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“Yes, Ronan’s the one in charge now. I’m on my way there.”
Jessica Grey’s voice could be heard from the front half of the artillery truck. Even with the vehicle traveling through rocky terrain, and the sound of wheels churning at such a vigorous and harsh pace, Gaster could still hear her from his seat in hindquarters of the truck.
“Of course… I’ll be there soon.” She concluded as she powered off the communicative electronic ear piece she wore. The dark haired woman turned to face the driver and continued her ramblings over the next course of action.
“We’ll be going near the school. Hopefully we can find Undyne and help her evacuate the remaining civilians.”
Gaster’s eyes darted towards her, watching as she spoke with the driver. Jessica noticed this, she too glanced at the doctor, turning her head to directly look at him.
Their eyes briefly locked together.
”…”
Not even a second passed before Gaster had his gaze adverted, shifting awkwardly in his seat. He could practically feel her eyes watching his every movement. She simply sat and watched as his face cringed.
Jessica frowned… cringing at the moment also. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she stood up from her seat and made her way over to the to backside of the transport vehicle. She takes the seat across from the skeleton monster.
“We’ll be arriving to the stationed location in the outskirts of the town.” The district leader began to explain. “Rave has already deployed armed perseverance souled units along the perimeter of the city… as for the kindness souled unit, they’ll be center city. We hope to have them shield up the remaining safe areas.”
Gaster nodded. His eyes still not entirely focused on the woman sat before him.
‘It seemed like he wasn’t paying much attention…’ Jessica concluded. It seemed like he was occupied by something else entirely. Which sadly, only heightened the awkwardness within the air. She could just sense the unnerving feeling radiating off of him.
It worried her.
‘Maybe this was a bad idea…’ Jessica thought to herself. She knew this would be difficult for the both of them. She had the feeling this would only get worse…
She gave an attempt to break the silence, “I-“
“There’s uh…” Gaster suddenly simultaneously spoke. “Oh my… you can-“
“No no! Go ahead..!” She politely retorted.
“Hm…well. There’s a lot of things I want to tell you.”
Jessica raised a brow. “Oh?”
‘Maybe things would get worse after all...’ Jessica dreaded.
The doctor continued, nervously.
“Uh… but, I can’t necessarily find the correct words for them. Not right now.” His words slurred, she could barely hear him over the rumbling of the truck.
“But… perhaps soon I’ll find them.” He was backing out of their conversation by this point.
“Ha, I see.” She replied.
‘He's a lot more troubled than I thought…’ she mused at the thought.
With that, the two were left sitting in silence, letting the noises drown out the intensifying feeling of dread that surrounded them.
Only time would tell how this would all end.
The afternoon dawned as the pair traveled down the city streets. Streets that were now destroyed and debris ridden. Destroyed by the ever infesting horde of fleshy pink blobs of goo that terrorized the city. The area the two were surveying appeared to be empty of any brightly colored beasts, but they wouldn’t let their guard’s down so easily.
As they traveled, a soft but ominous grumbling noise could be heard down from down the paths ahead of them.
“Hey, don’t you feel something moving?” Jessica asked with a slight quiver in her voice.
“Yeah… for a while now. Stay alert.” Gaster said sternly.
“What was that!?” The rumbling suddenly shook the earth. Which was following by an immense thundering shriek of a practically unstoppable mass of flesh and gore. A terrifying creature. A creature crawling right to them.
“Run!!”
It was all so sudden.
The beast demolished a building.
Pieces of such, collapsing on top of them.
It took many moments to get up once again.
“…ugh..”
“J…Jess..?” Gaster groggily spat out her name. It seemed he had been knocked out. He attempted to push himself up from the floor. His face full of dirt and his eyes blurred. His head pounding from the the effects of the attack. “Where…” He murmured. He tilted his head around, trying to process any obtainable information about his new surroundings.
The destroyed construction stacked upon itself, trapping them under a pile of rubble.
A sudden sharp pain coursed through the skeleton’s leg. As he shifted up from the ground and peered down. One of which had been broken, bleeding profusely.
“Shit…” he cursed.
The monster let out another groan as he sat up. Spinning around to scan the suffocating pocket of rock and rubble around him.
It wasn’t long before he finally noticed her.
…
His eyes widened.
“Jessica… oh… oh god, Jessica!” He shouted, his voice strained and hoarse as he jolted up. Though his vision unclear, even in the darkness he could make out the horrid reality before him. Hastily, he treaded towards her, his leg continuously gushing more red ooze as he limped.
An unbearable truth.
‘No no no… this can’t be real… this can’t be right..’ his mind raced. But the images of the twisted scene before him swirled in his head.
He blinked. It was real. Even with the burning pain in his leg, he stood there. He stood and stared down to where she lay.
There she was, Jessica Grey. As she lay on the ground. Her body slumped against stone of the wreckage.
Her arms were limp. Her legs bent and battered. Scraped by chunks of glass and debris along her body… her body… Lodged into her body was a large piece of shrapnel that had impaled her in the left side of her abdomen. It stuck out of her, dripping with her blood. Spewing out even more crimson onto the dirt beneath her.
It was horrible sight.
In an instant, Gaster kneeled beside her, desperately grasping her arm, shaking it.
“Jessica! J-Jess..? Oh no… please don’t- I can’t… please…no-” His words so frantic that they made no sense. Speaking so intensely and quickly, his words devolving into a hushed plea.
“No… Jessica I can’t… not without…” he continued pathetically. “Please-!” his cries were interrupted, intruded by a painful gasp for air by the woman before him. She was breathing. She let out desperate attempt at exhaling. She cocked her head, only slightly. Her glossy, tearfully faded gray eyes moved slowly.
Her face was caked with the same blood that coated the rest of her dying body. The same blood that dripped onto the dirt around her. The fluid from the cuts on her forehead trickled down to her eyes.
“D…Doctor…” she mumbled. Giving the faintest of smiles to him.
It broke him.
“…Gaster?”
“Jessica…”
“Ha… ha…”
“I-…Mrs. Grey!” Gaster exclaimed, “I’m here..!” He tried to assure her through his panic. He clutched her hand, holding onto her tightly. “It’s going to be… I-it’s going to be-“ he stuttered. His skeletal hand trembled as he held her’s.
“I’m here.” Was all he could whisper.
She said nothing, only staring in response. What felt like an eternity of silence passed, before Jessica’s eyes began to trickle with tears. Tears that muddled together with the blood that flowed down the crevices of her face. She was trembling too.
Jessica gave Gaster’s hand a weak squeeze. Neither of them wanting to let go of the other. Gaster tightened his grasp on her. He could only watch as her frail sniffles turned into deflating sobs.
“Do…cter.. Gaster…” she slurred. “…you need to… give her hell… f…or me…”
Her words trailed.
The rate of her breathing decreased.
“…Jess I’m-“
‘I’m sorry.’ He so desperately wanted to tell her.
Even after all of their efforts, everything had been futile in the fight against the Bete Noire. Again and again... it was repeated mistake after repeated mistake. Another lost life after lost life. How could he possibly move on now? How could he even begin to get through this?
How could he do this without her?
Gaster… was afraid. Afraid of losing this human dying before him. How could he be so selfish..? He wasn’t even brave enough to confront her in her final moments.
“…I forgive you. For everything.”
“…”
“Everything will be-“
Abruptly, a soft blue strands of light glimmered in the woman’s hair. It was a dull light. So very faint, but there was a shining burst of magic coursing in her watery eyes as she-
…
Magically, her previously gray soul materialized in the air as her head sagged.
Flourishing from outside of her body, her soul regained its prior dark blue hue. The light that briefly flashed in her eyes was put out just as fast. All that was remaining was her corpse, and the essence of her life. A life encapsulated in a beautiful deep blue soul that illuminated the rubble that trapped the two.
She was gone.
Gaster kept his grasp onto her stiff hand. A hand that still felt warm.
He couldn’t think right.
She was gone.
He failed.
He failed someone all over again.
Someone who… he never gave a chance.… Someone that took so much from him, and yet..?
he could never truly hate her.
…
No.
He couldn’t fail. He couldn’t lose anyone else. Not again.
‘Not again.’ The words echoed in his mind.
‘Never again.’
Gaster reached out.
…
The monster was met with a sudden burst of gleaming light.
A sudden assimilation. Spawning from absorbing the source of light that float in front of him, the soul was excreted from the space of matter. It was bonded with Gaster’s own soul. Strings of light shedded from the soul absorption, flooding the ruins that trapped the two souls together.
The floodlight was strung around Gaster, consuming his very being.
‘It’s so...’
‘…so very-‘
“Bright.”