(*after not being able to find any Afterdeath angst where Reaper gets hurt* Fine, I'll do it myself.

So, with that being said, this might be out of character for them. It's also kinda rushed, but I wanted my Reaper angst and I took the opportunity.)

~~~~

Geno's life had never really been all that great.

He had been forced to watch the people he knew and loved die over and over again, stuck in a prison of being one of the only ones who were aware of the cycle (and the only one willing to do anything about it), all for the sick entertainment and "research" of the ghost of a child who had died a long time ago. Then he'd chosen to experiment with DETERMINATION. Wasn't that the best way to fight DETERMINATION itself? Then he'd gotten stuck in that stupid save menu, eventually Frisk joined him as Chara took complete control over their world.

He thought that things would have finally changed when he broke free from the save menu. Sure, he'd left the "sane" kid behind, but he didn't care. He couldn't care about them, not after everything that had happened, even if it wasn't necessarily their fault. He'd managed to come across someone named CORE!Frisk, who was a monochrome, pure pacifist version of the kid back home. He'd followed them to the Omega Timeline, where the survivors of numerous genocide timelines were given a safe haven.

He'd even made a new friend, one who he called Hoodie. That wasn't his actual name, but he never gave an actual name. He only said that Geno could call him whatever he wanted. It had taken a few minutes, but he settled on that nickname because of what he was wearing. A black hoodie with the hood pulled over his head, and he didn't think he'd ever seen him with it down. The two were the best of friends, they did everything together. They did jobs around the Omega Timeline together, they hang out with each other, they watched movies and TV shows together, you name it.

But.... "Hoodie" had been keeping a secret.

He wasn't a normal skeleton, nor was his timeline even destroyed or faced with a genocide. He came from an AU called Reapertale, the home of the Goddess of Life... and the God of Death. Geno had noticed that "Hoodie" would get uncomfortable whenever the topic of death was brought up, or stories of the Grim Reaper. At first this didn't strike as any signs to him. Just about everyone in the Omega Timeline had suffered severe trauma because of the existence of death. He would always do whatever he could to comfort "Hoodie", but sometimes he couldn't even get the other skeleton to hear him.

Their friendship was shattered the day Geno found out who "Hoodie" really was. He was the Grim Reaper, the God of Death, or just Reaper for short.

Geno wished he'd never blown up like that. He wished he'd never screamed at "Hoodie"-- no, Reaper-- like that. He had been so consumed by anger and confusion that he couldn't think straight, the emotions that had been festering under suppression exploding into a wild storm. He'd.... accused Reaper of being the true cause behind the existence of the genocide timelines. He demanded to know if he found some kind of sick pleasure, just like Chara did, from people dying in cold blood. Reaper tried to explain, but his honesty was nothing but a lie in the eye(s) of an overly emotional mess named Geno.

"You lied to me about everything," Geno said. "About your past, about your interests, you didn't even tell me your name!"

"How could I not lie about it?" Reaper replied to him, his voice unusually soft and quiet. "I knew what would happen if I ever said 'Hey, my name is actually Reaper and I'm that guy from Reapertale'."

As Geno continued to let out his frustrations on Reaper, the other inhabitants of the Omega Timeline all soon caught on to what was going on. What little happiness Reaper still had in his life, which was all given to him by Geno, dropped to the bones that made his feet when he noticed the others approaching. They all had looks of betrayal, disgust, horror, and grief on their faces. Geno apparently didn't take notice, or he just didn't care. Maybe he knew they were there, and was finding a sense of satisfaction that Reaper's identity was being revealed.

CORE!Frisk had known all along who Reaper had really been, they'd kept his secret because they knew he didn't mean any harm. He just wanted to be able to be a normal person for once in his life, to escape from his duties for just a short while. But with the roaring demands of the people of the Omega Timeline, there was only one thing they could do. The monochromatic child pushed through the crowd, murmuring small "pardon me"s and "excuse me"s. When they finally squeezed out and walked up to Reaper, they could see it in his eyes. He knew exactly what they were about to say.

CORE!Frisk had banished him from the Omega Timeline.

Geno thought it would've brought him some kind of relief or happiness. It did for everyone else, so why didn't it do the same for him? He never quite had the same energy ever since that day, and he never cracked even the faintest of smiles anymore. His energy seemed to drain more and more with each passing day, and never replenished. Some people said he was depressed after the revelation of his best friend's true nature, others said he had been cursed by Reaper.

He never thought it would've been CORE!Frisk telling him the truth about it all. He knew the kid was one of the wisest people in the entire Multiverse, but it still came as a surprise to hear a deep truth come from a nine year-old child. Geno's body turned cold and the coffee mug slipped from his boney fingers, shattering upon making impact with the ground.

Reaper was innocent.

He was an innocent sweetheart. He didn't even like his job. He was innocent and Geno had treated him like some cruel entity who only wanted to watch the world burn.

"F-Frisk...." Geno managed to get out, his voice quavering. "W... Where is he now...?"

"....... I can take you there," CORE!Frisk whispered, giving him a sorrowful look. "But I can't promise you'll like what you find there."

"I don't care! I just need to see him!" He shouted, tears threatening to spill. "I... I need to apologize to him.... for everything I've done...."

CORE!Frisk didn't say anything, they just nodded. They opened up a portal to another part of the Multiverse, and guided Geno through. He squeezed his eye(s) shut tightly as the lighting changed drastically, going from bright white to... dark. He opened his eye(s) slowly and found they were in a completely different landscape. Black sand, dead trees, bones scattered about. He glanced at CORE!Frisk.

"This is the land of death," they stated, not even looking at him. "A part of Reapertale."

Reapertale. Reaper's AU.

"Where is he?" Geno asked softly, looking around for any sign of his old friend.

CORE!Frisk grabbed onto his sleeve, tugging it gently. When he looked down at them, they merely gave a weak smile and pointed at something up above.

"Make sure you're ready," they warned.

Ready? Ready for what....?

Geno turned his head and followed CORE!Frisk's finger to where they had pointed. He really, really wished he hadn't. Or that he'd taken their warning seriously. His SOUL stopped moving when he laid his gaze upon the sight. Everything seemed to slow down at once, his consciousness blocking out all sounds and obscuring everything else from his vision. He felt a blistering pain in his chest, like his SOUL was splitting into two halves. While it wasn't literally doing so, and could no longer do so, there were a few subtle cracks splintering across the surface of it.

Geno fell to his knees, and the tears finally fell from his eyes. Unable to control himself any longer, he let out an ear-piercing, grief-filled scream of anguish.

Reaper was dead. He'd taken his own life.

And it was all Geno's fault... in his eyes, anyway.