Many years later another human fell. Asgore killed it. As Gaster suspected the act killed Asgore inside. He was devastated that he had really taken the life of a child. Gaster did his best to comfort him and tried once again to convince Asgore to let him do the killing. Asgore refused.

Gaster just sighed as he looked at the light blue soul in the container he had built to keep the souls from breaking until it was time to absorb them. There was so much he could learn from the soul... If he found out what it was make of he might be able to make an artificial soul then Asgore wouldn't have to kill. Was that even possible? Gaster thought it was after all everything just make of magic and atoms, energy and chemicals. He just needed to find out what was in the soul and he needed to see it's molecular structure.

"WILL YOU AT LEAST LET ME BORROW THE SOUL? I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO STUDY IT. I WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT MAKES UP A HUMAN SOUL."

Asgore stared at the soul for a while, tears still in his eyes. "Studying it will help a lot..." He muttered, "very well, but Gaster, please don't damage it."

"RELAX. I KNOW HOW IMPORTANT IT IS. I WILL NOT DAMAGE IT. YOU'LL GET IT BACK WITHOUT A SCRATCH, I PROMISE."

Asgore trusted his friend and handed over the soul. Gaster was very excited to have a real soul to study. He very much wanted to experiment on it but he'd promised the King he wouldn't damage it. He couldn't risk experimentation, they couldn't afford the set back it would cause should he shatter it by accident. Who knew when the next human would fall? It would take a long time for them to get seven, he didn't want to make that seven turn to eight just because he was careless.

He placed the soul carefully on the table. He wouldn't remove it, he'd need to scan it and maybe take a small sample. He wasted no time in getting to work.

"SOUL STUDY, ENTRY NUMBER ONE.

THE SCAN AND SAMPLE'S RESULTS ARE FASCINATING.

THE STRUCTURE IS COMPLEX BUT I'M SURE I CAN RECREATE IT.

THERE ARE TRAITS IN THE SOUL THAT MONSTER'S DON'T HAVE.

NOT IN THESE NUMBERS.

LIKE DETERMINATION.

THE DOMINANT TRAIT IS PATIENCE."

"SOUL STUDY, ENTRY NUMBER TWO.

I HAVE FIGURED OUT THE STRUCTURE.

IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE A ARTIFICIAL SOUL.

I'VE MADE AN EMPTY SOUL STRUCTURE.

I WILL INJECT IT WITH PATIENCE AND DETERMINATION."

"SOUL STUDY, ENTRY NUMBER THREE.

FAILURE.

THE ARTIFICIAL SOUL SHATTERED IN AN INSTANT.

THE STRUCTURE WAS FINE, NO PROBLEMS THERE.

THE LEVEL OF PATIENCE AND/OR DETERMINATION MUST HAVE BEEN WRONG.

WELL...

CAN'T EXPECT PERFECT RESULTS RIGHT AWAY."

Gaster sat with his head in is hands as once again the soul he created shattered. He couldn't keep going with trial and error, he didn't have a lot of the human traits and was too scared to take anymore from the real soul in case it shattered it. He had to think carefully. He really needed another soul, there must be differences in each soul. If he had another one to compare, things might be easier.

"SOUL STUDY, ENTRY NUMBER FOUR.

I FELT IT POINTLESS MENTIONING EVERY FAILURE IN THESE JOURNALS.

DETAILS OF THE EXPERIMENTS CAN BE FOUND IN FOLDER NUMBER 66.

ANOTHER HUMAN FELL AND WAS KILLED BY ASGORE.

THIS SOUL WAS ORANGE.

IT'S DOMINANT TRAIT WAS BRAVERY.

THE COMMON TRAIT IN BOTH WAS DETERMINATION.

COULD DETERMINATION BE THE KEY?"

"SOUL STUDY, ENTRY NUMBER FIVE.

I TRIED TO INJECT AN ARTIFICIAL SOUL WITH DETERMINATION ONLY.

IT FAILED FASTER THAN MOST.

I THOUGHT THAT PERHAPS DETERMINATION NEEDS TO BE BALANCED OUT WITH ANOTHER TRAIT TO WORK.

BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE...

AFTER REVIEWING OLD FOOTAGE I DISCOVERED THAT CHARA'S DOMINANT TRAIT WAS DETERMINATION.

THEIR SOUL WAS RED AFTER ALL."

Gaster swiped the papers off his desk in rage. Yet another failure. It was possible, he was doing something wrong but he didn't know what. He wanted to help Asgore but it was nothing but failure after failure.

He stormed out of his lab before he broke something important. He needed to blow off some steam. He pulled on his long black coat and started on the walk to Waterfall. He liked Waterfall, he found the sound of water to be rather relaxing, he liked to look at the glowing crystals in the ceiling, it reminded him of the sky and he enjoyed listening the the hopeful wishes that the Echo Flowers repeated. He was much too angry to enjoy such things, however and really just wanted to attack something so he went to the royal guards' training grounds. There he could fight someone or he could blow up something without getting in trouble. He was a powerful boss skeleton so the guards liked training with him.

He didn't really want to fight anyone right now, however. He was so angry with his constant failures that he really just wanted to cause destruction.

The young fish monster was there, again, trying to challenge everyone to a fight. No one took her seriously, Gaster figured she was only about four or five, being treated like the little child she was really made her mad. When she saw Gaster, however, her face lit up and she came running up to him.

"Hey, Hey! Dr Gaster! Fight me!" She called.

He rolled his eyes, he really wasn't in the mood for this. "NOT NOW, UNDYNE. DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD BEAT ME ANYWAY?"

"I won't know unless I try!"

"THE ANSWER IS NO, CHILD. I'M NOT HERE TO FIGHT ANYONE. I'M GOING TO BLOW SOMETHING UP WITH MY BLASTERS."

"Cool!" Undyne smiled up at him, "can I watch?"

"NO, GO AWAY." He shooed her off and she sulked away, hopefully not to bug anyone else.

Gaster walked faster to an open space. Here he could let loose and not worry about hurting anyone. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath focusing on all his rage he kept deep down inside himself and let it all out. With a loud war cry and eye glowing purple, he summoned two huge blasters and fired them, quickly followed with bones, some blue. He totally let lose, getting rid of his all his calm, letting out the real monster that was inside himself and just destroyed everything in sight. In his mind all he saw was the battlefield and his family dying before him.

"Wow!" He heard a voice from behind him and he turned fast, without thinking. He was still in the battle. He didn't think as he summoned a blaster to attack whoever was stupid enough to sneak up on him.

He realised at the last second that it was Undyne that was behind him, not a human solider. It was too late to call off his blaster, so he turned her soul blue instead and pushed her back as the beam fired, he held her where he pushed her against a nearby wall, too shaken up to let her go.

"That. Was. Awesome!" She called out. "Boss monsters sure are strong!"

Gaster was mad, really mad. "YOU IDIOT! DO YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS THAT WAS!? I COULD'VE KILLED YOU! NEVER, EVER DO THAT AGAIN YOU HEAR ME!" He yelled at her, signing so fast. Undyne looked scared, he didn't know if she could really understand him.

"S-sorry!" She stuttered out. "But that was really cool!"

Gaster sighed, he didn't let go of her soul as he walked closer. "DON'T DO THAT AGAIN." He said slowly.

She nodded, "alright I get it! Don't tell Gerson, he'll be mad with me if he found out! Then he'd tell my parents and they'll ground me!"

"FINE."

The silence was awkward, Gaster didn't know why he kept hold of her soul, he was just angry and he need to calm down before he did anything with his magic. He stared Undyne down. He hoped she'd learnt her lesson about sneaking up on him. Gaster didn't know what he'd have done if he'd killed her, he would never have been able to forgive himself.

His eye lowered and looked at her soul. The structure of a monster's soul really wasn't much different from a human one, it was just upside-down and he did have better access to monster souls than he did human, he could study his own soul...

Gaster continued to stare at the soul... What could he learn from monsters' souls...? Would it help at all?

It was worth a try, anything was at this point. He let Undyne go and she fell to her knees, his magic clearly was too overpowering for a child. He didn't think about it, he had an idea and left as fast as he could.

"ARTIFICIAL MONSTER SOUL, ENTRY NUMBER ONE.

IN ORDER TO FULLY UNDERSTAND HUMAN SOULS I MUST FIRST UNDERSTAND A MONSTER'S.

I MUST UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCES AND THE SIMILARITIES.

IT WON'T BREAK THE BARRIER BUT IT'LL GIVE ME SOMETHING TO EXPERIMENT ON.

A GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF SOULS MAY EVEN LEAD TO SOMETHING GOOD; A NEW WAY TO HEAL OR A WAY TO MAKE MONSTERS MORE POWERFUL.

THIS WILL BE INTERESTING."

"ARTIFICIAL MONSTER SOUL, ENTRY NUMBER TWO.

ONCE AGAIN FAILURE, AFTER FAILURE.

BUT IT MATTERS NOT.

SIX FAILURES I'VE HAD ON THIS PROJECT ALONE.

BUT I'VE LEARNT SOMETHING.

SOULS ARE BIOLOGICAL.

THEY MAY NEED DNA AND OF COURSE MONSTER SOULS NEED MAGIC.

I CAN'T JUST USE ANY MONSTER'S DNA.

USING ANOTHER MONSTER FOR EXPERIMENTATION WOULD BE UNETHICAL.

I'VE NO CHOICE BUT TO USE MY OWN."

Gaster, took a deep breath. He'd created the structure, he had most of the chemicals needed to create a soul, he just needed a good DNA sample. His shin was the best place to get to his marrow, that would be the best way to get his DNA.

The needle was sharp and long. It'd hurt and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't scared. But he had to do this for monster-kind, for Asgore, for Toriel...

He rolled up his pants... deep breath, deep breath, deep breath... and stabbed himself in shin with the needle, he had no time to waste, he extracted his DNA. Another deep breath.

As much as he wanted to patch up the wound he had no time. He injected the ingredients into the soul and turned it blue with his magic in an attempt to hold it together as well as push some of his magic into it, after all monster were made of magic. He concentrated on filling it with as much magic as he could, calling fourth his own soul and letting his own magic radiate off of it and into the fake soul.

It didn't shatter. That was good. He carefully placed the soul into a capsule. And sat back once the capsule was sealed. He'd done it, the soul was stable at least for now. He'd wait a few days to make sure it was truly stable then he could begin with his experiments. He had many in mind. Most he couldn't do with a real soul and he most certainly couldn't do with a living person.

He smiled at the success and got up. He limped over to the first aid kit and dressed his wound. Then he gently picked up the capsule and placed it in the closet, after all his success may distract him and he had other projects to work on. He had to improve The Core, the internet's speed wasn't good enough in Snowdin...

"ARTIFICIAL MONSTER SOUL, ENTRY NUMBER THREE.

IT'S BEEN TWO DAYS.

THE SOUL SEEMS STABLE.

THIS IS EXCITING.

I'M TEMPTED TO START EXPERIMENTATION NOW.

BUT I MUST BE CAREFUL.

I CAN ALWAYS MAKE ANOTHER IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG BUT IT HURT AND WAS QUITE EXHAUSTING SO I'D RATHER KEEP THIS ONE FOR AS LONG AS I CAN.

THREE MORE DAYS SHOULD BE FINE."

"ARTIFICIAL MONSTER SOUL, ENTRY NUMBER FOUR.

I MAY HAVE MADE A MISTAKE.

THE SOUL IS FINE.

BUT IT HAS CREATED A MAGICAL MEMBRANE AROUND ITSELF.

IT LOOKS LIKE IT MAY BE CREATING A BODY...

THIS WASN'T MEANT TO HAPPEN...

IT WAS MEANT TO ONLY BE A NON SENTIENT SOUL.

IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE ALIVE.

I CAN'T EXPERIMENT ON SOMETHING ALIVE.

THAT'S ILLEGAL.

AND IF I CAN'T EXPERIMENT ON IT, THEN IT'S USELESS.

I'LL OBSERVE IT FOR NOW, IT MAY NOT BE ALIVE."

Gaster watched the soul closely, it's 'body' changed over the course of a few months. Going from a blob to two connected blobs, to six, etc. The body was getting arms and legs and fingers and toes and a head... But it was still just a blue blob... It didn't really look like a monster. Gaster made sure to check on it once a day and noted any changes in a notebook, the whole thing was fascinating but Gaster couldn't dedicate much time to it, after all it was now clear it wasn't going to help in opening the barrier. Gaster merely kept it out of curiosity.

Gaster walked into his office after a much needed day off. He'd spent the day getting drunk at Grillby's and was nursing a hangover. He removed his hoodie hanging it in the closet and pulled on his lab coat. He couldn't afford to take it easy, no matter how bad the hangover was.

He took a couple of pills for his hangover and picked up his research papers before he walked out of his office and into the small lab where the soul was kept. He would check on it really quickly since he didn't check on it the day before and then he'd get on with his other work.

He spotted the soul the second he opened the door as it was sitting in the centre of the room and his eye widened. He gasped and dropped the papers he was carrying. The blob had changed a lot... It wasn't a blob anymore. Bones, surrounded by a thick flashing glow of blue and yellow but there was bones. They were tiny and there was a lot more bones than Gaster had, after all in the capsule was a baby... And not just any baby, a baby skeleton...

Gaster was filled with mixed feelings as he walked to the capsule. His experiment had truly failed, he couldn't experiment on this, even if it wasn't alive, not when it looked like him.

Tears filled his good eye and he brought his hands up to cover his mouth... It had been so long since he'd seen another skeleton... He didn't even have pictures... And here in front of him was a babybones...

Memories flowed back to him of the first time he held his niblings... They were so tiny... They never got to grow up...

The tears fell as he placed his hands on the glass. "PLEASE... PLEASE... OH GOD, LET IT BE ALIVE!" Gaster said aloud. If it was alive it meant he really couldn't experiment on it but if it was alive... Then he wasn't alone, he wasn't the last of his kind and this thing... No, this child, was his...

The child moved. They threw out an arm and kicked a leg and Gaster collapsed on the floor in tears, his hands still on the glass. He wasn't the last skeleton... And he was a father, after all it was his DNA and his magic the child had.

His mind raced, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't dispose of it; the child was alive, a failed experiment but alive. He'd accidentally created a child, another skeleton. "I'M NOT ALONE... OH GOD, I'M NOT ALONE ANYMORE," he couldn't believe it, he gave up on saving his species long ago, he'd come to terms with the fact that he was the last and that skeletons would end with him but here was a child, a pure blood skeleton, there was hope.

But he wasn't fit to be a parent... How was he meant to raise a child? He worked 24/7, his days off were rare and he couldn't let a child run around the lab, it just wasn't safe. He couldn't give up his work, it was important, he was the smartest monster, no one could do this but him, he had no time for a child and he was far from a good role model. He was hateful and vengeful, he got angry easily... He'd almost killed Undyne...

The child couldn't stay with him as much as he wanted to keep them, he couldn't. He'd been alone for so long, he wanted to keep the baby, he wanted to be with skeletons again but he had to be reasonable, he couldn't keep the child. He looked back up at the infant that was curled up in the capsule. He'd keep the child safe until it was time for them to be 'born,' then he'd keep them in the lab for a while to make sure they were healthy, then he'd give them up. He could find an orphanage easily, after all hundreds of children had lost their parents in the war. His child would be better off without him...

He pulled himself up and wiped his eyes. He couldn't leave the infant in the small, cramped capsule, he'd have to make a bigger one before the child grew any bigger. He tried his best not to stare at it, he couldn't get attached, it'd just make it harder to give them up.

"THE CHILD, ENTRY NUMBER ONE.

THE MOVE TO THE BIGGER CAPSULE WAS A SUCCESS.

SO WERE THE LIFE SUPPORT CABLES AND MAGICAL FLUID.

BUT I AM BEGINNING TO THINK THE NEW CAPSULE IS TOO BIG.

I NEVER DESIGNED THE SOUL TO HAVE A BODY SO IT'S NOT VERY STRONG.

THE CHILD WILL BE SMALLER THAN AVERAGE.

I HOPE THAT WILL NOT AFFECT THEIR HEALTH."

"THE CHILD, ENTRY NUMBER TWO.

GROWTH SEEMS TO BE CONSISTENT.

IT IS A MALE.

HE DOESN'T MOVE MUCH.

THIS IS MILDLY CONCERNING."

"THE CHILD, ENTRY NUMBER THREE.

HE'S STARTED TO GAIN HP.

ONLY ONE SO FAR.

IT'LL GO UP.

BUT IT'S REALLY SLOW, HE'S LATE ON GAINING THE ONE HE HAS.

HE WON'T HAVE HIGH HP, HE WON'T HAVE MUCH HOPE...

BUT HE'LL BE PROTECTED, I'LL MAKE SURE OF THAT."

"THE CHILD, ENTRY NUMBER FOUR.

I'M A FAILURE, YET AGAIN...

HE STOPPED BEING AN EXPERIMENT LONG AGO...

BUT I'M GETTING ATTACHED.

I CAN'T STOP LOOKING AT HIM, WATCHING HIS VERY RARE MOVEMENT AND WATCHING HIM REST.

I CAN'T JUSTIFY IT AS SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION.

I CARE FOR THE CHILD...

MY SON...

BUT I HAVE TO GIVE HIM AWAY...

MAYBE I SHOULD LOOK FOR HELP NOW AND STOP KEEPING THIS SECRET, BEFORE I GET EVEN MORE ATTACHED TO HIM..."

"THE CHILD, ENTRY NUMBER FIVE.

I'M A COWARD.

I CAN'T BRING MYSELF TO TELL ASGORE OR ANYONE ELSE.

I DON'T WANT THEM TO TAKE MY SON FROM ME.

I WANT TO KEEP HIM.

HE OPENED HIS EYES TODAY.

HE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME.

I LOVE HIM, I CAN'T GIVE HIM UP, I WON'T.

HE'S WEAK AND SMALL AND...

HE'S A SKELETON.

I'M NOT ALONE...

THAT'S ALL I CAN THINK.

I'LL MAKE IT WORK SOMEHOW...

I CAN RAISE HIM SOMEHOW.

I'M THE GREAT GASTER, I CAN RAISE A CHILD..."

Gaster finished writing the journal entry at his desk in his lab. He rubbed the back of his skull and ran his fingers over his scars. He looked across the room to his son in the capsule, the child was staring right at him, Gaster didn't know if he could really see him or not. It was still too early for him to be 'born' so he could still be blind but then again the way he stared...

Gaster groaned, in another month he'd be born... Gaster didn't have anything he'd need for the infant other than a makeshift crib which had no mattress or sheets, that he'd made to keep the child in temporarily until he was sure he was okay, then he'd give him up but now he wanted to keep the child.

He just couldn't give his son away, but Gaster didn't know how to raise a child. He had no toys or food, the lab wasn't child safe.

Gaster let out a sigh... "I HAVE A MONTH... I CAN GET EVERYTHING READY IN A MONTH... I SHOULD GO TO ASGORE... HE'LL KNOW WHAT TO DO. I JUST HOPE HE WON'T TAKE YOU AWAY FROM ME..." Gaster spoke to his son, not knowing if he could hear him or not.

Gaster had no reason to believe Asgore would take his son away but he was well aware he wasn't really a good person. Asgore was kind and believed in him but if he had any reason to believe the child was in danger...

Gaster had no choice, he couldn't do it alone. If he explained it to him, Asgore would understand, Asgore would help. He had no idea how his friend and King would react but he had to tell him. He gathered up his research and photos. He'd taken pictures at every stage. Only a few at a time in the beginning after all that was for science but once the child took the form of a skeleton, Gaster had taken a lot more. He wanted a good record of pictures to look back on in ten, twenty, thirty years time, once his son was grown up.

He placed the papers in a bag. If he was going to Asgore he had to go now. He looked back at his son, who was still looking at him with his big round eyes. Gaster touched the glass and smiled at the babybones inside. "I'LL BE BACK SOON. I PROMISE TO GIVE YOU A GOOD LIFE, MY PRECIOUS SON, BUT I NEED HELP."

It was hard for Gaster to pull himself away, he just wanted to stay with his child but he had to go before he chickened out because of some irrational fear that Asgore will decide he was unfit to be a father.

He checked his son one last time before leaving. His HP was still one. Gaster had hoped it'd go up but it hadn't, he wanted his son to be stronger than that. One HP was dangerous but he knew that most children gained most of their HP in the final month so it would go up at least a little.

He finally tore himself away and began to walk out of the lab. He'd be really quick...