Broken Souls

Chapter 22 - Soul Research (not school)

"So you wanted me to help with science?" C asked, shaking off the last traces of nausea from the shortcut Sans had pulled her through. She was in the Lab, Gaster's private one under the new house that is. The Royal Scientist himself was hunched over his desk and didn't look up to reply,

"That's a broad term to use." He deadpanned, C snorted,

"Its the term you used."

"I did not!" Gaster argued indignantly, "And even if I did, it would've been because you're too dumb understand the proper terms."

Sans chuckled, startling C as she'd forgotten he was still there.

"just tell her dad." he said, wandering around the room and looking at whatever caught his eye. As Gaster was still getting set up, there wasn't much, but it was worth a look anyway. One could never be bored in the Lab of a science-crazed skeleton. Finally finished with whatever notes he appeared to be writing, Gaster stood up straight, his spine cracking with the sudden movement.

"I want to research your Soul." He said simply, shifting through some of the papers he held in his hands. C raised an eyebrow and pulled her Soul out into her palm,

"This? I mean I guess you can, but why?"

Gaster came over to C and, with a quick glance to ask for permission, he scooped her Soul into his own hands, where it floated above the holes. C felt a shiver of fear go down her back but she ignored it, her Soul wasn't going to shatter with Gaster just holding it. She doubted anyone would be very happy with Gaster if he did end up killing her, whether she was important or not.

"I wanted-" Gaster began, ushering C over to his work table so she wouldn't be so far from her Soul, "-To test how different your Soul is from the other seven traits."

Sans stopped his aimlessly searching of the Lab and joined in, grabbing a sheet of paper from one of the many scattered piles and showed it to C,

"so each soul is defined by a trait right? but they all have a trace amount of every other trait too, that's why humans are all determined, but not the point of timeline resets like frisk is." Sans explained, indicating to the measures of coloured strips on the page. C nodded,

"Did you want a colour stripe of mine then?" She asked, Gaster grinned,

"If it wouldn't be a bother."

C shrugged and flopped down onto a nearby desk chair, flipping her head over the back to stare at Sans upside down.

"Howdy Sans." she giggled, her fingers twitching in a natural reflex to her Soul getting jabbed with needles and the like. She sucked in a breath suddenly as a shot of pain went through her chest, making Gaster look up from where he'd just stuck some sort of instrument directly into the black heart.

"Sorry C." he apologized, removing the device. C grinned weakly at Sans, who rolled the lights in his sockets.

"so uh. how's it going?" Sans asked, scooting his chair closer to C so he could poke her repeatedly in an irritating manner until C slapped his hand away.

"Almost there Sans. The results do look interesting so far." Gaster replied, watching the two poke and slap each other in the most casual way possible. A small beep sounded to alert Gaster as he turned back to his work table. A piece of paper was in the process of printing, showing the results of C's Soul traits. Gaster picked it up once the paper was fully printed and frowned.

"Now this is unusual."

C sat upright in her chair and took the paper to determine it for herself. It showed something like a chromatogram of colours, just with an excess of black at both ends. The black also spread it's way through the other colours, winding into interesting patterns. C nodded appreciatively.