Sans sighed and let his gaze wander up to Papyrus, who was sitting next to him on his racecar bed.
He would never forget the day they build it for the younger skeleton- they being he and dad, back when everything was still alright.
Papyrus had been a little babybones, no older than five years and still smaller than Sans, who had been around nine at the time.
"SO BROTHER, WHAT DID YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT?"
The older skeleton felt his grin go tight at the edges, magic being the only thing that held it up anymore.
He didn't want to smile.
"do you.. remember the day we got this for ya, paps?"
Better to ease Papyrus into it, instead of rushing to get it out like he originally wanted to.
After all, the younger one had no memory of their father.
Papyrus nodded enthusiastically, when Sans pointed to the racecar bed.
"I CAME BACK FROM SCHOOL AND YOU SURPRISED ME WITH IT! THAT WAS SO COOL! YOU SAID A GREAT GUY LIKE ME NEEDED A GREAT BED TOO!"
'tch, course.', he scoffed.
Why did he even try? Papyrus had never remembered before, why would he start now all of a sudden?
Sans heaved a heavy sigh, hands shoved deep into his jackets pockets.
"it wasn't me. not alone, at least.", he finally forced out. "dad build it. i just helped."
The silence after that stretched on for minutes.
"D-Dad?"
He turned his face away, didn't want Papyrus to see the pain there.
"yeah, dad. you can't remember him, i know."
'but i can.', Sans added internally, anger about his fathers stupidity rising.
Why had he been such an idiot?
"Why can't I remember him?", his brother asked with a quiet voice before Sans could get lost in his thoughts. "And why do you remember?"
"he fell into the core, years ago. i wa-" Sans quickly cut himself off. "you were still a babybones, younger than frisk."
And as for why Sans could remember Gaster..
He hoped Papyrus would drop that question.
He didn't feel up to revealing anything about the DT projects down in the True Lab to him.
And he wasn't sure how his brother would react to the news that daddy dearest pumped him full of determination back in the days.
Then again, to be fair, Gaster had asked him, time and time again, gave him all the chances of getting out before it started.
But Sans had been a kid. And stupid, so incredibly stupid.
Gaster had (without thinking or any idea about how that would affect a kid) told him he was a weapon, to destroy humanity, that that's what he was created for.
And of course Sans wanted to make him proud.
The doc could've probably told him to go fight all of humanity by himself and the young skeleton would have gone without so much as a second thought.
Needless to say, the second everything had gone to shit and Gaster realised just how much pain Sans went through on these DT sessions, he stopped them completely.
Sans wasn't allowed to enter the lab after that, his father too afraid of mindlessly rambling on about something and Sans doing it again.
Because for as clever Gaster was, he wasn't very good at thinking things through to the end.
The incident with Margret earlier was the best proof of that.
Anyways.
Shortly after, Gaster created Papyrus and set up a secondary lab in the room behind their house in Snowdin, eager to spent more time with his sons.
"But.. nobody ever said anything about a dad?"
Sans sighed.
Clearly, he didn't thought this through.
"that's cause nobody remembers.", he answered slowly, opting to go for as true as possible.
He didn't like lying to Papyrus.
"i remember cause i'm older and well, he made us."
"So if I would have been older, I would remember him too?"
Nodding hesitantly, Sans pulled the picture out of his jacket to show it to his brother.
It was graved into his skull after hours and hours of looking at it, wishing nothing more than for his dad to come back.
"That's you! And me!" Payrus pointed to the little skeletons on the picture, himself on Gasters arm and Sans hiding behind his legs. "Is.. Is that.. Dad?"
The older smiled a little and nodded.
"that's dadster"
Oh, how Gaster had hated it when he called him that, chased him through the lab or the house whenever the word left his mouth.
"What was he like?"
For a second, Sans looked up at his brother, so confused, so curious, and the smile got bigger.
"he was a lot like you, brave and curious and cool. he loved jokes and puzzles and when you woke him up before he had his coffee, he would tickle you until you left the bed again, screaming and laughing."
'he was the best dad anybody could hope for.'
Papyrus seemed to beam at that, eye sockets suddenly filled with stars.
"Nye heh heh!", he giggled. "We have the best Dad ever, brother!"
Heh.
'Have'.
That's right- if everything worked out the way Sans hoped it would at least.
"paps, do ya know why i told you about him after all this time?"
Papyrus shook his head and settled down again, watching Sans curiously as he pulled the soul closer to him with his magic.
"i may be able to bring him back."
"But.. Didn't you say he died?"
The older shook his head and let the soul hover over his palms. "he fell into the core, he never died. he went to a place called 'the void'. sometimes i can visit him when i teleport."
He heaved a sigh and scratched his bare skull.
"if i do it right, i can bring him this soul and he'll be strong enough to leave that place."
"That sounds like a dangerous idea, brother.", Papyrus countered after a few seconds of thinking and Sans nodded.
"i ran out of good ones a long time ago."
But really, what had he left to lose?
.
Gaster cursed and threw his fists against the displays hard enough for them to crack.
How could someone as smart as Sans be so stupid?!
He was lost!
There was no way of bringing him back!
He already got anxious every single time his oldest son used his powers, afraid the Void would recognize the piece of Gasters soul in his and keep him here.
And now he planned to come here?
Willingly?!
What if he got stuck?
What if he couldn't find a shortcut back home?
What if-
"👉➕👍😐︎ ❄👇✋💧︎✏️"
Gaster made it a point of not losing his temper around the boys- even when he was only watching them through weird displays in the Void- and when he did, he cursed in wingdings (because neither Sans nor Papyrus had ever learned them), but this time he couldn't hold himself back.
He wanted to go back.
He wanted to be there for his sons, especially Sans, who was forced through so much after his fall, who still woke up crying and screaming his name in the middle of the night.
But the fear of one of them getting lost here..
It was bigger than his desire to go home.
Way bigger.
He tried contacting Sans, but his power was still recharging after Maya and his stunt earlier.
"Maya!"
The girl had the same soul trait as he!
If they managed to share a body- for only a few seconds, bur still-, he should be able to contact her even in this state!
And that was exactly what he did, but before he could utter a single word, the girl threw him out again.
'Not. Now. Gaster.'
He managed to sneak a peak of what she was doing and immediately withdrew, completely agreeing with her.
He'd never get those pictures out of his head.
Groaning, the skeleton slumped to the ground, skull in his hands.
He had to do something!
It was frustrating, being able to see into everybodys future but his own.
And since he made Sans and Papyrus from his own soul, their futures were out of limit too.
There was no way to tell if Sans and he would make it back out- not with his power being as weak as it was right now.
What did he even do to deserve this?
Wasn't being stuck in here bad enough?
Wasn't he already paying enough for his sins like this?
Gaster wasn't delusional- and despite what most mosters thought, he didn't have a god complex either- he knew he deserved being stuck in he Void.
He knew he had done a lot of things that reserved him a place in the darkest pits of hell- if he would believe in something as trivial as 'Gods' and 'hell', that was.
Which he didn't, by the way.
Because he was the smartest skeleton (or monster in general, really) that ever saw the light of day, so why couldn't he figure out a way to tell his son to stop it?!
'This was so much easier when I could still ground him.'
"Nye heh heh! We have the best Dad ever, brother!"
Papyrus voice reached his ears, so much adoration and love in it that he felt like breaking down crying.
He wanted to pull both of them in a hug, tell Papyrus how proud he was of him, mend Sans scars until they were no more.
"i ran out of good ones a long time ago."
Sans voice was so different from his brothers, so full of pain and desperation, that it broke his non-existent soul.
Then he realised with a start that their voices went quiet on the displays.
Gaster scrambled to his feet, only to catch a glimpse of Sans, the soul in his hand, waving his youngest son goodbye, before disappearing.
"💧︎👇✋❄✏️ 💧︎👇✋❄✏️ 💧︎👇✋❄✏️"
He threw his fists against the displays again.
"SANS, YOU IDIOT!"
"geez, i'm happy to see you too, old man."
Gaster whirled around, ready to ground him into the next century, but stopped dead in his tracks when his eye sockets fell on his son.
"Have you been crying?"
Okay, that was definitely not what he intended to ask.
Sans smile grew a tad wider.
"ya never change, huh?"
He might have a point there.
Gaster had never been good with words.
Or feelings.
Or both of them combined.
"Do you really think this is a smart idea?", he asked instead.
"nope"
Finally, a small smile stole itself on Gasters skull.
"Good. I'd be concerned if you did."
Sans laughed softly and Gaster was reminded of how much time had passed since he saw him the last time.
And suddenly he couldn't care less about the consequences.
Because it had been even longer since he saw Papyrus for the last time.
"ya comin?"
Gaster sighed, but the smile stubbornly refused to leave his face.
"You still refuse to talk properly, I see."
"aah, there you are, old man!", Sans joked and held the soul out to him. "ya wanna go home?"
He could feel the power rolling off of it in waves, felt his body react to the soul, desire pulling him closer.
He stretched out a shaking hand, sending one last look at his son.
"Even if this works, you're still grounded."
His hand closed around the soul and milky white turned into a deep purple.
Gaster gasped as power spread through his body and magic ran through his bones, the feeling so foreign after all this time that it threatened to overwhelm him.
He felt the darkness of the Void around him, pressing down on him, grabbing at him with sharp claws.
He felt alive, buzzing with life and energy, a heavy contrast to the emptiness that surrounded him for so long.
And then, for the first time in almost two decades, he felt curious.
Tears gathered in his eye sockets when questions swarmed his head.
How was the Underground?
How much had changed?
How much could he still change?
Would some monsters remember him?
Could he be the Royal Scientist again?
What about his friends?
Question after question popped up, until his skull seemed to buzz with them.
Oh, glorious curiosity!
His eye sockets glowed purple and the soul in his hands shined brighter than any light he had ever seen.
Pulsation after pulsation went through it, his power growing stronger with each one.
It went on for a few minutes, purple mist gathering around the soul, until he pulled it in, phasing it through his ripcage with a gasp.
A purple shockwave went through the Void and the light disappeared.
He felt his bones turn harder, the goo leaving his body completely, and when he looked down at himself, he saw his favorite turtleneck sweater under a dark trench coat, and pants on his legs.
He held his hands up for investigation.
The holes were still there.
He was himself again.
"ya ready to go home, dad?"
His eye sockets flew to a teary eyed Sans and faster than it should be possible, he nodded, pulling his son into a much needed hug.
His magic reacted the instant he thought about their house back in Snowdin.
And when he ripped his eyes open again, he saw Papyrus, looking at them with big eye sockets, purple mist around them vanishing.
"ARE YOU MY DAD?!"
Tears streaming down his face, Gaster nodded and opened his other arm for the younger skeleton to join them.
He had his sons back.
He really had his sons back.
"I'm so proud of both of you."
And then he joined Sans in breaking down, no intention of letting go of him any time soon- or ever again, really.
~
Wingdings:
1) FUCK THIS!
2) SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!
A cookie for everyone that gets the Good Omens reference that I put in this chapter c: