A/N: Thanks to my friend Talisman and Anna for pre-reading and helping out with feedback! Hope folks enjoy this chapter!
Asriel had never seen such emotions in anyone.
Admittedly, he didn't have much to go on. Monster Souls were made of magic, love, and compassion. It was difficult for Monsters to feel hate, to feel rage.
Humans it seemed, or at least Chara, were different.
Chara was still under the effects of the toxins eating the buttercups had brought, but his DETERMINATION was giving him the magical strength now to fight it as his red eyes blazed with the fire of his anger, his rage… his hatred.
He didn't think it was directed at him… at least, not the hatred. Though, from the way his brother was looking at him he couldn't be sure.
"You… You IDIOT!" Chara shouted again as he managed, with some effort, to stand. His legs quaked and his hands shook as they balled up into fists. "We were so close Asriel! Just what were you thinking would have to happen when we came up here?!"
Asriel slowly pushed himself back up, letting him return Chara's hate filled glare with a determined one of his own. Again he felt the surge of that energy… that special power that could do the impossible…
"T-This… this isn't what I wanted Chara." Asriel replied. Even with the DETERMINATION he felt in his soul, his emotions were all over the place, not knowing what might happen next, only knowing that he wasn't going to let Chara's plan succeed. "This isn't what y-you said we'd do!"
"How else did you think we were going to get the souls Asriel? Just ask six humans nicely if we can borrow their souls?! 'Oh mister, if you'd be so kind, could you please give us your soul, so we can free the monsters?' Hah!" he spat, the hatred dripping from every one of his words.
"You didn't say anything about killing innocents! Y-You said we'd only go after bad humans!" Asriel shouted back… only to backpedal back into the armed human from the hostility of Chara's stare.
"THEY'RE ALL BAD!" Chara bellowed, glancing about as he noticed some more humans arrive, holding weapons but not yet raising them. Asriel noted that several of them were now giving their full attention to Chara, and ignoring him.
"Humans are ruthless, violent!" He shouted, his voice getting louder as his emotions boiled forth. "They hurt each other over the smallest of things, they kill each other over petty things and destroy everything around them! Everything they touch eventually turns to ash and bone! They don't know love Asriel!"
Asriel could see some humans shifting about, though many were frowning or even glaring at Chara now. He wasn't sure about it, but he could swear one or two of them seemed to recognize Chara…
"They fear what they can't control, and if they can't control it, they kill it. Just look around you! We hadn't done anything yet, and they were already rushing for their weapons, weapons designed to make killing each other as simple as flicking a switch!"
"Of course they were afraid!" Asriel shouted back, his courage returning as he took a few steps forward.
"They saw a strange creature carrying a child in its arms, a child that they thought was… dead…" His voice trailed off there as his mind put the pieces together again. He knew why the humans had been afraid… why they'd been freaking out… They'd seen their joined form walking through the streets… with a seemingly dead child...
They'd thought… that he'd killed the boy he was carrying… and that…
Chara… you…
Asriel's own eyes had left his brother, his friend for a moment as he worked through it. Now they returned, his own gaze full of hurt and anger as he realized the truth. Or at least some of it.
"Y-You… Y-You USED ME!" Asriel screamed out, the pain he was feeling only growing a bit worse when he didn't see Chara do anything to deny it. His eyes began to water as hurt and anger crashed about in his soul. "Y-You knew w-what would happen if I carried you out here like that!"
"So what if I did?" Chara called back, eyes flashing in anger. "I love you Asriel, but you've always been such a crybaby dork, I knew you wouldn't be up for doing what needed to be done!"
Asriel's tears weren't just of sadness or despair now… Chara's words were making him angry… angrier than he'd ever felt before.
"What was n-needed? What was needed was only s-six Chara. Six more souls, and t-then the barrier can be broken… we don't NEED an entire village's worth… and certainly not the rest of humanity!"
Chara was shaking his head, fists quaking further. His eyes were almost glowing with his DETERMINATION and anger. Asriel might have been seeing things, but he almost swore his sclera turned black for a brief moment.
Chara spoke again, and Asriel wondered if he remembered it wasn't just the two of them standing here.
"They are parasites Asriel. Vermin. Beasts. The REAL Monsters. I've seen and felt it firsthand… I've read our history… the only way for the Monsters to be truly free… to be at peace… is if humans are gone… can't you see that?"
There was, almost, a tone of pleading to his brother's voice.
"They haven't changed Asriel… there's more of them too… there's nothing that will stop humans from imprisoning the monsters all over again… or destroying them!" Chara added on, taking a shaking step forward. "Monsters deserve this world more than they do… it has to be this way, we have to kill them before they kill us!"
Asriel realized that Chara was now ignoring the humans… which, given his words, wasn't too surprising. He could hear some of them murmuring, could see a few humans with children now trying to keep the children behind them. A few, especially the ones with guns, were starting to look rather disgusted and sick of Chara's words…
Maybe Chara was trying to egg them on again… maybe Chara wanted one of them to get so mad at him that they'd do something to hurt him, to guilt him into thinking he was right… to do what he figured was needed.
Asriel could still feel some lingering emotions Chara had been feeling when they were joined… he knew, at least, that Chara was speaking truth… or at least, he was trying to convince himself of it, that his brother, his best friend, was being sincere when he said he loved him.
But as he looked into Chara's eyes… as his own magic helped him to see Chara's soul better… all he could feel right now was hate. If he was to shift into a FIGHT he was certain a dark, blood-red aura would be surrounding Chara…
Chara's hatred was consuming him now that he was here, now that he'd had a taste of power, power that he could use for his vendetta against humanity.
He could see… and feel the greater truth… he had made the right decision. And now… now he had to make another one… it was going to hurt to do so.
"It doesn't have to be that way Chara… you just want it to be that way. And right now… with all the hate I see and feel in you… the things you wanted to do… there's only one bad guy here right now… and it's you."
Asriel turned away from Chara, his tears flowing again. He wanted his Mama… he wanted his Father… he wished they were here… he… he wanted to think that Chara, his best friend, his brother…
Silence fell on the square as everything again seemed to hold still. Many of the humans were still confused about what was going on, though more than a few were giving sympathetic glances to the small little… well, was he a monster? He didn't look like one… not like he had moments before at least…
Chara stood there, eyes wide as he stared at the back of Asriel… his brother, the first Monster to take him in… to show him what love was really like… a tiny voice in his mind tried to rally, tried to break through the hate and anger and pain… his mind was in conflict as he tried to make sense of all the emotions he was feeling.
He loved and cared for Asriel… he knew that. He'd done all this, put himself through physical pain and watched Mom and King Dad Guy suffer as they were unable to help him while he was sick. This had been for them, for all of them… and yet, now, the one he cared so much was standing in the way...
Rage and hatred however, were feelings he had felt for much longer, and kept bottled up for so long. The desire for vengeance against humanity for what it did to itself, for what it had done to the monsters… for what it had done to him…
There was just too much of it. Love can be powerful, but so can the darker emotions. And those emotions had been with Chara for much, much longer.
Something inside Chara snapped as all that pent-up emotion redirected itself at the only person he was really able to see through the haze of red and black. There was now one person responsible for stopping the Monsters from being free… stopping humanity from being wiped off the face of the Earth like the plague it was.
Asriel felt the world around him dim slightly as the FIGHT lines formed and his own magic warned him he was in mortal danger. Then he heard the inarticulate scream of fury as he slowly turned and saw Chara charging towards him… magic was gathering in his hands, forming a blood-red blade that resembled the knife that Chara had brought with him when he fell into the underground.
Asriel knew some magic… but even with as angry as he was at Chara right now, he couldn't bring himself to strike his friend with it. He could only stare, horrified into the eyes of the hateful demon rushing towards him.
This wasn't his friend… this wasn't his brother… for a brief moment, Asriel wondered if this was the real Chara… if what they'd seen in the Underground was a lie.
Then time seemed to pick back up as he heard a rush of footsteps, and suddenly the fight lines vanished as Chara was tackled from the side by another human, a woman. The knife that had been forming in Chara's hand went flying, dissipating into nothingness.
Chara was unable to form coherent speech as another human, a man, came over to try to help subdue him. Asriel noticed that the woman was wearing some kind of uniform, a hat lying nearby that seemed to have fallen off when she went lunging for Chara.
Being pinned by two adults didn't seem to stop Chara from trying to struggle, his rage causing him to flail, scratch, and try to bite at the two. The man yet out a yelp and clutched at his hand even as the woman pulled something metal off her belt and managed to pull Chara's arms around to his back.
Asriel heard a clack, and that seemed to break Chara out of his rage for a moment as he slumped. He let out a cough or two, the toxins from the buttercups catching up again as his body shuddered, and he screwed his eyes shut, a hiss of pain escaping his mouth.
But then… then the hiss started to turn into a giggle, and then a chortle. Soon enough, he was chuckling and laughing aloud as he threw his head back and filled the air with his cackles. There was no warmth to it, no joy or happiness. It was a dark, empty laugh.
"What's so funny you damn demented freak?" The man asked as the woman pulled Chara up. Chara let his head drop back, his eyes covered by his hair… but that creepy smile of his was plastered across his face.
"Hehehe… idiot… your a useless idiot Asriel… I guess congratulations are in order… congratulations on screwing yourself and all the Monsters of the Underground over!" Chara looked up, one eye flashing black and red as the other glowed.
Asriel started, a pit slowly growing in his stomach as Chara continued. "Sure, good job ya big crybaby… you stopped me from killing anyone and getting anymore souls. You've saved a bunch of worthless parasites… and trapped yourself up here!" He laughed again, his smile widening.
"The barrier's meant to keep things in sure, but it was designed to keep the Monsters in… who knows what it'd do to a monster that's gotten past it like you did, all thanks to me and the sacrifice I was willing to make!" He began to cackle like a crazy person as he finished with,
"Have fun knowing your free, but all the rest of the Monsters are stuck down there, and now there's nothing you can do to help them! I was the only one who could help free everyone, and you stopped me! Now there hopes and dreams are going to be crushed!"
Asriel dropped to his knees, tears quickly beginning to pour forth from his eyes. He didn't notice another officer arrive and drag the cackling Chara away. All he could see was the faces of his Mom and Dad… the other monsters down there…
He had no way of knowing, truthfully, if Chara was right. Chara could have just been lashing out as his whole plan came crumbling down…
But… but what if he was right? What if the barrier wouldn't let him back through? What if it tried to destroy him as he pushed through? What if he just couldn't pass through at all? He hadn't thought about anything like that!
But then… why would he? He… he had trusted his best friend, his adopted brother… the plan hadn't involved ejecting Chara's soul from his body…
He… was he really an idiot? Had Asriel just doomed his friends and family back home?
It was all too much. He cradled himself and began to bawl, sobbing as he tried to cry out apologies to his Mom, Dad… to every single monster he'd ever met…
He was left like that for only a moment, before he suddenly felt a hand brushing some of his tears away, and a hand gently resting on his shoulder. Asriel blinked, raising his head and looking into the eyes of the woman who had tackled Chara.
Her eyes were a bright green, and had a kind look to them as she offered him a smile. He then looked to the hand, and saw that it was the man with the gun. The weapon was pointing to the ground now and held loosely in his hands.
"I don't know exactly what's going on… but… it's going to be okay." The man said, trying to reassure Asriel. Asriel wasn't sure if the man really believed it, but that this stranger was willing to try to say such showed he cared more about how Asriel was feeling right now than his own brother had…
The woman nodded, and opened her arms up for a hug. Asriel felt his eyes tearing up even more as he cried out again and threw himself into her arms, clinging tightly to her like a life preserver in a violent storm.
The tears didn't stop, and he kept crying until the darkness took him.