The pair progressed to the next destination, the Observer following as Gaster 'walked' along the spiraling pathway. It was comprised of a colossus, the bones of it, being slowly eroded by the void. And by peculiar things observed by the drone.
It took stock of something half flickering on the edge of the path, vaguely resembling a human. Gnawing at a broken piece of bone, breaking it into code. Tearing pieces of it, and consuming these things. One spotting the observer, reaching for it.
"You failed to envision the hallway." Gaster remarked, the word breathing the concept, the walls appearing, blocking out the view of the swirling decaying giant, and the entity tearing at it. "If you fail to keep this in mind, envisioned-" A hand pressed against the wall, seeming to ooze and grasp for the drone, which hovered nearer to the doctor. "they will be able to reach you. Your concept, of their inability, is truth, if you imagine it truth. And because of that, it is. Do you understand?"
He didn't wait, nor expect your answer. Didn't care at this point, the pathway ending with a doorway leading out. And there, he ventured through, the observer following along.
This doorway led to a cold place, to snow, and the crunch of it beneath Gasters feet. His body growing more solid once more, as it did when entering these more 'solid' places. Though, to call it solid was dubious.
Immediately, text from the void became visible. 'Defective timeline detected.' It remarked. 'Non-permissible Path. Removal in Progress.'
"Interesting." Gaster commented. "And, what exactly, makes this timeline defective?"
But no answers came, not that he seemed surprised. It never answered, when it spoke. Never provided the clarity he demanded of it. His focus, like the observers going to examine this place.
The trees, covered in snow, lined the long path. There was flowing water, and the entrance towards another cavernous region directly ahead. Yet, as the snow swirled and pelted this quiet realm, it seemed to flicker in and out of reality. A tree briefly losing its texture, blipped out of existence, alongside many more in the distance.
However, not all was silent, and after a moment the sound of sobbing became audible. It was a quiet, pitiful thing. The crying of a child, Gaster turning in the direction it came from.
"Hmm...dust and snow." He remarked, passively observing the dust across the snow, mixed with spots of blood. "Perhaps your little monarch is already dead...oh well, we only need the body."
Craters created in the ground, with scorch marks from something blasting apart sections of the path. A few trees still singing from whatever conflict unfolded. Step by step he progressed, drawing nearer to the source, the snow seeming to give way, as more of it faded from this dying world.
The snow finally gave way, to reveal the source of this noise. A human child, wearing a green hoodie and a rainbow scarf. Presently clutching a dusty jacket, crying into it.
"Timeline identification." Gaster requested.
The Observer spoke, robotically. "Storyswap."
The doctor frowned, folding his hands behind his back, he stepped towards the grieving child. Noting this world had a specified marker. He took a breath, and paled his coat, smoothed the cracks in his face. Made himself presentable, and peaceful looking.
When his steps became audible, the child stopped crying briefly, and in a panic manifested a red knife with magic of some kind. Tossing it at him, in a fearful response. However, he merely caught the attack between his fingers. Looking over the dagger, he took note of her ability to utilize magic. It was not a common trait, for humans in any world.
"Now, now, there's no need for that." He replied to this, adding. "I'm no threat to you, I promise." He lied. "You're...that local girl, Chara, correct?" He saw her confusion. "Are you alright, dearest, why have you not evacuated?"
This collection of things, appeared to result in her guard slipping. Her hesitant and defensive expression slipping into one of grief. Eyes rolling with tears as she clutched the jacket. Struggling to find her words, as he stepped closer, and knelt down.
"I...I...t-they...they k-killed Asriel." Chara choked out, with tears rolling from her eyes. "I-I don't...w-why we...were g-gonna be friends I-I why?" She seemed to clutch her head, obscuring her face with the jacket. "I-I was...s-supposed to be here...b-but my door I-I couldn't-"
She lost her capacity for words again, and sobbed into the torn jacket. He wagered it belonged to the judge of this world, evidently, Asriel. Which felt...familiar to him. He imagined his stray thought had led him to this...kind of reality. A spot of frustration being directed at you, though he tried not to show it.
He reached out for a moment, and hesitated. Before patting her softly on the back. He scanned her expression as she lowered the coat. There was a grieving sort of rage building behind them. Like everything she believed had been shattered.
"Come along. Let's get you somewhere...safe. For the time." He offered his hand, and she seemed to quiet her crying. "It's what Asriel would have wanted...isn't it?"
"I...I...don't...I don't...know?" Chara responded, before hesitantly taking his hand. "B-but they...why did they do this?"
"Because they can." He remarked quietly.
He began to read her code, seeking confirmation for what she was 'intended' to be. And where the 'defect' had come from. It appeared, she was slotted in the place typically occupied by Papyrus. However, an 'unexpected error' in the form of someone tampering with her rooms lock, had occurred. Delaying her arrival from her pre-determined point of death, in this genocide timeline.
He wagered her now deceased brother had stopped her from coming, and tried to handle the human early, to keep her safe. It seemed, it hadn't gone well for him. Setting the child on a path of vengeance after the loss. To 'act' as the judge, even if she wasn't one. He found this...familiar.
His grip suddenly tightened, and she let out a breath of surprise as the coat fell to the snow below. Glancing to the side, Chara observed as her body began to break apart into strands of coat. The child attempted to pull back, and escape his grasp, but found his grip too strong.
"What are you doing?" Her voice, glitching and fading demanded. "L-let go! Let GO!"
Gaster stared into her defiant eyes, and remained silent. He had a thousand words he could say. But he opted not to. What point would there be, for any of that?
She manifested a glitching knife and stabbed him with it. Surprising him some, as the damage it dealt, was 2. The girl howling in frustration, panicking, stabbing over and over, unable to deal enough damage for it to matter.
"N-no...s-stop...Asriel!" One of her arms went. "M-mom!" She called out, as much of her body broke apart. "D-dad?"
It was too much, too fast, too overwhelming. Despite her determination, she fell apart, breaking into a swirling, hazardous little tempest of code. Struggling to try and reform itself, to hold on. To refuse.
But it mattered little. The code was grasped by the man, who began pulling it apart first, before producing the 'Object.' The weaving process was less clean this time, as every little bit of it, struggled against his will. Tried hard to reject every inch of integration, until, finally, it could no longer.
When it was completed the rattling of the 'Object' was almost entirely silenced. Only a faint shaking of instability remained. The region almost completely stabilized.
It took Gaster a moment to get up. The Observer moving, observing his empty eye-sockets focus on the 'Object.' Before finally, he stirred, and slotted it back into his jacket. The pale of it, fading back to blackness, and shadows. For a moment, when he 'breathed' the air seemed warmer.
"You know. The Heir, Prince, Princess, whatever they are in whatever world they are in, are always...fascinatingly irritating to me." He manifested a cigarette, lighting it as he began to walk. "All that potential in a shortsighted child. Who fate seems determined to kill...but, it was your choice. Not mine" He added. "Speaking of. We have one remaining soul to acquire. Shall we?"
The Observer made a little chirping noise, as the man glanced back. There was someone looming at the edge of the clearing. A human, glitching in the snow, observing what had occurred. Body seeming to be breaking apart.
"Yes. That's the human of this timeline. A Frisk...imagine if you had done as I suggested." He remarked in annoyance. "We could have gotten both in the same location...ignore it. This world is already dying, and they will too."
Another grey door, another passage. The Observer giving a final look at this world. The strange human, of this genocide timeline began to start towards them, as Gaster wandered out of it. The Observer turning, and taking you along after him.
The exit fading away, before the human could reach it.
The path ahead wasn't a hallway, but a large cavern, with a pool of dark water dominating the center. Rotting vines stretched along the edges, creeping toward the still surface. Small holes riddled the stone walls, revealing glimpses of the cosmos beyond—an inky, starless void. And faint shadows moved within it, elusive and unseen.
It's just a hallway. The Observer's reminder echoed faintly. Watching and following Gaster as he stepped down, and through the pond.
The pair ventured through, finding they had drawn out of a puddle of some variety, melted snow, marred red with blood. The observer wiping its ocular lends clean of the sticky red substance. The doctor cleaning himself with a motion, seeming to codify and absorb the blood that had gotten on him.
The Observer looked around, and took note that this location was identical in some ways, to the place you'd been before. Only the trees were withering, rotting things. The air was thicker, less pleasant. And...there was the sound of talking nearby. Gaster motioning and starting towards it.
"I know it's all… very hard. But we… we can all do better."
The voice faltered, a loud crunch cutting through the silence.
"I still… believe…"
Another sickening crunch, and the voice stopped.
Ahead, a trail of blood splattered across the snow, leading them toward the source of the noise. A long, crimson streak marred the otherwise unbroken white, ending abruptly in a disturbed patch of ground where the blood had pooled. Grass, long frozen beneath the snow, was exposed, stained and wilted. Gaster's smile widened, dark amusement flickering across his face as the remains of this world's Papyrus faded into dust—his mangled skull split down the center by an old, bloodied axe.
The wielder of the weapon stood trembling, her body marked by several wounds that oozed blood. She fumbled in her pockets, hastily consuming something—too quickly. She coughed and gagged, choking as her wounds knitted back together with traces of faint magic. She hacked, spitting out a half-eaten eye and strands of hair, shaking violently as she realized what she had done. The plate of spaghetti fell from her hands into the snow.
A low chuckle echoed behind her, and she froze, slowly turning to face Gaster and the Observer.
"What's wrong, Aliza?" Gaster's voice dripped with mockery. "Didn't enjoy the taste of human flesh… or worse—did you?" His eyes gleamed with playful malice as Aliza dragged her axe up, fear painted across her blood-streaked face.
"A genocide, Aliza. My, my… see what happens when your mind gets distracted? I must have mixed things up, thinking of that other human."
Aliza roared and charged at him, swinging her axe with all her strength. Gaster sidestepped the girl effortlessly, a laugh escaping him. "So eager to fight. Very well, child. I'll humor you."
Aliza's soul appeared, a faded dark purple, barely glowing like the tattered dress she wore beneath the bloodied jacket that once belonged to Sans. She was barefoot, wild-eyed, and desperate, blood smeared across her lips from the discarded meal.
"Horrortale… fascinating place," Gaster mused, dodging her frenzied strikes. "Did you know that souls differ from world to world? Some are cataclysmic, others pitiful… some are corrupted versions of—" He paused as her axe clipped his arm, drawing a thin line through his inky form. His eyes narrowed.
He snapped his fingers, summoning two floating hands beside him—one glowing blue, the other orange. With a flick of his wrist, Aliza's soul turned blue, and she was flung into the air, her cry of fear echoing as she slammed into the ground.
"Positive souls," Gaster continued, as if uninterrupted. He activated the orange hand, and Aliza was lifted again, her body bouncing helplessly as she scrambled for her axe. She grasped it mid-air, her movements wild, trying to swing as she found the rhythm of the soul's manipulation. But her efforts were futile. A wall of bones materialized in front of her, blocking her advance.
The bones shifted, wrenching the axe from her grasp. Her soul flickered blue again, and she was ripped from the weapon, slammed into the ground with less force this time, but still enough to send a sharp cry from her lips.
Gaster hummed thoughtfully. "Fear souls. A curious trait they possess in this world—an auto-save function, allowing them to load back to checkpoints. But there's more." He gestured, revealing a number above his head: 999,999,994. It continued to tick down slowly. "Each turn of combat, their opponent's defenses are gradually weakened. A useful, if dangerous, trick."
Aliza struggled to her feet, only to be thrown once again by the blue soul's power. She smashed through a nearby sentry station, wood and stone splintering around her, before being dragged mercilessly across the snow. When Gaster finally released her, a phantom hand struck her down, slamming her back into the ground at his feet.
She gurgled in pain, blood pooling from her mouth. Gaster knelt beside her, lifting her head with one hand, his grip firm as she struggled weakly to escape.
"I want you to know, child, I would have left you to rot in this hellscape," he murmured, his voice low and cold. "Your cowardice and compliance, your fearful malice and violence. No matter the choice, you're absolutely pitiful." He smiled, a grim, humorless grin. "But today is your lucky day. I need a human… and I lost the coin toss."
Aliza's scream was agonized as her body began to break apart, dissolving into raw code. Gaster was far less gentle this time—there was no need. She had attacked him without provocation, hit him, even. He was not so quick to forgive such insolence.
When it was done, he summoned the 'Object,' weaving her into it. The process was easier this time—she had no strength left to resist. The Object trembled briefly, then went still.
"Hmm. It's done." Gaster rose, satisfied. "One region stabilized. Secured." He glanced at the Observer. "Come along. We're due for a stop at the laboratory. I'm curious to see what your choices have produced thus far."
The Observer lingered for a moment, its gaze catching on something beyond its usual range—a single yellow flower, staring back with a single eye. It twitched, trying to summon an attack, but a bone shot out, piercing it clean through.
"I'd forgotten this world still had a Flowey," Gaster mused, stepping through a doorway. "Speaking of, we'll need a Lost Soul eventually. But not a defective one like that." He waved the Observer forward. "Now hurry up."
The Observer followed obediently as the world behind them began to crack, fading into the Void.