Chapter 21: Gabby
He teleported inside the castle where the elevator was located and headed to the apartments downstairs. A statue of the king's son, Asriel stood in the center of a fountain.
He caught sight of a green gooey monster leaving one of the rooms.
"Excuse me, I hate to disturb you with my tale but do you know anyone who's missing a black tail?"
The gooey monster spoke.
"And you are?"
"Sans the skeleton. You?"
"Name's Goop."
"I think Gabby in here asking everyone about a tail. She apparently lost it a couple days ago while going shopping."
"You know where they live?" Sans asked.
"Why do you want to know?" The gooey monster asked.
"I wanted to return their tail."
"She lives in the outskirts of the capital in the rundown slum. You can't miss it."
Sans headed out of the building walking cautiously in case he spotted the burglar. Once he was in the outskirts of the city, Sans saw a tall black cat like monster creeping out of an alley.
"Hey!"
The cat glanced at him. They were wearing a blue scarf.
"Oh hi, what's your name?" it asked.
"Sans and yours?"
"Oh I'm Gabby."
"Fancy seeing you here so whatcha doing?"
Gabby blushed.
"Um just building my stockpile been collecting things all day."
"I was talking with a fella named Goop. He says you lost a tail."
"Yes, it's a long black tail to be exact."
Sans waved a tail in front of their face.
"This it?"
Gabby's eyes shot up in surprise.
"Yeah, where did you find it?"
"Outside the elevator in our home and I think you lied," Sans said. "You see to the rest of the world taking something from someone's home isn't collecting. It's stealing."
Gabby's eyes widened and she turned on her feet and sprinted.
"Hey come back here."
Sans lunged for her but she was just out of reach.
He yelped as tried to collect his balance but feel forward on his face. Glancing up he saw she was already near the end of the alley.
Gritting his teeth he teleported to where she was running. She yelped as she heard the sound of footsteps trailing after her.
'How did he catch up so quickly?' she thought.
"Go away," she sputtered. "Leave me alone."
Sans didn't stop his pursuit however. The two continued until Gabby had ran into Aster's lab just as Papyrus was heading out.
"WAAH," he yelped as Gabby shoved him to the side. Sans followed close behind.
Aster caught her by her blue scarf, quickly grabbing her waist.
"Sans, what's going on?" he asked.
"I merely was tryin to ask her something and she ran away before I could get a word in."
"Is that true?"
Gabby pouted.
"He threatened me and tried to make me feel guilty for collecting stuff. His pupils disappeared. It was so scary."
Sans chuckled.
"See!"
Aster tsked.
"It isn't funny, Sans."
"Heh, I thought it was. Maybe they should call you Grabby instead of Gabby. She's the 'cat' burglar who stole the flux determinator out of your machine."
"Machine?" Gabby asked. "Is that what it was for?"
"So you do have it then?"
Gabby's face turned red.
"Oops, fine I'll admit it. I took it but only because it looked so beautiful. The colours would constantly flash."
"It's amazing isn't it," Aster supplied. "Now if only it wasn't so unstable, I might be able to work with it."
"Then why do you need it then?"
"Unfortunately it's one of the things that make my time machine work properly."
"You have a time machine? That's so cool. So does that mean you can travel to the past?"
"Yes."
Gabby brought a finger to her chin and stroked it thoughtfully.
"He says it like it's no big deal. What I wouldn't give to change some things in my past."
Aster chuckled.
"Unfortunately that's not the way it works. There's still some other factors that might come into play if we change too much the universe could very well collapse."
"Doesn't seem that cool now does it? Just think if it did happen you wouldn't even know what to do," Sans said.
"I can learn," Gabby retorted.
Aster shrugged.
"Well, I could use the help."
Sans' pupils disappeared.
"You can't be serious."
"I am very serious. I will not let another opportunity go to waste because of your sheer incompetence."
"I can't help it, I like going out with a bang."
Aster facepalmed.
Sans recalled a time Aster had been working on the device that he hadn't realised was the device that was now embedded in his eye.
He had been attempting to combine gravity magic with the vial of determination. It turned black in color.
"Y'know I've heard it's impossible to combine science with magic. I'd be careful it might cause a reaction."
Aster conjured a fireball.
"You know I think it's getting smoky."
The concoction suddenly exploded in his face.
"I guess what goes down must come up."
Aster sputtered.
"Isn't it the other way around?"
Sans pondered it.
"Yeah, I guess it is."
Gabby cut through Sans' thoughts.
"You know if you want it back, I'm going to have to get that thing in my stash. It might take a while but I'll be back."
"You better, don't think I won't be able to find you."
Chills crept down Gabby's spine.
"So help me Sans, if you scared another potential assistant you won't hear the end of it," Aster snapped.
Luckily Gabby appeared later in the afternoon through the elevator doors.
"For a moment I thought you weren't coming," Sans said.
Gabby snorted.
"You didn't even trust me. It's not like I could back out. You still have my tail."
"Haha oh right."
Gabby glared at him.
"Have a little trust."
"Kind of hard to do when your companion is a 'cat' burglar. Nothin' personal."
"Ugh do you really have to use that pun again?"
"It was necessary."
"Sans, did she come back?" Aster asked as he had come into the lab.
"She's right here."
"Oh here's the device you wanted, Mr-"
"I'm a doctor. You can call me Dr Aster," he said taking the flux determinator and promptly set it in the machine.
Gabby glared at Sans.
"Oh you wanted your tail back? Um here," Sans said, giving her the tail.
Gabby swiped it from his hands.
"Not even a thank you. I'm offended."
She glanced at Aster.
"Let me know if you want me to come by. I could use the job," she said before she headed back up in the elevator.
"She was quite a character wasn't she?"
"Dad, you're married."
"Yep and I've never regretted it."
He added the flux determinator to the machine.
"After a quick checkup we should be ready to go."
Sans headed out of the lab.
"I'm gonna go eat."
"You should change clothes too. We don't want anyone recognizing you in the past."
After lunch, Sans met up with Aster.
"I've already set it up. You ready to go?"
"Where's your disguise? After the lecture you gave me about anyone recognizing us in the past I thought you'd take your own advice."
"Only certain monsters are allowed in the castle. It would seem suspicious if both of us were in disguise."
"I see."
"So are you ready?"
"Never been readier."
He followed his father to the machine and Aster turned the dial and the door closed.
It shook and sputtered then the door opened. Sans stepped out and looked around.
The place was covered with pink walls and tall white pillars.
"Where are we? I don't recognise this place."
Sans looked up and saw the walls peak at the top. There was no trace of the blue sky meaning that they were still underground.
"You wouldn't," Aster said. "You were too young to remember. I think we traveled into the ruins."
"These are the the ruins? Never seen anything like it. It's beautiful."
"Yeah but extremely claustrophobic. It could get old real fast."
As they walked deeper into the ruins, Sans spotted some spiders nearby huddling together shivering for warmth.
"Excuse me," Aster said. "Do you know the way out of the ruins?"
The spiders pointed to the north.
"It's that way I think," one of the spiders said.
"You think?"
"That's what I heard. We've been walking for days."
"Oh you poor things," Aster said.
"Mister, I don't want to ask this but can you help us? We're trying to get out of the ruins too but at this rate-"
Aster smiled.
"Alright. You can crawl up my bones just don't move around too much. I'm a little ticklish."
The spiders carefully crawled up his black pants into the inside of his sweater.
"Sans, the exist should be to the north. It's been a while since I've been down here."
Sans glanced at the spiders at his neck.
"Who's the company?"
"Just some spiders wanting to travel out of the ruins."
"How long have you been down here?"
"We don't know. See no one has ever offered to take us past the ruins. We were told it was a cold and treacherous journey too."
"Well I can take you up to the castle. We're meeting up with the king."
"Oh so you heard the news then?"
"News?"
"Yes, the queen is pregnant with her child. Some monsters were telling us about it."
"So the 'Asriel' shipping is going strong, huh?"
"Huh?"
"Oh nothin," Sans said.
The two skeletons eventually came to Toriel's home in the ruins. It was notably desolate with little evidence that it had ever been living in. Toriel had added a warmth to the place that wasn't there. One of the room was closed in the hall.
Sans unlocked it.
Inside there was another door in a strange room that lit up with magic causing chills to creep up his spine.
He opened the door on the other side.
The walls were notably grey.
Faintly Sans could hear noise next door. It looked like he had teleported to Asgore's castle.
He walked back inside meeting Aster in the ruins.
"Hey dad, I think I found a shortcut to the castle."
"But I already found the path to Snowdin it's downstairs."
"This is shorter though."
Aster followed him through the closed off room.
On the otherside of the room, Aster looked around.
"Wow, I never knew there was a shortcut that lead to the castle from the ruins."
Just then the door next to theirs opened. A large monster with long blond hair and a beard with a moustache wearing a blue shirt with a beach on it came out.
"Excuse me but what are you doing here? Did you miss the sign. We're not accepting visitors until tomorrow afternoon."
"I'm very sorry about the abrupt visit but we wanted to speak with-"
"Wing Ding?"
"Ah oh," Aster looked surprised.
"I didn't recognise you at first because you look so old. What are you doing down here, you're not ditching Arial again are you?"
Aster blushed.
"N-no, of course not."
Sans was baffled.
He had never seen his father so flustered.
"Is there a reason you wanted to see me?"
"Um now is probably not the best time to discuss it."
"Who's the skeleton next to you? He kinda looks familiar."
"Hehe, him? He's just an acquaintance of mine," Aster said.