Chapter Twenty-Five – Glimmer
A/N: I will be uploading the next chapter later tonight, and that is a promise. Give me a couple of hours or so!
-O-
Embitterment.
Resentment. Shame.
Guilt.
It was these, sickly feelings which arose within Chara when Sid spoke of his adoration in Undyne. Taunting her. Reminding her of just what her species did to the monsters.
What they did to her.
Hatred.
She thought she had smothered it. Forgotten what it felt like, what they did. Now that he was here, Chara assumed she was ready to look forward.
He was so different.
It was all a haze, what happened before, on the surface. The stories her adoptive family would tell her, of a genocide lifted only out of some sort of smug pity, a last plea for mercy. They were almost fairytales to Asriel, but to her, they were like indictments.
She knew of the cruelty.
Looking back, at her incomplete, fractured and repressed memories, all she knew what she and Asriel wanted to do was to find a way out, to save the monsters. Once they found they could do it, with her… She had been relentless. She wanted to free what to her, were the only people deserving of the surface. So much more.
And to make them payfor it.
Her only regret had been leaving her new, loving family. At least she would have been with her brother forever, right?
…
So what happened?
Had they killed Asriel? Finally killed her? The thought made her tremble.
And yet.
And yet…
Looking into his eyes again, she was confused. In truth, she felt little when she first saw him. His face.
And then she saw the forlornness. The hope when he saw her. Saw Toriel.
Kindred? No, this was so much more.
Chara had always thought that the angel would be her, but in the end, she was just like them.
He however...
He was unlike anything she had come to expect, in either humans or monsters.
Humans? Her experience of them was unspeakable. What they did to the monsters… She thought it would be better if they, and her, in the very end were gone. So what was he? Had they changed in all this time? Was he special?
Undoubtedly. But if he could be…
Monsters? Their hearts were filled with love. For her, for each other, in their unique, eccentric ways. As… pliable as Asgore had been, and evidently still was now, the kingdom was without strife. Except for the lingering sadness. They could not do anything, even if they had it all in front of them.
So what was Frisk?
He seemed to have the answer for everything, and although he needed her help, needed Sans and Papyrus' help, he pulled through.
He would not fight. Though he was uncertain sometimes, frightened…
When she held his hand as she always did, he would strive. Determined.
Perfect.
Looking at him now, Sid's words shook him, but they changed nothing.
And so despite his need of her, despite not being as physically or intellectually powerful as the others, he was in-fact stronger than all of them combined.
The heart of a monster, with conviction. The soul and body of a human, selfless.
Loving.
He clutched her hand with all of his might, grasped her chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes. There it was again, but… all of a sudden, so much stronger.
And all she can do is smile. Realise that he's right once again, this won't stop them.
Forget the hatred. Look forward. Past it.
Forget the mistakes, they were making up for it now. Pursue forgiveness, happiness, with diligence.
Try to ignore the hot, fluttering feeling in her chest as they walk together, and the warm tears in her eyes.
-X-
"Chara… are you okay? You're crying…"
Said girl suddenly fixed Frisk with a stare that he identified to be between fear and embarrassment. He was almost scared himself as she then furiously wiped her eyes with her free sleeve, quickly returning her gaze level once she was done. Her eyes were red and raw, but still she managed to grin at him in that light-hearted, lopsided manner he was becoming so used to.
Blinking, his mouth slack-jawed in confusion, he schooled his expression into what he thought was a smile of his own, which only served to make Chara beam more toothily, though she still said nothing.
Amusedly, Frisk thought that he must have looked very goofy, and yet he did not care about that in this moment. It was good to see her smile again.
Since he had last spoken to her, she had been once again seemingly lost in thought, although this time she had walked evenly with his and Sid's pace, her hand held in his.
Frisk thought little of it for a time; after all, there was not much she could do. Chara could neither partake in the animated one-sided conversation Sid was chattering with him about, nor could she really talk to him either lest they arouse suspicion in the lizard-boy.
As they walked, the scenery morphed from tight, colourfully lit tunnels to more spacious, deeper caverns, with little bridges consisting of still, floating lily-pads. There had even been a bench they had passed, though Sid refused to rest at it when questioned.
"There's no time to waste dude! We might miss Undyne if we wait! Besides… I… umm… can't really get comfortable on those…" As Sid had said this, he glanced toward his sides, tail, and then pointedly toward Frisk's arms.
That had left the boy tongue-tied, and his mouth scrunched up in what Sid had jokingly commented to be the 'infamous sucking-lemon face'. Needless to say, Frisk talked nothing more on the matter, thoroughly abashed.
Looking over to his partner immediately afterward, his sheepish, embarrassed expression was quickly swept aside, replaced with concern.
Chara was furious.
He quickly ascertained it was neither him nor Sid she was angry about, for she bore the faraway look he had come to know she wore when she was deep in thought- still.
But why? Her expression was nothing short of terrifying; eyes so piercing they almost glowed, her mouth and nose curled up in a snarl.
Hardly able to concentrate and reply to Sid, Frisk tried to let his partner be, but could not ignore the abject worriment for long. It upset him to the core.
As the trio entered a large, coal-surfaced cavern, glistening with thousands of blue-light crystals above, the boy could bear it no longer, unable to appreciate the sights or what Sid was saying. So he finally turned around and spoke. Maintaining some masquerade was far less important than her welfare!
Even now, at present, he was still trying to figure out why she had now begun silently weeping.
He shook himself, wanting to say more than just her name. He wanted to let her know he was there for her, just as she was for him. To hug her.
Squeezing and raising her hand slowly, Frisk voiced Chara's name again quietly, watching as she absently refocused, only for her flush expression, tinged blue with the ambience, turn horrified.
"That's it, dude! I heard you say it before too! Who are you talking to? Who is Chara?!"
Understandably, neither human could react rationally in that moment. The return of Frisk's gormless expression, all that his brain could process to convey to Sid proved just that. Their now-wary companion positioned himself right before Frisk, the accusation clear in his gait.
A similar lack of comprehension surfaced when the lizard boy spoke again, the suspicious tone ever-incisive. "…And why do have your arm held up like that dude? I didn't wanna say it, but you walking around like that looks weird, and I don't have arms! N-now that's saying something!"
After several moments of numb, confused thought processed in Frisk's head, whereupon he dimly noticed Sid slowly begin emulating his open-mouthed expression before him, he felt a light jab in his side, along with a hiss in his ear.
"*Frisk! Don't let him come up with an answer of his own!" Came Chara's urgent whisper. Coughing and spluttering with this sudden incentive, the boy attempted to formulate as best an explanation as he could, put on the spot as he was.
"Ah…! She… erm… yeah… like… I-I…"
The sharp, smacking sound to his right was what Frisk mortifyingly guessed to be his partner slapping her palm to her forehead.
Sid on the other hand, miraculously seemed to put two and two together from Frisk's non-answer. His imitation of the boy's thoughtless expression developed into something between joyous, and knowing; like a predatory lawyer cornering their suspect.
Frisk swallowed thickly as the lizard boy slowly but surely fired his first question.
"So they're a she… eh? What's she li-ike?"
"Umm… she umm… I don't…"
"C'mon dude! You can tell me!"
"*Frisk. Do NOT tell him that I'm a ghost. No, you know what? Don't say a thing."
"Don't say anyth-! Eh-erm…"
Suffice to say, the train of thought in Frisk's head was travelling off the rails. The only thing the poor boy could think to do at this point, was to cover his mouth with his free hand, and scrunch his eyes shut.
'I messed up! I Chara is gonna be so mad… and Sid…' His thoughts were so clenching and inward, that he nearly missed what Sid said next.
"Aww c'mon man! We're friends, aren't we? …Hey, if you tell me about your imaginary friend, I'll tell you about mine!"
'No-no-no…-Wait, what?' Dumbfounded, the human boy slowly opened one eye to see Chara, equally flabbergasted by Sid's unwittingly saving-deduction. Imaginary friends…
"…Umm… Y-yeah! Imaginary! Totally… imaginary…!" Frisk tittered nervously, watching his partner pulling a petulant face at him, her eyes half-lidded. No sign of her earlier upset remained, but the boy pushed this idle observation to the back of his mind.
Bouncing impatiently before him, Sid pressed further. "So… go on! Is she pretty? Is she cool? I bet she told you to come see Undyne too, right?"
Rapidly, irrationally, Frisk felt like the earth was going to swallow him, his legs turning to jelly. Biting his lip, he felt that is exactly what should happen right now to spare him. He had to say it.
"…Yes… Very."
Strangely, Sid looked… relieved? The boy could not at that moment interpret his expression, dreading only how Chara might respond.
"*Frisk… What… Why would he… umm… ask about me telling you to see Undyne?" This prompted said boy to snap out of his wobbly daze, and he glanced quickly at Chara. He noted with an inscrutable feeling that she was flushed, cheeks rosier than ever, but her expression was serious.
He didn't want to think about what he looked like. Instead, he snapped his head back to Sid to relay his partner's question, trying his best to maintain a straight face.
The lizard boy however seemed to become withdrawn, looking off to the side with his serpentine eyes unfocused. As Frisk gently repeated himself, Sid turned back to the human with his expression becoming steadily incredulous.
"Wait, dude… you mean she didn't tell you to go see Undyne?" Frisk shook his head, trying to fix a solid smile onto his face with all the mixed feelings racing around within.
"N-no Sid… but, why would she tell me to? Did… yours tell you to?" He asked as calmly as he could. As he finished, there was a familiar, prickling sensation at the back of his neck. Rubbing the incessant itch, he tried to ignore it.
"Y-yeah dude! He told me I should… not that I needed him to tell me to! She's so cool, but you already know that, don'tcha?! I couldn't figure why he said it would be 'so important' someday though… but hey!"
'So important?' Glancing to Chara, who shrugged, completely at a loss, Frisk cocked his head to the side and curiously asked a similar question to what started this conversation off.
"I told you what my imaginary friend was like… so what is yours like?"
Once again, the lizard looked to the other boy in surprise, though this time, with a peculiar reservation. He shifted his eyes from side to side before leaning forward and speaking, as if he was passing on a treasured secret. Despite himself, Frisk found himself inclining also, and he could see Chara in his periphery doing the same beside him.
"He's not pretty like I bet yours is! Nah, he's a handsome dude! Wanna know why? Cause he looks just like me! Ha… Except… kinda grey… like he stays in the complete dark all the time! Weird, huh? Why would I have an imaginary friend like that? I dunno… Anyway… dude! Yours is Chara, right? Mine is called G-… W-Wo-Woshua!"
The lulling, conspiratorial tone with which Sid told the pair about his friend shattered like glass, his sudden exclamation at the end knocking the two to their backsides in fright.
"*Urgh… that's the last straw! Shouting all of a sudden when we're that close! Is this a prank?!" Chara whined, rubbing her hand delicately where she now sat on the ground. As the two children fell, their hands had wrenched awkwardly as they fell either way, forcing them to let go of each other.
Thankfully, Frisk at least had not been hurt, although he could not offer a worded response, winded as he was. Looking dolefully up at the perpetrator, he felt the trickle of annoyance to see not an ounce of contriteness on his face. Outlined by the shining crystals above, he was too focused on something behind them.
The irritation seeped away when Sid returned his gaze to Frisk, eyes filled with an animated dread. "Dude! Frisk, right?! We have to hide! Now dude!"
Scrambling to get up at these words, Frisk made sure first to pull up a struggling Chara, both children for the moment uncaring of the present company, before fearfully regarding Sid with his full attention.
"What, why Sid?! What's coming?!" The boy's terrified words seemed only to deflate the lizard, who stopped bouncing on his feet, instead recoiling. He looked between Frisk and whatever it was behind the boy with one, scrunched up eye.
"Too late…"
It was suddenly all quiet, Frisk noted with a gulp. He turned around, expecting the worst.
-O-
"You filthy cretins!"
This warbling, angry accusation, along with the pattering of little feet was the only warning any of the children received before they were all suddenly doused in what Chara felt to be pleasantly warm water.
The thoughts that immediately cropped up however were twofold; indignation at the fact her clothes and hair were now sodden, and relief that neither Sid nor the monster that presented itself before them noticed how an invisible person was splashed also.
'*At least Frisk has a jacket… I wish I did…' She thought dolefully for a moment, before focusing on the problem at hand.
He was… strange, anatomically. Even by her standards. Chara had never seen an animated, quadrupedal bird bath before, much less one that was green, purple, and sporting a vacantly angry face, which was attached to a spherical green head. Evidently, his points of concern were the dirty, sandy smears on all of their clothes, resultant of the near-miss with Undyne earlier, or so the girl reasoned from his words.
To top it off, there was a small yellow bird sat within the creature's hollowed out, water-filled back, rocking back and forth with the motion of his host contentedly.
The girl could not pay it any more mind however, as even though she was blankly transfixed with the sight of the creature's appearance, its grating voice was such that it could snap anyone out of anything.
"Wash yourselves!" Immediately after the creature cried out once again, it breathed in sharply, holding the accrued air for but a moment. It was all Chara needed to figure out what was going to happen, and as she leapt out of the way she could hear both Frisk and Sid gasp as they were doused once again.
Although uncomfortable herself with her dripping clothes clinging to her body, she couldn't help but snigger at the sight of her partner, stood with his arms splayed out, eyes covered by his wet hair as water fell in rivulets from him.
'*Well, at least this guy seems harmless, but is he going to keep doing that…?' As if in response to her thoughts, the creature drew in yet another large breath of air, keeping its beady black eyes trained on the two boys.
Before Chara could think of a solution, a desperate Frisk lifted his drenched arms and waved them toward the creature pleadingly. "P-please! W-whoever you are! St-!" For his trouble, the boy received the brunt of the next stream of water, mostly to the face.
"It's WOSH…ua!" Squawked the now-named bathtub, who huffed ostensibly at the fact Frisk did not know his name. For a creature that barely came up to Frisk and Chara's waist, he certainly had a huge disposition!
It did not take long for Woshua to begin readying another torrent of water, to which Frisk beseeched once again to try and stop. "Just let it happen dude… he'll stop eventually…" Came the quiet, defeated voice of Sid, who was stood next to the other boy with his eyes tightly shut.
'*Fat lot of good he's doing now! I have to… come on, think!' Chara's mind raced to think of a solution. Despite Frisk's passivity and his pleas for mercy, Woshua seemed pretty content to continue 'washing' the two boys. So, if a kind request wasn't going to work… then something else?
"P-please mister Woshua! Aren't we clean enough?" The human boy's foolish words were returned with a stream of even greater force, as if he had told a bold-faced lie.
Indeed, the little bathtub hopped lightly on his little green feet, incensed at the apparently absurd claim. "Enough? Enough?! Do you know where you are boy? The wishing room! You need to be clean to pay your respects! Or else it becomes the washing room instead! Understand?!" After his quick-fire admonishment, Woshua fired another jet of water, as was only customary.
At this, Chara stopped her musing in favour of looking around in surprise. With an odd, sinking feeling, she realised he was right- the densely packed glowing crystals above shining like the Milky Way, the ghostly-blue echo flowers sprouting out of the dark gritstone walls on the far side of the cavern.
Transfixed, she gazed around in recognition, hardly noticing how Frisk was now looking directly at her in desperation.
This place was important, almost sacred to the monsters, and Chara remembered vividly the first time Asriel had brought her here.
-O-
"Come on Chara! I want to show you this place!"
"*How can whatever is in there possibly be better than the glowing swamps behind us, Az?"
"Just hurry up! I promise it's good, you'll see!"
"*…"
"See-! I told you! This is the wishing room! We all make our prayers and wishes here… I guess it's in the name, huh?"
"*I…"
"Let me guess, you're completely amazed, right?"
"*…It is… very nice."
"Wha-at?! Aww, c'mon! This is supposed to be super cool and sacred and all that, and you look about as impressed as you did at my ultra-cool drawing!"
"*Well, it was pretty scribbly."
"Nonsense! It was me! The ultimate warrior of hyperdeath! There can be no better drawing in the whole-wide-world!"
"*Uh huh. Anyway… Asriel, how is this different to the caverns from before? All the echo flowers by the pools?"
"Well… look up! Remember what dad always says? About how we monsters always made wishes to the stars?"
"*Yeah…?"
"A-and since there aren't any down here, we use this room, since it's so dark and private, except for the stones up above!"
"*But… we were saying our wishes all the way through to here. What's so different about making your wishes in here?"
"You don't tell them to anyone. You know, like we were doing… Here, you keep them to yourself, the stars and the echo flowers. Gotta tell the flowers so they can keep repeating the wish to the stars when we're gone! Dad says that means that when the same wish is heard over and over, and by more people… it must come true! Neat, right?"
"*I… Guess so…"
"Alright! I'll make the first one!"
As Asriel finished whispering his wish to the closest flower, the girl slowly made her way to the flower next to his. She could not help but hear it respond to the youthful boss monster's words.
"…I wish my sister and I will see the real stars someday…"
In a time far in the future, this would have brought tears to the distraught human's eyes. In this time, it only frosted her wounded heart.
Asriel was not to know yet however, standing there smiling, yet urgent.
"C'mon si-is! Make a wish!"
And so she did.
"*I wish that one day, everyone down here will be freed from this prison…One way or another."
-O-
Ignoring the incisive chill that reverberated down her spine at the memory, Chara yoked her focus back to what was in front of her. After everything, she thought she could change, fix what was.
She couldn't let Frisk, or her brother down now.
Wiping the influx of tears from her eyes, she looked between Woshua and the boys, watching how the attacking monster seemed repulsed by their appearance when he wasn't 'washing' them, but pleased when he was.
With the memories of the adventures with her brother in-mind, something occurred to her; she had secretly been planning on possibly surprising Frisk with this as they journeyed into the glowing marsh, and figured it could be useful now.
Chara's expression slowly became devious- the ground was wet and muddy with all of Woshua's torrents. But for her dirty plan to work, she had to get his guard down!
"*Frisk, try telling him about how… we played in the marsh, and ate butterscotch pie with our bare hands! How we're so dirty, we even swam around in it!"
She recalled how Toriel had been quite angry with her and Asriel for this, how they had to walk all the way back to New Home in their underwear because their clothes baked rock-solid upon their re-entry into Hotland.
They were a sight, and although neither of the boys before her were quite as dirty, the implications of it she knew would incense Woshua to no-end, given how neurotic he already demonstrated himself to be.
As it was, Frisk regarded her with an expression which would have not been amiss in such a situation had she grown an extra head, or turned into an ostrich. To her satisfaction however, the boy reluctantly relayed her words to the monster, flinching in anticipation.
And rightly so. "No-o! How could you be so dirty?! Wa-ash!" Screamed Woshua, who sprayed a final volley so intense that it knocked both Frisk and a screeching Sid down to the dirty ground, inadvertently reversing all of the monster's efforts.
"D-dude! What are you doing?! He's never gonna let us go if you say stuff like that!" Moaned the lizard-boy. Frisk, who despite his utmost faith in Chara, was wondering just what possessed her to suggest goading him further.
Locating her behind the soaked-hair which clung to his eyes, he ignored Sid's questions in favour of gawking in terror at what she was doing. He didn't dare shout for her to stop- her preservation still paramount despite the disaster that was about to unfold.
Chara grinned as she managed to scrape enough mud and grit from the cavern floor to fill both her hands. Despite the effort, she was pleased she had the strength to manage, and threw with all her might toward the unsuspecting Woshua.
Splat!
The thrown glob of mud had not maintained form, instead splattering the walking water-fountain from head to toe with sandy, cloying dirt.
The girl exhaled deeply from the exertion; the triviality of it in her head, that merely picking up some mud and throwing it would tire her out like this made her grit her teeth in anger, as she quickly brought her insensate arms to catch herself from falling forward.
Looking up, her snarl became a grin as she saw Woshua, frozen in place.
At first, his simple expression was blank; mouth-open, eyes wide and unmoving. A moment later, he began to shake, with what Chara initially thought was fright- she had intended for the monster to become agitated and flee at the sensation of the hated dirt on his body.
How wrong she was.
The victorious look she had been preparing to flash to her partner quickly became one of fear, as the trembling Woshua began to shriek, enraged.
And they thought a hosing-down was the height of cleansing. The water in the little monster's hollow-back boiled, and steam started to rise thickly from it. His bird-companion seemed unfazed as spouts of superheated vapour shot upward around it, waving around like snakes from where it sat, floating.
"I will wash your soul!" Screeched an irate Woshua, advancing toward the boys.
Chara could only watch as Frisk and Sid cried in terror, a mixture of guilt and horror coursing through her as she tried to garner the strength to stand.
-X-
"Dude. I told you we should have just let him do it… but did you listen?! No-o!"
Frisk, glancing dully at a very sheepish Chara, merely shook his head. "I guess not… at least he dried us up afterward…"
"It wasn't worth it though was it?! Man… if Undyne were here, she'd beat him up for us!"
To Frisk's relief, Sid did not seem to hold the mistake, or the ensuing punishment received against him. Not even the light-burns tingling across their skin could dampen the lizard's spirits, as he looked up to the ceiling with stark excitement.
The human-boy found himself slowly looking back to his partner, whose doleful eyes full of regret betrayed the half-smile she wore. Shaking his head, he easily let go of his irritation, emulating her trademark grin, smiling back.
At first she seemed shocked, but Chara slowly matched his expression, her eyes now articulating stunned wonderment.
It was nothing to Frisk- whilst he was disappointed that she had in-essence resorted to attacking Woshua, they were all still in one-piece. The angry cleaner had stepped up a notch, scorching them with steam instead of the comparatively pleasant jets beforehand. Whilst it had served to leave them pristine clean, especially after the monster followed up with a 'sauna-wash' as he had called it, the resulting itching burns might have soured his mood.
But he was above that. She had tried to help, even if in this situation they should have just listened to Sid!
For now, Frisk furtively reached for Chara's hand, and she, despite her abashment, took it. He smiled, and agreed silently with her clenched-fist query, to forever bury the 'Woshua incident' into forbidden-conversation. Never would they take a talking bird-bath's demands lightly ever again.
As Sid lightly tapped his shoulder with his tail, both the human-children were thrown back into reality, and Frisk chided himself for once-again dropping the façade before present company.
"U-uh… yes Sid? Sorry, I was… elsewhere...?" The boy stuttered, swivelling to face his more corporeal companion, who was fortunately half-distracted with the lights above.
"Dude! You should make a wish! This is the wishing room after all!"
Frisk blinked, his expression turning blank as Chara drew a sharp breath beside him. 'A wish?'
Despite his partner tugging and squeezing his hand to pull his attention, he responded to Sid's statement with his usual intelligence.
"Huh?"
"Du-ude! You've never made a wish here?! Haha! Ha… Wait… you're serious?!" Upon Frisk's slow nod, Sid gawked at him in dismay, only to quickly and forcefully invade the human's personal space.
It took all the boy had, in addition to a significant amount of support from a gasping, exclaiming Chara to not fall over as the lizard slammed into his abdomen, wrapping his scaly tail around his torso and jerking him away, toward the wall.
If there was any extra dead-weight for Sid to feel as he dragged an awkwardly-stumbling Frisk and Chara toward the array of echo flowers in the far-wall of the cavern, he did not show it. Instead, upon reaching the objective, the lizard pulled his gripping tail from Frisk so swiftly, it left the human boy spinning, and the unseen girl sprawling on the dirt-floor.
Frisk could just about hear Chara's irritable voice as he attempted to garner his bearings- he was seeing both stars that weren't there, and the gemstone variety up above!
"*I swear, if he doesn't stop doing stuff like that… I'll make that snowball feel like a pea-shot!"
The boy did not have much time to think on her uttered curse, as the full-force of Sid the monster-kid demanded his attention.
"R-right dude! You just go up to these flowers, and make a wish! Don't tell me what you wish for though!" The lizard stressed the last part by once again pushing himself so close to Frisk's face that the human-boy could make out the veins in his serpentine eyes.
At Frisk's meek nodding and squeaks of acquiescence, Sid seemed to regain his sense of social propriety, finally putting some distance between the two with an awkward giggle. "Uh… sorry about that dude… just like, this is important, you know? The king says everyone's gotta do it, so… Make a wish to the echo flowers, then we can go see Undyne!"
With how self-assured Sid was about it, Frisk knew that he would have to comply with his demands. Looking around, he finally allowed himself to take in the surrounding environment.
The blue flowers, which Frisk assumed were the 'echo flowers' the lizard-boy and Chara had spoken of earlier, sprouted out of the smooth wrinkles of the wall. Despite the glow from above, the wall seemed to reflect very little of the light, giving it the appearance of a cloudy night-sky. As he looked upward, he could now fully appreciate the display.
He couldn't help but gasp; there were so many! Even on the surface, the night never looked this pretty! Even as he had scaled the mountain, the glow of the nearby city meant that there weren't too many stars in the sky. At least, not as many as this!
Frisk thought it looked like wisps of sparkling fog, clumping in some places to look almost like an amorphous moon, and thinning in others to make even the smallest stone seem to shine brighter than the sun.
Gulping as he heard Sid's impatient cough, the boy levelled his gaze back to the wall. To his relief, Chara had returned to his side- but when he surreptitiously attempted to retake her hand, she avoided his grasp, prompting him to try and pretend looking at the wall behind her as he both tried to avoid Sid's suspicion, and express his puzzlement to her.
"*Frisk, you… need to make this wish on your own. That means I can't be with you! Just… go to the flower, and whisper it, that's all. Remember what I told you before though… they'll speak back."
He wanted to ask why he had to do it alone- her last words troubled him. He wanted to ask why he couldn't just tell them both, and what they had wished for themselves. So it was, with a sigh and a sad pout that he brushed past Sid, leaving both his companions behind to reach the wall.
Whilst he was tempted to gaze at the ceiling for a little while longer, Frisk did not want to risk any more irritation, and instead levelled his eyes before him as he slowly approached.
Eerie would be too kind a word for the boy to describe it by; the flowers, and there were hundreds of them, seemed to wave in tandem to an unfelt wind, and as he got closer, he could hear them.
Whispers.
It was as if a creeping miasma washed over him as he got near. They were just about decipherable- uncountable wishes, hopes and dreams spoke to him. Were he not already knowledgeable, he would have assumed they were accusations, the sharp, emotional way in which they were delivered.
Biting his lip, opening and closing his fist, Frisk walked until he found one, just about his mouth-level, dancing carefree in the false wind.
He mused agitatedly on what to say. With all the other wishes repeating themselves endlessly around him, an errant thought prodded- 'What is the point? It'd be lost forever to this place!'
It was an easy realisation for him, remembering what both his companions had said. That was the point. They were all wishing the same thing.
To see the real stars. To see the real sun, to feel the real breeze. In truth, he'd be telling all these desperate voices what they wanted to hear. And they'd truly believe him in time, this he knew.
"I wish that me and Chara can get to the barrier, so we can set everybody free!"
-S-
She was picking up the pace.
Although Papyrus seemed to have missed them, and indeed had not made comment on it for the duration of their renewed pursuit, there was no way Undyne had not seen Frisk in the grass earlier!
'the other kid, sid i think it was? he couldn't hide himself even if we were blind and deaf!' Sans thought, his mind racing.
As it was, the captain of the guard was making her way to a chokepoint in the tunnels- a winding wooden walkway that the children would have to cross in order to get over the river. The only other path through this part of Waterfall was the tunnel overlooking said walkway from the riverbanks; the dark sediments and stalactites would hide the children's assailant until it was far too late.
Neither of the brothers were naïve enough to believe Frisk would have a chance if she got there first- it was not as if the boy was clairvoyant, or particularly agile.
"MAYBE HE WILL HAVE GOT THROUGH THERE ALREADY, AND THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO FEAR!"
Even Papyrus' persevering optimism couldn't hide his worry in this moment. They could just about spot Undyne's armour glinting in the distance, the increasing light of the caverns now fully preventing any form of stealth.
Not that she was trying to be sneaky. The clanking and screaming metal plates on her greaves and faulds produced such a cacophony, one would be forgiven for thinking there was a factory operating deeper in the tunnels.
He couldn't delay it any longer. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and prepared.
"bro, i gotta ask. if it comes to it, will you have what it takes?"
Whilst he had worded it as gently as possible, something like this had to be to the point. Whilst his brother always believed in the best outcome, even to the point of blunt-ignorance, Sans knew that in this case, with him asking, that he would put it aside. He had done so once already, after all.
Maybe it would be for the best, in the end. Breaking his enthusiasm. Even if Sans treasured him as he was.
"I… DO NOT UNDERSTAND? OF COURSE I HAVE WHAT IT TAKES! NO CHALLENGE IS TOO DIFFICULT! NO MOUNTAIN TOO TALL! NO PUZZLE TOO PUZZLING! NO SPAGHETTI TOO SPAGHETTI-ING! NO-"
"you do, papyrus."
"I… HAH… I… I DON'T KNOW, SANS."
"you already know what she'll do, and i ain't pullin' ya leg here, bud. you had it all figured out before, and we let him go because of it, remember?"
"I DO. BUT SANS… UNDYNE IS MY FRIEND TOO! AND I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN… CHOOSE."
"you don't have to choose. we just have to stop her, otherwise frisk ain't gonna be anyone's friend anymore."
"SANS."
"i'm telling you pap, you need to take this at face-value. there's something fishy about your friend, and it ain't because she stinks. you heard the way she spoke, she's gonna kill him."
"SANS."
He had to twist the knife further, as much as it pained him.
"and that ain't even the end of it. if she figures out we were harbouring him? you know how she is. unless we get this right, she'll stick us in the dungeon back at new home until you wish you were never born."
"S a n s."
This time, he knew he had driven it home. Sans turned toward his brother, who stood stock-still in the middle of the pathway. They had both stopped running the moment he had confronted Papyrus with what the real circumstances were.
Opening his eyes, he regarded his brother with his never-ending smile, half-expecting, half-hoping him to be angry.
The tall skeleton however demonstrated no signs of anger, or even any identifiable emotion at all. He merely had his eyes closed, his teeth clenched tightly. For a moment, he stood there, still, as Sans watched.
As moments tend to do, it passed quickly, and Papyrus fixated Sans with a glare worlds-apart to the ones of annoyance he would normally subject his punslinging brother to.
"I KNOW. JUST… SANS. CAN YOU TRUST ME?"
"…pap?"
"DO YOU TRUST ME? PLEASE, ANSWER THE QUESTION."
It was a hard ask- Papyrus was not normally this pressing. But then again, neither was he.
Of course Sans trusted him, but this was different, wasn't it? Even as reserved as he normally was in his outward appearance, he could not help but flinch. His eyes went dark, and his smile was more of a grimace. This, unfortunately told Papyrus all he needed to know before he could even defend himself.
"WELL. I'LL PROVE IT TO YOU. YOU THINK I DON'T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES? WELL, BROTHER, I CAN DO ANYTHING! NYEH! YOU'LL SEE!"
Despite his seeming return to positivity, Sans could tell he had been hurt. "wait, pap!"
"HURRY IT UP, LAZYBONES! OR DO YOU NOT WANT TO SEE YOURSELF BE PROVEN WRONG?"
He had nearly made it out of sight already. Sans guffawed under his breath, shaking his head and slouching, hands in pockets. "you already know i'd give anything for that bro."
A blue flicker later, and the skeletons were both back on the pursuit, more incensed than ever.
-O-
She had heard what he said. Although Frisk was often gentle and quiet in diction, his wish had vociferously resounded throughout the whole cavern.
It hadn't taken long for all the flowers to start chattering with his promise.
She could imagine most other monsters would be mortified, even angry with his apparent disrespect. It wasn't hard to see- Toriel would be scolding, Asgore… would be chiding, if lightly so. Asriel would be a mixture of the two, telling him off!
But she?
Chara had instead felt something else. Was it… pride? Or something else? The girl could not help herself but beam at him when he walked back to them, slightly embarrassed, but otherwise unashamed. It didn't matter that to anyone else, his promise might sound ridiculous. Suspicious.
She had wanted to hug him, itched to do so, and would have said something, present company be damned. It was theirs. Their promise.
With the voices of the Underground agreeing, and light behind him, Chara felt… It was indescribable. And as he smiled, she suddenly didn't know what to say. Trembling. She hardly noticed as his face seemed to flush, and start to shiver also.
As always though, the aforementioned present company intervened.
Sid had heard it also. "Du-ude… I know you're meant to keep it to yourself, but wow…. And here I thought wanting to be cool like Undyne was a good one…" The lizard boy confessed wistfully, snapping both humans out of their gawking contest.
'*What was that?' Chara asked herself, still torn between her reverie. It kept happening, moments like this- the longer she was with Frisk, the more it happened. It would be maddening if it weren't so…!
She had no word for it.
Bringing herself to the situation at hand, she struggled to get such thoughts out of her head. Chara knew Frisk felt it too, she could see him wrestle with the same problem. A flushed face indicating he was hot, even though it was fairly lukewarm in this part of the caverns. Shaking as if in terror, but there was nothing to be afraid of.
Why was she afraid then, to discuss it with him?
They shared everything didn't they?
…
Once again, reality sought to tear them away from their introspective dilemmas- Sid wasn't one to know. No, the lizard-boy only knew half of the story, and from his pedestal, it looked like Frisk was away with the fairies.
And so he bonked the poor boy on the head with his tail.
"Yowch! What was… Sid…!" Frisk whimpered, pouting in such a way to make Chara think very different thoughts to that of his true predicament!
"Yo! Snapped you out of it, didn't it? C'mon, let's get out of here… We've been held up too long! We might miss her!"
"…Who?"
Sid received Frisk's temporary amnesia poorly. "Wha-at?! Dude, c'mo-on! Undy-yne! Only the coolest, toughest, most powerful monster this side of the Underground! Didn't you wanna come see her beat-up bad guys?"
Finally, both the human children landed with both feet firm on the ground, and the anxiety ate at both their stomachs once again.
"*Right, because apparently Frisk is the bad guy…" Chara muttered idly, which only served to deflate her partner's posture even further.
"U-umm… Sid, did you say you had a hiding s-spot up ahead? To see Undyne?" Frisk asked stutteringly, to which the lizard-boy responded by regarding him with an aghast expression.
"Well of course I do! Remember that super-cool hiding spot back in the grass earlier? This one is even better! C'mon dude, I'll show you!"
The lizard's excited statement reassured neither human in the slightest- the previous 'hiding spot' had been nothing short of a terrifying ordeal for the both of them. Chara still wondered how Undyne had not spotted Sid; if he thought he had any sort of camouflage, yellow as he was, against that grass… Then she would have to suggest he get his head checked!
In fact, she would have done just that had she the proper means. Regrettably, Frisk was far too polite to utter such a thing.
Or maybe he wasn't? "Sid… this hiding spot isn't just a clump of grass again, is it?" To Chara's dismay, the monster-kid regarded Frisk as if he just been caught with his hand in the cookie-jar.
She had to resist the urge to groan louder than she did, barely hearing as Sid babbled out an excuse to her now petrified partner. "W-well this one's cooler! And… the grass is taller, and there's more of it, and… well uh… why does it matter, dude?"
That left Frisk tongue-tied. As he looked to Chara for help, she could find nought to suggest but to shrug and shake her head in disbelief.
Mustering as supportive a grin as she could, she stated the only thing they could do. "*There is only one way through I guess… We'll have to hope for the best. We can do this, partner."
At least it put a smile back on his face. Frisk splayed out his left hand by his side, and she took it wordlessly, watching as he turned to Sid, who looked mildly curious at his antics. Not that either of them particularly cared anymore- the imminent situation drew thoughts of façade out of mind.
"I-I guess it doesn't. You know where to go… right?" Frisk asked, gently. Sid seemed to limber himself up, holding himself high at the other boy's words.
"Well of course I do! C'mon, it's through here!"
-X-
The monster-kid led Frisk and Chara out of the wishing room and into an adjoining tunnel, far wider than the one they had entered the room from. The boy was sad to leave the room behind- it had been a sight to behold when he got a chance to take it all in!
There was a soft, yet nagging feeling that the stars hadn't been the prettiest thing he saw in there though.
Disallowing himself from thinking more on this, he instead focussed intently on the new environment they found themselves in. Although it was far more spacious than the previous areas, the area in which the children could walk was far less so.
The calm ambience of flowing water permeated and echoed throughout the tunnel, as below their feet rushed the river, or at least one of its tributaries. They stood upon a wooden platform, which to the boy's private relief was sturdy and fresh-looking.
Sid started to walk ahead of them, the excitement clear in his gait. As they passed fully into the tunnel, Frisk almost missed the carved plaques indented into walls closest to them, on their left. The lizard-boy took no notice, and although he was curious as to their contents, Frisk could neither read, nor did he initially want to hold up the overexcited monster-kid any further.
Chara though, he noticed was observing them with interest. He guessed, judging from her puzzled expression that they had been placed after…
'Well, at least she doesn't know everything, right?' Frisk thought half-jokingly, half-apprehensive. Of course things had changed, but he had been taking comfort in Chara's foreknowledge.
Watching her with a slight smile, he noted how she seemed to take it all in rapidly. Looking between her and the increasingly distant Sid, he had almost mustered the gumption to ask her what they said, before spotting her reaction to the last plaque imbedded in the wall, just before the tunnel widened too far for further writings.
Following her open-mouthed, mesmerised expression, he noticed that the last sign wasn't in writing at all. Instead, there was an illustration- a strange figure, outlined in the fluorescent green of the drawing material.
Frisk thought the top-half looked a bit like Toriel- the large, dangling ears, and horns to boot, but that was where the similarities ended. Its lower half looked like nothing in the boy's imagining; strange, almost mechanical hands… and where were its legs? The expression it sported though…
Unsettling would be too soft a word to ascribe to it, Frisk thought, tearing his gaze away from the drawing finally and squeezing his partner's hand, snapping her out of the reverie it cast over her. Looking into her eyes, the boy could surmise that Chara knew what it was. As she returned his gaze, he merely nodded at her.
She nodded back. Later, was the unspoken word between them as they clenched one-another's hands again, trying to catch up to the blissfully ignorant Sid.
They continued to walk in silence, both humans breathing in unconscious tandem with one another, whilst the monster-kid seemed to become more and more excited, his erratic footsteps echoing above the cacophony of the water below.
It was then that Frisk felt it.
An odd, prickling sensation on the back of his neck, and although Chara was not yet showing any outward reaction, she could feel it too.
Dread pooled at the bottom of Frisk's stomach. The ambient light provided by the intermittent crystals above seemed to dim, and the sound of rushing water seemed to quieten.
Unsettled, he opened his mouth to ask where Sid's hiding spot was.
And felt his body lurch forward, though not from tripping or from Chara pushing him- it felt as if a hand had grabbed him by the heart!
He could not think to even choke, as nary a second later, Frisk felt something brush swiftly behind his head.
That something lodged itself halfway up to the hilt in the wall to their right, making barely a crunch as it struck. With a rapidly sinking feeling, adrenaline flowing to his legs, Frisk knew what it was.
She had finally found them.
-S-
Just managed.
Whilst Papyrus deflected the follow-through, Sans pushed all three kids out of the way from the initial volley.
The short skeleton grinned lightly as Undyne swivelled to see just who had stopped her assassination, only for it to become tighter as the captain turned back to her task at hand. The jig was finally up.
"and just about time, too." Sans uttered, sweat beading upon his forehead as he pushed Chara, who was trying to spot them in the darkness, up to her feet, giving her some momentum to start running. He noted with a smile that although Sid had run ahead, and despite the fact the boy knew he was the target, Frisk had stayed behind to help his partner up.
It was probably better if they didn't see them fighting back against Undyne, though he suspected the glowing-blue bones thrown by Papyrus would have probably already given them away! Sans focused past these thoughts, tensing his body- couldn't think about this right now.
After all, he had a promise to keep.
Lift. Drag. Shift. Deflect.
A save here. A pick-up there. Throwing a bone where Papyrus missed one. It was becoming disconcertedly evident just how much it had cost him.
Sans could feel it. The more he did, the more he wasn't up to this- he hadn't even prepared for combat, thinking naïvely that Papyrus could maybe cool Undyne's jets, so that this wouldn't need to happen at all.
Panting as he nudged Frisk out of a spear's trajectory for the fifth time, he was incredibly relieved to see that they had almost made it to the grass at the far end of the tunnel.
Just as he was about to slouch and sigh in victory, Undyne changed her game.
Dousing her final volley with a resounding growl, the captain leapt from where she stood, all the way to the walkway where the kids were.
Seeing Papyrus lunge forward desperately, Sans put all he could into holding her in place. Whilst his brother formed a barrier of bones before her, the short skeleton made to hold Undyne so tightly to the ground, that she could not move in that moment.
He idly thought that if the kids were to look behind them now, they would see a roaring but impotent knight held back by some flimsy bones. Sans couldn't tell whether to chuckle in amusement at the vision, or consider that to Frisk, it would probably be less than funny.
The short skeleton, strained as he were, found himself inclined to the former, until despite his best efforts, Undyne started to move.
One step. Two steps. With each succeeding footstep, Sans felt his grip unravel. Then, as if a person clinging for their life to a ledge suddenly let go, the lazy skeleton was thrown violently backward with the feedback of losing control, his prey slipping from his hands.
Shakily lifting his head in time to see the captain swat aside Papyrus' barrier with ease, he took comfort in the fact that he could neither feel nor see his charges any more. It would seem, for now, that they had escaped.
They had been successful. Or so he hoped.
With that thought, Sans drifted gently into unconsciousness.
-X-
A/N: Not dead. Sorry this took so long. The proper note will be at the end of the next chapter. See you in a little bit!