"And sometimes I All these little strings,
get lost in time…
Sometimes I fear
I'm lost in here…
holding us together…
All these precious things,
can't make them last…"
–How To Destroy Angels, "Strings And Attractors"
The stillness in the air fell upon everybody like a terrible burden.
He'd said the words, that magical incantation that causes just about any monster to go quiet. When humans died, the sadness could still be offset by the determination to persevere and continue. But when a monster died, other monsters could feel their soul get heavy, their hearts skipping a beat, all as one.
And Frisk, while human, attuned more closely to monsters than any other human ever had.
Maybe it was because they had done terrible things in their desperate attempts to escape the resets. Maybe it was because they really cared about monsters, who loved them in return. They'd never even met this Gaster, and it was all but assured that he was gone, but that didn't take the sting away. For some reason, Frisk could feel like something was truly gone. Something lost that was truly special.
It smelled like a terrible, terrible lack, that somehow managed to linger on.
Alphys spoke up first. "I-I guess it's natural to assume he...fell. I mean, if he were still around, we'd certainly remember him, that's for sure."
Sans gave a slight chuckle. "so about that...he uh...got back up."
"What?!"
Everybody else was certainly surprised, but Alphys, who'd spent years trying to prevent monster deaths, took it the hardest. What Sans was suggesting was not just impossible, it was almost blasphemy.
"here. this is a video that one of his colleagues captured. it...says a whole lot," Sans said, spreading the video to full-screen.
==PLAY==
The static flickered a bit before coming into focus. The camera wobbled a bit as its operator struggled to fit it onto the tripod, a thumbs up appearing from the side when all was ready.
"Good to go, Doctor," came a voice that nobody recognized.
In the frame, Doctor Gaster turned toward the camera, with a strangely somber look on his face. He nodded, but didn't say anything as he turned back toward the strangely illuminated wall behind him.
The barrier.
"Something wrong?"
"I...Shouldn't Do This, Right?"
"I've been saying that for about a week now, yeah. We don't know what could happen. But this is your call, Doctor, you're in charge for a reason. If you want to do this, I want to help."
Gaster looked at whoever was behind the camera. "Thank You. I...Am The Only One With These Kinds Of Powers. If I Can't Fold Space Between Here And The Barrier, Then Perhaps A Collapse Could...Do Something. Perhaps The Force Could Cause Damage. If There's Even A Crack..."
"And what happens...when you collapse space, Doctor?"
Gaster looked down at his hands, at this time they were complete and missing the holes that Sans and Papyrus remembered.
"The Only Other Time I Tried, The Object Just...Disappeared. Then Everything Was Back To Normal."
"Well...if you're sure. We're both ready when you are."
Another voice spoke up, softer than the previous, but just as unknown. "Yeah. We're ready to record the data, if nothing else."
Gaster sighed and turned toward the barrier again. He took a deep breath and shook his hands, wiggling his fingers in preparation.
He held up his left hand. "Control The Power..."
He held up his right hand. "Alter The Perception Of Space..."
The power began to surge around his hands. Turbulent winds began to swirl, blasting dust all around the area, and near Gaster himself, it looked as if light were bending around him, through him, in all manner of impossible ways. It looked like space itself was twisting around the skeleton. His lab coat flared out behind him like a battle flag against a volley of infinity.
Gaster's arms began to strain. "And...Delete The Undesired...Outcome!"
With one final ounce of strength, Gaster brought his two hands together. The powers smashed together like two massive tidal waves, sending a shockwave throughout the area. The camera was knocked on its side, as the two researchers could be heard falling to the ground behind it. Gaster himself stood firm as he watched this collapse hit the barrier in full force. The barrier almost looked like it was groaning as its normally pulsing light looked like it was sinking into a strange blackness.
The camera's image flickered into static for a second, then came back to show Gaster standing there, staring at his hands. None of the observers knew if it was a problem with the camera, but Gaster's reaction seemed to indicate it wasn't just the feed.
Gaster stood there, amongst several ghostly images of himself, each one taking a different action. One of them ran toward the collapse, one of them ran toward one of his colleagues. One of them went to the camera, another went to the other colleague, but the real Gaster just stood there. Staring at...
Staring at possibility. Possible actions he could take. Multiple, possible futures.
Choices.
"Doc...tor...!" One of the colleagues shouted, sounding physically weakened by the event.
He found the possibility he wanted to follow. Gaster ran over toward his friend step for step with the ghostly image of himself, stepping behind the camera so that only his voice could be heard.
"No! Hang In There! I Can...I Can Stop It!"
"It...was a...good hypothesis...doc...tor..."
Even against the riotous sounds of the collapse fighting the barrier, the telltale sound of a monster's soul finally giving out got picked up by the audio recording. A sharp, and solemn whooshing sound that often followed a monster's dust hitting the ground.
"Doctor! It's unstable, and whatever it's doing to the barrier...!" shouted his other colleague.
"I Know! It's...Causing Some Kind Of Reaction To Time As Well As Space! I Have To Get That Collapse Away From The Barrier! It Could Tear Reality Apart!"
"Doctor Gaster! Your soul can't handle that kind of strain!"
"I Have To Try! Maybe If I Fold The Space...I Can Fold The Collapse Away From The Barrier!"
"Doctor!"
More ghostly images ran over the camera, Gaster's real presence following one right down to the pose. He held his arms out again, one outstretched to the collapse, the other behind him toward something off camera. Deep within the spherical spatial anomaly, a hole appeared that looked as if it were being sucked up from the inside, until it had disappeared. The barrier's strange, pulsing light returned as the sounds of the collapsed space began to come from somewhere far behind the camera. It roared, then it shouted, then it cried out, then it whispered, then it stopped. It was done.
Gaster stood there, looking at something floating above his hand. It was a small, white, glowing shard of light, that began to fall away from him and land on the ground. Frisk and Alphys knew that sight well. It was a soul. It was a fragment of a monster's soul. Above his right eye, and below his left, were two incredibly deep fractures, and the light in his eyes had dimmed significantly.
The gleaming shard fell to the ground, discarded.
"Doctor!"
"How...Curious. I...Suppose My...Hypothesis Was..."
The doctor began to fall backwards, holding an outstretched hand toward the barrier. His unseen cohort made a partial screen-debut, catching the doctor just off of the frame so that only Gaster could be seen, staring up at something. presumably his friend's face.
"I...I have to get you...out of here!" His friend shouted, straining to pick up the doctor's skeletal body.
"You...Are Injured...Your Soul...Is...If You Try To...Carry Me...You Could Fall...Too..."
"I don't...care...I have to...try!"
The doctor's body was lifted and carried off frame. The sounds of his co-worker struggling to carry him got more and more strained, but it got quieter as it got more distant. The sounds of feet dragging across the dusty rock floor finally faded into the distance, and the camera just sat there, watching as that glowing shard rest upon the ground, giving off its light, but not quite fading.
==PAUSE==
Another death, heard but not seen. Perhaps two more, as Sans gave a heavy sigh and stood, leaving his laptop on the ground.
"sorry, bro, i...told you this wasn't going to be...easy."
"I...I'M ALRIGHT."
"you sure? we can take a break..."
"NO!"
The outburst caused the nearby Undyne to jump a bit, giving Papyrus an angry glare before seeing the mournful sadness in his eyesockets. "Hey, Papyrus, we should give it a rest."
"NO. I...ASKED FOR THIS. I'M DOING THIS FOR SANS, JUST LIKE HE'S DOING IT FOR ME."
"pap, i don't really want to review all of this stuff."
"I THINK YOU DO. I KNOW THAT IF YOU DIDN'T WANT TO, YOU WOULDN'T DO IT. THAT'S NOT BECAUSE YOU'RE LAZY. I MEAN, YOU ARE, BUT I KNOW YOU WON'T DO SOMETHING THAT YOU WERE ADVERSE TO."
"i..."
"YOU STAYED UP ALL NIGHT. YOU DIDN'T EVEN EAT UNTIL I BEGGED YOU TO. YOU WORKED SO HARD YOU FELL ASLEEP AT THE TABLE. YOU...WANT TO FIGURE THIS OUT. BUT...ALL THIS TIME YOU'VE KNOWN ALL THIS STUFF, KEPT IT TO YOURSELF. I...MAY NOT UNDERSTAND ALL OF THIS...SCIENCY STUFF, BUT I DO KNOW..."
"papyrus, it's alright, i..."
"I KNOW THAT HOLDING EVERYTHING IN LIKE THAT...IT CAN HURT. AND I WANT YOU TO STOP HURTING, OKAY? WHEN YOU HURT, I..."
Undyne draped her arm around Papyrus' shoulders and gave them a squeeze before giving Sans one of her trademark smiles. "He's right, nerd. You and I might not have gotten along too well in the past, but that doesn't mean you gotta be a big shot all alone, got it?!"
Sans chuckled and shrugged. "alright, alright. guess i'm just not used to showing off all the skeletons in my closet."
Perhaps the joke was poorly timed. Not a single chuckle, groan, or vocal complaint from Papyrus. The moment was just too dour at the moment, as everybody was still coming to terms with the video's contents. Frisk, however, was distracted by something else. They were just repeating the words that stuck in their mind.
"Control...Alter...Delete..."
Sans walked over to the human and leaned on the back of the couch above them.
"sounds familiar, huh?"
Frisk gazed up and nodded.
"yeah. when you said it back at the park, i knew it was gaster. i think maybe he used what power he had to pull you out of the fryer, so to speak. i still dunno how or why, but...he's linked to it. somehow we're all kinda linked to gaster."
"W-wait...'pulled you out of the fryer'?" Alphys asked.
Sans rolled his eyes and looked at Frisk, who nodded again. "...maybe you, me, and the kid can go over that later. if they're...up to it."
"I can. I'm feeling a lot better about it now," Frisk affirmed.
"heh. you're growin' up real fast, kid. nice."
Papyrus nodded in agreement, his smile lasting just long enough for Frisk to see, and to feel at ease. "SO...WE STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO...Y'KNOW, US," he mentioned, gesturing toward himself.
"yeah, well, i guess i'd better skip the video ahead, then. it'll...show something pretty spectacular."
==PLAY==
The video remained the same for most of its remainder. The barrier's light pulsed in and out, the cave floor was still just as...dusty. The sounds of wind gently blustering about and crashing against the magical wall, which gave off its own kind of low hum.
Finally, Sans had gotten to the point he wanted to show, and let the video play on from there.
The small shard of light that fell from Gaster, the fragment of what was assumed to be his soul, began to pulse in rhythm with the barrier. Like a heartbeat, its luster seemed to throb to the beat, growing larger and larger as time went on. It grew, and grew, and grew, and...
"you get the point," Sans said, skipping ahead a few minutes further, about five hours after the video had started.
The light had grown to the size of a basketball, still pulsing. Still...breathing. Its light began to wave faster and faster, before the sphere stretched and contorted into several different shapes, almost like it was trying to remember something. Alphys knew this sight well, it was the sign of a monster's birth. This light was usually a cocoon, created by the parents' combined magical essences to create new life. But this was...this came from just one person. It couldn't be...it took months for a magical essence to form into this shape.
"-tor Gaster!" came a deep voice from behind the camera. "Doctor! Where are you?!"
The light finally settled on a form, almost like it was called by the name. The light finally exploded in a brilliant show, before showing a tiny, helpless skeleton lying on the floor, illuminated by the barrier.
The source of the voice came into frame as well. His back was turned, but that familiar purple cloak didn't conceal his identity at all.
Asgore.
"Doctor Gaster!" Asgore shouted, looking around desperately. "They just told me what happened! Doctor! Are you here!"
The cries of the child on camera pulled him out of his fervor as Asgore turned toward its source. "A child? A child, here? What...what happened?!"
He slowly removed his cloak and picked up the skeleton, wrapping it up for warmth. "A skeleton. It's a baby skeleton. Hey, little guy, are you alright?"
The crying slowed to a stop as Asgore began to wiggle a meaty finger in the child's face, prompting an adorable giggle. "Hey...hey there," he kept saying. "Hey there. Hey there little guy, that's right. It's okay. It's..."
Asgore turned toward the camera, and to the viewers it became clear that he saw the dust of Gaster's colleague. To him, it might as well have been Gaster himself.
"Oh my..." he turned back and gave a comforting smile to the baby. "I have to find my friend now, wanna tag along?"
The baby tilted its head.
"Yeah, let's go for a trip, okay little guy? Let's go see if we can find my friend Gaster, okay? Maybe we can get you some grub, while we're at it."
The baby gave a happy little noise.
"You know Gaster? Gas-ter? I think you might be related. C'mon."
==PAUSE==
"I can't believe it," Undyne said, leaning in close.
"yeah."
"I-is that...that's..." Alphys stuttered, adjusting her glasses to get a better look.
"yep."
"No way," Frisk held their hands over their mouth.
"uh-huh. that's...me."
"OH MY GOD!"
The taller skeleton leapt to his feet and walked up to the television, turning and tilting his head almost like a confused puppy. His jaw hung open, as he looked towards Sans, then back to the television, then back to Sans again.
"SANS! YOU...YOU..."
Sans hid his face in his hands, groaning and expecting the worst.
"YOU WERE SO...CUTE! OH MY GOD!"
"huh?"
"LOOK! YOU HAVE SUCH TINY HANDS, AND THAT SMILE! I'D RECOGNIZE THAT SMILE ANYWHERE! AND YOUR TEENY LITTLE EYES WITH THOSE BEADS OF LIGHT SPARKLING AND OH MY GOD SANS..."
"Yeah!" Undyne cheered. "Look at that little dorky face, it's so friggin' adorable!"
"alright, alright, sheesh," Sans said, shaking his head as he closed the video.
"AWW."
"sorry, pap. if you want you can watch it later, okay?"
"OKAY," Papyrus nodded, sitting back down on the couch.
Alphys stood up up with an inquisitive look on her face. "So...that was a monster's birth, that's what it always looks like. But...a monster's 'gestation' period, the time it takes for the magic to give them their form, it usually takes months. Yours only took hours...is that because you came directly from a piece of Gaster's...soul?"
"probably. the magical essences that combine to create a monster child...it's magic. magic comes from our souls, and it's attuned to it, but it's a very small amount of power compared to the actual power of a soul. i...look, we can ask all these questions all we want, but about this? my answer really is 'i have no idea,' and i might not ever get the answers, either."
"Fair enough," Alphys sat back down. "So...you said Gaster...got back up, right? How?"
"hard to say. his next batch of notes start after he already woke up, but the story he got was this."
Sans sat back down on the floor and rested his laptop on his legs, opening a series of files. An image of Gaster's shoulders and head appeared on the screen, appearing to be some kind of medical record taken by either himself or somebody he worked with. The deep fractures above and below his eyes hadn't changed, and looked incredibly painful. His eyes themselves were now completely black, with his right eye being slightly malformed in shape.
"his friend managed to drag him back to the core, but because of the strain, he also...fell. this was taken when he was first admitted to the infirmary. he was unconscious, but his soul, even without my...piece, held together somehow and kept him alive. maybe he had enough determination to keep going."
Something looked like it was itching the back of Alphys' brain. "So...who took care of him while he was bedridden? Did...anybody know about this at all?"
"well, asgore visited him plenty of times. but if you want to really know something strange? let's take a look at who took this photo. it was an intern, at the behest of the physician, and according to the notes, that intern helped with his intensive care."
The bottom right corner zoomed in to enlarge the text on the bottom.
PRIMARY PHYSICIAN: DR #$%%#&
ASSISTANT: ALPHYS - 2ND YEAR INTERN
"No. No way. Th-th-that's wrong! I don't remember anything about this!"
"well that's kinda the point of all this. nobody remembers. i've already talked to asgore, he doesn't remember gaster either, and they were friends. the files don't lie, alphys, and i didn't alter them, either. wouldn't make for a very funny joke, would it?"
"N-no, but I...Did I really help with any of this? What happened to our memories?! I can't...I'm sorry Sans, but I can't..."
Alphys left the couch again and made for the door.
"Hold it!" Undyne shouted. The scientist froze.
"Undyne, look...I..."
Undyne jumped off of the couch, landing right behind Alphys and clasping a firm hand on the doctor's shoulder.
"I dunno what happened to your memories, but it's the same thing that happened to Sans, right? That's what he's trying to figure out, what he's trying to fix, right? Well to do that, you gotta stay here and help. And I know you, you like being helpful!"
"I-I...I don't know what I sh-should...do..."
"Stay. Help. You. Me. C'mon."
Alphys looked into Undyne's uncovered eye for a moment and thought about shying away, as usual. Something about this time though, something was different, and she only nodded, saying nothing.
"Good. Let's get back into it."
The two returned to the living room and sat back down, Alphys beginning to fidget with her hands.
"you two gonna be alright?" Sans asked.
Alphys nodded, and Undyne gave another goofy smile. "Hell yeah."
"S-so...the 'primary physician'...who was that? I m-mean, I kinda know who is, since they were my mentor before they retired, but.."
"well, that's the problem. a lot of these files are also corrupted. the name's been scrambled out, but if you know who it is, then that's another memory you didn't lose, right?"
"Y-yeah...besides, he's...gone anyway."
"oh. sorry."
"It's alright, he was really old. It was...it was his time. He was happy," Alphys gave a gentle smile.
Papyrus leaned forward, resting his elbows on his bony knees, and his chin on his hands. Sans was surprised at just how interested his brother was in all of this, because he knew Papyrus wasn't a fan of the more...morbid facets of life.
"GO ON, SANS."
"alright. so...gaster was pretty much in the monster equivalent of a coma. he showed all the signs of falling down, and all of his primary care was really just to make sure he was comfortable in his final days. during that time, asgore was pretty much taking care of me and, well, i guess he would've kept doing it if he really had to. about a month passed before gaster started showing signs of physical activity. his soul's readings had stabilized, and before anybody knew it...he was seen walking around the infirmary."
"INCREDIBLE."
"yeah. before long, asgore introduced me to him, and explained where he found me. gaster's first response was to immediately take measurements and readings. sure enough, our magical signatures were a perfect match. what's more, gaster experimented with his powers, finding that he was significantly weaker after the accident. he could no longer fold or collapse space, he could barely teleport, and when he did, he wasn't able to get very far. it seemed as if he lost at least half of his power, and when he took more readings, i guess i stole those from him. he used the nicer term of 'inherited' but...y'know, if something like that happened to me, i probably wouldn't be so optimistic about it."
"SANS..."
"heh, my name. the notes said that i was the 'culmination of everything' that gaster lacked. he gave me my name. sans."
Another window opened up. It was a map of the entire Underground, with several bright red spots dotting the landscape. They counted about thirty or so in all, and stretched all the way from Asgore's Castle to the other end of the mountain, deep in the ruins of Home.
"that collapse hitting the barrier, had a very...unique effect on our fragile little ecosystem, too. remember how I said that physical forces might be weaker underneath the barrier? well, whatever keeps us from being able to move freely through time...it was weakened too. in that video, we could see gaster and a bunch of little ghosts of him, all taking different actions, right? well, at each of these points on this map, he experienced the same phenomenon. tiny little cracks in space-time, that, when he focused, he could go back and make a different decision. he could only go back about a minute or so. he figured that 'determination' was the key to using these points. gaster had a higher amount of determination than most monsters, but i'd bet that somebody with much higher concentration of that? i'd bet they could do everything over and over again."
Sans looked at Frisk as they hid their face behind their knees.
It smelled like secret laboratories and dire mistakes.
"oh...sorry kid. look, i didn't mean to..."
"It's okay."
"so time went on. gaster studied this anomalies, and called them 'save points,' because it was the closest analogy to what these really were. they were like save points in a video game. nobody else was really able to interact with these things, or even see them. gaster speculated that the reason these cracks were all over the underground was because the barrier itself spread out the 'damage' it was doing, and because of that, these tiny cracks appeared instead of a much larger one that would've threatened the barrier's integrity itself."
"SANS, THAT'S GREAT, AND WEIRD, BUT...WHAT ABOUT YOU? YOU AND...GASTER? HE'S YOUR DAD, RIGHT?"
"i...yeah. yeah he was. i mean...i don't have any of those memories up in my head anymore. i had one that i dreamed about earlier today where i was working in a lab with him, and his notes tell me about all the training and schooling he gave me while we were at the core. interestingly enough...gaster seemed as though he was talking to somebody that wasn't there. somebody that i'd bet frisk knows a lot about."
"What? That thing...?"
Undyne shot the human a glance. "What's he talkin' about?"
Frisk stood up and met Undyne's gaze with a new-found sense of courage.
"There was something following me. It talked to me. Sometimes it helped me, sometimes it made fun of me. I finally...got rid of it, but...Sans you're saying this thing was around before I fell into the Underground?"
"i guess. even his notes became more and more incoherent as time went on. i'd guess this thing was disturbing him quite a bit, since he got this weird, new-found fear of dying. he was terrified of it, and a lot of his entries make reference to the fact that not only was he afraid of falling down, but something was mocking him for it. there were even specific entries that he wrote in his weird code-language, one that he must've taught to me at some point, since i can translate it."
Another window popped up on the screen. It was some sort of text document, but it was black, and instead of letters, strange-yet-familiar symbols appeared instead.
"he made a number of entries like this for his research. this one was him studying the abyss below the garbage dump. he used photon-measuring equipment to try to determine why light never seemed to shine down below. it says..."
"SANS. I...THINK I CAN READ IT. CAN I...TRY?"
"...really? pap, when did you..."
"I DON'T REMEMBER. BUT..."
Sans expanded the window so it was easier for Papyrus to read from his position. "okay, go ahead."
Papyrus stood and cleared his throat in a very...showy fashion. Everybody already started to chuckle a bit as it seemed like was preparing for a stage performance.
"ENTRY SEVENTEEN," he began, even rolling his R's when appropriate. "DARK, DARKER, YET DARKER. THE DARKNESS KEEPS...GROWING? THE SHADOWS CUTTING DEEPER. PHOTON READINGS..."
"...negative."
"NEGATIVE. THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY, VERY INTERESTING. WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK? ...'YOU TWO?' WHO WAS HE TALKING TO?"
"i dunno. i guess maybe it was me and...that thing following him."
"Oh, I get it," Alphys said, pointing at the screen. "so those symbols correspond to a letter of the alphabet, and the punctuation. Just enough to throw anybody off the trail."
"something like that, yeah. that next experiment was one i don't know if i could ever forget."
The windows on the screen cleared away, and another paused video opened up. It was a feed from a security camera in a rather large laboratory, with a strange device on the end. It was a glass-domed structure, slightly bigger than a person, and inside was some sort of chair for a subject to sit in. Gaster was already standing there in front of it, looking even more haggard than before and with new injuries, namely the large holes in the center of his hands.
"this was his greatest invention. this machine was what he called, an 'artificial save point.' one that didn't rely on determination to power it, but instead it took all the energy of the core instead."
"S-so, what would this thing...do exactly?" Alphys asked.
"let's play the video."
==PLAY==
The clicking of a loudspeaker came on almost immediately as the video started, with a familiar, but younger-sounding voice playing over it.
"doctor, i dunno why you're recording this. if you succeed, the video won't even exist."
"Because, Sans, If The Experiment Is A Failure, We'll Have Documentation. It's Always Important To Have Everything Recorded In An Experiment."
"alright, if you say so..." the loudspeaker clicked off.
The doctor turned and looked up to face the camera, which must have been mounted high on the wall. He adjusted his collar, then the cuffs of his lab coat, intertwining his fingers and cracking his knuckles shortly after.
"This Is Doctor Gaster, Entry Eighteen. In An Attempt To Slow, Halt, Or Altogether Eliminate The Slow Encroach Of The Void, I Have Created A Machine That Simulates The Same Effects On Space-Time As The Several 'Save Points' Around Our Home. This Will Require The Entire Energy Output Of The Core, And If Successful, I May Be Able To Send My Present Consciousness Back In My Own Soul's Timeline, And Make Changes For The Better."
He began to pace back and forth while explaining.
"The Barrier Has Us Trapped, But It Also Leaves Us In A Space That Is Weakened. It Isn't The 'True' Space That We Should Exist In. I Was One Of The Few Monsters To Have Witnessed The Creation Of The Barrier, And Although I Was Just A Boy, If I Can Go Back And Stop Even One Of The Human Magi, I Might Be Able To Stop Its Creation Entirely."
The loudspeaker clicked on again.
"doc...dad, that wasn't what we were going to do!"
"Sans, We're Running Out Of Time. If We Don't Do This Now..."
"and what'll happen if you do it, huh? what's going to happen to...everybody? what's going to happen to...me?!"
"...Son. I...I Promise I'll Find A Way. I Promise."
"i..."
"I'm Doing This So All Monsters Can Have A Future. I Believe This Is Our Best Shot. We Can Do This, Sans, But I Need You To Trust Me."
The loudspeaker clicked off for a second, then clicked on to the sound of silence. Off, on, off, on, off, on, off. And on.
"...okay. ready when you are."
"Thank You, Sans."
The doctor stepped into the machine, sitting down as its front cover hissed shut. A loud pair of clunking sounds echoed as the cover locked itself, and locked Gaster in. The loudspeaker clicked again.
"ready?"
The doctor, being unable to really respond vocally, just gave a thumbs up.
"alright. redirecting all power from the core to the machine now."
The entire world sounded like it was groaning in pain. The lights dimmed, leaving only the ominous red emergency lights to illuminate the lab. The camera, presumably hooked up to the same emergency power source as the lights, began to pick up a strange aura around the machine.
It appeared as if the machine had a white, semi-translucent energy field enveloping it. It wrapped up Doctor Gaster like some kind of scientific cocoon, and all that energy was awaiting its purpose.
"output at 96%. almost there."
Gaster gripped the ends of the armrests of the chair with his holey hands. It was clear that his mind was racing with the possibilities of all this power. His breathing became more pronounced, and his eyes began to almost glow with the determination he was known for having.
"one hundred percent! doctor! now!"
The breathing became even heavier, until suddenly...
...the camera fogged up in static. The audio feed continued.
The sounds of the loudspeaker began to click on and off and on and off and on and off. Obvious interference from something, perhaps the machine. It wasn't Sans' young voice though, it was Gaster's.
"No! You're Not Supposed To Be Here! I Don't Want You Here, You Understand! Not Now! Not Now! Sans! Stop It! Stop The-"
The camera's image flickered back on again, but everything was wrong. The energy field surrounding the machine had changed into an inky, almost infinitely black sphere, which obscured all visual confirmation of Doctor Gaster.
"doctor! doc...dad! dad! hang on, i'll! i'll..."
From off screen came a young skeleton, also wearing a lab coat, as he just stared at the black orb in front of him, stealing everything. Light, air...
...hope.
The young Sans' breathing got heavy, as he was preparing himself for the worst. Finally, he gave a sort of battle shout as he ran into the sphere.
The energy being released and changed rocked the instruments of the room, knocking several over, and finally shaking the camera loose. The final images it showed were its own tumble to the floor before blacking out for the rest of the video.
==PAUSE==
Sans backed the video up to right before he ran into the machine's energy field.
"i remember what happened next. kinda. i ran into this...thing, and the machine was pretty much gone. it was...expansive. it felt like that darkness went on forever, but i just kept running. i kept shouting for my dad, for doctor gaster, but i couldn't find anything or anyone. i kept walking for what felt like hours. days maybe, i dunno. my sense of time got all messed up in there. and even worse, i could just feel like something was being taken from me. from my mind."
Silence.
"finally, i found something absolutely incredible. there was this...light. or at least, something giving off light. it was the light of a monster's soul, which can only really be seen in the right conditions, like when we take specific measurements."
He looked right at his brother, Papyrus.
"i found...a small, trembling, unconscious..."
Papyrus looked Sans in the eyes.
"...skeleton child."
It smelled like bones and beginnings.