CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"SANS!" Papyrus called as he strode into their house. "WE NEED TO START PACKING!"

He had finished delivering the last of the presents and letters of thanks to the Royal Family's residence not long ago; it had taken several trips, but no amount of mail could stop The Great Papyrus. Now it was time to begin their own preparations for leaving, and as usual, he would need to prod his lazy brother to-

Papyrus opened the door to Sans' room, and his eyes widened.

"SANS? WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?"

"i think it's called packing," Sans said, straightening up from a box.

"I HAD NOT ASKED YOU TO PACK EVEN ONCE YET."

"nope."

Papyrus looked around. There was nothing left in the room but labeled boxes and Sans' mattress with blankets and a pillow. The labels were in Sans' usual scrawl, but...

"YOU ARE NOT SLACKING. WHY CAN YOU NOT DO THIS ALL OF THE TIME?"

"well, for one thing, i'm pretty sure that this is really, truly gonna be the very last time i've gotta do this," Sans said, his grin widening into a broad smile.

"OF COURSE IT IS. WE AREN'T GOING TO COME BACK, AFTER ALL." Papyrus blinked. "OH. THE RESETS."

"yeah. but, like i said, i'm betting that that's over with now. and there's something else i need to work on."

"SANS, WAIT! I HAVE A MESSAGE FOR YOU FROM QUEEN TORIEL! SHE ASKS THAT YOU COME WITH HER, KING ASGORE, THEIR SONS AND ALPHYS TOMORROW TO MEET WITH THE HUMANS' LEADERS!"

"okay." Sans kept walking towards their front door. "it's a good thing that i'm doing this now then. the meeting may need to be expanded."

"YOU KNOW OF SOMEONE ELSE WHO SHOULD MEET WITH THE HUMANS? WHO? I HAVE ALREADY BEEN INSTRUCTED TO HELP UNDYNE MAINTAIN ORDER WHILE KING ASGORE AND QUEEN TORIEL ARE ABSENT."

"bro... do you remember gaster?"

Papyrus flinched. "YES, SANS. I THOUGHT YOU DID NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT THAT."

"yeah, well," Sans said as he opened the front door, "i asked frisk and chara if they would try bringing gaster back. they ended up with a set of blueprints instead, but i think they're gonna do the trick."

"HOW ARE PICTURES GOING TO HELP BRING BACK GASTER?"

"because gaster and i are going to play a prank on time."

"SANS! THAT IS NOT AN EXPLANATION!"

"c'mon and watch. you should be here for this anyway."

Papyrus followed as Sans walked to the back of their house and unlocked the door. He turned on the workshop lights, then strode to one of the drawers at the back of the room. "pretty sure it's still here... yep." Sans shook the dust off of a partially completed drawing, setting it on a workbench, then compared it to another he took from his jacket. "yeah, same one. so far, so good." He opened another drawer, rummaged in it for a moment, then took out a piece of paper the same shape as the note on the blueprints. "uh huh." Another round of scratching in the drawer turned up a pen; a quick scribble on the blank sheet of paper created a messy scrawl the same shape and color as on the written note at Sans' side. "perfect."

"SANS? WHY ARE THERE A FINISHED NOTE AND AN UNFINISHED NOTE AND A FINISHED DRAWING AND AN UNFINISHED DRAWING NEXT TO EACH OTHER?"

"because this is the start of the loop that gaster and i are gonna stick in time to get him out of blowing up."

"SANS!"

"just keep watching, it'll make sense when it's over. oh, wait." Sans walked over to the machine and pulled the cover off. "i should get to fixing this."

"BUT I THOUGHT YOU GAVE UP ON FIXING THAT MACHINE. YOU SAID IT COULD NOT BE REPAIRED."

"yeah, well, that was when i was using the old blueprints." Sans returned to the counter and took a long look at the finished diagram, then at the note attached to it. Next he walked to a toolchest which had been sitting under the tarp with the machine and extracted several tools and parts. Some went into his pockets; he gave the rest to Papyrus. "do me a favor and hand these over when i ask for 'em, okay?"

Papyrus took the tools and waited as Sans wriggled under the machine. He heard a grunt, and a burnt-looking piece of equipment shot out across the floor. "hand me something that looks like that, will ya?"

Papyrus studied the items in his hands and extended one under the machine. "IS THIS IT?"

"right the first time."

"AS BEFITS THE GREAT PAPYRUS! NYEH HEH HEH!"

There was a noise of metal scraping and clanking. "okay, now i need the diffensnaggler."

"UM, SANS..."

"it has a handle like a screwdriver, but with a square knob on the end with a spike sticking out."

"OH, OKAY." Papyrus put the tool in Sans' extended hand.

"thanks, bro." There was more clanking and metal noises. "almost done. there should be one part left."

Papyrus handed Sans the last part, and after another series of metallic noises he pulled himself and his tools out from under the machine. Sans brushed himself off and grinned. "i may not be good at designing machines, but i can still follow blueprints. gaster did a great job of concealing the changes he made, though."

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, SANS? WHY WOULD GASTER CHANGE THE MACHINE AND NOT LET YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?"

"because time will only let you bend it so far before it snaps back. if you want to change things, you have to go with the flow."

"SSSAAANNNSSSSS..."

"hold on just a second, paps." Sans dusted off the machine's platform, trotted over to the counter and checked the note, then glanced at a watch he took from his pocket. "okay, we have to wait for a little while. could have made it sooner, but this left extra time to get ready." He walked over to a wall and leaned back against it, arms crossed behind his head, and slid down until he was sitting on the floor, back against the wall. "now we wait and watch the platform, and i explain gaster's trick."

Papyrus walked over to the wall and spun, looking at the machine as he stood next to Sans. "WELL?"

"okay. first, do you remember what i told you about what happened when gaster disappeared?"

"YES. YOU SAID THAT YOU HAD MADE A MISTAKE. THAT GOING BACK IN TIME TO STOP THE WAR FROM HAPPENING WOULD MEAN THAT THE TIME MACHINE WOULD NEVER BE BUILT, AND THAT CAUSED A... PARADOX? THAT TIME HITTING BACK HAD BROKEN THE MACHINE, AND SCATTERED GASTER."

"right. and that's what had happened, before frisk and chara opened up another way out."

"HOW DID THEY DO THAT?"

"they wished for gaster to be back. i don't know just how strong their determination is-"

"CONSIDERING WHAT THEY HAVE DONE, VERY STRONG. THEY ARE ALMOST AS GREAT AS I AM. MAYBE... EVEN AS GREAT."

"you're still the coolest skeleton around, bro." Sans winked.

"OF COURSE! NYEH HEH HEH!"

"anyway, time is tricky to deal with. they didn't get gaster back, exactly, but they changed what happened back then in the lab. i left a note to myself and to gaster with the blueprints explaining how to make things work out right. had my timetravel codewords on it so i'd know it was really from me, too."

"THEY... CHANGED WHAT HAPPENED?"

"yep. gaster doesn't get blown up any more. but since that already happened and had a lot of other stuff depending on it now, it couldn't just be changed to not have happened. we thought that the machine had been broken and that gaster had been blown apart, and their wish couldn't change that. but it did create the chance for the accident to be something else. for us to think that gaster had been lost when something else really happened."

"SANS. YOU ARE MAKING MY HEAD HURT."

"we could just wait, and then you can watch what happens."

"NO! NO PUZZLE WILL DEFEAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS, EVEN A SPACE-TIME PUZZLE!"

"attaboy. well, it's like this. the big things that we remember happening - the machine breaking, gaster being gone, and us not being able to fix it - still have to happen. trying to change that will make time hit back. what we can change is the details, and what will happen because of those details. do you remember how when i was trying to fix the machine i complained that it didn't look right, that gaster must have made some last-minute adjustments to it?"

"YES. YOU WERE VERY UPSET."

"right. there's no way to be certain now, but i'm pretty sure that those changes didn't happen before frisk and chara made their wish. they happened because of what we're gonna do, and what's about to happen now."

Papyrus looked confused. "SO... WE ARE GOING TO CAUSE THE CHANGE IN TIME THAT LEADS TO US CAUSING THE CHANGE IN TIME?"

"yep. we're gonna throw time for a loop. gotta wait for gaster to get back to finish everything, though."

"WE DO?"

"yeah. he has to finish the drawing."

The skeleton brothers' attention was drawn to a gleam of light at the center of the time machine's platform. The light swelled and finally flashed a brilliant white, blinding both of the brothers.

"Ah, it worked. Wonderful!"

The brothers looked up to see another skeleton wearing a purple coat covered with pockets which swelled with pens, notebooks and pieces of paper, and wearing a pair of stained cargo pants covered with more bulging pockets. He carried a traveler's bag in one hand, and was lowering the other from a waving position.

"GASTER!" Papyrus rushed forward and embraced his brother. "WE HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!"

"hi, gaster," Sans said, rising. "it's been too long, bro." Sans' eyesockets sparkled oddly.

"Papyrus. Sans. I am glad to see you again." Gaster returned Papyrus' hug, then gently detached himself. "I'm sorry, but there are still a few things to be done to close the loop and render it stable."

"yeah. i've got the unfinished blueprint and the finished one next to each other on this bench. i'll write the note while you finish the blueprint."

"Excellent. Thank you, Sans." The skeletons bent over the workbench, concentrating on their work. "done." Sans signed his note, and looked over at Gaster.

"Almost finished... there." Gaster signed the blueprint. "The schematic is complete."

"good. now if you'll just sign the note and add your codewords..." Gaster leaned over and scrawled on the note Sans had written. "and now it's done." Sans leaned over in turn and stuck his note onto the blueprint. "now it's time to fire up the time machine again. when did the blueprints show up on your end?"

"Between the hours when I left the lab for dinner and when I returned that night to make further inspections."

"that would be between 5:00 and 7:00. let's try 5:30."

"That ought to work." Gaster and Sans walked over to the machine, Gaster picking up note and blueprints and arranging them carefully on the platform. "They looked like this, I recall."

"great." Sans walked to the time machine's panel, carefully adjusting its settings. "this should be right. wanna check me?"

"Best to be careful." Gaster leaned over and inspected the display. "Yes, that is correct. The machine is prepared?"

"yeah. fixed it while we were waiting for ya. nice job of decoy parts and faked damage, by the way."

"Well, you know how I am about machine design."

"oh yeah. and now we get to pull a prank on time."

Gaster's skull grinned wide enough that it appeared his lower jaw might drop off. "This is going to be the best prank EVER."

"yep. well, here we go..." Sans looked over at Papyrus. "hey, you wanna push the button?"

"CAN I?"

"sure. just hit the big green one up here."

Papyrus stepped forward and carefully pressed the big, green button. The time machine gave another flash of light, and the blueprints vanished.

"and that's it. loop closed." Sans' grin was enormous as he turned to Gaster. "we have officially japed time."

Gaster swept both Papyrus and Sans into a hug, laughing. "AHAHAHAHA! YES! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!" The brothers' laughter rose together in a three-part crescendo.

"YES! MY BROTHER GASTER IS BACK, MY BROTHER SANS IS HAPPY AGAIN, THE BARRIER IS BROKEN AND CHARA AND ASRIEL HAVE RETURNED! TRULY, THIS IS THE GREATEST OF DAYS!"

Gaster's laugh turned into a choking cough. "Th-the barrier is broken? Chara and Asriel are alive again? Papyrus, Sans, what has happened?"

Sans stepped back from Gaster, shaking his head. "i need to go see asgore and toriel with you, gaster; they want me to meet some humans with them tomorrow, along with alphys, and you should be there. besides, they and alphys will want to know you're back." He started towards the door, but was confronted by Papyrus standing in front of it with folded arms. "FIRST, I NEED AN EXPLANATION. HOW, EXACTLY, HAVE YOU PRANKED TIME?"

"paps-"

"It's all right, Sans," Gaster said. "The explanation should not be an overly long one. You remember, I hope, that after we had dinner on the night before I attempted to go back and stop the war, I returned to the workshop to make my final checks on the time machine?"

"YES."

"When I entered the workshop, I observed a blueprint on the machine's platform. I picked it up and read the note attached to it, this one." Gaster stepped to the workbench and lifted the note. "It was written by Sans, and explained that our attempt to stop the war would create a time paradox by preventing the machine from being built in the first place." Gaster sighed. "We should have performed more tests; I had hoped that the theory of time running in multiple, parallel streams might be correct, allowing for such a contradiction, but-"

"short version, gaster. we can talk about time theory later. but for now, just your story."

"All right. In any case, the note warned that the project as designed was doomed to fail. However, the note also said that modifying the machine in accordance with the attached blueprints should allow me to be transported to a point in the future while still giving the appearance of a failure, permitting my survival without causing another time paradox. Given that I had already begun design of the modified machine and could recognize my own work in having completed it, and that I had signed the note and included codewords which I had selected for ascertaining the veracity of time travel claims, I decided to trust the note's information and made the modifications. They included false display panel readings which would indicate that I had attempted to reach the past while my actual destination was in the future, as well as additional extraneous pieces of machinery to disguise and conceal the modifications I had made to the time machine and to give the appearance of a catastrophic failure after the machine had activated."

Papyrus had uncrossed his arms, and now held his head in his hands. "I HAD FORGOTTEN WHAT IT FELT LIKE WHEN YOU EXPLAINED THINGS."

Gaster looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, I was trying to explain clearly."

"not your fault, bro." Sans turned to Papyrus. "okay, really quick version. gaster had to disappear because that had already happened; it couldn't be changed. but instead of disappearing because he got blown up, he disappeared because he went to the future, here with us. to make things look the same, he messed with the machine so it would look like it had broken and so we didn't know how it actually worked any more. he trusted the design because he knew he had made it in the future; he had drawn it and had signed it, and only he knew his codewords. even i didn't know those."

"And so I ended up here and now," Gaster said with a nod. He looked thoughtful. "Though I can't understand why you never found the blueprints and the note; I didn't hide them, I just shuffled them out of the way into my other papers."

"well, the reason we never found them might also be responsible for the time disturbance we felt when you used the machine, gaster. now, i'm pretty sure that in the unaltered timeline, you did try going back in time and were lost. the thing is..." Sans stopped, shaking his head. "i'm just going to give you the bare-bones version here-" Gaster chuckled, and Papyrus groaned. "heh, didn't even try for that one. point is, part of what happened to break the barrier involved frisk and chara-"

"Frisk?"

"kid who fell into the underground. the reason everything's turned out so well. i think he must have the soul of a saint, even after killing everyone to find chara again. anyway-"

"A murdering saint? And what do you mean by finding Chara?"

"like i said, it's a long story, and you have to hear the whole thing for it all to make sense. for now, let's just say that during part of the process the kids ended up able to make dreams become physically real, and come true."

Gaster stared at Sans. "The energy and mental focus required to realize a metaphysical construct like a dream, let alone materialize it..." He reached into his pockets, pulling out a pen and a notepad. "What forces were involved?"

Sans waved Gaster's question aside. "time for that later, too. point is, they wished for you to come back, and they got the blueprints and the note instead. i think that what we felt when you disappeared was time being... *adjusted* by that wish."

"So they-Frisk and Chara-are the ones who created the first part of the loop?"

"yep. they set the prank up, and we finished it."

Gaster nodded slowly. "I see. Will you introduce me to them when there is an opportunity? I would like both to thank them and to question them about how they did what they did."

"absolutely. but for now..." Sans turned. "is that explanation okay, papyrus?"

Papyrus had lifted his head from his hands, and nodded at Sans. "YES, I THINK I UNDERSTAND. THANK YOU, SANS."

Sans winked. "hey, i wouldn't want my brother to get a cracked skull."

"SANS!"

"we need to go, papyrus. can you finish with the rest of the packing?"

"OF COURSE!" Papyrus posed dramatically. "THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MASTER OF MOVING, SHALL COMPLETE ALL PREPARATIONS! NYEH HEH HEH!"

"cool. thanks again, bro."

"YOU ARE WELCOME, SANS. PLEASE COME HOME AS SOON AS YOU CAN, BOTH OF YOU."

"We will, Papyrus."

"see you soon."