There were a lot of uncomfortable looks being exchanged in the normally warm and inviting hat shop. Togore had rushed out to respond to the prisoner he'd unintentionally let escape, Sans, Toriel, and Asgore were all holding guilty expressions, while Amabilia had rushed to the door.

Frisk watched as Sans threw out his left arm, making the door slam before she got there.

"Really? More of that?" The angered boss monster said as she spun around to face Sans. "Even YOU just admitted it's not me, and you're still-" "We shouldn't be leaving right now." Frisk interrupted before Amabilia could finish. "There's an unknown spy out there who's gunning for all of us."

"But it's just perfectly fine for Togore to leave?!" Ama snapped again, then stopped and breathed out to calm herself. Though Amabilia was known as the gentle-natured hat shop owner, she was equally as driven and defensive as she was entrepreneurial and customer-service-oriented. Arguing with her was not easy for anyone, not even the Captain of the Royal Guard that she was engaged to.

"Listen, Ama..." Sans eventually broke the silence, his pupils never looking up from the ground. "...I got carried away. I'll admit that much. Our suspicions were legitimate, though not as grounded as we thought. You know I don't normally do that, right?" the skeleton chuckled. "I can barely flip through five channels on TV before talking Papyrus into helping me out."

Frisk smiled softly to themself. Based on what Sans had said earlier about not letting anyone else die, his actions were based on guilt over letting Asriel go to die years before. Frisk didn't know all the details of the encounter, but they did know that Sans and Asriel had been closer than one might've guessed.

The child stepped closer to the betrayed friend, wanting to take this opportunity to gain some information, closure on a subject that seemed like a poorly-skilled narrator had waited obnoxiously long to describe. "Do you remember the experiment at all?" Frisk asked Ama, who responded with silence and a headshake to indicate, 'No.'

"It would've been something traumatic." Sans spoke up again. "Gaster never found out exactly how the timelines can be seen, only that the energy he'd gotten from the magma, when combined with a strong enough soul, could view them. But we didn't know about the side effects." He insisted, while Ama began to lift her head slowly. "I don't remember the experiments. But I do remember the episodes that followed." She admitted. "They'll happen, and I won't remember what happened for a few minutes... then the memories come back. The same thing almost every time... some twisted thing coming out of the ruins and decimating everything. A guardian who was twisted into a killer."

Frisk felt a pang of guilt in their heart, remembering the timeline that Ama's flashbacks were about. How they'd driven Togore Dreemurr, the loyal, awkward guardian to madness, such madness that he denied a final chance at turning back and falling in love again with Amabilia. "That temmie Sans brought back used to be the scientist that performed the experiment. He was taken out in a way that affected all your memories of him. Except Sans, since...?" They asked, also wanting to know how Sans had remembered Gaster.

"Beats me, kid." The hotel owner shrugged. Ama looked at Frisk curiously. "I remember Gaster." She told them. "I don't remember him leaving at all. Are you saying he's not the Royal Scientist anymore?" Amabilia's question solved the problem for Frisk. "The Core." They said finally. "That's how you remember. You were both exposed to multiple timelines, which must have... kept you more grounded in this one?" Frisk suggested, and Sans seemed to agree.

"Who knows. All of that timeline stuff is messed up anyways." He muttered. "How long until we should go out there, Asgore?" Sans asked the king, who looked out the window. "The bells have stopped. Perhaps it is safe for us to venture back to the castle." Asgore replied, heading to the door to open it. He offered a forgiving smile to Amabilia, who was the first to pass through the door.

She looked up and smiled gently. All was forgiven.

Frisk watched as the king seemed to feel emboldened, straightening up as Toriel passed by next. The king offered a much wider smile, cheery and compassionate.

Toriel gave him a cold stare. All was unforgiven.

Sans winked at Frisk before heading to the back room of the hat shop, taking a shortcut. Frisk was heading towards the exit, when they felt their gut twist again, making the child lurch over. "Frisk, are you alright?" Asgore asked in concern, reaching a hand out to comfort his adopted child.

Frisk felt themselves smack the king's hand away, and felt their lips move without their control. "Out of my way, fool." a horrifyingly familiar voice came from Frisk's throat. Asgore seemed to recognize the voice too, and was equally as stunned.

Frisk tried to get control of themselves, but they were already running towards the Mountain, past Asgore. "You wanted clarification on the timelines?" The voice asked, chuckling darkly. Frisk felt a cold smile run across their lips. "Why don't I help clear things up a little?"

It was Chara. Back from their villainous hibernation, they had full control over Frisk once again.

Frisk could do nothing but watch as they entered Mount Te Deum, finding their way to Alphys's lab. The Royal Scientist was busy working with Sans, studying the newest addition to the group of comrades.

"I demand that you release me!" Gaster shouted at his former subordinates, his soul held in place by Sans's abilities. "Eh, I dunno boss." Sans said, while Alphys was holding an odd machine to the scientist-turned-temmie's throat. "I-it looks like th-the device that y-y-you mentioned is inside him." Alphys remarked. "Th-th-the one that translates h-his speech."

Frisk's mind flashed back to Chara's statements about how some people had been removed or switched from the timelines. Apparently Gaster was one of them.

"I had nothing to do with that." Chara muttered softly to relieve Frisk of their curiosity. "Heya, kiddo." Sans greeted the child, and Chara froze. "What's up?"

Chara smiled warmly, doing their best impression of Frisk that they could. "I think that I can try to do something with the core, maybe it can help us out!" They said, perfectly copying Frisk's helpfulness and wonder about what was unknown. "Heh. Go ahead, kid." Sans shrugged. "That thing probably won't affect you at all, what with all the determination you've got."

"Thanks Sans!" Chara happily skipped past the skeleton and entered the core. 'Why do you care if I know about the timelines?' Frisk asked Chara, unable to speak but still very capable of thinking. "I care because I've been trying to do something for a long time... trying to make things right." Chara sighed, opening the central hatch. "And I was so close... so close, had you and Asriel not stopped me." Chara studied the equipment, which was fairly complex, but apparently was familiar to Chara. They flipped a switch, and the hatch in the center of the core began to glow. Chara stepped inside, ignoring Frisk's overall discomfort with the situation.

Once the hatch closed, the glow that had been growing became dark. It was surprising how quickly the light went away, and Frisk was growing more and more unnerved by what was going on. But soon enough, a line became visible in the gloom. A line of white light, extending as far as they could see. Then another, and another, and another... until Frisk was surrounded by a myriad of lines, turning and twisting amongst each other, sometimes connecting or splitting.

"These are the timelines, Frisk." Chara said, walking close to one and putting their hand on it. Frisk watched as this timeline became visible, an odd timeline... in this one, monsters had been banished underground by humans. There was no island, no Malum prophecy, even Togore didn't exist.

"That one was one of my favorites." Chara chuckled. "But it turned out to be useless."

"Where's our timeline?" Frisk demanded, thinking that maybe they could somehow make a break for it, or enter the timeline to escape Chara. "Oh, right over there." Chara pointed to a set of four timelines, running parallel to each other. Three of them seemed finished, while one was still growing, still continuing. A darkness grew in the unfinished timeline, darker, darker, yet darker still. "All these timelines are because of different choices, Frisk." Chara explained. "And don't even think about trying to get away. We made a deal, and now I'm in control."

'You never said anything about controlling me!' Frisk argued, while Chara went further through the tangles of timelines. Frisk tried to get away. But they didn't know how to escape from Chara, who had retained control of Frisk from the last timeline due to their agreement. They'd just been dormant, waiting for everything to escalate. The pieces were finally falling into place. This timeline would be the one. It had to be.

The timelines that surrounded Frisk grew closer, closer, until they all connected into a single sphere of light- or darkness? No, it was... both. Somehow, light and dark existing as one. "You see that, Frisk?" Chara pointed to the sphere. "That is where it all began. No timelines, no rewrites, no turning through pages or new chapters... just one existence." Chara watched the sphere as it stayed in place, not extending or growing.

"There was only one human among the monsters back then. They had a brother, an older brother beloved by all in the place they lived. But their family shattered... leaving the brother to pick up the pieces and protect the child. They found a place where they lived, a place hidden away from everything else, so it seemed. In this place, the older brother would play games with their sibling, trying to shield them from the sadness that awaited outside. But then the games became real... the human had wanted to make a new world, and had somehow done so." Chara spoke, not caring if Frisk truly understood or not. "That was the beginning of determination. That one choice made a world that the human and their brother could write, making stories and characters to amuse themselves. But one day the older brother left, going somewhere to better themselves. To grow stronger in all they did. The bitter human, knowing that everyone they cared about seemed to leave at one point or another, closed off the world."

Frisk was getting a feeling inside. But the feeling was from Chara.

'Were you that human?' Frisk asked, and Chara paused, then smiled slyly.

"More or less." They answered, then continued. "One day, the human was forced back into the world they'd created. This world, made from determination, had changed. The older brother had somehow learned to harness his own power, and had created and twisted things in anticipation of his return. The older brother, now connected to this world, disguised himself. He led the human through the world they had once played in, and grew more and more desperate to go back to it. Upon doing so, he made a choice. A choice to create another world himself that they could play in. The older brother rearranged everything, making the first separate timeline. And this timeline was filled with new characters and stories, and therefore more new choices. And the cycle continued." Chara said bitterly. "If it weren't for that human, then the first world would not have been created. None of the pain that exists now would have happened."

'Are you trying to go back there?' Frisk asked Chara. 'To stop all of this from happening?' Chara nodded. "I'm not the only one who wants to go back. In other timelines, other characters will realize where they came from, and try to go back. Some give up, some give all their effort, but all have failed. But I am different. I have no equals in the timelines, no anagrams, no rearrangements. I walk through time, always looking to collect the power that had created these worlds. And thanks to you, Frisk, I have created a vessel to carry that power."

Frisk blinked rapidly. A vessel? Power? What power, did they mean determination?

"Ah, determination." Chara smiled, reading Frisk's thoughts. "Determination was that first world's light, stemming unknowingly from that first human. But the light could do anything, and could be chaotic. So the older brother was the darkness, confining the light's power when necessary, and eventually beginning to create on its own. It goes by a lot of names... but I prefer to call it corruption."

Determination and Corruption. Light and Dark, all of these stemming from two unknown siblings.

"The souls of those two have been broken, Frisk. The human split in two as the timelines grew and required their determination to continue. And the older brother completely shattered, vainly trying to spread himself to contain his younger sibling. There was corruption almost everywhere... growing as it began to negate the determination." Chara turned back. "That feeling that you had in the last timeline... that drive to erase all that you saw? That was your determination becoming corrupted. The same thing that happened to the Sentinel. The same thing that became the monster you fear."

'The thing in the underground?' Frisk felt themself practically shout. 'It's filled with corruption? The soul of the older brother?'

"Yes, Frisk. I'm recreating the older brother, filling him with corruption. If I gather enough of his power, then use both of our determination? We will negate each other, and it will connect everything. All the determination that connects to us will be negated, and the original world will come back into being." Chara said boldly. "The Malum timeline... what you and Flowey did... it was all an experiment. And your experiment will help me to complete mine." 'What about now?' Frisk asked. 'What about the good things, Chara? All you think about is how much pain is in the timelines... what about what's good?'

Chara paused momentarily, and Frisk couldn't see what they were thinking. Then they chuckled. "Just like you to want the opposite of what I want." Chara sneered. "It's the same in every timeline that you're in."

Suddenly, the darkness lifted. The timelines were gone, and the hatch opened. Chara stepped out to go continue the progress they'd made, but felt something change in their soul. Something weighing them down...

"The gig's over, freak." Sans said, his left arm held out and holding Chara in place. "You're the reason Asriel's dead, and I'm seeing to it that no one else dies because of you."