UnderCorrupt

33 ~ Voluntary Confinement

Sans and Papyrus were in Waterfall.

It was a nice day. The star crystals in the ceiling glowed just bright enough to see well, but still give the place a mystical air. The echo flowers were nearly blooming, and the water's aqua glow was almost completely restored. There were still craters in the ground and scorch marks on the walls in some places, and there were even a few new alcoves that had been blasted into the walls in some particularly brutal battle, but overall, Waterfall was recovering.

Papyrus was still finding endless wonders in the reclaimed territory. Every crystal caught his eye, every echo flower had to be complimented, and he found boundless joy in splashing through the water.

Sans was content to simply trail behind Papyrus, standing in the border of the smaller skeleton's radiant joy.

Papyrus ran up to Sans. He was holding something, and whatever it was practically oozed blue light out between the bones of his hands.

"Sans! Look at this!" He held his hands up towards Sans, unclasping them to cup whatever object inside in his palms.

It was a large shard of a Magic crystal, which had broken off the ceiling and fallen to the ground, where Papyrus had found it.

"wow, bro. that's pretty cool." Sans grinned at Papyrus.

"I know!" He beamed. "And it's glowing so much brighter than the ones in the ceiling!" He pulled his hands back down to peer again at his treasure.

"i think that's because'a you."

Papyrus looked up at his older brother, a bit confused. "Me?"

"yeah. these things run on magic, but up on the ceiling, there's only the magic that they generate over time, and even that runs out. that's why we have daytime and nighttime. but what do you think happens when a monster, who's mostly made of magic, picks it up?"

Papyrus thought about that for a second, then grinned. "Oh! I get it. It's running on my Magic!"

"yeah." Sans grinned at Papyrus. "exactly. before you go pushing more magic into it to make it glow more, just be careful. these work a lot like lightbulbs, and they're the same in that if ya put too much power through 'em, they'll explo-..."

Papyrus looked up at Sans, curious as to why he had stopped. He found, though, that Sans' expression was totally blank, and could glean no information from it.

And everything seemed to get just a little... darker.

Papyrus looked at the crystal in his hands. It was still glowing just as brightly as before, but it seemed like the light just didn't reach as far. He looked back at Sans.

For a moment, Sans just kept looking off into the distance. Then he looked at Papyrus. "we have to go. now."

Before Papyrus could utter a word, Sans scooped him up, slung him over his shoulder, and took off running.

He didn't stop running until they reached the lab in Hotland, and were in the elevator, headed to the tenth floor. Only then did he set Papyrus down.

"Sans, what's going on?" Papyrus looked at Sans. Now he could see the smallest spark of panic in his brother's expression.

"i-... just wait, dad needs to hear this, too."

Papyrus nodded slowly.