Chara opened her eyes but didn't know where she was at first. After a moment she quickly realized she was in the long judgment hallway before the throne room. Looking around she noticed that she was standing at the entrance of the hall, but what caught her attention were countless gray mounds of varying sizes dotted around the floor leading towards the throne room. As she drew closer to one of the mounds she stopped and gasped in horror as she realized what it was.
All of the mounds were piles of monster dust. As looked closer she saw that some had items next to them. One had a scrap of cloth from a royal robe, another had an orange scarf, another, an eyepatch. Chara's eyes were beginning to tear up when she jumped as she heard a cry of pain coming from the other end of the hall.
She slowly began to walk down towards the other end, trying not to step in any of the countless piles of dust. As she neared the end of the hall, she could see a figure with their back turned to her. Her heart was racing in her chest as she inched closer, trying to see who it was.
As the figure slowly turned to face her she saw that they were holding her knife and that both the knife and the figures hands were caked with dust. Looking up at the figure's face her eyes widened as she saw it was Frisk, but Frisk's eyes had turned black and her irises were no longer sparkling red, but were glowing a dark crimson. Her eyes and mouth were gushing with black determination as she stared blankly at Chara.
Before Chara could say anything she heard a young and familiar voice call her name from behind her. Spinning around she saw her adoptive brother Asriel standing a few feet behind her, a frightened expression on his face.
"C-Chara, what's going on?" he said as tears disappeared into his fluffy white fur.
Hearing a footstep behind her Chara turned her head and saw that Frisk had begun walking towards Asriel, her eyes staring directly at him, a sick smile on her stained face.
Chara quickly turned back towards Asriel and began to run toward him as she went, "Run Asriel! Hurry! Get away from here!"
Asriel didn't or couldn't budge, as Chara tried to reach him, she could hear Frisk right behind her. When she reached him she stopped and threw her arms out in front of him to take the hit instead.
She stared in horror as a large gash appeared on Asriel's chest. He looked down at his wound in disbelief as the wound began to turn to dust, quickly spreading to the rest of his body. Before disintegrating completely, he looked up directly into her eyes. "Chara... why?"
Chara watched Asriel collapse into another gray pile of dust. As she looked down she saw that she was holding her knife and that reflection in was the same as Frisk's. Chara began screaming in anguish, her voice reverberating around the empty hall.
Chara woke with a start, her heart was racing and she was covered in sweat. She looked around, her eyes wide, and realized she was in the Snowdin Inn. Taking a deep breath to slow her heart, while staring at the back of Frisk's head.
It was just a dream. she thought, closing her eyes and turning over to get back to sleep. This will all be over soon.
As she was about to drift back to sleep she heard Frisk talking behind her.
"I-I have to... I'm... I'm..."
She must be sleep talking. Chara thought, trying to ignore her.
But try as she might, she couldn't ignore her when Frisk began crying in her sleep.
"I-I'm sorry... I have to do this. Y-you all have to... I need to..."
Chara was about to wake her up to get her to stop. When she suddenly froze, feeling a pair of arms wrapping themselves around her torso, pulling her back towards Frisk.
"I'm so sorry Chara." Frisk said in a small voice.
Chara didn't know what to do, but she noticed that Frisk had stopped crying and her breathing had gone back to a slow even rhythm. Tired and somewhat irritated, she tried to pull Frisk's arms apart to get out of her grip, but Frisk wouldn't budge. Giving up after a couple of minutes of trying, Chara gave a huff and closed her eyes again, quickly falling back asleep.
Chara woke to someone gently shaking her shoulder. Opening her eyes she saw Frisk standing over her, one hand her shoulder, and eyes closed as usual. She noticed that Frisk had taken the ribbon out of her hair and had replaced it with the bandana tied around her head.
"Good morning Chara." Frisk said with a bright smile. "I hope you slept well."
"Well enough." Chara sat up and pulled her tight boots on. When she was done Frisk held out a cinnamon bun.
"I got you breakfast." Frisk said when Chara looked at her questioningly.
"Thanks." Chara mumbled as she accepted the bun and took a bite. To her surprise, she could taste the warm pastry. It was sweet like a cinnamon bun should be. She felt a flicker of relief at being able to taste food again.
When Chara finished eating, they made their way downstairs to return the room key, the innkeeper thanking them on their way out into the cold. Chara followed behind Frisk as they made their way through the friendly town. Frisk kept a reasonable pace ahead of Chara, while waving to every monster they came across. After passing a two story house and a toolshed, it began to snow, quickly picking up into a blizzard.
Frisk suddenly stopped causing Chara to almost bump into her. As Chara looked past Frisk, she could just make out a tall, slim figure standing in their path a few feet away.
"Is that who I think it is?" Chara asked, already disliking the answer.
Frisk gave a short giggle before nodding her head.
"HUMAN AND MONSTER." Papyrus said after noticing them. "ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELINGS LIKE... THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER. THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER'S PUZZLE SOLVING SKILLS. THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL. THESE FEELINGS... THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW!"
Chara could not believe what she was hearing, how could someone be so naive?
"I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT. I DON'T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE. I PITY YOU, LONELY HUMAN, AND LONELY TEEN MONSTER. WORRY NOT! YOU BOTH SHALL BE LONELY NO LONGER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE YOUR..." Papyrus hesitated, Chara tightened the grip on her knife, guessing at what was about to happen. "NO... NO, THIS IS ALL WRONG! I CAN'T BE YOUR FRIEND!" He gestured toward Frisk. "YOU ARE A HUMAN!" He then gestured toward Chara. "AND, ALTHOUGH IT PAINS ME TO SAY SO, A FELLOW MONSTER SHOULDN'T BE FRIENDS WITH A HUMAN. I'M SORRY, BUT I MUST CAPTURE YOU BOTH! THEN I CAN FULFILL MY LIFE LONG DREAM! POWERFUL! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS! THAT'S PAPYRUS! THE NEWEST MEMBER, OF THE ROYAL GUARD!"
Chara and Frisk's SOULs floated out of their chests as Papyrus pulled them both into a FIGHT. Chara looked over at Frisk who was waiting patiently for her turn in the FIGHT, a small smile on her face. Chara however had had enough of Papyrus' interference.
Constantly getting in our way, slowing us down with all of his damn puzzles, and being so damn naïve. Chara thought as she gripped her knife tighter. She was tired of all of the interruptions caused by this skeleton, and could feel her Determination telling her what needed to be done.
"Chara are you alright?" She heard Frisk ask from her right.
Chara ignored her saying, "Enough is enough." Before pressing the FIGHT button.
Chara raised her knife as she jumped toward Papyrus, preparing to slash him. She heard Frisk cry out. "NO!" As Chara began to swing her knife down, Frisk suddenly jumped between them. Chara gasped as she quickly tried to swing to the left barely avoiding Frisk herself, but clipping Frisk's SOUL in the process. Frisk's HP dropped to one before her eyes as a large gash appeared starting from Frisk's right shoulder down to her left hip. Blood quickly started to drip onto the white snow in front of Frisk.
"Chara..." was all Frisk said, tears forming at the corners of her closed eyes, before falling to her knees, her arms around her abdomen. All Chara could do was stare at her, completely stunned.
"OH NO!" Papyrus exclaimed. "THE HUMAN IS BADLY HURT! UNDYNE TOLD ME TO CAPTURE THE HUMAN, NOT HURT THEM!" After a moment of hesitation Papyrus ended the FIGHT, and walked over to Frisk, gently scooping her up into his arms. "WORRY NOT DEAR HUMAN, FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL SAVE YOU!"
With that Papyrus began to walk back toward Snowdin Town. Chara silently followed behind him, not really paying attention to what was going on around her, as she was completely lost in thought.
Why did she do that? She thought. She didn't even hesitate to jump in front of him. He's a nuisance, how could he possibly be needed to help free everyone? Why does she care about them so much?
When Chara came out of her thoughts, she didn't recognize her surroundings. She was standing in what looked like the inside of a mid-sized toolshed. It had two windows, the floor was made of wooden planks, and the brown walls were cracked. Looking around the first thing she noticed was the large wooden bars she was standing behind. The second thing she noticed was that they were too far apart to stop anyone from walking through. Turning around, she saw around the floor was a dog bowl filled with dog food, a bone-shaped dog treat, a handwritten note, and a soft looking dog bed. Laying on the dog bed was Frisk, who seemed to be unconscious, but alive. She was also wearing Sans' blue puffy jacket which was too small for her, as her midriff was showing.
Chara walked over to Frisk and looked her over, noticing that the large gash on her torso was gone, leaving only smooth skin, and that her HP was back up to twenty. She considered waking her but didn't need to as Frisk began to stir on her own.
"Are you okay?" Chara asked flatly.
"I think so, what happened? Where are we?" Frisk replied.
"I don't know where we are, looks like some kind of poorly put together holding cell. As for what happened, you jumped in front of my attack, why?"
Frisk frowned as she sat up. "Because you were going to kill Papyrus."
"I know that, I want to know why you're going out of your way to make them happy. Why are you so concerned about making friends with everyone? After what you did last time, you don't deserve it!" Chara glared at Frisk, waiting for her answer.
After several moments of silence Frisk took a deep breath. "Because I care about them Chara. Because after RESETing and going through the Underground so many countless times, they became more than just friends to me, they became family. And I want to make sure that they get the best happy ending possible."
It slowly dawned on Chara why Frisk was doing this. She's done this so many times that she knows exactly what to do to make sure that everybody is happy when they're freed.
Chara felt regretful at having been so impatient with her ever since they had woken up in the RUINS. "Frisk I... I'm sorry."
Frisk, looking surprised, tilted her head to the side. "For what?"
"This whole time, I was so completely focused on freeing everyone as soon as possible and by any means that I didn't even care if they got hurt in the process. Meanwhile, you've been going out of your way to make sure everyone is content when they leave the Underground."
"It's okay Chara, part of it is my fault. I didn't explain to you why I was trying to help everyone, I just did so without telling you. But, if you'll trust me, I promise that everything I do WILL help free everyone."
After a few minutes of thinking things over Chara finally nodded her head in agreement.
*Your LOVE has decreased!
"Alright then, let's get out of here and make our way to Waterfall." she said as she rolled her eyes and closed the dialogue box that had popped up between them.
Frisk nodded and looked as if she was about to stand up but stopped as she looked down at herself. "Wait, where's my sweater?" Her cheeks turned pink as she covered her midriff with her arms.
"I don't know, I just followed Papyrus without seeing where I was going and the next thing I remember, we were in here and you were wearing that." Chara pointed at Sans' jacket.
Suddenly Papyrus entered the "holding cell" holding Frisk's neatly folded sweater.
He quickly noticed Frisk was awake. "AH GOOD, THE HUMAN IS OKAY!"
"Yes I'm fine Papyrus, but why do you have my sweater?" Frisk asked as she stood up, still covering herself, and walked over to the wooden bars.
"OH, NOT TO WORRY DEAR HUMAN. FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS STITCHED UP THE LARGE TEAR ON THE FRONT OF IT AND IT IS NOW GOOD AS NEW!"
Papyrus held the sweater through the bars. Frisk took it and held it up, letting it unfold in front of her. From where Chara was standing, she could see that the large slash she had made was nowhere to be seen.
"Thank you so much Papyrus." Frisk said with a big smile.
"YOU ARE QUITE WELCOME HUMAN. NOW I MUST BE OFF TO TELL UNDYNE ABOUT YOUR CAPTURE. SHE'S GOING TO BE SO PROUD OF ME! SHE'LL PROBABLY MAKE ME THE NEW ROYAL GUARDSMAN ON THE SPOT!"
After squealing with excitement, Papyrus quickly sped out of the toolshed.
Chara shook her head before turning to Frisk. "Are you ready to go?"
"Um, before we do, could you turn around for a minute?"
Confused at first, Chara looked down at Frisk's sweater and immediately understood. "Oh, right sorry." She quickly turned around and waited for Frisk to finish changing.
"Okay now I'm ready." Chara turned back around to see Frisk back in her old sweater, holding Sans' jacket. "But, what am I supposed to do with this?"
Before Chara could answer, Sans appeared out of nowhere between them, wearing a plain white t-shirt and the same shorts and pink slippers.
"sup kiddo." he said, looking at Frisk. "thanks for taking care of my jacket, but i'd like it back so, sorry if you were just starting to 'warm' up to it."
Chara groaned, whilst Frisk giggled as she handed Sans back his jacket.
"thanks kid, be seeing you around." Sans said with a wink before disappearing as quickly as he came.
*Chara and Frisk are ready to get to Waterfall. This fills you with Determination!*
