"Gorey ?" Toriel asked.

"What is it Tori ?" The king let go of his journal for a moment.

"Im worried about Chara, not only have they been acting strange since they came back late from the ruins yesterday but they asked to go back there this morning." She explained.

"Well what is wrong with it ? Perhaps they have found a book they liked or a new game to play ? Isn't it a good thing if they are getting more autonomous ?" The king attempted to rationalise her worries.

"Perhaps it would have been the case otherwise, but look at this." She handed him a piece of paper. It was the resume on the situation regarding the spiders that he had asked for yesterday following Chara's mention of them needing financial support to be able tomove freely without being stopped by Snowdin's cold. Whilst everything seemed to line up with what they said, the fact that Chara wasn't mentioned at all was somewhat surprising. Surely the spiders would have realised it was thanks to them hat they received news from the king this fast. Shouldn't they have at least thanked Chara in that letter ?

Asgore put down the paper. "I see. It is pretty strange. Do you want me to ask them about it when they come back ?"

"I think it would be better to confront them on the spot." She proposed.

"This seems unnecessary to me. Even if it was true they did lie to you, it would be more likely that our Chara just wanted to have some alone time. They might be a bit secretive and introverted but they are a good kid." The furry boss monster attempted to argue in Chara's favor.

However, the queen gave him of her looks, and Asgore was forced to accept to go ask Chara about what captivated them so much in the ruins. He didn't intend on getting them into trouble in any way, it was just to reassure Toriel that there wasn't anything fishy going on with their adopted child.

Chara sat down in a sort of squat position. It allowed them to be more or less on the other child's level whilst still giving them a slight high ground and the possibility to get up or even to kick them if it was necessary... And also because they saw an anime in which one weird but smart character using a nickname sat that way for some reason, but no one needed to know about that part.

They didn't believe any of this would be necessary, the child had been surprisingly obedient so far, but Chara did not want to take any chances with a human. Besides, it would act as a great reminder of which one of them was in a position of authority here.

Frisk felt uneasy, Chara's glare was very cold and even though they knew that they weren't in danger this time around, they still stayed on high alert.

"So." Chara began. "What is your name ?" They figured that if they wanted to learn more about the threat, that was an obvious first question.

"Im Frisk." They answered before staring away quickly, fleeing Chara's eyes. The first human noticed that they didn't ask the question back. It appeared that they had understood quite well that they were not in charge of this conversation. However, their question had only been partially answered.

"Your full name." They insisted.

Frisk did not answer.

Chara intensified their gaze until Frisk understood that staying silent was not a valid option.

"I… I don't have one." They finally responded.

They were about to call Frisk a liar, but the look of fear on their face showed that they were afraid of their reaction, which might have been why they took long to answer. There was a possibility it might be true. Chara decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Why not ?" Chara might not be quite on Toriel's level, but they could certainly appear serious and menacing when they wanted to as well.

"I don't have… parents." Frisk looked down as they said that. They looked as if they were ashamed of this.

There were many ways to interpret this answer. Maybe their parents died long ago, maybe they gave them up for adoption as a baby and no one ever chose them, maybe their real parents abandoned them. Maybe they never really had a place to live in...

People don't usually climb mountains people are said never to return from just to pick flowers, Chara didn't want to assume things but Frisk probably didn't have the greatest time on the surface either. It wasn't that surprising, humans were garbage to their own kind anyway.

That didn't make them any less of a menace however.

"...What do you want ?" Chara asked them next.

"What do you mean ?" Frisk tilted their head, intrigued, as they wondered what exactly Chara wanted to know.

"You're here. In the underground. What's next ? What do you want to do ?". Chara asked. "Do you want to leave ?" Frisk noticed that their tone got somehow even colder as they made this suggestion which made chills run down their spine.

"I don't know." They truthfully answered. "I don't know what i want anymore, im just... scared."

"Scared of what ?" Chara looked at them in the eyes.

Frisk swallowed their saliva. They were scared to answer but they had the feeling that staying silent would an even worse option. They didn't know how Chara would react, they were still a mystery to Frisk. So far this talk had been totally one sided.

"Sc-scared of... you ?" Frisk closed their eyes after answering, half expecting Chara to respond violently to this confession.

They didn't. In fact, Chara didn't do anything at all, they didn't even move a muscle.

"I just don't want you to hurt me again… Please... Its painful." They admitted before contracting themself tighter in a fetal position.

Chara felt bad for a moment. It was true that Frisk so far had not shown the slightest amount of aggressive behavior. Maybe they had been just a little too harsh with them ?

No. They dismissed that idea quickly. It was a necessary precaution.

What did interest them however was that Frisk seemed not to know what they wanted, but that they knew what they didn't want. This gave them an idea. However, they would need to tell Frisk about a few things beforehand, which was part of the deal anyways.

"Alright, you can ask me a couple questions now." They calmly told Frisk.

Frisk wasn't certain what they should be focusing on, the fact that Chara had seemingly no reaction to what they had just said or the fact that they finally had a chance to learn what was going on down here.

Before anything else, they judged it would be better to thank them.

"Thank you Chara." As soon as they said that, Chara's stare went glacial again. Why so ? What did they do ? It was only after a second that Frisk realised their mistake.

Chara inched forward and Frisk immediately hid their face behind their hands as if their captor was about to hit them.

"Where did you hear that name ?" They asked Frisk slowly.

They did not hesitate to tell them the truth. They knew that Chara wouldn't take it well but lying to their face would be outright suicidal. They wouldn't believe them anyways, there was only one way Frisk could have heard that name wasn't there ?

"I… heard it yesterday." They told Chara, knowing that this would suffice for them to understand the implications.

Chara brought one of their hands against the wall right next to Frisk's head, it was way too close for comfort. They knew they were just being paranoid due to how the last encounters with Chara went but Frisk did not like Chara's hand being so close to their throat. They could try to strangle them at a moment's notice if they wanted.

"You were listening !" They accused Frisk, rightfully so this time.

"Im sorry ! I didn't mean to but it was too loud so i overheard things and then i-"

"Then you wanted to try to listen to the rest." Chara finished for them.

Frisk did not object, which Chara took as a confirmation that they had gotten it right.

So they were not that obedient either after all, of course, it would have been too good to be true. Chara sighed.

"Im sorry" Frisk repeated.

"Just… just ask me what you want to know now" Chara went back to their previous position, cutting things short as they didn't want to make this talk longer than it had to be.

"Thanksssssss…" Frisk was about to call them 'Chara' again but figured at the last moment that maybe they wouldn't like that. In the end they just awkwardly prolonged the last syllable of the word for several seconds slowling fading away the volume over time.

"What should i call you ?" They decided to just go ahead and ask it right now rather than remaining uncertain.

"You don't." Chara told them.

"What ?"

"Do not refer to me."

Frisk felt a little vexed, they knew that the two of them were not getting along very well but it was a bit insulting that they didn't even want to let Frisk address them by anything other than 'you'.

After a few seconds, Frisk finally decided to gather up the courage to ask the question that had been plaguing their mind for a while now.

"Why ? What did i do for you to hate me so much ? I don't understand…" Frisk's voice trembled a bit as they asked the dreaded question.

Chara had guessed that this question was coming sooner or later.

"Its not about something you did, its about something you would do if i let you go." They answered, staying vague enough for Frisk not to have learned anything useful.

"What does that mean ? What would i do ?" They questioned.

Chara hesitated a bit before telling Frisk this, well they would have had to learn it soon anyway.

"Do you know where you are ?" Chara asked.

Frisk was confused about Chara's answer.

"What does that have to do wi-"

"Everything." Chara cut them off. "Now answer me."

"Im in... an unused room in a weird old house in some sort of ancient puzzle cite located underground ?" They proposed, not knowing any better.

Chara sighed again.

"You are in the underground, the kingdom of monsters." They stated, sounding somewhat condescending.

"Monsters ?" Frisk would have probably been scared by the idea of monsters if Chara's presence wasn't already doing that. How much worse could things still get ?

"No, not the monsters you hear about from fairy tales. Real monsters are nice, friendly and good hearted."

Frisk's emotional state kept changing over and over every thirty seconds. "Monsters that are… nice ?"

"Yes, Monsters are much better people than humans will ever be. I will not let you a chance to hurt any of them." Frisk noticed Chara spoke with a passionate disgust when they mentioned humans.

What intrigued them the most was the end of their sentence however.

"Hurt them ? Why would i hurt monsters if they are so nice ? I would never hurt anyone !" Frisk claimed.

Chara giggled as soon as they said that. It seemed that they didn't take Frisk's words seriously.

"You cannot leave." They said. "Once you enter the underground, you can never leave again. You are stuck here forever."

Frisk's world felt like it was suddenly thrown upside down. They were trapped down here ? For the rest of their life ?

"How ? Why ?" Frisk asked, confused. If there was a way from up there to down here then there had to be a way back up as well.

"The barrier." Chara explained. "Long ago humans and monsters both ruled the surface, one day after a short one sided war in which countless monsters were killed, the humans sealed the remaining monsters underground with a magic spell. That is the barrier. Anyone can enter through it but no one can exit unless they have a powerful soul."

"A powerful soul ? What does that mean ?" Frisk wondered, trying to assimilate everything Chara was telling them.

"For a human to be able to pass the barrier, they would need to absorb the soul of a monster to gain its soul power." They tried not to show it but Frisk could feel that this was the part that Chara was worried about by their tone.

"Wait so the only way to leave this place is to kill one of these nice monsters to take its soul ?" Frisk covered their mouth with their hands again, but this time it was due to realisation rather than fear.

Chara only stared at them in response. Frisk could only conclude that they had understood it correctly.

"That's horrible !" They claimed.

After a few seconds, the impliciations downed on them. Not only did that mean that they really were stuck down here, but they also remembered that Chara had said they wouldn't let them go because they would kill monsters…

"Do you think that i would kill monsters to leave this place ? Is that why you're doing this ?" They asked their captor.

"Humans are all the same, only thinking about themselves. Of course you would have once you realised they were defenseless and you had no other choice to escape." Chara looked at them like they were the scum of the earth.

What bothered Frisk was not the way they just bashed on humans despite being one themself but rather that they had really done all of that to them because they thought they would murder monsters. What possibly made them think that Frisk would do such a thing ? They certainly weren't a murderer.

"That's not true ! I would never kill anybody. Never !" Frisk not only felt insulted to be accused of having murderous tendencies for no reason but also felt like Chara was a massive hypocrite. They had put them through all of this horror… Just because they had thought that Frisk might kill people otherwise ? Not only was that something they would never think of doing but it was also extremely unfair. Chara had put them through unbearable pain over nothing more than a simple doubt, a "just in case". One that was totally unfounded.

"That's what they all say. But if it really came down to it, you would do it." They insisted. Chara seemed to have made up their mind about it a while ago, they weren't listening to Frisk at all.

"No !" Frisk reacted, not wanting to let Chara say such terrible things about them.

Chara put their hand near Frisk's mouth, indicating them to shut up. It seemed like Frisk had gotten a bit too confident with talking and forgot the situation they were in.

"I don't want to hear your lies." Chara told them.

"But im not lying !" They argued, Chara gave them another cold look to make them lower their volume and didn't respond.

After a few moments, Frisk felt the need to ask the obvious follow up question.

"Why did you think i would kill someone ? I'd never do something like this. We don't know each other, what possibly made you think that ?" Frisk knew that they were playing with fire here but if Chara was willing to attempt to murder them over a simple doubt, they at least owed Frisk a proper explanation.

"I already told you. You're a human. Humans are all like this by nature." They didn't say anything more.

"But…" Frisk thought. "You're a human ?" Chara winced as Frisk said that, as if it was an insult somehow.

A doubt rose inside of Frisk. Could it be.. ? It was possible, they knew it was the only way to leave and clearly had no problem with hurting people who did nothing to them. And if they expected any human to do it then...

"Did… did you kill monsters ?" They asked.

The next second, Chara slapped them in the face. Frisk made a conscious effort not to voice their pain out loud.

"How dare you accuse me of such a thing ? Im protecting them from you !" They brought their hand back to their chest as Frisk's face still hurt from the slap. They could tell that Chara looked sincerely offended.

"If you didn't, then why would i ?" They asked.

Chara looked away.

"Its not the same thing." The child with rosy cheeks answered.

"But ho-"

"Im not talking about this anymore." Chara cut them off again. It seems like Frisk wouldn't be getting any more information on this subject.

"How long are you gonna keep me here ?" They continued. As lost as they were in life, they couldn't stay in this small room forever, definitly not in these conditions.

"I don't know. As long as i have to." Chara actually didn't have an answer to this question. For now their stance was that Frisk would stay here until they came up with a better plan.

"But how long will you have t-"

"I said i don't know ! You'll see ! And last time i checked, you have no right to complain about people being messy with time !" Chara pretty much yelled at them. As scary as that was, they were glad that Chara was only using their voice as a weapon now.

"Actually…" They continued, now with a much calmer voice. "How ? How do you do that thing ? How does it work ? That time travel thing." Their tone was very serious now.

"Well im not really sure." Frisk confessed. "But i think it happens when i really want to go back and get a chance to try again. Its like i want it to happen and it just sort of… does ?" They gave Chara an awkward smile.

Chara didn't seem convinced.

"This had never happened before i feel down here, it was the first time ! I don't know much more about it than you do…" They were nervous, but they calmed themself down by thinking about the fact that Chara wanted answers and they were the only one who could give those to them.

"Oh ! I forgot ! There were also these shiny small golden things !" Frisk added. "They make me feel just like when im doing the time travel thing and last time i did i went back next to one of them."

"Small… shiny golden things ? What the hell are you talking about ?" Chara seemed confused.

"They were like… small stars with 4 points and they keep spinning around in the air." Frisk tried to mimic the movement with their hands.

"I have seen ever corner of this place and there are no such things here." They stated. "Are you lying to me ?" Chara seemed suspicious.

"No ! I swear, there was even one just near the stairs right next to where i fell." Frisk answered, trying to prove what they were saying.

"There. is. not." Chara slowly spelled out each word. "I don't know if you are brave or stupid but i do not like that you are lying to me like this." They sounded seriously annoyed with them.

"Why would I make this up ?" Frisk pointed out. "What would i gain from that ?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Chara answered.

This was going nowhere, Chara did not have any trust in them at all.

"Go verify for yourself if you want. I'll stay here." They proposed.

Chara knew that Frisk had to be lyin,g they'd know if such a thing existed, but the fact that they seemed so confident about it bothered them. It was true that they had nothing to gain by making this up too...

"Fine, but you better not be wasting my time."

With those words, Chara left the room, locking the door behind them. They left the house and began going down the same path as the yesterday when they first found Frisk.

The other human was left on their own until a few minutes later, they heard the door opening down there again. Was someone there ?

Asgore stepped into the ruins, he was surprised to hear nothing but silence coming from upstairs. Was Chara reading a book perhaps ? This wouldn't make any noise. After a second of waiting, the king resumed his walking.

Frisk froze when they heard footsteps, there really was someone down there again. But this time, Chara wasn't present, Frisk was alone here locked inside that room. What do they do ? Should they stay silent and try to avoid being noticed, should they to get this persons' attention ? At this point they were uncertain what the right thing to do for them was.

By the amount of noise the footsteps made, the only thing Frisk could tell is that this wasn't the same person as last time. Whoever this was must be older... and heavier than the last one.

These thoughts filled Frisk's anxious head as the king made his way upstairs.

They decided to not take a decision while under pressure, this could only lead them towards bad choices.

Asgore inspected the living room, there was not a soul in sight. How curious, he had though Chara would probably be here. Perhaps in Asriel's old bedroom then ?

But when the monarch opened the next room, it turned out to be just as empty as the last one. Where had they gone ?

The king was not expecting Chara to be in Toriel's room, but he checked it anyway. He was not surprised to find it empty, when he came back to the corridor on the other hand, something caught his eye.

The king approached the mirror and soon his suspicions were confirmed, the mirror was scratched.

How unfortunate. he did not remember this being the case the last time he came here. Asgore began examinating the scratch to find out that it led towards the corner of the mirror, the paint of the wall just on said corner of the mirror has been damaged as well. It was like the mirror has been pushed against the wall or something similar and that it had left its mark on both of them.

The mirror was fixed against the wall, the only way to do such a thing would be by hitting the wall multiple times. He knew Chara could lose their temper but he could hardly imagine them doing so.

This train of thought led him to notice what should have been extremely obvious but that he had somehow missed until now. The planks that blocked the old room had been entirely removed. Did Chara do this ? What interest would they have in opening this room ?

Eager to find out, the king unlocked the door.

When he opened it, his sight settled on the last thing he would have expected to see. There was a human child. They looked pretty small, only slightly younger than Chara. They were pretty similar to them in terms of looks however. They were sitting on the floor, their hair was pretty messy and they seemed like they hadn't been eating as much as they should.

Before Asgore could react, the human looked at him in the eyes with a look made of a mixture of fear, confusion, amazement and a bit of guilt.

Upon further inspection, Asgore noticed that the child's clothes were torn in several places and that they had what seemed like pretty recent scars over their lower body.

The first concern that came to the king's mind before even wondering why were they here was addressed to the child's health. "Howdy, are you alright ?"

The human child didn't respond but instead moved in the corner of the room as if getting further away from him would make Asgore forget about them. Perhaps his appeance was what intimidated them ?

"Worry not, i mean no harm to you. What is your name little one ?" The boss monster got on his knees so that he wouldn't seem as tall, hoping this would help making the human less scared of him.

Frisk's heartbeat accelerated again, what were they supposed to do in this situation ?