Chapter 3

And just as I thought, I saw a memory of Chara after touching the chocolate bar! And what did I see? Asriel having her soul and around the same age as his God of Hyperdeath form, just nicer to look at. And the duo managed to bypass the barrier with Chara forcing Azzy to carry her body to the village.

"Chara... I don't think this is such a good idea..." Asriel said to her as Chara spoke.

"It's the only way, Az. We need to save the Underground," Chara spoke as they went to a village and I saw that the mountain in question was in the Rockies, halfway across the nation from where I lived in Virginia. But then, the duo reached the village, it being filled with humans and them looking at Asriel in fear. And it was at this time that I saw the village was a frontier village from the 1800's gold rush. And all of the people were scared but didn't dare move towards Asriel as he laid Chara's body on the ground.

"Chara... I don't want to do this... it's not right," Asriel said in the combined body, unable to do anything as Chara then prepared the gardening knife, it being very sharp.

"We need to, now let me take care of it!" Chara said with a grim attitude as both me and Asriel then saw the same thought she had. She wanted to punish the village for killing her family via lynching! And she didn't want 7 souls, but all of them!

"NO!" Asriel shouted as he then tried his hardest to fight Chara's control and, in the end, he forced the knife to go through his stomach, which shocked Chara immediately. She then immediately relinquished all control to Asriel and said nothing. Asriel then, in great pain, carried his sibling's body all the way back up the mountain, his body finally failing him as he just fell into the throne room, right in front of their parents.

"Asriel! W-What happened?!" Asgore asked in shock as he saw the hole in his stomach, but not the knife, as it had been discarded down to the hole that led to the judgement hall. All that he saw was that Asriel had been gravely injured.

"Dad... mom... I'm fine..." Asriel said... before his body finally turned to dust, leaving behind only his green and yellow shirt and brown pants. And shortly after, their soul shattered. And with that, the vision ended with Chara feeling nothing but shame.

I gasped loudly once again, finding that Chara had since eaten the chocolate bar completely and was about to take a bite of the pie before I gasped.

"What happened?! Did you have another vision?" Chara asked in confusion as Toriel looked on in intrigue.

"I did... the final moments... of Chara and Asriel," I said, that making the duo gasp.

"What did you see?" Tori asked.

"Well..." I was about to say before Chara interjected.

"No, let me talk... it was my fault anyways..." Chara said before breathing in and sighing out sharply. "I wanted to ask Asriel to free the monsters from the Underground... so I made a plan to poison myself with buttercups..." she said, Toriel gasping at that. "Then, Asriel took my soul when you and dad weren't looking... and we snuck out with my body to the village I came from... I wanted one thing, Asriel wanted another... I wanted to take the souls of the different villagers because they all hung my parents and tried to send me away to my cousins..."

Toriel wavered her breathing as Chara continued. "Asriel, however, wanted to take the souls from the graveyard... I fought him for control, and I laid my old body in the town center. All the villagers were scared, but they didn't do a thing. I brandished a gardening knife that we swiped before the plan... and then, Asriel saw what I planned to do. To get revenge, not to help the monsters, but because I wanted to make them pay for their crimes... he then finally fought harder and... plunged the knife in his stomach... he mortally wounded himself so I wouldn't kill any of the humans... the rest of the story plays the same way... the villagers didn't kill Asriel in fear and anger, they were frozen in place. I messed up... If I wouldn't have been doing it for selfish reasons, and went with Asriel's plans to take them from the graveyard, none of this mess would've happened or gone on for so long..." Chara said with tears.

There was a long and awkward silence, none of us talking until Toriel simply placed her hand on mine and Chara's back, her speaking after.

"I... don't know how to say this... I understand that you did this because of what they did to you... but I don't know what to say to make it better," Toriel said, me then thinking about it... before getting an idea that was so crazy, it just might work! I looked at our soul and saw that my soul now also had a deeper, brighter hue of red to it.

"I think I know what to do. With every flashback I get, I can not only see the final moments of whoever was attached to it, but I can also gain some of their powers. I'm thinking that, if I convince Asgore to hold off his plan, I could get all those souls, use their power to break the barrier, and then give each of them a new owner!" I smirked, which made Toriel surprised.

"Giving the souls to other monsters? Are you sure that's smart?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's how the war started in the first place," Chara frowned.

"Trust me, I have a feeling that, if I can prove that you guys are completely harmless and that I can convince others that you're an endangered race, I could probably get a lot of laws put in place to protect monsters," I smirked.

"I don't know... it sounds a bit far-fetched. Monsters have completely disappeared from the history books from what you say, and no one even knows about us even existing. Would they really be okay with scary creatures that can talk being next to them?" Toriel asked. They were good points, indeed. But I did know that they were sure to arise shock from the Undertale fanbase seeing them in person, and that would be enough to make sure people didn't completely get frightened off from seeing monsters in person.

"Just give it a shot. Besides, it's what everyone wants to do, right? To see the surface again? To be able to reintegrate into society? To not be confined underneath a single mountain for centuries?" I asked, Toriel sighing.

"You're right, and I hate that... but I trust your judgement... why don't you finish that pie?" she asked, me smiling as Chara then nodded and took the first bite, her cooing at the taste, but I could not taste it, oddly enough.

"It's been far too long since I've enjoyed this pie... the best food ever..." she trilled in bliss as I then took control next for the next bite. "Hey, why are you-" she was about to say before I spoke.

"I want a bite of it, too, you know? You already had the chocolate all to yourself, so at least give me a taste of this pie," I said, her then relenting.

"Right... sorry," she said as I then took a bite of the pie, making sure it was reasonable as I then tasted it... it was everything I dreamed it would be! Sweet, savory, the right amount of cinnamon coating, and even a small bit of cream on the interior of the pie! I then swallowed it and sighed contentedly as I then let Chara in control to take the last bite of the pie before we were left with the crust.

"How did it taste, Malory?" Toriel asked me.

"It tasted heavenly... I know it may be a bit much to ask, but can I get the recipe?" I asked, her smirking with a giggle.

"It's an ancient Dreemurr secret recipe, but you do have Chara as a part of you now... how about I'll share the secrets to the recipe when you make good on your promise and free monster kind, as well as protect us from any bad humans," Toriel smiled at me. She then yawned her big maw widely, me smirking at how it still had a lot of sharp teeth, as she was still a monster.

"Looks like all the tears made you sleepy," I said, her nodding.

"It's been a while since I had that happen... but at least some of them were happy tears," Toriel admitted. "The way to the rest of the Underground is through the basement. I'm sure Chara can lead you through the place. It's barely changed a bit since they fell down here," Toriel said, me smirking at that.

"I promise to be better, mom... and sorry about everything," Chara said as I let her give Tori another hug before then getting a spare cell phone, me seeing it was MUCH different than the cell phones made by humans. It was made of some strange metal I'd never seen before and it had no screen, just numbers. And I saw that the phone number was all 0s and 1s.

"Don't even bother asking why it has that phone number, it's the best we can do in the Underground," Toriel smiled.

"I wasn't going to say a word. I was just going to smile," I said back.

"As I said, give me a call when you reach the castle. And maybe see if you can befriend other monsters in the process. We do need to see if that plan of giving the rest of the human souls to other monsters can succeed," Toriel said, me nodding as I then left down the basement and out the big door... only to see Flowey there in my path, him looking at me with his smug grin.

"Well, I thought you'd take longer than that. You don't think I know what's going on, do ya?" he asked, me simply frowning.

"If you did, then I'm sure you know that my strength FAR surpasses yours right now, Mister A," I said, him frowning at me.

"Stop calling me that! Or would you like me to mess with you more?" Flowey asked.

"And how would you do that?" I asked as I simply told Chara in thought not to speak. And only for the reason that this flower would kill us if he found out she was in us.

"By uh... you know what, shut up! I am going to have the last laugh at the end, and we both know this! How will you fare against a fight against someone who wants you dead? After all, the magic in your human soul is stronger than every monster in history combined! Imagine if you were trying to defend yourself and you accidentally obliterated a friend? After all, you can't RESET so long as you're a soul of intelligence! You need a red soul for that! But you don't, so you're dead forever if you die once!" Flowey said with a sinister laugh. "You may be stronger than me right now, but I plan to stop you from doing a thing. And remember, I'll be watching you," Flowey said as he then contorted his face into his troll-like persona and laughed maniacally before retreating back underground... and I then sensed that he went ahead towards where Sans's post was, meaning I could talk to Chara.

"Okay, spill the beans. Why did he sound like he knew more than even I do?" she asked.

"I don't know about that, but I can say this much. You know how Asriel's body turned to ashes in the garden of flowers?" I asked, her nodding. "Well... I'm going to say this now, don't tell a word to anyone about this. That flower is the consciousness of Asriel," I said, which made the fallen child gasp.

"WHAT?! B-But why is he so evil, then?!"

"Not evil, just... well, he doesn't have a soul. He's running on pure Determination, extracted from the 6 human souls previously stolen by Asgore in a science experiment. And without a soul, just like you, he felt no emotion. But he also has a physical body, the power to move, speak, and attack things... and the power to reset back to the start if he happens to be on death's door," I said, Chara gawking at that.

"Determination... he's using the powers of a red soul, despite not getting it from a red soul... that is very dangerous," Chara said, me being intrigued. "If he's like this for so long, he'll end up causing a time paradox!"

"Well, it looks like, for now at least, he can't do a thing when next to my Intelligence soul, as Gaster explained it to be. So long as we avoid him like the plague, we should be okay," I smiled.

"The plague?... What's that?" she asked, me then remembering that she came from the old west times, meaning she most likely never learned history class.

"Um... a disease that affected Europe, back before people there had the idea to colonize on America. It was caused by fleas and it was the deadliest outbreak in all of Europe at the time, killing nearly 66 percent of the entire world's humans," I said, her nodding at that.

"I bet you anything that was another reason humans went to war with the monsters back then. They probably felt scared due to being outnumbered after the plague... I wonder if there's a book about that in Snowdin?" Chara asked.

"Snowdin is where now?" I asked.

"It's a part of the Underground. Go through the door and be prepared for the chill on your back." I simply listened and opened the door... and I had to hope that Sans would be able to be nice and kind, not spooky and terrifying.