A Three Way SWAP

Chapter 16

Undertale:

The human was coming. Time was running out. US Papyrus was feeling that feeling of nervousness. This had to work. This had to work. US Papyrus and Sans waited in the judgement hall. Sans stood behind a pillar, ready to take a sample of the human's blood for the machine.

The human arrived. US Papyrus started, "human, do you believe that even the worst person can change? that anyone could be a good person if they just tried?" The human just stared back at him, clearly confused. Why were they fighting Papyrus, this is usually where they would fight Sans. He continued, "lets just get to the point," he hits them with a blue attack, then sends a number of sharp bones spiraling at them. One of the bones which slices the human's arm lands near Sans. He gets all the blood he can off of the bone and uses a shortcut to get to the machine.

"alright, lets see.....i can input the determination in here, then i have to plug it un, and set all routes to this location, okay, here goes nothin'" The machine powers on and sans quickly presses the red button. Suddenly, a flash of light. Sans is on the ground. "BROTHER?" Sans opens his eyes. Papyrus, his Papyrus, was here. He hears sobbing next to him. A weird, edgier version of his brother is lying on the ground, crying for some reason. "HELLO, OTHER ME! WHATEVER IS THE MATTER?" UT Papyrus asks as he reaches towards UF Papyrus. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Sans gets up, "no time for all of this, we need to get back to the judgement hall so we can send you and the other guy back home. Sans grabs both of the brothers and uses a shortcut to get to the hall.

US Papyrus lets out a sigh of relief. The first part of the plan worked. Sans sent a number of bone attacks, creating a cage around the human. US Papyrus quickly grabbed the vile that sans used to hold the first dose of human blood, then was about to take UF Papyrus and get the machine, when the human broke free from the human cage.

This human was filled with determination. Of all the resets and all the runs, they had never seen such a marvel. One sans, and three Papyrus's. This was truly spectacular. "get the DT to the machine, go!" Sans yelled, but the human swung their knife at sans before he could dodge. In a flash, UF Papyrus threw the bone sword blue gave him to block the attacks. Sans was saved for now. The human began swinging the knife around like a maniac, desperate to hit someone.

Sans yelled at UF and US Papyrus to go, while UT Papyrus and himself hold old the human. US Papyrus quickly grabbed the vile, scraped some of the human blood of of some nearby bones, and grabbed UF Papyrus. He quickly used a shortcut to teleport them both to the machine.

"darn! the stupid machine is restarting," US Papyrus wasn't sure how long UT Papyrus and Sans could hold the human off. UF Papyrus dropped to his knees. "YOU, YOU ARE THE ONE WHO BELONGS IN THE WORLD I WAS IN, CORRECT?" US Papyrus turned around. "ah, yes. that's me."

UF Papyrus broke into tears. "whoa, whoa, what's the matter?" UF Papyrus could barely speak through the tears. "I TRIED- I TRIED TO PROTECT- HE-I FAILED TO SAVE-" He couldn't even finish his sentences. He got up, and said, "*hic* YOUR BROTHER, HE WAS REALLY SOMETHING SPECIAL. HE WAS...HE WAS....I TRIED TO PROTECT HIM. HE-HE"

US Papyrus was pretty sure he knew what happened. He dropped to his knees too. "he...died?" US Papyrus quietly asked. UF Papyrus nodded. US Papyrus looked away. Blue was dead, again. A few tears started forming in his eyes. "YOU BROTHER, HE WAS ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE I'VE EVER MET." UF Papyrus couldn't even begin to imagine how this other version of himself was feeling. "I AM SORRY I COULDN'T SAVE HIM." The machine was ready. US Papyrus got up without saying a word, inserted the DT, and pressed the button.

Meanwhile, Sans and Papyrus were busy trying to allow the other Papyrus's enough time to activate the machine and get home before the human beats the game and resets. Papyrus is excited to finally be fighting by his brother's side. Turns out Sans was pretty strong, which was shocking to Papyrus because he was so lazy. He was glad to be back with his real brother, but didn't have time to enjoy it, as he had to help hold off the human in order to give the other versions of himself more time to get back to their own worlds.

Papyrus tried his best to call out to the human. To maybe get them to stop, though it seemed like the human couldn't be helped anymore. Papyrus thought to himself, maybe if he had been there earlier, maybe if he hadn't messed with that machine, maybe he could have helped this human and he wouldn't be fighting them right now. But still, he tried to cone through, careful not to hurt the human to bad. "HUMAN, PLEASE. YOU CAN STILL DO GOOD, YOU CAN STOP THIS. I BELIEVE IN YOU."

Sans continues to fire attacks at the human while Papyrus fights to block the human's attacks and protect his brother. Papyrus keeps the human's soul blue while his brother keeps firing at them. The human has a crazy look in their eyes that Papyrus has never seen before. It was like they were another person.

While the human continues to swing their knife randomly, desperate to hit someone, Papyrus becomes worried. What would happen when the others escaped. Would he have to continue fighting this human forever. What if he had to kill the human? He knew he couldn't do that. What if the human got Sans? He couldn't let that happen either. There was no solution. No good way out of this. The human was clearly not going to back down.

The human looks at Papyrus. Clearly he is slipping, now's their chance. If they can take out the taller skeleton, they knew that the hit would leave Sans emotionally wrecked. They prepared their attack, lunging forward, dodging all the attacks Sans was throwing at them. They sprinted forward, and swung their knife through Papyrus.

Sans stops his attacks, he stops everything, the room falls silent. Papyrus stands, looking at the human, "H-HUMAN," he takes a breath. "I AM SORRY I COULDN'T HELP YOU." His body turns to dust, leaving just a head.

"BROTHER?" He manages to squeak out. "I-I'M SORRY I MESSED WITH THE MACHINE AND CAUSED ALL OF THIS." Sans runs to his dying brother's side, drops to his knees, and replies, "no, no, i shouldn't have tried to hide anything from you. you deserve to know the truth. i shouldn't have tried to keep that machine a secret from you."

The human leaves Sans, and moves on. They thought, why not make him suffer, by leaving him in this world all alone before resetting again. Watching others truly suffer like this was far more enjoyable than just killing them.

" p-pap? do you want me to tell you what that machine is bro?" "Y-YES PLEASE" Papyrus's head is beginning to dust. "well, a long time ago, we had a dad named w.d. gaster. he was the royal scientist. one day, while trying to find a way to break the barrier with only six human souls instead of seven, he fell into his creation, the core."

Papyrus's head turned to dust. He was gone.

Sans continues, tears in his eyes, "as he fell into the core, he was split into fragments across the universe. most people forgot about him. even you forgot about him, but i never did. that machine was something i had. it came from the core. my goal with it was to be able to travel through the universe and collect his fragments so maybe i could put him back together, but the machine was unstable, and using it would cause issues, as you could see. so it just sat there. it could be used to help me keep track of all the resets happening, which i could also remember, but i kept it hidden from you so you wouldn't end up getting hurt or lost in the universe." Sans sat there, waiting, alone.

"papyrus? d-do you want anything?"

The world was reset.