Wow, I've gotten a bunch of positive comments since my confession in my last chapter. I actually thought there would be at least one hateful comment but I got none. Pretty much all of them was kind and supportive and I would like to say thank you to all of you.

On a side note I would like to let you guys know that my first day at college will start soon. When that happens I will most likely be very busy and new chapters might take awhile. Don't worry I still intend to finish this story.

Chapter 37: The Failed Experiment

John woke up feeling surprisingly content. Also warm... He tried to move but he felt a weight holding him down. He looked and saw Jerod asleep half on top of him. His face felt hot from the close contact with his 'boyfriend'. He still couldn't believe that he can now call Jerod that. He tried to push him off of him but he was too tired and Jerod was too heavy. He shook him until he woke up.

"uhh." Groaned Jerod. Then he noticed John beneath him. He grinned. "Morning John."

"Morning Jerod. You mind getting off of me?"

Jerod nuzzled his nose into the crook of his neck. "Aw but you are so comfy. Like a big warm squishy pillow."

John's face flushed as he squirmed. "Jerrroood!"

Jerod complied and John stretched his back.

"John about last night..."

"Look lets just try to forget about what happened. Please?" John begged.

Jerod smiled. "Alright. But we do have to tell the others about us at least because they might be extra suspicious seeing me carry you into your room and not come out."

John frowned. "Yeah, I know."

Jerod grabbed his hand. "Hey don't worry I'll be there to support you. They won't turn there back on us just for us being a couple, not after all we've been through."

"I know but it's going to be so awkward." Jerod didn't know what to say. "Well, we might as well get this over with now." They both got up and went to the lobby where Chara and the others there and waiting for them.

They turned their heads towards them, which made the two nervous.

"Hi John." Delilah waved

"Hi sis." John waved back.

"Hey John, you alright?" Diego asked.

"Yeah, I'm feeling better now."

"Good then do you mind telling us about last night?" Caleb demanded.

"Caleb is right. First we get told that you ran off, then Jerod runs off also and telling us nothing, then we see Jerod comes back holding you in his arms. What's going on?" Iris asked.

John stammered as he tried to reply. He felt Jerod put a hand on his shoulder and he took a deep breath. He grabbed his hand and faced the group.

"Me...and Jerod...we...we're a couple." He looked down. "Yes I'm gay and Jerod is my boyfriend now. I know this is a little unexpected but"

"I knew it." Frisk said

John and Jerod stared dumbfounded. "Huh?"

"It was kind of obvious that you two were more than buddy-buddy." Caleb said

"We didn't want to jump to conclusions but we were really sure that you two would get together." Diego said

"So you guys don't mind about us? It's not going to be weird?" Jerod asked. He didn't really care what they think of him but he knows that John is the one that feels insecure about people's opinion.

Diego smiled softly. "Jerod...I'm the Soul of Kindness. Do you really think I can be hateful about you two."

"Of course I'm okay with it. I'm openly bisexual so I got no problem with that." Frisk said. John sweat dropped because he forgot of all those times that Frisk flirted with both boys and girls.

"Jerod, I already knew about John's feelings and supported him so I'm with whatever he thinks is best." Delilah said

Caleb shrugged. "If Frisk thinks this is alright then it's alright with me."

Iris straightened his glasses. "I won't lie and say that I truly have no problem with this. My family has really old school views of the world so being raised by them kinda makes me uneasy about this." John looked away sadly. Iris smiled."But I wouldn't deserve to be called the Soul of Perseverance if I don't at least try to get used to this change."

Chara grinned. "I got no poetic statement, I'm just going to say that I'm okay with this."

They all smiled at John. "We're your friend and we'll stand by you." They walked up to him and gave him a comforting hug.

John's eyes glistened as he gave a quivering smile. He is so grateful to have such great friends. He hugged them back.

"Thanks guys." He said as he pulled back from the hug. "So... Now that that's over with, what now?"

"Well we still got to find a way to break the barrier." Iris pulled out a key. "Sans said to stop by his house to find out 'the truth'."

"What is the truth?" Frisk asked Chara.

Chara shrugged. "Beat's me. I don't know any actual secrets of the Underground."

"So... to his house then?" Caleb asked

"Yeah but I'm not teleporting us all again." John said.

"Hmm." Iris thought. "I can't carry you with my tendrils, I don't have enough of them. Caleb can you carry us all as you fly there?"

"Sorry I can't. My flying powers have a weight limit, I can carry one maybe two of you." Caleb said

"I can try to make us all weightless but my powers work on a fixed area. I can't use it on the whole pathway, only on a small area." Delilah said.

Iris snapped her fingers. "I got it. Diego can wrap us all in a big bubble. Then Delilah can turn the inside into an low gravity bubble. Then Caleb will be able to carry us all." The others agreed with the plan.

"Alright, everyone except Caleb gather up." They all huddled up together and Diego enveloped them in a giant green bubble. Delilah stomped her foot and the inside became weightless as they floated. Caleb grabbed the bubble and heaved it onto his back. He flew as he struggled to balance it on his back.

"Hey Caleb, you taking us to neverland?" John said.

Caleb scowled.

"Whats wrong, I'm just keeping you in high spirits."

Caleb gritted his teeth.

"Or perhaps you would rath-"

"John, please SHUT UP!" Caleb shouted.

"Gee Caleb, I had a feeling we would weigh you down but this isn't what I meant." John joked.

Caleb mentally said a word that would definitely result in Diego washing his mouth with soap.

Caleb flew them all the way to Snowdin Town. Thankfully John stopped joking less than halfway through the trip. Caleb put them down and the bubble popped. They fell abruptly as they felt gravity return to normal.

"Here we are. Thank you for flying Caleb international." Caleb said gleefully.

Diego ruffled his hair. "Nice job. Iris where do we use the key."

Iris pointed behind San's and Papyrus's house. "I think there is a door over there." She went over there and found a door. She tried to put the key in the door but it didn't fit.

"your not doing it right." said Sans who suddenly appeared behind Iris.

Iris jumped at San's sudden appearance. "Sans what are you doing here? Wait, don't answer that, what did you mean that I'm not doing it right?"

"well hi to you to." He said extending his hand. Iris took it, regretting not seeing the whoopie cushion on his hand. "anyway, i had a big hilarious prank where you enter my room and...whatever, here let me open the door." He pushed the door open and they entered.

The room was relatively small for a basement. It had a workbench with drawers and in the end of the room there was a machine covered in a cloth.

Iris looked at the workbench and went through the papers on top of it. There was a bunch of blueprints that was written in a funny language. There was a badge that said "Sans: Royal Scientist's assistant". Lastly, there was a picture of a younger Sans and Papyrus in the arms of someone else. Iris couldn't focus on the third person's face. On the back of the picture it said, "don't forget".

"Sans, what is all of this? I thought you were going to show us the truth?"

"okay i'm going to be honest. 'the truth' was a bit of a lie to get you here. sorry but i need you to bear with what i'm about to tell you."

Iris crossed her arms. "Alright, tell us then." She said, curious of whats going on.

"first, have you ever heard of the name dr. w.d gaster?"

The group all looked at each other then shook their heads no.

"well he is or was the royal scientist before alphys. he helped build the core. and he was my fraitehnedr."

None of the group could describe what just happened, they all blacked out for a couple of seconds. When they came to, they saw Sans still standing there but his grin was gone.

"Sans...What was that?" John asked freaked out.

"i'll get to that in a second. just know that i worked with him as a lab assistant. anyway sometime after the king's decree for human souls, the king enlisted the good doctor for a side project. he wanted to see if there was someway to use the power of the artifact to get rid of the barrier. since the artifact was mostly made using the power of determination, gaster came up with two ideas. one was to turn back time and stop the barrier from ever being made, another was to create a pocket dimension and use it to end up on the other side of the barrier and retrieve the souls immediately."

"That first idea sounded a little dangerous. Wouldn't going back in time to prevent the barrier's construction prevent the need to have ever gone back in time in the first place? It's a time paradox." John said.

"exactly, that's why he decided to go with the second plan. which involves him, me, and a whole crew to build this." He pulled the covers off of the machine which revealed a large computer mainframe connected to a large circular platform. The mainframe had a empty slot that looked like it could fit the artifact. "it's called the phase distorter. it can transport a bunch of people to other dimensions. we didn't focus on that since it would only take us to an alternate underground with it's own barrier. instead we used it to let us create our own pocket dimension. to do that we needed to get that artifact working. we theorized that maybe it can absorb energy and turn that into determination so we hooked up the core to the artifact which was hooked up to the phase distorter.

Sans looked at the picture "thats...when things went wrong. apparently the artifact didn't work that way, it wasn't meant to absorb more energy than it already had so it rejected the energy and pushed it all back into the core, causing a meltdown. gaster and us did what we could to prevent the meltdown but we didn't notice the other problem that occurred. while the artifact did reject the core's energy, it also duplicated it and let it pass through it into the machine. since it wasn't the right type of energy it caused the machine to malfunction and create a temporary black hole. we all scrambled to leave the place but gaster stayed to stop the meltdown. only a couple of us managed to escape before the black hole sucked the entire lab along with gaster and his followers. what happened was that gaster and the others were scattered across space and time. the lab, his lab, became the pocket dimension we made. everything about him was scattered, even everyone's memories of him. no one remembers him and his followers."

"Except you." Delilah said.

"well me and toby."

"What!" Caleb said.

"yeah. toby would you like to explain?" Sans flicked his wrists and Toby suddenly came out of the shadows. He sweatdropped at being caught.

"Uhh hi guys." Toby said.

"Toby what were you doing back there?" Caleb asked

"Spying."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to know why you resetted."

Frisk stiffened. "You can remember the resets?"

"Yeah, me and Sans are able to thanks to what happened to Gaster. I was a guard dog working there at the time. I was caught up in that whole fiasco. Some of the unleashed energy struck me and him and altered our minds. We didn't become different people but we did gain the ability to remember and comprehend things outside of the space time continuum. San's though got really messed up on his memory of Gaster. He can't remember what their personal relationship was."

"which was what happened earlier." Sans said.

"Wow, so a dog and a skeleton have the ability to break the fourth wall thanks to the failed experiment of someone who is now scattered across space and time and probably dead?" Iris asked

"No he's not dead but he probably wishes he is." Toby sighed.

"the scattered pieces of him grew sentience and became their own living thing. i would find them but i have no idea where i can find them. that's why i built this." he gestured to the machine. "the original one is long gone but thanks to the blueprints i was able to rebuild it. i could use it to track down his scattered pieces and use it to open a portal to his pocket dimension and bring him back to his original self."

"Why don't you?" Ask Jerod.

"because the machine still requires determination. if i tried to use the core's power again it will only result in the same problem as before."

He looked at Frisk. "kiddo...i know you don't have to but can you please use your determination to help me bring back gaster?"

"Yes." Frisk said instantly.

San's smile returned. "thanks kiddo. all you need to do is turn that artifact on and put it inside of the machine."

Frisk nodded and held out the artifact. He closed his eyes and concentrated until it started glowing, then he inserted it into the empty slot. When Frisk let go the glow didn't fade. Suddenly, the monitor lit up

{system_starting}

{DT_detected} {begin_extracting_sequence}

{system_online}

Sans grinned widely "wow thank yo-"

{ERROR_windows_program_outdated}

{new_program_detected}

{begin_windows_update}

{progression:0.00000000000000000000000000000000001%complete}

Everyone stared at the loading screen. John looked at Sans who's back is turned. John had an experience of something like this so he knows the level of frustration he is feeling right now.

"Uhhh. We are going to see ourselves out." John said

"that's okay. i'll let you guys know when it's done." San's said not looking at them.

The group looked at Toby. "I'll stay here and keep him company." The group nodded and let themselves out.

Looks like I'm getting serious with good old goopdad (aka Gaster).

Sorry to cut it off here but...I suck at cliffhangers! I'll see if I can get this done soon before my classes start (no promises).

Anyway, I'll see you guys next time...

HAVE FUN!