Gaster sharply inhaled, pulling back from the child's face, the orange glow dissipating subsequently.
"what'd you see?" Sans asked with such hesitance in his voice that it was clear Gaster's prior reaction was all he needed for an answer.
"…Exactly what I hoped I would not see."
"and what would that be?"
He ground his jaw, "I believe I just encountered my original counterpart from this timeline."
…
As if gasping back to life, Frisk's eyes flew open and immediately surveyed the room for danger. Two of her friends, Alphys and Sans stood before her, the group focusing very intensely on another figure. Her eyes locked onto Gaster, the grave expression upon his face, and immediately her instincts kicked in.
"Don't you come near me, you sadistic psycho!" screamed Frisk, eyes ablaze with the urge to protect everyone, but most instinctively herself.
"I understand how unnerving that felt, but I am from another timeline. A different Gaster."
"Yeah? Well, you still had it in you!" she seethed, not backing down. Despite being from a different timeline, he still had it in him to do and threaten what he did.
That made him dangerous.
Sans and Alphys exchanged glances, allowing the two to argue with each other. Such was expected.
"I will not deny that. However, I did bring you out of the world my counterpart put you in."
Frisk swallowed to soothe her now-sore throat, wincing at the pang of pain.
"I wish you would just go right now," she admitted hoarsely, voice softening to almost inaudible levels.
Gaster looked somewhat conflicted, "I can leave the room temporarily if you so wish," he offered, knowing it wasn't what Frisk meant.
The young child snivelled, still reeling as she began to succumb to tiredness. "It doesn't matter."
It did matter; she didn't have the energy to deal with it anymore. Her thoughts were interrupted by the voice of a trusted friend. Her 'pal'.
"well, im going off a huge hunch here but i have a deep-rooted feeling our Gaster was the man behind the timeline merge."
"It does seem like something I would do in that situation."
"so in your timeline you're alive?"
"Yes, although I can assume now that it is presumed the opposite."
Sans sighed, "yeah, you're not there anymore."
"Evidently."
Alphys glanced vaguely at the monitors for the millionth time that minute—trying to convince herself that yes, Frisk is no longer in a state of falling down. For now…
She gazed up at the man that was three times taller than her, "But…what would happen to us in the timeline this Gaster is from? W-what would we think? He just…d-died? Of what?"
Gaster shifted his attention down to her, interested in the question.
"Natural causes." Frisk muttered to herself, drawing the attention of the other monsters with her suddenly dark tone.
Gaster's jaw tightened at her ominous phrasing, "I am immortal and do not age. That will not work," he pointed out.
Everyone else stopped talking to consider a reasonable response. In this timeline Gaster supposedly fell into his own creation and disappeared forever. But now, evidently, he was still out there. In the void. Trying to return.
"Ma-maybe they will just consider the same thing we did, that he fell into the core? But really he was here? Or…" Alphys paused, overwhelmed with thoughts, "Maybe that's what happened to our Gaster? He got pulled into another timeline?"
"no, ours is in the void. their Gaster is here," Sans jumped in, focusing an eye on Frisk. Her heartrate had shot up again and no-one else in the room seemingly noticed.
keeping something from us, again.
"This is all v-very confusing," Alphys began, then remembered to impulsively check Frisk's vitals. Her eyes grew wide, not hesitating to make eye contact with Sans, who raised an eyebrow in response. Clearly he had already seen and wasn't reacting, but judging by his inaction, apparently thought she was still safe. Maybe she should trust the guy.
They both glanced over to Frisk, who was staring at her feet while anxiously fiddling with her clothes.
"something on your mind?" Sans queried.
She froze, locking eyes with him and shaking her head.
"hmm…" he pondered, "if you say so."
They continued to watch each other for a moment, before Gaster cleared his throat.
"There is another matter to address; where has Frisk received their magic from?" he questioned, recalling the events from hours before, "and what of the test results? Alphys?"
Alphys whirled around at her name being spoken, "O-oh! Yes, you were right! It's because of soul sharing with Asriel," she stammered, trotting over to her desk to find the papers, "I-I'm pretty sure Frisk has taken Asriel's powers. It was hereditary from Toriel, but instead of Asriel's body gaining the magic, Frisk got it instead!"
Frisk gazed up, suddenly interested. Asriel will grow up without magic?
"A-also, it looks as if Frisk's magic is slightly different from Toriel's, even though it's technically hereditary," Alphys added, "I think its because she's human."
"but asriel relies on magic to survive," Sans protested, also walking over to Alphys' desk, "how's that working?"
"U-uhh…" Alphys swallowed, not liking all eyes being on her, "I think Frisk having magic is keeping him alive. I-I mean, they share a soul, so…"
"You think?" Gaster challenged, taking the notes from her to see from himself; it all checked out. "Ah. Interesting." Sans peered under his arm to see for himself too.
"Y-yeah," she smiled, politely taking the notes back and briefly looking at them before storing them away again. "He should be fine…"
Sans blew out a long breath.
but will frisk be?
...
Inside the Dreemurr's home, Toriel had just got the text message from Sans bringing her up to date on their findings. The poor human was likely to be jumpy and scared considering her encounter with the other Gaster…and she wasn't sure how she was going to break the news to Asriel that Frisk had his powers.
But that thought could wait, he was asleep on the sofa right now, unable to use his own room thanks to Frisk…it was currently in ruins.
Out of the blue, her phone vibrated and rang in its typical shrill fashion. In a panic not to wake Asriel up, she snagged it from the armrest and pressed the answer button as quickly as possible.
"What?" she whispered harshly, but stopped herself, "I mean…sorry, hello? Who is this?"
A muffled voice came through the other side, "heya."
"Oh!" she grinned, leaning on the armrest, "Sans, what can I do for you?"
"so, the kid's left, and i'm pretty sure she's heading your way,"
She frowned, "You let her go already?"
"didn't really have a choice."
"…Oh."
In that case, Frisk had probably lost control of her magic again. "…I see."
"yea, but it's fine. we got the answers we need. for now, anyway."
"I thought it had just been revealed that she was pulled into the void by a Gaster from another timeline?"
"our timeline. the one we have here is from another one."
"…Right. It is hard to keep track of all this, my friend. It has all come on so suddenly."
"yeah. and yeah we did discover that, but Alphys thinks the kid needs time to herself to recover from it," there was a brief pause, some distant voices in the background presumably talking to him, "…instead of being cooped up in the lab having questions fired at by pretty much the same guy that nearly killed her."
"Alright. But I am concerned, what if she gets upset and sets something ablaze again?"
There was a quiet sigh from the skeleton on the phone.
"tori her magic comes from you. if there's anyone to help control it you should be the one to do it."
Toriel definitely didn't feel that she was a creature suitable to be teaching Frisk the ins-and-outs of magic, but if the others were unwilling…who else would?
"I understand. I will start tomorrow, however. I want to put Frisk immediately to sleep when she gets home."
"yea, that's fine. thanks tori."
Toriel promptly switched off the phone and leaned back in her seat. Her eyes gazed onto Asriel, wondering how he would feel about Frisk being home again after the incident earlier.
But she would deal with that issue when the time came.
She stood up to prepare a meal as a welcome home yet again present for Frisk, stopping to quickly peck the sleeping Asriel's forehead.
"Goodnight, my child," she whispered, to which the young creature hummed absently.
Opening the fridge, she pulled out the first ingredient of the pie she gave Frisk when she first came to the underground – butterscotch cinnamon pie. Perhaps some reminiscing of happier times will do her good.
Switching the oven on, there was a hasty knock at the door.
"Oh my, she's very early."
The pie would have to wait. She tottered over to see her visitor.
The door creaked open, and below her was the small child, Frisk. But Toriel was surprised to see that she was not wearing her usual purple jumper. To add to things, she was also shivering, her face as pale as the snow her boots treaded upon.
"Hello, dear. You look very cold," Toriel acknowledged, ushering her in. Where was her infamous jumper? Frisk was very fond of it; they had 6 duplicates of the same one. Now she just stood before her with a white vest. No wonder she was trembling.
"I lost it," Frisk vaguely whispered as Toriel closed the door behind her.
"You lost it? How did you do that?"
Frisk's expression became downcast, "I…I…don't get angry with me," she began, waiting for Toriel's expression to change to that of moderate concern.
She shouldn't have been surprised that the motherly creature only smiled in return. "Of course I won't be angry. It's alright."
Frisk pursed his lips, but spilt the beans, "…I got angry and accidentally set it on fire on my way here."
Toriel's eyes went wide, "You what?" she shouted, suddenly grabbing the child's arms and checking for burn marks, "How on earth did you—"
"You promised you wouldn't get angry!" Frisk wailed, taking a step back. There was a moments silence between them before Toriel sighed.
I am being overprotective again.
"I apologise…I am just worried you may have injured yourself," she confessed, leading Frisk over to her armchair, next to where Asriel was sleeping, "Wait here while I get you another one. And please be quiet, Asriel is asleep."
Frisk smiled weakly, "Sure," and dropped down onto the seat. She folded her arms around herself, struggling to keep warm in a vest with the cold weather. That wouldn't be a problem soon, considering the fireplace was crackling.
A small smile crept onto her tense face seeing Asriel so at peace. Some part of her deep down was worried what he would think when he woke up and saw her. Would he be afraid of her? Would he want her to leave?
The smile slipped from her face at the thought of it.
She was soon brought out of those thoughts when Toriel walked back in, carrying a new jumper.
"Here you are, my child," she pushed the jumper over Frisk's head, being sure to keep quiet as to not wake her son. "I was in the midst of making a pie, but unfortunately you arrived before I finished it."
Frisk wriggled her head through the top and arms in the sleeves, "It's ok, wait until Azzy is awake."
"I am awake!"
Both heads turned to the little monster lying droopy eyed but awake on the couch. Frisk stood up and held her breath.
"Oh dear," Toriel muttered, kneeling down to his eye-level, "I am sorry I woke you. Frisk is home and she's very cold."
Asriel grinned, eying Frisk's shivering form despite the jumper, "She looks it," he agreed, standing up to give her a hug. "Howdy!"
Frisk pitched forward and grew wide-eyed at the response, wrapping her arms around him also, "You don't hate me?"
"Of course I don't," he smiled with open arms, "You messed up my room, but it was an accident!"
Frisk's shoulders slumped at the memory, plucking at her fuzzy sleeves; she didn't deserve his forgiveness after that.
"While you two talk, I'm going to continue making the pie," Toriel insisted, giving both children a pat on the head before heading off to the kitchen.
They awkwardly watched each other for a while.
Frisk chewed on her lower lip, unsure of how to feel. "Um…I don't know what to say," Eventually she sat back down on the sofa, head in her hands.
Asriel straightened up and hummed happily, "Mom will sort it out. When you get better everything will be ok again!" he sat beside her.
Frisk's expression changed a smile and turned to face him, "Thank you."
Asriel's eyes sparkled.
…
"What I'm concerned about is what our Gaster did to Frisk in…in the void, or wherever it was...he wanted to come back and suddenly Frisk has magic? Doesn't that seem suspicious to you guys?" Alphys wrung her hands together in distress, "I-I mean, I know she's had magic for a while but maybe he's the one that made her have magic and not Asriel?"
Gaster tilted his head, "Being able to manipulate these two timelines together from the void could also mean he was the deciding variable for who received Asriel's magic."
"I would believe that more than the i-idea she just coincidentally got magic when he needs a human soul to get out of the void…maybe he needs human magic too?" Alphys forced herself to inhale. She was working herself up again.
"human magic was not a thing until the incident with frisk." Sans reasoned.
Alphys frowned, a terrible thought planted in her mind, "Um…what if Frisk tries to reset? Or go from a point from before she had magic and tries to change it?"
"I don't think that would be a problem," Gaster said with a surprisingly darker tone to his voice.
Sans glared at him, the subject already a difficult one for him, "oh? how so?"
…
"Now just lift your arm gently...gently...gently!" Toriel shot a hand around Frisk's wrist to steady her magic, "There...keep it like that...and..."
Frisk carefully flicked her wrist, a ball of fire easily shot towards into the fireplace logs, causing it to spark into life. A delicate flame danced inside the frame: finally a successful lesson.
"See? It's all about focus and control. When you get upset you lose focus and the flames go everywhere," then she chuckled, "Or at least that was the case for my fire magic. I was a child once too, you know."
Toriel as a child…is something no-one has thought about and probably never would again.
Frisk hummed in acknowledgement, dazzled over the beauty of her own magic that had caused mass destruction to her mother's home only hours before.
If only someone more worthy had it instead...
"Mom?" she asked quietly, gazing up at her.
"Yes, dear?"
"Do you...do you think it would have been better if Azzy had magic instead of me?" a feeling of unease lay in the pit of Frisk's stomach.
Toriel had seen this coming, and exhaled softly at the self-deprecating question, "My child, it does not matter to me who received magic. You both are my children and you are both worthy of it."
But Frisk knew this wasn't true.
It was no use admitting that to Toriel though, as she would simply become protective and worry about their child having such thoughts.
"Mom?" a different soft but strained voice sounded from behind them both. Asriel stood them, knees wobbling, "I don't feel well..."
It was speech that horrified Toriel, as this was the same sentence uttered when he fell down upon return from the human village.
"Oh dear…" with smooth movement she quickly forgot about the training and ushered him over to the sofa, "What is the matter?"
Asriel exhaled heavily, stumbling over to the seat and practically falling onto the cushions. He hugged them tightly and muffled something into the pillow.
"What?" Toriel sat beside him, unaware of Frisk's staring.
"Jus' real dizzy," he garbled, still heaving in breaths. It was at this moment Toriel noticed the almost look of recognition in Frisk's eyes.
"Frisk?" she queried, a mix of anxiety and desperate anger.
"I... I saw this," Frisk breathed, staring wide-eyed at Asriel's form.
I saw this in the void.
"I need to...call someone," she murmured, pulling a phone out of her pocket and immediately dialling the lab.
"Please hurry," Toriel urged, pulling Asriel onto her lap, her act of kindness unexpectedly causing him to squeal. He rolled around on the spot aimlessly, shaky hands clutching his chest while Toriel tried to control her inner panic. She placed a hand onto his, trying to soothe him.
"I don't understand," he whimpered, opening a single eye to look at Frisk, "You s…said that you wouldn't…hurt anyone…anymore…"
Frisk's face fell flat, waiting for ringing sound on her phone to end, "I'm not. I'm not hurting anyone."
"Then…why am I…hurting?"
Frisk had spent a limited but insightful time in the void, and if more of these 'visions' came to fruition then she knew what would happen next.
But she only knew what would happen, not how to stop it.
And whoever was on the receiving end of this call was taking way too damn long to pick up.
Come on!
"You're such a liar!" Asriel wailed, causing a gasp from his bewildered mother, "You promised!"
The inharmonious ringing from her phone stopped, clattering noises coming from the other end before a voice came through.
"heya"
"Sans, it's me, put Gaster on."
"what?" his tone sounded mildly bored.
"Just put him on, there's…just…now!" she urged, "Please!"
There was a noticeable pause from the other side, likely curiosity. Seconds later, she heard distantly: "hey G, it's the kid, she needs you,"
Frisk clenched her fist and forced herself to exhale, she needed to do something right now, needed to talk to him right now. Asriel was still trembling in Toriel's lap creating pathetic whimpers that were getting quieter and quieter. And that was not a good thing.
Stop messing around and answer me!
"Hello?"
She blew out another breath, "Hi, it's me. Uh…basically your doppelganger showed me Asriel's demise and it's happening right now."
Once again another long pause, and for a second she wondered if Gaster assumed this was the child's attempt at a strange joke. She had been afraid of him for the majority of the time they knew each other, after all. Regardless, there were more important, urgent matters to attend to right now. Fear could wait.
Finally, he responded, "Where are you now?"
"In mom's house. Toriel's house. I think it's his soul. He's clutching his chest," her words came out in rapid short sentences as she tried to keep the words going in her tense, almost nervous state.
"Take out his soul."
Frisk nearly coughed up her own saliva in shock, "…What?"
"Apologies. I mean view his soul from his body and tell me what you see."
"I…don't know how to do that? Can you just come here and do it? Quickly? Please?" she sharply inhaled, cursing at herself inwardly at her demeanour breaking, "I don't know what to do."
"Use your magic. Did your mother not teach you?"
"We've only just started! Just come here!" she raised her voice, clutching the phone in her hand, "He's gonna die because you keep asking questions!"
Toriel held Asriel a little tighter and gazed up at her, "Frisk…"
Clearly I'm starting to scare them.
"Sorry," she muttered, swiftly striding in front of him and raising a hand, "I'm gonna try really quick."
"Good," the deeper voice from the phone resonated, "If he trusts you then subconsciously his soul will come to you when you ask for it."
"How do I ask for it?" her outstretched hand made her aware of the ache at the back of her neck, strained from stress.
"It is different for everyone. Try it in the way that feels right to you."
Try it in... seriously?
"This is ridiculous!" Frisk cried out. With one hand still on the phone, she threw her outstretched one down and ran straight for Asriel, "Just tell me what's wrong, Azzy, please."
Asriel blinked up wearily at her, his whimpers had been reduced to nothing, his hands weakly sprawled out against his chest now. But to Frisk's surprise, half of a small, red soul popped out in front of the younger monster's body, revealing itself in all it's glorious but vulnerable state. It looked rather distressed, a small darkened hue creeping across the fractured edges.
"Is that what you want?" he queried softly. A motherly hand clasped around his wrist tighter, disapproving of his attempt to speak in this condition.
"Yeah…" Frisk murmured, remembering she was still on the phone to Gaster, "I uh…have it now."
"Good," the reply was quick, "What does it look like?"
Frisk hummed, "Sort of…tainted. Like, it's red, as it should be, but there's some darkening in there."
"Hmm…" a brief silence, "What about yours?"
Huh, well I can do that at least.
With ease, Frisk summoned her soul, pure red and existing as it should be. Aside from the cracks that made evident the missing half that resided in Asriel.
"It's fine, nothing wrong there, I think," she answered, sending it back to where it belonged.
Asriel's breaths had eventually evened out to one that of normality, his eyes tired but no longer creased in pain. He remained slouched on his mother's lap, clearly too afraid to move.
"He seems to be okay now," she added, locking eyes with Toriel. Her face too had calmed, at the quieting appearance of Asriel.
"That is good," came the reply over the phone, "That is good."
Frisk then noticed that Gaster hadn't even tried to make the trip there.
"No, it was lucky. Something could've seriously gone wrong because you didn't bother to show up."
Did Frisk's ears deceive her, or did she hear a quiet chuckle?
"No. I had an intuition for what this might be, and it seems I was right," he corrected, and Frisk suddenly realised Gaster probably knew more than he was letting on. "You had better get him here before it happens again."
Frisk blanched, "Again?"
Her arm was starting to ache from holding the phone for so long.
"Yes."
Way to be vague.
"Right…okay, I guess," she promptly ended the call before Gaster could offer any other enigmatic, cryptic response and turned to the two monsters on the sofa. "So…here's what he said…"
…
Gaster had been occupied shut in his lab for over an hour, ever since Sans had passed the mobile onto him after Frisk's sudden frantic call.
And he seemed to be talking to her rather in an abnormally calm, comforting tone, a strange sight but a welcome one. Perhaps it was a voice reserved for children.
But Sans hadn't seen him since.
Still, at least he'd made some progress on the reports. There was a correlation between Frisk first discovering her magic and being pulled into the void. But the question was why? Quite clearly, he wanted to use her magic, her human soul, to get back into the mortal realm.
And with what Frisk said about Asriel's impending demise, this was likely another one of og-Gaster's doing.
Speaking of the devil, the door flew open, Gaster himself sauntering out with his head held low. Sans stopped the report and approached him for answers about the phone call, "heya, what happened back there? is the little guy alright?"
Gaster made a tsk noise and sat down in silence, apparently reinstating his silent demeanour.
Though unfortunately for him, this wasn't something he could just sulk off in silence to.
"you gonna speak or should i not bother 'til later?"
Sans was gonna get an answer out of him either way, but still.
The elder creature turned slowly, unwillingly towards him, an almost vacant expression on his face.
"It is difficult to witness yourself doing things you normally wouldn't expect yourself to be able to do," he finally responded, posture rigid from either tension or apprehension. Possibly both. He didn't usually open up often. "Negative matters."
Sans tried to play it cool, "yeah, i mean, must be pretty weird seeing yourself doing those things. alternate you has a thing for killing kids apparently," there was an air of lightness to his tone, but the other man didn't take it as casually.
"It is not…humorous."
He lifted an arm, "you mean…humerus?"
Gaster shot him a glare, "I said don't."
He sighed, "yeah, right. uh…" he paused, running hands onto his face in thought, "so, did you save him?"
"If you are talking about Asriel, he didn't need saving."
"i'm pretty sure I heard the kid say—"
"Assuming this alternate me has the same experience and thought process, the failure of obtaining the human child has resulted in…" he paused, tilting his head, "I suppose what you would call a plan B. That is attempting to force the magic out of Asriel by putting him in danger."
Sans blinked, "you're saying they both could have it?"
That would make the job load for Toriel a lot more hectic. Two untrained fire-wielding children under one roof?
"Unsure at this precise moment."
"so is he alive or not?"
"Yes. He recovered on his own."
Well isn't that just convenient.
Sans narrowed his eyes, expressing as much, "that can't be a coincidence. good old void-you."
He had a feeling Gaster definitely knew more than he let on, and probably had an idea as to what might happen next. All he had to do was think in terms of being without a soul.
There was a positive to this; alternate Gaster was one step ahead of everyone else, but this Gaster was one step above that. Two steps ahead. A whole tall, stretched stride. A jump. An entire leap—
"The 'void me', or at least that's what you've decided to name him, will likely try again. When Asriel's soul begins to turn black again, the connection would be established, and we have another temporarily link to the void. I will go there."
Sans blinked, "you're gonna…"
ok, i was wrong. this gaster is a lot dumber.
"g, you can't just go to the void. you'll get stuck there like he did."
But he didn't seem to share his concern, "Asriel will remain my link back as long as the temporary link isn't closed. Otherwise the connection with myself and this reality will be lost, and I will be stuck there too."
"geez, two gaster's in one void. i almost want to leave you there to see what happens."
"If you do so, I will devote every remaining waking moment of my 'life' to hunting you down."
At that response, Sans glanced up at him, almost unsure if his friend had even caught his joke; he was a very a literal person. But there was a small glint of hidden spirit in his eye, and Sans knew Gaster's reply was all in jest.
"alright, fine then," Sans sighed, standing up from the chair despite not being entirely sure where to start heading off to, "to the void we go."