June 3, 2020

"OKAY, OKAY! I'll tell you, I'll tell you, just please make it stop!" I do so and tilt my head. "They... They have her, the Ebott district, by 104th and Woodfield... They have a warehouse there where they keep prisoners and contraband, the entrance is on the north, she should be on the west side, that's where they keep the dangerous ones!" I nod slowly as he talks.

"if we let you go free, how do we know you won't tell anyone we know?" I ask. "we can't trust you."

"I- I won't, I promise!"

"will you? i don't believe you."

"I..."

"your soul isn't exactly integrity."

"B- But I told you the truth, I told you where they're keeping her!"

"sure ya did. took ya long enough." I shrug. "don't worry, bud. it ain't personal. just a part of the business, ya know?" His eyes widen and he struggles against the ropes, even though he knows they won't loosen. He's tried that before. I summon a bone and stab him straight through the heart. He falls limp. I leave to wash my hands. Well. Now I have the info. I speak into my radio.

"alphys, do a search for a warehouse near 104th and woodfield."

"H- He cracked?"

"yep. north-facing entrance, kid'll be on the west."

"S- So... I guess the mission w- will be a West Side Story?" She snickers at her own joke. I shake my head.

"not the time."

"Oh, c- come on! You'd be f- fine with it if Dex was h- here doing it."

"well, she isn't here, alph." I snarl. "and if i fail to protect the kid one more time, so help me i will kill every single member of the amo myself." I turn down my radio and put it back.

Dex POV

June 1, 2020

I wake up cuffed, in a similar 1-person room with a cot and a bathroom. I choose not to look at the cuffs and pretend they're just... Handcuffs during a play or something. I don't know... I have to try not to let the memories come barreling in again. But everything in the AMO is so similar...

I look up at the door, seeing the same blurry face waiting there. Whoever they are, I feel like I know that voice.

"I was waiting for you to notice me."

"What do you want from me?"

"To talk." Yeah, right. "Don't believe me?"

"Why should I?"

"Hm. Why should you believe the monsters when they tell you things?" Is this what this is?

"Because they're my friends."

"I was your friend." This again?

"Who even are you?"

"Oh, right, your glasses. You really are blind without them." They laugh. It sounds like a girl, I think. Hard to tell. They wait for a second, then sigh. "You're no fun. So quiet. I only wanted to talk."

"You could have talked easily without kidnapping me."

"Nah. You wouldn't have listened or responded. Now, you'll have to! And if you don't..." Their voice gets a dangerous tinge. "You'll suffer the consequences." I blink, acting unamused.

"Are you threatening me?"

"Only if you decide not to be compliant."

"You're threatening me." I sigh and close my eyes.

"Sure, I'm threatening you. Not scared or something?"

"What could be worse than..." I trail off.

"Than what?" I'm silent. I hear a gun click. "I said, than what?" I open my eyes and look up at them with dead eyes.

"Torture." They stand there, confused, then put the gun away.

"Did you say... torture?"

"I did."

"I... I see..." They walk away. I sigh. I hope the monsters find out where I am soon. I don't want more memories to resurface.

Sans POV

June 4. 2020

I take out one guard. Undyne takes out the other. Everyone has gotten the message that I'm not in the mood for jokes. Monster Kid, Chara, and Toriel come in after Undyne and I. We head towards the west, where some people fumble for their guns, some are ready to shoot already, and some run away. We kill and wound them like crazy, doing everything we can to keep moving on.

Everyone else keeps fighting while MK and I push through, fighting our way through and pushing past the AMO officers, dead or alive. I grab one by the collar and slam him to the wall.

"where's dex!? the girl you caught from the monsters, where is she!? the magic human!"

"I... I think she's in an interrogation to the s- south..." He stutters. I throw him to the ground and run south. I hear MK kill him behind me. I don't care. He's AMO anyway. MK catches up to me and I kick open the door. Someone yelps and whips around at the side of the room, standing at a table covered in various sharp objects and such. I take one glance at the other side of the room and have trouble keeping my eyelights present.

It's the kid. Tied to a chair. With duct tape over her mouth. There's a few scars dripping blood on her face and arms. No glasses. It feels a little weird to be able to see her eyes clearly. Her expression reads pained and hopeless. All too often, if I'm honest. The other girl has a dark gray bandanna over her mouth and nose and hair in a ponytail. She pulls out a gun and points it at Dex.

"don't you dare pull that trigger or you're worse than dead." I warn. Dex looks up at us.

"Yo, what do I do?" Monster Kid whispers. I give a small shrug. He moves towards the kid, probably to untie her, when the other girl speaks.

"Don't move!" He freezes.

"you're too far away to hit anything." Her eyes narrow at me.

"They call me Gunslinger Forscythe for a reason." Dex's eyes widen with realization of something. I keep my eyes on Forscythe.

"do they now?" I challenge. Monster Kid looks at me for permission to move. I give the ever so smallest nod. The kid screams something unknown into the duct tape. Monster Kid stops again when the gun clicks.

"They do. And if you want Dextria to live, you're not going to move an inch." I glance at Dex. She's scared. Maybe this Gunslinger Forscythe is telling some sort of truth. I shake my head at Monster kid. He backs up towards me again. "Good." She starts backing towards another door. We're going to have to let her leave. Then the kid's expression changes again. Worsens. She's looking at something behind-

One arm hooks around my neck and the other grabs around my waist. I rip away with a kick and take more than three steps back when I see why the kid looked so scared. "but... how..."

It's Liam. Wearing some sort of weird visor. He stands up, half frowning. "You're strong. Maybe I'll actually have to put some effort into this."

"mk, free the kid." I murmur. He nods and runs back to do it. I turn back to Liam and frown. "how are you alive?" He doesn't acknowledge my question, just attacks me. I catch both of his punches and push back towards him. He has more strength than before. How is this possible?

"You know, Sans, despite everything... you'll never be able to protect her, you know that?"

"that's not true, liam. stop trying to get under my skin."

"Who said I was trying to get under your skin?" I hear the other door open and footsteps. I glance over at who it is. There he is, also with a visor... Papyrus..!? How!? How are these dead people coming back!? In the shock, Liam overpowers me and he manages to shove me to the ground. A red blade sticks up out of a part of my ribcage, and with it, a jolt of pain. "It's just plain true." He says with a smirk, setting his foot on me in triumph. I cough up blood.

I hear the sounds of fighting.

"I... I can't hurt you!" I manage to turn my head. Dex is blocking and dodging, quite well, and Monster Kid looks between the two of us, unsure of what to do. I try to say something and only find more blood. I've decided not to question it. It's magic.

"WELL, THAT'S TOO BAD. BECAUSE I'M GOING TO HAVE NO TROUBLE HURTING YOU." Wait, no... But that's... That's impossible...

"But... I tho-" She's cut off by a bone attack stabbing straight through her right lung. She starts to choke on blood. Liam stabs me again. My vision goes out of focus for a moment. The bone disappears and Dex slumps to the ground. Monster Kid takes another step back, pupils narrowing in fear and anger. And then...

An attack appears in his hands. Monster Kid was never able to summon one before, especially after the rest of his immediate family was killed by the Anti-Monsters. It's a long arrow shape sort of thing, with one point on one side and two sharp points on the other. Like a spearhead. He sends it into Liam, who staggers back out the door again, then gets knocked to the side by a flame. Toriel runs past the door to fight him. Papyrus growls and whacks the arrow out of the way.

"DON'T EVEN TRY. YOU'RE JUST A KID. DON'T MAKE ME FIGHT YOU." He says in disgust, and kicks MK to the floor. He sits up, but doesn't stand or fight back. Papyrus was his role model.

"Punk!?" Undyne appears at the door. She helps me standing. I have two stab wounds, but I've endured worse. Papyrus puts his hands out. Undyne and Monster Kid move out of the way, having trained with him before, but the kid and I are too wounded to move. He pulls his hands into fists and a bone comes to pin Dex and I to the ground. I spit blood, growing a bit dizzy. I see his boots in front of my face.

"YOU WON'T FIGHT BACK. YOU NEVER HAVE, AND YOU NEVER WILL. YOU WENT SOFT A LONG TIME AGO. I SHOULD HAVE TURNED YOU BACK WHEN I HAD THE CHANCE. OH WELL. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST." I hack up more blood.

"i'm not... i'm not soft..." I choke out. Papyrus kicks me. Not hard enough to do any damage, but it still stings. Especially coming from him.

"OF COURSE YOU'RE SOFT. YOU'RE WEAK. YOU WOULDN'T KILL A HUMAN IF IT HAD MURDERED THE WHOLE UNDERGROUND." I gasp and immediately cough blood again. He had no idea how many genocides there were... How many times I died, how many times he died... How many times I failed to stop the human because I was so bent on protecting them.

"He's... not soft." I hear the kid grunt. My vision goes out of focus again. I blink a few times and it comes back. "You're just prejudiced." She hisses. "Which makes you no better than the AMO."

"WHO SAID I WAS?" Papyrus pulls his arm back. He's using soul magic, I realize. There's the horrible sound of the bone ripping through flesh and then Dex flies to the other side of the room, hitting her head on the table. Barely even able to make an agonized cry of pain. He starts to turn to probably attack her again, but I trap him in blue bones. "SANS. MAKE THOSE DISAPPEAR RIGHT NOW."

"no." Undyne puts her finger to her ear.

"Alph, are you seeing this!? We can't hurt him, and it's too hard to retreat! What do we do!?"

"stop hurting the kid, she's going to die!"

"THAT WAS THE INTENTION, YES."

"i'm not going to let you."

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU 'LET' ME DO. I'M GOING TO DO IT ANYWAY." He rips out of the entrapment and instead attacks me. Due to my wounds, I don't get out of the way in time and find myself with a broken collar bone. The next attack is blocked by Undyne with a spear.

"Get you and Dex out of here! The rest of us will be fine!" The kid struggles to pull herself up. I run over and pull her into a teleport, leaving us in the castle. I stand back up and now that we're on clean floor, understand the extent of her injuries. There's already a concerning pool of blood. She's bleeding fast and hard. Not good. The best healer is Toriel... I wonder if we have any real monster food. I find a few spider donuts from a couple days ago.

"kid, can you eat?" She sits up, clutching the deep bloody wound.

"I had better." She starts eating quickly, and the wounds heal a little bit with every bite. She looks up and offers the last donut to me. "And don't you dare decline. You're hurt too." I sigh and eat it. My HP goes back up again.

"you've lost a lot of blood. i don't know why he's acting like this... normally, pap would never hurt me. somehow, it's like they've turned him bad or something. i hope the others make it back ok."

"Me too." She stands up. "You know, I never get used to seeing puddles of my own blood. I'm going to go change into cleaner clothes and clean it up." I nod.

"good idea, i'll do that too."

We work fast so that it doesn't dry or stain too much and collapse onto the couch with sighs. I don't know about Dex, but I'm tired.