"You."
She spoke even before she realized it, voice quivering out with a tremble, so much emotion bottled into a single syllable. Her heart was hammering rapidly against her chest as she stared back at the cold, black eyes of a man she'd once known from a time long, long ago. She could feel fear arise in her as she recalled who he once was. What he'd once done.
"Me," he confirmed as he spread his arms out, his voice just as smooth, deep, and calm as she remembered it. His lips were tugged into a smirk, his orange hair shaved along the sides, but long in the back, pulled into a ponytail, his sharp eyebrows in contrast with his black eyes making him look humored at the sight of her. She was shaking, her eyes quivering, breathing hitched at the mere existence of this man.
After several long, tense moments in which silence hung in the thick air between them, he spoke. Just as slyly and confidently as he always had. "I'm a little surprised you didn't try to dig up the Messiah sooner," he admitted, "the signs were all there, but you... Asgore... that old turtle fool... you all just blissfully ignored them, didn't you?"
Toriel didn't respond. She couldn't. She was rooted to the spot, glaring at the man who'd taken so much from her, before the Great War had even taken place. How was he still alive? He was just a mortal man, after all, wasn't he? Even despite the things he was capable of?
When she didn't answer, the man continued, taking a couple of steps forward. "Not many are left from those days. I think it's almost poetic that I get to be here right now, ready to turn you to dust after such a long wait," he rolled his ebony eyes, letting out a chuckle that sounded so genuine and warm, it would have fooled anyone but her. She knew what truths lay behind those eyes, behind that smile.
"Your kind is going to die, Tori," he stated, blinking slowly. "Slowly. Painfully," his words were slow and painfully deliberate. "First we'll strip them of their rights, and then their leaders. We'll deepen the divide between them and humanity. We'll make them feel so hopeless and alone against an entire world... then we'll finally deal the killing blow. Sounds fun, doesn't it?"
A ball of fire materialized in her palm, her gaze darkening as she regained herself. "Not if I stop it," she stated, narrowing her eyes. To her surprise, the man actually seemed to relax a little at this.
"Oh, good," he smirked at her. "I like it when they put up a fight. Question is; how long do you think you can survive?"
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She'd been just a child. It had been her thirteenth birthday a few months ago, and she thought herself an adult already, as most her age would often do. That didn't go without saying that she was chalk full of her own responsibilities around her family farm. Gardening wasn't easy work, and her father often went out of his way to make sure the young Toriel was just as good as him.
At the time, she'd been so... taken. Of course, it was extremely taboo. A human and a monster? But the first time she'd seen him... she'd been stricken. His voice, his smile, all of it. At the time, she'd thought of him as a friend, and she'd believed he thought her the same.
She'd met this man while out on a supply run for her father, leaving him to tend to the farm until her return. It wasn't uncommon, she'd done this plenty of times since she'd been nine, and the monster-human community nearby was very loving and welcoming. They always knew how to make her feel like part of the family.
So, just as she had a hundred times before, she rode into town on horse-back, hopping off to hitch her horse, named Benji, to a post. Like today, she'd usually dress herself up for such an occasion as coming to town, wearing a magenta gown with a cute equally colored hat over her head. Just as she was about to enter the shop, she saw something out of the corner of her eyes, immediately drawing her attention to it like a magnet.
