So, the other day I watched some Undertale playthroughs. The result of that is this fic. Honestly, the care that has been put into that game astounds me, as well as its great way of reminding the player not even they are above the consequences of their actions. That said, this was supposed to be a oneshot. However, the more I wrote, the more I realized there was more to tell than just what I do here. I can't really promise anything regarding updates since I never planned for this to exceed the oneshot stage and I have fic that does have an actual schedule going as well, and not really that much time. The best I can say is that I'll try to keep it alive for at least a few chapters. Maybe there will only be two, maybe five, who knows? I certainly don't at this stage. With all that said, please leave a review on this chapter at least. I want to become a better writer, and I need your opinions to do it. No need to spare any feelings here, but be sure to give me reasons why you like or dislike certain things. I can't improve from only 'good job' or 'you suck'. Enjoy!

Chapter One: The Rainy Forest

It was raining in the woods. An old tree, years ago uprooted in what must have been a cataclysmic event, lay on its side. The trunk was so wide that it would still tower over even the tallest man. Against the weathered wood, a makeshift hut had been built from branches and leaves. It was leaky, but the girl in the hut didn't seem to mind. The worst of the rain was kept outside, and that was all that mattered to her. She leaned back against the tree trunk and looked outside with a smile that looked content, yet betrayed a certain longing and sadness. Next to her was a small sack filled with herbs and mushrooms she'd gathered in the woods. She idly played with a mushroom as she continued to stare into the woods. The sound of the rain was soothing, but she wished it had been a bit warmer. She shivered in her striped sweater.

"You can't stay out here forever," a voice within her head said.

"I seem to have managed just fine so far," the girl replied casually. She spoke out loud because there was no one around to hear her anyway, and if someone did and declared her crazy for it... 'Well, they'd be right then,' she thought.

"One day you will have to go back. And then..."

"And then what?!" the girl interrupted, sharply now. "We already killed everyone once because of you. What more do you want, Chara?"

The voice in her head didn't reply immediately. Frisk sighed. Chara really didn't do much more than muttering threats or acid remarks every now and then, but the threat of her taking over and causing everyone so much pain again...Frisk couldn't let that happen, and that's why she was determined to just stay away from everything and everyone. That's why she lived in a makeshift hut somewhere deep in the woods, living off mushrooms and herbs and whatever else she could find that looked edible.

"Those mushrooms are so rubbery," Chara spoke up again.

Frisk almost laughed. It was so strange that this genocidal maniac was still, at the same time, a kid like her.

"Beats eating buttercups, though," Frisk replied.

To her surprise, Chara actually chuckled in a way that wasn't evil. "You have a warped sense of humor," she said, but she sounded amused and even approving.

"I have had to share my head with you for God knows how long," Frisk replied. Indeed, Chara had first made her presence known shortly after Frisk had fallen into the underground. After everything that had happened since she couldn't even clearly remember why she'd ended up there in the first place, but through it all Chara had been there. Her presence was only faint at first, barely distinguishable from Frisk's own thoughts, but as time passed Chara had become stronger and stronger. Despite that, she hadn't been dangerous. Until the moment Frisk made a mistake.

She never intended for her blow to be lethal, but it was. Vulkin died from the blow and turned to dust. When that happened, Frisk felt a physical pain in her heart. She went back to her last save point, undoing Vulkin's death…but by then, Chara had fully awakened. She started whispering to Frisk during every encounter and every time she slept to go back and kill everyone, and that it would free her of her guilt. Frisk had tried to resist, but eventually she had begun to latch onto Chara's promises. Yes, Vulkin had already been saved because Frisk had gone back, but the guilt over killing him still gnawed at her. To be free of that guilt was all she wanted, and so she had reset the entire timeline.

Under Chara's guidance, she had slain everyone in her path. Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton…all of them fell before her power, as did every other monster she ran into. Eventually she had ended up in a death battle with Sans. By that time, she felt nothing but hatred anymore. Her guilt had evaporated long ago, like Chara had promised…but most of her other emotions were gone as well. Frisk died more than a dozen times fighting Sans, but her determination gave her the ability to return again and again, until eventually she killed him, and Asgore and Flowey shortly after him.

It was at that point that Chara had appeared to her, telling her she was going to destroy the entire timeline. Seeing Chara's blood red eyes in front of her finally brought back Frisk's old self, the innocent and peaceful girl she used to be. But it had been too late. Chara erased the timeline, and it was only through selling her own soul that Frisk had gotten her to restore it. She had not lifted her weapon even once during that timeline. She flat out refused to fight, because she never wanted to kill again. She never wanted Chara to take control ever again.

But Chara had not left. She didn't get in Frisk's way while she was trying to get everyone the happy ending they deserved, but no sooner had she succeeded than Chara tried to take over her body again. She had managed to resist, but she'd been on the run from herself ever since.

"Hey, Chara?" Frisk said, coming back to the present after reliving her fateful journey through several timelines.

"What?"

Frisk hesitated for a moment, but then she decided to ask her question anyway. "Why do you hate humanity so much? Why do you want to destroy them so badly?"

For a moment, there was no answer. Frisk wondered if Chara just didn't want to talk about it. After all, not even Asriel had known the reason for Chara's violent nature.

"Humans are useless," Chara said, "All my life I've had to fight for myself, because no one else would help. Whenever they backed me into a corner, the ones who were supposed to look out for me just turned their heads away and ignored it."

Frisk remained silent, partially out of sympathy, but also out of recognition. She decided not to mention that yet, however, and waited for Chara to continue.

"My parents never cared about me. They didn't beat me up, but they also didn't show any affection. They just ignored me completely." She laughed bitterly. "No one in that village cared, until they saw Asriel carrying my body. Maybe they didn't care even then. I don't know. I don't care. I will destroy them all. No. Not destroy. I will kill them, every last one of them."

Now Frisk felt like she had to speak up, before Chara became really violent. "Well…my parents never cared much for me either," she said. "My grandparents did, but…they died when I was eight," she went on. "After that, I was on my own. I tried to make my parents happy. I tried to make everyone happy, but somehow all it got me was disdain."

"Then why would you want to save them? Why would you want to protect people who've treated you like nothing but trash?" Chara asked.

Frisk shrugged. "My grandparents taught me that violence is weakness. That I should try to understand other people and help them in any way I can." Silently, she added, 'If I had listened to them in the first place I wouldn't have had to give my soul to a genocidal maniac.'

Chara scoffed at that. "Why would you? All it takes is one person who refuses to listen to you, and you will have to use force. In the end, only those who are strong survive."

Frisk ignored that remark and decided to ask another question instead. "But if affection is what you wanted, why did you make me kill all the monsters? You can't tell me they treated you like crap."

Again, Chara didn't reply immediately. Frisk wished she could tell what was going on inside her head, but as always Chara's thoughts were a mystery to her. The silence stretched on and on, broken only by the sound of the rain on Frisk's makeshift hut.

"Chara?" she asked hesitantly.

"They had to die, because there was no way I could have gotten your soul otherwise," Chara said. To Frisk's surprise, she sounded pained by admitting this. "I knew I could bring them back. I knew I could restore the timeline. But despite that…I didn't like hurting them. As long as they stay out of my way, I won't have to do it again."

This time it was Frisk who didn't speak up immediately. She hadn't expected that Chara would be conflicted about killing the monsters. Maybe there was something good left inside her after all. Maybe she could be saved too. That thought filled her with determination.

"You do realize that if you go around killing people they'll try to stop you, right?" Frisk asked her.

"I will kill them if that's what it takes," Chara replied, but she didn't sound as bloodthirsty as she usually did.

"You don't have to be this way, Chara. I know what you've been through because I've been through it myself," Frisk said.

"You know nothing!" Chara screamed. "So what if your life sucked? So what if your parents didn't care about you? You're not me, and you know nothing about me!"

"But I'd like to," Frisk said softly. She'd expected an outburst from Chara, so she wasn't about to back down. "I want to know more about you. I want to help you. And to do that…I'll have to give you a bit of trust," she went on.

Her heartbeat sped up. She really wasn't sure if going through with her plan was going to end well, but she felt she had no other way. She was going to give Chara a bit more freedom in her head, just enough that it would allow Frisk to actually see her ghost, rather than only hearing her voice. She took a deep breath and tried to relax a bit.

"Why are you doing this?"

Frisk opened her eyes and looked next to her. A girl in a green sweater with a yellow stripe was sitting there. She had an apprehensive expression on her face. The blood-red eyes made Frisk shiver a bit.

"It's easier to talk to someone I can see," Frisk said.

Chara looked at the mushroom that Frisk was still holding in her hand. "I could've taken control of your body when you did that," she said unconvincingly.

Frisk smiled. "I knew you wouldn't," she said.

That wasn't true, strictly speaking, but Chara didn't need to know that. Frisk had hoped that Chara would be curious enough not to try and take over her body, and fortunately for her, she'd been right.

"Did you always have red eyes?" Frisk asked.

Chara shook her head. "No. But I'm no longer human, so I don't need to look like one either," she said.

"I'd like to see your real eyes, though," Frisk said.

Chara seemed a bit annoyed by this, but then she sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, the red had been replaced with a deep blue.

"Happy now?" she asked sarcastically.

Frisk nodded happily. "Yes. You have beautiful eyes, you know. You really don't have to hide them," she said.

It wasn't a lie. Chara really did have beautiful eyes. If she hadn't averted them at Frisk's compliment, Frisk would still have been looking at them.

"So now what? You can see me and I'm using my real eye color; what else do you want?" Chara asked. She sounded impatient, but Frisk could hear that Chara was actually curious about what Frisk wanted to do, and that she liked the attention she was getting.

Frisk shrugged. "I really just want to talk to you. I want to get to know you. The real you, not the monster you see yourself as," she said.

Chara looked at Frisk again. "Okay, but if I'm going to tell you about myself…then I want you to do the same," she said.

"Alright, it's a deal," Frisk said, extending her hand.

"Uh, I don't think that's going to work," Chara said with a small smirk as she moved her hand through Frisk's.

Frisk grinned at her. "This will do," she said.

It was strange how natural it felt to talk to Chara like this. Sure, Frisk had shared her head with her for a long time, but most of the time they hadn't really been speaking much. Chara would maybe try to get her to kill someone, and Frisk would maybe tell her she wasn't going to, but other than that there hadn't been a lot of communication between them.

"So…where should I begin?" Chara asked hesitantly. Clearly she wasn't very used to this either.

"Why don't you begin at the beginning? Like, telling me where you grew up and the things that happened in your life," Frisk suggested. Chara nodded, took a deep breath and began to tell her story.

"I was born in 200X, in a small village near Mt. Ebott. I didn't have any brothers or sisters, and I later learned I wasn't really supposed to be there either. My parents…didn't really do safety and all that fun stuff so one day my mother got pregnant. Now, in our village things like adoption and abortion just didn't exist. It wasn't exactly the most…progressive of places. That meant my parents were stuck with a kid they really didn't want to have in the first place, and that showed. They gave me just enough attention to keep me alive, because of course it would have been a disgrace if I had died."

Chara rolled her eyes at that.

"Beyond that, though, I was left alone. I didn't have any friends. The other kids all seemed to know there was something wrong with me, so every day they'd be waiting to beat me up. Needless to say, I didn't let them. I fought back, and I didn't fight fair. I think I actually poked someone's eye out with a stick once."

Chara smiled at that thought, while Frisk looked horrified. Chara went on with her story. "Anyway, things only got worse the older I got. My parents expected me to find my own food because 'I was old enough to take care of myself'."

She shook her head derisively. "At the same time, my fights with the other kids began to escalate. They knew I fought dirty, so they began to bring baseball bats. They didn't want to kill me, or anything, because that would be too much of a hassle, but they really wouldn't mind breaking my arms or legs if they got the chance."

Chara got a dark look on her face. "The last time they ambushed me, one of them had even brought a knife. I don't know what he planned on doing with it. I took it from him. I stabbed him in the throat with it."

She sighed deeply. "I didn't care that I had killed him, but I knew I had to run. That's why I climbed the mountain, and that's how I ended up underground. Despite all the love I found there…I still wanted to go back and make all the others pay for what they did to me."

Chara looked at Frisk, who had gone quite pale during the last part of Chara's story. "So there you have it. That's my story. Let's see you top that," she said.

Frisk sighed. "This isn't a competition, Chara."

Frisk had noticed that for all of Chara's obvious anger, she'd never explicitly mentioned any of her emotions during the story. Still, this was a good start.

"Well, I told you about my life. Now it's your turn," Chara said. Frisk nodded and began talking.

"I was born in 201X – yes, the same year you climbed Mt. Ebott – and much like you, my parents didn't really want to have children. My grandparents, though, loved having a granddaughter, so they took me in. I think they've had some pretty fierce arguments with my parents, but I can't remember much of that since I was too young. They were very caring people and they always told me not to lash out in anger at others. Even so, I never had all that many friends. They thought I was weird, or something."

Frisk smiled ruefully. "I never had any problems talking to them one on one. But whenever they were in a group, they apparently decided the cool thing was to either ignore me or pick on me."

Frisk stared out into the rain for a moment. "I usually just let them. I knew they were only doing it to fit in, and even though it was stupid, I didn't hold any grudges over it. But then my grandparents died. When I was at school…I don't know how, but there was a carbon monoxide leak. They probably never even knew what was going on. I had to go back to my parents."

She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down, because even now she could feel the tears stinging in her eyes. If only she'd had the power to reset time back then… "That wasn't a nice time. It was the only time in my life I was violent. I didn't let people pick on me anymore. I broke a kid's nose. I still feel bad over that, because he was actually a nice guy. But at that time, I just wanted to hurt them. I wanted to make them feel the pain I felt. It didn't last very long, though. I remembered the lessons my grandparents had tried to teach me, and I tried to live by those lessons as best I could. It was all I had left of them. My parents didn't care either way. They didn't care when I got good grades in school, but they also didn't care when I got in trouble for breaking that guy's nose."

Frisk shot Chara, who was listening attentively, a sad smile. "I felt like a robot. I was never happy anymore. I began to lose all my feelings, because none of it mattered. I pitied everyone else for the way they acted, but I couldn't bring myself to hate them. I couldn't bring myself to discard the memory of my grandparents like that. But despite that…I wanted it to end. I wanted that horrible, hollow feeling to be gone. I knew Mt. Ebott had a reputation for disappearances and there were fairy tales of monsters. I wanted to disappear…so I ran away from home. I don't think my parents cared much. I climbed Mt. Ebott, searching for anything that could get me out of that emptiness. I found a cave and looked inside, but the rock I was standing on broke off. You know the rest."

Frisk looked at Chara and waited for her to say something.

"I can't believe that all of that didn't make you hate humans just as much as I hate them," Chara said, shaking her head.

"What good would that do me? Look at what it did to you. You poisoned yourself with buttercups, just to get back at some people," Frisk replied.

Chara looked away when Frisk said that.

"They're not worth your time, Chara. They never were. I just wish you would have realized that before you died," Frisk went on.

Chara kept looking at the ground, fixated on a single fallen leaf. "Chara?" Frisk said hesitantly.

Chara clenched her jaw. "I know! I know that what I did wasn't smart! But it was all I could think of, okay?! Revenge was the one thing that motivated me. Freeing the monsters would have been a bonus, but everything went wrong and I died for absolutely nothing. We can't all be saints like you, Frisk!"

She glared at Frisk, angry and sad at the same time. Tears glistened in her eyes. Frisk, however, didn't notice it immediately. She was looking at Chara with wide eyes.

"You've…never called me by my name before," she said softly, still stunned.

Chara's angry look faltered and she blinked a couple of times. "I…I guess I haven't," she said. Her face hardened again. "But that doesn't change anything. I can't take back what I did. I can't let go of that hate. Hate has been my entire life and afterlife. If I let that go…what will be left of me?" she asked.

Frisk gave her a small smile. "I think what would be left is a girl who could finally try to find happiness…" Her smile faded as she thought of what would probably happen if Chara lost her hatred. "In the afterlife, I guess. I don't know what keeps ghosts like you bound to Earth…"

Chara looked at Frisk. It was hard to tell what she was thinking about, but she didn't look angry or hateful anymore, just lost in thought.

"I think…I think you're right," Chara said eventually. "If I return your soul to you…I think that will allow me to die for real…I guess that's what I should do," she went on.

Frisk just looked at her. The time she and Chara had spent together hadn't been altogether happy. For most of the time she'd been afraid of Chara's presence, even. But when she used Frisk's name just now, something else had come to the foreground in her mind. With a shock, she realized that she didn't want Chara to go. It didn't make any sense. Until a few hours ago Chara had been nothing more than a serial killer waiting for a chance to take over her body and kill everyone. Sure, she seemed repentant now, but was that really enough to get sad over the possibility of her leaving? Frisk's breathing became irregular.

'What is happening to me?!' Frisk thought to herself. 'Why…why does this thought…hurt so much?'

"Are…are you alright?" Chara asked. She looked uncomfortable.

Frisk ignored her stinging eyes and tried to steady her breathing. "Yeah…yeah I'm fine. I just, I just don't want you to go, stupid as that sounds. I can't keep you bound here. I shouldn't. But for some reason, it feels like a friend I just met is going to die soon," she said.

Chara blinked a couple of times. "F-friend? You think of me as a friend? After everything I did?" She closed her eyes and began to laugh. "Now I know how Asriel must have felt when you showed him mercy at the end of your fight. You're a very strange girl. But think of it this way: at least you'll get to live with Toriel once I'm gone," she said.

"I wasn't going to live there," Frisk said softly. "I love Toriel and the others, but…I'm used to doing my own things. If I lived with Toriel, she'd want to protect me from the world, but I can take care of myself. I appreciate the love, but…well, I think my screwed up life left me as a bit of a nutcase." She tried for a smile, despite the tears in her eyes.

"But as long as I'm here you'd never be free," Chara pointed out.

"I'm not the one who isn't free. I can go wherever I want, and up until now I've been dragging you with me. You deserve more, Chara, you really do. It's just that I really don't like saying goodbye to you knowing it's going to be forever," Frisk said.

"I'm…not entirely sure what to tell you," Chara said uncomfortably. "I mean, I'm not that thrilled to die for real this time, to tell you the truth. I don't know what it's going to be like. Heh. I'm a ghost who's been dead for fourteen years…but I wasn't really anywhere during that time, until you came. And now I'm afraid to die again. I'm afraid to go back to that void, even though I hope it will different this time. Maybe making a real friend was all I needed to do here. Maybe this was the condition for my perfect ending."

She fell silent. Both Frisk and Chara had teary eyes now.

"But if this is a perfect ending, then why does it hurt like this? I've felt all sorts of pain, but never in my heart. Is that what it's like to really feel?"

Frisk merely nodded. She still didn't really know why this saddened her so much, but despite that she was still crying. Then, somehow, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up, shocked to see Chara's hand there.

"How…?" she asked.

"I still have determination," Chara said. "It's not a real body, but at least I can give you one hug before…before it's time."

Frisk didn't hesitate one moment and wrapped both her arms around Chara, able to feel her through determination alone. She felt Chara hug her back, awkwardly.

"I'll miss you," Frisk choked into Chara's shoulder.

"I'll miss you too," Chara whispered back, sounding just as choked as Frisk.

Then Chara gasped and let go of Frisk, although she kept her hands on her shoulders. "What if we ask Mettaton? He was a ghost too, wasn't he? Maybe I can stay the way I am now. Then I wouldn't have to leave this world forever," she said.

Frisk's eyes widened. "Maybe there's an even better solution than that. Ghosts can take over artificial bodies and bond with them, right? Maybe Dr. Alphys could build you a new body somehow," she said.

Chara cocked her head. "I don't know if I want to be a robot," she said hesitantly.

"Well, maybe there's a way to restore your own body somehow. If I've learned anything through all of this, it's that nothing is truly impossible," Frisk said.

Chara thought about that for a moment. "We can't lose anything by trying," she conceded.

Frisk and Chara smiled at each other. They were filled with determination.

So there we are at the end of the chapter. I know Chara is supposed to be a clinical psychopath without empathy, but I just don't want her to be. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it so far, and please let me know what you think!