A/N-Me: Ummmm... Muse Kitty? Don't you think this is a little dark?

Muse Kitty: Meow

Me: No, I know that it makes sense...at least I hope it does. And it does explain some things, but still...

Muse Kitty: Meow?

Me: What?! No! This wasn't me asking to work on something else- Wait where are you going?! You'd better not come back with an entirely new idea!

Many thanks to TheFlameRose for Beta-ing!

Disclaimer- I don't own Undertale

Chapter 3

The cold wasn't too bad at first. It tingled pleasantly on Chara's warm skin, and the bandages on their feet made walking more comfortable so they were moving at a pretty good pace despite the weight of Frisk on their back. Snow fell at a slow pace, but it was heavy which meant that their footprints would be gone within minutes. Their head was a little fuzzy, but Chara assumed that it was because they had only woken up a little while ago.

Frisk whimpered from on their back, and Chara tightened their grip on Frisk's legs. They didn't know why, but Chara felt like it would warm up the farther the two of them went, so they tried to pick up their pace. Chara thought they heard the crunching of feet in snow behind them, and their stomach dropped. They hadn't gone fast enough to escape the monsters and now they were going to be punished.

"Yo!" a young voice greeted from behind Chara. Chara turned to look at the monster coming up behind them, noting the lack of arms and striped shirt. "You sneaking out to see Undyne too?"

Chara hesitated, not sure which answer would be the least suspicious. Before they could answer, the monster continued. "It's cool! I won't tell anyone we snuck out if you don't."

Chara smirked, a fraction of the tension in their frame leaking out. Give and take was what they were used to. "Deal."

"So what happened to your friend?" the monster asked, glancing at Frisk.

"Oh. They're just tired," Chara lied easily. "They're always so lazy, all they do is sleep. Thought I'd bring them along anyways." Mentally, they winced. They had no idea of what they were saying, and that lie sounded weak even to them.

"Oh, well that's nice of you!" the monster said cheerfully walking next to Chara. The human blinked at them, as the monster kept talking. "So what's your favorite story of Undyne? I mean there's so many and all of them are soooo cool! She is the greatest after all!"

Chara hesitated, not wanting to get caught in the lie of having no clue at all who Undyne was. They shrugged and forced a smirk, they tried to pretend they were simply chatting with Frisk instead of one of the monsters they had slaughtered over and over again so Frisk wouldn't have to.

"I dunno. Like you said there's so many," the words fell easily from Chara's mouth even as their stomach twisted into knots. They couldn't trust anyone. The minute they let their guard down something would happened, it always had and always would.

"True!" the monster said, "My favorite is from before she became Captain of the Guard, but man! She was awesome even back then. Charging up to the king, demanding if he knew what Gaster was doing, and then-! Demanding that we change the way we think about humans! Soooo cool!"

The monster grinned at Chara, a bright innocent expression that remind Chara of Frisk before t- before the experiments worsened. Chara frowned, wondering why their head was starting hurt, and only vaguely listened to the monster chatter on.

"I mean Mom said that we used to try and hunt humans down to break the barrier, but I don't know if I believe her. Pretty much everyone is chill with humans now, except for a small group that still thinks we should take their souls. But Undyne is going to track them down and take them out! Hey! Maybe we can see her do that today!"

The trio stepped into the tunnel that led into Waterfall and Chara realished in the warmth. They glanced around at the walls, wondering what the name for the color was. On their back, Frisk stirred slightly, and Chara set them down, brushing the hair from their face. Frisk opened their eyes, blinking slowly as they nuzzled their cheek into Chara's palm.

"Hey," Chara said, smiling at them softly, "Can you walk?"

Frisk nodded, a small motion, and tried to stand, wobbling on their legs. Chara reached out to steady them, and was surprised as the monster did the same from Frisk's other side.

"Whoa dude," the monster asked worriedly, "Are they supposed to be this warm?"

Chara blinked, roping one of Frisk's arms around their shoulders while the monster did the same with Frisk's other one. Now that it was brought to their attention, and they weren't rushing to escape from anyone, Chara could see how pale Frisk was. Frisk's legs were shaking, and they struggled to breath, sweat dripping down their face.

The monster ducked away, and Chara stumbled at the sudden increase of weight. Frisk was struggling just to stand on their own. Chara felt their own legs shake under the struggle, and they jerked backwards when the monster shoved its face in theirs.

"Dude," the monster said, forehead to forehead with Chara "You're as warm as they are. I think you're sick."

"We're fine," Chara snapped, despite the fact that the longer they stood in the warmer tunnels the hotter they felt as their body temperature rose. The monster stepped back with a frown, and glanced between the two humans.

"You don't look fine," the monster said after a moment, "I- I'm going to get help."

"Wait, no!" Chara's head snapped up as the monster ran off. "Dammit." They shouldered as much of Frisk's weight as they could and took a labored step forward. "Come on Frisk. We need to be gone by the time they come back."

Chara's head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, and Frisk's eyes were glazed over, but they pressed forward. Chara wasn't sure how far the two of them got before they crashed to the ground, but it was a fair distance. They reached for each other and linked hands, tangling their fingers together.

Frisk squeezed their eyes shut and whimpered, fear etched onto their face. Chara wasn't an expert at reading expressions, but that one had happened enough in the lab that they knew Frisk was hallucinating. They tightened their grip on Frisk's hands, and worried about what their sibling was seeing.


You struggled against the scientists grip as he strapped you to the metal table. The leather cut uncomfortably into your skin, and the more you moved the more it hurt. The scientist ignored you and your resistance, muttering to himself under his breath, something about your movements.

Across from you, strapped to their own table, mercifully given back to you in some form, Chara screamed at the skeleton. You weren't sure where the body the ex-ghost was in came from, but you didn't care because Chara was back and you weren't alone in this anymore. A part of you was horrified that you couldn't do anything to block the pain from them anymore, but most of you just clung to the other human throughout the horrors and experiments.

Once you were strapped down securely enough, he stepped back to grab his equipment. The large number of restraints were holding your left forearm down, which confused you since normally they were spaced evenly. Chara was in a similar situation, except their whole arm was strapped down.

The scientist approached you, scalpel gleaming in his hand, and you tugged harder on the the leather holding you down, feeling sections of your skin break open. Your left arm remained stubbornly still. The blade descended and you winced as it was dragged down your arm lightly, and the across, back up again, and across once more. A rectangle that started to bleed lightly.

Horror crawled up your throat because the last time he had done this he had peeled back your skin.

Sure enough, he dug his bony finger under the cuts and pulled on the skin. You screamed at the pain as the rectangle tore away from your body inch by inch. You thought that maybe Chara was screaming as well, but your focus had been drawn down to the fire of pain that radiated from your forearm.

You were sobbing as the scientist carefully set your strip of skin aside and prodded at the now exposed muscles. Then he grabbed the scalpel again, seemingly oblivious of the red staining his bones. You begged him not to, while Chara screamed at him even louder as he started to saw through your muscles next.

You screwed your eyes shut as you felt him tugging, not wanting to watch the muscle be pulled away from the bone. Your stomach was rolling and tears flowed down your face. You didn't want this, you didn't deserve this, this wasn't right. You repeated the mantra in your head over and over again, almost like a comforting lullaby.

Then Chara's screams changed from anger to horror.

"Stay the hell away from me you freak! Don't you dare!"

You worked up the courage to open your eyes and watched with sick fascination as the scientist cut Chara's arm open as well. Expect there was nothing there. Their arm was just like an inflated balloon made of skin, holding only air between the layers.

Chara fell silent in their own horror as they stared at their arm.

"It is fascinating," the scientist said to himself, "There sheer number of systems in a human." He glanced at you, and frowned. "Though it seems that I have chosen the wrong ones to start with.

He set the strip of muscle next to the strip of skin, and selected a saw that buzzed when he pressed a button on the side of it.

"Perhaps I should start there instead. It will be fascinating to study the difference between the bone make up of a skeleton monster and the skeleton of a human," he murmured, as you started to sob again.

Then there was pain, and painpainpainpain.

You came back to your senses after what felt like forever, breathing hard, and your throat sore from your screaming. Blood dripped from the table you were on, and you hysterically wondered who would clean that up.

You turned your head away from your mangled arm, refusing to acknowledge what he had done, to learn how badly he had damaged you this time. There was a crushing silence as the two of you waited for your tormentor to return from whatever he was doing, and your head started to spin from blood loss.

"When did he have you Save last?" Chara whispered.

"Just before," you replied, and you both fell silent again. You both knew from past experiences that when he did that, it meant that there was a large chance you were going to die because of this and then it would repeat until he figured out how to do whatever he want to accomplish without you dying.

The scientist came back, but with a box of. . . something in his arms. He set it down, and paused briefly to heal your arm. You screamed again at the pain of bone, muscle and skin being forcefully regrown, and slumping down as he turned away from you.

The scientist reached into the bow and pulled out a bone, one of the ones from the arm that you didn't know the name of.

"Replicating the cell make up of Subject F wasn't simple, but I succeeded," the scientist said, placing the bone in Chara's arm as you both watched in horror. It just hovered in the spot it supposed to go as he placed the other bone that went in the forearm next to it. Then he grabbed a needle and thread and started to sew the muscles onto the bone and skin.

You turned your head away and tried to ignore Chara's screams.