Frisk had another day's rest before engaging Papyrus in a FIGHT. Truth is, even if he lost most of the feelings he had, he couldn't bring up himself to kill the overly cheerful guardsman. He grabbed whatever he could at the shop that night since everybody vacated Snowdin village. A chilly wind howled in the ghost town, except for the Christmas' presents ...
... and Monster Kid.
Funny how that child believed in Frisk, stating that it probably wasn't exactly that a rampaging human monster was killing his kin. Poor kid never noticed they were standing right before their murderer, and it did not matter to Frisk either. The human wanted a present, but all the boxes they checked were empty.
Well, truth be told, murderers don't deserve presents anyways.
Frisk had this idea sink into his head before smiling and tearing up at the same time. He took a room before the little emotion he had left break him and cried with a twisted smile. It was confusing how one could be this happy and this sad at the same time, but he still managed to sleep after he gave in to his outburst.
A strange dream occurred to Frisk that night, sort of where he was left before he "spoke" to Flowey.
Chara.
She had been abused by classmates over flower pots and was now taken home after she was treated at the nursery. Chara's parents seemed unconcerned by their daughter's predicament, although they faked worried faces at the school personnel. As soon as they were gone, both father and mother were watching TV as if nothing happened.
Chara's breathing was ragged, and it hurt anywhere she thought possible it would. Her shabby appearance was hidden in poorly-tailored clothes. Most of those were the same green sweaters, brown shorts, and chocolate shoes she fell in the Underground with. Nothing was properly cleaned or dried up unless Chara did it herself because she also did all the housework around here.
Frisk was a little shaken at how many blows he saw Chara take every day, at school or home. Days passed by as she took another beating for breaking a plate, to which for the first time in years, she retaliated with a knife cut. Chara never saw somebody else's blood until then, only hers when she was beaten to a bloody pulp.
From there, Chara's "parents" treated her even worse than before, she was shackled like a savage and was denied meals and showers. Strangely, no other adults seemed to care, and those who did were either bribed or threatened until they stopped "bothering" them. Their little demon, as they dearly called her, was something they never exactly wanted, but kept her nonetheless for appearances' sake. They vented their discontent at home and displayed her in public when necessary.
Long story short, Chara was just a pawn in their social game.
It did not take long from there for the distant girl to start bullying people, for the sake of it. Even her former aggressors were terrified at how much they changed their victim. Her red-dyed eyes were scary, and her saliva was darker than anything they could see. Anything or anyone that crossed Chara's path never dared approach her again.
It started that night when Chara was brought back home, battered and bruised by kids at school. A shadow slipped from the window, merging with her own and making her sweat and shiver uncontrollably. Her broken ribs forcefully reformed themselves, making her screech in pain, every scar on her arms was on fire, and she was feeling nauseous.
Chara brought herself to the bathroom, crawling slowly as her guts were all messed up. She threw up everything she ate that day, then tried to wash her face. Something terrifying caught her attention however, her beautiful brown pupils were shifting slowly to a blood-red color.
She then knew she will never be the same person again.
Frisk woke up to Chara's realization, feeling empty and pretty dull. He lifelessly brought himself to the center of the town, sat there, and waited for his mind to be flooded by chaos.
He was bullied, and he will now bully, nothing else mattered, it's really ... just that simple.
The real Chara had finally grieved her mother long enough to dry up her eyes and decided to make some supplies before departing to Snowdin. She wanted to make a butterscotch pie, but all that was left to work with was chocolate. That felt oddly familiar, more so when Frisk's SOUL pulsed happily.
"You love chocolate don't you?"
"H-how did you ... Wait, did I already make you a pie or something?"
"Yep! It was yummy, like Toriel's."
Chara felt funny, torn between her mother's passing and the past timeline memories. She stood there for a minute, frozen, doing nothing. The ghastly Frisk looked at her, a little concerned at how static she was. He closed the distance with her and "hugged", making her jump and her eyes widen at how warm she felt.
"I am ..."
The ethereal Frisk tried not to cry but sniffled between words. Chara knew she couldn't hug back, but did as if she could.
"... so sorry ... I just wanted ... to save you ..."
Chara's heart ached at the confused ghost, but remained silent and went back to make that cake. Frisk "sat" there glancing at her, and avoiding her gaze whenever she turned around. Chara finished the cake and wiped off invisible sweat, she felt like she worked extra hard this time around.
Instantly reminded of Toriel, her expression turned blank for a second then she took the cake in her bag. She wrapped both with the leftover snail pie and took some change of clothes. Next thing she knew, someone or something had crossed the ruins' barrier. She thus ran down to the basement and readied a knife she hasn't used. There, she found a skeleton with a blue hoodie, a red muffler, and some flip-flops, staring at her.
"Well, comedians never did home shows."
"you can call that a special, any chance the lady is around?"
"Sans." Chara loved to sneer and sarcastically chat with people she hated, but getting her mother mentioned took half of her energy away. She just grieved her, and though she did it right, any reminder of her made it look like the world ended multiple times. Sans chuckled then continued, with those empty stares of his ...
"cHaRa DrEemUr, I cOmE tO yOu WiTh A dEaL."
... and an eerie voice that was not his.
Chara processed it for a second or two, it was something she heard before. Scrambling her head for a bit, she noted that a shadow loomed on Sans, unlike his usual lazy self.
"That's definitely not you, Comedian."
"iNdEeD, i Am ThE oNe WhO cAn SaVe ThE cHiLd YoU lOvE."
Save Frisk?
Really ...?
Wait, how? Was it even possible now that things took a wrong turn? Would Chara even feel like loving the real Frisk? He was nothing like his SOUL self and he was going to kill everyone in here. She might try to forgive him and push the image of her dying mother away but ...
"No one alive can do that."
The few people who had extensive knowledge of the SOUL all died in the CORE incident, save for a few crippled monsters who quit doing anything close to research. The shadow that was over Sans slowly formed something visible, a figure coated in black save for a face akin to a mask.
Yes, him.
He might be able to save Frisk.
"W.D. Aster ..."
The shadow smiled and then disappeared, freeing Sans from whatever trance he was in.
"ugh, talk about a meeting."
"Pleasure to meet you again, Comedian."
Sans snickered, unlike her lighthearted mother, Chara had a knack to set a heavy mood. He honestly was past grieving his brother, now that it happened that often at this demon's hands. Yet something was different about her this time around as if she had finally become a human. Faulty and screwed up no doubt, but still essentially human.
"kiddo, did you kill someone for this glowing little heart over there?"
Sans expected Chara to lash at him or respond with a smirk, but all she did was watch on the side absentmindedly. The demon he used to hate with a passion smiled at a ghost, an ethereal human sleeping on a couch. He looked like the kid Sans had to deal with back in Snowdin, and it made Sans sweat a bit.
"That's ... what changed me, Sans."
"you could hardly change over time, Dreemurr but uh ... yeah you got cuter all of a sudden."
Sans was not sure why he said that either, to the worse person he ever met nonetheless. Although, all that emanated from that once demonic human was ... well, innocence. Chara blushed really hard, then smiled at her ghost companion. She then walked past Sans who followed suit, agreeing to tag along without a word.
Meanwhile, Papyrus found a human in the village place.