It was a beautiful summer day, a perfect day for the beach. The sun was shining high in the blue sky, with fluffy cotton-candy clouds that idly drifted by. Ocean surface glistened as waves gently lapped at the shore, toying with the soft white sand. It was no wonder why the shore was crowded, filled with people of all shapes and sizes.

And species.

Although it had been years since they reemerged from the underground, monsters were still seen with some trepidation by much of humanity. One group comprised almost entirely of monsters barely paid attention to the stares they got, but instead took advantage of some of the humans making themselves scarce to have fun on one of the best spots on the beach.

The only human member of the group got as many odd looks as the monsters for carrying a pot containing a large talking golden flower to the beach and setting it up on one of the beach chairs. Frisk was more focused on making sure Flowey would be comfortable and enjoy himself as best he could rather than whether or not someone was going to make a scene. There was no question that a scene was going to happen eventually, so they might as well all have fun first.

After all, if there was a scene to be had, Flowey would be the first to make it.

"Water, dirt, and sky, wowie," Flowey said, with a bright smile dripping with false enthusiasm. "Just like everywhere else. I'm so glad you dragged me all the way here with the rest of your stupid friends."

Frisk gave Flowey's petals an affectionate pat as she remained crouched by his side a little longer. Although she wore a swimsuit that was unisex, making it a little less covering than a wetsuit but with more colors, the years had filled out her body in ways that made it difficult to mistake her gender once she had become a teenager.

"I wasn't going to leave you behind," Frisk said, her voice as soft as ever before she placed a delicate kiss on the petal she just pet.

Flowey paused at that before he puffed out his flushed cheeks, his petals rattling. "You're such an idiot."

Frisk merely giggled in response with a beaming smile on her face. Flowey had come a long way since she carried him unwillingly out of the underground. Seeing traces of affection in his words and expression, however small, filled her with determination.

"See, I told you he'd like it here," Sans said while lounging in the beach chair next to Flowey. No one had seen when he had sat down, but the group was used to the big boned skeleton simply being in unexpected places the moment they didn't pay attention. Although he was dressed in swim trunks and rubber sandals, he still wore his battered blue hoodie.

"Ah, breathe that ocean air deep into your lungs!" Papyrus said, triumphantly posturing with his hands on his hips and his usual boney smile on his face. He wore a full-suit old-time bathing suit, yellow with black stripes, and sunblock underneath his eyes, smeared directly on his cheekbones. "Feel that sun on your skin ! It almost makes me wish I had either one! Nyeh heh heh heh heh!"

Undyne tossed the beach gear she had been carrying in one arm before setting down a very flustered Alphys who she had tucked under her other arm. "Finally! It's been a while since we got someplace wet enough."

The words did little to help Alphys' intense blush, nor did being pressed up against Undyne's exposed, muscular midriff. She could feel the heat of Undyne's body even through her long robe, barely covering her one-piece gray swimsuit.

Undyne set Alphys down before stretching her arms over her head, causing her orange tank top to raise a little. She flashed a smile full of razor sharp teeth when she noticed where her blushing girlfriend was looking. "So you ready to take that stupid robe off, or am I going to have to do it for you?"

"Um, ah… oh," Alphys' cheeks turned a deep shade of red as she fidgeted beneath Undyne's stare, before she reluctantly removed her robe. After all, there was no guarantee it'd survive the fish warrior's 'attempt'. Her tail twitched behind her as she fidgeted with the robe in her hand, her knees bowing towards each other anxiously.

Undyne unabashedly raked her gaze across Alphys' body with a wide smile. "Much better."

Despite the heat and a fur coat, Toriel was quite comfortable thanks to her mastery over fire-based magic. The gentle breeze toyed with the edges of the floral patterned dress she wore and prompted her to hold her wide-brimmed straw hat closer to her head so it wouldn't fly off. The fact that her horns pierced through the top of the hat made it unlikely to fly away, but she preferred to be careful. "My child?" she asked in a sweet tone as she approached Frisk. "Did you remember to put on enough sunscreen?"

Frisk nodded, but submitted to Toriel's insistence to slather on add on another layer of sunblock on her face. Despite how many teenagers her age might object to such protective displays, she never got tired of it.

Flowey watched the exchange from his position in his pot, peering at the two out of the corners of his eyes. After a moment, he turned away with a snort. "Big baby."

The words called Toriel's attention to the grouchy flower. "Do you have enough fresh water, Flowey?"

Flowey paused at that before he fidgeted, bobbing his head from side to side. "Oh, um. Yeah."

"Good," Toriel said with a smile as she finished wiping a dab of sunscreen on Frisk's nose, which caused the human to giggle softly. "It's going to be hot today, and the last thing we want is for either of you to get sick."

Asgore watched the exchange as he kept his distance from Toriel, his expression wistful. He wore a pair of green swim trunks with white trim, nothing too spectacular for the king of monsters. But then, he rarely thought of himself as particularly spectacular to begin with. After several long moments, he turned his gaze to look across the ocean at the horizon, his brow furrowing. "...It's really a lovely day. The perfect day for an outing."

"Yes, it really is~!" a new voice chimed in.

Watching the scene from atop one of the sea walls was a young girl with short brown hair, rosy cheeks, bright red eyes, and an even brighter smile. She was overdressed for the beach, in her brown khaki pants or long-sleeve green shirt with a yellow stripe through the center. And yet, she didn't mind. It didn't matter, after all.

It's not as if she could feel anything. Not the sun, not the breeze, not even the very wall she sat upon. She couldn't feel any of it. While that may have bothered someone else, it didn't bother her. It didn't even bother her that no one could see her, that people passed straight by her without a single glance, or a seagull hopping along the top of the wall and going straight through her in pursuit of scraps. None of that bothered her in the slightest.

She was far beyond being concerned with such stupid things.

The young girl giggled as she tilted her head. "You're having so much fun, aren't you, Frisk? And why wouldn't you? Surrounded by everyone you love on such a beautiful day… it's only natural, isn't it?"

The young girl continued to smile as she watched Frisk laughing, running along the shoreline with Papyrus under the watchful eyes of her guardians.

Toriel was bleeding dust from her mouth, the side of her face, and a massive gash along her side. She gaped, as if completely stunned at what had just happened. "Y… you… really hate me that much?" Her voice quivered with disbelief as dust flowed freely from her wounds, as did her very life.

A mighty blow knocked Papyrus' head clean off his neck, causing it to fall to the floor as the rest of his body dissolved into dust and blew away in the wind. "W-well. That's not what I expected… but… st-still! I believe in you!"

Chara's smile widened, amusement dancing in her eyes.

Undyne's head bowed against her heavy armor as her body slowly disintegrated despite her unfathomable will keeping it together so long. "Damn it… so even THAT power… It wasn't enough?" Somehow she remained standing, forcing a smile until the end as her body dissolved to dust at a pace that was nothing less than agonizing.

Sparks danced across the ridiculously flamboyant metallic body of Mettaton as he struck one final dramatic pose. "Gh… Guess you don't want to join my fan club…?" The look on his face made it clear that the mouthy robot had more to say in his final moments, but the damage had been too severe, setting off an explosion that silenced the star for good.

Chara straightened up, kicking her feet idly as she tilted her head back and enjoyed imagining the feeling of the breeze against her back.

The first blow to finally hit home silenced Sans' cocky words for good. Though he kept the smile on his face the entire time, his eyes said it all as he looked down at red liquid seeping from the new his shirt onto his hand and through his smiling teeth. His heavy breathing only grew harsher as the only thing keeping his weak body together was sheer force of will. "So... guess that's it, huh?"

Oh, but it didn't end there. Even after the skeleton crumbled to dust, she hadn't been satisfied, not after how many times she had died and reset because his tricks that broke the rules of the game and awakened her greatest opponent, forcing her to show mercy against her will.

The sheer rage she felt at losing control for even an instant grew a thousandfold in the wake of his mockery of that particular death; it was enough of a motivation to restart even after victory again and again and again. The fact that Sans somehow managed to deduce the number of her deaths from her expression was more than enough reason to make him notice his in return.

"That expression that you're wearing…" Although Sans was an enigmatic monster, there was an unmistakable sense of unease to his words, fear he tried to mask with cockiness as the light disappeared from his eyes. "You're really kind of a freak, huh?"

There was nothing quite as sweet as killing Sans ten times for every time he killed her. Even his ability to observe changes to the time-space continuum had their limits.

The feeling of Sans' bones crunching beneath her knife, sight of him 'bleeding' - she always suspected it was just ketchup - as the light drained from his glowing eye, the sound of the skeleton calling to his long-dead brother before dissolving into dust - it was a soothing symphony for her soul, the perfect remedy for her rage. She had heard it many times, she had repeated it so many times, and she never tired of it. It was still beautiful.

As beautiful as a bright summer day.

It was almost a flawless victory. All that was left was to kill Asgore then finish off Flowey in an appropriately grisly manner to repay foolish Asriel for ruining all her fun the first time around.

But Chara never made it to the throne room after killing Sans. One last reset took her back to the very beginning. At first, it seemed like a mistake, one that merely meant she had to kill everyone again, but it wasn't to be. It was in that final reset intended to start just one more fight with Sans before she moved on, Frisk had made a wish that undid all her hard work.

Ever since then, the real battle waged between Chara and Frisk for control of Frisk's body. The girl who had thrown herself into a pit near the top of Mount Ebott and gave up on life fought to make choices that would save others, even if that meant starting over from the beginning over and over.

Flowey taunted them again and again, knowing about each one of those resets, but not about the war waging inside of Frisk's body. He didn't understand what was going on, questioning and mocking Chara's motivation repeatedly when she didn't have enough control to properly reply to him. He didn't understand anything, not even after Chara let Frisk win and finally made Asriel aware that it wasn't just her in that body toying with reality.

But then, Asriel always was such a stupid boy. He never understood anything before, so why start now?

In the end, Flowey didn't matter. Neither did Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton, or Sans. Not even Asgore, who she never had the chance to properly kill and add to her body count, was important. None of them truly mattered to Chara.

Her feelings for them couldn't even remotely compare to what she felt for Frisk.

Chara's smile became impossibly wide, twisting across her face as her red eyes focused with intensity on Frisk. She leaned forward, hopping down off the wall seconds before it disappeared, as if dissolving into the darkness that appeared around her.

Flowing like a flood, the darkness consumed everything it touched - the sand, the beach, and even the people who stood oblivious to the approaching threat. Sans barely finished a noisy sip of his fruity drink before he was gone, the slurping sound lingering for a moment after. Papyrus let out a triumphant shout as he tossed his beach ball, only for both to appear into nothingness.

Undyne and Alphys - they disappeared without resistance. Not even the mighty king and queen were spared, both so focused on Frisk that they never saw it coming - not that they would have even suspected such a thing.

Frisk herself was left for last, as the whole world around her vanished into the void before the darkness converged upon her. She disappeared into the flood with no protest, the smile still on her face.

Chara giggled as she stood alone in the vast void that had consumed the world, smothering all life in an instant.

Well, almost alone.

"Hi."

Chara paused before her expression became bored. She didn't bother to look over her shoulder as Flowey rose from the darkness as though it were soil some distance away, the only thing in this empty space that hadn't been swept away with everything else.

Flowey smiled tentatively. "Seems as if everyone is perfectly happy-"

The words died in Flowey's throat as the distance between them evaporated in an instant. Chara was suddenly close to him, way too close, her twisted face hovering only inches away from his own. No longer rosey cheeked with a cute and innocent smile, her eyes were now blackened pits oozing with dark blood, with even more flowing from her now impossibly wide mouth. Despite the ruin of her face, which was not that much different than how she looked when she died, she was still smiling, only it was now a hellish expression.

"Hello, Asriel." Chara said, her voice sharper than her favorite knife.

Flowey was caught frozen, staring at the human he thought he knew so well. After a long, tense moment, he finally turned away, his petals drooping a bit as he grimaced.

Chara's horrific grin disappeared the instant Flowey looked away, reverting her face back to its rosey, innocent charm. She giggled as she reached up to cover her now bloodless mouth, her smile still ever present.

"I'm sorry," Flowey murmured, his voice weak and quivering a little, showing traces of the boy he used to be before he became a flower. Even without a soul, being in Chara's presence left him feeling the way he did a long time ago when they both fell together. "You've probably heard this-"

"Yes," Chara said, interrupting the flower and causing him to cringe. "I have. Many, many, many times."

Flowey finally raised his head to stare at Chara, trying to read her past the oppressive aura of futility that hung in the air between them. The fallen human's expression gave nothing for the flower to work with, not even a hint of her thoughts. She always smiled and laughed at anything, and only now did he realize just how little it truly revealed of her heart.

Finally, Flowey sighed and discarded the speech he had planned. There was no point to it if Chara knew what he was going to say and was going to erase everything for her own purposes anyway.

There was no point in anything at all.

"Well, that's all, then," Flowey murmured. "See you later… Chara."

Chara kept her gaze on the usually mouthy flower as he finally went silent, drooping before her, before he retreated down into the darkness like the coward he was.

It was the same, it was always the same. Asriel talked big, but he never truly backed any of it up. He had no backbone, no strength to fight her. Even now, when Chara stood to take everything away from him, he offered only a pitiful resistance before capitulating to her. He would always ask her to erase his memories, as well - running away both mentally and physically. It was always the same.

...Except for that one time.

Chara's jaw clenched, the muscles tightening. And then, just as quickly as it had happened, she relented and her smile slowly relaxed.

Not now. Not yet. It wasn't time. Flowey would get his punishment, but not yet. He was nothing more than a bit character, a side dish to her main course.

She had someone else in her sights, someone important.

"Of course," Chara said, her voice as saccharine as her smile. "See you later, Asriel."

And then, there was nothing.