Chapter 53: Asriel and Chara

Goner Kid was, for the most part, speechless unless there was something he felt was absolutely crucial to be said. He resolutely marched forward through the laboratory's dark teal corridors with few visible emotions. Frisk was right by his side, but slowed down to read more test logs from Alphys on screens they passed.

"I've done it. Using Doctor Gaster's old blueprints, I've fine-tuned the extractor. Asgore let me use the collected human souls… each of them exhibit a unique power source, but they all have one in common. I believe this is what lets them persist even while the humans themselves have died. The will to keep living, to change fate… Gaster proposed that such a feeling could be manifested within a soul before vanishing, turns out he was right. He called it… 'Determination.' I was able to extract a good amount from each of the souls."

"W.D. Gaster was involved in this too?" Frisk asked quietly.

"Yes, of course he was," their previously silent guide said in response. "He was only able to make theories during his time… it seems Doctor Alphys put them into practice."

They reached a very large room with ten or so beds lined up in rows. Just like the operating tables from before, most of them were soaked in that drippy white substance that had comprised Memoryhead. A half-empty bowl of dog food with the name "Endogeny" written on it sat in the corner of the room, while various small potted plants lining parts of the walls offered some level of comfort in the dimly-lit area. Frisk noticed a yellow key sitting on one of the beds and picked it up. Considering its similar shape to the red key, they figured this was what they were looking for. Two doorways stood before Frisk and Goner Kid, the latter of whom pointed toward the one on the left.

"You found the yellow key? Good, the corresponding terminal is this way."

It didn't take long for another Amalgamate- this one a slavering creature with enormous fangs that Goner Kid called Lemon Bread- to attack. Frisk couldn't shake the feeling that it somehow looked familiar, and eventually realized that it was some freakish combination of a Shyren, a Moldbygg, and an Aaron from Waterfall. Fortunately, it was easily placated by humming and generally staying away.

Frisk, in the heat of the encounter, somehow had failed to notice the large machine nearby, but now their attention couldn't be taken off it. The device had the same circular base with two prongs emerging from the front as the blueprints they'd seen in Sans' workshop. A screen nearby identified it as the "Determination Extractor," which was evidently how Alphys had experimented on the human souls.

Goner Kid pointed his tail at a door next to the machine.

"You haven't lost the yellow key, have you? The next terminal is in there… among other things. I will stand guard out here in case more Amalgamates arrive, feel free to investigate."

They nodded and entered the door, quickly finding the yellow terminal. Frisk slotted the key inside, then looked around the room. It had another screen containing Alphys' test logs and two large shelves full of old VHS tapes, between which was a TV. First, they decided to inspect the screen mounted on the wall.

"Asgore asked everyone outside the capital for monsters who had 'fallen down.' Their bodies came in today… they're still comatose, and soon they'll all turn to dust. My plan is to inject them with some Determination from the human souls. Monster souls already seem to contain trace amounts of it, but maybe if I add more then they'll become similarly powerful. If I can get their souls to persist even without their bodies, freedom might be closer than we all thought. On a different note… while I was researching humans, I ended up snooping around the castle and found these weird tapes. Somehow, I feel like Asgore hasn't watched them… and I don't think he should."

Frisk turned back to the VHS player and saw five particular tapes sitting beside it. After a brief hesitation, they decided to watch them to learn what Alphys had been so concerned about. The first one was too dark to see much of anything, but they could hear two voices- which they recognized as Toriel and Asgore- lovingly talking to each other in excitement for their upcoming child. It didn't take long for Frisk to deduce that said child must have been Asriel, and that the tape must have dated back at least a century and a half if the two were still married. There didn't seem like much to worry about with the recording overall.

The same couldn't be said about the next four, however.

They all showed completely black screens, but a new pair of voices could be heard among softly chirping birds. Frisk didn't recognize either. Fortunately, the conversations revealed their identities. The first voice- a gentle, innocent boy- was evidently Prince Asriel. The second was feminine, with a tone that sounded cheerful but somewhat unsettling for reasons Frisk couldn't explain.

"Okay, Chara! Do your creepy face!"

"Right… like this?"

"Aaaahhh! Hee hee!

"Perfect~ wait, do you have the lens cap on that camera? The video's not gonna come out right."

"Huh? Oops, let me take it off-"

"Nope, too late. I'm not doing it again."

"Aww, what? Stop tricking me! Haha!

The next tape was only stranger.

"Howdy, Chara! Let me see your creepy smile again!"

"Fiiine…"

"Ha! Got you! I left the lens cap on… ON PURPOSE! Now you're smiling for nooo reason!"

"All right, Asriel, you got me there. Wow, look at your face. I haven't seen you giggling so much since when Dad got over his illness…"

"Oh right, I remember that! He'd been really sick for at least a week… it was those flowers we accidentally put in his pie, right? Man, how'd we confuse 'buttercups' for 'cups of butter' anyway?"

"It was your idea, you know…"

"Huh? I thought you were the one who said to use them. Either way, I felt so bad when we did that. I wish I'd have been able to just laugh it off like you did at the time."

"…hey Asriel, I just thought of something. Turn off the camera."

Judging by some of the stories from Asriel's journal in the Capital, and what had just been said here, Frisk could only think that Chara- the first human to enter the underground, they remembered- didn't seem like a very nice person. They wondered if she had somehow contributed to the monsters' poor attitude toward humans. The last two tapes transcended the line between strange and downright bone-chilling to hear. Just like the others, they were shot with the lens cap on, so only audio could be heard.

"Chara… I don't… I don't like this idea…"

"What's the matter? Are you crying, brother? You're not doubting me NOW, are you?"

"N-no, I'm not… big kids don't cry. I trust you! I do… we only need to get six, right? Six more and we can break the Barrier… yeah! We'll be strong and free everyone t-together!"

"Good to hear you're not losing your nerve. Go get the buttercups."

The final tape began with Toriel and Asgore's voices, then quickly transitioned to just Asriel and Chara again. It seemed that the family was standing around someone's- evidently the human's- bed.

"Can you hear me, child? We want you to wake up…"

"Chara! You must stay determined! You are the future of humans and monsters!"

"…she won't wake up. Come on, Asgore, let's leave them alone for a bit…"

The King and Queen left.

"…C-Chara…?" Asriel said in a shaky voice. "Please, stop eating the flowers… I don't want to do this anymore."

A violent fit of coughing came in response. The human was speaking through a harsh rasp.

"You said… you said you wouldn't doubt me… just six dead humans, and then everyone will be free… we'll be heroes, Asriel…"

"…you're right. We'll do it together."

The tape abruptly ended there, leaving Frisk absolutely stunned. They finally understood the plan, and what the notes from Doctor Gaster in Asriel's journal meant. Chara had gotten herself fatally sick, and after dying her soul had been given to the Prince, her brother. With a human and monster soul together, they transformed into a powerful being that could pass through the Barrier.

"Then… she'd said she wanted to see the flowers on the surface, right…? That was just a ruse!"

Frisk was horrified by what Chara had intended. Asriel, empowered by her, would kill six humans and bring the souls back to fully destroy the Barrier, thus starting another human-monster war. But… something didn't add up to them. No souls had been gained, and the Prince himself was mortally injured by the frightened humans.

"If that was the plan… why did the notes say that Asriel didn't attack anyone on the surface? He seemed like he didn't want to, after all… did he lose the will?"

Before they could think further, a loud commotion came from outside the room. Frisk dashed out to investigate, only to find themselves staring down another Amalgamate which could only be described as a large white blob shaped like a dog with a gaping hole in its face. The large beast emitted a growl from somewhere on its body (it had no visible mouth) and lumbered toward them menacingly. Goner Kid was nowhere to be seen.