#somethingnew!chara

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Find it very interesting how Stage 2 often claims to not care about or be completely over what he had with Chara, and yet as soon as they were gone and another powerful, authoritative figure barged into his life in the form of Nightmare he’s immediately latching on to him and trying to engage in forms of banter, teasing, referring to him as a “friend” and trying to call Nightmare by his first name despite how the Guardian keeps insisting on being called “Boss.”

How Stage 2 often tried to offer Nightmare criticism, information, and advice to help the Boss fulfill his goals successfully despite knowing by that point that Nightmare likely won’t listen to him and will react badly to criticism.

Interesting how, in his Good Ending when he leaves with Color, he still claims to kinda miss him and isn’t offended by the knowledge that Nightmare was using him for his own goals, just simply can’t explain why he misses Nightmare or what exactly he misses.

Killer!Sans Don’t Latch On to the Nearest Powerful Person in An Attempt to Recreate Past Relationships and Trauma in the Hopes of Getting a Different Outcome and To Cling Onto Something Familiar Challenge (FAILED SPECTACULARLY!!)

In other news, I think more people should focus on how—if Killer is Nightmare’s right/left hand—he’d be directly involved in the planning of missions and scouting out information to help with those plans while also working out on the field.

People often forget that in favor of dumbing him down for “the silliness” and ignore all the responsibility that would come from being the right hand of an organization. He won’t get such an high position just because he’s the most loyal to Nightmare or because he might’ve been the first/been with him the longest. If Nightmare were smart, he’d make Killer work hard to earn that position.

[monofazz]

Genocide together: Chapter 7- Crystal Stars and Mostly Silent Flowers

Creator of Killer!Sans- @rahafwabas​

Whelp, this took it’s time!

Oh well.

The first thing that hit the two was the smell. The ashy odour in the air almost overwhelmed their senses. Undyne looked around the area and saw piles of grey strewn across the cavern and heard nothing but silence from the Echo Flowers.

The guard beside her whined softly at the sight, ears flattened down.

“The human… it was here.” Amourus mumbled, “Where is it? I can’t…”

Undyne didn’t respond and stepped irregularly to avoid the dust piles and Amourus followed, wide-eyed, “Do you think it’s in here somewhere? Did we go past it without knowing?”

His Captain had seemed to have lost the ability to speak, so he too kept his mouth shut. The eerie silence was suffocating.

If counted, there were five piles of former monsters in this particular cavern, some of them had items left behind in the mortal world by their dead owners. Amourus tried to avoid looking at them too long as he could feel a slow, crawling sensation on his neck every time he failed to resist the awful sight.

He tried to keep his mind of the fallen monsters, using another one of his senses to keep him distracted. He closed his eyes for a moment, head dipped down, praying for something distracting to keep his mind from the horrific carnage. Then… he heard, ever so faint, the sound of crying. His head snapped up.

“Captain?” said Amourus, “I think I hear someone, from over there!”

“What? From where?” Undyne inquired, but before she got her answer, Amourus bolts out of the Wishing Room and out of sight, “Hey, wait!”

Undyne quickly caught up to Amourus, who was standing at the edge of the waterfall that holds the endless rain of stones and boulders. Undyne herself had thrown on countless rocks and boulders at the top of the waterfall.

Though she was supposed to devise a puzzle in the room, she hated puzzles as she does making them. Unlike Papyrus. So instead of crazy puzzles like the ones that littered the Underground, she delved deep into her creative, unique, Undyne-like imagination and created something that’ll end up making passersby have to constantly avoid the falling rocks from above.

Amourus, avoiding the brook, looked at his captain and poked his nose towards the three-split waterfall, specifically at the middle, that holds a secret room behind the wall of water.

“I think it’s behind there,” said Amourus.

Undyne quickly made her way to the waterfall (Amourus still staying on dry-land) and passed through the water-wall and looked around until she spotted a young monster curled up in a corner.

The monster noticed her immediately and he gasped, “Undyne!” mewled the monster and almost slammed into the Fish Warrior, sobbing and recklessly sucking in breaths with no air.

“Undyne! Undyne! Undyne, Undyne, Undyne I, I, I, I’m sc-scared, he, I, it—” he blubbered, “… nearly…g-got me…nearly found m-me…”

Shaking, Monster Kid could say no more, only holler out, expressing fear in sobs and desperate breaths, unable to return to the painless and even breathing that didn’t bring stitches to his sides or threatens to clog his brain towards unconsciousness.

Undyne went on one knee and tried to soothe the tear and snot filled child, “I’m here. You’re safe, ok? Were gonna keep you safe, and away from the human. I’m not going to let it get near you, or anyone. It won’t harm anyone else, I promise you.”

Monster Kid stared at her, wide-eyed, in complete horror, as if he knew something she didn’t, “B-but, there was… there was… he… he was here… helping…”

Undyne didn’t know what he was talking about.

She gently lead him out, using her spears to bounce the rocks safely away from them as they got back to the hyena monster.

Amourus stared at the child, suddenly feeling the need to completely protect the little one from the danger of the situation at hand. Monster Kid whimpered and wept, only giving him a few glances before staring out to the distance, shaking.

Amourus gave him a gentle look before setting his eyes on Undyne, “If I may, Captain…” Undyne turned her attention at him, finally taking her eyes off the young monster. He spoke quickly.

“Can I bring this little one ahead to Hotlands and to Evacuation? It’ll be safer for him if he had someone going with him. The human could be anywhere in the area… and if the human finds him…” Amourus faltered for a second before hurrying on, “He needs someone to take care for him, until he gets to safety.”

Undyne nodded, “I was just going to ask you that,” and she smiled, “I can continue the search on my own. You stay with the kid until it’s completely safe.”

Amourus blinked for a moment, almost faltering, but he gave an obedient nod, “Good luck, Captain, in finding the human.”

He looked down, tenderly giving Monster Kid some reassuring words, although they seemed to have little effect. Monster Kid gradually moved with him into the next room.

Undyne watched them leave, knowing that both of them would be safe.

But was she wrong.

Chara slammed straight into a wall.

They cried out in surprise and flailed, becoming unbalanced and fell flat on their back, with a particularly solid blow to their head. Flipping onto their side, they grasped their head, whining in pain.

“Owwwwwwwwww! What the heck?!” Chara griped.

Sans, who didn’t make a move, just wondered for a moment why did Chara just crash into a very obvious wall. Chara struggled to get to their feet.

“Where did the door go?!” Chara demanded at the wall.

“Uh.” Was all Sans could say. How hard did they hit their head?

Chara snarled and grasped their knife. They started to bash the wall, chipping the compacted earth and loose rock, “Is this some kind of trick? Where did it go?”

Sans quickly took a hold of Chara’s soul in blue magic and dragged them away from the wall.

“Woah, there. I thought we were supposed to be attacking monsters, not walls,” Sans said jokingly.

Chara whipped their head to face him, eyes bulging, “Sans! You saw a door, didn’t you? It was just there, it just disappeared!”

“There’s no door, kid,” Sans said bluntly. But the more he thought about it, the more he felt a crawl of doubt, the more he felt like there was something missing in his mind, a certain event he cannot place. Additionally, he was pretty sure that they were at the entrance of the tunnel instead at its dead end…

Chara was starting to struggle in his magical grip and dragging themselves back to the wall. He decided to try and remember later. So, without any more wasted effort, he zeroed the gravity on their soul and started to drag them out of the tunnel and out in the more open cave, with them swiping at the air in a feeble attempt to get back to mutilating the wall.

They soon slumped in defeat and Sans put them down. They still grumbled about the “stupid, vanishing door”.

Soon Chara became quiet and the silence reverberated between the two, the only sounds being the gurgle of water and their corresponding footsteps. Chara gave a slightly interested glance at Sans’ telescope set up in the corner before admiring the spectacularly glittering wall on the opposite side, and Chara felt glad to be lucky enough to see it at this angle.

The water went back to a luminous blue, almost lighting up the black dirt path. The Echo Flowers in the area were ominously silent, Sans noticed, but really all the Echoes they had passed said nothing at all.

Until one of them produced a loud scream. Sans jumped away from the flower and Chara yelped in surprise. It wasn’t until Sans heard a second voice did he realise it wasn’t coming from the flower at all, but from behind him.

“Kid! Calm down, it’s all right!”

“No! No, no, no! It’s not! IT’S THEM!”

Sans stared at the hyena in surprise before laying eyes on the panicking monster…

Chara swerved to face the two, face twisted in surprise and eyes flashing red. Monster Kid screamed again, “NO! NO, NO!”

Amourus stared at Chara in wide-eyed shock. They could feel the air of wrong all over them. Their stance, those hostile eyes and… their soul. It beat and pulsed inside of them of a deep, pure red. A soul right side up. A soul of a—

He came to a horrid realisation and pulled Sans away from them. He set a shield between the two monsters and him and Chara.

“Human!” Amourus barked and immediately went to attack with his magic driven, white-hot, double-edged sword.

Sans hardly had time to register what was happening before the opponents clashed, Amourus in a flurry of panic as he tried to block each and every one of the human’s attacks, looking for weak points in which he can thrust his weapon into their warm, small body and make them bleed and wither and die.

On the other hand, Chara was already battle ready and shrieked with laughter as they attacked and dodged and attacked, almost like a lethal dance in which they were opponents against death, death promised from each other.

Sans couldn’t intervene, the shield made it so. This was Chara’s battle, and Sans knew they’ll be fine on their own. He just had to take care of that kid, surely he, who saw him kill Grillby will soon tell Undyne what was happening—

Monster Kid was already running in the opposite direction, where Sans and Chara came, going to find Undyne.

Sans quickly went into action, teleporting far ahead of Monster Kid. He can’t let him get to Undyne, if he does, it’ll be Game Over. Sans and Chara weren’t strong enough to take down Undyne, not even close. He had to take care of this.

Monster Kid skidded into an abrupt stop in front of the skeleton.

“Going somewhere, kid?” Sans growled, eyes dark.

Monster Kid backed away from the skeleton, shaking uncontrollably and tears filling his eyes. “Don’t kill me,” he whispered.

Sans’s soul pulsed brightly and burst out a surge of magic, showing no mercy as the ground, which where Monster Kid was standing, glowed a glaring blue. Monster Kid scrambled backwards to avoid the bone that shot out from the phosphorescing earth. Hastily getting to his feet he scrambled away from the danger, but coming to a halt in front of a wall of bones that raised up to the celling.

Monster Kid’s soul flickered with panic, pulsing rapidly and sensing his impending death. Unable to run away. Unable to call for help. This poor monster, this young Monster Kid, cornered in an inevitable fate, completely helpless. Monster Kid felt tears coming to his eyes again, he was going to die… he closed his eyes.

Then, the monster rationalised. Would Undyne do what he’s doing? Stand in place and accept death? Without so much as a fight? This is not what Undyne would do. Undyne would fight. And fight and fight and fight until the enemy was defeated. She will not accept death; she will not accept evil concurring over good. She will not.

Monster Kid had always idolised the Great Fish Warrior, her strength, her determination to protect the Underground from Bad Guys, her passion of her people, and defending all their hopes and dreams that they poured their souls into the glittering crystals that were their stars and lighting up the Underground with their beautiful, adoring souls that dreamed of a Future Above.

An Enemy stands between everyone’s hopes and dreams, an Enemy he can call a Monster no more. This thing, this living, breathing thing in a shell of a Monster that had once loved and hoped. Wearing a blue jacket, black shorts, slipper-sneakers and a crazed smile. Ready to kill at any given moment.

Monster Kid will not go down without a fight. This is what Undyne would do.

Taking a step forward, shaky but determined, he spoke, “I-I-I’m not going to let you hurt any-anyone else! And, and, and… you’re… you… you and that human… are going to destroy them all! I-I can’t… let you do that! Be-because, I have to save Monsterkind! I-I have to… I know I can’t, but I have to try! So, so… I dare you to fight me! I- I-”

Monster Kid’s soul plummeted to a cold blue and a sudden chill invaded them, fear piercing him again. The Enemy seems amused. Gravity, relentless upon him, forced Monster Kid to his knees. He cried out, surprised and fell hard on his face as he toppled, the unforgiving ground greeting him with a burning cold smack.

Then the pull of the Earth lightened as they rose from the ground and flipped, liberated from the sudden, absurd density of gravity, they stilled in space, everything slowed, twinkles of the glinting stones above him seem to take forever to light and fade. Tilting their head down to the ground, they saw the Enemy, left eye glowing like a powerful soul, vapour of excess magic flittering out of the eye-socket like untamed flames. The Enemy’s soul was a shape, ever so slightly, warbling out of the normal upended heart that was a Monster soul, so slightly.

Inclining his head further, they saw what waited below him. A snapped, jagged blue bone. Then everything went into fast-forward. The gravel blue and amethyst and rose quartz jewels blurred and mixed and formed into pointless shapes and colours. It mudded and dumbed his mind until a sharp pain in his chest snapped him back to his last few seconds in reality.

Without another processed thought, Monster Kid was no more and his dust spread across the floor.

The now useless bone attacks quickly dissipated into magical vapour and Sans doubled in on himself, trying to get his breath back. His soul thumped and burned inside of him, a new wave of unexpected pain had nearly taken him off his feet.

Gripping his chest and creasing his shirt, his grasp tight and squeezing, slipping the fabric through the spaces of his ribs, he tried to nullify the pain, the pain. His soul throbbed and flickered, but it soon exhausted itself and behaved. The pain was gone.

Sans had gained a new Level of Violence.

Sans blinked and looked up, hand still wrapped in shirt and curled around bone. And he looked at the pile of dust on the ground. The kid was dead. He wasn’t going to come back, tell Undyne or anything. Sans and Chara are in no danger of a vengeful Undyne when they’re not strong enough. Not for a while now. Obstacle gone.

Still smiling, he stepped over the former monster, leaving the dust undisturbed.

Chara, meanwhile, was enjoying their fight. Amourus tried and tried but kept getting hit, slashed, hurt. In his defence, he did take a good chunk of the human’s HP, but not much. He was slowing down; tiring, shield slowly dissolving and his sword flickered from time to time, rendering it useless for a few seconds. Leaving him forced to resort to physical attacks until it re-appeared.

The murderer seemed to have a limitless energy, a human, and a young one at that, relentlessly going in with their shimmering weapon to tear down his HP bit by bit. Slowly, but surely, Amourus was soon left with his life on single digits and he knew, the next attack, if he didn’t block it, he would surely die.

Panicking now, Amourus started to hastily set up a weak sword that broke from the power of the next attack and Amourus gasped, eyes wide, but the knife missed him by a hair’s breadth. He stumbled back, blinking rapidly, mind trying to process that it was still alive. The human sprang at him in his sudden moment of weakness and got him on his back. Small but horrifically strong, they pinned him by his neck and raising the knife with the other, high above their head.

The hyena monster struggled and flailed, he rolled onto his side, surprising the human. Now the human was on the ground, but they growled and abandoned their knife and set both hands and digging into his throat. Gasping for air, Amourus tried to rip their hands away whist going it for close-combat, using what’s left of his magical offense reserves, he used small versions of his swords on the human’s arms, slicing and making them bleed.

The human screeched and let go, but went in for a powerful punch that set the guard down to one remaining HP. Amourus, from the impact of the blow, skidded across the ground and off the ledge and fell into the luminescent water below.

The human scrambled to the edge to watch him flail helplessly in the water, the bottom too deep, his erratic movement and his inability to swim merged into a lethal mixture of fear and death.

He went under, once, and tried to push himself to the surface. But all his energy had been drained from battle and his body, working so hard against the water, an opponent that he was so utterly weak to he just couldn’t; he sank from the surface again…

And never came back up.

Chara counted the minutes that went by and then checked their Status. He must have died under there. They were now on Level Eight. They grinned and stood up, and found themselves facing into dark empty sockets.

Chara screeched in surprise and jumped away from Sans, clutching their chest, “Oh my Celestial Stars, Sans, you nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Sans gave a lop-sided grin and bright glowing eyes in response, “Well, good thing I didn’t, huh?”

Chara poked their tongue out, “Shut up.”

“Well, at least you got rid of the guy you were fighting, right? Or you would have been under cardiac arrest,” Sans chuckled.

“Sans, no, don’t even start,” Chara warned.

“How? I don’t even have a ticker.”

“Sans I will hurt you,” Chara felt their mouth twitch up.

“Sorry to hear that, I thought my little ice-breaker would have been very heartening.”

“That is it!” Chara shouted and went for the comedian, a sudden laugh bubbling up inside and bursting out of their mouth.

Sans just stepped out of the way as Chara lost themself into a fit of giggles and held their stomach, a sharp pain jabbing them with every breath that they took in, but they hardly felt it.

Sans raised an eyebrow at the giggling child and almost felt a sense of achievement of making them laugh at his watery puns. Sans grinned wider at his unpremeditated gag.

“Guess the little pace-maker worked then?” snorted Sans.

“Yes, yes it… it did… Oh Skies Above, your jokes are so bad they’re good!” they snickered.

“They’re always good, kid,” Sans replied and led them down the path, their shared laughter not being registered to the flowers around them.

Except for one.

Flowey watched them go down the path and frowned slightly.

Sinking into the ground, he popped up right next to the latest victim of Sans’ carnage, Monster Kid. Sneezing from being so close to the dust, he growled. He was a flower, how the hell did he have the ability to sneeze? He didn’t even have a nose!

Putting his thoughts off impractical things, he contemplated of what he is thinking of this new and completely insane route that Chara decided to take on this time. It was the only thing he could do besides watching this whole ordeal unravel into one twist and turn to another (and stalking the two), since he refused to disengage the puzzles ahead of the duo.

Let them get stuck in the puzzles, he thought darkly, You always hated those puzzles, didn’t you Chara? Always made you take the boat or had to go running to Mom and Dad or me to get help. The only ones you ever got right was the 5000 Puzzle Piece that we had. Oh, you never let me touch the pieces, thought that I would eat them or something, like an animal.

But then again, you don’t need me to get you past the puzzles; the Smiley Trashbag could just do it for you, or just teleport you out of the room. You don’t need me for anything, anymore. Boring am I? I’ll show you ‘boring’… Chara, you termagant. Gone and ditched me for a Trashbag…

Flowey’s mind settled onto the skeleton, and he felt something cold slither down his stalk. Chara really did a number on him. He didn’t know what went down back at Final Hall, but it took countless of reloads, far past his botheration to count. He had decided to drop his count around a hundred and thirty or so.

But in those myriads of loads, Chara did something to Sans to make him snap. But what?... What could make him break like that, when he couldn’t make the same results? He did horrible things when he had control over the timeline. He did many amazing, beautiful things, yes. But most of them were filled with experimental chaos that eradicated the Underground many times… almost did anyway.

That damn skeleton was always there to stop him. To make him go back when he pushed it over the line. Manipulation. Murder. Regicide. Attempted Genocide. He never, ever, got passed the Smiley Trashbag. No matter what LOVE he was, no matter how many attempts. Sans always got the upper hand. Always.

And it wasn’t just Sans either. There was Undyne… even Papyrus at times. Papyrus, his favourite monster in the Underground, could almost always talk him out of everything. Not all the time though. But still, he could hold a record of ‘solving tribulations without doing a violence!’ as he would say. Good old Papyrus.

His smile he didn’t know that had appeared had fallen slack.

He didn’t really think Sans would have done it.

What he had done broke everything he knew about the brothers’ relationship into two. He had taken his brother’s life. This was unbelievable. Even for him, who saw and forced many outrageous events to happen, nothing like this had ever shown. This was new… and… and… he couldn't place it. What else was it?

Sans would have never done something as horrific as that. Was he even a Sans, anymore?

Feeling somewhat sick now, he felt himself bury into the earth and rose to find himself in a new location, rocky walls bare but the dome ceiling, sparking with the Underground’s artificial celestial lights.

“What did Chara do to him?” he asks to the crystal stars.

They didn’t answer him. Not that they could, anyway.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I like thinking about and considering the ways Killer (and his Stages, or possibly due to the existence of his Stages) might’ve struggled to adjust to servitude under Nightmare vs servitude under Chara.

With Chara, their reasons, goals and objectives were more broad and allowed Killer more freedom and autonomy in how he went about fulfilling Chara’s orders and their expectations of him. Chara—at least in Killer’s eyes—seemed to care about things and did the things they did for amusement/entertainment, power and control, curiosity, and companionship.

Thanks to things like Chara’s ability to Reset, consequences don’t really mean much of anything. The only real consequence Killer will ever face is from Chara themself; so he must keep them happy.

Always remain obedient and loyal—make Chara feel loved and appreciated, don’t ever, ever, ever make them feel like Killer doesn’t want to be around them, doesn’t like what they do or say, or is attempting to leave or betray them.

But don’t be too predictable. Don’t let them get bored of him. Always remain some level of unpredictable—but never give Chara a reason to doubt his loyalty.

His existence isn’t really useful to Chara in any way except to fulfill their emotional needs. The only thing they need from him they can’t really do on their own is his company, and being a constant source of entertainment and curiosity.

Killing people, torturing people, exploring every new avenue and possibility? Chara can do that just fine without him. But they don’t want to. All he has to do is ensure they never do.

Easier said than done, but it’s different with Nightmare. Nightmare has a use for him, but he is just one of thousands of Killers—he can be replaced, so he must remain useful.

Consequences are real with Nightmare, and not only just from him. If he isn’t careful, Killer can be captured, killed, or seriously hurt—something Killer might’ve actually struggled to understand and come to terms with at first. If he isn’t useful to Nightmare, then it’s a roll of the dice if he keeps Killer around.

With Chara he wasn’t so replaceable. Chara invested a lot of time and energy into him, he’s the only Sans/Killer in his AU/AT. It would take a lot of time to replace Killer and it won’t even be with another version of himself.

Another thing is killing. We can see in the Stage 4 comic that ST2 refrains from killing unless Nightmare orders him otherwise because the Boss—or Killer’s “friend” as he called him—needs the negativity and can’t get it if the victims are dead.

Unfortunately for them both, Stage 4 didn’t seem to catch that memo. Or if it did, if it truly understands that their situation and the circumstances have changed, it simply doesn’t (or can’t) care because it has remained loyal to Chara’s goals and desires and its “duty” to see them through.

Makes me wonder if Nightmare ever punishes Killer for the things he says or does while in the other Stages? 🤔

Might also make a post about the possible cognitive distortions Killer & his Stages likely all developed about themselves, and their relationship with Chara. Possibly also of Nightmare and the other people that were in the Underground with him and Chara.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish is very ST1 Killer & Chara I think.

Like ST1 feels a lot happier and safer and calm and clear whenever he’s away from Chara, when he has a moment without them breathing down his neck and he’s free to indulge himself in what makes him happy before Chara comes to ruin it. Cats, flowers, flower crowns, quiet and no one around but himself.

But also feeling immensely guilty and self hating for feeling that way. Chara’s just misunderstood, they’re a kid, they should have the chance to be a kid; they lost their family, too. And they were abandoned and hurt too and Chara’s in a lot of pain. Killer is an immensely sensitive and empathetic person when he is in ST1, so of course he’d understand the pains of the human he shares parts of his soul with.

Part of him probably took the whole “keep Chara happy and loved” thing very emotionally, rather than just thinking logically or of survival. It possibly was a personal thing for him, playing that caretaking role for Chara.

He’s deeply emotionally enmeshed with Chara, and their emotions and pain, and it hurts him to see them hurting and he wants to help them so badly. He may be too far gone, but maybe Chara can change?

But being around them physically hurts, he can’t think, he loses time and memory, things get foggy and people get hurt and die.

Or he gets hurt and dies. He doesn’t agree with Chara’s morals, or lack thereof. And maybe that makes him feel like even more of a weak outlier, seeing as he can do what Chara needs from him easily in other Stages.

They scare him. But their disappointment and dissatisfaction with him scares (hurts) him in a way he can’t explain, even more than any punishment they dish out on him, and after killing Chara and being unable to delete himself, I think he really tries to avoid thinking or talking about Chara. Both for his & the other Stages’ emotional, physical, and mental safety and stability.

Especially about their death (murder, they murdered them), but also about how they’re in his head now. He really just wants Chara to leave him be now, please. Why can’t Chara just rest instead of tormenting him about his failures and weakness all the time? Aren’t they tired, too?

[howlsofbloodhounds]

TW:

Talks of past trauma, abuse, and torture.

Talks of fears such as being weak or controlled.

Mentioned possibility of a meltdown/panic attack.

So like a lot of people like to HC that Killer and Cross are often paired off together as partners on missions, and I can’t help but wonder how it’d effect Killer to have a partner again.

He’d probably start trying to test Cross’ strength, purposefully acting out or doing things to judge Cross’ reactions; even if that puts Cross or the mission in danger.

Because Killer doesn’t actually understand what it’s like working as equals with a partner. The strongest leads, the weaker one is subservient. You can throw up all the facades of being equals — joking around, shoulder pats, thanking for saving the other at a close call — but it’s all just an act at the end of the day.

Or at least it is to Killer. Chara was the only partner he ever had. And for the longest time, Chara ruled over him; despite how buddy buddy they looked on the surface. Killer knew his place for the longest.

But then he became stronger. He got to decide what happened to Chara. He decided they didn’t deserve to live anymore. And that was his right.

He was stronger than them. He worked hard to be, waited and watched and learned. He earned it.

Like Hell he’s letting some righteous, holier than thou soldier call the shots. Especially not one that has a Chara lurking around him.

Especially not when it’s only happening because the Boss decided Cross would be good at handling him. At reeling him in. At controlling him, is what Killer heard.

Killer has spent many lifetimes having chains latched on to him. Not even his mind or body is under his control anymore. His emotions aren’t even his.

So I’d like to think that Cross and Killer would definitely get off on a bad start at first. Which is probably both confusing and irritating for Cross; given that he was in the Royal Guard, and likely knows very well how to work in a team and how to follow the chain of command.

Cross thrives in that type of environment. Killer balks at it.

So it’ll probably be a long road of Cross trying to realize why exactly Killer is so opposed to him. To realize how Killer is viewing Cross and this new ‘partnership’ as a threat, as yet another set of chains, and not a legitimate partnership that could even potentially be friends.

To realize how Killer is afraid of being controlled further, of being “weak.” Worried what Cross could do if he’s stronger then Killer, worried about slipping back into that mindless obedience that his old partner drilled into him.

And it’ll very likely depend on advice from the others, likely Nightmare, for Cross to realize that; because Killer will never admit it, probably wouldn’t even realize that it’s there, and it’ll probably take pushing him into Stage 1 and a meltdown to even be realized.

But I think it’ll be cute and sweet to watch them become true equals. Actual partners and friends. Maybe more if you wanna go down that route.