Last time on Undertale the end:
Seeing as Asriel was too overwhelmed to know what to do with himself, Frisk held out his hand for Asriel to take "come on Asriel lets go home" the human calmly said.
The monster tore his stare away from his soul and looked at the human, a vague shape of a large dressed goat monster appeared behind Frisk "mom?" he whispered and shakily took Frisk's hand.
"Don't worry, I will stay by your side brother for as long as you need it" at first it didn't seem he heard, but a slowly a small smile appeared on Asriel's face.
As he led Asriel through the ruins Frisk felt overjoyed beyond words, he had done it, he had saved him.
He knew it wasn't over just yet, but as he walked with Asriel at his side, he was filled with the determination to make it through anything.
----------------
Part 2: Final nightmare
Never had Frisk felt so happy in a long time, soon he would reunite Asriel with his parents. In the back of his mind he also reminded himself there was still the looming danger of the one who had taken over the time-line. Their massive amount of determination would no doubt force them to make an appearance soon. Frisk wanted to hope it wasn't in the near future, but given that he had lost his ability to save and load, it was better to prepare for the worst.
On their journey towards the surface Frisk and Asriel saw how monsters were packing up and readying to leave. Asriel barely noticed they were being greeted by the friendly and very excited citizens of Snowdin on their journey as he was busy processing the fact that this was really happening and it was not one of his desperate fantasies.
It felt very strange to Frisk seeing the monsters preparing to leave, even more so the thought that this was the last time he would see the quaint little snow town. He had after all enough memories of this place to last a lifetime, it would be stranger if he hadn't grown at least slightly attached to the town and maybe even the underground as a whole.
As they walked past the house of Sans and Papyrus and started going through Waterfall Frisk saw that little by little Asriel's blank face was replaced by a smile. It was the kind of smile that if you saw it you would do anything to protect it, or at least that was Frisk's opinion.
Asriel stopped as they reached the field of echo flowers.
"Is everything okay Asriel?" Frisk asked concerned.
"ya.....yeah, its just this place....brings back memories" The monster looked across the many echo flowers with a distant look in his eyes.
They stood there for a while just looking over the fields. Frisk put his hand on Asriel's shoulder as he seemed to have lost himself in whatever memory he had of this place.
"Come on, lets get going" the goat boy shook his head slightly as if to shake off the stupor he had fallen into.
"Okay" he replied quietly.
The human didn't say anything, but he didn't like how fast Asriel changed back into his introverted state. He knew it would take time for him to get used to all this and to get his emotions in balance again, but he was resolved to help the process along as much as he could, gods knew Asriel deserved to a chance to be happy again after what he went through.
After passing through Waterfall they stopped for a break at Alphys lab, it was still very messy, but Frisk hadn't known it in any other condition so he didn't mind much. They got comfortable on a pair of chairs. Frisk handed Asriel a cinnamon bunny from the stash in his inventory and took out one for himself.
"Thanks" the goatboy said absentmindedly as he took the pastry.
As they slowly ate their food Frisk was brainstorming to find a way to cheer up his friend, coming up short he discreetly looked over his inventory list and stopped.
'of course' he thought. With a smile he took out the piece of butterscotch Pie Toriel had left him, it had been kept warm by staying in the inventory.
"Hey Asriel?"
"hmm?" Asriel looked over, he looked at the pie for a moment then his eyes widened
"is that?" he asked with a hint of excitement in his voice
"yes, yes it is" Frisk handed him the piece of pie and watched silently in joy as Asriel savored every bite he took.
As the monster was enjoying the pie Frisk's phone rang, he had almost forgotten about it, he scooted a bit away from the distracted Asriel and picked up.
"HUMAN, HOW ARE YOU? I THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE BEEN SO WORR-" " Hello my child, it is good to know that you are safe, you have been away for a while" Toriel said in her usual motherly tone.
"Sorry, it took a while to find the one I was looking for" He told her
"OH A FRIEND WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT, HUMAN HAVE YOU BEEN HOLDING OUT O-" Papyrus was suddenly on the phone again
"don't suddenly take the phone like that" Toriel scolded
"sorry female Asgore, I just got a little excited" Papyrus apologized in the background.
The was silence for a few moments, then Toriel spoke calmly but with a bit of an edge in her tone "hold on a moment my child, seems like we have a misunderstanding that needs correcting" Frisk heard the phone being handed to someone then turned off.
Frisk shook his head in amusement, he was glad they were getting along if a bit haphazardly, but that was almost given since Papyrus was involved.
They had all been through a lot, even if they were not aware of it or only partially in Sans case. Maybe it was best to keep it that way Frisk pondered, it didn't make much sense to burden them with the terrors that had occurred, but he also didn't want to keep them in the dark.
He sighed, he resolved to reveal it. Not now, but once they had settled down on the surface and things had settled down.
He looked over and saw Asriel had finished the pie. The goat monster sighed contented "thanks, I really needed that" Frisk replied with a nod.
"it took me back, you know, to better times" he told the human.
"I hope we can make good memories in the future as well." Frisk expressed hopefully.
Asriel looked at him surprised for a moment then looked down "yeah, I hope so too." he replied in a low voice. He didn't think it was possible considering what he had done, but Frisk seemed to believe in it so strongly that it made him want to believe too.
After leaving the lab they took the elevator up to the hotel, but as they stood in front of the huge building Frisk felt his soul freeze with fear, he had only felt such once before and it could only mean one thing, that dark creature was loose. He looked to the path towards Muffet's parlor, he would need all the help he could get.
"Hey Asriel?" the human said trying very hard to hide his rising fear.
"hmm?" the monster replied as he broke out of his thoughts, not noticing Frisk hiding his nervousness.
"Could you wait here for a moment, I need to talk to someone"
Asriel was reluctant at first, but agreed when Frisk promised to come back quickly.
Frisk quickly pushed a web to the side and entered the parlor.
"Muffet?" he called out as he walked. A spider rappelled down from the ceiling with a sign, it had Muffet's face on it and the words "out for shopping" beneath the drawing.
The human thought for a moment then addressed the spider.
"can I leave a message?" the spider turned the sign and scribbled on it, then turned it around showing it had drawn a thumbs up.
Frisk reached into his inventory instinctively, only to blush when he realized he didn't have a piece of paper or even a pencil.
"Could I borrow something to write on?" he asked the spider and a moment later two spiders came down with paper and pencil.
Quickly Frisk wrote his message and handed it to a spider then pulled out his coin purse from his inventory and handed it to another spider who got dragged to the floor from the sheer weight of it.
The human left several spiders trying to find a way to get the purse lifted up into the large webs that adorned the ceiling. Frisk hoped Muffet got his message in time and agreed to help.
As they pushed onwards Frisk felt the deadly chill creep down his spine, his every nerve seemed to seize up in terror for a brief moment, like prey staring into the eyes of a predator. It was on the move.
The human did not dare make another stop before reaching the others to avoid risking it attacking them or others. It would not waste time attacking anyone as long as was catching up to them.
After quickly going through MTT resort they got in the core elevator which fortunately was still functional. The elevator took them right to the doorstep of New Home.
Passing through the first stretch of New Home Asriel looked around and commented that the place really needed some color, which Frisk agreed with. The grey...well everything, really wasn't very cheery at best and downright depressing at worst. It was definitely the human's least favorite place in the underground indeed for that very reason.
Seeing the recreation of the home in the ruins had a greater impact on Asriel than he had thought.
"Come on" Frisk motioned to the stairs "lets not keep them waiting"
Asriel was confused why Frisk was hurrying them along, but he played it off and did his best to not appear anxious. He wasn't sure it worked, it certainly didn't convince himself any.
Fortunately Asriel complied without protest, whether that was because he wanted to get away from the place or was spurred on by his desperate eyes.
They trotted along until they reached the judgment hall. Frisk glanced around at the stained glass as they passed through, he would really miss this place, and it would be very hard to explain why. To most it would just seem like another hallway, but this place held a lot of unique meaningful memories for him. For some unknown reason this hallway seemed to defy the repetition other places fell to, even if it always started the same.
He almost expected Sans to suddenly appear from behind a pillar or seemingly from out of nowhere, but not this time he reminded himself. Sans was waiting with the others and while he was bringing Asriel, he was also leading the demon to them in the hope they could take it down together. Despite the odds he hoped it would go well, it had to. They only had one shot at this, for a moment he wished he could have had the familiar safety of saving and loading, but he did not regret giving it up. If it came down to it, they would die free rather than live forever imprisoned.
With his resolve restored he gave the hall one last glance from the doorway and stepped forward alongside Asriel.
When they entered the room with the flower-covered floor Asriel stopped. Everything up to this point had all seemed like a passing dream, a fantasy he had all to happily gone along with. But just beyond the throne room he was going to see his parents again, the thought janked him mercilessly back into reality.
"I...I am going to see them again" the monster boy said "but how can I possibly face them, knowing what I have done?"
Frisk put his hand on Asriel's shoulder "you did what no one else could. You freed them all, even if it was at the cost of losing yourself. Every time-line without fail, you were willing to sacrifice it all for them." the boy knew that was not what Asriel had meant, but he felt he needed to remind him he had also done a lot of good.
Frisk smiled "When I think of you and Flowey, I am not able to think of you as the same person, the two of you are just too different personality wise." Asriel was about to protest, but Frisk continued "If you think I am wrong, then tell me: would you do any of the things he did if you had been in his place?" the terrified face Asriel made was all the answer he needed.
"You are a lot better than you think Asriel, you might not believe it yourself, and I understand somewhat why you don't, but I fullheartedly believe it. So if you have trouble believing in yourself, believe in me. Your friend and brother, who deeply believes in you."
Asriel sniffed, but managed to not cry "o-okay, just...just go ahead a-and give me a moment to collect myself"
The request put Frisk in a binding situation. He couldn't leave Asriel behind alone with the danger approaching and yet he didn't have time to explain either.
Before he could think of a solution something caught his eye, a hefty cavalcade of spiders roamed the ceiling which could only mean Muffet had gotten his message in time.
"Okay, but please don't tary too long, I am not sure how long I can keep them occupied" Asriel let out a single soft laugh
"yeah..." he paused "don't worry, I-I will only need a moment. Try not to start a fight in the meantime" Asriel tried lightening the mood joking, but his tone was lacking the needed confidence and jest.
"I am not THAT bad" Frisk smirked choosing to ignore his friend's awkwardness completely, which did lighten the mood a little.
Reluctantly Frisk walked into the hallway past the throne. When he was out of the monsterboy's sight range he motioned to the spiders and soon one of them came rappelled down holding a sign with a question mark scrippled on it.
"Look, that..."Thing" is getting close. Can you guys look out for Asriel while I go ahead and evacuate him if it gets too close?" its response was to flip the sign around showing a thumbs up, much to his relief, before reeling itself back up on the ceiling walls to its brethren.
-----------
There was a general unease in small room between the throne-room and the space where the barrier once stood.
Toriel wandered nervously around "He should have been here by now"
"Relax Tori, scamps probably right round the corner" Sans tried assuring, but even he was a little on edge, there was a tension in the air he couldn't quite explain.
Worried Toriel took out her phone and dialed Frisk's number. It took only a moment before a soft chiming could be heard from the hallway.
Sans let out a sigh of relief "Heh what did I tell you?"
Frisk slowly walked out the shadows of the hallway gave them a wave and then to their surprise he turned around and gestured someone to follow. The person was very reluctant and crept through the shadows to hide behind the boy. Curious the monsters observed Frisk coax them forward, their curiosity turned to shock when the monster walked into the light and revealed his form.
"H-hi" Asriel greeted nervously, he looked like he wanted to run out of there, but Asriel drew strength from his friend at his side, he had to see this through.
"A-a-asriel?" Toriel whispered in disbelief.
"S-son?" Asgore asked similarly shocked to his wife.
"Mom, dad...." Asriel quivered. He wanted nothing more than to dash to his parents, but his lingering doubt had him nailed to the spot like the shock had his parents. The moment they stood frozen in front of each other felt like en eternity, but then Asriel felt a small encouraging push on his back, which broke the spell and made him bolt towards his parents a stream of tears flowing from his eyes.
Asgore, who broke out of his shock first, got on his knee and caught his running son in a hug. Toriel joined the king of monsters in embracing their son, the hate of her husband momentarily forgotten. All three shed happy tears, overjoyed to be united again.
In that moment of reunion they exchanged no words between them, mere words would simply have been inadequate to convey their feeling of happiness for being together again.
Frisk walked over to the skeleton bros with a small smile on his lips after seeing the Dreemurrs reunite, it had been something he had wanted to see ever since he discovered the truth about the broken family. He wanted to be there with them, but thought it best they have this moment alone.
"If you keep this up you are going to give me a heart-attack kid and I am a skeleton mind you" Sans joked, but Frisk knew Sans well enough to catch the slight unease in his tone.
"So human, that was the friend you were talking about? A mini Asgore clone?" Papyrus eyes lit up like Christmas lights in excitement.
"Actually that is Asgore's son" Sans explained to avoid hearing another painful discussion between Toriel and his brother.
"oh, that makes much more sense. BUT IS NOWHERE NEAR AS COOL" Papyrus complained which made Undyne and Alphys stare at him befuddled while Sans just shook his head amused.
"How?" Alphys asked dumbstruck "how did you manage to bring him back? It should not be possible"
"I have to agree with Alphys on this one kid, monsters don't usually come back from the dead" Sans flashed his blue eye showing how serious he was.
Frisk nodded "I will explain, but not right now, a great danger is heading our way" Sans nodded, he had felt the it too.
"We will be ready, but afterwards you have a lot to answer for" Frisk nodded with a sad expression, he knew he had a lot of explaining to do, a lot of which even Sans was completely unaware and some he really didn't want to tell, but as much as he dreaded it, he hoped he would get the opportunity. Because with the danger heading towards them there was a good possibility he might not ever get the chance.
Frisk walked over to the Dreemurrs, the adults looked up and each extended an arm as to invite him to join their embrace which made him really guilty for what he was about to say.
"I am really sorry to break you up, but we are about to be in grave danger" they looked at the human and noticed his fear, stretching their senses they easily felt the malicious presence heading towards them. Toriel and Asgore gave their son a last comforting squeeze then released, they told their son to stay behind them and then got ready for whatever projected that evil feeling aura.
Asriel looked around confused and frightened "Frisk what is happening?" the human was lightly shaking, his fear apparent "a nightmare is heading our way"
Everyone looked intensely at the entrance as the chilling presence came closer and closer. Then suddenly the dreadful feeling disappeared and a pair of red eyes emerged in the darkness. A small figure stepped into the light, a human child, one who several of the people present knew.
"Is that?" Toriel and Asgore shared uncertain glances, the figure in front of them was undoubtedly the child they had raised, but those eyes were those of a demon.
"Chara!" Asriel made to go towards his adopted sister, when he his path was suddenly blocked by Asgore's large arm. Confused he turned to his father, but before he could question why, he froze as waves of what could only be described as murderous intent exploded from Chara.
Chara glared at Frisk "you just had to throw a spanner in my plan, didn't you?" she pulled out a knife from seemingly thin air and caringly traced a finger down it's length "I told you what would happen if you messed with my plans again didn't I Frisk?" Frisk was trembling in abject terror, the horror from the worst time-line he had mentally suppressed came flooding back, it felt like he was dying when a skeletal hand firmly gripped his shoulder, snapping him out of it.
Sans sent Frisk a look "look, I am scared to my bone as well, but we can just redo this if it goes badly right?" the skeleton was bewildered when Frisk shook his head.
"No, we only got one shot at this" Sans eyes sharpened.
"If that the case, then we better make the best of it" the short skeleton turned to his brother, the tall skeleton had a blank expression "Paps, I know you better than anyone, but if you hesitate or hold back even for a second, that thing will kill all of us then proceed to destroy everything and everyone we care for"
Papyrus became uncharacteristically serious "I know" he said as he summoned a large orange bone in each of his hands. Chara was everything Papyrus had hoped he would only meet in his bleakest nightmare, a foe full of hate, intent to harm and completely impossible to reason with. He clenched the magical bone in his hands hard. The only way left was do or die and he would not let his friends and family down.
"Alphys get yourself together!" Undyne yelled at her girlfriend. The scientist stared shocked at the data from her analysis spell.
"Chara, h?um\a-n, age:???, LV: 999." the rest of the data was distorted and covered by a message written in sharp red color "What are you doing looking at my data :) ?"
The others looked over to the horrified scientist to check if she was okay.
Taking the monsters distraction as an opening Chara dashed forwards intent on cutting them down, just like she had done so many times before. But ran smack dab into a wall of blue bones courtesy of the bone brothers. With a swift slash she felled the obstacle and continued her mad dash towards the monsters, but the short lived obstruction had been enough to foil her surprise attack. Her first assault was deftly blocked by Asgore and Undyne who kept her at bay with their polearms using their longer reach to their advantage.
'how cute' she thought as she easily made her way past their attack pattern, with her speed they might as well be moving in slow motion 'they actually think they have a fighting chance' Before her descending knife could reach Asgore's neck she was blown away by a torrent of flames from his wife.
Chara suddenly twisted midair and ran towards a new target just as she landed, a wicked smile spread on her face, no matter what they did they would not be able to harm her, her defense stat was simply too high to be dealt more than a few point of HP from even massive attacks which would barely make a dent in her massive pool.
She didn't reach her intended target as Papyrus intercepted her and swatted her away with a bat sized orange bone.
The monsters warily watched Chara's prone form as she twitched, then came the laughter.
"heh, ha, MHA HA HA HA, IT HAS BEEN FOREVER SINCE I HAD SO MUCH FUN" she got up as if she hadn't been battered whatsoever. Her knife darkened till it was black and she swung her weapon sending out a massive black wave that made the monsters scramble to got out of the way.
"Now let's have some REAL fun" she started laughing insanely as she send waves upon waves towards the desperate monsters without even bothering to aim them.
The unaimed attacks wore down the monsters little by little as they blocked, dodged and weaved as best they could to avoid them. Sans was the worst off though, he was cursing his low stamina as he desperately tried to preserve as much energy as he could avoiding the barrage. Sweat dripped down his brows as he narrowly dodged another dark wave, mid-twirl his eye caught Chara staring at him with a horrifying smirk before sending a wave directly at him at terrifying speed reaching him almost instantly, cutting through several waves still mid-air to do so.
Sans could only watch as the deadly attack approached him without any way of avoiding it. Instinctively he closed his eyes just before it reached him 'Slash', a moment passed then another, still he felt no pain, he opened his eyes and saw Frisk holding a worn knife with a red tinge around it's blade, he also noticed dark wisps of what remained of the wave that had almost taken his life disappear into thin air.
Frisk panted hard "Sans you ok?" It took a second for the skeleton's mind to fully catch up to what just had happened "yeah, thanks for the save"
Before he could continue Chara let out a bone chilling snarl "Argh, just die already!" she pulled back her knife and it started glowing increasingly intensely dark red as she laughed maniacally.
It became harder and harder for the monsters to stay on their feet as the ground shook fiercely from the power emanating from Chara. One thought shared by the majority was that if she unleashed that attack it would be over for them. Magical spears and fire were desperately launched towards the cackling humanoid, but none hit their target, instead bouncing harmlessly off an invisible forcefield around Chara, crushing their hopes of stopping her in time.
Chara's eyes gleamed with a combination of fury and amusement "And now you d-urgh?!" she was cut off when a yellow figure tackled into her from behind knocking her to the ground. The sudden attack had surprised Chara so much that she had let go of her weapon and it slid across the floor where Frisk quickly retrieved it.
Muffet suddenly dived from the ceiling with a large string attached to her back and grabbed the yellow figure barely avoiding Chara's retaliatory strike as she, and the figure who turned out to be monster kid, was quickly pulled back by the spiderweb string.
Chara howled in anger and frustration, why couldn't those darn monsters just die like they used to? She got on her feet, then froze. She patted below her neck eyes widening.
The spider girl chuckled as she flung the necklace she had swiped from Chara's neck when she had rescued monster kid to Frisk.
"Don't you bloody dare!" Chara surged forwards but was forced back by Papyrus and Undyne.
Frisk hurried to Asgore, Toriel and Asriel after he caught the necklace.
"I need the strongest flame you can conjure. Please, time is of the essence!" they hastily complied given how urgent Frisk's request sounded. Each held their paws up and quickly a golden pyre was created. A few seconds later the flame turned blue, the intense heat bathed Frisk's face, then moments after it became intense white. Feeling the heat was near unbearable to be near Frisk decided it was strong enough and he dropped the necklace and knife into the pyre.
As the knife and Necklace began melting away Chara fell to her knees screaming in pain as she convulsed intensely.
The monsters kept their distance from the screeching human while the objects were reduced to liquid metal.
It was not over however as Chara slowly and unsteadily got back on her feet. "Never did I think my anchor points to this world would be destroyed, but it seems I have gotten strong enough that I don't need them anymore" the monsters and Frisk shuddered as the human gave them a sinister smile promising pain.
She held out her arm to the side and a black tar-like substance flowed out of her sleeve covering her hand. Chara flicked the substance away, revealing a black knife was now clutched in her hand, dripping with the same dark material it had apparently been created from moments before.
Chara lunged, but was forced to jump back narrowly avoiding patterns of electricity blurring towards her.
"Really Alphys? After all this time and all that has happened, you finally find your spine now?!" She taunted "But it does not matter, look how labored your breaths are, none of you are not going to last much longer" Chara barely managed to let out a laugh before she was impaled by a thrown spear courtesy of Undyne.
"Getting real sick of your laughter punk!" The mermaid warrior sneered.
With a huff Chara stood up and looked down on her chest as Undyne's spear faded out of existence revealing her unmarred shirt.
"Did you forget? You can't hurt me!" She smirked, hiding her pain.
"Everyone look!" Alphys said pointing to her data screen "Chara, h-u/m?an, age:???, LV: 983...982...981" and her LV slowly kept dropping.
Chara herself also noticed this when she hastily opened her status screen to make sure it wasn't just the scientist playing tricks with her.
"heh, seems like you needed those anchor points after all" Sans threw a bone at Chara which impacted the distracted human and caused her LV to instantly drop a few points.
"And damage make your LV drop even faster" the skeleton noted. An unspoken understanding arose between the monsters, their only option was to drop Chara's LV to zero or die trying.
Not expecting them to suddenly assault her with all they had, Chara failed to properly dodge the first wave of the monsters attack. Her LV plummeted over a hundred points before she recuperated, but it did not help her as they made sure to vary their attacks and switch partners often.
Whenever she did manage to avoid an attack, she would run into Alphys electrical attack which she had no idea how worked, or the annoying spider would lob in an unexpected attack from above. Any attempts at striking back was foiled by Toriel or countered by Frisk and the constant barrage did not give her time to charge up another large attack.
By the time their unrelenting onslaught died down her LV had dropped to below half of what she had started the fight with.
Frisk watched as Chara barreled towards the monsters intent on claiming a victim. The human's determination to save his friends resonated with something inside the king of monsters in front of him. Frisk compelled by the strange connection put his hands on the back of Asgore's armor.
In her frenzy Chara got tunnel-vision on the scientist whom she was getting closer to every moment, so when Asgore suddenly intercepted her, it was needless to say quite shocking to her. His entire body radiated a soft red aura as he stared her down, with a face showing only grim determination.
Chara felt a sense of dread as she saw Asgore wound up for a big swing. Even as telegraphed as the attack was, she did not have time to get out of the way before Asgore unleashed a mighty strike with his trident so fast it might as well have been instantaneous, sending her flying cross the room like a bullet and hitting the stone wall so hard she was embedded several centimeters in the rock, eyes bulging out from pain and shock.
"LV: 463..*static*..344'' Her LV dropped over a hundred points from that one attack. But before he could press his advantage the aura around Asgore receded and he fell to one knee and clung to his trident as support. Asgore looked like he was on the verge of collapsing in exhaustion.
"Holy damn" was the only thing Undyne could think of saying having witnessed Asgore unrestrained might. She had always wondered how strong the King truly was and it had been completely awe-inspiring.
Growling Chara forced herself out of her hole. This was just getting ridiculous, they should all have been dead ten times over by now, but somehow they were holding on. With a snarl she shot a wave towards the closet target, Asgore, but her energy wave was destroyed by a rusty garden knife long before it reached the kneeling king.
She and Frisk stared at each other waiting for the other to make the first move. Chara moved, pressed by her decreasing LV, swinging her black knife widely, but it did not connect like she thought it would. Frisk had narrowly dodged it and punched her in the face before she could recover.
Again and again Chara attacked, but none of her strikes connected. Panting she took a step back. "How? How are you doing that? I am faster than you, I should be hitting you!" She questioned.
Frisk shook his head "you are faster, but it does not matter, you have never been in a fight with an opponent stronger or faster than yourself and have never as a result had to learn how to fight and survive when the odds are not in your favor. In short, you are soft."
Speechless was the only way to describe how Chara felt having been dressed down like that by Frisk, she felt so embarrassed and that made her utterly furious.
Chara unleashed a barrage of blows against Frisk, each getting closer and closer until she started landing glancing blows. With a angry scream she pounced on Frisk after seeing an opening, knocking him to the floor. Kneeling on top of Frisk she glared at her downed prey with mad eyes as she discarded her knife and wrapped her hands around his neck and began choking Frisk.
Chara jumped off Frisk avoiding the fireball aimed against her and quickly created a new knife using it to slash the subsequent flaming sphere in half. She scowled at the last standing monster she had ignored because how worthless she knew him to be, her crybaby of a brother Asriel.
Any love she might have felt for him was drowned in the intense anger she was feeling. Even if it hadn't, her mission was paramount. She would kill Asriel and everyone she had ever cared about a thousand times over if it meant completing her mission.
"You really think you can take me Asriel?" Chara taunted Asriel to get under his skin
"You couldn't even do that when we lived as siblings, what makes you think you have a chance now?" figuring she had instilled him with enough doubt she made to jump towards him intending to end him in a single blow, but was knocked off her feet when a powerful gust of wind hit her as she was getting into position.
A brilliant multicolored aura blazed around Asriel as the earth beneath him began to crack from the immense power he was radiating. Chara tried getting up, but her muscles seized up in fear as she saw a faint image form behind Asriel. It resembled the form he had first taken when he had absorbed the underground. The glare of it's dark eyes had her pinned to the spot in sheer terror.
"LEAVE MY FAMILY ALONE!" magic chaotically erupted from the young monster into the air. The shade behind Asriel lifted an arm and all the magic surged upwards and condensed into rainbow colored stars.
The bright colored stars brought back a memory that the fallen human had forgotten.
flashback
"look Chara" Asriel showed his sister a very colorful drawing. It was of a powerful if very ridiculous looking monster and all it's supposed abilities.
"looks kinda dumb" she commented which made Asriel sad "hmm, what are those?" Chara pointed a to section with stars.
Asriel perked up "those are a awesomely powerful attack, it is called-
Flashback end
"Star Blazing" Chara whispered as the stars hailed down on her like a miniature meteor shower.
Frisk and the monsters averted their eyes from the many near blindingly bright colored flashes the magical constructs gave off when they exploded on impact.
When the explosions and flashes ended, they warily surveyed a crater landscape where Chara had stood on flat surface a few moments ago. In the deepest crater the human girl stared blankly at the ceiling in pure shock. A few moments passed and Chara took a gasping breath of air. Staggering she got up, her clothes ripped at places and a couple of wounds dotted her exposed skin and face. She cursed, she had not expected remnants of the cosmic power Asriel had wielded before he broke the barrier to remain. It did make sense though if the energy was what had been holding his form together without a soul, as Frisk had somehow returned Asriel's soul, it would follow the remaining power would have simply stayed within Asriel given it had not been used up entirely.
"LV: 312.." the number lingered for a moment before glitching "..61" was displayed when the glitched screen cleared up.
Toriel hurried over to her son as his rainbow aura faded away alongside the ghostly form of the god of hyperdeath and he began swaying unsteadily on his feet, she caught Asriel just as he collapsed from overuse of magic, he was still awake, but his body was temporarily paralyzed from the overload.
The intervention of Frisk and Asriel had given other monsters time enough to get their second wind and they were readying themselves to finish the fight.
"heh....hehehe.....HAHAHA BWAHAHAHA" Whatever the monsters had expected to happen next, it was certainly not for Chara to suddenly burst out laughing.
"The heck is so funny kid? Why don't you let us in on the joke?" Sans heatedly said.
"It's funny that you think you made a difference" Chara replied "I am shocked that you managed to push me this far, to the very brink of defeat, but it. Does. Not. Matter." They were a little uneased by her hard tone.
She held up her hand and two orange buttons appeared in the air. They were labeled "continue" and "reset".
"All I need to do is press this button and I will reset all your progress, and we can do this over from the start. That is if I even allow you to stand together like this again, and even if I do, you will not be able to pull the same tricks. Do you see now? It does not matter how much you struggle, in the end I will be the victor. I only need to win once out of an endless amount of times" She hovered her hand above the "reset" button.
Papyrus was puzzled when he noticed Sans silently quake in terror. Before he could do something Frisk came over and got his attention. When Sans looked at the human, he gave him a smile and shook his head. Sans seemed to digest the silent message for a moment then calmed down.
Looking over the monsters Chara noticed to her dislike a lack of fear, either due to not fully grasping what she was capable of or because Frisk did something to calm them down "tsk, you don't seem to understand the graveness of what I am about to do, shame. I would have loved to see your terrified faces before I reset the timeline. I will just have to make do with your expressions when I kill you next time around" Sans, Frisk and Asriel flinched as she pushed the button. It lit up yellow for a brief moment. Then from the spot she had touched it, a monotone grey spread throughout it's structure until it was the only color present, then it slowly began to disintegrate into fine dust, not unlike that of a dying monster.
Confused and shocked Chara stared at where the button had just been, hand still poised like it had been when she pressed it, then she turned to Frisk. She hadn't cared what the other human had told Sans and Asriel, but it showed that he had know this would happen "what happened? How is your determination stronger than mine?!" she demanded to know.
Frisk shook his head "it's not"
"Don't play word-games with me Frisk, how did you take the power to reset from me?!"
"I didn't." Frisk answered "Because that power does not exist anymore."
"Stop playing games!"
"That is just it Chara, this is no longer a game, it is a story." Chara was bewildered by this answer, as was the monsters, even Sans and Asriel.
It was with no small amount of fear, that Chara realized she was caught in this timeline, if it even could still be called that. With no way of resetting, she could not go back and that meant she her still decreasing LV would reach zero soon and she had no idea of what would happen if that occurred. Would she die? - A chill of sheer terror ran down her spine. She quickly opened her menu and to her dismay the "load" button was greyed out. It would likely disintegrate like the "reset" button had if she touched it - It all came crashing down with her second realization: if she died, she could not come back. Her safety net had been stripped away and she was in the midst of a trapeze jump about to go horribly wrong.
Something broke inside her and Chara's fear turned to fury, this was not how it was supposed to be at all! This wasn't supposed to mean anything! That is why she had been holding back, toying with them for amusement, revelling in every desperate move and surprising ace they pulled out their sleeves, but now it turned out that there was no way back and what Frisk had done would likely do her in given enough time. They had tricked her! Oh, but she would not go out quietly. She would take as many as them down with her as she could!
"LV:59...58.57.56.55.54" the counter started ticking down quickly. Chara's knife started gleaming with a dark red glow.
"I will not let any of you leave" Frisk and the monsters were taken aback by her deadly cold tone. She annihilated the barrage of spears and bone they threw at her with a single swing of her empowered knife.
"LV:42.41.40.39" the glow around Chara's knife began to pulse with power.
"You will all die here" She forced Asgore, Papyrus and Undyne back with a shockwave unleashed from a swing of her knife.
"LV: 25.24.23.22.21...20" when the counter reached twenty it paused.
"PERISH!!" she threw her knife seemingly at Undyne who barely got out of the lightning fast blade, but it turned out she had not been her target. The knife was flying straight at Toriel who was on her knees caring for Asriel.
Moving without thought Asgore threw himself in the knife's path intending to block the deadly projectile with his body.
'Thuck'
Everyone's eyes widened stunned at what had just happened.
"Asgore!" several cried out distressed
'Thud'
To everyone's surprise It was not the king of monster's, but a book that had taken the lethal blow. It had fallen to the floor with the deadly weapon embedded in it to the hilt.
'what just happened'? Sans thought while the others were recovering from their confusion.
'I only caught a glimpse of something, then that book was suddenly there' a shiver ran through the skeleton, he had not sensed anyone else and there was scarcely any place to hide in the bare room, where had that person come from? Where had they gone? Why had they appeared, blocked the knife, then left? And why with a book of all things?!
Sans was ripped out of his thoughts by Chara yelling hysterically as she lost the last slivers of her composure.
"WHY?! WHY CAN'T ANY OF YOU JUST DIE!?!" she screamed as she flung herself at the nearest monster, seemingly ready to tear them apart with her bare hands.
'shirck' Chara froze midair as several bones erupted from the floor impaling her.
The bones disappeared as Sans did not have enough magic to keep them manifested and Chara flopped to the ground where she immediately pushed herself up to her knees. She did not get further as she was impaled by several spears from above, forcing her down and pinning her to the floor.
"LV: 2....1.....0" Alphys screen showed Chara's LOVE tick down to zero. There was brief pause with held breath. Had they done it? Had they won?
Alphys cast a new scan spell on the pinned human "Chara, ???, age:??? LV:0 atk:1 def:0 HP:3/10" the scientist breathed a sigh of relief, it would indeed seem like they had done it. She then raised an eyebrow at the field denoting Chara's race as it was marked unknown. Before it had been corrupted spellings of "human" and there was also no description at all, what was going on?
Undyne's spears faded away, but Chara remained unmoving.
"Don't let your guards down" Sans warned, level zero or no, Chara was dangerous.
After a few moments Papyrus braved forth to check on the prone human.
"HUMAN, errr, are you alright?" groaning Chara slowly and shakily started getting up, most of the features on her lowered face was covered by her hair.
"I will not lie, you scare me human. I know not what have made you like this, but I staunchly believe even the worst people can change, if they are given the chance" The tall skeleton offered Chara a hand.
"PAPYRUS IS SPARING YOU" Chara blankly looked at the screen, she had seen it so many times from afar, but up close it had a odd calming aura about it.
Chara slowly extended her own hand towards the bony hand offered by Papyrus. The Dreemurrs were cautiously elated at the prospect of possibly reconnecting to their adopted family member. The others were on edge, unsure about what to think, but Sans was not so easily convinced. The shorter skeleton kept a close eye to what was happening, preparing to act on a moments notice.
It happened in an instant. Black essence erupted from Chara's arm and would have skewered Papyrus if Sans had not janked him back with blue magic.
"No-t ye:t" Her voice came out echoing and stuttering like a broken radio. Chara lifted her head and the monsters were taken aback by her eyes. Gone was her brown eyes and in their place two void like holes with faint red lights acting as pupils, that oozed a thick black tar-like substance.
"N?ot ti%ll y-ou a/re a;ll DEAD!" she moved with her body hunched and her arms limply hanging, taking dragging steps towards them almost like a zombie.
"Alphys, what the heck are we looking at?!" Undyne questioned the scientist.
The reptilian doctor was just as lost, and despite her misgivings tried her scanning spell and froze when she saw the result "3h?Ra, ?o_d, aG?: ??? LV: _ ?M 80d Atk:?-Rd9R Def: S2aUg7E? HP:?nDy1?g" a completely scrambled mess of words written in blood red, the words jittering and twisting sickeningly. Which a crack the screen grew a spiderweb of black cracks. Alphys got so startled her magic was cut off and the screen disappeared.
"The hell?" Sans muttered as he saw the result of Alphys' spell out of the corner of his eye. The short skeleton turned his attention completely to Chara. He moved to summon a bone, or rather he tried to, but his body was not moving.
"What is going on why can't I move?!" Undyne yelled as she clearly strained to move.
Sans looked at the most likely culprit and noticed something strange about the dark substance leaking from her body. When it hit the ground it disappeared, or to be more precise, when it hit Chara's shadow. The same shadow that had unnaturally stretched across the floor underneath them without them noticing it. A quick glance at their spidery companions showed they were in a similar predicament.
A broken echoing laughter came from Chara as she slowly got closer and closer.
Panic broke out as Frisk and the monsters desperately tried to move, but their bodies were unyielding like statues. The situation seemed utterly hopeless.
'fwitch' The monsters stilled and Chara stopped at the sound.
Chara looked down at the tiny flame that had appeared between her feet. She observed it for a moment before her void-like eyes widened as the flame violently expanded, turning into a fiery tower of flames that engulfed Chara completely. The monsters felt the heat on their faces as they watched Chara got dragged upwards by the spiraling inferno, her distorted screams of pain drowning in the roar of the intense flames. Just like it had appeared, it suddenly ended. Chara's grey body floated in the air for a split second before falling to the floor as ash.
With Chara gone the shadow binding them vanished, Frisk and the monsters breathed a sigh of relief.
"Grillby, your timing is impeccable" Sans greeted their savior standing in the hallway, a faint pink appeared in the fire of the fire elemental's face.
"Indeed sir Grillby, your intervention did not only save our lives, but most likely all residents of the underground if not the world" With each addition of praise from Asgore, Grillby blushed harder.
While most of the monsters were thanking Grillby, seemingly trying to turn him into a pink fire elemental. Frisk, Toriel and Asriel looked on somberly as a strong wind from the outside blew the remains of their fallen enemy into the underground.
"Goodbye Chara" Asriel whispered with a small whimper. Toriel and Frisk pulled him into a hug and let him cry for the loss of his sibling.
Toriel struggled internally with the loss of her adopted child a second time. It should not have bothered her, what they had fought was nothing like her and yet she grieved. Reminded of all her failings. She took a glance at her son and Frisk, she vowed "no more".
Asgore broke away from the group around Grillby and kneeled as the spot where Chara's ash had been. Toriel observed him, thoughts of anger and resentment ran through her mind. He put his hand in a concealed pocket under his armor, digging a small hole and dropping something into it, before covering it again.
"A golden flower for every regret" he said in a solemn tone then clasped his hands together in prayer.
Toriel softened, the thoughtful act quelled her anger and it was replaced by guilt. Asgore had an untraditional way of showing it, but he cared, like he had always done. The vast amounts of flowers in new home was no small indication of that.
Perhaps things were not as she had thought, perhaps they could talk it through. Perhaps, just perhaps they could try again. For Asriel's sake.
---------
The monsters and Frisk stood on the ledge just outside the underground and watched as the sun set. It was beautiful, no matter how many times Frisk had seen it, it had always filled him with hope. Now it was different thought, it felt like the ending of a chapter in his...no their life. The end of an era. If only it was just the sun that bothered him.
"Hey kid, why the gloomy look?" Sans had snuck up on Frisk making him jump a little.
"There is a lot to be done now, it all feels so uncertain." Frisk said absentmindedly
"I am not gonna lie and say I understand completely, but I think that is what life is supposed to be" Frisk nodded "yeah, still feels strange though"
"I feel you there" the skeleton agreed, it would take a while to get used to not having everything reset, that things actually mattered now.
They stood together there for a few moments.
"But that is not all right?" Sans pressed.
"I don't quite know how to say this, but the human village down there?" Frisk pointed at a small town at the foot of the mountain.
"Yeah what about it?"
"It is not the same as all the other resets"
Sans looked surprised at Frisk and summarized his thoughts in one word "uh-oh"
---------
DAY - 12 on the surface
I am writing to collect my thoughts. Something I have not been able to do because all the "you know". And because I seem to have gotten a problem with my short-term memory due to them. But I digress.
Our meeting with the villagers on day 1 thankfully went rather smoothly. Most of them seemed delighted at the thought of monsters settling down in their town. I could sense the odd detractor of the idea in the crowd, but nothing worrying.
Frisk really informed them about our situation in a way they could understand, minus the whole timewarping reset business of course. Wouldn't wanna break my teeth on that one either.
There has only been minor scuffles between monsters and humans, nothing serious, but they got taken very serious nonetheless and were solved quickly.
Paps and I managed to move our house in Snowdin to the surface. It did cause a bit of a mess because of all the snow on our roof. But hey water you expecting? I am gonna miss Snowdin.
I also moved Grillby's in exchange for cutting my tab in half, still apparently leaves me with several lifetimes worth of debt though, oh boy.
Flashback
Sans wiped some snow off his shorts and looked up at his recent work. Grillby's stood proudly where an empty lot had been a few minutes ago. The fire elemental had already gone inside and check that everything was where it was supposed to be.
Pushing open the door the skeleton walked up and sat at the counter like he had done so many times before. A few moments later Grillby came out the backroom and stepped behind the counter.
"So how much is left on my tab?" Sans asked Grillby.
The fire elemental adjusted his glasses and then took a small chest from underneath the counter and put it on the table. He opened it and took out a roll of paper and unfolded it. It rolled off the counter and across the floor and out the door.
"uhm..." a little shaken Sans looked the lengthy list and sweatdropped. Adding up the numbers in his head, it made no sense that his tab would be THAT long.....unless.....
flashback end
Frisk moved in with the Dreemurrs and it seems to be working well so far. The two of us had a nice long talk about time-space distortions and responsibility, just the thing you would normally talk to a 10 year old about. Honestly I am still processing some of the things he told me and we are not even through it all. I don't think writing anything concrete about it down would be a good idea, you know, just in case someone does not respect my privacy.
Asriel has mostly had it well, but he has been suffering from terrible Nightmares. After what he has been through I won't blame him though. Frisk told me the whole story about the kit and I think I mostly agree with his conclusion that he and the weed isn't the same person, so I won't hold any of what weeds did against the kit, even though there is still some grey area. I think I best leave it in the past as not to create a self fulfilling prophecy. Also it would make Frisk sad. Hope he gets better, I know I had my share of nightmares because of the...you know.
Toriel and Asgore are together again, though their relationship is strained, with lots of ups and downs but I think it is generally getting better, they are certainly trying to make it work and sometimes that is all that is needed. She is teaching at the school and Asgore stepped down from his position as king and become a gardener.
Alphys is teaching science at the local school, she and Undyne is properly together now.
Alphys also informed the relatives of the amalgamates what had happened, she looked like she was going to faint through the whole thing, but she managed to do it with Undyne at her side. Understandably they were a little upset, but it seems there might actually be a chance it can be undone. Apparently the thing Frisk did also changed some fundamental rules about magic and souls. Bones crossed.
Since the guard was not needed anymore Undyne tried for being a cop, but she was a tad too intense for their liking. But she is planning to open a training course at the gym, apparently she got inspired by that little dino kid who is a fan of hers. Wonder who will be crazy enough to take a course made by Undyne?
Better not let my brother know about it.
Speaking of the little fella, I have seen him around, but never with his parents before. Come to think of it, I don't think I have ever seen him with them in Snowdin either. Hmmm, I have a feeling I better look into this.
Spiderlady is opening a bakery soon. It was sponsored by Asgore as thanks for her help. Wonder if it will be popular? Maybe if she puts some adds on the web.
Mettaton of attention craving is certainly having his way with getting popular. TV, radio, internet you name it, guy has made his mark there already.
I am worried about my brother though, ever since the royal guard was disbanded he has been directionless. I honestly can't think of a time when he didn't strive for a spot in the prestigious organization.
He is currently just going through the motions, like a car spinning its wheels and I can feel he is deeply unhappy, but I don't know how I can help. Maybe if I look in my diaries from before the...you know...I will be able to find something that might give me an idea.
Welp, before I do anything Frisk had something important he wanted to show me back in the underground, wonder what it is....
----------
Aside from ambient noise the void was silent. Gaster looked at the white haired entity that had brought his device to the human, an anomaly by all accounts, walking freely across barriers that should be unpassable, ignoring the resets effects entirely and emanating an energy that should not exist. The human looking figure pushed his u-shaped glasses up, but never let his gaze stray from his book.
"That will be it then? You are in no further need of my assistance?" he asked the fallen scientist "It would be quite simple for me to bring you back to the real world, you would but need ask"
Despite his lack of solid form Gaster still managed to give the entity a heated glare. He would not accept this stranger's help again, the many unknowns made Gaster wary of him, his motivation was a complete mystery.
He had only chosen to work with the white haired humanoid before because he had no other choice. Now he was content with remaining in the void, rather than possibly helping whatever agenda this entity had. The others were free, that was all that mattered.
The humanoid closed his book "I didn't think you would have changed your mind, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to check." A slew of pages began swirling around him almost obscuring him entirely.
"it is a good thing then, that I don't need to do anything" Gaster turned to ask what he meant, but he was already gone. All that was left was a couple blank pages on the ground.
Silence. Gaster was alone again. 'Wait' the scientist thought he heard something, was his senses playing tricks on him? No. There it was again. It sounded like footsteps.
Suddenly there was voices as well. He turned abruptly towards them and found himself looking at a door. Where had that come from?
He ignored the strange occurrence and listened.
"kid are you positive that you are positive you know where you are going? cause I am pretty sure we have been going through the same hallway several ti...." the voice paused mid-sentence "okay that wasn't there before, is this what we were looking for?" the question was apparently answered non-verbally as the same voice continued "alright then, lets get it open"
Light flooded the void as the door was opened and the formless realm was forced to become a small cavern room. Gaster shielded his eyes from the blinding light.
Gaster had not seen light in an eternity, it all felt unreal. Finally his eyes adjusted and he looked up at his unexpected visitors.
Sans' eyes widened in shock when the amalgamate like creature looked up and he saw it's face.
"Pops?!?"
