a/n: Surprise Chapter!
Sentences in Italics are spoken by Chara.
-Dashes- around a sentence indicate a memory.
Chapter 11
"pap has been telling me some interesting things, stories..." Dirt ground under Sans slippers as he shifted his weight, "stories about things that haven't happened but seem uncannily familiar. funny thing that." he chuckled humorlessly, "everything about you seems familiar... i did some asking around, pap, the royal guard, the people in town...me, we've all felt like we'd already met you when you first showed up. then you just breeze through every puzzle, every encounter like you know them already..."
Frisk stared at him with wide eyes, panic bubbling just under the surface. "not here." they stuttered.
"what's that?" Sans' asked, narrowing his eyes.
"...could be listening." they swallowed hard.
"who?"
Frisk bit their lip and said the first thing that came to their mind, "have you ever heard of a talking flower?"
Sans pupils shrank and he waved his hand through the air. All sound stopped. The water stood still, "pap tell you?"
Frisk worried the edge of their jumper in their fingers. The silence prickled across their skin.
"no one can hear us, so talk."
"You told me." Frisk said softly.
He shook his head, "kid, i think i'd remember telling you that."
"it's just a story now..." they glanced up at him then back down at their shoes.
"more stories. what are you getting at?" his tone was still calm as flat water.
i'm not sure we should.
"I don't know." Frisk said, trying hard to keep the wobble out of their voice.
But we can't make him forget either, not without starting all over again...
Frisk shook their head very slightly, blinking back tears at the thought.
Sans waited, watching them with the focused stillness of a cat.
He'd probably figure it out eventually no matter what you say...Sans is ou-your friend, now and before. He can be scary but ...it should be ok...
They took a deep breath and tried again, "If it was only real to me, if it's something only I remember, then it's just a story."
"hm." Sans mused, "you lost everything and had to start over again; that's what you said with the nice cream, right after we met."
Frisk nodded.
"i thought you meant falling into the underground but you meant something else."
Frisk nodded again.
Sans sighed and relaxed a little, stretching his head from one side to another, his neck popping loudly in the silence, "you've given me some of the pieces of the puzzle here, but i'm gonna need some more information, a corner or an edge to build on, or you could just give me the front of the box. that would be nice."
"I-I..." they squeezed their shirt tight in their hands, "I can save points in time and go back to them."
Sans went very still.
Frisk went on "S-something happened and I had to start over from when I fell, I h-had to do it all again..." They bit their lip and tried not to cry.
"you can manipulate time." Sans said flatly.
"i-i don't know how... when I get determined-"
"determination?" he hissed, for a second it almost looked like one of his eyes flashed blue.
Frisk froze. They had never heard Sans sound like that. They managed the very slightest of nods.
"...the reports..." he muttered, "timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting..." his eyes went black.
Frisk took a step back.
"it's your fault, isn't it." Sans' voice was cold and deep; "You think this is a Game? You think you can just Screw with time? Mess with everyone's lives like we're Toys?!" and filled with pain.
Frisk was trembling.
"People build their lives and you just tear them apart whenever you Feel Like It?!"
Tears ran down their cheeks.
They felt Chara rise up like a wave, flooding their body with heat and violent fury. They pushed Frisk aside, their face twisting into a snarl, "Do you think this is what I wanted!? I didn't want this! I didn't want to hurt anyone!" they snapped with acid on their tongue, "I couldn't feel myself! I only had dreams and fragments and I-!" Chara clutched their head, tangling their fingers in their hair, "I felt something..., Chara, ...for the first time in forever- I just- ,Chara, It's going to be ok, I just didn't want to let go-!" their voice choked with despair. Frisk whispered, "it's ok, Chara. it's not your fault, It is!" Chara laughed, a brittle painful laugh that verged on hysterics, "If I had just let go. It's always my fault. I - ruin - everything. " Frisk shook their head, tears streaming down their face. "...you're not a bad person for how you feel."
I miss him so much, Frisk.
"I know..."
Chara's rage swelled again, Sorry Frisk, i'm gonna put you in the dark for a second, and they took control again and pushed Frisk down deep. They glared at Sans, "AND YOU-! YOU go and yell at Frisk!" They snarled, "This kid would never hurt anyone! They're so kind! They're so kind it's almost painful...!" Chara balled their hands into fists and hissed, "If you ever threaten them again, I will hide their eyes and cover their ears and beat the ever loving shit out of you, understand? Don't you EVER hurt them!"
Frisk sucked in a startled breath, "Chara? What happened?" they blinked rapidly, "Everything went black and I couldn't hear..."
Sorry... I lost my temper for a bit. I'll try not to do it again.
Sans was staring at them.
Frisk flushed bright red, "I...um, it's just... s-sorry."
Sans put his hands in his pockets and then pulled them out again, rubbing his fingers against his thumbs with a soft tick-tick sound. "...what...was that...?"
"umm..." Frisk looked at their feet. "i'm Chara." Chara said with a huff, "i'm sort of possessing Frisk."
Sans face was frozen in a mixture of shock and disbelief. "since when?"
"Since I fell into the underground." Frisk said.
Sans stuffed his hands back in his pockets, "are they a monster?"
"Ghosts can't inhabit a corporeal form with a soul already in it, bonehead."Chara said impatiently.
He nodded slightly, "you doing ok, kid?" Sans asked Frisk.
Frisk nodded, "Chara's my friend. They're really nice... and they're really good at puns."
"heh." Sans smiled a bit despite himself, "the batcicle joke. that was them, huh? i thought you sounded different."
Frisk could feel Chara's pleasure at the praise.
"well, if you like them, they can't be all bad."
Chara's pleasure turned sour.
"they're human?"
"i am-was human."
"hmm." Sans said studying Frisk, "so, you're possessed by a brat, have enough determination to rewind time, and make friends as easy as breathing. nothing special then." he winked.
Frisk giggled and felt themselves begin to relax.
...i'm the brat?... Chara muttered.
"have you used your power to reload time since you got 'pulled back to the beginning'?" Sans asked.
Frisk shook their head. "no-"
Sans relaxed, a nonchalant grin crept onto his face.
"-I haven't died this time."
His breathing hitched, his pupils contracting into pinpoints.
Frisk smiled reassuringly. "I only ever reloaded when I died... I wasn't ready to give up yet."
"you, uh..." he cleared his throat. "that's good..."
"Dieing? Not really. Contrary to popular belief it's actually very painful."
If a skeleton could blanche Sans would've been chalk white.
Frisk frowned, "Chara!" they scolded. "That's not what he meant."
Chara shrugged. So he can just brush it off? Nah. If he's gonna flip out and yell at you for reloading then he should know what you went through.
"...geez." Sans sighed and rubbed his face. "you've been through a lot, huh?"
Frisk shrugged slightly.
"heh," Sans shook his head slightly, "you're a good kid." he said to himself more than Frisk. He waved his hand and sound came rushing back as the world began to move again, "have to take a break. that little trick takes a lot of energy and I don't don't have a lot on me." he opened his jacket as if to illustrate.
"just a bag of bones, full of hot air."
"That wasn't funny." Frisk said.
"funny to me."
"this is gonna take some getting used to," Sans said with a sigh.
"I don't like you two fighting." Frisk said.
Sans shrugged, "fine with me, i'm not the fighting type."
Chara remained sullenly silent.
"Chara." Frisk prodded. "Come on, please."
Fine. They said sourly, "i'll call a truce if he apologizes to you."
"...yeah... the brat has a point there." Sans rubbed the back of his skull, "i shouldn't have yelled at you like that before i got the whole story...sorry, frisk."
"and treat you to a burger at Grillby's." Chara added, "Frisk hasn't eaten at all today."
"that i can do." he gestured with his head. "shall we?"
Frisk grabbed the edge of Sans jacket and he stepped through- Frisk kept their eyes open this time, a white-blackness of endless nothing without sound, it made their eyes hurt and skin tingle- to Grillby's door.
Sans leisurely greeted the people in the bar with grins and easy small talk as they headed for the two empty bar stools. Frisk plopped onto the stool with a grin wiggling to make the woopee cushion pppbbtppbbttthh a loudly as possible.
Sans' raised a eyebrow. "two burgs." he told Grillby.
Frisk pulled the woopee cushion out and handed it to Sans.
"what, you think i'm the type of guy who'd put woopee cushions on someone's seat?" he said in mock outrage.
Frisk shrugged and pocketed it.
Grillby returned with burgers and Frisk very, very, carefully poured some ketchup on it and handed the bottle over to Sans.
Sans took a swig from the bottle, "you were hungry, huh?"
"mph." Frisk mumphed around a bite of burg.
"i'd like to talk some more, after this." Sans said, "i still have some questions."
Frisk nodded.
They sat in silence as Frisk ate their burger and Sans' polished off the ketchup with a satisfied sigh. Sans begged off any conversation with the patrons as he and Frisk left Grillby's and he led them back towards his house.
"this way." he gestured, heading behind his and Papyrus' house.
There was a door back there that Frisk had never seen before. Sans unlocked the door, it opened to a set of stairs leading down.
"This is like the start of a horror movie." Chara looked down into the gloom suspiciously, "is this the part where i die? ...again, anyway."
"not quite, brat." Sans grinned and flipped on a light switch. "go on, just don't touch anything."
Frisk started down the stairs. "Let's touch everything." Chara said. Frisk giggled.
Sans sighed and pulled the door shut, locking it behind him.
The stairs lead down to a small room with plum colored tiles and pale blue walls. A large object covered in a plum sheet sat in the corner of the room. There was a large work station built into the wall, papers and blueprints covering the surface, drawers lined up below. The only sound in the room was a faint electrical hum. It was immaculately clean and smelled faintly of disinfectant.
What the hel-heck is this place? This is... who is Sans?
Frisk slowly turned in a circle on their heel, trying to take it all in.
"haven't spent much time in here lately." Sans said as he came into the room, he went over the the far wall and grabbed two stools, dragging them over to the counter. He sat down and swept all the papers to the side, patting the other stool. "might as well have a seat."
Frisk pulled themselves onto the stool.
"FfffthPbbbbtttPbbbtffththhhh..." Frisk pulled the woopee cushion out from under them and glared at Sans.
He grinned.
Chara flicked the pink rubber at him. It smacked against his forehead and slid down his face.
"That wasn't me!" Frisk said hurriedly.
"could've guessed that." Sans caught it before it fell the floor and stuck it in his pocket.
Chara cackled happily in the confines of Frisk mind.
"so, how long have you been able to save and reload points in time?" Sans asked.
"Since I fell into the underground." Frisk said softly.
"and how long has that been?"
"maybe..." they closed their eyes in thought, "two weeks... I guess."
Sans turned to the pile of paper and began leafing through them.
Hey, Frisk?
Frisk nodded slightly.
i don't think we should tell him about Azzy...he's done a lot of bad things as Flowey and i'm not sure Sans would understand...
Sans pulled a large graph print out in front of him and studied it, his eyes flicking back and forth across the different numbers.
sorry...you can tell him if you want to.
Frisk chewed their lip.
Sans grabbed a pen and wrote something on the graph and pushed it back, "...ok, so can you tell me how your ability works?"
Frisk answered as best as they could but they had never really thought about it before other than the basic surface pieces. Sans asked so many questions that Frisk's head swam. His pen skittered across the page as he took notes.
"Hey, i have a question for you." Chara said
"yeah?" Sans said absently.
"Why'd you go off on Frisk like that?"
His pen stopped. "well...i'd be working on my... research, and have an intense sense of dejavu of having been there before, done the same thing before. i wasn't the only one who felt the deja vu, most people i interviewed had it to some extent but i was the only one who knew that it was real..." he sighed and set the pen down, "everyone around me continuing with their lives, doing the same thing over and over again only to have it pulled away." he looked at his hands, "i felt like a hamster in a wheel... i just couldn't convince myself to keep doing it." he pasted a tried smile on his face and picked up the pen again, "what are you going to do now?"
"I..." Frisk hesitated. "if everything goes like last time, then if I get to hotland, I can make friends with Undyne and she'll stop chasing me... I don't want you and Pap to have to go into hiding or get in trouble because of me."
"and after that?" Sans asked.
Frisk frowned and furrowed their brow, "...I dunno...I'm not very good at plans."
"what'd you do last time?"
Frisk shook their head.
"Last time we ended up back here." Chara said, gesturing to the world in general, "We need to make friends again and then do something, else..." Chara tapped their wrist, "we've already spent a lot more time here than we should have. We can have more happy quiz time later."
Sans shrugged, "i can take you to hotland- "
Frisk shook their head, "it has to be like last time."
"you're a wise guy right? we've got to control all the variables we can if we're gonna replicate our results."
"do you even understand what you just said?" Sans asked.
Chara flushed, "s-sort of! its been a while!"
"nah, you're right, brat. i just wanted to give you a hard time." Sans chuckled, "...wise guy."
Chara sighed and withdrew.
"Can we go back now?" Frisk asked.
Sans nodded and put his papers away.
He led them out of the basement and took them through a shortcut back to the telescope.
"you have my phone number?" Sans asked.
Frisk shook their head and pulled out their phone. Sans took it from them and saved his number, "call me if anything comes up or you need a quick escape." He handed it back to them, "you sure you don't need anything?"
"A nap."
"a nap?" Sans asked, "i mean i'm always up for a snooze but-"
Frisk grinned, "At the hotland sentry station. If you could be asleep when we come by it would really help."
"if you say so." Sans said with a shrug. He dug around in his pocket and pulled out some gold coins, he nodded to the little room just off the corridor, "get yourself some nice cream and...be careful with all that determination of yours." He dropped the gold in their hands and stepped back, disappearing in a blink.
"Do you want chocolate?" Frisk asked, curling their fingers around the coins.
Yes!
A/n: I've been looking forward to this one for a long time so it was very easy to write. It's so exciting cause who Chara is with Frisk is very different from how they act around other people. Ah my sweet, sarcastic, caustic little child, I can't wait to see you bloom and flourish. Some people were very worried about Chara being discovered but since they've never gone a geno run in this au and no one really remembers Chara as the first child, I don't see why Frisk or Chara would be worried about it too much, except that it's a little weird. Really weird.
Regular update on Saturday. Special thanks for all the reviews. Some of the anon reviews were really, really wonderful, so Thank you a bucket load.