"Thats… no… no!" You felt frustration flood your system as you looked at the floating Soul in front of your chest. "That's not right!" You grabbed onto it, turning it this way and that to look at the changing colors, looking for any red. "That's not fair, I thought Determination was my trait?" Yellow flooded the Soul, only to become clouded with other colors and continue shifting.
Sans sat quietly and watched as you stared at your Soul. Clearly he was deep in thought as well, but he wasn't saying anything. You felt your anger quickly dissipate, leaving you simply confused at your supposedly defining trait simply… vanishing.
"…When did you notice?" You quietly asked, looking up at Sans. You had felt a little off for a while, but it was nothing you would have looked into.
"The last few days you've just been, well, different. You kept away from the edges of the path in Hotland, and didn't want to risk the spikes in the Ruins. You've just been less hazardous. Even that day you tried making oatmeal and tried getting water… it was less Determination and more Perseverance." Sans listed off, and you felt like he was right. You had a hard time pinning down what the difference between Determination and Perseverance was, but as you thought back to that day your Soul turned a shade of purple, before quickly being overrun with more colors.
You thought back throughout the past few days, trying to think of what could have happened to make you lose your Determination. "… Gaster has it."
Sans looked up at you, surprised you came to that conclusion. "What?"
"I think he stole it from me. That machine… he said it needed Determination." You swallowed, feeling slight burning in your chest. "We need to get Gaster back here, and make him give it back to me." You pointed to your Soul to better express yourself, seeing that it turned to a yellow again.
Sans shook his head. "That's fine in theory, but… Monsters can't just steal human traits like that. Besides, that would be way too much Determination for any monster. Even a few spoons of the stuff can cause monsters to fall apart and deform-"
His voice stopped mid sentence, eyes staring at nothing. You remembered back to your first night in the Underground, how Gaster was losing his shape and melting into nothingness in his final moments of being 'real.' "That son of a bitch." Sans ground his teeth, bringing a hand to his forehead. "You're right."
"We need to find a way to bring him back from… you said he was probably in the Void? How do we get him out?" You immediately started thinking of ways to get him back… maybe the machine?
"We can't… The Void is literally nowhere, and that makes it a bit hard to pinpoint on a map. He should form in this reality again soon enough, but I don't know any way to speed up the process." He rubbed the back of his skull.
You sighed, a light blue fluttering on your Soul a moment before you shoved it back into your chest. "Then I guess we wait for him. Hopefully we can get my Determination back… I feel… weird without it, now that I know it's not there."
"I assume so. Come on, let's go home." Sans stood up and offered you a hand. You accepted it, and immediately felt the world whoosh around you until the living room came into view, and it was a slight challenge to keep your nausea under control.
You looked around the room, seeing how the pillows and blankets were still messily thrown onto the couch… It'd been days since you first arrived in the Underground, and yet the two of you had been sleeping on the couch. You shook your head and grabbed the blankets.
"Whatcha' doing?" Sans asked, watching you awkwardly gather the blankets and start heading to the stairs.
"We are going to make your room decent, and use it. We can't be bums forever."
"Not with that kind of spirit." Sans chuckled, grabbing the pillows and following you up.
.
The two of you spent a bit of time cleaning the room, though Sans was the one that needed to take the trash that was in the self sustaining tornado. You still didn't ask about it; honestly, you weren't sure if you wanted to know. Thankfully the wind died down and the tornado vanished once the trash was removed.
The bed was made, and the two of you snuck under the covers and cuddled to stave off the chill in the house. You hadn't noticed the cold until you were pressed against Sans, whose bones were so very comfortably warm. "Mmm… Magic is nice." You smile and pull him closer. He chuckled, wrapping his arms around you.
"Sure is." He ran a hand through your hair, massaging your head in the process. He seemed quiet. You looked up at him, and didn't even need to say anything before he responded. "Just thinking. It's been a few days… we should probably start sticking to the house and teleporting when we want to go places… But I really love being in Waterfall with you. Blue just… suits you, you know?" He chuckled a little, looking away.
"Well… are there any other hidden parts in Waterfall we could sneak to, that aren't so open maybe?" You asked, wanting to do the same. Sans thought a moment.
"Yeah, actually. It's a bit away from everything, but it would work." He smiled, giving you an extra head scratch. "We can check it out tomorrow, but for now, try to get some sleep." He kissed the top of your head, and you gave him a hug.
"Night."
"Night, Vertebae."
.
You were floating in darkness. Absolute nothingness filled everything you could see, except for yourself. You looked at your hands-they were lit up, but there was no apparent source, and no shadow. It looked… off. You twisted your body, looking this way and that for anything, but it was just you and the darkness.
Sounds were nonexistent, except for the slight rustle of your clothes, and the sound of you breathing. Once that drew your attention, it seemed like it got much louder, and you almost felt claustrophobic in the open nothingness. You grabbed onto yourself, the feeling pressure of your hands- when not even air dared to touch you- felt almost painful.
You opened your mouth to speak, and you immediately felt shoved backwards into a wall. Gasping for breath, you look around to see what hit you, only to find nothing, of course, not even the wall you were shoved against. You were about to try and speak again, but a yellow light caught your attention. It was small, and far away, but you could see it branching out slowly in ninety-degree angles. You watched it pulse, slowly growing larger. You inhale, and open your mouth again, only for no sound to come out. Instead, you saw a small green light close to the edge of the yellow branches, and it started growing out the same way. You tried saying a few words, noticing other colors building up and growing into intricate patterns. It vaguely reminded you of the old Windows 95 screensaver.
It was beautiful. You knew it was a dream, but you couldn't stop watching as the lights pulsed and grew, weaving in and out of each other. You tried speaking once more, and this time red appeared. You immediately tried pushing yourself towards it, awkwardly swimming in the darkness towards the lights. It was growing very slowly, not yet branching around the other colors yet, giving you plenty of time to catch up.
You ducked and swam around other branches, getting to the middle of the massive cluster of lights and colors, all the way up to the small red light. Your Determination. Sure, this was a dream, but this had to mean something. You reached out to grab the red light source, quickly pulling back when the red suddenly branched out quickly, as if a miniature explosion happened inside of it. You tried again, this time the branches grew out enough to collide with others, immediately tainting them red as well. All of the beautiful lights that were surrounding you turned to a dark red, pulsing and glowing around you, growing more cubed-like, with you in the center.
It was a trap.
You sit up quickly, cold sweat on your brow. Thank god, you were awake. You rubbed your forehead, feeling a headache already making its rounds in your skull.
"Two hundred fifty-five. Zero. Two." A whisper made you freeze. You looked around, looking for its source, but nothing came.
"Two hundred fifty-five. Zero. Two." It whispered again, quieter this time, almost like an echo from your dream. Coordinates? You immediately turned and shook Sans.
"Sans, wake up! I heard things." You shook him, trying to get him awake. His eyes opened one at a time as he groaned.
"Wh…. Whaisit….." He mumbled, clearly still asleep. His eye lights looked fussy, drifting around in the darkness of his skull.
"I heard Coordinates. I think Gaster is trying to get help." You looked at Sans, watching as his eye lights rolled up and he closed his eyes again.
"Mmm… 'ave fun…Paps..." He exhaled, and fell completely limp to your shakings.
"Sans come on! It might be important!" You shook him again, getting no responses. You've never seen him like this, usually he was so quick to get up. Your mind scrambled trying to think of what to do. The whispers stopped, and you didn't trust your memory to remember the numbers for much longer.
"Okay Sans, I'm going down below and going to write down the coordinates, I'll be right back." You said loudly, getting no response from the skeleton, and you quickly threw on his sweatshirt before running out of the room.
"Two five five oh two. Two fifty-five zero two. Twenty-five, fifty, two …" You mumbled to yourself, grabbing the key from the small table and heading out of the house. You've been around the house to know that the only place with writing utensils and paper was the lab in back, which was probably something Gaster planned… now that you thought about it. You huffed, kicking your way through the snow and to the back door, fiddling with the lock a moment in the dark before managing to get it open.
"Twenty-five, fifty, two." You said out loud to yourself, closing the door, and rushing to the bench to the side. One pen, some scraps of paper, perfect. You quickly write down [2552] before looking at it. "Wait… no that's wrong… but I said fifty-two…" You bit your lip, drawing a line through the numbers and putting [25502]. Sure… that looks better.
A click was heard behind you, and you jumped to face it. Nothing. The machine was sitting there, as it was before, though the digital screen looked like it turned itself on. You really should just ignore it, and come back here with Sans when he finally manages to wake up… but you walked up to the screen, seeing three empty boxes waiting for input.
What if the Void moved locations? Then these coordinates, if that's even what the number was, couldn't last long. This might be your only chance to drag Gaster back here without waiting for him to form naturally, and who knows how long that would take.
You inhale, knowing that you were probably doing exactly what he wants. "Fuck it." You pulled out the keyboard and typed the numbers, seeing that they auto adjusted to [255.0.2] before turning red. Oh… maybe you remembered wrong? It was a complete possibility that these numbers didn't mean anything as well.
Sighing, you hit the [delete] key, but the numbers didn't go away. You raised an eyebrow, tapping it a few more times. You pressed a few other buttons to see if anything would respond, but it looked like the screen froze. "Did I break it?" You asked out loud, pressing a few more buttons randomly. The screen clicked and went black, shocking you. "Oops." You mutter, backing up from it. Right. Well, uh, you could just explain what happened to Sans tomorrow.
You turn around to leave, only to hear a slight whirring start from the machine. Keeping close to the exit door, you watched the machine hum and lights come on, doing who knows what. The lights of the room dimmed as the machine's grew brighter, and got to the point you had to look away or burn your eyes. Strange hissing sounds came from the machine, and it rattled like it was going to fall apart. Why didn't you wait for Sans again?
All at once, the machine grew quiet. No pop, no dramatic sound to say it completed something, just stillness. The silence was almost deafening, but the lights of the room gradually flickered back to usual, and you looked back at the machine.
You stepped back, staring at the creature in the glass room.
Gaster stared at you with his dripping face, looking far worse than his previous forms. His entire body seemed larger, but looked like freshly poured tar that was in the process of leveling out. One of the differences that caught your attention the most though, was the redness that was glowing from the center of his black body.
"Gaster." You stepped forwards, feeling a slight amount of bravery take over. Gaster had something of yours, and you wanted it back. He started laughing, and that bravery quickly vanished.
"Eh-eh-eh-eh… You brought me back?" The voice crackled and sounded more electronic and static-y, and you realized it was coming from the machine's speakers, rather than Gaster himself. "What ever could have you wanted me for?" He laughed again, his body bubbling and wiggling with every laugh.
"You know why. I want my Determination back." You forced yourself to maintain eye contact with the creature, trying to act like the one he should be afraid of.
He laughed harder, bringing a hand to his chest. "Of course! Let me give it back to you." He rushed forwards, body breaking up into squares that sputtered around him, only for him to hit the glass wall and reform. He looked confused, bringing an arm up and hitting it against the glass, only for his arm to splatter against it before reforming, leaving the glass perfectly fine.
"You're… real, in that form." You noticed, stepped forward, no longer afraid of the trapped Gaster.
"It would appear so." Gaster's form grew taller, as if he was sucking in his gut, and he looked down at you. "I thank you for dragging me out of the Void. Now open the door, and I'll give you your Determination back." His voice seemed irritated. He obviously couldn't teleport, otherwise he would have done it when he rushed at you. You felt a smile creep onto your face.
"Nope."
"What?" He looked offended, and his face started holding together a bit more, managing to keep solid eyes as he glared down at you.
"Well, I know where my Determination is now, and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere." You were getting dangerously smug about having him caged. "You obviously don't mean well, so I think I will just leave you here until I actually need to risk it."
"You are playing a dangerous game, human." He boiled even taller, clearly trying to intimidate you, if unsuccessfully. "Keeping dangerous animals in cages rarely works out for their owners." His voice whispered.
"You calling me your owner? Nah man, I don't swing that way." You couldn't stop the smile from invading your lips. "I'm just looking out for my personal health is all. I don't want to make any big mistakes while I'm down here-" Gaster cut off your smug explanation with laughter, the loud kind that he had to throw back his head for.
"Eh-eh-eh-eh… Big mistakes? Too late for that, human." He sneered down at you, hands smacking to the sides of the glass on either side. He had the distinct look of 'I know something you don't know.'
"What?"
There was a moment of silence as you tried to figure out what he meant, before there was a crashing sound from above, and muffled screams that sounded like they belonged to Sans. Gaster's smile curled upward as he chuckled again.
"You left Sans alone."