All that was visible in the darkness were two red silhouettes.

There was a sound somewhere, almost like a cry, but nobody heard it, for there was nobody around to hear. One of the red silhouettes reached out to the other, trying to grab its arm, trying to motion with its hands, trying to get its attention in anyway. But it went ignored.

The other stood and stared at something the other could not see.

There were shining white lights, some near and some distant. They wondered why the other could not see them. Didn't realize that within them, too, was a small white light.

That the brighter it glowed, the darker their red outline became.

Two forgotten children stood alone in the dark, and neither of them understood how they'd gotten here. Here, in the dark, and here, to this point in their lives. Here, on the border of hope and despair.

They reached out again.

And then the world came back.


Their eyes opened to sunlight, startling them and causing them to immediately sit up. They tried to remember the last few minutes, tried to remember how they'd gotten here, but all they remembered was… some dreadful smile. They blinked their eyes as they tried to focus, but while they were doing so their body seemed to lift up without bothering to take them with it.

They scrambled up after it, confused, barely noting the golden flowers at their feet. Instead, Frisk was focused on their own face - right in front of them, examining their body, spinning in a quick circle on one foot. They were trying to comprehend what was happening, reaching out to touch themself? when it reacted to their movement by quickly stepping back.

Only then did they notice their red eyes.

"This is," they said, but they didn't say. "Frisk's" mouth opened to move, but no sound came out of their mouth - rather, that exact space shimmered with red as they stumbled back slightly, almost falling onto the ground of the cave. "Weird," concluded the one who was moving them, controlling them like a puppet - lifting their hand to their face and laughing, "this is weird."

Frisk - the real one, the spectre - realized rather quickly what was happening. Chara. Chara was there, in their body? And they were back in the ruins, at the start of their journey, much to Frisk's confusion. They waved their hands to get Chara's attention, and their head turned to look at Frisk. They reached out, looking momentarily confused as well, but then their thoughts seemed to catch up to them and they paused. They looked back in the direction of the rest of the ruins.

"I… uh. I didn't mean to kick you out," Chara said, Frisk quite clearly hearing Chara's soul as opposed to their own body. Chara reached out, as they had initially intended to, and said, "Let's… fix that? I think if we're both here, maybe I can finally hear you. And then we… we need to talk."

Frisk stared at them in confusion. What was even going on? They remembered vaguely being in New Home… being in Chara's room… and all of space distorted...

"I can help you understand," Chara insisted, and Frisk stepped away without thinking. Their memory was a bit of a blank after that, but everything was clearly off. Chara was in their body, they were back in the ruins, they had some sort of amnesia… An image appeared in their mind, a brief but clear image, one they felt they had seen before in their dreams as they slept. "Reset"...

They reached out and took Chara's hand, after thinking about it for a few moments.

And abruptly, everything changed again.


They were no longer down the hole where they fell. They were no longer in their body. They already hadn't been, they thought, but they had the distinct feeling that some time had passed, and now they were here. Frisk, a mere spectre in the quiet ruins, having no clue how they got here… noticed immediately the piles of dust on the ground. The piles and piles of dust, scattered, stepped through.

Their hand was still reached out, but this time held as if they'd been holding something. They lowered it in their confusion, looking around for any sign of Chara with their body, and found nothing.

Nothing but the dust.

And they remembered clearly now, that Reset button. Save, load, reset. They could start from set points in time, and now they'd been given the option to start all over. For what reason, they weren't sure, but where was this power stemming from? The determination in their soul? The fact that determination was the main attribute of their soul? Had Chara known about this power, and used it to-

To…

Frisk looked down at the dust, eyes widening. They hadn't, had they? They found out Asriel was dead, Frisk remembered. They said some strange things about saving everybody from the underground, but first… but first

The ghostly child, uncertain of all but one thing, chased after the other child, heading for Home.


"I will be in the kitchen if you need me, my child," Mother said, but Chara did not let her go. They reached out, suddenly, to grab her sleeve, and set down the fork with the pie she'd given them. "Oh?" she started, before Chara released her and merely… smiled up at her. Sadly. She smiled, too, and pet their head, saying, "Ah, my poor child… I can't imagine what you've been through to end up in this place. But worry not - I will care for you now, all right?"

And they nodded, despite knowing it would not come to pass. They released her, knowing that before long they'd have to give in to this sense of loathing that lingered deep within them. And before long, they would do it all over again, all for her. For Father.

For…

Frisk, who appeared looking very, very confused.


Honestly, Frisk was expecting the worst as soon as they'd gotten there. They watched as Toriel went into the kitchen and Chara straightened up in their chair, speaking as they ate the pie. "Greetings, Frisk. I was starting to get worried - we reunited, but you vanished all of a sudden. I was worried I'd scared you off."

*ACT - Talk

*You demand that Chara explain themself after seeing-

"Pft," they snickered, but tried to keep their face straight after a moment, saying, "I can see it now, by the way. The strange way you see the world. The save points, the prompts… Those aren't the experiments, I know. Strange, though - if it's your Determination, why was nothing like that for me?" Their somewhat amused expression turned to one of curiosity, and they tapped the end of the fork against their chin, wondering aloud, "I wonder if it's something about the underground…"

*ACT - Talk
*You try to get Chara to concentrate, knowing they can understand you like this.

"Right. Sorry," they said, despite shoving another piece of pie in their mouth. They considered something for a moment, and then said, "I don't want to keep pushing you away. But I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about it if you can't accept what we're doing."

Frisk didn't understand. Well, they understood what Chara was doing - the trails of dust left behind made it hard not to figure out. It was the rest of it that confused them, the "pushing them away" bit, the reason behind everything. Chara seemed to notice their confusion, and pushed the pie away, leaning back in the chair as they looked at Frisk seriously. There was a hint of confliction in their expression, before they quietly said, "I need the souls of all the monsters."

Frisk's eyes widened, and they signed an objection, despite knowing Chara wouldn't understand. They didn't really have anything else now. However, this act of them signing made Chara laugh, as they asked, "Why do you not speak through those actions like always? Though… weird. As a ghost you should be able to speak. You were able to when we united before."

Was Chara trying to distract them? They weren't sure. They were saying more confusing things… But at least they had a point about the actions. Frisk had never attempted to manipulate it, knowing others could not see it, accepting merely that the world somehow reacted to the prompts anyway. As if they had a voice. As if they were able to speak up at long last. The underground had given them that, so now they had to use it.

*What happened before?

It… it worked? It worked.

Chara's eyes lit up, but they looked away and laughed slightly. "Uh… I don't know. I was worried you'd accidentally disappeared forever or something. I think you just… you fought a little too hard for control back." They frowned, staring off at the wall, looking as if they'd just remembered something, and then mumbled, "But I have more experience with this sort of thing than you."

*I don't understand why you're doing this.

*If Asriel is gone-

Chara pounded their fist against the table, suddenly, still staring off. Toriel, understandably, peeked in soon after this and asked, "Are you all right, my child?" They hesitated for a few seconds, eyes turning to Frisk before they turned their head to look at Toriel and nod. She frowned, not entirely convinced, and came to sit down next to them, placing a single giant hand over their now-relaxing fist on the table.

"My child," she said softly, "I cannot imagine what you have been through to get here. I understand you may be filled with anger, or sorrow, or bitterness… But you do not have to hide it from me." Chara's eyes were wide, staring at her, but they looked away after a few moments. Frisk wondered what was going through their head, knowing they'd killed all those monsters out there, knowing that Toriel had to have known what had happened. "No matter what has happened to you… no matter what you have done, you can choose to look toward the future. I will help you, no matter what it takes. So let your sadness rest far from here."

They did not respond, and her expression became somewhat disheartened. Nonetheless, she pet their head, and stood to return to the kitchen, maybe figuring they didn't want to speak right now. But Frisk knew better. Frisk knew Chara wasn't letting go of those feelings. How could they, when this place they were in was the root of them?

"I love Mother," they said quietly, bitterly. "I really, really do. I love all of my family, more than this entire rotten world. More than humans. More than anything." They stood, their hands trailing along the table as they turned to leave the living room, and Frisk followed them as they listlessly wandered down the hall. The ghost child glanced at the basement, and wondered if there was any way to talk them out of this before Chara emerged into Snowdin. But when the two children reached Chara's old room, when Chara sat on the bed and carelessly tossed its pillow aside to reveal a worn-down dagger that appeared oddly similar to the knife they'd had in the void, they wondered if that was possible.

"But Asriel was everything to me," they said in a dull and lifeless tone, picking the dagger up. An array of color surrounded it, violently jerking in the air like some sort of glitch on a screen, and it became that very knife they feared for a brief moment.

They turned it to their heart.

Frisk stepped forward, but Chara's grip on it only tightened, moving it closer. It was then Frisk noticed the locket around their own neck, frozen shut, and it felt… wrong. Frisk shouldn't have it on them. Something was wrong with it, but they weren't sure what exactly.

It had caused this, though, they were sure.

"And now everything feels so… meaningless. Empty. It's not even the LOVE in my system - I still feel bad, every time I hurt somebody. Why do I still feel bad…?" They looked at Frisk, and gave half a smile as they said, "Oh well. It doesn't matter. I know how to fix things - I probably should've explained that before."

Frisk knew where this was going, based on the carnage they left behind. But they didn't want to accept it. Chara, who believed they should not harm a single soul. Chara, who had begged them not to hurt a single soul. Chara, who begged for mercy when Frisk could have considered taking the easy way out. And now, based on a single death from long ago, when nothing else said about their family even by their own mother could've swayed them…

"We just need every… single… monster soul."

Frisk was disgusted with what their friend had become.

*ACT - Object

*You ask how this is supposed to help, and say you won't help.

Chara lowered the dagger, and stood up, stepping toward Frisk and causing them to back up slightly. "I don't need your help! I just… I wanted it. I wanted you to do this to me so we could set everybody free. If I can get all the monster souls, then retain them when I reset, then absorb all the other human souls… Or letting Father do it…" The mention of him made them tighten their grip on the weapon, Frisk noticed, unable to stop staring at it. Worried they would do something drastic, really. Chara did swing it at them, causing them to flinch, but as they were a ghost it had no effect. So Chara turned away, stomping back to stand by the bed, saying, "Y...You're my best friend. He'd kill you otherwise. I don't want him to kill you."

*You're not doing this for-

"You're right. I'm not. I'm doing this for everybody. But that includes you! And I don't want to force you to help me. I just want you to understand where I'm coming from. Why can't you just understand that this will work?!"

Frisk stared at them for a few moments in disbelief. If Chara really didn't want to hurt anybody, why were they? They didn't understand. They couldn't understand.

So they refused.

Chara was silent for some moments. The dagger in their hand flickered back to the knife, flickered to a dust-covered toy, flickered to something red and ominous. And then it was back to normal. Frisk watched as they went to pick up their pillow and then sit back on the bed, hiding the dagger underneath again. They let out a sigh, falling back into a lying down position and saying quietly, "Fine. I'll take it all on myself, so you won't take any of the blame.

"It's better this way, after all."


Chara opened their eyes and looked into the void.

There was a light from somewhere, that illuminated the cracks that had formed all over this area. They took a step, and it seemed to echo endlessly, the sound of that single step distorting until it blended into a sort of background hum. As if every noise in here had been caught here. They wondered if they could hear the sound of their own broken laughter if they tried hard enough.

Their eyes widened as they finally came to rest on the Reset button, and they rushed toward it so quickly they nearly tripped. They set their hands on it the moment they were close enough, panic setting in immediately - how would they use it to fix everything if it was broken? How could they justify their actions up to now if they couldn't undo it? They couldn't. They were just as bad as-

"Now, now," an amused voice said, resonating in their mind as opposed to getting lost in the void. They turned to look for the source of the noise as it went on, "As you progress it will fix itself. When you reach the end, you can use it again! Everything will be fine if you just carry on as you are."

Their eyes landed on a nearby red saw, bound by chains that looked suspiciously similar to the chain of their locket. Frisk… They had forced them out and taken residence, but they were only borrowing their soul for the time being. They'd give it back eventually, even if Frisk never forgave them. Using their body was necessary if they couldn't convince them, though…

"It will only get harder from here. Are you certain you want to take this all on by yourself?"

If they gained more LOVE, they'd cease to care.

It would be easy.

"'Easy.'" the voice repeated, and it laughed, it laughed, it laughed…

Chara turned back toward the shattered Reset button. Behind it was a figure, writhing and shaking, turning different hues of red and blue and green. It looked monstrous, for a moment, but the figure would take that as a compliment. It seemed to move through the button, standing directly in front of them, and the colors calmed down just enough that they could make out the defining features. The ones they recognized well.

Their red eyes, their pale skin. Their faded striped sweater, the locket around their neck.

The smile on their face.

It was them.

But it also… wasn't.

"Greetings, 'partner.'"