//------------------------------// // Befriend the Man Who Speaks in Hands // Story: Undertales of Friendship // by ngrey651 //------------------------------// Whilst Princess Luna and Fluttershy had been checking in on Frisk, Alphys was checking in on the local school where Toriel and Undyne were teaching. With sunny skies casting soft rays of sunlight down onto the grassy fields around the red building, Alphys hung back, watching as Undyne the Mer-Woman did a few flexes of her scaly muscles, giving the kids a big, fanged grin. Her red ponytail flicked back and forth in the wind as Toriel stood nearby, paws clasped together as she stood by Ms. Cheerilee, Undyne holding up an arm and flexing. "Alright, lil' fillies! You know why you're here? Cuz it's gym class day and that means you get ME. And you know what we're gonna do?" "No, but I got a feeling you're about to tell us." Diamond Tiara remarked, the pink-furred little filly cringing slightly as Undyne gave her a slight stink eye with her one good eye. "You bet your flank I am! It's time for fifty laps around the school yard, hollering about how great we are!" The yellow-eyed monster proclaimed. "We're gonna!" She roared, flexing. "GET!" Another flex. "BUFF!" "More like "fluff"." Diamond Tiara sighed as she looked down at her stubby little hooves, hanging her head as the other kids glanced at each other, then shrugged, deciding that hey, they like yelling! Why not? "ROCK SOLID, BABY!" Undyne cried out dramatically, flexing her arms some more as the kids began running around the school yard, hair whipping through the air as the wind blew, the part-time gym teacher and part time royal-guard-member smiling in delight as Toriel giggled. "Ahhh. You were right, Tori. Nothing's more satisfying than leaving an impact on a child's life." She reasoned. "Especially when you can do that by bench-pressing them." "I am amazed at how quickly you connected to them." Ms. Cheerilee said with a happy smile, nodding her head in agreement as Toriel nodded as well. "You're clearly a natural gym teacher." "Well, it's my job as the current Head of Asgore's Royal Guard to decide what weenies get into the guard. Drilling them into shape! Kicking butt, taking names! The louder I yell, the more they'll learn!" She laughed. "Well, actually, it's really about the stick." She said, wagging a clawed finger in the air. "I'm a very carrot and stick approach...though mostly 80% stick." "When do you use the carrot?" Cheerilee inquired. "When I'm cooking, of course." Undyne remarked cheerily. "Nah, I'm almost all stick there too! I use the carrot when I can tell a student isn't ready for the full treatment. Papyrus used to get the carrot a lot." She added with a sigh. "He was just too...nice...to be in the royal guard. But now it's good to see that he's unlocked his full potential by focusing his gifts! Now..." Undyne struck a pose. "To go join the kids! Hup hup hup!" She took off running, Toriel giggling a little as she and Cheerilee turned, seeing Alphys slightly hiding behind a nearby bush. "Oh, Alphys, why are you hiding?" "Sorry. Force of habit." The yellow-scaled, dinosaur-esque monster nervously remarked with a small smile. "I'll go talk to her after she's done. But I also wanted to see you too, Ms. Toriel. How have you been?" "I've thoroughly enjoyed teaching here for the ponies in Equestria." Toriel admitted with a big smile. "It's always heartening to see others willing to learn what I have to impart, and I've worked out an exhaustive curriculum with Cheerilee. Tomorrow the children will be learning about mathematics. Tragically, many of them find it boring, so I devised a way to get them interested." "How?" Toriel whipped out a basket of scones, grinning from fuzzy ear to fuzzy ear, Cheerilee clasping her hooves together in delight. "I have about...thirty scones. I think it's a simple matter of division and subtraction! With the end result naturally becoming zero." She laughed, Alphys smiling in agreement as Cheerilee trotted off to go join Undyne in the laps. It was FUN to run around, hooting about how great you were. However, the good times were soon over as a very-serious-looking Princess Luna descended from the skies, Fluttershy by her side as they quickly raced over to Alphys, Toriel staring in surprise. "Oh! Your majesty." "Your majesty." Princess Luna responded in turn with a calm nod back. "Oh, I'm not the queen anymore." Toriel remarked with a shake of her head. "Those days are behind me, I believe. But you look as though you've seen a ghost. Whatever is the matter?" Fluttershy tapped her hooves together, head slightly bowed, pink mane sloughed down. "Um...we think that an imposter Sans has kidnapped Frisk!" She managed to blurt out. "We worried it might be a changeling, but changeling magic is a distinctly sickening green color, and this was a deep, royal blue that we saw the imposter using to lift Frisk up." Princess Luna added, Toriel having dropped the basket of scones as they scattered all about the floor, the words "Kidnapped Frisk" making her mouth hang open so wide you could have fit a beach ball into it. Alphys began quivering, almost having a panic attack as Princess Luna continued, sweat dribbling down Alphys's brow as the words "Magic" and "Royal blue" began to echo in her mind. "Is there a monster that can imitate people's appearance-" "Royal Blue Magic?" Alphys whispered out, eyes going wider and wider. She could hear the music echoing out from the room, and walked down the long, dark green hallway. A guitar was playing a fairly simple, and very iconic chord, an all-too-familiar voice echoing out through the laboratory as she got closer and closer. Pushing open the set of double doors ever-so-slightly, Alphys peeked inside, an enormous bony mass rising up higher and higher, growing larger and larger as pieces were added to it, all suspended in a royal blue aura of pure, raw power. Her dear friend was playing away at the grey guitar, a red headband around his head twisting about as he played harder and harder, the chords now joined with riffs, the song getting progressively more metal. The bony pieces began to form into a more definite shape, that of a gigantic, huge skull that was very bestial in design, almost draconic in its visage as he sang loudly and proudly, a look of clear joy on his bony face. A black line rose up from his right eye, going up his skull whilst another line rose down from his left eye, down to his mouth as he toothily grinned. "And the science gets done, and you make a neat gun for the people who are still aliiiiiive!" W.D Gaster sang out. "GASTER." Alphys realized, Toriel's body stiffening as her eyes widened as well, Alphys's claws flying to her cheeks. "Oh my God oh my God oh my God!" "Gaster...Sans, the real Sans, mentioned him. He was their brother, the former Royal Scientist, correct? We heard he was scattered across time and space." Fluttershy asked, clearly confused as she tilted her head to the side, Princess Luna looking from Toriel to Alphys as Alphys adjusted her glasses. "Yes, Gaster was the former royal scientist before me, and Sans and I both worked alongside him. He was brilliant, REALLY brilliant! Also kind of a goof sometimes. Guess it runs in the family." The dinosaur-esque monster sighed. "And yeah, he used to be with us until he fell into his machine, a device we had made to time travel. We wanted to use it to go back in time and prevent the Monster/Human War from ever happening, but there was an accident and he got scattered. But royal blue magic...nobody else could lift people but Sans and Paps, let alone have magic tinted like that!" "I cannot believe I just...forgot about him." Toriel murmured. "He was so dear to us, especially before the War." "What was life like before the war?" Princess Luna inquired, Toriel now looking very, VERY guiltily down. "Well, er...Asgore's father had...that is, Dr. Gaster was the Royal Scientist for HIM to, and was asked to study human souls and prove whether the old legend we'd had passed down from our ancestors was true. He wanted to learn if monsters could absorb souls. Before it wasn't something we knew we could really do, it was just a myth to us, but then-" Toriel flinched. "Ohhhh." Princess Luna cringed at the implication. "Oh MY." "How...how did he remove the souls?" Fluttershy asked. Silence from the two monsters as they quietly and nervously looked away, Princess Luna sighing sadly. "I shall not judge you. I did awful things myself when I allowed resentment and hatred into my heart and became Night Mare Moon. I almost caused 1000 years of darkness and doomed all of Equestria. We've all done things we regret and wish we could take back." "Indeed, we have." Toriel quietly sighed. "But I cannot let Gaster harm my child. Do you know where he took him?" She asked. "Not exactly..." Fluttershy quietly admitted as she bit her lip. "But we thought we could ask you two, see if you knew anything about him that could help us learn about where he might go." "If you truly were his friend for so long, he might try to reach out to you, would he not?" Princess Luna asked of Alphys as she nodded, slightly wringing her hands. "And if so...I have a plan." ... ... ... ... "Sans" approached Alphys as she sat on a bench in the park, sipping on some soda, trying not to look worked up as he sat down next to her. "heya, Alphys. how's it hangin'?" "Oh, I'm fine! How are you?" She asked in her slightly nasally voice, cringing a bit. "...fine myself." "Fine, fine. It's good that you're fine." "yeeeep." "Yes, we're both feeling fine. It's fine to feel fine isn't." "yes, it's...it's fine." "Yes, we're both feeling fine! Yep! Both! Feeling! Fine!" Alphys said with a big smile, quivering slightly as "Sans" calmly waited. One...two... "GAAAAH!" She groaned out, hanging her head. "I feel sick!" "you think I can't tell when you're lying to me?" Gaster's voice rang out from Sans's form. "Alphys, come with me. You can have it done willingly or by force. Your choice." "Just tell me where Frisk is." Alphys mumbled softly, head bowed as "Sans" took her shoulder and patted it. "I haven't harmed him, I assure you. Now..." A blink, a woosh, shooting through a tunnel of stars...and then, there they were, in Princess Luna and Celestia's old castle, Gaster now in his true form as he waltzed over to the sleeping Frisk, who was lying down on a nearby table as he gestured at the boy. "I've got both Papyrus and Sans within me, their entire being helping to constitute myself. With you and the human, all the pieces of me will be complete. I'll no longer be a shell of myself, Alphys. Can you understand how lonely it feels, just helpless, barely able to do anything but...watch? Watch as everyone forgets about you, and all that you did amounts to near nothing? To know that despite how hard you worked to help others, they remember nothing of you?" "That is just not true." Alphys said, shaking her head. "They DO remember. I know Sans does. He even told a bad pun about you, Doctor." "Do not stand on ceremony, Alphys, we've known each other for decades, you needn't call me-" Gaster stiffened as he suddenly swept towards "Alphys", and held a hand up, her body shrouded in Blue as her soul was made manifest... "I THOUGHT you were a bit too light when we were teleporting. Who are you really?" He asked the imposter as the charade faded away in a soft burst of starlight, and Princess Luna now stood there, tall and proud. "The others were told to hone in on me when my illusionary spell faded. They shall be here shortly." She reasoned. "Let the child and those you have absorbed go." "I only want to be whole again." Gaster reasoned. "You should understand. You were locked away within yourself, helpless, unable to do naught but watch as Night Mare Moon made use of your body." He quietly intoned, his eyes slightly narrowing as he paced around her, sliding smoothly like a snake. "Imagine a world where everything functions perfectly without you. Where you are less than nothing. Where you are HELPLESS and able to do nothing but watch. You endured that. And you'd condemn me!?" "No. What happened to you was wrong. Don't take it out on an innocent." Night Mare Moon insisted. "Take it out? The process isn't painful." Gaster cooed. "It's actually quite pleasant, if not slightly surprising. Come...let me demonstrate!" He proclaimed, shooting towards her, black shadows stretching off his body as Luna's horn lit up. Bluish/purple light coalesced around it as she erected a shield, the shadows trying to pierce through it like needles trying to pop a bubble. Gaster rose high, high into the air before he held his long arms up, slamming them down on the shield just as Luna shot forth, slamming into his chest and knocking him back. The shadows of his body caught him and re-righted him as she launched waves of blue and purple magic at him, Gaster sliding left and right as he grinned, giving her a small wink. "Do you believe I am going to stand there and let you hit me? No." He remarked, making gestures with his hands as bones shot from the ground, cascading towards her like a landslide. Luna flew up, up through the air as he made more odd gestures with his hands, the bones shooting at her as he shook his head back and forth. "You are only delaying the inevitable." He quietly sighed. "Let them g-go!" He turned, seeing Alphys was sitting atop of a yellow-furred pony, Toriel standing nearby as she folded her arms over her chest, Gaster lowering the shadows that were raised on their hackles around him, looking them over. "Ahh, you came, Alphys. You, Papyrus, Sans, Frisk..." Gaster said, clapping his hands as he shifted from himself to Papyrus, then Sans, then back to his normal form as he bounced his head back and forth. "All the pieces...pieces...pieces of me." "Doctor, we know you want to be whole again." Toriel said softly, Frisk letting out a quiet moan as he rose up from the table. He hadn't been having any nightmares since Gaster had taken him, but he was still shocked out of his mind to see Gaster standing tall in front of the others. "But you needn't harm others to be happy. And absorbing them into yourself is taking away their freedom. It isn't right to harm others in the name of freeing others, that's the very thing I fought against." "My former majesty, please understand. I am a shell of my former self. An echo. This is the only way to regain my form." Gaster spoke longingly. "Not necessarily." Alphys offered. "Toriel has something that could help. We just needed Princess Luna to stall you." Toriel launched something through the air, Gaster catching it in one bony, holed hand...looking down at the Lazarus Lapis in his grip as his body was bathed over in the green healing magic within. His eye sockets filled with the light, growing larger and larger, letting out a gasp as Sans and Papyrus slid out from the folds of his cloaked jacket, flopping onto the grassy floor below as Princess Luna quickly pulled them away, Frisk ducking under the table... And then everything went white, and Frisk now saw Dr. Gaster standing alone in a dark abyss, his back turned, head slightly bowed as Frisk approached, nervously holding out a hand and taking the skeletal monster's cloak. "Um...mister Gaster?" "...doctor." Doctor Gaster said, his voice having the less harsh, rusty echo to it that it had possessed, yet still somehow haunting and faintly reverberating in the infinite abyssal expanse of black around them. "Dr. Gaster. And...would that this would be enough." He said, slowly turning around, revealing a small White heart floating right in his chest, Frisk gasping. It had been cut in half, and the other half connected to it was the stone itself, the heart faintly pumping as Gaster mournfully stared down at Frisk. "The Lazarus Lapis is designed to resonate with your Soul. To connect with it to bring back your physical body, and all that comes with it. But I only had half a soul. And that means only half the work is done. My physical form is returned, my abilities with them. But that...that is all." He closed his eyes, shaking his head back and forth. "I am everything and nothing. Everywhere and nowhere. I can't...feel anything but echoes. Not even with this making up part of me." "I'm sorry." Frisk said, gently hugging the doctor as the skeletal monster stiffened slightly before gently kneeling down, Frisk feeling him wrapping his cloak/jacket around him much like how Sans sometimes liked to do to tuck Frisk away, nice and snug. "Ha ha...you know, that...that does make me feel better about this." The doctor quietly whispered, Frisk feeling something gently landing on his forehead. Drip...drop. Drip... Drop... Drip... ...drop. "Thank you." A gentle, soft warmth spreading over him, as the infinite black settled in... "...please. Forget about me." And then Frisk was back in the castle with the others as they slowly rose up, rubbing their heads as they looked around, Sans blinking slowly. "whuh...what just happened?" "...I don't know where to begin." Frisk admitted, looking off in the distance, a white figure faintly similar to himself standing there before shifting, changing shape...vanishing into the distance. ... ... ... ... "So he's...gone?" Princess Celestia asked of Sans as he and Papyrus stood in the throne room, Celestia steepling her hooves, her face filled with concern as she looked back at them. "we think he has his physical form back, but anything else is just...kinda not really there at all." Sans sighed. "he's a real nowhere man now." "MY POOR BROTHER. I WISH THERE WAS SOMETHING I COULD DO TO HELP. WHEN I WAS INSIDE OF HIM, I COULD FEEL AN ENDLESS SADNESS SWALLOWING ME..." Papyrus murmured, clutching himself, shivering slightly as he closed his eyes, Princess Celestia biting into her lip. This was a concern indeed. "Someone who can teleport, become invisible, change shape...he could be anyone and anywhere." She whispered softly, Sans shrugging before suddenly shivering, feeling as though familiar eyes were upon him. He thought he saw a crack running up the eye of one of the guards on either side of the Princess, looking away and flinching. When he turned back, the guard was normal, and he sighed, a maid servant couple bringing in some cake for them, specially made by Muffet for the upcoming anniversary of Celestia and Luna's ascension to the throne. "We should keep an eye out for him. But for now, let us celebrate early. Celebrate having you two back with us. It would be horrible to lose two dear friends." "yeah, probably best not to talk about Gaster for now." Sans said, a maidservant slicing off a piece of vanilla-frosted cake for him, giving him a slice that had a little pink rose on it as he gulped, swearing he saw a crack running up HER eye as well. Or was it on Papyrus's? Or Celestia's? Or his own reflection in the mirrors that lined the hall, or- Sans shook his head. "yeah...better not. after all..." He shuddered. "it's rude to talk about someone who's listening."