Title: MERCY

Genre: Angst/Hurt/Comfort

Rating: T

Summary: They had chosen MERCY once and they had died for it. But they would keep choosing MERCY until they were free. / A little story about Frisk, the power of choice, and the hope of mercy

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, lots of temporary character death, No Mercy route spoilers, Frisk is Nonbinary, Mental Instability Out the Wazoo,

Author's Notes: Based on a lovely little comic by renrink on tumblr. I thought this would be a good way to leap into the fandom. *shrugs*

"gettttttt dunked on!"

You are only faintly surprised when the bones smash into your back and you feel your soul shatter under his rage the first time.

You think some part of you expected this from the start.

Chara's laugh is violent and vicious as the two of you step out into the beginning of the corridor again.

We're going to have so much fun, partner, they say in your ear, their fingers like vices around your wrists. We'll kill this fucker and-

"hey kid, i'm sparing you..." Sans says, dripping sweat and blue fire.

You raise your hand, and hear Chara's confusion in your bones as you break free of their control, only for a second.

But it's long enough to choose, and you do what you must.

MERCY

The bones are just as painful as before.

What are you even trying to do? Chara shrieks curses, in between their violent bouts of laughter. Everything Chara does is violent, it has always seemed to you.

You will never be free until you FIGHT, do you understand? I'll never, ever let you go!

MERCY

NO!

Why won't you just KILL HIM?

You know you could, eventually. You know that eventually you could learn all his secrets, his attacks, and you could kill him. In time.

But you will not.

MERCY

Let me go, you say.

No, never.

It's always the same.

I won't let you go. Never, ever, ever.

MERCY

You stop listening to Chara, after a while.

MERCY

...

MERCY

...

MERCY

The word is a final, damning thing as you press the button. Once, twice, three, four, a hundred, two hundred, a thousand, a million times more. The word is imprinted in your head.

You have died so many times that not enough people in the entire world would have enough fingers to count them all.

You still press the button when it is time.

MERCY

Chara's voice is sullen, angry and hateful.

You can kill yourself a thousand more times. I still won't let you go.

MERCY

Idiot...

Chara tries to mock you. Tell you how stupid you are, how you were just a filthy murderer to Sans, how you killed his brother, how he never cared about you, how no one ever cared about you.

You are his enemy, the one person in all the world he hates more than anything.

You know this better than you have ever known anything.

But to you?

He is your brother. He is the only family member you have left, the only family you have the strength to save.

And you - the you that Chara hates, the one full of determination that kept you walking talking breathing when you should have stayed dead a hundred times over - will never, ever, ever kill him.

MERCY

No matter how many times he kills you.

Chara is exhausted. And so would you be, but your determination is as bright as ever as you materialize at the beginning of the hallway, and walk forward to die.

Are you trying to atone, they sneer at you. You're a murderer, you killed his brother. How pathetic, that you think he would ever love you.

You pause, and hold out your arms, wrapping them around the button.

"kid?" Sans looks wrecked. More than usual. Uncertain.

You wonder if he remembers anything. You never knew the entirety of what he was or could do, after all.

You smile at him, trying to tell him it will all be all right, but Chara twists even that, until your face becomes like a demon's, and the confusion falls away from Sans's permanently smiling face. He hates you. He always will.

You still choose MERCY, despite Chara's tired raging.

I'm so tired.

Then let me go.

No...Never.

As the bones pierce your back, you smile.

They are much less certain now.

You wonder how your poor, broken brother is able to stay sane throughout this madness.

You wonder if you are even human.

You wonder.

I'm tired, Chara sobs. I'm tired Frisk, stop this. Just let us fight.

They crinkle in your mind, their grip slipping.

No, never, you say.

MERCY

Asriel.

You think it may be Chara who calls for him. Or maybe it's you.

He was the only one who loved me. I didn't even love myself. You said you would set him free.

I'm sorry, you say, and you mean it. You will always hate yourself for never bringing him back, for never setting him free.

You will always hate that one mistake, that first started you down this road.

This time, Chara does not insist you go to face Sans. You walk out of the castle, away from him, under your own power.

He finds you anyway.

"what the hell are you playing at?" Sans croaks, trapping you in a bone cage. "is this some sort of sick joke to you?!"

He is wearing Papyrus's bright red scarf and he is crying. Thick, neon-blue tears as you sit stupidly, wanting to wipe them away from his face. Sans should not be crying.

"Well, shit Sansy-boy," Chara forces you to say, laughing weakly as you sob. "I thought that was more your field, but since you fucked off while I killed Papyrus, maybe that's not your thing anymo-"

The blasters roar with Sans' fury.

You didn't even get to press MERCY this time.

You'll make up for it in the next hundred or so, though.

MERCY

...

MERCY

...

MERCY

I can't...

Frisk, please.

Then, tinier than ever before:

Asriel...

You open your eyes, and you do not see a long, ominous corridor with artificial light shining in from stained glass windows. You see cavernous walls, and a strange light

You are sitting on a strange bunch of flowers.

High, high above, is a wound in the earth of the mountain, through which shines the true light of day. The strange light is the sun's rays.

The faint sunlight that can reach you...it is warm.

You breathe, unable to register.

You win. Chara's voice is faint, hateful, longing. You win.

You're free.