It took several weeks, but Asgore slowly got better. Toriel was at his bedside throughout it all, with Asriel and Chara checking up on him constantly. Both apologized profusely, and Toriel did as well. She and Asgore both agreed she had been a little harsh with her words when the king first got sick.
While Asgore was sick, Asriel and Chara did their best to take care of the flowers in the throne room, but they tried their best to avoid the buttercups.
One day, Asriel ran down to the throne room with his watering can, looking for his human sibling. "Chara?" he called out. "Are you there?"
He saw that Chara had placed their watering can on Toriel's throne and sighed, knowing where they were. They walked out of the throne room into the final hall before the Barrier. He took a deep breath before walking towards the Barrier.
Chara stood at the edge of the Barrier, staring at it. The shield was so thick that it was impossible to see the outside world beyond it. Chara stared at the magic shield, their face expressionless.
"Chara?" Asriel asked. "You've been spending a lot of time down here. Is everything alright?"
"Do you ever think about what's on the other side of this thing?" Chara asked, not facing their brother.
"Oh, all the time! Mom and Dad always talk about how beautiful the sun is, how nice it looks as it goes down and turns into night. How the night sky is much more than just rocks on a ceiling."
"Do you ever think about the people beyond the Barrier?"
Asriel noticed the venom with which they spoke the word 'people' and said, "W-well, I guess a bit. Golly, they sure would be confused, huh? We've been down here so long, nobody even knows we're here anymore, huh?"
"Everyone up there has said monsters aren't real. That they're just something that hide in your closet to snatched up bad kids who misbehave. That bad kids deserve to go to them. 'Go live with the monsters you demon. It's where you belong.'"
Asriel saw the look of anger in Chara's eyes as they said this and said nothing. When he didn't speak, Chara continued. "It's not fair, you know? Monsters are nothing but kind and sweet and full of love. They deserve to be the ones up there on the Surface. Not the awful humans who trapped you all down here. They deserve to rot."
"Chara?" Asriel asked, concerned.
"Azzy, do you know if it's possible to break the Barrier? To set the monsters free?"
"Dad talked about it a few times with us, didn't he? He said it had something to do with Soul power. Seven wizards sealed us down here with a magic spell, so we would need a power equal to seven human Souls to break the Barrier."
"And a monster soul isn't powerful enough, is it?"
Asriel shook his head, although he wasn't sure if Chara could see this. "All of the Souls of everyone in the Underground would barely be equal to one human Soul. Monsters just aren't strong enough."
"Do you know how to leave the Barrier? Mr. King Dad said my Soul isn't powerful enough to leave on my own."
"In order to cross the Barrier, you need a human Soul and a monster Soul. You don't want to leave, do you Chara?"
Chara finally turned to face him and he saw a gleam in their eyes. He wasn't sure what it was, and it went away almost as soon as he saw it.
"Nah, I was just wondering. Come on, let's head back."
Chara then went back to the throne room, with Asriel following behind them. He couldn't help but notice as they watered the flowers how his sibling was staring at the buttercups intensely.
We're slowly starting to reach the end game of this fic and I'm very excited. Sorry for the shortness of this chapter and the previous one, but the next few are going to be whoppers, trust me.