"…Chara? I-I know that name." Frisk whispered. "You… aren't you Asriel's sibling?"

"That's right." Chara replied softly. "I've been down here alone for so long, Frisk. We're quite similar, you and I. There's no way for me to achieve what I want now… I just want to see someone get a happier ending than I did. I want to help you get the ending I wanted."

"Asriel said you… you tried to kill people though," Frisk said warily. "How can I trust you?"
"…" Chara was silent for a moment, and when they spoke again their voice was little above a whisper. "…You probably can guess why I climbed this mountain, Frisk. I…. I hated humans. Humans don't care about each other. And… and when Asriel's soul and mine combined, I was so confused and scared, Frisk… surely you of all people would understand that what I did was just an accident." Chara begged, and Frisk hesitated before nodding. "It was my fault that my best friend turned into a soulless flower, Frisk. My fault six children were killed and brought to Asgore. My fault Toriel and Asgore fought each other. I've just been stuck watching everything, unable to talk to anyone for so long. I just want to help… you need to believe that at least."

The echo of what Frisk had whispered to Sans, of the fear and powerlessness that Frisk knew all too well, was all that Frisk needed to hear. "…okay. I do believe you, Chara. But…. how do you think I can fix this?"

"The human souls, Frisk. Flowey could take over the timeline with them- why not you?" Chara's voice lightened, and they sounded eager as they started outlining their plan. "All that you have to do to gain control over the RESET is get to Level 20 and obtain those souls. Then, I can help you do the rest. It'll be easy with the two of us, Frisk! Think of what we could do with complete control of the timeline! We could SAVE everyone… even Asriel."

"Level 20?" Frisk repeated, understanding crossing over their face. Their eyes widened, and they froze. "Chara you don't mean LOVE points… do you? You can't mean that…"

"Frisk, it's the only way. Unless you want to be stuck in this RESET loop forever, getting to Level 20 is a small price to pay. You only have to do it once, Frisk- then we can have the power to change anything we want."

"But Sans-"

"Who, the skeleton? He already hates you for something you didn't do, Frisk. If you SAVE everyone and then explain it to him and ask for forgiveness, I'm sure he'll accept whatever you say. It doesn't matter if you kill any of your friends, because in the end, this is all for the greater good."

"Chara…. I can't do that."

"Yes, you can, Frisk! I know you're strong enough too. I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you, okay? I promise."

Frisk backed up, looking around. "I don't… I can't…" Their voice faltered, and they sighed. "Where are you? Why can't I see you?"

"I've been dead for a long time, Frisk." Chara said softly. "I don't have a body anymore unless a host gains enough power and allows me to gain control over a body again. If you do this, even if I couldn't leave the Underworld, it'd be nice to have a body again." Chara paused for a moment, and then asked quietly. "It's not a bad deal, right? This is the only way for me to get a body again and for you to escape this RESET. Please, Frisk. You're the only one who can do this for me."

"But Chara… I… I couldn't hurt anyone on purpose." Frisk said, hanging their head as the realization that their one way out might just be the only thing they wouldn't do to get out of the RESET loop. Frisk shivered, and Chara's presence seemed to fill the anger for a moment before the uneasy prickling that had raced down Frisk's back was gone and Chara continued on talking in a gentle, persuasive tone.

"Frisk. Eventually, you're going to go insane if you keep pushing yourself like this. Eventually you're going to slip up again, and hurt someone. And in the end? Imagine how that skeleton would feel when you told him he repeated these few days thousands of times on end before you could bring yourself to do what had to be done. That's just adding insult to injury, Frisk, and that's a cruel thing to do."

Frisk swallowed their throat dry, and as they rubbed their hands together, imagining they could still feel the dust, they closed their eyes and fought back the urge to be sick again.

"Okay. Okay. I…I'll do it."

.

It was surprisingly easy to kill again.

Chara gave them tips, shouted out commands to swing the knife harder and dodge faster, and even though Frisk's clothes started looking washed out and devoid of color because of the dust clinging to them, Toriel still took them into her house. Toriel still trusted them.

Frisk was glad she wouldn't remember this.

It was surprisingly easy to stab her, the kind monster's unwary nature allowing an easy kill. And yet as she started fading, crumbling into dust, she smiled up at Frisk, her smile appearing ugly and cruel on such a kind face. "Now I see… who I really was protecting by keeping you here… not you… but them." And as she spat out those last words, she crumpled into dust.

Chara was quiet for a moment, then after a moment of silence laughed. "How pathetic! And here I was worried that it'd be hard to get you to strike the killing blow but she died immediately!"

"Chara…?" Frisk whispered, their grip on the small knife tightening as they stared in horror at their mother's dust. "Why do you sound like that?" Their voice cracked, and they struggled not to puke. "Why do you sound do happy?"

"Oh, please, Frisk, what does it matter?" Chara tossed back, annoyed. "You've already leveled up so much! Why do you care how I react to this?"

"I just… you said you didn't hurt anyone on purpose but you sound…" Frisk's voice died in the throat, and they whispered the end. "Like you're enjoying this."

Frisk waited, expecting some kind of reassurance, another promise like Chara had told them before, on how they could spare no one, on how Frisk was doing the right thing, on how Frisk was going to be ok because it was all worth it.

But this time, Chara was silent.

.

Flowey greeted Frisk like an old friend, and yet Chara had been silent this entire exchange, and didn't start talking again until Frisk stepped out into the snow when they kept up the cheerful facade as they kept pushing Frisk to level up.

Frisk felt sick and twisted, and it was all they could do to keep a blank face instead of collapsing into a shaking wreck and apologizing to everyone over and over again. Frisk wanted to stop and just explain to Sans what had happened... but they had already killed Toriel. If they were a murderer, Frisk… Frisk might as well only put everyone through this pain only once. Chara was right in that aspect. At this point, Sans was going to hate them anyways.

.

Sans sighed, slipping over to the Ruins' entranceway to wait for the kid. Frankly, he was starting to feel concerned. Papyrus had said that he just knew the human's name. No one had told him. But Papyrus hadn't been experimented on like Sans, had never had to go through RESETS to try and fail at something over and over again. Papyrus couldn't remember RESETS.

Sans had made sure that he had been the one experimented on for the more dangerous experiments and that, when everything went to hell and that past was erased, Sans never mentioned it to Papyrus. He was just glad he had shielded his brother from the dark truths behind their childhood, and if Sans had to suffer for that choice, that was fine by him.

The fact that this newest variable was messing with the one thing Sans considered important was what made the human so dangerous. Because if something happened and Papyrus wasn't here… well, Sans didn't know what he would do, actually. He never thought that situation through to the end. Papyrus was just always there, making sure that Sans was taking care of himself and comforting him when Sans felt like there was no point to it all anymore. Papyrus was… he was Sans's family.

Pulled out of his dark thoughts- heh, i really need to just not think of those times- by the crunch of shoes on snow, Sans started following Frisk as they wandered through the woods. This time, however, the human looked… strange. Their clothes looked faded, their hair and face pale. Dark circles were under their eyes, and they watched their surroundings with watchful eyes that jumped from one shadow to another.

Were they that afraid of Sans? And if so... what had they done to be so scared of him?

Or what were they planning to do?

"human." Sans started, about to ask them to turn around but Frisk did it without waiting for him to ask this time. And then Sans looked into Frisk's eyes and he felt a shiver go down his spine.

What the…? The kid's eyes still held that determined look they always held. But there was also an icy coldness in the gaze that Sans didn't like. And for the first time, Frisk's expression didn't change as the whoopee cushion loudly went off. They had laughed every other time before, no matter how old this joke had gotten.

"that's your cue to uh, laugh." Sans said, trying to understand the situation. But Frisk's expression didn't change, and Sans wondered if he should do something. "or uh, emote at all." Nothing. "OK, that's fine, everyone has their own sense of humor…"

But by now, Sans realized, that something was definitely wrong. And as he watched them kill monsters mercilessly, watched their clothes start appearing more and more faded and how they bluntly ignored any of Papyrus's attempts to be friendly with them, Sans started to feel afraid.

But surely the kid wouldn't actually hurt Papyrus. They were best friends… right…?

Yet Sans wasn't so sure. Was this really the same human he had met what felt like oh so long ago?

.

I can't do this. Frisk stared at Papyrus, his arms open wide, and they felt like crying. They had tried everything so Papyrus wouldn't like them, so maybe he'd be uninterested and not fight them, but here he was, offering forgiveness, offering acceptance, just like always even though he knew what Frisk had done… and he was ok with that. He was ok with them... maybe the the last person who would ever look at Frisk with such caring eyes in this RESET.

"Now's your chance." Chara hissed, and their voice seemed to echo more inside Frisk's head than out at this point, like they were becoming Frisk's own thoughts now. "It's easy."

And Frisk closed their eyes and walked forwards, wondering how they'd ever look Sans in the face again...

.

.

.

10 Reviews left.

((haha, not really, I'm posting the next chapter whenever it's done. Anyways, I'm done with school for a glorious two weeks and it's time to give this fanfiction a good reason for the angst tag... which, looking at last chapter's reviews, maybe some of you guys didn't expect? And as always, thanks so much for reading!))