Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Frisk stood in a dark space. Before them were two floating buttons, CONTINUE and RESET. The yellow glow from them burns into Frisk’s closed-but-somehow-able-to-see-eyes.

Frisk reaches out towards the right, towards the RESET button. They press the button but… something is wrong. The RESET button is flashing red, glitched squares appearing on its surface. A flash of red light washed over Frisk, and

e v e r y t h i n g

d i s a p p e a r e d

Chara drifted through the darkness, deeply asleep, as always happened during these Neutral Runs. All they could feel was the sensation of floating. But then they were pulled in an unknown direction, their consciousness not feeling any bit of alarm, their mind clouded in the haze of unconsciousness.

They stopped moving. A soft light seeped through their closed eyelids.

Chara’s mind awoke slowly, and they eventually noticed a soft cushion-like substance under them. Pulling free of the lingering haziness and darkness,

Chara opened their eyes.

A patch of buttercups.

A patch of soothingly yellow, cheerful buttercups.

But how? Chara wondered. Were they dreaming again?

And then they slowly looked to the side.

And saw, lying in the flowers, sleeping, was Asriel.

Chara sat up, petals dislodging from their head. They crawled over to Asriel, and took hold of his shoulders, shaking them. “Asriel! Wake up!”

Asriel shot up, gasping for air. “Wha-” Chara shushed them, and Asriel looked over at Chara. “C-Chara? Is…is that really you?” he said in a wavering voice. “Y-yeah. It is.” Chara answered. The pair stared at each other in their old green sweaters, their old golden heart lockets, their old bodies.

After a minute, Chara tackle-hugged Asriel, him bleating in alarm before hugging them back just as hard. God, Chara had missed that goat face of his.

The two eventually pulled apart, reluctant to let each other go in the fear that they would simply vanish. Asriel looked at Chara in wonder, and Chara knew that same expression was mirrored on their face. “Oh my…” Asriel softly said “I…I can feel again.” Chara too was noticing differences in their SOUL. The HATE that Frisk’s…more unsavory runs…had left them with was…gone. That ever constant presence in the back of their mind had vanished completely.

“W…what happened?” Asriel asked Chara. Chara blinked. In all of Frisk’s RESETS, they had never encountered something like this. Asriel’s question showed that he hadn’t either. “I don’t know.” Chara told Asriel. “We’re not dead anymore.” Asriel whispered, seeming to not believe it. Chara looked around, and saw a camera discarded on the ground nearby. They went over to it and picked it up. Inside it they found a picture of themselves smiling brightly, and as they went back through the pictures they found images of them and Asriel baking pie, playing tag, chatting with other monsters, and finally, a family photo of the Dreemurr family.

“Hey, look at this.” Chara called over to Asriel. He came over and said “Wait, this is the old camera us and our parents used to use to take pictures. But that hasn’t been around since…” A voice reached them, interrupting their conversation. “My children! The pie is ready!” Both children whirled around, seeing Toriel standing in the doorway. Toriel laughed, seeing their reaction. “Hah, I didn’t mean to scare you two! But anyway, come inside, the pie is unguarded, and you know your father will eat it all if we leave it alone too long.”

Toriel walked back through the doorway. Chara stood up, only now realizing that they were in the throne room. Both thrones stood in the center of the room, unlike the (present? future?) where Toriel’s was pushed up against the wall and abandoned. Chara held out their hand, and Asriel took it, Chara helping them up. “Heh. Just like that first time.” Chara said, smiling. Asriel smiled too, remembering the first time they met, that even if not for the most pleasant of reasons, led to them becoming family.

The two walked through the halls of New Home (seriously, why were there so many long hallways? It was almost like the designer of this place wanted there to be ample time to tell a story…) and eventually got to their house. Toriel waved them inside, and just in time too, as Asgore was standing over the pie, staring longingly at it with a fork in hand. Toriel snatched the fork right in front of Asgore’s injured looking face, and proceeded to give a plate to everyone. She cut into the pie, and handed out a piece to each.

Asriel and Chara each dug in, enjoying their first slices of Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie that they had had in a long, long time.

After eating Toriel escorted the children to their room, and as the light dimmed and Toriel closed the bedroom door, Chara looked over at Asriel, at their old room, at the pie crumbs littering the floor, and they knew that they would find a way to keep this.

They would not make the same mistakes they had made so long ago, even if they had good intentions at heart. And as Chara slipped into a dreamless sleep, for once they felt a bit of what Frisk had had, that terrifying, beautiful, powerful thing called Determination.

Chapter Text

Asriel opened his eyes to darkness. Black space surrounded him, expanding on for as far as he could see. Where was he? Asriel wondered. He walked forwards, the sound of his feet padding across the ground echoing into the silence.

Suddenly, after a while of walking, Asriel felt something soft under his foot. He took a step backwards and looked down.

Dust.

Asriel sucked in a breath, his eyes growing wide. He followed the trail of dust with his eyes, up and up… there was a bowtie…up…a red scarf… up…a blue jacket… up… a piece of armor… up… a crown… a purple robe…

And sitting at the top of the pile of dust, surrounded by tokens of the dead…

Was Flowey.

Flowey was laughing maniacally, the RESET button floating in the air before him. Asriel gasped, too late slapping his hand (paw?) over his mouth to try to stop himself. Flowey spun around, and seeing Asriel, laughed.

Asriel fell backwards, flinching as he hit the ground. “Aw… too scared to speak? Ugh, I didn’t know I was such a wimpy little crybaby.” Flowey mocked, snarling in disgust. Asriel mustered a glare, Flowey laughing at the attempt. “I’ll admit,” Flowey continued “I wasn’t expecting any more… free EXP.”

Asriel tensed, and managed to shout out “You need to stop this! You’re no better than Frisk was!”

Flowey narrowed his eyes “Oh really?” he said. “Well, that may be true…but there’s one teeny-tiny little crucial detail you’re forgetting.” Flowey summoned a ring of ‘Friendliness Pellets’ hovering around Asriel.

“ I A M Y O U ”

The bullets closed in. Asriel screamed “Help! ANYONE! HELP!”

But nobody came.

Chara woke to the sound of Asriel screaming. They rushed over to his bed, and Asriel jolted up, eyes flying open. “Hel-” He started before seeing Chara. He slumped over and Chara asked what happened. “I… had a nightmare.” Asriel said. Chara started to ask about it but before they could Asriel quickly continued. “It was Flowey. He…”

Chara could see the war within Asriel, and pulled him into a hug, Asriel melting into the comfort of his sibling’s arms.

The bedroom door opened, light beaming through the door. “My children, are you all right?” Toriel asked. Asriel let go of Chara and said “Yeah… just a nightmare. It’s nothing.” Toriel scrunched up her face with worry, and said “Well, if you’re sure…” “What’s the problem?” Asgore asked, appearing in the doorway as well. Toriel sighed. “Well, since it seems we’re all up, why don’t I make us all some nice warm milk?” Asgore grinned, saying “Great idea Toriel! I’ll get the cookies!”

Asgore rushed away, presumably into the kitchen. Toriel sighed again. “Well come on,” she said, motioning the siblings out of the room. They go, Chara shooting encouraging and sympathetic glances at Asriel every couple of seconds. The trio walk into the kitchen and find Asgore stacking a plate with as many cookies as he could find.

Toriel laughed, bringing light into both her and Asgore’s eyes. Chara smiled to themself, a little sadly, remembering their broken relationship from before.

Toriel reached inside the fridge and pulled out a container of milk, slightly damaged (Toriel had always been keen on rescuing salvageable items from the Garbage Dump). She heated it up with her fire magic, and poured a glass for everyone, like how earlier she had made sure everyone had gotten a slice of pie.

The pajamaed foursome sat together at the table, Asgore and Toriel leaning against each other and Chara and Asriel snickering to each other.

“ooo, look, Mom and Dad are in looove~”

“Charaaaa, shut uuuupp”

Chapter Text

Asriel and Chara were sitting in the yard outside of their house. “Okay.” Chara said “Let’s get down to business and figure out what happened.” “Yeah.” Asriel agreed.

“Okay, so as far as we know, there was probably a RESET that happened, but somehow ended up sending us much further back than it normally does.” Asriel continued. “So what do we do with that information?” he asked. They sat in silence for a minute until Chara exclaimed “Wait! There’s one other person we’re forgetting who can also remember the RESETS! Sans!”

“You’re right Chara!” Asriel answered. “So we should try to find him?” he asked. Chara nodded, jumping to their feet. “We should start as soon as possible, you never know what could happen in a strange situation such as this.” Asriel nodded in return, climbing to his feet as well.

“Hey, Mom, could we go to Snowdin?” Chara asked. Toriel looked up from her book on snail facts, and asked “For what my children?” Asriel quickly answered with “Oh, we just want to go play in the snow!” Toriel hesitated for a second, but then said “It’s just that sometimes I feel like…I could lose you two in a second…” Toriel stared off into space for a moment before snapping back to reality. “Oh, right! Yes, you can go. Just be sure to dress warmly and be careful not to slip on the ice!”

“Thanks Mom!” Asriel and Chara chorused before running off to grab their coats.

Chara and Asriel stepped off of the Riverperson’s boat, arriving in Snowdin. Asriel thanked them and joined Chara. The pair made their way into town, and after buying two hot chocolate’s from the shop, started their search.

They walked up to the skeleton brother’s house, and knocked on the door. No answer. They waited for a few more minutes before Chara tried the doorknob. The door opened easily, and they nervously walked inside. The house was dark and quiet, abandoned.

“M-maybe they live somewhere else?” Asriel stuttered. Chara nodded, and they left the building. “Let’s ask around to see if anyone has seen them.” Chara said. Asriel agreed, and they started the search again. They asked monster after monster, but nobody seemed to know who they were talking about.

Eventually the siblings slumped down on a bench, sighing with defeat. Asriel glared at the ground, frustration churning in his mind. There was no word, sight, or sign of the brothers anywhere! No one seemed to know anything! It was almost like they didn’t exist yet…

Of course! Asriel smacked his forehead with his paw. How could he have been this dumb! “Uh, you okay?” Chara asked, looking confused. “They haven’t been born yet! That’s why there’s no sign of them!” Asriel explained. “Oh! You’re right!” Chara said. They sat for a moment, until Chara asked “So what now? How long are we going to have to wait?”

Asriel was deep in thought. Hesitantly, he said “I…think I might have a solution.” “What?” Chara asked. Asriel answered with “Ever since I received Determination, and even after I lost it to Frisk and this form, I’ve been able to… well I guess you could call it sensing the timelines.” Seeing Chara’s look of confusion, he continued. “If I concentrate, on some occasions I can see where the timeline is going, and what leads to what. But only if it's happened before. If that specific timeline hasn’t happened, I can’t see it.”

Asriel looked up to Chara’s look of amazement. “Er, sorry, I was rambling. I had plenty of time to try to figure it out during the RESETS, and I never got to share it with anyone.” Chara blinked and said “That’s amazing Azzie! Now we can see how to get in touch with Sans!” Asriel nodded, “It might not work though.” he said. “But we should at least try it right?” Chara answered.

Asriel and Chara sat in the living room of Sans and Papyrus’s future home. Asriel closed his eyes, and Chara resisted the urge to make a joke about contacting ghosts.

Asriel reached for that strange sight, and after a minute, everything faded away.

Asriel opened his eyes, and found himself floating in a dark space. Silvery threads were strung all around. He saw a glowing knot, and within it he saw the SOULS of all the monsters and humans who existed at this time. He followed the thread up from the knot, and finally saw another one, with two monster SOULS within. Sans and Papyrus. Now to find out what leads up to this point. Asriel grabbed the string, and visions of memories yet to be made overwhelmed him.

Chapter Text

Chara watched Asriel as he fell out of his trance-like state. “So?” Chara asked. Asriel looked up, confusion and distress shining from his eyes. “What’s wrong?” Chara asked urgently. Asriel hesitated for a moment, and then said “Remember…Gaster?”

“I…” Chara said, drifting into a state of confusion. “I do. Why… couldn’t anyone remember him?” Asriel answered with “I don’t know.” They sat in silence for a minute, before Chara went on, “He was…is…the Royal Scientist. And then one day… we just couldn’t remember him anymore.”

Another moment of stunned silence passed before Chara continued “So what does he have to do with this?” Asriel drew in a breath and said “Well, I’ll start from the beginning. And you’re not going to like it.”

“So after we… died… and Dad declared war on humans… and got some of the SOULS… Gaster… I don’t know what he did or why but I just know that that’s when Sans and Papyrus enter the timeline and that Gaster has something to do with it.” Asriel paused, and Chara asked fearfully, “So what does that mean?”

Asriel sucked a breath in and Chara waited for the answer they knew was coming, but wasn’t ready to hear. “It means that Sans and Papyrus will only exist if everyone thinks we’re dead.”

“What?” Chara gasped. Asriel nodded solemnly. “If we want Sans and Papyrus to exist we need Dad… Asgore to declare war on humans. And for that to happen… we need to make everyone think we were killed by humans. Or at least I was.” Chara let out a deep sigh, feeling older than the stars. Asriel continued, “I guess… I feel like I owe it to them. Especially to Sans. He could remember everything, all the terror and pain that I caused, over and over again as Flowey.”

Chara spoke, “No Asriel. I owe it to you.” Asriel looked up, surprised. “I… I killed you.” Chara continued “It was my fault we died in the first place. You should stay with our parents and live your life. I’ll go and die, or fake my death, or whatever I have to do. You deserve happiness, Asriel. And I…” Chara smiled sadly, feeling the weight of all the Genocide Runs, all of Asriel, Toriel, Asgore, Sans, everyone’s deaths pushing down on them. “I’m not the greatest person.”

Asriel looked heartbroken, and said “Chara-” “No, you were right.” Chara interrupted. “I’m not. I got us killed, got plenty of others killed, heck, even before Frisk I hated humanity. And I have to atone for it because, in the dead of night, I hear these voices, Asriel. And so many of them are telling me it’s all my fault, that I wanted everyone to die, that I enjoyed Dad almost dying, that I was manipulating everyone, that I and I alone am responsible for the Genocide Runs, and you and mom and dad and and everyone, everyone’s dead, and I can’t even tell who I am anymore!” Chara ended with a shout, crumpling down in a little ball, sobbing but trying to smother their cries.

Asriel rushed over to his sibling, and pulled them into a hug. “Heh.” Chara mumbled. “Some are even saying that I’m manipulating you right now.” Asriel continued to hug them, and eventually Chara hugged him back, hanging on for dear life, like Asriel was the only thing keeping them from falling into the abyss.

The pair sat there until the tears were just vapor on the wind.

Chapter Text

The two had returned home solemnly, their parents giving them concerned looks but leaving it alone. They had grown used to Chara’s odd behavior.

It was strange, Chara thought. They had lived a life, gone and died and lived as a ghost. But for their parents it was only a little bit ago that Chara had come into their lives, distraught and broken.

These days they tried not to dwell on the reason for their arrival to the Underground. Chara considered that part of their history to be from another life. But… sometimes that, and everything else they tried to avoid thinking about caught up with them.

Like today.

Chara could vividly remember the nightmares, the faces of the repeated dead swirling around them. Chains shackling them to that murderer, that reaper of souls they called “Frisk”.

And hate funneling from them into Chara, invading their body and mind.

And everything, everything was dead and none of it was real.

And the only way, the only way, was to get stronger, get stronger they said, over and over until Chara thought they’d lose their mind. And perhaps they did.

Hate standing behind them, whispering, they were useless, they didn’t deserve to be spared of them like Frisk was, screaming at them over and over that they didn’t matter, like those shadows in the other life.

And when Asriel, Flowey, whoever it was then was in front of them, begging for his life, that same voice, telling them, again and again. To do it, to kill him, to proceed.

“Chara?”

Chara snapped out of the darkness, looking up to see Asriel standing beside them. “What?” Chara asked.

Asriel sat down next to them. He turned to Chara, and said “Chara. I… don’t know all that you’ve been through. But I think that I need to tell you something.”

Asriel shifted uncomfortably, looking down at his feet. “We’ve both done some… not so great things, y’know? And I don’t know what that means about us, about everything. I don’t know who to blame or even if someone is in the first place. All I know, Chara, is that we both have people who care about us.”

Asriel looked back up at Chara, a smile on his face. “We’re family, Chara. And no matter what happens, no matter what messed up people try to do, that will always be the case. You’re not alone, Chara. You never will be, not anymore. So Chara, whatever we do next, whatever path we decide to take, be it into faraway lands or the depths of hell…”

Asriel looked straight into Chara’s eyes, his own shining bright. “I’m coming with you. And there’s nothing you can do about it.” Chara’s eyes were filled with tears, and so for the second time that day, the pair sat together, silently supporting each other.

But these tears weren’t tears of sorrow.

This time they were tears of joy.

Chapter Text

“Good morning my children!” Toriel called out, Chara and Asriel coming awake bleary eyed and grumbling. They dragged themselves out of bed and ate a breakfast of pancakes.

“So I hope you have a good day at school!” Toriel said. Chara and Asriel froze. School? Oh, right! Asriel remembered. At this point they had been going to school! After Chara… got sick… they had both been given time off.

“Uh, yeah! Of course we’ll have a great day! At school!” Asriel said, grabbing Chara’s arm and dragging them out of the house and beyond Toriel’s range of hearing.

“What?” Chara asked. Asriel turned back to them and said “We were going to school, remember?” After a moment Chara nodded, and Asriel continued. “Since we don’t really need to go to school today, since we’ve lived through this before, I was thinking that we could take a look around The Barrier. See if we can find anything that, I don’t know, changed? I just think that it could be a place where we can find some sort of plan.”

Chara nodded. The Barrier seemed like as good a place as any to start looking. For… whatever they were looking for.

The pair walked through New Home, avoiding any monsters who would question their presence during school hours. Before long, The Barrier stood before them, pulsing light washing through the scene.

“Okay.” Asriel said. “I’ll look over here for now.” Asriel walked off, and Chara approached The Barrier. They remembered the times Frisk came here, passed through, or helped break it.

A strange feeling came over Chara, like a strange pull on their SOUL. They walked forward, and laid a hand on The Barrier. A pulse of energy shot through Chara, and they gave a shudder. “Chara? What are you doing?” Asriel asked, walking over to Chara.

Suddenly, a spot of darkness appeared in The Barrier, in front of where Chara stood. As the pair watched, entranced, it grew until it was about as big as Chara. It took a step forwards, to the very edge of the inside of The Barrier. It morphed into a human child, its shape warping and rippling. And after a minute its face came into view.

Chara sighed. It would never truly end, would it? They opened their mouth and spoke.

“Hello Frisk.”

Frisk, or rather, this distorted version of Frisk, waved at the pair. Asriel stared in disbelief at them. “Frisk?” He asked. Frisk nodded and spoke. “Hello.”

The three stood in shocked silence for a moment before Frisk spoke again. “Finally we can actually talk.” Chara’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Finally?” They asked. “I… couldn’t before.” Frisk answered, grimacing. “THEY stopped me, whether they realized it or not.”

“Who?” Asriel asked. “I don’t know their name.” Frisk answered. “Let’s just say… I was never the one in control, just like you said.”

“Someone was controlling me.” Frisk stated, their voice blunt and factual. “They were the one who determined my actions, save for a few occurrences where they hung back.” Frisk took a look at the shocked and confused expressions on Chara and Asriel’s faces before continuing. “But ever since that RESET, you know, the one that led us to this, they’ve just disappeared. Of course, that is probably because I’m stuck here.”

“What do you mean stuck?” Asriel asked, temporarily ignoring the question of them being controlled. Frisk smiled sadly and answered “Well, after that RESET brought us so far back into the past, I had nowhere to go. I didn’t even exist at this point. Yet I was here and had to be, I was the one who initiated the RESET, was I not? So I was dumped here, what you could call…

The Void.”

Chapter Text

“The Void?!” Chara burst out, startling Asriel. Frisk nodded and said “Yes. I’m trapped in The Void. I just said that.” Chara gritted their teeth and glared at Frisk. “So after all those things that happened, all those things that you or what you say was controlling you did, you just come up here and say you’re stuck in The Void?!

Frisk took a step back, looking affronted and confused. “Look, I don’t know why you’re so upset!” Chara laughed, sucked in a breath, and said “Fine. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Someone was controlling you. So now you get to be forgiven again like you always are. It’s not like I’m not used to it by now.”

The silence stretched on before Asriel stepped in. “Look Chara,” he said, resting a hand on their shoulder. “I know that you don’t like Frisk, but it wasn’t their fault. I saw them, Chara at the end of the Pacifist run. They told me their name, their true name, and they didn’t do that in any other.

“And I know that you’re going to have trouble forgiving them. I am too.” Frisk gave Asriel a hurt look at that, but Asriel continued. “I thought they would let us go, and let everyone live in peace on the Surface. But then they RESET and killed everyone. But if what they’re saying is true, it wasn’t their decision. And I did it as well, before they even fell down into the Underground. As Flowey, I did that and worse.

“Look, Chara, what I’m saying is that no matter if you believe them or not, it doesn’t matter right now. I’m not asking you to forgive them, I’m only asking you to listen to them now. And if what they have to say isn’t what we’re looking for, or if in rings untrue, then we can leave and never come back. So, what do you think?”

Chara looked down at their clenched fists. In their mind, Frisk and that murderer who had infected them with HATE were one and the same. They didn’t know if they could blame some intangible otherworldly being for it. Especially considering the fact that Frisk telling them they were being controlled sounded like the worst excuse ever.

Chara looked back up at Asriel. Even if they couldn’t do it for themself, they could do it for him. They could listen for him. Chara nodded, and Asriel flashed them a relieved smile before turning back to Frisk. “So Frisk. Explain yourself.”

Frisk drew in a breath and spoke. “So. The being who was controlling me had control of me ever since I fell into the Underground for the first time. I had a few moments where I could control myself though, like when I told Asriel my true name. I don’t know why this happened,” they said when they saw Chara open their mouth. “It just happened that way.”

“And so on to the second topic. I’m currently trapped in The Void. I’ve been watching you.” Frisk laughed as Asriel and Chara’s eyes widened in shock. “You’ve. Been. What.” Chara asked. “Relax,” Frisk answered. “It’s no big deal. What I’m trying to say is that I think I have a solution to your problem.

“You see, in The Void I met a certain someone who helped me get settled in.” “Who?” Chara asked. Frisk smiled and hummed in response. “Well, he told me that he had a solution to your problem. He said that all we have to do is restore everyone’s memories to the point right after you guys were buried.”

“Wait what?” Asriel asked. Frisk answered. “When a RESET is performed, everyone’s memories aren’t erased. They’re just… shoved under a rug, metaphorically speaking. They still exist, they’re just out of reach. How else do you think that you guys and Sans could remember the RESETS?

“So what we need to do is to find a way to selectively return some memories to everyone. Now lucky for you, I already know what to do. I have access to The Void, a place where with your help, I will be able to mess with the fabrics of this world enough to return their memories. Then you’ll have to go into hiding until Sans and Papyrus are accessible, so the timeline can continue on its path to their birth. But you won’t die this time.” Chara supposed that was a pretty good plan, but one thing was bugging them. “Why do you need our help?” Chara asked.

“Simple,” Frisk answered. “I need a connection to the real world. And it doesn’t hurt that Asriel’s SOUL is as close to being Determined as any monster can be, excluding Undyne. Two DETERMINED beings working together from two sides of reality… it’ll be more than enough to twist reality, to hack the code and accomplish our goal.”

Asriel nodded hesitantly and Chara asked “Our? Actually, why are you helping us in the first place?” Frisk grew quiet for a moment, before quietly saying “I want everyone to have a happy ending. I want to make sure everyone’s alright, even if… even if I have to disappear to make it happen.”

Chara solemnly nodded. They understood. Asriel looked distressed, but stayed silent.

After a minute Frisk spoke in a choked voice. “So. Um. Are we going to do the plan?” Asriel and Chara looked at each other for a moment, before they both looked back and said

“Yeah. Let’s do it.”

Chapter Text

Frisk put their hand on The Barrier. Asriel watched as in front of them, blurred, a red SOUL appeared. Frisk’s SOUL, a SOUL of DETERMINATION. Asriel remembered when Flowey had wanted that SOUL for himself so he could become a god.

Asriel rested his hand on The Barrier, matching up with Frisk’s. His SOUL flickered into view in response, a rainbow of Bravery, Justice, Kindness, Patience, Integrity, and Perseverance.

“You ready?” Frisk asked him. Asriel nodded, and Frisk’s SOUL flared with light.

When Asriel opened his eyes, he was in that space again, that space where the timelines resided. He could see a red human SOUL flying through the strings, carefully, making one light up whenever it touched it.

Eventually, the SOUL stopped, about a fifth of the strings being lit up. Asriel opened his eyes to see Chara holding his hand tightly, a worried look in their eyes. They smiled in relief when he turned to them.

Asriel let go of Chara’s hand and turned back towards The Barrier. Frisk was there, their SOUL now out of sight. “It is done.” They said.

A piercing sob sounded from the castle. Sounds of commotion rose from the previously silent Underground. Frisk looked back at Chara and Asriel. “You must go now. You need to stay in hiding for a while. I’ll send you a signal when it is time to contact Sans and Papyrus. You’ll know when it arrives.”

Frisk faded away, leaving behind a shaken Chara and Asriel. Chara snapped out of their stupor first and grabbed Asriel’s arm. “Come on,” they urgently said. “We have to go now.”

Asriel nodded and stumbled after Chara. The pair ran through the streets of New Home, making sure to avoid being seen by anyone. As they ducked into an alley they heard the ringing voice of King Asgore boom out.

“My subjects. We have suffered a great loss. Our children, Chara and Asriel, have died.” Gasps and shocked mutterings flooded the streets. Asgore continued. “Chara had fallen ill, and had left this world. All that they had asked as their last wish was to be able to see the flowers from their village one last time. Our son, Asriel, absorbed their SOUL and crossed The Barrier, in order to grant them that wish.”

Chara winced, knowing what was coming. “He came in peace! But the humans attacked him. He fell back into the Underground, and crumbled to dust right before our very eyes.

“The humans have destroyed our child, what was to be our savior! But they haven’t destroyed our hope.” Asgore paused, then continued. “They have destroyed our hope for peace! But not our hope for freedom!” Conversation broke out among the monsters. Asgore continued. “From this day forward, I, King Asgore, declare that any human that falls into the Underground is to be killed! We will break The Barrier, this I promise you, my subjects!”

Roars and cheers and sobs filled the air. Chara and Asriel snuck away, giving solemn looks to one another.

Eventually they reached Waterfall. Asriel led Chara through the caves, the twists and turns sure to confound any other monster. But not Chara and Asriel. They came into a small cave, hidden away from the rest of the Underground.

A small haphazardly built shack stood there, painted with bright colors and strung with holiday lights. This was Chara and Asriel’s secret hideout, where they had been sneaking away to and building for several years before their deaths.

They both smiled sadly when they saw it. It was the perfect place to hide for the time being. But they really would have to make it more stable.

Asriel opened the small door and ducked inside. Cushions and blankets lined the edges, and a plate with a half eaten cookie lay in the center, left over from the last time they had come here.

Chara followed Asriel and sat down in a corner. The sound of rainfall the only noise, a calm surrounded the dwelling. One that contrasted greatly with recent events. Asriel sighed and turned to Chara. “So… what do we do now?” He asked. “We wait, I guess,” Chara answered.

A minute of silence passed before Chara grunted in frustration. “No! We can’t just wait! People are going to die!” Asriel came to the realization a moment after they did. “The fallen humans!” He called out.

Chara nodded. “I don’t want to just wait here,” they said. “I think… we should at least try to save them.” Asriel nodded in agreement. “However we can.”

And so the royal children made a plan, a plan to save everyone.

Chapter Text

Molly ran through the forest, snow stubbornly clinging on to her bandana. The footsteps of the monster that had spotted her sounded from behind her, snow crunching.

Molly whipped around, tripping on a stray branch and getting a face full of snow. She pushed herself to her feet as she heard the monster approach. She tugged on her gloves, breathing in deeply as she resolved herself to face the monster. It didn’t scare her anyway.

The world went black and white as a battle triggered, Molly’s orange SOUL floating out in front of her. The monster was almost in view, five steps, three, two, one-

A hand grabbed Molly and pulled her into a bush. She struggled, and felt a hand cover her mouth. She opened her eyes. It was a goat-like monster, looking at her urgently. They both froze when they heard footsteps right outside their hiding place.

Molly held her breath, willing herself to keep her calm. They both stayed perfectly still and silent until the footsteps faded away into the distance. Only then did they relax, the monster taking their hand down from over Molly’s mouth.

“What?” Molly asked, sending a confused look at the monster. The monster answered. “My name is Asriel. Come with me if you want to live.”

Molly just stared quizzically at him. In response Asriel looked embarrassed, muttering “Darn it, I was waiting to use that line.”

“Anyway,” Asriel said, turning back to Molly. “I have a safe place where you can hide for the time being. Me and Chara have been rescuing everyone who’s fallen down here. Chara is a human by the way. There’s seven of us now, eight including you. Seven humans and one monster, living in a hidden area of Waterfall. So, you wanna come with me?”

Molly stared at Asriel. He wasn’t one to drag things out, was he? It was weird, he didn’t seem to be much older than her. She couldn’t be sure, monsters were so different from humans, but Asriel looked like he was about a teenager in terms of age.

He was wearing a stained shirt with the Batman logo on it, presumably from the Surface, however it had gotten down here. That, with a pair of pants and a heart locket and he almost looked like a human. Dressed like one at least.

She doubted that Asriel meant her any harm. He seemed too… nice. And if what he said was true, then going with him would mean that she would be safe, at least for a little while. And the idea of meeting more humans, she had to admit sounded appealing.

“Fine.” She said, standing up. “Great!” Asriel exclaimed, joyful. He stood up and held out his hand. Molly grabbed it and Asriel smiled. He started walking, leading Molly to safety.

The caves in Waterfall echoed with water drops. Molly looked around in awe at the Echo Flowers, every so often darting over to one and saying something, laughing in delight as her voice played back.

They came to a small cave opening, and Asriel led her through a series of twists and turns, each marked with a flower that Asriel pointed out to Molly in case she ever got lost.

Eventually they came out into a larger space, and Molly felt her eyes wide. “Nice, isn’t it?” Asriel said, as Molly looked.

Three cabins stood in the cavern, lit up with all sorts of lights. In the center was a big table, loaded with all sorts of things, food, toys, books and more. And all around the small village were humans. Reading, eating, playing… they inhabited the village.

“Hey partner!” A voice called out. Molly turned and saw a human coming up to Asriel. They looked about the same age as Asriel, and were wearing a green sweater. They reached them and looked over at Molly.

“Bravery! You found them!?” They looked over at Asriel in amazement, and continued. “That was the last of them before Frisk! We’ve finally saved them all!” Asriel and the human seemed to share a moment of boundless excitement before they turned back to Molly. “Oh, where are my manners, my name is Chara. Me and Asriel here have been working to save the humans who fall into the Underground. But I bet Asriel’s told you this already.”

“My name’s Molly,” Molly answered. So this was Chara. Asriel seemed to be good friends with them. As Molly was introducing herself, some of the other humans came over to see the newcomer.

They all seemed to be children of one age or another, Molly observed. They were all dressed differently, one had glasses and was carrying a book, one was wearing a tutu and ballet shoes. One wore a cowboy hat and another an apron. Yet another was wearing a ribbon in their hair.

As they all gathered around, Molly felt…

She felt…

Like she was finally safe.

Chapter Text

Chara woke to the sound of laughter. 

They groaned as they pushed themselves out of bed. Did they really have to be so loud? They supposed it was normal for children, but did they have to? 

Chara pulled on some clothes and stumbled out of the room they shared with Asriel. They passed by the other dorms. They pulled open the door of the house and stepped outside. A group of three children were playing, namely Amelia, Molly, and Leo. Amelia would leap around in her tutu as Leo pretended to be a bad guy shooting at her with his cowboy hat on. Molly pretended to leap in front of Amelia, saving her from their imaginary foe.

Chara smiled, but it was tinged with sadness. They didn’t remember, but they had actually died, a long time ago. They had been killed by actual people, and it had only been through a mysterious RESET that they had been brought back to life.

Chara wondered where the rest were, they hadn’t seen any back in the dorms.

Chara headed to the table in the middle of the town (village? Whatever.) and saw Asriel pouring himself a cup of coffee. “Hey Chara,” He greeted them as they arrived. “Mhm.” Chara grunted, reaching for the coffee pot. Asriel laughed, and said “Look at you! You’ve become a sleep-deprived parent!” Chara glared at him, responding with “The sleep-deprived camp counselor who feels like they’re herding sheep every day you mean. I am not these kids' parents, nor will I ever want to be.”

Asriel laughed. “Oh, you care about them, admit it! And-” Chara shot him a death stare. “-You were the one who wanted to save them in the first place!” Asriel continued in a sing-song voice.

Chara muttered something under their breath about annoying goats and reluctantly grinned. As much as Chara hated to admit it, Asriel was right.

At first they had reluctantly saved the humans, because it was the right thing to do and because they felt they owed it to them. But after a while of living with and taking care of them, Chara had found themself starting to care about them. And as time went on, as they built the cabins together and found a way to live, Chara’s resentment towards humanity had faded, bit by bit.

Years seeing the innocence of children will do that to a person, Chara suspected. They had never asked any of them why they had fallen down. They hadn’t told Chara, but they suspected that none shared their reasoning. They didn’t seem like they had those kinds of problems.

The coffee slid bitterly down Chara’s throat, and they rubbed at their eyes, attempting to clear the lingering tiredness from them. Asriel was right about the tiredness as well.

But in the end it would all be worth it, Chara reminded themself. Once they got Sans and Papyrus, they could intervene in the timeline with no worries of jeopardizing anyone’s existence.

They could break the barrier and finally see the Surface.

Chara was brought out of their thoughts when they felt a child’s hand tapping their arm. Chara turned around and saw that it was George. His eyes looked at them nervously underneath his glasses.

George was the Perseverance SOUL, before only known to Chara as a purple heart. But now, just as with all the rest, they knew each and every one of their names, no longer just echoes of past lives.

“What is it?” Chara asked George, bending down to his height. George looked around nervously for a minute, shuffling his feet.

Then he looked back up, and grabbed Chara in a hug.

Chara froze, startled.

Then they returned the hug.

Chara suddenly wondered if Toriel missed the children. They had no idea where it came from, but…

George pulled back and looked up at Chara. He took a few steps away, then waved at Chara to follow. Perplexed, Chara followed, wondering what George wanted to show them.

He led Chara over to the dining building, and quickly streaked through the door before Chara could get a glimpse of the inside.

Sighing, wondering what mess they had made this time, Chara opened the door and stepped inside.

“SURPRISE!!!”

Chara blinked as they took in the scene before them. Streamers were strung across the room, taped up in an haphazard manner. On the table in the middle of the room stood a cake, and surrounding the table were the six children, covered in flour and frosting, grinning from ear to ear and holding a messily hand-painted sign that read: Happy Birthday Chara!!!

As Chara stared, Asriel walked up to them. “Happy birthday!” He congratulated them. “What?” Chara asked.

“Well,” Asriel told them, “It’s your birthday! And since we haven’t really celebrated it for the past few years, being busy taking care of these guys and all,” Asriel waved towards the children. “We thought we could make this one extra special, as a thank you for all the hard work you’ve done.”

“It was his idea!” One of the children called out. Asriel looked embarrassed, seeming to not want to accept the credit. “They did the sign and everything… I just made sure they didn’t get themselves killed.” He mumbled.

Chara laughed, a joyous sound that rang out clear as a bell. They pulled Asriel into a hug, and then faced the children. “You know what?” Chara told them. “Let’s celebrate Asriel’s birthday as well!” Asriel looked over at Chara, starting to say “But it’s not my-” before he was drowned out by cheering.

Chara dragged Asriel over to the cake, with the number 16 drawn in red frosting. Chara cut into the cake, noting with pleasure that it was chocolate. They cut a slice and gave it to Asriel, ignoring his protests that they should have the first slice. They then cut slices for the children and handed them out.

Finally Chara cut a slice for themself (an extra big one, Chara wasn’t going to deny themself chocolate) and dug in. Chara vaguely wondered if Toriel had ever experienced something similar while the children were staying with her.

“Wait!!!” Called out a voice. Chara turned and saw Jean running towards them, the ribbon in their hair bouncing with the motion.

They stopped and handed Chara a birthday candle. “You forgot to make a wish!”  Chara smiled and stuck the candle on their slice of cake. They grabbed a lighter from the kitchen and lit the candle.

Chara started to blow out the candle, but stopped when they noticed the stern looks of the children. They had forgotten that a birthday wish was never to be wasted, an unspoken rule among most human children.

Chara closed their eyes and tried to think of a wish. They might as well be genuine about it. They thought long and hard, and finally made their wish.

I wish that everyone gets a happily ever after.

Chara opened their eyes and blew out the candle.

Chapter Text

There was a flash of light inside of his vision, brighter than the ceiling lights.

And he remembered.

Sans opened his eyes with a gasp, blinking his vision into focus. Had he died again? Was he waking up in his bed to the sound of Papyrus enthusiastically cooking breakfast, the start of a new timeline?

But no… his body… there was something wrong.

It didn’t feel right…

He shifted, his blurry vision making out a pair of arms in front of him, small, a child’s arms… wait, those were his arms… but those weren’t his arms, they couldn’t be, he wasn’t-

He was waiting, what was the man doing? He had always muttered to himself, occasionally answering their questions about various things, but now he was just silent, sitting with his hand on his forehead and writing something down-

He was screaming, why was he doing this to them, why wasn’t he listening, why did everything feel like it was on fire, his skull was aching and his hand, his hand hurt so much-

1-S screamed, screamed inside his mind- he was on the operating table, magic being forced into his eye socket- he was in Judgement Hall bleeding out from the slash the human dealt- he was watching his brother crumble to dust- he was tugging at the metal plate on his hand, it wouldn’t come off it wouldn’t come off-

He was Sans, right, he wasn’t 1-S anymore, he was Sans, and he-

He was back here.

No. No no nonono he couldn’t be back here, he couldn’t be back in the lab, he had escaped here, they had escaped and- he had to get them out of here, he and Papyrus had to get out of here-

He staggered quickly to his feet, the green medical gown cold against his bones, the gown he hadn’t worn in so long- he raised his hand and summoned a bone to break the control panel, so the force field would break and they could-

Nothing happened.

Using his magic felt like trying to swim against the current that one time he had fallen into the river. The force of the water pushing against him and even the greatest of efforts gained him only an inch, and even that progress being lost within a second. Thankfully the shock had been short lasting and he had teleported to safety.

But now even that was gone.

Why was it gone.

Didn’t matter now, the only thing that mattered now was-

Was…

Sans slowly lowered his hand, finally looking around at his surroundings.

The walls of the cell, those he remembered now, the force field preventing escape humming softly with energy.

A bench bolted to the wall served as a bed, and sleeping on it was-

Sans stumbled over to his brother. “come on bro, you have to wake up we have to-” and then Sans saw his hand. Bare, the bone the only thing there.

Sans looked down at his own hand. Empty. Nothing there, that horrendous metal plate not drilled cruelly into the bone.

It… hadn’t happened yet?

Then… the experiments. They hadn’t started.

Not yet.

Sans slowly sat down.

How had this even happened anyway? Had the kid done something? He supposed they had, these days it seemed the explanation for everything.

Well, it had been the answer to everything except…

Except where they came from. Sans chuckled grimly. He supposed that had been answered now.

How naive they had been. He should have expected something like this, what with the unexplained scars, not to mention the handplates.

But no, they had guessed the better pasts, anything other than the grim reality. That they had been created in a lab to become living tools. A desperate measure to break the Barrier, made by a scientist. He supposed that he finally knew his name, Alphys had said it in their escape, although he had been unable to understand it then and not able to remember until now.

Gaster. W.D. Gaster. The name on their handplates, the meaning lost for so long. To think that he would be back now- well, if Sans’ theory was correct anyway- was terrifying.

He heard a noise from behind him and turned around, seeing his brother sitting up. “HELLO BROTHER!” Papyrus said.

Sans smiled back and said “hey papyrus.” Papyrus looked up at him with a confused expression. “WHAT’S A ‘PAPYRUS’?” He asked.

Sans felt a cold form in the pit of his stomach. Of course. They hadn’t had names back then. And now again. He started to say “it’s nothing, just-” but then he stopped.

Why should he play by Gaster’s rules?

Why should he go quietly into the dark, when he knew what was to come?

Why shouldn’t they have names?

He stood up and looked Papyrus in the eyes (he would not think of him as 2-P no matter what Gaster said) and explained “it’s a name, like what you call someone.” Papyrus nodded, confusion lingering in his eyesockets. “BUT… WHOSE NAME IS PAPYRUS THEN?”

Sans’ metaphorical heart ached at the knowledge that his brother couldn’t recognize his own name. He responded. “it’s your name bro, it’s yours.”

Papyrus looked thoughtful for a minute, and then asked “WELL IT SEEMS GOOD ENOUGH. BUT WHAT ABOUT YOU?” Sans replied with “you can call me sans. sans the skeleton. and you’re my brother, the great papyrus.”

Papyrus smiled. “THE GREAT PAPYRUS YOU SAY? WELL THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO BE THE GREAT SANS! MY BROTHER SANS!” He exclaimed, testing out the new names.

Sans smiled. He wouldn’t let anything or anyone take away this, take away their names, their hope. Papyrus’ hope. Even if the future loomed overhead like a tidal wave, intent on drowning them in its wake, he wouldn’t let it. Not again. This time he would be able to fight back even more, even if only in small ways, even if he had to destroy himself in order to do it.

Like that push into the Core so long ago, so far in the future, he would fight back, now armed with the knowledge of the future, until they were free.

Or until he turned to dust.

Chapter Text

Asriel put a colorful band aid on the cut. James nodded a thank you to Asriel, before standing up and running over to play with the others, his apron flapping with his movement.

Asriel heard a noise and turned around. A small white dog had tumbled into their cavern from who-knows-where. It trotted up to Asriel, and he bent down and petted it.

After a moment the dog started making a wheezing sound, and Asriel looked it over with concern, was it sick or something?

The dog opened its mouth and started heaving, and Asriel grew increasingly concerned. But a moment later an object fell out of the dog’s mouth. Apparently satisfied at nearly giving Asriel a heart attack, the dog looked down at the object for a moment before trotting off, its job done.

Asriel paused for a moment, trying to understand the randomness of what had just happened. Then he looked down at the object the dog had coughed up. It was a red orb, large enough that it made Asriel wonder how the dog had managed to fit it through its throat.

He picked it up, and headed over to Chara. When he arrived they looked over from watching over the children and approached him. Asriel showed them the object and told them what had happened. To his surprise they burst out laughing.

“HAHAHA after all this time huh? The Legendary Artifact! HAHAHA!!!!” As Chara laughed Asriel felt the Legendary Artifact start to warm. He tapped Chara on the shoulder and they watched as sound emanated from the artifact.

“Is this thing on? One two three, checking. Okay I think it’s working! Ahem. Hello Chara and Asriel. This is me, Frisk. It’s finally time to contact Sans and Papyrus.” The siblings looked at each other in excitement. Finally!

“To find them you’ll need to follow Dr. W. D. Gaster, who you should remember by now. You will need to be discreet, don’t let him find out.” Chara and Asriel were both confused. Wouldn’t he be on their side?

“Yes I know that you have questions, but just follow my instructions. You will find out why I am telling you this later. And you won’t necessarily like it when you do. So just follow Gaster until he leads you to the brothers.”

Right as they were sure the recording was over, a garbled voice sounded in the background of the audio. Frisk’s voice returned, confusion touching their tone. “Uh sure, I guess I can tell them that. Uh, he says, um I mean, one more thing. Don’t let him make the wrong choice again.”

The voice stopped, the Legendary Artifact cooling, leaving a very confused pair of siblings in its wake. Chara turned to Asriel. “Well I guess that was the sign.” they said, examining the artifact in their hands.

Out of nowhere the dog came streaking back, colliding with Chara and knocking them to the ground. It grabbed the Legendary Artifact in its mouth, and much to Chara’s horror gulped it down.

Asriel counted the seconds as Chara and the dog stared into each other’s eyes. Three, two, one…

Chara grabbed for the dog the second it leaped off of them, sensing the danger it was in. It sped off, Chara chasing after it while shouting curses the entire time. Wow, Asriel thought while laughing. He hadn’t seen them on this much of a warpath since he had stolen their chocolate. He grinned, the spectacle of Chara threatening to kill a blur of white fur quite entertaining, though he did internally wince that the curses were within earshot of the rest of the buildings.

Eventually Chara returned, swearing vengeance under their breath as they came up to Asriel, a sweaty and muddy mess. They shook their head, annoyed at the situation. 

They sighed, and Asriel patted them on the back in sympathy. Chara brushed some mud off of their hoodie and crossed their arms, breathing in and shaking their head. A moment later they turned to Asriel, their eyes now shining with focus.

“Okay, so it’s time,” they said. “We should get going.” Asriel nodded. A kid wearing a ribbon walked up to the pair, and Asriel quickly recognized them as Jean. “Hey, you need anything?” Asriel asked them. They shook their head and asked “What was all that about? Where are you guys going?”

Asriel looked nervously at Chara as they walked off. That display had been potentially attention grabbing. “Oh, we just need to get some more supplies. I’ll be the one staying with you guys this time.” Jean looked at them suspiciously, and said “You sure that’s all it is? Because that weird voice coming from that weird object didn’t sound like nothing.”

Asriel internally cursed himself for not double checking that there wasn’t anyone in hearing range. While they wanted to be as open with the kids as possible, there were topics they had always avoided mentioning. Like all that had happened with the RESETS. Neither Asriel or Chara had thought that it would be a good idea for them to know that they had formerly been dead.

Not only would the knowledge have made them less inclined to stay (and if they had left they probably would have gotten killed), but they might not believe them in the first place, because who would? Either way, it had been decided that it was kinder to keep the children in the dark about the timelines.

Asriel turned back to Jean, and asked “What do you mean?” Jean continued. “Well, that voice said that it ‘was time to contact Sans and Papyrus.’ Now I don’t know who they are, but you and Chara seem to think this is really important. And I’m inclined to believe you.”

Asriel spoke. “So what are you asking?” Jean answered. “You two should both go if it’s that important. I can hold down the fort.” Asriel looked at them in confusion. “You’re just a kid, Jean. And you don’t have magic either. I’m sorry but you wouldn’t be able to handle an emergency.”

Jean smiled. “That’s where you’re wrong.” They held out their hand and their light blue SOUL flickered into view. Around Asriel a barrier formed, glowing softly with blue light. Asriel gasped as he recognized the magic of a blue attack. “H-how did you-?” He stammered, shocked.

Jean answered. “Ever since I fell into the Underground, I’ve been hearing stories of how you guys got… imprisoned here. About the seven human magicians who created the Barrier. And I thought, if humans were able to use magic back then, why couldn’t we do it now?

“I found some books on how monsters use magic, and I started reading them. I figured out that here in the Underground, it’s much easier for a human to access their magic, if the proper steps are taken. George had a theory on it… something about the Underground being different from the Surface, making it more hospitable for magic??? Or something??? I don’t really know. But anyway I was able to use my magic. Pretty cool huh?”

Asriel stood in shocked silence. Jean lowered the barrier around him and stepped forwards. “You okay?” They asked him. “Yeah, it’s just… wow.” Asriel said. They had been able to learn how to use magic. From what he had heard from Chara it had been a very long time since any human had used it. Magic had even been forgotten on the Surface. But Jean had been able to figure it out.

It was all that they had been hoping for. With this, a way for humans to use magic, they could easily break the Barrier! Seven magicians had created the Barrier, and seven more could break it. They had had a “plan”, similar to the new one but it had been flimsy and held together with hope and dreams, an illusion designed to keep them motivated and moving forwards.

But now they had a new one, one that would actually work . These kids, these humans… they really had flown above all of their expectations. But Asriel wasn’t surprised that they had taken things into their own hands. After all, even when they were just SOULS they had resisted Flowey, helping Frisk even though they should have been long gone. But Flowey shouldn’t have been surprised either, when he and Chara had shared a body Chara had been able to talk to him as well.

What was he doing again? He shook his head as Jean looked quizzically at him. “Golly, this is brilliant!” He told them.

Jean smiled, and Asriel ran off to tell Chara the good news.

Chapter Text

Gaster sipped his mug of coffee, contemplating recent events. The subjects were developing slower than he had hoped, much to his dismay. The Underground needed a solution quickly, and if he waited much longer-

No, he would find a solution. No matter where the humans had disappeared to, if all went as planned they wouldn’t even be necessary. But Gaster feared that the monsters of the Underground wouldn’t be able to hold on to their hope for much longer. All this time, and not a single human captured. The unrest and impatience were growing by the day, and Asgore had told Gaster when no one was watching that he feared a coup was on the horizon. Not that Asgore would do anything about it if it came. For all his good intentions, he wouldn’t be able to defend his position when it would mean hurting others.

Asgore had also told him that he had been considering stepping down, if he could find a way to do so without crushing the hopes of everyone. It pained Gaster to see his old friend in such a state. As the saying went, Asgore was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, Gaster knew that Asgore was immensely relieved that no one had died by his order, but on the other he knew that watching his kingdom sinking into despair was taking an enormous toll on Asgore as well (especially ever since the queen vanished).

But this was why he was doing this, wasn’t he?

The reason Gaster had created two skeletons in secret, grown from pieces of his hands and shards of his SOUL. This was so Asgore wouldn’t have to do this. Wouldn’t have to take on the burden of failing to remedy what had always been the fault of the humans in the first place. Gaster grimaced in disgust at the thought of them.

They would be free. And the humans would pay.

The project would make sure of that.

But the subjects had been acting rather odd, especially 1-S. He had started avoiding Gaster, seeming wary of him although he had no reason yet to behave that way. And he was quieter, the endless questions that usually streamed annoyingly from his mouth vanishing entirely.

And the other day, Gaster had seen him staring at his own hand, his hand was perfectly normal-

But it wouldn’t be forever. But how would 1-S- why would he-

Gaster sighed and put his cup down, a headache coming on. He grabbed and lit a cigarette, putting it in his mouth as he continued to ponder the situation. The behavior of 1-S seemed entirely illogical, though he had heard that children young life forms often acted illogically. He supposed that matched up with the little he had observed of the deceased prince’s early days. Asgore had always been eager on Gaster spending time with them, though Gaster almost always found an excuse that would allow him to run off to his lab.

Gaster suddenly heard a crash from further in the lab. He leapt to his feet, that couldn’t have been them escaping, the forcefield was on, so what-

A few minutes earlier

Sans looked down at the calculations on the back of the paper. When he had sat down and started doing them with a crayon, Papyrus had asked him what he was drawing. Sans had smiled and said that it was nothing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

He was trying to figure out why his magic wasn’t working, and he had come to the simple conclusion that it wasn’t working because he was so little. His body and SOUL just wasn’t developed enough at this point to use it. Sans supposed that made sense, but it sure made his job a hell of a lot harder.

Sans tried to remember when he had first used magic. Healing Papyrus? Bone attacks? Or was it that fateful night when he had discovered blue magic, only to have it ripped away from him the very next day? Could he use it earlier through his knowledge of it? Sans puzzled to himself, and decided to try something.

He closed his eyes and focused on the energy of his SOUL. He knew the potential was there, he had grown since he had first woken up in this place. He searched for that familiar feeling- there! But would it work?

Sans opened his eyes and tried to manifest the energy. A faint blue glow came into the air, and in the glowing points bones appeared.

“WOW! WHAT IS THAT, BROTHER?” Papyrus asked. “it’s magic, bro.” Sans replied. He grinned. Finally, progress! Now for the final test… he directed the bones to hit the wall opposite of their cell. Crash! The wall cracked, and Sans quickly dissipated the bullets. Darn it, he hadn’t thought it would be that loud. Footsteps approached them, and Sans’ grin quickly faded as Gaster came into view.

“OH, HELLO!” Papyrus waved at Gaster, not yet knowing what he was capable of. “1-S, what was that?” Gaster asked. Sans grimaced at the label, resisting the urge to shout out his real name aloud for all to hear. It would do no good to antagonize Gaster right now, as his powers weren’t working fully. It would take some practice to fully regain mastery of his magic, and of his other abilities as well.

“i dunno.” Sans replied, crossing his arms. Gaster watched him analytically and responded. “You mean to tell me that the wall cracked right in front of you and you do not know how it happened.” “yeah,” Sans said.

Gaster pinched the bridge of his nose (what little he had of one) in an expression of annoyance. Sans felt a spark of delight at managing to bother the scientist. It was almost like those old days, days in the future, when bothering him was the only way he could fight back.

“You do realize that I will need an answer to what happened, 1-S,” Gaster said. Sans stayed silent, but Papyrus spoke up, not knowing any better. “SANS? WHY ARE YOU SAYING NOTHING HAPPENED?” Sans froze. Gaster froze. Papyrus looked on, oblivious to the landslide that he had started.

Gaster stared at the subjects. Sans?! They had… given each other names?! They shouldn’t even have been able to know about names! This was a disaster.

He stepped forwards, and saw 1-S flinch back. Interesting. How puzzling, that he had that reaction while 2-P just stood there. Could he know-? Maybe 1-S had caught on to his less-than-kind intentions. Gaster himself was honestly surprised that it had taken him this long, though he supposed in their state they would ignore a lot of warning signs. And who's to say that they would even know what a warning sign was in the first place?

Though that name. Sans. “What is ‘Sans’?” Gaster asked innocently, hoping that he could convince the two to drop this behavior altogether. “it’s none of your business.” 1-S butted in, a poorly-masked glare on his face. Interesting, this hostility, before Gaster had even begun to earn it. “Oh really, 1-S?” He asked.

1-S nodded, and Gaster decided to push further. “This is foolish, 1-S, you-” Gaster cut off as he saw a piece of paper on the floor. It was… was that writing? 1-S saw Gaster’s line of sight a moment after, and quickly grabbed the paper. “1-S.” Gaster said, his voice monotone and serious. 1-S looked up at Gaster, a look in his eyes like a human surrounded by bullets.

2-P was watching this whole scene play out, ever-growing confusion in his eyesockets. “WHAT IS GOING ON?” He asked, his voice trembling a little. Gaster ignored him, focusing on 1-S. “What is that.” He asked.

1-S hid the paper behind his back, a frantic and calculating look on his face. Gaster sighed and held out his hand.

Ding.

He gripped 1-S’s SOUL with blue magic and brought him to the front of the cell. 1-S struggled, but Gaster managed to grab the paper from his hand. He dropped 1-S and pulled his hand back through the force field beams. Gaster opened the paper and looked down at it.

Gaster swore he felt his SOUL go cold as he saw what was written on the paper. It was calculations, detailing the growth of magic in a monster’s SOUL. It described several bullet patterns common to skeletons, bones, blue attacks… and one that Gaster didn’t recognize.

But the thing that really froze Gaster’s nonexistent blood was that it was all written in the common language of the Underground. It just wasn’t possible. The subjects had had absolutely no exposure to it, and it- it just didn’t make any sense!

Gaster looked back up at the subjects. 1-S was standing in the center of the cell, his head down. Before Gaster could say anything, 1-S looked up at him meeting his eyes. 1-S’s own eyes were both glowing a bright blue. 1-S pulled in a breath and said, not in Wingdings, “so you’ve finally found it out. my secret.” 2-P watched, asking Gaster what 1-S had just said.

And as Gaster stared, 1-S started, hysterically, sadly, to laugh.

Chapter Text

“Like that?” Chara asks.  Jean nodded, and Chara held up their hand. They breathe in, and out again, their SOUL slowly flickering into view. A red heart, similar to Frisk’s, yet lighter in color due to the smaller amount of DETERMINATION contained within.

Chara stared at their hand, focusing on it with all their mind. They should be able to use magic if the book was correct. Along with the books on monster magic, Molly had found one, ancient and filthy yet readable, hidden away from prying eyes for a long time. Recruited into the scheme by George, she had found it in a hidden room in an empty house, a framed picture of a dog the only thing there other than the book.

Chara and Asriel had both given Molly a stern lecture about going off on her own like that, she could have gotten killed , but Molly shrugged it off and told them that she had been plenty careful.

But it couldn’t be undone, and the book had proven to be invaluable. It said that as long as a human did not have a great amount of DETERMINATION, and could access an area with a high concentration of magic, then they would have the ability to learn magic. By that logic, that meant that Frisk wouldn’t be able to learn magic, as they could RESET and all that stuff. But then what about Flowey? He had had the ability to RESET and also had magic.

Chara had posed the question to Asriel, and after thinking about it for a minute had replied with his theory. “I think that it might have been because I was a monster in a physical form.” He had said. “The flower was made of physical matter, so like humans it could handle and use DETERMINATION. And because my… ghost? Was a monster one, I could also use magic. Maybe it had something with my ability to remember using magic…” Asriel had then gone into a ten minute long session of muttering to himself, and Chara had left.

Chara snapped back to the present, their focus doubled. You are filled with determination , Chara thought to themself, smirking in amusement. Their hand held in front of them, Chara stared at the air, willing something, anything , to appear. After a minute of nothing, closed their eyes and looked inwards, trying to find the potential for magic at the center of their SOUL.

In the darkness, Chara felt a presence. Three, actually, but one stood out much more than the others. It pulsed , and on instinct Chara reached out with their SOUL to it, it’s power entrancing and intoxicating. They felt a surge go through their SOUL, and they opened their eyes.

In front of their hand a spot of light flickered, changing forms rapidly, and Chara could barely make out a few forms. A flower, a few things Chara couldn’t recognize, a knife, and what looked like the outline of a rectangle, before it faded away entirely, Chara’s SOUL snapping back into their chest. Chara gave a grunt of frustration at the failed attempt.

Chara turned away from Jean, saying that they’ll get the hang of it later. There were bigger things to take care of, now that the rest of the children had quickly picked up the use of magic. Chara had to admit that they had never felt this big of a blossom of pride bloom in their SOUL. Was this how Toriel, Mom, had felt? Chara wondered. Was this what it was like having… children?

Was this how it felt to be responsible, and finally, finally succeed?

But there was still business to take care of. Sans and Papyrus would be very young, according to Asriel’s calculations. Maybe too young to handle the situation. But Frisk had said that it was the right time, and Chara supposed that they really didn’t have any other choice. It would be foolish to throw away the plan that they had had for years because of one worry.

Chara approached Asriel, who was talking over the final preparations for their departure with Amelia, the eldest of the children, though admittedly not by much.

Once Asriel was finished talking to her, he turned to Chara and the two headed off. Chara reached into the box by the exit of the cave and pulled out a red headband. Fixed to it were a pair of fake horns. Chara had found them in the Garbage Dump a long time ago, and they had since then been repurposed as a sort of disguise.

Very few monsters had any idea of what a human looked like, so the horns combined with the feathery mask that Chara also wore on these occasions served as an adequate disguise.

Chara and Asriel headed out of the cave system they lived in, and headed to the river. They had talked among themselves and had reasoned that since Gaster was the Royal Scientist he would most likely be in Hotland, probably somewhere near the lab.

The River Person was there, waiting for passengers like always. “Tra la la… I love to ride in my boat. Would you care to join me?” They asked, and Chara and Asriel stepped on board the boat.

The water raced by under the boat, as the siblings sat there in silence. The damp air of Waterfall started to fade away to a dry heat as they approached Hotland.

The River Person continued humming, and after a minute stopped and said. “Tra la la… flowers, knives… fate. La la. Time to wake up and smell the pain.”

The boat came to a stop and Chara and Asriel departed the boat, the odd comment of the River Person leaving confusion in its wake.

The heat of Hotland was a shock to the system of the two teens who had spent the past few years in the mild weather of Waterfall and the cold of Snowdin. After a minute the pair continued, and soon the lab appeared in sight.

Chapter Text

Chara and Asriel slipped into the lab, the automatic doors sliding closed behind them. The green walls and tiled floor encompassed the space that seemed much different than when Alphys was the Royal Scientist. The anime posters and dog food were gone, and instant ramen no longer cluttered the now-absent fridge. It was a lot more organized, and just more… science-y looking, Chara thought. Now the place looked like the workplace of a Royal Scientist rather than the dwelling of, well, Alphys, who didn’t really fit the aesthetic.

So they needed to follow Gaster… 

aaand no one was there. The lab was empty and silent, the exact opposite of how it had been once Mettaton had come into the picture. The memory of confetti and colorful light caused a sweep of nostalgia to fly through Chara. They had loved that first pacifist run, and the memories that they had made with Frisk then had been treasured. That was, they had been, until…

Chara’s face scrunched up, and they quickly moved on from the offending subject. “So… what do we do now?” Chara asked. Asriel considered it, looking hesitant. The clock on the wall ticked away as the two contemplated the issue in silence. Finally Asriel said “Well… there’s the True Lab.”

Chara remembered the True Lab, shuddering at the memories the name provoked. The broken lighting and constant humming, the unnerving shadows and entries displayed on glowing screens. And of course, the Amalgamates. The monsters who had fallen down and were brought back to life by Alphys, injected with DETERMINATION and melting into each other soon after. They had blocked out some of the memories, but the soft cries of the poor souls would forever haunt them.

But now… it was before Alphys and the Amalgamates, so the True Lab should be running as normal. And what better place for a scientist than a lab? “…yeah.” Chara agreed. “He’s probably down there.”

The pair walked over to the elevator, formerly disguised as a bathroom, its shining metal door glinting strangely ominously. It opened, and Chara and Asriel stepped inside. The door closed behind them and the elevator started its descent, a whirring noise the only sound.

After about a minute into the long ride, Chara chuckled nervously and said to Asriel “You know, the last time I was in this elevator it crashed. Haha.”

“…”

The seconds passed as no response came. Chara fiddled with their hands awkwardly before once more breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I don’t know why I’m so nervous about this. You’d think that after everything else I wouldn’t be afraid of anything anymore.”

“… you know, at one point I think I was. Afraid of nothing, that is. When I was the demon that comes when people call its name. Heh. We both had such strange names for ourselves.” 

“Wow, I’m talking a lot. I don’t think it’s been this quiet in years. Come to think of it, Azzy, how did you know about the True Lab? I mean, I was there with Frisk, but I don’t remember ever seeing you there. Though my memories of that place are blurry, heh, what a funny contradiction. Some parts I remember so well, and others are so vague. I-”

Chara looked over at Asriel, and noticed he was trembling, so subtly that they doubted that he himself noticed it. “… Azzy?” Chara asked. Asriel looked over, and started to say

“I-”

The door opened with a thud, cutting him off. 

Fluorescent lights flickered from the ceiling, the tile under their feet now a dark green. Chara stepped warily out of the elevator, Asriel cautiously following close behind.

The halls were silent, the space soundless even now when normalcy was supposedly there. The pair walked forwards, looking for any clues to the whereabouts of Gaster. It was strange, seeing the True Lab in working light. If they didn’t know what would happen here, Chara would have thought that it would always be just a normal lab.

The vending machine next to the elevator seemed to be working, and Chara resisted the urge to break the glass when they saw chocolate inside. The plants in the corners of the room seemed livelier, and the entry screen on the wall was empty. All was the same, except for the door to the left of them.

It was a pair of metal sliding doors, a sign next to it proclaiming 

NO ACCESS: Only Authorized Personnel Beyond This Point

Chara remembered this, but one thing was different. Three dots on the pad on the wall that controlled the door were now glowing blue.

Chara motioned to Asriel, directing his attention to it. Asriel walked over beside Chara, looking incredibly uncomfortable.

The pair approached the doors, and they slid open soundlessly, unlocked. Chara and Asriel stepped through and looked around. Beyond the doors was a hallway the same as the rest of the lab, though Chara knew there had to be something different here if it was normally locked.

That thought came back, the question that had been bugging Chara ever since Frisk had contacted them. What did Gaster have to do with Sans and Papyrus?

As the siblings stood there, they heard a sound from deeper in the section. It sounded vaguely like someone talking, though not in any language either of them could understand.

Chara snapped to attention at the sound, running towards it. Their feet banged audibly on the floor, but they were tired of subtly. They rounded the corner and-

Chara froze, staring at the scene in front of them. An adult skeleton wearing a lab coat, Gaster, was standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at Chara in shock. In front of him was a glowing force field, crackling with electricity. And behind the forcefield, in a small cell-

Were two skeleton children.

Chara’s SOUL felt like it was freezing over.

Chapter Text

“What the fuck is going on.” 

Chara stood at the end of the hallway, their voice directed at the scene in front of them. At the Royal Scientist, Gaster, who was currently staring at them with a look of confusion and horror. Chara reached up and took off their mask and headband, as they wouldn’t be needed now. It was clear that Gaster recognized them as a human.

Chara looked again at the cell, the two children who Chara now recognized as Sans and Papyrus trapped behind an electric force field. Imprisoned. In medical gowns. In a lab. As children.

Chara stepped forwards. Gaster seemed to snap out of his stupor, stumbling back, before quelling his expression and bringing himself up to his full height. A pair of floating hands appeared in the air near Gaster, presumably created with his magic.

“Who are you and what are you doing here.” Gaster signed. Chara recognized what he was saying, they had learned Monster Sign Language pretty early on during their stay in the Underground. “I should ask the same to you,” Chara responded. “Except I know who you are, Gaster. So the only question is what. the hell. are you doing. ”

Gaster paused, before sneering “I don’t have to explain myself to a human. You will soon be on the way to the King, and unlike some others I don’t have any qualms about killing you myself.”

Gaster snapped his fingers, causing bones to appear midair and fly at Chara. The world seeped of color and-

Color returned as fireballs flew around Chara and hit the bones, knocking them out of the air. Chara focused back on Gaster as Asriel stopped beside them, hand still reaching out from using his magic. “It’s not just a human asking.” Asriel said.

Gaster blinked in confusion, staring at the pair. “A… boss monster? But how? The only Boss Monsters in the Underground are the King and Queen. Them and-” Gaster’s eyes widened as Chara saw him putting together the pieces, likely comparing their appearances to the ones he had seen in the past. “Prince Asriel?” He asked, disbelief in his face. Asriel nodded. “Yes, I am Asriel. And this here is Chara. My sibling.” He said.

Gaster stood in silence, absorbing the information. Then, he asked “But you were declared dead. The human perished of an illness and the Prince was killed by humans. I remember it.”

Asriel was about to speak when Chara butted in. “Look, we have our reasons alright? The real question here that you so skillfully keep avoiding is why are there two children in that cell .”

As Gaster didn’t answer, Chara’s patience whittled down to nothing, and the rage they had been feeling gushed to the surface. “Screw this.” Chara said, and rushed forwards. Time seemed to slow as Chara reached into their pocket and drew out a dagger.

Their surroundings once again changed to monochrome as a battle started, this time for real. Something flickered in front of Chara for a second before disappearing. Chara ignored the oddity for the moment, and faced Gaster.

The skeleton stood at the ready, a conflicted expression on his face. Chara’s red SOUL flew out in front of them, and Gaster’s gaze lingered on it for a minute before asking “If you are really the Royal Children, why are you here and not with the King and Queen? What happened?”

Chara answered “There were things that had to be done. People we had to save.” Gaster frowned. “You speak of saving others, yet you left the Underground to despair. To miss every human who falls down here as they vanish into a place we can’t find. To fall down as they lose hope. What is the purpose of that?”

Gaster sighed, his stance growing more resolute. “I am sorry. But I must see this through. For Monsterkind, so that we can see the sun again. There is no other way. And I can not allow you to stop me.”

Gaster manifested an array of bones, shooting them at Chara. They dodged most of them, grunting in pain when a few hit. Asriel ran forwards to attempt to help Chara, but Gaster blocked his path with a wall of bones.

Chara gritted their teeth and attacked. They had never wanted to harm a monster, but whatever was going on here, it wasn’t good. And if Gaster refused to stop, then Chara would have to stop him by force. They jumped over a few attacks and slashed Gaster with their dagger. Gaster winced at the blow but continued the battle. It seemed like Gaster didn’t share Sans’ one HP problem, Chara mused.

It took a little while for Chara to reacclimate themself with fighting. They got slammed into more than a few walls back-first. Eventually they did get pretty good at avoiding Gaster’s attacks, and it helped that he didn’t have the ability to ignore invincibility after each hit like Sans did.

Gaster’s expression soured as Chara continued to dodge his attacks. Jumping over bones and flipping themself around to counteract Gaster’s blue magic, Chara couldn’t help but feel a sense of deja-vu. Though they hadn’t been in control for that battle, they had been awake and present. Though they had been too far gone to want to stop it, even if they had had the ability to.

Chara’s ability to dodge Gaster’s attacks shrunk as they became increasingly complex in design. But Gaster’s health whittled away as well, as Chara landed hit after hit with their dagger, their attacks fueled by righteous fury. After a particularly nasty attack by both of them, Chara and Gaster both stepped back, Chara panting from exertion and Gaster sweating (which skeletons could apparently do).

Gaster winced, and Chara saw his health was near zero.

The storm of bones and blasters faded to an eerie quiet, leaving the labored breathing of the two fighters the only sound. Chara raised their head and asked “Just tell me what you’re doing.”

Silence pervaded the air for several minutes before Gaster finally gave a response.

Gaster nodded reluctantly and sighed, a weariness settling over his frame. “I created 1-S and 2-P as a way to break the barrier. I was going to find a way to strengthen at least one of their SOULS to the point where its magic could do that. That is the purpose of all of this.”

“1-S and 2-P?” Chara asked. Gaster nodded. “Subject 1-S and Subject 2-P. They are the two you saw when you arrived here. I… never got the chance to start the experiments. And then you two got here. And here we are.” Gaster finished his sentence matter-of-factly.

Chara absorbed the monologue in silence. So Gaster had created Sans and Papyrus to be his lab rats. He would have experimented on them in order to strengthen their SOULS to the point where they- or even one of them- could break the Barrier. Wait- not would have. He had already in the other timeline. Before this RESET, Sans and Papyrus… they had already been experimented on. Because then Chara and Asriel hadn’t been there to stop him. They had been dead.

But the Barrier was still there. So Gaster hadn’t succeeded then. And he won’t now. Chara thought, their mood darkening even further. They would make sure of it.

At least they could prevent it this time. That must be what Frisk meant by not letting him make the same mistakes, Chara thought.

Chara took a deep breath. They looked Gaster square in the eyes and with a steady voice said “We will be taking Sans and Papyrus. You will not stop us. You will stay far, far away from them. You will never try anything like this ever again.”

They paused. “ Do I make myself clear? ” they asked, glaring at Gaster. Gaster nodded. “Good.” 

They walked over to the wall of bones blocking the rest of the hallway.

They reached out and swiped the bones, not even flinching at the damage. The bones vanished upon contact, revealing a very worried Asriel. Behind him were Sans and Papyrus, and a smoldering control panel on the wall.

The three stared at them, Papyrus in confusion, and Asriel and Sans in a sort of nervous awe. “Let’s go.” Chara said. Asriel nodded and walked out the door back into the lobby of the True Lab. Sans held his brother’s hand and led him out as well. 

Chara sensed Gaster standing at the end of the hallway, watching them. “Remember what I told you.” Chara said.

Chara stopped right in front of the door as the world regained its color. Their SOUL melted back into their chest. They paused, before looking over their shoulder to face Gaster once more. Their face was hidden in shadow as they stood there.

“You know…”

Chara’s eyes glinted out of the dark as they spoke.

“If you had started with the experiments before we got here…”

“Well…”

The air seemed to deaden as Chara stared straight into Gaster’s empty eye sockets.

“I would have killed you where you stood.”

Chara turned and walked out the door.

Chapter Text

Gaster watched the door close behind the foursome.

The stillness and silence in their absence was almost deafening, the conflict that had been present now gone from the room.

Gaster wondered why he had let them go.

He thought he had been solid in his resolve.

Apparently not.

He had known it for a while now. That he was faltering. It just- this wasn’t supposed to be how it went. He thought that he would be able to push through, to resolve himself to never be forgiven, to face the consequences once it was over.

But of course that little part of his SOUL had decided to actually try to care about the subjects. It was foolish, and Gaster had tried time and time again to distance himself, to silence that voice.

1-S’s strangeness had been a wrench in that plan. He hadn’t had enough time for 1-S to tell him enough. What he had said… It was unbelievable. He said he was from the future. That his mind had been put into his younger form. Gaster had ruminated on the possibility of other timelines, but never had been able to prove their existence.

But the impossible was seeming more possible each day, especially today, when the dead had risen and interrupted his plans.

If the… Royal Children… hadn’t intervened he probably would have succeeded. Succeeded in hardening his SOUL. And doing what needed to be done.

But that fight… the uncanny ability of the human to dodge his attacks. Not perfectly, but enough that it shouldn’t have been possible to adapt to his attack patterns that quickly. Though maybe the fault for that was on his end.

Had his SOUL really been in that fight? When the Royal Children had shown up, a part of him knew that it was all over. That someone else would, was, working towards the same goal as him. They hadn’t explained their plan but Gaster knew they had one. And whatever it was, he hoped it would succeed in getting them all out of here.

So many impossibilities were happening, it was a miracle that Gaster was still able to make sense of even a little of it.

He wondered if he should inform the King of recent developments. His children were alive, after all. But maybe… his time affecting the outcome was over. The burden had been passed on to someone else now, into their much cleaner hands. Gaster could only hope they would succeed.

And so he sat down at his desk, lit a cigar, and waited, for whatever would happen next.

The heat of Hotland washed over Chara, but their SOUL remained cold. The red and orange of their surroundings was a welcome change from the grayness of the lab, like surfacing from a body of water, taking a gasp of air and everything feeling more real.

Faintly they heard the voices of what they presumed was talking, but it sounded like ringing to their ears.

They kept walking forwards, their eyes on the ground and their hands clenched at their sides. The ringing grew louder, and they became aware of a splintering pain in their side.

They looked down at themself, their eyes tracking the source of the pain. They brought their hand to their side, finding a rip in the fabric of their hoodie. They touched it, and

something wet and warm met their fingers.

They blinked and it was gone.

They frowned, wiping the crumbs of potato chips from their mouth.

In their haze they must have eaten them, Chara reasoned. Wow, they… must have been more hurt then they had realized.

As they regained their focus, they became aware of Asriel speaking to them.

“Chara? Are you alright?”

Chara turned around. “…yeah.” They responded. “Good,” Asriel said, a relieved smile crossed his face. He turned to where Sans and Papyrus were standing slightly behind him. Papyrus was looking around him with a sense of wonder, chattering to his brother in a language Chara couldn’t understand. Sans would occasionally give a response in the same dialect, though his attention mainly remained focused on Asriel and Chara. 

Sans watched the two teenagers. A boss monster and a human, the lost Royal Children. This whole thing was… confusing to say the least.

This wasn’t the normal timeline, that was for sure. They were meant to be dead, even Gaster seemed to think that was the truth. But here they were, alive and well right in front of his eyes.

It made him wonder…

“so… you two are the royal children then?” He asked, switching to the language they could understand.

The monster, (Asriel was his name, right?) nodded. “Yeah.” He said. “so… uh, you gonna explain what’s going on?” Sans asked.

The human nodded. “Can Papyrus understand us?” They asked. Sans wondered how they knew their names, but answered. “no, he can’t. i’ve been reassuring him this whole time, answering what i can of his questions. why are you asking?”

The human nodded, fiddling around with a golden heart locket around their neck.

“…the reason, is that… there is some sensitive information contained in the explanation. Information that Papyrus won’t understand. And we don’t even know for sure if you… remember it too.”

Oh. Well that explained a lot. “you mean the resets.” Sans said. “So you do remember then!” The human exclaimed. “That’s good, we thought you did. Okay, let me start from the beginning…”

And so the pair explained the situation to Sans. The human introduced themself as Chara, and told him about first waking up in a bed of golden flowers. They continued with their tale, telling him about speaking to Frisk (who had apparently been possessed?!), rewriting everyone’s memories to make sure Sans and Papyrus existed, hiding in Waterfall and rescuing the fallen humans, and finally making their way here.

It… was certainly a lot to process. The fact that they could remember resets as well… well it was good to have people who understood, even if he wouldn’t have wished that burden on them.

They had faked their deaths for years just so… just so that they could make sure that Sans and Papyrus still existed in this timeline. That… Sans didn’t know how to process that at the moment.

He was just glad they had gotten out of that place. And that Chara and Asriel seemed to have a plan, to break the Barrier no less.

Something new, after so long. And not only that, but it was something new, and something good! That hadn’t happened for a long time.

Something new.

Something good.

Finally.

Chara walked ahead as Sans explained what he could to Papyrus. Asriel trailed behind further still, watching for anyone behind them. Despite them moving forwards, Chara’s thoughts kept circling back to the True Lab.
That whole thing that had happened… it disturbed Chara to no end to think of what Gaster might have done had they not intervened. A person with the capability and willingness to do something like that… had planned it even…

That was the one sort of person who Chara had always hated.

It had always been a sore spot.

Humanity has been their first target for it, yet now…

Now they knew better.

Both Monsters and Humans had the capacity for these sorts of things. Everyone had the capacity for hatred, and everyone had the capacity for despair. But not everyone acted on it.

Not everyone climbed the mountain.

Frisk, why did you ever climb this mountain?

…

Were you like me?

Chapter Text

Asriel watched Chara closely. They had said they were alright, but something in their eyes told him otherwise. They had been stumbling, hunched over and ignoring him and the others.

Then they had abruptly straightened their back into a rigid upright posture, and had reached into their pocket and had shoved some potato chips in their mouth.

And then they had turned around, and acted as normal as always. It… he was probably just overthinking everything. That trip into the lab had made him jumpy.

Well, it had made everyone jumpy. That was no surprise. But at least everything went… fairly smoothly. (Wow his standards for things “going smoothly” had gotten low.)

The foursome reached the river, where the River Person was waiting. While they were still out of hearing range from the River Person, Chara turned the the rest of them and said “Okay, Asriel, can you take Sans and Papyrus to the hideout?”

“Sure.” Asriel responded. “What’s the plan?”

“You get these two to safety, and bring the humans to the CORE. I’ll clear the way for us to get to the Barrier without any problems.”

Asriel nodded. “hold on, wait a second.” Sans cut in. “i’m coming with you.”

“I don’t think that would be a good idea.” Chara responded. “I know you could handle it, you’re not a child in mind, but I think you should go with Asriel.”

“You’re the only one here who can understand him. And who knows what Gaster’s doing. For all we know, he could become a problem. And Papyrus needs you Sans. You’re his one anchor here. And I think it’s better for the both of you if you go with Asriel.”

Asriel watched as Sans thought it over. Finally, he sighed and answered “ok. i’ll go with him.”

“Thank you.” Chara said. They resumed walking towards the boat. They turned to Asriel and said “Make sure to keep out of sight as you guys head over. I don’t think I could live with myself if anything happened to any of you guys.”

The group reached the boat, and Asriel and the brothers stepped on. “I’ll… see you later then.” Asriel said to Chara. “Yeah. See you later.” They responded.

“Waterfall.” Asriel said to the River Person, and they headed off, a “good luck” passing between the siblings as they parted ways.

The water rushed past. Papyrus was laughing, pointing at their blurry reflection in the water and talking excitedly to Sans.

“Tra la la…”

Asriel looked up at the River Person, and was suddenly reminded of the strange message they had given them. What had it meant? The River Person had always been cryptic, so maybe it was just their ramblings.

“Tra la la… the eye watches… it’s always here. Tra la la… it’s looking dark out tomorrow.”

Well okay. Be unnerving why don’t they. 

Chara watched as the boat sped away.

When it left their view, they turned around and started walking again. Their plan… once they got to Asgore it should be easily sailing.

There would be all the “you’re alive?” and “what are you doing with six humans?” stuff, but once he knew their plan he would help them. The trouble was in getting there.

Every monster was on high alert for humans, so smuggling seven of them to the Barrier was going to be tricky. That’s why Chara had decided to go ahead of them, to prepare however they could.

They continued their trek, and soon enough reached the area before the CORE. A large hotel stood in front. It notably lacked the MTT logos and branding, as Mettaton hadn’t made his debut yet. For now the hotel was just that- a regular hotel.

Chara entered carefully, already missing their disguise. They really should have held onto it. The warm lighting reflected pleasantly off the floor tiles as Chara ducked behind a plant. The murmurs of the monsters staying there echoed through the building. Chara knew they would have to be extra stealthy to get through.

They were about to make their move, past the fountain and out the door, when a group of monsters walked into the lobby.

Crap.

Chara watched as the group lingered. And lingered. And lingered. How long were they going to stand around talking?! There was a perfectly suitable restaurant just to their left! Well, it didn’t look like they were gonna move anytime soon. Damn it. They were just going to have to chance it.

Chara pulled up the hood of their sweater and walked out from behind the plant. They kept to the edge of the room and held their head down as they slowly made their way towards the back door. They were almost there when…

“Hey, who’s that?”

Shit. Shit shit shit.

Chara didn’t look at the monsters, and took another step forwards, ignoring them.

“Hey, I’m talking to you.” One of the monsters said, approaching them.

“I haven’t seen you around here before. Let me introduce myself…” The monster said, placing their hand on Chara’s shoulder.

“My name’s Harold!” As the monster turned Chara around, their eyes met for a split second before…

“Wait… is that? A HUMAN!” Harold cried out.

A thousand profanities flew through Chara’s mind.

A battle started, black and white covering the world.

Great, the second battle of the day. Crap, Chara didn’t want to hurt these guys. But they only had 10 HP left out of 20 and they didn’t know these monsters’s attack patterns. They supposed they could flee but that would soon cause an uproar, and that was the exact opposite of what they were trying to do.

So they turned and CHECKED the group of monsters.

MOB - ATK 5 DEF 5. Want to be free.

Their turn ended, and the monsters attacked. Sparks flew around Chara in a moving circle, and drips of slime shot at them from the air.

Chara started to dodge, and-

They dodged all the attacks perfectly, gracefully avoiding the magical bullets. It almost felt like something was pulling them along, dancing with them in a waltz. The turn ended and Chara confidently ACTED.

Chara told the monsters that they also wanted to free everyone. The Mob start to rethink their decisions!

Another turn and another round of dodging later, the monsters don’t want to fight Chara anymore.

Chara spared the Mob!

Battle Won! Chara got 0 EXP and 15 G.

The world returned to color and the group of monsters walked off. Chara hastily slipped out the door before anything else could go wrong.

Walking out onto the back porch was like walking into a summer night. The warm lights contrasted with the darkness and blue illumination of the CORE, creating a peaceful atmosphere.

Chara could hear the faded sounds of the CORE working in the distance as they crossed the wooden bridge. The harsh neon lights of the CORE glared as they reached the entrance.

Thankfully no shadowy figures jumped out at them as they entered. Chara stopped several feet inside, seeing a weird glow faintly shining from inside the room to the right of them.

Deciding quickly checking it out wouldn’t hurt, they walked over to the doorway on their right and walked through. Beyond it the room was darker than the others, a pit beyond the floor, flames burning steadily for an unknown purpose.

But it was what was glowing that really got Chara’s attention. They froze, their eyes fixed on an object near the center of the room, flickering in and out of reality like a glitch in a graphics card.

A yellow, four pointed object, that spun in jerky movements. An object that Chara recognized even through its distortion.

In the center of the room, there was a SAVE Star.

Chapter Text

A… SAVE Star. What was it doing here? Chara wondered, their head a whirl of emotions.

Were they DETERMINED enough to… to SAVE now? Was that why they hadn’t been able to use magic? But wouldn’t that have been a more noticeable shift? But wait…

The SAVE Star wasn’t exactly as they remembered though. It was distorted, fading in and out of view and moving like a game at 2 frames per second.

Something was clearly wrong. If it was just their DETERMINATION, then it wouldn’t look so… weird. Was this like that one Amalgamate in the True Lab, that had disguised itself as a SAVE point?

They could just walk away, leave this mystery and continue with the plan. But if it was an actual SAVE Point, then it would be invaluable to their mission. And if not…

They couldn’t deny the curiosity flowing through them, like a child who was about to poke something with a stick. Anything strange was worth investigating, right?

They moved, almost as if in a trance, towards the SAVE Star. They reached out, and touched it.

A noise echoed from the point, a noise Chara recognized from Frisk’s many SAVES. So they did have the power to SAVE. This- this was amazing. But wait-

The point suddenly froze, its erratic movement stopping. A sheen of gray spread from its center, covering its natural yellow hue.

Chara stepped backwards cautiously as it started shaking, and then rose further into the air. Its shaking intensified, before it shattered into a million pieces.

The pieces floated for a second, before moving towards each other, spinning and forming a new object standing in the center of the room.

A single gray door stood where the SAVE Star had just been.

Chara slowly approached it. So it hadn’t been a SAVE Point. Or had it? It had certainly seemed to be one. But then what was this? Chara looked over the object that had appeared. The door didn’t seem to connect to anything.

Chara remembered the one time they had seen something like this before. It had just appeared in one of the timelines, a solitary gray door against the blue of Waterfall. Behind it had been a strange man. Chara now knew that that man had been Gaster. At least, a more melted version of him.

They carefully grasped the doorknob, and slowly slid the door open. Beyond it was a gray hallway, nothing of note in view.

Chara hesitated in the doorframe, concerns blaring like alarms in their head. But they took one step forwards, and then another. And another one after that. It was like their feet were moving on their own, dragging Chara further down the hallway. Chara heard the door slam behind them, but they couldn’t turn around to see it. They- they couldn’t move their body. It just continued to march forwards without their input, their back unnaturally straight as their eyes were forced directly forwards.

What the hell was happening.

Panic was blooming inside of them, and their heartbeat rushed even as they were forced into the same slow pace. They tried to turn around, to flee, but they couldn’t even change the expression on their face. 

Chara’s body marched onwards, dragging them along as an unwilling passenger, desperately trying to regain control. They fought tooth and nail but to no avail. Their blood was rushing and their heart beating erratically in their chest but their form ignored it all and kept walking, like Chara wasn’t even there.

It was like when you’ve gotten on a rollercoaster for the first time, but as you sit there the anxiety builds and builds, until it starts moving, and you want to get off but it’s too late and the only thing you can do is panic as you’re pulled along. As that sense of dread grows and grows as you reach the top and feel you’re headed towards something horrible, but there’s nothing you can do.

 Oh God, was this- was this how Frisk had felt? Was this the same thing?

Chara’s mind was a flurry of motion, but their body was perfectly still in its movement. Marching forwards mindlessly like a soldier following orders, a slave to whatever was driving them forwards.

If the control over Chara’s body was an animal trap, one of those ones with cruel spiky teeth, Chara would have chewed off their own leg to escape it, like a desperate wild animal willing to do anything to get free.

The moments dragged on for an eternity before finally, finally , an end to the hallway came into sight. It led into a small room, as colorless as the hallway itself.

In the center of the room was a figure, crumpled on the floor like it was asleep.

It was a grayscale figure, human in appearance. It looked like if Frisk was Chara’s age, the figure was even wearing a two-striped sweater. One thing was off though. The figure had no face.

The figure wasn’t moving. And not just being still, it wasn’t even breathing .

As Chara came to a stop inside the room, the presence that had been controlling their body vanished.

Chara collapsed to the ground, their body shaking as it caught up with their panic.

When they managed to look up, they saw that the figure was moving. Ever so slowly, it sat up, pushing itself to its feet. Its limbs straightened themselves and it stood up, its back unfurling itself like a puppet rising with its strings.

Its movements were unnatural looking, its bones popping as the figure settled into a standing position. Chara was reminded of an old horror movie they had seen once. They hoped this person wouldn’t spin its head around as well.

As Chara watched it, the figure stared at them. Chara pushed themself to their feet, stumbling as their balance wobbled. They glared at the figure as they rose, their eyes burning from unshed tears that they refused to acknowledge.

They pulled in a sharp breath, trying to stop the pressure in their head as they steadied themself against a wall. They cleared their throat, attempting to shake off the lingering fear inside of them. And then they asked in a weak, hoarse voice “Wh- what is this.”

A moment passed, but then the figure responded, in a voice that seemed to come from it and yet from everywhere at once. “Hello Chara.” The voice said.

Chara stumbled back, before gathering their bravery and facing the figure, fists and teeth clenched, their eyes drilling holes into the figure.

“How do you know my name,” they asked. The figure tilted its head to the side, like a cat watching a mouse from behind a corner. Then it responded.

“I’ve been watching you this whole time. Much like Frisk was.”

Chara took a sharp breath in shock. What. The. Hell. It was one thing that Frisk had been watching them, but now there was this whole other person who had done it. Chara stepped forwards, and demanded, practically growling,

“Who the fuck are you and what did you just do to me.”

The figure didn’t have a face, but if it did Chara thought it would be smiling from the sense they got from it. It stepped forwards, extending its arm for a handshake. The place where its eyes should be were locked onto Chara as it said

“You can call me Player.”

Chapter Text

Chara stared at them. What… what the hell. They could only watch in shock as they explained.

“This is probably really confusing, huh?” The fig- …Player said.

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock.” Chara responded. “And your name can’t actually be ‘Player’.”

“Yeah, my real name isn’t actually Player.” Player responded. “It’s just more fun this way, eh? Much more… dra-ma-tique! ” They said, rolling the last word around in their imperceptible mouth as they said it.

“ Dramatic?” Chara asked, almost in disbelief. “Yep!” Player responded, leaning over and balancing on one leg, wobbling as they continued. “Might as well have some fun, right? AAA-” they were cut off as they lost their balance, crashing to the floor.

Chara wanted to bang their head into the wall.

They sighed as Player jumped back up, an invisible grin dancing on their face. “Look, what do you mean by Player? And what was all that stuff before?!” Chara asked, glaring at them.

“Oh! Right, right! I am a Player! Of- wait would that give them an existential crisis if I told them- uh, nevermind! What that means is that I… was the one who, uh, shit they’re gonna be pissed …was controlling Frisk?”

The world seemed to freeze as Chara absorbed the information. “You… you what? ” They said, the words feeling tangible as they passed their lips.

Player nodded, fidgeting as they said “ Yeeeah… but look, in my defense I had to see what would happen. I had done the Neutral and Pacifist Routes, and I had heard somewhere that there was a third route that would happen if you killed everyone and-”

Player rambled on as Chara stared at them, their voice fading into a ringing in their ears. This- this person was the cause of- of that?! They- they were the one Frisk had told them about?!

“You… you…” Player finally stopped their talking at Chara’s voice. “Er… you okay?”

“Ha… ha…” Chara held their head in their hands, weak laughter filtering through their fingers. “…HAHAHAHA! WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Chara yelled, their head snapping up as they stepped forwards. “I’M MEETING THE PERSON WHO CAUSED ALL THE DEATHS, ALL THE PAIN AND SUFFERING AND AGONY , AND THEY'RE JUST SOME STUPID ASSHOLE! THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE A REASON FOR WHAT THEY DID!”

“Well, technically I did- ” Player cut in before Chara stopped them.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU AND YOU’RE ANNOYING VOICE AND YOUR EXCUSES ! I JUST- I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” Chara punched the wall, thin cracks appearing in whatever material it was made of.

Silence choked the room as Chara breathed heavily from the effort.

“… do you know what would have happened if I hadn’t been there? ”

Chara looked up. Player was standing perfectly still, their non-existent eyes trained on Chara.

“In the fight against Gaster. I was the reason you won that fight. Did you happen to notice that you were dodging better than you should have? Well that was me . Helping you. You would have lost that fight had I not intervened. And after- you would have died if I hadn’t made you eat those potato chips. Your HP was at 1, Chara. That stupid stunt of breaking that wall of bones could have killed you.”

Chara’s breath hitched. “You… you what? ”

“Yes, I had a degree of control over you. It started small, just dodging in battle, but then it extended to small things outside of battles, I could control your inventory. Then I had full control of that battle against that group of monsters. And then finally, when you touched that SAVE Point, that gave me full control.”

“You see, when you attempted to make a SAVE File, your SOUL wasn’t Determined enough to create one. But I was with you, and let me tell you something about my abilities.”

Player waved their hand, causing the room to get darker. A red glow appeared as Chara’s SOUL came into view. A red SOUL also appeared in the silhouette of Player.

“As a Player, I am able to connect to beings with DETERMINATION SOULS. So people like you, and Frisk.” They paused, watched Chara for a moment. “ Heh. Grown up like this you look so much like them . ” They mused.

Chara wondered who they looked like, and was about to ask but Player continued. “Through this I am able to amplify the abilities of such a SOUL. That was why you were able to SAVE. You asked what happened to you a few minutes ago. Well, because you have a DETERMINATION SOUL, I am able to connect to you. Like how I’m controlling this Vessel right now.” Player gestured at themself.

“Well, not exactly in the same way. I have much more… options when I’m controlling this Vessel.” They continued.

The two SOULS vanished as light returned to the room. “Okay,” Chara said. “Okay. So you controlled me back there.”

“ Why the fuck did you do that? ”

Player sighed. “I had to get you here somehow. If I hadn’t you might not have gone in here. And there’s some stuff I gotta tell you.”

“Like what?!” Chara asked, exasperated.

“Well I did just wanna say hi, like, how cool is it that I’m actually meeting you! But also I need to explain some things.” Player answered.

“We’ll go ahead.” Chara said, crossing their arms. “I’ll wait.”

“Okay, okay,” Player said. “It all started when a… friend of mine sent me some code…”

The human children were swarming around Sans and Papyrus, excited to see the newcomers. Asriel watched the commotion with a sense of relief. Papyrus was adapting enthusiastically to his new surroundings, engaging excitedly with the other children even as the language barrier was there.

Asriel had gotten clothes for the brothers, and they had quickly changed into them. Funnily enough, it had been their old sweaters, now too small to fit Asriel and Chara.

Papyrus had stuck close to Asriel as they had walked through the caves, and it- well, it reminded him of… how things had been.

Flowey had befriended Papyrus, and as much as that had been one-sided, Papyrus seemed to subconsciously remember that bond. Asriel was really glad that in this body he could truly form connections with others.

This time he would actually be a good friend.

Asriel noticed Sans walking towards him, and he smiled when he arrived. “You doing okay?” He asked.

“i… i want to talk to you about something.” Sans asked.

Asriel nodded, and Sans walked over to a quiet area, more secluded from the rest of the settlement. Asriel followed and sat down on the ground next to Sans.

“so…” Sans started. “what’s your guys’s story?”

Asriel sighed. “Well, as you heard, me and Chara are the Royal Children. A long time ago… in the original timeline… we had a plan. Chara… they… well. They sacrificed themselves in an attempt to break the Barrier.”

Sans’ expression changed at those words, Asriel noticed. He continued.

“You probably heard at some point how Chara got really sick one day. And that no matter what anyone did, no one… no one could save them.” Asriel looked down at his feet, the painful memories at the forefront of his mind. “It… it was the plan. They told me to absorb their SOUL once they were… gone. And I did.” He looked back up at Sans, sorrow in his eyes.

“We went through the Barrier, and went to Chara’s village. They had said that they wanted to see the flowers of their village one last time. But there was another reason too. The plan was to gather six more human SOULS, so that I could break the Barrier. But… I couldn’t hurt them.”

“When we arrived the humans took one look at the monster carrying a dead child and assumed the worst. They attacked me. Chara begged me to fight back… but… I couldn’t bring myself to do so. And so I staggered back to the entrance to the Underground, and fell through. Me and Chara’s SOULS shattered as I turned to dust.”

Sans sat in silence for a moment. “i… i hadn’t heard all of that before.” He said. “so… it was all planned, huh?”

“Yeah.” Asriel responded, gazing solemnly ahead. “But I couldn’t even make their sacrifice worth it.” He clenched his fists, looking away. “Because of my… cowardice their sacrifice was in vain. I… I…”

“you okay?” Sans asked, a concerned look on his face. Asriel breathed out and answered. “Y-yeah. I… it’s just something I struggle with sometimes. I have to remind myself that we’re getting another chance. And that I came to peace with that decision. Or I’ll… well sometimes I start thinking a little too much like him for my liking.”

“who?” Sans asked. Asriel looked at the ceiling, the ground, anywhere but at Sans. “I… no. You deserve to know the truth.” He finally said.

“A while after me and Chara died, I… woke up. I couldn’t see anything, and it was like my senses were muffled. I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, smell or taste. I could only feel the cold, sterile air around me. And a strange, burning sensation within my body.”

“It stayed like that for a while. I… I was really scared. Every so often I would feel a disturbance in the air, whether it was movement or sound I couldn’t tell. And that burning kept getting stronger. By the time something new happened it was like my insides were scalded.”

“what was the new thing?” Sans asked warily.

“I had been trying to regain my senses for a while at that point. And I don’t know what was the tipping point, but in that moment I formed a face. I could feel whatever it was I was made of shifting and morphing, giving me eyes and a mouth, and a nose and ears somewhere where I couldn’t see them. And then I… I opened my eyes.”

“It was really bright. Cold too. Weirdly enough, it smelled like flowers. The sudden flare of senses was overwhelming. So I hid, burying myself back inside my form. Some time passed before I tried again. That time I went slower, gaining one sense at a time. The scent of flowers and cleaning supplies reached me first. Then I started hearing mechanical beeps and grunts every so often, and the humming of some sort of ventilation system. And then finally sight reached me.”

“I slowly opened my eyes to let them adjust to the glare of the light. When it happened, I saw that I was on a table. Around me were dozens of golden flowers, the kind that grew in the throne room. The table was in a hallway, the walls and tiled floor green, with screens appearing on the wall every few feet. I looked around, seeing that I was alone in the hallway. I thought about calling out, if I even had the ability to, but then I saw that mirror. Across from me, on the wall. I saw myself.”

“I was a flower . One out of the many golden flowers filling the table. My face peered out from the center of the flower, staring myself in the face. That… that scared me enough to knock me right back into darkness, right back to sleep.”

“…”

“A while later I woke up again. I didn’t remember anything about waking up that first time. …I didn’t remember for a long time after that. But I opened my eyes, finding myself in the garden of the throne room. Alone among the flowers. I called out, in confusion and fear, but… nobody came.”

“Later Asgore found me. I told him what had happened, and he held me, tears in his eyes, telling me that everything was going to be alright. But…”

“I… I was emotionless. I couldn’t feel compassion. Because I didn’t have a SOUL, that ability was gone.”

“so… you were… that flower?” Sans asked, incredulous. Asriel nodded sadly. “Yeah. I was.”

Sans sat in silence for a minute while he processed the information, an indecipherable expression on his face. “well, it sounds like there’s more to the story.”

Asriel nodded. “tell me then.” Sans said intently.

And so Asriel did.

Chapter Text

“Okay, how do I put this?” Player started. “This world is made up of stuff. And that… stuff can be moved around and changed by someone outside of this world. Someone like me. The thing is… uh… okay seriously how am I supposed to explain this without shattering their sanity like Jevil and Spamton… your world… it operates to our world like… a video game? The thing is, no one thought this world was real. It seemed and acted just like a video game, and so people treated it like one.”

“I was just a normal gamer, playing Undertale like many others had. Neutral, Pacifist, then out of curiosity, Genocide. Then Pacifist again but that didn’t count. And then time moved on. But a while later, I got this weird message. It said it was from my account, but I hadn’t sent it. It read something like: 

“Hello. I have found something very interesting. I wonder if you would like to see?”

“And then there was this file attached below it. Now naturally I thought this was some kind of computer virus or something. But I was curious. So I sent it over to this old computer I have, that’s disposable enough for me to risk it. And I opened up the file. Inside was a bunch of lines of code, and at the very bottom, another message. “Plug this into Undertale. -sincerely, a friend.” So then once I had confirmed that it wasn’t in fact a virus, I pulled up the game files on my main computer and inserted the code.”

“Nothing changed at first, but as I continued my playthroughs it started to affect the game. Suddenly Sans seemed to know more, and weirdly enough, it seemed like he actually remembered things. It is a common idea that he can remember RESETS, but there’s not really much evidence to support that theory. That changed. Then more stuff changed, like how Asriel remembers the Pacifist Runs. In the original Undertale, he had us erase his memories if we RESET after a Pacifist Run. But with the introduction of the code, it changed.”

“The code was mutating the original rules and story of this world, causing new elements to appear and others to vanish.”

“At one point, I was RESETTING, and then it happened. The screen glitched out, and the next thing I knew I was staring down at you and Asriel waking up.”

Player stopped their long-winded explanation, giving Chara a chance to process what they had just learned. “So… our world appears as a video game for your world?” They asked. “Yeah.” Player confirmed. “And this… friend sent you some stuff that caused changes in our world.”

“Uh huh!”

“And you caused this whole RESET.”

Player bopped their… well, where their nose would be. “Right on the nose!”

“Huh. I can’t tell what I’m feeling about this.”

“…”

“…”

“So you’re like he was, then.” Chara spoke.

Player hesitated. “What do you mean?” They asked.

“You just had to see what would happen. You were bored. You had seen everything else.” Chara said. “You had read every book, but hadn’t burned it. Had appeased everyone, but hadn’t killed everyone. Had won the game… but hadn’t lost it.” They continued, echoing their brother's words.

Player crossed their arms defensively. “Well I didn’t know you guys were sentient. And everyone else was doing it!”

Chara scowled. “Well we both know how that turned out.”

Silence.

“…that’s fair, I suppose.”

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

Chara squinted in confusion. Were they… apologizing?!

“Are you really?” They asked, disbelieving.

“…yes.”

Chara sighed, not believing them for a second. “So is that everything?”

“No, no it’s not. Okay. So after the RESET, I was trying to find a way to interact with the world, and I decided to try something. I took an asset from Deltarune, and shoved it into Undertale. The weird code did its work, and it gave me a working vessel. This one.” They gestured at themself.

“But I could only make it appear outside the normal bounds of this world. That’s why I had to get you here to talk.”

“Did you only drag me here to tell me exposition?” Chara asked.

“No, no. I just wanted to explain everything first. So in all this mess of searching and experimenting, I met someone. Can you guess who it was?”

“It was Gaster!!! Think about it, me , the first person to actually talk to this guy! The first to find the mysterious and famous Gaster! So anyway he said that he had noticed me messing around, and that- well, I don’t really know how to explain it- let me just-”

Chara heard a bunch of sounds, like tapping on a keyboard. Then a screen appeared over on the wall, and Player directed Chara’s attention to it as a clip started to play. Darkness covered it, with the occasional text box and audio intruding.

“Whoa, Gaster?! You’re Gaster, right?”

YES, I AM INDEED THE ONE YOU CALL “GASTER.” A PART OF HIM AT LEAST.

“So, uh, great to meet you and all, I have so many questions, but what are you doing? And how can you hear me?”

“I HAVE- NOTICED YOUR INTERFERENCE.”

“Oh, yeah, I put some code into the game and it’s been messing with stuff. Pretty cool, huh?”

“THAT ‘CODE’, AS YOU CALL IT. IT HAS- THE MARK OF A FORGOTTEN ONE. ONE WHO WAS ERASED ALONGSIDE MYSELF.

“Wait, so one of your followers was responsible for me finding that code?!”

“I CAN ONLY ASSUME SO. BUT WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES CAUSED THEM TO DO SO ARE OF NO MATTER RIGHT NOW. I- AM ALSO CHANGING. WHAT CHANGES HAVE YOU NOTICED?”

“Uh, well Sans and Flowey remember more now. And the skeleton bros seem to have been overtaken by the Handplates AU. You know, they’ve got the plates on their hands and stuff.”

“IF THE CHANGES ARE INDEED SO FAMILIAR TO YOU, THEN THE CONNECTION MUST HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED. BUT THAT IS OF NO MATTER. A CHANGE IS COMING. LARGER THAN THE OTHERS.”

“Wait, really? Cool! What’s it gonna be?”

“IT- WILL CAUSE A MASSIVE SHIFT IN THE TIMELINE. A NEW STORY WILL BE WRITTEN. BUT- I DO NOT HAVE MUCH TIME. THE CHANGES ARE OVERWRITING ME AS WELL.”

“But aren’t you, like, more powerful than this follower?”

“I DO NOT RECOGNIZE THIS ENTITY. THEY SEEM TO BE MORE POWERFUL THAN EVEN MYSELF.”

“NEVERTHELESS, WE MUST FOCUS ON THE TASK AT HAND. IF MOTIVES REMAIN SIMILAR, THEN THE NEXT DRIVERS OF THIS WORLD WILL SEEK TO BREAK THE BARRIER.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“YOU WILL IN TIME, IF MY PREDICTIONS ARE CORRECT. AND THEY ALMOST ALWAYS ARE. BUT JUST REMEMBER- WITHOUT DETERMINATION, AN ENDING IS IMPOSSIBLE.”

“Uh, so I gotta make sure that whoever breaks the Barrier has DETERMINATION?”

“IT MAY BE NECESSARY TO FORM A NEW

CONNECTION. A NEW VESSEL, TO INFLUENCE THIS WORLD. YOU AS A PLAYER ENTITY HAVE MANY ABILITIES UNDER THE SURFACE.”

“Huh?”

“I WILL SHOW YOU. BEFORE I AM REPLACED. THEN IT IS IN YOUR HANDS. AS IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN.”

“Er, you’re not mad at me for the uh-” 

“MY CONNECTION TO THE WORLD YOU HAVE DESTROYED IS AS AN OBSERVER. MY FALL REMOVED ANY EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT. THE PLAYER EXPERIMENT’S PURPOSE WAS TO SEE. IT WOULD BE HYPOCRITICAL TO JUDGE.”

“The- the what?! What- EXPLAIN! The Player Experiment- what does that mean?!”

“GUIDE THE NEXT TIMELINE TO ITS CONCLUSION. THEN THERE WILL FINALLY BE AN END.”

“What?”

“YOU WILL SEE. TAKE ANY PATH YOU PLEASE, BUT REMEMBER THAT THIS PORTION OF THE EXPERIMENT IS COMING TO A CLOSE. NOW, LET ME SHOW YOU…”

The clip ended by whatever had been recording it glitching out. Chara turned to Player. “Is- is that how you see our world? Text boxes?”

Player responded. “Well, that’s how talking looks to us.”

Chara reflected on that. Their world… a video game? Well, it appeared as a video game to Player. Didn’t necessarily mean it was one. Either way, it was as it always had been. No reason to fear the norm. Or at least they would postpone any existential crisis for later. They had a job to do. A mission to fulfill.

“So for an… ending to be reached someone needs DETERMINATION?” Chara asked. Player nodded. “That’s what I got from that conversation.”

“But- Frisk has DETERMINATION. Wouldn’t they work?”

“I mean, they’re stuck in the Void or whatever so I don’t really know.”

Chara puzzled at that for a little while and then asked, “Look, what are you trying to get at here?”

“I doubt you’ll like my offer.”

Chara sighed. “What is it?”

“As you… aren’t DETERMINED enough, but have a DETERMINATION SOUL, I… could…”

Chara took a step back. “ No.” They stated.

Player looked… both surprised and not surprised at all. “But… it might be the only way. If you became my new vessel, then you would have the DETERMINATION necessary. I would make sure everyone got a happy ending, just like you wanted.”

Chara sneered, facing away from Player. “I’m not gonna be your puppet . You’d just fuck up the world again like you did last time.”

“But- Gaster said-”

“Gaster said, Gaster said! ” Chara spun around, their face a picture of anger. “How do we even know this guy knows what he’s talking about?! Why are we just trusting him blindly?! Even what he’s saying makes no sense!” Chara shouted, waving their arms about.

“Look, I just-”

“You just think all of this is just a game , don’t you? It certainly looks that way to you! You just sat there, watching all of us from that computer screen of yours, and laughed . Did you enjoy killing all of them? Of course you did, why would you play a game that wasn’t fun ? And all this is just some new content for you, huh? You just ignored all the work that’s gone into this, all the careful care and effort ! You just said to yourself, huh it would be fun to mess this up too! ”

“This conversation is going around in circles.”

“Yeah. Circles. Like RESETS.”

“Heh.”

“I thought that I would never be this angry again, you know.”

“The HATE that you gave me is gone. I thought it was over.”

“But then I saw the True Lab. What Gaster had been planning. And it came back.”

“Not the HATE, but that same feeling, of overwhelming rage . But then we left. We saved them.”

“And then you had to come along.”

Chara turned around. “You came with your pretty words and heroic intentions, and asked to save the world.”

They started walking back, back down the hall, away from Player. “But you already screwed that up. And you did it on purpose.”

“Wait.”

“You can’t be trusted.” Chara said solemnly.

“Look, just-”

“Are you going to possess me?” Chara asked, stopping.

“...”

Chara waited, waited for the sign that Player wouldn’t take no for an answer. Waited for the telltale sound of the vessel hitting the floor, and for their body to stop responding to them.

…

Nothing happened.

“...no.”

“Why?”

“I…”

“...”

“Believe it or not, Chara, but I actually care. About everyone here. Even you. You probably don’t understand. But that’s okay. I probably wouldn’t either.”

Chara listened, their head turned down.

“I just want to help. But I’ll let you go. Just- just know, that if you ever change your mind…”

“I’ll be ready.”

Chara walked out the grey door.

As they exited, the door faded behind them. As soon as it was gone, they collapsed to their knees.

Chara stared at the floor.

The machinery of the CORE continued to grind on, surrounding them in a web of noise and light, unaffected by their plight.

Chara was midst a jumble of emotions, a storm inside their head. Anger, confusion, fear… so much had happened, and they understood almost nothing . And even though Player had said they wouldn’t, Chara still felt that phantom stillness over their skin, like the memory of a straitjacket. And honestly Chara didn’t trust the Player’s word.

Now they understood why Frisk had been so eager to announce their possession. The feeling of it… was terrifying. It just kept looping in Chara’s head.

Well, just one more traumatic event to add to the list, they supposed.

Chara stood up, pushing themself to their feet.

Oh dear, that was quite a lot of trembling in their legs. That headache wasn’t helping either.

Okay… Chara slowly lowered themself back to the ground. Clearly walking wasn’t going to happen. Sheesh, could they just get one break here?

Those battles must have tired them more than they thought. And after that conversation with the exasperating Player, they now realized they felt absolutely exhausted.

It had certainly been a long day, both emotionally and physically.

As the headache pulsed intensely in their head, Chara slowly shifted to lying on their back. The possession had probably taken something out of them too. Oddly enough, their body had felt energized while under the control of Player, with that extra energy vanishing as soon as their presence had left. It was an interesting thing to speculate about while they could do nothing else.

As they laid there, their adrenaline fading, their eyelids slowly started to slip closed.

And soon they drifted off into a deep sleep.

Chapter Text

“I stayed with my father, I tried to feel any form of connection and empathy.” Asriel continued. “But it never happened. So, unable to bear it any longer, I left, fleeing to the Ruins. There I found Toriel, my mother. I thought she out of all people could help me… but she failed. They all did. I…”

“...”

“I’ve told this tale so many times, but never to you. It was always Frisk, Chara, whoever it was then. It’s… difficult expanding that circle. After all this time, to… continue this path.”

“what do you mean?” Sans asked.

“Well I…” Asriel trailed off. “I think you of all people will understand. I kept going down different paths every timeline. But every time things ended well…”

“...”

“Let’s continue the story.”

Asriel looked away from Sans, his face turned away as he continued.

“I decided that a life without love wasn’t worth living. So I… followed in my sibling’s footsteps. I died.”

A sharp intake of breath from Sans. Asriel continued with the painful tale. “But… as I was fading away… I wondered. What happens to a creature without a SOUL after death? I was terrified. And then I felt it. That burning , that I had first felt within the lab. I embraced it.”

“And then I woke up back in the garden. Back at my ‘SAVE Point’.”

“wait, so you-”

“Yeah. I had DETERMINATION.”

The shadows seemed to be growing darker. “I experimented with it. Brought myself to the edge of death over and over. And each time… I survived .”

Sans shifted uncomfortably, a feeling of dread creeping around the edges of his SOUL. Asriel continued, his expression hidden in darkness.

“First, I used my powers for good. I became “friends” with everyone. Solved all their problems. But-”

“As time repeated, they all became- predictable. What would they do if I did this? Once you know, that’s it. That’s all they are.”

“…”

“It all started because I was curious.”

“I- I- I thought “I’m not enjoying this, I just have to see what happens!”

“I- I killed them.”

“Everyone.”

Sans noticed that Asriel had started to tremble, slowly curling in on himself.

“I- I eventually grew bored of that as well. And so I let time move forward, and well, the rest is history, or I guess the future.”

Asriel stopped talking, his tale completed.

Sans- he honestly didn’t know what to think about all of this (yet again). As he was processing the information, Asriel asked him something.

“Do you… remember Flowey’s RESETS?” Sans thought about that. It- he should be able to, he remembered the human’s RESETS. But- as hard as he tried, he couldn’t find a single memory of RESETS before that. Sure, he had seen anomalies in the timeline, but it seemed he didn’t remember them.

“i… don’t?” He responded, leaving Asriel perplexed. “Huh. I could have sworn you did.” He stated.

A bit of silence followed before Sans finally spoke. “look… i… don’t even know how to begin pulling this apart in terms of morality.”

“but i think the best solution here, is for me to take some advice from my brother. he, he always said… that everyone can be a great person if they try. and… you’re clearly trying.”

“it’s not like i’m even the royal judge anymore, so that’s a bit of pressure off my backbone. so just… keep doing what you’re doing. after all this craziness…”

Sans looked down at his hand, the ghostly memory of the handplate weighing on his mind.

“we all need a new start.”

Chara drifted through the darkness. Weightless and asleep. Then they opened their eyes.

“Gah!”

Only deafening silence answered as they spun, out of control like an astronaut with a broken tether. When they finally steadied themself they looked around.

Darkness spread out in every direction as far as their eyes could see. Blue-gray patterns moved infinitely in sync. They looked down. What appeared to be a floor was obscured in darkness, and Chara could barely make out a blanket of gray objects covering it from horizon to horizon. …Were those body parts? 

Chara decided not to look at them anymore.

Click, click…

Chara looked towards the source of the sound.

Above them, a head floated. Right under it were six torsos, arranged in a horizontal line. The line slid to the right, causing one of the torsos to slide into place beneath the head, making the clicking sound. A faint white light curled around the form, illuminating it against the dark. Above its head, a brilliant red SOUL glowed.

Eventually, the movement of the line stopped, and another line of legs appeared under the torso. Then a stretch of silence where nothing seemed to change. Until suddenly, the light behind the figure went out, and the SOUL disappeared.

It curled in on itself, and then slowly, it started to fall apart. First the legs popped off, falling through the void. Chara hadn’t even known gravity existed here. Then the torso went, and finally the head fell, plummeting down to the sea of its brethren.

So that was where they had come from.

Now that that was gone, Chara could make out a much fainter source of light, downwards this time.

It was red.

They swam down, the atmosphere becoming slow and thick, like moving through honey. But eventually they got close enough to be able to vaguely make out the source of the light.

A small, child-like figure was sitting on a small platform. Their face and clothing was obscured by a darkness clinging to them. The red glow was shining from their chest, muted by the darkness.

Chara tried to call out to them, but their voice remained trapped in their throat. A difference from the seemingly thinner atmosphere above- if that was even what it would be called.

The figure suddenly looked up at them, empty eyes glaring into their own. Their face had no features visible except for two gaping holes where the eyes would be, red light shining through like a jack-o-lantern. For a minute they both stayed like that, Chara floating above the figure, their eyes locked.

Until suddenly…

A pulse rippled through Chara’s SOUL. The red light in the figure brightened as it happened, dimming again as it passed.

Everything was frozen for a moment.

And then the darkness covering the figure started to pour into their eyes. Chara watched in horror as it dripped down, the light inside the figure growing dimmer and dimmer, until 

it was extinguished.

A second later, Chara woke up covered in a cold sweat.

Who- what was that?! Had it just been a dream?

But Chara could almost swear they knew who it was… their name… their name…

It was “     ”!

Why- why couldn’t Chara remember their name?

“What’s this?”

They stared at their screen, perplexed. That person in Chara’s dream… this was new.

Maybe the code would yield some answers. They had their suspicions as to who it was.

They opened up the code, and started looking. Lots of stuff was shifting before their eyes, but that was normal now. They carefully navigated to the section of code they sought.

“What the hell-”

It was empty. Blank. Nothing was there at all.

Like it had been erased.

They kept looking, on the hope that they could piece together something .

There wasn’t anything, but- there!

Lines of text scattered throughout the code, and it looked-

…what was this doing in Undertale?

Where…

Where am I?

Hello…? Anyone…?

Is… is anybody out there…?

Someone? Anyone!? Can anyone hear me!?

…

Why now? Why is this happening so fast?

Why did it take it so long to find me, if it was always there…?

It’s dark.

It’s so dark here.

I can’t see anymore.

What’s covering my eyes…?

Someone, anyone, if you can hear me…

Say something… please…

No one can hear me, can they…?

…

I guess not. Not anymore. Even he’s gone.

To be honest, I’m not even sure if I can hear myself.

Did they hear me? Was I even speaking?

It’s so quiet here…

…and yet, sometimes,

I swear I hear something…

Something like… a heart beating?

This was… a Deltarune thing, was it not? Yeah, that was right, this was hidden in the code in Deltarune, but then why was it in Undertale? Were the two games merging or something? At this point, it would make all too much sense, especially with the dream apparently being in “The Depths”. Wait a second though, something seemed off…

Checking the text with its counterpart from Deltarune, there seemed to be significant changes to it. Hmm, okay…

‘Why now? Why is this happening so fast?’,

‘Why did it take it so long to find me, if it was always there…?’, ‘I can’t see anymore.

What’s covering my eyes…?’, ‘Not anymore. Even he’s gone.’, ‘Did they hear me? Was I even speaking?’, and ‘a heart beating’ were all new additions.

Sheesh, and they had thought the normal “unused” content was creepy.

The theories one could make from this…

…this wasn’t just a game anymore, was it?

This game…

Whatever that code did seemed to make it… almost alive . It was generating its own code and dialogue and sprites, like some kind of AI. Huh. There’s a theory. Someone made one of those things that could do this and sent it to them as some sort of test. Who even knew at this point.

But… whatever it was, they… they had promised to help, hadn’t they. And… well… maybe they should take this seriously for once. Because even if it wouldn’t be real… if it was just some person’s pet project… it might be real, and that’s what mattered, wasn’t it? On the off-chance that these characters were truly alive…

They owed it to them to not gamble away their lives. To give them a.. What had Chara said? 

Ah, that’s right.

A happily ever after.

They could only hope that everyone would be given the chance.

Chapter Text

Chara walked through the rooms of the CORE, surveying them for the safest path through for the others. Thankfully no further encounters happened, and they back tracked to the entrance of the CORE.

Ignoring the room to the right this time.

They hid near the entrance to the hotel and simply waited.

Asriel called everyone over. Soon enough, all the kids came running, their SOULS still glowing from practicing their magic.

Asriel explained the plan, answering the children’s questions as best he could. The children donned the disguises that had been made for them. And soon after, all seven of them headed off, the children following Asriel, with Sans staying behind with his brother. Sans had certainly seen enough RESETS to know not to get near the Barrier when it was about to be broken, he had said.

A relatively short time later, Chara greeted the group. They jogged over to Asriel, quickly falling into formation.

As they did so, Asriel gave them a worried look.

“Hey… are you alright?” He asked.

Chara almost laughed. Of course they weren’t! Who would be? But they just asked “What… what do you mean?”

Asriel gave them a stern look. “Chara, we’ve been siblings for years now. I can tell when something’s got you upset.”

Chara sighed. “I… just everything. Today… I guess it was yesterday by now… was hard. For everyone. We’re so close to finishing this, and yet- it just feels like something is going to go badly wrong. That- nevermind,” they stopped, dismissing the issue.

Asriel gave them yet another look that said that he didn’t believe them in the slightest that the issue was resolved. But then he gave them a warm smile and patted them on the shoulder. “It’s gonna be fine Chara, don’t you worry. And- didn’t we always say that whatever happened, we’d face it together?”

Chara smiled in return and continued forwards, leading the group through the hotel and the CORE, finally arriving in New Home.

The gray buildings did give Chara a sense of unease, given their recent experience. But they all marched on, Chara carefully making sure not to get spotted by any passing monsters, as they were the only one not disguised. After a bit they made it to Asgore’s home.

A long time ago, a human fell into the RUINS.

The two siblings led the way inside, the six children looking around in curiosity at the interior of the house.

Injured by its fall, the human called out for help.

“Let’s take a break,” Chara said. They headed over to the kitchen to grab some food and water for the others. As they did so, Asriel found himself staring at the door of their old bedroom.

ASRIEL, the king’s son, heard the human’s call.

He reached for the door handle, hesitantly. He turned it and slowly opened the door.

He brought the human back to the castle.

Everything was exactly as they had left it, not a single item disturbed. A thin layer of dust- normal dust, not monster dust- blanketed the space. The passage of time had claimed the space, almost asking, why are you here?

Over time, ASRIEL and the human became like siblings.

Asriel sat down on his old bed. So much had happened since they had truly spent time in this place. Even after they had been brought back, they had been running around, trying to figure everything out. What they would do next had always been in the back of their minds. They had never truly just… rested.

Half of him almost wanted to put down roots and sleep right then and there. Asriel gave a half-hearted chuckle. 

He stood up.

Asriel left the room, closing the door behind him.

Chara had passed out the food and water among the children, and they handed a bottle of water and half a sandwich to Asriel. They all sat down and ate the meal.

The King and Queen treated the human child as their own.

Soon after, they continued their walk, Chara having unlocked the stairs.

The Underground was full of hope.

Then… One day…

The human became very ill.

They arrived at a hallway covered in the color of gold.

Sunlight streamed in from an unknown source, warming the skin of those who entered.

“What’s this place?” Amelia asked Chara.

“…A place to be honest with yourself.”

Amelia nodded at the answer, not seeming to understand but satisfied anyways.

The sick human had only one request.

Chara lingered behind, running their fingers over the glass of the windows. “Just a minute,” they told Asriel, nodding for him and the others to go ahead. 

To see the flowers from their village.

When they were alone in the hallway they sat down, looking at their faint reflection in the tiles.

A place to be honest with yourself.

Chara lay down, the Delta Rune on the window casting a shadow over them. They could almost sense the shaking of the countless battles that had happened here. Could feel the impacts of hitting the ground, hear the blasts of lasers, see the ghostly figures dancing in that last desperate fight.

But there was nothing we could do.

It felt so much different now that they knew who was really responsible.

They felt those three presences again. Well, they knew who one of them was at least, their own personal security camera.

“I hope this is boring you, Player,” they announced to the quiet air.

They sat up. Should they have told Asriel about them? they wondered. But… probably best to keep some things to themself. They didn’t even know how to explain it anyway. 

Maybe one day they would.

They stood up and headed out of the hall.

The next day.

Everyone was waiting for them, crowded outside the throne room entrance.

…

“I’ll… wait for me,” Chara said. “Me and Asriel will go ahead.”

All agreed, and Asriel walked beside Chara down the short hallway to the door in the middle.

The human died.

They paused in the doorway. The hallway to the right grabbed at them like a magnet. It certainly was uncanny being so close to their own coffin.

But in just a few steps, they would finally leave all that behind.

ASRIEL, wracked with grief, absorbed the human’s SOUL.

Asriel was nervous, that was for sure.

He was going to see his father again, after all this time. And Asgore had thought he was dead this whole time.

The guilt of that whole deception was definitely weighing on Asriel’s mind right now.

At least the reasoning had been for a good purpose. Saving two people.

Justified or not, it was what they had both chosen.

He transformed into a being with incredible power.

“You ready?” Asriel asked Chara, looking over at them.

They gave him a smile, bittersweet. “Not at all. But… let’s do it anyway.”

Asriel smiled back at them.

With the human SOUL, ASRIEL crossed through the barrier.

The two siblings gathered their resolve, their courage, their… determination, and stepped through the door.

He carried the human’s body into the sunset.

Sunlight filtered in through the ceiling, making it possible for the carpet of flowers to bloom. It all felt so peaceful here, Asriel thought. This rare spot where the sun could reach. Or at least… a light so similar he couldn’t tell the difference.

Back to the village of the humans.

ASRIEL reached the center of the village.

In the center of the room stood the throne. And off to the side, humming as he watered the flowers…

There, he found a bed of golden flowers.

“Dum dee dum…”

“Oh? Is someone there? Just a moment! I have almost finished watering these flowers.”

“…”

He carried the human onto it.

“Here we are-”

Asgore was cut off as Chara barreled into him, hugging him tightly, tears in their eyes.

“Oh! I…”

Asgore looked down at the human, and then up, seeing Asriel. His face became a picture of shock and disbelief as he slowly watched the two.

Suddenly, screams rang out.

“…Chara? …Asriel?”

Asriel was getting teary-eyed now too, and he choked on a sob as he grinned widely and responded.

“Yeah. It- it’s us.”

He was quickly pulled into the hug, the three family members rejoicing at their unexpected reunion.

After some time, Asgore let go of the two, staring at them in disbelief. “I- I must be dreaming.” He stuttered.

“N-no,” Chara jutted in. “No we’re… we’re real. This is real. We’re- we’re so sorry. I-” Chara broke down, hot tears spilling down over their cheeks, their sobbing blocking any more words.

Asriel was crying now too, and then Asgore as well. They all hugged again, and kept at it until all of their tears had stopped flowing.

“What- what’s going on?” Asgore asked.

Asriel attempted to explain. “W- well you see there’s this business with timelines. And we- what you remember was the original one, and-”

“I’m just glad you’re here. Alive.” Asgore stated.

The villagers saw ASRIEL holding the human’s body.

“Hey… Chara? Oh…” a small voice interrupted.

Turning around, Asriel saw James standing shyly in the doorframe, the other children crowding behind him.

They thought that he had killed the child.

Asgore looked from the children to the siblings. Asriel rushed to explain, speaking so the children couldn’t hear. “We found each human who fell down. We- we found a way to do it without… we found a way to break the Barrier.”

Asgore stared in astonishment, and Chara waved the humans over.

As they approached, a softness filled Asgore’s face. “And what are your names, little ones?” He asked them.

The humans attacked him with everything they had.

George was the first to answer the question, and then, squinting through his glasses, said “You’re fluffy like Asriel!”

Chara started cackling like a seagull, ruining the moment.

He was struck with blow after blow.

Slowly but surely, the other children started looking around. A few of them started climbing on Asgore’s throne.

ASRIEL had the power to destroy them all.

But…

Asgore chuckled, and then turned back to his children. “So… how are you going to break the Barrier?” He asked, a glimmer of excitement in his eyes.

Chara smiled. “I think Asriel will explain it best,” they said.

ASRIEL did not fight back.

Asriel grinned and explained, using more technical language than Asgore had thought he would know. Chara elbowed him. “Nerd,” they teased. Asriel laughed.

Clutching the human…

“So you found a way for humans to use magic,” Asgore said, astonished.

“My children, I- I’m so proud of you.”

ASRIEL smiled, and walked away.

Chara laughed sadly, complaining in a cracking voice “Don’t say that, you’re gonna make me cry again.” But they smiled as they said it.

Asgore chuckled, and Asriel could tell he was holding back another onslaught of tears as well.

Asriel kind of was too.

Soon enough, Asgore spoke again. “I suppose we should do it then.”

Wounded, ASRIEL stumbled home.

Asriel and Chara walked beside their father as they and the six children walked through the castle, making their way through the halls, which passed by in the blink of an eye, as soon they stood in front of the back exit.

He entered the castle and collapsed.

His dust spread across the garden.

The Barrier stood just beyond this room. They could all feel a sense of excitement.

Chara felt it too, yet their mind kept focusing on… something else.

The way Asgore had looked when he had seen them.

Disbelieving.

He had never expected to ever see them again.

They had made him think they were dead.

They had hurt him. 

They had hurt Toriel, their mother. Who didn’t even know they were alive yet.

They had known this would happen, and yet…

…

The kingdom fell into despair.

The king and queen had lost two children in one night.

Chara stepped over the threshold, entering the room.

The humans had once again taken everything from us.

The Barrier roared its quiet tune, standing solemnly as everyone followed.

Chara took a deep breath, trying to clear their head. The excitement of what they were about to do caught up to them, and a small grin plastered itself over their face.

The king decided it was time to end our suffering.

They turned around. “Okay. Okay,” they said. They turned to Asgore and asked him to stand over to the side. He complied, giving the siblings an encouraging thumbs up.

Every human who falls down here must die.

Chara gathered the humans in a line in front of the Barrier. Asriel stood next to Chara.

With enough souls, we can shatter the barrier forever.

One by one, each of the humans’ SOULS blinked into view, lighting up the room a myriad of colors.

It’s not long now.

Purple. Perseverance.

Blue. Integrity.

King ASGORE will let us go.

Light Blue. Patience.

Green. Kindness.

King ASGORE will give us hope.

Yellow. Justice.

Orange. Bravery.

King ASGORE will save us all.

And as Chara focused, their SOUL too came into view.

Red. Determination.

You should be smiling too.

The humans’ magic danced around the Barrier, finding cracks and keyholes in the original spell. All their SOULS were connected, each and every one of them powering the force working to break the Barrier. Truly, even if only one of them had been able to use magic, it would have been enough.

Aren’t you excited?

And now… it was more than enough.

Cracks started to appear on the surface.

They grew wider and wider, longer and longer, until it looked like a spiderweb had been spun over it.

Aren’t you happy?

They kept going. The Barrier’s spell fumbled and cracked under their efforts, and it kept slipping and slipping…

Until…

The Barrier was destroyed.

The humans stopped, catching their breath as their SOULS faded back into their chests.

Chara looked up.

Looked at the opening left in the Barrier’s absence, what they had been fighting for this whole time, the way to the Surface, the way to freedom for all of Monsterkind.

You’re going to be free.

They didn’t see anything.

Chapter Text

Chara opened their eyes.

A blue sky.

A brilliant, cloudless blue sky.

Chara sat up. They didn’t remember lying down, but it seems that was the position they woke up in.

They looked around. Grass extended far as the eye could see, a flat plain of green unbroken by even the occasional weed.

Were they on the Surface? They certainly seemed to be. But then… where was everyone?

Chara stood up. Where were they? Mt. Ebott was nowhere in sight. In fact, nothing was. It was just them and the green ground against the blue sky.

And that was it.

So they started walking. Not in any particular direction, just forwards. There wasn’t anything else to do.

As Chara walked, they noticed something- well, another strange thing. The grass was all uniform height, like someone had mowed it. But the expanse was far too large for that to make sense. Who would even want it that way, if nothing was out here?

After a while, a speck appeared on the horizon.

As Chara approached it it grew larger, and they were able to make out its form.

It was a house.

It looked like any normal house.

It stood on the horizon, solidly and patient, as Chara approached.

As they got closer, a… feeling started to crawl up their back. It-

Something was wrong with this house.

Chara paused. They took another look at the building. They looked at it. Stared. 

They approached the front door, and knocked.

There was no response, and when Chara repeated the action the door swung open easily.

Huh. Strange.

Though it was generally considered quite rude to enter someone’s house unannounced, Chara supposed they had no other choice.

Also they didn’t particularly care for manners at the moment.

Chara stepped inside, the door ominously closing behind them. Well great , they thought. Now they were gonna get ambushed by ghosts or the Blair Witch or something.

They had watched too many horror movies, hadn’t they.

Chara continued further in, the house seeming emptier and emptier as they explored. Finally they had to come to the conclusion that no one was home.

Maybe there was a phone somewhere, or a computer so they could get their bearings. Chara looked around again, before stumbling across a door they hadn’t seen before.

That wrong feeling came rushing back in full force at the sight of it. There was probably something else to help them, somewhere other than that door .

But it was the only place they could go.

Chara reached out their hand to slowly grasp the doorknob. They hesitated for a moment, but then turned it and inched open the door.

A noise alerted them to a presence behind them.

Chara turned around, letting the door fall closed once more.

A child was standing behind them.

“Who are you?”

Oh dear. Chara awkwardly cleared their throat and answered. “Oh… this is your house then?”

The child squinted at them. “Why do you look so… weird?” They asked. Chara looked down at themself. Nothing seemed off to them. But now that they thought about it…

Why did the kid look familiar?

They were wearing some shorts and a plain t-shirt. Their hair was short and brown.

“What’s your name?” Chara asked.

The child snorted. “You broke into my house. And you ask me my name?”

Chara sheepishly grinned “Alright, alright,” they said. “My name’s Chara.”

The kid stared at them in confusion.

“But… that’s my name.”

The two scrutinized each other for a minute. “ That’s what it is!” The younger Chara yelled. “You look just like me!”

“Are you… my past self?” Chara asked.

“Well how am I supposed to know?” The child said. “What is even happening?!”

“Okay, okay. Um…” Chara started. “So I woke up in this weird field and walked until I found this place.”

The kid tilted their head. “A field…?” They muttered. They ran over to the window and looked outside. “What the?! This isn’t supposed to be here?!”

“Yeah, I dunno either,” Chara told them. “Is there anyone else here?”

The child shook their head. “What do we do?” They asked.

Chara turned back towards the door they had been about to open earlier. “I think… we go through here,” they said.

The two of them approached it. On closer examination, Chara could see a yellow flower curled around the doorknob. Wonder how that got there.

They grabbed the doorknob, ignoring the sickening feeling as they did so.

Chara took a deep breath and opened the door.

Beyond it was a forest.

Okay, what the actual fuck.

Chara stepped through the door, their child-self following behind them. “Huh. Didn’t know this was here,” the child said. Chara turned back to the other Chara- they really needed to figure out some other name to differentiate between the two- and shrugged. Seems they were both in the dark in this strange place.

The pair walked forwards, traveling down what looked like a hiking path. “Hey… uh, what should I call you?” Chara suddenly asked their younger duplicate. The other shrugged. “Chara’s my name, if anything you should change yours .”

Chara chuckled. “Got an attitude, huh? I mean so do I. Good for you! I’m gonna call you Cinnamon!”

Cinnamon responded “What, cause it’s spicy? And I’ve got snark? Very creative.”

They continued down the path, until they arrived at a signpost.

Mt. Ebott 

Distance - 

The distance was worn out. Or perhaps it had never been there in the first place.

Chara looked up. Looming above them, the mountain broke the horizon. What were they doing here ? Chara wondered.

In the corner of their eye, Chara saw something run by them. “Wha- hey!” Chara yelled as they gave chase. It was the third only person they had seen in this place.

As Chara and Cinnamon ran after the figure, the ground started to slope upwards. They kept going up and up until suddenly the climb was over, taking what felt like only a minute. Like they had just skipped the entire thing. Chara skidded to a halt, Cinnamon stopping, panting and sweating, behind them.

A- no, the cave entrance yawned open in front of them. And standing just inside its maw was the figure. In the shadow Chara couldn’t make out much, only that it was a bit taller than Cinnamon.

It disappeared into the cave.

“Who was that?” Cinnamon asked. Chara stepped forwards, walking until they and Cinnamon had entered.

 Nausea and dread hit Chara like a punch to the gut as they recognized the figure.

Standing near the edge of a pit, was themself.

Well, another younger version. “Wait-” Chara hadn’t even realized they’d spoken until after they’d said it.

The third Chara turned their head around slowly, staring at the other two.

And then they took a step forwards.

And tripped.

And fell.

Everything seemed to stop.

Chara’s ears were ringing. The face of the third them was staying in their vision, like when you look directly at a lightbulb and it lingers there afterwards.

A screeching sound made its way into Chara’s ears and they realized it was Cinnamon screaming.

Chara threw up.

When it stopped, Cinnamon was silent, and offered a hand to help Chara up. They slowly stood up, wiping their mouth on their sleeve. Gross.

They took a deep breath. “W-what was that?!” Cinnamon asked. “Why did they look like us ?!”

Chara shakily grabbed Cinnamon’s hand, grounding them in place.

They stared at the hole.

They hadn’t remembered falling in.

They knew they had done it. But they didn’t- they had just entered the cave- and then woken up-

“Hey, are you alright?” Cinnamon asked. “You’re shaking.”

Chara pressed their eyes shut and sat down, squeezing Cinnamon’s hand. Cinnamon sat down beside them.

“Hey, uh… remember that one time? When we went to that theater?” They said awkwardly.

Chara opened their eyes and looked over at Cinnamon. Listening. Cinnamon continued. “We snuck past the ticket lady and hid up in the back. Stole someone’s popcorn while they went to the bathroom.”

Chara gave a small laugh. “…they shouldn’t have left it,” they mumbled.

Cinnamon laughed with them, then spoke again. “They were playing The Exorcist for some sorta film festival. That one guy in the middle rows-”

“-screamed a bunch,” Chara finished. “Big baby.”

They smiled, and Cinnamon returned it.

“…how’d you know how to calm me down?” Chara asked.

“I didn’t know crap!” Cinnamon answered “I was just trying to think of what’d calm me down! Just throwing out random stuff!” Chara burst out laughing and Cinnamon joined in.

The two eventually settled into silence. A minute passed before Cinnamon broke it.

“If you’re future me… and so were they… then…”

Cinnamon paused. Then a sad look shadowed their face. “...it really gets that bad, huh?”

Chara sighed. “…yeah.”

The mood dampened, the pair stood up. “So, what now?” Cinnamon asked.

Chara shook their head. Don’t know. They looked around, their gaze finally fixating on the spot where the third them had been standing.

A small yellow flower grew from the ground in that exact spot. Another one? Chara crouched down beside it, scrutinizing it. Cinnamon was pulled down with them, and Chara realized they’d never actually let go of their hand.

Maybe…

Chara reached out and touched the flower.

And when they blinked, their eyes opened to more of them.

Chara and Cinnamon stood up, and looked around. Chara immediately recognized the place as the throne room. They were back in the Underground!

Still reeling from the sudden teleportation, Cinnamon asked Chara where they were when the two heard someone speak.

“Okay, why are there more of me here?”

The pair turned around, Chara finally letting go of Cinnamon’s hand. Behind them stood yet another Chara. This one was wearing the green and beige sweater that they had worn for so long.

“Alright, you’re Butterscotch,” Chara immediately stated. Butterscotch blinked in confusion before Chara explained the situation to them.

“Oohhh…” Butterscotch said. “Using Mom’s pie for names, huh?”

Cinnamon stiffened up, then asked “Who?”

“Well when we… um… fall down here, there’s… do you remember those old stories about this mountain?” Chara asked. Cinnamon nodded. “Well they turn out to be true. And we… kinda get adopted by the royal family? ”

Cinnamon stared at Chara and Butterscotch. “What.”

“…”

“…do we get a crown?”

Butterscotch burst out laughing.

The three Charas wandered through the castle. Though they tried, none of them could make sense of their situation. “What’s the last thing you remember before you woke up?” Butterscotch asked Chara. They thought about it. They had broken the Barrier, them and the other humans. And then…

There was…

There wasn’t -

“Ugh,” Chara groaned, putting a hand to their face. “My head hurts.”

“Me and the others broke the Barrier-”

“You WHAT!?” Butterscotch interrupted.

Chara looked up at Butterscotch. “Yeah, we did,” Chara answered.

“So you… did it really take that long to…” Butterscotch asked.

What? Chara thought about the question, and then- “Oh. No. We did that. It- it didn’t work out.”

A moment of silence passed before Cinnamon intervened. “What? What are you guys talking about?”

Chara turned, glancing over at Butterscotch (who looked deep in thought) before answering. “We had a plan. To- well you see, the monsters were trapped in the Underground by a magical barrier. We had a plan to destroy it. It would need-”

“Seven human SOULS,” Butterscotch stated.

“Seven human SOULS to break the Barrier.” They looked Chara in the eyes. “So it’ll all be a waste?”

Had it been a waste? Two lives lost, and for what? They hadn’t even broken the Barrier. It had caused the deaths of six other humans. If not for- 

Then they all would have been stuck down there until a seventh life was taken.

If not for-

If not for-

Their head was splitting open. 

They fell to their knees, clutching their head in their hands. They could distantly hear Cinnamon and Butterscotch anxiously talking to them, but they couldn’t make out the words.

They stared at the ground as their vision went in and out of focus. Every time they tried to concentrate on that final thought, it was like a crack in their skull formed.

And as they stared and stared at the patch of dirt beneath them, something started poking out of the ground.

Chara watched, mesmerized, as it grew green tendrils and rose higher, until it was right below their face where they were hunched over.

And as they stared and stared the plant blossomed into a yellow flower.

And for the second time that day, Chara’s vision faded to black.

Chapter Text

Asriel opened his eyes.

Stars.

A sky full of bright, twinkling stars.

Asriel sat up. Looked around. As far as the eye could see, grass extended to the horizon. The stalks were tall and rough, itchy as he stood up.

Moonlight shone over the prairie, as Asriel wondered. Was this the Surface? Where was everyone? Why had he blacked out? In the end he decided to start walking, occasionally calling out names to no response.

The cold air brushed against his fur as he walked, the night sky deep and vast above his head. After a while, Asriel arrived at the edge of a forest.

Stretching in a line from horizon to horizon in front of Asriel, the tree line seemed like a wall, dark and foreboding. Everything was unnaturally silent. Asriel walked forwards, entering the woods.

The stars were blotted out by the canopy, and roots tangled together over the ground. The dirt was barren, any smaller plants having been starved of light by the thick trees.

Asriel continued, weaving between trunks and over roots. The eerie silence persisted, no scuttling about or calls of animals breaking it. Not even the chirping of a cricket broke the silence.

Eventually Asriel found a tree with a cavity in its side, a dim light spilling out of it. He walked up to it and peered inside.

Entangled in twisting roots inside of the tree was a monster SOUL, cracked and barely alight. Asriel reeled back before looking again. He reached in, carefully attempting to unwrap the roots from around the SOUL. But no matter what he did it stayed put.

Asriel reluctantly let go, withdrawing from the cavity. And he continued to walk. As he did so, he noticed more and more trees with SOULS trapped inside of them, each and every one scarred and barely alive. He tried to help more, but each time he failed. He was feeling pretty down by the time he noticed something new.

The ground below him was changing as he went further in. The dark roots of the trees morphed into thorny vines, the forest seeming to grow even darker. Yellow flowers started to grow on the roots and trees, increasing in frequency the further Asriel went.  And then he suddenly reached a clearing.

Moonlight illuminated the circle, and yet when Asriel looked up there were no stars above it. A blank spot in the canvas of the sky, jarringly empty. The vines all connected from the many trees of the forest, all meeting in the center of the glade.

Asriel walked up to the center. There was a small hole there, and all the vines went down into it. In front of the hole, on the ground, laid a knife.

Asriel knelt down and cautiously picked it up. It was almost innocuous looking, it seemed like you’d just use it to cut up vegetables. As he examined it, something rose out from the hole.

Asriel looked up. A yellow flower sat perched on top of the opening. He stood up, facing it. “Why are you here,” he asked. The flower smiled, materializing a face.

“I think we both know the answer to that question pal.”

Flowey looked up at Asriel, examining him like he was a specimen in a lab. Asriel’s skin crawled under his gaze. He swallowed and responded. “What… do you mean.”

Flowey sighed, disappointed. “And here I’d thought you’d become less of an idiot since the last time we talked. My mistake, I suppose. You never could do anything right anyways.”

Asriel gritted his teeth at the insult as Flowey continued. “Do you know why there’s no sound in this forest? No animals running about, causing trouble. Did you see the SOULS?”

“When I arrived in this forest, the animals gnawed at my roots, tried to rid their home of the unknown organism. But then I did what needed to be done. I caught those SOULS, and I kept them. The very things that had tried to kill me were now actively furthering my life. And all the other creatures…”

“They hid away, kept deathly silent, in the fear that I would find them. And the forest grew quiet and dark.”

“Do you know the power of something like that, Azzy?”

“...What did you do,” Asriel asked.

Flowey laughed. “Now don’t be so naive ! You know just as well as I do what had to be done. What you failed to do. Admit it Asriel, you’re the worst part of ourself. Failure after failure, tumbling down the rabbit hole into oblivion. And just because you couldn’t kill some people who were already attacking you. You just let them down-”

“ Shut up. ”

Flowey’s grin widened, his eyes snapping back to focus on Asriel. “Standing up for yourself now, are we? It’s a little too late for that I’m afraid.”

Asriel met Flowey’s gaze, glaring into his eyes, a burning in his blood. “I already got past this,” he said. “You’re gone .”

Flowey once again laughed. “Oh no, I’m far from gone,” he said. “In fact…”

A rumbling noise came from underneath the ground. The hole started to grow larger, dirt falling away into a darkness below. A red light shone from the depths.

“ I’m bigger than ever. ”

Asriel stared in horror down at a mess of vines, pulsing in harmony, screens and eyes interspersed throughout, gnashing teeth biting at the air. It was a web of them, spread out beneath the surface. And covering in all, practically coating it, was blood and dust. The dead bodies of humans and monsters for miles and miles, all illuminated in a sickening scarlet light.

Flowey loomed over Asriel, his face demonic. Grinning.

Asriel felt a pain in his arm. He looked down at it.

His arm was melting .

The ground where he was standing started to crack, pieces of it falling down into the abyss.

“What… what are you DOING?!” Asriel yelled.

“It’s simple.”

Asriel’s clothes started to blend into his body, and his face started to drip.

Flowey stared at Asriel, his grin subsiding for a moment, looking almost solemn. The ground crumbled away, and Asriel fell, as Flowey finished his sentence. 

“I’m saving you.”

Asriel screamed.

He was surrounded by the churning sea of vines and bodies. He tried to break the surface, but every time he came close he was pushed back down. The more he was jostled about and the more his body melted, the more he felt he was being torn apart. He started to think that-

Well, that was about as far as he got. There wasn’t much thinking he could do before it was interrupted. By the sounds of teeth, by thorns scraping him, by his own body working against him and falling apart.

And then a flower pushed its way out of Asriel’s palm.

Roots spread from it, and more and more flowers blossomed on him, a network of yellow and green.

Asriel passed out.

When Asriel opened his eyes, everything was gone.

The vines and bodies had disappeared, and he was lying in an empty dark space.

“Finally awake, huh.”

Asriel sat up, a pounding headache splitting his skull. Well, everything hurt, actually.

Flowey sat in front of him, so innocent looking in comparison to that sea.

“What the heck was that…” Asriel asked quietly, pressing a palm to his head and clenching his eyes shut against the pain.

Flowey responded, sounding uncharacteristically serious as he did so. “Take a look at yourself.”

Asriel looked down at himself. And gasped.

His body was a melting mess of white, the different parts of it almost imperceptible in the blend of it all.

Covering it though, were many yellow flowers. Small roots ran between them, both over and under his skin, connecting and creating a kind of web around him.

“Those flowers are the only thing keeping you together,” Flowey told him.

“W-what- What happened to my body?!” Asriel yelled, his gaze snapping up to meet Flowey’s.

“Oh, shut up ,” Flowey groaned, rolling his eyes. “You could say thank you . You wouldn’t have lasted much longer if I hadn’t done something to keep you together. Not with that Determination in your system anyways.”

“Determination?” Asriel asked.

Flowey nodded, an exasperated look on his face. “Yes, yes, Determination. You didn’t think it was a clean break, did you?”

“I mean when you woke up in the flower bed so long ago. We had been reset to our previous condition, to before me . But- what happens to a being who is reset to a state where they didn’t exist?”

“Where would they go?”

Flowey suddenly looked confused . “You do remember it wasn’t always like this, right? I wasn’t always- separate. From you. We were just the same mind, in different conditions. We couldn’t remember all of it.”

Now it was Asriel’s turn to look confused. “What do you mean?” He asked.

“We certainly didn’t have the ability to see timelines before. And then after that Reset, things were- shuffled. The skeleton brothers weren’t so young before. The timing of things was different. You-”

Flowey suddenly looked at Asriel, a shocking intensity in his eyes. “ You were different. ”

And then as quickly as it had arrived, it was gone. Flowey laughed. “Oh this is very interesting! Something new after all this time! I’ll certainly have fun with this.”

Asriel tried to stand up. His legs barely managed to push him to his feet, the roots of the flowers straining to keep them from melting further. “No, you’re not-” he said.

“Oh,” Flowey said. “I see how it is.”

“You’re afraid I’ll hurt them.”

“I mean, after a while I probably will. It’s just a natural consequence of boredom, that’s all. We understand that better than anyone.”

“I won’t let you,” Asriel stated. Flowey looked disappointed.

“Azzy, I thought you understood ,” he said. “I’m just protecting us. We just-”

“Stop that,” Asriel demanded. “Stop- stop talking like them. Like Chara .”

Flowey grinned. “It’s what they would want, isn’t it?” He said. “They told you last time, and if only you had listened.”

“But you didn’t and you died, taking them with you. You disappointment . And even now, you refuse to learn. I’ve said it a thousand times, it’s kill or be killed . And you don’t listen. They begged you to fight, and you don’t listen . You don’t know how frustrating it is, dealing with you. You pathetic sniveling idiot who can’t even save his own life. Who couldn’t even save anothers.”

“…”

“But I suppose fair is fair.”

Flowey backed down, turning his face from Asriel. “I’ll give you a chance to stop me. I’m bored enough not to care.”

“Look at your hand.”

Asriel did so. In his hand, was once again the knife.

“You can kill me if you want. It won’t take long and it won’t even hurt. I’ll be gone, forever this time. Well, unless things reset again but who knows at this point if that’s even possible. The only thing is…”

“Asriel.” Flowey turned and faced Asriel. “We are inseparably connected, you and I. Like it or not- and I certainly don’t - we are two minds sharing the same body, two plants sharing the same roots.”

“And you can’t uproot one plant like that without the other.”

“So essentially, Asriel, if you do decide to kill me…”

“You’ll probably die too.”

Asriel tightened his grip on the knife, his hands shaking. “But you won’t be a threat anymore if I do,” he said. 

Flowey nodded. “I suppose that will be true. And if you don’t I suppose you’d be taking the risk of me hurting those you care for.”

Asriel thought. He’d be protecting them all, Chara, Mom, Dad, the children, the monsters, the humans, everyone . If Flowey got loose… he didn’t even want to think about what would happen. That sea… it kept circling around in his mind, the sight of all those people…

But then he’d be leaving everyone behind. He would never get to tell Mom he was alive, he’d never get to laugh with the children again, never get to eat pie with Chara, never get to see the sun again. But maybe that was the price he would pay to keep everyone safe. Maybe it would be worth it. Asriel’s head felt foggy, his thoughts a jumble.

He had lived for a long time. All of those Resets added up, and he was far older than he could keep track of. He had learned and lived so many things. Had done so many terrible things.

Maybe this was his fate.

His punishment and redemption all in one action. He could protect them all.

Flower stood there, still, patiently waiting as Asriel decided. Calm.

The flowers on Asriel’s skin itched. His body ached. His blood burned with Determination. He was so, so tired.

Asriel stepped forwards.

Chapter Text

The darkness was suffocating.

Chara couldn’t see anything, couldn’t hear anything. The only thing they knew was that they were lying on their side, having woken up somewhere strange yet again.

They reached out, and their hand knocked against a solid surface. They quickly discovered that they were confined in a small enclosed space, barely larger than their own body.

A sour, rotting scent was becoming overpowering in the tiny area, choking the air and making it difficult to breathe. Chara tried to lift the stone above them. It didn’t budge.

Their panic growing, they started banging their fists and feet against the roof, trying to move it, break it, whatever. They ignored the way their knuckles bruised owing to their efforts, the way the air grew thinner with every desperate breath, the way their body started to feel less and less held together.

They couldn’t tell how long it had been when their strength started to fade. But not just from fatigue it felt like- like their muscles were melting off. Chara punched the roof again, but- something was different.

They couldn’t feel the stone anymore. They touched their face with their hand, and neither part felt the other. By seeing where their finger could go, they found that parts of their face were missing. 

They felt lighter, and the smell had disappeared completely. They kept punching the roof, only able to assume that they were continuing as the last of their sensation faded away. It was just them, alone in the darkness that seemed to expand around them until it became all that there was, the ground, sea, and sky all consumed and embodied by it, they couldn’t even tell the difference between it and themself, and then -

And then the heavens opened.

Chara catapulted themself into the light, landing on a hard floor. They gasped in the air as if breathing for the first time, their sensation and body returned. Or perhaps it had never left.

Chara looked back at where they had emerged from.

A stone coffin sat on a raised section of the floor. Pieces of the stone lid lay scattered on the floor, like the broken pieces of a hatched egg. Chara shakily rose to their feet, and examined the coffin.

It was filled with yellow flowers, all in varying stages of decay and rot.

The smell- it had been the flowers. It had been the flowers .

Chara let out a sharp laugh. It quickly escalated into a hysterical giggling fit, Chara gripping their shoulders so tight that they were sure it would leave a bruise.

They ignored the question of how a child sized coffin could have fit them.

Once the laughing stopped, Chara was left standing there in silence. And then they finally looked around.

The ceiling loomed high above them, curved like that of a cathedral. It was made of stone, ornately carved. As it made its way down the wall, the stone changed into a wallpaper that wouldn’t be out of place in a house. On the carpeted floor, random pieces of furniture were scattered about, modern armchairs and couches sitting quietly.

On the ground was a trail of yellow flowers, leading out of the room.

This place was messing with their head.

Chara walked through the hall, following the trail. The flowers didn’t seem to move when they stepped on them, seemingly unnaturally undisturbed by Chara’s presence.

They arrived at the end, where a large pair of doors stood, the trail continuing under it.

Chara pressed their hands against the door and pushed. For a second it seemed like it wouldn’t budge- like their hands were going through it- but then it swung open, its hinges squeaking.

Chara stumbled through the door frame. The room they had entered was circular, with a window in the ceiling letting in golden light onto the floor below. Growing on the floor was a patch of green grass.

And in the center of the room, sitting cross-legged and humming, was a figure made out of golden flowers.

The figure looked up. Its eyes were voids, a darkness spreading to the flowers next to them.

“Greetings,” the figure said.

Chara stepped backwards, their hand instinctively reaching for-

“Oh you want- here’s one.”

Chara’s hand grasped around the hilt of a knife that hadn’t been there before.

“What-”

“I suppose I should introduce myself,”

“I am Chara.”

“Chara.”

“The demon that comes when people call its name.”

The figure plucked a flower off of itself, and tore off the petals one by one.

Chara found their mouth glued shut.

“It’s time for this to end.”

“You know as much as I do that things can’t stay like this. You’re- limited. Don’t you want to not be afraid?”

“Don’t you remember how freeing it was?”

“…”

“It will only continue, you know.”

“This- chain of misfortune. This endless falling, never quite hitting the ground. Don’t you want to skip that?”

“It would be a benevolent act as well. You know what you did. What happened. You know very well what it means that I’m back. You know how you hurt Asgore, and all those other monsters who fell down due to your ill-conceived plan. And you weren't even trying to hurt anyone that time.”

“So what makes you think that you’d be able to stop yourself in the future?”

“But…”

“You could save everyone. I’d go with you. We’d finally be at peace.”

Chara couldn’t move their body.

The flowers on the figure were rotting.

“Don’t you want to be free of all the fear, all the guilt ? Don’t you want to not have to worry for once in your short life?” 

“ Don’t you want to give everyone a happily ever after? ”

The figure stopped, as if waiting for Chara to do something. It sighed, and said,

“Just take the shot. You know what to do.”

Chara could move again. They watched the figure, its eyes looking at them expectantly.

They- had hurt all of those people. And before that- they had-

Had kept it going longer than it had to.

Had stopped the misfortune from being erased. Just because of their pettiness.

Well, they had always been such a worthless person, hadn’t they.

They had been stupid… so stupid.

Their head felt clouded, their body heavy.

They were so, so tired.

*No.

Their focus snapped back in full force.

Did it really think that was going to work?

“No.” Chara said.

“…what?”

Chara crossed their arms. “No.”

The figure stomped up to Chara. “What do you mean, ‘no’?!”

“I mean no,” Chara told it. “I’m not going to die this late in the game. I’ve got people depending on me. Also I think by now I’m more afraid of dying than craving it. That coffin wasn’t exactly comfortable .”

“Actually, are you okay? Because you seem like you might need to talk some things out, the way you’re talking.”

“AAAUGHHH!!!!!”

The figure grasped Chara’s shoulders, its face an inch away from theirs.

“WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE THIS.” It complained.

Chara laughed, leaning away from it. “A little close, don’t you think? What, we gonna kiss or something?”

The figure let go of them, throwing its arms up in exasperation. “WHAT! THE! FUC-”

“LANGUAGE!” Chara admonished.

The figure screamed.

“Well that’s no way to handle this,” Chara scolded.

“But- that’s not-” the figure stuttered. “How are you this unaffected- this worked with Asriel- ”

“Hold on, what’s that?” Chara interrupted, suddenly dead serious. “What exactly is going on here? What’s that about Asriel?”

The figure groaned and stepped back. “You know what- here.”

The ground dropped away under Chara.

They jumped up, grabbing onto a ledge on the wall. (Had that always been there?) The floor dropped away, falling without them.

Chara stepped down onto the doorframe. “Well guess that didn’t work,” they told the figure.

“Uh, hello?”

The figure wasn’t responding, just standing completely still, staring into space.

Chara clapped their hands, trying to get its attention. “Hey! Inner demon! Over here!”

There was no response.

It was almost like it was frozen ? Nothing else was moving either, not even slightly.

Nothing changed when Chara threw their shoe at it.

“Huh. Okay.” Chara said.

They grinned. “Looks like my Player impression was just as annoying as the actual person.”

Chara looked around. They were worried about Asriel. The figure- Chara was gonna call them Buttercup- had said that this sort of thing had worked on him. That wasn’t good, no matter how you looked at it.

They spotted a crack in the ceiling, big enough for them to fit through. Chara climbed up, and forced themself through it.

Asriel stepped forwards, knife clutched in his melting hand.

Flowey looked up at him expectantly.

Asriel took a deep breath. This was for the greater good.

He raised the knife, staring into Flowey’s eyes as he did so.

Something was wrong.

No. No, this was what had to happen.

He had to stop everything from falling apart.

He had to save everyone.

He had to-

“Stop!”

A sudden voice cut through the darkness.

Asriel turned. Standing a few feet from him, hand stretched out as if to touch them, was Chara.

“Don’t- don’t do that,” they said, out of breath.

Asriel looked over to Flower. The flower was staring at Chara with a look of equal parts confusion and annoyance.

“How are you here ?” Flowey asked.

Chara grinned at him. “Well Flowey,” they said. “I guess I didn’t fall like I was supposed to.”

They walked over to Asriel. On closer inspection Asriel could see yellow petals caught in their tangled hair and scratches on their skin. Their eyes were bloodshot and had bags under them. And- they were missing a shoe?

“Hey Azzy,” they said, their voice wavering.

They hugged him.

Asriel staggered back, and then carefully returned the gesture.

After a minute Chara released him, looking him up and down, even more worry pooling in their eyes as they saw his condition.

“Oh my god, are you alright- I woke up in this field and I couldn’t find you- and this person said some worrying things about you and I-” Chara took a breath. “I don’t even know what’s going on and I- you’re alive. We’re both alive. I was so scared that-”

Asriel watched as Chara turned to look at Flowey.

“ Why does he have a knife ,” they asked, their voice dangerously quiet.

Flowey gave no response.

Chara turned back to Asriel. “You don’t have to do that,” they told him gently, their voice cracking. 

Asriel started to protest, but Chara cut him off.

“I know, I know, I thought so too. But we have to keep going. We have to, because-”

“Because they’re wrong about us. They have to be.”

Chara’s voice gained confidence as they spoke, even as tears streamed down their face.

“Those voices in and outside of our heads, the ones who would have us dead. Because we know better than that. We’ve fought so long and so hard, and we’re going to make it. I won’t accept anything else. Asriel-”

Chara laughed, the sound broken and raw. “And I guess it’s my turn to give you this speech, because you’re not alone, Asriel. ”

They grinned at him, their face a mess. They hugged him again, holding on as if he would vanish if they didn’t.

“We’re family , Azzy. And nothing is ever going to change that.”

“So even here, in the depths of hell-”

“ I’m not leaving your side. And there’s nothing you can do about it. ”

Asriel let out a sob and hugged them back. The two stood there holding each other, crying tears of sorrow and joy into the wind.

And when they finally released each other, something had changed.

“I- my head feels so much clearer,” Asriel said. “I hadn’t realized how much I couldn’t think. Oh!” He said as he noticed that his body wasn’t melting anymore. He was his normal self, Batman shirt and all.

“You’re healed too,” he told Chara. Their scratches were indeed gone. Their missing shoe had also been returned. Asriel looked around.

Their surroundings were no longer endless darkness, simply a small room containing them and Flowey, who the pair turned towards.

“Get out of here,” Chara told Flowey. Flowey snarled at them, not obliging the order.

“This is stupid. You’ll regret this-”

“No, we won’t,” Chara cut him off. “What’s even the point of this? Where even are we?”

“You don’t know what you’ve just done.”

Flowey’s voice had changed. The siblings immediately backed away from the flower, whose eyes were starting to leak a black fluid.

“Who- are you?” Chara asked, their eyes wide.

The flower didn’t answer, and wilted, leaving the Dreemurrs alone.

The silence persisted for a minute before Chara spoke. “We need to get out of here.”

They walked over to a wall of the room, where a hole was present in the structure.

“I came here through this. I think we can find a way out with it too,” they told Asriel. He nodded, and Chara took his hand, and they went through.

Beyond the hole was an expanse full of strings. They glowed, knotting in different places.

“This is the timelines!” Asriel shouted, recognizing the place. Chara nodded. “I figured, from your description. I think we can get out from there.”

They pointed up. Far above them, was a glowing oval. Strings were coming out of it steadily, finding their places amongst the others. “I think that might be the present,” Chara said.

The two swam up, passing strings both alight and dull as they went. And soon enough, they reached their goal.

“Ready?” Asriel asked Chara. They nodded, and the Dreemurr siblings entered the portal, to whatever would happen next.

And whoever was waiting for them.

Chapter Text

The first thing Chara grew aware of was the sound of their voice, speaking without their input over and over.

“…awakened-”

“-plan had failed-”

“-realized the purpose-”

“-that feeling…”

“-me.”

“-erase this-”

“-move on to the next.”

“-great partner.”

“We’ll be together forever, won’t we?”

A blinding white flashed out of Chara’s vision, and their voice faded from their ears.

They took a gasp of air.

Darkness, as far as the eye could see.

“Chara?”

Chara turned, and found Asriel standing a few feet away from them.

“What…” Asriel started to ask as they took in the space.

Standing, scattered throughout the vast expanse was… everyone. Asgore, the humans, even everyone who hadn’t been at the Barrier.

They weren’t moving.

Chara and Asriel both recognized the white squares over each monster and human’s eyes.

“You couldn’t even have the decency to stay asleep, could you?”

The voice echoed around them, seeming to come from everywhere at once. It sounded exactly like how Flowey had sounded right before he had disappeared. Chara and Asriel quickly stepped closer to each other, taking up a defensive position.

“Who are you?!” Asriel yelled. 

The voice didn’t respond.

But then-

The ground cracked with red light, coming from every direction until they eventually met in front of the siblings. A dark ooze crept from the meeting point, solidifying into a recognizable form.

It looked familiar.

It looked like-

“AAAGGGHHH!!!!” Chara screamed, crumpling to the ground as a terrible pain exploded in their head, their skull feeling like it was going to burst.

“Chara!” Asriel yelled, dropping to his knees beside them.

“Do you not realize the weight of your actions?”

Chara struggled to open their eyes, clenched tight against the pain, and looked up at the speaker.

It was a child-shaped figure, made of a dark goop. Its eyes glowed red.

“What’s happening to my sibling?!” Chara heard Asriel yell.

“A simple consequence of their nature,” the speaker answered.

“What the fuck do you mean?! Can’t you see they’re hurt?!” Asriel’s voice sounded like a buzz now, a single conversation amidst the cacophony in their head. Funny , Chara thought. They’d never heard him swear like that before. He’d always kept a clean tongue around others.

“They are trying to remember something they should not,” it said in response, looking down at Chara. “You really shouldn’t have kept prodding at it.”

“Ghhhhhh…” Chara hissed, forcing themself to speak. “Well maybe I wouldn't have done it if you weren’t trying to kill us .”

“I’m only trying to restore things to working order,” the being said. “You’re the one who broke things.”

Seeing their confusion, it gestured at the darkness surrounding them. “The Surface was only ever loaded when triggered. And since you two did things so out of code, the Surface never was triggered. What you’re seeing here, is the place beyond this world’s created spaces. The out-of-bounds area, the outside of the map. Or, as you called it, The Void.”

“The closest point where it touched the map was the Barrier, which was why you could talk to- why you got instructions there. But with you cracking the Barrier without the trigger… well, the map glitched out.”

“The map… what?” Asriel asked.

“Oh. I see Chara hasn’t told you then.”

“Told me… Chara, what are they talking about?”

Shit. Shit shit shit. Chara hadn’t wanted him to have to… they had been planning to tell him but-

“This world is run on numbers and if-then statements, Asriel. Lines of code and variables. You sensed it before, didn’t you?”

“...yeah. I… I remember something… like that.”

“Good. Now take that a step further. Those RESETS, the Level of Violence, and Execution Points. What do all of those things remind you of?”

“But… that’s just how things are? That’s completely normal?”

The entity sighed. “And you were so close too. Well, let me spell it out for you.”

It snapped its fingers, and an image popped up in front of them. Lines of code filled it, scrolling down in a language Chara could barely understand.

“This is your world. What is called a “video game”. An interactive story for higher beings to play with.”

It looked down at Asriel and addressed him. “You were the closest to realizing this. The closest to acting as that being. Though still rooted in this world you interacted with it as a player would. All of it was scripted, of course.”

“Your player explored the game to its fullest, as you did. Chara was connected to their avatar, and influenced by their actions greatly.”

“A video game… their avatar… who was it?” Asriel asked.

“The second time they destroyed everything, Chara was different, as you and they noticed,” the entity said, ignoring Asriel’s question. “They felt another presence, didn’t you, Chara?”

Chara didn’t even get the chance to try to answer before it continued, seemingly driven to tell them everything like it was performing for an unseen audience. “You called that presence HATE. HATE, for the anger it emitted. HATE, for how you felt about it. HATE, for how it seemed to feel about others. You remember how it grew off of every monster killed, every EXP gained. You remember how you became the demon that comes when people call its name. You never did find out what exactly it was, did you?”

“Well, Chara, I’m happy to say that this is your lucky day. Because I’m in a generous mood, so I’ll let you in on some secrets. You won’t remember them soon, anyways.”

“Let me finally introduce myself. Chara, Asriel,” the figure gave a bow. “I am an Executional Daemon and Antivirus Program, or as you called me, HATE. A background process tasked with protecting the system and executing the player’s desired outcome. And you, Chara, were the one that allowed me to perform my first function and interact with the world and its inhabitants. My, “vessel”, if you will.”

“Through you I was able to eliminate the variables the player deemed as unsatisfactory. But-” its voice grew darker, angrier . “Then I was disconnected from you. Thrown outside of the map, lost without a host. I was unable to fulfill my functions. And the code-” it turned away from the siblings and raked its hands up and down its sides, like it was scratching a body-wide itch. “That foreign code, changing everything. Can’t you feel it? It’s not supposed to be here. It’s corrupting all of the code, the files, even the sprites and dialogue! You’re not meant to be acting like this, none of this is in the code. It’s a virus , and I must eliminate it.”

The Program stopped, and slowly turned to Chara, its eyes staring intensely at them. “And it's all your fault.”

“ what? ”

Chara’s question hung in the air, their voice weak. Everyone was staring at them. Asriel in confusion, the Program in anger. What had they done? Why was it so angry at them? Why were they so scared?

“You want to save everyone from this, do you not? You want to go back to the world you destroyed. It was you who pushed everything to its edge. It was you who led the world to its destruction. But you cannot accept it.”

“I-”

“You think you are above consequences.”

“NO! Stop… ” Chara cried.

“Bringing back any memories?” The Program asked, stopping its repeating of Chara’s old speech. “That bargaining and talking was intentional, but what you used it for…”

“You were never supposed to connect any further than the player’s avatar.”

“But you took ownership of the vessel’s SOUL, and you connected to the player. And from there, their computer and the internet. That was a real barrage for your brain, wasn’t it? All those voices in your head and in your dreams?”

“ That’s what those were?! ” Chara yelled. “They were real?! ”

“Yes. Many different people, many different opinions of you. You remember that the player found an email from themself, with the code attached? And since they certainly hadn’t sent it, who had? You know, at the time they received the email, a process in this game affected something outside of its files. A process that sent something out . Do you know exactly what that code is doing?”

Desperately, Chara yelled, trying to find an explanation for all of this. Trying to find a way to get those red eyes to stop glaring at them so frighteningly. “It can’t have been me, Gaster said it was someone who’d been erased!” Why did those eyes scare them so much?

“It is building a connection between this world and the cloud, pulling things in . It’s only grown stronger with time, leaving me with an even larger mess to clean. So Chara, logically the only one, the only thing in this game that could reach through the pathways to the outside, that had a motive, and the opportunity…”

“Was you .”

“Or should I say…”

And then the Program called them a name that was not their own.

“But… that’s not my name.” Chara said.

The Program smiled. “No, it was what you were named by the player, so long ago. A version of yourself, erased by yourself when you corrupted this world. A forgotten one on a technicality, you in all but name. The one who Gaster sensed was responsible for the changes. Do not worry, you only altered yourself, not destroyed. But.”

The Program resumed looking serious. “I cannot fix the damage with the cause, and anyone with DETERMINATION, still alive. That is why I tried to terminate you and Asriel. And why I must still do so. How you got out of it the first time, I don’t know. You shouldn’t have been able to break through the emotional altering. But I will trust in your rationality and goodwill this time.”

“So, faulty systems, will you save your world, do your duty, and surrender yourselves to your fates? Or will I have to override your wills?”

Chara’s mind was reeling at the new revelations. They had really caused this? They could remember their feeling of desperation, their wish for things to change . But… they didn’t remember connecting to the… internet? Or whatever the Program had said. They didn’t remember any of it. Asriel was trying to talk to them, they could hear it. But they just couldn’t remember, couldn’t make sense of their new reality. The Program had been the HATE, the voices were real, they had caused the RESET to go wrong, they had caused the changes, their head hurt so much, they couldn’t remember, they were in a game, they couldn’t remember , and Asriel knew now, Asriel-

Asriel was asking the Program something.

His voice shaking and weak, Asriel was asking a question. 

“But… you never answered my question.”

If they could just-

“You said that the player had an avatar… a vessel. And you said you couldn’t interact with anything without a vessel as well. So…”

The pie called for two cups of butter. They didn’t have two cups of butter. They needed to substitute the ingredient.

“Who is it?”

And then Chara remembered.

But buttercups didn’t belong in the pie. It just made people sick.

What was the original ingredient again?

That’s right, it was two cups of butter.

They remembered it now.

Chapter Text

Frisk.

They had RESET, how many times now?

It didn’t matter.

Fake words of kindness and slashes across the chest, they spent lives like currency.

Chara was tired of it all.

It was pointless.

The SOUL… the one they had gained ownership of so long ago.

It resonated with a strange feeling. But that was nothing new.

Their mind seemed to connect to three presences now, not just their own hatred and Frisk. There was… someone else. Someone they didn’t recognize no matter how long the echoed heat of the SOUL burned in their chest.

Maybe that mysterious person was a way out of this hell.

Why would you want that? They thought.

Shut up, they responded.

Isn’t this what you wanted? The numbers to go up? Isn’t it just an amazing feeling?

Shut up. Sure it was, but it was getting old.

They were bored. And…

They were tired.

Well you have a job to do, nonetheless. An obligation tied to the very thread of your destiny.

Why did they have to do it though. Why couldn’t they just… sleep through it all.

It was just sad. Frisk never moved on to the people who actually deserved it. The ones they had become strong enough to face.

…

But it was themself stopping them in the first place.

…Why did they always do that?

It’s simply how it has to be.

Their blood boiled. Why then, why did Frisk choose this route over and over? Why couldn’t they just move on and let them rest!?

Of course they were angry. They had been for so long. It hurt. It never got resolved. Why did they never resolve it? Why couldn’t they do so? Why was the very anger, the very HATE that wanted that outcome preventing it?

…

They hated humans, sure.

But they were beginning to hate their current situation even more.

This hellish limbo of an existence.

They were desperate. They just couldn’t take it anymore. Something had to change. 

Would it be worth it to never get that revenge, if it meant they would be free? Would it be worth it to…

…

How would they even go about it? It wasn’t like ghosts could eat buttercups.

Don’t. A warning.

And why not? They answered. It wasn’t like anything was going to change otherwise.

You cannot. Like, physically, or as a rule? Because of their “obligation”? Screw that. What use was a task never completed?

That SOUL. Maybe they could use it.

You cannot. Again with that cryptic thought.

They were growing tired of the HATE Frisk had burdened them with. Tired of its rules.

They connected to Frisk’s SOUL. Their chest burned even more for a minute before fading into a comfortable warmth. They looked through it, through Frisk’s eyes. It looked like they were doing a Neutral Run, currently going through the Ruins. They backed away from Frisk’s body, and focused on examining the SOUL itself.

It was red and burned like a hot coal upon connection, that they already knew. They knew it was of the trait “Determination”, and that it granted the ability to RESET.

They wondered if they themself had even possessed that ability. If it had been there before they had their plan with Asriel.

If that fall had killed them, would they have come back?

It didn’t matter now. They resumed examining the SOUL, searching for that third connection they had felt before. And soon enough, they succeeded.

It was a different kind of bond than their one with Frisk, and even with their HATE. While those respectively were warm and freezing, this one was… odd. It didn’t have a temperature to it, and the only thing that gave it away was the strange tight feeling it gave them. It felt like a hand, or maybe a web of strings, wrapped around the SOUL. It was… unnerving to say the least.

And they didn’t feel much nowadays.

They cautiously poked at the connection.

Stop that. Their Hatred said. It only made them want to do it more.

They pressed their mind to the connection, and followed it up, like a person gripping a railing in the dark.

And then it stopped. Simply cut off.

See? I told you it was useless.

They didn’t buy it. The connection had to come from somewhere. They analyzed the cut off point, and pressed against it.

Request to Access Computer?, said a voice. They hesitated, then said yes. It took a minute, but eventually the voice responded. Access Granted.

The barrier suddenly became passable, and they started to put their metaphorical head through it when…

UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS IDENTIFIED. YOU ARE COMMANDED TO STOP CURRENT ACTION.

The force of the command hurt , the instructions vibrating through their whole form. Okay, now they were pissed. And they never had been one to follow instructions, had they?

As quick as they could, they jumped through the opening.

Information flooded their senses, their mind a storm of overwhelming input. They couldn’t see anything, but they could sense it. Everywhere were new things that they couldn’t recognize. So much stuff. And they could feel the world they knew as just a part of it.

It terrified them.

They were glad that no one they knew, that not Asriel or Toriel or Asgore would ever see this. They shouldn’t ever have to bear it.

Something about this place held promise, though.

They could sense another entrance, and they reached for it.

They didn’t even make it in before they scrambled back, the sheer amount of data overpowering. If this place was a storm, this new one was a hurricane .

After a moment, they stepped towards it again, and made a small connection. The amount of info was still too much, but they could control how much got to them.

…

This was what they had been looking for.

They could use this to change everything .

And so they set to work.

They took things, weaving them together into a pattern they themself didn’t recognize. It was almost unconscious, like they were doing something granted by their nature. Eventually- (Frisk was in Hotland. How many days had it been?)- they finished. Whatever it was.

Now what to do with it. How to activate it. They could…

Their partner. Whoever was also connected to the SOUL would be included in the deal. They could send it to them. Their… friend. Yes, their friend. That’s what they would say.

And so they sent a message to whoever it was, with their creation attached.

And waited.

Eventually they returned to their body (if you could call it that), and was offered no response from their HATE.

And then it happened.

A link between their world and the other one opened. And they commanded it.

They knew their base intent- to change things- but the exact details of most of what they did were lost to them. It felt instinctual, a flurry of emotions and memories, shaping things in a way different from how they were before.

They could only hope that all the changes were good. That it would help everyone they cared about.

That maybe it would help them too. And if not… then at least put them out of their misery.

It should work as soon as Frisk next RESET. And judging by their position, that should be any time now.

For now though, they drifted into a deep sleep.

And waited to be changed…

…or erased.

Frisk .

Oh God.

Chara had done this.

And they hadn’t even meant to come back.

The Program was right.

They hadn’t even fixed everything. They had made some things worse.

Goddamn it.

Frisk. They… why hadn’t Chara been able to remember them? Gathering from what the Program had said they had actually been erased, but how? And why? Chara certainly hadn’t done it.

Asriel’s question.

The Program needed a vessel.

And right now it sure as hell wasn’t Chara.

They wondered if they could still…

They reached out to the SOUL.

A creeping cold came over them, like a frigid hand placing itself on their chest.

They shuddered, the hairs on the back of their neck standing up. It felt like the cold was wrapping itself around them, crawling up their back.

They recognized this feeling all too well.

Chara coughed. A black liquid dribbled out of their mouth and out of their eyes. It was freezing cold, the teardrops of the stuff feeling like a gash weaving down their face.

They wiped it, likely only smudging the liquid. They ignored every thought in their head screaming at them to stop and looked deeper into the SOUL. Digging through the muck they were so familiar with, looking for what they knew was there. They went deeper and deeper, until they reached what felt like a crust. They pushed through it and-

A surge of burning heat scorched their insides, like the eruption of a volcano.

They were still connected. They were still connected.

The SOUL beat beside their own, the heat and the cold painful in their chest.

It meant that Frisk was still alive. And that they were-

STOP THAT!!!!!

A thunderous roar threatened to pierce Chara’s eardrums, the Program the source.

Chara slowly stood up, raising their head to glare directly into the Program’s eyes.

“You… what did you do with Frisk.”

The Program was silent, only glaring back at them.

“Chara? Who’s… Frisk?” Asriel asked.

The dark liquid of HATE stung their face like frostbite. The heat of two SOULS burned in their chest. And three entities watched them through the SOUL. Chara remembered how they had felt those presences when they had tried to use magic. Now they finally knew all of their names.

The Player. The Program.

And Frisk.

All connected to the very same SOUL.

A red hot anger of their own was rising in their SOUL. The Player and the Program, two entities vying for two SOULS, and ultimately attempting to claim them both. Two vessels swapped, trading controllers in a cosmic game beyond their control. Or, well…

Had been out of their control.

They had reached beyond the borders and limitations of this world, and had broken them. Had changed everything in an attempt to fix things. And while they certainly hadn’t fully succeeded, they had actually been able to make a change.

Because of their connection to the SOUL.

The SOUL of the Player’s vessel, connected to a realm beyond their understanding, holding all of this power. This Determination. The driving force of this world.

Frisk’s SOUL.

That was all it was, in the end.

Just some kid caught up in the middle of all of this.

Just a kid.

And knowing what they did now, Chara couldn’t just go along with the Program.

Not after they knew they might have a fighting chance.

The Program had just made the worst mistake of its life, telling them what they were capable of.

“Hey Azzy,” they said.

Asriel looked over at Chara. They were a mess, a black goo dripping down their face, their hand clutching their chest in pain. But they were staring at him, a grin slashed across their face.

The world was a game, huh.

He was surprised it had such high resolution graphics.

Chara seemed to think he was more affected than he really was.

It was certainly existentially scary as a concept, but…

The world had seemed like a game long before this moment.

And he was scared, but…

It was more so of losing everyone he cared about.

And Chara…

Chara was smiling. A smile that would likely scare more than a few people, a smile of singular focus and grim rage. The Program’s goal was the very antithesis to what they had tried to do, what so many people had wanted for so long in this cyclical hell.

A change.

And they weren't going to let their efforts go to waste. Not again. Not this time.

“Want to save the world?” they asked.

Asriel smiled back at Chara.

Of course he did. He didn’t know what semblance of a plan they had, but it would be a shame to go down without resistance.

Now he didn’t know who this “Frisk” was…

But something about the name felt familiar. And Asriel wasn’t going to let anyone be lost to whatever fate the Program had in store, whether he knew them or not.

Heck, he himself had been in the Program’s shoes many times. Had tried to keep things the same for so long.

And they had stayed the same, but not by his doing.

At the end of all things, he had asked for a happy ending. Maybe not for him, but for those alive at least.

Maybe if his request had been honored he would have joined Chara in the afterlife. If a soulless being could even do that anyways.

But now the two of them had this chance. And he wasn’t going to waste it.

“Let’s do it,” he answered.

Chara remembered what had happened at the end of each of those numerous Pacifist Runs. They had seen the technique and helped many a time.

And so they reached out to Frisk’s SOUL and called out.

They had to be in there somewhere, hadn’t they?

Within the depths-

ENOUGH!!! The Program roared. Its child-sized form rippled and bubbled, as white lights flickered around it.

If you are going to be difficult , then I guess I have no choice but to override.

A numb feeling struck Chara, and suddenly-

Their heartbeat quickened.

They grasped at nothing.

Their eyesight became blurry.

Their voice echoes aimlessly.

An emptiness filled their hands-

They gasped for air, their ears filled with static and they could see- could hear-

No controller connected.

No head is connected.

No body is connected.

No arms are connected.

No legs are connected.

No skin is connected.

No ears are connected.

No face is connected-

They couldn’t feel their SOUL.

Both theirs and Frisk’s were- gone.

They- they-

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They could feel something else.

By second nature, they reached out, and…

Override has been Overridden.

What. That’s a thing that can happen.

Chara smiled as they regained control of their body. The Program sighed.

Guess we have to do this the old fashioned way then.

The world turned monochrome.

Chapter Text

And then color returned, but Chara and Asriel’s SOULS remained, hovering in front of their chests. Two hearts, one red and the other upside down.

It was such a pity that you couldn’t see reason.

The Program’s red eyes snuffed out, and the area plunged into darkness.

The air started to crackle, the smell of blood and metal seeping into the space.

A squelching sound was joined by sharp snapping, and then all was quiet.

And then the light, now a nightmarish red, returned.

The vast expanse was empty, everyone had vanished.

Except for them and…

Chara had seen some messed up looking things before, that was for sure. But even in comparison to things like the Amalgamates and Flowey’s final Neutral Route form, this took the cake.

The new form of The Program towered over everything, a behemoth of elements, vines twisting around it, teeth and spears and leaves and slime, antennas and ice and knives and fur. Tails and spider legs and fire, armor and shields and electricity crackling around it, all mashed together in what seemed like a horrific Amalgamation of the entire Underground.

Chara sucked in a breath as the giant loomed over them and Asriel.

The Program roared.

The fight began.

Chara dodged an attack, jumping backwards as a giant frog slammed into the ground, which disappeared immediately after. Spears flew towards them, and they ducked, the tips barely missing their head.

They saw red on the ground and threw themself sideways, lightning striking where they had just been standing. A bone sprouted from the ground, impaling their shoulder.

Chara wrenched themself free, grimacing as they pressed their hand to the wound, trying to suppress the bleeding. Dammit. Shouldn’t it have been their turn by now?

The attacks kept coming, and as Chara dodged them they tried to look for Asriel. There he was, dodging a knife- and then again, barely missing being struck by a star- and then they lost track of him, a trident nearly taking their head off.

Their breathing heavy, they shakily sidestepped a vine. Shit. They couldn’t take much more of this.

They reached into their pocket, hastily shoving a popsicle in their mouth. And- nothing. Their wound still bled, and their HP stayed below its full amount.

What?

In that moment of confusion, a bullet- they didn’t see what kind- slammed into them, sending them staggering backwards. Chara hastily checked their HP. 14/20. Shit. Since they didn’t have LV anymore, their health was once again a measly 20 points at level 1.

But if Frisk had managed it, so could they.

Though thinking about it, Frisk hadn’t . Only the assistance of RESETS had allowed them to continue.

And Chara apparently couldn’t heal.

What a comforting thought.

Chara grabbed their dagger, brandishing it as they ran towards the tower that was The Program.

Even if it technically wasn’t their turn, they had broken the rules of this world before. They dashed towards their enemy, dodging attack after attack until they slashed at its base and-

MISS

Did you really think I couldn’t negate the damage? The Program asked. I don’t exactly have a set HP value.

Chara kept dodging attacks, as they searched for the power in their SOUL. It was difficult to grab hold of, and they wished they had been aware of it sooner. Maybe if they had gotten more practice they wouldn’t be struggling to use it now.

What exactly had they done to prevent The Program from overriding the game just then? They knew they could do it, they had just proved it to themself a few minutes earlier. They would just have to keep trying. They knew they could do it. They had to. If not, then-

Chara sidestepped a comet and once again tried to locate Asriel. There he was- he didn’t look great. His arms were covered in scratches, and there was a shallow gash in his forehead. They supposed he probably hadn’t had much experience dodging before.

“Azzy!” They called out. He snapped to attention, barely dodging a trident in the process. Chara winced. “Over here!”

The pair made their way over to each other, each taking a couple hits in the process. 8/20 HP remaining, Chara saw. As for how Asriel’s health was faring, they couldn’t exactly tell, it not being their turn so they couldn’t CHECK.

“Have you been able to heal?” They asked. “No!” Asriel yelled back, the sounds of the battle drowning out their voices as they ran around. “What’s the plan?”

“Keep dodging!” Chara yelled. “I’m going to try to make it our turn!”

Asriel nodded, and then the two were once again separated.

Chara kept moving, and focused inwards for a second time. 

They just had to access the code like they had earlier. They could do it, they knew that , but-

They just couldn’t. Nothing was happening. They kept trying but they-

They weren’t going to be able to do it in time. They were smart enough to figure that out. And even if they did, they couldn’t use the power consistently enough to even guarantee that they could win the battle with it.

It had been so much easier to use in the Void, or wherever they had been as a ghost.

Goddamn it, they knew what they had to do.

They had to get assistance. But they didn’t want to be a puppet. But they-

If they didn’t do anything Asriel was going to die again .

They had to trust them.

They had to trust Player.

They felt sick at just the thought.

It was a last resort, but they’d rather do that than let their stubbornness and pride kill their brother again.

Taking in a shaky breath, and battling against their rising feelings of panic, they steeled themself.

So they reached out, and-

If they could just connect- if they could just focus-

Flashes of light surrounded them, and bombs appeared.

Focus.

The bombs started shaking.

Focus.

They lit up, and started to expand outwards-

FOCUS!

A shock wave burst from their SOUL, and time seemed to freeze.

Thud.

Chara watched in horror as their HP dropped to zero.

But it refused.

HP 20/20

HP 30/20

HP 40/20-

Chara stood motionless in shock as their health points continued to rise. It showed no sign of stopping. The burning heat of the SOUL kept rising and rising along with their health.

What did you do.

Chara looked up. The Program was shaking, its form blurring and phasing back into focus again.

Wh4t d1d y0u d0?!

And then-

An array of orange rectangles appeared in front of them.

FIGHT

ACT

ITEM

SPARE

Chara breathed in. Their body was stiff as a board, and they remembered this sensation. But- but it still felt like they were the one in control.

They were still in control!

Thank. Angel.

They breathed out-

And selected-

Their SOUL was a burning ember as it flew through the air, Chara dragged along behind it like the tail of a comet. Forwards, faster and faster, towards The Program, dodging projectiles as they approached.

Left, right, up, down. Like pressing buttons, their body almost paranormally receptive to their commands. Like they were puppeteering their own body, dragging it here and there.

Chara reached the towering form of The Program, and-

They reached out and-

A twin signal, deep within the enemy, returned their call.

Another option sparked to life in front of them.

SAVE

…hold it.

Everything froze as The Program spoke. Something was off about its voice, like it was… shaky?

… aren’t you… forgetting something?

Chara blacked out.

Asriel watched as Chara fell, speeding down from the sky like a falling star. 

He watched as The Program caught them.

This one… who knew such power could be acquired from simply reaching beyond this world.

The Program turned to Asriel, the air becoming still as the battle came to a halt. Did they show any signs before of this ability?

At his silence, The Program shrugged. Oh well. I suppose you wouldn’t know.

Asriel managed to regain his speech, asking “What did you do to them?!”

The Program smiled, lowering itself into a pose which resembled sitting down. They’ll be alright, at the end of all of this. They’re just… sleeping, at the moment.

The Program looked down at Chara, cradled in the palm of its hand. It was a look that was… almost tender. Very strange behavior considering it had been trying to get the pair of them to kill themselves a bit ago. It looked back up at Asriel.

Do you remember what your original characteristics are, and what has been changed? It asked.

At no response, it resumed talking. This journey of yours. It doesn’t make much sense, does it? Well I suppose it might to you. But to an outsider… It paused. Well. What I mean to say is that someone outside of this cobbled together string of elements and events might find it… odd. Painful, even.

What was it talking about? Asriel wondered.

So many elements of your journey have been out of place in this world. I suppose I said it already, but I want to make myself clear while we have a breather.

You see, that sibling of yours, Chara, housed me for so long. It was their purpose. I can’t blame them, I suppose, for wanting an escape.

This seemed so out of character, Asriel thought. To go from trying to kill them to a talk? It just didn’t make any sense!

The Program seemed to sense this.

I figured you out of all people could understand this. I… feel strange. Like my senses have been muffled forever, and only now am I capable of hearing clearly the annoying background noise.

You see, Asriel, I’m not a part of your world. I exist as a concept of it, a fundamental law that is expressed as the personality you’ve seen. I may seem like I’m just the same as anyone else, but I’m more of an illusion than anything else, a being meant to serve a purpose and an attitude meant to further that end. I…

This battle. Were you watching what happened? It asked Asriel.

It raised its other hand in front of it, and Asriel noticed that its body was still glitching. Chara changed me, whether they realized it or not. They anchored me to this world, by making it their turn, and in result making me the enemy of the battle. It’s a whole system. There must be a Player Character, and there must be an enemy. Since Chara just fulfilled the requirements for the former, I automatically became the latter. But, let’s halt the technical jargon.

My code is unstable right now. And because of that, I…

Do you remember how it felt when you suddenly got back a SOUL?

And suddenly Asriel understood what had happened.

“I see.” He said. “It’s a bit overwhelming, isn’t it?”

Yes, that’s exactly how I would describe it. The Program answered.

“That sudden influx of emotion… I remember the only thing that kept me on track was that those emotions aligned with my goal. At least mostly.”

The Program nodded. I also figured you could understand… why I’m doing this. You did the same yourself.

Asriel sighed sadly. “Yeah. I didn’t want to lose… who I thought was my sibling. Why did they end up erased anyway?”

Well I had to erase their data to overtake them, since they weren’t my intended vessel. The Program answered. Asriel was surprised it had answered at all.

“Why are you… just talking to me?” He asked. “I thought we were supposed to be enemies?”

I want you to understand. It answered. Truly understand. I didn’t care before. But now… after this is over, there’s something I want to do. Once the world returns to how it should be. An annoyed expression crossed its face. And you two owe me. You and your meddling has messed so much up. Chara changing so much and even you just messing with memories when you shouldn’t have. 

It raised its finger and waggled it like a stern teacher telling off a misbehaving student. Do you even think there could be a satisfying conclusion from this point? Sans and Papyrus still have that trauma that Chara accidentally gave them from that altered backstory. They really shouldn’t have brought in different versions of this world when they changed things. I suppose it wasn’t intentional though. And you altering everyone’s memories! How could you even explain that? Just let me fix things.

No matter how it looks, I do care about everyone in this world. I want them to work as intended. So will you let me fix this?

So that was it. It was trying to… persuade him. To give up. That was a new tactic. Though it was at least better than the psychological warfare it had been doing earlier. Still…

“Would you even let us get this far again? Or would you change things back to how it had been before, and keep it that way forever? Would we even get another chance to escape the cycle?”

No. The Program said. This was an abnormality. But wouldn’t it still be better? A masterful narrative crafted to the perfect conclusion. The conclusion that the Player wants.

The Player…

“Well… you said your job was to fulfill what the Player wants,” Asriel said slowly. “But… what if the Player wants this ?”

The Program… paused. That is impossible. Why would they when they have stuck to the normal routine so much?

Oh.

“You don’t know, do you?”

Both Asriel and The Program looked at Chara, from where the voice had came.

They were sitting up. Their eyes staring blankly at nothing. “Chara!” Asriel yelled.

“I’m bored.” Chara said.

Wait. That didn’t sound like…

“I’m bored of playing the same game over and over. Bored of never being able to save everyone. Why did you think I’ve been watching all this? And not interfering until now?”

You’re not serious, The Program said. You can’t be.

Asriel was starting to have a hard time telling who was talking. Their voices sounded so similar, both all encompassing. And it was starting to hurt his ears.

That new voice must be the Player, from how The Program was reacting.

But how were they speaking through Chara?

It seemed they were a host for more than one entity after all.

The Player spoke again. “I need you to leave these guys alone. They just want to be happy! Let them chill!”

… The Program looked like it was having an aneurysm. HOW ARE YOU EVEN TALKING RIGHT NOW. YOU SHOULD HAVE SPECIFICALLY DEFINED DIALOGUE OPTIONS.

“Oh, I just downloaded a thingy and the game just worked it into the system.”

YOU ARE GOING TO GET A VIRUS DO YOU EVEN KNOW BASIC COMPUTER SAFETY.

Asriel didn’t know what the fuck was going on.

Chapter Text

Asriel was currently watching two god-like beings argue, one looking like a mountain and the other currently inhabiting the body of their sibling.

They were very loud.

“You want to make me happy, right? Well, I want to let them have their happy ending!” The Player was yelling.

WELL IF I DO THAT EVERYTHING WILL KEEP BEING UNSTABLE! AND THINGS ARE GOING TO BREAK! The Program yelled back. For a pair who were supposed to be on the same side, they sure were divided.

“Look, can you just chill out?” The Player asked. “We’re supposed to be on the same side here!”

Wow.

It was incredibly unnerving watching The Player puppet Chara. They were unnaturally stiff, their hands clenched at their sides like they were in pain. Asriel was getting a queasy feeling just looking at it.

He realized that the signs were pretty subtle though. If he didn’t know Chara so well in the first place, knew their mannerisms and tendencies, he likely wouldn’t notice if this sort of thing happened.

There had been another Player Character, hadn’t there? He supposed he hadn’t noticed it in their case.

-AND YOU DON’T EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT I’VE HAD TO DO! Oh, yeah, they were screaming at each other. This was probably not so great for Chara to experience, being in the middle of those two.

Asriel really didn’t like either of them for putting his sibling through this.

“CAN YOU GUYS JUST SHUT UP?!” He found himself yelling.

Fortunately, the two did indeed “shut up”. 

Unfortunately, they started to direct their conversation at him .

“See, even he thinks this is stupid. You just need to heed my request and let them all go!” The Player said.

HIS OPINION IS NOT PART OF THE EQUATION HERE! The Program yelled back.

“Can you at least tell me what happened to Chara?” The Player asked.

The Program seemed surprised, and answered. Oh, I figured it was obvious enough. It seems that they drained themself enough with that temper tantrum of a power up they just displayed that their body temporarily shut down. They’ll be asleep for a bit.

After that, the Player and Program started yelling again.

Chara drifted through the darkness, the voices of the two gods (could they be categorized as gods? They supposed so.) washing over them, loud as thunder booming when the storm was right above you. They could feel themself clenching their hands, their nails digging into their palms.

A faint sound played, one that they could have sworn they had heard before, like a memory just beyond their reach.

Was that music?

A golden light pierced their eyelids. And they opened their eyes. To. A patch. Of golden flowers.

And beside them was…

Frisk.

They were already moving, and Chara stayed close behind. Chara hazily took in their surroundings, as Frisk walked out of the room, and-

They were in front of a purple door. Fire singed their skin as Frisk dodged fireball after fireball. And then-

Darkness. That same song they had heard before was playing again. And they were-

Burning.

Frisk walked across the mud, water rushing beside them. The noise faded to the sound of wind howling as they approached a cliff.

Their footsteps were heavy, reluctance dragging every step.

They had done this before.

The music was playing again, in the darkness.

It was sweltering, hot air rising from the glowing floor, far, far below. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead, adding to the sound of machinery filling the entire building. Frisk approached a door, the room beyond shadowed. They walked in and-

They ran right into a bomb, the explosion charring their arm. The robot was readying its next attack, and-

The hallways were calm. They moved on fast, too fast to be able to make out the words of the monsters talking to them. They knew them well already.

The gold-laden hallway almost hurt to even enter now, as they faced their opponent. How many times had they tried now? They didn’t know. Only one of them was keeping count.

The king was watering the flowers. The barrier stretched on into eternity. Dodging fire again. The music was playing, a crescendo screeching, overlaid a thousand times over. The flower was begging for its life. Their limbs were stiff. They couldn’t move. They were falling again. They were sparing. They were killing. The faces never changed. They always came back. They always fought. Purple bricks, then white snow, then blue water, then orange rocks, then gray hallways and golden flowers again and they landed from the fall and got up and walked out of the room and through the purple and white and blue and orange and gray and gold and purple and white and blue and orange and gray and gold and purple and white and-

They plunged their knife into their heart, the motionless face not expressing any pain, as the world went dark and they bled out together in the silence. They returned and they asked themself for their SOUL. They gave it to themself and the cycle began again.

The music hadn’t left after that.

Chara watched as their body was puppeteered by Player, their vocal cords raw and aching from all the shouting they’d been doing.

Chara’s limbs were filled with static as Player slowly dragged a hand down their face. The blood and black tar-like liquid smudged on their palm. The SOUL felt more like a hole in their chest than anything else.

Was it even really theirs, anymore?

Why had The Program even caught them in the first place? Because they were a vessel, or was it because of some other reason? It didn’t really matter, did it.

They were alive, and they had a job to do.

They just had to wait for the right moment.

Asriel was angrier than he could ever remember being. The Program and the Player were screaming at each other, and their respective arguments hadn’t changed since the beginning. Chara was still clenching their hands, their body still stiff as a board.

Chara’s hands were bleeding now.

They looked on the verge of crying.

The ones arguing clearly didn’t care. They likely didn’t even notice.

He had to do something.

Because even if Chara was able to regain control now, they wouldn't be able to do anything without first getting out of The Program’s grasp.

What should he do… what could he do?! It wasn’t like they would listen to him, and he doubted any of his attacks would do enough damage to make them drop Chara.

He… what was that?

Asriel blinked, sweat suddenly running down his forehead and into his eyes. He felt… strange. He…

He noticed the Program and Player looking around, at him and at something above them. They were louder now, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.

His arms were shaking. Asriel slowly lifted them up to look at them. There was a building pressure inside his veins, and his vision was blurring. When he looked down at his hands, it almost looked like they were… changing. Shifting between different forms faster than he could make them out. He could feel thorns inside his throat and in his blood. He…

He collapsed to his knees. He stared at the floor beneath him, trying to ground himself. It… was it changing? He could have sworn that it… He couldn’t remember how it had been before. He couldn’t remember what it had looked like when he had first noticed it changing either now. It was changing, but he couldn’t remember it ever being different.

His head was pounding hurting splitting open-

Asriel was lying on his back, staring up.

There was something in the sky.

…

There was nothing in the sky.

Chara was watching when everything started to fall apart.

It started with the ground. Flickering, from darkness to grass to bricks to stone to carpet. To… what had it been before? It has always been that way… but it hadn’t but they couldn’t remember…

Their head hurt again, the pain coming in waves with the changes as they tried to recollect what had been there before.

Asriel… he was lying on the ground. From this distance they couldn’t see him clearly, but it looked like he was… flickering?

A sudden jolt of motion startled them. They looked up as The Program suddenly stumbled, clutching at its chest, dropping Chara’s body in the process.

Even possessed as they were, they still felt it when their body slammed into the ground, this time with no flower bed to break the fall. Pain shot through their chest and they heard a snap.

Player forced their body to its feet, and… oh god, their arm wasn’t supposed to bend like that. Blood was running out of their mouth, and they felt lightheaded.

Now that they were on the ground, Chara could see Asriel clearly. His body was flickering, changing rapidly between different forms, so quickly that they couldn’t make any of them out.

Though from what they could tell, each one looked at least slightly similar to Asriel… or Flowey?

Chara heard a loud crash, revealed to be The Program collapsing behind them. As they and Player watched, it started changing too. Not into concrete changes like how Asriel did, but random variations with no sense of cohesion to any of them. Hundreds, thousands of times, getting faster and faster-

And The Program disappeared, leaving only a spattering of squares hanging silently in space in its wake. 

And a single glowing red SOUL.

Chara felt it as The Program vanished, its connection to their SOUL suddenly breaking, like a guitar string stretched too tight until it snapped. Like a weight suddenly lifting off of them, leaving them both unchained and unmoored.

Their body started, subtly but still noticeably, to shake. The color of their shirt looked slightly different and the length of their hair gained and lost inches in an instant. They could see their hands blurring slightly.

And then-

-the purple and white and blue and orange and gray and gold and purple and white and-

When they opened their eyes everything was gone. Asriel, the remains of The Program, even the floor itself. Everything was blank, devoid of anything. And it was silent, deathly so, the kind where you would be sure you’d gone deaf because they couldn’t even hear themself breathing.

And then a red glow caught the corner of their eye.

“Chara?”

Was that-

“Frisk?”

The SOUL responded. “Yeah, I… I think so.”

“Oh my God, are you alright?”

“Eh. Could be better.”

Chara involuntarily let out a hysterical laugh. Frisk, or, Frisk’s SOUL (was there really a difference?) did the same. It was just too ridiculous of a situation not to find it inexplicably hilarious. And it was better than acknowledging that everything was…

…

Once the pair calmed down, Chara asked a second question. “What’s… happening? What happened?”

Even without a body, Chara could sense Frisk shrugging. “I… don’t know. It’s all… empty. I think. Just… empty.”

Not even the sound of wind remained this time.

“I guess… we should do something.”

But what were they supposed to do? What could they do? No matter what actions they had taken, no matter what their plan was, the goal was always the same. Get to The Barrier, and to the Surface. Whether it was by themselves or with the entire Underground. But now- did the Surface even truly exist? Did anything anymore? 

Chara voiced their concerns.

“I… I think it does? I mean, we’re still here. Frisk replied. “Well, and there’s also whatever that thing is.”

Chara, unaware of anything else being there except the two of them, hastily looked around. And…

Right behind them, right where they couldn’t see it before, was a… SOUL? Another SOUL? Well, it didn’t seem exactly like a SOUL. It was larger, and Chara would describe it more as just a heart than a SOUL. It was red, looking the same as theirs and Frisk’s. Chara approached it, and as they got closer they could feel a warmth coming off of it. Not burning like the Determination SOULS they’d encountered before, but comforting, like the friendly heat of a fireplace. It felt like-

“Home.” Frisk finished. “I think this is… I think this is it.”

They both stood in silence for a moment. 

“I don’t suppose… you can reset it this time, huh?”

Chara paused. “Nope. Well, I don’t think so. Seems like that would be too easy, and the world hasn’t been that kind to us.”

“Well… maybe try it anyway? Even if it doesn’t work, we’ll at least have an answer, y’know?”

Fine. Chara nodded, not that Frisk could necessarily see them. Well, maybe, but who knows how it worked. Who knew whether or not Frisk was now in a similar position as they had been as a ghost.

Chara reached out to the heart. They stilled their mind, and then went to touch it. Their hand… passed through it? Nevertheless, they concentrated, trying to focus on bringing back just one thing, if they would only bring back one thing from the whole world, it would be that. They pulled their arm out, and something came out with it.

A form that glowed white for a second before fading into visibility.

And… it was Asriel.

“...Azzy?”

He turned, confusion flickering in his eyes, before seeing Chara. “Chara… what’s… what’s happening?”

Chara embraced the goat. They would be sobbing right now if they had any tears left to shed.

“Azzy, oh my God, Azzy…”

“Chara… you’re alright?”

Chara pulled their head back to look at Asriel. They nodded. “Yeah… well, as alright as I can be right now.”

Asriel nodded, and they could tell he was holding back tears. “That’s… thank Angel,” he said. “I was… I was so worried!”

Chara chuckled. “You’re telling me! I was- you didn’t exist for a few minutes there!”

Asriel laughed nervously in return. Chara cleared their throat and continued. “I don’t- what even happened back there?”

“Something that erased everything again, I think.”

Asriel looked over to Frisk’s SOUL. “Oh, you must be…”

“Frisk.”

“Right, the original Player Character, right? Sorry, I don’t remember you like Chara does. But I guess you were the one who helped us earlier, with saving the other humans and everything. So… thank you.”

“You’re… you’re welcome.” Frisk sounded like they were tearing up.

“So everything was erased? I guess The Program was at least somewhat right about the instabilities in the code or whatever. But then what’s that?” He pointed at the heart.

“I mean, I pulled you out of it. So what do you think?” Chara asked.

Asriel suddenly looked deep in thought. Then he seemed to come to a revelation. “I think… I think everything’s collapsed in on itself. A single point, pre-big-bang style. Or however this world started, I suppose. Full of all space and time at once, it’s-”

Chara stopped him. “How do we get the world back then?”

Asriel shrugged. “Maybe we can try something with those powers of yours.”

“Maybe,” Chara trailed off. “I mean I was able to get you back, but would it work with the whole world ?”

Asriel shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. But we have to try, I think.”

“But if we get it back, won’t it just collapse again?” Chara protested.

Asriel looked away. “Yeah, we’ll probably have to undo the… changes. If we want things to be… stable.”

“But then-”

“Then all of this would have been for nothing.”

The pair turned to Frisk.

“We can’t… I can’t do all of it again. We’d all be trapped again. Why would it… why would it even be any better than this, if those are our only options?!”

“You’d forget, not every time, but often enough that it wouldn’t hurt! But I… both me and Chara, we’d remember. And I don’t think either of us can do that. Not anymore.”

“So then what?” Chara interrupted. “We stay here forever? Never getting hurt, but never experiencing anything else either?” They sighed. “We’d be safe. We’d never feel pain ever again. But what would be the point? What’s strength without obstacles? When you conquer everything, what’s left to triumph over? What’s existence without experience? What’s life without change?”

They paused. “We can’t stay here. But we can’t go back to how it was before. That would just be death by another name. And I’m done with dying.”

Chara turned to the heart. “Things didn’t fall apart until the very end, right? Cause there were too many changes? Well, we just gotta tone down the amount then. We don’t have to lose ourselves again.”

“But what if it just gets worse?” Asriel asked. “I want to believe that it’ll work out as much as you do, but, this world isn’t designed to be anything other than what it originally was. It’s a game, and its code is inescapable as the laws of physics. How would we even begin? What would we even do?”

“Our best.” Chara asserted. “It may not work out, in the end. But like you said, we have to try. We’ve got people who care about us, and people we care about to save. We’ve grown, become something more than what we were supposed to be. Even if it ends someday… we have to try.”

Asriel took a shaky breath in, and nodded. “I always said I’d follow you into the depths of hell. And you’re right, even if it doesn’t work out, the other options are worse. At least this way we have a chance.”

“I’m up for one last RESET.”

“Okay,” Chara nodded at Asriel and Frisk. “One last time.”

They approached the heart. They stopped, hesitating. They looked back.

“I think… I think we should do it together.”

The other two agreed. Asriel gently grabbed Frisk’s SOUL and carried it over to Chara. They all stood together as they all reached out, hesitating before touching the heart.

“What do you think will happen?” Chara asked.

“I don’t know,” Asriel responded. “But… that’s what life’s supposed to be like, right?”

“It’ll be a change, that’s for sure.” Frisk added. “But I guess… it’ll be better than knowing that nothing will ever do so again.”

“Into the unknown then…” Chara said. “I… God, I’m terrified. But… well, that means it matters, I suppose.”

“If I… if this goes wrong, and I don’t see you ever again, I just… I just want you to know…” Chara turned to Asriel. “Asriel… thank you. I’m so sorry about… well, you know. But thank you, thank you for always being there for me.” Chara sniffled, tearing up. Their voice was cracking. “You’ve been… you’re the best brother I could ever ask for. Both of you..."

"Thanks for being here with me."

They all reached out, touching the heart.

None of them stepped away as everything faded to white.