Half-Tale: The Fallen

Characters are not mine. Half-Life and Adrian Shephard belong to Valve Corporation, and Undertale and Chara Dreemurr belong to Toby Fox. Please support the official releases.

Chapter 4 – Strange Encounters

Take it slow.


They were met with a rather unorthodox looking room, with the wall acting as a barrier almost crossing into the middle of the room but was stopped just short; there lied a posse of red flowers. On the red flowers lied something translucent.

Something akin to a traditional ghost.

"For real?" Adrian thought. He lifted his head up very slightly, his eyes still pinpointed on the ghost. "Now there's a ghost, I think."

"ZzZzZzZz…"

"And… he's sleeping…?"

"ZzZzZzZz…" a translucent, traditional ghost-like apparition continued to vocalise as they lied on the aforementioned red flowers. "ZzZzZzZz..."

Adrian lowered his head and turned to Chara and whispered. "Is he… is he saying the letter Z a bunch of times?"

Chara nodded, whispering back. "Yeah… They tend to do that to hide the fact that they're visible and stuff."

"They? I only see… Huh, yeah. Alright."

Chara floated over to where the ghost was, hovering above them as she puts her hands on her hips. "Hey, Napstablook! Time to get up, buddy."

"ZzZz… hum?"

The ghost's vocalisations cease.

"oh, chara?" Napstablook said in a monotonous tone, reorienting themselves to a proper upright position. They hovered ever so slightly over the ground. "you're looking a lot older than the last time i saw you. how long has it been?"

"Eh…" Chara tilted her head side to side for a second to indicate thought. "Last time you saw me, I was 15. Been a while since then. How's life? No snail races up right now in Waterfall? How's your cousin?"

"…no… i like coming here sometimes because it's really peaceful and quiet this side of the underground," Napstablook replied quickly, yet sombrely. "…especially when undyne is 'cooking' with papyrus over at her house; i find it really hard to listen to my music."

"…but you wouldn't know about papyrus; you should know about undyne, though," Napstablook continued. "and i… don't want to talk about my cousin."

The ghost turned to Adrian, changing the tone of the topic. "…who's this?"

"This is, ahem, Corporal Adrian Shephard! He's, eh… He's a soldier."

"I don't give out my name just to anyone, Chara," Adrian sighed. He didn't really mind all that much, but he would've preferred to give it himself. "…but yeah. Corporal Adrian Shephard, at your service."

"…a soldier, hm? like gerson?"

"You can say that, I guess. Think more modern, though," Chara nodded. "Anyways, we would appreciate it if you were to move out of the way. We'll meet up with you later in Waterfall."

"oh… am i in your way…? i'm sorry… it is nice to see you again, chara, and it's nice to meet you, adrian."

"Pleasure to meet you too, Napstablook."

The apparition then spontaneously dematerialised into nothingness, likely reappearing elsewhere in the Underground. Adrian tilted his head in curiosity, having several questions regarding what just happened, before he moved on, so he questioned Chara.

"Huh…" Adrian began. "Waterfall? Snail race? Undyne? Papyrus?"

"Eh…"

Adrian was naturally unfamiliar with whatever these meant to him. But another thing stood out. "…How old are you exactly?"

He initially assumed she was near his age, seeing her demeanour and outward appearance, but he wasn't sure exactly. She said she was 15 years old 'a while ago'; how long would it have been since then, he wondered.

"Isn't it rude to ask for a woman's age?" Chara folded her arms, refusing to give him an answer. "…I'm not just going to tell you… 'Not right now, anyways', like you said. I am not a teenager anymore, though, if that's what you're wondering."

"Right right, fair enough," Adrian shrugged. Knowing this kind of specific information wasn't absolutely top priority for him, but he felt relieved knowing that she wasn't a teenager at the very least. Not that he was going to pull anything anyways. He shook these thoughts out of his head. "Okay, let's go."

Right as he figured that he would take a left to proceed but was stopped by a translucent hand stopping him. "Hm?"

"Hold up, don't take a left here yet."

Adrian nodded. "Huh… alright. Just forward?"

"Nowhere else to go otherwise, Corp."

"Right."


"Huh?"

Adrian and Chara advanced forwards rather than taking the left Adrian initially suggested he'd take, as per Chara's suggestion. Without hesitation, Adrian stepped forward into the room. They were met with a relatively small rectangular room that left much to be desired in terms of spaciousness. However, that doesn't mean it was empty.

The duo witnessed a little shop-esque area. There was a sign in the middle of the room with two cobwebs, both differing in size, plastered on between the wall and the floor. The left web was much smaller than the right one, perhaps approximately half the rights' size.

Adrian put his hands on his waist and turned towards Chara, who was floating next to him. "What did you want to show me?"

Chara floated to the sign and pressed her elbow on it, pretending she could lean on it. "Read the sign."

Adrian walked up to said sign and read it out loud. "Hm… 'Come eat food made by spiders, of spiders, and for spiders!" He tilted his head curiously. "…Spider food? You want me to buy… food made by spiders, for spiders, and of spiders?"

Chara nodded, only smiling blankly. "Yes, I want you to buy the spider food that is made by spiders, for spiders, and of spiders."

"Uh…"

"How much gold do you have on you again?"

Adrian felt like he should continue this line of questioning, but he decided not to. He ruffled through his gold pockets, as he decided to call a select amount of his pockets on his vest when he started picking up the gold from the enemies, if you can call them that, he faced. He counted them up. "About… 50, I think? Something like that."

"Alright," Chara clasped her hands together, suspending herself in mid-air once again. She floated in-between both of the spider webs. She's been through this song and dance a million times, so she knows precisely why this is important. "Go and buy one of each."

"Uh-huh…" Adrian sighed. He figured himself to be asking a lot of questions, and he was tired of getting some strange or vague response from Chara. So, just this once, he decided to not question it. "Sure, okay."

He walked to the smallest web and kneeled down. Not knowing what he's doing nor who he's supposed to give his gold to, he turned back to Chara, who still had that smile on her face, ushering him to go through with it.

Not a moment after, a spider emerged from a crack in the wall above the web with a little sign that somehow had visible words on it, saying 'Spider Donut – 7 G'. Adrian huffed and counted the required amount in his hands and left them in the web. Another spider appeared from the same crack in the wall with a normal, plain looking donut that was regular sized.

"You would think that they would be smaller…"

"You would think that they would be smaller…"

The spider handed Adrian the donut, of which he took, but he turned around, confused.

"What?" Chara folded her arms. "I could tell what you're thinking."

"…You can't read minds, can you?"

"No, but it's kind of obvious sometimes."

"…Right."

Adrian then went to the other –larger– web and repeated the same process: he knelt down, waited for a spider to appear, of which instead held a sign that said, 'Spider Cider – 18 G', paid the amount needed, another spider showed up with the cider, and handed it to Adrian.

He took a little baggie from one of his vest pockets and sealed the spider cider, placing it into its proper receptable. He decided that he would eat the donut there; he hadn't eaten in a while, so it wasn't such a terrible idea. He went to pull up his mask ever so slightly to take a bite before he was stopped.

"Hold on," Chara floated over to Adrian, pointing back to the smaller web. "If you're going to eat one, then you should get another."

"…What? Why?"

"Trust me, it'll be super important later. Might even save your life."

"That sounds… ominous. What does that even mean?"

"You'll see, Corp."

"Okay, stop. That's the second time you've told me that. Can you at least tell me what you're talking about?"

"I like being vague. What, can't handle a little ambiguity?"

"Not if I'm being blindly led into the damn unknown."

"It's not like I know everything."

"That right there isn't making me trust you any more than normal, Chara."

"Yeah, well, you aren't the only one."

"Is that so?"

The tension in the air quickly rose between the two, a certain heat building, as impossible as it should be. Even the spiders, who somehow sensed the tension between an invisible force to them and Adrian, cowered back into their little cracks on the wall, abandoning their position for a time. The air was palpable.

Chara was tired of arguing back and forth like this, and it only damaged whatever trust they had in each other, which she didn't want. If she was going to prevent whatever happened to Frisk from happening to Adrian, then she had to avert from arguments like this. But it was difficult.

Adrian was similarly tired of arguing as well. Right as he began to start trusting Chara more, something pops up that he feels the need to comment on. Even if it was justified, he couldn't just keep handling the situations like this. But it was difficult.

They only stared at each other until one of them decided to speak up.

"…Adrian. Just trust me on this one. I'm not leading you to your doom or anything like that. I promise you. I'm not going to pull anything that is going to intentionally hurt you."

Chara said this with conviction, her sharp, red eyes beaming. She was actively trying to bury her fleeting hatred for humanity; every word in that sentence was truthful. Thus far, to her, Adrian wasn't the kind of human she was expecting to see the next time she saw one. But still; it's too early to tell for sure right now. But she thought that she'd give him a chance, and he hasn't destroyed it yet.

Adrian relented. This back-and-forth argument, he knew, was leading them nowhere. This was likely something that would be revisited sometime in the future, but for right now, it was pointless to continue pursuing it. Especially since he wishes to maintain a good relationship with his tether, he supposed.

"Okay okay, fine. I'll buy another damn donut."

Chara smiled. "Thank you."

"Yeah yeah…" Adrian grumbled under his breath going through the exact same process to purchase another spider donut. Afterwards, he returned to Chara, recounting his gold count. "Down to 18 G. Not like I was using it for anything anyways."

Adrian briefly pulled up his gas mask and took a bite out of the donut, keeping the mask raised for a bit while he ate the donut. It tasted surprisingly good for a donut supposedly made by spiders, of spiders, and for spiders. It was something akin to a sprinkled frosted donut, his favourite kind, contrasting its plain appearance.

The marine's eyes raised upwards to meet Chara's very keen red eyes, bringing his gas mask back down and storing the donut in another little bag for later consumption. "Uh… Do you mind?"

Chara pouted. "You constantly wearing a gas mask is making me curious. Hiding an embarrassing scar? Maybe a birthmark?" Chara curiously floated around Adrian, squinting her eyes. Even she wasn't sure why she was so adamant on knowing what her tether fully looks like.

Adrian sighed. "I-"

"Hmph… never mind," Chara sighed. She waved her hand, retreating from Adrian. She had a very slight saddened expression on her face. "I should probably start bothering you on that."

Adrian made up an excuse earlier on why he continued to wear his gas mask. To be truthful to himself, not even he knew completely why. He even made an excuse internally as well, to convince himself from taking it off. Maybe it was a reaction to the constant combat; an indication that he's still fighting for his life.

Naturally, he knew that he wasn't in that much danger anymore, at least not for the time being. But he hasn't really had the chance to relax yet. Maybe that's why, he thought.

Adrian stood silent for a moment, pausing all movements.

"Tell you what, Chara. I'll show you later, when we get to some kind of rest point or something, I promise you that. To be honest, there's not much of a point to keeping the gas mask on like this anyways."

Chara's expression lit up. "Really? Why not now?"

"Like you said, what's wrong with a little… ambiguity?"

"Ha-ha. Funny."

Adrian unconsciously smiled underneath his gas mask. "Alright, let's get moving. There can't be that much more to the RUINS, right?"

Chara snickered. "You'd be surprised, Corp."


"The donuts aren't actually made of spiders, by the way."

"I figured that. Didn't taste like it."

"Mhm. Wish I could have one; it tastes like my favourite kind of donut."

"…Really? What would that be?"

"Sprinkled frosted donuts, obvi."

"Oh wow. That's funny."

"What is?"

"That happens to be my favourite kind too."

"Seriously? I never pegged you as the type."

"There's a lot you don't know about me yet."

"Yet, hmm?"

"Yeah, just like how there's a lot I don't know about you yet."

"I guess you're right. Hey, we should go for donuts sometime if I were to ever become corporeal again."

"I'm down for that."

The duo found themselves in a rather lengthy hallway; although it was not nearly as long as the one they encountered earlier, it still gave them a little reprieve between the various puzzles that littered the RUINS. This especially reminded Adrian of one of the brief moments of clarity he was able to grasp to collect his thoughts.

…this also reminded Chara personally of some of the brief moments where Frisk took a break from their relentless crusade of death and destruction.

Chara found herself strangely enjoying Adrian's company; at least, more than she thought she should. But it's not something that she also found herself not minding that much as well. At times, she's even forgotten her dislike of humanity. As if she was unconsciously changing her own mind without proper confrontation of the issue.

She knows it's something she will have to address at some point, especially since she's going to be tethered to Adrian, at least for a while. But it's not her absolute primary goal right now. Some fun wouldn't be such a bad thing, and Adrian, as it so happens, isn't such a bad person to be around.

She floated alongside the marine, sneaking brief glances at his mask. She admits that she is excited to see what he looked like. That way, she could actually put a face to her new tether. All this time, she's only been able to see his chin and sometimes, when the lighting is his right, his eyes through the gas mask.

…but it was becoming increasingly annoying to her that's all she could really see. Chara prided herself in her ability to read people, and Adrian having that mask on was a definite hinderance in that. That wasn't the only reason why she wanted to see his face, however.

She would never admit what the other reason was, though.

"That's a… dead-looking tree."

Chara found herself lost in her thoughts again, just like before. They were already at Toriel's house. "I spaced out again. If you said something else to me in the past 5 minutes, I probably… no, definitely wasn't paying attention."

"Don't worry about it. Other than what we were talking about, with the donuts and all, I didn't say anything else," Adrian raised his head up ever so slightly. "Okay, I'm guessing that's Toriel's house up ahead. Is there anything you want to show me or anything before we meet back up with her?"

"…Actually, yeah. There is."

"Figured."

"Turn back and take a left," Chara said simply, smiling. She stopped floating so she could walk side by side with Adrian, rather than float. She hadn't realised it before, as she constantly floated but she is notably a lot shorter than Adrian.

"Got it."

The pair took a sharp turn backwards, following Chara's directions. Adrian had finally come to terms with the fact that he knew absolutely nothing about the Underground, so he'd be forced to rely on Chara for this at the very least. There hasn't been a reason to distrust her yet, though, other than her tricking him into falling into a trap… but he doesn't know the big picture yet, so he couldn't be too careful.

In any case, he's determined to continue.

He turned a corner, Chara repositioning herself into a close follow, and proceeded forward into a short hallway that led into a doorway. That doorway led into an opening, and, to Adrian, it's as if there was some semblance of a light at the end of the tunnel. But then he saw it.

The True RUINS.

Old Home.

Adrian rushed towards the ledge, grasping his hands on the purple, stone railing that acted as a safeguard. At that moment, he heavily considered ripping his gas mask off and witnessing this view with pure, unfiltered eyes, but he remembered his promise. So, he had to refrain; instead, he rested his arms on the railing and only stared.

He tilted his head slightly towards Chara's direction.

"My God… you weren't kidding, Chara."

"What, that you'd be surprised that there's more to the RUINS? I knew all along."

"But I… I mean… This is…"

"Beautiful?"

Adrian turned his head to look at Chara fully, his blue eyes being clearly visible through his lens. "Yeah… beautiful."

Chara's permanent blush on her face reddened ever so slightly as she continued looking into his eyes. For the first time in a long time, if not forever, she felt her 'heart' skip a beat. She doesn't have a heart; she is dead. Why she felt where her heart should be tighten for a second, she had no idea. The feeling was indescribable.

…but she pushed these thoughts to the back of her head. Chara wanted to enjoy the moment while it lasted.

The both of them then returned their gaze to the endless chasm and structures of Old Home.

Adrian hadn't been able to get such a break like this in a very long time. To just stare into a collection of gargantuan structures and buildings like this… he hasn't been a marine for very long, maybe 4 years of service from when he was able to. Such sights like these could be considered anomalies for him to witness.

So, whenever it did happen, it was an absolute spectacle. And after the day he just went through, he really needed it.

Something stange happened, though. His eyes graze upon a slight discolouration of pigments that contrasted against the other colours. He didn't dart his eyes directly towards it right away, keeping it in his peripheral vision so he could get a gauge on what it is.

It was slightly blue. Maybe a hint of black.

"For fuck's sake."

A figure resembling a man in a blue suit far out in the distance could be seen directly in his peripheral vision.

"Of course. Why wouldn't he be watching? I let myself forget. Damn it."

In an instant, Adrian darted his eyes to get a better look at the man, but as soon as he did, the man disappeared into the eternal sheen of purple that decorated the entire chasm. It was almost as if he wasn't there at all; Adrian briefly contemplated his sanity, drawing it up to anxiety, but how likely was that?

If he were to guess, though, he would say that the G-Man's observation of him would be limited. Adrian remembered when the G-Man mentioned how he was constantly preoccupied with… something, but, like pretty much everything that had happened to him in the past day, he couldn't be absolutely sure yet.

It didn't change the fact that it was out of his control.

He gripped his hands slightly tighter on the railing.

Chara quickly took notice of this. "You okay? You look a little… tense, Corp."

Adrian snapped out of his overbearing thoughts upon hearing Chara's voice, instinctively lessening his grip as he turned his head back to Chara. "Yeah… yeah, I'm O.K. It's just that I haven't seen anything like this in so long."

"Well, don't get used to it. There are only a couple other places down here I can think of that have a sight that eclipses this one," Chara leaned on the edge of the railing as well, keeping her gaze on Adrian. "When I was alive, this place was bustling and teeming with life. Now… it's mostly abandoned in favour for the colonization of further parts in the Underground."

"I see… So I should expect to see more monsters as we go on compared to here?"

"Yup."

Adrian chuckled, leaning off of the railing. "Alright, ready to go?"

"…Can we stay here for a little while longer?"

Underneath his gas mask, Adrian smiled, leaning on the railing again.

"Sure."

They continued to gaze at OLD HOME.


(A/N)

Aw-right, here's the 'second part' to chapter 3. Again, I decided to split it so that I can properly have each section of this story ordered (although some later parts may break that). So, this chapter seems a little short; I would just see this chapter as chapter 3 but split in half, reading this and that back-to-back.

I don't really have anything else to say about that.

Hopefully the next chapter will not take nearly as long as before. I'll see y'all in the next chapter!