"Tra la la. Come again..."

Chara wasn't going to ask how the riverperson could see them. They were kind of weird in general. Glancing back, they saw them waving, humming along as they went through the now slightly frozen river towards other destinations. Hotland was just up ahead... and hopefully Frisk was, too.

They'd heard Undyne muttering about the stupid human, and eventually came to the conclusion that... at the least, Undyne hadn't stolen Frisk's soul. They'd walked with her all the way back to her house by that point, though, unable to slow her down very much with their ice powers, not wanting to risk hurting her again. They just hoped Frisk hadn't gotten into much trouble without them around... and that they didn't worry them much...

That said, as they entered Hotland, they immediately noticed... the lab, completed, in all its "glory." Construction on it had started back when they were still alive, but seeing it completed made them a bit uncomfortable... Even so, they'd known the scientist who was supposed to work there.

...what was their name again, though? They were sure they'd met...

They shook their head. No time to worry about that now. They'd meet the current royal scientist soon enough, they supposed – they just hoped they weren't some mad scientist type. Maybe Frisk had already befriended them by now. When they approached the lab, a loud voice caught their attention from the other direction, leading them to head towards the elevator.

"I-I just never thought th-that they'd still... still be... After all this time! You know! Um..."

"Frisk!" Chara shouted, finding their companion with a shorter monster in a lab coat. Frisk paused for a moment, obviously trying to listen to the monster ahead of them, but when she looked away the child turned their head quickly to smile in Chara's direction, before looking back at... Alphys, wasn't it?

"That there are still a few of you left!" Alphys exclaimed at last, messing with a control panel on the elevator. "I-I'd mostly heard the rumors, you know, a few here and there, when I was younger... You've given me some fascinating data, though! The elevator's... u-um, the elevator's working just fine! Now! Erm..." The panel closed as she pressed a button, smiling awkwardly at the human. "M-Maybe if you... um... wanted... we could, um..." But the smile faded away, slowly, causing both humans concern.

"...I... thank you. For putting up with me. Sorry, I... I had this – n-no, never mind, that doesn't matter. What does matter is... I have to tell you something. Really important." Alphys took a deep breath, looking down at the ground. "A human soul... even one like yours isn't strong enough to cross the barrier alone."

Chara's eyes widened, remembering – one day, after New Home was established. It was so close to the barrier... Chara was curious how it worked. It allowed things in, but nothing out. They went to go touch it, only to meet an invisible wall. Light flooded in from down a long passageway.

Asriel's face... all lit up, looking so sad.

"It takes a human soul... and a monster soul."

Together.

"If you want to go home... you'll have to take his soul."

Ri... this is my home.

"You'll have to kill Asgore."

This is my family.

"I'm sorry."

I want to protect them.

Alphys turned to walk away without another word, back toward her lab. The kids looked after her, troubled by the idea, but... "It's okay," Chara said suddenly, surprising Frisk, "you won't have to. Dad will help us. Dad will understand. Asriel can make him listen to you, if nothing else." When they turned to look at Frisk's face... it still looked grim. "I... I promise! Quit that! Let's go see him, right now!"

As they sat in the elevator, waiting to reach their destination, Frisk caught Chara up on what had happened. They'd run into a robot, then decided to ask Alphys for help getting the elevator back in working order in exchange for some information on humans. Specifically... fallen humans. Alphys had been young when the last few people in Chara's group, by then nearly adults, had fallen into the underground –

"Nearly? How old is Alphys, then? How long have I even been dead?" Frisk shrugged, not really sure. Tone somewhat nervous, Chara continued to question, "How old is Ri now...? How much has he changed?" They sighed. "I was... I was his only friend. Because our parents were the king and queen, people were hesitant to approach him. It only became worse when he befriended me, though. The war was still recent enough that adults had taught their children to hate humans. It was difficult for all of us. And being called 'human trash' was probably the worst insult I ever got. I... I also hated humans. I still hate humans."

They smiled at Frisk, though, and said, "But... my family taught me not to hate all of them. I know that even though there are bad people or monsters... not all of them are. You're definitely not bad. And somebody once said to me..." Their expression softened, and they leaned back against the wall of the elevator, practically whispering, "'You're a good kid, Chara. Never forget that.'" And they hadn't. They wanted to believe that despite being human, they were good.

The elevator finally came to a halt, and the two of them stood to exit. They ran across the Nice Cream guy, and passed through the resort – which Chara was thrown off by, considering it hadn't been there before – without much incident. It felt like something was missing from the scene as they passed through, but Chara mostly shrugged it off. The two children were too nervous about what was coming up to stop inside.

Before too long they came upon the Core. Chara thought about the many issues the Underground had without a power source, and now there was one like this to power it all... Though something about the place creeped them out, like they were being... watched. By something that shouldn't be there. Something that shouldn't be able to see them. They urged Frisk to hurry on, and the two continued up another elevator, to a long corridor with a door at the end. Frisk paused a moment, typing something on their phone.

"Whatever has been drawing me in is beyond here." they typed, their expression... hard to determine. "I never knew what would happen when I came here. I never knew what to expect. You have helped me.

"You are my friend.

"But I feel this is a turning point. I don't know what will happen. I only hope you are right about Asgore."

"Don't worry, Frisk." Chara smiled, putting a hand over their shoulder, even though they could not touch them. The cold emanating off of them would have to do. "I know things will be okay." Frisk returned the smile, nodding. But it did not reach their eyes. Both of them frowned as they turned toward the door.

This was the end.

A/N: As I said, skipping the rest of Hotland for now. We'll revisit it later on for sure. There are only two to go... and they're already written up. I'll be posting them the next two days. They're a bit abrupt, but it's for a reason - we're wrapping up the neutral run. The pacifist run will have a more proper ending, but things kind of go to hell really fast for now.