"I'm Sans, Sans the skeleton. Nice to meet you, Chara"
"I already know who you are dude, you don't need to introduce yourself to me"
"I didn't strike you to have such a serious bone in you" I chuckled.
Although Chara me an "are you serious?" look after that pun, I could still see a hint of a smile on the edges of her mouth.
After the previous events of my mind and sanity almost collapsing due to the sudden influx of thousands of years worth of memories, I walked away from the town, and went inside the forest to isolate myself so I could speak with the girl floating beside me. I didn't want anyone to think I had gone crazy, since it would seem like I was talking to myself from an outsider perspective.
"So, who are you?" Last time, she kept rushing me and didn't properly introduce herself. Now, I'll finally know who she is.
"Right, I never introduced myself did I? My name is Chara Dreemur. It's nice to meet you!" She put her hand forward, wanting to shake my hand.
When I tried, however, my hand passed straight through her.
She laughed. "Of course that wouldn't work, I'm a ghost after all!"
I had suspected that would have happened, but to see it in person was a different story. Strange situations kept happening one after another.
There was also another thing.
Dreemur? So she is one of Asgore's kids. But I don't remember him ever having any human chil-
I then remembered, many years ago, before any of the 6 human souls had been collected, Asgore had a child, named Asriel Dreemur, and an adopted human child. Although I wasn't born at that time period, it was something I had seen through history books.
That was so many years ago though? And she looks really young.
"Chara… you're Asgore's child, right?"
"You caught on quick, yes I am his adopted kid. But that was many, many years ago. He probably doesn't even remember me by now…" Her voice trailed off at that last point, as if lost in thought.
"You look so young, though…? I'm not very well versed in human growth, but you look what? 12 years old?"
"I look 14 years old actually! And to answer your question, I can't grow, because I am dead. I'm a ghost you know." She pouted momentarily after I said she looked 13 years old, but quickly composed herself after.
Alright, it's time to start digging her for what she knows.
"Chara, can you explain to me the situation? What you told me before didn't explain anything."
"Oh right, I'm sorry about that. I had to rush things because I didn't have much time. If the human reset before you could absorb my soul, I would have to wait for a very long time again until the human finished doing his… thing." Chara looked visibly uncomfortable when talking about the human's mass genocide.
"And after that, I would have to look for you all over again. And it isn't easy, there are hundreds of souls there, and I had to look one by one until I found yours."
"That place, what kind of place is that?"
"Umm… How do I explain this… I guess it's like a sort of afterlife…?"
"Yes, you already told me that before. But where were we heading? All of the monster and human souls seemed to be heading to the same place."
"Oh yeah, I told you that before. About where we were being taken to, well I… don't know either. Time always reset before I could ever see what was in the end of that place, if there is even one."
That doesn't explain anything, but it's not like I can keep pestering her about something she doesn't know either. I sighed internally in resignation.
I guess I'll have to leave that for later.
"Since you don't know, I won't keep asking you about it. However…" I glare at Chara with slight hostility.
"Why didn't you tell me that I would suddenly have so many memories enter my head all at once? Do you know what could have happened? I could have gone insane with all the information and attacked these innocent people from all that pain messing with my rationality. If not that, I would have become brain dead."
At that, Chara gripped the hems of her t-shirt and bit her lips while looking down in shame. "I'm sorry about that. I really didn't know that that would happen. Please forgive me" Her voice clearly showed she was feeling guilty about it.
I sighed. "It's fine, really. It seems you really didn't know about that. You don't need to feel guilty about it."
"...Thank you." She murmured softly.
I looked upwards to the fog-filled sky. If not for the constant fog, one could have seen the ceiling of the Snowdin area. Sadly, no one ever saw what laid there, as it was always covered by the same blueish-gray fog.
"...What a hopeless situation."
"Kid, will I still retain my memories in the next reset?"
"About that. Yes, you will. Since, because you absorbed my soul, you also absorbed the rest of my DT, which was what kept me here in this world as a ghost."
DT, huh. It was a substance Alphys discovered that had unknown effects. Although she did tests on it, she never shared her results with anyone, so it was my first time hearing that it could make me still remember any of the resets.
"But in these memories, you were always standing next to that human. Why?"
"I'm not sure either. I couldn't get very far away from them, no matter how much I tried."
Interesting. Do they have some kind of connection?
"Wait. Chara, I remember in that 'afterlife' your soul being a transparent red. Do you think there is any relation to that and you being anchored to them?"
Chara stayed still in thought for a moment with her hand under her chin. "Now that you mention it, I do remember them briefly looking at their soul, when they first fell into the underground, before any of the resets began."
"Sadly, I couldn't take a good look at it, so I don't know what color their soul was. After all, that same day was the same day I…" Chara briefly paused for a moment.
Why did she hesitate and left out that last piece of information? I should try pressuring her slightly, I need as much information as possible so I can understand this situation.
"Chara. Do not leave out any piece of information you have, as anything can be useful to help end this hell. Even information about where dust is being collected is useful."
"...It was the same day I had woken up from the dead. I was surprised, as I had been dead for a very long time. It was then I noticed I still had a small amount of DT left, which was what let me remain in this world. And the arrival of that human was the trigger for my awakening."
From what I understood, DT is a substance that lets you retain your memories from any reset, and also allows you to come back from the dead. If you go by that information, it must mean that, if you have enough DT, you would gain the power to RESET, consequently giving you the power to always come back from the dead.
However, that is just a theory, I would need to confirm that sometime to be 100% certain. But there's a very high chance of it being correct.
If my theory is correct, that must mean that that human has the highest amount of DT in the underground.
So does that mean if me, or someone else, gets a higher amount of DT than them, we can overpower their ability to RESET, and be able to reset ourselves?
I should ask Alphys for what she knows about DT, and how much she has of it. She is the only one who has what I need right now.
"Alright, that's enough of interrogating you. I'm Sans, Sans the skeleton. It's ice to meet you, Chara!"
And now, that takes us to the current situation.
"So, Sans the skeleton, do you have any plans to win against the human?"
"Jeez, no need to say my full legal name. Besides, shouldn't I be the one to ask that? You were the one that forced yourself onto me."
"Th-That…" She stuttered, not knowing how to answer that. She had a slight red tint in her cheeks and pouted in embarrassment.
I laughed loudly. "I'm just messing with you. Of course, I have some ideas in my head."
The human doesn't know I can remember resets. In fact, they doesn't suspect it at all. I can use this to my advantage. Thankfully, I won't have to repeat every single action I had done in any previous reset, as the human's actions had been shown to make butterfly effects, making some resets have different actions happen.
After browsing Chara's memories, there were some of that person suspecting someone kept their memories of previous resets, but then discovering it was just coincidence, and only changes that their actions had caused.
That flower…
It seems there was someone of note there. Maybe he can be useful.
***
"Sans!"
"Sans, where are you!?" Papyrus yelled out, calling for Sans.
Gosh, where is my brother? I've been looking for him everywhere. He wasn't at Grillby's, nor was he at his sentry post.
Papyrus had begun looking for Sans after getting out of their house, wanting to prepare their puzzles once again, as they had always done.
After all, a human could always appear! Nye Heheheh!
However, after he left the house and headed out of the town, he had discovered a worrying thing. One of Sans' friends, Polib, a brown bear that wore a bright orange jacket, told him about what happened. A few minutes after Sans left the house—information which Papyrus had guessed based on what was told to him—Sans had fallen to the ground and started screaming in pain.
Some worried people tried taking him to the doctor, but Sans refused, saying he was fine. Papyrus, as the responsible younger brother he was, decided to look for Sans himself, and see if he was doing fine. If not, he would forcibly take him to seek help for that pain, no matter if he refused or not.
After not finding him anywhere, Papyrus walked back from where he went.
Maybe he's at his sentry post again, and had only left for one of frequent breaks?
Papyrus had guessed correctly, and his greatness was once again proven.
"Brother, there you are! Do you know for how long I've been looking for you?!"
"Oh sup bro. Are you heading to do your puzzles?"
"Of course, I, the great Papyrus, have to always be prepared. Who knows if a human won't appear today." Papyrus laughed proudly.
My brother has always dreamt of being part of the royal guard. I do worry a bit about him not being up for the job because of his kindness, but I wouldn't have the courage to trample on his dreams like that.
Who knows, maybe he is secretly really fit for the job.
"Welp, it seems it's time for my break, so I can spare some time to help you in making your puzzles. So, do you have any new ideas today?"
"Of course I do! For one of them, I have prepared a delicious plate of spaghetti to make them lose focus while they eat, so I can then capture them. After that, I'll finally be able to join the Royal Guard!"
"I guess they will be pretty tangled in pasta to resist."
Papyrus stomped on the ground. "Argh, Sans! Now is not the time to make these horrible puns! Help me think up new ideas for puzzles, we have to be ingenious so the human will have difficulty solving them. Last time, the puzzles were so easy even Jerry could solve them!"
Sans… It doesn't seem like he's feeling any pain, but he's probably hiding it. Urgh, I was gonna confront him about it, and he managed to distract me and make me briefly forget about it.
"Sans, I-"
At that moment, the sound of footsteps were heard. The light sound of snow being crunched under a foot were heard from not far away, and Sans and Papyrus turned their heads at the direction it came from.
The human, he came faster than I thought! Shit, I could barely prepare anything ahead of the time.
After a brief moment, a small child with shoulder-length brown hair, bronze-colored skin and blue and purple striped shirt, wearing brown shorts and shoes of similar color, appeared.
Frisk had arrived at the outskirts of Snowdin.