White: warning you now… many puns are running rampant and so are pranks! Oh… and… ummmm…. Please don't flame for a part of this story which people are divided on…
Quick note for those who do not know Japanese: Kaa-san means "Mom" or "mother" while Oto-san means "dad" or "father".
Note 2: no bashing me for using red and not orange. You will understand later.
Warnings: implications of dark themes and triggers for dark memories.
Last time…
"I Better call Paps…Gaster… you have some explaining to do…" Sans muttered.
Gaster sighed, his smile turning into a sad frown as he ruffled Snowstorms hair.
He indeed did have a lot of explaining to do, but they may not like his answers.
Currently…
As soon as Sans closed the door, Gaster let his lips curl further into a frown, 'Yuki said [I know what it's like]… don't tell me she…' Gaster thought, trailing off as he contemplated different things that she could have meant.
Attempting to move his left hand away from Snowstorm, he felt something grab his sleeve.
Looking down to see what had grabbed his sleeve, he saw Snowstorm's small, pale, hand gripping his sleeve tightly.
Gaster blinked, before his small frown turned upside down.
He summoned one of his 'magic' hands, which looked like an identical copy of his normal hands (including the holes in his palms..) only detached from the body.
And began running his 'magic' hand's fingers through Snowstorms hair, a small smile appearing on Snowstorms lips as he did so.
Gaster held a random book in his 'regular' right hand, using his thumb to turn the page; which was a bit hard considering the hole in each of his palms.
Right there at that moment, Sans opened the door..
Only to stop in the doorway at the sight before him, Papyrus right behind him.
Sans turned around slightly and hushed Papyrus, who was about to say something before quietly walked into the room and closing the door behind papyrus.
Sans and Papyrus didn't know how to feel about the scene... thought it was undoubtedly cute.
Even if Sans was wondering why Snowstorm was not recoiling from the touch.. but instead seemingly curling into it..
"Gaster?" Sans said quietly, hoping to not disturb Snowstorm from her peaceful sleep.
Gaster looked up from his book and blinked, setting down the book he was reading, he carefully folded the page as a bookmark to return to later.
Summoning another 'magic' hand to help him with sign language (after all, who could do sign language with only one hand with the conversation they were probably about to have?) and greeted them happily, a warm smile upon his face.
Though he may not be able to move without assistance very well, Gaster was happy to have some interaction with someone other than himself…
Wait, that wasn't interaction, was it?
Sans eyes narrowed, Papyrus just stood there, oblivious to what was going on.
"Why did you abandon your only sons?" Sans asked, getting straight to the point, and later, they would have sworn they heard something crack.
[Abandoned?...] Gaster questioned, a look of pure confusion on his face.
"Yes." Sans stated simply, his left eye beginning to glow an electric blue color.
Gaster stared at them, a sad expression upon his face.
[I never did. After the… accident…] Gaster paused, motioning to his body, [Asgore… Asgore came up to me, said something, picked me up, and threw me into a pitch black magic-nullification solitary confinement room… I don't even know how Yuki here found me. But none the less, I am thankful.] Gaster finished shakily, fire red and electric blue tears spilling from glowing heterochromic his eyes, having started to cry as memories of his confinement rose back to the surface.
Gaster never even realized that his memories of his confinement had seemingly been lock away and sealed during those moments of seemingly normal life, even if disabled due to his half melted body.
Papyrus just stood there, questioning what in the world was going on and what Sans and this.. Gaster were talking about... abandoning sons?...
Sans, though, was a bit confused…
Wasn't Asgore good? Wasn't he the one who kept all of Monster civilization from erupting into chaos? 'But… but.. that makes no sense!' sans thought, his eyes narrowed in response to his suspicion… but he could tell that Gaster was not lying, with the on slot of emotions he could feel pouring off of him.
Sans couldn't help it, he could feel emotions pouring through the bond he thought was shattered, the bond that for years he had not felt anything but sadness and loneliness come from for so long…
Papyrus' eyes were glowing a fire red, fire red tears streaming down his face… he was conflicted… he didn't know what to do… he felt the same on slot of emotion as Sans did, he didn't know why, he didn't know who this person was... but they were familiar to him..
"You…never abandoned…us…?" said, his words barely audible, his hands balled into fists..
Gaster had barely finished nodding when Sans had jumped him, his slippers falling to the floor as he hugged Gaster as if he was a lifeline.
Gaster merely silently hugged sans back with one arm (as Snowstorm still had his left sleeve firmly in her hands), a large smile upon both their faces.
"Ummm… what's going on?" Papyrus asked quietly for the first time since Snowstorm arrived in the underground.
Gaster and Sans looked towards Papyrus, and merely laughed.
Papyrus gritted his teeth; he didn't like not knowing something.
Suddenly, a small beeping noise and a red icon appeared on Snowstorm visor as it lit up.
Snowstorm groggily sat up, pressed the button on the side of her visor, and scrolled down a floating menu in front of her, selecting the item "Energon" (as the whole menu was written in Cybertronian, only Sans and Gaster had a vague idea of what it said, as they only knew the verbal format of Cybertronian) she held her hand up as it materialized in her hand.
Once it materialized in her left hand completely, she reached up with her right hand, sliding her fingers under the headband part of her visor, and slipped it off.
Sans looked at her, slightly bewildered she would do that out of the blue, but he saw she had her eyes closed… more like almost tightly shut for some reason.
Snowstorm fumbled a bit with the tube of glowing blue liquid as she maneuvered it around to remove the cap.
Once she did, she removed the cover from the left side, and plugged the vial into a slot, the vial barely visible, only the very bottom of it filled with glowing blue liquid visible; she sat the visor down on the bed.
And with that, Snowstorm crawled further onto the bed and promptly fell onto the bed, deep in the realm of dreams within seconds.
Sans looked at Snowstorm, confusion written all over his skeletal face.
"…huh…?..." he muttered in confusion, detangling himself from his previous position, slightly embarrassed by what he did.
"The whole time I knew Yuki…she never took that thing off…" Sans said.
"Ehem…" Papyrus coughed, attempting to not be rude.
"Yeah, bro?" Sans replied, his joking attitude back stronger than ever, even if he was still confused.
"Who is this person? And they abandoned who?" Papyrus asked in confusion as he pointed at Gaster.
Gaster sighed; he almost expected it considering how much time seemed to have passed.
[It's rude to point at people] Gaster signed with a sweet smile before pausing.
He blinked before noticing something.
[Sans, does Papyrus remember any of the Sign language I taught him..?]
"Sans, what is he doing?"
Gaster could not help it, he summoned another pair of his magic hands and grabbed Papyrus by his odd clothes and dropped him in a corner, putting him in timeout.
[Timeout for you young man.] Gaster stated, chuckling silently at Papyrus' confused and bewildered look.
Sans collapsed to the floor in a fit of laughs, "Paps, you just got PUNished by our father!" Sans managed to say in between his desperate gasps for air.
Papyrus blinked, it was as if a cartoon light bulb turned on above his head.
"Our father?... WAIT YOU JUST MADE A PUN!" Papyrus yelled the last part, pointing accusingly at Sans.
Snowstorm bolted upright, her teeth barred, making her very sharp k9 teeth visible.
Her markings were Glowing again and her eyes wide open, though her heterochromic eyes, Opalite blue (right) and Peridot green (left) looking around the room in a panicking manor, ice and frost forming around her.
Quickly shutting her eyes she hissed softly, 'ow… that hurt worse than Papyrus' yelling! But not as bad as regular light… maybe… maybe I can… no.. I need to keep my visor on.. but is it even charged yet..?' Snowstorm thought with panic, covering her eyes with her left arm, she reached out towards her Visor, and felt the electric pulse of the liquid in the vial. 'Slagit! It's not completely charged yet!' Snowstorm thought in panic and sadness… she didn't care if they were Monsters… if they saw her eyes they would call her a Freak, demon, abomination...
Snowstorm backed herself up against the wall, and curled in on herself, the ice around her slowly receding.
"It's okay Yuki, you don't have to hide your face like that." Sans said softly, almost out of character in a way; especially to Papyrus.
Though Papyrus didn't understand what he said, he knew that is was out of character due to the tone.
Snowstorm shook her head, not once moving her head from its position where it was tucked between her arms and hidden by her knees and legs.
Gaster's eyes widened, he had only seen this reaction a few times, but not from Snowstorm… this was bad…
Carefully moving himself so that he was facing her, he reached out with his left hand, and gently touched Snowstorm's arm, Snowstorm did not respond, not even flinching.
"Not good…" Sans muttered as he saw no visible response from Snowstorm, and no change in her markings glowing state.
Gaster moved his hand, only for Snowstorm to fall down onto the bed; eyes closed, breath steady; the glow pulsing in time with her heart beat.
Snowstorm was dead asleep.
Sans fell on his behind, "I swear, sometimes I wonder if the kid is going to be the death of me…" Sans muttered before he promptly falling completely onto his back; asleep.
Papyrus' hands were twitching as he muttered about lazy-bone brothers.
Papyrus picked Sans up and left the room, seemingly on autopilot.
Gaster silently chuckled at their behavior, 'They have changed so much since I had seen them before the accident..' Gaster fondly thought.
Shaking his head to rid himself of those thoughts, sadly at that moment his higher priority was Snowstorm, as he had seen her mental state quickly become unstable.
Lifting his hand from its spot, he gently rested it on Snowstorms forehead..
Letting the energy flow between them.. he entered her mindscape.
Only to see darkness.
His eyes widened, this was not right.
Drip drop…drip drop…
Whack! Slice!
"Freak!... Monster!... Abomination!... Weirdo!... Demon!..." echoed from somewhere off to the right.
Gaster followed the horrid shouts until light began to show.
And was horrified at what he found.
She was stuck in a memory…
A very…very bad memory.
Snowstorm was lying on a stone floor, blood pouring from every wound on her black and blue bruised body, humans of every age holding something and hitting, cutting, and causing every other kind of harm, mental and physical.
'Stop…stop…stop…STOP' a female voice, said, their voice was odd, an untraceable accent to it with their voice being quiet and soft as snow until they screamed, then it turned colder and sharper than an ice spike.
Snowstorm's voice.
Quickly running towards Snowstorm (he was quite thankful his legs were not melted in this form) and in the process knock a couple 'memory' humans out of the way, he grabbed onto Snowstorm and held her.
"It's okay… it's okay… don't listen to what they say…" Gaster soothed, holding Snowstorm close to his body.
'Safe…?' Snowstorm questioned shakily, her body trembling in his embrace; the people and surroundings of the memory began to fade.
"Yes, safe…"
And with that, he was kicked out of her mind, feeling disorientated as he felt someone grab onto him.
Opening his eyes again, he saw Snowstorm was holding onto him as if he were a lifeline, he could feel his shirt becoming wet.
She was crying.
Slowly, in his shocked state of mind, Gaster lifted his hands… and slowly, ever so slowly, wrapped his right arm around Snowstorm, and patted her on the back with his left.
If he could, he would have been telling Snowstorm she was alright, but who could if you weren't able to speak?- not counting the mental realm that is.
So instead, he continued to pat her on the back and periodically rub circles. And soon, she fell asleep in his arms.
'Heh, I guess she is a bit like Sans in the respect that they can fall asleep almost anywhere… atleast from what I remember, maybe that has changed-' Gaster started, then remembered earlier..
A smile graced his lips, 'I guess some things don't change after all…'
Leaning against the wall, he closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep with Snowstorm in his lap, still clinging to him as if he was her lifeline…
Meanwhile… with Papyrus and a snoozing Sans…
Knock knock..
"Hello?" Papyrus asked as he opened the door…
Only to see Asriel.
"I..I couldn't find Yuki…" Asriel sniffed as tears ran down his face.
"Don't worry, Brother found the human!" Papyrus said happily as he ushered Asriel inside.
"Really?!" Asriel exclaimed, perking up at the fact someone had found Snowstorm.
Papyrus merely laughed, and led Asriel to the living room and watched TV with him as the three other occupants of the house slept peacefully.
Snowstorm, though asleep in Gaster's arms, never once let go of him no matter how deep her sleep that time.
Though that didn't last, she slept for a mere four hours before waking up.
She blearily opened her eyes.
Looking around with barely opened eyes, she saw that nothing had changed since she had fallen asleep…
Curling up further, she shifted her hands so that her arms were on her chest, but she was still holding onto Gaster, or more specifically, his shirt.
'Gaster… Gaster somehow… saved me from them? But how, it was a memory…' Snowstorm questioned as she closed her eyes, her mind wandering aimlessly, but then came upon a question she wished to answer…
'How can I reverse the damage done to Gaster's body?...' she questioned.
Her mind wandered through the possibilities, but nothing was certain until she asked Gaster what experiment had caused it to happen.
Though.. as time passed, she could feel something growing weaker and weaker… though she didn't know what it was, it didn't feel like it was a good thing.
She lay there, against Gaster's chest, drifting in and out of different trains of thought, when she felt the arms around her shift in their position.
Slowly, Gaster lifted his left arm to cover his mouth as he yawned, his eyes glazed over with the fog of sleep.
Snowstorm, opening her eyes a fraction, moved her right hand away from Gaster's shirt, and reached towards her visor, only to fall short by a foot or two.
Gaster shifted slightly, and reached out with his left hand, and carefully, grabbed the visor just as Snowstorm did, and handed it to her.
Snowstorm looked up and him with wide eyes, and slowly took the visor from Gaster, removing the now empty vial, and placing the cover back on, and pushed her hair out of her face and behind her ear before sliding her visor on.
Once again pressing the button on the side of her visor, and it lit up.
Letting the vial vaporize, she hugged Gaster, happy that she could see things again without pain, though she was thankful that the light in the underground did not seem to harm her more than make her eyes sting, unlike on the surface where she would end up on bed rest for a month or more due to a severe outbreak, burning, and stinging.
Gaster silently chuckled, and Snowstorm felt his chest rumble, though later she would question how that was possible; as he was a skeleton.
That's when Sans walked in out of nowhere.
He closed the door behind him and blinked in a shocked haze, opened the door, and walked right back out.
Both Snowstorm and Gaster stared at the door in confusion, but then it clicked for Snowstorm.
Blushing at how childish she acted, she got off of Gaster's lap.
And ended up tripping over herself and face palming into the bed as if she had no balance and two left feet.
Gaster couldn't help but be reminded of when Papyrus was first learning to walk, and did what he did back then.
Picked them up and sat them up.
Snowstorm felt Gaster's hands wrap around her upper torso as he picked her up, and helped set her straight.
[Thank you..] She signed, a faint blush dusting her face.
[You're welcome.] Gaster signed, a smile upon his face.
There was a moment of stillness before Snowstorm continued.
[I.. I was thinking of ways to reverse the damage done to your body… what caused it in the first place?] she signed, deciding to be straight forward. At least as much as she could.
Gaster looked down at Snowstorm. And began to sign, a sad look upon his face.
[It was the DETERMINATION project,] Gaster started, [DETERMINATION is something humans have, and Monsters do not, because of this it takes much longer for the human body to turn to dust, and allows the human soul to exist outside of their body…. It also gives them considerable power, even if they cannot wield magic.] Gaster paused, letting Snowstorm absorb the information, when she nodded he continued. [I was not willing to test it on others, so I tested it on myself; giving myself a small dosage of liquid DETERMINATION repeatedly… this was the result…] Gaster ended, gesturing towards his half melted lower body.
Snowstorm blinked, to her the solution seemed… so obvious.
[Why don't you just remove the DETERMINATION from your body, or inject yourself with a 'anti-DETERMINATION'?] She asked.
Gaster blinked, and then blinked again, then again. 'Why in the world did I not think of something as simple as that?' Gaster questioned to himself.
[Huh…. That sounds like it would work…] Gaster signed, Sans coming into the room not much later.
Sans was carrying two plates, one with spaghetti, the second with a sandwich.
"You two hungry?" he asked; a silly grin upon his face as he handed the Spaghetti to Gaster, and the Sandwich to Snowstorm.
Snowstorm looked at the Sandwich, wondering how to eat it… she had seen the other kids in the orphanage eat them… but she wasn't sure… but she wanted to try it… she could smell that there was meat..
'Might as well try…' Snowstorm though as she carefully reached out, unsure of how to hold it, she copied the way she saw the other kids hold a sandwich.
The texture of the sandwich in her hands was odd to her, it was also slightly warm; she clumsily lifted the sandwich to her lips, and bit into it.
Chewing, then pausing, she stared at the sandwich wide eyed, 'it tastes good!' Snowstorm thought in excitement as she proceeded to devour the sandwich.
Sans and Gaster, who were watching her reaction, and both were rather surprised that she seemed to not know how to handle a sandwich, and were shell shocked when she quite literally, devoured it.
Snowstorm smiled, a large grin actually; partially revealing her fangs.
"You really like that, huh?" Sans chuckled, though Gaster merely stared at Snowstorm, never having noticed her fangs, he was fairly certain humans didn't have fangs that long…
Snowstorm clapped her hands, [Never had a sandwich before! It was good!] She exclaimed.
Though she was smiling, her eyes were dull, she felt something thinning, and it scared her, it was like something important was fading away…
Gaster felt something off about Snowstorms smile, something wasn't right.
Snowstorm, in an attempt to distract herself from the feeling of losing something, asked if there was a way to remove determination from a Monsters body.
"Yeah, why?" Sans said, Gaster's head snapped up.
Gaster repeated most of what he said to Snowstorm, minus the lesson on Monsters that is.
Sans froze at the theory. "Come, Gaster you need to come with me to the lab, Yuki, why don't you go play with Asriel?" he suggested.
Snowstorm froze, and thought about it for a moment, which play did he mean? The kind she remembered happening at the orphanage? Or the kind she did with Lazerbeak?...
[Play? What is play?] She signed slowly, tilting her head to get the point of confusion across.
Gaster and Sans exchanged worried glances, how could a child not know what playing was?
An idea came to Sans… "Why don't you go help Papyrus and Asriel with their puzzles?"
Snowstorm smiled and clapped her hands, jumping up off the bed she lost her balance and fell to the floor with a silent oomph!
Immediately, Snowstorm got back up and ran out of the room and hopped down the stairs, Gaster and Sans slowly following behind.
"Ah! Hello human!" Papyrus said cheerfully, though he was still attempting to keep his voice down.
[Sans mentioned you guys were doing a puzzle?] Snowstorm signed quickly, almost to quickly for Asriel to make it out.
"Yep!" Asriel said and pointed at the jigsaw puzzle on the coffee table he and Papyrus were sitting at.
Snowstorm looked at the table, and a mere matter of moments the jigsaw puzzle was solved.
Papyrus and Asriel stared at Snowstorm, "How?" they both said in sync, well, one in Cybertronian, the other in English.
[It was simple compared to what I normally do.] Snowstorm signed, silently giggling at their reaction.
"Simple? Then what do you normally do?" Asriel asked.
Snowstorm brought up the menu again, and scrolled down to an Advanced Level 3 Cybertronian Cubic Puzzle.
When it had completely formed on the ground-it was too large for Snowstorm to carry- it was about half as tall as Asriel.
Speaking of Asriel, he and Papyrus were staring confusedly at the cube.
Snowstorm went through the menu again, and grabbed another vial of Energon.
Letting a couple drops fall onto the cube, she re-capped the vial and stored it away for later.
The cube glowed, a seemingly random pattern of glowing light emerged from the cube, and soon, it began to disassemble itself.
And there lay, on the floor, around seven hundred puzzle pieces of varying size and shape.
Both Papyrus and Asriel were staring open mouthed at the sight before them.
'No wonder she had no trouble solving the jigsaw puzzle!' Asriel thought.
"How do we solve this one? Or put it together at all?..." Asriel asked as he scratched the back of his neck.
Snowstorm smiled an almost sadistic smile; she knew how long it took first timers to solve such a puzzle.
'This is going to be fun!' she crowed in her mind as she picked up two puzzle pieces she figured would fit together to start the outline.
Putting them together, they fit perfectly; the edges that met glowed for a second and became one.
"This is an amazing puzzle!" Papyrus shouted, finally out of his stupor.
Snowstorm flinched, her muscles tensed, and she almost bolted, but caught herself.
'It's okay… just Papyrus…' she chanted a couple times as she took a deep breath.
She guided Asriel on how to do it, which was fairly simple; it was just like a 3D puzzle.
And in turn, Asriel guided Papyrus.
Hours later, when they were about three fourths of the way done with the puzzle, Snowstorm felt something… break.
Something just snapped, fear and despair coursed through her like wild fire.
She could no longer feel the bond she had to her Kaa-san and Oto-san…
'T…that means…Kaa-san and Oto-san are…' She stuttered in her own mind, tears running down her face as she dropped the puzzle piece in her hand in shock.
"What's wrong, Yuki?" Asriel asked, a look of worry upon his fur covered face.
She stood up, and bolted, running out the back door and into the forest, a thick layer of ice covering everything around her; leaving a trail of thick ice behind her.
As she ran, things cut her, scraped her, and bruised her, she didn't pay attention to where she was running…
And so… she ran, and ran… and ran… she didn't stop, even when she found a cliff… she just went around it… and up the trail… when she reached the edge of the cliff on the far side of the underground, she collapsed to her knees, clutching the middle of her chest.
Even though the temperature there was warmer than Snowdin, ice had covered the place the moment she fell to her knees.
Not even thinking about the consequences, Snowstorm raised her head to the magically created sky above, and cried her heart out.
The crying sound was inhuman, its pitch to high, to guttural.
It was a horrible broken, screeching roar, so filled with despair that if it was a word on a piece of paper; it would be drowning in a lake of despair.
The markings upon her skin had flared to life, glowing a dark, depressing blue.
Her ability ran wild, creating a severe blizzard throughout all of Snowdin, the waterfalls, and the core.
Cold wind whipped around the area, ripping branches from the trees, birds flew away in fright or took cover, snow piled up on top of the slippery ice.
Pausing and inhaling some air, she continued to cry her heart out.
She didn't know how long she was there, and she didn't care.
Her Kaa-san and Oto-san were dead.
She just wanted to die, to join her Kaa-san and Oto-san…
But she knew she never could, they were now one with the All-spark… while she..
She would not go there when she died.
Snowstorm would never see them again.
Never.
Life to her… it wasn't worth it.
But neither was death.
Snowstorm just wanted to… disappear.
She wanted the pain in her chest to go away.
It just hurt… too much for her to bear.
Arctic cold tears continued to flow down her face and drip onto the dress she wore, freezing upon contact.
She felt as if there was nothing around her…the grief and despair consuming her.
She lost complete sense of time, and just cried; her ability still going wild.
"Yuki!" a distorted voice called.
Snowstorm paused for a millisecond before continuing to cry, that voice was familiar to her.. but she didn't care.
"Yuki!" The voice repeated, clearer this time.
Snowstorm paused, and attempted to look around, but couldn't.
Something was wrapped around her…
"Yuki! Calm down!" the voice shouted again.
She tried to calm down, but she was already too far gone into the deep pit of emotion she found herself in.
And then… nothing but darkness.
Meanwhile…
Gaster held Snowstorm tightly in his arms, his eyes tightly shut as the storm continuously barraged him with 'attacks'.
Gaster sat there, and held snowstorm, attempting to find her in the darkness of her mind.
He had been afraid when he had heard the screeching roar, he didn't know why.. but he had a feeling it was Snowstorm.
Or maybe it was just the blizzard?
'There you are!' Gaster thought, he shouted her name, and asked for her to calm down repeatedly…
Only after hugging her small, mental form, that she began to calm down, and he was booted out of her mind the moment that she fell into the darkness of sleep.
But then, everything went black.
Sans ran over as quickly as he could, but was stopped by a burst of freezing cold air and a thick barrier of ice.
"Gaster!" Sans yelled, banging on the ice barrier with his skeletal hands, not even forming a crack or dent in the ice.
"I can't break this without harming them! Alphys is the only one who would know-!" Sans muttered in distress as he pulled out his phone and held it to where his ears would have been.
Ring, Rinngggg…
\\H-Hello Sans? What's g-going on?\\ Stuttered a female voice.
"Alphys, get to the cliff that's on the border between Snowdin and Hotlands! Now! someone has lost control over their magic!" Sans said pressingly.
\\Who?\\ Alphys asked, not a stuttered in her voice as crashing sounds were heard over the phone.
"A young female! That's all you will know until you get here! Now hurry!" Sans said, his voice cracking before he ended the call.
He collapsed to his knees, electric blue tears running down his cheek bones.
He stared at the ice barrier, which was more like an ice block that Gaster and Snowstorm were sealed within. Placing his hand on the ice, he could feel the biting cold emanating from it, which meant it was frigidly cold for a skeleton like him to feel it.
Sans couldn't help but worry, humans, even thoughs as strange as Snowstorm, would not be able to stand the cold… and Gaster… Gaster was still weak from the extraction of DT…
Crunch, slip, crunch…
Someone was coming near.
A gasp was heard.
"S-Sans, what happened, is that Dr. Gaster? I thought he died! And is that a human?!" Alphys almost yelled in a high pitched voice.
Sans merely nodded.
"Dr. Gaster lost control of his magic? But last I heard he can't create ice!" Alphys asked confusedly as she sat down the pack she carried on her back.
Sans shook his head. "I will explain after I know they are safe… but it was the human who had lost control; not Gaster." Sans murmured, his voice shaking.
"But humans don't have magic!... Sans…?" Alphys exclaimed, worried about Sans' state of mind.
She had never seen him act this way. Not once.
"Just… Just save them…Alphys…" Sans pleaded…
Alphys shifted on her two pastel yellow scaled feet, before looking at Sans, and the barrier of ice encasing Snowstorm and Gaster.
Suddenly a firm look appeared on her face. "I will do my best!" Alphys declared as she gave sans a salute.
Alphys paced around the ice block trying to see if there was any way to melt it or something; touching it she immediately removed her hand as she felt as though she had been bitten by the cold.
Rubbing her hands together she ran to her bag to grab an odd machine that looked like a cross between a cellphone, metal detector, and a regular computer…
Walking around the ice barrier again, words and statistics began to appear on the screen.
"The human is indeed the source… the ice is made out of magic… Sans, do you know what caused them to lose control in the first place?" Alphys asked.
"Extreme emotional distress… but I do not know what caused that in the first place… Yuki just ran off…" Sans murmured, his voice a bit more steady than before.
"How did Dr. Gaster end up stuck in the ice?" she asked as she rummaged through her bag for another device of some kind.
Sans looked at the ice, where you could see Gaster, frozen in time, hugging Snowstorm tightly.
He sighed, "Gaster was attempting to calm her down, her magic wasn't letting me near her at all…" Sans whispered, his voice cracking as it was barely audible..
Alphys looked back at the device she used to scan Snowstorm and Gaster earlier.
"Something is off… Is it alright if I materialized their souls?" Alphys asked, unsure if Sans would let her.
Sans paused, he wasn't sure how that would go… but if it meant getting them out of that block of ice he was willing to do anything.
He nodded.
Alphys nodded, and stood in front of the ice barrier, her face stern as she initiated the required steps to start a 'battle'.
Alphys gasped at what she saw, tears running down her face as she covered her mouth with her hand.
She expected two souls to show up, one white and upside down, the other colored and right side up…
But what she saw was a Monster soul sheltering a…different…soul?...
The soul inside the Monster's soul was much smaller, and instead of one color, there were three colors, violet on the top left, light blue on the top right, and white on the bottom.
But what downright scared her… was the fact it was injured.
The soul was half way to shattering, blood staining around the edges around the break, stitches held it together, blood seeping from where the stiches went through the 'skin' of the soul, and finally… the bottom was dripping with blood.
Sans bolted up, and ran over to where Alphys was to see why she had gasped…
Only to see what Alphys had seen.
He stood there, frozen, he didn't know what to do, he had never seen such a broken soul, nor another soul sheltering another…
Sans reached out, and gently brushed the edge of one his pointer finger against the Monster soul; Gaster's.
It jumped back in surprise and started moving around in a panicking manner.
They saw Gaster's body also jump.
That meant the ice on the inside either wasn't completely solid, or was non-existent past a certain point.
"Calm down Dr. Gaster!" Alphys shouted as Gaster's soul repeatedly almost ran into the magical walls.
Gaster's soul stopped in its tracks, and seemingly turned to stare at Alphys.
"You both need to wake back up… I can't break the ice.." Alphys murmured.
Gaster's soul bobbed up and down, as if saying okay.
"And please Dr. Gaster, return the humans soul to their body…" Alphys stammered in a tiny voice.
It bobbed again, but seemed to shake a bit as if unsure.
Alphys sighed, "Mercy." She murmured, the soul and magic walls disappearing.
After a few minutes of tense and awkward silence, the barrier of ice began to disintegrate.
After a full two minutes, it was gone.
Snowstorm's and Gaster's bodies fell limply to the ground.
Alphys grabbed her back and rushed forward.
Quickly, she set both Gaster and Snowstorm flat on their backs.
She quickly checked Snowstorms pulse and temperature; she was freezing cold.
Wrapping Snowstorms small body in a blanket and handing her to Sans she proceeded to check on Gaster.
"Dr. Gaster will be fine, he is just over exhausted. Yuki, I think you called her, needs to be warmed up soon, she is freezing cold. Humans cannot handle such temperatures." Alphys said in a rush, using her magic to lift levitate Gaster above the ground.
"They should be brought back to your place Sans, the lab is too far and you can't teleport them because of their condition…" and with that, Alphys walked off, Sans following behind.
They walked through the snow, and were careful not to slip on the ice that lay not far beneath the snow.
Crunch, crunch… the snow went as they walked throughout the now thoroughly snowed in Snowdin forest.
When they got to Sans' house they went through the back door as it was the closest to the forest.
'At the rate things are going.. this might as well be the front door.' Sans thought with a small amount of amusement.
From there, Sans led Alphys upstairs and to his room, he figured it was better for Snowstorm to wake up in familiar surroundings… plus his room was bigger than Papyrus', so it was able to hold more equipment if need be.
Setting Snowstorm on his bed and covering her with a blanket, he told Alphys he would be right back with the guest bed.
"Guest bed?... bring it in?...how?" Alphys questioned as she sat her bag on the bed; her magic still levitating Gaster above the ground.
Not five minutes later, Sans came back with a simple bed levitating behind him.
Alphys questioned where he got that… she hadn't seen it before.
Sans moved his hand down slowly, the bed settling in the corner perpendicular to the bed that was already in the room.
He then proceeded to make the bed… the lazy way; using his magic.
Alphys would have rolled her eyes had she not been worried about Gaster and Snowstorm's condition.
She gently lowered Gaster onto the bed and covered him with a blanket before returning to Snowstorm's side.
She began to work quickly, taking things out of her bag.
First she took out a thermometer, and took Snowstorms temperature again.
76°F….
Alphys paled, the human body temperature was supposed to be 97-100°F.
The only accounts she had of a human body being that cold is when the body was dead, but Snowstorm was still breathing; very much alive.
"Sans, has she drank any water since you met her?"
"No, she hasn't eaten either."
Frantically, Alphys dug into her bag, and grabbed the items needed for an intravenous water and glucose drip.
She grabbed the IV fluid, saline flush syringe, connector tubing, IV catheter, alcohol prep, non-latex gloves, medical tape, tourniquet, gauze wrap, Tegaderm dressing, drip set, and an infusion pole?...
"How do you even fit all that in that bag of yours?" Sans muttered in confusion.
Alphys ignored him, and continued with what she was doing.
She put on the pair of gloves, and grabbed the alcohol prep and tourniquet, lifting Snowstorm's sleeve Alphys was about to tie to tourniquet around Snowstorm's upper arm, when she decided against it; she wasn't willing to restrict the blood flow with Snowstorm's condition.
Alphys searched for any visible veins, and found some in Snowstorms right hand.
Taking the Alcohol prep, she opened it and rubbed it around the area she planned to stick, and took the IV catheter, taking the cap off she carefully angled it at the vein and pressed down, pushing the needle into the vein.
Using her magic she levitated the medical tape over to her and grabbed it with her right hand, holding the needle with her left hand.
Quickly, she put the medical tape over the needle, securing it in place.
Next she added the Tegaderm dressing on top of the medical tape, which further secured the catheter in place.
After that Alphys added the connecting tube to the IV catheter, and attached the saline flush syringe just as blood appeared as it would in a blood draw, pushing down on the syringe cap, the saline flushed the blood from the IV catheter before it could get to the connector tube.
Next she grabbed the poll and hung the bag of fluid bag on the hooks, grabbing the drip set she removed the saline flush from the connector tub and instead connected the drip set and quickly connected the drip set to the IV fluid bag; moving to the part of the drip set close to the fluid bag, she set it for a slow drip.
After she had finished that, she grabbed the pink gauze wrap and wrapped it around her hand, securing the IV catheter and connecting tube in place and making it so Snowstorm couldn't accidentally pull out the needle in her sleep or in panic when she woke up.
"You got any extra blankets Sans? This thin blanket won't be enough to keep her warm." Alphys asked in a rush as she began to dig through her bag for some other things.
"Yeah." Sans said before he walked off to grab a couple of thicker blankets.
Alphys shook her head at Sans' broken tone, she would be examining him after she finished dealing with Snowstorm.
After a minute of digging through her bag, she found what she needed.
It was a heart rate monitor that went on the humans finger.
She placed it on Snowstorm's pointer finger on her right hand, and waited a moment while it calculated the heart rate.
35bmp the small machine stated.
The regular resting heart rate for a human athlete was 40bmp, and not below that.
Alphys stared worriedly at Snowstorm, that heart rate was too slow for someone of her size, and presumable age and weight…
Sans reentered the room while Alphys was in deep thought about Snowstorm, and took one of the much thicker blankets, and draped it over Snowstorm, leaving her arm with the IV above the blanket.
Alphys shook her head to clear it of unnecessary thoughts, "Sans, we need to talk." She said simply, and dragged Sans out of the room by his jacket.
Meanwhile….
'Kaa-san and Oto-san are dead!' Snowstorm screamed in grief, it echoed throughout the dream she was stuck in.
She didn't know what to do with them gone….
She was curled up in a tight ball, floating in a black void like space, her hair floating around her; her visor missing and soft baby blue pajama pants and long sleeve shirt.
"Shhhh…" a familiar voice gently hushed from somewhere in the distance.
Snowstorm was desperate for someone… or anything… familiar to her…
Uncurling herself, she looked around with her mismatched eyes, and slowly, ever so slowly, floated towards where the familiar voice was coming from.
She saw Gaster, who had their arms open wide towards them in welcome.
Tears welled in her eyes, and she bolted towards Gaster; wrapping her arms around him.
'Kaa-san and Oto-san are dead!' she repeated as she held onto Gaster tighter than someone would a lifeline.
Gaster hugged back, "It's alright, it's alright…" he hushed her softly.
Snowstorm reduced into a sobbing, nonsense mumbling, shaking, scared child.
"Don't worry, your Kaa-san and Oto-san are in a better place now.." Gaster murmured softly, he was walking on thin ice.
'Y-yeah… after all, they h-hated being in the war…' Snowstorm hiccoughed.
"War?" Gaster asked softly, he knew, that this was indeed thin ice he was walking on.
'Kaa-san and Oto-san were neither human, nor Monster… they were Cybertronians… there are three factions of Cybertronian, Autobots, Decepticons, and Neutrals. The Autobots and Decepticons had been at war for billions of years, Autobots wanted peace, while Decepticons wanted power. The Neutrals on the other hand… they took neither side. Kaa-san and Oto-san were Neutrals, but the Decepticons offered something they couldn't turn down… a completely uninterrupted environment to work on their experiments. They accepted, Kaa-san… Soundwave… eventually became the Communications Officer, and Oto-san… Shockwave… was the head scientist, Kaa-san would have joined Oto-san, but Kaa-san knew they needed to have two separate posts so Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, would not know of their relationship.. and to keep me safe from him… Megatron wanted to destroy all humans… and Oto-san was afraid that Megatron would order one or both of them to kill, torture or experiment upon me. Oto-san created the visor I wear to help with my sensitivity to light and keep me organized and as a communication link if need be… sometime later, Megatron wanted them to do a horrible experiment, and they abandoned the Decepticons. The only reason they didn't do it before was they didn't have everything prepared if something happened… they went to the Autobots side, and helped them out a bit with something about the Decepticons. They eventually joined as it seemed the safest place for me as the Autobots actually had humans on base… but… a lot of the humans treated me like an abomination whenever my ability acted up in an emotional fit or something… it wasn't long after that.. that Kaa-san and Oto-san were sent on a mission and I ran off to the mountain to get away from their medic and the humans… I fell down into the underground when running away from humans who saw my ability act up. When I was doing the puzzle with Papyrus and Asriel… I felt the bond.. I don't know how to explain it really…but it just snapped; broke…' Snowstorm sobbed into Gaster's black shirt.
Gaster filed the mention of Cybertronian away for later.
"It's okay, you're away from the war…you are safe… just like they wanted. And listen, your are not and abomination, you are just special." Gaster murmured as he hugged her back tightly.
After a few minutes, Snowstorm looked up at Gaster just a bit and saw the kind look on his face.
'Snowstorm…' Snowstorm murmured.
"Huh?" Gaster looked Down at Snowstorm in confusion.
'The name Kaa-san and Oto-san gave me when they saved me from the orphanage is Snowstorm…' she murmured in a tiny voice.
At that moment, he felt something… latch onto him for lack of better word.
Gaster smiled, for some reason he was touched by the fact she trusted him with her name and not the name she was going by.
"What a pretty name, now, Snowstorm, why don't you wake up so you can finally eat some food?" Gaster asked; his chest rumbling as he chuckled.
Snowstorm mumbled a yes in agreement, but didn't want to let go of Gaster.
"Don't worry; I will be there when you wake up." Gaster assured her.
Snowstorm nodded, hoping he was right, and let herself fade away from the dreamscape.
Gaster followed not a moment later.
Outside of the dreamscape…
Snowstorm woke up, her body aching and sluggish like someone had repeatedly stomped on her and she had just done hundreds of rounds of training. She felt something holding her wrist straight, 'most likely a binding.' She noted.
Opening her eyes; her visor booted up.
She tried sitting up, her arms shaking under the weight of her body; weak from using her ability to such an extent.
She tried bending her wrists to make herself for stable, but collapsed onto the bed as she felt a shock of pain run through her hand and wrist.
She felt someone sit on the bed, and a skeletal hand shakily pushing the hair out of her face.
Opening her eyes –having closed them due to the pain- she saw Gaster.
Snowstorm, in a fit of determination, attempted to sit up again, this time keeping her right wrist straight while bending her left wrist.
Shakily, Gaster helped Snowstorm sit up, while doing so he could feel just how weak his body was.
Snowstorm raised her right hand after steadying herself.
Looking at it, she blinked.
{What in the name of primus is this?...} she questioned and she began looking around to see where the plastic cord led to.
She never noticed she had spoken through the bond for the first time since she had fallen down.
Gaster gasped, {Did I just hear her thoughts?...} he questioned, not even noticing what he was doing.
Snowstorm froze in her place, and turned to look at Gaster; her eyes wide behind her visor.
She decided to test if he was indeed somehow accessing the bond.
She sent a small memory of her Kaa-san talking to her through the bond; it was when she was first introduced to the cybertronian puzzles.
She watched Gaster's expressions carefully.
He stared into space confusedly and he shook his head {Giant robots and puzzles?} he questioned.
'So he does have access to the bond… how did that happen?... was it because…no..no..not going to think about it…' Snowstorm thought.
{It seems with Kaa-san and Oto-san… being gone.. the bond latched onto you, Gaster.} Snowstorm hesitantly responded.
{Bond?} Gaster replied in confusion as he attempted to flatten Snowstorm's hair which was like a birds nest.
{Me, Kaa-san, and Oto-san never understood it… all we knew was that it latched onto Kaa-san.. who was a natural telepath, and therefore link to Oto-san through their bond… that was all we could figure out.. besides what it could do…} Snowstorm couldn't help but smile at the memory of Shockwave crashing when she had sent a memory over the link for the first time, it just had to be of her floating upside down, didn't it?
Gaster collapsed onto the bed laughing at the sight, {does that happen anytime something illogical happens?} Gaster asked as his body shook with silent laughter.
{Yep!} Snowstorm replied happily.
Though she was still damaged from feeling the bond snap in the first place, the new one seemed to be already stabilizing her.
Looking back down at her hands, she pointed at the Gauze wrapped around her hand.
{What's this?} She asked.
Gaster blinked, he wasn't sure… that part of his memory was rather faded.
{I don't remember..} Gaster replied as he attempted to see what other memories had faded.
Snowstorm was about to laugh at his forgetfulness when she fell into a coughing fit.
Gaster rubbed circles on Snowstorm's back while bracing her as well as he could, and asked her if she was feeling alright.
{I fine…} Snowstorm replied after her coughing fit had seemed to stop.
Snowstorm leaned into Gaster's arms as she took a shaky breath; a shiver ran down her spine.
Her eyes closed slightly, she felt tired…
{I don't think you're as well as you say, Snowstorm.} He murmured through the bond; continuing to rub her back as it seemed to sooth her.
Creeeeeakkkk…thump…
Click!
The door to the room opened.
In rushed Alphys who was attempting to catch her breath.
Gaster didn't know who they were, but he felt like he should know them…
He was beginning to grow worried with the fact his memory seemed to have more holes than Swiss cheese.
If Gaster had muscles, they would have tensed up; he did not trust them, especially near Snowstorm in their mental and psychical condition.
Snowstorm shifted a bit, curling up just a bit as if seeking warmth and comfort.
Gaster turned his attention away from Alphys and grabbed the blanket that was previously covering her, he covered her with it and continued to motion he had done before; he could feel Snowstorm's muscles relaxing under his touch.
"What in the world are you two doing up?! You should both be resting! And who was coughing?" Alphys said in a rush as she checked the IV bag, switching it out with another one as she saw that it was almost empty.
Snowstorm whimpered quietly at the loud voice, snuggling closer to Gaster.
Gaster gave Alphys a stern look, his heterochromic eyes glowing; not that Alphys saw it. She was facing the other direction making sure the IV was still correctly intact.
"Are you two even listening?" Alphys asked as she turned around.
She saw the stern look on Gaster's face along with the weak glow of hit heterochromic eyes.
"Dr. Gaster you should not be using your magic so soon after the DT extraction!" Alphys reprimanded.
At this point, Gaster was seeing very dark Memories through the bond, each of them getting worse as Alphys raised her voice.
The glow in his eyes strengthened, oh, he heard her alright, but she was scaring Snowstorm further into her shell. He wasn't going to let that happen; no siree.
He could also feel her heartbeat, it was much fast than it was earlier.
"Are you two even paying attention?!" Alphys said sternly as she whipped around.
Snowstorm coughed, and attempted to bury herself under Gaster's arms and the blanket; afraid of the loud voice.
{Don't worry, everything will be okay.} Gaster hushed as he let her hide beneath his arms.
His sleeves were rather large, big enough to act as a blanket for Snowstorm, and she took advantage of that; hiding behind them and the blanket.
Throughout this little ordeal, Gaster never let Alphys out of his sight; not even the slightest.
He may be weak, but that didn't mean he couldn't summon a pair of hands or two, as they were something he did on a regular basis.
A pair of hands floated in front of Gaster…
'You will not frighten Snowstorm more than you already have!' Gaster growled mentally.
The hands went after Alphys…
White: yes. I know. I'm evil with cliff hangers.
But really, without them I don't feel the need to continue, and you guys wouldn't want that, now would you? Once again, thank you to Sun the man of hope for the encouragement!