Broken Souls

Chapter 35 - An Unfair Exchange

Casua didn't want to keep fighting like this. It was tiring, not only physically, but mentally as well. It didn't help that since everything had come out, Chara was trying three times as hard to kill her. Casua didn't really know why that was, or maybe she didn't care enough to find an answer. Nothing had really changed in Casua's opinion. She was still the same empty, unfeeling husk of a person that put on a mask every second of every day just to care. 

Of course, that mask wasn't needed here. In this Void, nothing mattered but dodging Chara's attacks and hitting them with thousands of attacks back. 

She wanted to tell herself that all of this would be all over soon. That if she hit Chara with just one more attack, they would finally die and she'd be left alone in this Void at last. Of course, that probably wasn't the best course of action. Even if Chara did finally stop resetting, nothing would get better. Everyone was still dead because of them. Because of Casua, whatever. 

That was a thing that had changed then. Casua didn't really know why she was fighting anymore. What Chara said had rung clear and true. Everyone's deaths, the five humans, Rose, Frisk and all the monsters... they died because of Casua. The demon child she was fighting had only acted as a vessel for her wishes. Even of she hadn't meant for those wishes to come true in such a way, it was still her fault. 

So why was she still fighting?

What more could she possibly lose? If her Soul was taken, would she finally die for good? Who would be there to scold her for giving up? The answer was no one. Nothing and no one. And yet Casua kept on trying. 

Perhaps it was because a glimmer of a memory flickered into life, in the back of her mind. A memory of bright warm orange and cool calm blue. Something so familiar that she hadn't seen for an age, stuck here in this white space. It was a memory that made something stir inside of Casua's very Soul. 

As she fought, Casua let more memories fill her mind, with each one adding to that strange feeling inside her Soul. A broken family, given a second chance at life. Two brothers, finally finding their past. Young children, brought into the school of their parent's enemies. So many achievements, and Casua was just going to let them go?

That strange feeling, a bright red fire that burnt fierce and strong inside, it was becoming stronger with every passing second and filling Casua with a power that was entirely unlike her Creativity.

It was almost like... no, it was exactly that.
Casua grinned as she readied a new, unstoppable wave of attacks, finally understanding what had been slowly growing within her. 

She was Determined. She would win this and bring everything back to the way it had been. That's why she was fighting, for her memories and those who'd helped her make them. 

Casua lunged forward towards Chara with a victorious shout, taking a shortcut mid-leap and re-appearing right above them. She stabbed downwards with a  quickly summoned black spear, aiming directly for Chara's head. But that burst of determination had nowhere to be stored. Casua's Soul just would not handle it, so the moment passed and that fierce fire went out.

Chara only had to step to one side, spinning their knife lazily in one hand as they did so. And the momentum of the dive had left Casua unprotected as she recollected herself, wondering where her drive for finishing the battle had suddenly gone. 

So that's all it took. A bright spark of Determination that had been quenched as easily as a candle's flame. All it took was a single moment of uncertainty and Chara's knife finally connected with Casua. It ripped across her abdomen, tearing a deep gash in her front. Blood began to blossom on the fabric of Casua's clothes, dripping onto the blue hoodie she had tied around her waist. Chara smirked,