Selendis spent a little longer to sort out her feelings under the pre-tense of trying to find her legs again. Tenebris was understanding, but Frisk knew that her sister was already fine that way; she was fine the moment Tenebris kissed her on the head reassuringly. When he went ahead a little bit to see if there was anything waiting for them in the next room, Frisk gave her sister a knowing smile. "So how do you feel about him?"

Selendis stuttered a bit in embarrassment. "W-what are you talking about, Frisk?"

"You know what I'm talking about. I can tell you've been fine for a while, you just don't want to move yet because of certain feelings that you now have."

Selendis went completely red and looked away. "I-I have no idea what you're talking about."

Frisk giggled. "Come on, Selly. I know you like him a lot more now, especially after he carried you through that ordeal and reassured you the way he did."

"I… I…" Selendis sighed. "I… guess I can't get that past you. B-but can you not tell him? I-I don't think he likes me in that way anyways. Besides… I-I'm not ready to admit such feelings!" Frisk sighed, but nodded. Now she's keeping silent for the both of them. However, she didn't want to be the one to bring them together; it would cheapen the feeling if someone played match-maker. She felt it would be much better, and a lot cuter, if the two found out about each other's feelings themselves.

"I've looked ahead and, unless Mettaton smartened up and stopped using dark rooms to blind-side us, I think we're in the clear."

Selendis squeaked as Tenebris suddenly spoke. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, which earned her an odd look from him. "O-okay. I should be fine now."

He shrugged as Frisk tried to hold back giggles at how awkward her sister was acting. "If you're certain."

When they got to the next room, it was still lit up like Tenebris said. What they didn't expect was for Mettaton to suddenly say, "OH, THOSE HUMANS…" When they looked up, they saw him up on a patio wearing a dress. "COULD ONE OF THEM BE... MY ONE TRUE LOVE?"

Frisk shook her head and whispered, "So we've been in a cooking show and a news cast already. Now we're in a play."

Tenebris sighed. "Be still, my beating heart…" Selendis had to refrain from giggling at how sarcastic he sounded.

When Mettaton started going down the stairs, each step he went down resulted in a large 'thud'. He seemed oblivious to it as the humans gave him bewildered and awkward looks; it was so out of place in what was supposedly a serious scene. So much so that both Tenebris and Selendis completely forgot that they wanted to punch his literal lights out.

What threw all three of them off even more was the fact that Mettaton started singing for Tenebris, not Selendis. This made Tenebris go from baffled to even more confused and Selendis was trying her best not to let it get to her; not even a full hour after she realized her feelings for Tenebris and someone was ALREADY hitting on him, albeit it was a very flamboyant robot. Frisk eyed Selendis throughout the entire ordeal. She could tell her sister was getting worked up over it.

After Mettaton finished singing, he actually put a hand on Tenebris' head, much to his displeasure. "SO SAD… SO SAD THAT YOU'RE GOING TO THE DUNGEON WITH YOUR FRIENDS." He quickly pressed a button, making all of the humans fall down a hole. "WELL, TOODLES!"

Tenebris grabbed Frisk and Selendis and managed to cast the movement-slowing darkness to slow their decent so that it wasn't painful. Selendis had to start fighting back another blush, which was helped by Mettaton flying down as well. "OH NO! WHATEVER SHALL I DO? MY LOVE AND HIS FRIENDS HAVE BEEN CAST AWAY INTO THE DUNGEON. A DUNGEON WITH A PUZZLE SO DASTARDLY, MY PARAMOUR WILL SURELY PERISH!"

Frisk looked over and saw something they haven't seen since Snowdin. "Wait, the colored tile puzzle? I thought it wasn't working!"

"OH, SO YOU DO KNOW ABOUT IT! THEN THAT MEANS YOU KNOW ALL THE RULES, DON'T YOU?"

Tenebris slowly grew a horrified look. "I don't… remember…"

This prompted a facepalm from Selendis. "Seriously? I know it's been a few days, but it hasn't been THAT long!"

"Ex-CUSE me for not having the best memory for certain things!"

Mettaton let out an impatient cough. "REGARDLESS OF IF YOU REMEMBER THEM OR NOT, I WON'T WASTE TIME REPEATING THEM! HOWEVER, YOU'D BETTER HURRY WHEN YOU START. IF NONE OF YOU GET THROUGH IN THIRTY SECONDS…" A wall of fire suddenly appeared behind the humans, prompting them to scoot away in surprise. "YOU'LL BE INCINERATED!" Mettaton let out a laugh that sounded pretty forced. "MY POOR LOVE AND HIS FRIENDS! I'M SO FILLED WITH GRIEF, I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING! GOOD LUCK, DARLINGS!"

The timer suddenly started and the humans, reluctantly, attempted the puzzle. It wasn't going over well for them; Tenebris kept getting electrocuted, Frisk kept forgetting about the purple tiles and constantly got bit by piranhas. Selendis seemed to have the best run, only getting shocked by water once.

Right when time was about to run out, Frisk saw the path they were supposed to take, which made her feel despondent over not figuring it out sooner. Mettaton didn't help her case. "OOOOH, I'M SORRY! LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE OUT OF TIME!" The walls of flames started closing in on the humans. "HERE COMES THE FLAMES, DARLINGS! THEY'RE CLOSING IN! GETTING! CLOSER! OH MY! ANY MINUTE NOW!"

The trio quickly realized that, despite the heat from the flames, they weren't in any danger of dying. This made Frisk worry; perhaps Tenebris was right about Alphys playing them for fools, especially to make her look good. This worry was further deepened when the flames stopped and Mettaton let out an impatient cough.

Selendis counted down the time until Alphys called and said, "Watch out! I'll save you! I'm hacking into the firewall right now!" She groaned at the pun, which Tenebris chuckled at. Sure enough, the walls of fire vanished.

"OH NO! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?" Tenebris gave Mettaton an odd look. The robot was clearly growing tired of something, more than likely the charade he was in. "FOILED AGAIN BY THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS!" There was a pregnant pause and Mettaton groaned in irritation. "THA- "

Alphys cut him off. "That's right! Come on, Mettaton, and give up already! You'll never be able to defeat us, not as long as all four of us work together!" Selendis sighed. Alphys almost sounded like she was working off a script. "Your puzzle's over, now go home and leave us alone!"

Mettaton let out an obviously fake gasp. "PUZZLE? OVER? ALPHYS, DARLING, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? DID YOU FORGET WHAT THE GREEN TILES DO? THEY MAKE A SOUND, THEN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER." His voice suddenly got dangerously low. "WELL, DARLING… THAT MONSTER… IS ME!"

Everyone's souls appeared. However, this only made Tenebris grin as he summoned a scythe, eye flared up. "Oh? Does that mean I get explicit permission to beat the ever-living crap out of you?"

Mettaton hummed a bit. "I DON'T THINK SO, DARLING. WHAT WOULD MY VIEWERS SAY IF YOU "BEAT UP" THEIR STAR? I'M SURE THE BACK-LASH WOULD BE AWFUL!" This made Tenebris stop dead in his movements and prompted a worried looked from the sisters. "IF THAT'S ALL THE BRAVADO YOU HAVE, THEN THIS IS IT! SAY GOOD-BYE, DARLINGS!"

Tenebris' growled at the robot. "You wouldn't dare…" He thought of something before saying. "I wonder… you're a robot. Alphys clearly programed a wide variety of emotions into, so let me ask…" His iris disappears again. "Do you feel fear?"

Mettaton shuddered violently as Frisk pulled at Tenebris' shirt. "Tenny! You need to relax; you're getting worked up again!"

"Actually, I'm very calm." Tenebris' iris reappears and he smirks. "I just wanted to see how he reacted." Both the sisters gave him a mix of astonished and… somewhat flat looks.

Mettaton snapped out of it and chuckled a bit while clapping. "Well played, Grim Reaper. Well played."

Tenebris winced a bit. "Okay, you're the third person to call me that. Do I really look like a Grim Reaper?!"

"APPERENCES ARE EVERYTHING, DARLING. I'M SURE MY VIEWERS WILL AGREE. BESIDES, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY ANSWER YOUR PHONE!" Frisk yelped when she realized the phone was still ringing in her hands.

"H-hey! Th-this seems bad, but don't worry!" Alphys' voice rang out awkwardly. "Th-there's one last thing I installed on your phone!" Both of the older humans rolled their eyes like they were expecting it, which Mettaton noted. "You see that yellow button? Press it!"

Frisk pressed it and suddenly her soul moved to have its point facing Mettaton before suddenly turning yellow. This caught all three humans off guard, with Selendis saying, "That's a thing?!"

"Now press Z!"

Frisk did and her soul shot a little yellow projectile every time she pressed it. The shots hit Mettaton, but Tenebris noted that the impact wasn't as… great as made them out to be. His thought process was cut off when Mettaton let out a fake gasp of pain. "OOOH! OOOOOOOOH! YOU'VE DEFEATED ME! HOW CAN THIS BE. YOU WERE STRONGER THAN I THOUGHT, ETC." Mettaton didn't even try to hide his boredom, especially when he flew off saying, "WHATEVER."

Selendis shook her head. "I think Mettaton's growing very… weary of this entire ordeal as well."

Alphys suddenly spoke up over the phone. "L-looks like you beat him! Y-you did a really great job out there."

The two older humans opted to remain silent, but Frisk gave them a defiant look before saying, "All thanks to you!"

She got weird looks as Alphys stuttered. "What? Oh no, I mean… you three were the ones doing everything cool! I just wrote some silly program for your phone." Selendis raised an eyebrow. If making a program that can turn a soul into a projectile-shooter is silly for her, she definitely earned some points.

Alphys was silent for a bit until she said, "Umm, h-hey, this might sound strange, but… c-can I tell you three something? B-before I met any of you, I d-didn't really… I didn't really like myself very much. For a long time, I f-felt like a total screw up. L-like I couldn't do anything w-without… ending up letting everyone down." That hit Tenebris right in the guilt and he felt immensely bad for calling her a traitor.

"B-but… guiding all three of you has made me feel… a lot better about myself. So, thanks for letting me help you." She stayed silent for a bit before awkwardly saying, "Uhh, anyway, we're almost to the Core. It's just past MTT Resort. Come on! Let's finish this!" She ended with a lot more confidence than she ever had before as she hung up.

Tenebris let out a sad sigh. "And to think I called her a traitor… now I feel incredibly bad; she sounded so honest about it as well."

"I told you we shouldn't throw her under the bus!" Frisk stated, happy she was right about Alphys.

Selendis shook her head. "While I still think something's going on, I'm more willing to give her the benefit of the doubt now. Let's just hope it's nothing major."

"Watch it become something major…" Tenebris groaned. Tempting fate seemed to be a thing in this group.

Heading out of the color-tile area, they find the Nice Cream monster and the two royal guards that taught them how to calm down earlier. Much the trio's dismay, there was no more ice cream to be bought as the guards bought it all.

When they continued up the stairs, they found themselves outside of a fancy looking building. Beside the entrance, they saw Sans standing there. "hey."

Tenebris gave him an odd look. "What're you doing here, Sans? You're pretty far from Snowdin."

"eh, i heard you three were going to the core soon, so i decided to see you guys one last time." He shrugs nonchalantly.

Frisk beamed as best as she could at him. "I'm happy you wanted to see us off!"

He chuckles. "what are friends for, am i right? how about grabbing some dinner with me?"

Selendis was about to respond when Frisk let out a loud yawn. "We'd love to, but Frisk might need to go to bed soon. We've had quite the ordeal going through Hotland."

"I do not need to go to be- "Frisk cut herself off with another yawn.

Tenebris shook his head. "Judging by the look of this place, it's a hotel. You girls should go find us a room to stay in. I'll go with Sans; I'm not going to eat anything anyways."

Selendis gave him a very worried look. "Are… you certain?"

Tenebris was about to question her question when he remembered why. "Don't worry, I swear I won't come back half-dead or an emotional wreak."

"Al… alright. If you're confident. I… I'm just worried about what might happen this time…" Sans noted how timid she suddenly was with him and made a mental note to ask Frisk about it later.

"Alright, I'll try and be back as soon as possible… provided I can find which room you're staying at." Frisk giggled before yawning again. Selendis shot him one final worried look before herding her little sister inside. "Alright, Sans. Going to use another "shortcut"?"

He chuckles. "can't get that past you anymore, now can i? yeah, hold on tight." Not even a moment later and the both of them were in some kind of fancy restaurant. "well, here we are." He let out a sigh. "so… your journey's almost over, huh?"

Tenebris nodded. "Y-yeah. We… just have to slip past Asgore somehow and we'll be back on the surface."

"judging by that, you must really wanna go home." Tenebris averted his gaze and Sans instantly knew he was hiding something. "Or… why are you doing this if not to go home?"

"Well… I'll be forward with you, Sans. I did want to stay down here… all three of us did. However, my… inner demons tormented me into going back to the surface, back to where I initially lived."

"i'm guessing to collect a memento of your family or something along those lines?" Sans chuckled at Tenebris' startled look. "hey, i know the feeling of wanting to keep the memories of family close to you. i… do have to wonder if it's really worth it in the end…"

"What are you…?"

"eh… it's nothing. jus' know, I'm rooting for the three of you." Sans went silent for a bit while Tenebris tried to figure out what he meant. Sans thought of something and said, "hey, let me tell you a story. so… I'm a sentry in snowdin forest, right? i sit out there and watch for humans, but it's kind of boring."

Tenebris chuckled. "With the traffic you get, it must be a riot."

"i know, right? anyways, deep in the forest, there's this HUGE locked door. it's perfect for practicing knock-knock jokes. so one day, I'm knocking them out as usual, one time i say "knock knock," i suddenly hear a woman's voice say "who is there?" naturally, i respond: "dishes." "dishes who?" "dishes a very bad joke.""

Tenebris burst into laughter. "W-wow. I need to remember that one!"

Sans chuckled again. "yeah, and just like you, she just howls in laughter like it's the best joke she's heard in a hundred years. So I keep 'em coming and she keeps laughing. up until you and the kid, she was the best audience I've ever had."

"Glad to know we were a good audience."

"don't worry, you were. anyways, after I knock a dozen of them, she does her own. "old lady." old lady who?" "i didn't know you could yodel!"" Sans noticed that Tenebris was had a look of realization pass over his face. "what is it, bud?"

"I can't believe I didn't see it sooner. That woman you were swapping knock-knock jokes with? She's the reason why all three of us didn't initially want to go back to the surface."

Sans widened his eyes. "no kidding? you would have never gone through that door had it not been for your 'inner demons'?"

"Yeah. Her name is Toriel and she wanted to adopt all three of us." Seeing the skeleton's inquisitive look, he sighed. "All three of us lost our parents in accidents. I got off lucky because my parents were… decently well off before passing. The sisters? Not quite as lucky, but they managed. I'm still amazed over Selendis telling me Frisk was able to get over it faster than she was."

"wow… well, that kid is very determined, to be sure. but… wait, you never said they wanted to get something from the surface like you did."

"Caught on, did you?" Tenebris let out a saddened sigh. "Maybe now they want to, but initially I was the only one who NEEDED to go, if only to give myself some form of internal peace. I was going to go by myself, but they insisted on coming with me. She's where I learned the bare-bones basics of managing my magic to not go out of control, but…"

Sand noticed how down-trodden the shadow-eyed human suddenly became. "hey, bud, don't worry about it too much. i'm sure they knew what they were doing." He let out a chough before continuing, "anyway, one day i notice she wasn't laughing very much. of course, I asked her what was up besides the ceiling. Then she told me something strange. "if a human ever comes through this door, could you please, please promise something? watch over them and protect them, will you not?""

Tenebris realized that, perhaps, the only reason why Sans didn't try and attack them on sight like the other sentries except Papyrus was because of Toriel. Sans kept going, "now, i hate making promises and toriel, i didn't even know her name at the time. but… someone who sincerely likes bad jokes has an integrity you can't say no to… like you, bud."

Tenebris chuckled weakly. "Glad to know I also have that level of integrity as well. Don't know if it served me any good, but hey."

"i'm sure it did, but do you get what I'm saying? that promise i made to her… you know what would have happened if she hadn't said anything… buddy?" Sans went silent for a second before opening his eyes, the lights gone. "You'd be dead where you three stood."

Tenebris broke into a cold sweat again, though nowhere near as bad as before. "Sheesh, guess I'm getting some karma for looking like a Grim Reaper to some monsters."

Sans' expression changed from intimidating to worried. He was really starting to regret teaching Tenebris the disappearing iris trick. He figured he would not teach him should a reset ever come to pass. "w-wow, bud. how much have you used the trick i taught you?"

"Only three times as far as I know, and the third time was more of a fake-out rather than a legitimate one." Tenebris thought of something and nervously clapped his hands. "But, uh… how about I tell you a joke you can tell to Toriel later, provided you haven't heard or said it yet." Sans nodded; he figured the distraction would be good. "Knock-knock."

"who's there?"

"Lettuce."

"haven't heard this one. lettuce who?"

"Lettuce in! Lettuce in!"

Sans burst out laughing. "that is definitely a good one. i'll have to remember that. well… i suppose that's all i wanted to talk about." He walks away from the table before turning back to Tenebris. "guess i can tell you. i saw a note saying there was a shop selling some stuff in the other alleyway. you should check it out if you're in need of new equipment; maybe it'll be worth your time. anyways, take care of yourself."

"I will. Thanks for the info, Sans." The skeleton nodded before teleporting away. Tenebris knew that Selendis would worry if he didn't go back as soon as possible, but he was curious about that alley shop, so he headed there.

When he got there, he was greeted by a monster cat and alligator, both girls. The cat noticed him first and said, "Oh, hey there! Glad to see someone stop by!"

The alligator was about to greet Tenebris as well when she suddenly stopped dead. "Oh my gosh… are you… the 'Shadow-eyed human'?!"

Tenebris took a nervious step back as the cat monster realized it. "Y-you mean… the Grim Reaper?" They suddenly squealed, not in fear, but in delight. "OH MY GOSH, I CAN'T BELIEVE WE GET TO MEET YOU!"

"Wh-whoa! You're sending me mixed messages here. Why are you two… um… fangirling over me when I'm called the "Grim Reaper?"

The cat spoke up first. "I mean, like, yeah you totally looked scary when you adopted your Grim Reaper look, but it was the awesome kind of scary."

The alligator giggled. "Yeah, we've so never seen such a badass look on anyone besides Mettaton!" Tenebris was about to interject when she suddenly said, "Oh my gosh, could you, like, totally show us and stuff?!"

"Girls… it's not exactly something I'm proud to throw around, okay? I only wanted to use it as a scare tactic, but… I've been using it too much, even if that last one was purely a fake-out."

Both of the monster girls calmed down after that until the cat spoke up, "Oh, I guess that explains why it wasn't a true scary…"

The alligator smiled a bit. "It was still awesome though. But we've so been bad shop-keepers. How can we help you?"

Tenebris looked at what they had. They pointed out the 'junk food', which really didn't appeal to him. What caught his eye was the pair of revolvers and a cowboy hat. "Where did you get those?"

"Oh, those? We, um- "

"We found them in the garbage!" The cat interjected, before putting a paw over her mouth, like she wasn't supposed to say that.

Tenebris chuckled. "At least you cleaned them pretty good." Looking at the guns for a bit longer, an idea formed in his head. "Could I see those for a moment?"

The alligator shrugged. "I don't see why not, as long as you don't try and run off with them."

"Not running off with them, but something else." The girls gave him a confused look as he focused. Suddenly, the revolvers were enveloped in a black sphere of magic, prompting a gasp. When the spheres vanished, in the place of the revolvers were what looked like two black hand cannon guns with a barrel similar to a revolver's barrel.

The two girls squeed. "That was SO COOL!"

Tenebris chuckled. "First time ever doing that too."

The alligator suddenly started scrounging around for empty cans. "Here, let me set up some targets for you to- wait… do you have any ammunition?"

"No, but part of the reason why I did this was to replace physical ammunition with magic bullets."

The cat squeed again as the alligator continued setting up the cans. "That's doubly cool! You know what? Every badass needs a pair of guns eventually, so I think we can give those to you for free!"

That caught Tenebris off guard. "Really? Thanks, though I will pay for the hat."

After Tenebris put on the hat after giving the cat the gold for it, he fired at the cans the alligator set up for him. Each time he pulled the trigger, a heavy sound rang out and a can was hit with a dark purple projectile. The two girls told him to name the pair and he opted for "Nosferatu"; one gun was "Nos" and the other was "Feratu".

After that, he headed back inside the hotel to see Selendis entering the lobby from the right entrance. She gave him a surprised look when he approached. "Where did you get the hat? Wait, scratch that! Are you okay? I heard gun-fire and I thought-"

Tenebris held up his hands. "Whoa, okay. Let's get back to the room; I'll tell you there." She reluctantly agreed. When they entered, he was astonished by how huge the bed was, but had his heart melted at the sight of a sleeping Frisk. "Alright, those gun shots? That was actually me."

"You?" When he pulled out Nos and Feratu, she gaped at him. "Where did you find guns?"

"Same place I got this hat, only the guns were free. They were initially empty revolvers, but I changed that."

"W-why would you need A gun, let alone two?"

He shrugged. "Extra fire-power?" She facepalmed at that. "Besides, it might help for whatever Mettaton might be scheming."

She gave him an apprehensive look. "Do you even know how to handle those things?"

"I shouldn't, but when I morphed them, it felt like I had been using them for years. Guess it's because they're tied directly to my magic, since they shoot magic bullets."

Selendis' look went from apprehensive to worried before sighing. "Alright… I trust you, you know that? Me and Frisk both." He gave her a confused look as she yawned. "Well… I should probably go to sleep. Good night." With that, she crawled into bed beside Frisk and cuddled with her.

Tenebris sighed as he sat on a nearby chair; he didn't feel like sleeping at all tonight. The one thing he missed was Selendis blushing as she looked at him from the corner of her eye. While she knew he wouldn't, she secretly wished he would crawl into bed with her.


For those of you who need a more accurate image of Tenebris' new guns, think of Alucard's guns from Hellsing Ultimate with a revolver barrel right above the trigger.