What lied beyond the door was Chara's favorite place, they knew. But even so, as the children stood there beside each other, both were hesitant to go through into the Underground, knowing it would be difficult. And yet it was the only way to return Frisk home, to learn what was truly going on here.
They exited into a long hallway, and before they came upon the snowy area ahead of them they again met with the flower. "Clever," it said, "verrryyy clever. You think you're really smart, don't you?"
"Don't listen to it, Frisk. It's not... it's not normal. It doesn't seem like a monster." Chara's own soul wasn't with them, but somehow they could tell... this flower did not have a soul either. It continued to smile, but squinted a bit, looking normally at Frisk but sometimes glancing to the side. Was it looking at them? Could it somehow see them...?
"...in this world," it went on, suspiciously glancing aside every few seconds but continuing to keep up the charade anyway, "it's kill, or be killed. So you were able to play by your own rules!" Its face twisted as it had previously, its voice distorting as it said, "You spared the life of a single person. Hee hee hee..."
They hadn't killed a single monster, and didn't plan on it. "It's just wasting its time," Chara said, before the flower's face returned to normal, looking somewhat amused as it looked... directly at the ghost child. "I bet you feel really great. You didn't kill anybody... this time." The child's eyes widened. If it knew they were here, did it know... about... "What will you do if you meet a relentless killer? You'll die. And you'll die. And you'll die. Until you tire of trying! What will you do then...?"
Its face distorted even more than before as it laughed, "Will you kill out of frustration? Or will you give up entirely on this world... and let ME inherit the power to control it?" Chara could see vines shifting in the darkness around them, the single illuminated area where Flowey sat otherwise distracting from the fact he could attack at any moment. "I am the prince of this world's future," the flower went on, eyes shifting again to Chara, "Don't worry, my little monarch, my plan isn't regicide."
At last, it turned its eyes to Frisk one last time to say, "This is SO much more interesting," before its crazed laugh rang out and it disappeared into the ground, leaving the children alone.
Leaving them both... confused, honestly. "He can... he can definitely see me! At least... a little. He looked like he was struggling." Chara closed their eyes, thinking on his words. He knew who they were, too...? He referred to them as a monarch, but... "What is he? How would he know that? I don't... Ugh! This doesn't make sense! What is he planning anyway?!" They trudged forward without another word, Frisk looking at them in concern but merely following behind.
Together, they went out into the cold of the Snowdin forest. They decided to rest there for a few minutes, giving time for Chara to think on even more confusing things.
"Mother said... there were more children." Chara leaned against the closed door, trying to think on what little they'd heard. "She said Dad was going to kill you! Dad couldn't kill anybody! But Mom...!" They slowly slumped to the ground, covering their head with their arms as they muttered, "She wouldn't lie... She wouldn't lie about that... Why is she saying this? Why is she saying these things?"
Frisk reached out to hopelessly attempt to touch Chara, but they lowered their arms, revealing the tears on their face. "She... did she adopt all those other children? Like she was going to with you? There's nothing of me or Ri in the house. Nothing... nothing... Did I mean nothing to her? Am I just another shoe in her box?"
There had always been something about their adoptive parents that... drove Chara away. They were closer to Asriel than them, but they figured it was some distrust of adults. Maybe they'd been right about it.
...no, they couldn't think that way. Toriel had taken them in and protected them. Toriel had fed them and loved them when they knew no love in their life. Her warmth, both in personality and in magic, kept them warm when they knew nothing all their life but this coldness they could not rid themself of. She was their mother. She was in pain. Thinking back on her words, Chara knew she probably felt as though she was to blame for Chara's death. She thought herself pathetic because she could not protect a single child.
...so what had happened to Asriel?
"W-We have to keep going," they said, wiping the tears from their face and quickly standing up. Frisk nodded as Chara walked ahead, but paused to stare at the bush next to the ruin door when they saw it. Was that something shining there...? "Come on, Frisk!" They turned their head to see Chara further down the dark road, and ran after them to catch up. The two of them were... determined to go on, despite what had just occurred.
The road they were on, however, was... creepy, to say the very least. "People used to travel back and forth between Snowdin and the Ruins all the time," Chara told Frisk, "especially when I first got here. Monsters were just moving out into the snow through Home. We got to see different monsters all the time. I met a lot of people." They smiled thinking about it, but immediately frowned after a few seconds when they heard a loud cracking noise. They turned around quickly to see a branch they'd just passed... now split in half. "...Frisk, something's here."
The living child turned and saw nothing, holding up the notebook in their arms to write, "What is it?" Chara shook their head, not knowing, but mentioned they should definitely hurry along. The forest could be dangerous now...
Something moved in the corner of their eyes, startling both of them, causing them to speed up. As they reached the bridge near the end of the path, however... footsteps behind them... slowly crept up... Frisk froze up, too afraid to look back, and for a moment Chara almost did the same, but... they had a responsibility. They couldn't be attacked – at least they were pretty sure – so they turned around to see... "...it's... a skeleton."
A small skeleton in a blue jacket, slowly walking up, but not looking very threatening. Once he was directly behind Frisk, he said in a low tone, "Human."
Frisk wasn't sure what to do, but looking to Chara... the ghost child nodded. They turned around before being prompted, looking at the figure which held out a single bony hand. Figuring it'd be best to make a good first impression on the first monster out here – out here, where things were dangerous enough Toriel had wanted to protect them from it – they reached out their hand as well to grab it.
A loud... farting noise rang out. They stared in confusion. Chara stared in confusion. The skeleton laughed, though, mentioning the old whoopee cushion gag as both children looked in disbelief. Was this supposed to be scary? Had they really been afraid of him? He asked if Frisk had heard it before, though... "you turned around before i said to... weird." Chara scratched the back of their head, knowing it was really their fault Frisk turned around early, but Frisk just continued to look at the skeleton, not sure what to expect. "...whatever. you're a human, right? i'm sans. sans the skeleton. im actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. but... y'know... i don't really care about capturing anybody."
Frisk's eyes widened. Capturing? Is that what had happened to all the other children Toriel had mentioned? Were they captured and killed by the King? They looked in the corner of their eye, seeing Chara's stunned face. They knew nothing of it either.
"now my brother, papyrus... he's a human-hunting FANATIC. hey, actually, I think that's him over there. i have an idea. go through this gate thingy." Frisk turned around, looking at the... gate? Fence? It didn't look like it would stop anybody, leading them to look back at sans for confirmation. "yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone." Without giving them much choices, Sans suddenly pushed Frisk along through the bars, with Chara yelling after them in concern. "quick, behind that conveniently-shaped lamp."
It took Frisk, reeling from being pushed down the rest of the path, a moment to comprehend what he meant, but when they saw it they quickly went to hide behind it and attempt not to move.
Chara had followed along, and after making sure Frisk was safe watched the scene unfold before them.
A taller skeleton – Papyrus – came along, scolding Sans for his supposed laziness. Sans suggested multiple times Papyrus check out the lamp, leading both children to panic, but the taller skeleton was so worked up he didn't even bother. He went on and on about being the one to capture a human so he, the Great Papyrus, would get all the things he deserved! Respect, recognition, finally joining the royal guard... Chara knew some monsters from the royal guard. They weren't... nearly this ridiculous, from what they knew.
Several bad puns later, Papyrus ran off, laughing as he ran off. Sans signaled shortly after for Frisk to come out. "you oughta get going. he might come back. and if he does... you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes." With that, he winked, Chara noticing Frisk's smile. They turned to leave, motioning at Chara when Sans wasn't looking, but before they could get very far Sans called after them, "actually, hey... hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favor? i was thinking... my brother's been kind of down lately... he's never seen a human before." Which further confused the children, considering how sure he seemed he'd catch one. "and seeing you might just make his day. don't worry, he's not dangerous. even if he tries to be."
The two kids looked at each other with uncertainty. "I mean... you could handle mom just fine. She was holding back, but she's still a lot stronger than most monsters. Even if he tries, I think you can handle him... you just need to be careful." Frisk nodded, and turned to nod at Sans as Chara shouted, "Fine, but you better be right about this, bonehead!" They honestly just needed to make a pun, but...
Sans wasn't looking at Frisk. He was looking in the completely opposite direction as he said, as if seeing Frisk's nod or hearing Chara's words, "thanks a million. i'll be up ahead." And with that, he turned to head the other way.
"...what a weirdo."
...and so began the rest of their journey.
