A.N.
This is a story I did that is basically a novelization of Chara's plan to free monsters. It contains spoilers and stuff, so you know, beware. At the end I attempt to explain a concept I made up to explain the continued existence of Asriel and Chara. Once again, I am not Toby Fox, so of course I don't own Undertale.
The Plan
Chara was sitting on her bed, reading a book. "Chara, that book is upside-down." I said. She looked up at me, "Asriel," she said, "do you hate humans?" I was taken aback by the question. Did I hate humans? No, my best friend was one. "No, I guess I don't." "You should." She replied, "They don't care about anybody but themselves. They pretend to, but they just do it to advance themselves. They are despicable." "They can't be all bad, I mean, look at how nice you are." She gave me a sad glance, like I was missing a piece of information. She sighed and got off the bed. I watched her leave the room, wondering why Chara was acting like this all of a sudden. Maybe it had to do with the pie we had baked for dad, we had made him very sick accidentally. I would leave it alone, it would probably pass.
Everything started to go downhill the day Mom found a pile of monster dust on her daily walk around the Ruins. It was very small, so we guessed that it must have been a Moldsmal, and quite scattered about, so it must have been there for a while. Nobody thought much of it, after all, while it is unusual for a monster to die of sickness, it is not unheard of. Besides, what reason could someone possibly have for hurting a Moldsmal? They didn't even have any gold. That day, however, Chara seemed to be feeling really down. She moped around the house and eventually went out to the Ruins. When it was almost time for dinner, I went out to find her. After searching for a while, I found her at the hole where she had fallen down, sitting in the bed of flowers that had probably saved her life. "Howdy, Chara!" I said, "Smile for the camera!" Chara looked up at the video camera I had and gave it a small smile. "HA, this time I got YOU! I left the cap on...ON PURPOSE! Now you're smiling for noooo reason! Hee hee hee!" The effect was not what I had hoped, she immediately looked back down and the smile disappeared. She asked if I remembered the time we almost killed Dad. The wording of that question gave me a small shock, but I understood after a few seconds. "What? Oh yeah, I remember. When we tried to make butterscotch pie for Dad, right? The recipe asked for cups of butter… But we accidentally put in buttercups instead. Yeah! Those flowers got him really sick. I felt so bad. We made Mom really upset. I should have laughed it off, like you did… Um, anyway, where are you going with this?" She asked me to turn off the camera. "Huh? Turn off the camera…? OK." I flipped the switch to turn it off. She looked back up at me, "I have a plan to destroy the barrier and set monsters free."
"I...I don't like this idea, Chara." I had turned the video camera back on, without Chara knowing it. I felt tears start to run down my face. I didn't like this idea at all. If it was done right, this plan would mean the salvation of all monsters, but it would also mean the loss of my best friend. Chara noticed I was crying, she pointed it out. Wh.. what?" I hastily wiped my eyes with my paws, "N-no, I'm not… Big kids don't cry." She reminded me that this was quite likely the only way that monsters would ever be free, and that it was my duty as Prince of the Monsters to do what was best for all monsters. "Yeah, you're right." I said glumly. She looked at me skeptically and told me she didn't think I looked like I was going to go through with the idea. "No!" I said, "I would never doubt you, Chara… Never!" I tried to work more courage into my words. "Y...yeah! We'll be strong! We'll free everyone… I'll go get the flowers."
As I went to find the deadly buttercups, I reassured myself. "It's the right thing to do...right? I'm supposed to do what's best for all monsters, right? Dad always says that it isn't as easy as it looks, I have to be strong." I couldn't help myself, I started crying again. I found the place where the buttercups grew and picked three of them from the ground. The plan was in motion now, all I had to do was wait.
The buttercups did their job very well, that same day Chara fell ill. Mom and Dad tried everything they could to help her, but Chara's condition only worsened. Over the next two days I could see Chara was in great pain, and her health was slowly declining. I started to regret my choice to participate in this plan. I could see, however, that Chara did not, she stayed determined throughout the days of sickness. On the third day, her condition got so bad that our family stayed by Chara all day. Finally, Chara slipped into a coma. I burst into tears again. I heard Mom say "Chara… Can you hear me? We want you to wake up…" "Chara! You have to stay determined!" Dad pleaded, "You can't give up… You are the future of humans and monsters…" I leaned in close to Chara's ear, and whispered "Psst… Chara… Please… wake up… I don't like this plan anymore. I… I… no, I said… I said I'd never doubt you. Six, right? We just have to get six… And we'll do it together, right?" I couldn't say anymore, I drew back and hugged Mom, sobbing softly into her fur.
Later that day, Chara woke up, she seemed to be confused. She muttered incoherently and looked around. Just before she went back into a coma, she said she wanted to see the flowers in her hometown, just at the base of the mountain. Afterwards, Chara's breathing got slower and slower until just after one in the morning the next day, she drew her last.
Mom and Dad had finally gone to bed when it happened, so I focused on what I had to do. I could see Chara's soul floating above her chest if I focused. I reached out, willing it towards me. I felt the soul react, it touched my hand, but instead of the warmness I expected from the soul, I felt an icy chill spreading across my body. I felt strange, something odd was happening. I squeezed my eyes shut as pain wracked my body, I almost collapsed, but suddenly it stopped. I opened my eyes, the room looked off, something was different. Then I realized, I was...taller? I bent down and picked up Chara's body. It was so light. I walked out of Home and headed towards the barrier. I stood facing the barrier, a strange light filling the room. Twilight was shining through the barrier. I knew my journey was finally about to start. I walked forward. As I reached the barrier, I braced myself. I had tried this once before, when I had reached the barrier, I had inexplicably found myself walking back away. However, this time as I touched the barrier, something stirred within me. I felt Chara's presence within our merged souls giving me the strength I needed to push through the barrier. It was hard, me and Chara's souls together had just enough power to make it through, it felt like walking through gelatin. Then, suddenly, it was over. I was outside the barrier! I looked around, it was close to sunrise, going through the barrier had somehow taken hours. I started walking towards the village, inside myself, I felt Chara grow excited.
We reached the village just as the sun broke over the horizon. I barely had to do anything now as Chara had gained so much control. As I laid Chara's body on the bed of flowers in the center of the village, her last request, people started to wake. The second human I ever saw was a mother leading her children out of their house. She saw us and started screaming. She quickly rushed her children back inside. More people started coming, there were many screams, many men were yelling, I heard the word "murderer" more than once. They attacked me with all they had. Some had weapons, some just had their fists. It all hurt the same, after all the amount of damage an attack does to a monster only varies due to the intensity of the intent to kill. Chara took control and almost made me attack them, but something made me stop her. I did not wish to fight these humans, I did not wish them harm. I wrested control back from Chara, picked her body back up and, with a tear in my eye and a smile on my face, headed back toward the mountain. Chara felt angry, it was understandable, after all, now she had died for nothing, but I would not harm innocent people to win the freedom of monsters. I would pay a heavy price to set monsters free, but I refused to kill for it. If the humans had not hurt me so bad, or if I had not gone to the village, I may have been able to still go through somewhat with the plan, after all, human souls linger for a long time after death. But it was not to be, I was fatally injured. I stumbled up the mountain, not really knowing where I was going. I entered a cave, in the middle of the room was a large hole. I tripped on the vines surrounding it and fell through.
When I landed, I knew for sure I was dying, I could feel myself disintegrating. I don't remember much of what happened after that, I remember Mom and Dad holding me as I finally faded completely, and then there was nothing.
What the monsters could not have known about, however, is that after a human soul and a monster soul combine, they produce a "substance", for lack of a better term, called ESSENCE. ESSENCE preserves both beings after their souls are long gone. Unlike souls, ESSENCE never fades. Like souls, however, human ESSENCE is more powerful than monster ESSENCE, though in the void that ESSENCEs exist in, this only correlates to how conscious a being is. ESSENCE is naturally drawn to DETERMINATION, for DETERMINATION is ESSENCEs' only link to the physical realm. Monster ESSENCEs, being less powerful, are drawn to things with high levels of DETERMINATION, they cannot help it. Human ESSENCEs, however are at least semi-conscious, and the more powerful ones can even choose what DETERMINATION-rich thing to be drawn to. Something, however was different when these two entered the void, for the most malicious piece of the human's ESSENCE was thrown into a different void, this one between timelines, while the rest laid in wait for a human with a large amount of DETERMINATION.