Red and orange lasers lit up the area around Snowdin Forest. Birds that were stuck underground were flying away in panic, trying to not get blasted by the powerful forces at work. On the ground, Error held a smirk as his strings were completely wrapped around Blueberry, controlling him from his soul outward. He looked like he was panicked, desperately trying to stop but he couldn't. His attacks lashed out against his brother, Papyrus and his friend, Ink. Error's black blasters countered Papyrus', Ink barely able to block and dodge Blueberry's attacks. Bones of all colors littered everywhere. Black, red, and some white still humming with either light blue or orange magic.
Papyrus and Ink stopped, having Error sort of backed into a corner. It wasn't quite what they wanted, but they knew they couldn't back him into an actual corner unless they wanted him to get serious. He was messing around, sadistic in his play, but still, he wasn't as serious as they were. Blueberry was exhausted, his magic reserves lowering, his body starting to shake. Papyrus was getting more worried with each passing second and Ink, well…
"Error, let him go!" he shouted, holding his brush open in his hand. He didn't like fighting, but, well… he had to be on guard. "I thought you two were friends, why would you do this to him?"
"Oh, you know quite well, Ink."
"P-please…" Blueberry spoke up, tears falling from his eyes. "Please, just let me go… I don't want to hurt anyone…"
"Well, that's too bad, because I do-!" Error was about to force Blueberry, tears in the tiny skeleton's eyes as he was about to attack, when he suddenly disappeared.
"What did you do to him?!" Papyrus growled, blaster ready, but he, and the others, noticed the whole world going white. Tiny pixels started to break down, deleting and fading, some of the world seeming to become translucent.
Ink, starting to internally panic a little, "W-what's going on?"
"The hell?" Papyrus looked behind Error, causing all three of them to turn to see what got his attention.
It was difficult to make out the shape… but it was a humanoid female for certain. They could see a redish-purple top, jeans, knee-high boots… pale skin on the hands.
"A human?" Papyrus questioned.
"Hey! The fuck are you doing?!" Error shouted. The way her hand was positioned, she was messing with something. When he didn't get a response, he threw some of his red bones at her, which suddenly dematerialized before it got within three feet of her.
"I'm not a fan of this particular universe," they suddenly heard, Papyrus and Ink in particular paying attention. Her voice was almost even, though what else was in there… they couldn't quite tell. It was… strange to hear. "But," she continued, "others are. This universe has captured the minds and hearts of countless others, and therefore, cannot be disrupted like this."
Ink felt an instant relief wash over him. Was this another protector, like him, Blueberry and Dream?
"You're not going to ruin this for me!" Error roared out, glitching past the "wall" that blocked his bones, only to be stopped by another, seemingly having made no real progress to the person. She still seemed just as far.
The figure he aimed at was silent for a long moment, as if realizing she was the target of Error's failed attack. Her weight shifted, her silhouetted head tilting to the side as if confused.
"Ruin it for you?" she parroted. It took a moment before she responded further, as if contemplating. "This has nothing to do with you. Any of you."
Error roared and threw his strings out, managing to close that gap and wrap her soul, as he usually did. He smirked and grabbed tightly on them.
"Error, stop!" Ink tried to run and ran into an invisible wall. He went to turn, before feeling another wall to his right. Papyrus tried too and he got stuck. They were both in their personal, individual, clear boxes.
"Interesting," she said, with a gentle curious inflection to her voice.
Error tried pulling, but found he couldn't move his strings any tighter, and he was trapped inside of a box. He started to panic, slamming the walls, trying to open a door out, anything, he was trapped, seriously starting to glitch out.
"What are you doing?!" Papyrus then shouted at her.
"No need to worry, Papyrus," he gasped a little at the fact she knew his name… why did that surprise him? But she didn't seem like anything he had seen before in the multiverse… neither of these two seemed to know about her either. "You'll have nothing to worry about. Sans is back home, safe and sound, waiting for you to wake up, as he always is. I'm honestly surprised you've stayed as long as you have. Perhaps these two are the cause of that. After all, they don't belong to this world."
Error roared out, desperately trying to get out of his box.
"Then, this is..?" Ink then started to ask, looking around.
"A reset?" Papyrus finished.
"Of a sort," she said, a small smile starting to appear on her lips. Yet, she was still wrapped with Error's strings, for some reason, they passed through the invisible walls around them, but Error was powerless to use them. No matter how hard he pulled, nothing happened. "More than what Frisk could do… or rather, it's Chara in your world, isn't it? I suppose it doesn't matter. This is the one time you won't remember."
"Wait, what?!"
A button appeared in front of the woman and her hand hovered over it.
"Wait, you're resetting the whole world?!" Ink then asked.
"From the inside, yes. I'm erasing this timeline. It will be as it never existed."
"W-what's going to happen to us?" Ink then asked, trying to figure it out. He could fake fear but truly feel it?
"You two don't exist in this world, so I suppose you'll do the same as I. You'll go back "home" as it were, though, as you are both a version of Sans, I don't know if you'll remember this… curious."
Error, with a last ditch effort, everything in his eyes pretty much black, tried to pull the strings attached to his fingers, feeling as if something immovable was on the other side. "D-d-don't-!"
Ink watched as Error struggled, and she pushed the button. He felt the box close on him and he felt like he was drowning… before gasping awake in his Doodlesphere. He shot up and looked around. "Papyrus?" he called out. "Error?!"
He quickly began looking for UnderSwap's AU and found it, temporarily inaccessible. It only lasted a moment, before he went in and began looking around. Everything was… normal. Even Blueberry was scolding Papyrus, as per normal. It went on, and Papyrus didn't seem to have a clue of what happened. No quiet thinking to himself, nothing… nothing like with what happened the last time a reset happened… did he truly forget?
Error found himself in the anti-void… his white space, but he felt something still attached to his hands before his eyes fully cleared. He noticed a blurry figure, he tried pulling on his strings to bring it closer so he could see what he had, but it still wouldn't move. As his eyes began to clear, he looked up to see that same human female… only this time not obscured, still wrapped up with his strings around her soul…
She stood before him, wine-red shirt with a v-neck and a thin hood attached to the collar, pull strings flat and short with black gloves from under her shirt that reached to her hand, only her thumb and first two fingers visible. Plain pale jeans were accented by near knee-high brown boots with a belt and buckle at the ankle and near the top, closing with a zipper on the inside along the length. Her hair was a mousey chestnut brown styled into a long bob, parted slightly off center on the left. Her pale, steel-bluish eyes fixated at the skeleton before her.
"Well, this is certainly a surprising turn of events," she said with a small smirk.
Error tried to jump back and pull at her soul, trying to hoist her up, but he wound up being forced into a dead stop when her soul just wouldn't move. "The fuck?!" he growled.
She chuckled, amused, hand on her hip. "You think a few strings are going to do anything? Oh, you're funny."
Error jumped a little as his strings were severed without her even moving… or blinking. Nothing, what the hell was that?! He glitched a little, before a smirk came over his lips and a deathly seriousness coming to his eyes. "You're in my world bitch, no more walls for you to hide behind!"
Red bones shot up at her and she simply jumped back. Strings wrapped around her arm and he yanked her forward. "I might not be able to grab your soul, but you're still just a stupid human!"
A bone ran straight through her as he pulled her close. She fell atop of it, and Error pulled back, panting with a smirk, then he frowned. "Damn it. Now I have to clean this up."
As he turned, he heard a laugh. Slightly unnerved, he turned, seeing the woman putting a hand on the bone, the wound starting so steam with blackness. Her hand closed on the bone and it disappeared in a pixelated form and she stood up straight, the wound in her stomach completely black and still hissing with that black steam.
"Oh, this is beautiful," she laughed.
Error slowly took a few steps back. "What the fuck are you?!"
"Someone who's finally found something interesting in these damn AUs!" she grinned.
Error blinked, just kind of staring at her. "What, me?" he pointed at himself, confused, unsure of her reaction at all.
"Yes!" she laughed, "You three were the only ones who have ever seen me in an AU! And you, oh, you managed to keep me from going back when I reset a world!"
"Going back where? What abomination do you come from?"
"I don't!" she smiled at him, finally stopping her laughing fit. "But you don't either, do you? You and that other Sans, neither of you belong to a single universe. No, you've escaped that hell, but into what hell have you found yourself now?"
Error growled and pulled out a blaster and aimed it at her.
"Oh please," she smiled at him. "Why waste your energy?" she asked. "Is this about the box? I saw you flailing. That's not my doing. That's how the code deals with isolated abnormalities like us. Honestly, I was surprised that Papyrus was involved, though I'm sure that had to do with his interaction with that other Sans… maybe because he was aware of what I was doing. I'll be honest I've never actually interacted with someone who knew about the resets as I've done one."
"You need to shut up!" he roared, firing a blaster directly at her.
The smoke cleared, and nothing was there but a burn stain. Error felt a little pleased with himself.
"You missed."
Error jumped ten feet and leapt away from the woman who suddenly appeared behind him, talking in his ear. He grabbed her tightly with his strings, stringing her up. "God damn it!" he growled.
She just laughed. "Ah, sorry, sorry. I couldn't help myself! Do you have any idea how boring it is to just walk around these things? Not being able to interact with anyone?"
"Yeah and what's your point?"
She tilted her head, looking at him. "I suppose I let the quiet get to me a little too much. It's just… fun to interact with someone, especially someone on the same level."
"Heh, you're hardly on my level. I've got you and you're not going anywhere."
"Oh, please," she chuckled. "Did you forget what happened when you first woke up already?" She simply smiled, and his threads shattered, letting her land easily and Error fell on his backside.
He looked up at her, confused, but ready to fight. She simply walked over and held out her hand for him, smiling. "Really, if I wanted to harm you, I would have fought back. You're not being serious either, are you?"
Error stared at her before he burst out laughing. "You really think I-I'm just going to just be your friend? Are you as stupid as that damn Blueberry? As Ink?" He teleported away from her, glaring, "Why would I ever be friends with a damn protector?!"
She rose a brow. "Protector?"
"Of those abominations!"
"Abomin—Oh! You mean the AUs? Oh, no!" she laughed. "Dude, hardly! I don't even like UnderSwap! The original version of it had a basic concept, but everyone just utterly mutilated Sans with Blueberry, are you kidding me? They just made him to do some stupid sugary bullcrap with him! Sorry, not into children! Honestly, I like a dude with a little more grit to him. There's no character development, and don't get me started on Papyrus! They just don't do well with their personalities swapped like that in my opinion. They're not even close to the original!"
"Then why did you stop me?"
"Because it was pointless in the first place. You could try, but the creators would just bring it back, and worse. I'd rather have source material, thank you. If you destroyed the AU, the original, semi-decent version would be gone and we'd be left with diabetes Sans, and all the spin-offs. Sugar is a virus."
Error thought about it as she spoke.
"Creators are weird. Some will support stuff like this, but others will attack, killing off weaker AUs for you, preventing them from taking off. And if they do manage to gain traction, they'll be abandoned, and easy for you to just wipe out."
"You seem to know a lot about this…" The logic was sound, even he couldn't deny it. It took some fun away, but…
"That's because I have a direct line."
Instantly, his head shot up as he looked over to her. "What?"
She chuckled, smiling a little at him. "Sorry, but I'm not gonna say anymore~! Gotta save some fun for our next visit, right?"
"Hey! You can't leave! This is my space! Only I can get in or out!"
"Well, true, you brought me here, let me find this place."
Error's face turned blue. Did he seriously just… no, no she was his prisoner now! She couldn't leave!
"Which means I can find it whenever I want now! Toodles!"
Error tried to grab her with his strings, but she just teleported… and disappeared. "No! She has to be here!" he roared out, going everywhere in his personal space, finding no trace. Did she…? Error roared out, his glitch intensifying until he had a full crash. What… was that?
Somewhere, in the emptiness of the Anti-Void, hidden amongst the files, the woman leaned up on some code, wincing as she put her hand to her stomach, the black over her wound flaking a little.
"D-damn… Fuck my life," she groaned as she slid down, sitting in a hidden corner of the code. "Doesn't matter how many times it happens, it always hurts like a fucking bitch… Too bad… Maybe I should avoid being hit next time… but I don't want to scare him off… he was interesting…"
Her eyes slowly closed as she curled up into the corner, her body shimmering until it disappeared, invisible inside of the code.