DoubleTale: Rewritten

by XWolf26

What if two humans were in the Underground at once? What if one human was DETERMINED to stop the other? What if they could both SAVE? What happens when an Unstoppable Force meets an Immovable Object? When a certain scientist pulls enough of himself together, he finally finds a way to stop the destruction of his world. (Undertale AU. Rewrite of DT.)

20. Chapter 20: A Little Piece Of Heaven

Okay so it might take five days for the chapter after this comes out. Might. Maybe. Enjoy the chapter!

Thanks go to fergusans18, BonelessSkele, brentonbaldwin1, BadDRUMMERboy15, Wingah, 10burgers, Gray Kanzakai, Okami Endless, Loyal Fan, NBoss01, Jack54311, InsertNameHere, Alrarora, bananahead1, A Reader, Allagenda-domsitzers-chan, JakeGetsFrisky, and Tbone8454.

Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale.

---

"What... Happened to me..?"

"Well..." Anthony looked up thoughtfully from his place on my shoulders. "You were on the swing."

"And you kept swinging higher and higher." Anthony paused from his thoughts to smile down at me. "It was pretty amazing, actually."

"But, you went to jump off, and..."

"You..! You ruined it!"

"You didn't really... Stick the landing." Anthony shrugged slowly, wearing an expression that read 'yikes'.

"... Right." I stood at the chain link fence's gate, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "I remember now."

I reached out, gently running my fingers over the cool, rough metal of the gate. Funny, the special place such insignificant things can find in your heart.

"... I think I really screwed up, Anny." I spoke quietly, hand resting on the jagged steel, eyes laying on my hand. Last time I'd put my hand here, I had to reach up. My hands were small. Now I nearly had to lean down to touch the gate, and my hands were bigger. Elongated, spidery...

"With Chara?" Anthony tilted his head to the side, arching a brow curiously down at the top of my head.

"With everybody..." I closed my eyes and shook my head slowly. "With you, with Granny, with Lexi..."

"Well..." Anthony lifted his head, looking to the concrete jungle that loomed in our path. Skyscrapers and chimneys that spat streams of black smoke all reached up to the wretched sky. "We've got a long walk ahead of us."

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"..." I took a deep breath, nodding slowly while I moved my hand to the latch holding the gate in place, pulling it up and then pushing the gate ajar.

"More than anything."

Chapter 20: A Little Piece Of Heaven

"'I understand why you helped us all, but isn't there anyone you wanna go back to?"

---

Metallic clangs rang through the air, Chara rapidly jumping back and deflecting slashes and stabs as Frisk continued forward, expression twisting with fury.

Chara tilted their head to the side and let a stab go over their shoulder, throwing a fist at Frisk's face, only for Frisk to catch Chara's punch in their palm with stunning ease.

Frisk snarled with rage, cocking their head back and smashing their forehead into Chara's, making Chara recoil and stumble back, giving Frisk the time to jump up and pull both knees to their chest, slamming both feet into Chara's abdomen and making their eyes snap open wide with agony and their body hunch over the feet rammed in their core just before they were sent launching back across the plateau.

Chara stiffened as they slammed against a wall of stone, mouth snapping open and launching saliva before they dropped to one knee, wincing and grabbing where Frisk had kicked them. They grit their teeth, lifting their head to shoot a glare at Frisk, who was too busy sprinting across their arena to notice.

Chara snarled, that gun appearing in their hand and they swiftly lifted it, aiming right at Frisk.

"Because... You're my friend."

Chara clenched their eyes shut and turned their head to the side at the sudden memory of their latest kill, and their bullet fired far over Frisk's head, not anywhere near hitting it's mark.

Stop it! Chara's teeth ground together, and they kept their head low while they lowered that gun. I don't want to think about him!

"Your aim is shit!"

Chara's eyes widened, and they lifted their head to find Frisk cocking back one leg. Frisk's shin slammed directly into Chara's cheek, and they were sent skidding on their shoulder through the dirt, blood flying from their lip.

They eventually came to a stop and managed to open one eye, one trembling hand being placed in the mud to push themself slowly out from the skid mark Frisk had used their body to create in the dirt.

What's going on..? Chara's eyes narrowed as they lifted their hand, their Real Knife appearing in their grasp. This should be easy, all I have to do is kill someone!

"Do you. Want. A sweet. Frozen. Treat? C'mon Chara, you can't be shocked every single time I ask you a question."

Chara's hand trembled around that knife. It... I-it should be...

"It's just... It seems like anyone who has any idea who I actually am doesn't give a damn that I'm trying. Like they think it's... Inevitable, me being a jackass."

Why did he open up to me, of all people..? Pain reflected in Chara's eyes, before they shook their head violently. No! I said I don't want to think about this!

"... I'm sorry Chara."

Why did he apologize..? Did he know how much it... It... Chara felt that lump forming in their throat again, and their fingers began to unwrap from the handle of their blade. They desperately attempted to shove their invasive thoughts away, but to no avail.

... Why did he have to pick all of them over me..?

"What are you doing?" Frisk's cold voice cut in. "Get up. Now."

Chara lifted their head and glared up at Frisk from under their eyebrows, revealing that there was yet another stream of tears running down their cheek.

"You're still crying?" Frisk's eyes narrowed with reserved wrath down at Chara. "You're pathetic."

"Shut up..." Chara growled softly, their grip tightening some around their knife.

"You heartless monster. What gives you the right to cry?" Frisk snarled viciously. "You killed him, Chara. He tried to help you and you killed him!"

"SHUT UP!" Chara screamed, jumping to their feet and stabbing decisively. They buried their knife directly in Frisk's solar plexus, right where they'd stabbed Cter.

Chara grinned furiously, slowly lifting their head and looking from the wound they'd inflicted to Frisk's face.

"What, was that supposed to hurt?"

Chara's red eyes went wide as Frisk stood tall, expression unchanged even as blood trickled from the corner of their mouth. Their eyes were an icy calm, the only warmth being the fire of their anger.

Suddenly Frisk reached out, grabbing Chara by the back of the head and yanking their foreheads together, bashing Chara with their skull and sending them recoiling, their expression scrunching up and red droplets flinging from their now split forehead.

Frisk spun, slamming a roundhouse kick into Chara's side and sending them launching across the plateau, landing on their back and skidding through the mud while their eyes winced shut with agony.

"You made me die a million times." Frisk stomped unhindered towards Chara, reaching up without hesitation and not flinching as they ripped that knife out of their core, sending crimson flicking through the air and overflowing down their abdomen. "Suffer a million wounds."

Chara pushed themself up onto their elbows, fear reflecting in their eyes as they slowly crawled back away from their approaching attacker, streams of red running down their chin.

"A million wounds that hurt A MILLION TIMES WORSE THAN YOUR STUPID KNIFE!" Frisk suddenly snapped, expression twisting with explosive fury as they cocked back Chara's knife and whipped it right back at them.

Sweat beading down their forehead, Chara swiftly moved their head to the side, a tear opening on their cheek as their own knife shot by, sticking into the ground behind them.

Their shaky eyes landed back on Frisk, who sauntered ever closer, hands clenched into white knuckled fist, their finger nails breaking the skin of their palms and sending ruby streams running out across their fingers.

"You took everything from me." That dagger appeared in Frisk's grasp, and red steam began to form from their wound, gradually beginning to close it. "My life, my soul, my friends..."

"And now?" Frisk stopped as they loomed over Chara, pointing their dagger right down at them. Chara stared up at them in horror, trembling with the whirlwind of emotions that clouded their DETERMINATION.

"I'm taking it back."

---

"So how do think this all started, Angel?" Anthony asked as we walked up a dirt road towards the looming buildings. The road was overgrown, grass poking up through what remained of its gravel. Made sense, me n' Anny were the only ones who walked it.

"Well... I dunno, it's... Kinda hard to find a starting point, y'know?" I looked over to Anny as he leaned over the side of my head to see my face. "I feel like I've been... Kinda damaged my whole life."

"Why's that?" Anthony asked curiously, and I shrugged.

"Well, I mean, it had to have started with my parents, right?" I looked ahead, furrowing my brows at my own words. "And it's not that they were terrible or didn't love me or something."

"I just, think they only loved me when it was convenient and only showed it when it was easy." I stuffed my hands in my pockets, looking to the sky. "If I asked for something they'd buy it, but when I cried - as little kids often do - they never asked why."

"... Just, kinda, told me to be quiet. Got mad at me. Until I learned that it was bad to cry, that it was wrong to feel those emotions."

"... That hurts you, doesn't it, Angel?"

"..." My eyes glossed thoughtfully to the side. "I mean, not as much as it should. Mostly just... Numb."

"Like that one Linkin Park song?" Anthony tilted his head to the side curiously, and I snerked, smiling some.

"Yeah, Anny, just like that." I chuckled, shaking my head. My laughter died down after a few seconds passed however, and those cruel thoughts crept back in.

"... But, yeah, I think they kinda unintentionally messed me up." I kept talking, and I wasn't sure why. I guess I just had more to say. "I didn't really learn how to love people correctly. And I'm, not sure if that's something you're supposed to learn or just kinda know from the get go?"

"But, either way," My eyes glossed down, and I shook my head. "I have no idea how."

"And why do you think that is?"

"Well, like I said, my parents gave me some pretty fair weather love, and they certainly didn't love each other." As I spoke, the world around us shifted like some strange mirage. I stopped walking, and now found myself standing in my childhood room, Anthony still up on my shoulders.

The door to the room was wide open, and two shadows stretched grotesquely out over the blue carpet. They were screaming at each other. Some... Frivolous bullshit about their failing marriage or something. I dunno, I wasn't listening. That much was apparent when the little Angel sitting on the floor at the center of the room looked away from the TV his eyes had been glued to and towards the door with an annoyed frown.

The tiny me stood up, and walked right through me like I wasn't there. Just phased right on through, quietly shut the door, and then - rolling his eyes - walked right back and plopped down where he'd been, looking back to the screen that raised him.

"... That much was pretty obvious from how much they hated each other."

"Why do you think that is?" Anthony furrowed his brows curiously, looking down at the top of my head.

"... I, think it was my fault." I spoke with a casual shrug. "And I know that probably sounds bad and, isn't exactly fair to me to say, but..."

The world shifted around us again, and suddenly we were standing in a pitch black void, the only light filtering in through the doorway that a little Angel crouched down in. My childhood self peered into his parents' room from the darkness, where he could clearly see our mother sitting.

Her back was to us, and her head was down at her mirror like she couldn't look herself in the eye. We couldn't see her face but, from the way she was trembling and the gross undignified sounds that echoed were a clear indicator that she was sobbing. Hysterically.

Little Angel reached out, took a step forward, but... He hesitated. Then, he turned around, and he walked away, leaving Anny and I alone to watch my mother have a mental breakdown.

"... I was an accident." I explained, eyes not leaving my mother's back, which trembled and lifted with her sobs. "And, the two stayed together to do 'the right thing', or whatever the cliche is. But... They didn't love each other. And I think they blamed me for how unhappy they were, even though they did it to themselves."

"... A lot of my childhood gave the impression that they didn't really like me at all. Weren't interested in me." I shrugged my shoulders lightly. "They just wanted me to be quiet while they wallowed."

"Do you hate them for that?"

"..." I slowly reached out, taking the handle of that door and gently pulling it towards myself, the hinges of the door creaking softly as light dimmed more and more. "... I don't know."

The door closed, clicking into place. There Anny and I were, alone in pitch black darkness.

"Well... Do you have any fond memories of your parents, Angel?"

"... My dad, gave me a gift once. I didn't ask for it, it was just... Something he wanted me to have. Something that made him think of me. And, up until then I... Didn't know he thought about me."

The void of black we stood in shifted to white, and we could suddenly see a man with dark brown hair kneeling before little Angel, holding out a simple silver bell with a little handle reaching up from it's top.

"And, really, such a silly little tool shouldn't have meant anything to a kid with an XBox, but..." I furrowed my eyebrows, pausing thoughtfully. "... He said something to me that... Stuck. Something about how every time a bell rings, an Angel gets his wings."

"Obviously, I was excited. You know how bad I wanna fly, Anny." I looked up towards Anthony, who nodded. "You're the only person who ever asked, after all."

"So I rang the bell, and was pretty sad when no beautiful ivory wings spread from my shoulder blades." My eyes glossed back down to the little Angel silently ringing that bell and looking over his shoulders sadly. "But, dad, he..."

"He... Picked me up, and he smiled as he held me. And he told me..."

Little Angel's eyes widened with some surprise while his father lifted him, all with a genuine smile on his face. His dad's lips moved, but the sound of his words came from me repeating them.

"'Son, whenever you're feeling sad and low and down in the dumps, just ring this bell. And maybe someday, when you need it the most, you'll sprout your wings, and you'll be able to fly back where you belong.'"

"Aww... That's really sweet." Anny grinned wide, but I just smiled sadly.

"It was the first time I ever really felt a connection with another person that wasn't in a game or on a cartoon." I took a step closer to the mirage. "And that's probably why the bell meant so much to me. It always took me right back to that moment where someone showed that... That they loved me."

I reached out slowly, but the mirage disappeared, and the smile faded from my expression, that bittersweet feeling replaced by the usual deep sense of longing.

"So did you do what he asked?" Anny tilted his head to the side curiously.

"Yup." I nodded, and suddenly a single end table formed in the whiteness before us. All that was on the table was that bell, staring right up at me. "Every time I got sad, I rang the bell."

"... And, obviously, every time I was disappointed."

"But it was... Something, I guess." I shrugged, eyes locking on to the bell. "A little sound that gave me some kinda hope."

"And what happened to the bell?"

"... Well."

The world shifted again, and we were once more in my childhood room. Well, actually, we were in a different childhood room. My room after my family moved.

It was night time, and the window was open wide. A chilly breeze made the curtains billow some, and the moonlight landed perfectly on the mostly blank white sheet of paper sitting on the desk at the center of the room. The only thing keeping the wind from blowing the paper away was the little silver bell that rested atop it.

"Got tired of waiting for those wings."

- Angel

"... I uh, left it when I ran away." I stepped closer to the desk, reaching out and resting a hand next to the note. I leaned over those seven cold words and squinted painfully. I had never hesitated on this letter. It'd taken me five seconds to write and no revisions felt necessary.

But, looking at it now, after all this time...

"Did it make them sad when you left?"

"..." My hand slowly clenched into a fist against the smooth wood of that desk top. "... I'll never know."

Then, the world shifted, and we were back on that dirt road, that filthy sky above and that wretched city ahead.

"They gave up their futures to try to make a better one for you." Anthony looked up thoughtfully to the layer of clouds protecting the city from God's eye. "Do you think it was ungrateful for you to abandon them like that?"

"... Yeah, well, if they were really trying to give me a good future, they failed." I frowned from the sting of a picked at scab. "That's not my fault."

"... Are you afraid that you failed too?"

"... I want to be your friend, too."

"Stop talking like that! Stop being so..! So..!"

"I Chara-bout you. Hehe..."

"SHUT! UP!"

"..." My eyes fell to the ground, and my expression dulled with the deep ache of a wound a lot more fresh. I reached up, grabbing the tear in my shirt with my filthy hands. "... Lets keep walking, Anny."

"Okay!" Anny smiled innocently, resting his hands atop my head.

I began walking again, and after another minute or two gravel became pavement, and we were making our way up some grimy alley way out towards the street.

"Sooo... That's your parental issues down, what's next?" Anthony leaned over the side of my head to furrow his curious lil' eyebrows at me.

"Well... Probably you, Anny." I concluded, coming to a stop and glancing down to where wall met floor between two aluminum garbage cans. Reality shifted, and suddenly one could make out three young boys, all crowded around and kicking something on the filthy ground.

Something that was uh, crying out in pain and asking them to stop every time they kicked. This made the boys laugh, but it did nothing for soothing their blood lust.

That's what the rocks were for.

"Ow!" One of the three cried out, grabbing at the little cut that had formed on the side of his head. The three all looked towards the entrance of the alley, where little Angel stood with a hand full'a rocks. He cranked back his arm and whipped another stone at the three little bastards kicking that pathetic white ball on the ground.

"Go on, get!" Angel shouted with another throw, making the three other brats jump and dance around the rocks pelting them, before inevitably tucking their tails between their legs and scurrying off and away from their prey.

Little Angel walked right up to the boy curled up in one pasty ball, and he peaked up from the dirt with one beautiful ruby eye. Least, I always thought they were pretty.

"Everybody was always really freaked out by me. But you weren't." Anthony tilted his head to the side curiously while we watched my younger self smile and extend a hand out to the beaten and terrified Anthony. "Why was that?"

"I mean, I was raised by cartoon that all promoted pretty heroic and anti-judgmental values." I spoke with a casual shrug.

"Is that why you wanted to help me in the first place? To play hero?"

"... Well." My eyes darted to the side, and I frowned.

"_._._._I_d_o_n_'_t_w_a_n_t_y_o_u_t_o_d_i_e_._._._"

"... We both saw where that nasty habit landed me."

"As for why I didn't think you were scary, well..." I smiled another bittersweet smile, watching Anthony's face light up hopefully as Angel helped him to his feet. "I mean, just look at you. There wasn't a threatening thing about you."

"Is there something threatening about me now?"

Suddenly, the shadows of the little albino boy that Angel was helping to his feet stretched out into an absolutely nasty form. The two didn't seem to notice, but Anthony's shadow had red eyes a lot less beautiful. Glowing crimson that peered hungrily into the soul for fear to feast upon. It had a mouthful of sharp teeth that it used to put on one big grin, and in its hand it gripped the black outline of that cruel, cold, curved steel.

All lurking right over that sweet little kid's shoulder.

"... No, Anny." I clenched my eyes shut tight in hopes that chaotic shadow would disappear once they reopened.

"You're my best friend, I could never be afraid of you."

---

Chara growled, lifting their revolver and letting off several potshots at Frisk, who didn't even flinch as one bullet flew over their shoulder, another by their cheek, and one embedding in their shoulder.

"I have no idea," Frisk planted one foot on Chara's chest, shoving them back into the mud. "What Cter ever saw in you."

"S-shut... Up..!" Chara snarled, wrapping their hands around Frisk's foot in attempt to push it away, barely succeeding in alleviating the pressure on their chest. "You have... No idea what you're talking about..!"

"I know that he was your last chance at saving your meaningless life." Frisk grit their teeth, pushing down with all their might and making Chara start to sink into the mud. "And you blew it."

"Stop..! Talking..!" Chara snarled, the fury of indignation creeping into their heart as they dug their finger nails into Frisk's ankle. "Or I'll..! I'll..!"

"You'll what?!" Frisk snapped, looming over Chara while red steamed from their injuries.

"I'll..!" Chara's right eye twitched, a crimson light flickering in it. Their body stopped trembling, that cloud of emotion began to clear with the intensity of the situation.

Crimson began to steam from the cut on Chara's cheek, slowly sealing it while their fury only grew and grew.

It was clear. Only one thing mattered in this moment. They had to be strong, or they were going to die.

"You'll what, Chara?!" Frisk repeated furiously, continuing to challenge their fellow human with the bolstering confidence that came with their level of anger. "What are you gonna do?!"

Chara let go of Frisk's ankle with one hand, the other hand gripping surprisingly tight while they cocked back a fist, a Tough Glove appearing around it. Their right eye ignited with crimson flames, and they roared their answer.

"I'M GONNA RIP YOUR GODDAMN ARMS OFF!"

Frisk's eyes snapped open wide with sudden agony, their leg folding unnaturally to the side as Chara rammed their fist into the side of their knee, a sickening snap resounding as the pressure was instantly removed from Chara's chest, Frisk stumbling on their now broken leg.

Chara launched up to their feet and crashed their forehead into Frisk's with one swift motion, sending Frisk flinging back through the air. They hit the mud, eyes winced shut as they skidded across it before lifting their arms, reaching back and pushing off the ground behind them, flipping back up onto their one good leg and gradually sliding to a stop.

Frisk's chest heaved with exhaustion, eyes darting from their unresponsive and awkwardly bent knee back to Chara. And boy did they look pissed.

Chara's hair shadowed their left eye, their right illuminated by those red flames that swirled around it. Their mouth hung open like a starved and vicious animal, each breath creating a small puff of fog in the chilled rain. Their arms were limp at their sides, red DETERMINATION misting from the multiple scrapes and cuts that coated their body. In their hand they once more held that Real Knife.

*Stronger.

---

"So what did I mean to you, Angel?"

"Well, you were my first friend and, the best one I've ever had." We stood in another illusion, watching little Angel and little Anthony slip down a slide, laughing happily. "I just... Didn't know what that really meant back then."

"I... Really didn't know too much at all back then." My eyes glossed to the ground regretfully.

"No one can fault you for that, Angel." There was a hint of concern in Anthony's voice as he wrapped his arms around my head comfortingly. "You were just a kid..."

"... So were you." I looked up, and the scene before us had shifted to the two children at the end of a driveway, little Angel leaning in to inspect the black eye that Anthony nervously put a hand over.

"O-oh, the black eye? Well, you know how clumsy I am, haha! Just tripped and fell face first into the corner of a wall! Pretty dumb of me, huh Angel?"

"But, you didn't know." Anthony leaned down from atop my head to look at me.

"... Yes I did." I couldn't look at him, instead opting to keep my shame filled eyes on the ground. "I'd had to have been an idiot to not have known. You're a terrible liar, Anny."

"You and me were always opposites like that, huh?"

"... Yeah." That stung, even though I doubt Anny meant for it to.

"So, if you knew, why didn't you tell anyone?"

I shook my head and opened my mouth to speak, but no words came. There just wasn't an excuse that could make up for leaving Anthony with that bitch of a mother he was cursed with.

"Angel?"

The world shifted, and suddenly we were standing outside of an old, semi-dilapidated house. Anthony had always tried his best to take care of the place and his mom as best he could, but... He was just a kid.

So that's probably why I was so terrified as a child when I saw his mom kicking the shit out of him through the window.

Angel stared through that window with wide eyes, tears streaming down his face. I remember how he was feeling. I still remember what he was seeing. Vividly.

Anthony was on the ground, curled up in the sniveling ball I guessed he always curled up in when someone had to take their frustrations out on him. His mother continued to scream words that I couldn't hear through the wall, and Anny cried apologies that I couldn't quite make out. Didn't seem like his mom heard 'em either. Or she just didn't care.

Angel was terrified. Terrified and worried and disgusted and confused. He'd never seen anything like this, after all. He was deeply disturbed, but couldn't tear his eyes away.

That was, until that sadistic bitch turned around and plucked that crowbar from the table behind her. And then I could hear Anthony's terrified screams as he crawled back on his hands, shaking his head while tears and blood alike streamed down his face. Pleas, apologies... All on deaf ears.

"... I'd just wanted to see if you wanted to go to the playground." I spoke, stepping forward as little Angel turned his head away, clamping his hands over his ears to try blocking out his best friend's screams. "And I wish every day I had just... That I could've..."

I reached out, gently placing my hand on that window. For just a moment I felt the cool glass, before the illusion disappeared, and we were once more standing on the empty streets of that filthy city.

"... I didn't see you for two weeks after that." I slowly lowered my hand, staring ahead for a thousand yards. "Thought you might'a been dead until you knocked on my door with that same innocent smile."

"... And a cast on your arm..."

"You never answered my question." Anthony's voice was unusual. Less playful. Cold. "Why didn't you help me?"

"... I, I was just a kid." I shook my head, stuffing my hands into my pockets and lowering my shame filled eyes to the pavement on which we walked. "I didn't understand the gravity of the situation, and I was... I was selfish."

"Selfish?"

"I was afraid that they'd take you away." I glanced to the side as I walked, head low. "That you'd go to some foster home or something and I would never see you again."

"Never seeing me again didn't seem to matter to you after you moved."

I clenched my eyes shut, cringing at my poor choices.

"You only moved across the city. You could have called, we still could have hung out sometimes. You didn't have to abandon me Angel. But you did anyway."

"I-..."

"You knew you were all I had. You knew you were leaving me with Her. Did you even care? Did you ever care?"

"Of course I-"

"You say I was your best friend, but do you even know what that means?"

". . ."

"At some point you have to stop lying to yourself Angel."

I crouched down there, in the abandoned streets, bringing my knees up to my chest and burying my face in them while I wrapped my arms around myself, curling up into a pathetic ball not unlike the one Anny would curl up in when he received his motherly beatings.

"... I don't know how to care about people, Anny..." I finally spoke, not daring peek up for fear of the little albino on my shoulders seeing just how much of a pathetic worm I really was. "I didn't understand how special you really were to me until..."

"Until when, Angel?"

"..." I lifted my head, pained emerald eyes staring out blankly at the cold, cruel world around me. "... Until I realized you were gone."

"Until I met Anarchy."

"..." Anthony's nonstop questions reached a pause, like even he was crushed under the weight of that name.

"I took you for granted I, I took all the happy parts of my childhood for granted and left them behind and-..."

I once again gripped the tear in my shirt, and I spoke in barely a whisper.

"... Now I'm alone..."

---

Frisk grunted with exertion as they blocked Chara's blade with their own, sliding back through the mud on their good leg.

"That all you've got..?!" Frisk snarled a challenge, but Chara remained inexpressive, just staring through them with that one burning right eye.

Chara suddenly spun around the knives that separated the two, kicking out and slamming their shoe into Frisk's abdomen, making them double over and sending blood spewing up from between their teeth before they were sent launching back through the air, only to be stopped abruptly by colliding with a stone wall, sending cracks spider webbing through the rock.

Frisk dropped down to one knee, panting and growling up at Chara - who sauntered closer - before glancing back at their misshapen leg.

Without skipping a beat, they reached out, grabbed that broken leg by the ankle, and did not so much as flinch as they snapped it back into place, setting their bone with a simple pull.

Then Frisk snarled at the approaching Chara, red misting from their broken knee and beginning to reseal the bone while Frisk stood, keeping weight off that leg for the time being while they pointed their dagger threateningly at Chara.

Chara suddenly leaned forward, arms swaying limp at their sides before they lunged forward, yanking that knife back and stabbing at Frisk, who was quick to lift their hand and let Chara's blade pierce right through their palm, allowing Frisk to wrap their fingers around Chara's hand and hold them in place while they cocked back their own stab.

Chara ducked out of the way of their stab, launching forward and ramming their shoulder into Frisk's core and carrying them back into that wall of stone, smashing them right into it and sending dust exploding out around the two as more cracks blasted across the rock, a chunk plummeting from the peak and smashing into the dust.

In the next instant, Chara jumped back from the dust, rapidly swinging their arm to deflect the many slashes of Frisk, who launched out right after them, that rage flaring red in their right eye.

Frisk suddenly pushed off the ground, flipping over Chara and spinning around, throwing a kick at the back of their head, only for Chara to lift their forearm, blocking the kick without even looking over their shoulder.

Frisk growled, kicking off of Chara's arm and landing on their feet a good distance away. It seemed their leg had healed by their will, and upon looking to their punctured hand, they found it's hole was just about sealed as well.

Frisk looked back to Chara as they turned to face them, and were heavily disgusted to find streams of black gunk running down from Chara's eyes and mouth, painting their blank expression with dark lines.

Lightning crashed behind them, sending a white flash across the mountain range.

---

"... So what happened next?"

I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment before nodding and standing back to my full height. "Then, I met Granny."

"After you moved, that is?" Anthony asked curiously, and I nodded.

"About two years after moving across the city, I got mixed up in a bit'a nonsense with a group of older kids." I explained as I walked, Anthony gently tapping his hands on my head like it was a bongo.

"What kind of nonsense?" Anny asked, looking down at the top of my head.

"They drove by me and intentionally hit a puddle to splash me with dirty water." I shrugged casually. "So I watched them pull into the local bar,"

"The one that serves minors so long as they pay extra?"

"Yup." I nodded. "I broke the front window of their car to get in, hot wired it, parked it illegally, and then called in and got it towed."

"Oh my god!" Anthony exclaimed with disbelief.

"Yeah don't fuck with me." I said casually, stuffing my hands into my pockets. "My big mistake was waiting until they came outside and throwing eggs at them."

"All of this over some water?"

"It's the principle, Anny." I waved a hand dismissively. "You wouldn't understand."

"Probably because it's dumb."

"Well aren't we just the little sass meister?"

"What happened next, Angel?"

"They chased me, and I ran." As we walked, the vision of a thirteen year old Angel sprinting and hopping fences became apparent at our side. I turned my head, watching the display without much curiosity. "It was both good and bad that they were drunk. On one hand they were stumbly enough for me to stay ahead, but on the other they were belligerent enough to assure the breaking of my bones if they caught me."

"And did they catch you?"

"Nope." I turned, walking casually up a driveway that my younger self also turned down moments later.

I walked right up the steps to the front door, turned the nob, and pushed the door open.

"Who the hell are you?!"

I looked up with some surprise at the short, grey haired elderly woman that sat in a recliner, staring at me with shock clear in her wide eyes.

In sudden confusion, I opened my mouth to speak, before my younger self stepped through me, and I realized Granny had been talking to him.

"Who the hell am I?!" Angel repeated with disbelief, pointing to himself before pointing at Granny. "Who the hell are you?!"

"You're the one trespassing in my house you little shit!" Granny shouted furiously, fumbling through the piles of newspapers that were on the end table next to her chair.

"Yeah well you left the door unlocked!"

"The lock is busted!"

"Well how was I supposed to know?!"

"What, you just take every unlocked door as an invitation?!"

"Life has many doors, Ed boy!"

"... What?!"

"Rolf! Man's a philosopher! Read up, bat! Get learnt!"

A small smile pulled at my lips as I watched the kid and the elderly bicker, Granny eventually pulling a baseball bat from her stack of papers and pointing it at little Angel threateningly.

"Get the hell out of my house!" She demanded, not standing from her chair as she shook that bat.

"Look Granny, I just need a few hours to make sure those goons are gone and then I'll be outta your hair." Angel peeked out from a window to watch the yard skeptically.

"What goons?" Granny furrowed her brows. "And don't call me Granny!"

"Wilkes brothers." Angel explained, not taking his eyes from the window.

"Are those the little punks with the stupid rusty truck?" Granny asked, using her bat like a cane to push herself to her feet and make her way over to the front window with Angel.

"The one with the confederate flag on the back?" Angel glanced back at Granny. "Yeah, that's them."

"I hate those kids!" Granny clenched one bony hand into a fist, shaking it at the window. "They're always driving around late at night with their obnoxiously loud truck!"

"Yeah well I got that stupid thing towed so we won't have to worry about it anymore." Angel smirked back at Granny. "'Cause you know those hillbillies don't have the money to get it back."

Granny looked pleasantly surprised, before she began laughing. "Well good on ya, brat! Maybe I will let you stick around for a bit!"

"Rest is history." I finally spoke up, Anny looking back down to me from the scene. "Me n' the hag ended up getting along so well that I came back the next day. And they day after that. And the day after that."

The home was alight with different memories of all the time I'd spent here, from different times and in different spaces.

"I think Granny was lonely, that's why she was so open to basically raising me for three years." I walked through the many memories to the back deck of the home, opening the screen door and stepping out onto the wood. "And, I didn't really know it, but I think I was real lonely back then, too."

I watched my sixteen year self stand at the railing of the patio out to Granny's fenced in property with the old woman. Granny smiled over at him, and began to speak.

"... Y'know, Angel, you really don't belong in a place like this."

"What?" Angel asked with some confusion, turning his head to look at her. "What do you mean?"

"This city is a dumpster. Low lives and crooks left and right." Granny stared thoughtfully out at the little corner she'd found for herself in this trash pit of a city. "But you have a future, Angel. You aren't like the rest of us."

"Granny, you're... You're bein' weird..." Angel spoke with some concern in his voice.

"Promise me something." Granny reached over, and Angel's eyes darted to his hand as she put hers over it protectively. "You're too bright for this place. Promise me you'll get out of here."

"Well, yeah, Granny, I didn't really intend to spend my whole life in this-"

"Promise me Angel!" Granny clenched her hand around his and lowered her head, shadows casting over her eyes. "Promise me you'll get out of this hole as soon as possible and promise me you won't ever look back!"

"..." Angel stared at her, clearly shocked and bewildered by this strange attitude. But, slowly, he put an arm around her, hugging her to his chest comfortingly.

"... I promise."

"... I think she knew." I finally spoke as the memory faded from the deck, the house behind us going empty and dark as I stepped forward, placing my hands on the railing and looking out into the bland backyard.

"Knew what, Angel?" Anthony asked with some confusion.

Lightning struck. It looked like it might rain.

"... That she was gonna die tomorrow."

Anthony went silent. The two of us stared for another moment or two, before I took a deep breath, closed my eyes for a moment, and then stepped back away from the railing, turning around and stepping back inside the now empty and abandoned house.

"I was all Granny had." I explained as I made my way back into the living room. "I didn't learn much about her past, but I know that it left her with no friends and no family."

I slowly stepped up to the one and only framed photo in the house, reaching out and gently lifting it from the TV stand where it stood.

"... Just some brat who couldn't even..." I wiped the dust from the glass of the frame, staring longingly at the picture inside.

It was of Granny and I, Granny holding me in a headlock and the both of us grinning happily at the camera.

"Couldn't even what?"

"..." My eyes narrowed painfully,and I slowly lifted my head, a deep frown appearing on my face.

If one looked over my shoulder, they would have seen the glowing red eyes in that pitch black hallway that loomed ominously off the living room.

---

Toe to toe. Knuckle to knuckle. Blade to blade.

Neither human was willing to give ground to the other, DETERMINATION flaring and wounds healing only to be reopened.

Chara cocked back a fist and slammed it into Frisk's cheek, and Frisk back flipped back, slamming their foot into Chara's chin as they did so.

The two both sprung back onto their hands, flipping back onto their feet and launching forward at one another.

Their fists slammed together, a red pulse firing out from their collision while they both locked hateful glares, just before darting back away from each other.

---

"Too slow, kid!" The Killer laughed as he side stepped Angel's heavy handed swing with that wooden baseball bat Granny had threatened him with the first time they met.

The Killer darted forward, cocking back one fist and slamming it into Angel's cheek, throwing his head back into the dry wall and denting it. Angel's baseball bat hit the ground, and he followed suit, crumpling pathetically after one punch.

"Sit tight kiddo." The Killer smiled down at Angel, spinning that butcher knife in his off hand. "I'll be back for ya."

I closed my eyes as The Killer made his way back to where Granny had been knocked down in that hallway, and took a deep breath as I heard her screams all over again. "... I wasn't strong enough."

I opened my eyes, and I looked over to where Angel could be seen grinding his teeth, indignant tears streaming down his face as he climbed to one knee, grabbing that baseball bat off the floor next to him.

The Killer walked back out from that hallway, now with blood splattered over his white skin and hair and a great big grin on his face.

Angel charged him, slamming his shoulder into The Killer's abdomen and carrying him to the screen door, the two slamming through it and tumbling out to the patio.

Angel rolled off of him, jumping to his feet and roaring furiously as he pulled that bat over his head and cracked it across the Killer's back while he climbed to one knee, making one intrigued ruby eye dart up to him.

The Killer jumped back to his feet and rammed his fist into Angel's jaw, making him stumble back against the railing, where the Killer planted a foot on his chest and kicked him right through the wood, sending him dropping a few feet flat onto his back.

"Come on brat, that all you've got?" The killer hopped off the ledge, and Angel screamed with agony as he landed one foot right on his rib cage, a series of cracks and snaps echoing throughout the area, muffled under the pouring rain.

Hands in my pockets, I followed emotionlessly out onto the deck, not feeling the rain hit my skin. I walked to that ledge and stared down, unflinching as I watched myself get beaten to a bloody pulp.

"Maybe if you weren't so weak, the little old lady wouldn't have had to die." The Killer mused while he ground his foot on the screaming Angel's ribs.

"Kill..! You..!" Angel dared snarl, digging his nails into The Killer's ankle even as blood trickled down his chin. "I'll..! Kill you..!"

"Yeah whatever you say brat." The Killer cocked back the foot he'd been using to crush Angel's ribs and kicked him upside the skull, knocking his head into the wet grass and making him go momentarily limp.

Hands in his pockets, The Killer casually stepped away from Angel, turning his back and beginning to walk away.

"... Give... Give her back..."

He paused, glancing over his shoulders with narrowed eyes that then widened as he found Angel managing to climb to his knee again, one hand over his burning abdomen and the other once again plucking that bat from the ground in his shaky grasp.

The Killer smiled, turning around to face Angel with a murderous gleam in his crimson eyes.

"Come take her."

Angel launched up from the ground, swinging haphazardly at The Killer, who easily side stepped the swing, placing a hand on the back of Angel's head and smashing his knee into his broken ribs, making Angel hunch over and vomit blood onto his pant leg. The boy didn't let up, however, wrapping his arms around the Killer's leg and snapping his jaws down on his thigh, ripping viciously at his flesh like a rabid dog.

The Killer grit his teeth from the pain before cocking back one fist and smashing it into Angel's cheek, making him slump over and fall to his hands and knees, coughing a mouthful of crimson onto the dark green grass and glaring up at The Killer. Angel continued to push his failing body, trembling as he tried to get his heavy limps to lift him back to his feet.

"Why did you keep getting back up..?" Anthony tilted his head slowly to the side. "Weren't you in pain?"

"I was dying." I corrected blankly, unblinking eyes watching Angel grasp onto The Killer's shirt and use it to pull himself back to his spaghetti legs. "But I had to kill him. Even if it meant I would lose my life in the process."

"... Something inside you died today, didn't it, Angel?"

"..." I blinked my cold green eyes slowly. "Compassion. Care for anyone that wasn't myself. All my KINDNESS washed away."

The Killer laughed as all Angel could do was grab handfuls of his shirt, and Angel hatefully spat a mouthful of blood onto his smug face.

"... In it's place, DETERMINATION." My hands clenched into fists at my sides, and I watched as The Killer slammed a fist into Angel's chin once again, sending him falling flat on his back and his limbs sprawling out at his sides.

His green eyes gradually glossed over to where that bat lay, and just as he managed to get his fingers to inch towards the wood, the Killer dropped one knee down on his bicep, making Angel scream with agony as his arm was snapped like a twig.

"You've got potential, kid. I'll give ya that." The Killer grinned wickedly as he leaned over Angel. Angel snapped his jaws ferociously at him, though his body refused to budge too much else. "But right now, you're weak."

"And guess what?" The Killer smiled devilishly as he knelt at Angel's side, grabbing a fistful of his hair and shaking his head back and forth by it mockingly.

"Weak people die when they fight strong people."

The Killer stood back up, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking down at Angel, who even now managed to glare up at him.

"So go on, hold onto your life with everything you've got. And if you survive, become strong." The Killer turned his back on Angel again. "And then, when you're ready..."

He looked over his shoulder, grinning chaos from ear to ear as psychosis gleamed in his eye.

"Come kill me."

The Killer hopped up onto the deck, and I didn't flinch as he walked right through me, continuing into that home and phasing out of existence.

I hopped down to the ground, looking over my younger self without much of an expression.

"I can't imagine what was going through your head..." Anthony said, and I just continued to stare at my own broken body for another few moments.

"Not much. Just five words." My eyes narrowed, jaw clenching as I watched Angel stare blankly up into the sky. The pouring rain washed the blood from him, chilling his dying body and numbing his screaming limbs.

"Five words?" Anthony tilted his head to the side with confusion.

My fists were white knuckled at my sides, and I took a deep breath before repeating the thought that had changed me for keeps.

"I don't want to die."

"..." Anthony paused, the two of us watching the illusion fade away. We were once more just standing in an empty backyard. There was no longer any rain or any sign that it had been there. "What happened next? How did you survive?"

"Eventually I passed out." I turned around, walking back up the steps of the patio and towards the wide open screen door. "I guess somebody must've heard the screams and called the police, and they found me."

"I was in a coma for around a week." I closed the screen door behind me, not looking anywhere but forward as I made my way through the shell of Granny's home towards the front door. "When I woke up, my arm was in a cast and I was on painkillers."

"A broken arm, three busted ribs, some damaged organs and internal bleeding." I pulled open the front door, stepping out to the front porch. "I was on the shelf for about six months."

"That's a dangerous amount of thinking time."

"Mhm." I agreed with a nod. "By the time I was finished with rehab and back to full health, I'd made up my mind. I was gonna abandon this place. Parents, home, everything. Just like I promised Granny, I was gonna leave this shit hole and never look back."

"And yet here you are. Back again."

"... Things change." My eyes drifted up to the sky. "I'd think my story shows that pretty well."

"So what was your plan?"

"Well, over the years I'd taken a bit of an interest in technology, from mechanics to things like..." I glanced to the side, furrowing my brows as I attempted to think of an example.

"Hacking?"

"Bingo." I snapped my fingers, making a finger gun up at Anny. "So I planned to use those skills to cheat, lie, and steal everything I could outta this place until I had enough money to find where I belonged."

"And how'd that go?"

"Eh." I shrugged casually while I walked down that sidewalk. "Some hacked cameras, some emptied ATMs, nothin' too major. Just enough to attract the right attention."

"The right attention?"

Suddenly the world shifted around us, and we were standing at the center of a graveyard, a kneeling Angel before us. His back was to us, and he appeared to be setting some flowers before a tombstone.

A shadow fell over Angel, and he glared over his shoulder at the well dressed teen that stood behind him. The young man had redish black hair and perfect posture, hands behind his back. He wore a red on black suit and tie.

"Ol' money bags Xander." I explained, watching Angel and this other man speak for a few moments, before Xander extended one hand, and Angel smirked lightly, reaching out and taking it. "AKA The Gatherer."

"And what did he want from you?"

"Was assembling a little team of the best trash he could find in our dumpster city." I shrugged, that graveyard fading and the two of us once more standing on the pavement. Well, I was. Anny was still on my shoulders. "Apparently he had some inheritance that a few greedy family members were keeping from him. So he enlisted some help with the promise of payment as soon as we helped him get that inheritance."

"There are rich people in our crummy home town?"

"There's one chunk'a the city that has all the wealth." I explained casually while we walked. "So there's a few blocks of nice gated community surrounded by a range of lower middle class to slums, leading closer to slums."

"So what was the jobs of these team members?"

"The Hacker to shut down the security systems, The Predator to get inside and find a path around security for The Anarchist, who does the... Real dirty work."

"People were dying and you were letting it happen?"

"If you consider rich people real people." I shrugged thoughtlessly. "Lucky for me, I don't."

"Weren't you trying to become rich?"

"Mhm." I nodded, and when Anthony paused and scratched his head with confusion, I arched a brow up at him. "... What?"

"..." Anthony opened his mouth to speak, but clearly thought better of it, shaking his head. "So what happened next?"

"Well, we had a mansion full'a corpses and all the money to make the crooked cops turn a blind eye to it." My eyes drifted up to the sky as I walked, wearing a thoughtful expression. "But we found ourselves in a pretty great position."

"And what was that?"

"Well, we were in the one protected part of the city: The part with the money. From there, with the wealth we had stolen back and stained with blood in the process, we could run the outside of the gates." I glanced across the street to the clean and tidy metal fence that starkly contrasted the filthy streets we walked upon. "This dumpster would be ours to control."

"And did you do it?"

"Yup." I spoke carelessly, looking ahead once more. "We amassed goons on the outside of the gates to do most of the work under Gatherer's careful guidance. It was easy to do with all the money we had at our disposal."

"Drug trade, money, all came through us. Within two years our gang owned this place." Reality shifted, and suddenly we were standing at the bottom of the steps leading up to some mansion in that gated, pretentious rich people zone we'd set up camp in.

"But why? Why did each of you choose this life?"

"Well Xander and I wanted power." I made my way up the steps to the looming front doors. "Lexi and Anarchy had nowhere else to go."

I pushed open the doors, stepping out into an almost lobby like room that connected hallways and staircases alike. "We actually... Got along pretty well."

Suddenly I could see two figures standing at opposite ends of the lobby, The Hacker and the Anarchist. Neither said a word, emerald and ruby eyes locked together.

"Well... Most of us did."

"..." Anny looked down at the top of my head. "What was it like seeing what was left of me after you abandoned me?"

"... Well, Anarchy claimed he didn't remember me." I shot a glance over at the still albino as I walked by, towards the staircase at the back of the lobby. His eyes, once warm now frozen over. He never smiled, not like he used to. Either a frown or that... That fucking grin. That grin that displayed just how much of a monster he'd become.

All my fault.

"But, like I said, you've always been a terrible liar." I put one foot on the first step. "That much didn't change. It was obvious he remembered me from how much he hated me."

"So, that's how your relationship was with Anarchy..." Anny paused, looking over his shoulder at his older self thoughtfully before he continued. "What about Xander and Lexi?"

"Me n' G got along pretty well." I climbed to the top of the steps, turning right and beginning to walk down the long hallways of the upstairs. "The guy is pretty personable and has pockets full'a charisma. If I was an idiot, I probably would've fallen for his mind games and been easily manipulated. But I think he got the vibe from me pretty quick that I was a little too smart for that, so he didn't test me."

"And Lexi?"

I gripped the door nob at the end of the hallway, pushing it open and revealing another memory in a room lit only in blueish whites by the stacks of computer monitors.

"So you're that Hacker guy G's been on about, huh?" Predator crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the back of Hacker's head. He was facing the monitors, but spun his computer chair around to face her after a moment of key clicking.

"You don't look like I thought you'd look..." Lexi stroked her imaginary beard, narrowing her eyes as she leaned closer to get a better look at Angel. "Don't really fit the genius bill Gatherer talked you up to be."

"Yeah well you don't really fit the four pronged mouth alien bounty hunter bill Gatherer built you up to be, either." Angel shrugged with a bland expression.

"Haha!" Predator laughed, leaning back and getting out of Angel's face. "You're funny. What's your name, anyway?"

"Angel." The Hacker answered casually, smirking lightly with the achievement he felt from a joke landing successfully. And on a girl, no less.

"Angel, huh?" Lexi said thoughtfully, before extending her hand out for a handshake quite eagerly. "Nice to meet'cha! They call me The Predator! My name is Lexi!"

"I thought she was hot, she thought I was funny." I shrugged casually as the memory faded, leaving the two of us in a dark room. "A few months into crime syndicate life, we were dating."

"What?" Anthony furrowed his brows with confusion. "I thought you said you didn't care about people at this point?"

"I didn't." I blinked my empty eyes at the blank monitors.

"But, why would you date someone if you didn't really like them?" Anthony tilted his head to the side, still looking plenty confused.

"... I, think I was bored." My eyes glossed to the side. "I wanted to see what being in a relationship would be like for curiosity's sake, which, saying out loud, kinda makes me sound like a dick, but... I just really didn't understand much about other people's feelings back then."

The room was alight with another memory, displaying Angel sitting at his computer chair, which Lexi leaned on the back of, watching over his shoulder as he played Undertale on the screen directly in front of him.

"I don't get it, Angel." Lexi furrowed her brows with confusion. "You're just a little heart dodging bullets. How is this enjoyable?"

"It isn't about the gameplay. It's about the story, Lex." Angel shook his head with joking disappointment. "You're never gonna be an elite gamer gurl if you keep up that attitude."

Predator rolled her eyes, but smiled some at his joke.

"I just don't get how you can have played the same game so many times, over and over." Lexi shook her head lightly. "Aren't there supposed to be different ends? Why do you always do the same one?"

"Are you suggesting I do a genocide?" Angel spoke with shock, looking over his shoulder at her and placing a hand over his chest.

"Yeah. I mean wouldn't you get to fight the little glowy eyed skeleton the internet rants and raves about?" Predator cocked a brow down at him. "Sounds like a good way to experience the game to me."

"Wow Anarchy when did you get in the room?" Angel responded sarcastically, making Lexi snerk and give him a playful shove.

"... It's, not that I didn't care about her." I took a step closer to the illusion, eyes narrowing painfully. "She was fun and made me laugh and I liked being around her."

"But?"

"... But she needed more than I could give."

The memory shifted, and suddenly footsteps were echoing down the dark hallway towards the room, where The Hacker sat alone in his chair. He looked over his shoulder, cocking a brow into the darkness.

As Lexi stepped into view, he smiled lightly, spinning around in his chair, momentarily not taking note of the fact that her head was down, her long black hair falling over her face.

"Wassup Pred-" His eyes widened as he heard her sniffle sharply, concern overtaking his expression as he stood from his computer chair, stepping closer towards her.

"Whoa, Lexi, what's wrong?" He skeptically put a hand on her shoulder, tilting his head to the side.

"... Angel..." She spoke quietly, not looking up and not seeming to have the strength to. "Am I a bad person..?"

"What..?" He tilted his head to the side in confusion, which slowly overtook his expression. "Where's this comin' from, Lex..?"

She didn't speak, she just slowly stepped forward, reaching out and wrapping her arms around him, leaning her head on his shoulder for comfort.

"Uh..." He glanced from side to side, looking to be contemplating, before slowly returning the hug, smoothing her long hair with his hand to comfort her.

"Lexi never had anybody. She spent the majority of her life as a street rat, stealing to survive." I explained while I watched the two embrace before me. "She needed someone who would really care about her and value her and I... I just wasn't that person."

"..." Anthony watched Angel and Lexi take a seat on the twin sized bed in the corner of the room, Angel keeping a hand on her back while she explained whatever horrible feelings she must have been dealing with. "Are you sure that you didn't care about her in that way, Angel?"

"..." I narrowed my eyes at the floor in silent contemplation of Anny's words. "... How could I have, Anny?"

The memory ended, and the room went abruptly dark.

"I'm the one who got her killed."

...

Anny didn't seem to have a response for a long minute. A long minute in which we stood in the empty darkness.

"... Did she know it was your fault?"

"No." I looked up, and we were suddenly back in the lobby of the mansion. "But Anarchy did."

It was night in the lobby. Angel was asleep on the single couch against the wall of the large room. I remembered that I had a lot of trouble sleeping in those days, and would often pass out whenever and wherever exhaustion finally struck.

The Hacker was stirred from his restless sleep, however, when the light of the kitchen flicked on, reaching across the lobby and striking his eyes, making him shift some while his eyelids fluttered.

A pale figure appeared in the entrance to the kitchen, holding a plate of something that Angel didn't care to recognize, throwing an arm up to shield his eyes while they attempted to adjust, squinting at the young man in the light. "... Anarchy?"

"... Didn't mean to wake you up." The Anarchist spoke emotionlessly, blinking those ruby eyes at his former friend. "Go back to sleep, we've got an important mission tomorrow and we can't afford you falling asleep at the screens."

"Then what are you doing up..?" Angel slowly sat up, rubbing one eye with his fist.

"None'a your business." Anarchy answered clearly and coldly, flicking off the light behind himself and dimming the lobby back to moonlight as he began to make his way to one of the two hallways by the staircase to the upstairs.

Angel furrowed his brows, lowering his eyes to the tile floor while his hands slowly clenched into fists against the knees of his jeans.

"... Anthony..?"

Anarchy stopped, glaring over his shoulder at Angel, his expression souring significantly. "Hacker, I already told you not to-"

"Do you ever feel bad about it..?" Angel cut him off, not lifting his head. "Do you ever just lay down and think about all the mistakes you've made?"

Anarchy's eyes narrowed, but his expression softened some. Barely, but some.

"Just... Sit around and kick yourself for the people you've left behind and let down and stabbed in the back and-..." Angel clenched his eyes shut tight, biting his tongue.

"... Sorry. I'm, probably barking up the wrong tree here."

Anarchy was silent for a few long moments, just staring back back at The Hacker with an unreadable expression.

"... Go to bed, Angel."

Angel's eyes widened some as Anarchy referred to him by his first name, something he hadn't done since the two were children. He lifted his head, but found that Anarchy had already disappeared into the darkness of that hallway, and the glimmer of hope disappeared from his eye.

"... Truly, my life is made up by chilling moments with albinos in dark hallways." I joked without much enthusiasm, watching the memory fade.

"But how did he know?"

"I can't be sure, but... The next day, when him and Lexi were leaving for the trap I'd laid, he just..." I lowered my head, shaking it slowly. "Looked at me. Like he knew I was up to something. Like he knew I was gonna abandon him all over again. Like he was saying "I know. I can't prove what I know to everyone else, but I know.""

"I'm sure that when shit went south, he knew exactly who to blame." I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.

"And, what exactly did you do, Angel?"

"..." I looked up, and we were back on the street. "I stabbed all three of them in the back. I saw the opportunity to get out of this place like I promised, and I used their lives to pay the bus fair."

"Y'see, whenever we had to do something in person, it was The Anarchist and The Predator that went. They had combat skills that me n' Gatherer didn't, and we were much too important to go into possibly dangerous situations." I began to walk again, swallowing the disgust I felt towards my previous actions. "So I cut a deal with a rival gang."

"I set up the fake negotiation for Anarchy and Lexi and some other throw away goons to go to, where they would no doubt be ambushed and murdered." I stared blankly ahead while I walked, not expressing the guilt and regret that swirled inside me. "Meanwhile, I opened the gates of our rich white people utopia and let down the security systems at the mansion after giving them our address and paying off the police."

"And no one suspected anything of you?"

"I was Lexi's boyfriend, so I'm sure she never saw me murdering her coming. I'd played nice and obedient under Gatherer for two years, just feeding his ego until he let his guard down." I blinked my cold eyes. "And Anarchy didn't trust me, but he had no way of proving just why or how I would screw them all over."

"So you got these people to trust you, just to toss them away. All for what?"

"Money." I spoke casually. "I threw as many stacks'a hundred dollar bills from Gatherer's safe into my backpack as I could, and then I walked right out the back door. No one suspected a thing, and the only three people in the organization that knew my face were as good as dead."

"..." Anthony was silent, staring ahead with wide eyes. "Angel, that's... That's horrible. How could you do something like that?"

"To get stronger." I stuffed my hands in my pockets. "I had those same nothing cronies that went with Anarchy and Predator to die taking money and burying it outside the city in secret and in exchange for a cut of the stolen cash. That's why they were selected as the 'backup' for those two. Because they were more loose ends that had to be tied."

"That's a very polite way of saying you had to sacrifice them like lambs so that you could leave."

"I believed I had to become strong. In our world that meant getting lots money and freedom and being ruthless enough to use it." The world shifted around us, and we were suddenly walking through a wheat field on the outskirts of that horrible city. "When I left the mansion, I already had a window tinted, plate-less car waiting just a block away from the gated community that I escaped. These things are easy to get when you own an entire city. I took that out to these fields, where the rest of my money was buried in an abandoned barn."

Anthony looked up, seeing that very barn looming in the middle of the field. It was a faded red, it's roof having caved in and its walls slumping lazily.

"... But, there was somebody waiting for me when I got there."

We watched as another vision from the past began, Angel pausing a few yards from the entrance of the barn, watching as The Killer walked from it, clapping slowly and condescendingly.

"... You."

"It's been a long time, runt. You've certainly grown from the little punk I left in the rain."

I blinked my tired eyes, and a small smile formed at this particular memory. "Lucky for me, I'd figured I should keep a gun on me for any... Unexpected visitors."

"I came to congratulate you, my little Angel." He smiled, ivory hair falling over his face as he tilted his head to the side. The crimson eyes of The Killer settled upon Angel, and he did not flinch. "I was just too proud not to."

"I mean, tossing all your friends to the hounds, using them until they served no more purpose and then lining your pockets with their blood!" The Killer laughed, eyes wide with disbelief as he threw his hands out to the sides. "You've become so perfectly RUTHLESS!"

"I still don't know how he knew of everything I'd done. Maybe he really was God." I shrugged casually. "Not that it mattered."

BANG.

"Guh..!" The Killer stumbled back, jaw clenching and eye twitching as he grabbed his now bleeding shoulder. His eyes darted from his new wound back to Angel, and he took a step back.

"N-now you see, this is what I saw in you Angel." The Killer spoke, though cold sweat was now beading down his forehead. "You're so-!"

"Shut up."

BANG.

"You're not blinking, not hesitating in the slightest." Anny pointed out. "You don't even care that you're taking someone's life."

"I didn't care about anyone or anything. Least, that's what I told myself." I stuffed my hands in my pockets, feeling a disgusting amusement in watching the Killer die all over again. "It felt good to get revenge for what he'd done to my Granny. Feels good watching it again."

"..." Anthony furrowed his brows, looking down at me. "That's kinda messed up Angel. You killed a dude."

"Yeah, well," I pointed to the scene, letting my past self finish my sentence for me.

"I don't give a damn. You killed my Granny."

BANG.

The Killer dropped back, blood and grey matter oozing out from the nine millimeter hole in the front and back of his skull.

"... And what happened next?"

"Well," The world shifted, and we were watching Angel throw duffel bags of money into the trunk of a black van. "I finished up loading my profit,"

Angel sighed with exhaustion, slamming the trunk shut and then beginning to walk towards the drivers seat.

"... And then I fell down a hole."

The ground under Angel tore open in a strange interdimensional hole, and he dropped right through, his scream being cut short as the portal closed behind him.

". . ." Anthony blinked his wide eyes. "Well that was anticlimactic."

"Yup." I let my eyes fall to the ground, which switched back to that sidewalk. "I did all that terrible stuff, killed all those people, and it was all for nothing. If I had scheduled it all just one day later, no one would have gotten hurt and I still would have gotten out of that place."

"So..." Anthony cocked a brow as we walked, the world shifting around us. On our left was a freeze frame of Angel holding that gun to The Killer's head. "How did you go from this,"

He gestured from the left over to the right, where there was a freeze frame of me grinning happily up at Chara despite the blood streaming down my chin, Chara's face reflecting clear shock and turmoil.

"To this?"

"..." I stared over at the scene of my death with longing eyes, taking a deep breath before the vision faded. "I... Really love Undertale."

"Playing that game, befriending each of those happy little characters, it... It made me feel like I wasn't so terrible." I smiled sadly, looking down at my feet as I continued walking. "Like I didn't have to be so awful to get ahead. Like there was... Some kind of happy ending for me."

"That connection with the characters combined with all the care that each of them came to show for me..." I reached up, gripping the tear in my shirt. "... Well. They made sacrificing myself easy."

"Oh, we're here!"

I stopped in my tracks, eyes widening with sudden horror as I realized that we were, in fact, right outside of Anny's house, standing at the end of the driveway.

Anthony began to try to climb from my shoulders, and I didn't take my haunted eyes from that home even as I thoughtlessly reached up and lifted him from me, setting him on the ground but not letting go of his hand.

Anthony smiled up at me, and as he let go of my hand a sudden bolt of agony struck my heart, which had been in a dull ache this entire trip down memory lane.

"Thanks for walking me home, Angel." Anthony grinned that big happy smile, but even the innocence in my best friend's expression couldn't stop the bottomless pit that was opening in my stomach.

"You should head back now. They really need you back at your home, you know." Anthony's grin shrunk to a knowing smile, and the shadow of my hair fell over my eyes for just a moment. "I'm sorry for keeping you out so late."

"... W-wait, Anny." I dropped to one knee to be closer to eye level with Anthony, who furrowed his brows curiously at me.

"What if... What if I don't go back." I asked, desperation shining in my eyes. "What if I stayed here? W-with, with you?"

"... Angel, you know my mom never let us have sleep overs at my house." Anthony puffed out his cheeks, squinting at me. "And your friends ne-"

"But you don't have to be afraid of her anymore!" I reached out with one hand, and could see it trembling there. "I-I'm bigger now! I'm strong now! I can protect you now!"

"Angel..."

"This time..!" My eyes were wide to help my vision, which was getting blurry. My eyes felt hot. "This time I can save you!"

"... You could have saved me last time." Anthony's lips drooped sadly, and his eyes lowered, like he couldn't even look at me...

"... A-... Anny..." My hand dropped to the ground, my jaw ajar as a single tear slipped down my face, cupping my cheek in a stream of sorrow.

"P-please, everything got so messed up after you were gone..." I clenched my eyes shut tight, dropping to both knees before him. "I just want things to go back the way they were... I want to save you, please I... I can't just sit by and let her..."

"You already did."

I dropped down to my elbows, bowing before a child while regretful tears streaked down my face.

"... Please... I'm not ready to leave you again..." I whimpered, resting my forehead on the ground. "... Can't we just go back to the playground..?"

"Can't... Can't things just be the way they were before..?"

"Angel..." Anthony looked down at me with sorrow in his eyes, and he took a deep breath. "... If you could have a super power, what would it be?"

"H-huh..?" I sniffled lifting my head to look up at him as the streams of tears slowed to a stop.

"What would you want, Angel?" Anthony tilted his head to the side.

"Anny, I've..." My eyes glossed to the side with confusion. "I've already told you that..."

"But you seem to have forgotten." Anthony crossed his arms over his chest.

"..." I lowered my head again, sniffling.

"Tell me Angel. Tell me what you've always wanted more than anything."

"... Flight..." I eventually managed to speak, eyes narrowing at the dirt I grovelled in. "I, I always wanted wings..."

"And why do you want that so bad?" Anny arched a brow.

"..." My hands clenched in the dirt. "So I can fly away from this place..."

"Then why do you want to stay now?"

"... Because you're here..." I clenched my eyes shut tight, left over tears dripping from my face.

"I was here before, and you still wanted to leave."

"... Yeah, well, that was before I knew how shitty my life was gonna get and," I opened my eyes, looking to the side. "... Before I realized how great things were when I was with you."

"It didn't look to me like your life was that great, even when we were little kids." Anthony frowned some, and I looked up to him with surprise. "In fact earlier you were telling me just how much dealing with your parents alone traumatized you."

"..." I got off my hands, leaning back on my knees and looking contemplatively to the side.

"Besides, things actually seem to be looking up for you now." The corner of Anny's lips curved up in a small smirk. "You've gotten a fresh start, made amazing friends, done so many good things..."

"... What does it matter now?" My eyes narrowed bitterly. "I'm dead."

"Angel you could have come back any time and you know it." Anny rolled his eyes. "Why are you waiting?"

"..." I hesitated, before speaking. "I, don't wanna kill Chara. I knew I'd lose from the start because of that. And I figured that, maybe seeing me die might be the only way to get them to see things differently."

"So you sacrificed your future for theirs."

I nodded slowly, lowering my head. "... Yes."

"You're on the right track, Angel." Anthony smiled lightly, almost like he was... Proud of me. "But they still need something more. They need a friend, and you're the only one they've got."

I lowered my head, shutting my eyes tight.

"They need you Angel. Everyone does."

I hesitated, hands clenching to anxious fists at my sides.

"... I'm scared..."

"Scared?" Anthony repeated with confusion.

"... Scared that I might let them down." I explained, shoulders sinking and eyes staring at the ground, unable to look Anny in the eye.

"That someone will end up like you or Granny or Lexi or any of the other poor bastards who have made the mistake of getting close to me. I'm scared that I'll stab them in the back, that I'll go back to being a bad person and I-..." I paused the onslaught of words that had exploded out of the bottle I'd shoved them into, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. "I can't do that again... I can't handle anymore regrets..."

"Then you won't become that person again."

"Huh..?" My eyes darted back up to Anny, who was smiling like it was obvious.

"If you're so terrified of becoming that person again that you would actually rather die, I don't think there's any way you will." Anny shook his head, laughing lightly at how silly he thought I was being. "I think you're changed for good Angel."

"... Oh. Huh." The surprise left my face, and I puffed out my left cheek with thought. "That's, actually, a really good point."

Anthony smiled proudly at that, nodding once before he began speaking again.

"So tell me, Angel, what is it that you want more than anything else in the world?"

I looked to the ground, hesitating as my jaw clenched. "... Wings..."

"And why do you want wings Angel? Why do you wish so desperately to fly?"

My hands tightened into fists, and I felt something reigniting. "So I can fly away from this place..!"

"Yes!" Anthony exclaimed excitedly, clenching his fists in front of himself. "And will you ever return to this wretched life?"

"No!" I climbed back to one knee, looking to Anthony with a red DETERMINATION gleaming in my left eye. "I'll fly and I won't ever look back!"

"Not for me?!" Anny put a hand on his chest, that same intensity burning in his eyes as well.

"Not for you!" I pushed easily back to my feet, shaking my head.

"Not for Granny?!" Anthony pointed up at me, and I furiously shook my head.

"Not for anyone!" I stomped my foot, and suddenly crimson embers sparked to life over my left eye. My green iris shifted to red, and the flame of my DETERMINATION exploded to life around that eye.

Anny outstretched one hand, and in it that little silver bell manifested, the fire in my eyes reflecting in it.

"Then ring the bell, Angel!" Anthony demanded, intensity burning in his eyes like they did mine. "Sprout your wings and fly away from this place!"

My eyes narrowed at that bell, but my nerve held strong, and I clenched my jaw as I reached out, gripping the bell's handle with one strong hand.

Ring...

Ring...

Ring...

I felt my clothing shift, and my eyes widened over my shoulder as my shirt ripped open from the back, beautiful inky black wings spreading wide before veins of ruby DETERMINATION illuminated them, like a bone structure that they formed around.

"Anny..." I slowly looked back down to Anthony with an honest smile on my face. A single tear slipped down my cheek. "Thank you."

"Go make things right, Angel." Anthony smiled right back up at me. "I know you can do it."

"You're not... Really Anthony, are you?" I tilted my head to the side, smirking a little down at him. "I don't think Anny knew words like anticlimactic and wretched when we were kids."

"I'm what you remember him as." Anny smiled the sweet, innocent smile that had illuminated my childhood. "I hope that's enough."

I nodded a few times, before looking up to the sky. For once, those filthy clouds were parting and showing the beautiful blue sky I'd dreamed of.

I looked back to Anny, and I felt a sense of contentment wash over me.

"Goodbye, Anthony."

"Goodbye Angel."

My wings flapped, and a gust of wind exploded out around me, sending me firing high into the sky, racing up towards that part in the clouds.

---

Chara and Frisk glared at one another from opposite ends of the plateau, panting and pointing those knives at one another.

Ring...

Ring...

Ring...

They both paused, eyes looking and heads turning to find the source of the sound of some odd bell ringing.

Archangel by Two Steps From Hell began playing.

But, after finding nothing, Frisk and Chara both looked back to one another, and just as they were preparing to launch at one another, the air seemed to pressurize, and they both snapped their heads to the side as a pillar of crimson energy exploded high into the sky, lighting the darkness in red DETERMINATION.

Chara and Frisk each threw one arm up to guard their eyes from the billowing winds, which sent the rubble from their fight blasting through the air and into the distance.

Chara's pupils shrunk in utter shock, watching Cter's body slowly rise in this crimson tornado of DETERMINATION. His eyes remained closed as red shards of soul began to race up from the ground where they'd landed to right in front of his ripped open chest, which was rapidly sealing itself.

As his soul reformed, ruby lines of DETERMINATION began to run like glowing veins across his flesh, that red heart rapidly piecing back together as he levitated above the ground, his hands out to his sides.

Consciousness returned, and I clenched my fists just as my soul was put back together, sending shining red lines blasting through its cracks and welding them shut. The moment it was complete my eyes snapped open wide, and another shock wave of power exploded out across the plateau, making both Frisk and Chara slide back across the wet grass.

My left eye ignited with DETERMINED flames, and my tattered shirt was ripped open in the back, sending it falling from me and revealing my now scarred over abdomen, along with the bright shining Delta Rune on my back, which was facing the monsters on the other side of the barrier behind me.

I clenched my fists in front of myself while my wings spread wide behind me. I ground my teeth then as the waves of red energy that were exploding out around me began to condense back towards me, that red pillar being sucked back into my soul in a crimson vortex.

Both Frisk and Chara planted their feet, straining to keep from flying towards me with all the DETERMINATION that I was sucking back into my soul.

Then, after all the red faded, and my feet hit the ground, I threw my arms out to the sides, and one final shock wave of crimson blasted out around me, slamming into Chara and Frisk and throwing the both of them off their feet. The music stopped.

Chara landed on their butt, but didn't notice any pain as they stared across the plateau at me with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.

The clouds had opened above me, and sunlight shun down over me as I smirked lightly, fists dropping to my sides and those ink wings spread wide behind me. The red lines faded out from my skin.

*The Angel Appears.

Chara was utterly speechless, slowly climbing to their feet without ever taking their wide eyes off me. They looked like they really weren't sure if I was real.

"So, Chara." My voice rang clear and confident as I stood in the sun, looking out into the cold and rain in which they'd condemned themself.

"You totally missed me, didn'tcha?"

---

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