W. D. Gaster - An Undertale Story

Chapter Eight

   Gaster was sitting at his desk, constantly tapping the wooden pencil against the black plastic desk. A human, it happened to be all he could think about. His sons had no clue, but Gaster was driven insane by the idea that one might fall into the Underground, just waiting to kill all of the monsters. But he could be entirely wrong. Maybe the human was merciful. He wasn't even sure what kind of soul the human had. There happened to be many souls.
   There was, of course, the soul of Determination, which was red. The humans with this soul could either be a Pacifist person, or a Genocidal person. They would stay determined at their goal, no matter what it was, and never gave up.
   Then there were six other types of souls. Any other soul could also be Pacifist or Genocidal, but they could also be neutral, unlike souls of Determination.
   There was the soul of Justice. This type of soul was yellow. The humans with this kind of soul would get justice for not only themselves, but also for their friends and family.
   There was the soul of Bravery. This soul was orange. The humans with this soul were brave, no matter how scary or dangerous something was. They were souls that almost always lived through anything.
   There was the soul of Patience. This soul was a light blue. The humans with this soul would be patient. Instead of going to something, they would let it come to them. Sadly, souls of this kind didn't survive that well. It seemed that it was a miracle there were still humans with the type of soul.
   There was the soul of Kindness. This soul was green. Humans with this soul were kind and caring, always putting other people and their lives before their own. But when and if the time came, they would fight to protect others.
   There was the soul of Integrity. This soul was blue. Humans with this soul were very similar to humans with souls of Kindness. But they would fight harder.
   There was also the soul of Perseverance. This soul was purple. It was extremely similar to humans with souls of Determination, but not as powerful. They kept trying, not giving up until they were forced to. It was one of the more common souls.
   Gaster kept thinking about the human. If it was a human with a soul of Determination, it could be a good one that wouldn't harm anything. But then again, it could be a complete murderer.
   Knock! Knock! Knock!
   Knocking at the front door broke Gaster from his thoughts. He stood up and walked outside of his room and to the front door. He opened the door slightly, peeking through the small space. He opened the door quickly when he saw that it was Asgore. "King Asgore!", he said, bowing quickly. "Any news on..."
   Gaster looked over his shoulder to make sure that his sons weren't eavesdropping. "... on the human?", he whispered. Asgore nodded.
   "Yes. The human is actually very nice and gets along with my son. But...", Asgore said, trailing off.
   "But what?", Gaster asked, tilting his head slightly.
   "But... I'm not sure the human actually has a soul. You're my Royal Scientist, so I'm hoping you can figure out why that is."
   Gaster looked at Asgore in confusion. "Well, if it doesn't have a soul, then there's a way to explain this in three simple words, Asgore.", he said, taking in a sharp inhale. "It's not human."
   Asgore then looked more confused than Gaster did, as if to ask, What do you mean "not human"? Gaster shrugged at the unasked question. He began to close the door, but Asgore held it open with his hand. Gaster looked up at him. "Will you come see the human?", Asgore asked. Gaster looked back over his shoulder. He sighed deeply.
   "Just a second.", he replied, leaving Asgore at the door. Gaster walked up the stairs into Sans's room. He tapped his son lightly on the shoulder. "Sans.", he said. Sans groaned. "Sans, look at me." Sans opened his eyes and looked up tiredly at his father.
   "Dad, it's 11:00 PM!", Sans complained. Gaster covered his son's mouth with his hand, but then realized he had holes in his hands. He rolled his eyes at his own figure, than covered Sans's mouth with his bony fingers.
   "Shh...", Gaster made the sound quietly. "Don't wake your brother, but I will be gone for at least an hour. If you wake up when your alarm goes off and I'm still not here, make breakfast for you and Papyrus like you always do and just tell him I'm working with Asgore. I promise I'll be back.", he explained. Sans nodded. He gripped Gaster's right hand tightly. Gaster glanced at him.
   "Dad, I love you.", Sans said. "You promise you'll be back soon?"
   Gaster nodded. "Of course. I promise."
   Gaster left Sans's room and walked back down to the front door, where Asgore still was. "I'm sorry to leave you here, King Asgore, but I had to let Sans know. I didn't want him to be scared because I wasn't here.", he explained to Asgore. Asgore nodded in understanding. He stepped back and let Gaster get out of the house and lock the door.
   After walking for a while, they finally arrived at the castle's backyard. Gaster observed the sight in front of him. Asriel was standing next to a human creature. Gaster couldn't be sure if it was human or not, considering it had no soul, but it appeared to look like a human. The human- or what Gaster was assuming was a human- was creating flower crowns. Gaster smiled at the innocent youth.
   The human looked up. It appeared to be female, but Gaster wasn't sure. "Hello, Chara.", Asgore said. "This is the Royal Scientist, and one of my best friends, Dr. W. D. Gaster." Chara examined Gaster closely as she stepped towards him. She touched his hands, fascinated by the holes in them for some reason. She then touched the edges of his clothes curiously.
   "Curious, aren't you?", Gaster asked. Chara jumped at his sudden question. She nodded.
   "You are a skeleton. But you can talk? And move? And-", Chara started, but Gaster cut her off.
   "Hey, it's okay. It's just a monster thing.", Gaster said with a chuckle. He had once asked himself the same questions. He bent down to Chara's eye level. "So, are you human, little one?" Chara nodded.
   "I guess.", she replied. Gaster tilted his head to the side. Chara had spoken the answer to him as if she didn't know what she was, either.
   "Do you know why you don't have a soul?", he asked, hopeful that he might get an answer.
   Chara shook her head. "No... all of the kids in school made fun of me for it. When I came here, I figured that it was better.", she explained. Gaster stood back up to his normal height.
   "Oh. I'm sorry, dear.", he said. He knew her pain. He had always been a nerd and hadn't gotten his powers for so long, so in school he had been made fun of and bullied. He looked at Asriel. "Have you and Chara been playing together?", Gaster asked Asriel. Asriel replied with an eager nod. Gaster walked over to Asriel.
   He bent to Asriel's level. "May I talk with you? And the human? I would love to find out more about the both of you.", Gaster said to the small prince. Asriel looked at Chara for confirmation that he could. Chara nodded. Asriel smiled then nodded eagerly once again to Gaster.
   "Alright. Then let's do what you two have been doing.", Gaster said. Chara and Asriel seemed happy to have a friend to play with. But to Gaster, this was more of an experiment to find out how to gain the trust of a human. And to study about humans with no souls.
  That whole night, Gaster played with Chara and Asriel. All three made flower crowns and flower necklaces for each other. Later, they played games of hide-and-seek, which Gaster won every time. Whenever Gaster entered a room where Chara or Asriel were, he heard one of them giggle. Later, they solved a puzzle. Chara seemed as normal as any human, so Gaster was sure that Chara was human. But he wasn't sure how humans survived without souls. Even monsters had souls, even if the souls were upside-down and white.
   Gaster decided to leave, even though Chara and Asriel begged him not to. He headed back to his house in the Hotlands, where Sans and Papyrus would still be asleep, or so Gaster expected. He opened the door to his home. Everything was normal, except Sans was in the kitchen with the candle, staring at the flame from it.
   "Sans? Are you okay?", Gaster asked. Sans looked over his shoulder back to his father.
   "Yeah. I just had a nightmare.", Sans replied.
   "About what?", Gaster asked.
   "You.", Sans said. "In my nightmare, you were dead. At least, I thought you were. But it turns out that you had been teleported into a place called 'The Void'. You were forgotten by everyone, even me..." Sans began to trail off in his voice, and tears began to form at his eyesockets.
   "Hey, hey... That will never happen! I will always be here, and I will be okay! You wouldn't forget me, I know! It's not like we've forgotten about your mother.", Gaster said, attempting to cheer up Sans. Then it hit Gaster. Sans had talked about the Void. Only Gaster knew about the place, which was mentioned that one day in Raven's note. "Void? Did you say Void?", he asked. Sans nodded. Gaster widened his eyesockets. Sans looked away.
   "It's not like it means anything though, right?", Sans asked as he wiped the tears from his eyes and cuddled closer to Gaster. Gaster didn't want to worry Sans.
   "Of course not.", Gaster said. "Now go get some sleep." Sans smiled.
   "Alright. I'm bone-tired anyway!", Sans said as he hugged his father tightly then left to go back upstairs. Gaster smiled as Sans ran up the stairs. But once out of sight, Gaster became curious. Could that be, not a dream, but a vision?, Gaster wondered. No. People would remember me. Gaster shook his bad feeling off and walked away from the kitchen and back to his own room. He fell to his bed and quickly fell asleep.