A loop. A endless loop of the same timeline.
Some Frisk's in the Underground 's timelines only wished to escape from the odd little world inside a mountain. Others, became friends with monsters and decided to help them escape, without any more deaths happening.
And then there were timelines where everything went to hell.
Where Chara, the bitter fallen human, ended up guiding the human child to a path of dust, endlessy spreading across purple, old bricks of a ruin, or over snow, over water, even lava.
The timelines were all the same, only with minimal differences. For example: in a timeline, Chara was already born devilish, while on another, she had salvation. In a timeline, a monster reacted differently to the massacre happening around them, but in most timelines, it was all the same thing.
Soon, getting bored was the inevitable. Reducing another monster to dust was a boring, unfunny routine that tired her out.
So, one of Chara's many selves decided to try and invade another timeline, and see how it was going. But it was more unique than the others...in a bad way.
It couldn't be told if the Frisk from the timeline tried to make a Neutral or Pacifist run, but monsters were running like crazy everywhere, in panic, as a black goo spreaded across some parts of the Underground's soil. Monsters that didn't run had...black eyes, mouths dipping a black liquid, working like droids. This caused a mix of fear, confusion and deep curiosity to rise on that Chara. Once she tried to approach one of them, she found out the responsible for this bizzare kind of massacre.
"Oh. Welcome, little one.", Zalgo, in a full set of armory, stood up.
"What exactly...happened here?", Chara questioned.
"What's your name?", Zalgo asked in a soft, kind tone, as he knelt down to properly face the kid in the green sweater with a single, yellow strip.
"I am Chara.", she greeted herself, like how she did with Frisk in the ending of countless timelines.
"You seem like a strong one.", Zalgo complimented. "Follow me...I will help you."
Chara though it wouldn't cost much following this sympathetic creature, and accepted one of his long, sharp claw fingers, walking to a quieter point of Snowdin.
"Look.", Zalgo said before showing a handle with a shiny, emerald gem glowing on it's sides. Once he gently tapped one of the gems, the handle was revelead to be a sharp, double-edge knife. "Beautiful, right? Perfectly controled, as anything should be. Too much on any of the sides and...here. I'm sure you can do it."
As Chara tries to take control of the middle of the knife, keep it balanced, she swore she heard someone finish a speech, starting a mass corruption of only one side of the snowy part of the Underground. She even tried to glance, but Zalgo's fingers were enough to block the view for her. With enough concentration, she finally managed to make the double-edge knife get balanced on her finger.
Perfectly controlled...
"You did it...good job.", Zalgo proudly stated.