Undertale belongs to Toby Fox
"…mh? You're not back yet?"
Leave me alone.
"Why?"
Just let me stay dead.
"You don't want to come back?"
"Well I wasn't asking for permission."
Gaster's hand construct pulsed with determination, and Frisk gasped, awake. Her breathing quickened in fear as she realized she had been brought back against her will. Blood and DETERMINATION flowed through her body once more. She was alive again.
Gaster's hand construct glowed red with the skeleton's own DETERMINATION. The Man Who Speaks in Hands stepped into view, his white-purple eyes cold and judging. It seemed there was only one possible reason Frisk had been spared…
"Please, no…" the human begged. If she had the determination to summon her MERCY button, she would. But her crime of genocide had consequences, and now she would pay the price.
Gaster's construct glowed brighter in response. Frisk squirmed in Gaster's hand. In fear, she closed her eyes, refusing to witness the end.
It will be all over soon, she thought, just a short pain… not the first time.. but the last…
Frisk felt herself suddenly hit the floor. Not nearly enough to do any sort of damage, just a surprising jolt. She was still alive.
What?
Slowly opening her eyes, Frisk saw Gaster looking at her not with burning purple suns, but calm white lights. In his hand was a familiar button: MERCY.
"You have shown remorse for your crimes," Gaster said, "Your punishment will be less severe."
Frisk, still not trusting, shuffled away. Gaster sighed, closing his eyes. They opened again, cyan in shade. The eighth human flinched at the familiar eyes and the feeling of blue magic.
"Sit."
Frisk's body obeyed, and to the girl's surprise felt a hard medium to lean on. Glancing behind her, she found a hand construct, posed in a way that the fingers formed a backrest, and the thumb an armrest.
Turning back to Gaster, she found that the previous Royal Scientist took his seat in the mouth of the summoned Master Blaster. The beastly skull's jaw was somehow set at an obtuse angle, giving Gaster space to lean comfortably. At least, for him; Frisk wouldn't lean back and relax in the jaw of a weapon like that.
"Is that comfortable?" Frisk asked anxiously, "I mean, the blaster has sharp teeth… and it's a weapon…"
"A weapon that I a) created and b) is under my command," Gaster said. He chuckled, closing his eyes, "Besides, I don't even exist. If Chara couldn't kill me, my own creation wouldn't either."
His eyes opened, revealing dark empty pits.
"Your false compassion will get you nowhere, by the way."
Frisk flinched again. Gaster's eye lights reformed, a cheeky smirk on his face.
"Tell me child, do you know who I am?"
Frisk gulped, then answered, "You are Wing Ding Gaster, the previous Royal Scientist. You created the Core."
Gaster nodded, but motioned for Frisk to continue. Frisk figured he wanted her to bring up a specific detail.
"You're the father of Sans and Papyrus. You're the original owner of Sans' secret lab, and he and Dr. Alphys worked with you."
No reaction, continue.
"You experimented with human souls and their properties on time."
No reaction, continue.
"You were in an accident. You found a way to create determination, but it was unstable. You were erased from existence."
To Frisk's surprise, no reaction came again.
"Wh-what? Nothing? That's all I know!" she exclaimed.
"Hmm, it seems so," Gaster replied, all the professionalism of his past life showing in his voice, "If it makes you feel any better, all of what you have said are correct."
Frisk huffed in annoyance.
"Alright, lets change the question," Gaster said, "What do you know about my eldest son?"
"Excluding Asriel, he's the only monster with knowledge of timelines," Frisk said, "Excluding his single hit point, he's the strongest monster in the world."
"His occupation?"
"… Sentry?"
It was Gaster's turn to huff in annoyance.
"I would've thought someone with the power over timelines would know what Sans and I share excluding our heritage," he grumbled.
"… your blasters?"
Gaster's eyes went black. Frisk felt her makeshift chair disappear and hit the ground. It didn't do damage, but still did a spiteful amount of pain.
"Fool…" Gaster said, "You are a dense fool. Much like Asgore, now that I think about it. Anyways, do you know the name of the hall in which you two fought in?"
That Frisk knew," Judgement Hall." She connected the dots. "Sans is a judge?"
"The Judge," Gaster corrected, "A secret position of power in monster society. It is his job to keep note of everyone and anyone in the Underground's Level of Violence, and respond accordingly. I must say, my son has done a poor job."
"You did better in your time?" Frisk asked hesitantly.
Gaster chuckled, his eyes darkening again.
"If I was still Judge, you would've never made it past LV 10."
Frisk wished she kept her mouth shut.
"Alright, next question," Gaster said, "Do you know where we are?"
Frisk opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by Gaster. "Don't you dare say True Lab, or I swear I will ERASE you right now."
Frisk's eyes had widened in shock. She shook it off and answered, "The Void."
"Correct… you were going to say that the first time, right?"
"Yes." In the back of her mind, Frisk grumbled at the skeleton's underestimation of her intelligence.
"Do you know what the Void is?" Gaster asked.
"No," Frisk answered, "Other then our current location, no."
"Not surprising," Gaster said, "I don't know the full extent of this realm myself. But I know enough. Observe."
He looked away, eyes catching something new. Frisk followed his gaze finding… windows? That was the closest thing she could compare them to anyway. They were empty white panels, bright against the blackness of the Void. Gaster stood up and approached one. Frisk followed.
Once she reached Gaster, the man who spoke in hands touched the panel. It flashed, and the emptiness was replaced with… Sans? The image was of Gaster's son, peacefully napping at his station in Snowdin. Flickers of white at the corners of Frisk's sight caught her attention, and she found that the rest of the panels had activated, each with different images.
They were different events from her timeline traveling. Her first time tasting Toriel's pie in the Ruins, when she managed to get Alphys and Undyne together, her first time meeting Asriel Dreemurr…
The first time she slew Papyrus in cold blood…
Gaster sighed at the memory.
"That was the start," he said, "The point of no return, I believe."
Frisk said nothing, letting Gaster continue.
"He was so innocent. I can understand why Sans limited his knowledge of the 'real world'. Such purity is a rarity in the world. But teaching him not to use his eye… he would've survived at least a bit longer against the Demon. Between he, his brother, and the Prince they could've ended this a long time ago…"
"Papyrus has an eye?" Frisk suddenly asked, "Like yours and Sans'?"
"Yes, yes, but we're getting off topic," Gaster said.
"Now, these images allow me to observe timelines."
Gaster put a hand to the image. It suddenly changed, the cold white of Snowdin shifting to the warm yellows of Judgement Hall. Frisk watched as her old self engaged Sans in combat. Gaster continued.
"I can follow each scene, observe space and time. For one, I can verify that Alphys had escaped in the timelines you didn't kill her. She and the others made it to the Ruins before you ERASEd the world, and her in it."
The image disappeared. Gaster snapped his fingers, and a new image appeared, this time of a Pacifist timeline.
"I can also confirm that Asriel managed to stay in his monster form for exactly ten minutes following your departure from Mt. Ebott. In addition, if you had come for him later on, he would've been able to feel enough emotions to be… not a murderer at the very least."
Gaster turned to Frisk.
"The more DETERMINATION one has, the more he or she can do with these images, I've found." The ex-Royal Scientist explained, "I've slowly been able to piece myself together, my DETERMINATION growing. With this power, I've been able to use these images to predict future timelines. More recently, I've been able to affect the timeline itself."
The revelation dawned on Frisk. She looked at Gaster with wonder.
"Last timeline… that was you?" Frisk asked.
"Not just that. The Royal Scout, Red, should've never met you. She was my first experiment, that being adding a new variable to the timeline. I tried to add myself back to the timeline, as you may have seen at Waterfall."
Frisk nodded. Few timelines she and Chara had seen a mysterious door at Waterfall, which had never been there in any other timeline. When they ventured inside, the ghostly image of who Frisk now knew was Gaster stood. The ghost would look at the humans with a glare, and would attempt to approach. When he failed, Frisk and Chara decided to approach him instead. When touched, he vanished. Needless to say, it seemed Gaster's experiment had failed.
"When I failed, I changed my approach," Gaster continued, "I attempted to change already existing variables, in the form of Alphys' NEO form. I edited new scenarios for the Neutral and Pacifist runs, knowing you, a creature of curiosity, would pursue them instead of committing mass murder."
"But that didn't work," Frisk said.
"Indeed," Gaster replied, "Those distractions did nothing but temporarily stave of your addiction to murder. And when you returned to your… activities, I found myself unable to do anything. Anything but wait. I wanted to do more, but I found that even if I returned, I would be helpless against the power of the RESETs. Eventually, you would find a way to kill me, and eventually, you would."
"So I waited. I watched you kill my sons, their friends, my friends… I let you destroy the world again. I let you because I knew what would remain."
"The Void," Frisk answered.
"The Void," Gaster repeated, "I was the strongest monster in my time, but even then I would've fallen to you. I was a mere mortal. But here? Well, you heard me the first time; I don't even 'exist.' How can you kill that which doesn't exist?"
"You can't."
"Exactly," Gaster said, "It ended quicker than I predicted, something I am grateful for. Now, I can begin the final part of my plan. Then redemption will be yours. Will be ours."
Frisk's eyes were filled with hope at the word.
"Alright, what do I need to do?" she asked.
Gaster smiled. His eyes flashed red with DETERMINATION. Frisk felt herself gain confidence as well, and a familiar button appeared.
RESET.
"All you need to do is RESET," Gaster said, "So, shall we?"
Frisk didn't need to answer. With excitement she hadn't felt since her first Pacifist timeline, the eighth fallen human selected her power with joy. The button flashed yellow, faded, and the Void started to change.
Grass covered the darkness, and far above the black of nothingness was replaced with a beautiful day. The sound of birds singing filled the air as flowers bloomed. A beautiful day indeed. On days like these, redemption tasted even sweeter.
Frisk watched the scene around her with uncontained happiness. Tears of joy started to spring in her eyes as she fell on her knees, overwhelmed. She laughed, the realization of the end of her torment making her giddy. Her knife fell to the floor as her Level Of Violence dropped back to one. With an empty hand she wiped her face and looked to her savior.
Gaster just smiled. One could only appreciate the beauty of the scene. He looked to the sun and sighed in relief.
"Oh, how I had yearned to feel sunlight again," Gaster said, "The cause to bring monsterkind back to the surface was the start of my journey, and now it seems that the journey has ended."
Frisk stood up, a smile on her face, "Thank you, Gaster."
Gaster said nothing, only smiled.
The two stood together, admiring the scene, until Frisk noticed something. She watched as suddenly Gaster's image flickered.
"As much as I would like to stay here forever, I have duties to attend to," Gaster said. Noting the concerned expression on Frisk's face, he explained, "I have the DETERMINATION to stay here as long as I want to. But there is still much work to be done."
Gaster snapped his fingers, and suddenly a white door appeared. Reality was ripped at the seams. It opened on its own, revealing a darkness which grew darker, yet darker. A portal back to the Void.
"Your work here is done, Frisk," the Man Who Speaks in Hands said, "You may leave."
Frisk nodded then turned to walk way. Then she stopped. Caught up in the moment, it had taken the eighth fallen human until now to realize that she was on the Surface, not underground. Looking to the floor, she saw a hole. Looking down, she could barely make out the flowers of the Ruins at the bottom. She took a step forward, then hesitated.
She looked to Gaster, "I'm not welcome here anymore, am I?"
"Not for the foreseeable future, no," the Man Who Speaks in Hands admitted, "You may have repented, but you still are responsible for your sins. I cannot currently find it in myself to trust you in the Underground."
"One final change," Frisk sighed, "Well, no one is above consequences."
She turned around to walk away, back to the rest of human civilization. She glanced back at Gaster.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry," she said.
"I know," Gaster replied, "But do not worry. I will keep an eye socket on you, and when you are ready, I will send you a message."
"Thanks," Frisk said, "Oh, and please extend to Sans my apologies."
"I will."
Frisk nodded, and turned away. The human would not be the eighth to fall down Mt. Ebott. Not in this timeline. Disappointed, but content with this ending, Frisk 'Dreemurr' left behind her past mistakes.
AN: Two chapters in one day ayyyyy
Admittedly, I had written both a long time ago, and was just delaying. Decided why not? and released them both today. Now the next chapter might take a while, though.
Also, I didn't do copyright stuff and AN in the previous chapter because I was (multitasking and unable to give my all).
Please do give constructive criticism!
Enth signing out.