, axe, into the foam until there was barely any left of it inside the kitchen (It was a relief he'd somehow missed the others still trapped in it, who knows what would've happened if he didn’t), and then looked around, pupil dilating. “He’s not here一he’s not一...where's...Paps.” He rasped, turning once more to everyone examinnig from the living room, who all stiffened.
But it was odd, Sans knew that he’d just seen the large skeleton moments before the noise sounded, he was too tall to just… miss, even with all the bubbles in the way.
“I’LL GO LOOK FOR HIM UPSTAIRS!” Blue said, jumping out of the kitchen and running towards the stairs, before abruptly slipping on the wet floor and landing with a ‘Thump’ onto his back.
"..."
He chuckled nervously as the others stared with blank expressions.
Axe walked forward and picked the smaller up from his bandana, steadying him. Blue muttered a small "THANK YOU..." before continuing his search, Axe slowly following behind.
“Y’know, come to think of it,” Stretch murmured, “I never saw him come out of the kitchen when we ran out…do you think maybe he…y’know…” Stretch didn't continue his sentence, but Sans knew what he implied, feeling dread creeping up on his spine from the thought of it.
‘But Crooks has the most LV and health among all of us, dusting from something as small as this wouldn't even be possible...right?’ He thought, mostly in an attempt at reassurance.
The others who’d stood idly had started to help, all now perturbed by Stretch’s suggestion. Everyone was now looking for any dust particles among the wreck, or just any sign of Crooks at all. By then, Axe and Blue had come back downstairs, the larger gripping his empty eyesocket with his phalanges.
“WE DID NOT FIND HIM UPSTAIRS IN HIS ROOM, OR ANYWHERE ELSE,” Blue stated, a worried expression on his face.
Wine put a hand on his chin in confusion, “HOW COULD HE HAVE JUST VANISHED LIKE THAT? JUST EARLIER WE'D ALL SEEN HIM WITH THE EXTINGUISHER. NOT TO MENTION HE'S MUCH TOO STRONG TO DUST.” Wine said, his brother, Coffee, nodding his head in silent agreement.
“Or… maybe the machine did something,” Mutt spoke up.
The clearing fell silent at the idea.
Axe’s eyelight widened before he suddenly vanished, most likely blipping himself to the basement.
Sans and his other variants followed after him, teleporting as well. They saw Axe standing there, as well as heard a very audible “Vvrrrr” coming from the machine, making him look to see a blue glow emanating from it.
“What’s happenin'? Why the fuck ‘s it doin’ that?” Red asked. Nobody could answer him.
Stretch walked towards the machine, feeling the metal. “It seems fine... other than the- er, glow, nothing looks out of place or messed up.” He said, taking his hand away, “ It probably could have activated or something while they were arguing, though.” He gestured to Black and Edge, both switching their gazes to the walls.
“well,” Sans said, “...one thing I know is that, fortunately for Axe, and unfortunately for us, there’s no way he went back to his universe since that’s what I’ve been trying to do for the past six months. If the machine has something to do with this, then my best guess is that it took him to a different Universe, probably from none of ours.”
Axe glared at Sans, gripping the hole in his skull harder, and wincing at the pain that it caused. “if Paps ain't… safe… I’ll r i p you... and your machine... apart.” He threatened.
Sans sweatdropped, “...look, bud, I’m pretty sure Crooks is fine, but if we find him hurt, you can beat us up all you want, alright?” he said, lightly patting his shoulder, only getting silence from his horror counterpart.
It got a bit awkward before Axe quit the staring contest and shortcutted out of the room, Red, Coffee, and Mutt doing the same while the others who couldn't just went back up the stairs and out the door.
“Stretch, you’re gonna have to help me with this, bud.” He called out from the basement, and the orange-clad monster blipped back into the room with a tired expression on his face.
“Why don't we just... y’know, wait till tomorrow since it’s pretty dark and uh... I'm tired.” He said, faking a yawn and stretching his limbs to emphasize it.
Sans rolled his eyelights, “heh, alright sure... let's not take too long though, don't want Axe-man gettin' all murdery on us."
"Whatever you say, Vanilla." Stretch grinned, blipping out of the room.
Sans sighed, taking one last look at the machine in its ugly beauty. To think this had been his best work yet, and now he couldn’t get a wink of sleep because of it...
Dark and shrouded. That was always the way Axe would describe their room. Little light bled through the window, save for the small lamp set up for him in the corner. It was dark and quiet, and it was peaceful, the insulation allowing Axe to simply sit and stare without hearing a cacophony of shouting or screaming in the background.
Axe shifted, looking past his mattress at his brother’s bed. It was empty, as was everything else in the room.
It usually wasn’t, and that made Axe bring a hand to his empty socket, wrapping a sharp phalange around it. It hurt, tugging, but it made him forget, if only for a moment, that his brother was gone. It was so quick too, one second he’d been trying to play hero, putting out the fire, and the next he’d dropped the extinguisher on the ground, vanished, taken.
Another tug.
Vanilla had promised that he and Stretch would fix it, that they’d find out if it had anything to do with the machine and bring him back, but Axe didn’t believe him for a single second. He knew that everyone hated him and his brother, that they unsettled them, and back at home, that would’ve been fine, something that was necessary to keep status… to stay alive.
That was not the case here, not anymore. Vanilla’s universe got the good treatment: the human never dusted a single monster, and everyone was freed. It was sappy, and very uncharacteristic of anything Axe had experienced.
Dust, failed conversations, over and over, and over again.
Until suddenly, nothing.
Another tug.
It wasn’t fair, none of it was. He knew that Vanilla knew that, yet even in a situation like this, he’d just slack off like he always seemed to do when things got too loud in the house.
Despite it all, Axe hoped that his threat hadn’t fallen on deaf ears, after all… he meant every word he’s said. He wasn’t going to let them pretend like nothing had happened, and if it took a little decrease in HP to show them that, then Axe would gladly do it.
Although for now, he could only wait and hope that for as useless as he was, Vanilla would stick to his word and figure out what was happening.
…Lest Axe decided to take matters into his own hands and find his brother, with ot without the help of the others.