Determination (Charisk) [OUTDATED]

95 - PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

(CHARA POV) [F]

"Desperate, are we?" The door behind me had disappeared. That voice. I swear I've heard it before. It's was so dark. Darker than anything I had ever seen before. But this numbness... this inky silence. It feels so... "Familiar?" The voice finished my thought.

     "Show yourself." I had barely muttered as the walls, or rather, what could've been perceived as walls swirled into a skeleton with a black, empty cloak of dark sludge (look, I'm running out of ways to say this place is really dark, just run with it). His hands were detached and floating around his chest in orbit. His skull shared features similar to both sans and Papyrus, my only skeletal references.

     "The cheekbones, the attentive eyesockets," He once again slid into my thoughts and finished another statement. I realized what was going on, and a very familiar, inhuman grin grew on his skull. "The smile." This was sans and Papyrus's dead-slash-not-dead brother, the amazing Dr. W. D. Gaster, of which Frisk had told me quite a few creepy stories about.

     "This place... it's made of VOID, isn't it?"

     "Not just made of it. This is the VOID." It felt like the void was tearing away at my SOUL. Metaphorically, I mean, so don't correct me. He read my thoughts and raised his disembodied hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. But right on the money, Prince Chara. Try to contain your excitement."

     "Cut the shit, Dr. Gaster," I made sure to use his title, because he earned it, even if he no longer exists. I felt the bond of a strained, yet mutual respect form. "Let me go to her, why won't you let me use shortcuts?!" The VOID seemed to ripple with my anger.

     "Every shortcut is... well... a loophole. That infinitesimally thin gap between some random spot in Waterfall and the entrance to Grillby's? That's this place. You simply cut through a... a shortcut in the universe. This is the space between."

     "And every time I use one..." I was waiting for the catch.

     "You run risk of being trapped here forever."

     "Why can sans use them so effortlessly?"

     "Ah, sans was exposed to the first ever entrance to the VOID. To its power. He can see and use dimensional magic similar to you. But where he and you differ..."

     "Is that he belongs and I don't." Dr. Gaster nodded. I let out a sigh. "Figures."

    "He is needed by the universe. His role... the judge. It is not one that is taken lightly."

     "Fine, that's great and all, I don't care." Dr. Gaster looked slightly taken aback. "I need to get back to Frisk. I don't know wether time is stopped in here, or if she's still suffering and I'm stuck talking to you. But I made a deal with my actual worst enemy just for this. I'm not letting you stop me." The VOID grew sharp and unruly. "I'll tear a hole in this place if I have to."

     "...But why should I compromise the integrity of the universe just for you? For 'true love'? You were born to a fate that was never yours, you were given a second chance that you should have never gotten and yet... you still somehow keep finding your way back here."

"..."

"No, you don't have to say anything. Your devotion to her speaks volumes in all this silence. But just know, that the next time you arrive here... Shortcut or otherwise... You will not be leaving."

"Take me to her." Dr. Gaster simply faded into the darkness, as the VOID around me morphed into a musky prison cell, with Frisk lying on the floor.

(FRISK POV)

Darkness grew at the edge of my vision, before swirling into a familiar figure with a green and yellow jacket. I felt so weak, but her presence gave me strength to stand and slump into her arms. Her embrace was so warm and comforting.