Humans and monsters.
Naturally grounded beings and unusually defined beasts.
Untamed and scared. Orderly and scientific.
Soon enough, the monsters would advance experimentally, and create the first extraction of avian DNA. They would be able to grow wings and soar overhead, this trait no longer just given to certain aloft monsters.
Humans, threatened by such activities, declared war upon the monsters. They were too far behind studiously to feel safe of this finding.
Blood was shed.
Bodies littered the land.
Broken Souls and stained hands.
Technologically inadequate and permanently tedious creatures, the humans lost the battle. The monsters reigned victorious.
But they grieved for the war. Thousands of lives were lost on both sides. No one was feeling exceptionally good. Unfortunately the miserable, futile humans migrated elsewhere, leaving the monsters their share of the land. The mountain loomed in the distance as the sunlight danced over the marching people. It seemed as if they were crawling beneath it under their free will.
King Asgore Dreemurr witnessed this as a rather cowardly move, but he didn't pay it any mind. Who cared if the humans were leaving silently without a word? The monsters themselves never forced them to leave. But as a stab back at the people, Asgore vowed any human to cross the threshold of the mountain perimeter were to be executed. He'd lost most of his family in that war, and he was not ready to forgive them for anything just yet.
However, one day — years after the war — Asgore's new son Asriel flew to Mount Ebott, his snowy owl wings flapping silently in the fall sun rays. He had only wished to pick some flowers for his ill mother. He knew that the golden flowers were her favorite.
But as he approached the mountain, a quick movement caught his eye from far below.
Near the slope, a human was writhing in the air. And as he looked closer, he realized that the human had wings.
It was a hybrid! Or a human had swiped some of the avian DNA during the war before they trekked to Ebott.
The sight nearly knocked Asriel off of his air current. Then he realized something wasn't quite right.
There was a small crowd of people huddled onto a mountain ledge, different shades of wings cramped to their backs. He could see speckled patterns and even splotches of orange against black feathers, like a dark-day decoration. They had strange bands strapped under their arms and across their chests. They had grim faces as the person who was in air began to falter. Their body squirmed like a worm in the beak of a bird, and Asriel could see why.
One of their wings was tearing. Splitting, sodden parchment wings.
He hoped that someone from the mountain would go to help them.
But nobody came.
With a shout of terror as the human fell, their scream echoing over the valley, Asriel shot after the person. The humans on the ledge shrieked as he zoomed by, they previously oblivious to his presence.
Asriel tucked his wings closer to his sides and curled his legs in. He set his jaw and outstretched his paws, trying to roar over the whistling wind.
"Human! Spread your wings!"
But his voice was snatched and flung away by the flurry.
The human's face had grown peaceful as they plummeted further down the mountain and they had fallen silent. Their body upturned towards Asriel, and their eyes went wide when they saw him.
Their hair was a dark brown-red. Their clothes were light brown and ragged. Their skin was as pale as the first snow. A broken band was slung under their arms, it yanking at their brown sweater shirt. Jagged cuts lined their bared arms and their knees were skinned and bloody. Their left wing was torn practically in half. Wet feathers clumped against one another and a jagged wooden stake stabbed through the second joint in the wing.
She, Asriel thought suddenly. The human was a she.
And she was about to splatter into the valley basin.
Asriel unfurled his wings, feeling his speed deplete, but with one heavy pump, he darted into the human.
He wrapped his arms around her, and he could feel her trembling. Her breath was ragged, as Asriel flipped his wings in front of him, rotating them backwards to slow his and the human's descent. She gripped his sweater and his coat, gasping out as he tried to readjust his grip under her arms. Her heartbeat pounded against his cheek as he nestled his head onto her shoulder. She had seemed calm as she fell, but for some reason now she was terrified.
Terrified of dying…or terrified by me?
If Asriel knew anything about animals, it was that they would attack the second they could to prevent more harm. He gently placed her on the grass and uplifted himself a couple of feet above her. Up here, she couldn't reach him unless she decided to stone him.
She lay on the ground for a few moments, blankly staring at the mountain and the vast blue sky, before she abruptly sat up and clutched the broken prosthetic wing. She shrugged off the two bands on her shoulders and shoved the harness away from her, glaring at the limbs. Asriel tilted his head at them, intrigued.
"What are those?" he asked softly.
"Stupid…no good…worthless creatures sent from the underworld…." She didn't seem to be paying attention to him as she ripped the feathers and broke the sticks that held the wings' shapes.
"Um," he tried again, "human?"
She whipped around, her glare digging into his doe-like eyes. Asriel shivered.
It was like staring into pools of blood, her pupils glinting ruby in the sunlight. Her irises looked black in the contrast of the beams, but he couldn't bring himself to believe that they were. Maybe dark brown at the most. Her hair hung in streaks over her face, slicing over her skin with shadows. Her shoulders hunched and Asriel could see her gripping the grass with tight fists.
Birds chirped in the surrounding trees and little squirrels chittered. Ladybugs and bees hummed around and Asriel gave her a smile. He didn't want the human to think he was hostile. He rubbed a thin streak of sweat off his cheek before he introduced himself.
"Howdy! My name's Asriel Dreemurr." He paused, letting the sound of his beating wings fill the clearing for a moment. "What's your name?"
The human's gaze had softened and her body relaxed. She picked a blade of grass and averted her eyes.
"My name is Chara," she muttered. "Are you a monster?"
Asriel laughed. "Perhaps, due to the fangs, and the fur, and these." He picked up the ends of his floppy white ears in his paws. He flapped them a little, making the human smile.
"Right…." She hesitated and then furrowed her brow, looking back up to him. "Why are you still up there?"
Asriel shrugged with a half-smile. "I know a lot about creatures," he said. "I didn't know if you were going to hurt me or not. That's usually what animals do — when they're scared, at least."
"So you consider me a creature?" asked Chara.
Asriel grinned wide. "Everything's a creature!"
"But there are differences—"
"Differences that don't matter."
"But," she argued more firmly, "I do believe that rocks are not creatures."
Asriel blinked and then felt his back paws touch the ground as he landed. Warm, prickly grass poked at his paw pads.
"I guess you're right." He rubbed his forehead, suddenly remembering his goggles that rested there. He felt his face flush in fragmented foolishness. "O-oh…."
Chara tilted her head and smiled at the prince.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"I didn't know I had my goggles…."
"So?"
"So," he returned, "I could have gotten a bug in my eye. Do you know what that could've done? I could've been blinded. Or WORSE." He widened his eyes for the extra emphasis. He even splayed his front paws and hunched his shoulders.
Chara laughed. She laughed fully and loudly, her voice rippling through the area. Asriel grinned and giggled himself. He was glad that Chara was OK.
I like her, he thought. He suddenly felt his heart sink as his eyes refocused. Chara was idly peeking at the multiple gashes along her left arm. Her brows were furrowed and her mouth was pulled into a tight line.
"Hey," he blurted, causing Chara to flinch and yank her sleeve down. Her strange eyes met his, wide and startled. "Are…are you OK?"
Chara's mouth opened and closed, but no sound spilled out.
"Chara?"
Silence. She closed her mouth and gave him a look that he'd never seen before. A look of anguish. Of pleading mercy. Asriel smiled and then stepped up to her. She pulled away, but not by much. He kneeled in front of the human and wrapped his arms around her, embracing her close to him.
"Asriel, what are you—"
"I don't care if you've been hurt before, or if you've hurt yourself," he murmured into her ear. "I just think that you should be happy. You seem really nice…and I really like your laugh. I think you should always smile…no matter what you've been through that makes it all seem too hard." He paused for a moment, thinking. "If you want to, Chara, you can come along with me. I'll walk with you to my home. You can stay with us for however long you'd like."
He could feel her shaking. She didn't say anything, but when he heard her sniffle and whimper quietly he only smiled more. He held her tighter. She didn't hug back, but that was OK.
She'll come around. He nuzzled her head and she began to sob. She cried in quiet, choked sputters. She sounded like an abandoned infant. She'll come around….
"Dad! We're home!"
Asriel clasped Chara's hand in his fuzzy paw as he pushed open the large wooden doors of his family's castle. Chara had finally calmed down enough to step foot into the palace, but Asriel could still feel her trembling warily.
Once more Asriel couldn't help but think of Chara as a wild animal — maybe a deer if he had to compare her to one specific mammal — and he knew how frightened she was. A fragile, broken human who wanted nothing to do with her own kind, but scared and nervous around the other race that shared the earth.
"Asriel?" he heard his father's voice call from one of the hallways. "Have you been gone this entire time?"
Chara's fingers clutched Asriel's harder as the prince's father stepped out from one of the corners. He was enormous — easily over eight feet tall and broad shoulders that could seat two children. The king of monsters, Asgore Dreemurr, looked as if he could squish Chara completely between his forefinger and thumb.
"Oh…." Asriel's father's blue and orange eyes trailed over Chara, scanning her from her messy brown hair to her dirty and blistered toes. She set her shoulders back and straightened herself, letting go of Asriel's paw. Asgore also had a pair of gigantic snowy owl wings — his more speckled with inky black spots than Asriel's. He wore a thick black cape and a pale gold vest of chainmail. He was thickset, but Asriel knew it was all muscle and hardly any fat. A gilded beard forested Asgore's chin and muzzle and cheeks, and his rack of horns was impeccable. They were polished ivory in the firelight of the home now that twilight was fading into a starry night.
"You have...brought a human," Asgore said slowly, as if he couldn't believe it. "I thought they locked themselves under Ebott."
"They did," Chara answered before Asriel could say anything. He could tell that the human was attempting to be brave, but he couldn't help but worry about the slight edge to her voice. Would his father notice? Would he count it as a threat?
Surely he wouldn't, Asriel thought, spreading and settling his wings nervously. Anyone could see that she's scared. She's afraid of him. I might not know a lot about humans, but if they're anything like Chara, then I know that they are beings who like to seem brave in times of fear.
But then his mind flickered back to when Chara was attempting to fly along the mountainside. He'd seen pure terror in those strange eyes.
Most of time, anyway.
"I see," Asgore murmured, stepping closer and placing a paw to his beard. His small claws raked the soft golden hair. "So... How did my son find you, little human?"
Chara flinched at the word. He saw the slight shift of her jaw and he could tell her short temper was beginning to fizzle.
"They threw me off a cliff for an experiment," she told him. Her voice was clipped, but Asriel could tell that she was trying to keep calm. "The humans are attempting to fly with prosthetic wings made of quail, owl, and eagle feathers and sap. It isn't going well, at least from my point of view. I was the first to try the wings out."
That's it, my friend. Just bear with it, and stay determined to show him that you're worthy of staying here.
"Ah." The king didn't say anything else for a few moments. He seemed to be inspecting Chara, as if she was a prized cow that was being judged off of its colors. She unclenched her fists and exhaled slowly, letting her gaze soften. Asriel smiled and turned to his father.
"Dad," he chirped, "I think Chara should stay with us for a while. She's still a little shaken up from the flight experiment, and she says she doesn't want to go back. Can she stay, Dad?" Asriel gave his wings a ruffle and he made a face at Chara. The human hid her broad smile. Asgore "hmmed" rather unwillingly. "Please?" he wheedled.
Asgore sighed softly and then gave the two children a small grin. "As long as it is all right with your mother, Asriel." The tone of his voice implied that he already knew Asriel's mother's response.
"YES!" Asriel shouted, jumping into the air. The ceilings were high in the palace, and Asriel flapped his wings excitedly. Chara flinched and fell back against the wall as Asriel's wings whooshed past her.
"MOM!" Asriel called, landing and thumping up the nearby stairs. He dragged Chara along, she protesting with a squeak. "Mom, can my friend Chara the human stay with us?!"
"Chara, are you ready?"
"Yes, Asriel."
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Of course."
"But… I can't promise you that it won't hurt."
"That is fine. I will be all right."
The two children were in one of the palace courtyards. Asriel had a pale brown scarf tied over his neck, a green tee-shirt striped with icterine, brown shorts, and a pair of yellow-tinged goggles on his forehead. His messy bangs drifted over his gentle eyes and he scrunched up his muzzle at his human sibling.
Chara caught his look as she flicked her eyes to him. "I already told you. I am ready. Just do it, Asriel." She was wearing a large mint-green sweater with one pale yellow stripe over her stomach, and brown shorts that matched Asriel's. She had been adopted shortly after her review with the queen, Toriel. Her hair had grown slightly in the few months she'd been living with the monster family, and it was tied back with a strand of twine.
Sunshine danced in the courtyard garden and Asriel furrowed his brow as he reached into his pocket. He retrieved a clear syringe that had about twenty-five milliliters of a red-blue liquid. He made a worried noise as he glimpsed the inch long needle. Chara kept her eyes off of Asriel as she tugged up her right sleeve above her elbow. She'd been drinking water all day and she had hardly had anything to eat since the sun's highest point of yesterday. Asriel had learned from his father's friend, Dr. Gaster, that when bloodwork was to be done, the patient had to fast and drink what seemed like gallons of water. Dr. Gaster had said something about all that water bulging out the veins as they pumped the extra blood.
Chara's gashes had healed completely within the first two months of her stay in the new home and only indents and pale scars were left behind. Asriel felt along her skin until he found the vein pulsing in the crook of her elbow. It was bulbous and it kind of grossed him out. Monsters had veins and blood too, but they didn't do anything. It just was a reminder that they were physical beings — for the most part, at least. He took in a slow breath and brought the needle tip just a hairsbreadth away from her arm.
"All right, Chara," he said in a shaky voice. "Count to five for me, OK?"
Chara inhaled and then began softly. "One…two…three…."
Asriel grit his teeth and then poked the needle into Chara's skin. He felt another release of pressure as the needle went into her vein as well. He shuddered and Chara finished counting. Birds nearby shrieked and flew away from the courtyard. Asriel slowly injected the DNA into Chara's bloodstream.
The human squirmed and muttered something under her breath, her other hand pressing against her forehead. Asriel shook his head and then emptied the rest. When Asriel slipped the needle out of her a bubble of blood emerged from the tiny pinprick. He squeaked and then pressed one of his paws to the injury. Chara flinched away and practically snarled at him.
He lifted his paws up to present himself as harmless and his wings unfurled a little. "I'm sorry!" he yelped. "I told you, it'd hurt!"
"I know," she sighed, rubbing the sweat off of her rosy cheeks. "But I just…can't help it." She held her arm and then looked at the smear of her blood on her fingers.
"How do you feel?" Asriel blurted, holding his paws together. "Nauseous? Dizzy? In any sort of pain whatsoever?"
But just as Asriel said those last words, Chara doubled over, clutching her sides. She let out a long, ear-shattering wail. Asriel yelped and reached out to grab her, but she swatted him away. The muscles between her shoulders convulsed as she pounded the ground with one of her clenched fists. Sweat rolled down her arms and tears streaked across her face.
"Make it stop!" she howled in agony. "MAKE IT STOP!"
Asriel watched helplessly as two limbs burst from Chara's back. They were dripping with blood and small veins pulsed wildly against the red-streaked tendons. Chara's shrieks died down as the limbs unfolded and revealed slick feathers. They plumed from the base of the limbs and then finished off near the tips. Chara shivered, her newly formed wings twitching with her. Asriel gaped and then dared to look at the grass around them. It was speckled with ruby droplets and small pieces of muscle. He gagged and then turned away.
It's probably a good idea not to look, his mind muttered.
"Chara?" Asriel gasped. He crawled towards her, and gently placed a paw on one of her wings. She didn't respond, but her wing flinched at the contact. "It's okay, Chara. It's going to be all right."
Asriel slowly extended her left wing, careful not to bend it awkwardly or move it too quickly. The back of her feathers were almost as dark as night, but the undersides reminded Asriel of zebras. The feathers weren't necessarily striped, but they were in a constant pattern of black dashes against pure white feathers. He grinned and attempted to wipe his sibling's blood off his paws.
"Chara," Asriel whispered, leaning close to her ear. The human was trembling, but she made a soft noise indicating that she'd heard him. "Chara, you don't have snowy owl wings. You're a peregrine falcon! Isn't that super-cool?"
Chara shifted her head in what Asriel assumed was a nod. He gently scooped her up in his arms and he wobbled as he stood up. The extra weight of her wings nearly unbalanced him. He figured the wings were still forming, seeing as they were smaller than his, and he was bigger than Chara. He also figured that her air sacs would develop later. But he wasn't sure about her bones. Maybe her wings would have to double in size to support her, or maybe her bones would begin to catheterize and sink out air pockets. He wasn't sure.
But he was sure that his sister was tired. He'd have to tell his parents about this too. He might get in a little bit of trouble, but that was okay.
Now he and Chara could soar through the clouds together, and sit on a mountain peak and watch the sunset.
"Asriel," Chara murmured. He perked up his ears and he looked down at her. She was smiling a little, and she had blood cornering her lips. "Now — now we can be together...forever..."
Asriel beamed and nodded. "Forever," he promised. He walked into his father's and mother's castle as Chara dazedly whispered to herself.
"Forever..."
Two and a half years later...
Chara stared down at the crumpled mass in front of her. His wings were askew and his fur was matted with his own gilded ichor. His eyes were scrunched shut in his dying agony. She dared to take a step toward him. Arrows stabbed out of his back like porcupine quills. His wings were ripped — almost all of the feathers on his right yanked out of his skin. She could barely see his legs in the dimming twilight they were so charred. She crouched low, pressing her knees into the soil soaked with his blood.
How could he have gone out by himself? Didn't she explicitly tell him not to? Where had she been when he'd gone?
Why did he disobey me?
Soon her thoughts darkened around something else. They warped into a brightening anger. A fire that would burn down their forests and a fury that would corrupt her for eternity.
The humans.
They did this to him.
They took him away.
She forced herself to swallow her anger, replacing it with her growing grief. He'd just fallen down, she told herself. He'd be fine if she took him to Dr. Gaster. Dr. Gaster could fix anybody.
She curled her arms around the dying monster and pressed him close to her.
"Wake up," she whispered. "Come on, you big dummy, wake up."
His eyes flitted open and closed and open again. His sweet, doe-like eyes were always full of kindness. But all Chara could see was blistering pain. A pain that she could feel the more she looked into his eyes.
"Ch — Chara..." His voice was almost too soft to hear. "What...are you...doing?"
She forced a wide grin and poked his nose. "Saving you, obviously." She hated how her voice wavered.
He looked so fragile in that moment. She couldn't help but remember that he was only thirteen years old. If she took into account the actual age difference between human maturity and monsters', he was probably around seven. She closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath.
Come on, she hissed to herself. You have to be the strong one. You've always been the strong one.
"Anyway," she piped, attempting to get to her feet with him in her arms. He wasn't necessarily heavy, it was mostly just the fact of his broken wings overbalancing him. She staggered up and then let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Let's go home," she said. "Dr. Gaster will patch you up and I'll sleep next to you tonight."
He didn't say anything as Chara began to walk. He was shaking violently, and she tried her best to keep her arms from bumping the arrow shafts. Hopefully she'd be able to make it on time.
Chara forced her wings open. They'd finally grown proportionate with the rest of her about a month ago, so now it was time for her to see if they worked.
She flapped once, twice, three times before her feet left the ground. She clenched her jaw and furrowed her brow. Flying was hard!
Eventually, after what seemed like hours of unbearable struggling through air currents and the wind, she crash-landed into one of the palace courtyards. Apple trees were buffeted by her wings and cherry blossoms flitted down from the overhead branches as she fell. She landed hard on her right shoulder and felt zigzagging pain shoot down to her hand.
"Ow," she mumbled through her face-full of grass. A ladybug crawled over her nose. She sat up slowly, spreading her wings to balance herself, and looked back down at her brother. "You all right?"
"As good...as I'll ever be..."
"Perfect. Remember: I don't plan on you breaking your promise, so you better be okay." She began to get up again, but suddenly the monster in her arms grew ridged.
"I — I'm sorry..." he gasped in a broken voice. Tears welled in his eyes. "I — can't —"
And before he could finish, he burst into a cloud of fine, white dust.
Chara stared down in horror at her arms as the dust stuck to her bloodied fingers and sleeves. The rest drifted over the prince's scattered clothes and to the ground.
Tears immediately sprung into her eyes as her brother's Soul shuddered in the air in front of her. She had a sudden urge to snatch it, but before she could, it snapped in two. As if in slow motion, the halves exploded into minuscule shards of matter.
"No..."
She slumped forward, dust slathering against her body, face, and hair.
"Asriel..."
Memories bounced in her brain. Warm sunlight shining, Asriel and her outside with his silly camcorder. How he'd even managed to snag their mother's camera was beyond Chara.
"All right, Chara," he had said "Do your scary face!"
Chara hadn't had the heart to tell her brother that he'd left the lense cap on. Instead she'd followed his playful order. She straightened herself up and opened her eyes wide. She stretched her mouth into a wicked grin, aware that she was exposing the edges of her teeth. Asriel had squealed in surprise and then burst into a fit of laughter.
"Ah..." he mused softly after he'd regained his composure. "I — uh — left the cap on."
Chara had said something in return, but as the thought moved away, she couldn't recall it in her haze.
"Asriel..."
Another flashback.
This time she and Asriel were laying in one of Toriel's flower beds. Usually the queen forebode it, but Chara and Asriel had begged with impenetrable vigor.
Up high the sun was blazing. An endless expanse of blue stretched from its edges and Chara trailed the flight path of a lone sparrow.
"Chara," Asriel had said, resting his paw on her hand. "You sometimes wish you could fly?"
She had merely nodded in response.
"I saw Dr. Gaster fiddling with an avian sample the other day," he continued. "I thought about swiping it — for you, of course — but you and I both know I'm too clumsy and loud to be stealthy."
"Yes." Chara had been barely paying attention.
"So," he said slowly, "I was thinking...maybe you could grab it?"
Chara had taken a moment to consider her options.
On the one hand, she could take the DNA and she could possibly form wings of her own. But on the other hand, she didn't want to get into any trouble. She was also afraid that it would hurt. She had barely been able to imagine the type of pain she'd have to go through.
But once again, her heart had outweighed her sensible knowledge.
"All right," she'd murmured, "I'll grab it tonight and you will hide it in your sock drawer."
Asriel had sat up and pulled her up beside him. He'd hugged her tightly and laughed happily.
"You're gonna fly!" he'd shouted.
Chara gasped awake to the feeling of fingers constricting her neck. Darkness had fallen over the courtyard. She struggled against her unknown attacker.
It took her a few moments to realize that it was just her throat rejecting the dirty air. She wiped at the dust on her face and tried to clear her lungs.
She had breathed him in...
She stood up, wrapping her wings around herself. Adriel's dust glittered like shattered stars on the moonlit garden.
"I'm sorry..." she whispered.
An owl somewhere nearby reported her apology to the sky in a series of warbled hoots. Chara tried to rub the dust out of her eyes but to no avail. They began to burn.
"It's all my fault..."
She could barely sense her feet. The icy cold of the night was busy stealing away her warmth.
"We... We made a promise...didn't we?"
Chara could feel the buried anger bubble into her mouth. Her hands clenched tightly at her sides. Soon the heat of her own blood seeping past her ridged fingers fought against the chill.
"But don't worry, brother..."
She forced her stinging eyes open and she sneered down at the clothes that had been abandoned. Most of them were invisible in the shadows, and his ash buried them nearly completely. Chara unfurled her wings and leaned down. She grabbed Asriel's yellow-tinged goggles and his green-yellow intervaled scarf. After she'd adjusted the goggles to fit comfortably around her head and she'd tied the scarf loosely around her neck, she straightened herself back up. Then, she stormed silently into the castle.
She wound through the curled hallways, avoided royal guardsmen, and eventually she made it to her desired end.
It was exceptionally dark in the kitchen due to the lack of natural light. Chara fumbled around for countless trembling moments before she felt a firm object fit perfectly in her palm.
Chara slid the knife out of its holder and she exited the kitchen...
...and bumped right into a passing guard.
She and the monster yelped in unison and before she could figure out what she was doing, her arm swung out in front of her in a horizontal arc.
She could hear and feel the knife blade dig through the monster.
The guard gurgled up blood and then staggered away from her, clasping his leaking neck. Even in the darkness she could picture the monster collapsing to the floor, his essence pooling and bubbling out from the wound she'd inflicted, and his body retreating into a pile of dust, leaving an empty suit of armor in his wake.
Chara squeezed her eyes shut and she dashed through the corridors. She ignored the slicing pain in her hands as she tried to find her way back to Asriel's deathbed.
An eternity flew by before she felt the bite of cold against her dirty face. Damp grass caressed her burning bare feet and she fell to the ground — her knife plummeting down to land beside her.
She lay there gasping and crying for a long while. She was only forced to stop once her lungs began to cringe and her eyes grew dry.
Eventually she motivated herself to stand back up, picking up her knife and letting the moonlight hold her its embrace. She didn't glance down at her brother's remains as she unfurled her wings to their full extent.
"My dear brother," she murmured hoarsely, "my best and only friend — I will not have you die in vain. I will avenge you." She lifted her bloodied and dusty knife. She positioned its tip beneath the moon. She could see her dirty and creased face in its reflective blade.
"I am determined to eradicate every single human on this forsaken planet," Chara told herself. "Even if I die trying."