The morning sun shone brightly on the camp slowly rousing to life. Birds flitted through the air, singing a merry tune. Most of the flowers had already shriveled away due to the autumn cold, but a few brave specimen held on, vivid yellow against the dreary green and brown of the camp ground.

Captain Avery marched through the camp, shouting at the men still asleep and gruffly acknowledging those who were already up and doing their morning chores. He only fully stopped in front of one building- an actual stone structure and not a tent. The captain listened for a moment, trying to hear any sounds that might come from inside. Even if there was someone already awake inside, Avery doubted he would actually be able to hear them, but he tried vainly anyway. Anything to give him an excuse not to go inside. He sighed in defeat when all his ears picked up was the chatter of some annoying bird and the clatter of metal as men attended to their duties. Finally he flung the heavy wooden door open.

Inside, the building was dimly lit, most of the light coming from the open doorway. On the far wall, shelves were lined with jars that glowed with a soft white light. The strange liquid inside shifted and churned in constant motion, making the room they were in seem to be moving with them.

The captain waited a tense moment while his eyes adjusted before dragging his gaze away from the jars and to the left where a figure fitfully slept slumped over a desk. The captain sighed before yelling, "Gaster! Get up, it's morning!"

The doctor shot upright, eyes glowing white with magic. Once he caught sight of the captain he slumped back over, rubbing his eyes irritably. When he removed his hands, his eyes turned a less threatening brightness.. His voice was empty. Not cold or harsh, just lacking of life that should be there. "Captain. I was not expecting you."

The captain snorted. If this man had forgotten again... "It's Wednesday, Gaster."

Gaster merely blinked slowly at him. The captain had worked with Gaster long enough to know the action was in confusion. "New magic?"

"Oh." Was the simple response. There was a slight fluttering sound as the doctor ruffled through some papers before producing the one he was apparently looking for. "The runes for a light cancelling spell."

The captain snatched the paper up, eyes greedily scanning over it. Finally he huffed, crumpling the paper up and throwing it onto the floor. Gaster watched the action in obvious horror before his searching gaze stared hard at the captain's face. "We're at war, doctor. A spell to snuff out your candle before going to bed won't help us."

Gaster bristled, eyes narrowing dangerously. "I believe you underestimate my magic, captain." Without another word, the doctor stormed outside. The captain followed exasperatedly, murderous thoughts circling through his head. The doctor kneeled, drawing a complicated rune into the dirt before him. After several moments of just the dry sound of earth being scraped, the doctor stood up, dusting off his hands.

The captain looked down at the marking, unimpressed. "What are you trying to prove, Gaster? Just accept that you don't know anything about battle and go crawl back into your lab."

Gaster wordlessly snapped his fingers, eyes shining white. The rune glowed brightly, brighter than the light the doctor's eyes were emitting, brighter than the sunlight. It glowed brighter and brighter until it was blinding to look at. The captain turned away, closing his eyes, but the light still hurt. Then, it suddenly stopped, the light blinking out of existence. The captain opened his eyes, but everything was still dark. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, trying to see anything, but everything remained black.

"Having difficulty seeing, Captain?" Most people couldn't tell the difference in Gaster's small range of tones, but Avery could hear the smugness there.

"What the hell did you do to me?" The captain demanded, mindful to keep any panic out of his voice. Whatever the man had done to his sight, it couldn't be permanent. Right?

"I didn't do anything to you, captain. Listen." Avery strained his ears, searching for whatever sound Gaster wanted him to hear. He finally caught it, and the sound made him shudder. Panicked shouting and running feet could be just be heard over the terrified squealing of animals and children. "Imagine the possibilities." The doctor continued from somewhere over on the captain's right. Slowly, the darkness began to retreat, revealing first the rune still shining brightly on the ground, then the doctor, his eyes still white with magic. "These runes could be placed outside outposts with other trap runes. Monsters would be running blindly into traps. They could be placed on the battlefield before battle, sowing panic and uncertainty among the monster ranks. You would tell me this has no battle application?"

"Alright, alright, I was wrong." The captain conceded gruffly. "Just turn that damn spell off."

Gaster's face split into a smile that might look normal on a regular person but just looked eerie on him. "Of course." He replied smoothly, the light in his eyes dimming once more. Immediately, the darkness retreated, like a blanket had been thrown over the camp and now it had been whisked away.

The captain squinted up at the blue sky overhead, then at the troops in sight stumbling around and murmuring amongst themselves confusedly. Avery sighed, already feeling the headache coming on. "This is going to be hell to explain to my superiors."

"Then I would suggest you get going." Gaster commented, slapping the rune sheet onto the captain's chest. The captain glared down at the doctor, but only moved to take it."If you'll excuse me, I have a lab to crawl back into."

Avery considered for a moment simply not telling the doctor, but decided, albeit begrudgingly, that it was for the good of the war. "Gaster." The doctor stopped in the doorway leading back into his house. "Just got the news. Another batch of monsters arrived. A few of them dusted on the way over, but I think you still got two. And the soldiers I assigned had explicit instructions to keep the dust too."

Gaster turned his head back to the captain so that half of his face was showing. Half of his face that the captain had thought would be grinning that unsettling grin, but instead was devoid of emotion, unreadable. Avery wondered if the doctor even knew how to convey emotions properly at all. "Thank you, captain. I will head over immediately."

Avery nodded and walked away from the doctor who likewise set off to inspect his new subjects. He couldn't help but shudder, feeling oddly like if Gaster was on the other side, not even hell could spare the captain from that demon in black doctor's robes.

When Sans woke up, he was first surprised that he woke up, then he couldn't remember why he was surprised. Before he even opened his eyes, the pain reminded him. Right. Battle waging under a hot midday sun. Suddenly face to face with a mage. The mage had not taken kindly to Sans trying to kill them and had hit him with a powerful spell. Sans couldn't remember what the spell had been, but he did remember a flash of light, pain all over like all of his bones being shattered at once, then darkness.

He had not expected to wake up, yet here he was. Wherever 'here' was.

With a soft groan, the skeleton opened his sockets slowly, grimacing at the amount of light shining in through the bars. It seemed he was in a cage propped against the side of a stone building. Sans attempted to sit up, but arcing pain shooting through first his spine and legs, then his entire being, brought that plan to a grinding halt. Instead he just let himself lay there on the cracked wooden floor and stare at the cracked wooden ceiling. Sans traced the markings on top with his eyes. They looked like claw marks smudged with dry blood. Sans shuddered.

Humans didn't take prisoners. If a battle was lost by the monsters, you better pray you managed to fall back with the retreating ranks because otherwise you were would be hunted down and killed. But then, the humans started marching out with new weapons; stronger, lighter weapons with magic runes etched into the metal. Mages stormed the battlefield with never-before-seen magic so powerful it was frightening. Then the soldiers began to take any monsters they found, capturing them, never to be seen again. It was another two months after the strange occurrences began before ghost spies had found out why.

His name was Dr. Gaster. The Doctor of Death. He took the captured monsters and experimented on them, studied their magic and their souls. His experiments always left the monsters dead, barely even dust left behind...

So that's where Sans was. Hell.

He shuddered, bones rattling and hitting painfully against the wood of the cage. He stopped as he heard a sigh of breath to his right followed by a high-pitched whine. He managed to squirm on the ground, bones protesting at every motion, and find the source of the noise. A madjack laid in a crumpled heap a couple feet from the skeleton, whining in pain while still unconscious. Bones screaming angrily, Sans scrambled over to the monster, cradling him as gently as possible. The monster's stats were dangerously low, his HP almost in the single digits and slowly declining still. His neck feeling as if it would snap at any moment, Sans finally looked up, seeking help.

Around him were canvas tents taller than the cage, obscuring his view. He hissed, stopping when the being in his arms shifted slightly, whimpering. He hushed the monster gently as they blinked their eyes open. "W-where-urk!" The monster attempted to curl in on himself, but was too weak to manage even that. Sans sucked in a sharp breath as the madjack's HP dropped a few more points, hovering tentatively at eight.

"Shhh. It's okay. Everything's okay. Just go back to sleep." Sans assured the monster, rubbing a thumb along the nape of his neck. The monster gazed at him with eyes unfocused by pain before his eyelids drifted back down and he relaxed slightly once again. Sans guessed his deliriousness from lost of magic and blood helped the monster sleep. Sans cursed, softly at first, then louder. Cursed the pain coursing through his body, cursed his blue magic that couldn't use healing magic, cursed the entire damn situation.

Just then, the monster in his arms turned to dust. Sans couldn't register what had happened at first. Just one moment, he was saying every swear word he knew, and the next his body was covered in a fine white powder. Immediately, there was a sound like glass shattering that Sans knew all too well was the monster's soul breaking He stopped, not even daring to breathe.

He screamed.

He had seen death before. He had seen battle before, several in fact. He had watched friends and comrades die before him, he had watched the light die from humans' eyes as he speared them to death with bones. It bothered him of course. Kept him up at night. But for some reason, this seemed so much worse. Even though he didn't even know this monster.

Maybe it was because he had been right there and was completely helpless to do anything to change it. Trembling, Sans stood up, frantically trying to get the dust off of him.

"What the hell are you two doing? The doc will personally torture us if we don't collect every bit of dust! Don't look at me like that! Move it, move it, move it!" Sans started at the sudden shouting of the guttural human language, spinning toward the source of the sound. Two light skinned humans stumbled out from between two tents, looking like they were just threatened with burning at the stake. They lurched over to the cage, one of them pulling out a key and hurriedly opening the lock on the side. The whole side creaked open slowly. The other human climbed into the cage, roughly grabbing the skeleton before he could pull back. His eyes flared with deep blue magic, casting the monster's body in the same color. He grunted, then the light grew brighter as the dust on Sans' clothes and on the floor tentatively rose up and into a small pouch the first human was holding open. When the humans retreated, locking the cage once again, not one speck of white remained. Sans crawled into the corner of the cage, huddling down and trying to comprehend what had just happened. No matter what he did though, his soul couldn't understand. Those men had been so stoic, afraid of punishment, but had no remorse about what had transpired. How could they be so callous? Monsters were alive just like humans, had hopes and dreams and emotions, so how could humans be so cruel to them? Didn't they understand what they were doing? Sans couldn't fathom it. He regretted every time he took a life- human or animal.

He couldn't bring his eyes off the place where that monster had been. The pain in his bones seemed so very distant now that an almost comforting numbness had wrapped itself around Sans. He shuddered against the chill of autumn as night began to descend. He sat pensively, waiting for more humans to appear. Or more accurately, for the human to appear.

Finally he heard a voice devoid of emotion in the distance. Sans curled around himself tighter, simultaneously straining his hearing to catch every word and wishing he couldn't hear anything. "... finally see him now?" The voice asked, not angry or happy, inquisitive or bored. Just empty. Sans almost couldn't tell the monotone of the voice was asking a question.

"Don't take that tone with me Gaster." A deep masculine voice responded in return. Sans couldn't possibly see how that was in any way a tone of voice that shouldn't be taken, but he could see approaching torchlight flickering from between two tents.

"It just didn't seem necessary. You inform me there are monsters here, then subject me to hours of investigation." The voice almost seemed agitated.

The second voice got a bit softer. "Well, you've heard the rumors going around."

"I haven't actually." The voice that Sans was sure had to belong to Doctor Gaster responded something reminiscent of dryly. "I don't get out much, as I'm sure you know."

"That you've been meeting with monster spies." Finally, the pair stepped into Sans field of range. The one on Sans' right was clad in a full suit of heavy iron armor and bore the torch. He was tall and bulky, a scraggy beard covering his face. The one on the left was tall, taller than his giant companion even, with spindly limbs. Despite his pale skin, his black doctor's robes made it seem like he might simply flow right out of the torchlight and meld back into the shadows from which he came. But his most striking characteristic was his eyes. Sans had never seen something like it before from a human. They held a soft, constant white glow, like the kind you would get when using magic that didn't come from a trait.

"Ah." The one on the left- the one Sans was convinced was Dr. Gaster- responded tensely. "Well, now those rumors have been put to rest, yes? I am completely loyal to the humans." It was finally then that the duo stopped in front of the cage.

The soldier eyed the doctor, less distrusting and more searching before turning his gaze to Sans. He hesitated, shuffling from foot to foot. "He can't understand us, right?" He hissed, glancing at Doctor Gaster.

"It's possible." The doctor responded vaguely, eyes drinking in the sight of the monster before them. At the soldier's glare, Gaster continued, "The monster may have picked up the human language from before the war or may have learned a difficult spell that allows the user to understand others, even when speaking another language." The doctor cocked his head at Sans, glowing white eyes narrowing slightly. "I doubt it though. This monster isn't very old."

The armored man let out a small breath, turning his attention back to Sans. "Well, he's yours. My men told me that the other one dusted earlier, but they collected every bit." The man paused, obviously trying to gauge Gaster's reaction, or lack thereof. Eventually, he cleared his throat, moving to leave. "I'll leave you to it then."

Gaster nodded slightly. "Thank you, captain. I will begin work immediately. See that I'm not disturbed." Gaster didn't turn to the captain to see his reaction, but Sans could fully see the outright annoyance on the his face. The captain didn't respond, just turned and stomped away.

Doctor Gaster waited a tense moment, simply staring at the monster before him with those creepy white eyes. Sans watched in horror as the human's eyes grew brighter, shining brighter than the torch the soldier had left with the doctor. "Come." Dr. Gaster ordered simply in the monster language, opening the cage with a turn of a key. Sans glared at the human, stubbornly remaining where he was. The doctor rolled his eyes impatiently, crossing his arms. "I haven't all night, monster. You either follow obediently, or I make you."

Sans was tempted to spit at the doctor, but being skeleton, that would have been a bit difficult. "My name is Sans." He hissed, climbing to his feet slowly. That was a bad idea. The world spun around him, dark and too blurry to make out anything. He didn't even feel himself falling, just the icy grip of blue magic on his soul. He blinked at the wooden board inches from his face, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Had Dr. Gaster just used blue magic to stop him from falling?

Sans looked up, trying to understand what was going on. Dr. Gaster's expression hadn't changed in the slightest, but his eyes had taken on a blue hue that matched the magic suspending Sans in the air. He snapped his fingers, summoning two spectral hands beside him. He reached inside his robes, pulling out a piece of parchment and handed it to the hands. They began to write furiously, about what Sans had no idea. Dr. Gaster stepped back, slowly bringing Sans out of his cage and standing on the ground.

The blue retreated from the doctor's eyes, replaced by the white again. "Monster is indignant. Might prove difficult to work with. Already weak and wounded, further analysis will determine how much so. As it stands now, however, I will have to call in a nurse to tend to him and possibly give him rest before conducting any tests." Dr. Gaster muttered, switching back to human tongue. He eyed Sans as the skeleton snorted at the doctor's comment about him being difficult to work with. Did he expect Sans to eagerly comply with everything the man said? "Evidence indicates the skeleton either knows human language, or knows magic to translate it. Further investigation required."

"Yeah, I know human language." Sans spat past the heat in his face when he realized his mistake. "And I have quite a few words I know that I'd like to share with you, you-"

"Subject is insistent on being uncooperative." interrupted dryly. "Will take drastic measures if its actions continue." He looked at Sans rather blankly, but a slight shift in the way his eyes glowed made it more meaningful.

His intent. Sans thought suddenly. His eyes glow because of his magic, so that glow will change depending on his mood or his intentions. was trying to convey to Sans that if he stepped out of line again, he would be punished. He couldn't get his face to do it right, but his magic sensed the change and expressed it as best it could. But really, what could some scientist really do that would hurt more than what San was already going through?

"An interesting pair of eyes you got there." Sans said, closing his right. "Would you like to see mine?"

cocked his head, the white of his eyes dimming slightly. Did that mean he was confused? Sans wasn't certain, but either way, before the doctor could do anything else, he snapped his socket open to reveal one glowing blue eye.

The gift of being born with a soul of Integrity- the Eye of Integrity. With it, a monster or human could see into another's soul, even if that person or monster didn't want you too. The more you wanted to know, the better you had to be with your skill, and Sans prided himself as one of the best Integrity souls he knew. He stared hard and deep into the doctor's soul. He was first met with some flitting surface thoughts, his soul type, and emotions. His emotions felt dampened though, like they were being consciously held back. Besides that, his soul was white like a monster's. Sans didn't know what to make of that. Further inside, Sans found his HP next, actually really low for a human, or even a monster, at 67.

Sans found what he was looking for past that, in the layer of the soul holding memories. It appeared before him immediately, his magic already calling it forth. Sans needed to know what magic the human had at his disposal if he ever wanted to hope to escape.

What he found was an archive so vast, Sans would need at least a day just to learn all the offensive magic the man knew; that wasn't mentioning the hundreds more spells that didn't have direct effect on a battlefield. Sans distantly felt himself gasp, then groan in despair. He wouldn't have time now to sort through it. Barely a second had actually passed, but Gaster would recover from the initial surprise soon enough. Sans should get out of the man's soul before he was forced out. And yet...

Sans went just a bit further into the core of the human's soul. Here was the information most creatures kept secret, even when showing their soul to another. LOVE and EXP. Sans had to know how bad it was. He saw his LV first. It was unsurprisingly high at 29. Most commanders in the monster army didn't even reach 20. Just past that lay his EXP. Far away, Sans felt himself frown. This didn't make sense. He had never doubted the intel his Eye had given him before, but now he was certain this couldn't be righ-

Sans barely had time to see the change. He registered a yellow light in the center of the soul glow, morphing into a bright blue. Then he was slammed into the ground, reality crashing back painfully. Literally. His already sore bones screamed in agony, and a cry escaped from the skeleton. He gasped, the action made excruciating by the pain already in his jaw and all over his body. Tears forming traitorously at the corners of his sockets, Sans glanced up.

Above him, the Doctor of Death towered over his cowering form. His eyes, blue now because of the magic he was using, had grown so dim that it looked like they were sucking in light as opposed to letting it off. The human glared down at the monster, he face cast in ominous, dark shadows. Rather than making it less terrifying, the torch actually made it worse, causing those shadows to dance cruelly across the man's face and his eyes to glint malevolently.

"Never." He hissed. Sans whimpered softly; it would have been better if the human was shouting. Anything other than that low, dangerous tone. "Do. That. Again. Do you understand?"

Sans could barely breathe. The pervasive pain made his vision swim and his stomach tie in knots. Did that even apply to a skeleton who didn't have internal organs? He managed to move his head up and down in a weak nod. regarded the skeleton coldly for another moment before gripping him in chilling blue magic again. The human all but threw Sans back into his little wooden cage where another had already perished.

"I was going to bring you inside to begin conducting my research," said, tone losing some of its edge, "but perhaps a night exposed to the elements will do you some good. Besides, this experience already grants me some groundwork to lay." One of the man's phantom hands gave him back the parchment. looked it over once, and, seemingly satisfied, nodded and tucked the sheet back into his robes. "Goodnight, skeleton." The doctor said, purposefully neglecting to use Sans' name. His eyes flashed warningly, then he was off, turning away in a flutter of black cloth and ill intent.

Sans watched him go before crawling over to the corner of the cage and huddling up again. He squeezed his eyes shut, breathing deeply to try to keep the pain at bay. An icy breeze had begun to blow, ruffling the canvas of the tents around him and chilling his bones to their marrow. After several moments of blankly staring at the floor of his prison, Sans sighed and summoned his soul. The white, upside-down heart floated deceptively peacefully in his cupped hands. Even before checking his HP, he knew it couldn't be too bad or there would be cracks in his soul. 28 health points. Sans figured that wasn't too bad, considering how much all this hurt.

He shivered more violently as a gust of cold air bombarded him. The wood of the cage creaked and the sky rumbled overhead.

Sans went over what had happened in his head. Gaster had so much magic. That flash of yellow before Gaster had used his magic- was that his soul type? Sans knew monsters had more magic than they did traits- that's why their souls glowed white. But if you looked in the core of a monster's soul, you would find their soul type. 's soul was white like a monster's. Did that mean he had so much magic, it overpowered his trait and made his soul the natural color of magic? Or that his soul trait was just very weak? And all the spells he knew...

A sob escaped the skeleton's mouth, a sound drowned out by the wind. It was pointless. Sans didn't stand a chance at escaping. Even if he got enough of his strength back to use magic other than his innate ability, he didn't stand a chance against . He wasn't called the Doctor of Death for nothing.

It felt like a tug in his chest. Completely painless, just sort of a discomfort. Sans frowned checking his HP again.

His maximum points had dropped from 180 to 175.

Sans closed his sockets, letting his soul sink back into his chest. He was losing hope, then. Made sense considering the circumstances.

But his Execution Points. A voice in Sans head seemed to whisper. Sans cracked his sockets open. That was right. Sans had never seen something like it. 's ability to kill was high, that Sans was certain.

His Execution Points were only twenty. Gaster must have only killed one creature to have points like that.

Sans didn't know what was going on, but he decided to trust his Eye. He didn't have many other options anyways. Sans didn't know what had happened to the other monsters, but Gaster hadn't killed them, nor played a key role in their deaths. If they were dead at all. That thought was ludicrous, though. Humans would never let them live. But that didn't mean Gaster had been willing to let them die.

Sans closed his sockets tiredly. Whatever was going on, he would find out soon enough. He just had to hold onto the hope that Gaster wouldn't let him die.

Another tugging sensation told him that hope was already fleeting.

(A/N): Hello! Just real quick, to anyone who has read my other Undertale fic, I promise I'm going to come back to it. I just need to get some things straightened out in my head. But I've wanted to do a Gaster origin fic for so long now, so here ya go!