Doctor Gaster's superiors were not pleased with him. He locked the subject in the examination room before calling a meeting with little to no notice. He claimed that it could not wait, so his colleagues are forced to step away from their own projects.

     The entire compound is dedicated to ensuring that the Monsters never escape their prison. The laboratory is located only several miles from the base of Mt. Ebott. It's been nearly two generations since the war, but Monsters live longer then Humans. They won't forget. Every Human fears the day they somehow escape their prison. Thus, the compound was built to develop anti-Monster measures. The scientists made weapons, defenses, and anything else that might help. Recently, a report came in that a sixth human had fallen into the Underground prison. The Monsters had surly killed them by now since they had no equipment. That meant the barrier would break with just one more. The barrier was an ancient thing that took an enormous amount of Human magic to create. It took so much that is stripped many of the human mages of their magic. Those with the gift today only have it very weakly. This means that they can not strengthen the barrier. They can not improve the barrier, but they may still be able to stop the Monsters from getting seven Human souls. This is where Doctor Gaster's small team was assigned.

It was a simple idea in the beginning. Someone must journey into the Underground and destroy the souls that the Monsters had collected. The problem was that the Humans had become weaker without their mages. All Monsters have their own type of magic, but Humans no longer did. A military force could be sent in, but if even one Human died, the Monsters would be free. They could not send a human. Something more...... recognizable had to be sent.

A Monster soul is made completely of Monster magic, and that magic shapes their body. It took months to simply create artificial Monster magic. The soul and body are entirely more complicated tasks. It was determined early on that they could not make a Monster soul strong enough to form a body on its own. Instead, they made Monster vessels to introduce artificial magic into. The Skeleton Clan was the most documented since they had a temporary peace treaty. The scientists put all their focus into creating this type of Monster. Many tests had failed repeatedly.

     It was Doctor Gaster who first suggested that they don't start from scratch when creating the soul. The artificial Monster magic just didn't seam to know what shape to take, and the bodies expired soon after. Gaster suggested using a dead and faded human soul to give the Monster soul a shape. Human souls are strong enough to persist after death, but not forever. The die, fade, and crumble if they're not kept in a forceless environment, such as the void of space or a specially made container.

This proposal was shot down immediately by Doctor Gaster's colleges. The entire point of this project was to keep the Monsters from gaining another Human soul. They weren't about to deliver the seventh! Doctor Gaster was sure of this idea's success, so he went forward with it regardless. He would not use a whole Human soul, but only half. This gave the Monster magic a template to follow, but the soul would still be much weaker then a real Human soul.

Doctor Gaster did this test in secret. He used a donated Human soul that had already begun to fade. This meant memory and personality were already gone. The first trial failed. When Gaster tried again with the other half, the Monster magic finally formed to create a healthy soul. Weak, even by Monter standards, but it did not turn to dust, and it seemed to anchor itself to the body. After a week of monitoring without any change, the artificial Monster woke up.

Doctor Gaster made his colleges all sit down in silence while he explained all this. Yes, he went behind their backs, but it worked. The skeleton appears to be alive. The team was angry at Gaster for this, but they also wanted to see it for themselves. None of them had gotten a Monster body to  even twitch yet. To see one reacting and seeing was too enticing to ignore. The four of them went to the locked examination room to see the Monster. Doctor Gaster, almost giddy with excitement, fumbles with the key before he gets the door unlocked. It swings open to reveal the scene inside.

     The skeleton can't hear the door being unlocked, but he freezes in place when the door opens out of the corner of its eye sockets. He freezes with one arm leaning against the counter and the other raises to shove a shiny tool back into the cupboard. Papyrus had told him that messes should be cleaned up, but the Human child seemed to disappear as soon as the door opened. The four scientists walk in to see the skeleton up on his feet and shoving medical instruments into the cabinet. They've all made empty Monster bodies, but this one isn't empty. A soft blue light pulses underneath its hospital gown. A tube still trails out from between its rib bones. The biggest difference is that it's skull seems to be pitch black inside. Tiny pinpricks of light move to look at them. All the other Monster bodies have had empty skulls.

     "What are you doing!? I told you to stay in bed!", Gaster shouts, but the skeleton doesn't hear him. It's more startled when the Doctor lurches forward to get it back on the table. It drops the shiny tool and flinches back. Doctor Gaster doesn't stop, but rather lifts the Monster up under its arms and sets him back on the table. The skeleton, startled, scoots back against the wall.

     "It really is alive....."

     "It's so small......"

     "Oh, Gaster! You're scaring him."

     "I signed some commands for it to stay in place, but it obviously didn't listen", Doctor Gaster sighs in frustration before he starts to sign some more words. "Don't get up. Stay on the table. Don't move". The skeleton watches the signs and nods a little. He knows he wasn't suppose to move. He makes a few signs himself, and Gaster tries to explain again that he can't understand.

     "Wait a minute, G, I think I know this one". One of the other scientists steps forward to look at the skeleton's moving hands.  Doctor Murphy has become familiar many more fonts then the others, but he can recognize more then he can actually understand. "It's Comic Sans. It's a fairly unique font".

     "Oooo! Can you understand it at all?", the only woman on the team comes up on Murphy's other side. Doctor Hansen has bright red hair and even brighter green eyes. The shock of color makes the skeleton's eye lights flick over to her.

     "Only a little. I didn't study it much since it's so rare. I didn't think we'd get a Monster that used it", Doctor Murphy pauses for a moment. "I think it's apologizing".

     "So it's aware, good, but what about the state of its soul? You did say it's half Human, Gaster. We don't know the side effects of something like that". The last man's voice is gruffer. The skeleton might have been more freaked out if he could hear all the new noise. Doctor Alister can't make himself forget about how Gaster went behind their backs.

     "Yes, his soul", Gaster nods. The skeleton drops his hands when the Doctor turns back to him. Gaster gently pulls his soul out by the tube as the skeleton watches. The three gape in amazement at the mismatched pieces. The deep blue Human half seems to be the only thing holding it all together. The soul flickers and pulses. Even looking at it, it's obvious how weak the soul is.

     "Do you think..... he's in pain?", Hansen quietly asks.

     "It doesn't look like it, but we won't know for sure until we can ask it", Murphy shrugs.

     "This is only the second test I've done with half a Human soul. I'm quite surprised that it took so fast. Only time will tell if the soul can sustain itself, but I can always learn from this one and adjust for a better third trial", Gaster speaks as he takes his clip board back put. He flips to an empty page and starts to sketch the Monster's frail soul.

     "A third trial? Would you have to get another Human soul for that?", Alister frowns. If that's the case, he'll do everything in his power to make sure that this is Gaster's last subject.

     Gaster nods, busy with his sketch. "Yes, that would be necessary. This is the biggest leap we've made in months. This is how we'll keep the Monsters Underground where they belong".