By the time Sans was twenty four and Papyrus ten, the younger of the two was an entire foot taller than the elder. Sans didn't really mind, because now he could get Papyrus to give him piggyback rides. He did this as frequently as he could, under the pretense that he was helping Papyrus get stronger.

Because that was another thing. Papyrus had heard about the Royal Guard, and that had become his main goal. He wanted to be a member of the Royal Guard.

Sans said he was sure that, as soon as Papyrus was old enough to enter, there was no doubt that he would be accepted.

In the meantime, Papyrus convinced Gaster to start teaching him how to use Magic. Gaster had readily agreed- after all, he had started teaching Sans when Sans was only about five- granted, he had been more intent on the whole 'weapon' thing, then, but ten was a good age to learn how to use Magic.

So one Saturday afternoon, the trio headed out into Snowdin Forest.

Gaster and Sans didn't expect to be there long. They both had experience in learning to use Magic, both knew that it wasn't just an instant thing.

Papyrus, though, had high hopes-- and just as high expectations-- for himself.

When they got out into the woods, Gaster demonstrated a few attacks for Papyrus, and gave him the same basic "you have to figure it out yourself" spiel he had given Sans all those years ago. And then Papyrus tried to use Magic. Gaster said he did well for his first time, but he didn't manage to summon more than a few fizzling sparkles of Magic.

And then Gaster turned to Sans. "Hey, Sans. D'you remember when we used to spar all the time?"

"yeah."

"That was fun. We should do that again."

Sans snorted. "are you kidding, dings? i could beat you easily."

"You never beat me before."

"we haven't sparred like that since i was, like, thirteen. i've gotten stronger since then."

Gaster's grin widened, just a bit. "Prove it."

"i don't-" Sans happened to glance at Papyrus. His brother had a sort of excited, pleading look in his eyes. Sans sighed. "... alright, fine. let's make this quick."

He trudged over to stand about ten feet from Gaster.

"Ready?" Gaster asked.

"yep."

Then, with a shout, Gaster sent a flurry of attacks at Sans.

By now Sans had gotten quite used to his awareness of space, and avoided the attacks with ease, retaliating with three bone-shaped attacks. With all his training as Judge, even only half-trying as he was, two attacks hit Gaster square in the chest, and the third clipped his shoulder. And, still, even half-trying, with no real desire to hurt Gaster, Sans saw that altogether, he did about twenty HP of damage.

Then the pair of them were lunging at each other, bone-shaped weapons in hand. Sans wielded his like a sword, and Gaster alternated between one long bone used like a staff, and two shorter bones, one in either hand, like shortswords.

They tussled for a few seconds before Sans struck a powerful blow that shattered Gaster's weapon. As Gaster was still reeling back, shaking the shards of his attack from his hands, Sans lunged forward, slamming a shoulder into Gaster's chest. The taller skeleton stumbled back, and fell. Sans immediately had a foot on Gaster's chest, attack resting lightly against Gaster's collarbone.

Gaster let out a huff. "If we could go back, say, sixty, seventy years..." He shook his head as Sans got off him and helped him up. "I tell you, Sans. I was a heck of a lot stronger in the war. Peace has made me weak!"

Sans could tell, though, that Gaster was perfectly content with his 'weakness'.

When they looked back to Papyrus, he had stars in his eyesockets. "... I want Sans to teach me how to use Magic!"

"uh." Sans looked at him for a second. "... course i will, pap."

Papyrus laughed happily.

~o0o~

It seemed like it took forever, but eventually, a part of the spacetime machine was operational.

No, not the entire machine.

Gaster had figured that, as beings that traveled normally through time in a linear fashion, they had to first make sure to be able to identify their proper time, in order to return to it. So the first part of the machine didn't interact with space or time, merely monitored it.

And that's when they made a discovery.

There was not merely one "time". There were plenty of "timelines," all strung out through...

Well. Sans supposed it was whatever the time equivalent was of the nothingness outside space.

Gaster was intrigued. Sans thought it was really more out of curiosity than actual precaution-taking, but Gaster decided that they must know more about this timeless, spaceless nothingness before they proceeded, in case it somehow effected their work.

Sans supposed that, as long as he wasn't being asked to go into that nothingness, he was happy to let Gaster research it.

~o0o~

"dark, darker, yet darker." Sans read out loud to Alphys. Gaster had done some research overnight, and left a pile of notes for Sans and the rest of the Fold team to go over while he crashed at his desk. "the darkness keeps growing, the shadows cutting deeper. photon readings negative. this next experiment seems very very interesting. ... what do you two think?" Sans paused a moment, then looked up at Alphys. "okay, first of all, what was 'this next experiment', and secondly, does he always write notes with this... fancy wording? i mean, what's the deal with all this mysteriousness?"

Alphys grabbed the paper from Sans. "H-haven't you seen his notes before? He h-has his serious notes, and t-then these little side musings... l-like, just little mental notes on p-paper."

"... yeah, actually, i can imagine him doing that. what's the experiment?"

"H-he wants to drop something i-into the Void."

They had started calling the nothingness outside space and time 'the Void,' as it was considerably easier than repeatedly saying "the nothingness outside space and time."

Sans glanced over to where Gaster was flopped over at his desk, his shoulders gently rising and falling with each sleeping breath. "... is that safe?"

Alphys shrugged. "D-don't look at me. He's t-the Royal Scientist. I-I'm just t-the intern."

Sans shook his head. "well. that is true, i guess. i'll talk to him about it."

And he did. Gaster was totally convinced they could do it safely.

So, they were going to drop something into the Void.

~o0o~

Gaster was lightly tossing the data-recording device from hand to hand. He was grinning. Because this time, he got to be the one to drop something into a strange unknown.

Sans was at the control panel, pretending to hit buttons with an expression of wonderment. "ooh, hey, what's this one do?"

"Don't touch that." Gaster swatted his hand.

"what about this one?"

"Or that." Another swat.

"okay, so which button can i press?"

Gaster grinned, and pointed. "That one." It was a big red button, with the words "EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN" clearly labeled on it.

"aww," Sans pretended to pout. "that button's no fun."

Gaster just chuckled.

"okay, now, seriously. which buttons do i press?"

Gaster looked at Sans. "Sans! We've been going over this for the last two weeks!

"yeah, i know. i just forgot."

"Sans, I swear, if this is not a joke..."

"woah, jeez, dings. calm down, it was just a joke. i know i really just have to hit them all."

"Sans!"

Sans snickered.

And then they were starting it up.

Sans wasn't really sure what happened next. Just that suddenly, he was on his back. Trying to blink away the flashing lights in his eyes, the pounding in his head. His chest hurt.

It was deathly silent, except for the ringing that echoed in his skull.

Slowly, he rolled onto his side, groaning with the effort, and propped himself up, looking around.

The room was carnage. The machine completely torn apart. Several of the Fold team had been tossed against the walls, all were unconscious. A strange black sludgy goop on some surfaces. Gaster--

Oh.

Oh, Annoying Dog.

Gaster!

Sans tried to struggle forward to his creator, but his body was being suddenly unresponsive, Sans could only make jerky flailing movements, some sort of dust slipping off him with every movement.

No, no. He had to get to Gaster.

Sans eventually managed to agonizingly flop over to Gaster, but he hardly noticed his own pain.

When Sans reached out to Gaster, the Royal Scientist's eyesockets opened just a crack. A quiet, placid smile twitched at his mouth.

Sans found that his words were not working. He could only make whimpery noises.

"'S--- o-k-ka-y-- S-a-an--..." Gaster shakily reached up with his less-mutilated hand, twisting his arm a little around the large, warped chunk of metal sticking straight up out of his chest. "I--'s-- ... '-k--a--y-..." His fingertips just touched Sans' jaw, brushing a bit of white powder off Sans' face.

Sans suddenly realized that, even on hands and knees, he was unable to support himself. He collapsed forward, his skull landing on Gaster's shoulder.

He could hear Gaster's voice, a soft, broken murmur, but couldn't understand his words.

And then Gaster's voice stopped. Sans' skull fell down just a few more inches, landing on nothing but dust and the floor.

Dings?

Dings?

Where had he gone?

Sans tried to whimper, but found he couldn't even do that anymore. Couldn't really see, either.

Was...

Was this...

Had...

...N-...

...No-...!

The darkness engulfed him.

... No, this couldn't-...!!

RESET

... -couldn't--!!!

CONTINUE

~o0o~

Sans reached out and slapped a hand on the emergency shutdown button.

Gaster looked at him. "Sans, I didn't actually mean press it now! I was- ... are you alright, Sans?"

Sans was shaking, trembling, his hand still on the shutdown button, his fingertips curling around the edges of it.

"Sans?"

Sans' grip on the button just tightened, his shaking intensifying.

Gaster glanced around the room. The main control station was a bit elevated, and boxed in by machinery. All the other members of the Fold team were farther away in the room.

So Gaster reached over and gently pried Sans' hand off the button, letting the smaller skeleton's tight grip shift to Gaster's hand. Then Gaster sat down, leaning back against the machine, pulling Sans to sit down beside him. Sans was immediately pressed up against his side, hugging him, trembling. Gaster just wrapped an arm around Sans' shoulders, holding Sans' skull to his chest with his other hand.

"Dr. Gaster, sir? Is something wrong?" He heard someone call.

"Just a small error!" He shouted back. "Don't worry about it, Sans and I can take care of it!"

Sans hugged Gaster a little tighter. He responded in kind.

They sat there for about ten minutes before Sans began to calm down.

"Are you alright?" Gaster asked quietly.

Sans shook his head.

"... Do you want to tell me?"

A nod.

Gaster was about to respond when another team member shouted for him. "Uhhh, Dr. Gaster? You're really gonna want to see this!"

Gaster gave Sans a small squeeze. "Be there in a minute!" He shouted back. Then, quietly again to Sans, "Will you be okay until we can make it home, or do I need to suddenly be stricken by some horrifying illness to get us outta here?"

Sans let out a shaky laugh. "i-- i'll be alright-..."

"You're sure?"

Sans nodded.

"... Alright, then. Let's go see what the interns blew up this time."

They stood and walked over to one of the secondary control stations.

"Alright," Gaster sighed, "what did you break now?"

"U-um." The scientist hesitated. "Time, apparently."

"... What...?"

The scientist gestured to the screen in front of him.

Sans and Gaster looked at it.

It was one of the timeline monitors. One of the timelines, though, was strange. It looked like it had been... cut, and looped back onto itself.

"Huh. That... wasn't there earlier." Gaster lifted one hand to rub at his jaw, curiosity making his brow furrow. "What..."

He trailed off as he saw Sans' hand moving in a repetitive set of gestures, Speaking in Hands. Glancing up at Sans' face, he saw a touch of panic.

"let's go home now." Sans was saying. "let's go home now."

Gaster looked once more at the screen. Then he straightened up and turned to face the entire Fold team, whom had assembled to learn what had happened. Clasping his hands together and rocking a little on his heels, Gaster grinned at the team. "Welp. You've all screwed things up enough for today. Go home. Take the rest of the day off. You all obviously need some time to figure out how to not make stupid mistakes."

There were some hesitant glances.

"Well? Go! Would you rather I permanently removed you all from the Folding project?"

Everyone bolted for the door, and it was just Sans and Gaster left. Sans was still staring at the screen, and he had started shaking again.

Gaster reached over and set a hand on Sans' shoulder. "C'mon, Sans. Let's go home."

Sans nodded. He took a step away from the screen, then started walking towards the door. Then, suddenly, he did a one-eighty, and slammed into Gaster with a tight hug.

Gaster could feel him trembling.

"Alright. Guess I'll carry you home, then."

§

A/N

What's this? Sans is actually going to talk about his problems?! What kind of an Undertale fanfic is this?!

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Remember, votes and Comments are not only always welcome, but always appreciated, too!