Glitchtale - Of course I do

by Miguel16310

Adapted from "Do you remember love? by Digifruit. "Glitchtale" by Camila Cuevas. "Undertale" by Toby Fox. Cover by Inkyosis. Warning: Brisk content. Alternative take on Glitchtale series. "Imagine living in groundhog day all your life, not knowing when will it end, or if it will at all. Would depress anyone, right? Frisk is no stranger to it. If only his heart wasn't so weak..."

Original author: "Digifruit"

Original Fandom: Naruto.

Inspired by: "Do you Remember love?"

Undertale by: Toby "Radiation" Fox

Glitchtale by: Camila Cuevas.

Cover by: Inkyosis

Glitchtale

One-shot.

"Of course I do"

.

.

.

Seeing Frisk walk that morning into the classroom weirded out the pink eyed female greatly, not only because if his memories said anything the day before, he was supposed to try and talk with Miss Grey that day, again. Yet there he was, not giving a damn about the blackhaired widow nor her power above monsterkind.

Robin ended up voicing her thoughts for her, and as a response the ambassador merely gave her a tired smile, moving his head from left to right, leaving him to guess what was his reason for being there.

Lily, however, paid more attention than Agate's offspring. She noticed that Dreemurr's eye color had changed; while still being red, she noticed the vibe they gave, as if they had aged thousands of years over the spawn of one night. Where was that cheerful excited attitude from yesterday?

Frisk Dreemurr was known to be as kind as a dog, and as helpful as one, despite how cruel the comparison was, Frisk just welcomed it and giggled. That's why everyone kept supporting him on his efforts to try and make the government, Jessica specially, to change their point of view and give more freedom to their new friends on the surface.

Her process of thought got interrupted when another one of Toriel's recent hired teachers, , walked through the door asking for order and at the same time announcing that the teams for the rest of the month would be formed that exact same day. The green eyed girl silently prayed for her team to be formed out of Frisk and her twin brother, not only would it be easy to work with her own family but she would gain an opportunity to be close to him as well.

Sadly, the fate would have other stuff in store for her and the so called "Group 4" ended up being formed out of the shy girl; Betty, him, and the golden boy of the class, Jason.

Knowing him, she hoped that he would be immediately thrilled about the idea of making new friends and improving as mages together; that's who Frisk was after all, him trying to bring that weird one out of her shell was what Lily and Fear herself were expecting... but that wasn't the case.

Determination was so silent he might as well be dead.

As the morning went on, the different teachers started to take their trios out of the main classroom, Toriel did the same, looking at her son one last time before waving goodbye. Group 4 being the last one, the black beast thought this would've been a perfect opportunity to start a relationship that would grant her an opportunity for a stealthy kill on her arch enemy in the near or late future... but for some reason, he refused to take the first step on her or the User of justice.

Frisk looked at the ceiling in silence, lost in his thoughts, something that she never could've imagined. He was supposed to be more emotional than rational, on the other hand, Asriel had more brain, mostly because of his days as that murderous flower.

"Hey... what's wrong with him?"

Her voice came as a whisper, and the literally golden kid of Toriel's academy looked back, raising an eyebrow. Frisk was never the plate of his devotion or admiration, he saw him as just a kid with luck, nothing else. The human then shifted his look into the girl's weirded out expression, shrugging.

He couldn't care less.

"Maybe he had a fight with someone and now feels guilty about it"

The eight fallen then sighed, standing up from his seat. Betty and Jason watched closely how he picked and placed a chalkboard eraser above the door, which was surprising to say the least. A prank? for a person he didn't even knew? had Sans truly influenced him that much down in the Underground?

Wouldn't be that surprising considering that little psychopath spent thousands of timelines down there killing and faking love whenever he pleased.

"Did that friend of yours told you about this trick?"

It was a mix of genuine curiosity, and a bit of an accusation, something she couldn't hide. Frisk glanced back at her for a brief moment with a pair of eyes that reflected the most complex turmoil of emotions she had ever seen. In that red glance was a rolling mixture of love, loss, grief, defeat, loneliness... Fear the second could've continued until she ran out of words in her vocabulary.

Just one blink, and his eyelids were closed again, his expression being a more simplistic one, with a small smile, a gentle nod to her and the blonde, before returning to his seat.

Much to Betty and Jason's disbelief, the man that supposedly was going to be their master fell for Frisk's prank. Determination didn't seem all too surprised though, nor did he even look the least bit amused.

One complain later, the trio found themselves on the gym for self-introductions, while many other teachers took their teams to other classrooms, or even outside the school, this guy was way too old for such stuff, the closer, the better... at least he didn't kept them in the starting one.

But before they began, Frisk asked him a question neither Betty nor Jason could make any sense of.

"Hey... Mister Maxwell? do you remember? do you remember the consequences of the duplicity power?"

The old man frowned, he had been one of the world masters in his younger days, just like Frisk, just like Copper, and just like Chara and of course, Flowey the flower. However, he wasn't expecting to be asked such question right off the bat, shouldn't Frisk already know all about it? that was the only way he could've survived down that hellhole.

Maxwell: Magic exhaustion and... -he paused for a moment, despite being a former world master and user of determination, with all it's ups and downs, he had long since lost his trait, he was still a powerful traitless mage, but that was it- death, if you divide your determination and magic among too many clones of yourself.

Frisk raised his thumb, getting the answer that he had expected, though it was impossible to tell whether he was satisfied or disappointed. Once he closed his eyes, no one was able to read him.

"Very well young man, since you volunteered to speak first, why don't you introduce yourself?"

Dreemurr raised two of his fingers, his middle and index finger, making the peace symbol without even looking at his so called teammates.

"Frisk Dreemurr, nice to meet you."

...

There was a brief silent, as if they expected him to say more. When nothing came, Maxwell cleared out his throat.

"Hobbies? likes? dislikes?... any dream you have?"

Maxwell urged, feeling the awkward ambient starting to take over the entire gym. He had been under the impression that Frisk was a cheerful, loving kid that always wanted to befriend everyone and work with anyone, either that, or an innocent, joy filled prankster... instead, what greeted him was this stoic boy that seemed exhausted.

"I do a little of everything I guess. Call me a Jack of all trades"

"Everything?" the old man raised an eyebrow, with a small smile "That's quite the massive resume you have there"

Frisk let out a cynical laugh, but it didn't seemed like he was enjoying his three seconds of fame, but rather... it seemed more like the howl of a wounded animal, it was a laugh, yes... but that's what it seemed like to him at least. "Sure is."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not really, next" The ambassador raised his thumb, pointing at his future arch-enemy, sitting between him and the golden soul.

Betty: Hum... -originally, Lightvale's masterpiece wanted to keep the facade of the cheerful, shy girl in order to trigger the affectionate side out of the three fools that were her partners, and master. But Frisk's awkward behavior and responses had already set a strange mood, that honestly, quite shocked her- Name's Betty, no surname. I like fruits, and drawing in my spare time is my hobby."

Maxwell nodded, before signaling to Jason, who just made mention of wanting to enforce justice on all the evil of the world, quite ambitious for a thirteen years old, Frisk just rolled his eyes.

"Well, that's all for today" Maxwell stated, massaging his left shoulder and moving his arm, gesturing towards the exit. "Our first exercise will be tomorrow morning at oh-six-hundred sharp, I'll take you to the forest nearby the town's south exit, don't be late. It may be tough on you rookies, so I'd recommend not eating breakfast either."

"Wait a moment, you haven't introduced yourself, teacher" The black beast pointed out, only then, the grey haired man and her other partner blinked in realization "Frisk called you Maxwell earlier, is that your name?"

The former determination user nodded in surprise. He had been so caught off guard by Frisk's duplicity spell question that it hadn't even occurred to him that he knew his name already. "Why, yes, my name is Maxwell Pierce" he nodded, glancing over at Frisk quickly enough to catch a small smirk.

.

---

.

One morning later, Betty and Jason showed up no more than ten minutes before the established time, however, Frisk and Maxwell were nowhere to be seen. Fifteen minutes later, the brown/pink haired girl scratched her head, starting to worry, thinking she may had gotten the meeting time mixed up, but her memory was perfect; and it was unlikely that both her and Jason got the time mixed up.

A few hours later, and the silhouette of the brownhaired teen appeared, walking towards them with lunch in hand. "Hungry?" he asked with a small smile.

Betty, having lost all her patience in the time waste that the old man and the stupid boy were making her go through, was about to scold him until she realized that she was somewhat glad that some of the liveliness that she had come to expect out of Frisk was back. It was normal, and normal was good. "Where were you?" she asked, deciding to use a use a softer tone of voice, not listening to her anger.

"I overslept and figured that I'd try to bribe my way out of punishment by buying Teach lunch, but I guess I lucked out," he laughed, sitting down in the grass and unwrapping the stacked bento boxes. "How long have you guys been here anyway?"

"Four hours" Jason muttered resentfully.

"Well, here's a reward for you guys if you tell Teach I was here the entire morning" He laughed, at the same time, the user of justice sighed, even if he would've liked to stay close to the rules, this was justice in it's own way for making them wait for such a long time.

Betty was quite fascinated as well, watching the top come off, opening the boxes; it looked and smelled divine. Sure, she was no human and didn't need any sort of food, but now that monsters were starting to mix magic food with human food, she could at least grab something to satiate herself.

It was predictable, it had to be incredible if he had planned to bribe a teacher with it.

"So... which restaurant did you get this from?" Noire asked once they finished their meal, grabbing a napkin and wiping out the rests from her lips, to say it was delicious would be an understatement, but rather, delightful was the correct word to describe it.

"Eh... Vulkin's family restaurant" Determination replied, shrugging.

"Vulkin's?" The black beast raised an eyebrow. Trying to keep a low profile, and to look as human as she could, she had been feeding off the souls of any serial killer or delinquent she could find; some who had money. Weeks ago, she tried eating there because it was one of the less popular restaurants, compared to Grillby's or Muffet's bakery.

It certainly wasn't as tasty as Frisk's lunch, but she just assumed that most likely the kitchen staff had changed over time.

Some time later, enough for them to digest their lunch, Maxwell finally decided to show himself, however, as Jason complained about his tardiness, Betty noticed the surprised look on his face when he gazed upon the empty boxes Frisk brought; he had intended for hunger to be part of whatever he was planning.

That was the only explanation she could come up with as to why a teacher could be six hours late to an official exercise.

Turned out, just as they arrived in a nearby training ground after walking some twenty minutes, he explained the test. Two bells hanging on his belt, one would be kicked back into Toriel's academy, and would have to wait another year to try and become part of a team. Ten seconds later, and Betty alongside Jason were nowhere to be seen.

Frisk, however, was just standing there, hands on his pockets, admiring the sky.

"Are you going to use the Duplicity technique, young man?" a small smile appeared on his face, still remembering the question from the day before, Frisk, however, moved his head from left to right, pulling some wild hair strands behind his ears.

"No, not really. I'm not that dumb... not anymore" the last part left the old man puzzled, especially as he saw how a small ball appeared on Dreemurr's palm. As a former user of determination himself, he knew his kind was mostly specialized in sharp objects, mainly swords, but was this kid going to try and replicate the Dreemurr's signature technique? "Shall we begin now, Mentor?"

Once the fight commenced, Maxwell noted that Frisk's unusual way of fighting with that ball weren't really anything out of the ordinary, but it was his fighting form that piqued his interest. Kicking and moving himself with an impressive ease, the red projectile bounced around him and his student as if instead of fighting...

He was dancing, but that didn't meant it wasn't less lethal; he could tell, each of those kicks came with a big amount of power, same for his improvised sphere.

"Not bad, Mentor" His eyelids opened slightly, showcasing the red dots alongside a small grin, his hand missing the strings that attached the bells to Max's belt by a fraction of a millimeter. "With you holding back so much, I figured I'd be able to get a bell by now"

"Oh? I thought you were more humble" Maxwell laughed.

"Apologies" the ambassador shot back good naturedly, getting away for a moment to breath in a little, going as far as to make a small reverence, but he truly meant it. Even so, Maxwell prepared himself, both of them going at it again.

By now, however, Jason was tired of seeing Frisk hold his own against a man who, despite his age, should still be too much for him to take on his own, so he decided to join in. He had thought that he'd have to make a conscious effort to avoid Frisk's attacks, but he was surprised that he seemed to know where he was at all times; the ball was bouncing back through every opening he left, trying and of course, failing to hit their teacher.

But it wasn't hitting him, which was also a good thing.

"Now this isn't fair at all, ganging up on an old man like this" The grey soul chuckled, keeping the two surprisingly talented mages at bay.

From her own hideout, Betty watched with great interest how her so called rival, teammate and mentor kept sparring. Comparing her own knowledge with her mother's, and the memories of Asriel, she noticed that Frisk didn't had any inclination towards weaponry, but she shouldn't jump into conclusions that quick.

Copper, after all, ended up being the only determination user able to use multiple weapons at the same time, Frisk himself had wielded the weapons of the seven fallen children before him, Chara's knife included, alongside that dumb stick... so this wasn't that weird.

Regardless, she had to keep the act up.

"Make that three-on-one!" yelled the pinkette, pulling a pair of small blob-made needles from her sleeves, joining the battle.

"Keep in mind that there are only two bells" Maxwell reminded.

"Yeah, yeah, save your teamwork lecture for later" Frisk rolled his eyes, surprising Maxwell enough for Betty and Jason to make a successful grab at the bells.

"All right! We did it!" Fear cheered, even though a part of her felt bad that Frisk didn't get one.

The silver haired man scratched the back of his head in slight confusion for a moment. "Yeah, you three pass, I guess" he laughed.

"Frisk too?" The spell asked, surprised.

"Yeah, him too" Maxwell nodded.

.

---

.

As the days turned into weeks, Betty found herself becoming more accustomed to Frisk's strange mood swings. On certain days, he'd be in a bitter slump, completing their tedious tasks with the efficiency of a cold and unfeeling machine, just like in his genocide memories. But, on other days, he'd be somewhat chipper. Though, the loving, caring and good-hearted nature that he was known never returned.

Frisk was less of an annoyance this way, however, so she hadn't paid much mind to it.

Or rather, she was used to it; the truth being that a part of her seemed to believe this one to be another one of his plans to mess around with the world. Admittedly, Jason didn't exactly have the warmest personality in the world, though his cold straight-to-the-point demeanor was one of his redeeming qualities, it facilitated their work extremely.

Maxwell as well, despite his goofiness, was very emotionally detached, most likely due to his old age. And, now, Frisk had joined their ranks. Hanging around her teammates was like being locked inside a freezer, an emotional icebox, but it didn't interfered with her plans, so she paid it no mind.

Asgore by that point was in jail already after the reunion, Jessica on the other hand kept building her own hate and bitterness towards monsterkind with each passing day, Fear had already devised her master plan, but first and foremost she had to ensure the leader of the Anti-Monster department was on the verge of exploding.

Then, she would offer her hand as her saving grace, immediately making the female depend on her with not only the excuse for vengeance, but also making her hallucinate with Alina as treats for every work well done.

That is until one day at the market district, she found the little green eyed girl. "Hey Lily... how are you?" she asked out of politeness, but also boredom; she had never really gotten along with anyone back at Toriel's academy, Lily had been far too unapproachable despite her natural kindness, but only because Betty had to keep the shy facade.

"Oh, just a day off from training" replied Cam's sister, smiling gently at the girl with pink eyes, noticing how her shyness had gone away, something most likely caused by her training and experiences with her team, or at least, that's what she thought. "What about you? shopping?"

"Not really, I was hungry and decided to go eat something" Betty nodded towards the Vulkins restaurant a few meters away. "But now that we're here, how about we eat something? my treat" the green soul blushed a little at the invitation, thanks to her trait, she felt inclined to deny her request...

But this was an opportunity to make a new friend, and know more about Frisk, so of course she ended accepting.

"Sure, I would love to." she replied, smiling gently at the idea, both of them walked into the restaurant, as expected: it wasn't that filled despite being lunch time, but it was normal. Vulkin's family may be doing their best, but they couldn't compete with the Spider lady and the Fire monster from Snowdin. "Why this place though?"

"Oh, Frisk bought us a really delicious lunch from here a couple weeks ago, so I figured I'd come check it out, but it took me a little while to save up enough to afford it" she laughed, taking a look around the place.

Lily's eyelids closed a little, as she immediatly pictured the scene, greatly exaggerated in her own way... yeah, that sounded like something Frisk would do, but that didn't eased up her own jealousy, in the slightest. Quite the contrary, she would've loved to be in a picnic, just the both of them.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he was late for our first mission, so he tried to bribe his way out of punishment by buying us lunch! Can you believe that?" Betty frowned, ever since then her eyes weren't working on Frisk's soul, it was strange, and it annoyed her. She noticed a young couple walk out with a couple of black boxes. "Hey, wait, the boxes he had were pink..." she muttered, straightening up to get a better look around for any other boxes.

All black.

The human however scratched her head after hearing and seeing Betty's face, suddenly something changed in the girl's aura, which startled her. It was clear that now, the main emotion emanating from Noire was none other than concern and annoyance, what had Frisk done to get this kind of attention from her?

"Pink lunch boxes? I don't think any restaurant uses them" Lily pointed out, raising her index finger "they're too... casual and childish looking"

"You're right... wait... why didn't I think of that before?" Betty sighed, resting her head against her hands. "I remember seeing those pink boxes on sale at the vegetable market down the street, earlier today. I think Frisk cooked that food himself, but why would he lie about it?"

Her thought process got cut short when a small amount of smoke came from the floor, right to the ceiling. Fear and Kindness looked down, watching a small Vulkin looking at them with a smile.

"Ready to place your orders?"

Apparently, he didn't had the heart to interrupt them, so he had been waiting for quite a while.

"Ah-... Yes, I want the steak with the volcano sauce, extra concentrated magic" Noire noted.

"And I'll have the Magma combo, very few magic pretty please" Lily replied, seconds later, he left right into the kitchen, leaving them alone.

"So... where were we? Oh, right... Frisk. I can't believe I'm talking about that dumbass with another girl" she let a small amount of her bitterness and animosity escape from her lips, if Lily decided to ignore it, or she just didn't noticed it, Agate's child couldn't really tell.

The reason being, she was more intrigued about something else the moment Betty said his name.

Something clicked in her memories.

"Have you noticed anything... strange... about him?" Lily asked softly. The last time she had seen him had been during the team formation, and she hadn't been able to forget the aged and weary look in his eyes since then.

"Well... he seems to have matured a lot, if that's what you're asking" Fear replied, as for what she meant about maturity, it's that she had a hunch he was finally starting to make peace with himself, and his own sins during the neutral routes and his own genocide, but the fact that she couldn't exactly tell what he did during the day nor read him still annoyed her. "He seems to have a lot in common with Teacher Maxwell... they're both kind of goofy, but they use that goofiness to keep others at a distance... you know what I mean? It's hard to explain"

"Keep others at distance... ?"

That didn't sounded like the Frisk she knew from months ago, at all. The eight fallen child came from Mount Ebott as some sort of an angel; he brought the princess back to life, choose the job of ambassador despite being just 12 years old, and did his best every day to try and make both races get along despite most of the people in the government, specially the director of the A.M.D, being against it.

He became some sort of saint that cried whenever someone hurt a spider or a fly, always willing to love and help anyone to a point the kind users were nothing in comparison...

So what the hell happened?

"Yeah, something like that. There's no other way I can describe it, I'm sorry."

"How about... his eyes?" Lily asked, and on the inside, Betty Noire smiled. Of course she would ask such question, considering she had a crush on him, even the blush she had was another big proof.

But that was also something that bothered her. Her own eyes allowed her to watch entire lives in the spawn of seconds in order to find the fears of people, and she had seen Frisk's life before... but ever since that day, all she could see was pitch black... as if Frisk himself had no memories or rather, he didn't registered them.

Anyone who knew Frisk would be curious, he had been a curiosity magnet lately after all, that included his closest friends, and his own family. Toriel had been very vocal about Frisk's behavior, his brother was no exception... although the goats assumed it to all the stress the work of ambassador without Asgore gave him.

"Yeah... his eyes are strange" Betty said, perfectly remembering the small ammount of times his eyelids opened up, showcasing those, once, vibrant life filled eyes of his that tried to go on ignoring his past mistakes. "Sometimes I feel like I'm looking at an old man... his eyes reminds me of Teacher"

The waiter then interrupted them once again by bringing them their food. Fear the second stared at hard at her meat. It looked delicious enough despite being one of the restaurant's cheaper dishes. But once she tasted it, she knew that it wasn't the same meat that Frisk had treated them to.

"Frisk's lunch was way better..."

.

---

.

"What are you doing?" Betty found Frisk up on the outer perimeter walls that protected the city; most likely reinforcing it's construction.

"I don't really like sitting around with nothing to do" replied the brownhaired man, applying a spell she didn't recognize onto a sturdy plank of wood before hammering it onto the base of the wall. "It's a D-rank mission, but it keeps me occupied and I make a little extra money on the side."

"What are those seals?" she asked, both out of genuine curiosity and also because it would be useful for her invasion, they were red, so of course they were determination filled.

"What kind of spells would I be putting on a fortress wall?" Dreemurr asked with a chuckle, hammering on yet another polished plank of wood. "These walls as they are may repel catapult rounds for a while, but they won't be much use against, say... Godzilla or King kong."

"You're really clever and funny, aren't you?" she asked, crossing her arms at the funny idea. As if any sort of giant creature could ever try to invade this stupid town... then again... that could be quite an interesting idea, something she could take notes from.

"Thank you, I'll be here all week" he joked, sure, he may not be the best comedian lying around, but he had to do it's best to try and brighten up people, something he learned from Sans. Although, Betty, by the grumble she let out, seemed quite disgusted and annoyed at his comment.

"Is this one of those things that makes you a Jack of all trades?" she asked, referring to his self introduction from some weeks prior.

"Maybe? maybe not?" The ambassador giggled, shrugging immediately after. "I'm surprised you remembered"

"And you're good at cooking stuff as well, isn't it?"

"What makes you think that?"

"The Vulkins don't use pink boxes" she pointed out.

"Sharp observation" he chuckled as he put his hammer down and paused from his work for a moment.

"So you're a cook too" It wasn't a question.

"Well, after Dad got sent to jail for his killings, mom's quite busy with her own students, so I can't afford to annoy her with preparing me and Asriel something to eat" he answered as he quickly put together an expertly-crafted stool out of the planks of wood for her to sit on.

The former Lightvale raised an eyebrow as she tested the sturdiness of the stool for a moment before sitting down on it. It was surprisingly comfortable, as if molded specifically for her butt to sit on. "Thank you"

"You're welcome" He answered, not turning to look back at her. Betty closed her eyelids a little, she expected herself to be angrier at Frisk, or at the very least, annoyed with his attitude, but this change, this behavior... it weirded her out, because this was like nothing he had ever displayed on the Underground.

It was new, and it wasn't ok, because he wasn't predictable nor readable, and it had her on edge.

"I also meant it for the food too. It was... delightful"

Frisk stopped his hammer from hitting another nail for a moment, before slowly turning his head back at her. His eyelids opened for a moment, showcasing those red eyes that had captured her and Lily's attention. Fear, deep in herself, prepared for the battle to death they were fated to do one day.

However... that wasn't a look of hostility.

He just... smiled.

"It's nothing worth mentioning, pay it no mind"

If only it was that simple. Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer, as they used to say. But she had no friends, and lots of enemies... yet no one as dangerous as him. Maybe it was the fact that Amber was a little girl who still had a lot ahead of her the night she died, or just her curiosity about what the heck was going on in that head of his... but she wanted, needed to learn more about this new phase of his.

"Why hide the fact that you're such an incredible cook?" she asked curiously, Akumu coming out of her sleeve, resting against her shoulder, their eyes still set on that back of his. She knew perfectly well that Frisk wasn't good for cooking, she had seen it: Undyne's lessons were complete trash, Papyrus sucked at it, the human as well.

Where did this skill came from?

"When you're young, you don't think about what you say or do" he shrugged, raising his voice a little over the pounding of the hammer. "You behave like a fool; you don't reflect on your actions, words and behavior can do to people, you feel untouchable... you feel like you're above consequences. But as you get older, you realize no one is above consequences, that everyone will get what's coming to them, sooner or later, one way or another. It's called fate"

Was he... talking about them? the tale of the Lightvale brothers and her own origin had been destroyed some days prior to their team formation, so it was impossible for him to know who she was. Since when did he started to care about receiving his own medicine? he killed parents, children, lovers, everything he could kill, just as easy as he befriended them, for his own amusement.

And now he seemed so... resignated. As if he had given up.

"You don't care about becoming a mage anymore?"

"If I do... then it's for different reasons"

Betty saw Frisk continue working with a newfound sense of admiration, despite the hate and decision to strike him down when the time came being present still, it was her mother's desire... but maybe, just maybe, there was a little sense of retribution and justice deep inside him.

Maybe they could sort things out, maybe she didn't had to-

An exasperated sigh brought her back to earth; as the spell saw the human throwing away his tools. "What's wrong?" she stammered in surprise, Akumu frowning a little, preparing himself in case the facade got discovered.

"Can you keep a secret?" he asked with an expression of dead seriousness.

"Ah... um... yeah, of course" she nodded nervously, instantly curious as to what kind of secret would be shared between just the two of them. A secret between two people was such a profound and intimate thing, something shared by only two people and unknown to the rest of the universe. It made her heart race in anticipation.

What could Frisk want to tell her? out of all the people he knew, they had barely interacted outside of school, that being on her own accord to keep the shy lonely orphan persona, she had no need to know more about his friends or family, aside from filling every single one of their houses with her blobs.

But he wanted to tell her, not Asriel nor Sans, a secret.

His mouth then began to move, but no words came out. He frowned for a moment before shaking his head, as if to clear his thoughts. "Forget it" he finally said.

At those words, her heart fell like a rock from that high level of anticipation, and she was too stunned by her own emotional reaction to say anything else.

.

---

.

Many weeks passed by since their small encounter in one of the now not-so-old city walls, and Fear noticed how Frisk had seemingly grown increasingly distant over that span of time. He was always involved in some work, usually simple ones that he could do entirely on his own. They had only just returned from a mission that took them away from Ebott Town to Shell City for a little while, but he had immediately resumed his work reinforcing the outer wall with those protection spells of his, even going as far as giving it a new paintjob just for the hell of it.

Their time at the coastal city had been fairly uneventful, however back when they were just leaving Ebott, the ambassador had been extremely insistent on scouting ahead the entire time, even though Maxwell hadn't thought it necessary, he didn't wanted to get in trouble with Toriel, in his own words, "He was too old for that crap".

The little Dreemurr had in fact gone so far ahead that he had arrived at a full day before the rest of them did. Fear had figured that perhaps he had only used 'scouting ahead' as an excuse not to talk to her, which had actually made her feel angry. It had given her a chance to talk with Akumu the entire way, but it still wasn't a good feeling being snubbed like that, because it made her feel like a kick to her ego.

In the end, it had turned out to be a fairly textbook escort mission, Frisk being sensitive enough to at least walk back to Ebott with them instead of going ahead by himself, though he still didn't say a word to her.

And the Black beast didn't like it one bit; being predictable, being a liar was one thing, that's who Frisk had always been even before falling into the Underground, his former control over the timeline just made him an even bigger monster... but that was the old one, this new Frisk, who was still way too much unpredictable, unreadable, and unnerving, made him slightly more tolerable...

Witch is precisely why she couldn't afford herself to ignore a massive development like that.

"We need to talk" she demanded, putting her proverbial foot down, the pink ball coming out of her sweater, growling in order to demand him to look at them both "That secret that you mentioned a little while ago... does that have anything to do with why you're not talking to me anymore?"

Frisk stopped his construction of a magic powered flamethrower turret and raised an eyebrow. That was the new job that was keeping him busy at the moment, lining the tops of the outer walls and the lookout towers with automated flamethrower turrets. He had even devised a system that fed fuel to the flamethrowers by connecting them all, so that it only took one person to operate an entire line of turrets, that truly blew up Gaster's mind.

Jack of all trades indeed.

"You really are observant" he laughed, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

"Then I deserve to know what that secret is" she growled, feeling insulted by how much he was underestimating her own expertise at analyzing people.

The ambassador glanced down at the flamethrower that he was tinkering with and let out a sigh. Standing up to his feet, he began installing it on an empty turret tripod. "It's something that might change your life, you know?" he warned, still working in order to avoid her gaze. "It's something that might change you."

"That grand, huh?" she squeezed her eyelids a little, being sure of the fact that he was, for the first time, going to be sincere about his own schemes. Would he tell her about his former ability to control the timeline? would he tell her about his genocide route? or would he finally pick up sword and shield, screaming at the top of his lungs that her head would be his?.

As the questions and possibilities kept coursing through Betty's mind, Frisk didn't tensed up in the slightest, neither his determination or magic coursed through his body... so she immediately discarded the possibility of them having their final battle right there and then. Instead, he just shrugged, much to her annoyance.

She hated this feeling, the feeling of being treated like an inferior being, like a nobody, Bete Noire lived and died off her pride, after all.

"Well, if you don't want to hear me out with a serious and open-minded attitude, it's better if I don't tell you" he shrugged, rigging the flamethrower up to the piping system.

Fear sighed, taking her fingers to her forehead, trying to massage and calm herself down, she had to hid her true trait, keep the "love" facade, because if too much animosity and Fear arose from her, then the whole plan would go to hell "Sorry, it's just that it's been getting on my nerves" she answered, doing her best to contain her anger, and her pride.

"I guess you want to know if I have a crush on you or not" he chuckled, surprising her with his bluntness.

"That's... one way to put it" she sputtered, honestly not knowing how to behave. A... crush? said possibility never even crossed her mind, Frisk was nice to everyone, was being the key word. Did he felt an odd aura coming from her after all? did she actually picked his interest?

Did he cared about her, for real?

The mere idea... gave her mixed emotions, because it wasn't natural. Fear and Determination were made to be enemies by nature, they couldn't be anything else, Agate had already settled and engraved her own will and hopes onto her since that fateful night, so... could Frisk even, if he ever had any sort of genuine attachment towards monsterkind, care about her?

"Don't worry Ma Chérie, I still love you" he grinned, meeting her eyes for the first time in weeks; Pink and red found each other, a small smile on his face, his hands stopping his work entirely, before turning back to continue "That's why I've been avoiding you."

"Was it something that I did?" she asked with a pout, not believing how easily the word 'love' had flowed from his heart... but what weirded her out the most, was the "still". Frisk didn't loved her, she was sure of it... at least, she used to. He came out of the Underground, they met because of that stupid car accident she faked, and of course, they spent a couple of days together, but that's it.

He had no feelings for her... so then... why did it sounded and felt so sincere?

"Nah, it's not you, it's me" he laughed, using that cliché line that all girls hated, even her, because it felt like he was treating her like his own personal clown. Then his face turned serious. "You might want to sit down for this one" Frisk continued, fashioning another stool for by welding together parts from a turret tripod.

The spell accepted and found that, like the wooden stool that he had made for her weeks ago, which she had taken home because it was so comfortable, she found that it fit the contours of her bottom perfectly.

"I've memorized what your ass feels like" seeing her expression of shock and the red tint spreading through her skin made him laugh, as if he was reading her mind. "I've ran my hands over that cute bottom of yours a million times, so I know how to make a chair fit to your specifications"

Her face immediately flared red with both embarrassment and anger as she immediately bolted up, her hands went to his sweater, grabbing him and lifting him from the floor; Betty's lips trembled, barely able to contain her anger and desires to beat the hell out of him. That... was a direct hit, one she couldn't forgive.

But then she remembered that she still hadn't gotten an explanation from him, one that he owned her now more than ever, so she held her anger in check. "You'd better have a very good explanation" she warned darkly, her eyes shining in the shadows that covered her entire face, but Frisk just kept smiling, nodding, trusting.

Sitting, he sighed, the time had come.

"I married you once" the human smiled at the spell with a faraway look in his eyes, as if recollecting the good memories. "Not just once, many times. Every time I die, my essence cycles back and I relive my life. I've relived the period from the year 2016 to 2039 more than a hundred times already, making me about three thousand years old by now. It's a curse I have to deal with"

Both Betty and Akumu were struck speechless. Normally, she wouldn't believe such a farfetched tale; for Christ's sake, the little liar spent no more than thirty years in the Underground resetting over, and over, and over again... but she believed him for some reason. It was probably the ancient expression in his eyes, an expression that only three thousand years of age could produce.

"The duplicity technique, It was the first magic I ever learned on my original life" he continued. "It's a technique that produces a solid duplicate of the caster, that much is true. But there's a catch; when a determination user uses it, no matter if they're a world master or not, it produces a duplicate of their essence. So once I dispel that copy, where does the essence go? In my first life, I never contemplated that question and kept producing clone after clone. But now I know. Those duplicated essences are stored away within me until my current soul extinguishes, then the next duplicated essence in line gets a chance at life"

...

Her eyes opened slowly as the realization hit her like a truck. And everything made sense; sure... he had lost the ability to reset, but even then, his suffering, his torment, had only just begun. It was one thing being in control of the timeline, but an entirely different one was being forced to be back, over and over again.

Like the groundhog day, instead that rather than being the master, he was the puppet.

His own... personal hell.

"How... how many duplicates did you-"

Frisk laughed, scratching the back of his head, stopping her before she could even continue. "Maybe a hundred thousands? a million? I don't know... All I know is that I have a long way to go yet" he replied, sighing a little as he raised his index finger, closing his left eye "I can sort of keep track by which date I cycle back. I always come back to the time I made that exact same clone, at first I was doing chores and whatnot on my first life, spamming this so called harmless technique to do everything for me, collecting food, helping at the orphanage I grew up in after we came out of the Underground... and then I started to mix determination with it, made me be able to make hundreds of copies in one go" just like Sans himself, the human closed one of his eyes, shrugging as he raised his hands, not caring at all about the fact that he was talking about a fate worse than death.

Back then, it seemed like a genius technique, yet now he cursed his own stupidity.

"In my first life, my original life, I married you, Ma Chérie" Giggling at the surprised expression of her so called arch-enemy and Kumu himself, he leaned his back against the railing and craning his head out towards the magnificent forest vista that their position high up on the wall had provided them, the rays of the sun shinning on the windows, trees, and the Mount Ebott announcing the night "We had two children; Oliver and Jazmin. She took after you; always worried about the state of the world and humanity, but also about monsterkind. Oliver was two years younger, and he was sort of a loving, goody-two-shoes like me" He paused for a moment to laugh, but to Betty, it seemed more like a whimper despite no tear coming out of his eyes "I loved them both. I loved them so much... but then I died. I died at the age of thirty-five; the next thing I knew, I was twelve years old again, helping Mother and Asriel to move their stuff from New Home to the Surface."

"That first time I cycled, Teach Maxwell was there and explained everything to me. He was an user of Determination back in his prime days, and also knew of the duplicity technique, so he had cycled before I had and were waiting for me."

"So the question from the other day-..."

"Yes" However, realizing what his former wife may have assumed, Frisk shook his head, cutting her thoughts. "However, he didn't spammed it as much as I did, he rarely used Duplicity. Teacher cycled through his stockpile of duplicated essences long ago and passed on to wherever deads go. Back when he was still cycling, I at least had some company, but now I'm alone."

"Frisk..."

Betty's eyebrows for the first time curved in a sad expression. This wasn't something she was enjoying to hear, sure... she wanted to kill Frisk, kill every monster, save humanity, but he seemed to be trapped in his own hell already, one similar yet so different to the one he trapped the monsters in.

"That first time I cycled though, I was stupid... a fool" he murmured, his voice dripping with regret as the red color left his eyes, being replaced by a dead brown "I tried to fix all the mistakes that I had made in life. Do you know how to save a life, my Cherry? Saving a life means forsaking another to die... for every life I saved, another would die... and in some cases, the person I was trying to save died anyway no matter what I tried. Life requires a balance that obeys the law of equal exchange... in order to obtain, something of equal value must be lost."

"Teacher tried to tell me that, but I didn't listen. I stupidly tried to fix all the mistakes I had made in life, only to make things worse" he muttered. "Did you know that Jason should've already unlocked his special attack by now? the reason he doesn't have it is because I went ahead and struck down the mercenaries on the road and lake that would've given us lots of trouble."

So that was why he had gone on so far ahead of them. The fact that at least that piece of the puzzle had fallen into place made his story that much easier to believe, despite how unbelievable it really was.

"In one life, I even told everyone about my cycling ability. I gave everyone the heads up on all of the tragedies that would occur, but even that turned out to be a disaster; not only the you from that life changed completely for the worst, but also a guy from the military police called Emerald pulled a coup d'etat and used the knowledge of future events to turn Ebott into a military dictatorship after killing Jessica and the Dremurrs" he frowned, clearly showing his distaste for the hopelessness of his situation. "Since then, I've given up on fixing major mistakes and now I just let life go on as it was originally intended to. Every now and then I make small changes just for variety, such as not giving Jessica or politics any sort of attention. Just small changes that aren't too far-reaching, but just enough to keep me from getting bored with living the same life over and over again. Jason may not have his special attack now, but he will sooner or later, so no harm done" he explained with a nonchalant shrug.

"But there are a few things that are never constant, such as which of my sperm decide to swim the fastest up your... ahem" he cleared his throat to keep himself from getting into further graphic detail. "I desperately wanted Oliver and Jazmin back... but I could never get them back. Sometimes, I'd have sons, other times daughters, but never Jazmin and Oliver. Sure, I loved all of our children equally, but losing them after cycling was just too painful... so I've long given up on children as well."

"Frisk..."

She muttered, realizing that's why she was being avoided. It was too difficult... no, insane to think about it, that she would one day choose Frisk over her mission and directive, that she would forgive him for his hypocrisies and go so far as to form a family together, but she could tell and feel that he wasn't lying.

Now it all made sense of why she also couldn't see his memories anymore: things that would happen, that had happened, hundreds of copies of his essence were in just one soul mixed up, nothing clear, no just one essence but there were so many that trying to read his memories was like trying to spot an ant in the fog.

The pain in his voice was clear... the pain of never being able to see his children, their children... ever again.

"It's not all bad though" he shrugged, trying to force a laugh to lighten the mood. "I've picked up a lot of hobbies on the way, since I've had a lot of time to kill. In one life, I became a bestselling author... in another life, I learned how to paint... I can play the violin too, once I even defeated Sans in a joke contest, can you believe it?"

"So that's what you meant by jack of all trades," she smiled softly, glad that Frisk hadn't been driven to the depths of depression by now. "And the cooking... you must've become a great cook after three thousand years of practice... that's why your food was so delicious."

"Yup... time is one thing that I'm not short on" he chuckled.

Then a thought struck her. "Have you tried... you know... killing yourself?" she asked softly, feeling ashamed and dirty for even suggesting such a thing. But if it could possibility help him cycle through his stockpile of lives faster and end his suffering, then she felt obligated to at least mention it.

He then let out a sigh and looked at her with those weary eyes. "Yeah" he replied in a defeated voice. "I even made a deal with you once, to cut my lifespan short, offered you my soul... but it made you really angry. I didn't want that, so I never tried it ever again."

"Frisk..." She tried to hide the blush that was rising to her cheeks. Was she already falling in love with him? Was this the inevitable destiny that had been laid out before her countless times already? One thing was clear though, that he surely loved her still.

"It's a lot to take in, I know" he said with a comforting smile. "Give it some thought... but don't tell anybody else... I wouldn't want Emerald getting wind of this and going on a rampage again, nor do I want to assassinate him."

"Okay..."

.

---

.

Betty didn't had much of an opportunity to think about Frisk's predicament however, because soon afterwards Toriel announced the "Magic Team tournament". Despite Frisk probably having gone through it countless times already, Fear had her doubts about it. Sure, she was hiding most if not all her abilities to catch him by surprise, but that was useless considering his predicament.

Frisk and her other selves had probably fought so many times, she couldn't even begin to imagine him ever flinching at her illusions or her ability to drain magic from others, he knew her perfectly by that point.

It was then that a woman clad in a white dress openly expressed her desire of approval, challenging them to a fight, mostly because of Frisk being there. Yet it was Jason who went first, although things didn't looked good for him from the very beginning, this girl wasn't from their class, she seemed older, a clear disadvantage.

"Jason should finally cast his special attack for the first time, right... now"

Muttered the Ambassador, watching how the purple eyed girl toyed around with Justice like he was nothing, however, the moment her kick touched his left arm, his entire skin shone in a bright yellowish light, sending a barrage of magic projectiles that finally managed to damage her due to the surprise factor, Frisk on the other hand just raised his hand to cast a shield big enough to protect him and Fear the second.

Even so, it was still not enough to take her down. Perseverance stood up, preparing herself to land another hit, this time, directing all her magic to her fingertips for a fast blow. Disappearing in a blur, all justice could see was the hand getting closer for his face... before the brownhaired teen grabbed her hand, stopping her fingers from reaching him.

The female opened her eyes in shock, meanwhile, Toriel and Asgore's child tilted his head to the left slightly, showing the boredom in his cold expression.

"alright, break it up you two. There's no time for messing around in the halls, the ringbell is already going to sound."

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING~

Just as he predicted it, the break time ended abruptly. Changing her attitude immediatly to a calm and collected one, the woman finally introduced herself, to Jason atleast, because both Pink and Red already knew her through her eyes, and his past lives. Yubel, a perseverance mage that could technically be considered their senior, because she was two years older.

Frisk, however, started to walk without even bothering to help Jason up. The soul of justice, however, upon seeing that closed his eyes and growled at this sudden lack of empathy from Frisk, following him, Betty and Yubel close behind, they still had to know all the other teams they would be fighting against soon enough.

The first exam was, much to their reassurance, a written test. Knowing the answers from the instructor assigned to them was an easy win for Noire, she would've cared about Frisk and Jason, however, the first one most likely had memorized the entire thing by now, so both of them getting a good score might be able to help their blonde teammate in case he lacked in the smart department.

Things took a turn for the worst in the second exam hours later, where they were going to be sent in a "Free for all" mission inside the city's Sewer system precisely because of their labyrinthic nature.

"We'll make it through this effortlessly, no?"

She asked, Akumu poking at Frisk's left arm to ensure he was paying attention to them, but there was no use; he seemed to be keeping a close watch on a team of adults. "What are you... ?" she asked curiously, before opening her eyelids in disbelief at the sudden realization.

The tall one with black hair, she couldn't see his-

"IRRABAZAL!" Roared Determination, charging with sword in hand at the cloaked adult, who grinned as he threw a blueish saw at Determination, forcing him to reject it with a slash.

"HAHAHA! Oh Frisk dear, just like how I suspected! The Duplicity technique must've been what granted me this life-travelling opportunity!" yelled the blueish soul, only then Frisk noticed his eyes. Much to his surprise, the damn bastard that had caused both human and monsterkind so much trouble in all his lives had become an user of determination, a dual soul with blue and red.

But that was impossible, unless he had injected an ungodly amount of it straight into his very being.

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner, you annoying brat?! HOW DARE YOU KEEP THIS FROM ME?!"

Letting his ego and arrogance consume in completely, the artificial dual-trait male stepped onto the ground, causing a big amount of red knives to come out of the earth, forcing Frisk to jump and many of the other nearby teams to back away at the sheer amount of magic and power, Dreemurr landed on the floor, summoning his shield to block an upcoming wave of saws that emerged from the red knives' blades.

"You... How many did you made without me noticing?!"

The smile Integrity gained sent shivers down his spine.

"Frisk! what in god's name is going on here?!"

Screamed the Goat lady, finally recovering from the shock of finding her own child battling one of the foreign team members, but Toriel wasn't stupid. She could feel the amount of killing intent emanating from that man, it was quite obvious he wasn't someone wanting to properly become a mage in the eyes of the system.

He was a terrorist.

"MOM! HOLD HIM IN PLACE!"

Frisk screamed, knowing his small teen body lacked the strength to defeat this guy on his own, he couldn't do it when he was a soul of integrity, much less now that he forced determination into him.

Before Toriel could do anything after casting her fireballs, the eight fallen saw it. He saw him coming straight into him, but in this era he lacked the physical speed necessary to avoid it. Frisk found himself with a Red sawed knife impaled straight through his chest, puking blood.

"FRISK!" Betty screamed in awe, summoning her needle.

"Irra... you're going down with me" muttered the third user of determination, feeling his soul starting to crack: two copies of him held the raven-haired man in place, this might add a couple of more souls to his stockpile, but it was nothing in the long run. The anti-human/monster activist laughed, not trying to fight back.

"It doesn't matter, not anymore... I'll be back, and when that happens-"

"I'll kill you before your return... that will wipe out your entire stockpile of duplicated essences." noticing the face of horror and shock as the clones stuck red copies of the determination blade on the ground, triggering Chara's special attack, Frisk couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction "I'll return months before you and wipe you out... you discovered the curse of the red souls a little too late, Irrabazal"

"YOU BASTARD CHILD! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME!"

As he talked, his expression changed into one of pure anger and hate, the entire area around them started to shine in a red light, even if he would've wanted to create a shield, he had been determination for at the very least a couple of days after injecting it in his last lifecycle, unlike Frisk who had mastered his own techniques.

"[SPECIAL HELL]!"

"Frisk! WAIT!"

Yelled Pink, trying to reach out to him, but Akumu stopped her, knowing that amount of Determination could be the end to them both. Frisk, however, gave one last glance to the woman he loved before his entire body disappeared in a red explosion.

"Goodbye, my cherry..."

.

---

.

When Frisk opened his eyes once again, he found himself staring blankly into his own reflection; holding in his hands one of the plates his mother asked him to put on the table so they could have breakfast. The Dreemurr quickly left the plate right where his mother asked, but rather than going back to the kitchen to keep doing the chores, he opened the door, starting to run towards the Anti-Monsters Department.

"When did Irrabazal ever got his hands on Determination... ?" He muttered, on the last cycle before the one he had experienced, that miserable had managed to get his hands on a weapon of mass destruction, of course, with Gaster and Rave's help they managed to deactivate it before he blew up the south part of the city, even if that caused the Betty from that world to speed up her own actions, mainly because of the teamwork between both races improving their relationship.

But he was nowhere to be found back then, the bomb was set on auto-pilot.

"He must have learned it back then... otherwise, he would've used his knowledge of the future to trigger a second magic war without needing to be here to spy on us, he cycled hours before the tournament, if not minutes... " Nodding at himself, the ambassador immediately opened up Jessica's door, finding the blackhaired woman looking at the city from the window, jumping out of surprise.

"Uh?! what are you-"

She screamed, quickly hiding away the photo of her daughter, Frisk however, slammed his hands on Gray's desk.

"Where's Rutrow? I need to see him."

The grey soul opened her eyes in shock, trying to play insane, before the user of determination opened his eyelids; his red, ruby-like eyes alongside the shadow casted on his face terrified her, because it seemed like he was on the verge of insanity.

"There's no time for ANYTHING else Jessica. Call Rave Rutrow NOW!"

.

---

.

Far away, in another time, in another life, the black beast silently cried over the death of her so called nemesis; holding his body between her arms, Akumu gently rested above the place where his soul used to be. Fear knew that he was still alive, but that didn't stopped the void in her heart from growing not one bit.

He was in a place where she could never reach, for Determination and Fear were complete opposites.

"Frisk... No matter where you are... I pray fortune comes your way..."

.

---

.

It took some convincing, but both Jessica, Asgore and Gaster ended up cooperating and obeying his demands. With their help, Frisk managed to ambush Irrabazal and wipe him out alongside his Terrorism resistance when they were barely preparing themselves and gathering sympathizers, he didn't recognized Frisk personally, to him he was just the ambassador.

So it was clear he still had to cycle back when another Special Hell turned him to ashes after Asgore took one of his arms.

With Irrabazal and the terrorists gone early on, Frisk was free in a way: he used it to leave Ebott in order to live a secluded life, mostly as a way to experience something new, not caring about anyone else but himself just this one time. Surprisingly, things turned out better in a way he wasn't expecting in the slightest.

Without him nor the Integrity user to interfere, Betty took an even more diplomatic approach rather than her wish to annihilate all of monsterkind, this also triggered a change of heart in Asriel and Sans themselves, who seemed to blame each other for his sudden disappearance, causing the Goat prince to be guilt ridden, most likely thanks to his Flowey persona in the depths of his subconscious.

Asriel ended up telling everyone the truth about his actions as a world master, which ruined his own public image but also gave the world more trust in monsterkind, much to Fear the second's horror, Asgore tried everything in his power to save his son from jail, but it was useless.

Eventually after a decade, Chara's brother came out of jail, and things continued normally.

Frisk kept these conditions for a better tomorrow in mind, knowing they may come in handy in the next cycles he would live, everyone seemed to be happier without him even if he hadn't used Replace.

Betty included.

Then, right on schedule, he died on 2039 during a summer afternoon.

.

---

.

Seeing Betty during class on his next cycle made him smile, one that even if she and the others noticed, more than likely no one even paid mind to it. The human sighed, sitting on his desk; it had been way too long for him, watching the faces of his classmates and even his mother when she and Asriel were getting ready for school, that was the first time he lived away from everyone, so it felt nice going back home.

Later that day, as the events repeated themselves, Frisk in this case decided to try a most civilized and calm behavior, but his own desires would trigger the best of him, alongside his longing for the pink one's affection.

Love is not something you can control after all.

Living alone in a small apartment room was the best thing Betty could've find; far better than the cabin she woke up in. It was also closer to the city, which she had filled to the brim with blobs to be alert 24/7, just in case. That's why when she started to hear a melody in the middle of the night after coming out of the bathroom, it startled her.

She recognized that aura and presence immediately, he didn't even try to hide himself: there he was, sitting on her balcony, one leg resting on the railing, the other one dangling as the violin rested on his shoulder; playing an aria that even managed to move her dark spirited soul, making the Fear trait rumble inside her chest.

"Bonne soirée"

Only when he greeted her in French, flexing his knowledge out of pure amusement, the human shaped spell slightly closed her eyelids. This was a surprise... a weird one, specially considering the fact that she was unable to read his memories since that exact morning... did he discovered her? could he already started to feel the connection of their traits, despite her efforts?

If not, then what was he thinking, coming here, trespassing into someone else's house?

There was also the fact that she couldn't stop thinking about that melody, as if it was stuck in her head... did he learned how to control sound or something?

Frisk laughed, once again, pulling Betty from her thoughts, making the girl growl slightly because she felt insulted.

"What are you doing here?"

She asked, completely ditching her impression of the shy girl she had adopted in class until now; the pink blobs under her bed already getting ready to fight, while Akumu slowly but surely started to shape himself into her scythe, still inside her sleeve. Frisk, however, opened his eyelids, his eyes perfectly reflecting her serious expression, while he kept his small, gentle smile.

"Just wanted to see you; nothing else."

Placing the violin on his shoulder once again, playing another song this time, Betty couldn't help but sigh as she rested her back against the wall, arms closed, still looking at him without any amount of trust... but Agate's daughter had to admit, his music skills were quite... interesting.

Maybe he could be a good jokester to keep around.

Frisk, on the other hand, kept playing for as long as he wanted; noticing how eventually Noire closed her eyes, she didn't need to sleep of course, but so far she was still trying to trick him into thinking she was human. Determination laughed in his own head, getting closer to her; not stopping his small concert.

Chu~

A small peck on her cheek is what caused the black beast to forgot the dumb game they were playing; but it was too late. No matter how much she searched, Frisk was gone, not even her blobs could feel his determination, so he most likely used an enhancing jump spell to get away as far as possible.

"Hm..."

Akumu tilted his head and body, looking into her eyes as Noire closed the windows that went to her balcony, sure... sleep wasn't something she needed, but that didn't meant she didn't used nights for planning her own schemes and actions. A part of her wanted to go after Frisk and demand for answers, but another part wanted to meditate.

What the hell was going on inside his head?

.

---

.

Suffice to say... no matter how much Betty tried to come up with something, she couldn't find an answer that brought her peace, and it set her on alert while also angering her all the same, she had been relying on her own eyes to judge others way too much until yesterday; because she could watch anyone's memories perfectly.

Everyone, except for Frisk's.

Does he knows who I am then? what was that for?

Becoming his teammate for the next couple of years was going to be extremely beneficial for her own ambitions, as they say: keep your allies close, and your enemies even closer, and this gave her lots of opportunities to find a weakness or any chance for a one-shot kill... that was her original plan...

Before he started to behave like a stalker.

Waiting there with Jason didn't helped her to clear off her mind either; she wasn't afraid of Frisk, of course not, he was just a deceiver, a liar, a murderer, an hypocrite and more than anything, a mere human. But... how could she prepare against something she didn't expected? that's what was worrying her.

"Good morning you two."

Speaking of the so called pacifist devil; he walked in towards both of them, almost an hour late, carrying a basket alongside a blanket, making both of his new teammates raise an eyebrow. Dreemurr waved his hand from left to right, noticing the hostile aura surrounding his pink counterpart.

Uncaring and unforgiving as always.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. Come, eat up with me; we are going to be sparring against Teach Maxwell soon enough, don't you wanna prove yourselves?"

Phrasing himself like that instantly triggered both the yellow and pink colored souls. Jason mostly because he actually wanted to improve as a warrior, but Betty on the other hand felt more insulted, as if he was targeting her specifically. Sitting down in the blanket, Akumu came out of her sleeve, picking up one of the boxes for her.

Much safer in case this was poisoned with determination or he had something planned.

"Hey, pay it no mind."

Continued the brownhaired teen, looking at Jason for a moment, before finally clashing eyes with hers. Though their expressions were total opposites; while Betty was frowning, Frisk had a smiling face, a calm one, that lacked cockiness or any other emotion, he was just happy, which was getting to her nerves.

"I bought it down the street. I'm sure you guys will enjoy it; also bought some orange tarts."

Betty wasn't accustomed to sweets nor any sort of food that wasn't magic-filled, but by just looking at the pastry Frisk was offering her, she could immediately tell it was delicious. Plus, Orange was her second favorite color because it reminded her of mother, so she accepted with a small "appreciated" under her breath.

Indeed, it was delicious.

Once they had all finished and Frisk packed up all the stuff, they each went to their own. Noire had many things to think about; Jason wanted to refine his Aiming using the trees, and Frisk? he rested against a trunk, pulling out a harmonica, starting to slowly sing a relaxing jazz tune, despite how annoying it was to admit it, so she stood there by his side, never taking her eyes off him.

.

---

.

Days turned into weeks as time went on; mission after mission and training session after training session, which eventually, turned into an unbearable monotony for the Bete Noire, especially because ever since that night, Frisk now seemed to be avoiding her, it kept giving her strange vibes, mostly because of her own paranoia.

That mix between cheerfulness and friendship but also being so distant, refusing to interact with her more than necessary while still being extremely caring whenever they did had to, was confusing.

And if there was something someone like Betty hated, was being played at.

Why did he kissed her that night? why was his music so... good? Frisk learned and knew many things with his time Underground, but the skill to play Music wasn't one of them; even then, if that kiss was also real, then why was he avoiding her now? was she being treated like a toy, a game? this wasn't how humans behaved.

Part of her answers came the day they returned from a boring, four days mission to Shell City. A new bestselling novel had been published while they had been gone, and the author of that novel had been none other than the Ambassador of Monsterkind, Frisk Dreemurr. Noire then realized, most likely he locked himself in his room every single day after their assignments were over in order to write that book, Toriel, Asriel and basically the entirety of his circle of friends were proud of him for it.

It even got a small mention in the news.

I could do better

Her pride and rivalry was speaking through her right now; so, determined to prove herself right, she bought the damn thing and started to read it, first she would address the quality of it, then surpass him, and as a bonus, maybe... just maybe, she could find the answers of his behavior in those pages.

Having a poetic title such as "The sun's tears", finishing in one night was an easy task for someone like her, at first she wasn't truly interested in it's content, but as the pages went on, she ended up emotionally invested in it, to the point her eyebrows ended up curving at the end; a tragic tale about a garden, two childhood friends, and the flower they planted together as a symbol of the first time they met.

The brownhaired girl, once she had enough time to meditate, found disturbing her increasing obsession over the eight fallen, but there was no helping it; overnight he ended up turning into a box of mysteries, a box her eyes couldn't decipher neither her claws could force open if she wanted to take things slow and peaceful.

Skills to play charming music, and writing books that made you cry... what else did he learned? and when?

"Grrrr..."

Noire growled in frustration, quickly throwing with all her might the book into her trashcan, her patience finally running out; Fear jumped through her window, starting to run towards the Dreemurr household. Toriel and Asriel most likely weren't home yet, the goat had her own team of mages and the prince did so as well, it was the perfect time to face him once and for all.

She wasn't anyone's toy, much less his.

What she wasn't expecting once she arrived, was that his door was open.

"Hello?!"

She yelled, this wasn't an undercover mission or anything of the sort; she WANTED answers from Frisk after all. Fear opened up the door to his room, finding it to be a mess, but somehow, it was a charming one. Crumbled pieces of paper all over the place, most likely, discarded pages and ideas for his novel.

She also noticed multiple musical instruments lying around on his bed, desk, and floor. A Shamisen leaning against the wall, a guitar resting in the table, harmonicas in various keys pilled up on a box, an open violin case inside his closet, and even an electric keyboard still turned on, with a music sheet in process.

"The lonely flower..."

She muttered, reading the title he used as a name for it. Betty knew many things, but how to read music wasn't one of her skills, but she could learn, and would. However, Akumu ended up pulling her sleeve, pointing at an easel, covered by a blanket that they obviously pulled away, revealing an unfinished canvas oil painting on a plastic mat protecting the carpet from stray paint. It was a magnificent piece, depicting Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Gaster, Muffet, Mettaton, Toriel, Asgore, Asriel and Chara.

But he wasn't there.

The pink ball growled, noticing a closed sketchbook on his light table. Noire flipped through it, seeing it was full of portrait sketches; the first one was a sketch of a very attractive teen with long hair called "Jazmin", on the next page was a boy named "Oliver", and then a girl with braids named "Hellen".

Twenty-four portraits, of people she couldn't recognize in anyone's memories.

"My Cherry?"

"KGH!" Noire gasped, jumping in surprise as he came into the bedroom; carrying a small plastic bag filled with eggs and other ingredients, Betty looked at Akumu for a moment. Yes, she had come expecting answers from him about his behavior, about his actions, that kiss... and everything, really.

But what could she say now?

Frisk, instead, smiled at her as he gently opened his eyelids, noticing she had been seeing his stuff, and paying special attention to his artwork.

This brought him happy memories; he was used to coming home to Betty's loving embrace during their married days, so it was nostalgic, it made him feel loved again, despite the fact that they were nothing but "partners" and future enemies as of right now.

"You two like my drawings?"

He asked, looking at the paper sheet. Jazmin, his first daughter, had been sixteen years old when he had died, and already was growing to be a stunning beauty, but that had been at least three thousand years ago, she would be long dead by now, because she was born as a Fear user, not a Determination one, despite him teaching her the Duplicity technique.

"Yeah... they're nice looking" Fear the second replied, at least now that the topic had changed the ambient didn't felt as awkward as before, but she wasn't going to back down in her questions, so Agate's child immediately closed her eyelids, just a little bit, changing her tone. "What are you playing at, Frisk? what is this all about?... what was that all about?"

Frisk laughed a little bit, feeling guilty about the fact that he had unconsciously pushed Betty towards this kind of situation... but he couldn't help it, he genuinely missed her company, that's why he had always avoided the idea of fighting her ever since their first life, he would much rather kill himself, or just go away.

But now... he took it all too far.

"Betty... this was my daughter... Our daughter."

.

---

.

That night, Betty's mind went into absolute chaos, but it was ten times worse than the one she had been experiencing until now. No matter how much she tried to think about it, it was way too unbelievable to be true, but, somehow, she believed in him. It was as if she could feel it, in his tone, his actions, and even his eyes.

He wasn't lying in the slightest, and it horrified her.

Only three thousand years of practice could produce the exquisite technique required to play music like he did; only three thousand years of practice could create someone of Frisk's talents... and only three thousand years of loneliness could produce those depression filled eyes of his.

That's what terrified the spell the most, because it meant that basically no matter what she did, or what he did, his hell would be almost permanent; it was like the resets, but in this case, he was suffering them on his own, people that he would never seen again, because Frisk couldn't bring pictures with him whenever he died, drawing was the skill he mastered first out of all of them.

So he could sketch as accurately as possible the faces of each of his children every time he cycled, making them live forever in his memory; he had lived over a hundred times already, but had only twenty four children. She realized that it must've become way too painful for him to bear losing more of them, which caused him to give up on children entirely, but also gave up caring about the world.

Unlike the resets, where he decided the fate of the world for his own amusement and sickening curiosity... now, Frisk's wishes and choices didn't matter anymore.

Seeing the faces of the children that she had given birth to in other lives shook her to her core; looking at them made her feel like a mother, like a human, and it made her cold, merciless soul feel warm like never before. She could see that Jazmin had inherited her eyes, and that Oliver had her skin tone. It triggered her motherly instincts, and just seeing their faces caused her to well up with happiness, pride and... love.

It made her realize that she truly wanted children, but... it would only cause Frisk more pain than the one he already carried.

"Grr?"

Akumu's growl made her stop right in her tracks, having a shiver once she reflected on what she had been thinking... she automatically pictured Frisk as the father of her children rather than her nemesis, and most important target. Was she already starting to love and care about him?

It only caused her more headaches and anger, so much that her blood started to boil.

.

---

.

"Frisk. We need to talk"

"Are we breaking up?" laughing at his own joke, he couldn't help but picture Sans smiling at him... if he only knew his predicament, most likely he would call it "poetic justice" and tell him he's "getting dunked on" on his own.

Betty, of course, didn't liked the joke one bit. No matter the timeline, she would always hate Sans, Gaster and Asriel.

"I'm not laughing, Frisk"

The soul of fear frowned, crossing her arms under her chest, and the brownhaired male couldn't help but let out a long, tired sigh. Keeping up the act was hard whenever she was around, especially because she now knew all of his suffering and their "true" history. He couldn't hide the truth from her, eyes or not.

Because the truth was...

That he longed her.

"Betty... I honestly want you to fall in love with me, but I haven't married you in over two hundred years now, because I don't want you to fall in love with someone who would die at the early age of thirty-five. But I couldn't help it and I opened up my mouth more than I should've..."

The black beast's arms ended up changing position, truth be told, she was blushing a little bit, but it was so small that one wouldn't notice if he didn't knew her that well... Frisk did. Agate's child, for some reason, avoided his face. Her pink soul was warm, and while a part of her hated that feeling, another one didn't.

"You... I don't know... how to proceed" She replied, being as honest as she could. Betty wasn't that good with feelings, so she would just have to be frank, be honest, as much as she disliked the idea of openly talking about her plans and ideology "A part of me thinks that you deserve it, after everything you've done on your original life... but at the same time, I don't want you to be alone... you've been so for far too long and... I know how it feels."

A small talk, that wasn't definitive in the slightest. It wasn't a "We can try" but rather a... "I won't kill you yet", and knowing how things could end up, it was far more than he could ask for. Smiling, the eight fallen ended up grabbing Betty's left hand; the human spell looked straight at his face, her eyes going from their handholding, to his eyelids.

"Is it ok?... can I be selfish once again, my cherry?... can I try to win your love again?"

No matter what she could've done to try and hide her now OBVIOUS embarrassment, she didn't do anything. Instead, the bete noire let out a small growl, true to her nature, evading the gaze of who should've been her nemesis, and number one target.

"Whatever... do as you please..."

Toriel's second adoptive child laughed a little, before his arms ended up around her shoulders. His mouth, close to her left ear, no matter how much time passed he still knew his wife's weak spots. Opening his left eye, with a red shine, he let out a small sigh that sent shivers down Noire's spine.

"I promise you something, Bete Noire... you'll witness the true meaning of love."

For some reason, those words made her feel a strange sense of Deja Vu...

.

---

.

Despite Frisk's promise of making her fall to his knees for him, he had put romance on hold entirely; while they went through the tournament, he had stopped avoiding her though, so at least something had changed.

The written test required no effort from them whatsoever, but the second exam changed their situation drastically, Frisk's mood included since he started to act coldly. It was strange for her, if he knew of future events then there should be no anxiety left in his being, nor any sort of worry.

Very soon she understood why he was being so apprehensive; her rage at his own inaction and hypocrisy took over her sense when she saw him do absolutely nothing while Jason and her did their best trying to fight back against a pyromaniac named Firitro, who despite her weak control over flames thanks to Agate's legacy, was even able to overpower her.

She knew that Frisk's previous attempts to "fix" the future ended up in absolute disaster, she knew that defeating that miserable might be a fatal mistake one day, but it couldn't ease the pain and anger of being beaten into a pulp alongside their partner, her pride was completely shattered and so was her patience.

A slightly unreasonable behavior, that was mostly justified... but somewhat unreasonable.

"Why?"

She asked, and determination didn't reply. Part of his bangs were covering his eyes, as he used his magic to tend the wounds of a dormant Jason, doing it's best to heal up the burnts that appeared on his skin. However, as much as he wished to tell her, it was too soon. Frisk knew Betty very well and, above all else, was her duty to protect this world from humanity, monsterkind, and anything in between.

Eliminate future menaces was also part of such directive.

"You'll know in two years."

He wouldn't give her another answer. The rest of the exam was a walk in the park, she had almost forgotten he had accumulated an immeasurable amount of Magic, techniques and spells. Getting out of the sewers while evading all the fights they could, was a nice bonus. By the time the preliminary matches happened, Jason had barely recovered enough to secure himself a victory despite how damaged he was.

Betty eliminated a girl named Alice with no effort whatsoever, and she could tell, Frisk had drawn his match against an user of perseverance named Andego to keep a low profile. A month of training and preparation began, which led up to Jason healing up and going on his own way, it was just Fear and Determination alone, entirely on their own.

The thought excited her, because a part of her hoped for them to have a sparring match, the idea of clashing blades with Frisk in a non-lethal way seemed way more attractive than killing him, she had to admit that much. How many techniques and spells would he know? heck, would the little bastard managed to unlock the other traits or learn chroma magic?

She wanted and needed to find out.

"Bon Minuit, Ma Cerise"

He greeted, and the spell raised her head slightly in a welcoming tone, dropping the book she was reading until that point. This was the first time he entered her room with her "permission" so to speak, and she had to admit... this aura of a "tragic martyr" that surrounded him after knowing the truth made him all the more interesting, tolerable and... likable.

Even if she wanted for them to fight each other for the next month, day and night, this was no place for such thing.

"Sorry for not warning you about the battle with Firitro. I know it must've been hard on both of you." He apologized, taking a quick look around her room, this time taking his sweet time. Just as he expected, it was plain, simple... it was Betty-like. She was never someone to care about decorations, or where she slept.

But that was one of the things that he liked about her, the humbleness, even if it wasn't intentional, most likely, it was part of Amber's influence.

"Forget it." She replied, however, the pinkette raised a finger, that she ended up pointing at him, Akumu started to nod in agreement, already knowing what she would say. "Next time though, I would appreciate if you told us a small summary of what's going to happen."

"Yeah, that's why I'm here." He replied, walking and taking a seat at the foot of her bed. The spell's eyebrows raised out of curiosity, Akumu even looked at her, tilting his head. Both of them got closer to their sworn enemy, her sitting at his side, her friend on her head "We need to prepare ourselves. Next month at the closing matches we're going to be attacked a group of anarchists, and if we're not careful, they might even blow up half the city."

"What?"

She asked, immediately frowning in rage at the idea. Frisk remembered the situation quite well. Back in their first life, they had managed to get some Intel precisely because of a small misstep that ruined the entire plan of the "White feather" organization, but during his second cycle, he realized, the trajectory of the cameras wasn't constant.

They were planning a massive attack under outside forces, wanting to blow up Ebott as a declaration of war against the recently formed "Human/Monster alliance" usually, they would be defeated with not much effort... but that wasn't constant. More often than not, whenever he didn't helped, half the town turned into ashes.

That's why Betty was crucial in this part of history, she was able to spot and quickly stop their actions whenever she was paying attention to her surroundings, and not her own match or the others.

"I can't do it alone though... I am going to need help. I am going to need you."

Betty smiled, defiantly. This was way more exciting than just staying still and waiting for her turn to humiliate whoever her opponent was going to be. An adventure, a small mission of just the two of them, to save half their hometown. The sole idea of fighting side by side with him made her feel...

Happy.

"You got it."

And she offered him her hand, that he of course took. However, he also took it a step further; interlocking their fingers in a soft, caring squeeze that surprised her. But she ended up acceting it regardless, holding his hand in a gentle way. The mood ended up being ruined by the red eyed teen giggling, his gaze fixated on her face.

"It's been far too long since you've last hold my hand that way... two-hundred years ago for me."

Betty couldn't break the hand holding neither the fight their eyes were having. For the first time in what seemed like ages, the Black Beast had a clear look of Frisk's emotions, those red orbs were filled to the brim with sorrow, and hope. It was as if she was looking straight into a bonfire.

"Two hundred years is... a long time..."

.

---

.

The main day of their team up came up alongside the final matches, and just like how Frisk predicted, it ended up going smoothly. Betty let most of her blobs do the job, going right to where Frisk told them to, while the two of them went back to the only place where an explosion would be able to spread itself.

Back into the sewer system.

Killing each and every single one of them wasn't that difficult, but wasn't that easy either. They went as far as to force Noire to merge herself with Akumu, unleashing the true meaning of fear into the members of White Feather, Frisk wasn't joking when he said he couldn't do it alone. In the original timeline, the matches got interrupted due to a call from Jessica herself who was reviewing the footage just in case.

A big event that helped to establish more trust between monsters and humans, fighting for their home, but right now, it was used by Frisk so he and Betty could get even closer, and it was doing wonders.

That's why... when days later, he arrived to explain to her about Jason having to abandon them in order to fulfill his own agenda, causing a lot of tragedies in the process for the greater good, she verbally lashed out at him to no end. How could he ask her to sit and do nothing? their own classmate was going to basically leave the town to become a potential extremist.

A sick sense of justice that could very well threaten the entirety of mankind.

It couldn't be true... she didn't knew Jason that much, apart from the memories she could see in his soul, but as the days passed, the more she analyzed him, the more it became clear to her. Justice wasn't a concept with one, true and only ultimate truth. Every user had their own point of view.

His coldness, his lack of empathy... that's what made her realize he certainly could, and would, develop into a menace, despite having studied under Toriel and many other masters before the barrier broke.

"His life is truly worth sparing?" she asked him that evening, looking at the moon. Why wasn't he trusting her enough to tell her what could go wrong if he was killed? why was he protecting Jason so much? was it an act of reflection?

Dreemurr leaned against her balcony railing, looking at the moon shinning in the sky. A small smile appeared on his lips, remembering his most recent discovery... guess his memory always ended up proving it's worth, alongside his selfishness, for once... it would bring him and everyone around him peace.

"Don't worry. I'll avoid it, I promise. I'll save many."

He said firmly, remembering his previous cycle. Witnessing Asriel being judged by his crimes alongside his honesty had another effect on Jason, it reinforced the concept that their hometown had of Justice, which managed to greatly suppress, if not entirely eliminate his wicked perception of it.

Leaving and killing Irrabazal was the only way.

"You will?" She said, surprised at his statement, but with one growl, Akumu reminded her of the law of equal exchange "What will you sacrifice?"

"Pay it no mind" he smiled, closing his eyelids, using that fake expression she hated so much, because it was a dead giveaway that something was going terribly wrong inside his head "I'll make sure he becomes a good guy, many humans and monsters won't have to die, no one will, in fact."

"Just tell me already, god damn it Frisk!" she yelled, grabbing his hand, frowning. Her tone was rough, almost like a growl. It wasn't a request, but a demand, her fingers squeezed his wrist "Knowing you, you're going to do something absolutely stupid and pay the price entirely on your own!"

"No, never." His voice changed as well, in a serious tone. Opening his eyes slightly, as much as he didn't wanted to, he channeled some determination through his skin, forcing Betty to let go of him due to the pain of her fingertips "Irrabazal will pay the price."

"YOU'RE NOT TELLING ME ANYTHING! I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS TO ME!"

Refusing to back down, her eyes shone in a menacing way. While her body was covered by the shadows of her own room, Frisk was covered by the moonlight, yet it was ironic. In another life, Agate left the kingdom and returned to enact a terrible vengeance, yet in their own era, this time, Frisk was the one who was leaving Betty and Ebott behind.

To never return.

And Fear was the one who was willing to sacrifice everything so determination stood by her side.

"I'm sorry Betty."

He muttered, smiling slightly, noticing how Akumu and some blobs were trying to slide through the darkness to grab his arms and legs, but he had the advantage.

"See you later!"

Fear immediately knew that he was referring to his next cycle. Before she could manage to grab him, his body fell to the floor, the blobs barely missing him by just an inch; all she could grab was a small piece of his sweater. Before she could even drop down to stop him, she saw the particles of a red circle crumbling in middle air, and a black silhouette disappearing on the night.

He had learned and used the magic of the Integrity souls...

The heavily hated and avoided being growled into the moonlight, singing her song of despair and sadness to the mother of the stars.

She wouldn't let him go anywhere, she would hunt him if necessary.

.

---

.

"I shouldn't have told her anything..." Frisk muttered to himself, even with three thousand years of wisdom, he had been stupid enough to not be able to prevent, let alone foresee a mistake of such magnitude. Quickly gathering the supplies he needed from his home, making sure not disturb Asriel and Toriel's sleep, he jumped through the window, running to the south gate.

After two hundred years of avoiding Betty, he had finally let his heart and soul took over. His love for her made him tell her the truth, praying, begging for affection and for those arms that once held him so dearly. Those claws of hers could be as deathly as they could be loving, only he knew Betty's soft, caring side.

The side that use to hold and nurse him, and their children, when no one else was looking.

Yet rather than love, all he caused her was pain, anger, and stress.

Turning back, the eight fallen saw his hometown one last time, making sure to remember and carve it in his memory. He wouldn't be able to return for atleast twenty two years, wich was quite a while. He hoped for a silent, calm goodbye. He hoped Betty would understand, but the change in her perception of him had been triggered already.

And just like him, she wasn't the kind of person to accept defeat.

"I get it now." She said, carrying her scythe in one hand, yet talking softly. Akumu was nowhere to be found, but she was still in her "human" form, so most likely he was the blade. Despite trying to be nice, staying true to her nature, she always was ready for the worst case scenario, which would basically be fighting against an enemy that had over 3000 years of magic knowledge. "That novel you wrote... The Sun's tears, the characters are us, aren't they? and the garden is our home. The flower is... are... they, our children."

He chuckled, moving his head from left to right, disappointed in himself. Usually, Betty related that novel to Asriel and Chara, because it was obvious... but here, she ended up seeing not with her mind but with her heart.

"I see... so you figured it out this time."

"Ah... you crafted it in a previous life, I suspected as much" she smiled softly, pointing her weapon at the floor, no words needed. If he wanted to leave, he would have to defeat her first. But as intimidating as she was trying to be, deep inside her she knew there were very little chances of her coming out alive.

She hadn't taken the vial of Hate from the AMD in this timeline, and Frisk's arsenal was more than capable of handling her after honing his skills for so long.

"Betty, I made a huge mistake in telling you my secret. If I had never told you, we would've never been in this situation, you wouldn't have to be here."

"I AM HERE BECAUSE I WANT TO!" she replied, holding back her urges to punch him. The outburst of magic and fear she had was enough to make all the blobs she was hiding in the nearby trees, buildings and trees to manifestate themselves. Truth be told, she was afraid, not because she could die trying to make him stay...

But because she could lose him.

It was the first time she had feel something so warm inside her chest, other than her soul, and she wouldn't... couldn't let it go, it was too soon. She hadn't had enough of him, of his affection, and his care.

"You want to know the truth then?" he asked coldly, pointing his finger to the outskirts, to Ebott's forest. He knew exactly where he would have to go, most likely to use his entire strength to try and beat Irrabazal and his organization on their own, it was a suicide mission... especially now that they more than likely, stole the remnants of White Feather's technology and assets "If I leave and kill Irrabazal and his little group of maniacs, and never come back, then Asriel will tell everyone what he did down there. He won't come out in decades, and Jason will stay. MANY will be saved, from him, and from them."

Betty's eyelids closed just a little, her gaze sharpened and her lips contorted in an expression of rage. Never come back? as in... living a life of exile? why? what could that change? how would that even make Asriel openly admit his actions as a World Master? it made no sense to her, not now when all her emotions and thoughts were focused on the eight fallen.

And even then, if his solution worked, then what?

Would he do it all over again?

"Everyone will forget in due time, even you. Goodbye, Be-"

"NO!" It wasn't a scream. No, it was a roar what cut him off. Still with her scythe pointing at him, she walked, face to face, until the blade touched his neck. Not even once her gaze left him, but even so... Frisk hesitated a little bit when he felt something in his right hand. Her fingers were, once again, interlocked with his own.

"Stay."

.

---

.

Just as he had foreseen, Jason ended up leaving the town. His parents, all his teachers, and specially Toriel, did their best to try and locate him, when it was obvious that he wasn't inside Ebott anymore, the chances of finding him inside the forest were insignificant, but they still tried.

Now it was just Betty and him, entirely on their own, because Teacher Maxwell more than likely realized what was going on between the two, and that they would grow up fighting each other, even if still was officially their teacher, unofficially they were on their own, the damn fool even if he had no more souls to spent, would always be a sharp tool.

"Answer me something." Fear demanded, resting her feet inside a lake after almost two hours of battling over and over again, Frisk had brought a bunch of monster food for her to supply her magic reserves without having to consume souls, so they could keep going at it for as long as he could keep cooking.

She had always pictured the classic, stupid and cliché date of a movie and dinner, but true to the rumors of being the "legendary flirt master", Frisk surprised her with no effort whatsoever. A nice, beautiful place both perfect for swimming and fighting in the outskirts, not that far but not that close to Ebott either.

"When will you kiss me?"

A valid question from her point of view, considering he had married her multiple times and had been alive for more than three thousand years, so what was the holdup? was he still shy despite all that determination of his? or was he afraid of her reaction?

The laugh that came out of his mouth alongside the goofy way he scratched his cheek made her scowl.

"About that... you still look like a thirteen years old."

"Excuse you?" Noire crossed her arms, immediately feeling offended because she thought he was talking about her chest, or her entire sex-appeal.

"I'm three thousand years older than you, My cherry." he chuckled, ruffling her hair as if he was her father or something. "I'd feel dirty if I didn't at least wait until you grew up, you know? I don't wanna have those type of sins crawling down my back every time I go to sleep."

Ridiculous, she thought. Was he ignoring the fact that she, despite being in Amber's teen body, was a spell that had been hibernating for over one thousand years? was he calling her a child? Underestimating her, even?!

"Kiss me. Now."

"Nope. There's cameras of the AMD everywhere, you know? I don't want to cause an scandal either, I hate paparazzi."

And now he was, obviously, making poor excuses. Sure, Mettaton would make quite an exaggeration of it if he found out, and he would hear no end of Sans's annoying jokes, Asriel included... but she couldn't care less about what his stupid monster friends thought of it, nor the consequences of forming a relationship with him.

She was sure of her feelings, despite not understanding them very well, she enjoyed his company, and even if the adrenaline of clashing blades was intoxicating, his arm and warm were so way more. Betty had chosen him over Agate's wishes, that had to mean something, right? it had to.

"Kiss me!"

He puffed his cheeks, and went as far as to cross his arms.

"No"

"STOP BEING SO STUBBORN! JUST SHUT UP AND KISS ME!"

"I don't want to."

"FRISK!"

.

---

.

That's when the mission to seduce Frisk had officially begun. Now more than ever, Betty was sure of her feelings for him, she liked him, hell, loved him even. Him using his determination to wait a couple of years for her to grow up only made that desire of hers that much stronger, she was going to prove herself to him.

She was old enough.

Innocently enough, she asked for a massage every now and then, after every sparring match. His hands, covered in small amounts of determination, did wonders on her skin whenever they touched her, rather than tense her up, it was relaxing, almost like water that was just in the perfect temperature.

Fear wasn't even trying to sound sexy about it, her body reacted on it's own.

"Hmm~... you're doing good... right there..."

Purred the beast, as she felt how his hands gently caressed and squeezed her back. These were things that she didn't even knew she needed, but she was happy of receiving them. The pleasures of having a human body, more than likely.

"Betty... could you please stop it already?"

"Not my fault" she answered, turning back to face him with a devious smile, of course she was lying "It's amazing... let me take off my sweater and my shirt."

"Don't even think about it."

"Come on... we know you want to. It would feel so much better if you used oil, isn't that right Kumu?" moving her head slightly, the pink ball growled and floated towards the pair, carrying just what she had asked for. Massage Oil, recently bought if that price was anything to go by. Frisk gently grabbed the bottle, tilting his head to the left.

"Not a chance. You're not old enough, my child."

He replied, mimicking his mother, tone and all. Betty pouted, and Kumu frowned, resting on her head.

"You're no fun... old man."

The Ambassador of Monsterkind twitched. How could she be so... cruel? holding his nasal bridge in order to calm himself, he took the liberty to let out a long, tired sigh. Truth be told, she was already developing into a beautiful woman, and they were going to soon reach their early 14's. Time was passing by, and quickly.

"Can you please put on my shoes? You're making this way harder than it already is, my Cherry."

"Fine." Pink relented, sitting up and resting her head on his shoulder, although Akumu still wasn't happy, so obviously, she wasn't either "You should consider my perspective too though. If you die at thirty-five like you say you will, I only have twenty-two years left with you."

And now, once again, he let out that laugh that she was debating if she hated or loved. Months before, no doubt she would've broke his nose with one punch if he had tried that, but things were different now. For the better. Frisk's left hand rested on her shoulders, and caressed her arm in a gentle, loving gesture that made her feel loved.

"You're not destined to fall in love with me. You haven't for the previous fifteen or so cycles, so don't talk like marriage is inevitable, Betty. I want you to be free to make that decision on your own when the time comes."

"No." she pouted, looking at him with a slightly annoyed expression that, even if she tried to hide it, was slightly hurt at his own words "You may think I'm immature, but I do believe in fate and soul mates. Those previous fifteen Bettys probably loved you, as much as me. And you only hurt them by avoiding and not marrying them."

Determination opened his eyelids a little bit, genuinely impressed by her logic. Sure, their souls were indeed intertwined because of the life Agate and Copper lived, but that was it. Just like how history didn't repeated itself, they hadn't fought to death in over two thousand years, Betty had won solely because Frisk just died out of age, never being able to settle eternal peace between both races, every single time.

"Hmm... I guess... maybe you're right?"

Fear smiled, filled with pride at the compliment.

"I know I am."

Maybe it wasn't just "Fear and Determination" but rather, it was more related to them, Frisk and Betty.

.

---

.

"Is this mature enough for you now, pacifist?"

A clever, devious smile on her face, the pink/brown haired woman, on the verge of her seventeen years old, smiled at her boyfriend while showcasing her newly constructed pink dress, with some brown patterns she had carefully designed on her free time. Akumu had turned into a small hair tie that gave her a ponytail, her hair longer than what she once had.

Her entire body had a mature, grown-up, menacing and mysterious aura that honestly? filled her with pride.

"Getting there quite fast I'd say..." The eight fallen replied to the black beast, nodding and smiling. Yes, she already was looking incredible, like a goddess... of fear, that is.

Four years since they officially started their magic career, Betty had grown into a fine woman, while Frisk didn't change that much physically speaking, but that was to be expected. She would be lying if she didn't enjoyed the lustful, loving gaze Frisk gave her from afar every single time, but even so, he refused to touch her or making any advance at all, but she was growing impatient by his will.

Her feelings had blossomed quite strongly over the years, and she was already starting to crave him as well.

The fact that he wanted to wait one extra year was unbearable, to the point she felt insulted.

"I'm sorry to disappoint, but we have some business to discuss tonight" He said, opening his eyelids, gaining a serious tone as they arrived at the restaurant he had previously reserved some weeks ago. It wasn't something casual in the slightest, one may even call it a luxury. The role of politician paid everything, alongside the money he made through his novels, music, and paintings.

She wouldn't settle nor expect anything less from her better half.

"Good, that makes two of us" She smiled, nodding as the waitress led them to their table, handling over the menu.

"Would you like something to drink?" she asked, not before bowing down to the couple as a sign of respect.

"A glass of wine, with extra concentrated magic please" Betty said, before looking at her lover with a grin. "He would like a glass of water."

Frisk smiled, not caring in the slightest that Betty had ordered for him. He just nodded, the human leaving them alone.

"You know me so well, and you don't even need that technique to do so."

It made him happy, because even if she couldn't read her memories, it proved that Betty actually was doing her best to know him, alongside his habits and likings.

"I am quite perceptive, Frisk" Noire replied, placing the napkin on her lap after unfolding it, before she pointed at him "So? what do you want to talk about? Something big going down soon?"

"Indeed. Do you remember Irrabazal? his organization will start mobilizing very soon." He explained, enjoying the fact that Betty looked at him with such a serious face, completely focused on him. "They're not the only ones wanting to cause chaos among the races, a small group of activists will start to gain influence thanks to Emerald's actions at the east district of the nearby city, Goukonde."

"Can I kill atleast one of them?" she asked, resting her head against her palm with an expression that mixed up annoyance and boredom, she still couldn't quite get what Frisk was preventing so much, but there had to be reason. She would at the very least like to know what would happen in each case.

"Emerald? not yet, his power on the military police is too big for him to be disposed of, and as much as it pains me to say it, Irrabazal's actions are a necessary evil if we want to secure a future where monsters and humans can live together in peace, Asriel and us will play a key part in it." He replied, already seeing his girlfriend scoffing at the idea of Azzy gaining more amnesty than the one he already had after his actions as Flowey the Flower, but she would play along, only for him. "So... what do you wanted to talk about?"

"About this."

And, before he could even do anything, a small test tube fell from her hand onto the table, filled to the brim with a red liquid. Frisk's eyes opened in shock, as he felt how his soul stopped for a brief moment.

It was a vial of determination... which meant-

"You... learned the Duplicity technique?"

Betty nodded proudly, closing her arms around her chest.

"Yes. I haven't used it yet, but I thought I should tell you beforehand. You're not getting away from me, ever again."

The sound of Frisk slumping into his chair weirded her out, specially because he had a worried expression, rather than the happy one she had been expecting. She expected him to compliment her, to swear and talk about his love and whatnot... instead...

"Why?"

"I thought you'd be happy." She replied, severely disappointed by his reaction. It was killing her momentum, and fast.

"Never said I wasn't, but... " he stopped himself for a moment, getting visibly nervous "Do you have any idea of what you're getting yourself into, Betty?"

"No, I don't" she replied, a half lie. She wasn't a human, she was the black beast, Agate Lightvale's masterpiece using her little sister's corpse. She was one thousand years old, but she couldn't fully understand what it meant to just stay still and let the world act on it's own when you could prevent catastrophes or events from happening... even so... "As long as I'm with you, I don't care about anything else. We can built a brighter future, lots of them, together. Forever."

"My cherry... there's something I haven't told you yet..." He muttered, taking a long sigh, his face changing once again, this time, into a tired, sad expression. "It's not the first time. A long time ago, another Betty learned the Duplicity technique and used it with some determination, just like you, for my sake."

"What?" it made no sense. If that was true, yet the one she was here right now had no recollection of it, made her feel shivers down her spine. Part of her hairs turned pink as well. By how serious he was looking at her, it meant one thing "How?... how did she died? why-"

"She cycled with me, that much is truth." He replied, smiling with a distant tone "We were together for a good four hundred years. Being with her took away all the loneliness that I was cursed with, but one day, before she cycled, she died. It wiped out all the stockpile of essences she had stored."

"You mean..." her fingers squeezed his hand, tightly. He replied back with the same gesture.

"I died on the inside." His eyelids closed, trying to hide away the fact that, reminiscing the past that once was, could never stop hurting him. "You can't imagine how painful it was to lose the woman I've spent four hundred years with."

The piece fell right where they belonged. That's why he stopped caring about her at all, and why he stopped trying to be her husband altogether. The human sighed, his thumb gently caressing the back of her hand.

"When I cycled back and the Betty of that lifetime had no memory of the four centuries we spent together, I was so crushed that I opened up my throat in front of her very eyes" He continued, looking deep in thought. "I continued, though. The pain... was unbearable. I slit my wrist for about five cycles straight until I got tired of seeing my own blood; dying, cycling back, dying, cycling back, and dying... since then, I've turned into this cynical jokester you see now. Sans would be so proud of me if he knew."

His laugh made her feel a mixture of emotions, specially after hearing his tale. So there was a way in which they could say goodbye... forever. Yet, unlike him, Bete Noire didn't felt any fear whatsoever. His resignation, his own sadness, maybe once it would've sparked a sense of satisfaction and delight inside her...

But things were different now.

"You underestimate me greatly." She replied, frowning while now, both her hands squeezed his own. Frisk looked up at her, red and pink meeting eye to eye. His face, one of sadness, hers?... ironically... was filled with determination "Listen to me, Frisk. I am sure of what I feel. That's why I brought that thing, despite knowing how much it'll hurt drinking it."

"Betty..."

"I am not done, Dreemurr." She continued, her fingers squeezing his hand even tighter now "I am not a kid, and you aren't either. Maybe once I would've been happy to see you suffer, and make your life a living hell... but that's not the case anymore. I want you, I need you, and I will have you. Nothing can keep you away from me. We are intertwined, now and forever... I love you. I really do. And if you can't be strong for both of us, then I will."

Silence.

Frisk was... truly amazed. But it was to be expected... Betty wasn't good with words, but whenever she finally decided to speak up, she managed to always leave an impact on everyone, mostly because she was ruthless, just like her mother. Even so, it was one of the reasons of why he loved her.

She always knew what to say, how to say it, and to use enough force for it to leave a lasting impact on him.

"I love you too... My Cherry..."

.

---

.

"Hey, Betty. Remember me?"

The Black beast blinked for a moment, turning around at the man wearing a blue tuxedo and a pink tie that greeted her from afar. The female raised an eyebrow, weirded out by his attitude. "The heck are you talking about?... we've been classmates for years. You hit your head or something, Frisk?"

A small laugh came out of his lips, nodding.

"Oh, you remembered" he smiled, raising his left arm; carrying a small box filled to the brim with magic filled candies from Muffet's bakery. "Bought these from Muffy's place. Wanna eat? we could catch-up."

A perfect opportunity, she thought. The relationships between monsters and humans hadn't been the best, but they haven't been doing so bad either. People were already talking about freeing Asgore after half a decade, even if Jessica was doing all in her power to keep him behind bars like he deserved, the truth was that neither Toriel nor Asriel could do that much to rule out monsterkind, not without him.

So, striking Frisk down when they needed him the most, while they were alone... that much could be the first and most important step of her plan. Her patience was finally paying up.

"Sure. Come in, although I don't have much to offer, but I could at least... make you some tea. For old time's sake" She smiled, tilting her head and opening the door, Frisk nodded with a happy expression, entering inside his partner's home for the first time. Exactly as he remembered, no changes whatsoever.

The offer of making him tea though, it came out almost with a poisonous tone that made her sound cute.

"What have you been up to? since Jason left and since those bastard terrorists started to cause chaos in the coast, things haven't been going good for us and my family. Azzy's doing all he can to convince Jessica to finally let dad out, and Undyne's hands are full with keeping order. Haven't seen her in months."

He continued, sitting in her living room and looking at the T.V's black screen. From the Kitchen, Noire listened to his words carefully. Yes, that much was true as it was useless. The blobs were already preparing themselves to strike, but she put them on hold as the warm, brownish liquid filled their cups.

"Oh, really... ? well, nothing much. I've been... practicing and making plans, I want to change the world, for the better. Help humanity... you know?" she teased, walking to the table and sitting in front of him. His hands opened up the package; her eyes lighted up. Orange tarts covered with strawberry.

Her favorite.

"We all are doing what we can." he replied, nodding in a happy, naive tone, before his hand ended up grabbing one, looking at it as if it was a treasure of some sort, certainly, for Betty, it was "I remember you always loved sweets."

What surprised her, was how he ended up holding it just in front of her lips. Fine then... she would allow him to have this small victory and stain her pride just a tiny bit, she was going to kill him after all.

Munch~

"You're blushing" the teenager said, smiling at the red tone her cheeks gained. Keeping her shy persona was slightly hard, she was embarrassed yes, but also a little angry and annoyed.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah... and you have some strawberry on your lips..." Determination, smiling at the view, started to get close to Fear. Betty stood stiff, not knowing how to react. By now, he was leaving quite the opening for a quick, painless death by slicing up his throat, but for some reason... she stopped considering it.

Maybe, just maybe-

"Ah-"

She stopped thinking.

"You're back..." he grinned, opening his eyelids to look at her with an expression filled to the brim with love.

"Frisk?... what are you-" Noire's pink eyes opened up as she looked at her hands. Her young, 17 years old hands, alongside his own, much younger face greeted her. Her apartment looked the same after all those years, and even better: a delicious flavor of Strawberry and Orange resting on her tongue. "I cycled back... it worked. You were telling the-"

"So... you remember everything, then?" He asked, playfully while a hand got closer to her cheek, caressing it gently. "Do you love me, my Cherry?"

"Of course I do, you... idiot... " her arms went around his neck, bringing him close for a kiss, but she stopped, realizing the position they were in "Wait a second... you were trying to kiss me before my return! Explain yourself!"

"Well, I was honestly testing your theory of us being soul mates, that's all." he replied, giving her a quick kiss on her lips to calm her down, luckily, it did. It was just his sickening curiosity that he would never fully rid of "You were right indeed. I gave her plenty of chances to kill me and she didn't do anything, she was quite all over me."

"Stop. I don't wanna know" Noire insisted, grabbing him and pulling him towards her bed, her arms ended up going around his body, holding him even closer, Frisk caressed her just like she wanted, touching her back, making her purr "Hmm... I had forgotten how good it felt to be young..."

Being close to her once again made him happy, especially because he could cuddle and be as romantic as he wanted. Betty's fingers started to play around with his hair, Akumu rested above his head as well, mimicking the spell.

"Tell me, what happened after I died... how's Sherry?" He asked, now going after her neck, gently kissing and bitting her skin, making her sigh as Akumu purred.

"I died ten years after you did, at the age of 45... a shame you missed her wedding." She continued, pushing him even closer to her, moaning as his fangs played and rubbed themselves on the zones he had covered with saliva "She married Thomas, Cam and Abigail's child... I was living alone for a couple of years now and started a live on her own... wanted to be a politician, like you..."

Their lips found each other once again, this time, both took their sweet time in enjoying their reunion. Betty went as far as to grab one of Frisk's hands, squeezing it as tightly as she could, Determination coursed through his veins alongside his love for the female spell, he couldn't keep fighting it anymore.

"Betty..."

He muttered, wanting to undress her already, the spell smiled back at him, her face covered in shadows as her eyes shone like a pair of fireflies, she wanted this as well, living without him had been too painful and lonely for her liking, so it was like a blessing to finally being able to-

RIIIIIIIIIIING~

Their momentum was interrupted the moment he felt his phone starting to ring. Taking it out of his jacket, cursing under his breath... It was Papyrus, asking him to have a small reunion through a text message, Gaster wanted to see them regarding his newest experiment, and he needed for all the influential figures in the city to witness it.

Him included.

"You're going to attend to, won't you?"

"I have to" He replied, quickly fixing his appearance and looking at the door, both of them stood up, starting to walk to the outside. "Even so, we shouldn't hurry up... we have plenty of time together, isn't that right, My Cherry Blossom?"

Betty laughed, as Akumu transformed in her wedding band, they would have to buy one on their way to the meeting with Gaster and the rest.

"All the time in the world... Beloved..."

The end.