Chapter Text
Gaster watched on from a distance while Subject 2's healing aura engulfed the smaller skeleton, lighting up the dim room with its power. He really was doing it and there was not a single thing he had to demonstrate in order for 2-P to figure it out all on his own. A relief, considering how much Gaster's own healing magic had been dwindling recently.
Not even a minute later he could see Subject 1 begin to stir, his eyesockets opening with a flutter before he called out to his brother in a shaky voice. A wave of relief washed over the scientist when he heard it, knowing for sure now that he would make it. Still, he chose to stay back while 2-P hugged his brother even closer, all the while muttering reassuring words towards him, even though the taller skeleton clearly was the one who could have used some words of comfort more than anyone else, tears still streaming down his face.
Just what on earth had he been doing this whole time?
It wasn't the first time Gaster asked himself this question of course, and thus far it had never taken him more than a minute to rationalize this cruelty. It was for the greater good. It was for the future of monsterkind. It was for Asgore's sake. And yet, now every single one of those reasons rang hollow inside Gaster.
He had damn near killed one of his subjects, one of these two children, and for what? For the off chance that all of this research would ever even amount to anything? That it would actually hold the key for destroying the barrier?
Gaster had worked in the scientific field long enough to know how low the success rate of any new project would be on average and this particular undertaking was more ambitious than anything else he'd attempted before. It was insanity.
Shaking off these thoughts, he finally approached the examination table that both of the little skeletons were currently sitting on, lost in a tight embrace. When they heard his approaching footsteps, they both twitched and looked up at Gaster, unsure what to expect.
“Come on. Back to your room…”, he muttered, but instead of the usual sharpness in his tone now there was only exhaustion.
“Th- thank you…”, 2-P uttered with a shaky smile, wiping away the remaining tears from his eyesockets now.
“Wh-… what for?”, Gaster countered, his browbone furrowing at the sound of this.
“For letting me see my brother. For- for letting me heal him! He's awake again… I- I really was able to heal him, just like you said”, 2-P continued elaborating and carefully squeezed his brother's hand. “I'm just so happy that he's okay now...”
What a foolish, foolish child.
Gaster didn't know what to answer to this and just released a sigh. “No more dawdling. You can walk, can't you?”, he now addressed 1-S, who appeared to still be weakened despite his brother's intervention. Still, he gave a faint nod and hopped off the examination table, only for his knees to give in. Before he could crash to the ground, Gaster caught him with blue magic, allowing the little skeleton to float just above ground.
“I believe it's best if I carry you”, he muttered and shifted his glance towards 2-P, who had also quickly jumped up, looking at 1-S with concern and gently taking his hand again.
“i- i can walk”, 1-S's voice suddenly drew Gaster's attention again and he was met with the small skeleton's burning glare. Although the scientist still had his doubts about that, he set him back down onto the ground after a few more seconds of consideration, ultimately dispelling the blue magic. With 2-P to support him, he really was able to make it back to the cell, albeit in an excrutiatingly slow pace. Still, Gaster made no attempt to lift him up again.
When the two kids had been shepherded back into their room and the forcefield flickered back on, Gaster remained standing in front of it for a number of moments, just watching how 2-P helped his weakened brother onto the cold bench and whispered warm words to him.
He wouldn't be able to keep this up, would he?
He'd thought that he was determined enough. That he had killed off any sympathy that might have started growing in his soul for these two creatures, but the near permanent loss of Subject 1 had proven him wrong once again.
There would be a lot for him to think about tonight.
***
After 1-S had been so narrowly brought back from the brink of death, Gaster hadn't taken either of the two skeletons out of their cell for another experiment in what came up to be 3 days now and 1-S was starting to grow more and more on edge about this fact while 2-P assured him that it had to be a good sign.
“Maybe He really won't hurt us anymore!”, the taller skeleton said to his brother, looking up from the color cube in his hands. “The past few days He hasn't done anything bad. He didn't even say anything mean to us.”
“yeah, because He hasn't been saying anything at all”, 1-S countered with a crooked smile while he glanced up from the piece of paper he'd been doodling on at the moment. He wasn't sure what all of this meant, but it couldn't be anything good. Perhaps He was busy preparing something even worse for them in the meantime. Perhaps He wanted to give him a little more time to recover, just to make sure there were better chances of survival for whatever fucked up experiment He'd put 1-S through next. And yet… something had changed about His behavior.
When He came to their cell to bring them their meals or collect the empty plates, He avoided meeting either of the subjects' eyes, almost as if it hurt Him to do so.
If 1-S didn't know any better, he'd have thought that their torturer had a guilty conscience.
Speak of the devil…
The approaching footsteps announced His arrival and although it was about time for him and his brother to get their first meal after the lights had come on, 1-S had learned to differentiate His intentions based on the pace of his steps pretty accurately by now. The sound of these footsteps meant nothing good, from what he could tell.
“Subject 1”, His voice rang out as the scientist came to a stop in front of the forcefield, clipboard clutched in one of his hand. “Come with me.”
A moment later the blue lightning beams disappeared and 1-S obediently got up from where he had been drawing, not without throwing a last glance in his brother's direction.
“Wh- where are you taking him..?”, 2-P asked in a shaky voice, color cube laying forgotten on the floor as he scrambled to his feet as well.
“Can I come with you, please? I- I promise I'll be quiet and not get in the way so-“
“I only need 1-S for this”, He cut off the child's pleas and the forcefield flickered back on in front of 2-P as soon as the smaller skeleton had passed it. “He will be back with you shortly. I promise.”
The choice of words stunned both of the children and they wordlessly stared up at Gaster with widened eyesockets. Promise? Since when did that count for anything that came out of His mouth anyway?
Still, 1-S had not quite regained his confidence since his last near-death-experience yet and the sassy remark remained unspoken. He followed after the man in the labcoat, soon realizing with a sinking feeling that he was being taken to the experimentation room with the laser beam.
Of course.
What else had he been expecting? Now that enough time had passed for him to fully recover they were likely back to the usual schedule. The laser machine was nowhere to be seen at the moment, but there was plenty of other weird machinery standing around, so He wouldn't be lacking in choice when it came to torturing 1-S again, the little skeleton thought bitterly. Before he could attempt to climb up the tall operating table, 1-S felt the blue magic gripping his soul and lifting him up onto the metal table.
“Lie down”, He instructed and 1-S did accordingly, though his body had begun to tremble a little despite his best efforts to stay calm. What would he do now? Cut into him? Fire or inject something into his eyesocket? Something even more terrible than the previous options?
Still, he didn't dare to ask. He didn't want Him to hear the fear in his voice.
Within a couple of moments Subject 1's limbs were strapped to the examination table again and he followed the scientist with his gaze, trying to figure out what he was doing. He had switched on one of the machines, tinkering with the control panel before he picked up what looked like a mask attached to a long, flexible tube.
After He approached the kid with the weird mask in hand, 1-S instinctively tried to back away from it, though he obviously had no room to move anymore.
“Don't worry. This isn't going to hurt. It will merely put you to sleep”, He expained, pressing the mask against 1-S's face, though the little skeleton didn't look the least bit reassured by that.
Why would he put him to sleep here? Weren't they going to do some kind of new painful experiment? For some reason the thought of being unconscious during that time put even more terror into Subject 1's soul.
“no, i don't want to- i don't want to sleep!”, he finally started to struggle, trying to turn his head away from the mask, but the strap against his forehead made this impossible.
“It's for your own good, Subject 1. Try to relax and close your eyes. It'll be over more quickly”, He said and 1-S could already feel his attention beginning to slip away. Everything became fuzzy, His words increasingly harder to understand and his limbs more difficult to move until finally his mind was engulfed in nothing but darkness.
***
“Brother! Brother, wake up!”
It was Subject 2's voice calling out to him, 1-S could tell as much, but even the simplest thought proved to be too much effort. His body felt heavy and warm. His mind was still fuzzy and all he wanted was to continue sleeping, but as so often it seemed like 2-P had something else in mind for him, continuing to shake his shoulder to make him wake up.
“what is it, bro..?”, he murmured in a scratchy voice, cracking his left eye open just the tiniest bit. The room wasn't illuminated too brightly, but even the little light that was present made 1-S want to tightly shut his eyes again.
“You've been sleeping even longer than me, brother! Wake up already, you have to see this!”, 2-P insisted, his voice practically trembling with excitement.
Now this really was odd…
Finally forcing his eyes open for good, 1-S carefully pushed himself up into a sitting position. It was weird. They weren't in their usual cell, either. The surface underneath him was soft and gave away as he pushed a hand into it while something else had been tucked around his body, warm and soft as well.
“what's the big deal…?”, he asked again, rubbing a hand against his eyesockets to chase the sleepiness away. Although 1-S liked to sleep for as long as He allowed him to, it wasn't usually that difficult to stir awake again.
“Look!!”
Without another word of explanation, 2-P damn near shoved his right hand into his brother's face while his own eyes glowed with indescribable joy. “The plates, He took them off!”
It took 1-S several seconds to process what he was seeing and hearing, but finally everything clicked together in his sluggish mind when he saw the white bandage wrapped around his brother's hand.
“h- he did..?”
“Yes! Yours is also gone, look!”, 2-P rambled on, now pulling the other skeleton's hand up from underneath the cover. Indeed, he was right. His hand ached a little and although the bandage around his bones was quite thick, judging by how light his hand felt there was no doubt that the metal was gone.
“why- why would He do that? after going through all the effort to put them on..?”
“Don't you see, brother? He's finally made a good choice!”, 2-P exclaimed with unbridled joy in his voice while tears formed at the corners of his eyesockets. “He decided to stop hurting us and be good from now on! It's all over now!!”
Somehow, hearing these hopeful words only made 1-S feel more wary and he instantly shook his head.
“no way… I bet He's just replaced them with something else. maybe He was worried we'd be able to get them off after all. probably put a chip into our heads or something like that so we can never pry it off”, he suggested his own theory and began examining the rest of the room now. This was the first time he saw it and he couldn't help wondering why him and his brother had woken up here instead of their normal cell. Not that he was too upset about it. Whatever you'd call the thing he was currently sitting on, it was a lot more comfortable than the bench that him and 2-P usually curled up on.
“You always think so negatively, brother! I know it for sure this time… something has changed. He didn't have to put us to sleep before taking the plates off, but He chose to do it so it would hurt less. He didn't have to let us sleep in this room either, but He did! Things are finally going to get better, I just know it…” By now 2-P had taken both of his hands and squeezed them tightly while his eyes gave off a gentle orange glow.
1-S wasn't convinced. Of course he wasn't. If there's anything he'd learned by now, it's that there was no rhyme or reason to whatever He did to them. He could be nice one day, then suddenly drill holes into their hands the very next without any indication for why He'd suddenly changed his behavior. Whatever goal he pursued by treating them a little better right now, it couldn't be anything other than selfish.
“Anyway, this room sure is weird, isn't it?”, 2-P changed the subject when he didn't receive an answer and finally let go of his brother's hands before he hopped down onto the ground.
“What do you think these things are?”, he asked as he approached a chair that had something on it. At first 1-S thought that they were another set of the gowns that him and 2-P already wore, but as the taller skeleton picked one of the folded items up, he could see that it was made of a thicker fabric and had long sleeves that would likely reach down to the wearer's wrists.
“it looks like the things He's usually wearing”, 1-S pointed out and narrowed his eyesockets. “you shouldn't touch that. He could get mad if He sees us messing with his stuff”
As if on cue, the sound of the metal door sliding open drew both boys' attention towards Gaster, who stepped inside the room without a word, simply shifting his gaze between the two other skeletons.
“I see the two of you are awake. That's good, it was quite a challenge to figure out the right dosage of anaesthesia for the two of you just based on size and weight, but-“
Before he could finish the sentence he felt himself nearly getting knocked off his feet as Subject 2 lunged at him, wrapping both arms around the scientist's midsection.
“Oh, thank you so much for taking off the plates! I knew all along that you could be good!”, he exclaimed while 1-S jumped up from the bed to try and drag his brother away from Gaster. Yet, before he could even get close, the man already grabbed 2-P by his arms an pushed him away himself, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Don't do this. G-go back over there and sit with 1-S”, he ordered and although 2-P looked a little sad about the rejection, he followed the instruction without missing a beat. Both of the little skeletons examined Gaster with big eyes – one pair filled with hope and excitement, the other with apprehension and distrust.
Gaster cleared his throat, looking oddly nervous as he briefly went through the little speech he had been practicing in silence for the past few days, ever since he'd made up his mind about what he was about to do.
“I suppose an explanation is in order. For- everything that's been going on since-… for the past three days”, he began talking.
“I have decided to stop the experiments. All of them.”
Both children froze up, their eyes widening even further, but neither dared to interrupt Gaster as he looked like there still was a lot left for him to say.
“What I have been doing to both of you for the past months is unforgiveable. I created you as the means to an end, I kept you down here in inhumane conditions and I have caused you irreparable physical and psychological damage. I was aware of all that all throughout the process, but I justified it to myself in the name of the greater good. I thought I'd be determined enough to see it through to the end… but I am not. When my actions- when Subject 1 got so close to dying, I realized that I am not cut out for this.”
1-S let out a sound that contained a mix of dismissal and disbelief. He wasn't cut out for this? What about them? Was this guy really going to make all of this about himself again?
“In conclusion: I am deeply sorry for what I have done. I do not expect you to accept my apology, but it is the least I can give you”, Gaster continued, slowly shifting his gaze between the two children.
“I intend to take responsibility for my actions by handing you two over to the king and accepting whatever punishment he sees fit for me. He will undoubtedly find monsters willing to take you in and take care of you from then on and you will never have to see me again, so-“
“Wait, what?!”
Subject 2 jumped up from his seat, jaw hanging open in shock and his entire body trembling.
“Y-you can't give us away to somebody else, you can't! We don't even know those people!”, he began protesting and having climbed off the bed he began approaching Gaster again.
“Nobody in the entire Underground could be less suited for taking care of you than me”, the scientist replied to that with a hollow laugh. “I assure you that you will find a loving home.”
“A-and what you just said about punishment-… does this mean you will be hurt?”, 2-P continued, clearly dismissing Gaster's reasoning once again. “But you just changed for the better! And you can be even better still, I just know it! I- I don't want to never see you again, I want things to go back to how they were in the beginning! Wh-when you taught us stuff and read us from books… Please, don't give us away”, he concluded, his eyes tearing up.
“Stop it, I am not fit to be your father!”, Gaster now yelled, voice cracking from despair, but he instantly regretted his outburst, covering his mouth with one hand.
“F-father…?”, 2-P muttered, tasting the word as if it were an entirely new flavour. “Is that what-… you call the person who takes care of you?”
Gaster let out an irritated groan, now rubbing his temples with the fingers of one hand. As if the situation wasn't yet frustrating enough. “Yes… but as I just told you, I have lost any right to call myself that for the two of you. So please… stop looking at me with such hope. You expect too much from me. I know it may be scary to meet somebody new, but I promise you that you will be happier that way in the long run”, he tried to reason with 2-P one more time, his tone turning more mellow again.
The young skeleton actually fell silent for a little bit, seemingly mulling over what he had just heard.
“Even if everything you said is true and-… the other people are nice to us, I don't want it”, he finally concluded, staring up at Gaster with determination in his eyes.
“I told you that you could be good… and that I want to help you be good. I don't want you to be punished and disappear from my life forever. Even though you did bad things-… a LOT of bad things to us, I forgive you. So please… don't do what you've just told us is your plan.”
Gaster fell silent for almost a minute, staring into Subject 2's gentle, hopeful eyes with disbelief. There it was again, that stupid, naïve, earth-shattering mercy. He didn't deserve even a fraction of it after everything he did.
Finally he shifted his attention to 1-S, who was still sitting on the bed without contributing a word to the conversation ever since Gaster had come into the room. He looked conflicted, unsure of what to do, but sensing the scientist's gaze on himself his body stiffened up.
“And what about you, 1-S? What do you want?”, Gaster now directed his word towards the smaller brother. He already knew the answer of course, but maybe 1-S would be able to sway his brother if he finally just spoke up.
“what do i want? i want to-“
The little skeleton froze mid-sentence, catching his brother's pleading eyes on himself. Of course he wanted to jump at the opportunity of leaving Gaster and his cursed lab behind forever. He wanted that damned scientist to get punished with the same amount of pain that he'd inflicted on him and his brother. And yet-…
“i want-… whatever my brother wants”, he muttered, averting his gaze to the side.
Laughter rose up within Gaster before he incredulously shook his head. Unbelievable. Did his love for 2-P really outweigh his hatred for him? He shouldn't be too surprised… but still, he'd have expected 1-S to try and influence his brother, convince him to just forget all about Gaster and start a new life outside this lab. And yet… he simply gave in, ready to shoulder this burden as if his wishes didn't matter at all. Well, Gaster knew who was to blame for instilling this kind of attitude in him to begin with.
“No you don't. You want me dead, 1-S. Or at least rotting in some cell for the rest of my life. Most certainly you don't want to play family with me and your brother, so stop pretending”, he spoke up more forcefully now, trying to draw the right kind of reaction out of the kid.
“what the hell do you know about what i want?”, 1-S snapped back at Gaster all of a sudden, his left eye glowing up with hostility. “i said what i said. if my brother wants to stay with you, then so be it. i don't know what the world out there is like and if we really would be any better off trusting some random stranger. at the very least I know what to expect from you”, he continued, lifting his chin and holding eye contact with the scientist all the while.
“you had this little plan of yours all laid out in advance, but when we actually tell you how you can make it up to us you just dismiss it, huh? maybe your apology wasn't all that sincere after all”. His permanent smile took on an almost mocking expression now.
The entire exchange left Gaster speechless and he realized that neither of the two skeletons would change their mind, albeit for entirely opposite reasons. Of course he could still enforce his original plan. Pick these two kids up with blue magic if necessary and carry them all the way to Asgore to confess his sins and receive the punishment he deserved. But who would that really serve? Was it truly for the sake of these children or just to satisfy his own bad conscience that craved retribution?
Subjects 1 and 2, although quickly developing and both intelligent in their own ways, were still children, so he shouldn't let their opinions dictate what was right or wrong to do. But on the other hand... was he justified in taking their agency away from them once again?
Releasing a heavy sigh, he finally conceded.
“Fine… I won't go to the king”, he said, leaving the 'for now' he wanted to add unsaid. He hadn't considered this course of action at all, so now that his original plans were cancelled, he wasn't sure how to behave.
“Oh yay! Does that mean we get to stay with you? Will you take us to your home?”, 2-P exclaimed, looking completely ecstatic now.
“Apparently…”, Gaster mumbled, already trying to figure out where in his house he would even set up a room for the two to live in. Granted, he did have a room that mostly served as an extra storage unit for all his random inventions and paperwork, but it would take quite a bit of cleaning and refurnishing to make that place suited for a pair of children. Nevertheless, anything would be better than continuing to keep the two in their cell until everything was set up, wasn't it? He'd just have to figure things out along the way…
“Alright then… get dressed. Those clothes are for you”, he addressed the two skeletons, nodding towards the folded sets of clothes on the chair.
“We'll have quite a trip ahead of us.”