Across the Timelines [an Undertale Fanfiction]

Finding Chara

  "What do you mean he's gone? He couldn't have just disappeared," Asgore said, getting up to comfort his wife. He had an idea of what could have happened, but didn't want to say anything to her. If Toriel knew that he had asked the skeleton boys to watch and end Chara, she would never forgive him. "Maybe he just went out for a little walk?"

Toriel shook her head no, unable to accept that answer. It just wasn't like him to get up and disappear like that, so she couldn't believe him even if she wanted to. "Flowey said that he left sometime last night, and that it looked like he was talking to someone. He didn't see anyone else in there, and Frisk was fast asleep, so it couldn't have been anyone else inside."

"Calm down, Tori. I'm sure we'll find him. Even if he got up last night, he's still a boy. Boys like Chara need some sleep sometime." Just then, there was a sudden knock on the door before Papyrus and Undyne just walked in. "Hello, Is there something we could help you two with?"

Papyrus took one look at the queen before saying, "well, we came to see if Frisk wants to play with us, but we seem to be interrupting something important."

"Chara's missing." Toriel cleared away some tears before saying, "how can he just disappear like this? And here I thought, I thought I was given a second chance." Unable to meet her friends in the eyes, she ran back to her room, closing the door behind her.

Undyne and Papyrus watched as she ran off before exchanging a look of guilt with Asgore. Asgore sighed before gesturing to the couch, offering some tea as he did so, which they kindly refused.

"I'm sorry you have to see her so upset. She just really loves that kid, you know?" Asgore said sadly, thinking of the days when Chara followed him around, proudly telling him that Asriel and he were going to be just like him when they grew up. They even swore that they would help free the underground, but he didn't think much of it then. They were just kids. Kids, not yet a monster. "Where is he?"

Papyrus knew that they weren't supposed to say anything, but with Toriel crying in the other room, he couldn't help it. "He is in-"

"Alphys has him!" Undyne shouted, loosing her cool for a bit. Almost immediately, she covered her mouth, realizing that she might have just ruined the plan. If Toriel heard her, there was no doubt that she would demand to see him, but after seeing her cry like that, Undyne didn't know if she would be able to say no. It was her job to say no. Alphys was trusting her, but could she really bring herself up to crushing Toriel's hopes again?

Papyrus looked over at his friend with an open mouth, unable to believe that Undyne the undying could break so easily. Even he thought that he would break first, but to his surprise, it was Undyne. "Sans caught him last night in Snowdin Village. You said that if anything happens to kill his determination to stay alive."

Asgore nodded, wondering how many souls did Chara steal along the way, before hearing slight whimpers coming from Frisk's room. Standing up, he walked over to the door, opening it to see Frisk's looks of discomfort as his hand held onto his arm. Going over to him, Asgore picked up the child, holding him close like he's seen Toriel do many times before, in an attempt to comfort him, but nothing worked.

"What is she doing to him? I need to know what she's planning to do first." Asgore said as he looked over at the others. "I gave you permission to end the monster's life, not my son's. What is Alphys doing to him?"

"When we left, they were trying to find a way to separate the bond from Frisk, but I guess we need to bring Frisk there to know for sure if it was working, huh?" Papyrus said, hoping that answered his question. "That settles it. We need to bring Frisk back with us too. I promise you as a member of the royal guard to protect Frisk with all my power."

Frisk let out another cry of pain, eventually gaining the attention of his mother after calming down. "It hurts... Stop. Please stop..." As Toriel stepped into the room, she held her arms out for him, Asgore gently passing him to her. "Chara! Help..."

"Asgore, we have to find Chara. Wherever he is, I'm sure he's in trouble. Frisk wouldn't cry like this for no reason," Toriel said as she looked over at her husband. "Will you help me look for him?"

"Honey, we don't need to look for him. We know where he is," looking away from his wife, Asgore exchanged looks with his friends, silently asking for help. "Undyne and Papyrus know where he is."

As Toriel's hopeful gaze moved to them, Undyne looked shocked to be thrown under the bus like that. Scratching her head, she answered, "yeah, we can take you to him if you want. Bring Frisk too, though, okay?"

With that, Toriel nodded before placing Frisk down on the bed. It didn't matter if he was still in his pajamas, she put on his shoes for him and handed him to Papyrus. "Let me change out of my nightgown first before we go. I'm so glad that you two know where he is. I was so worried he wouldn't come back."

"Asgore, we can't take her to the lab. She'll stop Alphys if she sees him," Undyne told him, whispering loud enough for the three to hear. "She won't let Alphys work if we do."

Papyrus took a look at Frisk, seeing how unhappy his friend was. Even in his sleep, he could tell that the only thing going through his mind was Chara. Chara was loved here, even if he is a crazed murderer. Papyrus couldn't believe that Chara would ever try to hurt them on his own.

"We're supposed to help everyone as royal guards, aren't we Undyne?" Papyrus asked, meeting her eye with a worried look of his own. "Then why can't we make Toriel happy too? She just wants to see Chara."

"You know why, Paps. Chara would kill her if we gave him the chance. For the sake of everyone else, we can't let her see him or it'll all be over for us." Undyne answered, knowing it sounded awful. "If it makes me a bad person for wanting to keep everyone else safe from that monster, then fine. I'll be the bad person, but we can't let her see him. She won't be able to handle it."

Just then a sound behind them made the three turn around to see an angry looking Toriel staring back at them. Both Asgore and Papyrus gulped, immediately looking away, while Undyne met her eyes. Of course, she felt belittled by the woman's gaze, but she was Undyne the undying. She wasn't scared of anything.

"You will take me to find my boy, right? You're not going to try to get rid of me, and take Frisk with you." When the others stayed silent, she knew her answer. Looking away from them, she couldn't help but feel disappointed in all three of them. "Give me my child. If I have to go all over Home to find him, I will do it without you."

Papyrus handed her back sleepy Frisk, just as he was starting to wake up a bit. He looked over at his mom before saying, "it hurts, mom. It won't stop. What's happening to Chara?" As Toriel placed him back on his feet, Frisk rolled up the sleeves to his shirt up to his elbow, taking a look at the bruises forming on his arms. "We really need to find him. Wherever he is, he's hurting a lot."

The others crowded around him, taking a look at his arms, unable to believe that what they were doing was hurting Frisk. They wanted to believe that they were doing the right thing, but if their friends get hurt in the process, is it really the best thing to do? They weren't so sure anymore.

Toriel took Frisk's hand gently, "let's go, Frisk. We'll look for Chara together."

"Chara's at the lab!" Flowey shouted, reminding everyone that he was still in the room. "I heard them say that Alphys was testing stuff on him. Mom, please save Chara! Although he's mean and scary, Chara is still my best friend!"

"Thank you for telling us, Flowey. We're going now," as she led Frisk out of the room, she noticed how the others planned to follow. "Please, leave us alone if you don't want to help him."

Meanwhile...
"AHHH!!!" Chara screamed as yet another experiment failed. He tried to take a deep breath, but he couldn't help but feel drowsy as the serum slowly began to wore off. "St-stop this! AHHH!!!"

As Sans read some blueprints over, he could hear Chara's cries every time Alphys tries something new. With each and every scream, he couldn't help but flinch as the cries reached him. It was getting too much for him. He couldn't listen to anymore screams.

"Alphys, isn't there something else we could do? Is there something we could give him that won't hurt him? His screams are awfully annoying," Mettaton covered his ears, letting out an exaggerated sigh. Sans didn't really agree with the way he said it, but was grateful to him for just mentioning it.

Looking over at the child they were keeping prisoner at the moment, Alphys couldn't help but agree with the others about his screams. Hearing screams, even someone like Chara's, only reminded her of her last mistake. The screams. The calls. She remembered how she couldn't take it anymore and had locked herself away in her lab. Only now was different. Since they've caught Chara, everything is changing. Sans doesn't know of any timeline like this, and after all her research, she concluded that there wasn't one yet in existence. They were truly making this up as they go.

"I'm so-sorry, but I don't th-think I have anything else for him," she explained, a frown on her face as she looked back at her latest trial. As she finished up the new ray, she tested it out on some instant noodles, just to make sure it doesn't incinerate the kid, before aiming it at Chara. She watched as the boy shook his head no, practically begging her not to hurt him anymore. "I'm sorry, Chara. I really am."

Sans couldn't bear to watch this any longer, but knew that he had no other choice. They had to find out if it works or not. As Alphys fired at the boy, he forced himself to watch, hoping this would work so he wouldn't have to hear the screams anymore. If Chara was in this much pain, he could only imagine what Frisk was feeling.

"AHHH!!!!" Chara shouted again, only this time, something did change. A dark shadow rose out of his body, almost as if baring fangs at them before sinking back inside. The others stared in horror at the boy before seeing dark liquid pouring out of his eyes and mouth. As they watched him, Chara stared up at the ceiling, practically lifeless. "Frisk... he-lp..."

Just then, both Frisk and Toriel walked inside, frightening the others as they turned to see them. Toriel had to carry Frisk inside, but as soon as their eyes landed on him, they froze where they were. To see Chara that way, so different from his usual self, frightened them.

"Chara." Frisk called out as he was placed back on his feet. "Chara, we're... here to... help you." As he stumbled over to the tied up boy, he was suddenly held back by his skeleton friend. "Sans, let me go. I need to get to Char-"

"Don't go near him." Sans warned, not bothering to release his hold on his friend. "We weren't wrong when we said he was a monster. There is definitely something in him."

As if snapping out of it, Toriel stepped further, ignoring the others cries until she reached him. Chara hadn't moved since they walked in, but he was still very much alive. Despite their warnings, she took hold of Chara's hand, giving him a reassuring squeeze.

"What did you do to my son?" she asked, not even bothering to look at them. "Why isn't he moving? What did you do?"

"Mo-m? I do-n't feel so good," the words were almost too silent that she could have sworn she imagined them. As she met his red eyes, she noticed how they were slowly focusing on her. "My body hu-rts too much. Whe-re's Fr-frisk?"

Hearing him call her mom again struck a cord in her heart. Toriel couldn't just leave him here like this, not when he's asking like this. There was no way she would let them hurt him anymore. Pushing some hair away from his face, she said, "he's here. We're both here to take you home."

"I can't let... them get away with this. None of them," he whispered again. "I can't... let this happen again..." With those words, he closed his eyes as a pained look overtook him once again. When they opened, she could see how clouded his eyes were. Something was wrong with him, but she didn't know what. "Get me... out of this... Please!"

Before she could release him, Mettaton's arms stopped her. She, like Frisk, was pulled away from him as Alphys tried to explain what they just saw. At first, Toriel couldn't believe her, finding it just plain cruel to have him here like this. Even Frisk was horrified, but as they heard about what they saw, he couldn't help but sit down.

"Show me. If I say its too dangerous for him, then this is over. He's not some kind experiment you can try stuff on."

As Sans began to take her and Frisk back to a few chairs they've pushed aside, he could have sworn he heard someone calling out Frisk's name. Turning back to Chara, he could see him holding out his hand, reaching for him. "Frisk! Get me out of here! Help me!" Tears fell down his face as he called out for the other boy, only making Sans feel worse. Despite everything he's done, even he didn't deserve all this. " Someone get me out of here!"

Alphys took the injection once again, filling it with the last serum they created before going over to Chara. He glared up at her again, pulling against his restraints before feeling the needle enter his arm. Once again, he let out a chilling scream as the shadow once again made an appearance.

The shadow creature glared at each of them, giving off a similar grin as Chara's. Only this time, it seems like it was laughing at them. It was nothing like they've ever seen before. As it slowly went back into Chara, more liquid poured down his face.

Frisk couldn't take it anymore. He ran over to Chara, freeing his arm despite the pain they were in, before freeing his other one. As soon as Chara was free, Frisk hugged him close, whispering the words "I'm here" into his ear. Chara weakly hugged him back, tears falling down his cheeks as he felt a small pain in his heart.

"You came. You actually came," Chara whispered back, pulling away enough to look at him. "Nobody ever comes when I need help. You're the first."

"I'll always come, Chara. I promised you we'll stay together," Frisk threw one of Chara's arms over his shoulder, helping him off the bed. "Let's go home. Okay?"

He nodded just as Toriel came up to them. "No more of this. Alphys, please don't do anymore experiments on him. They're just boys. If you must, please just find out what that was, but don't hurt them anymore. Sans, you were helping too? I'm disappointed to see that you are involved with this."

"Tori, it's not what it looks like. I was ju-" Sans tried to explain.

Toriel shook her head no. "I know, but it still disappoints me that you would do this now of all time. Frisk and Chara are connected, and there maybe nothing we can do about that, but you couldn't leave that alone. You had to keep trying, even if it means hurting them."

As they left the true lab, Sans watched as Toriel lifted both boys in her arms, letting them rest their heads on her shoulders. His eyes locked onto Chara's for a bit, watching as the kid's eyes filled with hate. His tired frown changed into a sinister smile, but it wasn't Chara's.

"Do you have anymore ideas, Alphys?" Mettaton asked. "I love that woman just as much as anyone else, but what are we going to do about that hideous monstrosity she's keeping?"

Before she could answer, Sans looked over to see what he could have sworn was W.D. Gaster himself. There was something about the way he suddenly appeared that gave Sans the idea that he knew what was wrong, and what they had to do.

"We're going to watch him. Twenty monsters were killed in Snowdin, frightening the others. We may have a plan after all."