Chapter Text
The sun was beginning to set as the monsters walked down Mount Ebott, and yet Frisk was still standing there, watching the horizon.
Chara found it rather cute at first, maybe the girl had forgotten what the sun looked like and was stunned by its beauty, unable to process it…
But then everyone left one by one and she was still there, her back at the ghost behind her…
It had become quite unnerving.
"Uh… Frisk…?" they softly muttered, as not to scare her. "You haven’t moved at all for a while… Are you OK ?"
"I’m… bored." she said simply, not explaining anything.
"Oh well, let’s get down with the rest of the monsters then, we can explore the surface with them !" they exclaimed, hoping it’d get her going again - not seeing her excitedly bouncing around was deeply worrying. "Maybe we can even-"
"No that’s not it, I mean that our adventure is over." she explained, finally turning to Chara to let them see her blank expression - so troubling. "It’s back to 'normal' life."
"O-oh, well we will be with the monsters, so it will be more fun, no ?" they tried, smiling awkwardly. "And we can try to convince them to come back to get Flowey, wouldn’t that be an adventure ?"
"...I wanna go back in the Underground…"
"Huh ?"
"I said, I want to go back in the Underground." she repeated louder, now looking somewhat annoyed. "I want to reset and start our journey again."
"F-Frisk, why ?" they asked in fear and confusion. "I mean, you wanted to come back to the surface so badly, so why do you want to reset now ?"
"Because nothing will be as good as this Chara !" she exclaimed, looking at the edge of tearing up. "Now it's back to mean human neighbours and confusing old school !"
"Yeah, but you will have your monster friends with you, so I will be better, right…?" they tried, barely able to smile at this point.
"They'll have their own life Chara, it won't be the same." she muttered, looking down.
"I mean, true, but… Frisk, that's a powerful power you wanna play with." they answered, biting their lip. "You are just delaying the inevitable, we will have to go to the surface eventually."
"Yeah but…"
"And you will not be all alone, they will still be there." they reassured, starting to smile again. "And I won't go anywhere, we will be together forever, right partner ?"
Frisk didn't answer, simply looked back at the sun, at Chara and then at the exit of the Underground.
She seemed conflicted, but still ultimately made her soul appear.
"I'm sorry Chara, I can't do it." she muttered as she reset. "But it'll just be once, then we can go, I promise."
So then they saved the monster together once again…
And twice turned into a third time, which turned into five times, and then twelve times…
And next thing they knew, Chara was watching Frisk look at the sunset for the 28th time.
The first time was the only time Frisk seemed to be happy doing it.
Afterwards, she looked just as miserable as before this whole endeavour started, looking as though this was a chore that she wanted to get over with as quickly as possible.
Yet, it took a lot of time for Chara to finally dare to point it out.
"You look unwell, is it doing this over and over again ?" they gently asked, the concern obvious in their voice.
"Yeah." she admitted, turning to look sadly at them. "It’s not enough anymore either."
"That’s great to hear." they sighed in relief. "Now we can finally join the mons-"
"No !" she exclaimed, horrified by the idea. "I mean, we need to try something else, even the Underground is boring now, we can't go to the surface yet !"
"So if that’s not what you meant, what did you…?"
"I have an idea." she confessed as she brought her soul. "I’m sure this will make me feel something, it has to."
When they awoke that time, Frisk had already left with Toriel…
How odd, normally they woke up as Toriel appeared to save her…
Had she made Toriel leave faster with some kind of excuse ?
But why ?
…Did she want to stop Chara from mangling with her plan?
They floated as fast as they could through the Ruins, trying desperately to find the girl - they had a bad feeling about this…
And they were horrified to find out that their fear was justified as they found Frisk with her trusty stick, dust on the floor and her weapon.
"Frisk, what the fuck is that ?!" they asked, shocked. "What did you do ?"
"I killed a moldsmal, and it worked !" she exclaimed happily. "I felt something !"
"What you felt were the EXecution Points, Frisk !" they reminded, trying to get some sense into her. "Levels Of ViolencE aren't a substitute for actual happiness, we need to go to the surface !"
"It is though, I felt so happy when I did it !" she continued, flapping happily. "I mean, I also immediately felt really bad, but I can reset afterwards so it's fine !"
"Frisk, are you hearing yourself speaking ?!" they asked, shocked even further by her words. "You just killed a moldsmal, it can’t be a backup dancer anymore !"
"I-I know, but I’ll reset and make it all fine again so it’ll be fine !" she assured, trying to blow the dust away. "No one’ll ever know… Except you of course, but you’re OK with it, right ?"
"Frisk… Please, stop." they sighed, still trying to reason with her. "Killing your friends - our friends - won't solve anything, you will be miserable again soon, please..."
"I'll just do it a few more times, OK ?" she asked, smiling awkwardly. "Then we'll go back to the surface, I promise."
Chara sighed; they already knew where this was going, and yet they felt unable to stop it.
"You already promised the last 27 times…"
"I know, I know…" she muttered, looking down. "Buuut, it'll be for real this time, I promise !"
And thus Frisk started to kill her own friends, each one that she met from there to Toriel's house without saying a single word…
And, to Chara's shock, she then turned around and went back to the Ruins.
"Frisk, where are we going ?" they asked, confused. "What's going on ?"
"I'm going to kill a few more monsters…" she muttered, looking down at the dusty floor. "I only feel guilt now, we can't reset yet."
"See Frisk, I told you !" they exclaimed, rolling their eyes. "You're just- Wait, guilt ?"
Frisk nodded sadly, which threw them for a loop…
LOVE made you not feel guilty for killing people, that was why someone that killed was more likely to kill again since they would feel detached from it all…
Why wasn't Frisk following that rule, when by this point she should have had 2 LOVE ?!
"B-but LOVE is supposed to make you feel less and less guilty." they muttered, their soul filled with confusion. "How…?"
"Wait, let me look if…" she said, making her soul appear and looking at it. "I only have 1 LOVE…?"
"What ?!" they asked, shocked. "But that's impossible !"
"...How do you feel about me killing all those monsters ?" she asked weakly, biting her lip.
"Well, I'm annoyed you still haven't reset; you're 10, you should be playing on the surface with your monster friends, not trying to kill them because you're bored." they stated, rolling their eyes. "But why does it matter ?"
"But do you feel bad ?" she asked, stimming uncomfortably. "Do you feel sad for them ?"
"Well duh, of course !" they exclaimed angrily. "You killed our friends, of course I am sad for them !"
"But as much as for the first moldsmal ?"
"I… No…?"
Frisk looked lost in thoughts for a few seconds, but even when she wasn't anymore, she still didn't say one single word…
She just started hunting down each and every monster that was still alive in the Ruins.
And Chara couldn't do anything about it, nothing but feel less and less sad about it…
What the hell ?!
Finding monsters was harder and harder, which was normal, they were probably hiding from that blood - well, dust in that case - thirsty human.
What wasn't normal was that Chara felt more and more angry about it, wanted them to come to Frisk so she could kill them faster…
Why the fuck ?
...It was probably just because they wanted it to be over quicker so they could go back to everyone's happiness on the surface, right…?
When nobody came anymore, when the monsters were all dead, Chara felt nothing…
Nothing but a faint sense of happiness…
What the fuck was going on ?!
"Chara, can you make your soul appear ?" she suddenly asked weakly without looking at them.
"I… OK…?"
Chara's soul used to be the same as Frisk, red with pure determination and shining with life…
But it was grey now, grey and dead, having lost all of their determination when Asriel died.
Yet, they could still make it appear in their hand just like Frisk could…
And that's when they saw that they had 3 LOVE.
"What is this shit ?!" they asked, overwhelmed with confusion and fear. "Why am I the one that has your LOVE ?!"
"…I'm going to find Toriel." she said before going silent again.
"What ?! Frisk no, Frisk…! Frisk, please !" they exclaimed, horrified.
But their words were useless, Frisk had only one idea in mind and they were totally helpless against it…
Why was Frisk continuing ?
She felt guilty each and every time she killed someone, so why did she want to kill her new adoptive mother ?!
Was she that desperate to feel something, really felt that empty, just like Chara when they let themself fall into the Underground...?
Shit.
Chara's thoughts came to a halt when they finally realised they were in front of the door leading to Snowdin, that Frisk was right in front of Toriel…
Had they overthought the whole way there ?!
Frisk took the toy knife out of her pocket and prepared herself to strike…
And they didn't feel sad when thinking that their mother was about to be killed even though she always did her best to help humans that had fallen down, which thus made them feel awful…
But she did block Frisk's way, and thus had to disappear so it could be over and the timeline could be reset, it was the only way.
One attack was all it took, Frisk had become so powerful that one stab of the toy knife immediately made a huge gaping hole through Toriel's skin…
And they felt nothing, nothing but morbid satisfaction.
"Y-you… really hate me that much ?" Toriel asked with her last breath - and it clearly affected Frisk way more than them. "Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you here… Not you, but them ! Ha… Ha…"
Toriel's body turned into dust and her soul shattered…
But Chara only felt the 6 LOVE they now had, happiness at becoming stronger just like Frisk.
Sure, they felt shame, but no sadness or guilt whatsoever…
As Frisk walked up to Flowey, they tried to rationalise what was going on : Frisk was going to stop soon, the both of them would have become stronger from this even when their LOVE would go back to 1, and then they could face the surface together.
"You're not really human, are you ?" he laughed, clearly amused by Frisk's roughless kills. "No, you're empty inside, just like me."
Frisk didn't say anything, having probably turned non-verbal with all the guilt that killing 20 monsters as well as her own adoptive mother had given her…
It kinda made Chara feel like he wasn't talking to her, but to them.
After all, they were the one that had a dead soul, the one with all the LOVE, they wouldn't blame Flowey for thinking Frisk did nothing but was possessed into doing it…
They bit their lip as they hugged themself; they felt like a monster, like the demon that humans on the surface called them when they were 10 themself.
"In fact, you're Chara aren't you ?" he continued with a smile. "We're still inseparable after all these years."
Chara's dead soul skipped a beat…
Was that how Flowey saw them, a demon that wanted each and every one of their old friends and their family dead ?
Was it how Asriel saw them…?
Frisk seemed to have disassociated from the situation completely, so now it was just them and their soulless brother…
And the sins crawling down their back.
It hadn't been their fault, they hadn't killed any of them, but they didn't stop Frisk as much as they could and did enjoy it in a sick and twisted way…
They felt so awful.
"Listen, I have a plan to become all powerful, even more powerful than you and your stolen soul." he said, his smirk wide and his eyes lidded with satisfaction. "Let's destroy everything in this wretched world. Everyone, everything in these worthless memories… Let's turn 'em all to dust !"
Chara's dead soul was in their throat.