Chapter 18

"Until next time, Toriel," Sans said as he departed.

"Indeed. Until next time, Sans," Toriel replied.

He gave her a final wave goodbye before flipping his cloak and teleporting back to the Underworld. Surprisingly, he had enjoyed his time with Toriel a lot more than he though he would. She knew how to tell a good story, and it was clear that she loved to dote on her children. Talking about Chara had made her enthusiastic, almost giddy. Every tiny detail imaginable, from her first bath to her arguments with her siblings to her favorite foods, Toriel knew them all. To be honest, when it came to details that could help him hunt Chara down, most of the story had been useless. He had expected that though. As he had hoped, however, Toriel had given him a few clues.

One, Chara was confident. Too confident. Created to be the Acolyte of Faith, she had been given a strong and determined personality. This had manifested itself in her ability to preach boldly to the masses, as well as the charming disposition that swayed so many congregations to listen to her messages. Determination was the single biggest point of her character, and that tracked with how she acted when he had tried to reap her. Of course, as Toriel had pointed out when she described some of Chara's more interesting adventures, overwhelming amounts of confidence was not always a good thing. If he could catch her off guard, or at the right moment, he could probably force a confrontation. Knowing Chara, she would likely be inclined to test her strength against his, which would give him the opportunity to fix his mistake.

Two, she had a tendency to let her emotions run the show. High levels of passion for her work had been a benefit for her life as an acolyte. Now, however, it could be her downfall. Sans was one the few gods that still practiced combat. His training sessions with Gaster had taught him that a level head was the most important thing in a fight. Those that let their emotions take over made bad decisions and usually left themselves wide open. Given that Chara clearly hated him to no end, he was confident she wouldn't be able to check her emotions in any battle they might have.

"Besides," he thought as he chuckled to himself. "If there's one thing I'm good at, its getting on people's nerves."

Three, Toriel had told him about Chara's favorite place in the world. She had built a small shrine in a secluded grove when she first set foot in the mortal realm, and had always returned to it after one of her pilgrimages. Chara might not hold the gods in high regard anymore, but she was still human, or close enough anyway. Humans, among other things, were creatures of habit. He was willing to bet she'd make frequent stops by that shrine if she wasn't hiding out there regularly. If nothing else, she'd probably use it as a catalyst for her hatred.

"Still, this will be a little tricky. I don't want her to catch on to my presence if she is going to be there. Not until I'm ready to strike. I'll need to set up some form of surveillance. And it needs to be as stealthy as possible."
Course, subtlety wasn't one of his strong points. He mulled the situation over in his mind. He could go to either Gaster or Alphys for help on this one. The choice was rather clear though. Alphys had been inquisitive enough over the scrying crystal. If he asked her to create some magical surveillance equipment for him, she'd demand to know what it was for.

"Oh well," he said aloud. "Back to the old man, I guess."

He found Gaster working in his lab, underneath his house. He'd set up a scrying crystal of his own, although his was much lager than the one Alphys had made, and it was surround by a whole bunch of equipment that Sans had never seen before. He turned around as he noticed his presence.

"Welcome back, Sans," he said. "Any luck?"

"Not yet," Sans replied. "But I might have some ideas." He twitched his head at the crystal. "That certainly looks impressive."
Gaster smiled. "Indeed," he said. "Unfortunately, I still haven't found any trace of the Queen. I'm afraid we're out of luck unless she decides to unveil herself."

"Oh, if you only knew, old man," Sans thought. Out loud, he continued, "Well, we knew that was a long shot anyway. I may have come up with a new plan, though."

"By all means, elaborate."

Sans nodded, and proceeded to explain his idea of setting up surveillance in spots where Chara might pass through.

"Hmm…" Gaster mused. "It certainly has some potential. But the mortal realm is vast. The chances of us picking Chara up are rather small."

"True," Sans acknowledged. "But its better than nothing."

"I know. I'm just playing the devil's advocate. However, there is another issue at hand."

"What issue?"

"We can certainly set up magical surveillance wherever we want, but how did you plan on monitoring them all? Neither one of us has the capacity to focus on the number of feeds, not if we're going to have enough of them to give this a shot at working."

"Huh. Didn't think about that," Sans said. He thought it over for a second and said, "Well, what if instead of setting up an actual surveillance feed, we just set up some kind of silent alarm? Throw some wards up that will notify us whenever dark energy gets near it. You already know what mine and Papyrus's energy feels like, so you can make us exceptions. That only leaves Chara and Flowey."

"Excuse me?" Gaster said, surprised. "Who's Flowey?"
"Hm? Did I not mention him before?"

"No, you most certainly did not."

"Oh. Strange. Anyway, Flowey is this sentient flower that's been running around with Chara. I'm not exactly sure what he is. He obviously has power beyond that of anything mortal, but if he's a god, then I've never heard of him."

"That is indeed strange," Gaster replied, his face troubled. "How often have you interacted with this Flowey?"

"Only a few times. And I've only had words with him once, when he tried to ambush me. He mentioned something about being friends with Chara. Right before he tried to impale me with a bunch of thorns."

"Interesting," Gaster said. "Well, I can tell you that there's never been a god who goes by that name. Nor have I ever heard of a god displaying those kinds of powers. I suppose it could be one of Chaos's creations, perhaps part of his power that was able to manifest itself into a physical form. That's just a theory though."

"Eh," Sans shrugged. "It doesn't really matter all that much. Based of my few encounters with him, he doesn't really possess all that much power. Now, he could kill mortals in job lots, but he's no threat to you or me. The only thing that matters is that his energy will set of those alarm wards just like Chara's will. Besides, ever since my first fight with him, he seems to always be by her side, so if we spot one of them the other should be there as well."

"I see your point," Gaster said. "Very well. I will teach you a ward that will suit this purpose. With the design you had in mind, it shouldn't take both of us to keep track of them. You likely know the mortal realm much better than I do by now anyway. I'll let you set them up as you see fit."

"Sounds good to me," Sans said. In fact, it sounded fantastic. If Gaster wasn't going with him to set the wards up, he wouldn't have to worry about explaining why he was putting them up around a small shrine out in the middle of nowhere.

"Alright then. The spell is a basic one, so you shouldn't have any trouble with it."

After he finished guiding Sans through the steps of the ward, he said, "Good luck. I will remain here and continue searching for the Queen."

"Right," Sans replied. "See ya around." And he teleported out.

It wasn't very hard to locate the shrine that Chara had built. Toriel had given him the exact location, more or less. Once he arrived, Sans felt a grin tug at the corner of his mouth, despite the scene that laid before him. The shrine had been desecrated all right. It had been reduced to rubble, and the once pleasant grove it had stood in was now covered in thorns. The twisting vines blocked out most of the sun's light, and the place almost felt like a cave. It definitely looked like a den of evil. Hopefully, Chara was still using it as a home base. If not, well he didn't lose anything by setting up a few wards here anyway.

"I better take some extra precautions," he thought to himself. "Chara's attacks have been focused on the temples. Better set some up in every major city."

He made his rounds to all the prominent temples he could think of, focusing on the quarters of the various acolytes that ran them. By the time he finished, it was well into evening, and he still had some reaping to do. Papyrus would no doubt scold him for missing dinner again. He grimaced at the thought. "Oh well. At least its been a productive day."

He took one last look around the temple he was in and then he teleported to the first soul on his list.

Back in the Sanctuary, Toriel lounged under her favorite tree, thinking about her talk with Sans. She sighed wistfully. Finally having someone to talk to about Chara had helped her a lot. Now that she thought about it, Sans was probably the one person who could truly understand her pain. She had finally been able to get some sense of closure for her daughter's death.

She let out another long sigh. At the same time though, talking about Chara had only reminded her of the gaping hole she felt at her core. She closed her eyes, and envisioned her first children. Six sensations, too difficult to describe with words, flooded back to her, assuring her that they were all still alive. She treasured the feeling, but as much as she treasured it, she felt the cold emptiness where the seventh member of her original children should be. Chara had burned brighter than the others, and her loss still left its mark.

She rose and strode over to her garden, savoring the peace and tranquility. The emptiness still chewed at her and she resolved to do something about it. She couldn't bother Sans with constant talks about her children that had passed. She told him that she had accepted his existence as necessary, and she wanted to prove that she could move on, just like her children did.

How was she supposed to move on, though? The void Chara's death had opened within her soul would never go away. She could attempt to ignore it, but every instinct told her that would be impossible. But if she couldn't ignore it, then what could she do?

"Perhaps," she thought, "I don't have to ignore it. My children across the world deal with death by holding on to those they still have with them. In fact, many survive the heartbreak of their parent's deaths by renewing and strengthening their love for their children."

She paused. "Their children…"

She thought a moment more until an idea struck her. Perhaps she didn't have to live with that aching void in her heart. Perhaps she could fill it with a new soul. A new child, a special child, just like her firstborn.

"But it is right to do such a thing?" she wondered. "Would it be a betrayal of Chara's memory to simply replace her?"

Worry added itself to the barrage of emotions running through her. Would her dead daughter feel betrayed by such an act? Or would she want her to be happy, accepting that another would have to fill the role she could no longer play? And did any of that even matter? Chara was dead, did she even care about what happened in the mortal realm any longer?

Toriel paced back and forth through her garden, contemplating her situation. "No," she thought. "No one could ever fully replace Chara, or any of my children. They are all unique, and I love them all the same. But perhaps it is time I stopped persisting in my misery and fill this void that torments me so."

She smiled, and reached inward for her magic. Magic she hadn't fully utilized since that fateful day so long ago.

"You will not be another Chara, my child," she said to her future creation. "Not a replacement for her memory, but rather a tribute to it. And I can think of no better person to be modeled after."

A new soul began to take shape in her mind, and Toriel, Goddess of Life, felt the shadows of her own soul disappear before its gentle and innocent light.