PLD Chapter 17

" CHAPTER 17: The Revenge of Chara Arc - Part 2 "

Sub-Entry 161: "Devil May or May Not Cry":
Chara emerged from the flames and that's when I saw it.

At her very core was a mass of flames surrounding a very black heart-shaped object...her soul?

"Oh gods, Bunnie...she evolved again. She's turned her soul into a powerful thermocouple core. She's drawing power from the napalm flames!"

For a girl who's been dead 100 years and probably not science literate...she was learning very, very fast.

"I'll deal with you freaks soon enough...but first..."

She gripped her fists and threw her arms outward, thrusting her chest out. What I could only desribe as a dark matter version of Iron Man's Uni-Beam roared out from her soul and surged up into the sky and into the left jet engine of Vi's jet fighter.

The warning lights flashed and the warning klaxons sounded as Violet was warned with the display panel giving the message: DANGER: TURBINE FAILURE! EJECT...EJECT...EJECT...

"Mayday! Mayday! This is Princess Violet to control tower. I've lost an engine and I'm going down fast!"

Violet fastened her oxygen mask and yanked the eject lever as the canopy window popped oven and tore free. Moments later she jettisoned from the plane as it nosedived toward the town.

"Screw this sh--(FLOWEY CACKLE)!" Violet growled. Instead of yanking her parachute she unlatched it in midair, ditched it then anime-quick-changed into her kimono and jetpack, firing up her jet thrusters. She drew her arms in as she speared straight for the battle ground.

"You owe me a jet and you're responsible for anyone caught in the explosion when it crashes you little sh--(FLOWEY CACKLE)!!!"

Violet brushed an E.N.G.I.N.E. dot fastened to her kimono's obi belt and released what we referred to as a "Vorostovian abomination". A quantum disassembler rifle. Powered by Xenonthium, this weapon was truly horrific because it did not cauterize when it sliced into organic tissue. What that meant was...anything that was cut with the beam ran the very real danger of bleeding to death very fast.

Violet pointed it straight down, aiming for Chara's gaping, jagged Gaster mouth.

"Heard you like chocolate. How about some chocolate covered DEATH LASER!!!" The beam pierced straight down Chara's throat before fizzling.

As Violet plummetted she switched out the laser rifle for her modified naginata spear. She fired her jet packs retro thrusters full blast as she got closer to the ground and extended the wings on her sleeves while firing up the static accumulators and gravity sails she had modded her pack with, then changed her trajectory into a gradual spiral. By this point it was like her very outfit was functioning as a powered squirrel suit.

As soon as Chara shook off the effects of having her innards cut apart at an atomic level, her eyes snapped open in time to catch the blade of Violet's spear through the chest.

"Hello. I'm Violet. 'Knife' to meet you." She said as she tapped into her chi and unleashed a Royal Ripper 10.0 through the spear and into the demon with explosive purple-flame results.

"Nice form, Violet." Bunnie mused as Violet pulled a backflip and skidded backward, wearing the tread off the soles of her sandals.

Vi gave a thumbs up and looked at the shifting form of Chara, now taking an adult appearance closer to Asriel's ascended form, the horns even larger than before. The twisted flesh that was her upper body had hardened over her soul and formed a corrupted image of the Delta Rune.

"So...you claim you're a demon, huh? Well...demons are demons but devils never cry."

"What does that even mean?!"

"You know I was going for something...but I guess it fell flat. Oh well. I guess when you play the verbal slot machines you can't always expect a..."

Violet suddenly let the 0.50 caliber handgun from Hell which would put Vash the Stampede's to shame in terms of size, drop out of her sleeve and into her grasp. She pointed and fired without warning, plugging Chara between the eyes.

"Jackpot!!!" She gave her best Dante impression.

"Vi, what are you still doing with that...that...whatever it is!"

"It's a fifty-caliber. It's for hunting cattle...up close. It's only legal in two places in the world...........and this isn't one of them." She returned it to the confines of her sleeve.

Chara recovered from the whiplash. The bullet was pushed free of her forehead as her wounds began to regenerate.

"You look maaaaaad." Violet taunted.

"Sweet burn, Vi." Red landed and shared a bro-fist.

"The napalm or the insult?"

"Oh yeah!"

And...

"Aunt Sally..." Asriel looked at her with reddened, tear-filled eyes.

"Hey, what kind of look is that? I crossed an ocean to come to your rescue. An entire ocean. Isn't that pretty cool?"

Asriel snifflled and nodded. He was still emotionally cut to his core from Chara's mind games and assault.

Lupe suddenly gasped "Incomming!!"

She grasped the triangular, tri-color (red, green, and blue) spirit prism crystal that hung around her neck and the ghostly silhouette of a hawk superimposed over her and combined with her. A massive pair of ghostly green hawk wings erupted from her back as she grabbed Sally and Asriel and flew straight up moments before the beam of black seared down the street.

"Nnngh..." She strained her strength to hold onto the both of them.

"What the Hell--!"

"Sally A. Acorn. UCIAT's Terrain Master. You're fast, aren't you?"

Yup. She definitely accessed our database through Scott.

"Really. I haven't noticed." Sally smirked, rather coy.

"So Asriel has a thing for superheroes, does he? Arcade's personal logs and your database told me a lot about his life with you trash. Well. Let's see how he likes watching his favorite superheroine meet her Doomsday."

...and apparently Violet's personal files too. Darnit...I warned her about personal literature on company time.

"I told Violet she shouldn't download comic books to UCIAT servers during her work time..."

"Be careful, Aunt Sally. Miss Lupe."

"And Lupe Lycans...UCIAT's nature nerd."

"The word is druid, beast!"

"You think you can stand against me, flower girl...." Chara morphed everything from the neck up into Aiden's likeness and copied his voice. "...when you couldn't even beat me in the tournament?"

Lupe gasped and stepped back, horrified. Mind games? Chara couldn't have gotten that from the database. She already had telekinesis. This had to be...telepathy. A villain that could read minds...and find the deepest, darkest, most painful secrets to exploit. Oh man...by letting Chara come here...I created a mon--  ...no. My best friend is a Monster. This was a horrible creature with terrible power. This was a beast. There wasn't a name for something like her.

"That's right. You ended your match self-destructing with that Phoenix Spirit of yours. And when the smoke cleared you got carried out on a stretcher, naked and smelling like--"

CHER-POW!!

Sally's Gamma Mode Triple Fusion wrist blaster trailed three plumes of smoke.

"Little deliquaints should learn when to shut it when they decide to turn things personal. Or maybe you'd like to jab at something personal to one of Team Acorn and see how you like the retaliation?"

"You think you scare me...hot dog water--" And then Chara felt the sting of Willie's Thunder Knuckleduster bash into the nape of her neck with an excruciating electric sting.

"She's taken better cheap shots from better people than you!"

"You--!

As Chara whirled, she took a pair of Volt Pylons to the chest before taking the full force of their discharge.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"It's 'stunning' how much of a 'shock' I'm in over your low performance. You act like you don't know 'watt' is going on. Stay 'grounded' and we'll clue you in on the 'buzz'."

Asriel covered his mouth to withhold the giggling despite how terrified he was.

Willie rolled her eyes

"Nice." Sally gave a thumbs up.

And elsewhere...

CRACK!!!

"Oh JEEZE!" Rotor freaked as Chara reconstuted and put her fist through the windshield.

"So you're the little mousey that Asriel's so fond of..." Chara pointed the knife at Gadget.

Gadget immediately fell backwards with a scared yelp.

"Back off!" Mitzi formed a pair of Green Tomahawks from her hair ribbons and chopped into Chara's arm.

"Gaaah!"

"Get the Hell off of my van!" It was the first time anyone had seen Rotor lose his temper.

Jon looked around the back of the plumbing van and picked up what looked like a modified flamethrower made out of plumbing supplies.

"What even is this doing back here--" He said before it went off and a basketball-sized fireball seared out and smashed Chara right in the face and and across a good length of the street, taking what was left of the windshield with her.

"Nice shot, J.T.!" Rotor gave a thumbs up.

"God save the Queen, Rotor! What's a humble plumber like you doing with something this dangerous?!"

"You...tend to hold onto some of the things you had to make in order to survive the Vorostovian Desert, escaping to Neo Arcadia after your city kingdom gets blown up." Rotor looked off to the side.

"She's down! Let's keep her off balance!" Felicia leaped and tumble-rolled through the empty windshield frame.

"Yeah!"

"Save some for me."

"Oh bloody Hell..."

At the same time...

"Scott!"

"Callie!"

Both tacklehugged each other and embraced.

"Thank the stars you're okay."

"I'm so sorry, Callie...I--"

"Shh. You weren't in control of yourself."

"Callista...our son."

"We have to get to him--"

"Ha...ha...ha..."

Scott and Callista whirled to see another Chara copy lumber toward them. For someone who's been dead and off world she was certainly channeling a lot of Jardo Leto's Joker at that moment.

"So...you're Asgore and Toriel's replacements...mommy dearest and dear old dad. Worthless humans...he doesn't deserve you..."

Scott activated the program as Callista hovered off the ground and amassed a large amount of psychic energy between her palms.

"I know what you are, Chara Dreemurr. I saw what lurks beneath the surface. Mettaton was right...you aren't as--"

The Real Knife slashed toward Callie's mouth then a second time toward her throat. Callie dodged both times, hastily.

"You shut your dirty mouth, you clothed monkey..."

Scott immediately chopped into Chara's wrist with the Hair Whip.

"I won't forgive you." He readied for a Plasma Shot.

"Do I LOOK like I WANT forgiveness! You talk like I feel any shame for my actions. I did it. And I'd do it again, you evolutionary mistake! You're just an error. Just like the humans of my world. And error I will erase with the timelines!"

All across the city, Chara copies were attacking people and searching for Asriel.

Sub-Entry 162: "Chara Refused to Yield to Her Next Soul Incarnation...":
"Major!"

"I'm okay. Just a took a little paint off my metal parts."

"But you're also not the one with immortal regeneration."

"I am a Rabbotou. Our clan survived 18 generations. I will not allow our legacy to end so easily. Besides...I already have a successor chosen."

"Your precious Mitzi will die after I murder her teacher."

Bunnie never told any of us who was destined to be the beneficiary of all of the Rabbotou Clan collective. It was as much of a surprise to me as it would probably be to Mitzi. Chara had just pried it out of there like that.

"You betray your ignorance with your blind determination. It will end you."

Chara focused into the Real Knife, blood red demonic energy consuming it like flames. The weapon stretched and widened becoming as large as a Chaos Saber.

Chara soared at Bunnie and raised the blade to attack then suddenly drew back with her other arm and threw something in her face.

"Ahh!"

"What the...!"

"D...dust?" Bunnie struggled to regain her vision. I knew she could usually rely on her Sixth Sense to get her bearigns but something was wrong. Her supernatural psi powers must've evolved enough to interfere with Bunnie's other senses. She really was flying blind!

I immediately knew.

"You are one sick little pup, Chara."

It absolutely ENFURIATED me that she could do something so horrible. But...how did she get a monster's dust from a Pacifist TImeline...how did......how.......did....?

"Come now...didn't she want to meet Toriel? Well here she is!"

Tori? No. No. Nonononononono. She couldn't have. She DIDN'T.

"You're lying..."

"No. This is Toriel's dust...just not the one from the timeline you've been frequenting."

My first feeling was relief and my first thought was "thank goodness". But then my second thought and feeling were confusion. How would that be possible?

Then a thought occurred. A thought that went allllll the way back to the beginning. When Frisk failed to complete their contract with Chara...when the timeline collapsed...even they  weren't safe from a dimensional collapse. That's why there was a new Frisk. But if that were true...then this Chara...?

"...the Genocide Timeline. You! You're...!"

Impossible.

"That's right. You said that this wasn't my Asriel...you're right AND wrong at the same time."

It was the SAME Chara! The soul that he never absorbed...even though the Timeline collapsed on them...somehow they made it to the new timeline. How was it even possible?!

"But how?"

"When Asriel left my soul to wander...I was so enraged I'd been reincarnating endlessly in timeline after timeline after timeline. Even before that one. I can't even remember how many timelines ago it was let alone which one I originally came from.

As far as this "AU" you call it is concerned,  I might very well be the original Chara. Or I might not. Who knows? Who even cares?

So. Many. Timelines to reincarnate in. So many times it dropped me NOT into the moment I fell...but into the moment the eighth child fell. Do you know what it feels like to repeatedly be 100 years late in reuniting with only person that ever understood you?!?"

What she said made sense. She once had the power of reset. But when Asriel absorbed her soul...when they died together...something went wrong. Something prevented her from starting over. For 100 years she remained in limbo...and then the eighth child comes along...and their determination is so great it completely overrides her own ability to save and reset.

Chara seethed, trembling with rage, hanging her head, her eyes covered by the shadow of the ugly mess that was her bangs.

"That Genocide Timeline you took Asriel out of was my chance to finally catch up to him...to use my memories of every timeline before to finally alter his fate.  It was a once in a life time opportunity!

Try as I might to convince him...mom...dad...that I had lived all of this before...that I could save them...they all thought I had an overactive imagination! Even Asriel. I was pushed to my limit. I had one last chance. I'd have to show him directly!

All I had to do was explain everything to him once I was in his soul. But knowing him...he still wouldn't have done what I asked. So I'd have to act directly and take control out of his hands and change fate MYSELF.

That unstable timeline...it would have been the one I could take full control of his body and slaughter the humans and break the barrier. I would have acted before he had a chance to gain control of his body!

But no...he couldn't even do something as simple as absorb my soul. He abandoned me. He failed me. I was left to a doomed timeline. I'd had the practice before, twisting Frisk's heart and mind...making them thing it was their choice, their desire to kill everyone...play with emotions...destroy the world...reset the timelines. So making them do what I asked was a piece of cake.

And the world decided to end itself before Frisk could fullfill our partnership. WE were supposed to break the world, not some act of a higher power!"

I growled as I strafed toward Bunnie, hoping to protect her.

"When you took Asriel out of that timeline, you left a vacuum. A paradox. Instead of his lost soul fragments being reassembled and recycled into the next timeline while leaving his memories behind, there was a void that had to be filled. There had to be an Asriel. So by the hands of Fate and Destiny, another Asriel was brought into existence in the new timeline to be born. I knew the rules. Another Chara would take my place and I'd be swept from existence with every other soul that had its chance, doomed to be excluded from the reincarnation process...

...but I REFUSED. I REFUSED to let another have their chance. They were me, but not me that is me at this moment. It would have just been a copy just like the others in the timeline who didn't carry their memories with them. I forced my way into the next timeline through the non-existence between time and space only to become conscious at the moment of Frisk's arrival. Imagine my frustration that I didn't land in the moment of MY arrival. Imagine how furious I was that I couldn't even catch up to the new Asriel. All of those moments leading up to the eighth child passed me by.

I was absolutely livid that this Frisk wouldn't listen to me. And even more livid that I was stuck with that damn weed...that echo of what used to be Asriel. That useless, souless flower."

This was all crazy. Yet it made sense. It made PERFECT sense. It explained everything. By shere force of will, Chara emerged in a timeline she didn't belong in.

"That's when you decided to rebel against being Frisk's guide like in the previous Pacifist timelines. You knew you had to but you didn't. And you were bored with having Frisk slaughter everyone. So you turned it into your own personal sandbox to vent your frustrations for as long as the timeline lasted. Your Asriel...my Asriel was lost to you."

"Until YOU showed up in the timeline and interfered."

I gnashed my teeth.

"You don't just need him for his soul..." I narrowed my eyes. "Why don't you admit what you really want from my Asriel, specifically. What don't you tell me how you regret making Frisk throw away their code."

"In hindsight...it was shortsighted...in both our anger and rage, we had perfected the art of genocide so well that even Smiley Trashbag couldn't land a hit on us. We eliminated him perfectly. Together our determination was so great at one point we unanimously chose to break our own code...throw away the unnecessary parts. And. Just. FIGHT."

"But that was when you realized that part of Frisk's H.U.D. contained a lot of parts of the code that you needed. Things like...the core of the Reset and not just the framework husk that was torn apart with the timeline.

There was also the capacity for making a save file...one of your own that you wouldn't have to rely on Frisk's master save. It would give you the same power that Flowey had with six of the souls under his command to save and reload yourself at will.

But then...there was....something...else. Something within the code that you couldn't comprehend. Something that even we can't figure out.

Something...akin to a vessel...something that can absorb...say...virtues? The kind of virtues say...the eighth child would learn during their journey but still exemplifying the virtue of determination above all others.

Virtues. Like the kind you'd need to resonate with six human souls when say...one called out for help? That kind of goodness that draws souls with matching virtues to you like iron to a magnet in your time of need?"

This was the missing X-factor I had been pondering all this time. That special power that Frisk had in addition to Determination...that something extra in the Quantum Code. This was what let them call out to souls. This was the gamechanger. But most of all...this special power...was now Asriel's; and he had not unlocked it.

"You're too clever for your own good, Arcade."

"So...I wonder what happens when that vessel fills completely. Fills with seven virtues? What purpose would it serve someone like you?" I questioned as I reached Bunnie.

"......"

"Your silence tells plenty."

"So I guess you got me...all my cards are out on the table."

"Not all of them. There's still a secret you're hiding--"

"But you won't have a chance to figure it out now that I've found where Asriel is."

"What?"

"One of my clones has already found him. Time to move in for the kill."

"No!"

"Enough talking, more carving!" Red charged in and fired up the chainsaw blades in his arm units and began tearing into Chara.

"Red, don't!"

"You should have listened to your friend. You R-Series are really flammable, aren't you? Well then. BURN!" Chara opened her mouth and black flames spewed out, light Red ablaze.

"GAAAH! OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD!!!" Red dropped and rolled around.

"And you take a powder, rich girl!" Chara charged Violet and deadlifted her with her horns and send her flying up before drawing the six shooter from the underground and firing off orange and blue bullets...each EXPLODING on impact with Violet. She fell to the ground and sizzled with a groan.

"And now for your second in command..." Chara raised the blade. "Now that the weak have been culled...let's see if my LV can go higher on this world. You took someone that belongs to me...now I'll take someone that belongs to you..."

We didn't notice the figure on the rooftop of a storage depot nearby, knocking a lone arrow with whisps of rainbow colored mojikara characters coiling around it in overlapping helixes.

"I believe the proper expression at this moment is..."

The arrow took flight, transforming into a scroll in midair before transforming again into a crescent of energy that sheered through Chara like a hot knife through butter.

"Cowabunga." Master Splinter mused rather plainly.

Bunnie's vision returned at that moment.

She tumble rolled away and quick scripted a summon jutsu. She summoned an emulated copy of Soul Society's seventh seat of Squad Four Medical Corps.

With Hisagomaru in hand, Bunnie stabbed the blade into Violet's un-moving form and began drawing away her injuries into the katana, the thermometer gauge filling until the blade turned completely red. Violet woke up with a start, her injuries gone and with a look like she had just come out of a beauty spa and massage.

"Oh waiter...I'll have the creme brule and keep the wine coming..." She crooned in a daze.

Bunnie pointed Akiiro Hisogamaru at Chara and discharged a deadly red laser until the blade shrunk to a scapel and crumbled to blackened metal dust.

I on the other hand tended to Red before he burned to a cinder.

Using my electric-magnetic powers I summoned Corona Wind to create a version of Tornado Tonion's Volt Tornado and suck away the oxygen from around the R-Series, snuffing the flames. I immediately gave him my emergency rations of meat foods to jumpstart his metabolism-driven regeneration.

Fortunately the burns weren't as serious thanks to the Null Armor providing protection. Violet had made it heat and flame resistant in the last patch.

"When I recover from this I'm going to tear her brain out through her freakin' mouth!" Red raged.

"Messing with you walking trash is boring anyway. I have a goat to get." She said as she morphed her wings to an even larger version of the Absolute God of Hyperdeath's.

"You're not getting away, Chara!"

"Try and stop me, ya dingus!"

Chara suddenly gasped as she lurched forward. And we could all see the holy arrow sticking out of her back.

I looked up and saw his silhouette against the sun.

"Pit!"

Sub-Entry 163: "Angels and Demons":
Pit hovered down. He was not wearing his usual cheerful smile. I dare she he looked downright angry.

"Well well...I guess ever demon needs its angel. Heaven won't take me. Hell couldn't wait to get rid of me. Stuck somewhere in Purgatory. So, little fledgeling...is that bow real? Maybe a harp would be better suited to you."

"Two things. I do play a harp. And..." Pit separated the bow into its twin swords. "It's not just a bow."

"I think he can handle those blades a lot better than you can handle Asriel's chaos blades."

"Is that supposed to be a low blow?" Chara scoffed.

"Is Asriel still your favorite plaything?" I jabbed.

"You son of a--" Chara swung the blade toward my forehead. It clashed against Pit's Palutena Blade...but not with a normal metal clang...Pit's blade's made a much more...celestial-sounding metal sound closer to a glass chime but still with a metallic resonance to it. I saw Chara's blade actually crack at the point of impact then seal up again after she drew it away form Pit's.

"Out of my way, bird boy!"

"Demon! Prepare to meet the light!" Pit swung again.

Chara faltered.

"You...!"

And from there the air was filled with the clashes of their blades. Faster and faster, the weapons becomming blindingly fast. Too fast to keep up with.

"Give it up, Chara. You can't win!"

"Don't you get tired of saying that?! Look around, Arcade. Your home is being destroyed! Your forces are falling!"

In the distance explosions were going up all over town.

"And you haven't succeeded at killing any one of my people."

"But can you say the same for innocent bystanders? Total strangers? Who knows...maybe there are some people in your town that DESERVE it. Why don't you tell me about the Septus Prince that you're so scared of?"

"...!" That I wasn't prepared for.

"No...he's not like that...he's just....complicated..."

She had struck a fear. But not my most crippling fear.

"That's rich coming from an oni that drools tar and is wetting herself that Azzy might actually have a mind of his own. Maybe you're the one afraid of something. Why don't you tell me how many times you put on an act in front of Asriel to make him look like the scared little crybaby, when you were the one who was the real coward. So cowardly you took your own life and made him cry buckets of tears.

You put on that smile while your stomach was filling up with blood and asked him so cheerfully if he was excited...if he was happy...telling him he was going to be free." Violet laid into her.

When it came to psychological warefare, Vi might not have had the psychic toolkit, but she knew how to get under peoples' skins with just words.

"You don't know what Chameleon's been through, you sick little weirdo. I may have had my fun with him, riffed on him and probably made him want to slug me every time I brought up his Halloween stunt...(He's lucky Brooke let him live with only his shame and a ride in a smelly dumpster.)...but I respect that lizardman more than you could ever know.  I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd meet someone...who DESERVES TO BE ALONE!"

"You're the only trash around here. You're terrible sister and a psychopath!"

Red ignited his HF Blade.

"We're not going to let you catch up to Asriel." Bunnie cybermorphed her arms again, selecting Neon Bubble and and Echo Barrage.

"Why...why..."

"Getting frustrated?" Violet sneared.

"Why do you all keep acting like YOU'RE THE ONES IN CONTROL?!" An entire wave of Real Knives flew out of Chara's form in a dome formation, going everywhere in a fireworks explosion.

In the resulting chaos Chara took to the air and flew off into town.

"NO!!!" I roared.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Pit bowed his head. And then from above came a shaft of light as three treasure chests lowered to the ground before him.

"Pit...the Three Sacred Treasures?!"

In moments Pit suited up with the items. Hefting Palutena's Mirror Shield and spreading the mighty Pegasus Wings Pit tore off at speed only matched by Sally.

He began raining down on Chara's form with Light Arrows.

"Come on...we gotta go after them." I helped Bunnie and the others get regroup.

Sub Entry 164: "The Chase":
"...Your commander, your major, and your lieutenant couldn't stop me back there. What makes you think you have a chance, Sally?"

"What makes you think you can keep up with the four of us?"

Team Acorn and Lupe boxed her in while Shi-Shi continued on with Asriel riding.

"All I have to do is take each of you down and then make a rug out of your--"

Suddenly Chara yelped as something bit down on her arm with a yell.

She glowered at Suma, one of Lupe's tigers as it sank his fangs into to her and gored her, viciously.

"You're gonna--"

From the other side, Tora, Lupe's white tiger sunk her fangs into the other arm and tore into her.

"You f--(FLOWEY CACKLE)--ing rat-eaters!"

"Tora! Suma! Get clear, now!" The cats went in opposite directions as Lupe pointed her Druid Staff and cried out. "ELEMENT: THUNDER!"

Sally, Honey, and Willie all covered their ears as the ball of distorted air barreled winto Chara, sending her backwards before it exploded. The blast caved the surrounding buildings outward in a spherical blast crater.

"Gah!"

Chara keeled over and clutched her chest.

"If we had been closer to that, it would have ruptured our eardrums..." Willamina winced.

"What?"

Scott and Callista had their hands full, too.

Scott was forced to use Dr. Lynx's mode 2 upgrade, gaining a far more muscular form and wilder pseudo-circuit "face paint" and block geta sandals.

He pointed both palms and unleashed a steady stream of Ice Microchip Shurikens while Callista attacked Chara's mind, telepathically.

"No...no...n-n-n-no...! I will not be bested by HUMAN SCUM!"

So did Rotor's group.

"Gaaaah! What is this sludge?!" Chara tried to break free.

"It's my own little concoction. One part petroleum, one part quick sand, one part clay mud. I call it Mega Muck. It's a nice alternative to riot foam!"

"When I cut my way out of this--"

"Let's do it, Gadget!"

"Okay, Mitzi!"

Gadget pulled out a gizmo the size of a rifle made up of a giant-sized combination of contact lenses, CD ROM lenses, a web-cam iris, a blue-ray laser diode, etc; all wired up by a large red wire and a large black wire trailing out of her backpack. She pointed at the same time Mitzi formed a Green Photon Construct.

Mitzi morphed her green artifacts into a hovering, mechanical pill-capsule shaped particle cannon with mechanical rings orbiting around it. It amassed a frightening charge of photons before it pours out a river of green laser energy.

Both beams collided and merged together into a double-helix beam of twisted ribbons of green and purple. The combined cross-beam drilled into Chara mercilessly.

And all the while Shi-Shi continued on toward the center of the square until he skidded to a stop, at a loss of where to go from there. Shi-Shi panted for a bit and sat down. He was really winded by this point.

"I think we lost her, Shi-Shi."

Asriel looked off into the distance.

"Please keep them safe...don't let them die..." He fought back the tears.

And still elsewhere...

"Dammit...these freaks are becomming a nuisance...I should try to find one of the other clones and double-team--"

"Hmmph...I thought this day was going to be more of the rabbit's antics...but another annoyance has graced my doorstep."

Chara whirled to see Chameleon drawing his sword. Tithius was perched on his shoulder as the shadow drake, Asmirus rose from the shadows.

"Oh...it's just the lizardman."

"You say that like I'm beneath you."

"So what if I think you are? I don't have time to waste on Arcade's bully--"

"...now that's an interesting thing to say. Sparks might get a little...on edge when I have a...chat with him. But calling me a bully? That's just disrespectful. I don't actually have a problem with him unless he causes one for me. And even if he or one of his crew did so...they'd still be a lot less of a thorn in my side than the Council and their lapdogs. As it stands right now...you're not worth my time. Come back when you're at least as annoying as David."

"Who the Hell is that, pray tell? Your booooyfrieeeeend?"

Mature. A hundred years and she was still just a kid.

Chameleon let out a dark laugh.

"I can see you dropped off the banana boat pretty recently. A little brat who using grade school insults? I have to say you're determined if you're going through this much effort to provoke me. What you don't realize is every waste of that breath of yours, you drop a few more clues about yourself.

You called me "the" lizardman so that means you knew of my existence before you ran into me. You mentioned Arcade so that means you got information about me from his database...but you should know how largely incomplete it is when it come to me. I guard my secrets a lot more carefully than he does.

You didn't know who David was so you have no knowledge of the Council. What you don't know can hurt you, little whelp."

"And what I do know should terrify you, you scaly ba--(FLOWEY CACKLE)! Why don't I see if one of my clones can open up the Ebon Rabite pens at the--"

"Now that..." Chameleon's expression doured. "...is a threat that even Violet has learned not to make around me. You really don't know what creek you're in, do you? Well. if you insist on provoking me..."

Chara looked up and up as Chameleon's shape began to change and the shadow he cast swallowed up Chara and the area around her.

"There's a reason they call it the Dragon Council and why they call me "prince"...is it obvious now?"

Chara hesitated then tried to run off in the other direction. A few blocks down she ran into...

"Going somewhere?" Marcel Gilneas asked. "Some friends and I would just love to make your acquaintence." The necromancer said cracking his knuckles as his fiance, the dullahan, Princess Liliath Anagazzner of De Midian took her place next to him while Josquin hovered nearby. And behind them stood a sizeable batallion of De Midian undead soldiers looking quite ready for a fight.

"Miranda and its allies protect their own. You picked a fight with the wrong city." Marcel glared at the villain as Chameleon caught up in his chosen dragon form, his shadow looming over her,

"Ohhhhhhh shhhhh--" Chara squeezed her eyes shut.

Sub-Entry 165: "Mind Games":
"You think you're so clever, you miserable half-breed..." Chara hid in the shadows, having lost us all for the moment.

"Divide and conquer it is."

Violet landed and shut off her thrusters and looked around.

"Where are you, you--" Violet did a double take then tighted her fists and ground her teeth.

"You. You're supposed to be DEAD!!!" Violet stared down the form of former Prime Minister Seymore Cheese. The fox-looking rat hybrid she had exiled from Little Tokyo a long time ago.

Seymore grinned deviously and backstepped into the shadows.

Now she was using hallucinations against us?

"Come back here!!!"

"Violet, wait--!"

Red chased after her and lost sight of her only to run into--

"YOU SON OF A B--(FLOWEY CACKLE)!"

Red's rage spiked as soon as he laid eyes on the form of Dr. Kirk. The memory of being cut open like a guinea pig...all the Hell he put his father, Dr. Stokes and our former employee, Dr. Hanos through was more than he could bear.

"Dance, little puppet..." Chara mused.

Bunnie quietly walked through the area and stopped when she saw him.

"Didn't I warn you? Your brought all this upon yourself."

Bunnie took a deep breath.

"I know you are merely one of Chara's illusions. She is cutting deep into the bone...into the soul with this. Is nothing sacred to that accursed demon child?"

The bald, bloated, moustached, dark-glasses-wearing form of the egg-shaped director of Vortex labs rubbed his hands schemingly.

"If you wish to dredge up my past demons, do it with better effort, Chara Dreemurr. You disappoint and sicken me. I weep for your non-existent future. Now. Step forth and let your shadows be gone from my sight... I challenge you to prove how real you think you are."

Bunnie motioned for her opponent to "come at me, bro" in so many words.

And...

Chara's illusion coiled around Gadget, having taken the form of a giant mouse-eating serpent.

"Leave her alone!" Mitzi yelled.

"You've got problems of your own, little pizza-maker." Chara rose up...and transformed into the mother of all cockroaches.

"Oh...gross...groooooooss...eww....eww...grody...g rody....no, no, no, nooooo..." Mitzi stumbled backwards, dropping her Green Beam laser pistols.

"Son..."

Rotor slow turned to see the form of his father, in prison garb and chains. The behoth suddenly broke his shackles and advanced.

Rotor's mouth silently spoke the words but nothing came out.

(No Audio)

And then suddenly Rotor hurtled into the wall as he was backhanded.

"This...this can't be real..."

And so on...

Lupe huddled into a ball as the threat of an army of Vorostovian soldiers leveled their machine guns at her.

"Not like this...not like this...please.......*sob*.......not like this..."

"My daughter...learn your place. Act like a princess. You will NEVER inherit the crown. You are a girl. You have no place in a patriarchal society. Now be gone to your room. Your brother will be my successor, so do not waste his time with your petty distractions. He will become a proper monarch, not your caretaker. That's why you have the Rabbotou Girl."

The towering form of Maximillian Acorn glowered down at her.

"You....you...." Sally fought back the tears.

Willie on the other hand braced herself against the boos and the jeers and the rotten fruit thrown by a disgrunted fanbase while Honey trembled in anguish as her fashion designs were quite literally shredded to pieces by angry protesters.

However not everyone was as easy a target for Chara.

"Dammit...the Angel would happen to be the problem one. Oh well...I'll just focus on the mutt in the labcoat. Where are you, Arcade?"

Chara yanked the Light Arrows from herself. Just touching them burned her badly. Pit circled above the buildings at breakneck speed, having lost sight of her.

I hurried toward the center of town.

"There you are..."

And that was when I ran smack dab into.

"No...no, not that. Not that...please...not the bees...not the bees...!"

Giant-sized bees. And they were stinging me...weren't they...? I don't know.....is it...real...? Is this...an illusion...?!

Chara drifted toward me, Real Knife in hand.

"Finally. Revenge."

She looked upon me. I was too scared, too distracted, too caught up in my gripping fear of stinging insects. This was way worse than the Muffet encounter.

I saw myself flanked by a cadre of Q-Bee's from Makai world. Jedah Doma's servants. Hive minded anthropormophic bees with voices that sounded like toddlers on helium with only hunger as their motivation.

Sure it was a petty fear compared to the horrors...the REAL horrors my team and my friends were facing at Chara's meddling....but...they were MY fears. And I hadn't overcome them. It was embarrassing. It was jeopardizing my vow to keep Asriel safe. It was.......it....was.....my failure as a person.

But still...did she know...?

Did she know that I'd been terrified by a childhood memory of seeing a fellow lycan of my village stung in the throat by a bee. His allergy was so severe he suffocated to death from the swelling that overtook his trachea.. Since that day even with my immortality to fall back on...I'd been terrified of stinging insects.

"You should have known better than to challenge me. You got in my way. And monsters like me...well...when someone gets in our way, we don't hesitate to kill them. But you...you don't die...so I'm going to have to get spend the rest of eternity figuring out how to make your life Hell."

Chara stood over my form as I had dropped to hands and knees.

"This was the day the demon cried. Not for any mortal form of regret. But over how pathetic it all was in the end. The great and brilliant Dr. Arcade brought down by a bunch of flower-pollenating bugs. But I shall be sad no longer. For I see a bright future filled with smiles ahead. Smiles over how I'm going to make you suffer. How I'll make you agonize over how much you failed Asriel so miserably. And how I made him break his promise to you...while keeping the one he made to me..."

Chara morphed back into her human form and drew back the knife.

"You've been with Asriel far too long. I recommend a trial separation.......of your head from your shoulders. Good-bye and good riddance-- Hrrk!"

Sub-Entry 166: "The Apology":
"Chara...please...don't."

Asriel frantically clutched Chara's arm with both hands, desperately trying to hold her back. It was just him preventing my decapitation.

"Asriel...what do you think you're doing?"

"I don't know why you're doing this...I don't know why you're being so mean...I just don't know a lot of things...but this isn't you...this is wrong. You've got to stop."

"I don't have to do ANYTHING, Asriel."

"I'm sorry, Chara...I left you behind...there's no excuse for that."

"You have no idea.  You disappeared and stayed alive and gained everything..  I died and I was left with nothing.  And that didn't prevent me from losing the family name I'd been given, my royal title, and my place in the kingdom.  I don't have a damn thing to go back to!"

"Chara...can't we start over?"

"You know what must be done."

"Chara.......if I do that...I'll be betraying who I am. I won't be me any more. I'd only be living a lie."

"It's all about you, isn't it? You selfish little--"

"People care about me around here. I have to live for their sake. I don't deserve them but I'm part of their lives. They took me in. Gave me a home. Gave me love and attention. They didn't owe me anything but they gave it freely."

"You...you...and your...perfect life...you threw me away for this...you did this to spite me. When mom and dad kept looking at me like that...you just stood by and spoon fed me that crap about not caring if I was human or not.. Look at you. The adopted son of a pair of humans."

"Mom...Dr. Callista.......Dad....Colonel Scott......they--"

"You really think they LOVE you? You, Asriel? You're no son. You're just a pet to them! A glorified little substitute for a dog or cat."

"N...nooooo! That's...n-not true!"

"And look at this...look what you traded me in for!!!" Chara kicked my catatonic form to the ground. I fell flat on my back. Trapped between my fears and how completely stunned and broken I was by how low the ghost was sinking.

"Do you know what THIS is? This is an abomination, Asriel. This is something that shouldn't exist. A horrid, twisted beast pretending to be a monster...when it's nothing but a worthless human that hides behind fur and fangs and claws. This is a an obstacle. An obstacle in the way of progress. This is trash that's standing in the way of the plan. He's hiding the truth from--"

"I know."

"What?"

"I know he's hiding things from him. I want him to. I'm...I'm not ready. He's only protecting me."

"You're defending his actions?  All those secrets...aren't you even CURIOUS?!"

"Of course I am, Chara. But if I were to press him for those secrets, it would only make things worse for him. I'll learn those things in time but until then, he needs me to just be a kid...to be loved...to be his--"

"Don't. You. Say. It."

"But...he is...he's my best friend."

"Asriel.......fine......if that's all I am to you...then if he's your best friend...you chose this. You chose to be this...from the moment...I am your enemy......your best NIGHTMARE."

Asriel dropped to his knees.

"And there you go again...you haven't changed. When things get tough for you...all you do is cry. You cry and you cry and you cry some more. You're so scared you can't even look me in the eyes.

"Look around. I hold your world in the palm of my hand. These friends and family you've made...they're all around you...defeated and dying.

Look at my soul, Asriel. Look at it. They spoke of souls, in addition to having eight colors, counting white monster souls. But there's a ninth one, Asriel. A ninth one. I always believed it was the product of the human world.

It's black, Asriel. My soul is black. And do you know what that means? Do you know what a black soul represents? Of course you don't. Let me spell it out. It's HATRED. Black. Means. HATE. It's the outcast one. The one that rebels against all other virtues such that it's not even a virtue at all."

At that moment the rest of Chara's copies entered, dragging the unconscious and the barely conscious forms of the other UCIAT members and friends. Gadget. Mitzi. Sally. Rotor. Lupe. Willie. Honey. Violet. Jon. Felicia. They were all tossed in a heap and the clones all merged until there were three in all, counting the original.

What was worse...they could choose to share their collective memories in real-time...but each had her own individuality; able to think independant from one another.

"Where's the R-Series? Where's Rabbotou?"

Okay the main one wasn't up to speed about some things. Maybe there was a limit. I mean...what happened if one of them was defeated in battle?

"We'll have them soon enough. They're taking longer to defeat."

"No matter. They're at the end of their limits. They'll collapse soon enough. While I'll keep on going in this body. It's a much better one than O'Conner's."

"What? D....Daddy?"

"Ah yes. Scott. He has a name......he HAD a name."

"N....no.....please no." If Asriel wasn't already white, he'd have blanched whiter than a ghost.

"He at least got to watch his beloved die."

"M...Mommy?" Asriel's eyes welled with tears.

"You don't have a choice now, Asriel. There's nothing left for you here. You've got nothing left to lose but this trash." Chara kicked me in the ribs.

"And what is this...?" She reached into my lab coat pocket and grabbed the sunflower.

"Chara, no! I gave that to him!"

"You and your damn golden flowers..." Chara suddenly crushed the flower and crumpled it and dropped it before stomping on it.

Asriel's eyes widened with shock. He was in a completely catatonic state. Even in my broken state...I could feel his heart breaking.

"Now. Open your soul...and absorb mine. I'm not asking, Asriel. I'm ordering you. Take. My. Soul. NOW. And become the god you were meant to be. It's all you have left. Give yourself to me. And I will finally have what I've searched for all this time. Yes. It is your fate..."

"...I...I..." Asriel hung his head, his whole body shaking. His tears falling to the ground in a puddle.

"I....I REFUSE!"

"I know I heard that wrong. I know because you're a coward, Asriel. You're a coward just like Asgore was. You don't have the guts to stand up to me."

"I know...I don't...but I don't need that. I don't have the guts...I've got..."

Asriel raised his head as he opened his eyes.

"...the DETERMINATION!" :detemmienation:  (Music Link)

Sub-Entry 167: "The Last Virtue":
Asriel's eyes blazed not their original dark copper red (bordering on black)...but a bright neon red.

"What's this now? You think you've got Determination, little brother? You're fool. I know the Royal Scientist's research. I know what it's going to do to you. You've just set a ticking time bomb in yourself. The only way out is to take my soul."

Asriel clenched his fists.

"You tried to make my friends disappear...but everything they care about is why I'm here."

He squeezed them even tighter. He needed to convince himself he could be a hero. So he said the first things that came to mind.

"I am their mercy, I am their virtue, I am DETERMINATION!" Asriel's hands started to glow.

Okay. There's no way that came from our dimension. I think when Asriel started channeling things...we were in trouble.

"Listen to you...trying to be something you're not. I know you, little brother. I know monsters. And you...are...harmless--"

Asriel's hands suddenly burst into flame as he drew back and swung. His blow was nowhere close but the flames, however...

The ball of yellow and orange left his hand and struck Chara head on. She ignited with white flames.

"Wha....what?" Asriel looked at his open palms and the fire that gathered above them and swirled into a spherical shape...like a tiny sun.

"A...Asriel..." I weakly said as I snapped out of it. "You...have your magic back?"

"N...no....whatever this is...it's not magic. It's something else. But it feels so...familiar." He seemed as shocked as I was.

"Could it be...?" I blinked and stared closer. "...if it's not magic...is it......no...that's not possible! That's not...!" But the evidence was staring me in the face.

"Little brother...you will pay for that...!" Chara trembled as she morphed into an adult version of herself. "And I do mean LITTLE.  And when I'm done with you...I'll crush you, Volt Arcade, and the rest of you surviving trash under my heel!!!""

Asriel looked at the burning flames in his palms...then his squeezed his fists tight, the flames flaring up around them even brighter. As he thought of us all, he tried to envision what a comic book superhero would say in this case. And then he gave his best effort at sounding heroic.

"Volt...Sensei...Mr. Red...  I'll do it.  For you, I'll risk it all...I'll be your Hopes and Dreams! To save everyone...this is my wish. I will become your fire!  Chara...this ends, now!" :detemmienation:   (Music Link)

Chara formed the Real Knife again and proceeded to stab forth.

Asriel backdashed as he had watched Bunnie do countless times before. As he did he continued to wing fire balls. With each hit, Chara burst into white flame for a moment, her black light aura getting dimmer and dimmer with each hit.

Chara lifted off the ground and hovered. Even in my stunned state I recognized the sudden role reversal. Chara was now an artificial embodiment of the Absolute God of Hyperdeath. Asriel was now in Frisk's role, trying to save them.

Chara's True Knife duplicated, becoming Chaos Sabers. With jumps and ducks, Asriel managed to avoid the slashes.

Enfuriated by Asriel's unexpected quickness and martial arts defense, Chara combined her blades and stretched them to form a modified Chaos Buster. I held my breath as Asriel weaved in and out out of the shots and blasts.

"Asriel!" I gasped as I recognized the charge up for Shocker Breaker. This was pretty solid proof of my theory about Chara's influence over Asriel in the other timelines.

Asriel ran toward a stop sign then hurtled away from it as the lightning bolts converged on it rather than struck in their usual patterns. Smart little goat.

"I'm okay!"

"But not for long!  TAAAAAKE THIIIIIS!" Chara raged as her True Knives went into the air and changed shape, becoming--

"That's Star Blazing!!!" I almost said out loud.

"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy ohboyohboyohboyohboy!!!" Asriel zig-zagged between the falling stars then dove for cover as the ground quaked from the massive meteor star at the end of it all.

The destruction to the town was just horrifying. Asriel was holding his own. Chara's aura was weakening severely. Unfortunately that's when she decided to cheat.

Chara's clones strafed around, threatening to catch Asriel from behind with a sneak attack.

"No!" I reached out, trying to get my strength back.

"イェ藩主！男の名を冠する血と肉、すべての創造、翼のフラッタ、あなたがたのマスク！インフェルノと大混 乱は、海の障壁は、南に行進サージ！ 破道の31: 赤火砲!"

[I~e hanshu! Otoko no na o kansuru chi to niku, subete no sōzō, tsubasa no furatta, anata gata no masuku! Inferuno to dai konran wa, umi no shōheki wa, minami ni kōshin sāji! Bakudou no sanjuu-ichi: Shakahou!"]



The red streak seared across and knocked the clone to the ground.

"Bunnie?" I looked up and saw Bunnie in her Soul Reaper form.

"Sensei? Where are you?" Asriel looked around. He couldn't see her in her Soul Reaper form.

Chara immediately looked in Bunnie's direction.

"What...what is this?"

Bunnie put two fingers two her mouth and gave a shrill whistle. And soon her physical body made its appearance.

Bunnie cleared her throat. "66を注文します"

Her physical body's eyes suddenly changed, the pupils disappearing and the green irises growing dull. And her stance shifted.

"Combat mode enabled." She said rather robotic-ly, lacking the childish, baby-talk emotion the soul candy had previously used.

"What the Hell do you keep say--"

Chara's clone didn't have time to react as Bunnie's physical body suddenly went into a flurry of merciless attacks on her.

"What...what did you do?!" The original Chara demanded.

"You have problems of your own to deal with!"

Red suddenly BURST through the pavement, impaling the third Chara clone with his Grind Blade like it was a drill.

"Your clones are a joke. Once I showed her what the Null Armor can really do, she ran off like a coward. I let Chameleon and Marcel take care of her since I had a feeling Goat Bro probablly needed my help more. Volt's locator signal was easy for Null to track."

"I hate to blast a villain while her back is turned...but I'll gladly listen to Bunnie's reprimand afterward if it means taking you down here and now. LIGHTSTORM RAVAGE!!!"

"Oh no--" Chara was suddenly swallowed up in the massive tower of light and crackling lightning.

When its subsided, Chara's shape-shifting bodies both began to melt.

"Kinda poetic, really." I was referring to the way that Chara was melting in the same way as the monsters that became Amalgamates did.

"No...it can't end this way...I won't be denied!"

Both of them collapsed into puddles that ran together and hardened into a blotch of frozen mercury like substance. Chara's spirit rose from the remnants and just hovered there in her rage.

"No...even in the body of something from your world...no...no....no...no...noooooo..." Chara was already dripping with ichor, an aura of blackness wrapping around her.

"Asriel...you traitor...you freak of nature...you horrible little goody-two-shoes..."

"Chara...I don't want this..." Asriel relaxed his hands as his flames snuffed.

"Why can't you give me what I want?"

"If it has to be this way...then maybe neither of us should get what they want."

"Hah...hah...tell me, Asriel.  What do you want?  Do you want to save the world or something?"

"That's right."

"You're not a superhero, Asriel...you're just a weak little kid."

"I want to save the world!  Don't you understand?  You are the world to me, Chara.  I want to save my world!  I want to save you!" :detemmienation:   (Music Link)

"Always so sappy.  No, Asriel.  No.  You don't get what you want.  No...If I can't make you understand...I'll POSSESS YOU!" Chara attempted to dive bomb Asriel.

Bunnie in the mean time took the time to return to draw her own Soul Slayer.

"Chikyuu ni ochiru, Hoshiame!"  Bunnie drew Star Rain and slashed. Tiny star-shaped sparks wrapped around Chara before rays of light burst out of them in all directions, each piercing through Chara's spirit multiple times.

"Discharge, Kaminarioh no Danganken!" I took a deep breath and unleashed my special technique. "Hundred Bolts Thunder God Judgement!"

I held up Lightning King of the Bullet Fist as a swirl of clouds gathered in the sky. One hundred lightning bolts seared down from them one after the other--not as a single bolt that was gone in a flash--but each a constant tentacle of electricity that continued to remain in a constant stream as they all converged on Chara.

When the lightning cleared the crater in the ground was enormous. Chara clutched her sides, arms crossed as of her stomach was threatening to tear itself apart.

"I'll never stop...you can weaken me with all the attacks you want...you can never get rid of me...never...never......NEVER! DO YOU HEAR ME?! NEVERRRR!!!!"

"Chara...please...I can't do this...I don't want to hurt you."

"Hurt me...you've already hurt me, Asriel...you've torn my broken heart from my chest...even if I couldn't love or feel loved...you did this to me...what will you do now...you've lost everything precious to you twice now..."

"Not everything...in fact...he's gained more than you can ever know. And despite it all. Despite how much he's been tortured...he still believes you're worth saving."

Callista arrived, Scott steadying her as she hung onto his shoulder, weakly.

"MOM! DAD! You're alive!"

At that moment Pit swooped in, landed and trained his bow on Chara. He drew back to send a final Light Arrow into her...but Bunnie suddenly held him back and shook her head.

"He's wasting his effort. There's no one here to save--"

"I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the other you." Callista stared Chara directly in the eyes.

"There is no other me! I am the one and only--"

"Liar." I snapped. "I know your secret. And it's about time I pried it out of you. Literally."

Sub-Entry 168: "Separation Anxiety"/"Forgiveness":
"But how can we do that, Volt-san? We only have one proton pack and it'll take too long for you to head to the X-Vault and back with a spare."

I frowned as a slapped the icon and de-collapsed the pack and gear as I stood up.

"I don't know...it's not like we can clone a neutrona wand out of nowhere--"

"...perhaps we can." Bunnie pushed up a sleeve, cybermorphed an arm cannon and ejected one of her D-Chips. Then she reached into her subspace pocket and pulled out a D-Chip bearing the Light Labs logo.

"Bunnie, no. We tried that once with your earliest nanotech weapon system. It was a bitter failure.  Try as we might, we couldn't use the Copy Chip the way Thomas' creation...his son could."

"In these times...I can only hope and pray that it works here and now."

In theory it could work. Bunnie's nanites had undergone a countless number of firmware updates and system streamlines. Maybe this would be the one...the one that finally harmonized the fabled Light Labs tech from the N-Division days...with the nano-technology Dr. Lynx invented.

I sighed and held the neutrona wand rifle in both hands as Bunnie slipped in the chip and reset the drum selector and rotated the switch to the appropriate socket. The display gave a visual warning: "ERROR: NO WEAPON DATA FOUND"

Bunnie sighed and flexed her robotic fingers before laying her hand on my particle thrower and closing her eyes. With a pink glow and an arc of nanocircuit energy paths, Bunnie's cybermorphed arm lit up as the display went crazy with errors, glitches and static before it rebooted and the HUD came up. "Weapon Data found: Proton Cannon".

"Let us do this. Are you sure it will work, Volt-san?"

"Just get snag Chara before she escapes--"

"Done." Bunnie had already fired and snagged Chara before she could figure out what we were up to. She screamed bloody murder as her eyes and mouth poured buckets of ichor.

"Now it's up to me. I'm going to set my thrower to precisely 500,000 Megahertz."

"That frequency...!" Bunnie's eyes widened.

"Yes. THAT one." I nodded, understanding what she was implying. This has worked once before. It had to work in this case.

I fired into Chara from the other side

"Heh......just like fishing." I said, not really sure of myself.

"Volt? Sensei?" Asriel questioned.

"Trust us, Asriel." I assured. "Okay, Bunnie...on my mark...PUUUUULLL!" I yanked back as hard as I could as Bunnie attepted to shorten her stream and yank back on her end.

"What are you doing?!? Stop it! Stop it! STOP IN NOW! I'll TEAR--"

"I've heard it before! Save it!" I hissed.

"Please..." Callista covered her heart.

"I...won't...let...you---!"

The ectoplasmic mass stretched and pulled...and then something happened within. I could see it...something at a the core...something my stream had latched onto. Something...familiar."

"Let...go...of...her...NOWWWWWWW!" I threw myself backward and jerked back hard as something pulled free from the black mass.

Something...translucent but human-looking. As soon as I opened an eye I could make out the rosy cheeks...the green and yellow striped shirt...the brown pants...the copper red eyes. And unlike the other mass in Bunnie's stream...this one wasn't struggling. This one...looked...sad...yet...relieved.

"I'm going to let you go now. Is that okay."

The ghost nodded. I took a deep breath and I let go of the trigger.

"Asriel? Asriel, are you there? It's me...your.......no...I don't deserve to be called that any more. I...I...."

"It's you. It's really you, isn't it? You're the real one. The real Chara." Asriel looked deep into her eyes, his eyes fading back to their original copper red.

"Yes...but I wish I weren't."

"Don't say that."

"But it's true! I did all this. I'm a terrible person! I did so many terrible things. I hurt you, Asriel. I hurt you...and mom...and dad..."

"You weren't yourself--"

"But I WAS myself. All of this evil I've sowed. It came from within. It came from me. How much did I make you suffer? How much pain did I cause you? I've been selfish, Asriel. I've wretched. I've thrown everything away for my hate and my anger and my ambitions.  Just like my name...I'm not even a real person.  I'm just a character.  A throwaway character."

"Chara...please...you're still hurting yourself. I can't bear to see you like this."

"I acted so strange and horrible, Asriel. I acted out. There's no excuse for what I've done. I don't deserve your forgiveness. You have every right to be mad at me."

"Chara..." Asriel gave a pleasant smile. "I could never be mad at you."

"But you should be. I--"

Chara looked down as Asriel's hand hovered over the H.U.D. There were two options there.

[FORGIVE] [DO NOT]

Asriel, without hesitation pressed down on [FORGIVE].

"Asriel...hahah...come on...you're the one who's supposed to be crying." Chara streamed tears.

"Chara. Aren't you excited? Aren't you happy? You're finally free." Asriel placed his hand on her shoulder. Somehow despite being a ghost, she became solid to his touch.

"Yes....but...as long as the other me's around...she'll enslave me. She'll--" When Chara looked again, Asriel's hand was on the H.U.D. again. This time there was a single word, flickering in rainbow colors.

[SAVE]   :detemmienation:  (Music Link)

"No. She will not." Asriel pressed on it and a rainbow aura spread outward in a shockwave as I heard that familiar sound of save data being stored.

"Asriel...I don't know how you're doing this but--"

[COMFORT] [DO NOT]

As if I really had to say which Asriel selected.

Asriel embraced Chara longingly.

"Asriel...ha ha...I don't want to let go."

"I know. Neither do I. But now. I'm ready to." He said with a sniffle, a single tear rolling down his face.

"I need to talk to Dr. Arcade a moment. Wait for me for a second. Okay?"

"I can wait forever, Chara." Asriel smiled pleasantly.

Chara approached me.

"No...hard feelings--"

"I never had a grudge against you, specifically. I knew you were worth saving...it was all in a dream."

"Listen...about the Timeline..."

"I know. And I understand."

"There's so much I want to tell you. So much I want to explain. So much many answers I need to give you. About the other me...what she really is...how she joined me...then took over me and consumed me--"

"And her connection to Madam Fate. Right?"

A hesitation...then a slow nod. "She...it...isn't the only one out there." Chara sniffled. Then she changed the subject.

"Doctor......bring him home some day. I can't go back there. I...I wouldn't be welcome even if I could. I've caused too much damage."

"I can at least tell Toriel the truth about you. She should know the real story behind your fall."

Chara nodded.

"I...really just want to rest now. I can finally accept my fate. Frisk will...be fine without me."

"There...is a way for you to cross over and be bound to our world. A way for you to have the afterlife that I think you should have." I led her back to Asriel. "I want to perform a Soul Burial. You can find your eternal rest in the Soul Society if that is what you wish."

"Chara?"

"I think I'd like that."

Asriel turned to me and nodded. "Please. Give her a happy resting place."

"Asriel. Before I go..." Chara removed her heart-shaped locket and handed it to Asriel. "Take care of this for me. Keep it in memory of me. Asriel...I release you from your promise. Don't take a human soul. Keep your promise to him instead.  You were right all along, Asriel.  In this world...don't kill.  And don't be killed."

"Chara..." Asriel grasped the locket then pressed it to his chest, bowing his head and letting the tears finally come.

"There are those tears I remember. I was wrong...it's okay being a crybaby. It just makes you that much easier to adore."

Asriel smiled.

"Come on, Chara. Give your brother one last hug."

And the two of them hugged longingly.

"I love you, Asriel."

"I love you too, Chara."

Chara turned to me and I went through the procedure. As I pressed the bottom of my Zanpakutou's hilt to her forehead, the soul burial commenced and she gradually faded from sight, wisping away like sparkles of dust.

"Goodbye, Asriel!"

"Goodbye...Chara..." Asriel sniffled.

I stowed my soul slayer and hugged him, longingly...

"Guys...I really don't want to ruin the moment...but...we have a problem--" Bunnie said moments before her proton cannon ran out of weapon energy and shut off.

Sub-Entry 169: "Chara-Wraith's Last Stand":
"YOU...YOU...YOU IDIOOOOOOOOOOTS!" Evil Chara hovered and then she thrust out her hand and using telekinesis, she knocked Bunnie down. Then she knocked me down.

"ASRIELLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!" She shrieked as she turned completely black ichor, her resemblance to Chara barely holding together. I could see something...else underneath it. Something not of this world or Asriel's.

Something...not of ANY known world.

"I entertained her ambitions long enough. It's time for you to pay what you owe. It's time you returned what should have been mine. You outlive your usefulness when I decide it!" Evil-Chara reached into her pocket and pulled out her heart-shaped locket. I noticed there was a jagged crack in it...like it was threatening to break in half.

Asriel was ominously silent. His eyes had disappeared under the shadow of his head fur.

"You..." He uttered with a coldness I had never heard before. "It was you. It was always you. It's your fault. How could you? Why did you?"

"Do you really think you could understand my reasons, lesser life form? You've stood in my way for the last time."

"No. Whoever...whatever you are. I'll stand in your way now...and forever. This ends now."

"Little goat...you don't have the courage to stand up to me. Now surrender your body and soul to me and become my vessel! I will wear you like pants...I will bend you to my will. I will make you understand. In this world...it will ALWAYS be KILL or BE KILLED!"

Evil-Chara entity raced straight for Asriel.

Asriel kept his head bowed. In that moment I could almost see his ascended form super-imposed over top of him....standing his ground, the day the humans attacked him. Was he really refusing to fight back?

This wasn't the same. Asriel. No. Don't let her into your soul! Don't let her possess you!

And in that moment as the evil wraith began her maiden voyage toward him...time started...warping around them. Chara-wraith was moving slower and slower until she stopped.

"What...what is this...what is going on...why...why is it taking so long to reach you...why can't I...move...faster?!"

Sally stood by, her eyes blazing with neon blue energy.

"I've altered your perception of time as well as Asriel's. What should take a split second has now become an eternity to you. You are now perceving time as a superhuman. Milliseconds...microseconds...nanoseconds...they'r e passing with the duration of hours...days...weeks...even longer than that if I so choose it."

"You...you damn time witch...I'll--"

"You'll do nothing." Asriel said even colder than before. "You will listen to what I have to say."

"You are wrong. In this world...it's save or be saved. But you...you are heartless. You are soulless. You do not want to be saved. You are a demon. There is no other way. You cannot be allowed to remain in this world or any other."

"Ha ha ha ha. Are you really trying to threaten, little brother?"

"You are NOT Chara and I'm NOT your brother. I am Asriel Dreemurr. Whether I like it or not, I am the Prince of this world's future. I understand what that means now. I understand the responsibility...the burnden. The sacrifice that goes with it. My friends...my family. I will protect them."

"Your speeches are meaningless! Look at your friend over there....straining her Hybrid Ability. She can't keep us in this state forever. She's throwing her life away. For the likes of you. It's only going to end one of two ways...she either stops her ability and saves herself, letting me possess you...or she keeps this up until she kills herself from overusing her powers...and I still possess you.

So go on. Show me your bluster. Hide behind your fake bravery. But you are are spineless. You'll give up trying just like you did with your promise to Chara."

"I don't need bluster. And I don't need bravery. I've already told you...I don't have the guts...I have..." Asriel snapped his head up and his eyes blazed neon red again.

"...the Determination." And with that he simply walked toward Chara-wraith.

"What...how did you...!"

"It's because...I'm using my powers to alter both of your perceptions of time...but each of you at a different rate. Asriel's perception is much closer to normal than yours is but it's still in a hyper bullet-time of sorts.  And because the effect is so deep, you're physically reacting to how you think the world is at this moment.

You think you're rushing ahead but you don't see the world moving around you so the two conflicts remain in constant deliberation. While Asriel sees only minor resistance to his movements. Even if you were to summon an attack, projectile or otherwise, sidestepping and dodging it has become effortless for him."

Asriel stopped in front of Chara-wraith.

He gave the coldest, angriest scowl he could muster before grabbing the heart locket and yanking it free.

"You don't deserve this. It belongs to me, anyway."

Asriel re-fastened the clasp and hung it around his own neck and grasped it between his fingers. And just like that...the crack in it sealed up and the locket turned shiny and new again. Asriel turned his back and walked away.

"Don't turn your back on me, Asriel Tobias Dreemurr-Arcade! You'll regret it! The time witch is almost at her limit. You've got nothing left. You can keep your little trinket. I've already won."

Chara-wraith laughed maniacally. Asriel stopped a short distance away, not moving.

The laughter continued.

"This is THE END--!!!"

Sub-Entry 170: "The End of Evil Chara-Wraith":
Chara-wraith's eyes suddenly snapped open...as I suddenly landed from my jump in front of Asriel...holding a rectangular metal box with yellow and black striped doors on top. I held it out with the doors directly facing Chara-wraith's flight path. She was already in motion. She had nowhere to go.

"Sally wasn't just using her powers on the two of you...she was also using them on me."

"Arcade...you're really going to bring our war to an end this way?"

The way we were speaking to each other and the way we were perceiving the passage of time and motion made it seem like telepathy. I couldn't explain how or why it was working this way.

Under Sally's Hybrid Power, time and perception of it rarely made sense. Logcically speaking...Chara-Wraith shouldn't have been able to understand what Asriel or I were saying. The motions physics were just...wonky. But then again...maybe it was all in our heads.

"The thought of finally ending you is more than I could ever hope for. It's all that I've wished for ever since the day we crossed paths. But...it's no longer my call."

"What are you saying?"

"It's not up to me. Is it?" I dropped the trap's pedal behind me, letting it clatter to the ground as the hose uncoiled from my hand.

I turned and looked over my shoulder. Asriel turned and looked over his at me...then Chara-Wraith.

"You...you won't do this, Asriel. It's not in your nature. You're a pacifist, Asriel. You'll always choose mercy. You won't end anyone."

Asriel sighed.

"Even if you were a living being...even if I could do so...I wouldn't kill you. You're right. I won't end you.." Asriel started.

He turned completely around and looked Chara-wraith dead in the eyes.

"But that doesn't mean I have to SPARE you." He lifted his foot...and stomped down hard on the pedal switch.

The trap doors opened in slow motion and light and electricity began to pour out of it.

"Now, Sally!"

By this point Sally was starting to bleed out of her nose and her tear ducts. Her hands faultered...and then the glow in her eyes ceased as she lurched forward and collapsed, face down.

Everyone's perception of time went back to normal

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Chara-wraith's scream faded as she was swallowed up into the electrical vortex.

CHA-CHAACK!!!

The doors of the ghost trap snapped shut, There was a sizzle. A crackle. A smoke trail wormed its way out from the doors of the device. And then the indicated started flashing green and the device beeped a little as the meter in front jumped up a pretty high level.

"It's over." I said with a tired smile, giving a thumbs-up to Asriel. Asriel in turned gave a thumbs up to me...and then his eyelids grew heavy and his sigh grew dim. He swayed a bit then collapsed.

"As...ri...el..." I faltered...then collapsed myself..

CRYPTOSMASHER LOGOFF

TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED...

* STATIC*

AUXILLIARY BACKLOG ACTIVATED

TRANSMISSION RESUMING AT LIMITED CAPACITY...

If you' are reading this then then you are seeing a pre-recorded message I wrote in advance in the instance we actually succeeded at this. I'll describe what is the likely case scenario based on a VERY thorough prediction by A.E.O.N. Almost scary accurate.

Asriel, Sally, various other UCIAT members and I are most assuredly laid up in the medical bay of UCIAT headquarters for an unspecified amount of time. I am certain I will correct these logs in my next entry and give a proper detailed explanation.

Bunnie has most likely explained the situation to Queen Brooke. Rest assured...there was no way she was in a good mood afterward. The sake gift just barely took the edge off. With any luck Bunnie will assure me the culprit responsible had been captured and would be sealed away once I regained consciousness. However this was offset by the fact that we had saved her son from Chara's wrath and were helping him recover as well.

Violet called in her secret weapon for rebuilding the city. The Emergency Rescue and Repair Operations Recovery Team (E.R.R.O.R.) was on call to put everything back together. Plus they were assisted by Hartford Industries and Silver Hills' Silver Guardians with so things would get back to normal in record time. It was protocol.

We had finally closed the book on Chara's Story. Asriel could officially move on.

But despite the victory. Despite many of my worries behind me...I had all new worries to plague me.

I knew from this point there there was no going back. We were past the point of no return. I had hoped I could wait until later for the day to come. But I would have no choice now. I would have to ease Asriel into accompanying me off world to other place. But he was still not ready to return to the Underground. He'd tell me to keep my secrets for a little (or a lot) longer (if need be) himself when he woke up. But that was a later story.

Memorial services for the casualties were held with the members of UCIAT still on the healthy roster in attendance.

Commendations would be given at a later date to certain people in their role in our miniature war.

There would be much more discovered in the future. There would be may mysteries solved. We'd finally have our answers about what happened to Asriel while he was on our world. And I'd finally get the answers to my Nightmares...as well as closure. But I'm getting ahead of myself. A lot of things were about to open up because of all of this.

Once again. Another chapter had closed. And more would open up in its place.

For now...it was time to rest, recover, and reflect. Until next time...

Chapter 18

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