Frisk ran, ran and ran and ran, not daring to look back at the trail of dust they left behind. Every which way they turned, flashes of dust appeared, and the Underground was suddenly so quiet and the only sound Frisk could hear was the echoing whisper of their breaths. There was no one else here. Just Frisk and...
"Wow. You're looking quite tired, huh?" A voice asked, and Frisk jumped, spinning around as they clutched their crossed arms tight, pulling their body inwards onto itself as they tried to appear smaller. After all of those RESETS, Frisk had been sure Chara intended to stay away until Frisk messed up again. Frisk shuddered and glanced around, their breaths speeding up as they flinched at the smallest of sounds. "…You can't see me, Frisk. Haven't we covered that before?"
"…Chara." Frisk muttered, testing the name out again, tasting the way it rolled off of their tongue. "…W-Why are you here? I haven't killed anyone. Go fish," they added, Sans's influence having rubbed off on them. When you were scared, when you were angry or sad, it felt better to joke about it, to stuff your emotions under the carpet and pretend until eventually... that façade wasn't make believe anymore. Frisk had taken this lesson to heart.
"I'm aware. You've been quite the disappointment in that aspect," Chara retorted. "So, how are those RESETS working for you? This is your… 164th run, right? Congratulations on breaking a hundred and fifty. Too bad you hadn't killed anyone then, I could've thrown a party."
"Go away. I don't need to hear this from you." Frisk muttered, tired. "Unless you have some important information I need to know, I don't want to hear you anymore. I'm still having nightmares over the last time I listened to you. You can't control my body anymore, and you can't control me, so there's no point in you staying!"
"Hehehe. That was your own conclusion, though, wasn't it? I never explicitly said that was how it worked."
"…what do you mean?"
"Tell me, Frisk… did you know you're currently asleep?"
"What?" Frisk glanced around again, eyes widening as they realized that despite wandering through the snow, Frisk could feel no chill in the air and their clothes remained warm and dry. "W-what… how…?" Frisk asked, dazed.
"Consider this my nudge back in the right direction for you. A gift, you might call it," Chara sneered, and Frisk took a step backwards, heart hammering.
"Chara, what did you do?! What do you mean by that?!"
"Why don't you wake up and see? I'll be waiting for your invitation, Frisk." Frisk's eyes widened, and they backed up, turning to run and vanish into the darkness of the dream. Chara giggled and turned back to vanish once again. They had a time limit until Frisk woke up, after all. "Oh, Frisk. Surely you'll see reason once that pathetic comedian is out of the picture. …hehe. I can't believe they thought I would just leave them be after everything we've been through together."
.
Sans wasn't surprised when his door once again swung open, and a small figure walked out. Frisk hadn't made it through that many nights alone, after all.
Sans shifted over to open up Frisk's usual spot on the sofa, and was about to call out to them when he paused. Something was off here. Frisk… wasn't behaving right. They were glancing around, and didn't seem to notice Sans in the dark as they sneaked past the couch and slipped into the kitchen.
…? they know i sleep here, what are they…? Sans rose to his feet, suddenly uneasy. He slinked after them, and saw Frisk standing in the kitchen, leaning over something.
"…kiddo? what, are you hungry or somethin'?" Sans asked, reaching over and flicking on the light.
Frisk jerked and spun around, a flash of metal clutched in their hands. Sans felt a bead of sweat form on his temple, and his gaze locked onto Frisk's face- no, that wasn't right. The human's face was different. Their pupils blazed red, as red as their SOUL, and a grin stretched across Frisk's face without a trace of sanity. "wha-…chara, i assume then," Sans said grimly, shifting his feet into a stance ready for a fight.
"hehe." The human snickered, gazing down at the knife clutched in their hands and then lifting their gaze up to meet Sans's eyes. "Not who you were expecting, maybe?"
"…no. and i don't recall inviting you to my house, buddy, so how about you get the hell out and leave frisk alone." Sans growled, blue swirls of light igniting in his vision as he stepped forwards threateningly.
Chara merely cocked their head at Sans, watching him with that same creepy grin before lunging forwards with the knife flashing. Sans reflexively flinched, leaping backwards and steadying himself with his back to the stove.
"Scared of a child? Pathetic." Chara's red eyes narrowed, and their smile faded. "This time, i'm not going to let you die so quickly. This time, you'll learn your lesson."
"and what lesson is that? how to dunk an annoying little squirt like yourself?"
"Still joking? No, you idiot, of course not. You're falling down here and now. And you should know that this body? It's mine. There's no point in trying to teach Frisk to be 'kind' because they aren't the dominant SOUL. I am. You should have stayed away from us... and now I'll make sure you regret not doing that." Chara paused meaningfully to let the words sink in and then smiled again, clapping their hands together. "Oh hey, I know! How about as punishment, I'll start a game. Every run after this, I'll try and kill your brother! I'll kill him in front of your gaze over and over and over and I can see you cry finally! You've always smiled like that… see, you're smiling even though you want to kill me! Isn't that strange? Isn't that weird? It's like you don't care about anyone, and yet you do! You care so much it's strange when it gets to this point after all of that! But that's why you're interesting! I wonder how your brother's face will look when I give him your dust as a present, huh Sans? He's going to-"
"-that's enough out of you, buddy." Sans's eyes narrowed, glaring down at the human in pure fury as his gaster blasters appeared beside him in a blaze of blue light. "i don't want to hear your monologue any more. now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. let me talk to frisk, or else you're going to have a bad time."
Chara shook their head and shrugged in an exaggerated 'well, I tried to warn you!' motion before suddenly leaping at Sans, eyes flashing with malicious intent. Sans dodged, firing his blasters at Chara, but the slippery brat managed to dodge them and nimbly attacked Sans again, nearly nicking his arm. Sans stumbled back and grunted as his back pressed against the sink, and Chara giggling as they advanced on their cornered prey.
As they swung the knife at him, Sans leaped to the side, arm yanking forwards to transform Chara's red SOUL into a blue one and dragging their body back to the ground as hard as he possibly could, Chara's back arching as their breath whooshed out of their body.
Chara looked up at Sans in annoyance and glared at Sans, teeth gritting, before they froze for a split second, eyes widening. Their red eyes flickered for a moment, then they leered again and started to push themself back to their feet.
But that split second of hesitation was all Sans had needed. With a jerking motion upwards, bones shot out of the ground, impaling Chara's chest with a crunching sound. Sans silently gazed down at the human as their blood started to drip down onto the ground and dye the kitchen floor bright red.
Chara coughed, and suddenly their shoulders started shaking.
"buddy…are you seriously crying…?" Sans asked coldly, staring down at the killer with narrowed eyes.
Instead, Chara's giggles grew louder, and they jerked their head up to bare their teeth at Sans in a twisted grin. "hehehehe, you think you've won this fight? I still won this! You can't beat me!" Chara rasped, before suddenly slumping over, going still.
Sans frowned, and stood there for a moment, gazing at Chara's body. Was Frisk gone forever? Who was going to come through the Ruins' gate next time? But Sans sighed, tired, before he started to turn back around to go back to sleep and wait for the RESET to come into effect. No point in wondering about it, after all. He would learn the truth soon, after all.
And yet.
As he turned away, suddenly the body moved again and took a long, shuddering breath.
"ugh…. W-what…?" A weak voice murmured, and Sans's eyes widened as the human lifted their face, blood trickling from their forehead. wha-? they shouldn't be alive, Sans thought in surprise. Or, at the very least, they won't be alive for much longer. serves that nasty brother killer right, bleeding out into a slow and painful death. He studied the kid for a moment, and suddenly he froze as a chill ran down his spine. The red eyes and wide grin were gone… and so that meant the only SOUL feeling the excruciatingly painful process of death wasn't Chara, it was…
"frisk!" Sans bellowed, racing back over to the human and dropping to his knees. His eyes darted over the human's body, at the numerous bones impaling their small frame, and shuddered as he realized there was nothing he could do. If he retracted the bones back into the floor, they would widen the holes in Frisk's body, and they would bleed out even faster. Sans could only hopelessly sit and watch them die.
Frisk blinked up at Sans, confused, and then they looked down at their blood covered hands in confusion.
"S-sans…?"
.
Sans was staring down at them, face even paler than usual when Frisk awoke. Their body felt… strange. Frisk couldn't breathe properly, and they could taste blood in their mouth. They twitched and immense pain wracked down their body, enough to make them bite down onto their lip hard enough so blood dripped down their chin.
"Sans, what happened?" Frisk begged weakly, and the skeleton's hand rose to cover his mouth as he gazed at something underneath Frisk.
"…shit. shit. shit." The skeleton's gaze jerked back up to Frisk's face, and he looked away. "i… damn it. frisk, y-you're body… chara was… i just…" He covered his face with his hands, and Frisk was shocked to see Sans's shoulders slightly shaking. "oh god, frisk. i'm sorry. this was what that monster was aiming for all along, wasn't it?"
"Sans?" Frisk asked, worried. Their sides heaved as they felt their body shriek with each breath they rasped, and Frisk was dimly aware that they weren't lying on any flat surface. They were… were those bones holding them up?
Frisk's breath hitched, and they struggled not to scream as their arm jerked down to feel where the bones went into their stomach. From the pain lacing up and down their body… these bones went all the way back out through their back. Frisk opened their mouth to scream, but choked it down as they remembered Sans sitting across from them.
"i'm sorry. i can't heal you, frisk… i don't have strong healing abilities. they would only prolong your death at this point…" Sans didn't look at Frisk as he spoke. "we ran out of food, too… was gonna go to the store tomorrow…" He took a deep breath, and finally turned back to gaze down at Frisk. "…those wounds are going to kill you, frisk. you have to do a RESET this time. …sorry, kiddo."
Frisk smiled weakly up at Sans, and coughed as blood splattered onto the floor. "H-hey… it's okay… my…. fault, Sans." They struggled to take another breath of air and tried to reach out and touch Sans reassuringly. They had been through so many RESETS that by now, one more didn't really matter, after all, right? "Didn't….know…Chara... I forgive you, so-" Frisk struggled to get the words out, and their vision swam in front of their eyes. Sans was too far away for Frisk to touch him, and their hand fell to dangle above the ground, blood dripping down their fingers and splattering onto the floor. "Please, Sans… make me RESET it now."
"wha-?! kid, you don't mean…"
"Please, Sans." Frisk asked, voice only slightly louder than a whisper. "It h-hurts…"
Sans's shoulders stiffened, and he silently rose to his feet staring down at Frisk with his expression dark. He sighed, and raised one arm towards the ceiling. Frisk tried to smile up at him, but all they could manage was a grimace of pain. "…hurry and return, okay?" The skeleton asked quietly, a gaster blaster appearing behind his outstretched arm. Frisk closed their eyes, and the last thing they saw was Sans's arm came down before Frisk's thoughts went white in a blinding wave of pain.
And the world RESET.
.
.
.
…? Why hasn't it RESET yet?
[It is time,] the voice whispered, and Frisk woke up in a cold sweat among the yellow flowers once again.
.
.
.
((I deserve to be dunked on for this chapter. And the coming chapters. And for this entire story.))