...but somebody came.

In the Nexus was an unconscious human child about Chara's age. Immediately, all they could think of is that they weren't alone, leading them to rush to the child's side and kneel down. Was this kid... dead? What a question, considering Chara didn't even know if they were dead. The kid wore a similar sweater to theirs, blue with two purple stripes, same dark grey pants, same shoes... Their hair was a little shorter, though, a bit of a darker shade of brown and a bit fluffier... Skin somewhat darker than the pale white skin Chara had as a result of the magic within them...

The kid's clothes were almost too similar for comfort. Were they from the same village? Same lab? Chara wanted to reach out and touch them, but didn't want to risk harming them if their skin wasn't as cold... They instead lifted their hand to their face, barely grazing the skin under their left eye. Did they have the same black eye? Were they both dead? Where did they even come from?

There was too much to ask. What if they didn't even wake up?

Almost on cue, they stirred a bit, Chara's eyes widening in response. They hesitantly reached out, careful not to touch them as they grasped their head and rose. "Are you..." Chara began as they lifted their head to look at Chara. They looked normal enough, throwing off Chara with the whole eye thing and what-not, but... "...okay?" Chara concluded after realizing they'd somewhat awkwardly paused. The kid only nodded in response.

As if that wordless reply set something off in Chara, they began shooting off questions: Do you know where we are? (Shake of the head no.) Do you know who you are? (Yes.) Did you die at any point? (...a hesitant no, accompanied by a concerned look.) Are you... are you from a village near Mt. Ebott?

There wasn't an immediate response, as the child seemed to purposely ignore the question suddenly to look around. They stood up, leading Chara to do the same, as walked a few steps away, seeming to look for something. They wordlessly turned to Chara, suddenly... gesturing at them. Slow hand movements at first, but upon seemingly realizing something, they made a gesture like writing on a piece of paper – and that's when Chara realized, "O-Oh... you can't talk?" Another nod. Of course, stuck in a void with a mute... sort of. That led Chara to another important question, "When you close your eyes... and you think of something, like a memory? Can you see a different place from this?"

The kid seemed confused, staring at Chara for a few moments before seeming to try it. They didn't seem to disappear or anything... but they didn't seem to see things differently in the first place, looking at Chara once again and shrugging. "Okay... give me a minute. If I disappear don't freak out, okay? I'll be right back." That said, they closed their eyes and focused on a place... that place where they fell, shimmering into place around them even as they opened their eyes.

But... the kid was still there, turning to examine the area and looking confused. Chara had brought them, too? "So... you see all this, right?" Another nod. "I... I somehow can pull this up from my memories. Oh, but... um... that's new..."

There was... some sort of rectangular object behind the other child. They turned around to see what Chara was talking about and checked it – a floating object with only the word "NEW". They looked back to Chara, who only shrugged and approached to also check it out. "I was here just before I found you and this wasn't here. I wonder what it is..." They stood beside the child, tilting their head, and reached out to touch it –

Not only did their hand go through it completely, as if it weren't there, but Chara suddenly grasped their hand and screamed. Incredible pain shot through them as they tried to retrieve their arm from the floating object, as the other child turned and reached out to grab their arm and pull them away. Almost as soon as Chara was free, though, the child suddenly grasped their own hand and gasped, looking as though they were in less pain – but Chara couldn't notice. They nearly fell to their knees, barely managing to stay up, taking deep breaths as they tried to comprehend what happened. "What... What is... that thing?"

A few moments passed, both children in agony, and it was only when Chara recovered a bit more from what just happened before they realized exactly why the other was in pain. Part of their hand seemed to be covered in a thin layer of ice where they had grabbed Chara, which in an awful way proved Chara was wrong about them being a fellow lab rat, too. They wanted to reach out and wipe the ice away or melt it with their own warmth, yet had none to offer, leaving them with only a, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't- My skin, it's..."

To their surprise, after a few more moments of the child staring at their hand... they looked up at Chara and smiled. "It's okay," their expression seemed to say, yet Chara still repeated, "I'm... I'm really sorry. Just please don't touch me again, or... it'll just happen again." They nodded, still smiling, causing Chara to look away with guilt. "Maybe... maybe you should wrap it up so it'll melt. I-It'll still burn, I think... I'm not sure..."

The child moved in the corner of Chara's eyes, leaving them worried they were going to touch them again for whatever reason, but when Chara looked they were... reaching toward the floating object. "W-Wait! You saw what just happened, it'll hurt you! Be careful! I already hurt you-" But instead of going through the object, their hand landed on it as though it were a solid object, and they... didn't seem to be in pain. "What? Are you-"

The shimmering of the world around them suddenly intensified, startling them both. Without so much as a sound, everything seemed to blur around them and just as suddenly solidify, changing somewhat. The pillars around them vanished, their leaves littering the floor. Underneath the light from the hole in Mt. Ebott above, golden flowers suddenly burst into existence. There was silence. Nothing happened.

"...what in the world?" Chara asked after a few moments, their eyes on the golden flowers. They... they didn't grow down here, did they? They had never grown down here... that's why, to see them...

They were distracted from that thought by the other child, frantically gesturing in their direction. "What? What is it? Did something else happen? The world got weird for a moment, but-" The child shook their head, suddenly reaching forward and causing Chara to flinch away, panicking. But... but instead of touching Chara, their hand... went right through.

They still immediately pulled their hand back, at which point Chara realized while it was the one that had been icy only moments before it was now... perfectly fine, it seemed? The child still shivered, but didn't seem to be frozen, like... like their hand had passed through a ghost. A sudden drop in temperature in an otherwise warm space. Chara's heart sank. "You can see me, right? But... what? You can see through me?" The child confirmed and motioned with their hands trying to convey what they meant as Chara spoke. Well, was that it, then? Maybe... maybe Chara really was dead.

"...great!" they shouted after a few moments, turning away and crossing their arms. "Just great... Just great!" They stormed off into the flowers, suddenly sitting down in them. The other child came over to look at them in concern, and neither of them noticed the slight frost that formed over the petals of the flowers. "If I'm dead, how- Wait, you can see me! I can't be dead! But what if I am dead? I'm at least a ghost... But if I died and now I'm a ghost, what will mom and dad think? What about... what about Asriel... Ugh!" They suddenly fell back into the flower bed, frustrated, yet did not crush them. No effect at all besides the damn frost that they finally noticed because of the flowers around their head. They turned to glare at the icy petals, and among them... found a stick.

The other child seemed to want to say something, staring at them in concern as they head a slight breakdown but having no words to communicate with. They jumped when Chara suddenly lifted themselves up, turning to them and asking, "Can you write?" More nodding. "Good, then here." They motioned toward the ground, making the other child pick it up before pointing at the dirt around the flowers and saying, "I'm Chara. Can you write your name so I know what to call you?"

After staring for a few moments, the child once again smiled and nodded, rushing to do so. Chara curled up in a ball momentarily, hands around their head, thinking what it meant to be dead. What it had meant to be alive. If they were even actually dead or what the hell was going on. But they stood up before they could make the other kid worry, going over to them as they stepped back and happily waited for Chara to read their name.

/F-R-I-S-K/