Undertale
Witness The Influence
But things got Worse

Passing the Last Corridor, the air is crisp and clean. The Underthrone, complete with two giant chairs suitable for both Asgore and Toriel.

Birds are singing.
Flowers are blooming.
And Chara refuses to take her eyes off of Frisk, Asriel however seems oblivious, and is in fact overcome with completely different emotion. He plops down in a random plot of yellow flowers and Chara can make out tears coming out of his eyes. She breaks from watching Frisk and walks over to him.

"Asriel?"
"Ha... ha... sorry, I know I'm a big crybaby... but... being here brings back... so many good memories, you know? It's almost like... none of what happened before was real... a giant nightmare, and breathing this fresh air..." Asriel says, taking a deep breath through his nose, with his eyes still watery and leaking.

"I... never want to leave again, Chara..."
"Asriel..." Chara says with a small frown. Asriel wipes his eyes and sighs.
"After everything I've done... I was beginning to think that the only way I would see this place again would be... in heaven, or something... you know? Being a flower... lacking a soul... I wasn't sure what would happen to me if I died... and after everything Frisk went through, I was so sure that I was finally going to die, and I was so scared, so sad... but being here..." Asriel says, rubbing his hands in the dirt. He grabs a handful, and with a tear filled laugh, chucks a small bit of it at Chara!

"H-Hey!"
"HAHA! GOT YOU!" He says, sniffing and wiping his eyes before darting behind the throne, Chara retaliating with a few dirt lobs of her own. Frisk simply watches them. Chara sneaks up behind Asriel and splats him with a handful of dirt, causing him to cough it up!
"Bleck!" He spits, shaking his head. They look at each other for a moment, covered in dirt and smiling, Asriel still with a slightly teary face. However, after that, Asriel gets up and walks towards Frisk.

*You look at Asriel and ask him what's wrong?
Asriel doesn't respond, and simply hugs him.
*You hug back.
"Frisk... I know I already said thank you... but..." Asriel hugs tighter.
"Thank you... really..." Asriel says with closed eyes. Chara simply looks on with a neutral expression. Asriel rubs his eyes and shakes his head.
"I gotta go clean myself up. See you in a bit." Asriel says, leaving the throne room's garden. Chara walks up to Frisk. Her face is still neutral.

"Are you really not going to hurt us?" She asks.
*You say "You are not going to."
"Ever?"
*...
"..." Chara furrows her brow, looking at Frisk, who she knows isn't actually Frisk.
"If you ever... EVER... hurt Asriel... I will hunt you down, Chara... I promise." Chara says. She stops for a bit, and looks at the flowers and light spilling through the area.

*You ask Chara if she's happy to be back home.
"Don't do that. We're not friends, you're possessing my friend!"
*You tell Chara that you can be, that she used to be just like you.
"Don't compare yourself to me. I never killed a single monster in any timeline, you... you're just a disgusting human being."
*You remind Chara that your intervention was the only thing that made this world possible.
"And you think the ends justify the means? From what you're doing- that I'm supposed to thank you? If you really want me to thank you, then leave us alone!"
*You tell Chara that you want to keep playing, that Frisk's overriding urge to claim a happy ending was yours instead, and that the reason Frisk's memories were essentially erased was because of Frisk's disconnection from you. In a way, Frisk IS You, and you ARE Frisk!

As he says that, Chara balls her fist and punches Frisk in the face as hard as she can, knocking him across the room!

1/20 HP

She walks up to him as he looks up.
"This game ended a long time ago, Chara. We will NEVER be friends. If you simply wanted to see this world to satisfy your perverted sentimentalities, then go ahead, I will have no part of it." Chara says, walking out of the room.


/BUTHENTHINGSGOTWORSE
/ANDTHEFIRSTDEATHOCCURS


Roman walks into the room and begins to speak, but closes his mouth when he notices Gaster isn't here. He looks over at Alphys.
"Where's Gaster?" Roman asks. She puts down a piece of paper that shows a Monster soul, and an experimental extrapolation for what a "human" soul looks like, and looks at Roman.
"He said he had to finish work on the Core." Alphys says softly.
"NOW?! Does he have any idea what is at stake?" Roman blurts out! Alphys closes her eyes.
"He told me that you would object if you knew what he was trying to do."
"Huh? Object? What IS he trying to do?" Roman asks, puzzled.
"He said he had to work on something called... the True Core?" Alphys says, scratching her cheek.

As soon as Alphys says that, a strange look crosses Roman's face. The look of someone remembering something... something buried for a long time, to be remembered for all its horror.

Alphys will never forget what that face looked like.


*Returning to the world that once was...
*It fills you with Determination.
*HP Restored 20/20
*-Game Saved-

Amidst the buttercup flowers, Frisk saves his game for the first time since he's gotten here. He spends time looking around the room, examining every nook and cranny.

*Asgore's throne. It's just as you remember it!
*Toriel's throne. Looks a lot better without that tarp.
*Yellow flowers as far as the eye can see.
*A closed door that leads to the final hallway and the Barrier.

Satisfied, Frisk leaves this room to bump into Asriel.
"Oh, sorry Frisk. What's up?" Asriel asks.
*You tell Asriel you're just looking around.
"Oh. Well, I just wanted to say that Chara is looking a little... down... and I didn't want to bring this up around her or the parents but... you're talking a little funny. I can't put my finger on it... but..." Asriel says, with a slightly worried expression.
"I-I'm sure it's nothing! I sure hope you don't get bored down here. Sure, we only have to wait 10 years this time, but that's a long time! We'll be adults by the time the barrier is open!" Asriel says, running back to his room.

Frisk stands there for a small bit. The concept of it lasting ten years hitting him like a ton of bricks.

Outside of New Home, Chara sits on a stoop with her head in her hand.
"Chara?" Asriel lets out. Chara looks over. Her clothes are still dirty from the playing about a half hour ago.
"Asriel? What do you want?"
"Want? Uh... I mean, can't I talk with my sister without having to want something?"
"S-Sorry... I'm just... a bit on edge." Chara admits, looking back out to the path that leads to the Core.
"You too?" Asriel says, sitting down next to Chara, his fur still wet. She looks over to him. Asriel continues.
"Frisk... Frisk is reminding me a lot of the first time I met him. Every second he moved and acted, I was wondering if he was gonna reset the world or not... now we finally have our happy ending, and I'm worried that he might take it away... I mean... ten years is a long time... if he gets bored, and stops playing, won't time simply... stop?" Asriel asks. Chara cocks her head.

"Stop? What do you mean?"
"Well... if someone with the most Determination loads their game, it's as if time never moved forward, right? If Frisk got bored at their save point, only to come back a few days later, wouldn't our time be completely still? If he never plays with this world again... won't the world completely stop?" Asriel asks. Chara sighs.

"Well... I guess we just have to make sure he doesn't get bored, huh?"
"Well... when I was Flowey, I tried my best to keep him engaged, showing up and taking away his endings so he would be forced to try again and again, and keep playing the game! But now... now I'm not sure how to keep him engaged. He will get bored... I know it..." Asriel sadly states. Chara closes her eyes and scowls.

"Worrying about it won't help. I'm... I'm going for a walk. Keep an eye on Frisk, okay?" Chara says, leaving New Home and heading into the Core.


"Gaster? GASTER! Where are you?" Roman lets out. Roman is running around the Core looking for Gaster. Unfortunately, VERY Unfortunately however, he comes across someone else first. The human child who calls herself Chara.

"Huh? Sans?" Chara asks. Roman looks over and breaks into a cold sweat.
"H-Huh? Who? I mean... gotta go!" Roman blurts out, running off-screen really fast.
"..." Something about that person jump-started something in Chara's head.

CURRENT CHARA MEMORY: 50.1%

Chara follows that strange Skeleton Monster quietly, as he whisperyells out that name that She remembered hearing back at the Worldsoul with Frisk. "Gaster."

"Gaster...! Gaster...!" Roman yells out, trying to find Gaster. The power from the Core shoots along the walls, but one of the walls flips open, showing another skeleton man. However, looking at this one causes a wave to wash over Chara.

CURRENT CHARA MEMORY: 51.5%

"Gaster, there you are!" Roman yells out.
"What are you thinking?! We agreed to not mess with the True Core, not after what happened last time, not after the Mistake!" Roman growls. Gaster sighs.
"We have no choice. I tapped into the True Core and... made contact with the other side."
"..." For a minute, they are both speechless.
"You... you did... what?"
"It was a success, Roman. We now have a direct line to the other world." Gaster says.
"But how, why?" Roman lets out.
"Maybe it had something to do with those time traveling humans, maybe it finally jump-started the process. What was impossible only a few years ago is now working. We can communicate with the other side, and learn the true nature of our world." Gaster says to Roman, beckoning him inside, but Roman looks anxious.

"Roman, we don't have time for this."
"Gaster... every time we go down there, there's no guarantee we'll be coming back!"
"Every second those children run around in this world, there's no guarantee it will be coming back either. We have no choice, you know that as well as anyone!"
"D-Damn it... fine. Let's go. Maybe we can kill the Unseen Influence before this gets out of hand." Roman says, disappearing behind the false wall with Gaster.


Chara furrows her brow and follows them. She pitter patters along a long hallway. It looks like...

Alphys' True Lab?

With Determination in her heart, Chara walks forward. Frisk is being possessed by the Unseen Influence. If these Scientists are looking to kill them, then that's fine... but Killing Frisk? Chara won't let that happen. Not after everything he went through, Frisk deserves to see this world too! Chara would sooner kill both Roman and Gaster than let them kill Frisk! Chara grabs her red knife and walks down the long hall.

It's foggy, dust dances in the halls, and she keeps stepping on crumpled papers. As she looks at the walls, she gets the feeling that she's seen this place before. Not just from the True Lab... but from... somewhere else... something she... can't remember...!

CURRENT CHARA MEMORY: 52%

Bits and pieces of foggy memories invade Chara's head. She tries to shake them away, but they're returning faster and faster. Ever since she saw that Gaster person... something inside of her is burning. Something, angry, but satisfied! A feeling she had hoped to never feel again. She continues to walk down the hall, but is now running. Her heart is starting to race, as if a drug is kicking into her system! She's beginning to feel anxious and panicked, not understanding what her memories are doing!

She runs down the hall, various posters and potted plants scattered along the floor, she jumps over the clutter and makes it an area that looks like the rest of the Core, but all of its power is funneling into a single room. The door is closed. She puts her hand on the handle to the door and opens it and looks inside, nervous...


Author's Note: I'm rehosting the Unseen Influence Trilogy on account of my patron vanishing. This story will be deleted if he ever returns. Until then, enjoy yourself.