"You freak of nature, you shouldn't even exist!"

"Dark abominations like yourself don't deserve to live in the light!"

"You wanna know what would be better for everyone? IF YOU WERE DEAD!"

Tenebris clutched his head, many hateful voices telling him he shouldn't exist. "N-no... please stop, I... I didn't have a choice. I never had a choice!"

"Since when did you think anything's not your fault?" He sees the ghastly faces of his parents, both crying black ooze. "You're the one who decided to go out that day. You're the one who was so easily deceived by those people!"

"H-how was I s-supposed to-"

"And to top it all off, you left behind everything we left for you. Everything we owned; it was worthless to you in the end." They suddenly got closer, angry looks behind their blackened eyes. "Why? Why did you leave all of it behind? Why did you leave US behind?" Tenebris tried to respond, but his voice was drowned by the increasing volume of their questions. "And why, why did you leave all of our memories behind?! Are we that unimportant to you now? That you would leave everything behind just to find a new parent? Are we that replaceable?!"


Tenebris woke up with a garbled scream that didn't alert anyone else in the household, his left eye burning even more. He brought both of his knees to his chest and wept, everything telling him that his existence is pointless; just another waste of space. The memories of his parents cursing him for leaving everything they left him behind.

Both Selendis and Frisk opted to sleep in Toriel's bed together while Tenebris got the double bed in the adjacent room. Toriel stated that she was fine sleeping on the reclining chair in the living room.

After Tenebris recovered from his crying fit and his bout with the point of his continued existence, he found her there still away and reading. "Hello, my child. Up already?"

He slowly nodded, the burning in his left eye still harsh to the point of almost breaking his straight face. "Mrs. Toriel. I... I know you said you were going to take care of us... but how... how do I get home... how do I get out of the ruins?"

She sat there in a stunned silence for a bit before blinking slowly. "... There's something I need to do. Please wait here." She quickly got up and went downstairs. She had been insistent about not letting any of them near the stairs at all and the humans figured it was for good reason. Now Tenebris was suspicious and followed her down the stairs.

When he caught up with her, she seemed to notice. "You wish to know how to return "home," do you not? Well... ahead lies the one-way exit of the ruins and into the rest of the underground." She paused for a second. "I'm going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again. Now be a good boy and go back upstairs."

She took off again before Tenebris could even respond. He bit down his resentment and continued to follow her, much to her chagrin when he caught up. "Look Toriel, it's about-"

"Every human that falls down here... meets the same fate." This caught him off guard and what he was going to say got stuck in his throat. "I've seen it... so many times. They come... They leave... they... die... you naive teenager. If you leave this place, Asgore will kill you. I'm only trying to protect you by doing this... just go to your room." She takes off again.

Tenebris was suddenly not too keen about leaving now, but the back of his mind kept telling him that even if he dies, nothing will change anyways. It was either attempt to leave the Underground and find a memento of his parents or spend his entire existence suffering from reignited depression that'll only get worse. He needed something to assure his demons that he did not simply "replace" his parents. He steeled what little resolve he was able to muster and continued to follow her, opting to try and reason with her when they reached the end.

When he approached Toriel again she sighed. "Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning." She walks off again and he followed her to the door of the ruins. "So... you want to leave that badly?"

Tenebris found his voice. "Look, Toriel, I greatly appreciate the fact that you were willing to take all three of us in on such short notice, even going so far as to adopt all of us. But... I need to go back. To, at the very least, obtain a memento of my parents to bring back, otherwise I'll never find peace here."

She turned around with a surprised look on her face. "You... intend on returning?"

He nods. "I do. I just... it's nothing against you, Mrs. Toriel, but my conscious won't be able to handle living down here without some form of release. All I ask... please let me go. I... I don't intend to drag the sisters into this."

She lets out a sigh before giving him a reluctant look. "Even with that... You're just like the rest. I understand that this is important to you, but I need to make one thing certain." She closes her eyes before giving him a determined look. "Prove to me you're strong enough to survive."

Tenebris recoiled when the room grew dark, just like his encounter with Flowey. Toriel turned completely monotone including her clothes. He winced once again as his soul emerged once again and the burning in his eye intensified again. "W-wait, I don't w-want to fight you!"

Toriel hesitated for a second, taken aback by the color of his soul and how it was... twitching. She recomposed herself and summoned up her flames. "This is the only way you can prove yourself to me. Now fight or flee!"

He did nothing, not wanting to hurt the one who was so kind to him and his friends, even seriously considering to flee like she said. Toriel noticed his reluctance and decided to throw a few fireballs to make him make up his mind. He caught on and dodged them, but his eye was distracting him immensely.

It continued like that for a bit, with Toriel attacking after a period of inaction from Tenebris. She began to get worried when he started showing inconsistencies; his soul was jerking around more than it was floating and he started clutching his eye patch. "What are you doing? Attack or run away!" This caught him off guard and one of her fireballs hit his soul, causing him to cry out in pain and said soul started twitching erratically.

It was almost like he was struggling to maintain control. Toriel wanted to start holding back even more, but gasped as she noticed one of her fireballs heading right for him. Tenebris noticed the attack and tried to move, but was too late. It collided with his eye.

In a fit of extreme agony, he ripped off his eye patch and Toriel froze when she saw what was underneath. The moment the attack hit the eye and the eye patch came off, it started spewing a lot of dark mist from the corner of his eye and there was a bright purple glow coming from it, light practically shooting out of it. The dark mist wrapped around the struggling boy as he cried out in agony. "T-Toriel. R-run, s-save yourself! H-hurry, before I... before I kill you!"

Toriel stood stunned for a few moments longer, watching in shock as his soul cracked and started leaking a dark liquid, the mist pouring from his eye intensifying. She snapped out of it when tall, shadowy spikes started popping in and out of the floor, walls, and ceiling and rushed towards him. He recoiled when he saw her rapidly approaching. "N-no, don't! I'm not worth it, just-!"

She managed to embrace him, noticing that he was starting to cry. "My child, please calm down. I'm not going to leave you like this. Not now, never."

When she started touching him, she immediately saw the heart of the problem. Tenebris had somehow managed to develop his own magic, shadow magic no less, and it was currently out of control, like it was recently and forcefully used. Using her own magic, she was able to start calming his magic down while whispering comforting words in his ear.

Tenebris began to calm down from her hug and words, crying softly. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

"It's okay. It's not your fault, my child."

It stayed like that until Toriel was able to completely stabilize Tenebris' magic, partially amazed that said magic hadn't actually corrupted him. But she was disappointed in herself; under all of the bad jokes and the lovable, nonchalant attitude, he was suffering. Despite having friends, despite having her as a potential foster mother...

He was suffering all alone and she hated herself for not noticing sooner. I'm no better than Asgore...

Toriel looked back at Tenebris with a worried look. Now that his magic was as stabilized as she could get it, the dark mist coming out of his left eye was greatly lessened, but still there. The sclera of the eye was pitch-black and the iris was completely purple with a slight glow.

"But... why?" Toriel gives him a confused look. "Why didn't you get away? I could of... I could of..." He started crying again.

She pats him on the head. "I knew you wouldn't. I couldn't just leave you here to suffer like that. Nobody deserves to suffer like that."

"But... but I'm... not worth it..."

She gives him a look, noticing that the tears coming out of his left eye were dark purple as well. "Don't say that. Nobody is worthless, especially not you, Tenebris. Would the sisters upstairs care about you so much if you were worthless?" He merely responded with a sob. "Please don't think like that about yourself, okay? You're a good person and you should be proud of it."

"T...thank you... m-mom..." Toriel's heart fluttered and sunk at the same time.

They stayed like that for a bit longer until Tenebris pulled away with a soft smile, looking far less pained than when he first woke up. "Are you alright now, my child?"

"Y-yeah..." He walked over to pick up his eye patch, intending on putting it back on.

Toriel caught on and put her hand on his. "Tell me, do you intend on hiding your eye from everyone else?" When he nodded sadly she asked, "Why?"

"Won't... everyone just see me as a freak?"

She sighs. "Tell me: do you think the sisters will think any less of you if you showed, and told, them about your secret?" When he didn't respond she sighed. "Tenebris, let them in. You shouldn't have to suffer alone on this. I know for a fact that those two care for you more than you may know. Frisk wouldn't call you by her nickname for you if she didn't and Selendis wouldn't put up with your bad jokes." Despite the fact that there was nobody else around, she whispers, "I think she actually enjoys them. She just has her own way of reacting to them."

This got a small but pure laugh out of Tenebris. "I guess. Then... should I?"

"Wait till they wake up. They would probably react best if they got good sleep beforehand."

He thought of something. "What about my attempt to leave? are you still going to-"

"I've thought about that and I've decided that you are indeed strong enough to leave; your magic power is proof of this. However, I'll let you go on the conditions that you let your friends know about your secret and you let me teach you the bare basics of magic manipulation." When Toriel saw Tenebris' confused look, she elaborated, "your magic was out of control from being forced, hence why I wish to teach you the basics. I'm no master of manipulating magic through an eye, but I can teach you enough so that you can keep your magic regulated and under control."

"Alright... when do we..?"

"Let's get some rest first. No use explaining and learning without sleep." Tenebris nodded and headed back upstairs with Toriel, hoping he wouldn't have nightmares again.