Chapter 12
"W-Wait... l-let me see if I can get this straight..." Toriel said after me and Asriel gave her the truth bomb of a lifetime.
"Yes?" I smiled at her.
"So... that flower that tried to kill you when you first got in the Underground... was actually my son Asriel? And it was from a flower in Asgore's garden that had Asriel's memories from his ashes? And that you gained the will to live soon after getting injected with human Determination?" Toriel asked in shock.
"All true, mom..." Asriel said.
"The nerve of him... to make you suffer even more," Tori said, Asriel frowning at that.
"No, it wasn't him that gave the order. In fact, he never even knew about it. Alphys took the flower without dad's knowledge and injected it with Determination as a side experiment... but I had no soul, so I felt empty... I tried to feel positive with everyone, but every single time, I failed to feel anything. And then I got bored with doing the same thing... so I started to kill people... until I adopted that mantra I told Mute about," Asriel sighed.
"Kill or be killed... right?" Tori asked.
"Yes. But after absorbing my soul into his body, Flowey turned back into Asriel and is now back to his old normal self... just with a human soul inside of him powered by... ahem... purity," I said, Toriel then doing something on the other end that sounded like glass breaking.
"Mom! Are you okay?!" Asriel asked in shock.
"I-I'm fine... I just dropped my glass on the ground in pure shock... Mute's soul... it was one of Purity?" Toriel asked.
"Yes, it was. Someone named Sans told me about it earlier on my way through Waterfall," I smiled.
"I see... so does anyone else know about this?" Toriel asked.
"Sans, myself, Asriel, you, and Tsunderplane are the only ones I know of, but Sans also is spreading the word about it... we've actually already had to sign five autographs from monsters during our talk," I explained with a smile. "So you know, Tori... now that Asriel is alive again, what do you say you come out of the Ruins and meet up with us in Hotland?" I smiled.
"I... I accept. I've missed you for so long, Asriel... I don't care about what you did when you were Flowey, I just care that you're alive again and with us again," Toriel smiled.
"I missed you too, mom... I have something to explain though, but only when the barrier gets destroyed... it's about Chara, but it can wait," Asriel said.
"Okay... I'm going to hang up now. We'll meet up outside of the CORE, okay?" Toriel smiled.
"Deal. Alright, mom, see you soon," Asriel smiled. We then hung up and I then got to work at calling Undyne. And soon after, with just one ring, Undyne answered with her usual Undyne nature.
"NGAHH! Mute! Is what I heard true?!" Undyne asked with her aggressive nature.
"Depends what you heard," I smiled.
"That you spared that flower guy and he turned out to be Prince Asriel IN THE FLESH?!" Undyne exclaimed.
"Um... yeah, hi there, miss Undyne," Asriel said with a small smile.
"I knew I heard it right! For once, Sans comes through with giving me a proper bit of news not relating to ketchup and bad jokes!" Undyne smirked.
"But did he tell you how I got Asriel back to his old self?" I asked.
"Uh... no, he didn't... how?" Undyne asked.
"By me taking my soul out of my body and giving it to Asriel... now my old body is just an empty husk, never to be used again," I said with a small smile... but then, I heard something from behind me.
"Is that what you think?" I heard a voice from behind me. It sounded... familiar... yet, ominous at the same time.
"I-Is that... was that..." Asriel gasped as he turned around and we saw something that truly horrified me. Standing right there in front of us, holding the toy knife on her, was my body... only this time, the owner of the body wasn't me. It was someone else... with dark red eyes. "Chara?... Is that you?" Asriel asked in shock.
"Yes, brother... it is me," Chara said... but I sensed nothing but hatred in her soul.
"Be careful, Prince. I don't sense anything positive about this Chara person... almost as if it's made of nothing but hatred," I said with worry.
"Hmph... so what I've heard is true... your soul really is purity..." Chara said as they then did something truly scary. Their eyes grew wide and became black. "Oh well, if it was able to make Asriel back to normal, it's sure to do the same with me," Chara said as she then did something that made me and Asriel gasp. She started to attack us with super-tough attacks and we had to dodge all over the place before she stopped.
"C-Chara? What are you doing?! I thought we were friends!" Asriel exclaimed at them.
"Asriel, you have to face the facts. This creature is not the Chara you knew before. It's a creature with nothing but hatred and malice in their heart!... Apologies, but we have to try and combat their evil... with our purity," I said, Asriel then gasping as he touched his chest and Chara looked at it with a twisted smile. "Sorry, Chara, but we're not gonna hold back on you just because we're pacifists!" I said as I then unleashed a laser blast of my own directly from Asriel's chest, Chara gasping as she then looked to be a bit injured by the blast... before she did something else. Something shocking. She grabbed a soul from inside of her that was a dark red.
"Do you happen to know what this is?" Chara asked, Asriel gulping at that. I knew exactly what he was thinking about, since Sans told me back in Waterfall.
"Frisk's soul... that means... the cause of the time loops... it was you?" I asked her.
"Hmph, pretty clever, aren't you, you singing bitch?" Chara asked angrily, me shuddering at that. A creature that could break the rules of time and space itself was our opponent. "And before you ask, no, this is not the only one. I have many... over 100 thousand, in fact," Chara said as they then showed at least 100 of their souls, all of them looking exactly the same. "Given to me by the Frisk's across the dimensions... the ones who found sick pleasure in the act of genocide... yet, with all of these souls in me... I still felt... empty." Chara said as I saw them frown.
"Maybe because those souls are not filled with goodness in them, but rather malice. You are not who you were before, Chara... before, you and I were best friends... but now... now you've turned into the very thing that you hated about humanity. You've become just as much of a monster as your human parents!" Asriel exclaimed, Chara looking at him with a gasp and then her frowning as a sadistic smile formed on her face.
"It seems, Asriel, that you have misunderstood how this works... if I must take a line I have asked to over a hundred thousand different serial killers..." Chara said as her eyes then started to do something even scarier. They started to ooze black blood as well as her mouth. "SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?!" Chara exclaimed in fury as she then tried to rush at us, me feeling completely powerless... but then, something incredible happened. Just before Chara could attack us, I saw every single soul that she had turn blue and was held in place!
"Not today, Fallen Child of Man," said the voice of Sans as I saw him appear out of thin air right in front of us with both of his eyes being light blue! And then, when I got the idea to sense his soul, I gasped. He currently had three different souls inside of him, those being Justice, Bravery, and Perseverance!
"Sans..." I gawked at him.
"You... I fucking hate you, comic!" Chara growled at Sans angrily as Sans then forced my body to the ground with anger in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Mute, but I'm gonna have to do something here and it involves demolishing every bit of this bitch in your body... you may want to shield your eyes," Sans said with his demonic voice.
"I'd rather watch to see just how much powerful you've become," I said, Sans nodding at that as he then snapped his fingers and we saw every single one of the souls exit the body all at the same time! And then Sans forced them all to the ground and shattered every single one of them with a giant eruption of bones! "Get dunked on!" Sans exclaimed as Chara then fell to the ground and Asriel slowly approached her with caution, Sans making sure Chara couldn't move a muscle.
"Hah... hack... Asriel... please... s-spare me..." Chara tried to plead, but Asriel looked at her with a frown.
"I'm sorry, Chara... but I can't. I don't want to do this anymore. All of these endless time loops... they just bring us nothing but suffering. And the only way to prevent these time loops from ever hurting anyone ever again... is to keep you on the other side forever... forgive me for this," Asriel said as he then focused the same magic I did and sent a large laser of purity directly at Chara, me seeing something happen to her as her mind and body were disintegrated into nothingness. I could've sworn I saw a visage of her leave the body and disappear into nothingness... and that they looked at us while saying "Thank you..." before the deed was finally done for.
"There... she's on the other side now..." Sans said as he then sighed and closed his eyes before they then turned back to normal.
"Thank you, Sans... if you hadn't done that bit of pure awesomeness... me and Asriel would've been done for," I said to him.
"Not just both of us, Mute... that attack she used... I've seen it before. It's an attack that would've been capable of destroying the entire universe... especially since she had over a hundred thousand souls..." Asriel said with a sigh before he then fell to the ground and started to cry. "It really hurt for me to do that... they were my sibling... my best friend... but after that ordeal on the surface... it changed both of us for the worst... I can only hope that Chara can find some kind of redemption on the other side..." Asriel said with a sob. Sans then went up to us and helped me and Asriel up.
"kid... that's what you are, right?" Sans asked, me frowning in thought at that.
"Time and place, Sans. Right now, I think we just need some quiet time," I said to him. We then allowed Asriel to cry on the ground for a good five minutes before he finally picked himself up. It was then that I looked at the phone and saw that Undyne had hung up long ago. "You good to go, Asriel?" I asked him.
"No... of course I'm not... but I want to help you keep your promise... all we can do for now is push ahead... we need to reunite with my mom and dad... and reunite you with your mom," Asriel said.
"Right... speaking of, does anyone know the time right now?" I asked.
"uh... hmm..." Sans frowned as he looked at his phone and smirked. "it's 4:30 right now. If we're gonna go, we'd better do it soon," Sans suggested.
"Right... let's do that," Tsunderplane said as I noticed she looked a bit glum. "I'm... I'm sorry I couldn't help you fight them... I was scared out of my mind..." Tsunderplane admitted.
"I was too, to be honest..." I said.
"Me too..." Asriel said.
"eh, i wasn't too scared. i've had to take them out way more times than a hundred thousand... but each and every time, they'd find a way to come back... but i decided to get a small upgrade to my abilities when i sensed that they had inhabited your old body, mute," Sans said.
"Well, it's a good thing you did... though, I have to ask... are the souls in you going to be okay with this? You know, being attached to the most powerful skeleton in existence?" I asked.
"i can feel them thumping in unison in my soul... they're telling you that they're happy they could help out... especially considering that the fallen child was super strong, the only way we could win was me getting an upgrade to my powers. so i thought, why not just go straight to the source of the power i got from the humans?" Sans smiled.
"Yeah, you said you got Determination in you but... wait, hang on a minute... if the Determination extract made the Amalgamates a thing, then why didn't it do the same to you?" I asked.
"Because I was completely healthy, I only had a single injection, and I was notoriously lazy, even back then. All those elements combined made my soul enriched with the most power of any monster down here, minus Chara and Asriel when he was evil and had the human souls in him," Sans said with his regular deep voice.
"I see... but can you try to keep your voice down to its original pitch? It's kinda creepy..." Asriel said.
"sorry, kid... i just have trouble keeping it under wraps, now that i have all these souls in me," Sans admitted.
"Understandable... okay, I say we continue on... so how many people did you tell before you sensed Chara was around, Sans?" I asked him.
"everyone from hotland to snowdin... i don't know how to access the ruins, so i couldn't get there," Sans smiled.
"Good thing we called Toriel first," I smirked.
"toriel? who's that?" Sans asked.
"My mom... the former queen," Asriel smiled.
"cool. so she's been in the ruins for all this time, eh?" Sans asked.
"Pretty much... okay, now let's keep moving forward," I said with a smile as we continued through the place some more, wondering what would happen now that we eliminated Chara, the source of the time loops. Would this really be the final adventure? I had to hope.