After a week of no magical mishaps (no coincidence, there), Gaster finally let me into the lab... Damn. He treats me like a pet.
"What's next, Wingding." I let out a chuckle, pulling my jacket and mask off.
{Please do not refer to me as that.} He sneered as best a skeleton could, his attention going elsewhere.
"Fine. Sorry." I sat down in the middle of the floor, boredom now beginning to take over.
He just continued to work on something, not even bothering with me. It was like I wasn't there.
I held my hand up, spinning an empty beaker around.
{Sans?}
My back straightened, the beaker falling as soon as my magic cut out.
He sighed, stopping it before it hit the ground and returning it to were I found it.
"You need something?" I strained a laugh.
{Never mind.}
If you got somethin ta say, just say it. A cruel smile tugged at my lips as I returned to the beaker's entertainment.
He used his own magic to slam it back down on the table.
"If you're not going to talk to me, the least you could do is let me have some form of entertainment." I lied down on the floor, summoning a blue bone and twirling that above me, "What made you hate me so much, anyways? What do I have to do? Load my last save? When did I last save?! Do I have to learn how to fucking restart?! Seriously! What the hell does it take to-" I stopped, taking notice of the look the man had given me. Remorse. Regret. Shame. Repentance... Fear. Did he... not want me to reset? If it's at all the same as loading, he wouldn't even remember. Right?
He stood up, shuffling through the drawers of his desk. He pulled out a black box, looking down at it with... sadness (?)... before turning to face me.
{Every human that falls here meets the same fate.} He approached me, exhaustion apparent in his voice, {It's been the same since I was still a child, after the first human fell.}
"The first human?" My eyebrows furrowed, "The first soul?"
{No. Chara was not the first.} He pulled out a string of beads, a cross at the end. A rosary? {The first soul was another child, with ribbons in her hair. She never killed, but she held close to a toy knife.} He stopped for a moment, {She climbed Ebott because she wanted to prove she wasn't scared. Though I don't remember her,} He pulled out a worn notebook, blood staining {she was the reason I started researching this. We created this box, together. It's the only thing that doesn't reset.}
"You gotta be really intelligent to make something like that." I laughed, flipping through the pages.
{Guilty as charged.}
I reread a few sentences, the words almost echoing in my head.
"I'm sorry, Aster." It read in a childish font, bloody spots covering the page, "This is where this timeline ends. You don't remember me anymore, and that's really sad to think of, but I've accepted my fate. I can't escape the underground. I can't kill. It's better for you not to remember, but don't make be the reason you don't help the next. I'm sor" It ends there, a pen line stretched across.
"Aster?" I looked up at him.
{That used to be who I was.} He sighed, digging through the rest of the box.
"Aster's a legitimate font with actual letters." My eyes narrowed to the man, "So why are you in the dingbats family?"
{It explains in there.} He spoke in a regretful tone, {Don't read too far into it.} And that was it. He stood up, leaving me with the box.
"Well maybe I will, out of spite." I laughed, turning to the next page.
"Entry 1: Aster told me to write in this." The writing was tidy, as if done by someone just a little older, "There's no way he found me, just for this sake... but he says he has his reasons. His notes. I'm not allowed to touch his notes, yet. He says I have to prove something to him."
"Entry 2: He said I can write in this any time I wish, and I was kinda hoping I didn't have to. The blood staining the binding is unnerving, but I'm brave. Something happened; something I can't explain. I saw something that I wish I hadn't... I saw Aster turn to dust. It was an accident, of course... but the strange thing was I somehow went back in time. I was able to save him."
"Load." I spoke in a hushed tone, skimming through other entries of similar caliber.
"Entry 14: I'm sorry. I had to. I didn't mean to. I... killed everyone... but it wasn't me. I... can't explain it, but... I'm sorry."
"Entry 20: I can't say their name. They'll take over. I don't want to go back. I can't do that again..."
"Entry 24: I've given up."
"Inconclusive." This one was written in perfect type font, "The timeline continued. They lost their will."
I flipped the page.
"I was just given this." The page held permanent tear stains, the paper wanting to fold in on itself over the marks, "Aster doesn't even remember me. He doesn't remember the many times I've killed him. I've killed him, and when I told him, crying in his lab coat, he said I was forgiven... I want to tell him the name of the voices... but I'm scared to. They threaten me with their strength. It said if I don't kill, it'll take over and make me watch. I just want one more happy ending before I'm forced to relive this hell." There is then a doodle in red pen. It looked like a human, eyes narrow and filled in, an evil grin connecting its rosy cheeks, "Chara" There's nothing after that, except scribbles the appeared to be more from a convulsion than anything else.
"Gaster left this with me before walking away." This must be when he got the name change, "It appears nearly impossible to understand his words, but he watches over me as if we had met before. We haven't." The last to words are scratched out, a line drawing to a space in the margins, "We have. He doesn't remember."
I felt a lump in my throat, my eyes glazing over as I read and reread the next for what felt like hours.
"I too have had experience with this demon. They talk to me, telling my threats. How they'll kill me. How they'll watch me suffer. How they too have my power, but I am the only thing preventing its use. This thing does scare me, and I can't get them to back off... but when they have no threats, they talk about their 'brother.' It calls him Asriel..." There's some talk about this Asriel character before it goes to a new entry, "Gaster, if this thing takes over, I want you to kill me."
A joyful humming sound went off, forcing me to jump. I looked around the room. Nothing.
I went to the box, pulling out a dark blue pen and turning the pages. There were only a few left empty.
"I too was handed this book." I wrote as if I were just talking to someone else, "This 'demon' that must never be named is not a joke, from what I can tell. I don't know, though. I haven't experience what they can do, but they talked to me one. It was in the forest. They taunted me, threatening my life, then went silent. They said that I'm 'stronger than them,' but what happens if it gets stronger?"
"Then I'll kill you." The voice laughed, "In the meantime, I'm just waiting for you to screw yourself over."
I dropped the book, feeling my hand spasm before I was able to regain control.
{What's the matter?} Gaster looked over to me, the colorful glint of his magic showing through his eye-socket.
I stared at him for a moment, "Everything." I sighed, picking the book up and putting it in the box, "Everything is matter, except for energy." I couldn't hold back my laughter after that.
He let out a groan before returning to whatever.
I need to keep this under wraps... at least until it gets out of control.
"Good luck with that." The voice laughed before eventually going radio quiet.
Here's to those that thought chapter 6 was Flowey!