IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ

Hey, so...

There may or may not be pretty gory descriptions in this chapter. You thought the bit with Papyrus was bad? I didn't, but that's beside the point.

I'll put in notes to show what to skip if you don't like that kind of thing.

WARNING; THIS IS THE START OF WHERE YOU SHOULD SKIP IF YOU DON'T LIKE GORE AND STUFF. Yes, I know it's right at the start and that you'll probably miss important plot points. I'll summarise it when it's over.

Chara froze for an instant, before turning and running, but their pause had cost them precious time, as well as their life. What they thought would be the last thing they felt was claws digging into their guts and ripping through their insides, spraying blood and gore everywhere before they were torn into two pieces.

It was excruciatingly painful, but before they could scream with their dying breath, they were back staring at the beast as it started breathing heavily. It looked like it'd dash for them again(?) soon. Of course, after that horrifying ordeal they had to take a moment to recover, even though the pain had quickly faded away and they seemed to be unharmed.

It would've been better if they had thought about what had happened after they were out of the situation they'd got themselves into, though, as the beast had also recovered and had appeared right in front of Chara, as if out of thin air with a loud cracking noise as they broke the sound barrier by going so fast. They swiped at Chara again with their claws that were the size of Chara's head, which they narrowly dodged as their rather-lacking survival instincts kicked in.

Chara pulled their trusty gardening knife out of wherever they kept it and slashed back at the beast, which growled in mild annoyance as the blade broke against its skin before trying to take a bite out of Chara, who moved out of the way just in time, still shocked about the whole situation with the fact that their beloved knife was now broken suddenly put on top of that. All in all, it wasn't a great anniversary.

All of their shocked-ness wasn't obviously particularly good for their survival factor, and the beast literally ate their arm. This time Chara got to enjoy the experience of watching the beast swallow their recently deceased right arm while their stub sprayed blood everywhere before the time turned back again. (They weren't actually sure if that was what was happening, but considering it had happened a bunch recently already they thought it was possible. Actually, they didn't really think anything to do with that at the time because right then they had more pressing matters.) They were also vaguely aware of horrified screams coming from somewhere… oh wait, it was coming from them.

Of course, it was all reversed soon so their arm was back where it was supposed to be and their screams were cut off given the fact that their mouth was closed. The beast was now grabbing at its own head before glaring back up at Chara and moving forward, before stopping and jerking around. It let out a huge growl and leapt at them again, but by then Chara had recovered properly and had sent a wave of their practised red magic at it while pulling out its soul and initiating a Fight (although the actual battle had started a while ago).

When it let out a more human-sounding cry of pain, Chara dully registered that its soul was red like theirs. They didn't have time to think on that before the beast fell to the floor, killed mid-leap. It seemed they were a lot weaker when it came to magic.

Frisk turned back time again, to when they'd first looked the human in the eye. The blood they'd swallowed along with the arm had just made them crave it more. They couldn't stop themselves, despite trying very hard to. It was like they were trapped in the back of their mind and forced to watch as their body mauled and killed the human multiple times, without any control, except for their time powers. They had perfect control of those, which was a relief. However, that last time had been automatic in reaction to their death. They had never imagined the human to be that strong with magic!

But, even though they never would've thought they'd say this (or think it), it was quite a relief to have died; first because now they knew the human could hold them off until they hopefully turned back to normal, and second because they actually seemed to gain more control of their body when they died. Instead of dashing forward immediately, or almost immediately, this time they checked the human's stats first.

CHARA – HUMAN FORM – ATK 99 DEF 99

Stronger than they look. They aren't exactly human, sometimes.

Likes their steak well done. Fish isn't bad, either.

Because The Hunger wasn't around to read it for them, they felt the information kind of… scroll through their mind. They suddenly wondered why Hunger wasn't around, but they didn't have time to dwell on it, as they felt their soul being pulled out again. They managed to dodge the supposedly-not-human's first attack, but suddenly dropped to the ground as their soul turned blue. They didn't stay on the ground for long, though, and were floating about a metre in the air when they remembered that Sans was still hiding in the shadows behind them.

"i'm going to stop you right there, buddy." He said, while Frisk felt relieved that he'd immobilised them and also confused about why he'd not done it earlier. They were sure he'd have an answer as soon as they had regained the ability to ask him what they were thinking. Currently, they were wriggling around and trying to escape in an animalistic fear. At least they'd turned back into their human form by that point, but they still didn't have much control over their body.

"man, i really thought you'd have better control of yourself. i guess you must be pretty hungry by now, though." Sans shook his head in disappointment as all Frisk did was hiss at him. "didn't you hear? alphys was working on a blood substitute for you."

"Are you just going to have a one-sided conversation with that… thing and ignore me completely?" The human who Frisk had tried (and succeeded, twice) to kill said indignantly with a crazed tone in their voice. Frisk wouldn't blame them if they went mad after this, although they would feel incredibly guilty about it and probably try and kill themselves again.

"sorry, your highness. i can't imagine what it would've felt like going through all of that, but i know how horrifying it was to watch, and that wasn't any fun at all. i'll be taking my pal here down to the dungeon now." Sans sounded genuinely apologetic.

"Why didn't you help sooner?" Frisk would've loved to hear the answer to that as well, but their primal instincts kicked in as soon as Sans said "dungeon" and they used a power they didn't know they had to disappear in a puff of smoke.

Of course, they hadn't actually disappeared, per se; they'd turned into a bat and flown away with the smoke as a distraction. They then watched from behind a pillar as the human started hyperventilating and looking around, frightened. They felt incredibly bad for being the person that caused that, but they were glad that they weren't on their way to a dungeon, and that they'd almost completely regained control over their body, enough to stop their urges to fly up to the… pretty human and… drink all of their… delicious blood…

Okay, I think I should leave now… Frisk decided.

Yeah, that's a pretty good idea. The Hunger said out of nowhere.

Where were you?!

Um, trying to ignore everything.

Well, that was very helpful, wasn't it? The Hunger was about to reply to Frisk's scathing comment, but was distracted when Frisk took off and tried to fly away in the shadows. They failed to go unseen, and Sans dragged them down to the floor with his blue magic while they let out a little squeak.

The human whirled around when they saw the glow of the magic in their peripheral vision and heard the squeak, but calmed down when all they saw was a bat. They moved closer and patted Frisk on the head.

"Hey, little buddy. How'd you get here? Did you fly in from where the light's coming in? Were you not able to get out because of the barrier?" They crooned. Clearly, they liked bats. As Frisk nuzzled their head into their hand, the human turned to Sans and said, "Let it up already, jeez. It's just a poor little bat."

Sans was looking them in the eyes with them staring back at his one glowing eye as they nuzzled into the human. He clearly knew exactly what they were, but for some reason he shrugged and released them from his magic. He was still keeping an eye on them, however, especially as they flew up to the human's shoulder and sat down right next to their neck.

Instead of letting the human know that the beast that had killed them twice was sitting on their shoulder, he said, "i wasn't aware that you liked bats, your highness."

What on earth was he playing at? Did he think that because they hadn't eaten the human already that they wouldn't at all? That would be incredibly stupid of him, if he did. And he didn't seem like a stupid person at all.

Either way, Sans and the human continued down the hall with Frisk on the human's shoulder as they discussed what had just happened.

"What'll we tell mum and dad?" The human asked worriedly. "They'll want to know where the new 'human' is."

"i'll deal with it. trust me." Was all that Sans said in reply. He may have been about to add more, but no one would ever know, since at that moment a goat monster thing came running into the hall yelling "I finally found you, Chara!"

The human, presumably named Chara, sighed and put a hand on their face (probably to hide their small smile, Frisk thought) and replied with. "Asriel, this may come as a shock to you, but when someone leaves quietly at a party they generally don't want to be found. Although if you had to come it would've been better if you'd come a little earlier."

The goat monster, Asriel apparently, pouted a bit before saying, "Chara, you can't just leave your own party! And stop treating me like I'm still a kid!" Sans snorted at that while Chara let out a snicker, and Asriel didn't look too amused when he added, "That wasn't intentional."

Probably to distract them from his unintentional pun, Asriel asked, "Where'd you get that bat, Chara?"

"Oh, this little guy?" Chara patted Frisk on their head and they let out a soft sound of contentment. (This feels great!) "I just found them flying around the Judgement Hall. I think they must've come in through the barrier where the light's coming from and ended up stuck in here, like us."

"Aww, that's sad. At least you have another friend!" Asriel said positively.

"Mm. Well, do I have to go back to the party or can I go home?" Chara asked.

Asriel sighed. "Mum says that you have to come back to say goodbye to everyone but after that you can leave."

"Awesome. Thanks Azzy." Chara ruffled the goat's head fur before heading off towards the exit of the hall, with Asriel and Sans following. Frisk looked at their surroundings while they took a ride on Chara's shoulders.

The area on the other side of the hall looked about the same as the area they'd already come through, with paint all over everything. There was a short corridor before they reached a large structure that was covered in vines and had red leaves in front of the big entranceway instead of a doormat. There was a sign on the wall next to the entrance that read 'Throne room.' There was also a much more discreet path further along past what seemed to be the castle Frisk had seen way back in Waterfall, but no one even looked at it as they walked inside.

If Frisk were still in their human form, they would've let out a gasp as they entered the absolutely massive throne room. It looked like the entire castle that they'd seen was actually just this huge room, which had every possible surface covered in all kinds of plants (mostly ones that lived underground, though.) Actually, not all the surfaces were covered in plants. There were ten thrones of varying sizes lined up in the centre of the area, but Frisk couldn't get too good a look at them because of all the monster people who were also in the room. It seemed this was where all the people in the city had congregated. It was too loud for Frisk's sensitive little bat ears, and they huddled into Chara's shirt to block out some of the noise.

Chara patted the poor cute little bat as it curled up because of the noise, before heading over to where they could see Toriel and Asgore towering over most of the monsters with Asriel and Sans following behind them and trying to not get separated in the crowd. When they arrived at their destination, they waited while their adopted parents finished the conversation they were having before letting them know of their prescence.

"Ah, Chara! Asriel found you, I see?" Asgore rumbled and looked down at Chara.

"Yeah, dad. I'm going to go around and say bye to everyone else, but then I'll be heading home. Do you know where the others are?" Chara asked.

"I think most of your siblings are around the thrones, but some of them went into the sunroom, dear. Oh, and Chuck is serving the food." Toriel replied.

"Alright, thanks mum. I'll go and see them now. Bye." Chara waved a halfhearted goodbye at their parents and headed off towards the thrones, with Sans staying back with the king and queen and Asriel going to talk to more people.

"Not long now, little buddy. We'll be out of here soon." Chara said to their bat as they manoeuvred through the crowd towards the thrones. They soon caught sight of Betty and John conversing with a bunch of monsters, and the two of them turned to Chara as soon as they were finished.

"Hey, Chara. What're you here for?" John asked bluntly while Betty shifted her feet nervously at the sight of Chara.

"Mum says I have to say goodbye to everyone before I leave for home. So see you later." Chara was already walking away by the end of the sentence and towards where they could see another one of their siblings, Aaren, who had their faded red ribbon tied around one arm for some reason. The rest of their clothes were all aqua coloured.

Chara stood by as Aaren talked for a loooooong time to some monsters. They didn't understand why Aaren seemed to think everyone was as patient as they were! Eventually, long after Chara had started getting fidgety, Aaren turned around and addressed them.

"Hey Chara. Was there something on your mind?" They asked politely.

"Not really." Well, there is, but you'd think I was crazy if I told you. "Mum said I had to say goodbye to everyone before I head home. So I was just going to say bye."

"Alright. Bye then." Aaren smiled a bit, before adding, "Is that a bat on your shoulder?"

"Yeah, I found it flying around. I think it must've flown in through the barrier or something." The bat perked its head up, as if it knew it was being talked about.

"Can I pet it?"

"Sure, go ahead." Aaren moved their hand over to it, but it shimmied away with a squeak. Chara smirked slightly. "I guess it only likes me. Too bad."

They left Aaren looking disappointed and headed off to the small sunroom, which was a room behind the throne room that had a ray of light shining down in it. It was often used as a break area at parties like this. Chara found two more of their siblings there; Macy with her oversized cowboy hat and fake gun, as well as Charlie with her tutu and ballet shoes. (Chara was pretty sure that Charlie was a girl just then, since they usually wore their ballet clothes when they felt like a girl and their normal clothes when they felt like a boy.)

"Hey Charlie. Hey Macy." Chara greeted the two of them as they turned to face Chara, while they'd previously been gazing up at where the sunlight was coming from.

"Hey Chara. Is that a bat on your shoulder?" Charlie asked. Chara imagined it'd get to be a common question.

"No, it's a dragon. Of course it's a bat." They replied sarcastically.

"All right, all right. I just haven't seen a bat in ages." Charlie said, putting their hands up in surrender.

"Where'd you get it?" Macy asked.

"I found it flying around. Thought it must've been lost."

"Cool." Macy and Charlie replied at the same time. Then they turned to each other and giggled. Chara rolled their eyes and tried to get rid of the small smile they'd gained.

"Anyway, I'm heading home soon. See you later." Chara waved goodbye before heading further along the passage to where the barrier was, and also where they'd built some castle kitchens a while back.

At the moment there weren't many people in the kitchens, seeing as the celebration was close to being over and all the food had been made already. The only people there were the people that were restocking the empty plates with more food and Chuck, who ruled over the kitchen with an iron fist (when Toriel wasn't around to rule it herself) and was currently supervising everything.

"Chara! How nice of you to drop in!" Chuck greeted them with a smile. "I haven't seen you for most of the celebration, I've been stuck in here the whole time."

"You can't call it being stuck when you're staying here willingly." Chara replied. Chuck laughed and ruffled their hair, which they grumbled about. He knew they didn't like it when he did that! Just because he's the only one of their siblings that's older than them doesn't give him special privileges!

"Hey, what's that on your shoulder?" Chuck asked after he'd finished laughing and messing with their hair, which they were now trying to fix. He put his burnt pan down while he was waiting for their response. (They weren't sure why he was holding it anyway; it wasn't like he was cooking anything.)

"It's a bat, obviously." Chuck looked at it, conflicted. "I hope you don't mind?"

(They didn't care whether he minded or not.)

"Well, as long as it doesn't eat anything it isn't offered, you can keep it in here."

"All right. That seems fair." Chara agreed, before walking over to one of the fanciest pieces of food and putting their bat down next to it. They noticed Chuck's annoyed look and said, "What? I don't know when the last time it ate was. It's only right to feed it."

(They were mainly doing it to annoy him, but they had planned on getting the bat food sooner or later anyway.)

The bat took a look at the piece of what seemed to be the fancy soup that Chara'd heard Chuck and their mum discussing how to make properly, called something like consommé. It then drank all of it, took one look at Chuck's half-astonished, half-furious face before flying back onto Chara's shoulder.

They decided it'd be a good time to leave, so with a call of "See you at home!" they exited the kitchen with the small amount of monsters that had been in there with them watching with shocked expressions.

They moved quickly back towards the throne room, while praising their pet bat for its amazing drinking skills and for annoying Chuck after he'd annoyed them. Macy and Charlie asked them why they looked so pleased when they went back past the sunroom, but Chara just told them to go and check on Chuck before entering the crowd in the throne room and making their way through there to the exit without checking on anyone else.

When they got out of the loud and crowded throne room, they let out a sigh of relief. "I dunno about you, little friend, but I really don't like people, so I'm glad to be out of there." As they moved forward, they looked around the area and continued talking to the bat. "Believe it or not, this place used to be completely grey. No colour at all. Well, maybe black and white, but those aren't really colours. But now, you can't even tell.

One day, mum said 'Gorey (that's dad), this place is much too dreary! We must brighten it up! Children, get your favourite colour of paint, we're going to paint everything.' That was the same day that mum decided to expand our house, since there wasn't enough space for ten people. The tunnel leading here used to be in our house, too, but mum said that wasn't very convenient for everyone so we moved our house to be above the tunnel."

Chara wasn't sure why they were talking to the bat in the first place, but it did make them feel better as they walked through the Judgement Hall. They still couldn't resist casting nervous glances all around the area. The bat was a good listener, however. It almost seemed to be actually sentient. Maybe it was a monster bat? …No, it would've let them know if it was, or just flown off.

Either way, it was probably the only reason they were able to walk through the hall alone without breaking down in fear. Or rather, alone except for their bat. Once they made it out the other side, they slowed their pace down from the higher speed they'd made it during the corridor to walk through the colourful empty city.

Eventually they reached the tunnel, and at the end of that, their house. They unlocked the door with a key pulled out of their trouser pocket and walked up the steps that were just inside, until they got to the large living room that contained their two large sofas and the TV, among other things. They headed down the hall that was connected to the living room, past the kitchen and a bunch of other doors that had labels on them until they arrived at the one at the end of the corridor, labelled 'Chara.'

They pushed the door open and immediately moved over to the bed, taking their bat off of their shoulder and putting it down before slumping onto their bed and falling asleep almost instantly. It had been a bad day for them, and they just had to hope that they wouldn't have nightmares.

Frisk looked around the room they'd ended up in from where they'd been put down. They still hadn't figured out how to turn back into a human, but they didn't really mind this form anyway. There was a desk, which they were sitting on, with a computer, some notebooks, a hairbrush and some other junk on it. There was also a bookshelf, but they couldn't see most of the books that were on it because the bed was in the way. The only other things that were in the room other than those two big features (three including the bed) were a wardrobe and a bin next to the desk. It was a rather small room.

If they could've shrugged they would have done so before flying up to the doorframe, where the door was still open, and hanging upside down to try and get some sleep.

I'm sure everything will be fine from now on.