Hello, hello ! Let's continue our little story. Today, we learn a bit more about Gaster. Because he is a very lovely skeleton, you know.
Chapter 11 : The royal scientist
Sans woke up way later than the others. Through the curtains, the sun was already high in the sky. However, he couldn't deny that the night had been repairing. He was feeling calmer and serene. It was a big change considering what he had lived the last days. He put weight on the mattress to sit up, his brain still groggy from sleep. The children were all here. Papyrus and Charlie were playing with puzzles on the green carpet while Undyne was reading a huge book in her bed, focused. They seemed fine. At least for now. Good.
He didn't know what time it was, but he was starving. He let himself slide from the bed and walked towards the door. Maybe he could find something to eat in the big kitchen he saw when they first came here. Before he could reach the doorknob, Toriel opened the door. The skeleton and the goat lady looked at each other, surprised. The Queen was holding a big basket filled with croissants and muffins. Papyrus let go of an excited scream and came closer to his brother.
The four of them sat on the carpet and started eating. Toriel smiled, happy, and joined them. She waited patiently for them to finish their first pastries. Sans could see she was about to tell them something, contrary to the others, already taking the basket by storm to fight over the last chocolate muffin. Sans held the small fish girl and the human with blue magic discreetly, and Papyrus snatched it victoriously. Only Toriel noticed it, amused.
"My children?" she asks for attention. "I am really happy to see you are all feeling better. As we told you yesterday, we are in need of you to help at the camp. Do not worry, I made sure it was little tasks. Papyrus, Undyne, you are coming with me today. We're going to try your new work outfits."
"Wowie !" shouted out Papyrus, very excited. "Sans, you're coming?"
"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but no." answered Toriel nicely. "Your brother is staying here. Your father needs him. But you will see him in a few hours, don't worry."
Sans' eyes sockets darkened at the reminder of this unpleasant coming event. But he did his best to not show it. The last thing he wanted was to worry Papyrus. His little brother seemed not pleased with that decision, but Sans smiled at him. It was a way to say he was fine with it.
"And me?" asked Charlie.
Toriel turned towards the small human, a sad expression on her face.
"For now, you are staying here as well. I want you to know that I was against this, but Asgore and Gaster said it was better to announce your presence before letting you roam freely in the camp. I promise it won't stay like this. You should be free tomorrow."
The child stayed silent, thoughtful. Sans felt bad for him. Even if they were human, their species shouldn't be a reason to keep them away. Deep inside though, the skeleton didn't like the idea of staying alone with the human. It's not that he didn't trust them, by now, they proved to be quite trustworthy, but… There was that feeling it was bad. He grew up with people telling him humans were all bad and dangerous. It wasn't easy to forget.
After breakfast, Toriel prepared to leave, Papyrus and Undyne both holding one of her hands. Sans waved at his brother, then the door closed. Immediately, Sans felt a huge void in his soul. He hated being pulled apart from him. Gaster knew it too. Was he trying to shut Sans away? Why? To prevent him from intervening if something went wrong? He started to pace up and down like a cage lion, stressed.
"They're just going in the city with the Queen." said Charlie. "You don't need to worry so much."
"You know nothing about what can happen here." answered Sans, angry.
"Can you at least stop walking like that? It's scary."
Sans turned towards the human. He hated his assumptions. He tried to shine his magic eye as a warning, but then something weird happened again. One second, he was in the room, the next one, he was in front of Papyrus, in the stairs. Surprised, he toppled over and shouted in alarm when his back met the first step, then another one. At each hit in his ribcage, he felt his soul cracking a little more. He landed violently at the bottom of the staircase in a broken bone noise. Stunned at first, he screamed of terror when he realised a part of his right arm laid a few fit away from the rest of his body.
"Sans!" screamed Papyrus, that the shock froze in place. "Are you ok? Oh… Oh no…" he said, stopping in front of the arm. Tears filled his eyes sockets. "No! You can't hurt yourself! Are… Are you going to die? Sans! Sans, answer me!" He fell next to his brother in tears, terrified. "Dad!" he called in despair. "Dad!"
"Undyne, can you please take Papyrus in the living-room with you?" Sans heard Toriel ask. "I'm taking care of Sans, don't worry."
The little fish lady nodded. She approached Papyrus carefully then put a hand on his arm. Papyrus jerked back in alarm and threw himself above his brother protectively. His two eyes turned a bright flaming orange and a huge skeleton beast head materialized upon him.
"Don't touch him!" screamed Papyrus at Toriel, shaking. "You're going to hurt him!"
"Papyrus, dear, he needs to be healed. I won't hurt him, I promise." answered Toriel with a calm voice.
She took a step forward. One step too much. The skeleton beast opened its jaw wide and spewed out a huge destructive magic beam that pulverized the carpet, the coffee table, the sofa and a part of the wall behind. Toriel got hurt by the attack when she pushed Undyne out of the way.
Several monsters rushed over to help and try to calm down the little skeleton, but Papyrus didn't hear them, blinded by anger and fear. When people touched him, he panicked. The blaster shot around him without control, touching randomly the walls, the ground, the furniture or the royal guards.
Despite the pain, Sans forced himself to breathe deeply. He was the only one who could stop him before he did something irreparable. He lifted a shaking hand towards him.
"P… Papyrus ? I'm here. Can you look at me ?"
The child obeyed. Sans reached his face and cleared his tears out.
"I'm fine, see ? But you have to let Miss Toriel get closer so she can… so she can help me." he said, pointing the part of his arm still far away from his body with his head. Papyrus followed his glare. "Please calm down, Papyrus. I promise I'm fine."
Papyrus sniffled loudly for a few seconds, then collapsed out of exhaustion close to his brother. He busted in tears, hugging Sans tightly. The skeleton could feel his entire body shaking. His blaster disappeared in a magic explosion. With his untouched arm, Sans pat gently his back to comfort him. It was not the first time it happened. Papyrus didn't have any control over his magic, despite it being terribly dangerous. He was still young, and Sans was helping him the best he could, but he knew it was not normal. And that blaster thing was new too.
Toriel got out from behind the sofa and dusted her purple dress. She first checked on Undyne, clinging to her, to make sure she was not hurt, then she quickly reached Sans' arm. She brought it close to the skeleton and put it back in place carefully. Then she squeezed the two parts. Sans whined, but the pain stopped quickly with the help of her healing magic. Broken bones were pretty common for skeletons, and fortunately, she knew how to take care of that.
"Please let this arm rest for a few days", she said softly. "It will hurt for a bit, but it will be better in no time. You are a brave boy."
"What the hell happened here ?" intervened another abrupt voice.
The sharp and authoritative voice paralysed the two skeletons. Their father was at the door, looking at the wall with a mix of surprise and anger. It didn't take him long to notice Sans laying on the ground and Papyrus' state of exhaustion. He got closer.
"Explain this." he ordered, his hand directing towards the broken wall.
Sans wanted to do it, but Papyrus did first. Conscious he had done a big mistake, he explained everything to Gaster without forgetting any detail, teleportation including. Gaster eyes turned towards his face. Still on the ground, Sans gulped, unable to look away. His dad wasn't listening anymore to Papyrus' story. He didn't care about the details. All he wanted to know was that Sans could teleport.
Sans tried to sit up. The faster he could get up, the quicker he could run away. Toriel held his back to help him. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed Gaster pushing Papyrus away like some sort of unwanted pet. The little skeleton stopped talking when he understood his dad didn't care anymore. Papyrus looked sad, but Sans couldn't help him. It was too late for this. Gaster reached his chest and his soul got out. Sans felt tenser.
"I'm going to take care of him", said Gaster.
"I already did.", answered Toriel harshly. "All that child needs is to sleep."
"I said I'm taking care of him", repeated the royal scientist, frighteningly.
He caught Sans' unharmed arm and helped him stand up. The skeleton thanked Toriel in a low voice and followed the scientist towards the exit. While passing through, he asked Papyrus to be good. The small skeleton drew a cross on his chest, a little coded message the both of them had, then he joined the Queen and Undyne.
They headed towards the laboratory in a heavy silence. Sans was scared to cross his father's eyes. He tried to focus to follow his steps despite the pain in his legs and his chest. Toriel healed the biggest damages, but he could still feel the painful cracks inside his soul. Gaster put a hand on a strange device near the entrance and the doors opened. They both entered the cold and empty place.
The new laboratory was even whiter than the previous one. Everything smelled new, several tables and devices were incidentally still thoroughly covered with transparent tarps. His father's followers, monsters chosen by his dad personally for their intelligence and their low level of compassion, were wandering in the hallways, notebooks and strange devices in the hand, minding their own business. They were all wearing that filthy white-grey lab coat on which their ID number was written. No one had names here, at the exception of the royal scientist, too egocentric anyway to do otherwise.
Gaster led Sans in an exam room that the younger skeleton recognised immediately as specialised in souls : the walls were covered with monitors and a huge determination extractor-distributor was hanging up above a metal table. Sans shivered. That machine looked very similar to the blaster Papyrus created by error sooner, but bigger and more threatening. Sans knew that thing far too well. He hated it, actually.
"Climb on the table." ordered Gaster.
While the doctor put his lab coat on, Sans pushed a stepladder next to the table and scaled on the metal surface with difficulty. He laid down docilely. Metal cuffs shut firmly against his wrists and ankles. Gaster leaned over him, a mask covering the inferior part of his face. Without asking him, he put electrodes on his skull and on his chest. Sans had been used to this for how long he could remember.
"What's got into you ?" he scolded him immediately. "You could have killed yourself stupidly down there. I'm going to put this down to fatigue, but don't you dare do something like this again. Even more now that I have the extraordinary results I fetched on your trip monitor. You are very precious, Sans, even if you're not aware of this."
Sans sighed loudly and tried his best to ignore him. There was no need to talk anyway, he wouldn't listen to him. Sans grimaced when his dad pulled out his soul again. The little white heart had well suffered. A large crack crossed it entirely and the upper part even had started to tear apart. He was very lucky to be still alive. A little more and it would have broke in two pieces that nothing could have resoled. You didn't stick back a soul together like you could do with bones.
Gaster squeezed unpleasantly the soul, then forced a very thin needle into it. Sans reared back out of pain. After that, the scientist linked the soul to one of the huge machine cables. A magic shield raised around him and the healing program started. Overdosed, determination was mortal for every monster, but well used, it could be more efficient than any healing power. Gaster was the only one authorised to play with that dangerous power, and he was not using it for good things. Sans was not sure what he was doing with it, but he knew that all these human prisoners that entered his lab once never got out of it.
While his soul was "charging", Gaster pulled a chair next to the table and sat on it. Sans knew too well what it meant. The time for the unwanted asks had come.
"This shouldn't come as a surprise for you if I announcing you that the device I gave you was actually a very complexed and developed analytics engineering, right? Well, what it showed me after your trip is fascinating." He took a paper in his hand and lifted it in front of his eyes. "Can you see these peaks of energy? Those are all the time you used your magic. But then, there was this one." He pointed a huge peak, far bigger than the others. "You see, for a few seconds, you disappeared from reality. I don't know how you did that and I don't like not knowing things. Furthermore, you just reproduced that little achievement some minutes ago, which indicates me it was not an accident or an error. So, tell me, Sans, since when can you teleport? How does it work?"
The small skeleton sighed and roll his eyes. "Why is it important? So, you can copy it and use it in your stupid war?"
"Do not be insolent, please. You know I don't like that."
"I don't know how it works! I do it, that's all!" he grumbled.
Gaster positioned his hands under his chin, diving into thoughts. Behind him, two creepy floating skeleton hands scratched frantically on two black notebooks. Sans looked away, uneasy and focused on his soul. The cracks faded slowly and he was already feeling much better.
"How is your eye?" asked suddenly his father, changing the subject. "Does it still hurt when you are using your magic?"
"Yes, but it's more bearable.", answered Sans with a little voice.
"Good, very good. We're going to look at that in the next days. We also need to talk about the delicate case of Papyrus. His magic is out of control. I let you have fun with him, teach him how to make magic bones, but it is time I take things in hand quickly if we want to avoid… further accidents like today. I'm going to need you too. You know how it works by now. If I want him to control his magic, I have to push him in his worst limits. We both know he's going to hate that."
Sans felt like his soul was turning into ice. He did everything he could to delay this moment, but there was no turning back now. Papyrus kicked up a fuss and Gaster, as royal scientist, couldn't let this go unpunished. His children must get back into line.
"Promise me you won't hurt him." begged Sans. "He's still young. He won't understand. He still thinks you are a good person."
"I am a scientist, Sans, not a pedagogue. You can't make magic without pain. Magic is always painful at first. You can't lock your brother in a cocoon and demand him to stay here his entire life. His magic, like yours, is dangerous and unpredictable. We need to do something about this before he hurts someone. Before he hurts himself. What do you think would have happened if he had shot the Queen earlier ? The Royal Guards don't care that he is a child. They would have killed him without a hesitation."
"I know that, that's not what I meant! You are going to use me against him, aren't you? We both know he needs a trauma so his magic abilities can expend. You're going to break his trust in me."
"I will do what I need to do, Sans."
"I won't hurt him! You can't make me hurt him!" Sans screamed, struggling on the table.
"Stop whining like a damn puppy! You are growing up in a world where you can be killed for trusting the wrong people. Papyrus has too much faith in everyone. He brought a human home, Sans! You can't let him trust blindly everyone. One day, he'll make a wrong choice and he will die out of it. Humans don't have any compassion. They don't care if you are a child or an adult anymore. Do you want Papyrus to be killed because you didn't make the right choice, Sans?"
"I won't hurt him!" shouted Sans. "Leave him alone!"
"Don't scream at me! I'm not asking your opinion on this. You will help me, that's an order."
"I hate you. I hate you so much. If Mom was still here, she would have killed you rather than letting you do this!"
Gaster hand crossed the shield and smacked his face violently. Sans stopped talking immediately. His hands were shaking.
"You are ridiculous." hissed Gaster. "Can't you see I'm just trying to protect you, little ingrate? I'm the royal scientist. Out there, everyone wants me dead. By extension, they want the both of you dead as well. If your brother doesn't adapt to this situation, one day or the other, he'll die of it and it will be entirely your fault. Now stop complaining like a stupid baby and prepare him for what's coming."
Tears of helplessness ran over Sans' cheeks. There was no word to describe how angry he was at him. Gaster was going to use him to break his brother's faith in the most horrible way he knew. But Sans couldn't accept this. If Papyrus started to hate him, he wouldn't bear it. He preferred to die than to hurt him.
When Gaster finally released his soul, Sans didn't wait his authorisation to run away from the lab. He needed to see Papyrus, to talk to him. If it was the last time before his father took his brother from him, he had to enjoy every second of it.