The Time Before (Undertale)

31 ~ You'll Just Have to Trust Me

Sans groaned and shifted a little.

"You see?" A very familiar voice said. "I told you I know what I'm doing. Besides, if you didn't want me doing things to them, then why in the world did you call me up here?"

As the doctor stammered out a reply, Sans opened his eyes, blinking away sleep.

"Oh, just get out." Gaster huffed, leading the doctor away by the arm. "You're the one who wanted me to work up here, so let me work."

Sans looked around. They were in a hospital room. He was lying on a hospital gurney IV drip in his Soul. Papyrus was similarly on a gurney to his left, still passed out, though.

Gaster, having successfully shut the door behind the doctor, turned back to Sans. "Well. That's taken care of. Sans. Good to see you're awake."

Sans subconsciously scooted back on the bed, trying to get away as Gaster took a step forward.

Gaster saw, and frowned. "Sans. It's okay. I'm not going to do anything. I ended the DTW project four years ago, and I'm doing my best to make sure it stays ended." His frown deepened a little. "I won't lie, though. They called me up from the lab, said there were two monsters with some strange Soul condition, one they didn't recognize. When I came and saw it was you two, there was a rather large part of me that wanted to say I'd have to take you back to the lab, and then just keep you there." He shook his head. "I swear I'm trying, Sans. I'm doing my best. I haven't done anything to you. I'm going to do my best not to. The DTW project is over."

Sans didn't relax. He didn't trust Gaster.

Still struggling a little to wake up, he gestured to the IV.

"It's just Magic. To wake you up."

"whh- why-- what--?"

Gaster blew out a sigh. "You remember the weekly checkups? How I always gave you that IV to strengthen your Soul?"

Sans nodded.

"Your Souls, yours and Papyrus's are only just from Soul fragments. That stuff really did help your Soul, kept it strong. Now, you're going on four years without it, and your Soul is starting to decay, fall apart until it's just back to the size of the original fragment. Which, if the strain isn't too much, and if it doesn't just shatter and you die, then it still won't be enough to keep up with the mental strain, and you'll fall comatose. Barely smarter than a vegetable. The excess Magic I have feeding into you is reversing it just a bit, enough to wake you up and keep you alive."

Sans just blinked.

"I know. It's a lot to understand."

Sans looked at Gaster a moment longer. Then, he called on his abilities as Judge.

*Wingdings Gaster
ATK: 90 DEF: 78 HP: 150 Lv: 71
*Royal Scientist
*Wishes he could feel sorry. But he can't.
*... Really is trying.

Sans looked from this information, back to Gaster's face, eyes unavoidably attracted to the scarred crack running from Gaster's left eyesocket to his mouth. Sans thought it looked weird. It was strange there. Something different.

Slowly, Sans asked, "hypothetically, if i were to ask you for help in stopping this... hypothetically, what would you do?"

"Well..." Gaster looked off into the distance, thinking. "... We could restrengthen your Soul with the same solution we used to. Then you could either come in for weekly doses, or I could try to stop the decay with runes..." He trailed off.