No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

31 ~ Someone Else

Three days.

In three days, it will be Christmas Day. Tomorrow, you're going to try the machine again, this time built in Alphys's lab.

And then...

Well. All of you, even Sans, have agreed that if it doesn't work, then it'll be good to take a little break. Just for Christmas and New Years, and then you'll start again. But even Papyrus realizes that this constant work and constant failure isn't good for the Soul.

There's a difference, you tell yourself, between taking a break and giving up. Giving up, that's leaving and never coming back. Taking a break...

Vacations are temporary. You'll be back, working on the machine full-swing.

But you still have tomorrow ahead of you.

"Hey, Frisk!" Papyrus's voice snaps you out of your musings. He's standing in the doorway of the stairwell to your basement.

The brothers have settled into the basement nicely, and, honestly, you like having the brothers living so close to you. It means you're not far from being cheered up in whatever bad mood you may ever be in.

"Yeah?" You respond.

"Sans and I are going to watch a movie together. Did you want to watch, too?"

"What movie?"

Papyrus shrugs a little, a shadow of concern crossing his face. "I... don't know. It's Sans' turn to choose."

"Okay. I'll come."

Sans has, surprisingly, not chosen something cheesily stupid and weird, but instead an actually pretty decent movie: The Princess Bride. It's cute and funny and still dramatic and full of action. And, you notice, it ends with the two main characters being reunited- even though one of them sat thought to be dead, or gone forever. You don't miss on this theme in the slightest.

Sans, however, misses it entirely. He falls asleep halfway through the movie, slumped against Papyrus's side, one hand still in the popcorn bowl.

Once the movie is over, you head upstairs for bed.

And then...

And then it's morning. Flowey wakes you up by screaming at you. You jump out of bed, throw on some clothes. Rush downstairs.

Sans and Papyrus are both already awake. Well. Papyrus is, it looks like Sans fell back asleep before he finished breakfast. You gently shake him awake.

"Sans! Sans! Wake up, we're turning the machine on today!"

Gradually, he wakes up.

It doesn't take long after that for you to all get to Alphys's lab. And then you're starting up the machine.

You all start to get a little nervous- okay, a lot nervous- when Dr. Gaster doesn't try to stop you.

Maybe-.. maybe he's going to let you continue? Maybe this time...!

Sans is rocking on his toes. He glances at you.

You give him a nod.

After a moment, Sans steps up to stand beside Papyrus, who is at the control panel.

"alright, everyone!" Sans shouts. "grab hold tight to something, just in case. and i guess, uh... let's do this."

In preparation, a number of metal bars have been installed into the walls, so that in case the Void starts sucking things in, everyone will be able to hold on. You grab ahold of one of the bars now. "Ready!"

Undyne and Alphys do the same.

And then Papyrus is starting up the machine, Sans at his side.

For a moment, there's an incredibly strong pulling in your chest. You cling to the bar, and it almost feels like your arms are gonna be ripped off.

But then it stops. And when you look, there's not a whirling black vortex, sucking things in. It's a circle. A perfect circle, suspended about a foot off the ground, maybe ten, twelve feet in diameter, and perfectly black. No light penetrates it, no light even seems to touch it. It's... darker than anything you've ever seen before.

And it's just... there.

After maybe about a minute of nothing happening, you hear Papyrus whisper, "So, then, do we... go in?"

But before anyone can respond, there's a noise. Static on static on static, barely distinguishable beneath the hissing and crackling and static.

But distinguishable nonetheless. It's screaming.

You open your mouth to say something, anything, but just as quickly as it started, the noise stops, and there's silence again, but for the quiet hum of the machine.

Everyone is looking back and forth between the others in the room, and the Void, that black, untouchable circle of nothingness.

And then Sans takes a step towards it.

"S-Sans--" Alphys protests. "We don't know if it's s-safe!"

Sans glances over his shoulder. "relax. it's not like i'm gonna jump in or-"

Sans is cut off by a sudden, loud SSHHPLUNK as a hand- a hand- bursts out of the blackness like someone reaching up from underwater.

The thing is, the hand, and the arm it's connected to, are black. Completely black. Just like the Void.

Sans stumbles back a few steps. You can hear him breathing, sharp and panicked, from where you are.

The hand claws around for a moment, until it seems to find something- the edge of reality, maybe?- to hold on to, and it starts to pull itself out, a body following the arm.

Sans takes a few more steps back, and you walk over to stand behind him.

The body, just as pitch black as the hand, slips out of the Void and slams into the ground with a grunt. After a moment, the person pulls themself to stand up.

And you can't help but suck in a sharp breath, because it's not Dr. Gaster.

It doesn't matter that the person is taller, older looking now, doesn't matter that they're completely colorless, doesn't matter that they seem groggy and a little shocked.

You would recognize them anywhere.

"Chara."

§

A/N

THERE, BOOM, TWO CHAPTERS, BECAUSE I HAVE TO GET UP EARLY TOMORROW MORNING BUT DON'T FEEL TIRED AT ALL.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things, and every notification I get makes my day!