Chapter Text
Taunts and threats and the wild pounding of his soul fills Blue’s hearing, drowning out even the crunch of snow beneath his feet as he flees from his pursuers. He doesn’t know where he's running to, just that he has to get away.
When they had first descended on him like wolves on prey, he had lashed out with his magic, standing his ground and ready to fight, despite being outnumbered. It was then that the alternate version of his brother had colored his soul, and he realized with terror that he could no longer use attacks. Utterly helpless now, adrenaline spurs him onward, turning the tall trees of Snowdin Forest into a green and brown blur as he sprints down the path.
The other Papyrus sets up tricky patterns of blue and orange magic, trying to trip him up, and the other him could teleport, nearly catching him one too many times, but if there is one thing that Sanses are universally good at, it's dodging.
Go around that blue attack, don’t trip on that rock, don’t let him get a fistful of your shirt, don’t slip on that ice, stay focused, stay focused- He evades like his life depends on it, and knowing these freaks it probably did.
His soul skips a beat when he comes to the dead end, The Ruin’s locked door looming before him. Okay, new plan- he’d head into the thickest part of the forest, surely he’d be able to lose them there. He spins around just in time to see a flash of a predatory grin before he's toppling backwards and sinking deep into the snow, his doppelganger's superior weight pinning him like an insect.
“gotcha," he pants in his face, victorious. “‘ey, boss! over here!” he shouts over his shoulder.
“Good job, Sans,” his brother’s double praises, coming around to stare down critically at the thrashing Blue. He puts his boot on Blue’s neck, grinding him down into the snow. Blue gasps and chokes, trying to reach up to push him away but his arms are held fast by the red Sans. “You're not very smart, I see. Did you forget what I said I'd do to you if you tried to run? Did you think saying we'd break off your legs was an idle threat?” He presses down harder, and Blue’s vision begins to swim. “I do not make idle threats. Sans, keep him still.”
The horror of the situation is sinking into Blue like a knife, when suddenly a blessedly familiar sound is heard.
“hey.”
Sweet, beautiful relief, like a ton of bricks being lifted from his shoulders. “Papy!” he cries out, tears of joy stinging his eyes. He was saved, he was saved, he was-
“i want to be the one to do it.”
The gears in Blue’s mind come to a screeching standstill. What had his brother just said? He must have heard wrong.
“Papy…?”
He went on, as if he didn’t hear Blue. “he’s my brother, I should be the one.”
“He is your brother,” the darker Papyrus concedes. “Fine, first blood is yours. Seems to me it's high time you trained him anyway.”
“heh, maybe so. can each of you hold an arm down? i want to see his face.”
Their positions shift, careful to keep a firm hold on him, but Blue isn’t even struggling. He's staring intensely as his brother’s face as he crouches down in front of him, searching for something. Anything. His face is so passive and calm, eyes half lidded and a cigarette dangling from his teeth, like always. This was a joke. It had to be a joke. Or a clever trick. Yeah, that was it, a trick. Any second now he’d catch the other brothers off guard with an attack and he’d teleport him and Blue away from here.
Papyrus takes a lazy drag off his cigarette, inhaling deep and exhaling slowly, letting the smoke dissipate in the chill winter air, before rubbing it out on Blue’s cheek.
Blue screams, twisting and thrashing in a desperate attempt to get away, his lightly charred cheek in burning, throbbing agony.
“screaming already?” his copy chuckles. “come on, dont make us sanses look bad.”
“eh, he never did have much of a pain tolerance.” his brother shrugs. “so, little bro, which leg’s your least favorite? i’ll let you choose,” he says with a familiar, lazy wink. Blue’s head swam. This couldn’t be happening…
“Does it matter when they're both going to come off?” the other Papyrus quirks his brow.
“lets just do one for right now, yeah? dont want him to bleed out, we’re pretty far away from town.”
“Right, smart thinking,” he nods. "Maybe there's hope for you yet."
“Papy…” Blue whines, eyes filled with tears.
“does that mean no preference then? alright.” His brother sits on one of his legs to help keep him still and pulls his other leg into his lap.
“Papy, why are you doing this? You don’t have to do this. Let’s go home,” he pleads.
“we’ll be home soon,” he tells him, tugging off Blue's boot and rolling up his pant leg. Blue shivers at the cold air nipping at his bare leg.
“Why? Why?” he presses, as if knowing was somehow going to ease the pain of what was about to happen.
“hey, it’s alright,” Papyrus assures, meeting his little brother's tear-filled gaze. “next reset you’ll be good as new. it might be a while, but you wont even remember this eventually, so you just gotta get through the now, okay, bro?” Blue's response catches in his throat when without further ado Papyrus presses his femur into the ground with one hand, and grasps his fibula in the other and began to slowly bend the joint of his knee in the opposite direction.
Blue wails, loud and long. It was instantaneously horribly painful, and made worse by the slow and steady build of pressure. His knee is s l o w l y bending in the wrong direction, and Blue is screaming himself raw, thrashing in the snow, clawing desperately at the ground as he tries to break away with everything he has. It would be much more merciful if he’d just snap it off quick. Instead the pace he's setting is unbearably unhurried, almost leisurely. Finally, the incredible pressure reaches a tipping point, and the bone begins to splinter. Blood sprays and begins to trickle down his femur and over Papyrus's fingers, flowing like water and staining the immaculate snow. Blue’s mind is blank with pain, his eye lights long gone, all he can do is bawl incoherently.
“almost there,” his brother soothes, stopping to pet his head affectionately, leaving behind a smear of brilliant cyan. He returns to his task, twisting the spasming, half-severed limb from side to side, grinding the splintered shards of bone against each other and shredding the connecting inner tissue. Suddenly, with a loud tree branch-like snap, he holds the dismembered leg in his hand.
Blue can see it in his blurred vision, and is dimly aware of finally being released and the celebratory whoops as his body part is tossed around like a prize. His brother scoops him up in his arms, planting a kiss on his forehead. “you did so good. dont worry, we’ll let you have a rest before we do anything else, alright? youre gonna be okay.”
Blue mercifully passes out.