Undertale: Resurrected

Chapter Thirty: Reset

It was strange to close his eyes and find himself wrapped in a familiar darkness; strange to return to a place he'd left behind so long ago. In the middle of this darkness stood Frisk, and in front of him where familiar buttons: Continue and Reset. However, the Reset button was corrupted, glowing red webs creeping along it as a black ooze coated its top. And, right behind that was the ghost of the one responsible. There, right in front of him, was Chara Dreemurr.

         Chara looked just like how he remembered: Green and yellow sweater, cargo shorts, and her vibrant red eyes. Usually her face held a smile, yet he hadn't seen it in such a long time. Now, her expression was an annoyed frown, and he knew exactly what he'd done to earn such a look.

         "...Hi Chara."

         "Greetings." She sounded so poised, yet the anger was clear. "I see you want to break your promise."

         At the sound of that, Frisk let out a sigh. "I just want to get the best ending this time, I swear-"

         "Shut up." Chara then flashed him a smile, though it wasn't like the happy ones he used to see. No. This one was tense, angry, as if daring him to continue. And so, he didn't. "Another promise after trying to break the one you made, the one where you swore you would let my family live in peace so long as I stopped possessing you."

         Smiling, she continued staring at the other, watching him shrink down as the words sank in. "That's what I thought."

         "I had no other choice!" Frisk suddenly snapped back at the taunting apparition, no longer in the mood for a lecture. "You gave me no other options! And I've kept up my end of the deal!"

         "Yet you're trying to reset again."

         "Because we've backed ourselves into a corner!"

         "No. No. You backed yourself into a corner," Chara corrected, her voice booming throughout the empty void. "You made some choices, and they're coming back to bite you, just like they do with any other person."

         "I barely made any choices, actually," Frisk clarified, crossing his arms. "The souls, CPS, and the HPS were completely out of my control."

         "Perhaps." Chara crossed her arms in return, the ghost seeming to take a seat in the air as she gave Frisk a distrusting glance. "But you still made choices. You chose to take the souls with you, which got CPS' attention, and HPS was always going to appear. After all, it's human nature to hate what you don't understand."

         Her last few words held a biting tone to them, one that caused Frisk to clench his fists before throwing them to the side. "You act like that was all my choice! Toriel would've taken them back down regardless of what I'd said!"

         "You could have prevented her from heading up the mountain. That was your choice," she said.

         "I had no idea the souls would be alive!"

         "And that still is not my problem, Frisk-"

         "Why didn't you come back like the rest of them did?" And that, for once, caused Chara to pause. "Well? Why didn't you?"

        "...Because I don't have a soul anymore," she hissed. "My and Asriels' soul shattered after we died. We weren't stable, and when I tried to reset, it broke."

         Chara then went silent for a moment, the child no longer looking at Frisk. "The only soul I have is yours."

         The two then stood there in an uncomfortable silence, neither looking at one another, though Frisk eventually did. "...I'm sorry-"

         "Don't." Chara glared, red eyes meeting his own brown ones. "I don't need your false sympathy, nor do I need you distracting me."

         At that, Frisk couldn't help but frown and roll his eyes. "Take note of my soul. These feelings aren't false."

         "Yes, they are." She then relinquished her sitting position, boots landing silently on the ground as she walked past the buttons and stood directly in front of him. "You have played this game so many times that your ability to care about any of us has become next to impossible. We have been nothing but a game to you for who knows how long, all because you would rather play hero than face the surface. You would rather play with your toys than face reality."

         "No, no, it wasn't like that," Frisk protested.

         "Oh? Then what was it?" Chara pondered, eyes boring into his soul. "Why did you spend so much time down in the Underground, resetting over and over again, even after achieving the perfect ending?"

         "...Because I didn't want to go back to the group home. Duh..." Frisk appeared to look ashamed for a moment, but he quickly masked his shame, opting to look Chara in the eyes once more. "Humans aren't all bad, but the adults? They really hate listening to kids."

         "And yet, you're the ambassador."

        "Who no one ever takes seriously!" Frisk threw his hands into the air once more, eventually turning around and facing away from Chara entirely. "I need to fix this, and I know you don't get it because all you care about is your weird justice complex, but I need to fix it."

          Frisk once again let that sink in, only to then let out a sigh as Chara refused to answer. "...At least let me figure out what makes HPS tick. You hate humans, and they hate monsters. We stick it to them, and it works out for all of us."

         "...No." And suddenly, the pitch black world was gone, along with the buttons and Chara. But, her last words echoed in his head. 'Figure it out yourself.'