So... this is the first thing I've had time to write in a while, and it's completely not pokemon lol. So... Undertale. Yeah. My new obsession. This story was actually a commission for a close friend of mine, as a birthday present. This is the first time I've ever written something for someone else, and quite possibly the last, so it might not be my best work.

Spoilers for Undertale, my own interpretation of two of the tapes, and Female!Chara, since that's what was requested. Also Chara x Asriel, which was also requested.

I do not own Undertale or its' characters. Hope you enjoy!

"Come on, Azzy! At least try to keep up!"

Chara ran ahead of me, kicking up dirt as her shoes left footprints in the mud. She kept on narrowly avoiding stepping on the blue Echo Flowers. It was almost impressive. Everything she did was.

"I'm trying!" I replied. "Chara, you're too fast!"

Chara halted to glance over her shoulder at me. For some reason she wasn't wearing her usual smile.

"It's important," she insisted.

I stared at her for a second. She still hadn't really told me where we were going… and Mom would get mad if we got home too late…

"But-"

Chara groaned, cutting me off. "Do I have to do everything?" she demanded, walking back over to me. She grabbed my hand and started unceremoniously dragging me through Waterfall.

"Agh! Chara!" I exclaimed. Though I didn't really put up much of a fight to her dragging.

"Stop complaining, we're almost there," she replied.

I stayed quiet as we continued through Waterfall. Chara didn't really seem up for talking. Something must've really been bothering her.

I was actually starting to wonder if Chara was actually taking me somewhere in Waterfall, since we were starting to get close to Snowdin, when she suddenly stopped. We were standing in front of the first waterfall. There were a bunch of rocks falling down from the surface, but Chara didn't seem to care. She was staring intently at the waterfall for some reason.

"Um, Chara…?" I said, stepping closer to her.

She didn't seem to hear me, though, as she stepped closer to the waterfall. "I'm sure Gaster said it was this one…" she mused.

Before I could ask her what she was talking about, she stuck her hand into the spray.

"Chara!" I exclaimed. "Don't do that! It's dangerous!"

She finally turned to me, grabbing my hand again. "Found it! Come on!"

I didn't get a chance to protest before she pulled me into the spray with her. I closed my eyes as the water hit my fur, bracing myself to crash into the wall.

But instead, we tumbled to the ground. Chara somehow landed on top of me, even though she was in front of me a second ago. I looked around the cave a bit. We had somehow ended up behind the waterfall… I didn't even know that was possible.

"Umm… Chara?" I said, looking up at her.

"Finally, we're alone," Chara said. She rolled over onto her back, falling off of me. I kinda didn't want her to move, though.

Chara then let out a long sigh, staring up at the ceiling. Her golden heart-shaped locket was glistening from the light of the stones in the cave. It made her whole face light up. Her red eyes seemed distant. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but she didn't really look up for talking…

I was almost surprised when she finally said something.

"Wouldn't it be great if we could just stay here forever?" she said.

"What are you talking about, Chara?" I asked, sitting up slightly. "We gotta go home, or Mom will worry about us."

"That's not what I meant!" Chara exclaimed. "I meant… why can't we stay here. In the Underground."

"Oh."

I let my body fall back slightly. This… wasn't the first time Chara had said something like this. I probably should've realized this was what she was thinking earlier… Mom and Dad were trying to figure out ways to break the barrier that morning. Chara always got like this when they mentioned anything about the barrier.

"But Chara…" I said slowly. "Don't you want to go home…?"

"Of course I don't!" Chara replied, turning away from me. "The Surface really isn't as great as you all think, you know. You're better off down here, anyway. Away from the stupid humans."

"Chara…" I said. If all humans were like her, then there wouldn't be any problem, right? Chara cared about us monsters. I knew she did. Just like we cared about her.

Chara didn't seem to hear me, though. I wasn't even sure if she realized I was there. She simply curled up into a ball, hugging her knees tight to her chest.

"Why do you even want to go back to the Surface, anyway?" she said. "They killed so many of you. They kill the only things worth saving."

"Chara…" I repeated, sliding closer to her slightly. "Don't say that. I'm sure not all humans are-"

"Shut up, Asriel!" she exclaimed, suddenly sitting bolt upright. I jumped slightly. I couldn't remember the last time she used my real name. "You don't understand. All humans are capable of is destruction! They take away everything important!"

I stared at her for a second. It was rare to see her this mad… but what she was saying couldn't be true. Dad was always telling me humans were beautiful creatures. And after meeting Chara… I didn't understand how any human could be bad.

"You can't mean that, Chara," I said. "Not all humans can be bad. You're… not bad."

"But I'm different," Chara said. "I'm special."

Yeah… she was.

"I'm sure there are other humans like you!" I insisted. "Chara, I know you don't like talking about your life on the surface, but I'm sure there was someone who-"

"You really don't know what you're talking about, do you?" Chara said, finally looking up at me. She didn't even look sad. In fact, she didn't look like she was feeling anything at all. "Mt. Ebott is cursed, remember? Do you really think I'm stupid enough to climb something like that if there was someone who actually cared about me. Someone who loved me."

No… that wasn't true at all! Maybe none of the humans loved her, but… I did. I really cared about her. More than I cared about anyone else. More than Mom and Dad, even! She really meant so much to me… she was the only one who was there for me whenever I needed her. And I was so lonely whenever she went to visit Dr. Gaster without me… I just wanted her to always be by my side.

"Chara, that's not true!" I said. "I…"

For some reason, my voice trailed off. As much as I wanted to tell her how I felt, I couldn't. It should've been easy, right? She was my sister. This wasn't anything weird. But no matter what, I just couldn't bring myself to say it.

"It… it'll be okay," I said. I put my arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. "We don't have to go to the surface if you don't want to. As… as long as I'm with you, I don't think that would be too bad."

Chara snuggled closer to me, burying her face in my shirt and gripping her necklace tightly. "It's not enough, though," she said darkly. "The humans need to pay for what they've done."

"Chara…"

But I couldn't get her to say anything else. We ended up sitting there for a few minutes before she stood up and declared she wanted to go to the lab. Before I could offer to join her, she had walked back through the waterfall and off into the distance.

I never really knew what Chara talked about with Dr. Gaster that day. All I knew was that it must've been something serious, since Chara was really… reserved when she got back. She spent all of her time in our room, and would barely talk to me.

Mom and Dad told me it would be best to leave Chara alone for a bit. I wasn't really sure if that was the best idea, though. I usually felt better around my family. I always felt better around Chara. So… maybe she would feel better around me.

Mom knew what I was thinking, as always, and thought it wouldn't be best for me to mope around with Chara. So she sent me off to help Dad tend to his garden filled with yellow flowers. That really didn't help get my mind off Chara, though. We had played in this garden a few days ago. I had found Dad's old video camera, and Chara and I decided to film her creepy face, but then…

Suddenly it hit me. The camera! Maybe that could cheer Chara up!

"Hey, Dad?" I said. "Can I borrow your camera? I want to try to cheer up Chara!"

Dad smiled down at me, nodding his head slightly. "Of course, Asriel. I must admit, I'm quite worried about her as well…"

"Thanks Dad!" I said quickly, before running out of the garden and into my parent's room. Their old video camera was still on their shelf, just where Chara and I had left it last week. Come on… this had to cheer her up…!

I grabbed the camera and walked down the hall to our room. I opened the door slightly, poking my head in. Chara didn't even have the light on… she was just sitting alone on her bed in the dark.

"Chara? Can I come in?" I said softly.

Chara stayed silent for a second, before making a noise with her throat. I decided to take it as a yes, and stepped further into the room, closing the door behind me. I quickly flipped on the light- how was Chara able to see in the dark like that?- and smiled, pushing the record button on the camera.

"Howdy, Chara! Smile for the camera!"

Chara looked up at me, clearly forcing a smile. Her red eyes looked completely blank.

I laughed, just like Chara always liked to do when someone was sad. "Ha, this time I got YOU! I left the cap on… ON PURPOSE! Now you're smiling for noooo reason!"

Chara's smile instantly fell, as she shook her head slightly. "I usually am…"

Chara fell silent for a second. Was she still upset? Did I make things worse? I didn't want to make anything worse.

"Hey, Azzy…" she said suddenly. "Do you remember when… Dad got sick?"

"Oh…" I said slowly, lowering the camera. Why… why was she bringing this up now? "Yeah, I remember. When we tried to make butterscotch pie for Dad, right? The recipe asked for cups of butter… but we accidently put in buttercups instead."

I… really didn't want to think about it. It… wasn't a very good day. Luckily Dr. Gaster was able to help…

"Yeah… that…" Chara said slowly. Well… at least she was talking. Maybe I was helping!

"Yeah!" I said, a little more enthusiastically. "Those flowers got him really sick. I felt so bad. It made Mom really upset. I should've laughed it off, like you did…"

Chara just laughed off Dad's illness… and he was alright in the end. And she moved on after that. Maybe not caring about things really was the way to go about things sometimes…

Chara fell silent again. Did… did I say something wrong? I… I didn't mean to! I had to keep this conversation going. I had to cheer her up!

"Um, anyway, where are you going with this?" I said quickly.

"Turn off the camera," Chara whispered.

"Huh?" I exclaimed, taken aback. "Turn off the camera?" Why would she want me to turn it off…?

"Don't make me say it again."

"OK!" I replied. I instantly pushed the button on the camera, cutting off the recording. Even though I didn't understand why she wanted it off, if it made her happy I would do anything for her.

"Is it off?" she asked. Her voice didn't have any hint of emotion.

"Y-yeah…" I said. "What's up?"

"I had an idea," she said. "I know a way we can free everyone."

"What?!" I exclaimed. But… I thought Chara didn't want to go back to the surface. I thought she hated humans.

"You heard me," she said, looking up at me. Her eyes were almost glistening as her mouth twisted into a smile. "We're going to free everyone, Asriel."

"But… are you sure?" I asked, stepping away from Chara slightly. This was her creepy face… her creepy face couldn't mean anything good. "I… I thought you didn't want to go back to the surface."

"But you do!" Chara said, her voice suddenly back to normal. "All the monsters do! Isn't that what's most important?"

No… her happiness was the most important thing. It always was.

"But-"

"A human SOUL and a monster SOUL can cross the barrier, right?" Chara said, cutting me off. "If you absorb my SOUL, we can cross the barrier. Together."

But… in order for that to happen, Chara had to… she would…

"But Chara… wouldn't this plan…" I swallowed, trying hard to find the right words. "Chara, I don't want you to fall down."

Chara smiled up at me. "Don't worry, Azzy! If you absorb my SOUL, then I'll live on inside of you, right?"

"I… I don't…"

No one had ever really tried it before… no one knew what would happen to the human SOUL if it got absorbed by a monster…

"Dr. Gaster said it would be fine!" Chara said, as if she was reading my mind. Like she always was. "It should work, Azzy! Besides, it's the only way to free everyone."

I stared at Chara for a second. Even though she was smiling, her eyes still seemed completely blank. This was really what Chara wanted to do.

This was what Chara wanted. What Chara wanted was the most important thing in the world.

So why couldn't I bring myself to agree with her?

"I… I don't know about this, Chara…"

"Come on, Asriel!" she said, her smile fading slightly. "It's not like it'll be hard. If I eat some of Dad's buttercups, then I'll get sick! Mom and Dad will never know what happened!"

"You… you don't want Mom and Dad to know?" I said, taken aback.

Chara laughed slightly. "Of course not, you idiot. Why would we ever tell them? They would try to stop us!"

"But…"

Maybe I wanted them to stop us… I didn't want Chara to die. What would I do without her?

"It's simple," Chara continued. "If you get the buttercups, then I eat them and get sick, Mom and Dad won't know what happened! And when I die, you can absorb my SOUL and we can cross the barrier together! Then we can collect enough human SOULs to break the barrier." Chara laughed. "What a wonderful idea, right?"

I backed away from her again, and somehow wound up hitting my bed. I fell back a bit, dropping the camera onto the ground.

"I… I don't like this idea, Chara," I said. She couldn't die… she just couldn't. We could find another way to break the barrier, Chara didn't have to get involved! She didn't have to do this…

"Oh, come on, Asriel," she said suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Don't tell me you're crying. You big baby."

"Wh… what?" I exclaimed. My eyes did feel a little wet… "N-no, I'm not…" I couldn't cry. Chara didn't like it when I cry. She never liked it. "Big kids don't cry."

"So what's your problem?" Chara asked, standing up for the first time all day. "If we do this together then it has to work."

Together… if I absorbed Chara's SOUL, we really would be together forever…

"Yeah, you're right," I said quickly, wiping my eyes.

"You're still crying?" she demanded, stepping closer to my bed. "Come on. Do you truly doubt me? This is going to work."

"No!" I exclaimed. "I'd never doubt you, Chara… Never!"

Why would I doubt her? Chara was smarter than me. Chara knew what was right. And if Chara thought this was the only way to free everyone… then she had to be right. She was always right.

"We just have to be strong, Asriel," she said, sitting down next to me. She was… really close…

"Y-yeah!" I said, sliding away from her slightly. I could feel my face heating up. "We'll be strong! We'll free everyone."

Just like Chara wanted.

Chara rested her head on my shoulder, hugging my arm. "I knew I could count on you, Asriel," she whispered. "Now we're going to be together forever. Just like you always wanted."

Right… together forever. Just like I wanted. Just like she wanted.

I let Chara stay on top of me for a moment, before slowly detaching her from my arm and standing up.

"I'll go get the flowers."

Without another word, I hurried out of our room, accidently kicking the camera aside as I left.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed!