Rising and Falling (HumanTale Sans x Monster Reader)

Chapter 23, Reader POV

(A/N; A warning. Below shall be possible triggering scenarios involving gaslighting and familial ties and demands. There is, of course, the possibility that this won't trigger you. But, it does me, and so it might someone else.)

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You ached. From the battle, yes, of course from the battle. Those were expected, along the long bones and the joints of your spine. Places where muscles would be aching, had you any. Expected. Your knees had been expected, but they didn't ache from the battle. Shifting, you freeze as orange eyes glare you back to stillness. He's stomping back and forth, along a path almost worn into the dirt in front of you and your three companions. How long you had been kneeling, you couldn't say. Long enough for your legs to feel as if they wished to go numb. Long enough so that you no longer heard his words echoing in your slightly ringing skull. Not long enough for Papyrus to decide his lecture was over.

He makes another pivot, walking back, past you, towards where Nata kneels on the end. His tone sinks into your bones, and you let it mix with the feelings it rose from within. Guilt, oh yes you felt some form of it. You had disobeyed direct orders, after all. Disappointment, from him, skittering along your insides. Anger, both from you and him, but different types and hard to specifically define. Some measure of shame, flushed from within, and possibly fueling the anger. Regret, a touch of it, in the hindsight way it tacks itself onto a situation gone out of hand.

Fear. You heard it underneath it all. From him, for you. For all four.

Fear. Inside you. From what you had endured. From what you had witnessed. A glance down the line, your gaze landing on a gray figure gone darker than normal, his hair curling in an unfelt breeze. Fear for a confrontation roiling and churning, bubbling to boiling.

A drawl interrupts Papyrus, his boots frozen mid-step as his orange eyes snap to meet blue ones. Sans' tone flows over you, a calm soothe that did little to actually ease the feelings rioting inside. A scowl on the taller human's face, but his eyes flick up and down the line a few times. They linger on you the longest, and the scowl fades to a resigned sigh and he rubs the bridge of his nose.

"HAVE THE HEALERS CHECK YOU ALL. I WILL FIGURE OUT AN EXPLANATION FOR UNDYNE. DISMISSED."

Ain moves first, wind swirling as he shoots through the trees. You move next, feeling the shocked gazes of everyone as you flash after him. Ignoring the voices calling your name in various tones.

He's difficult to chase, but you never lose sight of him. Mostly because he makes sure you don't, the wind never taking him higher, his shadows never reaching to envelope him and seclude him away. Chase him you did, because he lets you. Because he has questions, and you have answers. 

Because Eight hovers in your minds and souls, laughing.

The magic burns, sparks snapping as you stumble to lean a hand against a tree along the edge of the Crater. Cold pressure lashes around your ribs, slamming your back against the rock path. You meet his gray eyes, black shadows where whites should be. A heartbeat of a moment, and then he speaks.

"Itu uṇmaiyā?" Is it true? 

The question burns cold, thickening the air and weighing on your soul.

"Eṉṉa uṇmai?" Is what true?

A snarl, his fist slamming into the ground by your skull. Shadows erupting from around you both, wind swirling and the sky starting to turn dark.

"Eṭṭu ātmā! Itu uṅkaḷukkuḷ irukkiṟatā?" Eight's soul! Is it within you? 

Another snarl, but from you this time. Boned fingers grip into the front of his shirt, shoving him back as you get to your feet. Releasing him as you clench them into fists, rage clouding your better judgement, anger coating your words with something dark. Your soul was yours, yours.