Broken Promise

Mettaton grins and suddenly lights turn on, blaring various colors on Frisk. He covers his eyes, staggering back from the sudden blindness the lights cause. He lowers his arm and frowns lightly. Mettaton raises his arms, "Darling, frowning loses style points! How do you ever expect to be a star with face like that?!"

Frisk sighs and then he grins, "If this is a challenge, you're on."

"Remember when you said that to Sans?" Chara snickers.

Frisk winces, but he doesn't drop his facade. He continues to grin as Mettaton laughs, "You can't possibly defeat me at my own game, darling, I am the embodiment of all things fabulous! I am Mettaton! The best human-killing, shining-star robot-ghost ever!"

"Aren't you the only human-killing, shining-star robot-ghost ever?" Frisk asks.

Mettaton frowns, "Not the point."

Frisk shakes his head, "Now who's losing style points?"

Mettaton laughs, "Well done, human, tricking me into that ugly face. But no more talk! It's time to dance! And if you can't defeat me, you die!"

Frisk's grin lowers to a light smile and he steps forward, "How about a deal?"

Mettaton raises an eyebrow, "A deal?"

Frisk nods, "Yeah. If you win, I obviously die, right? So, if I win, you have to let me go. And.. Go talk to Napstablook. Deal?"

Mettaton's eyes glisten and he sighs, crossing his arms, "You're on, human!"

Frisk nods, steeling himself for the deadliest game of Dance Dance Revolution ever. Loud music begins to play and the lights move around, creating a bunch of multicolored spotlights. Chara snickers, "Why go through with this foolery? You can end this all now with one little item. And I know you still have it in your pocket."

She laughs and Frisk shivers, "I said no."

"Too late to back out now, you're already losing style points!" Mettaton laughs, doing overly exaggerated, almost flamboyantly gay dance moves.

Frisk takes a deep breath and tries to keep up with Mettaton. He closes his eyes and lets his muscle memory kick in once again. He smiles, finding himself doing various exaggerated and goofy dance moves around Mettaton. Frisk gasps and does a back bend as Mettaton tries to kick him in the face. He then turns the back bend into a full flip and then he spins, raising his arms over his head.

The more Frisk avoids Mettaton's fancy dance attacks, he finds his body starts moving faster, dodging faster. A smile comes to his lips as he remembers a better time, the first time he encountered Mettaton EX. He continues to dance and dodge his way around Mettaton's stage. He notices the robot starts smoking. Not too long now, Frisk dodges another kick.

"Now to make it more exciting!" Mettaton laughs as his chest opens up and a flurry of tiny remote-like Mettaton's fly towards Frisk. He gasps and spins out of the way. The little robots follow and throw heart bombs at him. Mettaton continues to dance luxuriously and he laughs, "Dance your way out of that!"

Frisk swats at the little robots, trying to keep up his dancing as bombs rain around him. He gets blasted multiple times and he falls down. Mettaton stops and smirks, walking up to the human. Mettaton bends down and pulls Frisk's face up by the boy's chin. The robot smirks as the tiny robots dance around him, "A valiant effort, for a human. But you still lost. It's time to die, darling!"

Chara giggles somewhere behind Frisk and he closes his eyes. His eyes snap open as Chara puts the knife in his hand. His body seems to move on its own and Frisk lodges the knife deep into Mettaton EX's neck, straight through, severing the wires. Mettaton gasps and grasps his neck, stumbling back. Frisk screams and scrambles to his feet, "Mettaton, no!"

Chara laughs and grabs Frisk by the shoulder. She pulls him back, turning him to face her. She grins and holds him by the collar of his shirt a foot off the ground. She raises her free hand and Frisk's soul appears there, "You're never getting this back, Frisk. It's about time you faced the facts. You're no better than me!"

She laughs and starts to crush Frisk's soul. He groans, pain shooting through his body, "Ch..ara.."

A bone suddenly shoots Chara's hand, causing her to drop Frisk's soul, another hits her other hand, dropping Frisk. Chara stumbles back, looking angry and confused, "What? How is that possible?"

Frisk gets up, gasping, "Sa.. Sans!"

Frisk starts to run towards Sans and the skeleton raises an arm, sending a bone at Frisk. Frisk's eyes widen and before he can think to move, the bone pierces Frisk's chest. Frisk gasps, falling on to his back on the ground, "Sa..ans..?"

Chara laughs and Sans walks towards Frisk. As he passes Chara, he shoots bones at her. The bones pierce the demon in the chest, stomach, and forehead. Chara falls to the ground, becoming shadow. Sans leans down and picks up Frisk's soul before he kneels beside Frisk. Sans's left eye glows blue and he rips the bone from Frisk's chest, causing the boy to scream. Blood pours from Frisk's wound and he coughs blood as well, breathing weakly, "Sa..ns.."

"You promised." Sans replies softly.

Sans holds out Frisk's soul, "You were doing so well.. Chara may have put the knife in your hand, but you're the one that attacked."

"I'm.. So..rry.." Frisk coughs, shuddering. Blood pools out around him. Frisk gestures to the soul in Sans's hand, "Use.. it.. D-do..nn't.. Let us.. C-come.. B-ba..ack.."

Frisk continues to cough up blood and he smiles slowly at Sans, "It's.. Be..en.. G-goo..d.. Kno..wi-wing.. Y-you.. Sa...ans.."

Sans frowns, bringing the soul close to himself. He meets Frisk's gaze just as the boy's eyes slide closed. Frisk's soul starts to crack and Sans gasps softly, not quite absorbing it, but he hides the soul within himself. He moves and lifts Frisk into his arms and stands, heaving a heavy sigh. He looks back at where Chara had fallen. All that remains of her is a smoking shadow in her form. Sans's bones still protrude from the being.

"Heh.." Sans shakes his head, "It must have been because the kid's soul was mostly released that I was able to see her, let alone kill her."

He frowns, looking back at Frisk, "Kid.. I know you want me to take your soul and break the barrier.."

He sighs, closing his eyes, "I'm sure we can go back to how it was before, at the start."

He kneels down and sets Frisk down. He then brings forth Frisk's soul. Upon its release, it continues to crack. Sans chuckles softly, "You'll forgive me for not listening. I'm giving you one last chance to prove yourself. Get through the Timeline, don't fight us. We can still be friends."

He moves the soul to Frisk's chest and the soul shoots into Frisk's body as it shatters, making the boy glow red for an instant. Sans steps back as the familiar feel of a Reset washes over him. Frisk's eyes shoot open and he gasps, sitting up. His eyes adjust and he finds himself again, back outside the Ruins. His eyes widen when he notices Chara standing in front of him. Unlike all the other times, she's as solid as can be. Her smiles widens and she holds the knife towards him, "Come on, let's finish what we started. Let's finish this world together, for real this time."

She grins, "Partner."