"Sans! My child! How dare you not come sooner?" Toriel scolded.

"I needed to talk to him, Mom," Frisk answered.

"DID YOU MANAGE TO GET ANYTHING OUT OF MY BROTHER?" Papyrus asked. "HE NEVER SEEMS TO SHARE ANYTHING WITH ME. ME! THE GREATEST AND COOLEST BROTHER IN THE WORLD!"

"No, not really Papy. Sorry."

"HE SEEMS TO BE SETTLING INTO A ROUTINE OF NOT TELLING PEOPLE THINGS. WITHOUT ME, HE'D NEVER TO TELL ANYONE ANYTHING! OR IT MIGHT SLIP HIS MIND AS THINGS USUALLY DO."

Kaya listened to the babbles going on while she and her father went into the kitchen. Sans turned on the light and froze, finding Chara going through some ice cream. Kaya wasn't surprised that her father reacted like that, with memories of the genocide run and the former demon sitting in the kitchen in the dark.

"You guys done with talking?" she asked, unnerved and used to those reactions.

"Yeah, but why aren't you with them?" Kaya asked her aunt, jerking her thumb to the other room.

"Eh, not quite into that mushy stuff yet, and I know after all this time that you wouldn't harm Frisk, comedian. So of course I knew that you'd all come back."

"heh, alright. mind if we join you?"

"Sure. But no one touches my chocolate!"

"We know." Kaya reached into the fridge and grabbed some ice cream from the freezer and a couple ketchup bottles from the fridge, careful not to touch the chocolate that was still in the freezer.

"Wow. You really are a bad influence, comedian," Chara remarked as Kaya handed one of the bottles to her father.

"i didn't train 'er to be like me, or to drink ketchup, and she did it on 'er own accord."

"Well, I'm in no place to judge how you two raise children."

Nothing else really happened that day, except, of course, at night.

Kaya lay on her bed, making bones varying between blue and white dance above her head, when she got an anonymous text from some random person.

???: Hello, Kaya. How much fun are you having, practicing your attacks?

Kaya: Oh, I'm great! Other than being stalked by the paranormal and nightmares, everything's just peachy!

???: How would you know I'm a monster?

Kaya: Well, how would you know I'm not?

???: Um... rright

Kaya: Ohh, is my stalker scared? Of me?

???: You know, it really should be you scared of me.

Kaya: Ok. Sure. Have fun trying to scare me

???: ...What?

Kaya: I mean have fun knocking me out. Even in my sleep, I have backup

???: Y-you're bluffing

Kaya: How would you know? This obviously means that you are nothing special and you don't know me, if you haven't seen her

???: Alright! I jest! JFC, I'm leaving!

Kaya: Aww, alright. Goodbye hacker 😋

With that she deleted the conversation and sighed, one of confusion. She had sensed magic behind the text, although faintly.

This must be something completely different, she thought, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. And who would bother me so late in the night? Hackers, of course. So... was it a monster? I doubt it. The only ones capable of doing that are Alphys and Dad. And if they did, neither of them would act so genuinely towards the end of it. 'Sides, they'd never actually do it. And they seemed so confused. Everyone here knows of Lyra, my guardian wolf.

She was so deep in thought that she hadn't noticed her uncle had come into the room until he spoke.

"UM, KAYA," he said, making her almost jump off the bed despite his voice being quieter than usual. "I'M SORRY FOR COMING IN SO LATE AND SCARING YOU, BUT I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GO SOMEWHERE WITH ME. AND IF YOU COULD."

Kaya got off her bed and gently herded her uncle out of her room, saying, "Give me a minute," before closing the door. She changed into her white tee, white shorts, and her light purple hoodie and opened her door, petting Cookie on her way there. The brown spotted kitten purred in her sleep, but didn't rouse. Kaya gently closed the door and followed Uncle Papyrus through the darkness downstairs, careful as they reached the stairs.

She put on her gray heels and headed out the door after her tall uncle. She closed the door gently behind her, then followed him through the night.

"So where are we going?" she asked at one point during their nighttime trip. "Or is it too much of a secret?"

"IT ISN'T TOO MUCH FARTHER." He took off his scarf as they continued walking, then stopped for a moment to put it around Kaya's neck, kneeling down some in order to do so. She thought her uncle looked strange; he always had his scarf on.

She tried to give it back, her mind rushing with genocide run after genocide run, but he refused.

"NO, YOU WILL GET TOO COLD WITHOUT IT." They continued walking in silence for a few feet.

"But, Uncle Papyrus-" Kaya tried.

"NO BUTS, YOUNG KAYA. I, I know Sans won't speak to me about things, that he'd rather keep everything from me for my own sake. B-BUT I'M NOT A CHILD ANYMORE. WE'RE BOTH ADULTS. WE'RE BOTH MARRIED. WE BOTH HAVE CHILDREN. SURELY WHAT HE HIDES WON'T BE AS STRESS-WORTHY AS ALL OF THOSE THINGS."

"It's not really stressful, Uncle Papyrus. I think he's just afraid of what would happen when you do learn. What would happen to his family."

They walked about another mile before reaching Uncle Papyrus' agreed place to have a talk.

He sighed. "Sometimes I wonder how things would be different if I knew what my brother is so desperately hiding inside. What is hurting him."

"Even if you tried, saw, and heard about Gaster, it wouldn't matter because barely anyone remembered who he was. Dad was the only one, as he said himself, to remember who Gaster was. There was no trace of him in any files after his accident; he was scattered across space and time, and although he may be able to visit our physical world, he cannot interact with it. I bet he visited often, watching you and Dad grow up without him."

"HMM. SO.IS THIS GASTER GUY MINE AND SANS' FATHER?"

"Yes. And before you shout how dare Sansfor not telling you, he was protecting you. Because I think we both know what the question would be afterwards."

"Yeah. 'WHERE IS HE? CAN WE GO SEE OR VISIT HIM?' I, understand that part now. But why is it eating him so badly?"

"Because whatever Grandpa Gaster did in the past was enough to affect him for, at this time, forever. And now, he wants to bring him back, but he's yet to find a way to do it. Dad's a chew toy and the past is a dog who refuses to give him up."

"DON'T USE THAT KIND OF ANALOGY. I KNOW IT FITS, BUT SURELY THAT WORDING JUST MAKES IT WORSE THAN IT ACTUALLY IS. AND I DOUBT DOGS WOULD GO AFTER MY BROTHER OVER ME."

"But it is like that, Uncle Papyrus."

"SO HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT GASTER?"

"He came to me during one of my nightmares. The one I had after I passed out on you two. He appeared in the dark void that I was familiar with, and since he was strange and new to me-"

"PLEASE DON'T SAY THAT YOU HURT HIM."

"I didn't, I promise. I was just on my guard, afraid of what he could do. Gaster just wanted a talk, and that's what we did."

"HMM." Kaya watched her uncle try and piece it all together. "BUT... WHY?"

"Why what?"

"WHY VISIT YOU? IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE THAT HE WOULD VISIT ONE OF HIS GRANDCHILDREN INSTEAD OF HIS SON."

"I think it's because I was the most accessible. My nightmares can have a part of me physically go into another timeline, or AU for that matter. So, I wouldn't be surprised if Gaster would be able to come into my mind."

"AH." They both went silent for many minutes. "SPEAKING OF AUS," Uncle Papyrus said, his voice brighter. "WHO WOULD YOU SAY IS YOUR FAVORITE SANS AND PAPYRUS?!"

Kaya let out a soft laugh and thought about her answer. "Blue would have to be my favorite Sans, and you're my favorite Papyrus."

"AWW," her uncle said, his skull turning a light orange, and hugged her. "YOU'RE TOO KIND, KAYA. AND I AGREE WITH YOU ON YOUR ANSWERS BECAUSE THEY ARE MINE AS WELL, DESPITE SANS BEING MY BROTHER."

Kaya blushed slightly as well, her's a purple, and suggested something to do.

"Want to spar?" she asked.

"BUT WHAT IF I HURT YOU?"

"I'll be fine. I'm not like Dad and only have 1 HP."

"EH, TRUE. BUT I HOPE YOU ARE PREPARED TO LOSE!"

Kaya shrugged and they both stood up. "You sure we're good to battle here?"

"OF COURSE. THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD NEVER PICK A SPOT SO DANGEROUS IN CASE OF A SPAR."