*It's completely silent*
Every echo flower in Waterfall was silent. No wishes, no passing conversations, nothing….
Chara was happily bounding through Waterfall enjoying the silence, slapping the echo flowers as she passed. Chara had already killed Asgore and Flowey, and could have already left, but she had to make the lizard pay. That Alphys had taken all the monsters and hidden them, Chara needed to kill them all if she wanted to prove herself the strongest.
Chara's hunt had lead her back to Waterfall but the trail grew cold, so Chara decided to just enjoy herself while she was here, and her fun was to slap the flowers and listen to the silence.
*Slap!*
*It's completely silent*
*Slap!*
*It's completely silent*
*Slap*
*Are you happy?*
Chara froze for an instant, then she drew her knife and spun looking around in a panic. No one should be left here she was sure she checked here before, she knows no one was left, but who spoke to the flower?
"WHO'S THERE?!"
Silence…
Chara began to get angry, someone was here, but where are they now. In her now frantic search she brushed against another echo flower.
"I asked if you're happy?"
"I SAID WHO'S THERE!"
Chara was beginning to worry, how could an echo flower continue the conversation from before, as if it were directed at her. With a prod she hits another flower.
"Was killing them all worth it?"
"WHO ARE YOU!?"
Without even moving the flowers around Chara begin to speak.
"I am no one worth mentioning"
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!?"
"Don't you know how to meet a new friend…. Turn around and say hello…."
Chara slowly turned to see whoever was speaking through the flowers, when she did turn she saw a tall thin skeleton wearing black robes and a cracked face wearing a permanent smile, and rolling a buttercup flower in his hands.
"WH-WHO ARE YOU!?"
Chara was confused, why were her hands shaking… She can't be scared! HE HASN'T EVEN MOVED YET!
As if reading the mind of Chara the creature begins to flick one of it's hands in sign language. As he flicks his hands the echo flowers begin to speak for him.
"Determination…. Both the strength and weakness of a human soul… But lethal when it comes to monsters…. and humans if they eat it."
Chara froze. He Can't know her secret… no one knew! But… why does he have that buttercup…. he knows.
"Not many know what determination in…. even less know what it does… and where to find it outside the human body, well…. You already know where…."
With this he placed the butter cup in his mouth, leaned back and swallowed.
"For a long time I thought I was the only one to know the secret… I consumed the flowers, then died in the core…. my own creation…. but I did this so I could watch over my children for the rest of time…"
Chara already knew what he was talking about. When she was still a normal human and was being raised by the monsters, she found a lab that belonged to the former royal scientist, in the lab she found a number of notes that were coded. In under a year she deciphered them and learned that the yellow flowers, the buttercups, have determination in them.
This lead Chara to create experiments of her own to test the power of the flowers. At first she experimented on monsters away from prying eyes and learned that their bodies couldn't take the determination, and quickly liquified. How during a test where she "accidently" added the flowers to a pie showed her that BOSS monsters were capable of surviving it intact. This lead her to believe she could survive ingesting the flowers, and make it so her soul would remain here forever… but it still made her sick sicker than she thought she was sure if she got more flower she could make the plan work, but the only ones she could think of in her ill and unfocused state were the ones in the village she came from. But before she could get them her body died and Asriel used Chara's soul to take her to the flowers in an act of kindness. Then when Asriel returned and died holding Chara and a number of butterscotch flowers, his soul began to migrate to the flowers, but even in death Chara wasn't finished taking advantage of her adoptive brother, she took his soul in an attempt to repair her own, leaving only a part of his essence to enter a flower, an empty part that would crave a soul, so that it could be whole again.
Even after stealing the soul Chara couldn't fix herself, she needed a human soul similar to her own if she wanted to return. But during her time as an empty soul watching them she learned of the reset, and she watched six different humans enter the underground; none of these humans lasted long, three killed by the skeleton Sans, one by Undyne and two by Asgore… but none of them ever remembered doing it, like it's just gone.
The skeleton continued to watch as Chara had her internal struggle, unaware that the skeleton knew what she's thinking, but he is a gentleman and knows not to interrupt a lady… no matter how bat shit crazy she is.
Chara finally noticed where she was again and the creature only a few feet away. As she looked at him she couldn't help but feel as if he knew something.
His hands begin to move again, and the flowers began to speak again.
"You wish to know why they don't remember who killed the humans…. I made them forget…"
"H-h-how? No one can do that unless there's a reset, but those deaths happened and should be remembered!"
"A father protects his children…. even if it's from themselves….. I made them forget their crimes so they would remember who they are….."
Chara was scared now, so she did what she did what she always does when she's scared, she attacked. She jumps forwards with her knife drawn and slashes across the chest of the monster… but it passes through, and he continues motioning as if nothing happened, regardless of how many times she tries.
"Of course it's not perfect…. sometimes bits will be remembered…. like with Sans, but I suppose that's my fault….."
"WHY WONT YOU DIE!"
"A monster's body can't survive determination…. But the soul can if the body is destroyed…. and a monster that has consumed the yellow flower and died in the core, gains powers beyond anything imaginable…. like the ReBOOT…."
"What the hell is reboot!?"
"Everything is reset…. the world...even you…."
"What…?"
"You will return to when you arrived here, with no memory of any timeline…. no one will remember anything…. but if helps, no one will remember me either…"
Chara was terrified, she frantically swung and stabbed, she can't be forgotten!
"It's a beautiful night…"
"I won't be FORGOTTEN!"
"The stars are shining…"
"NOOOOOOO!"
"The crickets are humming…"
"NO! NO! NO! No!"
"Children are dreaming…."
"I-I- I don't want to be forgotten…"
"On night's like these…."
"But… I wasn't done playing…"
"You and me…."
"..."
"Should be forgotten…"
He was sure he heard something. Asriel entered the small clearing with the flowers and saw a small girl laying in them.
"Are you okay? What's your name?"
"Chara…"
"Chara huh? That's a nice name, my name is Asriel…"