Even when Falmercia moved away from them, her aura was still heavy and Frisk felt like she was choking. Undyne sent a few spears at them and Frisk barely managed to raise her shield to defend them.
Panting, she looked around to see that Flowey had left them to partner up with Chara. When her shield broke down, Sans was prepared and raised his own wall of bones, the two looked at each other.
Were the really going to fight Undyne? It didn't appear that they had a choice, but, Undyne wasn't here of her own free will.
Sans' wall broke down and Frisk summoned her shield, this was exhausting, and Frisk gratefully noticed that Undyne was being affected by the aura too, even if it was nowhere near as much, and the gaps in time between spears were much wider than normal.
Frisk glanced at Sans again, and the conflict on his face was obvious, as was its reason; they couldn't do this forever, they were going to need to fight back.
Frisk's shield broke again and Sans took his turn at defending the two. Frisk felt the urge to take action, do something, but she didn't know any attacks, but there was something that she needed to say, something that she had been holding back for a while…
"Sans, I need to tell you something." Sans sent her a glance of concern, before looking back at his bone wall and adding an extra layer to it.
"what is it babybones?" The worry in his voice gave Frisk the confidence to go through with this and tell him.
"I'm not afraid of the Gaster Blasters… that's not my problem." Frisk explained as Sans' wall broke expectantly, a spear flew past her inches from her face and she quickly raised a bone shield to prevent another.
"babybones!" Sans shouted as a late reaction to the spear, showing his own exhaustion, but after seeing that she was alright, he continued the conversation, "then what's the problem kiddo, you can tell me."
"I'm scared!" Tears pooled in her eye-sockets, "I'm scared of losing control again and accidentally hurting you again!" She cried, it had taken her a bit of thinking to realise this, and had only figured it out when she restored Chara's body, but at the same time, she felt that some part of her knew it all along.
Sans appeared confused for a second, before sighing and smiling at her lightly, "babybones, do you want to hurt me or papyrus?"
"No!" Frisk cried immediately, Sans chuckled.
"Then the blasters wont, they may have minds of their own, but your blasters are still an extension of you they would never do anything that you wouldn't."
This revelation felt like someone had taken all the weight off her shoulder bones. Really? She thought, I don't have to risk hurting anyone?
Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw the spear being thrown at them change colour to yellow, and fly around her shield and right at them.
Chara watched in horror as Falmercia swiped her staff down at her with deadly force, and all Chara could do was hopelessly raise her arms to defend herself.
Chara heard a crash and moved her arms out of the way to see Falmercia on the wall at the other side of the room, two vines holding her back.
"Chara, are you okay?" Flowey, asked her, and Chara nodded.
"Thank goodness, I was worried 'bout you there." Flowey turned his attention back to Falmercia when she tangled her staff in Flowey's vines and used it to rip their connection to him.
Chara snarled and charged at Falmercia to make another attack, only getting more frustrated when she saw Falmercia's health rise again.
Falmercia chuckled mockingly and used her staff to flick Chara back like a ragdoll.
Damn, that hurt, and Chara watched her heath go down nine HP, and she suddenly wished she had the foresight to grab some healing items before they left.
"Chara!" Flowey shouted, and drew Falmercia's attention with a few waves of friendliness pellets, bringing Falmercia's health down a notch.
What was going on? Flowey had more LOVE then she did, how come he was lowering Falmercia's heath while she was raising it? It didn't make sense.
Chara charged at Falmercia again, and Falmercia didn't even make an attempt to block Chara's attack, instead chuckling when her health rose again.
Flowey sent more friendliness pellets at Falmercia which she deflected with her staff.
What was different? What was different?
"Chara, get back!" Flowey cried as Falmercia made a swipe at Chara. Before she could make impact, Flowey slammed his vines against Falmercia, slamming her back against the wall and doing a sizable amount of damage.
Chara's eyes widened in realisation. Flowey wasn't attacking out of LOVE, or anger, or hate, or revenge, his intentions were all about protecting them. His intentions weren't malicious, they were good intentions, and if LOVE made Falmercia's HP rise, then love must make it go down.
Chara jumped back and closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She forced herself to let go of her anger, and remember why she was doing this in the first place; to redeem herself.
Chara made another charge at Falmercia, making a slice at her chest, dealing a full quarter of damage.
"What?" Falmercia's voice sounded nervous, "No, no, no… NO!" Falmercia's face lost its earlier playfulness and taunting, and became serious, just like before when she made her final moves on Gaster.
Chara tried to get away from Falmercia, but was too late as Falmercia's staff slammed into her at full strength.
Frisk felt Sans' hand grab her and a Familiar pull on her soul, when she came back to her senses, they were standing in a different part of the room.
A breath of relief escaped her, until it choked her when she saw Sans' legs buckle from exhaustion. The shortcut must have cost him too much energy and now he was paying the price.
Undyne appeared to be confused on their whereabouts, and Frisk realised this was because Undyne had never seen them shortcut before, so Frisk realised she had a few moments before the fighting would start again.
She considered trying to make a bolt for it, but Falmercia was in the way of their exit, and there was no way that she would be able to make it with Sans unable to move.
Which made her go for plan B. This one filled her soul with dread. She had never wanted to hurt someone before, but it appeared that if she wanted to keep her brother alive, she'd have to.
Frisk focused on her soul and drew out her magic in front of it, she began to let go of her control over it when she felt a spike of fear again. She forced herself to stare at Chara. Chara has a body now, I am in control. My Gaster Blasters are an extension of me, they won't hurt anyone I care about. Suddenly, Frisk felt her grip on her magic release, and Gaster Blaster formed into existence.
It was a lot smaller than Sans', about the size of her head, but that made her realise something. If Sans' Gaster Blasters were smaller that Papyrus', and he could summon more, than that means that she must be able to summon more than Sans.
Now she had a feasible plan. Repeating the process a few times, Frisk summoned five more Gaster Blasters, although they took a lot of energy to summon, they didn't make her tired to keep them summoned.
Frisk pointed in circles around Undyne, "Fly around Undyne… blast her every now and then to get her attention and distract her… Blast any spears she sends at us." The blasters set off to do just that and Frisk got to watch them successfully distract Undyne enough to keep her from spotting the two skeletons for a few seconds before Frisk's legs buckled and she slipped into unconsciousness.
Falmercia's attack landed hard, and Chara slammed down on the ground, her heath dropping down to one. Falmercia stalked up to her, raising her staff to deal the final blow, before Flowey planted himself in front of Chara to take the hit, his HP also dropping down to one.
Falmercia grunted with annoyance, and raised her staff again to deal her final blow to Chara.
Falmercia's movements halted when she senses another presence as her eyes widened in fear. Suddenly her instincts were screaming at her to run away, leave this place, or else she was going to die.
Her eyes darted to the entry of the room and her shoulder slumped when she saw who it was.
"You never were one for sloth," She commented.
Papyrus stood tall and completely unaffected by Falmercia's aura. Falmercia's aura, even this strong, could only multiply the existing sloth in a person's character, and Papyrus had none.
What's worse, Papyrus was always filled with nothing but the best of intentions. By keeping him so innocent, Sans had unknowing created the ultimate weapon against her, Falmercia joked in her head.
Papyrus' eyes were sad, and he took a step closer. Falmercia felt another sharp spike of fear in her chest and she raised her staff to guard her body instinctually.
"Stay away!" She cried. Papyrus could do it, he could actually kill her, it would be so easy, he would barely need to try, just one bad touch could kill her.
"DEMON… WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" Papyrus asked, taking another step towards her. Falmercia took another step back.
"Don't come any closer!" She snarled, but Papyrus remained unaffected.
"IS IT BECAUSE YOU ARE HURTING?" What was he going on about? She was a demon, demons don't feel true pain.
"EVEN IF THAT ISN'T THE CASE, I BELIEVE YOU CAN DO BETTER! YOU CAN BE A BETTER PERSON!" Papyrus took another step closer. The others were starting to gain consciousness, and they were all sending worried glances at Papyrus. Fools, they didn't know how dangerous he was to her.
"You realise, that I'm a demon, right?" Falmercia asked, not hiding her disbelief, Papyrus had to be crazy if he really thought that she could be a better person, heck, she wasn't even a person, she was a thing, a thing which's purpose was to cause pain.
"SO?" Papyrus asked, not getting her point.
"Meaning I literally cannot be a better person." Falmercia explained in exasperation.
"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?" Papyrus asked, troubled.
"ONLY EVERYONE I'VE EVER MET!" Falmercia shouted, why was this so hard for him to understand?
Papyrus' eye-sockets softened, "THAT'S HORRIBLE! SO NO ONE HAS EVER BELIEVED IN YOU BEFORE?"
What? Was he feeling pity? For a demon? What WAS this guy?
"THEN DON'T WORRY, DEMON! BECAUSE, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN BE A BETTER PERSON!" Papyrus said confidently.
"Are you really saying that? Knowing everything that I have done?" Falmercia couldn't believe what she was hearing, there was no way, she had hurt the people he cared about too much.
"THAT'S RIGHT, DEMON! I BELIEVE IN YOU, YOU CAN BE A BETTER PERSON, I PROMISE!"
Cling!
The loud sound of a chain breaking filled the room and Falmercia's knee's buckled and she clung to her chest in pain.
"DEMON? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Papyrus asked concerned.
Tear's fell down Falmercia's face against her will as she was overcome with powerful emotion.
What was this? WHAT WAS THIS?
"DEMON? WHY ARE YOU CRYING?" Falmercia heard Papyrus's words, but she was too distracted by this feeling in her chest. She had never felt anything like this before.
She realised what just happened, and it terrified her.
"DEMON? DEMON?" Papyrus called desperately for her attention.
Falmercia took a deep breath before sighing and putting on a mask of annoyance.
After making a fake sigh, she said, "Fine, whatever, I surrender."
There was silence for a few moments, and Falmercia observed everyone's reactions of pure shock.
After a few seconds, Sans shouted to Chara, "hey chara, how does it feel to be worse than a literal demon?"
"Shut up Sans!" She shouted back.
Papyrus was beaming, "REALLY?!"
Falmercia nodded, "Yeah, alright, let's get this surrender contract over with. In return for a no-attack agreement, where neither I hurt any of you and none of you hurt me, I am willing to break of my contract with Undyne, give a soul to Flowey and stay under your supervision for the rest of Frisk's natural life."
"… wait, what?" Sans asked in confusion. Falmercia sighed in annoyance, not liking that she now had to make the effort of explaining. Just for good measure this time, she dropped her aura to make sure they had clear minds.
"I am surrendering to you. When a demon makes a formal surrender, their surrender is bound by a surrender contract, too keep them from breaking said surrender." She explained in small sentences.
"ok, ok, but what's all this about giving souls and breaking contracts?" Sans asked.
Falmercia rolled her eyes in annoyance, "What, that good enough for ya? Fine, I'll also break the RESET button for you, but I DEMAND that in the contract I have dibs of being Papyrus' best friend." The words escaped her mouth before she knew it, and she had no idea why. It was a sudden impulse that left everyone – save Papyrus himself – staring at her like she had grown an extra head. She couldn't blame them, she'd be staring at her like she had an extra head if she could.
"WOWIE! IS THIS BECAUSE OF MY PROMISE?" Papyrus asked.
A possible explanation, she was still not used to these positive emotions she was having, so she was still unsure, but she couldn't let them know that. "Yeah… sure."
Sans continued to look at her funny, but looked down and considered her terms.
"you know what… i'm in."
