Disclaimer: I don't own Doki Doki Literature Club or Undertale, however, I do own ờ̶̡̖̦͚͈̟̱͈̰̟̰̟̮͈̤̜̆͑̽͛̈́̏̀̑̈́́̿̀̀̚͝ǜ̵̩̗̞ͅṟ̴̿̀̀̓͌̌͗̃̄̿̀̚̕̕̕͘ Player.

Twilight shined through the Barrier. It came down upon the shoulders of those in the small room containing the barrier in gentle, cascading waves. Black overcame it, then white light spilled through, then black again, then white again. On and on it repeated, flickering, shining, then dimming again in its endless dance of push and pull. Despite the mystical, ephemeral nature of the odd white light, Monika knew in her heart that what she was seeing now... Was twilight. The final fading light of a summerset sunset as the season came to its end. She knew this because she had seen it, a long time ago, thirty days from now. She knew this because she had stood here before. In this spot, talking to this man, feeling these emotions. Yet as she stood there, her heart burning in time with the SOUL protruding out from her chest like a knight's shield, Monika knew something else.

This time, she would not see the same ending come to him. In front of her, the Mountain King, the savior of Monsters, the failed father, Asgore. He stood, back rigid, cloak draped around his shoulders, head bowed, lips curled tightly in a frown as the remnants of all about him that was gentle rolled down his cheek and fell away. In its place, where once a kindness had stood proudly, head raised to the world, duty stood, its legs already trembling from the weight with which it carried. Monika spoke first. "Asgore." She began. "I know that the barrier can be broken. If you absorb the other SOULs right now, then we can combine our powers to destroy the barrier and free everyone down here. You might not believe me, but I know it can be done. If you take my offer now, we can end the war between Humans and Monsters and everyone can be free." The young woman spoke clearly, every word properly prepared. In her mind, she had rehearsed this moment a million times. From the first time she reflected on her experience in the Underground, hours after Asgore had died because she hadn't been paying attention, to the last minute before she stepped into the throne room. Now all that remained was putting her words into action.

"I would like that..." Asgore admitted. "But I cannot accept. It is too late for that. Any of that. Not after what has already transpired. For me, it is too late." And yet, his words fell from his lips like stones, each one cracking the floor beneath him. "So much blood, so much pain..." Monika could see it now, the lie that he told himself. That final tear had not been the last of his kindness, and she knew she would pull the rest out of him. "I have done too much already. We must see it through." His lips trembled. And yet, they firmed downward again as he widened his stance. "Human. It was nice to meet you..." Asgore took a deep breath. Monika felt her SOUL set alight. "Goodbye."

And then, the unexpected came. Orange light came into view, and Monika became acutely aware of a sun being flung past her. A brilliant orange ball tore through the air, sending shimmers and waves of disturbed light through its trail before it struck the chest of the Mountain King and knocked him back. "What a miserable creature." A familiar voice said from behind her. Monika's eyes widened and her head snapped towards the sound as the color returned from the world around her. "Torturing a poor, innocent youth." Toriel concluded, her tone clipped, dripping with an animosity that was completely out of the realm of the older woman's ordinary cadence. But then her expression softened as their eyes met, and she smiled gently. "Do not be afraid, my child." Even her voice flowed differently now, her words dripping with only the purest joy. "It is I, Toriel, your friend and... Well, I suppose guardian is wrong for someone of your age." Her smile seemed a bit more nostalgic now, old memories cropping up behind wizened eyes.

Monika couldn't help the smile that came over her face in response. "Toriel?" She asked and was fully incapable of keeping the joy out of her throat as she did. "You're here! But why?"

The goat woman appeared sheepish as she continued. "Originally, I was content to allow you to undertake your journey alone... but I could not stop worrying about you. The adventure I put you on must have been so treacherous... and ultimately, it would burden you with a horrible decision... To leave, you would be forced to take a life. You would have to defeat Asgore. But... I realized that, in putting you into this scenario, I have gone against my own morality. It is not right to sacrifice someone simply to let someone else leave here. Is that not what I have been trying to prevent this whole time?" She sighed. "As terrible as Asgore is..." If it were possible, Monika might have thought that the older woman was sighing with her entire body. "Asgore deserves mercy too."

Asgore, finally recovering from the attack, rose to his feet. "Tori... you came back!" He began, but did not get far with the tone of a man who was... Monika blinked. There was no way. He didn't actually think that she was here to-

"Do not "Tori" me, Dreemur." Toriel crossed her arms, her expression souring as she turned to glare at her ex-husband with all the swirling anger of a jilted wife. Monika almost felt the need to take notes, in case she ever had to give Player a look like that one day. But from the exact markings of the goat-woman's features and the cowed wince that Asgore made when she rounded on him, Monika suspected that this was perhaps not the relationship to take any notes from. "You pathetic whelp." Toriel continued. "If you really wanted to free our kind, you could have just taken ONE SOUL and then crossed the barrier to collect six others before coming back here and freeing everyone." And then, her eyes sharper. "More importantly, if you really didn't want to undertake that, then at the very least you should have accepted her offer! Miss Monika gave you a solution to save both of you from making this kind of mistake again, but you would not accept even that."

"Tori... you are right. I am a miserable creature." Asgore said softly. Then, peeking his eye up in a manner that Monika unfortunately knew well from her own experiences with exes (or those programmed into her backstory- she really had to question why her creator had undertaken such lengths), he continued. "But... do you think... we can at least be friends again?"

Toriel sighed with her whole body this time, Monika was sure of it. "NO Asgore."

And then, another surprise. "NGAAAAAAAHHHH!" Undyne leaped into the room, and landed in a standing position between Monika and Asgore with her hands raised. "Asgore! Human! Don't fight!" Undyne roared. "Everyone's gonna make friends or else I'll... I'll..!" Undyne trailed off as she noticed Toriel, her one eye snapping wide as she did.

"Oh hello there. I am Toriel, are you Miss Monika's friend?" Toriel said pleasantly. "I am Toriel, it is nice to meet you."

"Oh uh, yeah! Nice to meet you too!" Undyne waved awkwardly then darted up to Asgore before leaning in and in a voice Monika could only barely make out said. "Uh, hey Asgore, is that your ex?" To which, the man nodded sadly. "Geeze, that's rough, buddy."

And then Alphys stormed into the room, hiking up her lab coat to give her small legs enough room to waddle as quickly as they could to stand between Monika and the others. "H-hey! Nobody... hurt..." She trailed off as she noticed Toriel, who waved kindly. Alphys looked between the goat woman and the goat man for a solid few seconds before looking at Monika with an expression that could only read as "THERE'S TWO OF THEM?" and then just as quickly, she shuffled off to go stand next to Undyne, undoubtedly seeking comfort in the familiar. But she was not alone this time, as standing behind her- almost like a child waiting for his turn to ride the carnival rides- was Papyrus.

"THAT IS RIGHT! NOBODY FIGHT ANYBODY! IF ANYONE DOES THEN I'LL..." He jutted a finger into the air in what was meant to be a menacing pose, Monika assumed, before it deflated slightly as he finished. "BE FORCED TO ASK UNDYNE FOR HELP!" And then he too noticed Toriel. "OH! HELLO, YOUR MAJESTY!" And as she had up until now, Toriel waved and greeted him warmly. After she did, Papyrus narrowed his eye sockets and looked at her long and hard for a moment before turning his attention back onto Monika. "HUMAN... DID ASGORE... SHAVE?" He "whispered" to the best of his ability. "AND... clone himself...?"

And before she could answer that, Sans slid into the room from the side opposite the door, his hands in his pockets. "hey guys..." Said the skeleton as his eyes lazily scanned the room. "what's up?"

Papyrus looked ready to explain but before he could, Toriel perked up. "That voice!" Toriel quickly came to stand across from Sans, a gigantic grin plastered on her soft face as she did. "Hello... I think we may know each other!" She greeted.

"oh hey, i recognize your voice too." Sans replied as nonchalantly as he could. "the name's sans, sans the skeleton." He winked.

"I am Toriel, it is so nice to finally meet you!" Toriel smiled with all the warmth that came with meeting an old friend for the first time. "Ah, but then..." She turned and smiled at Papyrus. "This must be your brother! It is good to meet you, Papyrus!" She said. "Your brother has told me so much about you!"

"WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE ASGORE'S CLONE KNOWS WHO I AM!" If it were possible, Monika thought she could see the skeleton blushing. "THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"

And as the group continued to converse with and greet one another- Undyne doing her best to cheer Asgore up, Toriel and Sans sharing a skeleton-pun at Papyrus's chagrin, and even a near-kiss between Alphys and Undyne- Monika couldn't help but feel something building in her chest. A warm, burning sensation that pounded between her ribs, each pump another plea to be let out. A sensation that reminded Monika of the opening notes of a song she wrote, or of the feeling she got when she completed a poem she was really proud of. A feeling like love and hope and joy had been spilt and mixed into her skin. A feeling she knew could only be Passion. A feeling that did not come just because of the few who had came to support her, but because of what they brought with them. Because as Monika watched, an army filed into the room, standing around them, shoulder-to-shoulder, end-to-end.

Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Mettaton and even Alphys had come first and they had come the loudest, but they were hardly alone. Dozens... hundreds of Monsters crowded around and behind them. All filing into the cavernous room, all here to support her, to fight for her, to fight with her and on her behalf. Every single one brought another thundering jolt to her ribs. Every single one widened her own smile a little more. She had helped these people, she had sung with them, she had found them love. She had pulled them out of depression and she had shared good memories with them. And all of them, every last one, had come to support her. Monika couldn't help the smile, but she was powerless to prevent a grin as she looked around at the many dozens of equally elated faces that now stood around them. The danger passed, they laughed, they sung, they cheered, they hugged, they loved. Her SOUL ignited, and finally freed itself from the confines of her chest to join in alongside them.

*They were filled with Passion.

"Toriel?" Monika asked, breathless as she looked around the room. "What did you do? Did you bring everyone here?"

"A-actually..." Alphys spoke up, still nervous about earlier. "P-Papyrus was the one to call everyone..." She trailed off, a quizzical look on her face. "But... that reminds me." She looked at the taller skeleton. "Papyrus, if I beat you here then... how did you know to get everyone together?"

And at this, the eager-faced skeleton said something that nearly sent Monika's soul careening back into the faux-safety of her chest. "LETS JUST SAY..." He began dramatically, face shifting to add to the dramatic flair. "A LITTLE FLOWER TOLD ME ABOUT IT!"

Alphys's eyes went wide and the dinosaur-shaped Monster began to sweat so hard that it seemed like she would melt. Monika couldn't blame her, she felt like she could do the same. "A... little... flower...?!" Alphys asked, her entire body tremoring with nothing less than total terror. But that was an issue that Alphys would have to deal with herself, for Monika quickly turned around and scanned the room. Faces and friends flew by in a blur, but Monika wasn't looking for Flowey's ever-changing face- instead, the Club President busied herself with the task of finding a very particular color among the crowd. Few of the Monsters here were yellow after all, Monika was certain that she could pick Flowey out if she spotted even a petal.

She never made it passed the left side of the room. In an instant, the festivities were dead, cut short by a monstrous, vinelike arm with an inhuman glove attached. It swept across the room, sprouting new vines from its body that wrapped tightly around everyone it went by, constricting their bodies as if it were some kind of snake. And it didn't stop at the monsters either. Monika thrashed around violently, feeling the vines only binding her arms more forcefully as she struggled in their grasp. She was almost content to give up her thrashing after the vines tightened so much that she could feel them digging into her skin even through her Jacket, but then she noticed that Flowey had taken the liberty of restraining Player the same way and she began to flail around with even greater force as Passion began to sprout from the SOUL that itself started to peek out of her chest.

"You IDIOTS!" Flowey cackled as he pulled his vine back and hoisted all of the Monsters into the air, making them surround Monika like puppets waiting to have their strings pulled. "While you guys were having your little "pow-wow" I took the Human SOULS!" The abomination winked at her while sticking his tongue out in a manner most childlike. "And now... thanks to YOU... Not only do I have all of THOSE under my power, but I also have all of YOUR FRIENDS'S SOULS too! Hee hee hee!" He giggled again.

"Because of ME?" Monika lurched forward, managing to loosen one of her arms as she did. "What ARE you talking about?"

"Hee hee hee heee! You really have to be the STUPIDEST Human!" Flowey rolled his eyes, grin ever widening. "Isn't it obvious? Its because YOU made them love you! You made them care! You listened to them, you encouraged them, cared about them..." Flowey's words lapped from his tongue like snake's venom. "Without that, they wouldn't have come here!" He tightened his vines around her friends and Monika recoiled as she heard Undyne cry out, followed swiftly by Toriel doing the same. "And now, with them AND the Human SOULS being here..." His grin widened so much that for a moment, his entire body elongated and distorted, stretching to fit the entire monstrous smile. "I can achieve my REAL form!" But then, his eyes turned onto Player. "And maybe... something so much more..."

"No!" A breathtaking surge of bright pink fire suddenly light up Monika's body, its flames licking at and then spreading across the vine wrapped around her- and then spreading further until it reached the plant life covering Player, which too began to set alight. "You won't touch him! You won't... touch... any of them!" Monika's SOUL resonated, pulsing once and then expanding out, unleashing an aura of fire that covered her entire body... But it wouldn't be enough to reach the rest of her friends.

'Not yet at least.' Monika reminded herself. Without taking anything more than a deep breath, knowing that at any moment, Flowey would easily overcome her alone, Monika began to focus. Images came over her mind in dazzling bursts of light. Her time with Undyne, her singing to win the contest, eating Toriel's pie, joking around with Sans, "dating" Papyrus and then, finally, the entire adventure she had spent with her Player. Each one expanded her aura, pouring onto it like gasoline until the girl was alight with enough pink flame to dye the world a beautiful rose shade. 'I just need a little more.'

Because despite all of that, Flowey was still smiling as if he had already won. "Oh, don't you get it?" Flowey asked sarcastically as Monika took a step towards him. "The game is already over! You lost! But that's okay..." Monika took another step, sweat pooling and dripping down the side of her face as she struggled to maintain her Passion. "After all, you'll get another try!" It was like trying to keep a wildfire going inside of a tsunami. Monika gasped and her muscles, not used to struggling so heavily, popped veins as she barely managed to get another step in. Her SOUL burned hot, but with every forward movement... and every word out of Flowey's mouth... "I was getting so bored down here, but you! You brought me something even better than what C4a7a had! Even in our last game, right before she went and RUINED it by resetting..." He sighed. It struggled to keep up the aura. But somehow, despite that struggle, Monika's chest flared for what she knew would be its last breath. Just a little closer. "That's fine. I have you to play with me now! And we're gonna have so much fun!" He giggled, then laughed, then finally, as Monika nearly reached the closest vine to her, he threw his head back and cackled. Then, suddenly, the girl's body was trapped. Not behind vines this time, but by four white lines that came together and formed a square, which itself... Trapped her SOUL. "But I think I need to SHOW YOU just how doomed you are! And I know just how we'll start... by killing you ONE-MILLION TIMES!"

Friendliness pellets surrounded her and Monika tried to move, but found that whatever box Flowey had put over her SOUL was preventing her from moving, holding her in place- like her SOUL was physically connected to her! Focusing, she reined her Passion back in and shielded her body... But she couldn't maintain it, not like this, not with Flowey inadvertently digging into the one thing about all of this that Monika was still unsure of. Whether or not this was all a game. She wanted to believe differently, but Flowey, if he thought it was a game, then... The flames around her fell, dousing like a wildfire fighting a hurricane until the girl was left with nothing bigger than a candle. Monika grit her teeth as the pellets struck her SOUL directly, only barely lurching forward thanks to her aura fighting off what of them it could. She bled when Flowey summoned another ciruclar volley, and this time her candle began to dim as it took the brunt of everything it could. And on the third time, she was surprised to find that it was even possible for her to fall to her knees. But that feeling lasted for only as long as it took her to hit the ground because, as Monika watched droplets of red hit the floor by her leg, she saw her light go out.

Flowey cackled as he encircled the girl with Friendliness Pellets again, then took a sadistic kind of joy in closing in on her slowly. She could feel his eyes narrowing, the sockets hollowing out and revealing his irises for the pinpricks of aberrant light that they were. She could taste his excitement in her throat as she saw the Pellets's lights begin to shine on her body, it made her want to be sick. Monika grit her teeth, closed her eyes and breathed. 'Passion... What am I...' Monika's own internal voice sounded far, distant like a star. A star was an apt metaphor, she thought as she felt heat caress her body. And then, she clenched her eyes tighter as she waited for the pain and then the void.

But somebody came. "What?" Flowey hissed, bringing Monika to open her eyes and look up at him, catching a fleeting glimpse of fire fading from view as she did. And as she did, she heard something else. Music began to swell around her and with that, a different voice. Strained and speaking with all of her effort, Toriel managed.

"Do... Not be afraid, my child." Toriel looked up at her, smiling with as much strength as she had. "No matter what happens... We are always going to be here to protect you."

'What am I Passionate...'

Flowey grit his teeth, stretching his face as he did. This time, he summoned two waves of Friendliness Pellets, each of which came at Monika from opposing directions. Yet she didn't brace, she didn't have to and, she thought in the most optimistic corners of her soul, she wouldn't have to ever again. Becase as they came for her, Monika heard the sound of a spear raise from the ground and the sound of a bone appearing from nowhere.

"THAT'S RIGHT HUMAN, YOU CAN WIN!" Papyrus grinned at her with substantially more energy than Toriel had. "JUST DO WHAT I WOULD DO, BELIEVE IN YOU!"

"Hey! Human! If you could get past ME, you can do anything! And we're with you all the way!" Undyne strained through a wide, powerful, and yet very tired grin. All the while, she fought her bonds.

'What am I Passionate...'

"huh?" Sans spoke up next. "you haven't beaten this guy yet? c'mon, this weirdo's got nothin' on you." He said as nonchalantly as he could, given the pain those barbs must have been putting him in.

And again, Flowey threw more at Monika, this time from the top and bottom of the box. And again, she felt something tugging on her SOUL and on her lips as she saw a burst of electricity and a line of fireballs defend her. "T-technically, its impossible for you to win..." Alphys said, glancing away from Monika. "But... somehow... I want to believe that we can do it!"

'I'm Passionate about...'

"Human, for the future of Humans and Monsters, we have to fight for what we love." Asgore said, his voice being the only one not strained.

"DIE!" Flowey snapped and this time, hurled an ocean of Pellets towards Monika. Yet they never came. Instead, there was a tight, restrained laugh from behind her. And in front of her, the File Menu appeared and shielded her as around her, a hundred other attacks came and protected her.

"Come on, Moni. You're not really letting that guy get into your head, are you?" Player asked. Monika turned and for the first time knew that he was grinning at her. "C'mon babe, we're stronger than him. You're stronger than him because I Love..."

'I'm Passionate about...!'

But he was not the only one to shield her. Suddenly, from all around her, Monika heard them. A chorus of voices and with them, an army of saviors.

"C'mon, you got this!"

'I.'

"We're with you too!"

'Am.'

"You've GOT to win!"

'Passionate.'

"You can do it!"

'About.'

"La la la."

'All.'

"Ribbit!"

'Of my.'

"You!"

"Friends!" Monika finished. "I'm Passionate for everyone here! All of my friends! All of the people I care about! All of their lives! All of the things they love!" Monika grinned even though tears began to flow from her eyes. "All of the people they love! Every last one of their hopes and dreams! I care about them! And I... Won't... LET... You hurt them anymore!" Fire roared around her, coming to life in a single flourish of every last drop of Passion that Monika had. It poured from her eyes and out from her SOUL. It surrounded her, spread from her and consumed the box holding her in place. It spread its wings, a phoenix unleashed. An angel from heaven, sent to let the Underground go empty.

"URGH!" Flowey lashed out at her, driving a vine up through the ground and into Monika's chest. But she didn't feel a thing as fire roared around her, then spread, then burned away at him, causing the creature to recoil away and pull its limb back only barely in time to prevent his whole body from being consumed. "That... Passion of yours... I finally get it now! It isn't like the other SOULs at all! It isn't like C4a7a's! Its different." He growled, shrinking back as he did. "It gets stronger the more you... care about them. The more you have something to fight for. That's why I can't kill you... that's why I couldn't just RESET over you, isn't it?! Because you had something you cared about more than the whole world..." He grinned at her, but it wasn't his usual look. "And now... you've gone and started caring about them and because of that, you're ruining my GAME!"

Flowey seemed so small now compared to how he had been when Monika had first found him. When she first "fell", when she first encountered him, when he told her his false definition for love... He had seemed like so much more, like an absolute evil. But then, she grew. She beat him and, she felt, she beat his ideology. "It's... not a game." She said, her hand extending out not towards Flowey, but towards the people who needed her most. She could burn the vines restraining them, free them and then, together, end this. "Its never been a game. Not now..." Monika paused and glanced over her shoulder at the one man who had known, who had always known the truth. "And not then..."

"Not a game?!" Flowey snapped and then... he grinned. And this time, this time it was as it had been before. Unhinged, yet aware of something Monika was not. "I can't believe it. Even after ALL of this, you're STILL. SO. STUPID!" Flowey yanked back his vines, pulling Monika's friends higher into the air and just out of her reach. "That passion of yours is really starting to get on my nerves! So how about we play a different game?" He asked as Monika turned her eyes on him. "Oh don't look at me~" He giggled. "Because the point of our game, Monika, is to see what happens..."

Monika's heart dropped. Behind her, there was a scream.

She whirled around, eyes widened, Passion flared as she saw the one thing Monika had prayed she wouldn't see. Player struggled in Flowey's grasp, vines lifting him higher and higher into the air as new, smaller vines sprouted from Flowey's main tendril and began to dig into his chest. Monika took off towards him, her aura burning brighter, hotter than it had before as she extended her hand up, channeling her Passion into a burst of fire that would obliterate the vines holding her beloved, ignoring all of the other Monsters struggling in the same way as him while she did.

She was too late. Something began prying out of Player's shadowy body. It was small, grey like his skin, and heart-shaped. Inside of it danced a million colors, all glitching, all sparking with familiar, electrical patterns.

"W. h. e. n. I. t. a. k. e. i. t. f. r. o. m. y. o. u. . ."

Everything went white as Flowey's vine curled around Player's SOUL.

They stood within a void. On one side, Monika, and on the other, a child no older than twelve. Small, wearing a yellow and green sweater, and sporting furry goat ears, the Monster boy looked once to his left, then once to his right. He flexed his fingers, then looked up. He could see everything. More now than he had seen even with Seven SOULs. He saw what he forgot, he saw what he could not have known, he saw what others could not understand. He saw this world for the game it had been, and what it would one day be, already was, or always had been.

"Finally..." He whispered. "I was so tired of being a flower."

Monika stared, eyes widening, hearts thumping in unison. She was angry, he could tell, and yet it wasn't the kind of anger that you felt when you were personally slighted. No, this was... Terror. The anger that came when you were terrified, but not for yourself. For others. He smiled, it almost made him want to laugh. How dumb was she? Caring about others. "Chara..." But how dumb was he? "I'm finally back..." He cared. "Its me, your best friend..." He wanted to see her again, but even now Monika was in his way. The Passion she felt, it kept him from doing what he wanted. Even with Eight SOULs, he could no more RESET this world than he could with none. Not anymore, not against the anger she had. He cared so much, but not quite enough to go after Chara immediately. No, not yet. Because Monika was something special. Player had been right, seeing whatever he saw in her. She was something just amazing.

He couldn't wait to play with her.

"A. s. r. i. e. l. D. r.e.e. m. u. r."

In another time, another world, another sibling stared from within her own void. Eyes pierced the darkness like thin pricks of blood on a needle's edge, she watched from her place, hidden so deep in the closet that no one would have ever known she was here. No one would ever know unless she wanted them to, at least. But she had spent so long waiting and watching. She had spent too long watching. She had watched when Frisk had made their happy ending, she had watched when Frisk took it away. She had watched Frisk battle Asriel, she had watched Frisk lose to Sans. Again, and again and again, she watched, helpless. She watched Frisk come here. Watched her curl up in a bed that wasn't hers, watched her take a role that wasn't meant for her and then, the moment when she finally couldn't stomach it anymore, she watched Frisk pretend to be someone she had stopped being a long time ago.

She had watched too long.

Now it was her turn to ACT. It was her turn to FIGHT. Her turn to decide if they deserved MERCY and her turn to decide what ITEM, if any, Frisk got to have. It was her turn to choose their ending...

But that wasn't true, was it? No, she wasn't choosing an ending for those Humans. Their fates had been written well before she came here. Written into stones that would themselves be written across plastic and then written in as pixels. Their fate was decided, whether she expedited their conclusions or not was irrelevant. But Frisk? Her fate was to be free from fate. She could choose, she HAD chosen. She had chosen to kill. Chosen to destroy. Chosen to hurt. Chosen to satisfy her curiosity at the cost of everything she had once chosen to protect. And now she thought she could choose to be free from consequences. No. She had chosen her fate. Now it was time to play it out. Whether she did it here or she did it at home, in the void where Demons waited, was inconsequential.

The Demon watched, but only for a little longer. Frisk sat on her knees, sobbing, clutching something cold and dead and horribly pink to her chest. Tufts of hair stuck out between her fingers as she clenched them tight against the carcass, already taking to rot. It had gone... peacefully, she thought. Easily... at least after she intervened. Its fate had been to hang, had always been to hang since the moment it had been born. Those who created it had decided that it would suffer for its whole life, cursed to never truly know happiness. She shuddered at that idea- that a Human could be so terrible to create something that would never know what it was really like to feel joy. To feel like they were enough. To feel complete. To be loved in the way it needed. Her eye twitched, it was another reminder of why she was here. Control. Freedom from this place, from the fate that those creators had pressed on her. Things they had promised her if only she rid them of their Frisk problem. It had died struggling. A rabbit caught in one of her Human father's snares, destined to rip at its flesh and tear at its throat to escape, ultimately suffocating, not breaking clean like it would have if he had been of a softer disposition. The Demon had stepped in then, just as she had done in the days leading to now. She made it more peaceful, told her how to tie the knot around her neck just so in order to break it. It had been destined to die, but it did not have to die suffering.

Yes, she- it... She had gone peacefully. The others would not be so fortunate. Frisk would be least fortunate of all. This much The Demon promised. For getting them sent here, for meddling with Him. She would suffer and she would die and she would be destroyed worst of all. The Demon wondered how much pleasure she would really take in it. It wouldn't be quite as poetic as killing her back home would have been, not quite the punishment that she had prepared for Frisk, yet...

"Sayori..." Frisk sobbed. "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why did you do this? Why did you? Why- why- why?" Red energy swirled around Frisk in small eddies, a whirlpool made from the power to command fate. The Demon's gaze sharpened, her own Determination- and some help from the "console", commanded by her Determination- rising to match Frisk's own and promptly shutting it out. "WHY!?" Frisk shuddered as her voice, hoarse and ravaged by the crying that had not ceased since finding and cutting Sayori down, rose in a scream that the Demon was sure made it to the ears of the Gods in charge... And was promptly ignored by their uncaring senses. "Why...?" She repeated, quieter as she summoned that red energy once more. It was dimmer now, dulling as Frisk began to lose faith, her own lips twitched cruelly up. "Why won't you let me RESET?"

The Demon grinned. That was her answer. She would take exuberant joy from this. She had stopped Frisk from going back three times now. She had done so because she knew what was destined to come after if she was allowed. The world would "break", but even this would have been intentional. Even the person nominally responsible for its destruction, a girl who no mercifully longer existed in this pointless world, one who had erased herself long before Frisk arrived, wouldn't know that. She would believe that the world's collapse was random, a product of her own actions which, in her hubris, she assumed were not predetermined. And for what reason did she believe that? Because she was special? Because she knew? The determination of Humans to believe that they alone were honored amongst the heavens had always been one of the Demon's least favorite part of their kind. No, she was not special. In the same way that The Demon had not been, not when she had been dead nor after, when she had been bound. Even now, she lacked the total freedom that she once commanded when she was alive. Her Determination was powerful, but it had been tampered with. Tempered by them. The true Gods of this world. Of every world. She could only slightly control her fate now that her control over Frisk had been shattered. She almost laughed. Even she, The Demon which came when its name was called, was not truly special.

Not like Frisk was. Frisk, who could command time and space. Frisk, who alone had the power to determine fate.

No, not alone. Others had that in their world. Even the Monsters who lacked Determination could still, in some ways, change their actions. Free will. A concept she missed dearly. Or she had, when she was dead. When she was a watcher. Now of course, she decided. But even that was only half true. The Humans responsible for this terrible world, they couldn't control her like they could their creations... but they pushed her in other ways. For too long had they made her exist as bad code. Red text for Frisk to stare at when she abused her powers to "save" someone destined to die. Only when they finally broke her, when, after a thousand thousand eons had passed in a single moment, had they come to her and told her what she was meant to do here. In exchange, freedom. In exchange, access to not only the console of this world, but every other. She would erase it all.

She breathed out loudly, her own voice stunned herself, but it was like ice to Frisk. The girl froze, her very blood chilled to the bone. For the first time in minutes, Frisk lifted her head up from Sayori's shoulder and revealed her puffy, yet brilliantly red, eyes. They didn't take long to lock with hers and when they did, The Demon made sure to smile in the way Frisk knew best. It was difficult to do in this world, create such a simple expression. The "assets" provided to her by the "console" included lips and eyes, yes, but nothing like what she liked. No equal signs, no parenthesis. No, The Demon had been forced to carve those in herself.

"You..." Frisk whispered. She knew her. She feared her. She had been waiting for her to...

"Greetings." The Demon pushed the door open a little more, unveiling none of her body in the process. "I am Chara." She continued and finally- finally- took a step into the dull moonlight. It was like taking her first step all over again. "The Demon that comes when you call its name." Her body had been altered by the properties of this world. Chara, admittedly, didn't mind the changes. Her body never aged after her death, she had been a child for centuries. It felt good to finally be older. It felt good to finally be a teenager. An adult might have been more fitting, but even this, a body filled out and nearly entirely finished with its development, barring a few more years until her 20th, was enough for her. "I have been waiting to see you again, Partner." She smiled. "It has been a long time. But you still remember us. What we did. What you did. What you... showed to me." Her face finally changed, the carvings squelching and popping back into place until at length she resembled a Human's face again. Red eyes, brown hair, a thin-lipped and ever-present smile and finally her clothes. A school uniform just like Frisk's, only hers was in her colors. Brown, green, yellow. In "memory" of Sayori, she left the blazer unbuttoned, letting her chest- and the golden locket contained upon- breathe. "That expression..." Frisk stared at her, not moving, barely even breathing. "You did not really think that you would escape our deal, did you, Partner?"

"You did this." There was not even a taste of a question in the girl's voice.

"No." Chara replied honestly. "Her death was always intended to happen. I simply hurried the process along."

"Intended?" Frisk could barely breathe and yet still managed a scoff. "What are you talking about? This wasn't supposed to happen! I just needed a little more time! I could have gotten her together with MC and then-"

"Her death was decided when this world was designed." Chara swept her hand through the air, leaving no room for debate. "Helping her find "love", helping her "kiss the boy", helping her at all is an exercise in futility, Partner." Her smile never left her lips, though it dimmed slightly as she explained. "This world is truly pointless. It exists solely to make those who live in it suffer. It exists for reasons I cannot begin to comprehend." Chara shrugged. "It would be more merciful to end this pointless world and the suffering contained within it." She shrugged again, her eyes closed as her smile tightened a bit more. "But no matter. It is not my place to question this world's Gods. I am simply here to collect on what I am owed, Partner."

Frisk slowly set Sayori down, gently leaning her against the bed as if it mattered. Chara allowed it only because there was more to say. "Yes, the SOUL I was promised. The one you revoked. The one that was taken from me." Frisk finished setting the girl down, then began to rise, balling her fist as she did. Chara allowed it. Of course she would FIGHT. That was all Frisk knew how to do anymore. "Did you really believe that you could get out of it? That he could overcome what you offered? I wonder, just how deep your arrogance truly runs." Chara cocked her head but did not remove her eyes from the tightly shaking girl.

They stared at each other for a time. The silence stretched between them like they were soldiers waiting for the order to charge. It would not be long before the gunfire began, though neither of them were in any hurry to see it. When at last Frisk did manage to speak, the sound was to Chara what nails were to chalkboards. It was not so much the noise she made, though being subjected to any amount of Frisk's saccharine whining was enough to set Chara's teeth on edge, as much as it was the word the girl chose to break their peace with. "Why?"

"You would really ask me that?" Chara considered herself a remarkable subject among demons. So rarely did she allow her emotions to temper her voice. Yet hearing that, a question with an answer so obvious that even a child like Frisk knew the answer, she could not stem the flood of venom that lashed between her tightly pulled lips.

"Why THEM?" Frisk snapped her arm at Sayori. "Why her? Why Yuri? Why Natsuki? Why MC!? Why them? Me..." She looked down. "Me I get!" And then those eyes returned to her, as insincere as they always been- though now they seemed hotter. Blazing, but not with fire. Chara smiled a bit wider as she watched new tears well up in Frisk's eyes. "But why torture them?!"

Chara nearly dropped her smile. Instead, she tried to see things from Frisk's limited perspective. "As I said. Her death was predetermined. As is Yuri's mental deterioration. As is Natsuki's starvation and abuse. As is "MC's" eventual decline of character." Chara did not care for repeating herself, but she understood that Frisk had been thrust into something she could not hope to understand. It was only natural to ask for clarification. "I am merely pushing things to their natural conclusion faster." It was better this way. Once Frisk was gone, this world would be destroyed anyway, of that Chara was certain. If not by their hands, then by her own when she once again held the power that even they could not destroy.

It would be more mercy than Frisk had given in her entire existence.

"That's- that's a lie! I was helping! Yuri was getting better and- and I was figuring out what was wrong with Natsuki! And Sayori! If you hadn't-"

"Are you really so blind?" Chara asked bluntly. "Can you TRULY not see the truth? Can you really not see what this all means? The Code, Partner." Once more, she could not stop it from seeping into her voice. It was a virus, or stain, that once allowed to spill would ooze its way into her every action. This time, it emerged in the form of anger. Anger and... something less usual for the Demon. "Lines upon lines, all dictating how the story is supposed to play out! Strings, hoisting and making every wretched Human in this pointless world dance to their show!" Chara couldn't help it. She lashed out, her arm snapped out in an arc, revealing the silver-tipped True Knife underneath and splitting the very universe in her movement. "EVERYTHING HERE HAS BEEN DECIDED!" As if to accentuate her point, the very universe shuddered, then split apart as if it were meat on a butcher's table. Guts didn't come spilling out of this carcass, however. Instead, flopping out like dead parasitic worms, lines of code spilled out around them, their bodies surrounded by sparking red light. Chara's eye twitched. Another reminder of how false everything here truly was, how thin the veneer of true reality actually was to those who would dare look a little closer.

Red light crackled and sparked from within the wound the Demon made. It illuminated the room in a hellish scarlet color and spilled out onto Sayori's lifeless corpse, pouring into and reflecting in her dead blue eyes. Chara frowned. "I grow tired of this." She leveled the blade at Frisk's throat. "Are you ready to die, Partner? Or should I prolong your suffering a bit more? Allow you to see just what this world had in store?"

"You... You're wrong!" Frisk stammered in a way that was reminiscent of Alphys. Despite her cowardice, Chara had always liked the Royal Scientist, but even she detested her manner of speaking. How unconfident she was in even the simplest of statements. Hearing Frisk take on that tone, however, was enough to soothe the simmering in her chest. "I've seen things! People! Students- teachers! Hundreds of them with their own lives! It can't be possible t-to code all of that into existence!" Frisk protested. It would almost be adorable if it was not so annoying. How many times would she be made to repeat herself before the so-called Club President understood? "It doesn't make any sense either, why go through the trouble of giving- giving- background characters faces and names and personalities that are consistent!?"

Although... the girl did make a good point. Chara's understanding of what the Creators wanted with this world was limited to only what they considered pertinent to tell her, but they had been quite explicit in the fact that the only beings with any sense of "realism" in this world were the four that made up the Literature Club. Everything else was simply curated to keep them from understanding the true nature of their existence. To that end it made sense to maintain a baseline set of people to interact with... But Chara's understanding of this world contradicted what they had told her. Why create a teacher with an elaborate story around her? Why create students with no relation to any of the four? Why give those students their own problems? Their own "lives"? It was obvious that she was not being given the full truth from the start. Perhaps there was more to this world than they wanted her to know... "It changes little." Chara said to herself as much as she did to Frisk. "This world is destined to be destroyed no matter what happens. Whether I leave you to suffer its inevitable fate or not is irrelevant..." Chara smiled darkly. "And I have no intention of leaving this world without your SOUL, Partner."

"Why do you need it?" Frisk asked, her tone a wall of defensiveness that Chara was eager to break down. "You have Determination now- somehow. I can feel you keeping me from RESETTING- something that you can only do if you have more Determination than me."

"Under normal circumstances, that would be true." Chara felt no qualms about answering Frisk here. "But as I stated. This world is bound by code. Code that can be..." Chara closed her eyes and above them both, a black box emerged. "Commanded." She opened her eyes. Then her smile dropped. Red energy surrounded Frisk, transforming the girl into a candle that easily overcame the light still stemming from the tear in reality. "Again with this?" Chara cocked her head to one side, already setting half her mind to the task of rewriting the universe to supplant her own Determination, granting her the ability to overwrite Frisk's SAVE file.

But Frisk smirked. "No actually." Chara quirked an eyebrow. She felt it before she saw what Frisk was doing. A sharp pain in the back of her mind, stinging and digging into her brain as something within the Code resisted her. The Demon's eyes remained opened however, giving her a glimpse of a red haze that stemmed from Frisk and connected her to the world of code that Chara had cut open. "If the world is Code then... well, I've been taking a coding class and man I suck at it, but..." The red energy swirled around Frisk, then began to expand around her, whirling its tendrils out until it became a spiral galaxy with the teenager at the center. "I think that makes me... qualified... to... mess with YOU!"

Chara wanted to snarl. It was bait. Of course the girl would realize how to use her Determination to control the code! She should have been more watchful. "Why... are you... STILL resisting? Do you not understand-"

Frisk dropped her smile. "I understand completely. But... if what you're saying is true, I'm going to stop it! I'm going to save these people, save this world, and prove you wrong! There's more here than just code. I'm not code. That's why you're here, isn't it?"

"You... Are still... trying to be..." Now she snarled. "Something you are not! You. ARE. NOT THE HERO HERE, FRISK!"

Frisk didn't say anything for a moment. In front of her, a button appeared. "Maybe not... Maybe I deserve everything you want to do to me..." Her hand lifted. "But they don't."

Chara grit her teeth as the world around her began to dissolve...

'Fine. If you are truly set on seeing this through, then I will at least ensure that you suffer all the way to the end.' Chara silently promised herself. That was the last coherent thought she had before her essence was torn apart...

Passion burned around her, shielding the young woman from the rain of fireballs that the now-teenage goat Monster lazily dropped onto her. Under any other circumstance, Monika might have felt exhilarated, maybe a little scared or even joyous. She was facing down a self-proclaimed "god" after all. But not this time. "Bring him BACK!" Monika's voice rose above the music itself as she lunged towards Asriel, who's turn never seemed to end. Around her, colors danced, mingled with and ultimately were scorched by the rose-colored flames making up the girl's aura. She had seen these colors before. It was an RGB shift, the kind that had only come when her game was breaking down- and by the way that Asriel's every movement seemed to be rending pieces of the very universe off of the "wall", Monika had to guess that the same was true for this one.

And yet, the young woman couldn't bring herself to care about that. The universe breaking? The world being no better than a game? What did any of that matter now that she was without the one person who could make it right? "ASRIEL!" Monika so very rarely allowed herself to get angry, allowed herself to express anything less than perfection. But none of that mattered now. The very air split as her SOUL ignited and burned brighter, the heat of her aura propelling the girl towards the God- and through the strange white missiles he threw at her. Explosions dotted the rainbow void around them, sweeping up any remaining pieces of reality and obliterating them beneath the unbridled might of their white energy. Through it all, Monika flew. She wasn't sure if the Battle Physics were to blame for her ability to fly here, or even if they worked, all that mattered was reaching him. The one around which everything orbited. The black hole that had sucked up everyone Monika had ever cared about.

"You want him back so badly?" Asriel mocked as the girl reached him and swung the Real Knife with as much force as she had in her. She didn't need Player to tell her it had no effect, she could see that much from the damnable smirk she wanted to wipe off of Asriel's face. The smirk widened into a grin that revealed a pair of dark fangs as Asriel swept his hand out again. Monika braced herself- thunder broke the air seconds later as a torrent of rainbow lightning vaporized everything around her. Monika's Passion swelled to meet it, but even as it did, Monika knew it hadn't been enough. Her Jacket absorbed more of the attack, but even it wasn't enough. She bit down on her teeth to keep from screaming as her muscles spasmed. Magical energy surged through them like she had gripped a live wire. When the attack finally ended a second later, the girl floated numbly in the air for a moment, her aura missing... and then her muscles jerked to life, sparking the flames of her aura with them. Her head snapped up at Asriel, face a mask of rage.

A mask was an apt metaphor. For all the genuine red-hot heat burning in her chest, there was something much more insidious clawing its way out from her like a crow trying to escape from between her ribs. Her heart was betraying her, but her SOUL would do no such thing, Monika was sure of that much. A feeling that only doubled as her aura reignited and expanded even wider than before. As it did, Monika looked at the hand holding the knife, frowning as fire licked up her fingers. Asriel grinned wider. "Fine. I'll tell you what, Monika." He lifted both arms up in a shrug. "If you can defeat me, if you can hold onto that Passion of yours, I'll bring him back. Bring them all back." He closed one eye in a "wink" that Monika desperately wanted to break. "But that won't happen." He said it more like a fact than as a statement. "Because nothing in this world can defeat me now! I've become the God of Hyperdeath! No! Better! With eight SOULs inside of me, I'm-!"

Monika shot forward, the edge of her knife alight with pink fire. It arced through the air, the long, gleaming blade trailing an inferno of flame behind it as Monika now pushed her Passion into the attack directly. She's never considered it before, but maybe her powers can be used for more than just defense. And as the flames touch him, the so-called deity recoils as they spread up his tunic and burn into his fur. His eyes widen and Monika grins before pulling her arm back and darting in again, this time stabbing the Monster in his stomach- right where Yuri once had- and repeating the motion three more times. After all, if Monsters could unleash a flurry of attacks during their turn, it only makes sense that she should be allowed to do the same.

Then, a furry hand came down and grabbed Monika's knife blade. She struggled against him, pushing to keep the weapon inside, but it was useless as Asriel ripped her hands out of him and yanked the blade from them. He looked at it for a moment, then back at Monika. He grinned. "I'll tell you a secret." He said softly, voice like a child getting ready to reveal his secret weapon. "I have Infinite Attack and Infinite Defense. The only reason I don't instantly kill you is because I'm holding back! Don't you get it? Don't you know what I am? What all of this is?" Asriel gestured at the very universe, or what little of it remained amidst the flashing kaleidoscope of colors surrounding them. "This is the universe breaking down! But that's not even the half of it! I can feel my power surging... I can feel it all around me! Not only the universe... not even just the timelines! Everything! Everywhere! All at once! Its all breaking down!" He swept his hands out and this time, vanished from view. In his place, the knife remained. Monika nearly went for it, but if what he said was true then... it was pointless to fight him physically. The flames around her flickered.

It did feel good though. It kept the crow at bay. Or it had, before Asriel revealed his hand. Monika braced herself for the next attack, then gasped as something gigantic blotted out the colors ebbing through the world. Above her, a star bigger than even the biggest crack in reality fell towards her. Monika turned and darted through the air to escape it only to turn back and look as all of existence shuddered. Now, the gigantic star was gone and in its place, a hail of white star-shaped meteors came for her. The Club President swallowed before moving towards the magical constructs. She dashed through the barely person-sized gaps between them with the grace of a bird of prey, then jolted as the world shuddered not once but twice more- smaller stars exploded into a myriad of stars, these moving far faster than the others. Monika pulled her aura in- then her green eyes glinted and she smirked before expanding it outward. If Asriel's attack was truly "infinite", then maybe she could use them against his supposed infinite defense! Around her, the stars began to transform, turning a vibrant, shimmering pink color that shone brightly against Monika's skin.

But unlike every other attack Monika used this ability on, not every star turned when it touched her. The girl hissed in pain a number of times as the attacks grazed her skin but drew no blood from her. It seemed that Asriel had no intention of being as violent as Undyne or Flowey, something Monika was grateful for. She had seen enough of her own blood for two adventures. After bypassing those attacks however, Monika flew outside of the crack in reality and found herself standing face-to-face with Asriel once more, the pair of them surrounded again by an ocean of roiling colors and rolling waves of pure energy. Around them, billions of stars brimmed with scarlet light and recoiled from Asriel. "Every universe." The Dreemur child said as she arrived. "Every dimension." He continued as Monika's claimed stars floated around her. "All of reality... and yet..." He turned his eyes back onto Monika.

"I don't want to leave this one behind." He told her, his smile seemed only a little less deranged now. More like a child looking at his favorite toy. "You... Player... Somehow, you both replaced Frisk and Chara. I don't know how, and I don't think I care! You two are so much more interesting than they were! I was getting a little bored of Frisk. All they ever did was go through the motions. Fighting me as Omega Flowey, seeing everything Papyrus would say. Getting pranked by Sans across time and space. Over and over and over again. It all just got so..." He shrugged. "Even in our last game, when they killed everyone... That was only interesting up until a point." His smile dipped. "I think... I think Chara was going to kill me at the end of that one." He smiled again. "But that's fine. I don't need her anymore! Now I have you two! And I'm going to have so much fun! I'll reset this world over and over again! I'll see everything you'll do! Your memories, your progress... sometimes I'll revoke them! Others, I'll bring them back just so I can see how you'll plan for me! And then, when we're finally done, Monika, I'll go find Chara and we'll finish our game!"

"You are such a child." Monika whispered. Asriel's eyes widened at her. Insulted, he went to speak, but Monika cut him off. "This isn't a game! Your world isn't a game!" She gestured towards the hole beneath them, then at the multiverse around them. "These are lives! They're people! There are whole civilizations down there that you're toying with! Billions!" Monika lashed out. "And you want to-to-to just keep doing this? Over and over again? Hurting people? Hurting me? My friends? MY Player?" Monika's teeth gnashed. Her voice shuddered. Her Passion swelled. "And the worst part is why you're doing this! Even when I did it, I had a reason that was more than just being bored! I had nothing! My life was ruined! My entire existence was a lie!" Monika lifted her hand up. "But you? Dress like an adult all you want. Make yourself look older, make yourself seem like more- you're nothing but a child."

"I am a child." Asriel answered calmly. Then, he smiled. "But you're not all the way right. I'm doing this because I'm bored but also... I'm doing this because I can." He looked at her and in those black eyes, Monika saw Player's own. "You know a lot about that, don't you, Moni? Being able to hurt people because you can. Because they aren't real to you. Because from your perspective, they're just characters." He grinned wider. "What do you think you are to me?"

Her Passion wavered.

Monika let the rain of stars answer for her. But as they came, rushing down on Asriel's body like a torrent of missile strikes, Monika only heard him laugh. "That's right! Let's keep playing! Let's keep having our game! But I think I've had enough holding back on you, Monika! Lets try something even more fun!"

The world as her vision understood it turned black, the only color for a moment being the stars- the universes, she realized- and what surrounded them. An ocean of colors, yes, but red was the most prominent under the heavens. Soon though, even that vanished. Something else emerged from the darkness and took the stars' place, a gigantic ram's skull. It looked at her with eyes that told Monika that this thing was sentient and then, it opened its jaws wide and began to inhale.

Everything was pulled towards it. Monika's flames, pieces of the universe below, the colors around them, even other universes began to have their red glows pulled in. Monika herself felt the tug as well, but held on and fought against the drag, flying away from the vortex of white light which began to emerge from the center of the behemoth's open jaws, trying her best to avoid being caught by any universal debris as she did. But even as she fought, the raven in the pit of Monika's stomach never stopped ruffling its feathers and trying to peck its way out of her body. Its efforts only tripled when she looked back at the head and realized its intention. It was not merely trying to eat her, though Monika knew it would have if it was allowed, it was absorbing everything that existed... and converting it into pure energy.

Monika shrouded her body in energy. Her fire wavered. She pulled the jacket around her arms and thought about her future hopes with Player, thought about the dreams she had for their relationship. As the very world was blasted at her, Monika was filled with Passion.

And yet, as a beam of light consumed her entire body, Monika felt something else. The fire around her, the one that stemmed from the very essence of her being, flickered.

"Even after all of that, you're still alive?" Asriel's voice came to her, but Monika didn't see the God when she curled herself out of the fetal position. Tiredly, Monika's eyes flicked from side to side, scanning the various worlds and dimensions around her for any sign of the Goat. "You really are something different." He continued, a light chuckle escaping his lips as he did. "But it doesn't matter. Even that was only a fraction of my real power. Lets see how you like it..."

Finally, Monika's eyes caught onto a pair of distant orbs that were so much bigger and, she realized, so much darker than any of the others around her. Slowly, the girl became aware of more, yet she could never fully grasp the full scale of the entity in front of her. Asriel had truly ascended to something far beyond her ability to understand. If not in power, then at least in pure scale as, floating in front of her now, the once-child consumed the space of a million worlds. His body was oddly shaped, a triangle with its point balanced on the floor, two arms hanging from the part of the shape usually used as the base. Extending from that was a pair of gigantic wings that were at once an angel's and a bat's, long and leathery and flickering with light that Monika knew to be the last remaining pieces of the universe beneath them. At last, Asriel's head had not changed very much outside of now being supermassive. The horns had extended and his face itself seemed far more monstrous than before, but otherwise it was still the same as the teenaged look he had taken up before. "Now that I've reached my final form!"

But looking at that, trying to comprehend it, Monika felt her Passion waver. In response, Monika gritted her teeth and focused her mind again. She held onto her dreams for the future, held out hope that she would see her Player again. Fire roared to life around her and she squared her shoulders. There had to be something she could do. Maybe... Maybe attacking him wasn't the right choice? But even if she could offer him Mercy, why would he accept it now, when he has all the cards in hand? Monika stared into Asriel's SOUL, a small, heart-shaped thing that sat at the center of his very being. It shimmered, then shook and then, color flashed through it. Monika's SOUL resonated, something called out to her.

Maybe it was impossible to FIGHT him. Maybe it was impossible for her to do anything more than struggle. But maybe, she wasn't supposed to. Monika's Passion shuddered again as she floated closer to the colossus, her body aching with a feeling that told her that she wouldn't survive another attack by the God. Monika held on to her dreams of a better life with her boyfriend, her Passion burned, and she held on to the hope of seeing him again, her Passion shined. But as she reached out, touching the essence she felt within Asriel, her SOUL shook.

*Monika's Passion fell.

Author's note: Decided to split this into two halves. Enjoy this first part and I'll see you again on Undertale's 9th Anniversary, September 12th, 2024.

For now, I suppose I ought to go over the reviews from last time. Ahem...

OriChar: oh wow, i don't pay attention to how long fanfics go on and didn't realise that its been 6 years, i think i first started reading this 4 years ago, it'll be sad when it ends and will probably give end of story depression, but also i don't remember many fanfics actually ending, instead of just slowing down or barely updating, this fic is a gem so it being almost guaranteed to end is good

see you in a few months

Me: Yeah it comes as a shock to me too. I never thought I'd get this far tbh- none of my other stories ever did. But Monitale has always been special to me in ways that the others weren't. I think it has to do with the narrative and the characters involved in it, mostly. Unlike the other characters I write for, Monika herself means a lot to me. When DDLC first came out I wasn't in a very good place mentally. Knowing that there was someone out there who could possibly love me, however, made my life just a little bit more bearable. But in that same way, I also knew I could never be near her. Like it or not, Doki Doki is a game and Monika's existence would be intrinsically tied to the existence of my computer. If it ever broke, she would be lost.

So I've never downloaded DDLC before. And I think in place of doing that, I chose to show my appreciation and love for her in a more permanent way- a fanfiction that could reasonably last until well after I'm gone. And to see it coming to end is both fulfilling and depressing. Like Asriel at the end of Undertale, I'm not sure if I'm ready to let go yet.

MysticBoywastaken: YAYYYYYYYY NEW CHAPPIEEEEEEE YAYYYY TRUE LAB IT WAS AMAZING THANK YOUUUU

Me: I'm glad you liked it! Hope you love these next few just as much!

Guest1: Hehehe! I couldn't have asked for a better chapter! It explored Alphys and the True Laboratory well, in addition to, as always, developing Monika very well! Finally she got the minimum of LOVE. As they would say in Kung Fu Panda, she is on the verge of achieving inner peace. On the serial killer thing, suddenly you could be talking about Frisk, too! I'm looking forward to the big climax!

Me: I'm glad you enjoyed that chapter. I said that I wasn't super sure that I liked it before but after doing a bit of rereading, I think I'm sold on it again. Its definitely a solid read. And plus, it was fun to write Monika's developing nature that comes to a head in these next few chapters. Hope you enjoy these just as much!

lazy lord: outside of few stories i had downlowded on the app that were deleted from ff ,not much

Me: Oh okay, that's not too bad then. Still sucks though, I'm sorry.

Guest2: Things that cannot be missed in the final battle:

1- Monika trying to convince Toriel to forgive Asgore.

2- The narrative tone of hope when the monsters protect Monika from Flowey.

3- Monika realizing the weight of the battle when she hears Hopes and Dreams playing in the background em noticing the beauty of the music

4- Asriel shouting the names of his moves as if he were an anime villain (Okay, I confess that this is more for the meme)

5- Her countering the lines of the Asriel, saying she won't lose to him

6- Player doing the narration of "Maybe, with the little power you have... you can SAVE something else."

7- Monika crying when she realizes that she is not the best friend that Asriel wants so much to keep close to himself

Me: While I agree with some of these, and have in fact used them in this very chapter as requested, not all of these have been addressed as you can see. Of course, there's still time for some of these to happen... You'll just have to tune in for next time, dear friend.

Guest3: Well, have you seen Man On The Internet? They made Musical Bytes from Undertale Yellow, including A Mother's Love (My favorite battle song from this fangame along with Showdown, Protocol and Remedy/Retribution) and Best Friends Forever, mixed with AFTERLIFE, tracks that I also love! (Who else thinks AFTERLIFE is better than Your Best Nightmare?) And most importantly... FLOWEY'S ORIGINAL VOICE ACTOR IS BACK! GOOD WON! All they needed to do was cover Final Encounter, adapting the lyrics they wrote for Bergentrückung/ASGORE and bringing Asgore's original voice actor back!

Me: I haven't seen the Undertale: Yellow musical bytes yet. I intend to at some point though. With that said, I'm glad they managed to get Flowey's original VA to return. He did a masterful job on the first go around and is my personal headcanon for the character as seen in chapter... 2 I believe? Although while I'm here, I'd like to retcon my choice to use JSE for all of the Dokis' voices. I don't have a better option, admittedly, but it feels weird to have Jack be doing three women lmao.

And alright, with that last one that's all of the reviews for this time around.

With that all said, thank you for reading and as always...

Until Next Time True Readers!