Chapter 22: Determination
"It's true… you're back!" Cried Flowey. "I-I'm so happy to see you!" Cheered Flowey.
"You're awfully cheerful for someone who's about to be murdered." Said Sans.
Frisk sprinted between Chara and Flowey and took a fighting stance with her fire sword and flame shield. "You won't get passed me this time." Declared Frisk.
"We'll see." Replied Chara as she charged at Frisk. Chara took her gilded knife in her right hand and swung downward hitting Frisk's shield. Frisk moved her shield, pushing Chara's arm aside, then she thrusted her sword for Chara's body, but Chara side stepped it and punched Frisk with her left hand. The force of Chara's blow sent Frisk flying onto her back.
"Frisk!" Cried Toriel as she took her daughter's spot between Chara and Flowey. "Chara, stop this madness."
Chara simply jumped over Toriel's head and kicked her in the neck, knocking the former monster queen to the ground. "Yeah! That's it Chara; show them it's kill or be killed!" Cheered Flowey.
"Seriously, she's about to make you into salad. Don't you carrot all?" Joked Sans.
Chara ducked a swing from Asgore's trident and kicked his crotch, making him fall over. Undyne then managed to land three punches on Chara, but Chara returned with a powerful right hook that made Undyne stagger to the side. Before Chara could move any further her golden locket turned purple as Muffet caught her with a web from behind and started pulling her back while Mettaton-neo prepared to fire his blaster. Chara quickly used her knife to cut the web, returning her locket to its normal color, then she used her knife to deflect Mettaton-neo's energy blast.
Suddenly, several blue bones shot out of the ground and passed harmlessly through every part of Chara's body, but they remained there and forced her to hold still. "CHARA! DO NOT MOVE, I DON'T WISH TO HARM YOU, BUT YOU'RE TOO DANGEROUS TO BE LEFT ALONE." Explained Papyrus.
"Wow, that was pretty smart bro. I don't have to stop her from resetting, and she can't attack us." Observed Sans.
"OF COURSE, EVERYTHING I DO IS SMART." Replied Papyrus.
"Everything I do is magnificent." Bragged Mettaton.
"Everything I do is for money." Joked Muffet, before she pulled Mettaton close and whispered, "Seriously, pay up."
"Well, everything I do is for LOVE." Said Flowey before he spat several bullet seeds at the blue bones restraining Chara, breaking them to pieces, and making them fade away.
"FLOWEY, WHY DID YOU DO THAT!? WE'RE TRYING TO SAVE YOU!" Called Papyrus.
"Look out!" Yelled Sans as he pushed Papyrus out of the way of a strike from Chara. As Chara's knife was about to cut through Sans, Frisk stepped in the way and blocked the strike with her shield. Chara was then once again hit by a spider web from behind, only this time Undyne threw a spear and Alphys fired a small blaster. Chara barely managed to catch the spear and used it to cut the web while she also used her knife to reflect Alphys's blast at Papyrus, who was electrocuted by it. Frisk then tried to stab Chara with her flame sword, but once again Chara side stepped. Frisk was then roughly lined up with Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, and Muffet, which Chara used to her advantage. Using her special move directly onto Frisk's flame shield, Frisk was sent flying backwards into all her friends who were still standing.
"Really? Just me and you, again?" Pointed out Chara as she realized that only Sans was left.
"Heh, don't ask me. I guess it was just meant tibia this way." Joked Sans.
"You know comedian, we're not as different as you seem to think." Said Chara as she held her knife up to her face.
"Is that so?" Asked Sans.
"We're both cursed to live the same events over and over again." Continued Chara as she turned her knife so that it reflected the left side of Sans's face over the right side of hers. "And from the looks of it, I'd say we've both seen more than we should have."
"Hehe, I guess I've seen a thing or two." Replied Sans.
"Tell me, did your daddy beat you too?" Asked Chara, soundingly genuinely curious.
"Nope, I guess I was too fast for him." Replied Sans as he immediately summoned and fired a Gaster blaster, which Chara narrowly dodged. Before Chara could counterattack, Flowey wrapped a vine around Sans's neck and strangled him until he passed out.
"I will never understand how that just worked." Said Flowey. Chara chuckled and made her creepy face as she began walking towards Flowey. "Hehe, I haven't seen that face in years. It's good to have you back Chara, but… why are you making your creepy face?" Asked Flowey nervously. Chara didn't respond but continued waling forward. "C-Chara, why aren't you talking?" Asked Flowey, before he felt the air become heavy. "Chara… what is this feeling? Why can't I stop shaking?" Asked Flowey as he trembled in fear. "Chara? S-stay back!" Ordered Flowey, but Chara continued to press forward. Flowey then spat three bullet seeds at Chara and smirked when he watched them go through her sweater but froze in horror when the sweater fell and folded onto the ground, empty. Appearing behind Flowey, Chara drove her knife from the top of his head, all the way down to his roots, splitting him in half. "H-how-"
"Hehehe, Shadow step." Replied Chara. "One of the tricks I picked up when I was dead. Leave one item behind to teleport a short distance." With Flowey now out of the way, Chara picked up her sweater and put it back on. With his last horcrux destroyed, Azzy will have to come here and stop me. Thought Chara, before she yawned. Maybe I should head to the pause menu and rest before he gets here. As Chara opened a door to the pause menu, she was stopped short by a wall of fire.
"You're not going anywhere Chara!" Yelled Frisk, who was now wearing a flame shield on her right arm and holding the wall of fire up with her left.
"Of course you would interfere." Said Chara as she turned to face Frisk. "But that works for me. With the power to reset split between the two of us, neither of us can use it, even if the comedian doesn't interfere. I need that power, you don't want me to have it, so let's see which of us is more determined." When Chara finished speaking, her and Frisk dashed at each other and collided in the middle with Chara's knife striking against Frisk's shield.
By this point most of the monsters had managed to recover and were back on their feet. "Frisk!" Cried Toriel as she started to run towards the two, but she was stopped by Undyne. "Undyne, what are you doing?" Asked Toriel.
Undyne stared at the battle with an odd look in her eye, before she replied, "I'm sorry Toriel, but we can't interfere."
"Why not!?" Yelled Toriel.
"That expression on Chara's face… That's the same one I had all those years ago." Said Undyne, half to herself.
A younger Undyne ran through Waterfall with tears falling from both her eyes; all the while she tried to stop the words that were replaying in her head. "I'm sorry miss Undyne, but your father passed in the line of duty. He was a hero and will always be remembered." Undyne heard these words playing in a constant loop in her mind. A representative of the royal guard had just given her the news of her father's death, and no matter how far she ran, she couldn't make the memory of it go away. Finally, Undyne gave up and fell to her knees in front of a small stream; and when she looked down at her reflection, she realized that she was all alone now, she had no one left to remember her, she had lost all her purpose, and now all she wanted was a way to prove she still existed.
Undyne was now a teenager, she put her left eye out while fighting with another monster, but she had earned the title of strongest monster in the underground from the other young monsters. However, it wasn't being the strongest that mattered to Undyne; if people remembered her father for fighting for the king's royal guard, then they would remember her too, she just had to keep fighting. "I've beaten everyone." Thought Undyne as she realized she had already fought everyone at or near her age and won. "I need a new challenge, something that will make people remember me." As Undyne thought, she looked around and saw the king's castle in the distance. "And now I know just the thing."
"If everything that Chara has told us so far is true, and it seems like it is, then her and Frisk aren't just fighting for control of the reset." Explained Undyne. "If Frisk really is Chara's reincarnation, then it's more like they're fighting to see which of them is real. If Frisk wins, and takes the reset, then Chara no longer has any reason to exist. If Chara wins, then she was the only one of them that was truly meant to exist, and her death was just a fluke."
"Undyne that's insane!" Yelled Toriel. "You're Frisk's friend! You must help her! If you don't, she could die!"
"I KNOW THAT!" Snapped Undyne. "I am Frisk's friend, and it's killing me that I can't help her, but I know what it's like to have to prove you exist, and because of that, I can't let you interfere."
"Besides, I don't see what you're so worried about darling." Said Mettaton. "Frisk seems to be doing pretty well." When Mettaton finished speaking the group looked back at the battle.
Chara repeatedly struck Frisk's shield with her knife, but she couldn't cut through it. Frisk pushed Chara back with her shield and gave her signature flirting look. "That isn't funny, faker!" Yelled Chara as she made her creepy face and charged at Frisk again. Chara struck Frisk's shield, but then jumped over it and tried to hit Frisk in the back, but Frisk released fire from her foot and propelled herself away from Chara.
"It doesn't have to end like this Chara." Said Frisk.
"Talking isn't the solution." Replied Chara as she chased Frisk and landed a few more slashes on her shield.
"Don't worry Chara, I'm sure you'll find some way to get passed my shield." Cheered Frisk as she side stepped a slash from Chara.
"Are you seriously trying to cheer me!?" Hissed Chara.
"GO FRISK! MERCY HER UNTIL SHE BEGS FOR MERCY!" Cheered Papyrus.
"Ya gotta hand it to Frisk, she's pretty determined to save Chara." Said Sans. "But then again, Chara's pretty determined to kill us all. So, I guess the question is, what happens when and unstoppable force meets and immovable object?"
"N-nothing good usually." Said Alphys. "When two opposing forces collide, eventually one has to give in to the other."
The wall of fire Frisk had used to block the door to the pause menu was now extinguished, and Chara stood with her back to the portal, repeatedly striking Frisk's shield with her knife. "ENOUGH!" Yelled Chara as she struck Frisk's shield hard enough that Frisk was driven back. "I'm going to end this right now. I'm tired enough I hoped to avoid using my special attack, but if I use it at full power then that shield of yours will be destroyed and you along with it. And don't try dodging, because if you look behind you, you'll find that all your friends are all there, so if you dodge, they'll die instead of you." When Chara finished speaking, she raised her knife and Frisk felt a change in the air.
Chara's going all out… but I have to stop her attack. Thought Frisk as she held out her flame shield and began putting more power into it. I have to stay determined. I have to beat Chara. I can do this! Frisk's shield shined brilliantly as Chara brought down her knife and sent a giant blade of air at her. As the attack and the shield collided there was a blinding flash of light that made all the monsters shield their eyes. When the light subsided Chara remained standing, while Frisk was collapsed on the ground, and the walls and ceiling of the room were badly cracked.
"Hehehe, looks like I won." Said Chara as the reset button appeared next to her. "Asriel isn't here yet, I guess I'll give him a few minutes to show up after my nap, and if he doesn't, I'll just reset and try again."
"Frisk my child! Please get up!" Frisk heard Toriel crying from a distance.
"FRISK, WE'RE ALL HERE FOR YOU! DON'T GIVE UP!" Cried Papyrus.
"Come on kid! You beat me, so you can beat anyone!" Called Undyne.
"F-Frisk, you believed in me when no one else did. S-so, I believe in you now!" Cheered Alphys.
"Come on darling! Show Chara who the real star of this show is, when I'm not around." Called Mettaton, adding the last part under his breath.
"Honestly deary, I know you can do better than that." Said Muffet.
"You are determination." Said a small voice deep in Frisk's soul. Frisk opened her eyes and saw Chara headed for the door to the pause menu. "Not this time." Said Frisk as she summoned all her determination and compressed it into a ball of energy and fired it at Chara.
"Have you learned nothing?" Asked Chara as she side stepped the blast. The determination blast flew past Chara and approached the pause menu, Chara expected it to simply enter the space and eventually dissipate, but instead the blast crashed through the door as though it were a solid object. The pause menu cracked, shattered, and then faded into nothingness.
"I've learned a thing or two." Replied Frisk with a smirk.
"I-impossible." Said Chara as her face turned completely human. "Y-your determination just destroyed a pocket dimension." The reset button next to Chara disappeared and then reappeared beside Frisk. "What are you?"
"I am mercy." Said Frisk as she created a flame shield. "I am vengeance." Said Frisk as she created a fire sword. "I am determination!" Yelled Frisk as she prepared to attack Chara once more. However, just then a piece of the room's ceiling fell to the ground with a loud crash.
"Great, now Flowey's trick room is collapsing." Complained Chara before she took off running towards the entrance to Toriel's former home. "Don't think this means you've won. We'll meet at the underground's entrance." Called Chara.
Frisk and her friends quickly rushed out of the ruin's exit, and into the woods outside Snowdin town. Frisk placed her hand on a nearby save point and was filled with determination, making all her injuries heal. "Is everyone ok?" Asked Frisk.
"Yeah, I'm not one to cave in under pressure." Joked Sans, making Toriel and Frisk chuckle.
"N-not to be the barer of b-bad news." Started Muffet as she shivered uncontrollably. "But I'm going to f-freeze if we stay here any longer. A-and how are w-we supposed to g-get back to the ruins after t-that c-cave in?"
"Don't worry, that's the easy part." Said Frisk as she opened the door to the ruins, revealing Toriel's basement on the other side of the door. "When Flowey's trick room collapsed, the space it occupied reset to how it was supposed to be." Explained Frisk as she walked back into the ruins.
Chara walked through the ruins wearily. I can't save or load anymore. Thought Chara. I need to do this in one try, but until Azzy shows up, I need to rest. When Chara finished thinking she entered the room where the spider bake sale was once held and saw that it was now completely empty. Chara sat in the corner by the door so that if anyone walked by, they wouldn't be able to see her, then suddenly she began to cough and gasped as blood came out of her mouth. "Darn it." Hissed Chara before she laid against the wall and drifted to sleep.
"I believe it is time." Said the River-person to Hyper-death Asriel.
Asriel leaned back against the large tree he sat under, before he finally replied, "I'll meet you at the boat."
"Very well." Replied the River-person. "Hmmm… I should have worn a few million more pairs of pants today." Added the River-person to himself.
Alright, no more delaying it. I'll just take Chara's soul, and we'll be together forever, just like we always said. Thought Asriel.
"But you don't believe that do you?" Asriel turned around and was shocked to see the ghostly form of Flowey the flower. "What? You look like you've seen a ghost. Hahahahaha."