Ghost Buddy

Summary: In your defense, the scary movies you used to watch made it seem like possession was much easier.

Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox

"Hello?" Frisk called out, stepping into the lab. This time Alphys has left the door open, but all the lights were off, just like the first time you had come there.

You looked around as Frisk checked the computer desk, and noticed a note on the floor by the bathroom. "Hey Frisk, come check this out."

Frisk walked over and frowned. "What's it say?"

You sometimes forgot that they couldn't read, since they were such a smart, resourceful person. "Oh. Right, it says that she's sorry for all the lies she's told her friends, and she can't…take living this way anymore?!" This type of note was sounding a little too familiar, and your voice became more alarmed. "Please go through the door to the north of this letter, and all will become clear."

Frisk gave you a worried look too. "I don't like the sound of that, Chara."

"Me either," you grimaced, "Let's go."

You both ran into the bathroom, and were surprised that it was actually an elevator. "Huh?" Frisk questioned, and then the elevator began to descend on its own, with no input from Frisk.

"Oh," you muttered, "this doesn't seem right."

Finally, the elevator dinged, the door opened, and the sound of humming machinery halted altogether as you were both plunged into darkness. "And the elevator lost power too," you sighed, "even better."

You both stepped out of the elevator and Frisk shivered. You didn't blame them; this place looked like every stereotypical creepy laboratory from movies and video games you could think of. Dimly lit, leaking ceiling, cracked walls and floors.

You floated up to the door in front of you and examined it. "No good," you advised, "it's locked."

You looked back at Frisk. They were shaking, hard. "Hey," You said, softly, "you okay, Frisk?"

They took a deep breath and nodded. "Y-yeah. This is just really creepy."

You nodded, but reassured, "Can't be as creepy as the giant vine Flowey, right? You can do it Frisk. I'm right here with you."

At these words, a SAVE Point spawned for Frisk, and they touched it. "You're right," they said, giving you a grin, "let's go!"

You looked at the main door in front of them. "This is locked, it says you need to put all the key cards in the correct receptors before it will open." You sighed, "Well that doesn't sound like a pain in the butt at all."

Despite the outward confidence Frisk had just displayed, both of you were very cautious as you went down the empty hall to the left. "Alphys?" Frisk called out, "We – I saw your note. Are you okay?"

As they explored the hallway, they came across a leaking faucet. Perhaps out of habit, or perhaps because the dripping noise was somewhat annoying, they walked over to twist the knobs off.

And while the water stopped, something else…didn't. Some white, gooey material rushed out of the sink, filling the basin to the brim, and then it looked at Frisk with multiple, black, gooey eyes.

You and Frisk screamed and wrapped your arms around each other as you were sucked into a battle. Once the alarm wore off, your arms went through Frisk again as usual. Frisk was being stared down by a floating, staticky white face above the sink.

Erratic, nonsensical bullets flew around Frisk, some not going near them, the rest Frisk dodged with ease.

The monster split into three and began speaking in gibberish to Frisk. It reminded you of Gaster. Suddenly, Frisk's cell phone began ringing. They pulled it out, and you read to them, "It says Memoryhead is calling? Is that what this monster is?"

Frisk answered, and the monsters voice, now translated yelled, "Come join us!"

"Um…No thank you!" Frisk yelled shaking their with a polite, yet nervous smile.

To your surprise, this seemed to pacify the, "memory heads," and they disappeared.

"…What the heck was that?!" Frisk cried to you.

You shrugged, equally confused. "Nothing like I've ever seen," you confessed, "let's find Alphys and get out of here!"

Frisk was about to leave down the stairs, but they noticed a small, red key card had been at the bottom of the sink. Quickly and cautiously, they snatched it from the basin and walked briskly down the stairs.

All that was down there was a small room with a little card-swiper machine. It was red. Instinctively, Frisk put the red key card in there, and you could hear something click from far down the hallway. The noise made you both jump. Frisk caught your eye as you both finished gasping and gave you a small, nervous laugh. "Hey, nothing to worry about, right? I bet that was just a door unlocking, we'll be out of this in no time, Chara!" They were talking at a mile a minute.

"Right," you agreed, "nothing to worry about at all." You weren't sure if you were trying to convince them or yourself.

As you trudged back down the hallway, little monitors would light up, and you'd stop to read them.

"What do they say?" Frisk asked.

You bit your lip. It was a bit creepy, but you figured you'd sum it up for Frisk. "Looks like lab notes from Alphys. They're out of order, but it sounds like Alphys had figured out – or maybe the first scientist figured it out and she picked it up from there, it's vague – that the reason human souls persist after death is from the power of determination."

"Maybe that's why your dad wasn't surprised when I told him that he had killed me," Frisk pondered, "He was aware of determination."

"Could be," you agreed, "never said anything about it when I was alive. Maybe that's how Sans knows too. Anyway, it sounds like they wanted to give monsters the power of determination, artificially created, to see if they could make them strong enough to break the barrier."

"How can you artificially create determination?" Frisk asked.

You shrugged. "Hey, I'm not a scientist. Probably has a lot to do with magic."

You made it back to the elevator. Frisk stopped at the elevator as their stomach rumbled, and looked at the vending machine. They dug around in their pockets for some change, and placed a small piece of gold in. A bag plopped out of the bottom.

"Looks like you got some – " You began, but Frisk cut you off.

"No!" Frisk said, "I think I can read this one."

You smiled at them, patiently. Frisk squinted and sounded out, "P…p..p-popato chisps?"

It was maybe the most adorable thing you'd ever heard in your entire life, and the giant smile on your face must have reflected it as Frisk blushed, "Oh, potato chips is what it says," they realized.

"Hey, that was a pretty good try!" You commended, "I bet you could learn pretty easy when this is done."

"Thanks," Frisk replied, popping the bag open and munching on their prize, "I wouldn't mind having a cute teacher like you."

You blushed hard, "L-let's just keep going."

You passed some more plaques, and summed them up for Frisk, "So, you probably don't know this," you explained, "but monsters rarely get sick. When they do, they call it, 'falling down,' so what they did was take these monsters who were near death, and Alphys injected them with determination. The plan was that after the monsters die, their souls would persist, and then Alphys could preserve them and see if they could be used against the barrier."

You both arrived at a room filled with nothing but beds.

"This is where the test subjects would sleep," you reasoned.

Frisk shuddered, "Should it…should it be empty like this?"

The thought hadn't struck you, but they were right. Where DID all the test subjects go? Why was this place so empty?

"Oh," Frisk moaned suddenly, grabbing their stomach, "I think those chips were old. Ooohhhh…"

"Uh oh, you okay?" You asked.

Frisk nodded, but was clearly in pain. "Yeah just…let me lay down a minute."

"Usually food made out of magic doesn't expire," you advised your friend, "but I guess it happens sometimes. I had that with mom's snail pies until I got used to the taste."

Frisk laid down on the bed and took a few deep breaths…and behind them, a large, ghost-like monster, made of the same gooey substance the Memory Heads had been made of, appeared behind Frisk.

"Frisk," you warned, voice growing sharp, "Don't. Move."

Frisk could sense the urgency in your words, and held their breath.

The monster sprouted an arm from it's body, protruding from the center of it's chest, and it hovered over Frisk.

"Stay still, Frisk," you whispered, bracing yourself.

But then…the monster grabbed the blanket at the bottom of the bed and tucked Frisk in. They patted Frisk on the head and then disappeared.

You were speechless. After a few moments, Frisk whispered, "Is it gone?!"

"Y-yeah." You stammered.

Frisk rolled out of bed and let out a sigh of relief. "What was that? I mean it was nice of it to tuck me in and all but yikes. Scary."

"It might be best if we don't talk about it." You laughed nervously. It looked like a giant, white, slimy ghost; probably not the thing you want tucking you in at night.

Frisk got the gist of it though, and went to look at one of the other beds. Tucked under one of the pillows was a yellow key card. "When you were telling me to hold all still, I saw another one of these poking out. So I mean, lucky break, huh?"

You nodded. "So which way now? Down the hallway with the mirrors or down some more stairs?"

Frisk pondered for a minute. "Mirrors."

"What?" You shouted, "mirrors in a lab seem way creepier. Like those carnival fun houses. "

"I have a thing about basements," Frisk replied with a nervous laughter.

"Ah…well…okay." You said, giving them a small smile. You didn't want to push the matter further.

"It's a long story," Frisk said, "maybe once we're out of this lab or back on the surface we can sit down and tell each other these long stories we keep putting off."

You were about to say something in agreement, when you noticed one of the Frisk's in the mirror staring at Frisk. It morphed into some sort of bird like monster and lunged at Frisk. "Look out!" you cried, and Frisk leapt forward, just barely dodging the amalgate.

As you were sucked into the battle, what looked like a Stigmatism was where the bird's head was, forming an odd beak. "I don't…I don't know what that is," you said to Frisk, scared, "I'm sorry."

"H-hello!" Frisk greeted, trying to put on their best cheerful smile.

In response, the bird-like monster spoke in about ten different voices, all at once, and a swarm of bullet-moths descended upon it's head, eating it.

"AH!" Frisk shrieked, "What's wrong with you?!"

That was the first time you had heard Frisk say anything relatively negative about a monster. The eyelike-beak of the monster seemed sad, however. Frisk seemed to catch themselves, took a deep breath, and continued trying to talk it down.

"I'm sorry," Frisk apologized, "that was rude of me. I hope you are okay?"

In place of the monsters head…another one grew. And grew. And more kept growing and began shooting themselves at Frisk, who began dodging left and right. "P-please let this monster be okay!" they prayed, near hysterics.

When the monster stopped attacking, Frisk panted, and looked around. "Hey!" They yelled, "Look over there! A distraction!"

Mystified, the bird monster spun around, and Frisk used the opportunity to run to the other end of the hallway and duck back into the bedroom.

"I want to go home." Frisk cried, "I want to go home, I want to go home, I don't want to be in this creepy lab anymore."

They were sitting on one of the beds, knees tucked to their chest. You bit your lip; they hadn't been like this since that time they accidentally killed Mom. "Hey come on," you encouraged, "we can do this. If anything bad happens, we can always RESET, remember? I won't leave your side, I promise."

Frisk took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. O-okay Chara. We can do this."

A SAVE point appeared by the stairs. Frisk touched it and went down the stairs. You read a few more of the panels. "Well, from these," you said, "the subjects of the determination experiments just got up like nothing happened. So Alphys wasn't able to gather any souls, but she was going to send all the monsters home."

Frisk smiled. "Well that sounds like a happy ending for everyone."

You nodded, but then looked at the next panel. "O-oh."

Frisk looked at you and frowned. "I know that word. 'No no no no NO!'"

You both exchanged raised eyebrows and moved a little bit closer together as you walked down the hallway. A fork came out up; right or straight. Frisk nodded to the right, and you both walked down another hallway.

Frisk gasped at what was at the end; there was a shower, not connected to a bathroom or anything. But the thin curtain revealed a giant, wiggling tentacle dancing behind the curtain.

You looked at each other. "What do we do?!" You whispered.

Frisk began slowly inching towards the shower, holding a finger up to shush you. "Frisk, no!" You squealed.

The suspense was killing you, and Frisk seemed to slow down more and more the closer they came to the curtain. In contrast, the tentacle…THING started gyrating spastically and frantically the closer Frisk seemed to get to the shower. Finally, Frisk's fingers grasped the shower curtain, yanked it back violently, and automatically screamed. You, in turn screamed, and your screams turned into a confused, panicked laughter as the shower revealed…nothing.

Nothing was there. You walked up to Frisk and looked in the empty shower.

"Just a shower drain," you assured, laughing nervously. Frisk laughed too, clearly feeling silly. Then, they noticed a green keycard in the drain, and they quickly swiped and walked away as fast as they could without actually running.

You both came to a room with a massive, skull like machine in the middle. "What is that?!" Frisk asked.

You looked at a sign over the gap in the floor separating the machine from the walkway. "Determination extractor?"

You both looked to each other and shuddered.

Frisk made their way to a room with a TV and a pile of VHS tapes in front. There was a note by them, "For research, I looked at some old lab tapes that were in the castle," You read aloud to Frisk, "I don't think Asgore has seen them." You paused, a bit alarmed at the last sentence, but read, "I don't think he should…"

Frisk raised an eyebrow and popped in the first tape.

At first, there was no picture, but voices came from the screen. It was Mom and Dad!

"King Fluffybuns, wake up!"

You and Frisk chuckled at the tape. Mom and Dad were discussing bad puns about being parents. This was before Asriel was born. You had always wondered what they had been like before then.

The tape ended. Frisk popped in the one labeled two.

Your heart sank as voices came out of the next one.

"Okay Chara," Came Asriel's voice through the monitor. Your heart broke. "You ready? Do the creepy face! AHHHH!"

You heard laughter coming from both of you on the tape.

"Oh shoot," Asriel said, "I left the lens cap on. What?! You won't do it again. Quit tricking me Chara!"

The tape ended. Frisk turned to you, "Aw! You guys sound adorable. Let's watch more."

"N-no," you stammered.

Frisk was puzzled. "Don't you want to see more times you and your brother had."

You hesitated, and in that moment, Frisk popped in the third tape.

"Smile for the camera, Chara!" Asriel's voice poured through the speakers.

Your heart was racing and panic pounded in your skull. No no no no!

"HA! I left the lens cap on! On purpose! You're smiling for no reason!"

"Hey Azzy," You heard your own voice say, "Remember when dad got sick?"

"Oh yeah," Asriel replied, "when we tried to make him a butterscotch pie? And we used buttercups instead of cups of butter? Mom was so mad! I should have laughed if off like you did."

"I laugh when I'm worried," you snapped back on the screen. This was true; handling emotions was not your strong point.

"Why do you bring it up?" Asriel asked.

"Turn off the camera." Your voice quipped on the screen, and the tape ended.

"Frisk," you pleaded, "please stop."

Frisk was confused. "Why? And what were you guys talking about?"

"Frisk, I can't tell you," you begged, "Just stop."

Frisk looked hurt, "I thought we weren't keeping secrets anymore."

Frisk popped in another tape, and yours eyes began to water.

"Chara," Asriel's voice came through the TV, "I don't like this."

"Azzy," you commanded through the camera, and you remembered that you had put on your best older-sibling-comfort voice for this, "big kids don't cry. Remember, we're going to be heroes, just like we would always talk about." You had switched to a feigned-hurt voice, "You aren't doubting me, are you?"

"Y-yeah!" Asriel said, "We'll free everyone! And I could never doubt you Chara. I'll go get the buttercups."

The tape ended, and you were crying. You knew what was next. You cried from the memories, from this sudden confrontation of your past, from the realization that you manipulated your brother into this plan. And when you saw the look of alarm and confusion on Frisk's face, you cried more.

With a shaky hand, Frisk popped in the last tape.

This one, Asriel remembered to take the lens off without mom or dad knowing. It was a shot of you, on your bed, Mom and Dad at your side. You looked away, you had relived this memory in your head enough times.

"Chara, can you hear me?" You heard Mom beg.

"Chara!" Dad said, through tears, "You had to stay determined. You are the future of monsters and humans! You can't give up…"

They walked away sobbing, and Asriel walked up to you, "Psst…Chara…wake up. I don't like this plan anymore."

Your body, on the screen, did not move.

"No," Asriel said to themselves, "I said I'd never doubt you. Six? It was just six? We'll take six human souls, together. And we'll free everyone."

The tape ended.

Silence hung in that room for minutes. You cried and shook, unable to look at Frisk. You wanted them to say something, anything, to let you know they were still there and that it was okay.

But no words came.

Finally, you mustered the courage to look up at them. And the tears came back, because Frisk was looking at you with sad, hurt eyes. Eyes that felt betrayed, and eyes that were scared. It was the same look they had given you days before in the Ruins.

"Frisk…" you sobbed.

Frisk turned and looked at the door. "You lied to me."

"Frisk, no," You begged, but you didn't have any explanation.

"No, what was that?!" Frisk shouted, and you noticed they were holding back tears too. "After all the things I heard about in New Home? And it turns out it wasn't true?!"

"It was…it was our story," you sniffled, lamely.

"Well you sure knew how to tell a good one!" Frisk yelled, quivering, "I certainly believed you were just this poor kid who got sick and…and…"

Frisk was crying, and you knew you messed up.

"Frisk, let me…" you lost the words in your throat.

"You were going to kill six people!" Frisk shouted," You pushed your brother into it. Would you have even stopped at six?"

"I…I don't know." You replied honestly.

Frisk sniffled and rubbed their eyes. "You…you're a monster."

You sobbed. "Frisk, no, please…"

"NO!" Frisk yelled, "you lied to me, you lied to your brother, you're a monster! Look what you did to your poor parents! You put them all through this! You k...you killed yourself and tore them apart! Just...just leave me alone! Go back to your patch of flowers."

You were bawling, for lack of a better term. "No, Frisk, let me explain, please!"

"No. Forget it." Frisk said, and ran out of the room. You got up to chase them, but they were faster than you. You felt the sluggishness creeping up on you, but you tried to push through and ran after them .But outside of the room, Frisk stopped and screamed at you. You had never heard them scream like that before.

"LEAVE ME ALONE, CHARA!"

The haziness over took you, even though you were right by Fisk. You blinked a few times, but could only see blackness around you.

"F-Frisk?" You called out, into nothingness.

After a few moments, you snapped back to Frisk. They were in a battle with a scary monster. There was a scent of lemons around.

Frisk dodged some magic teeth and scowled at you. You could tell they had still been crying. "Get. Out. Of. Here!"

You were sucked back into a black void. "FRISK!" You yelled.

You wandered the black void, crying, calling for your partner. Finally, you were beside them again, but you still felt hazy like you were being sucked back into the void. They were crouching before a large, doglike monster with way too many legs and a hole where its face should have been.

"Frisk," you pleaded, still feeling dizzy from your trips in and out of the void, "I'm sorry. Use…your stick, I think it's a dog."

You grabbed your head. The room felt like it was spinning.

Frisk gave you a concerned look, but then you could almost see them remember their anger. "CHARA, GO AWAY!" They yelled, and dog monster cowered itself.

You slipped back into the void once more. You stumbled around. Frisk. You had to find Frisk. They had to understand. It was all you wanted.

But this was different. No matter how hard you tried, you could not escape the blackness of the voice.

You did not find Frisk. But, someone found you.

"Hello again, child," called a voice from behind you. You whipped around.

"Oh…hey Gaster," you replied, "I don't suppose you could help me find Frisk again, could you?"You were doing your best to hide the sadness in your voice, and failing.

Gaster rubbed his bony chin, "If you were from any other timeline, possibly."

You raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean?"

Gaster let out a low chuckle. "Something terrible has happened to me, child."

You didn't realize it, but that would probably explain why you only ever saw this guy in this black void. "You used to be the Royal Scientist, right? What happened?"

Gaster waved a hand, and a strange bubble of light appeared in front of you. You could see Gaster, with a fully formed skeleton body as opposed to the odd black cloak-like body you saw before you, and he was working on a machine in the CORE. It looked like this was quite some time ago.

Suddenly, a blast from a steam vent knocked the past-Gaster into the abyss far below. The bubble disappeared.

Gaster sighed, "You see, trying to harness the power of the CORE was an endeavor that I was honored to take from his highness. However, I underestimated it's power. You see, the CORE is not only the center of the Underground it is the center of multiple, separate dimensions and timelines."

You blinked. "You're losing me here, Doc."

Gaster laughed, curtly, "What if I told you, for every decision you and Frisk made, there was an alternate universe where you made the opposite decision?"

Your eyes widened. "Whoa. Trippy."

Gaster nodded, "you see, when I fell into the CORE, I was scattered across all time and space. I can see all the possible timelines, I can see all the RESETS, all the choices…all the deaths."

You shivered. You weren't sure if you liked where this was going.

"Do you recall, not long ago, in Snowdin, Frisk let you take control of their body to partake in an ice cream treat with you?" Gaster questioned.

You smiled. The memory made you feel warm inside. "Of course! That was very nice of Frisk. Meant a lot to me."

But Gaster wasn't asking for sentimental reasons. "And what would happen if you hadn't given their body back so easily?"

Another light bubble appeared. You were watching yourself now, in the bubble, sitting in Frisk's body, eating the ice cream. Frisk, now a ghost themselves, was sitting outside their body. This time, when the version of you finished the ice cream. You stood up and stretched. Frisk looked a bit puzzled. Sans walked over, just like he had when you had been there. But before the skeleton could speak, you, in Frisk's body, struck him across the head with gloved hand. Sans, in shock, turned into dust.

"I don't want to see this," you told Gaster, trying to keep your voice from shaking.

"This is but one of the many timelines that run concurrent to this one," Gaster responded.

"But that…" You did your best to find the right words, "That's not me. That's not what happened. I would never do that to Frisk."

Gaster said nothing, but changed the vision in the bubble. You and Frisk were back in the Ruins in this vision. It was your first encounter with the Froggit. This time, Frisk didn't stop you from attacking, and you killed the Froggit in one shot with that branch. Frisk cried out in horror, and you were looking at your own satisfied smirk in the vision.

You shuddered. You had really been an angry ghost, but seeing it from this angle made you really relieved that Frisk had stopped you. Or at least, had in this timeline. So you told Gaster, "But Frisk stopped me!" You brow furrowed, "They showed me….they showed me I was wrong."

Gaster smiled at you, so you continued. "I was wrong when I was so angry as a ghost. It's not the monsters fault for wanting to have hope when I fell."

"Oh?" Gaster asked, "What else were you wrong about, little one."

You bit your lip and answered, "And I was wrong about humans. I never really knew there were good humans…until I met Frisk. What does this have to do with these timelines?"

Gaster changed the vision, "Here's another timeline. This actually continues from the one I just showed you. Here, you never learned your lesson. In this one, you controlled every fight Frisk had. You made them kill every monster you could find."

You shuddered at the thought. You had seen Frisk when they accidentally killed Mom, and worse when they were forced to fight Dad. That would devastate them. "A…all of them?"

Gaster's smiled curved upwards even more. "All of them. The Queen. Undyne. Mettaton. My youngest son, Papyrus. You became so consumed with revenge, young one, that you killed the Underground."

In the vision, Frisk was in the judgment hallway, facing Sans. And this time, Frisk was permanently outside their body, sobbing uncontrollably. You were fully in control, even outside of the fight. Frisk's appearance had even started to resemble yours; they had become paler and their eyes widened a bit to look like yours. Frisk's ghost begged you, but you got into a fight with Sans. Promptly, Sans destroyed you with a combination of blue magic, complicated bone attacks, and weird wave-motion guns. However, you just RESET and kept going.

The whole time in this vision, Frisk was sobbing, and begging you to please go back to the beginning, to please stop. It broke your heart.

"I don't want to see this!" You said, more firmly.

"You must," Gaster snapped.

You watched. It went on for a long time. Sans, tougher than he looked, kept killing you. But you lasted longer every fight. You learned his attack pattern. And every time you came back to life, he became more and more tired.

Finally, you stabbed the small skeleton with a knife, making him erupt into a pool of dust and ketchup. Frisk collapsed to the floor to mourn, and you, in their body, laughed at them.

You shook, angry with this alternate version of you.

"Why do I need to see this?!" You yelled, holding back tears of your own. "I wouldn't do that to Frisk! They're…they're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"You see child," Gaster explained, "there are only two timelines where I can not see how they end. The one I just showed you…"

Gaster made the bubble vanish and finished, "and the one you hale from."

"Then mine is the true timeline," you insisted, "because I've learned. That's not who I am."

Gaster gave you an odd, somewhat scary smile. "I want to believe that. But even in this timeline, you've managed to betray Frisk, haven't you?"

You looked to your feet, ashamed. "I shouldn't have lied to them, no. But," You loo clenched your fist and grit your teeth to the scientist, "I can't give up yet. If Frisk can be this determined to save everyone, I'm determined I can get them to hear me out. Maybe they won't forget me, but they'll know why I was the way I used to be, and know how much I care for them."

Gaster clapped his hands together. "Well then, you have work to do, don't you?"

You could fell yourself leaving the void. But you looked to Gaster, with a raised eyebrow. "Why are you helping me?"

Gaster gave you a smile…but something about it made you feel cold inside. "Oh…you will understand in time, child."

You blinked a few times and found yourself back in the lab, once again. Frisk was back in the lab, back to the wall as amalgations were approaching them. They didn't see that they were about to back into one as well.

"Frisk look out!" You shouted, running up to them . They were surprised to see you, but before they could dodge, you heard Alphys' voice yell out from the door way, and the lights kicked on, "HEY! I brought you guys some food, calm down!"

Alphys was carrying a half-full bag of dog food. The amalgations immediately ran off back into the lab, to your surprise.

"So uh…" Alphys stammered, "I see you've found out the truth."

The choice of words seemed almost a little ironic. Frisk nodded, avoiding looking at you.

"I…I'm sorry about all of this, Frisk." Alphys said with a sigh. "I'm going to stop lying. I mean I'm not worried about these guys, they're harmless."

Frisk raised their eyebrows but said nothing. You don't blame them; Alphys had something of an odd definition of harmless.

"I have friends, and they… they deserve to know the truth." Alphys frowned and left the lab.

After some awkward silence, Frisk walked past you without saying a word. "Frisk, I'm sorry too," you started, but they didn't stop walking. Before you could say anything else, their phone rings.

No name pops up, and an odd string of numbers is the only thing on the phone screen. Possibly because Frisk doesn't know how to read the word, "unknown," they answered, "Hello?"

"Chara!" The voice on the receiver said, ecstatically, making both of you jump. "I'm going to see you soon. I can't wait!"

The receiver clicks. The voice seemed a bit familiar, but you couldn't place your finger on it, so you shrugged when Frisk gave you a questioning look. Frisk went to stop onto the elevator, but you reach out and grab their hand, surprising the both of you.

"Frisk," You said, "I'm sorry I lied to you. I knew that I've done some terrible things, and I was worried that if you knew about the type of person I was, you wouldn't like me anymore. You're the only human friend I've ever had and," you turned a deep crimson, but you didn't let that stop you, "I care about you so much."

Frisk turned a bit pink themselves. "I understand, but I just want to know why. Why would you give up such a wonderful family?"

You gulped. There was no turning back. "You might want to sit down. Because the only way I can tell you is if I tell you why I jumped into the mountain in the first place."

Their eyes widened, but they nodded and respectfully sat against the wall. To your relief, they patted the ground next to them, and you sat down too.

'Once upon a time…"