Gaster fought with everything he had.

Weapons broke in his grip, worn down by the excess of Magic he poured into them, and every step he took was amid a flurry of attacks from the Corrupt guards.

Eventually, it almost became a pattern, a continually repeated move of a catastrophic dance.

Fire, dodge, summon a Blaster, block an attack,fire the Blaster. Fire the weapon, dodge, summon a Blaster, block an attack, fire the blaster.

Weapon breaks. Drop the broken pieces. Pull out a new one.

Fire, dodge, summon a Blaster, block an attack, fire the Blaster. Fire the weapon, dodge, summon a Blaster, block an attack, fire the blaster.

He was here to save his sons.

Weapon breaks. Drop the broken pieces. Pull out a new one.

Fire, dodge, summon a Blaster, block an attack, fire the Blaster. Fire the weapon, dodge, summon a Blaster, block an attack, fire the Blaster.

And he wasn't going to fail.

Weapon breaks. Drop the broken pieces. Pull out a new one.

Fire, dodge, summon a Blaster, block an attack, fire the Blaster. Fire the weapon, dodge, summon a Blaster, block an attack, fire the Blaster.

When his final handheld weapon broke, he realized he had killed four of the six guards in the room, and the other two wouldn't be getting up any time soon. The child-like Corrupt lord had also disappeared.

So he walked over to the cage where Papyrus was sitting, watching him. He looked a little shaken, but overall happy to see Gaster.

"You're alright?" Gaster asked as he knelt down by the cage and reached for the lock.

Papyrus nodded. "I'm alright, but Dad, Sans..."

"Yeah. I know. I heard him." Finding it would not be an easy one to pick, Gaster summoned an attack and bashed the lock off the cage door. He pulled Papyrus out and hugged him.

Then he stood. Time to go find Sans.

~o0o~

Sans was eating.

Not a Soul, unfortunately. Just oatmeal.

He was in the large open room that served as the Corrupt base's main mess hall. Very few voices echoed in the hall in comparison to the Pure base's mess hall; the mess hall was for eating, not talking.

Sans wasn't entirely sure why he had chosen oatmeal instead of hot dogs or something.

Maybe it was because oatmeal was one of Papyrus's favorites.

Without a multitude of Pure Souls surrounding him, Sans felt very little inclination to go on a Soul-hungry rampage. That was probably for the best; if he 'turned traitor' again, he knew the Corrupt lord would hurt Papyrus.

He stabbed his spoon into the thick, mushy mess in his bowl, vaguely wondering if he shouldn't see about getting the kind with the dinosaur eggs instead. Or would that be too immature, too childish, too innocent for the Corrupt army's greatest weapon?

Yeah. Probably.

Sans wondered when Papyrus had last eaten. Wondered if the Corrupt lord was even planning on giving Papyrus food at some point.

He poked around a bit with the spoon.

Wondered if he should try to bring Papyrus some oatmeal.

"S͘͢a̕͏̢n̨s.͞" He jumped at the voice, and looked up to see the Corrupt lord themself. "I͜ n̶̶͢è̢ęd̛͟ ̨͏yo̷u ̷͝t̡͘͢o̵ c͏̶o̶͢m̸̕e̡ ́͠w͞i̡t̕h̨ m̨̀͜ę͏.͜ ̸"

He nodded wordlessly and let his spoon drop into his bowl.

He hadn't actually even eaten a single bite.

He wasn't really that hungry anyway, he supposed.

Rising from the table, he quietly followed behind the Corrupt lord. He was mutedly curious about what was going on, but he knew better than to ask.

After a little while, he was led into the lab.

"W͟ait̛͟͏ ͟͟h̕e̡r̨͡e̵͠." The Corrupt lord commanded. As soon as Sans had nodded, they turned and walked away, their black cloak flapping behind them.

Sans wondered distantly if they had ever taken it off, if anyone had ever seen the Corrupt lord's face.

Probably not.

He wondered if he'd ever be allowed to see Papyrus again.

...

Probably not.

~o0o~

Gaster was mostly just sprinting through halls with Papyrus in his arms, trying to outrun the Corrupters and find Sans.

It wasn't working too well.

He had been running for twenty, thirty minutes. There was no sign of Sans. If he slowed down just a tiny bit, he got hit in the back by a Corrupt attack.

The Ruins were massive. There was no way they were getting out of there alive.

He glanced at Papyrus, who was holding on to the lapels of his lab coat, peering over his shoulder.

We are going to make it. I won't let us die.

Almost overbalancing and falling over, Gaster turned a corner and ran off in the new direction. He heard the roars and howls and the sound of feet on the floor as the Corrupters turned, too.

There was no way they could possibly lose the Corrupters, not when they could sense their Souls. There were far too many to fight.

Another glance at Papyrus as he rounded another corner.

I'll make it. I have to.

Two more Corrupters were in this hallway. They quickly joined with the mass behind Gaster as he ran by them.

As Gaster turned into yet another corridor lined with doors, an idea came to him.

He could find a room. Barricade himself and Papyrus in it. Then...

He wasn't sure from there, but at least he would have a small reprieve from this running.

He turned to the nearest door and flung it open. The second he was inside, he slammed it behind him, dropping Papyrus and putting his full weight against it as Corrupters pounded against it.

Understanding what was going on, Papyrus grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be a chair, and pulled it over to Gaster, who jammed it under the door.

It wouldn't hold forever, but it was a good, solid chair, and  would be enough for the moment.

Sighing in relief, Gaster pulled away to look around the room.

And then he froze.

"d- dad? pap?" Sans looked shocked.

"Sans!" Papyrus yelped and ran over to him, wrapping him in a big hug.

Sans just looked shocked.

Gaster walked over and hugged his sons. "Sans. You're alright."

Sans pulled away, shaking. "n- no! you can't be here! you have to get out!"

Gaster nodded. "A sensible idea, Sans. We need to work together and-"

"no, you don't understand! in just a few seconds, the-"

Suddenly, there was a loud crunch. The chair broke, and the door was swept open.

Standing in the doorframe was a small, darkly cloaked figure.

"Well, well, well." The Corrupt lord laughed in their eerily childish voice. "What a happy family reunion!"

Gaster looked at them. "Well. It was, until you got here."

"dad. don't." Sans whispered.

"So I'd really appreciate it if you could go away."

"What, you mean I can't join in on the fun?"

"It's a family reunion, and you are not family. I will kill you."

"dad, please! stop!"

The lord laughed. "No you won't. You can't."

"dad!"

"I can, and I will."

"no!"

"I'd like to see you try."

With that, the Corrupt lord undid the clasp holding on their cloak, and let it slip to the floor.

Gaster blanched. He knew that face. That sweater. That shock of orange-red hair. He had seen this person before, long ago.

But that was impossible. They should be older, not a child any more.

If they were still alive, that is.

Because he had seen Chara die.

Lord Chara noticed his shock and laughed. "Surprised? I'm a lot closer to you than you thought, huh?" With a sharp gesture, a knife with a pitch black blade appeared in their hand. "Anyway, I do believe you said you were going to kill me." They took a step forward. "And I think this is going t͕̍̓o̯̪̜̦̪͇̓ͫ̈́̒̍̈́ͅ ̣̼̜̗͈ͤ̓̓́͒ͪ͊̚b̘̜̑̇ͦ̓ë͍̲̜̻̜̬̳͐͒͛ͩ͋͌ ͖̭͙̻ͦͫͣ̈́f̳̻̬̬͕̣̹̒̓ͧ̿̓u̻̼̘͑ṇ̩̋͑."

And then they lunged forward.

Gaster only just managed to summon a bone in his hands and raise it in time to block the deadly arc of the knife. The shock of the impact jolted through him, and he stumbled a step back.

Before Gaster could even consider an attack, Chara was swinging again, and Gaster again only just blocked.

In the space of an instant between Chara's swings, Gaster managed to summon a Blaster and fire it at them.

But Chara just twitched their hand holding the knife, and a wall of solid Corruption formed between the Blaster and the Corrupt lord. Then they swung out again, a dark blur of Corrupt shadows rippling off their blade. When Gaster blocked, the shuddering impact that ran through him made him feel weak.

Chara laughed, and Gaster finally began to understand the gravity of his situation. Chara was not struggling with their blows. They were not putting the most force they possibly could into their swings. They were not moving especially fast.

They were playing with him.

They were just toying with him, seeing what he could take before they killed him.

That made Gaster mad.

With a roar, he summoned a Blaster, two Blasters, three, four, ten, fifteen, all firing at Chara.

The very idea that they were laughing at him.

Each an every one was blocked.

That they were just drawing it out.

Gaster poured more Magic into the Blasters, and the Corrupt shields began to break down under the constant assault.

That they

Thought

He was just

Going

To let

Them kill

His sons.

In an instant, the Corrupt shields broke, and Gaster summoned every hand at his disposal to hold Chara in place.

Every single Blaster found it's target.

And when they died away, disappearing one by one, Chara was still standing there, grinning widely.

"Oh. I'm sorry, was that supposed to hurt?"

Gaster just gaped. His jaw moved, but no sound came from his mouth. His hands gestured, but the gestures were meaningless.

And then Chara lunged forward. Gaster felt a flash of pain across his chest, and then... blackness.

~o0o~

Papyrus watched, horrified, as his father dropped to his knees, hands clutching uselessly at his chest. When Gaster fell forward and was still, Papyrus ran forward with a shout, not caring that Chara was still standing there.

He grabbed ahold of Gaster's shoulders. "Dad?! Dad?!"

He heard Sans say something in the Corrupt language, and Chara respond.

Gaster twitched a little, and relief flooded through Papyrus.

And then Sans was by Papyrus's side, carefully rolling Gaster onto his back.

To be honest, the damage wasn't that bad. None of Gaster's ribs were even broken, just a few cracked. Papyrus supposed it was more the shock of the hit, or something in the clearly-Magical blade of the knife, that had knocked Gaster out.

He was already beginning to wake up.

Slowly, he shifted and opened his eyes, groaning. "Whaa...?"

Chara said something in the Corrupt language.

Sans looked up, surprised. "but-"

"Now, Sans. You're lucky I'm letting them live."

Sans looked broken. He turned to Papyrus. "pap... d'you think you can help me carry him?"

Papyrus just nodded. "Where...?"

Sans nodded towards the back of the lab, to what Papyrus realized must have been the same cell he had been in with Alphys.

He blinked a moment, then moved to take up Gaster's feet.

Gaster moaned as his sons dragged him into the cell, but he was still mostly out of it.

Once they had gotten Gaster into the cell, Sans paused a moment, stopping Papyrus.

He hugged Papyrus. "... you gotta stay here, pap."

Papyrus nodded into Sans' chest.

"i'll figure somethin' out." Sans whispered. "i promise..."

And then he was gone, slipping out of the cell, and walking over to Chara.

§

A/N

For anyone who's curious about the whole oatmeal being Papyrus's favorite food thing, I would direct you here \/

http://undertale.tumblr.com/post/150442793880/questions-complete

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