The Time Before (Undertale)

4 ~ Weapon

Gaster woke slowly to the sound of S642 shouting for him. He had fallen asleep at his desk, as he often did.

Blinking a little, he sat up straight and stretched, yawning.

"Diiiiiiings!" Came the shout from the other room.

Yawning a little more and rubbing at his eyesockets, Gaster rose and walked over to the door. Unlocking and opening it, he found S642 was sitting on the edge of the bed, lazily kicking his heels against it.

He grinned at Gaster. "Dings! 'Mm hung'y." As he spoke, he clumsily signed along in Hands. Gaster had insisted that he learn to Speak in Hands as well as Common, and S642 was picking that up just as quickly.

Several months after S642 had begun learning to talk, the test subject had hit nearly three feet tall, and his daily dosage of the food solution and growth serum had gotten large enough that Gaster had split it into two doses a day, morning and night. He had adapted quickly to this new schedule, much to Gaster's relief.

Ordinarily, Gaster would have been awake long before S642 and already had S642's breakfast ready, but he had been up quite late last night, working on a project. Well. Later than usual, after almost 48 hours of no sleep.

He stretched out a hand to S642, sighing. "Come on, then."

The small skeleton turned around to half-crawl, half-slip off the mattress, and walked over to Gaster, lifting his hand  to reach Gaster's hand. He was still four feet shorter than the Royal Scientist, but he nonetheless reached for Gaster's hand. Together, they walked into Gaster's lab.

Gaster grabbed a few things, mixing together the concoction that was S642's only meal. Meanwhile, S642 slowly climbed onto the chair at Gaster's desk, then stood on the chair to peer at the varying papers and objects on it.

Gaster saw what he was doing and walked over, snatching up S642 and pulling him away from the desk. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

S642 giggled, grabbing at the collar of Gaster's lab coat. "Workin'." He said, pronouncing the words slowly in his childish voice. "Like you!"

"Working?" Gaster snorted a little as he plopped S642 onto the edge of the steel table that was his weekly resting place. "You aren't meant to be working. You are the work." He then returned to making S642's breakfast.

"I..." S642 said slowly, confused. "Am work?"

"Yes. My work."

"... Oh." He paused. "... Am I good work?"

"I like to think so, yes. You're going to be a very strong weapon."

"Weaa-" S642 paused, sounding out the word. This was a new one to him; he didn't know what it meant. "Weaaap-"

"Weapon, yes." Gaster returned to S642's side, handing him the glass containing his morning meal.

"What's... weaaa-pon-...?" S642 accepted the glass and lifted it to his jaw, drinking slowly.

"A weapon is meant to be used to kill things." Gaster explained. "You'll kill humans."

S642 didn't fully yet understand the concept of death and killing, but he had learned enough to get the impression it was bad. He lowered the half-empty glass, frowning. "... But..."

Gaster motioned slightly for him to keep drinking. "Killing humans is good."

He paused again, not so much lowering the glass as just tilting it to talk without getting a mouthful of the foul-tasting concoction. "Why?"