A/N: So I just got a new job and I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep posting on Wednesdays, but we'll see how things go. Enjoy!

CHAPTER TEN

"Hey, Mom?" Frisk asked hesitantly. She wasn't sure what outcome she was hoping for.

"What's wrong, honey?" Tori turned and set the teacup in front of her daughter before taking the seat next to her. "Is everything okay?"

Frisk nodded, but it took her a second longer to formulate the question that had been buzzing in her head since her date with Sans the week before.

"Yeah, but I wanted to ask you something. About monsters."

Tori nodded and took a sip of her tea. "What is it?"

Frisk took a deep breath. "Have you heard of a monster by the name of Gaster?"

Tori's face turned to stone. The room was chillingly silent for a few long seconds.

"Mom?" Frisk probed.

Tori seemed to recover. She set her teacup down and smiled tightly at her daughter. "I have."

A few more silent seconds. Frisk had expected her mother to continue.

"Do you know anything about him?" she finally asked.

Tori shook her head. "Not much."

Frisk pursed her lips. Her mother had never been so restrained when it came to talking about monsters. Usually, Frisk's questions were answered in the form of stories Tori had either heard or witnessed herself. To see her mother so quiet now confused and almost scared Frisk.

"Care to elaborate?" she asked cautiously.

Tori cleared her throat. "I don't know, honey. I mean, why do you even want to know?"

She shrugged. "I heard the name and was curious. You seem to know a lot about monsters, so I thought maybe you would know something about him."

"I know a lot about them because I've taken Monster History classes, and you know your great-grandmother was adopted by a monster couple. Hell, I was even named after the ancient queen of monsters." She shook her head. "I've heard stories about this Gaster fellow. They're not the kind of stories a mother would tell her children before bed."

Frisk could almost swear her mother shuddered. "Can you tell me anything? I mean, I'm really curious about him. What do you know?"

Tori sighed deeply. "Fine. From what I've read, and what I've learned in the Monster History classes I've taken, Doctor Gaster works in that lab by where Sans has his hotdog stand. It's a medical research facility owned and operated by Gaster. He's cruel and mean and…he experimented on his own children for hell's sake. A truly horrible monster."

Frisk could only stare at her, mouth agape for a moment. "Experimented?" she said doubtfully. "But why would he do that? He can't be that bad, right?"

Tori glanced at her. "I'm just telling you what I know, Frisk."

Frisk's eyes snapped to her mother's face. "I know, but I've heard other things…some people say he's not a bad guy." She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

Tori nodded slowly. "Tell me the real reason you asked about him."

Dammit, she was never a good liar. She looked down at the table for a second before taking a deep breath and meeting her mother's eyes again.

"He might kind of be my boyfriend's dad."

Tori gasped. "You mean Sans? Oh, Frisk, that's bad. I liked that skeleton, too. MK really looks up to him. Oh, dear." She stood up and walked to the stove to get the tea kettle.

"Why? What's wrong?"

Tori sucked in a deep breath. "Honey, if Sans truly is Gaster's son, you have to get away from him now."

Frisk stood up. "What? Why would you say that? Mom, I love Sans; I'm not going to break up with him just because his dad is a bit weird."

Tori set the kettle down and put her hands on Frisk's shoulders. "You don't understand, honey. I know you love him, but how well do you really know him?"

Frisk huffed and pulled back. "I've known him for two years, Mom. I think I can say I know him pretty well."

"Then why do you have to come to me with questions about his own father?"

Frisk didn't have an answer for that. She looked down for a second before she decided she was done with the questions. She didn't want to hear any reasons why she and Sans weren't the perfect couple.

"Frisk, please. I'm begging you to listen to me. His children are said to recruit for him."

Frisk shook her head. "I don't think I feel too great. I'm gonna head home. Love you, Mom."

"Frisk, wait." Tori reached out a hand and tried to grab Frisk's arm.

"No," Frisk turned around and gave her mom a sad smile. "I don't want to wait. I just want to go home."

Once home, she thought about what she'd learned from her mother. She wasn't sure she could just accept what the older woman had said as truth. Sans wouldn't tell her that his dad was a good guy if he wasn't.

And yet she couldn't escape the gnawing feeling like there was something bad that she needed to know about. She knew it was probably just curiosity eating at her gut rather than an actual foreboding, but it felt the same.

Two days later, Frisk still hadn't talked to her mom or Sans.

She hadn't talked to her mom because she knew her elder would be concerned, and quite possibly try to tell her to break up with Sans again. She didn't know what her mother had meant by Sans being his father's recruiter, but she knew it was something bad. She couldn't stomach that again.

She hadn't talked to Sans because she didn't know how she was going to carry on a normal conversation with him without begging for details about his dad again.

Curiosity and a strange form of nervousness built in her gut. Was Sans safe as Gaster's lab assistant if Gaster had experimented on his son? Would he try to do it again? Was that what Sans had meant by 'assistant'?

With a final sigh of determination, Frisk turned on her computer.

"G…A…S…T…E…R."

She hoped she spelled it right. She looked at the name in the search bar of her browser and thought about what she was about to do. She'd promised she wouldn't do this. But, he was right; she was curious.

Search results began showing up immediately. The first link was to a news article about a scientific breakthrough that Dr. W.D. Gaster had helped research. The second was to a blog hosted by the scientific community that Dr. Gaster had posted on.

She clicked on the second link only to find that Gaster's contribution had been to comment on a theory posted by a human doctor about how monster souls had once generated magic. The comment was a short, but very concise, criticism of the human's theory.

Curious, she read the human doctor's introduction to his theory.

After years of study and research, I have come to a possible hypothesis. I believe that ancient monsters were able to create magic through their own form of determination held in their souls. Different from human determination, monsters would use this to summon what they needed on the spot. It would have created quite the drain on the monster soul, and so after years of evolution the ability was lost to save energy. This may also be a part of the reason that they live so long. Not having that drain of energy has allowed them to focus more on longevity.

She supposed it wasn't a terrible idea. She read over Gaster's response again.

I wouldn't expect a human to know much about this subject, but please allow me to educate you. It is well known to those of us who have studied monster history our whole lives that magic was not created by the soul, but was a part of it. Those magical monsters no longer exist because humans destroyed them all. As hard a concept as this is to understand, I'm hopeful that your feeble mind can make an attempt.

She clicked on his username—Dr.W. —and looked over his profile. No picture, no background, no summary…no information about himself whatsoever. He had only posted a few responses to articles, but had never made a real post himself. Those responses he did make were similar to the first one she'd read.

She went back to her search results.

After a few more minutes of searching, she finally found something interesting. It was an article posted by a human she knew was anti-monster, but the title caught her attention: Dr. Gaster and his Experiments.

As she read the article, she began to understand why her mother wanted her to get away from Sans. This couldn't be real. Like Sans had said, she was bound to find a lot of results. People probably wanted to spread nasty rumors about him. Very few monsters had made a name for themselves, but those that did were often ridiculed and ostracized for 'trying to be human.'

She read through more articles about Gaster's experimentation, not all of them from anti-monster bloggers. She found a few from reputable sources and thought better of her previous opinions. These people were either monsters themselves or known monster activists; they couldn't have racist reasonings behind slandering the scientist.

Did that mean that Gaster was truly experimenting on humans?

A/N: No, Gaster wouldn't do that…would he? What is he doing? Obvs something super-secret and awesome, right? Maybe. Or maybe he's just a recluse who wants nothing to do with humans and his son wants to respect that?

Thanks for reading! Reviews are lovely.

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