Well, this chapter took a long time and is very long because mangopies talked to me in person that my chapters were too short. So I took it to the extreme and made a chapter going all the way to the end of the Ruins. Some things that are unexplained will be at the end of the chapter. See you on the other side. (Of the chapter, I mean.)

A sign on the wall said, '3 out of 4 rocks recommend you push them.' However, only one rock was in front of them, with a well-worn path to a button. Further on, there was a barricade of spikes. 'Um, basic probability, right? ¾ rocks want to get pushed, so this rock is most likely to want to get pushed, right?' Frisk stated.

'What if it's part of the ¼ to not want pushing?' Tracer thought out loud.

'We'll take that risk.'

'There are a lot of rocks in the world, so a lot of rocks would be part of the ¼.'

'Well, more rocks would be part of the ¾.'

'I suppose you've got me there.'

'Indeed I do. So let's push that rock.'

So they pushed, and the spike barricade retracted into the ground once the rock was on the button. 'Woooo. Let's move on.'

Suddenly, a monster came onto the path 'meekly', according to its flavor text. 'Whimsun? What kind of name is that?' Mercy asked. 'Be nice,' Frisk whispered back.

'Hmm… so we console it?' Genji observed. 'Do what you want, I won't stop you' Frisk said indifferently.

'You've said that before.'

'So I have. What about it?'

'Nothing.' (Genji turned away.)

*Halfway through your first word, Whimsun ran away. 'Bit of a touchy subject, I guess?' Mercy supposed. 'Meh. Let's move on.' Frisk ran ahead.

The floor was completely cracked, rendering the true path impossible to distinguish from the real cracked tiles. 'Walk over to this wall, and go to the far wall, there. I think it's that way, at least.' Frisk said.

'You think?' Winston challenged, until Mercy stopped him with 'Do we have any other way forward?'

'I guess not.'

'Good for you.'

So they walked down to the far wall, and followed Frisk wordlessly 3 tiles ahead, where they then went back up to the other wall, walked over to the leaves and headed down to the other wall again, then forward to the wall bordering the path on the other side, then went up to get back on the path.

'Who made that puzzle? Why is it so long and winding?' demanded Tracer. 'I would like a word with them about puzzle construction.'

'They're probably dead now, or unrecognizably old, so good luck with that.' Frisk replied casually.

'Ah, I see.'

The next room had three rocks. With a spike barrier in the way.

'You know the drill, let's go!' D. Va eagerly touched the rightmost rock. It immediately came to life, and the first thing it did was argue.

'Oh, so you're ASKIN' me to move over? Okay, just for you, pumpkin.'

The rock moved 3 inches towards the switch. D. Va tapped the rock again.

'You want me to move some more? Alrighty, how's this?.'

The rock moved off the slightly darker path from being pushed around all the time. D. Va nudged the rock.

'That was the wrong direction? Ok, think I got it.'

The rock moved onto the switch. The group started forward, until the rock moved off the switch.

'Seriously?!' Tracer yelled at the rock. Everyone looked away.

D. Va whispered something to the rock, whereupon it said, 'You wanted me to STAY there? You're giving me a real workout.'

*Aren't things easier when you just ask?

'In this case, yeah,' Frisk replied.

(Divider)

The next room had a piece of cheese in it, innocently sitting on a table. Momentarily, a mouse could be seen scampering back into its hole. 'Is this also a 'healing item'?' Mercy asked, until she saw the cheese was stuck to the table and was covered in mold.

*You're filled with kindness.

'Did the cheese just talk to me?' asked Mercy. 'Er, no. Sometimes messages like that appear when you Check something. For me it fills me with determination, even though I don't see how. It's cheese.'

'You do have a fair point.'

The next room had a ghost lying down on a patch of leaves. Upon their arrival, it started saying 'zzzzzzzzzzz' out loud, pretending to sleep. 'Huh. You don't see that everyday.' Tracer commented. 'You also have a fair point,' Frisk said.

'I usually do,' Tracer replied, which earned a laugh from the group. 'What?' asked Tracer, burning. Everyone looked away, again.

(Divider)

*Move it with force?

'Um, no.' was the general answer, so it just lay there, saying 'zzzzzzzzzzz' out loud.

Checking it again yielded the same results. 'Are we supposed to move it with force?' Mercy asked, apprehensive. 'Yeah. I guess.' Frisk said. 'What do you think? You just tried to not move it with force twice.' they said angrily in a pissed-off voice. Frisk didn't realize it at the time, but the outburst was from Chara trying to stop Frisk from genocide.

(Divider)

*Here comes Napstablook.

'Odd name for a ghost,' commented Mercy. 'You don't say,' replied Tracer.

Everyone chose Cheer. Everyone smiled gently at Napstablook. 'heh...' was the response.

Napstablook cried at them. 'What? How do tears hurt you?' Mercy asked, as everyone touched a tear and recoiled immediately in pain- everyone except Frisk and D. Va, because they had seen this before. They dodged left and right, up and down.

'Not a single hit? That's pretty decent.' Frisk said to D. Va.

(Divider)

In Frisk's mind…

Chara looked around. Nothing particularly genocide-related, but Chara knew better than anyone how easily one could conceal a secret. After all, who had hid their plan to defeat humanity from Gaster? Exactly, they did.

In a corner was a knife. Chara picked it up, observing it. It wasn't metal, but plastic. In other words, a toy. There were weapons of varying calibre around the place, but nothing that looked particularly deadly.

Distantly, a glint shone. Chara went over, to see an elevator. Does it work? Wondered Chara. They pressed a button on the side and it opened.

Huh. Chara thought. They looked at the panel and saw 2 buttons: Conscious and Subconscious. Chara pressed Subconscious.

A new world opened with the elevator doors. A long hallway stretched along until Chara couldn't see the other end. As they stepped out, the elevator shut behind them. Chara opened a door cautiously, to find the text 'I hope Chara doesn't force a genocide via me.' shining in the air. Ha. Do they really think it's ME? It's your choice, your consequences.

That was when Chara realized what they were looking for was right there with them. Oh wait, I have the knife. Oops. Chara looked along the hallway. Down the path there was a whirl of activity. Eagerly thinking this was whatever Frisk thought about genocide, Chara ran towards it, until realizing it was just some stuff about resets and Overwatch. Wait… Overwatch?

Chara wanted to leave, but curiosity took them towards it, and saw something that left Chara speechless: The word 'Genocide' in red, repeatedly getting erased and rewritten. Chara didn't know their arm was moving towards it before they touched it, until the world glitched out and faded into black.

Pictures of various genocide events suddenly flashed into existence: The text '*16 left.' in red at the first Snowdin save, the Undyne the Undying fight, Alphys nowhere to be seen in her lab. Each picture had one thing in common: They all had Frisk in them. Chara reached for one, not thinking of what would happen if they touched one but thinking that this was proof of Frisk's true genocidal nature. Right before Chara touched one, the Frisk in the picture changed to Chara.

Chara recoiled. These were Frisk's decisions, unless… they themselves actually were the driving force behind it all. No.. I would never kill a monster. At least… not if I was in control of myself. Chara got an idea: Frisk was the one forcing them to go along with genocide. It was a GENIUS idea… and it also saved Chara the blame of being the genocider.

(Right. *snort*)

Back to reality now (that was odd)

The room had 6 cracked areas on the ground and a spike barrier on the other end. 'It's that one,' said Frisk, pointing to the left middle one. 'What about that one?' asked Tracer.

'No no no don't go down-' Frisk started, as Tracer dove in. She reappeared in the pipe next to the hole 7 seconds later, hair more messed up than usual. 'That ghost was down there- what was his name? Napstablook?'

Everyone nodded, then went to get the switch.

As they went through the spikes at the end of the room, Frisk whispered, 'Y'know how I said try not to kill anything? I was actually going to kill everyone down here, but you guys came in, so...' to D. Va. She raised her eyebrows.

As promised, explanations for the chapter will come. I believe in the 'Chara is mostly innocent until genocide' theory, so Chara is trying to stop Frisk from turning them into a monster (figuratively), which causes signs of Geno!Frisk every time Chara does that. (Chara also wants to blame Frisk for everything REMOTELY related to genocide.) It's also a reference to how most people's 3rd reset is a Genocide Route, which is noted later on in the chapter. Also, I changed the description to fit with the new path the story is going. Chara is the same 'gender' as Frisk (unconfirmed gender) as well. Will try to upload every month now. 1639 words