Chapter 3
"Kill or Be Killed"
Asriel woke up in a matter of time, though how much time had passed, he wasn't really sure.
He wasn't really sure where he was earlier. The last thing he remembered was Chara scaring the living daylights out of him back in the Underground, in Toriel's old house, but that wasn't at all where they were. They were in some kind of other building, with Asriel laying in a soft, comfortable bed.
He looked around and took in the environment around him. It was a pretty open space, with not much in it at all. There was his bed, and a few things such as a lamp, two nightstands, one on each side of the bed, a desk with one chair, and a dresser with a TV, Gamecube and Playstation on it. He had no idea where this place was, but he seemed to feel somewhat safe there, if not for the fact that he was alone.
He really didn't want to be alone, especially after what happened earlier, and now that he was at a place he didn't know. He looked around more and more, and not seeing anybody, he decided that he only had one person to call out for. "Ch-Chara?" he questioned as he looked around. There was no answer.
He didn't know whether or not he should be very enthused to be having to spend time with Chara again. It was honestly real nice to know that both of them were alive again, but Chara seemed to have changed drastically. He wasn't really the best person when they were both alive and living with their parents, true, but Asriel could never say that he was that bad.
He gave a little shudder and hugged his blankets close to him as he waited for an answer to his call. Realizing that none was coming, he decided to call out again. "Chara?" he called out, his voice echoing a little bit.
The door opened in response and Chara walked in, with a plate in his hands. He was in the form of himself as a child, the same age as Asriel. "Don't worry, brother. I'm here." he said. He grabbed the chair that was by the desk and dragged it with him as he went to the bed, spinning the chair around and sitting on it so he was facing Asriel.
Asriel looked at the plate that his brother had. On it was a fork and a spoon, as well as two pieces of wheat toast, scrambled eggs, hash browns and a couple slices of bacon. Asriel was starting to get really confused now. The last time that he was awake, Chara was freaking terrifying, and was acting scary as Hell… and now, here he is, being really nice to him again. His brother seemed so inconsistent with his emotions and his actions.
"Listen, bro… I'm… really sorry… about scaring you like that yesterday." Chara said as he sat the plate down on the nightstand. "I… know that I really scared you bad."
"Scared me really bad? You almost gave me a heart attack, Chara." he said. "…You had me terrified."
Chara gave a nod. "Yes… I'm really sorry about that… but I had to show you that I was serious about what I said…" he said as he up his hand on Asriel's shoulder. "Listen, Asriel… I know that you don't understand why I have to do this… and I know I'm not the best brother that you could have asked for… but you're the only one that understands me in anyway at all… you're the only one that, despite everything that's happened, I still deeply care about."
"…I just don't want anybody to get hurt, Chara." Asriel said as he teared up a little bit. "…I don't know what exactly happened to you that made you hate humanity so much… and I know that we've both done some things in our lives… but I don't want it to keep happening… I just want all the pain and suffering to end… I… I want…"
"You always were a crybaby, weren't you, Asriel?" Chara questioned gently with a smile. He hugged Asriel and gently kissed his forehead. He seemed to be quite affectionate with his brother at this time. "You know, one of the reasons that I hate the humans but don't hate the monsters... well, at least not as much… the monsters have a tendency to learn their lessons." he said. "You haven't been around humans like I have… but if you were, you would know that the human race does nothing to ever make the lives of everyone better… in fact, all they do is make their lives worse… when one pain stops, another one is soon to follow… and just as the earth keeps orbiting around the sun, the pain keeps coming back in a never-ending cycle."
"All of humanity can't be that bad…" Asriel said. "I mean… what about Frisk?… Everybody had tried to kill her at some point in her life, and she still befriended all of the monsters in the Underground… even had the heart to forgive me after what I had done…"
Chara gave a sigh and looked down. Asriel was starting to get afraid that he would do that thing with the face again, but instead, Chara just looked back at him and took the plate. He took the fork and got some of the scrambled eggs on it and held it to Asriel's mouth.
"Wh… what are you doing?" Asriel questioned. "I'm… I'm not two-years-old, Chara… I don't need you to feed me."
"Please." Chara said as he continued holding the fork with egg to him. "I want to… after all, you've been through so much Hell because of my actions… you deserve a luxury like this…"
Asriel looked at his brother and looked back at the fork. He didn't really like the idea of being fed by his brother, especially when they were technically the same age, but he knew that Chara really wanted to do it, and he didn't really feel like risking having that scary face incident happen again, so he gave a nod and ate the scrambled egg off the fork. It was actually pretty good.
Chara gave a smile and a nod and continued to slowly feed Asriel as he spoke. "In some retrospect, you might be right… perhaps there really ARE humans in the world that can actually have a heart… but that kind of person I've never met until l fell into the Underground and met you, so if they do exist, I've never met any of them."
Asriel gave a little nod. "Well… I've met you and Frisk… and from what I've seen, humanity can't really be that bad." he said. "I mean… Frisk is one of the best people that I could ever know… and you… well, you're not really the best person admittedly, but that doesn't mean you're not a good person… you still have a heart."
"…Only because I was fortunate enough to meet you, Mother and Father." Chara said. "…I'll put it this way. When I first fell into the Underground, and when you took me with you to live with you and our parents… that was the very first time I had ever felt love in my life." he said. "That was the first time I had felt anything besides despair and hatred… for once, I finally felt like I belonged."
Asriel quietly listened on. He knew that Chara wanted to say more. "Besides… as I said, human beings have a tendency to not learn their lesson." he said. "If, for example, I were to show myself to the monsters of the Underground, and tell them that in exactly fifteen days, I would destroy all of them unless they change their ways and become better people… then I guarantee you, just about every monster would do their best to do so… if, however, I did the same thing with humanity, only instead of giving them fifteen days, I would give them fifteen years, with all that precious time, they would either ignore me or find someone to blame and kill them off."
Asriel looked as Chara had finished feeding him all the egg and gave him the plate. "You can eat the rest on your own, if you want." he said as he stood up and walked over to a window that was there and leaned on the frame of it, staring down.
"…They… wouldn't really do that… would they?" he questioned as he slowly took the fork and began to eat the hash browns.
"…" Chara nodded slowly as he continued to stare down the window. They were in a higher floor of a building, and he watched with disgust as the humans drove in their cars, and walked around as if there wasn't a single thing wrong with them. "…You remember as Flowey… you had that motto of 'kill or be killed', yes?"
"…I don't want to be reminded of that." Asriel said as he looked down. "…I made so many mistakes at that time…"
"If it makes you feel any better… to the very least, you realized that." Chara said with a sigh. "It's just another incident where the humans never learn… they give it their own special fancy names… 'Survival of the Fittest'… 'Natural Selection'… 'Social Darwinism'… they take the scientific truths of the natural world around them, of beasts that have no reason or minds, and they use it as an excuse for their actions… because they're just being the strong ones, and getting rid of all the weak ones."
Chara's voice was tainted with bitter rage and unrestrained disgust as he glanced over at Asriel, and continued to talk of the humans, "If you, my brother, taught all of humanity your slogan of kill or be killed… it wouldn't be anything new to them… that's all they know how to do." he said. "It's all about them… nobody else matters in the world, as long as they get themselves at the top of the food chain, so to say. The richest, the most famous, and the most popular are the ones that win… and all the rest be damned to them."
Asriel cringed a little bit and looked down as he slowly ate the bacon. It really broke his heart to have his brother have that strong of a hatred. He knew that Chara had a strong resentment towards the humans, but until now, when he heard the voice he used when he talked about them, he had no idea just how much he hated them.
"…And that's why I've brought you back." he said as he sat back down with Asriel. "You, my brother… you're so pure… so innocent… you would never purposely hurt anybody, and you just hate to see pain… that's why I want you to help me… together, we can end all the pain in this world… and we… we can make a new world… free from all the suffering that's been brought upon this world."
Asriel looked at him. "…I would love to stop all the pain in the world… I would love to bring it all to a stop… but not by killing all the humans." Asriel said. "…I don't believe what you've told me… there has to be some humans in the world that can change for the better… you just need to give them the chance…"
Chara shook his head. "Sorry, my brother… but I can't accept that… if there were such a thing as a good human, let alone more than one… I would have met them a long time ago… but I haven't… even your friend Frisk isn't safe."
Asriel looked at him. "…Wh… what do you mean?… What are you talking about?"
"…Let's just say that she wasn't always the angel that she is as you know her… at one time, she was a much different person…"
Asriel didn't have any idea what he was talking about, but he didn't really like how he said that. "…So… what am I here for?… What do you want me to do?"
"…You'll find out soon enough, dear brother." Chara said. "…For now, I want you to stay back and just stay safe, alright?… You're the only thing I have left in my life that I truly care about… I couldn't bear it if you got hurt…"
Asriel gave a slow nod and a sigh and looked at Chara. He knew that Chara could be scary and kind of merciless… but he also knew that somewhere, deep down, he still had good in him. He wanted to bring that goodness up in him… he wanted to know that his brother wouldn't hurt anybody.
"I know it's hard for you to understand… but I promise… one day, you'll understand." he said.
"No… I don't want to understand." Asriel said as he suddenly hugged Chara close. "Brother. I don't want you to hurt anybody… why… why can't things go back to the way we were?… Why can't we just play together until supper time and run around outside?… Always getting ourselves into trouble and just having a complete blast… I don't care about revenge… I don't care how bad the humans are, brother… I… I just want my brother back… I want… you to be happy…"
Chara gave a sigh and hugged Asriel close. He wanted to be the dark being that would kill anybody without any problem… but he couldn't… not with Asriel around… he was literally the only thing that kept the First Child from becoming a true demon. He could never just destroy the world when he learned that Asriel was still around in some form… and now that he had used a great deal of power to bring Asriel back… he wasn't strong enough to complete his objective… at least not yet.
"Oh Asriel… IT'S TOO LATE FOR ME…" Chara said, his eyes disappearing for those sockets, but this time, he didn't have that creepy smile at all. Instead, his mouth was in a sad frown. "…I CAN'T GO BACK… THERE'S NO GOING BACK FOR ME… I HAVE TO PLAY THE ROLE THAT I AM ASSIGNED… I'M… SORRY… THAT I HAD TO BRING YOU INTO THIS AS WELL…"
"No, Chara… you know that's not true." Asriel said. "I know there's still good in you… please… just let it free… let go of your anger… let's go home… let's be a family again…"
Chara gave a sigh. He let a single tear escape his socket. He took a few seconds before sighing and closing his eye sockets. He raised his hand as it was covered with a dark aura to give it power, and karate chopped Asriel in the back of the neck, making sure that he aimed right for a pressure point.
Asriel gave a gasp at the hit and immediately began to slip consciousness as he fell forward. The last thing he saw was Chara catching him before he completely fell.
"…Sleep tight, my brother." Chara said as he laid him back down and kissed his forehead gently. "…Stay safe… stay alive… I'll be back here soon…" He stood up, put the chair back at the desk and gave a glance out the window, seeing humanity. He had to remind himself of what he was doing and why he was doing it before he ended up taking Asriel's advice and forgetting his objective. He gave a sigh and a shake of his head as he walked outside. His short fight with Asgore showed that he wasn't at all strong enough to take on Frisk or her friends just yet… he needed more power… he needed the Human Souls.
Asgore was really starting to wonder if he had made a good decision, having Frisk escape the house all by herself while he was left to tell Toriel what just happened. How the heck could he possibly convince her that he's telling the truth? It's not at all a common thing that someone's long dead son suddenly rises from the dead and summons strange abominations to kill his own parent.
And even if there was a way to get Toriel to believe him, what exactly was he supposed to say to make that happen? He couldn't just go up to her and be like, 'Hey Toriel. Guess what? Our adopted son that's been dead for quite some time came back as a haunting ghost and tried to kill Frisk, who's now on her own in the open to get to Sans and Papyrus's house. How was your day?'
He gave a groan as he was trying to go over all of the mental possibilities of what could possibly happen in his head. He usually wouldn't be so stressed out like this, but this had just escalated to a whole new level. He had absolutely no idea of what he was supposed to do.
He froze when he heard the door open and heard that familiar humming. It was only noon, and Toriel had already arrived home? Oh God, he was not at all ready for this.
"Frisk, I decided to take a little break for lunch." Came Toriel's voice as she walked into the house with arms full of groceries. "How are you and Asgore do-"
She immediately froze up when she saw the state of her house. There was a big hole in the wall with cracks around it, and there were several dents in the floor, with some parts having whole parts of board ripped off. Needless to say, she was not at all very enthused to come home and have this be the very first thing she had to see. She just stood there, processing every bit of her anger as her arms dropped, and the bags of groceries she had fell onto the floor.
"Tori." Asgore said as he began walking to her. "I can explain-"
"What the Hell is this?!" Toriel yelled at him, completely cutting him off. "What the Hell did you do to my house!"
"Tori, calm down." he said, though he knew that wasn't going to be happening any time soon. "I can explain everything. Just sit down, and-"
"Don't you Tori me!" Toriel shouted as she looked around. "Look at what you've done to my house!"
"Tori, please. Let me take a minute to explain what happened-"
"And where's Frisk?!" Toriel gave a growl and walked past Asgore and began to storm into her room. "I swear to God, if you let anything happen to her, I will..."
Asgore remained quiet as he heard Toriel's horrified scream when she came across a door completely broken and shattered, and a room that was burnt and wet. Asgore walked quickly to the room and put his hand on Toriel's shoulder. "Tori, listen to me."
"You son of a bitch!" Toriel shouted as she turned around and was ready to kill him. "What the Hell did you do with Frisk?! I swear, if you did anything to hurt her, I will smack you so hard, you'll be seeing stars for a week!"
"Toriel, please give me a minute to explain what happened." Asgore said as he had his hands on her shoulder. "Listen, everything was going just fine in this house, until-"
"Until what?! You decided to throw a huge tantrum and destroy my entire house?! You had one simple job! Look after Frisk!"
"Toriel, listen to me. I'm trying to tell you that-"
"You don't tell me anything!" Toriel yelled at him. She was pissed, and she didn't care whether or not he liked it. "This is exactly the kind of shit I left you for! Every single time you can't control your anger-"
"Toriel!" Asgore yelled as he gripped her shoulders a bit tighter. "He's back!"
"What are you talking about?!" Toriel yelled. "What do you mean HE?!"
"Our son." Asgore said. "Toriel... Chara is back."
These words that the king of the monsters said immediately made Toriel go quiet. She felt like she hadn't heard him right... or that he was just saying that to get her to stop yelling... "Wh..." she started as she looked at him in the eyes, trying to find any hint of lying. She had been with Asgore long enough to be able to look for any signs in his eyes to see if he was telling the truth or not. "...What did you just say?"
Asgore gave a sigh and looked at Toriel's eyes. "Tori... our son, Chara... he's back... he came here about an hour and a half or so ago... he's the reason that your house is in a bad condition right now..."
Toriel kept looking into those eyes, trying to find that one moment where he looked away from her eyes, or looked down at something, but he kept his eyes straight into hers. There was no obvious sign at the moment that he was lying to her. "...Ch... Chara is dead..." she said and looked down. "...He died from his sickness... he's gone..."
"...No, Tori... he's not." Asgore said. He sighed and decided that it was best to start from the beginning. "I had talked with Frisk for a little bit when I first arrived, and she ended up falling asleep... I took her to her room and I went back to the living room and checked out some of your books... I read a bit of To Kill a Mockingbird, and I really have to say, it's quite a good book... though they keep saying this one word that I don't know what it means... I think it goes along the lines of ni-"
"Asgore." Toriel said a bit impatiently. "...What happened."
"Huh?... Oh, right. Sorry." he said as he cleared his throat. "So I sat in the living room and read To Kill a Mockingbird for about and hour or so... when I suddenly heard Frisk screaming for help... I ran to her room as fast as I could, and when I got to her... I saw... him..."
"...Chara..." she said and looked at him. "...You saw Chara?..."
"...Yes... he was different though." Asgore said. "...He wasn't the same boy that we raised... he was... much darker... filled with hate..."
"...And what did you do?" Toriel questioned. "...What did you do when you saw him?"
"...He was... trying to take... Frisk's soul." Asgore said as he shuddered at the memories of what ensued. "...He kept saying that he and Frisk had some kind of deal... he was going to take Frisk's soul... I knew that Chara wasn't the same boy that we raised... I couldn't let Frisk get hurt like that, and I had my hand on my trident... so... I had to make a decision... and I did what I had to." He gave a sigh as he looked at the burnt window curtains.
"...You... you attacked him..."
"...I set him on fire with one of my spells of fire, which is why the room is burnt." he said. "...I... I didn't want to hurt him... but he didn't leave me any choice..." Toriel looked down and gave a sigh as Asgore continued on.
"I got Frisk out of the room... and I knew I should have gotten her out of here then and there when I had the chance... but my curiosity got the best of me... I had to know if Chara and Frisk had somehow met before... I had to know what deal Chara was referring to... she said that she had no idea what he was talking about, and that they never met before... I chose to believe her and was about to investigate on... but before I could, we heard the door break down." he said, pointing at the wooden shards of the door that laid on the ground.
"As we stood there and saw the door break down, Chara walked out again, and he had... some kind of monster with him." he continued. "It was a large beast with green and red... it had sharp claws that pierced the floor while it charged at me... i tried to hold it back... I tried to use my fire magic on it... but it shot a huge blast of water at me... I was sent flying into the wall..."
"Asgore... what about Frisk?" Toriel questioned. "Did... did Chara..."
"No." Asgore said with a shake of his head. "Chara left for some reason before he could do any more harm to either of us... I told Frisk to leave and head for Sans and Papyrus's house... I stayed behind to tell you what happened."
"You... you let Frisk go out by herself?" Toriel questioned. "Wh... what if Chara went to find her?"
"She would be in a lot less danger out there than she would be in here." Asgore said. "If she stayed here with me, there's no doubt that Chara would come back and get both of us... if I got her out of here and moved her elsewhere, there's less of a chance that Chara would be able to find her." he said. "Besides, somebody had to stay behind to tell you what happened. You couldn't just come in here and not know what exactly happened."
Toriel gave a sigh and went to the kitchen. Asgore followed her to see what she was going for. She went to the cabinet and opened the drawer, taking out a few pieces of paper and began to glance through them. "...The monster that Chara had... what did you say it looked like again?"
"It... it was a monster that... looked like some kind of cross between... uh... a mermaid... and a kind of sea serpent... it had a green lower body and a red upper body... uh... Chara called it 'Neptune's Hound'."
"Hmmm... Neptune's Hound..." Toriel muttered quietly as she looked through the papers. They seemed to be drawings of some sort. She stopped when she got to a certain page and looked at Asgore. "...This one? Right here?" she questioned as she showed him a piece of paper with a poorly done crayon drawing of the exact beast that Asgore got done describing. It had Neptune's Hound written in black crayon right under it.
"Y-yes! That's exactly what it looked like! Only it was real, and not as poorly drawn..." Asgore said as he looked at her. "Wh... where did you get that?"
"...Chara drew it for me a while ago, when he and Asriel were still alive." she said as she looked at the drawing. "...Asgore... we need to go, now."
"Go?" Asgore questioned. "And do what, Tori?"
"I don't know... just something!" Toriel said as she looked at the picture. "Get back to Frisk, find Chara... just... something... we have to do something."
"...I know, Toriel." Asgore as he hugged her close and rubbed her back, just like he used to do when they were married. To his relief, Toriel didn't really object to the hug at all. "...You're right... we can't just stay here and let these things happen..."
"...I've lost to of my children already." Toriel said as she began to get a little choked up. "...My little Asriel... my Chara... I'm not going to lose another child." She pulled out of Asgore's embrace and began walking. "Come on, let's go. Grab your trident."
"My trident?" Asgore questioned as he followed her. "Why? Where are we going?"
"Where else? We're going to go find Frisk, of course."
"But why would I need my trident for that?" Asgore questioned.
"Because if what you said about meeting Chara and how he acted is true, there's a chance he's looking for Frisk right now, and we may run into him on our way to Sans and Papyrus's house." Toriel said. "Do you REALLY want to be going up against that monster again without any way to defend yourself other than a type of magic that it can easily defend itself against?"
"...Yeah, that's a good point." Asgore said as he went over and grabbed his trident. "Alright, so after we find Frisk, what do we do after that?"
"I don't know!" Toriel said as she walked out the door. "We'll figure it out when we get to that point! Come on!"
Asgore gave a little groan and put the trident under his cloak again and ran out to catch up with Toriel. "Hey! Tori! Wait for me!"