Gaster teleported Lucida to a truly hellish world. She appeared to be in a ruined Ebott City. Most of the buildings had collapsed to rubble, and the sky was clouded with ash. It was even worse, much worse, than after the battle that had been fought in her own timeline.

"What IS this…?" Lucida asked.

"This is a Soulless timeline, like your own," Gaster said. "As you can see, Chara's plan was quite a bit more successful. Thousands of monsters and millions of humans have perished in her war. The war can only end if Chara is defeated. Eliminate her, and save what little remains of this world."

The sight of this burning hell of a world filled Lucida with overwhelming anger. "The Demon will die!"

"You're going to need this." Gaster summoned a capsule with a human SOUL inside. "This is a LV 20 human SOUL. It'll make you powerful enough to fight Chara."

A LV 20 human SOUL... That was going to be helpful indeed.

"Wait…" Lucida said. "Why didn't you give me that earlier?"

"Where would have been the fun in that? You were fine."

Gaster…

Lucida sighed and took the SOUL. "I suppose I should be grateful you're giving me this now."

Gaster chuckled. "The truth is, you weren't powerful enough to handle it until now, and even now, this SOUL could cause you to melt if you're not careful."

Ah, yes. Determination overdose was a very serious concern. Lucida did need to be careful.

Lucida absorbed the SOUL, and she felt tremendous power course through her body. She felt like she could take on anyone.

"Chara should be drawn to your power shortly," Gaster said. "Good luck." He disappeared.

Lucida waited. As Gaster had promised, it didn't take long for the Demon to show up. The Demon approached Lucida, and it was possessing this timeline's Frisk.

"Lucida…? Aren't you dead?" the Demon asked.

Lucida grabbed the hilt of her sword. "Demon… you're going to die for your crimes."

The Demon looked genuinely confused. "Demon…? You were one of my best soldiers. You killed so many humans before they finally took you down. It was such a shame. You were one of my favorites… but you're not really her, are you? You're from another timeline. This can only mean one thing: Gaster really has betrayed me. First, he saved that pathetic coward who had disgraced my name, and now he's sent you here to kill me."

Lucida felt disturbed. She didn't want to believe that she would have aided the Demon, but… she had already done so. In her timeline, she had killed quite a few more humans than she was proud of. The thought that the monsters' greatest hero betrayed everyone had filled her with so much rage, but this wasn't about her. She had made some mistakes, but she couldn't turn back now. Lucida drew her sword.

The Demon made a face that wasn't even human. Its smile twisted further than what should have been possible, and darkness seemed to ooze out of its glowing red eyes.

"It's been too long since I've had a proper battle!" it exclaimed. "A battle with a fellow killer! This should be interesting!"

"It will be your last!" Lucida declared.

Lucida surrounded the Demon with Gaster blasters and fired, but the Demon jumped impossibly high in the air and dodged every one. After landing, the Demon sprinted at Lucida with inhuman speed and slashed at her with its knife. Lucida used her sword to deflect the Demon's attacks.

"This is pointless," the Demon said. "Even if you should defeat me, I'll just destroy this world."

"Yes," Lucida said. "I know all about that. It's the ultimate dark magic spell. Gaster and I were studying it before he died. It's a spell capable of plunging the entire world into darkness. To use it, two conditions must be met. First, the caster must be LV 20, and second, the caster must be the strongest being in the world. Since I have a LV 20 human SOUL inside me, I have a feeling your position as the world's most powerful being is contested."

The Demon laughed. "You think just any LV 20 SOUL can… Wait…" The Demon casted a spell: Check.

"That was another Frisk's SOUL," the Demon realized. "So… you are as powerful as me. All the more reason I have to kill you!"

The Demon casted shadow magic. A hailstorm of dark energy spikes rained down on Lucida. Looking at this magic was like staring into a black void, which made it very disorienting. The sight it would have frozen a lesser monster in terror, but fortunately, Lucida was familiar with this form of magic. She was able to dodge the barrage. Lucida countered the Demon's attack with bone magic. She sent an energy bone flying right at the Demon, and it impaled the Demon's chest.

Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy. The Demon laughed as it pulled the bone out. Blood gushed out of the wound, but the Demon was completely unfazed.

"You're going to have to try harder than THAT!" the Demon taunted. "If that's the best you've got, you're gonna have a bad time!"

The Demon dared to use the battle cries of the lives it stole? Lucida became even more infuriated. She dashed at the Demon and swung her sword at it as fast as she could. The Demon didn't do anything. It simply stood there and took the attacks. Despite attacking with all her might, Lucida's attacks only made minor scratches on the Demon.

"You may have your human SOUL," the Demon said. "But you're not using it properly. Come on, show me the Lucida that I know. Show me your anger."

"WOULD YOU SHUT UP?!"

Lucida made one massive slash across the Demon's stomach, and the force of the blow sent the Demon flying into the nearest wall.

The Demon giggled. "That's better!"

The Demon swiftly ran back to Lucida, and they traded blows. Lucida had never seen anyone so skilled with a knife. Lucida took a few hits, and she felt blood trickle down her bones. It took all of her determination to keep up with the Demon. She managed to block one of the Demon's swings, and their weapons locked in a contest of strength. Lucida struggled as hard as she could to break the Demon's guard.

Come on, it's just a knife! I have a sword!

With all her rage, Lucida won the contest and landed another hit across the Demon's body, but she was extremely winded and struggling to catch her breath. The Demon, meanwhile, still wasn't showing any sign of slowing down.

"Is that all you can do against the one who killed your children?" the Demon taunted. It slashed a wide cut across Lucida's body and knocked her down.

Lucida got back up walked towards the Demon. "I… will… kill you…!"

She heard something dripping beneath her. Blood? She looked down; it wasn't blood. Lucida's body was melting. Her body couldn't handle this much determination.

The Demon looked disappointed. "Aw… monsters just can't handle the determination that humans can. Looks like you won't be a worthy opponent after all. Oh, well. I'll just have to kill you now."

No… I didn't come all this way just to be killed by this THING!

Lucida tried to hold on. She thought of all the people the Demon had killed. She remembered her sorrow when she saw Papyrus's dust, and she remembered her rage when the Demon made her believe that it was Frisk. Nothing would have satisfied her more than tearing the Demon to pieces, so why couldn't she control her own body?

Control…

That was it. Lucida was letting her anger control her… just like Chara. All this time, Lucida had referred to her enemy as a demon, but that was just her way of hiding from the truth. Chara was a human being. An extremely hateful and murderous human, but still a human, who believed she was doing the right thing. Lucida couldn't lie to herself anymore. If she was going to defeat Chara, then she had to see her for what she really was. Lucida had to embrace the fact that she had set out to kill another person, but she wasn't going to kill her out of hatred or vengeance. She was going to kill her for justice, to save everyone who was still alive from this living nightmare of a world.

Lucida's body stopped melting.

Chara looked pleasantly surprised. "Huh, perhaps you can-"

Lucida fired her Gaster blasters. Chara jumped up again, but Lucida covered the ground she landed in with energy bones. Chara swiftly jumped out, but not before taking some hits. Some blood dripped down her legs.

"Okay," Chara said. "Now the REAL battle begins!"

Chara quickly closed the distance between them, and their weapons clashed once more. This time, Lucida was faster. She parried through Chara's attack and landed a deep cut on her arm. Chara retreated and fired energy knives from all around Lucida. Lucida managed to dodge every single one.

Chara's enjoyment of the fight started to turn into frustration. "You can't keep dodging forever!"

Chara thrust her palm forward and emitted a beam of shadow magic. Lucida rolled under it and shot a Gaster blaster at Chara. Chara was too concentrated on her attack to dodge, and she took the full force of the blast.

Chara coughed up blood. "You do realize that if you win, you will have undone everything I've fought for? I will have killed my own family for nothing, and your sons will have died for nothing!"

"They DID die for nothing!" Lucida told her.

Chara ran back to Lucida, and they resumed their blade fight.

"You think I WANTED to do what I did?" Chara shouted between strikes. "I LOVED THEM! I loved Toriel, Asgore, and Asriel! They were my family! But I had to kill them! Because if I didn't, the humans would have! Just like they did before, when the humans suddenly declared war on monsters for no reason other than the fear of a power that any good monster had no intention to use! Countless monsters were turned to dust over their fear and distrust, and the monsters could barely fight back at all! It can't even be called a war! And after it was all done, the humans caged the monsters like animals! I'm going to make sure that such a tragedy never happens again!"

"And what do you call this?" Lucida asked. "For someone who hates war so much, you've caused an awfully big one."

Chara stared at her in frustration, and then she attacked her at an overwhelming speed that Lucida couldn't have possibly kept up with. Lucida tried to block Chara's attacks, but she was quickly knocked off balance. Chara used her force magic to pin Lucida down on the ground, and then she summoned a massive swarm of energy knives. Lucida looked around herself, and all she could see was the red glow of Chara's magic. Lucida couldn't dodge them all. The knives closed in, and several of them cut though. More blood dripped down Lucida's bones, and she knew it was over.

But… the attacks soon became weaker. Chara's strength was declining. Eventually, the knives just bounced off Lucida's armor harmlessly. The knives gradually slowed down until Chara collapsed to the ground. Lucida got back up and stared down at the fallen human. Chara's demonic appearance faded and returned to Frisk's normal face, and it was filled with sorrow and regret.

"Kill me…" Chara said. "You're right. I'm exactly what I was fighting."

Lucida had to admit; it was incredible that someone who had caused so much death could realize and accept that she was wrong. However, Chara couldn't be saved. She had killed too many, and Gaster couldn't possibly have had enough SOULs to save the millions of dead in this world. All Lucida could do for Chara was end her suffering, but there was still one thing that was bothering her.

"Why did Frisk do a Genocide run?" Lucida asked.

"He was curious," Chara answered. "He just wanted to see what it was like, but when I took control, he always begged me to stop. I didn't listen."

Lucida knew that was not the same reason the Frisk of her timeline did his Genocide run. She almost didn't blame Chara for hating humanity after witnessing a human slaughter over a hundred monsters just because he was curious, even if he did intend to RESET afterwards. The Frisk that Lucida knew obviously did his Genocide run to save Chara, and Lucida was starting to see why. She could tell from the passion that Chara had fought her with. She could see that Chara might have been a great person, if she just hadn't given in to her hatred of humanity.

Alright, enough feeling sorry for the warmonger.

Lucida pointed her sword at Chara.

"I would say that I hope to see my family again," Chara said. "But I don't deserve that. I at least hope that Frisk will see them."

"You will," Lucida told her. "They will be happy to see you."

Lucida impaled Chara's SOUL. It shattered. Chara and Frisk's Essences faded away.

Lucida took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. It was done. She had saved this world, and soon she would save her own.

Gaster took Lucida back to the True Lab.

"Congratulations," Gaster said. "You've reached LV 20, a feat very few monsters have performed. Shall we begin now?"

"No," Lucida answered. "I want everyone to be here."

"Define everyone."

Lucida gave him a list of the people she most wanted to witness the salvation of the world.

"Very well," Gaster said, "We'll meet up in the Royal Auditorium."

Gaster left for them.


And so we near the end of this tale.

The world will soon be saved…

And nothing bad will happen…

Nothing bad at all…

:)