{Handplates chapter references: a far off promise, it doesn't matter why}

You sat on the floor of the cell, silently watching the two brothers interact with each other.

Turns out if you went too far away from them, you simply disappeared. Returned to from... wherever you came from.

If they were separated, you could move with either one or the other, but you could not travel the distance between them when they were apart.

You learned that your appearances were triggered by some kind of...seeing ability that both skeletons developed but your presence seems to have become more stable, and you were no longer entirely reliant on one of the brothers "summoning" you back.
It was as if when they grew stronger, you formed more ties to the world of the living, but you were still nothing but a ghost.

You also encountered Gaster finally.

It was a moment you would never forget.

That cold demeanor, his eyes void of any emotion and his behavior distant and defensive.

Who you saw standing there in front of you was a total stranger.

None of the things that you loved about Gaster were present.

He looked exhausted and tense, like he is constantly stressed and ridden with guilt.
And he was...

You had to watch in horror as he experimented on those two children. You tried to interact with him, make him see or feel, anything.

But nothing reached him.

He walked through you as if you were nothing but air.

But then again, if his mind doesn't tell him to stop when a child cries...would you crying out to him actually make a difference?

Was he too far gone already?

You could no longer tell what was going on in Gaster's mind and you had no way to reach him.

Ever since, you decided to stay with the skeleton who remained in the cell and wait for the other to return to comfort them.

You could not bear watching them get hurt. It tore your heart to shreds. And even if you were not able to give verbal or physical comfort, you still tried to be there for them.

These two needed it more than anything.

You felt oddly attached to them, despite you barely having spent much time with them yet.

Those poor children...they literally went through hell and there was no way you could prevent any of it. It was almost too cruel.

Sudden wheezing and panting tore you out of your thoughts and you turned your attention to the two brothers.

1-S was shaking uncontrollably on the bunk bed as he clung to his brother, who was desperately trying to calm him.

You immediately scurried to your feet, kneeling beside them.

"i'm dying. i'm dying i'm dying.", 1-S choked out and trembled harder.

"I'VE GOT YOU, I'VE GOT YOU, IT'S OKAY. YOU'RE NOT DYING, YOU'RE GOING TO BE OKAY. THIS HAPPENS EVERY TIME HE DOES ONE OF THESE, REMEMBER?"

1-S lifted his head, an eye patch covering his broken eye. His other eye socket was diminished entirely, only a lifeless void.

2-P continued to talk to him: "AND YOU GOT THROUGH ALL OF THOSE OKAY. DON'T WORRY."

"it's not the same, it's not...
i saw red and gold again, red and gold, red and gold over and over and then. then it all just stopped. there was just...nothing and it won't...it won't go away..."

You could not understand a single word of their conversation, but the tones of their voices made their emotions rather clear.

You slowly extended your hand, gently stroking 1-S's arm. He turned his head a little towards you, seeming to calm down for at least a moment.

The all-familiar tickly feeling sparked between you two as you touched him, the parts of your soul within him responding a little in response.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

"it won't...go away. i can't....i can't see. i can't see anything. i'm blind, i'm finally blind, he finally did it-"

2-P's voice was steady and collected as he talked: "LISTEN. YOU'RE GOING TO BE OKAY. YOUR VISION'S ALWAYS COME BACK BEFORE. YOU JUST NEED TO CALM DOWN."

2-P pondered for a moment, a small smile forming on his face.

You lifted your head, looking up at him as he snapped his fingers together, still gently moving your fingers across 1-S's arm.

"I KNOW! I'LL TELL YOU WHAT I SEE, OKAY?"

2-P offered his hand to his brother: "YOU TRUST ME, DON'T YOU?"

1-S hesitated, still panting heavily. He glanced at you and you gave him a small reassuring smile.

1-S knew you did not know what they were talking about but it gave him enough of a push to reach for his brother's hand: "yeah...i trust you.."

You sat down properly in front of them, pulling your legs up to your chest as you watched them, talking to yourself: "I wish I could do more than this..."

2-P closed his eyes, his one hand holding onto 1-S's and the other gently stroking his skull.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT I SEE? I SEE... A LOT OF WHITE, THERE'S A LOT OF WHITE EVERYWHERE... THAT MUST BE WHAT THE FLOOR LOOKS LIKE OUTSIDE.
THERE'S A BIG HOUSE...I CAN SEE IT. IT'S ALL SORTS OF COLORS. JUST LIKE OUR EYES."

A little sigh escaped from the smaller skeleton as he calmed down and listened to his brother.

"AND THERE ARE...PEOPLE, LOTS OF NICE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE FRIENDS.
BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I SEE IS YOU, BROTHER.
YOU ARE WITH ME, WE ARE TOGETHER AND WE ARE SAFE.
AND YOU LOOK HAPPY. THAT'S WHAT I SEE."

2-P opened his eyes again, looking down at his brother as he started to tear up and sob into his chest.

"AND WE ALREADY MADE A FRIEND AS WELL. WE ARE NOT ALONE ANYMORE."

2-P looked at you with a smile. You smiled back at him in response and got up to sit down on the bunk bed next to them.

You gently stroked 1-S's back to comfort him more as he kept crying and 2-P pulled him closer against him.

"YOU'RE GOING TO BE OKAY. WE'VE GOT YOU. AS LONG AS WE'RE TOGETHER, WE'LL BE OKAY."

.

.

.

"WHAT'S A LEVEL OF VIOLENCE?", 2-P broke the silence of the room with a question. He sat on the examination couch, letting Gaster shine a flashlight into his eye socket.

Gaster hummed in response and 2-P took it as a sign to further evaluate: "YOU SAID, YOU'D COMMITTED A LEVEL OF VIOLENCE....WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?"

Gaster turned off the flashlight, setting it aside on the table: "It means that once you commit an act of violence, it becomes easier to do so again."

"SO, IF YOU HURT SOMEONE-"

"Let's not be coy. If you kill someone, it makes it easier to kill again.", Gaster said casually, placing his tools back into its metal box.

Subject 2 clutched his hands in front of his mouth, a shocked expression on his face: "YOU....YOU'VE KILLED SOMEONE?"

"Yes."

"BUT...WHY? WHY WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?"

Gaster's eyes flickered to 2-P, his hand reaching for the coffee mug that was standing on the table.

Gaster thought about this scenario a lot, it was something that always and forever will occupy his mind – no matter how hard he tried to fight against it.
He didn't have anyone anymore really to talk about it so, even if he was just a child, Gaster was somewhat relieved that he could talk to someone about this.

"Does it really matter why? They are still dead because of me, and I am still alive. Any reasons or justifications for doing so would only be for my emotional benefit."

His fingers gently grasped the handle of the mug, his bones trembling lightly but he tried to appear as nonchalant about it as he could.

"They are still dead. The damage done by the act will not change."

"DAMAGE?"

Gaster turned away from Subject 2, closing the metal box with his free hand.

"To kill leaves an indelible mark on the soul. Nothing you do can take it away. It is a permanent change in perspective."

Gaster stared down into his coffee mug, his mind seeming to be swallowed by the darkness that was residing inside him.

As 2-P spoke up, he got pulled out of his thoughts: "THAT IS AWFUL."

His voice was full of empathy. How could he still feel something like this towards a monster like him?

Gaster looked over his shoulder back at him: "There are benefits."

Another topic Gaster desperately wanted to talk about with someone. No one else could know about the things he had done to achieve a higher Level of Violence.

The methods he had used to test his theories..

It was cruel but at the same time, Gaster considered his discoveries as worth sharing...even if it was just with 2-P.

2-P leaned forward, shocked by Gaster's statement: "WHAT HOW COULD THERE BE-"

"I've been studying the effects of murder on the soul for some time.
I know it must sound impossible to you but to kill inspires...strength and a greater resolve to survive.
It becomes harder for others to hurt you...and easier to hurt others."

Gaster grasped the fabric of his turtleneck shirt, feeling as if it started to choke him all the sudden.

His heart ached as he thought about all the mistakes he made in his life. How cruel he was but also how cruel the world has been to him.

The War. Losing his family. Losing his friends. His freedom.
You...

In the end he was always alone.

He had hoped so many times just for it to be taken from him again.

Maybe if he had a higher level, he would've been able to bear all the wounds that have been inflicted on him.

On his mind. His soul.

Too late now.

"That can save you when nothing else will."

"WELL, I'M NEVER GOING TO KILL ANYONE. I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS, I'M NEVER GOING TO ANYONE!"

Gaster turned back to 2-P, studying his determined expression.

"It's easy for you to say that down here with only me and your brother. You may find, someday, that that's a much harder thing to do than you think."

Gaster stared off into the distance, his thoughts already drifting away again. 2-P glared at him in response.

"I'M NEVER GOING TO KILL ANYONE."

There was a moment of silence between them as 2-P continued to stare Gaster down.

...

"We'll see."

.

.

.

Another day, another mundane routine.

This time 2-P was spared from eye lasers and "seeing sessions" as his eyes had to recover.

One was covered with a patch as a precaution.

You had stayed behind with 1-S in the cell. 2-P wished you would have tagged along so he could show you how smart he was, but he understood that you did not like seeing Gaster.

He remembered the way you cried when you first saw Gaster conducting experiments. He did not quite know the exact reason, but he didn't want to see you that upset again.

2-P sat at the desk, kicking his legs as he used the differently colored pencils that he was supplied with to draw another shape onto his paper.

He hummed quietly to himself, catching Gaster's attention.

He looked up from his clipboard and checked the timer: "Your time is almost up, Subject 2."

Gaster got off his chair in the corner of the room and walked up to 2-P, looking over his shoulder to see how he was doing when his eyes widened suddenly.

Almost immediately Gaster reached out and pulled the paper away from him.

2-P flinched, the pen leaving behind a long black streak across the paper: "I STILL HAVE TIME! I WASN'T DONE YE-"

Gaster's eyes flickered across the page before he turned it and held it into 2-P's face: "Who is that? How do you know about her?"

Gaster's voice was angry, trembling slightly as he spoke. 2-P cowered in his chair: "THAT- THAT IS MY FRIEND-"

"Don't play games with me and answer my question. How do you know about her?"

Despite it being yet another crude drawing, Gaster was able to immediately tell who Subject 2 put there on paper.

The colors matched.

And she stood there, holding hands with Subject 1 and 2, smiling.

They have never seen you before. There was no physical evidence of your existence or anything at all.

Of course, there was the incident where 1-S saw the soul of you but no way they could have drawn conclusions based off that.

Gaster felt like he was about to lose it. He did not need a surprise like that. He did not have to be reminded like this.

2-P just watched him with a frightened expression.

It looked to him as if Gaster was fighting a war within himself...from what he could tell, Gaster seemed to be just as upset about seeing you as you were about seeing him.

But why?

Gaster forced himself to focus on Subject 2, a dangerous glint in his eyes: "Did you see her in your visions? Is that it?"

Gaster stepped closer to him, studying his expression.

2-P averted his eyes, feeling as if Gaster's eyes were burning holes into him: "I- YES...KIND OF-"

Hope sparked in Gaster's chest as he heard these words and he looked back down at the paper.

Maybe...just maybe...

That alone was enough for him to convince himself that he would somehow make you return.

Gaster folded the sheet and shoved it into the pocket of his coat.

"HEY THAT IS MINE!"

"Those are the results of your test so I will evaluate them. You are done for today. I am going to walk you back to your cell. This session is over."