Undertale: The Machine
Chapter 25
Wrath of the Bone King
Frisk and Chara walk side by side into the throne room. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. Yellow flowers dot the room from wall to wall. The king, clad in glorious golden armor, sits in the middle of the room, butterflies and pollen wafting through the air around him.
"Ah... Frisk. It's good to see you again." Papyrus lets out. Frisk smiles for the first time in a while and walks forward onto the flowers to meet him halfway. Papyrus stands up, and without thinking about it, he kneels down and they both hug each other. Frisk can't help but begin to cry.
"P-Papyrus... these memories... these adventures... they're tearing me apart... please help me..." Frisk says, beginning to bawl like a child. Papyrus rubs his hair and shakes his head.
"I will do my best, Human. I have long awaited your return." Papyrus says with a comforting voice. He breaks the hug and stands up, standing over twice as high as Frisk. Chara merely stands in the back of the room, observing him.
"You. I know you as well. You are Chara."
"W-What?! We never met!" Chara yells out! Frisk rubs his eyes and looks at both of them.
"Huh? Is... that important?"
"Important, perhaps. Do either of you recognize this?" Papyrus asks, taking something out of his armor and showing it to both of them. Frisk's eyes go wide!
"Th-That's my soul! I knew you had it!"
"Yes, human. Fifty years ago, I went looking for you, and found this next to the barrier in a pile of ash. The human souls were gone, and so was Asgore, but your soul yet remained." Papyrus explains further, however to both of their confusion he puts it back in his chest.
"P-Papyrus? Um, can I have it back?"
"A difficult question. Should I give you this soul, it will be taken from you." Papyrus says. Frisk cocks his head.
"What are you talking about?" Frisk asks, now somewhat anxious. Papyrus frowns.
"Human... can you follow me to the Barrier? It will all make sense soon." Papyrus asks.
"Of course! Let's go!" Frisk says. Him and Papyrus begin to move forward, and Chara motions to follow.
"Not you. Stay here, I will be back shortly."
"..." Chara glares at Papyrus. He knows. Frisk looks confused but follows Papyrus anyway. As soon as Frisk walks into the next room, he looks back.
"Are you coming?"
"I am sorry for this." Papyrus says, raising a gate of bones to separate himself from Frisk!
"W-Woah! Hey, put these down, what are you doing?!"
"I will be back shortly. Please don't worry." Papyrus encourages. It almost works, Frisk almost feels like trusting Papyrus, but he has a bad feeling!
"N-No! Please, whatever you're thinking about doing, we can think of a way around it!" Frisk begs! Papyrus closes his eyes and walks away.
"PAPYRUS! STOP!"
"Chara. Can I interest you in a cup of ketchup?"
"I... what?"
"Oh, right, only Sans can stomach that stuff. I haven't had another visitor in such a long time." Papyrus says, standing over his throne.
"I don't want ketchup. I want you to give Frisk back that soul." Chara says. Papyrus smiles.
"So that you can steal it?"
"... So you know."
"I do. I also know that you killed my brother." Papyrus says with closed eyes.
"And I assume you don't want me to retake what's mine?"
"To come so far, and give up so easily... why? I just want to know why..." Papyrus pleads. Chara crosses their arms.
"This is the only chance I have. Frisk is doomed, and we need to break this cycle somehow. I'm going to take this soul for myself, and use it to load my game from so long ago."
"And where, pray tell, would this save point be located?"
"It was right before I ate the buttercups and fell down." Chara explains. Papyrus smiles, but shakes his head.
"It won't work."
"HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW?!"
"Because the Infinity is inside of you." Papyrus says, pointing at Chara's chest. Chara looks down.
"What...?"
"I've felt it in you from the moment you landed. The Infinity Gaster is after, it's in your chest somehow. If you return to back then, he will sense it, even from that far back in time. He will hunt you down and kill you in the same way he did Frisk, and then you'll be trapped in another loop." Papyrus explains.
"What do you know?! You're just a fake king in a fake world! How could you possibly know anything?!"
"Because I became God of this world fifty years ago. I can feel the exact specifications Gaster built this world to. He prepped this world for this exact moment. He felt that there were two beings in Frisk's heart, and broke you two apart, so that the Infinity would fall into his grasp, one way or another. He WANTS you to do this, Chara." Papyrus explains. Chara begins to growl and shake their fists.
"Then what would you have me do? Pussyfoot my way around certain oblivion? If I get the soul, Gaster will kill me, if Frisk gets the soul, Gaster will kill him! At least my way, I stand a chance! Give me back my soul, and I will be the Cyclebreaker this world needs!"
"Have you wondered that perhaps, you and I, have been here before?"
"What are you talking about?"
"What if this cycle has been going on for even longer than Gaster knows? What if he's forgotten that he's forgotten?"
"You're not making sense!"
"Chara, you have limitless potential within yourself, you will squander it with hasty actions."
"ENOUGH TALKING!" Chara yells, drawing their knife with hate in their eyes!
"I only have ONE SHOT at this, and I won't let you try to talk me down! I will have my life back, and I will kill Gaster!"
Chara lunges at Gaster and strikes down as hard as they can, only to see that underneath his golden armor isn't just one shining soul, but seven!
"You weren't lying...!"
"I won't let you take this away from Frisk. Engarde, human!" Papyrus yells, drawing a golden bone sword and slashing Chara away, drawing blood that spills to the flowers below!
"You... you don't look like a god!"
"I have not absorbed these souls, I have merely borrowed them. They help me, and grant me fragments of their power when I need it."
"If you don't absorb them, you're not going to stand a chance against me!"Chara roars, taking off at the speed of sound to match Papyrus' speed and strength! Chara makes each hit count, hitting for tens of millions, Papyrus' armor fading to dust with every attack! Frisk on the other side of the room crying his eyes out and slamming against the bones that keep him away from this battle!
"GUYS, STOP! STOP! WE CAN FIND ANOTHER WAY!" Frisk crumbles to his knees and covers his eyes!
"DIE!" Chara says, stabbing towards Papyrus, but he dodges the attack completely, catching Chara off guard.
"My brother taught me some things... even being aware that this world is a fake doesn't do much to quell the flames within my chest." Papyrus says, before kicking fast and hard, hitting Chara in the stomach and causing them to cough up spit! Chara falls to their knees and Papyrus slashes down, but they have enough energy to roll out of the way back onto their feet! Chara growls and struggles to get their breath back! They hold their knife with one hand and their stomach with the other.
"Y-Y'know... I was starting to enjoy myself... but now you're going to have to make me do this." Chara says.
For a while, Chara does nothing, and Papyrus raises a bonebrow. He moves forward to stab at Chara and he does, except his golden bonesword shatters upon contact with Chara's body!
"What the...?!"
"Gods of a fake world are below even vermin!" Chara says, punching Papyrus in the chest hard enough to shatter his armor into a hundred pieces! The seven human souls, including Frisk's, fly out of it as Papyrus goes flying into a nearby wall.
"I learned that trick from Frisk last rotation, actually. I remembered what he had to say, do, and think, to fight even a seven souled god like Alphys." Chara says, walking up to Papyrus.
"H-Human... you have what you want. But... if you kill me... these monsters will fall into even greater despair."
"Do you think I care?"
"I know you do..."
"..." Chara says nothing, holding the red soul in their hand. Frisk, who noticed the bones went away, run over to them!
"Chara, don't!" Frisk yells.
"I'm not going to." Chara grumbles. Frisk runs over to Papyrus and hugs him.
"What were you thinking?! Why did you lock me out?! I could have stopped this!"
"Nyeh... I didn't want you... to get hurt."
"You... bonehead, why are you protecting me? I..." Frisk tries to find the word, but he merely holds onto Papyrus tighter.
For a while, the throne room goes silent.
"There's a problem." Chara says. Papyrus and Frisk looks over to them. Chara begins to speak again.
"Nothing's happening. I'm not seeing save points. The world isn't ending."
"Huh? Then, we're not done? We can still find another solution?"
"DAMN IT FRISK, THIS WAS THE SOLUTION!" Chara yells, stepping forward and slapping him off of Papyrus! Chara grabs Papyrus by the neck and forces him to his feet.
"WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING, SKELETON MAN?!"
"Nyag...! Maybe... it's because... I never truly... accepted the Infinity."
"Oh." Chara says, dropping him to his knees, causing him to cough. Frisk looks over with a red slapped face.
"Ch-Chara, what are you doing?!" Frisk asks. Chara gets the six remaining human souls and gets them to spin around their own red soul.
"What Papyrus should have done a long time ago!" Chara yells, shoving each of them into his chest at once! Frisk's eyes go wide and he tries to run after him, but as soon as Papyrus absorbs the last soul, Chara stabs him in the skull with their knife!
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Frisk screeches at the top of his lungs!
"Game over, Papyrus!"
"Sans..." Papyrus says with finality as his body fades to dust, the seven human souls once present, now gone and replaced with a single rainbow colored soul. This... Chara remembers this from what Frisk saw last time!
THIS IS THE FALSE INFINITY!
"CHARA, DON'T-" Frisk tries to say as Chara scoops it up without another thought, even their own soul was once a part of multicolored thing. It rests comfortably within Chara, as if it yearned to be there all along.
Rotation 25
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