( Disclaimer: I still didn't make undertale or glitchtale, and no amount of these disclaimers can change that, they were made by Toby Fox and Camila Cuevas respectively, if you haven't watched or played them please go do that)

ChaosPheory #9

The One Where Betty Lets Out Her Feelings

Zack had nothing to do, which wasn't unusual for him. Most of his days were filled with endless hours of staring into space thinking about almost nothing at all. Except when they took him to the whyte room and started performing tests on him, most were kinda painful, and the rest were really painful. Then they would put him back in his room with nothing to do, nothing to say, and no one to talk to. Stuck in a very empty, lonely world, but despite all this, he believed. Despite having no indication, no evidence he had FAITH that there was something outside the emptiness, and with this FAITH he began to grow. He had very little light of his own, so he began to see, and sometimes borrow, the light of others.

It didn't help him much. James McBean's and Helen Hanover's lights were dim, and Brett Donahue always kept him pent up inside him, but it still was a something to fill up his nothing, even if it was just thought about how useless he was.

Then Betty came, and she was different. She didn't have much light inside her, at least not at first, but as soon as she woke up she started filling up with it. It wasn't a kind light, like the one that Helen had when she thought about her kids, it fact it was the opposite, an unkind, harmful light. This wasn't surprising to Zack, he had seen his fair share of unkind lights from James and Brett, but this one wasn't like that, it wasn't an inward dark place pouring out, but an outside force pouring in

Also, it was pink, that was weird

A colored light wasn't new, Brett's light was a yellow color whenever he saw it and Helen's was a dim green, but pink didn't seem natural. Zack wondered if she was sick or something.

She wasn't rude or unkind… to Zack, but with those levels of violent light she should've attacked him by now, and yet she still managed to look harmless and innocent. He was intrigued.

Then she got shot by Brett, and her light looked less violent, but at the same time pinker. Not enough to be her SOUL trait, but enough to see a visible difference from the gray outer SOUL. Brett literally threw her back in the room. Zack expected her to get up, maybe bang on the door a bit, and get back into bed, but she didn't move. He didn't understand, this was like her to do nothing like this, why wasn't she moving. why were her eyes wet. It was so... Unnerving to see a person that was such a big part of your life threatened in such a manner. He was worried.

Then Frisk came and offered to show them the outside that Zack believed in for so long. His heart raced everything he had hoped for was going to come true (just as soon as he could get Frisk and Betty to stop fighting). He was excited.

Then Betty asked to be his friend. His heart speed up like the time was excited, but this time he wasn't hyper or anxious, it was kinda like eating, it filled him up. He was happy. He liked being happy.

Now he was stuck in a shed with almost as little to do as when he was stuck in his room, but now, after he had felt and lived through so much, this monotonous idleness was very uncomfortable. He was bored.

He got up and rubbed a cramp in his neck, he was beginning to understand why people slept in beds a lot. Betty wasn't awake yet, and that was fine. As her friend, he thought it would be better if he just let her sleep, especially after what she told him last night. When he did have the dream of the red-eyed man, he found that sleep was very hard to come by, so every little wink of rest was needed. He stretched, stood up, and looked around the room. Whoever organized this place didn't do a good job, he noticed. Most of the thing were stacked in on a shelf in a weird way if someone walked into them accidentally it could easily topple on top of them.

Then he noticed a light in the corner of his eye, a red light, Frisk's light, coming from behind the door, and coming closer. However something was wrong, Frisk's light seemed… angry,

'Maybe I should wake up Betty' Zack thought.

He walked over to her and shook her gently, "Betty… Betty" he whispered.

She stirred a bit, "shut up Zack"

"Frisk is here and I don't think they're too happy"

She sighed, "alright I'm up" she sat up, her brown hair all messed up and frizzy, making Zack chuckle, "what are you looking at?"

"Nothing" he smiled as she tried to pat it down flat.

Frisk walked in, a somber look on their face, staring intently at Betty,

"So Frisk, did you do anything useful," asked Betty.

Frisk took another step closer, their light reflecting their anger, "nope, but I saw what you did" they said through clenched teeth,

Betty's face turned to that of confusion "What are you talking about"

"Did you think I wouldn't notice my friend getting killed!" they half screamed, their anger now visible on the outside, "I don't really know why I didn't see this coming, but that doesn't matter anymore. I'm sending you back to the E.L.O.D, and this time you're never coming out,"

Betty Backed up, shocked by what she was hearing, "what, I… I didn't do anything, I've been here since you left me here"

"NO! I'm not going to be tricked by you again. Now you can come quietly, or…" their light began to flow through their body and out their hands, forming their red sword and shield, "we can have a rematch,"

Betty's light was growing pinker by the second, Frisk was drawing closer, trying to strike them down, trying to take them back to the empty world which the tried so hard to escape, but first, they were going to hurt Betty. No, he couldn't let them, Betty was his friend, he couldn't let them take her, let them take either of them. He had to stop them. He opened his SOUL, letting Frisk's light flood in then, with Frisk's light, he formed his own sword and shield.

Frisk swung, but Zack ran in between them and Betty, blocking it with his shield.

"Fine, I can take both of you at…" Betty cut them off by running into them at full speed, knocking them into the shelf of props. It began to wobble. Zack and Betty backed out of the way, but Frisk wasn't quick enough. The shelf fell on top of them, burying them in the props.

"We have to go!" Betty said,

"But what about Frisk?" Zack asked

"What about them, they tried to take us back, and if we help them they will. Besides, that shelf isn't that heavy I'm sure they're fine. Now let's go" and she ran for the door.

Zack still checked if the were ok, but Betty was right. Underneath the fallen shelf Frisk's red light still shown, but much angrier than before. However, that wasn't the only SOUL he saw, just outside the door Betty was running to he saw two more SOULs, one of which he recognized as the yellow SOUL of Brett Donahue,

"Betty! Look out!" he yelled, but it was too late. Betty was already outside, and one of the SOULs outside cast a spell with a greenish light on her. He ran outside to see Betty trapped between Brett and a… blue fish lady with red hair and an eyepatch? He didn't have time to question it, just then the fish lady leveled a spear at Betty,

"Ha! Didn't expect to see me again so soon did you punk, now finish her off partner"

Brett smiled and cocked his gun, "with pleasure. Stun Bullet, Vision Shot"

"You know you don't have to say your attacks before you use them right?"

"Hey, you're the one who got me into anime, it's your fault I'm like this"

"Just shoot her already"

He leveled his gun and pulled the trigger, but the bullet didn't connect, Zack jumped in the way just in time and blocked it with his shield,

"What the…" the fish lady took a step back, then looked at Brett, "I thought your bullets couldn't be blocked by magic!" She yelled

"They can't" Brett responded, "but I've seen this kid do this kinda thing before, ho doesn't just copy a weapon or attack, he improves on it, with my gun he was able to attack twice in one turn"

The fish lady smiled, "well that makes things more interesting doesn't it" She leveled her spear at him, but it wasn't just one spear, using her light tens of spears had appeared from thin air and pointed themselves at Zack. he braced himself, dodged and blocking as best he could, but even still managed to make a noticeable large cut in his leg. Brett aimed at him, he turned to block it, but in doing so he let another spear cut his back.

Then he noticed Betty. Her light was so pink, and getting pinker every time he got attacked. She was shaking more and more the pinker she got, and then, once the pink had taken over her entire, Zack realized what pink meant. It was FEAR, this horrible trait that had taken over his friend was her own terror. She was now made of FEAR, and she had more than enough to share.

The fish lady began to make more spears, but before she could use them Betty looked her in the eye, sending some pink FEAR her way. The fish lady eyes turned pink as her spears dropped to the ground and faded, she began to shake like Betty did not much earlier,

"Al… Alphyus" she whimpered

"Captain" Brett ran over to her, "Captain, snap out of it, it isn't real" he yelled, but Betty had already made her move. Using her now fully pink SOUL she formed a long, straight, and very sharp pike, and leveled it at the dazed fish lady. She was about to throw it when Zack noticed that it would kill this fish lady, it would snuff out her light, and as much as Zack didn't like this person for trying to hurt Betty, he couldn't let someone take away her light.

"No!" he yelled.

Startled by Zack's cry Betty missed and let her spell on the fish lady fade. He reaction was instant, with a SOUl full of angry light she fired another green attack, which Zack, just as quickly, ran in front of,

"Why you brats! I'm gonna kill you both!" she screamed, forming more spears, but this time Zack was prepared, getting some reflexes from Frisk's light he managed to block every one of them. Brett also tried to shoot him but he blocked that oo, and once the bombardment was over he looked to Brett. Taking in all the light he could get from him he created a gun almost identical to his,

"Stun Bullet, Double Shot," he said, loading, aiming, and firing twice in one swift motion, once at Brett and again at the fish lady, stunning them both

"Great, now let's get away from here" Betty called, but she had forgotten one thing. Zack was still the green attack, he couldn't move.

"We may have a problem"

Betty looked at him, eyes wide, "what are we going to do?"

There was only one thing they could do, Zack realized, everything else leads to them being captured or worse, "you're going to have to leave me behind

Betty could only shake her head, "you know I'm not going to do that."

"Don't worry, I'll catch up to you, this thing can't last forever" Zack tried to reassure her, but she only shook her head more,

"You don't understand I…" she looked to the ground, "this feeling, it's stronger than ever if I leave it'll grow to the point where… I could hurt you"

but he did understand. The pink light growing inside her, it was FEAR, and it grew when she was scared, when she was being her she was scared, when she was having nightmare she was scared, but mostly she was scared of being empty, as he was. They kept each other's lives full, right now loneliness and emptiness would be one and the same, and that scared her. He gave her his best smile, not stolen from anyone, but from his heart, as best he could,

"Don't worry, you're not going to hurt me, you're not going to hurt anyone. We're going to get out of this, and when we do" he tried to look her in the eyes, "we're going to undo what they did to us"

Her eyes were wet again, like when Brett shot her, "you don't know that, you don't know any of that"

He still smiled, he knew what needs right now, "no, I don't" he didn't know why, but now his eyes were wet too, "but I have FAITH in you, now please have FAITH in me. I'm going to make it and you' not going to hurt anyone, ok?" he extended his hand, and after considering it for some time, she shook it.

She turned and left, stopping at one point to get the last word, but couldn't find anything to say. Zack watched her go, now all he need to do was survive, which shouldn't be too hard up against two stunned agents and a kid buried under a prop table, but became less hopeful as he heard a click from behind him,

"You know that was really touching" he spun around to see Brett off the ground with a white device in his hand,

'A stun remover' Zack thought back to the time when he stole one from him before,

"You might actually have something in you worth saving" he continued "but orders are orders"

He heard another click and looked to see the fish lady with her own stun remover, and by Zack's ten taboos worth luck, the door of the shack swung open to reveal that Frisk had crawled out of the pile of props. He was surrounded. Frisk formed their sword, fish lady formed her spears, and Brett formed his gun,

"Lights out," he said, and he pulled the trigger

However, in a movement faster than lightning the bullet was caught in midair, in between the index and middle fingers of a man who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He wore a gray coat over a yellow button up shirt, with untidy hair of many bright colors, and the light coming from his yellow SOUL was almost overwhelming. It was the same man from last night he noticed, on one else could have a SOUL that strong, with so many emotions in it, some good some bad, that it was almost impossible to tell what he was really feeling,

"Sorry I'm late, had to go chase around old burnt-face for a bit." he looked down at Zack, "hey, wait a minute, where's Betty"

Zack shrugged, "she ran off"

"Um, sir, you do realize you are interfering in the duty of E.L.O.D agents" Brett tried to but in,

"Now that a shame" the man ignored him, "now I have to track her down again"

"Hey, didn't you hear him punk, we're agent," the fish lady tried, but the man still paid her no heed,

"And this time I have to do it before anyone else does"

"Which means we can beat up anyone who tries to get in the way"

The man still ignored her bending down to one knee to look in in the eyes, so kid, are you up to help me?"

"Um sir, I don't think you understand" Frisk piped up,

"No, you don't understand. I just caught a bullet. Clearly, I'm not some whose conversation you should be interrupting"

The fish lady stared at him, her face turning as red as her hair, "you wanna go punk"

The man rolled his eyes, "honey, I only deal with professionals"

"Oh, this guy is so asking for it," Brett said as his trigger finger twitched

The man chuckled a bit and looked to Zack, "hold on a bit. I just gotta take care of the goons" he turned to face the spears, swords, and bullets of his opponents, "now here's a pointer for you three, saying the name of the attack is fine if and only if" he made a gun shape with his hand, the bullet still between his fingers, "like so" he aimed at Brett, "Stun Bullet, Chain Shot" and the bullet left his hand, propelled by magic at Brett, hitting him dead center, then it ricocheted off of Brett and onto the fish lady, and from her into Frisk,

The man laughed, then he sang, "and that what I call ballin da jack. Haha, it'll take more than a stun remover to get up this time" and he turned back to Zack, "so where were we on Betty"

Zack closed his then gaping mouth, "um, er, you asked me to help"

"Oh, that's right, so will you?"

"Of course, she's my friend"

The man looked at him strangely, "you need better friends, but ok. If I'm guessing right she'll try and stay away from people so we should…" his eyes lost focus for a minute, then came back, "Dang it Jessica, you're an idiot. Ok change of plans" he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a cell phone, "you're doing this alone, that phone has my number on it, call me as soon as you find her," he handed him the phone, "and one more thing" he reached into another pocket and pulled out a pastry of some sort, "this will heal you, but only once, so use it carefully, I'll join you as soon as I can. Now find her before anyone else does" and he left.

Zack grabbed as much light as he could get from Frisk, Brett, and the fish lady before he left.

He was filled with JUSTICE, DETERMINATION, and FAITH, and he knew he would succeed

: sorry for being really late, finals week hit me like a brick, no make that 14... trucks... of bricks. That's how finals week hit me. anyway, Zack's a character now, and weaker red herrings (there will never be enough weak red herrings). so tired of school right now, next one will probably be late too, sorry what can I say I'm behind. Please Please Please review and I promise I'll get to that as soon as my brain starts working right again