DoubleTale: Rewritten

by XWolf26

What if two humans were in the Underground at once? What if one human was DETERMINED to stop the other? What if they could both SAVE? What happens when an Unstoppable Force meets an Immovable Object? When a certain scientist pulls enough of himself together, he finally finds a way to stop the destruction of his world. All he has to do is break through one wall... (A rewrite of DT.)

36. Chapter 36: Love Without Excuses

Thanks go to 10burgers, Zack Frost, Wingah, Okami Endless, Jack54311, TimeBlade, Genowar, NotSkele, Monkey D. Chimera, WhoWritesThisCrap, Linki, Sonic245, NBoss01, Allagenda-domsitzers-chan, DIKR1229, Gun of Revenge, and EpicSlayerGuy99.

No worries, Allagenda-domsitzers-chan, I know people are busy. I really appreciate you still taking the time to read and review when you can, though!

Speaking of, I'm really glad I got so much feedback last chapter! It really inspired me to be sure I got back on time to give you guys this chapter! I hope it was worth the wait, and I hope you guys like it enough to leave a review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale.

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A slap resounded as Chara knocked their older counter part's hand aside, surprising F Chara and making them blink eyes now widened.

"Talk? You want to talk?" Chara questioned furiously, climbing to their feet on their own. "What, you want to run your mouth to me too now?"

"I-" Before F Chara could get the words out, their younger self was throwing their hands into the air, pacing back and forth.

"I get it, I screwed up! Now god knows how many more people are gonna die because I'm a failure!" Panic was clear in Chara's eyes as they grabbed at their auburn hair like they were looking for an answer atop their head.

"You're a failure? How do you think I feel?" F Chara planted a hand on their chest, widening their eyes some. "I got hit once in the first five minutes of the fight and I've been out cold since!"

"What do you care?" Chara suddenly stopped their pacing to shoot F Chara a death glare, panic replaced by hatred. "Why are you even helping us? Don't you just wanna kill everybody Character wants to kill anyway?"

"..." F Chara went quiet after that, their eyes glossing to the side. They contemplated their younger self's harsh words for a few long moments, before they finally spoke. "... I, know I messed up. I just wanted to do something good one last time."

Then, they paused, and spoke quietly.

"... I owe Angel that much..."

"Yeah well a lotta good you did us." Chara responded with cruelty, not feeling a speck of sympathy for their future self.

"Okay." F Chara's tone carried restrained fury as they inhaled sharply, shooting Chara a warning glance.

"Oh I'm sorry, do you not like that?" Hatefully Chara squinted their eyes at the disgraced heir, leaning in some with their mockingly curious expression. "Well maybe I wouldn't have to treat you like trash if you didn't act like it!"

"I tried to help you!" F Chara snapped suddenly, stepping forward and looming over their younger self. Chara was far from intimidated, however, their razor sharp glare shooting up to meet that of their doppelganger. This resulted in an intense beam struggle between the furious lightning of their two wrathful expressions.

"Help me?!" Chara repeated, like they really couldn't believe F Chara had said something that stupid. They jabbed a finger into their counterpart's chest accusingly, jaw clenching tightly before they returned to shouting. "Everything was fine before I heard about you!"

"Sure, I was struggling some! Sure, I had my worries! But I was making progress damn it!" Chara yanked back their hand to plant it on their own chest, gesturing to themself. "But then I hear about you and it's like all my worst fears have been realized!"

"You expect me to play nice with you?!" Chara questioned furiously, stomping forward and making the disgraced heir take a step back. "You must not get it!"

"You're everything that's wrong with me! You're another one of my billion mistakes!" Once again Chara was jabbing with their index finger, keeping F Chara on the back foot while they shoved into their space. "I hate you! I hate looking at you! I hate hearing you talk! I hate that your chicken shit Cter didn't have the balls to kill you!"

SLAP.

Burning red hand print now on their left cheek, Chara's eyes were wide and their voice was silent. In an instant their head had been turned to the right, and their expression had went from livid to stunned. F Chara looked a little bewildered themself, semi-wide orbs darting between their raised hand and their unresponsive doppelganger. After a moment however, their hand clenched, and their expression tightened with the rage that had prompted them to smack Chara.

"... My mistakes are mine, not Angel's." F Chara finally spoke, quietly and through grinding teeth. "Your mistakes are yours. Not. Mine."

"... I know that." Chara spoke with rage chilled to hate after another few seconds that dragged on like hours. Gradually, they drew in a deep breath to calm themself. They shut their eyes momentarily, turning their head back to face the future that they rejected. Exhaling slowly, they let their ruby orbs open back to the face they hated seeing, in the mirror or in person. "I'm just... Afraid of ending up like you."

"... I'm afraid of that too." F Chara's expression relaxed, becoming more somber than angry. Slowly their vermilion eyes glanced back to that old, beaten path. They frowned.

"... That's why we're here."

Chapter 36: Love Without Excuses

"That's just a front I put up."

---

Chara's eyes remained low, fixated on the shambling pattern of brown and red footsteps painted upon the dirt path that they traveled. Blood and mud had coated the small feet that had been carrying that damned child down the beaten road. That had hurt, Chara remembered. Their whole body had hurt.

"... I ran until the sun came up." Chara recalled somberly, gradually lifting their head to look ahead. The trail curved up and down in a few small hills, the last of which was too tall to see over from their current vantage point. "No shoes, no food, no idea where I was going."

F Chara listened quietly, knowing better than to interrupt with their own memory of this day. It was better that Chara explained anyway, they knew things must've been much more clear to their younger self than they were for themself.

"Had it been any other day, had I collapsed a little earlier or a little later, I would have been crow food." Hands resting in their pockets, Chara stared ahead with narrowed eyes. Over the horizon the sun was creeping, light beginning to pierce the black sky and blot out the stars. "... But it wasn't any other day. And I didn't fall any other place."

As the two reached the peak of the highest hill, they could hear a child crying out in pain, along with several thumps and thuds. When the two Charas peered down the slope, they found the same helpless little girl tumbling down through the dirt to the bottom of the incline.

She laid there, auburn hair falling around her blood and dirt stained face. Her exhausted red eyes stared blankly, no light reflecting in them. Jaw hanging open with shallow breathes, it was clear she had ran as far as her legs would carry her. Now her body had given out, and she hung on the fringes of consciousness.

"Hm..? Hello?"

Chara's expression twitched painfully when a voice cut through the tree line. They crossed their arms to keep a stoic appearance, tilting their head and watching a woman make her way into the open. She had shoulder length hair, spun in bouncy orange curls, and she looked to the desperate child with eyes that were blue with INTEGRITY.

"Oh! A little boy?"

At this point Chara blushed with clear embarrassment, turning their head to the side to look away from the scene.

"When she saw my... Less than feminine features, she mistook me for something else. The dirt and grime covering me probably didn't help my case, either." Chara explained, even though their future self could tell the words burned their throat a little coming up. They understood that, they'd felt the same way for many years. "I suppose it's a good thing she didn't see the truth at the beginning. She might not have taken me that day if she knew I wasn't a boy."

The two Charas watched as the blue eyed woman gathered their unconscious past self into her arms, slinging the basket she'd been gathering miscellaneous berries and other fruits of the forest in over her shoulder. She held the child close to her in a way that was protective and motherly, and she made her way further down the path with a little more urgency in her step.

Future and present Chara made their way after her, when the world around them started to shift. Curiously Chara observed as shapes twisted and colors swirled around the two, furrowing their eyebrows with a little confusion. Soon the world was reshaped however, and Chara relaxed as their suspicions were confirmed.

Now standing in the door way of a bedroom with a rough wood floor, Chara watched the same sapphire eyed woman stare with worry at their younger self. The little girl was fast asleep, shoulder length hair falling haphazardly around her face. There were bandages places along her arms wherever there was a cut or scrape, similar bandages wrapping her feet up to the ankle.

She laid in a bed at the corner of the room, the window at her bedside shining with the midday light. At her side the orange haired woman sat in a wooden chair, sorrow in her eyes as she watched little Chara sleep.

"... She must've noticed at some point during cleaning me up that I was a girl. It probably broke her heart." Chara narrowed their eyes painfully, watching that motherly figure carefully brush the hair out of their younger self's face. "In the world she'd been born into and grown up in, being born female was like a life prison sentence."

"Mount Ebbot was different when we were a kid." F Chara finally spoke up, frowning deeply. "Surrounded by tribes at war. And as history goes, the most cruel were winning."

"Whatever clan I'd been born into must've been burnt to the ground. It's been so long, I don't remember any of the names." Eyes drifting to the floor, Chara slowly shook their head. "But I ran smack dab into the evil that'd killed my biological family without even knowing it."

"She had to have hated the hopeless way she'd grown up and lived, so to see that future ahead of a child probably crushed her." Empathy burned in F Chara's eyes as they stared at the lowered head of their first surrogate mother. "Once we woke up, and she learned we had no where else to go, she must've been truly horrified."

"... Her tribe was a patriarchy, and a violent one." At their sides Chara's fists clenched, a thousand and one horrors coming to mind. "Boys were raised to be skilled fighters and heartless killers. Girls were raised to look pretty, do chores, and have babies. Anything more or less than that was likely to earn them a split lip or a black eye."

"To make matters worse, she wasn't just any old woman with any old husband. She was the Chieftain's bride." F Chara's eyes glossed to the window and the trees they saw through it. Smoke was still rising from the forest. "And the Chieftain needed a son. He had no use for a daughter."

"The son of a bitch had a problem, though. I'd call it karma." Chara recrossed their arms, venom entering their tone and hate appearing in their eyes. "He was sterile. He didn't have any way to get a son."

"With that all in mind, Mother devised a plan to keep her bastard husband happy and give us a future worth living for." F Chara watched as their child self slowly opened their eyes, and the first mother they could remember forced a kind smile. "With a haircut and some boyish clothes, it'd be hard for anyone to tell the difference."

The room began shifting again, colors peeling away to a void of swirling memories. What they remembered of the next few days flew by in streams of recollection. Their mother putting a bowl over their head and cutting their hair to an unfortunate boy's haircut, the clothes they were given to blend in with the boys their age, the sugar coated explanation their mother had given them.

"This is the only way I can keep you safe, Chara." Is what she'd told them. "I promise, just until you're old enough to take over as Chieftain. Then you can change everything..."

Chara's scarlet orbs squinted painfully. That'd been a reoccurring theme in their life, people putting the entire weight of the future on their shoulders. They always let them down. They always cracked under the pressure.

Their eyes glossed down to their open palm, feeling a wound more fresh aching in their soul.

That was how they'd ended up here in the first place.

Eventually, the world reformed around the two, and they found themselves standing in the main room of the first home they could remember. At the center of the room their mother stood, swiftly and anxiously patting any dust from her clothes and adjusting her hair. Then, the wood of the front door creaked, and she stiffened, straightening her back and holding her hands together over her lap.

Coldly Chara narrowed their eyes. They'd never forget the man who lumbered through the doorway that day. He was looming, a giant of a man that to the child peeking in from the kitchen looked to be about fifteen feet tall. Now Chara could see more clearly that he was about 6'5 and bulky with muscles. He wore a bear pelt, its head atop his own like some savage hood. His chest was bare, exposing tan skin scarred over in several places. For pants he wore another animal's skin, perhaps deer.

In one hand he hoisted a massive chunk of wood over his shoulder. It was a cruel club, a primitive tool with sharpened stones embedded in the thick wood. Red ran in dried streams over the brown wood and black rock.

"Welcome home!" Chara's Mother greeted with feigned cheer, hoping he wouldn't notice the cold sweat on her brow. "I didn't doubt you'd make it back for a second!"

"Of course you didn't." His gruff voice was flat, inexpressive of anything he might have been feeling. If he'd been feeling anything at all. He let his weapon slide from his shoulder, its heavy top side crashing loudly to the wooden floor. He uncoiled his massive fingers from around his brutish tool, then he walked methodically forward.

As he stepped past their Mother, he reached up, grabbing the pelt from atop his head and holding it out for her to take without even making eye contact. She took his hood like the two had made this transaction a thousand times before, carefully folding it in her arms before scurrying over to the club on the floor near the doorway.

He turned, sitting calmly in the only furniture in the room. It was a single chair, padded with different animal furs and facing the window. From there he stared absently at the outside world, all while his wife struggled to lift his weapon and stow it in its proper place. She was careful not to walk between him and that square hole in the wall. It was a mistake that had angered him before.

"Dinner?" Another simple sentence devoid of care passed his lips, his eyes not leaving the hills while he spoke.

"Rabbit stew!" She responded with a feigned perkiness just after she set his killer tool on the rack of primitive weapons in the far corner of the room, draping his bear hood over the handle of his club.

"... Good." Just one word, but a positive response. Chara's Mother knew those were rare, and hearing one meant her husband was in a good mood. Perfect, she thought.

"..." Drawing in a deep breath, she steeled her nerves and straightened her back. Then, once again holding her hands together at her lap, she elegantly and respectfully walked her way over to his side. She stared at him, but he did not return her gaze. Gulping down her anxieties, she spoke to get his attention.

"Uhm... Husband..?"

"..?" Silently his eyes glossed over to meet hers, a dull curiosity appearing on his face. This was unlike his wife, to speak without being spoken to. This unusualness interested him however, so he responded. "Yes?"

"Several days ago, while you were away, I..." She hesitated, her heart thudding loudly in her ears. This was the beginning. For the next decade of her life she'd have to lie, pass her adopted daughter off as an adopted son to her husband. If she failed, both of their lives would be... No, this was no time to worry about that. This was the only way she could give Chara a future. This was the only way she could do something meaningful. This was the only way she could have a future. "... I found a young boy. Orphaned with nowhere to return to and no one to miss him."

"Hm?" His confusion grew with this, one bushy eyebrow rising at her as he turned his head to look at his wife directly. She knew she had his attention now. "A boy?"

"He was dying on the side of the road." She spoke with desperate sadness, frowning and lowering her head, only partially to evade his eyes. "It's a woman's job to nurture, so I felt obligated to help him..."

"Okay..." He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, watching her every move carefully. "What are trying to tell me, woman?"

"W-well, uhm..." Sweat beading faster, her eyes went a little wide, giving her a better view of the floor she was staring at. She gulped however, forcing more words out of her throat. "When I got a look at the boy, and I heard he was alone, I-I, I thought that, maybe he... Well, maybe, I thought, uhm..."

"You think he has what it takes to be my son?" The Chieftain filled in the blank that his wife was too afraid to, and a lethal chill entered his eyes.

She gulped, and her face went pale when she peered into those deadly eyes. She'd seen them before, knew what they meant. If she failed here, if she made a single misstep, the back of his hand would bring her punishment.

"W-with your training!" She forced herself out of her paralysis, quickly nodding her head. "I believe he'd make a wonderful chieftain some day!"

"..." Things were silent between the two for moments that dragged on like decades, neither of them blinking as they considered their next moves with painful precision. Until finally...

"Alright..." The Chieftain grunted as he pushed himself up from his wooden throne, shutting his eyes momentarily. Then, he reopened them, glancing to his wife with some doubt. "Show me the boy."

"Y-yes! Right away!" She nodded quickly, some relief coming as her idea was not instantly shot down. Then she leaned to the side and looked past her husband, peering into the kitchen. "Chara, please come out!"

Timidly that bowl of auburn hair poked out from around the corner, skeptical ruby eyes scanning the room. This made Chara's Mother smile just a little, but the Chieftain frowned.

"Over here, boy." He waved one massive hand, expecting eyes crashing down on Chara. "I don't have all day."

Chara nodded quickly, scurrying out of her hiding spot and into the open. She wore a baggy shirt and pants made of the same deer skin that adorned the chief, keeping her eyes low and not letting out a single peep. His presence was massive and powerful. It strangled her, made her blood chill.

"... This is the boy?" The Chieftain narrowed his eyes down at the poor girl, who was trying her best not to tremble. Frown deepening, he reached out suddenly, snatching one of Chara's thin arms and yanking it up, startling her and making her stumble from his sudden pull. "He's hardly a boy at all! Look at how small and feeble he is!"

Something about his sudden tugging, his insulting words and his threatening presence made Chara plant her feet and reclaim her balance. Finally lifting her head, she glared up at him with vermilion eyes, yanking her arm out of his surprised grasp and taking a step back away from him.

"Chara!" Her Mother shouted out to scold her defiance, those sapphire orbs going wide with terror. She knew how the Chieftain reacted to disobedience. The memories made her face ache.

"... Hm." The Chieftain stared down into Chara's unwavering eyes for another few seconds, before his lips curled upwards. When he dropped to one knee before the girl and she had a closer look, she realized something she hadn't noticed before.

His eyes. They were that same deep red, that same DETERMINED crimson that she saw in her own reflection.

"Your soul, boy. What color is it?" Suspiciously the chief tilted his head, narrowing his scarlet eyes.

"... R-red." Chara finally spoke, attempting to steel her nerves before this mountain of a man. Her answer made a certain interest appear in his eyes, and as he shoved himself back to his feet, he smiled down at her.

"I've never met someone with a soul like mine, you know." Smirking some, the Chieftain lifted one hand. In his grasp a dark red soul appeared, levitating just over his calloused palm and glowing dimly. Chara recognized that her own soul was a lighter shade than his, and that it gave off light more brightly. "Our kind is rare, and destined for greatness."

"Woman!" He called suddenly, making Chara's Mother jump as she turned her eyes back to him.

"Y-yes?!" She responded fearfully, standing at attention with a straightened back and hands over her lap. He lifted one hand over his head, and on instinct she flinched, clenched her eyes shut tight and prepared herself for some kind of brutal impact. So she was admittedly surprised when his hand landed on her shoulder, giving it an appreciative squeeze.

"You've done a good job finding this boy." There was a rare joy and excitement in his eyes, and this kind of praise was not something she'd heard in quite awhile. "I trust you'll mother him well."

"Y-yes!" She nodded swiftly and obediently, giving a smile that was only half forced.

"And you." He turned his head, and his eyes locked with Chara's once more. Somewhat wickedly he smiled.

"I'll start teaching you tomorrow."

"..." As the world once more melted away to swirling colors and shapes, Chara crossed their arms with disdain. "'Teaching you' actually meant 'beating you within an inch of your life' back then, believe it or not."

"I don't just believe it, I remember it." F Chara agreed with a bitter nod. "We've taken a lot of hits over the years, but I always remember his hurting the worst."

"Over the next few years I learned a lot of things." Empty eyes squinting and lips curving down in a frown, Chara turned their head and quietly watched the memories that flashed by. "How to throw a punch, how to take one. How to use every weapon I could fit in my tiny hands."

"The chief figured we weren't gonna be big and bulky like him, so we didn't learn how to fight with brute strength like he did." F Chara reminisced, watching a memory of The Chieftain handing them a short dagger with a sharpened stone blade fling by. "Instead our training focused on speed, precision, and skill."

"The younger you are, the easier it is to learn. The art of murder got soaked right up by my six year old sponge brain." Chara stared straight ahead with lightless eyes, expression devoid of any emotion at all. "By the time I was twelve I scanned people when I looked at them. Potential threats, exposed vitals. Points of strength and points of weakness."

"I'd figured out how I would kill a stranger before they got within ten feet of me." Chara's eyes narrowed painfully, their hands clenching into tight fists at their sides. "And I hated it."

"Six years and that old brute never caught on to our lie. Though I guess it was easy to keep from him when the only time we saw him was for training." F Chara watched as the world started to reform around the two, frowning lightly. "But we were getting tired of hiding the truth."

The two could see now that they were standing in a fenced off section of a field. At the far end targets were lined up. Some with arrows embedded in them, some with knives, a few with throwing axes. Each target had at least one projectile jammed in its bullseye.

"Agh!" A twelve year old Chara cried out as she crashed to the ground, skidding through the dirt on her side before coming to a stop with her back against the fence.

"Get up, boy." The Chieftain commanded, looming over his prodigy with a cold frown and crossed arms. "We aren't done until one of us can't move."

Chara growled as she pushed herself up on one elbow, suddenly whipping one arm out and sending a black rock dagger racing through the air at her self proclaimed father. Swiftly he tilted his head to the side, and as the blade raced by, a slice appeared on his cheek. A thin stream of blood overflowed from the cut, running down to his jawline as his lips curled slowly. He was smiling. That made Chara's skin crawl.

Jumping to her feet, Chara let out a primal roar as she dove at The Chieftain, spinning in air and swinging one foot at his head, only for him to uncross his arms and lift one forearm into the path of their strike, stopping it dead in its tracks. Quickly he shifted his arm, wrapping his fingers around Chara's ankle and yanking her back towards himself. Then, he let go of her leg, curled his fingers into a fist and sent a punch crashing into her abdomen.

Her eyes snapped open wide, the wind blasting up out of her lungs along with droplets of saliva before she was sent flinging back through the air. Chara's body smashed into the fence, her head leaning back over one of the horizontal wooden blocks that spanned the space between posts.

"... Eugh..." She groaned quietly, blinking those distant ruby orbs and letting them refocus. She was watching upside down across the field, where she could see several figures running about. Painfully and longingly Chara's eyes narrowed as she watched the other girls her age live carelessly, tagging one another and giggle at nothing but the joy their youth brought them.

"Come on boy, get up." Chara was snapped back to reality when the Chieftain grabbed her by the shirt, yanking her to her shaky legs. "You're too young to be getting distracted by the girls."

"One of them will make you a fine wife someday." He put a hand on Chara's shoulder, catching her attention and making her look back away from the far end of the field. He offered her the handle of the same blade she'd whipped at his head moments ago. "But you have to be a man first."

"... Right." Chara held her head low, narrowing her eyes hatefully at the blade she was offered. Stuffing her disappointment into a bottle for later, she took the blade from her father. "Sorry."

"... I wanted to be myself for so long that I forgot who I was." Hair shadowed Chara's eyes as the world faded away around them and their future self. "When I was younger I thought I just wanted to be allowed to be a girl again. But after I saw the horrible things they had to endure, I was terrified of that reality as well."

"..." F Chara turned their head, watching a short memory of their childhood self sitting in a chair while their mother clipped their hair once again float by. "Mother's rambling and scolding certainly didn't help."

"You're very lucky to look the way you do, Chara." Chara's mother commented like she had so many times before. She envied Chara, that much had become apparent over the years. "So long as you keep your hair short, no one can tell the difference..."

"But mom, I don't like looking like this..." The young Chara barely managed to whisper, narrowing her ruby eyes at the floor as her mother striped her of her extra hair, making sure not to leave a single feminine quality. "Why can't I dress like the other-?"

"You are NOT LIKE the others!" Chara flinched when her Mother snapped, clenching her eyes shut tight. She figured Mother's wrath would be the receipt for her plea, but she couldn't help it. Her emotions were bottled so tightly, sometimes a whispered plea slipped out. "You are so incredibly lucky, don't you get it?! Why do you want to waste that?!"

"..." Chara opened her bitter ruby orbs, fixating her vision on the floor that was dusted with locks of reddish-brown. She didn't have an answer, at least not one her Mother could possibly understand. So she remained silent, enduring like she had endured for quite some time.

"You're so special, Chara..." Her Mother spoke softer then, smoothing Chara's shortened hair and hugging the side of her head to her chest. It seemed she was whispering more to herself than to her daughter. "All you have to do is tell one little white lie, and you can have a future so much brighter than all the other girls..."

"... After awhile, neither gender seemed too appealing." Chara turned their head to the side opposite to their future counterpart, watching a different memory pass by.

From behind the wall separating the kitchen and the living room little Chara crouched, silently eavesdropping on the conversation taking place while her mother cooked.

"... Chara barely managed to limp to his room after training today." She heard her mother work up the courage to say, slowly and skeptically peeking around the corner to watch the conversation unfold.

"He'll live." Was the only response the Chieftain gave, lifeless eyes laying on his wife's back as she prepared his meal.

"Aren't you afraid you're being too hard on him?" She timidly glanced over her shoulder at her husband, who lazily cocked a brow, tilting his head to the side.

"My father was hard on me, and his father before him." He frowned with some irritation, leaning his chin on his fist. "That's how a man like me is made."

"Well maybe I don't want him to be a man like you..." The words slipped of the Mother's mouth before she had the chance to stop them. Chara's eyes went wide when she heard that punishable sentence, and terror pierced her heart when, silently and emotionlessly, the Chieftain leisurely pushed himself away from the table and out of his chair.

Chara wanted to jump out, intervene. But her feet were frozen to the floor. She wanted to scream out, demand that he stop in his tracks. But her throat had sealed shut. She wanted to shut her eyes on this atrocity, but they were wired open.

Calmly the Chieftain grabbed his wife by the elbow, making her flinch. She knew she'd said something she shouldn't have, and she knew the repercussions of those words. So she held her head low, and when he spun her around and cocked back an open hand, she didn't dare look him in the eye. His massive, calloused hand crashed across her cheek, knocking her back off her feet and sending her smashing to the floor.

Chara would never forget his face as he knelt over his wife, snatched her by the shirt and yanked back another open hand. He showed no remorse and no fury, as if his actions meant nothing to him. It was as if to him, beating his spouse was just some chore he had to carry out every now and again.

So he swung, forehand and backhand, over and over. With each strike a slap resounded, and with each slap Chara flinched but never blinked. She was screaming in her own head, desperately trying to avert her eyes. But she couldn't. So instead she stood there, out in the open, eyes wide and jaw hanging low. Gradually tears built in those scarlet orbs, and with the thunderclap of another smack, those tears overflowed down Chara's cheeks.

"..." Silently the Chieftain pushed himself to his feet, leaving his wife in a crumpled heap on the floor and stepping over her without a care. He gave four simple words, and they were far from an apology or an explanation. "I'm not hungry anymore."

He walked right by Chara without batting an eye, just lifting one of those massive hands and resting it on her head for a moment.

"Quit your whimpering, boy. It's a mans job to keep his wife in line." He spoke gruffly and without hesitation, staring ahead with jaded, DETERMINED eyes. "Someday I'm sure you'll have a mouthy woman who needs to be set straight every now and again."

That made Chara's pupils shrink with fright. She was disgusted by that idea as she watched her mother slowly pick herself up off the floor, hair falling in limp strands over her battered face. She kept staring, eyes trembling in their sockets as her father removed his hand from her head and continued onward. It wasn't until she heard the door slam behind him that she dropped to her knees and reached up, grabbing her face, which no longer felt her own.

But when her Mother lifted her head, and one desperate INTEGRITY colored eye landed on Chara, she felt bile race up her throat. She wrapped her hands around her mouth and lurched forward, resting her forehead on the wood of the floor and attempting to push her lunch back down.

Inevitably, she failed, and puke spewed from between her fingers.

"..." Chara's hair shadowed their eyes as they let the memory pass. They were still sickened to the point of nauseousness by the scene, but this time they managed to keep their food down.

"... The thought of being a girl made me fear for my safety, freedom, self worth and self respect." Chara looked forward as the world started to reform around them, hands clenched into tight fists at their sides. "But the thought of being a boy made me fear that I'd grow cruel. Harsh, mean, unforgiving and savage."

"... Cowardly." Chara uttered that word with spite and hate on their tongue, their jaw clenching with the pain of an old scab picked open. "Father was powerful, but to use his strength the way that he did made him a coward and a bastard."

"... He taught us that red was an evil color." F Chara finally spoke up as the world finished reforming, the two now standing next to a stream in the village center. Trees reached towards the sky here and there, and the grass surrounding the stream was littered with golden petaled flowers. "And that DETERMINATION is a four letter word."

The two watched as their youngest self carefully waded through the flowers, each footfall evading any of the yellow plants while they approached the stream. Eventually, they reached the clear body of water and crouched at its side, glancing over and into their reflection.

Chara frowned as they looked over their own face. The eyes that resembled their father's, the haircut their mother had forced upon them. It disturbed them, that so little of their appearance seemed to be theirs at all.

With a bitter taste in their mouth they sat back, let their hands rest in the ever so slightly swaying grass while their eyes landed on the light blue sky. These moments were rare, when they didn't have one of their parents breathing down their neck and had time to think their own thoughts instead of what those two would try to jam into their brain through the holes in their ears. So, they shouldn't waste this time with unpleasant ideas.

The wind shifted some, and Chara's attention was drawn to the stem that brushed against their palm. They smiled just a little upon the golden flower, before shifting their hand and gently taking its stem between their index finger and thumb. Carefully they plucked the plant from the earth, lifting it closer to their face to inspect its blond petals. Then, after a moment of thought, they flipped the flower around so that its stem was facing them. Thoughtfully they slipped the stem behind their ear and let the flower rest there.

Then, Chara peered into their reflection once more, this time with their own touch added to the mix. Somehow, that little yellow flower made all the difference, and they found themself smiling again.

"Chara? Where are you, boy? It's time to start today's lesson!"

Chara jumped some, quickly climbing to their feet and pulling the flower from their head. Haphazardly they tossed it aside, and it crashed into the water, sending small ripples through their reflection before being silently dragged down the stream. Chara never noticed however, turning their back and running to meet their father's voice.

"... It was only a few days later." Chara spoke as they watched their preteen self run off with distant eyes. "That's when things finally went sideways."

Once more the world peeled away, and Chara lifted their head, watching the streams of color race by. They knew what they were going to see next, and it made their heart ache. They reached up, grabbing the chest of their shirt while their eyes narrowed painfully.

"... I don't know if I'm ready to see it again..." They spoke in a whisper, the shadow of their hair falling over their crimson eyes. They'd seen worse since these days, they'd done worse. But something about this memory ached differently than the others, and it made them anxious to revisit it.

But, as the world started to form around them, they felt a hand on their shoulder. Curiously they glanced up, finding their future self smiling comfortingly down at them.

"You're stronger now." F Chara assured them, and that peeled away some of Chara's anxieties.

"..." They lowered their head, nodding slowly and taking a deep breath. "You're right. Thank you."

F Chara smiled just a little wider at that, glad to have helped their younger self relax as the world re-materialized around the two of them. Once more the two of them stood in that kitchen, watching their Mother set a bowl down in front of a younger Chara, who sat quietly at the kitchen table.

Chara stared into their bowl, absentmindedly stirring the soup inside with their spoon while they spoke flatly. "Thanks."

Their Mother didn't seem to acknowledge their words of thanks, instead stepping behind them and beginning to run her fingers through their hair. This made Chara cringe visibly, but they did not object.

"Mm... Your hair is getting long again." She spoke carelessly, curling a few strands around her fingers. She didn't notice that her words made Chara's teeth clench, their knuckles whitening around their spoon. "I'll have to cut it after dinner."

"..." Chara steeled their nerves, thinking carefully and trying their best to hold the lid of their bottle shut. Unfortunately, their hand slipped, and some six years of rage began slipping out. "... No."

"What?" There was venom in the Mother's tone in that instant, her dark blue eyes narrowing with some decades of rage and indignation.

"... I can't lie anymore." Chara continued to speak in barely a whisper, not lifting their head. "I hate this."

"Well you don't really have an option, Chara!" Their Mother spoke through grinding teeth, muffling only some of her fury. "Do you have any idea what will happen to you if this gets out? What will happen to me?!"

"I don't care." Chara's voice was cold and fearless in a way their Mother had never heard before. This made her recoil, her eyes widening with horror as she stared at the back of her child's head. "I'm not lying anymore."

"You... You're serious." She deduced with that terror in her eyes, before wrath started to spark in her sapphire orbs. her hands balled into fists, and her teeth ground together. "You're actually going to try to throw away everything I've worked for!"

"You've worked for?!" Chara's voice rose, and when they looked over their shoulder with one blood red eye, their Mother flinched. As they shouted, they climbed to their feet, turning to face their Mother. "I've been miserable every day of my life for this! For you! And you've never even thanked me!"

"You don't deserve any thanks you brat!" In an instant the Mother had swung her open palm like her husband would, sending a scathing slap upside Chara's head and leaving a red mark on their cheek.

"..." Chara had been forced to look to their right by the slap, but slowly - and furiously - they turned their head back to their Mother. When those red eyes smashed into her, she flinched once more. She knew that look after all. It had preceded many of her beatings, it had haunted her dreams, it had cracked and broken her INTEGRITY.

But then, what made her all the more furious, was when Chara tilted their head. They turned the other cheek, keeping one eye locked on their Mother as they reached up, tapping their right cheek. As if they wanted her to strike them again.

The Mother's eye twitched, her teeth grit, her hands shook. Then, she let out a roar, cocked back another open palm, and smacked Chara once more. But Chara never flinched, because it didn't hurt. They just turned to the other cheek, once more asking for another strike. With a scream, their Mother pulled back both of her hands, and tears started to build in her eyes.

"YOU'RE A BOY!" She shouted at the top of her lungs as she swung again and again, knocking Chara's head back and forth with all the anger she'd pushed down in her many miserable years. "YOU'RE A BOY YOU'RE A BOY YOU'RE A BOY YOU'RE A BOY YOU'RE A BOY YOU'RE A BOY YOU'RE A BOY!"

Finally, after receiving one especially harsh slap, Chara leaned back, reached onto the table with their right hand and grabbed the bowl of soup their Mother had prepared for them. Then, swiftly, they lurched forward and swung, smashing the hardened clay of the reddish brown bowl over the woman's head and sending sharp shards and hot soup pouring over her.

She dropped to the floor with a shocked cry, wrapping her hands around the now bleeding side of her face and covering the eye that was on the side of the impact. With her one visible eye she stared fearfully up at Chara, who now loomed over her, fury raging in their eyes.

"I am NOT a boy! I have NEVER BEEN a boy!" Chara snarled, seeing the world in red while their fists trembled at their sides. They shouted, for the first time in their life. Took a stance that was their own and not one someone else had demanded of them. "I will NEVER BE a boy!"

Then, things went deathly silent between the two. They just stood there, huffing and staring at one another. They were crushed, paralyzed by the gravity of this dispute. Things were so quiet in fact that they both heard the door creak and slam from the entry room, and fear appeared in the both of their eyes as they both turned their heads to the man who stood bewildered across the two rooms.

Bewilderment quickly shifted to anger the likes of which neither Chara nor their Mother had ever seen in the eyes of the Chieftain, and as his massive fists clenched, he began stomping across the house towards them.

"F-father!" Chara recoiled, fear chilling their blood as they took a step back, lifting their hands defensively.

"'Never been a boy'." The Chieftain narrowed his eyes irritably, his pupils darting between his wife and his prodigy. "I suggest one of you starts explaining. Fast."

"H-husband, I-I can explain!" Chara's Mother desperately tried to get to her feet, but with that brutal strike to the side of her head she found her balance missing. When she stumbled and nearly fell, he grabbed her by the shirt, yanking her up to eye level and making her gasp.

"You haven't been lying to me, have you woman?" There was murder in his voice and madness in his eyes as he pulled her face a little closer. Those vermilion orbs narrowed, while her own sapphire orbs were wide with panic like she'd never felt before.

"P-put... Put her down..!"

"..?" Anger faded in favor of curiosity, and the Chieftain tilted his head to the side to get a look at Chara. They stood there, on shaking legs, pointing the knife he'd given them right at him. With disappointment his hateful orbs narrowed, and he released his grip on his wife, letting her drop to the floor like the garbage he thought she was. "... This is pathetic."

"Look at you, you're shaking. You appear to be on the verge of tears." He shook his head slowly as he took a step forward, forcing Chara to take a fearful step back. He was right, they were trembling like mad, and tears were beginning to blur their vision. "You really are a girl, aren't you?"

"N-no, I'm not..." Chara was quick to reject that reality as well, even though their voice was breaking. This defiance just made the Chieftain shove a chair over as he made his way closer, and they continued to back away.

"Quit lying. No matter what you say, you can't change what you are." He spoke in a low growl, continuing to take bold steps forward while he eyed the knife that was grasped by clammy fingers. "So put that blade down."

"A woman does not have the strength to fight." He stated like he believed it was a fact, those ice cold orbs rising back to Chara's trembling rubies. "She doesn't have what it takes to kill!"

Just as the Chieftain uttered those words, Chara watched their Mother rise behind him with bewilderment. In those sapphire eyes animosity the likes of which Chara had never seen before or since burned, and in one blood stained hand she clutched a shard of the bowl that had been smashed over her head earlier.

The next instant shot by at lightening speed, but Chara perceived it in slow motion. Their Mother swung one arm up as she lunged forward, driving that shard through the Chieftain's throat with one hand and wrapping her other hand around his face as she crashed into his back. Furiously she screamed as he was shoved to the ground by her tackle, straddling his back and viciously yanking her weapon free, only to plunge it back into his left eye.

Mother screaming and father gargling his own blood, Chara slowly backed away on shaking legs, before inevitably falling flat on their bottom. Blood splattering up the right side of their face, they watched fearfully as their Mother brutalized her husband, screaming like a furious banshee along the way. The image of his one remaining eye peering up at them, horrified and desperate, would be burned onto the inside of their eyelids for years to come. It was as though they could hear his voice inside their head.

"Help me..!"

They didn't. In fact they just sat there, frozen as they watched their Mother massacre the man that had ruled over her for her entire life. Eventually, after minutes or hours, her anger and her hatred ran dry, and her arms went limp at her sides. Then she just sat there, panting sobbing while her eyes never left the back of her now late husband's head.

Gradually, feeling returned to Chara's legs, and shakily they began to climb to their feet. Mother's head did not rise as Chara stumbled around her, trying their best not to step in the growing pool of blood. It wasn't until they'd made it past their Mother and into the living room that she lifted her head, and her voice called out.

"Hey... Where are you going..?" Chara trembled as they looked over their shoulder, and flinched when they saw their Mother's one madness stricken eye laying upon them as she too glanced over her shoulder to see them. "You can't just leave me like this..."

Chara gnawed on their lower lip, tears overflowing from their eyes once more as they forced their body forward. But, even as their Mother began to rise behind them, they found their limbs stiff and struggled to move. It felt like they were in a slow motion terror dream.

"Chara..!" Their Mother shambled closer, a stumbling corpse of a woman long dead. Her arms were limp at her sides, her lightless eyes wide and unblinking. "You can't abandon me..!"

Chara shook their head, forcing each of their lead feet forward, one after the other.

"How dare you..?!" She reached out desperately for Chara, but they were still too far away, and she swiped at nothing but air. "You brat..! You're just like your father!

Chara didn't respond, just managing to grab hold of the doorknob and turn it, slamming all of their weight into the door and shoving it open. Before they could make a break for it, however, blood soaked hands wrapped around their left arm, and their mother shouted out.

"You're the only thing I have!" She yanked viciously on Chara's arm, pulling them away from the door. This ignited further fear and panic in the poor child, and they cried out with surprise as they were pulled. "I won't let you leave me!"

Clutching their tear filled eyes shut tight, Chara spun around and stabbed out with the stone blade wrapped in their fingers. Their knife jammed right into their Mother's shoulder, making her gasp with pain and surprise. She tumbled backwards, releasing Chara and falling to the ground, clutching the handle that protruded from her arm.

"..." Once more things were quiet, and slowly the Mother lifted her head from the dagger wedged in her flesh to her mortified child. The madness and the rage had faded from her eyes, now replaced by the soul crushing sadness she felt. In her disbelief, she could only utter a few words. "... I gave you a home."

"..." Chara shook their head slowly, sniffling and reaching over to grab the handle of the door at their side. "But you took everything else."

"Chara..!" Their Mother called out as they slammed the door behind themself, escaping that shattered home. "Chara!"

Chara ran. For hours and hours, back up the mountain they had been fleeing down once upon a time. It was the only place they could think of to run to. Anywhere was better than where they were fleeing from. Anyone was better than that woman.

"..." This time, colors did not peel away in a swirling void. This time, things dimmed and dimmed, until Chara and their future self were standing in a blank void, peering into the nothingness.

"... Everybody knows how the story goes from there." Chara blinked their bitter orbs painfully, staring for infinite miles into the blackness. "A human falls into the Underground, 'gets sick' after five years of being part of the royal family and dies, and then Prince Asriel takes their soul and carries their body to the surface, only to be murdered by the humans at the foot of the mountain."

"... Except we poisoned ourself, we carried our body, and we tried to make Asriel be the killer that he just wasn't." F Chara filled in the blanks with painful precision, frowning deeply. "Which resulted in both of us dying and Asriel inevitably being resurrected as Flowey."

"I'll... Never really understand how we thought that was a good idea." Chara sighed, shutting their eyes and slowly taking a seat on the void's obsidian floor. "I just remember being... So angry after I heard what humans did to monsters. Monsters had always shown me kindness right from the beginning, after all. Humans had only tried to use me or hurt me. Or both."

"That coupled with the way Asgore and Toriel used to talk about how we were 'the future' made us feel like we had to do something as soon as possible." F Chara grunted with some exertion, taking a seat next to Chara. "We felt like we owed them."

"Didn't we, though?" Chara shrugged with one arm, looking over to their other self. "They gave us everything they had and never asked for a thing in return. They weren't demanding that we save the Underground for them. They just genuinely believed that one day we'd get the chance, and we'd make the right choice."

"... But by then we were too damaged." F Chara sighed with exasperation and disappointment in their past mistakes. "We didn't understand the difference."

"... And then we left the Underground to ruin for who knows how many decades. Found ourself awake again, just to watch Frisk eventually tear the world we knew and everyone we ever cared about apart." Chara leaned their head back, blinking slowly. "I think somewhere in there was when we went crazy."

"Who could blame us? With the memory of getting Asriel killed fresh in our head every time we saw Flowey, coupled with Frisk subjecting us to our own personal hell, it's a wonder we ever got better." F Chara looked away with some shame in their eyes. "Frisk beat the idea deeper into our skull, that DETERMINATION is an evil trait. And by the time they killed Flowey while he wore Asriel's face, we were ready to believe that we were evil, too."

"First, we just wanted to be a consequence for Frisk. After they gave us their soul to RESET their actions, we made sure they could never have a happy future again." Chara's hand clenched into a fist at their side. "Whether they started killing from the beginning or they got the monsters to the surface, at the end of the day everyone would always end up dead by their-... Our hands."

"... Somewhere along the lines, we got addicted to that feeling. We'd felt powerless our whole life and afterlife, so to be the one in control, to have power and lord it over another... It felt good." F Chara narrowed their eyes at the sting their own words brought. It was hard to face these parts of themself, and none of these memories were easy to think about. "We came to love battle, it was the only thing we'd ever felt we were good at. It helped us forget the things we hated about ourself, helped us pretend that we weren't as hurt and vulnerable as we really were."

"... And then, some red souled, green eyed lunatic gouged our eye out with a pen." Despite the gruesomeness of the memory, Chara still smirked just a little from the thought, their eyes not leaving the void sky. "And the world was flipped upside down."

"He really made quite the first impression, didn't he?" Smirking some to themself, F Chara lowered their eyes to the floor, shaking their head. "Angel was like nobody we'd ever met before."

"His soul was red, but his eyes were green." Chara furrowed their brows in thought, pondering their friend's ideals. "We could tell he had the evil desires that come with DETERMINATION. We were even pretty sure he'd already done some bad things. And yet..."

"He was trying to be better. And we'd never seen that before. At least not in anyone with a soul like ours." F Chara furrowed their brows too, like they still found Cter's original goals odd. "No matter what we tried him with, we just couldn't get him to go back on his morals. We couldn't make him fold, not like we had."

"... And, the more we talked to him, the more he convinced us." Chara finally looked ahead again, shaking their head lightly. "We told ourself we wanted him to be like us, but really... We wanted to be like him."

"It blew our mind, how he could change for the better." F Chara lifted their hand, narrowing their eyes at their open palm. "Up until we met him, we'd only ever seen people change for the worse."

"No matter what you say, you can't change what you are."

Chara shut their eyes, taking a deep breath as they heard those same words echo in their head again. "Somehow, against all odds, he got us to believe something different. He got us to believe we could be better, too."

"..." Things were quiet for a few long moments, before Chara squinted in thought. Another moment or two went by, and then they sighed, looking over to their future counterpart. There was no anger in their eyes this time, no hate. "... Why'd you do it?"

"..." F Chara's hair shadowed their eyes, and they lowered their head shamefully. They didn't utter a single word, but dim colors began to flicker on in the surrounding void. Their younger doppelganger watched with some curiosity and some disgust as vague horrors flickered in the darkness. Images of different Monsters shattering to dust at their own hands. From people they hardly knew to their closest friends.

Then, directly in front of the two of them, one memory appeared more clear than the rest. A dark kitchen with a wooden floor and a small bar in the corner, where a king and a disgraced heir sat and wallowed.

"... I messed up, Angel." F Chara spoke after a pause, both hands wrapped around their glass and their eyes drowning in it's contents. "Even someone as crazy as me can understand that."

"You aren't crazy." Future made an attempt, but it just made Chara shoot him a sarcastic and condescending look. That made him scoff with some amusement, shutting his eyes and turning his head back to his glass with a smile that was less than happy. "'Least, you aren't when I'm around."

"Well, that was the problem. You weren't around." Chara shrugged their shoulders, frown only growing and head not lifting. "At first I didn't know how to feel when you left. I was angry and betrayed. Then I was sad and alone."

Chara sat there, watching with curiosity and empathy as the scene unfolded. The longer they watched the two poor souls interact the more they felt their grip on their disdain loosen, until eventually, all that hatred slipped free from their grasp and disappeared.

"I was furious with you, but I still missed you. And that made me furious with myself, too." Chara leaned back, letting their eyes rest on the ceiling. "I was confused. Didn't know what to feel. And that made me remember what I did the last time my whole life felt upside down."

Future's jaw clenched, and through gritting teeth he sucked more alcohol. He still didn't object however, knowing these were words he had to hear, no matter how much they hurt.

"At first the thought was silly. I dismissed it with ease." Chara paused, shadow dropping over their eyes. "... Then it came back. Again. And again. And again. Each time the idea made a little more sense than it had last time."

And as Chara came to understand and forgive their future doppelganger, they also found some forgiveness for themself. When they realized that there wasn't really any evil in F Chara, they finally accepted that there wasn't any in them, either. They were just damaged and made the wrong choice, like any person could. And that relief lifted a weight from their shoulders, made their heart lighter.

"... What about everyone else?" Future narrowed his eyes sorrowfully, KIND emeralds finally breaking free from the shadow. "Didn't you care about any of them?"

"... Of course. They were all my family. I loved them." F Chara looked ahead, and without hesitation they lifted their glass, taking a long drink before speaking again. "But I didn't think I'd have time to regret it. I'd kill them, and you'd finally come back to stop me."

But Chara didn't have much time to enjoy this new found enlightenment, suddenly struck with a realization as they watched this memory unfold. With concern they furrowed their brows, but they did not interject.

"... You wanted me to kill you."

"I was counting on it."

"..." Chara lowered their head and pondered what they'd just seen and the theories they had, before lifting their head and looking over to their counterpart. "... Hey."

"Hm..?" F Chara lifted their head some, glancing over to their younger self. That recent memory clearly made them ache, Chara could see the sorrow in their eyes. They had pulled their knees close to themself, huddled themself into an ashamed little ball.

"... I'm sorry. About snapping at you earlier, I mean." Chara glanced to the side somewhat awkwardly, struggling with giving a genuine apology, especially in these circumstances. "I don't really hate you. I was just... Furious with myself, is all."

"... Hm." F Chara smiled lightly, huffing with some amusement. "It's okay, if anyone gets being angry with yourself, it's me."

"..." Chara was quiet for a few more moments, collecting their thoughts. They felt they had more to say, but just as they opened their mouth to speak, a droplet of water struck the bridge of their nose, making them flinch with surprise. As the water began to trickle down their face, they reached up, wiping it from their face and inspecting it curiously. "Rain? In the void?"

"... Well, it looks like our time is up." F Chara said wistfully, leaning their head back and watching as white specks began to pierce through the inky blackness surrounding them. They turned their head then, looking back to a concerned and confused Chara. "I'm sorry for making you feel unsure before, Chara. I hope I can make it up to you."

"Make it up to me..?" Chara repeated to themself with minor confusion, before another droplet struck their face, distracting them for a moment while F Chara climbed to their feet. More and more white pinpricks were appearing in the dark, gradually growing wider as Chara's eyes darted to their standing counterpart. "Hey, wait! What are you planning-?!"

Just as Chara stumbled to their feet, the disgraced heir turned around and reached out, setting a hand on their younger self's head. This surprised Chara some, making them look up with bewilderment and confusion into the eyes of their elder self.

"Chara... Do you know what the difference between you and your Cter is?" F Chara asked with a curious tilt of the head.

"The difference..?" Chara furrowed their brows with some thought, but eventually shook their head. "No, I ... I don't think I do."

"When you give one hundred percent and it's not enough, you assume you've failed." F Chara smiled a little sadly and a little knowingly. "When Cter's one hundred percent is not enough, he pushes to two hundred percent. And if that's not enough, three hundred percent."

"... Yeah, I guess that's true..." Chara narrowed their eyes with thought, lowering their head some. They remembered it vividly, the way Cter always popped back up. Even when they killed him, he resurrected himself twice as strong. "Somehow he always has further to go."

"Well so do you." F Chara spoke confidently, and Chara furrowed their brows with a good measure of disbelief up at them. This made their older self laugh a bit. "It's true!"

"You just have to dig deeper. You've done it before." F Chara smiled a little wider as more and more light flooded the blackness, forcing Chara to wince. "I know you can shatter your limitations, you just have to push harder!"

"But I've been pushing harder!" Chara objected as the disgraced heir removed their hand from their head and stepped back into the light, which was growing too bright to stand. "I don't understand what I have to do!"

"You have what it takes, Chara. You'll be much better than I ever was." Chara could hear their doppelganger's voice, but was blinded in the brutal white flares, forced to throw up an arm to shield their eyes.

"But-! Wait!" Chara objected, lowering their head and clamping their eyes shut tight to defend against the invading light. "I'm not ready-!"

"... Keep fighting for the future you want to see, Chara. I know you'll be amazing."

---

"GET UP AND SAVE US, CHARA!"

Slowly, the red torrent around Chara and I faded into thin air, and I panted heavily as I lurched forward, clutching my eyes shut tight. My body and my soul ached, adrenaline running dry while the pain of my open wounds caught up with me.

"... Angel..?"

My emerald orbs managed to open, and as a tear dripped from the tip of my nose to Chara's dazed expression, I smiled wide with relief.

"I... Knew you'd wake up..." I managed to say, before gravity gave me a sudden yank, and I dropped to my side. Chara's eyes widened at this, their senses returning quickly as mine were starting to fade.

"Cter!" They called out with surprise, rising swiftly and grabbing my crumpled body from the scorched dirt. They looked confused and afraid as they propped my head up in their hand, crimson eyes scanning my injuries. When their eyes finally landed back on mine, they opened their mouth to let the hundred and one questions trapped in their throat rain down on me. Unfortunately, before they could, another voice interjected.

"Aww, congrats Hacker! You saved your Chara!" Character clapped sarcastically as they walked to the rim of the crater we laid in, their shadow crashing down over us. Their sadistic smile disappeared in the next instant however, replaced by an emotionless, wide eyed stare. "Now you're both gonna die."

I grit my teeth anxiously, wincing up at the malevolent fusion as Chara knelt protectively between me and Character. They shot a similarly unsure glare up at the enemy, and I could see the sweat starting to form on their brow. They were afraid, I could feel it. Something about the blood red in Character's lifeless orbs paralyzed them, and though I wanted to shake them out of it, I found it hard to move my arms at all, let alone use them to yank someone out of a trance like this.

"What's the matter, dick heads?! No one liners for this one?!" Character snarled furiously as they threw up both their hands, presumably to manifest something massive to kill us both with in the sky above. "Did you not hear us?! You're both gonna-!"

Then, in an instant, the fusion's face went pale. Their whole body tensed, their eyes snapped open wide and their jaw flew open, before quickly clamping shut just as their cheeks bulged out with the rising of their stomach contents.

"What the..?" Chara and I spoke in unison, both freed from our fears by the sheer confusion we felt. That was, until we saw just above Character's knocking knees a boot was buried in their groin. Right when they started to drop their arms, another pair of arms shot out from below them, putting Character in a full nelson and restraining them.

"What was that about the future counterparts being like cardboard, numb nuts?!" F Chara snarled, removing their foot from where it was buried to stomp it into the ground and give themself better leverage to keep Character locked in their grip.

"Not... Numb..." Character managed to speak in a voice that was strained and of a slightly higher pitch, right eye twitching with agony as they struggled to keep down their lunch. "Not numb... At all... Wish they were..."

"ANGEL!" F Chara shouted out then, clenching their eyes shut tight. I recoiled some when I heard my name shouted, but when I tried to sit up, my aching body stopped me dead. "BEAT DOME! NOW!"

"You... Bitch..!" Character managed to growl when they heard those words leave F Chara's mouth. They struggled some, but with most of their body still quaking with pain that they weren't the least bit accustomed to, it didn't amount to much. "When we get out of this, we're gonna..!"

"Shut up!" F Chara cut them off, tightening their grip and pushing Character's chin further into their chest with their hands, which were locked behind the fusion's head.

"But, if I use a Beat Dome while you're right in the center with them..!" My eyes widened when I realized F Chara's plan, shaking my head slowly. "And I don't even have the strength to-!"

"They weren't talkin' to you, munchkin!"

Chara and I were both surprised to hear Future's voice, and both of us looked with wide eyes to the king, who stood at the opposite end of the crater. His teeth grinding and DETERMINATION flaring in his left eye, red flames exploded to life around his shattered arm. Chara and I watched with growing dismay as his bent elbow snapped back into place and his fingers curled into a fist. His other arm remained limp, blood still trickling down to his finger tips from where his spear had previously been embedded in his shoulder.

"Wait, Future, you can't!" Chara objected, sitting up some and looking up to the king with desperation in their eyes. "If you fire while they're right there with Character, then-!"

Future let his harsh gaze drop down to meet Chara's for a moment, and it made their words stop halfway out of their mouth. They could see it in his eyes, we both could. This decision hurt him more than either of us could fathom, but he had steeled himself. It was his Kingdom or F Chara, and with that crown gleaming atop his head, he picked the greater good. So he dug deep, gathered all of his DETERMINATION, and threw his open palm out towards the enemy to grant the martyr's final wish.

With a powerful and emotional roar, Future's eye ignited even more brightly, and the shoulder blades of his shirt tore open. From his back two beautiful onyx wings spread wide, and violently wind blasted out around him. Then, in the sky above, massive rings began to take shape. Beat Blaster after Beat Blaster formed, each shining so brightly that only their lights were visible.

From every drop of the king's might these circles were formed, until seven of The Angel's Halos of Death loomed over Character and F Chara, each pulsating with light in the sky above. Chara and I watched in awe and horror as the Halos began to spin, their light reflecting in our eyes.

"Let! Go of us!" Character struggled desperately, fear appearing in their still painfully winced eyes as the world got brighter and brighter around them.

"Not gonna happen." F Chara assured sternly, fingers locked tightly together despite Character's thrashing.

"Don't you get it?!" There was panic in the fusion's voice as they attempted to look back at the one restraining them. "If you keep holding us here you'll die with us!"

"Heh." F Chara just smirked with calm that chilled Character's bones, lowering their head and shutting their eyes. "Whatever."

Then, they lifted their head, and their ruby orbs connected with Future's emerald ones. For just a moment the king hesitated, their eyes striking him like a bolt of lightning. For just a moment, he felt like the weight of this decision was going to crush every bone in his body. But then, F Chara smiled. Genuinely, and with understanding. This did not lighten the weight on Future's shoulders, but it strengthened his will, made him plant his feet and bare every bit of the pressure crashing down on him.

With grit and DETERMINATION, he clenched his jaw despite the stream of tears that overflowed down his cheek. Intensity flared in his once lifeless and haggard eyes, and he clenched his fist tight, sending scorching rays blasting from the heavens above.

The scream of those devastating beams filled our ears, and Chara glanced over their shoulder at the writhing mass of energy as it ate through the earth, sending stones blasting out with dust and smoke while the ground was shredded and glassed over. They narrowed their eyes with an emotion I'd never seen on them before and could not identify, but I was certain it was painful. But then, after that brief hesitation, Chara scooped my less than responsive body into their arms and climbed to their feet. Quickly they jumped, scaling the rim of the crater and getting back above sea level and further away from Future's massive attack.

I wanted to thank them, but I was transfixed on the mass of devastation that writhed behind us. I remembered thinking my own Beat Dome of three rings looking scary, but this... This looked like divine punishment, the wrath of a god. The air vibrated, the ground burned and cracked, the windows of surroundings buildings exploding to shards. It felt like I was standing before a perpetually exploding atomic bomb. It felt like the hairs on my arms were going to singe away just from being within a mile radius of it. It felt like the city's rising temperatures were going to burn my flesh.

Chara landed behind Future after jumping from the crater we'd been inside of, which was now being dwarfed by the one Future was creating next to it. The two massive holes in the earth were merging together, with Future's being more wide and noticeably deeper.

Hair and clothes being yanked at by the whipping winds, Chara and I watched this massive strike take place like ants seeing the explosive, burning ray of a magnifying glass destroying our colony in the distance. In that instant, despite all of our power, all of our accomplishments, all of our death defying stunts, we were small. Tiny, vulnerable things just trying to survive.

My eyes glossed to the winged back of my future self, wide with awe at this massive display of power. It was amazing and terrifying, watching an ArchAngel unleash the full force his wrath on a sinner. But, after minutes that lasted as long as hours, the light began to fade, and Future stumbled.

I watched as the king's wings returned to his back and his hand dropped back to his side. As quickly as they'd came, the Halos disappeared from the sky, leaving devastation and a fog of death in their wake. Smoke swirled and wafted quietly in the air, the only noise left being the crackle of whatever had been unlucky enough to ignite in the massive waves of heat. I wasn't sure what temperature that dome had made the area reach, but I was glad it wasn't above my melting point.

Panting, Future stumbled forward, one of his knees buckling and sending him dropping down to the ground with the rest of us. he rested on one knee and one hand, gasping for breath while sweat drenched his face. It was all he could manage to lift his head, and look out at the devastation he caused.

"... Cha... ra..." He managed to speak through his hoarse throat, his vision fading in and out. Then, Chara and I were too paralyzed by the events of the last few minutes to catch him when his eyes closed and his balance failed him, and he dropped right onto his side with a thud that, despite hardly making much noise, to us was absolutely deafening.

This shook Chara from their trance, and they gently set me down, rushing to Future's side and looking him over. When they realized he wasn't conscious, they placed their index finger and middle finger on his neck to check his pulse, and after a few agonizingly long seconds, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"He's alive." They spoke with exasperation, falling back onto their bottom and leaning back on their hands. "He just passed out from over exertion..."

"... But..." I looked back out to the smoldering blast sight, eyes narrowing painfully. "What about..?"

"..." Chara's expression grew much more somber, and they lowered their eyes to the dirt they sat on. "There's no one alive who could've survived something like that."

"..." I went quiet as I laid there on my side, propped up on my elbow. My eyes drifted to the shattered concrete and dirt that we laid upon, and pain and regret entered their emerald shine.

"Thanks, Angel. You really are too KIND."

It was hard to process, all the devastation I'd caused. Here I laid, beaten and bloody, surrounded by death and destruction. A city had been leveled, someone had died, all because I tried to spare someone who I should've just killed! If I'd just been smarter, if I hadn't tried to high road Hacker, if I had just finished them both off right when I got down there!

Green orbs trembling in my eye sockets, I let my eyes drop to my clenched fist. I'd failed, I'd let everyone down, and then someone had to give their life just to clean up my mess!

*I can't believe how stupid you've become.

I clenched my eyes shut tight after reading those words, slamming my fist onto the destroyed ground with whatever puny strength was left in it.

"Hah... Hah..."

My eyes snapped open wide as footsteps echoed up from the canyon we'd just witnessed the creation of, and both Chara and I yanked our heads up to peer into the foggy depths of devastation. Down below, we watched one beaten and burnt body emerge from the claws Death, and it wasn't who we'd been hoping for.

"You... You..!" Character snarled like a rabid animal, their wide eyes missing both pupil and iris, giving them a look that was entirely inhuman. Their arms were limp at their sides, both their shirt and everything below the knee of both their pant legs had been completely scorched away in the blast, leaving nothing but bubbling black masses of charred skin that smoldered red mist. Singed hair falling in loose strands around their gradually healing expression, they lifted their head, shooting their deadly glare right up at us.

"That... Can't be..." I managed to say, hopeless eyes wide and dim. Whether it was the situation or my injuries, I didn't pay much mind to Character raising their hand up, palm to the sky. Luckily, Chara did.

"Shit!" Swiftly they sprung to their feet, grabbing me by the wrist and yanking me up over their shoulder with a kind of urgency that made my body ache worse. I could feel it as they quickly grabbed Future with their remaining hand, yanking his limp body up under their free arm. The ground was starting to rumble.

Chara dove forward, and I watched as gargantuan pens blasted up from the ground where we'd once been, jutting up into the sky like some malformed skyscraper as Chara sent us tumbling back down into the crater that Character was wandering into. It was a feeling not unlike tripping and falling into the gorilla enclosure.

We skidded to a stop, Future's body and mine tumbling apart while Chara managed to catch themself, sliding crouched and managing to remain on their feet. They skidded down between Future's unconscious form and my barely responsive body. All the while their eyes remained locked upon the malevolent fusion that crept closer.

"Don't you get it..?!" Character roared, trembling with rage as they clenched their fists tight at their sides. That evil red color returned to their eyes, electricity of a similar shade jumping around their flesh, which was slowly returning to a not-so-charred color. "We're unstoppable! There's no cheap trick, no worthless sacrifice, and no LOW BLOW that can save you!"

Chara's eyes darted from Character, to Future, to me, and then down to their own clenched fists. There was nobody else left now, and that made them feel hopeless in all sorts of ways.

N-... No... It's happening again... Fear flickering in their wide eyes, Chara took a step back when Character took a step forward. They were trembling, icy sweat dripping down there face. It's all up to me..! Everyone's future is on my shoulders!

"WHAT'S THE MATTER?" Character shouted as they took another earth shattering step forward, red steam reaching up from between their gritting teeth. "IS IT SINKING IN?!"

I... I-I can't do this..! Chara shook their head, pupils shrinking with terror as they heard Character scream out to them. I'm gonna crack..! I'm gonna let everyone down!

"No matter what you say, you can't change what you are."

I can't change! Bile was making it's way up Chara's throat, terrified black tears filling their eyes.

"Do you know what the difference between you and your Cter is?"

I'm not like him! Chara shook their head as they took another shaky step back, knees threatening to buckle.

"To us you look a lot more like a sniveling little girl!"

Those obsidian tears overflowed down Chara's cheeks. They felt their legs about to give, their throat about to close. They were the same, nothing had changed since they stared down the Chieftain as a kid.

I'm just not strong enough!

"CHARA!"

A voice pierced the echo chamber of their self loathing thoughts, and Chara swiftly turned their head to their left, sending black droplets flicking from their cheeks. Their stunned expression landed on me, and I winced up at them from where I laid flat on my stomach, barely able to prop myself up on my elbows. "You can do this!"

"W-... What..?" They spoke in barely a whisper, sniffling and attempting to swallow the lump in their throat. "But... I..."

"I used my DETERMINATION to heal you, not me!" I shouted, hands balled into tight fists underneath me. "Because you're strong enough to stop Character, and I'm not!"

"What..? But, that doesn't..." Gently they placed a hand on their chest, bewilderment clear on their tear stained expression. "I'm not..."

"Yes you are!" I slammed one of my fists on the ground, wincing from the pain my shouting caused me. "You just have to stop doubting yourself!"

"..." Chara's eyes darted from me to their trembling hands, their teeth grinding together with frustration. Then, in a burst of panicked energy, they reached up, grabbing fistfuls of their hair while they rapidly shook their head, like they were trying to jumble their thoughts together. Then, suddenly, they looked back to me, more tears streaking down their face, leaving black stains.

"Why would you heal me over yourself?! Of course you could beat Character! You're so much stronger than me! How could you possibly think I could handle this?!" Chara demanded to know, lowering their head to hide their tears and stomping their foot in a display of vexation. "I'm weak! I'm a screw up! I'm worthless! I'm-!"

"I DON'T THINK YOU'RE A SCREW UP!" I suddenly shouted over all of Chara's self loathing, making their words stop halfway out of their throat. I clenched my eyes shut tight and my fists tighter, words exploding out of me without a second thought. "I don't think you're weak, I don't think you're worthless! CHARA!"

"I THINK YOU'RE AMAZING!"

Chara's eyes went wide, floored by the sudden feeling of someone piercing through their mental blockade. They stumbled back a single step while their hands dropped from the top of their head, and for a moment their mind went quiet. Each of those invasive thoughts, every hateful word they'd ever heard disappeared.

"I know you can shatter your limitations, you just have to push harder!"

And then, mid backward stumble, they caught themself and planted their feet. At their sides their elbows bent, and as their fists clenched tightly, a surge of power blasted out from their soul. With a primal roar, a shock wave exploded out around Chara, forcing both me and Character to recoil, the fusion throwing an arm up to shield their eyes.

A pillar of crimson light blasted high into the overcast sky, and as bolts of DETERMINATION fired off of Chara's body like electricity, it once more felt that the air was vibrating with power. They threw their head back, auburn hair lifting slightly from the winds that blasted up around them, and several vermilion sparks flickered from their right eye before it exploded to life in brilliant red flames.

Screaming with the power that was surging through their body like a million volts, Chara shook their head, lurching forward some and bringing their clenched fists closer to their core. Then, with another blast of power, they threw their head back and arched their back in a quick jerking motion. This seemed to break something free, and the shoulders of their shirt ripped open, streams of red energy blasting out from their shoulder blades like fire from a torch.

Soon enough, the burning DETERMINATION venting out of Chara's shoulders began to take form. It morphed and shifted, before finally shaping itself into two wing-like appendages made of burning scarlet light.

With the forming of their wings, Chara's battle cry died down, and they relaxed their body some. They stood up straight, chest lifting and falling lightly as the red pillar around them dissipated. The crimson electricity that jumped around them remained however, and when they lowered their head back from the sky they'd been shouting at, and their death glare landed upon a completely bewildered Character, one could see clear tears now in place of the blackened and bitter ones that had streamed down their face before. With the aura of light red dancing around them still causing an updraft of power however, those tears lifted upwards from their cheeks, floating off somewhere into the air.

And suddenly, as I was laying there flat on my face with nothing but Chara standing tall between me and certain death, I felt something strange. For just a moment, no more than a second or two, it felt like I was Lois Lane, swooning as Superman saves me from some overly elaborate 1960's comic book trap.

... Except for the part where I'm a dude. And maybe it was the lighting, or the blunt force head trauma and blood loss, but right now, in this instant? Chara looked more like a Wonder Woman than a Superman to me.

I didn't have much time to ponder, however, my adrenaline running dry. As I felt my head lowering to the ground, those strange thoughts and feelings faded out of my exhaustion fried brain, and I passed right out in the dirt.

"W-what..? What the..?!" Character took a step back, newly reformed eye twitching with both shock and frustration. "What on our good scorched Earth is this?!"

Chara didn't say a word as their knife appeared from their inventory, grasped tightly in their hand. Fearlessly they walked forward, hate burning in their eyes for the wretched fusion.

"So what?!" Character snarled furiously, stamping their foot and cracking the earth beneath them. "You put on a little light show and suddenly you think you can take us on?!"

Still not speaking, Chara continued to calmly close the distance, the volts of their DETERMINATION crackling in the air around them.

"Did you forget how weak you are?! Did you forget how easy it was for us to snap your bones in two?!" Character gave a berserk grin and stomped forward, like they were threatening to charge. Chara didn't flinch though, they could see the sweat on that coward's brow. "You really think YOU can fight US?!"

"... Fight you?" Chara finally spoke, repeating Character's words with a curious raise of their eyebrows. Just the sound of their voice made the fusion flinch, sent a chill up their spine. After that, Chara's eyes narrowed, their lips curling into a vicious scowl. "No..."

Chara flicked their weapon effortlessly out to the side, and scarlet energy raced up it's edge, forming over the blade and growing out from it's point, turning what was once a knife into a searing crimson sword.

Holding their now upgraded blade out to their side, they planted one foot forward and raised their free fist to Character.

"I'm gonna kill you."

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