Well, you though today couldn't get any worse. First you burned your breakfast, then you stubbed your toe, and now Chara has come back from the dead.
"It's me, Chara! I have come back from the dead!", she said standing before you holding a knife so shiny you could see your own terrified reflection in it.
Shortly after falling into the underground, you started to hear a voice in your head. They spoke up occasionally to offer you advice. Bad advice. Usually involving stabbing people.
They called themselves Chara. Over your journey through the underground, you learned more about them. They were the first child to fall into the underground, they were adopted by the monster royal family, they came up with this plan... yadda, yadda, yadda. You know the story.
Chara would lie and manipulate you to try to get you to do things her way. She would tell you that harmless monsters you encountered were dangerous and that you needed to fight to protect yourself. Kill or be killed. You could see evidence of her influence on what was left of her brother.
You found that the more you believed her, the more you did what she wanted you to do, the more powerful she became. The more control she could exert over your body.
Terrified of what might happen if she gained complete control, you decided to ignore her and follow your own judgment.
And you did. Instead of fighting and killing like Chara wanted you to do, you made friends with your enemies and eventually lead the monsters out of the underground and to the surface.
But now Chara was alive again and you couldn't ignore her anymore.
"Through sheer determination, I have brought myself back to life!", she said. She had her trademark smile on her face.
You had seen pictures of Chara when she was a child, but the person standing before you was not a child. It was a young adult woman, roughly the same age as you.
This made sense, because Chara was no longer a child. She had died a child, but when you entered the underground, your determination brought her back somehow and she found a new home inside your head. That was years ago and she had been alive ever since, growing up alongside you.
"And now I'm going to go kill everyone!", she cackled, stabbing the air with her knife. "And I'm going to start with all your friends!"
"What?! Why?!", you shouted at her. "Why are you doing this?!"
"I came back to life for one reason and one reason only.", she said. "Power. Power is why I'm here. Power is my purpose. Power... is everything."
"What does killing my friends have to do with power?!", you asked/shouted.
"The more you kill, the more powerful you become.", she explained. "After every kill, it gets easier and easier to kill again. You grow more and more detached, until you've completely eradicated all the humanity inside of you. And then... you've become something more than human..."
"A monster!", you said.
"Yes, yes. I know.", she said rolling her eyes. "You're the real monster here, Chara!", she said, mocking your trite analysis of the situation.
"Now as I was saying...", she continued. "Killing is the ultimate expression of power. To hold someone's life, everything they have, everything they will be, in your hand... and then crush it in your fist, right before their eyes! There's nothing more powerful than that..."
"Jesus Christ...", you uttered under your breath. Chara was scary, but your friends were counting on you. You had to stop her. You were determined to stop her. You would do whatever it took.
"Well, I'm not going to let you do that!", you shouted. You circled around her and blocked the doorway that lead to the outside world, putting yourself between her and every other living creature in existence. "If you want to kill my friends and, well, everyone, you'll have to go through me first!"
"Ha!", she scoffed. "That would be way too easy, but I'm not ready to kill you yet."
"I want to play a little game with you.", she explained, putting her hands together like a Bond villain. "I'm going to kill all your friends, one by one, and see how long it takes for you to give up your disgusting little pacifist shtick and come after me... then, well, let's be honest here, then I'm going to kill you. It's not like you'll actually be able to do anything to me."
You were silent, but your expression betrayed your feelings. Your fists were clenched so tight that your hands were shaking.
She smiled. She could tell she was getting at you. "Now before I go, I should come up with a game plan.", she said. "What would be the best order to kill your friends in? Which one should I kill first? How about Toriel? Or maybe Sans? Wait, I know! Papy..."
You could no longer contain your rage. You gave in to the Dark Side of determination. You slapped Chara upside her evil head.
Your slap forced her head to the left. At first, her eyes were closed tight and her face was clenched in pain, but then her expression relaxed. With her eyes still closed, she raised her hand to her face, covering the now slightly red part of it where your hand had contacted it. She looked... a little too relaxed, really. Her mouth opened slightly. Did she just... moan a little?! If you didn't know any better you'd say she was... enjoying this?
She lowered her hand and tilted her head back towards you. She opened her eyes. Just a moment ago, you saw pure evil burning behind them, but now... now you saw something else burning.
"Do that again.", she said. She sounded calm and relaxed.
"What?!", you asked. There's no way you heard that correctly.
"I want you to do that again.", she said. "Hit me again."
"What?!", you asked. There's no way you heard that correctly.
"If you do...", she said with a suggestive smile on her face. "Maybe I'll... stick around for a while. Instead of... you know..."
"What the hell?!", you thought to yourself. "She really is enjoying this! If I give her what she wants... maybe she'll leave my friends alone?"
You decided to try. "Ok, fine!", you said. "Are you ready?"
"Don't ask me if I'm ready!", she said, annoyed. "Just do it!"
"Ok...", you said and you slapped her again. Admittedly, your heart wasn't in it like before.
"No! Harder!", she ordered, getting a little frustrated. "Like the first time!"
"I'm not sure I can!", you said. "That was in the heat of the moment... Would you mind, uh... Would you mind saying that you're going to kill Papyrus again?"
"I'm going to kill Papyrus!", she yelled.
"Ehhh...", you said. "Do you think you could do it a little more... menacingly?"
"Grrrr!", she growled. "That's it, I'm not letting you waste any more of my time!"
She put her murdering smile back on. "Time to go kill all your friends!", she said and raised her knife above her head and marched towards you and the exit.
"No, wait! Stop!", you shouted and tried to stop her. You both grappled for a minute in the door way. At first she struggled like she meant it, but then she seemed to enjoy you manhandling her.
"Yeah, that's more like it!", she said. "Put your hands around my neck! Use your hate!"
She let you overpower her. You weren't expecting this and you lost your balance and fell on top of her.
You looked into each others' eyes for a moment. She had the same look on her face as before. You finally recognized what was burning behind her eyes.
Uncomfortable, you averted your gaze and tried to get up, but she grabbed you by the head and pulled your lips down to hers. You struggled at first, but eventually gave in.
"Ok, this is what she wants.", you thought to yourself. "If this is what I need to do to keep my friends safe, I'll do it. I'll take one for the team."
It was a long kiss. "At least she's attractive.", you thought to yourself, then you cringed. "No! No! I can't be attracted to her! She is pure evil! She wants to kill all my friends! She..."
She released you and you both got up. Without saying anything she took your hand and lead you to the bedroom.
"Oh boy, this is getting intense...", your mind raced. "Like camping! No! Damn it, Sans!"
Now at the foot of your bed, she let go of your hand, kicked her shoes off, and crawled onto the bed. "I've been so bad.", she said, laying on her side seductively. "You must punish me."
You stared at her for a moment with your mouth open and eyes wide. "The things I do for my friends!", you thought as you threw your clothes off and got in bed with the enemy.
Hours later, a naked and sweaty Chara cuddled up against you and fell asleep. Now was your chance.
You slowly escaped her embrace, trying your best not to wake her. You sneaked out of the bedroom and returned a few minutes later with some rope you had stashed away just for situations like this.
You were in the middle of tying her up when you heard the click of your bedside lamp turning on. The room was now bathed in light, but somehow things got a whole lot darker.
"What are you doing?", she asked. She had no expression on her face.
"Uh... nothing...", you answered. You felt like you were going to have a bad time.
"Are you tying me up?", she asked.
"Uh...", you replied. It's the end.
She took her free hand and reached for... the end of the rope binding her other hand. She pulled on it hard, tightening it around her wrist. "Ahh, that's better!", she said. "Now do this hand!"
Nervously, you climbed over her and tied her other hand to the headboard.
"Get it nice and tight.", she ordered. "Yeah, just like that! Perfect!"
Chara was now all tied up.
"Oh no, I'm all tied up!", she lamented. "I hope someone doesn't come along and take advantage of me!"
You stared at her.
"Take advantage of me!", she yelled.
"Oh, right! Sorry!", you said and took advantage of her.
You woke up the next morning with Chara cuddled up against you, asleep, and still tied to the bed. You tried to make sense of her sudden change in personality.
You figured that because Chara valued power over everything else... that maybe the lack of power turned her on? Like some sort of fetish? A lot of fetishes involved humiliation and weakness, so your hypothesis didn't seem too far fetched. And if Chara was into this sort of thing, perhaps you could keep her imprisoned... voluntarily?
For the next few days you kept Chara tied up to the bed, releasing her occasionally to let her eat, go to the bathroom, and what have you. She seemed to enjoy this immensely, calling you "Master" when you ordered her around. You also made sure to fulfill your, uh, I mean her, sexual needs so she didn't get bored and try to escape.
One day, you were sitting at your computer, seriously considering bidding on a ball and chain on eBay, when your phone vibrated.
You poked your head into the bedroom. "Chara?"
"Oh, Master! You're back so soon?", she said. "My, my, you're insatiable..."
"Ha, ha, no, that's not why I'm here.", you said, rubbing the back of your head. "There's been a little emergency at work and I need to run in for a bit."
Chara frowned. "Awww!", she said, looking disappointed.
"Don't worry!", you reassured her. "I'll be back soon!"
She perked up a bit. "Would Master mind getting me a chocolate bar while they're out?", she asked.
"Sure, no problem.", you said. "Now sit tight (ha ha). Be back soon."
You returned an hour or so later. With chocolate. You peeked into the bedroom. "Chara?"
She wasn't there. Uh oh. You started to panic. You picked up your cell phone and searched through your contacts for Sans. You hoped that the rumors you heard about his ability to make things unpleasant for others weren't exaggerated.
Just before you hit send, you heard the front door open.
"C-Chara?", you gulped.
"Oh, hi!", she said, walking in carrying a couple of boxes. "You're back sooner than I thought you'd be. I was going to surprise you." She placed the boxes on the kitchen table.
"Y-you were?", you asked. "H-how did you untie yourself?"
"Oh, I just cut through the ropes with my knife.", she said and held up her signature knife.
"Oh, ok...", you said. You explicitly remembered burying that thing in the woods... and how did she cut through the rope if she was all tied up, anyway?
"Uh... where have you been?", you asked, hoping she wasn't going to say something like "murdering your friends".
"I went to the costume shop!", she said, enthusiastically. "I though the whole bondage thing was getting a little stale, so I thought up something else we could do in the bedroom!"
She opened up one of the boxes and pulled out a black robe looking thing. "Here, put this on.", she said as she handed it to you.
"What is this?", you asked as you held the robe up and let gravity unfold it for you.
"It's a priest's outfit!", she said. "And wait 'til you see what I got for me to wear!"
She picked up the other box. "Meet me in the bedroom in five minutes.", she said with a dirty smile on her face and walked into the bedroom and closed the door. Almost immediately after that, she opened the door again and stuck her head out. "And bring the chocolate!", she ordered, then closed the door for good.
Your heart was pounding. You needed to make sure everyone was safe. You ran over to the computer and opened up Facebook.
You checked the profile pages of all your friends and... everyone was fine. Nobody mentioned any murders, deaths, or stabbings. Most of your friends had even updated their statuses within the last half hour. There's no way she could have killed anyone in that short a time.
"I'm ready!", Chara yelled from the bedroom. "Are you coming?"
"Yes! Sorry, one moment!", you yelled back. You quickly pulled your clothes off, threw the priest's outfit on, and entered the bedroom.
Chara was on her knees in the middle of the bed. Her eyes were closed and she had her hands together as if in prayer. She was wearing the contents of the other box, a sexy nun's outfit.
She opened her eyes and looked at you. "Bless me father, for I have sinned.", she said.
You stared at her for a moment in shock. She enjoyed your reaction and grinned at you.
You snapped out of it. "How long has it been since your last 'confession'?", you asked, playing along as you approached the bed.
"Far too long.", she answered and she grabbed your robe at the chest and pulled you closer.
You hoped God wasn't watching.
Chara wasn't into bondage anymore, so you couldn't keep her tied up. Instead, you didn't let her out of your sight, waiting for the moment she got bored of you and started her killing spree.
But it never came. Days and weeks went by and she hadn't even mentioned killing. It was like she had forgotten about it completely.
Now all she wanted to do was explore her sexuality with you. You were happy to indulge her... for the sake of your friends, of course!
But there was more to your relationship than just that. She was kind to you. She was affectionate, even outside the bedroom. She treated you like an equal, not just a source of EXP like you assumed she saw everyone else.
She liked to be close to you. She would cuddle up on the couch with you to watch TV, help you do the cooking (she liked chopping things up), and just be as near to you as possible, whatever you were doing.
Oddly enough, you liked being close to her as well. If fact, it felt weird not being around her. You guessed that when someone spends years living inside your head, you're going to miss them when they're gone, even if they were... not really the greatest person.
You started to think that maybe she could be redeemed. Maybe you could change her. Maybe you could help her overcome her... disability. You decided that you needed to stay with her, not just for your friends' sake, but for her's as well.
Your friends knew something was up. They kept asking you why you weren't spending as much time with them. Who this mysterious girl you were always hanging around with was. Why you started buying chocolate bars by the case load. You evaded the questions, but you knew you had to tell them eventually.
"Chara, uh, people are starting to talk...", you said one day. "About you... about us... What should I tell them?"
She looked up from the magazine she was "reading". Really, she was just going through and drawing X's on people's faces with a red marker.
"Tell them that I am the fallen child, come back from the dead with the singular purpose of amassing as much power as possible by killing everyone and everything.", she responded nonchalantly. "And that the only thing keeping me from doing it, is you, the monster ambassador to humans, distracting me with sexual favors."
"Uh...", you said.
"Hey, I'm just following your advice.", she said. "'Honesty is the best policy'. Isn't that what you told me after I lied to you about stabbing the couch cushion?"
"Yes, but...", you said, flustered. "I can't tell them all of that!"
"Fine, then.", she said, flipping the page of her magazine. "Tell them the truth, just omit a few of the details."
"What is the truth?", you asked, genuinely curious.
"I live with you, we hang out all the time, we have all sorts of crazy sex...", she said.
"You're... my girlfriend?", you asked.
"Sure, that works.", she said as she drew another X over a celebrity's face. "Tell them that."
So you did. You told them that Chara was your girlfriend. You started appearing in public together. You even introduced her to your friends.
You were a little worried about introducing her to Toriel and Asgore, though. What if they recognized her as the child they lost years ago? How would you explain that to them?
"That's right, it's Chara!", you thought the conversation might go. "You remember her, don't you? Well, she's been living inside my head for the past few years and then, just a few months ago, she willed a body of her own out of thin air, using pure determination!"
"At first she wanted to kill me and everyone else, but then I beat her up, tied her up, and fucked the evil out of her!"
"What is determination you ask? Well, it's this magical power that allows people to come back to life and me to control time! Also, it brought Asriel back to life, but he's a flower now and he's killed everyone multiple times..."
You thought it would be best to spare them all the gritty details.
You visited your adopted mother at her house to spill the beans.
"So Mom, I met this girl...", you said.
"That's what I've heard!", she said as she poured hot water over the tea bag in the cup in front of you. "Tell me all about her, my child!"
"Well, she's really beautiful...", you said as you dunked the tea bag in and out of the cup. "She's got red hair, red, uh, eyes..."
"She's a goat monster?", she asked.
"What?! God, no!", you said, disgusted.
Toriel looked offended.
"Not that there's anything wrong with that!", you said, holding your hands up in the air.
"Sorry, my child.", she said. "When you said 'red eyes', I thought you were talking about a goat monster."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense.", you said, looking into your mother's own red eyes. "Sorry I overreacted."
Secretly, the idea of being in a relationship with a goat monster repulsed you.
"It's fine, my child.", she said. "But I thought red eyes were rare in humans?"
"They are.", you replied. "But she's pretty rare, too. A real gem, you might say!" You started to sip your tea.
"You know who else had red eyes?", she asked. "Chara! She was..."
You spit your tea out across the table.
"Agh!", she yelped. "What did you do that for?!"
"Sorry!", you said. "It was, uh... hotter than I expected."
"Try to be more careful, my child.", she said. "Now what did you say this girl's name was?"
Luckily, when you did finally introduce Chara to them, they didn't recognize her.
"Mom, Dad, this is Chara.", you said.
"Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!", Chara greeted them.
You shot her a dirty look. She just smiled back at you. There was no doubt about it now, she truly was pure evil.
"Oh isn't that sweet!", Toriel said. "She already sees me as her mother in law! You guys must be pretty serious!"
"Do I hear wedding bells?", Asgore joked.
When they commented on her having the same name as their late adopted child, you lied to them and told them "Chara" was a common human name.
"I've never heard of anyone else named 'Chara' before...", Toriel said, skeptical.
"Well, uh, not here.", you replied. "It's Greek."
"Oh, ok.", she said.
"Yeah, it's like the third most popular name in Greece.", you continued. "Every other person is named 'Chara' there. Men and women. It's like literally an entire country full of..."
"Ok! Ok! We get it!", she said.
Weeks turned to months. It had been almost a year since Chara had come back. Your relationship had changed. It was more like a normal relationship now, just with more knives.
Your sex life was much less kinky, too. You and Chara had exhausted all of her fetishes. Well... most of them. There were a few you refused to go along with...
"Oh, c'mon!", she had said. "It won't be that bad!"
"Anything but that.", you replied.
"Please?", she begged you.
"Honestly? I think I'd rather you kill all my friends.", you said. You picked up a knife. "Hell, I'll do it myself!"
Now when you had sex, it was more slow and romantic. More passionate. It was the kind of sex people had when they... really, really liked spending time with each other?
You were cuddled up on the couch watching a documentary on knives that Chara picked out.
"You see that knife there? The black one?", Chara said, pointing at the TV screen. "That's an obsidian knife! Obsidian can be up to 100 times sharper than steel! They can be made so sharp that they can cut between cells rather than tear them like a steel knife would!"
"Dang, I'd hate to be on the receiving end of one of those.", you said. Then you remembered something you hadn't thought about in a long time.
"Uh, Chara...", you said. "I have something I've been meaning to ask you..."
"Yeah?", she replied.
"Do you... uh, how do I say it..." You looked into her eyes. "Do you... still want to kill everyone?"
She tilted her head and thought for a moment. "Yes, I suppose I do.", she admitted.
"Oh...", you said and turned your head away. You thought maybe you had changed her...
She grabbed your chin and turned your head back towards her. "But I'm not going to."
"You're not?!", you asked, astonished.
"No.", she said. "And do you know why?"
"Why?", you asked.
She smiled lovingly and leaned in and kissed you. "Because you don't want me to."
"Oh, wow...", you said. "Thank you... thank you so much..." You felt tears welling up in your eyes. You put your arms around her and hugged her tightly.
Chara had an insatiable lust for power and was willing to do whatever it took to get that power. She couldn't help that. You couldn't change that.
But she could still love. And her love for you overpowered her love for power. Her love was greater than her LOVE.