W. D. Gaster - An Undertale Story

Chapter Nineteen

   "Are you crazy?!", Alphys exclaimed.
   Gaster had been in the Lab all day, waiting for Alphys. He decided to tell the lizard assistant about his plan to test Determination on himself. But as of now, Alphys wasn't having the best reaction.
   "Crazy? How am I crazy?", Gaster asked. Alphys just responded with a face of disbelief, mouth slightly open. She began to stutter as she was shaking her head. She was moving her hands everywhere, trying to figure out what she wanted to say.
   "Dr. Gaster, this c-could be extremely d-d-dangerous!", Alphys exclaimed. Gaster shrugged slightly. "You may not care about your own health, but think about your sons!" The words caught Gaster's attention. He realized that he had not told the rest of his plan to Alphys.
   "I have thought about my sons, thank you very much.", Gaster said, a touch of sass in his tone. Alphys immediately wore a look of embarrassment, curiosity, and a bit of surprise.
   "S-so... What have y-y-you decided on?", Alphys wondered. She wanted to make sure that Sans and Papyrus would be okay if anything happened.
   Gaster sighed. He had went over the idea so many times in his mind. He had thought about if it would be a good idea. He thought of everything he possibly could. "Well,", Gaster began, "I have decided on some things. I even spoke to Asgore about it and signed a few papers."
   The last part confused Alphys a bit, but she let Gaster continue anyway.
   "I thought about what might happen to Sans and Papyrus if something bad happens during the Determination experiment. More importantly, what might happen to them if I died. And if I do happen to die, I have already made sure that they will be okay. They will both inherit an equal amount of money. They will inherit the house. They will inherit everything of mine. I would let them choose what they want. I made sure that if I die, both Sans and you will get my blueprints. I know Papyrus wouldn't want any because he isn't into science as much as you two are. And I made sure that Sans and Papyrus's godparent will be Asgore. He is the only monster I trust with them because he has parenting experience.", Gaster explained. Alphys seemed moved.
   "W-w-wow... You really h-have thought of ev-everything.", Alphys stuttered. Gaster nodded. He hated having to make all of the plans, though. He hated thinking about what would happen when he died. The two stayed silent for a moment. It seemed to be a bit of an awkward moment. Gaster had basically told Alphys his entire will. It was an inside matter, and Alphys felt that she was invading Gaster's privacy. But then Gaster broke the silence.
   "I will start the test tomorrow.", he said. Alphys nodded in response, fidgeting her hands a bit. Gaster turned back to his papers. Alphys looked over them.
   "What are those?", she asked. Gaster looked over his shoulder to see Alphys, his neck popping a bit in the process. He flinched at the pop in his bones, but didn't pay much attention to it. Alphys tilted her head slightly.
   Gaster sighed. "Alright.", he said in a scientist-speech tone. "You see, it is the designs for the Determination Experiment tomorrow. It shows what I will be doing and how I will do it." Gaster picked up a few of the papers and handed them to Alphys. Alphys let the papers slip into her hands as she scammed over them. She let out a quiet hum sound. Gaster looked at her questioningly.
   "I noticed that your not injecting a lot of Determination into yourself.", Alphys noted. Gaster nodded.
   "I know. That was on purpose. I didn't want to inject so much into myself that I'll die. But I also didn't want to inject too little that there aren't any results whatsoever. That's why I'm not entirely worried that I'll have to tell Sans and Papyrus to worry about me tomorrow.", Gaster explained. Alphys realized that Gaster had really thought of everything.
   Alphys accepted the fact that Gaster would continue with the experiment wether Alphys liked it or not. And she seemed to feel a bit better knowing that there wasn't a huge chance of Gaster dying. In fact, there was an extremely low chance of him dying. So Alphys, knowing that everyone would most likely be okay, made her feel a lot better.
   That night, Gaster decided to spend enough time with his sons as he could.

* * *

   "Heya, dad!", Sans called out in an enthusiastic voice as he heard the front door of the house clank close. He opened his bedroom door and rushed down the stairs to see his dead. His signature grin grew a bit wider when he saw his father. Papyrus was also running quickly down the stairs. Gaster smiled sweetly the second he saw his two sons. Sans and Papyrus always made his day wonderful.
   Sans and Papyrus both pulled their father in for a hug, all of their bones clacking together as they joined each other's arms. Almost every evening when Gaster got home, it always seemed to begin like this. With a happy skeleton family hug. Gaster was never sure if the three skeletons missing their family desperately was a skeleton deal or if it was just this certain family. He couldn't test anything, there not being any other skeletons in the Underground.
   Then the three pulled away from their hug. "You seemed so excited to see me, you two. Why's that?", Gaster wondered. Sans just smiled a bit more.
   "Well...", Sans said with a tone that intrigued Gaster. Gaster leaned in, ready to hear Sans's reasoning. "My soul's healing and my magic is getting stronger!" Gaster smiled quite a bit at the answer. He had been waiting to her those words for months. He was delighted to know that not only Sans was getting better, but Sans was also getting better with his magic.
   "Show me, please!", Gaster said with a gesture. He was very eager to see how Sans's magic had improved. Sans nodded quickly.
   Sans lifted his hand up in the air in front of himself. He put himself in a stance so his legs were parted a bit and he could be balanced. He began to breath a bit heavily as his hand slightly shook. A cyan blue aura began to glow around Sans's hand. One of his eyes became pitch black while the other became a cyan blue glowing ring in the dark eyesocket, a dark pupil in the center of the glowing ring.
   As Sans did so, some bones were magically summoned, popping rapidly out of the ground. He also summoned two extremely small Gaster Blasters by his sides. Gaster smiled at the sudden magical elements.
   Gaster was already very excited that Sans's soul was healing, but this made him even happier. He clapped his hands together a few times. Papyrus was looking wide-eyed at Sans. He seemed slightly mesmerized by what his brother had done. He thought it was cool. He began to clap along quickly with Gaster. Sans chuckled.
   "Sans, that was amazing! Your magic is so advanced, especially for a six-year-old!", Gaster said, impressed. He was very proud of Sans. Sans had just pulled off something that took Gaster many years to figure out. Gaster hadn't been able to even use Gaster Blasters until he was a teenager. And when he first summoned bones, he was 12 years old, twice times the age of Sans. Gaster could tell that Sans would be a very strong monster, even if he only had 1 HP.
   Then the thought of Sans's HP hit Gaster like a wave. "Oh! Sans!", Gaster said as he remembered the subject. Sans looked up with a face of curiosity : wide eyes, mouth slightly open, head tilted to the side. "Has your HP healed at all?" Sans shrugged and looked to the side. It was quite obvious that Sans didn't want to talk about the subject. Gaster understood why Sans didn't want to think about it. The nightmares, the pain, the visions, the humans, everything. Gaster understood. But he, as a parent, needed to make sure that his child was okay.
   "Let me check.", Gaster suggested. Sans sighed a bit, but nodded, agreeing to let Gaster check Sans's HP. So Gaster bent down onto his knees. He lifted Sans's white turtleneck shirt to see his soul. He lifted his bony hand over the upside-down soul. Suddenly, the HP bar appeared beside the two. Gaster felt that it was unfortunate that Sans's HP was still at 1. After an entire year, it was still at 1. Sans shrugged a bit. Gaster did, too.
   Papyrus, on the other hand, seemed a bit sad about the HP. He didn't want his brother to be weak or get hurt.
   That night, the three skeletons spent so much time together. They did everything together that they could. They played board games, watched their favorite shows and movies, ate dinner together, and Gaster even let his sons stay up a little later than usual. The family was happy and had so much fun together. They all truly loved each other.

* * *

   As Sans and Papyrus were leaving the house to walk to school in the morning, Gaster was getting ready to go to the Lab. He decided to wear his white lab coat over a black turtleneck and black jeans. It was an outfit he liked.
   Gaster gathered all of his items and walked out of the house. He walked down the cracked paths of the Hotlands, taking in deep breaths. He was about to do a life-threatening experiment. But he took cautious measures, so he was trying not to be scared or paranoid. He noticed that a lot of monsters waved to him as he was walking. All of these monsters were so nice. He didn't want to have a life without them.
   Gaster found himself at the Lab doors. He had been so deep in thought that he didn't even notice that he had walked to the Lab on instinct. He was so used to it that it was just natural. Gaster opened the doors and walked past a few scientists no his way to the elevator. He got to the elevator and stepped inside, pressing the button that would take him to the "True Lab". The name "True Lab" was made by Asgore because it was where the Royal Scientists through the years always worked.
   The elevator doors opened to the True Lab's floor. Gaster stepped out of the elevator. He walked to his lab room to see Alphys standing in the center of the room.
   "Hello.", Gaster said. Alphys waved "hello" to him. "What are you doing here?"
   "I wanted to be here in case anything happens to you. If something happens, then I can help you!", Alphys said. She wanted to help. Gaster nodded.
   "Thank you.", he said. Gaster then went to his desk, preparing for his experiment.