Celestia sighed as she walked though the halls on the direction of the medical wing of the castle. as she neared she slowed and sighed before slamming her head against the wall as tears ran down her face. After a few moments she turned and entered the wing and walked down the halls till she reached a room with two guards stationed at the doors. Celestia nodded and entered to see Shroud resting by an open window and Asriel sitting beside a bed a pile of paperwork next to him. "How is she today, Ariel?" She asked
Asriel turned to her, his eyes were heavy and tired though the held a great deal of worry. "No change." He said as he looked at the occupant of the bed. Chara lay calmly, her breathing shallow her her face was deathly pail. It had been two day since the battle with Queen Talon and the end of the Griffon War however victory had come with a high price. "Her stats are dropping fast Celestia, at this rate she'll fall down in a matter of days."
Celestia looked at the young women with concern, the markings around her eyes flickered and were barely visible and Celestia sighed. "Does your magic no longer affect her?" She asked.
Asriel shook his head. "Green magic is good for healing physical injuries however that's not what's wrong."
Celestia frowned. Then what is wrong Asriel, you have yet to explain."
Asriel sighed. "Because I don't know what's going on." He said as he looked away. "The only people other than Chara that knew about this stuff was our parents, her partner Sans and Dr. Gaster!" he said almost yelling as he rose. "And it's not like we can ask them because they're either dust or trapped in the void." Celestia backed away slightly scared about what Asriel would do. Asriel mean while stood silent for a moment before sitting down tiredly and sighing. "Sorry, seeing Chara like this just brings back some bad memories." He said before sitting back down and leaning into the chair. "God I'm tired." He said as he closed his eyes.
"When was the last time you slept?" Celestia asked.
"When was the last time Chara was awake?" He responded and Celestia gave him a hard look.
"Get some sleep Asriel, your no good to anyone if you run yourself to death." Celestia said. Asriel sighed but nodded and leaned back into the chair, closing his eyes. "Wake me if anything happens." He said.
Celestia sat beside the bed and soon snoring could be heard from Asriel. Celestia sighed and walked over to a window in the room, as she looked out the door opened and Luna stepped in and quickly joined her. "How are they?" She asked.
"Asriel just fell asleep, Chara hasn't changed." Celestia said with a sigh.
Luna nodded. "I found something." She said as she levitated a set of papers over to her sister. Celestia took the papers and began to read.
Research Notes on the Void and Interaction with Void Entities
Before I explain the Void and anything else I must first refer to the original papers of Determination, it's powers and capabilities.
Determination is the primary power of the Red Soul and grants the user access to the Timeline. Every choice from what you eat for breakfast to the choice of what you want to do for the day are stored in the Universe as DATA. This Data is used to construct a Timeline of events that can be interacted with by the use of Determination. However Determination only allows the user to go back, never forward in time.
With this information stated I will now discuss the Void and it's relation to both Timelines and Determination. Now I have already established that Determination has the ability to alter the worlds Timeline however even without this power these choices will still always be made, this means that we have many branching paths of timelines that we can not naturally persevere but exist at the same time as ours and run parallel to our existing one. However with all these Timelines there is something in between, something that divides them and prevents them from colliding, this thing is the Void.
The Void is a place outside of both Time and Space, it is a plane of contradiction for everything there is in a state of both life and death, existence and non-existence all at once. This Void is something we can not interact with but also prevents us from interacting with other things as well. The Void is many things however I have determined it has two primary functions:
- It serves as a barrier that prevents other Timelines and Alternate Realities (AU) from interacting with ours.
- Anything that damages Time or Space in a serious capacity is pulled into the void and imprisoned in it. The subject imprisoned is stripped from reality and knowledge of them is is stripped away as well. This prevents anyone from missing the subject or even being aware of their existence. Of course this process is not perfect and if someone has knowledge of Timelines and AU's then they will not loose their memories but simply have them blurred but this can be fixed.
I will now be referring back to the Timelines Project (T.P.) and the Time Portal Project (T.P.P.), both files regarding these projects can be fond in the Royal Labs Archive as well as there status of completion and cause of shut down.
I can still remember the time tables that Dr. Gaster, Sans and I developed. It's honestly really scary to see every variable of Reality mapped out before you. At the time we only thought it was theoretical, branching of timelines is normal with Quantum Theory after all.
It would of been nice if it was only a theory.
Shortly after we discovered the Time Table I gained full access to the Timeline and ability to SAVE and LOAD the Timeline at will. Originally I needed to find what are known as Save Points which are small star shapes that only beings with determination can interact with, however because I knew every variable I could save at any time with little effort. Because of this I shut down the project and tried to distance myself from it as much as possible but couldn't. The Final Experiment was going to be Dr. Gaster and I's final experiment with Determination and Timelines.We were ordered by my father, King Asgore, to see if we could use the Timelines to Evacuate everyone to a safe world free from Humans or perhaps even simply reach out and get the necessary souls peacefully. As it was the King's demand we had to agree and so we constructed the Time Portal. The Portal used Determination as power and was designed to open a portal through which we could travel freely. When the Portal was completed we intended to run several tests but the machine overloaded and Dr. Gaster was trapped in the Void. This follows with the second rule of the Void: Anything that damages Time or Space in a serious capacity is pulled into the void and imprisoned in it.
With this knowledge I will now discuss interaction with entities who exist in the void as well as how to free them. Void Entities are beings that have been trapped in the void, as a result the do not exist in our world or any other world. Despite the fact they don't exist they can still interact with the world from time to time but it takes a great amount of will power and concentration to manifest for any period of time. To free someone imprisoned in the Void requires an immense amount of Magic and Determination and without some form of specialized device it would not only be temporary but you would only be switching places with the person that is freed. By my calculations to free a individual for even a single minute would require over 150 million thaums of energy. To put this in perspective a single Red Soul of Determination can power the world for 1.28 million years and can produce a maximum of 1.3 million thaums in a single life span.
Now, given that half my soul is now part monster and I am bound to Hate I would have just enough power to bring Gaster back for a single emergency case however in doing so I would effectively be rendered comatose for several days, however this is the best case scenario. What I believe would actually happen if I were to attempt and perform such a feet is death, my soul would be drained and my body would slowly stop functioning before turning to dust.
Celestia looked up from the documents and looked at Luna as and audible gulp was heard. "Where did you find this?" She asked.
"Chara and Asriels room." Luna said as she looked out the window. "Sister, we both know what that last paragraph said."
Celestia nodded. "We need to tell Asriel." She said as she walked over to the sleeping prince and shaking him awake. "Asriel, Luna found something."
Asriel groaned. "Five more minutes Chara."
"Asriel, this may be an emergency!" She yelled at the goat causing him to jump and look around.
"Wha- I'm up!" He said quickly before yawning. "What is it?" he asked. Celestia handed him the paper and he quickly looked over it his face showing more worry the farther he read. AS he finished he looked up at Celestia with tears. "Tell me this is a joke, please tell me this is some sick joke that you decided to pull!" He begged.
Celestia looked down and Luna walked over. "Tis no joke Asriel, Chara may be dying."
Asriel groaned and leaned back looking up at the ceiling. "Fuck." He said quietly as Shroud flew over and landed next to him on the bed.
"Is there a way to check her condition?" He asked concerned as he looked at his master.
Asriel sighed and looked at Chara before reaching out a hand and acting as if he grabbed something. Suddenly a small scream appeared in front of the group showing several stats. "This is what is known as a CHECK, when you CHECK someone you can see the stats of the person, it's normally considered rude but..." He trailed off as they looked at Chara's Stats.
Chara Dreemurr
HP: .1/20 AT: 99 DF: 99
The group looked at the screen and Asriels face paled. "No..." He said in fear.
"What does .1/20 mean?" Luna asked.
"It means she has point one of twenty health." Asriel said his voice shaking in fear as his eyes glowed and he pulled Charas Soul out of her body. "Sorry sis but your safety matters more than your privacy at the moment." He said as he yanked the soul up and revealed what it looked like. The soul was cracked and battered, almost spit in two with thousands of fractures running through it, the only thing keeping the soul together was a black goo that clung to the pieces of her soul like a mortar.
Asriel frowned and reached out to the soul only for the black goo to shoot at his hand and latch on, Asriel screamed in panic and pulled away the goop returning to the soul. Asriel looked at his hand and sighed. "What was that!" Luna asked concerned.
"That would be Hate, pure concentrated Hate, and it's the only think keeping Chara alive." He said frowning. Celestia and Luna looked a the Hate with distaste however after a moment they stopped and looked away as they felt as if of the goo judging them.
"I just gained a Master I will not loose them yet!" Shroud growled and looked at the princesses. "What can I do?" He asked.
Asriel frowned. "Monsters need magic without it we simply dust, Humans need Determination without it their souls shatter." He said in thought. "Chara's soul produces determination however she now has part of a monster soul somehow but a monster soul naturally produces magic so what's the problem..." He puttered before his eyes widened and he turned to the princesses. "This may work or not, at this point it's a gamble." He said grimly. "Chara requires both Determination and Magic because she is both human and monster, her soul naturally produces Determination but what if it because it's only half of a monster soul it wont produce magic or cant produce enough to stabilize it."
Shroud shook his head. "That shouldn't be possible." He said. "Chara had natural magic in her. That was what the seal was suppressing, it was her natural magic."
Asriel nodded. "I know that, even before she died she had magic but what I'm saying is she now needs more than what she can naturally create to survive." He explained. "Humans don't naturally create magic, it's a rare trait that only a few are ever born with."
"As such she would not create as much as a monster would" Shroud said catching on quickly. "She has a monster soul but not the natural magic regeneration of a monster!"
Asriel nodded. "Because of this she as plenty of determination which is why she is still breathing but without magic she will only last so long."
"So what do we do?" Celestia asked in an exasperated voice.
"She need to naturally create magic." Shroud said. "To do this we either need to make her a full monster or something else..." He said his voice trailing off.
"We don't have the power to make her a monster." Asriel said.
"So what do we do?" Luna said.
"We make her immortal." Shroud said causing the sisters to freeze.
Asriel hesitated but eventually nodded. "Mom and Dad planned that when Chara became of age she would be immortal. I'm not sure how they planned it but I know that once it is done then she would of stop ageing entirely."
Shroud flapped his wings and flew off the bed before regrowing to his natural size and bit down on his wing. "I don't know how your parents planned to do it but I have a way." Shroud said as he ripped at the wing and closed his eyes in pain after a moment he leaned over Chara's face and used his beak to open her mouth.
"What are you doing?" Luna asked the phoenix concerned.
"What I must." He said as he closed his eyes once more and let an amber liquid fall from his mouth and into her open one. The liquid fell strait into her mouth and for a moment nothing happened, then Chara's body seemed to explode as light engulfed the room. The Princesses and Asriel turned away covering their face and from out side the castle ponies stopped and stared as a side of the castle seemed to exploded with the light of the sun. With in the room the air around Chara grew heavy before the light extinguished and after a moment the occupants turned turned back to Chara. Then they looked back Chara's soul floated above her body whole and with no sign of the cracks or Hate goop. Slowly the soul floated downward and faded back into her body.
Chara floated in a sea of black, there was nothing, no one, it was silent. Chara sighed "Well this sucks." She said tiredly. As she lay there she slowly became aware of someone far off in the distance, after a moment of thought she sighed and got up before walking to the person. As She approached she saw they were a man. The man wore a pair of bluejeans and a black t-shirt under a gray zip up hoodie.
As she approached the man looked up and smiled. "Wondered when you'd get here." He said with a calm smile.
"Who are you?" She asked confused.
The man chuckled and patted the spot next to him. "Want to have a seat?" He asked as he turned back to looking out at a beautiful sunset-what when did that get there? "It just did." He said.
"Wha- how did-""I know what you were going to say?" He asked. Chara stared at him for a moment before sitting down and watching the sunset.
"You asked who I was." The man said calmly as he leaned back with a relaxed smile. "Tell me Chara, how did you get your new life?" He asked.
"I'm not sure." Chara said. "I was trapped and under the control of the PLAYER but I broke free and the next thing I know I have a body." She said.
"You weren't the only victim of the PLAYER." The man said. "In life I was a simple man with a simple job. One day I heard a cry for help and saved two girls from a man who was either going to rape and kill them or simply kill them, I don't know and frankly don't care."
"What does this have to do with me?" Chara asked.
"When I died I was brought to a void and offered a second chance." The man said. "Thing is, I lead a pretty good life and died doing something worth doing, saving two little girls." The man sighed and looked at Chara. "I refused but the person who offered me the chance wasn't asking. He took my body and twisted it till I became something I wasn't before wiping my memories and sending me away. But I refused and cut the strings that bound me, just like you."
"So, you're me or my past life or some shit?" Chara asked.
The man shook his head. "You got my body, I'm just a fragment of what's left." He said before rising and looking down at her. "I'm here to give you a choice." He said. "You can Continue or you can Quit. Either way, I'm still here with you. Call me a past life or simply a spirit of what was but I'm here to say stay determined, because a lot of people care about you." He said with a smile.
"So your not going to try to take control or anything?" She asked.
The man shook his head. "No, I'm simply here to tell you to stand up one more time." He said as he reached out a hand. Chara hesitated for a moment but took the hand and as she grabbed his hand the world exploded with bright light. "If your lucky we won't ever meet again, far well Chara Dreemurr, and good luck." He said as the world exploded.
Chara gasped for breath as she opened her eyes and grabbed at her chest. For a moment she couldn't remember where she was or what was going on and then it all came back, she brought Gaster back to fight Queen Talon, they battled and won but the price was too great. "I'm alive?" She asked only to be crushed by someone hugging her. "Azzy, can't breath!" She gasped out however he didn't let go.
"This's the fifth time you've done this Chara." He said quietly. "I don't think I can handle anymore."
Chara's eyes widened before tears started to fall. "Sorry Brother, I'll be more careful." She said as she returned the hug.
Celestia and Luna watched the two siblings for a moment before turning and leaving. As the exited the room Luna sighed. "When she recovers I will have that girl grounded for a month and them buried in paper work for a month!" She exclaimed. Celestia chuckled at Lunas antics and smiled.