Chapter Six
Soul of Empathy
Author's Note, this is important! There is a trigger warning for this chapter. It might not be as bad as later chapters but it is still bad. You have been warned. Also thank you to all my beautiful readers! It means a lot to even have one view, you're keeping this story alive! Thank you and enjoy! Also I posted this on my phone so it might look weird.
"Undyne put that back in her! What's wrong with you! Shadow didn't do anything wrong! Just look at her soul!" Alphys pointed at the white heart in front of them.
Sans looked at it, just glowing right in front of him, it was blindingly beautiful. He went to cup it in his hands around it and found waves of sadness wash over him. Poor Shadow was feeling so much sadness that her very soul was crying. Sadly that was the curse of the pure white soul of empathy.
"The punk has the soul of empathy…" was all Undyne could mutter out.
Silence filled the room again as everyone stared in awe. Shadow started crawling back to Sans and tried to touch her soul. Sans jerked it away from her, "Don't touch it Shad, that's something you do in private."
Sans' face went blue as he said that, he quickly shoved her soul back into her body. The light faded. Sans went back to holding Shadow. He seemed like he calmed down but Shadow had started hiccuping through her sobbing.
"Why? Why does everyone want to hurt me?" Shadow whimpered out.
Sans rubbed her back slowly in circles, "It's the curse of those with a soul such as yours. The soul of empathy never has an easy life. You'll forever feel the pain of others."
"That's sad", Shadow started, "The soul with the most compassion is the one that has to suffer the most."
"It is", Alphys said, "However, if you want, I could change your soul trait."
"No, it's best for me to stay this way. I wouldn't want to be any other way. It's just sad that this is my fate forever." Shadow sighed and let go of Sans. She stood up and brushed herself off, "I'm sorry for messing things up for everyone. Maybe you were right Sans, I shouldn't have started working here."
With that Shadow untied her apron and ran out, leaving a room of confused "monsters" behind her.
Sans kept coming back to Grillby's everyday after that only to find that Shadow wasn't there. Sans would walk in, Grillby would shake his head, then Sans would leave. At some point Sans realized that she was probably hiding. He knew why, she didn't want anymore riots, but without her they got worse. One day he teleported to her front door. Banging on it harshly.
"Shadow! Shadow get out here, now!" Sans yelled at the door.
"Go away", called a muffled voice on the other side of the door. He could hear the tears in her voice.
"If you don't come out I'm going in."
"Fine, do whatever you want." Shadow called out trying to mask the pain in her voice.
Sans teleported in her house and found the girl curled up at the door. He quickly walked over to her. His arms wrapping around the girl as he picked her up and took her to her room.
"Shad, we need you", Sans said his voice becoming soft as he brushed her hair out of her face.
"Why? All I cause is pain to others", Shadow responded her voice sounding hoarse from all the crying.
Sans pulled her soul out of her chest only to find it with a few cracks in it, it wasn't even glowing. Sans looked at her arms and shuddered at what he saw.
"You didn't…"
"I needed silence, my head wouldn't shut up. That was the only way to obtain peace of mind." Shadow said rubbing the cat scratch like cuts on her arms. None of them were deep but there were a lot of them. Looking at her night stand he stared at the knife she was using. He didn't know why but seeing that she did this to herself hurt him. He cupped her soul in his hands and held it close to him, a light blue color radiated from his left eye.
When he let it go the cracks were healed and so were the marks on her arms, "Don't do that again Shad."
"Four years", Shadow muttered, tears in her eyes again. "I went four years without cutting. It was back when I graduated from high school. I cut people out of my life. I stopped talking to anyone. Simply worked and went to school. It was lonely but it was safe. I was safe. No more racing thoughts, just work and school. I was fine for four years, and now its all gone, it's gone and all I hear is the constant echoing of what I've done to you guys. My friends that I love and care about."
"Shad… I didn't know you had...", Sans paused, "This problem. You seemed so happy all the time."
"I can feel others feelings, I have the soul of empathy, I was cursed with this my whole life. Feeling your sadness on top of my own was too much for me. You were in so much pain, you're still in a lot of pain, and its getting worse with each second. I can feel it Sans. At some point I felt like I felt something else from you. I don't know what it was but it's gone and now all I feel is sadness", Shadow looked at him with sad eyes.
Sans pulled her into him, "Hey, we need you. Everything started getting worse when you left. Monsters and humans are so close to starting another war. I don't want to fight, I can't do anymore killing. I can't stand the thought of having to kill you."
"Need me? But I made everything worse." Shadow limply sat there in Sans' arms.
"No you stopped everyone from fighting. A monster was killed the other day. We need your help, they want to kill each other and we need to stop it."
"Who died?" Shadow asked.
"Monster Kid did, he was alone after school and some asshole high schoolers reduced him to dust. They're in jail now but this needs to stop." Sans frowned at Shadow, "Please help us?"
Shadow breathed in shakily, then let out a long breath. She looked into Sans' eyes trying to find something. He wasn't sure what she was looking for but it seemed she found it. She leaned into him and kissed his cheek, "I'll go, but I hope you can return the favor to me one day. I'm only leaving because you asked me too. I'd rather stay here away from the world."
"I'll do anything", was his only response. He got up from Shadow's bed and helped her up. "Go get dressed."
She nodded and ran off. Sans found himself waiting an hour till Shadow stepped out of the bathroom. Her hair was brushed and styled, she was nicely dressed. Sans could hardly tell that she was depressed earlier. Soon he found himself staring at her arms. The regret was instant. He saw old scars. They were light markings, but scars nonetheless. Shadow grabbed Sans' hand and waited expectantly.
Sans teleported them to Grillby's. There was a huge riot, on one side there were monsters that were being lead by Undyne, on the other was led by the man that called Shadow a traitor. Shadow's eyes widened as she sprinted away from Sans and into the middle of the fighting ground. Both sides were staring her down.
"Don't try to stop us punk. They killed Monster Kid. They've crossed a line!" Undyne shouted with rage.
"Humans murder humans too! We don't start small wars because of that! I'm disappointed in both sides. Look what you've all been reduced too! You're all monsters. All of you, even the humans. You're willing to kill each other because they're a little different? I could never understand this world. All we have is endless rage and hate. It hurts to see and feel. You know humans have racism between each other because of the color of their skin? This shall pass just like it did for them. In the end it's not important what we look like. All that matters is who we are inside. They might be made up of magic but that doesn't mean we should hate them. I never saw them as monsters. I saw them as people. Why can't you see that too?" Shadow ended her speech and she looked out into the sea of people. The "monsters" looked ashamed and the humans looked more pissed off.
"Fucking monster fucker!"
"You're a traitor of your own kind!"
"Let's kill her and teach these skum a lesson!"
Shadows eyes widen as the mob of humans ran at her, "Everyone get inside. Call the police! Quick!"
All the 'monsters' ran into Grillby's and locked the door leaving Shadow alone with the humans. She spread her arms out as if to block them from the door. Soon one ran at her with a knife. Right about it was going to stab her Sans appeared in front of her. She stared in shock as Sans fell to the ground, knife sticking out of his chest. Shadow was hoping it didn't hit anything vital. She quickly covered Sans with her body trying to protect him from any more harm. Right when someone was about to stab her a wall of fire surrounded the two as Grillby walked out the door. He didn't look happy. The look of pure rage on his face told Shadow that these humans were about to have a bad time. Before Grillby could do anything to them the police arrived. It was a whole swat team, all the humans were rounded up. They were swearing and fighting to be let free. Shadow could hear a police officer talk to Grillby.
"They said your people were chickens. That they decided not to fight the humans at the last second because of some girl. Is that true?"
"Yes, that was my employee Shadow", he snapped his fingers and the fire surrounding Sans and Shadow vanished, "We made sure she was safe. She is our angel after all."
Shadow's eyes widened but quickly resumed looking at Sans. He was breathing but he was far more pale than before, "Grillby! Help Sans please!"
Tears started falling from her eyes as she held onto Sans refusing to move away. Papyrus came out of Grillby's and stared at his brother.
"Shadow", his voice was quiet for the first time, "please move aside. I can fix him."
Shadow moved enough for Papyrus to have good access to where the knife is. Shadow's hand was squeezing Sans' as she watched Papyrus pull out the knife. Sans moaned in pain and his eyes opened a little. Just enough for him to know Shadow and Papyrus were there. Papyrus quickly started working, pulling Sans' soul from his chest. The soul was a sky blue color, it shined dully and was covered in cracks. Papyrus cupped his soul and it was surrounded with a bright orange light. Shadow watched the cracks slowly fade to nothing, his chest wound was gone as well. Papyrus carely pushed Sans' soul back into his chest and let Sans sit up. Right when Sans managed to sit Shadow had thrown herself at him.
"That should have been me, not you! I can't stand the idea of you getting hurt for me! I can't stand the idea of you even getting hurt!" Shadow cried and hit his chest repeatedly.
Sans' rubbed her back and spoke gently to her, "There was a legend in the underground. It was about how an angel would make it go empty. I saw it was in that game of yours too. There was just one difference, the color of the soul was a white one, not red. You have a rare soul color. You might have not made the underground empty, but you're keeping it empty. We can't let our angel of light die."
Shadow stared at him, her eyes still watering but the tears had stopped. A small nod was all she could give him as she wrapped her arms around him, "I know the favor I want in return for this…"
"Already? What is it?" Sans asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't leave me, ever."
Shadow looked into his eyes and he could see how serious she was, "I promise I won't."
The rest of the day was giving statements and new crews. Shadow ended up being the Frisk everyone needed. She ended up on T.V. a number of times in one day. All her friends claiming she was the savior of the monsters, the angel they were looking for. The news crew kept asking her how she felt about it. Every time Shadow would answer with a, "I don't know yet."
A few weeks past since that day. Sans and Papyrus decided that Shadow living alone was a bad idea after what had happened. So they slowly started moving her to their house. Shadow was against it at first but that cheeky asshole Sans kept telling her that she made him promise not to leave her and this was the best way for that. Shadow ended up staying on their couch and her things were in various places around the house. One of their other friends offered to take her in, her name was Toriel or something, but since Shadow didn't know them she declined.
Shadow went back to work like normal and everything seemed quiet. Like the storm had passed. Humans seemed to be treating people much nicer now than ever.
One day after work before Shadow was picked up by Sans a handsome young man walked up to her.
"Hey miss? I seemed to have lost something." The man stated with a large smile.
"Oh, what did you lose? I might be able to help." Shadow innocently replied.
"It's my number, think I could have yours?"
Shadow giggled at the man and held out her phone, "Yes, you may have my number. Try not to lose this one huh?"
"I won't, that's a promise. My name is Markus by the way." He said, his hair was like a whirlwind of blonde, brown and black. He had crystal blue eyes and a friendly smile on his face.
Sans managed to teleport in right when the guy was handing Shadow back her phone. Sans glared at the guy and got in front of Shadow, "And just who are you?"
"Just a new friend. Who are you? Her boyfriend?" Markus smirked at Sans.
"Well no, I'm her room mate…" Sans went quiet realizing he had no right to barge into that conversation.