"Doctor...the subjects have arrived in The Dark."
"And the others?"
"They are moving as anticipated. The final confrontation shall begin soon."
"Excellent. Everything is proceeding as planned."
"Are you sure about attempting this so early?"
"Do not question me, assistant. Prepare 'RESTART' protocols."
"As you order...May I...join this time?"
"...Very well. When the time is right."
"Understood, thank you, doctor."
The long walk in the rain appeared to continue in an endless fashion. Each step in the dark made with increasingly tired motions. The pair passing under trees for brief moments away from the oppressive rainfall.
Echo flowers whispered things when they passed, inaudible little sayings. No matter how much they walked, the buildings in the distance didn't seem to be getting closer. Chara making a point, to make contact with as many glowing mushrooms as possible to shine light on it all. She'd checked her pocket for her phone, but it was lost in the water. They were on their own.
And no matter how many mushrooms, no matter how many steps...the way ahead didn't seem to be getting bright enough to really matter. Chara was left in those quiet moments to reflect on her journey so far. Trying to keep herself going, even as things seemed to be constantly falling apart. In a way, the mushrooms reminded her of it. Always trying to glow brightly, in a miserable world of darkness.
Sometimes she hated this place. Hated the world as it had become. Her mind going back to the ruins. She wished she hadn't left it. That she hadn't been so afraid that Toriel was going to leave her, that she rushed out like an idiot. If she had just persevered, if she had just had a little more faith...none of this would be happening.
Frisk examined the situation with some anxiety. "We...don't seem to be getting any closer."
This was merely a vocalization of a mutual piece of dread. Especially since it felt like the rain was getting more intense now. The duo continuing to trudge through the mud and darkness, more than drenched physically. The downpour, and gloom beginning to take a toll on their drive to push on.
And every time the lights grew too dim, or infrequent, Chara noticed something. Frisk would shiver, or get anxious. Her breathing would get a little faster, and the other girl would get closer to her. Sneaking glances at the abyss around them, as though there was something there in the corner of her vision.
"I-I noticed." Chara muttered back. "It feels like the end just keeps getting farther away."
Frisk noticed her counterpart's hopeless expression. "It can't be much farther. We've just gotta keep going right?"
"Right." The little monarch muttered back.
Minutes passed, the purple-eyed girl trying to come up with some joke, some jest. Anything to break the feeling, to mask how difficult it seemed to be growing. But she couldn't think of anything. She didn't want to. She was thinking about home.
She still remembered so little. But what she did, she latched onto. She recalled her father's dumb jokes, and attempts to make people happy. His terrible names for everything. Her mind turning to the fact his failures had created rebels. That his guards had destroyed a bridge leading somewhere. Leaving those people in the dark. Like this place. Had he...always been such a bad guy? Surely there was...a reason? Something she didn't know.
Toriels scar, her eye missing as it was entered her thought next. What happened to cause that? Was it the monsters who were tormenting her? The monsters who were so vile, that they built an effigy resembling the girls corpse, just to drive her mad. The thought brought shadows to the edges of her eyes. Playing over the encounter in the ruins, how her own mother seemed to stare through her. Seemed to struggle, and even hurt hurt her, unable to grasp that she was really there.
It was their fault, it was their fault, and Chara hated them for it. She snarled beneath the hood, glaring into the dark. Breathing a little harder for a moment, as the hate began fade into despair.
She hadn't even seen Asriel. Toriel hadn't talked about him. Nobody seemed to be talking about him. Chara knew he wasn't okay...and it filled her with despair. It was their plan...it had to be. She'd failed it, and somehow, she'd gotten him hurt. Guilt tore into her.
Her gloomy thought ending with a sudden sneeze. It kind of hurt, and she brushed at her nose, sneezing again. Frisk glancing over.
"Bless you." Frisk spoke.
"Heh...uhm, thanks." Chara replied. "Sorry."
"You shouldn't say sorry for sneezing." Frisk remarked.
"Right." Chara agreed quietly.
At the end of all these things, however, was the deep-rooted fact...that she wanted to go home. Chara didn't want to be here, in this dark place. She didn't want to be around all the terrible people this world had thrown at her. She wanted to lay down in her bed, she wanted to hug her mom. She wanted to stop.
Her thoughts scratching, white noise in her head. Chara contemplated drowning herself in the water. She wondered where her auto-save was. Recalling a shine when she was thrown into the dark, wincing. If she went back...she'd just hit the water, and end up right back in this awful place. Her will to keep going was crumbling, her steps getting gradually slower.
But she tried to persevere, despite the pain. Her counterpart remaining determined in tandem. Frisk, for her part, was still trying to think of what had been forgotten. A few more minutes passed. Too silent, and far too quiet, it was unbearable.
"How did you come to be here?" Chara asked finally.
"Huh, what do you mean?" Frisk glanced. "I...fell?"
"I meant...in the underground primarily." Chara replied, adding. "But...I guess I am curious how you got to this place too."
"I...fell, from the top of Mount Ebbot." Frisk noted, smiling weakly. "What...about you?"
"I guess, in some sense, I did the same." The other girl replied.
"Heh...yeah." Frisk wondered. "Hey, I know I haven't answered yet but uh...how did you wind up down here?"
"I was thrown down here." Chara replied, stopping, looking up at the rain. "In the middle of trying to ask for help." She laughed a little. "Guess...my birth parents were right...I should learn to shut my mouth, and just do as I'm told."
Frisk noticed the expression, heard the words and frowned. She looked around the area, noticing a big tree, that seemed to be keeping the ground beneath it dry. Feeling like they could use a pause, for now.
"Hey-" Frisk motioned to it. "Let's get out of the rain, for a minute."
"We have to keep going." The poncho wearing girl replied.
"We've gotta dry off for a minute." The jacket wearing one suggested. "And...my feet hurt so, a pause would be nice."
"Oh, right. I'm sorry, I hadn't...considered that." Chara wandered over. "Sorry."
"You sure like that word." Frisk commented. "But don't go apologizing to me." She smiled a little. "Friends understand, ya know?"
"Are we friends?" Chara asked.
"Starting to be-" Frisk commented, as they got under the tree. "could be, maybe. I mean, I'm pretty cool. Got lots of people sending me love letters-" Her counterpart raised a brow. "it's uh...a pretty exclusive list."
"Is it now?" Chara asked, snickering some. "I mean, you're clearly very picky with your friends right?"
"Oh absolutely." Frisk nodded. "Gotta be very choosy these days."
"Mhm, definitely. Don't wanna go around flirting with just anyone, right?" Chara asked. "Gotta find only the best."
"Bingo, and that's you." Frisk said, making finger guns, while sitting down. "Easily friend material."
"You're such a nerd." Chara managed a little chuckle, while sitting as well.
"I do my best." Frisk assured her, leaning against the tree some, letting out a little yawn in the process.
Resting there, Chara couldn't help but let out a little yawn herself.
She hadn't noticed until then, how much her legs were aching. How sore her feet were. Or, just in general how exhausted she was feeling. Wondering how long they'd been walking?
Frisk was largely feeling the same. Same pains, same groans. Albeit less severely, thankfully. The girl pleased in some fashion to be beneath the light of the lumiscent tree. A single echo flower between them, glowing faintly. She couldn't help but notice that the grass, trees, and flowers were getting less frequent as they went. They were after all, the light present in miles and miles of darkness. An anxious whisper asking if she could endure with them gone?
Turning from the thought, she asked. "Y-you said you got thrown off. Uhm, b-by who?"
Chara glanced over, and replied. "Well, it seems like it was probably Sans."
"Sans?" Frisk asked.
"He's a skeleton. He's...a bad guy. His brother is a good guy though, a great judge of character, and...just awesome." Chara muttered. "He thought...Sans was good too, and for a moment I...wasn't sure. I guess I got my answer in the end."
"Sorry." Frisk apologized. "I uh...think-" Memory was coming back. "I got chased off a cliff by a knight throwing spears."
"That...sounds scary." Chara admitted. "I don't think I know that person." She added, removing her poncho. "What happened?"
Frisk watched her begin to wring it out. "I was walking...looking for something, I think?" She removed her jacket, and did the same. "Next thing I knew, some person started throwing spears at me."
"Everyone has been awful since I returned." Chara noted, shaking the garb, checking it. "They weren't...like this before."
"Since you returned?" Frisk inquirer, squeezing water from the hood. "You were gone...somewhere?"
Chara sighed. "Yeah. I was...this is gonna sound strange, but bear with me, okay?"
"I'm bearing." Frisk replied. "I'd brace too, but my teeth are okay."
Chara blinked at that. "Nerd."
"Thanks." Frisk snickered.
"I was dead. Or, I've been dead for the last...I don't really know how long." Chara told her. "I-I know, it sounds strange."
"A little bit." Frisk admitted, wringing our the center. "Pretty cute looking for a corpse, though."
"That...sounds awful even with context." Chara smirked.
"Y-yeah, it does doesn't it?" Frisk laughed nervously. "Sorry I'm, anxious and-"
"And here I thought you were Frisk." Chara replied.
"Wow." The red-eyed girl chuckled. "Okay...who's the nerd again?"
"Still you, easily." The purple-eyed girl stated.
"Uh huh, sure." Frisk rolled her eyes. "What were we saying?"
Chara hummed, and replied. "I was explaining I had died, and you couldn't help but flirt."
"Admittedly...not my best one." Frisk nodded. "Just...don't know how to handle that, so..."
"I get that." Chara assured. "It's okay."
"Are you being serious about the whole dead thing?" Frisk asked her.
"Entirely." Chara sighed. "I died a long time ago. I...accidently learned of something that could make someone...really sick." She explained. "I thought...about trying to help people. And so I ate those things. Thinking...their lives would be better off that way." She noted with a half-smile. "But that failed. Then, I got back up somehow, and...was given a second chance." She fell silent for a moment. "One that I...screwed up. And now...now I don't...I don't know if I'm gonna get up again."
There was a long silence that set it after this. Only the rain providing ambiance. It couldn't...end like this, could it? Chara thought over what she'd experienced, and all she had left to do. She couldn't just...die in a pit, right?
Frisk meanwhile was scanning the air. She thought for a moment, before manifesting her menu. The golden shine prompting a blink from the other girl. The |Load| prompt hovering there.
Frisk noticed her glance. "You can see this?"
"You can Load?" Chara asked in surprise, before noticing her eyes. "Of course you can. Those pretty red eyes, ugh, I should have known."
"You like my eyes?" Frisk asked. "Uhm...thanks, I made them myself?"
"I-I didn't mean like that you weirdo." Chara smiled some.
"I do my best to be memorable." Frisk remarked with a chuckle.
"Enough flirting. If you load, then maybe-" Chara hesitated. "W-wait...no...you can't."
"Why not?" Frisk inquired, hovering a hand over it. "It's easy. I load back to my save, and find a way to keep us from falling off." She laughed nervously. "Admittedly, it...slipped my mind for a bit there. That's my bad but-"
"Flowey could load too, but he said I disrupted it. Made it so it didn't work." Chara explained.
"I've been loading just fine since I got here." Frisk told her. "I had to a few times in the ruins."
"That's...that's good but...even then. I think I was down here, before you fell." The purple eyed girl explained. "I waked for a couple minutes before finding you." She felt nervous. "I-is it an older save?"
Frisk recalled her save point, only a couple minutes before she was knocked off. Even if she loaded...she may only have a minute to stop Chara from being thrown off. If she hadn't already been. Meaning...
"No, it's...not." Frisk admitted quietly.
Chara was silent for a moment, before suggesting. "You should...still load. At least you would be free, right?"
Frisk hesitated at that suggestion. "I uh..."
"Wait a minute...did you say ruins?" Chara asked, finally processing those words. "Like...the Ruins before Snowdinn?"
"Yeah." Frisk let her hand fall, the menu fading. "I fell in and landed on a bed of golden flowers." She explained. "I met all kinds of monsters too. They were rough people, but, there was good in them, ya know?"
"Did you...see mom?" Chara asked, thinking back on to what Sans had told her.
"Mom?" Frisk spoke, the word echoed, something forgotten shining through. "Your mom...the ruins...that's Toriel. Oh my gosh...wait, you're Chara." She noted. "L-like, Chara, Chara?"
"Uhm...yeah?" Chara asked.
"Toriel was looking for you." Frisk told her.
"She was?" The purple eyed girl got near. "W-where was...wait, she was in the ruins!?"
"Y-yeah, she uh...well she found me, when she was in the middle of trying to find you." The red eyed girl explained, suddenly remembering. "I left the ruins though, a-and I was coming to find you, to bring you home."
"She's, okay?" Chara asked, taking Frisks hand. "Is she alright?"
Frisk replied. "Well, I-I mean she's worried sick about you, but she seemed okay. She wasn't hurt."
Chara laughed a little at this, and then laughed a little harder. And then harder, as Frisk suddenly felt concerned. The girl slowly crumbling, to her knees laughing and crying at the newfound information.
Frisk felt panic over this development and kept ahold of her hand. Even when it was squeezed...harder than she'd expected. The laughter fell into a soft mixture of laughing and sobbing. It was as though all the emotions pouring forth were too much to handle. All coming out at once. In that moment, she knew what to do.
Frisk hugged Chara. Her counterpart accepting, hugging her back. Angry at herself, for breaking down again.
"That stupid trashbag...h-he was telling the truth." Chara growled, looking like she was in pain. "Flowey said...h-he would check and...he lied to me?" She asked, in a voice full of hurt. "I'm such an idiot...what is wrong with me?"
Frisk didn't quite get it, but replied. "It's okay, you didn't know."
Her anger boiled, prompting her to pull away from the hug. Turning away as she got up from the position, hands trembling. Grasping, covering her eyes and part of her face as she stared out at the dark. One of her eyes black, and abyssal.
"I always make the worst choice. Every single time." The lost girl declared, stepping out into the rain. "I-it's like a joke. What can I ruin today? Who will abandon me this time?" She asked, with a mad laugh slipping. "...a-and even worst-" She let her hands fall, turning back to the other girl. "I dragged you into it..."
Frisk couldn't make out many of Charas features as she stood out in the dark, and the rain. It was as if she was covered in it. Smothered by it, in some fashion.
"Don't say that." Frisk said, scanning her. "There's someone up there who loves you so much. And I made a choice to come here. So that's...not on you."
Chara stared through her. "Why didn't I do something else?" She asked quietly. "I-I could have done something else." These words making her eyes glow some. "If I'd known better I..."
Frisk got to her feet, huffing, and stepping out into the rain. Leaving her jacket in the dry space, near the poncho. Her counterpart watching as she approached.
"Don't give up now. Please don't give up now." Frisk requested, offering a hand. "I know it hurts...and it doesn't seem to be going well. But I need you to...hold together a little longer, okay?" She requested. "There has to be another way. We'll...uhm, we'll get out, and we'll figure out how to go up...and we'll head back and meet up with Toriel."
Chara didn't respond. Instead, she stared to the side. A purple light manifesting beside her. A light that only she could see. Her counterpart talking, as a thought raced in her mind. If she could just...fix what she did wrong. She could do it better. She wouldn't fail so much. She could fix things...the word she'd seen...the prompt she'd never used appeared when she touched the light.
|Restart|
The word was dim, displayed before her. She just had to reach out, and touch it. It would...it would work the same, right? Reset things...Chara hesitated some. It should work the same, right?
Frisk stared at the space she had reached to. "H-hey Chara what are you looking at?"
"Restart means the same thing...as reset right?" Chara inquired.
"Uhm...I think so?" Frisk felt an odd feeling of dread. "Why?"
The hate began to bleed away, as Chara pondered. If she did this...would this make everything pointless? She didn't understand why the name was different, if it was meant to be the same thing. What if it wasn't? What if it did something different? She felt afraid of the possibility.
She didn't want to lose her few friends. She didn't want Toriel to go through all that pain again. She didn't even know what it did. Her resolve began to waver. Her attention turning to Frisk, as the purple returned to her eyes.
Chara thought about something. "You entered through the ruins, right?"
"Yes." Frisk answered. "Why?"
"I want to go home." Chara told her. "I don't...I just wanna go home, and I don't ever wanna leave." Her eyes tearing up. "You showed up after me...I-I don't know how long, but I can find you there right?"
Frisk felt hesitant. "If you |RESET| things, all of this goes away. Anyone you've met...they won't remember you. All that we've done, it'll be...washed away."
"You know that cuz you've done it right?" Chara asked, making Frisk glance to the side. "Why did you do it?" She inquired. "What made you want to go back, and erase those memories?"
The red eyed girl examining her counterpart. "Because...I...didn't know where to go. Or what to do." She explained. "I was afraid...and I just kept getting attacked, and hurt. I died...so much, and I wanted it to stop." She explained. "So, I made it stop. And the ruins went quiet. Only for me to find out, there was a door, and terrified people behind it. The way they looked at me...I couldn't live with that."
Chara felt he hand twitch, it was so close. She just...had to press it. And yet...she couldn't. For multiple reasons now. She felt guilty at the prospect of stripping the memories from Frisk. From everyone else. She wanted to go home, so badly. An yet, there...with the ability before her...she couldn't manage it. Her anger having faded, leaving only a need to persevere.
Frisk fell from her thoughts, when Chara took her hand. "Chara?"
"We should keep walking." Chara replied properly. "We'll...probably be there before long, right?"
"I thought you were going to reset things." Frisk admitted."
"Not yet. Maybe...there's a town ahead." Chara suggested, as they wandered back beneath the tree. "We have to be close, right?"
"Yeah." The red eyed girl replied, picking up her jacket. "Are you okay?"
Chara elected not to respond, while putting back on her poncho. This was one of those things that her counterpart didn't need an answer to. And she was so tired of crying, so tired of walking. So tired of feeling hurt. She stepped back out into the rain, and started ahead. Frisk following along, with a hesitant expression. They would continue their solemn walk for now, and try to persevere.
A few minutes passed after their departure.
Something flowed in from the dark, metallic, bearing a camera lens. A strange drone wandering into the space below the tree. Scanning it for a moment, before poking the echo flower. As the final words of the children played back.
"They were here." The voice of Alphys said through the machine. "If you can-" A step landed underneath it. "or, just head there now. Sure." A hooded skeleton having appeared there. "You do have to tell me why you came around to the plan." She noted. "You seemed hesitant before."
Sans turned in the direction of lit mushroom lights, leading to what looked like a city in the distance. If he were a betting man, that was where they were going. A sigh, and a glance at the floating drone, following.
"I had some time to think things over." Sans replied quietly. "needs of the many, al."
Alphys smirked in her lab, unseen by him. "Just remember, we can save everyone if we do this. They can't get out. There's nowhere to go."
Sans replied. "Yeah...yeah. I get it. I'll handle it."
"Just like old times, right Sans?" Alphys inquired, the shadows in her lab strangling the light of the machine.
"just like old times." The skeleton muttered. "just make sure you're ready."
"Oh-" Alphys grinned darkly, her eyes fogged over. "I've prepared for it. Don't worry."
The skeleton wandering out into the rain after them.