Chapter Text
Mutt yawned and stretched. He really loved napping at his Snowdin sentry station, but Sans would be angry if he fell asleep on the job. Even napping took a backseat to his Lord’s approval. He squinted at the light source in the sky that managed to be both blindingly bright and never warm enough to melt the local ground cover. Ah, afternoon. Sans would be re-calibrating his traps in hopes of someday capturing a human. Mutt didn’t care one way or another about humans, but he loved basking in the glory of his Lord.
Stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets, the lanky skeleton set out to find his brother, the tag on his collar clinking softly as he walked. It never took him long to locate his brother; despite his small stature, the Maleficent Sans dominated any space he occupied. Mutt could sense his presence, and it comforted him. Their world was a corrupt and dangerous place, but they had each other. It had always been enough.
“There you are, Mutt. You better not have been sleeping on the job again,” Sans scolded sharply.
“Of course not, m’Lord.” Mutt accepted his brother’s words like a caress. To anyone else, Sans’ tone and expression would’ve radiated distaste, but Mutt knew that the diminutive skeleton worried when he slept too much.
“Help me move this rock!” commanded Sans, looking regal in his Royal Guard armor. Mutt always felt a twinge of guilt when he saw the scar his brother had acquired earning that position. Sans had fought savagely to eke out a life for them both, a responsibility that should’ve fallen on him as the older sibling. Mutt never had his younger brother’s ambition though.
Mutt obediently scurried forward to lift the offending object. “Where shall I put it, m’Lord?” The arrangement of rock elements was tantamount in any monster puzzle, but instead of directing him, Sans stepped in close to adjust his grip and stance. The smaller skeleton could’ve lifted the rock easily, but he often resorted to trickery like this to get his lazy brother to train. Surely enough heavy lifting would boost those low stats and lower work ethic. It hadn’t yielded results so far, but, though he would vehemently deny it, Sans had unwavering faith in Mutt.
Mutt, for his part, humored his energetic Lord. They spent hours in the frosty Snowdin forest with Mutt shifting and shuffling various obstacles that somehow all ended up in the exact same places they’d been before. He completed each task without complaint and according to Sans’ specific instructions. The artificial light hung low in the cave ceiling sky by the time his Lord was satisfied with his training.
They stood together for a rare peaceful moment in the clearing by the farthest sentry station. Beyond this laid the Ruins, but nobody really came or went from there. Sans perched himself on the wooden sill of the shack; Mutt took up a guard position in the shadow of the awning. They watched their breath rise in crystalline clouds like glittery shadows of the real thing, something neither of them had ever seen.
Slowly, hesitantly, Sans reached a small gloved hand out to stroke Mutt’s face. Mutt leaned into the touch, loving the feel of the soft leather against his scarred cheekbone. Suddenly, bright blue eyelights filled his vision. It was so rare to be alone like this. So rare to be able to let go and explore their love. “Mutt.” Just one word, spoken low and husky in a voice usually harsh and snappish.
“M’Lord,” he groaned as the distance between them closed. Their mingled breath swirled thick as smoke around them, hiding them from the silent forest, but the forest did not remain silent. The unmistakable crunch-swish of footsteps in snow caused the skeleton brothers to leap apart, both of them unerringly facing the direction of the noise- the path leading to the Ruins. Mutt stepped protectively in front of Sans, orange eyelights straining to pierce the chiaroscuro pattern of the fading light through the dense branches of evergreens.
Cautiously, Mutt crept forward, skirting the path to take advantage of the abundant tree trunks, thick enough to obscure his lanky form from even the most observant of intruders. Sans tried to follow him, but Mutt gestured silently for him to wait. For once, it was his Lord’s turn to obey. Mutt had no problem playing lieutenant in their day to day lives. Few monsters would risk an open attack on someone with the Maleficent Sans’ fearsome reputation, but he’d never let his brother face an unknown danger that he had not confronted first.
Mutt may have been lazy, but a monster didn’t survive long in their universe without an eye for strategy. Pinpointing the interloper’s location, he quickly circled, getting behind his potential enemy. Slipping from the forest onto the path, Mutt made his presence known by stepping heavily on a thick fallen tree limb. The sharp snap! of splintering wood served to direct attention back towards the Ruins and Mutt and away from Sans. If a battle ensued, Mutt wanted to prevent his Lord’s involvement and possible injury.
The footsteps faltered, stopped, and, after a brief pause, changed direction, exactly as Mutt had planned, but nothing could’ve prepared him for what he saw come around the bend in the path. The huge perceived threat that stalked the frozen woodlands turned out to be a very small human. The very small human also wore a striped sweater. In monster culture, stripes were only worn by children as a way to distinguish them from adult monsters and protect them from possible attack. Mutt huffed in relief. And to think, he’d almost exerted himself!
The human slowly approached him, trembling from cold or fear, or possibly a mix of the two. They held one arm furtively behind their back, and the other arm hung limply at their side. No creature in this universe had ever looked less threatening. Silently, the child lifted their head, catching him with their strange, red stare. A little creepy, but still not threatening.
“Is that any way to greet a new friend?” Mutt asked softly, trying to coax the unsettling child closer. What were they concealing in their other hand, he wondered. He shuffled slightly closer; the human remained where they had been standing. Narrowing his sockets, he took in another odd detail. Some kind of chalky dirt caked the child’s skin. It was hard to tell in this light, but it reminded him suspiciously of-
“Mutt! What’s taking so long?”
-monster dust.
The realization dawned on Mutt just as his younger brother made his appearance. Sans strode into view, then stopped dead in his tracks.
“A human!”
Mutt wasn’t so sure anymore as the indifferent expression on the child’s face melted into a horrific nightmare grin. The human whirled, faster than Mutt would’ve thought possible; steel flashed as they lunged at Sans, finally revealing the object tucked into their miniature fist- a knife!
Mutt teleported, an ability he preferred not to use unless completely necessary. Life was so much easier when he could play servant instead of revealing himself as a skilled and capable fighter. He couldn’t let the human get to his brother first though. He materialized beside Sans just in time to wrench the smaller skeleton out of harm’s way. The knife slashed harmlessly through the air, but the tiny human didn’t give up. Their determination to press the attack was surpassed only by Mutt’s determination to prevent it.
Shoving his protesting little brother behind him, Mutt narrowly dodged the next assault, retreating towards the vacant sentry station as the human rained a barrage of blows upon them. Mutt ducked and twisted, desperately shielding Sans with his own body. Their assailant continued to advance, and Mutt felt a bump as Sans, tucked behind him, collided with the unyielding wooden wall of the sentry station.
“Get inside, m’Lord,” Mutt ordered. He needed Sans to be safe, whatever else might happen. Without waiting for a response, trusting his proud brother to be compliant when it mattered, Mutt attacked.
PING!
Mutt caught the human in midair as they leapt forward, and their soul, as bright red as their eyes, immediately changed to blue. Mutt used his blue attack to throw the human child backwards and away from him and his brother. The small body crashed into the trunk of a massive tree and slumped to the ground. Exhaustion washed over Mutt. Why had he let Sans work him so hard earlier? The human rose to their feet, and Mutt steadied himself. He couldn’t fail. Not with so much at stake.
The human laughed, an eerie and unnatural sound. Mutt drew on his deep reserves of magic and blasted them with a complex bone attack. The murderous child darted nimbly through the ever-changing maze of bone spears. He altered his attack, managing to strike them several times, but they only slowed, never stopping. Mutt barely dodged the strike of the knife. He repeated his blue attack, slamming the human against the ground over and over, but his magic faltered. He couldn’t keep it up.
Mutt’s next series of bone attacks were slower, more predictable. The human avoided them easily. With the last of his magic, he summoned a Gaster Blaster, and as the dragon skull opened it’s gaping maw and blasted his opponent with concentrated magic, he saw their HP plummet. It didn’t reach zero though. He braced himself for their next attack; he didn’t know if he had the energy to sidestep this time. Surely he’d weakened the human enough, caused enough damage, that Sans could finish them off and survive.
Mutt watched events unfold with morbid acceptance. The human, eyes ablaze with crimson light, sinister grin oozing black slime, raised their knife. As the blade descended, he heard a shrill scream.
“Papyrus!”
Sans hadn’t called him Papyrus since they were babybones. Sans hadn’t shrieked like that since they were babybones either. Sans always displayed immaculate control of his tone and pitch when speaking or shouting.
Suddenly, Sans’ armored body stood in front of him, arms outstretched to protect, not attack.. Mutt’s sockets widened. The impact of the knife hit him secondhand; his beloved brother had absorbed the blow with his own body. Time slowed to a crawl as Sans bowed his head… in defeat? No. His down-turned skull moved forward, gaining momentum with agonizing slowness until it toppled free of his neck and tumbled down into the trampled snow.
Mutt could only stare in anguish as his brother’s body crumbled, exploding into dust as it hit the ground, a dove grey sunburst on a bone white background. Mutt collapsed to his knees, frantically grabbing for his brother’s skull before it too dissolved before him, but a child-sized shoe crashed down on the bones, crushing them before the deep blue of his bother’s eyelights could even properly fade.
The merciless human continued their trek towards Snowdin, leaving Mutt awash in grief so intense that he couldn’t process it. Sans was so integral, such a permanent fixture, in his life that Mutt couldn’t comprehend being without him. He knelt in the mixture of snow and his brother’s dust, numb and frozen in a way that had nothing at all to do with the temperature.
As a boss monster, Mutt bore the responsibility of stopping the human. His true battle post was located in the Judgement Hall of the castle; Sans would be angry if he shirked his duty. He couldn’t disappoint his little brother, but he couldn’t muster up any motivation. None of it mattered. Nothing mattered without Sans. Mutt laid unmoving on the frozen ground, a monument to his fallen Lord. He felt no desire to leave the last space in the Underground that his brother had occupied.
The rest of the world could crumble; Mutt’s world already had… crumbled into dust around him. He curled up, allowing his sockets to fully, finally drift closed, and waited for darkness to take him.