( UnderGuest: Thank you for the review, it means a lot to me and inspired me to actually write the next chapter! ^^ And don't worry, everything will... probably turn out all right in the end? Hehe~

Updates slowed due to school starting back up, sorry for the wait everybody!)

They proceeded into the glowing caverns of Waterfall after a long break, immediately finding... Sans. "Can't you just ignore him?" they asked as Frisk used one of the invisible star things, looking at Sans and waving all the while. Before going to talk to him, though, Chara pointed to a glowing blue flower nearby, saying, "Go put your ear next to that."

Confused, Frisk obeyed, hearing when they did, "All that gives my life validation is explaining the Echo Flower... No one can know..." Chara snickered a bit, feeling bad for whoever had said that, but was thrown off when the guy next to the flower told Frisk, "Never trust a flower... That's one of the constants of this world."

...their mind wandered to Flowey. How could it not?

"Yo!" called the Monster Kid from nearby to Frisk, having just noticed them. "Are you sneaking out to see her, too?" Frisk looked at Chara for confirmation, but all they could do was shrug, not really knowing who he was talking about. The living child nodded anyway. "Awesome... She's the coolest, right? I wanna be just like her when I grow up... Hey, don't tell my parents I'm here. Ha ha."

His words and nervous laughter reminded Chara of something. Some instance where they and Ri had snuck off for a while to go look in the dump for human garbage... getting caught by a royal guard member... "Please don't tell our parents we're here." They sighed.

Approaching Sans, Chara had a look of irritation on their face. Taking this the wrong way or just messing with them, he asked, "what? haven't you seen a guy with two jobs before?"

"I'm just surprised you're not lazing about, to be honest." Chara told him, with Frisk furiously writing at them not to be rude.

"fortunately, two jobs means twice as many legally-required breaks." Naturally. "i'm going to grillby's. wanna come?"

Chara was about to say no, they wouldn't, they had to be off and get Frisk back to the surface as quick as they could or potentially save the monster world if that was an option, but Frisk just nodded, obviously wanting to make up for ditching his brother or something. "well, if you insist... i'll pry myself away from my work..."

He walked around his stand, but started heading in the direction that would lead them further into Waterfall. "over here. i know a shortcut." Chara rolled their eyes as Frisk followed Sans, but just before they went to follow –

k

The void came crashing down around them. There was nothing but emptiness, a nothingness that suffocates, a white, cracked face on a background that was colorless, yet not black or white. All in a single moment, they felt... fear. Fear like none other. They weren't dying. They were already d e –

It stopped.

Waterfall appeared back around them, Frisk and Sans nowhere to be seen. Nobody anywhere to be seen. "...Frisk?" They looked around, wondering where everybody had gone. "...Sans? MK? You guys... where did you... go...?" Grillby's. They were heading to Grillby's. Chara closed their eyes to teleport there, but realized... were they crying?

Then they saw it.

"Chara, where did you go?" Their crybaby brother, huddled in the corner all alone. Crying. They had made him cry. "I'm sorry, I didn't... I do trust you! Chara! Please come back... please don't leave me..."

"I... I wouldn't, Ri!" They tried to shout back at him, but he didn't seem to hear them. "Ri? Ri, please! I miss you so much! We were supposed to be together forever, but... my soul... what happened to my soul?"

They jumped, feeling something go through them. It was... Frisk. Frisk? "Frisk, Ri is..." But... he was gone, no longer in the corner. MK and the other guy were nearby once again. Sans was back in the place he'd been in before. "He's... I don't know. Where did you go?"

They looked concerned as they moved to write down, "I went to Grillby's. I was gone maybe fifteen minutes. Are you okay?"

Fifteen – but it had been a minute at most! Ugh, why did they even question it? "...I'm fine, but I think your friend's up to weird void stuff." Frisk still looked confused, but they just shook their head, turning to finally proceed deeper into Waterfall. As they passed Sans, he winked, saying, "let's hang out again sometime." Chara didn't even glance his way.

Before they were fully out of the room, though, they paused and looked at Frisk. "...hey, do you know anybody with a pale... sort of cracked face? I saw a monster like that earlier but I'm not sure what they were..."

Neither child, shrugging and continuing on, noticed the faded blue glow of the skeleton's eye.

"All we have is a bisicle... will you be okay? Maybe we should go back to Snowdin?" Frisk shook their head, closing the box, determined to save the things inside for if things got desperate. They walked around the waterfall at first, seeing an Echo Flower in the distance, and when the two approached... "I swore I saw something... behind that rushing water..."

"Here, I think I can temporarily..." Chara went up to the waterfall, the rocks passing right through them on the way, and once they were underneath the water above their head began to freeze. Slowly but surely it stopped completely, allowing Frisk to go under without getting soaked, but when they emerged... "An old... tutu... I wonder if this belonged to one of the kids... I-I mean, finally! A protective piece of armor." Frisk giggled a bit, despite their previous look of concern. Chara wasn't sure if they wanted them to put it on...

The lighting got darker in the next room, Chara being sure to lead when they got to some tall grass. But suddenly, from above...

"H...HI, UNDYNE! I'M HERE WITH MY DAILY REPORT... UHHH... REGARDING THAT HUMAN I CALLED YOU ABOUT EARLIER..."

"Undyne?!" Wasn't that the captain of the guard? Was that Papyrus? "Frisk, don't move. Wait for them to leave."

"...HUH? DID I FIGHT THEM? Y-YES! OF COURSE I DID! I FOUGHT THEM VALIANTLY!" That much was... true. He did try his hardest, they couldn't deny that. "...WHAT? DID I CAPTURE THEM...? W-W-WELL... NO. I TRIED VERY HARD, UNDYNE, BUT IN THE END... I FAILED." Oh, Papyrus. He'd let them go and now had to deal with the consequences on his own... "...W-WHAT? YOU'RE GOING TO TAKE THE HUMAN'S SOUL YOURSELF..."

Chara's eyes widened as they looked back at Frisk. Frisk didn't look particularly scared, but... Chara couldn't let that happen. Where would they be without Frisk? What would happen if the person who brought them as back to life as they could be was killed? There'd be nothing they could do anymore. Would they even exist without a soul and Frisk's Determination?

"BUT UNDYNE, YOU DON'T H-HAVE TO DESTROY THEM! YOU SEE... YOU SEE... I UNDERSTAND. I'LL HELP YOU IN ANY WAY I CAN." They could hear Papyrus run off but not exactly see anything. Was he going to betray them? He didn't seem the type, honestly. The two of them waited a while before Frisk decided to move –

- and heard Undyne approach on the cliff above in her armor. She threateningly aimed her sword at the grass below while both children held their breath, but didn't seem to be able to actually see Frisk as her weapon vanished and she backed away. "Go, go, go, don't look back just go," Chara said, before adding, "but quietly!"

Frisk moved slowly, Chara keeping an eye out to see if Undyne would appear at the edge of the cliff again, and exited the grass when it seemed all was clear. Of course, two seconds later, MK burst out of the grass right behind them, saying, "Yo, did you see the way she was staring at you...? That... was AWESOME! I'm SOOOO jealous! What'd you do to get her attention...? Ha ha."

Chara hadn't even noticed him... obviously they weren't very observant if he could get this close without either of them realizing. What kind of knight were they supposed to be?

...wait.

"C'mon! Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!" The kid fell on his face as he ran forward, Frisk pausing to watch him before going to another one of their invisible save spots.

"He doesn't even realize you're the supposed bad guy..." They sighed, looking over at Frisk, huddled on the ground all of a sudden. "You okay? ...there's like... this feeling of dread..."

They practically bounced up, holding up their notebook, and as if they'd anticipated Chara's words had written, "But we stay determined." Chara had to admire that determination. They supposed Frisk was kind of like how they used to be, back before the whole... dying thing. "Yeah," they said, laughing a bit at that response, "yeah, I guess we do."

After a couple of puzzles involving flowers on the water – which made Chara a bit suspicious, to be honest, considering flowers apparently couldn't be trusted – Papyrus called asking what Frisk was wearing. For a friend. Frisk answered no, leading Chara to wonder if they had just somehow told everybody what their signal for no was or if they were answering through more invisible button prompts. In their guilt for lying to Papyrus they immediately took off their bandage to change into that old tutu, making things... really uncomfortable.

"A long time ago, monsters would whisper their wishes to the stars in the sky." said an Echo Flower in the next room. "If you hoped with all your heart, your wish would come true. Now, all we have are these sparkling stones on the ceiling..." Chara knew neither worked. Wishes didn't come true. "Thousands of people wishing together can't be wrong! The king will prove that." Even after all this time, how could there still be hope? No matter what they'd tried...

"C'mon, sis! Make a wish!" "I wish my sister and I will see the real stars someday..."

"Oh," Chara said suddenly, giving Frisk pause, "Ri's never seen the stars. He was born down here... I promised I'd take him, but I guess I made him wait a lot longer than expected." They hummed as Frisk went to write something down, before sighing as they added, "...before we left the underground, we wished that everything would go well down here. My final wish, I guess... and I failed."

"Do you really think we could free everybody?"

"...yeah. Yeah, I do. Even if wishes are pointless, that... is mine, and always will be. That's every monster's wish."

In the next room, there was a series of writings on the wall that Chara had long since memorized. They had studied everything in the underground as many times as they could while they had been alive, and a few things had stuck with them better than others. This was definitely one of them. This was... one of the reasons for their decision, after a book they'd read. Even as Frisk paused to try and read it – an impossible task, as Chara had required the help of their mother back then – they began to recite, "The War of Humans and Monsters."

The children walked along as Chara spoke, adding their own flair and emphasis to the reading. "Why...? Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed that they had nothing to fear. Humans are unbelievably strong... It would the soul of nearly every monster just to equal the power of a single human soul." They looked at Frisk for this part, going on, "But humans have one weakness. Ironically, it's the strength of their soul. Its power allows it to persist outside the human body, even... after death...

"...if a monster defeats a human, they can take its soul. A monster with a human soul... a horrible beast with unfathomable power."

Chara went silent, stopping across the room from the... the picture. Frisk stopped to look at it, but Chara couldn't look in that direction. They wouldn't. They didn't need that sort of reminder. And finally, Frisk stepped forward, not stopping to ask questions. They already knew what they needed to. They could fill in any holes on their own.

They crossed the dark abyss on a plank, into an... unsettling room. Chara glanced over at the pillars to their left, feeling something was... lurking. "Something's gonna jump out at me, something's gonna jump out at me..." they whispered, trying not to alarm Frisk in case it was nothing, but then –

Spear in the face. Like right in front of their face. They ran as it disappeared, not even needing a moment to figure out what was going on. Chara followed as quickly as they could, warning where the spears were coming from so they could dodge – failing only in one instance, as their soul was struck with a single magical spear. But the kids carried on, Chara briefly glimpsing the armored figure in the pillars. Undyne.

"Quick, hide in there!" Chara shouted as they approached some more tall grass. As they entered it, though, Chara paused to see that she was practically right behind them. "Frisk, move out of the way! Quietly! Maybe she won't-"

Before they could finish that sentence, Undyne passed right through them, moving forward with only murder on her mind. She reached into the grass and picked up a small child, but... it wasn't the expected one. It was MK. After a few moments of staring at him, she dropped him, turning to leave instead of continuing the pursuit. Chara immediately ran to look and see where Frisk had ended up, finding them as they emerged on the other side of the grass with MK.

"Yo... did you see that!? Undyne just TOUCHED ME! I'm never washing my face again! Man, are you unlucky. If you were standing just a LITTLE bit to the left...!"

"That was too close. You even got hurt!" Chara said as they walked up behind Frisk, checking them over. They were... mostly fine, anyway.

"You, don't worry! I'm sure we'll see her again!" MK said, before he took off further into the marsh. Chara sighed, because that was exactly what they were afraid of...

They proceeded into a room with some cheese trapped in crystal, a squeaky mouse hole and Echo Flower, and another of those star points. Without Frisk even having to write something down, Chara examined the scene and said, "Knowing the mouse might one day extract the cheese from the mystical crystal... It fills you with determination!" Frisk giggled a bit, nodding, and both of them sat down next to the flower to rest.

"I wish I could speak into one of these. Leave something meaningful, or hilarious... and, well, I guess that's not an option for you. Did you lose your voice because of the...?" Frisk shrugged, explaining on paper that they weren't sure if they were born that way or lost their voice when they were too young to remember it. The latter wouldn't be too shocking.

"Well, even without a voice... you're doing fine, Frisk." Frisk looked confused at Chara's words, though, not sure what brought them up. "Getting through everything, the lab and all of this... all without being able to say a word. I couldn't have done it. I think you're doing well."

"You are, too."

Chara smiled. They guessed being dead would be cause for some alarm and not being able to get through this sort of situation, but... here they were.

"I think we'll be fine... Together, we'll be fine."