Chapter 11

Truth Be Told

Toriel came out of the room that Undyne was resting in. She looked at Frisk and all of her friends as they all silently stood and waited for a report, aside from Alphys, who was back at working on something. "...Well?" Frisk questioned. "...Is Undyne... gonna be alright?"

Toriel gave a little smile and a nod. "Don't worry about it. Undyne will be fine, my child." she said. "Whatever poison that was inside her body is too weak at this point to do any real damage, and that Golden Flower Tea is really doing wonders... the way I see it, with a girl as determined as her... she'll only need an hour or two before she's ready to go again."

They all gave a sigh of relief when they heard that. "Knowing Undyne though, it'll only take half an hour before she's ready to get up." Papyrus said with a chuckle. "After all, as the Captain of the Royal Guard, there's no doubt that she would have faced much worse than a bit of poison in her time."

"...Hey, Alphys. Did you hear that? Undyne's going to be ok." Asgore said.

"Y-yes, Mr. Dreemur. I-I heard her." Alphys said as she continued to work on whatever it was she was doing. After what had just happened with Undyne, she was filled with a sense of determination to extract some vengeance. Now she wanted to make Chara pay, not just for hurting Frisk, Asgore, Sans and Papyrus, but when he hurt Undyne by sending that creature of his, he crossed the line with her. She wasn't going to stand him hurting anyone again.

Sans gave a sigh. "...So now what do we do?" he questioned. "...Not only do we have to wait for Undyne to heal, but now we just lost the device that was being created to track down Chara."

"...We'll just have to find another way." Asgore said with a sigh as he looked to the room where Undyne rested. "...Things may be looking down here... but we'll be able to manage."

Papyrus gave a nod and looked at Sans. Sans looked back at his brother and gave a nod. The two of them were going to get the chance to beat this Chara, no matter how difficult it gets and no matter how many trials they had to get through. They wouldn't let this stand. Everyone had let themselves and their friends down way too many times and in too many different ways to ever allow any room for mistakes for either of them.

Frisk gave a sigh and sat down. She looked at her hands as she remembered the dream that she had last night, which she still hadn't told anybody about. She knew that they wouldn't allow her to accept Chara's deal, whether or not she told them about it... but her friends kept getting hurt left and right. Chara wasn't after any of them... he was after her... she was the only one that Chara wanted, so why should she have to force her friends to suffer along with her?

"...Are you ok, child?" Toriel questioned as she sat down with Frisk. Frisk didn't say anything and remained quiet as she looked down, in thought.

"...Hmmm..." Toriel looked up in thought. She began to try to strike up a conversation, to see if she could cheer Frisk up. "...You know, it's really amazing what a cup of Golden Flower Tea can do in terms of healing." she said with a hum. "I don't know if you've ever tried it yet... but... just like a number of foods in the Underground, that Golden Flower Tea can really do wonders when it comes to healing somebody that had taken damage... heck, if we could get the human food and drink to do things like that, I'm sure that they would have no need for hospitals, or-"

"Mom..." Frisk said slowly as she looked up at her. "...I... I need to tell you something."

Toriel stopped and looked at Frisk. "...What's wrong, child?" Toriel questioned.

"...I..." Frisk gave a sigh and shook her head. "...I lied when I said I didn't remember anything from my dream, aside from just seeing Chara and being on top of Mount Ebott... I... I didn't want to tell you because... I didn't want you and all the others to worry about it... we all have so much to worry about as it is... I didn't want to-"

"Frisk... if something is really bothering you, I wouldn't want you to lie to me about it and tell me what it is." Toriel said as she put her hand on her shoulder. "I know everything seems stressful for us now, but believe me, hiding the truth isn't going to be making things any better for us... we're all in this together with every situation... including this one, and whatever's bothering you about your dream."

Frisk gave a nod and a sigh. "...I understand... Mom..." she said as she looked at all the others. Sans and Papyrus were seeming to be talking about their own thing, whatever that could be, and Asgore was just standing there, quietly thinking to himself. Perhaps overhearing the conversation she was having with Toriel... but at the minute, she wasn't sure if that was the case or not.

"...Now... since you're in a little more of a truthful mood... let's try this again, shall we?" Toriel said. "...You had a dream last night... tell me... what exactly happened in that dream?"

"...Well..." Frisk started as she sighed. She knew she had to tell them, even though she thought it might have been better if they didn't know. "...Well... it started with me waking up exactly where I had fallen asleep... only... I was the only one there... you, Papyrus, Sans, Undyne, Alphys and Asgore... neither of you were anywhere to be seen... I was alone, so I got up to start looking for you... and eventually I came to the foot of Mount Ebott..."

"...And you talked about seeing Chara at the peak of the mountain." Toriel remembered. "...So you started to climb up the mountain, correct?"

"...I didn't really want to at first." Frisk said. "...I knew that more than likely, you and the others wouldn't have been on the top of there if I looked, but... there was something that was drawing me into climbing the mountain... I can't describe it... it was... this burning feeling in my chest that I couldn't get rid of... so I decided to climb the mountain... and I ended up at the top... looking down at the hole the Underground, where I had fallen down in the first place.

"...I had stood up there for quite some time... I think I was thinking about going down there for some reason... but I was stopped by Chara saying something... I turned and I saw him standing up there with me... he was wearing a red and blacked striped tuxedo and a black business hat."

"The same tuxedo that you saw in the shop..." Toriel said with a nod. "...And did you and Chara talk about anything while you were both up there?"

"Well... yes... we did... he didn't try to take my soul or kill me or anything... he just sat down and he started talking... one of the things that he had mentioned... was... that he and I weren't really too different... I didn't understand what he meant... how was I anything like him, aside from both of us having fallen into the Underground at some point in our lives?... I asked him what exactly made him think that were true, after he made some comment about the hat messing up his hair."

"...And what exactly did he say in response?" Toriel questioned.

"...He thought that I was talking about what he meant by the hat messing up his hair at first... so first he told me that it was because his hair was fixed and combed before he put it on, but when he took the hat off, his hair stood up a little bit."

"..." Toriel held back a little chuckle. Chara was pretty prone to do things like that when he was still with her, Asgore and Asriel. "...Alright, then what did he say?"

"Well... after I had made it clear what I was referring to... he began to talk about how he and I both have our determination to get things done... how neither of us were willing to give up when we set our minds to something..." She gave a shudder as she remembered the last part. "...He... he said that... we both went up to the mountain and fell into the Underground for the exact same reason."

Toriel looked at her curiously. "...He did?" she questioned. Perhaps this was a moment where she could actually find something out about Chara that she had never gotten the chance to learn. "And what else did he say? Did he tell you why he went up there in the first place?"

"Well... no... he never did." Frisk said. "...He just left it that we went there for the same reason after I had denied that... but..." She looked at Toriel. "...You... don't know why he went up there?"

Toriel gave a sigh and a shake of her head as she began to explain something to Frisk. "Believe me, child... I had tried to find that out from Chara for quite some time before he died..." she said. "...Time and time again, I had asked him why exactly he had gone up on that mountain in the first place... and every time I asked him that question, he never really gave me an answer... he either told me that it didn't matter to him anymore, or that it wasn't worth talking about at all... he never gave me a straight up answer..."

Frisk gave a nod and looked down. She was really hoping that Toriel didn't ask her why she had went up to the mountain in the first place... she wasn't ready to answer that question, at least not yet.

"...Well... after a little while... he... he made an offer to me." Frisk said.

"...An offer?... What kind of offer are we talking about?" Toriel questioned.

"...Well... it's... that if I go to wherever he is... peacefully and alone... and cooperate with whatever he would do to me... that he wouldn't hurt any of you anymore... that all of you wouldn't be harmed in the process of whatever he would plan to do." Frisk said with a sigh.

"...You're not considering the offer, are you?" Toriel questioned as she looked at Frisk a bit sternly.

"...Well... at first I wasn't... at first I thought it was a ridiculous offer, that I would never take it... but... with everything that's been happening so far... Asgore being attacked by that Neptune's Hound... Chara almost killing Papyrus and Sans... and now... what happened to Undyne..."

"Well, technically since Undyne was really harmed not too long ago... I don't think that's a valid deal anymore." Toriel said with a sigh. "...Even if it was, we wouldn't allow you to take it, and you know that Frisk."

"I know... but... I just don't want anybody being hurt for my sake anymore... Chara is after me... he's causing this damage to all of us because of me... this is my battle..."

"Frisk... this is everyone's battle, whether you believe it or not." Toriel said. "...I don't know what my son would plan to do if he got his hands on your soul... but I know for a fact that it would be nothing good... not just for you... but for everybody on this earth, monsters and humans alike... if you take this offer, he'll do a lot more than just take your soul... you have to understand that..."

Frisk remained quiet but gave a little nod. She knew in all honesty that Toriel was right. Chara wanted to destroy all of humanity, she knew that much from her 'conversations' with him... if he got what he wanted, and she gave up and gave him her soul... then she would not only be killing herself, but there's a good chance she would take everyone else down with her.

"Listen... child... I know I've said this a hundred times before... but I'd say it a hundred times again if it means you getting the message." Toriel said. "We're all here for you. No matter what happens, no matter what we have to go through, we're not going to give up on you... we know that you would never give up on us... despite the fact that a number of us tried to kill and/or capture you at some point... and we're not about to back down either."

"...Thanks Mom." Frisk said with a smile as she hugged Toriel, who hugged her close and rubbed her back encouragingly. She was there for her; all of them were.

"...But what do we do now?" Frisk questioned as she looked up at Toriel. "...We don't have any way to track down Chara now... not after that creature took away that device..."

"Oh... is that what you think?" Alphys said as she gave one little last adjustment to whatever she was working on and turned around, holding the device in her hand. "Haha! Here it is! It's finally complete."

"What is that, Alphys?" Asgore questioned.

Alphys gave a little chuckle. "This is the device that's going to track down Neptune's Hound, of course." she said as she showed them a scale she had snatched from it while it was busy listening to Hothead. "I was able to snatch a scale from the creature while it wasn't paying attention to me... so now that I have the sample of the DNA, I can use this device to track down any traces of where Neptune's Hound went." Alphys didn't seem to be very nervous or stuttering much at the moment. It seemed like she almost had a revival of confidence all of a sudden.

"The device?" Papyrus questioned as he perked up when he heard that. "W-wait a minute... I thought you gave that device to Hothead in order to save Undyne's life."

"Heheheheh... yeah, I'm sure that's what he thinks too... I do hope Chara doesn't get too disappointed when they find out." Alphys said as she held the device up. "You see, while the fight was going on between Undyne and Hothead, I was busy in here, making a replica of the device that looks exactly like it. I thought that just in case something were to go wrong, I would have the fake device to use as a scapegoat."

"That creature took a fake device?" Sans said before chuckling. "Wow... and I was thinking that Undyne was being a bit bone-headed in that fight... and by now, that creature's probably at Chara's place, proudly giving him a fake device."

Asgore gave a proud chuckle. "Tricking the enemy and saving our friend." he said as he went over and patted Alphys on the shoulder. "I would expect nothing less from you, Alphys. You've done great."

The feeling of Asgore's hand on her chest caused Alphys to get a little bit nervous again. "Oh... i-it wasn't anything too major... I just did something anyone could think of." she said with her rubbing the back of her head.

"Well, it definitely helped." Toriel said with a hum and a smile. "...So now, I guess we just wait for Undyne to get better, and we can get back to our search."

Frisk gave a sigh of relief. Just when she thought the situation was at its peak of bleak, Alphys is able to keep everything from going wrong. Perhaps they might still have a chance to stop Chara after all.

"Chara?" came Asriel's voice from inside his room as Chara was sitting on his bed, still thinking to himself. "Could you come in here for a minute? I need your help."

Chara opened his eyes and hesitated to get up for a second. He had been sitting there motionless for the past... "How long have I been doing this?" he muttered to himself as he looked at his alarm clock. It said that it was 1:36 PM, so he had been sitting there doing nothing for at least an hour or so.

"...Huh..." he said to himself before calling to Asriel. "Alright, bro. Give me a second." he said as he gave a stretch of his legs and arms as he stood up.

He went to Asriel's room and saw Asriel sitting on the bed, cuddled up in his blanket. He looked around the place, but didn't see what exactly the problem was. "What's wrong, Asriel?" he questioned as he went over to the bed.

"Chara... there's..." Asriel pointed to the wall. "There's a spider in the room."

"...A spider." Chara said in disbelief as he looked at the wall where Asriel was pointing. Sure enough, there was a spider there. It wasn't a very big spider at all. It was a little black spider just chilling on the wall. "...Are you serious right now? You called me over... because of this little thing?"

"W-well... it's... in the room... and... I... I don't know what to do with it, Chara." Asriel said as he looked at the spider.

"...You don't know what to do with a spider... if it's in your room..." Chara gave a sigh and a shake of his head. "...Alright, fine. Hold on a second." He went over to the spider on the wall and took is shoe off, ready to kill the spider.

"Woah, woah!" Asriel said as he watched what Chara was doing. "What are you doing, Chara?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? If there's a spider in your room, and you don't want it in there, you crush the little bastard."

"Crush it? Chara, you can't crush the spider!"

"Yes I can. It's easy. I just smack where it is with my shoe, and boom! The thing is crushed."

"Alright, but what I mean is you shouldn't crush it."

"Why not?"

"Because that would kill it!"

"I know, Asriel. That's the whole point. If a spider is in your room, you take your shoe, you crush the spider, and you kill it. Plain and simple."

"But... I don't want to kill it, and I don't want you to kill it either." Asriel said as he looked at the spider. "It's... it's just a little spider... I don't want it in here, but I don't want to kill it... doesn't it have the right to live, just like you and I do?"

"'The right to live'? Asriel, what kind of PETA bullcrap is in your head?" Chara questioned as he looked at the spider. "It's just a freaking spider. It's not like they have feelings, or anything along those lines."

Asriel looked at the spider again. "But... that's not what Miss Muffet would say."

Chara then repeated exactly what Asriel said in an obnoxious mocking voice, like a little kid. "'That's not what Miss Muffet would say'." he said before looking at Asriel. "What do I care what Miss Muffet would say? Who the heck is Miss Muffet anyway?"

"Oh, she's a spider lady that used to be in the Underground." Asriel said.

"..." Chara gave a sigh and facepalmed with a shake of his head. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Here he was, telling Asriel that it was just a stupid spider, and it doesn't have any emotions, so it was perfectly fine to kill it, and Asriel is telling him that he would rather believe the advice that a crazy spider woman told him rather than listen to his own brother.

"...Asriel, come here." Chara said. Asriel hesitantly got up and went over to where Chara is. "...You see this spider on the wall, yes?"

"Y... yes?..."

"The spider is scaring you... you don't want it in your room... this is your room, and not the spider's, correct?

"Well... yes..."

"And you don't want this little spider in your room, correct?"

"R-right. That's why I called you over to help."

"Alright... then get rid of the spider." Chara said as he pointed at the spider. "Show it that it has absolutely no business coming into your room without your say so. Teach the little creep a lesson it will never forget."

Asriel looked at Chara and back to the spider. He knew what Chara wanted Asriel to do, but he couldn't hurt the little thing. Sure, he didn't want it in his room, but he didn't want to kill the little thing either. Chara was telling him that the spider didn't have any feelings like the two of them did, but he remembered Miss Muffet and how deeply she and her spiders cared for each other.

He gave a little sigh and put his hand gently on the wall by the spider. "Hello there... Mr. Spider." Asriel said in a gentle and friendly voice. "Uh... I would... appreciate it if you could please leave my room..."

Chara stared wide-eyed for a minute before smacking his own forehead with the palm of his left hand. "Oh my God..." he muttered quietly. "Asriel, I love you, but you can be such a big baby sometimes."

There was a knock on the door that Chara heard. "...Alright, you know what? Go ahead. See what good talking to the spider like it can actually understand a word you say will do... I'm going to go to the door and see who is here." he said as he left Asriel's room.

He went to the door and opened it, being met by the grinning face of Hothead, his latest creation. "Hey there." Hothead said with a chuckle. "Didn't expect me to be back so soon, huh?"

Chara wasn't very worried about the timing of Hothead's arrival. Instead, what he was more interested in was the fact that Hothead had a cut wound in his stomach that appeared to have been burnt shut, and his green shirt had blood stains on it. "...Not at all." Chara said before opening the door wider. "Alright, get in here."

Hothead gave a nod and walked in. He was followed by Neptune's Hound and Illusionare, Neptune's Hound having to kind of move around and try to slither his way into the door, due to his size being considerably larger than many of the other lifeforms that enter the room. Illusionare remained eerily quiet. Unlike Hothead, Illusionare never really talked at all unless it was something absolutely important, and even then, all it did was whisper into the ear of Chara, or somebody else if absolutely necessary.

Chara closed the door behind them and looked at Hothead. Neptune's Hound, as soon as it forced itself in, began walking to get some water for itself. It was an aquatic creature that seemed to be forced to walk on the land quite a lot. Illusionare simply went up next to Hothead and remained there silently.

"...If you're here on such short notice, I take it that your mission was successful." Chara said as he sat down on the couch.

"What? You think I would let you down?" Hothead questioned as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a remote control looking device. "Here it is, Chara. Just as I promised you, one device built to track us down, finally in your grasp."

Chara gave a nod. "Good work... and I see you had to have taken drastic measures to get your hands on this." he said as he stared at the blood stains on Hothead's shirt.

Hothead gave a shrug. "Well, I challenged Undyne to a fight and defeated her. In the end, Alphys gave me the device herself to keep me from harming Undyne any further."

"...You fought Undyne and won..." Chara said. Something about how he said that made it clear to Hothead that Chara didn't like hearing that. "...And just how much damage did you do to her?"

"Quite a bit." Hothead said, not knowing why Chara seemed upset with that. "Uh... I got some poison inside her body... unless Frisk and her friends are able to treat it very quickly, I can say that she'll be hurt for quite a while... why do you ask?"

"...Hothead, you are a fool." Chara said as he pounded his fist on the table, generating a banging sound. "I told you not to hurt anybody when you were getting this device. Did I not make that clear? I'm trying to make a deal with Frisk... how am I supposed to get her to accept a deal of coming over in exchange for me not hurting her friends, when you go on and severely hurt one of her friends?"

Hothead remained quiet and looked down a bit. "...I... may have let that one detail of the mission slip out in the excitement of the fight." he said.

"...Whatever... just give me the device." Chara said. Hothead, not wanting to upset Chara further, walked up to the couch and gave him the device that Alphys had given him. The second that Chara took the device, however, he gave a confused frown and looked down at it.

"...Something wrong, sir?" Hothead questioned.

"...This device... it feels... really light." Chara said as he inspected the device further. It looked real to him, but it barely had any weight to it... it felt as if he could shatter it with just a tighten of his grip alone. "...Something's not right here." He turned the device around and clicked the button that would turn it on.

When he did, however, it didn't turn on. The screen that was on it remained completely black, making Chara get a little more irritated, and making Hothead more nervous. Even though he was bigger than Chara, considering Chara was in the form of himself at around Asriel's age, he was still very nervous about his creator getting angry. Looking up at Hothead irritatedly, he glanced back and continued to press the button rapidly, nothing happening.

Chara then inspected the 'device' one more time and gave it a shake. He could hear something hit around in it, but other than that, it sounded completely hallow. "...Hothead... you said that Dr. Alphys gave you this... correct?"

"Uh... yes... she did." Hothead said. "Wh... why do you ask?"

"...And... did you, by any chance... happen to see her grab the device and where she brought it from?"

"N... no sir... she... she was in the lab while Undyne and I were fighting outside..."

"...Is that so?" Chara questioned as he gave the thing in his hand one more shake. "...And... once she gave you the device... when you felt how light it was in your hand... did you... by any chance... happen to think about double checking to make sure that she gave you the correct object?"

Hothead gave a shudder and looked down as he realized that he didn't. He realized far too late that he had been tricked. With a sigh, Chara threw the device towards the floor and shaped his hand into a finger gun, and with the power of the Human Soul of Justice, fired a blast out of his finger that hit the object, breaking it in half, showing it to be completely hollow, save for a rolled up piece of paper.

"It's a replica!" Chara exclaimed as he watched the pieces of the replica device fall to the floor. "Hothead, you braindead creation of mine!" He went over and grabbed the piece of paper, unrolling it and reading what was written on it.

Sorry Chara, but I'm not going to let you have this device of mine. I hope you'll be alright with something that looks like it.

Signed, Dr. Alphys.

"...You messed up every single aspect of this mission!" Chara said as he crumbled the note and threw it at Hothead, who caught it and held it in his hand. "Not only do you severely wound one of Frisk's friends, something I specifically told you not to do, but you also let them deceive you so easily!"

"I... I'm sorry, Chara." Hothead said as he looked down. "I... I'll go back and I'll get the real device! I'll go right now and-"

"No." Chara interrupted as he walked to the wall, crossed his arms and looked down. "...It's clear that I can't trust any of you creations of mine to do such a simple task... so now, I'll just have to go along with Darkeol's proposed plan, and wait for them to come find me."

He looked at Hothead and said, "...They'll find their way here sooner or later... and when they do... I want you to be ready for them... I want absolutely no mistakes at that moment." He gave a shake of his head and began to walk back to Asriel's room, to see if he had killed the spider yet or not.

"..." Hothead looked at the crumbled up paper in his hands and let it come on fire as his hands did with his anger. Just when he thought he had won, he finds out that he had been tricked... "...Just you all wait..." Hothead growled as he balled up his hand and crushed whatever of the paper wasn't burnt into ashes. "...I'll get back at you soon enough."