I kept the thoughts about how dangerous what I was doing was out of my head as much as I could as I waited.

The machine had worked with remarkably little fanfare. I'd just stepped in, waited for a bit while some machinery buzzed around me, and when the doors opened, I just couldn't feel the timelines anymore. Gaster had shown me how my determination looked, now that it'd been drained from me. It'd been an odd, pale reddish liquid which he'd collected in some sort of glass tube. He'd assured me it'd be kept safe, and that its continued existence would make sure no one would have control over the timeline – at least, not unless they managed to obtain even more determination.

Well, I hoped he was right. The prospect of a timeline controlled by Par was a terrifying one. And yet, if he was wrong about even a single thing, that'd be the timeline I'd have to live in. If he was wrong about how much Par hated me… if Par didn't come to get me and instead just went up to the Surface and got his souls… well, that'd just be it.

I couldn't think about that, though. I needed to stay determined (a bit ironic to think, now, of course, but…). If Par was out there getting his souls, after all, there wasn't a thing I could do about it anyway. Whereas if he was actually coming, there was no point in prematurely losing hope.

I took a deep breath. I'd been doing that a lot in the past few minutes. I couldn't help it. Every single moment felt like it'd be my last one in this world. I hadn't even taken the time to tell my friends what was happening. It'd hurt them too much, and I couldn't afford to have them try and stop me right now. Hopefully, that decision wouldn't come back to bite me – but who was I kidding?

After Gaster had drained my determination, I'd gone to the Last Corridor. It felt fitting. Here, I'd faced my final challenge in my previous runs so, so many times. As good a place as any to face my true final challenge.

A shadow fell across the golden floor and walls, and I jumped.

"Well, well, well," a voice said from behind me. "Chara, Chara… I don't know why you did what you did. But I can tell you for sure that it was the biggest mistake you'll ever make."

I turned and saw Par, right there, yellow magic glowing in his hand. "Also, the last," he said.

I swallowed. [Frisk,] I said, [wish me luck.]

Frisk smiled. [I don't think you need luck, Chara,] they said. [I believe in you.]

For a moment, everything was still. One last moment.

Par leapt at me, the magic in his palm forming into a crescent even as he moved. He swiped at me, the yellow blade cutting an arc through the air. I stepped back, but he recovered from his attack quickly and thrust his hand forward, sending the crescent flying. With a quick step to the side, I dodged it, and a second later, I heard the crash of it hitting the far wall.

A cocky smirk on his face, Par gestured with a hand, and a torrent of feathers flew from the floor in front of me, aiming right at me. I leapt to the side, and the moment I was clear, Par snapped his fingers (talons?), stopping the flow. The feathers that had already emerged – of which there were hundreds – flew towards him and surrounded him in a tornado.

From behind the wall of feathers, I could just barely see his face. He cocked his head and gazed arrogantly at me.

My mind raced. I'd been so preoccupied with the danger and with losing my resets that I hadn't even thought about the fact that I still needed a way to actually stop him. I couldn't kill him, and I didn't want to do so either. I needed to talk him out of it – but how? How in the world could I do that when I didn't know the first thing about him?

"Well?" he said, spreading his arms wide. The tornado moved like a living thing to make sure it stayed around him. "The only reason you'd get rid of your resets and come here is to challenge me. So come on!"

I did nothing.

He waited for another few moments, but finally, he lowered his arms and his face settled into something between disappointment and contempt. "Fine."

With a thrust of his hand, the feathers flew away from him and shot towards me. I jumped away, letting the feathers smash into the ground ahead of me. But only a few of them actually made it to that point – most of them doubled back and returned to surrounding him.

I narrowed my eyes. It seemed he'd learned a few new tricks since last time.

The feathers shot at me once more, and I jumped aside. This time, however, one of his crescents came with them. It was wide enough to get me even after my dodge, but thankfully, I managed to duck under it just in time. As before, most of the feathers flew right back to him rather than going all the way.

I stood up in time to watch his beak spread into a wide grin, somehow. Once again, he snapped his talons, and the feathers surrounding him all went to his back. They formed into a massive pair of wings, and when they were done, he leapt and took to the skies.

He flew above me, soaring on his wings of magic, and as he did, he fired a single crescent downwards. I dove out of the way, but as he came to a stop in the air, he turned and flung another crescent at me. Desperately, I rolled away from it, but before I could get to my feet, he rushed at me and knocked me back to the ground. As he flew away again, he flung two more crescents, and I scrambled to the side to avoid them. When they hit the ground, he himself came at me again, and while I tried to dodge, he adjusted his trajectory and got me anyways. He grabbed me by the neck of my sweater and carried me into the air with him.

"Any last words?" he taunted as he raised his free hand into the air, a crescent forming within it.

Instead of answering, I drew my knife and slammed the blade into the arm holding me.

Par grunted in surprise and withdrew his arm, dropping me. I rolled as I hit the ground, spreading the impact out as much as possible, and turned to look at Par. He roared in frustration and flung the crescent at me. I stepped out of the way and kept my eyes firmly locked on him.

With his left hand, he tore my knife out of himself and then passed it to his right hand. Armed with it, he rushed at me again, throwing three crescents at me in a spread as he went. There was no way I could get out of the line of fire entirely, so I ducked between two of them, but though I was unharmed, they still obscured my vision. Unable to see, I couldn't dodge as Par slammed into me, sending me back. He clutched onto me as I staggered away, and he ended up on top of me as we lay on the ground. He raised my own knife high above me and grinned.

I gritted my teeth. Damn it. If it was any other monster trying to do this, my next move would've been easy. All I'd have to do would be shove them off me, or just rip the knife out of their hands. Monsters weren't built for physical combat, after all. But whatever the reason, Par was clearly stronger than a normal monster. I was far from certain that I could do the same to him.

Par thrust downwards at my neck, and I grabbed his wrist. With a quick tug, I wrenched his hand away from me, but he kept trying to get at my throat. Now that we were in a direct contest of strength, I could accurately gauge how physically strong he was, and what I felt told me one thing – I couldn't keep this up. He wasn't that much stronger than me, but he was still stronger, and it wouldn't take too long for him to overpower me.

Good thing I've never been known to play fair.

My other hand was still free, and I made a fist and punched at Par's face. At the last moment, he saw it coming and tried to jerk his head away, but it was too late. My fist hit his cheek, sending him reeling. With my other hand, I quickly let go of his wrist and punched that, too, causing him to drop the knife. I grabbed it as it fell and stashed it into my pocket, then punched him in the face again before he could recover and shoved him off myself. As he fell to the ground, he managed to catch himself and take to the skies once more. While he did that, I quickly got to my feet.

He flung several crescents at me as he flew away, and I scrambled out of the way. Suddenly, I heard something behind me, and Frisk yelled [Behind you, Chara!] I turned around to see a torrent of feathers flying at me. I dove to the side and rolled to my feet, quickly turning once more. Just in time – I saw Par, crescent in hand, flying towards me. I didn't have enough time to dodge, but as he closed in, I shoved his hand with the crescent away from me and used that opportunity to step out of his path. He stumbled away to the side, throwing his crescent at me as he did. I twisted my body to the side and let it pass by me harmlessly.

Par sighed, deeply. "I see," he said. "I must say, you're doing better than I expected. Not that it'll save you in the end, of course…"

He slammed his palm into the ground, and I heard a rumbling near me. I ran away, but a wall of feathers sprang up in the direction I was going, and I just barely managed to stop myself from running right into it. I looked around, only to see feathers rising up from the ground all around me – surrounding me in a cylinder from which there was no escape. Just like the ones Par used to protect himself, only this time, it wasn't moving. It was just staying there, and holding me prisoner.

"Hmph," Par chuckled mirthlessly. "You saw how I could use my feathers. Did you really assume making a shield was the extent of how far I could control my powers?

"Well, it doesn't matter," he mused. "You're going to die anyway."

With a swipe of his hand he threw his crescent at me, but it was horizontal, and fairly high up. I ducked under it, letting it sail harmlessly over my head, and as I stood back up, I couldn't help but notice that it'd cut a small opening through the wall of feathers. But before I could think of any way to take advantage of that, he sent another crescent at me, a vertical one this time. I twisted my body to the side as far as it could go, trying my best not to collide with the wall. Still, I did, and I felt the feathers' cutting edges as they sliced several thankfully shallow wounds through my back. Fortunately, I'd turned enough to the side that the crescent didn't hit me, though it came so close that the heat radiating off it touched my face. It passed by, cutting another small opening through the cylinder.

I gritted my teeth. Maybe I could keep dodging, wait for him to cut his own wall to shreds – but that was too much of a risk. In my current situation, all it'd take would be for him to come up with a single mildly clever idea and I'd be dead. I needed to figure out how to get out of here.

As a test, though I didn't expect it to work, I drew my knife and sliced at one of the feathers surrounding me. But it didn't go through – in fact, the feather cut into the blade instead, leaving a narrow incision in the cold steel. I quickly pulled my knife back before the feathers could ruin it any more. I liked that knife.

Then, I decided to try something else. After all, even if I didn't know much about Par, there were still a few things I did know.

I turned towards him and smirked. "So, this is how it ends, huh?" I asked, and spread my arms as far as I could in the confines of Par's circle (which wasn't very far). "Well, fair enough. I guess if you can't beat me fairly, it's only smart to use a dirty trick."

Par laughed. "Really? You think that'll work? How short-tempered do you think I am?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "I just… sort of thought you, of all people, would be the sort of person to want to prove you could actually do this, you know. With how much you like throwing your power around and all, I guess I thought you'd prefer to beat me honorably." I sighed. "Well, alright. I guess if you've got to cheat, you've got to cheat. Just go ahead."

Par looked at me, and I looked him in the eye. For a few heart-pounding moments, we stood there, sweat pouring on my face as I desperately hoped my attempt would work.

Finally, Par grinned. "Really?" he laughed. "That has got to be the most pathetic thing I have ever heard. I mean, seriously? THAT'S your plan?"

He shook his head, the smile still on his face. "Well, alright then," he said. "I guess I can give you a chance." With a gesture of his hand, the ring of feathers retracted back into the ground, and I sighed in relief.

I waited nervously for him to do something, but he just stood there. Finally, he spread his arms wide. "Well? Go on," he said. "I said I'd give you a chance – go ahead and take it."

"Oh," I said, realizing what he wanted from me. "You want me to attack you."

"I want you to try," he smirked.

I smiled. "Sorry to disappoint you. That's not why I'm here."

Par rolled his eyes. "Really? You're here to talk to me, then, I guess? Try and convince me that the path I'm on is wrong?

"That's stupid," he said. "You're a doomed person, Chara. You've been doomed since you'd given up your resets. Why not just accept that?"

"Because it isn't true," I said, my eyes narrowing.

"Is it not?" he asked. "Say you win this. I don't have a clue how you would, but let's say you win this. Let's say you kill me. Then what? One day or another something's going to kill you. The Surface isn't exactly the nicest place, you know – and the monsters? This might surprise you, but you know, they aren't all sunshine and rainbows either."

My gaze stayed on him. "Yeah. I know I'm going to die one day. But I sure as hell don't plan for that day to be today."

He shrugged. "Fair enough," he conceded. "But… you should've thought about that before you went and messed up my plans."

I was about to say something, but the moment he finished talking, he swiped both of his hands and sent two crescents at me in a cross. I dove out of the way, rolling to my feet as I landed, but I heard something above me and looked up. There was a glob of yellow magic above me, and as I watched, it formed into another crescent and flew at me. I leapt to the side, but as I did, I noticed another crescent – this one actually thrown by Par, I assumed – flying at me, and just barely managed to duck under it.

He raised a hand, and I heard a sound beneath my feet. Before I could even think, I leapt away, just in time to avoid a torrent of feathers that shot up from the floor. As they rose into the air, they formed into a large sphere. I watched it nervously, but it just stayed there, and I turned back to Par. He waved a hand and sent out another crescent – this one aimed at the sphere. I raised an eyebrow and turned back to look at the sphere, and saw it burst apart as the crescent hit it, each feather flying in a different direction.

It looked intimidating, but I'd seen similar things enough to be able to deal with them. Really, it was just a matter of being able to dodge the one or two projectiles that came closest – the rest didn't matter. I stepped back, letting the feather that would've otherwise hit me bury itself in the ground, and a thunderous commotion rang out through the room as the other feathers all hit the walls or the floor as well.

The feathers didn't disappear instantly as they struck those surfaces, though, which made me nervous. I looked around, trying to keep an eye on Par while still keeping track of what was going on with the feathers. Par snapped his talons, and all of the feathers rose out of whatever surface they were impaled in and started floating in the air. Slowly, they all pointed towards me.

My eyes widened a bit. Dodging a bunch of projectiles when they were all coming from one place was easy enough – but dodging a bunch of projectiles when they were all around you was another thing entirely. Especially when every single one of them was aiming right at you.

Before the feathers could get moving, I ran forwards, making sure to weave between the feathers already floating in the air. Quietly, I prayed the feathers wouldn't be able to redirect their aim after they'd already locked in. Thankfully, looking at the ones surrounding me as I ran, it seemed I was right.

With a noise of magic, the feathers started to move, all flying towards the spot where I'd been just a few moments ago. If I'd still been standing there, dodging every single one of them would've been nigh impossible. Since I'd moved, though, I only had to dodge a single stream of feathers. It was still nerve-racking – the feathers moved quickly, and knowing the bird, I really didn't want to find out what it'd be like to get hit with even one of them. But I'd had practice, and so, I simply let my instincts take over as the feathers came forth. I twisted to the side to dodge one, sidestepped another, ducked one more, and danced between the rest until they were all past. The feathers struck the floor at the spot where I'd just been, and I turned back to look at them. This time, they'd disappeared as they hit. Good.

I looked at the bird. His eyes were a bit disbelieving, and he stared at me with a fearsome intensity. I couldn't help it. I smirked at him. "Hah."

"Shut up," he hissed.

"You know, I've been thinking about something," I said. "I've been wondering why you never went to kill anyone yourself. You always had Slayer do it for you." I gestured to the destruction that had been wreaked around the corridor. "Looking at how little success you've had here… I'm starting to see your reasoning."

"Don't be smart with me, kid," he growled. "I'm going to get you eventually, you know."

"Really?" I asked him. "Are you really? Honestly, have you even killed ANYONE yourself?"

He said nothing.

I blinked in surprise. "Wait. You haven't?"

His eyes narrowed. "I suppose you'll have to be the first," he said.

I blinked at him again, and then he lunged at me, two crescents in his hands. I stepped back, twisted to the right and dodged his next strike, grabbed his left wrist (well, left from his perspective), and tried my best to keep that crescent away from me. He tried to break my grip, but he couldn't, and I took my chance to shove him away and leap backwards before he could try anything. With a grunt, he threw one of the crescents at me, and I jumped away again – but then, I realized that he wasn't aiming at me; he was aiming at the floor. As the crescent struck, it raised a cloud of dust, and I realized that Par would take that opportunity to jump at me. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't considered the fact that his weapon glowed yellow. Even through the dust, I could see the crescent coming at me easily, and I stepped to the side as Par emerged. He stumbled past me, spun around and tried to slash me again, but I ducked and jumped away. He jumped backwards, too, his wings flapping and carrying him into the air, and threw the crescent at me as he retreated. I dove out of the way and rolled to my feet quickly.

He clapped his hands together, and glowing crescents appeared to either side of him. One started spinning like a buzzsaw and flew at me. I dodged to the side and watched the other one. Par pointed a finger at me and it flew forth, going right towards me. Before dodging, I took a quick look behind me – there was no way that first one had been normal. My suspicions were confirmed, as I saw it turning in midair, starting to go back towards me once more.

I gritted my teeth. The crescent Par had just sent at me was vertical, so I couldn't duck under it. But the buzzsaw one was horizontal, so I couldn't step around it too easily – and it was now close enough that I didn't trust myself to do any fancy jumps. And they were going to come to my position at about the same time, so I had to dodge both simultaneously.

Unless I did something about it.

I ran forwards, towards the vertical crescent, and saw Par's eyes widen a bit in surprise out of the corner of my eye. As I ran, I leapt to the side, still moving forward, and dodged the vertical crescent. Since I'd gone forward, though, the other one hadn't reached me quite yet, and I had time to quickly duck under it and avoid getting sliced in half. This time, it flew all the way to the wall, and disappeared as it struck it.

Par snapped his fingers, and two streams of feathers started coming at me, one from each of the two long walls of the corridor. I leapt forward and out of their way, but Par charged at me, trying to shove me back into the line of fire. Normally I'd just step backwards and avoid the attack that way, but I couldn't do that now, and he was close enough that I wasn't sure if I could sidestep away. But I had no other choice, and so I tried anyways. Unfortunately, it seemed I was right to be cautious – he still slammed into me, but thankfully, I had made it a glancing blow. With a bit of effort, I managed to stop myself from stumbling into the streams.

He stopped just in front of them himself, then stepped away, created a crescent in his hand, and sliced at me. My eyes widened as I instinctively took a step back, but the feathers from the streams bit into me, and I stumbled forward again, right into the path of the crescent. Fortunately, I was still far enough back that it didn't cut deep, but it still stung. He sliced at me again, moving forward with the strike, and this time, I ducked to avoid the blade, making sure that the feathers wouldn't get me again. Then, before he could attack again, I went to the side, so that his advance wouldn't force me into the feathers again. He whirled and tried to strike me with his bare hand, but I stepped out of his reach and then took another few steps away, both from him and from the stream, just to make sure I was out of danger.

For a moment, he did nothing, staring at me in anger. Then, he snapped his fingers twice. The first snap turned off the two streams coming from the walls. The second one made a rumbling come once more from the ground under my feet, and I stepped away. A moment later, an entire line on the floor, stretching from Par all the way to the wall, started shooting feathers upwards, and I was just to one side of it. A moment later, though, the feathers disappeared, and Par flew at me, a blob of yellow magic in his hand. This time, he didn't form it into a crescent – he just tried to slam it into me. I didn't know what that would do, and I didn't want to find out. I spun to the side, but he twisted around too and tried to attack again. I dodged that one, too, and he slammed the blob of magic into the ground instead.

As it squished against the ground, I could see some sort of energy crackling around it. I gritted my teeth. It seemed like it was going to explode or something.

I didn't know how big it was going to be, and I didn't trust myself to be able to get out of the way fast enough while still keeping an eye on Par. Instead, I just turned and ran. A second or so later, I heard a loud sound behind me, and a vicious force took me off my feet and slammed me into the wall of the corridor. I slumped down to the ground, but I managed to get to my feet fairly quickly. Good thing, too – just as I rose, I saw one of Par's crescents flying right towards me, moments away from cutting me in twain. I ducked under it, and felt its heat above me as it passed.

Frisk's eyes widened. [Whoa,] they said. [Chara, I think you just got a free haircut.]

I scowled. [Not now, Frisk.] Though they were probably right.

I straightened up, gasping for breath. "Okay, seriously," I said, "Par, you haven't killed anyone yet?"

Par narrowed his eyes at me and folded his hands behind his back. "I have not. Why does it matter?"

"Well, I'm just saying," I said. "Judging by what you've done so far… I feel like you didn't need to use Slayer for all that killing you did. You could've done it yourself."

"And why would I?" he asked. "Would you not agree it would still be safer not to put myself at risk?"

"Oh, I guess, yeah," I said. "But… look at this. Look at what you've done so far. Besides, remember how I stabbed you in the previous run? You barely even reacted. Back then, I'd killed Asgore in one hit. If you could withstand something like that, I don't think any of the monsters could've even hurt you."

He stared at me. "And besides," I continued, "sure, sending Slayer out was still safer. But wasn't it a bit inefficient? Slayer could only be at one place at once, so you had to do everything one thing at a time. And I don't recall him being particularly fast, either. So why wouldn't you do some stuff on the side yourself while Slayer was taking care of his target? You'd be able to get everything done a lot faster."

"Your point is?" he asked me.

"My point," I said, "is that if you haven't done that, there's probably a reason for that. You've never killed anyone before… and you don't really want to kill anyone, do you?"

Par blinked at me. He held up a hand, and yellow magic sprang to life in his palm. "Your argument has a few holes in it," he pointed out.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, yes. You're trying to kill me now, because you're angry at me and you want your vengeance. But are you really? I don't know exactly how powerful you are, but judging by that explosion, you're really powerful. Yet I can't help but notice that at the start of this fight, you didn't use that much of your power. You held back. Hell, you even released me from that prison when you had me dead to rights."

He snorted. "Wouldn't exactly be fun if you died in seconds, would it?"

"But you're not Flowey," I said. "You're not interested in fun, are you? Cause I don't know about you, but to me, sending someone to do all your dirty work for you doesn't exactly sound fun. It's efficient, though – and that's the sort of impression I've always gotten from you. You're the kind of person who does anything to achieve a goal, aren't you?

"Only you're not doing that here." He said nothing, so I just kept talking. "And frankly, here, more than anywhere, you should logically be going for the quick kill. You hate me way too much to give me a fighting chance just for the sake of being fair. And yet you did."

Par frowned. He still said nothing, though. "You don't really want to kill me, do you?" I asked. "Or even if you do… you can't kill me, can you? Not that easily. You're not a killer. You want to be one, so you make a token effort and tell yourself that you're really trying. But somewhere deep within you, there's still something inside you that stops you from actually trying your hardest to kill me, that makes you afraid of killing someone. A little remaining bit of conscience, or maybe just instinct, but whatever it is, it doesn't matter. You think you want to kill me… but you don't really, do you?"

For a moment or two, Par just stared at me. "Interesting theory," he said, finally. "But have you forgotten about the previous timeline already?"

I snorted. "Oh, yes. I suppose you killed me back then. Because you knew it wouldn't matter."

"And so what?" he asked. "If you're saying there's some psychological block inside me that stops me from killing, why would it care-"

"Tell me, Par," I said, cutting him off. "Back then, how much convincing yourself did you have to do?"

He stopped short, staring blankly at me. That was when I really knew, for the first time, that I was right.

"You know, what you're saying can't be true. There's no psychological block," he finally said, calmly. But calm as he might've been, he didn't sound the slightest bit confident. "You yourself are the perfect proof against it."

I paused for a moment, considering how I'd answer that. "Yeah. I was a cold-blooded killer. I killed again and again and again, and I really never did feel anything about it. Because there's something wrong with me. I don't know what it is, and thankfully, whatever it happens to be at least doesn't stop me from being normal when I want to be. But there's something broken inside me." I looked at him firmly. "But you? You're different. There's nothing wrong with you. You want there to be. You want to be a cold-blooded killer. But the fact is your mind's normal, and you think like a normal person. And no normal person would be able to just kill someone and never bat an eye at it."

Par stared at me, breathing quickly, anger in his eyes. I knew he wanted to snap at me. I knew he wanted to tell me I was wrong, to come up with some argument that would prove his view and make me look like a fool. And I knew that he couldn't. He couldn't, because I was right. Even if he didn't want to admit it yet.

Suddenly, in the lull in the fighting, I became aware of something.

A voice from somewhere – a familiar voice, somewhere outside the corridor. I flinched a bit. I'd been so absorbed in the confrontation that I hadn't heard the voice clearly, so I didn't know who it was. But I heard footsteps, footsteps approaching.

That worried me. Someone was coming. I didn't know who, but someone was coming. Either Gaster hadn't been as honest about abandoning Par as I'd thought, or this was where my choice not to tell any of my friends came back to bite me. If one of them came here... it wouldn't be good. I was willing to bet my own life to stop Par, but... not any of theirs.

A familiar monster appeared in the doorway, and my eyes widened. "Ah, here you are," Toriel said.

Sudden fear rose up in me. Her, of all people? No. I didn't want her to die. "Tori, stay back," I said quickly.

"You scared me," she said. "You just disappeared, and you weren't answering your phone…"

"I'm sorry," I said. "Please, leave."

"Why, my child?" she asked. She looked around, saw Par, and blinked in surprise. "Is this…?"

"Yes," I told her, frantically. "Go. Now." I heard Par hissing with fury, his rage still boiling. That scared me more, because even if he wouldn't kill someone in cold blood, who knew what his emotions could push him to do? If he snapped, there was suddenly no guarantee I'd be the one he'd take it out on.

"What's ha-" Toriel asked, surprised and shocked and confused and worried, and then something slammed into me.

The sudden energy that I felt couldn't be mistaken for anything else. It was magic, raw and powerful and deadly magic. Par had lost control, and I'd been distracted. His emotions had clearly made him unable to shape the magic as well as normally – if not for that, I'd have been cut apart – but still…

Toriel's sudden piercing shriek filled my ears as the sudden force took me off my feet and threw me backwards at a lightning-fast speed. Panic rose up within me. If she got angry at Par, if she tried something stupid…

And then my head hit the wall, and everything went dark.