Twice Fallen [Undertale]

Prologue - A Deal

Fray slowly and exhaustingly crawled through the barrier from the monster world to the human world.

They did it. They finally beat Sans. That pun-throwing son of a prick had to go down sooner or later anyway. Not much different from his brother. Both are annoying pain-in-the-butts.

Nonetheless, Fray still took quite a good amount of pain. Sparks won't stop flashing in front of their eyes, head feeling like it would explode any minute, and they're pretty sure they could do with new ribs here and there. One thing Fray learned from their battle with that pun idiot was they did not like being psychokinetically tossed around.

Still, for some reason, Fray didn't feel any remorse for what they did. To them, killing monsters was not a matter of why, but a matter of when. Fray wasn't a supporter of equality among humans and monsters.

Once Fray fully got through the barrier and into the warm afternoon light and fresh breeze of the afternoon, only did they control their breaths and laid down on a soft patch of stray grass.

"God..," moaned Fray. "How I missed this. Damned monsters and their undergrounds." In peace at last, Fray rested their head on their arms, propped their legs on a dirt tuffet nearby and looked up at the sky, closing their eyes in hope of a short rest.

Not a moment too soon, Fray felt something beginning to bug them. Something felt... wrong. Fray reluctantly sat up and forced open heavy eyelids.

"Wha- what??" Fray gasped as they tried to acknowledge the fact that they seem to be in some kind of void. Nothing for miles but dark, dark emptiness. They've seen this kind of atmosphere in the underground. I thought it was all over..., thought Fray as their heart pounded wildly. They don't want to go through the same hell again.

"Greetings," a sweet disembodied voice sounded from nowhere, or at least somewhere in the darkness. "I am Chara."

Chara..., thought Fray. That's the pseudonym I used throughout the underground.

"Thank you," the voice continued, still dripping with honey. "Your power awakened me from death. My 'human soul'. My 'determination'. They were not mine, but yours."

Fray decided to say something intelligent. "Uh... thanks?" Fray assured them self later that they are not usually this dumb.

Perhaps that was the reason the voice's tone changed suddenly. "Let's just get to the point," the voice said curtly. "I am the reason you feel no remorse while going on your murder spree. Every time a number in your HP, ATK, DEF, GOLD, EXP, and LV increases... that feeling...

"That's me."

Though Fray could sense the smugness in the voice, they somehow believed them.

"Now that we have reached the absolute; no going back, no more meeting the same dumb monsters again every reset," The voice again paused for effect. Fray started becoming skeptical about all this.

"Let us erase this pointless world and move on to the next."

Slowly, a silhouette emerged from the darkness. A young child, looking no older than at most ten, younger than Fray, light brown short and messy hair, a bit too much blush on their cheeks reminded Fray of how bad children in their village used to be slapped by their mothers. The child wore a simple lime green turtleneck with a yellow stripe through the middle. If it wasn't for that creepily calm smile they wore, Fray would have thought the child looked beautiful. Almost too beautiful for a child their age.

Chara, Fray thought, though they had no recollection of meeting them.

"You mean like a true reset?" Fray finally found the courage to ask.

Chara remained calmly smiling. "Yes, Fray. A true reset. Everything you did down there, every encounter you had with a monster, after this reset, all of that never happened."

Fray thought really hard about this. It would be great to forget about all that. The monsters will regenerate, but whatever. At least Fray didn't have to go through it all again. But...

But there is one thing, thought Fray.

"Okay. Your deal sounds neat," Fray tried to sound bossy. "But I'll only accept it. On one condition."

Chara visually scoffed a little. "And that is?"

"That you make sure I get back home to my sibling. And if you are going to turn back time, make sure I never left home this morning." That sounded like two conditions, but to Fray, time and space are two different things.

Now it was Chara's turn to think things through. Surely Chara would have Fray's body as their own vessel, even though the body would still inherit Fray's personality and habits, other than that, Chara's got nothing to lose. They would still get their true reset.

"Fine. You drive a hard bargain. But fine." Chara answered with a sigh. "Now it is time for the true reset." Chara paused a beat. "You are aware that I will possess your body with my soul, aren't you?"

While Fray was taken aback by this sudden show of concern, they tried not to show it and nodded.

"Okay." Chara said with a wave of the hand, preparing to erase everything. "Goodbye, Fray."

Fray closed their eyes, not exactly eager to give up half of themself to this witch. But they remember this was what they had asked for, ever since they killed their first monster.

For Frisk, was Fray's last thought, as the world around both them and Chara washed away.

Fray, now half-controlled by Chara, sat up groggily from bed. It was early in the morning. But instead of hiking up Mount Ebott like they had planned last night, they walked over to the other bed across the room, where a tiny child laid sleeping.

"Hey, Frisk~," Fray cooed. "Wake up, sleepyhead."