A year later, Gaster had been getting better at raising children. As a single father, he requested help from his friends, his friends being the Snowdin Canine Unit of the Royal Guard, and his best friend Grillby. He lived in a small house, even though he could afford a bigger one. Having lived alone, he hadn't had a need for a larger house. And this place felt like home. So instead, he used some of his money to expand his house so his children could have their own rooms. Sans had an affinity for space and puns, while Papyrus liked action figures and loved pasta.
One day, Gaster couldn't find his stack of work paper. He looked for it, and found Sans using his calculations for the CORE. He managed to actually do something with it, and Gaster was proud. So the next day, Gaster got Sans his own stack of work paper and photocopied all of his old calculations. Sans loved them and he hugged his father. Gaster told him to be careful with hugs, because Sans had extra pointy bits.
Papyrus was actually shaping up to be a good cook, so Gaster had taken Papyrus to Grillby's, and now Papyrus gets weekly cooking lessons. Speaking of Papyrus cooking, tonight, with Gaster's help, he had made rotini. It was actually pretty good. Sans had a headache, so he went to bed after dinner.
Sans wasn't in the best shape. He locked his door, and laid in the bed. His headache was unbearable. He saw himself doing many things. There had been countless different Papyruses all making different things for dinner. He even saw a few other Papyruses who made rotini, but their timeline had a different decision. His eye was burning.
Gaster smelled smoke. He tried to find the source of the smell, and when he tried to get into Sans's room, the door was locked. "Sans!" he yelled, "Are you okay in there?"
"Y-y-yeah, d-dad.." Sans managed, before his eye flamed more and more.
Gaster knew something was wrong. He kicked the door open, and was shocked. Sans was engulfed in flames, the source of the flames being his eye. He rushed forward, and kept shouting Sans's name. Eventually, Sans came back to reality, and he started sobbing. Gaster said, "What happened, Sans? Did you fall asleep and have a nightmare?"
"N-no, dad.."
"Then what happened, Sans?"
"I-I saw me."
"What do you mean?"
"I saw a lot of me. And there were lots of Papyruses, and lots of you. And I've always seen them, dad. And it's like all of them are real. But I still know which one is actually with me. I even saw places where we don't exist, and even places where I'm a normal skeleton. And I saw places where I was just a test subject for you. And places where you fell into the void, or lost your soul, or we're not related, and.. And…" Sans couldn't take it anymore. He broke into sobbing again. Gaster just let him cry the pain away.