Chapter 4

"Aw, damn it, Asriel! Now we're going to miss the grand finale." Chara fumed from the mind-space representation of the stage. The auditorium appeared to be deserted now, save for the two of them. The whole place was dark and monochromatic. "I know I promised I wouldn't take control anymore, but you've got to at least make it worth my while."

"Chara, we need to talk," Asriel said, still sitting in his front-row seat.

"… now that's something I thought I'd never hear. Okay, you got my attention."

"All these years, I haven't simply been ignoring you. I've just been thinking."

"Thinking? About what?" asked Chara.

"About how things all turned out, why they happened that way… and how I could bring myself to forgive you… how I could forgive myself…" Asriel swayed.

At this, Chara perked up. "Oh? Are we finally coming to some sort of reconciliation?" He tapped the heels of his kiddy shoes against the edge of the stage on which he sat.

"Kind of, yeah… But first, I need to get a few things off my chest."

"Go on." He nodded.

"I've been thinking that…if the entire idea behind coming back to rewrite history was to rescue me so we could be together, there were a number of ways you could have gone about it without resorting to violence and bloodshed…." Asriel took in a deep breath. "For starters, how about simply allowing our lives to play out without ever trying to destroy the barrier?"

"You seemed to think it was a good enough idea to follow through, at first." Chara peered askance at his furry companion.

"Only because I was so young and naïve – I didn't fully take into account the true costs." Asriel fiddled with his royal blue cape before setting his earnest eyes anew on Chara. "And then, I would have followed you to the ends of the earth without question or doubt. But I think you knew better. You knew exactly what you were doing."

"Of course I did. And it worked, too! We freed everyone and triumphed over the humans." Chara made that huge painted smile that Asriel never liked very much.

"So then… it wasn't enough to live a quiet, peaceful life down there together – a life where we could have been happy?"

"No, it wasn't." Chara shook his head. "And I wasn't alone. A lot of monsters desired freedom. Remember, they had been trapped down there for hundreds of years and for all they knew, it would be hundreds more unless we took action. History will remember us as heroes because of it." He grinned smugly.

"Heroes, really?" Asriel laughed dryly. "That may be how history remembers us, but there's nothing heroic about provoking a war. Let me ask you something: when you pleaded to see your home village as your dying wish, it wasn't out of nostalgia, but because you knew exactly how it would look to the humans when they saw your body carried by me – a monster. Am I right?"

"You got me there." Chara rocked in place with a subtle smirk.

"And using the power of our combined souls, you finally got to carry out the revenge on your village that you'd been plotting all along?"

"Oh… but that was just the cherry on top. Obviously my plan was much bigger than that."

Asriel chuckled weakly. "Yeah, like when you absorbed the power of all those human souls, you became pretty powerful, didn't you?"

"Oh, yess…" Chara smiled and there was a glint of eerie light in his eyes.

"You could have released those souls after you destroyed the barrier. But there was no way you'd do that – not since they made you nearly unstoppable."

"I didn't hear any complaints," he remarked flatly. "At least not on our side."

"But isn't that what this was really about? The 'Quest for Absolute Power'. Power over anyone who stood in your way. The barrier… the war… even myself… they were all just steps along the way!"

"Asriel… when you put it like that, you sound a touch ungrateful," Chara said, gritting his teeth.

Asriel lifted himself to his feet. "And what exactly should I be grateful for? That I got to be the vessel for you to achieve your godhood?"

"Asriel! If I wanted to, I could have left you to languish away as a little flower while I ascended to reign supreme! But I didn't." Chara's eyes flared at full intensity.

"Well… why didn't you, then?"

"Because… I couldn't keep on doing it all alone…"

"All alone? Wasn't there anyone to keep you company?"

"No, there wasn't. At least, not after I was finished. There was not a single soul I cared enough about to spare… except for you." Chara's gaze drifted. "Of course, I only realized this after I'd killed you a bunch of times."

Asriel fell silent, so Chara hopped down from the stage and continued, "Look, Asriel… I was angry. You were the one who destroyed me before any of this started. And besides, with the state you were in, I thought I was doing you a favor. It was only after I put all that behind me that I actually began to listen…."

Chara bowed his head and sighed, "It was the way that you spoke to me… time after time… I began to realize that you reminded me more of myself than anyone. Deep down, neither of us could handle the harsh truth of what we had become, and so we each, independently, took it upon ourselves to wipe the slate clean and start over from the beginning. Our beginning. And you know, we never could have got there without each other.

"So now that we've come full circle, you must see that it's not just a matter of choice that our lives keep on colliding like this. It's a matter of fate, Asriel. We were meant to be together no matter what!"

By now, the overhead lighting had narrowed such that the brothers were completely surrounded in a pall of utter darkness beyond which there was nothing. Asriel crumpled and fell to one knee.

Chara blinked. "Asriel? Don't tell me you're falling asleep in here too..." He paused. "Wait. How is that possible?" Chara frowned.

"Maybe you're right," Asriel said with a sickly smile. "Maybe we are meant to be together…."

Chara's eyes darted all around as if pursued by an unseen assailant and he started to tremble, "Asriel… what's going on?"

"I have only one more question: Just…what are you, Chara?"

Chara just stared at his brother, speechless.

Asriel shook his head and smiled. "You're not really human, are you?"

"Asriel…" Chara reluctantly began.

Asriel gave a weak laugh. "There's nothing you can hide from me, Chara. Before we bonded… there was so much I didn't know, didn't understand. I couldn't even imagine how awful the truth was until we had become one. So unbearable was this truth that I couldn't stare it straight in the face. But gradually, over time, the full extent of what you were… what you had done, seeped into me so deeply, so undeniably, that I could no longer ignore it." He locked eyes with his companion, steadfast. "I know now, Chara. I know what comes next. And I know that it has to be stopped."

Chara widened his eyes. "Asriel… what have you done?!"

"While you were absorbed in your favorite play and paying me no mind, I took the opportunity to slip a little something into my tea. Can you guess what it was, Chara?" Asriel cocked his head. "Can you?"

"This… this is all some kind of sick joke, isn't it?" Chara choked and paled, losing his rich complexion. "Like the kind I used to play on you doing our childhood…" He raked his clenched fingers through his hair, clawing it into further disarray. "Hah, you got me good, Asriel. You finally got me back for it now! Haha!"

Asriel's smile faded. He shook his head slowly. "I wish it were. Honestly, I do."

Chara's face buckled with renewed panic. "Help! I can't feel our body!" He clutched and jerked at Asriel's shoulder. "Wake up! Wake up!" Then, it dawned on him. "I can't move," he murmured, his glassy eyes distant.

"It's too late for that." Asriel frowned. "If I can't exert any control, then neither can you." Asriel lifted his gaze to the dying light. "It won't be long now…."

"Hey! Somebody!" Chara shouted at the light. "Do something! …Call 911!"

Asriel twitched his lips. "Chara… please. Don't be afraid. Everything will be okay, I promise." He managed a delicate smile.

Chara slumped to his knees, defeated. "But why, Asriel… why?"

Asriel gently gripped Chara's cheeks. "I know you can't help what's in your nature. I don't blame you for it. In fact, now that I finally understand it all…I forgive you, Chara. For everything. I really do."

"Asriel, I… I…" Chara stammered, misty-eyed.

"You don't have to say it. I already know. I feel it, too. And that's why it's got to end this way."

Chara trembled.

Asriel drew his brother close. He held him, rubbed his back, and smiled. "No more struggles, okay? Just stay with me. We're going to be free."

The form of Chara shook and then shimmered. Then he began to fade away with that dying spot of light.

In the final moment of illumination, Asriel faltered and gave way to a primal calling.