Undertale: The Machine
Chapter 29
The Battle at the End of Time

Frisk's hand spreads out, each of his fingers at their absolute precipice! Hatred burning in his eyes!

"STOP!" Gaster yells, launching a Gaster laser at him, but Frisk merely defends against it with one hand! Gaster breaks into a cold sweat as Frisk fixates his gaze on him.

"You're lucky that you're so weak, Gaster. Otherwise I might have had to kill you." Frisk taunts.
"GAHHHAHHH! STOOOOOOP!" Chara says, on their knees and with pain-borne tears pouring from their eyes! They fall belly-down onto the floor and look at the abyss below them with glazing eyes.

"It will all be over soon, Chara." Frisk says. Frisk, now with the Infinity firmly in his grasp, turns around to the spiritual cocoon around Asriel.
"You little demon, how could you do that to your own friend!?" Gaster yells.
"FRIEND, HA. Chara not only was the sole reason for Asriel's death, but also took the infinity for themselves. There was no guarantee that their plan would end with the destruction of the whole universe, or just this." Frisk explains, looking back at Gaster.

"Be that as it may, Chara took the Infinity to try to save both of you from-"
"From you. Where are you going with this you colossal time waster?" Frisk insults. Gaster growls, his labcoat blowing in the rainbow energy around them.

"You're going to throw away Chara's future for Asriel's! This is murder, the exact thing you tried to stop me from doing with my idea of the Infinity!"
"With one subtle difference, Gaster, Asriel's choices at the end were not purely his own. It was only through Chara's malignant influence that Asriel was killed! I spent decades trying to find a way to find a TRULY happy ending for everyone, but we've officially run out of time FOREVER! And this is the best we're gonna get!"

"Frisk, DON'T!" Gaster yells in vain as Frisk detaches the Infinity from themselves and throws it into the spirit casing around Asriel's suspended body. The rainbow-colored soul resonates with the monster body within, recognizing that it has the ability to actually absorb it, rather than host it. The soul gently enters the goat child's body.

As that happens, the timeless world around them ceases the rumbling…

The glass-like casing around Asriel lowers, then explodes into light, dropping Asriel into the center of the room.

"ASRIEL!" Frisk yells, running forward! Gaster runs to Chara and shakes them.
"Fallen Child, Fallen Child! Chara! Wake up!" Gaster says in vain. Chara's eyes are completely empty.

They're dead… Frisk has no remorse for Chara. Their death was merely a detail, a stepping stone. He didn't hesitate, and he didn't even look back… Gaster grits his teeth and looks behind himself. The pathway out has stabilized, leading out into the white memory, the pit of spikes having vanished. He runs out without Frisk noticing.

"A-Asriel! Are you awake?! It's me, Frisk!" Frisk says, shaking Asriel, ruffling his white fur as he does so. Frisk keeps excitedly yet worriedly shaking Asriel's arm as he sleeps, before Asriel finally blinks once.

"Huh…? What…?" Asriel says, opening his eyes!
"ASRIEL!" Frisk yells in genuine happiness, lunging at him and hugging him, Asriel hasn't even so much as gotten a chance to sit up yet!
"F-Frisk? Where are we…? This isn't the game…"
"It doesn't matter! I finally did it! I found a way to bring you back without losing you! You're back now!" Frisk says! Asriel finally stands up, as does Frisk, who wipes his eyes.

"Frisk… this is amazing! How…?"
"It took so… SO long, Asriel! Decades! I thought I was crazy near the end of it, doing the same thing for so long, but it finally paid off! I never stopped believing in you!" Frisk says, the weight of the emotion finally catching up to him. Frisk falls to his knees and takes a breath. Asriel smiles, but Frisk falling down gives him the ability to look 'past' him.

What he sees causes his eyes to shrink.

"OH MY GOD, CHARA!" Asriel yells at the top of his lungs! Asriel runs past Frisk who looks back with a chilling feeling going down his spine.
"CHARA! CHARACHARACHARACHARA!" Asriel yells over and over, shaking Chara's body over and over! As soon as Asriel's hand touches Chara's skin however, they flinch and cover their mouth.

"C-Cold… d-dead… F-Frisk… what… happened…?" Asriel looks back at Frisk with an urge to vomit. Frisk's unfocused eyes fixate nowhere in particular.

"Chara… was a necessary sacrifice to bringing you back." Frisk quietly explains.
"WH-WHAT…?" Asriel gasps loudly, trying their best to remain composed.
"I'm sorry Asriel… a real happy ending wasn't possible… this was all I could do…"
"Frisk… I… I… I can't… I mean… how, why…? What am I supposed to do…?" Asriel stammers, still covering their mouth and looking at Chara. Frisk stands up and walks over to Asriel.

"Asriel… you were both dead, Chara AND you… bringing back even one of you was miracle enough."
"B-But you already had Chara, why kill them for me…? Oh my God Frisk…!"
"B-Because! I… you… I mean, Chara did this to you! Their crazy fucking plan is what killed you two in the first place!" Frisk coarsely explains.
"FRISK… I DON'T WANT THIS! OH MY GOD, SEND ME BACK, SEND ME BAAAAACK!" Asriel screeches, grabbing their skull and shaking their head over and over!

"A-Asriel, calm down!" Frisk says with a nervous smile.
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND!"
"…! I… I AM your friend…!"
"I SAID TO FORGET ABOUT ME, I DIDN'T WANT THIS! OH MY GOD, CHARA! AHHHHHHH!" Asriel explains, inarticulately screaming as this rainbow abyss starts to rumble even harder than before!

"Asriel-"
"CHARA! COME BACK!"
"Asriel…"
"CHARA, PLEASE COME BACK! I'M SORRY I RUINED YOUR PLAN!"
"ASRIEL!"
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Asriel yells, his body destabilizing and exploding into light! Frisk's eyes dilate and he fires his head in every direction.

"Wha… wha… WHAT?! A-ASRIEL?! NO! ASRIEL!" Frisk yells as Asriel's body returns to dust in a spectacular affair of rainbow colored stars! Before long, the seven human souls float down, Frisk's own included. The red soul returns to Frisk.

"…No… how…? After all this time… decades… wasted… and for what…?" Frisk asks, falling to his knees, his eyes empty and devoid of energy. The void around them violently heaves. Gaster returns carrying a strange device. It looks like some kind of turbine or generator, but it has no outlets, and there is a keyboard and monitor on top of it.

The world looks just about ready to collapse in on them, but Gaster inputs something that expands a realm of existence around them! The void around them finally collapses like a star, leaving nothing but darkness around them, but Gaster's new field protects them from it. Gaster looks over at the six human souls floating around Frisk, while his own red soul is back within his chest. The corpse of Chara is also here.

"Damn, I was just in time. Looks like we didn't make it." Gaster surmises.
"Where's Asriel?" He asks. Frisk merely looks over with an empty expression.
"…Wait. Don't tell me…" Gaster notes, looking at dust scattered across the glass-like floor.
"…Damn it." He says with closed eyes.

For a while, both he and Frisk simply exist within this slowly collapsing field of energy. Gaster sits down next to his machine and looks over to Frisk.

"Guess this is it. You brought me back, huh?"
"Mmhm. A long time ago. Almost three decades. I felt a glitch within the Core, and being experienced with souls, I knew it was your spirit, from the stories I've put together over time. I did what I could to at least replicate your soul using the Core itself. This machine, I've never actually seen it before. It's smaller than I imagined."

They exchange idle banter as the reality around them begins to crack. It won't be long now before everything is erased forever.

"Asriel… I'm an idiot…" Frisk says, burying his face into his legs as he sits down. Gaster closes his eyes as this temporary realm closes in on them slowly, cracks being heard. It'll all be over soon.

However, the human souls, floating just out of reach, begin to spin around Chara's dead body. Frisk and Gaster look over as Asriel's dust begins to spin into a small tornado.

"What-"
"The…?!" They say in unison as Asriel's dust forms into a fully formed Boss Monster Soul! Inverted and ivory, the six human souls absorb themselves into Asriel's soul before it fires into Chara's body! The realm around them destabilizes and the shield shatters! Neither Gaster nor Frisk has a chance to scream as an enveloping nothingness obscures their collective vision.


"Ngh…" Frisk shakes his head and looks around.

"What the? What is this?" Frisk asks himself, standing up and noticing himself within what looks like someone's house. There is a very strange wind blowing.

"I don't understand what's going on." A familiar voice lets out behind Frisk. He turns around to see a very hate-filled Chara standing behind him! They punch at Frisk, who blocks in time and slides across the room. Frisk smiles slightly.

"Heh… I guess this is it, huh?" Frisk says with a bead of sweat. Chara looks down at their soul. It's not rainbow colored anymore, but it's close. Instead of a red color, there's a white.

"If only I was more patient…" Chara says, closing their eyes.
"Huh?" Frisk grunts as Chara fires their eyes open with fury burning within them! Chara launches at Frisk and kicks with the force of universe behind them! Frisk nonetheless utilizes the trueness of his Determination to dodge the next attacks and then lunge at Chara, who manages to block Frisk's attack with a green barrier made of strange human magic.

"Asriel died because my plan wasn't foolproof. Asriel was not bloodthirsty enough. He hesitated, and got us killed. It was my fault for not being patient enough!" Chara yells with strange unfocused anger! Chara jumps and crashes down with the force of a monster ten times their size! The livingroom of this strange house explodes, blowing Frisk backwards! Frisk slides, noticing that he hits a wall behind him made of stone! Fires burn in torches nearby! They are not in that house anymore, but are instead in some kind of monastery. Chara marches towards Frisk, who is on the defensive.

"I left my home from so long ago to come to Ebott, because I feared what would happen if I stayed. I lacked bravery, and I ran from my problems." Chara growls.
"Well you're standing up to them now, for what it's worth!" Frisk says with a strange smile! Frisk puts his fists up and trades blows with Chara!

Each hit draws blood and knocks out breath, before long, Frisk has no choice but dodge behind Chara and flip away! Frisk is a master fighter, spending decades of his life dueling with the strongest monsters on the planet with seemingly no effort, but Chara has a strange amount of power behind them, despite no longer controlling the Infinity.

"Have you ever been afraid, Frisk?"
"Huh…?"
"Afraid of things you can't control? Things you want to take back? FACE YOUR FEARS, FRISK!" Chara yells, the world of memory around them exploding into a different reality, shattering like glass before settling like water! Before Frisk's eyes is Undyne and Monsterkid, water falls around them within the Underground!

"I, UNDYNE, WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN!" The memory lets out, drawing hundreds of spears! Frisk furrows his brow, dodging attack after attack, beckoning only a neutral response from Chara beyond.

"Not even the strongest monster in the world can stand up to what you have, Frisk. Your sins will crawl over your body for all eternity, with no one to judge you."

"GIVE ME A BREAK YOU DAMNED HYPOCRITE!" Frisk yells, blasting Undyne in half, their body fading to dust and the memory destabilizing before he continues to speak-

"All you wanted to do from the minute you arrived in the underground was find a way to destroy Humanity! You ran from your problems and got Asriel killed and threw monsterkind into a war they would never win! You deserve to die for what you've done!" Frisk yells in judgement, going on the offensive against Chara! The memory sets into a new area. A dance studio at the base of Mount Ebott!

Appropriate, as Frisk and Chara's battle looks as choreographed as a dance, each attack capable of shattering buildings, missing each other by hairs, the air around them whipping up into tornados before they both punch each other in the jaw, sliding across the room to different ends. Frisk and Chara breathe heavily before Chara closes their eyes.

"I will… admit… I was never loyal. I lacked integrity, and my judgement suffered because of it, but Asriel loved me for who I was… treated me as family… and I got him killed…" Chara says, shaking their head with tears in their eyes.

"I PAID FOR MY INSOLENCE WITH MY LIFE! BUT NOW I HAVE A NEW PURPOSE, FRISK!"
"And what purpose is that?!" Frisk yells with wide eyes and a toothy laughing smile!
"TO KILL YOU, TAKE YOUR SOUL, AND SET EVERYTHING BACK THE WAY IT WAS!"
"You're certainly welcome to try, Fallen Child!" Frisk yells! Both of them match blow after blow, the windows in the dance studio shattering from the impacts before the world around them too, shatters. They find themselves in a library, the whirlwind of their attacks blowing books and papers away!

"I will persevere, Frisk. You've spent your whole life trying to break the cycle… Determination only hurts people!"
"Determination can change the world for the better! All I wanted to do was to help everyone, to help Asriel!" Frisk yells! Chara furrows their brow, but looks deep within Frisk's eyes.

He's not lying.

That makes Chara even more angry!

"HOW DARE YOU STAND BEFORE ME, DENYING YOUR OWN SINS, LORDING YOUR DETERMINATION OVER ALL OF THOSE AROUND YOU, INCLUDING MY OWN BROTHER, YOUR FRIEND ASRIEL?! ALL OF THIS IS YOUR FAULT, YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT WELL ENOUGH ALONE!"

"I will not answer to you, Chara! I've defeated demons far scarier than you, and struck down men with a more complicated morality than yours. Even if we DO just go back to the way things were, then I'll find another way for a better ending!"

"Asriel begged you to let the world continue without him, to forget him, and just be happy on the surface, have you forgotten his last wish?!"

"…" Frisk grits his teeth and shakes his head!
"Then why?"
"Asriel gave up. There is an ending out there for everyone, and I won't find it unless I have what you have! I can create another Infinity, even if it takes another twenty-five years!"
"Why…? Why are you so driven to save Asriel? Even when he became a god he couldn't save himself-"
"Because I am Determined! And I will destroy EVERYONE who stands in my way! In the end, I WILL find the true ending, the ending everyone deserves! For Asriel! For humankind, for monsterkind! Maybe even for you!"

"…" Chara says nothing, but smiles slightly. Chara takes off and matches blows with Frisk once more! They match each other's moves perfectly, creating shockwaves as their fists meet! One giant attack shatters the reality around this library, and soon they find themselves within a chrome colored area. Everything is reflective, every turn shows a mirror-like coating where they can see each other.

"Kindness… perhaps my largest weakness. I loved Asriel, but in the end I wanted to use him to destroy humanity. I kept hating and hating, and it got us both killed. What about you, Frisk? How do you handle the things that hold you back?"

"At the end of my road, I always have the option to go back. I don't have time to dedicate myself to being a force of pure goodness, or pure evil. Somewhere out there is the truth, and it lies between the dualities. The truth is only accessible by the Determined!" Frisk preaches, raising his hands in defense as Chara unleashes a barrage of kicks! They snap forward and kick Frisk across the room, only to have him bounce off a nearby wall and rebound, tripping Chara!

Chara however does not fall to the floor, and instead corrects themselves with their hands and backflips away with a gasp of strained breath.

"Determination… it just gets people killed. But you don't care."
"What…?"
"You've never cared!" Chara yells, summoning another memory! A memory of an iris-less Sans! The Sans summons a barrage of bones at Frisk, who dodges them all from memory!

"You killed his brother, your friend, who only ever wanted you to be happy, just to see what would happen! How can you look yourself in the face!"

"HAH! If you want me to go through a crisis of conscience-" Frisk says, kicking Sans' head off as he explodes into dust-

"Then it will have to come from someone who isn't a demon." Frisk taunts with a toothy grin. Chara laughs as the realm changes once more to a grassy meadow. The wind blows both of their hairs and clothes. They look each other in the eyes.

Their respectively red eyes.

"Justice… an abstract concept, yet perhaps the simplest out of anything humankind can produce. Every fault must be paid in full, isn't that right? Or do you consider yourself above consequences?"

"With Determination, every crime is reversed to zero! If there's no victim, there's no crime!"
"HAH! What absolutely pathetic excuses! This, this hubris, this disconnection from human virtues… this is why we're both here, fighting at the end of time! You can't let go! You refuse to answer for your crimes, and childishly think that you alone can fix the entire universe's problems!" Chara yells, rushing at Frisk, the green grass below banking from the sudden movement! Frisk dodges and retaliates, kneeing Chara in the stomach! He tries to punch downward but Chara headbutts Frisk, causing him to fly back with blood trailing from his nose!

Chara grips their abdomen, struggling for breath as Frisk slowly rises back up and wipes his nose.

"So you want to kill me and take my soul… just so you can go back to the time when you and Asriel were both dead?"
"I'm not a human anymore, Frisk… my soul is long gone. Asriel has given me one last chance… using his monster soul- what's left of it anyway, if I can absorb your soul, it would be as if Asriel became God again! Using his powers one last time, I can wipe the slate clean and set everything back to 0, back to before you reset the world even one time! A TRUE RESET! Frisk! It's time to end this, no more holding back!" Chara says, drawing a knife from their pants and spinning it in their hand. Frisk nods and does the same.

Before long, the green meadow fades away, and they are left standing within Asgore's throne room, yellow flower pollen blowing in the air.

"Determination… Determination. DETERMINATION! I AM SO SICK OF DETERMINATION, FRISK! WHAT GOOD WILL IT DO YOU, HERE?! IF YOU KILL ME, THE UNIVERSE WILL BE DESTROYED!"

"I'll figure something out, I always do."
"AHAHAHAHA! SUCH ABSOLUTE INSANITY!" Chara yells in equal part amusement and blind fury! Chara rushes at Frisk, knife drawn, and meets him in mortal combat! The blades spark against each other, striking with intent to kill for what feels like the first time in forever! Frisk dodges and slashes down, narrowly missing Chara's face, the tip of his knife cutting their hair!

Mere hairs from death, the two fallen children fight here at the end of time, if one dies, the universe is destroyed. If the other dies, the universe is reset to its infancy, and time resets to be spun like a wheel again and again.

They both fight with tears in their eyes, both believing theirs to be the true way, but in reality, there is no way out of this madness, and they know that…! There is no third option! There is only this madness, friends fighting over a choice of which hell to spin the universe into! A swift death, or an endless suffering…?!

Blood spatters across the beautiful yellow flowers as the two children nick each other with their blades, inches from death.

"Ha… ha… ha…"
"Ha… ahaha… heh…" They both grunt, getting tired, blood leaking from their various wounds. Chara falls to their knees, and Frisk looks ready to capitalize on the weakness, but he falls to his knees as well.


"G-God… damn it…" Frisk says.
"Frisk… it's over… let me win…" Chara says. Frisk merely shakes his head, blood forcing one of his eyes closed.
"I… I can't let it end like this, Chara… the old world… it's not good enough… it's not fair… I have the power to change it… I HAVE to change it…!" Frisk says with blood and tears in his eyes. He looks over to also see Chara crying, covering their eyes like a bawling child, the knife now on the ground, covered by yellow flowers.

"A-Asriel… I… I miss him so much…" Chara finally says out of the blue, shocking Frisk. Frisk musters the last of his power to weakly crawl over to Chara, who opens their wet eyes to see the bloodied Frisk near them.

"Heh… you're crying…"
"… What…?"
"You're such a crybaby, Chara." Frisk strangely says.
"What are you…?"
"What if Asriel saw you right now? I bet they'd laugh."
"… Hah… haha…" Chara giggles, realizing that Frisk is joking about how Asriel used to cry all the time. The yellow pollen continues to blow, and both children collapse in this throne room of memories.

"I'm sorry, Chara…"
"I know you are, Frisk…" They say to each other, as they close their eyes.

Before long, their breathing stops. A slow, gentle death. Frisk's red soul and Chara's multicolored soul eventually float above their bodies. From the shadows, a man walks in with a solemn look on his face. He puts a large machine down at his feet and picks the two souls up in his hands.

"It's a shame this had to happen, isn't it, Frisk… Chara…?" The man, now identified as Gaster, lets out. He knows they can't hear him, but that's okay. Gaster takes Frisk's soul and gently positions it next to the weird monster/human soul that Chara was using. Frisk's red soul is absorbed into it, and it once again resembles an Infinity, except this time, one with a white sheen.

"I don't even know if I can use this. There's a monster soul in this, I don't think I can absorb it anymore… I don't think they can either. But… maybe… maybe there's someone else that can. I don't know if this is going to work… but I have to try. This machine… created by the spirit of Gaster, my spirit… that Frisk allowed to come to life… maybe it will have one final use." Gaster says to himself. Putting the TRUE Infinity atop of the device.

"If it can create a fake world with Frisk's Determination… what can it create with everyone's Determination…?" Gaster says with a genuine smile.