The Ruins II

And so the charade began.

Chara closed them self off from Frisk, but Chara's presence never left the poor child. Chara observed in silence as Asriel was shooed by Tori--...Mother. The reflection of Chara before mother was heartbreaking. When Chara was first brought back by Frisk's determination, Chara was perplexed by their very own existence. Remembering when their last breathe was robbed by humanity itself. Oh how Chara silently grieved and envied to feel the warmth of their mother. Seeing Frisk embrace mother's lower half made their heart sink.

Chara quickly turned their head. Listening as the two conversed with one another. It was then time to continue onward with their predicted routine of the maze-filled ruins. Oh how mother loved her puzzles. It actrually brought a weak smile to their face. "Mom...." the child whispered on their breathe. Of course, Frisk would hear the sincere voice of Chara, but their shadowy body would be no where in sight.

Chara kept quiet as everything took place. Sparing the monsters as mother commanded, leaving them to wondering the ruins on their own so she could prepare the pie. As they finally arrived to their destination of mother's new home, Chara looked up at the scarlet red leaves on the tree while Frisk managed their save point. Chara's body became visible as they were lost in thought. When Frisk was finished with there save point, their determination dragged Chara with Frisk as they faded to nothing once more.

"Home..."

Chara's body appeared once more, but not as monster. Chara was reverted back to looking like their former self. Of course, Chara had more of a male appearance compared to Frisk. Taller by a few inches, but in the face, they had facial features of a young girl. At this state, Chara was calm. Hatred didn't linger the poor child, it was relieving to see and explore the halls with Frisk. Watching as Frisk enjoyed the strong aroma of the cinnamon-butterscotch pie. Oh how the memories flooded back to Chara as their eyes lowered.

Asriel, Mom and Dad. Their life was just fine the way it was. But...

The thoughts of Dad and Mom talking about the surface angered Chara. But they quickly looked up to see Toriel's smile towards Frisk and they were quickly relieved of the heartache.

Chara pushed their feet from the ground and was not levitation inches behind Frisk. Lingering through Frisk's thoughts as they collapsed onto the bed. "So how long do you plan to keep up the charade? I see you haven't lost your touch on playing the innocent child to mother...." the hatred began to brew as Chara refreshed Frisk's memories, "After all, it was you who killed her. Ahahah! Gees. They might have forgotten...But that look on mother's face when you struck her.." Chara lowered their head, body trembling in anger to the thought of how her death quickly made hast. If anything, that kill was the worst for Chara. It's as if Chara wanted some hope Frisk wouldn't take her life again, but that would defeat the purpose. Chara wanted to live; envious of Frisk's determination.

Chara's feet placed back on the ground as they walked towards a pile of toys where a toy knife could be seen. Chara's snickering look faded into a frown.

The brief words which had been shared by Chara, whether intentional or not, made Frisk think there was a bit more hope for their little partner. Since Chara had appeared once more and began talking about how they were just going about with a charade, Frisk ignored most of the words which left the young androgynous kid whom wore green as opposed to Frisk's better choice of color scheme. Well, up until they said something about mothers death, Frisk turned their head to watch as the genocidal idiot walked over to the pile of toys. In a way, Frisk pitied Chara. They had everything and lost everything to eating a flower.

"When we struck her," The soft spoken Frisk said to correct Chara and opened their eyes partially to look at the ceiling a bit clearer; revealing their chocolate hazel brown eyes. "My only question is... Why didn't Flowey run? Why did he destroy Asgore? If he didn't go about doing that, we would have been kept busy and away from him..." Frisk's eyes moved towards Chara as they were looking at the pile of toys where a toy knife was. This was obviously Chara's room and Chara, looking at the toy, wasn't so happy. "Why'd you kill your best friend? Why'd you kill me?"

Frisk sat up on the bed and crossed their legs; looking at their hands as if they had just painted their nails. Would there be a way to save Chara as well? Well, Chara was dead. Though their soul was intertwined with Frisks, so there should be a way to bring it back. The only problem was, Frisk had no idea how to go about doing that, but Alphys might. Frisk concealed this thought with many others and closed their eyes once more.

Toriel on the other hand would have left the pie in the kitchen before sitting next to the fire and began reading. Slowly rocking in the chair. Reminiscing in the past when Chara and Asriel played together, where Asgore didn't want to go to war with the Humans or break the barrier. Sure they were confined to the underground, but they had everything they wanted... Until Asriel took Chara's soul and went to the surface, only to come back and spread his own dust on the flower bed. Letting out a soft sigh, the goat peered over at the fire and closed her eyes; slowly falling asleep.

The frown upon Chara's face changed into a wicked smile. "How sad..." Chara turned to face Frisk. Amazed at how the child tried to place the motive onto Chara. "Don't confuse me for your silly decisi--" Chara was interrupted with Frisk's outspoken thoughts about Asriel. While listening to Frisks words, Chara's terrifying smile shifted into their teeth gritting together. "You know nothing..." Chara concluded. Frisk wouldn't understand the bond that Chara shared with Asriel.

When Chara wanted the subject to change, it linger on their mind. After all, what else could the pair do in this time? Sit in silence? No, Chara would grow board staying silent in their own thoughts. "However.." Chara rephrased. "Since I'm stuck with you...I suppose it's best I tell you a little bit about myself."

Chara's hatred in the form of black liquid began to cease. The child's stare staying keen on Frisk. "You see Frisk, I am nothing but an entity of what use to be myself. Your determination is so strong....it brought back only part of me from the dead." Chara turned their body to face Frisk. Taking only a few steps towards the bed as they crossed their hands over their chest to continue their story. "I'm not at peace. And I was lost to the darkness until you fell down to the underground. Of course, I was just as confused as you. I didn't understand why I was even here, but in the meantime...I watched you. I watched you in silence so I could venture with you on this journey. Chara paused. Reverting their eyes away as they allowed a weak smile to purse their lips. " Of course, I didnt know the flower was Asriel at first. But when I saw mom, I was filled with joy. I only wished to stay with her, but the little fragments of my past started to reanimate. I remembered what happened to me and Asriel when we were one. And you, for some reason thought it was 'right' to fight her..

Chara's eyes narrowed into a glare towards Frisk. "And then the killing escalated..You didnt stop. All I could do was watch as everyone was being slain without mercy. So, you created me. Each speck of LOVE made was a rage infesting in me, Frisk. So.." Chara eased in towards Frisk and a conniving smile stretched upon Chara's face. "You should be asking yourself...Why did you kill everyone anyone? Why did you start this genocidal route? And when you wanted to let Flow-- no. Asriel live...Ahehehe...Did you really think I was going to let you get off that easy? You made me suffer, Frisk. You brought this upon your self for who and what I am. But now, you want me to believe you want to start fresh?! I-...I didn't want to kill him! You started something and I was only finishing it! It was too late to bail out. And--....I didnt know he would show back up..You spared him! I assumed he would leave! But..." Chara was getting emotionally stressed. Quickly placing their hands upon their head to soothe the migraine. Trying to suppress their feelings of the past timeline that took place. Once Chara calmed down, they were back to their mellow nonchalant persona and continued. "If he never came back, I wouldn't have killed him, Frisk. But he didn't want to be alone. For some reason, when I had full control and I appeared as you...He knew it was me."

Chara remembered the last words Asriel spoke, "Chara? Is that you?", "See! I can be helpful. I didn't betray you.", "Please! Please don't kill me!"

"That cry baby..heh." referring to Asriel, Chara snickered to the thought and then looked back up to Frisk. "While you were enjoying your little massacre, giving yourself more LOVE and me more HATE..I decided to look into your little determination abilities. That fight with Sans explained a lot to me..heh! We have the power to control this world. We're invisible, Frisk! So I knew from that moment, we are above consequences. I don't know how...or why, but I knew if we restarted this world, the lives of everyone would come back! Just like how we always came back! So you see..I knew there was no real 'harm' done. And honestly, I didn't expect them to forget either. So this is another plus to our advantage."

As soon as Chara responded with the 'How sad...' Frisk's eyes widened even more than before as they opened, clearly wearing a cringing face of guilt as he began to say that it was all Frisk's fault. That they didn't stop the killing. That they were at fault for all of it. They could have stopped, they could have spared everyone to start with. They could have lived happily with everyone or brought them to the surface. Instead they lead to an inevitable disastrous ending where they would have been all alone. Like a broken cog in a machine, their head turned away from Chara as Chara turned their body to face Frisk.

They were working with only a fragment of Chara, so they said and it was Frisk whom filled them with all this hatred. Tears welled up on the ducts of Frisk's eyes as they stared at their shadow on the wall. The innocent little Frisk used Chara as an out lit, a scapegoat. What have they done? Why did Frisk have to believe themselves innocent to the atrocity that they alone committed.

Their body felt heavy, their chest hurt, their eyes began to sting. Closing their eyes Frisk would bring their knees to their chest and wrap their arms around it. The kid looked to Chara, or at least faced them with their eyes as they usually are. "I'm sorry," Frisk said quietly, taking in an inhale clogged by mucus as if they were coming down with a cold. Frisk's apology had truth to it, at least in a sense that they would never do that again. How could they bring themselves to massacre everyone all over again? The thought of going back to the surface weren't all that good. People who traveled to the Mountain never came back, that was the whole reason why they came. They didn't expect to fall down a hole, and what was the reason to go back up in the first place? Was it because, they were afraid?

The way Chara said that they were above consequences, Frisk couldn't agree. There were consequences for everything, whether you felt or saw them right away. The ultimate consequence of their actions brought hate into Chara, scarring across Frisks mind, not being able to see anything the same way again. "We'll... Fix the timeline. It's why we reset it... Why I wanted to reset it." Frisk swallowed hard, "I'll fix you. I'll fix Asriel..." Frisk was being selfish obviously and even knew they'd never forget what they've done, neither of them would forget. Squeezing their eyes closed to remove the rest of the tears which have overrun their eye lids.

Slowly getting up from the bed slowly, their legs and arms moving slowly, Frisk would walk to the door and shakily grip the nob and pull it open with a slow creaking sound. Frisk would then quietly leave the room and begin to quickly walk along the floor with their shoes in hand. They could hear mother sleeping in the other room, but Frisk remembered everytime they tried to go, she would stop them. Frisk decided, they weren't going to stop for Toriel this time.

The human began to quietly walk down the stairs, surprisingly without a sound, however as soon as the kid reached the bottom, the snoring stopped. "Tch~" Frisk quickly slid on their shoes and began to run down the hall, they weren't repeating the same thing again. Avoid fighting Toriel, that was the whole plan there. However, just as they were about to turn the corner the sound of the Goat running after them could be heard.

MY CHILD! DON'T GO! ASGORE WILL KILL YOU– Her arm was out stretched with her fingers so close to the child's shirt, but Frisk lunged out of her grasp last moment, some tears making contact with the surface of Toriels tunic who slowly came to a stop. Staring at the droplets, "Huh...? Tears?" She made a inquisitive expression as she identified the dampness on her tunic before looking back to Frisk whom was closing in on the doors to leave. She was too late to stop her child... Again.

That's when Frisk stopped several feet from the door and glanced over their shoulder, wearing a small smile with their normal expressionless closed eyes. "Mom, I'll be fine. I'll come back... Keep that pie ready for us, kay?" Toriel raised a brow at the ending, who was us? With that, Frisk slipped through the door just as Toriel was about to start running after them again.