CHAPTER 10

They rushed forward, panting, as they saw the open door from the Ruins. "hey, take it easy." Sans stepped out from behind a bush. "you almost beat me here."

"I... I just want to get to Asriel, Sans. I want to see him again."

"i want to see him too, but slow down a bit. it would be pretty dumb to fall and sprain something when you're so close, right?"

They took a deep breath. "Yeah, you're right. I'm ready to keep going now though. Are you coming with us, Sans?"

"why not? i haven't been here in a long, long time. might as well go with you and have a look."

They walked together through Toriel's house and into the Ruins. They told Sans how to avoid the pitfalls, but he just winked and took them on a "shortcut" to the other side. They passed over the spike maze, and crossed the patch of grass where they had first met Asriel as a flower.

They found Asriel kneeling next to Chara's body on the bed of golden flowers where Frisk had fallen. The body was wearing a green and yellow striped shirt and looked as though it were asleep, breathing deeply and regularly.

Asriel looked up. "Frisk, Chara! Who's with you?"

"This is Sans, Asriel. He helped us out along the way."

"hi, asriel. glad to meet you."

"Howdy, Sans." Asriel looked at Sans anxiously as his eyesocket started glowing blue. "Um... is that normal?"

"don't mind me. just takin' a closer look."

"It's okay, Asriel." Frisk stepped towards him. "We just asked him to keep an eye on things while we swap souls."

"Okay." Asriel said, turning to Frisk. "So... now what?"

"Like we planned. I give you back your soul, then you take Chara's soul and put it back in his body."

"O-okay..." Asriel took a deep breath. "Are you ready?"

"Yes. Your soul first." Frisk concentrated, and a glowing heart the color of ivory appeared between them. Asriel reached out, hands trembling, and took it. He brought it to his chest, and gasped as it vanished into him.

"Asriel?"

"I-I have a soul again. I can feel again. Thank you... thank you thank you thank you-" He jumped forward, hugging Frisk, still chanting "Thank you." They stood together for a moment; then Asriel stepped back. "Now it's Chara's turn, right?"

"I-just a second." (Chara? Are you ready to do this?)

(Yes. Frisk... I'm going to miss you.)

(Hey, it's not like you're going anywhere.)

(You know what I mean. Talking to each other like this. Feeling what the other feels.)

(...Yeah. I know.)

(Frisk... thank you for bringing me back. For helping me to change.)

(Thanks for coming back, Chara. And for choosing to change.)

(See you soon, Frisk.)

(See you soon, Chara.)

x*******x

Sans watched as Asriel regained his soul and embraced Frisk, thanking him (looks good so far... wait.) The blue glow in his eye brightened as Frisk parted with Chara, and held out Chara's red-glowing half-heart of a soul to Asriel. (what's that in there with him?) His eye widened and blazed. (No. NO!)

"FRISK! GET AWAY FROM ASRIEL!"

Asriel had already reached out and taken Chara's soul, and was smiling as his right hand held up a ball of fire. Sans wrapped Frisk in his magic and pulled him back, but Asriel was already bringing his right arm forward-

Only for it to jerk to the side, flinging the fireball to the floor.

"Sans?!" Frisk looked at Sans in shock as he was released and dropped to the ground, and Sans faced Asriel, eye flaming.

"I made another mistake."

"Sans, what's wrong with Asriel?!"

"i thought what was left of chara's soul died with asriel's when he turned to dust. it didn't. it was just asleep. and when asriel got his soul back, the old chara woke up again."

Asriel faced them, grinning. He formed a swarm of fireballs and flung them forward, but they passed well over their heads and the wall of bones that Sans had brought up to block them. He grimaced.

"but it looks like asriel's not playing along with him."

x******x
Finally, after all this time, he was awake again. And this time he would succeed. This time he would finish things, and nothing would stand in his way. He called up another fireball, massive, too large to be dodged, and-

(No.)

His hand jerked and the fireball flew into the ceiling, knocking loose a shower of rocks and soil. He hissed in frustration. What was interfering with him? Not Asriel, he'd made sure to take control firmly this time.

His hands rose, and he formed more fireballs, a net weaving around him. He swept his arms forward-

(I will not hurt Frisk. I will not hurt Sans.)

The fireballs vanished.

His eyes widened. The other piece of him. The one he had taken from that boy.

(You! You're the one stopping me!)

(Yes. It's time to quit being an idiot.)

(It's time to quit being a pathetic weakling!) His soul split as he flung his weaker part away from him. He grinned as he turned back to the skeleton and the human. Now he could get on with it. He called forth more fire-but none came.

(I am not going to let you hurt them.)

He turned his focus inwards. The weaker piece of his soul looked like he did, a boy in a yellow and green striped shirt, with an expression of determination on his face. (Then I'll just have to get rid of you first.) His soul changed shape, swelling into an enormous knight in black armor. He raised a two-handed sword, edges burning with flame, and charged.

x******x
Frisk watched as Asriel dropped and started twitching. "Sans? What's going on?"

"it... looks like a piece of chara's soul just split off of asriel's soul. and now they're fighting."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"nope. just wait and hope asriel and our chara win."

x******x
Chara shivered as the knight charged at him. Fear tried to paralyze him, but he overcame it and rolled to the side. The knight followed up the overhand chop with a sweep, but Chara ducked and scrambled back as the knight advanced. (You know, I really was an idiot. I never thought my plans through to the very end.)

The knight's two-handed sword changed to a bladed mace. It swung at Chara, but he dodged each swing, the mace whistling past his head as he rolled away from the last swipe. (Killing people for souls to break the barrier, for instance. The monsters would have ended up at war with humans again.)

(That was the point, idiot.) The knight changed weapons again, this time to a long sword, slashing at Chara.

(Really?) Chara danced back and to the side as the sword swished by, cutting his shirt. (Because I wanted to break the barrier make Asriel happy. I wanted revenge, but I came up with the plan in the first place because I saw how much Asriel wanted everyone to be free to leave the Underground. Seeing the war start again, being responsible for that... it would have killed him.)

The knight's sword trembled for an instant, and was still again. (The villagers deserved to die for what they did to us. To Asriel.)

(For trying to stop what they thought was a killer? For attacking something stronger than them to defend their village? I remember the people who killed Asriel and me. They weren't the ones who took kids from the orphanage and brought them back again when they were too weak to work. Those were the people looking out from their windows or running away. The ones attacking us were yelling at their own kids to get to safety. They were trying to protect them.)

The knight's sword swung wide, missing Chara, and he snarled. (The humans shut us down here! They imprisoned everyone!)

(They were afraid. What they did was wrong. But the villagers didn't do that. They didn't deserve to die for it. And the monsters had forgiven humans. If they hadn't, they would have killed me when I first fell. They would have taught Asriel to hate me before he ever found me.)

The knight stood, shuddering.

(Asriel... you were right.)

The knight lurched towards Chara.

(If I hadn't brought my body to the village, I don't know what would have happened. But at least there would have been a chance for peace. My plan was to kill people, and that would have meant another war. More dead humans, more dead monsters.)

The knight raised his sword.

(You stopped me, Asriel. You saved everyone. And you never blamed me, even though it was my fault.)

The knight rocked, sword poised over Chara.

(Asriel... thank you.)

The knight flung his sword away.

(Chara... Chara, I'm sorry, I-)

(NO!) The knight dissolved as a white heart shot away from the shape of a boy with a knife, shifting in flight to the shape of Asriel. (I'm not going to let you stop me again, Asriel!) The boy charged towards Asriel's fallen form, raising the knife. (I'll kill you, and you'll never get in my way again!) The knife flashed down.

(LIKE HELL!)

The knife stabbed home... into Chara.

(No! Chara!) Asriel looked up at the two boys, one with a knife and eyes glaring with hatred, the other standing between them facing him, bleeding from a stab wound in his back.

(Asriel. You make sure that we don't hurt anyone else. I'll make sure that I don't hurt you.)

(But, Chara-)

(I will not let myself hurt you again, Asriel. I promise.)

(O-okay...)

The boy with the knife smiled. (You shouldn't make promises you can't keep.) He raised his hand, and a line of knives shot towards Asriel.

(I haven't.) Chara stepped in front of the silver stream.

x******x
Asriel shook, convulsing.

"Sans, what's happening now?"

"our chara was fighting asriel and the old chara, but then the old chara split away from asriel's soul. he's trying to kill asriel now. our chara is stopping him."

"How?"

"by getting in front of everything that would hurt asriel. i don't know how he can keep it up."

Frisk stared at Asriel, and then his eyes widened. "He's doing what I did."

"what?"

"Chara tried to kill me when we first met, but I was too determined to save Asriel. Chara loves Asriel-that's what's giving him the determination to keep going."

"looks like he needs it." Sans shook his head. "he's taking a beating. and if he can't find a way to stop his old self, it's gonna be a stalemate."

x******x
Knives came from every side, seeking Asriel. Chara caught all of them - in his body, his hands, his arms, his legs. His clothes were cut to rags. His soul ached. But he refused to die.

"You know, this isn't getting us anywhere," Chara said to Chara. "I'm not going to let Asriel get hurt, and I'm not going to stop."

"You'll run down eventually." The knives kept flying, coming from both sides at once.

"I don't think so." Chara placed his back to one set of knives, shielding Asriel, while catching those from the other side with his hands and arms. Fresh blood dripped down his hands and back. "And really, the plan to destroy the world was even worse than the one to destroy the barrier."

"How?" A ring of knives appeared around Chara and Asriel. "I would have taken the humans' souls, then the monsters' souls. I would have been a god, with the power to destroy the entire world."

"Uh huh. Just one problem." Chara pulled Asriel behind him as he broke through the ring, catching any knife that threatened Asriel in his own body. "I would have ended up in Hell."

The knife-wielding Chara laughed. "Hell? Really?"

The bleeding Chara shrugged. "Something close enough to count." He stepped towards his doppelganger. "Why don't we talk about this? Fighting isn't getting us anywhere. Even if you killed Asriel, I'm not going to let you do anything with his body. The only way for either of us to win is to come to an understanding."

"Hmm..." The knife-carrying boy considered. "Agreed." The knives around them vanished. "So, you claim that destroying everything would end with us in Hell. How, exactly, does a god end up in Hell?"

"I started thinking about it after remembering what Asriel said as Flowey, about resetting the timeline over and over. Trying everything he could think of until there was nothing left."

"But his power was limited. With the power of a god-"

"We'd still be limited by what we could think of. And that wouldn't last long enough. I'm talking about eternity, endless time. Exhausting our imagination, using up all possibilities of anything new. Having seen everything, done everything, experienced everything. Having nothing left to care about. In the end, everything would be meaningless. And there would be no way out. We would be eternally bored, eternally alone. Forever."

The smirk on the knife-wielding Chara's face changed to a thoughtful expression. He looked at the bloodstained Chara in his tattered clothes. "I... agree that, given enough time, all possibilities would be exhausted, and that that outcome is... unappealing. But the alternative is giving up godlike power and eternal life for a life limited in power and duration. Is it really worth it?"

"It is. It's better to have one lifetime with meaning than an eternity with none."

"And what would give our life meaning?"

"Other people. Caring about them, and them about us."

"Love? Oh, please! How many times did we hear people lie about that at the orphanage? How many other kids fell for it, and what happened to them? Brought back when they were too hurt to work, the ones who came back at all."

"And why did they fall for it?"

"Because they were idiots!"

"Because they wanted it to be true so badly. Because they wanted love, needed love, enough to take a chance."

"And so they got taken advantage of. That's what love is for, getting idiots like Asriel to do what you want!"

"Do you remember why we made the knight?"

"Sure. We were playing Humans and Monsters with Asriel. Why?"

"Do you remember why we wanted to be a KNIGHT, though?"

"To kill the humans, what else?"

"I must have forgotten." Chara walked towards his old self. "I wanted to be a knight so I could defend people. So I could protect Asriel. So no one I loved would be hurt again."

"What do you mean, again?"

"Another lost memory. The first memory I got back. The reason why I climbed Mount Ebott."

Chara's knife-hand twitched. "Stop that. I don't want to remember that."

"You need to, for the same reason I did. Do you remember why we climbed a mountain no one returns from?"

"Stop it." A trembling hand rose, summoning a flight of knives. Chara kept walking towards them.

"Do you remember the pain that drove us to the mountain?"

"STOP IT!" The knives flew at Chara, stabbing him. He rocked, then kept walking forward.

"But it's what came before the pain that really mattered. Do you remember that?"

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO!" Both hands flung knives at Chara. He walked through a silver blizzard, shielding his face with his arms.

"Do you remember our kitten? How much we loved her?"

"SHUT UP! STOP TALKING! STOP IT!"

Chara was in the center of a tornado of blades. "I remember. I remember Sasha sleeping with us. How she looked at us. How she would never hurt anyone, even when she was killed." He kept walking, coming closer to the screaming boy throwing knives. "I remember when we saw Asriel for the first time. How he looked at us like Sasha did. How he loved us."

"Please... please, stop..." The knives clattered against each other, out of control. A sharp silver rain fell around Chara as he neared himself.

"I remember how much it hurt to lose Asriel. To fail to protect him. I remember when I stopped feeling, when I couldn't stand the pain any longer."

The boy dropped his knife and fell to his knees, trying desperately to hold back his tears. Chara embraced him, pulling him close. "No one here will hurt us. No one here will think we're weak. It's safe to cry."

Chara held himself as he wept on his own shoulder. "I just... I just don't want to hurt any more."

"I know. I know. But not feeling anything isn't the same as not hurting. And... being able to feel love is worth the pain. I know it is. I've seen both sides, now."

"I... I can't go back. I've hurt too many people. I've hurt everyone. They'll never forgive me."

"Frisk forgave me."

"But what about everyone else? I can't-"

"I forgive you." A tear-stained face looked up. "A-Asriel?"

"I still love you, Chara." Asriel bent down and hugged both of them. "Whatever else you did, I know you loved me. You wanted me to be happy. You were the one who talked Dad into giving me a garden knife. When you told me not to trust people too much, to not cry, you were trying to keep me safe, right? To not be hurt the way you were. And when I wanted to fulfill the prophecy and break the barrier, you gave me your soul so I could do it."

"And I got you killed, and then I blamed you for it! I don't deserve to be forgiven."

"I don't care, Chara. I love you. Please... please, don't hate yourself." Asriel's face ran with tears, dropping onto their backs.

"Can... can I really change?"

"You're me, Chara. We're the same person. The only difference is that Frisk and everyone else helped me to change, to start caring for people and to stop hating everything. We can change, Chara. We already have."

"You... won't hate me?"

"That would mean hating myself. I did, once. But... I don't any more. I regret what I did. I wish I could change it. But I can't change that past. All I can change is who I am now."

"Chara...I'm ready."

"I know, Chara. I am, too."

A glow covered the embracing figures as the two pieces of Chara's soul came together. For a moment Asriel saw the transparent outline of a kneeling armored knight. Then Chara looked up and gave him a watery-eyed smile.

"Sorry your brother's such an idiot, Asriel."

"Chara..." Asriel pulled him to his feet and hugged him. "You were awesome."

Chara returned Asriel's hug, but pulled his head back after a moment. "You know... we should let Frisk and Sans know that it's okay now."

"Oh, right!"

x******x
Asriel's body had stopped shaking. He blinked, moved his arms and legs, then looked towards Sans and Frisk. "It's okay, guys. Chara says he's sorry he was still being an idiot. He's better now."

"yeah." Sans nodded. "i saw some of what was going on. tell chara i'll give him a once-over when he's back in his own body. it's easier when there's just one soul to check on. but he's looking a lot better now than earlier."

"So they're okay?" Frisk asked.

"looks that way. i'm pretty sure they are. but i'm not gonna take any chances."

They watched as Asriel took Chara's red soul, now a complete heart, from his chest and placed it onto Chara's body. The soul sank into Chara's chest, and he opened his eyes. He took several breaths, moved his arms and legs, worked his hands, and looked up.

"Hi Frisk. Hi Sans. I'm sorry I was an idiot."

"Chara, are you-"

"hold it, frisk." Sans held him back with an arm. "i need to check first."

Chara nodded. "Right. I'd feel better if you checked, too. I think I'm okay though."

Sans looked at Chara's soul. No LOVE. No darkness. But... "chara, your soul looks like one of undyne's training dummies when it's ready to be replaced."

"I'm not surprised." Chara put on a crooked grin. "I wasn't very nice to myself."

"here, let me help you up." Sans reached out a hand.

"Uh huh." Chara reached up and took Sans' hand, and got to his feet. "No whoopee cushion?"

"it's no fun if you do it every time."

"Gotta make it a surprise, right?"

"exactly." Sans turned his eye on Asriel. "and... looks like you're okay, too. soul looks like new."

"Chara... he didn't let me get hurt, Sans."

"yeah, i saw. i wasn't sure he was gonna make it."

"I said I wasn't going to hurt Asriel again, Sans."

"yeah. you did good, chara." Sans reached out to slap Chara on the back.

"Thanks, Sans. I-"

PHPHBBRRRRTTTTTT

Chara gave Sans a wide-eyed look, and saw his grin. Then he bent over, laughing, as Frisk and Asriel joined in. "Oh..." Chara gasped for breath. "Sans, you really are a stinker!" Frisk and Asriel toppled and started rolling on the yellow flowers, laughing helplessly. "hey, these are guaranteed odorless! now i could start boning up on my physical gags and put in some stink powder, but-" Chara fell to his knees, then joined Frisk and Asriel. Sans watched, smiling, as the three boys put their arms around each other, laughing until they were spent.

"guys? i hate to be a drag, but-" Frisk's cell phone buzzed. "i think everyone's wondering where we are."

Frisk pulled his cell phone out and winced. "I've got ten texts and a voice message from Toriel, and more from Alphys and Papyrus."

"we should get back."

"Yeah." Frisk sat up and sighed. "There's just one thing left to do before this is over."

"What's that?" Asriel sat up, looking at them, and Chara straightened as well.

"Frisk is right." Chara's jaw clenched for a moment. "We need to tell everyone our story."