I just noticed that the chapter title is a Geometry Dash song. :D

I woke up feeling groggy, and I found myself laying on something soft and comfortable. Something was laid onto me, like a blanket or something? Suddenly, I could feel doubt and irritation fill me, and I quickly sat myself up. Indeedly, it was a blanket, a kind of deep salmon red. It reminded me of blood. What I had been laying on was a single yellow pillow. Feeling surprised that I was laying in a bed of all places, I turned side to side to get a better look around the room.

The decorator of the room had the weirdest taste I had ever seen. The place was fashioned to look like an inn room, except everything was elaborately fancier, so I guessed it was something better. Like a motel, maybe? There were more red desks to the side, and they stood balanced on single wheels. One of them had a lamp without a light switch. Another was a shape that looked a lot like the lamp, but with further inspection, it was actually just a bottle with a very large cap. A portrait of… whatever it was hung above the bed frame.

What was I doing here, sleeping in this strange room? What had I been doing before I got here? I narrowed my eyes and tried to think, but my mind felt whirled. It felt like someone was missing. It felt a little empty inside the room, the vast empty size of it slowly becoming an intimidating fright. Someone was supposed to be here with me, I could tell. Everything was lonelier without them. But who?

Just as I remembered, the so-called person floated into the room. Through the wall.

"Chara!" I exclaimed, with obvious relief.

She tilted her head up and finally noticed that I was awake. "Oh, you're finally up." She smiled a little bit. "You slept like a log." She teased.

"I am not a log." I protested, crossing my arms. "What are we doing here anyway? Where is 'here', even?"

"Mettaton's Hotel." Chara replied, floating over. "Basically a hunky piece of metal got an entire hotel named after him."

I frowned. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

A pang of realization suddenly struck me as I remembered the events that occurred before this. Before I was sleeping in Mettaton's hotel bed. We had been in the Waterfall, and the boy had showed up, and we had wrestled a bit, right before I…

Chara noticed my sudden silence, and nodded her head a little. "You remember." It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

I gulped, the words stuck in my mouth. "I… killed him."

"So?"

"I killed someone. I killed another human. I killed someone of my same species." I shuddered just thinking about it. Was I a murderer now?

"You had to." Was Chara's response.

"Did I, though?" Was Chara just trying to make me feel better?

"Yes." She responded factually. "It had to be done. If you had not, you would've died."

I shivered just thinking about my death. I could imagine it, my life bleeding away on the tiles, my soul lingering on the verge of death, and my eyelids slowly closing to accept the end… I shook my head. "I almost died?"

"Yes. One more second, and your soul would've shattered. Too much blood loss. Or something."

I frowned. "Really? But I don't remember feeling like dying. And nothing hurt either. And nothing hurts now."

"I was blocking the pain signals." Chara said, unamused. "Remember? I told you that before you fell asleep. And after the battle, I went to find more monster food to eat. That's why you're all healed up."

"Oh…" I mumbled, remembering how Chara had controlled me. If she was in my body, then she was technically capable of eating her own food to restore my own health. It made sense.

But even with Chara here, I still felt empty. It wasn't just on the outside, but something on the inside was bugging me too. Something was missing inside me. But what?

Chara seemed to notice my inner struggles, and she shrugged. "Really, don't dread on it. You did what you had to do, and another's death can't make what you did wrong." At my face of doubt, she sighed and leaned in closer. "Let me narrow it down for you, partner. In that situation, it was literally kill or be killed. Either he dies, or you die. You were only following the rules, understand?"

I hesitated, but then after a moment, I feebly nodded my head. "Yeah." Better his death than mine. After all, I needed to get home.

"Good." She started floating away from the bed, indicating that I should start getting up too.

I climbed from the bed, and was surprised to see that my shoulder was completely healed. There wasn't even a scar in sight. Once I was on the floor, I bounced a bit to test my leg muscles. They weren't entirely awake yet, but they weren't sore either. They didn't hurt like I had just been in a life threatening situation.

I was barefoot. The ballet shoes sat on the floor not to far away. I bent down to pick them up before sitting back down on the bed to tie them on.

I pondered Chara's words as I worked. "But it was still wrong to kill him." I added as an afterthought.

She turned at my statement, eyebrow raised. "When did I ever say it was right?"

Once we stepped out the hotel inn, Chara instructed me to another double-door that lead to a sunny-looking shop. Everything was shiny and glinted in the light, like gold. Only one thing wasn't as sunny as the room, and it was the store clerk. He was shaking like he had a disease. Or maybe he was just cold?

His entire face was scrunched up as I approached, and I heard him whisper under his breath, "Why do I always get the freaks?"

I could already tell, I was gonna love this guy.

"So your employer is Mettaton, I'm guessing." I eyed the golden surfaces of the whole room. "He really has terrible taste, doesn't he?"

Under his breath, I could hear him muttering something about sandwiches made of sequins, glitter, and glue. What a strange mix.

"Why're you still here?" I pondered, raising an eyebrow. "You're like, the only one." The rest of the hotel was empty. Or at least, it looked empty enough from first-glance.

"You're yanking my chain, little weirdo." He raised his hand defiantly. "So what if everybody else left work? So what if nobody's buying anything?" He put down his hand, speaking in a grave tone, but still grinning. "Par for the course, little weirdo. Par for the course."

"That doesn't make any sense. If you don't have to work, then why are you still here?"

"Well." He looked downwards, thinking. "Mettaton didn't tell me I had to work, I guess…" Then he raised his arms, a ridiculous grin spread across his face. "But that's the thing! Sometimes he doesn't even call me into work until halfway into my shift!" His face calmed down some. "If I don't play it safe, he's going to yell at me."

Mettaton was obviously a very bad employer. "So? Yelling isn't so bad."

He lit a cigarette, sticking it into his mouth. "Okay, maybe 'yell' is the wrong term." He admitted. "It's more like he has this… CD album he plays…" He put his hands together as he shook. "That's entirely full of songs. About how bad I am. At my job."

I snickered. "Nice. Oh, by the way, I do believe no one is here because they're all dead." Chara raised an eyebrow at my antics.

"Huh? Everyone else is dead?" Maybe I could finally get a reaction out of this guy. He looked to the ground for a moment before glancing back up with a hopeful grin. "...Does that mean I don't have to work today?"

...this guy was such an idiot. "...yes." I answered.

"Gosh." He was back to smoking, grinning like an idiot. "That it were true, little weirdo. That it were true."

"It is true." I answered, eyeing the food items on display behind his back. "If you just step out that damn shop and stop hiding behind your stupid counter, then your dreams will be fulfilled." And I can get my hands on those healing foods without paying. "All it takes is a couple of steps, lazy-butt."

"Sorry, little weirdo. Threats won't work on me." He sighed a little. "I can't go to hell. I'm all out of vacation days."

Vacation days? I pouted, but could clearly tell that this wasn't going to work. This guy was an idiot, and it was basically impossible to reason with him. The food looked great, but were much too expensive anyway. The only way I would want to get them was by getting them for free; aka stealing. But if he wasn't going to cooperate or listen to my well made advice, then it wasn't my fault.

"Let's leave already." Chara grumbled.

I turned to leave. "Alone again." He mumbled behind me as he continued to smoke.

Chara directed me to the exit of the hotel, and we left it behind for good. Worried about approaching another life-death situation, I checked my supply of food. In my pockets were a couple bags of junk food, and I had no idea where they came from. Chara explained that she had gotten ahold of them before finding the Hotel Inn. I was just relieved that I had food items.

The next area was a lot brighter. Up ahead was an elevator, and I used it to climb to a higher floor. The hall I reached lead directly to a fancy neon door. It looked important, so of course, Chara told me to enter it. I passed through the doorway.

It was dark. It gave off an ominous feeling, like this would be the end. I stepped forward and saw a familiar shape. It was rectangular and had arms; it looked a lot like the picture frame above the bed in the inn. Was this Mettaton? Chara's nod indicated that it was. All this talk about him, and this was it? This was the guy that constantly battered up the shop guy in the hotel? He was a lot less impressive than I thought he would be. Chara was right, he was just a hunk of metal.

"MY, MY." It spoke dramatically. "SO YOU'VE FINALLY ARRIVED. AND I'VE REALIZED… SOMETHING GHASTLY."

"That you're gonna die?" I guessed hopefully. Maybe he would just back off early on.

"YOU'RE NOT JUST A THREAT TO MONSTERS." It said instead. "BUT TO HUMANITY AS WELL."

"..." I frowned. "What the heck? Is it just because of that one guy? That was an accident!" How was it that everybody knew about it? It's almost as if it had been broadcasted live to the whole Underground or something.

It promptly ignored me. "MY MY. THAT'S AN ISSUE. YOU SEE, I CAN'T BE A STAR WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE. AND BESIDES… THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE… I WANT TO PROTECT."

"You're a robot." I said, unamused and stepping forward. "You can't accomplish shiz."

"HA HA HA." It laughed robotically. "EAGER AS ALWAYS, EH? BUT THERE'S SOMETHING YOU HAVEN'T ACCOUNTED FOR. AS ANY TRUE FAN WOULD KNOW, I WAS FIRST CREATED AS A HUMAN ERADICATION ROBOT."

"Wow. A great thing you turned out to be."

"IT WAS ONLY AFTER BECOMING A STAR THAT I WAS GIVEN A MORE… PHOTOGENIC BODY. HOWEVER, THOSE ORIGINAL FUNCTIONS HAVE NEVER BEEN FULLY REMOVED… COME ANY CLOSER AND I'LL BE FORCED TO SHOW YOU…" He raised his arms dramatically. "MY TRUE FORM!"

Undaunted, I stepped forward. "FINE THEN." His display screen turned to a crimson red. "RRREADY? IIIIITS SHOW TIME!"

A flash, and then a completely different Mettaton stood before me. In fact, I could barely tell it was Mettaton at all, if it were not for the fact that no one else was in the room with us, so it had to be him. His rectangular form had now transformed into a much more humanoid figure. He actually had a pair of legs now, his right hand was a blaster, he had wild spiky hair, and giant 3D wings were on display behind him, flashing constantly.

I was a little shocked, truth be told. This was a bit too close of a reminder to the Undyne fight. Undyne turned to the Undying. I had so much trouble with her. And now Mettaton has turned into this.

"Mettaton NEO." Chara supplied for me.

I took a wary step back. I suddenly didn't feel so confident anymore. Mettaton NEO's right eye was covered by the shadow of his hair, but I felt intimidated. This was a much stronger opponent, a greater foe. This would be a challenge.

"Don't worry." Chara reassured me. "Mettaton's nothing compared to Undyne."

I didn't know if it meant that Mettaton was much easier or hella harder. I was just going to have to go with the flow and take my chances. I slowly stepped back forward, trying to test out the strength in my feet. Was the head still the best place to strike? Yeah, maybe.

I'll get to attack first. I don't know why, but it seems to be some kind of monster tradition to let your opponent go first. I was going to have to take advantage of that. I prepared myself to swing my leg, but felt myself freeze when a scene flashed before my eyes. The scene of the boy being choked to death by my own hands, and the light in his eyes slowly fading away as they lolled into the back of his head…

Breaking out of my thoughts, I stepped back, panting. Chara faced me dubiously, noticing my pained expression. "What's wrong?" She looks worried.

I wasn't in my right mind right now. I was still thinking about that guy's death, and now I was incapable of even throwing a proper kick to a robot. What was this idiocy? If Mettaton NEO was as hard as I guessed he was, then I wasn't going to bet my chances on winning, especially when I could barely swing my leg properly. I felt myself shaking a bit, the realization covering me like a suffocating blanket. I couldn't win like this.

So I called on to the first thing that I knew would save me. "Chara."

"What?" She asked, irritated.

"Control me again. Please."

She turned to me, a frown on her face. "What? Again? You're not even dying this time."

Did I really have to convince her? "I don't want to wait for it to come to that." I responded. "But if you do it now, this'll be much easier, and we'll never even have to come close to defeat." I suddenly realized why I felt so empty, and I stood taller. "When you're with me, I'm braver. When you're helping me, I'm stronger. Without you, I can't do anything well. I need your guidance."

Chara blinked for a moment at the speech, but then she grinned. "Will do, partner." She faded before my eyes, and I was pushed out once again. My fingers flexed a bit, and I could tell that Chara was warming up. Peering out of my eyes, I watched Mettaton NEO. He no longer looked as scary. With Chara, this would be a piece of cake.

I stepped onwards with renewed strength, but his own grin didn't falter. His brought his hands out wide, waiting for my next attack. I tip-toed forwards, showing him a sideways grin.

Then I jumped up, throwing my legs forward. With a strong thrust, my foot collided with Mettaton's head. The pain didn't even register as I continued to kick with unimaginable force, practically causing his neck to snap. I wouldn't lose. I would win. I would win!

And then I was back on the ground, staring up at a completely still Mettaton NEO. Had I done a lot of damage, or basically none at all? His eyes were closed as he started to shake. "GH…" I could hear the engine rapidly whirring inside him. "GUESS YOU DON'T WANT TO JOIN MY FANCLUB...?" He inquired weakly, a pitiful smile on his face.

Then a huge blast lead to the explosion of Mettaton NEO. His parts spiraled out of control, and not understanding what was happening, I was grateful that Chara was in control. She jumped, swerved, and avoided all flying projectiles. When the mess was over and when the clouds had finally cleared, I realized something.

Mettaton NEO was destroyed.