They'd fallen where they belonged. They felt like garbage.
Chara said they were a day or two away from the castle, but now they weren't sure if falling had changed that... And Chara was no longer around to guide them, at least for the moment. They started walking through the water, seeing the small ice crystals that tried to form as they went through but melting too quickly to come up.
The magic was never as strong for them as their Determination was.
Frisk listened to the wheezing, despairing sound of a rusted bike's horn. The sound reminded them of themself. They wanted to go home.
It wasn't to say they didn't like all the monsters in the underground, but constantly fearing for their life was wearing down on them. Even with those stars that healed them, they weren't sure how long they could last without... It made them a bit sick to think about. People were depending on them. Monsters were depending on them. Most of all, Chara was depending on them to somehow free everybody.
Chara, Chara, Chara, where was Chara?
They stopped at a training dummy and briefly considered beating on it. They'd avoided hurting anything so far, so why not? But even back in the ruins with the first dummy they'd encountered... Toriel wanted them to be kind. Always be kind. It's all they could do, even if sometimes they just wanted to...
They sighed, and walked on. They'd had enough of the dummy.
But they dummy hadn't had enough of them.
"Hahaha... Too intimidated to fight me, huh?! I am a ghost that lives inside a dummy. My cousin used to live inside a dummy, too. Until... YOU CAME ALONG!" Oh. That dummy was... alive. Of course. Why would they expect anything else? "When you talkd to them, they thought they were in for a nice chat... But the things you SAID...!" They tried to motion that they couldn't say anything, but it wasn't listening. "Horrible. Shocking! UNBELIEVABLE! It spooked them right out of their dummy! HUMAN! I'll scare your soul out of your body!"
*Mad Dummy blocks the way.
ACT Talk
They tried to again explain they had no voice, trying sign language just in case it'd understand. But it didn't seem much for conversation. Frisk wasn't exactly happy with this, the dummy wasn't happy with this, no one is happy with this whole thing.
"Feeble. Feeble! FEEBLE!" A bunch of smaller enemies appeared, shooting... cotton? Frisk avoided the attacks, barely noticing in time that they were also aiming from behind. Though they moved out of the way, the Dummy got hit, complaining about where they were aiming their magic – oh. Oops.
If Chara were here this would be a piece of cake. If they could use magic... they sighed, and carried on. They just needed to trick them into aiming at it...
As the battle went on, the dummy said something about wanting to be on display in a clothing store window, and how they didn't actually remember who their cousin was. Frisk was wondering if he was just using the cousin thing as an excuse to fight them. They fired the ones shooting bullets for them mid-battle, only to replace them with... soul-seeking missile types? Even then, it wasn't hard for Frisk to figure out how to aim them at the dummy.
"DUMMY BOTS! You're awful?" When its final attack didn't work, it glared off to the side, seeking another course of action before screaming, "Who cares. Who cares! WHO CARES! I DON'T NEED FRIENDS! I'VE GOT KNIVES!" A single knife appeared in the air next to him, flying in their direction. They easily avoided it, expecting more to follow, but...
"I'm... Out of knives." Did that mean it was over? "BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER! YOU CAN'T HURT ME AND I CAN'T HURT YOU! YOU'LL BE STUCK FIGHTING ME... Forever. Forever! FOREVER!"
He... he had a point. They didn't have magic, and if he wouldn't relent... His laughter gave them chills despite being ridiculous. What could they do if he didn't back off like everybody else?
That said, some sort of attack came from behind him, hitting him all of a sudden and making him chill. "Wh... What the heck is this!? Ergh! Icicles? Oh, FORGET IT! I'm outta here!"
Icicles? As he left, they watched two figures approach, one of them the familiar silhouette of their friend... and the other Napsstablook. "...sorry, we interrupted you, didn't we?" the ghost monster said as they approached, Chara running ahead of him to go try and hug them. As they fell through Frisk, obviously forgetting that wasn't an option in that moment, Naptablook continued, "as soon as we came over, your friend immediately left... oh no... you guys looked like you were having fun... oh no..."
"It's okay, Blooky!" Chara said as they stood up, grinning at Frisk, who grinned back. Both of them were overjoyed to see the other. "You helped me find my friend, so we're all good!"
The ghost still didn't look convinced, only sadly saying, "i just wanted to say hi... oh no..." Chara laughed a bit nervously, looking at Frisk, as Napstablook seemed to fade away a bit, carrying on, "well... i'm going to head home now... thanks for walking with me..." They headed towards the exit of the dump, before pausing to say, "oh... umm... feel free to 'come with' if you want... but no pressure... i understand if you're busy... it's fine... no worries... just thought i'd offer..." Then they left, floating away backwards.
"Frisk, are you okay? I tried to follow Undyne because I knew she'd be after you but then I also knew that you'd be avoiding her so I saw Blooky and I... I just..." They looked choked up for a moment, looking away when they said, "I'm glad you're okay... even if you're a little hurt... and... a lot soaked! Here, let me help with that."
Chara used their ability to raise a pillar of ice from under the water, getting Frisk out of it and making a path to the exit. Frisk continued to smile at them, glad they showed up when they did, and followed after their ghost friend.
As long as Chara was beside them, maybe they didn't mind being stuck down here as much.
"This place feels... calming. Blooky's house is over that way, and I found out Undyne's house... well, she's not there right now. She's still out looking for you. We need to go that way, but... Blooky really helped us out. We should go see him first." They quite liked the ghost, honestly, but maybe it was because they could more directly talk to him.
"oh, you really came..." he said when they entered his home. "sorry, i... wasn't expecting that. it's not much, but make yourself at home."
While Frisk looked at his tunes, Chara looked at the fridge, asking, "Hey, Blooky, what do ghosts eat?" He came over and pulled something out, telling them, "this is a ghost sandwich... do you want to try it..."
"Sure! I haven't eaten anything since I got here!" Frisk looked over at them in confusion, not seeing the sandwich handed to them, but Chara was overjoyed. "Oh. My gosh. I haven't had a sandwich in so long. I mean I guess from my point of view it's only been a few days but as far as I know it's been a hundred years or something!"
Blooky looked a bit happy that they enjoyed it, but then went and said, "after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage... it's a family tradition... do you want... to join me..."
Frisk had already had enough of feeling like garbage, but at Chara's overly enthusiastic "YES!" they didn't have much choice. The three of them got down on the floor and stared up at the ceiling, the music eventually seeming to fade out, a sense of tranquility coming over them. All of them sighed at random intervals. Both kids honestly found it relaxing – taking their mind off of all their troubles for the moment despite the fact they were supposed to be feeling like garbage. Undyne, the barrier, Asgore... everything faded away. It felt like they were there for a long time.
When they were done Blooky said, "well, that was nice... thank you..." There was a bit of awkward silence for a moment, Chara not wanting to say goodbye, Frisk unable to really say goodbye. Blooky finally said, "uhhh... i'm gonna keep working on that mix cd." And, hesitantly, Chara finally said their goodbyes and allowed them to leave.
They came upon a turtle who said he'd been around a long time, but... Chara didn't recognize him. They wondered if that was just because they couldn't possibly know every monster, or if he'd been born after their time. If so, they'd have had to have been gone a really long time since he was so old-looking...
Frisk bought some sea tea and went on their way, towards another hall filled with ancient writings.
"Hurt, beaten, and fearful for our lives, we surrendered to the humans," Chara read, stopping to put their hands over the old words. This one... maybe it was the mention of, "Seven of their greatest magicians," that got them a bit emotional, "sealed us underground with a magic spell." Human magicians... they had faded out of existence in the years following the war. It was thought that they, for using magic, were looked down on by the other humans and killed off as well. Only later did humans regret that decision, leading to the experiments...
"Anything can enter through the seal, but only beings with a powerful soul – like yours – can leave. There is only one way to reverse this spell." They looked down the corridor, walking towards the next one, going on, "If a huge power, equivalent to seven human souls, attacks the barrier... It will be destroyed."
They walked directly ahead of Frisk, forming ice bridges across the water so they wouldn't get soaked again. They'd dried off as much as they could at Blooky's house. "But this cursed place has no entrance or exits. There is no way a human could come here." But Chara had. They had found the one entrance in their desperation; they had thrown themself down here wishing for death. A death they eventually got anyway.
"We will remain trapped down here... forever."
They made it through the next two rooms with the help of the lights, but... the next room was very dark. Chara tried to guide Frisk, but eventually all they could do was keep walking forward. Finally, they found an Echo Flower, listening to its words-
"Behind you."
The room lit up suddenly. And there appeared...
Undyne.
She stepped forward ominously, keeping her distance, and after a few moments of pause said, "Seven." The kids didn't dare take their eyes off of her, but they both were even more nervous hearing her voice. She had Frisk cornered... "Seven human souls. With the power of seven human souls, our king... King Asgore Dreemurr..."
Something about hearing his name from this person... it didn't feel right. Chara looked down at the ground, focused on her next words but trying not to say anything even if she wouldn't hear them. "...will become a god." He didn't want to be a god. He didn't want to hurt anybody. Why was this happening?
"With that power, Asgore can finally shatter the barrier. He will finally take the surface back from humanity... and give them back the suffering and pain that we have endured."
That broke them. They had hated humanity, but dad always gave them a chance. "He's not like that! You obviously don't know anything about him!" Their words, as expected, went unheard.
"Understand, human? This is your only chance at redemption. Give up your soul... or I'll tear it from your body."
"They haven't done anything." Chara whispered as she took a battle stance. "They haven't hurt anybody. Don't... don't you touch them!" She charged with her spear, though, and Chara could see Frisk's soul appearing. There was no more running. They had to-
But then... MK appeared.
"Undyne! I'll help you fight!" he declared, looking back and forth between the two. Then, looking at Frisk, he shouted, "YO! You did it! Undyne is RIGHT in front of you! You've got front row seats to her fight!" He still... didn't get it? Had he been paying attention? He looked back and forth between them again, staring off as he finally realized... "...wait. Who's she fighting?" Nope, still didn't get it. All of a sudden Undyne grabbed him, pulling him away from Frisk as MK shouted, "H-Hey! You aren't gonna tell my parents about this, are you?"
So... for the moment, they were... saved?
"Let's leave," Chara whispered, looking at Frisk as they nodded, "right now."
They ran through the next room, hearing the conversation from earlier continue. "If I say my wish... you promise you won't laugh at me?"
"Of course I won't laugh!"
"Someday, I'd like to climb this mountain we're all buried under. Standing under the sky, looking at the world all around... that's my wish."
Laughter. "...hey, you said you wouldn't laugh at it!"
"Sorry, it's just funny..."
They stopped, Frisk glancing back, Chara stopping to stare at the writing on the wall at the end of the room. They took a deep breath, shakily saying, "However... there... is a prophecy. The Angel..." They couldn't help the tears that ran down their face. Their dad wasn't a murderer. He wasn't. And they... they weren't the one who... "The 'One Who Has Seen The Surface'..." They'd hardly seen the world. Why would it ever be about them? "Th... They will return. And the underground will go empty."
Maybe... maybe that was Frisk.
"'That's my wish, too."
