An exchange of information. You learn about soul stuff and we get a look at your origins

Honestly when I first decided to write this chapter i didn't intend on including Miranda telling everyone about Rajani because I thought it was too soon. I only wanted for her to find out about souls to space this fic's lore through multiple chapters instead of all at once and that she would internalize that knowledge and research by herself afterwards. I came to realize that wouldn't be an option. Rajani seriously doesn't give a fuck if they know and Miranda isn't unfair enough to demand information without giving back if asked for.
For some more spoilerific things about the chap see the end.

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-insert words- Is for written text

insert words Is for Miranda's mind talk and thoughts in general

insert words Is for Rajani's mind talk

insert words Is for sign language

_*insert words Is for battle commands

"InsertName" + INSERT STATS + *insert soul script Is for checking Soul Stats

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Chapter 11: The Fight Inside is Coursing Through my Veins

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You finally found some semblance of calm within your own mind as you ate. Today's events had been a lot to take in. You were attacked, defended MK again, fought while using a lot of nerdy references, got relocated to the monster compound while awaiting for two trials…

You had thought the emotional upheaval would have been done and over with there and then. You had thought that all you would need to do now was watch a giant skeleton, a human kid, a monster kid, and a flower have fun with your dogs. It had been fun. You knew the main reason for the walk was so that the others could show Toriel the video and so that Dan could analyze it in a calmer manner, but it still had been an afternoon well spent.

And then a short and somehow chubby (how...?) skeleton decided to threaten you.

Rajani was instantly out for blood, still on edge over everything that had happened that day. You weren't even sure how you had managed to hold Rajani back. Being on edge too made you more likely to break down from a threat… So… you did what you did best to hide everything churning at you. You did what you had always done when the creeping feeling of loneliness and worthlessness hit you so hard you could barely do more than curl on the floor sideways, knees tucked under your chin, and look absentmindedly at nothing at all.

You sang.

You sang to appease Rajani, who always loved to hear you sing. You sang so that Sans wouldn't see how much he had affected you… And you sang so you wouldn't cry. Your voice held the lower notes steadily, though not beautifully. You were a soprano after all. Your strength lay in the higher notes. But you held up good enough, your voice slightly rusty from lack of use.

It had been so long since you had last sung so loudly. These last few years your voice had been hardly more than a murmur as you tried not to attract attention to yourself. Attracting attention was a foolproof way to end up dead out on the streets, after all.

Singing always made you feel better and the fact that you used the song to poke fun at the rude skeleton and teach him a lesson or two made it all better.

Rajani couldn't help herself and added her own tidbit in the end. You figured you owed her as much after shoving her away from controlling your body. At least she wasn't beating anyone to a pulp… You would have rather she hadn't worded the comeback at Sans the way she had…

Rajani's opinion on the matter was that keeping your personality issue a secret was more of a weakness than a protection. Information was power, according to her. By keeping her a secret you would be valuing that information far more than it deserved, turning it into a potential for blackmail eventually.

You thought her bleak prediction of blackmailing too farfetched but understood where she was coming from with that. You promised that if push came to shove you would come clean about it. But if you weren't questioned in the subject everything would remain the same. Last thing you wanted was to be viewed as a freak of nature or as a faker. Your family hadn't known of your condition, still didn't as far as you were concerned. The only ones who knew were Sophie and Daniel. Daniel because he had a similar condition so it was easier to open up to him… or DID he really. He seemed to use it as an excuse a lot, and Sophie because she had been a longtime friend and you thought you could trust her as well… you thought… But thinking something doesn't make things true. Now you know that.

So you didn't really feel thrilled about the prospects of telling them about Rajani. First off, they might not even believe you like most of the population. Sure that gimmick was fun to see in movies and tv series, but facing the real thing? No one. Ever. Believed.

And in the chance, they did believe you there was the possibility that they would think you were insane. And that was the last thing you could deal with right now.

With that put aside, all that was left now was the soul talk. Apparently Sans hadn't been staring at your chest but yes at your soul.

You… weren't sure what to feel about that. For a moment, as much as you had felt irked at such blatant objectification before, you had also felt an inkling of female satisfaction at feeling desired, even if for the wrong reasons. Years of being mocked, degraded and, later of, neglected had destroyed any feeling of self-worth when it came to that particular topic.

Now that you knew the true reason you couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed, even as you felt relief. But you also felt odd about the whole issue. You knew that with the arrival of the monsters to the surface there had been a lot of talk about souls but you hadn't cared much to find out more about that. To you what idea you had of souls was based largely in religion or popular fiction, like the Dark Hunter series from Sherrilyn Kenyon and when it had come to the monster you had thought in the the first one that had been talked about with all the religion extremists.

As far as your knowledge of the soul issue went, on one hand, the religious one, it was some sort of very important thing that you shouldn't sell away to the devil, without any physical way to be seen or measured so it might as well not be there at all. On the other, the Dark Hunters one, it was practically useless… unless you died without one. Then you would be plagued with a nonexistence of pure pain no matter how much good you had done for others.

And now you knew they could be seen or read. You… weren't sure what to feel about it. On one hand, you are curious about your own soul, on the other you worried about what soul reading could mean to you. Could Sans see your whole life? Your whole emotional grid? Could he see how utterly useless you were?

Well obviously he couldn't or else he wouldn't need to be constantly looking at it to try. Toriel had said as much. But that was Sans alone. What about the other monsters? Could they see?

You held back from questioning as dinner was eaten. Asgore and Alphys arrived just in time to join you for dinner. Flowey… seemed pretty determined in scaring you with his antics. He had tried several times since he had come home from school with Frisk only to be faced by your unfazed expression. That had only made him try harder. Rajani initially was irritated at his antics but was starting to find them sort of amusing in the sense of a kitten hissing at a big dog and fuming at its lack of reaction.

Now, as you dined, Flowey took the chance to add some fresh threats directed right at your most recent inquiry.

"I bet your soul would taste delicious, even if you are an idiot." He said maliciously.

"Really? Huh. Good to know your favorite flavor is 'idiot'. But I'm afraid I can't accept your proposition, though you are cute in your own way. You're just not my type." You replied solemnly and everyone in the table burst laughing aside from Papyrus, who nodded approvingly at your serious answer, and Flowey himself.

"I wasn't flirting with you!" Flowey shouted out, blushing deeply.

"Oh, but you did call me 'delicious', didn't you? If that's not flirting, I don't know what is!" You replied again with a small smile. Your answer was nothing more than a very angry unintelligible rambling on Flowey's part as his blush deepened.

"You don't scare easily, do you, darling?" Mettaton asked after the laughing died down.

"You… could say that, I guess." You admit. No way in hell would you actually go into detail on how you've lived through scarier stuff than a creepy flower.

"So what was that about a choir you mentioned earlier? Have I heard of it?" He went on and you could see the calculating gleam in his eye.

"I doubt. It was from Portugal and even there it wasn't that well known. It used to be pretty good, considering my country's standards. It wasn't even a professional choir so to speak. I paid to be there and be taught, they didn't pay me to be there. It didn't help that the conductor was an aaaaa… an annoying idiot who only catered to his favorites. He did have a nasty attitude on top of all that. It did make for a more disciplined choir, but he over did it. That, plus his need to cater to his favorites, plus his unexplainable hatred towards me, is what made me get out and even then I had wasted too much of my time with him hoping he could spare me a solo that mattered without switching me midway for someone who didn't sing better."

"He did what now!?" Mettaton asked, horrified.

"The one time I had a solo on a big event midway through it he asked me to step back so another singer could take the stage. Had it been a smaller event… well it would still have stung, but on such a big one, which is rare, in which I had my family and friends there watching… it was downright humiliating. He excused himself by saying I was a key off but it was barely noticeable. The fact that not only was the person he called to replace me one of his favorites, but also that she didn't sing it any better than I had, made it all worse."

"That is show business, my beauty. Still, that was shameless on his part. Are you sure that wasn't a professional choir. It does sound as competitive as one."

"Perhaps in a way it could be seen as that but no, it really wasn't. I went there to sing because I loved singing. I would have liked even better to be able to show the people that mattered that I was good at it, hence why I wanted a solo. He mostly denied me the opportunity unless it was to replace one of his favorites last minute. That was the one time I had one for myself.

"I'm surprised you didn't follow that as a professional career. From what I saw you were good at it. I can't believe you would treat this as just a hobby."

"Hah! If I were to become a professional at every single thing I held interest in I would also be a famous novelist, a mangaka, a biologist, a forensic scientist, a surgeon, a kendo expert, an astronaut, a paleontologist, and whatever you call to an expert in mythology. I'm pretty eclectic when it comes down to it."

"Did you say mangaka? Did you draw manga?" Undyne asked, suddenly interested.

"Sure. Still do whenever I feel like it. The company I work for doesn't like the style, though, so I don't get to use it often."

"How good are you?"

"Hummmm… Well… don't want to sound haughty about it but I'd say I'm fairly good. Why?

"Can you s-show us?" Alphys asked timidly.

"Not right now, we are eating. But yeah, sure. But why do you want to know?"

"W-we are s-sort of… Well… W-we want to make a manga but our drawings… The story board is mostly done, too."

"Are you going to sell it?"

"Nah, we just want to draw it for us to see!" Undyne said confidently.

"Oh, a sort of a private project, then? And you want my skills, am I right?" You pondered on the subject. You did like private projects like those, and unlike your animations, a comic book was far faster to work on.

"OF COURSE!"

"I guess I could help out but… I already have a job that needs my focus so I'm not sure how much help I would be." Not to mention you would leave after the trials.

"Thanks punk. We appreciate it!" Undyne said.

"A-any help w-would be appreciated, r-really…" Alphys added.

"FRISK IS INQUIRING EXACTLY WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSIONAL OCUPATION, SKINNY HUMAN!" Papyrus translated a very curious Frisk.

"I work in an animation company. I do a bit of everything but my strongest points are story boarding and character design and development. Sometimes I get stuck with the math, though."

"AAAAA… THEY ARE SAYING THAT YOU MAKE IT SOUND SORT OF BORING…" Papyrus says hesitantly as if afraid of offending you.

"Well it can be. I was never very good at the math and surprisingly it needs a lot of it, but I don't usually get to deal with that area. They play on my strengths, thankfully. And it does take a lot of time to render the frames. But even if it is long hard work I love the results. Don't you?" You tease the kid with a grin and they nod vigorously in response.

"I REALLY FIND IT INTERESTING, HOWEVER, AT HOW MANY INTERESTS YOU MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY. YOU TRULLY ARE, AS YOU PUT IT, ECLECTIC. AND AS MUCH AS I ADMIRE YOUR DIVERSITY OF INTERESTS, I HAVE TO ASK… WHY NOT JUST CHOOSE ONE THING?" This time it was clear Papyrus was asking for himself and not on Frisk's behalf, not only because Frisk hadn't signed anything, but also the curious expression on Papyrus' face.

"Well… how do I put it…? There is no unnecessary knowledge. Every little thing can be used for a story or to define a certain character. Everything can be used. Sometimes I even have to research to get a certain character or story aspect right, but if it happens to be within my range of interests it's even better since I will already have a decent amount of knowledge at hand."

"I CAN GET BEHIND SUCH BELIEFS. THEY SEEM VERY NOBLE AND PROACTIVE. VERY MUCH UNLIKE MY BROTHER'S INSISTENCE ON PUNS AND SLEEPING ALL DAY! HOWEVER I STILL RATHER IMPROVE A SKILL ABOVE ALL ELSE. MINE IS MAKING SPAGHETTI! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE THE BEST SPAGHETTI ARTISAN IN THE WORLD!"

"Considering all your enthusiasm over the subject I'd be surprised if you don't. By the way, when will I be able to try your famous friendship spaghetti?"

The rest of dinner proceeded in relaxed banter. You didn't speak much with Sans since you were still a bit upset over his threat but still managed to smile at the puns he exchanged with the others. He did try to talk to you, probably to ease the tension between you two, but you weren't having it so, aside from some awkward small talk, he didn't get far. Aside from him you talked with everyone.

You complimented Toriel on her pie. Even though you disliked cinnamon, the way she used it didn't bother you much. In fact perhaps you would even learn not to feel bothered by the taste. As for butterscotch, it turned out it was some sort of caramel kind of sweet and since you did like caramel, you liked butterscotch too. She told you about her snail pie and you told her about how you ate snails in Portugal too and would share the recipe with her if she liked it. Frisk seemed to gape at your strange tastes but to you eating snails in summer was a very regular occurrence. It was also decided that you would sometimes cook for everyone too so that the burden wouldn't fall on Toriel alone. Also because you insisted on it since you weren't allowed to pay rent for your stay.

Undyne and Alphys talked to you a little more about their manga and ended up asking you about manga you liked, aside from Skip Beat. You told them about Akatsuki no Yona. It had a bit of fantasy, a bit of romance and a pretty badass princess to boot. It had politics playing a big part on the story and how the main character had to circumvent them to keep a war from starting. Asgore seemed to gain interest in it. You told them there was an anime but you didn't like how they had changed the blood red color of Yona's hair to magenta. Sure, they had made the real blood magenta too but you found it ridiculous that they had to 'girlify' her hair instead of keeping it as its original badass color. Toriel forbid the couple from playing the anime on anime night because of the violence. She didn't want Frisk to see such things.

You talked a bit more about pasta with Papyrus. He revealed to you that, despite spaghetti being his favorite pasta, he liked all other kinds as well and you told him about tortellini and gnocchi, peaking his interest further. You promised to make him some gnocchi when it was your turn to cook. It's not every day that you find a pasta made with potatoes, after all.

Mettaton still wanted to somehow hire you to his band but you refused. He insisted some more and you still refused, but you did tell him about the theater classes you had and that had interested him enough to listen for a while, before launching in a tirade of his own accomplishments.

Flowey was still determined on trying to creep you out and seemed even more determined with each failed attempt. After a while you stopped responding to him in any way, getting tired of his shenanigans.

Frisk was a sweetheart. They wanted to know all about you and they were the ones you had to fend yourself against when it came to more touchy subjects regarding your past. For some reason, though, they seemed more interested in talking about any boyfriends and ex-boyfriends you had, though. It… was starting to resemble the questions you would find on a dating site or something. And sometimes they would even flirt with you. Alphys and Undyne seemed to perk up when the subject of boyfriends was broached and were disappointed you didn't elaborate and dismayed when you closed off the subject by stating you weren't interested in having a special someone in the foreseeable future.

Finally, everyone had finished the meal and you immediately started helping Toriel and Papyrus with the dishes. Once everything was cleaned up you three joined the others on the living room. You had been more talkative than usual during dinner but attributed it to nervous energy. You did have the tendency to either internalize your apprehension or to babble a lot to help release it a bit.

"So…" You started as soon as you entered the living room. "We were talking about souls, right? Can all of you see them?"

"No, dear child! Only Sans can do that. It's a special quirk to him only, not monster kind in general." Toriel explained.

"Oh! So… what does soul reading actually entails? Do you see my memories or something?" You ask to Sans since there was no one else with the expertise.

"no, that would be some form of mind reading. to put it bluntly i can see the color of your soul, i can't actually see the soul unless it's drawn out of the body. i merely see the color that's pulsing out from it. i basically can get some information out of it too, like your hp, your lv and exp and so on, as well the characteristic your soul tends to lean towards."

"Huh… What's all that? And why do you have trouble reading mine?"

"ok it'll be easier if i do this." He pointed his left hand towards your chest, his palm facing you. You felt a bit of static from your chest as some letters appeared before it.

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"Miranda"

LV 1

HP 2058/2058

AT 27 (0) EXP: 1

DF 24 (0)

*You want some answers. Now!

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"What the heck!? Am I in a video game or something?" You ask alarmed.

"No young one. We have been made aware of the similarities between soul stats and video game stats but no, you are not in a video game." Asgore told you calmly but there was some tenseness in his voice. In fact a lot of the monsters around you seemed tense for some reason.

"Huh. So… I've gathered I have an absurd amount of health. What about everything else?"

"lv stands for love which is an acronym for level of violence. you're at 1 which is the lowest and that's a good thing." Sans tells you.

"Talk about giving love a bad name! And here I was thinking LV stood for level." You commented feeling off put about the discovery.

"at stands for attack and df for defense. basically, it tells how much damage you can inflict on others and how much damage you can defend your soul from at a time. both are affected by your intent. if you intend to really hurt someone your at will maximize its damage and if you don't you might at the very best make 1 of damage. as for df same applies. if you want to survive the blow with all your might you will maximize your defense and if you are feeling particularly suicidal it might not work at all." Sans went on explaining.

"So, basically, AT and DF are not set in stone, they represent my potential attack and defense power at its best, am I right?"

"you could put it that way. as for exp it stands for execution points. it represents the people you have harmed and killed. if you gather enough exp your lv will go up. lv going up means you disconnect further from others and are able to more easily hurt them. usually the normal amount of exp should be 0. yours is at 1 meaning you killed someone." Sans accused as you felt you blood drain from your face. You could see Flowey wanted to make a nasty comment but Frisk covered his mouth. Now you understood why they all were tense.

"A soul can tell all that?" You ask slowly trying to remain calm. You need to get them to talk about something else fast. Rajani intervenes. "Are these stats all you see?"

"an actual soul tells way more than just that and no, i can see a bit more. i can see the color and intensity of your aura too. the way it pulses its light is very telling when it comes to understanding if you are telling the truth or not, as well as realizing your emotions at the immediate time. think of it as reading someone's expression as they talk to you, only it's harder for the other person to lie to you because you'll know right away since souls can't lie even if one lies to themselves." Sans told you while staring at you pointedly. He still wanted to ask about the EXP. They all did. You need to make him talk about something else.

"That's just the light, though. You did mention color as well." You point out. This time Rajani didn't even need to intervene.

"that's the thing about you that has me stumped! monster souls are white with a colored core and they pulse white with a hint of color. human souls come in colors alone. there are seven colors all in all and they all stand for a personality trait. red for determination, orange for bravery, yellow for justice, green for kindness, cyan for patience, blue for integrity and purple for perseverance. you however, not only fluctuate between two colors, but also one of the colors is gray." He tells you sounding very much frustrated. You pondered at the oddness of that statement. You already knew you weren't exactly the conventional sort of person but to think even your soul was weird to a monster used to seeing souls…

"Why is it strange for a soul to have two colors?" Rajani asks snapping you out of your thoughts and, after some thinking you begin to think a theory of your own as to why you had two colors. This time it's Alphy's who answers.

"A s-soul changing color means a change in the overall p-personality. S-so far it has only b-been seen happen in s-special cases s-such as deeply t-traumatic events and even t-then the shift is p-permanent and not a b-back and forth change like t-the one Sans describes."

"Hmm… I… may have a… theory about this." You say in a soft tone, regretting soon after. But if there is proof you need to know! You think of Rajani who was listening as intently as you.

Raj, can you help me?

"O-oh?" Alphys exclaimed as you felt Rajani ponder on all possible routes. She didn't mind the others finding out about her but she knew you did so she was trying to find a way of getting your answers but still keeping her a secret.

"Just to debunk or prove the theory I'll need Sans to tell me when he sees the color changing." You point at him as you speak. You say after a moment of silence, knowing the others were waiting on you to explain yourself. You had to say something. Finally Rajani reached a conclusion but you didn't like it much. Of course. If there is pseudo-physical evidence that I exist I want to know too! But… the chances of them finding out are very big so don't count on keeping it secret.

"you changed for a bit just now before going back to gray." Sans immediately told you.

"Wait! You sensed that too? Interesting…" He can even sense when we speak! What sorcery is this!

Not sorcery, just soul reading.

But you know what this means, don't you?

We need to see it, just to make sure. But yeah, I know!

"hey, you listening to me there?" You finally notice that Sans had been trying to talk to you for some time.

"Huh, Sorry. Conference with myself inside my brain. I think I know what it is but… just to make sure… Can you show me my soul?" You expected many things in response to your request but having every single monster around you blush deeply and sputtering as Frisk giggled was not one of them. "Did I… say something wrong?"

"Ahem! M-My child. There are only three situations where a soul being out of the body is appropriate. When fighting a monster, when completely alone with a soul doctor and with your mate. Souls are intimate things and the only times such intimacy is breached is in fights, and only because drawing on magic for a monster needs the soul and a human soul would come out by default, and when a soul doctor examines it, the sole propose to see if you have a healthy soul and see how to heal it. Aside from these two particular circumstances we do not just pop out our souls to anyone." Toriel explained.

"Oh! You mean I basically just asked Sans to get down and dirty with me indirectly or something?" You finally say, blushing, making Sans sputter even more before chuckling a bit. So, souls were for monsters what buckets were for trolls…

"W-well, yes and no. It is more romantic than that." Alphys says. Okay… so, not like troll buckets, then.

"I see I still have lots to learn about your culture so that I'm not so culturally insensitive." You said feeling embarrassed. At least it seemed that your antics made the others temporarily forget your EXP problem, considering how the tenseness of the room simply evaporated. Well… most everyone. Sans still had a gleam on his eyes that translated to 'I'm onto you' loud and clear. "I am awfully curious about all those soul thingamabobs and will ask more about them but I don't want to get side tracked so… Flowey! You seem pretty determined in making me fear you! Wanna fight me?"

You are met with stunned silence all around you before he retorts with only a menacing grin on his face. Before anyone could say or do anything else the world around you grew dark and all color disappeared. Now you only saw black and white. Flowey stood before you, still in Frisk's hands as they seemed to panic. You see something red glow but are distracted by a sudden feeling in your chest.

It was some sort of tugging sensation that bothered you. You tried to fight it to no avail. Suddenly a cartoon-like heart popped out from the place the tugging felt strongest at. You and Rajani both gapped at the sight in front of you.

Before you was a heart. The surface seemed like transparent colored glass that was about half an inch thick and within that was a smaller heart, probably the core sans ha mentioned, completely opaque. It was split right down the middle in two colors, the right side a pavement grey and the left side seemed an odd mix of royal blue and gray, you supposed that compared to actual blue it would seem very faded in color, but comparing to the grayness of the other half it almost sparkled bright against it.

Sans, Alphys and the kids drew nearer as they gapped at your soul as well.

"I-I've never seen such thing!" Alphys said.

Which half do you think it's mine? You asked Rajani as you both kept looking. There were two horizontal indentations on the front side of your soul, one of them seemed almost like a scar while the other looked like an open wound that ran so deep it reached the opaque core. You were pretty sure that wasn't how a soul was supposed to look like.

You both saw the gray side pulse as you spoke. Rajani decided to reply to you mentally just to make sure.

I think you are the gray? The bluish-gray side pulsed as she talked.

"It's real…" Rajani said out loud echoing your thoughts, taking control of your body almost absentmindedly. The bluish-gray side was the one shining brighter now. "We are both real…"

And you both felt like crying too.

"what?" Oh, right! You forgot Sans was there. Before Rajani could retort to him she saw something coming at you from the corner of her eye and rolled to the side, your soul following you.

You saw a white something had imbed itself on the wall that had just been behind you. Rajani stood up stretching your arms nonchalantly.

"Youth roll for the win!" Rajani _* taunted while making a peace sign, readying herself for another attack.

The fact that you both had dodged the attack seemed to irk Flowey beyond understanding. And he shot several more of those white thingies. Rajani expertly dodged them again and took a moment to _* check Frisk who had also been dragged into battle. In front of them was a vivid red soul that shone brightly beyond comprehension. For a moment you saw something flicker by them but hadn't been able to make out what it was before your soul was hit with one of the white… seeds?

Your mind went momentarily blank with pain. It burned hot-white through all your body like someone had replaced all your blood with melted metal. It was gone as quick as it had come but to you it had been so unbearable that it had felt like longer. Rajani faltered but quickly regained control over her motions and relocated to a safer spot. Flowey laughed saying that it was no use hiding. You _* checked him and saw that he had escaped Frisk's arms and was now hanging from the ceiling by vines that came out from his flower pot. You didn't see his soul anywhere.

You were suddenly surrounded by white seeds in a circle around you. There was nowhere to run, both you and Rajani knew it. The seed hadn't taken a lot of damage out of you but it had hurt a lot. You were pretty sure you had only felt that pain because it had caught Rajani by surprise and that she would make sure not to let you feel anything more.

You… couldn't bear the thought of her getting that much hurt because of you. If someone deserved to feel pain it was you. You were always the most useless of the two. Sometimes you wondered why she even insisted you remained as main personality when you had so little to offer to the world. If you could take the pain for her this time you would.

*You are filled with…

You jumped forward before the sentence that appeared next to your soul was complete. You took over your body and ran at the white seeds to break away from the circle. You were so focused you didn't realize that the health bar that represented your soul had split into two, one with Raj written on top and the other with Mir. You didn't notice the collective gasp that was heard throughout the room at your actions, you didn't notice Flowey's surprised expression, you didn't notice Rajani's screams. But most of all you hadn't noticed the thin layer of gray that coated your soul. If you had you would have noticed that it looked like it had been painted over with opaque gray nail polish, obscuring its true colors.

Two seeds hit you straight in the soul as you ran past the circle limit, the pain making you whimper but you kept running and then used the couch to jump up and grab Flowey's pot, forcing him to detach with your unexpected weight.

"Battle over." You told him as the nail polish like coating pealed from your soul, its job done.

"S-selflessness." Your heard Alphys' voice say, looked at her and followed her line of sight to your soul. Under it was written '* You are filled with selflessness.'.

The words changed to '* Flowey is too mesmerized to fight' and you noticed him staring at your soul, mouth agape. You look up at the glass-like floating heart too, now completely back to its original colors. Floating where your health bar used to be you finally noticed the two heath bars in its place. The one with Rajani's pet name had nearly all your 2058 HP and was missing only a few couple of points from that seed that had hit her but the other, the one under your name, was completely empty.

"Wow! You took all my health with just two little seed looking thingies!?" You asked surprised at that fact. Color returned to the world as your soul returned to your chest. You were surprised that you felt only slightly tired considering your health. You also had a headache but that was natural considering Rajani was loudly berating you for your recklessness.

"That one was empty from the start… Why… do you have two health bars?" Flowey asked in a small voice.

"Huh?"

Rajani shut up immediately and you realized the atmosphere was tense again and everyone around was looking at you like you had just suddenly smacked them on the head out of the blue. You set Flowey down on the coffee table and slumped on the floor next to it. Okay, what were you supposed to do now? You didn't like this.

Rajani took over and slammed her hand down on the dark wood next to Flowey's pot, snapping them from whatever trance they were in.

"I'm overwhelmed, I'm emotionally confused, I'm mentally confused and I think we need all to sit our asses down, chillax a bit and talk about this whole weirdness we just saw." She said. Toriel looked at you sternly because of the word usage but sat down on an armchair. The others followed suit.

All the grownups seemed uneasy, Flowey and Frisk seemed particularly unsettled but the later sat by your side on the floor as if showing support, and Monster Kid seemed to feel both uneasy, mostly because of the others reactions, as well as exited over whatever your soul had done.

"I need an outsider's perspective over what happened. I know what I felt happen and a few things I saw happen but that is just my version." Rajani said. "What the actual f-" Raj, language! "-UDGE WITH WHIP CREAM happened!"

Frisk poked Asgore and signed at him while looking at you. He translated.

"He is saying: Flowey entered a fight with you, then your soul glowed bluish-gray, then a friendliness pellet hit you, then you were surrounded by friendliness pellets, then you soul glowed gray, then your health bar split into two one completely empty and one with all the health, then your soul turned gray, then you fazed right through the pellets that didn't do any damage to you, then the fight ended. Do you have a ghost inside you?"

"Oh! We have many things inside us but we can assure you ghosts aint one a them!" Rajani said.

"we?" Sans asked frowning. "it's not the first time you speak of yourself in plural." He noted.

"Whatever!" You felt Rajani ponder on what to tell them exactly. "Ok so from what I gather by this lil experiment I concluded three facts. Fact one: our… my soul is split into two vertically and each side glows individually, originating the color change in the aura. Fact two: My health can be split into two bars, each based on one of the halves. One has all the 2058 HP while the other, the gray one, has 0 HP. Fact three: My soul has some sort of property that turns it completely gray and absorbs the damage. It is based on the gray side and as such all damage is probably redirected there, however, because the HP is 0 no actual damage is made or it acts as a shield of sorts. Anyone has anything else to add?" Rajani asked to the others.

"H-hum… t-the text on your soul s-said something about… s-selflessness." Alphys interceded. "We c-could assume that gray is another soul t-trait that is n-named as Selflessness."

"Good point! I need to start writing this down."

You startle when someone else bangs on the table and Rajani looks at Frisk. He displays some drawing paper and crayons. Written messily in red were the facts Rajani had stated as well as what Alphys had added. Rajani gives him a thumbs up.

"Now on to questions that need answers!" Rajani says.

"Oh my god is it just me or are these guys all acting nerdier than usual?" Undyne commented. "All I want to know is why your soul is all split up right down to the middle like that!"

"And you just gave us the first question that needs answering. Welcome to the club, NERD!" Rajani said making the others chuckle a little.

"next should be what exactly is the gray color and why it has no hp." Sans added.

"Next should be how the heck did I do that whole thing of changing my soul to grey completely."

"that is not that odd, actually." Sans commented.

"Well the soul splitting in half is normal for me and I aint complaining that you don't know why because I aint assuming you should know why. My question stands!"

"Wait… you know why its split?" Undyne sputters.

"It's just a theory… a SOUL theory!" Rajani pointed two finger guns at Undyne but The Game Theorists reference went by unnoticed. "But ya. I'm mostly sure of the reason why. It is pretty personal though. Another question is why the fu-" LANGUAGE! "-NNY CHOPSTICKS do I have so much HP.

"Darling you can't just drop a bomb like that and expect us to not ask you about it." Mettaton intervened.

"Ok fine we jump the questions and go for the answers!" Rajani said. "You want to know about the split, right? I'm pretty sure I know why it's split into two but to give you context I'll have to tell you a long story. You up for that?"

"IT IS A BIT EARLY FOR MY STORY TIME AND IT IS USUALLY MY BROTHER WHO READS ME THE STORIES BUT I'LL ALLOW IT!" Papyrus said.

"Ok. I'll try to shorten it as much as possible. This is already a big giant clusterfu-" Language, Raj! LANGUAGE! "-DGE!" Rajani took a deep breath and entered story mode, probably the only time she was almost as calm and fine with the world as you. "Once there was a little girl. Unlike many little girls she was special in a bad way. You see, when she was conceived it was deliberate on the mother's side alone. The mother already had one child but wanted another and that was a pretty standard reason. However, the mother knew the father was a good for nothing and she knew the marriage wouldn't last. She did it not as a way to try and rekindle the ashes of their relationship ablaze once more but because she knew it would be harder to find a man willing to give her the second child she wanted. Though she was young most men frowned upon a relationship with a single mother. So, she used her husband to get another child, just like he had used her so many times before for easy money. At first things were fine. Sure, he wasn't a good husband but he wasn't overly bad either. Then he became cocky. He figured that a woman tied to him by two children, even though she was pretty independent, would stay with him out of need and he began acting out. Many of his shady dealings came back to torment his oldest daughter with death threats directed at her father and the mother knew it was time to leave. The little girl was only four years old by the time the divorce was accomplished. As per court dictation the little girl would have to spend a weekend every two weeks with her father. And her father knew how to use that against the mother. Every time the little girl was at his place he let her do whatever she wanted, encouraged her to do so, in fact. Made her believe that she was owed all that freedom. As was natural in a child's mentality, she took those behaviors back to her mother's place and was swiftly punished for acting out. The little girl, I believe, was by then starting to unconsciously splitting in half. But if it was then that it had indeed started, it still wasn't then that it was consummated. The mother moved away for her oldest daughter's education and took the little girl with her, meaning she would now only have to spend the holidays over with her father." Rajani took a breather as you couldn't help but remember the moments she was recalling.

You had often wondered if that had been somehow related to what came to happen later on. You had felt like you had ropes tied to each of your wrists and they were being pulled in opposite directions. You had loved to be in your father's house and often hadn't understood why everything was so much worse at your mother's house. You still loved your mother, though. You hadn't known you were being brainwashed. Rajani returned to her story telling.

"Moving away was hard. The little girl had all her friends there, she even had an unresolved crush there. But an eight year old was far too old for throwing a tantrum. It was around that time that she also learned why her father was acting the way he had been. He was brainwashing her to hate her mother, unconcerned with what that would do to her social life as she wasn't being taught properly. All that neglect he had imposed on her for the sake of revenge against his ex-wife ruined her. She entered school but because she was so used to being respected she immediately clashed against another little girl. A little girl with a twin brother who ruled the class's boys. That other little girl was also used to having everyone around at her beck and call. And she didn't like the newest addition. Not at all. She made it so that everyone in the class ostracized her. The little girl, with most of her social capabilities already trashed by her father's selfishness became even more of an outcast with no social competence. So she did what she still had left as a quality. She tried to be a good girl for her mother." Rajani shifted a bit to a more comfortable position. She had her eyes closed so she would immerse further into the story and away from the people before her.

Many people would have thought she was offering too much information but you both, and most especially her, had decided there was no need to keep that as private. What could it possibly do to affect them, after all? They were hardened against any hurtful comment about their past situation regarding their parents or the bullying.

"The little girl was lonely. As a single parent her mother was constantly working to make ends meet and had no time to play with little girls. As a college student in a competitive area her big sister was constantly studying to get the best grades possible and had no time to play with little girls either. She was so lonesome but considering her school mates were awful she began to enjoy the solitude. It wasn't like she had any other choice, after all. And she did want to be a good girl. But at times the loneliness was so much she would do anything not to be lonely. Her class was… never mind, that is a detail for another time. All that matters is that they humiliated her whenever the loneliness got too smothering for her and broke down her self-confidence. She lost her childhood innocence then. Then she changed schools when she entered fifth grade and she learned that having your presence be ignored was a blessing compared to what came next. She would never find out for sure why she was singled out back then and all the following years, but she was. Mostly the girls went on ignoring her existence. According to her mother it was because they were jealous of all the attention the boys were showering on her. But the attention she did get from the boys was the kind she could have done perfectly without."

"What did they do?" Undyne interrupted, rage in her voice. Rajani faltered, not expecting the interruption but swiftly returned to her tale.

"She had been pretty by an eleven year-old's standards but because of her imposed solitude she had been far more mature than her age group. Many of the things the other girls consented to play with the boys were either too childish or too overtly sexualized, since they were, after all, starting to become aware of sexuality. But this was a new school and she was done with having her self-confidence smashed by others. She gathered whatever bits of pride she did have left and refused to go along with any of it. The boys didn't like that. How dare she, the new girl in class, refuse to let them touch her? Sure they only wanted to touch her butt carelessly but she was DONE. And because she didn't let them they began to treat her badly. They were so very mean to her. She was already lonely when she started school that year, but now she began to feel something else. She began to feel a deep hatred. At first it had been focused on the boys alone but later she realized that the girls and the teachers were allowing it to happen. Her hatred grew as each year passed by and nothing changed. It grew so big she wished they would all die. None of them deserved to live. But…"

Rajani opened her eyes and looked at all those around her. They had heard her voice grown with hatred and anger as she reached the murderous climax of the story and some looked at them with horror. You felt Rajani's feelings shifting slightly. Just as I thought. The moment we become potential serial killers they all fear us or hate us or judge us. She thought and you shrunk, wishing Rajani hadn't told them about the feelings you had held then. Back then you were still one and even if those feelings were more of what Rajani would have felt, by then they were still shared so that was as much your fault has hers.

"But…?" Flowey asked. There was an odd expression in his eyes. You could almost think of it as recognition, but that was stupid… right?

"But even then she still wanted to be a good girl." Rajani went on. "She was broken and tired of everything but she still wanted to be the very best she could for the sake of her mother. And she knew it was unfair to the few people she knew that were good to her to generalize all humanity in a ball of hatred. The feelings of wanting to be good and of wanting to wish death upon all those around her that mocked and humiliated her clashed stronger and stronger by the day. And then her feelings clashed so hard and became so self-aware that she split into two. At first the two that had been one were confused. Each wanted to control their body's actions. It was natural. Before they had been one and hadn't needed to share. But now they were two and had opposing views on life. One, we shall call her Mir, wanted to be a good girl. She felt that it was the only good thing she could still do and clung to it desperately. She was also far too nice and refused to think about wishing death upon others. In all her life she came to only truly hate two people. She hadn't in her to feel such dark emotion flippantly. One could hurt her a lot and she could still find it in her to forgive them. As she would put it 'There is no true goodness in this world. Likewise there is no true evil. All of us are a mix of those two. Sure some have more of one than the other but there's always a small chance of redemption.' She is truly the only good person through and through I ever met."

You felt yourself blush at Rajani's compliment. Before you could react Rajani continued her tale.

"The other, let's name her Raj, was filled with hatred and injustice. She felt she had been wronged. She hadn't minded the butt touching so much as she had how the choice had been taken from her by others. And she couldn't stand how those around her that had the power to stop it didn't do anything. They had eyes and ears. They could see and hear what was happening. She knew at some point her unwillingness to conform had stopped being the cause for her bullying. They had began to bully her because she was an easy target. She was already a target so why not continue being mean to her. And she hated all of them for it. She wanted them all ." Rajani growled the last words. Then she collected herself and went on like nothing had happened.

"The two clashed for several months but Mir was understanding and she understood why Raj felt that way. She and Raj had been one up until then, after all, so she had more insight than the average Jane Doe. With time and patience, she slowly helped Raj see that the world wasn't so black and white, and that there were several shades of grey in between. Then she slowly showed her there were more colors out there. They became friends. Then they became mind sisters. Mir showed Raj that there were still people capable of good and though I'll never admit it again after this, the biggest evidence for Raj had been Mir herself. Raj decided that Mir should have reign over their body and to only show up when she needed her. Raj still distrusted everyone around her after all. Still do. Several other things of much greater impact would later happen to the two. Things that we wish to remain private. I always had her back whenever she needed me and, surprisingly she has mine too. I wish she wouldn't risk her life so much, though. Well, technically she doesn't have one anyway from what I saw of her HP."

You were thankful she had omitted some of the things that had happened though she had always been more upfront about what had been done to them back then.

But you had never been this upfront with anyone. Leave it to Raj to bare her metaphorical breasts of their soul. Man you'll never get tired of this Lovely Complex reference. You were relieved she didn't share what happened afterwards either. It had little relevance to your split and you didn't want to think of it for one single second.

You suddenly realized no one was saying anything. They all seemed flabbergasted at your life story. Rajani decided to intervene.

"Look, I get it. It's odd to meet with someone that has two different people living inside but get used to it, ok? I won't even be out unless Miranda really needs me so no worries about that. She just didn't have the guts to tell this story so I did it for her. And please do answer our questions. It's the first time we actually had pseudo-physical evidence that I'm just as real as she, for fu-" Raj… "-DGE's sake!"

"so you mean to tell me that the soul anomalies i'm seeing are because there are two different personalities stuck inside the same soul? color me surprised." Sans said at last.

"INDEED! I NEVER HEARD OF SUCH BEFO… SANS… WAS THAT A PUN?!" Papyrus proceeded to loudly groan in frustration.

"sorry bro, but she seemed a little blue so i wanted to cheer her up."

"SANS!"

"c'mon! you're not going to tell me that someone as gray-t as you won't put up with a few of my jokes for someone else's sake."

"SANS! SHE ISN'T EVEN LAUGHING SO STOP! NO MORE PUNS!"

"you are smiling, though."

"I AM AND I HATE IT!"

" …that's it?" Rajani asked.

"what's 'it'?"

"I just reveal Miranda suffers from a condition that most psychologists still argue about whether it's a legitimate thing or not and your first reaction is telling puns!?" She asked matter-of-factly. "Ya know what? Scr-" I'm looking at you. "-AMBLE this! Forget that we just literally proved that Miranda isn't insane and that my whole existence isn't a lie! Let's talk about everything else that we don't know like what gray means, why Miranda has no HP and I have all of it, what happened with our soul that it turned completely gray and why do we have such an absurd amount of HP!"

"calm down, you are working yourself down to the bone, there."

"UUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRGHHHH! THAT'S IT! Miranda, you deal with this! I'm out." Rajani turned towards Sans and flipped him the bird. "FUCK YOU!"

And with that she was gone and Miranda stood in her place.

"RAJANI! THERE ARE KIDS HERE. NO SWEar… Um… yellow?"

Sans burst laughing at your color pun. It was twice as funny because it could also stand for a pun about yelling.

.

End Notes:

Remeber when I said that Miranda was supposed to be a friend of mine and I'm basically her second personality in this fic (le name is obvious :P)? well, because we two are mixed together in this story i mixed our pasts as well, not all of them, there are things about my friend that were done to her that you don't need to know. as for everything else:

we met when we were thirteen and bonded over the fact that we had similar pasts (broken families with a toxic dynamic)

The moving away and finishing the eighth and nine grade was, once again, Mir's past because my account from back then was awful.

The sexualized bullying was all me. it wasn't as bad as the previous years but it was enough to piss me off, especially when i was held down so they could shove a finger up my ass similar to that Kakashi technique in Naruto. Lets just say I was pretty violent after that. It was me against all of the boys in class so I couldn't do much damage, especially since I didn't have any training in martial arts.

Having the girls ignore her while the guys used crass remarks and rude pick up line (when they weren't insulting us like saying that because we had brown hair we had shit colored hair and that light brown eyes were the color of rotten honey (joke's on you douche bags, honey doesn't rot, it crystallizes but it's still edible)) was both of us since we were already friends by then.

'Daniel' did have multiple personality disorder (he had three people inside instead of the two in this fic) and he used to date Mir but now a days I can't help but think he might have lied about that too (he did lie to her about many things).

As for souls look at my profile pic, see the two layers in the broken soul, that's basically how souls look except that monster souls are upside down and aren't transparent (imagine the colored core shining through the white outer-shell like light through milk).

with this over next chap we get into more soul stuff and Miranda has a bonding moment with Asgore (I want to make her slowly befriend everyone before jumping to the romance to stay as realistic as possible).