Chapter Text
Project Determination.
The Origins of this Project’s beginnings stem from a mere 50 years after Monsterkind was sealed underground.
Asgore brought in W.D Gaster who was there to present his theory.
The theory was that monster souls consistently contained a very, very low amount of Determination.
Human souls contain Determination* as a component as proven by Chara Dreemurr having a test ran on them. *(Determination, with the capital D is not to be confused with being determined.)
So, Gaster had thought that extracting the small amount of Determination from monsters would allow for it to be collected.
Asgore bought into the idea.
And so, invested in the project’s beginnings, calling on the most well versed scientists of the underground to work with W.D Gaster to start the project efficiently.
The Hotland Laboratory was to be constructed, and to be given many lower floors.
The idea was for them to be hidden from most of monsterkind, and for easy access for the scientists from the Southern, deeper part of the Underground.
And so, after 2 years, it was built. It’s basements also finished, as monsterkind had figured out really efficient ways of construction with magic.
It was given 99 basement levels.
Deep oh so deep.
Monsters who had previously fallen down as a result of their lack of hope from the barrier’s placement, were taken into the project, with consent from their families.
They were placed into capsule like containers. Filled with pinkish, honey-like liquid, along with having a needle inside them slowly draining out their Determination and without intention, their magic, while another needle fed them nutrients and fluids. And lastly, respirators placed on their windpipe locations, where they breathe.
Many scientists for monsterkind were brought in.
The liquid was to prevent the monster’s body from falling apart from the nutrients and fluids leaving them, along with some of their magic.
The magic would be circulated back into them, like a form of dialysis.
Approximately 600 monsters would be brought into the project.
Gaster thought it simple, the Determination would be removed from monster bodies and stored aside, as the research for the creation of an Artificial Soul would continue.
But no, this process wouldn’t work well.
Monster souls are composed of love, hope and compassion, along with Determination and magic.
A lack of hope or old age leads to falling down.
A lack of love or compassion weakens the monster and can easily lead to their death.
A lack of magic would be instant death.
A lack of Determination though, it means nothing. As monster souls aren’t actively using Determination and it’s more of an evolutionary failure (due to monsters constantly generating a low amount of it)
As monsters with high concentrations of Determination begin to melt and liquify.
However, if these were measured.
90% of a monster’s soul is composed of Magic. Love, Hope and Compassion make up about 9.99999% 99.9999%
The last 0.00001% is the Determination.
The issue is clear, this project would not make it far.
Gaster realized this eventually, after year 30 of this project’s continuation.
Not enough Determination was harvested.
So Gaster had more, many more monsters volunteer for the project.
The final number this project reached was 18032 for the amount of monsters.
And yet still, not enough.
9 Million Monsters would be needed for ONE human soul
Yet Gaster simply…did not know that.
So he put the monsters in a state of which they would consistently produce a low amount of Determination endlessly.
But then, on the 51st year.
The project’s funding stopped
As the Queen had abdicated.
Nobody knew why.
As news of the fallen human and Asriel’s death hadn’t spread yet.
She took everything with her, her furniture, her decorations, and her bookshelves.
The Royal Guard was to escort her to the ruins and also carry her furniture.
As, the ruins were the old capital until the Fallen Human fell.
Where she wanted to stay.
~~~~~~~
The royal guardsfolk carried the crates containing all of the Queen's equipment, huffing and puffing, as they didn’t expect to carry so many things.
Of course, eventually their break came for the first day.
Two guards, though, decided to check out the place the Queen went to days before they were told to move her things.
“Dark as hell here isn’t it?”
One of the guards simply said.
“Obviously you dumbass.”
The other said blankly.
“I mean at least we get some breaks, a lot better than moving furniture, I’d rather be hunting down criminals than moving furniture.”
The first guard said, clearly annoyed.
“Neither of us even caught anyone, we’ve not done shit.”
“Well don’t tell anyone that we went here. Or we will both be screwed.”
“Bold of you to assume I’m that stupid.”
The first guard a ray of light illuminating a patch of Golden Flowers.
They seemed freshly planted but also something seemed to be on them.
A…Human.
“Holy crap.”
“It hasn’t even been a WEEK! We are so LUCKY!”
“Hey now! We gotta be careful with them.”
The guard glanced towards the fallen human.
This one looked…different."
Aside from their clothes being ripped, them wearing a bloodied scarf and their skin being pale, they looked just like a normal human.
“…so we take this kid to the king right?”
“Yeah but…how..? Like without getting caught” said the other guard
“Simple! We just need to tell the other guards while the qu- Toriel is asleep! Then we transport this kid to the new capital, straight via river!”
“And then when we get to the new capital’s river docks, we get to the king’s castle! It’s flawless!” The other guard responded.
The first guard slung the human behind his back and with the other guard, stealthily kept the human hidden.
For 6 hours.
Six whole hours.
Before they told their squad.
They managed to convince them, and they went to Snowdin, took their royal boat, and drove it to the new capital’s dock.
As fast as possible.
~~~~~~~~
The sound of a watering can, pouring its contents onto a collection of flowers filled the throne room.
There remained the lonely king. Watering his golden flowers, no wife to talk to, no children to love. Nobody came to see him.
He caused this technically too.
He caused his wife to leave.
By declaring that all fallen humans would die by his trident.
His children…died to humans.
They caused this. Not him. Or so he told himself.
The next human, that falls, will die. Fast.
Suddenly, Asgore heard rushing from the entrance to his throne room.
Then came 4 guards.
“What do you want?” Asgore asked.
The guards were heaving, as if they just ran really far
“King…we have something to show you.” A guardsman said before revealing it.
A new human.
Fresh, like they just fell.
Asgore picked the human up and gestured to the guards to leave.
Asgore, to put it simply, didn’t expect a human to arrive this fast.
He expected a few decades at minimum.
He placed the human on the throne.
“I’m not sorry, little human” he thought as he prepared to take their soul, with his trident.
But then, he stopped.
He noticed something, the human’s soul as he exposed it before he struck it.
It was…fractured. Almost like it was barely holding together, with what little willpower it had.
Asgore has read about this. A human soul this damaged can barely do any action without putting the human at risk.
Let alone be used to break the barrier, or absorbed.
It clicked though.
What if he had the scientists figure this out.
What if they could mend this human. And figure it all out, research them and everything.
More knowledge on this human.
More knowledge on humans in general…
A capability.
To make.
An Artificial Soul.
~~~~~~~
The Laboratory was business as usual.
Aside from it being lunch break, everything was calm.
Experiments ran very slowly, a lack of funding would do that.
Even W.D Gaster was leaning on a wall, his tall physique made him look like a twig, even with his coat.
Three interns were there too.
Epsil and Omi. A star like monster and a lizard one.
They seemed to be accompanied by someone named Chujin. A purple fox.
Who also applied for an internship at The Steamworks.
Gaster was approached by the manager and was told something.
“Head to the station.”
At this, he swiftly went up the elevator, frantically pressing the button to level 41, the receiving station.
Normally used for resources and patients.
This time…it was different.
A human came down.
A 12 year old human, a much older one, came down, carried by a floating lab platform, powered by magic.
“…what”
Gaster was appalled.
He wasn’t ready for this.
He didn’t expect this.
So soon.
He wasn’t prepared but he knew that he had to rapidly help this human before they died
They were bleeding like a fountain of water from their neck.
Gaster grabbed a gurney and placed the human on it before taking the human and him to level 65.
Of course, nobody else was informed yet. Gaster didn’t want them to know yet, especially if it caused any mayhem in the laboratory, he didn’t want to cause any ruckus.
Straight to that surgery room.
Human biology was well understood during the Human/Monster war.
So Gaster knew what he was doing.
For the most part.
Some parts of Human biology aren’t as well understood by the laboratory professionals.
But that didn’t matter.
Gaster had to multi-task.
As he needed to administer, consistently, an amount of anesthesia that will keep the human down.
Gaster didn’t hate humanity, dislike them maybe but he never had a downright hatred for them.
Seeing humans suffer never made him happy. Why? He never knew, maybe it was passed onto him by his wife, Hermann, Arial Raavi Hermann. Oh that spazzy, full-of-life woman. He loved her, and she never enjoyed suffering, whether it be human or monster.
So then.
He flooded the anesthesia into the human’s body.
While it was expired by 1 week, it is functioning enough.
Angel, he needed to order a restock.
He used a machine that utilized magic to look for all the major injuries on the body of the human.
About 6 Rib Fractures to the rib cage, Flail Chest. Along with 3 rib contusions.
Multiple bruises across the legs.
Dislocated Patella.
About 6 different Grade 4 Sprains.
Plenty of cuts.
And a very severe CTI.
Along with plenty of infections.
How on earth did they survive?
More importantly, what caused this.
The machine also notified an overwhelming amount of Determination.
Determination. A power with many different uses, this human in particular was clearly using their Determination to simply persist from death.
Their soul was also severely damaged.
Wait…It was nearly fractured.
How…
This is…interesting, very very interesting.
Gaster proceeded to sterilize up, and entered the surgical field to at least, restore the human’s sentience.
A machine began to ventilate the human via the mouth.
Gaster cut open the human, kept their sternum exposed, and began repairing their rib fractures.
Placing titanium plating and screws to keep it in place.
He then closed up that segment, sewed it up.
He sterilized the human’s neck
Before going in and noticed the vocal chords being severely damaged.
So he simply chose to remove them.
It was easier than letting the human live with…vocal chords that didn't serve purposes.
He sew the neck back up with stitches.
Now was to bandage up the bruises and cuts.
He sanitized all the bruises and cuts.
Then he took a roll of gauze to cover up the injuries.
“Remarkable are you not. You simply do not…want to die.”
Gaster spoke to himself, about the human.
The restrains were placed.
Gaster was tempted to make the call that there was a human now as he left the surgical field and pulled the human out the field.
Project Determination could resurface again.
But no. Not yet.
Not until this human was given a proper structure to extract this never ending amount of Determination.
…Why was there a container of expired valium in the room? Was this used before…? If so then whoever used this just gave someone an overwhelming amount of pain. That would be plain stupid.
Gaster noticed the human’s eyes opening.
Oh shit.
Gaster made sure to simply cover his face up to not be recognized.
The human tried moving but of course, restraints.
They tried to talk but they couldn’t.
Gaster thought of simply reinputing the anesthesia into the human.
So he did, shoved the mask on their face and began to flow in the anesthesia.
In a minute, they’re down.
Okay.
The call needs to be made.
Now.
~~~~~~~
Months went by.
The human was given a special suit, with plenty of wires connecting into it, essentially stabilizers.
Multiple intravenous lines were placed into their body.
Along with plenty of other wires to extract or input fluids to keep them alive.
An unnecessary amount of nutritional paste was made to input into their body to feed them.
So now.
A large tank, made to extract Determination efficiently and also flooded with the fluid, like all other tanks.
They were gently placed into the tank, and the stabilizers and wires were plugged up.
And the tank was sealed.
Multiple screens showed what was occurring as of now in the tank.
The human was kept there.
Determination extracted.
Project Determination was back on.
The monsters in the program were still there also getting extracted.
But this human.
Was simply stubborn.
Unwilling to die.
They simply weren’t awake, but still refused.
They likely just wanted freedom.
But that wouldn’t happen anytime soon.
Months, maybe a year goes by. Maybe 5.
And eventually.
Enough Determination needed was extracted.
But the soul of the human.
Was still fractured.
Slowly reconstructing, but downright wont reconstruct maybe…likely..
Then one day, plenty of the human’s own Determination was injected back into them.
And then, the soul miraculously began healing.
Then one day.
For some odd reason, the project was abandoned.
Again.
This followed after W.D Gaster vanished one day.
But this time, while the monsters were let go.
The human was left.
Determination harvesting.
Repeatedly.
And then, the lights went out in the lower laboratory.
The reason was unknown.
Maybe lava from the deep destroyed the wiring, or generator.
But still
It.
Was.
Down.
Fully downed.
From level 1 to 99….
The human was left in that highly protected room.
Locked with around 7 keys.
…
Alarm ringing.
Alarm ringing.
Alarm ringing.
The Ringing Continues.