The demon walked down the corridor, ignoring the goat's pathetic attempts to make them stay. Thay came with one goal in mind, and they were determined to see it through. When they reached the exit of the ruins, the goat turned and proceeded to block the way. The demon merely laughed, cutting her down in a single blow. The goat frowned, and then let out a small chuckle as she began to turn to dust, lamenting her mistake of trusting the demon. After she had completely dusted, the demon made sure to step in what was left of her as they walked through the gate.
Chara woke in a cold sweat. They remembered having a strange dream, but the details were fuzzy. And yet, they clearly heard the sound of their mother's voice. It was strange, but they decided not to dwell on it.
"Oh, you're awake," said Flowey. He was sitting (?) next to the bed, just as he had said he would.
"How long have I been asleep?" asked Chara.
"A few hours," he replied, "not that I'm surprised. Committing mass genocide must be pretty tiring."
"I told you, I didn't kill everyone."
"Yeah, well, your body certainly did. Whether you were in control or not, your energy says you did and makes you exhausted." Chara got out of bed as they made the transition from sleep to being awake.
"Did Alphys ever come up here?" they asked.
"Nope. Guess she really is willing to help us." As he said this they heard someone coming upstairs, only for Alphys to poke her head around the corner.
"I am helping you, and I really meant it, but I'm only doing so because there is a slight chance of me getting my family back." Flowey and Chara looked at each other as Alphys pulled up some equipment. "But first, I need to run some tests. I'm going to take a quick blood sample just so I can measure how much determination is actually flowing through you."
"Okay," replied Chara.
"Hey, while you too are doing this, I'm going to go have a look around the Underground. There's something I want to check really quick," said Flowey. He popped into the floor as Alphys injected Chara. They felt no pain as Alphys injected the needle. She walked over to the device she had brought and injected the blood into it. There was several minutes of awkward silence as the machine processed the blood sample. Finally, it let out a beep, and Alphys wore a puzzled expression as she read the screen. "Is something wrong?" asked Chara.
"Well, nothings exactly wrong, but the data just doesn't match up. Your soul is reading as red, which usually indicates determination, but there's very little determination in your blood. Let me try this really quick." Alphys pulled out another device that looked like some sort of scanner. "This will let me get a visual of your soul." She held the device to Chara's chest and jumped back in panic.
"What now?"
"Your soul...it's almost grey..." replied Alphys with a fearful tone to her voice.
"Wait, what? What does that mean? How is that possible?"
"Well, for starters, the greyness means you've lost most of your trait, in this case being determination. For some reason, the majority of your determination is gone, and that must be why you're unable to reset."
"Wow..." was all Chara could say. Thay had lost their determination? And then it dawned on them, "How exactly does one lose their trait?" they finally asked.
"Well, it usually depends on the trait," explained Alphys, "For example, a bravery soul might lose their trait because something happened that traumatized them, or a kindness soul might lose their trait because someone was really mean to them. Now, not much is known about determination souls, but if I had to guess you lost your trait because something happened that made you want to give up. Something that made you extremely depressed and unwilling to move forward. Any ideas as to what might have happened?" Chara thought for a moment. Sure, they felt guilty about leading them and Asriel to their doom, and they were pretty upset their entire family was dead, but they hadn't really felt depressed or anything like that.
"Not that I can think of," they eventually replied, "but the real question is how do I get my determination back?"
"Well, no one really knows. Most people that lose their traits don't get them back, so it's hard to say," she replied. Suddenly, the device that had examined the blood starting beeping like crazy. Alphys turned to see what was happening before her eyes widened in shock. "Impossible..." she muttered.
"What?" asked Chara.
"You don't have just one soul inside of you..."
"Well, I know that, I told you this isn't my body,"
"Even then, you should only have 2 souls at most, but this is saying you have 3!"
"No way..." said Chara, but they looked at the screen and sure enough, there were clearly three souls inside of them. And all three were being shown as determination souls.
Author's notes: Wow, a cliffhanger! I come back from vacation and leave you on a cliffhanger, how upsetting. I don't really have too much to say this time, but I hope you are all having a great day and I look forward to writing the next chapter.