Undertale: The Machine
Chapter 28
Answers ad Infinitum

Chara and Gaster wander along the infinite whiteness before something brings Chara pause.

"Chara?" Gaster asks. Chara turns around and looks behind Gaster. Gaster turns around and lightly gasps. A memory version of themselves are walking along the same path.

"That doesn't make sense… isn't this the only time we've ever done this?" Chara asks. Gaster breaks into a cold sweat.
"I don't understand what's going on." He exclaims before noticing something else. He beckons Chara to look to the end of the room.

Hundreds… thousands… millions of Charas, millions of Gasters, all walking into the same point. See-through and ghost-like, the memories all walk towards the heart of this infinite memory.

"W-What the hell is going on…?!" Chara asks with genuine fear in their voice. However, Chara and Gaster notice that all of the memories are being destroyed! One by one, something is killing them! They all explode, their top halves melting! Chara suddenly gets a realization!

"GET DOWN!" They yell, pinning Gaster to the ground as a gigantic explosion rocks the white memory around them! The ground cracks and turns gray and they turn back to see where the explosion came from, only to see a giant hole in the ground.

"How did you know that was going to happen…?!" Gaster asks.
"I don't know, I feel… like… I've seen all of this, but at the same time, I feel like this is my first time here. This is so strange, but I just saved our lives. We have to move forward, we can't leave now."
"R-Right." Gaster confirms. Gaster and Chara run forward and jump into the hole within the now ruined abyss, the hole that nearly took their life! On the way down, giant spikes erupt from the walls as they fall! Gaster and Chara can make our memory versions of themselves being impaled over and over!

"HOLD ON!" Chara says, grabbing into Gaster's forearm and maneuvering through the pit, dodging spike after spike! Memory versions of themselves crashing upon spikes, being impaled, skewered, or just plain grinding against the spiky wall and dying, and Chara somehow finds the way to dodge near-death situations and even save Gaster at the same time!

"GAH!" Gaster yells, forcing his eyes shut as they dodge hundreds of killer spikes! Chara notices they're reaching the bottom, but they're falling too fast! Several of the memories simply crash into the bottom and die instantly, but Chara notices a few of them utilize Gaster's magic to land safely!

"GASTER, STOP BEING A COWARD AND OPEN YOUR EYES!" Chara yells, Gaster opens his eyes and, out of reflect, summons a barrier of magic that they crash through, breaking just enough of their fall to land on their feet safely. Chara and Gaster take deep breaths, their hearts going a mile a minute.

"What the hell is going on…?!" Chara says, looking at the memories up the pit they fell into. Hundreds, thousands of versions of themselves, all dead or dying.

"I don't know, but this place seems hell-bent on killing us. We should tread with caution."
"Right." Chara says as they move through a single hallway in this pit, noticing a few memories pass by. Most of them are just Chara themselves walking without Gaster, or some Gasters walking without Charas. So many different possibilities, and Chara feels like they remember all of them.

A rainbow colored energy funnels into the core of this dreamscape, and soon they come to the end of the tunnel, which leads to what appears to be a rainbow colored bottomless abyss! A bridge made of light extends to the middle of it. There is a bright, almost blinding light at the end.

"Frisk is over there." Chara says.
"Are you sure? Have you been here before?" Gaster asks for confirmation. Chara shakes their head.
"No, I just know he's over there. Come on." Chara walks forward with Gaster following them. They walk upon the magical pathway, lights of every color pouring into the abyss below them. One wrong step and they'd be falling forever. The blinding light near the middle begins to become obfuscated by a shadow eclipsing it. The shadow looks back with a neutral expression.

It's Frisk…

"Chara. You made it. I was beginning to think you died."
"You didn't make it easy." Chara growls. But then they sigh.
"Why are you doing this?" Chara asks. After they ask that, Gaster speaks up too-
"Give me answers for once in your life, Frisk! Why have you been resetting the world for decades?! What answer could you possibly have to answer for this madness?!" Gaster asks. Frisk frowns.

"We're at the end of the line, the end of all time… and all you wish to do is badger me with senseless questions? Do you have any idea what's at stake if even a single second is wasted?!" Frisk yells!

"No, tell us!" Chara says. Frisk furrows his brow and extends his hand to Chara, who gasps.

"What…?"
"Take my hand, and I'll show you." Frisk says.
"Don't do it, Fallen Child, it's a trap!" Gaster yells.
"We only made it this far because of you, Chara. I wouldn't lie to you now." Frisk says. Chara looks back to Gaster and to Frisk before timidly taking his hand.

At that moment, the Infinity within Chara's chest explodes outward, the blinding light in the center of the abyss dying down to reveal a magical glass orb with a life-form within it. Chara's eyes shoot wider than they've ever been and they back away.

"A-A-A…" Chara stammers.
"Asriel." Frisk confirms.

Frisk, Chara, and Gaster all look to the center of this infinite realm, noticing the monster prince, curled into a fetal ball within a glass prison, here in the center of an infinite waterfall of rainbow energy.

"I… don't understand." Chara stammers. Gaster steps forward.
"The notes from my twenty-four past selves… they mentioned you going on an insane adventure looking for Asriel. They testified that Flowey existed in the ruins for all this time… why were you looking for Asriel if he was there all along?" Gaster asks. Frisk looks back at him with an angry expression.

"Flowey is NOT Asriel. Asriel died a long time go… but Flowey's actions did one thing that set all of these actions in motion." Frisk says, walking forward and touching the glass ball.

"His actions within the Underground managed to allow him to, even for a moment, create an Infinity within himself. When he died, that Infinity was lost… or so I thought. Whenever the world was reset, I still held my memories, even if Flowey lost his. No matter how many times I fought, no matter how many times I reset the world, I could never save Asriel… because he would always lose his Infinity. That's… why…" Frisk says, starting to slow the explanation. He turns back and shrugs while looking Gaster dead in the eye.

"That's why I brought your spirit back from the brink, Gaster."
"WHAT?!" Gaster yells and grits his teeth.
"My entire life is nothing but a plaything to you?!" Gaster yells, but Frisk merely shakes his head.
"Much like Flowey, Chara, Asgore, Sans, indeed everyone- myself included, we all have our roles to play. I merely played my role so many times that I recognized subtle differences whenever I would reset the world. For one, a small glitch within the Core's power matrices. I knew that couldn't be anything but you. So, I lent your angry spirit a hand. Surely you don't think I didn't notice you constantly hounding me every year I would reset the world? I would search the world every year, because something like a true infinity would never truly be lost, but until now, I suppose I never understood the true concept." Frisk explains. Gaster looks about ready to burst, but he instead sighs and falls to one knee.

"I… can't believe it. These past 25 years… have they meant nothing…?"
"No, not nothing. EVERYTHING." Frisk exclaims. Gaster looks over with a broken expression.
"Your usefulness to me, though initially strange, has borne us a TRUE Infinity. One that is not within the confines of an unstable being like Asriel. With this soul, I can finally bring them back!" Frisk says, looking over to Asriel with a happy face.

"WAIT!" Chara yells, running forward. Frisk looks back, curious.
"I LOVE Asriel, he's my brother, but how exactly do you propose to bring him back?"
"It's simple. We give this soul to Asriel, he stabilizes across all timelines, and it would be as if he never died."
"R-Really? Is it really that simple?" Chara asks with a slight smile.
"It is, Chara." Frisk says with an innocent expression, but Gaster interrupts them.

"LIES! If Asriel comes back to life, he would just die again! It was Chara's influence that caused them to lose their life on the surface!" Gaster yells. Chara looks shocked but actually looks back to Frisk and nods.

"I hate to admit it, but Gaster's probably right. Going that far back would get us nowhere."
"You're right." Frisk says, still smiling before continuing-
"That's why you can't go back."
"W-What…?!"
"Look at us, Chara. We're both two kids that got in way over our heads, but we can make it up to Asriel, who was innocent in all of this! He didn't deserve this!" Frisk explains. Chara looks up at the sleeping Asriel within the glass orb and looks just about ready to emotionally shatter.

"Don't listen to him, Chara." Gaster says. Chara looks over with wide, hopeless eyes before he continues.
"With this Infinity, there are always multiple possibilities. Isn't that right, Frisk? You know that if I were to claim this Infinity, that I could send this world back to the stone age, and stop the monster/human war from ever happening! Wouldn't that ALSO save your precious Asriel?"

"At what intense cost, Gaster?" Frisk interrogates, furrowing his brow.
"At the cost of the humans that instigated it!" Gaster yells in judgement!
"Hypocrisy and madness! I would never allow you to do that!" Frisk yells, balling his fists.
"So, what, you would use this infinite power to just give Asriel his old life back? At the cost of Chara?" Gaster asks.
"It's the least we can do. Asriel was innocent in all of this. Isn't that right, Chara?" Frisk asks.
"I… I…" Chara doesn't know what to say. Chara falls to their knees and goes quiet.

A somber mood fills the air.

"Chara, snap out of it! Remember, we've been here before! Hundreds, thousands of times!" Gaster says to Chara. Frisk begins to chuckle.

"Haha, what? What are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb, Frisk! We saw all of the memories here."
"Memories? OH! You mean the astral projections. Haha, you guys really understand so little." Frisk begins to laugh harder. Chara looks up.

"What do you mean…?"
"You two haven't BEEN here before!"
"But… the memories-"
"ASTRAL PROJECTIONS! Those people you saw, different versions of yourselves, they weren't memories, they were projections by the Infinity! Your Determination is Infinite now, Chara, which means you don't need to save and load to see all possibilities, you can just SEE them!" Frisk explains with a strange smile-

"You must have seen a possible outcome where you killed Gaster and thought you did it in the past, because that's all you thought was possible, retroactive learning! But now you're finally able to see the truth of the timelines, right here, right now! All those people you saw dying on your way here, those were merely possibilities to actions you haven't performed yet! All leading you here, to me." Frisk explains. Chara's eyes go hazy, unable to keep everything together.

"It's a shame, isn't it? That true knowledge always comes at the end of our lives."
"Our…?" Chara says. Frisk looks back.
"Well, if you never get Asriel killed, then what happens to you? You probably stay on the surface, never falling into Ebott, or perhaps never exist at all; which means the legend never starts, and other children probably never fall either. Asriel stays alive… happy and safe underground, and we stay on the surface." Frisk explains, the final details to his motivation.

"But… they're trapped down there!" Chara yells-
"Alive, and full of hope!" Frisk yells-
"Scared, and imprisoned by your people!" Gaster yells!

All three of them argue in a circle as this timeless void quakes around them.

"Damn it. Sorry to cut the explanations short, but I meant it when I said that every second here we waste is bad. Just because we're in an abyss doesn't mean we aren't on a strict schedule. Eternity starts now, or it doesn't. Either one of our worlds come true, or none of them do." Frisk explains.

Frisk's world is one where Chara never falls into the Underground. This will allow Asriel to never die, but will also keep the monsters trapped for… who knows how long.

Gaster's world is one where the Infinity sends him back to the first Monster/Human war, and wins it for Monsterkind! Allowing them to become the dominant force on the planet.

But… what does Chara want?

"What… about a third alternative?" Chara asks. Frisk and Gaster look back.
"Third-"
"Alternative?" They both ask.

"What if… I go back to when I fell down in the Underground, and used this Infinity to outright shatter the barrier? We can ascend to the surface-"

"Let me stop you right there." Frisk interrupts, surprising Chara before Frisk continues.
"Did you ever wonder how we even ended up here?" Frisk asks.

To be honest, that question never crossed Chara's mind.

"Probably not. Let me explain it to you. The Infinity I want to use is capable of a great many things, even restoring an immortal soul to its rightful place across time and space… yet why didn't it work for you? Why did you return to the Underground, right when you died, but time froze?" Frisk asks.

"I… don't know… why?"
"Because it's not YOUR soul you're using to do it!" Frisk explains with finality. The truth shocking Chara to their foundation.

He's completely right. It's been so long that Chara has forgotten that this soul was stolen from Frisk himself… The Infinity soul floats between the two of them

"Which means that even if you wanted to, it wouldn't work. Now, if I had the Infinity, I could simply give it to Asriel, which would send him back into the Underground. But you? You can't time travel using a soul that isn't yours. You'd simply shatter the entire universe." Frisk coldly explains. Chara shakes their head.

"There has to be another way… there has to be a way that's better than what either of you are suggesting!"

"Even if there was, I spent literal decades trying to think of one, Chara. Not just me, Gaster too. And unfortunately, we're officially out of time. A decision has to be made now, or everything will be lost." Frisk explains.

"How's this for a decision, we KILL you, and do things my way!" Gaster smiles, raising a Gaster-Blaster.
"You mean destroying humanity? We saw how well that worked out last time, it got Asriel killed and spun us into this mess in the first place! The way I see it, NEITHER of you are fit to make an informed decision on this subject-" Frisk says, raising his right arm and drawing the Infinity into himself, causing Chara to screech out in pain! Gaster looks on in horror as the very life is drained from Chara!

"So allow me to make the decisions for us. For a future worth saving!"