[Note: This is going to be a somewhat dark and tragic character development chapter, though I might lighten up the mood a little after this one. This chapter also contains some dark themes like war and child abuse, you've been warned.]
It was late at night, Asriel awoke and saw that Chara's bed was empty and began to panic, thinking that perhaps Chara had decided to go through with their plan after all.
"Oh no! Chara!" Asriel shouted to himself as he leaped out of bed and began frantically searching for his adopted brother, he eventually found him in the living room, sitting on the couch and watching TV with a blanket wrapped around him and a cup of hot chocolate in his hands.
"Chara, you're okay." Asriel said with a sigh of relief, Chara smiled.
"Of course I am, didn't I already make it clear earlier that our previous idea was stupid?" Chara said as he moved over a bit to give Asriel a spot to sit down. Even though they were grounded, Asriel saw this as an opportunity to talk with Chara and have him open up about his past, at least to him. He took a seat beside Chara while the TV was going on in the background, a cartoon was on but neither of them were really watching it, Chara was sitting down and pondering while Asriel looked towards the ground, playing with his thumbs.
"So, you couldn't sleep?" Asriel asked casually, Chara nodded.
"How could I given everything that's happened?" Chara said, taking a sip of the steaming hot chocolate. "I can't help but get the feeling that you know something I don't, as if you knew that if we went ahead with our plan that things would turn out very badly for both of us."
Asriel was taken aback by this, he never thought that Chara expected anything, but he nodded his head.
"Well, I sort of did know that things would turn out disastrously. If you died our hearts would be broken, and if I helped you go through with that stupid plan mom and dad would never forgive me. While we all want to go to the surface, it wouldn't be worth it if you weren't there with us. After all, you said that you're dream was to see the sun from top of Mount Ebott too, right? The surface isn't going anywhere, I think we can wait a bit longer." Asriel said to Chara with a smile, Chara smiled and his face lit up with joy.
"You're very kind Asriel, even to an ungrateful friend like me. I'm glad that you stopped me today." Chara said in response, Asriel placed his hand on top of Chara's head and began messing up his brown hair, annoying Chara somewhat.
"Quit it!" Chara complained while Asriel laughed.
"You're a pretty good friend when you want to be Chara, even if you can be kind of morbid and nihilistic sometimes." Asriel said. "You really ought to smile more and be happier, whatever happened in the past is in the past, you have us now, right?"
With this response, Chara's smile disappeared and he looked downwards sadly, hanging his head low.
"Yeah, I guess." Chara said sadly, Asriel was concerned, removing his hand from Chara's head and letting him have some personal space, Chara quietly laughed to himself. "I envy you Asriel, you have such wonderful parents and everyone loves you. I can't believe that even though we're grounded that Toriel actually brought us lemonade as we helped Asgore fix up the mess we made."
"Well, mom is pretty awesome, but she can actually be pretty short tempered when she wants to be, especially with dad." Asriel laughed. "With that fire magic of hers you might just say she can be hot headed!"
Chara chuckled at the joke Asriel made, Asriel laughed a bit harder and snorted.
"I wish I got to know my real parents." Chara said happily, but then frowned again, this time angrily. "But of course, humans can never let good things last, they ALWAYS have to destroy them. Sad, is it not?"
Asriel stopped laughing and cleared his throat.
"Wanna talk about it?" Asriel asked, Chara sighed and put the cup of hot chocolate on the coffee table.
"Alright, fine. But don't go getting all crybaby and stuff, ok?" Chara said, Asriel nodded, there was a short pause between the two while Chara took a deep breath and prepared to tell his story.
"To begin with, I am not a normal human being. As you know, I was born with a number of powerful gifts: enhanced speed, strength, endurance, intelligence and even the gift of magic. However, I was also born with an uncanny amount of Determination, and this gives me more gifts. The average human only has slightly more Determination than the average monster, but some humans have so much Determination they can bend time itself through sheer will alone. Save, Load, Reset, Pause, these are just a few of the abilities available to those possessing such high amounts of Determination." Chara said, Asriel listened intently and was impressed with what he was hearing. When he was Flowey Asriel had an insane amount of Determination, he used to reset and load all the time, but even then his power paled in comparison to Frisk's.
"Humans like me are rare, we're essentially the human equivalent of Boss Monsters, we are known as "Heroes"." Chara said, Asriel laughed a little.
"Heroes? You mean like superheros who save people from bad guys and stuff?" Asriel asked, Chara laughed back.
"Well, that's not to say that Heroes are necessarily, well, Heroes. It's an ancient term, it refers to someone with incredible strength and power, like the Heroes of legend like Hercules and Achilles." Chara said before his mood shifted again. "That being said, being a Hero is an incredible burden, we often find ourselves as outcasts because normal humans fear our power and others want to use us for their own purposes, that's where I come in."
"Mount Ebott straddles the border between two kingdoms, the kingdom of the East and the kingdom of the West. Me and my family lived in a village at the base of Mount Ebott, just barely within the borders of the Eastern kingdom. In that village my family lived for generations, we were part of a long bloodline of Heroes who were once respected and adored throughout the land. However, when relations with the Western kingdom became hostile our two countries went to war, the people of the Western kingdom feared Heroes within the Eastern kingdom and wanted them all killed. During this war my village was taken over by the Western kingdom... my home was burned to the ground and my family was killed, only myself and my twin brother survived." Chara said to Asriel sadly, Chara looked upwards, remembering the fateful day.
"I still remember seeing the smoke rising above the hills and hearing the explosions and gunshots when the Western army attacked, me and my brother were playing in the fields that day when the invasion began." Chara said sadly, reminiscing about the bad memories. Asriel's ears drooped and his head hung low.
"I'm sorry to hear about that Chara, but what happened then?" Asriel asked, saddened but curious. Chara took another sip of Hot Chocolate and continued to speak.
"Being homeless orphans, we were forced to live the lives of street urchins. Me and my brother fell into a rough crowd, we were recruited by a gang of crooks to go and help them with their crimes. I... did things I'm not proud of. I stole money, mugged people and even helped smuggle illegal contraband between the two kingdoms, I was well hated by the people of my village but I always got away with my crimes because I was always able to Load if I screwed up and keep trying until I got the result I wanted. My brother however, although he had the same power as I he refused to use it, he'd often get caught or simply refuse to go ahead with crimes and this made him a target for much of the gang leader's ire and frustration. He was beaten up frequently and never bothered fighting back because he was a pacifist who hated fighting, I would stick my neck out for him again and again and I'd wind up getting beaten up too. Me and the other children who worked for those scum lived in an old warehouse, we slept on the floor and it wouldn't be uncommon for us to have to get rid of rats that liked to run around us as we slept. They of course lived in actual houses with actual beds and furniture, profiting from our hardships!" Chara said bitterly.
"Tell me a little about your brother Chara." Asriel asked.
"My twin brother looks a lot like me, but a little different. He doesn't talk much, he hasn't spoken much since our home was destroyed and our family was killed, he also doesn't show a whole lot of emotion, he's remarkably stoic. That being said, he's filled with love and compassion, he has a totally different philosophy about the world than I do, he believes the world is "Live and Let Live" and that the reason we're all unhappy and miserable is because we try to hurt each other instead of help each other. In a way it's as if me and him are polar opposites of each other, he continued to hold on to that philosophy despite everything. I truly want to believe that he's right, but the golden rule of my world is kill or be killed." Chara said, he then looked at Asriel. Asriel's face was wrought with shame, he used to say those exact words all the time when he was Flowey and had no soul: Kill or be Killed. Asriel also wondered about the identity of Chara's brother.
"How peculiar, you look as if I'm talking about someone you know." Chara said in a fascinated tone, Asriel shook his head.
"Nah, he just sounds similar to someone I used to know a long time ago." Asriel said, allowing Chara to finish his story.
"Eventually, things got out of hand. We wound up caught by a bunch of villagers while we were trying to rob a store on behalf of the gang leader, they were very angry and some of them had weapons, they said they were going to "teach us a lesson". I was afraid they were going to hurt us, so I... let my powers get out of control and I injured a large group of the villagers and caused a lot of panic, others chased me and my brother screaming "Demon" and "Witch" and "Abomination", the villagers didn't understand our powers and assumed we had come from hell to destroy them. I really hated those villagers, none of them bothered to help us knowing full well what we were going through, they instead only cared about securing their precious money and belongings, shunning us instead of helping us. Then, when we finally lashed out at the world which had mistreated and abused us for so long, suddenly WE were the "Demons"." Chara said angrily, his hands clenching into tight fists that shook with rage and his face turning red, Asriel backed away from Chara slightly, Chara was trying hard to hold back tears of anger and grief.
"We were forced to run away, me and my brother headed up Mount Ebott because we heard the stories about how nobody who climbed up there returned. We felt that the villagers wouldn't pursue us up there, but they did. We were chased up the mountain and eventually we got separated, I don't know what happened to my brother. Eventually, as I got near the top of the mountain I tripped over a vine and fell into a sinkhole, I fell for what felt like eternity and blacked out when I hit the bottom, and when I finally came to, you were there." Chara finished his story with a sob, tears streaming down his cheeks as he smiled. "You brought me to Toriel and Asgore, you... you called me brother."
With that, the normally stoic Chara buried his face in his hands and quietly sobbed, shaking from emotion. Asriel pat Chara on the back and hugged him, letting the human cry.
"It's alright bro." Asriel said as he hugged Chara. "I won't let anything bad happen to you ever again, not me, not mom and dad, nobody. The past is in the past now, you have a family now, a family that loves and takes care of you."
Chara broke the hug and rubbed his eyes.
"And what about my brother? Why doesn't he get a family and friends?" Chara croaked between tears. Asriel smiled and hugged Chara once again.
"Don't worry... I get the feeling we'll meet him again someday, trust me." Asriel said, believing in the identity of Chara's twin, Chara laughed once again.
"Twice in one day, now I'm the crybaby." Chara joked about himself getting emotional and crying. Asriel laughed and hugged him for a while before finally letting go.
"Hey Chara, we should go to bed before mom and dad wake up and we get into more trouble." Asriel said to Chara, who nodded his head in affirmation.
"Yes, we have a long day tomorrow." Chara said as his mood brightened, feeling better from finally telling his story to someone. "Next time tell me who Flowey is, okay?"
Asriel sighed, a sad frown forming on his face as he walked to the door to their bedroom.
"Yeah, next time." Asriel said quietly before he opened the door. The two went back to bed and slept for the rest of the night, but in his sleep Flowey once again appeared in Asriel's dream. Asriel was in a dark place with only a single patch of grass illuminated by a ray of light from above, from the middle of that patch of grass Flowey came up through the ground, smiling at Asriel.
"Well, well, well... look at Mr. Big-shot Asriel Dreemurr! So you managed to save Chara's worthless life and learn about just what kind of a pathetic and messed up kid he really is under that pasty skin and fake smile of his." Flowey began mockingly before his face changed again, his eyes turning red and his smile becoming manic.
"But the DEMON still lives Asriel! Don't forget that just because Chara's alive doesn't mean his hatred and anger are not! Remember, in the same way that I'm a part of you who will never go away, the Demon is part of Chara and he'll always fester in his black human heart until the day he destroys him once again! Oh, and just so you know, you're not the only one who's able to change history Asriel! You'll find out soon enough that this timeline has a lot of nasty surprises in store!" Flowey said before cackling maniacally and disappearing into the ground, the light vanishing and leaving Asriel in darkness, his voice in the distance relaying one final message.
"You've just got HIS attention, he hasn't had a fun playmate in a very long time. For everything you fix he'll find another thing to ruin.
Nighty night cupcake."