W. D. Gaster - An Undertale Story

Chapter Seventeen

   Gaster never knew that Asriel died.
   But he found this out on a nice, calm, quiet day. He had spoken with Toriel through a door in Snowdin. She had moved to the Ruins, and she decided not to open the door that acted as the exit to the Ruins and the entrance to Snowdin. She would never open the door. She didn't feel safe opening it. But she would still speak to monsters through it. Not often, but she would on occasion. So Gaster decided to go to the door. He wanted to see how Toriel was doing ever since she forfeited her roll as Queen of the Underground.
   Gaster had knocked on the door and called out for Toriel. He could hear footsteps approach the door, but of course, the door wasn't opened. Toriel stepped up closely to the door and asked who was there. It was like the setup of a knock-knock joke, but Gaster wasn't going to be silly. He was going to be serious. He said it was him, and his one-of-a-kind voice obviously verified it. Toriel then asked what Gaster wanted, her being suspicious that Asgore might send someone to beg for Toriel to come back to the throne. Gaster simply said that he wanted to check up on her. Toriel still seemed a bit suspicious, but she trusted him.
   Gaster wanted to know what happened. She answered that Asriel died. Gaster made a noise of surprise and heartbreak. The ex-soon-to-be-prince had died? Gaster stuttered, wondering how in the world this happened. And Toriel answered with one of the saddest stories that Gaster had ever heard. He felt even worse when he found out he, in a way, took part, by leaving the Lab unsupervised.
   It had happened when Toriel and Asriel were packing their belongings to leave the palace. Asriel had snuck out. It had been after everyone witnessed Asgore give Chara's soul to Gaster, for the purpose of being experimented with. Asriel knew Gaster had the soul, so he headed to the Lab. But when he got there, Gaster nor Alphys were in the Lab to find him. But the soul, the reason Asriel had went there, was there. He saw it. It was in the mouth of the Determination Extractor, floating in it. It was grey. Asriel had grabbed the soul, proceeding to leave the Lab. He went back to the palace, but only did so to get to the Barrier. With him being only one monster child, and him possessing in his grip a human soul, even if it's Determination was missing, he was able to break through the Barrier, soul in hand. But when he got to the Surface, Toriel assumed, since he had not come back, he had... well, died.
   Gaster was on the edge of tears as he listened to the story. Toriel's child, Asriel, had died. Gaster couldn't imagine the pain of Sans or Papyrus dying. It would be too much to bear. Gaster felt bad a bit. After all, if he had been at the Lab when Asriel came, Asriel wouldn't have died. But then again, Gaster had to leave the Lab then. Sans had that terrible nightmare that pushed him to crying for about an hour. The nightmare that hurt him emotionally. Bad. Gaster couldn't have done anything to keep Asriel from taking the soul.
   Gaster left and went home, back to Sans and Papyrus. He opened the door.
   "Sans, Papyrus, I'm home!", Gaster called out. There was no answer. Gaster seemed confused for a moment, but then remembered that the two skeletons were at school. He sighed, walking through the front doorway, closing the door behind him. He walked to the couch and sat down on it, resting his head back onto the back of the couch. He sat silently for a few minutes.
   Once again, he was starting to sleep. Once again, he thought maybe he would get some rest.
   And once again, he would not.
   Ring!
   The phone rang and Gaster groaned. "Oh, come on!", Gaster said in a frustrated tone. He grabbed the phone, yawning, and lifted the phone to the side of his skull, where, if he were human, his ears would have been.
   "Hello?", Gaster questioned. He heard stuttering on the other end of the phone, immediately knowing it was Alphys. Ever since Xander had died, Alphys had developed a bit of a stutter. She was more nervous than usual, too, but she still succeeded at being her normal, nerdy, happy self.
   "Hey, D-D-Dr. Gaster. I j-just wanted to r-r-remind y-you that you have to b-bring a p-presentation t-tomorrow.", Alphys said. Gaster perked up at the sudden reminder and gasped. He had completely forgotten about the presentation he was supposed to give to his assistants. The presentation was to show something and possibly provide work for the assistant scientists, like Alphys, to try out and theorize. And Gaster had somehow forgotten to make a presentation for this.
   "Oh my goodness! Alphys, thank you so much for reminding me!", Gaster exclaimed. He had to get something together, something to present to the assistants.
   "Of c-course. Had y-y-you forgotten?", Alphys wondered. Gaster sat in silence after the question. He didn't want to embarrass himself over the phone with the fact that he had actually forgotten something for his job, something that also had to do with his co-workers' jobs as well.
   So he just hung up. It seemed to be a better solution than anything else.
   Gaster immediately went to his room and began to think. And think. And think. Thinking about what he should present. What the presentation should be over. What he should use to make the presentation. What he should even say. He kept thinking. But his thoughts were interrupted when he heard Sans and Papyrus walk through the front door. He was delighted to hear their voices as the spoke about their day at school to each other. Gaster rushed into the living room and gripped his sons into a large hug.
   "Woah!", Sans exclaimed, surprised by the sudden loving embrace. Gaster gripped his sons lovingly, holding them close to his chest. He could hear the beat of their souls. He loved it. He loved the comfort. But Sans and Papyrus, who were hugging back, were still confused by Gaster's actions.
   Papyrus put a fake strain on his voice. "Dad, your squishing me." Gaster chuckled and pulled away from the hug. He smiled at the sight of his sons, thankful they were alive in his life.
   "What's up with the sudden hug?", Sans asked.
   "Let's just say that I got to talking with an old friend and thought about you two.", Gaster said. He didn't want to make his sons sad with the news that Asriel was dead. Sans and Papyrus nodded.
   "Okay. Whatever you say, dad.", Sans replied, slightly rolling his "eyes". Gaster chuckled.
   "What have we said about rolling eyes?", Gaster asked with a parent-fatherly-lecture tone. Sans scoffed.
   "'Don't roll your eyes. It shows attitude', yeah, yeah.", Sans said, as if he had heard it a million times. Although, it seemed like he did.
   The rest of the evening, the trio of skeletons spent all of their time together. They watched some of their favorite movies and shows. They ate together. They read a few books, science-related ones. Sans was interested in them, but Papyrus was a bit bored with it, confused. They also read a book about life on the Surface, before the monster-human war. Before the war was even a thought. Then when the time came, Sans and Papyrus went to bed. Gaster read a story from the storybook to Papyrus and sung his short "Don't Forget" lullaby to Sans.
   Then Gaster headed to his own room and figured out what he was going to do for his presentation the next day. And it actually turned out to be a very simple presentation. And that night, Gaster finally got a bit of peaceful sleep.
   The next day, Gaster woke up at the sound of his alarm going off. He slammed his hand on the "stop" button. He threw the covers off of him and stretched. He looked down at himself and noticed that he forgot to change clothes and just slept in his clothing from the previous day. He didn't see any point in changing clothes from yesterday, so he just kept these certain clothes on. The black turtleneck shirt, the dark grey jeans, the black shoes, and the white lab coat.
   Gaster woke Sans and Papyrus up so they could get ready to go to school. They wore their normal clothes and left. Gaster walked to the Lab. Sans always wondered why Gaster did so, considering Gaster had teleportation magic. But Gaster preferred to walk, no matter how long it took. Gaster was holding a hula hoop as he walked to the Lab, which would come in handy with his presentation.
   Gaster walked into the Lab and walked past all of the fellow scientists. He stepped into the elevator and pressed the button labeled "5". Floor 5 was the floor where all presentation rooms were. Where all presentations were presented. Of course, Gaster's presentation room on that floor was the largest, him being the Royal Scientist and getting the largest room without question.
   Gaster walked out of the elevator once it arrived at the 5th floor and looked around. He saw the room labeled "Reserved For W. D. Gaster" and walked towards it. Several other monsters in the Lab always seemed to wonder what the "W. D." in "W. D. Gaster" stood for, but Gaster never told. It was embarrassing that his name was Wingdings, which is the reason he even abbreviated his first name.
   Gaster opened the door to find many scientists, including Alphys, already in the room. Alphys smiled, satisfied that Gaster had arrived.
   "Dr. Gaster! You're here! And right on time!", Alphys exclaimed. Gaster chuckled at her enthusiasm. Alphys noticed the black hula hoop in Gaster's bony hands and became curious. "Um, is that f-for your... p-p-presentation?" Gaster nodded.
   "Just sit down and let me present.", Gaster said with a smirk. Alphys rolled her eyes and sat down in a chair with the rest of the assistant scientists. Gaster stepped to the front of the room, in front of the crowd.
   "So,", Gaster began, pulling out the black hula hoop in front of him, "this hula hoop is like time." Almost immediately, a lot of the scientists wore a confused look on their faces. Gaster chuckled and figured he should explain.
   "Okay, let me get deeper into explanation.", Gaster started. "You see, it goes in a circle, it never ends. Or sometimes, once again, similar to this circle, it loops. Never ends. You can do several things with time, even if it's unintentional." Gaster slipped the hula hoop in his hand. "Sometimes, time simply slips through your fingers. But,", Gaster put the hula hoop around his chest, "sometimes you can get caught in time. Sometimes, you can let go of time,", Gaster tossed the hula hoop in the air, "and catch it again.", the hula hoop lands in one of Gaster's hands. "Sometimes time will slip away from you,", Gaster tossed the hula hoop in a walk-the-dog style, then because of the way he intentionally tossed it, it rolled back to him. "and if you get lucky enough, it will come back to you." Gaster caught the hula hoop. "Sometimes you can be perfectly inside of time,", Gaster set the hula hoop on the floor and stood on the inside of it. "but sometimes, you can be completely outside of it." Gaster stepped out of the hula hoop. He picked up the hula hoop and looked at the crowd of scientists.
   "Now, I want all of you to do more research on time, and how it works. You can also look up the relations of time and space.", Gaster instructed. Alphys nodded. She had been taking notes the entire time. A few other scientists had been taking notes as well, but somehow, Alphys managed to write an entire page-full of notes. Gaster nodded and headed towards the door.
   "Thank you.", Gaster said, leaving the room. He headed home. He wouldn't know how important everything he had said meant until he had an eternity to think about it.