The Time Before (Undertale)

15 ~ Unforseen Consequences (pt 1)

It was another week and a half before Sans was well enough to stand up and walk around. For the most part, his head, along with all the other smaller injuries, had stopped hurting, but his ribs and right shoulder still burned with exertion, and he could only move around for a little while before growing tired.

Gaster assured him, though, that he was, in fact, making a very speedy recovery.

Something felt off to Sans, though. Like he just couldn't work as hard. There wasn't as much of a point in working hard.

"It's because you lost so much Determination." Gaster supplied. "We'll be able to put it back into you once you've recovered. Luckily, we won't have to redo any of the phase one injections. You're still just about as solid as you were." He paused. "... I'd say, once you've finished healing, we could probably do it all in two or three injections, if not one."

Sans, in response, had frowned and groaned.

"What? Is that a problem?"

"... no, it's just..." He sighed. "that was a lot of work lost. and it's not gonna be fun redoing it."

Gaster gave Sans a sympathetic look. "No. War isn't fun. But that's why we're doing this, so that the war won't last as long."

"you're saying that like we're in a war. right now."

"Well, technically, we are. Asgore declared war on the humans when the prince was killed. He never revoked that or anything, and never made peace with the humans, so..."

Sans just sighed.

Gaster decided now was the time to move on to another subject he had been looking into.

"Also, about your Blue Magic..."

Sans' face took on a stricken expression. He still blamed himself and his inability to use Blue Magic for not being able to kill the human.

"... I think I've found a solution."

"... what's that...?"

"Well, Blue Magic, along with any other kind of trait Magic, requires a very large amount of Magic, and, well, despite you having a very large capacity for Magic, the sheer amount it would require is simply too much for someone of your size--"

"gee, thanks."

Gaster paused to give Sans a small glare. "Don't interrupt." For a moment, they just looked at each other, before Gaster continued. "Like I was saying, it's too much Magic for someone as small as you to have the capacity for naturally. It won't matter how much you train and practice and try, you'll never be able to naturally raise your Magic capacity high enough to use Blue Magic."

"you keep putting stress on the word naturally." Sans said slowly. "what are you saying, that we're gonna to artificially raise my magic capacity?"

"Yes! Exactly!" Gaster's words were accompanied by gestures in Hands, a clear sign that he was getting excited.

Sans frowned. "... how?"

"Runes. A few across your ribs, and then a few directly into your Soul."

"but--... won't that- y'know, hurt?"