Red huffed, wobbling on his way in due to trying to go towards Sci while hopping on one leg. It sounded easier in his head when he had stormed off after the scientist than it actually was. Once he reached the door of the kitchen, he took a moment to compose himself, resting his frontal bone on the wooden frame.
'Deep breaths' he told himself in his thoughts. With a deep breath, he nodded to himself. 'You need to pull yourself together for this shit show.'
Looking at Sci from the edge of his peripheral vision, it was obvious he would need it. The scientist looked exhausted and morning on the Underground wasn't even over if the artificial light system of the Underground was to be believed. He felt a pang of guilt for adding to Sci's stress, but they really needed his help this time. Red had no idea of how to deal with Goth's problem on his own despite his own scientific background and there was no one else who would be able to help them out. Not like Red would trust anybody else with something like this. Besides, it had been Goth to request Sci specifically. It would have to work.
On the other hand, seeing how Sci was slumped on the side of the normal sized (for now) sink, wasn't exactly a great motivator to start talking. Red tried to cough lightly, the more polite way he knew to get Sci's attention without startling the other... much. The softness and gentleness in the expression that greet him was something said edgy Sans didn't believe he deserved.
"What actually brings you here, Red?"
The guilt choked Red at that moment. People usually went to Sci when they needed or wanted something, leaving him alone for the most part if that wasn't the case. He wanted with his whole soul to prove to Sci he was different, that he wasn't just visiting to use him. That Red had come because he genuinely like to spend time with the scientist and nothing more. But this time around that wasn't true.
Was he really all that different from all those other Sanses that went to Sci just to use him? To obtain a solution for all their problems from the exhausted scientist? He would have to make it up to Sci on other occasion.
"This is kinda out of the blue, and for you to come with Goth is... unusual" Sci whispered, blinking slowly, trying to get rid of his sleepiness. He probably had stayed up late working again if Red had to guess. It was strangely endearing. Cute, even, if Red dared to use that kind of word.
"We're not really sure. There was this thing with the kid and his powers..." said Red, fidgeting. He wasn't sure if it was his place to tell Sci about Goth's problem without talking about it with the kid first, they didn't really say anything while on that machine unless you counted Red and Edge arguing about boney pointy parts of their sibling poking them and just all around cursing each other. Then again, Sci definitely looked like he needed a heads up to deal with this cluster fuck of a situation.
He was definitely taking too long to talk, the scrutiny he was under made Red fidget even more. The eery reflection of Sci's glasses that didn't let him see said Sans' expression didn't help. After another minute too long of silence with Red awkwardly trying to keep himself balanced on one leg, Sci ended up passing him a pair of pink slippers.
He looked at the hideous fluffy things repressing a grimace. Probably the slippers Sci would end up using if his timeline progressed to Aftertale as another 'Classic' version. The gesture in itself was nice since Red was still missing a shoe from earlier, but he sure was tired of being reminded of things he pointedly tried to ignore for the time being. And they hadn't even properly started the actual conversation yet.
Joy.
Nevertheless, Red took the slippers and, maneuvering to take off his other sneaker, he put the terribly comfy slippers on. They were as soft and fluffy as they looked, which kind of only made things worse. Red tried to ignore this sense of inevitability and nihilism filling him slowly but surely.
He didn't succeed.
"A thing" Sci ended up saying, looking unimpressed at Red. The Underfell Sans shrugged lamely. "That's not a lot to go off. Care to elaborate?"
"Remember the Multiverse thing that put as all in quarantine in our AUs?"
Sci groaned, already feeling the stress on his skull rise again. His shoulders slumped as he looked at Red with mild exasperation. It seemed like everything was related to that incident these days. He couldn't even go outside his AU to help the rest. Sci's AU, or more accurate, his timeline, was in jeopardy if he left because of that very same Multiverse quarantine, as Red put it.
The code had already been unstable way back. Back when it was just Sci and After, more so when it was only Sci left of the supposed trio of Sanses Aftertale should have. But now? Now it just needed the slighlest push to topple over and destroy itself.
Sci was grateful Red could still come over and exit without problems, but he himself was a key player on the codes. The only Sans Aftertale and its various timelines had left. He couldn't in good conscience try to leave the AU, he just couldn't risk Aftertale as a whole because he wanted to access the Multiverse to hang out.
And while he wasn't sure if the AU would destroy itself or adapt once more, he wasn't about to test his luck when countless Science Sanses had perished already on the span of three months.
"Are you serious right now? How could I not remember that?" The bitterness in Sci's voice was obvious. Red winced. "You know I'm the only Science Sans left because of it."
Sci took off his red glasses, busying himself with cleaning them on his sweater. He used that as an excuse to look at his task, avoiding direct contact with Red's eye-lights.
Countless copies, all gone in an instant. There wasn't even anyone to blame, it just happened naturally. It wasn't an easy pill to swallow, especially when he was still at risk of that happening to him. Where once there were countless copies of Science Sans, there was now just once. Sci himself.
"I'm still here thanks to my timeline's tie to Aftertale, but we don't know if that won't change."
Sci tried very hard not to think about that possibility. He wanted to go out there and help, everyone on the Sanses council needed him now more than ever, and yet... When he thought about how fickle glitched AUs were, he couldn't help but see his Papyrus and wonder what would happen. Would all of them die, as if the Destroyer himself had passed through or would they become glitches, similar to the likes of Geno and Error, forever handicapped by their own shifting code?
None of the options seemed appealing, he couldn't risk everyone like that. He couldn't risk Papyrus like that.
Red clenched his hands and gritted his teeth, yet again reminded of a topic he had tried to not think about. He tried to avoid thinking about what could happen to Sci, too, but he wasn't all that successful, so he tried to steer the conversation away from that particularly uncomfortable and daunting topic instead. "When it happened, Goth was sent to his mother's AU. The Save Screen, specifically."
Sci visibly froze, his eye-sockets widening. Goth had been closer to him during this incident than he wanted to admit, but he never would have known or noticed if he wasn't told due to the different timelines. If Goth had ended up on the Save Screen, it had to be during After's or Geno's phase. To be trapped in the Save Screen during the three months that took everyone to be able to get out of their AUs couldn't have been nice, and that was putting it mildly.
If Geno was to be believed back when he was still around and they talked about their AU (because that's the kind of thing they did back in the early days, how much Sci missed those relatively simpler times), Goth would have been alone all that time with just an unstable Gaster lurking around in the darkness. Sci grimaced.
Definitely the opposite of nice. More like maddening.
But even then, that was not the whole issue. Sci had never even thought of the possibility of Goth ending up there because Aftertale was supposed to be inaccesible unless using the machine, and that only worked when going to Sci's timeline. There wasn't a Sans anywhere else on the timeline and the AU had become unstable ever since Geno had gone missing.
"Are you really sure it was the Save Screen? No one is supposed to be able to enter?"
Although the possibility of that happening could be due to Goth's easy to miss glitches on his code, cancelling out the effect the AU would have on any other 'normal' monster. The kid may have just managed to do the one thing Sci has been trying for a long time without even meaning to.
He looked at Red about to question him a bit more, but the expression on his face made him keep silent. There was more to this that he hadn't shared.
"The Save Screen, yes. I know it was supposed to be inaccessible, but dunno. Problem is, Goth was sent there with someone else" Red grumbled. At the slight flash of hope blooming on Sci's face, Red quickly clarified his statement, even if he hated to be the one to crush that fragile hope. "And no, it's not HIM" meaning, not Geno.
"Oh..."
Sci slumped once again, his posture dropping slightly once more at the answer. He longed to get to Geno for so long, that every disappointment, even if expected, was taking its toll even more on his soul. Of course it wouldn't be so simple to find the future alternate version of himself, they had been trying for so long now that it seemed hopeless, but Sci had promised himself that he would keep looking despite this awful feeling every time he failed. Not only Goth needed his mother, but Reaper and Aftertale itself did too.
Sci himself wasn't in any real hurry to fix Aftertale and get to his future, his next phase as the After Sans. He was perfectly content with staying in this timeline forever as Sci. But it seemed cruel to keep the world resetting over and over automatically once they reached a certain point in time because of his selfish desires. There simply was no possible continuation to his AU's story and he needed to fix that.
He tightened his fists and glared at the floor. He would forever stay as Sci but at what cost? Never progressing to the next stage, always stagnant and stuck without any evolution, repeating the same days over and over again without any way out.
Red cleared his throat to gain Sci's attention, giving the scientist an awkward pat on the back. The Underfell Sans tried to smile reassuringly. It didn't exactly work out as intended due to his sharp teeth and gold canine, but Sci was comforted anyways despite that.
With a heavy sigh, Sci pushed his glasses back on their place, composing himself. "That doesn't make any sense if all the information we have is correct. Who else could be there in the Save Screen if not Geno? I mean, it's not outside the realm of possibilities that it was Aftertale Gaster despite how elusive he's claimed to be, but I can't think of anyone else at the moment."
Red shook his head in a negative answer. "I don't think so. Goth would have recognized him as a Gaster and left it at that, he knows better than to mess with them. We wouldn't be in this mess on the first place if that was the case. Besides, the kid has strictly forbidden trying to reap those guys. I..." Red blinked in realization, looking at Sci confusedly. "I actually have no idea who it is, Goth didn't describe them in detail."
"Reap? Did Goth try to reap someone in there?"
"Yeah, that's the whole issue, you see..." Red shrugged sheepishly in answer to Sci's unimpressed face. "Don't look at me like that, I don't fucking know."
Sci's unimpressed stare intensified. He blinked and a look signifying an 'eureka' moment showed on his face. "Wait, you remember the Sanses that make up Aftertale's progression, right?"
Red tilted his skull in confusion as to how this could be related to the issue at hand but complied. "You, After and Geno, duh."
"Exactly! Geno and After are supposed to be able to exist at the same time. So to be able to get into the Save Screen due to the Multiverse quarantine thing, do you think it could be After?" Sci tried not to get his hopes up again so soon after the most recent disappointment, but it was very difficult not to do so. He whispered the next bit, with wonder in his tone and a wobbly smile. "That maybe After managed to slip away before all the glitching on Aftertale occurred and corrupted the timeline, so he ended up there with that Multiverse event?"
Red shook his head. "I doubt it." At the crestfallen look on Sci's face, he smiled weakly, hesitating. "But maybe."
Sci returned the smile, but his mind kept circling the topic, musing this over. He couldn't loose hope. It just was something he couldn't afford. He was the only version of himself in his AU that hadn't given up even partially, that hadn't lost that shred of hope that kept him going. He may be a Sans, one belonging to an almost 'Classic' universe at that. But he wasn't about to start loosing hope now, no way in hell.
"If it's After, it would make sense for him to end up on Aftertale. But the bit about them meeting on the Save Screen isn't completely right or what I would have expected honestly. That was always Geno's place." Sci scratched the back of his skull in confusion. "Not gonna lie, this seems complicated."
Red looked to the side, watching the normal sized sink with some melancholy he didn't think he was capable of anymore. It was slightly dripping water like his had, which it always did until his Papyrus had changed it. The same thing was supposed to happen here, probably, but Sci's little brother was still a babybones. That wouldn't happen anytime soon.
The Underfell Sans felt way older than he was at that moment.
"I just want to know if this could be dangerous to Goth, if I'm being completely honest."
Sci reached out for Red's hand, holding it tenderly, hoping that the small gesture would reassure the other. He squeezed their linked hands softly, a hidden message only the other would get from long cold afternoons spent together with just the other for company. They both understood the real meaning without any need for words or pointed looks, but their eye-lights met anyways. A soft 'it's okay, I'm here'. Red couldn't help himself, feeling the brittle surface of his bones flush as he started to get lost in Sci's white eye-lights. He didn't bother to try to hide his expression, letting his gratitude and embarrassment out in the open.
Sci was the first one to break contact, missing Red's soft and fuzzy smile, amused despite everything at how the youngest reacted each and every time without fail.
"I'll check it out. But Red, if you came here because you want to find out who that other person is, why didn't he come too?"
Red knew he could push it a bit more, fluster Sci and get a squeaky embarrassed answer (very cute) and a teasing laugh out of the situation. But it was probably for the best that they get back on track. Their hands were still tightly held in the other's, so natural for the pair by this point that neither even realized the way they were drawing comfort from it.
"The situation is a bit more complicated than that." Sci gave him a dry look that clearly spelled out for him to cut the bullshit and start spilling. Now, this? This made Red fidget. He started sweating lightly, feeling anxiety creeping up slightly. "Geez, I'm explaining. No need to be grumpy."
At the long silence that followed, Sci raised a bone brow at Red, who squirmed.
"Well... Goth tried to use his reaper powers on the Sans-"
"You didn't tell me they were a Sans" clarified Sci, if only for the benefit of ticking Red off and tease. It also had the perk of getting Red to start explaining already. He had made the assumption already that it was either a Sans or a counterpart of one, since they were usually the ones to get involved in Multiverse shenanigans anyways. Besides, it was something related to the Multiverse and Aftertale in particular, so Sci had been under the assumption that it was indeed a Sans they had been dealing with, no room for errors. It was nice to have a confirmation regardless.
"Do you want the fucking explanation or not?" he grumbled, even more grumpy at the giggle Sci let out at his expense.
Sci made a hand motion for him to continue, as if he was disinterested. Well, looks like Sci's plan worked like a charm.
"There was an accident of some sort, the kid didn't give me the details. What I do know is that it seems like the other Sans is a glitch too, so their codes kinda... Dunno, mereged?" Red huffed, still deeply troubled about this issue since he wasn't able to fully understand or help. "This shit is weird. You're the expert here, not me."
Sci hummed, letting his body rest against Red's arm sleepily. "He didn't look any different from usual, did he?" He tried to think back to Goth's figure on his front door, but he had been avoiding looking at the kid for too long. He winced at that. He had thought he had gotten over the not being able to look at Goth for too long without feeling his soul ache, but apparently not yet. "Usually, when merging happens between glitches, both monsters have a fusion of sorts."
Red snorted, letting out a sharp and dry laugh that didn't have any real humor in it. "Well. I, for one, am fucking glad that didn't happen."
Sci snorted. Go figure. Of course he was glad the kid had kept his autonomy and his sense of self, he couldn't have lived with the guilt if something happened to... his future kid? Alternate extended family? Nephew?
Geno's kid.
Complicated family relationships aside, he was glad that the kid seemed to be okay.
"But nah, the Sans accidentally attached himself to Goth's soul and he's following him around like a ghost."
There was a long pause, one where Sci just limited himself to stare at Red's face disbelieving.
"You can't be serious." At Red's nod, Sci had the urge to laugh himself silly despite the gravity of the situation. "....like he's being haunted?"
Red's sharp laugh was all he needed as confirmation.
"I said the same thing! See?! You get me and I get you, this is why we're such a great pair!"
Sci blushed, trying to at least partially hide his face on Red's jacket. Yeah, such a great pair... He shook it off in the end, falling even more in love with Red wasn't something he could afford now with everything going on. He tried to draw comfort from Red's hand in his and wondered why he thought the way he did. Red could help, probably.
But then he thought of how the other would feel when Sci was in such an unstable and dangerous position and decided a relationship would only complicate things. It was so hard when Red was around, though. Sci always seemed to forget all arguments he had neatly laid down on his mind when confronted with the other's laugh and mannerisms.
"You've gotta be kidding me, no way that actually happened."
"Nope, Sci. I'm not kidding this time."
"But what the actual-" he shook his head, letting go of that distracting hand and pacing on the little kitchen from one corner to another. "That's wrong on so many levels. Is Goth even stable? How long has he been like this?"
"Since the start of the Multiverse Reversion" answered Red, not without certain level of apprehension.
Sci stopped his pacing to stare at Red with a raised bone brow. "They called it that?"
Red shrugged. "Yeah."
"Dumb."
"Dumb as hell."
"But not my point!" He pointed at the general direction of the front door, where they had left both Goth and Edge. "That was three months ago!"
"Exactly."
Taking a deep breath to calm himself and the pit of dread he could feel forming, Sci felt himself missing the feeling of Red's hand in his. He was not brave enough to reach out for it for his own selfish comfort, though.
Looking around, he snatched his googles from the top of the counter and replaced his glasses with them, storing those away on his inventory. He stood next to Red, completely missing the other's slightly blushed face at being faced with the determination and drive of Sci once again.
"I need to check Goth immediately."
Red grunted, calming down his racing soul. Not the time. He nodded. "You sure it's okay with you to be near the kid? I know you're not exactly comfortable around him."
"That doesn't matter right now, this is an emergency." The younger of the two was thankful of the consideration given to him, but this was not a moment for it. He would deal with his issues at his own pace, but this was an exception. "If I know something about glitches, is that they can be perfectly fine one second and then, everything goes to hell."
Red flinched. He didn't know what he was expecting, but that didn't sound reassuring at all. The fact that visiting Sci for this was probably the best decision they could have made was getting more and more apparent by the second. They would deal with Reaper if necessary when it came to it, but Goth was more important than a pseudo family feud.
Sci looked at him with sympathy, but didn't relent. It would probably be fine if it had been going on for this long, but it was better to be careful in these cases. "Tell him to enter my office. I have equipment there that will be necessary for a proper check up."
Red clenched his hands to stop the slight shaking they had, forcing himself to look relaxed. They could all freak out when Goth was in the clear, there was no room for panic. "I'll do that."
The scientist sighed, despairing as he muttered to himself "why couldn't you have a normal kid, Geno." Sci took Red's clenched hands slowly, rubbing circles soothingly on the brittle bone. "Hey, it's gonna be fine. I'll check the kid, make sure this situation isn't harmful to him and so on. Maybe that will give us a clue on how to separate the two as well."
With a strained expression but trying to smile despite everything, Red gave a small nod at Sci, squeezing the hands back. Sci's face softened, looking tenderly at Red.
"Trust me to do my job, Red. I failed that kid when he was looking for his mother way back, I won't do that again."
Leaning on Sci's direction, there was a distinct 'clack' sound of bone making contact against bone. Red rested his forehead on Sci's, smile more genuine this time.
"I'll go tell him to go to your office now, then."
They stood like that for a moment, reluctant to let go of the other's hands so soon again. When it seemed like this was amounting to something, both skeletons' souls racing faster as they got lost in each other, their own little bubble... Sci shook his head and let go, stepping back.
It pained him to do so, but now was not the time.
"Okay. You and Edge can wait for the kid outside my office. You know how this things go."
Red's hands twitched as if going to reach back at Sci, but he refrained.
"Right. I'll just... I'll just go do that."
And Sci just stood there, watching Red's back as the other skeleton walked away. He sighed, wistfully. How he longed to walk alongside the other, to be partners and just-
Not the time.
With a look of apprehension, he teleported in front of the door that lead to his office. Entering his office, he pointedly did not look to the framed photo on the back with practiced ease. This was going to be awkward.
In the picture, multiple Sanses and some Papyruses could be seen posing dramatically with ugly Xmas sweaters on.
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"Kiddo!"
Both Goth and Edge watched Red approaching them. They giggled evilly.
"Hey, uncle Red. Back from embarrassing yourself in front of your crush?" Goth said way too happily.
'With those two? I would be surprised if he didn't embarrass himself at least four times under ten minutes.'
"Please, tell me the damage isn't too bad" Edge teased, cockily jutting out his hip as he made yet another one of his awkward standing poses.
"Oh, shut the fuck up, the both of you."
Goth laughed, happy to see at least Red wasn't too upset with their teasing. That must mean it had gone relatively well.
"All I hear is incessant repetition from you, brother. Besides, I refuse to, as you so kindly put it, shut the fuck up. I, the Great and Terrible Papyrus, will not hold back my commentary." Sneering at his older brother, he smirked evilly. "Especially if it annoys you, brother."
"I swear you're worse than when you were a babybones" Red grumbled, glaring daggers. Edge limited himself to raising a bone brow condescendingly.
"Are you really in a position to backtalk in such a way?"
"I'm the older brother, dipshit" he scowled and turned to Goth, doing his very best to ignore Edge. "Anyways, kid. Sci is gonna check you, so go to his office down the hall. We'll wait for you outside."
Goth hesitated a bit, but nodded. He beamed at the pair of skeleton brothers. "Sure thing, uncle. Thanks for helping me out with this, to the both of you."
"Heh. Don't sweat it, kiddo."
Edge's face softened considerably. "As my brother is trying to say but is incapable of in his assholery" he ignored the little 'hey' of protest from Red without even a hitch, too used to it, "we do not mind helping you, nephew."
Glitch grunted, pacified for now. As awful as the whole encounter with those two and that darned cat had been, maybe he could spare Abomination 13 and his brother. They weren't so bad in the end.
Goth walked down the hallway, the skeleton brothers watching him go for a moment. Red turned to his brother, a troubled look on his face.
"I swear. If not for how sweet the kid is, sometimes I see Geno instead of him."
"He does greatly resemble him. It's noticeable even among all the Sanses there are. I won't deny that happening to me too as well from time to time."
Red hummed and punched Edge's arms slightly. "And give me back my fucking shoe, asshole."
"I tossed it to a snow puff. Have fun searching for it outside" sneered Edge, walking down the hallway where Goth had gone.
Red stated, with a monotone voice and without any real heat behind it "I hate you."
Edge, in the exact same tone of voice, answered in kind.
"The sentiment is shared, Sans."
"Fuck you."
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Yasss, after so many rewrites this is finally done! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. In the next one some interesting things are finally happening :D.