Underearth/Book 4/Chapter 23

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Frisk's eyes slowly slid open. Everywhere hurt. Blinking a few times, he tried to stand. Looking down, however, he found that his hands were outlines. Shocked by this, he then looked to the rest of his body, finding himself to be just a vague red Human-shaped outline.

"What happened? Where am I? Calibri?" Frisk looked around, hoping to find the only other person he knew was around.

Nothing. Only an infinite darkness.

From behind, Frisk suddenly heard a quiet sobbing. Flipping around, he saw another vague red Human-shaped outline sitting far away, their knees up by their head with their arms wrapped around them.

Slowly, Frisk approached the figure. Once in reach, Frisk extended his hand. As it approached the figure, it shot out its arm, deflecting it away. Seeing that it didn't want to be touched, Frisk sat down near it, then just stayed there, silent. Eventually, the outline spoke in an ethereal, feminine voice that Frisk had heard before.

"Why are you here, murderer...?" the outline asked softly.

Frisk, upon hearing this question, bowed his head. Eventually, after a bit of thinking, he looked back up at the outline.

"To save you—" he started saying before the outline cut him off with "—from your actions?"

Frisk went silent again.

"I said it before," the outline said. "It was you who pushed everything to its edge. And for what?"

Frisk, still bowing his head, answered. "A fleeting attempt to gain the power to protect those I love..."

"And what did it cost?" the outline scoffed.

"... everything..."

The two then sat in silence for some time. Eventually, Frisk spoke up again.

"I won't make excuses for what I've done." he said. "I went over everything in my head thousands of times while in that cursed void, and I know there's no excuse." Frisk looked up at the outline. "But what happened in that void is exactly why I'm here now. To right the wrongs created by my erred choices. If what I had done had only destroyed me, I would have gladly remained in that void for all eternity. But they didn't just destroy me. Not only had I destroyed every Monster in the Underground, I'd destroyed you as well."

The outline looked up when Frisk said this.

"It was you, wasn't it? It was you who pushed me to continue the fight to save the Monsters, and Asriel, when I'd finally submitted."

Tears began dripping from the outline's face. "Y... yes... it was..." she said through the streaming tears. "I... I hated to see him like that. Especially..." she stopped talking for a second more. "Especially when it was *my* fault he was like that... My hatred for Humanity had destroyed the only thing in this world I still loved... And when you had butchered his re-incarnated form, I…"

The outline, Chara, completely burst into tears. Frisk, not knowing what else to do, hugged her. As quickly as his arms went around her, Chara's arms clung around Frisk tightly as she continued to wail. After some time, she finally began to calm down, though she held onto the hug.

"I... I understand why you're here..." she said. "Thank you."

When Chara released her hold, Frisk felt himself being pulled away, like back when he was inside Asriel's SOUL. The world around him then faded, and Frisk felt himself waking up.

"Frisk? Frisk!? Come on, wake up." Frisk heard a voice, a slight nudge from taps against his side.

When Frisk opened his eyes, he sat up. "What happened?" he asked.

"Not exactly the time to be asking such questions. I assume Chara is fine, so now I have to ask; how the hell are we getting out of here?"

"Why? What's going—" Frisk said, his eyes finally coming into focus on a very tall, very thin red entity with an up-side-down triangular head watching over him from the edge of the platform with ardent interest. Looking around, he saw seven others just like it watching from the edges. "What are those things?" Frisk asked.

"I don't know." Calibri said, his sword firmly in his hand.

"IT'S TIME TO LEAVE." the Timepiece said.

Frisk pulled the pocketwatch from his pocket and opened the cover. RESET was written on the glass face.

"I think I have our way out of here." Frisk said.

"Well whatever it is, do it quickly."

Frisk confirmed with the Timepiece, and a golden orb formed around the pair, pulling them into the next World.