Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.
— Benjamin Franklin
Every person in the makeshift party this timeline made had their reasons to disbelieve. Seeing Toriel teaching kids casually made all monsters drop their jaws. Their Queen was back and did not bother with any protocol of any sort, just sitting there and teaching rowdy monster kids.
"Miss Queen, do you have any children?" Asked one of the bunny Innkeeper's kids.
Toriel almost shed a tear but composed herself before smiling at the innocent question.
"I do have a human daughter, my child."
The bunny kid beamed suddenly, uttering words Toriel never saw coming.
"Then they should be happy with you, Miss Queen, because you're really nice to us."
Toriel went on crying this time, unable to hold the tears that formed in her eyes. Kids gathered up to hug her, and the younger ones gripped her robe. She spent a good minute crying, making some children tear up alongside her. They apologized for making her cry, to which she happily responded.
"It is okay to cry, I am just ... so happy you told me about how you feel."
Monsters gathered in the Librarby, some scolding our children and others apologizing to their newly arrived Queen. An open picnic was made for the occasion, Grillby taking care of the tremendous amount of orders that day. Some monsters managed to help him with what they had, like the bunny shopkeeper who served cinnamon buns and bisicles.
A group gathered around Toriel, making her feel like it was a human press conference. Chara was not there to help, and Sans was not seen around since the last time. The only one who crept behind her shadow was Aster, and some presence akin to Chara.
Toriel recognized the ghost child hugging her close, in a desperate attempt to quell her nervousness.
"How was staying away all this time away, Miss Queen?" asked a monster in the back row.
"It was hard, my friend. Humans kept coming down here and died on my watch. I could not do anything for my fellow monsters either, I ..."
Toriel felt powerless again, torn by the feeling that she hadn't made the wisest decision. Nonetheless, the monster thanked her for her honesty and sat down. The meal was peacefully enjoyed until one of Grillby's regulars stood up and yelled.
"You know, having our Queen is fine and all ... but why is there a human here? and where is Sans, or Papyrus? Did the human do something to them?"
Some ruckus sparked upon monsters, who were divided between those who fully believed in Toriel and those who didn't. They almost fought among themselves, until the Innkeeper barged in and yelled.
"The human has not left her room, everyone! They cannot possibly be running around and killing monsters in their state! You should trust your Queen! "
The argument trailed off a bit before going completely silent, and everybody resumed eating quietly. Some monsters came to apologize - yet again - for being distrustful, others did not have the delicacy to and just left for their respective houses.
Frisk floated around Toriel as the argument heated up, unable to do much about it. Thankfully, monsters save her from being further criticized, and everything seemed to be back to normal. Frisk felt uneasy, however, but couldn't exactly place it. He felt like shadows roaming around, passing through people and making them aggressive.
He could swear he saw one passing through that ugly, and perhaps, drunk monster.
Frisk hovered over the town, unable to find their partner around. Aster seemed to have vanished as well, leaving Chara and Toriel on their own. He concluded they must be looking for the corrupt Papyrus, the one he and Arial saw yesterday. The aspiring Royal Guard, half-covered in black mud, and with an orange pupil like Gaster's left one. He hadn't budged yesterday, as if frozen in place. Unable to trigger him, both partners left him to keep their loved ones safe.
Frisk entered the familiar inn, slowly moving around until he heard Chara's voice. He peered inside as she was talking to herself. She seemed ... troubled by something. She rambled about things he could not make sense of, so he approached her carefully.
He did not want to be seen yet.
"DieMonsterLeaveMotherAloneAllOfYouShouldDieAndRotWhatDidMomDoToDeserveThisIShouldHaveNeverThoughtOfMakingHerTagAlongDieMonsterLeaveMotherAloneAllOfYouShouldDieAndRotWhatDidMomDoToDeserveThisIShouldHaveNeverThoughtOfMakingHerTagAlongDieMonsterLeaveMotherAloneAllOfYouShouldDieAndRotWhatDidMomDoToDeserveThisIShouldHaveNeverThoughtOfMakingHerTagAlongDieMonsterLeaveMotherAloneAllOfYouShouldDieAndRotWhatDidMomDoToDeserveThisIShouldHaveNeverThoughtOfMakingHerTagAlong"
Chara looked in pain, slowly dripping blood and tears as she muttered those words indefinitely. Black mud started welling around her, and shadows threatened to circle and pounce. Frisk widened his eyes, hurrying to Chara's side before it is too late.
Slowly taking corporeal form, he scooped her unintentionally, getting "stabbed" by shadowy spines in the foot. Withstanding the pain, he hugged Chara closer as she started snapping out of her trance-like state.
" Frisky?"
" I am here."
" Are you really Frisky?"
" I am the one you love, Chara."
" Are you not leaving me this time?"
" ... "
For some reason, Frisk could not answer this one. After all, he already left her once before to go on a bloody carnage.
" Am I no good?"
" Stop ... "
Chara started squirming in Frisk's grasp, willing to set herself free.
" I knew it ... you are not the real Frisky. The real one would promise me things and make me happy "
She wanted something he could not provide right away, promises he could not honor ...
... Yet, he really did not want her to be consumed by the shadows looming in the room.
" Chara "
That voice made Chara's expression soften, retracting the shadow spikes back to the floor.
" I am no longer alive, remember, I died for your sake. "
Black mud surged from the earth and almost started consuming Chara whole. It was drowning her halfway through her body, imprisoning Frisk too. He could not extract himself from it, so he kept talking sense into his delusional once beloved human.
"I cannot lie to you, I cannot make promises I cannot keep. "
Her eyes turned red, her expression twitched to a menacing grin, she seemed like the one Frisk never lived to see before. He was afraid, but he held her face close, slowly drawing his lips to hers before he dies along her in a black bubble.
" I can only stay close to you, help you from the shadows, and allow myself to love you ..."
He kissed her slowly, her eyes closing along his. Frisk started feeling what Chara felt before. The pain of losing herself to a demon; the treatment she got on the surface; her newly found family under the ground; her losing people dear to her; her initial death.
Chara could not believe the feelings that washed her worries away, and broke the black prison she trapped Frisk in. She simply responded to the kiss with a tongue intrusion, prolonging the act until she ran out of breath. Chara looked around with her eyes open, noticing Frisk was gone ethereal again.
She could hear the unspoken words, the ones Frisk meant to leave before he faded again.
" I can only allow myself to love you ... and believe we can be together again ... someday. "
Arial looked around where her son was, wanting to make things right on her own. She did not expect either Sans or Aster to follow, thinking they would stand by the Queen to help. The former Royal Guard floated closer to her husband, in hopes of getting whole again and seeing her son.
" ... "
Sans didn't know what to do in that kind of situation, except pun nervously.
" whoa, should i be getting a skele-ton of feels right now? "
" Now, now, it isn't the time for skull-cracking jokes son. "
" ... hey ma, hey pops "
" Hello, Sans "
Nobody in the W.D. family liked difficult family reunions, and this was one of them. Sans especially hated both his parents right now, but can't discard their help to find Papyrus.
"Arial, shouldn't we go where our son works?"
"Waterfall, my dear? Are our sins already water under the bridge?"
Both looked at their son intently, and Sans couldn't help but sweat ... before losing the light in his eyes.
" are you sure we can forget all the bad times that easily? "
Both parents stared at each other, then at their son. They slowly approached him, triggering a FIGHT. Sans tried throwing bones at them and firing loose Gasters to keep them at bay. He knew how futile that was, Arial and Aster advanced without taking a hit. They then knelt beside him, and ...
... hugged him.
" ... hey "
They squeezed him slowly, like in the old times. Sans couldn't even remember when that happened before.
" ... uh "
He awkwardly moved his hands to each of their skulls, patting those as magical tears appeared on each and every one of them
" ... stop that ... "
The FIGHT ended with a little extra skeletal fluff, in which all three boneheads remained until they had their fill. They then moved out to Waterfall, looking around for the missing Papyrus. Passing through the quiet, dim-lighted scenery made them a little nostalgic. There were times when they were not completely left on their own, trapped in their own version of hell. They were times when there was no war, no void, no timeline jumping ... when Papyrus was still a baby bones who had no cares in the world.
But that was not the Papyrus they saw, hanging on a cliff in Waterfall.
His eye sockets were tainted in black mud, and he looked exhausted. They carried a sizable bone around, probably to be used as a weapon. Papyrus also wore one of Sans' hoodies, gripping it as if their life depended on it.
Arial came forward and tried talking to her son, hoping to not have to use force.
"Paps, it's me, Mama."
Papyrus looked at the skeletal female who spoke to him, both confused and angry.
"YOU CAN NOT BE MAMA, MAMA IS DEAD SINCE I WAS A BABY BONES"
He then looked at the ghastly skeleton behind, and the one wearing a similar hoodie. All three looked like his old family, but Papyrus was too corrupt to even believe that was possible.
" heya paps, i doubt you can even tell who we are but uh ... we're the good guys ...
" ... And we are here to save you, my lovely little baby bones ... "
" ... Perhaps you cannot believe it yet, but we are all here. "
Voices echoed through the aspiring Royal Guard, voices he was familiar with but unable to ascertain whether they were real.
"LIES, ALL LIES ... THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL NOT LOSE TO HALLUCINATIONS !"
Papyrus initiated a FIGHT against the closest person to them, namely Arial, who looked saddened by the prospect.
Arial looked at her options, her ACTs were limited to guarding and switching weapons. She could also request backup, both from the living and the dead.
Her ITEMs were said weapons, and browsing through them only made her frown. One particular item had a different feel to it, a simple bone dagger with a long, narrow blade. Arial planned to use that as a last resort, knowing what this "misericorde" was doing in her inventory.
That was the same weapon she finished off Papyrus with, back when she was controlling Frisk.