The Path We Walk

Ch. 5 Reunited

  I hear muffled crying. I open my eyelights. I see I'm surrounded by darkness. I start to panic. I bring my arms to my chest, when I realize I have a body. I start to calm down. It's different than last time. I'm laying on the ground, or at least something solid since everything is dark. I get up and start to look at myself to make sure everything is still there. I notice that even though everything is dark, I can see myself like I was in a lit room. Weird. Once I was satisfied, I noticed the crying again. I look around and see two small figures curled up together on the ground a few yards behind. I would recognize them anywhere. I was in disbelief.

  "Frisk. Chara. Is that you, kiddos?" I ask while slowly making my way towards them. Frisk and Chara looked the age they were on the surface, about twelve.  Medium-length hair. Wearing sweaters, blue with a purple striped and green with a yellow striped respectively. Blue jeans. High-top shoes.

  The crying abruptly stops. Slowly the two children uncurl themselves and look up at me with sad, but hopeful eyes. "Sansy is that you? How did you get here?" Chara asks me.

Frisk proceeds to get up and run to me and jump.  I pick them up in my arms and spin them around. Their face lights up with a wide smile. I set them down and holding their hand walk the rest of the way to Chara. I hold my arm open and Chara lunges into me knocking me down. Frisk then jumps on top knocking the wind out of us. We carefully rearrange ourselves so that, Chara is sitting across my lap and and Frisk is laying between my legs. Just like old times, before the endless hell. These interactions just confirm my theory of it not really being the kiddos' who were doing it. So it was probably a player or some outside entity. I want to enjoy this reunion, but after a little while I realize I need some answers. So with reluctance I ask, "Where are we?"

  *Sigh* "We're in our soul. Or your soul now, that we're stuck in together." Chara answers, cuddling closer.

  "Ok, I can understand that. But, how did we get here?" I question.

  "Well it's a little hard to explain." Chara says ringing there hands.

  "Just do your best. I'm sure if the two of you work together you can give me the run down of our situation." I encourage.

  Frisk and Chara share a look and nod their heads. I swear the two must be able to read each other's minds with the amount of times they've done that. It wouldn't be surprising since they pretty much shared a soul. Even when Alphys and I made Chara a new one, we used Frisk's determination for it. Chara seems to be trying to think of what to say. They start to fidget in my lap. After a few minutes they stop. "Ok, so you know about the how our determination lets us reset, load, and save right?" Chara asks.

  "Ya, your able to do it thanks to having the highest amount in the underground." I told them.

  "Well, there's a limit on how far back we can go. When we reset we destroy our soul. The energy released from its destruction send reality back to the point we fall into the underground. But the further we want to go back and the bigger the shift in reality, the more energy it takes. When we reset on the surface, it didn't just use our soul to reset. It uses every determined soul it needs. It's why after we hit the three month mark we only use saves and small loads. We can literally feel all the souls being destroyed." Chara explained, while I listened in growing horror.

  "So what happened?" I ask growing tired.

  "Something made us reset. We don't know who they are or how they do it, but they can control our soul like a puppet. Making us do or say things against our will. Or even leaving us trapped here while we can only hear what's going on outside. But, it's the only time we're left alone." Chara said, shaking as their eyes go black, tears of hatred running down their face. Frisk starts crying.

  I hold them closer and start petting their heads. They slowly stop shaking and calm down. I think about what Chara told me. In all honesty, things were in a mess. Soul destruction, possession, and absorbing were things I was not equipped for. I can create a soul out of the components, but manipulating them like that wasn't really in my skill set. I learned how to do purification and empathy, but I was self-taught, like most of my abilities, so I don't have a great grasp on them. Purification would allow me to cleanse negative emotions from a soul and empathy lets me sense and share emotions. Neither of which would be really helpful right now. A thought crosses my mind.  We were all in my soul so,"if we're all here, who's controlling my body?" I think out loud.

  Chara, Frisk, and I look at each other with dawning realization. Before anything else, I felt a hard tug on my soul. "Ugh, what the heck?" I say.

  "What's wrong?" Chara asks. Frisk up looks at me in worry.

  I'm about to answer when all I know is pain. The tugging turns into a crushing feeling. I start screaming. The kids climb off me and try to get me to tell them what's wrong. The very culmination of my being feels like its being push threw a shredder on all sides. I'm in pure agony. My surroundings start to phase in and out. Then I wake up.