To paraphrase a quote, by, whoever it was who said it first. No plan goes to plan. This was true for every living being, in one fashion or another.
And, as it turned out, it was also quite true of beings beyond the 'traditional' coil of things. Be they trapped in an abyss. Invading a timeline. Or, merely trying to contain the damage the others might due, from a between two barriers. Things just have a habit, of not going the way you want them to go.
In this moment, certain events were transpiring that were...undesirable. In this instance, it was similar to a virus being injected into the system. Managing to taint, or seeking to corrupt a medical treatment that had followed after. Attempting to co-opt it, for destructive purposes. That, would be...problematic.
The question, then, built from that, was whether to provide another intervention, or to leave things as they were developing. Sadly, while the desire to leave things alone, was the preferable outcome, it was simply not possible in the present environment. If the patient, the timeline was to be salvaged from this rampaging disease, a more drastic measure would need to be taken.
However it needed to be subtle, and worldly. Something that would go unnoticed by the virus, and the mad doctor who was aware of, but permitting its destructive tendencies. It would involve something already present, things that had once been, and dreams.
Into this, Chara slept on the couch of Muffets home. Resting for what felt like the first time, in a long time. The moments ticking, before they finally began piercing the edges of rem sleep. An important thing, for this...decision, to be probable, possible, and manageable.
So it was, that her mind was forming constructs based on her own fractured memories, imagination, and interpretation of things. A dream, that formerly seemed predetermined to become a nightmare. But that, would be reductive. And there was work to be done, and memories to intertwine, and fabricate.
The first of her dreams was originally meant to be something abstract and pointless. But a bit of manipulation, and a few abandoned threads could be pulled. After all, the girls memories were all still present in some fashion. Even the ones from the world she erased.
It wasn't surprising that they were so deeply buried. That they were fractured apart like a glass cup, that was tipped from a two story building. There was so much trauma buried in her mind, it was more than a little concerning. But unraveling it was the work of a squadron of premier therapists. For now, only the pieces are our concerns.
The first memory to be altered was strung together. Using concepts, things she could recall about other locations, and the pieces that could be recovered of the last world. Suitable stitched, if I do say so myself.
Chara sat in front of the fireplace, watching the flickering flames within. They were warm, comforting things to her. The home in the ruins, the dwelling place of a particular Caretaker. The girls mother, and guardian in this strange world she called home. Or, was...heh.
The room she was resting in began to construct itself around her. Based on what she knew, imagined, and what was being filled in by the dream. With a few, minor injections from beyond its influence.
To her left was a larch sofa-like chair. Giving it a glance, she recalled having dubbed it 'Chair-iel' the beloved living room chair. Flashes of memory recalling her mother resting in it. The image of the woman flickering between three versions, but retaining certain characteristics across the three.
To the right, there was a bookshelf. It contained a variety of books, and stories. Drawings, and coloring papers, pens, and crayons. A one stop shop for ones compulsion to evade reality in a bit of fantasy for awhile. Or, to learn a collection of interesting snail facts.
There was a kitchen around the corner from where she was. With a soft song carrying from it. A hum that was inherently comforting. That another being had tried to replicate...poorly, in a twisted form of memorial to Toriel. The girl seemed beyond calmed by the tune, it hit so many different places in her mind, she couldn't help but be comfortable.
Her outfit was one she couldn't quite recall. And thus, her mind bled together various aspects. Things she may have been wearing at the time, but certainly hadn't been. She had on her person black boots, with purple laces. Brown pants, with various pockets. A green shirt with a yellow stripe, that flickered and became purple. A long red scarf around her neck. And last, but not least, a rather worn down purple hoodie jacket.
Her eyes calm, and peaceful. As though she was finally, where she'd always wanted to be. The calamity of everything else gone from her being, embracing the moment, by doing something her soul compelled her not to do. To not leave...to stay.
There were gaps in this space of memories. A friendly entity she couldn't recall. Someone who had a...flowery disposition. But that was perfectly fine. As with a bit of tweaking, and some effort...something else could take its place. A dormant piece of material, serving now, one of its hidden properties.
A motion of something unseen, causing a bat in the corner to stir. The X-Bat, having manifested from the collection of memories tangled together, shining faintly. The orange X upon it, peeling off, glowing. Whispering something in confusion, unheard by the girl. Before a force overrode it, consuming the willpower and presence, like a fuel for another purpose. Manifesting as something floating. Swimming through the air towards her.
"Chara...what do...you think she's making?" The hesitant voice of another girl asked her.
Chara glanced back, her mind filling in gaps, constructing ways to accept this entity and its existence there. Patching over parts and pieces of a forgotten companion, with splinters of other aspects. Tangled into a presentation she could comprehend, all in an instant, in a blink of an eye.
The force that often whispered to her now stood, in the form of a girl wearing a patchwork dress. With a fuzzy black jacket, and dark jeans. Bearing soft, orange eyes, that felt familiar to the child. Coming to sit beside her at the fire.
"I dunno." Chara admitted, before adding. "But, I think it's pie."
"That'd be nice." The girl with orange eyes agreed.
Chara searched her memory for her first encounter with this girl, but was quickly distracted. By something tumbling, being caught by her own quick reflexes. Hearing a gasp, and then a sigh of relief from her companion.
"C'mon, it wasn't like I was gonna let it fall, dork." Chara assured, putting the container to the side.
"I-I know...just..." The other girl, whose name seemed to whisper into her mind, 'Aliza' commented.
"Aliza..." She said, the name sounding both foreign, and familiar. "you really do worry too much, ya know?"
"Do I?" Aliza asked with a smile. "I just..." She muttered something about being brave, but frowned. "I dunno."
It was the job, the self-appointed task of the former phantom-girl to protect these humans. So long as they were deserving of it. The recollections of the other humans serving to remind her of that. As though, her very being was trying to cement it in her mind.
"You're fine, dork." Chara assured, as Aliza rested her tired head on her counterparts arm. "Just gotta...be brave, and persevere, right?" The orange-eyed girl smiled. "You'll be okay...I'll make sure of it."
The sensation, the memory of this moment was made stronger. But it was still too weak an impression. Thus, she felt compelled, and closed her eyes. The dream seeming to glitch, continuing...to another 'memory.'
Chara recalled their first encounter. It was just after she had woken up in the underground. Feeling confused, bleeding from the head. Staggering forward, into a place she didn't remember correctly. Once more, a bit of weaving, helping to stitch together the scene.
"Are...you real?" Aliza had asked in utter disbelief. "Wait, you're...bleeding..."
The girl before her was standing on a flowerbed, covered in golden flowers. With some withering. The various pillars rising, some to the light far above. Others, only barely. With various bits of rubble and debris. As well as a door glitching in the dark, moving to a more central position. Unnoticed by the girl.
Chara was left to ask. "Hello?" She managed, tasting blood on her lip. "Wh-who are...you?"
She felt so light in the head. Staggering forward, only to be caught by the other girl. Wearing a blood covered purple dress. It was, alarming to say the least, and the child felt fear overwhelm her.
The memory beginning to destabilize. Something beyond its presence, interfering. Barely an impression. Fine, moving on.
The next memory was something more recent, easier to stitch together. Depicting a variant of the event, where the human went to the shop. With some...minor changes, there unto.
Chara and her companion had been looking over the items presented to them. Aliza being offered a more limited selection of things, than Chara. With the purple-eyed girl feeling the strangest compulsion. Her hands reaching out to grasp something dark, that made her head a little fuzzy.
"Chara...those are...really creepy." Aliza said, drawing attention from the her entranced counterpart.
Snapping from the moment, Chara released them. "Uh...yeah, huh...guess they are a little uh...out of chara-cter."
This earned a little snicker from her companion. The Non-Human behind the counter muttering something they couldn't quite make out. Unnerving the duo some.
Aliza whispered to her. "She's...c-creepy."
"Y-yeah. We should...hurry." The other girl muttered, trying to be quiet enough to go unheard.
The memory began to destabilize. Because of course it is. But, I will not be stopped. This interference, fills me with Determination.
Another memory was selected, namely the one involving Undyne and the Puzzle. Before being promptly evacuated. Moving to the next available one of interest. Buying a little bit of time, to try and resolve this properly.
The memories turning to them hanging out in Undynes hideout. With Chara feeling anxious, as the woman left them there. Heading out to some unknown place.
"It'll...be okay." Aliza assured her. "She's...real strong."
"Yeah..." Chara admitted. "I doubt anything would be much of a threat to Big Sis, honestly."
Aliza for her part, didn't respond with words. Merely humming in agreement. Following along as Chara plopped down on the couch. Examining it, and the room. Flickering bits of the room in a more destroyed state breaching...how? A bit of weaving, resolving that...
Aliza sat beside her counterpart, getting comfortable in her spot. While setting down a toy axe. Did she always have that? The more timid of the two recalled something about the present vhs. It was like an echo, a memory that wasn't entirely her own. But it bled in all the same?
Aliza asked. "Uhm...should we...take uh..." She tailed, getting a glance. "T-the movie?"
Chara for her part, seemed amused by the hesitant response, and replied. "We should, honestly." Before clicking the button to start it. "Or...maybe we don't?"
Aliza let out a little gasp. "C-chara-" Her counterpart laughed earnestly. "b-but-"
"It was a suggestion, dweeb. We'll be okay." The soul of perseverance assured. "Besides, I thought you were brave~"
The teasing produced a bit of blushing from her counterpart. She had been challenged, and knowing who was doing the challenging, she was loath to back down. Merely huffing, despite having articulated what she wagered would have been a rather comprehensive, and articulate retort.
Following this, they began to watch the show together. The purple-eyed girl laughing now and then, at her counterparts little gasps, or shocked expressions. Namely at violent situations which occurred. However, this was quickly turned on her, when certain characters began to flirt, or chat with one another in less than subtle hints of attraction.
The most defining one being an angel lady, that made her blush beat red. The orange-eyed girl doing the same, despite snickering at her companions obvious embarrassment. However, before the peculiar memory was permitted to continue, it began to glitch.
Doctor...what are you doing?
The force between the barriers elected not to stop the glitch. Curious for a moment, to see what was being done. Sensing that the two girls were both present, in some fashion, in this dream intended for only one.
Things moved to another memory. Less grounded in things Chara knew, and recalled, instead pulling from things that had been torn from her. Aspects of a 'memory' dragged into the abyss. Strands of it pieced together, and warped, by a calculated hand. Reaching from some place dark, darker, yet darker.
It began, then, in a place that didn't exist. The broken memory flickering, glitching. So removed, that even the impression of it, was struggling to maintain.
Charas memory flicking forward to her standing before someone with orange eyes, in an inky abyss. However that being had been lost, shredded even from proper memory. Leaving the child unable to discern what they looked like. The one between noted the dark hand was not moving to fill the gap, and so, did it instead.
The impression, and subsequent linked individual that was Aliza was placed within. Occupying the space of another orange eyed child. The dream seeming to settle with this replacement, rattling as though it were displeased all the same.
The two had entered in, via a strange door. That was recalled by them. Following a strange kid, into some place they were hopelessly unfamiliar with.
"That was dumb." Chara muttered disapprovingly.
"Following...him?" Aliza asked, she couldn't help but agree.
"Honestly, it leaves me feeling like a door-k." The purple eyed girl punned, her counterpart snickering. "Heh, I know the joke is door-ish, but I appreciate the chuckle."
"You're silly." Aliza replied, with a little smile, thinking of one herself. "Uhm...l-like uh..."
Her counterpart, pacing around the abyss smiled some. Seeming to have noticed the attempt to make a joke. Also noting its subsequent failure. Stepping over, to poke a finger against her counterparts head.
"C'mon. I know you've got a joke in there." Chara noted, the other girl looking nervous. "I'm gonna keep pesterin you, until you tell it to me. So."
She began to repeatedly poke the other girl. The soul of bravery blinking, and laughing a bit at the action. Before finally huffing, and taking a step back to avoid one.
"Fine." Aliza stuck out her tongue. "I...a-door...the uh...the..jokes. Heh."
Chara heard the response, and snickered. "So proud of you~"
"That...was hard." Aliza noted, with a nervous laugh.
"Pshh, na. You did great." The soul of perseverance replied. "Now, let me...pun-door my options, as a response." Aliza snickered. "Make you a-door me, rather than just my pun-derful sense of humor."
Aliza blinked, and smirked. "You...you're a-door-k."
"I do my best." Chara stated with an honest smile.
Once more the memory started to glitch. Though, this was due to tampering, and the memories own instability. Resulting in aspects of it beginning to break apart.
The destination of choice was made out of a necessity. For the instability of this 'dream' was growing, the memory it was pulling from all but collapsing. Crumbling now, unable to be sustained for any good measure of time.
There were flashes of a fight, intense and desperate. Of the two battling some horrific creature. Only snippets of it, but enough to weave together the basics. A slightly altered replay of the scenes it was attempting to replicate. Before it stabilized enough to play out the important moment.
Something pulled her counterpart into the air, as the orange-eyed girl had moved. Taking a step to buy her counterpart more time. To try and save them both against something that seemed unstoppable.
But it was, ultimately, an expression of futility in action. The girl brought eye to eye with the creature. Lacking a reference, Alizas worked to identify the individual, placing the scariest thing she knew in its place. The non-human, with eyes full of hate.
Chara tried to muster the will to move, to cast a spell, to do...anything. But it just fizzled out. She didn't have any more TP, any tension. All of it replaced by an overwhelming fear, dragged down into despair. Her soul fading, turning grey, as it overtook her thoughts.
A motion seeing something like a phantom hand tear forward, grasping her counterpart by the mouth. Muffled screams following, her eyes shutting. What followed was a sound, wet, noisy, splashing. Then, something like tearing leather, more splashing, and muffled cries. Her eyes opening to see the last desperate kicks of the other girls legs getting slower.
The memory began to fall apart, too quickly. Between barriers a force grasped at the edges. To try and hold onto it. To play it out. It had to be experienced, for the impression to solidify. For a compulsion, an instinct to form. A 'need' even if it wasn't to be understood by the ones being manipulated.
Chara was crying as the other girls eyes glassed over. The writhing coming to a stop. She crawled over, and hugged the body, feeling the warm blood. The only sound she could even perceived, was the ever pervasive screaming that was blood in her ears. She didn't know what to do.
The memory collapsed, into a frenzy of sensations. Of a fight, of a brutal beatdown of the interloping force. Of hate, and exhaustion. Bits of the end, replayed as words, boomed into her her mind. Given to her, from an entity she couldn't see. Couldn't comprehend, a man, repeating things, with some deviation.
"I'm afraid, that data...is gone." The voice indicated, as she sobbed harder. "Though, if you had tried harder...perhaps she would still be alive."
"But don't worry." He smiled, keeping a pocket of this place in tact. "A 'brand new friend' back home." It continued, glitching. "I think you'll like her, if she survives." The voice hummed at the end. "But we both doubt that. After all. You've never managed to save a single child, have you?"
The memory broke apart, completely. Only the impressions of it left, burned into the girls mind. Her psyche unable to cope with it. Trauma, laying on what was already present. Repressed, suppressed, and then shattered. She wouldn't remember this 'dream' properly.
No, it, like much in her troubled little mind, was destined to be lost. But the impression of it had been made. The concepts burned into her mind. So that even if she never recalled these false memories, they could never be 'forgotten.'
In the abyss of her mind, screaming into the dark. Unable to escape what had become a nightmare, a new voice whispered to her. Indicating a question, asking her something she hadn't considered.
"Are you sure, you're the only human in the ruins?"
It was about then, that the girl woke up...as Alizas eyes scanned the space around her. Her head ringing from a rather heavy blow to the head. Coming, in part, from her slipping, doing so.
The Non-Human, nearby, pacing in irritation. Noticing the perspective shift, having fallen on them both. The woman huffing some.
"You're awake, wonderful." The Non-Human stepped over. "Are you alright, sweetheart?"
Aliza examined the woman, and felt a terrible dread at this being. Far more than she had before. For reasons she didn't fully understand. It was as if the idea had come to her in a dream, that this being was dangerous. But try as she might, she couldn't recall it. Merely feeling...the impression, it left behind.
"Sorry." The girl apologized, unaware of her counterpart waking up elsewhere, with a similar 'sensation.'
"It's fine. It's fine." The woman remarked, trying to hide her irritation. "Just watch where you step please."
"Okay." The girl nodded, as her hand was grasped, and they began moving again.
She had wanted to explain that it felt like she had been pushed. Like there was a man behind her, who had done so. But that sounded silly. And, for some reason, she didn't feel like she trusted this non-human as much as she had before. Not that there was a lot there to begin with.
Interesting decision, Doctor. Interesting, indeed.