Across the Timelines [an Undertale Fanfiction]

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.

Papyrus gave Chara an annoyed stare as he said, "monsters are NOT disgusting! Some may be slimy and weak, but not disgusting!"

"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, we should see if Undyne wants to hang out with us too! We could go to the beach and make sandcastles."

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 meet us there! We can have some spaghetti and how things are going with her and 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 his brother's close relationship with the robot was. Both boys noticed this with him, and while Frisk decided to comfort Sans, Chara thought something else.

"Are you actually dating that tin can? 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."

As Sans eye glowed it's vibrant blue, Sans used his power to slam the annoying child to the ground, momentarily forgetting that what he does to one affects the other.

"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?"

"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. "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."

Frisk nodded at Sans words, not wanting to worry Toriel anymore than she was when she saw them. Of course, he knew what had happened. 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 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 meet their end, and in the end. it would be your fault."

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. Anyone else and he wouldn't hesitate to piss them off.

"Chara, that's not how you make friends. You have to be nice, and smile." Frisk smiled as he took Chara's hand to bring 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. 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. "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 the beach, and to bring some puzzles that they could try to solve while their there. The brothers nodded, hesitantly agreeing before walking off towards the exit of the underground. Without the barrier being placed around it, they were all free to leave 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 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. Tears came to his eyes as he looked over at Chara, unable to believe what he had done.

"What's the point in being good when being bad is much more fun? They wanted monsters, and I'm here to bring them one." Chara then turned back to Frisk, watching as the boy cried. "You don't need them, Frisk. You can make yourself strong if you gain LOVE. Nothing will be able to hurt you anymore."

"No! Killing is wrong! Parsnik was my friend!" Frisk cried out, letting his tears fall. "You killed one of my friends!"

Chara took a step towards him, walking until he was directly behind Frisk before giving him a hug. "I'm all you need. You don't need the others around you to protect you anymore. I won't let them hurt us anymore. Don't you remember what your life was like before falling into this place, before falling on my grave?"

Frisk shook his head no, not wanting to remember his life in the orphanage. The other kids didn't really want 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 always said yes. It took a while, but he had soon overheard them say that Frisk was just another pushover, and that Frisk 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 smiled cruelly at him, 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 he called out for help before anything could happen. It wasn't long then 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. "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 sad."

Chara shook his head no 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. 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."

With a lower voice, Chara whispered, "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 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 or 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's not interested.