//------------------------------//
// Chapter 22 - The Crystal War: Part 3 
// Story: Lost Dreamer 
// by Arceaion 
//------------------------------//

When the small group left the base it was in the middle of a blizzard, Chara didn't want anyone to follow them and the blizzard would cover their tracks; they traveled for hours in the snow till finally, the reached the old laboratory. When the lab first came in to view everyone, even Chara, stared in awe. It was a massive facility covered in a shimmering dome of magic that blocked the blizzard from entering, Chara reached out a hand and it passed through with only a ripple. She turned to the group and nodded with a smile as she entered the others following. "SO this is Grandpas' old lab?" Frisk asked as she looked around getting a chuckle form Chara. 

"It's impressive, compared to the Lab in Hotland this place is way better." She said as she approached the door and examined a key pad on it. "Looks like it's locked... what was the password?" She muttered as she looked at the keys for a moment before typing in a code and the door unlocked. "Vivete a lungo nel cuore, of course you choose something cheesy Gaster." She muttered with a smile as the door opened and she turned to look at the group. "Stay close to me." She said as they entered the building.

As soon as they entered they were hit with a blast of hot air and Chara smiled as she began to walk down the dusty halls. "Chara, do you know what we're looking for?" Asriel asked as he walked beside her.

Chara shrugged. "I don't know what you're looking for here bro, most of the stuff here is only useful to me." She said with a shrug.

Asriel sighed. "Okay, I'm just here to make sure you leave to be honest." He said with a chuckle. "Not sure why the princesses wanted to come or Frisk for that matter."

"Hey, I wanted to seem my Grandfathers first lab!" Frisk yelled defensively.

Chara smiled as she placed an arm around Asriel and pulled him down for a noogie. "Okay goat boy, that's enough ribbing my wife!" She said playfully.

"NO, do not noogie the goat!" He exclaimed as he tried to pull away.

Charta smiled before turning to the princesses. "So what are you looking to get out of this?" She asked.

Luna frowned. "Answers." She said simply as she eyed Chara. "And what do you seek."

Chara sighed. "I doubt you'll find any here." She said as she continued to lead the group down the halls. "As for what I'm after, well there are three things." She said with a smile. "The first is Dr. Gaster’s notes and work on the Monster resurrection stabilizer, if I'm lucky then there's still some kept in deep freeze and I will be able to immediately start reviving monsters. Second is a Determination booster Gaster developed here, I don’t need it but it'll be extremely useful to Frisk." She said as she pulled her wife into a sidelong hug.

Frisk sighed. "Do you have to be like this with me every time I’m around?" She asked with fake anger.

Chara hugged her wife even more. "I get to see you for the first time in months and you gripe about me loving you, just wait till we get to the bedroom." She said whispering the last part in Frisks ear making her face turn red. Chara chuckled. "The last thing is... well I don’t actually know." She said with a shrug.

Celestia tilted her head confused. "You don't know?" She asked in a deadpanned voice.

Chara shrugged. "Gaster wanted it to be a surprise so I have no idea." She said with a smile as they exited the hall and entered the main lab. 

The room they were in was massive and lined with benches covered with old and dusty equipment. Papers were strewn across the floor and many most of the equipment looked knocked over or smashed; the entire scene made it looked like the workers had left in a big hurry. Chara frowned as she slowly walked forward and stepped into the chaos. The group didn't say anything as they passed empty and messy work stations and after several minutes of picking their way through the mess Chara spotted a door with a plaque on it with the name Wingding Gaster engraved on it. Chara smiled and quickly picked her way through the mess and entered the room. 

As she entered she saw that while it was messy the mess was much smaller than the outside area. The room was a rather sizeable study with a small station covered in lab equipment in the far corner. The wall beside the door was covered in file cabinets, many open and their contents staked on the floor in hurriedly made piles, Chara ignored all these files and moved straight to the desk that was set in a corner of the room and began to rummage through the documents on the desk. As she did this Frisk and the others entered and looked around in surprise at the tidiness of the area.

"DT notes, Soul Extraction, Blaster designs, Multiverse notes, magic test and experiments, where did he put it?" Chara muttered as she looked through the files on the desk and pulled out drawer finding a few loos papers and a crystal glass containing an amber liquid, which she quickly and discretely put in her inventory, under the bottle she saw a file labeled Project Revival and quickly pulled it out with a triumphant smile. "Found it!" she crowed with a smile drawing the others over as she set down the file.




Research on Monster Revival and Restoration



By Dr. Wingding Gaster 


Despite many attempts in the past to revive monsters that have fallen down through magic we have still been unable to do so, the most we are able to do is allow them to be brought back from the dead for a few moment as nothing more than an afterimage or ghost. This has been a staple fact for centuries however thanks to the recent research on my part in an attempt to find a way to fight the Corrupted Soul Traits of Humans I discovered that the red trait of Determination can revive monsters permanently. However the process is flawed as any attempt to revive monsters through this process results in them destabilizing and melting in to what we have named Amalgamations.

Despite this fact the discovery of Determination and its properties is too great of a discovery and the chance to revive monsters is too great a hope to pass up.  While the King has agreed with this sentiment I have been given very specific guidelines, I am not allowed to experiment on any monster that is unwilling, I cannot keep them locked up and they must be taken care of. I cannot leave them in inhuman conditions and perform inhuman experiments. I have fully agreed to these as at present I have all the data I require. The problem is not experimentation or even testing it’s the equations. 

At present the already know the problem from the first time this occurred, Monsters cannot handle raw determination in any level of dosage. The results of injecting a Monster with Determination directly is the liquidation of said monster. The cause of this is due to the makeup of monsters. A Human is formed primarily from organic composition and only a small fraction of Magic. This results in Humans containing a small amount of Magic potential. Now of course there are exceptions such as Mages, they are born with a significant amount of magic, enough to form a Mana Pool that can be drawn from. 

Now Monsters are made quite differently, a Monster is composed mostly of magic with only a small about of organic material. As a result when we die the magic leaves us and the small amount of organic composition simply turns to dust. As Monsters are composed mostly of magic we have no need for a Mana Pool or Spells as we are in essence comprised of magical energy. However it is this very advantage that inhibits our use of Determination, the closest any Monster has come to in using Determination would be we Skeleton Monsters as we are often born from the remains of Humans with high Determination.

With this knowledge I and a few assistance have come to theorize that what we needed was a specially designed Magic Amplifier that is used in conjunction with Determination. At present we are theorizing that our bodies can’t handle determination due to the fact it eats at our bodies like acid, this means all we need is a counter agent and it is logical that the counter agent for such deterioration is magic. In short with just a few drops of Determination and a powerful burst of magic is enough to revive a monster however while this may seem simple it’s not. 

Excluding Skeleton Monsters and Boss Monsters as they naturally have a small amount of Determination in them to begin with; any monster revived will have to burn of the excess determination over a period of time. The amount of time that it will take depends on the monster type but I would assume that only a few drops of Determination are required to revive any normal monster; I would hypothesize it would be a mixture of 10-90 of the determination to Magic ratio.

Boss Monsters will require more determination and will not need to burn off the excess Determination as it will actually help them stabilize, perhaps even make them more powerful in the long run by further enhancing their skills; I would hypothesize a 20-80 percent ration or to be safe I would say even 30-70 ratio. Of course there are exceptions and that exception is my race, Skeletons. Because Skeletons are born naturally as Humans and later become Skeletons after their passing they will require a significant amount of Determination and Magic; by my estimations it would require a 45-55% mixture with determination being this high at minimum, I’m hesitant to say 50-50 split as I fear that would be too much.

Update: Experimentation is currently under way but we have had enough successes with the monsters we’ve revived to say that the formula is a success, at least for normal monsters. As for Boss and Skeleton Monsters, we haven’t needed to use them yet. To be honest at this point we’re throwing science at the wall here to see what sticks, don’t even know what it’ll do. Probably nothing but best case scenario well get some new powers or… and amalgamation which we’ll have to terminate, not really conventional but at present it’s all we got and since this is all new it’ll be like that for a while.



Chara smiled as she pulled out a box containing several devices each labeled with the ratios of determination and magic they contained. "Gaster you bloody genius." She whispered as she placed the items in her inventory and stood up. "We have what we came for but I still need to go get the other items." She said. "Do you all want to come?"

Celestia and Luna shook their heads. "We need to return to the troops but we wish you luck." Luna said. 

Chara nodded. "I understand, tell the troops to prepare to move on the empire capital." She said and the princesses nodded before lighting their horns and teleporting away.

Asriel smiled as she turned to Chara. "So where to next?"

Chara moved back around the desk and exited the room heading down a hall opposite the one the entered. "Containment and storage she said as he and Frisk followed her down the hall to an elevator.

Calmly she pressed the call button and they stood waiting, as they waited Frisk seemed to look at the lab in confusion. "You know, I was expecting more separate labs and side offices." She said as Chara chuckled. 

"This lab wasn't a private facility Frisk; it was for the Royal scientist like Gaster." Chara explained. "They all worked together on the same projects so all those tables you saw were the separate work stations." She said as the elevator dinged and they boarded it. Chara hit the button down and the elevator descended into the depts of the old lab.

As they slowly descended Asriel turned to Chara. "So what's down here?" He asked. "You said it was Containment and storage but what exactly is down here?"

Chara smirked as she turned to him. "Everything." She answered simply as her smile grew. "Down here we'll find everything that was ever worked on by the royal scientists. From projects completed and released to dangerous failed experiments. Incomplete projects, projects too dangerous to be simply released or left around for anyone to pick up; all of it is here in containment or placed under lock and key in storage." She finished as the elevator stopped and the doors dinged open. "Don’t touch anything unless I say it's safe." She said as she exited the elevator. "Some of this stuff can kill you by just looking at it the wrong way." She said with a smile as she reached into her pocked and pulled out a paper covered in wingdings. "So I want storage room 2481 and containment room 001." She muttered as she looked at the two paths and turned left to the storage room.

As Chara turned left Asriel and Frisk looked on surprised as they saw a hall full of doors. "What is this?" Asriel asked as she looked down the hall.

"Like I said everything is here, most of these are storage rooms containing boxes of experiments and tests or just simple documents that were saved." Chara explained as she walked down the hall till she stopped at a certain door. "Then there are the rooms like this one that house dangerous experiments that were locked away and quarantined due to their danger." She said as her hand glowed with magic. 

Chara placed her hand on the door and after a second Frisk and Asriel heard the sound of gears and locks activating behind the door. Chara turned the handle and pulled, the door slowly opening revealing it to be at least an inch thick with massive bolts and locking mechanisms on the other side. As the door opened the two peered into the storage room to see it was empty aside from a pedestal in the center of the room, sitting upon the pedestal was a single vial of glowing red liquid that cast the room in a dark red light.

Chara slowly entered the room and approached the pedestal before removing the vial and turning to the two who still hovered at the door. "Come here Frisk." She said causing Frisk to hesitantly approach. "This is a gift from Gaster." She said a she held up the vial. 

"If this is a gift why is it so locked up?" Frisk asked confused.

Chara smiled. "This is a Determination Booster; it can increase the determination of any human. It was designed for Monster use bit..." Chara looked away as Frisk and Asriel realized what it was capable of. "I used one when I was younger and it increased my power beyond any previous recorded human." Chara said as she held out the booster. "Frisk, you don't have to do it but Gaster wanted his granddaughter to have it in case she needed use it." 

Frisk looked at the booster before hesitantly taking the vial. "Does it hurt?" She asked.

Chara nodded. "It's the most painful thing you will ever feel, think of Sans's attack using karmic retribution multiplied by a thousand and even then you'll never be close." She said sadly. "Like I said you don't have to take it but if you do know that you'll become more powerful then you could ever imagen." She said

Frisk looked at Chara. "What will I be able to do?" She asked.

Chara sighed. "If you do this you'll have magic not just soul manipulation." Chara said slowly. "I got my magic because I my determination mingled with the magic of the underground but with no monsters this is the only way for you to gain it." She explained. "Aside from that, you'll have the ability to use any form of soul trait like me and most likely you'll gain other versions of your HoPe form."

Frisk took a deep breath and pulled the stopper to the vial and before Asriel or Chara could say anything tilted it back and drank it. As she did Asriel and Chara's eyes widened and as soon as she finished the vial she doubled over. "Frisk you idiot!" Chara screamed in panic as she rushed over to her wife as the vial fell to the ground and grabbed frisk. "What were you thinking!?" 

She asked in fear as she saw Frisk grunt in pain. "I thought that if I could do more then maybe-" Frisk screamed in pain unable to finish what she was saying due to the pain. Chara pulled her close and Frisk buried her head in her wife’s chest and she screamed in pain. 

As Frisk was screaming Asriel began flipping out in panic looking around for something to do that would help. "Chara, she's screaming; that's bad Chara! What do we do?" He asked in fear. 

Chara sighed. "Get over here and hug your sister in law ya big cry baby!" She yelled as Frisk let out another scream of agony and Asriel nodded and began to hug Frisk and telling her it would be okay. 

As Asriel did this Frisk's veins began to glow and her soul appeared before them; slowly the soul began to fracture and split. "Cara, what's happening?" He asked in fear.

"I tried to warn here." Chara said as she looked at her soul. "We can't help her any more. She will either die or be reborn with a soul like mine."

Asriel paused and looked at Chara in shock. "This is how you got a half human-half Monster soul." He said in shock as Chara looked away.

"Gaster made two of these and brought one of them when monsters were sealed underground." Chara said as Frisk screamed and her soul shattered however instead of the pieces flying away they stayed as half of them inverted on themselves and turned white before a white substance began to drip form the red part and piece the fragments back together. As it finished fixing her soul Frisk's eyes snapped open one of them glowing silver while the other glowed an amber color. As the glow faded frisk slumped forward onto Chara who grunted under the full weight of her wife for a moment before she was able to lay her down. 

Asriel looked fearfully at Chara as she looked over Frisk before sighing and sitting back with a faint smile. "She's just unconscious, she survived." She said in a relived voice before turning to Asriel. "I need you to watch her, I'll pick Up Gasters last gift and we can get out of here. Then I'm chewing that old skeleton out." She said muttering the last part angrily as she got up and headed for the door. 

"What if she waked up?" Asriel asked concerned. 

"Make sure she stays lying down for a while." She needs to relax as much as possible for the next few hours." Chara said as she left the room and walked back down the hall and continued down the right hall to the containment part of the area. Calmly she walked down the hall and looked at each door number till she turned the corner and saw a door at the far end with a massive magic seal carved into the door and walls around it. "That's the door I need isn’t it?" She asked out loud to no one and as he approached it she saw a tag on it say 001. "Damn it Gaster." She groaned as she looked at the door and pushed it open to see a dark cavern that ended at a cliff. 

Chara frowned as she slowly approached the cliff edge only to see seven sets of eyes light up in the darkness and turn to her as something rose from the depths of the darkness. Chara's mouth dropped as she saw the massive creature that had been sleeping before she smiled. "Damn it Gaster, best gift ever." She said under her breath as she stared into the eyes of the massive Gaster Hydra before her. Suddenly Chara began to giggle however slowly it devolved into fits of insane laughter; when she finally recomposed herself one of her eyes was black with only a red pupil as she smiled with a deranged look. "This upcoming battle with Sombra will prove very... very... Interesting." She said darkly.