Aster followed the two humans to the best of his ability, tagging along with Frisk now that Chara had stopped to mourn the death of her mother. He had not felt a thing as the Queen turned to dust, it reminded him much of Arial's Misericorde. A sharp bone dagger with a crude hilt, that his late wife used to finish off her enemies - when she had to. Toriel's death was swift and painless, but it wasn't without consequence to the child's psyche. Aster took notes very seriously, as he meticulously labeled every page of his old lab journal. He somehow kept this item when he fell into the void, as he fought and lost to Arial's rampage. Aster magnified the page with the hole in his hand, looking for a particular piece of information concerning Snowdin.

"Subject developed an emotional attachment to what he dearly labeled 'The Skelebros' during his first timeline."

Arial - in Frisk's body - might hesitate to kill her bone and SOUL right away, or could not care anymore about family and just do it. Aster was not exactly enjoying the upcoming murder of his son, he was simply making Frisk fall completely into Arial's control. That was the only to defeat her properly, to take her out at full LOVE after her first possession of a determined body and SOUL.

Aster wondered why he had not tried this with Chara earlier but concluded the girl was already far too acquainted with the horrors of the world to be somehow saved that easily. Her SOUL was beyond repair, and the boy was fooled into believing he could SAVE her. He may have given her some respite and a chance to make things right, but it was only as long as he lived. He was also going to make her suffer tremendously before he could escape the bloody path he went in.

Aster's blue eye flashed vividly, as a memory crept back into his troubled mind. Pixelated bits formed a rare instance of what he could recall of his old life.

Him, yelling at her as he got blamed for not taking care of his sons.

Her, sneering and backing her argument up with how bad at parenting Aster was.

Both skele-parents being overbooked posed multiple problems within their family, Aster having little to no time to go see his children and enjoy their growth. It hardly made them hate him but they were not sure how to react around him, Arial was as busy with preparations for war but managed to stay home for a few hours. Aster barely dropped an hour per day at home to grab a change of clothes and stopped by the kids' room to watch them sleep. He then greeted Arial and hugged her in silence for a few minutes, they happened to chat casually about their work but there was hardly any romance left. The earlier happiness they had was crushed by the heavy responsibilities they were entrusted with, so much that Aster could never patch things up with his beloved...

...and then, she just disappeared.

Aster rarely showed emotions, but when he did, his form was so distorted he was barely recognizable. Every bit of his being was twisted and turned, his pupils glowed blue and orange and his face cracked further before he could get a grip of himself. The next thing in order was to keep one of his sons alive, it was a cruel way of thinking but he still had to give Frisk LOVE so he could defeat Arial. Aster slowly crept a frown before going to Snowdin seeking Sans, with whom he shared some "affinity" as he never saw Papyrus grow properly with his hectic schedule.

His elder son was napping as usual, on the same couch. Monster possession was not normally possible, but void beings had ways of taking SOULs for a limited period, Aster could thus take over his son for as long as Frisk and/or Chara was in town.

Aster sighed before getting inside Sans, who jolted and sweated profusely as his pupils went blank. His body froze in place and his mind was being taken over by a menacing shadow. Sans, no longer himself, grabbed a hoodie and some slippers to get out and inspect Snowdin Forest. Taking a shortcut to the last bridge before the village, he dropped there next to Papyrus, who was readying a weaponized gauntlet of sorts.

Chara was lifelessly staring at the ceiling of her mother's room, as she now slept there for the night after she gave what little dust she could find a proper burial. She then cried so hard, she couldn't speak a word or move a muscle once she was on Toriel's cold bed. The whole house in itself was lifeless, save for Frisk's SOUL manifested from time to time, eyeing Chara with sadness and guilt. The ghost boy tried to talk it out with her and have her move out before his body commit more atrocities, but he was at fault for agreeing to the shady deal he took when he was still in control.

"Frisk."

Chara's voice was faint, yet made the ethereal boy yelp in surprise. Her eyes were the worst shade of red, the blank, lifeless kind of stare nobody wanted to see their beloved with.

Has Frisk done the right thing? Probably ... but it came at a heavy price.

The boy shakes the grim thoughts that started to well up and approached Chara, then spoke to her in that voice she used to like. Although he was looking away, and shaking with every fiber of his incorporeal body.

"Ye-yes Ch-ch-chara."

"I hate you ..." Chara's steeled voice echoed in her SOUL, she hated the sole human that made her happy. It made it feel like cracking into a million pieces, as her company just disappeared without a trace. Chara was speaking her mind, even when she convinced herself it was her fault, to begin with.

"Right."

Chara lost someone again, and it was her fault this time around as well. She thought of suicide, flower poisoning or knife stabs, or even a hard fall somewhere high enough. She would be rendering Frisk's quest worthless, making him pay for her mother's death, and ending her life as well ...

"I cannot do it ..."

Until she realized she was killing Frisk in the first place.

Her broken SOUL was probably around Snowdin, judging how fast the possessed human took down the monsters here. She was also powerless to do a thing because killing this body will not prevent genocide. Stopping Frisk was hard as well since Chara could bring herself to kill him yet.

All she had left of him right now was that little heart of his.

His painful memories.

His chocolate smell.

His silky touch.

His gentle voice.

All of it dwells in Chara now.

"Did I ... ?"

It now made sense to her, she was the one doing the genocide route again - or that is at least how she now views it - even Flowey saw the current Frisk as Chara, so much it thought Chara had a doppelganger. She curled up in a blanket and tried to sleep, but the chilling atmosphere made it hard for her to forget where she was.

Chara remembered the last time she "killed" her mother through justice's SOUL, although it was only bits and pieces of her fighting against the ever-growing hate she had acquired. Justice was a sore loser, and her demon was too much into killing to show MERCY. Brave as she is, Chara resisted the urge to kill her mother for about fifteen hits. Toriel had made sure it wasn't her daughter but some abomination was sent to wipe out monsters ...

... Yet, Chara's eyes widened when she saw herself cutting through her mother.

A deep wound struck the flesh, fur stuck in the bloody knife and guts seeping with hot red liquid.

Chara's face was tainted with warm blood, and she smiled so brightly she could not realize it was her.

A terrible headache hammered the Fallen's head, each throb making it more painful to ignore. She could hardly cry now, thus her whimpering in pain was the only way for her to take it out, until something warm pulsed inside.

"Chara ... stay determined"

"Frisky ..."

" ... I love you ..."

"Love ... me?"

"I will ... Always ..."

"Even if I ... hate you?"

"Even if you hate me."

That's right. The boy will love her until the end. He made it clear once he played that knight spiel back in Waterfall. He will also carry her mad SOUL to restore her no matter what. Wrecked sentimentality filled Chara to the brim, with renewed Determination.

Frisk had made it past the gauntlet since the skelebros argued it was useless to kill a human like that. Undyne was, according to Papyrus, more fit to challenge his puzzles. Since Frisk ruined all of those by not being a very cooperative player, Papyrus went to Waterfall to bring Undyne and test his puzzles with him. As Frisk crossed the bridge past Sans, the lazy bones stopped and talked to him in a chilling tone.

"y'know kid, we had enough fun without your help, so forget about that."

Frisk smiled and thought it was his cue to leave, until Sans froze time and left him with a warning.

"and ... if you keep going the way are now, you're going to have ... a bad time"

Frisk shrugged, then left to the village and took a rest for the night. Monsters around got worried at all the recent killing incidents, but nobody deemed it alarming to flee just yet. Even the innkeeper was a bit shaken when Frisk took a room, so much she hid her children behind her. Frisk wasn't hungry other than for more dust, but his body was battered from all the walking and swinging.

Three monsters left in his SAVE prompt.

Next ... would be Papyrus.

Somehow, Frisk was not very enchanted by the idea of slicing that overly cheerful skeleton. Even his dark self pondered the act, but concluded all the same.

Forgettable.

Somewhere in what was left of his mind, Frisk was being tormented by his next battle, since he liked Papyrus and Sans. Yet, he could not really muster any feelings or sob or make a tantrum anymore.

Forgettable.

Frisk rested, his knife at arm's reach as he faced the ceiling. He tried to let the memories flow along his mind to recover any sense of humanity. The puzzles, the shenanigans, the dinner, and all those little things those brothers excelled in. However, all these were still ...

Forgettable.

As Frisk slowly realized he lost empathy, he grew a malevolent smile. The bullied became the bully, a strange turn of fate few people had the chance to take. The boy successfully locked up whatever sanity he had left, and indulged to the impulses he acquired. Frisk dozed off after getting all giddy for tomorrow' slaughter, dreaming of ways to kill Papyrus. It sounded chaotic when he woke up and recalled crushing the guardsman skull after disposing of him, but it really did not matter.

As Frisk slayed the remaining dogs after sneaking behind them, he got the message he so eagerly waited for.

"But Nobody Came"