One Simple World

Chapter 7: Broken Simply

Frisk's Point of View:

I couldn't believe it... I couldn't... It wasn't real...

But it was...

Against all the odds, Chara was still able to beat people that she had attacked. The family of fire people that she killed, though sustained many wounds from. She was able to handle most of them, but our cheeks were burned along with our side. She had only moments to heal what she could before a massive amount of guardsmen came running to the building. She was able to take out a handful of them, but the more powerfulones she did some damage to, but wasn't able to kill them.

She had to run.

Into the houses she flew, back into homes that she'd already killed the occupants from before. She changed out of our clothes. Cleaned ourselfup, and hurried out to the woods to avoid the guard searching for us.

Granted, the damage was already done that Chara had enacted. People knew she was there. I could hear alarms sounding all around the town and from a distance, the handfuls of people that hadn't been killed by Chara. They walked away in droves while Chara watched from a nearby hill just outside of the woods away from where the guards were looking.

She managed to find white clothes to blend in with the snow. We could see as the people left town a storm began to come in. Snow was beginning to fall from the western part of the region moving east. The town would be covered by the entirety of said storm within an hour. Things were changing rapidly, and it wouldn't be long before we were caught as the guards patrolled the town and the pathway to the next area.

It was going to be hell for Chara to get to anyone. The entire underground should have been on high alert compared to only a couple hours ago.

I'm so glad that no one is going to get hurt by you anymore...

That's what you think, Francine.Chara's voice was sharp in my mind as she looked narrowlyat the area, surveying for guards that may try to explore or look for her. Perhaps I can't do as much as I had before, but there will still be people to kill for a soul. Not all the guards would have left yet, nor would they have given up in their search. Perhaps I'm known, but this won't stop me.

Yeah right, you and I both know that this sets you back a shit ton, Princess! With people gone, your chances of getting a soul have really shot down!I couldn't help but giggle in the back of our mind as I'm sure Chara was scowling if she could have at me. Awe... is someone getting mad that they aren't getting their way?

Shut up, you insufferablechild.

Last I knew, you couldn't make me. So-And I blew a raspberry at her in our minds.

I felt the rage build up from below. Did you... honestly... just do that...?

Nah, nah, na na nah, nah! Fuck you, bitch!

My lord... do you ever stop?

I dunno... are you gonna? That's about the only thing that's gonna stop me from being the most horrible pain in your ass.

The girl sighed, her frustration highly evident as she stood there, still watching the scene before us. I couldn't say how relievedI was that things weren't working out for her. I could just hope that everyone got away from us and that she couldn't hurt anyone else.

I felt my heartbeat pick up at the sound of boots crunching against the snow. Chara was quick to her feet. One of her knives already hidden behind her back ready in attack to whoever dared to come close enough. Our shared eyes looked together to find the lonefigure who'd managed to find us.

"Oh my goodness! It's thelittle human I've been looking for!"

My heart sank at that comment while Chara and I fought for control over the matter. I could see that of a tall lanky skeleton who approachedus, partially hidden by the snow while he stood there in some sort of goofy armor on himself. His eye sockets glowed a bright orange color in their eagerness of findingus. I could see the skeleton, who sounded and appeared male, jumping in his place near us.

"Oh Miss Angel and Sans will be so happy to hear that you're safe! But we must move! There is a killer out and about! We must move quickly."

One of his gloved hands came in close to us and it was clear to both Chara and me that he had no idea it was us that were the killer of so many people. And that was something that made her internally smile so deeply. I could almost see it in the back of my mind, like a cheshirecat. The eeriegrin that couldn't be contained...

"Y-you found my sister?" Chara of courseused my voice to softly call out to the lanky monster before us. "She's alive?"

No! Shut up! Fuck you!

But that made me think as well as I continued to hurl insults at her, trying to trip her up. My sister... Angel... she actually was alive? She made it? She wasn'tdead? This monster knewher?

Oh my God... what have I done...?

I had to find her... she would be the only one who could save me... or stop me...

"Yes! I know her! We found her and healed her right back up to full health! Come! Come! She's with the rest of the evacueesat the tunnel entrance!"

Shit...

Chara couldn't help but curse at that. Knowing that they were past the point of where other guards were waiting for us and got a semi-good look at her, she would be massacred at the gate if she tried to approach, even with a skeleton companionguiding her.

I had to get some kind of information out!

Oh no you don't, Francine. Chara made sure to scold me from the back of our mind. The last thing we need is you ruining this chance of killing this idiot who dared approach us. Too sweet for his own good. Too kind. Just like-

But she cut herself off, a powerful surge of memories came from her heart. Something I wasn't expecting to see. Something even she wasn't planning on remembering. But for those few split seconds, she had no control as the face of some monster kid came into her mind of some goat boy. Fluffy white fur, a beaming smile, red eyes looking back that reminded me of the color of strawberries...

But then... there were flashes of memories that I couldn't quite put together... yellow flowers... that boy crying... I watched through blurry memories as he reached out into Chara's chest and pulled out something deep red... did he take her soul?

I don't have time to learn this bullshit!

Learning about Chara would happen regardless as our memories and minds merged... I had to save this guy... before he got hurt...

Thinking fast, I felt over my body to see what control I had. My fingers flexed, my legs moved, Icould feel the movement in my face as I breathed and sucked in a large breath.

And smacked away the friendly hand before me.

"You need to run away! We're the killer! An evil spirit is possessing me! I need Angel to save me or kill me!" The entire world froze while I backed away from him, trying to hide myself in the trees. "Go! Run! Tell Angel what happened to me! Don't let me hurt anyone else! Don't let Chara-"

That's enough, Francine.

My body no longer listened as she was back in control. Like a puppet, I was once more on strings, no longer able to act as I wished. My puppeteerheld the reins to my body.

That's quite unfair. Taking advantage of me while I was having a moment... how cruel. And spilling the beans... now I most certainly have to kill him.

The skeleton jumped back to his feet watching us, seeing the change in our behavior, and even more so when Chara brought forward the red knife in her hands. It glowed brightly against her face, as she gave him that of a sweet smile.

"I'm sorry for startling you Mr. Skeleton, but even you must be smart enough to realize what's going on now, don't you?"

But before Chara could dart forward, she barely got her footwork set before a heavy feeling settled over us. Our souls were yanked from our chests, where this skeleton could see the two souls attached to one another that were coated in blue and slammed into the snow. Our faces felt cold against the white substancewhile the skeleton shook and shivered above us.

"I can't believe it... Little Frisk..." The skeleton kneeled before us while his magic held us in place, his eye lights glowing brightly. They were so warm while they watched us with what Chara regarded as pity. It truly made him sad to see us in this state while she fought against him. "I... you must be suffering so much... Miss Angel will surely be so distraught..."

The male paused to pull out his cellphone. He was good about making sure to keep his eye lights on us. He didn't look away even for a moment until his phone beeped at him. I could only guess he was trying to make a phone call but was unable to get through. He let out something close to a swear, but not quite one other than his irritated tone while he took care of us.

Then I was surprised when I felt the ground shift around me. Even Chara was startled as we were lifted from the ground and held in the air by a cage of bones. It was a struggle just to lift my head to look at him. Even with Chara trying to control, she couldn't do it either. We both fell flat against the base, a pile of limbs just unable to move.

"I will take you to them." He commented after some time. "Bear with this a bit longer, I will get you help."

And we were off. Hebegan to match ahead with his phone out, attempting to contact either my sister or this 'Sans' he mentioned earlier. A friend I guessed? It was all I could think of while we were being led slowly down the path. Granted, that skeleton kept a solid eye on us as he moved. We were moved to float in the area just before him so he could watch us out of the cornerof his eye while focusing on his footing. I wasn't sure how deep the snow was, but I figured with the unique way he was walking that he knew far better than we did of the hidden pockets of snow around.

Well, this is going to go well...Chara huffed while I could see her testing our muscles under the strength of the magic of that skeleton.

It is, finally, you're gonna get what's coming to you, Princess.I couldn't help but sing my victories at that point. Someone who knew my sister, someone who was willing to help me. Maybe I could get rid of this bitch yet?

Don't be too eager to say you're the winner, Francine. Chara made sure to whisper those words as if they were hauntingly behind my ear. I'm still here, and I'm not going anywhere any time soon.

Fuck you! You lied about my sister! I didn't kill her! She's alive and looking for me!

Alive in the monster kingdom? I doubt it will be for long. Don't you know that there's a law out for any and all humans to be brought to the king to die?I could hear the smirk in her voice. It's to save the monster people and free them. They need a total of seven human souls to be free, and they already have six. All they need is either yours or hers. It doesn't matter what you or I, or she, do. At least one of you won't make it out of this alive.

But that made me pause at what she was saying. She died from that little bit of information she told me before. Toriel apparentlywas related to her in some way, and that little memory I saw of the boy that looked just like her made sense to me that there was that connection. But if she died here, was her soul with them? But then... it wouldn't have been able to merge with mine.

Why isn't your soul with them then? Shouldn't you be the seventh?

I was honestly stunned more by the silence that Chara gave me rather than the fact of getting an answer or not. Apparently, this was the very subject that made her chokeup. Her own voice sounded pained when she tried to speak again, her rage building.

I probably should have been.

And that was all I got. She said not a word more. But the anger was there, she burned under the skin. I could feel how much the subject pissed her off as I'm sure her mind raced to figure a way out of the situation we were in.

The skeleton watched us, most likely feeling the energy we were giving off as we argued and spoke with each other internally. His gaze never left us from the corner of our eyes as we fought between each other. I could see the sad look he was giving us. He could see our suffering being attached to one another, even not knowing truly what was going on other than what we'd said so far.

With his magic in place, he stopped moving and allowed himself to get close to the cage. He put his forehead to the bars and held them as well, trying to show sympathy toward us.

"I believe in you, Little Frisk. You and the other human trapped to you. You can get through this. I know you can."

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe him so badly it hurt, but Chara...

Her hand moved before I could feel anything. Slipping between the opening of the bone like bars came her blade where she slashed right through his neck. He and I both only noticed too late when his head was severed from his body, flying a few feet away from the strength of her arm.

"N-no-o!"

His broken words came out as a garbled mess as his body began to fade. To dust he became and scattered on the wind while his skull still looked at us with tears rolling down his face. Though he still showed me a smile asblood seeped from his wound before turning into ash.

"I still believe in you... little sister..."

And then he was gone. As fast as he'd come to be there, he was gone. His soul remained behind, blinding white in color while his magic slowly faded around us, releasing Chara and I.

"Well that was rather pointless." The other female sighed before she stepped forward toward the shattering soul. "But regardless, finally, I can have what I need."

"NO!"

My scream came out of my own mouth as my magic came to life and Chara's dissipated. I could only see red as I flew us backward from the soul and hung us from a tree. My chains latched on to the thick branch above our heads while wrapping around our neck.

I was prepared to die, even if it meant I couldn't see Angel again... I didn't want anyone else to be hurt...

I didn't want anyone else innocent to die... like him... that nice skeleton who called me sister...

Sister...?

A flood of memories came in with that one word said by him. Memories of me growing up, living in the underground with that skeleton, and Angel... and another skeleton much smaller. They were our family... along with so many other people.

We loved above ground. I fell in love with a boy named Asriel who took care of me when I was hurt by some teen boy...

I became queen of the monster people.

But worst of all... I then knew even more personally all the people that Chara had taken from me, and who she really was.

And Asriel was watching from a distance... did he even rememberme from our other life? Did Angel go through this too?

Did Chara see my memories of us killing her last family member that was on the surface?

Stop it, Frisk. Enough!

A powerful pull of the will was enough for her to force my magic to recede, but far too late to gather Papyrus's soul. It shattered there, blowing away in the wind before she could even think to take it. We landed on the ground, barely being held up by our arms against the snow. Our knees were deeply into it.

She huffed, she scowled, but still pushed onward. "You're the reason this keeps happening. I only need one. How many times do I have to say that? One soul is all I need and this will be over."

But there was shaking in our limbs, she couldn't move even if she wanted to. Our combined emotions were too much at that point. Neither of us even had the energy to try.

So you can kill your sister, right? That's the end goal?

It felt so numb to ask that question, but I knew I was right. Chara didn't need to say a word while she clenched our shaking fists and curled into a tree that wasn't far from us. Neither of us had the willpower to fight back, and that left us in a complete blanket of blackness...

Witch's Note:

At this point... this was one of the hardest points of the story to write. I know all of you know. Papyrus is one of my favorite characters. He always has been besides Sans. Our precious cinnamonroll who learned to grow and be more than just he's sweet and kind self.

A painful chapter that actually took me months to write.

But I've torn that all away from us. I've hurt a lot of us seeing this. The twist is our guts as I make you think Papyrus had the upper hand, only for Chara to take him away from us. Frisk is heartbroken and a wave of emotions is seen through us all.

So...

MysticGirl: I hate you so much. I hate you more than I ever have in all my life and friendship of eleven years.

Me: I know, but this had to happen, and you know it.

Mystic Girl: Doesn't mean I like it.

Me: It only gets worse, but I will say for me that this was the most heartbreaking moment.

Mystic Girl: God damn it...

Me: So let's head over to review before we all get too emotional here.

Thechaosmaster: I'm actually a little worried for what you plan to send me as a responsethis time around after Papyrus has died, Chaos. This was by the far the hardest chapter for me to write, at all. I've had plenty of other chapters that hurt or that I wasn't feeling writing for, but this one I could only put off for a long time before I could actually face this one head on and do it. It was hard.

But loosingGrillby and his family? Yeah, that wasn't easy either. I can't tell you how much it hurt me internally. Because this point in the previous story, Sara would have just become pregnant with little Natsu. Fuku was just a little girl, hardlyfour. Writing out their deaths were absolutelyhorrible. As everyone's was.

But the sad part? We're not done yet.

Dasansi: You do make quite a good point. As I'm not following the game in its entirety, there is now LV or EV or anythingof the sort, but that doesn't mean there's no growth. As Chara and Frisk are merged and forced to work together in these trying times, we see how they both are growing. Chara first with getting her own magic of a red blade in her hands. But Frisk we also see growing as well. At the death of Papyrus, we see her chains come to life and bind Chara down.

The constant struggle and strive to live, or a goal, is the way of Terians growth. Think back to the days where Angel mentioned vaguely of her ways to protect Frisk before they came to the underground. Ignoring the fact that Angel had the spirits of her parents attached to her, Angel's determination magic grew as she raised her sister on the run, on her own, with little to no help, and often against the local or country wide law enforcement due to lack of properly handling the situation when trying to apprehend them. Angel's magic grew from that struggle, Chara and Frisk's magic is also growing from fighting each other, besides the other fights they've come across.

So you'll just have to see when it comes to Undyne, after all, she'll be showing up soon.

unfortunatlyriverwastaken: River, oh my God! I honestly wasn't sure if we were going to see you again, but I'm very gratefulyou took my words to heart and made sure to read everything before joining us again. The story doesn't hit home has hard without the context and reading the differentstories we've done for everyone.

I hope college hasn't been too rough for you, because it is lovely to have you back. Hopefully it slows down for you at least a bit. As I've explained a few times, this story will be my shortest one, only twenty chapters. Its finale will be posted roughly around Februaryfifteenth, if my math is correct. So it won't be a long once, and then we have a final story to post. Which we've leaked very little about. If you have any guesses on what you think it will be about, we welcome you to guess. Shadow and Dasansi have given guesses already, but as of right now, no one has guessed what the final book will follow or entail.

Shadow8Phantom: How right you are Shadow. Chara is certainlyplaying this like a strategygame as she slowly combs through, though as the peopledie and Frisk prevents her from having a soul, she's been rather busy...

However, it looks like she won't be able to hide anymore after Grillby and Sara went up in flames. Trying to take her out with them. After a lovely meal of course. I had to get Frisk at least one good meal in there to enjoy.

But we'll have to see what continues, as they lay in the snow, wounded, torn, yet bound.

MysticBoywastaken: Hey there Mystic Boy! Good to see you again! But you were correct to guess that Papyrus was next on the chopping block. But as for your guess about Chara's magic… I've really tried to avoid any person having a reset power. No one knows the reason they've started their lives over again. They don't have a definite reason or person they know who have done this. And due to the chaos of everything that's going on, that's the last thing that's on their minds…

Oh, I can't wait for you all to see what happens soon, but more of this is to come, and perhaps we get an idea of where everyone is during this all. Next chapter will contain a lot of context, and... some time with Angel and Sans...

But I'll call this good since Mystic Girl is crying and I have more work to do. Working currently on chapter thirteen for the last book, its moving along pretty quickly. I hope you all will love it. Once we're there and I tear you all apart and put you back together.

Love you all and see you next week!

Halloween Witch and Mystic Girl