Be Skeptical Of Their Smiles Of Plated Gold

Chapter 15

**HEADS UP--I'll be finishing this book soon, possibly a few more chapters, depends on how fast the next couple chapters are**

By now, I was determined to fix my mistake. Even as Sans left I could still feel the awkwardness he'd left in the room.

I must've done something in the last timeline to make it the way it was. Maybe I could try something now.

Chara slowly woke beside me with a loud yawn, "Hey, where's that dang flower?" she huffed as she sat up.

"Flower?" I questioned.

"Yeah, Flowey, the one that talks," she said, "Didn't you meet him?" she asked.

I shrugged, I honestly wasn't up to the task of remembering such a tiny detail. "Does it matter?"

"I guess not...." she sighed, leaning back on the wall, "I see you got something decent to eat."

I thought for a moment. Chara remembered all the timelines just as Sans had, meaning she must remember what I did. I had to ask.

"So, what happened to the last timeline?" I asked her, "How were all monsters on the surface."

"The war never happened in the last timeline," she said with a shrug.

I pursed my lips, "That doesn't help," I said to her, crossing my arms.

She looked at me then at the door before looking straight ahead again, "That....is a more complicated....you did something else with the souls....in the last timeline, you grabbed them before Flowey could use them, but instead of absorbing them.....you managed to rewrite history with the power of your determination."

I blinked, "Determination?" I asked. "You mean my soul type?"

She nodded, "Sans wasn't lying about that, only about who was killing all the monsters," she explained, "We both.....well I used to have a Determination soul, but after I.....died......I lost it, because Asriel  took it to cross the barrier."

"The power of seven human souls....I read that somewhere in Toriel's library," I noted, "Seven wizards sealed all of monster kind, and only a power of equal strength or greater could break it."

She nodded, "Yes, but no one could exit unless they had both a human and a monster soul, and monster souls don't have enough determination to survive outside their host."

"That's all good and well, but how does that have anything to do with my determination?" I asked.

Chara shrugged, "I dunno, you brought it up," she said  and put her hands behind her head, "But like I said, you used determination and your power over time to go back and stop the Monster war I think? Or maybe just wish it never happened? I dunno, but when you reset it all went back to normal."

I stood up, "I had no choice but to reset," I huffed, "Sans didn't even remember why we met!"

"That was for his own benefit, so the memory would stop fueling his genocide ego," she said, "Sans became much like you and I for a while, I was starting to worry he'd break and turn this into Dusttale."

"What?" I asked, looking at Chara.

"Nevermind," she waved her hand dismissively. "We just need to get the human souls right? and use our Determination to make things right again."

I nodded and went to leave the room before the door was swung open, smacking me in the face. I immediately covered my nose, which was now throbbing in pain, and from what I could tell, bleeding.

"HUMAN!" Papyrus beamed at me, taking no notice of my injury, "THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD IS HERE TO SEE YOU!"

I looked back at Chara, who mouthed a single word. 'Run'.

I didn't have much choice but to listen to her, she was the only one, aside from Sans, who knew anything about this timeline. So I pushed past Papyrus and ran in a random direction. I chose left, since it seemed like the most barren, and I was pretty sure it was the way to the exit.

I didn't know how sure I could be, the cave was dark and my eyes were having a hard time adjusting to the light.

I didn't even know how long I ran for before Sans popped in front of me, his arms open. I collided with him, without a single choice in the matter.

"If you keep going, Asgore will find you instead," he explained, "Besides, I know how you can get out."

I had to listen, he knew. He told me he knew, so he must know. I blinked and watched him, waiting for him to tell me the secret.

"The Barrier, I can take you to the Barrier and convince Asgore to give you the souls."

Chara looked just as dumbfounded as I, "You just said Asgore will kill me, why would he give me the souls?"

Sans shook his head, "I'll convince him, just trust me okay?" he said.

I could only nod, there was no arguing with him now. What with him walking away.