Across the timelines [an Undertale Fanfic] (revised)

Why bother?

 As Frisk and the others continued to show Chara around, occasionally making a few jokes along the way, it wasn't hard to see that Chara was very bored with it all. The idea of being friends with a monster disgusted him, almost as much as the thought of ever returning above ground.

"What's the point in all of this? Why show me something so useless as disgusting, weak creatures?" Chara asked, offending the taller skeleton beside Frisk. His arms were crossed against his chest as he stared off into the distance, only closing his eyes for a bit as he yawned. "I mean, I've met them all before. I know what Jerry or a froggit looks like. I know the stupid carrot monsters and that crying ghost monster. I've met everyone before."

Papyrus gave Chara an annoyed stare as he said, "monsters are NOT disgusting! Some may be slimy and weak, but not definitely not disgusting!" Placing his hands on his hips, Papyrus stared down at the boy in green before saying, "someone ought to teach you some manners before you go insulting all our friends! You'll hurt their feelings."

"We're showing you that it is possible to be friends with everyone, Chara. Living here with Toriel and my skelebros makes life more fun." Frisk started to think about some of the fun things they could do before remembering Undyne's favorite place above ground. "Hey, maybe we should see if Undyne wants to hang out with us too! We could go to the beach and make sandcastles. Ooh, or maybe we can go over to her house and get a cooking lesson so she and Chara can become friends!"

While Papyrus nodded with excitement, Chara shook his head no. Sans had only shrugged as if it didn't matter to him either way. His only job was to make sure Chara doesn't kill Papyrus, or anyone for that matter.

"I'll give her a call to see what she wants to do. Besides, we don't know if she has anything planned today, or if she was going to go hang out with Alphys. Of course, we should also invite Mettaton and see if he wants to go."

Sans looked away from his brother, not happy with how close Papyrus was with the robot. He could list several reasons as to why he didn't want to see his little big brother dating someone like Mettaton in the first place. The only problem is that Papyrus was happy with him, so as the oldest, it was his job to support him. Both boys noticed how uncomfortable Sans was getting with the idea of inviting Mettaton, but while Frisk decided to comfort Sans, Chara had thought of something else.

"Are you actually dating that tin can? I don't understand why you would waste valuable time dating someone that would always put a stupid movie or tv show before you. I mean, it's just stupid to let yourself fall in love with a hunk of metal that wouldn't have even existed if Alphys hadn't made that stupid ghost a body to begin with." Just then, a smile came to his face as an idea struck his mind. "Man, wouldn't it be a shame if something were to happen to him? Something out of your control?" Chara asked the taller skeleton before looking back at Sans. "I'm sure your brother wouldn't mind if Mettaton suddenly disappeared from your life. After all, Sans doesn't seem to enjoy the idea of you two together anyways."

Just then, Sans eye glowed it's vibrant blue color as he used his power to slam the annoying child to the ground, momentarily forgetting that what he does to one affects the other. He watched with satisfaction as Chara fell to the ground roughly, bruises appearing on his skin.

"You're such an irresponsible adult!" Chara shouted, annoyed at the smaller skeleton as he looked over to his friendlier counterpart. Papyrus was helping Frisk up, wondering what had happened that had made him fall. "Is your head so empty that you would willingly attack me and hurt Frisk? Shame on you, Sans. I thought you would take care of that cry baby!"

Sans shrugged, ignoring Chara's words as he walked over to Frisk and his brother. "You okay, buddy? You're not feeling down, are ya?" He held out his hand to Frisk, offering to help him get back on his feet as the dirty brother killer stared back at them.

"SANS! This is no time for any of your ridiculous jokes! The humans just suddenly fell down pretty hard. It looked pretty painful," Papyrus said as he looked over at his short older brother. He wasn't sure what he should do at that moment. Frisk and Chara had both just fallen right in front of him, but neither one of them carry a first aid kit with them in case this happens. "Should we tell the queen?"

Sans shook his head no, "nah. Tori doesn't need to know about this little thing. Humans fall all the time, so it's nothing to worry about." With that, he smiled over at Frisk as he messed up his hair, giving him an apologetic look as he did so.

Frisk nodded at Sans words, not wanting to worry Toriel anymore than she was when she saw them earlier. Of course, he knew what had happened and didn't blame the other skeleton. He knew all about how Sans had felt about his brother's relationship with Mettaton and knew that Chara wouldn't be able to resist messing with him. Chara managed to provoke Sans into using his power in front of Papyrus, but somehow, the other skeleton missed the entire scene.

"You're dead, comedian. I'm going to make sure you experience hell before I take your pathetic little life away." Chara whispered under his breath, loud enough for Sans to hear. "Everyone here will die by my hands, and it would all be thanks to you."

The smaller skeleton frowned as he looked over at the angry boy. He took in Chara's serious face, his sinister smile, his empty eyes that he believed have never held any compassion for anything. There was nothing left inside Chara that could make him human, but for some reason whenever he was with Frisk, Sans noticed a small change in Chara. Chara isn't as cruel as he tends to be in the other timeline. He's a little... Calmer, you could say. It was almost as if Frisk was definitely having an impression on the boy, but if he's anywhere alone, then Chara wouldn't hesitate to end them.

"Chara, that's not how you make friends. You have to be nice, and smile." Frisk smiled as he took Chara's hand, helping him up and bringing him back to his side. "Sans is actually very responsible whenever someone asks him for something. One time, mom asked him to watch me for a few hours to make sure I didn't get into any trouble when I went to play with Monster kid, and he kept both of us from being hurt by some traps that someone accidentally started up. He also tried to ke-"

"I don't care, Frisk. I honestly don't care what that bag of bones has done for you." Chara sighed before pulling his hand away from him, rather disappointed in his so called friend. By the way he was speaking, getting him to have a change of heart will be almost impossible. "I'd rather explore on my own for a while, so see ya. It's been "fun", but Imma go now."

Just as Chara started to walk away, Frisk tried to bring back his bad counterpart, afraid of what would happen with Chara on his own. He asked the skeletons to meet them at their house, and to prepare some puzzles that they could try to solve until they decide what to do. The brothers nodded, hesitantly agreeing before walking off towards Snowden while sharing ideas of what they could do up at the surface world. Without the barrier being placed around exit, they were all free to leave the underground whenever they wanted, and humans soon accepted the monsters up in the surface.

"Chara! Chara! What's wrong!" Frisk asked as he tried his best to catch up to the other boy. Chara was running away from him as fast as his legs could carry him to get away from the goody two shoes, until he found a Parsnik wandering around. "Chara!"

Not hesitating this time, Chara approached the monster, knife in hand before entering a battle. As Frisk caught up to them, he witnessed Chara's fighting ability first hand. With one strike, the Parsnik took 9999 damage, eventually turning to dust as Chara's LOVE went up. The smile on his face frightened Frisk as he thought of the poor monster that just lost it's life to Chara's hands. Tears came to his eyes as he looked over at his friend, unable to believe what he had done.

"Oh, Frisk, why do you look so shocked? You knew that this is what I am from the very beginning, so whats the point in trying to deny it? I knew what you were trying to do to me the entire time, and it definitely wasn't to show me that humans and monsters can be friends  junk you keep mentioning. You were trying to change me into being a weak, spineless fool like you.  Let me ask you something then, Frisk. What's the point in being good when being bad is much more fun?" Chara then turned back to Frisk, watching as the boy continued to cry. "You don't need them, Frisk. You can make yourself strong if you gain LOVE. Nothing will be able to hurt you anymore, not if you join my side. We can rule this world together."

"No! Killing is wrong! Parsnik was my friend!" Frisk cried out, letting his tears fall as he shook his head no at the other boy. He didn't ever want to imagine him hurting any of his friends. After everything he's been through, he never wants any of them to get hurt. He loves everybody too much to ever want to see them turn to dust in front of him. "You killed one of my friends!"

Chara took a step towards him, walking until he was directly behind Frisk before giving him a comforting yet eerie hug. "I'm all you need, Frisk. You don't need the others around you to protect you. I won't let anyone hurt us anymore. Don't you remember what your life was like before falling into this place, before falling on my grave? Don't you remember how both humans and monsters treated you before you freed them? Do they really deserve a happy ending after all the hell you had gone through because of them?"

Frisk shook his head no, not wanting to remember his life in the orphanage. The other kids never really wanted to play with him, only took away whatever was given to him. No matter what he had, they always asked him if they could keep it, and because he wanted to be friends, he would always said yes. It took him a while to realize the truth, but he had to accept it the day he overheard them say that Frisk was just another pushover, and that he would never be a real friend. As long as they could get stuff from him, they would let him keep pretending that they were friends.

When he tried to ask them about it, the kids had smiled cruelly at him, similar to the way Chara smiles at monsters, saying that he doesn't belong there. They told him that he should just disappear, and that no one would even notice he was gone. They tried to hurt him a bit too, but when he called out for help, the adults would always arrive before something majorly bad could happen to him. It wasn't long after that he had heard of Mt. Ebott and fell inside...

"I like living here. I like having friends who really care about me, Chara." Frisk cleared away some tears before meeting the other boy's eyes. He wanted Chara to see that he was being serious about this. He didn't want to kill his friends and there was nothing he could say to him that would make him change his mind. "You wouldn't get it, but this place is my home. It's more of a home than what I had before, and I love it. Mom, Asgore, Sans, Papyrus, everyone of the monsters are my friends, my family. I don't want to see them die, especially by your hands. We can all live happily together, Chara. You just got to let me show you. Please?"

Chara shook his head no, not wanting to listen to that before showing Frisk his hands. "Look at my soul, but when you do this too, you can see our souls are the same." As Frisk looked at their souls, he couldn't deny that they were one and the same. "Do you know what that means? We're meant to be the others other half. I'm the strong one, the one who wants to give us true freedom, and you're the weaker one, the one who is naive enough to think everyone will always be on your side. You need me around, Frisk."

"No, I don't. Our souls may look the same, but that's it. I don't want my friends dead." Frisk tried to move away from the other boy, but couldn't make himself move. He didn't know what was going on with himself, but for some reason, he was frozen in that embrace. "Chara, we're not the same."

With a lower voice, Chara whispered into his ear, "then why am I here? You brought me to this timeline for a reason. You want to kill everyone, but you're afraid of what everyone will think of you if you do so. You can't help but be curious about the sensation that comes from seeing them all perish. You want to become stronger, don't you?"

Frisk didn't answer as he continued to listen to Chara's words. Yes, maybe some small part of him was curious, and that scared him. He loves his friends, but he couldn't help but feel as if Chara was right. Maybe he was there for a reason.

"Come on, Frisk. All you have to do is listen to me, and I can make you strong. Aren't you tired of being told what to do? Aren't you sick of always being considered a push over? A crybaby? A loser? Why should you bother to be good, when everyone around you had treated you badly? Isn't it time you return the favor?"

Frisk closed his eyes, thinking carefully about what his choice could do. Take away the happiness he worked so hard to give everyone, dying so many times only to keep trying to free them all, or ignore Chara's words and try to change him. Chara focused on all the negative stuff in the world, but its hard to show him the good stuff when he was clearly not interested. It kind of made him wonder if Chara himself ever had the chance to make that decision on his own.