Footsteps crunched behind her on the snow. Instinctively, her knuckles tightened on the stick, and Chara noticed a change within her. Frisk stood straighter and held their head higher. Her grip on the weapon went from knife-like to carefree, twirling it in her hand.

"Frisk?" Chara patted her shoulder, wary of the change. Something had shifted. The body, the SOUL he had hoped to possess had shifted, but within a blink. She was back to smiling at Chara.

"Human, Don't you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around, and shake my hand."

Frisk turned and took the offered hand, something squished under her palm and made a fart sound. She scrunched up her nose in disgust as the man -No, skeleton- began speaking again.

"Hehehe, the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick, It's always funny… That's uh… your cue to laugh or uh. To emote at all….?" The skeleton shook it's head and mumbled something under his breath. "Gee.. lady you really know how to pick em, huh?" The skeleton looked back up. "OK! That's fine. Everyone's got their own sense of humor. I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton. I'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now, but uh. Y'know I really don't care about capturing anybody. My brother Papyrus though, he's a human hunting FANATIC. Hey actually. I think that's him over there. I have an idea. Go through this gate thingy. Yeah go right through. My bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone. Quick! Behind that conveniently shaped lamp."

That thing flickered again in Frisk, and she planted her feet in the snow.

"Uhh.. okay. I guess you don't have to."

"SANS! HAVE YOU FOUND A HUMAN YET?!"

"Yeah."

"REALLY!? WOWIE! GUESS THAT'S SETTLED!"

The taller skeleton turned and left.

"Uh.. that worked out, huh?"

Chara took Frisk's hand and began to lead them onword, but as they passed the sentry station the smaller skeleton -Sans- spoke again.

"Well, I'll be straight-forward with ya. My brother'd really like to see a human, So y'know. It'd really help me out if you kept pretending to be one. "

Chara grinned and whispered a number to Frisk as they crushed a small glowing light in their hands.

"16 left."

They walked forward together. Snowdrake blocks the way and two thwacks from their stick left dust in their wake.

"15."

The two brothers were chatting up ahead.

"SO SANS! WHEN'S THE HUMAN SHOWING UP? I WANT TO LOOK MY SUNDAY BEST.. OR AT LEAST MY TUESDAY PRETTY-GOOD!"

"don't you only have one outfit?"

"YEAH, BUT I COULD STYLE MY HAIR!"

"Oh right. Good idea. Say why don't you look over there?"

Chara watched the two brothers look over at him in Frisk's form and then back at each other for what felt like several seconds.

"SANS! OH MY GOD! I'M DIZZY. WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?!"

"Behold."

"OH MY GOD! WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME TO LOOK AT A ROCK"

"Hey, what's that in front of the rock?"

"OH MY GOD! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS!"

"Well, it's not a rock."

"NOT A ROCK….? OH NO! BY PROCESS OF ELIMINATION THAT MEANS ITS A HUMAN! AHEM! HUMAN! PREPARE YOURSELF FOR HIGH JINKS! FOR LOW JINKS! DANGERS! PUZZLES! CAPERS! JAPERS! BEING CAPTURED AND OTHER SORTS OF FUN ACTIVITIES! REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"

Papyrus ran to prepare his puzzles and Sans turned an accusing grin towards Chara.

"And you don't even bat an eye huh?" before he walked after his brother.

Chara flexed his hands, possession was a lot easier than he thought it would be. However something at the back of Frisk's mind was bothering him. It was something dark, darker than Chara's own soul, and it made him jealous. What darkness could this be? He always hated puzzles.

Something lept in his path and he shattered it with the stick, pausing only to collect the gold it had dropped, and he walked, until he came up on a sentry station and a dog-creature poked it's head out and began to speak.

"Did- did something move? Was it my imagination? I can only see moving things… Hey..! I can't stop shivering all of a sudden… who's there!?"

Frisk always hated dogs, so it was easy for Chara to guide her hand to fight, in fact. It only got easier as more and more of his hatred swallowed her whole, they walked and fought as one. Only dust and a melted snowman left in their wake.

The grating voices of Sans and Papyrus met their ears, but Chara didn't care enough to listen, Frisk did though.

"OH- HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE QUITE SHOCKING! FOR YOU SEE THIS IS THE….. INVISIBLE….."

Chara walked forward.

"UUHHHHH…. HMMMM YOU MUST BE HAVING CULTURE SHOCK, YOU SEE WHERE i COME FROM. IT'S A LOVING TRADITION TO SUFFER THROUGH HORRIBLE PUZZLES FOR NO REASON SO-"

Chara walked forward again.

"SO UH… JUST WALK BACK THERE AND-" he sighed. "WHY COULDN'T WE GET A HUMAN THAT LIKES PUZZLES?"

Papyrus walked away sadly, and Sans once again turned accusingly toward Chara, though he didn't say anything.

They walked forward together, Chara and Frisk, until they came across the brothers again.

"HUMAN! I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR- SANS. WHERE'S THE PUZZLE."

"It's right there. On the ground. Trust me, there's no way they'll skip this one."

Chara walked forward. Straight over the sheet of paper on the ground.
"SANS! THAT DID NOTHING!"

"Whoops. Knew I should've put down junior jumble instead."

"WHAT? JUNIOR JUMBLE? FINALLY SOMETHING WE CAN BOTH AGREE ON."

Chara walked again, until they came across a plate of frozen spaghetti. He picked up the golden star in Frisk's hands and crushed it.

"10 left."

More dogs got in the way, more monsters slaughtered. Until once again… the skeleton brothers block the way.

"HEY! YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT!-"

Chara walked forward.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS. SANS! HELP! THEY KEEP WALKING THROUGH MY PUZZLES! THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO LET ME EXPLAIN THEM, THEN THREATEN AND BAFFLE THEM WITH DANGEROUS JAPES!"

"Well.. maybe they don't like japes."

"EVERYONE LIKES JAPES!"

"What about Undyne? Doesn't she hate puzzles?"

"SHE HATES PUZZLES BUT SHE LOVES JAPES!"

"That makes sense."

"HUMAN! WHAT DO YOU THINK? PUZZLES OR JAPES?"

Silence.

"OKAY, THIS IS NORMALLY THE PART WHERE YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE, AND DEPENDING ON YOUR ANSWER WE SAY SOMETHING GREAT IN RESPONSE."

Silence.

"HERE WHY DON'T YOU DO THIS PUZZLE YOURSELF." Papyrus left the instructions next to the box and walked away.

"6 left." Chara whispered to himself, pleased.

More monsters struck down, before once again they found themself facing the brothers across wooden bridge.

"HUMAN! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD!" As Papyrus says 'behold', multiple cannons and swinging blades appear "THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR! WHEN I SAY THE WORD IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN! ARE YOU READY? BECAUSE i AM ABOUT TO DO IT!"

Silence.

Sans turned and looked at his brother. "Well, what's the holdup?"

"HOLDUP? WHAT HOLDUP? I'M… I'M ABOUT TO ACTIVATE IT NOW!"

Silence.

A voice in the back of Frisk's mind whispered "Coward~", Chara smiled in agreement.

"That uh.. That doesn't look very activated."

"WELL! THEY'RE PROBABLY GOING TO WALK THROUGH IT, AND IT WON'T BE ANY FUN AT ALL!"

"Hmm.. so this human thing was a bust, huh?"

"WELL I MEAN, I'M EXCITED TO CAPTURE THEM, SO I'LL BECOME A FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN! BUT ALL THE TIME I PUT INTO THESE PUZZLES… IT'S KIND OF LIKE THROWING A BIRTHDAY PARTY"

"Without traps and fire?"

"EXACTLY! IT'S POINTLESS! MAYBE YOU WERE RIGHT TO BE LAZY ABOUT PUZZLES"

"Me right about something? Really?"

"YEAH, WHAT AM I SAYING! YOU'RE STILL COMPLETELY WRONG. I JUST HAVE THE WRONG AUDIENCE. THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH FUN UNDYNE WOULD HAVE HERE. FLAMES. VIOLENCE. IT'S RIGHT UP HER ALLEY. SO I WON'T WASTE THIS PUZZLE ON YOU. I JUST HAVE TO APPRECIATE THE FRIEND I ALREADY HAVE."

The puzzle went away.

"PHEW. A VALUABLE LIFE LESSON. NYEH HEH HEH"

Papyrus left, so Chara kept walking, into what should have been a bustling town, but only one person remained. A small monster child, who ran up to Chara and began to talk their head off about how dumb adults were and that "Undyne" would protect them all.

Chara rolled their eyes and kept walking.