Sans wakes up with the taste of sugar on his tongue. His marshmallow mattress is conformed perfectly to his body, and Sans refuses to move for several more minutes. He even starts to drift back to sleep before a loud crash jolts him back into awareness. Sans tenses up for a moment, but relaxes after he hears his brother's faint mutterings coming from downstairs. That was sweet of Paps to let Sans sleep in while breakfast was started. Sans chuckles at the thought and finally drags himself out of bed.

He grabs his jacket off the floor and shrugs it on. Sans is about to teleport down into he living room, but pauses. Wasn't he not supposed to do that anymore? He can't remember for sure. Sans gives up trying to figure it out and just opens his door like a normal monster. He immediately regrets it when he catches his foot on the doorframe. Sans goes down and hits the gingerbread floor face first.

"Brother? Was that you?" Papyrus calls from the kitchen.

Sans only groans in response. Why does he always have to be so clumsy? On second thought, why isn't the entire house made from marshmallows? It would save him a lot of trouble.

"I really don't think the balcony is a suitable place to sleep, Sans," Papyrus tsks in mild annoyance. He climbed up the stares to find the older brother still laying face down. Papyrus leans down and picks Sans up, grunting a little with the effort.

"Morning Paps," Sans hums, enjoying being carried. "What kind of training do you have today?"

"Undyne said that we are going to be making jelly tarts! I can't wait to see what I can make jelly out of. NYEH HE HE!," Papyrus beams. He's always ecstatic when Sans is curious about Papyrus's royal guard training.

"Try not to jam them too full. It's berry hard to clean up a spill in the oven." Papyrus drops Sans immediately. Sans grunts when he hits the soft gummy floor in the living room, still giving Papyrus a shit-eating grin.

"I DON'T want to hear ANOTHER one of your horrible PUNS," Papyrus shouts.

"C'mon, that one really sweetened my day!"

Sans ducks out the door as a length of licorice hits the wall right where he had just been standing. Sans wishes his brother a good day before pulling a disappearing act. He doesn't feel like seeing what other candies make good projectiles. Sans walks through the ankle deep powdered snow, lazily greeting the monsters he passes.

A distant ripple in the AU makes Sans pause in his day. He shouldn't be able to feel something like that, but his magic finds it familiar, and grows excited and warm in his chest. Sans is confused. His magic doesn't........ but it does. His aura is the only thing he can control. Soul shakes his head to try and clear his thoughts. He went through his entire morning without remembering who he was. Soul only snapped out of it after his magic recognized someone entering the AU. It takes a full minute for Soul to comprehend his last thought. Someone entered the AU! Error is coming!

An excited grin lights up Soul's face. Without any hesitation, he drops what he's doing and runs off to where he can sense a portal forming. A few monsters in Snowdin look surprised when they see him run by. Their Sans wouldn't run for anything. Soul couldn't care less. After so much encouragement from Error, he's more willing to chase after the things that he actually wants. Soul runs around the corner of another building, skidding in the snow to a stop when he finds the portal.

That's not Error's portal. Instead of distorted glitches, the portal is lined with a mix of swirling neon colors. Soul doesn't recognize the new magic signature when a skeleton walks through. Their back faces Soul, but that can't hide the neon green and purple swatches of fabric that make up their jacket. Soul can feel his eyes slightly water at such a mix of bright colors. As if sensing Soul, the other skeleton whips around to look at him. Dark sunglasses hide the skeleton's eyes with the words 'Yo-Lo' on the lenses. When the strange monster spots Soul, the words change to 'What's- Up?'.

"Yo! What's up my home- slice? It's your bro Fresh in the house!" The wide grin on Fresh's face does nothing to reassure Soul. There's something so....... empty about it.

"Hi..... Fresh," Soul says nervously. He shrinks back a little when Fresh walks a few steps closer.

"What's your name little dude?" Fresh asks. His glasses change to 'What- the' When gets a feel for Soul's aura, and a strange expression comes over his face as if he's trying to solve some puzzle. Fresh's expressions seem creepily exaggerated and empty to Soul.

"M-My name is Sans," Soul stutters. He's not sure why he didn't use his own name.

"You sure?" Fresh's expression abruptly darkens when his lingo drops. "Because you sure don't feel like you belong here." As quickly as the anger appeared, it's replaced just as fast when Fresh leans back and laughs as  if he's just heard the most hilarious joke. "As interesting as ya might be, it won't matter much in a minute. How's a homey like you running up to me all excited anyway?"

"I thought you were someone else," Soul replies quietly. He's not sure what's going on, and has a hard time understanding exactly what Fresh is saying. Fresh talks too fast. "Are you from a different AU?" Too late, Soul realizes that he shouldn't have said that.

"Now what's a copy doing asking something like that? You're not supposed to know anything outside this one rad AU," Fresh chuckles, "Aren't you interesting? Almost makes me want to up and leave before I do something lame."

"What do you mean-" Soul is abruptly cut off. He's been too curious and confused to notice how close Fresh had gotten. The taller monster lunges forward and grabs Soul by the neck before lifting him just high enough to choke. Soul's eyes widen in panic and fear as he claws at Fresh's arm. No other monsters are around on this quite street to help.

"Unfortunately, I can't do that. I'll be down and crumbling pretty soon, so you'll just have to be another forgotten mystery. A shame, really. I would've loved to play with you a little more, buddy." Soul can't get out of Fresh's iron grip. This Candytale body is not meant for combat against something like Fresh. Even Soul's aura is useless for combat, and he can't think straight as the hand around his neck gets tighter. Soul meets Fresh's eyes one more time. Something moves behind the stronger monster's shades. Nearly paralyzed with fear, Soul rallies his aura one more time to go, go, go and push out beyond the the AU.

Soul calls for help.

Something launches itself out of Fresh's skull and hits Soul's skull. He feels then impact and then a terrible pain as something rips. Soul falls to the ground as pain pulses through his body, trying to scramble away without Fresh holding him in place. Soul only gets a few feet before he completely collapses in the powder sugar snow. He's confused and scared while the horrible pain continues to shred at him. Soul curls up on his side and tries to look around to find his attacker. Where Fresh once was there now is a pile of monster dust. A Candytale Sans writhes on the ground nearby, screaming and clawing at his eye sockets.

No, that can't be right. Soul is supposed to be that Sans. More pain rips through Soul, so utterly debilitating that Soul can't focus on his surroundings anymore. Soul is dying. He's somehow gotten separated from his host, and now he is dying. Soul can't ever remember a time when he could exist alone. He's dying now, and there's nothing he can do about it. Death terrifies him. Of all the things Soul has done and seen over the uncountable number of years, he has never experienced death. He goes through the process of dying nearly every day, but that last moment before oblivion is a dark mystery to him.

Somebody came.

"SoUL!?"

Someone is grabbing him, trying to figure out what's happening. Pain. Fuzzy. One more AU. Soul? Have to find Soul!

Soul is laying on his back in the snow what he regains his senses. He lurches up in a panic. He was working and then running. Opening a portal and finding something dying. The pain is now a dull ache, though Soul is confused and disoriented. What just happened? He blearily moves to rub his face, but freezes with his hands halfway up. Soul's fingers are tipped in yellow, switching to a bright red before reaching his black palms. These are Error's hands. Soul looks down at himself. These are Error's clothes.

Lurching to his feet, Soul nearly falls over as foreign thoughts and feelings bombard his mind. This isn't supposed to happen. In his magic, the part that only belongs to Soul, something has shifted. It makes him feel like an invader and normal occupant at the same time. Error's memories are all so jumbled up and scary. When Soul panics and pulls himself away, the memories actually recede and fade into the background. That isn't right. Soul is supposed to become whatever he is.

"Error bro, when did you get here?"

Soul's neck cracks when he turns to look. The Candytale Sans is standing, a wide grin plastered to their face. He bends down and picks up a pair of shades from the snow. Soul sees that the same thing from earlier is the Sans's skull right before the shades are put into place. An uncomfortable and distorted sort of grunt escapes Soul's throat as he takes a step back.

Fresh takes that as an invitation to keep talking. As Soul watches, parts of the Candytale's Sans's features start to distort and resemble the monster that almost killed him moments ago. The entire AU is beginning to show signs of infection. "I figured you wouldn't mind me taking one AU off your plate. Oh man, you should'a been here five minutes ago. There was the strangest little dude-."

"DoN'T toUch mE!," Soul shouts when Fresh steps closer. Error's rage comes forth, and Soul can feel himself unintentionally gearing up for a fight. He would easily win now. Error is willing to fight almost anyone, but Soul finds himself panicking once again when the murderous intent comes so easily.

"Yeah, yeah, cool it with your little phobia. I know ya better than to......." Fresh trails off in thought as he stares at Error. Words appear on his glasses, spelling 'What- the?'. That's not Error.

Before Fresh can do anything else, or before Soul does something scary, he grabs tight onto Error's magic with both hands and rips open a portal. He's gone before Fresh can get another word in.