This was how it was supposed to be, Asriel was sure of it then. Chara and him, along with Orenda, they were that trio of friends that you always saw with each other. And they were such an odd little group that all you could do was mention one and everyone knew that you were referring to all three of them. You could almost always find them playing some kind of game that let out their best.

Asriel was always the prince- no one could have it any other way. Chara was the warlock that was once a priest of high stature, but then forced into a vow of silence by an evil hag. Orenda was never the same persona twice; some times she was an unstoppable force, soothed only through song- other times she was the princess in need of saving, to which Asriel answered the call. Today, she just wanted to be alone, which seemed weird for her but Asriel respected it. This led him and Chara alone to test their grappling device. Using a part of some combustible energy, the two were going to shoot the device to the top of the hole that Chara had fallen down over a year ago to see if they could climb back up. It was a miracle that they were able to keep it a secret from Mom and Dad for so long too.

With blind faith, Asriel followed Chara to the very back of the Ruins and together they worked to aim the makeshift machine right at one of the only true sources of light the Underground had. When it was positioned correctly, Chara gave Asriel a nod to summon a bit of his fire magic. The goat child gave an affirmative nod before summoning a small pillar of fire magic that was no larger than a pea. Guiding the little flame under a small boiler built into the device, Asriel then carefully expanded the flame so it could heat up the combustible materials inside. It didn't take long for the contents to heat up, and without much warning, a loud 'BANG' came from the device as the grappling hook rose into the air faster than anything alive. All Chara and Asriel could do was wait and watch for when it reached the top… or plummet back down to the ground.

"Chara," Asriel started to say as he noticed that the rope connected to the grappling hook started to rise off of the ground, "I don't think we're going to have enough-"

Before Asriel could finish, Chara raised a hand to silence the goat child just seconds before the end of the rope dangled a little bit of distance off the ground. It just hung there, and the two simply stared at it as if they were expecting something more- the rope to suddenly give way, or the hook to come down, almost clipping one of them on the side. Chara was the first to walk over to gently pull on the rope to see if anything happened. When nothing did, the fallen human gave an even harder tug that Asriel was sure could have made something happen if it was going to.

"I'll call when you can come up." Chara said to Asriel before starting to get a firm hold on the rope to climb. Their voice was always so harsh, almost like they didn't want to talk at all but felt obligated to.

"But what if..." Asriel started to say, but his voice trailed off when Chara gave the goat child a glare that could have killed. But humans can't do that… can they?

"Do you trust me?" Chara asked in a tone that was so low that it was almost unbearable.

No. No, no, no, no, NO!

"Yes Chara." Asriel agreed calmly. "I'll always trust you."

You... idiot.

Chara nodded before starting to work up the rope as Asriel watched on. The fallen child was able to make fairly decent progress before a faint, echoing sound of the rope snapping somewhere further up the line. It was nothing more than a split second that the whole rope came undone, allowing gravity to take Chara with a shove and make the fallen human fall back into the Underground once again.

"Chara!" Asriel exclaimed, rushing to the fallen human's side in a panic. The human did not respond and only lay on the ground. Quickly, administering what little restorative magic he knew, Asriel attempted to heal any of Chara's injuries where he could. It's not like Chara had been hurt that bad- might have some back pain later or something, but other than that...

"C-Chara…?" Asriel quietly asked, getting close to the human. "Are… are you alright?"

"That was supposed to work."

"Chara?"

Slowly, the human sat up and stared at the ground. Asriel quickly found out that this was much worse than five seconds ago when he thought his friend was dead.

"You built that rope." Chara muttered darkly. It was so dark, and with Chara's already harsh tone, the resulting effect gave Asriel a cold shiver up his back. "You built the rope that was supposed to be strong. You built the rope that was going to take us up to the surface! Do you not want to get to the surface, Asriel? Or did you want to kill your only friend?"

Asriel face suddenly turned pale. He had been sure that the rope had been study enough, honest, so why was Chara treating him like a criminal? It was an accident and nothing more. What was wrong with his friend? Did he not use his restorative magic right? Did he...

"There's only one way we can get to the surface now." Chara then decided, standing up as if nothing were wrong and brushed off some dirt.

"Chara no!" Asriel exclaimed as his eyes grew wide. "Anything, anything but that!"

"We have no other choice."

"No Chara! We don't know what will happen to your soul if you… Chara there has to be some other way!"

"There is no other way Asriel." Chara coldly informed the goat child, who tried so desperately to choke back tears that would have no effect on the fallen human. "Tonight we will get the buttercups. And then tomorrow, when Mother and Father aren't looking, we'll-"

"No!" the goat child wailed. "I won't do it! You won't make me do it either! Maybe… maybe Orenda has an idea!"

The look Chara gave Asriel was not only enough to kill, but it was enough to reanimate and kill again. "The witch..." Chara mumbled.

"Orenda." Asriel agreed, with a nod, "Maybe she has an idea. I don't want you to… Please let's just go see Orenda."

Chara gave the goat child a blank stare while giving a stiff nod in confirmation.

. . .

She spent most of her time alone, and that was how she rather liked it. While they had gone off doing whatever it was they planned on doing. Orenda carefully worked as she tried to make something appear from nothing. So far whatever the thing was, it was going to be thin and packaged in a neat square- maybe it would be another record, she liked conjuring those.

"Orenda!" a hopeful voice called out to her. Looking up for a moment, Orenda saw Asriel and Chara coming over to her. The goat child looked desperate, and the human looked… well, there weren't a lot of expressions Chara could pull off -particularly if they involved a bit of oxytocin- and this look was far into the depths of anything pleasant. Chara was also holding something, rope? Why did they have a rope?

"Orenda!" Asriel waved when they were close enough to her. "We need your help!"

"With… what?" Orenda asked carefully, not for once letting her eyes leave the rope.

"Go on Chara, ask her." Asriel said the human, even giving them a tiny nudge. Chara didn't move for a moment, appearing to be in deep thought about something.

"Well, we did come over to let you fix our rope." Chara lazily decided as the rope entwined between the fingers of the human like an odd snake. "But you're a witch. Witches need to be judged..."

"Chara, no, that's not what we agreed!" Asriel said to the fallen child in utter shock. "She can fix it, honest! It would be even stronger than before, maybe even make it longer!"

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Chara declared in a low, haunting tone. Orenda's eyes expanded as she quickly tried to scramble away, but Chara had been too fast for her and she quickly found the rope tied around her neck rather tightly. Orenda attempted to struggle, but it only tightened the rope more.

"Now let's see if she sinks or floats." Chara maliciously whispered into Orenda's ear.

"No!" Asriel exclaimed, but Chara ignored him.

Orenda continued to struggle as Chara pushed her to the edge of a small pool of water. Small as it was, it was still enough to drown her if the fallen human kept her head under the water. Realizing that she had to do something quickly, Orenda tried to summon a little plastic knife that when in the mortal plane well enough, she took hold of it. Not caring if the knife hit Chara or not, Orenda swung it at the human- the knife did manage to clip the fallen human on the side, and Chara let go of the rope while letting out a small giggle, acting as if the knife had been a feather instead.

Asriel, who had remained where he was in awe and fear of what was going on, suddenly acted on a will not entirely his own as he pushed Chara into the water instead. Orenda took this as an opportunity to get away as fast as she could, running for as long as her feet could take her. Asriel wanted to go after her, to tell her that he didn't mean what Chara did and he'd apologize for Chara even if it wasn't mutual, but the goat child had been planted on the spot; like a flower, a stupid little golden flower that could do nothing to leave the world it so hated.

"You said you trusted me." Chara croaked with a less than pleasurable smile. The goat child stared down at his friend, imaginary words passed between them but nothing was really said to confirm the idea. He shouldn't have known where Orenda was going, and who she was going to meet. He shouldn't have known that this stranger was going to help her develop her powers to the point where she'll be able to save him some day. He shouldn't have known that her memories were now fused with his- an incurable, and likely permanent side effect of what lengths she wanted to get at to set him free.

This was the day, Asriel realized, where everything was the same as it never was.


Thank you so much for reading this far if you have! There's a bit of background for this chapter, but it all boils down to this: I've always wanted to have a chapter where everyone's memories blended seamlessly into each other's, to show how the spell has taken effect on Flowey and Orenda. Chara and Asriel's grappling hook device was mentioned in an earlier chapter, and the events that transpired for Orenda is what led up to her first initial meeting with Sans.

This chapter also ended up being a bit longer than the others, just because I didn't want to make two separate chapters to get the dream across. Although long, I'm satisfied with how this chapter ended up, and I hope you like it to!