MagiStream

It hadn't taken Sans too long to fix the machine. Nonetheless, he still felt a few moments of hesitation; would Mira be upset about Gaster being around? Sans didn't want her to feel uncomfortable, but on the other hand, if he didn't bring Gaster back, what if she died because there was no other way to heal her Soul? If this was really the only way to save her, he had to go through with it. Alphys had seemed to think so, and he trusted her judgement, being the Royal Scientist and all.

Besides, once he was back from the Void, he'd be back to normal, right? All the stuff he had done, it had only been because he was desperate, right? Although, Mira's nightmare sprang back into his mind... Sans sighed. Either way, he didn't have much of a choice. If he didn't bring Gaster back, Mira would apparently very likely end up dying, and Sans couldn't allow that to happen.

That didn't mean he would let Gaster get away with any more experiments involving people's Souls, though. As soon as Gaster was back, they would be having a talk. Sans started up the newly-fixed machine.

A few minutes later, Gaster was standing in front of him, smiling. "Sans, I knew you would be able to fix it and bring me back. Thank you. I... I missed you and Papyrus a lot."

Despite being furious that Gaster had hurt Mira, Sans had still missed him a lot. "i missed you, too. we need to talk, though."

Gaster looked down regretfully, clearly knowing what the conversation would be about. "I am very sorry. I know what I did in the Void was wrong. I shouldn't have tried to take someone's Soul to try to escape. I was just so desperate..."

"i'm not the one you need to apologize to. and you're right, you shouldn't have done that. no more experiments with souls, no more messing with souls, no more hurting people. promise me."

Gaster nodded. "Of course. Nothing like that will happen again."

"good. now, this is important. can you heal people's souls? whatever you did in the void... mira's soul... it's..." Sans could barely manage to get the words out, all of his worries rising back up. What if Alphys was wrong, and Gaster couldn't fix this?

"I... I believe I know what happened, and I should be able to fix it." Gaster replied.

Sans felt hopeful again, though he was still worried about Mira's reaction... What if she did refuse to let Gaster heal her? Hopefully the talk with Alphys would be enough for Mira to agree. "alright. wait outside while i check on her, okay?" After Gaster agreed, Sans teleported both of them outside of the lab. Sans headed inside, while Gaster waited.

Sans approached Mira, looking at her in concern, unsure what she was thinking of all of this. "hey... you alright?"

...........

Alia had no idea that Papyrus was just telling her information he had read over the years without knowing whether it was true or not, and considering how confident he seemed as he spoke, she had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the information. She was still a bit confused by it apparently being possible for a human to learn monster magic, especially because of a particular Soul trait, but if Papyrus seemed so sure of himself... Besides, Alia was never good at being confrontational, so it was much easier to just go along with it. And if it was true that she could learn monster magic because of her Soul trait? Well, that would be cool. So really, there was no reason not to just attempt it.

Alia wondered what the 'strong abilities' attached to the Soul traits that Papyrus mentioned were. Since she'd already asked a few questions, though, she decided not to ask about that right now and derail the conversation. She'd probably find out eventually, anyway, especially since she apparently must have them. Was that what allowed her to summon stuff? Not that she really did that very often, just every now and then when her parents hadn't thought to buy any food she knew how to prepare, so she had to summon her own instant ramen to make...

Anyway. She returned her attention to Papyrus, ensuring her smile was still up. Since he still seemed so sure that she should be able to learn monster magic, she began to feel a bit more confident herself. It would be kind of cool, after all. A human using monster magic? That would be quite unusual. Although, apparently there were books about other humans using it, somewhere. Alia wondered if any of those books were in the stack she'd gathered. She'd definitely have to read through them all carefully to see for herself what Papyrus had read. Though she was still rather curious about something...

She glanced at Chara, wondering what Soul trait they had. Fortunately, Chara seemed to be able to guess what she was wondering without her having to ask the question aloud. "Determination as well." Alia smiled at the similarity between them, but then looked confused. If humans with Determination Souls could learn monster magic, why hadn't Chara been able to? "Well, Rei was not exactly the most patient teacher, and we were both younger at the time than you are now, so perhaps that was why?" Chara seemed to guess what she was thinking again, though they seemed uncertain as they replied.

Alia turned back to Papyrus, not wanting him to wonder why she sometimes seemingly stared off into space for a bit, and nodded. "Alright. So, what should I know about monster magic?"

Mira unhappily taking in the fact that apparently Sans had thought it was a good idea to hide how he was going to ‘help’ her until she really had no choice but to accept it, the thought of seeing that shadowy figure again who was apparently another skeleton wasn’t really something she thought she would ever need to think about...But here she was, Mira worrying about thing as she always did and overthinking her fears on if this Gaster monster was going to be any different than how she first encountered him.

Unfortunately, with Alphys telling her straight to the point that her Soul was beyond repair if she didn’t get help, Mira was stubborn but she wasn’t stupid and knew she was going to have to contend with having the same monster who had attacked her attempt to -heal- her now, her needing to be brave this time around and overcome her deep set anxiety the best she could if she wanted to live.

‘H-he can help you Mira...it’s your only chance...’

Mira not doing anything in particular when Sans showed back up in the lab, the girl tried to give her friend a hopeful smile when he asked if she was okay as she looked up from her lap, her eyes betraying the nervousness she was feeling in every facet of her being, “Oh...never better~”.

Sans was doing everything in his power to help her and for that Mira was eternally grateful, Alphys meanwhile being fidgety as she always was when she was anxious as she waited for confirmation that Sans had done the impossible and brought back a living being from the Void.

“I...uh, do you really think this will work?”, Mira speaking quietly as she seemed to have doubt in her mind that anything about her condition could be fixed, it was a clear sign that her human Determination was beginning to weaken along with her Soul fragment, her optimism not being what it once was, “I mean, I trust you 100% to have made the right choice though~ Monsters...you guys know a lot more about Souls than us humans e-ever have”.

...............

Stars, why was he feeling so -strange- all of a sudden? It wasn’t as if Papyrus hadn’t been feeling strange for quite some time now, but now it was almost as if he could feel his very bones rattling with some sort of response to...something that was effecting his Soul, a familiar energy that was very much not his brother strangely enough coming from somewhere nearby.

Papyrus had been very, very young when Gaster had disappeared and thus had no truly formed memories of the scientist, him never really having questioned Sans about it either seeing as his older brother was the one who raised him anyways. If he had grown to be familiar with Gaster’s energy than Papyrus may have had a major shock to his system, but for now...it was truly just a uneasy feeling in his Soul he could t get rid of easily.

“Alia! I’m sorry that I must cut this conversation short but...I think there may be some business I need to attend towards. Your free to come with if you like or remain here in Snowdin and explore! Whatever suite you best!”, Papyrus trying to not show his concern as he had the feeling something may have been wrong with Sans, he couldn’t quite tell but there was surely a reason he was feeling the way he was, “I promise I will tell you all about Monster magic later! And show you many amazing things besides that!”.

//Alphys' Lab

Sans was very concerned when he saw the nervousness in Mira's eyes that betrayed that her words weren't exactly honest. Really, Sans felt horrible that Mira would have to face Gaster before she was healed, since he'd been intending on waiting until she was fully healed to even bring the subject up. Unfortunately, it seemed like Gaster was the only one who could heal her, and if he didn't, she could die. Which meant he hadn't had a choice. Not that that helped him feel any better. Sans managed to keep up a reassuring smile despite his inner turmoil, hiding how he felt since he didn't want to make Mira feel any more uncertain about this than she already was.

Seeing how fidgety Alphys was, and noticing Mira's nervousness as she spoke, Sans decided to reassure both of them at the same time. "yeah. he says he can heal you." Figuring this would be difficult for Mira even if she tried to put up a brave front, he added, "don't worry, i'll stay with you the whole time, and i'm sure dr. alphys will too. besides, he won't do anything else to hurt you. he's... usually a lot nicer than how he acted in the void. and he regrets that a lot. he's just going to heal your soul."

....

Meanwhile, Gaster was staring at the lab. It had been so long since he'd been here... It was nice to be back. Regardless, he knew that he couldn't focus on reminiscing right now. After all, he'd caused a large problem in his efforts to escape the Void, and now he needed to fix it. Gaster was certain he would be able to; he was rather more knowledgeable about Souls than most. This was the least he could do, really. Gaster hoped that Mira would not be too scared of him after what had happened. After all, she and Sans seemed to be good friends, and he didn't want to cause any issues in their friendship.

Though, he had a feeling convincing her he wanted to help and regretted his actions in the Void would be easier said than done. Between all of the attacks and how scary he must have seemed, he had probably terrified the poor human. Now thinking clearly and free from the Void, Gaster could admit to himself he had handled the situation horribly. Though he was desperate, he shouldn't have tried to hurt Mira just to escape. As frustrated as he'd been with how long it was taking Sans to figure out the machine, if he really thought about it, he had to admit Sans had been dealing with quite a lot. The child had been left to take care of his younger brother all on his own, had needed to balance that with a job to support them, and probably hadn't had much time to actually work through any emotional trauma.

Really, Gaster couldn't blame him. It had been his own fault he got stuck in the Void in the first place, with that ill-fated experiment he really should have known better than to attempt. Well, he couldn't undo what he had done, but he could make sure he never did anything like that again. Gaster would take the promise he had made seriously. No more experiments with Souls.


.................

//Snowdin Library

Alia noticed that something seemed to have distracted Papyrus, and she wondered what it was. When he spoke up about needing to attend to something, Alia just nodded, figuring whatever it was must be important to him. "It's okay, Papyrus. I'll stay and explore." Alia smiled, secretly excited. She could finally explore with Chara again! It would be so nice to be able to talk and tell puns with her first friend for awhile. And the best part was, if Sans ever asked her about it, she could truthfully say Papyrus had told her she could explore on her own!

Once Sans saw she turned out fine exploring by herself, she was sure he'd let her explore on her own more often without telling Toriel. It was perfect! Alia waved to Papyrus, waiting until after he left the library to turn to Chara and speak quietly. "Let's explore!"

Chara grinned and nodded. "Follow me!" Alia eagerly followed as Chara led her back out of Snowdin Town and into Snowdin again. The two crossed the surprisingly long bridge connecting Snowdin Town to the rest of Snowdin, and then found themselves in a field with several lumps of snow strewn about. Alia approached one curiously, glancing at Chara.

"It's a snow poff." Chara replied to her unspoken question. Alia smiled and headed over to the next one. "And this... Is a snow poff." Chara added, grinning as Alia giggled. The duo approached the third. "This, however, is a snow poff," Chara commented. Alia giggled more, eagerly heading over to the next one. "Surprisingly, it's a snow poff," Chara said, smirking. Alia beamed at them, having missed their funny narrations, and set off for the next snow lump... Or snow poff, apparently. "Snow poff..." Another. "Is it really a snow poff?" Chara asked, looking like they were deep in thought. Alia pretended to look surprised and examine it curiously, causing Chara to laugh. Two more to go. Alia approached the next, grinning at Chara. "Behold!" Chara said dramatically, "A snow poff." Alia giggled, barely managing not to fall over laughing. The two approached the final one, Alia waiting with clear anticipation to hear how Chara would introduce the snow poff.

"Eh? There is 30G inside this... What is this?" Chara said, and this time Alia was unable to hold herself up and fell backwards into the snow, laughing. Chara floated above her, grinning at her reaction.

"I missed your narrations, Character," Alia managed to say between giggles.

"Well, I have plenty more to make up for it." Chara replied, looking rather happy that Alia enjoyed their comments so much.

Alia grinned, starting to make a snow angel where she'd landed in the snow. After awhile, she got up, moved over slightly, and started making a second one right beside the first. "There. One for each of us."

Chara hesitated for a moment, but then floated over, hovering slightly above the first snow angel. Alia turned her head to grin at them.

It was only natural that Mira was bound to be uneasy about encountering Gaster outside of the Void, the girl having a hard time with trying to be truly brave despite Sans reassurance that everything was going to work out and that she would be healed in no time. Mira wasn’t the bravest human to begin with and she tended to be emotional at the best of times, it taking every nerve in her body to not outright reject the idea of her former attacker changing his tune in order to heal what he had broken.

Through all her frustration...Mira’s inborn trait for being kind and forgiving was prevailing, even towards Gaster. She couldn’t bring herself to truly ‘hate’ anyone, her remembering the feeling of overwhelming sadness and desperation she had sensed coming from the monster before he had attacked. Sure, she may have barely known anything about him, but it was at least clear that there was likely much more than maliciousness to the mysterious scientist.

“Thank you, Sans~”, Trying to calm her nervousness with a hopeful smile towards her skeletal friend as he reassured her that he and Dr. Alphys wouldn’t be leaving her side while she was being healed, if his met she would finally be back to normal then she was willing to cooperate with Gaster despite her well founded fears, “Once this is all over...t-things will be like they used to be, right? We can go back to trying to find a way to get rid o-of the barrier?”.



...................

‘Something isn’t right, I can feel it...-what- is going on lately today??’

Papyrus really having done his best to take his mind off the odd sensation he had been feeling all morning by explaining ‘Monster magic’ to young Alia, it was true that the skeleton had been going off things he had learned for the most part in books, but some bits such as the ‘magic’ of certain human traits had been things he had picked up in hearing pieces of conversations over the years between his brother and Alphys mostly when he had been still a little too young to be left on his own.

A skeleton never truly forget things, eh?


Despite his odd and occasionally eccentric behavior, Papyrus was pretty damned smart and knew when something was up, him simply not being -sure- what’s was going on though as he returned to the house once Alia decided to wander off on a small adventure only to find nothing really out of place within.

‘Sans was going back to the lab, right? Maybe that’s it! Maybe Mira is even healed perhaps? Only one way to find out!’

It didn’t take the for once red hoodie wearing skeleton to make his way to Hotland with the thought that maybe he was getting a weird vibe because his closest human friend in the Underground was under some kind of distress. Papyrus wasn’t able to port like Sans could, leaving him to walk the distance to the lab where...he came across a rather peculiar figure seemingly observing the outside of the building thoughtfully.

“Hey! Are you here to see the human as well?”, A grin remaining on his face as usual as he greeted the stranger with a wave, it took a second for Papyrus to notice that...well, this wasn’t the usual type of monster that tended to inhabit this area of the Underground...or really anywhere at all....

“Ah, I uh, mean, or maybe you are a acquaintance of Dr. Alphys from the Capital? I don’t believe I have seen you around here before!”.

//Alphys' Lab

Sans could tell Mira was still rather nervous, despite his efforts to reassure her. Of course, he wasn't very surprised that seeing Gaster again so soon would make her nervous, but unfortunately this was the only lead Alphys seemed to think would work. Sans knew Gaster wouldn't hurt Mira, but after her experience in the Void, she would likely be quite wary of him, and Sans didn't blame her. Well, at least she didn't seem to be completely against the idea, as he'd worried she might be...

"yeah," Sans replied to Mira's question. "of course we'll keep looking for ways to help you get back home. don't worry." Sans smiled, though inwardly he still felt a bit sad at the idea of Mira leaving... Nonetheless, he wanted her to be happy, like he wanted all his friends to be happy, even if it meant feeling sad. So if she wanted to return to the surface, he would do his best to help her find a way. Getting rid of the barrier entirely was a whole other matter, one that would likely take quite a lot longer to figure out... But in the meantime, he'd still try to find a way for her to pass through it.

"are you ready now, or do you need a bit more time first?" Sans didn't want to put any pressure on Mira to face Gaster before she felt ready, but he also didn't want her to wait so long her condition got much worse. Hopefully, she'd feel ready for this sooner rather than later. Besides, he had no idea how bored Gaster was getting waiting outside the lab, or how anyone who happened to pass by might react to seeing him.

Maybe Sans hadn't thought all of this through as much as he should have, but since it was to save Mira, he figured it was worth it.

......

Gaster was startled to hear a very familiar font, and turned to find Papyrus standing nearby. For a moment, Gaster froze up in surprise at unexpectedly seeing his younger son. Soon, though, he recovered and smiled warmly at him, glad to finally be face to face with him again. Though, he soon realized that Papyrus didn't seem to recognize him... At all.

"Ah, hello there. I'm Gaster, and yes, I'm here to heal the human." Gaster wondered if Papyrus would recognize his name at all... The younger skeleton had been very young indeed when he had disappeared, after all, and it seemed like almost everyone had completely forgotten about him, so unfortunately, the chances were good that Papyrus really had no idea at all who he was.

It was rather unfortunate, but Gaster knew he had no one to blame but himself. If he hadn't been so focused on that experiment to the exclusion of all else... Perhaps all of this could have been avoided.

It felt so weird, to see his son treating him like a stranger. Hopefully, in time they could become a family again... Gaster knew he had gone too far for the sake of science too many times. It would not happen again. From now on, he would focus on what was truly important. Family.

Though he hesitated to ask, he soon couldn't stop himself, needing to know for sure. "Do... Do you recognize me, Papyrus?"



.........
//Snowdin

Alia was very much enjoying talking and telling puns with Chara, something she had been missing very much since they had wandered through the Ruins together. However, it was not to last as a familiar flower popped up after only around twenty minutes.

"Howdy!" Flowey said, announcing his presence. Looking around, he seemed rather confused at first. "Making snow angels? Why?"

"Why not?" Alia asked. Flowey didn't seem to have a retort for that, and just stared at her. "I can make one for you, too, if you want."

"Wha- No, that's not necessary." Flowey replied, looking completely bewildered.

Alia giggled. "If you say so."

"Besides, there's another one right there?" Flowey pointed at the apparently empty snow angel beside Alia's with a leaf.

"Sorry, you need to leaf that one alone," Alia said after a few moments, giggling.

Flowey sighed at the pun, but didn't complain. "Okay, okay. Anyway... I have some questions for you."

"Okay." Alia was quite curious what questions Flowey was planning on asking. The flower's motives had been quite confusing from the moment they met. She wondered if she would finally figure out what was going on.

"So, you like chocolate, huh? Why?" Flowey asked.

Alia figured she couldn't really say she had a ghost helping her who loved chocolate, so she stuck with mentioning the pie Toriel had made. "Toriel made a pie with chocolate in it. It tasted good."

Flowey seemed to be watching her carefully as she replied. After several moments, he nodded, seeming to accept the answer.

"Alright, my turn then." Alia said with a smirk. At Flowey's confused look, she explained, "Well, it's only fair that I get to ask you questions too." Flowey scowled for a moment, but hesitantly nodded. "Great! Well then... Why did you want me to explore on my own?"

Flowey sighed. "So I could ask you some questions without the smil- I mean, uh. Sans-" Flowey hissed the name- "Without him around." Flowey seemed irritated for a bit, but then his cheery expression returned. "My turn again! Are you trying to get back to the surface?"

Alia looked away. "No." She was silent for a bit after that, but when she eventually looked back at Flowey, he seemed to be deep in thought. "Why the sudden change in tactics? One moment you're threatening me, and the next time I see you, you want to be friends."

Flowey huffed. "That's none of your business."

Alia sighed, but didn't pressure him to answer, though she very much wanted to know what was going on with him. "Alright, never mind." Though she felt like it kind of was her business, considering it was her he had been threatening before. Nonetheless, she preferred the strange peace over the threats, so she wasn't about to antagonize him.

"Why don't you want to go back to the surface?" Flowey asked.

"Hey, it's still my turn!"

"Oh, alright, hurry up then," Flowey replied impatiently.

"So, have you always been a talking flower?" Alia asked, the question mostly meaning whether he had always been able to talk, or if he had always been sentient. Though she also wasn't ruling out the possibility he'd been magically turned into a flower somehow.

Flowey frowned, looking rather irritated. "I don't like this game anymore. Can it be my turn now?"

Alia was somewhat confused by his reaction, but figured it might be a sore subject for him if he had been magically turned into a flower, so she just sighed and nodded. "Okay. I... Never really belonged, on the surface. But down here everyone is so much nicer."

Flowey froze.

......

"Do you ever think about going back to the surface, Chara?"

"Not really. Not without you and everyone else, at least."

"Why not?"

"I never belonged there. But everyone here is so nice. Here, with you and everyone else... It feels more like home than the surface ever did."

As soon as he recovered, Flowey burrowed back into the ground, completely ignoring Alia's statement that he was skipping her turn twice. Alia really seemed to have a lot in common with Chara, didn't she? But was there more to this than just her being another human child who'd been mistreated by the other humans? Unfortunately, he couldn't go back up and ask any more questions now. If he did, she'd definitely insist on having a turn asking him questions before he could ask any more. And after his reaction just now, he had a good idea what her question would be.

All he wanted was his sibling back...

(This poor confused beanpole of a Skeleton xD and man, your post with Flowey and such gave me the FEELS)

Mira was naturally nervous of the idea of once again seeing the very monster who had put her in here, but she understood that she could trust Sans to be telling the truth and that she wouldn’t be hurt by him again, her having most of her trust in the hoodie wearing skeleton and not thinking he would be the type to lie to her just to make her feel better.

Her Soul was broken, practically shattered, but she was persisting solely because she wanted to see through to it that monsters like Sans were able to go through the barrier keeping them locked down here and assist in any way she could. If she didn’t have this determination there was a high chance that Mira would have given up by now and withered away, leaving her remnants of Souls in the Underground as a sign that yet another human had perished down here.

“It’s really okay, Sans~ If I-if he can help me than I won’t be afraid”, Smiling hopefully at her friend as she took one of his boney hands into her own and gave it a tight squeeze, Mira may have been hurting but she was going to be strong for her friends sake...for all of her friends, “As soon as this is all over I’m going to bake you guys a cake to make up for all this trouble~”.

Mira could sense that Sans, even with his constant, lazy smile, was likely just as nervous as she was, her trying to give -him- some hope by remaining brave in the face of what could very likely turn out to be a dangerous gamble if her Soul proved to be unfixable, “L-let’s get this done with...I just want to be normal again, Sans”.

..............................

‘This feeling...why is it making my bones shake this way?....’

The closer he had gotten to the lab where Mira was being looked after the harder it had gotten for Papyrus to ignore the weird sensation of ‘guilt’ in his Soul that he was feeling, the usually happy Skeleton had been feeling this way ever since he had met Alia earlier and had made a rather odd Introduction to the child, his nerves having been entirely off the whole time as his mind had been in other places despite his best efforts.

He was going to have to make it up to her someday!....but for now, the tall monster was focused on the stranger he had unexpectedly met in front of Alphys’s lab, him recognizing the fellow monster as a skeleton but not much else. It this was another time and another story maybe Papyrus may have registered a familiarity between himself and the stranger, but right now all he was getting was a weird sense of deja vu as his unease increased.

“Oh! Well, uh...it’s very nice to meet you, Gaster. I don’t understand how I missed there being more skeletons then me and Sans, my brother down here, but either way this is a interesting surprise”.

Holding out a friendly hand, Papyrus’s grin diminished greatly when Gaster suddenly asked him if he somehow ‘recognized’ him, even the chatty skeleton knowing that he had not mentioned his name yet to the unnervingly formal stranger as he referred to him as ‘Papyrus’.

“U-uh...no, I don’t! Should I? Like I said, I was unaware that there were other skeletons down here besides me and my brother. I’m sure if I recognized you I could spot you in a crowd even”, Chuckling a bit nervously as he shoved his hands in his hoodie that he was wearing for once, even his beloved costume couldn’t be worn -all- the time, “If I can ask, how did you catch my name though? Do you know Sans maybe?”.

(Flowey is literally just constant feels right now Gotta make up for all that time of feeling nothing at all... All at once, apparently. )

.....
//Alphys' Lab

Seeing that Mira seemed more hopeful now as she spoke, though Sans knew there was always the chance she was still really nervous but was hiding it from him, he nodded. It was a relief that she was willing to let Gaster heal her without hesitation, since he didn't want her to risk dying just to avoid seeing Gaster again. After what had happened in the Void, he was impressed by how brave she was being.

"alright. i'll be right back, he's waiting outside." Sans smiled reassuringly, squeezing Mira's hand back. Sans headed to the door of the lab again, hoping that everything would go smoothly so Mira wouldn't have any reason to worry. Of course, he was sure Gaster would be careful while healing her Soul. With how apologetic and regretful he'd seemed, Sans knew Gaster would do everything he could to make the process as smooth as possible.

Reaching the door, Sans opened it, and was surprised to see Papyrus outside as well, and... Wearing a hoodie? Now that was unexpected; Papyrus hadn't taken his super cool costume off in quite a long time. It had probably been years at this point. Nonetheless, Sans decided to save his question about that for later, since healing Mira was the top priority right now.

"hey, gaster. she's ready. heya bro, don't worry, mira's gonna be completely fine soon." Sans smiled at Papyrus, not wanting him to worry about Mira as he ushered Gaster inside the lab.

......

Gaster noticed Papyrus seemed to have become uneasy, and figured it might have worried him that he seemed to recognize Papyrus while Papyrus had no idea who he was. Truthfully, Gaster didn't blame him for feeling nervous upon hearing that what he considered to be a complete stranger recognized him. Still, he felt quite a bit of sadness at the clear indication that Papyrus truly didn't remember him in the slightest.

Still, he hid it, figuring now probably wasn't the best time to explain everything, since he needed to heal Mira still. Perhaps later on he could explain who he was... Hopefully by then, Sans would also be around to help explain it, since Papyrus was probably much more willing to believe his brother than what was effectively a stranger in his eyes.

"Ah, my apologies... Yes, I have spoken with Sans. Perhaps we can talk more later? I will likely be needed for healing the human soon." Gaster said as he shook his hand, hoping to ease Papyrus's uncertainty. Sure enough, less than a minute after he had spoken, Sans appeared at the door.


.........
//Snowdin

Alia and Chara exchanged a glance after Flowey burrowed underground. There was definitely something up with that flower. This was twice now he'd disappeared mid-conversation after freezing up for a bit. Alia wondered why he kept doing that. Chara seemed to be thinking, but if they had any ideas, they weren't saying them.

"Well, shall we continue exploring?" Alia suggested eventually, after Chara seemed to be finished thinking. Chara nodded, floating up and starting to lead the way again. Alia followed eagerly, telling a few puns as they walked, and soon Chara was telling puns again as well, acting like nothing had happened. They walked for a bit, until Chara spotted a path they had not gone down before, and headed towards it curiously. Alia followed eagerly, wondering what they would find.

At the end of the path was a snow sculpture of Papyrus... and a lump of snow with 'Sans' written on it in ketchup. Both Alia and Chara burst out laughing.

"Wow, he really was not kidding about the snow lump thing, was he?" Chara asked, looking amused.

"Guess not," Alia replied, grinning. The snowball he'd made as the base for her snowman was less lumpy than this, and she felt even happier inside, knowing he'd put more effort into helping her than he usually would.

Mira knowing she had to be strong if she wanted to have everything go back to relative normalcy again, it was probably obvious to Sans that she was feeling unsure of herself and needed the have his reassurance to convince herself that things would go as they should. After all, the human had proven in the past few weeks that she had a tendency to mask her feelings when she was stressed, Sans having been been the one to comfort her whenever he had sensed something was up.

Watching as Sans went to go retrieve the rather intimidating skeleton that was lingering outside as her smile faded slightly after, Mira blushed and looked over at Alphys who wasn’t Interfering in this soft moments between the friends, her appearing to be deep in thought on actually seeing her old friend and one time mentor again after all this time.

‘After all this t-time, he really was alive.....It should be impossible, but.....’

Twiddling her thumbs as she tried to give Mira a nod that said everything would be alright, the silent, somber mood in the lab said everything they could to each other as both understood that this was going to be the end of the life if for some reason Gaster wasn’t able to heal Mira in the way it was suggested he could.

The sound of the lab door opening again a minute later or so causing Mira to tense up almost instinctively as her eyes fell upon Sans and the much taller, black clad skeleton that had haunted her nightmares practically from the moment she had first fallen her, the human h-had to be brave, but it was so -hard- to do so, her wide eyes looking at Sans and then back at Gaster as she remained silent but gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

“Stars, I-it’s so good to see you again after so long, Sir....”, Alphys looking a bit emotional herself as it had been what, ten years since she had last seen the former Royal scientist? The lizard monster barely saw any difference between the skeleton between when he had disappeared and now...w-which was odd, her in her constantly moving scientific mind making a mental note to ask him about ‘the Void’ later and detail everything that he could tell her about this formless world between universes.

.....................

Gaster having disappeared from his life when he could barely form memories of his own much less recognize a face to a name, Papyrus and Sans almost never spoke about things such as parents and the like seeing as his bro had raised him in every way a parent should have if they hadn’t been swallowed up by their own creation and left two young skeleton monsters to fend for themselves in the world....

Okay, maybe that last bit was ever so slightly harsh, but it begged the question on if the usually happy going Papyrus would ever take kindly to the fact that his and Sans father had been brought back after almost a decade of being out of their life, thrusting such a potentially troublesome and life changing thing onto a already quite emotional monster having it’s problems that could arise.

There was something so oddly suspicious to Papyrus about this though....how had he not known there was another skeleton down here all this time...and how did he seemingly knows Sans without his bro telling him there was another of their kind for so long?

“Uh, yeah...the human needs to be healed as she is very ill from what I have seen! I will be sure to meet you again later though so uh, we can talk more”, Papyrus shaking the skeletons hand as the fact that this stranger had two, perfectly formed holes in his palms didn’t escape him, it was odd...but perhaps just a quirk of his monster lineage?

Seeming to be a bit more easy with this oddly similar stranger as his worries from earlier in the day melted away a bit, if there was going to be this skeleton, Alphys, Sans, -and- Mira in the lab than Papyrus didn’t want to crowd it anymore, him reluctantly resigning himself to the fact that he was just going to have to check up on their dear human later once she was surely healed by the greatness of monster magic.

//Alphys' Lab

As Sans returned inside the lab with Gaster, he saw Mira's eyes were wide and she seemed intimidated by Gaster. Quickly, he headed over to her, smiling reassuringly. "it's okay. i'll be right here the whole time." Sans had hoped that with him and Alphys there, having to see Gaster wouldn't be so difficult for Mira, though so far it seemed like she was still nervous. Still, he'd do his best to help her feel less nervous if he could.

While he felt confident Gaster would be able to fix this, he could see why Mira might not be so sure of it, after all trusting someone who had hurt her before would certainly be difficult. Regardless, he hoped that seeing his confidence would help Mira feel a bit better about things.

Sans also wondered how Papyrus was doing; Sans had half been expecting him to show up at some point to check on Mira again, but he definitely hadn't been expecting him to be wearing a hoodie. Why did he suddenly switch outfits, especially when he loved his costume so much? Was it because Papyrus was very worried about Mira, even though he (and presumably Alphys and Mira as well) had downplayed what was going on significantly? Papyrus had usually been rather good at telling when someone was hurting a lot, so he might have realized there was more going on than what they were telling him. Well, at least soon everything would be fixed and then he'd have nothing to worry about, right?

....

Gaster sighed inwardly as he saw Mira's reaction; while he had been expecting her to be upset over what had happened in the Void, he didn't want her to be uncomfortable while he healed her, especially since he doubted there was anyone else who possessed the knowledge necessary to heal her instead. At least she didn't seem to be freaking out as much as she could have been... When she nodded in acknowledgement, Gaster nodded back, about to speak up to apologize for what had happened when Alphys suddenly spoke up, distracting him.

Seeing Alphys looked emotional, Gaster couldn't help but smile, especially as he recalled the times they had spoken in the past... Before his ill-fated experiment sent him to the Void. Half wondering what new anime she had found to ramble about while he was gone, he decided to ask her about that once he had healed Mira. "Doctor Alphys, it's a pleasure to see you again. We'll have to catch up later." Gaster smiled at her again, before turning back to Mira, his expression now remorseful. "I am so sorry. I have no excuse for what I did. I know it won't make up for it, but please allow me to heal your Soul... I want to fix the harm I have caused."

Though breaking off a piece of her Soul had been a complete accident, he had been trying to steal her Soul at the time, and he of course felt horrible about it, especially since she was now likely in a lot of pain. Although he figured Alphys probably would have made something to numb the pain while figuring out what to do. Anyway, he wanted to do what he could to help.


........
//Snowdin

Alia and Chara eventually set off again, sometimes telling puns, and sometimes Chara would tell stories of adventures they had exploring with Asriel. Alia could tell the two siblings had been very close, and wondered where Asriel was... Though, she didn't ask since she figured that if Chara knew, they would have asked to visit him by now. She hoped they would come across him soon, though she also felt bad that he probably wouldn't be able to see Chara if they did... Maybe that was why Chara didn't seem to be in a rush to visit him. It would probably be really hard to see him, but not be able to communicate with him...

Maybe they should go back to the library so Alia could keep reading books and looking for ways to help. Then again, she was having so much fun exploring and listening to Chara's stories... She sighed inwardly, feeling rather selfish for having gone exploring before finding a way to help Chara communicate with the monsters again. At least Chara seemed happy exploring too.

Chara seemed to notice something was up, though, and looked at her in concern. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, no, sorry!" Alia replied hastily, smiling to try to seem more convincing.

Chara didn't seem convinced, but didn't pry for answers. They simply started telling another story, and Alia did her best to just focus on listening rather than thinking about her internal conflict.

Mira knowing that she needed to be brave for her own sake and that freaking out in front of Gaster wasn’t really going to help anyone, the usually shy human was thankful that Sans was willing to stay with her until whatever ‘healing’ process that Gaster intended to use was finished. It almost made her feel a bit ‘bad’ in a way that Sans was helping her out so much between finding her in that mysterious void and generally making sure she was safe ...but he did seem to enjoy keeping a eye out for her so she wasn’t going to complain.

The sight of the much taller skeleton entering the lab though sending a instinctual urge for fight or flight to the girls mind as she blushed unhappily and tried to keep her cool, it wasn’t exactly easy seeing as she knew what he was capable of, her having seen what was likely just a bit of his power when she had nearly become stuck in the void with him herself.

H-he had almost killed her....and yet...she knew in her injured Soul that the monster standing before her wasn’t ‘evil’ in any sort of way....even if he was pretty intimidating.

“I-I know you didn’t mean it...or at least, well, I’m pretty sure I know....you were stuck there, weren’t you? It’s why you did this...”, Looking up at Gaster apprehensively as she could feel her heart beating fast in her chest, Mira could see similarities between him and Sans but even more so between him and Papyrus, namely the fact that both were slim and tall while Sans was short and had a bit of pudge.

Come to think of it, where -was- that usually happy skeleton?

Mira trying to hide the pain she was feeling in order to not worry anyone, especially Sans, about her condition, the short stack of a girl just wanted to get this done with so hopefully she could continue to try and assist in any way she could as a human towards research for breaking the barrier, “I’m not upset with you...please, just help me make this pain go away...”.

There were so many -things- she wanted to do before all of this had gone down and dammit she wasn’t going to let some stupid, very much unintentional incident ruin it, the stubborn Mira trying to smile small at the scientist before her as she offered him a hand, “I-I’ve been down her a while and I know monsters aren’t bad. Sans, Papyrus, and everyone else has shown me t-that...so I won’t be afraid of you either, Mr. Gaster”.