Eraser felt like his world had frozen.
Felt like his soul had ceased its beating.

Gaster.
That name...
A name that so many monsters dressed when they heard it, something that made a shiver shoot up their spines and make them feel like they could never be safe.

What the hell had Reboot gotten himself into...?

"How. How do you know him?" He forced the words out and held back the urge to just fucking hunt Gaster down and rip his throat out.

Reboot hesitated to answer and Eraser noticed. "Tell me Reboot. Tell me. I need to know."

Reboot shuffled a little and fidgeted, "I-I can't..."

Eraser growled at him and Reboot bit back, "he's... he created me." His eye-lights dimmed. "He made me from an empty soul... made me so that the aus and timelines had a real guardian... one that Ink couldn't be. But now he's after me because I did something wrong..." He glanced to the now shocked swap-destroyer who simply nodded his head from him to continue.

"He kept me in a lab... tested on me like I was nothing more than a lab-rat, "his voice started to glitch and tremble yet he kept going like he needed the truth to be said. 

"B-but... one day... a portal appeared next to me and I took the chance to dive through... and when I looked around I was in the doodle sphere. "He croaked.

"All them aus... all of them were there as if looking down at me. And I looked at each one... and the more I looked at them the more I realised how wonderful the world was. 

I knew... I noticed that some aus were starting to fall apart and disintegrate and it hurt my soul to see that happening. I didn't want the creations and the anons people created to just vanish into thin air like rubbish. To be treated like garbage like I once was."

He moved his hands and his soul flickered in his palm, the bright blue lines of wires and magic sowing themselves together to make a heart. He smiled.

"So I made a promise to myself, to them. I'd protect them and they'd not be hurt alone. They'd not suffer individually and on their own. They'd suffer and cry and hurt with me."

"I made a soul-oath. And in return, they gave me real emotions and the reason to live. " Reboot leaned back and his eyes glowed with the magic and emotions he had been given, Eraser watching. 

"They get hurt, I get hurt. That is how it goes and how it must be." 

"And after that oath I felt like a new person and what I needed appeared towards me as pieces of code I had to decode. I got what I wanted and I got trust. Found a home with all those aus and finally felt like a was loved."

The smile on his face faltered. "And yet now Gaster is after me because I have 'unfinished business' with him. He wants me to go back to him, wants to take me back as his own property in order to break me apart and put me back together. To test on me once again and me a slave."

Eraser was wide-eyed and he looked away. "So... every time I destroyed those aus...?" His gaze met Reboot's, "I hurt you?"

Reboot simply nodded and winced as he looked down. "Yes," he glitched. 

Eraser felt so guilty. Oh god... he didn't know Reboot had gone through all that in his past life. And all he did was make his life harder and hurt him so many times just because he was unhappy and wanted others to feel the same.

And now... he felt like he needed to protect the swap-creator.

A friend.

Someone special to him.

"Rest." Eraser spoke.

Reboot opened his mouth to protest but sighed and slowly nodded, getting up and limping back to his room.

Eraser sat there in silence and stared down.

Then he looked to the window and saw that melting figure grinning at him before vanishing.

Eraser's eyes glowed with extreme, harsh magic.

He was going to find Gaster. Even if it lead him to the ends of the earth or to his death.

And kill the son of a bitch.