Chapter 8

After getting at least 3 different Cinnamon Bunnies from the Snowdin shopkeeper (who was named Bunnie, to my amusement) I then went along with Sans to his house and he then led me inside, me feeling a sense of dread overtake me as I went inside, made even more apparent when I heard very ominous sounds coming from the kitchen. "Can you stay with me when I meet with your dad, Sans?... I'm a bit nervous," I said with honesty, Sans smirking at that.

"wish i could, but i don't think he'd play fair regardless. he might stop time or something," Sans said, me sighing as I then timidly approached the cabinet beneath the sink and then opened it slowly and carefully, me seeing that Sans had stopped moving and the thing on the other side of the cupboard was the entrance to the small Easter Egg area known as the dog carnival, the same place that led to the Mad Mew Mew fight on the Switch version of Undertale. But it also looked completely vacant with color missing in a lot of areas. It was almost completely black and white everywhere.

"SO... YOU SEEM TO HAVE FOUND MY SECRET HIDING PLACE FOR THE PRINCE'S SOUL, HAVEN'T YOU?" I heard Gaster say as he then appeared directly in front of me, me holding my ground, though to be honest, I was worried and scared to death, meeting him face-to-face.

"Yeah, I did," I said bluntly.

"NOW COMES THE HARDEST TEST OF YOUR PLAYTHROUGH. YOU MUST DO BATTLE WITH ME... I WILL ONLY ACCEPT YOUR VICTORY IF YOU CAN DEFEAT ME IN BATTLE... BUT DO NOT WORRY ABOUT GAINING EXP OR LV. I AM ALREADY DEAD... I WOULD YIELD NO EXP AT ALL... I JUST WANT TO MOVE ON TO THE AFTERLIFE..." Gaster said as he then brought out numerous hands that floated in the air as well as two different Gaster Blasters to his side. He then moved his hands into different motions and I was shocked at how my soul exited my body and I saw that every single command except for ITEM was all FIGHT! I couldn't use MERCY and I couldn't ACT or CHECK him!

"AND TO MAKE THIS BATTLE A LITTLE MORE INTERESTING..." Gaster said as his Gaster Blasters then approached my soul and turned red, them firing a large laser blast that broke through my soul's defenses and I saw that I now had 50 DEF and 99 HP! He'd just nullified my infinite stats in both! "LET US BEGIN... PLAYER," Gaster said, me looking around and seeing that Chara was also stopped in time. Same with Asriel's soul inside of me.

"Okay..." I said as I then took the FIGHT command on the left and proceeded to punch at Gaster with the Tough Glove, me managing to do at least 30 damage to him and I saw that his health was actually quite low for a monster, it being only around 300.

"I'VE GIVEN UP ON TRYING TO LIVE AGAIN... I JUST WANT FREED FROM THIS ETERNAL DAMNATION," Gaster spoke as he then used a blue attack against me, slamming my soul down and me needing to hop to avoid a Gaster Blaster shot at me, me doing the same thing twice more before Gaster then used a finger gun attack that sent an explosive at me, which I dodged in the nick of time, as he was aiming both at me and my soul! I then felt some kind of power radiate inside of me. I felt... stronger. I then proceeded to punch Gaster again, me seeing that the attack damage this time was 60.

"Why do you want to die so badly, Gaster? At least tell me that," I said after connecting the hit, hoping to get some kind of answer as to why.

"I HAVE SEEN EVERYTHING... EVERY PLAYTHROUGH FROM EVERY SINGLE PERSON... I EVEN KNOW ABOUT THE CREATOR OF THIS WORLD. THAT TOBY KID... WHY WOULD HE MAKE ALL OF THIS JUST TO SEE US SUFFER AT THE HANDS OF EVERYONE?" Gaster asked with a frown as he then sent some more hand-based attacks at me, them being telegraphed as orange and blue attacks, but they were also very fast-moving ones that I had to be quick to reacting to. Though I did accidentally get his by the blue attack and I saw that my health had actually taken 15 damage as well as 5 bits of poison damage.

I then hit him again with the Tough Glove, this time the attack being worth 90, him now being at less than half his total health. "I'M TIRED OF SEEING ALL OF THOSE DEATHS AND ALL THOSE POINTLESS HAPPY ENDINGS. I JUST WANT TO BE PUT TO REST FOR A CHANGE... AT LEAST I CAN BE RELEASED FROM MY TORMENT IN THIS WORLD IF THIS FIGHT ENDS AS INTENDED," Gaster sighed as he then shot a large flurry of Gaster Blasters at me that had color coded bits to them, me needing to stay still for blue, move through orange, and dodge the red ones like no tomorrow! And after this time, I then connected another attack to Gaster, this one being worth 100 points of damage. He was now at low HP and he knew it.

"Gaster, I don't want to kill you... just, please listen to me. There's got to be some other way to give you peace," I said, Gaster breathing in and sighing afterwards.

"UNFORTUNATELY, THERE ISN'T... SO LONG AS I EXIST IN THIS PLANE OF EXISTENCE, THE TIME LOOPS WILL CONTINUE TO HAPPEN... IT IS MY VERY EXISTENCE THAT CAUSES THESE LOOPS. ALL CORRESPONDING TO A SOUL OF DETERMINATION BEING NEAR MY PRESENCE... SO PLEASE, SURVIVE THIS NEXT ATTACK AND DEFEAT ME..." Gaster said as he then proceeded to use an even more powerful version of Sans's final attack from his fight, this one involving tons of bones and Gaster Blasters, all of them being color coded! I then saw the last part involved him turning my soul green and I had to look directly at every single Gaster Blaster as they fired at me in a circular pattern and I had to look at them each to block the attacks before Gaster then grabbed my body with his hands and proceeded to smack me around the place, me being shocked and feeling very badly hurt from each blow before I then growled angrily.

"STOP IT!" I exclaimed angrily as I then broke free from his hands and smashed my fist directly into Gaster's head, me gasping at me doing that and immediately feeling tons of emotions. Instant regret, guilt, and disgust at my own actions as I saw Gaster's HP fall down to 0.

"HAh... HaH... FInaLlY... It'S DonE..." Gaster said, his Wingding language now using lowercase letters in certain parts, most likely to show he was on death's door, me feeling tears escape my eyes afterwards. "Don'T Cry, kID... i WanTeD thiS... And nOW... thIS woRlD... CaN liVe on..." Gaster said as I then saw his body melt like Undyne's did in her genocide fight, him then turning to dust and his soul shattering soon after, me then seeing the text fly onto the screen.

"You won! You earned 0 G and 0 EXP," the text said, me sniffing in a bit and seeing that Chara was able to move again as I then left the room and she looked worried about me.

"What just happened, Indie?" Chara asked as I then exited the secret room and found myself right back inside Sans's kitchen with Sans standing right next to the fridge.

"Gaster... he requested I fight him to the death... and forced me to fight him when I didn't want to... he wanted to end his life so that this world would be freed from the time loops," I said, Sans looking at me with a new face. A frown.

"pops did that?" Sans asked, me nodding at that.

"I really didn't want to kill him... but he refused any other option, saying that so long as he was alive in the Void, the world would continue to have the same events loop constantly... he left me no choice... and he was right when he said he was already long dead... after he died by my hands, I earned nothing. No gold. No EXP. No LV," I said, Sans sighing at that.

"normally, in these circumstances given, i'd be judging you for killing him... but i can see that you're truthful just from the guilt in your eyes. just know that, if what he said was true, his sacrifice will not be in vain... it's best that you try to improve from that encounter and try to stay chipper. my brother's waiting for you, after all," Sans said, me nodding at that.

"Yeah... okay..." I sighed as I then walked out the door along with him and I then decided to call up Toriel. And when I did, she picked up immediately.

"Hello? Is this Indie?" Toriel asked.

"Yep, it's me, Tori... listen, I think that, at least for now, you should wait until tomorrow before you come and join me on my journey... I forgot completely that, when I arrived in this world, it was nearly 7 pm back home and I'm getting a bit tired... I'm going to try and see if I can convince someone for me to sleep at their place in Snowdin. When it reaches 11 tomorrow, then you can come and follow me, okay?" I said, Toriel smiling at that.

"I understand, Indie. I'll do just that... and I'll bring some pie for you if we happen to meet up at some point," Toriel smiled at me.

"Thanks... oh, and one more thing. I have a secret that you're going to love, but I want to wait until we meet up to tell you. It involves your son, Asriel," I said, Toriel smiling at that.

"Must you leave it off at such an interesting cliffhanger? I surely hope you aren't joking with me, because it sounds pretty tasteless," Toriel said.

"Don't worry, it's not tasteless at all. It's sure to make your heart flutter... okay, bye," I smiled, her then bidding me farewell back as I then hung up.

"Mom's going to be surprised when she hears I'm okay, isn't she?" Asriel smiled from his soul.

"She might actually faint if she learned you were still alive... just like how she gasped and was shocked by learning of Chara's spirit joining me," I smirked. I then looked ahead and knew that I might have to face Papyrus shortly. I decided to check my soul to see if it was back to all the stats being unknown... and sure enough, they were. "I'm gonna need to get used to this unknown stat thing, though," I admitted.