Morning came with a gentle ray of sunlight streaming through the crack in the curtains. Chara sat up, eyes still blurry. Frisk was gone. She looked at the clock on the nightstand and shot out the bed. Eleven o'clock! Why didn't Frisk wake me?

     She quickly changed into her normal outfit and hurried down the stairs, almost falling. The house was silent. She looked around the kitchen, looking for Toriel, but she was absent as well. Turning around, she headed for the backyard.

     Chara squinted in the bright sunlight, sneezing. Toriel was in the garden, planting something.

     "Greetings, my child. I would've woken you, but Frisk told me not to. I suppose she was worried about you."

     "Frisk. Where is she?"

     "Um, I don't really know. She left early with Flowey. She didn't say where she was going."

     "Well, I'm going out for a bit. Might go to Grillby's."

     "Well, okay. Be careful Chara."

     She went back inside and stepped into the front yard. She walked down the sidewalk, passing Alphys and Undyne's shared house. She considered going in and asking if they'd seen Frisk, but decided not to. She trusted her, and if Frisk wanted to do something alone, Chara would let her.

     She stepped into Grillby's, immediately comforted by the familiar sounds and smells. She often hung around here, especially when she and Frisk hadn't been together. She spotted Sans sitting in the corner, reading the newspaper, ketchup bottle in hand. She walked over to him.

     "Hey Sans."

     "sup kid. take a seat. i wanna talk to ya."

     She swallowed nervously as she slid into the booth across from him. He folded the newspaper and screwed on the lid of the ketchup bottle.

     "So," He said, pupils flickering out,"what's going on between you and Frisk?"

     Shit shit shit shit.

     She was all too aware of everyone, humans and monsters, surrounding them. "Can't we talk about this somewhere else? Anywhere else?"

     "No. Now, answer the question."

     Chara forced her voice to be steady,"Nothing. We're friends, that's all."

     "Really? It didn't seem that way when she rushed to you last night."

     She was flustered by this and had no answer. Blushing, she snapped,"You should mind your own business! Why do you care what I do?"

     "Listen kid. I know you think that I hate you, but I don't. Now, I don't necessarily like you, but you're okay. But we've got a good thing going on right now. We are all living under the same roof, have been for five years. If something happens between the two of you, it could tear the family apart. I know I can't stop y'all, but just think of the consequences if it goes wrong."

     She climbed out the booth, and as she walked out the building, she thought to herself, It won't go wrong.

                                         -----------------

      Chara stuck a bag of popcorn into the microwave, preparing for a Doctor Who marathon. Toriel was gone, presumably to the store, so she had the house to herself. She took a drink out the fridge as the popcorn finished popping.

     Settling into the couch, she flicked through Netflix. Someone had been on her profile, watching The Walking Dead. Chara couldn't see anyone but Flowey watching that show. She decided to watch Blink, one of her favorite episodes.

She had finished that episode and had started the next when Frisk burst in, Alphys following and staggering under the weight of this weird machine. Flowey was in Frisk's arms, scowling like someone took his candy.

"Chara! Chara look!"she nudged Alphys forward,"Tell her!"

"Oh! Um, this machine, it p-picks up life forms. B-but I modified it so it would only pick up beings w-with a soul. Um, is anyone else home?"

Chara shook her head, quite confused.

"O-okay. Look through here. You s-should see the number t-three in the bottom right-hand corner, i-indicating the three of us."

She peered into the machine, it was like a giant camera. She looked at the small number at the bottom. It showed a three. She rolled her eyes, about to step away, when the number changed.

It began flickering between three and four. She jumped back in shock, looking upstairs and down towards the basement.Was someone there?

"S-see? It keeps changing! I don't t-think it's a bug, because if it was it would be a bunch of different numbers, not just three and four. Also it d-did the same thing at my house, with just me and Frisk. It went between two and three!"

     "Ummm, okay?"

     "Ugh! Chara don't you see? It's obvious!"

     "Then tell me!"

     "It's picking up more souls than there are! It's picking up him Chara!"

     "It's picking up Flowey!"

Chara grabbed onto the couch, blood pounding in her ears.

"B-but it can't. H-he has no s-soul."

Flowey laughed bitterly,"That's what I said. But they won't believe it."

Alphys stepped forward,"A-actually, we know you don't have a soul, but something deep inside you is stirring. A-and the machine is picking it up. "

Flowey spat as Frisk took him upstairs and Chara stood there, shaking. She could hardly believe what she had heard. Could they be close to getting Asriel back? She had given up all hope of getting him back long ago. She took a deep breath.

     "Are you saying that if we, somehow, pull a soul out of him, Asriel will be back?"

     "W-well, it wouldn't be that simple. You would first have to make him feel emotions, well, positive emotions. From there, there's a way to—for want of a better word—create a soul. Even if you m-managed to bring up positive emotions and a sort of soul, the soul would be extremely unstable. I don't even know if one soul alone would be enough to bring him back. And even though a soul would kinda, I don't know, expose some of his personality, it wouldn't be him in his form. That would take at least a human soul."

     "Me and Frisk have human souls. And wouldn't a Determination soul be best?"

     "Well, yes, but which of you would give up their soul?"

     "Neither. We could split our souls."

     "I-I-I suppose you could, but it would be extremely painful and would take humongous power. Power levels only seen in the middle of the Core."

Frisk came back downstairs and said plainly,"Then we'll go back Underground. Go to the Core and split our souls. Simple."

"The Core would be very dangerous. No one has been down there for years. The whole Core was shut down when the Barrier was broken, so it would have to be powered up again. And even if it still works, it would be nearly impossible to get to the central power room."

"Then what was the point of showing me all this! You're just saying every theory I have won't work!"

"I wasn't finished yet. The humans may have something with high power levels, even if it's not in this town."

Chara didn't hear the rest. Her trouble with Sans at Grillby's was forgotten. She was filled with renewed hope, renewed determination. They would get Asriel back. Even if they had to travel to the ends of the Earth to do it.

Yo! So, I'm basing Chara off myself, a lot. So if you see any seemingly useless information about her, it's just a little tidbit about me. Also, I'm going to try to have an update schedule. At least one chapter a week. I'm gonna try. So yeah! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Question of the day...

Do you watch Doctor Who? If so, what's your favorite episode?