A/N- Hiya, quick note – Just so you guys know, there will be several more mentions of things like the FUN value and alternate timelines, but if you don't know about that sort of thing, don't worry about it. I'll do my best to explain it in the story, and try not to make it too confusing. Thanks!
"hey, dad."
"FATHER!"
Gaster grinned at the tiny skeleton wrapped around his foot.
"Hello, you two. How was school, Sans?"
The older of the two children shrugged. "eh, you know. nothin' new."
"Perhaps a better education system should be a priority," Gaster muttered to himself.
"FATHER!" shrieked the little skeleton, and Gaster picked him up.
"How are you, little one?"
"I AM GREAT! I AM THE GREAT 'PYRUS!"
"As always, Papyrus." He set the toddler down, and it waddled towards its brother, chanting "SANSY SANSY SANSY SANSY."
"Where's Mom?"
"hasn't come home yet. she had sentry duty today, so Gerson's probably keeping her late. ya know how he can be."
"I've never met someone who tells Gerson 'no'," said Gaster as he wandered the messy flat.
"Sans, how is your magic progressing? Any progress on that blue-"
An incredibly strong, invisible hand grabbed Gaster and slammed him against the opposite wall. The scientist lay stunned for a second, staring at the boy as his eyes glimmered blue. For a second, nothing happened.
Gaster started laughing, flickering back into his previous position.
"Impressive! Very impressive. Keep working on it, and you could become a boss monster." Sans eyes flashed with satisfaction as they faded back to normal.
"do all bosses have a special attack?"
"Most, not all. Others just have very, very fast and powerful normal attacks. Like the king, for example. But special attacks are very, very rare. Most monsters with special attacks become bosses."
Gaster pushed several papers and test tubes off the kitchen counter, simultaneously shuffling through the cupboard for ingredients. Sans blinked - for a second, it looked like there were two of his father, doing different things.
"how was your meeting with the king?"
"He's as obstinate as ever. Ever since Tor- well, he's been increasingly difficult to deal with. His mind is consumed with only one thing."
"what?"
"His quest. However, I think I might be getting my point across, finally. He's agreed to at least look into the project."
Sans nodded, looking away. He seemed… tense.
"Something on your mind?"
"today started over, a few hours after it began," he said, just loud enough for Gaster to hear. "no one else noticed. did... did someone reset it?"
Papyrus shrieked from the next room, but both older skeletons ignored him.
".i. .sensed. .too." he said slowly, forming the words in sign language, in Wingdings, instead of saying them out loud.
".only. .we. .can. .sense. .resets. .you. .cannot. .tell. .anyone. .not. .papyrus., .not. .mother. .king. .doesn't. . know." He hesitated.
".only. .humans. .can. .reset."
".does. .that. ?mean?"
".don't. .know. .can't. .sense. .any., .not. .my. .power. .unless. .I. .hear…"
"FATHER?"
"Papyrus, come here!" The baby flickered, then reappeared on the counter, giggling.
"THAT TICKLES, FATHER!"
Gaster flickered around the kitchen, chuckling. "A little, yes. What shall we cook for Mummy? How about some spaghetti?"
"WHAT'S SPOO- SPOOGETI?"
"Spag-hetti. I'll show you how to make it. It'll take a while, so drink your milk. It'll make you big and strong."
Sans wrinkled his nose, pushing his cup towards Papyrus. Gaster smiled. "If you don't drink your milk, Papyrus will be bigger than you when he grows up."
"yeah, right."
Papyrus cheered squeakily, watching his father boil noodles and cut up tomatoes.
"you have a special attack, dad."
"In a way, yes." Gaster vanished and reappeared with a jar of herbs.
"so aren't you a boss monster?"
"Yes, but my abilities have less to do with fighting and more to do with the FUN- well, what we were talking about earlier."
Sans nodded, frowning.
A glass of milk flew across the room.
"dad?" he said, his voice strained. His eyes glowed impossibly, vividly blue. Gaster's eyes lit up purple.
"I feel it too. Stay here with Papyrus."
"dad, what-" Sans grit his teeth, pulling the baby closer.
Gaster threw the door of the house open, pausing time just for a second.
There was his wife, Lucida, her bow in hand, her armor shining. There was a small creature - a bipedal whose type he had not seen in a long time, whose face displayed only one emotion.
Determination.
There was a knife gripped in its hand, already stained with blood.
"Get out of my way," said the human.
"You're coming with me, to the Capital," said Lucida, cold authority tinging her voice.
"Move, or I'll kill you."
"It can't lose," muttered Gaster, and Lucida glanced at him.
"Wingdings! Get the kids, teleport out of here."
"IT CAN RESET!" he shouted. "YOU CAN'T BEAT IT! GET OUT OF HERE!"
The human - only a child, really - looked up at him - no fear, no anger. Its eyes were dead, and a purple soul floated out in front of its chest.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" she demanded, loosing a volley of arrows which spun around the soul, nearly cornering it.
Gaster ran next to her, blasting it with a beam of white light. Lucida kept shooting next to him.
Then, it was gone.
Lucida stuck an arrow back in her quiver.
"We did it. Look." There was no joy in her voice, no excitement, only a tinge of grim satisfaction. The purple soul hovered in midair, the same dark shade as Gaster's special attack. He nodded silently.
She kissed him softly. "Hey, it's ok. We did what we had to do. Watched that psycho kill a Woshua and a Temmie. A Temmie! I chased it, tracked it, don't even know how it ended up in front of our house. Wasn't paying attention to that part."
"I'm so sorry."
"Why? What was all that stuff you kept saying, about... resetting?"
Her eyes flashed green for a second. "Wingdings?"
"mom?"
"Sans? Is everything - wait - what happened?"
"what do you-"
"YOUR HP IS SEVEN, WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M TALKING ABOUT?"
"what? oh. i didn't notice."
Green light began swirling around Lucida's hands as she stepped towards her son. "How in the world could you not-"
Sans pulled away, looking back towards his father, his fists still clenched, his eyes completely dark.
"what's going to-"
"FATHER!"
Gaster blinked at the tiny skeleton wrapped around his leg. Lucida was nowhere to be seen. Sans looked sick as his father walked into the flat.
"Hello, Pappy," said Gaster, his voice empty of emotion. "How are you?"
"I AM GREAT! I AM THE GREAT 'PYRUS!"
"it's going to come back," said Sans, his voice as dull as his father's. "it's going to keep coming back until it wins."
"SANSY?" asked Papyrus. Sans looked down at his brother.
"go play, ok kid?" he said softly. "i need to talk to dad."
Papyrus narrowed his eyes, then wandered off into the next room. Gaster knelt in front of Sans.
"I'm sorry you have to go through this. I'm sorry you understand all of this. It's much more than I would ever expect of you, especially at your age..."
Sans closed his eyes for a second. "we're marked now, aren't we? mom, paps... they don't know. it'll keep dying and coming back again and again until it kills us all and-"
"No. It's not like that. Humans only have so much determination. It can only die so many times before it loses the will to live, four or five, at the most. Other than..." He hesitated.
"other than what?"
"You do not need-"
"dad." Sans closed his eyes for a second. "i need to know."
Gaster paused, looking down at his son. Sans was only a child, barely eleven years old. Gaster didn't know about any of it until he was twice his age, at least.
"I have not told you everything I can do, but... sometime in the future, a human will come who has almost limitless determination. The last human, they are called. The delta angel. The one who will decide the fate of our kind."
Sans eyes sparked with panic. "Is it that one? The one that's trying to kill-"
"No. They are-" His voice echoed with static as he flickered in and out of existence. "They are red."
Something crashed outside, Papyrus shrieked from the next room, and this time both skeletons heard him clearly.
"MUMMY!"
".PROTECT. !BROTHER!" snapped Gaster in Wingdings, almost too fast to see.
Lucida was standing a little ways off, dodging the human's swipes and releasing arrows as fast as she could. Her armor was already dented, and her helmet had fallen off somewhere. Had she been this beat up in the last reset?
The human was muttering under its breath - harsh words, cruel words, as it continued forward slowly, its eyes full of endless perseverance.
Lucida was still backing up, trying to keep enough distance between them to get an accurate shot. A knife grazed her skull, dark ectoplasm dripped down on her armor. She grinned nervously, and the human continued stepping forward, sidestepping her arrows as if it had all of her fight sequences memorized.
Gaster tried to step forward, but… he couldn't. It was like he was trapped between two panels of glass. He couldn't move, couldn't shout to his wife.
"You cannot interfere in this fight," whispered a cruel voice in his skull. "You cannot stop fate, Doctor Wingdings."
He gasped for breath, trying to pull away from the invisible vines tightening around his neck and arms. He was able to pull one arm free.
"Surrender, and I will spare you!" shouted Lucida. "I do not wish to kill you!"
"I do," sneered the human, its words inflicting physical pain on the warrior in front of it.
".determination." signed Gaster weakly, and Lucida turned to look at him, horror crossing her face as she looked over his shoulder.
"WHAT IS-"
She wasn't facing the human.
Confusion broke through the surprise, just for a moment, as she looked down at the knife stuck in her soul.
Purple light exploded from in front of the house - lighting up the road, lighting up the sky. Gaster stepped in front of her form, free of the invisible bonds, his eyes glowing purple. Two vague, horrific shapes, like horned skulls, hovered behind him.
[you don't remember how you got here.]
[you feel like you're about to have a bad time.]