There was once a royal scientist. He loved his job and was a single father to two young skeletons named Sans and Papyrus. This scientist went by the name of W.D Gaster. Gaster was a simple skeleton at heart and enjoyed every minute of his job. Though, his bones began to grow old, and he soon retired his position to the next Royal Scientist, Dr. Alphys, after the core had been completed. Satisfied with his work, Gaster left Hotland to spend the last years of his life living with his sons in Snowdin.
Everything was perfect. He was happy, his sons were happy, Gaster could live the rest of his life in peace. Papyrus was soon going to be in the royal guard, Gaster and Sans cheering him every step of the way. And the moment seemed right after a human fell into the underground. After hearing Papyrus' story and motivations, the human allowed themselves to be captured, and Papyrus would bring the human to the capital himself. Surely then, Undyne would finaly recognise his dedication. But, everything changed when an interloper from no timeline of their own arrived.
He called himself Error. He called this universe a dirty glitch. He took Papyrus' soul and the human's soul with his unnatural blue strings. The human's soul remain captured, but Papyrus…his poor was shattered, as the pieces flew everywhere, Papyrus turned to dust. Error laughed. Sans, angered by this attempted to clash against Error in order to avenge his brother, only to meet the same, soul-shattered fate.
Gaster could only look on as his sons were murdered in front of him. He couldn't do anything about it, he was too old and tired to do anything nowadays. Tears began to well in his eyes as he gathered his things and fled. He ran…and ran…and ran….until he had reached Hotland. He had called for help, but nobody came. That awful error….must have killed them all. The air was thick with dust. Gaster began to sob, he collapsed, whimpering and crying into the slowly rising darkness as static began to swirl in his ears. The timeline was collapsing in on itself, and he could see Error grinning.
That grin…that terrible, horrible grin that belonged to a miserable and awful mainiac, burned into Gaster's mind. And in one moment of determination, he thought…"I don't want to die…" He scribbled a quick warning on the frount page of his research notes and began trying to find a way to escape the closing time. He stumbled. Static continued to ring. Things were going fuzzy as time ebbed in and out of existence.
Before Gaster knew it, he tripped….he was falling….and falling….and falling. Dis he fall for a short time, for a long time, was time even existent anymore? His notes had scattered, and he felt a hot, thick substance envelope him as the timeline entered oblivion. And Error was still laughing.
…..
….
….
….
There was light.
Gaster opened his eyes. He stood. He felt weird. Like he was a temporal puddle of half-melted mess. Further investigation proved that feeling was pretty accurate. Where was he? Looking around, it seemed to be the inside of a metallic, self-secured lab. Error's laughter was still ringing in his ears. At least the awful, loud static was gone. More investigating of this new plane would be required, and Gaster began his research.
Soon, there was a large monitor, showing some sort of tower, with blue waves of energy that appeared to branch off in infinite directions. Gaster had theories about a similar looking tower, he called that mysterious place the "Temporal Core". A threshold of energy that gave timelines life, allowed them to exist, and let time flow. Was he in this place now? If that were the case….He could access his timeline and go home!
He followed the procedure and attempted to open his timeline.
ERROR 404: TIMELINE NOT FOUND
FILES MAY BE MISSING OR CORRUPTED
?!
No….this couldn't be…. Everything was gone…like his world never existed?! Like his life was nothing?! That terrible Error! The laughter echoed in his mind again, the smile lingering in his memories. It was too much. Gaster screamed and broke into tears. He cried into the darkness….louder and louder…..but nobody came.
Nobody came….
Nobody came….
How could somebody come…?
You're alone…..
Helpless and alone….
Alone….
Alone in the dark….
Dark….
Darker….
Yet Darker…..
There is nothing left for you there….
You've reached the absolute.
The tears flowed until there was no tears left to cry. The darkness and loneliness began to swirl over time, as sadness turned to rage. Laughter echoed…but this time…it wasn't Error's.
Gaster began to laugh. He kept laughing…it was SO funny…wait…he didn't do that? Or did he? What is so funny? The fact that everyone is dead? The fact that now they never existed in the first place? The fact that he was nothing? There was worse than Error out there, those "clever" time anomalies….they way they had say in which timelines live, and which die…was SO funny. Gaster began to cackle. A wide grin stretched across his cracked and half-melted scull. He was nothing in a world where special people could play with innocent timelines like toys in a sandbox.
It was at that moment a page of his research made itself evident within the room. It must have followed him here. And that's when the solution became oh so obvious to Gaster. The multiverse had become imperfect. Time anomalies had risen to power, and screwed up the perfect system, leaving it a tangled and destroyed mess. The way to fix this was to make sure that no time anomaly existed. And to do that….? Gaster would become the ruler of time. He just needed the key….or twelve keys, to be exact. And thanks to the journal page, he knew exactly how to get those keys.
He took the picture of him and his sons off of the page, and gave their memories one last goodbye. He told no one in particular that he would avenge his home, using any means necessary. And with that, Gaster left for Timeline Theta-45.
Files may be missing or corrupted,
Missing or corrupted.
Or corrupted.
Corrupted….
"See you soon…You filthy Error…"