Sans let out a small sigh as Frisk approached the skeleton, with Tenebris still in the shadows and watching with his one "good" eye; the one that can see a person's true face. Thus far, all he has seen of Frisk's face is one full of twisted, sadistic malice, something that made Selendis whimper and regress a little. She still desperately wanted to believe that Frisk wasn't the one in control, but all signs up to this point have been proving otherwise.

Frisk stopped a fair distance away from Sans who merely shook his head in disappointment. "heya… from the looks of things, you've been busy, huh? so… i've got a question for you. do you think even the worst person can change, that anyone can be a good person if they tried?" Frisk let out an amused giggle as she stepped towards Sans, making Selendis whimper even more.

Sans chuckled himself before saying, "all right… well here's a better question for ya." He pauses for a moment. "Do you wanna have a bad time? if you take another step forward, you are REALLY not going to like what happens next… provided you "don't" know what happens next." Frisk takes another step, brandishing what looked like a malicious red knife. Sans merely sighs. "welp… sorry old lady. this is why i don't like making promises."

That hit both Tenebris and Selendis with some fridge horror. The pile of dust-covered clothes they saw near the exit to Snowdin was this "old lady" Sans was talking about. She was the one who owned that house; she was once a compassionate and caring monster who ultimately fell from her own kindness.

Tenebris snapped back to attention as the hall grew dark and Frisk's soul appeared; a red heart filled with determination. Tenebris could have sworn he saw her sclera turn black like his did for a split second, but passed it off as a change in the environment.

Sans hummed a little bit as Frisk tensed up, knife at the ready. "it's a beautiful day outside: birds are singing, flowers are blooming. on days like these, kids like you. Should be burning in Hell."

He suddenly turned Frisk's soul blue and slammed it against the ground, earning a wince from the homicidal girl before she suddenly jumped over a bunch of bones popping up from underneath her. She then weaved through more bones before Sans summoned gaster blasters to fire at her. She managed to dodge all but the last two, earning a small grin from Sans. "Huh… I always wondered why people don't start with their strongest attack first."

Chara let out an internal growl. Turns out that new fight with Undyne threw her off her game with Sans and he knew it. For all she knew, he was going to change things up to try and trip her up even more; though it actually excited her that Sans won't be as predictable this third time around. With a maniacal laugh, she swung at the skeleton, who side-stepped the "shock-wave" the swing produced. "Didn't think I would just stand there and take it, did you?"

As the battle went on, Sans occasionally managed to get a killing blow on Frisk, shattering her soul and causing a RESET to occur. Despite knowing Frisk would be fine because of that, Selendis let out an anguished cry every time Sans managed to kill her, with Tenebris looking away with a pained expression. Neither of the combatants have noticed Tenebris hiding in the shadows yet.

As the battle waged on between RESETS, Sans started talking about a massive anomaly in the spacetime continuum that ends everything before saying it was Frisk, which only served to let doubt continue to worm into Selendis' beliefs. Sans even stated the reason why he was so depressed on the inside and why he gave up trying to reach the surface: he knew everything would just reset anyways, though this is the one time he couldn't afford not to care about.

A few more misses and RESETS from Frisk and Sans let out a grunt, sweat beginning to form on his skull. "T-that being said, you really like swinging that thing around, don't you?" He closes his eyes before saying, "Listen, I know you didn't answer me before, but... somewhere in there, I can feel it. There's a glimmer of a good person inside of you, the memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. Someone who, in another time, might have even been... a friend? A little sister? C'mon, buddy, don't you remember me? Don't you remember your sister and your big-brother figure? Please, if you're listening... let's forget all this, okay? I'm sure they would forgive and forget as well."

Hearing Sans' words, Frisk began fighting to regain control again, to try and prove to him that she didn't want this. She didn't want to murder her sister, Tenebris, Papyrus, Undyne, Toriel, or Mettaton. She didn't want any of this. She wanted to say sorry... to beg for forgiveness for what has happened… for what she has done. Chara merely grinned "You really have forgotten, haven't you? Well, don't think for a second that he'll forgive you for slaughtering his friends and family. Regardless of what you say, though, I'm not giving you back control. I've come too far!"

Frisk merely laughed… and laughed hard at Sans before suddenly taking another swing at the skeleton. The skeleton merely dodged with a sigh and a look of acceptance; he tried to reach for any semblance of a good person that may have been in her, like Selendis begged him to, and all he got was a laugh in the face. "Well… I guess you like doing things the hard way, huh? Too bad, I sincerely believed that the two humans who died down here looking for you would have forgiven you. Guess you really are a megalomaniac."

From that one action, Selendis' mind had fully shut-down. The little sister she thought she knew was never real to begin with, that she had been raising a homicidal sister this entire time who had undoubtedly plotted her older sister's death.

Tenebris, realizing Selendis' state and also reeling from Frisk's decision, let out a depressed sigh before slinking through the shadows and back towards Asgore. The Frisk Selendis, and by extension himself, knew never existed. Both were utterly crushed. Tenebris wanted to cry… but he couldn't. Hatred once again began welling within him, but a lot more subdued than before.

Reaching the throne room once again, Flowey was still trying to convince Asgore that the threat all of them were facing is real. "I keep telling you that smiley trash bag won't last against that kid!"

"Why do you keep insisting on calling Sans that? Besides, we need to have more faith in- " Asgore was cut off when Tenebris entered with a somber look. "Oh, there you are, young elemental. I thought you were observing the fight?"

"I was… until she threw his offer of mercy back at him and crushing any hope that the kid we knew was still there. Turns out… she played me and her sister for fools the entire time we knew her. Now Selendis' mind had gone into shock…"

Flowey grimaced. "Are you kidding me? You had hoped she was a good person?"

Tenebris nodded. "That we did… I did… and they were thoroughly dashed." Holding his palm upward, he focused for a bit before Selendis' soul appeared, looking a bit greyer than usual.

Asgore immediately knew what it meant and looked down. "That soul… must of really cared about that kid… huh?"

"More than you know, your majesty. And… I know you are still in desperate need of another soul… but I implore you… let her have her peace. She's suffered more than enough…" Tenebris gave Asgore a pleading look. He didn't know if that's what she truly wanted, but she was no longer in any condition to decide for herself what she wanted. She deserved to ascend… to move on to the next life.

Asgore slowly nodded. Monster souls were grey by default and that was normal and natural. But when a human soul starts turning grey, it meant that all their hopes and dreams have been crushed and they were left without joy or purpose. "Let her have her peace, then…" Tenebris let go of her soul and it slowly drifted higher before shattering and dispersing. The undead human merely looked down, still unable to cry.

Flowey sighed, beginning to feel the smallest tugs of compassion at his conscience, but it kept slipping away and being overshadowed by pity. He shook his head. "That still leaves the problem of that kid. Sooner or later, they'll get past Sans and they'll come here."

Tenebris noted that Flowey started referring to Frisk by gender-neutral pronouns but didn't comment on it. "Like it or not, Asgore, I have to agree with Flowey. Besides, I think I'm the only one who can put a true stop to that kid. I don't care if you're absorbing the other six human souls or not, you should retreat further back an away from this place." When Asgore was about to argue, he got a death glare from Tenebris. "I. Said. Go."

Asgore gulped and nodded before heading for the next room behind the throne. Tenebris looked at Flowey, who had a confused look on his face. "What makes you so certain that YOU can stop them?"

"All I can say is… I'm going to jam her RESET button and teach her the true meaning of fear." Flowey gawked. He knew smiley trash bag would tell this undead human about the RESETS, but he never expected the very same person to claim he can stop the RESETS. Flowey didn't get a chance to respond when Tenebris said, "You should get out of here as well, Flowey. I'd rather not anyone get caught in the crossfire."

The flower let out a sigh. "I hope you know what you're doing." With that, he disappears underground.

Tenebris shook his head. "I hope I know as well." He suddenly hears the sound of bone getting sliced through and said bone containing liquid. "Guess Sans wasn't able to hold out past here. Looks like it's soon to be my turn." Despite knowing Frisk was coming, he kept his back turned to the entrance of the room as he heard footsteps slowly approach.

Chara let out a quiet chuckle as Frisk seemingly and completely shut herself down from being unable to accept Sans' mercy. She knew that forcing Frisk into selling her soul would be easy after this, especially if she is tempted with the fact that it would bring her family back. All so that she could finally get past the barrier and begin the slaughter of humanity.

She frowned when she thought back to her previous two attempts in this particular timeline. Frisk had managed to wrestle back control right after killing Sans and force a RESET the first time Chara took over and forced her to commit genocide.

It was that RESET that brought Selendis into the fold… relatively speaking. Selendis existed first time around, it's simply that she died with Frisk's parents in that particular set of runs. After RESETTING from the first attempted genocide, things went back to before Frisk fell down into Mt. Ebott. There, Frisk lost her memories of all previous runs and Selendis was somehow spared from her fate.

Despite that, Chara's second attempted genocide didn't change much, outside of Selendis begging Frisk to stop and remember who she was. Frisk resisted a lot as she was forced to end her sister's life right before Undyne the Undying, but other than that, nothing really changed. She let Frisk accept Sans' offer of mercy, only to have her spirit completely broken when he dunked on her. What threw Chara off was when Frisk suddenly forced a RESET right before she could extend the deal to her, resulting in another memory loss and the existence of Tenebris.

Selendis was understandable. Tenebris wasn't; he was literally a stranger that, in this timeline, Frisk had gotten randomly attached to and just so happened to have access to the magic of darkness.

Chara shook the thoughts from her head. Outside of Dark Undyne, nothing else really has changed. It's just a matter of making sure Frisk finally accepts her "deal".

Entering the throne room, Chara expected to see Asgore commenting on how flowers aren't supposed to cry. What she saw when she entered was a figure clad in black that looked strangely familiar. When it heard her and turned around, she gaped as she saw Tenebris. "What?! How… how are you…"

Tenebris shook his head. "Oh my, I didn't think you still cared! Since you asked and it's been a while, I've been really busy being dead. You know... after you murdered me."

Chara stared for a bit before laughing, misinterpreting the "busy being dead" thing as a metaphor. "Aw, Tenny! You should have told me you survived that wound. We could have met up much sooner to discuss the future!"

Tenerbis scoffs. "Perhaps I could have, but I'm sure that nothing would have changed; I simply waited here of all placed. Besides, I know we both have done things you'll regret… but I believe we can put our differences behind us… for justice… you little nothing."

Chara let out a loud laugh as she brandished her knife. "Big words, but I wonder if you can even remotely back them up. Sans wasn't that much of a challenge after a while, so what makes you think you can do better?"

"Oh, give me the next ten minutes or so and I can prove it to you pretty quickly. After all, everyone else save a few monsters are dead and I'm sure you have ALL the time in the world!" The area grew dark and Frisk's soul appears. Tenebris could see that her true face was… somehow distorted but shook it off. "Besides, what better way of catching up than to- "

He sees Frisk swing at him, prompting a dodge out of him. He gives her a flat look before teleporting right in front of her and punting her across the room. "I wasn't finished you little bitch. Great, now I forgot what I was going to say. Oh well, maybe it'll come back to me as I'm beating your ass into the ground."

With that, he summons an umbra blaster and fires it at Chara, who had just recovered from the punt and managed to dodge, though she got singed by the energy. Chara immediately recognized that he truly was a different ball-park than Sans; he wasn't out to annoy. He was out to kill.

When Chara slashed at Tenebris again, he dodged again and began sporadically summoning shadow spikes from the floor, easily nailing her a few times. Most of the spikes were dark purple like his darkness, but some were jet black. When she was hit by one, she could suddenly feel fear encroaching on her mind, though she managed to hide it.

He flung a few shadow fire balls before saying, "I must admit one thing. You were quite proficient at hiding your true nature up until this point. Who could have ever known that sweet and innocent little Frisk was a murderer at heart? Goes to show that you should never judge a book by any covers."

Chara could feel those words wound Frisk and she merely laughed. "Why thank you, Tenny! It really was hard work to hide all of this murderous intent."

He frowned as he spread a sheet of dark ice on the ground before her, causing her to slide across the room. "That wasn't a compliment." He used spikes to launch her back to the other side of the room and into an explosive orb. "Though I suppose it did sound like one, so I'll let it "slide"."

Chara stopped herself with a growl and swung again, only to miss again. She was getting really annoyed by the fact that she has to deal with yet another dodger. "Stand still!"

"Why should I? Those who stand like a pillar fall in battle. Those who move and bend like reeds triumph."

"Try saying that to Sans. He dodged too, yet he still lost!"

Tenebris scoffed. "He WOULD of won… if you didn't treat death as an inconvenience."

That only made Chara smile wider. "You know about the RESETS? Then why are you trying if you know that it won't mean anything in the end?"

Now it was Tenebris' turn to smile. "Because I have a way to prevent you from doing so."

He summoned another umbra blaster and fired it, but Chara managed to dodge it and the searing energy that came off the beam. What she didn't expect was that very same beam suddenly hitting her from above and dealing a very large amount of her HP, even more than what Sans' gaster blaster could ever do to her. Looking up, she sees a swirling portal close up.

Chara goes in for another swing, knowing that like Sans he couldn't dodge forever, and he didn't move out of the way. She quickly found out why: he blocked it with what looked like a single-edge broadsword. "You think you're the only one who can wield an edge around here?"

He managed to engage Chara in a pseudo sword fight, with him occasionally gaining the upper hand and wounding her a bit. He kept throwing her off whenever the broadsword turned into a scythe and when she thought she was out of his reach.

Chara scarfed some instant noodles down which healed her to full HP before dodging some more attacks. She began laughing manically once again as she continued dodging; this was the "something new" she had been looking for this whole time and she was enjoying it.

Tenebris heard her laugh and frowned. It was almost as if she enjoyed it, like it was a new experience she was looking forward to. It was admittedly, hard for him to give it his 100% because doubt over if this truly was Frisk still lingered in his mind. He was going to give her a horrible time for sure, but he always hesitates when he thinks about outright killing her.

Shaking his head clear of those thoughts, he sees Chara go in for another swing when he suddenly counters her with a shadowy blade coming off his hand and forearm. Then he starts slashing at her with shadow claws before turning one into a whip, grabbing her, and smashing her into the ground on alternating sides. He ends of with an electric shock before flinging her away.

Scarfing down a legendary hero, Chara goes in for another slash, opting to change her angle of approach. She was suddenly caught off guard by a reflection barrier stopping her short before he fires another orb of energy at her. She managed to dodge it, only for him to suddenly teleport her right back into the orb and having it explode on her.

Standing up, Chara gave him a grin. "Give up. You know you can't win. You're going to run out of magic sometime."

Tenebris merely looked at her before sighing. "And here I was hoping thing would truly be different. Guess I- "

He was cut off when Chara managed to land a hit on him, spraying blood everywhere and earning a cry of triumph from her. "You IDIOT. In this world, it's kill or be killed! I'd say it was nice knowing you… but it hasn't." Tenebris looked down at his wound before suddenly rushing her with claws and juggled her with spikes. Recovering, she gave him a baffled look. "You should be dead right now!"

He lets out a sigh. "Remember when I said I was busy being dead? I wasn't lying. You did this to me, Frisk. You've turned me into an undead abomination that cannot feel pain… or even feel. All this time you've been murdering without much fear of retribution. It's only a matter of time before someone like me showed up to put you in your place."

Chara bristled with anger and continued fighting. After a while longer and some more wounds she began huffing angrily. "I refuse to accept that you are unkillable! Guess I'll just have to crush your soul directly!"

"And I guess I have to try something else." With that, he enhances himself with an aura that Frisk has never seen before, nor did Tenebris know the effect of. He managed to get off a few hits with nothing different happening, but when he brought out his sword and sliced her with it, a small piece of her soul suddenly separated from her and was absorbed into Tenebris.

Tenebris flinched and stumbled backwards. He could feel the soul piece in him and, knowing what he must do, managed to erase the consciousness and memories attached to the piece. By that action, both Chara and Frisk both felt themselves missing a part of their memories and consciousness. This made Chara freak out; she suddenly could no longer feel her SAVE from losing Frisk's determination. She's effectively fighting the Grim Reaper himself. "No… NO! I refuse to be defeated here!"

Tenebris merely said nothing as he kept his weapon out. He started using his magic to force her into getting hit by his weapon and having bits of her soul get absorbed and scrubbed. He occasionally had to refresh his "reaper aura", but that was all he did.

He wasn't winning by infecting her determination with fear. He was winning by scrubbing her memories and personality out of existence, out of her soul. The entire time, his mood slowly worsened; he was forcing the girl he came to see as a little sister out of existence. It didn't help when she, with enough soul to still have a personality, began begging him to stop. He continued regardless; he came this far… he may as well see it through.

After he managed to absorb and scrub the last soul piece, all that was left of Frisk was a still living shell. Alive, yet not alive. Looking away, he beheaded her and ended her life before walking away from the scene with Frisk's recompleted, yet now blank soul inside of him.

He had avenged Selendis. He had avenged all of the monsters who had been mercilessly killed. He avenged Sans who, despite not knowing him for long, felt like the first person besides Frisk who understood him.

He didn't feel happy. He felt as empty as the soul he had forcefully stolen. When everything was said and done…

He was all alone.

Heading in the direction of Asgore, the monster king took notice of both his presence and his darkened mood. Looking at him, the king merely asked, "The child… is dead?"

Tenebris nodded slowly before presenting Asgore with the red soul. "I… extracted this from her and… erased her from it. It's… just a blank soul now…" Seeing Asgore about to ask how, he shook his head. "Don't ask… just save what's left of your kind. Break the barrier… don't let her soul go to waste…" With that, Tenebris vanished.

Asgore closed his eyes and prayed for both him and the soul's original owner before heading forward and absorbing all seven souls, becoming a god and shattering the barrier. True to what both Tenebris and Flowey said, many monsters were killed by a human. There was still a fairly sizable population thanks to Alphys' efforts, but the effects were felt by everyone.

Despite his reluctance to do so, Asgore kept to his word about eradicating the humans from the surface. Soon, the human race became extinct and monsters were able to move onto the surface and live in reletave peace. When his subjects were settled in, he went to find the one person whom had allowed this to happen.

He could never find Tenebris again and this saddened the god-king as he knew. Tenebris was undead, meaning his soul won't pass on until someone forces it to or it becomes too strained for magic. He would never find peace. He would be cursed to wander the earth, to live with the deaths of the people he cared about weighing heavily on his back.

Forever… and all alone.

THE END


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*Hey.

(Flowey appears before you, frowning.)

*Look… I know I'm probably the last person you want to see right now…

*Well… I suppose I'll get to my point. I managed to watch Tenebris' battle with Chara. The way Tenebris… ended the battle permanently…

*I could tell; it tore him up inside. I think he could tell that the kid he knew before going underground still existed in that soul as he was… scrubbing it.

*Yet… he still went through with it… because it was the only way he could think of to save her from a fate worse than death…

*In the aftermath he vanishes, but I know he started wandering the earth, never forgiving himself for what he did.

*If you ask me… that's a fate worse than what I've got. At least I couldn't feel the compassion to really care about it… but him?

*I… guess that entire scene managed to instill sympathy in me. And that ending… I don't like it.

*Sure call me, Flowey the Omnicidal Flower, hypocritical because I once attempted a genocide before Chara ever did.

*Well… things have changed. Thanks to Chara instilling a sense of fear into me, it somehow made way for other emotions to begin coming back as well.

*It's ironic, really. If that didn't happen, I… probably wouldn't be talking to you about this. I would have been fine with leaving this as they are now.

*But not this time.

*Now for those who are savvy enough with my appearance before you or for those have been spoiled by the interface, you can probably guess what I'm going to do.

*When Tenebris scrubbed that kid's soul clean, all that was left is determination. Determination without a personality to use it is… useless.

*As such, I somehow regain control over the timeline and… I can LOAD the save before Chara's battle with Sans.

*You can probably tell where I'm going with this.

*Now I know there will be people who will like this ending the best. I can't judge you; older me would have been the same way.

*If this is the ending you want, then congratulations. You've finished the story.

*For everyone else… well I don't know if anyone, including Chara or myself, will remember these events.

*If that's the case… regardless, I'll see you all on the other side.

*Here's to hoping something better will turn out from this.

CONTINUE