The night passed without much incident. They chatted, Gaster's quick, disjointed speech contrasting with Asgore's slow and easy tone. Gaster was dumbfounded (well, more than usual) at all that being a king entailed. Asgore was appalled at the monsters' distrust of skeletons; his goal was to have a kingdom that welcomed all.

"Before my coronation, I wanted to welcome all species into our kingdom," he explained as Gaster listened curiously. The king gave a bitter laugh as he played with a seed he'd found. "Even humans, though obviously that's...not in the plan now." He shook his head. "I was foolish. I—it's strange. I never really understood that I'd be king. I mean, I knew that I'd get the crown, but...I don't know. I didn't acknowledge it until it really happened." He sighed as he pushed the seed into the ground, then gave a little chuckle. "I really wanted to be a gardener. Something where I could use my hands and make things instead of passing laws and retreating into a mountain." He looked up at Gaster. "What did you want to do? Back on the surface?"

Gaster blinked. He looked down at his hands, thinking, then shook his head. "I do not know. It was...strange, in my family. We...well, we did not co-communicate well, as I am sure you can imagine. So...we mainly fo-focused on pr-proveeding..." He grimaced; that didn't sound right. "...for ourselves." He thought for another moment, then let out a small, rough laugh. "One of my...er, sister, I think is the word? My sister, she want to be a...she, er, she want to..." He motioned the word, thinking back to the grammar book. "Dance! That is the word! And we all ask—" He started to motion the question, but the curious look on Asgore's face reminded him that he couldn't understand. "Er, we all ask, 'Freesia, how will you be see? You do not speak Arial!' And...and she say..." He chuckled before signing and speaking, "She say, 'I will not need to! My hands and my feet dance, so I will be best!'"

Gaster laughed again, but the sound became strangled as he felt his throat constrict. He swallowed hard as he felt the bottom of his sockets grow wet. He quickly covered his mouth and shut his eyes. "I-I am sorry."

Asgore remained silent, but Gaster was aware of a large paw suddenly squeezing his shoulder. The motion was sympathetic; well, of course it was.

They'd all lost so much in that last battle.

The silence stretched, and Gaster took a few deep breaths to steady himself. Asgore drew his hand back.

"If...if you need to talk..."

Gaster shook his head sharply, sockets shutting tighter. He couldn't. Not now. He wasn't ready. Maybe he'd never be ready.

Finally, he pulled his hand away and let out one last breath.

"I...I think I will sleep," he finally said, voice wavering slightly. He looked up at Asgore, who nodded.

"We probably need it," he said, then laid down. He peeked over his shoulder. "Good night, Gaster."

"Good night."

Gaster laid back on the ground, staring up at the crystals overhead. He sighed as he shut his eyes.

Maybe one day he could think about his family without breaking down.

~

It took a while, but Gaster was eventually able to drift into a troubled sleep. All too soon, though, he was jolted awake as a loud cry echoed through the little cavern. Before his sockets were fully open, Gaster was sitting up, holding out his hands for an attack.

"What is wrong?" he asked quickly, looking around the cave. He saw Asgore, eyes wide, point silently down to a little sprout. Gaster frowned, hands lowering.

"A...plant?"

"It's where I planted the seed!" Asgore said, voice hushed in shock. Now fully conscious, Gaster noticed the book Toriel had given the king was open in his lap. "It shouldn't have sprouted that fast, especially not in these sort of conditions."

Gaster blinked a couple times, then furrowed his browbone as he leaned down to look at the little blue stalk. "It, er...it must be...it must be how it is."

"But it's not! At least, not the way a typical flower in its family would grow," Asgore said, frantically flipping through the book. "Even if we're underground, that shouldn't change its basic growth pattern."

Gaster glanced up at Asgore, then back at the tiny little sprout. He lightly touched the stalk, then idly spun his fingers around it as Asgore kept flipping pages.

"Ah!"

Asgore looked up in alarm as Gaster jumped back. The sprout had grown another inch. Now they both looked down at it in alarm before meeting each others' gaze, eye to socket.

"Did you do that?" Asgore asked, voice quiet again.

"I...I do not know. Maybe?" Gaster's hands fluttered for a moment, then he carefully reached out his hand and repeated the motion.

"Ah!"

This time they both cried out in surprise as the sprout grew another inch.

"How is this even possible?" Asgore asked, setting the book aside and practically laying in the dirt to get a better look at the sprout.

Gaster, meanwhile, flexed his hand a few times. Oddly enough, he felt just a little drained from that. Like he'd used a bit of... His sockets widened, and he quickly pat Asgore's shoulder. "You, you...you try!" he said as quickly as he could manage. "Try to...er, to, er..." He motioned to the plant. "Like me!"

Asgore looked up at him, then pushed himself up to his knees. He glanced at Gaster, who nodded quickly, then reached out his hand and pulled upward. He gasped as the sprout shot up a foot. Gaster's sockets widened still more, and a grin spread across his skull. Of course!

"Magic!" he blurted out. That was the only answer. But how could they do that here? Was it the species of flower? Or would other plants do the same? Why couldn't other plants do the same?

He was broken out of his reverie as Asgore spoke. "You think magic did this?"

Gaster looked up and nodded eagerly. "Not...I do not know how, but it must be!" There must be some explanation. A little hand wave would have done nothing on the surface. Why was it strong down here?

He needed to find out.

He would find out. Somehow.

He looked up in surprise as a heavy paw rested on his shoulder. Asgore, still looking at the plant, was positively beaming.

"Gaster, my friend," he said after a moment. "I think we might be able to survive down here."

~

The rest of the water area was, really, far too wet and not all that exciting. There was a wall that Gaster swore he could hear voices from...but there was no opening anywhere around it. No doubt it was just a trick of his imagination; it would be the only explanation why it sounded like the voices were speaking Serif.

Interestingly, they did find some other monsters who seemed to be fairly established here. They were fairly low-level and generally not able to really communicate. However, there was one group that seemed to have formed a genuine village. Gaster and Asgore were thrilled, of course. If they could create a community, then there was hope for their own group of monsters beneath this mountain. However, there was no way to find out how this community thrived. Every question they asked was just met with "hOI! im temmie!"

They left the village.

Really, the only place of viable interest was at the very furthest end of this water cavern. One particularly large waterfall emptied out to a shallow, but wide pool, and apparently came directly from the surface, washing things from above ground down below. Right now, it was mainly rubble from the war, but they sifted through it all to find a few things that might be helpful back at their base camp: tools, bits of metal and driftwood, things of that nature.

And a book.

Gaster had found it just as they were leaving; the cover, soaked as it was, still looked interesting He picked out the most legible word on it.

P-H-Y-S-I-C-S.

He couldn't even imagine how that was pronounced.

All the same, he tucked the book into his bag. Might be an interesting read some day.

~

Blinding hot heat was what greeted them next. Even without eyes, Gaster squinted as they exited the water area. Once he adjusted to the bright red light, he stared with wide sockets at the sight in front of them.

He'd known that there had been a volcano near the village. He'd heard stories of the one time it erupted, the geyser of fire the village had seen through thick smoke.

This, though. He could have never dreamed of this.

He took several steps forward and stared down over the precipice at the roiling, churning sea of magma. It stretched out as far as he could see, never stopping its motion. He tilted his head forward slightly, fully aware that one wrong step would have him swallowed up by the molten rock below.

He'd never seen such raw power in his life.

Something strange thrummed in him as he stared out at it. A strange, almost primal desire crept up in the back of his mind in the face of this great force that almost seemed to challenge his frailty in the face of its immense potential for destruction.

He wanted to conquer it. To prove that he could tame this unstoppable force.

He blinked, feeling almost as if he'd woken from a dream. Where had that come from? It wasn't the least bit rational. After all, who was he to control nature? He took a few steps back, then glanced back at the magma.

Then again...he had made that flower grow.

"I think this is as far as we'll get," Asgore said, pulling Gaster's attention back to him. The king looked out at the magma, though he didn't look quite as awestruck as Gaster had felt. "The barrier's not far, and we barely made it across from there the first time. It's too dangerous for us to get to it." He smiled wryly. "And anyway, it's not like there's anything we could do about it."

Gaster glanced once more at the magma, then back at Asgore. "Er...I am sorry, but what is 'the Barrier'?" he asked tentatively. "I...I have heard about it, er, o-often, but I...I do not understand."

Asgore stared at Gaster. "You don't know?"

Gaster grimaced. "I was...er, I was..." He mimed knocking on his skull again. Asgore sighed and nodded.

"Right, I forgot." He looked away, then gave a grim smile. "Well, I guess no one really wants to talk about it. Long story short, the humans put up a barrier to keep us here for good."

What?!

Gaster was so shocked he merely signed the exclamation. For good? Did that mean forever? But why? What had they even done to deserve this?

Clearly Asgore understood what Gaster was feeling. "I know. I don't know what would drive them to such needless cruelty, but..." He sighed. "That's the way things are. We can't get out." He laughed bitterly. "Well, not unless you have seven human souls on hand."

"You try?" Gaster asked desperately. Asgore grimaced and shook his head. Gaster's hands moved in a flurry, not quite forming words. Eventually, he was able to find the only monster word he could think of. "Why?"

"Because we needed to save the monsters who were left," Asgore said, very consciously not looking at Gaster. "We had already planned to move here if things got too bad. But...we didn't expect that it'd be so...permanent." His broad shoulder sagged, and the king was silent for a long moment before he looked up, forcing hope onto his face as he looked at Gaster. "But...we need to focus on the positives. I mean, look at all we've managed so far! Look at what you've managed!"

Gaster blinked in surprise. "Me?"

Asgore nodded eagerly. "You came out with me when no one else would dare to. You found out that magic caused the plant to grow. If that's right, then we'll be able to farm! And now we actually have a plan on how to rebuild!" He smiled at Gaster. "You've helped us out so much, and you didn't even need to, Gaster."

Something in Gaster squirmed uncomfortably. The way Asgore spoke made him sound charitable, when really he was just...selfish. The schematics were from boredom. Going out on this expedition was just to see if there were any other skeletons. He opened his mouth to say that, but...even if he had the words, the gratitude in Asgore's look would have rendered him silent regardless.

He sighed as he looked down at his hands, then began to sign as Asgore started to turn back to the water caves.

"Wing Ding," he translated.

Asgore turned around curiously. "What?"

Gaster swallowed and signed his name again. "Wing Ding. It is...it is, er, my...my given name."

"Wing Ding," Asgore repeated. He didn't have the suppressed laughter most had when saying that awful name outloud. "Should I call you that instead?"

"No. Definitely not," Gaster said quickly. "But, er...I figured...you should, er, know."

It was a poor trade for the compliments, certainly. But...well, it had to do for now. Until Gaster could do something not based in his own self-interest.

Asgore smiled at him. "Thanks for telling me," he said, then adjusted his bag on his shoulders. "Now, come on! I'm sure we can make it back to the camp before too late."

Gaster adjusted his bag's straps as well, but glanced back out over the magma. Very far away, on the other side, he could just barely make out a little glimmer of white. That must be the Barrier.

He frowned. Well, sooner or later, they'd have to take care of that. It wasn't like they could really stay down here forever.