I still live. Sorry this took a hot minute, moving across the country takes a lot of time and effort, as it turns out. Funny how that works. Anyways, onto the rev-...oh. There actually haven't been any reviews since last time, so I guess there's not much to reply to this time around, most of the people who read this shit are in the Discord server anyways, I guess. Thanks as always goes out to all of y'all, as well as Ari, TheEhGatsby, and this time Wingah as well for helping preview and edit this chapter, and XWolf26 for writing DoubleTale & DoubleScramble.
I don't own Undertale, DoubleTale, or DoubleScramble. Still not sure why this is really a thing authors slap on the frontend, like, it's literally in the site name. FanFiction. Meh, who am I to argue with tradition? Let's get this show back on the road.
Frisk groaned as they hauled themselves up and over one of Hotlands many ledges, pointedly ignoring the text box filled with comic sans as they glared at the path ahead. Said path was currently blocked off by a conveyor belt moving at absurdly dangerous speeds…in the opposite direction that they needed to be. Trying to be stubborn and book it across had nearly gotten them a bath in molten magma for their troubles. Even getting over here had been a massive pain in the ass, since the lab door was locked for once, and the elevator wasn't much better. Their noodly arms couldn't pry either of the doors open, even bolstered by LOVE. This meant they'd had to…improvise.
*i'm still shocked you didn't have a rockier time climbing around the lab
Frisk stifled another groan, glaring at their box. "Yeah, real funny, the pun shtick definitely hasn't gotten old yet, Sans."
*glad to know you still lava my humor, kiddo
"...I don't know why I still talk to you." Frisk grumbled as they stood up and dusted themselves off, glaring at the punk-ass conveyor belt.
*maybe because you kill all your other conversational partners
"..." The dust-covered human ignored their text box, instead leaning over the side of the path to get a better look at the mechanism driving the conveyor belt. After a few moments of staring, an idea seemed to spring to mind. They pulled a busted up revolver from their inventory, lazily spinning the empty chamber once before taking aim and cocking back the hammer. With a squeeze of the trigger a bolt of Determined red energy streaked from the barrel, crashing into where they guessed the motor that powered the belt was. The corners of their mouth turned up in a smirk as they watched the mechanism shudder and creak, before sputtering to a stop.
Frisk idly pulled up their stats as they moved on across the still conveyor belt, their smirk fading a little as they noted their current LOVE. Less than average for this point, which was frustrating. All the time they'd spent trying to get around that stupid lab had been more time for monsters to flee, but somehow, that didn't bother them as much as it probably should've. This run was a bust from the moment that other human had shown up, especially with the Judge already put down early. They'd clean up this area, see if any surprises lay in wait in New Home, and then Sans would Reset everything and things would likely go back to normal. Something about that thought wiped the rest of their smirk from their face. Right. It wasn't their game anymore, it was the comedian's.
Chapter Seven: Social Link
"Use a little mercy, won't you?"
With their mood thoroughly tanked, Frisk methodically made their way across the next set of belts. Eventually they lost their patience and just opened fire on the clustered belts until they were so full of holes that something broke and brought them to a stop. They thoughtlessly dusted a few stragglers as they forged ahead, the motions smooth and robotic. They'd done this all before. Time and time again. They ignored the feeling of something crawling down their spine as they marched onwards, brushing a Save Point as they passed it.
The vents, much like the conveyor belts, had been tampered with. Waving their hand over the metal grate confirmed that they had been shut off. Frisk pouted, before sizing up the gaps between the pillars of rock. After taking a few steps back and stretching their legs, they got a running start and leapt over the first gap. This was barely a setback, they thought to themselves as they continued to leap from platform to platform, only occasionally having to catch themselves on a ledge. They glanced around before casually taking aim and dusting another straggler that must have gotten stranded when the vents shut off.
*your LOVE has increased
Moving on, Frisk hopped more gaps before eventually coming to a long bridge of pipes…which currently was lit up with the laser light show from hell. The series of lasers that typically barred the path and generally made nuisances of themselves were still there, but now they flickered between blue and orange beams at seemingly random intervals, never shut off, and their emitters erratically rocked back and forth on their track, pivoting to swing their beams around wildly. They took a few potshots with their busted gun, only for the determined red bolts to glance off the metal housing of the lasers.
"...this is bullshit."
*no, this is Hotland
Frisk simply sighed and looked over their inventory, occasionally glancing between it and the beams. After a minute of internal debate, they pulled out a pair of Crabapples, took a deep breath, and broke into a dead sprint.
"This is gonna suuuuuuuccccckkkkk!" they screamed, their eyes and soul flaring with Determination as they felt the beams tear into them, stuffing their face with monster food as they ran and stifling cries of agony. Eventually, after what felt like days but couldn't have been any longer than 10 seconds, they emerged on the other side, collapsing into a smoking heap as they bit into a leftover cinnamon bunny.
"...that was stupid…but fuck you, it worked." Frisk winced as they felt their burnt, tender skin make contact with the warm rock, before heaving a sigh of relief as their burns slowly healed. They didn't have to look to know they'd just burned half their inventory on a stupid idea, but they didn't really need most of those items anyways, they reasoned. With Cter gone, no one could even come close to touching them, and there was still the Hotel to raid.
*hey, no reason to beam mean, i had full confidence in ya
Frisk huffed and looked down at their sweater as they stood up. It was nearly totaled, covered in burnt holes and gashes, but they knew it was a pretty straight shot to the next Save Point anyways, which would solve that problem rather handily. They climbed to their feet, trudging further down the path. They hopped another ventless gap, and swiftly punched in the combination of inputs that would solve the first of the two puzzles to open the door, not even glancing up at the screen…only to hear the sound of the puzzle being failed. Their gaze shot to the screen, their eyes widening as they looked at a completely different puzzle than the one that was supposed to be here. They grit their teeth, a groan quickly escalating into a frustrated scream.
"OH COME OOONNN!"
Autumn leaves crunched beneath my boots as I trudged along, my tired blue eyes scanning the sidewalk for anything even remotely interesting to kill the time. My breaths came out as clouds of vapor, which mingled with the smoke coming from some poor schmuck's clunker of a car. It was a good thing the moon was so bright tonight, given how many of the street lamps needed new bulbs. That kinda stuff cost money though, money which, more often enough, the city didn't care to spend on our neck of the woods.
I was stirred from my thoughts by the crack of gunfire ringing out somewhere else in the city. I tugged my hoodie tighter, and kept my head down as I picked up my pace while clutching my bag of fizzy caffeine sludge in a whiteknuckled grip. Shit like this was why I stayed at home. Gangs, murders, drugs, this place was a shitheap, but at least sometimes it was a quiet shitheap.
I glanced up once I recognized some of the crooked stoops in the corner of my vision, staring at the aged brown bricks of the apartment complex that I called home. It was, admittedly, one of the nicer complexes on the block, but that wasn't really saying much. Weeds still wormed their way through cracks in the bricks, some of the windows were replaced with boards or trash bags, the gutter was still backed up with god only knows what…I heaved a sigh and shook my head, pulling out my phone to check the time.
The sound of an engine getting closer made me drop my phone and look to my left…just in time to see a pair of busted headlights flying towards me at speeds that would be worth a ticket if the cops actually bothered. I scarcely had time to scream before my stomach dropped, the world feeling like it was rushing up around me as a hole opened up in the street and swallowed me whole. It felt like I was drowning in the darkness as I thrashed and struggled, my lungs screaming for air that never seemed to come no matter how much I gasped and heaved, my heart was hammering in my chest so fast I worried it would burst as-
I shot up in bed, soaked in a cold sweat, my chest heaving as I did my best to remember I could breathe. I collapsed back with a groan, already beginning to hate the stale, refrigerated air even as I thanked my lucky stars it could fill my lungs. Fuck.
"Some dream, eh?" I asked aloud, unsurprised by the lack of response as I glanced towards where my textbox tended to make its appearance. I sat back up and swung my legs over the side of the bed with a groan, the strange sensation of static in my veins felt stronger than last time. I stood up on shaky legs after tugging on and lacing up my boots, slowly rolling up the sleeves of my borrowed sweater and making my way towards the only place that mattered at the moment.
Gaster was nowhere in sight when I stepped into the room, but surprisingly enough, Chara was. They seemed to be lost in thought as they stared up at the giant metallic skull which loomed over the platform in the center of the room. Their jacket was nowhere in sight, as were the canisters I'd previously seen them lugging around in it.
"...h-hey." I awkwardly greeted, rubbing at the bags beneath my tired blue eyes.
"...greetings. How are you feeling?" they replied after a moment or two of silence, their dull maroon eyes locking onto mine as they turned to look me over.
"Like death warmed over." I groaned, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my pajamas.
Chara nodded, glancing back at the machine one more time before walking up to rest a hand on my shoulder. "Let's get you something to eat then, we can't have you keel over before the next infusion."
The thought of eating anything right now nearly made me want to hurl, but the look in Chara's eyes didn't exactly leave much room for debate. "...aren't we on some kinda time crunch here?"
"Doctor Mettaton's working on it, and his cousin Napstabot is handling dust collection in Hotland." Chara explained, leading me back down the way I'd come and through the room full of beds. We turned down the hallway I'd last seen the morouse metal man leave through, passing a couple of those dead monitors. Our footsteps echoed off the walls all around us, the only sound other than our breathing that broke the still silence of the lab. Eventually, we came upon an elevator, which opened to a jarringly cheery checkerboard interior of hot pink and yellow.
The ride up was exceedingly awkward, with Chara seemingly content not to say anything, and myself struggling through the soup in my skull to come up with something to break the silence. Nearly a minute passed this way, though admittedly my sense of time had been bent over a table by all this time away from a clock and the sun, before I managed to find something to say. I opened my mouth to speak…only to get cut off by the sound of Chara awkwardly clearing their throat.
"Gaster explained some things…things that, at first, I didn't want to believe." they began, looking much less comfortable than they had made themselves out to be just a minute ago.
"This isn't the first time any of this has happened. The child arriving, people dying, everyone scrambling for some way to stop this madness…" Chara turned and stared at me, their eyes piercing through mine like ruby-tipped drills, searching for something I couldn't fathom. "...only this time, things are different."
I swallowed hard, once more feeling the weight of the underground press down on my shoulders, threatening to cause my shaky legs to buckle and surrender me to gravity's whims.
"...if things are all as he described…then I suppose I see why Cter was so quick to put his trust in you. You're supposedly our only chance at fixing this mess." Chara continued, heaving a sigh as once more they looked over my disheveled, exhausted appearance. "...but in this state? You're no good to anyone, let alone yourself."
Whatever dumb, hotheaded remark was about to slip from my lips was cut off by the ding of the elevator stopping, the doors sliding open to reveal…a surprisingly homey laboratory. The walls were a nice shade of peach, the tiling on the floor being a slightly darker pair of shades in a checkerboard pattern. One of the doors that presumably led outside sat to our left, and to the right the whole rest of the lab stretched. The wall directly opposite the elevator was lined with cabinets, a sink, a fridge, and other mundane essentials, while the one it was set into was dominated by various computer monitors, a green screen which was flanked by various stage lights, and a mannequin garbed in a pale blue dress in the far corner.
Chara strode over to the fridge, digging through it before eventually pulling out some cheap looking fast food. The packaging proclaimed them to be 'Beat Burgers', and was printed to look like a speaker. The burger itself was shaped like a speaker…which meant it just looked like a normal burger. I couldn't help but giggle as I stared at it for a second.
"I don't know what I expected." I mumbled, grinning faintly as I closed the little box back up, before following Chara as they made their way to the door at the far end of the room.
"They're a little tacky, but they taste adequate. Nowhere near as good as Gaster's, but it's better than nothing." the maroon-eyed sentry remarked, before leading me out onto the path that led back towards Waterfall. We hung a left, coming to a stop near the river. "Gah, why does anyone live in Hotland when it's so miserably warm?" they grumbled, taking a seat near the water's edge.
"M-Maybe because some of them are literally on fire?" I offered, vaguely recalling a few of the monsters in Hotland, things like living volcanoes or burning coils of rope.
"I suppose." Chara grumbled and opened up their burger, taking a large bite out of it.
I silently followed suit at my stomach's insistence. Turns out not eating for large stretches of time is bad for one's health. Go figure. After demolishing half of my burger, I looked out at the water, lost in my thoughts. Soon I'd have to go get blasted with more magic, and then I'd have to go fight some strange kid to the death, more than likely an absurd amount of times. An entire kingdom, or what was left of one anyways, was counting on me, and here I was, sitting on my ass and eating burgers.
"So...you have magic now. What's that like?"
I glanced over at Chara, offering a half-hearted shrug. "...tingly. My blood feels like someone dumped caffeine and battery acid in it, then shook me up and tazed me."
"Ouch." they rather eloquently replied, cringing a little.
"...not as painful as it sounds, surprisingly…just, like, really jittery and twitchy…" I explained, taking another quick bite of my burger.
"That's good, I suppose…" they mumbled back, before returning to their food as well.
The silence stretched on long after we finished our meal, the two of us occasionally opening our mouths to say something, before closing them again.
*Say something, idiot.
I had to bite back a scathing reply for my mutinous text box, instead trying to focus on finding something that felt worth saying. All this small talk was going nowhere.
*Then skip the small talk.
I swallowed a lump in my throat as the silence grew deafening, before managing to find my voice again.
"...I…I'm sorry…about what happened to Cter…" I managed to choke out. I couldn't bring myself to look Chara in the eye, but I didn't have to to notice the way they stiffened next to me.
"...don't be….it wasn't your fault. Cter…Cter chose to put himself between us and that…child." Chara replied after a minute or two, causing me to stiffen as they rested a hand on my shoulder.
"...but…"
The hand resting on my shoulder squeezed, and I forced myself to meet Chara's intense gaze.
"Stop…I've had some time to think about this since we last spoke, and have learned some things that I, perhaps, would rather not have. We are not responsible for the decisions of others. We decided to risk our lives to spare the child. They decided to make us regret it. Cter decided to take a bullet for us. All we can do now is try our best to keep moving forward, to make better decisions." Chara's expression cycled between pensive, pained, and finally resolved as they attempted to drill their point into my thick skull.
I swallowed hard, taking a few moments to digest what they'd said as they let go of my shoulder and heaved a sigh.
"...why did you try to spare them?" the question tumbled from my lips before I could stop it as memories of that fight replayed in my mind, the way they'd spoken to Frisk standing out in particular. "Y-You told them that you'd been in their place before…" I continued, slowly turning over some of the things I'd heard about Cter in the past day or so over in my mind. I had a hunch, which, granted, said hunch was cheating because I had context that I otherwise couldn't, but still.
Chara let out a sardonic chuckle after a few moments of stunned silence, shaking their head and staring down at the water. "That, Marian, is because I have. It was how Cter and I met. I was an angry, angry child, lashing out at a world I couldn't understand. Monsters, being so fragile, couldn't hold up under that kind of abuse, and they died because of it. It was all too easy to bury myself in the feeling of accruing LOVE, to distance myself from the pain," the sentry took a moment to shake off what I could only assume were less than pleasant memories.
"I got as far as Snowdin before Cter showed up to be the big damn hero." Chara smiled faintly. "We fought in the same spot that you and I tried to stop the child. It was…strange, how familiar Cter felt when I first saw him, but knowing what I know now it seems obvious in hindsight. He had the same ability to rewind time, and used it to ensure that the fight would eventually go in his favor. He always knew where to dodge, or where I'd be next, and it didn't take long before he had me dead to rights. He could've just finished me off and been done with it…but he still gave me a chance. He helped me turn my life around…" The smile on Chara's face fell once more into a pensive frown. "...I thought I saw hints of myself in that child. That they just needed someone to give them a chance to be better…a part of me still does…but things aren't like they were back then, and I don't know how to reach them."
I felt the weight of the world press down a little harder as they stared at me.
"But I suppose Cter couldn't have known how to get through to me either. Not until he spent who knows how many fights trying to make it work, to save me from myself. I'm not going to ask you to bend over backwards to spare them or anything…but…if the opportunity does present itself…at least give them one last chance?" Chara's expression looked a little sheepish, which just felt weird to see on them.
"...I-I'll try…" even weirder was the answer I found myself giving.
"Thank you, Marian…" they trailed off, chuckling as my stomach pleaded for sustenance, "I'll go see what else is in the Doctor's fridge, sit tight." they casually ordered, standing and making their way back up the path, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I couldn't help but think about Chara's story, and what I'd seen of Frisk. The way they'd casually brutalized me, both in Snowdin and Waterfall. The way they spoke like none of this really mattered. How long had they been doing this? Could they really still be saved? Did they even deserve to be saved? The answer should've been cut and dry, but I found writing them off as a lost cause a lot harder in the face of what I'd just learned.
*Don't look now, but you don't have a lot of time left to make up your mind.
"Thanks, Captain Obvious, I was truly lost without your guidance. Where the hell were you, anyway?" I grumbled, glaring at the text box in front of me.
*Snuck out to go out to the sock hop with the girls.
"Fine, be that way." I huffed, before glancing back down the path, seeing Chara jogging towards me with another pair of those cheap burgers. I eagerly accepted one, and they reclaimed their spot to my right.
The atmosphere felt less oppressive as we ate, though neither of us spoke. The sounds of the river rushing by us echoing off the cave walls and the munching of mediocre fast food were the only things to break the silence, and they helped soothe the raging storm in my mind. My thoughts began to drift towards the fight to come, and the tools I had at my disposal. The only thing I had that Frisk didn't at this point was magic, and I barely knew what I could even do with it. That had to change, and soon. My text box was right. The clock was ticking.
And that's that. Here's hoping this was worth the wait. Probably only got a chapter or two to go before the big fight. That's gonna be a doozy to write. Anyways, if you've got the time to spare, consider leaving a review, or follow and/or favorite the story so that you too can be notified every 3 or so months when a new chapter finally sees the light of day.
That's all for now, I suppose. As always, I'm TiredWhiteMayge, and I...was supposed to be asleep 2 hours ago. God damn it. Good night.