"Miss Dreemurr ?" The boss monster felt a hand grab her shoulder and turned around to see the older doctor searching the words for what he was about to say. Before he spoke up, she wiped away a leftover drop of tear that she had previously missed.

"I sincerely apologise given the circumpstances, but your visit time is already long overdue. And besides, after the events that just unfolded, we are going to have to ask your child a lot of questions now. It may be critical to their recovery." He explained.

Toriel opened her mouth to protest, she had barely gotten to talk to Chara again after they came back from the realm of death. How cruel could you be to a mother as to send her home so soon at a time like this ? She wanted to stay here, to talk to them more, and to be there for her child. For all the times she wasn't able to do so in the past.

But no words came out.

Despite her heartache, deeply she knew that their health was more important than what she was feeling. After all, Frisk's disease had progressed so quickly.. And again, she had already lost a child so many times... In the end, the most important thing was for Frisk and Chara to recover from this. All else could wait. Even if her gut wanted her to insist on staying.

It had been so many years… She could afford just one more day.

Against her heart's desires, Toriel eventually relented. "I… I Understand." She said, attempting to keep a stable voice but still leaving enough irregularities in it for everyone to be able to tell what she was doing.

As she was accompanied out of the room, Toriel continued to look at Frisk behind her shoulder until the last moment.

Upon seeing this unfold, the children were certain that the very minute the establishment allowed visits tomorrow, she would be back here to see them.

The two doctor remaining in the room said some things to each other. Frisk tried to listen to what they said, but they were unable to grasp it. The one who'd lead them to reveal Chara's existence then left the room, presumably to let other people in the establishment know about the new developments regarding them.

They were left alone with the remaining one for some time. They guessed that she must be keeping an eye on them until the others figured out how to proceed with them or something like that. Or until they came back for those questions they mentioned.

The pair still felt quite shaken up, especially Chara. In order to try and help, Frisk tried to imagine what it would feel like to trail their fingers through Chara's hair if they had a different body from them. Which thus made Chara think of what that would feel like, too. And just to think about it, even only for a moment, made them focus on something calming for a little bit instead. It wasn't much, but it was all Frisk could think of to comfort them.

As time passed, the room got slightly darker as the natural light coming from the window dimmed. Leaving only that of the room and the luminous projections of the machines. Their cardiac rhythm had only now just started slowly lowering back down again.

"Chara, was it ?" They suddenly heard a feminine voice ask.

...

Y-E-S

They finally answered after Chara hesitated to help Frisk to pronounce this word for a little while.

"My aunt has the same name." She mentioned. "I think it sounds nice on the tongue."

Chara didn't really take the compliment. They were more wondering about what did she think she was doing by trying to start a conversation.

On the outside, Frisk just stayed silent.

"Are you sure that you can trust that Chara ?" She eventually continued, unaware that Frisk couldn't answer her question without Chara's approval.

They answered by the positive. At that moment, footsteps could be heard going down some stairs nearby. She got up and poked Frisk's forehead gently.

"Alright, just make sure you know what you're doing." She advised them before heading out to meet with the approaching men. "You still have a lot of people that care about you."

The woman disappeared behind the door. But not much more than a minute later, she came back along with Sean, the more experienced second doctor who had only just been told about everything minutes ago and was as interested as worried about seeing it for himself.

He moved next to them and crouched to their level, trying to build a climate of trust between him and Frisk as he knew it would be needed to be established that for what came next.

"Frisk ? We're going to have to ask you some questions about what you said earlier, okay ? Don't see this as a test or as something scary, we just want you to help us understand. Is that alright ?" He spoke slowly and clearly. Trying to make sure they felt comfortable.

The eight human was rather pleased by how nice and careful he was when approaching the subject. Chara did not comment, but Frisk could tell that this was not quite how they were expecting this to go.

O-K

They responded.

The next few hours would quickly turn into a massive interrogation session. The young human had to answer an avalanche of questions about their companion and the connection that bound them. When did they first feel Chara's presence ? How much could they read about each other ? Every answer they gave was written down and they were asked to clear up any potential confusion.

At first, things went fine. Or well, about as fine as a situation like this could be at least. But things took a complicated turn when Frisk was asked to develop some more on what they meant after they answered a question regarding how much they could influence each other.

They stayed silent for over two minutes before they told their caretakers the truth. And once they finished, the only reaction they heard was that of a pen being dropped on the floor following their revelation.

"…" The second doctor has nothing to say.

He looked at his colleague, then at Frisk, then back at his notes. He too, wondered wether this could be a dream for a moment. But he was quick to dismiss it. After all, people claiming the presence of split consciousnesses in their body often said similar things. Only, their experience was internal and unprovable, whilst Frisk's was undeniably real.

Chara had, up until recently, had the capacity to take over Frisk's body and move it around like it was theirs.

He did not let himself get lost in the considerations and instead breathed out before asking a few follow-up questions.

"Would it possible for Chara to do this without your consent ?" Despite everything, Sean maintained professionalism as if they were talking about the common cold.

Frisk hesitated for a moment.

Tell the truth. Chara suggested.

'Are you certain ?' Frisk was unsure about wether it would be good to give them more reasons not to trust their companion.

I disagree with this conclusion. Chara responded to their previous thought. I think that letting them know i could have used this ability to do bad things but chose not to is a better look than leaving them uncertain as to wether i would have done it if i could. Might as well say the truth.

'Alright.' Frisk decided to follow their reasoning.

Y-E-S

Their supervisors noted their answer, not without a slightly worried frown.

"Has Chara ever made use of this in order to force you to do something which you did not approve of ?"

…

N-O

That was not exactly true…

In fact, Chara had already stolen control of Frisk's body without permission a number of times. Although it was always for small things and they would both laugh it off afterwards. There was never any real ill intent to any of it. It was almost always for humoristic purposes, never did they consider seriously the idea of forcing Frisk to do something they would have strongly opposed.

Even if this was somewhat dishonest, giving a different answer would have given them the wrong idea about their friend. Chara may be the cause of their current issues, but they were not the problem. Chara was a friend, their best friend even.

It was not a strictly factual answer, but they agreed it was the most correct one they could give to them for an accurate representation of their situation.

It did not escape Frisk that the doctors were very suspicious of Chara and of what they could do to them. And honestly, they could understand why to some extent. But it would be far better and far easier if they could understand that Chara was not a malicious entity.

I will have to agree. In the current state of affairs, cooperation would be better for all parties involved.

The first fallen human wasn't that fond of these people either. They especially did not appreciate being referred to as a "thing" earlier. Which they did actually find quite reflective of the way humankind treated anything they weren't familiar with. What they didn't like wasn't being dehumanized, in fact, they did not mind being considered separate from the rest of their species at all. It was rather the way he seemed to refer to them like they were a sort of parasite ruining Frisk's life.

He knew nothing about them, nothing about Frisk, and yet already classified the thing he didn't understand as a force of malice. Talk about a Dunning Krüger effect...

And yet, despite this, Chara knew that trying to cooperate would be for the best here. It seemed to be their only chance.

Frisk was rather surprised to see Chara suggesting to cooperate with those humans. Although they guessed that in a situation so dire, it truly was a mandatory step to take. Still, they were proud to see Chara could put their dislike of mankind aside when it was truly necessary. Either that or Frisk was really rubbing off on them.

While the pair had this inner conversation, the two doctors shared notes and whispered a few things to each other.

If you would let me, i believe i may have an idea. Chara thought. Frisk immediately felt what they meant by this and accepted their proposition.

G-R-E-E-T-I-N-G-S

The two adults went back to focusing on them.

I

A-M

C-H-A-R-A

Frisk helped Chara to pass on their message.

Sean felt a real unease upon assembling these words from Frisk's blinks, something that had gotten rare after years in the profession. Nevertheless, he managed to hide it quite well.

"Salutations." He answered without flinching even as his head filled with questions. So was this Chara ? He wondered. Or was Frisk just relaying something they wanted to say ? In both cases, it seemed Chara did want to communicate something to them through Frisk.

He readied his pen and paper again. "Is there something you wish to tell us ?"

Y-E-S

"Well, go on." Sean repeatedly tapped his foot against the floor lightly like a middle school student bored during class. It was something he often did when anxious. When he swore to himself to help Frisk to not let them end up like his little brother did, this was not the way he had expected this all to go down.

I

M-E-A-N

N-O

H-A-R-M

Chara affirmed.

F-R-I-S-K

A-N-D

I

A-R-E

F-R-I-E-N-D-S

It was difficult to convey a meaningful message while keeping it short enough to be possible to say via blinks without it taking forever, but they did their best to try and convince them that they were on their side.

I

W-A-N-T

T-H-E-M

T-O

G-E-T

B-E-T-T-E-R

T-O-O

They finished their intervention. When enough time had passed for them to be sure Chara was done, the older humans started taking notes again. There was no visible emotional reaction. This made Chara wonder wether they'd done something wrong or if they just didn't care. Frisk contested this thought, believing that they did care at least to some extent, but that their priority was simply on doing their job and helping them.

"I present to you my apologies in advance Frisk, please do not take what Im about to say against you, but there is something that I feel is important enough to have to be said." Sean started.

"You understand that we are not in your head, so we have no choice but to trust you regarding what you say about all of this." He continued, Frisk was uncertain about where this was going.

"We know you think of Chara as a friend." He asserted. "And that you have their interests in mind. But please do not let that get in the way of your safety." He paused for a moment. "It would be easy for you to lie about anything we ask. It could have even been you rather than Chara speaking just now in order to make us believe they are good willing to convince us they aren't bad, and there would be no way we could tell the difference."

The air suddenly felt heavier.

"So I simply wish to tell you that if at any point today you've told us something which was untrue for Chara's sake. You need to tell us about it and say the truth. Its okay, we won't be mad at you if you did, but please just remember that we can't help you if you aren't honest with us. Alright ?"

Y-E-S

"Did it happen ?" The tension in the room intensified.

They responded with the negative, and it dissipated as fast as it came.

Sean closed his eyes. "Alright." He said. "I trust you. And i'll trust Chara, too."

Paradoxically, the fact that he felt like asking that question was necessary in the first place actually made Chara feel even less trusted. That "climate of trust" he tried to set up was as fragile as the wings of a butterfly. Even now that they really did try to cooperate with those humans, their eternal suspicion of the things they don't understand was sabotaging their efforts.

Nevertheless, they guessed that this was still progress in a way.

Sort of...

The questioning resumed. Only from then on, a couple of the questions would be addressed to Chara instead. This distinction did not make much difference in the end as they both knew the things the other did anyway. But they still played by it.

One thing Chara said which prompted lots of reactions was when they shared their observations about how they were becoming increasingly similar to each other over time. Let it be via tastes, personality traits or even their thoughts and that this coincided with when their disease had begun.

Combining this with some of their previous readings about Frisk, it now seemed all but confirmed to Sean that Chara was responsible for what was happening to them. This strange link that tied Chara to them was unstable, and it looked like it was now starting to collapse, taking Frisk down with it.

There was one more unfortunate angle to this news. It proved that Frisk was indeed willing to endanger themself for Chara. Or at least, that they had done so in the recent past. He could only hope that they had been sincere earlier and that they now prioritized the truth above the rest, because if Frisk had lied to him still even following his previous intervention, then even with all the goodwill in the world, there would not be much he could do to help them if they refused to cooperate.

He could only assume they were honest, and then work from here. It was his only option to go forward.

While the news brought regarding Frisk's condition were the most concerning, they were not the most intriguing.

Indeed, the most mind-blowing thing about all this was what Chara revealed when came to the question of the origin of their identity. The question was originally aimed at understanding how the Chara consciousness first became to be the way it is (Did they choose their own name ? What about personality ? Did Frisk's pysche play an important role in shaping it ?)

But instead what he was told an an answer seemed to defy all established science.

Chara was not an entity created by Frisk's own subconscious or even from it. They used to be a living human with a body of their own, reincarnated with Frisk after having previously died. This was something which had been somewhat implied by Toriel previously, but that was not mentioned to Sean when he was given a resume of the situation.

This was… insane. They were practically claiming to have gone through a sort of resurrection. Or a reincarnation in someone else's body. How ? Why ? None of this seemed to make much sense and yet there were plenty of reasons to believe it had to be the truth.

With this kind of escalation, it would likely be necessary for Frisk's case to be considered as classified information from now on. Although that decision would ultimately fall in the hands of his superiors, letting the public know about this discovery before they could grasp a good understanding of it would probably be a mistake. With a slightly trembling hand and a sudden loss of confidence in plenty of things that he had considered as basic facts until today, the interrogation finally ended.

The time of dinner was long passed by the time Frisk and Chara were done with the questions. Although to be fair, they could not communicate particularly fast in this state, which prolonged it by quite a bit.

Talking about things they couldn't do anymore in this state. When they started getting hungry, it came to their mind that eating or drinking were going to be among those as well.

In order to be kept alive for more than a few days, their body was going to have to be 'fed' via injections of nutrients directly into their veins. As if they were in a coma.

They were actually okay with this. Considering Chara's cause of death and that Frisk ate garbage on live camera once in the underground, they didn't really have any standards when it comes to anything related to food. And they didn't really feel like starving so…

Frisk and Chara fell asleep very quickly that night, the events of the day have been emotionally and mentally exhausting.

From the an outside perspective, their unconscious body looked peacefully asleep. Inside however, they were scared. Their future had rarely felt so uncertain.

But they stayed determined.

Author notes :

This chapter ended up dragging out more than i thought, so im ending it here. Some of the things i wanted to be near the end of this chapter will end up in the first half of the next chapter.

We're also getting closer to the point where the psychological side of the blending problem will really take off. Hehe...