Okay, I want to apologize first for not keeping up with daily updates. Again, life makes everything extremely busy. I try my best, but sometimes, I can't always do it. However, I'm hoping that I will soon get everything back into stability. I have another field trip next week, but I'm preparing extra chapters over the weekend.
Meanwhile, to make up for everything, I have a slightly longer, more emotional chapter. I have edited this chapter more than the others, so it should be better in quality. Hopefully, that'll make up with the crazy schedule I have. Enjoy!
…(Start)…
Sans fidgeted in his seat whenever he saw [REDACTED] enter the dim room. He fumbled his fingers and tried to keep his breathing and magic under control. He felt like he was already dying.
Why him? Why not another monster? He had a brother and father to take care of.
"Hello, Sans."
Sans remained hushed, absolutely terrified of what might happen next. He felt the sweat crawl down from his skull, a strange side effect from the injections he receives.
[REDACTED] walked to a side door and pulled out a rolling tray filled with a variety of syringes and experimental devices. They clanged together as he rolled it besides Sans.
"Even though you are another experiment, you still are my grandson, so I feel you deserve at least an explanation what will happen."
Sans didn't speak. He kept Aster and Papyrus in his mind.
[REDACTED] lifted up a notepad from the tray and began to talk nonchalantly, "I'm sure Aster has described to you what a human soul is. Well, ever since the falling of the First Human –Chara is their name I believe- dozens of humans have fallen down here. I have discovered various ways to preserve them in their souls, but I discovered something in the process. There are 7 varieties of human souls and you need each sort to break the barrier, traditionally. We have enough human souls to break it, but we need the variety that will give the souls ultimate power. We kept getting humans with identical soul types, thus I was given extra souls to experiment on."
He began to pace around Sans, continuing to explain, "Turns out, each human soul has an essence that gives the human a special power. For example, whenever purple souled humans died, they would continue to live on as ghosts. They were so filled with PERSERVERANCE that they continue to live on as monsters, even after death. I found that the cyan PATIENCE souls could live much longer than normal humans. They stayed down here for nearly a century before they even showed signs of aging. The orange BRAVERY souls could avoid nearly every boss monsters' and special attacks. I even fought them and I could barely cause a scratch on them."
[REDACTED] rubbed an old scar on his head, a small chip that brought him back to that fight.
He flipped through more of his notes, "I found it very interesting that the green KINDNESS human that came down here a while ago actually healed a fallen monster back to life. Even when they fought Asgore, they were healing themselves. A shame we needed their souls. The yellow JUSTICE soul also would've been a great ally. Any being that has LOVE can be manipulated and controlled by them."
He rubbed another chip in his skull from the memory of that fight.
"Finally, blue INTEGRITY can learn magic just like any other monster. They proved to be dangerous."
He rubbed a burn mark that traced up his left arm.
Sans took a few moments to process the information before realizing, "wait. that was only six types."
[REDACTED] smacked the child on the back of his head, "I am aware. The seventh type is remarkable because it seems to be the rarest type. So far, only Chara held this type of heart. I waited patiently for a red soul human to come, but none have managed to so far. So, I decided that I could wait no longer."
He stepped to the wall where a control panel lies and began to flip switches, turn dials, and press buttons.
The large skull behind Sans began to lit up with brilliant colors. When Sans turned in his seat to look, he gasped.
Inside the mouth of the skull lied the outline of a soul in a canister.
[REDACTED] flipped another switch and the mouth opened. He quickly ran to the mouth and caught the canister before it could fall.
"I had to dig up the poor dead child's body, but I managed to do it! I took their soul!"
Sans quivered as [REDACTED] slowly strode towards Sans and placed the soul in his lap. The warmth from the soul tingled Sans's fingers and bones. However, the warmth didn't help his tension.
"I shouldn't allow Asgore to know of this. If he knew his child was right here… than I would be no more. Sans… this is the red heart filled with DETERMINATION. Its powers are unknown."
Sans looked up at [REDACTED] and whispered, "why am i here?"
[REDACTED] lifted the soul out of Sans's arms and placed it on a table to the right of Sans, where he noticed a line of more souls of varying colors. [REDACTED] found his way to a cabinet above the souls where inside lied a circular syringe holder filled with 7 needles of various colors.
He walked backed to Sans and placed the cylinder on the tray. He used the chair's straps to hold Sans down.
"this will kill me, won't it?"
"Possibly."
"i'm not strong enough, grandpa."
He had just called him grandpa, as if trying to beg for mercy.
Maybe he should- no. He needed to do this now.
"Yes, you are child."
He used his magic to lift each needle. Memories of past failed experiments went through his mind. Sans was the only monster powerful enough to handle this amount of essence.
"All 7 of these syringes are filled with essences of all 7 types of human souls: DETERMINATION, BRAVERY, JUSTICE, KINDNESS, PATIENCE, INTEGRITY, and PERSEVERANCE. Let's figure out what happens when you combine them all on a monster."
"NOOO!"
All at once, the needles flew into [REDACTED]'s hand and he guided them into Sans's left eye.
He inserted all 7 human essences at once.
…
Aster could hear the ear piercing screams from within the room but knew he could not interfere. He couldn't. [REDACTED] told him earlier the consequences would be fatal, not only for him, but for Sans.
The only thing he could do is wait out his poor son's pain.
Aster was sitting with his back against the door. He fumbled with his hands and rubbed the inner part of his hands, where he had to punch holes out to create his sons.
He heard muffled shouts.
"Sans! Control yourself! You have ultimate power!"
"KILL ME! KILL ME NOW! LET MY FAMILY GO!"
Aster held his chest. His soul felt weak from those words.
"What? This isn't supposed to happen! You're-"
"I WANT TO DIE!"
"Then die if you're not going to be compliant to your grandfather!"
And that was the final straw for Aster.
He swung open the doors and immediately grabbed [REDACTED] via magic, flew him away from Sans behind him, and held him against a wall.
Aster ran towards his son, horrified what was going on, however, all he could see was Sans with his left eye flashing in many colors. Besides the eye flashing, he was immobile.
Cupping his son's head in his hand, he bumped foreheads with him and flashed his own eyes. He began to connect his magic with Sans's through their eyes.
....
Sans believe that he would feel extreme pain during the process. While getting his eye stabbed with 7 needles was not the most pleasant experience ever, it certainly kept him worr-eye-some.
He gave a heartless laugh. That was another bad pun. Did he enjoy puns? He didn't seem to know.
Sans could only feel nothing in a deep abyss of endless gray. He had the ability to move, but felt paralyzed. He hated this place and wanted more but to leave, but he felt stuck. He felt lost. He didn't even feel anything or knew what was real.
The only reason why he told [REDACTED] to kill him before he blacked out was he didn't want to feel this hopeless. He could feel himself slip into this part of his mind and didn't want to.
Suddenly, Sans felt a weight hold him. He looked around and he saw his father embracing him.
"d-dad."
"Shhh…. Sans, you were right. I listened him talking and you were right. You weren't ready for this. Don't worry, though, you will be safe with me."
"dad… why are we alive? i hate this place. i don't want to-"
"Sans, there is a world bigger out there than this and I have been planning for years to get us out."
"what?"
"I am going to take the human essence and use that power to cause the barrier to become unbreakable, then, I'm going to make sure [REDACTED] ceases to exist at that moment. That way, we will leave for the surface after this. Papyrus will be able to run around. You will be able to be free and live like a child should. We will be a normal family and you can do whatever you please."
Sans began to cry, "d-dad."
Aster lifted Sans up from his feet and held him in his arms. Even though Sans was getting older and took care of Papyrus most of the time, he still was a child that wanted his father's love. As Sans wept, he felt a small opening in his heavy chest. The more he wept and the more he thought of the hope and goodness that was to come, the bigger this opening became. Eventually, this opening was filled with another feeling. A feeling of hope. A feeling that he was loved and that his life was meaningful.
Sans was filled with HAPPINESS.
So much so, that the entire void of gray exploded into the colors of the soul essence. They jumped and danced with the joy that Sans felt. They were in harmony with his body.
Sans's smile felt real, rather than stationary. He looked up into his father's eyes, where Aster began the transfer of the human essence. Aster took most of it, but still kept enough for Sans to remain powerful enough to protect his brother and himself.
Aster looked around him and smiled at the beauty that he and Sans shared, "So that's what happens when you combine the essence of all the human souls… you create HAPPINESS. And not only that, you have to be happy in order to use it. How peculiar."
…(End)…
DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I WANTED TO MAKE THIS CHAPTER?
DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK TO WRITE IT?
DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I AM SHIPPING SANS AND HAPPINESS RIGHT NOW?
Wow, I love this chapter. So many plot points revealed. J
Fun fact: {Error: Name not found}/[REDACTED] are not only the same person, but exists in the Undertale universe (not an OC!). And before you guess, no, it isn't W.D. Gaster. I'll get to who he is in a little bit. ;)