A cold shiver spread through Frisk's body. They suddenly became conscious of their breathing, but for once, this did not make them have to start breathing manually. For a moment, they were almost thankful not to be able to move as otherwise, they were almost certain that their expression would have betrayed them already.

Then, they just felt regret.

Regret about how they had handled their answer. If they had been more careful, surely they could have avoided putting Chara in this situation... But now, it appeared there was no more avoiding it.

Perhaps there might be some good in this ? Perhaps if this cat got out of the bag, it would help the doctors understand how to help them a little better ? Or perhaps, they were just trying to make excuses for themselves to justify their failure to keep this a secret any longer.

In any case, there was one thing that they had clearly lost on the matter : Choice. It was no longer in their hands.

Frisk wanted to apologise, but they knew very well that Chara had already read their thoughts. That everything they felt, Chara had felt it, too.

They decided to talk about it.

But there were no words uttered. Not even via thoughts, just feelings, a primordial conversation with emotions as the letters of its alphabet. Angst, fear, comfort, it was all they needed to feel, it was all they needed to emit to understand everything about each other. It was a truer, more sincere kind of conversation than what could be expressed with words.

Chara was a mess, they were afraid, but not in the traditional sense of the term. It was more of a mixture between that feeling you get when you lie, but then lie again to cover the previous lie and so on until it gets out of hand and far too big to ever talk about, a sort of stage tract, and an anticipation of all the ways telling the truth could go wrong. And lying underneath that was a lot of built up shame. The consequences of Chara's actions the last time they were known to be alive had after all been quite dire and were not easy to live with. Being gone to the eyes of others had made it simpler, but now they feared an eventual confrontation about what they had caused. Frisk had already previously tried to talk to them about this with only limited success.

Although, Frisk could tell that a part of them also wished they could talk to their loved ones again and be acknowledged as themself rather than being assumed to be "Frisk". Something that would be forever impossible unless they came clean.

Since their reincarnation, Chara had sort of taken the backseat. They had been the "guest" within Frisk's body. Which meant mostly letting Frisk live their own life, but providing them with comments and companionship. Revealing themself would also mean giving up on that role and becoming more of a person again to the eyes of others. But in doing so, wouldn't they be taking part of what was Frisk's ? These questions had been running in their mind for a while, but now in the face of all this, it all felt so... irrelevant.

This body. This frail young sick body. It was all that separated the eyes of the outside world from them. Not from Frisk and Chara, but from a sort of bubbly warm puddle of thoughts they both lived in. In this state, Chara was already a "guest" no more. They were, to put it simply, an integral part of this body. As tied to Frisk as their own organs.

Actually, maybe they were both a mess.

But at least, they were in this together.

Although it had felt like much more, it had barely been over a second since the words escaped the doctors' mouth. Frisk let Chara decide how to approach this. As they could no longer simply let them in control of their body, they would instead help them form whichever words they wanted with synchronized blinking. This morse thing was turning out rather useful. At least they wouldn't mess it up if they had to spell it out together in order for it to work.

Toriel stayed still, worried, waiting for her child to answer to the strange question. Although she tried not to show it as to not risk worrying Frisk, she did not really understand that much of what those humans were saying anymore. This was leaving the range of her knowledge, but she kept faith that they would know what to do.

Frisk blinked. One long blink, then a short one, then two long ones. After a short break, they made another long one before chaining three short blinks after one last pause.

"Y-E-S"

Toriel covered her mouth with her hand. Frisk... What was going on ? She felt a growing heartache, the monster wished she could just kiss their forehead and make their problems go away or take part of their pain for herself instead. But no, once more, it appeared that helping her child was out of reach. Like some sort of cruel joke the universe played on her by constantly repeating itself.

The doctor readjusted his glasses. He was unsure wether he should be happy to be making progress or distraught by how much more complicated this might be about to turn if his assumptions were correct. While this had the potential to further the cause of science, the prospect of healing Frisk would appear increasingly bleak as this would be leaving the range of known medicine. He wouldn't dare to admit it, but this case was... Scary. And this came from someone who had seen more gore than he would like to remember in his career.

What was causing Frisk harm might just be a kind of parasite living in their own head, most likely unintentionally created by Frisk's own subconscious, which would have somehow eventually grown strong enough to clash with Frisk's conscience for control over them. Using their body's energy to keep itself running and in doing so, possibly even restraining their access to their own body. It sounded... horrifying. It was straight out of a horror movie.

This poor child... He thought.

It wasn't unheard of for people to unintentionally create alternate personalities to help cope with trauma, and given the strange readings they had gotten from Frisk, the existence of a foreign entity itself didn't seem to be that unbelievable. But outside of some freakish creations of nature like the Cordyceps which only affected ants, parasites that could control their hosts to such a horrible extent were so far limited to the realm of science-fiction. Especially on a human scale.

No, even the Cordyceps did its best to avoid impacting the brain itself and took control of the ants' muscles directly instead. Frisk's parasite seemed not to be shy of invading their very headspace.

But then, what would come next ? If it kept strengthening its control at this rate, it could very well kill Frisk long before they found a solution.

He breathed in and out a few times. No ! He was a professional, damn it ! A man of science ! He shouldn't let feelings or suppositions impact his judgment. Some of these things were still far from confirmed. There could still very well be other explanations...

For Frisk's sake, he really hoped that there were.

Before he could speak up or begin to think of how he could possibly bring up any of this to Toriel, Frisk blinked again. He was too focused to notice it, but Toriel was suspended to their signs. As was Frisk, really. They were a bit surprised by this choice of words, but they understood that their companion did not want to be too direct with this.

"C-H-A-R-A..."

The boss monster's heart got heavier after the fifth letter. She waited for them to continue the word, but Frisk did not. They took a break. This was the end of this word. "Chara". This filled her mind with more questions, what did they mean by this ? Were they talking about... Before she could interrogate them, Frisk kept going.

"...I-S..."

Her heart skipped a beat.

They really were talking about them. But why now ? Was this really the time ? What could they even have to say ?

Actually, how did they even know this name ? She wondered. Toriel had alluded to them around Frisk a few times before, but she didn't remember having ever told them her first human child's name. Did Asgore tell them about it ? Or perhaps another monster mentioned it back in the underground... Gerson, maybe ? Or one of the Snowdrakes ?

The old lady bit her lip.

Frisk took a longer pause after this word than after the first one. Like they were hesitating, or thinking about something. Those moments felt like an eternity.

"...H-E-R-E." They finished.

Toriel tried breathing in and out, but her breath was shaky and irregular. Chara was... here ?

After a moment, a thought crossed her mind when she remembered what Frisk had said just before this. One that felt ridiculous. No, that was impossible wasn't it ? Chara was gone. She had seen them sick. She had seen them in agony before they passed. She had buried them. She had grieved them. It was silly for this old lady to have even considered it.

Was it ?

But what else could they be trying to say ?

She could keep those questions to herself no longer. Toriel approached them a little closer.

"M-my child..." The doctor payed attention to them again when she spoke up. "What do you mean by this ? Chara cannot be here.. They've been gone for a very long time." Saying those words still hurt. As long as it had been since then, the memories of this day were still as painful.

The first doctor Frisk had woken up to came back into the room at this moment, but went quiet when she realised she seemed to be interrupting something. Her colleague meanwhile, figured that he must be lacking some context but payed close attention.

Frisk closed their eyes and kept them shut for a while. A heavy atmosphere installed itself in the room.

"I-M

S-O-R-R-Y"

They eventually said. Surprisingly enough, their expression managed to shift a little. It reflected a feeling of apprehension, of shame or fear.

Beyond how intriguing it was that they were able to actually move their face even in such a minor way, what struck the doctor as the oddest was that they were apologising. They were apologising seemingly about mentioning this "Chara" being here.

This was when things started clicking.

Frisk earlier had been somewhat incoherent about the entity... One explanation made its way into the options table, one that somehow would make things even worse if it was true.

Were they apologising about this because they said it, or because they did not say it sooner ?

"Frisk ?" He took the initiative before they could respond to the previous questions from Toriel. Is "Chara" the name of the thing with you in your head ?" He decided to press the issue.

The human child answered fairly quickly.

"C-H-A-R-A

I-S

N-O-T

A

'T-H-I-N-G'"

This, unfortunately, answered his question in what was possibly the worst possible outcome.

Between Frisk earlier being somewhat incoherent about the entity, their previous apology and... this, it looked like Frisk was trying to protect or to hide the entity from others. It seemed to have managed to get Frisk to get attached to it one way or another.

It was surprisingly not that uncommon for people to grow to like their parasites, which often rendered treatment very difficult. And if this one was sharing their brain and their very thoughts, well, he was not specialised on the psychological implications of such a thing, but he could very well imagine how this could result in Frisk growing attached to it. Maybe even to the point of endangering themself in order to protect it.

If so was indeed the case, then this case was truly turning into a nightmare. Even if they found a way to cure Frisk, they could very well refuse to do it out of fear of 'murdering' their companion in the process if they did, which may result in their own death instead. How could they ever convince them not to trust in the entity, but to kill it instead to save their own life ?

Maybe they would even have a point ? If the parasite held what was practically a human consciousness, would killing it be morally reprehensible ? By proposing a cure, would they actually be giving Frisk the choice between death and the murder of a friend ?

The boss monster did not know what to think anymore. For a moment, she even considered the idea that she might be dreaming, but her senses contested it. This was real. In the midst of everything, of all her thoughts and questions, there was one which burned far hotter than any other. It still seemed like a ridiculous thing to ask, and yet... and yet... Maybe somehow...

"F-Frisk ?" She spoke up softly, gently caressing their left cheek as if she was going to wish them goodnight. "Is this Chara the same Chara that..." Due to the weight of her own feelings, she failed to pronounce the words.

A heavy silence filled the room again, only disturbed by the weak ambient noise of the machinery.

Frisk didn't speak up again to respond to her. After a few seconds, when she started wondering if they had actually heard her, their face tilted slightly again. Their eyebrows lowered a little and it oriented itself a tiny amount to the side, like it was trying to flee from her stare. Finally, she spotted one single tear, slowly rolling down Frisk's right cheek.

Toriel grasped their hand, she was trembling. She wiped away the tear with her finger before making eye contact again.

Frisk blinked once.

It was too much to handle for the old lady. In a matter of seconds, she was the one in tears.

She wrapped her arms below their shoulders so that she could lift their upper body from the hospital bed just enough to be able to hold them.

Worried about the patient's safety, the doctor who had led them to learn the truth felt compelled to intervene to make sure Frisk wouldn't be hurt in the process. "You should not-"

Before he could finish, the first doctor caught his attention by catching his arm. "Let it." She said. "I don't understand it, but they're having a moment." Her colleague resigned and did not force them apart.

"My... My children." She whispered, tightly holding Frisk's fragile body. She didn't know how, she didn't know why, but they were here.

Somehow, she felt like a part of her deep inside had known. Like her instinct has been telling her that there was something that tied Frisk to Chara and she hadn't paid enough attention to it.

But that didn't matter now. Chara was here, they were really here.

Chara and Frisk felt a lump form in their throat. The former may not usually be that emotive, but there was no doubt that if they had control, they would be crying. Not tears of sadness nor happiness, but rather from releasing all the worries and sorrows they had kept bottled up since their reincarnation at Frisk's side. After all this time and these secrets, to finally just let go.

"I love you." Toriel told them just as they were starting to calm down and Chara fell back into it again. Those words, they were not just to Frisk, they were also to them. She was actually saying it to them, and she knew that she was. That was the first time they'd even been addressed by somebody other than Frisk since... Since Asriel that day.

They stayed like this for some time before the doctors finally had to make Toriel let go of them.

Chara felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from their shoulders, but they also continued to fear for what would happen now that people knew they were around.

'Well' Frisk thought in their direction. 'We're going to have to do lots and lots of catching up and explaining, i imagine.'

'Yes.' Chara acknowledged. 'From now on, things will not be the same anymore.' Even if they managed to heal their condition, Chara's second existence would find itself radically different. Unless Frisk used their power to undo this timeline entirely, there was no going back from this.

They now lived in a world where when looking at Frisk's body, people would see Chara, too.

Frisk caught a glimpse of their reflection through one of the machines, which was not there earlier due to the position of the sun in the sky outside. This prompted Chara to say what they often did to raise morale in these situations.

'Its y-'

Chara stopped before they said it once they realised.

No. It wasn't just them. Not anymore.

'Its us'.

Author notes :

I never thought i'd be writing something where Narrachara gets compared to Cordyceps but here we are. Going only by the partial information that doctor had, Chara's existence would be something very disturbing...

This chapter was quite hard to write but it was bound to be pretty intense given its premise.

Im also somewhat surprised no one has really commented about the 'surplus of brain activity' numbers & changes in chapters 5 and 7.