Frisk looked at the books that Toriel had bought for her kids. They were all literary classics that had been published in the few years when Chara and Asriel were dead. Frisk had read most of them during her middle school English classes, but Chara and Asriel didn't have that luxury. If they wanted to attend school, they needed to read and understand these books. Frisk wished she could help them on her own, but she hardly remembered the importance of the books. She had drawn her own conclusions about the books, but she was never correct in the eyes of the education system. The author's only wanted to share one message, apparently, and it was foolish to assume they were trying to say anything else. Frisk sighed bitterly as she remembered her poor English grades.

Asriel and Chara were also looking through the books. Asriel had found one with an interesting cover that he was reading the first chapter of. Chara was looking more and more disappointed the more books she found in the bag. Frisk stifled a laugh at their opposing reactions. For her part, Frisk was with Asriel. When she was in fifth and sixth grade, she absolutely hated reading like Chara, but someone came into Frisk's life that changed her opinion when she became a seventh grader in middle school. Now, Frisk liked to read. She even found herself writing from time to time, but she was still incredibly horrible at it. Frisk knew that if she put in the effort to write more than once every blue moon, she would probably be decent at it. She couldn't, however, because it brought up too many painful memories.

After Frisk's family had been torn apart, she had been adopted by an absentee couple. Frisk would always wonder why two people who were rarely ever home would want a child. Her curiosity grew worse when she realized that the couple already had a child. They had a teenage daughter who wasn't much older than Frisk. In some ways, Frisk's new adopted sister was more of a parent to her than the people who adopted her. She had taught Frisk important life skills and inspired Frisk's love for literature. They had been extremely close, and that made their relationship's deterioration all the more painful.

Frisk grabbed one of the books as the memories began to swirl in the forefront of her mind. It was a book on theology. Throughout the ages, different factions of people had different gods that they devoted themselves to. Frisk lowered the book onto the table. She didn't believe in the gods, and she certainly didn't think for a second that if they existed they would be benevolent beings.

Frisk chose a different book. It was a Soulology textbook. Frisk opened it to one of the first few pages. It went through each of the known SOUL traits. There were seven documented SOULs corresponding with the colors of the rainbow. Orange was BRAVERY, or the will to stay strong and unafraid. Yellow was JUSTICE, the will to make things right and fair. Green was KINDNESS, the will to be better. Cyan was PATIENCE, the will to remain steady. Blue was INTEGRITY, the will to be true to oneself. Purple was PERSEVERANCE, the will to never give up. The least documented trait was Red. Most people assumed it was DETERMINATION, the will to conquer fate. The other traits had a chapter in the book dedicated to them and the abilities someone possessed with that trait. Red had a singular page filled with all the concrete information known about the trait. It wasn't much, but it aligned with everything Frisk knew about her trait.

The next portion of the textbook talked about the Corruption Agents and how they affected SOULs. HATE was a parasitic black liquid that was formed from a being's animosity towards something. The detestation had to reach a certain point for HATE to be made. Specialists had discovered that it was magic that had been contaminated by the emotion it was named after. It could only be created on a SOUL. The longer it remained, the more damage it could do. HATE inverted SOULs. It created the opposing trait and reversed how the SOULs magic worked. BRAVERY becomes FEAR, JUSTICE becomes INEQUITY, KINDNESS becomes CRUELTY, PATIENCE becomes RESTIVE, INTEGRITY becomes DECEIT, and PERSEVERANCE becomes INDOLENCE. DETERMINATION could be corrupted, but no one was sure what it became.

Agony was a similar Corruption Agent in the sense that it was contaminated magic that manipulated the SOUL's trait. The difference was that Agony came about from intense pain and frustration with the world. Instead of inverting SOULs, Agony took a SOUL to its extreme. BRAVERY becomes RECKLESS, JUSTICE becomes VENGEANCE, KINDNESS becomes LENIENCE, PATIENCE became STAGNATION, INTEGRITY becomes FLAGRANT, PERSEVERANCE becomes INTRANSIGENCE, and DETERMINATION becomes STUBBORNNESS. A person's magic will become more powerful, unstable, and uncontrollable the longer they are infected with Agony.

Blight was a new one. It was a disease born from fungi like mushrooms. Although it was called a Corruption Agent, it didn't affect the SOUL. Instead, it devoured the SOUL while slowly breaking the body apart and reforming it into a monstrosity. It was assumed that the Monsters of today came from humans who were healed from their Blight infection only after most of the physical transformations had been completed. There was no proof that supported or disproved the theory.

The last Corruption Agent was Remnant. When an individual died, the parts of their SOUL that harbored intense emotions were left behind. Most of the time, it was hatred or anger that was left to situate into the silver metal that had the incredible power to absorb SOULs. It was an unstudied field since it required people to die in order to learn more. The only reason it was known was because Remnants had a tendency to be cursed objects that brought harm to the people around it. Specialists were the only people the government allowed to carefully observe and contain Remnant.

Frisk let her hand trace the edge of the page that talked about Remnant. She had never heard of it before, but it seemed familiar. She was almost certain she could think of an example, but something fuzzy was blocking that thought. Frisk put the book down. Thinking about it was starting to give her a headache.

"Children, your tutor is here. I want you to be on your best behavior. She is doing a very kind thing for you. She doesn't have to teach you middle school level literature, but she decided to make an exception for you," Toriel said, stepping into the room. She was talking to Chara and Asriel more than Frisk. The latter didn't have to be there. She had already graduated middle school with all the appropriate credits. She was going to be enrolled at Toriel's school, but she decided to hold off until Chara and Asriel could come with her. She didn't want to make new friends. She wasn't good at it. She would rather her trauma-bonded friends come with her.

"You got it, Goat Mom," Chara said, putting down the book she had been glaring at to give her best smile. Asriel looked up from the book he had been engrossed in, his eyes widening in surprise when he realized his mother had been talking. Frisk pressed a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. Toriel may have sighed, but a smile came to her face regardless of what she was feeling.

"What did she say?" Asriel whispered, leaning towards his sister as he lowered his book.

"Be good," Chara whispered back to him. Asriel nodded, his posture straightening as he waited for their new tutor to come into the dining room. Chara, in contrast, leaned back in her chair with a bored expression already adorning her face. Frisk wondered how the two of them could be best friends when they were polar opposites. That made her wonder how she became their friend. It was technically shared trauma that brought them together. The three of them had met each other by chance, and the battles they had fought together were the reason they had stuck together. Would they have still been friends if they met under different circumstances? Would anyone still have the friends they currently had if they had gone somewhere else on the day they met? Would fate find a way, or was friendship truly about chance?

"Children, come say hello," Toriel called from the mudroom. Frisk slid off of the chair she had been sitting in. Asriel grabbed Chara's hand, attempting to drag her forwards. Frisk glanced back at them as she entered the hallway. Asriel fumbled to the floor, and Chara let out a hollow scream as she fell out of her chair. Frisk laughed at them, turning her face to look at Toriel and the Dreemurr kid's tutor.

Frisk's heart dropped into her stomach. Her SOUL lurched painfully. Tears fell from her eyes before she really had time to process what she was looking at. The tutor looked at her with a kind smile on her face that slipped away the second her bright green eyes met Frisk's darker red ones. The tutor's mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish as she took a hesitant step forward. The bag she had been holding dropped to the floor as Frisk ran forward, launching herself into the tutor's arms. Frisk felt warm hands wrap around her shoulder blades, pulling her so tight that she couldn't breathe. Frisk let all of her tears fall, a broken sob rising from her chest.

For a second, she was a million seconds away from this very moment. She was in a soft bed, clinging to her adopted sister as a thousand nightmares and a darkening voice whispered threats in her ear. She was standing in a classroom with her sister and three other girls as they planned for a festival and read the poems they wrote. She was sitting on a piano bench as her sister played a beautiful song about first love. She was there as her sister's SOUL was infected with HATE as she came to a realization about her own existence. She was there as she said goodbye to the last family member she had.

"I thought you were gone," Monika whispered, and Frisk knew that Monika had been cured of the HATE that transformed her SOUL into CRUELTY. Frisk wanted to know how and when it happened. She wanted to know what happened to Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki. She wanted to know how Monika's life was going. She couldn't make any sound escape her mouth except whimpers for a time that had passed her by. "I'm glad you're okay."

Monika pulled back slightly, her hand coming to cup Frisk's cheek. Monika used her thumb to wipe away the tears that continued to leak from Frisk's eyes. Monika was crying as well as she smiled at Frisk. Monika's smile grew even wider as she whispered, "I promise I won't let you go this time."