They had moved to a place far away from Dreams grasp but there were still other issues they had to deal with and nightmares that continued to plague them all.

 ((Co-author:Firehedgehog))

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He raged and clawed, almost a mindless animal due to level madness.

Gaster lost himself to the pain and rage, his mana veins burning within his bones and threatened to burn and dust him from existence.

His broken feral mind zero'd onto the nearest threat, roaring as he attacked him.

Beautiful wings shifted as the owner turned to look at their attacker, a hand went up and blasted the level mad monster away.

Gaster woke with a start, breathing heavy from the confusing swirl of emotions the dream of a memory brought up.

It had been awhile, since he'd had nightmares of his time insane. Even now he wasn't the most stable of monsters, but he was a lot more stable then many level heavy ones.

He briefly left the tent he was sleeping in, taking in the grey nothingness of the phased area sky. He hoped he could make it a true sky soon, as this greyness was depressing. For safeties sake they'd left the safe house, everything in boxes in tents or item space.

Not feeling the urge to sleep more he started up the campfire, stirring the embers and adding more wood. It wasn't much, but it wasn't like there was weather here yet.

He had an idea of on how to give it weather patterns, even without a sky.

Humming he started heating up the leftover soup, knowing the others would be up soon. His thoughts were a million miles away, he started at the area they were setting up for the house. Things had gone all strange, who knew adopting a lost child could result in his life changing like this.

The once scientist did not regret it, since he'd been.. well forcefully regained sanity he'd been wondering a bit lost. He'd had nothing to tie himself to anymore.

Sighing he ate the soup, setting the pot to the side so it would stay warm but not overheat for the others.

"Might as well start setting up the wards" he said after washing his empty bowl, he walked over to the future housing area studying the marked off ground. Finally he summoned multiple hands, mentally having them break ground on what would be an underground area the wards would be stationed.

It was quick work, he'd done this before to help with underground expansions and house building.

Before Asgore....

Gaster cried as Asgore beat him, the other being careful not to damage certain parts of his body.

"Stupid Bitch, running when we need a new heir" Asgore snarled, easily overpowering the hurt skeleton monster.

Gaster grit his teeth, tears slipped down his face.

"This one better not be a skeleton"

He rubbed his face, he had to focus on the future.

Not then.

Never again.

He motioned and one of his many hands brought over the specialized walls and flooring for the ward room, he stared down in the hole as they began to make sure nothing would collapse onto itself, Walls and floor making an appearance, it was like a fortress, and it was just a ward room.

"Still not enough" Gaster hummed and focused, his eyes glowing heavy with magic and a strange crystal like growth covered everything before fading making everything as unbreakable as possible.

Storm and Cloud had survived there multiverse end, they'd hidden in a room he'd secured like this. Not that he knew, and he would not tell them that even in his insanity he would not have attacked him.

Too much dust on his hands either way.

He jumped into the ward room and pulled out an advance ward device, then jumped the insane amount of ward stones on the ground. Carefully began to set up the stones needed for here, smirking at how enraged Asgore and Alphys would be that he had the entire kingdom's ward supply. If they had been alive anymore, he'd strangle Alphys to death for what she'd done.

It had been satisfying yet he'd felt empty, surprised at how many the traitor had.

Humming he started on yet another ward room, on the other side of where the house would be. He had enough ward stones to place multiple wardrooms across there phased home, the most important under the house the rest would be scattered giving them plenty of warning of invaders.

No one would take this home from any of them.

Not Even himself.

Storm woke up early, having a moment of confusion before the last few days slowly trickled into his mind, relaxing when he realised he was just in his room.

He sighed as he rubbed his face, shaking off the nightmare and getting up to get changed knowing sleep would elude him.

He decided to make breakfast for everyone, having experienced the other two's cooking and had not been impressed in the slightest.

If he happened to also check all the windows and doors that was his own business, his paranoia still high after all those tense years growing up.

He was stirring up a large batch of pancake batter when he saw Gaster walk in, taking in the dark circles and shaky hands before going back to making food.

"Coffee is on the table." He said simply, still recalling how much of an addict they could be for the stuff despite it being years.

He didn't feel the need to fill in the silence, focusing on the rest of breakfast and hearing movement from upstairs.

Gaster slumped at the table holding the coffee like a lifeline, he hadn't slept well lately and that meant he wasn't as rested as he wished especially after they'd put the large home together over the last few days. Monster home kits from some multiverses were interesting as this place should have taken months to build not days.

"We should be able to pick up the auto greenhouses today" he managed after he drank most of the cup.

"That's good. I'd like to do most of the planting today. The sooner we are self-sufficient, the better." Storm replied, flipping a pancake just as his brother stumbled into the kitchen with a very sleepy babybones.

"Will have to wait yawn twenty-four hours to start planting, so they can adjust to the wards properly. Arranged five of them, pretty sure thats overkill" Gaster yawned, moments later a sleepy Echo walked into the room and climbed up his fathers lap and fell asleep against his chest.

"Looks like I'm not the only one that needs sleep"

Storm sighed when he saw that Cloud was face planted in the table and letting out loud snores, finishing off the large stack of pancakes and placing it on the table.

He then placed a large mug of tea on the table, snorting when Cloud jolted awake and quickly dragged the mug closer.

"Food?" Echo mumbled, not moving from Gasters lap and not sounding very awake right now.

"Looks like no ones really a morning person but you" Gaster grinned, and helped the yawning Echo eat.

"I see nothing much has changed." Storm muttered, tutting at how messy an eater Cloud still was but having given up long ago to change that.

"By the way, doctor Slate called and confirmed he had a solution to the 'magic problem'." He had no clue what that meant but he was the only one awake at the god awful time they had called, Gaster having left their phone in the kitchen for some reason.

They better not have the same awful habit Cloud had, ready to declare war if he started finding socks scattered across the house again.

"Due to the damage to Echo's skull and memory, and likely deaging to the age he actually is without the trees influence he needs help learning his magic again. None of us had... emotion magic" Gaster said, managing few few bites of his own pancakes. "did the Doctor say anything else"

"Yes. They did mention something about a 'feral cat' that should help Echo with their magic but did text a date for a future appointment." Storm had honestly been lost on the majority of what Slate had been rambling about, now able to fully understand his brothers wariness whenever they talked about the doctor.

"They mean Sun" Gaster chortled amused "Apparently he's a Dream type. He's learned to shift into a cat"

"Squirrel?" Echo perked up as an animal was mentioned, missing the first part entirely as he wasn't fully awake yet.

"...what kind of monsters do you know?" Storm muttered in utter confusion as he sat down to start eating as well, unsure what his life had actually become when this was normal.

"Don't try to question it." Cloud said seriously, knowing it was better to go along with the flow otherwise he would have lost it ages ago.

"I Only Know of Sun, because of their parent aka there 'stalker'. If your there, make sure not to get between 404 and Sun for your sanity" Gaster sigh.

'How come any psycho can adopt children?!' Cloud thought uncharitably, just knowing the entire meeting was going to be a mess and hoping it was far away so he could mentally prepare for it.

"Right...let's sort the greenhouse today. I don't mind picking that up and setting up some furniture. This house looked empty and sad." Storm decided it was best to avoid speaking about that rather alarming topic, knowing instinctively when to pick his battles.

"I'll explain more later" Gaster hummed, as in when Echo wasn't right there.

He got up to get Echo cleaned and dressed for the day and himself also, passing Storm the receipts for the Greenhouse in case he wished to grab them right away so they'd start settling in the wards.

Had he gone overboard on the wards?

Nah... Storm wasn't griping about them.

Cloud was unsurprised when Storm left as soon as he had the receipts, knowing how driven his brother was and fully expecting the majority of the rooms to be fully furnished by the end of the day.

"Doggy play?"

"Yeah, we can play kid. Want to play with your ball?" The squeal followed by Echo running out the room was a clear enough answer, giving a look to Gaster.

"I can distract the kid for a few hours while you set up whatever you need to." He said gruffly, practically polite compared to how they usually interacted when alone.

"Thanks, Anything to add to my lists. I'm mostly gathering things Echo and myself need" Gaster asked, ready for smart comments, snarky replies and so on from Cloud.

"Yeah actually. Storm could do with a few things. I know they are missing a few home comforts as they didn't have time to pack like we did." Cloud handed over a list, surprisingly still acting cordial towards Gaster even if he wasn't looking directly at them and instead texting on his phone.

He wouldn't ask anything for himself, just about able to have short conversations with Gaster without shouting but still didn't like them.

The once scientist looked over the list, these were easy enough to find.

"Some of these I'll have to order in, as places don't carry quality ones in stock... I'll be back before you know it" he said and gave Echo a hug, then left.

~~~~~~~~

Gaster: *Feral and mad with level, leaving swathes of dust in their wake*

Traveller: *Easily swatting them away like a fly*

-

Gaster: Do I have enough wards *dumps out more wards*

Gaster: Nah...

-

Slate: *Rambling about treatment options over the phone for Echo*

Storm: *Growing alarmed when feral cats are mentioned and deeply questioning the doctors credentials* This was the best doctor you could find?!

Cloud: *Giving a pitying glance to his stressed brother* You haven't even seen the worst of it yet

-

Cloud: *Showing off the wards when Storm gets back from shopping* So what do you thi- why are you crying?!

Storm: *Sniffling and smiling widely like a child at Christmas* I bet this would dust any intruder in seconds!

Gaster: *Pleased at the reactions his wards garnered* We can even add some more..?

Cloud: *Sighing when Storm lights up and begins rambling about even more unhinged wards to add to Gaster* Im almost forgot how geeky you were...