Royal Scientist's Log [On Death and Determination]:
Anyone who studies the power of determination may find themselves losing their appreciation for death. Indeed, determination is a marvelous energy. It can heal almost any injury, and it can even allow the soulless to regain consciousness. However, death is still a very real threat to be feared. There are several ways to ensure the destruction of an Essence and a permanent death.
1. Irreparable destruction of the human body will destroy the Essence inside. Irreparable destruction can include but is not limited to disintegration, decay, and incineration. In the case of monsters and their primarily magical bodies, an assailant with truly malicious intentions may destroy their Essence upon killing them.
2. Use of specialized equipment may destroy the Essence directly. It should be noted that this method may be used to preserve a SOUL while destroying its owner.
3. The death of a soulless being is always permanent.
4. The effects of a severe determination overdose are irreversible.
5. If the subject has lost the will to live, the Essence will burn out on its own upon death.
Finally, it is crucial to keep in mind that the destruction of a SOUL always represents a permanent loss of life. The only way to replace a lost SOUL is to either take or destroy another. Only death can pay for life.
Dear Frisk, you have quite the dilemma in front of you. Just before she started her quest for redemption, you told Chara that you would sacrifice her to bring back the friends you've lost. And when I questioned you in my lab, you again stated that you were willing to sacrifice Chara to undo all the damage that she has done. So, what's it going to be, Frisk? Will you kill the love of your life with your own hands, or will you once again risk the lives of your friends to save hers?
Although, I will say this. In order to reach LV 20, Lucida needs to get angry, and nothing would piss her off more than Chara surviving this day.
And yet, even if they survive, would your friends ever forgive you after you make it painfully clear who's more important to you?
Who will you betray?
Make your choice, Frisk.
It wasn't fair.
It wasn't.
Frisk was being forced to choose between two great evils. He either had to murder the one he swore to protect forever, or he had to betray his friends once again. How could he justify not killing Chara when it would guarantee the safety of his friends, but how could he kill his dear, misunderstood Chara?
Frisk desperately tried to think of a way out. If he did kill Chara, could he just revive her afterwards?
A guardsman handed Frisk something. It was Chara's knife.
"Frisk," Lucida said. "You will kill the Demon with the same weapon it used to murder your own friends and family, and to ensure that the Demon will never return, its corpse shall be burned, destroying its profane Essence. And Demon, don't even think about trying to possess Frisk. The humans supplied us with technology that can detect your tricks. If you try to hide inside him, we will know, and we'll kill Frisk as well."
It was as if Lucida knew exactly what Frisk was thinking. There was no easy way out of this. If Frisk killed Chara here, it would have been forever.
Asriel, Toriel, Asgore, Napstablook, Undyne, Alphys, Gerson, Green, Purple, all those people were in danger, but they all could have been safe. All Frisk had to do was kill a single person.
…Was that not how Chara had thought? Sacrifice a few friends to keep the rest safe?
But, this was much different. Frisk only had to kill one person. Chara tried to start a war, and as much as Frisk loved her, did Chara really deserve to simply get away with that?
…What am I saying?!
Chara wasn't going to get away with it. The shame of what she did and the scars she tore in her own family would never go away. That was her punishment. Those were the consequences. Frisk knew that guilt was hardly something that people seeking justice could quantify. He knew that it wasn't nearly enough for them, but he knew that Chara would take it all back if she could. Killing should only be done if it's necessary to protect others, and Chara no longer had any intention of hurting anybody. At the very least, was death really the only way for her to atone?
But… it didn't matter what Frisk thought was right. They were going to kill her anyway, and if Frisk didn't kill her, what were they going to do to his friends? Frisk's mind said that he had to kill Chara. It was the logical thing to do. It was also the right thing to do.
Frisk walked up to Chara and pointed the tip of the knife at her SOUL.
"FRISK, NO!" Toriel screamed. A guardsman silenced her.
Mom…
Chara looked at Frisk and smiled.
"It's okay, Frisk. I'm ready."
Frisk grimaced.
"Do it," Chara said. "It'll be easy to keep my promise now, since your face will be the last thing I see."
Could she have made this any harder?
"I'm not afraid. I never was."
Chara…
"Kill me, save your friends… and keep your promise."
He had to kill Chara to protect his friends.
…But he couldn't bring himself to.
Chara's smile faded. "Frisk… please…"
My friends… I'm sorry. I'm a terrible person! I'm gambling with your lives again!
Chara became distressed. "Frisk, you have to kill me!"
"Kill me…!"
"KILL ME…!"
Frisk thought about his adventures underground. Back then, no matter how impossible it seemed, mercy always pulled through. Frisk didn't have to kill a single person, even though it seemed like everyone was trying to kill him. He faced death countless times. He DID die quite a few rimes, but despite all that…
Mercy was always the answer.
Frisk dropped the knife. The crowd gasped.
Tears ran down Chara's cheeks. "YOU PROMISED! You promised that you would save yourself! Now they're going to kill you too!"
"No," Frisk said.
Frisk looked at the crowd. "No one has to die today!" he shouted.
"Frisk…" Lucida growled. "You really are the Demon's puppet."
"Listen to me!" Frisk demanded. "There's a better way! Many of the people who died are not beyond saving! Look at Sans, Papyrus, Monster Kid, and all the others! They're really them, and they need our help!"
"No, they're all the Demon's victims," Lucida insisted.
"We can bring one of them back to normal right now!" Frisk told her. "Just give me Chara's phone. We already have something that can save them!"
"Do you think I'm an idiot? You're just going to use whatever you have stored there to try and escape."
"No…!"
"IT'S TRUE!" a familiar voice shouted.
The crowd cheered.
"Oh my God, IT'S METTATON! He's alive!"
Mettaton flew straight to the center of the stage. "HELLO, BEAUTIES!"
The crowd went nuts.
"Yes, yes, I know everyone is thrilled that I have returned to the spotlight, but I have some rather important things to say."
The crowd calmed down.
"Thank you. Now, you all must know that everything Frisk is saying is true. I've seen it with my own optics. In her dimensional box, Chara has exactly what the flower people need to become normal again: a monster SOUL!"
The crowd began murmuring.
"And where did they get this SOUL?" Lucida asked.
"From Gaster," Frisk answered truthfully.
The mentioning of that name caused even more chatter among the crowd.
"Oh, yes!" Mettaton exclaimed. "The dead human has teamed up with the dead scientist to bring everyone that the dead human killed back from the dead! SIMPLE, RIGHT?"
The entire crowd was confused.
"Look," Mettaton said. "We are currently in desperate need of leadership. At first. I was thinking that I would actually make a great monster king, but to be honest, my place is on the entertainment stage. For the more serious (and boring) stuff, there is someone far more suited than me. The fact is, our true king is not dead! He stands among you, trapped in a flower. With Chara's SOUL, we can free him, and we can have our true leader back!"
Everyone looked at Asgore, who remained silent.
What was with Asgore? Come to think of it, he had been awfully quiet even since being revived.
Suddenly, Asgore started laughing, strangely. It was the kind of laugh someone would make in response to bitter irony.
It clearly wasn't what Mettaton was expecting. "Uh… Asgore…?"
"You want me to be king again?" Asgore asked. "Why? My crimes are exactly the same as Chara's!"
What…?
"Back when my children died," Asgore continued. "I declared that all humans who fell underground must die. I swore that I would gather seven human SOULs, and with those SOULs we would destroy humanity. And so I murdered six humans, which just happens to be the same number of monsters that Chara killed. It was a crime so great that my own wife couldn't forgive me."
What was Asgore doing? How could bringing himself down help anyone?
"But the problem is rooted before all that," Asgore went on. "When Chara fell underground, I took her into my family. I gave her everything, but in return, I asked for the impossible. I truly believed that Chara was the angel of the prophecy. I believed that she was the one who would one day free our people, so I charged a mere child with a task that she couldn't possibly have accomplished. Even as Chara lied on her deathbed, I told her not to give up, because she was 'the future of humans and monsters.' When she had Asriel take her SOUL and leave the underground, she was simply trying to fulfill the impossible duty that I placed on her shoulders, and because of it, both of my children died. We all blamed the humans, but the truth is, I was the one to blame for the deaths of my children. I had failed as a king, and as a father."
Dad… why are you doing this?
"But now I realize," Asgore said. "That there was no angel. There never was, and there never will be, because the prophecy of the delta rune… is just a fairy tale, meant to give us hope. To believe in a prophecy, even a hopeful one, is to believe in fate, to believe in a future that cannot be changed, but we CAN change fate! We can make our own fate! Belief in fate is what drove my children to their deaths. It's even what turned my daughter into a killer. And now many of you believe that Chara is a demon, who must be destroyed, but many of those same people were also on board with my own plan to destroy humanity."
A guardsman tried to stop Asgore, but another blocked him. Were there Chara sympathizers in the Royal Guard? How did that happen?
"I had almost done it, too," Asgore continued. "I just needed a single SOUL, and I would have had the power to destroy them all. But before that happened, Frisk arrived in our home. Frisk showed us a better way. Frisk put an end to our imminent war, and because of him, we were able to live in peace on the surface. He truly changed all our fates. I hate to imagine what might have happened if the eighth human to fall underground wasn't as strong as Frisk."
"When the person we thought was Frisk revealed herself as the killer of Toriel, Papyrus, and Monster Kid, our faith in humanity faded as quickly as it had been created. Frisk may have been our hero, but there was no excuse for condemning an entire race over the actions of a single person. Chara didn't suddenly make us hate humanity, she simply reopened wounds that had yet to heal. We cannot blame Chara for everything. We, the monster race, are guilty of the sin of wrath, so, as your former king, I humbly ask everyone to cast aside their wrath. Let us celebrate our ability to change fate. Let us offer forgiveness to the one we called a demon, who wants nothing more than to atone for her mistakes."
A strange thing happened. The crowd reacted in what seemed like an even split between applause and anger.
"Mercy!"
"Screw that! She's still a murderer!"
"You heard our king!"
"She still has to die!"
The Royal Guard tried to calm everyone down.
What do I do? At this rate, fighting could break out.
Frisk felt something vibrate in his pocket. He reached in and pulled out something that wasn't there before: Chara's cellphone. It had received a text message from an unknown sender.
You're welcome.
-G
There was no time to waste. Frisk quickly scanned through Chara's dimensional box and found the monster SOUL. He lifted it high in the air for everyone to see. The entire crowd froze when they saw it.
"Frisk…" Mettaton said. "Give it to Asgore."
"No!" Asgore yelled. "There are people who need it more than me!"
Frisk tried to think of who needed it most. Papyrus would have rejected it because of Sans and vice versa, and it still felt kind of wrong to give it to Asriel. Mettaton… probably didn't need it the most. That left one more, perhaps the most innocent victim of all.
Frisk walked up to Monster Kid and handed him the SOUL. "Take it."
Monster Kid opened the capsule and absorbed the SOUL. The crowd gasped as he transformed back into his normal body.
"M-Monster Kid…?" Monster Kid's mother ran to her son. "Is that really you?"
"Mom… I'm sorry for getting in trouble again…"
"Oh… Monster Kid!" Monster Kid and his mother cried in each others imaginary arms.
Lucida walked up to Sans and Papyrus.
"…Are you really my sons…?"
"Y-yes, Mom," Papyrus said. "I may not get tingly when I see you anymore, but I'm still Papyrus. I'm just not the Great Papyrus that I used to be."
Sans remained silent.
Monster Kid's mother approached Chara. "I'm sorry. If I had known…"
"You have every right to hate me," Chara said. "I still killed him."
"No, I don't hate you anymore," Monster Kid's mother replied. "I know a little about all that Essence stuff. I know that if you were truly evil, what just happened wouldn't have been possible."
The group of Final Froggits on the stage talked amongst themselves. A translator spoke for them.
"The council has decided that Chara shall be granted a provisional stay of execution."
That was better than nothing. Frisk was filled with relief. Against all odds, his gamble had paid off.
"Frisk…" Chara said. "I don't know how you do it…"
"Dad's the one you need to thank,' Frisk pointed out.
"I love both of you."
There were no objections among the crowd.
…Almost…
Sans dug into the ground, and he resurfaced in front of Chara.
"S-Sans…? What are you doing?" Frisk asked.
"What does it look like? If everyone else is too lazy to get rid of her, then I will."
Frisk was heartbroken. Even after all that, Sans still wanted to kill her?
Another flower appeared between Sans and Chara: Toriel.
"Sans," Toriel said. "If you want to kill my daughter, you'll have to kill me first."
Sans gave a look of disbelief. "Why do you even care? HOW do you even care?!"
"She's my daughter."
Sans and Toriel stared at each other for what felt like an eternity.
"…Whatever," Sans finally said. He walked away.
Toriel and Frisk sighed with relief.
Lucida stormed out of the building.
I'm SO pissed off!
Lucida couldn't believe it. The Demon and its followers had actually tricked everyone into letting it live. Even if it was only temporary, it was an unbelievable failure to deliver justice.
Still, perhaps Lucida was wrong about one thing. Perhaps the Demon and Gaster really could bring people back from the dead. Monster Kid seemed very much alive, and if his mother believed it, it had to be true. Lucida supposed that she could forgive letting the Demon live… for the time being. Lucida was now determined to find out exactly what the Demon's plan was. If the flowers were truly her sons, she owed it to them to do everything in her power to save them.
Once outside, Lucida screamed into the sky.
"GASTER! I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING! SHOW YOURSELF! GASTER! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!"
Gaster appeared before Lucida. "Hello, my love."
"Shut up, Wingdings!"
"Oh, so we're back on a first name basis? If I had a SOUL, it would be fluttering!"
Lucida had no patience for Gaster's games. "Let's just get to the point! I know you have some kind of deal with the Demon! How can we bring everyone who died back?"
"It's really quite simple," Gaster replied. "All I need, is a LV 20 monster SOUL."
That… shouldn't have been too difficult. Lucida was already LV 10… from the war.
…Did that make her a hypocrite? The Demon hadn't forced her to kill those humans. She did it on her own.
"Contrary to popular belief," Gaster said. "LV 10 is actually not even close to halfway to LV 20. The halfway point is actually LV 19. Each level requires progressively more EXP to reach. To reach LV 20 efficiently, you must battle more powerful opponents."
"And where are these powerful opponents?" Lucida asked.
"There are a few in this world, but perhaps it would be best to visit other worlds. You know of the other timelines, yes? You should know that some timelines are much less fortunate than even this one. I can take you to them, and there you may deliver justice on the people responsible for their destruction."
That was perfect. Lucida was going to deliver the justice that she had been yearning for, and in the process she was going to become powerful enough to save her own timeline.
"I'm ready."
Gaster teleported Lucida to another world.