Chara awoke in her bed.
She sat up, swinging her feet down to the floor.
She stood, and stumbled out of the room, heading down the hall towards the bathroom.
"Why do I feel like shit?" She asked herself as she walked in. She glanced at herself in the mirror, and saw her tear-stricken face. "Oh, yeah."
"I hurt him… I hurt him badly." Chara sat on the toilet, and began to sob, placing her head in her hands. "I've left lasting scars on a man who didn't trust easily in the first place… how am I going to get through to him now?"
There was a knock on the door, and her head shot up.
Emilia was standing at the door, her eyes burning with curiosity.
"You okay, Chara?" She asked.
Chara stood, drying her eyes. "I'm fine." she replied shortly. "Is there something you need?"
Emilia raised her eyebrows. "I need to shit, Chara." she replied, crossing her arms over her chest as she matched Chara's tone. "And you're bawling in the bathroom. So if your 'fine,' get out, please."
Chara tilted her head slightly. "You want to rephrase that?"
Emilia shook her head. "No, I think i'm good."
"Oh, alright. Good to know." Chara walked towards her, and slammed her hand into her chest, sending her crashing into the wall behind her.
"Look, bitch." Chara said, walking over to Emilia. "I don't know what type of right you think you have, but just because Harley trusts you doesn't mean I do. So when you address me, you will do it with respect. I am the princess of Monsterkind, and I'd be damned if a filthy human like you spoke to me like that. Do you understand?"
Emilia struggled to her feet, and summoned her blaster, charging it to fire, but before she could, Chara shot forwards, faster than Emilia's eyes could follow. She seized Emilia by her throat, and threw her down the hall towards the stairs.
Frisk dashed out of their room, with Freddy right behind her. "Chara!" She yelled. "The hell are you doing!"
"You filthy human." Chara growled. "You seek to serve in the army lead by my family? Then you will address me properly. I am the Princess of Monsterkind, and I have tolerated you humans for far too long."
Emilia spat out blood, and shakily rose to her feet. "So what are you going to do, Chara? Return to Genocide?"
Chara opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off.
"HUMANS!" Papyrus's jovial shout could be heard from downstairs. "MAKE YOUR WAY DOWN PLEASE! YOU ALL MUST EAT BEFORE YOU GO TO SCHOOL!"
Chara dusted off her shoulders, and walked forwards, past Emilia. "This isn't over." She told her, stuffing her hands in her pockets.
Frisk and Freddy followed Chara, with the latter giving Emilia a concerned look as he strode past. She wiped the blood off her face, and turned to gaze down the stairs.
"No. It's not over." She thought. "I am growing tired of you two looking down on us humans."
Emilia followed them down the stairs.
Harley leaned his head back against the wall, and let out a sigh.
"what's wrong, kid."
He and Sans were sitting on the top of the tallest building in the city, using it as a vantage point.
"I'm kind of hoping this plan doesn't work." Harley admitted.
Sans just gazed at him, waiting for him to explain.
"So much could go wrong. So many could get hurt. So I don't want it to work, although I know it needs to."
Sans nodded. "i know, kid. but there is so much at stake here. we need this to work. it's our best chance."
Sighing , Harley nodded in agreement. The pair fell silent as they gazed out over the city, waiting for a sign that there was trouble.
"...harley?" Sans sounded hesitant. "i've learned a lot about you over the last few days, so i need to ask you this - why do you trust me?"
Harley gazed at the skeleton, and Sans shrugged. "you don't seem to be the forgiving type, harley."
"Neither do you, Sans." Harley replied, scratching his beard. "And yet, you forgave me. You forgave me for slaughtering your entire race, and were willing to give me a chance, even though when you found me in the snow, I was weak and ill, and you had every right to end me right there. But you decided to let me explain, to allow me to defend my actions and stupidity. You trusted me, Sans, even though I didn't deserve it."
"you'd made a mistake, kid. and maybe it was because i had become so desensitized to it, but genocide wasn't the worst you could've done."
-Finally beating Sans, impaling him in his moment of weakness-
Harley laughed bitterly. "Oh, really? What could I have done that was worse?"
"you could have done it again, kid. like frisk did. but you chose to fix yourself and the damage both you and your sister had caused. that was pretty noble of you."
Harley gazed downwards. "But was it worth it?" He asked. Sans gazed at him blankly, and Harley pressed on. "Look, I know what Frisk was doing was horrible, but at least no one remembered. Now, since we freed you, we are facing lasting consequences. Dozens of monsters have perished, including Asgore, all from a group that want to force monsters back underground, or slaughter us all."
Sans shook his head, frowning. "look, harley, you lived through three timelines, all different. you never faced what frisk was doing to us. it wasn't just me that was realizing what was wrong. every monster was beginning to have nightmares about her, and i'd imagine that they still do. what she was doing was echoing across time, for you cannot commit such heinous actions and expect to escape without consequence."
"But she did, didn't she? She helped me free all of you, and now she is the princess, with a great guy crushing on her and subjects who love her. She walks around with a chip on her shoulder, and the monsters treat her no different, although they should hate her as much as she hates the humans."
"yeah, she is no better than the humans she despises." Sans shrugged, crossing his arms. "but the world works in mysterious ways. it sent you to stop her, and it'll probably punish her, too."
"I mean, I do love her. She is my sister. But she needs to stop this somehow."
"maybe you should talk to her about it."
Harley shrugged, and stared off into the distance, sinking deep into his own thoughts.
"So you attacked her?" Frisk asked, throwing the ball she was holding at the floor.
Chara grunted her confirmation, as she grabbed a dodgeball off the ground, and hurled it across the room at the opposing team.
"Because she didn't like you disrespecting her, so she disrespected you?" Frisk snatched a ball out of the air, and threw it back. "That required you beating her into the ground?"
"DIdn't you do that, just yesterday?"
"We were training, Chara. That is much, much different." Frisk dove to the ground, dodging a ball and grabbing another off the ground. Jumping to her feet, she continued. "Besides, Emilia is a pretty good person. She has to be, why else would Harley be trusting her?"
Chara snorted. "Harley doesn't trust any of us, Frisk. He's just giving her a chance. Same with you and me."
Frisk shrugged. "Yeah, that makes sense."
"How does that make sense?" Frisk lightly tossed a ball, baiting someone to catch it, and when they moved towards it, Chara threw her ball, slamming it into the student's ankle, knocking them off balance.
"I betrayed him, Chara. We knew very early on that he wasn't supposed to be around, but he didn't. Just think about it for a moment. That Genocide Route, the thing he sees as his biggest crime, is because of us. Because I was allowing myself to be commanded by my desires, and because you were too far gone to even care." Frisk held out one hand, and caught a ball. "And what did we do next? I spent an entire route trying to kill him, and you were beating and abusing him, even scaring him permanently. Add that alongside what we went through growing up, and…' She shrugged yet again. "I wouldn't be surprised if he trusted no one at all. The fact that he's trying shows that he is a much better person than I am."
"You don't care that your own brother doesn't trust you?"
"Of course I care. But it's my fault, right?" Frisk chuckled, and used her ball to deflect another that was flying at her. "And if he doesn't agree to our Asriel plan, we will be betraying him again, won't we? So we better make sure that it is worth it, Chara."
A ball slammed into Chara's chest, and she fell on her ass. Frisk glanced over to see who threw it, and saw Emilia tossing a ball from hand to hand, a smirk on her face. Chara growled, and stood, walking over to the group of people who were out.
A little while later, the bell rang. Everyone began to leave, but Undyne called out to the kids' retreating backs.
"Chara, Frisk, Emilia, Freddy! Come here please!"
Emilia glanced at Freddy, who shrugged, and they walked over to her, with Chara and Frisk striding over as well.
"So I was asked to give you four time to train." She told them. "Since you guys will be on the front lines, you must be prepared to fight multiple people at once. So," She grinned widely. "You four will fight each other! I want no killing, obviously, and to not maim to the point that I can't heal it, because we need you guys in case of an emergency. Understood?" They all nodded, and she pointed to the four corners of the gym. "Each of you go to a corner, and draw your weapons. You can use every skill available, as long as you don't blow each other to smithereens. Now, move!"
Chara and Emilia shot each other dirty looks, and headed to opposite sides of the gym. They all turned, as Frisk, Freddy, and Emilia summoned their sword and shield constructs, and Chara summoned her knives, and began to channel her Determination into her limbs.
"Alright." Undyne walked over to the stands on the far side, and jumped onto the top. "Begin!"
Chara shot towards Emilia, who was expecting her attack, summoning her Gaster Blaster, quickly charging it and firing. Chara didn't have enough time to dodge, so she took the blast head on, being knocked backwards into the wall.
"Ugh." She groaned, and looked up when she heard a loud humming. She spun to the side as another blast from Emilia's cannon hit the spot she had previously been occupying.
"Look, kid, your cannons don't hurt nearly as much as Sans's!" Chara shouted, running towards her once again. "You lack the poisoning effects of KR!" She launched a volley of knives at Emilia, who leaped backwards, dodging most of it and catching the rest on her shield. Chara shot forwards again, lunging for Emilia's arms, who barely had time to block the knives with her sword and shield.
Emilia growled, and deflected another attack from Chara, backing up as she relentlessly struck out, again and again barely blocking her strikes.
"She's not giving Emilia enough time to focus." Frisk commented to Freddy. The two of them had begun to fight, but stopped to watch Chara and Emilia when they saw how viciously the two were attacking the other.
"Is there some drama I'm not aware of between them?" Freddy asked, holding his hands up in confusion. "I know they that fought this morning, but didn't you say that was because Chara didn't like Emilia disrespecting her?"
"Chara has a lot of anger and frustration pent up right now, and Emilia has become her target to release it all." Frisk told him. "As for Emilia, who the hell knows. She's definitely angry about this morning, and probably knew right away that Chara was coming after her. I'm just wondering how long she can stand against Chara when she's angry."
Chara spun, slamming her blades into Emilia's shield, and launched a knife volley at her. Emilia vainly tried to deflect them all, but as several slammed into her shield, one impaled her in the shoulder, which caused her to drop the construct, which faded as it hit the ground.
Chara, seeing an opening, leaped forward, but Emilia shouted, thrusting out her fist. A beam of energy fired down on Chara, hitting her dead on, and sending her crashing to the floor.
Emilia charged, swinging her sword down at Chara, who blocked it by crossing her knives over each other into an X. Chara kicked out, hitting Emilia's foot, causing her to fall onto one knee. Chara then tackled her, knocking Emilia onto her back and landing on top of her. Chara swung her knives down again, only to be struck in the side by another blast of energy. Chara flew into the wall again, and Emilia fired again as she ran towards her, pushing her deeper into the wall. When she reached Chara, she began to punch her over and over, her magic flowing into her fists, blood flying with each strike.
Before long, she noticed that an oily black substance had mixed with the blood, as Chara caught her one of her fists. Looking down, Emilia was shocked to see that Chara's eyes now resembled empty black pits, with that oily substance leaking out of them. She grinned, and the substance was leaking out through her teeth, too.
"That is not good." Frisk muttered worriedly, and ran forwards.
Chara stamped on Emilia's foot, and twisted her arm, breaking it at the elbow with a loud snap. She then kicked out, slamming her foot into her knee, breaking it too, before throwing Emilia across the gym, rocketing after her, and slamming her into the wall. Chara pulled out her knife, and slammed it into Emilia's spine, severing her spinal cord, and dropping her onto the ground.
"This is why you don't fuck with me, Emilia." Chara laughed, and threw her knife at Emilia's head, only for someone's arm to appear, and shout in pain as it embedded itself into it.
Chara growled, and looked up, seeing Freddy before Frisk tackled Chara, pinning her to the ground.
"Chara! Snap out of it!" Frisk shouted. "Freddy, call Harley!"
"Get off, Frisk!" Chara threw Frisk off and rose, only for a glowing blue spear to appear in her chest. She froze, knowing better than to move with blue magic inside her.
"Don't. Move." Undyne growled in her ear, and stepped in front of her. "I told you, no maiming. This was a training session, not combat. I don't care that you two had a quarrel, you need to learn that their is a time and place for everything, Chara! You could've killed her!"
Chara growled, and that's when Undyne noticed the state of her eyes and mouth. She glanced at Frisk, her eyes widening..
"Uh, what is this?"
"It's bad news. Pin her in place, Undyne, now."
"She already is-"
"More! Now!"
Undyne could hear the urgency in Frisk's voice, and she nodded, summoning more spears from the wall behind her, impaling Chara on them.
"Don't move a muscle, Chara. I don't want to harm you." Undyne told her. "But I will if I must."
Chara merely growled again, being unable to move her mouth due to the spear sticking out of her jaw.
Suddenly, Harley and Sans appeared in the gym. Harley had his sword drawn, and Sans immediately summoned a blaster and charged it, the hum filling the room. The pair looked confused, as they were clearly expecting a fight and didn't see one. However they quickly saw Chara, and a look of understanding dawned on Harley's face, while Sans's turned away from her in disgust, and saw Emilia on the ground, bleeding as Freddy tried to heal her.
"Sans, take Freddy, Frisk, and Emilia out of here, now. Bring them to Toriel." Harley commanded. Sans glanced from Chara to Emilia, clearly having an internal debate before nodding his head and shrugging.
"sure thing, kid. be careful." He walked over, and the four of them vanished.
"And me?" Undyne asked.
"Go to the exit." Harley told her. "And when you close the door behind you, release Chara."
"But-"
"Please, Undyne." Harley gave her a strained smile. "I got this."
She hesitated for a few moments, but she eventually nodded. "Okay." Undyne walked away, and when she reached the exit, she glanced back at Harley, who gave her an encouraging smile. She looked away, and walked out.
A few moments after she stepped out, the spears vanished, and Chara lunged out towards Harley, her knife drawn.
Sans, Frisk, Freddy, and Emilia all appeared in the middle of Toriel's magic class, which scared the crap out of Toriel.
"Sans!" She sighed. "How many times do I- Holy shite what happened!"
The class gasped, first at the fact that Toriel swore, and then when they realized what was wrong. Freddy was still desperately trying to heal Emilia, and Toriel ran over to help.
"How did this happen!" Someone cried out.
"chara." Sans replied through gritted teeth.
"What?" Toriel asked, her eyes widening in confusion. "Chara would never-"
"Mom, there are many things that you don't know about the three of us." Frisk told her. "And one of them is that Chara became-" Frisk cut herself off, glancing around. "I'll explain later. Just... know that she wasn't fully under control of her actions." Sans snorted, but didn't say anything.
"Oh… okay." Toriel replied. "Well, tell me. What isn't healed?"
"I healed all of her external and most of her internal wounds." Freddy told her. "But I'm struggling with her HP and, well, I frankly don't know how to repair her spinal cord."
"Her spinal cord..?" Toriel's mouth hung open as she quickly restored Emilia's HP. "The spinal cord isn't something that can just be healed. It takes time and equipment that I don't have, and even then she may never walk again." Toriel placed a hand on Emilia's head, mentally checking her vitals. " And to top it off, she's sunk into a comatose state."
Sans facepalmed. "okay. give her to me, i can take her somewhere safe." Toriel glanced up at him, and he lost his patience. "everyone back away!" he snapped, and they all stepped back. Sans grabbed Emilia by the shoulder, and they both vanished.
Harley sidestepped Chara, and she flew past, rolling on the ground and leaping to her feet.
"So you don't trust me, Harley." she said. "After everything we've been through?"
"It's rude to eavesdrop, Chara." he replied. "That was a private conversation."
"My ear slipped, sorry."
"Is that why you're mad?" He asked. "Is that why you dealt crippling blows to Emilia? You and I both know that nerves don't heal easily."
"She is going to be out of commision for a while, Harley."
"But why?" He asked her. "She is a good person, Chara. She's been trying to help me with my issues. I don't understand why you would-"
Chara leaped forwards, striking at Harley again. He dodged once more, and swung at her with his fists, striking her on the side of her head. She stumbled and fell to the floor, and Harley froze, an image flashing past his eyes.
-He slammed his fist into Chara's throat, and jumped, slamming his knee into her chin, breaking her neck. She fell to the floor, dead-
Harley heard a scuffle of feet, and tried to defend himself, but only managed to redirect the attack away from his heart, with it slamming into his gut instead. Chara pushed Harley backwards, until he was up against the wall.
Harley spat up blood, turning his head so it didn't land on her. "Chara, why are you doing this?"
"I… I don't know." she said. "I'm… I'm so…" She began to weep, her eyes returning to normal. "I'm so sorry, Harley." she pulled the knife out of his stomach, and dropped it, falling to her knees.
Harley slid down, trying to channel his Determination to his stomach. The wound slowly closed, but his HP had dropped to 10. He glanced over at Chara, who still had tears pouring down her face as she gazed at him.
"What have I done?" She asked him, her face contorted with grief. "What did I do!"
Harley gave her a pained smile. "Nothing that can't be undone, I hope." An explosion sounded in the distance, and their heads whipped around as they saw Undyne be thrown backwards into the gym. Several NHDS troops rushed in, all charging at her, but one man walked over to Harley and Chara.
A man in all black, who had deep, blazing red eyes that matched his dark red hair, with a blade strapped to his back.
Harley struggled to his feet, and Chara turned to face him, drying her eyes.
"No, don't waste your energy, you will be dead in a matter of minutes." The man said, his deep voice could be heard clearly over the combat.
"I rather stand." Harley replied, drawing his sword and widening his stance. "Who are you?"
The man laughed. "My name is not important. I will tell you this, however. I am the leader of the NHDS, and I embody the Soul of Rage."
Harley's grip on his sword tightened. "So you naturally are a Determination Soul?" The man nodded. "Why do you hate monsters so much?"
"The monsters are vicious creatures, Harley. Us and them, living together? It's not natural. However, I fight because it's what I was trained to do."
"Trained? By whom?" Chara asked.
"Now wouldn't you like to know?" He chuckled. "On the off chance you live, I will not be spreading anymore information. However," He drew his blade, and held it in front of him. "I am confident that you are going to die here."
"You are going to have one hell of a fight." Harley snarled, and Chara drew her knives.
"I'm counting on it."
Chara shot forwards, and the man backhanded her, knocking her across the room, and she slammed through the wall and down to the pavement below.
"Chara!" Harley shouted, and he summoned a shield construct on his left hand. "You're going to pay for that!" Harley charged forwards, swiping his sword at the man. He leaped back, and responded with a strike of his own, which shattered the blade in Harley's hands. He then kicked out, striking Harley's chest and knocking him back.
"Time to die, kid. He lifted his sword, preparing to deal the finishing blow -
Only for his sword to slice right through Undyne.
Harley gaped at Undyne, and she grinned at him.
-Undyne, with an open wound across her armor, as she told MK to flee-
"Heh…" Undyne chuckled. "I killed all of those guys… only to die without a fight at the end, huh? Well, I did my best…" she collapsed, and the man snorted, kicking her aside as Harley ran forwards, attacking him with a sword construct. They met blades a few times, but it wasn't long before the man shattered the weapon and threw Harley against the wall. He strode forwards and lifted his blade, swinging down at him once more, only for Undyne to appear in front of him again.
He growled. "Just die!" He impaled her with his blade, and kicked her backwards.
"No…" She muttered, standing up. "You think that this is it? That's you've won? Well, you best believe this isn't over, friend." He slashed through her body again, and she merely grinned. "You cannot begin to understand how much this hurts, human. It's taking all of my willpower to simply remain together, and it would be so easy to die. But I'm not done. I can't quit, not yet. I need to remain, for those counting on me… Alphys… Papyrus... " She glanced back at the wounded Harley. "And to avenge ASGORE… For these reasons, I stand. For these reasons, I fight. And I can feel it, the combined power of the hopes and dreams of all of these people, all of them counting on our victory, all dreaming for the brighter day that we were promised, the brighter day that is being blocked by you. So as long as you stand in the way of everyone's hopes and dreams, I will REMAIN!"
In a bright flash of white, Undyne's body reformed and morphed, changing into a form Harley hadn't see in a while. And when the man opened his eyes, he saw the fully armored Undyne the Undying standing in his way.
She grinned, and pointed her spear at him. "You're going to have to try a little bit harder than that."
A/N - My deepest apologies.
This chapter was rewritten. Twice. Rejected ideas being instant combat, and one where Chara goes nuts and kills Frisk. They sounded cool in theory, but I realized more than halfway that it messed with the overall arc.
So, along with splitting time for camps and work (TI got cut a short, ended wednesday) I managed to finish this. And I kinda like it. It's a shorter chapter then I've been writing, but I love Undyne cliffhangers (see chapter 11. I did it there too.) and while I know other authors and creators have done the Undyne thing, I just loved the idea and had to do it, so give it a shot.
Till next time! (I will try to make the wait shorter!)
Love you all!